DNA reveals identity of Jewish man missing for more than a decade
Mendelson said goodbye to his brother during
To anyone on the outside, the service was a typical Jewish funeral. Community members surrounded Mendelson and his family; Poale Zedeck Rabbi Daniel Yolkut delivered blessings, prayers and a eulogy that included references to the weekly parshah; mourners took turns shoveling dirt to cover the pine coffin housing Mitchell Mendelson’s remains. There was nothing that looked unusual about
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.
— W.B. Yeats
Thinking about his relationship with his brother over the last few decades of his life while sitting shiva, Mendelson alluded to the Yeats
“He would spin out here and come back, spin out here and come back,” Mendelson said. “There were times that he would cut off all contact, be very insulting and then come back and be very avuncular.”
That wasn’t always the case.
Mendelson said he and his brother were
best friends growing up and “thick as thieves.”
He described a series of games and activities played in the New York neighborhoods where
By the time Abby Mendelson was at college, the two were no longer as tight — Abby Mendelson was an older, more distant brother to his younger sibling who was busy playing sports and working on cars.
That physical distance soon became emotional. The brothers saw each other infrequently during their adult years. The last time Abby Mendelson shared space with his brother was in 1996. He last communicated with him in 2009.
It wasn’t simply his family with which Mitchell Mendelson frayed and tore the bonds of relationship.
In 2012, while on a walk through a wooded area near his home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Mitchell Mendelson died, possibly from a diabetic stroke. The body lay on the forest floor for nearly three months until a hunter found him. The body didn’t have a wallet — it was most likely stolen at some point during the time he was undiscovered in the woods. When the police were notified, they canvassed the surrounding area. No one remembered him, not even a landlady from whom he rented a room.
His remains sat unidentified for more than a decade as the trail seemingly grew colder and colder. The mystery of Mitchell Mendelson’s identity would have remained unsolved,
Dave McCormick’s new Chief of Staff Mark Isakowitz is ready to
By David Rullo | Senior Sta Writer
f Pennsylvania Senator-elect David McCormick wanted to send the message that he was interested in getting to work immediately after he’s sworn into the Senate, he could have done worse than selecting Mark Isakowitz as his chief of staff.
Isakowitz served as Sen. Rob. Portman’s chief of staff during Donald Trump’s first term in office and is currently Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy for the U.S. and Canada. He’s spent time as a lobbyist and even worked with the American Jewish Committee.
McCormick’s new chief of staff said he was humbled by the opportunity and anxious to help the senator-elect accomplish his goals for the office.
“Dave believes that the opportunity to make an impact for Pennsylvania, for the country, is precious,” Isakowitz said.
He said that he hopes his experience working in the Senate and some of its more
CDS student goes abroad with
futsal team
Mark Isakowitz has been named as Senator-elect David McCormick’s new chief of staff. Photo provided by Mark Isakowitz
Abby Mendelson’s brother Mitchell Mendelson was buried in Poale Zedeck’s cemetery more than a decade after his unidentified body was discovered.
Photo by David Rullo
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The value of the Chronicle
Guest Columnist
Casey Weiss
Much more valuable to me than the Times, the Journal or any online publication (sorry, Bari) is the Chronicle.
Each week, I take my time reading it; I’ll read part of it in the shvitz at the JCC, I’ll save an op-ed for Shabbat after
The Chronicle is about community, not about pitting people against each other. It’s about what connects us rather than what divides. It is about the people and places that shape our treasured shtetl of Squirrel Hill, the suburbs and beyond. We read about new community collaborations, innovative and inclusive work at various organizations, and altogether those things make up our
As the new head of CDS, I’m so very grateful for this paper. The smiles and excitement of our students when
The Chronicle is about community, not about pitting people against each other. It’s about what connects us rather than what divides.
noon, and now as the head of school, I take the last photo page and carefully cut out each smiling Community Day School face to add to my office magnet board. There’s no one part of the Chronicle that I appreciate most because I love it all: Lee Oleinick’s weekly words of positivity, the d’var Torah, knowing when my favorite honey turkey is on sale at Murray Avenue Kosher.
they are featured is a favorite moment each week. Moreover, I’m proud to be a very small part of the story of Jewish Pittsburgh, learning from so many dynamite local leaders. No one captures our shared story better than you, the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. PJC
Casey Weiss is head of school at the Community Day School.
Summer Lee introduces legislation to sanction Israeli settlers
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
Rep. Summer Lee, who represents Pittsburgh’s 12th District, and Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont introduced legislation last week that would sanction Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
The Sanctions and Accountability for Non-Compliance and Transparent Investigative Oversight for National Security (SANCTIONS) in the West Bank Act seeks to codify President Joe Biden’s Feb. 1 executive order imposing sanctions “on individuals undermining peace, security and stability in the West Bank,” Lee said in a news release.
Biden’s executive order specifically targeted Israeli settlers who engaged in “high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction.”
The settlers’ actions, the executive order says, endanger Israel’s security and the viability of a two-state solution and, as a result, “constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”
Lee and Welch’s proposed bill “permanently authorizes sanctions targeting individuals responsible for acts of violence, property destruction, or other destabilizing activities in the West Bank,” and “freezes
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It is endorsed by the American Federation of Ramallah, Palestine; J Street; Friends Committee on National Legislation; Human Rights Watch; New Jewish Narrative; Peace Action; and Quincy Institute.
In the news release announcing the legislation, Lee claimed the bill is “about accountability, justice, and ensuring that U.S. policy stands firmly against extremist violence and destabilization.”
“The surge in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank is a humanitarian and moral crisis,” she said. “By codifying these sanctions, we are making clear that the U.S. supports peace and dignity for all people living in the region.”
Lee did not make any reference to the violence perpetrated by the terrorist group Hamas on Oct. 7 when it attacked Israel, murdering 1,200 people and abducting more than 250 others, mostly civilians, into Gaza. She also did not refer to terror perpetrated by Palestinians in the West Bank. PJC
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Keeping step with Kimi Smuckler reveals fast feet and proud identity
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
Kimi Smuckler’s fast feet are taking her across the globe. Smuckler’s talent and perspective will make her shine.
The Community Day School student-athlete is headed to Barcelona at the end of the month to compete with the U.S. Youth Futsal National Team. Before venturing to the airport — Smuckler, 13, was on her way to a separate tournament in California — she told the Chronicle that traveling abroad is an opportunity to represent Pittsburgh and the Jewish people.
“It just makes me really proud,” she said. Since the age of 7, the Jewish day school student has played competitive futsal. Similar to soccer, the game typically occurs indoors on a hard surface, like a basketball court, with five players on each side.
Smuckler was drawn to the sport because “it seemed really fun and would help me with my technical ability,” she said.
Lest one think the teen is a singlesport athlete, think again. Smuckler also plays soccer.
Futsal is a winter activity; soccer is a fall sport, so the two are mutually beneficial, she said.
At school, Smuckler plays soccer for CDS’ mixed team — a group she boasts has been undefeated for four years. Outside of class, the teen also plays for Beadling Soccer Club, a competitive group whose origins date back more than 100 years.
Smuckler takes her sports seriously, as evidenced by her journey to make the U.S. Youth Futsal National Team. Three years ago, she tried to make the squad. She was cut. “I was really upset, but I worked really hard after that,” she said.
Smuckler, a middle school student at the time, did hill sprints for conditioning and exercises for technique.
Every day, Smuckler performed 5,000 touches, she said.
The repetitions helped her develop mastery and ball control.
When the trials came along one year
after she was cut, Smuckler sat the competition out.
“I wasn’t sure that I was ready,” she said.
Smuckler returned to her hills and drills in an effort to keep training. Months ago, she arrived in Kansas City, Missouri, ready for redemption.
“I was really happy that I did because it really showed all of my hard work,” she said.
Smuckler impressed the coaches and was selected to join the national squad.
Making the team after experiencing a setback demonstrated “courage and positivity,” she said. “I really think it showed resilience. Even though I was upset and down, I feel like I pushed through because I was determined to make it.”
Smuckler said she’s the only Jewish person on the national team.
Being the lone landsman in Spain will differ from what she’s slated to
experience this summer. After competing in Philadelphia months ago, Smuckler earned a spot with Maccabi USA U16 Soccer at the 2025 World Maccabiah Games in Israel.
Smuckler is eager to arrive in the Jewish state alongside fellow Jewish teenage soccer players — even if she is slightly younger than her peers.
“I wasn’t actually age eligible,” she said. “They made an exception for me.”
Being younger than her teammates is scary but also kind of cool, she explained.
“Overall, it makes me really proud,” she said. “I just think that’s what I can do. That’s where my standards are.”
As her teammates and coaches know, Smuckler is a great athlete. She’s also a talented student.
“I really like doing math,” she told the Chronicle. “It’s really fun to solve problems.”
Whether on the board, in a notebook or
on a screen, “you never really know what’s coming after, and you just have to solve the problem.” she continued. “You can’t stop in the middle of it because then you will never find out the answer.”
Casey Weiss, head of school at CDS, said she’s amazed at Smuckler’s “prowess in life.”
“I cannot wait to see what she accomplishes,” Weiss said.
In math class, on an indoor court or in a remote field, Smuckler maintains the same approach. And with each accomplishment, attention grows.
Smuckler said she’s aware of it and wants people to know about her identity, and theirs.
“I think everybody should just be proud to be Jewish,” she said. “My parents taught me and my brothers to be proud of our Jewish identity. And school makes sure that we’re proud to be Jewish also.”
Smuckler’s message needs little follow-up, her mother Elizabeth Chow said.
“I think she can articulate it pretty well as a 13-year-old,” she said. “She’s proud of who she is, and I think she takes that with her where she goes. And that’s really nice as a parent to see.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchonicle.org.
p Kimi Smuckler competes with Beadling Soccer Club. Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Chow
p Kimi Smuckler is headed to Barcelona as a member of the U.S. Youth National Futsal team.
Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Chow
Headlines
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
On a chess board there’s little room to hide. For one grandmaster, staying incognito is the best way to live.
Wilkinsburg resident Alexander Shabalov recently returned from Porto Santo, a Portuguese island in the North Atlantic Ocean. Shabalov visited the beach locale, long dubbed the “Golden Island,” for the FIDE (International Chess Federation) World Senior Chess Championship last month. Alongside 79 entrants, representing 34 nationalities, Shabalov, 57, competed in the Open 50+ section.
The 80-member group included 15 grandmasters, 13 international masters, 16 FIDE masters and one female FIDE master, according to the organization.
Shabalov, a grandmaster and four-time U.S. Chess Champion, took top prize.
The win was nice, but even better was watching someone else succeed 3,000 miles away, the Wilkinsburg resident told the Chronicle: “On the day when I won the world championship, one of my students from Pittsburgh got his first grandmaster norm.”
Becoming a grandmaster — the highest designation a chess player can receive apart from becoming world champion — requires three grandmaster norms.
For decades, Shabalov has been among the top U.S. chess players. Known for his thrilling style of play, the Jewish-born Latvian phenom moved to Pittsburgh in 1992 and won the U.S. national championships in
1993, 2000, 2003 and 2007.
Winning nets prestige and earnings — after taking top prize in Porto Santo, he received a trophy, gold medal and 3,000 euros (about $3,145). But making a living at this stage of his career requires supplementary income.
“It’s pretty typical for a lot of sports,” Shabalov said. Around the world, there
are a few people in the top 10 who can get by on prizes, but “for the rest of us, we have to coach.”
The chess champion isn’t resentful. In fact, he beams when speaking about his students or even his own instructor.
“When I was a teenager my teacher was Mikhail Tal,” Shabalov said. “I just remember when he was involved in coaching me and when I started to win my first tournaments, I saw it in him, how proud he was.”
Tal, the Jewish Latvian-born world champion, is regarded as one of the greatest chess players of all time.
“The legacy goes on,” Shabalov said. “The students that work with me, they know that it’s not just me, that before me there was a Mikhail Tal.”
Shabalov, also Jewish and Latvian born, teaches students at Pittsburgh Chess Club as well as online.
“It’s not bad,” he said of the latter. “Online coaching is so developed right now. You can use so many different tools.”
Digital learning has changed chess and its landscape of talent.
“It’s not like it was 50 or 60 years ago,” he said. “You don’t have to be born in a country like Russia, or Israel or the United States to become a strong chess player. You can be
p Alexander Shabalov, center, raises a trophy after winning the World Senior Chess Championship Open 50+ section. Photo courtesy of FIDE and Federacao Portuguesa de Xadrez via Flickr
Headlines
Righteous Among the Neighbors: Lynne Ravas
Pam Yang | Mt. Lebanon High School
Righteous Among the Neighbors is a project of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh that honors non-Jewish Pittsburghers who support the Jewish community and stand up against antisemitism. In partnership with the LIGHT Education Initiative and Mt. Lebanon High School, student journalists interview honorees and write profiles about their efforts. To learn more, visit https://hcofpgh.org/ righteous-among-the-neighbors.
Before retirement, Lynne Ravas, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, taught eighth grade English in multiple schools in the United States. Even though she no longer works in a school, Ravas continues to educate students on the enduring impact of the Holocaust and antisemitism.
Ravas is a recipient of the Righteous Among the Neighbors award, which is inspired by the Righteous Among the Nations program, for standing up to antisemitism through her contributions in Holocaust education.
Ravas started teaching students about the Holocaust when she prepared her eighth grade class to read the memoir “The Diary of a Young Girl,” by Anne Frank. In preparation for the assignment, she wanted her students
to know about the Holocaust so they would understand the context of the book and the reason why only one Jewish person mentioned in the book survived.
Part of that preparation was understanding her family’s story. Ravas’ father is a Holocaust survivor. When she started teaching, she began learning more about her family’s connection to the Holocaust, but even after so many years, Ravas said that there are still “unanswered questions.”
“So many Holocaust survivors suffered
such trauma they didn’t want to talk about, and sometimes they felt afraid that people would judge them, so they didn’t want people to know the truth,” she said.
Ravas is now a Generations Speaker for the Holocaust Center, through which she shares her father’s story. The goal of the Generations Series is to preserve family legacies and ensure that the experiences of Holocaust survivors are not forgotten. It also provides well-researched, factual accounts of the Holocaust for future generations to hear.
“People have asked me multiple times, ‘Do you have an agenda?’ and I say, ‘Yes. I do have an agenda. I want my students to be the best possible people they can be.’”
–LYNNE RAVAS
what you did wrong.’ It’s another to pick up a mirror and look at our own country, and say ‘What did we do wrong?’” Ravas said. “We need students and adults to recognize that we have a history that’s not perfect, because human beings are not perfect. What can we learn from that and what can we avoid doing in the future?”
Ravas has been teaching for 46 years, both in schools and through volunteering. She points to her father as her role model, recalling how he wanted to give back to the community.
As well as being a part of the Generations Speaker Series, Ravas also works with Echoes and Reflections, an organization that partners with educators to help teachers and students understand the Holocaust. Ravas attends and often leads workshops for teachers to better address topics such as the Holocaust and antisemitism.
“I got to see how he interacted with people that weren’t his children, that weren’t the neighborhood kids,” she said, “and that instilled in me a desire, especially after I retired, to give back as much as I can.”
She loves speaking with schools and interacting with students, but also feels that it is a responsibility to be seen as someone advocating for a community.
Ravas speaks at schools to help students recognize hatred in its early forms. She believes that hatred in its earliest form — words — is the easiest to stop.
“I tell students that one single act of kindness can change the world,” she said. “You may never see it, and you may never recognize you have that power, but you do have the power to change the world.”
She also speaks to adults because they can provide guidance, such as by providing resources for children to learn more about the Holocaust. Ultimately, the goal of educating children and adults is for people to recognize hatred when they see it and be able to stand up against it.
“People have asked me multiple times, ‘Do you have an agenda?’ and I say, ‘Yes. I do have an agenda. I want my students to be the best possible people they can be,’” she said. “And if I can help them get there by understanding what led us to where we are today, then I’ve accomplished my agenda.”
Ravas is grateful to the Holocaust Center for organizing volunteers, but she is also grateful for the schools and organizations who request speakers, as this allows volunteers to reach students.
Ravas uses the Jim Crow laws as an example. The Nazis based their anti-Jewish laws on the Jim Crow laws in the United States, where African Americans were discriminated against and had their rights restricted solely because of their race.
“I would tell my students, it’s one thing to point a finger at Europe and say, ‘Here’s
“I’ve spoken in retirement communities and people say that’s not the right audience, but it is because they could be talking to their grandchildren, or they could be talking to their neighbors,” Ravas said. “You never know where that spark could come from. We just keep going out there and hoping we’re lighting it.” PJC
Pam Yang is a sophomore at Mt. Lebanon High School.
Lynne Ravas
Photo by Brian Cohen
Headlines
Convergence of Chanukah and Christmas offers opportunities for interfaith families
By Deborah Weisberg | Special to the Chronicle
For many interfaith couples, the conver gence of Chanukah and Christmas on Dec. 25 doubles the opportunity for festive celebrations.
“Chrismukkah” also highlights how fami lies of mixed religions can navigate their differences to create new traditions.
For Sam Jacobs, who is Jewish, Christmas Eve will include sushi dinner with his wife, Kristina, their daughter and his Catholic in-laws.
“It’s kind of a weird melding of two cultures,” mused Jacobs, 47. “It covers the Feast of the Seven Fishes, and it’s Asian, which is a very Jewish thing to do.”
The Jacobs family will spend Christmas Day with Kristina’s family, and then return to their McCandless home to light the menorah and exchange a few gifts.
When the couple dated, and in the early years of their marriage, they explored where they would feel most comfortable worshipping together, and eventually joined Temple Ohav Shalom, a Reform congregation in Allison Park. Jacobs now serves as executive vice president of membership, and their daughter will celebrate her bat mitzvah there in 2026.
outside of Detroit.
Although Bob, 43, did not convert, he was fine with celebrating Chanukah but not Christmas, said Mason, who was raised as a Conservative Jew. “He knew that I was definitely more observant than he was.”
While in their religious practices they “lean toward Jewish,” said Jacobs, they have negotiated an approach to a secular Christmas.
“Our house is decked out with three trees — which is three more than I’d like, but it’s fine,” Jacobs said. “I said I’d do lights outside as long as they are white and tasteful, but no blow-up Santa. It’s subtle.”
A menorah will illuminate one window.
Jacobs, who works in building industry sales, grew up on Long Island around non-Jewish maternal grandparents — his mother was a convert — but there was much less of a mash-up during the holidays, he said. “We’d travel to have Christmas dinner with my mom’s parents in Ontario, but we didn’t celebrate Christmas in any way at home.”
In a further nod to this year’s Chrismukkah, Jacobs will be sporting a Chanukah-themed beanie amid a throng of Santa-hatted runners in the Christmas Eve 5K at North Park.
They share Christmas with Bob’s parents every year, traveling to Michigan when their two children were younger and now hosting them in their Franklin Park home.
“For the past few years they’ve been coming to us, and so we get a small Christmas tree,” said Mason, “but we wait until the day before they arrive to put it up.”
The house is bedecked with Chanukah decor, including a lighted window menorah, holiday-themed throw pillows and mason jars filled with gelt and dreidels. Mason will make latkes.
“We used to do a lot more when our kids were little,” said Mason, who works as a substitute teacher and is president of Women of Ohav Shalom. “There were years when we’d have Chanukah parties and invite both Jewish and non-Jewish friends.”
December doesn’t seem to present much of a dilemma, if any, for the growing number of interfaith couples at Ohav Shalom, Rabbi
“They have successfully integrated the faith traditions from which they come, and created a hybrid expression of religion that makes sense for their families,” he said. “They have chosen to locate themselves within the Jewish community and feel very comfortable in their blended realities.”
Chanukah is not a theologically significant holiday, he said, noting that its religiosity has been eclipsed by a secular, commercial element. “Menorahs have become ubiquitous.”
What’s important, he said, is that interfaith families within the Jewish community “are living meaningful lives in the context of 21st-century America.”
That’s true for Steve Jurman, president of Temple Sinai and his wife, Jeanette Trauth, who decided when they were married 40 years ago by a rabbi and a priest that they would raise their kids as Reform Jews, but that Christmas would have a place in their holiday celebrations.
Trauth, now 71 and a retired University of Pittsburgh professor, grew up with five sisters in a Catholic family and attended Catholic schools, including the University of Dayton.
“Our kids loved getting Christmas presents, and I think we might have gone caroling one year. St. Paul’s had beautiful music,” Trauth recalled. “We also lighted a menorah and made latkes.”
The year their son Beryl Trauth-Jurman was born, they decorated a tree. TrauthJurman is today a Reconstructionist rabbi in Blacksburg, Virginia, and Trauth has begun bat mitzvah studies.
Their Christmas observance amounts to time spent with extended family. This year when they travel to Cincinnati, Trauth will pack a menorah.
“There will be a tree and a turkey for Christmas dinner, but no ham,” she said. “The second night we’ll have salmon and I’ll make latkes.”
The couple’s children, including Rabbi Trauth-Jurman, also will be present.
“Christmas doesn’t carry religious significance for me,” Trauth said. “It’s actually a pagan holiday. For us, the season is about family, love and being together.”
Her mother was devout in her Catholic faith but not dogmatic. “For her, religion was about love,” Trauth said. “Beryl would tell you that it’s one of the things that inspired him to become a rabbi.”
Temple Sinai Rabbi Daniel Fellman expects there will be “a lot of cross-pollinating of holiday festivities in mixed households” this month and encourages couples to embrace their differences.
“I know families who hang Jewish-themed ornaments along with others on their tree, and I have seen menorahs that depict winter scenes,” he said. “I suspect there’ll be many families who’ll stand around a tree and open gifts and also light a menorah.”
Some people hold onto cultural connections when they marry outside their faith, he said, and others don’t. “What matters is that the holidays bring people together and foster kindness and giving, and that’s all for the good.”
Stephanie and Abdi Kater of Swisshelm Park celebrate every faith-based holiday in their mixed family.
Stephanie Kater, 40, is Jewish and a stay-athome mom to the couple’s two young kids. Abdi Kater, 42, is Muslim.
They decorated their home inside and out with symbols of Chanukah, and while there is no Muslim holiday to fete in December, they included a lawn ornament of a crescent moon and star in a nod to Abdi’s Islamic faith.
In late February, when Ramadan begins, Stephanie Kater will don a hijab when appropriate, join her husband in fasting and prepare the samosas of his Somali heritage.
“We try to create a united front as parents,” Stephanie Kater said. “Our kids can choose for themselves as they get older.”
Because not everyone may understand the couple’s approach, Abdi Kater said, they are building a foundation within their family “that lets us stand strong together,” while teaching their children respect for all religions.
“The celebrations,” he said, “are a way to spread joy to other people.” PJC
Deborah Weisberg is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.
p Rebecca and Bob Mason and family celebrate Chanukah. Photo courtesy of the Mason family p The Kater family celebates Chanukah.
Photo courtesy of the Kater family
Headlines
Chabad of the South Hills shines the Chanukah light in Dormont
By David Rullo | Senior Sta Writer
On Dec. 30, Dormont Borough will host and sponsor Chabad of the South Hills’ annual Chanukah Festival.
The event, which takes place in the borough’s famed swimming pool’s parking lot, will welcome hundreds from throughout the South Hills — Jew and non-Jew, the curious and regular holiday celebrants — in what has become one of the largest Chanukah festivals in the region.
It’s a far cry from 2017 when the borough’s annual Street Fair and Music Festival was held on Yom Kippur.
Who could have blamed them? Go door to door and you would struggle to find 30 Jewish families in the small South Hills community that borders the city’s Beechview and Brookline neighborhoods and the more suburban Mt. Lebanon. No one on the borough’s council or administrative staff was Jewish, so they weren’t aware of the date or significance of the holiday.
The oversight happened at a time when the council had decided it wanted to work to be more inclusive and the governing body decided to make some changes.
“We passed a resolution to be a more welcoming community,” Council President Jen Mazzocco explained. “But you can’t just pass an ordinance. You have to think about the big celebrations and moments in people’s lives.”
Celebrating holidays like Christmas, which the borough does in its main district, sends a message, she said.
“It’s important that we celebrate all the things people celebrate, as best we can,” she said. “I’m sure we’ve missed some things but we’re trying to appreciate everyone and the things they care about.”
Council member Daniele Ventresca said that despite the missteps in 2017, the borough had been slowly reaching out to the Jewish community.
In 2016, she said, public parks in the neighborhood were vandalized with antisemitic graffiti.
“Ben [Estell, former borough manager] reached out to Rabbi [Mendy] Rosenblum and started a conversation about how to
The borough next began setting up a menorah on Potomac Avenue, with the rabbi’s help.
“It was our own little celebration on Potomac that they took care of and ran but we put our money towards it,” she said.
The relationship, Chabad of the South Hills Rabbi Rosenblum said, deepened when Estell called him after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in 2018.
“They reached out,” he said, “and clearly wanted the Jewish community to feel included and supported.”
Since that time, the bond has continued to deepen and grow, surviving changing council members and borough managers. Rosenblum said a deep respect has been built between the two institutions.
“It’s turned into something that is mutually beneficial,” he said. “They love having us and we love being there.”
Ventresca said the borough jumped at the chance to have a deeper role with a larger celebration when Chabad was looking for a new home for its Chanukah celebration that used to be housed at the Galleria of Mt. Lebanon.
The partnership has continued since its humble beginnings on Potomac. During COVID, Chabad even coordinated a
the menorah; it’s a nice complement.”
The celebration includes traditional components of the holiday like latkes and sufganiyot and even features a gelt drop courtesy of the Dormont Fire Department.
“My favorite part is the fire truck dropping the gelt,” Mazzoco said. “It’s really fun and the kids lose their minds over it.”
The message of Chanukah, Rosenblum said, starts Jewishly but is universal.
“As it says in the Chanukah prayer, it’s the triumph of the few over the many, the weak over the strong, righteous over the arrogant and light over darkness,” he said.
Dormont has embraced that message, becoming the South Hills’ home for
The celebration has even come to be one of Ventresca’s favorites of the season.
“I’ve learned a lot. I’m not Jewish, so I don’t know a lot about the culture or holidays, but I truly enjoy the event. It feels very welcoming, and you don’t have to be Jewish,” she said. “They embrace us, and we embrace them. Everybody is here to
Chabad of the South Hills Rabbi Mendy Rosenblum lights the Chanukah menorah with Dormont Mayor Jason Walsh in 2023.
Photo by David Rullo
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Toccurred, and they lit [the menorah] from it for eight days.”
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he story is told of a group of Jews who fled Spain in the 15th century and ended up in Syria. It took some time for them to be welcomed into the community, however. As Rabbi Herbert Dobrinsky writes, their acceptance was made official one year on erev Chanukah, and from then on “an additional candle was lit each night of Chanukah by these Syrian Jews of Judeo-Spanish origin as an expression of Thanksgiving.”
In other words, from the Maccabees to the Maccabeats, there has been no shortage of traditions associated with Chanukah. Like Judaism as a whole, the holiday seems to thrive both on tradition and improvisation.
Jacob Minkin has suggested that this relationship with Chanukah was alive as far back as the second century. Writing about the compiler of the Mishnah, Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi, Minkin says that ha-Nasi did not spell out regulations regarding the mezuzah or fringes or festivals like Chanukah simply “because their practice was widespread.”
Chanukah was already a living thing ready to be adorned with traditions as well as some added twists.
Mystical light
It is no surprise that the lights of Chanukah eventually took on a mystical interpretation. As the Hasidic Rabbi Pinhas of Koretz de clared, “The light which was hidden since the days of creation was then revealed. And every year, when the lights are lit for Chanukah, the hidden light is revealed afresh.”
Also referring to this primordial light, the 13th-century Kabbalist Rabbi Eleazar of Worms described a Chanukah ritual “in which 36 candles would be lit to correspond to the 36 hours the primordial light shone.”
Few things are more Jewish than suggesting that everyone who has ever lit a menorah — from Hasmonean times to medieval Mainz, from Poland and Lithuania to suburban Pittsburgh — is somehow getting a glimpse of the creation of the world.
History and
tradition
Even as Arthur Waskow writes that Chanukah remains “the only one of the traditional Jewish festivals for which we have a clear, nearly contemporaneous historical statement about how and why it started,” mere history matters much less than tradition. After all, the literary sources for the Maccabean victory in the second century BCE over the Greeks — the books of 1 and 2 Maccabees — have their own agenda.
The miracle of the oil isn’t mentioned for the first time until a few centuries later, in the Babylonian Talmud — and indeed the Talmudic sages had their own agenda, too. Living after the sack of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple in AD 60, they were not keen to celebrate the kind of military actions that had, within living memory, led to such devastation.
This is why, in the Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 21b), the miracle of the oil is emphasized over the human might of the Maccabees: “…when the Hasmonean house grew strong and defeated [the Greeks], they searched and found but a single cruse of oil that was sealed with the seal of the high priest. It contained sufficient oil for only one day. A miracle
The passage continues and describes a disagreement between the Houses of Hillel and Shammai about the order to light the candles: one on the first night, progressively up to eight, or the reverse? Should all of the light be experienced at the beginning of Chanukah, or at the end? As Rabbi Dvora Weisberg writes, not only does this passage show how essential change and development is to Jewish practice, but it also shows that everyone who loves Chanukah actually owes a great deal of its ritual aspects to the Talmud.
Children and the hanukkiah
Depending on your preference for beauty, plainness or the delightfully overwrought, the history of the hanukkiah, or Chanukah menorah, has something for everybody. A quick search at the Israel Museum online (imj. org.il) shows a beautiful array of menorahs from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Originating everywhere from North Africa, the Middle East and Europe, many of these simply consist of a row of nine oil cups, sometimes with a slightly raised shamash. This row of cups is often just an excuse for an elaborate back panel filled with plant motifs (rosettes, foliage, fleur-de-lis), architectural details (windows, gothic towers, gateways), and animals and fantastic creatures (birds, dragons, mermaids or even demonic figures). Contemporary and Biblical figures (Moses and Aaron, or Emperor Franz Joseph II) are also sometimes given a place behind the lights. We can only hope to see some of this reflected in menorahs available each year at Target. While Moses and Aaron may at first glance seem to have nothing to do with Chanukah, connections between Chanukah and Pesach are not hard to find. The earliest Hasidic courts had three kitchens: one for meat, one for dairy and one set aside for Pesach that, months later, became a Chanukah kitchen. And Yaffa Eliach’s “There Once Was a World” is only one place among many to find the anecdote where, “The chicken fat used at Passover had been stored since Hanukkah.”
Both holidays also obviously contain large roles for children, so that everyone who bemoans the occasional kitsch-factor of Chanukah (or the remaking of the Maccabees into something like Marvel heroes) should remember how many times the Torah emphasizes that Judaism will only live through the interest and participation of children.
American Chanukah
Like the sages of the Talmud, Jews throughout the centuries have been understandably skittish about emphasizing the anti-assimilationist message that Chanukah very clearly embodies. The peculiar qualities of America have made it the perfect place for the Maccabean and the miraculous aspect of the holiday to exist side-by-side without apology.
Everything from Hallmark Chanukah movies, to the national menorah lighting at the White House, to an understanding that tradition emerges from conflict and study and from family and ritual, are all opportunities to ask how Jewish we want to be, and to ask again (and again) what that means. What will the darkness, and what will the lights, mean for us this year? PJC
Tim Miller is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.
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.
FRIDAY, DEC. 20
Join Chabad of the South Hills for a community Shabbatdinner featuring singing psychiatrist Dr. Yaakov Guterson and Amy Guterson. Candle lighting is at 4:30 p.m. followed by a Kabbalat Shabbat service and Shabbat dinner. $25/$72 family maximum. 1701 McFarland Road. chabadsh.com.
Join Liron Lipinsky Salitrik, BBYO’s vice president of enrichment strategy, as part of Temple Ohav Shalom’s Rabbi & FriendsSeries. Lipinsky will present “The Kids are Alright.” 6 p.m. $10. Email jleicht@templeohavshalom.org for more information. templeohavshalom.org.
SUNDAY, DEC. 22
Join Tree of Life Congregation and Calvary Episcopal Church for a Chanukah Party and Christmas Pageant, a joint celebration of December holidays. The bonding partnership that began over six years ago
continues at Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside when both congregations celebrate Chanukah and Christmas. It begins with a live animal pageant followed by a Chanukah party. Free. 11 a.m. 315 Shady Ave. treeoflifepgh.org.
SUNDAYS, DEC. 22–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, DEC. 23–JULY 27
Join Congregation Beth Shalom for a weekly Talmudstudy. 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.
May the warmth and brightness of the Hanukkah lights fill your
home
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.
WEDNESDAYS, DEC. 25–JULY 29
Temple Sinai’s Rabbi Daniel Fellman presents a weekly Parshat/Torahportionclass 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 ParashahDiscussion: Life & Text 12:15 p.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh. org/life-text.
FRIDAY, DEC. 27
Join Tree of Life Congregation for Shabbat Chanukah Latke Fest, a Shabbat and Chanukah celebration, featuring homemade latkes and other delicious goodies before services. After services at Rodef Shalom, join them for a new rendition of the beloved dreidel song submitted by congregants and played by Rabbi Je rey Myers' band along with sufganiyot. 5 p.m. treeoflighpgh.org.
MONDAY, DEC. 30
Join Chabad of Squirrel Hill for lighting the Mitzvah Menorah and enjoy live music, a stilt walker, photo booth, donut decorating and more. Free. 4 p.m. Corner of Beacon St. and Murray Ave. chabadpgh.com.
Join Chabad of the South Hills for its annual Chanukah Festival featuring a grand menorah lighting, fire show, fire truck gelt drop, latkes, donuts, hot drinks, a photo booth, music and more. Free. Register in advance to be entered into a ra e for Chanukah swag. 5 p.m. Dormont Pool parking lot. chabadsh.com/menorah.
THURSDAY, JAN. 2–FRIDAY, FEB. 28
Pittsburgh-area Jewish students are invited to apply for ZOA: Pittsburgh’s scholarship to Israel program, taking place in summer 2025. The scholarship is open to junior and senior high school students in the fall of 2025 who are traveling to Israel on a structured study trip. Applications are due by Feb. 2, 2025, and can be requested by emailing pittsburgh.zoa.org. A ZOA committee judges applications and three $1,000 scholarships will be awarded. 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
in an absolutely remote part of the world and because of the internet get adequate training. And if you do have a talent, well, the sky’s the limit.”
Chess’s origins date back more than 1,500 years.
Shabalov said he’s happy to be a small piece of that hsitory and enjoys watching others chart their own way.
On a near daily basis, Shabalov exercises at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. After entering the locker room, he’ll often see members sitting beside a chess board, swapping white pieces and black ones, engaging in banter and friendly competition.
In lieu of offering critique, Shabalov quietly keeps walking, he said.
“It’s like being a good tennis player who steps on the tennis court and sees people playing. You immediately see where they are doing something wrong, and it gives you that funny feeling, but you don’t want to reveal it; because it’s nice to go a little bit under the radar,” he said.
Shabalov’s tactic isn’t new.
“In my teenage years, my coach was the world champion, and he was the humblest person in the world. People knew who he was because it was the Soviet Union and if someone became a
world champion, it would be in all the newspapers,” Shabalov said.
After a life in chess, Shabalov hasn’t only observed the world’s finest players. He’s understood a way to move.
“I’ve seen a lot of people who achieve success, and they just can’t stop mentioning it everywhere they go,” he said. “But being that humble — being just like an absolutely normal person in everyday conversations — it’s really what I was brought up with, and something that I really appreciate.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Players compete at the World Senior Chess Championship in Porto Santo.
Photo courtesy of FIDE and Federacao Portuguesa de Xadrez via Flickr
Headlines
Jewish U of Michigan official targeted with pro-Palestinian vandalism at home
A Jewish trustee of the University of Michigan awoke on Dec. 9 to find his window broken and pro-Palestinian graffiti on his wife’s car, the third time he has been the victim of vandalism related to the Israel-Hamas war.
Jordan Acker, an attorney and Democrat from Huntington Woods, Michigan, shared on Instagram that he and his family were awoken by the sounds of two heavy objects being thrown through their home’s front window. Acker’s wife’s car was graffitied with an inverted red triangle — a symbol Hamas uses to mark its targets in propaganda videos that has been adopted by pro-Palestinian activists — as well as “DIVEST” and “FREE PALESTINE” written in red.
In his post, Acker called the vandalism “Klan-like.”
“Like we always do in this great nation when we’re confronted with terrorism — I will not let fear win,” he wrote. “All this does is harden my resolve to continue to do the right thing for the University and the Michigan voters who elected me. I call upon members of the Michigan community to publicly repudiate this vile anti-Semitic intimidation, and to offer full support to law enforcement to root out these bigots so they see the consequences for their actions.”
The university called the vandalism “a clear act of antisemitic intimidation.”
“The University of Michigan condemns these criminal acts in the strongest possible terms,” the school said in a statement. “They are abhorrent and, unfortunately, just the latest in a number of incidents where individuals have been harassed because of their work on behalf of the university. This is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. We call on our community to come together in solidarity and to firmly reject all forms of bigotry and violence.”
The vandalism comes after the university’s new student government threatened to withhold funding from all student groups until the university agreed to divest from Israel. The school’s regents have said they will not divest, and the student president leading that effort was impeached last month.
The campus, like the state overall, is home to large Jewish and Arab American populations, and has been a center of activism since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that launched the Israel-Hamas war.
Hamas vastly inflated Gaza death statistics, study shows
A rigorous analysis published on Dec. 14 of Hamas authorities’ death statistics in Gaza shows they were vastly inflated and methodologically flawed.
The report by the London-based Henry Jackson Society security think tank breaks down the figure of about 44,000 deaths since Oct. 7, 2023, that the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza has published, and which international media have reported without scrutiny.
Today in Israeli History
Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.
Dec. 20, 1976 — Rabin’s first government collapses
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s Labor-led coalition falls apart as he fires two members of the National Religious Party from his Cabinet and sees a third resign. Without NRP’s 10 Knesset members, Rabin lacks a majority.
Dec. 21, 1973 — Peace conference begins in Geneva
A Middle East peace conference opens in Geneva under the auspices of the United States and the Soviet Union. Israel’s refusal to recognize the PLO leads Syria to skip the event.
Dec. 22, 1938 — Rambam Hospital opens
The British Government Hospital of Haifa, n ow the Rambam Health Care Campus, opens with 225 beds at the foot of Mount Carmel. The British high commissioner says the hospital reflects Haifa’s multicultural mix.
Dec. 23, 1789 — France debates citizenship for Jews
The French National Assembly spends
The scale of civilian deaths in Gaza is a key element in a legal and propaganda attempt by Israel’s enemies to isolate it internationally using false allegations of genocide.
The figure, which does not distinguish between civilians and the 17,000 terrorists Israel says it has killed in Gaza, also includes about 5,000 people who die of natural causes each year, states the report.
“This report raises serious concerns that the Gaza MoH figures have been overstated,” wrote Andrew Fox, an analyst who specializes in defense, the Middle East and disinformation, who wrote the report for the Henry Jackson Society.
The report was reported on Saturday in mainstream media, including the New York Post and The Telegraph, whose article the Israel Foreign Ministry reposted on X.
Israel to shutter Ireland embassy, citing ‘antisemitic rhetoric of the Irish government’
Israel is closing its embassy in Dublin in response to the Irish government’s criticism, Israel’s foreign minister announced on Dec. 15.
The move does not end diplomatic relations between the two countries. Still, it offers a dramatic illustration of how Gideon Saar, who became foreign minister last month after a rapprochement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is approaching ties with countries that are critical of Israel.
In a statement on social media, Saar cited Ireland’s recognition of a Palestinian state, its recent support for the genocide case against Israel at the International Criminal Court,
and the fact that it has not adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism as reasons for the embassy closure.
“The actions, double standards, and antisemitic rhetoric of the Irish government against Israel are rooted in efforts to delegitimize and demonize the Jewish state,” he wrote.
Ireland’s staunch pro-Palestinian outlook, which is widely shared among its people and dates back decades, reflects a perception that both peoples were, or are, colonized — the Irish by the United Kingdom, and the Palestinians by Israel.
Ireland’s prime minister, Simon Harris, denounced Saar’s move, calling it “a deeply regrettable decision from the Netanyahu government” and rebuffing the criticism. Ireland will keep its embassy open in Tel Aviv.
“I utterly reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel. Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-International law,” he tweeted. “Ireland wants a two state solution and for Israel and Palestine to live in peace and security. Ireland will always speak up for human rights and international law. Nothing will distract from that.”
The move drew criticism in Israel as well. Yair Lapid, Netanyahu’s immediate predecessor and a leader of the opposition, wrote on the social network X, “The decision to close the Israeli embassy in Ireland is a victory for anti-Semitism and anti-Israel organizations. The way to deal with criticism is not to run away, but to stay and fight!”
— Compiled by Jarrad Saffren
three days debating Jewish rights without a decision. Count Stanislas de ClaremontTonnerre says, “The Jews should be denied everything as a nation but granted everything as individuals.”
Dec. 24, 1920 — Keren Hayesod is founded Meeting in London, the World Zionist Congress launches Keren Hayesod (The Foundation Fund) to raise money for the Zionist movement and help fulfill the Balfour Declaration’s promise of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Dec. 25, 1918 — Anwar Sadat is born
Anwar Sadat, the president who leads Egypt into the 1973 Yom Kippur War and signs a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, is born. He is assassinated during a military parade in 1981.
Dec. 26, 1864 — Land buyer
Hankin is born
Yehoshua Hankin, who personally buys 30% of the land owned by the state of Israel at independence in 1948, is born in Ukraine. He makes his first land buy in 1890 when he purchases a plot that becomes Rehovot. PJC
Rambam
By Alfred Bernheim, Israel Museum
Headlines
Mendelson:
Continued from page 1
according to his brother, but for the doggedness of Lancaster County Deputy Coroner Richard Graff.
“He wouldn’t let it go,” Abby Mendelson said. “He hates loose ends. Every time he got a new piece of information it was like, maybe I can get a next piece and a next piece. He didn’t let go.”
It turns out that the coroner wasn’t the only one interested in the case; National Geographic shadowed Graff as he endeavored to solve the mystery and is producing a documentary about it.
Graff said that given the lack of reported missing persons in the area and the proximity of a train station, law enforcement thought that the remains might have been those of a transient from Harrisburg or New York that simply ended up in the woods.
The skull was even sent to the FBI, which created a drawing of what the person might have looked like. It was circulated by the police and featured in local papers. No one responded.
“We were dealing with the theory that this individual was from outside the area,” Graff said.
DNA Doe Project
That was before the coroner’s office received a grant and used it to send the remains to the DNA Doe Project.
The project, founded in 2017, uses the emerging practice of investigative genetic genealogy which combines traditional genealogy and genetic genealogy to investigate leads in cases involving violent crime and unidentified human remains.
“It took them a while,” Graff said, “but eventually they came back with the name Mitchell Mendelson. They had done research,
Isakowitz:
Continued from page 1
arcane procedures — unanimous consent, the filibuster and cloture — can help McCormick realize his vision.
Isakowitz is the son of Holocaust survivors. His father was born in what is now Western Ukraine but was then Czechoslovakia and lost most of his family in Auschwitz. His mother, also from Czechoslovakia, survived as a hidden child living under a false name, then emigrated to Cleveland, Ohio. Isakowitz is deeply committed to fighting antisemitism and believes that McCormick is as well.
He said he was impressed when McCormick and his wife visited Israel and stopped in Kfar Aza to meet with families of hostages held by Hamas in January 2024.
“I was impressed, not just in his support for Israel but his support for Jewish people everywhere,” Isakowitz said. “It’s sad that it’s become so necessary but he’s willing to step up and provide that leadership, and that had a big impact on me.”
McCormick made significant inroads with the Pittsburgh Jewish community, Isakowitz said, acknowledging the senator-elect’s outreach to the community during the campaign.
“Since I accepted the position, I’ve heard
and the research showed that he had a brother in Pittsburgh.”
In July 2024, 12 years after Mitchell’s death, Graff reached out to Abby Mendelson, letting him know that an unidentified body was found and that DNA records indicated the two were related.
Abby Mendelson told Graff about the relationship he had over the last few decades with his brother and that, given the state of their relationship, he never filed a missing person’s report because he wasn’t aware that his brother was missing.
A man for all seasons
Mitchell Mendelson was born on Simchat Torah. The brothers became fast friends.
“We were pals. We played endlessly together,” Abby Mendelson remembered. “We made up games, we made up characters, we had a great time. He was a funny, clever, inventive, talented kid.”
Soon, Mitchell Mendelson was following in some of the interests of their father.
“My father had a dark room,” Abby Mendelson recalled. “My brother did it, too. He just picked it up.”
And, like their father, Mitchell Mendelson was mechanical, worked on cars and took pride in the fact that he could tune his own car.
While in high school, he played hockey and took freelance photos for the local newspaper.
Perhaps the first signs of trouble appeared when Mitchell Mendelson quit college and found a job working at a shoe factory stitching shoes.
Soon after, he found a job in radio playing records and giving commentary.
Mitchell Mendelson eventually ended up in Birmingham, Alabama, writing a wellread column, “The Alabama Experience,” by Vine Boy.
“He invented this whole persona,” Abby
Mendelson said. “He became a Southern gentleman, the Vine Boy, who talked about Southern life. You would have thought he was a sixth-generation Alabamian, but he was a Jewish kid from Long Island.”
Mitchell Mendelson moved his father to live near him and then left when he quit his job at the newspaper. Abby Mendelson then moved his father to Pittsburgh to care for him in his twilight years.
Mitchell Mendelson’s last employment was for a bus company in Lancaster, which he quit shortly before dying.
Abby Mendelson said that over the years his brother would often find fault over trivial things. Like the falcon in the Yeats poem, each time his brother would fly away, the ellipse of absenteeism was longer until eventually the brothers became estranged.
Dueling DNA tests
Abby Mendelson said that Graff contacted him in July of this year and asked if he’d be willing to take a DNA test. He was.
The first was inconclusive. The popular genetic site Ancestry DNA showed the two had a 100% familial relationship. Another test came back with a 98% match.
Graff wasn’t only depending on DNA though. He had a sketch done from skeletal remains that he showed to Abby Mendelson who said, if asked, he would have sworn it was of the pair’s uncle.
The police and coroner’s office felt they had enough information, but science’s wheels grind almost as slowly as the government’s. It took nearly five months for Mitchell Mendelson’s body to be released. During that time Abby Mendelson was able to contact an adopted daughter from Mitchell Mendelson’s first marriage. She gave the OK for Abby Mendelson to handle the funeral arrangements, as she also had been estranged from her father. Both his
“If you have an opportunity to help create a better society for people you have an obligation to do it.”
–MARK ISAKOWITZ
from people in the community who have said, ‘You know, we really wanted him to win and we tried to help,” he said. “They weren’t always who I would call traditional Republican voters, but people responded to Dave’s outreach.”
And while he’s unable to predict what the Senate may or may not do to address the uptick in antisemitism across the country, he said, he feels confident that McCormick will continue to be a “fighter on the issue.”
McCormick hasn’t set a first 100 days in office plan that’s being shared with the public. Isakowitz said he’s committed to doing the things he said during the campaign, ranging from boosting Pennsylvania’s economy to creating opportunities with the state’s energy resources and resetting American leadership in things like economics.
“I think he can hit the ground running,” Isakowitz said, “because he knows these policy issues. He’s thought about them, and he has been a public servant before.”
The pair’s time in the private sector, he said, plus McCormick’s economic public policy background will put him in a good
first and second wives had died.
Eventually, Abby Mendelson contacted Rabbi Elisar Admon of Pittsburgh, who collected the remains and assisted with the Jewish ritual questions.
“Usually, you dress a person in a shroud; here you can’t,” Admon said. “So, you lay the shroud in the coffin and put the remains on top. Usually, you wash the body with a certain amount of water, like a mikvah; you can’t do that here.”
But the idea of upholding a person’s dignity, even in death, continues to apply, he said, going so far as to use the same type and size casket as normally utilized.
“We make sure everyone has the same respect,” he said.
Healing
Rabbi Daniel Yolkut called the circumstances of the death “tragic,” but said Jewish tradition didn’t preclude or alter a typical Jewish burial. The words he spoke graveside, he said, were for the living.
“I think about what would be the most healing and uplifting for the family,” he said. “I tried to find the message that’s the most meaningful for something that could very easily be an unmooring kind of experience.”
Abby Mendelson has been thinking a lot about healing. In retrospect, the time it took for the process to unfold itself might have been a godsend. The elder brother has spent the last several months forgiving his younger brother for the breach in their relationship and for the time lost.
“I remember the happy funny, clever kid and the great guy that he was,” Abby Mendelson said. “I have nothing but love for him in my heart.” PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Lieberman, and he said it’s filled weekly with “fascinating people,” including those involved in public policy in the Senate and House and visiting ambassadors.
He and his wife Melissa have three children, and he said the family is “proudly Jewish.”
position to advocate for the state.
“I think he has a really unique perspective about how you attract investment and how you follow through on it and how you set the right policies to attract jobs,” Isakowitz said.
As to his day-to-day routine, Isakowitz said he’ll be helping McCormick implement his vision for Pennsylvania.
“Some days may be helping to build a great team; some days may be organizing some of the visits we’ll do in the state when he’s not in D.C. Some days will be doing research the legislative team will have to do when Dave has a flurry of votes happening on the Senate floor,” he said. “The chief of staff’s job is to help the senator have a good day every day and to help implement his agenda.”
Isakowitz grew up in what he called a “traditional” Jewish home.
“My parents were fixed up on their first date in Cleveland, Ohio, and were married there. We went to the Green Road Synagogue,” he said. “That’s where I was bar mitzvahed.”
While in D.C., Isakowitz spends time at Kesher Israel synagogue. The shul’s membership included the late Sen. Joe
As he readies for his new role, Isakowitz said his parents would be proud and excited about his experience in the government and his new role with McCormick.
“When my parents got off the boat, if you would have told them that they would have had an opportunity to visit the capital, it would have been hard for them to imagine, given what they had been through,” he said. “If you would have told them one of their kids would work there, I don’t know how seriously they would have taken that.”
Sounding very much like someone who’s learned his Talmud, Isakowitz said you may not have an obligation to finish the work of repairing the world, but you have to do your part, something he learned from his immigrant parents.
“If you have an opportunity to help create a better society for people you have an obligation to do it,” he said. “Growing up in an immigrant household, there’s a special love for the United States that gives you a unique perspective.” PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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Torch Relay
DEI: Deflect, excuse, ignore?
Guest Columnist
As a psychology researcher who has trained and held faculty positions in numerous academic settings throughout the country over the last 20 years (most recently in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine), I have borne witness to the ways in which initiatives focused on enhancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have improved student and faculty experiences on campus. Originally developed as a means of supporting equal employment laws and affirmative action, DEI initiatives have proliferated in academic settings to raise awareness of biases that prevail in classrooms and university-affiliated workplaces, uplift the voices of individuals from minoritized backgrounds and provide a critical forum for complaints about discrimination on campus. Yet, as we have seen in the year since the Oct. 7 massacre and the ensuing waves of antisemitism on campuses here in Pittsburgh and across the country, these initiatives have largely failed to consider the experiences and perspectives of Jewish students, faculty and staff. I recently attended an event on combatting antisemitism sponsored by the Pitt Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion as part of an ongoing series, “The Year of Discourse and Dialogue.” The workshop, led by two external representatives from the American Jewish Committee, was advertised as a “session… focused on understanding the roots of antisemitism and responding in ways that support students, faculty, staff and members of the community.” After an introduction that included an explicit warning that extremist rhetoric would not be tolerated (backed by the presence of police officers at the event), we engaged in an ice breaker on ancestry and a brief presentation on the origins of the Jewish people. Shortly
Is
anti-Zionism
Guest Columnist
While there is an obvious overlap between antisemitism and other forms of hatred against the “other,” Jew-hatred is unique. No other antipathy to any group has such deep historical roots, beginning in pagan Egypt and the Hellenistic world, where the Jewish refusal to acknowledge the divinity of kings was regarded as intolerable arrogance and monotheism as an affront to the “religious pluralism” of the gods. No other hatred is so adaptable to seemingly any ideology and circumstance.
In its way, the persistence of antisemitism through most of recorded history is as astonishing as Jewish survival. Antisemitism has even managed to outwit its most formidable challenge, the Holocaust.
thereafter, approximately five individuals (all masked; at least one wearing a keffiyeh) stood up, passed out leaflets intended to discredit the speakers based on AJC’s stance toward Israel (specifically referring to Israel as an apartheid state and implying that the speakers, along with the Jewish people more generally, have a hidden agenda to “whitewash” Israel’s crimes against humanity), and abruptly left the event. The AJC speaker attempted to continue the presentation but became visibly distressed. The room was largely silent, save for one brave individual (believed to be unaffiliated with the OEDI) who
seemed unwilling or unable to act in the face of the disruption.
Audience members attended the event to understand how to be better allies, and how to recognize and respond to even the most insidious or well-disguised forms of antisemitism — from calls for intifada during campus protests, to libelous slander against those who support the Jewish state, to coordinated disruptions in and out of the classroom with an obvious lack of intent to engage in meaningful dialogue. The OEDI is tasked with teaching and leading the community in proper engagement
As an active member of the Jewish community, I have become conditioned to coordinated attempts by anti-Israel agitators to disrupt various forms of Jewish life and culture in the last year.
encouraged him to continue speaking, assuring him that the rest of the audience was there to learn and wanted to hear what he had to say. At least five representatives from the OEDI stood in the back of the room throughout this short interchange, remaining completely silent.
As an active member of the Jewish community, I have become conditioned to coordinated attempts by anti-Israel agitators to disrupt various forms of Jewish life and culture in the last year. Therefore, I was not surprised or even particularly upset by the appearance of protestors at this event. However, I was shocked and disappointed that at an event designed to provide education on how to “support students, faculty, staff and members of the community,” not one member of the office that sponsored the event found a way to support anyone in the room. Indeed, given the introductory warning and the police presence, it is likely that the OEDI had been primed for the arrival of protesters. Even with this advance preparation, the OEDI
antisemitism?
Conflating antisemitism with racism does an injustice to both. Each is distinct; each creates its own misery. Depending on the era, antisemitism has been nurtured by religion, secularism, utopian longings, racism and anti-racism.
The term “anti-Semitism” is an invention of 19th-century European racists. Acknowledging that there is no such thing as “Semitism,” many now prefer the term “antisemitism,” removing the capital “S” and the hyphen. Even in its amended form, though, the term is problematic and implicitly reinforces the identification of Jew-hatred with racism. (Given the pervasive use of the term, this article reluctantly uses “antisemitism” as synonymous with Jew-hatred.)
Defining antisemitism
Antisemitism is the transformation of the Jews into “The Jew,” a symbol of whatever a given civilization regards as its most loathsome qualities. For Christians until the post-Holocaust era, The Jew was a Christ-killer, guilty of the ultimate crime of trying to murder the
and response, and what are we to take away from their silence in the face of such an event? I fear that the lesson is that we should do nothing, and we should expect nothing. It is unfortunate that the OEDI missed this opportunity to model the very principles the workshop was designed to teach. For the past year, the Jewish community — on campus and off — has been calling for action on antisemitism, rather than mere words. In this case, we got neither.
There were many opportunities for the OEDI representatives to step in at various points throughout the workshop to convey their stance on coordinated efforts to disrupt campus events centered around Judaism, antisemitism and Zionism. Why didn’t they say or do anything? While I can’t speak for the office itself, as an audience member, I felt that the silence implied that such behavior is condoned and/or acceptable. I and my colleagues have heard from multiple students over the past year suggesting that the OEDI has not responded appropriately
to complaints of antisemitism on campus, and that the university as a whole has sought to distance itself from assuming responsibility for ensuring the safety of Jewish students since many of the problematic events (including two outright physical attacks on Jewish students) have occurred off campus. This event happened on campus — in fact, was a Pitt-sponsored event designed specifically for Pitt students, faculty and staff — and the “response” was silence. I can only assume from this lack of response that the OEDI is unwilling, or unable, to provide leadership when it comes to Jews on campus. Although I am somewhat heartened by the recent developments concerning an antisemitism working group, the OEDI’s initial reluctance and double standard constraints around defining antisemitism prior to undertaking any significant work makes me fear that they are also unwilling or unable to accept help from the community in learning to do better. I don’t believe in cancel culture, and I still believe that DEI initiatives have an important role on campus. In fact, I have reached out to numerous individuals from the OEDI and within Pitt leadership about their handling of the workshop, but I have yet to receive a single response — despite this being a “year of discourse and dialogue.” I see this as an excellent learning opportunity for the OEDI and Pitt leadership to meet with Jewish students, faculty, and staff — to hear what we are saying, and to offer us the same support they would offer any other marginalized group on campus. In the numerous micro-aggression trainings I have taken every single year since being employed at Pitt, the key take home message is to accept responsibility when you may have offended someone, even inadvertently, and learn from it so you can avoid similar mistakes in the future. This is Pitt’s chance to practice what it preaches. PJC
Andrea Beth Goldschmidt is an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
It doesn’t matter
source of hope. For Muslims, The Jew was the “killer of prophets,” the ultimate crime for a faith founded in veneration of the Prophet. For Marxists, The Jew was the ultimate capitalist; Marx, the son of a Jew who converted to Christianity, wrote that money was the “jealous god of Israel.” And for Nazis, The Jew was the ultimate race polluter and, no less dangerous, the inculcator of conscience, undermining the Aryans’ ability to survive in a brutal world.
Along with “symbolization,” anti-Jewishness works through “denialism” — the distortion or outright denial of the legitimacy of Jewish identity and history or the co-option of the Jewish story by others. According to the old Christian doctrine of “supersessionism,” the sinful Jews were no longer worthy of their identity as “Israel,” and their place as God’s chosen people was supplanted by the Church, the “new Israel.”
To a lesser extent, Islam adopted biblical stories and claimed biblical figures as its own, accusing the Jews of falsifying their own scriptures.
Arguably, no other people or faith (and the Jews are both) has had to contend through
most of its history with a spiritual assault of this magnitude on its right to its own story. In the modern era, that assault assumed a secular form. In much of the Muslim world, led by the Iranian regime, and for neo-Nazis in the West, Holocaust denial is an attempt to undermine the moral argument for Israel as a necessary refuge for the Jewish people.
But there are also more subtle forms of Holocaust denial. The Soviet Union, for example, did not deny the historicity of the Holocaust but rather its Jewish nature. The Soviet regime forbade Jews from publicly mourning their dead. Memorials at the sites of Nazi mass murder commemorated the unnamed as “victims of Fascism” — twice murdered, as Soviet Jews noted bitterly: killed as Jews by the Nazis and erased as Jews by the Soviets.
Defining anti-Zionism
Subsequently, the Soviet regime went a step further, from the erasure of the Holocaust to
Please see Halevi, page 17
Andrea Goldschmidt
Yossi Klein Halevi
Opinion
Chronicle poll results: Syria
Last week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “Do you think that on balance the fall of the Assad regime in Syria will be good for Israel or bad for Israel?” Of the 196 people who responded, 50% said “good for Israel”; 6% said “bad for Israel”; and 44% said “not sure.” Comments were submitted by 45 people. A few follow.
On the surface, this seems to be good, especially because Israel having incapacitated Hezbollah and Iran are part of why this was possible. But, who knows what stance the leaders in Syria will take after saying that they accept all cultures and religions. I’m old enough to be very skeptical about those kinds of statements.
Assad was aligned with Iran, and Israel is especially better off after destroying the weapons.
The fall of Assad is good for everyone, however, using it as an opportunity to flout
Continued from page 16
its inversion, equating Zionism with racism and even Nazism. The notion of Zionism as a form of racism was born in the Soviet Union. The regime understood that the only way to justify Jew-hatred from the left was through anti-racism. That ingenious ideological twist is the Soviet Union’s posthumous gift to Western anti-Zionists.
Is anti-Zionism, then, the latest iteration of antisemitism? Much of contemporary anti-Zionism uncomfortably fits the historic pattern of both symbolization and denialism. In the era of anti-racism and human rights, the Jewish state is turned into the criminal of nations, a symbol of racism and colonialism, and now even genocide. Reaching this conclusion requires a heavy dose of denialism: the erasure of the Zionist narrative, from the millennial-old Jewish roots in the land of Israel to the relentless war against Israel’s existence, which has forced Israel to act in sometimes brutal ways.
According to the anti-Zionist variation of supersessionism, sinful Israel has ceded its story to the Palestinians, who are, in effect, the new Jews, both as victims and as rightful heirs to the Holy Land. We are not only colonialists in our land but, in our story, imposters who must be expelled from both. In their fallen state, Jews have even forfeited the Holocaust; in this retelling, Gaza becomes the “Gaza Ghetto.” When a swastika is painted on the façade of a synagogue, it is no longer clear whether the perpetrators are far-rightists celebrating Nazism or far-leftists branding Jews as the new Nazis. Astonishingly, the current rise in attacks on Jews coincides with the greatest mass slaughter of Israelis in a century of conflict between Arabs and Jews. The global assault emerged with the first reports of the Hamas massacre — before Israel’s counter-offensive even began. Antisemitism is a response not only to Jewish power, real or exaggerated but also to Jewish vulnerability; a successful attack on Jews rouses the antisemitic appetite.
The pretext offered for the widespread support among anti-Zionists for the Hamas massacre is based on two “denialist” arguments. The first is that the massacre was the
Do you think that on balance the fall of the Assad regime in Syria will be good for Israel or bad for Israel?
international law and occupy Syrian territory isn’t really helping Israel’s image on the world stage nor will it help stabilize relations between Israel and whoever eventually
inevitable result of the Israeli occupation. This argument ignores the fact that Hamas’ goal is not the end of the occupation of the territories Israel won in the 1967 Six-Day War but the destruction of the Jewish state. And it ignores the complicated history of how we have come to this point, including Palestinian rejection of every offer Israel has made over the years to end the occupation.
consolidates power in Syria.
Assad was terrible but the Islamists are also terrible, so Israel needs to watch out. It’s good if Israel holds firm on destroying their weapons and establishing border safety, which seems to be happening. The Arab-run terrorist-sympathizing U.N. will object, of course, but they will never protect Israel anyway, so ignore them.
The fall of Assad means there’s a chance people will finally accept that Israel is keeping the Golan.
It’s all dependent on who takes over. If it’s like the leadership of Jordan then Israel should be OK. But if it’s by a terrorist organization, then it’s like having Iran next door. Where’s the U.N. in all this?
Too many loose ends. This could go either way, good or bad. Let’s hope good.
I’m cautiously optimistic.
The U.S. and Israel have both taken
against Israel on campuses today — even those chanting the Hamas slogan, “From the river to the sea,” which promotes the erasure of the Jewish state – are not inherently antisemitic.
More deeply, the contemporary reality of Jewish power complicates an easy identification of anti-Zionism with antisemitism. In the past, hatred against Jews was based on contrived accusations. “The Jews” did not kill Christ, and
Anti-Zionism is the greatest threat facing the Jewish people today; surely, that should be sufficient to treat it as a menace on its own terms.
The second argument in support of the Hamas massacre is that it was not a massacre at all. There were no mass rapes; children weren’t burned alive. This latest expression of antiJewish denialism has taken the macabre form of tearing down posters of Israeli hostages, even blacking out their faces — a literal defacement. Embracing Hamas requires adopting its denial of the humanity of Israelis.
The British Jewish writer David Hirsh argues that the term “anti-Zionism” should be treated like “anti-Semitism,” removing the hyphen and lowercasing the “z.” Similar to the absence of meaning in “Semitism,” he notes “Zionism” for radical progressives is a fantasy construct, a demonic ideology with no resemblance to its actual nature. Historical Zionism incorporates almost the entirety of Jewish political and religious life — from social democrats to Marxists, from theocrats to Reform Jews to secular liberals. To reduce “Zionism” to a form of colonialism not only does violence to the Jews’ attachment to their ancient land but to the complexity of Zionism itself.
The real threat of anti-Zionism
And yet, the total conflation of anti-Zionism with classical antisemitism is problematic. To begin with, some anti-Zionists are proudly identifying Jews who argue that Zionism has betrayed Judaism by replacing an ethical tradition with nationalism and power. Many, perhaps most, of the young people demonstrating
advantage of the chaos to reduce the military and terrorist risk from Syria. In the short term, at least, the fall of Assad is beneficial for Israel. The more difficult question is whether the people of Syria will be better off.
The outcome depends on the next ruler and ruling party. Things are too fluid to know how the next few years will shake out.
Assad was no saint but you knew what you had. Now you know nothing.
The situation in the Middle East is so precarious and volatile, it’s hard to project which direction, fighting or peace, the area will go.
Too early to tell.
If only I had a crystal ball. PJC
— Compiled by Adam Reinherz
Chronicle weekly poll question: Did you donate to any organization that does work in Israel in 2024? Go to pittsburgh jewishchronicle.org to respond. PJC
2023 — when we experienced a pre-enactment of the consequences of the anti-Zionist plan — that Israelis can survive in the Middle East without the protection of national sovereignty and an army defies reason.
Second, anti-Zionism is an assault on the legitimacy of the mid-20th-century Jewish story of overcoming annihilation. The fulfillment of the Jewish people’s longing to return home was the foundation of the post-Holocaust recovery. To turn that story of faith, courage, and persistence into a crime is to subvert the pillar of contemporary Jewish identity, shared by the strong majority of world Jewry.
no Jew used the blood of Christian children for matzos. But thousands of Gazan children have been killed by a Jewish army.
Like most Jewish Israelis, I believe we have no choice but to attempt to destroy the Hamas regime, which has turned mosques, schools, and hospitals into terrorist centers. Still, in reclaiming power after the Holocaust — “hard power” in Israel, “soft power” in the Diaspora — the Jewish people forfeited the identity of the victim. While acting in self-defense against genocidal enemies does not turn us into victimizers, power does deny us the right to dismiss all accusations against us as absurd.
Still, does it really matter whether antiZionism is a form of classical antisemitism?
Anti-Zionism is the greatest threat facing the Jewish people today; surely, that should be sufficient to treat it as a menace on its own terms.
Anti-Zionism threatens the Jewish people in three ways. First, its vision of the dismantling of a Jewish state would existentially threaten Israel’s 7 million Jews. To conclude, after Oct. 7,
Third, anti-Zionism threatens the historic achievement of American Jewry, which is unconditional acceptance by the non-Jewish mainstream. In the past, Jews were accepted as Americans — provided they “toned down” their Jewishness. Anti-Zionists have reintroduced conditionality; now, Jews must renounce their attachment to Israel as the condition for their acceptance.
Jews and their friends should not be required to prove that a mortal threat is literally antisemitic to be justified in resisting it. We need to shift the conversation over anti-Zionism and focus on its dire implications for the Jewish future. PJC
Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, where he is co-director, together Imam Abdullah Antepli of Duke University and Maital Friedman, of the Muslim Leadership Initiative. His latest book, “Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor,” is a New York Times bestseller. His previous book, “Like Dreamers,” was named the 2013 National Jewish Book Council Book of the Year. This first appeared on The Times of Israel.
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Halevi:
Salted vanilla cream sufganiyot
Life & Culture —
By Jessica Grann | Special to the Chronicle
Every year in the weeks leading up to Chanukah, my social media is full of photos of beautiful, gourmet sufganiyot sold at bakeries. I drool over these photos, but I’m not about to drive several hours to find a kosher bakery that offers them.
I was craving something simple but decadent, so I settled on preparing a traditional vanilla creme patissiere for the filling, which I topped with a simple chocolate ganache. To make it extra special, I sprinkled Maldon sea salt flakes over the ganache to add bursts of flavor and a bit of crunch.
This is everything that I want in a donut. The filling is authentic and creamy without any chemical or oily aftertaste. The dough is perfect and a pleasure to work with; it’s not sticky or oily, and you can easily roll it into balls when shaping the donuts. It’s a soft, pillowy dough with a nice chewy bite, and it’s strong enough to hold lots of filling without falling apart. This is the easiest dough I’ve ever worked with and, unlike my other recipes that call for milk, this can be made pareve by substituting margarine for the butter without losing flavor.
If you’re a traditionalist and love plain jelly donuts, you can just make the dough portion of this recipe. Homemade donuts are always going to be a bit of a patshke, but this can be a fun family/party activity. You can make a donut assembly line with different jellies, fillings, glazes and sprinkles for the ganache.
There are three parts to this recipe: the dough, the filling and the chocolate ganache topping. If you desire gourmet flavor without spending $50-plus on a dozen donuts, then this is the recipe for you.
This recipe makes 20-24 donuts.
Donut dough
2 packets instant yeast
5 cups of all-purpose flour
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
1/16 teaspoon kosher salt
1 stick room temperature butter or margarine, sliced into 8 tablespoons
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
1 ¾ cup warm water
6-8 cups neutral oil for frying (can be reused)
To make the dough, it is easiest to use an electric mixer with a dough hook attachment, but you can hand mix this dough or use a hand mixer with dough hooks. Pour some flour into a bowl and whisk it well before measuring. I had a whole slew of baking issues this season when I switched to a new organic flour. It was so dense and well packed that my cakes were cracking, so I did a lot of research and realized that I was missing this step. I also suggest using a spoon to fill the measuring cup instead of scooping the cup directly into the flour. Fill the measuring cup and use the flat end of a knife to push off any extra flour.
Put the instant yeast, flour, egg, sugar and salt into the mixing bowl and mix on low speed to combine.
Add the butter and mix for a couple of minutes until it is combined well with the dough. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl before turning the power back on to medium-low. If there are still some chunks of butter or margarine that’s OK — it will melt in when you add the warm water.
Add the warm water a tablespoon or two at a time. It will take a minute or two to incorporate the water.
Add the vanilla, then mix for 10-12 minutes, turning the speed of the mixer up to medium if necessary.
Form the dough into a ball and transfer it to a large clean bowl. Cover it first with plastic wrap, then cover the entire bowl with a clean towel.
Allow to rise in a warm place for about an hour and 20 minutes or until it has doubled in size. While the dough is rising, cut 24 4-inch square pieces of parchment paper to use later for the second rising.
Once the dough has doubled, remove the plastic wrap and gently punch it down.
If you have a kitchen scale, weigh the entire piece of dough, then divide it by 20 or 24 so you can weigh out each piece to keep the donuts the same size, with each measuring 50 or 60 grams. The 50-gram balls are a bit rounder when cooked than the 60-gram balls. If you don’t have a scale, make each ball a little larger than a golf ball.
Work each piece of dough into a ball.
Spread the parchment squares over two large baking sheets and place each dough ball onto a square, seam-side down.
Cover each sheet of donut balls with a kitchen towel and allow them to rise in a warm place for 20 minutes; if the dough is gently covered it won’t get crusty or hard.
Using a heavy-bottomed pan with sides that are at least 5 inches tall, heat the oil (an oil with a high smoke point). It helps to have a digital thermometer to measure the oil because it must be between 360 F and 370 F for frying. It usually takes about 6 cups, but you can use 8 cups of oil if using a very wide pan. The oil should be about 3-4 inches deep in the pot. You can reuse this oil several times — just store it in a clean and well-sealed container after it has cooled.
Pick up each parchment square with a dough ball and drop it gently into the oil. Using the parchment paper to transfer the dough to the oil will help keep the dough in a nice shape without indentation from your hands. I usually get 5-6 pieces into the pot at a time. Leave room in the pot for the donuts
all incorporated. It’s important to add the hot milk slowly so the eggs don’t curdle. Once it’s combined, pour the mixture back into the saucepan and heat it over medium-low heat, whisking constantly for 3-4 minutes until the pastry cream thickens. Use a spatula along with a whisk to get the cream to cook evenly, scraping the bottom and the sides of the pan so the mixture doesn’t get lumps. Remove the pan from heat and allow it to cool for 5 minutes before adding 4 tablespoons of cold butter to the pan. Whisk again until the butter is melted and well combined.
Use a rubber spatula to transfer the cream into a clean bowl.
to move around a bit.
Remove the parchment with tongs and fry the bottom side for 2 minutes or until golden brown, then flip it carefully and fry the other side until golden brown. These brown quickly — usually 2 minutes for the first side, and 1-2 minutes for the second side.
Use a spatula or slotted spoon to remove each donut to cool.
Place paper towels on a baking sheet and cover with a wire cooling rack so that the oil falls down into the paper towel and won’t make a mess on your countertop or stovetop.
Check the oil temperature between each session because sometimes it needs a couple of minutes to warm up to over 360 F again. Allow the donuts to cool completely before filling, which should take about an hour. When you’re ready to fill these, insert a sharp paring knife into the side of the donut, being careful not to pierce through the other side. You can insert your index finger into the pocket to expand the area for the filling.
I couldn’t find my pastry bag equipment this year so I went basic and put the pastry cream (or jelly) into a gallon-sized plastic bag, cut a small hole in one corner and used that to pipe in the filling.
Vanilla pastry creme
1 large egg, plus 2 egg yolks
2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or real vanilla extract
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon cornstarch
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
4 tablespoons old unsalted butter
If you’ve ever made pudding, then you can easily make this pastry cream; once you’ve tasted it, you will never want to eat a chain store donut again.
Measure 2 cups of whole milk into a saucepan and add the vanilla.
Warm over medium heat until it is just bubbling around the edges, being careful not to scald the milk. Whisk occasionally while warming.
While the milk is warming, add the egg and yolks, cornstarch and salt to a mixer and mix with a whisk attachment on medium-low for 6-8 minutes. It’s easier to add the milk to the mixing bowl from a liquid measuring cup as opposed to the hot pan, so just pour the hot milk back into the measuring cup that you already used, take that over to your mixer and add 1 tablespoon of milk at a time until it’s
Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and use a toothpick to make 3 small holes in the plastic wrap. This keeps a “skin” from forming on the top of the cream. Allow this bowl to cool on the counter before refrigerating for a minimum of 3 hours.
After 3 hours, use this to fill the donuts. This pastry cream stays fresh if covered well, for about 5 days, so you can make it in advance.
A note about the pastry cream: If you do get lumps when you heat it, put the mixture into a large mesh sieve and strain it into another bowl, using a rubber spatula to push it through the sieve. Discard any lumps that won’t go through the sieve. This tip can be a lifesaver when cooking doesn’t go as planned. I love this pastry cream; it’s the same recipe that I use to make Napoleons.
Chocolate ganache
2 teaspoons water
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup chocolate chips
2 teaspoons corn syrup
Maldon sea salt flakes, for garnishing
Add the butter, chocolate chips and corn syrup into a bowl and microwave for 25 seconds until just melted, or use the doubleboiler method to heat the ingredients on the stovetop.
Once the ingredients are about half melted, mix them together. Add the water last and whisk well.
Once you have filled the donuts, insert one-half into the bowl of chocolate, flip and place on a wire rack to set. Put paper or a pan under the rack to catch any messes. Garnish the ganache with salt or sprinkles immediately so that the ganache firms up and holds the garnish in place.
This ganache stays pretty solid around 72 F but it can get a little melty if the room is hot. The ganache can take an hour to set at room temperature, but if you’re in a rush you can pop the donuts into the fridge for 15 minutes. Use wax paper between layers to store in the refrigerator or in a large metal tin. Whether you’re making only the donut dough or going for the entire recipe, I hope these instructions give you the confidence to make special sufganiyot for the holiday.
I’m praying that we all see revealed miracles this Chanukah season. Enjoy and bless your hands! PJC
Jessica Grann is a home chef living in Pittsburgh.
p Steps in preparing sufganiyot p Salted vanilla cream sufganiyot
Photos by Jessica Grann
Postwar Gallery in Point Breeze debuts artists of past and present
Morris Grossman of Postwar Gallery once owned Dalmo Optical in Squirrel Hill, but he now helps people see in a different way. His gallery focuses on the underappreciated American Expressionism movement, with the hopes that art aficionados will see the value in their work as well as in the work of talented contemporary Pittsburgh artists.
American Expressionism is sometimes also called “American Figurative Expressionism,” as it was in contrast with the better known Abstract Expressionism of the postwar period. Most, even outside the art world, know Jackson Pollock. But names like Vincent Smarkusz, Aaron Bohrod or Raphael Soyer faded into relative obscurity. Grossman and his staff want to change that with his motto “Midcentury Masters Matter.”
“I’m dedicated to artists that were overlooked, and there’s a strong Jewish connection, too,” Grossman said. Many of the American Expressionists were immigrant Jewish artists who brought the sensibilities of German and Russian figurative painters
to depictions of day-to-day life in American cities. While the Abstract Expressionists turned away from traditional technique, the American Expressionists sought to use figuration to express the angst and absurdity of life after World War II.
“I’ve collected art forever and my father was a gallerist,” Grossman said. “So, I had a good example of how to open a gallery.” Grossman’s collection spans everything from
brass jewelry and salt and pepper shakers to enormous paintings. Some show plein air, recognizable scenes, others look almost ghostly. Many were Jewish, some were African American, and all received little popular recognition, left to sit in collectors’ vaults for decades.
Gallery assistant Veronika Eber, a sculptor in her own right, came to Pittsburgh from New York to study art at Carnegie Mellon
University. When she moved to Pittsburgh, she didn’t know of any galleries and was excited to find a place with a unique mission that also drew from Jewish history. “I liked that the goal of this gallery isn’t just to sell work, but to highlight underappreciated artists’ careers,” she said.
Abstraction has dominated the art market in the 2020s, but tides can always turn. As Anny Shaw of The Art Newspaper reported in 2023, “every decade or so, the art world likes to declare either figuration or abstraction dead.” Perhaps in a world emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, there may be a need to feel more of a human touch in artwork. But part of what makes the American Expressionists so fascinating is that while they did paint figurative reality, it’s not quite photorealistic. There’s a sense of imagination and borderline surrealism in every painting.
Though popular culture didn’t always embrace them, Postwar Gallery’s catalogue features artists who’ve been in institutions as storied as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Jewish Museum and the Walker Art Center. Some were in the Whitney Biennial as many as 18 times. “While these artists got some institutional recognition, they never
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Emma Riva | Special to the Chronicle
Postwar Gallery
Photo by Emma Riva
Life & Culture
Gallery:
his 50th year in photography with this wonderful exhibition.”
Continued from page 19
received the popular acclaim of their peers,” Director of Operations William Murphy, who previously studied photography and found the gallery through a job posting, said. Murphy handles the events, press relations and many backend tasks for the gallery. He hopes to help work on a catalogue of all of Grossman’s collection with biographies of each artist.
Aschkenas’ photography lines up with some of the American Expressionist aesthetic sensibilities toward a mixture of the real and the absurd. He photographed the interior of a big game hunter’s mansion just outside of Pittsburgh, full of taxidermied animals and landscape murals. He combined these images with flowers and plants from around the world. The result is both beautiful and eerie, with an eye for technical mastery.
Though popular culture didn’t always embrace them, Postwar Gallery’s catalogue features artists who’ve been in institutions as storied as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Jewish Museum and the Walker Art Center.
One such artist is Henry Koerner, an Austrian Jewish artist who came to Pittsburgh in 1953 as an artist-in-residence at Chatham University. Grossman owns one of his paintings — an eerily gorgeous scene of a figure holding a flame beside a wrought-iron Pittsburgh bridge — and pointed to it as an example of the mastery of technique and imagination the American Expressionists brought to their subject matter.
But Grossman doesn’t just want to feature deceased artists of the past. He sees the gallery as a space for living artists in Pittsburgh, too, hence why he opened the gallery with an exhibition of David Aschkenas’ “Flora & Fauna.” “This show really is for David, whom I’ve known a long time,” he said. Aschkenas has been photographing for 50 years, with work in the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, Polaroid Corporation and Howard Heinz Endowment.
A statement for “Flora & Fauna” reads that, “While our primary focus is on American Expressionist artists from the midcentury period, we are not afraid to exhibit artists who align with our mission and who are worthy of being highlighted. David is one of these artists in spades, and we are excited to be able to commemorate
What separates Grossman’s collecting and curatorial taste from the dominant strain is that interest in technique and experience over novelty. The work within Postwar Gallery, including Aschkenas’, shows that tradition and whimsy aren’t mutually exclusive.
The opening to Aschkenas’ show featured live jazz by Billy Price playing to a packed house, all in an unassuming warehouse storefront in Point Breeze. It’s eclectic, for sure, and very Pittsburgh to see worldclass midcentury artwork in a graffitied warehouse also home to an underground arcade and a coworking space.
But part of Postwar Gallery’s charm is its multihyphenate character. Grossman doesn’t see Postwar Gallery as just one thing. He hopes it can be something for both the history and the future. “The gallery is my collection, plus, plus, plus, plus…” he trailed off, but decided to end the sentence there, leaving space for what could be.
Postwar Gallery is located at 6901 Lynn Way, with open hours Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. All other days of the week by appointment. “David Aschkenas: Flora & Fauna” runs through Feb. 5. PJC
Emma Riva is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.
Life & Culture
Eight nights, four books: Recommended reads make good gifts this Chanukah
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Sta Writer
Thinking about a Chanukah gift?
Might as well lean in. Here are a few recommended reads for the people of the book.
Nothing Vast: A Novel, by Moshe Marvit (Acre Books, 2024)
Moshe Marvit’s debut novel takes readers on a 40-year path of Jewish migration. Characters cross Poland, France, Morocco, the U.S. and Israel in search of truths and better lives. The story relies upon the traditions and tales of Marvit’s own half-Arab Jewish family. By delving into Israel, statehood and religion, Marvit offers readers ample opportunity for reflection and discussion.
Jewish Book Council described the work as “vast in both scope and message.”
Those looking to promote landsmen while giving meaningful Chanukah gifts are in luck. Marvit is a Pittsburgh resident.
Bad Jews: A History of American Jewish Politics and Identities, by Emily Tamkin (Harper, 2022)
Since this book was published, Israel has been enmeshed in war, the U.S.
has experienced a divisive election and Jewish WhatsApp groups have exploded with in-fighting, accusations and endless links convincing family and friends to adopt positions on nearly everything and everyone. Given recent history, Emily Tamkin’s 2022 review of the weaponizing words “Bad Jew” deserves another look. Tamkin’s text reminds readers that history, culture and identity shape the Jewish experience. But when the elements diverge, what happens to peoplehood?
Publisher’s Weekly called Tamkin’s text “heartfelt, nuanced and empathetic,” and said, “This revelatory ethnography is a must-read.”
Tamkin delighted Pittsburghers with a talk at the 2023 Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books. Gifting this book is a fantastic way to continue the conversation.
Wild Facts about Animals and the Scientists Who Study Them, by Brooke Barker (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2022)
Learning is a lifelong journey regardless of one’s species. Brooke Barker’s “How Do Meerkats Order Pizza?” lets young readers know there’s a lot to learn for marsupials, meerkats and people alike. Through delightful illustrations, endearing word bubbles and accessible facts, Barker enjoyably informs readers about animals and researchers. Whether the information leads one beneath the ocean or to the highest treetops, Barker’s book ignites a process the best of Jewish writers have spurred for generations: The outcome of a great question isn’t only an answer but a better question.
Kirkus Reviews described the book as “a pleasing and informative collection of animal
facts — and the scientists responsible for unearthing them.”
Check out this Congregation Beth Shalom member’s work and ask yourself something: What does it take to learn more?
Gen X Pittsburgh: The Beehive and the ’90s Scene, by David Rullo (The History Press, 2023)
Chronicle readers know that the paper’s Senior Staff Writer David Rullo is a master of words. Fewer readers realize the award-winning journalist is an expert in local coffeehouse lore. Rullo’s 2023 work follows a generational relationship with the Beehive Coffehouse and Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood. Stories of artists, writers and bands are captivatingly told in an effort to detail a space’s contributions to regional history.
Goodreads gave “Gen X Pittsburgh” overwhelmingly positive reviews. One user wrote, “Social media often notes that the ’90s were the pinnacle of humanity. This book reaffirms that.” Pittsburgh’s technological advancements haven’t yet yielded a time machine. In its absence is Rullo’s book — a gentle reminder that although readers age, memories remain. PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
How Do Meerkats Order Pizza?:
Celebrations
Birth Announcement
With gratitude to HaShem, Dr. Jonah and Robin Klein of Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, are thrilled to announce the birth of their daughter Chloe Shira (Shira Bayla) born on Dec. 6, 2024 (the 5th of Kislev). Chloe Shira is loved by her 5-year-old sister, Eliana Aviva and her 3-year-old brother, Oren Jude. Chloe Shira is the granddaughter of Jessica Rudner and Steven Rudner of Pennsylvania as well as Rabbi Cheryl and Mark Klein of Glenside, Pennsylvania, and Margate, New Jersey (formerly from Pittsburgh). Chloe’s paternal greatgrandmother is Betty Barlow of White Oak, Pennsylvania. Chloe Shira is named in loving memory of her maternal great-grandmother, Carole Rudner and maternal great-grand-uncle Burton Caplan. PJC
This Chanukah, we celebrate the light that our Jewish community brings to Pi sburgh. May your hom and hearts shine with hope, love, and peace.
—Barb Warwick and the entire District 5 City Council office
Torah
Adrenaline of the soul
Much like in a painting, ostensibly trivial details in a biblical story or in its Midrashic expansion often contain allusions that are weighted with meaning. In Vayishlach, the Torah tells us of the night that our father Yaakov spent wrestling with an angel, culminating in his being renamed Israel, a name signifying the ability to struggle and persevere. In addressing why Yaakov found himself alone on that dramatic night, Rashi quotes the Talmud (Chullin 91) that Yaakov “had forgotten pachim ketanim/ small jars” and had crossed the stream to reclaim them. The term “small jars” is particularly evocative during the season of Chanukah, and intentionally calls up the image of the pach shemen, the cruse of oil so pivotal to the story of Chanukah, and in fact the 16th-century commentary of R’ Mordechai haKohen of Safed explicitly connects the two. So what is the significance of these jars that somehow bridges these two very different stories?
One of the remarkable new elements of the Chanukah narrative is that so much of it is about the valor of individuals, of regular Jews who made the choice to take a heroic stand for Judaism, risking their lives in the process. Certainly, the popular rebellion against the forces of the Seleucids is an obvious testament to bravery, but even before the rebellion began in earnest, many ordinary Jews made the dramatic choice to give their very lives for their faith.
The Book of First Maccabees, a historical work contemporaneous to the events of Chanukah describes the following:
“According to the decree, they put to death the women who had their children circumcised, and their families and those who circumcised them; and they hung the infants from their mothers’ necks. But many in Israel stood firm and were resolved in their hearts not to eat unclean food. They chose to die rather than to be defiled by food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die.”
challenge to be prepared to even give up their lives for Judaism as a defining characteristic of the Jewish neshama
“Nevertheless, when they are confronted with a test in a matter of faith…. it is aroused from its sleep and it exerts its influence by virtue of the Divine force that is clothed in it, as is written, “And the L–rd awoke like one who had been asleep.” On such occasion the sinner is inspired to withstand the test of faith in G–d, without any reasoning, knowledge, or intelligence that may be comprehended by him, and to choose G–d as his portion and lot, yielding to Him his soul in order to sanctify His Name.”
In other words, part of the Jewish experience includes almost a spiritual adrenaline — reserves that might not express themselves without extraordinary pressure. Intriguingly, Rabbi Shneur Zalman expresses this idea as part of explaining the phrase “The soul (neshamah) of man is a candle of G-d.”
The flames and oil of Chanukah also represent all of the souls that suddenly burst into flame during the crisis of the Greek revolt, fueled by the adrenaline of their souls.
To return to our opening image, by putting the small oil flasks of Chanukah into the scene of Yaakov wrestling the angel, the Talmud is perhaps identifying that courage and dedication as being deeply rooted in that fundamental experience of the Patriarch: that the strength of the individual Jew is in fact an inheritance from Yaakov.
The past year has been a time, like the back story of Chanukah, where individual Jews have had to show extraordinary dedication and valor: from our brave soldiers in Israel, to all of the perseverance shown by the home front, to those whose lives were shattered on Simchat Torah who are rebuilding nonetheless, to the many otherwise ordinary Jews around the world standing up to a resurgent antisemitism. It is profoundly humbling to see ostensibly ordinary Jews display such heroism under pressure. As we reflect on those lights once again, we remind ourselves that we all can continue to draw on those deep spiritual resources implanted in our ancestors. PJC
R Shneur Zalman of Liadi, in his classic of Chassdic thought Tanya (chapter 19), describes this instinctive ability of average Jews — even erstwhile sinners! — at times of
Rabbi Daniel Yolkut is the rabbi of Congregation Poale Zedeck. This column is a service of the Vaad Harabonim of Greater Pittsburgh.
Headlines
DARLING: Macy Martin Darling, age 87 years old, passed away peacefully Dec. 5, 2024. Macy was the beloved son of the late Nathan and Mary Darling. He is survived by his sons Marc (Casey) Darling and Michael Darling; sisters Esther Darling Resnick and Joan (Jeniffer) Darling, nephew Brian Resnick, late Roger Resnick, nieces Alexis Itkin, Shannon Utiger. Macy graduated from Kiski School and then went on to John Hopkins. After graduating Hopkins, he was honored with a John F. Rockefeller Fellowship in biochemistry. After finishing the program, he decided to go into business in Georgetown, D.C., which led him to get into English antiques. He moved his gallery to New York. He grew the business to become one of the top English antiques dealers in the U.S. After retiring, Macy moved to Beach Lake, Pennsylvania, then to Rishikesh, India, for 17 years. In 2011, he returned to Pittsburgh; he resided here until his passing. Macy enjoyed his life, his world travels and all his wonderful life experiences. Services and interment were private. A Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. service. schugar.com
DAVIS: Dolores B. Davis, a/k/a Dee, Dee Dee, mom and Bubbie, was many things: charming, warm, gracious, witty, a leader and a true friend to many. She was born Sept. 26, 1930, and died Dec. 16, 2024. Her early years were spent in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, then Oakland and the East End. At the University of Pittsburgh, where she studied to be a teacher, she met her husband-to-be, Saul Davis. She worked as a secretary throughout her four years at Pitt, financing her education in that way. With a natural inclination for teaching, she formally became one in 1952. She taught for the Pittsburgh Public Schools at Lemington and Wightman Schools. During summer break, she was a unit head at Emma Kaufmann Camp. Her formal career as a teacher ended when she commenced childrearing. While raising five children, she managed to remain active in communal affairs, including delivering Meals on Wheels, serving as president of the P.T.A at Colfax School, writing its newsletter, becoming a life member of Jewish Home and Hospital, B’Nai Brith, Na’Amat, and Hadassah. When the children were old enough, she went back to teaching and taught for Community College at senior centers, Community Day School, and English as a Second Language as well as bridge classes for Osher at CMU. Her career went on to include first program planner for Forward Shady Housing, co-director of the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition, director of Senior Adult Services at the Jewish Community Center and then director of trips and tours for the JCC. Her friends were amused that, no matter what the situation, she had an appropriate quote from her mother. Her favorite was, “Don’t kiss me, scrub the floor.” Dee insisted that, even if the timeline wasn’t accurate, that Kahlil Gibran, the prophet, got his wisdom from her mother. Dee certainly subscribed to and lived the philosophy that when you give of yourself you
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Contact the Development department at 412-586-2690 or development@jaapgh.org for more information. THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS —
Sunday December 22: Maurice P Ashinsky, Esther L Bialer, Saul Broverman, Julian Falk, Harry First, David Frank, Louis Frank, Rose Goldstein, Martin W Hepps, Sarah Jacobson, Alvin Lichtenstul, Jennie Markovitz, Julia Monheim, Myer Palkovitz, Morris Rudick, Morris J Semins, Aaron Siff, Dr Jacob Slone, Shirley Starr, Morris Weiss
Monday December 23: Susan Barotz, Irving I "Chick" Bogdan, Victor Chesterpal, Marc Leon Front, Rae Kleinerman, Dr Hyman Levinson, Fannie Malkin, Max Mallinger, Louis Menzer, Fannie Rice, Marvin L Silverblatt, Sam Swartz
Tuesday December 24: Julius Berliner, Jacob Braun, Florence Meyers Clovsky, Leonard Samuels Finkelhor, Edward L Friedman, Alfred Krause, Max Lemelman, Sarah Young Pretter, Hymen Rosenberg, Annie Segall, Lillian Shermer, Max Strauss, Samuel Z Udman, I Barnes Weinstein
Wednesday December 25: William Aronovitz, Fannie Gertrude Becker, Belle Bennett, Nathan Bennett, Joseph Braunstein, Hannah Cohen, Meyer Fineberg, Benjamin Finkelhor, Philip Hoffman, Milton Kuperstock, Samuel Kurfeerst, Benjamin Levin, Abraham Lincoff, Benjamin Jacob Platt, Leon Ryave, Fannie Solow, Philip Stein, Max Zeiden
Thursday December 26: Essie Finesod, Hymen Glickman, Ralph Hoffman, Harry Katzen, Sylvan Meth, Max Osgood, Mary R Sachs, Dorothy Saul, Dorothy Weiss Schachter, Sylvia Snyder Sealfon, Benjamin S Shapiro, Elaine Supowitz, Charles Tillman, Mary Weinerman
Friday December 27: Rose Blatt, Reuben Bliwas, Raymond Cole, Lena Eisenberg, Jacob Erenrich, Birdie Weiler Greenberg, Celia Liberman, Morris Miller, Ed Newman, Stella G Pervin, Louis Riemer, John Rothstein, Lawrence E Schachter, Marcia E Schmitt, Sarah Schor, Faye Schwartz, Herman Schwartz, Charles Stewart, Anna Swartz, Fannie White, Dave L Wyckoff
Saturday December 28: Ella Braemer, Harry B Cramer, Anne G Diznoff, Esther H Friedman, Benjamin Gordon, Alexander Grossman, Joseph Grumer, Sylvia Rudov Klein, Harry Lieberman, Percy A Love, Alfred (Kurlie) Miller, Esther Monheim, Sophie Ruben, Sidney J Rudolph, Norman H Schlesinger, Dr Donald M Schwartz, Morris Serbin, Bessie Sherman, Violet Slesinger, Morris A Taylor, Louis Venig
truly give. If there are any virtues not already mentioned, embellishment is acceptable. Foibles are permitted with humor. Dolores is survived by her husband of 73 years Saul, her sons: Bert/Jodi, William/Mindy (deceased)/Jane (partner), Laurence/Declan, Mitchell/Galina; seven grandchildren, one great-grandchild and a special cousin, Leann Sherman, whom she helped to raise, who was more like a daughter than a cousin. Donations can be made to the charity of choice. Graveside services and interment were held at Homewood Cemetery. A memorial celebration will be held at a later, to be announced, date. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com
SHEAR: Sam Shear, beloved husband of 72 years to the late Belle Shear; father of Barbara (David) Gershon, Shelly (Mike) Andreas, Howard (Jackie) Shear; brother of the late Leon and Henna; and oldest son of the late Hersh Leib and Blima Szejer. He was Pupup to six grandchildren: Andrew (Siejhi) Gershon; Lauren (Eric) Morales, Evan (Kristin) Andreas, Benjamin (Nicolle D’Onofrio) Andreas, Margo (Justin) Fischgrund, and Brad (Thi Vu) Shear; and six great-grandchildren: Teddy and Quincy Morales, Parker and Cooper Andreas, adden Fischgrund, and Baxter Andreas. A Holocaust survivor, Sam passed away on Dec. 15, just before his 99th birthday. Born in Będzin, Poland, Sam was taken in 1939 by the Nazis before his 13th birthday while in line for bread. Against all odds, he survived five years in five concentration camps, including Buchenwald and Gross-Rosen, along with enduring typhus fever and malnourishment. He was liberated at long last by U.S. soldiers after four months of walking on the Death arch. After losing his mother, father, and younger sister to the gas chambers in Auschwitz, Sam had a miraculous reunion with his younger brother, Leon, with whom he remained close until Leon’s death in 2021. Upon arriving in the United States, he met his wife, Belle, without knowing a word of English, while attending a wedding. The couple married shortly after and built a life together in Pittsburgh’s Stanton Heights neighborhood, where they lived with their three children and Belle’s mother, Libby. Sam has said many times that Libby was much like the mother he lost so young, and the two famously never had an argument. Sam went on to have a long, successful career in the financial services business — forming a family business in 1952, now run by his son, Howard, and grandson, Brad. The three-generation family business still has many original clients of Sam’s. Sam’s career garnered him awards such as Prudential’s Man of the Year in the early 1960s. From hardly being able to walk upon his liberation, Sam built himself back up physically throughout his long life. Sam shared stories of playing professional soccer in Europe and skiing in Germany’s Garmisch-Partenkirchen after his liberation. His adult years included the routine of jogs around the Highland Park Reservoir every morning, no matter rain, snow, or sleet — running alongside famed Pittsburgh Pirate player, Manny Sanguillen. He spent many days playing pingpong at the Please see Obituaries, page 24
Obituaries:
Continued from page 23
Pittsburgh JCC and stayed active while in his winter home in South Florida. Up until his death, he prided himself on doing some type of exercise every day. Later in his adult life, Sam reached thousands of people around the world through the retelling of his Holocaust experience, speaking in schools, churches, and community organizations — even with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Along with storytelling, Sam had a passion for music — singing, listening to live performances, and playing the harmonica for his great-grandchildren. Interment at Shaare Torah Cemetery. Donations can be made to the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. Professional services trusted to D’Alessandro Funeral Home & Crematory Ltd., Lawrenceville. dalessandroltd.com
SMILEY: Laurence M. Smiley, of Pittsburgh passed away on Dec. 15, 2024, from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 84. Larry Smiley was born on May 12, 1940, in the Bronx, New York City, to Charles and Anna Smiley. After growing up in the Bronx, he graduated from City College of New York with undergraduate and graduate degrees in geology that inspired his treasured collection of rocks and fossils. He was known as “Pathfinder” for his pre-GPS navigation skills on family vacations, in which fishing was a frequently enjoyed activity for all. After receiving his MBA from New York University, he had a decades-long career in developing and managing corporate compensation systems at the New York State Employment Service, Chase Manhattan Bank, Allied Chemical, Richardson Vicks, and Procter & Gamble, from which he retired as the company’s director of global executive compensation. He married the love of his life Judith Hendel, of Queens, New York City, in 1963. They were married for 61 years. Larry and Judy, whom he lovingly called “Jude” (he was simply “Lah”), were active in their synagogues in Morristown, New Jersey; Newtown, Connecticut; and Cincinnati, Ohio. Larry served on various boards and committees for his synagogues and his condo association in Washington, D.C. and the Cedar Village senior living facility in Hamilton, Ohio. Larry and Judy enjoyed traveling on numerous trips all over the world, especially to Japan, home of their adored high school exchange student Miki Ueshiba, and spending extended winter holidays on Sanibel Island, Florida. Larry is survived by his wife, Judy, and his two beloved daughters, Alison (Barry Hurewitz) of Washington, DC, and Melissa (Larry Jacobson) of Pittsburgh, and four grandchildren, Sophie Hurewitz of Philadelphia, Micah Hurewitz of Durham, NC, and Abigail (Abby) and Nora Jacobson of Pittsburgh. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment West View Cemetery of Rodef Shalom Congregation. Contributions may be made in Larry’s memory to the Alzheimer’s Association (alz.org) or the Pittsburgh Jewish Association on Aging, Attn: Development, 200 JHF Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15217. schugar.com PJC
It’s Important To Pre-Plan.
The Jewish Cemetery & Burial Association of Greater Pittsburgh (JCBA) welcomes inquiries about the purchase of burial plots in JCBA cemeteries.
It’s Important To Pre-Plan.
Plan Now – Save Later
The Jewish Cemetery & Burial Association of Greater Pittsburgh (JCBA) welcomes inquiries about the purchase of burial plots in JCBA cemeteries.
Notice of Price Increase
JCBA is committed to the proper care and maintenance of sacred grounds, and is devoted to the stewardship of Jewish cemeteries in Western Pennsylvania.
JCBA is committed to the proper care and maintenance of sacred grounds, and is devoted to the stewardship of Jewish cemeteries in Western Pennsylvania.
Plots are available in the following JCBA cemeteries:
JCBA is committed to the proper care and maintenance of sacred grounds, and is devoted to the stewardship of Jewish cemeteries in Western Pennsylvania.
Plots are available in the following JCBA cemeteries:
Jeffrey Lewis Landerman, Deceased December 23, 2023, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania No. 02-24-01279
Michelle Landerman, Administrator; 1649 Jamestown Place, Pittsburgh, PA 15235 or to Bruce S. Gelman, Esquire, Gelman & Reisman, P.C., Law & Finance Bldg., 429 Fourth Avenue, Suite 1701, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Sandra Estelle Snyder a/k/a Sandra E. Snyder, Deceased November 9, 2024, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania No. 02-24-07538
Andrea A. Friedenberg, Executrix; 1009 Flemington Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15217 or to Bruce S. Gelman, Esquire, Gelman & Reisman, P.C., Law & Finance Bldg., 429 Fourth Avenue, Suite 1701, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Estate of Shirley Sacks a/k/a Shirley P. Sacks, late of the City of Pittsburgh No. 02-2405029. Joel Pfeffer, Esquire, Executor 535 Smithfield Street, Suite 1300 Pittsburgh, PA 15222; or to Joel Pfeffer, Esquire c/o Meyer, Unkovic & Scott LLP 535 Smithfield Street, Suite 1300, Pittsburgh PA 15222
Agudath Achim – Beaver Falls
Agudath Achim – Beaver Falls
Machsikei Hadas
Machsikei HaDas
Plots are available in the following JCBA cemeteries:
Agudath Achim – Hampton
Agudath Achim – Hampton
Anshe Lubovitz
Agudath Achim – Beaver Falls
Anshe Lubovitz
Beth Abraham
Beth Abraham
Agudath Achim – Hampton
Beth Jacob – West Mifflin
Anshe Lubovitz
B’nai Israel – Steubenville
B’nai Israel- Steubenville
Beth Abraham
Holy Society – Uniontown
Holy Society – Uniontown
B’nai Israel- Steubenville
Johnstown Jewish Cemeteries
Johnstown Jewish Cemeteries
Holy Society – Uniontown
Kether Torah
Kether Torah
Johnstown Jewish Cemeteries
Kether Torah
New Castle Jewish Cemeteries
New Castle Jewish Cemeteries
Poale Zedeck Memorial Park
Machsikei Hadas
Poale Zedeck Memorial Park
New Castle Jewish Cemeteries
Rodef Shalom
Rodef Shalom
Poale Zedeck Memorial Park
Shaare Torah
Shaare Torah
Rodef Shalom
Tiphereth Israel - Shaler
Torath Chaim
Shaare Torah
Tiphereth Israel - Shaler
Tree of Life Memorial Park
Torath Chaim
Tiphereth Israel - Shaler
Workmen’s Circle #45
Workmen’s Circle #45
Torath Chaim
Workmen’s Circle #45
We anticipate plot and burial fees at all JCBA cemeteries to increase in 2025.
Plot Prices & Burial Fees will increase 1-1-25. Plan NOW to secure current pricing and significant savings.
We anticipate plot and burial fees at all JCBA cemeteries to increase in 2025.
For more information please visit our website at www.jcbapgh.org, email us a or call the JCBA at 412-553-6469.
For more information please visit our website at www.jcbapgh.org, email us at office@jcbapgh.org or call the JCBA at 412-553-6469.
For more information please visit our website at www.jcbapgh.org, email us a or call the JCBA at 412-553-6469.
to volunteer, to read our complete histories and/or to make a contribution,
JCBA’s expanded vision is made possible by a generous grant from the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Jewish Community Foundation
tradition surround yourself with
Set the table for a memorable gathering.
Community
Super Sunday
Community members joined the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh for Super Sunday on Dec. 15. The annual event raised $180,811 toward the Federation’s Community Campaign goal
Macher and Shaker
Brian Burke, IACT director of Israel and Jewish experiences, received the “Rising Star Award” at the 2024 Hillel International Global Assembly. Burke was recognized for helping students develop and strengthen connections to Hillel and Israel, while ensuring students have meaningful Jewish campus experiences.
Tasting
a new month
Winter Fest
Community
p Members of the Smith family represented Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh at Super Sunday. Photo courtesy of Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh
Miriam Levari, a member of Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh
p
Jump around Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh Girls Varsity Basketball team traveled to Cleveland for the Faye Comet Invitational Basketball Tournament. As one of six varsity squads from regional Jewish
Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh celebrated Rosh Chodesh with food and song.
p Food for thought
Photo courtesy of Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh
Day School hosted Winter Fest. The Dec. 15 event featured a $1 gently used toys/books/clothes bazaar. Proceeds benefitted Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, a kibbutz bordering Gaza that was attacked by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023.
