‘The right initiative at the right time’: Chabad on Campus addresses students’ mental health needs
By David Rullo | Senior Sta Writer
Rabbi Shmuli Rothstein knows the consequences of students not getting support for their mental health needs.
The Chabad at Pitt rabbi has seen students break down due to the stress and anxiety of being on campus during the anti-Zionist encampments last summer. He has visited hospitals to see students who have overdosed and has even intervened to prevent suicide attempts.
“A girl was here yesterday crying. She had a hard time,” Rothstein said. “I don’t blame her. I would do that, too. There are times in your life when you just need someone.”
Rothstein said that students across all walks of life have reached out to him.
“There’s a lot of preventative energy that’s needed,” he said. “It’s not all about attacking the illness. There’s a lot of work to get done before the illness.”
To that end, Chabad on Campus has created a new mental health initiative:
EMPOWER —Encouraging Mental Positivity, Wellness and Emotional Resilience.
The program will provide counseling services with licensed therapists, mindfulness workshops, stress management sessions, peer support groups, educational programs on mental health awareness and self-care, and collaboration with university resources.
Chabad is teaming with Dr. Daniel Saul of Cardigan Psychological, who is managing the professionals working with the program and a staff of students interested in helping their peers.
“Students can really help in their own social circles to be more connected and know what their peers are feeling, and to really be able to uplift them themselves, if they have the tools to do so,” said Sara Weinstein, co-director of Chabad on Campus.
The idea, she said, is to make the program accessible for students, whether it’s through the professionals at Cardigan Psychological or their peers.
By Deborah Weisberg | Special to the Chronicle
Seniors across Pittsburgh will be treated to a home-delivered Thanksgiving-themed meal and gift kit as two nonprofits partner to make their holiday memorable.
Our Giving Kitchen Pittsburgh and GIFT (Giving It Forward Together) are collaborating on the preparation and delivery of 300 kosher dinners plus festive bags filled with adult coloring books, playing cards and other fun items to the city’s elderly.
Volunteers gathered at Our Giving Kitchen in Squirrel Hill this week to cook and package the meals, and students from area universities will distribute them at senior residences in Squirrel Hill, Homewood and other neighborhoods.
Photo by David Rullo
Volunteers prepare Thanksgiving meals for seniors at Our Giving Kitchen
Photo courtesy of Bassie Rosenfeld
Headlines
Retirement brings old practices and new meaning to Squirrel Hill urologist
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Sta Writer
Dan Gup is giving back to the community by taking just a little.
The retired urologist, and Temple Sinai member, is becoming a mohel.
Overseeing circumcision rites wasn’t always on the Squirrel Hill resident’s radar.
“A week before I retired I was talking to a friend of mine at work, a cardiologist who belongs to Adat Shalom, and he asked me what I was going to be doing,” Gup recalled. “I said, ‘You know, I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll do some volunteering, do some traveling, take some Osher courses.’”
Gup’s friend suggested becoming a mohel.
The idea was intriguing, Gup said. “I have a urology background. I like doing procedures. I like talking to families. So I thought about it.”
Gup retired in March and spent April with his wife, Terri Klein, in a Brooklyn rental. Along with visiting family, Gup dedicated his New York stay to considering becoming a mohel. He reached out to several of Pittsburgh’s non-Orthodox rabbis, as well as a Philadelphia-based mohel, about the specialty and learned about the Brit Milah Program of Reform Judaism.
Designed for Jewish medical professionals with infant circumcision proficiency, the program involves a series of Zoom courses where participants study various writings and procedures, officiate a mock ceremony and meet with a beit din (a Jewish court of law consisting of three rabbinic judges).
“To be honest, I was a little concerned when I started thinking about it: Was I really the right person for this? I’m not the most observant Jew. I had to think through that a bit,” Gup said. “But all the rabbis I spoke
to were very encouraging. They said that people from different backgrounds come to this program with all different sorts of views on Judaism and how they observe it.”
journey. For two hours a week, he learned related liturgy, the history of its role within Reform Judaism. Gup came to appreciate the importance of a newborn baby’s name and discovered how to share its significance with those attending a service. He heard from pediatric urologists and mohels about the procedure but also how to establish oneself in the field: where to order equipment, how to create a website, how to get insurance.
Gup spent nearly 30 years practicing urology, but the Brit Milah Program offered
“I did a lot of adult circumcision, but I really didn’t do any pediatric or newborn circumcisions,” he said.
Mastering prayers and finding meaning in a millennia-old practice is valuable, but surgical competency is where the rubber meets the road.
Gup called on colleagues who placed him back on staff at UPMC and covered his malpractice insurance. Months into retirement, Gup found himself not on a beach or
SUBSCRIPTIONS
subscriptions@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org 412-687-1000, ext. 2 TO ADVERTISE advertising@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org 412-687-1000, ext. 1
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Email: newsdesk@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Evan H. Stein, Chair
Evan Indianer, Vice Chair
Derek Smith, Treasurer
Gayle R. Kraut, Secretary
Gail Childs, Dan Droz, Malke Steinfeld Frank, Seth Glick, Tammy Hepps, Judith Kanal, Cátia Kossovsky, Charles Saul
GENERAL COUNSEL
Stuart R. Kaplan, Esq.
Jim Busis, CEO and Publisher 412-228-4690 jbusis@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
golf course but at Magee-Womens Hospital rounding with its postpartum team.
“They were great,” he said.
All summer, from his East End home, the avid runner rode his bike to Oakland, met the team and worked.
“I must have done 90 to 100 circumcisions with them,” he said. “I learned the different techniques — the Goncho, the Mogen — and got very comfortable doing them. It’s not that different from adult circumcisions, but there are some differences: You use a clamp instead of stitches.”
Gup anticipated training would lead to greater ease performing the procedure. What he didn’t expect, however, was an evolving relationship to the practice.
“For a while, I sort of struggled a little bit with why is this the tradition, why has it lasted? Why is it so important?” he said.
Genesis 17:10 recounts God’s instruction to Abraham that “every male among you shall be circumcised.”
The imperative forms the brit (covenant) between God and Abraham.
Through the Brit Milah Program, Gup studied related texts and began understanding the practice’s foundational ties to Judaism.
“It is a way to mark our connection to our history,” he said. “It’s an outward sign of the covenant and the basis of who we are.”
Reaching that conclusion with such conviction is a bit surprising, he continued. “I think in my younger self, I might have been more challenged by it. But it’s a part of who we are, and I’m not in a position to say it’s not valid or that it doesn’t have a role. It’s a ritual and there’s value to rituals.”
For generations dating back to Abraham, Jews have circumcised their sons. When
5915 Beacon St., 5th Floor Pittsburgh, PA 15217
Main phone number: 412-687-1000
Subscriptions: 412-687-1000, ext. 2
PRODUCTION
Jeni Mann Tough Production Manager Carl Weigel Art/Production Coordinator Subscriptions subscriptions@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org 412-687-1000, ext. 2
Published every Friday by the Pittsburgh Jewish Publication and Education Foundation 5915 Beacon St., 5th Floor Pittsburgh, PA 15217 Phone: 412-687-1000
POSTMASTER: Send address change to PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE, 5915 BEACON ST., 5TH FLOOR PITTSBURGH, PA 15217 (PERIODICAL RATE POSTAGE PAID AT PITTSBURGH, PA, AND AT ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICES) USPS 582-740
Manuscripts, letters, documents and photographs sent to the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle become the property of this publication, which is not responsible for the return or loss of such items.
The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle does not endorse the goods or services advertised or covered in its pages and makes no representation to the kashrut of food products and services in said advertising or articles. The publisher is not liable for damages if, for any reason whatsoever, he fails to publish an advertisement or for any error in an advertisement. Acceptance of advertisers and of ad copy is subject to the publisher’s approval. The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle is not responsible if ads violate applicable laws and the advertiser will indemnify, hold harmless and defend the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle from all claims made by governmental agencies and consumers for any reason based on ads appearing in the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle
Please see Gup, page 11
Retired urologist Dr. Dan Gup in his Squirrel Hill home
Photo by Adam Reinherz
Headlines
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust features controversial artist Dread Scott
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
Dread Scott, an artist who has called Israel an apartheid state and accused it of war crimes, is being featured by The National Museum in Pittsburgh’s Cultural District.
Scott’s work is part of the exhibit “The National Museum of…”, which invites a different artist to change the name of the museum on a storefront every two months. Scott, whose real name is Scott Tyler, has altered the space’s name to “International Museum of People’s Uprisings.”
On Oct. 20, 2023, Hyperallergic published Scott’s opinion piece “Shall I Condemn Myself a Little for You?”
The essay — written less than two weeks after Hamas murdered nearly 1,200 people and kidnapped another 250 during the Oct. 7 terror attack — attempted to link the unprovoked assault in Israel to the Aug. 21, 1831, slave revolt led by Nat Turner.
Scott wrote that “persistent calls for people to denounce Hamas’s actions serve to dehumanize Palestinians and their supporters.”
“It is presumed that all human beings denounce the murder of all civilians,” the piece continues. “Questions about condemnation have been asked by people who presume to have the moral authority (and superiority) to evaluate whether a supporter of Palestinians has any right to speak.”
His essay also contains a one-sided history
of the Israel-Palestinian conflict written by Noura Erakat, without any context or attempt to include Israel’s claims on the land it occu pies. Scott also accuses Israel, which he calls an apartheid state, of committing war crimes.
The opinion piece goes on to condemn the United States’ war on terror following Al-Qaeda’s Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and murdered 2,996 people.
“The world is being asked to side with and accept either an unending militarized apartheid state carrying out ethnic cleansing to maintain an oppressive and violent status quo, or theocratic Islamist would-be liberators who murder civilians,” Scott wrote near the conclusion of his piece.
This isn’t the first time Scott, and his work, have proven controversial. In 1989 he exhibited “What is the Proper Way to Display a
Antisemitic stickers and posters plastered throughout city
More than 20 antisemitic stickers and posters, some with Nazi imagery, were pasted around Squirrel Hill, Bloomfield and Oakland last weekend.
The stickers were similar to items posted in Oakland earlier this month, according to an email sent by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Deputy Security Director Eric Kroll to the security directors of various community organizations.
The Federation’s security team has been in contact with the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police and is coordinating a response with the city to remove the offensive material.
A neo-Nazi group affiliated with the Goyim Defense League may be distributing the stickers and posters, according to Kroll’s email.
The Federation advises community
members to take a photo of any such sticker or poster found, notify the Federation security team of its location and call 911. The Federation’s security team is coordinating with the police to record the locations of the items and create the appropriate reports.
The security team requests that all items are left in place.
“While these items are offensive to view, we want to ensure that any potential evidence is preserved for future prosecution,” Kroll wrote. “We are in contact with Pittsburgh Public Works to remove these items ASAP. If you have an item on or near your property, please check your cameras to see if you may have video of any actor(s) or vehicles involved.”
Antisemitic incidents should be reported to jewishpgh.org/form/incident-report, or by calling 412-992-5261. PJC
— Toby Tabachnick
U.S. Flag?” that resulted in the desecration of an American flag. Because of the work, he was one of the defendants in United States v. Eichman, a Supreme Court case in which it was decided that federal laws banning flag desecration were unconstitutional.
Scott isn’t the only controversial connection to the Cultural District’s National Museum.
The exhibition space’s founder and curator, Jon Rubin, an art professor at Carnegie Mellon University, was the co-director of Conflict Kitchen.
Created in 2010, Conflict Kitchen was a restaurant in Schenley Plaza that served food from countries that were in conflict with the United States. It included cuisine from Iran, Afghanistan, Cuba and North Korea, among other countries.
In 2014, the restaurant presented Palestinian food and included a discussion billed as an examination of current events in Palestine, but instead presented a one-sided anti-Israel perspective. Then Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Community Relations Council Director Gregg Roman had asked to be part of the discussion. His request was denied.
Rubin, who is Jewish, also participated in a December 2014 panel discussion at the Mattress Factory after a May 2014 exhibit, “Borders, Walls and Citizenship,” was canceled amid outcry from BDS supporters who accused Palestinian artists of normalizing relations with Israel because Israeli artists were included in the proposed project.
During the panel discussion, titled “Difficult Work,” Rubin accused the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh of labeling the Conflict Kitchen discussion as antisemitic to funders of the project and to the media.
The groundswell of outrage led to the Heinz Endowment, which had provided $50,000 in funding for Conflict Kitchen, to condemn the Palestinian iteration and state that it had not funded that part of the project.
At the time, Rubin also said that since Conflict Kitchen was an art project, it was not obligated to present both sides of an issue, nor was it necessary to fact-check information presented.
“The viewpoints presented in our material are the viewpoints of Palestinians. We present them as such. We do not need to vet facts on viewpoints,” Rubin said.
In a statement to the Chronicle about the National Museum exhibit curated by Rubin, a spokesperson for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust said the project explores what “museums commemorate, what societies remember, and the role artists have in conversations.”
The artist Dread Scott was selected by Rubin, in consultation with an advisory board, according to the Cultural Trust, and the “current installation…is a global reflection not focused on a specific location or conflict.”
PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
The future of Israel and the Middle East with
Nadav’s personal story, ranging from his IDF service to his Israeli civil service posts in Washington, D.C. and Boston, gives him unique insight into the American Jewish community, the impact of American Jewish lobbying on Israel, and, most importantly, the need for a pro-peace, pro-diplomacy political solution.
Thursday, December 5
Talk and questions: 7:00 - 8:30pm
JCC of Squirrel Hill, Levinson Hall 5738 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217 We encourage RSVP’s and to contact Aidan Jelinek by November 29th at aidan@jstreet.org
p Dread Scott
Photo by Dronthego via Wikimedia Commons
Pitt equity, inclusion committee votes on changes to resolution creating antisemitism committee
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
In a sometimes tense Nov. 18 special meeting, the University of Pittsburgh’s Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Advocacy Committee voted to suggest changes to the university’s resolution creating an ad hoc antisemitism committee. Those changes included safeguards against conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, which was a concern among members of Students for Justice in Palestine.
The meeting was attended by committee members as well as concerned community members including Chabad on Campus co-Director Sara Weinstein, Chabad at Pitt Rabbi Shmuli Rothstein, Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Community Relations Council Director Laura Cherner, StandWithUs Mid-Atlantic Regional Director Julie Paris and Beacon Coalition Executive Director Jeremy Kazzaz.
EIDAC’s recommendations to alter the language of the resolution forming the antisemitism committee first acknowledge the experiences and feelings of Jewish students, faculty and staff, including fear, loneliness and abandonment in light of recent acts of violence and shaming on Pitt’s campus.
The recommendations then call for an explicit definition of antisemitism, while noting that according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, Anti-Defamation League and the U.S. Department of State, “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled
against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.”
Concerned about the effects the creation of an antisemitism committee might have on other university contingents, the EIDAC recommendations state that “it is imperative that this committee attend to its mandate in a way that does not erase the pain of others, or negate the complicated way that individuals, groups and communities navigate their identities.”
EIDAC then implores the proposed antisemitism committee to recognize that opposition to and criticism of Zionism is within the bounds of acceptable discourse. After calling for objectivity and arguing that the antisemitism committee should strive to build solidarity among marginalized groups on campus, the recommendations urge the proposed committee not to conflate antisemitism and anti-Zionism.
Finally, EIDAC suggests that the resolution acknowledges Pittsburgh’s “long history of significant historical instances of cooperation among marginalized communities.”
The meeting opened with EIDAC co-Chair
Bridget Keown sharing insights she gained when meeting with Students for Justice in Palestine, an anti-Zionist group on campus.
SJP, Keown said, is concerned with a portion of the IHRA definition of antisemitism that says that it could be antisemitic to require behavior of Israel “not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.”
Members of SJP told Keown that according to that definition, anyone focusing on “Israeli abuses” could be labeled antisemitic if worse abuses are occurring somewhere else in the world.
SJP, Keown said, is concerned that using the IHRA definition of antisemitism would “limit speech and activism regarding Palestinian rights.”
Neither EIDAC nor the university uses the IHRA definition of antisemitism. Instead, Pitt defines antisemitism as “the fear or hatred of Jews, Judaism, and related symbols” on the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion page of its website.
Jennifer Murtazashvili, director of the university’s center for governance and markets and co-chair of the proposed antisemitism committee, reminded EIDAC members of the recent physical assaults on three Jewish Pitt students.
She then spoke of the trauma felt by Jewish community members who are being forced to define themselves and antisemitism before their issues are even addressed.
Acknowledging the concerns of SJP, Murtazashvili noted that none of the students or faculty who spoke in support of the antisemitism committee discussed Zionism, Israel or the war between Hamas and the Jewish state.
“None of the people that have spoken about grievances or challenges they have faced mentioned the current conflict,” she said. “It really is problematic that these issues keep coming up by people outside the Jewish community.”
Murtazashvili said SJP’s concerns illustrate why “it is absolutely necessary to have a committee on antisemitism.”
“Would we allow, or would we think it’s appropriate for individuals outside of other communities to debate the validity of those groups organizing and advising on issues pertaining to issues within their own community?” she asked.
The proposed antisemitism committee, Murtazashvili said, would be purely advisory, would not impose a definition of antisemitism on the university and would not impose restrictions on speech.
Faculty Assembly President Robin Kear and Vice President Kristin Kanthak both spoke in favor of creating the antisemitism committee. Several attendees expressed concern that EIDAC might be attempting to be a gatekeeper of the antisemitism committee; others were concerned with the effects the creation of the committee might have on academic freedom. At the conclusion of the meeting, eight members of EIDAC voted in favor of the recommendations and none voted against it.
The recommendations will now go to the full Faculty Assembly, whose members are scheduled to vote on the creation of the antisemitism committee at its December meeting. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Parlor meeting introduces Pittsburghers to Unistream and talented Israeli youth
— LOCAL —
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
ACEO and two Israeli GenZers visited Pittsburgh in hopes of sparking interest in an Israeli nonprofit.
Unistream, founded in 2001, provides Israeli youth with business-focused mentorship and entrepreneurial tools to reduce socioeconomic disparities across the Jewish state.
The organization maintains 22 entrepreneurship centers and works with 3,800 teens each year, according to its CEO Ifat Bechor.
“I can show you many statistics but it’s really about the personal stories,” Bechor told nearly 20 Pittsburghers on Nov. 17. “I’m proud to be able to cry every day from the good stories that I hear from our participants.”
Two of the participants, Tamar Shawah and Dvir Cohen, joined Bechor for the Sunday evening meeting, as did Michael Fisher, Unistream’s chief development officer. Fisher was a shaliach in Pittsburgh nearly 20 years ago. Speaking to potential donors in side a private East End residence, Shawah and Cohen recalled their experiences
with the Israeli nonprofit.
Shawah, 21, joined Unistream in 2016 as a ninth grader. At the time, the young Druze student sought respite from bullying in school.
Working with the nonprofit for several years delivered skills, including how to critically think, interview, build a CV “from scratch,” and even how to behave in front of business leaders, she said.
The lessons also presented a financially viable path forward. In August, Shawah landed an internship as a full-time investment analyst with Vintage Investment Partners, an Israelibased company with $4 billion in assets.
“As part of the program, I get to join all the teams in the company and then decide together where I should stay, and where I want to continue my journey,” Shawah said. The opportunity “honestly gave me a fresh start, which is pretty important during the war. I felt like I gained my confidence back. I had control over my future, which is something that many people during the war don’t think about —they’re thinking about how we’re going to survive the next day.”
Cohen, 16, is a third-year participant in Unistream’s program.
“They came to our school and told us about
the program, and I decided it’s something that we don’t usually have in Kiryat Shmona,” he said.
Cohen joined, competed in a hackathon and continued participating with the nonprofit despite logistical challenges.
Because of the Israel-Hamas war, Cohen and members of his family have spent more than a year living in a Herzliya hotel. Along with social and emotional challenges, displacement resulted in Cohen missing two months of class.
“There’s kids like me that missed a lot more, and a gap has been created in their education,” he said.
Cohen and fellow Unistream participants developed an app that remedies the pedagogical plight by creating a study plan. After students complete a survey and identify topics they’re struggling with, the students’ teachers complete a similar survey. The app compares the two lists and makes a digital plan, complete with links to educational resources.
Had the app existed, “when I started going to a new school and had a lot of gaps I know it would have helped me,” Cohen said.
But the app isn’t just for evacuees, he continued. “It’s for everybody. It’s for children
of diplomats and every student who missed a part of a school year.”
Bechor said Unistream works with Arab and Israeli youth from 85 municipalities across Israel.
“With all the complexities that we have as a world community, not only in Israel — seeing the teenagers that we work with — I’m telling you, we have a lot of hope. They’re amazing, and they’re going to build the country. Sometimes they just need the right network,” Bechor said. Pittsburgher David Burstin praised the organization.
“Barbara (Burstin) and I are contributing to this program, and we’d be proud and happy to have any of you join us in this great effort,” he told the attendees. “Because if peace is going to come in the Middle East, programs like this are going to bring it. It’s not going to happen because adults argue back and forth forever.”
“Believing in yourself and in your dreams, no matter how big they seem — I know it’s a cliché, but I think this is something that Unistream has taught me all over the years,” Shawah said. “If I didn’t believe in my dreams,
— LOCAL —
p The Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh jonbilous/Adobe Stock
Headlines
The brief, consequential Jewish history of 200 Ross St.
Eric Lidji | Special to the Chronicle
The next time you’re entering the Parkway East from Crosstown Boulevard, glance to your right just as you’re taking the curve of the on-ramp. You can see a nice view of a historic building at 200 Ross. St., currently known as the John P. Robin Civic Building.
ACTION-Housing recently purchased the vacant, 13-story building for $4 million. It’s planning a $55 million renovation that would create 68 new affordable housing units.
When the deal was announced last month, a bell rang in my head. I vaguely recalled that the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh had once occupied the building. It turns out that the building played a short but crucial role in the history of the organization.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s records at the Rauh Jewish Archives contain a comprehensive index of its board of trustees meeting minutes from the late 1940s into the mid-1980s. A quick review showed an intriguing listing for “J&L BLDG.”
The architectural firm MacClure & Spahr designed 200 Ross St. for Jones & Laughlin Steel Company in 1907. With the
opening of Gateway Center, J&L announced plans in early 1952 to leave 200 Ross St. for the glimmering new office complex near the Point.
The move sparked a downtown real estate shuffle. The Community Chest of Allegheny County left its longtime home at the old City Hall at Smithfield Street to
purchase half of 200 Ross St. It went looking for partners to purchase the other half. The Pittsburgh Housing Authority and the Urban Redevelopment Authority soon joined on as tenants.
As these deals were underway in February 1952, beloved United Jewish Fund worker Emanuel Spector died unexpectedly. His friends in the Jewish community created the Emanuel Spector Memorial Fund with a $250,000 goal for developing a “living memorial that will represent everything fine in our way of life that Mr. Spector stood for.”
Although not mentioned publicly at the time, it appears that the group considered using the funds to build a new headquarters. The Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and the United Jewish Fund were occupying a floor of the Sheraton Hotel downtown, and other Jewish communal organizations were spread around Oakland and the Hill District.
Edgar J. Kaufmann sat on the Emanuel Spector Memorial Committee and also on the board of the Community Chest. Instead of new headquarters, he recommended that the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies pool $200,000 from its endowment and from the Emanuel Spector Memorial Fund to purchase three floors of the former J&L Building.
The Federation of Jewish Philanthropies
ultimately purchased just the 11th floor using its own funds, bringing along the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Council on Jewish Education. Spector was instead commemorated with an award, still given today.
The relationship between the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and the Community Chest was long and intricate. Bertha Rauh was a leading advocate for the creation of the Community Chest in the 1920s.
The Federation of Jewish Philanthropies joined in 1932, as a local banking crisis was creating challenges for community service agencies.
Over the next 20 years, though, Jewish philanthropy drastically expanded. The unfolding chaos in Europe created new demands, leading to the formation of the local United Jewish Fund in 1936 to address overseas needs. These needs only grew with World War II, the creation of displaced persons camps, and the establishment of the state of Israel.
In those years, the United Jewish Fund was also being asked to address local Jewish communal needs not covered by the Community Chest. These included refugee resettlement, education, recreation, marketing and paying down on capital projects.
Jones & Laughlin Steel Company commissioned a new headquarters at 200 Ross St. and left in the early 1950s to join the new Gateway Center development Photo courtesy of Detre Library & Archives at the Heinz History Center
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.
SATURDAY, NOV. 23
Tree of Life’s November Torah Studio is honored to host the Rev. Liddy Barlow. Rabbi Je rey Myers will join the Rev. Barlow for an interfaith Shabbat service and Torah discussion on Nov. 23 at 9:45 a.m. in Levy Hall at Rodef Shalom. 9:45 a.m. 4905 Fifth Ave. treeoflifepgh.org.
q SUNDAY, NOV. 24
In Unruly Bodies in Israeli Pop Culture: Comparing Netta Barzilai, Dana Internation, Shayna Weiss will give a series of presentations on Israeli culture. Weiss is the associate director of the Schusterman Center for Israel. 9:30 a.m. University of Pittsburgh, Barco Law School.
SUNDAYS, NOV. 24–DEC. 18
Grades K-3, join Chabad of Squirrel Hill for Jewish Children’s Discovery Center and learn about some interesting sites and cities in Israel through creative art and baking activities. Children aged 0-2 enjoy a friendly meetup for moms and tots with Jewish-themed music, activities and sensory play. 10:30 a.m. $75/semester for grades K-3; $50 for ages 0-4; 1700 Beechwood Blvd. chabadpgh.com/art.
SUNDAYS, NOV. 24–JULY, 20
Join Chabad of Squirrel Hill for its Men’s Tefillin Club Services and tefillin are followed by a delicious
breakfast and engaging discussions on current events. 8:30 a.m. 1700 Beechwood Blvd. chabadpgh.com.
MONDAYS, NOV. 25–DEC. 30
Join Congregation Beth Shalom for a weekly Talmud study. 9:15 a.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org.
Join Temple Sinai for an evening of mahjong every Monday (except holidays). Whether you are just starting out or have years of experience, you are sure to enjoy the camaraderie and good times as you make new friends or cherish moments with longtime pals. All are welcome. Winners will be awarded Giant Eagle gift cards. All players should have their own 2024 mahjong cards. Contact Susan Cohen at susan_k_cohen@yahoo.com if you have questions. $5. templesinaipgh.org.
WEDNESDAYS, NOV. 27–DEC. 18
Temple Sinai’s Rabbi Daniel Fellman presents a weekly Parshat/Torah portion class on site and online. Call 412-421-9715 for more information and the Zoom link.
Bring the parashah alive and make it personally relevant and meaningful with Rabbi Mark Goodman in this weekly Parashah Discussion: Life & Text. 12:15 p.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh. org/life-text.
Chabad of the South Hills presents “Nurturing Relationships,” a new six-week course with Rabbi Mendel Rosenblum. Learn Jewish wisdom for building deeper connections in all your relationships. 7:30 p.m. Bower Hill Road. chabadsh.com.
Get local help with your Medicare questions
I’m Jim Recht, a licensed sales agent in Pittsburgh. When it comes to Medicare, it’s important to consider all of your options. What works well for your neighbor may not be the best fit for you. I know the ins and outs of Medicare, and I’m ready to answer your questions and help you find a plan that fits your needs.
Call today to learn more about Medicare Advantage plans in your area
Temple Emanuel of South Hills hosts Azure’s 4th Annual Festive Families Concert. Celebrate all families and traditions with winter holiday favorites performed klezmer-style by the Pittsburgh-based band KleZlectic. Azure concerts are interactive, sensory-friendly and for all ages, abilities and behaviors. An instrument petting zoo follows the performance. Free. 3 p.m. 1250 Bower Hill Road, 15243. RSVP at autismpittsburgh.org/AzureEvents.
THURSDAY, DEC. 5
JFunds presents a free webinar hosted by Shay Port, CPA and financial coach. Learn practical money management steps to stay on track and accomplish your goals. Advance registration is required. For more information and to register visit JFundsPgh.org. JFunds partners o er grants, loans, scholarships and free financial coaching. 7 p.m. JFundsPgh.org.
SATURDAY, DEC. 7
Families with young children are invited to spend Shabbat morning with Rodef Shalom at its Shabbat with You. Drop in for a light breakfast, play date, sing-along with Cantor Toby and a Shabbat activity with Family Center Director Ellie Feibus. 9 a.m. $5 per family. 4905 Fifth Ave. rodefshalom.org/shabbatwithyou.
MONDAY, DEC. 9
Join Rabbi Jessica Locketz for Wise Aging: Growing into Wisdom, a nine-session series designed for Jewish adults 55 and older; anyone open to conversations about what it means not just to get older, but to age wisely. Free for members, $72 for non-members. Noon. 12 p.m. rodefshalom.org/wiseaging.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 11
Wear your PJs and learn a latke about Hanukkah.
Children ages 2-5 and their families are invited to join Rodef Shalom librarian Sam Siskind and Family Center Director Ellie Feibus for Hanukkah PJ Library in the Glick Children’s Library for an evening of Hanukkah stories, crafts, and food. 5:30 p.m. 4905 Fifth Ave. rodefshalom.org/pj.
SUNDAY, DEC. 15
Chabad of the South Hills presents the CKids Chanukah Block Party, a totally epic indoor preChanukah event for the whole family. Dreidel dash, curbside karaoke, kosher food truck fest, make your very own glowing Chanukah sculpture. 2 p.m. 1700 Bower Hill Road. chabadsh.com/blockparty.
MONDAY, DEC. 16
Join Rodef Shalom Congregation for the opening reception of the exhibit Secret Forest, featuring new sculptures by Jonathan Shapiro. This free exhibit is a program of the Music and More at Rodef Shalom series and will be on display in the Rodef Shalom Jewish Museum through Feb. 28, 2025. 6 p.m. 4905 Fifth Ave. rodefshalom.org/forest.
Hear from guest speaker Eric Lidji, director of the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Heinz History Center, as he presents A Stroll Through the Past: Stories from the Rodef Shalom Archives Learn about interesting finds and stories from Rodef Shalom Congregation’s archives. 7:30 p.m. 4905 Fifth Ave. rodefshalom.org/archives.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 25
The Tree of Life Congregation will hold an outdoor lighting of the Chanukah menorah. The public is invited. 5 p.m. Corner of Shady and Wilkins avenues. treeoflifepgh.org. PJC
Join the Chronicle Book Club!
The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle invites you to join the Chronicle Book Club for its Dec. 22 discussion of “Long Island Compromise,” by Taffy BrodesserAkner. From the Jewish Book Council, Evie Saphire-Bernstein:
“Five years after her wildly successful debut, ‘Fleishman Is in Trouble,’ Taffy Brodesser-Akner returns with an engrossing new novel, ‘Long Island Compromise.’
The book opens in 1980, when, thanks to the success of their polystyrene molds factory, the Fletchers lead a privileged life on Long Island. But after the head of the household, Carl, is kidnapped and held hostage for five days, no one in his family or community is the same. Carl’s three adult children — Nathan, Beamer, and Jenny — all deal with PTSD in different ways, and Carl’s mother and wife attempt to shield him from any further difficulties. While their intentions are good, the outcomes of their actions are unexpected and everlasting. ‘Long Island Compromise’ is about how one person’s actions can impact their family, and how their legacy — well deserved or not — will shape future generations."
Your hosts
Toby Tabachnick, Chronicle editor
David Rullo, Chronicle senior staff writer
How it works
We will meet on Zoom on Sunday, Dec. 22, at 1 p.m.
What to do
Buy: “Long Island Compromise.” It is available at some area Barnes and Noble stores and from online retailers, including Amazon. It is also available through the Carnegie Library system.
Email: Contact us at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org, and write “Chronicle Book Club” in the subject line. We will send you a Zoom link for the discussion meeting. Happy reading! PJC
— Toby Tabachnick
Headlines
CMU’s Jewish students create like-minded connections through Campus Builders Network
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
In a quest to foster greater Jewish engagement at Carnegie Mellon University, Hillel Jewish University Center is having students lead the charge. The initiative, which is being implemented by CMU Hillel’s Campus Builders Network, reflects campus dynamics.
“We know that CMU students are incredibly busy and dedicated to their studies. CBN is a way for CMU Hillel to develop peer leaders and ensure that students’ Jewish identities are catered to in whichever department or activity that they are engaged with,” Hillel JUC executive director and CEO Dan Marcus said.
Since September, the pilot program has brought together Jewish students with shared passions: Athletes are gathering with athletes, engineers with engineers and students in the School of Drama with fellow Jewish classmates.
Meetups of discipline-specific groups bodes well for CMU students, according to Hillel JUC staffers.
“Of course everyone is welcome on Shabbat, but we also know that CMU students have told us their time and energy demands new ways of meeting certain needs,” Marcus said.
CMU students are “very studious and busy,” Hillel JUC staffer Madi Jackson said. They aren’t often the ones “we see in the building or are having coffee with staff.”
Hillel JUC offers multiple means of engagement, but traditional programs weren’t working for some CMU students, staffer Brian Burke explained.
Jackson, the Jack G. Buncher director of Jewish student life at Carnegie Mellon University Hillel, and Burke, the IACT director of Israel and Jewish experiences at Hillel JUC, spent last summer reevaluating past practices at CMU Hillel, and eventually proposed CBN. Upon receiving a green light from Hillel JUC leadership, Jackson and Burke contacted Jewish students in various campus communities and asked them to engage their peers through opportunities best suited for a specific group.
“We know that Friday nights are often rehearsal nights for students in the School of Drama. So for these students, coming to Hillel for a Shabbat meal can be difficult,” Marcus said. CBN works because it “reaches students in ways that are relevant and meaningful to them.”
The reality is that bringing Jewish students together doesn’t always need to be around a Shabbat table or inside the Hillel JUC building, Jackson explained.
and Orit Shiang hosted a kosher pizza party for Jewish student-athletes. The event welcomed nine individuals at a time that didn’t interfere with class, practice or a game.
Reimers, 19, is one of three Jewish athletes on CMU’s 37-person soccer team. Hanging out with other Jewish studentathletes — even if they don’t know a pitch from a pitch — is comforting.
“On Yom Kippur I’m fasting, but the majority of people are going about their regular schedule,” he said. Realizing that others struggle with similar challenges “makes you more confident in knowing you have the ability to do what you want to do.”
Shiang, a member of CMU’s crosscountry and track teams, said CMU Hillel’s pilot program is an important resource for Jewish student-athletes.
“Even if you are not observant there is a lot that you can gain from these connections,” Shiang, 20, said.
CMU’s cross-country team has 25 members, and Shiang is lucky enough to have teammates who understand the challenges of speed work on a fast day or the dreaded matzah carb load.
“There’s about six of us on the team who are Jewish, and it’s been nice for me to talk to them,” she said. “It might be nice for other people to have that level of support or connection.”
Shiang got involved with CBN months ago after Jackson reached out about increasing engagement among CMU’s Jewish student-athletes.
While it’s great going to Hillel JUC or Chabad on Campus, finding a community within a community is also beneficial, Shiang said.
Jason Kunzman, JCC President & CEO
Scott E. Seewald, JCC Board Chair Staff & Board of the JCC
p Ari Reimers, right, plays soccer for Carnegie Mellon University.
Photo courtesy of Ari Reimers
Headlines
As Schumer presses ahead with Antisemitism Awareness Act, concerns about free speech resurface
By Ron Kampeas | JTA
WASHINGTON — One of Sen. Chuck Schumer’s last actions as outgoing Senate majority leader is an attempt to codify a controversial defi nition of antisemitism in the face of claims from the left and the right that it impinges on free speech.
The New York Jewish Democrat announced last week that he hopes to attach the text of the Antisemitism Awareness Act, passed overwhelmingly in the U.S. House of Representatives, to a must-pass defense appropriations bill.
The National Defense Authorization Act is in its final stages of negotiation between the leaders of both parties in the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Antisemitism Awareness Act, as passed in the House last May, would enshrine antisemitism as a type of discrimination that could trigger corrective action under Title VI, the section of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act that prohibits discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funds. The definition of antisemitism that the bill uses, drafted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, has been adopted by a wide range of countries, local governments, universities and other entities, but has spurred opposition from the left for classifying some criticism of Israel as antisemitic. In May, some on the right also opposed the definition for saying that the claim that Jews killed Jesus is antisemitic.
The bill was spurred in part by allegations that some campuses have become hotbeds of antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war.
“As he always said he would, yesterday, Senator Schumer offered the Antisemitism Awareness Act to be added to the NDAA, a must-pass vehicle, as an amendment in negotiations with congressional leaders,” his spokesman said in an email on Friday. “The GOP is taking a look at his request.”
If Schumer’s statement sounded slightly defensive, it’s because Republicans and conservatives have railed against Schumer for delaying the bill in what they allege was a deliberate attempt to protect Democrats before the election. A number of Senate Democrats have said they oppose the bill on First Amendment grounds, due to reservations over the IHRA definition’s Israel clauses.
“After dragging his heels for six months after the bill passed the House overwhelmingly, I am glad that Senator Chuck Schumer has succumbed to pressure and is finally moving the Antisemitism Awareness Act,” said Rep. Mike Lawler, the New York Republican who led the bill to its 320-91 passage in the U.S. House of Representatives in May alongside New Jersey Democrat Josh Gottheimer, who is Jewish.
Fox News has focused laser-like on Schumer’s stance on the bill. The New York
Post, Schumer’s hometown newspaper that shares an owner with Fox, urged him in an editorial last week to make passing the bill a priority before his historic status as the most senior Jewish elected official in U.S. history lapses on Jan. 3, when Republicans assume control of the Senate, along with the House and presidency.
The Republican sweep has heightened concerns among the bill’s critics, who say Trump does not need more tools to make good on his threats to weaponize the law to go after his political enemies.
“There is a real concern right now out there on giving the executive branch additional powers going into the next four years,” said Kevin Rachlin, the Washington director of Nexus, a Jewish group promoting a different antisemitism definition. The Nexus definition aims to take into account concerns that IHRA’s definition inhibits speech that is critical of Israel. Rachlin said he feared that Trump could use the act to “delegitimize political opponents, defund them and attack them using the institutions of government.”
The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment. Trump has also said he would seek to shutter the U.S. Department of Education, whose Office of Civil Rights adjudicates Title VI discrimination cases, including about alleged antisemitism.
Schumer came under fire recently for reportedly advising leadership at Columbia University to hold fast in the face of criticism that the university enabled antisemitism, Telling them that it was a trope advanced only by Republicans.
Over the summer, Pastor John Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel, which has lobbied for the bill’s passage, mocked Schumer for his frequent invocation of his name — derived from the Hebrew “shomer,” or guardian.
“You may call yourself the guardian of Israel, but I say to you now that if you fail to allow a Senate vote on this Antisemitism Awareness Act before the end of this Congress, then your guardianship
a
told CUFI’s Washington summit in July.
A recorded statement by Schumer to a pro-Israel rally in Washington last week elicited boos from a small group among the rally-goers.
Ahead of Schumer’s anticipated announcement, liberal groups that oppose the bill because they believe it will impinge on free speech were already rallying to oppose it.
The American Civil Liberties Union in a letter sent last week to every senator called the IHRA definition “overbroad.”
“It equates protected political speech with unprotected discrimination,” said the letter. “Enshrining this definition into regulation would chill the exercise of First Amendment rights and risk undermining the Department of Education’s legitimate and important efforts to combat discrimination.”
Among IHRA’s examples of antisemitism that the ACLU said constitute political as opposed to hate speech are “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor,” “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis,” and “applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.”
But it is not just the left that opposes the bill: Among the 91 who voted against it in the House were 21 Republicans, including Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who just quit Congress after receiving Presidentelect Donald Trump’s nomination to be attorney general.
Gaetz and others focused on the example in the IHRA definition that identifies as antisemitic “using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.” Jews killing Jesus is gospel, they said, reflecting a traditional view that most Christian denominations have downplayed or repudiated in recent decades.
Other conservatives advanced arguments
closer to those of the left, saying the speech the IHRA definition condemns may indeed be repulsive, but is protected. Writing in the Free Press in May, Christopher Rufo, the leader of efforts to end what he calls “wokeness,” joined with a pro-Palestinian writer to decry the bill as “using the same coercive and corrosive principles as DEI,” the diversity, equity and inclusion principles that Rufo hopes to marginalize, if not crush.
Elan Carr, the CEO of the Israeli American Council, among the many centrist and rightwing Jewish groups that back the bill, said claims that the bill repressed free speech were made in bad faith.
The act, he said, defines antisemitism to determine whether discrimination against a protected class has occurred. Expressing the views IHRA defines would not trigger action; using them to inhibit or intimidate students would.
“AAA codifies the use of the IHRA definition to determine whether something is antisemitism, and then mandates enforcement of Title VI when something is discriminatory, period, nothing more,” he said in an interview.
Sponsors of the bill say it is a critical tool to combat antisemitism on campuses, which has become one of the premier agenda items among Jewish legacy organizations.
“I am glad to see that the Antisemitism Awareness Act will be brought to a vote in the Senate,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Jewish Florida Democrat, said in a text. “This had broad bipartisan support in the House, and it is time now for the Senate to protect Jewish students and put a stop to the hate we are seeing on our college campuses.”
Rep. Kathy Manning, a Jewish North Carolina Democrat, said in an interview she hoped Schumer would include in the amendment components of her Confronting Antisemitism Act, which would create a domestic antisemitism coordinator for an all-of-government approach.
“The IHRA definition is one tool in the toolbox, but [so is] having a national coordinator in the White House who reports to the president, whose job it is to convene an interagency task force to monitor what’s going on and also to make sure that each relevant agency is doing everything they can to combat antisemitism,” she said.
Republicans sweeping the White House, the Senate and the House in elections spurred enthusiasm this week at the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly because of the prospect of passage and implementation of the act.
Ethan Roberts, the deputy executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, said Jewish advocates were frustrated by the pace of the Biden administration’s action on campus antisemitism.
“There’s a lot of investigations that don’t seem to be going very far right now at the Office of Civil Rights enforcement at the Department of Education,” he said, referring to Title VI inquiries. With the GOP sweep, he said, “Hopefully we can see some action there.”
is
joke,” Hagee
p New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Jewish Democrat who is the majority leader, delivers a speech on antisemitism in the U.S. Capitol, Nov. 29, 2023.
Photo via Senate website/screenshot
Headlines
Close to 90 congressional Democrats urge Biden to sanction Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir
Close to 90 Democrats in Congress, including eight Jewish officials, are calling on President Joe Biden to use his lameduck period to sanction two far-right Israeli ministers, JTA reported.
Both ministers have pushed for Israeli annexation of part or all of the West Bank, a policy that the incoming Donald Trump administration may support.
The letter sent Oct. 29 and made public Nov. 14, spearheaded by top Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the Senate, named Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir as “driving policies that promote settler violence, weaken the Palestinian Authority, facilitate de facto and de jure annexation, and destabilize the West Bank.”
Biden has sanctioned individual settlers and settler groups who are accused of violence, itself a striking statement of opposition to Israel’s West Bank policies, but has so far held back from going after cabinet officials. The letter urges the president to take that step.
“Government leaders instigating violence must be subject to U.S. sanctions,” said the letter, spearheaded by, among others, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democratic appropriator who, this year, received the endorsement of a PAC affiliated with the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the number-two
Democrat in the Senate.
“With radical officials in the Netanyahu government continuing to enable settler violence and enact annexationist policies, it is clear that further sanctions are urgently needed,” the letter signed by 88 Democrats said.
It’s not clear whether Biden would use the lame-duck period, which lasts until President-elect Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, to ramp up pressure on Israel. Past presidents have seized upon that span of time to push through policies that they otherwise might have abjured because of electoral consequences.
U of Michigan student president impeached after calling critics ‘Zionists’
The University of Michigan’s student body president entered office last semester on a campaign to shut down all “business as usual” — including funding student groups — until the school agreed to divest from Israel, JTA reported.
Now that effort — one of the most sustained and assertive pro-Palestinian protests on a college campus — may be coming to an end, as the student government voted this week to impeach its president and vice president over actions related to their hardline “Shut It Down” platform.
Articles of impeachment against Alifa Anam Chowdhury, the president, and Vice President Elias Atkinson passed during the assembly’s Tuesday night meeting, by a vote of 30-7 with one abstention. The two were accused of inciting violence against other student representatives who opposed a Gaza aid measure; tarring their critics as
Today in Israeli History
Nov. 25, 1938 — Kfar Ruppin is founded
“Zionists” on the student government’s official social media account; and, in the case of Chowdhury, “failing to fulfill the duties of her office.”
“We know that the current executive administration is sacrificing Assembly members’ safety without a second thought,” a group of student government members who backed the impeachment wrote in an October column in the student newspaper, The Michigan Daily.
Chowdhury had sought to block the disbursement of more than $1.3 million in student activity funds controlled by the student government, unless Michigan’s Board of Regents agreed to divest its endowment from Israel. The campaign followed the groundswell of student activism amid Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas, which has devastated the Gaza Strip. Michigan, which has large Jewish and Arab student populations, has been a site of particularly intense campus activism since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, as well as a site of some reported assaults on Jewish students.
Michigan’s regents have stated they will not divest, and more organized divestment efforts have failed at other universities when put to a vote. But Chowdhury continued to veto budget proposals until being overruled by the student assembly during a contentious meeting last month.
With visitors and donations down, San Francisco’s Jewish Museum to shutter at least temporarily Following a prolonged drop in visitation and donations from the public stemming from the COVID pandemic, the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco announced
Nov. 13 it’s taking a “sabbatical,” JTA reported. That’s the word the museum is using to describe the closure of its galleries to visitors starting Dec. 15 for at least a year as the cultural institution focuses on revamping its financial strategy and programming.
“In Judaism, Shabbat — or the Sabbath — is a time of rest, an essential moment carved out of the week for restoration and renewal,” the museum said in a press release announcing the decision. “Throughout Jewish culture, there are myriad references to moments of pause as a means to rejuvenation.”
Visitation is down by half compared to typical pre-pandemic levels, and the museum has been running multimillion deficits for at least two years, according to the most recent financial disclosures available.
The economic headwinds the museum faces are common among cultural institutions across the United States and are compounded by struggles particular to downtown San Francisco, where vacant storefronts have proliferated amid a drop in the city’s population and a demoralized atmosphere for civic life.
The decision means that two-thirds of the museum’s 30 employees will be laid off between now and March.
“It is far better for us to take necessary steps towards restructuring now, rather than waiting until we no longer have options,” CJM’s executive director, Kerry King, said in a statement. “This decision does not come without significant pain because it will affect our team of extraordinary and deeply dedicated individuals who work tirelessly to fulfill the museum’s mission.”
— Compiled by Jarrad Saffren
Nov. 22, 1967 — The U.N. meaning of ‘the’ The U.N. Security Council adopts Resolution 242, enshrining the principle of trading land for peace. Drafted in English, the resolution says Israel should withdraw from “territories,” not “the territories,” captured in war.
Nov. 23, 1584 — Sultan, Safed and synagogues
In the midst of strengthening the Muslim nature of his empire, Ottoman Sultan Murad III orders an investigation into the increase from three to 32 synagogues in Safed, where only seven mosques operate.
Nov. 24, 2006 — Rapist’s escape launches manhunt
Benny Sela, convicted of 14 sexual assaults in Tel Aviv, escapes on his way from prison in Beersheba to a hearing in Tel Aviv and flees to northern Israel. Subject to a national manhunt, he is recaptured Dec. 8.
Kibbutz Kfar Ruppin, named for Arthur Ruppin, is founded in the Beit Shean Valley as part of the “Tower and Stockade” movement, which uses prefab materials for rapid construction of defensible settlements.
Nov. 26, 2013 — Singer Arik Einstein dies
An aortic aneurysm kills singer/songwriter Arik Einstein at 74 in Tel Aviv. Einstein blended folk and rock music across about 50 albums and was a driving force in the development of Israeli rock.
Nov. 27, 2007 — Peace framework is signed at Annapolis
A one-day conference in Annapolis, Maryland, produces a joint statement from Ehud Olmert, Mahmoud Abbas and George W. Bush committing to direct negotiations on final-status issues toward a two-state solution.
Nov. 28, 1961 — Operation Yachin begins for Moroccan Jews
After a two-year ban on Jewish emigration from Morocco, Israel launches Operation Yachin to help Moroccans make aliyah via France or Italy. By the operation’s end in 1964, more than 97,000 Jews leave Morocco. PJC
Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.
p The Abuhav Synagogue was built in Safed in the late 15th century. By Yoav Dothan, public domain
Headlines
Mental Health:
“We are a safe haven for students,” she said, “but they are effective working with their peers.”
And while students will be an important part of the program, they won’t be left to their own devices.
“We have someone on staff who is mental health first aid training-certified,” Rothstein explained.
The students working with the initiative receive a stipend and training. More than a dozen have already asked to be part of EMPOWER.
“They’re going to host programs for their fellow students and friends,” he said. “They’re going to be fun programs with food. They’re going to be lavish-ish. I want people to come and be excited about this.”
The professionals, he said, will ensure that specific mental health concepts are addressed throughout the program.
“They’ll be a mission behind it, a story
or a value point within the program to bring out some mental health issue,” he explained.
And while the program is being overseen by Chabad on Campus, EMPOWER takes inspiration from Rabbi Abraham Twerski,
GIFT is sponsoring the meals and its “student ambassadors” are assembling the kits.
Because the organizations share a mission — bringing people together to perform good deeds — the pairing is “the perfect shidduch,” said Rochel Tombosky, who founded GIFT nearly a decade ago.
“We’re very excited about it. It’s a great alignment.”
For Rabbi Chezky Rosenfeld, who started Our Giving Kitchen Pittsburgh with his wife, Bassie Rosenfeld, the Thanksgiving project is an opportunity to double the groups’ impact in the community.
“We are honored to partner with a highly successful program,” he said. “Bringing in more volunteers and using GIFT’s network of recipients will enable us to have a greater reach.”
Both organizations are privately funded.
Our Giving Kitchen Pittsburgh has served thousands of “grab-and-go” meals since opening its doors on Murray Avenue three years ago to address food insufficiency, primarily among Jews. The cooking is done by volunteers in twice-weekly shifts, and the meals are available by the honor system.
“We fill our fridges and freezers and leave our door open so anyone can come in and take a meal, no need to show proof of income…no questions asked,” Bassie Rosenfeld said. “We are helping people struggling with food insecurity in a way that enables them to retain their dignity.”
Volunteers bond as they peel carrots, chop onions and roll cookie dough, she added. “We draw volunteers of all religions and races. They come in groups and as individuals from as far away as Butler, and have ranged in age from 3 to 90.”
Volunteer slots max out at 30 and fill up quickly, and production occurs in well-choreographed sessions, Bassie Rosenfeld said.
“It’s a fast-paced, efficient assembly line.”
The seniors’ Thanksgiving menu includes
“You have to have a healthy mind, body and soul,” he said. “The program embodies the saying from the Talmud, ‘Kol Yisroel
Areivim Zeh L’Zeh’ — ‘We are all responsible for one another.’”
EMPOWER will help students prioritize
“Students can really help in their own social circles to be more connected and know what their peers are feeling, and to really be able to uplift them themselves, if they have the tools to do so.”
–SARA WEINSTEIN
who looked outside of the Jewish community to help those with addiction issues, and will be open to all students.
The concept, Rothstein said, is based on a fundamental Jewish idea.
mental well-being and foster a healthier, more resilient community, he added.
“I think students run into a lot of insensitivity about what their real issues are,” Weinstein said. “We want them to
sliced turkey breast in puff pastry, mashed potatoes, green beans and pumpkin cookies packed in microwavable containers and then frozen.
“Like all of our meals, they are nutritionally balanced with a carb, a protein and a dessert,” Chezky Rosenfeld said. “They are filling and delicious.”
The GIFT kits nourish in other ways.
“For seniors who may be isolated it’s about more than receiving food,” Tombosky said. “When they get a kit they feel like they are getting a hug from the community. They’ve expressed this to me. It makes them feel seen.”
Many seniors who have dedicated their lives to others have entered a chapter where that is no longer possible, she said. “Now it’s their time to receive. Some have said our kit is the first time someone is giving back to them.”
Tombosky is a former home health agency owner who saw first-hand the need for a nondenominational program that would integrate the elderly with the broader community while fostering compassion in young people.
“It’s intergenerational,” Tombosky said. “We are helping seniors with isolation and
feel like there’s a real channel or venue where they can be themselves and be there for their fellow students as well.”
The program, Rothstein said, is a judgmentfree zone and the hope is that everyone will feel welcome.
“There’s a famous line from the Tanya that says, ‘Unless you’re standing in your fellow’s shoes you can’t rebuke them.’ And, it goes on to say, ‘You’re never standing in your fellow’s shoes.’ You’re never going to know how they grew up, what their situation is. So, there’s never space to judge another person.”
EMPOWER, funded by the Staunton Farm Health Foundation, kicked off Nov. 4 and will be housed at Chabad on Campus’ new location at 220 Meyran Ave.
For both Rothstein and Weinstein, EMPOWER is the right initiative at the right time fulfilling the right need.
“It’s pertinent and it’s needed,” the rabbi said. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
eventually were transferred to a greenhouse run by Repair the World.
Allie Mitchell, 25, of Canonsburg, is part of a cohort of student ambassadors from Chatham University.
She is earning her doctorate in physical therapy and plans to specialize in geriatric care.
“I’d been leaning toward geriatrics and GIFT has helped me to continue down that path,” Mitchell said. “When I first heard about the program six months ago, I was excited about it. I’ve learned so much since then.”
Intergenerational connections “remind seniors that that they have much to share and can live full lives,” and enables young people to benefit from their wisdom.
Musya Presman, executive assistant to Tombosky, called GIFT “transformational” for young volunteers.
lack of inclusion and creating empathy in the next generation, especially those who are stepping into professional arenas where they will be working with the elderly. By being part of our program they are learning to be more caring. They are learning how to talk with seniors. That’s super important.”
Besides providing kits and meals for key holidays, GIFT enables student volunteers to join with seniors on a monthly basis in projects for charities ranging from food and diaper banks to Growing Hope and Girls on the Run.
“You can feel the love in the room at these get-togethers. It’s palpable,” Tombosky said. “We did a project where one nonprofit we work with needed stickers to be put on condom packages. There was a lot of laughter and jokes that day, but some serious conversations as well.
“It’s exquisitely magical what can happen at these get-togethers, where young people feel completely comfortable discussing things with seniors they wouldn’t with anyone else.”
In another project, student volunteers and seniors at Forward-Shady Apartments in Squirrel Hill planted seedlings that
“It allows them the opportunity for leadership, and to have the sort of impact that would otherwise be unavailable to them.”
Retirees David Korman, 71, and his wife Amy, 72, of Squirrel Hill, volunteer for both GIFT and Our Giving Kitchen.
“It’s good to be of service,” said Korman, who worked as an attorney and taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh. “My wife and I have been blessed in so many ways it’s only fair that we share. People think of tzedakah as charity, but it’s really an obligation…to take care of fellow citizens in the neighborhood.”
As regulars on the Sunday food assembly line, the couple has made friends of diverse faiths, ethnicities and abilities, Korman said, noting that it can be both a learning and social experience.
“It’s fascinating to talk to people. Some will ask us questions about Judaism, and we’ll learn about their religions, too,” he said.
The opportunity to volunteer is “an honor,” Korman added. “I’m confident that everyone would agree we get more out of it than we deliver.”
PJC
Deborah Weisberg is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.
p Volunteers prepared meals for area seniors at Our Giving Kitchen Pittsburgh Photo courtesy of David Korman
Headlines
Gup:
Continued from page 2
a parent decides to continue that practice, it’s not just about logic, Gup said. It’s about furthering a bond while also celebrating the role of family and community.
Gup’s sensibilities are part of what make him such a “mensch,” Temple Sinai’s Rabbi Daniel Fellman said. “Dan is the kind of guy who will make families feel at ease. He’ll help be a bridge and create a connection between them and Judaism.”
The birth of a child is one of the most “significant and important moments” in a parent’s life, Fellman continued. “To have somebody who you know, who is like you, who identifies and connects with the
Unistream:
Continued from page 4
I don’t think I would be where I am right now.”
Shawah lives in Yarka, a northern Israeli village with a population of about 17,000.
“I feel like I’m somewhat of a role model for young Druze women in my village,” she said. “Not many of them get this opportunity. I’m proud to be an example for these young women.”
Unistream is an Israeli-based nonprofit but Pittsburgh’s support is invaluable, the visitors said.
Ross Street:
Continued from page 5
This split created odd arrangements. For example, the Irene Kaufmann Settlement and the YM&WHA had similar programs. But the former was a Federation agency supported by the Community Chest, while the latter received support from the United Jewish Fund.
By the late 1940s and early 1950s, the annual Community Chest allocation was falling increasingly short of the needs of Federation of Jewish Philanthropies beneficiaries. The agreement with the Community Chest didn’t allow for supplementary fundraising, which meant Jewish agencies were having to cut services, defer expansions, and run deficits.
Network:
Continued from page 7
Reimers is studying electrical and computer engineering. Shiang is studying chemical engineering. Along with spearheading get-togethers for fellow Jewish student-athletes, the two said they might increase their involvement with a CBN contingent of Jewish engineers.
“Just because you are in one group doesn’t mean you can’t find other Jewish communities,” Shiang said.
There are about 400 Jewish students at CMU, according to Hillel JUC.
CBN’s strength, apart from bringing Jewish students together and cultivating new campus leaders, is that it allows participants to craft their own Jewish connections, Marcus said.
same set of values and the same community as you do, helps create a whole new set of connections that is wonderful for the community, and wonderful for the individual family, and for the individual person. Dan gets that and he understands that he has a really golden opportunity to help people connect to Judaism.”
Gup said it’s a privilege helping people
celebrate such a momentous time.
He doesn’t anticipate Orthodox families relying on his services, he said, as the Pittsburgh Jewish community already has Orthodox mohels.
But for those seeking an alternative, “Dan is filling a really essential need,” Fellman said. “We had a liberal mohel in town for a number of years, but she moved to
“Dan is the kind of guy who will make families feel at ease. He’ll help be a bridge and create a connection between them and Judaism.”
–RABBI DANIEL FELLMAN
New Jersey with her family a couple of years ago.”
Gup said he’s humbled by the position and remains amazed by the personal effect it’s had.
“I think it’s opened me up a little bit to the Jewish faith and sort of something beyond my medical career, which was very based on science, and very logical and task oriented,” he said. Becoming a mohel has “helped make me more accepting of things that I don’t necessarily understand. It’s sort of opened up certain connections — that there’s just something beyond the here and now, beyond the present.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
the United Jewish Fund. These conversations had begun locally as early as the mid-1940s but really gained momentum between late 1948 and early 1950, amid growing budget shortfalls. There was concern, though, that a merger might pull funds away from Israel. Similar conversations were happening all over the country. By the early 1950s, Pittsburgh was one of the few large communities that hadn’t yet merged its Federation and its Fund.
merged in early 1955 to create the United Jewish Federation. Following the merger, the Community Chest began providing direct payments to seven United Jewish Federation beneficiaries through a newly formed advisory committee. In 1956, the Community Chest joined the United Fund, which later became the United Way. As part of that new arrangement, the Community Chest no longer operated its own annual campaigns.
The United Jewish Federation convened a
“Even if you are not observant there is a lot that you can gain from these connections.”
–ORIT SHIANG
The pilot program also is predicated on a recognition that “a lot of students are kind of scared of institutions,” Jackson, 27, said. Too often, going to one program results in “being bombarded with texts.”
CBN operates differently, Jackson said.
“This is a low-barrier way for students to find a community without having to commit to an institution.”
The mindset isn’t specific to students, she added. Attitudes on campus are similar to what “a lot of young adults my
age are experiencing.” Even though they might be interested in attending a Jewish event, “they’re not looking for synagogue membership. And they don’t want to end up on a mailing list.”
Hillel JUC’s goal is to “engage Jewish students in Jewish life,” Jackson said. “If that means letting them form their own community then that’s great.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
“There’s no glass ceiling,” Bechor told Pittsburghers.
Speaking with the Chronicle following the meeting, the GenZers agreed.
We want to let teens know that they can also be part of something big once someone supports them,” Shawah said.
“I wish everybody would believe in someone else and give them the support and the motivation they need,” Cohen said. “A belief in omeone can make all the difference.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
building committee in October 1956. With the demolition of the lower Hill District, Jewish Family & Children’s Service, the Hebrew Burial Association, the Hebrew Free Loan Association and the House of Shelter left their longtime home at 15 Fernando St. in February 1957. Now they needed a new home, too.
The United Jewish Federation finally sold the 11th floor of 200 Ross St. to the Urban Redevelopment Authority in 1958 and dedicated its new building at 234 McKee Pl. in Oakland in early 1959, bringing to a close a consequential decade in UJF history. PJC
Eric Lidji is the director of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center. He can
p Orit Shiang runs for Carnegie Mellon University. Photo by Jen Reagan Photo
The wisdom of what we’re already doing
At the Squirrel Hill library there is a cart by the side entrance filled with free books left by other patrons. Inevitably there is a lot of Judaica mixed in (old Schocken paperbacks, Torah commentaries, PJ Library books for kids), and I try to grab a few every month.
At one point, observant Judaism is simply dismissed as those beliefs she held “before I read ‘The Catcher in the Rye,’ before I had heard of Dorothy Parker, before I had seen a Rothko or read The New Yorker.” There is also the expected skeptic’s disgust at believing in a God who “allowed” the Holocaust, and a hatred toward God “for His destruc-
the difficulties of belief at all, as richly as Judaism has. I once believed that the study and experience of high culture could be the work of my life, too, and so I know that religion isn’t for everybody. I am also sensitive to the fact that the author of this book was not raised in the same Jewish world as my daughter, who takes it for granted that,
but differently. It is the food, the songs and all the necessary gear — the candles and more candles, lulav and etrog, kippah and tallit, books and more books, or a preferred seat at shul. It is the wisdom of what my family and I are already doing.
The most valuable finds, though, are the ones that feel most dated. Although written at different times, every author assumes they are witnessing irreversible (and usually negative) changes seeping into Judaism from all sides. At some point, they all dwell on the same questions Jews have always asked about tradition, assimilation and the many levels of religious observance and disbelief.
One book in particular helped convince me, not that the versions of these questions in the year 2024 are meaningless, but that they aren’t nearly as pressing as they appear. This book (it feels unfair to call it out by name) was published in the early 1980s by a novelist and essayist born in the 1930s. In it, the author details her upbringing in a Conservative home, her eventual loss of faith and her embrace of psychoanalysis (Freud is everywhere) and high culture.
We live in an immensely argumentative age, as well as one that believes our daily lives are only a few adjustments away from perfection.
tiveness, for the serpent in the garden, for the suffering of Job, for the diabolical unfolding of His vicious grand plans, for the humiliations He forces on mankind.”
L ater she simply says that the Jewish ritual year is no good if “the ancient ways exclude you from the mainstream.” Religious ritual, for her —indeed for many — is merely a pathological remnant of the current stage of evolution, where human beings can only find cohesion through rules and tribalism.
Now, I have a problem with nearly all the author’s points, which I consider vastly simplistic. I know of few religions that have grappled with the question of suffering, and
depending on the synagogue, there are female rabbis and cantors and administrators.
But still, reading this book taught me something important. Books like this are my version of addictive social media feeds, and usually they make me want to respond to them immediately. This time around, however, I realized that I had better things to do.
In other words, while arguments about religion are perennial, beneath them is an undercurrent that is also perennial but much less showy, and much harder to write about than theology: It is all the private moments of Shabbat, or daily prayer or study. It is the daily, weekly, seasonal and yearly round of slowly doing these things again, doing them the same
When the author writes near the end of her book that she is surprised to find Jews who revel in doubt rather than trying to explain it, I am at home. Because what an observant Jewish life offers, at least to me, is meaning alongside doubt and difficulty, not their eradication. And this meaning is primarily found and achieved in the doing and the daily living. That phrase encountered every year in the Torah, where Jews are called to do and understand (na’aseh v’nishma) is an idea ripe for mockery by anyone who simply sees it as an excuse for mindless adherence. But for those with a certain bent, living in and around an enduring and changing tradition provides an immense cycle of doing, reflection, understanding and reinvigoration.
We live in an immensely argumentative age, as well as one that believes our daily lives are only a few adjustments away from perfection. I prefer to focus on what I’m already doing, to see how it deepens and enriches and changes, and how it changes me. PJC
Pittsburgh resident Tim Miller’s most recent book is the essay collection “Notes from the Grid.” He is online at wordandsilence.com.
The US media’s war on Trump’s Middle East policy
In recent articles on Hezbollah’s rocket attacks on northern Israel, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal all referred to the “Israelioccupied” or “Israeli-controlled” Golan Heights. The terms were revealing. In March 2019, President Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, making it an indivisible part of the Jewish state. In describing the Heights as “occupied” and “controlled” by Israel, America’s papers of record were publicly rejecting the position of the country’s democratically elected leader in favor of those of Belgium and China, and the Obama administration.
The willingness of the mainstream press to make its own foreign policy signals a deeply troubling trend. Presidents often rescind their predecessors’ decisions. George Bush and Donald Trump withdrew America’s representation on the flagrantly anti-Israel UN Human Rights Council and Barack Obama and Joe Biden restored it. Trump nullified Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran and Biden tried to revive it. But the negation by large parts of the public of a formal White House policy poses far greater challenges. More than Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, at stake is the legitimacy of presidential decisions. Those challenges will certainly mount under the incoming administration. Much of the controversy will center, once again, on the
Middle East. President Trump has selected secretaries of state and defense, a national security advisor, and ambassadors to Israel and the UN, whose outlook on the region sharply diverges from that of the previous policymakers. While the Biden administration sought to limit Israel’s ability to defend itself, condemned Israeli settlement-building in the West Bank, and supported the creation of a Palestinian
work to thoroughly isolate and weaken Iran. Should it ever come back to the table, it will do so begging for a deal.
All of this, of course, is good news for the majority of Israelis. Many dubbed Trump’s selection of Secretary Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and Ambassadors Elise Stefanik and Mike Huckabee, the “Dream Team.” The Iranian regime promptly told that
The restoration of trust in the relations between the United States and Israel, and fear among our common enemies, holds out the promise of unprecedented stability in the Middle East, the conclusion of wars, and the expansion of existing peace treaties. But will it last?
state that the vast majority of Israelis opposed, the Trump team believes that Israel should fight as it sees fit, calls the settlements communities and the West Bank by its Biblical name, Judea and Samaria. And though President Trump’s 2020 peace plan provided for a Palestinian state, those soon to be forging U.S. foreign policy will undoubtedly oppose the establishment of any Palestinian entity bound to quickly fail and fall to Hamas. The Biden White House refused to stand up to Iran in any significant way and tried to appease it back to the negotiating table. In complete contrast, Trump’s senior staff will
team it was no longer planning to attack Israel and was willing to negotiate with Trump. The restoration of trust in the relations between the United States and Israel, and fear among our common enemies, holds out the promise of unprecedented stability in the Middle East, the conclusion of wars, and the expansion of existing peace treaties. But will it last?
The 180-degree turn in American foreign policy in the region could someday swing back in the opposite direction. Well before that, though, during the course of Trump’s second term, influential segments of the American
public, spearheaded by a critical press, will oppose its policy direction. They will continue to refer to West Bank settlements, rather than Judea and Samaria communities, and to the Golan Heights as occupied. Secretary of State Rubio will hold Hamas 100% responsible for civilian suffering in Gaza, but the Times, the Post, and the Journal will continue to fault Israel.
Such defiance of presidential prerogatives must not go unanswered. Every press attempt to describe as occupied areas that the United States has deemed sovereign must be met with robust public and government protest. Every effort to ignore or override the administration’s foreign policy must spur even greater initiatives to clarify that policy and defend it in all branches of the media. Without presenting any evidence or giving them a chance to defend themselves, the Biden administration sanctioned a number of Israelis. The Trump administration, backed by both houses of Congress, can pass a law forbidding the arbitrary sanctioning of the citizens of an allied state.
Israel must do its part as well. In 2019, President Trump closed the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem that for years served as America’s de facto embassy to the Palestinians. Two years later, President Biden announced its intention to reopen it, but Israel put its foot down and said no. The consulate remains closed. On the other hand, Israel greeted the change of U.S. policy toward the Golan by inaugurating a new city, Trump Heights. Five years later, the site remains empty. It’s not enough for the president to recognize Israeli sovereignty, Israel must assert it. The “diplomatic whiplash” is already being
Guest Columnist
Tim Miller
Guest Columnist
Michael Oren
Opinion
Chronicle poll results: Issues influencing voting
Last week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “Which of these issues most influenced your voting this election cycle?” Of the 409 people who responded, 50% said “preservation of democracy”; 22% said “Israel/antisemitism”; 9% said “abortion rights”; 4% said “immigration/border”; 3% said “the economy”; and 12% said “something else.” Comments were submitted by 100 people. A few follow.
It is embarrassing to have a convicted felon, sexual predator with a vocabulary of a 4-year-old representing my beloved country on the world stage. I’m plain sick and tired of his swearing and name-calling. The children of the U.S. deserve a president who sets an example that they can look up to.
All of those things are important to me, but abortion rights is the one that stood out most.
How in the world did AOC and Summer Lee win when the nation went so solidly Republican? I wonder if our community is overly reluctant to consider voting Republican more often, and consequently we help elect people who are genuinely antisemitic.
The Dems’ arrogance is responsible for the election of a man who belongs in prison, not the White House.
I voted straight Dem only because of abortion rights and to preserve democracy. However, had Trump not run, I would have
Continued from page 12
felt in the Middle East where intensive talks are underway to secure a cease-fire in Lebanon,
voted against the Democrats because I am abhorred over the antisemitism of the far left.
Integrity, honesty, democracy, stability, common human decency. The list continues.
Trafficking as a result of a porous border was particularly important. The risk that regional wars could escalate was also an important issue for me.
Support of Israel is my top priority and factored heavily on my decision. Also, domestically, what is being done to fight domestic acts of violence toward the Jewish population — it must be addressed and acted upon immediately.
free the Israeli hostages in Gaza and to lay the groundwork for an Israeli-Saudi peace. Much more can be achieved. Those accomplishments must be protected, though, from those who would now negate and later act to reverse them.
Only one fact mattered in presidential election
The opinions of several Jewish Pittsburghers appear in the Nov. 15 article “Jewish Pittsburghers react to 2024 general election.” A thousand pro-Trump and anti-Trump arguments can be made, but only one fact really matters: On Jan. 6, 2021, President Donald Trump tried to overthrow the government of the United States. It’s impossible to see his actions that day any other way. Unfortunately over 70 million Americans don’t agree with me. What damage he will do to our democracy over the next four years is frightening to contemplate.
Mitchell Nyer Pittsburgh
Jews better off in democracies than under authoritarianism
Professor Rona Kaufman is quoted in the Nov. 15 Chronicle concerning her disillusionment with the Democratic Party and her decision to vote for Trump in the 2024 election (“Jewish Pittsburghers react to 2024 general election”). I appreciate her concerns about the Democratic Party and the positions of some factions of the party as well as the reprehensible antisemitism on many university campuses. But to vote for Trump because she believes that his victory “is better for Jews and America” is absurd. For most of the 20th century Jews have been far better off in democracies rather than in states with authoritarian leadership. I believe it better to live in a democracy where there exists the possibility of fighting intolerance and antisemitism and promoting change rather than living under authoritarian control.
Joel A. Tarr, professor emeritus Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh
Trump’s recent appointments are very encouraging for Israel and its sovereignty, and hopefully having our hostages returned. It also appears that antisemitism that is rampant at many universities throughout America will also be addressed through the power of the purse. Counting the days till Jan. 20, 2025.
My biggest issue is that one of the candidates clearly did not live up to any of the ideals (or minimum criteria) of behavior set out by the Torah. Anyone who voted for that individual and considers themselves a “Torah Jew” should also consider themself a hypocrite.
Donald Trump is not a helpful choice for Israel.
Trump offers the best chance for world peace.
I can’t understand Trump voters in the Pittsburgh area. Trump influenced the Tree of Life murderer due to his hatred of immigrants.
If the Democrats remained in power, the preservation of democracy in this Constitutional Republic would be perverted beyond recognition into totalitarianism. Allowing no dissident voices, views or opinions; forcing those who disagree no independence, loss of finances, property, rights, as well as family and friends (like the old Socialist states of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union), to the point of losing one’s life through imprisonment
The 180-degree turn must signal a new and permanent direction for U.S. foreign policy in this critical region. PJC
Michael Oren, formerly Israel’s ambassador to
and execution. Nothing is perfect; but the alternative would be devastating on Jewish believers, who would again be the “Canary in the Coal Mine.”
I joined Liz Cheney, Dick Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and other conservative Republicans in enthusiastically endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, the only candidate who would ensure that democracy and the rights and liberties that we have long cherished are upheld. Through the naming of unserious, unqualified individuals to important roles in the federal government, Donald Trump has already made a mockery of his upcoming administration and our country. Many will come to regret their vote for the disrupter.
I usually prioritize climate action, which was also a significant factor in my votes for Democrats up and down the ballot.
While Israel/antisemitism was the single biggest factor in my vote for president, the other factors listed were also important. However, in the case of Summer Lee, her strident and persistent support for antisemites and enemies of Israel determined my vote against her. PJC
— Compiled by Toby Tabachnick
Chronicle weekly poll question: What is your favorite Thanksgiving side dish? Go to pittsburghjewishchronicle.org to respond. PJC
the United States, Knesset member and deputy minister for diplomacy in the Prime Minister’s Office, is the founder of the Israel Advocacy Group and the author of the Substack, Clarity. Republished from The Times of Israel.
(“Trump taps Mike Huckabee, evangelical favorite, to be ambassador to Israel”).
That’s a partial quote. Huckabee’s full statement was: “There’s really no such thing as a Palestinian. You have Arabs and Persians, and there’s such complexity in that. But there’s really no such thing [as Palestinian national identity]. That’s been a political tool to try and force land away from Israel.” Gov. Huckabee also once remarked: “The idea that they have a long history, dating back hundreds or thousands of years, is not true.”
One of Israel’s most famous and beloved prime ministers, Golda Meir, said the same thing, repeatedly. For example, she told the BBC in 1970: “What difference is there between Arabs who were on this side of the Jordan and the other side of the Jordan?…They are the majority in Jordan, they are in parliament, they are in government. What has happened since then — why have they become more Palestinian-conscious since the war of ’67?”
The answer to the prime minister’s question — why did Palestinian Arab identity suddenly emerge after 1967?—was answered succinctly by Gov. Huckabee: It was invented to serve as “a political tool to try and force land away from Israel.”
Moshe Phillips National chairman of Americans For A Safe Israel New York, New York
Huckabee’s quote incomplete
A Nov. 18 article in the Chronicle quoted the ambassador-designate to Israel, Gov. Mike Huckabee, as having once remarked, “There’s really no such thing as a Palestinian”
We invite you to submit letters for publication. Letters must include name, address and daytime phone number; addresses and phone numbers will not be published. Letters may not exceed 500 words and may be edited for length and clarity; they cannot be returned. Send letters to: letters@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org or Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, 5915 Beacon St., 5th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15217
We regret that owing to the volume of correspondence, we cannot reply to every letter.
Life & Culture
Apple pie crumble
By Jessica Grann | Special to the Chronicle
If you’d love to make an apple dessert with the texture and flavor of apple pie, without the hassle of working with pastry, then you’ll be excited to try this recipe. There’s a streusel topping for this dessert, so you will get plenty of crumbly pastry bites. It tastes like pie but it takes much less time to prepare.
I typically choose Granny Smith apples for pies but I also mix in a few sweet red apples if I have some on hand. There are so many types of apples and all have different uses. If you choose the wrong kind you might end up with something that borders on apple sauce, so do some research online if you’re not sure which variety to use.
This crumble can also be served, in smaller portions, as a sweet side dish for Thanksgiving or Shabbat. Baked apples pair beautifully with roasted poultry and meat.
This recipe can be made dairy or pareve.
Ingredients
For the apple filling:
5 pounds of Granny Smith or a mix of mostly tart apples
Zest from half a lemon, about 1 teaspoon
1 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon white sugar
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon kosher salt
For the streusel topping:
1 ½ sticks (12 tablespoons) butter or margarine
⅓ cup white sugar
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
This recipe is easy enough for beginner bakers.
Preheat the oven to 425 F and place the
wire rack in the center.
Melt the butter for the streusel topping so that it has time to cool before you mix it with the other ingredients.
Zest half a lemon to get about a teaspoon of zest, then juice half the lemon.
Put 1 ½ tablespoons of lemon juice into a large bowl.
Core, peel and slice each apple into ¼-inch slices and add them to the bowl with the lemon juice. Every time you slice and add an apple, stir the bowl so that the lemon juice coats all of the slices.
After preparing all the apples, add the brown and white sugars, vanilla and spices to the bowl and stir well. Then add the flour and salt and stir well.
Prepare a 9-inch-by-13-inch baking dish by greasing it with butter or margarine.
Pour the apples into the dish, using your hands to press the apples evenly across the dish, rearranging slices if necessary to fill any holes in the bottom layers.
Cover the baking dish with one layer of tin
As soon as you place the apple mixture into the oven, finish mixing the streusel topping. Add the sugar to the melted but cooled butter or margarine and mix well before adding the flour and salt. Use a fork to mix in the flour so that there’s a pebble-like consistency with some larger pieces of crumb.
Pop the bowl into the refrigerator until you’re ready for the next step.
When the apples have baked for 35 minutes, remove the pan from the oven.
Reduce the heat to 375 F, uncover the baking dish and sprinkle the streusel topping evenly across the apples.
Put the baking dish back into the oven and continue baking, uncovered, for about 40 minutes or until the edges look like bubbling caramel and the topping is lightly browned. Check to see if there is resistance in the apples by inserting a skewer or fork into an apple slice in the middle of the pan.
If you think that the apples need more time to bake but the streusel is already lightly
golden brown, re-cover the baking dish with foil and bake for another 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 1 ½ hours before serving — the baking dish should still feel a little warm at this point.
If you need to reheat this, cover the top with foil to avoid burning the topping.
As I mentioned, this can be served in place of a sweet kugel with your meal but it does not contain eggs like other apple kugels so you won’t get perfectly sliced squares when serving. Don’t bother trying to cut this with a knife — just use a wide spoon to scoop each helping as you would if serving a cobbler.
If you’re serving this for dessert you can also add your favorite dairy or pareve vanilla ice cream to each bowl.
Store at room temperature covered in aluminum foil. The topping will stay firm and crumbly for about two days.
Enjoy and bless your hands! PJC
Pittsburgh.
Jessica Grann is a home chef living in
p Apple pie crumble
Photo by Jessica Grann
surround yourself with
flavor
Find everything you need for a delicious holiday season.
Life & Culture
Sam Salz is likely the first Orthodox Jew to appear in a Division I college football game
By Jacob Gurvis
Sam Salz’s first taste of NCAA Division I football came during a kickoff — known in football as a “special teams” play.
For most football players, kickoffs are in fact routine. But if anything about the play was special, it was Salz’s presence on the field.
The 5-foot-6, 160-pound wide receiver for Texas A&M is not only Jewish — itself a rarity in the ranks of college football — but is believed to be the only Orthodox athlete on a DI team. And in taking the field Saturday evening after the end of Shabbat, Salz became what is likely the first Orthodox Jew to appear in a DI game.
Like most Orthodox Jews, Salz observes Shabbat and abstains from work — which includes a wide range of activities, from using electricity to traveling in a motor vehicle — on Saturday, which is also college football’s usual game day. So in more than two years on the team, Salz, a senior, hasn’t been able to suit up once.
But Shabbat ends earlier in November (it concludes at nightfall) and for once, the team’s schedule was aligned in Salz’s favor. Saturday’s game between Texas A&M and New Mexico State began at 6:45 p.m. local time, approximately 40 minutes after the stars came out.
“From the bottom of my heart I would just like to thank G-D and everyone who believes in me,” Salz wrote on X. “The moment felt so crazy I totally forgot that it was the first official snap of football I’ve played in my life.”
The game — which the Aggies won 38-3 — was the pinnacle, so far, of Salz’s unlikely career on the gridiron. (Salz has not responded to prior requests for comment. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reached out again in the wake of Saturday’s game.)
The Philadelphia native arrived at Texas A&M without a single game of experience in organized football and walked onto an Aggies team that routinely ranks in the top 25 nationally. lz attended Kohelet Yeshiva High School, a Modern Orthodox school with roughly 100 students and no football team. When he arrived at Texas A&M, he began practicing near the Aggies’ practice field in sight of the team’s coaches. He introduced himself to then head coach, Jimbo Fisher, declaring, “I’m Sam Salz and I’m going to walk on to your
(Salz’s quest may seem reminiscent of the classic film “Rudy,” about a walk-on at Notre Dame. But Salz says he’s never seen the movie.)
In 2022, he finally got the text he’d been
grandizing when I say this. But there was something that I was willing to do that most people were not,” Salz told The Athletic earlier this year. “I made human connections and made myself a known person to them. I think [Fisher] appreciated that persistence. It was something old-school coaches would appreciate.”
Salz knew Shabbat would be a challenge coming in, and chose jersey No. 39 in honor of the 39 kinds of work traditionally forbidden on the day of rest. That wasn’t the only obstacle Salz faced. For one thing, he had never played
an organized, official football game.
Still, he persisted. For games on Saturday nights, Salz told The Athletic he would walk to the stadium, finish Shabbat with Torah study and a meal, and then suit up and join the team in the second half of the game.
Salz did not appear in a game last year. But he never lost his motivation, telling The Athletic that he felt he was playing for more than just himself.
“I know why I’m doing it: for my Jewish brothers and sisters,” Salz said. “I knew I’d be in a position to inspire a lot of people.”
Jewish fans celebrated Salz’s debut — with one going so far as to compare the moment to Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax’s exploits.
“Next to Koufax’s perfect game, this is the greatest night in Jewish sports history,” Richard Zane, who covers the Aggies, wrote on X, referencing the pitcher’s legendary 1963 outing.
Elsewhere in college football, Brigham Young University, led by Jewish quarterback Jake Retzlaff, lost their first game of the season, falling 17-13 to Kansas on Saturday.
Retzlaff, a Reform Jew who goes by the moniker “BY-Jew” at the Mormon flagship, has led his Cougars to an unexpected 9-1 record, still the best in the Big 12 Conference and good for No. 14 in the Associated Press’ Top 25 rankings. BYU had ascended to No. 7 prior to their loss this weekend. PJC
‘I was a fool’: Art Garfunkel says he made amends with Paul Simon
— MUSIC —
By Times of Israel Staff
Singer-songwriter Art Garfunkel recently reconciled with his erstwhile musical partner Paul Simon after more than half a century of rocky relations, he said in a British media interview published last week.
Speaking to The Times, Garfunkel said he and Simon made up over lunch.
The two had split in 1970 amid artistic differences, after spending the previous decade as one of the most successful music acts in the world.
“I looked at Paul and said, ‘What happened? Why haven’t we seen each other?’
Paul mentioned an old interview where I said some stuff. I cried when he told me how much I had hurt him. Looking back, I guess I wanted to shake up the nice guy image of Simon & Garfunkel. Y’know what?
I was a fool!” Garfunkel told The Times.
“We’ve made plans to meet again. Will Paul bring his guitar? Who knows. For me, it was about wanting to make amends before it’s too late. It felt like we were back in a wonderful place. As I think about it now, tears are rolling down my cheeks. I can still feel his hug,” he said.
Garfunkel is best known as one-half of the folk-rock duo Simon and Garfunkel. The two, both born to Jewish families in
New York, met while they were still in elementary school and began singing together. During high school, they began recording their harmony-based songs, which were composed by Simon and sung by Garfunkel or as a duo.
In the mid-1960s they found success, starting with their song “The Sound of Silence,” and their albums “Sounds of Silence” and “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.”
Despite their rocky relationship, they have reunited over the ensuing decades for major concerts and performances. Both have had solo careers, although Simon’s has been more successful, and the two were awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards in 2003.
Garfunkel performed solo in Tel Aviv in 2015. PJC
p Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia commons
p Sam Salz during Texas A&M’s game against New Mexico State at Kyle Field, Nov. 16, 2024, in College Station, Texas
Photo by Rob Havens/Aggieland Illustrated
Life & Culture
An Israeli woman is playing Mary in a Netflix movie — and the outcry is getting weird
By Mira Fox | Forward
It should surprise no one that Netflix’s new movie “Mary,” about the mother of Jesus, is controversial. Catholics are angry that it violates doctrine by portraying her relationship with Joseph as romantic instead of chaste. Conservative Christians are simply mad that it’s being made by Netflix, which they consider ungodly. And still others are angry because Noa Cohen, the actress playing Mary, is Israeli.
“A film about a Palestinian woman played by actors from the settler state that is currently mass slaughtering Palestinian women,” reads one characteristic tweet. “Oh the disgusting audacity.”
Of course, according to doctrine from all three Abrahamic religions, Mary was a Jewish woman, living in what was then officially called Judea, part of the Roman Empire. No one disputes that she, like Cohen, was Jewish.
But whether or not it would be accurate to call Mary a Palestinian, regardless of her religion, is complicated. There was a biblical region in the area called Philistia, but it likely was located where Gaza is today, and
It was only in the early second century, long after Mary’s death, that Romans
must be Palestinian — is achieving some sort of ethnic accuracy, well, that begins to veer
uncomfortably close to race science. The Levant in Mary’s time was largely Aramaicand Greek-speaking, with little influence from the Arabian peninsula; Arab conquest of the Levant did not occur until the seventh century. Still, plenty of other empires — Babylonian, Persian, Assyrian, Roman — did conquer the area at various points in history, and mix with the local population.
That means it’s hard to guess exactly what shade residents’ skin or eyes would have been, or the shape of their noses. And who would want to? Arguing over whether Palestinian Christians or Jewish Israelis are racially closer to Mary requires us to define identity in a way we, as a society, have thankfully largely moved away from.
And, like the ethnic makeup of the area, the religious practices have changed enormously since antiquity as well. Arguments over who is most “accurate” as Mary don’t map well onto today’s realities.
But if you must open that Pandora’s box, what does seem relatively clear is that the residents of the area were not Western Europeans with British accents. So maybe let’s start by getting mad that Anthony Hopkins was cast as King Herod. PJC
This story was originally published on the Forward.
Noa Cohen as Mary Photo courtesy of Netflix
Celebrations
Erika (Berman) and Julian Festa are overjoyed to announce the birth of their daughter, Harper Mae Festa, born on Aug. 16, 2024. Harper Mae is the granddaughter of Helene and Michael Berman of Squirrel Hill and Ginny and the late James Festa of Lower Burrell, and the greatgranddaughter of the late Marion and Morris Riemer, the late Barbara and Howard J. Berman, the late Margery and William McCracken, and the late Bertha and Frank Festa. Harper Mae is named after her maternal greatgrandfather, Howard, and her paternal great-grandmother, Margery. PJC
The mitzvah of Shabbat candle lighting
This week’s Torah portion, Parshas Chayei Sarah, recounts the remarkable journey of Eliezer, Avraham’s servant, as he travels to Charan in search of a wife for Yitzchak. Eliezer returned with Rivkah, the destined wife of Yitzchak. Upon Rivkah’s entry into Sarah’s tent, our sages reveal that three miracles, previously present during Sarah’s lifetime, returned: the Shabbat candles burned throughout the week; the bread possessed a special blessing; and a cloud of G-d’s glory rested upon the tent.
significance of Shabbat and the crucial role mothers and daughters play in ushering it in through candle lighting. He posed a question: “Where does the sun first set?” The girl replied, “Probably New Zealand or Australia.” The student continued, “Indeed, mothers and daughters in those lands are the first to welcome Shabbat, followed by those in Asia, Israel, Europe, North America and eventually here. As the sun begins to set in this city, it is as if G-d and the Jewish people all over the world await your candle lighting to bring the light of Shabbos to the entire world.”
What a profound and beautiful concept! Not only do the Jewish people and the world at large await our weekly infusion of spiritual light: It would seem that our ancestors
“ ough we may not be family, Kelton will treat you like mishpacha”
No one can predict the future. That is why it is always best to be prepared for any situation. The Law Of ces of Kelton M. Burgess can help you make plans that will serve the best interests of your family. Kelton Burgess has helped countless clients in the Greater Pittsburgh area create lasting estate plans to protect their estate assets and to help ensure their children and loved ones are properly provided for. Let our team help you, we will give you the peace of mind you need. 412-212-0273 | keltonburgess.com
Not only do the Jewish people and the world at large await our weekly infusion of spiritual light: It would seem that our ancestors on high, going all the way back to the matriarchs themselves, bask in the joyful light of our Shabbat candles and look on with pride as we embrace this special mitzvah.
Fifty years ago, the Lubavitcher Rebbe launched a campaign emphasizing the vital importance of Shabbat candle lighting by Jewish women and girls. This initiative highlighted the transformative power of this mitzvah, as exemplified by Rivkah.
on high, going all the way back to the matriarchs themselves, bask in the joyful light of our Shabbat candles and look on with pride as we embrace this special mitzvah.
Try it this week! Draw inspiration from Sarah and Rivkah. Through this simple yet profound act of Shabbat candle lighting, Jewish women and girls can illuminate their homes and the world, hastening the arrival of Moshiach.
A poignant encounter in the 1990s underscores this lesson. Two Chabad Yeshiva students ventured into remote Alaska, sharing the light of Judaism with locals. During their visit to a school, a young girl proudly revealed her Jewish identity. Her mother, a fifth grade teacher, approached the students, requesting a message to inspire her daughter’s pride in her heritage.
One yeshiva student shared the
Shabbat Shalom! PJC
Rabbi Shneur Horowitz is the director of Chabad Lubavitch of Altoona, Pennsylvania. This column is a service of the Vaad Harabonim of Greater Pittsburgh.
Obituaries
CHESIN: Dr. Gerald “Gerry” Chesin, on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. Beloved husband of Carole Chesin, M.D. for 48 years. Loving father of Courtney (David Vadnais) Chesin and Grant (Kimberly) Chesin. Cherished brother of Elaine Cohen. Devoted grandfather of Amanda Chesin, Tiffany Chesin, Nola Vadnais and Miles Vadnais. Also survived by many caring friends who loved him. Gerry was a proud veteran, having served time in the U.S. Navy as a Naval officer. He taught at Slippery Rock University as a college professor. In the 1980s, he was a sports psychologist who worked with a number of college and professional athletes. Gerry had a passion for fishing and earned multiple world records over the years. Four of those world records still stand. He also loved his dogs. Graveside service and interment were held at Homewood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to a charity of your choice. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com
GOLDBLATT: Morton Goldblatt, age 91, of Boynton Beach, Florida, and Mt. Lebanon, passed away Nov. 17, 2024, at home. He is survived by his devoted and loving partner of 16 years Carole Kaufman, son Bruce Goldblatt, daughter Linda Goldblatt Amoroso, grandchildren Joshua Goldblatt, Erica Goldblatt and Rachel Amoroso, three great-grandchildren, former wife Harriet Weill, and two grand-dogs. He is predeceased by his grandson Adam Goldblatt, sister Louise Silverman, parents Harry and Elinore Goldblatt, and former partner Shirley Goldman. Mort will be remembered as a loyal and caring partner, beloved father and grandfather, and a great friend to many. He grew up in McKees Rocks and Squirrel Hill and was a graduate of Taylor Allderdice High School and the University of Pittsburgh. He was a member of the Phi Epsilon Pi fraternity at Pitt where he made many lifelong friends and was a regular at its annual reunions. After college he proudly served in the Air Force and was stationed overseas for four years in Germany and France. He continued his service in the Air Force Reserves, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. He was the owner of Goldblatt’s Men’s Store in McKees Rocks, and was an avid investor, golfer and gin rummy player. He loved elephants and had an eclectic collection of elephant sculptures and figurines. He enjoyed 85 years of uncommonly good health. Even after receiving three cancer diagnoses and undergoing several surgeries, he remained remarkably strong and upbeat. He was not perfect and had his fair share of quirks, but more than anything else he was a kind, modest, loyal and generous man, and will be dearly missed. We would like to thank Melissa, Stan and his other Heartland Hospice and Visiting Angels caregivers, for the wonderful care and support they provided. Services and interment private. Memorials may be made to a charity of the donor’s choice. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com
TRELLIS: Barbara Miller Trellis, 94, beloved wife of the late Emil Trellis MD, mother of Cindy Bernstein (Hal), Dan Trellis (the late Robin) and Tom Trellis (Mark Gunsky), passed away on Nov. 11, 2024. Raised in New Kensington, Barbara was the daughter of the late Irving and Rose Cohen Miller. Professionally, Barbara flourished creatively in many ways, most notably as a self-made textile designer and artist. She graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), where she majored in clothing and design. Following graduation, she was employed by Bell Telephone of Pennsylvania in a newly created management position where she taught sewing as a recreational activity. As a young woman Barbara also enjoyed overseeing two garden clubs at which time she was awarded blue ribbons. She also served as co-editor of the Tree of Life Congregation’s “Kosher Kalories” cookbook. In addition to completing countless personal projects, Barbara’s passion for needlepoint inspired her to launch a mid-life
Sunday November 24: Bernard Berkovitz, Dorothy M Brill, James Cohen, Sidney H Eger, Ephraim Farber, Howard Joseph Green, Charlotte R Greenfield, Julius Gusky, Samuel Hackman, Max Hoffman, Mike Leebov, Albert S Mar, Frances Turk, Edward Witt
Monday November 25: 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
Tuesday November 26: 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, Israel J Rudoy, Bernard Samuels, Sam Seminofsky
Wednesday November 27: Doris Libby Bennett, Joseph Bilder, Max Cohen, Herman A Donofsky, Leah Firestone, Phillip Friedman, Morris Glassman, Betty Grayer, Jennie Iskowich, Harry Jacobs, Bertha Klein, Leon Morris, Polina Novak, Meyer Seiavitch, Irwin Sidler, Fannie G Skirboll, Sidney Stein, Sam Stern, Sam Stone, Marvin Tachna, Joseph Thompson, Mildred Weinberger, Milton Zakowitz
Thursday November 28: Bessie Lottie Azen, Sylvia Braun, Harry Cukerbaum, Anne Firestone, Julia Goldstein, Louis Greenberg, Zelda Gutmacher, Isaac Klein, William Levy, Joseph Lustig, Jacob S Miller, Gertrude R Nachman, Ruben Nadler, Miriam S Nydes, Max Perr, Philip Rubenstein, Shana Sergie, Ida Sussman, Nettie Touber, Rose Wolovitz
Friday November 29: Jeannette Tafel Alman, Charlotte Ginsburg, Hymen L Kaplan, Benjamin Klawansky, Esther S Levine, Lafe B Murstein, Sadie Rossen, Fannie Ruben, Leah W Schlesinger, Helen G Sheinberg, Lena Frieman Sieff, Michael Stone, Rebecca Tillman, Janet Wolper
Saturday November 30: Sam Benowitz, Fannie Fleischer, Jay David Glasser, Meyer Helfer, Bella Kalson, Nathan Levenson, David London, Alvin Meyers, Bette Rudick, Anna Shapira, Edward I Solomon, Jack Joseph Sussman, Harry Edward Traub
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
Lee & Lisa Oleinick
Obituaries
Obituaries:
Continued from page 19
career teaching the craft to others. She ultimately became an ecclesiastical designer, and was tapped to design and produce many large-scale installations for major Pittsburgh religious institutions. She carefully selected and led teams of volunteer stitchers from these organizations to execute her elaborate designs. For Rodef Shalom Congregation, projects included Torah covers, altar chairs, enormous banners depicting the Ten Commandments and a wall hanging of the Torah portion from Leviticus. In addition, independently she designed and constructed a silk appliqued chuppah. Her final contribution was a large, dramatic appliqued kidskin menorah. In addition, Barbara designed Torah covers for Congregation Beth Shalom, Torah covers and a chuppah for Beth El Congregation, a curtain and valance gracing the Holy Ark and lectern coverings for Congregation Poale Zedek and an ark covering for B’nai Israel in McKeesport. She also designed a series of communion kneelers for the United Methodist Church in Mt. Lebanon. Barbara’s contribution to the fiber arts world was further demonstrated as chairperson for two conventions for the National Standards Council of American Embroiderers. She also served as president of Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh. Organizations to which Barbara belonged included Hadassah, National Council of Jewish Women, Rodef Shalom Sisterhood, ORT, and the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh. Superseding her professional accomplishments, Barbara’s most genuine passion was her devoted roles of wife and mother. Barbara enjoyed a loving marriage with Emil for over 66 years. Together they enjoyed pursuing ballroom dancing for 25 years, tackling it as a sport as much as a hobby. They also enjoyed extensive travel, which included many adventures around the globe as well as visiting all 50 states. Barbara also derived great pleasure raising her three children and maintaining lifelong close relationships with them and their spouses. Barbara cherished her grandchildren Paul Bernstein, Claire Trellis and Scott Trellis. She was preceded in death by her siblings Irene Levkoy, Robert Miller and Sally Roberts. Her beloved many cousins, nieces and nephews all have many shared memories of their times spent together. Barbara’s personality most distinguished her: She radiated graciousness and warmth, and her smile was irresistible. She had an invincible love of life. Barbara’s greatest legacy is the love she shared with family, friends and strangers. That legacy, Barbara’s love, is everlasting. In lieu of flowers contributions may be sent to charity of donor’s choice. Services and interment private. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., schugar.com PJC
‘No shame, no decency, no clue,’ Dana Bash tells
Code Pink protester
By JNS
Dana Bash, chief CNN political correspondent, denounced Code Pink after the anti-Israel group posted video footage of one of its members accosting Bash at Main Line Reform Temple, in the Philadelphia area, where she spoke last week.
“What is going on now is a holocaust,” the Code Pink protester told Bash, accusing the Jewish CNN anchor of being “a mouthpiece for the genocide in Gaza.”
“I’m not here to debate,” Bash says in a video that Code Pink posted. “I will just say one thing. Being anti-Israel, anti-Israeli government, is not antisemitic.” When the agitator
says that the protests on campus are anti-Israel, Bash asks if the woman has been to the protests outside her house, “where they call me ‘Zionist trash’ and call for the intifada against me?” Bash, who co-anchors “State of the Union” and anchors “Inside Politics” on the network, later wrote, “You came to a place of Jewish worship, stood on the bimah, near the holy Torah scroll, and pretended to be congregants.”
“You have no shame, no decency, and no clue what you’re talking about,” she added. Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, wrote that he was sorry that the anchor “had to be verbally confronted by the lunatic fringe at the shul where I grew up and was bar mitzvah-ed.”
Jill Stein, who ran for U.S. president as part of the Green Party, agreed with the protester. PJC
5501 Baum Blvd. Pittsburgh PA 15232 Shadyside Office | 412-361-4000
Contact me today to discuss all of your real estate needs!
Sherri Mayer, Realtor Squirrel Hill Office
Sign up on the right hand side of our homepage. pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
Sign up on the right hand side of our homepage.
Sign up on the right hand side of our homepage.
C: 412-760-0412 O: 412-421-9121x225 sherrimayer@howardhanna.com HowardHanna.com 412-661-4456 www.kaminrealty.kamin.com 5125 Fifth Ave. 2 & 3 Bedrooms Corner of Fifth and Wilkins Spacious 1500-2250 square feet ”Finest in Shadyside” 412-661-4456
pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
Sign up on the right hand side of our homepage. pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
SQUIRREL HILL • $635,000
5342 Pocusset St
Beautifully maintained 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath gem, nestled on the private and secluded end of Pocusset St., next to the greenery of Schenley Park.This highly desirable location o ers both privacy and convenience, making it the perfect city retreat.
SQUIRREL HILL • $385,000
3473 Beechwood
New Listing. Two units New appliances in one. Convenient location. Close to waterfront and by public transportation. First floor convenient for 2. Second unit has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. One integral garage and two other parking spaces are included.
First time o ered! Two units with two car garage. Great location. Close to Allderdice and Colfax. Showings somewhat limited.
Life & Culture
By Jacob Gurvis | JTA
Cantor Jennifer Bern-Vogel was used to hearing her mother tell the story.
On the evening of Nov. 9, 1938, her mother, then Marianne Katzenstein, who was 16 at the time, was in her family’s synagogue in Bielefeld, Germany, practicing the organ. She finished up, used a key to lock the building and returned home. Later that night, the synagogue was burned to the ground by the Nazis in the Kristallnacht pogrom.
Only two items survived the fire: a Torah scroll and Katzenstein’s key.
“I just remember her talking about it, her voice would change and she was just kind of slower and softer and very nostalgic when she talked about the whole story,” BernVogel, 67, said in an interview. “Whenever she told the story and then held up the key, people always — and I experienced it myself — there was always this kind of gasp.”
B ern-Vogel, who has been the cantor at Congregation Emanu El in Redlands, California, since 2009, said the story of the key was “legendary” in her family.
And earlier this month, 86 years after Kristallnacht, the key returned home.
Bern-Vogel spent the previous week in Germany, where she had lived for more than a decade when she was younger, reconnecting with friends, family and the Jewish community of Bielefeld, where the synagogue was reestablished shortly after the Holocaust. It was her first trip to Bielefeld with her husband and daughter, and her brother and niece, as well as a cousin from Denmark, also flew in for the occasion.
On Friday night, Bern-Vogel and the cantor of the Bielefeld synagogue led Shabbat services together. Bern-Vogel sang a song that was adapted from a poem written by her grandfather, with music composed by a longtime friend from Germany.
And following Havdalah on Saturday, the town held a ceremony that began at the site of the destroyed synagogue before moving to City Hall, where the official hand-off was made. The key was added to the collection of the town’s history museum and will be on display at the current synagogue building.
According to Irith Michelsohn, the president of the town’s Jewish community and of Germany’s Progressive Jewish movement, Bielefeld’s Jewish community has 450 members. The synagogue the community uses now was
renovated from an old Protestant church and was inaugurated in 2008.
Prior to the Holocaust, Bielefeld was home to almost 1,000 Jews, Michelsohn said. The community has been revitalized since Michelsohn took the helm on Jan. 1, 2000, at which point she said there were only 35 members.
Michelsohn said the key’s return is immensely meaningful to the community.
“I was so excited, because we only have one Torah scroll, and now the key, that’s all we have from our old synagogue,” Michelsohn said. “And now the key is back. That’s so great, you can’t imagine.”
Michelsohn said the key is especially important as a vehicle to educate the current community about its past. She explained that like many German Jewish communities, Bielefeld’s Jews are almost all originally from the former Soviet Union.
“You don’t have many people who are originally from Germany,” she said. “Some of them converted to Judaism, some immigrated from Israel or other countries or are working in Bielefeld with a university, but most of the members in all of our 120 Jewish communities in Germany are from the former Soviet Union.”
The key, Michelsohn said, represents an opportunity to “teach them something about history, about the past, what we lost.”
It also returns a physical reminder of the
old synagogue building, which had been built in 1905 and was commissioned by the Katzenstein family. Bern-Vogel’s maternal grandfather had been the head of the Jewish community, and helped hundreds of families escape Germany.
“It symbolizes a connection to the old and very, very nice building which we had,” Michelsohn said, adding that the destroyed synagogue was “such a marvelous building.”
Like the key she kept, the remarkable story of Bern-Vogel’s mother did not end in 1938. The following year, she and her younger sister escaped to England on the Kindertransport. Years later, she was at a Shabbat dinner in Israel when she met Julian Bernstein (later shortened to Bern), Bern-Vogel’s father, who also survived the Holocaust.
Julian was one of six children from a Lithuanian family, but only he and one brother survived the Holocaust. That brother, Leon Bernstein, and Bern-Vogel’s mother were both working for the World Jewish Congress; Leon hosted the Shabbat dinner where Julian and Marianne met.
The two were engaged within a week, and eventually settled in Iowa, where Bern-Vogel and her brother were raised.
In the later years of her mother’s life, Bern-Vogel said there had been efforts to bring the key to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. But a contact
her mother had at the museum passed away, and in 2017, so did she, at 94 years old.
“It just held a very deep connection,” BernVogel said, referring to the key, a copy of which she still has. “I don’t think I thought about, when we were growing up, that the key would be anywhere else but with us. It kind of belonged to us.”
But as her mother aged, Bern-Vogel said her family wanted to determine where the key should go to be best taken care of and hold the most meaning. After a couple recent trips to Germany, Bern-Vogel said the answer crystallized.
“It just became clearer over the last couple of years, and especially after I went there last summer to meet with them at the synagogue and the museum, that it would really mean the most for everyone and future generations for it to be there,” she said.
Bern-Vogel said that even though her mother had a fraught relationship with Germany because of how her family’s time there ended, Bielefeld will always be their home. And she knows her mother would appreciate knowing that the key has made it back.
“I think that she would be incredibly moved by the reception that the key is going to have, and the people that are involved in the city,” Bern-Vogel said. “I think she would be very honored and happy, and I think grateful.” PJC
p Marianne Bern and the key she kept from the Bielefeld synagogue that was destroyed on Kristallnacht Photo courtesy of Jennifer Bern-Vogel
Community Day School hosted its Grandparents and Special Friends Day. The annual event introduces loved ones to CDS’ values and the benefits of a Jewish day school education.
Walk for friendship
It’s going to be a big night
The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh announced its theme and co-chairs for Big Night 2025: Big Night Olympics, set for March 1, 2025, at the JCC Squirrel Hill, will be hosted by Terrina and Dan LaVallee, Lisa and Jonathan Marcus, and Natalie and Brian Valen. The Olympic-inspired evening will raise funds for the JCC’s programs and scholarships.
Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh hosted Walk4Friendship on Nov. 10. Despite a rainy morning, hundreds of friends, families and supporters walked from Murray Avenue to Wightman Park in support of disability inclusion.
p
Photos courtesy of Community Day School
p
p
Photos courtesy of Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh
p From left: Brian and Natalie Valen, Dan LaValle and Lisa and Jonathan Marcus
Photo courtesy of Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh
p Savoring one last seasonal sweet
Photo courtesy of Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh
Ice before the ice
A scavenger hunt guided by social and emotional learning led Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh sixth grade students and Pittsburgh Principal Rabbi Sam Weinberg to Rita’s Italian Ice before the Forbes Avenue counter closed for the season.
Sunday, November 24, 2024 CONGREGATION BETH SHALOM PRESENTS
Cocktail Hour - 6:00 p.m.
Comedy Show - 7:30 p.m.
FEATURING
Headliner Dan Naturman
Opening Act: Moody McCarthy
Cocktail Hour & Comedy Show - $150/each
(Cocktail Hour includes heavy hors d’oeuvres and adult beverages.)
Comedy Show Only - $50/each
Sponsorships also available.
To purchase tickets and/or sponsor the event online, go to: BethShalomPgh.org/ComedyNight or scan QR code.
Comedy Show Tickets available for purchase at the door.
