Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh seeds Crocus Project in memory of children killed in the Shoah
By David Rullo | Senior Sta Writer
One might say that it was the luck of the Irish that led to the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh’s latest project.
As Emily Loeb, the HCOP’s director of programs and education, recounts, the center’s Marketing and Education Associate Julia Gaetano was doing research for a post about St. Patrick’s Day and Holocaust remembrance when she discovered the Holocaust Education Ireland and its Crocus Project, an initiative to have 1.5 million students, aged 10 and over, plant yellow crocus bulbs in memory of the children who died during the Shoah.
Loeb originally thought the project might be a good activity for area Girl Scout troops — the center was working to develop a Holocaust education patch — and this seemed like a good fit.
When Nick Haberman, founder of the LIGHT Education Initiative, mentioned the project independent of the research Gaetano had done, Loeb knew it was something the Holocaust Center needed to pursue.
“You know how things can sometimes come together?” Loeb asked. “This was one of those things.”
A transatlantic meeting was soon arranged between Loeb and HEI trustee Lynn Jackson. Jackson told Loeb that while a few teachers have participated in the program in the United States, no organization had yet shown an interest.
“They had not had any formal participation,” Loeb said, “so, we’re the first Holocaust center in America to formally participate. We are piloting it.”
The HCOP purchased nearly 600 bulbs and is working with educators from 15 area schools.
“We have some that have put the bulbs in the ground and are done, others are planting in community gardens, some that are doing crocus bulbs in terra cotta pots in their classroom, some that are actually doing installations like on a football field, the scoreboard, and some that are doing yellow Jewish stars on their grounds,” Loeb said. “It’s wonderful to see the creativity going into it.”
Scott Vensel is an eighth grade literacy teacher at Fox Chapel Area School District’s Dorseyville Middle School. The bulbs, he said, are planted in a recently renovated school courtyard.
By David Rullo | Senior Sta Writer
Two people have been arrested, and are facing federal hate crime charges, in connection to graffiti painted at Chabad of Squirrel Hill and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh in July.
Mohamad Hamad, 23, of Coraopolis and Talya A. Lubit, 24, of Pittsburgh have been charged with damaging religious property and conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States.
Hamad was a member of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, assigned to the 171st Maintenance Squadron in Moon Township, until September 2024, when he was barred from the facility. Lubit is an Oakland resident.
The 20-page complaint is replete with information about the pair, the investigation conducted by the FBI and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, the planning of the crime and text conversations between Hamad and Lubit.
The criminal complaint alleges that on the early morning of July 29, an individual spray painted the words “Jews 4 Palestine” and an inverted red triangle at Chabad of Squirrel Hill. The inverted red triangle has been used
Fodictiumqui aut entis andae asimuss
by Valerie Bacharach
David Knoll discusses graffiti painted on the Chabad of Squirrel Hill’s building with Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and Rabbi Yisroel Altein in July
Photo by David Rullo
A large group of Shaler Area High School students planted yellow crocuses at Rainbow Raccoon Park in Millvale. Photo courtesy of Abbey Nilson
Headlines
Temple Emanuel shifts to voluntary giving: A bold new era for membership and governance
By Toby Tabachnick | Editor
Some big changes are coming to Temple Emanuel of South Hills.
The Mt. Lebanon congregation voted last month to amend its bylaws, redefining “membership” and placing all formal decision-making in the hands of 10 to 12 board members.
The changes to the bylaws, which include welcoming non-Jews onto the congregation’s board, passed with 85% of the vote.
The new bylaws will take effect on July 25, along with a new financial giving model that upends traditional notions of dues.
The changes are the outcome of a three-year strategic planning process “looking at both the needs of our community and how to address the needs we see in the future,” Temple Emanuel’s Senior Rabbi Aaron Meyer said.
As part of that strategic planning process — which included the input of congregants as well as professional external consultants — the congregation identified two central objectives: “continuing and enhancing the vibrancy of the community,” and ensuring Temple Emanuel’s financial sustainability into the future, Meyer said.
The Reform congregation of 475 families, founded in 1951, Meyer said, is investing in “three different pillars” moving forward.
“The first one is changing the traditional definitions of membership to make involvement in the community even more accessible,” he said. “The second one is positioning Temple to operate a bit more nimbly and responsively, changing the governance structure to being a staff-led model, with continued board governance and congregational input through the traditional channels of synagogue life. And then inviting individuals who are part of the community and friends of the community to
“Membership” of Temple Emanuel is formally defined in the amended bylaws as the 10 to 12 people on the Board of Trustees. They will be the only congregants voting on issues of governance. The congregation at large can participate in decision-making by sharing input and feedback, but the days of large congregational meetings in which everyone has a vote on matters of governance will be gone.
“The best ways to show your support for something or express your disagreement with something is to continue to be involved, to speak to members of the Board of Trustees, to speak to members of the staff and to start living that change you want to see through your volunteer time. And that remains true now,” Meyer said.
Temple Emanuel’s staff will be charged with the day-to-day operations and “setting the religious direction” of the congregation, Meyer said. That, coupled with the downsizing of the Board of Trustees (previously, the bylaws called for 11 to 15 trustees, plus officers), will make the congregation “a more nimble organization.”
While congregants will no longer be “members” as defined by the bylaws, Temple Emanuel is hoping to grow its community by
emphasizing engagement over formal affiliation, according to Temple Emanuel’s President Beth Schwartz.
“We are inviting people to come into our community and check out our community, rather than handing them a membership application right away,” she said. Temple Emanuel is “opening our doors wide to anybody who identifies with our mission and vision.”
Once a person becomes part of the Temple community, financial support will be discussed, as the congregation shifts to an “individualized giving” model, as opposed to a traditional dues structure, Meyer said.
“Our plan of individualized giving is designed to help people think about their values in supporting a Jewish organization — the value they receive from being part of the Temple community — and helps us to meet our needs as a synagogue to be financially sustainable,” he said.
To that end, conversations will be held with everyone affiliated with the congregation. For longtime congregants, that conversation “will be based on their giving history and conversations about what’s important to them.”
For people newer to the community, Meyer said, the conversation “will be a transparent
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look at Temple’s finances — where their dollars are needed — and a conversation about how they align with the organization to help us meet that future.”
Temple Emanuel, the rabbi said, has been experiencing a period of “growth and success that we look forward to sustaining as we enter into this new model.”
“The advantage of the individualized giving model is we can really tailor the conversation to you,” he said. “If you would like to pay us something you know as dues on July 1 of every year, we will send you a bill on July 1 every year. If you would rather align your philanthropic contributions with end-of-year giving when you’re meeting with your tax professionals and would rather have the conversation in November and December, we can do that as well.”
While several other congregations have moved to a nontraditional dues model, Temple Emanuel’s plan is different, Schwartz said, “because we are not creating preset categories.”
Over the past five years, Temple Emanuel’s dues collections have declined, Meyer said, “while our overall philanthropic giving has increased. Which means to say we understand from this that people are reluctant to continue to offer their philanthropic dollars in the way they traditionally have, but when there is cause or proven values alignment, the community has been very generous.”
Another change to bylaws allows non-Jews to serve on the Board of Trustees, with the stipulation that 51% of the board remains Jewish. Non-Jews have become increasingly active in synagogue life across the United States, as more and more non-Orthodox congregations encourage them to participate, including in board governance. More than 61% of Jews who’ve married since 2010 have non-Jewish spouses, according to a 2020 Pew Research Center study, as compared to only 9% of Jews
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Please see Temple Emanuel, page 6
Beth Schwartz and Rabbi Aaron Meyer
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Headlines
Falk Lab School apologizes after ‘offensive’ Bread and Puppet Rosh Hashanah performance
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
If Bread and Puppet Theater hoped to garner attention with its performance in Pittsburgh last month, then its members can consider its mission accomplished. The Pittsburgh community’s reaction, however, may not have been what the performers expected.
Formed in 1963 as a political puppet troupe, Bread and Puppet has performed pieces protesting the Vietnam War and America’s role in it, conflicts in Central America and attempts by refugees to leave the region. It has a strong anti-capitalist bent and has been critical of Israel.
The puppet theater performed “The Beginning After the End of Humanity Circus” on Oct. 3 at the Falk Laboratory School, a K-8 tuition-based school affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh. According to an email sent by the school and signed by school Director Jill Sarada following the event, the performance included a “number of antisemitic phrases and tropes.” The letter described the performance as “highly offensive and unacceptable.”
In a YouTube video posted by the troupe of an earlier production of the piece, several acts are critical of Israel, holding the Jewish state responsible for the death of medical workers and “hospitals bombed.”
The message is not contextualized by mentioning Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in Israel or explaining that the terrorist organization often hides its bombs, weapons and military leaders near civilian populations and in buildings, including hospitals and schools.
In the Pittsburgh performance of the work, the familiar refrain “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” was chanted.
A concerned Jewish parent, who spoke on condition of anonymity because her children attend the school, said that they had conversations with art teacher Cheryl Capezzuti, who coordinated the performance, and Sarada. The Jewish parent also participated in a group discussion at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, facilitated by 10.27 Healing Partnership Director Maggie Feinstein, after the performance.
“I met with [Capezzuti] and Dr. Sarada and I said to her, ‘Are you aware that the school was closed for a Jewish holiday on the day this performance was proposed?’”
Capezzuti said she wasn’t initially, according to the parent, but later learned of the conflict. Oct. 3 was the only day Bread and Puppet could come to Pittsburgh, though, because of its schedule.
The art teacher and Sarada later discussed the conflict and decided that since it wasn’t a school event, and since attendance wasn’t mandatory, they didn’t think the date made a difference, according to the parent.
When the parent asked Capezzuti if she was aware of the themes typically presented by Bread and Puppet, the teacher said she knew the troupe was political but believed its message would be less controversial, according to the parent.
“She thought it was going to be pro-peace
and pro-love,” the parent said.
community learned about the anti-Israel nature of the show on Oct. 7 “and were outraged,” especially when stories circulated that the performance included the “From the river to the sea” chant and depictions of an IDF soldier unleashing a dog to attack a disabled Palestinian child.
The parent said a quick examination of Bread and Puppet’s website showed that its content was concerning.
“From an antisemitism standpoint, they use grotesque images,” the parent said. “One of them is this caricature of people with very long noses to represent Jews. Also, if you Google the director of the puppet theater, he has been accused of antisemitism” and engaging in Holocaust denial.
The parent said she asked Capezzuti if the troupe waving Palestinian flags while chanting “From the river to the sea” gave her pause.
“She said no because it was in the context of 22 scenes about many disenfranchised people, including Haitians and mothers and even Texans,” the parent said.
After a letter from concerned parents was received by the school, Falk responded on Oct. 7 with an email that apologized for the performance. Missing from the email, though, was any mention of antisemitism. After several parents voiced their concerns, and following a meeting between the school and administrators from the University of Pittsburgh, which oversees the school, a second email was sent Oct. 21 from Falk that explicitly labeled the performance as antisemitic.
In addition to an apology, the email included several commitments, including improved event vetting, conducting an equity audit, advancing the Anti-Defamation League’s No Place for Hate program, conducting a climate survey and creating parent/caregiver affinity groups.
The school also held a community meeting at the JCC facilitated by Feinstein and included school administrators and Jewish community leaders.
“There was not an empty seat,” the parent said. “It was basically a two-hour session of Jewish parents expressing their frustration about the puppet show itself, as well as other incidents of antisemitism that have occurred at the school.”
The Chronicle reached out to Falk for comment, but was directed by Sarada to University of Pittsburgh spokesperson Jared Stonesifer.
In a prepared statement, the university said that Falk provided no financial support for the performance and that the university understood the need for more thorough vetting of future community events.
“[We] will ensure that Falk staff understand our policies, procedures and protocols and diligently follow them to prevent future oversights,” Pitt’s statement said.
Julie Paris, StandWithUs Mid-Atlantic regional director, attended the JCC meeting and said she was impressed with the parents’ reaction.
“They were very clear, I felt, with the administrators on where they felt that Falk fell short of their own mission in allowing this play on Rosh Hashanah,” Paris said.
The performance, she added, exposed a large audience to a “distorted, one-sided and antisemitic narrative” about what has taken place between Israel and Hamas since Oct. 7.
“This Bread and Puppet Theater has a long history of putting on performances that demonize Israel, that hold Israel to a double standard and delegitimizes Israel’s right to exist and right to defend itself,” Paris said.
The performance at Falk, she said, took situations out of context, was not fact-based and didn’t tell the whole story.
Bread and Puppet performer Josh Krugman, who is Jewish, disagrees with Paris and the school’s characterization of the performance as antisemitic.
“To me, that doesn’t sound like it was written by someone who saw the show,” he said.
Krugman said that he extensively researched the phrase “From the river to the sea” and understands it to mean that “the Holy Land, referred to by many as ‘Palestine,’ should be free from oppression, dispossession, apartheid, and a regime of ethnic supremacy that the state of Israel has enacted.”
The actor acknowledged, though, that he wouldn’t have used the phrase in the work, not because of its controversy but because he doesn’t find the use of well-worn slogans effective.
“When you use a slogan, everybody already knows what they think about it,” he said, “so, it’s either going to be galvanizing or it’s going to rile people up the other way.”
If the goal is to change the way people see an issue, he said, there are better techniques to use.
The show, he said, isn’t antisemitic.
“It doesn’t display any animus against Jews, let alone Israel, nor does it attempt to minimize or delegitimize the experience of Jews or Israel,” he said.
Krugman said that by highlighting what the company sees as the plight of the Palestinians, Jews hopefully will be safer.
“We Jews can recognize that actually oppressing and expelling, dispossessing and occupying the Palestinian people have not brought safety to the Jews in Israel or worldwide,” he said.
Krugman said it’s his hope that good political theater might have a role in showing that Palestinian freedom and security can help bring the freedom and security “that Jews in the Holy Land and around the world deserve and have yearned for throughout our history.”
The Rev. Canon Natalie Hall has a stepdaughter who is a Falk alum and two other children currently at the school. Hall, who is rector at Church of the Redeemer and pastor of St. Mary Magdalene Lutheran Episcopal Church, didn’t attend the performance — instead she celebrated Rosh Hashanah with Jewish friends — but said the school advertised the event and promoted it among the Falk community.
Hall is concerned, she said, not only with antisemitism but that such a “highly charged political play” had content that was not suitable for children.
While she is committed to freedom of speech, even that with which she disagrees, Hall said she thinks that Falk probably was not the right venue for the performance, especially since children are likely unaware of the complexity of the war between Hamas and Israel.
She’s also afraid that the work will engender fear of religion.
“I’m afraid that people in the audience may not have enough information to engage the content,” Hall said.
Laura Cherner, director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations Council, attended the discussion at the JCC.
“ To Falk’s credit, they were willing to listen about the harm and take positive steps towards repairing it,” she said. “That’s the first step, to acknowledge where they went wrong, which they did, and then hearing from concerned parents.”
Cherner said Falk’s decision to condemn the antisemitism once it was pointed out to school officials “was really important.”
Both Hall and the parent who spoke on condition of anonymity believe that Falk handled the situation appropriately.
“I trust the character of Falk’s leadership,” Hall said. “I trust Jill Sarada. I trust that the apologies are sincere. I trust that they are doing their level best to respond with concern, understanding and an attempt to move forward in a way that will benefit all students and households going forward.” PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Photo by Crazypaco via Creative Commons
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, NOV. 10
The Walk4Friendship is a peer-to-peer fundraising event that supports The Friendship Circle’s programs that help build a more inclusive community for people with disabilities. This year, the community will come together to walk from The Friendship Circle on Murray Avenue to Wightman Park, celebrating the unique contributions of people with disabilities to our community. 11 a.m. Friendship Circle, 1922 Murray Ave. tinyurl.com/walk4friendship2024.
Join Chabad of Squirrel Hill for Teen Cooking Club Gather with other teen girls to bake desserts for Our Giving Kitchen. 3:30 p.m. 1700 Beechwood Blvd. chabadpgh.com/desserts.
As the Jewish community commemorates the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the November pogrom, the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh presents Music in Theresienstadt: A Conversation with Anna Hájková. The event connects the outbreak of public anti-Jewish violence in Nazi Germany with the remarkable cultural production in the Theresienstadt ghetto. 5:30 p.m. Free. Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave. eventbrite.com/e/music-intheresienstadt-a-conversation-with-anna-ha.
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. 5915 Beacon Street. bethshalompgh.org/pjbfnovember2024/.
SUNDAYS, NOV. 10–DEC. 18
Grades K-3, join Chabad of Squirrel Hill for Jewish Children’s Discovery Center and learn about some interesting sites and cities in Israel through creative art and baking activities. Children aged 0-2 enjoy a friendly meetup for moms and tots with Jewishthemed music, activities and sensory play. 10:30 a.m. $75/semester for grades K-3; $50 for ages 0-4; 1700 Beechwood Blvd. chabadpgh.com/art.
MONDAYS, NOV. 11–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, NOV. 12
Current Arab alliances in the Middle East reflect a complex web of relationships influenced by political, economic, and security interests. Understanding the Shifting Dynamics in the Middle East: Current Arab Alliances examines how the Israel-Hamas War has a ected those relationships. 6 p.m. $10. Congregation Beth Shalom, Helfant Chapel, 5915 Beacon Street. tinyurl.com/2s3rampa.
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 13
The Squirrel Hill AARP Lunch Bunch will meet at Taipei Tokyo in Monroeville. Call Geri Linder at (412)
421-5868 for reservations by Nov. 7. President Marcia Kramer can be reached at (412) 656-5803 for further questions. 1 p.m.
Join Chabad of the South Hills for its senior lunch featuring a presentation on diabetes, meal planning and healthy eating. 1 p.m. $5 suggested donation. Call 412-278-2658 to register. 1701 McFarland Road. chabadsh.com.
WEDNESDAYS, NOV. 13–DEC. 18
Temple Sinai’s Rabbi Daniel Fellman presents a weekly Parshat/Torah portion class on site and online. Call 412-421-9715 for more information and the Zoom link.
Bring the parashah alive and make it personally relevant and meaningful with Rabbi Mark Goodman in this weekly Parashah Discussion: Life & Text. 12:15 p.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh. org/life-text.
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.
TUESDAY, NOV. 19
Israel at War: Analyzing the Israeli Policies and their Implications will delve into the complexities behind the current Israeli government’s steadfastness in negotiating a peace deal, despite widespread protests both within Israel and internationally. It will explore the political, social and ideological factors contributing to this stance, examining how shifts in leadership, public sentiment and security concerns play a role. 6 p.m. Congregation Beth Shalom, Helfant Chapel, 5915 Beacon Street. tinyurl. com/2xv7dk75.
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 20
Join the Squirrel Hill AARP for its November meeting as it welcomes Christen Trenbulak, who represents all Medicare health insurance carriers. She will discuss changes in the 2025 health plans. 1 p.m. Rodef Shalom Congregation, Falk Library, 4905 Fifth Ave.
WEDNESDAYS, NOV. 20; DEC. 18
Join AgeWell for the Intergenerational Family Dynamics Discussion Group at JCC South Hills. Led by intergenerational specialist Audree Schall. 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.
THURSDAY, NOV. 21–SUNDAY, NOV. 24
In Unruly Bodies in Israeli Pop Culture: Comparing Netta Barzilai, Dana Internation, Shayna Weiss will give a series of presentations on Israeli culture. Weiss is the associate director of the Schusterman Center for Israel. 9:30 a.m. University of Pittsburgh, Barco Law School.
SATURDAY, NOV. 23
Tree of Life’s November Torah Studio is honored to host the Rev. Liddy Barlow. Rabbi Je rey Myers will join the Rev. Barlow for an interfaith Shabbat service and Torah discussion on Nov. 23 at 9:45 a.m. in Levy Hall at Rodef Shalom. 9:45 a.m. 4905 Fifth Ave. treeoflifepgh.org.
SATURDAY, DEC. 7
Families with young children are invited to spend Shabbat morning with Rodef Shalom at its Shabbat with You. Drop in for a light breakfast, play date, sing-along with Cantor Toby and a Shabbat activity with Family Center Director Ellie Feibus. 9 a.m. $5 per family. 4905 Fifth Ave. rodefshalom.org/ shabbatwithyou. PJC
Join the Chronicle Book Club!
The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle invites you to join the Chronicle Book Club for its Dec. 22 discussion of “Long Island Compromise,” by Taffy BrodesserAkner. From the Jewish Book Council, Evie Saphire-Bernstein:
“Five years after her wildly successful debut, ‘Fleishman Is in Trouble,’ Taffy Brodesser-Akner returns with an engrossing new novel, ‘Long Island Compromise.’
What to do
Buy: “Long Island Compromise.” 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.
The book opens in 1980, when, thanks to the success of their polystyrene molds factory, the Fletchers lead a privileged life on Long Island. But after the head of the household, Carl, is kidnapped and held hostage for five days, no one in his family or community is the same. Carl’s three adult children — Nathan, Beamer, and Jenny — all deal with PTSD in different ways, and Carl’s mother and wife attempt to shield him from any further difficulties. While their intentions are good, the outcomes of their actions are unexpected and everlasting. ‘Long Island Compromise’ is about how one person’s actions can impact their family, and how their legacy — well deserved or not — will shape future generations."
Your hosts
Toby Tabachnick, Chronicle editor
David Rullo, Chronicle senior staff writer
How it works
We will meet on Zoom on Sunday, Dec. 22, at 1 p.m.
Email: Contact us at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org, and write “Chronicle Book Club” in the subject line. We will send you a Zoom link for the discussion meeting. Happy reading! PJC
— Toby Tabachnick
Headlines
Florida Dems Chair Nikki Fried says many Jews have started to ‘question the Democratic Party’
Nikki Fried, the Jewish chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, told Jewish canvassers in her state that the party was losing Jewish voters because of the robust Republican response to pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, JTA reported.
Fried’s ostensible pep talk to canvassers seeking to reach undecided Jewish voters, coming last week in a Zoom call organized by Florida Jewish Democrats, was unusual in her candid expressions of concern that Republicans have made gains with a constituency that has traditionally voted overwhelmingly Democratic.
A narrative of Jews who identified as progressive or left-leaning feeling alienated by the left since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, is widely established, and Republicans have sought to peel away Jewish votes because of it. Fried’s comments represent a rare acknowledgment by Democrats of a potential impact at the ballot box.
Fried said doubts about Democrats have spread beyond “Republican Jewish friends” who have historically been the “outliers” in a constituency that has long been reliably Democratic.
“What has happened since then in American politics has made a lot of our Jewish brothers and sisters start to question the Democratic Party,” she said.
“I hear a lot about ‘the Squad,’” she said, referring to a small grouping of progressive Democrats who are stridently critical of Israel. “I hear a lot about Kamala Harris’ policies, you know, what Joe Biden has or has not done.”
Some right-leaning Jews support Donald
Trump, the former president and Republican candidate, because of his record on Israel. But Fried said part of what is turning the state’s Jews toward Republicans seems to be how the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, handled campus protests that roiled the nation last spring, dismantling pro-Palestinian encampments and threatening to expel protest leaders. (DeSantis has taken a generally heavy hand to higher education in the state, targeting the teaching of progressive ideals at public universities.)
“You hear, of course, you heard during the campus protests, ‘Oh, thank God Ron DeSantis was governor,’” she said. “I mean, how many times have each of us probably heard that over the course of the last year? And so we are losing some of our Jewish voters.”
Historic global LGBTQ
advocacy group boycotts Israel and suspends Israeli affiliate
An influential global advocacy group for LGBTQ rights has suspended an Israeli member organization as part of a larger move to boycott Israel, angering queer Jews and their allies around the world, JTA reported.
The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, known as ILGA World, announced Oct. 30 that it was no longer considering Tel Aviv as a potential site for an upcoming conference to be held in 2026 or 2027. The 46-year-old organization, which has a presence in more than 150 countries, added that it was suspending membership for The Aguda, the umbrella organization for Israel’s LGBTQ community, which had proposed the site.
In a statement, the group cited “compliance with our Constitution” and said The Aguda had violated the rules by putting forward Tel Aviv. ILGA World also apologized to its remaining members for the Tel Aviv proposal, saying,
Today in Israeli History
Nov. 11, 1902 — Air Force founder
Yisrael Amir is born
Nov. 8, 1923 — Pashkaner Rebbe is born
Yisrael Meir
Friedman BenShalom, the future
Pashkaner Rebbe, is born in Romania.
He joins the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement.
He and his wife, Zipporah, smuggle themselves into Palestine in 1946.
Nov. 9, 1952 — Israel’s first president dies
Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel, dies at his Rehovot home after a yearlong illness. Born in Poland, he moved to England in 1904 and developed friendships that helped win the Balfour Declaration.
Nov. 10, 2004 — ‘Hatikvah’ officially becomes national anthem
The Knesset officially adopts “Hatikvah” (“The Hope”) as Israel’s national anthem. The action has been delayed for decades over concerns that nonJewish Israelis feel excluded by the Zionist lyrics.
“We know that seeing the Tel Aviv bid taken into consideration caused anger and harm to our communities.”
The move highlighted how LGBTQ Israelis and Jewish LGBTQ people and allies are caught in the nexus of two fraught identities in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Figures in Israel’s right-wing government have targeted LGBTQ people with more vehemence and anti-LGBTQ violence in the country has spiked in recent years. At the same time, the global LGBTQ community has more broadly identified with the Palestinian cause and against Israel, particularly since Oct. 7.
Many LGBTQ Jews who do not oppose Israel have reported feeling alienated from or unwelcome in their queer communities. Some Jews reported being excluded from public Pride events this summer over Israel.
A driving force behind elevating LGBTQ human rights on the world stage, ILGA carries outsized importance for the queer community in international diplomacy. The group has fought anti-LGBTQ government policies and monitored shifting global attitudes about LGBTQ people. (It has also courted controversy in the past, as when it included the pro-pedophilia organization North American Man-Boy Love Association as a member; ILGA expelled the group in 1994 after pushback from the United Nations.)
Sally Rooney, Percival Everett among thousands of authors pledging to boycott all Israeli literary institutions
Sally Rooney, Percival Everett, Jhumpa Lahiri, Jonathan Lethem and other giants of the literary world are among thousands of authors to have signed a new letter declaring Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide and pledging
to boycott all Israeli literary institutions in protest, JTA reported.
The authors say they will not allow their books to be translated for the Israeli market — a reversal for some of them. Both Lahiri and Lethem have had recent books translated into Hebrew, while “American Fiction,” the movie based on Everett’s “Erasure,” played with Hebrew subtitles in Israel last year.
The authors also say they will “not cooperate with Israeli institutions including publishers, festivals, literary agencies and publications” if they “are complicit in violating Palestinian rights” or “have never publicly recognized the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people as enshrined in international law,” according to the letter.
The boycott effort was headed by the Palestine Festival of Literature.
The prominence and number of the signatories and scope of the proposed boycott set the action apart in a year filled with literary protests against Israel amid the Israel-Hamas war. It has also inspired pushback from notable Jews on the cultural circuit, with more than 1,000, mostly Jewish, authors and celebrities signing an opposing letter.
Several of the authors who signed the boycott pledge have previously expressed sharp criticism of Israel. Prior to Oct. 7, Rooney said she would not have her books translated into Hebrew by an Israeli publishing house because of her support of Israel boycotts. And after Oct. 7, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen, who signed, was disinvited from the 92NY after the Jewish cultural institution objected to him signing an earlier letter critical of Israel.
Other names on the list have led campaigns against PEN America, the literary free-speech group, over what they say is the institution’s insufficiently pro-Palestinian stance. PJC — Compiled by Jarrad Saffren
Yisrael Amir is born in Vilna in Lithuania. He makes aliyah in 1923 and rises through the Haganah. David Ben-Gurion names him the first Israeli Air Force commander in May 1948 despite his lack of aviation experience.
Nov. 12, 2009 — Labor politician
Eliyahu Speiser dies
Eliyahu Speiser, elected to the Knesset three times beginning in 1977, dies at 79. A native of Haifa, Speiser began working for Israel’s dominant Mapai party in 1965 and served as Tel Aviv’s deputy mayor.
Nov. 13, 1893 —
Artist Reuven
Rubin is born
Acclaimed Israeli painter Reuven Rubin is born in Galatz, Romania. He sells his bicycle in 1912 to afford to travel to Jerusalem and enroll in the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts. He also studies in Paris.
Nov. 14, 1956 — Knesset debates
Sinai pullout
Six days after Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announces that Israeli troops will withdraw from the Sinai under a ceasefire with Egypt, the Knesset debates the plan amid calls to force Egypt into peace talks. PJC
Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.
p Reuven Rubin paints a portrait of his son in 1951. By Yair Talmor, public domain
p Rabbi Yisrael Meir Friedman BenShalom inspired Israelis from Haredim to secular Jews. YouTube screen grab
Headlines
Getting to know: Moshe Marvit
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
Moshe Marvit received an unusual email from the White House. The Greenfield resident’s resume had attracted attention and President Joe Biden thought Marvit was suited for a position in the administration.
The White House asked Marvit if he was interested in a phone call. Marvit said yes.
“I remember going to the call, not knowing exactly which position, and joking that they were going to make me ambassador to Morocco,” Marvit told the Chronicle.
The White House wasn’t interested in sending Marvit abroad. Instead, the question was whether the lawyer was keen on a position with the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. The independent agency provides administrative trial and appellate review of legal disputes arising under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977.
Marvit, an attorney who specialized in labor law, said yes to the White House’s inquiry and began a several-year process.
After nomination, Marvit was interviewed by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The committee tied. At the end of the Senate session, Marvit’s nomination was sent back to the White House. After the president renominated him and sent him back to the HELP Committee, Marvit was
voted out of committee. Marvit did not get a vote on the Senate floor before the end of the session, however, so he was sent back to the White House again. The president renominated him. Marvit was voted out of committee and finally got a vote on the Senate floor on March 6 — a day “when all the Democrats were present,” he said.
“You hope you can get unanimous consent,” Marvit said of the vote. “I didn’t.”
The decision mirrored party lines with the Pittsburgher being confirmed by a yea-nay vote of 50-49. Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama didn’t vote.
Since confirmation, Marvit said he’s never understood why Republicans opposed his nomination.
“It always made me wonder in terms of what it is that they thought or were afraid of,” he said. “I’m a fairly mild-mannered person. I don’t get angry. I believe in workers’ rights. I’m not going to go in and be a tyrant as a boss. But it’s a mystery to me why that transpired the way it did.”
Marvit, 45, has called Pittsburgh home since his family moved to the city in 1990. As a child, he spent several years at Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh and attended services with his family at New Light, Torath Chaim and Beth Shalom congregations.
“My father is still a member of Young Peoples and I have a 4-year-old son who goes to CDS (Community Day School),” he said. “I feel very much a part of the Pittsburgh Jewish community.”
When the White House reached out years
ago, the first question Marvit asked was whether he’d have to relocate to D.C.
“They said no. If they said yes, it would have been a very different conversation,” he told the Chronicle. “I like Pittsburgh a lot. I feel comfortable here. We lived in Chicago for a while. We lived in Romania, northern Canada, and we came back to Pittsburgh — my father’s here, I help take care of him — it’s just somewhere I feel comfortable and I just never really felt that in D.C.”
Marvit splits his time working from home, the agency’s Pittsburgh office and the nation’s capital. He travels to D.C. to hear oral arguments and discuss cases with colleagues. Decisions are made by a panel of five commissioners.
“It’s the best job in the world,” he said. “I get to review cases, add to this body of law that we have, help create case law that brings out the purpose of the congressional act to help keep miners safe and protect their free speech.”
Marvit speaks passionately both about his work and society’s need to understand its legal protections.
“People should know their rights and speak up for themselves and their fellow workers,” he said. “True strength in the workplace comes from working with your fellow worker…I feel like you can feel alone in the workplace, and I wish more people would get together and speak more openly about their pay, about the things that bother them.”
Whether it’s having the choice of working Saturdays or Sundays, getting Jewish holidays off, working from home or “being able to turn your cell phone off in the evening so that the boss can’t just send you emails and call you at 10 o’clock at night. Those are things people negotiate for and that everyone cares about,” he continued. “I hope people really think about their role as a worker in the workplace and talk to their fellow workers about it. I know we’re in the election season and things are going to change one way or the other, but I think real change really happens more at the workplace than it does at the ballot box.”
Marvit’s term expires Aug. 30, 2028. Commissioners are eligible for renewal. Marvit hasn’t thought that far ahead. He said he’s simply enjoying his current role: “It’s really a dream job — even if it only lasts for the next four years.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Iran executes Jewish man whose family had sought to avert death sentence
killing, saying that the victim had been stabbed five times, including in his back and neck.
By JTA Staff
Iran has executed a 20-year-old Jewish man who killed a man in a 2022 fight after the victim’s family refused to negotiate an alternative punishment.
Arvin Ghahremani, 20, had been scheduled to be executed in May but received a stay after Jewish and human rights groups around the world called attention to his case.
Ghahremani was arrested more than two years ago on charges that he had killed a man with whom he had a financial dispute. In a report published Monday in Mizan Online, an Iranian news agency, the prosecutor for the city of Kermanshah, where Ghahremani lived, offered details about the
Temple Emanuel:
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before 1965. As the proportion of interfaith couples rises, so have the contributions of non-Jewish spouses.
Temple Emanuel, looking to continue its trend of growth and engagement, is adapting to be “responsive to the changing needs of the Jewish community,” Meyer said. “For too long, synagogues have pointed the finger at those not involved and assumed that the challenge
The prosecutor said Ghahremani had confessed to the crime and that the execution had been carried out in compliance with Iranian law after the victim’s family had twice declined referrals to the Dispute Resolution Council, a government body through which citizens can negotiate disputes outside of the formal justice system.
Iran’s penal code is based in part on Islamic Sharia law, which requires qisas, or retaliation in kind, for certain crimes but allows blood money to the family of the deceased as an acceptable recompense in cases of manslaughter. But according to statements spread on Telegram in May by Iranian Jewish leaders, the victim’s family repeatedly refused offers of payment, known as diyat, and attempts by the community
was their relationship with Judaism. We’re now pointing the fingers back at ourselves to ask how we can better meet the community where it is.”
The congregation has been “doing a lot of different programmatic change that we anticipate to continue,” Schwartz added. “A lot of what sounds like big change is, in a way, continuing what we’re doing, and just kind of codifying it, saying this is what we’re going to keep on doing in terms of connecting with people, connecting on the street, asking people to come on in before
to mediate the issue with Islamic leaders were unsuccessful.
The May statement noted that the Jewish community had offered to fund a school or mosque named after the deceased, but the offer was not accepted.
The nonprofit Iran Human Rights, which operates out of Norway, said Ghahremani had been hanged at Kermanshah’s central prison. The group tied Ghahremani’s execution to Iran’s explosive conflict with Israel, which has included a recent volley of strikes and a report Sunday that Iranian leaders are readying a “strong and complex” attack in response to Israel’s recent bombing of Iranian military facilities.
“In the midst of the threats of war with Israel, the Islamic Republic executed Arvin Ghahremani, an Iranian-Jewish citizen, today,” said the group’s director, Mahmood AmiriMoghadam, in a statement. “Like many of
encouraging them to become members and talking to people about their giving.”
An analogous model, Meyer said, may be “how NPR raises funds. They say, ‘You have been listening to us. You want to support this quality of programming on the radio, now offer us your financial contribution to continue the work,’ rather than asking for those dollars in a subscription model right up front.” PJC
Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
those sentenced to qisas, Arvin’s case and the judicial process had significant flaws. However, in addition to this, Arvin was a Jew, and the institutionalized anti-Semitism in the Islamic Republic undoubtedly played a crucial role in the implementation of his sentence.”
Ghahremani was among the estimated 8,500 Jews who still live in Iran, following an exodus of most of Iran’s once-major Jewish population after the 1979 revolution that put Islamic leaders in charge.
While Iranian Jews must be cautious about their contact with the Persian Jewish diaspora, the Kermanshah Jewish community drew attention to Ghahremani’s case by circulating messages on WhatsApp. Many used his Hebrew name, Arvin Netanel Ben Siona. One included a desperate voice note from his mother. “I am asking everyone to help pray,” Sonia Saadati said in a tear-filled message in Farsi. PJC
p Moshe Marvit. Photo courtesy of Moshe Marvit
p Temple Emanuel of South Hills
Photo by Toby Tabachnick
Party Planning
A yearlong checklist for b’nai mitzvah planning
By Jillian Diamond | Contributing Writer
Planning your children’s b’nai mitzvah can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. By getting an early head start, you can square away some of the more challenging aspects of event planning and leave plenty of time to take care of smaller details. Here are some ideas for when to take care of certain aspects of your b’nai mitzvah, so you can have as much fun as your child on their big day instead of stressing out.
A year (or more) before:
Determine your budget: The entirety of party planning will be dependent on how big your budget is. With a larger budget, you can have a great deal of flexibility when choosing a venue, entertainment and other services; while a smaller budget means that there are fewer individual services to worry about.
Plan a guest list: The number of people you invite will influence how big of a venue you need, how much food and how much themed merch you need to order if that’s something you’re interested in. Make sure you have your guests’ addresses and contact information to send them save-the-dates and invitations.
Pick a theme: It’s your child’s big day, so they should be able to pick a theme that reflects their interests, talents and who they are as a person.
Hire a planner: If you have space in the budget for it, an event planner can take a lot of the pressure off of you by suggesting catering services, handling decorations and more.
10-plus months before:
Research venues: Consider the type of atmosphere you might want to have. If you want to spend a portion of the event outside,
venues with outdoor spaces might be ideal.
For a classier affair, a hotel or catering hall can provide that atmosphere. Some public spaces, like aquariums and museums, even offer space rentals for parties.
Research and hire vendors: Catering is always a must, and while some venues have their own catering services, others do not. Reaching out to other vendors, such as photographers, DJs and entertainers, gives them plenty of time to prepare for the event.
Choose a b’nai mitzvah project: Start brainstorming with your child about how they can use their b’nai mitzvah to do good in the community. You can search for volunteer opportunities relating to their interests, or identify a social issue they’re passionate about.
Six to nine months before:
Order and send out save-the-dates: While they’re not official invitations, save-thedates inform people about your child’s b’nai mitzvah in advance. This can be especially helpful if they need to travel, so they have time to make plans.
Pick out invitations: Since these are official, they’re usually much more elaborate than save-the-dates. You should mail them out two or three months before the event.
Research decorations and rentals: If you have a planner, they might be able to take care of this for you, but if not, it’s a smart idea to identify a business that can make party decorations. You may also need to rent supplies including tents, tables and photo booths.
Three to six months before:
Put together a photo montage: Start looking through those baby photos so you can put together a video to be shown at the event.
Pick out attire:Visit a formalwear shop to pick out suits and dresses. As the event approaches, you can get them tailored to fit you better.
Do a menu tasting:Sample dishes from your chosen caterer to determine what goes on the menu. Make sure to include dishes that the guests like, but also ones that the b’nai mitzvah likes. It’s also important to consider kosher and vegetarian/vegan options if any of your guests have particular dietary needs.
Two months before:
Plan a candle-lighting ceremony: Pick out which family and friends will be lighting each of the 13 candles. To make the ceremony easier, you and your child can write a script for it — rhyming couplets and short poems are a common format.
Book transportation: While some of your guests may drive to the synagogue for the ceremony, others may have flown in or have been dropped off by their parents. Booking transportation, such as private buses, can make the trip from the ceremony to the reception much smoother.
Order dessert: Don’t forget the cake!
One month before:
Book hair and makeup appointments: You want to be sure that you and your child both look your best for your child’s special day.
Do a b’nai mitzvah rehearsal: Some synagogues will hold b’nai mitzvah rehearsals so participating families can familiarize themselves with the format of the service, and so the b’nai mitzvah has time to practice reading their Torah portion in front of an audience.
Plan seating arrangements: Determine which of your guests will be sitting where. It’s common to have one large table for all of the children, but when seating family and adult friends together, consider who knows each other when planning seating. When you’re done, be sure to send it to the venue so they can have seating ready on the big day.
One week before:
Finalize everything!: Make sure that everything is prepared, and if there are any last-minute changes that need to be made, inform your vendors or the venue.
Set aside tips: It’s common courtesy to tip vendors for their hard work. Sorting tips before the event makes it easier to give them out, so you don’t have to worry about it after the fact.
De-stress: Get some rest before the b’nai mitzvah! You’ve earned it. PJC
Jillian Diamond writes for the Washington Jewish Week, an affiliated publication where this first appeared.
Photo courtesy of Suzy Hazelwood via Pexels
Party Planning
Picking a place for the perfect Pittsburgh party
caterer due to dietary restrictions such as kosher, they can do so without a buyout fee, Crawford said.
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
Abat mitzvah in a barn may be Instagrammable, but a perfect venue needs more than photographability. Three Pittsburgh places promise patrons great spaces and customizable offerings for a big blowout, small affair or anything in between.
Franklin on Penn
Franklin on Penn, a former bank blending modern and early 20th-century charm, is regularly used for weddings, but the Strip District-based space can handle events “across the board,” owner Melissa Crawford said. “We’ve done corporate galas. We’ve done fashion shows. We’ve done bridal showers and baby showers.”
Located at 2815 Penn Ave., the one-time Franklin Savings and Trust Company is adaptable. If both the main and mezzanine levels are used, Franklin on Penn can seat 250 guests. If a “more cocktail style” is desired, the venue can hold up to 325, Crawford said.
One of Franklin on Penn’s biggest draws, its owner said, is that clients can bring their own alcohol.
For kosher-conscious clients the venue is a plus. Franklin on Penn partners with DiAnoia’s Eatery, and though the family-owned Italian restaurant handles most events, if a client wants to use another
Franklin on Penn is a larger space but has a more intimate story. Its owner, who also spent 13 years as a wedding planner and coordinator, told the Chronicle, “We are a small business. I am not a hotel run by a corporation. It’s me. I have a team of people, so when you choose to book an event at our space you are supporting me and my team. It’s how I take care of my family, how I am able to keep people employed and promote people, and give people other opportunities.”
Magarac
One needn’t know the legend of Joe Magarac to have a legendary event. Magarac, located at 4071 Liberty Ave., pays homage to a late 19th-century tale. Born in an ore mountain, Magarac was 7 feet tall and worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in the steel mills, according to Jody Walter, Magarac’s owner and event coordinator.
Situated between Bloomfield and Lawrenceville, Magarac boasts a unique setup honoring the area’s history. Along with a small museum and gallery of industrial furniture there’s a party space complete with a bar, high top tables, flat screen TV and 18-foot communal dining table.
“The layout of the place is long and skinny, so you can have 20 people in there and it doesn’t feel too cavernous, and you can have 90 people in there and it also feels great,” Walter said.
The furniture, which keeps with the
industrial aesthetic, is made of reclaimed Pittsburgh steel and was built by co-owner John Walter of Iron Eden.
Along with a three-season outdoor courtyard, Magarac’s food and drink policy is a selling point for many patrons: It’s all BYO. The venue has an on-site kitchen for prep but cooking must be done elsewhere.
For those seeking to do a kosher affair in a place that “tells a little bit of a Pittsburgh story,” Magarac is a perfect option, Walter said. “It has a Pittsburgh vibe but not black and gold, and it gives a nod to the history of the city.”
Sunken Bus Studios
Comedians are frequent guests of Sunken Bus Studios, but the venue is no joke. Located at 3312 Babcock Blvd., Sunken Bus can seat 200 people “very comfortably,” said its owner Steve Hofstetter.
Along with boasting a dance studio, outdoor patio large enough for food trucks and numerous customizable spaces, the venue has its own parking lot.
In the five months since receiving its occupancy permit, Sunken Bus has grown.
“We’re constantly adding to the place, constantly improving,” Hofstetter said. “Our space is three floors and there is an entry to each floor.” The flexible venue is ADA compliant, which runs counter to some older Pittsburgh places “where you have to worry about stairs.”
Inside Sunken Bus is a smaller room that seats 14. Usable as either a green room or bridal
suite, the space can function independently or in tandem with an event occurring elsewhere on site.
“There’s something interesting almost everywhere you look,” Hofstetter said. There’s an art gallery, flexible lighting, iconic doors and a recording studio that can “hold a chamber orchestra.”
Because Sunken Bus is so new, “we have technology that a lot of other places don’t have,” he added.
The venue is routinely used for live shows and rentals. Apart from office space, there’s also a film production studio for set building and filming. Hofstetter, a Jewish comedian with more than 200 million views on YouTube, hopes patrons get creative when considering Sunken Bus.
Pittsburgh has its fair share of barns, country clubs and museums; this place is uniquely different, its owner said. “Because we don’t have a kitchen, bringing in kosher catering is easy. You don’t have to worry about what else has been there.”
Years ago, the North Hills space operated as Melwood Church.
Hofstetter, who also converted a Stanton Heights church into a live/work/play environment for comedians, said he’s proud of offering Pittsburghers a new and interesting venue: “It’s a little extra fun to throw an event in a former church owned by a Jewish guy.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
— VENUES —
p Sunken Bus Studios
Photo courtesy of Sunken Bus Studios
p Magarac
Photo courtesy of Jody Walter
p Franklin on Penn
Photo courtesy of Melissa Crawford
Party Planning
Best way to approach the big day: Be thoughtful and enjoy the Macarena
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
On Reddit, the popular social news website, users seek stock tips, travel advice and information on matters ranging from banal to ludicrous. A question raised within the subreddit (or community) called “r/weddingplanning,” asked people to recall snafus from their special day.
One user described not having enough people to lift her husband in the chair during dancing. Another person recalled the glass not breaking under the chuppah. Scattered within the thread are stories of lost rings, wrong playlists and off-script speeches.
Mishaps make good posts, but in real life, accidents, freak weather patterns and other unexpected episodes are rarely enjoyable, according to local event planners.
Margie Stang has worked in the industry for nearly 20 years.
One of the best things people can do is “hire a planner,” she said.
A coordinator is responsible for overseeing the details. So whether it’s ensuring the venue has enough power to avoid a fuse blowing midway through the bash, or confirming that the guest list includes everyone’s table
Photo by Trung Nguyen via Pexels
assignment — because someone is going to lose their seating card — there are countless things to consider, she said.
Shari Zatman, owner of Perfectly Planned by Shari, also recommends hiring an expert. Zatman has more than two decades of experience planning, designing and producing weddings and events.
For celebrants, the stress of managing every responsibility often leads to “not being present, and that’s the biggest mistake you can make,” Zatman said.
Without a planner, the bride, groom or host can be running around a space setting up decorations, monitoring their watch with a schedule in hand, or intermittently approaching the booth midway through the
Macarena to remind the DJ about which Uncle Chaim is cutting the challah. Stang and Zatman both told the Chronicle they know that not everyone is going to hire a party planner.
If someone chooses to manage their own affair, make sure to ask “every question,” Stang said. Also, especially important is starting the ceremony on time. “People are coming to celebrate, they’re not coming to wait.”
When it comes to the big day, one of the biggest faux pas is beginning the ceremony later than expected, according to The Knot, a wedding planning website.
Tensions can be high and “there’s very little room for error,” an industry expert told the Chronicle.
People often have dream scenarios, but reality has to be considered, Zatman said. It’s nice to have a beautiful outdoor setting, but what happens when it rains and there’s no backup plan? Tents can’t always be rented the same day, and even if someone says, “We’ll just go inside,” is there enough room? Are there enough chairs? Is there an aisle? Can a chuppah be transported?
Squirrel Hill resident Tzi Friedman has managed countless scenarios in the years since becoming a professional photographer. Though weather is often unpredictable,
other aspects are easier to tackle, he said. Styles and tastes vary, so when choosing a photographer, “it’s important to partner with someone that can help you make memories you want for years to come,” Friedman said. Once a photographer is selected, make use of that person’s time and expertise, he continued. “Be upfront about what kinds of pictures you want, who the VIPs are and what special moments are going to happen. A prepared photographer can focus on how to capture the best shot instead of figuring out which pictures to take.”
If it feels like there’s a lot of decisions to make, it’s because there are. Zola, a wedding planning site, estimates couples make more than 500 choices leading up to an event.
Picking a venue is a big one. After locating the perfect place, one Reddit user described arriving at their wedding only to discover that the high school next door was hosting a marching band competition at the same time.
Picolos, snare drums and tubas aren’t always avoidable. When it comes to preparing for the big day — or simply going about life — the best advice is approaching each situation thoughtfully, Zatman said. “Think about your decisions.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Party Planning
Perfect for a party: Baked mock crab dip
By Jessica Grann | Special for the Chronicle
My recipe for baked mock crab dip is a perfect dish to serve at a party. It may be pushing boundaries for some, but I love to experiment with lots of different foods and I always enjoy the challenge of making something blatantly not kosher into something that is.
I’m not looking to persuade you into trying this if it makes you uncomfortable — and I’m also not going to pretend that mock shellfish tastes like real shellfish in consistency or flavor. Like a hamburger with vegan cheese, it can be great. Are you aware that it’s not the same? Yes, yet it is definitely fun, which is what parties are all about.
Little bites of cheese, canapes and cake: That’s what parties always meant to me when I was growing up and I’ve happily continued with the tradition.
This is far from the healthiest of recipes I’ve published, but indulging on small amounts of rich foods is also what parties are all about. Once or twice a year, typically in the winter, I serve this dip and it gets devoured.
Ingredients:
1 16-ounce package of mock “crab” seafood flakes
12 ounces cream cheese, 1 ½ bars
5 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/3 cup sour cream
1 cup grated cheese; use Muenster or cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1-2 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ cup finely diced onion
2 cloves fresh minced garlic
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup Parmesan cheese
soften for about a half-hour. The cream cheese should still be cool to the touch, but it will be much easier to whip at this temperature.
Use an electric hand mixer to beat the cream cheese for two minutes before adding in the sour cream and mayonnaise and beating the mixture for an additional minute.
Add all of the other ingredients except the mock crab and Parmesan cheese and mix until just combined.
Just two notes about the Old Bay Seasoning: People love it or hate it. If you have not used it before or are not sure if you like it, use 1 teaspoon for the mixture above. Also, Old Bay is super salty, so I don’t call for any added salt to this mixture.
The brand of mock shellfish that I recommend is Dyna-Sea. It’s in the freezer section of my kosher store. The mock crab comes in
sticks or flakes; choose the 16-ounce package of flakes which look more like chunks of crab meat. This product is on the sweeter side and I seasoned this dip strongly to balance that out.
Defrost the package on the counter (or in the fridge 3-4 hours before preparing).
Roughly chop the seafood flakes. They are very firm and chopping helps the mixture blend together better.
Fold the flakes into the cream cheese mixture by hand with a rubber spatula.
Lightly grease a 9-inch-by-9-inch or similar-sized baking dish.
our the dip mixture into the prepared baking dish and smooth it out with the spatula before sprinkling the top with Parmesan cheese. You can add a sprinkle of Old Bay or cayenne pepper for color and to add a little more spice.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the edges are bubbling, then remove to the top of the stove to cool.
You can serve this after it has cooled for 10 minutes, but I find that the flavor mellows and improves if you allow it to rest for a few hours and then rewarm it quickly, covered in foil in the oven, or placed on a warming tray to keep it at an even temperature.
Choose your favorite bread or crackers to serve with the dip. I prefer thinly sliced baguette or Breton and Cabaret crackers, which are strong and can hold the dip without breaking.
Enjoy and bless your hands! PJC
Jessica Grann is a home chef living in Pittsburgh.
p Baked mock crab drip Photo by Wade Grann
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“The beauty of the crocuses,” Vensel said, “is that they’ll be blooming in late January, early February and March, right when we’re researching and writing and reading about the topic.”
And while he’s still working on his final lesson plan, he said, students will be reading the play version of Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl” and “Night” by Elie Wiesel. They’ll also take part in a Holocaust assembly the school has held for the last 15 years.
The students, he said, “get it.” It’s his hope that the crocuses will spark even deeper introspection.
“Maybe they’ll see the crocuses and reflect on the lives that were lost,” he said.
Abbey Nilson is a science teacher at the Shaler Area High School who teaches a sustainability course. She was asked if she wanted to participate in the project by the school’s librarian. Nilson immediately said yes, seeing a connection between the project and what she teaches.
“It’s about people,” she said.
Nilson works with the Millvale Community Development Corporation, which has been working on a community park they’ve named Rainbow Raccoon Park.
Forty students took a field trip to the park, she said, and planted the bulbs.
Graffiti:
The students made a sign announcing the project to community members who use the park. A blind student even created a Braille message to make it more accessible.
As part of the lessons attached to the project, Nilson said the school had Lynn Ravas, a retired teacher whose father survived the Holocaust, talk to the students.
The students, Nilson said, were thrilled to participate in the project.
“They were immediately super excited
Continued from page 1
by Hamas to identify Israeli military targets. The symbol is also used “to represent Hamas itself and glorify its use of violence,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.
The same person painted “Funds genocide" with an arrow pointing from the words "Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh"; and "♥ Jews, Hate Zionists” on a sign at the Federation.
The incident at Chabad was captured on video and investigators believe that Lubit painted the graffiti.
Hamad, the complaint alleges, purchased Strawberry Fields red spray paint at a Walmart. In both incidents, the person committing the crimes left in a dark sedan, later identified as a BMW owned by Hamad.
When law enforcement executed a search warrant on Hamad’s residence, they found the spray paint can, a cell phone and a sweatshirt with an inverted triangle symbol and the words “Respect existence or expect resistance,” and the image of a masked individual carrying a firearm.
Evidence found during a subsequent search of Hamad’s phone included a Google Maps search history using the terms “Chabad,” “Chabad of Squirrel Hill,” “Chabad Young Professionals Pittsburgh,” “Chabad Young,” “Chabad Lubavitch of Western Pennsylvania” and “245 Melwood Avenue,” the final search being for Lubit’s address at the time.
The phone also included contact information for Lubit, as well as her username “Warsaw,” for Signal, an encrypted messaging app.
Text conversations on the app paint Hamad as a radicalized individual committed to the idea of violence and with an allegiance to the terrorist group Hamas.
“My ultimate goal in life is Shaheed,” he wrote. “Shaheed” is defined as a martyr in the Islamic faith.
to partake in it,” she said. “When Lynn was speaking, they had some great questions. They really embraced it.”
Seneca Valley Intermediate High School English teacher Michele Russo has a passion for Holocaust education. She has traveled to Poland with Classrooms Without Borders and is a Jewish Foundation for the Righteous Alfred Lerner Fellow. She also runs the school’s LIGHT Initiative Center.
“When Emily told me about the crocuses, I was like, ‘That is cool,’” she said.
Unlike Vensel or Nilson, though, Russo couldn’t plant the flowers outside because of construction taking place. So, instead the students will plant the bulbs in pots and place them in the LIGHT Initiative’s windows.
In addition to lessons about the Holocaust, Russo is also connecting the project to Grief Awareness Day. Students will paint flat stones and place them with the bulbs. Russo said even that lesson connects to Judaism, through the tradition of placing stones on tombstones in cemeteries.
The students will also read “Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz.”
The project will conclude with students taking part in the Holocaust Center’s Waldman Arts and Writing Competition.
Russo hopes the crocuses will begin to bloom as the students are starting the competition.
If all goes well, Russo said the flowers will be planted outside once construction is completed at the school and they’ll do the project again next year.
For the HCOP, the Crocus Project is the start of a busy period.
The organization will commemorate the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht on Nov. 10 with the program “Music in Theresienstadt: A Conversation with Anna Hájková.” The event connects the outbreak of public anti-Jewish violence in Nazi Germany with the cultural production in the Theresienstadt ghetto, where 140,000 inmates played, composed and listened to music.
On Nov. 14, “A Night of Hops and Hopes” takes place at Acclamation Brewery with Generations Speaker Debbie Stueber. The program will feature Pittsburgh musician Liz Berlin as a guest bartender.
On Nov. 20, the second “Reckoning with Antisemitism: Listening to Jewish Voices” program will take place, presented by Reckoning with Antisemitism as Christians, created in partnership with the Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania and the Holocaust Center.
“We have three totally interesting, different programs taking place,” Loeb said. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Other messages from Hamad included: “My goals are very different from the average person”; “I don’t see myself living long”; “For me it’s really hard to think long term”; and “But my heart yearns for being with my brothers overseas.”
Email records include two online purchases for explosive material in June 2024 that were delivered to Hamad’s home address.
buildings for synagogues. Idk why they use their own spaces. Idk if it’s a funding thing or lack of people”; “I can literally feel myself starting to see Jews as my enemies”; and “I’m tired of the voice in my head, telling me that a Jew would not go with the oppressed.”
After police obtained Lubit’s cell phone they found that she conducted a factory reset of the device one day after the execution of the search
“We are committed to being Jewish loudly and proudly in the fact of antisemitism and the efforts of antisemitic vandals to intimidate us.”
—RABBI HENOCH ROSENFELD
Signal messages between Hamad and a person identified as “Individual 1” reveal that the two made plans to practice lighting a “big shell” in July 2024, as practice for a future explosion.
Another message sent to a second individual includes a photo that appears to show Hamad wearing a green headband with the Hamas logo and the same black sweatshirt found in his home.
In November 2023, Lubit signed a letter posted to Rep. Summer Lee’s official House website that was signed by “130+ members of the Pittsburgh Jewish community.” It thanked Lee for her position calling on the Biden administration and Congress to facilitate a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. Lee began calling for a cease-fire shortly after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel.
In Signal messages between Lubit and Hamad, Lubit wrote: “If I join you in doing graffiti on this building it matters to me that it is in good taste”; “If we target Jewish institutions before Zionist non Jewish ones I think they’ll see it as a Jew v other thing”; “Decorating Chabad”; “They usually use
warrant at Hamad’s home.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, the two face a maximum total sentence of two years in prison, a fine of $200,000 or both.
Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey visited both sites the morning of the vandalism. He said in a written statement to the Chronicle that threats of violence targeting people and places based on religion or race are unacceptable.
“As the arrest of the two individuals who defaced two Jewish Buildings demonstrate, we remain committed to finding and arresting those who try to invoke fear and hate through criminal acts of intimidation,” he said.
In a statement that expressed gratitude to law enforcement organizations involved with the investigation, Federation President and CEO Jeff Finkelstein said there has been a steady rise in antisemitism during the past year.
“This month, as we marked the sixth anniversary of the attack at the Tree of Life building, the deadliest antisemitic incident in U.S. history, our community remains acutely aware of the need for vigilance,” Finkelstein said. “This recent attack on our institutions and homes underscores the importance of the Federation’s
work in enhancing security and fostering resilience across our community.”
Chabad of Squirrel Hill Rabbi Yisroel Altein said he was very grateful to law enforcement, noting that patience was required while the investigation was underway.
Shawn Brokos, the Federation’s community security director, said these types of investigations take time and that the breadth of the information in the criminal complaint bears out the wait.
The arrest, she said, highlights the importance of community involvement. She noted t hat people who shared information and video recordings helped law enforcement with its investigation.
“We are all responsible for our own security,” Brokos said. “That’s each and every one of us. It’s a team effort. That’s how this case went. It was a collaborative effort.”
Chabad Young Professionals Rabbi Henoch Rosenfeld said that he has been in touch with Brokos and the Pittsburgh police since learning his organization was searched online by Hamad.
“We remain very confident in the safety precautions we’ve already implemented and will continue to enhance them at the guidance of local authorities,” he said.
R osenfeld stressed that Chabad Young Professionals will not be intimidated.
“We are committed to being Jewish loudly and proudly in the fact of antisemitism and the efforts of antisemitic vandals to intimidate us,” he said. “It only strengthens our resolve to spread goodness and kindness — values that they clearly oppose.”
For his part, Altein’s reaction best summed up the feelings of the community.
“Thank God that they were able to find and arrest the perpetrators,” he said. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
p Dorseyville Middle School students planted yellow crocuses in a courtyard that was recently renovated.
Photo courtesy of Scott Vensel
We reached the end of another October, which means that here in Squirrel Hill, our Jewish community was experiencing a unique nexus of mourning, faced with the surreality of both the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, and the deadliest attack on Jews in the history of the United States.
but inappropriate with supporters of terrorism? What is the difference between praising Hitler’s genocide of Jews and Hamas’ attempt? Does anyone think that there is legitimate disparity between calling for Jewish slaughter because of white nationalism versus Islamic fundamentalism? If not, why treat the crystal clear “intifada” any differently than “gas the Jews?”
Perhaps the most critical dilemma: Why does so much of the world have such excruciating difficulty in calling out what is demonstrated time and time again — that the left is more than capable of its own
allowed it to not only continue, but grow, evolve and fester under society’s ignorant surface, waiting for the time when it could proudly rear its toxic head, in public, en masse. That culmination is what is playing out around the Western world today.
Setting an empathy trap by disguising bigotry as a movement for social justice aids in promoting popularity among masses and ensures longevity. Doing so also hides inherent flaws of the left within faux goodwill and humanity. It provides the gift of espousing all desired hate under the security blanket of the “right side
tarnish its credibility in agenda. For its dedicated followers, to admit a fall of liberalism would risk shattering the crucial identity of always being safely on the right side of everything. And for Western society, such a dark acknowledgment would be a crashing down of a much needed worldview that uplifts a pure ideological ideal and hides the fact that it is possible for moral rot to infect supposed progressiveness as well.
It’s poignant that these two events connect in time, as they bridge two distinct realities of Jew-hatred in the world. The attack on the Squirrel Hill congregations encapsulates the traditional antisemitism of the conservative right: white nationalism, “great replacement theory,” Holocaust denial and/or disdain that Hitler didn’t finish the job. One might even say that it exhibited the “right” kind of antisemitism, as in the type that’s generally agreed upon by modern society as unacceptable, and the kind that is acceptable to publicly denounce.
The massacre in Israel, in contrast, exposed the “wrong” kind of antisemitism, the kind that we were never allowed to acknowledge: the deeply ingrained Jew-hatred of the far left.
The irony is that both bigotries operate from the same root: a desire to dehumanize Jews, with the goal of then laying rational framework for extermination. Society doesn’t dismiss these threats as frivolous when they come from the antisemitic right. When Neo-Nazis say they want Jews dead, we take them at their word. It’s an agreed-upon truth that such groups should be reviled for their Jew-hatred, which fortunately isn’t up for discussion in civilized society. However, a disturbing pattern has emerged within said “civilized society,” where those who are able to condemn the evil in such men’s calls will, in the very same breath, condone identical calls from their parallels across the political spectrum. As a result, we had the unbelievable insult of those who easily condemned the 10/27 murders later glorifying 10/7’s own only five years later.
So the questions remain: Why is one hate recognized, while the other is unable to be addressed? One black and white, but the other gray? One simple fact, yet the other requires “context?”
How can Holocaust revisionism remain unacceptable, yet Holocaust inversion be heralded as trendy truth? Why is it morally appropriate to decry supporters of Nazism,
“Ihave a funny story to tell you” — that’s how my youngest son began our conversation this morning. He’s a lone soldier reservist serving in a
So the questions remain: Why is one hate recognized, while the other is unable to be addressed? One black and white, but the other gray? One simple fact, yet the other requires “context?”
brand of bigotry?
Even more importantly, why is it so utterly essential to hide it?
To answer these questions, one must address what the far left simply refuses to, and what makes its antisemitism so much more insidious than that of the far right: its fundamental nature of concealment and manipulation. As with all bugs (or features?) of the far left, no member is allowed to expose and discuss them, lest one be expelled from good liberal graces and labeled an intolerant conservative. This is standard procedure for leftist rot of misogyny, racism, and clearly antisemitism.
Though the far right is more than content to proclaim its Jew hate proudly and loudly, the left’s movement relies on concealment of both reality and agenda in order to successfully manipulate its audience. Jews are relabeled as Zionists and antisemitism is repackaged as anti-Zionism for more easily accepted slander. Others’ crimes against Jews are projected back onto us, and we are blamed for fighting back against others’ attempts at our very extermination.
But concealment also makes it easier for a strain of antisemitism to survive across nations and for generations. Anything obviously in the open, like the far right’s stark method, can be addressed and is more likely to be squashed. Contrarily, a concealed problem cannot be addressed and therefore never solved. And so keeping antisemitism hidden in the sewers of the far left has
non-mother approved place and I’m the mom sitting in the U.S. wishing, well, wishing lots of things: an end to the war, the return of the hostages, to be able to hug my kids and never let go….
I’m a boy-mom having raised five amazing sons to adulthood. As kids, they never had guns to play with because I just didn’t approve of that. But boys will be boys, and they managed to make
of history” and the guarantee of social immunity from criticism of moral failing. Because let’s be honest: The ideological far left doesn’t actually want safe spaces from intolerance; it simply wants a safe space to practice its own brands of it.
This all helps to hide other unsavory realiltie, starting with the truth that for the liberal hypocrites calling out the antisemitism of conservative offenders, like 10/27, it is less of a condemnation of the actual hate as it is simply a condemnation of the perpetrator — that is, less of a problem with those being victimized as with the ideological enemy doing the victimizing. Combined with the fact that so many are desperate to fill an internal emptiness with something that promises to supply much desired purpose, and the appeal of an outlet for both worldly and personal loathing, this movement might come a little too close to having to admit the following: that they might have more in common than stomachable with the Nazis they base their entire identities around despising. For those who actually have the global and self-awareness to reach this realization, that’s something that must never be acknowledged.
All of these predispositions to antisemitism and bigotry at large must be denied and hidden at all costs, as their mere existence is a liability to the far left. To have such faults be publicly exposed would not only tear apart the strived-for reputation of a timeless beacon of benevolence, but it would fatally
guns from sticks, or other toys. Fast forward, and, one by one, four of them made aliyah and enlisted in the IDF as lone soldiers.
My life became very different — now they had real guns. It’s amazing how over the last 11 years, since the first one drafted, how much army lingo I now know and how many IDF service-related things are now the norm for us. Conversations with my
But this ideal has already come crashing down, whether others choose to acknowledge it or not. The simple existence of acceptable antisemitism is an inarguable symptom of decline. Just as the individual antisemite is always concealing an internal void, a society’s infection of antisemitism always reveals a rotting hole of moral and ethical failure, no matter its political roots.
The West should be more concerned about genuinely addressing these fatal flaws than continuing to bury them, and at a certain point, will be forced to take accountability for such tolerance of preferred intolerance.
This has no doubt been an extremely uncomfortable realization for many after last October, but it’s an ever-growing sinister truth that needs to be faced, with finality. While it may be impossible to eradicate antisemitism, it’s essential to ensure all varieties are exposed as equally egregious, with no type given the benefit of silence. Choosing to ignore the discomfort of such knowledge leads only in one direction, which we all witnessed this past year.
The lights are all on, and the cat is out of the bag. There can be no more pretense that Jewhatred is only a product of a single side while anniversaries are forced on us to remember the hate of both. Jews simply no longer have the luxury of friends only calling out bigotry from comfortable avenues. And in the decaying state of this world, neither should anyone else.
For those who place any value in consciousness, facts and humanity, and not just when it applies to one side of the aisle, it’s past time to begin denouncing hate that stems from any side, any party, any ideology, and not simply from that which one already comfortably opposes.
And for those who have any true concern for the safety and well-being of Jews and society as a whole, confronting and exposing this long concealed reality is the only way to ensure that everything which caused the world to say “never again” truly never happens ever again. PJC
Sarah Kendis is a musician living in Pittsburgh.
sons have regularly included what kind of gun they have, or how excited they were to get a really cool sight for their gun. Chats on our family WhatsApp might be about the difference between lefty and righty shooting and good eye- and ear-protection. Two of my soldiers were magistim, and my brain now contains details about a gun that
Chronicle poll results: Security at synagogues
Last week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “Do you think the level of security at the synagogue you frequent is sufficient?” Of the 208 people who responded, 72% said yes; 19% said no; and 9% had no opinion. Comments were submitted by 43 people. A few follow.
No level of security can stop a person intent upon destruction.
Within budget constraints, I believe that most synagogues are trying their best. I feel that it is the responsibility of the entire congregation to keep their eyes open and enhance our safety. We have to have one another’s back and more congregants need to step up to the plate to participate in our safety protocol.
It’s a fine line that our synagogues walk and I’m appreciative. They want to be welcoming and preserve our security
Stufflebeam:
Continued from page 14
I could not in a million trillion years have ever fathomed knowing.
Fast forward again to today, more than a year into a multifrontal war with three of my now reservist sons serving. They are in their second and third rounds of miluim , reserve duty, and while I pray along with everyone else for this to end, I don’t see it happening before they finish this current round of duty. I consider myself lucky because they do have a sort of regular schedule where they have a yetziyah — occasional time “out.” One of my sons had the last few days off and I got to talk to him twice! He went back this morning, just as my youngest son got “out.” (I really need the IDF to get on board with the idea of letting all three of them out at the same time just so I can breathe.)
Since the war started, I cherish every single text and call even more, and since the war, I strive to have normal conversations with them. So, when my youngest called this morning and started by saying he had a “funny story” to tell me,
Do you think the level of security
The loss of a ‘legend’
I didn’t expect that story to include the word shrapnel. And now shrapnel has become a new word in our “normal” conversation. Again, I feel lucky and thank G-d, it was really, really minor, and that he’s fine, it’s a band-aid level injury, and
at the same time. The police presence on the High Holidays is good. Otherwise, I think they err on the side of welcoming.
It saddens me that this is even necessary.
There certainly is attention paid to security, but I feel it’s not adequate, on weekdays in particular.
We have an armed guard for services. But putting up a sign that says “No firearms allowed in the building” was voted down by our board. We are in Florida. I think this is a mistake, but we were outvoted.
It is difficult to balance a welcoming spirit with intrusiveness and safety. Heavy security can actually change the character of an institution.
We are careful who we let in the building, and whoever opens the door has an emergency button around his or her
just keeping the conversation light and normal. In my head, though, it’s anything but. In my head, I see that my son, all my sons, are in danger and I’m half a world away and helpless to protect them. Of course, I’ve known this all along, but
I think the very sad truth is that after more than a year, this is just normal to them, another day at the office, one I fear that he and all soldiers will be dealing with for long after this war is over.
as one of my other sons told me, that’s the preferred level of shrapnel injury (I don’t know why he thinks “preferred” and “shrapnel injury” should be in the same sentence). The medic told him his body will either expel it or absorb it on its own — “so now I’ll have extra iron,” he tells me. Great — my very own Iron Man.
I carry on talking with him, joking and cajoling, and above all not crying,
that knowing never included the word “shrapnel” before and that word has opened a chasm I don’t think I’ll be able to close. I think about my kids, my friends’ kids, really every single soldier and all their parents, and I know it’s the same for all of us.
Early on in my lone soldier mom journey, I somewhat jokingly established a “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy. As the
— LETTERS —
The passing of Dr. Walter Jacob, Rabbi Emeritus of Rodef Shalom Congregation, is the loss of a legend and profound sorrow for the community (“Rabbi Walter Jacob dies at 94,” Nov. 1). Dr. Jacob presided over my confirmation in 1972.
For decades, Walter Jabob served the temple that he loved with distinction, dignity and scholarship. He suffered many tragedies in his life, but nothing could dim his involvement in the life of the congregation and the affection that he had for his synagogue and congregants.
Dr. Walter Jacob shall be forever remembered fondly and with gratitude.
Oren Spiegler Peters Township
neck that goes right to the police station. There are several layers of security including cameras, combination door locks and vigilant congregants.
We trust our leaders to provide the security we need. We feel as safe as you can be.
There is no guarantee of safety anywhere, but with the help of our community security staff and the support of the local police, I believe that there is sufficient security in my synagogue, although there could always be more. PJC
Compiled by Toby Tabachnick
Chronicle weekly poll question: When casting your ballot for president, were you confident you made the right choice? Go to pittsburghjewishchronicle.org to respond. PJC
years have progressed, my sons have all held to that policy pretty well. I’m thankful that they have their father and each other to talk details to; that’s not my role. When I recounted this story to some lone soldier mom friends this morning, they asked me why he even mentioned it. I think the very sad truth is that after more than a year, this is just normal to them, another day at the office, one I fear that he and all soldiers will be dealing with for long after this war is over.
So, for now, I will continue to put one foot in front of the other, remember to breathe in and out, enjoy talking to my soldiers when I can, while I rely on the support of my family and my lone soldier mom friends. Going forward for the foreseeable future, I will, as I have since Oct. 7, 2023, have my phone almost physically attached to me and now my updated reality of normal. PJC
A former Pittsburgh resident, Stacie Rojas Stufflebeam is the mother of five sons, four of them are reservist lone soldiers in the IDF. She serves as executive director of the Michael Levin Lone Soldier Foundation, and lives with her husband in the USA.
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Life & Culture
Poet Valerie Bacharach’s
By Toby Tabachnick | Editor
Valerie Bacharach didn’t set out to write Jewish poems. But in crafting her debut full-length collection, “Last Glimpse” (Broadstone Books), Jewish themes just “naturally arose,” she told the Chronicle. In fact, most of the 52 poems in this accessible and moving collection are infused with Judaism.
Whether it is the poet’s imagining of her ancestors in the Pale of Settlement, her study of the Talmud through the practice of Daf Yomi, or her contemplation of Jewish objects holding centuries of significance, it’s clear that Bacharach feels a profound link to her heritage.
She dedicates her book to her family, “past, present and future,” and those generational ties — the sense of deep and timeless connection — resonate throughout the book.
Bacharach began writing poetry 11 years ago as a way to process her overwhelming sorrow after her son Nathan died at the age of 26, and the landscape of grief and loss is central in many of her poems. She writes not only of the loss of her son and parents, but of historical trauma suffered by the Jewish people, heartache that stretches across years and continents.
In “Dear Unknown Great-Grandfathers,” she imagines the pain of leaving behind wives in the old country, “their bellies full of children,” in search of a better life. In “What They Left Behind,” dedicated to her greatgrandparents, Bacharach lists the things that may not have accompanied her ancestors as they emigrated to America. Each word conjures an image and a sentiment: “A pale yellow apron,”; “Her mother’s crocheted handkerchief”; “A bushel of potatoes”; “Shabbat candlesticks”; “A forgotten conversation.”
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B acharach’s personal grief is tenderly shared in poems such as “Every July, 30,” as she describes the ritual of lighting a yahrzeit candle for her son and remembering:
“the way you slurped pasta, chin reddened with sauce, swirled ice cream in a lemony bowl until it turned to cold soup, laughed with your brother about some joke I can’t remember.”
Or in “Wind Phone: Nathan,” where she speaks to her late son, her heart breaking through the simplest of words: “Here in Pittsburgh, in the house you never saw.” So much sorrow, so eloquently and succinctly shared.
Bacharach writes of another kind of loss, her father’s dementia, in “The Stuntman,” portraying the harsh reality of dwindling cognizance while writing with sensitivity of the “wonderous new life” of a mind gone rogue.
“Last Glimpse” is elegant and deeply relatable. I cried several times while reading Bacharach’s moving words. With a simple turn of phrase, a straightforward precept, the poet conveys so much.
In “Bach Trio Sonata #6 in G Major,” an elegy to her mother, she writes: “I have abandoned myself to grief’s lush lands,” and then, finally, honestly, she says what so many of us feel:
“I wish I had been more tender with my mother.
I miss having parents. I’m too old to be an orphan.”
A m ember of Carlow University’s Madwomen in the Attic Workshops, Bacharach received her MFA from Carlow in 2020 and previously published two chapbooks. PJC
Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
p Valerie Bacharach Photo courtesy of Valerie Bacharach p Book cover
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B'nai Mitzvah
Alexander Phillip Chasin, son of Megan and Adam Chasin, will become a bar mitzvah at Adat Shalom during Shabbat morning services on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024. His proud grandparents are Janet and Scott Sutton and Irene and Stephen Chasin.
celebrated his bar mitzvah on Saturday, Sept. 28, at The Community Synagogue in Westport, Connecticut. Lewis is the son of Heidi and Matthew Meyers, and the brother of Paz, Simon and Ruby, all of Westport, Connecticut. His grandparents are Jack and Bernice Meyers of Pittsburgh (Oakland), and John Stayn of Lexington, Massachusetts, and the late Patricia Stayn. Lewis is an eighth grader at Hopkins School in New Haven, Connecticut, where he most enjoys studying Latin and Mandarin, swimming on the varsity swim team and playing in the Junior School orchestra. Lewis also swims competitively for the Stamford Sailfish and plays cello as a member of the Norwalk Youth Symphony. He loves attending Camp Ramah in Palmer, Massachusetts, each summer. For his mitzvah project, Lewis is channeling his strong personal interest in technology by helping senior residents with their technology needs at
, daughter of Edna Neivert and David LaRose, will celebrate becoming a bat mitzvah on Nov. 9, 2024. Alia is the granddaughter of Arlene Neivert and the late Elton Neivert, and Barbara and Albert LaRose. Alia attends Community Day School and her hobbies include performing magic tricks and playing Dungeons & Dragons and Roblox. Alia’s mitzvah project is using her magic skills to support and promote The Friendship Circle. PJC
Each to be judged on its own merits
Avraham Avinu, our father Abraham, was unique in his time. While others were idol worshippers, he intuited that there was one all-powerful, albeit invisible, God. And as the Torah shows us, he was a man of faith in that God. The faith is tested throughout the book of Genesis. One, or perhaps two, of those tests of that faith comes in the portion of Lech Lecha, where God commands the then-Avram to “Go.” There is a dispute in our tradition whether it is a command or an invitation. But he is told to leave behind his father’s house, his birthplace and the land where he grew up, and head to a new place that God would show him.
Our
Avraham was no refugee. He did not need to leave. No one was forcing him out. But what he needed to do was abandon his birth family and the land where he grew up. That is why he is told in such a descriptive manner of the place he was leaving. God simply could have said “Leave this place.” But instead, we are told of all the different ways this home influenced him. This is the land and home that helped to form him as a person. This is where his parents raised him.
But those influences could not be part of his life if he was going to evolve further as the founder of a great people. Furthermore, he had to prove his faith in God by agreeing to leave without having any knowledge of the land to which he was headed, a land where he would be the father of a great nation of some kind.
By his taking on the belief in God, Avram was no longer really “at home” in his native land, its people and their influences anymore, including his birth family. By leaving he could escape their influence, sideways glances and judgment. And he had enough faith in God that his new place would be an improvement.
Rabbi Sampson Raphael Hirsch interprets the words Lech Lecha to mean that Avram
is going into some form of isolation before becoming a great leader. This is much like Moses, who disassociates from Egypt and his own people in Midian before coming back to lead them out of Egypt. They both needed to get away from their environments so they could begin their transformation into great leaders.
A Midrash explains that “to the land where I will show you” is not just about the land, but also about the journey. While he is on the journey to the land, God will place wisdom inside of Avram that he will need moving forward. Avram will now be under God’s influence.
But in today’s world it is not so simple to leave our influences behind or even monitor the influences on our children as they are in places we don’t know, whether it is in the reallife world, some form of media or the online universe. The influences are everywhere and we are assaulted by them on a daily basis. It is
hard to discern the truth and agendas of those influences. But each influence, real person or somewhere in the ether, needs to be judged on its own merits if we are to maintain our moral, intellectual and Jewish centers.
Judaism demands that we be independent thinkers, that we do not conform to outside influences, that we be the shepherds of our own standards rather than the sheep who merely repeat the beliefs of others. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks said, “One reason why Jews have become, out of all proportion to their numbers, leaders in almost every sphere of human endeavor, is precisely this willingness to be different. Throughout the centuries, Jews have been the most striking example of a group that refused to assimilate to the dominant culture or convert to the dominant faith.”
Our survival as a people depends on us being independent thinkers and nonconformist. In Pirkei Avot 1:6, Yehoshua ben Perachia reminds us among other things to “judge each person on their own merit.” And so it must be for all of the influences in our lives. PJC
Rabbi Yaier Lehrer is the rabbi of Adat Shalom Synagogue.
Obituaries
Phyllis Bertenthal, age 77, of Austin, Texas, priorly of Sarasota, Florida, and 60-plus years of Pittsburgh, passed away on Friday, June 7, 2024. Phyllis had an adventurous life beside her best friend and husband of 53 years, David Allen Bertenthal, of blessed memory. She is survived by her daughters Lori (Matt) Malone and Michelle (Martin) Bluestein; grandson Ari Bluestein; and sister Debbie
Stephen Zeiger Israel, age 82, of Hampton Township, passed peacefully in the early morning of Nov. 2, 2024. Born May 25, 1942, in Pittsburgh, he is survived by his brother James (Elaine) Israel, daughter Tricia Israel, son Wescott (Avyn) Israel, and his grandson Smith Israel. He was preceded by his loving wife, Barbara Beck Israel, and his parents, Morton and Freda Mae (Zeiger) Israel. Stephen was a lifelong resident of the Pittsburgh area and a graduate of Taylor Allderdice High School. He graduated with honors from Washington and Jefferson College, where he majored in history. He continued his education at Dickinson School of Law, where he earned his juris doctor degree in 1967. Stephen was a veteran of the United States Army, having served as a first lieutenant and later promoted to captain in the Military Police Corps in Vietnam. He was awarded a bronze star for his service. Stephen had an impressive, decades-long career as a general practice attorney. In addition to his private practice, he also spent the majority of those years as a mental health review officer for Allegheny County. He was a member of the Allegheny County Bar Association for over 50 years and served on a number of other professional committees and panels throughout his notable career. Stephen was still actively practicing law before his passing. In his free time, Stephen enjoyed traveling extensively with his late wife, Barbara, attending local theater and concerts, watching movies, gathering for meals with family and friends, and taking his furry sidekick, Prince, along with him on car rides as he ran daily errands. Stephen lived a life full of love, service and adventure. Among many other things, Stephen will be remembered for his intelligence, selflessness, sharp wit and endearing sense of humor. He will be missed dearly by those he leaves behind. No visitation. Service and interment held privately by family. Arrangements made by Neely Funeral Home. neelyfuneralhome.com
KASDAN: Dr. Richard B. Kasdan, on Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. Beloved husband of the late Judi Kasdan. Loving father of Mallory (Evan Benjamin) Kasdan, Lanie Kasdan (Elie) Francis and Alexa Kasdan (Rickke Mananzala). Brother of Nancy (Michael) Lichtenstein. Grandpa (“Atah”) to Zoe, Oliver, Julian, Miles and Alex. Dr. Kasdan was born in Pittsburgh in
Please see Obituaries, page 20
Mary Gertrude Haughey a/k/a Molly Haughey a/k/a Mary G. Haughey, Deceased August 13, 2024, of North Versailles, Pennsylvania No. 02-24-06079
Patrick Haughey, Executor; 100 Silver Pines Dr., Gibsonia, PA 15044
or to Bruce S. Gelman, Esquire, Gelman & Reisman, P.C., Law & Finance Bldg., 429 Fourth Avenue, Suite 1701, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Contact the Development department at 412-586-2690 or development@jaapgh.org for more information. THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS —
Sunday November 10: Pauline Berzosky, Anna Birnkrant, Leonard Farber, Hanna Ficks, Jeanette Kohen Kuperstock, Hannah Rae Levine, Barnett Marcus, Lillian Pretter, Henry Rosenfeld, Rae Sablowsky, Sam Schllessinger, Peter Shaffer, Meyer Shepman, Alberta Myers Walken, Adolph Weitzen, Miriam Yahr, Max Zweig
Monday November 11: Vivian Cuff Boyd, Sarah Braverman Ives, Mildred Caplan, Frances Citron, Marcia Green Farbstein, Eva Frank, Reva Cohen Goldberg, Sarah B Gordon, Lawrence L Green, Rose K Judd, Jacob Levinson, Samuel Nathan, Jerrilyn Ruth Perilman, Sara Recht, Sam Sambol, Herman Solow, David Srulson, Tobe L Unger
Tuesday November 12: Arthur Levine, Solomon Linder, Jennie Rosen, Mayer Eli Ruben, Rose Shapiro, Freda Siegel, Dora Sriglitz Wechsler, Charles Weiss
Wednesday November 13: Benjamin C Brown, Evelyn Wolk Caplan, Ruben Cohen, Sarah N Cohen, Dr Bernard Cramer, Samuel T Greenberg, Frank Grossman, Dr Seymour A Herron, Ida Kaplan, Dena Katzenberg, Morris Krantz, Minnie M Lavine, Raymond Paul Lazier, Rebecca Paris, Adolph Roth, Nina Ruben, Anna Sadowsky, Leonard Schulhof, Helen R Seiavitch, George Sherman, Doris Wechsler
Thursday November 14: Goodman George Altman, Jacob L Berkovitz, Leo Berkovitz, Sylvia Breman Braun, William Cohen, Sidney Leo Friedman, Jennie Gernstat, William Glasser, Helen B L Hersh, Norman Katz, Rachel Klahr, Arnold Klein, Nathan A Kopelman, Phillip Levy, Edwin E Lichtenstul, Michael J Niderberg, Paul Numerosky, David Rosen, Meyer David Rosenthal, Harry H Samuels
Friday November 15: William Darling, David Friedman, Miriam Magadof Glantz, Sadie Goldberg, Goldie Gross, Sam L Herer, Louis Kaufman, Sarah Krimsky, Louis Max Labovick, Diana Z Myer, Capt Morris A Rudick, Philip George Savage, Goldie Schwartz, Mary Smalley, Sara R Solow, Dr Marshall Steinberg
Saturday November 16: Belle Abramson, Leroy E Broder, Samuel Chaban, Bella Chotiner, Edward Goldstein, Isadore Goodman, Samuel Greene, Regina Labowitz, Sam Markowitz, Jennie Murstein, Minnie Protetch, Samuel Segal, Ben Smolar, Ben Vinocur, Florence H Weiss
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“ e consequences of today are determined by the actions of the past. To change your future, alter your decisions today.”
Lee & Lisa Oleinick
lawyer with the National Labor Relations Board in Pittsburgh for her entire legal career, walking more than five miles to and from the office most days, and retiring after nearly 30 years. Leone took great pride and satisfaction in her life as a lawyer. Leone took a keen interest in the world around her and engaged with it in a rich multitude of ways. She read widely — often, several books at once, spanning history, politics and fiction. She was a poet and published a chapbook of her poems, “The Healing Power of Trees,” in 2008. She was an opera and symphony enthusiast. She was involved in every Jewish community of which she was a member during her life, and she imparted a deep love of Jewish civilization and Israel to her children. A lifelong member of the ACLU and active in the Democratic Party, Leone was a strong supporter of civil rights and many other progressive causes. She loved to hike, birdwatch and work in her garden, and she traveled widely. At age 60, she camped north of the Arctic Circle. Leone was also committed to her Pittsburgh community. In 2001, she launched a petition, signed by over 300 fellow Pittsburghers, to save the Farmer’s Cooperative Market of East Liberty that still flourishes today. A people person, Leone adored her many friends, young and old. She will be remembered for her vitality, genuineness, depth of thought, love of fun and adventure and optimistic outlook. Leone had four children from her first marriage, Jan (deceased) (Gary Fleisher), Daniel (deceased), Julia (Emanuel Thorne), and Emily (Arn Franzen). She was predeceased by her late husband, Charles Kirshner, and her brother and sister-in-law, Herman and Gail Pickus. In addition to her children, she leaves six grandchildren, Daniel, Madeline and Carl Fleisher, Miriam and Leon Daniel Thorne, and Elias Franzen; and seven great-grandchildren, Isaac, Gabriel and Noah Fleisher, Jane and Henry McKenzie, and Charlotte and B ennett Fleisher. Graveside service and interment were held at Tree of Life Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, the family encourages contributions to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy at waterlandlife.org/ or the Rodef Shalom Biblical Botanical Garden, 4905 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com PJC
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Life & Culture
‘October H8te’ documentary aims to understand US college alignment with Hamas
By Jessica Steinberg | The Times of Israel
Filmmaker Wendy Sachs was visiting her daughter, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, last Oct. 7 when the Hamas terrorist attack was taking place in Israel, unfolding a nightmarish scene of murder, atrocities, abduction and destruction.
By Oct. 8, Sachs said, there was a concurrent explosion of antisemitism on college campuses in the U.S., a development that she explores in “October H8te,” a 100-minute film that premiered one year later, on Oct. 31 in Tel Aviv’s Cinematheque.
The film takes viewers through the timeline of the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel and antisemitic protests that mushroomed on American campuses starting Oct. 8, through the Dec. 5 congressional hearing and testimonies from the presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania, and into the springtime sieges at Columbia University in New York City and other campuses.
Throughout “October H8te,” Sachs attempted to understand how this situation came to be, and why the campus social justice movements ended up aligned with Hamas, a terrorist organization.
She looked at the funding, strategy and
“It’s all a little bit gray,” said Sachs. Sachs herself was surprised by the organization of SJP, which she had formerly thought of as just one of many student groups on college campuses.
“What’s fascinating right now to people is that this has been developing for decades,” said Sachs. “Hamas in the U.S. was playing the long game and was figuring out 30 years ago how to make their message more palatable. The sophistication really surprised me.”
It’s those conversations that help viewers gain an understanding of what these students experienced and the tumultuous effect of Oct. 7 on their campuses, as well as what they did to combat that experience.
“What my intention was all along was not just document what’s been happening in the aftermath of Oct. 7 but how intentional it was,” said Sachs. “What I want is that the 80% of the world who maybe do not have firm opinions [on the events of the last year] to see this.”
messaging created by Hamas, and its apparent proxy on campuses, the Students for Justice in Palestine group.
On the long side for a documentary, “October H8te” attempts to answer perhaps too many questions, tackling the unfolding scenes of antisemitism while also examining how Hamas gained a foothold on college campuses.
The film looks closely at SJP but not at the role of Qatar, the tiny Middle East state that has reportedly contributed $4.7 billion to dozens of academic institutions across the United States between 2001 and 2021, according to Times of Israel reports.
Sachs said that the Qatar element was difficult to pin down in order to determine if it’s playing a role in sowing anti-Zionism on campuses.
“October H8te” also looks at how antisemitism turned into anti-Zionism, the global silence around the sexual assault and rapes Hamas terrorists perpetrated against Israeli women on Oct. 7, and includes an interview with Sheryl Sandberg, who produced “Screams Before Silence,” about the sexual atrocities of Oct. 7.
“I poured every part of myself into this film,” said Sachs, who conducted some 80 interviews with various leaders, voices and influencers, including actress Debra Messing (who serves as a producer of the film), comic Michael Rapaport, Noa Tishby, U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, along with several impressive Jewish student leaders.
Some 40 interviews ended up in the documentary and some of the strongest ones are with student leaders from Barnard, MIT and UC Santa Barbara.
Sachs is looking for distribution for the film and hopes to sign with a streaming platform to reach audiences beyond Jewish community screenings.
There’s a lot of information tackled in the film by Sachs, whose 2020 film, “Surge,” which played on Showtime, Amazon Prime and Hulu, sought to understand the movement of women politicians in the wake of the 2016 Donald Trump presidential win.
She is also booking private showings and wants to screen “October H8te” at schools and universities.
“My daughter and her friends, my son’s friends, are all clamoring to see the film,” said Sachs. “But it’s not just for Hillel and Chabad and Jewish Greek life. Yes, it’s here to empower them and for them to see the diversity of young Jewish leaders, but to also get into the general population of young people. They’re the ones who need to see this.” PJC
Support the LHAS Kosher Hospitality Room and LHAS Spirituality Center in the UPMC Presbyterian Tower
Celebrating 125 years of the Ladies Hospital Aid Society
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
Lead Sponsor
LHAS Gala Benefits
The new UPMC Presbyterian Tower is a state-ofthe-art medical facility designed to enhance patient care with advanced technology, cutting-edge healthcare services, and patient-centered design.
The LHAS Spirituality Center is a dedicated space designed to support the emotional and spiritual well-being of patients, their families, and staff. This center is inclusive, offering a quiet, reflective environment where individuals of all faiths and beliefs can find solace and comfort.
The LHAS Kosher Hospitality Room is especially important for Jewish patients and visitors who observe dietary laws. It provides a sense of comfort and respect for their religious practices during their time at the hospital.
RSVP or Donate: (412) 648-6106 | lhas@upmc.edu | lhas.net
From “October H8te,” Wendy Sachs’ documentary that premiered in Tel Aviv on Oct. 30, 2024 Courtesy
Community
Music and more
Rodef Shalom Congregation hosted Music and More. The Oct. 28 concert featured Logan Williams, tenor, and Mark Carver, piano.
Participants
A
Sweet sales
from After School Clubhouse at the JCC in Squirrel Hill took to the streets for a day of lemonade sales.
Service with smiles Photo courtesy of Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh
One more from the hut
sukkah in Oakland brought together old friends.
p
Sukkot meetup.
Photo courtesy of Chabad House on Campus
p
Photo courtesy of Chabad House on Campus
Sisters
Achayot Shel Carnegie Mellon hosted an apple pie baking event. The CMU student group offers Jewish students a space to develop values of Jewish identity and empower Jewish feminism on campus.
p
Photo courtesy of Hillel JUC
It’s time to say Good Shabbos Community Day School students prepared for a schoolwide Kabbalat Shabbat program.
p With bread all sorrows are less.
Photo courtesy of Community Day School
Congregation Beth Shalom Pittsburgh Jewish Book Festival
November 10 thru 13, 2024 and November 20, 2024
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
Sunday 11/10/24
10:00a - 11:15a Edith Raphael, Mussar Yoga with yoga session
10:30a - 11:30a Hebrew Book Lending Library,Ribbon Cutting
12:00p - 6:00p Book Sale in the Palkovitz Lobby
FAMILY PROGRAM, 12:00p-1:50p, with PJ Library
12:00p - 12:50p Chani Altein, Benny’s Gift
1:00p - 1:50p Hazzan Barbara Barnett, Chelm for the Holidays
LOCAL AUTHOR BOOKSHELF, 2:00p - 5:50p
2:00p - 2:50p David Rullo, Gen X Pittsburgh
3:00p - 3:50p Rabbi Mark Goodman, Life Lessons from Recently Dead Rabbis
4:00p - 4:50p Dr. Rachel Kranson, Religious Misconceptions
5:00p - 5:50p Dr. Jonathan Weinkle, two books
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
7:30p - 8:45p Ilan Evyatar, Target Tehran
Monday 11/11/24, Veterans Day
12:00p - 6:00p Book Sale in the Palkovitz Lobby
LOCAL AUTHOR BOOKSHELF, 12:00p - 5:50p
12:00p - 12:50p Elaine Berkowitz, Live Life… Love Country
Book Festival is FREE and open to the public. Registration required.
1:00p - 1:50p Philip Terman, The Whole Mishpocha: New and Selected Poems
2:00p - 2:50p Rabbi Dr. Rachel Adler, Engendering Judaism
3:00p - 3:50p Marylynne Pitz & Laura Malt Schneiderman , Kaufmann’s: The Family That Built Pittsburgh’s Famed Department Store
4:00p - 4:50p Eric Lidji, The Jewish Encyclopedia of Western Pennsylvania
5:00p - 5:50p Rabbi Danny Schiff, Judaism in a Digital Age
FESTIVAL DINNER, 6:00-7:15p, (Ticket required)
6:30p -7:15p Barbara Burstin, Steel City Jews
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
7:30p - 8:45p Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, For Such a Time as This
Tuesday 11/12/24
5:00p - 5:50p Manny Theiner,Laura Donovan, & Isaac Fisher, Heroineburgh, Comic books w/ actors PANEL DISCUSSION
7:30p - 8:45p “Visions for Israel’s Future.”
Alex Sinclair, Perfect Enemy
David-Seth Kirschner, Streams of Shattered Consciousness
Beth Kissileff, Questioning Return
Wednesday 11/13/24
5:45p - 7:00p Diana Goldman, Plants for You, with cooking demo and samples
Wednesday 11/20/24, Special Bonus Session (Ticket required)
7:30p - 8:45p Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook, Zahav Home. book festival
PITTSBURGH JEWISH
Register at: BethShalomPgh.org or scan QR code.
