Reporter’s Notebook: History, memory and responsibility
observing it was uncomfortable and inspiring.
Between Oct. 7-10, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum welcomed 18 journalists to tour facilities, speak with director Piotr M. A. Cywiński and access spaces closed to the general public.
“My job the next two days is to make your life a little more complicated,” Pawel Sawicki told the group on Oct. 8.
Sawicki, a journalist who has led more than 1,000 groups through Auschwitz, oversees the museum’s press office.
The “History, Memory and Responsibility” seminar, he said, was a lead-up to commemoration. On Jan. 27, the institution will mark 80 years since the German Nazi extermination camp’s liberation. Heads of state, delegations and 900 journalists are expected to attend. With war waging between Russia and Ukraine, and in the Middle East, the museum anticipates some parties may try to steal the stage.
“I will certainly not let this anniversary of liberation become a political event,” Cywiński said.
Commemorating the liberation, he continued, is about honoring survivors and promoting remembrance.
Defining the latter underpinned the seminar.
tration and extermination camp consisted of Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Auschwitz III-Monowitz and almost 50 sub-camps.
Dates and facts fail to yield comprehensive understanding; survivor testimony helps, Sawicki said.
Upon reaching the site in Auschwitz I where roll call occurred, Sawicki invoked the words of Nate Leipziger: “We used to joke that they counted us like gold and treated us like dirt.”
After entering a barrack and observing a dehumanizing latrine, Sawicki read the survivor’s memory of the space:
“On each side of it stood three-tiered bunks. My father and I got a middle bunk, second-last from the end. As we sat on the bunk together, my initial shock passed and I was trembling with fear and anger, tears streaming down my face. The full impact of what we were told about people being gassed to death hit me. I had never heard about that in the ghetto. There was talk about people being killed but no one mentioned how — and why. My tears ran uncontrollably. I was still shaking when my father asked what was the matter with me. He told me to pull myself together. I asked him how they could kill
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Sta Writer
Six years after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, the community will remember and honor those who were murdered in an antisemitic attack by performing acts of kindness. Hours before the commemoration, several spaces are welcoming volunteers on Oct. 27.
The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh is hosting a blood drive from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at both its Squirrel Hill and South Hills branches. Facilitated by Vitalant, the drive is in memory of Dan Stein and Irving Younger.
Also at the JCC in Squirrel Hill, from 9:30
Lenda volorei
Between Oct. 8-9, seminar attendees spent
Sen. Bob Casey pitches Jewish Pittsburgh
A volunteer cleans a cemetery to commemorate Oct. 27, 2018.
Photo courtesy of 10.27 Healing Partnership
A railcar that transported prisoners to the Nazi concentration and extermination camp rests in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Photo by Adam Reinherz
Headlines
Sen. Bob Casey stresses support for Israel at Federation’s ‘Co ee and Conversations’ event
—LOCAL —
By David Rullo | Senior Sta Writer
Sen. Bob Casey pledged his support to both the Jewish community and the state of Israel during a town hall-style program hosted by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh on Oct. 9.
The “Coffee and Conversations” event was moderated by Laura Cherner, director of the Federation’s Community Relations Council, and covered several topics of interest to the Jewish community, including Israel’s war against the terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah, antisemitism and a statement released on Oct. 7 by Rep. Summer Lee, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato and Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey. Casey previously condemned the statement, which was criticized by the Federation — and many others — for its “dangerous and false moral equivocation” about Hamas’ attack on Israel and the ensuing war. “Today, because Hamas remains a threat, the people of Israel have to continue the fight,” Casey told the more than 40 people attending in person and those viewing the event on social media. “At the same time, they have to beat back a threat posed by Hezbollah, which has been a threat for more than a generation.”
Casey went on to call Hezbollah — designated as a terrorist organization by most Western nations — “the leading killer of Americans.”
The United States, he said, must support Israel as it contemplates a response to Iran’s Oct. 1 missile attack against the Jewish state.
“When you face multiple threats that are regionwide and very much proximate — and I didn’t mention the Houthis, and I didn’t mention the Shiite militias and some others — when you have that kind of array of threats, Israel has to keep pushing back on those threats and we have to continue to support them,” Casey said.
to help ensure the release of hostages still held in Gaza — including seven Americans — and neutralize the threat of Iran and its proxies, Casey blamed Hamas for adding conditions each time negotiations seem to be making headway.
He said that while CIA Director Bill Burns and other diplomats are capable of leading negotiations with Israel, Egypt and Qatar, he has little confidence that there will be a breakthrough.
Turning domestically to what appears to be a growing contingent of Democratic politicians who espouse anti-Israel views, Casey said that it is a small but vocal part of the caucus. He pointed to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ resolution to cut funding for military support to Israel as an example of that group and its positions.
“I don’t think that’s a prevailing point of view in the Democratic caucus in the Senate,” he said, “and certainly doesn’t represent my views.”
Casey used the opportunity to again
condemn the statement put out by Lee,
“To the extent that that point of view grows in our party, I don’t think it’s growing very much, but it’s there and I’ll continue to push back against it,” he said.
The senator said that as we pass the one-year mark of Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, it’s important to continue to remind people of the “horrific attack where 1,200 innocent Israelis were murdered by a terrorist organization and all of the murder, terror and rape and the dehumanization that occurred.”
The attack, he said, was especially wicked because it was intended to eliminate as many Jews as possible.
“It was a different — in my judgment — a different kind of terrorism,” he said. “It was genocidal terrorism.”
Fundamental to Hamas’ dogma, he said, is killing Jews, calling it the organization’s “raison d’état.”
Casey said he opposes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, adding that Congress needs to turn its attention to the issue.
“It’s particularly pernicious,” he said.
SUBSCRIPTIONS
subscriptions@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
412-687-1000, ext. 2
TO ADVERTISE advertising@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org 412-687-1000, ext. 1
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Email: newsdesk@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Evan H. Stein, Chair
Evan Indianer, Vice Chair
Derek Smith, Treasurer
Gayle R. Kraut, Secretary
Gail Childs, Dan Droz, Malke Steinfeld Frank, Seth Glick, Tammy Hepps, Judith Kanal, Cátia Kossovsky, Charles Saul
GENERAL COUNSEL
Stuart R. Kaplan, Esq.
Jim Busis, CEO and Publisher 412-228-4690 jbusis@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
EDITORIAL Toby Tabachnick, Editor 412-228-4577 ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
Jarrad Saffren, Contributing Editor
Adam Reinherz, Senior Staff Writer 412-687-1000 areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
David Rullo, Senior Staff Writer 412-687-1000 drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
ADVERTISING Amy Weiss, Account Executive (412)613-0697 aweiss@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
Casey said he hoped the Antisemitism Awareness Act, a bill he introduced with Sen. Tom Scott, would be voted on before the end of the calendar year and that there’s a good chance it will pass.
The bill, he said, will provide a working definition of antisemitism that the Department of Education and its Office of Civil Rights can use to fight hate. Once passed, he said, the fight will begin to allocate $280 million to hire 500 people to staff the department and enable them to investigate cases of possible antisemitism on college campuses.
Asked about the rise in hate speech online, Casey said there seems to be a “huge bipartisan consensus” to take on tech companies that don’t do enough to combat “toxic” speech, which he said is not protected by the First Amendment.
Pivoting from the First to the Second Amendment, Casey said it was important to change the filibuster and allow for a 51, rather than 60, vote threshold. Without it, he said, it would be impossible to ban militarystyle assault weapons or protect female reproductive rights.
When asked if he would withdraw his endorsement of Lee in light of her Oct. 7 statement, Casey reiterated that he condemns the statement as well as speech he considers antisemitic.
“I stand on that record,” he said. “I realize some want me to get involved in other races. I’ve got a race for the United States Senate and I’m concentrating on earning the vote of our people and I hope it’s successful, but I think my record is pretty clear.”
Casey’s Republican opponent, David McCormick, spoke with Cherner on Oct. 10 at another “Coffee and Conversations” event at the Federation’s offices. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Main phone number: 412-687-1000
Subscriptions: 412-687-1000, ext. 2
PRODUCTION
Jeni Mann Tough
Production Manager
Carl Weigel
Art/Production Coordinator
Subscriptions subscriptions@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org 412-687-1000, ext. 2
Published every Friday by the Pittsburgh Jewish Publication and Education Foundation 5915 Beacon St., 5th Floor Pittsburgh, PA 15217 Phone: 412-687-1000
POSTMASTER:
Send address change to PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE, 5915 BEACON ST., 5TH FLOOR PITTSBURGH, PA 15217
(PERIODICAL RATE POSTAGE PAID AT PITTSBURGH, PA, AND AT ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICES) USPS 582-740
Manuscripts, letters, documents and photographs sent to the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle become the property of this publication, which is not responsible for the return or loss of such items.
The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle does not endorse the goods or services advertised or covered in its pages and makes no representation to the kashrut of food products and services in said advertising or articles.
will indemnify, hold harmless and defend the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle from all claims made by governmental agencies and consumers for any reason based on ads appearing in the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle
Sen. Bob Casey met with Community Relations Council Director Laura Cherner at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh on Oct. 9. Photo by David Rullo
Headlines
Senate candidate Dave McCormick pledges to support Israel and fight antisemitism
By Toby Tabachnick | Editor
At a town hall-style event on Oct. 10, Republican candidate for Senate Dave McCormick vowed to support Israel and fight antisemitism if he unseats Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, who has represented Pennsylvania since 2007.
The “Coffee and Conversations” event was sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh at its offices and moderated by Laura Cherner, director of the Federation’s Community Relations Council. The Federation hosted a similar event for Casey on Oct. 9.
Cherner began her questioning by asking McCormick about the Hamas/Israel war, and how he views the role of the U.S. in ensuring that the hostages held in Gaza are released and that the threat of Iran and its proxies does not continue to escalate.
McCormick, quoting podcaster Dan Senor, said that on Oct. 7, “a flare went up,” bringing some harsh realizations to the fore.
“You know, it’s dark and a flare goes up, and you see when the flare goes up who your friends are and who your enemies are,” McCormick said. “You see more clearly when the flare goes up of what’s really going on. Say, in the military, when a flare goes up, you see the lay of the land, the battlefield. And I think that’s what happened on Oct. 7.”
McCormick and his wife visited Israel in January, he said, and met with survivors of the Hamas attack, families of hostages, members of the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
“You can’t come away from that without thinking this is Israel’s existential moment, where its very existence is being called into question,” McCormick said. “And since Oct. 7, that’s only heightened with the threat, not only from Hamas, but from Hezbollah and from Iran… And so the first reflection is, we have to stand with Israel in defending its very existence. But the second reaction is, when the flare went up, we also saw another fight at home.”
McCormick said while he was aware of “antisemitism lurking beneath the surface in our society,” he was “shocked, dumbfounded by what we saw after Oct. 7 in our society, in our communities, in Squirrel Hill, where I live, scrawled onto the walls of synagogues with people protesting on the streets, and, of course, our campuses.”
He mentioned a Jewish student at the University of Pittsburgh draped in American and Israeli flags — and a McCormick for Senate shirt — who was assaulted last spring, and anti-Israel demonstrations on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus.
“So when the flare went up… we saw that many of our enemies are here at home, either through the explicit antisemitism they’re demonstrating, or even worse, the culpability of weakness, the lack of moral courage, the inability from positions of power to stand up against the fight here at home.”
What happened on Oct. 7, he said, “is a test for all of us.”
McCormick called out Casey for saying that he strongly supports Israel while endorsing Rep. Summer Lee, who has been an outspoken critic of the Jewish state. Lee issued a statement on Oct. 7, along with Mayor Ed Gainey and County Executive Sara Innamorato, that was condemned locally and nationally as being offensive and inappropriate.
“I don’t think you can say you’re going to be strong with Israel and stand up against antisemitism and simultaneously endorse Summer Lee,” McCormick said. “And then when Summer Lee comes out with her statement, saying, ‘I’m against the statement, I’m very much against the statement, but I’m going to hold my endorsement.’… I don’t think you can have it both ways. I think this was a test.”
McCormick said that support for Israel should not be a partisan issue. He gave a nod to Democratic Sen. John Fetterman as an example, saying that while the two disagree on many issues, they are on the same page when it comes to Israel.
“I will work with whoever, whatever political persuasion, on issues as it relates to Israel,” McCormick said.
He stressed he would be “vigorous in action against antisemitism,” including “defunding the universities that have antisemitic behavior,” ending the tax-exempt status for their endowments and ending federal grants.
The Senate hopeful also said he “will stand for strangling Iran,” and blamed the Biden administration, and Casey, for the growth of Iran’s coffers, which finance terrorism against Israel.
“So, if you want someone who’s going to be vigorous in action against antisemitism and against the source the original sin, the Iran deal of 2015 — which gave $100 billion back to Iran, which is used to now kill Israelis
When questioned by Cherner about Rumble, and whether the federal government should hold tech companies accountable for hate speech, he said that removing offensive speech “is a challenge across social media.”
While the candidate said he is a strong proponent of First Amendment protections, he is in favor of acting “to make sure that our social media platforms are eliminating antisemitism and hate speech consistently and with urgency.”
McCormick said that being criticized for investing in Rumble is akin to condemning investors in other social media platforms like Twitter (now X), “because every single one of these social media platforms has hate speech that goes up, and it’s supposed to be taken down under the [platforms’] policies…. This is a pervasive problem across social media, and it’s something that I think we need to address, and I’m in favor of addressing it all.”
Shifting gears to abortion access and reproductive rights, McCormick noted that he is the father of six daughters and has discussed the topic “around the dinner table.”
“I do believe that this is a states’ rights issue,” he said. “I believe voters should decide. It’s so polarizing; voters should elect people that reflect their views on this. I don’t think it should be decided by a judge.”
He said he is not in favor of a national ban on abortion, nor any national legislation
the surge of Fentanyl deaths can be attributed to those illegally crossing the border.
An audience member submitted a question asking McCormick if — in light of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting and its perpetrator being motivated by antiimmigrant rhetoric — he was willing to “describe immigrants as deserving of respect and compassion”
“I believe many of them, probably the majority of people, certainly the majority of people that are coming across the border illegally, have the best motivations,” McCormick said. “They want to just be part of America. But I think…anyone who doesn’t acknowledge what’s happening and the risk it’s posing to Americans, puts us in a really precarious position. So I’m very careful to make sure that what I’m saying is factual.
“On one hand, I think we have to recognize that the people that want to come — even though they’re breaking the law — to come into our country, many of them are wellmeaning. That doesn’t mean the country is going to be able to make itself available to that many people. But we also have to recognize…thesecurityriskit’sposingtoallof us is a very real thing” PJC
Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
— LOCAL —
p Dave McCormick and Laura Cherner
Photo by Toby Tabachnick
ELI SNYDER, TRAINER
Headlines
On Oct. 7, a remembrance in Kraków
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
KRAKÓW, Poland — Mourning Jews in Poland is a familiar practice. Doing it one year after a pogrom in Israel is less common. With stacks of paper in hand, residents gathered outside the Jewish Community Centre of Kraków on Oct. 7 to mark last year’s Hamas attack on the Jewish state.
“A year ago, darkness befell Israel,” co-organizer Sara Tal Rehovi told attendees. Being here “brings a little bit of light to us all.”
Few statements were made outside the JCC. Instead, residents clutched stapled sheets bearing nearly 1,500 names. Each name belonged to someone killed on Oct. 7, 2023, or to an Israeli soldier who was killed in battle.
For almost 70 minutes, the names were read, one by one.
More than 50 people attended the JCC’s event. Most stood silently. A single yahrzeit candle was placed on a table outside the building’s gate. Affixed to the fence were photographs of the hostages, a large sign reading “Bring Them Home Now” and the words “Stop by and say hi.”
Participants stood on a small sidewalk between the gate and street. As names were read, cars passed. So did walkers; most pedestrians moved to the street so as to not disrupt the vigil. A middle-aged man passed through the group and said, “Free Palestine. Long live the resistance.”
Jonathan Ornstein, the JCC’s CEO, replied, “Why don’t you come in?”
While residents read names, Rehovi lit two rows of yahrzeit candles inside the JCC’s gate. By the time the reading concluded, the sun set. Kindled candles marked a path to enter the JCC. Upstairs, the program continued.
“Tonight we commemorate more than 1,400 victims of the massacre of the 7th of October — people of different religions: Jews, Arabs and other nationalities who lost their lives on that day,” co-organizer Karolina Aderet said. “We commemorate soldiers who
died to save their country and left home for a peaceful future. We [remember] that all of the 101 hostages still in Gaza need to come back home now.”
Songs and speeches followed.
Ornstein called the program a “time for us to reflect, to come together, to think about what was lost, and I guess hopefully, to still be optimistic.”
The Oct. 7 massacre was the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
That designation has local meaning,
Ornstein told the Chronicle: “We have some experience here with dealing with tragedy, and dealing with genocide and attempted genocide, and somehow this Jewish community has come out on the other side.”
Kraków is about an hour’s drive from Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration and extermination camp. On the eve of World War II, nearly a quarter of Kraków’s 250,000 residents were Jewish; by January 1945, only 4,282 Jews remained.
“This community was at the epicenter of
the Holocaust and is now being reborn with Jews, people finding out they’re Jewish, Jews and non-Jews working together to rebuild Jewish life,” Ornstein said.
He pointed to Hebrew, Yiddish and Arabic classes, cultural events, Shabbat programming and a recent Rosh Hashanah dinner welcoming 220 community members as signs of Kraków’s burgeoning Jewish life.
“We have more than 1,000 Jewish members, but almost everything we do is open to the public,” Ornstein said.
During the past year, that work has involved addressing the events of Oct. 7 and the need to bring the hostages home.
“We’ve tried to be as vocal as possible,” he said. “We’re not shy.”
Doing so mirrors efforts to support Ukrainian refugees, he continued. Within days of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the JCC became a food pantry, “which turned into housing and a full range of social services. To date, we’ve helped 360,000 Ukrainian refugees, and we’re still helping 400 a day: women and children, 98% of whom are not Jewish.”
Located in Kazimierz, the heart of Kraków’s historic Jewish district, the JCC is a beacon to thousands, Ornstein said. “By virtue of having gone through what we’ve gone through, we have something to teach, and we are examples of Jewish resilience.” Jews, he said, are “thriving not only in Tel Aviv and Pittsburgh and Miami, but we’re thriving in Kraków, down the road from Auschwitz, and this is a story that we need to make sure our young people know: that they don’t only define themselves by antisemitism and who’s against us, but that we will outlast all our enemies and we will continue to be here.”
Several participants of the JCC’s program recently arrived in Kraków. Before entering the building for the second part of the vigil, they read names beneath a large banner. Handwritten in Ukrainian were the words “Ласкаво просимо.” In English, they mean “welcome.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
p Jonathan Ornstein, CEO of the Kraków JCC
Photo by Adam Reinherz
p An Oct. 7 commemoration brought more than 50 residents to the Kraków JCC.
Photo by Adam Reinherz p
Outside the Kraków JCC, participants read names of individuals killed on Oct. 7, 2023, and of Israeli soldiers who’ve subsequently fallen in battle.
Photo by Adam Reinherz
Headlines
Pro-Israel group squares off against anti-Israel protesters in dueling rallies
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
The optics couldn’t have been more contrasting.
On one side of the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum lawn on Fifth Avenue on Oct. 9 was a small group of mostly masked, university-aged youth, adults and senior citizens. They chanted the same antisemitic and anti-Zionist phrases heard at most of the anti-Israel campus rallies that have happened since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on the Jewish state, including “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “Globalize the intifada,” an apparent call to internationalize Hamas’ terrorism.
One speaker condemned Israel’s defensive attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Netanyahu has upgraded his goal in Lebanon today,” the speaker said into a microphone. “The goal was once apparently returning the Israeli residents to the north and today the stated goal is the destruction of Hezbollah.”
&
shouted through an amplifier, the pro-Israel crowd spoke through a megaphone in voices that were sometimes lost beneath the din of -
cating for the return of hostages still held in
Hamas broke a cease-fire on Oct. 7, 2023, or of its terror attack on Israel, which included the rape, murder and kidnapping of Israelis, Americans and other foreign nationals.
The speaker called Israel’s action “genocide.”
“Don’t be fooled, because when one destroys a community of human beings the result is next door, right there in Gaza,” he said.
The speaker made no mention of Hezbollah’s
Standing on the other side of the lawn, separated by a phalanx of police, was a smaller, more youthful crowd of pro-Israel counter-protesters, many of whom were University of Pittsburgh students and alum, all with their faces unmasked.
As the anti-Israel crowd banged drums and
The dueling protests started on the University of Pittsburgh’s campus at the William Pitt Union but university officials forced them to move because neither had a permit nor had registered their respective events.
Matan Reiger, treasurer of Students in Support of Israel — one of the organizers of the counter-protest — said they were happy to move, if the anti-Israel group did as well.
“We’re not here to cause an issue with anyone in the area,” he said. “We’re here to stand up
while they’re standing for genocide.”
Pitt alum Rachael Gaugler said she came to the counter-protest because she was troubled by the messages the anti-Israel groups are spreading.
“ There’s no mention of the hostages, no mention of Hamas,” she said. “It’s very concerning.”
Wearing a Star of David necklace, Gaugler said that she is concerned about the security of Jewish students on campus since Hamas’ attack.
“I definitely feel less safe than I did on Oct. 6,” she said.
Sandy Zell said he was motivated to attend the pro-Israel rally by what’s happening on college campuses across the country.
“It’s supposed to be an institute of education,” he said, “not indoctrination.”
The Oct. 9 anti-Israel event was relatively small compared to other recent campus rallies and was part of a “Week of Rage” promoted on social media by various antiIsrael groups. Conversely, among recent campus pro-Israel rallies, the Oct. 9 rally was organized via word-of-mouth and drew the largest crowd.
Organizers of the anti-Israel protest told those attending not to talk to the media or police — this despite members of their group taking photographs of the pro-Israel group. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Robinn Magid is the assistant director of JRI-Poland.org and the project manager of the NextGen project to rebuild their website and database of more than 6 million records. She has been volunteering for almost 30 years and speaks about Polish Jewish research frequently. Robinn has chaired two landmark International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) conferences. She is a recipient of the IAJGS Lifetime Achievement Award and received a medal from the mayor of her grandmother’s birthplace (Lublin, Poland) for her contributions to furthering culture on the occasion of the town’s 700th birthday.
1:003:00Pm
Use JRI-Poland.org to search for family, events, and towns successfully!
See data within the context of the town and Jewish community in which your family lived. These include over 1900 towns represented on the JRI-Poland website for places once in Poland and possibly in Ukraine, Germany, Belarus, or Lithuania today. If your family said they were from “Russia” or “Galicia” or “Austria-Hungary” or “Prussia”, chances are that there is something in the JRI-Poland database waiting for you to discover!
This program is possible through the generous support of the William M. Lowenstein Genealogical Research Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation. Virtual on Zoom $5/general public, Free/JGS Pittsburgh members
Learn more about these and other upcoming programs at https://www.pghjgs.org/programming. PGHJGS members get into all our programs for free!
p Pro-Israel counter-protesters, some wearing Israeli and American flags, squared off against anti-Israel protesters on the lawn of the Soldiers
Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum lawn.
Photo by David Rullo
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.
SUNDAY, OCT. 20
Join Chabad of Squirrel Hill for a Family Sukkah Party. Shake the lulav, 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.
MONDAYS, OCT. 21–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.
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.
WEDNESDAYS, OCT. 23–DEC. 18
Temple Sinai’s Rabbi Daniel Fellman presents a weekly Parshat/Torah portion class on site and
PittsburghJewishBookFestival
November10toNovember13,2024 plusbonusauthorsonNovember20
Presentedby: CongregationBethShalom PittsburghJewishChronicle CarolynSlayton&SethGlick
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.
SUNDAY, OCT. 27
The 10.27 Healing Partnership invites the community to participate in volunteering events in honor of those who were killed on Oct. 27, 2018 There are opportunities for in-person and online participation, events that are nearby and others that are a bit of a drive, and experiences for those of all ages and abilities. Learn more and register at 1027healingpartnership.org/volunteering-2024.
Join the Pittsburgh Jewish community for an Oct. 27 Commemorative Ceremony 5:30 p.m. Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. 1027healingpartnership.org/event/ commemoration-ceremony-for-the-oct-27th-2018synagogue-shooting/.
SUNDAY, NOV. 3
Join Young Peoples Synagogue (Forbes and Denniston) for a Molly’s Trolley tour of Jewish Pittsburgh, led by Eric Lidji, director of Rauh Jewish
Archives. A light breakfast will be followed by the tour. $36 per person, capped at 30 guests. 9 a.m. breakfast; 10 a.m. tour. For information or reservations email Rebecca.spiegel1@verizon.net.
SUNDAY, NOV. 10–THURSDAY, NOV. 14
Congregation Beth Shalom will be hosting its firstever Jewish Book Festival. The festival is presented by the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, and 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 your relationships. 7:30 p.m. Bower Hill Road. chabadsh.com.
WEDNESDAYS, 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. 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
Every Friday in the and all the time online @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
F or home delivery, c all 412-687-1000, ext. 2
Eradicate Hate Global Summit begins Oct. 21
work for the year ahead.
By Toby Tabachnick | Editor
More than 1,000 people from around the world are expected to gather at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center downtown from Oct. 21-23 to share ideas and tools to combat the proliferation of hate.
The fourth annual Eradicate Hate Global Summit will bring together experts and leaders from a variety of disciplines to strategize on ending hate-fueled violence, according to summit officials.
Summit founder and board co-Chair Laura Ellsworth conceived of the summit as a response to the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, when a gunman stormed the Tree of Life building and murdered 11 people from three congregations as they were praying on Shabbat.
Since the first summit in 2021, the event has reached beyond that antisemitc incident to challenge various forms of hate wherever they occur.
“We knew this problem extended beyond the borders of Pittsburgh,” Ellsworth told the Chronicle last year. “We wanted to be able to prevent this kind of violence, whether it happened in our community or in anybody else’s community.”
A hallmark of Eradicate Hate is its ongoing Working Group structure, which “incentivizes experts to work collaboratively across disciplines, across institutions, and across borders between each annual gathering, to deliver actual, lasting, and measurable change,” according to the summit’s website.
At each annual summit, the Working Groups present the results of their work over the past year and determine their
Local experts, including Maggie Feinstein of the 10.27 Healing Partnership and the Rev. Liddy Barlow, executive minister of Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania, will join national authorities such as Arthur Ago of the Southern Poverty Law Center and James Pasch, senior director of national litigation for the Anti-Defamation League, to present on a variety of panels throughout the three-day event.
This year’s keynote speaker is Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, homeland security adviser to the White House.
Among the many sessions offered, topics covered include: “Follow the Money: Disrupting Hate Financing”; “Students Diffusing Hate on Campus”; “From Tragedy to Transformation: Shaping Responsible Media Coverage”; and “Crafting Caring Conversations in Conflict,” which will address navigating dialogue about the Hamas/Israel war.
“We all felt our communities torn apart after the events on 10/7 and all of the responses following,” said Brette Steele, president of Eradicate Hate Global Summit, in a YouTube video promoting the summit.
“We’ve all seen the two assassination attempts against the former president of the United States. And we’ve all heard stories and know students on college campuses who don’t feel safe walking to class. So the summit exists to meet those moments where they’re at and give anyone, no matter who you are, the tools you need to be able to navigate those moments.”
The Summit starts on Monday, Oct. 21, at the David Lawrence Convention Center. To register, go to: ehgs.configio.com. PJC
Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Digital Device Maintenance
—LOCAL
Eradicate Hate Global Summit 2022
Photo by Adam Reinherz
Headlines
Summer Lee absent from Obama’s Pittsburgh rally for Harris
By David Rullo | Senior Sta Writer
With more than $1 billion in political advertising already spent this year, it’s no secret that Pittsburgh is at the epicenter of the 2024 general election.
Presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, as well as their surrogates, have spent the last several months crisscrossing the state, attempting to curry favor and win votes.
Now it appears that in the lead-up to one of those visits, there was enough political intrigue for a sweeps season episode of “The West Wing.”
If showrunner Aaron Sorkin had penned a script based on last week’s events, he might have started the drama on the morning of Oct. 7. As Pittsburgh’s Jewish community prepared to commemorate the 1,200 murdered by Hamas, as well as the hostages captured by the internationally-recognized terror organization, a joint statement was released by three local politicians: Rep. Summer Lee, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato and Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey.
The statement created false moral equivalencies and failed to mention
Hamas or antisemitism. It called for a cease-fire and claimed that the United States couldn’t afford to both support Israel and pay for America’s healthcare and infrastructure needs. It failed to mention that the war was initiated by the terrorist organization and instead alleged that the “violence didn’t start on Oct. 7,” laying the blame on Israel.
The message, released on social media, was immediately condemned by several local politicians and members of the Jewish community, including the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.
State Rep. Dan Frankel criticized the statement, saying it lashed out against Israel on “the anniversary of a universally condemned terrorist attack on civilians.” Sen. Bob Casey said he “could not disagree more with the statement.”
As the commemoration ceremony began, Gainey released a new statement, hoping to tamp down the criticism against him for signing onto the first missive. It didn’t work.
After a short commercial break, Sorkin might have jumped ahead to a seemingly unconnected story line — former President Barack Obama stumping for Harris in Pittsburgh on Oct. 10. The event would have been written to appear as a success, the type of rally
political operatives hope for: well attended, garnering good press and drawing local dignitaries.
As the cameras panned across the stage and through the audience, though, the absence of one person would be noted.
Lee was not at the event — an odd situation for a politician who has worked hard to raise her profile, endeavoring to become a leading voice in her party’s progressive wing.
Almost immediately the rumors began to spread.
The next morning, Jewish Insider published the story “Rep. Summer Lee absent from Kamala Harris’ Pittsburgh rally,” writing that the politician was denied a speaking spot at the event.
The Chronicle spoke with several local Jewish insiders who confirmed the tale, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
According to several sources, the Harris campaign was contacted by members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community, voicing their outrage at Lee’s Oct. 7 statement and cautioning of the optics of having the congresswoman on stage with a surrogate as important as Obama.
Lee may have caught wind of the dissent. She altered her online statement to include the word “Hamas” and
ECSisatuitionfree,publicK–12SchoolDistrictinPittsburgh’sEastEnd.We growcitizensthroughout-the-dooreducationwithafocusonthenatural,built, andsocialenvironments.
Play: StudentsingradesK–2learnthroughplayfulexperienceswhichinspire lovefortheenvironmentandlearning.
Curiosity: Ingrades3–5,studentsareencouragedtobecuriousandseek knowledgeabouttheworld.
Agency: Atthe6–8gradelevel,studentsdiscoveragencyandhowtheycan makeadifferenceintheworldaroundthem.
Advocacy: Studentsingrades9–12areempoweredtoadvocatefortheir communityandsustainability.
changed some of the more objectionable language.
The gambit didn’t pay off.
“Long story short, they pulled Summer,” a source told the Chronicle. “Summer was supposed to speak, and they pulled her.”
Realizing the importance of every vote, the Harris campaign made a political calculus that Lee would offend more than assuage. Depsite the controversy, Gainey appeared to be given a pass and spoke at the event.
Apparently, even Obama had heard about the Lee/Gainey/Innamorato statement and was upset.
“He knows Pennsylvania is a swing state and every vote counts,” the source said. “Someone who decides to p--- off an entire community for their own self-righteousness is not a team player.”
According to Jewish Insider, Obama did not mention Lee from the stage, even though she spoke before him at a Pennsylvania rally in 2022.
Lee did not respond to the Chronicle’s request for comment.
The list of political winners and losers won’t be known until after the November election, but one thing is clear: Sorkin’s Pittsburgh ratings would have rivaled a Steelers’ game. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Pittsburgh synagogue shooting memorial stolen from
grounds
Amemorial plaque dedicated to the memory of the 11 Jews killed on Oct. 27, 2018, during the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting was stolen from the grounds of Taylor Allderdice High School in Squirrel Hill.
The plaque was donated by the high school’s 2018-19 boys’ basketball team.
Members of a Squirrel Hill WhatsApp group reported earlier this month that the portion of the memorial listing the names of the victims was missing.
Pittsburgh Public Schools confirmed that the plaque was stolen in a statement to the Chronicle.
“The exact timing of the removal remains unknown, and a review of security footage did not provide any additional leads or potential suspects,” the statement read.
A replacement plaque was ordered and will be installed in time for the massacre’s sixth-year commemoration, according to PPS officials.
“We remain committed to honoring the victims’ memory and the importance of this memorial to your school and the broader community,” they said. PJC
— David Rullo
Photo courtesy of Eric Kroll
Headlines
Brown University rejects proPalestinian protesters’ demand to divest from Israel
Brown University’s board of governors has rejected a closely scrutinized, student-led proposal to divest from companies with business in Israel, JTA reported.
The rejection allays concerns expressed by some pro-Israel groups that the divestment movement was gaining momentum after the pro-Palestinian student encampments at universities across the country last spring.
“ Baruch Hashem ,” Rabbi Josh Bolton, executive director of Brown/RISD Hillel, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, using a Hebrew term akin to “Thank God.”
Bolton said the vote “is a definitive and powerful rejection of divestment on every level.” Coming so soon after the first anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel was also significant, he said: “After a year of insanity, antisemitic sloganeering, maligning of Jewish students, this is a day that we can be proud of our institutions.”
The vote was in the works and debated for months before taking place on Oct. 8, months before it was expected, by secret ballot. The Brown Corporation agreed with an internal committee that had voted 8-2, with one abstention, to recommend rejecting divestment.
“The Corporation reaffirmed that Brown’s mission is to discover, communicate and preserve knowledge. It is not to adjudicate or resolve global conflicts,” the board wrote in a lengthy statement Wednesday explaining its vote.
Democratic poll shows 71% of Jewish voters across 7 swing states favor Kamala Harris
A poll commissioned by a Jewish affiliate of the Democratic Party shows Vice President Kamala Harris garnering 71% of the Jewish vote in the seven swing states likely to decide the election, according to JTA.
The poll released Oct. 9 by the Jewish Democratic Council of America and conducted from Sept. 26-Oct. 2 showed Donald Trump getting 26% of the vote just four weeks before the Nov. 5 presidential election. The states include Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Nevada.
The polling by GBAO, a company that polls for liberal and Democratic groups, is consistent with a national poll of Jewish voters last month also commissioned by JDCA and carried out by GBAO. That poll showed Harris leading Trump among Jews 68%-25%, and 72% to 25% in a head-tohead race. Jews have historically voted in large majorities for the Democratic presidential candidate.
A large proportion of Jews live in states that are not considered battlegrounds — such as the Democratic strongholds of New York, California, New Jersey and Illinois, or Florida, which is expected to vote Republican — and as such are not expected to determine which candidate gets their state’s electoral votes. This latest poll — by honing in on the swing states of Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — makes the case that Jewish voters could help deliver the election to Harris.
Today in Israeli History
Oct. 21, 1949 — Benjamin Netanyahu is born
Oct. 18, 1988 — Court upholds ban on Kach
Israel’s Supreme Court upholds the rejection of the Kach party’s bid to participate in the election for the 12th Knesset. Founded by Meir Kahane in 1971, Kach is barred for inciting or engaging in racism.
Oct. 19, 1948 — Navy fights first major battle
The warships Haganah, Wedgewood and Noga attack an Egyptian troop carrier near Ashkelon in the first major battle for the Israeli navy. The Egyptian ship suffers enough damage to require towing home.
Oct. 20, 2013 — Buses promoting Women of the Wall are attacked
Haredi men hurl rocks at and slash the tires of buses bearing ads promoting female worship at the Western Wall. The ads, depicting women with prayer shawls and Torahs, come from Women of the Wall.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the ninth and longestserving prime minister of Israel, is born in Tel Aviv. He spends much of his childhood in Philadelphia. He is first elected to the Knesset with Likud in 1988.
Oct. 22, 1952 — First ambassador to Britain takes office
Eliahu Elath, who was Israel’s first ambassador to the United States and became minister in Britain in 1950, presents his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II to become Israel’s first ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Oct. 23, 1998 — Wye River memorandum is signed
Benjamin Netanyahu, Yasser Arafat and Bill Clinton sign a memorandum recommitting to the Oslo II agreement of September 1995 after nine days of negotiations at the Wye River Plantation in Maryland.
Oct. 24, 1915 — Hussein-McMahon correspondence starts
Sir Henry McMahon, the British high commissioner in Cairo, and Hussein Ibn Ali, the sharif of Mecca, begin an exchange of letters in which the British promise to back Hussein’s bid to lead a restored Arab caliphate. PJC
The poll also runs up against claims by Jewish Republicans that Jews in the swing states are due to vote in higher numbers for Trump. At the Republican Jewish Coalition’s convention in September, CEO Matt Brooks said the group had data showing almost half of Jewish voters in swing states would vote for Trump. A poll by the Orthodox Union also showed a closer race for the Jewish vote in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania.
Columbia pro-Palestinian group endorses violence and walks back apology for student who said ‘Zionists don’t deserve to live’
The most prominent pro-Palestinian student group at Columbia University walked back an apology it had issued for a student who said “Zionists don’t deserve to live,” JTA reported.
The statement on Oct. 8 from Columbia University Apartheid Divest also included an explicit call for violence. It comes as pro-Palestinian groups at Columbia and other universities have made clear that they intend to continue and in many cases escalate their activism in the current school year.
“We support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance,” the CUAD statement said. “In the face of violence from the oppressor equipped with the most lethal military force on the planet, where you’ve exhausted all peaceful means of resolution, violence is the only path forward.”
The student, Khymani James, had made the remark about Zionists in a video he posted in January, in which he also said, “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.” Columbia barred James from campus in April, after the video
resurfaced and garnered widespread attention and criticism. At the time, James was a prominent activist in Columbia’s pro-Palestinian encampment movement.
Days later, CUAD issued an apology in James’ name. “When I recorded it, I had been feeling unusually upset after an online mob targeted me because I am visibly queer and Black,” it said.
“CUAD and the Gaza Solidarity Encampment have made clear that my words in January, prior to my involvement in CUAD, are not in line with the CUAD community guidelines. I agree with their assessment,” the statement said, according to the Columbia Spectator. “Those words do not represent CUAD. They also do not represent me.”
The statement was posted to CUAD’s Instagram but has since been removed. An apology James posted on Twitter was also taken down.
Late last month, James filed a lawsuit against Columbia in a New York State court, saying the university had violated his rights by misusing the student conduct system to discriminate against and harass him. Less than two weeks later, CUAD released its statement retracting the apology.
The retraction was published a day after the first anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, and said CUAD’s original statement in April had been written by the group’s organizers, not James himself. It cast the statement as a betrayal of the group’s principles, and offered an apology to James, saying he had been subjected to discrimination.
James thanked the group for the statement, writing on Twitter, “I never wrote the neoliberal apology posted in late April, and I’m glad we’ve set the record straight.” PJC — Compiled by Jarrad Saffren
Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.
Sir Henry McMahon was the British high commissioner in Cairo during World War I.
Headlines
Auschwitz:
Continued from page 1
a train full of people by gassing. Why, what had they done to deserve to be killed? He did not move or look at me; he just stared into space.”
During two days of tours, Sawicki and colleagues used keys and badges to open doors. Occasionally, alarms were disabled before being set again. In some spaces, like a barrack undergoing conservation or a room lined with stacks of itemized suitcases, journalists were permitted to take photos. In other settings, like a laboratory where specialists remove dust from shoes and document artifacts, including “illegal correspondence” from prisoners, photography was not allowed.
Whether accessing closed spaces or areas open to the general public, touring Auschwitz I and Birkenau requires traversing miles. Groups routinely wait to view threetiered bunks, latrines, former kitchens and enclosures housing leather shoes, antiquated suitcases and pounds of human hair.
Signage implores visitors to “show your respect by behaving in a dignified manner, honoring the memory of those who suffered and died here.”
Between 1940-1945, 1.3 million prisoners arrived at Auschwitz and 1.1 million died; approximately 90% were Jewish.
“For the world, Auschwitz is the symbol of the Holocaust. But that’s not the story of the beginning of Auschwitz,” Sawicki said.
Quoting survivor Felix Opatowski, Sawicki said, “Long after the survivors, including myself, are gone, historians will continue to write about the Holocaust, especially about Auschwitz. But they will never really know everything about the camp because nobody ever really knew everything about Auschwitz.”
Museum and memorial
Auschwitz is a museum and memorial, Cywińsk said. Being both requires understanding what the institution isn’t.
“We are not a museum about the Second World War. There is a museum of the Second World War. We are not a museum of Jewish heritage. There is a museum of Jewish heritage,” he said. “We discuss Auschwitz here — even Treblinka cannot appear in our narrative. We are very focused on this site.”
A primary goal of the museum is preservation. Its Memorial Collection contains about 110,000 shoes, nearly 3,800 suitcases, approximately 12,000 pots, 470 prostheses and orthoses, 390 items of camp clothing, 246 talleism and 1 pair of tefillin. Hundreds of objects are displayed at Auschwitz. The tefillin are not.
Both Cywiński and Sawicki credited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation with funding conservation.
Founded in 2009, the entity has approximately $193 million. Last year, it donated a little more than $7 million toward conservation work.
In Birkenau, journalists saw several supported projects, including barracks with reinforced beams, raised walkways and protective roofs. Massive tents covered at-work areas. Hard-hatted specialists walked between sites.
“The last decision that the conservators make is to remove an original part and replace it with a new one,” Sawicki said. If replacement occurs, it’s visible, he continued. “Conserving the authenticity of Auschwitz is extremely important to us.”
In Birkenau, several wooden posts purposefully are untreated. The eroded, cracked and
broken structures reveal time’s toll.
“There are 3,600 posts, and we conserve them,” Sawicki said. “You can see what would happen if we left them alone.”
Of Birkenau’s 45 brick structures, six have been conserved and four are underway. A brick building that housed prisoners takes about four years to complete. Costs range, but conserving a sleeping structure could total $1.5 million, he said.
Resources aren’t endless. Inadequate funding is one reason why the museum has never purchased the villa where former commandant Rudolf Höss and his family lived between 1940 and 1944.
“If I have to spend the money of the Auschwitz-Birkenau foundation to preserve the brick barracks at the women’s camp in
“We don’t need it,” Cywiński said. Taking visitors to the gallows where Höss was hanged in 1947 and pointing out that he lived 170 meters from the first crematorium is enough: “If you want to save everything, that means you will save nothing.”
Remembrance
For two days, Sawicki and Cywiński stressed Auschwitz’s commitment to remembrance and education.
The museum’s regard for preservation isn’t an end in itself. The goal is “of course, the visits, the education, all those programs of teaching,” Cywiński said. Through these endeavors the museum reinforces the “crucial role of remembrance.”
More than 1 million people tour Auschwitz annually. Before the pandemic, the number was almost double. Each person’s visit to Auschwitz is an experience comparable to a “rite de passage,” Cywiński said. “We hope that those people who walk kilometers through Auschwitz and through Birkenau are a little bit different at the end of their visit than they were before. The goal is to change, at least a little bit, their sensibility, their reflection, their core.”
By coming here and leaving a flower or lighting a memorial candle, one can say, “My job is done,” Sawicki said. But visiting Auschwitz also should create a discomfort that prompts one to ask, “Through this experience what can I do?” he continued. “This is remembrance.”
The name game
Before the seminar’s conclusion, journalists were brought to Oshpitzin Jewish Museum. Located two miles from the camp, the Jewish museum promotes the area’s rich history.
A wordplay occurred over time, the museum’s head of education, Maciek Zabierowski, noted. After occupying the town of Oświęcim, the Nazis called it Auschwitz. Today, the town is called Oświęcim, but when the first Jews arrived there in the 16th century, they called it Oshpitzin, which is Yiddish for “guests.”
Since 2000, the Jewish museum has had several approaches to preserving Oświęcim’s Jewish story. There is a collection of artifacts, both religious and secular, detailing former residents’ lives. Adjacent to the exhibition is a sanctuary in Oświęcim’s only surviving synagogue — before the war there were 20 shuls, Zabierowski said.
But remembrance isn’t simply an “empathic look to the past.” he said. It’s something that “must help us understand our role today.” at happened at Auschwitz is unique,tion will relate differently to the atrocity. embrance is built in accordance with historical facts, but it must be used to “find some solutions for a better world
The Jewish museum maintains a historic cemetery containing fragments of headstones destroyed by Nazis. And, after Holocaust survivor Szymon Klüger (largely referred to as Oświęcim’s last Jewish resident) died in 2000, a cafe and gift shop were built inside his former home.
Zabierowski and the museum’s director, Tomek Kuncewicz, spoke to journalists in a gallery in the cafe’s basement.
When the name “Auschwitz” comes up, most people seek to distance themselves, Kuncewicz said. “There’s an immediate association with the camp, and it’s difficult.”
Part of the Jewish museum’s work is distinguishing Auschwitz from Oświęcim.
“There was a town that existed for centuries and there was a town that existed after,” Kuncewicz said. What happened here was “sort of a coincidence,” he continued. “Situations like Auschwitz can happen in any place.”
On the eve of World War II, Oświęcim had 14,000 residents. About 8,000 were Jewish.
It was a “fairly diverse” place, Zabierowski said. The atmosphere toward Jews was “rather favorable in town,” and before the war “there were relatively low rates of antisemitism.”
Of its 8,000 Jewish residents, fewer than 200 survived. And, among those, not everyone was originally from Oświęcim, Zabierowski said.
Klüger’s 2000 death marked a new chapter, Kuncewicz said. Up until that point, whether in Oświęcim or in other Polish towns, it was still possible to go somewhere and find “someone who could speak to the place’s Jewish history. But this isn’t the case anymore.” Even so, the story is still being written.
p Hila Weisz Gut sits outside Café Bergson in Oświęcim, Poland.
Photo by Adam Reinherz
p Suitcases are itemized in a storage area inside the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
Photo by Adam Reinherz Please see Auschwitz, page 11
Headlines
Life in Auschwitz
Continued from page 10
As journalists toured the Jewish museum, this reporter sat outside with Hila Weisz Gut, 33.
“Since I was young, the Holocaust was always, always, in my life,” the Israeli said. Weisz Gut’s grandmother and two siblings survived Monowitz.
“The rest of the family perished in Birkenau,” she said. “They went straight to the crematoria.”
After college, Weisz Gut taught students about the Holocaust and World War II.
She initially traveled to Poland with an educational delegation. When offered a chance to return in 2021, she agreed. During that visit, she met Kamil Gut at Café Bergson. He was a barista at the Jewish museum’s coffee shop. The two spoke continuously during her Polish stay. After she returned to Israel, their relationship grew. Months ago, the couple celebrated their wedding with a small reception at the cafe.
Volunteering:
Continued from page 1
to 11:30 a.m., Jewish Family and Community Services is encouraging volunteers to welcome immigrant families to Pittsburgh by sorting donations and creating cards and posters for distribution. There is no need to bring supplies, as all materials will be provided.
Pittsburghers seeking to help outdoors can head to Beth Abraham Cemetery between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Volunteers can sweep concrete lanes and walkways, rake leaves, remove dirt from headstones and beautify the site with the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association. The project, which may involve bending, kneeling, sitting, standing and pulling, is in memory of Bernice and Sylvan Simon.
A few years ago it was nearly impossible to walk through Squirrel Hill without seeing a needle-felted heart affixed to a tree, shrub or lamppost. Those days are returning. Between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Oct. 27, volunteers can join Barbara Grossman, creator of Pgh Handmade Hearts, at the 10.27 Healing Partnership suite inside the JCC in Squirrel Hill, for a crafting activity.
Doing so was a way of honoring Klüger, Weisz Gut said.
She and her husband live in the heart of Oświęcim, about 100 meters from the Jewish cemetery, and a 30-minute walk from Auschwitz I.
“I can see Monowitz from my house, from my bedroom window,” she said.
Oświęcim has 34,000 residents. Weisz Gut is its only Jew. Since making the town her home, both Israelis and Jews have questioned her choice.
“Remember, if there was nothing to ruin here that was worth ruining, Hitler wouldn’t have come here,” she said. “I see it as an honor, like a shlicha (emissary), that there is no chance that someone will forget who lived here. It wasn’t only Shimon Klüger. It was a lot of people.”
Calling Auschwitz “Oświęcim” or “Oshpitzin” is a reclamation. Establishing roots two decades after a town nearly lost its 400year Jewish history is an act of defiance, she said. “It’s very important to be here, to be present. Hitler tried, the Germans tried to
Upon completion, the needle-felted hearts will be delivered to friends, family and strangers throughout the community, as a reminder to “open our hearts to others,”
do whatever they wanted to. And at some point — maybe like 80 years after — we are showing them that no, they didn’t succeed.”
Weisz Gut has friends in Oświęcim. Still, being its only Jewish resident is challenging, she said.
The closest Jewish community is in Kraków, nearly an hour’s drive away. Days earlier, she traveled there for an Oct. 7 commemoration at its Jewish Community Center.
Standing outside the JCC, beside a fence plastered with hostage posters and signage reading “family,” and “stop by and say hi,” community members recited the names of those who perished one year earlier.
“I was there for like five minutes, and then I left because it was too much for me,” Weisz Gut said.
On Oct. 7, 2023, she learned of Hamas’ attack by watching videos on her phone. She said she walked to the Jewish museum immediately after, sat and stared.
“I felt alone,” she said. “I opened the Aron HaKodesh, and I just took myself inside of it and prayed that everything will be OK.”
community members keep Cheshvan 18 in mind. The Hebrew date, which spans the evening of Nov. 18 into Nov. 19, is not only the yahrzeit of those killed, but allows
By coming together and finding meaningful ways to better each other, Feinstein said the community can grow and perpetuate the memories of Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Dan Stein, Irving Younger and Melvin Wax.
Maggie Feinstein, executive director of the 10.27 Healing Partnership, said.
All materials will be provided. Some fine motor abilities are recommended.
Though most commemorative activities are occurring Oct. 27, Feinstein hopes
an opportunity for people to gather and enmesh themselves in substantive Jewish teachings, she said.
Between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. on Nov. 18, participants can study together in person at the JCC in Squirrel Hill. From noon to 1
The past year has been difficult, she continued. “I have a lot of friends that are in Gaza, and I have friends that are Nova survivors, and I have people that I know that were murdered. Fortunately, nobody was kidnapped — so it’s only survivors or murdered — but it’s quite hard.”
When the one-year commemoration arrived, Weisz Gut kindled a yahrzeit candle in Oświęcim, completed a paper for her master’s in Holocaust education and returned to the Polish town’s synagogue.
“I’m not religious, but I just came here and I said Kaddish,” she said.
The Jewish memorial prayer dates back nearly 2,000 years. Jews arrived in Oświęcim five centuries ago. Since then, thousands of Jewish residents have called the Polish town home. Weisz Gut said she’s honored to join them.
“It’s not only death in this place,” she said. “There is life here.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
p.m. on Nov. 19, virtual study is available. The learning, which is in memory of Richard Gottfried, will explore the importance of making a minyan and “what type of community service it is to show up,” Feinstein said.
Whether volunteering, studying or attending the commemoration, which will be at the JCC in Squirrel Hill on Oct. 27 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., organizers hope that community members use the period to foster “healing, resiliency and togetherness.”
By coming together and finding meaningful ways to better each other, Feinstein said the community can grow and perpetuate the memories of Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Dan Stein, Irving Younger and Melvin Wax.
A complete list of volunteering activities is available at 1027healingpartnership.org. Participants are encouraged to register online. PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Auschwitz:
p Seminar participants stand on a constructed walkway while observing a latrine.
Photo by Adam Reinherz
p A sanctuary inside the Oshpitzin Jewish Museum.
Photo by Adam Reinherz
We must re-commit to fight the contagion of antisemitism
Guest Columnist
Jonathan A. Greenblatt
There are no Starbucks in Israel.
Yet, over the past year since the horrific attacks of Oct. 7 in which Hamas terrorists butchered 1,200 innocent men, women, and children, Starbucks locations all over the U.S. — and the world — have been vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti. Calls to boycott Starbucks have been spraypainted on stores and spread online. The situation grew so serious that the company’s CEO addressed the situation in the company end-of-year letter to shareholders.
Ironically, Starbucks does have locations in Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and throughout the Persian Gulf, serving exponentially more Muslims than Jews.
In light of all the death and destruction this past year and the 101 hostages still held in captivity in Gaza, the plight of a multinational, billion-dollar coffee chain might seem trivial.
Yet what happened to Starbucks is emblematic of the stakes of the conflict the Jewish community has found itself in since 10/7. Antisemitism has erupted across the U.S. and globally. While some may see this strictly as a problem for the Jewish community, that is willfully myopic. Antisemitism is not just the oldest hatred, but a symptom of deep dysfunction below the surface of liberal democratic societies and a threat to the pluralism that makes these countries work.
In the years leading up to 10/7, antisemitism already had reached record heights. Since then, it has exploded. Antisemitic incidents increased 140% from 2022 to 2023, breaking all previous records. According to the most recent FBI hate crimes report, anti-Jewish hate crimes rose 63% to 1,832 incidents in 2023, the highest number recorded since the Bureau began collecting data in 1991.
Driving this surge is a concomitant increase in antisemitic attitudes. For nearly 30 years, ADL found that the percentage of Americans with intense antisemitic attitudes hovered at around 10%. In 2022, that jumped to 20%. And in 2024, it jumped to 24% — the highest level ADL has seen in six decades.
Surging antisemitism impacts Jewish
Americans in many ways: the armed guards protecting every synagogue in America; the observant Jew who makes sure to cover his kippah with a baseball cap when out in public; the college student who hides her connection to the Jewish homeland in order to join a club or just get through the day without being harassed; the Jewish professionals — authors, investors, therapists, small business owners — targeted as “Zionists” and subsequently bullied by activists, shunned by confused clients and ignored by terrified customers.
But the broader world can’t afford the pipe dream that this disease can be contained. While the Jewish community certainly bears the brunt of antisemitism, it is a contagion. It ultimately will infect — and endanger — all of American society.
nationalism and its anti-immigrant, antiBlack and anti-Muslim views emanate from their conspiratorial hatred of Jews.
Radicals on the left start with a very different set of coordinates but somehow manage to land at the same destination. This doesn’t mean that every protestor who has taken to the streets since 10/7 is motivated by hate. Many are inspired by genuine concern regarding the civilian death toll in Gaza.
Nonetheless, it is increasingly clear that the dominant current propelling many of these protests is not enlightened universalism, but raw desire to eliminate the only Jewish country in the world — home to nearly half of the Jews worldwide. It is a radical ideology focused, not on ending the conflict or even achieving
This antipathy toward the Jewish community is setting the stage for a far larger fight in this country. Some might even call it a “battle for the soul of America.”
There are many reasons for its unprecedented spread. Despite rising standards of living, tectonic changes in the economy and society have generated widespread anxiety and massive uncertainty. Social media has played a part by reinforcing the sense that there is no empirical truth and any outlandish plot is possible. All of this creates a ripe environment for conspiracy thinking and scapegoating on all sides.
On the extreme right, this most prominently has taken the form of the “Great Replacement” theory, a conspiracy that posits that a cabal of Jews is opening the borders of the United States to let in non-white minorities to replace “real Americans.” This is why the tiki-torch marchers at Charlottesville in 2017 chanted “Jews will not replace us.”
This is how the gunman who gunned down 11 Jewish worshippers in the Tree of Life building in 2018 justified the massacre. And this is what is spouted with increasing frequency by far-right personalities such as Nick Fuentes, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson.
For this group, toxic antisemitism is core to their ideology. As political theorist Eric Ward has written, their virulent white
peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians, but simply on destroying the Jewish state.
As this single-minded obsession with exterminating Israel has taken hold among the ranks of the activists, there has been an unmistakable embrace of conspiratorial views — for example, that Jews are part of an “oppressor” class responsible for the ills of the Middle East and of the United States and that Jews have undue amounts of power over universities and of the government. Like those on the right, such a worldview is impervious to facts and often leads to anarchic violence and rage against Jews, Israel and, increasingly, America itself. Numerous examples illustrate this point. To name a few, last May, activists broke into the president’s office at Stanford and poured red paint on his desk. At the same time, others defaced the university’s main quad with messages like “De@th 2 Isr@hell,” “Pigs taste best dead,” and “F*** Amerikkka.”
When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington D.C. this past summer to deliver remarks before Congress, activists agitated across the city. In front
of historic Union Station, they vandalized statues with phrases like “Hamas is coming!” Others burned Israeli and American flags. This past September at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, protesters entered the historic Navy ROTC building, replaced the American flag with a Palestinian one, and spray painted the outside with “Death to the U.S.” and “Burn it all.”
And so, this is why protesters target Starbucks. Not only is its founder, Howard Schultz, a prominent Jewish businessman, but the coffee giant also is among the most prominent American brands. It is a veritable symbol of capitalism itself.
Neither of these worldviews make sense, but both erode the very fabric of our country. You can’t have a reasoned argument with people who ignore history and facts. You can’t have the compromises necessary to make a multi-ethnic democracy work if people see some of their neighbors as the embodiment of evil. You can’t resolve conflicts peacefully if some believe that the stakes are literally life as you know it.
And yet, this is not surprising. As we have seen throughout history, no democracy with a severe antisemitism problem stays a democracy for long. As the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote, the hate that starts with the Jews never ends there. Antisemitism is an insatiable monster that consumes everything.
This is why the surge of anti-Jewish hate in America over this past year should be so troubling for all Americans regardless of where they pray or how they identify. This antipathy toward the Jewish community is setting the stage for a far larger fight in this country. Some might even call it a “battle for the soul of America.”
One day, the hostages will come home, the current conflict will subside, and perhaps there will be peace for both people: safety and security for Israelis and dignity and equality for Palestinians. I’m deeply committed to working toward this future.
But if we fail to stamp out the evil of antisemitism taking root on both sides of the political spectrum, it will fracture the very foundation of our country. And, if history is any indication, once that base is damaged, there is no guarantee that we will be able to fix it. It’s up to us to halt this trend before it’s too late.
PJC
Jonathan A. Greenblatt is CEO and National Director of the Anti-Defamation League. This first appeared on The Times of Israel.
Jewish voters, take control
Progressive Democrats do not support Jews or Israel. There has been nearly a 200% increase in antisemitic incidents since Oct. 7, 2023. The Biden/Harris administration has held back weapons and other support to Israel while trying to shame Netanyahu into an immediate cease-fire and a two-state solution. Biden has continually stated that Netanyahu isn’t doing enough to compromise with Hamas to bring the hostages home. Harris chose to skip Netanyahu’s address to Congress to attend a fundraiser for her campaign at a sorority rally. In an interview last week, she refused to call Netanyahu an ally of the United States. This Jew hatred is obvious on a local level in Pittsburgh, where Mayor Ed Gainey, Rep. Summer Lee and County Executive Sarah Innamorato published a joint statement on Oct. 7 saying, “we can’t afford to spend more money on bombs” and placing blame for the Hamas/ Israel war on a “drive from right-wing leaders,” instead of Hamas, where it belongs (“Jewish community gathers to remember Oct. 7,” Oct. 11).
Your vote will determine the future of Jews in the U.S. and around the world. A Harris/
Walz regime will condemn Jews and Israel to more escalating hatred.
A Trump/Vance presidency will bring a just conclusion to the war in Israel, crush antisemitism at home and avert a third world war. Trump has always stood shoulderto-shoulder with Israel. Trump is the first president to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and he moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Trump signed an order in 2019 that extended Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to apply to antisemitic acts. Jewish students are using this executive order to sue schools that fail to protect them against antisemitism. These are just a few reasons for Jews to vote for Donald Trump in November. Show the progressive Democrats that the Jews have turned their backs on them, just like they’ve done to us.
Cindy Minogue Pittsburgh
Please see Letters, page 13
Chronicle poll results: Support of local politicians since Oct. 7
Last week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “Have you felt supported by our local politicians since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel?” Of the 250 people who responded, 61% said, “For some politicians yes, but for other politicians no”; 29% said, “No”; 5% said, “Yes,”; and 5% said they had no opinion. Comments were submitted by 79 people. A few follow.
I very much appreciated the statement issued by Mayor Gainey, County Executive Innamorato and Rep. Lee on the Oct. 7 anniversary.
Summer Lee has turned her back on her Jewish constituents. She has not responded to any of my emails or letters. It’s puzzling how so many in the community support her.
I’ve felt supported by Abigail Salisbury, Bob Casey, John Fetterman and Dan Frankel. Thanks to all of them for their steadfast support of the Jewish people both here and in Israel. Ed Gainey, Summer Lee and Sara Innamorato — not so much. I won’t be voting for any of the latter in the next election.
I am very appreciative of the politicians who vocally support our community. I’d like more politicians to join them. Also, don’t show up at events with your false solidarity if you’re going to make hurtful and horrendous statements publicly earlier that day — it’s a really bad look and we see it.
Politicians never support anyone but themselves and their cronies if it is expedient. Most politicians are too busy being crooked to worry about supporting anyone and they are very blatant about their evilness.
Strong support from Rachel Heisler and Dan Frankel. Summer Lee and Ed Gainey continue to be unsupportive, and now we must include Sara Innamorato in the unsupportive group as well.
Many of our national and local politicians support us. Why was our representative in the House of Representatives not at the Oct. 7 commemoration? Why did she not put a greeting for the new year in the Chronicle? And why will she not speak with the Chronicle?
The pro-Gaza, Hamas, Palestine, rallies and marches, and the lack of condemnation of these events by some local politicians, is disturbing. The support given to these terrorist groups is disgusting and dangerous.
I have the utmost respect and gratitude to our local politicians such as Councilman
Sam DeMarco, Sen. John Fetterman, Sen. Bob Casey, Rep. Chris Deluzio, state Rep. Dan Frankel and City Controller Rachel Heisler for their relentless support toward Israel in its plight to fight for its existence in the Middle East and its recognition globally. You promote sensitivity, understanding and compassion. On the flip side, shame on the lamentable local politicians who foster misunderstanding and hate amongst their constituents. Moving forward are these the elected officials we want to represent our community and state?
Our city and county “leaders “have been a miserable disappointment. I consider John Fetterman and Chris Deluzio to be local leaders, and they have been outstanding! PJC
Compiled by Toby Tabachnick
Chronicle weekly poll question: Have you ever slept in a sukkah? Go to pittsburghjewishchronicle.org to respond. PJC Have you felt supported by our local politicians since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack
Trump would be a danger to Jews and Israel
Donald Trump was president when the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting occurred.
Trump often described caravans of invading immigrants. Propaganda declared Jews responsible, and Trump mitigated nothing.
Coming to Pittsburgh thereafter, he ignored a massive protest against his white supremacist coddling.
Trump is deferential — practically worshipful — toward Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Putin is not a friend of the Jews.
Trump doesn’t care about Ukraine being savagely attacked by Russia. Jews live in Ukraine; its president is Jewish. Not that Jewishness should affect our feelings about Zelenskyy, Ukraine, or struggles against Russia, but Jews live there peacefully and productively, and not so much in Russia.
Trump lied more than 30,000 times in office. He is crass, a bully. Former colleagues speak strongly against him serving another term. Trump meanders when speaking, mixing thoughts. He blames “immigrants” for every woe, yet he recently thwarted good bipartisan legislation so he could run as the Answer to Immigrant Badness.
Trump “likes” Israel only for votes of evangelical Christians who want Jews there to die at the end-time. Evangelicals provide more potential votes than Jews; many also want their religion legislated into civil law.
If that’s not enough reason to make certain Donald Trump is never re-elected to anything, Project 2025 — that looming Republican threat to democracy, religious freedom, and general liberty — mixes Christianity into law (and more). Jewish or not, these are reasons not to vote for Trump. Meanwhile, propaganda directed at Democrats, impugning Israel and Jews, burdens Harris’ campaign. Harris has more propaganda-infused potential voters than Jewish.
Harris is strong, composed, capable, conversant in international affairs. Her ears and mind are open, she seeks to listen and understand. She isn’t a member of the Squad. Her husband is a Jew, fighting antisemitism. Having met with him, I trust he fully understands us.
Hopefully Harris would keep this administration’s officials. Certainly — speaking of immigration — Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas understands; we met with him on hatred. (He’s also a Jew.)
Abby Schachter touted Trump (“Why vote Trump? To let Israel win,” Oct. 11) dubbing this a “foreign policy election.” Never! We must elect a president to run this country, intent on maintaining our freedoms and liberties (including sharing liberty with immigrants and encouraging freedom elsewhere).
Democrats don’t push hateful fear-mongering. Maybe that’s why Republicans make things up about Democrats rather than face how dangerous their own candidates are.
I’m convinced Trump endangered my own Jewish life during his administration. (Some of my friends didn’t live to say.)
I don’t know how to undo propaganda: Jews bring in immigrants, Jews commit genocide, Jews are colonialists, Jews own the media. It’s made-up hate speech, but people believe it.
I recommend “Autocracy, Inc.,” by Anne Applebaum, which shows where power and money flow around the world. Trump wants a piece of that action. With his packed Supreme Court and what Project 2025 would bring toward turning him into an authoritarian dictator, the danger to Jews and Israel — not to mention the U.S. — lies solely with Trump as president. Audrey N. Glickman Greenfield
Condemnation of Lee/Gainey/Innamorato statement
Summer Lee, Ed Gainey and Sara Innamorato should be persona non grata as far as the Jewish community is concerned (“Jewish community gathers to remember Oct. 7, Oct. 11). We should not engage them or invite them to anything. If they show up, they should be asked to leave. Their message of blaming Israel for the events of Oct. 7, 2023, shows the true colors of the modern Democrat party. They are in lockstep with the Squad in Congress and the Hamas supporters in
Michigan and Minnesota. They are also examples of why antisemitic incidents are off the charts. No other country is told by its allies how to defend itself and fight a war to eradicate Islamic terrorists. The fact that Israel was attacked gives it every right to defend itself. If it takes measures to protect civilians then it is compliant with international law. The Islamic terrorists who perpetrated the heinous acts on Oct. 7 failed to follow international law and placed their own civilians in harm’s way. Israel needs to do what’s in its best interest to win the seven-front war.
Our two senators and governor should remove their endorsements of Summer Lee and censure Gainey and Innamorato.
Those who are considering voting Democrat, do so at your own peril and that of the whole community. It’s like voting for Lennon, Stalin and Maduro. We all know how they turned out. Andrew Neft Upper St. Clair Gainey/Innamorato/Lee statement ‘embarrassing’
I moved to Philadelphia over 13 years ago and have remained fiercely loyal to my hometown of Pittsburgh. The statement by Summer Lee, Ed Gainey and Sara Innamorato on the first yahrzeit of Oct. 7 was not only embarrassing but also sickened me (“Jewish community gathers to remember Oct. 7,” Oct. 11). I guarantee, though, that if (G-d forbid) there is another antisemitic death in Pittsburgh, they will come running with their fake thoughts and prayers. Harold Marcus Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania Cooking the Chronicle
Each week when the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle arrives in my mailbox, I blow right past the cover stories, letters to the editor and the iconic Murray Avenue Kosher ad, searching for an answer to the most important question of the week: What is Jessica Grann cooking? It just turned 5785, and this year I have decided to take it one step further. I am going to “Cook the Chronicle,” recipe by recipe, for the year with my daughter. This may seem ambitious. I am, in fact, due with twins at the end of November. And I have a 3-year-old who dumps more food on the ground than in any bowl or mixer. But I also found my first maternity leave incredibly monotonous, so I hope this little project will prove itself both entertaining and delicious.
The first edition of the new year was published featuring one of Grann’s family recipes for zucchini bread. (“An old family recipe: Zucchini bread,” Oct. 4). Does every family have a recipe for this classic loaf? Mine sure does.
Personally, I love a good parve recipe and appreciated that Grann recommended beating the eggs until bubbly, and then slowly incorporating the oil. In my experience, the key to making baked goods less, well, parvey, is to really emulsify these two ingredients well. The only thing that felt off to me was that two medium zucchinis (on the low end of the 2-3 recommended) easily made double the needed vegetables. But I figured the zucchini was like vanilla extract—you measure with your heart, right? The bread baked well, came out of the pan easily, and I agree with Grann’s mother: It is better the next day.
My favorite part of the whole process was when my daughter, who was in charge of dumping in spices, smelled the cloves and said “Imma, it smells like havdalah.”
Rachel Fauber Pittsburgh
Follow Rachel as she blogs about “Cooking the Chronicle” at pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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.
Life & Culture
Apple cider brisket
By Jessica Grann | Special to the Chronicle
Ican’t count how many times I have failed at making brisket. It would turn out dry, or when I got soft meat, it shredded when I carved it. People think of brisket when they think of a Jewish holiday meal, and I really wanted a win in this department. My family didn’t seem to mind eating my failed attempts. But a juicy brisket that I could carve and present beautifully on a platter? That eluded me.
It confused me because I didn’t have any issues making or carving any other kind of roast, so I played it safe and avoided new attempts. For one thing, kosher brisket is fairly expensive, while it used to be an affordable roast.
I typically tweak a recipe many times until I get it right before publishing. Experimenting put a big dent in my pocketbook and I felt pretty defeated. I picked the brains of everyone — even strangers on social media — to figure out what I was doing wrong, and the information lovingly shared with me helped me get the result I wanted.
Good cooks don’t come out of a vacuum. Learning to cook takes love, time and patience, but it also means listening to those with experience. A great cook is rarely
satisfied, and will keep researching and trying new things to improve a recipe, so I encourage you to keep trying, even if you fail as many times as I have, because eventually it turns out right.
I was cooking my brisket at too high of a temperature. I also learned that if you want succulent beef, choose a double brisket from the butcher. After a recent last attempt, I can tell you that I won’t bother again with a single brisket.
e highest form of wisdom is kindness.
It’s equally important to cook the brisket, refrigerate it overnight, slice it cold, then put it back into its juices to warm. Your brisket may taste amazing if you eat it right away, but it’s much more likely to shred if not refrigerated before carving. I also think that the flavors meld together if allowed to rest overnight.
This is a “sweet and sour” recipe; I used apple cider vinegar to add some extra depth to the flavor. It’s not overly sweet nor sour — but the apple cider vinegar gives the flavor a gentle tang.
We almost have an empty nest, so I also started making smaller pieces of meat in the 2-3 pound range, which feeds four people well.
I serve brisket with mashed potatoes, which complement the carrots and gravy. For many years, I whipped the boiled potatoes with a hand mixer, using margarine and pareve creamer or unsweetened oat milk, but recently I’ve omitted the creamer and replaced the margarine with an equal amount of mayonnaise, and I love how the potatoes come out so light and fluffy. Either way, drain the boiled potatoes, put them back into the cooking pot, add the margarine or mayonnaise to the pot immediately while the potatoes are steaming, and whip with a hand mixer until light and fluffy. If you’re using pareve milk, add that after you’ve mixed in the margarine, then salt and pepper to taste. I don’t use creamer when I use mayonnaise. Either way, the hand mixer is clutch to getting fluffy potatoes.
Ingredients:
1 2-3 pound double brisket
1 teaspoon kosher salt to season the meat
¼ cup avocado oil
2 large onions, peeled and sliced
6 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons tomato paste
5-6 whole cloves of garlic, peeled
6 large carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
2 cups beef broth
1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
½ cup gently packed light brown sugar
1 envelope Lipton kosher onion soup mix, or 2.5 tablespoons of an equivalent onion consommé
Set the oven t to 280 F, with the wire rack in the middle position or in the lower third if you’re using a large Dutch oven.
I use an enameled cast-iron pot with a tight-fitting lid, and do all of the cooking for this recipe in one pot.
Open the brisket and lay it out on a small sheet pan, sprinkling both sides with a total of 1 teaspoon of kosher salt. I usually add a little salt before searing, but since I use onion soup mix as a flavoring, no more is needed for this dish.
Peel and cut all of the vegetables before searing the meat so that everything is ready to go. Peel and halve the onions, and slice them lengthwise in about ¼-inch slices. (I make a few wider slices for texture.)
Turn your stovetop burner to medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of oil to the pot to warm before searing the brisket for about 3-4 minutes per side.
Once seared, remove the brisket from the pot, then add 2 more tablespoons of oil to the pot. Add all of the onions at once, stirring them into the oil.
When you sear meat it usually leaves a brown layer on the bottom of the pot — this gets mixed into the onions, so you will see a brownish color on them right away.
Sauté for 20 minutes, until the onions soften. Remove the onions from the pan and add them to the brisket, also adding 4 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to deglaze the pan. Use a wooden spoon to scrape off any browned bits, then add the tomato paste to the cider vinegar, mixing it well before turning off the heat of the burner.
Put about half of the sautéed onions in the pot and place the brisket over top of the onions.
Put the cut carrots around the brisket and add 2 cups of beef broth, pouring it on the side of the pan, not over the meat.
Pour the remaining 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar over the meat and sprinkle 1 teaspoon of coarsely ground black pepper over the roast.
Empty the packet of onion soup mix over the meat only, followed by the light brown sugar. Cover the roast with the remaining onions, cover and cook for 1 hour at 280 F.
Reduce the heat to 200 F and cook covered for an additional hour; 2 hours, covered, seems to be the magic number for a brisket of this size.
The brisket should be fork-tender at this point. If it’s not fork-tender, put it back into the oven, covered, for another half-hour. If the brisket still isn’t fork-tender, remove it; it may just be the cut of meat, and cooking it longer won’t make it softer.
Let the brisket cool entirely before refrigerating overnight (or for 12 hours), then slice it cold and put it back into the juices in the pot.
If you’re not serving this until the evening, put it back into the refrigerator to rest until you’re ready to warm it, with the lid on, for less than a half-hour in a 300 F oven. Keep the pot covered until you’re ready to serve. Enjoy and bless your hands! PJC
Jessica Grann is a home chef living in Pittsburgh.
p Apple cider brisket
Photo by Jessica Grann
Celebrated Israeli pianist performs with PSO Oct. 18-20
By Deborah Weisberg | Special to the Chronicle
Israeli pianist Tom Borrow will make his Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra debut in two different programs Oct. 18 through Oct. 20 at Heinz Hall.
A native of Tel Aviv, Borrow, 24, will perform Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G on the mainstage Friday and Sunday, and on Saturday he will be featured with a virtuoso group of musicians in an intimate, limited-seating chamber concert.
“Ravel’s concerto is Tom’s signature work and so we are particularly excited to bring him here for his debut weekend,” said Mary Persin, PSO vice president of artistic planning. “His chamber performance will launch this season’s very beloved PSO360 series, ‘Among Friends.’”
Borrow will begin the evening with associate concertmaster Justine Campagna in a Mozart Sonata for violin and piano. PSO string players will then present Grieg’s Holberg Suite. Borrow and a quartet of PSO musicians (two violins, a viola and a cello) will close out the evening with Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A Major, Opus 81.
The audience will be seated around the musicians just a few feet away for “an immersive and intimate experience,” Persin said. “And every seat is fantastic.”
Because the PSO360 format includes special commentary about the program throughout the evening, Borrow and a few of the other musicians will speak directly to the audience.
“They will share their thoughts on the pieces they perform and their personal connections to them,” Persin said. “It’s a very special night up close to the music and the musicians.”
Guests also will be invited to attend a special “Meet the Artists” reception after the concert.
Borrow debuted in the U.S. with the Cleveland Orchestra in December 2021, and was promptly named New Artist of the Month by Musical America.
“The Cleveland Orchestra is one of most renowned in the world,” Persin said. “Incredible accolades came out of that appearance.”
Borrow also was named a BBC New Generation Artist for 2021-23, and performed during his two-year tenure with all BBC orchestras at Wigmore Hall and other venues, and on multiple BBC broadcasts.
“Those are some of highest honors and awards an artist can receive, particularly a young artist,” Persin said.
Borrow shot to fame at 19 when he was called upon to replace the renowned pianist Khatia Buniatishviliin in a series of 12 concerts with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. With just 36 hours’ notice, he performed Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G to critical and public acclaim.
“That’s the kind of break every young artist is always looking for,” Persin said. “You can do all you can to build technical prowess but you need someone to take a chance on you, and those opportunities sometimes come at unexpected moments.”
T he chief music critic of the Israel Broadcasting Corporation, Yossi Schifmann, called Borrow’s performance “brilliant… outstanding,” and ended his review with the
words “Tom Borrow is already a star and we will all surely hear more about him.”
B orrow has performed as a soloist with all major orchestras of his native country, including the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Symphony Orchestra. He began studying piano at age 5 with Michal Tal at the Givatayim Music Conservatory, and currently studies with Tomer Lev of the BuchmannMehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University.
Borrow has been regularly mentored by Murray Perahia through the Jerusalem Music Centre’s program for outstanding young musicians.
He has won every national piano competition in Israel, including first prize at the Israeli Radio & Jerusalem Symphony Young Artist Competition in Jerusalem, and three first prizes in three different age categories at the “Piano Forever” Competition in Ashdod.
In 2018, he won the prestigious “Maurice M. Clairmont” award, given to a single promising artist once every two years by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and Tel-Aviv University.
Borrow is the first artist in the PSO’s 2024-25 season themed ‘Listen Up,’ which will feature outstanding artists making their Pittsburgh debut.
“Our vision is to spotlight this generation’s most dynamic and imaginative creators as they step to the Heinz Hall stage for the very first time,” Persin said, noting that it could be someone quite young at the start of their career or an artist much further along who hasn’t yet come to Pittsburgh. “One of the most thrilling aspects of my job, together with Music Director Manfred Honeck, is to always be on the lookout for the most exceptional talent and identify star artists when they are on their rise.”
Borrow, she said, is intriguing. “I’m taken by the range of what he can do. The Ravel piano concerto is his signature piece and provides the perfect vehicle for him to showcase his incredible versatility.
“It calls on the artist to use the full range of colors and requires technical wizardry, and at the same time, a real nuance and poetry. It needs a brilliant virtuoso who can dazzle at the keys, yet also reveal an intimacy and soulfulness.”
The concerto has it all, Persin said. “It’s splashy, dynamic and even includes some nods to the Jazz Age. I can’t wait to see what Tom, together with our amazing Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, will do.” PJC
Deborah Weisberg is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.
Chag Sameach
from the Board and Staff of the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh
Jason Kunzman, President and CEO
Scott E. Seewald, Chair of the Board
p Tom Borrow
Photo courtesy of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Life & Culture
Palestinian-owned Oakland cafe features drink named for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar
By Jackie Hajdenberg | JTA
APalestinian-owned cafe in Oakland, California, has introduced a menu to celebrate its first anniversary that includes an item celebrating the leader of Hamas.
Near the bottom of its menu, the Jerusalem Coffee House advertises the “Sweet Sinwar” orange, ginger, and carrot juice. The $10 drink shares a name with Yahya Sinwar, the terror group’s leader and architect of its Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel.
The cafe released the menu last week, the first anniversary of the attack and a day that featured competing pro-Israel and pro-Pal estinian rallies across the United States, as well as expressions of communal mourning in Jewish communities.
Also on offer is the “iced in tea fada” iced tea, named after “intifada,” the word denoting Palestinian uprisings, the second of which killed some 1,000 Israelis two decades ago. And the menu’s design motif features inverted red triangles, a symbol used by Hamas to indicate military targets on Oct. 7.
In the Bay Area, local Jewish organizations took offense to the cafe’s menu.
“Praising the terrorist mastermind of the October 7th attack on Israel with the title ‘Sweet Sinwar’ and decorating a menu with inverted red triangles used by Hamas as a marketing symbol to glorify horrific atrocities is despicable and distasteful to everyone,” Marc Levine, regional director of ADL’s central Pacific chapter, said in a statement. “Celebrating murder, sexual assault and terror is abhorrent and has no place in Oakland and should be condemned by all.”
Tyler Gregory, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area told JTA in a statement that he felt the menu was of a piece with how Oakland’s city government has approached the Israel-Hamas war. Last November, the City Council rejected a bid to denounce Hamas, the same night that the council unanimously called for a ceasefire on the war in Gaza. It was “the most antisemitic room I have ever been in,” Gregory said at the time.
A Jerusalem Coffee House representative
declined to answer questions about the menu with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The representative asked this reporter via Instagram direct message to “share your
opinion on whether or not you feel the media has been accurate in reporting on the genocide in Gaza?” and did not respond to further questions.
The menu, which the cafe posted on Instagram, has also circulated on social media, including by prominent rightwing influencer Andy Ngo, who shared it with his 1.5 million followers on X. Some users in his replies called to leave negative reviews for the cafe on Google Maps. A notice on the café’s Yelp page says it is currently being monitored by Yelp’s support team “for content related to media reports.”
Publicly, the cafe is striking a defiant pose.
“Thanks to our beautiful community for the support and feedback about our new menu we look forward to continuing to build with you all,” the café said in a story on Instagram. “As we grow and our community continues to blossom these zionists will keep crying and calling for attention.. they’re having fun leaving shitty reviews on our Yelp; check out and leave a better review, rooted in honesty and authenticity of your experience at Jerusalem and pull up on us! We’re here till 3!”
Jerusalem Coffee House opened last year and, according to the publication Eater, is owned by Abdulrahim “Raheem” Harara, whose parents were born in Gaza. The café serves food and drink inspired by Palestinian cuisine. It also hosts fundraisers for the Palestinian Children Relief Fund, various workshops related to Palestinian culture and events for the Muslim community and local activists.
It is the latest eatery to use, or wade into, debate over the Israel-Gaza war with inflammatory language. In March, a Utah cidery declared, “No Zionists allowed.” And several kosher or Jewish-owned restaurants have faced protest or vandalism over their actual or perceived support for Israel’s military campaign.
“It is no coincidence, given the City of Oakland’s many governmental failures to stand up for the Jewish community this past year, that Hamas mastermind Yahya Sinwar would be glorified in this sick way for the massacre of thousands of Jews,” Gregory said in a statement on Thursday. “We will continue to work with allied leaders in Oakland and across the Bay Area to curb the antisemitism that has continued unabated since last October 7.”
The cafe has not shied away from provocation over the course of its first year, which began with a soft launch in September 2023. In late June, Jerusalem Coffee House hosted a screening of the presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, and called the event: “White on White Violence: Collapse of the Greatest Settler Colonial State.”
A promotional post for the event featured swastikas on the eyes of a caricature image of Trump and stars of David on Biden’s eyes. Devil horns adorned both candidates.
Last December the cafe announced a special pay-what-you-can gingerbread latte promotion for Christmas Day. “I know we’re all hurting right now, and it might seem disingenuous to be festive during this holiday season,” the cafe wrote on Instagram, noting that public Christmas celebrations had been canceled in the West Bank because of the Gaza war. But it said it had decided to open for the day “to honor the call to bring global awareness to this horrific genocide carried out by zionism and white supremacy.”
The post concluded with a phrase widely used by Palestinian activists that many Jewish groups consider a call for the destruction of Israel — and an apparent allusion to debate over its meaning.
“From the river to the sea Palestine will Be free,” Jerusalem Coffee House wrote. “And yes we know what that means.” PJC
p Oakland, California’s Jerusalem Coffee House menu, which features items such as the “iced in tea fada” and the ‘“weet Sinwar” Photo via Instagram
Celebrations
Flynne and Ben Wecht of Regent Square are pleased to announce the marriage of , Dylan Nathan Wecht, to Alyssa of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Dylan is the grandson of Mrs. Sigrid Wecht and the late Dr. Cyril Wecht, and of the late Linda and Dr. Stanley Bushkoff and Mr. Leslie Berrent, all of Squirrel Hill.
Alyssa is the daughter of Judy and William McDonough and the late Michael Mursch of Scranton, and the granddaughter of the late Emma and Reynold Morgan and of Lorraine Mursch and the late Earl Mursch. The couple were married at the Irons Mill Farmstead in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, and reside
Torah
Bringing light into the world
FRabbi
Parshat
Exodus 33:12 – 34:26
or many of us in Pittsburgh and in Israel, the month of October will never seem the same. Our minds refuse to forget the tragedies that shocked our world. The question is, how do we recover from the past even as we enter the future?
By Divine Providence, the Hebrew calendar for this year, 5775, provides an answer. The holidays of Shimini Atzeres and Simchas Torah occur on Thursday and Friday and are immediately followed by the first Sabbath of the year, Shabbos Bereshit. It’s as if G-d is telling us, “There is no time to dwell on the pain; rather, we must move forward.”
If that is the message, then G-d also must give us the strength and energy to carry on. The place to look for that strength and energy is in the Torah — specifically, Bereshit itself.
In a groundbreaking talk, translated by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, England’s former chief rabbi, the Rebbe notes that the Torah begins Creation with “Let there be light!” Light, however, exists only to illuminate something else, and because the Earth was “unformed and void,” nothing else existed.
To complicate matters, the Hebrew words for “light” (ohr) and “secret” (roz) share the same numeric value. This indicates that the two words are related. But light reveals and secrets hide. In other words, they are opposites.
What are we to make of the relationship between “light” and “secret”? And what is the secret that is hidden by the light? Moreover, how will this secret comfort the Jewish people in our collective trauma?
The Midrash (Bereshit Rabbah) comments, “A king who wishes to build a palace consults an architect’s plans; so too, G-d looked into the Torah and created the world.”
Since the Torah begins Creation with “Let there be light,” it must represent the purpose of creation. This is like an architect who draws the completed building before
breaking ground. The finished drawing “hides” many of the elements that make it up. For example, we don’t see the plumbing, the light fixtures, etc. Even if we did see all these parts lying around the work site, it would be hard to understand how they fit together.
How does this analogy apply to our lives? G-d, who is above any form or description, could easily “maintain His Presence” among the infinite worlds and beings that inhabit the celestial spheres. However, the Sages teach us that “G-d desired to have an abode in this physical world.” The Torah is the set of instructions that make this happen. Furthermore, G-d chose man to partner with Him in this effort.
Whenever we do a mitzvah or perform an act of kindness, we elevate our mundane activities. These acts draw holiness into the world. Currently, we don’t sense any change, and, sadly, the world does not look any different. However, in the World to Come (the Messianic Era), we will see and acknowledge how G-d has always been intimately and actively involved
in all aspects of our reality.
This explains the relationship between the words “light” and “secret.” Once G-d’s Being is revealed, we will experience the light that was hidden away for the future. At that time, any negativity we have experienced will disappear before the eternal truth of G-d. Then we will understand how the triumphs, the tragedies and the trivialities of our lives were all necessary for the perfection of the world.
In Heaven, those who have passed before us know the roles they played and pray for their beloved relatives down here to do their part. The Torah portion of Bereshit, with its new beginning, conveys the message to carry on and bring our own light into the world. Our ultimate comfort will come soon, very soon, as we witness the end of the past and the beginning of the future with the coming of Moshiach. PJC
Rabbi Yossi Rosenblum is CEO of Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh and rabbi of Congregation Kesser Torah. This column is a service of the Vaad Harabonim of Greater Pittsburgh.
Yossi Rosenblum
Sukkot III
Obituaries
AURON: Philip E. Auron, Ph.D., age 72, passed away Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, after a five-month battle with esophageal cancer. Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1952, he spent many years in the Boston area. Although Phil lived in Pittsburgh for the last 22 years, he always considered himself a Bostonian. At the time of his passing, he was surrounded by family and Phil had a deep love of science from his early years and bought his first microscope when he was 12. He turned that love into a lifelong quest, vocation and avocation. Educated at Wilkes University, he received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from The Pennsylvania State University. He was a Damon Runyon postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, assistant professor at Tufts University, associate professor at Harvard Medical School, professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and professor and former chair of the Department He was a founder and former board member of two molecular analysis companies, Genetic Technology Corporation and Betagen Corporation, as well as a consultant to numerous corporations. Phil was noted for sequencing Interleukin 1, the cornerstone of several of his patents, including one which led to the development of the FDA-approved drug Ilaris (canakinumab) used in the treatment of arthritis and other diseases. Phil frequently collaborated and published with his wife, Dr. Deborah Galson. Phil was also involved in a landmark legal case that secured the confidentiality of the academic peer review process. But Phil was most proud of the many students and postdoctoral fellows who he taught, advised, mentored and guided through their research in his years as an educator — his legacy is enriched by their work. Phil’s love of science was bolstered by his endless curiosity. When conversing with friends, if he was missing some information, he would immediately pull out his phone to investigate and firm up his knowledge base. This applied to all matters of culture, art, archeology, social history and photography. Phil was a dedicated photographer, ever present at family gatherings, and he leaves behind thousands of unedited photos. Alongside his love of art, Phil was an entertainer. He possessed a marvelous singing voice and perfect pitch. He could remember any tune he ever heard, from arias to advertisement jingles. He had incredible memory recall and was always ready to recite one of Lincoln’s speeches or a monologue from Shakespeare. He also greatly enjoyed riding his bicycle, even into his later years. He had a great sense of humor which sustained those around him and was still in evidence even in his last few days. Phil was the son of the late Ben and Frances Auron of Swoyersville, Pennsylvania, and is survived by his wife, Deborah Galson, his children Zack and wife Kristen (New York), Alex and Rebecca (both of Pittsburgh), his brother Marshal and wife Kathy (Charlotte), as well as several nieces, nephews, cousins and in-laws, and their descendants, as well as several others who also regarded him as their “Papa.” He was a committed cat lover (and secret dog lover), dedicating his love and attention to several animal family members over the years. He will be missed by his two loving cats, Cori and Minty. Phil was a member of Temple Ohav Shalom and Beth Hamedrash Hagodol-Beth Jacob Synagogue. The funeral service was held at Temple Ohav Shalom. Interment at Beth Shalom Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Hillman Cancer Center, UPMC Cancer Pavilion, Suite 1B, 5150 Centre Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15232, or the Wilkes University General Scholarship Fund (wilkes.edu/ give). Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com
GREENBERG: Dorothy Dresbold
Greenberg, on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. Beloved wife of the late Leslie Dresbold and late Hank Greenberg. Loving mother of Joel (Amy) Dresbold, Cherie Dresbold and Michelle Dresbold. Cherished sister of the late Marilyn Brody and late Jeannette Meyers. Loving stepmother of Ellen (Howard) Garrison (Rachel and David). Devoted grandmother of Elizabeth (Jared) Clarkson, Ben (Lindsey) Koslow, Lyle Dresbold, Seth Dresbold and Cara (Dominick) Yobbi; great-grandmother of Miles, Kennedy, Lincoln and Roman. Dorothy was an avid bridge player, teacher and cook. She enjoyed yoga, tennis, writing poetry and creating songs from her poems. Dorothy loved her family, picnics in her backyard and reading on the front porch. She shared her wisdom and wit with those lucky enough to know her. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Pliskover Cemetery. Contributions may be made to the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, 5738 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217; the Jewish Association on Aging, 200 JHF Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15217; or a charity of the donor’s choice. schugar.com PJC
Sunday October 20: Ida M Breman, Judith Kochin Cohen, Lillie Levy, Shirley Watchman Loefsky, Selma Luterman, Esther Mallinger, Frieda Gelman Margolis, Rose L Miller, Sarah Mormanstein, Lena Newberg, Sadye Breman Novick, Rose Cohen Rattner, Mollie Robins, Joseph Scott
Monday October 21: Allen A Broudy, Fannie Sulkes Cohen, Shachny Grinberg, Jeanette Gross, Rebecca Herman, Anita Lois Hirsch, Meyer Jacobs, Pauline Klein, Paul G Lazear, Joseph Robert Lipsich, Clara M Oberfield, Harry Pearl, Marti Pettler, Melvin N Rosenfield, William Sable, Tillie Scott, Jacob Soffer, Samuel Supowitz, Louis Zeiden
Tuesday October 22: Harry Americus, Jacob Feigus, Ruth Klein Fischman, Harry Girson, Samuel W Gould, Albert Halle, Samuel W Jubelirer, Jacob Samuel Kuperstock, Jack H Mar, Samuel Moskowitz, Nathan Osgood, Anna Paris, Eli J Rose, Anna Rosenfeld, William Rosenstein, Bertram W Roth, Cantor Harry P Silversmith, Mary Cotler Weiner, Louis H Zucker
Wednesday October 23: Simon J Anathan, Paul Anolik, Ismor Davidson, Goldine Lapidus, Rebecca Lederman, Belle B Maharam, Esther Mankin, Isadore Nadler, Esther Pomerantz Silverman, Anne S Slesinger, Evelyn Ziff
Thursday October 24: Jeanette Berkman, Meyer Bernstein, Ben Cohen, Blanche S Cohen, Leona Yorkin Dym, Warren G Friedlander, Clara Goldstein, Meyer Haltman, Toba Markovitz, Mildred S Miller, Edith Murstein, Fannie Scheinholtz, Yetta E Segal, Moses Weinerman
Friday October 25: Lucy Balter, Sara Jean Binakonsky, Harry Bricker, Beatrice Charapp, Tillie Cohen, Samuel Jacob Eliashof, Dr Howard H Freedman, Hyman Goldstein, Paul Harris, Hyman L Leff, Samuel Minsky, Hazel Oswold, Rose M Rabinovitz, Florence Ruben, Abraham Schrager, Rivka Silverman, Leopold Weiss
Saturday October 26: Samuel Evelovitz, Dora Friedman, Frances Fromme, Morris Gordon, Ethel Hornstein Josephs, Phyllis K Kart, Abram Hirsh Levine, Anna Mandel, Lena Moskowitz, Dora Rosenzweig, Abraham J Rothstein, Bessie Rubinoff, Charlotte H Shapiro, Joseph Shire, Florence M Supowitz, Saul David Taylor, Rebecca Weinberg
Christopher Columbus was genetically Jewish, Spanish researchers say Life &
By Philissa Cramer | JTA
Christopher Columbus was likely Jewish, Spanish researchers have announced in a splashy new documentary aired on Spain’s national broadcaster on Saturday. According to the documentary, the researchers spent 22 years researching Columbus’ national origins before concluding
that bones buried in a Seville cathedral are in fact the famed explorer’s — and that his DNA suggests that he likely came from a Jewish family.
“We have DNA from Christopher Columbus, very partial, but sufficient. We have DNA from Hernando Colón, his son,” the lead researcher, José Antonio Lorente at the University of Granada, said in the documentary, according to Reuters. “And both in the Y chromosome (male) and in the mitochondrial DNA (transmitted by the mother)
of Hernando there are traits compatible with Jewish origin.”
Whether the findings are accurate may never be known. The forensic scientists have not yet released their raw data, and their report was not peer-reviewed before the documentary aired, a standard in scientific research. A Spanish report says the research will appear in an international scientific journal in the near future.
Researchers who study Columbus say the purported findings are of only limited significance, even if true: DNA evidence would show only Jewish heritage, not identity. And Columbus’ own writings express both Christian beliefs and praise for the decree expelling Jews from Spain.
“I encourage people to read his own writings to appreciate his complex identity — he was an autodidact, who took advantage of the explosion of knowledge after the birth of printing to create an eclectic theology that had many Judaic elements — but in a deeply Christian, mystical vein,” Ronnie Perelis, a Yeshiva University professor who has written about Sephardic Jews of the era, told the Jewish News Syndicate after the documentary aired. “Genetics doesn’t make someone Jewish.”
Still, the claims add a sheen of scientific credibility to longtime speculation about Columbus’ national origins, which has included repeated arguments that he may
SPONSORED CONTENT
have been Jewish.
Ninety years ago, a prominent Spanish historian charged that Columbus was not Italian, as had long been believed, but Spanish, and the son of Marranos, Jews who converted to Christianity to escape the Spanish Inquisition.
More recently, a Georgetown University professor named Estelle Irizarry analyzed Columbus’ known writings and concluded that marks on some pages and other quirks suggested that his native tongue could have been Ladino, a Jewish language.
Others have noted the proximity of Columbus’ departure — Aug. 3, 1492 — to the date on which the Alhambra Decree, issued by his sponsors King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in March 1492, went into effect. The decree gave Jews a choice among expulsion, conversion or death.
Undisputed is the fact that several members of Columbus’ crew were Jewish or prominent Marranos.
The new documentary came on the Spanish national holiday marking Columbus’ exploration. It also came on the eve of what was long known as Columbus Day in the United States, the date chosen to commemorate Columbus’ arrival on the continent. The date is increasingly known as Indigenous People’s Day in honor of the native people whose communities, health and culture were decimated by European expansionism. PJC
CHANGES TO GUARDIANSHIP LAW IN PENNSYLVANIA IN 2024
This is one in a series of articles about Elder Law by Michael H. Marks., Esq.
Michael H. Marks is an elder law attorney with offices in Squirrel Hill. Send questions to michael@marks-law.com or visit www.marks-law.com.
Sometimes a disabled or incapacitated adult can’t take care of themselves or their affairs, as a result of cognitive impairment or mental health issues, and needs assistance or even protection. Legal guardianship can be a solution. Pennsylvania law concerning guardianships saw significant changes this year.
To be officially appointed as the Guardian of the Person or Guardian of the Estate or both for an adult who needs such assistance or protection requires a court proceeding before a Judge. The Person subject to the guardianship request is called the Alleged Incapacitated Person (“AIP)”, and the person requesting that the court take action is called The Petitioner. (There are different rules to establish guardianship for children).
In a guardianship case the court must decide four questions: that the person is incapacitated under the prevailing legal standard; that there is no less restrictive alternative available; that a guardian is therefore needed; and who will be appointed as guardian.
Guardianship has to be proven by proper, wellfounded evidence, including from a physician or other experts, under a heightened burden of proof called “clear and convincing evidence”.
I’ve always viewed guardianship litigation in court as a last resort. If someone has limitations and needs assistance but is not completely disabled or incapacitated, and if they still have the capacity or
capability to make a decision on who they choose to help them and to sign a Power of Attorney, then I would always recommend Power of Attorney as the first option. If a Power of Attorney can NOT be used, then mounting a court guardianship litigation case requires so much more resources in time, energy and money.
Guardianship is a huge limitation and restriction on the rights, freedom and liberty of the incapacitated person. For this reason, Pennsylvania law and courts have always been careful in using guardianship proceedings carefully, appropriately, and only when needed. Guardianship law changes in 2024 in PA are intended to more closely regulate the process, and provide additional protections for the subject of a guardianship Petition.
The changes, known as Act 61 of 2024, essentially comprise four groups of new requirements:
1. Mandatory representation by counsel, initially and in any subsequent proceedings such as a review hearing;
2. Increased emphasis on the requirement that there are no less restrictive alternatives that adequate under the circumstances;
3. Certification of guardianship professionals who are appointed on behalf of three or more dependent persons; and
4. More frequent use of review hearings to affirm, modify or terminate a guardianship.
An AIP must now be represented by competent legal counsel at every stage of the proceedings, either by a private attorney retained by them or for them, but if not, then by court-appointed counsel, even if they don’t have the ability to pay. PA county courts are still feeling their way into implementing
this requirement, such as by creating lists of counsel who are willing to serve (at reduced hourly rates), etc. The Supreme Court also needs to approve suggested changes to the Orphans’ Court procedural rules on all these issues.
The “no less restrictive alternative” requirement has long been part of PA guardianship law. An increased emphasis requires the Petitioner to make and prove allegations, and the Court to make specific findings. Less restrictive alternatives include, for example, private assistance from family and friends, Powers of Attorney or Advance Directives, a trust or trustee, an ABLE account, a Social Security Representative Payee, etc.
Courts are supposed to first consider ordering only a customized Limited Guardianship, specifying what the Guardian will be able and allowed to do, and what the individual will continue to have power to do, versus a Plenary
Guardianship in which the Guardian has complete power and control. In my observation, at least in the past, Courts have typically just defaulted to a complete or plenary guardianship for ease and simplicity. That illustrates the kind of improvements that the Act is intended to accomplish. It remains to be seen whether this particular change and more use of limited guardianship, will occur or not.
Likewise, easier access to review hearings, or more frequently required reviews, are also likely to provide additional protections for those subject to guardianship.
Similarly, requirements imposed on professionals in the guardianship business have obvious potential advantages.
At Marks Elder Law, we help people every day with issues like these. I invite your questions and feedback. Please let me know how I can help you and your family.
Real Estate
5125 Fifth Ave. 2 & 3 Bedrooms Corner of Fifth and Wilkins Spacious 1500-2250 square feet ”Finest in Shadyside” 412-661-4456
Sherri Mayer, Realtor Squirrel Hill Office C: 412-760-0412 O: 412-421-9121x225 sherrimayer@howardhanna.com HowardHanna.com 412-661-4456 www.kaminrealty.kamin.com
| Caryn: 412-389-1695 Jasonasmith@howardhanna.com Carynrosenthal@howardhanna.com
pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
If you are worried about Israel and Jewish College students
The ADL finds colleges are failing to fight antiSemitism oncampus (ADL, April 11,2024).
Vice President Harris howeverfeelsthatthe anti-Israel “protesters” “areshowingexactly whatthehumanemotionshouldbe,asa response to Gaza.” (The Nation, July 8, 2024). Governor Walz echoed this saying, “those folks who arespeakingoutloudlyarespeakingout for all the right reasons…” (WCMU, September 5, 2024).
AlanDershowitz, October7,2024: “Ileft theDemocraticPartyover Israel.I haven'tjoinedthe RepublicanParty. I'm an independent.”
Vice President Harris andGovernor Walz, along with 48SenateDemocrats,believethere mustbe a PalestinianArabstate.Carvingan unstable Arab state outof Israel’sstrategic heartlandmeans Israel becomesindefensible (US JointChiefsofStaff, Earl Wheelerto Robert McNamara, June 29, 1967).
Most Israelis would livewithin easyattacking distanceof a hostile border.Jordan will become a secondterrorist-soakedLebanonand Jerusalemwillbeatthewesternborderof the Iranianterrorist-controlledoctopus. Iranian fightersand armswill be abletofreely flood into the heart of Israel and Israel’s main airport, Ben Gurion, will become too dangerous to use.
Thank you for caring Worriers For Israel
Ad Paid for by WorriersForIsrael
worforis@outlook.com
Community
Conversations with friends
Students from St. Edmund’s Academy met with Rabbi Hindy Finman, senior director of Jewish life at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, for a conversation about the Jewish new year.
Jewish community fall fest
As a lead-up to Sukkot, local organizations collaborated on a fall festival. Participating organi zations included Community Day School, Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh, Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, Camp Gan Israel and Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.
The art of friendship
The Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh hosted an art club on Sept. 29.
p
The room where it happens
p From left: Chasi Rothstein, Rabbi Shmuli Rothstein, University of Pittsburgh
Senior Vice Chancellor for University Relations Kevin Washo, University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Joan Gabel, Rabbi Shmuel Weinstein and Sara Weinstein
Photo courtesy of Chabad House on Campus
p near a sukkah at Community Day School Photo courtesy of Community Day School
Find out how you can leave a legacy for countless future generations and reduce estate taxes through the Jewish Federation’s foundation.
Jewish Community Foundation
Call: 412-992-5221
Email: pdziekan@jfedpgh.org jewishpgh.org/info/life-legacy