marking
Oct. 7 with gatherings, demonstrations and prayer
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Sta Writer
Synagogues
Jewish student attacked in Oakland
With numerous opportunities for congregants, students and others, event organizers around the city hope to foster thoughtfulness, remembrance and support.
At Congregation Beth Shalom, “We will commemorate the massacre during the Yizkor service on Shemini Atzeret,” Rabbi Seth Adelson said. The choice of commemoration date follows the “actual yahrzeit”
In 2023, both Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah fell on Oct. 7, as the two Jewish holidays are concurrent in Israel. In the Diaspora, they are broken into two days. Regardless of location, the Jewish memorial service of Yizkor is held on Shemini Atzeret. Typically, relatives and loved ones are remembered during Yizkor. At Beth El prayer for the victims of Oct. 7. The text will be included in the congregation’s Book of Remembrance and was developed by rabbis from the Shalom
Although Adelson has yet to finalize his sermon for Shemini Atzeret, he said it will likely reference passages from the book “One
Written by Yair Agmon and Oriya Mevorach, the work recounts 40 stories of strength and courage from the events of Oct. 7.
By David Rullo | Senior Sta Writer
Jewish University of Pittsburgh student was physically assaulted in Oakland by a group of six to eight men shouting antisemitic slurs.
The victim was leaving Phat’s Bar near Semple and Ward Streets at approximately 2 a.m. on Sept. 27 when the men noticed he was wearing a Star of David on a chain. The men shouted, “Free Palestine,” “F--- Jews” and other antisemitic remarks before assaulting the student, according to Chabad of Pitt Rabbi Shmuli Rothstein, who spoke to the victim.
The attackers fled when confronted by a nearby store owner, Rothstein said. The victim was not seriously injured.
The FBI is leading the investigation to determine if the attack constitutes a federal hate crime.
The University of Pittsburgh issued a “Hate Crime/Assault” alert on its website and listed a description of three of the assailants.
Suspect one is a male aged 20-24, about 6 feet tall and 170 pounds, with a brown complexion, dark hair and a beard. He was wearing a white T-shirt and gold chain. Suspect two is a male aged 20-24 about 5 feet, 8 inches tall and 170 pounds, with a brown complexion, dark hair and a beard. He was wearing an orange shirt. Suspect three is a male aged 20-24, about 6 feet
Lt. Gov. Austin Davis visits The Beacon
Students embrace during an Oct. 9 pro-Israel demonstration at Schenley Plaza. Photo by Adam Reinherz
The University of Pittsburgh’s Varsity Walk
Photo by Christopher Lancaster via Creative Commons
Headlines
Jewish Pittsburghers react to union’s attempt to force East End Food Co-op to divest from Israel
By David Rullo | Senior Sta Writer
Simone Shapiro attended the East End Food Co-op’s monthly board meeting on Sept. 23, prepared to discuss a petition circulated by the union representing the store’s employees that calls for the co-op to divest from any entity associated with Israel.
“What actually happened,” Shapiro said, “was it became a courtroom debating the war in Gaza.”
Shapiro, who has been a member of the co-op for over 20 years, said she decided to attend the meeting after learning of the anti-Israel petition on social media. She read UE Local 667’s divestment petition and was disturbed. She also noticed there was no opportunity to vote against the proposal.
The meeting’s agenda didn’t list the petition as an item of discussion but “it felt like it was going to come up somehow,” she said.
Board President Tom Pandaleon opened the discussion by saying anyone who wished to comment would have an opportunity to speak. Comments were supposed to last two minutes and he asked that people remain polite and address the board, not individual members.
Shapiro said the first person to speak was the union’s president, Fritz Geist.
“She read this very accusatory petition…the ‘Zionist entity,’ the ‘genocidal entity,’” Shapiro said.
Shapiro said she tried to redirect those whom she characterized as there to “agitate and adjudicate Israel’s war with Hamas.”
“I kept saying we should be discussing this issue, not the war in Gaza,” she said, “but they kept bringing it up.”
Shapiro said she was particularly disturbed by two vehemently anti-Israel people who said they were Jewish. One addressed Shapiro
outrageous,” Shapiro said. “One of these was that Gaza is a police state.”
Comments included accusations of apartheid and genocide, as well as the accusation that “Zionists are Nazis.”
Shapiro said someone on the board mentioned that there are almost no products from Israel at the co-op, but noted that the vote was symbolic.
Shapiro said she has always found the co-op to be “diverse and welcoming,” but will stop shopping there if the board votes to divest from Israel.
“Not only would I stop shopping there, I would encourage everyone I know to stop shopping there,” she said.
Ayala Hoch has decided that the actions of the union’s members are a bridge too far for her to cross.
“I’m not stepping a foot back in there,” Hoch, a co-op member of more than 20 years, said.
In fact, Hoch said she’s encouraged others on social media not to shop there as well.
“I wrote in Jewish Pittsburgh (a Facebook
it on the co-op’s site as well.”
Hoch said she likes the products carried by the co-op but said it’s become “really hateful.”
“One of the employees was wearing a keffiyeh while at work,” she said. “I went to the manager and said, ‘This is offensive to me.’”
Many of the employees, she said, wear buttons with anti-Israel slogans.
Hoch also attended the September board meeting and, like Shapiro, was upset by union president Geist’s comments.
“Every sentence was filled with ‘apartheid regime’ — every sentence,” she said.
Hoch’s husband, Reuven Hoch, said that he and his wife had lived in Israel and that the claims of apartheid are untrue.
“You see Arabs sitting outside with everyone else having a coffee,” he said. “There are Arab and Muslim judges and lawyers and doctors and pharmacists.”
He said the comments of those speaking in favor of divestment showed that they weren’t interested in a cease-fire, but their goal was to see Israel destroyed.
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They called Israel “a genocidal state,” and an “apartheid state,” Reuven Hoch recounted. “And they say it very calmly and think they’re right and socially conscious and very moral.”
Chana Shusterman, founder of California Gourmet, attended the meeting as a Jewish owner of a food company. She has been a longtime member of the co-op.
She said that many who are fighting for the store to divest from Israel are missing
“I used the example of SodaStream, which had mostly Arab workers who were sustaining their families from the company,” Shusterman said. “It was benefiting Arabs and their families. It was benefiting people that had Palestinian homes and families. There were six SodaStream factories in the region.”
After a call to boycott SodaStream, it moved from the region, Shusterman said. The relocation didn’t hurt Israel, she noted; it instead harmed the Arab workers.
Co-op board member Nico Demkin said the board didn’t view the meeting as a disaster. Rather, he said, it’s the “ugly reality of democracy.”
“We have a very diverse group of members and obviously we have a large Jewish membership,” he said. “We have the union’s membership and other community members.”
Demkin said he expects this will continue to be an issue.
But, he said, the board has no intention to move from its position, which is to reject the call to divest from Israel.
“We don’t condone violence, we hope for peace, but we don’t feel it’s our place to weigh in on either side,” he said.
StandWithUs MidAtlantic Regional Director Julie Paris is a member of the co-op and attended the meeting.
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East End Food Co-op
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Headlines
Lt. Gov. Austin Davis visits Squirrel Hill: Spotlight on teen mental health initiatives
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
Lt. Gov. Austin Davis spent hours with people who aren’t voting in the upcoming election. The politician said he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Being with teens at a place dedicated to addressing their mental health is imperative, he told the Chronicle during a Sept. 25 visit to The Beacon in Squirrel Hill.
“I see so many young people who are getting an opportunity here to not only develop social skills, but also are developing real life skills for the future,” he said. “When I see this, it’s a model of what we should be doing in communities all over the commonwealth.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Davis toured The Beacon, a teen wellness center operated by the Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh. The politician heard from young adults that the space offers not only free afterschool programming but a place to decompress. He listened to staff about ongoing needs and challenges.
Adolescents ages 12-17 have experienced a greater year-over-year increase in having a major depressive episode than any other age group since 2010, according to an April report from the United Hospital Fund.
There are “alarming increases in the prevalence of certain mental health challenges” among young adults, the U.S. Surgeon General said in a 2021 mental health advisory. “The challenges today’s generation of young people face are unprecedented and uniquely hard to navigate.”
Since the height of the pandemic there’s been improvement, but concern remains.
Between 2021 and 2023, the percentage of students who experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness dropped from 42% to 40%. Similarly, the percent of female
students who seriously considered suicide fell from 30% to 27%, according to August data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kaitlin Hans-Greco, clinical director of The Beacon, called the data “overwhelming.”
Teens, parents and community members recognize the crisis, but elected officials need to as well, she said. “They’re the ones who pass budgets that allow funding t o trickle down to organizations like The Beacon.”
D avis oversees the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. Months ago, PCCD approved $100 million in school safety and mental health grants.
Pittsburgh Public Schools was allocated $528,221 — more than any other district, charter school or career and technical center in Pennsylvania, apart from the School District of Philadelphia.
Investing in young adults is essential,
effort: Building Opportunity through Out-ofSchool Time. In accordance with the state budget, the BOOST program provides $11.5 million toward grants for afterschool and summer programs.
“I know firsthand how important an afterschool program could be as a club kid growing up in McKeesport,” he said.
Numerous legislators do as well.
“This is an issue that has support across the aisle from both Democrats and Republicans,” Davis said. He told the teens their health and safety “shouldn’t be a red issue or a blue issue. It should be an American issue that brings us all together.”
Hearing those comments was reassuring, JFCS President and CEO Jordan Golin told the Chronicle.
“We know that the teen mental health crisis has been growing for years — even before the COVID pandemic — and since the COVID pandemic it’s risen even faster,” he said. “The services available to teens are fewer
JFCS oversees UpStreet, a teen mental health program that provides free counseling to individuals aged 12-22.
The value to participants, their families and the community is tremendous, Golin said, but these services often “struggle to find funding. The way to reach teens is through innovative approaches, but innovative approaches don’t have a history of funding streams available through the government to support them.”
Davis’ attention to the issue signals a chance that “we’ll be able to continue providing these services in a sustainable, responsible way and serving more teens,” Golin added.
There’s an “obvious connection” between Davis’ interests in teen mental health and the services afforded in this community, Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh Executive Director Rabbi Mordy Rudolph said. “We have a model that is exemplary and I think can be replicated in other neighborhoods and areas when it comes to really addressing the needs of teens in terms of their mental health.”
Like UpStreet, Friendship Circle is a member of the Teen Mental Health Collaborative. Established in 2020 by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, the collaborative now includes more than 25 organizations. Representatives of those groups — both teens and adults — joined Davis’ visit to The Beacon.
Deborah Murdoch, senior program manager of community health at the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, said it was “wonderful” seeing representatives from various neighborhoods, including Hazelwood, Natrona Heights and Squirrel Hill.
“To have all these different communities coming together really committed to the same issue of finding ways to be supportive of youth, and engaging youth in the design and leadership of these efforts, it’s really
Nazi banners hung from two Pittsburgh bridges
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
Pittsburgh police are investigating two separate instances of homemade signs displaying swastikas hung from local bridges.
Police were alerted on the morning of Sept. 28 about handwritten antisemitic messages and Nazi symbols on banners or bedsheets that were hung on both the West End Bridge at the intersection of Route 65 and the Tenth Street Bridge. Both signs were removed, photographed and secured as evidence. Neither sign contained a direct threat toward a specific group or individual. No arrests have been made.
Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Community Security Director Shawn Brokos said the signs do not appear to be related to the incident in Oakland on Sept. 27, when a University of Pittsburgh Jewish student was attacked by several men (see story on Page 1).
aren’t being investigated as a hate crime since there was no targeted threat, but police are interested in finding the people responsible for several reasons.
“It’s good for intelligence purposes,” she said. “It’s good for law enforcement to be aware of the individuals who are conducting this type of activity. It’s good situational awareness. Who are these individuals
nd while there is no apparent connection between the banners and the recent attack in Oakland, or Israel’s war with Hamas and Hezbollah, Brokos said the incident comes as Pittsburgh is in a heightened threat environment, with both the High Holidays and the anniversary of Oct. 7 approaching.
In fact, several anti-Israel protests and marches have been planned in the days
leading up to the anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, including an International Day of Action on Oct. 5, and a “Community Vigil to honor our martyrs” on Oct. 7, promoted on social media by Jewish Voice for Peace Pittsburgh.
Brokos said she recently met with Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and local security officials.
“I can unequivocally tell you that we have tremendous support from our law enforcement, public safety officials and community leaders,” she said. “Everyone is in tune to the heightened threats that the Jewish community faces.”
Even with the threats, Brokos said, the city is prepared to keep the community safe and secure.
Department of Public Safety Public Information Officer Cara Cruz urged anyone with video footage of either incident to call Pittsburgh police headquarters at (412) 323-7800. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
p Tenth Street Bridge
Photo by Samuel Sonne, via Wikimedia Commons
p From left: Rivkee Rudolph, Chavi Beck, Ekow Opoku Dakwa, Lt. Gov. Austin Davis and Rabbi Mordy Rudolph Photo by Adam Reinherz Please
Headlines
Tree of Life debuts programming in Washington D.C.
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
The Tree of Life — the organization formed after the Oct. 27, 2018, Pittsburgh synagogue shooting to “uproot antisemitism and identity-based hate” — held its first public program on Sept. 26 at the Sixth & I, which bills itself as a historic synagogue that is “a center for arts, entertainment, ideas and Jewish life in Washington D.C.”
The program, “Antisemitism, Democracy and the Struggle for an Inclusive America,” featured Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability; Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs; and, Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
been used against DEI, the same way those fears were used, in part, to oust Pauline Gay, the first Black president of Harvard.
Spitalnick said we need to be able to both confront antisemitism wherever it exists and recognize there are extreme voices exploiting the trauma of the moment to pit communities against one another.
We can do both things,” she said.
Wiley said it was painful for the Black community to watch Gay lose her job.
“That was traumatizing,” she said. “There are all kinds of ways we’re all traumatized and that requires us to have, in the civic tradition, real honest conversations about what we need to be to stand up for diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Coalition, she said, means having “quiet, hard conversations.”
Presented in partnership with the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the hybrid in-person and virtual program was moderated by Yolanda Savage-Narva, vice president of racial equity, diversity and inclusion for the Union for Reform Judaism.
Tree of Life CEO Carole Zawatsky, who introduced the panel, remembered the 11 Jewish Pittsburghers murdered during Shabbat services in the Tree of Life building. In the hours following the attack, she said, the City of Pittsburgh and the world banded together with Jewish community members and the three congregations attacked — Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life — to oppose antisemitism and hate.
The Tree of Life organization, Zawatsky said, is the communal response to Oct. 27, created to transform the site of tragedy to one of “life, hope and possibility.” It is, she said, a locally grounded institution with a national reach.
After each panelist briefly spoke about what inspired them, Savage-Narva asked how to make sense “of the complexities of these interesting challenges that we are up against, rising antisemitism, the possible erosion of democracy as we know it and the continuous struggle of co-creating a truly inclusive America.”
Wiley, who later noted that she was a Black woman married to a Jewish man
U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, who represents Squirrel Hill, is calling for an arms embargo against the Jewish state as tensions with Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon escalate.
On Sept. 23, Lee posted on X (formerly Twitter): “Since the start of Israel’s indis criminate bombing of Gaza, we have warned of a regional escalation of war. Now, more American troops are being sent there. Americans do not want to be dragged into another endless war abroad. Preventing one starts with an arms embargo now.”
and whose children are grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, said it was important to look at the shared roots between racism and antisemitism. She referenced the Pittsburgh synagogue murders, the 2022 murder of 10 Black people at Tops Grocery Store in Buffalo, New York, and the murder of nine members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
The root connecting all three attacks, she said, was the “great replacement theory.”
“I see the same root,” Wiley said. “When I see antisemitism, I think of who’s coming for my community.”
This relationship, she said, is especially important after Oct. 7.
“Even if there’s a disagreement, which is not new, it brings us back to acknowledging that every single human life has value and deserves protection,” Wiley said. “We need to find a way to have the hard conversations within family, recognizing that we are a family.”
Spitalnick picked up on Wiley’s theme, noting that the “great replacement theory” is an antisemitic conspiracy rooted in the idea that Jews are a powerful cabal seeking to replace the white race with Black and brown people, immigrants, refugees and others.
This, she says, endangers not just the Jewish community, but Black people, immigrants, refugees, the Latino community, Muslims and the LGBTQ+ community.
Spitalnick said that since Oct. 7, hate has also come from some communities on the far-left.
“We’re seeing efforts in certain places to keep Jews or Zionists out of certain coalitions,” she said. “When we effectively seek to ban and boycott Jews from certain spaces, whether it be what we’re seeing on certain campuses or some of what’s happening in academic or literary or artistic communities, it, in turn, divides the very coalitions we need to be building.”
Saying that America has always been the “greatest multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural constitutional democracy,” Raskin noted that coalition politics have been an important part of the country’s progress, even if they’ve been “transactional” at times.
One of the things that made America great, he said, was that people from other countries could hold on to whatever part of their culture they wanted.
“They can make the very best of the traditions that they view as part of their culture, their religion and belief system,” Raskin said. “But they also have the opportunity to cross over and meet other people from other faiths and other belief systems, which creates something uniquely American.”
Savage-Narva asked the panel about diversity, equity and inclusion, which she said is being “weaponized” by claims that it promotes antisemitism.
Spitalnick said groups are using DEI to pit people against one another. Hate, she said, is manifesting itself on college campuses and synagogues, and it’s also being directed at Muslims.
Fears over antisemitism, she said, have
Lee, a member of Congress’ far-left
“Squad,” is a vocal critic of Israel. Just days after Hamas’ deadly terror attack on Oct. 7
— during which terrorists murdered 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages — she called for a cease-fire. She was one of only 10 members of Congress to vote against a House resolution expressing America’s solidarity with Israel in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack. In April, Lee joined 12 other Democrats and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky to vote against a resolution condemning Iran’s drone attack on Israel and expressing support for Israel’s defense.
Lee’s office did not respond to the Chronicle’s request for an interview.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is preparing several resolutions that would stop more than $20 billion in U.S. arms sales
Quoting Fredrick Douglass, Raskin said that if there’s “no struggle there’s no progress.”
“Power concedes nothing without a demand, and it never will,” he said.
Nearly 1,100 people signed up to attend the discussion, either in person or on Zoom, Zawatsky said.
The attendance, she said, speaks volumes to the general concern about “how we uproot antisemitism, antisemitism as the threat to democracy and what are possible pathways to a more just world.”
Tree of Life Board Chair Michael Bernstein said the conversation was meant to help build the organization as a “national platform that is convening what we feel are the most important discussions around American Judaism and issues we’re all living with as Jews in America. Certainly, antisemitism being a core part of that.”
Bernstein said that Tree of Life will continue to create local and national programming meant to combat hate, and noted that the 10.27 Museum and Education Center, Institute for Countering Hate and Antisemitism, the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and the LIGHT Initiative are important parts of that mission.
“We’re finding there are people around the country and around the world, certainly right now in America, that want to partner with us, hear our story and bring our experience and perspective,” he said. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
to Israel. The effort is widely considered to be a longshot.
Lee, a Democrat, faces Republican James Hayes in November’s election. In an email to the Chronicle, Hayes commented on Lee’s push for an arms embargo.
“Summer Lee consistently betrays her hostility toward Israel and the Jewish people,” Hayes wrote. “An arms embargo against Israel is just another way to support the terrorists whose goal is the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people. This madness needs to stop. ‘Never again’ is now.” PJC
Toby Tabachnick
p Rep. Summer Lee
Photo courtesy of summerlee.house.gov
p Yolanda Savage-Narva, vice president of racial equity, diversity and inclusion for the Union for Reform Judaism (left) moderated The Tree of Life’s first public program featuring Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Rep. Jamie Raskin and Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Screenshot by David Rullo
Headlines
Sen. Bob Casey and Rep. Adam Schiff address Israel and rising antisemitism during Pittsburgh visit
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Sta Writer
With little more than a month until election day, Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California joined politicians, first responders and celebrities to discuss pressing issues. During a Sunday morning event in Wilkinsburg and subsequent gathering in East Liberty, Casey and Schiff mentioned attacks on Jewish students in Oakland, U.S.-Israel relations and the threat of antisemitism, while beseeching Pennsylvanians to preserve democracy.
“We’re all going to need to combat this together,” Schiff told the Chronicle regarding the increased violence against Jewish students.
“It’s awful and it’s dangerous, and it’s repulsive that people are being targeted because of their faith. Jewish students need to feel safe and welcome at every university in the country and every community in the country. We have to push back against this terrible amplification of antisemitism and hate.”
Schiff, who is running for U.S. Senate in California against Steve Garvey, said universities must ensure that students not only have access to “every part” of a campus, but that students “feel welcome and supported.”
During the past month, Jewish University of Pittsburgh students have been attacked twice (see story on Page 1).
Casey mentioned his efforts to spearhead the Antisemitism Awareness Act.
Passed by the House, but still awaiting Senate approval, the legislation would require the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to consider the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism when reviewing potentially discriminatory actions on campuses.
An example of antisemitism included in the IHRA definition is “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”
Making the IHRA definition the standard is essential, Casey said, but so is increasing funding for the Office for Civil Rights. More money means that hundreds of additional investigators can be hired to determine “whether or not there’s a hostile environment” on a campus. “If you want to crack down on antisemitism on
college campuses, as I want to do, we have to fund those who are doing the investigations. It’s not a lot of money — it’s in the few hundreds of millions of dollars — but we can make that office a viable investigative agency.”
When asked about students’ constitutional freedoms, Casey said, “We want to continue to protect someone’s First Amendment rights, but no protester has a right to disrupt a campus so that the other students can’t get to class or have the benefit of a full robust education. No student has a right to engage in violence. No student has a right to engage in antisemitic activity, or make antisemitic statements, or categorically condemn people that are different than them. No student has a right to engage in racist conduct.”
Law and order
Casey is running for reelection against Republican Dave McCormick. During a campaign event in East Liberty on Sunday, the incumbent was joined by Schiff, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, actor Michael Keaton, television producer Shonda Rhimes and former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who was a first responder on Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol.
Shanah Tovah!
5505 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh PA 15217 TempleSinaiPGH.org
Registration required RSVP to DANIE OBERMAN Community Engagement Director Danie@TempleSinaiPGH.org (412) 421-9715 ext. 121
Weather permitting, services will be outside in the Bodek Rose Garden.
TOT SERVICES: A fun, active service led by Cantor David Reinwald and Rabbi Daniel Fellman with stories, singing, and dancing for families with children ages 0–5. Kol Nidre Friday, Oct. 11, 5:15 PM Snacks & Fun start at 5 PM.
TOT PROGRAM: Join Danie Oberman and Alex Dolinger for singing, dancing, and fun holiday focused activities for children ages 0–5.
Yom Kippur Saturday, Oct. 12, 8:15 AM Snacks & Fun start at 8 AM.
Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, left, is joined by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn on Sept. 29. Photo by Adam Reinherz
Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Submissions also will be included in print. Events will run in the print edition beginning one month prior to the date as space allows. The deadline for submissions is Friday, noon.
MONDAY, OCT. 7
Join the Jewish community to mark the first anniversary of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel. Gather in front of the JCC to commemorate the lives lost, people injured and hostages taken. Free and open to the community. 6:30 p.m. JCC Squirrel Hill, 5723 Darlington Road. Registration is required at oct7-pgh.eventbrite.com.
MONDAYS, OCT. 7–DEC. 30
Join Congregation Beth Shalom for a weekly Talmud study. 9:15 a.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org.
Join Temple Sinai for an evening of mahjong every Monday (except holidays). Whether you are just starting out or have years of experience, you are sure to enjoy the camaraderie and good times as you make new friends or cherish moments with longtime pals. All are welcome. Winners will be awarded Giant Eagle gift cards. All players should have their own 2024 mahjong cards. Contact Susan Cohen at susan_k_cohen@yahoo.com if you have questions. $5. templesinaipgh.org.
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 9
Join the Squirrel Hill AARP for a lunch brunch. Noon. Ritters Diner. RSVP to Gerri Linder before Oct. 3 at (412) 421-5868.
Join food historian Ted Merwin and Pitt’s Jewish studies program for An Overstu ed History of the Jewish Deli, a talk about the history of America’s iconic Jewish delis. Free. 5:30 p.m. Cathedral of Learning, 4200 Fifth Ave. Room 501.
WEDNESDAYS, OCT. 9–DEC. 18
Temple Sinai’s Rabbi Daniel Fellman presents a weekly Parshat/Torah portion class on site and online. Call 412-421-9715 for more information and the Zoom link.
Bring the parashah alive and make it personally relevant and meaningful with Rabbi Mark Goodman in this weekly Parashah Discussion: Life & Text. 12:15 p.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh. org/life-text.
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 16
Hear from Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey at the Squirrel Hill AARP’s October meeting. Refreshments will be served. For information, call Marcia Kramer at 412-656-5803. 1 p.m. Falk Library, Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave.
PittsburghJewishBookFestival
November10toNovember13,2024 plusbonusauthorsonNovember20
Presentedby:
CongregationBethShalom
PittsburghJewishChronicle
CarolynSlayton&SethGlick
WEDNESDAYS, OCT. 16; NOV. 20; DEC. 18
Join AgeWell for the Intergenerational Family Dynamics Discussion Group at JCC South Hills the third Wednesday of each month. Led by intergenerational specialist Audree Schall. The group is geared toward anyone who has children, grandchildren, a spouse, siblings or parents. Whether you have family harmony or strife, these discussions will be thought-provoking, with tools to help build strong relationships and family unity. Free. 12:30 p.m.
SUNDAY, OCT. 20
Join Chabad of Squirrel Hill for a Family Sukkah Party. Shake the lulov, eat pizza and enjoy music and crafts. 5 p.m. 1700 Beechwood Blvd. chabadpgh.com/ sukkahparty.
Rodef Shalom Congregation’s Brotherhood presents the East Winds Symphonic Band in a free concert featuring a celebration of music from stage and screen. Cash donations to the JFCS Squirrel Hill Food Pantry are welcome. 7 p.m. 4905 Fifth Ave. rodefshalom.org/eastwinds.
TUESDAY, OCT. 22
Join Chabad of the South Hills for Seniors in the Sukkah. Shake the lulav and etrog and enjoy a delicious lunch and presentation on how to
navigate Medicare. $5 suggested donation. 1 p.m. 1701 McFarland Road.
Fact or fake? With the plethora of AI, special interests, social media, websites and newsletters, how do you discern what is true and what are lies?
Join Temple Sinai for Disinformation & the Election: A Panel Discussion sponsored by Women of Temple Sinai to discuss how groups circulate incorrect information about voting and elections with the intent to mislead and confuse voters and then spread that disinformation. Bring your dinner; water, lemonade and a sweet treat provided. Free and open to the public; registration required. 6 p.m. templesinaipgh.org/programs-events.
SUNDAY, NOV. 10-THURSDAY, NOV. 14
Congregation Beth Shalom will be hosting its first ever Jewish Book Festival. The festival is presented by the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, Carolyn Slayton and Seth Glick. Support Jewish authors. More information to follow. 5915 Beacon Street.
WEDNESDAYS, NOV. 13-DEC. 18
Chabad of the South Hills presents “Nurturing Relationships,” a new six-week course with Rabbi Mendel Rosenblum. Learn Jewish wisdom for building deeper connections in all of your relationships. 7:30 p.m. Bower Hill Road. chabadsh.com. PJC
Join the Chronicle Book Club!
The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle invites you to join the Chronicle Book Club for its Nov. 3 discussion of “Target Tehran: How Israel Is Using Sabotage, Cyberwarfare, Assassination — and Secret Diplomacy — to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Create a New Middle East,” by Yonah Jeremy Bob and Ilan Evyatar.
“Target Tehran” was the Wall Street Journal’s Best Book of the Year (politics) and winner of the Jewish Book Council’s Natan Notable Book Prize.
“One of the most accurate and fascinating books so far” (Michael Bar-Zohar, coauthor of “Mossad”) about how Israel used sabotage, assassination, cyberwar — and diplomacy — to thwart Iran’s development of nuclear weapons and, in the process, begin to reshape the Middle East.
Your hosts
Toby Tabachnick, editor of the Chronicle David Rullo, Chronicle staff writer
How it works
We will meet on Zoom on Sunday, Nov. 3, at 1 p.m.
What to do
Buy: “Target Tehran.” It is available at some area Barnes and Noble stores and from online retailers, including Amazon. It is also available through the Carnegie Library system.
Email: Contact us at drullo@pittsburgh jewishchronicle.org, and write “Chronicle Book Club” in the subject line. We will send you a Zoom link for the discussion meeting.
Bonus
Author Ilan Evyatar will be the keynote speaker at the Pittsburgh Jewish Book Festival, Nov. 10, at 7:30 p.m. at Congregation Beth Shalom. For more information about the Book Festival, go to bethshalompgh.org/ pjbf-november2024/.
Happy reading! PJC
Toby Tabachnick
Friday in the
Headlines
Chabad of South Hills welcomes young Israelis for evening of bridge building and support
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
After visiting northern and southern California, eastern Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, Texas and Massachusetts, two Israelis intent on promoting Israel post-Oct. 7 arrived in Upper St. Clair. Speaking before 25 individuals in a private residence on Sept. 24, Moria Azulay and Or Barak implored attendees to follow facts and build bridges.
The event was sponsored by Chabad of the South Hills.
There’s considerable “disinformation and misinformation” about Oct. 7, Azulay, 22, said. “A lot of people have no idea what truly happened on that day, the murder and the rape and the videos.”
Despite a multitude of clips and photos taken by Hamas terrorists, “people don’t want to listen,” which poses a sizable challenge to Israel, Barak, 25, said. “Terrorism seeks to sow chaos and devastation across the world, and it’s our collective duty to stand against it.”
For nearly three months, Barak and Azulay have traversed the U.S. speaking about Israel’s “struggle and conflict.”
The Israel-Hamas war, Barak said, is “not a war against Arabs, not a war against Muslims; it’s a war against terror.”
The responsibility of battle falls on everyone, he said. “The most important thing for us as a community is to stay together, because we’re nothing — nothing — without each other.”
Azulay and Barak told the Chronicle that they are not affiliated with any speaking groups or organizations, and that they decided months ago, after serving in the IDF, to travel the U.S., foot the costs (apart from flights, which host communities front) and speak to anyone who would listen.
The experience hasn’t always been pleasant.
Since arriving in the U.S., Barak said that many people have told him “Israel is committing a genocide.” They have shouted “Free Palestine” and “Intifada revolution,” which, he said, “is a call to massacre the Jewish people.”
The verbal attacks “really get on my nerves, but you cannot fight back ignorance by screaming,” Barak continued. “We need to be smarter.”
For both Barak and Azulay, that means coming together.
Although they witnessed the most horrific event in the state of Israel’s history, “no matter what happened to us, we still keep moving, and we still keep taking actions,” Azulay said. “That’s why I always say that maybe we are victims of terror, but we’re not victims in our mindset.”
The speakers implored listeners to continue promoting Israel by volunteering, speaking with others or contributing to worthy causes.
As for themselves, apart from visiting numerous communities in the U.S., Barak and Azulay have adopted their own projects. Barak, an aspiring filmmaker, documented his journey through stills and clips and hopes to compile and disseminate the footage.
“Capturing the reality — as it is — is the most important thing to do right now,” he said.
Before arriving in the U.S., Azulay oversaw the completion of a Torah scroll after Oct. 7.
Each letter was penned by “soldiers from the field,” she said. “We went to all the bases from Gaza and the north of Israel, and we let every soldier write a letter until we finished the entire Torah scroll.”
Seeing individuals, both secular and religious, participate in the project was humbling and inspiring, she said.
The Torah currently is in Harish, a city in northern Israel.
Azaluy and Barak said they have more places to go before returning to Israel. After leaving Pittsburgh, the Israelis are headed to New York for a conversation with 30 Christian clergy members. It will be a new experience, as their audiences have been largely Jewish, Azulay said, but regardless of the background of those in attendance, the purpose is to build bridges.
“It’s really hard to make conversation with someone who’s not supporting you and [accusing] you of genocide,” she said.
Along with broadening their demographic, Azulay and Barak hope to expand their remarks to include “critical thinking panels” to teach people “how to really ask questions, how to really dig and understand what’s real and what’s not — not just about Israel, but about everything,” she continued. “There’s a lot of conflict all over the world. We will show them the genocide in Sudan, the genocide in other places, the real genocide, and we will show them the differences and the similarity. We will just give them the proof and the facts and maybe we can build something out of that.”
It’s a lofty goal, but worthwhile, attendees of the program told the Chronicle.
“Out of trauma it’s important to be together, have a strong Jewish identity, and support one another,” Upper St. Clair resident Susan Julian said. “We need to put that out there, to the rest of the world, that we are going to be here and we are going to survive.”
Jennifer Bordenstein, also of Upper St. Clair, agreed and said the program was a “really good reminder that we need to be together.”
Batya Rosenblum, co-Director of Chabad of South Hills, described the Israelis’ message as timely.
“We stand right here, a week before Rosh Hashanah,” she said. “And we are going to hopefully walk out of here with courage, with strength, with infused enthusiasm.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Season of Hope at the JCC
Join us for a meaningful and uplifting Season of Hope as we celebrate the High Holidays together. From special services to community gatherings, there's something for everyone to re ect, renew and reconnect.
Start the New Year with a Mitzvah Pack Care Kits for Rosh Hashanah
Thursday, October 3, 3-4:15 pm • JCC Squirrel Hill
Sunday, October 6, 2-3:15 pm • JCC South Hills
Join us to pack care kits with food and toiletries that will be delivered to our neighbors in need of kindness during this season of hope.
Yom Kippur Community Conversation
Saving the World, One Life at a Time
Saturday, October 12, 3-4:45 pm • JCC Squirrel Hill
A community conversation on how we might meet our responsibility in addressing one of society’s most pervasive and challenging issues – the opioid epidemic.
Celebrating Simchat Torah Family Shabbat Dinner
Friday, October 25, 5-6:30 pm • JCC Squirrel Hill
Our Season of Hope will culminate with a family-friendly Simchat Torah Shabbat dinner and a dancing party. This event will include an age-appropriate acknowledgment of the yahrzeit for the events of October 7, 2023.
p Or Barak and Moriah Azulay join members of the Rosenblum family at a Chabad of the South Hills event on Sept. 24. Photo by Adam Reinherz
Headlines
Antisemitic incidents jumped 63% in 2023, according to FBI data
Jews were targeted in 1,832 hate crimes last year, far more than any other religious group and a steep increase over 2022, according to FBI data released on Sept. 23 and reported by JTA.
The number of anti-Jewish hate crimes last year, when Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel sparked a spike in antisemitism worldwide, represented a 63% increase over 2022, when there were 1,122 incidents reported.
Jews, who make up about 2.5% of the U.S. population, are regularly targeted more often than any other religious group, according to the FBI’s data. In 2023, Jews were targeted in 68% of all hate crimes motivated by religion, and in 15% of the total 11,862 hate crimes tallied against all groups. That total number of incidents is an increase of about 250 from 2022.
“At a time when the Jewish community is still suffering from the sharp rise in antisemitism following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, the record-high number of anti-Jewish hate crime incidents is unfortunately entirely consistent with the Jewish community’s experience and ADL’s tracking,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, which has also recorded record numbers of antisemitic incidents in its own reports.
Muslims were the second-most targeted religious group, victim to a total of 236 incidents, an increase from the 205 recorded in 2022. Black Americans, who comprise around 13% of the U.S. population, were subject to 3,027 hate crimes and were the only group targeted more often than Jews.
The FBI said 16,009 agencies around the country sent in hate crimes data, covering 95.2%
of the U.S. population, although not all agencies submitted data for every month of the year. As in previous years, several large cities did not report any hate crime data, something Jewish organizations have long sought to address via legislation. For 2023, several large cities such as Orlando, Florida, and Newark, New Jersey, did not report any data.
Biden warns against ‘full-scale war’ in Lebanon in speech to United Nations
Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly, President Joe Biden warned against “full-scale war” in Israel and Lebanon, sounding a warning as massive exchanges of fire escalated between Israel and Hezbollah, JTA reported.
In his final speech as president to the international body, Biden squarely blamed Hezbollah for the hostilities on Israel’s northern border, which began when the Lebanese terror group started shelling Israel on Oct. 8, a day after Hamas launched its own war against Israel from the Gaza Strip. Since then, hundreds of people have been killed in the fighting, and tens of thousands have evacuated their homes.
“Since Oct. 7, we have also been determined to prevent a wider war that engulfs the entire region,” Biden said. “Hezbollah, unprovoked, joined the Oct. 7th attack launching rockets into Israel. Almost a year later, too many on each side of the Israeli-Lebanon border remain displaced.”
Biden’s speech came as that wider war was at the doorstep. Last week, thousands of pagers and other electronic devices belonging to Hezbollah militants exploded simultaneously in two strikes, killing dozens and wounding thousands in an attack presumed to be the work of Israel. Hezbollah has since increased its missile attacks, shooting hundreds of rockets over the border,
Today in Israeli History
Oct. 4, 2003 — Suicide bomber strikes Haifa restaurant
A suicide bombing kills 17 Jews and four Arabs and injures 60 others at Maxim restaurant in Haifa. The beachfront restaurant, co-owned by Jews and Christian Arabs, is known as a symbol of coexistence.
Oct. 5, 1941 — Justice Louis Brandeis dies
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish member of the high court, dies at 84 in Washington. His embrace of Zionism made its support more acceptable among his fellow American Jews.
Oct. 6, 1973 — Yom Kippur War begins
More than 70,000 Egyptian infantrymen and 1,000 tanks cross the Suez Canal on bridges erected overnight while Syria attacks Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, starting the Yom Kippur War.
while Israel has mounted airstrikes in an operation it has dubbed “Northern Arrows” that has taken out a series of Hezbollah commanders and long-range weaponry, including strikes in Beirut.
Israel has said the return of civilians evacuated from the northern border is now a war aim. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Lebanese civilians to evacuate the region until Israel completes its operation. Read Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, said last week that the goal was to hobble the weapons infrastructure Hezbollah has built up over decades in southern Lebanon.
“We will continue to show what Hezbollah has been doing over the past 20 years, in a vast project where they have turned thousands of civilian homes in southern Lebanon, and not only in southern Lebanon, into terror bases, turning southern Lebanon into a combat zone,” he said.
Brandeis President Ron Liebowitz resigns after no-confidence vote that cited budget crisis and Gaza protests
Brandeis University President Ronald Liebowitz announced his resignation Sept. 25 after he lost a vote of no confidence from faculty, JTA reported.
Liebowitz’s resignation, which takes effect Nov. 1, comes amid steep financial challenges for the historically Jewish university. Brandeis announced in May that it would lay off 60 employees and restructure several programs to cut costs.
The motion calling for a no-confidence vote, which was non-binding, cited both the budget crisis and Liebowitz’s handling of student protests over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. At particular issue was a November 2023
protest against the school’s decision to ban its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine at which seven people, including students, were arrested by police.
In an email to the university community, Lisa Kranc, the chair of Brandeis’ Board of Trustees, said Liebowitz would “continue to advocate for Brandeis and its values” as president emeritus and praised “the role President Liebowitz played over the past year in speaking out against antisemitism in our world and on college campuses.”
The former president of Middlebury College, Liebowitz, who is Jewish, was named president in 2016 and received a five-year contract extension in 2021. In his own email to the community, Liebowitz said he had resigned with some ambivalence.
“I have done so with mixed emotions because this is an exceptional institution, which carries great meaning, especially at this time, due to the reason for its founding,” he wrote. He added, “I resign knowing that the university will be in good hands.”
Arthur Levine, the retired president of Columbia University’s Teachers College and a 1970 Brandeis graduate, will be interim president.
Liebowitz joins a wave of university presidents to exit their positions at least in part as a result of the pro-Palestinian protests that swept campuses last year. The presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University exited following criticism of their congressional testimony on campus antisemitism, while the leaders of several other schools — including, last month, Columbia University — have cited the protests among their reasons for stepping down. PJC
— Compiled by Jarrad Saffren
Oct. 7, 1985 — Achille Lauro is hijacked Members of the Palestinian Liberation F ront seize the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro off the Egyptian coast, gather the passengers on deck and fatally shoot wheelchair-bound American Jew Leon Klinghoffer.
Oct. 8, 1989 — Israeli idol Hagit
Yaso is born
Singer Hagit Yaso, a winner of Israel’s version of “American Idol,” is born in Sderot to parents who escaped an Ethiopian village by walking four months through the desert to Sudan before flying to Israel.
Oct. 9, 1994 — Hamas abducts
Israeli soldier
Hamas terrorists abduct soldier Nachshon Wachsman in central Israel by offering him a ride while they’re wearing kippot and playing Hasidic music. A rescue ends in the deaths of Wachsman and the leader of the rescue team.
Oct. 10, 1961 — Bones of Moshe Hess are brought to Israel Moshe Hess, originally buried in Cologne in 1875, is reburied at Kibbutz Kinneret beside other fathers of socialist Zionism. His “Rome and Jerusalem: The Last National Question” may have inspired Theodor Herzl. PJC
10/9/2024 8:00 AM TO 6:00 PM
p The Achille Lauro moors at Port Said, where the hijackers surrender to Egypt.
p A memorial to the Maxim victims now stands next to the rebuilt restaurant in Haifa.
Headlines
October 7:
Continued from page 1
Congregations Poale Zedeck and Shaare Torah also will commemorate the first yahrzeit. In celebration of Simchat Torah, Pittsburgh’s two largest Orthodox congregations will hold a joint observance.
Shared programming will “allow us to process both the grief of klal yisrael (the Jewish community) while finding comfort and strength in achdut (brotherhood) and joy of our annual celebration of the Torah,” R abbis Yitzi Genack and Daniel Yolkut, as well as board presidents Dr. Louis Felder and Joshua Sunshine, said in a prepared statement.
Afternoon prayer services will be held at Shaare Torah on Shemini Atzeret. Following services, both rabbis will speak in an effort to “remember the profound losses,” the joint statement said. Once the holiday transitions to Simchat Torah on the evening of Oct. 24, dancing and kiddush will be held. The following morning, services and dancing will occur at Poale Zedek, along with kiddush and a women’s lecture.
Rodef Shalom Congregation will recall the events of Oct. 7 during Yom Kippur’s Yizkor service by reading several poems from “Shiva,” according to Rabbi Sharyn Henry.
Edited and translated by Rachel Korazim, Michael Bohnen and Heather Silverman, “Shiva” includes 59 works written by Israelis in the aftermath of Oct. 7.
Temple Sinai also will mark one year since the attack during the Yizkor services of Yom Kippur and Shemini Atzeret, Rabbi Daniel Fellman said.
Staff and leadership from several area congregations said they will join the Federation's communitywide commemoration on Oct. 7, outside the JCC in Squirrel Hill.
Oakland:
Jewish day schools
Pittsburgh’s three Jewish day schools are each offering students various ways to connect with Oct. 7.
Community Day School is marking the day with “Agony to Harmony,” a ceremony that has been “thoughtfully curated by the World Zionist Organization and the Department of Israelis Abroad,” said Casey Weiss, CDS’ head of school. Through songs, readings, testimonies, videos and prayers, there will be a “significant opportunity for our community to come together in reflection and remembrance.”
Included within the day’s programming is a “wall-sharing activity,” where students can express thoughts through drawings and messages, she added.
Joining CDS that day will be alumni Ari Gilboa and Ilay Dvir. Gilboa is a member of the IDF. Dvir was recently honored by StandWithUs for continued support of Israel.
At Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh, the day’s tenor will be “similar to what happens here on Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Day of
a statement shortly after the attack and had nonstop security over the weekend.
Continued from page 1
tall and 200 pounds, with a brown complexion, dark hair and beard. He was wearing a dark, zippered hooded sweatshirt.
It is not known if any of the assailants are University of Pittsburgh students.
Rothstein said the location where the assault happened is known as being a “student-heavy area.”
“There was never a concern of anyone walking around here,” he said.
Shawn Brokos, director of community security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, said the attacks that have been occurring on and around the university are related to people’s perceptions of the conflict in the Middle East. There’s no doubt, she said, that this attack was targeted.
“It was personal,” she said. “The assumption is they saw the Star of David necklace, realized he is from Israel or Jewish or both. That started the verbal assault, which escalated.”
While the assault didn’t occur on Pitt’s campus, Brokos said it involved a college student in the heart of where college students congregate.
“This isn’t some random neighborhood. This is where college students are,” she said. “It’s very unnerving.”
Rothstein said that the university issued
That isn’t enough, he said.
“If someone keeps cutting themselves, do you offer more Band-Aids? Sure, but we should remove the sharp object which keeps slicing them,” he said.
Remembrance,” Hillel Academy Principal Rabbi Sam Weinberg said. Whether Oct. 7 is marked by a tekes (ceremony), classroom discussion or video presentation, a studentcentered approach will be taken where “everything is dependent on the grade.”
The school’s staff includes two rabbis who served in Gaza recently: Eitan Farkash and Evyatar Ifergan. Both educators will speak to students on a “grade-specific level,” as will alumni who are current members of the IDF, Weinberg said.
Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh is offering “different programs for the different departments on Oct. 7,” said Rabbi Yossi Rosenblum, Yeshiva’s CEO and head of school.
One example, he said, involves meeting with seventh through 12th grade girls and discussing the “Torah perspective, as taught by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, on the Jewish response to what happened on that painful day.”
After the holidays and yahrzeit, Rosenblum said, Yeshiva will “kick off a two-week program on responding to darkness by increasing light.”
need to have dialogue.”
Brokos agreed.
“This can’t continue,” she said. “Our students need to feel safe.”
Dan Marcus, executive director and CEO of the Hillel Jewish University Center, said he was “shocked and horrified” — but not surprised
Hateful rhetoric, Rothstein said, is proliferating in the classrooms and among students online.
The rabbi said that he’s had conversations with school administrators and that plans were implemented to address certain issues of concern to Jewish students, but he doesn’t think that will solve what he considers to be the root of the problem.
Hateful rhetoric, Rothstein said, is proliferating in the classrooms and among students online. He said he’s spoken with university administrators and warned them it would lead to violence.
“If they’re fed hate all day, if they get a little drunk, they’re going to see a guy wearing a Star of David and they’re going to beat the junk out of him,” Rothstein said. “I don’t need more cops. I don’t need more apologies. I don’t need more handshakes or meetings. I need them to stop teaching hate and have dialogue. They
Campus
At Hillel JUC, students will find the building stocked with snacks, therapists and pets, and will be offered moments to share reflections, discussion and an art activity, according to Hillel JUC president and CEO Dan Marcus.
The day also will be spent ensuring students’ safety and security, Marcus said.
At noon, participating Hillel JUC students will travel to the University of Pittsburgh’s quad to publicly read the names of victims of Oct. 7. Memorial candles will be lit, letters will be written to displaced children in Israel and a table will be covered with a “specially created commemorative tablecloth of victims of Oct. 7, yellow ribbons and over other resources made available by Hillel International and StandWithUs,” Marcus said.
At 3 p.m., Carnegie Mellon University students will hold a similar tabling activity. Hours later, students from both campuses will travel to Squirrel Hill for the Federationhosted commemoration.
Chabad House on Campus is commemorating Oct. 7 with a series of programs c ulminating in a kosher catered dinner on campus.
Students will “participate in a Mitzvah Marathon on campus to honor those who perished,” Chabad House on Campus Co-Director Sara Weinstein said. Additionally, Chabad is “encouraging students” to join the communitywide event outside the JCC.
Following the Squirrel Hill-based program, students are invited back to Chabad’s Oakland space for conversation and dinner, Weinstein said. Ultimately, the goal is that students have an opportunity to “process this critical time.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Pitt officials have reached out to the victim, Hillel JUC and Chabad at Pitt, and remain focused on sharing resources and support with those impacted in the community.
The university also said that it has provided resources to the University of Pittsburgh Police Department to ensure security officers are available as escorts to Jewish students, faculty and staff as they attend religious services during the High Holidays.
“We continue to evaluate safety needs and will provide further resources as needed,” the statement said.
— by the attack. Jewish students, he said, need no more platitudes from city leaders.
“We call on our city leaders to stop allowing the hateful, antisemitic rhetoric to continue on city property,” he said. “We know where this leads. It leads to violence. It’s also clear that we need more police patrols in high student traffic areas at night and at high volume times to ensure Pitt students can walk safely on campus.”
University officials said in a prepared statement that Pitt “unequivocally condemns antisemitism” and that violence or antisemitic acts against its community would not be tolerated, regardless of who it comes from or is directed at.
“Hate of any kind has no place in our community,” the statement said, adding that
Other measures to fight hate are in the works, the statement added, including a “programming series on combatting antisemitism and Islamophobia” hosted by Pitt’s Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
Last month, two University of Pittsburgh students were attacked on their way to Shabbat services by a man wearing a keffiyeh, a scarf symbolizing solidarity with the Palestinian cause. The man, Jarrett Buba, 52, of Oakland, allegedly threw a bottle at the students, who were both wearing yarmulkes. A motive for that attack has not been confirmed. Buba was charged with two counts of simple assault and two counts of aggravated assault. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
p In a symbol of solidarity with Israel, Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh students recite Tehillim on Oct. 9, 2023, at a special service at Shaare Torah Congregation.
Photo by Adam Reinherz
Headlines
Co-op:
Continued from page 2
circulated at the meeting, was “disturbing and dangerous,” she said, adding that the union is attempting to “demonize Israel” and delegitimize its right to exist and defend itself. The co-op’s board, Paris said, should view its meetings as an opportunity to clarify its positions, especially about employees who wear
Davis:
inspiring,” she said.
Continued from page 3
Members of the collaborative meet quarterly to discuss best practices, undertake trainings and share “strategies across neighborhoods and communities,” Murdoch said.
JFCS has been involved in the collaborative since 2020 and works closely with other organizations, Golin said; the collaborative and JHF have kept mental health “high on the community’s radar.”
In March 2020, JHF awarded an $80,000 grant to JFCS to develop UpStreet. In September 2021, JHF approved a two-year, $100,000 grant to The Friendship Circle to create The Beacon. During the past
Casey:
Continued from page 5
Dunn, who received a Congressional Gold Medal in 2021 and a Presidential Citizens Medal in 2023, referenced the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting when talking about his former responsibilities.
“As a first responder, your job is to do your job, that oath of office, to serve, to protect your country, your community — just like the first responders did here six years ago,” he said. “They protected their community. It didn’t matter your race, your sexual orientation, your religious identity — it didn’t matter. You are a person, you are a human being. With regards to Jan. 6, our police officers there, we weren’t just protecting Republicans. We weren’t just protecting Democrats. We weren’t just protecting independents. We were protecting people. We’re protecting our institutions. We’re protecting democracy. It didn’t matter if you had a D or an R next to your name, we saw you as a person, as a human being; and not only the elected officials — the people who were attacking us, a lot of them got hurt that day and we were responsible for providing aid to them.”
anti-Israel and anti-Zionist material at work and argue with customers.
And, she said, education would “go a long way.”
“This is a learning opportunity for people that don’t know about Israel,” she said. “It’s comprised of Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Druze, Bahai and every other religion.”
All of those communities would be hurt by boycotts like the one for which the union is lobbying.
“This boycott is misguided,” Paris said. “It gives anti-Israel activists a platform to spew dangerous misinformation, calling Z ionists ‘Nazis’ and the usual rhetoric that Israel’s committing genocide and ethnic cleansing.”
In the end, she said, the boycott/divest conversation creates “disunity.”
“This should be about bringing people together over food, shared organic food from different cultures and countries,” Paris
“I see so many young people who are getting an opportunity here to not only develop social skills, but also are developing real life skills for the future.”
–LT. GOV. AUSTIN DAVIS
four years, JHF has distributed more than $500,000 in grants to organizations within the collaborative.
On Sept. 26, UpStreet welcomed Rep. Dan Frankel (D-23) and Rep. Arvind Venkat (D-30) for a panel with local youth and collaborative members about needs and challenges regarding young people’s mental health. Whether during quarterly meetings or
efforts, “we are grateful to learn and see the work that each of them are doing,” Murdoch said.
The appreciation is mutual and extends to multiple parties, but a special thanks goes to the teens themselves, Hans-Greco said. She praised Davis for coming to The Beacon and demonstrating “interest, energy and enthusiasm,” and added that it’s “incredible to watch our teens, lead
including a “poison pill” in the initial post-Oct. 7 Israel aid package, and said that in lieu of simply issuing the measure, Republicans attempted to provide funding through Internal Revenue Service cuts.
“I have never seen aid to Israel conditioned on some completely irrelevant policy matter, and that’s got to stop,” he said. “There is enormous bipartisan support in Congress for Israel and it needs to be kept that way.”
understand that you murder our citizens in cold blood, we will hunt you down. That we will never forget what you did to our citizens.”
The Californian, who celebrated his bar mitzvah at Temple Isaiah in the Bay Area in 1973, has long advocated for Israel.
What it means to support the Jewish state today is recognizing the “common interests we have,” he said. “As the former chair of the [House] Intelligence Committee, I saw how closely our two countries worked together to share information to keep both of our peoples safe. Blind spots that we had, sometimes Israel would see. Blind spots Israel would have, sometimes we would see. And of course there are the times where neither country saw the threat coming, but our security has improved through the partnership with Israel.”
That bond cannot wane, he said.
said. “I would love to see the board issue a statement doubling down on their commitment to not issue any boycotts and asking the union to recognize this position and not pressure them to do so.”
Another board meeting will be held in October, before the co-op’s annual meeting in November. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
the tour, show him the different aspects of the space, and have his full undivided attention.”
When teens occupy this role it’s “empowering,” she continued. “They are the voices that matter.”
Davis stressed that sense of empowerment before leaving The Beacon.
“I want to encourage each and every one of you to keep speaking up and speaking out in our communities,” he said. “Even if you’re too young to vote, know that your voice is powerful. You have a powerful role in our communities to push for change, whether it’s at the ballot box or whether it’s petitioning your elected officials to do the right things in Harrisburg.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
In August, Teach Coalition polling noted 53% of Pennsylvanians believe that Harris either “strongly or somewhat supports Israel,” while 39% believe she either “does not support Israel or is anti-Israel.”
Schiff called Casey a “champion” and lauded the senator’s efforts to not only “strengthen enforcement actions” at the Office for Civil Rights, but bringing $1 million in federal funding to Tree of Life for developing and implementing a K-12 curriculum to help educators and students identify and challenge antisemitism and identity-based hate.
“Kamala Harris as long as I have known her has been a steadfast supporter of Israel — Tim Walz the same,” Schiff said. “I think she understands the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship, that it’s based on shared values and shared national security interests.”
Dunn said that during the nearly 15 years he worked at the Capitol, his political leanings didn’t matter.
“I had Republican friends, Democrat friends, but right now it’s clear that one side is adamant about protecting democracy and the other side is adamant about tearing it down,” he said.
Keep calm and carry on
Speaking with the Chronicle on Sunday, Schiff said he worries about the fissuring of bipartisanship.
“I certainly hope that Israel never becomes a wedge issue,” he said. “There have been actions taken by Republicans in Congress to try to make Israel a wedge issue, to even try and make antisemitism a wedge issue.”
U.S. legislators aren’t the only ones responsible for ensuring collective support for the Jewish state; Israel has a role as well, Schiff said. “There have been times when it appears that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is seeking to have an open public fight with the administration, which I don’t think is in Israel’s best interest. I think both countries, and both parties in the United States, and the multitude of parties in Israel, need to be united and depoliticize the U.S.-Israel relationship.”
One shared duty involves responding to the events of Oct. 7.
“Considering this was an attack on both Israelis and Americans, this is our common responsibility to bring those terrorists to justice,” Schiff said. “However difficult it is, however long it takes, people need to
“At a time when Israel has been the subject of the most horrific attack, we need to have the back of the people of Israel and help them defend themselves, help secure the release of Americans who are held hostage, as well as Israelis, people from other countries; make sure that Israel remains a safe refuge for Jewish people, and that we are in solidarity with fighting this global scourge of antisemitism that even today threatens Israel, but also threatens Jews in America and everywhere else.”
Making a case
Throughout Sunday, Schiff attended several Casey campaign events. He also met with Jewish voters in an effort to promote the Harris-Walz ticket.
When asked about Casey and the Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominees, Schiff said, “I think these candidates have been rock solid in support of Israel, rock solid in combating antisemitism.”
Still, registered voters have concerns.
Last week, Jewish Insider reported McCormick’s growing appeal to some “disaffected Jewish Democrats.”
Schiff, who served as lead manager in Trump’s first impeachment trial, contrasted these approaches to Israel with Trump’s “transactional” methodology.
“He only has one interest at stake, and it’s not the national interest — it’s his own personal interest,” Schiff said. “Anyone who thinks that Donald Trump wouldn’t sell Israel down the road, should he see a monetary interest in the Gulf nations pushing him in the other direction, will be in for a rude awakening.”
B oth sides of the aisle continue making their cases to voters.
Trump spoke in Erie on Sunday. Nine days earlier, during a “Fighting Antisemitism in America” event, he said the “Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss” should he lose the election.
Pennsylvania is the swing state with the largest Jewish population, with about 300,000 voting-age Jews. In 2020, President Joe Biden won the commonwealth by about 80,000 votes. PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
p Rep. Adam Schiff, left, speaks during a campaign event in Wilkinsburg on Sept. 29. Photo by Adam Reinherz
Hope is not irrational
Guest Columnist
Rabbi Danny Schiff
Anew Jewish year has arrived. The past year, now sinking below the horizon, will long be recalled as a shattering period when the overwhelming horror of mass murder, injury, assault and trauma impacted all Jews.
The advent of a new year does not, however, mean that an end to the misery is at hand. The longest war in Israel’s history, sparked by the atrocities of Oct. 7, continues, and the eruption of global antisemitism is still spilling its searing lava. Even with the elimination of Hassan Nasrallah, Ishmael Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif, Israeli hostages languish in the tunnels of Gaza, while Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian regime are not yet vanquished. Meanwhile, far too many Arabs and Iranians remain intoxicated with fundamentalist Islam and fantasize about Jewish destruction.
In the midst of this fateful struggle, it might be asked: At a time like this, are words of hope simply naïve utterances that are in fact wholly lacking in substance?
The answer to this question is no. Hope is not irrational. Even now.
Here’s why:
In the days after Oct. 7, many international landmarks were lit up in blue and white in
We are family
Guest Columnist
Rabbi Moishe Mayir Vogel
Most of you know me from the work I’ve been doing for the last 33 years at Aleph Institute, helping incarcerated Jewish men and women. Others may be familiar with what I’ve been fortunate to do for the last five years or so, standing outside the Squirrel Hill Farmers Market on Beacon Street on Sundays, interacting with fellow Jews. It pains me to write this, but being present at the farmers market has been very difficult for me over the last 12 months or so. The overt antisemitism has made the Sunday effort a very challenging one.
Over the last year, standing on the
solidarity with Israel. Perhaps most poignant among them was the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Not only was the Brandenburg Gate bathed in blue and white, but an Israeli flag, replete with the Star of David, was projected at the very top of the gate. The Brandenburg Gate is, of course, the gate through which the Nazis used to hold their victory marches.
In the month following the illumination of the Brandenburg Gate, and two days before the 85th commemoration of Kristallnacht, the commander of the German Luftwaffe, General Ingo Gerhartz, visited Israel. Gerhartz decided that he would stop by Sheba hospital in Tel Aviv to donate blood. “It was an honor for me,” Gerhartz said of his blood donation to save the lives of Israelis.
If, in the 1940s, you had told the Jews of Europe that there would come a day when the Brandenburg Gate would be lit up in solidarity with the only Jewish state in the world, and that the commander of the German Luftwaffe would voluntarily donate blood to save Jews, they would not have believed you. While Germany has been less forthcoming with arms for Israel than might be desirable, what is truly amazing is that this is a disagreement between allies — a friendship between Germans and Jews that would have been utterly unimaginable eight decades ago.
Or consider this: Last November, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin visited Pope Francis to plead for his help in getting their son, Hersh, released from Gaza captivity. After the meeting, Rachel Goldberg said that she felt “embraced”
street trying to meet other Jews, I have had an untold number of negative interactions. There is one lady who accosts me weekly, shouting wildly at me to stop killing babies in Gaza. There is a fellow, who claims to be Palestinian, who approaches me as often as he can to tell me that I must make peace with his brothers, after which he unleashes a barrage of choice words about Israel, etc.
I do my best to ignore the hate and continue my holy work. However, for the last five weeks, an older man with a banner announcing, “Children are not Hamas,” confronts me, verbally attacking me, getting in my face and getting more aggravated each week.
Last Sunday, when this older man began to approach, he was stopped by a wonderful Jewish lady who, by the grace of G-d, happened to be there. This angel took on the man, throwing his vile attacks back
Donald Trump will turn on Israel and the Jews
Donald Trump “supports” Israel for the moment out of simple political expedience. The instant he thinks Jews won’t vote for him in sufficient numbers, he will turn on them, as he turns on everyone whom he sees as “disloyal.” He already laid the groundwork for this in his recent comments that, if he loses in 2024, Jews will bear much of the responsibility (“At antisemitism event, Trump says ‘the Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss’ if he is defeated,” Sept. 27).
That’s a guaranteed recipe for having Trump turn on you. He has no moral commitment to Israel. The moment he thinks he doesn’t need Jews anymore — and that time is approaching, as it does with virtually everyone who flatters themselves as his friends — it’s “goodbye Israel” from Trump.
During his recent debate with Kamala Harris, Trump spread a story about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, that his campaign picked up from Christopher Pohlhaus, the leader of the
by the pope and believed that he sought to “do everything he could to help us.” When Hersh and five other hostages were found murdered last month, Pope Francis said this: “I pray for the victims and continue to be close to all the families of the hostages … I stand with Rachel during this time.”
“I stand with Rachel.” Call to mind the agonizing persecution that Jews suffered at the hands of the Catholic Church during centuries when so much as mentioning the pope would strike justifiable fear in the heart of any Jew. It was only six decades ago that the Church renounced its position that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus. And now? “I stand with Rachel.” To be sure, the positions of the Catholic Church are not yet everything one might wish for, but the remarkable change from an institution that was once a trenchant, cruel foe to one that “prays for Jewish victims” is undoubtedly a profound transition.
Or think back half a century to the Yom Kippur war. Israel was ultimately victorious in that conflict, but the victory came at a heavy price. In the aftermath of the war, it seemed inevitable that the surrounding Arab states would never stop pursuing their aim to “push the Jews into the sea.” Few could have dreamed of what actually came to pass: Five years later, Egypt made peace with Israel, followed by Jordan, and later the UAE, Morocco and Sudan. One by one, moderate Arab states that had once been sworn enemies came to understand that attempting to defeat Israel was a losing proposition.
Strikingly, during this current year of war,
at him and defending me and what I was doing.
Realizing that his antics would not be the usual fun, the man left, after which this lady approached me. She was so hurt, so pained, so distressed at the disrespect shown to me.
I thanked her profusely for what she did, we comforted each other, and she brought her husband over so that he could lay tefillin.
When I left the farmers market that day, I was walking on clouds. I kept thinking, “Mi k’amcha Yisroel!” How great is our Jewish family! I didn’t know that amazing woman, and she didn’t know me. We may not practice our Judaism the same way, and she may not even agree with the practice of stopping people on the street to ask about their Judaism. But when she saw someone harassing a fellow Jew — accosting her brother — she couldn’t keep quiet and she stepped in.
My friends, you are all amazing. The events
not one of those Arab states has broken off diplomatic relations with Israel. In fact, against the odds, Saudi Arabia continues to seek normalization with Israel. In April, Jordan’s air force downed Iranian drones as they headed toward Israel. And when most every other airline stopped flying to Israel, the airlines of the UAE never deleted Ben Gurion airport from their destination lists. Fifty years ago, Jews were thoroughly persuaded that none of these countries would ever make peace with Israel, let alone that those peaceful relations would be maintained through long months of war.
In God’s first words to Avram in the Torah, God promised: “I will bless those who bless you and curse the one who curses you; and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you.” Through the ages, this has meant that those who once sought to curse us have eventually realized that a more productive path is the better alternative. Often, it takes a long time —marked by protracted Jewish suffering — for this transformation to materialize, but the pattern of Jewish history is clear.
It is true today as well. One day, our current foes will change course. We know not when that day will come, but come it will.
Consequently, in the Jewish experience, it is entirely rational to declare “od lo avda tikvateinu – our hope is not yet lost,” and it is in that spirit that we should greet the year ahead. PJC
Rabbi Danny Schiff is the Gefsky Community Scholar at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.
worldwide are painful and confusing, but what we can do is keep on being amazing. As the Chosen People of G-d, we should continue to bring light to the world, keep doing all the good that we are doing and keep taking care of our extended family.
Our brothers and sisters may be at a Nova music festival near Gaza, they may be protesting or counterprotesting in Tel Aviv, and they may be in Pittsburgh, standing outside the farmers market on Beacon Street. Wherever we are, we are family.
I take this opportunity to bless my family — all of you — with a healthy, prosperous, blessed New Year.
And by the way, have you put on tefillin today? PJC
Rabbi Moishe Mayir Vogel is the executive director of The Aleph Institute –North East Region.
national neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe. On Aug. 10, about a dozen masked Blood Tribe members carrying banners adorned with swastikas marched in downtown Springfield. But that source for his debate claim didn’t seem to bother Trump.
Many of Trump’s comments mirror language used by historical antisemites, such as his claim that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country. Adolf Hitler used the term “blood poisoning” in “Mein Kampf” to criticize the mixing of races.
Trump has a history of associating with antisemites. Remember how he hosted that dinner with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes? Only weeks before West met with Trump, West threatened on social media to go “death con 3” on “JEWISH PEOPLE!” And Fuentes is a well-known Holocaust denier.
Please see Letters, page 13
Chronicle poll results: War with Iran and its proxies
Last week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “Do you think that the war with Iran and its proxies will conclude in the coming year?” Of the 202 people who responded, 73% said no; 24% said yes; and 3% said they had no opinion. Comments were submitted by 60 people. A few follow.
It will never end since Iran plays the long game.
If the U.N. were functioning as it should, not as it does, U.N. resolution 1701 would’ve had Hezbollah at the Litani River and we wouldn’t have an “almost war” going on right now.
Until all the Arab nations decide that they will accept Israel’s right to exist, there will never be peace.
Israel went into Lebanon 40 years ago. It didn’t resolve anything. Same with Gaza and now Lebanon again. Their strategy is not effective at this point.
Trump will see to it. For Israel’s sake, November can’t come soon enough.
I believe Trump is undermining international affairs for his benefit. If/when he loses the election, I believe he will try to escalate things to his benefit and to undermine the next administration.
No. The war is escalating with both the ongoing conflict in Gaza and now the northern front with Hezbollah. I predict further escalation including adding U.S. troops to the mix.
Nothing will end until Israel weakens Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis, and quells the PLO.
There will probably be a cease-fire in the current battle, but the war won’t be over. Since the world always imposes a cease-fire on Israel before it can achieve a decisive victory, it just allows Israel’s enemies to regroup and rearm, and then start the next round of fighting.
The only way forward is to support our best ally Israel by helping them totally take out the terrorists.
A difficult question. As long as Iran and its proxies have an ultimate goal of eliminating Israel, it’s hard to imagine peace. As long as that conflict continues, the operational logic of that conflict will push toward continued escalation.
Israel needs to escalate the fighting and navigate through more tunnels in both Gaza and Lebanon.
As long as Netanyahu is in power and trying to avoid criminal prosecution, the wars will continue. He is destroying Israel from within.
Unfortunately, war has dominated the Middle East. The very existence of Israel as a Jewish nation has brought resistance from the Arab nations surrounding her. There will be times of less aggression but there will always be aggression. The goal of the Arabs is, “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free!” One thing we learned as Jews throughout our history: Believe what your enemies are telling you. PJC
Compiled by Toby Tabachnick
Chronicle weekly poll question: Who won the Vance/Walz debate? Go to pittsburghjewishchronicle.org to respond. PJC
Continued from page 12
He said in one of his social media posts, “Jews have too much power in our society. Christians should have all the power, everyone else very little.” He encouraged people to “kill the globalists” (and we know who antisemites mean when they refer to “globalists”). Fuentes described Jews as “a hostile tribal elite” and called the state of Israel “the anti-Christ.” Did Trump call either of them out for this, or refuse to meet with them? No.
But even if one makes the case that Trump truly didn’t know who he was meeting with, look at what that tells you about how easily manipulated he is by antisemites.
Barak Ravid, a veteran Israeli journalist, interviewed Trump for his 2021 book, “Trump’s Peace: The Abraham Accords and the Reshaping of the Middle East.” Ravid published a transcript of Trump saying that he had fallen out with Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump told Ravid that Netanyahu “made a terrible mistake” by congratulating Joe Biden on his victory in the 2020 election. It was unforgivably disloyal. “**** him,” Trump said of Netanyahu.
Trump will turn on any person, any country that does not kiss his ring. The minute the government of Israel does not do his bidding, he’ll throw it under the same bus that has run over so many Trump allies before.
Jack Bailey Pittsburgh
of infamy, Jan. 6, 2021, the day on which a worried world looked on with incredulity as Trump supporters desecrated the Capitol and attempted to overthrow a duly-elected government. His idiocy and infantile nature were also demonstrated in his using this event to label Jewish Democratic Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer as “a Palestinian.” He also has attempted to convince voters that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris “hates Israel,” — this as the Biden/Harris administration has been one of the strongest supporters of the Jewish state since its inception.
The return of Donald Trump to the White House would be a calamity: a mandate for continued chaos, division and malice, particularly against “the other.”
Oren Spiegler Peters Township
Trump is ‘no friend of the Jews’
Last month, Donald Trump said that if he loses the election, Jews would be partly to blame (“At antisemitism event, Trump says ‘the Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss’ if he is defeated,” Sept. 27).
For anyone who has the slightest understanding of history, rhetoric and antisemitism, this was very clearly the echo of something he said to the Proud Boys almost exactly four years ago: “Stand back and stand by.” It was a signal to his followers that, should he lose, the Jews should be the first target of their rage. It was a call to rampage. It was a call to a widespread pogrom.
Donald Trump is no friend of the Jews, or of Israel. Anyone who thinks he’s the better choice, on this or on any other issue, is misled.
Trump and ‘fighting antisemitism’
Naomi Weisberg Siegel Pittsburgh
It is ironic that Donald Trump, one of the greatest haters and dividers in history, appeared and spoke at a “Fighting Antisemitism” forum in Washington, D. C., claiming to be a friend of Israel and of Jews (“At antisemitism event, Trump says ‘the Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss’ if he is defeated,” Sept. 27).
True to form, Trump displayed his hatred for the majority of the members of our faith who dare to vote in a manner he cannot abide: to cast our ballots for Democrats. Not only did he again question such Jewish voters’ mental state, but he endangered us as he has intentionally done to so many who have crossed him, placing a target on our backs by stating that if he loses the upcoming election (God willing), the Jews will be to blame. In an era in which there are many crazed followers of his, who lap up and accept everything he says, such a comment is not only highly offensive, but reckless. Those of us with open eyes, ears and minds saw the result of his most fervent supporters following his incitement to violence on this country’s modern day
The quest for a shared society continues
I attended the JCC event with Mohammad Darawshe mentioned in the Chronicle’s Sept 27 issue (“Quest for shared society in Israel involves Pittsburghers”). I stood and asked Mr. Darawshe how he thinks the Arab-Israeli conflict has changed over the past 40 years.
I met Mohammad for the first time 40 years ago. I was a member of a group of Americans planning to move to Israel. He joined us at one of our meetings. One memory that stuck with me all these years is when we all stood and sang “Hatikva.” Glancing at Mohammad, standing silently with these young idealistic Jews, I wondered, “What’s his hope?” Shortly after that, we arrived to an Israel at war. The war was called Mivtzah Shalom Hagalil (Operation Peace for the Galilee). It was supposed to bring peace to the residents of northern Israel, who were under constant threat from missile attacks from Lebanon.
And here we are, 40 years later, with tens of thousands of northern Israeli residents displaced from their homes due to a rain of missiles from Lebanon. Thousands of Lebanese fled their homes due to Hezbollah embedding their missiles in residential areas.
It was nice to hear from Mohammad that small steps of progress are being made to bridge the Arab-Jewish conflict, but until the bigger issues of the conflict are solved on a national level, sadly, the suffering of Jews and Arabs will continue.
Mitchell Nyer Pittsburgh
Good wishes missing
The pages of the Sept. 27 issue of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle are filled with good wishes for the New Year of 5785 from many of our current and want-to-be future leaders, from our Pittsburgh City Council, Allegheny County government, the governor of Pennsylvania and Congress members.
There is one Pennsylvania leader who is conspicuous by her absence. I wonder why. Sheryl Stolzenberg Pittsburgh
We invite you to submit letters for publication. Letters must include name, address and daytime phone number; addresses and phone numbers will not be published. Letters may not exceed 500 words and may be edited for length and clarity; they cannot be returned. Send letters to: letters@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org or Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, 5915 Beacon St., 5th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15217
We regret that owing to the volume of correspondence, we cannot reply to every letter.
An old family recipe: Zucchini bread
Friendly,
services to be held ON-SITE in our chapel and via ZOOM registration required: janet@newlightcongregation.org rosh hashanah
wednesday, october 2 7:00 pm
thursday, october 3rd 8:45 am
friday, october 4th 8:45 am
yom kippur
kol nidre: friday, october 11th 6:30 pm saturday, october 12th 8:45 am
neilah: saturday, october 12th 6:20 pm
cemetery visitation - new light cemetery - 750 soose road - shaler, pa sunday, september 29th 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Contact Information: Registration: janet@newlightcongregation.org Website: newlightcongregation.org
Membership: membership@newlightcongregation.org
Rabbi Jonathan Perlman
Rabbi Iscah Waldman, Guest Rabbi
october 3: “You don’t have to be a perfectionist!” october 4: “Where was Sarah when Isaac traveled to Mt. Moriah?”
october 11: “How you can save the world by the Three Covenantal Methods.” october 12: “The Angst of Jewry after October 7th & the Challenge to Belief.”
is pretty thick, but you can hand-mix this if you want to prepare it on Yom Tov.
By Jessica Grann | Special to the Chronicle
This recipe for zucchini bread has been in my family longer than I’ve been alive. It’s an autumn staple in all of our homes because it’s very versatile. Whether you’re having a cup of tea by yourself or serving it for a family brunch, this recipe is loved by all — and the children won’t know that there is zucchini in the bread.
This recipe freezes well so you can make one for now and freeze one for later. I’m planning on enjoying a piece with a cup of coffee as soon as the Yom Kippur fast ends this year.
The recipe is dairy-free. It’s excellent served plain, but in my family we also shmear on a little cream cheese or butter.
Ingredients:
2 cups grated zucchini (about 2-3 mediumsized zucchini), loosely packed, skin on
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cloves
3 large eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons good quality vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 325 F and put the wire rack in the middle of the oven.
Grease and flour 2 loaf pans.
Sift all of the dry ingredients into a medium-sized bowl and set aside.
Grate the zucchini.
I use an electric mixer because the batter
Whisk the eggs until some bubbles form on the top layer, and slowly add the oil, whisking continually until the oil is well combined.
Add the sugar to the egg mixture and, once combined, add the zucchini and vanilla extract.
Mix well before adding the dry ingredients, about ½ cup at a time.
Mix the batter until you can’t see any flour. If you’re mixing by hand, fold in the flour with a strong silicone spatula as opposed to a whisk.
Scrape down the bottom of the bowl to make sure that everything is well combined before pouring the batter into the two prepared loaf pans.
Put the pans into the oven and bake for 1 hour. Metal pans heat up and brown baked goods more quickly than glass or ceramic loaf pans, so if you choose metal pans, check the bread at 50 minutes. When the zucchini bread is fully baked it will start to pull away from the edges of the loaf pan and a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf will come out clean.
Once baked, remove the pans immediately from the oven and let them rest for 10 minutes before turning each loaf onto a wire rack to cool.
Cool for at least 3 hours before wrapping the loaves in plastic wrap to store.
You can also make muffins with this batter: Use cupcake papers and bake for 25 minutes at 350 F.
If you’re freezing the bread, wrap it in plastic wrap first and then put it into a gallon-size freezer bag.
My mom swears that this bread tastes best if allowed to rest overnight before serving.
Enjoy and bless your hands! PJC
Jessica Grann is a home chef living in Pittsburgh.
Zucchini bread
Photo by Jessica Grann
shana tova!
Exceptional-quality offerings for traditional holiday gatherings.
One year since Oct. 7: Chronicle poetry contest winners
— POETRY —
The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle thanks all those who submitted poems to its poetry contest. This month’s theme was “One year since Oct. 7.”
Our judge was award-winning poet Philip Terman. Terman is the author of several fulllength and chapbook collections of poems, including “The Whole Mishpocha: New and Selected Poems, 1998-2023.” His poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Poetry Magazine, The Kenyon Review, The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish Poets and 101 Jewish Poets for the Third Millennium. He’s a retired professor of English from Clarion University, where he directed the Spoken Art Reading Series. He is a co-founder of the Chautauqua Writer’s Festival.
Winners of the Chronicle’s poetry contest are Tim Miller, Carolyn Kapner and Joan Wagman. In addition to their poems being published below, each winning poet received a $54 gift card to Pinkser’s Judaica, courtesy of an anonymous donor for whose generosity we are grateful.
War
Song
And it was a song that seemed to go on for years, and it said: “We all watched it approach and arrive and envelop, the war that swept everyone into its arms like a devouring mother, like a hungry father desperate to eat his own children like bread, war the father and mother and ruler of all, and all of us war’s children, and all our bodies only here to be butchered in the new or the old way, our bodies the game-board of war, war that rolled the heavens up like a scroll and darkened sun and moon, war like snowmelt coming down from the mountains to overwhelm and overrun every streambed with a shock of flood and roaring, war like an angry word gathering sentences and momentum until every grievance and old grudge, every ugliness written with an iron pen and engraved with an adamant point to poison every heart and every altar and every people with prejudice, every word just and unjust, true and untrue, coalescing into endless syllables of blood and blood-letting, blood torn and blood drowned, blood drunk and blood painted, the world running blood, every stream and bed no longer running water but running blood, blood like wine poured out for the dead, and blood overflowing the earth, blood soaking the land and darkening the roots and running in the streets until every sunken feature in the landscape was merely a bowl or cup or a cratered container for all this blood, the world a fig tree hanging full with ripe fruit, the world a fig tree that was simply shaken, simply shaken, and the fruit dropping.”
And it was a song that seemed to go on for years, and it said:
“And we were like scraps left on the floor of the house of the potter, like scraps that were never taken up again, but instead smashed, and we were like two baskets of figs left out for the people to eat, but both baskets were filled with rot, and nobody would eat from them, and we were like an empty dish that could no longer be cleaned, and there was plague and war, war and famine, famine and captivity, and there were dogs that dragged and birds that picked and beasts that consumed, because there were no burials anymore, and the great host of the dead, they were left out to taunt the sun and the moon and the stars until those bodies turned into darkness in the sky, turned into blood, and the last prophets and dreamers and elders, they saw but were powerless.”
And it was a song that seemed to go on for years, and it said:
“We lived in fear until there was only terror and fear and hate, until terror and fear and hate grew from a small thing in the mind into giants that stepped from continent to continent and whose heads scraped the firmament and swiped the moon and tarnished the sun with a war the world had seen before, but only in part –and now a flame in the bones, cities crushed and eyes weeping fire, and their sockets and the tongues of mouths weeping fire as they stood there in the street, raising their hands against every other hand. And veins running fire and mouths full of fire and mountains
like overturned tables, the dead boiled in their graves and the living incinerated where they stood, moment and family and history and country and border and home – char and ash, roads and memory and words, prayer and loneliness and satisfaction, longing and rest and entire billions without discrimination, without even hate or awareness or vengeance, in the end – all ash, every motivation and curiosity and tenderness put to flame by a great unloosing, as if the first of us to climb down from the trees picked up a stone and threw it, and that stone never landed but was in flight for four million years and in that time became polished axe, pointed spear, iron sword, short arrow, raiding chariot, warship, trireme, lance and spear and pike, canon and musket and machine gun and tank and cloud of released poison and finally brilliant, incredible missiles, a shower of metal and fire and a noise that filled the entire sky like a sword dropping from the sky drunk with blood and gorged on fat and going for the leaves of flesh that wither on the vine, and going for the shriveled fruit still left on the fig tree, the fuel of God and the fire in the stars harnessed by our hands to empty the earth and put an end to all we could not outrun, our envy and fear and disregard of the stranger, our hatred of the stranger, our disdain of the stranger, and their stories.”
And it was a song that seemed to go on for years, and it said: “It was war where no children waited at home for a familiar return, a war where none fighting it thought to ever return. It was a war where there were no cities left untouched, and no cities to look forward to fondly, a war with no hope of home. It was war where everyone fought and nearly everyone died, and where the rest were swept away by the same procession of final blasts and columns of flame consuming the earth in wave after wave after wave of fire and cloud, wind and light.”
And it was a song that seemed to go on for years, and it said: “And the sound was of a hundred thousand black poplars, growing tall in a great marsh given to them as a place to thrive, falling and falling and falling, the thunder of flesh and stone hollowed or made ash, emptied or made fire, overturned in a once-great world. And what a world it was, what a forest of black poplars, what a hidden marsh to call home, what wide branches still growing, what a culmination, what a pinnacle, what a sky to rise to –what a waste of the sky and wind and earth, to pour it all out over the stranger, over hatred and envy and fear.”
—Tim Miller
p Montage of photos of all the murdered Nova festival participants
Photo by DaringDonna, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Life & Culture
Poetry:
Continued from page 16
If I am to love you As myself, then Neighbor, How will it serve you, To allow you, To kill me?
You, with the cup of sugar, I can borrow if I want to. You, with a holy hatred, I can borrow if I want to.
When you knock upon my Doorway, no need. Come in! Come In! I am delighted to See you, and I am also prepared To watch you die. So I will avert My eyes from that semi-automatic, Steel forged bouquet of flowers You have brought, to explode my
In
Home into flaming rosebuds. If I am to love you, as myself, And Neighbor, I do, I really do, Then rest easy. I am prepared To kill you if I must. If your Salvation, redemption, and A special place in Heaven’s station Is what you need, then Neighbor, Please allow me.
Come in. Come in. I make
The most amazing cake of Bittersweet chocolate with A glaze of light and slightly Crackling orange sugar. So, Let’s enjoy what’s left Of my mother, and her mother Before her.
In the silence, we will savor This transubstantiation. Swords into ploughshares, Guns into flowers, so that You will know as you swallow,
What I know, which is that You are kind. You matter. You belong. And you possess, In the ground of your being, An unshakeable goodness.
And I will not let you kill me.
—Carolyn Kapner
While Music Echoed While music echoed through the desert, and we danced –blissful, serene. Blind,
they surged dark tunnels for Allah, primed to vanquish all Life, on their path.
“We hid in the johns,” Amit sobs. Rare survivor. “Bullets ricocheted down lines of toilets.”
Hearts raced. Clutched. “I could not move!” Screams. Moaning. Silence. Watching from a bush, Raz can’t forget how they laughed, Raping. And stabbing.
Kibbutzniks–slaughtered. Hundreds kidnapped, old and young. The mangled. Maimed. Strewn.
At Kibbutz Be’eri
Vivian Silver lay. Slain. Her life’s work – peace. Dashed.
Shalom aleinu!
And may October seventh render worldwide…pause
Recount and dwell. Weep. Together try to fathom their beauty. Their price.
Netflix’s ‘Kissufim,’ a story about Israeli life on the Gaza border gains new resonance after Oct. 7
By Jackie Hajdenberg | JTA
The latest Israeli film on Netflix has a setting and theme that, one year after Oct. 7, could not be more current: It centers on soldiers ending their service by volunteering at a kibbutz on the Gaza border. “Kissufim” paints a portrait of Israeli life as it oscillates through phases of trauma and hope — including a near-death scene as someone dances.
It was filmed in August 2021, more than two years before Hamas unleashed an attack on southern Israeli communities, including the real-life Kibbutz Kissufim.
“Kissufim,” released on the streaming giant last month, explores the group dynamics of young Israeli army conscripts in 1977 who volunteer at the eponymous kibbutz near the Gaza Strip. As opposed to in recent decades, at that time Israel fully occupied the Gaza Strip, and the border was open: Israelis could easily spend a day at the beach there or shop at the market in Gaza City. The film takes place as Egyptian Prime Minister Anwar Sadat planned a visit to Israel that would demonstrate his commitment to an inchoate peace.
Conditions are vastly different now: Gaza border communities lie in ruins, while much of the Gaza Strip itself is destroyed. The area is nearing a year of brutal urban combat in which tens of thousands have been killed. The real-life Kibbutz Kissufim, just miles from the Gaza border, lost 12 residents and six foreign workers in Hamas’ attack. More war, rather than peace, appears to be in the offing.
Director Keren Nechmad could not have predicted the Oct. 7 attack and ensuing war when she was making the movie, which stars Swell Ariel Or from the hit show “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem.” But she says the renewed resonance of the movie over the past year is a testament to what it means to be Israeli.
“Kissufim” paints a portrait of Israeli life as it oscillates through phases of trauma and hope — including a near-death scene as someone dances.
“We live in a loop,” Nechmad told JTA. “We always have lived in a loop of what it means to be an Israeli and what it means to be a person growing up in Israel too, like getting your responsibility and your maturity and just wanting to have fun in the face of the reality of what it is like to live here.”
While the film was made years before Oct. 7, its cast and crew have close connections to its sites and victims. Saar Margolis, a member of the kibbutz’s security team who was killed on Oct. 7, briefed the film’s cast and crew upon their arrival. It was filmed on location both at Kissufim and the nearby Zikim Beach, another location of the attack.
“Kissufim” won the award for Best Foreign Film at the 2023 Orlando Film Festival, just weeks after Oct. 7. The start of the film displays a dedication to the attack’s victims.
The film was inspired by real events that took place near the kibbutz — Eli’s character was based on Elian Gazit, 22, who was killed in a grenade attack in 1980 while sitting in an Israeli army pickup truck in downtown Gaza. She was a civilian who was part of a group planning to join Kibbutz Kissufim.
“We have a sense of hope, and then it’s undone,” Nechmad said. “And I hope when people heal — and the war needs to be over, because we’re not there yet — maybe there will be that hope again. One day, maybe it won’t be undone.”
While Israel was not fighting a major war in 1977, the movie takes place in the shadow of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which shocked and devastated the country. In one scene, Eldar, a confident army officer, and Yoav, a soldier, get into an argument over whose experience following the
1973 war was worse: Eldar’s brother was wounded. Yoav, meanwhile, had an uncle who was killed in the Suez Canal, an aunt who “died of sorrow” and a cousin who now sleeps in his bed.
“I want people to understand that it’s not a reality just in the last year,” Or, who plays a soldier named Eli, told JTA. “It’s our reality for, honestly, since the beginning of Judaism, but we’re talking specifically about Israel, so it’s the reality that we’re living since ’48.”
In another scene with eerie contemporary resonance, Eli’s character almost dies dancing while checking the kibbutz’s sprinkler system with the other volunteers, as she dares herself to walk toward an area with active grenades and sets one off. A German volunteer to the kibbutz, Anka, later comforts her, saying, “Think of it this way. You almost died dancing. Only you can say that.”
Nechmad told JTA that the scene was so evocative of the massacre at the Nova Festival, where more than 360 people were killed, that she had been asked to change it.
“Some people maybe thought I should change it to be less political or take out the sentences that may be controversial, like, ‘You almost died dancing,’” she said. “But it was there. So I think it just shows how ingrained it is, even before.”
Or has seen violence up close. She witnessed a 2016 shooting on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv and has since lived with post-traumatic stress disorder and panic attacks. She moved from Tel Aviv to Los Angeles just two weeks before Oct. 7.
“The magical thing is that we have the knowledge to understand war,” Or said. “We are trained in a way, for years — and our parents, and our grandparents.”
She added, “It’s not a new thing that you can die dancing in Israel. And it’s not a new thing that you have PTSD, and it’s not a new thing that you lose your friends.” PJC
p Eli, Udi, Shoshan, Ron, Hila, and Yoav in a scene from ‘Kissufim,’ on Netflix Photo courtesy of Light Years Ahead
—Joan Wagman
Celebrations
Kate and Alan Tabachnick are happy and proud to announce the marriage of their daughter Alexandra (Lexie) to Gabriel Herman. Lexie is the grand-daughter of Barbara Tabachnick and the late Dr. Theodore Tabachnick, and the late Claire and Benjamin Leven. Gabe is the son of Sandy Herman and Larry Guerrieri, and the grandson of the late Dorothy and Leonard Herman. The couple were married in Chicago and live in Evanston, Illinois. PJC
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Rabbi Moishe Mayir Vogel Parshat Ha’azinu Deuteronomy 32:1-52
he Midrash tells us that after hearing Moses list the 98 ominous predictions concerning Jewish history in Parshah Ki Tavo, all the Jews turned green, i.e., their faces paled in horror. They turned in disbelief to Moses and said, “How could anyone ever survive that?”
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And indeed, any casual observer glancing down the long road of Jewish history would be compelled to express the same astonishment. “How did anyone survive that?!”
When we look back at the year behind us, we might ask the exact same question. How did we survive that? Physically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally — how did it not crush us?
And when we look a little further back, the astonishment grows. The Holocaust was thousands of Oct. 7s. How did we come back from that? And the pogroms? And the crusades? And the expulsions? And the inquisitions? And the destruction and dispersions? How did they not finish us off?
All these questions were rolled into one when the Jews pleaded with Moses: “How will we survive?”
Moses answered with the first words of the next Parshah: Atem Nitzavim! You all stand together today, tall and proud, before G-d, your G-d! G-d has preserved to this day, and He will carry you onward. You have suffered (Egypt was no walk in the park!) but have not been vanquished. And you never will be. With miracles and wonders, we’ve made it through our history. And somehow, the worst of times brought out the best of us. The more the haters bear down on us, the taller and the prouder we stand. Atem Nitzavim!
Looking back on the past year, we are filled with prayers for a better year ahead. But you know what else we are filled with? Pride and a feeling of honor. What a time to be a Jew! What a year in Jewish history to be alive! When have we ever seen such poise, such dignity, such honor and integrity! Oct. 7 broke our hearts and released a flood of Jewish spirit. The souls of our martyred brothers and sisters filled our own with a strength and resolve we’d never known. Atem Nitzavim!
Judaica stores whose shelves remained comfortably stocked through the easier years
prior to Oct. 7 sold out in the weeks following that unspeakable massacre. Tefillin? Sold out. Tzitzit? Sold out. Tehillims? Sold out. Out of our worst agony came our greatest moment. Societies revealed a hatred for Jews, and in a flash, Jews discovered a love for Judaism. Judaica sold out, but the Jewish People never did. We floated down a river of tears into an ocean of love. Love for each other, love for who we are, love for the Holy Land, love for the mitzvot, and love for G-d Who endures with us and carries us onward. Atem Nitzavim! Please G-d, next year will bring relief and salvation. Please G-d, next year it will not only be a great honor to be a Jew, but a great pleasure as well. But may we never forget how we felt this year. May we carry the defiance and passion of wartime Judaism into peacetime. May we never forget our deeply felt love for one another. May we never forget how profoundly proud we are to be the Chosen People. May we never forget our desperation to connect with holiness, with G-dliness, with Jewish ritual and practice.
May G-d fulfill the deepest wishes of our collective hearts. May the hostages return home to the joyous tears of their loved ones. May the soldiers be sent home because evil had buried its face in shame. May Israel once again be the hustling, bustling hub of the world, happy and holy, safe and secure, the light of the universe. May Moshiach arrive and glow with pride at our unimaginable triumph over pain and evil. May G-d tear down the veils around the vale of tears and show us the fruits of our labor. May those who planted in tears reap in gladness. May Moses return and declare history’s happiest and greatest “I told you so!” He was right. We’d be all right. We’d pass all our tests with flying colors. Our green faces would shine with a special light. We would never be vanquished and never be destroyed. We would stand tall and proud in the face of discrimination and brutality. We would come out stronger and wiser. Moses was so right. G-d and we made it through OK.
Atem Nitzavim! Anu Nitzavim!
L’shana tova umetukah , may you all be written, signed and sealed for a sweet new year! PJC
Rabbi Moishe Mayir Vogel is executive director of The Aleph Institute – North East Region. This column is a service of the Vaad Harabonim of Greater Pittsburgh.
GOLDSTEIN: Fred Goldstein passed away on Sept. 17, 2024, in Show Low, Arizona, where he lived with his wife, Sally. His children Corey and Lindsey live in California and Derek lives in Phoenix. Fred’s older brother Harry preceded him in death. Fred, formerly from Pittsburgh, was born in 1940 in Shanghai, China, to Chaim and Clara Esther Schmidt Goldstein. The family moved to Pittsburgh in 1947 where Fred began his formal education and developed new friends. Starting at Colfax, then Allderdice, he became a great friend to many in his new adopted country. Fred became a United States citizen in 1952 and had his bar mitzvah in 1953. After high school Fred joined the U.S. Navy in 1960 and traveled the world for four years. Fred was a sales representative in the electronic industry. His close friend Ralph Gabler, also born in Shanghai, came to America with Fred, just one year apart. They remained close friends referring to each other as “The China Boys.” Donations in Fred’s memory can be made to a charity of the donor’s choice and ask to have the gift acknowledged to Sally Goldstein, 4300 So. Mogollon Trail, Show Low, AZ 85901.
KARELITZ: Eric M. Karelitz, 48, of Greensburg, passed away on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. He was born May 5, 1976, in Latrobe, a son of Amy L. (Cohen) Karelitz and the late William J. Karelitz. Prior to his illness, he was a skilled mechanic by trade. Eric was a hilarious storyteller, being able to relate to any situation with an anecdote. He was an avid music lover, Pittsburgh sports fan and “Star Wars” fanboy. In addition to his father, he was preceded in death by his paternal grandparents, Edwin and Bess Karelitz; maternal grandparents, Bernie and Eileen Cohen; uncle, Lee Karelitz; and best friend, Mike Fincik. Surviving are his mother, Amy L. Cohen Karelitz; children, Shelby McBeth, Madison Karelitz and Matthew Karelitz; grandson, Jerimyah; brother, Alan D. Karelitz; ex-wife, Stacey McBeth; and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins. Honoring Eric’s wishes there will be no public service. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society at nationalmssociety.org. Kepple-Graft Funeral Home entrusted with the arrangements. For online condolences and information, please visit kepplegraft.com.
MILLER: David F. Miller, on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. Beloved son of the late Samuel G. Miller, MD and Alice B. Miller. Brother of Richard (Debra) Miller. Uncle of Melissa (Peter) Marquez, Kelly Sheppard and Lucas B. Miller. Great-uncle of Claire and Madeline Marquez, and Benjamin and Samantha Sheppard. Services and interment private. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com
SCHWARTZ: Rose-Ellen Schwartz, on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024; loving child of Albert and Helen Schwartz. Rose-Ellen Schwartz was born on July 1, 1945, in Mckeesport, Pennsylvania. She began her academic career as an undergraduate student at Temple University. After receiving her bachelor’s degree, she moved to New York City and attended graduate school at New York University. After completing these studies, Rose-Ellen moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she lived for a number of years. Rose-Ellen eventually moved back to New York City in pursuit of furthering her academic aspirations. She studied at Brooklyn Law School and attained her law degree, beginning her career as a practicing attorney in New York for the next 30 years. Graveside service and interment were held at Homestead Hebrew Cemetery. Contributions may be made to the National Jewish Outreach Program (NJOP) 1345 Avenue of the Americas, 2nd floor, New York, NY 10105. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com PJC
John F. Checkeye a/k/a John Checkeye, deceased, of Pittsburgh, PA, No. 02-24-06075, Daniel J. Checkeye, Administrator, c/o David J. Slesnick, Esq., 310 Grant Street, Suite #1220, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Contact the Development department at 412-586-2690 or development@jaapgh.org for more information. THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS —
Sunday October 6: Hyman Berman, Sarah Brown, Sarah Lynn DuPré, Yeruchem Fireman, Harry Abe Geduldig, Albert Goldblum, M .D , Pearl Gould, Nathan Lautman, Sarah Reich Moses, Anna B Papernick, Solomon Paul, Sarah Persky, Isaac Sissman, Jacob Zwibel
Monday October 7: William Glick, Beatrice Barnett Goldhamer, Ida E Goldstein, Marlene Rofey Kaufman, Samuel Sandor Klein, Marcus Landman, Gertrude Lieb, Pauline Marcus, Jacob M Mogilowitz, Helen Moskovitz, Jennie Routman, Harry Soffer, Isadore Steinman, Norman Weizenbaum, Morris L Wolf, Jacob Zinman
Tuesday October 8: Sylvia Drucker, Emanuel Friedman, Sara Gruskin, Murray Hersh, Morton Israel, Sidney Moskovitz, Abraham Opter, Samuel Papernick, Milton E Ruben, Grace Z Schwartz, Florence R Stevenson, Minnie Wander, Alan Zeman
Wednesday October 9: Goldie Bardin, Irene Berliner, Jeanette Broner Chernoff, Isadore Davis, Harry Dell, Otto Dubovy, Alvin Glass, Louis Goldenson, Tillie Kalson, Ralph R Kartub, Herschel Klein, Ruth Levy, Arch Lhormer, Evelyn Maryn, Leslie Lou Mullen, Sharon Ruttenberg Post, Dr Sanford Press, Clara Rosenfeld, Matilda Amdur Seidman, Rebecca Feiner Sigal, Max Sussman, Alice Tales, Bessie Shrut Weiner, Morris H Winer
Thursday October 10: Joyce Berger, Libby Kaplan Cooper, Howard Harris, Harry Levin, Ernest Marcus, Aaron “Barney” Moldovan, Ruth I Perlman, Myer Reznick, Harvey Sandy Rubenstein, Rebecca Shiner, Elizabeth Silverman, Ruth E Supowitz
Friday October 11: Max Berezin, Florence F Blass, Ida K Borovetz, Henry Browarsky, Michael H Cohen, Ruth Geduldig, Donald L Klein, Hyman Leipzig, Leonard Levine, Marie Morris, Sarah Finkel Moses, Samuel A Myers, Beile Levinson Ofshinski, Ethel Shaffer Pariser, Esther Y Podolsky, Abraham I Rose, Jessie Ruben, Harry Shapiro, Abe Sobel
Saturday October 12: Louis Alpert, Eugene Brown, Louis Chotiner, Morris Cohenn, Fannie Coon, Ida Goldberg, Anna Halpern, Isaac Halpern, Eugene Rosen, Sylvia Rosenzweig, Alex Sherman, Freda Spokane, Minna B Trellis
“Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of all, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this season.”
Lee & Lisa Oleinick
Headlines
Pittsburghers react to Kamala Harris speech at CMU
By Adam Reinherz
Hearing Vice President Kamala Harris detail her economic plan for the country’s future was a mean ingful way to spend a Wednesday, several Pittsburghers said.
“I feel so lucky to actually be here in person to see her,” Squirrel Hill resident Esther Nathanson told the Chronicle.
Nathanson and her daughter Elinor Nathanson were among approximately 450 people invited to attend a Sept. 25 event with the Democratic presidential nominee at Carnegie Mellon University’s Philip Chosky Theater.
During her remarks before the Economic Club of Pittsburgh, Harris described her desire to bolster America’s middle class, support small businesses, guarantee that “everyone has a chance to chase their dreams and aspirations,” and ensure that the U.S. continues to “out-innovate and
Pittsburgh’s place within American history.
“The proud heritage of Pittsburgh reveals the character of our nation: A nation that harnesses the ambitions, dreams and aspirations of our people.
Museum of
By Asaf Elia-Shalev | JTA
ISeizes the opportunities before us. And invents the future. That is what we have always done. And that is what we
Downtown resident Herky Pollock said he appreciated Harris’ description of Pittsburgh and her desire to fight for those beyond
“She thinks about all Americans, not just those at the top,” he said. “She wants to lift us all up and make us all better. And she really spoke from the heart, and she spoke with integrity and empirical evidence.”
Squirrel Hill resident Louise Mayo similarly praised Harris’ address.
“It was solid, and I’m a historian,”
The professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of History and Political Science at the County College of Morris likened Harris’ approach to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s.
“I really get upset by people who say she’s not specific enough,” Mayo said, “because I can tell you that there was a man who ran for president in the midst of a terrible
Depression, and people said, ‘Well, he’s pleasant, but he’s a lightweight…he just said he was going to change things.’ And guess what? He was considered one of our greatest presidents: Franklin Roosevelt.”
Mayo attended the event with her son and daughter-in-law.
After canvassing together on behalf of the Harris-Walz campaign, being able to come to CMU and hear “potentially the first woman to be elected president, and to get to share that with my mother-in-law, is pretty exciting,” Sara Stock Mayo said.
Elinor Nathanson agreed: “It’s very meaningful to be here with our moms, generations of women, fighting the good fight and making great progress, slowly but surely.”
Harris’ Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, is expected to return to the Butler Farm Show grounds in Butler Township for a campaign rally on Oct. 5. Trump’s appearance there on July 13 was cut short due to an assassination attempt. PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
the Bible unveils world’s ‘oldest Jewish book’ in new exhibit
n a new exhibit that opened last week, the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. has unveiled what it says is the oldest Jewish book ever discovered.
According to the museum’s dramatic claim, the tiny book is a relic of an 8th-century civi lization on the ancient trading route known as the Silk Road, created by Jews living as a minority among Buddhists who ruled the Bamiyan Valley in modern-day Afghanistan.
Measuring five inches by five inches, the book combines a variety of texts written by different hands, including prayers, poems, and what the museum says is the oldest known version of the Haggadah, the central text of the Passover seder.
The museum’s claims regarding the book are based on years of work by a team of researchers, but the exhibit is opening before those scholars have been able to publish their findings. The research is slated for release by Brill, a prominent Dutch academic publisher,
acknowledged that until the scholarship comes out, it will be difficult for those working in the wider field of Jewish manuscripts
“The Brill book will lay all doubts to rest,” Mintz told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
By then, the exhibit will travel in New York where it will be on view at the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary, according to Mintz.
Anchoring the scholarly discussion surrounding the book is a 2019 laboratory test that used carbon dating to estimate the book’s age at 1,300 years, astonishing researchers at the museum. Far more ancient written Hebrew texts had been discovered, but only on scrolls, most famously the roughly 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls that are displayed prominently in Israel. The carbon dating indicated that this was the earliest intact Hebrew codex by more than a century.
Prior to the drama of the lab’s result, the book had garnered little interest in the decades since it was first found in Afghanistan.
A member of the country’s Hazara ethnic minority discovered the manuscript in 1997 in a cave near one of the giant Bamiyan Buddhas that were carved into a mountain in ancient
times and deliberately destroyed in an explosion by the Taliban in 2001, according to an article in the Free Press.
Sometime later, someone reportedly tried without success to sell the book in Dallas, Texas. Then, following the 9/11 attacks and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the book’s tracks disappeared until 2012, when a rare book dealer photographed it in London.
The dealer, Lenny Wolfe, told the Free Press that he tried brokering a $120,000 deal between a pair of private sellers and an unspecified Israeli institution, but that the institution urned down the offer.
Eventually, the Green family, evangelical Christians based in Oklahoma who own the Hobby Lobby chain, bought the book without knowing its true age or origin, and added it to a collection that would evolve into the Museum of the Bible. It was mislabeled, “Egypt, circa 900 CE.”
A museum curator who was examining the book realized that its real origin was Afghanistan when he encountered a photo of the book in an article in Tablet magazine about Jewish manuscripts being smuggled out of the country.
That discovery eventually led to the carbontesting and the revelation of the book’s unique significance.
The museum, which has been working to rehabilitate its reputation after a looted antiquity scandal and allegations of misrepresenting Jewish texts, took pains to earn the blessing of a variety of stakeholders ahead of the exhibit.
A museum press release names among its partners the democratically elected government of Afghanistan, which is currently not in power, as well as several Jewish groups: the Afghan Jewish Foundation, the American Sephardi Federation, and Congregation Anshei Shalom, a synagogue founded by Afghani Jews in Queens.
“Were it not for the extraordinary efforts of the Museum of the Bible, the age and even the origins of the world’s oldest Jewish book would have been forever lost,” The American Sephardi Federation said in a statement. PJC
p Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks before the Economic Club of Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University on Sept. 25.
Photo by Adam Reinherz
p Named the Afghan Liturgical Quire, some believe it is the oldest Jewish book in existence. Photo courtesy of Museum of the Bible
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Life & Culture
‘The Art of Friendship’: Judy Robinson and Kara Snyder unite for heartfelt exhibit at JCC
— ART —
By Deborah Weisberg | Special to the Chronicle
An enduring bond between two Pittsburgh artists is celebrated in
“Judy Robinson and Kara Snyder: The Art of Friendship,” an exhibition running now through Dec. 20 at the American Jewish Museum at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh in Squirrel Hill.
The show features 21 paintings by Robinson and Snyder, who first met 16 years ago in a class at the Pittsburgh Center for Arts & Media and immediately connected.
While their artistic styles differ, Snyder’s large abstracts and Robinson’s realistic canvases are paired by common themes or harmonious elements of intensity, color and form, according to museum director Melissa Hiller, who curated the exhibition.
Written works by Robinson, an accomplished poet, accompany two paintings.
“Judy and Kara’s creative journey embodies the essence of havruta — a Jewish method of collaborative learning rooted in friendship,” said Hiller, who also serves as the JCC’s community engagement and development officer. “This practice, of engaging in deep, thought-provoking dialogue, is beautifully captured in their work and reflects the proverb, ‘Just as in the case of iron, when one implement sharpens another, so, too, do two scholars sharpen each other.’”
Robinson, who lives in Oakland, and Snyder, a Squirrel Hill resident, became acquainted while studying with their mentor Patrick Daugherty, and soon learned that they had other ties as well.
“Judy had done a lot of poetry workshops
Association,” Snyder said. “And she had gone to grade school with my in-laws Edgar and (then wife) Stephanie Snyder.”
Sharing an artistic path made their connection seem bashert, or destined.
“Our friendship and camaraderie are hard to define, but I was drawn to Kara,” Robinson said. “I felt so much affection for her, and respect.”
Snyder, like Robinson, has nurtured a love of painting since childhood, but built her career in arts administration. She painted “obsessively,” she said, but only for herself until she experienced a life-altering loss of vision in 2006, the result of diabetic neuropathy.
multiple surgeries and learning new ways of navigating the world.
It also prompted the decision to delve into painting full-time.
“I had to give up my administrative job, but I didn’t want to face the darkness and drop into nothingness, so painting became my purpose…my lifeline,” she said. “Through painting I learned that I can express myself and let go of the results, which is a great attitude to have just in life, if you can swing it.”
Snyder developed an array of adaptive strategies, including the use of an industrial headlamp and powerful video magnifiers. She labels paint tubes and jars with Braille and other tactile markers, such as rubber bands and tape, to identify colors.
Forays into nature with her guide dog, a yellow lab named Petals, provide inspiration.
“I trust Petals so much that I can unwind when I walk and have a free mind,” she said. “Silence and meditation in nature are where I find peace. When I’m painting, I reach the same place, which is to be fully present.”
Daugherty’s mentoring and Robinson’s friendship provided crucial encouragement.
In 2012, a visit to Yad Vashem–The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem took Snyder’s work and relationship with Robinson to a new level.
“I came back from Yad Vashem completely changed, and told Judy, ‘I have to paint this,’” recalled Synder, who converted to Judaism in 2003. “That led to a whole series of paintings in a solo show (at Pittsburgh Center for Arts & Media). At the same time, Judy was writing ‘Blue Heart,’ a book of poems about the Holocaust, and she wanted me to do the cover.
“The Jewish bond between Judy and me continued to grow over the Holocaust, and so did our creative response to it, which can be healing for both the artist and the viewer.”
Robinson calls Snyder “remarkable, just plain remarkable,” and “a pure, kind, gentle soul” who has been an inspiration for Robinson’s poetry and visual art. An interpretation of one of Snyder’s abstracts appears in Robinson’s “Everyday,” a still life featured in the show.
Other works include Robinson’s “Maya,” a portrait, and “Song for the End of Lithuanian Jewry,” which is paired with her poem “Liar.” Snyder’s “Painting with Patrick ‘Model Study’” pays homage to Daugherty, and her “Guides: A Charles Bonnet Hallucination” references her blindness; it is accompanied by Robinson’s poem “What Kara Knows.”
“We’ve had many different kinds of collaborations and they have been positive for both of us,” Robinson said. “Melissa picked up on our deep connection and was able to pair the paintings in an insightful way. She is brilliant.”
Organizing the show involved a similar bond, as Hiller enlisted help from Jen Panza, an independent curator who once interned for her.
“I wanted to bring in someone who was a thought partner with me in the same way that Judy and Kara work together, and who has become an important friend,” Hiller said. “This brings us full circle.”
Museumgoers have found the exhibition “energizing and welcoming,” she said. “Both Kara and Judy have followings, so people are delighted to see their artwork, but they are also delighted that the exhibition is about the two of them.” PJC
Deborah Weisberg is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.
p Kara Snyder (left) and Judy Robinson at the exhibit’s opening reception
Photo courtesy of the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh
p “Everyday,” acrylic on canvas, by Judy Robinson
Photo courtesy of the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh
Community
Aiming for new heights
The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh launched its Community Campaign on September 25.
p From left: Community Campaign Launch event co-Chairs Diane Samuels and David Sufrin, and host committee members Joe Turner and Lou Plung
p Jon Kessler, center, joins 2024 PNC Community Builders Awardees Bernard D. Marcus and Marsha D. Marcus.
Photos by Joshua Franzos
p
Photo by Adam Reinherz
Hooray for hooping
p Ready for a Wheaties box
Photo courtesy of The Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh
Awardapalooza
As we mark one year since the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas, we remain steadfast in our commitment to honor the memory of the lives that were taken, call for the safe and immediate return of the hostages, stand by the State of Israel and its resilient people, and pray for peace.
Jason Kunzman, President and CEO
Scott E. Seewald, Chair of the Board Board and Staff of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh