Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 11-11-22

encouraged to study Torah, attend services, on yahrzeit of Oct. 27 victims

Anonymous donor gives $120,000 to Hebrew Free Loan Association in honor of shmita year

By Adam Reinherz | Sta Writer

practices accompany a yahrzeit: lighting candles, reciting kaddish and performing other acts of remembrance.

Various

In Pittsburgh, the community will mark the yahrzeits of Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax and Irving Younger by gathering together and studying Torah.

On the 18th of Cheshvan (Nov. 12) from 2:30-3:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, community members can learn Daf Yomi (a page of Babylonian Talmud), study the weekly Torah reading or hear about efforts to preserve memorial items.

Maggie Feinstein of the 10.27 Healing Partnership said each learning opportunity is a chance to “bring people together from diverse backgrounds.”

Feinstein and fellow community members Eric Lidji and Beth Kissileff worked alongside Anthony Fienberg on the public program.

Fienberg — whose mother, Joyce, was

among those murdered in the Tree of Life building on Oct. 27, 2018 — said that helping organize yahrzeit study was a way to “contribute meaningfully” to a community he holds dear.

“Maggie gave me this opportunity, and I jumped at it right away,” Fienberg said, speaking from his home in France. “Anything I can do to help.”

Others were eager to help as well.

Since January 2020, Daniel Leger and Dr. Martin Gaynor — both survivors of the Oct. 27 attack — have studied a page of the Babylonian Talmud daily in memory of their friend and fellow Dor Hadash congregant Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, who was murdered that day. Leger and Gaynor plan on using the one-hour study session, to be held on the yahrzeit, to explore the nuances of their sizable undertaking with others.

When one attends a Daf Yomi class, learning often transpires through scrutinizing the specific language found on each Talmudic page. Leger and Gaynor are adopting a “meta” approach to page 18 of tractate Nedarim. In doing so, Leger

Lifehasn’t been easy for Tatiana Rabinovich.*

Rabinovich immigrated to the United States from the Republic of Belarus. The landlocked country, a former Soviet territory, has endured an economic downturn since 2011 and has suffered a series of political crises, including allegations of rigged elections and supporting Russia in its war with Ukraine.

Although Rabinovich is safe in America, her family is still in Belarus facing an uncertain future. Her sister was recently investigated by the country’s secret police following protests in 2020, leaving her to fear for her family’s safety.

Party and Event Planning

Filmmaker Noah Segan and his Jewish vampire

LOCAL

Bidding a fond farewell

By David Rullo | Sta Writer

Alyane Lowenberger retires from JSS after 28 years

 Amanda Hirsh is the new executive director of Hebrew Free Loan Association, which recently received a gift of $120,000 from an anonymous donor.

Photo provided by Amanda Hirsh

Community

The Tree of Life building after the massacre of Oct. 27, 2018 Photo by Adam Reinherz

Rabbi Jeremy Weisblatt leaves Temple Ohav Shalom

— LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

Temple

Ohav Shalom will soon be searching for a new rabbi.Shortly before the High Holidays, Rabbi Jeremy Weisblatt, who joined the congregation in 2017, told Ohav Shalom’s President Aaron Brauser that he needed to move to Philadelphia to help a close relative with a severe illness.

“He made this very difficult decision to make that a priority,” Brauser said. “He needed to leave the pulpit to be able to go back and care for a family member.”

For the immediate future, the Allison Park Reform congregation will lean on the talents of Director of Ruach and Youth Engagement Grant Halasz, who was hired by Ohav Shalom last year, and Cantor Julie Newman, who was already scheduled to join the congregation for the High Holidays when Weisblatt made his announcement.

“She’s an ordained cantor. Fortunately, she’s got experience,” Brauser said. “Right now, she’s kind of filling in as our spiritual leadership, she and Grant.”

The congregation also reached out to the Reform movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis as well as some local rabbis, who have agreed to help support Ohav Shalom with life cycle events.

Ohav Shalom leadership created a tran sition committee and will seat a search committee in the next few weeks to start the search process for a new rabbi. The congregation will submit its application to the CCAR in January, with the hope of hiring a full-time rabbi by July.

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Brauser said the congregation has endorsed the time frame laid out by the board.

“We’ve had a couple of town halls. There’s very strong support,” he said. “This isn’t something that was because

of a scandal, or we were trying to oust someone. I think everyone feels very strongly that we should be looking for a settled rabbi, come July.”

For his part, Weisblatt, who is working as the campus director at the University of Delaware Hillel appreciates that Ohav Shalom’s leadership has been so understanding.

“Aaron is a wonderful, incredible pres ident,” Weisblatt said. “One of the best you can ever hope to work with and for as the rabbi of a congregation. Truly needed to be closer to family. Aaron was really supportive.”

Weisblatt has left a positive impact at Ohav Shalom, creating a progressive atmosphere that resonated with the young, Jewish families moving into the North Hills, Brauser said. Because of that legacy, the congregation is committed to finding the “right rabbi.” If the right candidate isn’t identified by July, the congregation may continue its search for another year. That might mean continuing with the team now in place or hiring an interim rabbi.

“We want to get someone that under stands the dynamic of what it’s like to raise a family where there’s not a lot of Jewish kids and families and can provide us that kind of beacon and leadership in the North Hills,” Brauser said. “We want to make sure we don’t just go for whatever’s out there. We’re going to work to find the best fit and if we don’t find anyone, maybe there’s an option to hire an interim to bridge the gap until we find the right fit.” PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Evan H. Stein, Board Chair Gayle R. Kraut, Secretary

Evan Indianer, Immediate Past Chair Gail Childs, Dan Droz, Malke Steinfeld Frank, Seth Glick, Tammy Hepps, Cátia Kossovsky, David Rush, Charles Saul

GENERAL COUNSEL Stuart R. Kaplan, Esq.

Jim Busis, CEO and Publisher 412-228-4690 jbusis@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

EDITORIAL

Toby Tabachnick, Editor 412-228-4577 ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Andy Gotlieb, Contributing Editor

Adam Reinherz, Staff Writer 412-687-1000 areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

David Rullo, Staff Writer 412-687-1047 drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

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“We want to get someone that understands the dynamic of what it's like to raise a family where there's not a lot of Jewish kids and families and can provide us that kind of beacon and leadership in the North Hills.”

—TEMPLE OHAV SHALOM PRESIDENT AARON BRAUSER

Lewis Kuller, longtime chair of epidemiology at Pitt, dies at 88

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

intellectual who built a world-class Department of Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health, which he chaired for 30 years, has died.

Arenowned

Lewis H. Kuller, who colleagues called a giant in his field, died Oct. 25 after a monthlong battle with pneumonia. He was 88.

Known for his intellect and as a highly influential global figure in the field of epidemiology, or the study of public health, Kuller took great joy in teaching and mentoring students, according to a Pittassembled obituary.

“Throughout his long academic journey, he had a major influence on the careers of others, particularly the young investigators he tirelessly supported, serving as a role model for the importance of collaboration in the pursuit of science,” the obituary read. “He ‘walked the talk,’ transmitting his passion for public health to scientists from multiple institutions and disciplines for more than half a century.”

“I credit Lew with why I became an epidemiologist — I took his course and never looked back,” said Jane Cauley, a distinguished Pitt professor and interim chair of the epidemiology department, which Kuller left in a full-time capacity in 2002.

“He was a mentor of mine. Eventually, we became colleagues, but we definitely had a mentor/mentee relationship,” Cauley added. “He opened the door for me and let me run with it. It’s been a great career for me, and I attribute that whole role to him.”

Kuller, who grew up above his family’s pharmacy in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, earned his master’s degree at George Washington University in 1959 and his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University in 1966. In the years that followed, he established multiple large research programs in aging, women’s health, diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease — including the landmark Women’s Health Initiative and the Cardiovascular Health Study — which changed people’s understanding of disease progression and principles of prevention, the University of Pittsburgh said.

Kuller helped create an Alzheimer’s research program at Pitt, and, more recently, was working to understand how cardiovascular disease can lead to Alzheimer’s disease, using the latest brain imaging and blood biomarkers.

He was the recipient of the American Public Health Association’s John Snow Award, the Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award from the University of Pittsburgh and the American Heart Association’s Peter J. Safar Pulse of Pittsburgh Award.

Kuller was a professor at Johns Hopkins before moving to Pittsburgh in 1972 to take a role as professor and chair of the epidemiology department. A longtime resident of Fox Chapel, Kuller was known as a man who loved his family, toiled after his gardens and

at Tree of Life Congregation. He also was a frequent attendee at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and took his son up Cardiac Hill for many Pitt football games in the 1970s, Steven Kuller said.

Kuller also had a great sense of humor, and was very modest, his son said.

“He never had to do a study on chicken soup,” Steven Kuller laughed. “He knew it was good for you — he just knew.”

Alice Kuller, who met her husband on a blind date in 1960, pushed back on the notion, though, that Kuller was some sort of legendary figure.

“He worked long hours, he worked very hard, he traveled a lot, he was away a lot — but I didn’t think of him as being prominent,” she said. “We had a life with our children, our family — it was an ordinary life.”

“He was a very kind, decent person,” she added. “He was a very generous person and he always saw the best in people.”

Kuller had a steely resolve in the face of problems that came with aging, his wife said.

“He dealt with his illness without complaints,” she said. “I think he may have known his outcome would not be good — he was brave.”

Kuller is survived by his wife, children Gail Enda (Stephen) of Dallas, Anne Kuller (Brian Adams) of San Diego, and son Steven Kuller (Laura) of Camp Hill, as well six grandchildren: Helen, Grace, Sophie, Charlotte, Eliza and Margot. He was preceded in death by his brother Alan.

His funeral was a private graveside service. A memorial celebration is being planned for a future date. PJC

Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

The Jewish Cemetery & Burial Association is now a participating organization for Life and Legacy!

Life and Legacy works to promote after-lifetime giving to build endowments that will sustain valued organizations and vibrant Jewish communities for the next generation and beyond. JCBA’s participation will help those in need of after-lifetime care with acquiring and maintaining final resting places.

— LOCAL —

 Lewis Kuller

Photo by Alan Adams/University of Pittsburgh

“WE MET OMRI CASSPI, TAMIR GOODMAN & OTERH INCREDIBLE GIANTS OF THE GAME. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY EPIC.”

“JUMPSHOT IS THE BEST PLACE TO BECOME A BETTER BASKETBALL PLAYER. IT IS ALSO THE PLACE TO BECOME THE BEST VERSION OF YOURSELF. YOU WILL WORK HARD AND FEEL THE RESULTS OF YOUR EFFORTS EACH AND EVERY DAY.”

“GUYS FROM ALL OVER THE USA, CANADA & ISRAEL SHARED THEIR LOVE OF THE GAME OF BASKETBALL AND GOT TO SPEND FIVE WEEKS OF THE SUMMER TOGETHER ELEVATING THEIR GAME AND SKILLS IN SO MANY WAYS.”

NCSY Jumpshot is an amazing combination of ball, trips and Torah learning. We trained hard and competed against players in top Israeli leagues. We traveled across Israel on incredible trips. We became beyyer versions of ourselves both on and off the court.

If you love playing ball, want to train with the best and have an amazing summer in Israel, Jumpshot 2023 is where you want to be.

Filmmaker brings tender tale of Jewish vampire to Pittsburgh

told the audience the film’s genesis was humorously inspired by his life.

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

NoahSegan didn’t invent the concept of Jewish vampires: He simply mastered it.

During a visit to the Harris Theater in the city’s Cultural District on Oct. 27, Segan, a Los Angeles-based Jewish actor best known for his roles in “Looper,” “Brick” and “Knives Out,” treated Pittsburghers to his directorial debut, “Blood Relatives.”

The 88-minute film follows Francis, a 115-year-old vampire, whose self-im posed isolation is pierced by the arrival of Jane, a teenager claiming to be the vampire’s daughter.

Segan masterfully exhibits the carousel of emotions experienced by both characters as they negotiate the reality of newfound family: Whether for 15-year-old Jane (played by Victoria Moroles) or the Yiddish codeswitching Francis (played by Segan himself), establishing a viable future is only achiev able by carefully negotiating the present and painfully wrestling the past.

During a question-and-answer session at the Pittsburgh premiere event — moder ated by film professor and director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Horror Studies Working Group, Adam Lowenstein — Segan

“I always thought that I was a really cool guy. I have a cool jacket, and I would go to film festivals and stay up all night,” he said. “I was always the s---. Then I became a dad, and I guess I had to reckon with that.”

As much as the movie is about recognizing the realities of parenthood, it’s also a tale about accepting one’s self. Without spoiling too much, Francis often wears his Jewish heritage like an albatross. Through the aid of others, though, the vampire learns that a load shouldered isn’t always a burden but can be a measure of one’s strength.

Following the screening, Segan told the Chronicle about his East Coast Jewish upbringing, but said it was the process of becoming a parent that compelled him to further embrace his identity.

His father, Alan Segan, shared his pride: “Nachas cannot fully describe how I feel about seeing my son tonight, and seeing the product of his hard work and how that captured so much of his feelings about his own children and about his own life.”

Alan Segan, a University of Pittsburgh graduate, traveled from New York City for the event.

Of course, there was tremendous “satis faction” in watching his son showcase a film

that relies on humor, sadness and horror to talk about heredity, heritage and selfhood, Alan Segan explained. But there was also the heft of understanding the moment: The film played in Pittsburgh four years after the heinous murder of 11 Jews inside the Tree of

Life building. When asked what it’s like to show a horror movie about Jewish identity, family and loss

by JamesLange,CPA/Attorney and Steven T.Kohman, CPA,CSEP, CSRP

By itself, inflation should not encourage or discourage Roth IRA conversion planning. True, inflation doesn’t occur in isolation and will affect other facets of taxation that could have an impact on the desirability of doing Roth IRA conversions.

For example, future tax rates on Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) and distributions (from the IRA not converted) could be lower since the tax brackets are adjusted for inflation. If you make a Roth IRA conversion at 32% and your tax bracket drops to 24% because of inflation, you paid higher taxes on the conversion than you will owe in the future on the incremental RMDs.

So, in that isolated case, it may appear that the Roth conversion was not as effective as planned. In fact, you could appear to potentially be worse off. However, you should con-

sider that if having lower RMDs because of the conversion is what put you down into the 24% tax bracket, the conversion may actually be saving you future higher taxes at 32%.

The IRMAA bracket limits go up because of inflation meaning these individuals could have lower Medicare rates in the future because of inflation by being in a lower IRMAA bracket.

On the other hand, the additional IRMAA costs added in each bracket could go up due to inflation after 2023 (which surprisingly and fortunately did not happen for 2023) meaning these individuals could have higher Medicare costs in the future because of inflation if they are in the same IRMAA bracket.

Each situation is different to determine how inflation can indirectly make it more or less favorable to convert.

That said, we generally think that making Roth IRA conversions is a long-term strategy. The ups and downs of the market and inflation should not generally dictate your longterm Roth IRA conversion strategy.

If you are interested in proof of our assertions that it is still a wash in terms of direct impact, please see the two tables above.

As you can see, immediately after the Roth conversion, purchasing power is identical. In both cases, $24,000 of cash outside the IRA is used to pay tax, either on the conversion itself

or when funds from the IRA are withdrawn as a distribution. But what happens when inflation is taken into account after the conversion?

Ignoring the effects of future investment returns and income taxes, and assuming a 20% inflation rate where the value of a dollar becomes 80 cents, the relative value of a Roth conversion is not changed just due to inflation. The inflation adjusted purchasing power of the money is lower, but still equal with and without the conversion as shown in Table 2.

So, inflation in isolation should not impact the decision of whether or not you make a Roth IRA conversion. In some cases, however, there may be favorable or unfavorable tax attributes in your specific situation that could make a Roth conversion more or less desirable in the short term due to inflation.

p Alan Segan and Noah Segan

Photo by Adam Reinherz

SPONSORED CONTENT

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.

q

FRIDAY, NOV. 11

Does your child experience challenges that do not seem to affect most typically developing children? Join Jamie Baumgardner of Functional Roots, an occupational therapist focused on parent coaching and helping you navigate the confusing and stressful environment of accessing OT. Noon. Register at ncjwpghevents.org/upcoming-events.

q FRIDAY, NOV. 11-WEDNESDAY, NOV. 16

The Three Rivers Film Festival will showcase 18 thought-provoking independent feature films that you won’t see anywhere else. Along with the screenings, enjoy Q&As with cast and crew, a chance to vote on your favorite films, and special events like a pinball party on opening night and the 40th anniversary screening of the horror classic, “Creepshow” on closing night. Films will screen at the Harris Theater, the Pittsburgh Playhouse and The Tull Family Theater. The festival will also include several films screening virtually that you can watch from home. For more information, visit filmpittsburgh.org or email info@ filmpittsburgh.org

q SATURDAY, NOV. 12

The 10.27 Healing Partnership invites you to join in a commemorative Torah study at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. The Torah study will be open to the public. We will be studying the Daf Yomi, led by Marty Gaynor and Dan Leger; the Parsha Vayera, led by Dr. Jonathan Zisook; and a lecture by Dr. Laurie Eisenberg, professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University, about how she launched an effort to preserve and understand the items that were left at the Tree of Life site after the Oct. 27 synagogue attack. These three studies will occur concurrently — you can choose which study you wish to participate in when you arrive. 2:30 p.m. 1027healingpartnership.org/event/ yahrzeit-torah-study-at-the-jcc.

q

SUNDAY, NOV. 13

Join the Jewish Genealogy Society for “Jewish Genealogy 101: The Ganze Mishpokhah (The Whole Family).” Learn where to start and how to explore your relatives’ lives in this all-day seminar led by Emily Garber. Free for JGS-Pittsburgh members; $10 for the general public viewing online; and $15 for the general public attending in person. Boxed lunch is an additional $20. 10:30 a.m. Online or at the Heinz History Center, 1212 Smallman St. heinzhistorycenter.org/event/jewishgenealogy-101-garber.

Get ready for the most family-friendly shopping experience ever. MomsWork is hosting over two dozen local businesses for NCJW’s first ever Mom Owned Market. From bakers to caterers, to retailers to service providers, every business is local and mom-owned. Shop local, shop woman-owned, shop momowned. There will be a babysitter on site for kiddos to do crafts and play while you shop. 11 a.m. 1620 Murray Ave. Register at ncjwpghevents.org/upcoming-events.

Camp Ramah in Canada is coming to Pittsburgh at the home of Rabbi Seth and Judith Adelson. RSVP for address. The event will include an information session for parents and a program for kids. A pizza dinner will be served. To RSVP, send an email to Nessa at nessa@campramah. org. 5:30 p.m. campramah.com.

q SUNDAYS, NOV. 13-DEC. 18

Join a lay-led Online Parashah Study Group to discuss the week’s Torah portion. No Hebrew knowledge is needed. The goal is to build community while deepening understanding of the text. 8:30 p.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org.

q MONDAY, NOV. 14

PA’s legislature is the largest full-time, third most expensive, and one of the least productive legislatures in the country. Bipartisan bills popular with a large majority of Pennsylvanians — property tax reform, environmental stewardship, equitable school funding, gun safety, redistricting reform — are introduced in every session and go nowhere. Let’s Fix Harrisburg, a joint program with NCJW Pittsburgh and NCJW Philadelphia. 2 p.m. ncjwpghevents.org/upcoming-events.

q MONDAYS, NOV. 14-DEC. 19

Join Congregation Beth Shalom for a weekly Talmud study. 9:15 a.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org.

q MONDAYS, NOV. 14-MAY 15

Understanding the Torah and what it asks of us is one of the most important things a Jew can learn. But most Torah classes begin in Genesis and never finish the first book. If you want a comprehensive overview of the whole Torah, Torah 1 is the course for you. In the first year of this two-year Zoom course, Rabbi Danny Schiff will teach Genesis, Exodus and the first half of Leviticus. In the second year, he will complete Leviticus and cover Numbers and Deuteronomy. $225. 9:30 a.m. foundation. jewishpgh.org/torah-1.

q TUESDAY, NOV. 15

Join Rabbi Danny Schiff for “The Afterlife: Jewish Views on What Happens After We Die.” In this Zoom course, learn Jewish approaches to the nature of the afterlife from ancient times to the present day. $45. 9:30 a.m. foundation.jewishpgh.org/the-

afterlife-jewish-views-on-what-happensafter-we-die.

Join Just Films for a film about how a U.S. value system built on the extreme mascu line ideals of money, power, and control has glorified individualism, institutionalized in equity and undermined the ability of most Americans to achieve the American Dream. After the film, join a group of talented women working to address the needs en countered in the film. Free and open to the public. NCJW is a sponsoring organization for the Just Films series with Chatham Uni versity’s Women’s Institute. 5:30 p.m. Eddy Theatre, Chatham University. Register at chatham.edu/events/details.cfm.

q TUESDAYS, NOV. 15, 22

Join New Light Congregation for its November Lecture Series: Pittsburgh is Our Home. Classes will be in person and on Zoom. Free. 7 p.m. Registration required to receive the Zoom link. To register, send an email to janet@newlightcongregation.org or register online at newlightcongregation. org. For a complete list of subjects and speakers, visit newlightcongregation.org.

q WEDNESDAY, NOV. 16

All seniors and friends are welcome to attend the next Squirrel Hill AARP meet ing. Speaker Chris Trembulak will present the various Allegheny County advantage plans for 2023 Medicare. There are many changes, and Trembulak will discuss high lights of the various plans and respond to questions. There will also be information about the next November Lunch Bunch. If you plan to attend, please bring a contri bution of new school supplies, which will be donated in November to local schools. 1 p.m. Rodef Shalom Congregation, Falk Library.

q WEDNESDAYS, NOV. 16-MAY 24

Registration is now open for “Melton Core 1: Rhythms and Purposes of Jewish Living.” This 25-lesson course will take you through the year’s cycle — the life cycle traditions and practices that bind us together. Explore not just what is and how is of Jewish living, but the why is that go with them. 7 p.m. $300 per person, per year (25 sessions), includes all books and materials. Virtual. foundation.jewishpgh. org/melton-core-1.

q THURSDAY, NOV. 17

Join NCJW for a free drop-in support group for moms who work outside the home. Facilitated by group therapist Cortney Seltman, there will be snacks, tea, support, a babysitter and a chance to vibe with other moms like you. This event is for anyone who identifies as a mom. 7 p.m. 1620 Murray Ave. ncjwpghevents.org/upcoming-events.

q THURSDAY, NOV. 17—SATURDAY, NOV. 20

Pittsburgh Shorts and Script Competition film festival will showcase 11 blocks of short films including dramas, comedies, and “Chiller Theater” selections at the Harris Theater, with six additional film blocks available virtually. The 114 films come from 24 countries with 45% directed by women and 35% by and about people of color (films from past festivals later went on to win Academy Awards). In addition, there will be Q&As with cast and crew, a chance to vote for your favorite films, and more. The festival also includes a script competition with live readings and a conference for local and international filmmakers with workshops, panel discus sions and networking events. 809 Liberty Ave. For more information, visit filmpitts burgh.org or email us at info@filmpitts burgh.org. PJC

Author Jerry Stahl to join Nov. 13 Chronicle Book Club meeting

ThePittsburgh Jewish Chronicle is pleased to announce it will host playwright, screenwriter and author Jerry Stahl on Nov. 13 as the Chronicle Book Club discusses Stahl’s new book, “Nein, Nein, Nein!: One Man’s Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust.”

From the Jewish Journal: “There’s a laugh on almost every page of ‘Nein, Nein, Nein,’ but for all his wit and somewhat skewed perspec tive, Stahl never loses sight of the gravity of the places he visits ... Stahl’s book shows the thought processes of a man feeling at his lowest soothing his ‘shpilkes’ by experiencing one of the most sobering, draining tours one can possibly imagine. For him, it’s cathartic, and readers might find it to be the same for them.”

Your Hosts

Toby Tabachnick, editor of the Chronicle David Rullo, Chronicle staff writer

How It Works

We will meet on Zoom on Sunday, Nov. 13, at

noon. As you read the book, we invite you to share your favorite passages on a shared docu ment you will r eceive when you register for the meeting.

What To Do

Buy : “Nein Nein Nein.” It is available from online retailers, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Email: Contact us at drullo@pittsburghjew ishchronicle.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

After 28 years, Alayne Lowenberger retires from Jewish Scholarship Service

An advisory committee composed of commu nity lay leaders works with JSS staff to award the scholarships.

Alayne

Lowenberger, who directed the Jewish Scholarship Service for more than 28 years, has retired, Jewish Family and Community Services announced.

JSS is a program administered by JFCS on behalf of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

“Many members of the Pittsburgh Jewish community today can proudly say that college was made more affordable for them and their family as a result of Alayne’s work with JSS,” Jordan Golin, JFCS president and CEO said.

Over the past 28 years, JSS helped between 3,000 and 4,000 students with need-based scholarships for college and graduate school, according to JSS officials. JSS consists of dozens of private funds created to help address the high cost of college.

JSS also has managed the distribution of other scholarship funds, including those established through National Council of Jewish Women, Jewish Women International and family foundations held by the Jewish Federation and the Pittsburgh Foundation. Through one application, Jewish students have access to multiple scholarship programs.

Lowenberger, who is both a social worker and an attorney, assumed her role at JSS in 1994. The most meaningful part of her job, she said, was her interactions with students.

“I watch them grow from high school into young adults,” she said. “We get to help them on the road to their careers. It’s a wonderful thing. With adult students, we help them change careers and have a chance to better support their families. It’s so fulfilling to see what a difference you can make.”

JSS encourages students to maintain a Jewish connection on campus and in their post-college lives. Lowenberger said she periodically recognizes the names of former awardees in the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle as they have gone on to become community leaders.

“It is so gratifying to know in some small way we helped them,” she said.

Dana Himmel, who worked with Lowenberger for many years as the admin istrative assistant of JSS, and stepped into the role of scholarship coordinator when Lowenberger retired in September, credits Lowenberger with transitioning the appli cation from a paper process to one that is

Pennsylvania Senate and House extend Non-profit Security Program

ThePennsylvania Senate and House of Representatives extended Pennsylvania’s Non-Profit Security Program until 2029.

“This program helps non-profit facilities across the Commonwealth and their users, congregants and visitors to stay safe and secure,” according to a statement from the Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition.

The program, put in place in 2019, was established to provide security improvements for communal facilities used by faith-based organizations and other nonprofits. It was extended for an additional five years.

“The PJC is grateful to the leadership of the Pennsylvania Senate and House of Representatives (in particular Senate Leaders Jay Costa and Kim Ward, and House Speaker Cutler, Leaders Benninghoff and McClinton, Senator Hughes and Representatives Bradford

and Frankel) for working together to add, vote and concur on this significant legisla tion in both the Pennsylvania House and Senate,” Jonathan Scott Goldman, chairman of the Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition, said in a prepared statement.

The legislation received unanimous support in both chambers of the Pennsylvania legisla ture. House Bill 397 now moves to Gov. Tom Wolf’s desk for his signature and enactment.

Since its inception, the Nonprofit Security Grant Program has provided $20 million to help secure religious and nonprofit communal facilities throughout Pennsylvania.

“Unfortunately, the need for additional security has surpassed all expectations, and that need remains strong with only 25% of applicants being awarded grants to date,” according to the Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition. “Over the course of the Program, the requests of 75% of applicants have been denied.” PJC

Toby Tabachnick

online, making it easier for students to apply.

“The students were always her first priority,” Himmel said. “Alayne did whatever it took to get a student the help they needed. While most scholarship programs weed out appli cants, Alayne was the exact opposite, trying to get all students that qualified to apply and receive awards.”

JSS is one of the programs included within JFunds, an initiative to increase access to financial aid within the Jewish community.

Lowenberger’s contributions to JSS over nearly three decades will be missed, Golin said.

“We will miss Alayne’s passion and dedication for our community’s college students, her painstaking attention to detail, and her incredibly warm heart,” he said. “We wish Alayne all the best in this next phase of her life.” PJC

Toby Tabachnick

410.902.2300, ext. 1.

p Alayne Lowenberger and JFCS President and CEO Jordan Golin Photo courtesy of JFCS

Biden congratulates Netanyahu on his win — and is told to expect more normalization deals

By Ron Kampeas | JTA

WASHINGTON— President Joe Biden called Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate him on being reelected Israeli prime minister. Netanyahu said the two would work to expand the Abraham Accords.

“President Biden called me to congrat ulate me on my elections victory and said the U.S.-Israel alliance is as resilient as ever,” Netanyahu said Monday in Hebrew on Twitter. “I thanked President Biden for our close personal friendship of 40 years and for his commitment to the state of Israel. I told him we intend on reaching more peace agreements and also on dealing with the threat of Iranian aggression.”

The prime minister Netanyahu defeated, Yair Lapid, campaigned in part on having better relations with U.S. Democrats; Netanyahu alienated many Democrats because during his prior stint as prime minister from 2009 to 2021 he had tense relations with Democratic president Barack Obama, and then warmly embraced his Republican successor, Donald Trump.

Biden and Netanyahu, however, are known to get along, and Biden, when he was Obama’s vice president, was the point man for putting out fires between the two governments.

Netanyahu launched negotiations toward

building a governing coalition on Monday, including meetings with the extremist Religious Zionist/Otzma Yehudit list, releasing for the first time a picture of himself with right-wing firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir. A number of Democrats have said the inclusion of the party in the coalition would damage U.S.-Israel relations and insiders have said that Biden would likely boycott its ministers, who could include Ben-Gvir.

The White House issued a release saying

Biden congratulated Netanyahu. He commended “Israel’s free and fair elections,” the statement said. “The President reaffirmed the strength of the U.S.-Israel bilateral part nership, based on a bedrock of shared democratic values and mutual interests, and underscored his unwavering support for Israel’s security.”

One area of foreign policy consistency between the Trump and Biden administra tions has been efforts to expand the Abraham

Accords, the normalization agreements Trump brokered between Israel and four Arab countries in 2020.

A statement from the office of Netanyahu’s Likud party cast the eight-minute exchange in more personal terms, saying that each man sent regards to their wives and that Biden called Netanyahu his “brother.”

The White House did not respond to questions about the call. Tom Nides, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, said on Twitter that Biden “just got off the phone with Benjamin Netanyahu. Warm phone call, great talk … unbreakable ties.” PJC

Event in support of Summer Lee leaves some questions unanswered

rather than “the extremist party that only inflames hate.”

By Toby Tabachnick | Editor

StateRep. Dan Frankel, Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Erika Strassburger and attorney Steve Irwin came out in support of state Rep. Summer Lee’s bid to represent Pennsylvania’s 12th congressional district at a “solidarity event” on the corner of Murray Avenue and Darlington Road in Squirrel Hill on Friday, Nov. 4.

The event, dubbed “Jews for Summer Lee,” drew about 40 people and was introduced by Jewish community member Jonathan Mayo. In his opening remarks, Mayo said he has “had the honor of being in a relationship with Summer since her first run for state representative in 2018.”

In short speeches, Frankel, Strassburger and Irwin all confirmed that they endorsed Lee. Irwin challenged Lee in the primary for the Democratic nomination last spring. Frankel endorsed Irwin in that race.

While at least three members of the local press attended the event, the Chronicle received no notice of it and had no knowl edge of it until a recording of it was posted on social media.

Lee delivered a speech at the event, empha sizing her view that voters must support D emocratic candidates in this election

Throughout the 17-minute event, speakers stressed the Democratic Party’s positions on reproductive rights, the environment, gun regulations and public health.

“Every week, there’s a new story about blatant antisemitism or racism in the public sphere,” Frankel said. “As the Republican Party collectively shrugs or pretends not to notice, we need strong Democratic voices that will call it out.”

Notably, none of the speakers clarified Lee’s positions on issues related to Israel, although Irwin made the broad statement that “the Democratic Party believes in Israel’s right to exist as a secure, Jewish and democratic state.”

During a Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Community Relations Council event last spring, Lee said she supported Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state but said she did not know whether Israel was an apartheid state. She also said that aid to Israel should be conditioned on progress for peace with the Palestinians.

Although Lee said at the Federation event last spring that she is not involved with the BDS movement against Israel, the Chronicle has been unable to find any public record of her saying whether or not she supports that movement.

Despite several attempts to schedule an interview with Lee over five months, her campaign has not made her available to the Chronicle.

On social media last week, Lee condemned the United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with AIPAC, for investing more than $1 million to support her oppo nent, Mike Doyle, who happens to have the same name as outgoing Congressman Mike Doyle, a Democrat. On Friday, another PAC, Justice Democrats, infused $150,000 into an ad buy supporting Lee. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (the House Democratic campaign arm) also

recently made a six-figure advertising buy to support Lee.

Meanwhile, a letter circulated online by J Street last week criticized UDP for casting Lee and other Democrats as “extremists,” and noting that an AIPAC-affiliated PAC has “continued to endorse” more than 100 Republican incumbents who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election results.” The letter garnered about 240 signa tures, not all members of the Pittsburgh Jewish community. PJC

Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

p State Rep. Dan Frankel speaks at an event in support of Summer Lee in Squirrel Hill on Nov. 4. Photo courtesy of the office of state Rep. Dan Frankel

p Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with President Joe Biden from his office in Jerusalem on Nov. 7. Photo courtesy of the Office of Benjamin Netanyahu

“I thanked President Biden for our close personal friendship of 40 years and for his commitment to the state of Israel.”

—BENJAMIN NETANYAHU

Patriots owner funds NFL TV ad about standing up ‘against Jewish hate’

Robert Kraft, the New England Patriots owner who donates heavily to Jewish causes, funded an advertisement that ran during Oct. 30’s NFL matchup between the Patriots and the New York Jets urging NFL fans to “stand up against Jewish hate,” JTA.org reported.

The ad aired during a weekend in which NBA star Kyrie Irving shared a link to an antisemitic movie online and the message “Kanye is right about the jews” was projected at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida, during a college football game between the University of Florida and the University of Georgia.

“There are less than 8 million Jewish people in this country. Fewer than are watching this game,” read Kraft’s 30-second ad, which featured simple white text on a black background, set to ambient music. “They need you to add your voice.”

It was produced jointly by the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism and Kraft’s foundation.

“We must do more to make people aware that antisemitism is a growing threat against Jews on social media and in communities across the country,” Kraft said in a statement.

finding Jesus

The Republican nominee for Congress in Texas’ 7th district is a self-proclaimed history buff, but his take on Anne Frank is not one that most historians would endorse, JTA reported.

Johnny Teague, an evangelical pastor and business owner who won the district’s primary in March, in 2020 published “The Lost Diary of Anne Frank,” a novel imagining the famous Jewish Holocaust victim’s final days in the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps as she might have written them in her diary.

The kicker: In Teague’s telling, Frank seems to embrace Christianity just before she is murdered by the Nazis.

Published by Las Vegas-based publisher Histria Books, the speculative book attempts to faithfully extend the writing style of Frank’s “original” diary entries into her experiences in the camps: it “picks up where her original journey left off,” according to the promotional summary. Teague claims to have inter viewed Holocaust survivors and visited the Anne Frank House, multiple concentration camps and the major Holocaust museums in Washington, D.C., and Israel as part of his research.

“I would love to learn more about Jesus and all He faced in His dear life as a Jewish teacher,” Teague’s Anne Frank character muses at one point, saying that her dad had tried to get her a copy of the New Testament.

Today in Israeli History

Nov. 14, 2012 — Airstrike launches Operation Pillar

of Defense

Nov. 11, 1902

— Air Force founder Yisrael Amir is born Yisrael Amir, the first Israeli Air Force commander, is born in Vilna. He makes aliyah in 1923 and rises through the Haganah. His lack of aviation experience doesn’t stop David Ben-Gurion from putting him in charge of the Air Force.

Nov. 12, 2000 — Leah Rabin dies Leah Rabin, a peace activist since the assassination of her husband, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, in 1995, dies at 72 a few days after a heart attack. She made aliyah in 1933 and married Rabin in 1948.

Ahmed Jabbari, the Hamas military chief, is killed in an airstrike on Gaza that marks the start of Operation Pillar of Defense, which aims to destroy rocket launchers targeting southern Israel.

Nov. 15, 1948 — El Al is founded El Al, whose name comes from a Hosea phrase meaning “to the skies,” is formally established as Israel’s national airline. Regular commercial service begins in July 1949 between Lod and Paris.

Reform rabbi to be knighted by Pope Francis

A. James Rudin, a leading Reform rabbi and educator and the longtime director of interreligious affairs at the American Jewish Committee, will be knighted under the Papal Order of St. Gregory for his work on CatholicJewish relations, JTA reported.

Rudin, who was born in Pittsburgh and spent his early childhood here, will become the ninth Jewish person to receive the honor in the Order’s nearly 200-year history. Other Jews so knighted include Walter Annenberg, the philanthropist and creator of TV Guide; the prominent Conservative rabbi Mordecai Waxman; Argentine interfaith advocate Rabbi León Klenicki; Rabbi David Rosen of the AJC; and various philanthropists, businesspeople and musicians with Jewish ancestry.

The honor recognizes people whose work has supported the Catholic Church, which can include Jews focused on interfaith projects.

Earlier this year, Rudin, 88, published a memoir, “The People in the Room: Rabbis, Nuns, Pastors, Popes, and Presidents,” which recounts his many trips abroad during his time working at the AJC as part of his work to improve Jewish-Christian relations in the years after the Holocaust.

Voter turnout surpasses 70% in Israeli election

Some 4,843,023 people, or 71.3% of eligible voters, cast ballots in Tuesday’s elec tions for the 25th Knesset, according to the Israeli Central Elections Committee, the

highest turnout on Election Day since 2015, JNS.org reported.

A total of 6,788,804 people were eligible to vote at more than 12,000 stations set up across the country.

The high turnout reflects the electorate’s trust in the Jewish state’s democratic system, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said.

Jewish pitcher wins third straight Gold Glove award

Atlanta Braves ace Max Fried grew up idolizing Jewish Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax. The 28-year-old has accomplished something even his childhood hero never did: win a Gold Glove — let alone three, JTA.org reported.

For the third consecutive season, Fried was named the National League’s top defensive pitcher. The award is given to the best defen sive player at every position in each league.

Fried has established himself as one of the game’s best starting pitchers, and his 2022 performance only solidified that standing. Fried was named to his first All-Star team while going 14-7 with a 2.48 earned run average, seventh-best in base ball. His wins above replacement of 5.9 — a sabermetric stat used as a catch-all for a player’s overall value — was tied for fifth best among all pitchers.

On the defensive side, Fried ranked third among all pitchers with three defen sive runs saved and tied for fourth with three pickoffs. PJC

— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb

connecting60 years

Jewish Pittsburgh

Nov. 16, 1947 — Kadima

reaches Haifa

The Kadima, carrying 781 refugees trying to reach the Land of Israel despite a British ban, arrives in Haifa under escort by a British destroyer after being intercepted.

Nov. 17, 2012 — Designer Leah Gottlieb dies

Join the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle in celebrating its diamond anniversary!

We invite you to help the Chronicle commemorate its first 60 years in a special feature section to be published Dec. 23. The section will take a look back at the last six decades through the photos, stories and advertisements that helped define our community and will set the stage for our next 60 years.

From local events to world a airs, from births to deaths and everything in between, the Chronicle has been the eyes and ears of Jewish Pittsburgh since 1962. We remain dedicated to serving you, our readers, and continuing to provide the news you need and the stories you want to read. That’s something to celebrate.

To 120!

Nov. 13,

1893 — Artist Reuven Rubin is born

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.

Leah Gottlieb, known as the queen of Israeli fashion, dies at 94. A native of Hungary and a Holocaust survivor, she was the co-founder and chief designer of swimsuit manufacturer Gottex. PJC

Feature Section: Dec. 23 Ad space deadline: Dec. 16

Durler, Senior Sales Associate pdurler@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org | 724.713.8874

Phil

Special Pullout Section

— WORLD —

p Yisrael Amir died just 10 days short of his 100th birthday.

Israeli

p Leah Gottlieb works with swimsuit model Tami Ben Ami at Gottex in 1980.

By Ya’acov Sa’ar, Israeli Government Press Office

Evangelical GOP House candidate in Texas wrote a novel about Anne Frank

Teen Fitness

Hit the gym with us

Teen Fitness classes at JCC Squirrel Hill are FREE for JCC members through the end of the year; non members can try it out for a week free. No registration required.

Teen HIIT · Barbell Mechanics · Teen Hip Hop · Deck Time.

Get moving! Contact William Herman, wherman@jccpgh.org 412-697-3238

Experience the magic of JCC Maccabi

In summer 2023, 3,000 Jewish teen athletes, ages 12-17 and representing communities from across the globe, will come together for the world’s largest Jewish youth sports event. The Games will take place in Ft. Lauderdale, FL August 6-11 and in Israel July 5-25.

We are hosting an Open House/Info Session on Sunday, November 13 at 4 PM at the JCC Squirrel Hill, Robinson Building.

Interested? Contact Josh Cohen at jcohen@jccpgh.org

JCC Teens: Get involved Maccabi

Over

The She'elot Fellowship is FREE and open to any interested high school student.

More info: Maria Carson at mcarson@jccpgh.org

Yahrzeit:

from page

said, listeners may come to appreciate what Nedarim — a Talmudic book focusing on laws relating to vows or oaths — signifies to the survivors nearly three years after committing to daily Talmud study.

“We said that we would do this, and this tractate deals with the importance of words and things that are interpreted as promises, so what does that mean in terms of what we’ve taken on here,” Leger said.

Along with Leger and Gaynor’s discus sion, two other sessions aim to prompt similar reflection.

Donor:

Continued from page 1

Despite the challenges, Rabinovich found security in her new country and thrived. In fact, she did so well that when an American friend needed help paying for college, she offered to co-sign for a loan from the Hebrew Free Loan Association, promising to repay the loan if her friend was unable to do so.

Rabinovich said the loan meant a lot to her friend, Joe.

“He was in a place of not being able to finish school without this loan,” she said.

“The additional funding is what he needed. That loan got him to a place of graduating. That money did a lot of good.”

Joe eventually earned his diploma. Tragically, it was awarded to his widow and his parents after Joe unexpectedly died.

Joe’s death didn’t wipe clean his debt to the HFLA though, and Rabinovich honored her obligation, making payments each month.

Rabinovich, and several other HFLA borrowers, recently received a surprise gift when they learned an anonymous donor contacted the organization in August with an offer to pay off $120,000 worth of loans.

HFLA Executive Director Amanda Hirsh

Jonathan Zisook, a visiting lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh Department of Sociology, will investigate Parsha Vayera — the Torah portion that was unable to be read at congregations Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life on the morning of Oct. 27, 2018, due to the attack.

Vayera includes verses describing Sodom and Gomorrah’s destruction, Isaac’s birth and binding and Hagar and Ishmael’s exile. Zisook plans on tapping these narratives for their “relevance to contemporary Jewish identity and memory.”

In addition to Torah and Talmud study, community members can spend Shabbat afternoon studying with Laurie Eisenberg,

a professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University. Eisenberg has undertaken two public history projects related to the attack and will lead a discussion regarding her efforts to preserve and understand the materials left at the Tree of Life site following the massacre.

Each of the sessions is a chance for people to adopt public Jewish study on a significant day, Feinstein said.

The yahrzeit program is scheduled so as not to disrupt synagogue attendance.

“We want to encourage people to go to services in the morning or afternoon that day to honor the memories of the 11,” Feinstein said. “They were all so committed to their congregations and their congregations’

rituals around Shabbat.”

Fienberg praised the community’s desire to both remember lives lost and positively impact neighbors and friends.

“There’s a tendency in our society to write things down, make a speech or do a podcast,” and, as important as those endeavors are, Fienberg said, they function differently from the yahrzeit learning at the JCC. Bringing diverse people together for Torah study is a “unifier,” he continued. “That’s sort of the goal around so many of the initiatives that people have done around the victims of the attack, and it’s very beautiful.” PJC

in Pittsburgh on Oct. 27, Noah Segan told the Chronicle, “I wish I could speak from a place of authority, but I can’t. I think it is probably too big a responsibility for a film maker to say anything other than that my heart is broken and will be forever…. All I can hope is that on a day like today my Jewishness and our Jewishness can be a little bit of light.”

Screening the movie in Pittsburgh — a city his father considers a “second home” — was a gift, Segan added.

The treat extends to viewers as well. “Blood Relatives” releases on Shudder, a streaming service owned and operated by AMC Networks, on Nov. 22. And though the film’s reliance on an opera-loving Jewish vampire who drives a 1969 Barracuda Fastback and lyricizes with a Borscht Belt rhetoric generates good shtick, the movie is a catalyst for smiles, tears and connection.

said the offer was made in recognition of the shmita, or sabbatical year. One of the tradi tions associated with shmita, which occurs every seven years, is for Jewish lenders to forgive loans given to members of the Jewish community.

Hirsh began serving as HFLA’s executive director in June. The organization offers no-interest loans, meaning borrowers pay back the exact amount they borrowed.

The anonymous donor’s offer, Hirsh said, provided a great opportunity for her to take a look at how many and what type of borrowers the nonprofit was assisting.

There weren’t a lot of requirements put in place by the donor, other than the borrowers must have paid back at least 50% of their loan and continued to make payments. The donor also had an interest in helping those who had taken loans for medical or dental needs and those who had used the money for Jewish day school — but the loans paid back by the donor covered a gamut of needs.

“I shared the list on a Friday afternoon at 5 o’clock on an Excel sheet,” Hirsh said. “Within 15 minutes, the donor said, ‘OK, I’m sending a check. You’ll receive it in two weeks.’ I’ve never experienced anything like this. They were very clear — they wanted to remain anonymous. This is all about

recognizing shmita.”

The money will pay off the loans of 77 borrowers, Hirsh said. HFLA has 160 borrowers and loans out totaling about $550,000. The donation will allow the organization to make new loans immediately.

“This money was going to be repaid over time,” she said. “We recycle our dollars, so the money coming back in means we can issue new loans. The $120,000 repaid to us means that money is available for loans much more quickly.”

Serving as the executive director of HFLA is a dream job for Hirsh, who grew up in Pittsburgh and attended graduate school for public policy and management at Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz School before moving to Washington, D.C., to work at the Child Welfare League of America. She left the nation’s capital for the Big Apple and a position with the New York City Mission Society and 92nd Street Y. She moved back to Pittsburgh with her husband for a tenure at Allegheny County Department of Human Resources before accepting the job with HFLA.

Hirsh’s role is new for the organization. It was created after the departure of longtime Director of Marketing and

Development Aviva Lubowsky and Director of Financial Services Ellen Clancy.

“The board met, and they recognized it was time to take that step forward with an executive director,” she said.

Hirsh has spent the last several months familiarizing herself with the organization and its policies. She plans to work on some new procedures that will hopefully speed up the time it takes to process a loan. Until then, she’s thrilled for one of her first official acts to have been telling the board of the anonymous donor’s gift and having them call some of the borrowers whose loans were forgiven.

For Rabinovich, the loan forgiveness means that she can begin to support in earnest something else she is passionate about: helping Ukrainians struggling because of the war with Russia — something she urges everyone who can do, as well.

“We’re doing some fundraisers and will try to help as much as we can,” she said. PJC

*The interviewee requested to be identified by a pseudonym due to safety concerns.

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

are true: There is tragedy, and there is light. And that is something that is a survival mechanism, and it’s something that I think every marginalized people can speak to.”

Event moderator Lowenstein, a Jewish professor who recently authored a book titled “Horror Film and Otherness,” told the Chronicle that Segan’s work has the unique ability to broaden a genre by remaining authentically specific.

“‘Blood Relatives’ makes Jewish horror both more universal and more Jewish at the same time,” Lowenstein said. “It gives us a story where Jewishness matters, but it matters in relation not just to Jewishness alone but to a whole world of loss and searching and need. I think it’s quite beautiful in that way — that it taps Jewish horror to give us some thing that makes us see more of the world writ large.” PJC

Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

“We will always be the sum of our history and the people who have hurt us,” Noah

Segan said. “But I think what helps Jews persevere is being able to say both things

p From left: Noah Segan and Adam Lowenstein

Photo by Adam Reinherz

To save the planet, encourage Middle Eastern partnerships

Guest Columnist Isaac Herzog

The global climate crisis spells disaster for the Middle East, but like all crises, it also offers an opportunity. As COP27 begins in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, world leaders will be arriving in a Middle East in the grips of a positive realignment: a new regional alliance is forming between Israel, its Arab neighbors and the broader Eastern Mediterranean in response to the climate emergency.

The ninth president of Israel, Shimon Peres, spoke of his vision of a New Middle East; I call this the Renewable Middle East.

The Renewable Middle East is an emerging alliance to find common solutions to perhaps the single greatest threat to our region: the climate crisis. It is a vision of a regional ecosystem of sustainable peace; a region that is not only “new” in the sense of different, but is sustained by its own positive momentum.

Today, I arrive at COP27 in Egypt, the first Arab country to make peace with Israel. Since

the historic Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty of 1979, Israel has made peace with Jordan and most recently has normalized ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. The Abraham Accords could not have come soon enough, pushing the Middle East toward the rapid reinvention it needs to meet tomorrow’s chal lenges. I fervently hope that more nations in our region will join this green realignment, including our Palestinian neighbors and one day, Syria and Lebanon too.

Let nobody be in any doubt: If the world misses its 1.5 °C target, the Middle East will suffer dispro portionately. A hot, dry region will become hotter and drier; rising sea levels will threaten coastal populations. And it is because we all face the same challenges that we must join forces around common solutions. Our lives depend on it.

In a historic shift, Israel is integrating into the Middle East, as its neighbors recognize that a future of dynamic engagement with the Jewish and democratic state, based on a shared commit ment to our children’s future, holds the keys to a brighter future.

The Renewable Middle East has the potential to be truly transformative in the field of clean energy, as a source of solar energy for Europe, Asia and Africa. Where others might see a vast expanse

of desert from the Maghreb to the Gulf, I see an opportunity to generate clean energy and leverage Israel’s location at the intersection of three great continents to export it to the world.

I first made the case for the Renewable Middle East in a speech on Feb. 23, on the eve of the war in Ukraine. The ongoing surge in energy prices around the world has only underscored the need for reliable sources of green energy. As Israel and its neighbors begin to collaborate on joint ventures, projects that will help Europe, Asia and Africa address their own challenges in the fields of food security, water management, and more, this momentum of partnership will become self-sus taining. It will be a renewable peace.

It is for this reason that I established the Israeli Climate Forum, under the auspices of the Office of the President of Israel, to keep the environment at the top of Israel’s national priorities and to bring together some of the most influential people in the country to brainstorm and implement creative solutions to punch above our weight, despite Israel’s small size.

The Renewable Middle East will lead the way for the same reason that Israel has always punched above its weight, despite, or maybe because of adversity: because there is no other choice, and the climate crisis really

is a matter of life and death.

In our increasingly turbulent world, the Renewable Middle East is a ray of sustain ably-powered light. Skeptics may call it a pipe dream, but this pipeline will carry the green energy that will help to liberate the world from its fossil fuel dependence while creating sustainable partnerships to power our region into a new, cleaner era.

If world leaders at COP27 are serious about limiting global temperature rises, then fostering and joining Middle Eastern partnerships is a sound, green investment. I call on all delegates at COP27 to explore the latent opportunities in Israel’s full integration in the Middle East, to push for more partnerships across the region, and to join and invest in this infrastructure of sustainable peace.

The Renewable Middle East that we are building now will yield dividends for many decades to come, not only for the peoples of the region, but for the entire world. History is already pointing in this direction; the only question is whether history will move quickly enough to save our planet. PJC

Isaac Herzog is the president of the state of Israel. This piece first appeared on The Times of Israel.

Why Israelis like me voted in a right-wing government

Guest Columnist Sara Yoheved Rigler

Ivoted

for Netanyahu’s Likud party last week for the first time.

Most American Jews are decrying the victory of Israel’s right wing in our most recent election, and claiming that it has created a schism between them and Israeli Jews.

The schism is real. But it comes from the difference between our lived realities.

My political awakening

In 1985, at the age of 37, I made a dramatic change in my spiritual path: I started studying Torah and moved to Jerusalem.

I rented an apartment in the Old City’s

Jewish Quarter, shopped in the Arab shuk, and concentrated on learning the 95% of Judaism

I had missed in my 10 years of Hebrew school.

I was a radical leftist in college, a member of SDS who demonstrated against the Vietnam War. But several years into my time in Israel, I had a rude political awakening.

In 1992, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s govern ment decided to deport nearly 400 suspected Hamas members to Lebanon rather than keep them in prison. Shortly thereafter, a friend and I attended a screening of a Peace Now documen tary in the Arab section of Jerusalem. We sat on the floor of a large room filled with leftist students at Hebrew University.

One long portion of the film featured a close-up shot of the elderly mother of one of these terrorists. She was crying and wailing for the son she might never see again.

As the segment went on and on, my friend and

I looked at each other, confused. Why so much compassion for a convicted murderer? I looked around and saw the faces of the other viewers contorted with sadness as they shared the pain of this mother for her deported terrorist son.

That was a watershed moment for me. How could intelligent people be so hoodwinked by such a confusion of perpetrator and victim?

Soon after, the First Intifada broke out. Over the course of several years, more than 200 Israelis were killed.

Early on, by fiat of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the shops in the Arab shuk were forced to close for months in support of the intifada. I traversed the shuk daily on my way to classes. The shopkeepers, mostly middleaged, sat on stools outside their shuttered stalls, playing backgammon and conversing with their fellows, all looking glum.

Did they really support Yasser Arafat, the

then-chairman of the PLO who openly declared his goal of destroying the state of Israel? I had no way to know, no way to have an honest conversation with them in public. But those few shopkeepers who disagreed with the decree and kept their shops open saw them set aflame the first or second night. There was no freedom of speech or dissent under the PLO. As an American, I was appalled.

Years later, I did have an honest one-to-one conversation with Mohammed, a Muslim Arab who owned a small grocery store around the corner from me. At that point, Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Barak, had just offered Arafat virtually everything he’d asked for at the Camp David negotiations.

Mohammed told me, frankly, that he was afraid. After so many years of living under the Israeli

The Kyrie case isn’t about ‘Blacks vs. Jews.’ It’s about bigotry.

Robert Brown, seem to have anticipated this. They include a song, sung by two Black charac ters, noting that the Frank case would not have gotten half the attention it did if Frank or the girl he allegedly killed were Black.

comes from a disempowered minority.

Apowerful

revival of “Parade,” the 1998 Broadway musical about the 1915 lynching of the Jewish factory manager Leo Frank by a Georgia mob, is wrapping up a short-term engagement at New York’s City Center. The show is stirring and moving without trivializing or exploiting one of the worst antise mitic incidents in U.S. history.

And yet I couldn’t quite shake my discomfort that this lavishly orchestrated, heart-tugging musical about the post-Reconstruction South was focused on the lynching of a white man. Alfred Uhry, who wrote the book, and Jason

For all the glorification of Black and Jewish cooperation in the civil rights era — some of it exaggerated, much of it deserved — the two communities have long been locked in this kind of competitive suffering. Black leaders have ques tioned Jewish claims to victimhood — especially when Jews accuse other Black leaders, such as Louis Farrakhan, of antisemitism — and have accused Jews of amplifying the power and reach of Black antisemites for their own ends.

Jews, meanwhile, resent being told that, as a community that tends to be seen as white, successful and politically influential, they can’t be regarded as victims of bigotry, especially when it

Both dynamics have played out in the case of Kyrie Irving, the Brooklyn Nets star who shared a link to “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” a 2018 film that contains a host of antisemitic tropes and that is based on a book that, no doubt thanks to Irving, is now a best seller. In defending his decision to share the film — and giving it perhaps the widest platform it ever enjoyed — Irving downplayed his own sizable Twitter following and influence. “You guys come in here and make up this powerful influence that I have … [and say], ‘You cannot post that.’ Why not? Why not?” he asked reporters.

The canards shared in the film — especially the notion that Blacks are the “real” Jews — are rooted in the idea that “the greatness of Black men is being hidden or stolen from them,” as Jemele Hill, a Black sports journalist, explains in a piece

in the Atlantic. What dismays Hill and other critics of Irving — Black, Jewish, both and neither — is that this understandable impulse to promote Black empowerment draws on a history of classic antisemitism: The film cites Henry Ford’s antisemitic opus “The International Jew” and denies the Holocaust. It claims that Jews have used falsehoods to “conceal their nature and protect their status and power.”

Some white liberal Jews are uncomfortable about calling out certain forms of antisemitism by prominent Blacks precisely because of a perceived power imbalance between Blacks and Jews, or because the ideas come from a place where igno rance meets legitimate grievance. Some Black leaders have similarly excused the long history of antisemitism and bigotry by Farrakhan’s Nation

Guest Columnist

Andrew Silow-Carroll

Chronicle poll results: Voting

Last week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “Will you or do you intend to vote in the midterm election?” Of the 331 people who responded, 99% said yes and just 1% said no. Comments were submitted by 74 people. A few follow.

My paternal grandmother, born in 1895 in New Kensington, instilled within my family the responsibility to vote. My mom served as judge of election for the 1960 Kennedy/Nixon presidential election, and my dad voted until health issues at age 98 prevented him from doing so. To vote is a privilege that I take very seriously — especially in this era of division and hatred.

This election is crucial. It is a test of our democracy. Republicans are trying to destroy it.

Rigler:

Continued from page 12

government, with its democratic freedoms, he was afraid of living under the PLO’s dictatorial regime.

I wondered why people in the West who professed to care about the Palestinians were willing to hand them over to a ruthless regime known to imprison or execute dissenters.

A dose of reality

An American pollster recently told me that it takes them only one question to determine someone’s political leanings. Respondents are asked to identify which of two statements they consider more accurate:

1. With the right education and dialogue, everyone can get along.

2. There are bad people in the world who need to be stopped.

I came to Israel believing the first proposition. But 37 years of reality therapy have convinced me of the second.

Six years after signing the Oslo Accords and the famous “handshake on the White House lawn” between Prime Minister Rabin and Yassir Arafat, over 1,000 Jews were murdered and countless others maimed in a rash of suicide bombings and attacks. During this Second Intifada, we literally took our lives into our hands with every bus ride, every foray to a cafe, every shopping trip to downtown.

Israelis typically attend the funerals of victims of terror and war, even those they did not know

I have never felt so unnerved by any election. Hoping that decency and tolerance for all is the real winner.

I haven’t missed a primary or general election since I became eligible to vote, although more and more I question continuing to do so, given the quality of candidates in both major parties.

Absolutely. There is too much at stake.

Straight Democrat.

Will vote straight Republican.

My mail-in ballot was sent several weeks ago and has been officially received.

personally. I remember, on the way home from the funeral of a two-year-old shot in the head by a sniper, saying to my husband, “I’m tired of going to the funerals of children.”

When Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005, the area quickly radicalized. A year later, the terror organization Hamas took over. And when they fired rockets into civilian centers in southern Israel, the world did not leap to our defense. Instead, pro-Gaza demonstrations erupted throughout the world, and Israeli efforts to stop the attacks were condemned as “disproportionate.”

Last May, riots broke out in the mixed ArabJewish cities of Ramle, Lod and Acco. Israelis watching the news looked in horror at images of synagogues going up in flames in the State of Israel. Those images accompanied many of us into the voting booth this November.

Every wave of terror, every round of violence has pushed Israeli Jews farther to the right. The left-wing Labor party that ruled Israel for its first 29 years barely made it into the Knesset in last week’s election, and the far-left party Meretz did not even cross the electoral threshold.

Last week, Israelis voted emphatically for a strong right-wing government. Because more than we care about what kind of society our children will live in, we care that our children will live at all. PJC

Sara Yoheved Rigler is a writer and lecturer living in Jerusalem. This piece first appeared in the Forward (forward.com).

Other than Shapiro for governor, this is a very hard election with difficult decisions as a moderate centrist and a Jew. I feel that I no longer have a political home in the USA in the current political environment.

Oy vey! I am nervous about the results.

I am what’s called a “super voter.” I am 67. I have never missed a general election and I have missed only one primary election since I was 18.

I am 92, and this is the very first time I have voted a straight party ticket because I am so upset from the rhetoric spewed by the Republican Party. PJC

— Toby Tabachnick

Chronicle weekly poll question:

When you vote, how important to you is the issue of Israel’s security? Go to pittsburghjewishchronicle.org to respond. PJC

‘Horrified’ and ‘ashamed’ of Jews voting Republican

I can’t help but be grateful that neither of my parents, of blessed memory, is alive to see what some of their fellow Jews have become. My mother got a visa to Palestine from Youth Aliyah after she and her family were deported to Poland from Germany in 1938. She was the sole survivor. My father, a joint winner of the Israel Prize in exact sciences in 1957, was always so proud of Jewish intelligence and achievement. Both were exceedingly generous souls. All three of us voted for Arlen Specter back when being a Republican didn’t mean what it has come to mean. What would they think of Jews supporting the likes of Doug Mastriano, Mehmet Oz and the “Mike Doyle” who Republicans are cynically running to fool voters into thinking our retiring Democratic congressman is on the ballot? I know they would be horrified and ashamed. Mastriano is the most blatant fascist of the bunch, though they are all extremists without a care for those who aren’t just like them, and campaign with rather than denouncing him. Jews voting for a straight-up Christian nationalist, insurrectionist, proud Confederate uniform-wearer who promotes Gab, a platform that literally celebrates and encourages killing Jews, pledges to halve the state education budget, wants to control future election outcomes and would force all pregnancies to end in forced birth or murder charges? Jews supporting candidates like Oz, who would help usher in a U.S. Senate that guts Social Security and Medicare? Jews supporting a “Mike Doyle” who doesn’t put “Republican” on his campaign literature to let us know he’s an extremist imposter? “Justice, justice, shall you pursue.” Not if you’re part of the modern-day Republican party, or a Jew who supports them.

Michele Feingold Pittsburgh

of Islam because the group has been seen as a force for good in impoverished Black communities.

And still others have suggested that Ye, with a history of mental illness, and Irving, who often dabbles in conspiracy theories, should not be subjected to the blunt outrage used to combat white supremacy and anti-Zionism. Or that none of us should be in the business of “policing the expression of Black athletes,” as the sports jour nalist Shireen Ahmed put it (before condemning Irving, it should be said).

These attitudes are patronizing, and it’s important to note that few if any influential Jews or Black commentators went there this week. West and Irving had few defenders for the antisemitic

things they said or shared (although there was some Twitter “what-aboutism” suggesting the NBA was more concerned about a Black man’s antisemitism than China’s treatment of the Uighurs — a sticking point for a league that does major business in China).

On the left, Dave Zirin of The Nation writes about the link between racism and antisemi tism and the far right: “What terrifies me about the current moment is that Kyrie’s politics are migrating and finding a sick alliance among Nazis, fascists, nationalists, and all manner of white supremacists who have long promoted these notions but wanted no part of Black politics unless it was about expressing common separatist ideas.”

As Zirin suggests, the canards West and Irivng are sharing are hardly unique to the Black community. Antisemitism and racism are social prejudices “that all peoples and societies fall prey

to,” is how Kendell Pinkney, who is Black and Jewish, put it in a JTA essay.

The Jewish community doesn’t have the luxury of condescension when celebrities, however troubled, insert insidious ideas into the social media ecosphere. On Thursday, as the Nets, Kyrie, the NBA and the Anti-Defamation League were going back and forth on how to defuse his behavior, the FBI warned New Jersey synagogues of a credible “broad threat” against them, appar ently from a man, so far unidentified, who holds “radical extremist views.” Jews are vigilant about diehard conspiracy theories, political dog whistles and online harassment not because they want to “protect their status and power,” but because they have seen spasms of deadly violence inspired by garbage shared online.

Late Thursday night, Irving at last apologized for his tweet, writing, “I posted a Documentary

that contained some false anti-Semitic statements, narratives, and language that were untrue and offensive to the Jewish Race/Religion, and I take full accountability and responsibly for my actions.” His statement came after the Nets suspended him for a minimum of five games.

It’s not clear what other acts of contrition he might undertake, but I suggest he read up on the Leo Frank case, in which a Jewish man was falsely accused of murder by the same bigots who enforced Jim Crow. He might learn that when it comes to confronting hate and bigotry, Jews and Blacks have more to gain by listening to one another than tweeting about each other. PJC

Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor in chief of the New York Jewish Week and senior editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. This piece first appeared on JTA.

Event Planning

Most popular menu items: prudence and dietary restrictions

By Adam Reinherz | Sta Writer

Imagine a carving station, but substitute beef, lamb or chicken for personalized chaga mushroom pizza.

Better yet, consider a party with pop-up tables where guests watch chefs convert semolina into noodles, add cheese and locally-sourced veggies, then gift the culinary creation to salivating onlookers.

Weddings, b’nei mitzvahs and other events are often a place to showcase new food trends but, according to local caterers, the biggest rage is economics.

Aryeh Markovic, co-owner of Murray Avenue Kosher, said these days “people are a little more price conscious.”

Such hesitation aligns with the consumer price index.

Though shy of June’s 9.1% inflation rate, September’s figure — the most recent from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — was still 8.2%.

Markovic said that apart from concerns about cost, his customers’ requests have followed the “status quo.”

“People want turkeys for Thanksgiving,” he said.

Judah Cowen, the owner of Elegant Edge Catering, said that, like Markovic, he hasn’t received many unusual requests for orders recently.

Cowen said that he tries to keep his menus “fresh and exciting,” but the thing he’s

noticing most right now is an attitude.

“I think people are just happy to be out partying again,” he said. “Everyone seems to be happy to get back to what we knew as normal.”

But “normal” also seems to mean making up for lost time.

According to a survey of photographers,

event planners, entertainers, florists and other vendors conducted by the Wedding Report, 2022 will boast the most weddings since 1984.

Though the bulk of 2022 celebrations are rescheduled events from the past two years, many weddings will involve couples who became engaged during

Even with the plethora of people seeking to say “I do,” not all are discovering it’s terribly difficult to reach the

Eighty-seven percent of couples report “no issues finding what they need or want,” while only 10% report that costs have climbed since the start of the pandemic, according to The Wedding Report.

Rachel Cicero, general manager of Pittsburgh’s Hotel Indigo, said that the trend she’s seeing is prudence: “People are looking at what’s the best price.”

Michael Cope of Tallulah’s Catering said the most common dietary request his clients have is gluten-free options.

A bevy of products, including glutenfree flours, have made it easier to meet this demand, he said. Along these lines, Cope remembers when people first started asking for menus based on dietary restrictions.

When it came to making things vegan, it was a bit “tougher,” he told the Chronicle.

“You can’t use butter, milk, cream, all the things chefs use that make things unctuous and nice.”

Still, Cope adapted to meet the orders.

He said it’s no different from when a client asks him about kosher cooking: “It’s a little tougher, but you just have to be aware of people’s dietary concerns.” PJC

Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

the pandemic, The New York Times

— FOOD —

CasparGirl / Flickr

FG Trade / E+ / Getty Images

Event Planning

Guest Columnist Shari Zatman

Thefallout from COVID-19 was brutal for the event industry. The early months of the pandemic brought businesses and celebratory events to a sudden halt, resulting in a loss of jobs for many event professionals.

During these last few years, there was much soul-searching among industry insiders, wondering where the state of event planning would be moving forward. Many of us worked hard to pivot to virtual models, create new innovative ways of connecting and find alternatives to the traditional galas and parties so that people could

Here are some expert tips to keep in mind when planning your next event.

Start with the priority items. Venues, for example, are being booked one to two years out. Therefore, the first step in the planning process should be securing the venue where the event will take place. Make a list of specifications you will need in a venue, such as guest capacity, general location and accessibility accommodations. Using your criteria, curate a list of potential event venues.

Next, track your outreach to each venue. Contact the event or sales department of each venue on your list to inquire about the availability for your desired event date. You may find that, even with advanced planning, your preferred date may already be booked. Keep track of which alternative dates are still available at the venues you contact. Depending

gather safely during such a time of uncertainty. What a difference two years make! Lots of festivities have found their way back onto calendars and, for many, there is a renewed excitement for celebrations of all kinds, particularly weddings and b’nei mitzvahs.

With so much demand, it’s important to plan ahead as much as possible for a special personal occasion or a corporate event. As an event planner with close to 25 years of experience, I know firsthand what to anticipate and how to prepare for it in order to help my clients bring to life their big day. Since COVID-19, I have even turned these insights into a training and coaching program to help venues and event professionals address their pain points — or even how to avoid them altogether.

upon what you learn from your outreach, you may be faced with a decision to make: Either keep searching for a venue until you find one that’s available and meets your needs or change your event date to align with a venue’s openings.

Once you’ve settled on a venue, that choice may dictate the next priority items for your to-do list. For example, if your venue requires an outside caterer, you’ll want to prioritize interviewing and contracting one as the next essential task on your planning timeline. Since the pandemic, there has been a labor shortage in the events industry, and many caterers are no longer able to take on as many events on a single date — which makes their availability more limited. Get on a caterer’s calendar early to secure your event date, especially if there is The

Event Planning

When it comes to tunes, golden oldies still shining at Pittsburgh parties

By Adam Reinherz | Sta Writer

TheDJ may have you “fallin’ in love tonight,” but that doesn’t mean Usher is on the playlist. For disc jockeys across Pittsburgh, there are definite trends in song requests — and the beats blasted at the next simcha may actually delight your bubby. The adage of never playing anything more than two decades old no longer holds, explained Dean McAfee, owner/operator of Pittsburgh DJ Company. Now, there’s a “large upswing in old music,” he said.

McAfee, 47, credited several factors with introducing young listeners to new (or not so new) genres, including the Netflix series “Stranger Things,” with its music from the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s.

Derek Galiffa of Galiffa Productions pointed to social media as the reason why so many people want to hear “nostalgic songs.”

“Something goes viral on TikTok, and now it’s heavily requested,” he said.

Neither McAfee nor Galiffa are neophytes. McAfee has DJed since he was 20; Galiffa, 37, since he was 16, but both have noticed an odd phenomenon “creepin’ up.”

It’s not uncommon for a 25-year-old, or someone younger, to request Run-D.M.C.’s “It’s Tricky,” or ABBA’s “Dancing Queen,” “which is a huge banger,” Galiffa said. Previously, if a DJ played one of those tracks, it might elicit laughs; nowadays, “you put it on and everyone goes nuts.”

Certain tracks will get the crowd moving, but Jessica McKelvey — who has performed as DJ Jess nationwide for 19 years — tries to refrain from what she called “cliche event songs.”

McKelvey instead relies on a tactic learned

from other DJs: “As long as [people] can sing along to it, they will get down to it,” she said.

Knowing the lyrics to a song isn’t the only recipe for success, though. Keeping mindful of beats per minute is necessary for ensuring a good time, she explained. “If you stay in the 128s, you will make your crowd want to fall over,” she said. “You got to take them on a little roller coaster of a ride.”

Before showing up at a scheduled gig, McKelvey, 40, curates a researched playlist.

“I will collect info about who will be at the wedding, who are their VIP guests, who

is really a part of their story and who do they want to see out on the dance floor,” she said.

If the clients can’t necessarily articulate which genres they prefer, McKelvey will “dive into their socials and see what they like,” she added.

David Lander, who goes by DJ Digital Dave, said he sees definite trends in song requests — but he’d also like to see

MUSIC

 DJ Jess Photo by CTG Photography 

DJ Digital Dave Photo by Phillip Van Nostrand



DJ Galiffa

Photo courtesy of Derek Galiffa

Culture

Sheet pan chicken and potatoes

By Jessica Grann | Special to the Chronicle

Ithinkthat we’re all looking for meals with simple prep work and as few steps as possible, especially for weeknights.

Over the years, I’ve cooked chicken and veggies on sheet pans more than any other way. I find the sheet pan is large enough to hold enough food for a family and it makes for easy cleanup.

This recipe uses very simple spices and ingredients that most of us have on hand at all times. The natural juice from the chicken bakes into the potatoes, making their flavor amazing.

This dish is nice enough to serve to company, and you can add your own inter pretation — you could add 7 Spice or herbs to take this dependable recipe up a notch. It’s wonderful to experiment. Add the flavors and amounts of salt and spices that you love the most.

Ingredients:

3-4 pounds dark meat chicken on the bone, skin on ⅓ cup olive or neutral oil

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 teaspoons sweet or smoked paprika

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 large sweet onion, diced

2.5 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes

Preheat your oven to 375 F, and place the oven rack in the middle.

Mix the oil, salt, paprika and garlic in a small bowl.

Wash and scrub the potatoes before slicing them. You can cube them and leave the skin on if you like. This week, I made simple slices and left the skin on. To do this, I cut the potato in half lengthwise, then cut each

Planning:

Continued from page 15

a certain caterer you already have in mind and would prefer to have at your event.

If an event will be outdoors, tenting may be needed to accommodate guests rain or shine — but act quickly. The pandemic created a heightened desire for gathering outside to strive to mitigate the spread of the virus. This is particularly important if there

Tunes:

Continued from page 16 greater appreciation.

“There’s a tremendous amount of thought and preparation and artistic creativity behind what DJs do; and I think that — not by any fault of their own — a lot of people think that DJs just come in with a list of songs and haphazardly play music. There’s so much prep work and research and thought that goes into not only the songs we play but the order we play them,” he said.

Lander, 43, has performed for 27 years. He started his career in night clubs and now

half lengthwise 4 or 5 times. You don’t want these slices to be super thin. When they’re all sliced, set them aside in a bowl.

Pour about ¾ of the oil mixture into the bowl of potatoes, and mix well.

Chop and dice the onion, and spread it over the bottom of the sheet pan.

Lay the potatoes over the onion and arrange your chicken pieces on top.

Brush the top only with the oil. I like to use a pastry brush to apply the oil to the chicken, but if you don’t have one, you can use your hands to rub it in. You may want to wear gloves because the paprika can stain your skin. If there is any oil remaining in the bowl after the chicken has been brushed, you can drizzle it over the potatoes.

are guests on your list who are immunocom promised. Consequently, the demands on tent rental companies have increased exponentially. As soon as you’ve locked in your event date and venue, contact rental companies immediately to find one that can provide what you need. Gear up for your big day by drafting an event timeline, but remain flexible when needed. Your planning priorities can and will vary based on several event factors. While having a longer period for planning

undertakes hundreds of events each year, including luxury weddings, birthday parties and professional and collegiate sporting events, and has shared the stage with some renowned artists, including Ja Rule, Nick Jonas, Sean Paul and Adam Lambert.

Lander’s collective experiences have yielded an understanding about trends in music and the way people move.

“Anything that has an ethnic, cultural or nationality base has stayed around,” he said. Conversely, clients have drifted away from things like the “Cha Cha Slide,” the “Electric Slide” and other line and group dances.

For Pittsburghers who relish holding

Bake at 375 F for 35 minutes.

Reduce the oven temperature to 350 F. At this point, I take the tray out, move the chicken aside and give the potatoes a good stir to be sure they are evenly coated with oil. Place the chicken back on top of the potatoes and continue cooking for another half hour. (If you use chicken quarters, you may have to adjust your time and cook the chicken 15 minutes longer than if you’re cooking only legs and thighs.) Chicken should hit an internal temperature of 165 F, and not all of our ovens are created equal. You will learn if your oven needs more or less time from plain old trial and error. I prefer my chicken in the 180 range — just my nervousness about proper cooking — so I will bake mine

can be beneficial at times, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to pull off an event in a short timeframe. The latter can be achieved with the right knowledge, experience and efficiency — and perhaps support from an event planner. Regardless of how far into the future an event may be, I work with my clients to create a planning timeline that tracks the order of priorities based on each individual situation. We adjust it accord ingly as needed.

a bit longer. The potatoes need more time than the chicken, which will get dry if you leave it in the oven too long.

When the chicken is ready to come out of the oven, remove it to a platter and continue cooking the potatoes for at least another 20 minutes. They should be forktender when ready.

This recipe serves 4-5 people, and the chicken tastes very good cold or at room temperature — perfect for a yummy dish for Shabbat lunch or for picnics.

Good luck, bless your hands and enjoy! PJC

Working with a professional event planner can make prepping for your occasion less overwhelming for you — and more productive (and enjoyable!) overall. PJC

This content is provided by our advertising partner, Shari Zatman, the owner of Perfectly Planned by Shari. For more expert event planning tips, visit the Perfectly Planned by Shari blog at perfectlyplanned byshari.com/blog.

hands and slowly moving in a circle, or pressing together and hoisting nervous celebrants up in unstable chairs, there’s no need to worry.

“I still definitely see the Hora,” Lander said.

Given the deep cultural, national and historic ties, there’s no reason to fret that the traditional Jewish dance will go out of style anytime soon, Lander continued: “Ethnicities and backgrounds have always been important to Pittsburghers. And that’s passed down generationally.” PJC

Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Jessica Grann is a home chef living in Pittsburgh.

p Sheet pan chicken and potatoes

Photos by Jessica Grann

G-d laughs

Victoria Robertson and Adam Dickter were married May 21, 2022, at Succop Nature Park in Pittsburgh. Victoria is the daughter of Diane and James Robertson of New York and is the granddaughter of Judy and James Robertson and Jacqueline and the late Joseph Somers. Adam is the son of Lisa and Art Dickter of Pittsburgh and is the grandson of Morry and Eleanor Dickter and Marcia Uram and the late Sidney Uram and the late Irving Kramer. Rabbi Jeremy Weisblatt officiated. Adam gradu ated from Carnegie Mellon University and now attends medical school at the University of Rochester. Victoria graduated from Wittenberg University and the Cornell University School of Veterinary Medicine and is now a practicing veterinarian. Victoria and Adam Rockter reside in Rochester, New York.

Engagements

Lynn and Arthur Smith of Squirrel Hill are thrilled to announce the engagement of their son Todd William to Rose Elizabeth Reid, daughter of Gail and Matthew Reid, of Decatur, Georgia. Rose and Todd were introduced by a mutual friend and their attraction was instant, and so began their courtship.

Rose and Todd currently reside in Brooklyn, New York, where Todd is a director of marketing for Circuit, an award-winning micro transit service. Rose is head of US Audio at Exile Content Studios. Rose and Todd have planned to be married oceanfront in Saint Simons Island, Georgia, a place they hold dear to their hearts. The wedding date is April 29, 2023.

Leigh Winston and Yotam Ben-Artzi of Squirrel Hill and Andrea and David Lehman of Fox Chapel are thrilled to announce the engagement of their children, Samantha Lando Winston and Alexander Louis Lehman. Samantha is the granddaughter of Frances and Michael Lando of Squirrel Hill and Joyce Winston (z”l) and Herbert Winston (z”l) of Bethesda, Maryland. Alexander is the grandson of Myrna (z”l) and Larry Allen of Philadelphia and Edna (z”l) and Arnold (z”l) Lehman of Squirrel Hill. Samantha graduated from Arcadia University in 2017 and completed Duquesne University’s paralegal program this year. She now works as a paralegal at Dentons Cohen and Grigsby. Alexander graduated from American University in 2015 and recently earned his MBA from the Palumbo-Donahue School of Business at Duquesne. He now works as an associate with Donahue Real Estate Advisers. The couple plan a fall wedding. PJC

Mantracht un Gott lacht. We have all heard this Yiddish expression which means “We make plans and G-d laughs.” We human beings make our plans as if we are in control. But G-d is the ultimate Planner and His plans always supersede ours.

In this week’s Torah portion of VaYera, Sarah gave birth to Isaac when she was 90 years old. A similar event took place in this week’s Haftorah (2 Kings 4:1-37). The prophet tells of an elderly childless woman who gave birth to a son miraculously.

The prophet Elisha wanted to thank this elderly couple for providing him with hospi tality. He blessed them so that they should have a son. One day, that son died unexpectedly.

The woman said: “Did I ask for a son from my master? Did I not tell you ‘Do not mislead me?’” According to Pirke de Rabbi Elazar, she was saying, “I would rather have an empty vessel than one that was filled and then spilled out.”

In other words, she expressed to Elisha: “Why did you do this to us? We never asked you for a child. All these years, we were content to live the rest of our life without children. Why would you help us to have a son, only to break our hearts when he was taken away?”

I can imagine Elisha’s reply: “My dear friends, we make our plans for the future, but tomorrow is an unknown. Nevertheless, we have to try — within our limitations — to create the best future we possibly can. And the rest, we leave to Hashem”.

It is part of human nature to work as if everything depended on our efforts. At the same time, we have faith that things will turn out the way G-d wants them to be. We live with this dichotomy: that we work to make our world better, but we there are things only G-d can control.

I see this often in my work with elderly and frail people. How do they react to events over which they have little or no control? They build a life and a family with the understanding that, ultimately, Hashem controls the world. With strong emunah (faith), we know that Hashem decides what will happen, and that it is for the best.

On a larger level, we work to build a just and compassionate community. We want everyone to be supported and feel valued. We work hard and also ask Hashem to bless our efforts. May Hashem help us always to be successful in all of our endeavors.

Shabbat shalom. PJC

Rabbi Eli Seidman is the former director of pastoral care at the Jewish Association on Aging. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Clergy Association.

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Rabbi Eli Seidman Parshat VaYera Genesis 18:1 - 22:24

BECKERMAN: Alan Harvey Beckerman, on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022. Beloved husband of Natalie Beckerman. Loving father of Jon (Nell) Beckerman and James (Stacie) Beckerman. Brother of the late Marilyn Berger. Beloved brother-in-law of Gail and Arnold Rosenthal. Cherished grandfather of Jack, Ruby, Henry and Sophie. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Beth Shalom Cemetery. Contributions may be made to the Jewish Association on Aging, 200 JHF Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15217, or Jewish Residential Services - The Branch, 2609 Murray Avenue, Suite 201, Pittsburgh, PA 15217. schugar.com

BELANSKY: Malvyn J. Belansky, on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022. Beloved husband of 58 years to Cheryl Belansky. Cherished dad of Randy (Patty Edwards) Belansky and Sherri (Tom) Polito. Devoted Pap to Michael and Alex Polito. Son of the late Harry and Jean Belansky. Also survived by Don Small, Jamie Mazzie and loyal companion Myia. Mal was an avid car enthusiast, however his true passion was his family, his wife, children, grandchildren and furry baby. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Beth Shalom Cemetery. Contributions may be made to Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh-East Side, 6926 Hamilton Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15208. schugar.com

BLOCH: Bernard L. (Buzzy) Bloch was devoted to his family, to his Murdoch Road neighbors, to his job at Bettis Atomic Power, to Rodef Shalom, to playing tennis, and to the Penguins, Steelers and Pirates. He received a doctorate in physics from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University. Buzzy was a caring son and steadfast and loving husband, father and grandfather. He enjoyed walking through Squirrel Hill with his beloved wife, Joan, subtly passing on wisdom to his sons, spending time with his grandchildren, writing up a work report, or making sure to watch or listen when his sports teams were playing. The Bloch family would like to thank the staff at Weinberg Village for helping Buzzy to live a good life the past three-and-a-half years. Buzzy is survived by his wife of 64 years, Joan R. Bloch, his two children James (Rachel) and William (Ingrid), and the grandchildren upon whom he doted — Jeremy, Dylan, Levi and Nicholas. Graveside service and interment were held at West View Cemetery of Rodef Shalom Congregation. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com

BRISKIN: Nancy Amdur Briskin, 89, passed away with her family by her side on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022. Daughter of the late Lucy and Jack Amdur.  Beloved wife of the late Leonard A. Briskin and the late Marc Kimmelman.  Leonard and Nancy had three children: Stephen (Margie) Briskin, Kenneth Briskin and Claire (Mark) Rast.  She was the loving

Gammie of Lindsay (Jason) Duggar, Stephanie Briskin, Shelby (Randy) Sakowitz, Jennifer (Leo) Narens, Justin Briskin, Garret Briskin and Abby Rast. Great-Gammie of Layla, Lincoln, Hayden, Skylar, Leo, and Benjamin. Sister of Elaine (Alan) Bloch. Nancy loved entertaining at home, going out with friends, spending time with her family, and outings with her grandchildren, as well as enjoying a chilled chocolate martini. Private graveside services. Contributions may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com

FIREMAN: Shirley Walkow Fireman, age 94, passed away peacefully on Oct.14, 2022, with her two daughters by her side. Shirley was formerly from Pittsburgh, Columbus Ohio, Boynton Beach, Florida, and most recently Scottsdale, Arizona. Shirley was known for her outgoing, upbeat personality, great sense of humor and big heart. Nothing was more important to her than her family. She was preceded in death by her son, Lawrence Aaron Fireman, and her husband Allen L. Fireman. She is survived by her two loving daughters and their families: Robin (Fireman) and Kevin Kramer and their children, Ross Kramer and Todd Kramer and his wife Aida; and Randi (Fireman) and Bruce Berman and their children, Nathaniel and Sarah. Graveside services were held Oct. 21, 2022, at The New Tifereth Israel Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) or St Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

FISCHLER: Richard A. Fischler, age 70, of Mt. Lebanon, on Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. Beloved husband of 47 years to Cheryl (Williamson). Dear father of Brian. Brother of the late Barbara Jo Fischler. Son of the late Leonard and Phyllis Fischler. Brother-in-law of Rick Williamson, uncle of Lindsay Williamson and cousin of Anne Fischler. Rick was the owner of an accounting and financial planning business, RA Fischler & Co., PC. He was a former sheriff reserve for Allegheny County for 21 years. After 9-11 Rick joined the Mt. Lebanon Volunteer Fire Department. The family would like to thank Rick’s hospice nurse, Debbie Fitzgerald, for her compassionate and loving care. Graveside service was held at Mt. Lebanon Cemetery, Temple Emanuel Section. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be sent to Mt. Lebanon Volunteer Fire Department, 555 Washington Rd., Pittsburgh, PA 15228. slaterfuneral.com

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MYTHS ABOUT DEATH AND DISABILITY: LEGAL EDITION

This is one in a series of articles about Elder Law by Michael H. Marks., Esq.

Michael H. Marks is an elder law attorney with offices in Squirrel Hill and Monroeville. Send questions to michael@marks-law.com or visit www.marks-law.com.

Wills and Estates:

Having a will means avoiding probate: It’s actually the opposite. Anything passing under the Will means it does go through probate, a legal/clerical paperwork process for the authorities to make sure that it estate is handled right. A specific inheritance most often avoids probate because a beneficiary is named on that specific asset.

The Reading of the Will: I’ve never done it and never seen it happen. It’s a Hollywood tradition only – or possibly an English custom, or from old British movies. Can you picture Cary Grant in that scene?

An inheritance will affect my income tax: The principal value of inherited assets is usually not earned income and therefore not subject to income tax. Ordinarily only portions of an inherited asset may be taxable income, such as the earned interest part of a bank account. IRAs are an exception: all the funds in an IRA or other qualified retirement account are untaxed taxable income (except to a charity).

I am the Executor because I’m named in the Will: Not so fast! You may be named to become the executor, but you are not actually the Executor until you file the right paperwork and appear at the courthouse to be appointed and swear the oath.

An Executor can’t pass out any of the money till the very end of the estate: Although that’s the safest and best practice, it is possible for an Executor or Administrator to make a preliminary distribution before the very end, known as an “atrisk distribution.” If he or she messes it up and

doesn’t keep enough money to pay the bills and bequests, he or she is personally at risk to make up the shortfall.

I’m not allowed to give away more than $14,000 at a time: You’re safe. That limitation is part of the Federal Gift and Estate Tax rules, which right now only affect multi-, multimillionaires. Unless that’s you, there’s no tax limit on the amount that you can gift. Making gifts may impact your eligibility for Medicaid for long-term care for five years afterward, and you might be required to file a gift tax return, but the rule, called the “annual exclusion amount,” doesn’t forbid you from making larger gifts, and for most people has no real tax impact. Plus, that number is out of date. For 2022 it’s $16,000 per person per year, when it does apply.

The Executor is personally responsible to personally pay the estate expenses: Nope. Estate expenses are almost always paid by the Executor from the estate itself, before distributing the net estate, or what’s left over after the bills are paid, to the beneficiaries or heirs.

All of the family’s travel expenses to attend the funeral are deductible for PA inheritance tax: Sorry. Only those traveling to carry out business of the estate, like the Executor or Administrator, can deduct their travel expenses for inheritance tax purposes. (Family members can agree to reimburse or pay those expenses, though.)

Power of Attorney:

Giving someone else Power of Attorney mean you can’t act on your own any more: Not at all. You still retain the right to make your own decisions. Your Agent under Power Of Attorney is like an authorized second signer, but doesn’t take your place.

Power of attorney is only for old people: and NOT making Power of Attorney is only for gamblers!

Power of attorney is just as important as making

a Will. Before someone becomes deceased they may become disabled. Anyone under age 35 has a 1 in 3 chance of being disabled for at least six months during their working career. An illness or accident will keep 1 in 5 workers out of work for at least a year before the age of 65.

Guardianship is a ready method to help someone: Not true. Guardianship is an involved litigation before a Judge in court, with testimony, evidence, etc. It costs more, takes longer, and it’s a lot less flexible to go forward under court-supervised guardianship requirements afterward, than under private Power of Attorney. Also, Pennsylvania law requires judges to be more restrictive than ever in imposing Guardianship, a severe restriction on someone’s personal freedom.

Downloading an online form for Power Of Attorney is good enough: Not if you’re serious about protecting yourself, your family and

everything you’ve ever worked and saved for. With all that’s at stake, do it right, with your lawyer. An online form might work out for you, but it’s not worth the risk of being tripped up over a legal error that an attorney can spot and avoid.

Your Power of Attorney person can do whatever they want with your stuff: Disagree. Your Agent under Power Of Attorney has very strong legal obligations – “fiduciary duties” – to act on your behalf and in your best interests, and to avoid conflict of interest and self-dealing. The Court, the police or an administrative agency like Allegheny County Adult Protective Services will act to protect you from someone acting badly under your Power of Attorney.

At Marks Elder Law, we help people every day with issues like these. I invite your questions and feedback. Please let me know how I can help you and your family.

Michael H. Marks, Esq. michael@marks-law.com

Mr. & Mrs. James Gannes

Edward M. Goldston.

Edward M. Goldston.

Lynne Gottesman and Debra Ritt

Linda Goldston

Lena Wesoky

Anonymous Esther Green

Marjorie Halpern

Miriam Magadof Glantz

Mrs. K. Israel Nathan Israel

Susan Neuwirth Johnson

Dr. Seymour A. Herron

Jay Klein Louis Klein

Janice Mankin

Elaine McNeill

Larry & Maxine Myer

Sam Levine

Sylvia R. Melnick

Z.

Obituaries

Obituaries:

SCHWARTZ: Allan Schwartz, a very special loving family man and highly respected nuclear engineer, passed away peacefully on Oct. 31, 2022. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he worked 54 years for Westinghouse, Bechtel, Bettis in Pittsburgh, throughout the U.S. and abroad. His second marriage was a very happy loving union with his grieving widow, Shirley Holtzman Schwartz. He was a forever loving father of Barry Schwartz. Also, a wonderful brother to his only sibling, Marvin Schwartz in Cleveland — both sons of the late Celia and David Schwartz. Allan will be lovingly mourned by his granddaughters Kayla and Rachel Schwartz and Barry’s wife, Tammy. His love for them, and his particular brand of humor will always remain with his extended in-law family: Judi and Steve, and Max and Avi Rosen… and David and Cynthia Holtzman, and grandkids and great-grandkids, and Steven and Patricia Holtzman. He will also be fondly remembered by his extended family of cousins across the U.S. as well as the many friends of he and his widow. A small intimate graveside service was held at Parkway Jewish Center Cemetery with Cantor Henry Shapiro officiating, topped off with his wife’s praise to her very loving husband and his special brand of humor. Contributions honoring him may be made to the charity of the donor’s choice, in memory of Allan Irvin Schwartz. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com

THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS —

Sunday November 6: Herzl L. Amdur, Louis J. Azen, Wilma Rosenberg Blau, Dorothy Brand, Sally Brenner, Nat M. Cherkosly, Morris Cohen, Pauline Daniels, Gertrude Dektor, Gertrude Frank, Bella Friedman, Ruth A. Gold, Isaac Goldstein, Dr. Robert Grauer, Morris O. Guttman, Anna Lewinter Hirsh, Rose Hoffman, Sylvia Israel, Israel Leff, James Samuel Levine, Albert Love, Benjamin R. Protas, Elizabeth Rome, Samuel Rudick, Ruth Witt Simon, Sidney Wein

Monday November 7: Estherita Cohen, Emanuel Feldman, Solis L. Goldman, Helen Gottesman, Barbara Rom Krum, Abe M. Miller, Geoffrey Roberts

Tuesday November 8: Dr. Max A. Antis, Frank Cohen, Rose Feigenbaum, Bernard Aaron Feldman, William L. Fogel, Rose Glick, Blanche Moskowitz Gould, Saul Kopelson, Rachel Lazarus, Celia Meyers, Harold L. Roth, Sarah Safier, Theodore Sokoler, David Volkin, Lena Wesoky

Wednesday November 9: Robert Scott Ackerman, Emery J. Feldman, Linda Goldston, Nathan Israel, Paul Kimball, Morris B. Kirschenbaum, Mary Mannheimer, Saul I. Perilman, Rosalyn Serrins, Mitchell Shulman, Rose Stern, Paul Emanuel Tauberg, Samuel Viess, Clara Weiner, Martha Weis, Louis Zweig

Thursday November 10: Bernard Berkovitz, Dorothy M. Brill, James Cohen, Sidney H. Eger, Ephraim Farber, Howard Joseph Green, Charlotte R. Greenfield, Julius Gusky, Samuel Hackman, Max Hoffman, Albert S. Mar, Edward Witt

Friday November 11: Meyer R. Bochner, Elliot Borofsky, J. Jay Eger, Annie Chotiner Ellovich, Olga Engel, Mildred Flanick, Mildred Hahn, Morris Bernard Marcus, Freda Miller, Richard S. Rosenfeld, Sarah Schwartz Rudick, Milton E. Steinfeld, Abraham Stevenson

Saturday November 12: Mayme Altman, Selma Berger, Esther L. Carver, Sally Chudacoff, Eva Dizenfeld, Jack A. Eckert, Max Feinberg, Stanley Glasser, Max Horovitz, Louis A. Levin, Julia Moses, Helene Mueller, Bernard Samuels, Sam Seminofsky

SHOOER: Barbara E. Shooer, on Nov. 3, 2022. Beloved mother of Linda Shooer and Robert Shooer. Sister of the late Philip Goldstein. Barbara is also survived by her niece, Karen Austin, great-niece Jenn Maron and great-nephew Sean Austin. Barbara was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, and moved to New York in the 1930s. She went to Queens College where she graduated with a master’s degree in speech therapy. She worked as a speech ther apist for 49 years in the Plainview New York School District. Barbara had a deep love and appreciation for art, sculpture, music, opera and fine fashion. Barbara loved writing poetry and short stories and had a short story published in “Signatures 2016,” a book of poetry and prose. Barbara loved photography and traveling the world, but her greatest love was her family, to whom she was deeply devoted. She will be dearly missed. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment was private. In lieu of flowers, contributions in Barbara’s memory may be made to Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, Cyert Hall, 5000 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 or to the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, 5738 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217. schugar.com

SILVERMAN: Iris Silverman, born Sept 5, 1930, in Pittsburgh, passed away on Nov. 7, 2022, following a long illness. Iris was the beloved wife of the late Morton B. Silverman. Loving mother of Nancy (Mike Ritter) Wolk, Marc (Jill) Silverman and Zoel (Bonnie) Silverman. Grandmother of Alexis Wolk, Layne (Jacob) Freeman, Matthew Wolk, Andrew (Jessica) Silverman, Julie (Matan) Arnon, Raleigh (Charles) Downing, Melanie Silverman and Ilyse Silverman. Great-grandmother of Avery Silverman, Emma Downing, Maya Arnon and Jack Silverman. Throughout her life, Iris volunteered extensively and was very involved in her families’ lives. She was a founding partner of “The Registry” in Squirrel Hill and Fox Chapel. Iris retired and moved to Boca Raton, Florida, where she has been living for the past 20 years. Private graveside services and interment were held at B’nai Israel Cemetery. Donations may be made in her memory to Adat Shalom Synagogue 368 Guys Run Road Cheswick, Pa 15024, or a charity of the donor’s choice. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com PJC

Dustin A. D’Alessandro, Supervisor • Daniel T. D’Alessandro, Funeral Director 4522 Butler St. • Pittsburgh, PA 15201 (412) 682-6500 • www.dalessandroltd.com

Real Estate

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Donald Berk Sara Berkowitz Rozman

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A Jewish social media influencer makes a Holocaust documentary for a new generation

By Mike Wagenheim | JNS

Ata moment of sharply rising antisemitism, a Jewish social media star known for her dance videos is getting deadly serious.

Montana Tucker’s 10-part docuseries, “How to: Never Forget,” has drawn millions of views on TikTok since launching at the end of last month. The series, edited into digestible two-and-a-half minute segments, is the result of an intense trip by Montana and a film crew to Poland, where they capture the story of Tucker’s grandparents during the Holocaust. The production included a trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where Tucker’s great-grandparents were gassed, and where her grandmother saw them for the final time.

Among Tucker’s 9 million TikTok followers, she says her real fans know she’s Jewish and her grandparents survived the Holocaust, through occasional postings that include that subject matter. But, this project placed everything front and center.

“It’s not every day I post about being Jewish, or about my grandparents being Holocaust survivors,” Tucker, an acclaimed dancer, singer and actress known for her choreographed dance segments with global superstars, told JNS. “I have gotten hateful messages in the past, like the Holocaust never existed. And I’ve had people unfollow me when I’ve posted about my grandparents in the past. So posting a series like this, which is on a whole other level of just posting a happy picture with my grandparents, I wasn’t sure what the reaction was going to be.”

Tucker and her production crew said the timing of the docuseries, which concluded Wednesday, was done in conjunc tion with the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass” in Nazi Germany and Austria when dozens of Jews were murdered in public and tens of thou sands were sent to concentration camps. It wasn’t meant to coincide with the constant headlines regarding Jew-hatred that have dominated the news as of late. She said it’s made the reaction to the series all the more impactful.

“I am just overwhelmed with how incred ible it has been. If you have a chance to go look through some of the comments on these videos, they are so powerful, from the Jewish people being so incredibly grateful that something like this is out there, but also from non-Jewish people being like, ‘I had no idea. Thank you so much for doing this. And thank you for opening my eyes.’ And that, to me, is what’s most powerful about changing people’s perspectives,” said Tucker.

The series is produced by Israel Schachter and Rachel Kastner with SoulShop Studios. SoulShop’s CEO, Dan Luxenberg, said Tucker is a “hero” for taking on the project.

“The fact that she’s taking over her channel and posting this to her millions and millions of followers is nothing short of heroic. She’s a role model in the Jewish community now. And non-Jewish kids around the country need a role model, and they’re seeing [Tucker’s work] and they’re grabbing on to it,” he said.

Tucker noted that she has friends in the industry who are openly Jewish behind the scenes and will post social media content about a wide range of social issues but hide their Jewish identity online.

“They’ve told me they feel like it’ll be a detriment to their business and people will unfollow them. That was interesting to me because that really never crossed my mind,”

said Tucker. “I knew that people want to follow me, but I never said, ‘Oh, maybe I shouldn’t post it because of that.’ If these people don’t want to follow me because I’m posting about my grandparents or posting about the Holocaust, then I don’t want them to follow me. Why would I want people to follow me that are like that?”

The series debut, which reached over a million people in under 24 hours, left Luxenberg “in a state of disbelief.” He said that while there are films, TV shows, docu mentaries and podcasts about the Holocaust, “the way this team got together and utilized and leveraged the ability to tell high-quality stories, through a short form medium, is literally disrupting and revolutionizing Holocaust education,” which surveys and studies show is drastically lacking among American youth.

Kastner, herself a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, told JNS that morning that she had a conversation with a Jew who went to school in New York before moving to Israel and said he never learned about the Holocaust in high school.

“There is a deep, deep lack of knowledge, lack of empathy, lack of perspective and scope on how recent this genocide was and how huge it was,” said Kastner.

There is a challenge in recounting the enormity of the Holocaust in around 1,500

seconds, as the “How to: Never Forget” series does. After all, the new Ken Burns documen tary, “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” runs six hours. Tucker and her crew shot over 100 hours of footage in the span of a week.

“But you can’t just DM [direct message] a link to a six-hour documentary and say to somebody, ‘Watch this.’ But, you can DM a link to a highly-produced two-and-a-half minute video that will get people saying, ‘I need to learn more about this,’ ” said Luxenberg. “It’s a completely different model of storytelling. Just because we’ve been used to content being told over the course of one to three hours, that’s not the only way you can convey the story and pay homage to the subject.”

Luxenberg told JNS it isn’t a matter of whittling down the Holocaust to small clips, but reframing the conversation to “how are you getting an audience,” noting that 1.6 million people visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016. “We’ve had over 1.6 million people watching our videos in a week. That alone just shows you an impact already. And people are watching these videos because they’re choosing to. It’s not like a school-mandated field trip.”

Kastner concurred, rationalizing that even within a full-length film or documentary, “there are specific scenes that stand out. We don’t remember a three-hour documentary or movie in our heads. We remember specific scenes and moments and lines. And in every single one of the episodes, Montana or Zak [Jeffay, a tour guide from JRoots who joined the produc tion] says something that just sends shivers down your spine. And that’s what we’re doing in the editing room.”

Those shivers are exactly what Tucker feels are most impactful. Her fans are used to seeing her joyful, dance-infused, playful content. This series turns it all on its head.

“In so many Holocaust documentaries, there are survivors sharing the stories, but I don’t think there’s ever been a grand child sharing it through their perspective, where people that are closer to my age can relate,” she said. “You see all my raw, authentic emotions. You really feel like you’re there with me. And I think that’s why people are relating to it and seeing things differently.”

PJC

Time to Challah!

That’s a lotta terra cotta

Walk4Friendship

The Friendship Circle’s 2022 Walk4Friendship on Nov. 6 at Wightman Park welcomed hundreds of participants for a walk and carnival celebrating inclusion and friendship. Danny Rosen was presented with the second annual Fred Rock Founders’ Award, which honors local individuals who personify The Friendship Circle’s values of inclusion, friendship and community.

p Tomas Bird and Ayala Rosenthal cheer for friendship.

p Bracha Shkedi, Abby Blank and Sydney Smith show off their Walk medals.

p Mariel Ward, Pablo D’Andrea and Joey Carcia stand near the carnival inflatables.

p Iceburgh and Josh Walburn celebrate a successful walk.

Photos courtesy of Friendship Circle Pittsburgh

p Shinshin Bar Zeevi joined teens to bake loaves of challah and learn about food

Members of the teen department at The Second Floor of the JCC participated in Nazun (Challah for Hunger).

p The program is in partnership with Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. Photos courtesy of Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh

p The program allowed friends to decorate terra cotta pots and create trail mix, while escaping the cool outdoor temps with warm drinks and a waffle bar.

Friendship Circle Pittsburgh kicked off a new program year of inclusive friendship, leadership opportunities and community building.

p Hooray for friendship.

Photos courtesy of Friendship Circle Pittsburgh