Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 10-8-21

October 8, 2021 | 2 Cheshvan 5782

Candlelighting 6:32 p.m. | Havdalah 7:29 p.m. | Vol. 64, No. 41 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Asking forgiveness

Chevra kadisha completes a ritual

Eradicate Hate Global Summit Pittsburgh prepares in Pittsburgh to feature third-year national experts commemoration of Oct. 27 massacre

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

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“In the context of that work, I had seen fabulous people working on the field in different disciplines who weren’t talking to one another,” Ellsworth said.

After realizing that those people should be in conversation, working together to create initiatives and solutions to counter hate around the world, Ellsworth reached out to a longtime friend and adviser — chancellor emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh, Mark Nordenberg.

“I said Mark, ‘Can we do this together?

Will you help me build this idea in my mind’s eye?’” Ellsworth told the Chronicle.

Nordenberg was already working on healing the wounds of the largest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, serving on the Victim of Terror Fund committee created by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh to oversee the distribution of the more than $6 million donated to the community after the

he Pittsburgh Jewish community will honor the victims of the Oct. 27, 2018, Pittsburgh synagogue shooting with in-person volunteer opportunities, remote learning and a public commemoration ceremony at Prospect Drive in Schenley Park.

“It’s incredibly important to hold the space as a community for remembrance,” said Maggie Feinstein, director of the 10.27 Healing Partnership. “It was a communal trauma that we experienced when we lost those 11 lives.”

Feinstein is coordinating the third commemoration of the massacre in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and Repair the World Pittsburgh. Also involved in the planning are the three congregations that were attacked that day —Congregation Dor Hadash, New Light Congregation and Tree of Life Congregation — the families of those murdered, the survivors and some other local Jewish organizations.

While several of the events planned will be familiar to the community, Feinstein noted that the programming for each year’s commemoration has differed: A large event was held at Soldiers and Sailors Hall & Memorial Museum as part of the first year’s commemoration, while last year’s programming was entirely virtual because of COVID-19 restrictions. This year will be a hybrid.

An in-person commemoration ceremony will be held Wednesday, Oct. 27, at 4:30 p.m., Feinstein said. The event will be held outdoors because of the pandemic.

“The planning committee really prioritized that if we are going to be outside,

Please see Summit, page 14

Please see Commemoration, page 14

LOCAL ‘Traditional’ and ‘egalitarian’ The Partnership Minyan returns

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LOCAL A Holocaust story  The Tree of Life building

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

Recollections of former Sen. Rudy Boschwitz Page 4

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aura Ellsworth decided to create the Eradicate Hate Global Summit soon after Oct. 27, 2018.

“When Tree of Life happened, I, like everyone else in the city of Pittsburgh, thought, ‘what do I have to bring to the table to help?’” Ellsworth recalled.

She wanted to find a way to create realworld solutions to battle hate — not just antisemitism, but anti-immigrant hate, anti-LGBTQ+ hate, anti-Muslim hate and all other forms of hatred.

Ellsworth, a former candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, is an attorney at the law firm Jones Day. As first partnerin-charge of the firm’s Global Community Service Initiatives, she leads the firm’s rule of law initiatives around the world — in 43 offices on five continents — which includes a hate crime task force that represents victims on a pro bono basis.

Photo by Jim Busis

keep your eye on PittsburghJewishChronicle LOCAL

The music of Peter Gyori

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Headlines New Community Chevra Kadisha completes pandemicmodified ritual, asks for forgiveness — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

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aramount to Jewish burial is taharah, the act of washing and purifying the deceased. And when pandemic-related shutdowns began in March 2020, members of the New Community Chevra Kadisha made a difficult decision.

Given fears of COVID-19 transmission, NCCK members stopped traveling to funeral homes and performing the sacred act of taharah. Instead of physically washing and purifying a body prior to burial, NCCK members gathered on Zoom and performed taharah ruchanit, a distanced and spiritual service of readings, song and prayer, with men tending to men and women to women.

Between March 15, 2020, and June 21, 2021 — when the group resumed in-person practices — NCCK members completed more than 100 taharah ruchanit.

On Oct. 3, 2021, NCCK members traveled to Beth Shalom Cemetery in Shaler Township to amend and complete those taharah ruchanit. Standing sideby-side, NCCK members recited biblical and Talmudic passages, chanted Hebrew phrases, recited names of the deceased and poured water for each person who at the time of their demise was unable to be washed according to Jewish tradition. The 40-minute ceremony was organized by Dr. Jonathan Weinkle, who helped arrange a six-page packet of materials.

As critical as it was to recite liturgy similar to what would have been read during a pre-pandemic taharah, there needed to be an aspect of historical context and forgiveness, Weinkle said.

So, along with publicly stating NCCK’s rationale for adopting taharah ruchanit, the group offered an apology: “While the decisions we made were taken with every consideration of pikuach nefesh, saving lives from danger, they nonetheless had consequences that made many of us feel we, and the meitim (deceased) we cared for, had lost something precious. It is to acknowledge this loss that we gather here today.”

Seeking atonement is necessary, Weinkle explained.

Jewish burial is often called chessed shel emet, a true kindness. Washing a body, purifying it and placing shrouds on the deceased is performed by the living with no ability for repayment. When those acts of kindness are completed “in some diminished way it feels like you’re cheating somebody out of something,” and because the deceased were deprived of optimal Jewish burials, something they deserved as community members, “that’s the reason to ask for forgiveness,” Weinkle said.

NCCK members reiterated this sentiment by publically reading: “We, the Chevra Kadisha, ask your forgiveness for each departure we had to make from traditional practices in preparing your body for burial.

On the road, up from Egypt, and through the wilderness, we have done our best to serve you, to be with you and to give you the burial befitting a child of Israel. We pour this water on your grave as a tikkun and completion, as a final act to bring purity and love to your transition.”

Weinkle then distributed a list with names of more than 100 people who received taharah ruchanit. NCCK members took turns reciting each name before pouring fresh water from jugs onto the cemetery’s ground — spilling water onto the earth, one

 New Community Chevra Kadisha members

person at a time, was intended to mimic the act of shoveling at a funeral.

Before disbanding, NCCK members recited the Mourner’s Kaddish.

Rabbi Doris Dyen, whose involvement in the group dates back more than 12 years, described the Oct. 3 ceremony as a rare occurrence.

It’s unusual to stand in a cemetery and say “It’s so good to see you,” Dyen said, but after almost two years of not being able to work in person “day in and day out, month in and month out, year in and year out,” it’s powerful to stand together and “hear the murmur of other voices.”

Patricia Cluss, who co-founded NCCK in 2004, agreed it was comforting being with

Photo by Adam Reinherz

others after such a difficult period.

“Everybody feels like it’s been such a hard year, just in general, and then such a hard year for trying to figure out what’s the right thing to do for this,” Cluss said.

Hours before the afternoon gathering, NCCK members who were unable to attend reached out to Cluss with messages of solidarity.

“Everybody feels connected to this, to our experience last year and to this particular liturgy,” Cluss said.

For Lucas Grasha, the Oct. 3 service was a chance to reconnect with NCCK members he barely knew.

Please see Chevra, page 15

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Headlines

University of Pittsburgh presents

PITTSBURGH SPEAKERS SERIES

Pittsburgh Partnership Minyan returns after lengthy hiatus

— because they don’t teach girls like they do boys in the Orthodox community.”

For nearly five years, Feige supported

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer the Pittsburgh Partnership Minyan. She and her husband, Sandy Riemer, constantly fter a nearly two-year hiatus, the “schlepped” prayer books and the mechitza Pittsburgh Partnership Minyan between storage and service sites — in 2015, returns this weekend to Squirrel Hill. the Jewish Community Center of Greater Beth Kissileff, one of the organizers of the Pittsburgh offered a room in its Squirrel minyan, said the outdoor lay-led Shabbat Hill branch free of charge to the group, service is slated to while Young Peoples meet four-to-six Sy n a g o g u e l e nt times per year and them a Torah. will serve those who Over time, are “Orthodox and however, interest in want greater women’s the minyan faded. participation within “We couldn’t get the service,” or “people enough people to who are coming from participate,” Feige said. a more egalitarian side For any minyan to and want something succeed, there needs more traditional.” to be dedicated indip Mechitzah at the English-language Wikipedia, The service, Kissileff Photo by Toksook viduals who not only CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/ explained, will follow index.php?curid=36822296 commit to handling guidelines set by the Jewish Orthodox the logistics, but to showing up on time.

Feminist Alliance: 10 men must participate; Feige wonders if there is enough interest a mechitzah (divider) must be used to sepa- now to make it work. She said she knows the rate women and men during prayer; and community supports the idea of a partnertraditional liturgy must be followed. ship minyan, but isn’t sure there are enough Partnership minyans, according to JOFA, people to actually carry it out. are prayer groups “committed to mainKissileff is optimistic and believes a taining halachic standards and practices restarted partnership minyan can be a “safe while including women in ritual leadership outdoor community event” where people roles to the fullest extent possible within the sing, pray and interact together. Even so, boundaries of Jewish Law.” she is aware of potential conflicts. As the Though relatively new to Pittsburgh, the wife of a pulpit rabbi — Kissileff ’s husband history of partnership minyanim dates back is New Light Congregation’s Rabbi Jonathan nearly 50 years. According to the Jewish Perlman — she is sensitive to those who Women’s Archive, the 1970s American might say a partnership minyan is pulling feminist movement inspired Orthodox people away from other spaces.

Jewish women to begin organizing women’s “We’re very supportive of synagogues and prayer groups. In the following decades, the larger Jewish community,” Kissileff said. interest spread across the East Coast and “We only plan on meeting four-to-six times into the Midwest — with backlash from a year. And we’re not planning on having life Orthodox leaders bringing the prayer groups cycle events.” increased attention.

Feige said leaders of the previous iteraIn 2002, Orthodox feminists in both tion of the partnership minyan were careful New York and Jerusalem organized the about drawing people away from estabfirst official partnership minyanim. Those lished congregations. services resembled those in other Orthodox “I know that there were folks who were not settings, save certain differences: Partnership happy with us because they thought that we minyanim enabled women to lead litur- were going to be stealing members from other gical portions of the prayers, including shuls, but we made a point of saying there is Kabbalat Shabbat, Pesukei D’zimra, An’im no membership here and people should still Zemirot and Aleinu. have a home shul if they have one,” Feige said.

In Pittsburgh, a partnership minyan The hope, Kissileff said, is people see this was formed in 2014. Along with meeting as “another group to pray with” a few times on Shabbat, members of the group also throughout the year. gathered to celebrate Chanukah, Purim The last time Pittsburgh Partnership and Rosh Chodesh.

Minyan met — apart from a pop-up service Squirrel Hill resident Barb Feige was active held in January 2020 to celebrate the aufruf in the group before it was disbanded in 2019. of Julie Weinrach and Eric Lidji — was 2019.

“What I really enjoyed about it was Bringing it back now said Kissileff, is “a way women’s voices,” and the fact that the part- to bring people together, and worship and nership minyan was a space for communal hear divrei Torah, and form a different kind representation, Feige said. of community.”

“It was important for kids to see women To learn more about the service — in those positions and doing those ritual including its location, which is not publicly aspects,” she said. “I know a lot of girls who announced for security reasons — email got turned off at 12 or 13 because there was pghpartnersminyan@gmail.com. PJC nothing else for them to do. One of our audacious goals was to train up more women Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ or girls to lead services or lain (read Torah) pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Seven Thought-Provoking Evenings of Diverse Opinions and World Perspectives

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Headlines Sen. Rudolph Boschwitz recounts escape from Germany, cousin’s novel ‘The Passenger’ — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

R

udolph “Rudy” Boschwitz’s father, Eli, announced to his family on Jan. 30, 1933 that they were leaving Germany forever.

Adolf Hitler had been elected chancellor and the elder Boschwitz didn’t need a weather vane to predict the coming storm.

The Boschwitz family soon began a circuitous journey, starting with leaving their home in Berlin, then traveling to the Polish province of Poznań, which had changed hands between the two countries several times before becoming part of the newly reconstituted Poland after World War I. But that move didn’t alter the family’s desire to leave Europe or alleviate their challenges.

From Poland, the family went first to Czechoslovakia, then Switzerland before moving to Holland, then eventually England where they found an American official who approved their request to travel to the United States. They arrived in New York City shortly after Rudy Boschwitz’s fifth birthday in December 1935.

Boschwitz grew up in New Rochelle, New York, and attended Johns Hopkins University

before earning degrees from New York University’s Stern School of Business and School of Law. After a stint in the Army and a move to the Midwest, he started a plywood and home interior company.

In 1978, he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Minnesota and served there until 1990. He was then selected by President George H.W. Bush to serve as an emissary to Ethiopia.

His negotiations resulted in Operation Solomon, which airlifted 14,000 Jews from the African nation to Israel.

Boschwitz was named the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 2005 by President George W. Bush.

“Human Rights were an interest of mine,” Rudy Boschwitz told the Chronicle, recalling his early years in Germany and his father’s failed attempts to convince more people to leave the country before the Nazis secured total control. “The day before we left there was already enough fear in the air that he didn’t tell people ‘We’re leaving in the morning,’ but he did advise them to leave.

Of our family that stayed in Europe, many

didn’t get as far as Sweden or Switzerland or England — they were essentially still in Germany. Only one survived.

So, human rights were an interest of mine. You can’t have that happen to your family without having a keen interest in human rights.”

In addition to his political work, Boschwitz is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and served on the board of directors for the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, AIPAC and numerous other Jewish organizations.

The plight of Rudy Boschwitz’s family during the rise of the Nazi regime mirrors that of the protagonist in “The Passenger,” a novel written by his first cousin Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz immediately following Kristallnacht.

“The Passenger,” the first selection in the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle’s newly launched book club, tells the fictitious story of Otto Silberman, a respected businessman forced to steal away from his home and travel across Germany as he grows more and more desperate to escape the advancing Nazi shadow — despite his Aryan looks and

robust business and personal connections.

The author and his family didn’t leave Germany along with the family of Eli Boschwitz, nor did he move to the U.S. Instead, he first escaped to Scandinavia before moving to England in 1939, where he was interned as an “enemy alien” and deported to Australia. In 1942, he was permitted to return to England but died when the ship on which he was traveling was torpedoed by a German submarine. He was just 27.

“The Passenger” was long considered lost, but the original manuscript was recently rediscovered in German archives and was republished in 2020, meeting with wide acclaim.

“I’m very proud that a first cousin of mine has written a book that has gained such wide acceptance,” Boschwitz said, adding that he would like to see the novel studied in the same way works by Eli Wiesel and “The Diary of a Young Girl” are.

The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle will host its discussion of “The Passenger” via Zoom on Sunday, Oct. 24, at 1 p.m. Register to attend by mailing David Rullo at the email address below. PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Musician and Jewish professional Peter Gyori recounts Jewish journey for Classrooms Without Borders

p Peter Gyori speaks during a Sept. 30 Classrooms Without Borders event

p Ellen Resnek speaks during a Sept. 30 Classrooms Without Borders event Screenshots by Adam Reinherz

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By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

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eter Gyori’s grandparents were Holocaust survivors yet he knew nothing of his Jewish identity.

As Gyori aged, however, his awareness dramatically changed. Gyori serves as vice president of the Federation of Czech Jewish Communities, and often employs music

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

to build understanding between Eastern Europeans of diverse faiths.

Considering his upbringing, the work is surprising, Gyori said during a Sept. 30 Classrooms Without Borders event held in collaboration with the Embassy of the Czech Republic.

Growing up in communist Eastern Europe, Gyori knew he was Jewish but was largely unaware of its deeper facets. That changed in 1989 when he received a scholarship to study in Israel.

Gyori’s knowledge of Judaism grew, but the irony of his education, he explained, was that much of it came by way of Russian friends — an oddity given regional animosities. In August 1968, the Soviet Union invaded and attacked Czechoslovakia.

“We didn’t really love Russians,” Gyori said.

In Israel, historical wrongs seemed to fade. While gathering at the Dead Sea or other Israeli haunts, Gyori and his newfound friends conversed in Russian about literature and art. They practiced Hebrew and

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

strengthened their interpersonal bonds.

“It was the first time in my life I learned the value of friendship, even with someone who I thought was my enemy before,” he said.

Gyori became proficient in Hebrew and began teaching it to fellow Russian speakers.

He said his Jewish journey continued — thanks to a piano.

One night, after playing in a hotel’s taproom, the patrons were enamored by his Please see Gyori, page 15

OCTOBER 8, 2021 5

Calendar Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Submissions also will be included in print. Events will run in the print edition beginning one month prior to the date as space allows. The deadline for submissions is Friday, noon. q FRIDAY, OCT. 8 Join Moishe House Pittsburgh for Virtual Shul Shopping. This month, they’re partnering with Temple Sinai. Come pick up snacks and wine or grape juice at MoHo, then join them at the synagogue for a night of song and prayer. 7 p.m. Register at forms.gle/ ieF3MzzSyU93sVm36. q SUNDAY, OCT. 10 The Arab Israeli conflict plays a large role in current events. Classrooms Without Borders’ Arab Israeli Conflict with Avi Ben Hur aims to unpack the causes and core issues that relate to the conflict. The Q & A following each session is designed to enable the participants to engage with related issues on a higher resolution. Each section will be accompanied with suggestions for further exploration. 2 p.m. classroomswithoutborders.org/arab_israeli_conflict q SUNDAY, OCT. 10-THURSDAY, OCT. 14 JNF-USA’s national conference is now virtual.

Join JNF-USA for one hour each evening on Oct. 10-14 as they bring the land of Israel to your home. Enjoy a side of Israel you have never seen with the help of a licensed tour guide. Join a “busload” of people and virtually experience the thrills of this beautiful country. Visit sites off the beaten path, including but not limited to: Ayalon Institute, Golan Heights, Akko, ADI Negev – Nahalat Eran, Be’er Sheva, meet up with JNF-USA affiliates, and more. Visit jnf.org/nc for more information and to register. 7 p.m. q SUNDAYS, OCT. 10, 17, 24, 31; NOV. 7 Join a lay-led Online Parashah Study Group to discuss the week’s Torah portion. No Hebrew knowledge is needed. The goal is to build community while deepening understanding of the text. 8:30 p.m.

For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org. q SUNDAYS, OCT. 10, 17, 31 Gather on Zoom with the Briya Project, for moments of ritual and writing in the eight-week writing course “Sh’ma - Hear Your Inner Voice.” Each session will include a communal ritual and creative prompt to help you hear your inner artistic voice. 6 p.m. $200. ticketailor.com/events/briyaproject/564066 q SUNDAYS, OCT. 10-NOV. 21 In this new series, Halakhic Conversations, Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff will discuss a variety of controversial halakhic issues relevant to the lives of contemporary Jews with Poale Zedek Rabbi Daniel Yolkut. Ranging from end-of-life issues to the difficult test of coronavirus to the use of technology, the conversations will consider how the halakha is applied to today’s cutting-edge issues. $75 for all eight Zoom sessions. 10 a.m. foundation.jewishpgh. org/halakhic-conversations q MONDAY, OCT. 11 The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh commemorates Operation Solomon. Hear from a diverse panel on the effects of Operation Solomon and explore where we are with Ethiopian aliyah today.

12 p.m. jewishpgh.org/event/operation-solomon Learn more about the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Mega Mission over Zoom. The mission will take place in Israel June 13-21, 2022. This is your chance to hear the details and ask all your pressing

questions. RSVP required to receive Zoom link. 6 p.m. jewishpgh.org/event/mega-mission-septemberinfo-session q MONDAYS, OCT. 11, 18, 25; NOV. 8 Join Congregation Beth Shalom for a weekly Talmud study. 9:15 a.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org. q MONDAYS, OCT. 11-DEC. 20 Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff will examine the accounts of some of the most interesting righteous gentiles in the Tanakh in his new course Righteous Gentiles in the Hebrew Bible. $55 for all 11 Zoom sessions. 9:30 a.m. foundation.jewishpgh.org/righteous-gentiles q TUESDAY, OCT. 12 Given the events in the past few months, from the recent conflict with Gaza to the internal political upheaval in Israel, there is a necessity to get an educated view from the “inside.” Join Classrooms Without Borders for Israel Update with Avi Ben Hur. 2 p.m. classroomswithoutborders.org/ israel-update-2021 The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh invites donors who make a minimum commitment of $1,000 and young adults (ages 22-45) who make a minimum commitment of $180 to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Hybrid Community Campaign.

The live event will take place in the Outdoor Plaza at Nova Place and will include festive drinks, strolling dinner and desserts on the Plaza. In-person event: $75 per person; 130 per couple. Young adult pricing: $50 per person; $80 per couple. Virtual option: $36. 7 p.m. jewishpgh.org/campaign-launch q TUESDAYS, OCT. 12-MAY 24 Sign up now for Melton Core 2, Ethics and Crossroads of Jewish Living. Discover the central ideas and texts that inform our daily, weekly and annual rituals, as well as life cycle observances and essential Jewish theological concepts and ideas as they unfold in the Bible, the Talmud and other sacred texts. $300. 9:30 a.m. foundation.jewishpgh.org/melton-2 q TUESDAYS, OCT. 12-NOV. 30 Join Rabbi Daniel Yolkut for “Messiah,” an exploration of the history and philosophy of one of the most powerful (and destabilizing) ideas in the Jewish experience: Messianism. A fascinating deep dive into the personalities and perspectives that shaped history-changing movements from Christianity to Zionism and continues to be a misunderstood but critical Jewish belief to this day. $75 for all Zoom sessions. 11 a.m. foundation.jewishpgh.org/messiah q WEDNESDAY, OCT. 13 Join the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Partnership2Gether program for Holocaust Restitution: Making Sense of the New Restitution Law in Poland. Explore the significance and impact of the new restitution law approved by the Polish government in August.

This law will limit the right of Holocaust survivors and their descendants to reclaim property that was seized

by Poland’s Communist regime. The panel will include Warsaw-based journalist Konstanty Gebert, Gideon Taylor of the World Jewish Restitution Organization, Chief Rabbi of Poland Michael Schudrich, and Israel-based journalist Sever Plocker. Noon. jewishpgh.org/event/holocaust-restitution-makingsense-of-the-new-restitution-law-in-poland Classrooms Without Borders, in partnership with Liberation75, is excited to offer the opportunity to engage in its new series: Confronting the

Complexity of Holocaust Scholarship: Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of Holocaust Studies. 3 p.m. classroomswithoutborders. org/confronting_the_complexity_of_ holocaust_scholarship q WEDNESDAYS, OCT. 13, 20, 27; NOV. 3, 10 Bring the parashah alive and make it personally relevant and meaningful. Study the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Mark Asher Goodman.

12:15 p.m. bethshalompgh.org/life-text q WEDNESDAYS, OCT. 13-JAN. 26 In The Jewish Moral Virtues, Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff will explore Jewish teaching on critical moral virtues. Based on the qualities listed in the 13th century Sefer Maalot Hamiddot (The Book of the Choicest Virtues), Rabbi Schiff will explore the contemporary application of these moral virtues to our 21st century lives. $65 for all 13 Zoom sessions. 9:30 a.m. foundation.jewishpgh.org/jewish-moral-virtues q THURSDAY, OCT. 14 Classrooms Without Borders, in partnership with the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, and Liberation75 is excited to offer the opportunity to watch the film “The Road to Babi Yar” and engage in a postfilm discussion with the documentary filmmaker Boris Maftsir in conversation with CWB Scholar, Avi Ben-Hur.3 p.m. classroomswithoutborders.org/ the_road_to_babi_yar q THURSDAYS, OCT. 14-JUNE 30

most significant anti-hate rule of law initiative in the world and, to that end, are bringing together multi-disciplinary global experts and leaders who are committed to the eradication of hate speech and violent extremism—in all its forms —around the world. Keynote speakers include George W. Bush, Major Garrett, Jonathan Greenblatt, Alejandro Mayorkas and more. $250. David L. Lawrence Convention Center. eradicatehatesummit.org q MONDAY, OCT. 18-WEDNESDAY, OCT. 27 Join the Pittsburgh community to commemorate the 11 lives lost on Oct. 27, 2018. The 10.27 Healing Partnership, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and Repair the World present volunteer opportunities, Torah study and an in-person and Zoom commemoration ceremony. For more information, visit 1027healingpartnership.org. q TUESDAYS, OCT. 19-NOV. 9 In the workshop Making the Case for Israel, Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff will offer tools for how to respond to Israel’s critics in 2021.

This is a course for those who want to see Israel prosper, and who would like to know more about how to answer the accusations that are now being made against Israel. $40 for all Zoom sessions.

9:30 a.m. foundation.jewishpgh.org/making-thecase-for-israel q THURSDAY, OCT. 21

The Alan Papernick Educational Institute Endowment Fund presents Continuing Legal Education, a sixpart CLE series taught by Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff. Earn up to 12 CLE credits. Each session is a stand-alone unit; you can take one class or all six. 8:30 a.m. With CLE credit: $30/session or $150 all sessions; Without CLE credit: $25/session or $125 all sessions. For a complete list of dates and topics, visit foundation.jewishpgh.org/continuinglegal-education.

The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh presents The Untold Story of How the Stories Were Told: An Evening with Louis Schmidt. Schmidt was an official witness and interviewer for Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Project. Listen as he tells the genesis of his involvement, how he was chosen for the position and the remarkable videotaped conversations he conducted with these unforgettable martyrs of one of world history’s darkest periods. 7 p.m. hcofpgh.org/event/theuntold-story-of-how-the-stories-were-told

q SUNDAY, OCT. 17

q TUESDAY, OCT. 26

Join the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh for the next Cooking2Gether Session with Partnership2Gether Pittsburgh-Karmiel/MisgavWarsaw. It will celebrate fall with unique twists on traditional American fall recipes. Our guest chef will be our very own Young Adult Engagement Director Daniel Heinrich. Learn how to make delectable American fall treats, including “apple borekesim,” an Israeli twist on an American turnover. Noon. jewishpgh.org/event/cooking2gether-virtualcooking-class-5

Join Hadassah Midwest as they welcome Wendy Evans, art historian, as she illuminates the art and lives of Jewish women artists. 7 p.m. $18. hadassahmidwest.org/RooseveltArt

q MONDAY, OCT. 18 Join Moishe House Pittsburgh for a Monster Movie Night and Netflix watch party to get you in the Halloween spirit. Watch “Monster House.”

Snacks will be provided to take home. Let MoHo know if you do not have access to Netflix and they can provide a login. 1 p.m. Register: forms.gle/ ieF3MzzSyU93sVm36.

Join Classrooms Without Borders for a virtual tour of Israel. Monthly tours with guide and scholar Rabbi Jonty Blackman via Zoom.

4 p.m. For more information and to register, visit classroomswithoutborders.org. q MONDAY, OCT. 18-WEDNESDAY, OCT. 20 The Eradicate Hate Global Summit was born out of the massacre at the Tree of Life building.

Rather than remain victims of hate, the organizers have resolved to convert what happened into the

Join Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures for Made Local with Mark Oppenheimer, a virtual lecture with the author of “Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood.”

Oppenheimer will also be at Riverstone Books in Squirrel Hill for a book signing at 7:30 p.m.

Register for the prerecorded, virtual event at pittsburghlectures.org/mark-oppenheimer. q FRIDAY, OCT. 29 Join Moishe House as it partners with JFed, Repair the World, The Friendship Circle, and OneTable for Together at The Table: 10.27 Commemoration.

There will be a virtual service with a brief kiddush and intention setting, followed by individual dinners at home. Time TBA. Register here: forms.gle/ ieF3MzzSyU93sVm36. q WEDNESDAYS, NOV. 3-JAN. 24 Through illuminating source texts and captivating case studies, Outsmarting Antisemitism — A fourpart JLI course on the absurdity of antisemitsm considers the sources of this ancient scourge, along with the appropriate strategies for overcoming it.

7:30 p.m. Zoom or in-person.chabadsh.com PJC

www.pittsburghjewishchronicle.org 6 OCTOBER 8, 2021

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Headlines Israel Maimon reflects on five-year Israel Bonds career — NATIONAL —

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

F

or Israel Maimon, the work of the Development Corporation for Israel – widely known as Israel Bonds — is more about spreading Zionism and defending the state of Israel than it is about selling a piece of paper.

“Israel is at the center of my heart,” said Maimon, who is leaving the president and CEO post this month after five years heading the international organization.

“One of our biggest accomplishments is that we are putting a focus on increasing the number of purchasers — we are molding more individuals to support the state of Israel, whether it’s through $36 online or $2 million.”

Maimon knows first-hand what it means to support the Jewish state.

Before leading Israel Bonds, Maimon served as government secretary to Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert from 2003 to 2007 and played a central role in one of the most pivotal moments in Israel’s history: the 2007 bombing of Syria’s nuclear reactor.

He also chaired the Israeli Presidential Conference Steering Committee under President Shimon Peres from 2008 to 2013.

Going back even further, Maimon served as a company commander in the Golani Brigade, holding the rank of major. He later

Jewish life ... in terms of working in Jewish life, voluntarily.”

Maimon added that his “two legs are well-positioned in Israel” and he hopes to continue working on American and international investment in Israeli society, possibly in technology or high-tech sectors.

“I understand how to represent Israel, the challenges Israel is facing, why it’s important to preserve the state of Israel,” he said. “It gives me a great opportunity to use what I gained here with the investors and connected people who want to invest in our homeland.”

Maimon’s time at the helm of Israel Bonds speaks volumes about the excitement and desire to invest in Israel through bonds.

During his five years as president and CEO, Maimon oversaw more than $6 billion in worldwide investments. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Maimon and his team approached Israeli Finance Ministry officials with a detailed plan to increase an already challenging U.S. goal: an increase of $400 million above the original 2020 U.S. goal of $1.1 billion.

The plan was based on four pillars: facilitating reinvestments of matured Israel bonds; reaching out to institutional investors; obtaining additional investments from existing clients; and securing purchases from new clients. Maimon’s team exceeded its heightened goals, raising $1.5 billion in the U.S. and $1.8 billion globally, despite having to rescript their narrative and work, for the first time, largely virtually.

“ I understand how to represent Israel, the challenges Israel is facing, why it’s important

”

to preserve the state of Israel

— ISRAEL MAIMON

worked as a lawyer and in the private sector.

Working under Sharon, though, Maimon said, gave him a better understanding of the “vast picture ... of the expansion of the Jewish people.” That was something he came to know about the Jewish diaspora very well while serving Israel Bonds in the United States and internationally.

“The diaspora is so dear to me,” Maimon said. “Probably, I will be staying involved in

What Maimon learned from operating Israel Bonds during the era of COVID-19 is a large part of the legacy he leaves to his successor, Dan Naveh, who was named this summer to lead the organization after Maimon’s October departure.

“Even though it’s COVID, visit the Jewish communities,” Maimon said, mimicking his advice to Naveh. “You are the face of Israel, but not only because of that. It also will give

 Israel Maimon

Photo courtesy of Israel Bonds

you an understanding of Jewish life outside Israel, a look at its richness.”

Maimon stressed that Naveh would need to “get to know and appreciate and advise with your lay leaders.”

At least one of those lay leaders had glowing reviews of Maimon’s time as head of Israel Bonds.

Glen Segal, a long-time Philadelphian who sits on Israel Bonds’ national board, said he “felt real confident to vote to confirm [Maimon in 2016], and I’m more than happy with what he’s done.”

Maimon, Segal said, is “more than just a president with me. He’s also a good friend.”

“If there’s ever anything good going on, he’s the first to call – and he’s always been available to us. He’s been to Philly

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so many times,” said Segal, who has seen several people lead Israel Bonds during his decades-long board tenure with the group.

“All of them were good, but [Maimon] was the best. I’m really going to miss him. He took our organization to new heights – he was terrific.”

Maimon said he’s proud of the “great sense of confidence” investors have in the Jewish state. That’s something he’s taking away from his experience at Israel Bonds.

“They came to see the state of Israel as such an economic success — and they’re part of that success,” he said. “It was really a great, great, great journey.” PJC Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

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Headlines Kamala Harris ‘strongly disagrees’ with student who said Israel was carrying out ethnic genocide — NATIONAL —

By Ron Kampeas | JTA

V

ice President Kamala Harris “strongly disagrees” with a university student who told her that Israel was carrying out “ethnic genocide,” her office said, pushing back against claims that she encouraged the student’s view.

“Throughout her career, the Vice President has been unwavering in her commitment to Israel and to Israel’s security,” Harris’s spokeswoman, Symone Sanders, said Oct. 1 in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“While visiting George Mason University to discuss voting rights, a student voiced a personal opinion during a political science class. The Vice President strongly disagrees with the student’s characterization of Israel.”

Harris had reached out to Jewish organizations after sustaining criticism from Republicans and some Jewish communal figures for not correcting the student during a visit to a political science class. Harris was on the campus Sept. 26 to attend a voting rights rally.

Harris spoke for about 15 minutes to the class about the importance of organizing and making one’s voice heard, tying it to Democratic Party efforts to push back against a spate of laws in Republican-led states that add restrictions to voting.

“Your vote is an expression of your voice, and we should never support anything that would stifle a person’s voice,” Harris said.

She took questions, and one woman, who said she was Yemeni and Iranian, challenged Harris’ claim that speaking out brings change.

“You brought up how the power of the people and demonstrations and organizing is very valuable in America, but I see that over the summer there have been protests and demonstrations in astronomical numbers standing with Palestine,” she said. “But then just a few days ago there were funds allocated to continue backing Israel, which hurts my heart because it’s ethnic genocide and displacement of people, the same that happened in America,

p Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to students in a political science class at George Mason University during a surprise visit to campus in Fairfax, Virginia, on Sept. 28.

Photo by Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images via JTA

and I’m sure you’re aware of this.”

The woman appeared to be referring to protests in May during Israel’s conflict with Gaza, and then to the U.S. House of Representatives’ overwhelming approval last week of $1 billion to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system, which was depleted during the conflict.

“The people have spoken very often of what they do need and I feel there is a lack of listening,” the student said.

Harris said she was glad the student spoke up, saying, “your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth should not be suppressed.”

The vice president then pushed back against the student’s argument that expressing opinions in America was fruitless.

“The point that you are making about policy that relates to Middle East policy, foreign policy, we still have healthy debates in our country about what is the right path, and nobody’s voice should be suppressed on that,” she said.

Harris said that organizing and voting were effective means of making one’s voice heard, casting the student’s views as part

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of a broader debate. “Our goal should be unity, but not uniformity, right?” she said.

“Unity should never be at the expense of telling anyone personally that, for the sake of unity, ‘Oh, you be quiet about that thing.

You suppress that thing. Let’s not deal with that thing.’ That’s not unity. True unity is everyone in that room has a voice.”

The Republican National Committee posted an excerpt of the exchange, cutting off at where Harris said “your truth should not be suppressed.”

“Kamala Harris nods as student accuses Israel of ‘ethnic genocide’: ‘your truth cannot be suppressed,’” the RNC said in a tweet. The Republican Coalition called the exchange “disgraceful.” Fox News headlined a story, “Kamala Harris applauds student, who accused Israel of ‘ethnic genocide,’ for speaking ‘your truth.’”

Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, in Harris’ home state of California, chided her on Twitter.

“Madame Vice President, the idea that Israel has committed genocide against the Palestinians is not someone’s truth, it is someone’s lie, whether they know it or not,”

he said. “And it is pernicious, destructive and should not be elided or ignored by the highest officials in the land.”

Harris’ office reached out to at least two pro-Israel organizations in the wake of the controversy.

“The Biden-Harris Administration, as well as President Biden and Vice President Harris personally, have exemplary pro-Israel records, for which we are immensely grateful,” Mark Mellman, the president of the Democratic Majority for Israel, said in a statement. “We were pleased Vice President Harris’ senior staff reached out to us today to confirm what we already knew: Her ‘commitment to Israel’s security is ironclad,’ and she ‘strongly disagrees with the George Mason student’s characterization of Israel.’”

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt weighed in on Twitter.

“Just spoke with @VP office,” he said.

“Glad to hear her confirm she is proud of her record supporting #Israel, and knows claim it is committing ‘ethnic genocide’ is patently false. Looking fwd to a clearing of the record so there’s no ambiguity that what that student said was hateful/wrong.” PJC

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Headlines Two years after the German synagogue attack, young Jews turn mourning into activism

p Participants at the Festival of Resilience in Berlin build a sukkah.

— WORLD —

By Joe Baur | JTA

B

ERLIN — Last year, as Rabbi Rebecca Blady approached the first anniversary of the Yom Kippur attack on a synagogue in Halle, Germany, she knew she wanted to commemorate it on her own terms.

Blady runs Base Hillel Deutschland, an organization for young Jews in Berlin, and was praying in the Halle synagogue on Yom Kippur in 2019 when a gunman attempted to break down the door. The gunman then went on to kill two people nearby, and is now serving a life sentence in prison.

Rather than suffice with the state-organized memorial on the attack’s secular anniversary of Oct. 9, Blady decided to place Judaism at the center of her commemoration — and to build bridges with other communities impacted by extremism. Together with other local organizations, Base Hillel put on a “Festival of Resilience,” a series of events celebrating how her community and others have persisted in the face of hate.

“We wanted it to be about our community, to find a way also to empower ourselves from within a comfortable community space,” Blady said. “We want to build coalitions. We want to share stories.”

Now in its second year, the Festival of Resilience feels more like a celebration of Jewish life than the memorial of a somber occasion. Blady intentionally structured it around Sukkot, the weeklong Jewish holiday that follows Yom Kippur, during which Jews traditionally eat and spend time in a sukkah, or temporary hut.

This year, the festival began on Sept. 19

p Survivors of the Halle attack share their experiences at the Festival of Resilience.

with a sukkah-building program, and also included TischreiFest, a party named after the current month in the Hebrew calendar. It closed on Oct. 6 following a workshop titled “Jewish and Intersectional.”

The centerpiece of the festival was the Ceremony of Resilience on Sept. 23, during which survivors of far-right extremism and their relatives were invited to speak, including the survivor of a deadly arson attack targeting a Turkish family in 1992 and the mother of a victim of the anti-immigrant shooting in Hanau on Feb. 19, 2020, just months after the Halle attack.

Despite the memorials, the ceremony had a pre-concert ambiance, with the empty stage playing quiet background music as people filed in, grabbing a beer with a free drink ticket and taking a seat at one of the scattered picnic tables. A light drizzle started and stopped, with just a few drops sprinkling through the roof of the sukkah, which stood near the stage.

Blady said part of the festival’s purpose is to reclaim the holiday season that the gunman tried to terrorize in 2019.

“This gathering, much like the process of 25 hours of prayer and fasting that we have on Yom Kippur, is about transforming memory into something that can be witnessed, something tactile, fragrant, real,” Blady said at the ceremony. “Here we are two years past our tragedy. In the sukkah, we stand in an actualized symbol of our protection with symbolic fruits and plants to remind us of the goodness of the world.”

Beyond celebrating Jewish life, the festival has grown into an activist hub to turn shared grief across communities into learning and action against far-right extremism. Mischa Ushakov, a former board member of the

p Festival participants watch a presentation.

Jewish Student Union in Germany, another of the festival’s organizers, called the festival an “intersectional space” that “has become an institution in the Berlin Jewish calendar.” “[Blady] sent a very strong sign of solidarity for our communities in general,” said Reuben Gerzikow, another former Jewish Student Union board member. “But it’s also a sign that our society will not break apart from far-right attacks, that we are standing together as victims, as marginalized groups.”

At the festival last year, some attendees found it difficult to celebrate, said Anastassia Pletoukhina, another survivor of the Halle shooting who works for the Jewish Agency for Israel, and who also spoke at the ceremony.

“Last year was very painful and healing

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Photos by Debi Simon for Hillel Deutschland via JTA

at the same time because we were in the middle of the trial against the perpetrator,” she said. “Everything was on the surface, all the emotions, all the fears, all the trauma and re-traumatizing experiences within the group and the group of survivors from Halle.”

This year, she said, it feels different. While the festival naturally mixes celebration with mourning, Pletoukhina said survivors of the Halle attack have developed a camaraderie with other survivors of racism and antisemitism.

“It was very painful to hear stories from mothers who lost their children to terror,” she said. “At the same time, to know that we are not alone in this fight and we can actually do something together was very empowering for me.” PJC

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Headlines ‘Spanish Schindler’ saved 5,200 Jews.

Spain wants to find their descendants.

— WORLD —

By Orge Castellano | JTA

M

ADRID — In an unprecedented effort to find their relatives and raise awareness about their stories, Spanish authorities are releasing a list of the Hungarian Jews protected from the Nazis by a diplomat nicknamed the “Spanish Schindler.” Ángel Sanz Briz was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust memorial and museum, in 1966 for using an ingenious legal maneuver to save more than 5,200 Jews from being deported to Auschwitz in 1944.

But even though his efforts saved five times as many Jews as those of Oskar Schindler, his story is far less well known — in part because the staunchly anti-Israel Franco regime, which ruled Spain from 1939 to 1975, barred him from accepting Yad Vashem’s honor.

Now, the Centro Sefarad-Israel — a Sephardic cultural institution that is part of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs — is working to change that. With the support of the Spanish government’s archives, the group is publishing the names of the people

that Hungary’s Jewish community was predominately Ashkenazi, Sanz Briz and his assistants granted Spanish citizenship to Hungarian Jews based on a long-expired 1924 Spanish law that extended citizenship to the descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in 1492.

Sanz Briz went to extreme lengths to ensure hundreds of Hungarian families were put under Spain’s protection.

As the Nazis closed in on the city’s Jews, the Spanish diplomat rented 11 apartment buildings to house approximately 5,000 people. He placed the Spanish flag on the buildings, passing them off as official properties of the Spanish Legation, ensuring that the p Using an expired Spanish law that extended citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews authorities would not seize them. He expelled from Spain in 1942, Ángel Sanzalso hid some families in the Spanish Briz saved 5,200 Hungarian Jews from being embassy in Buda. deported to Auschwitz in 1944.

“For him, the principle of humanity Photo courtesy of Centro Serafad-Israel via JTA prevailed over the principle of legality,” he protected, along with details about them, Miguel de Lucas, director of Centro Sefaradwith the goal of tracing their descendants Israel, told the Spanish daily El País in a recent interview. and making their stories known.

The release of the documents represents Between June and December 1944, Sanz Briz, then a 32-year-old Spanish diplomat a historical milestone for Spain, as it is stationed in Hungary, took the law into his the first time the General Archive of the own hands by creating fake Spanish pass- Administration has made all of its diploports for thousands of Jews. Despite the fact matic files as well as official reports about the

situation of concentration camp prisoners during World War II available to the public.

In addition to the list of the Jews rescued, the General Administration Archive has made available a report written by Slovak Jews Alfred Wetzler and Rudolf Vrba, two fugitives from Auschwitz who escaped on April 7, 1944, after spending almost two years in imprisonment. The report, which was delivered to Sanz Briz and later sent to Madrid, includes a sketch of the concentration camp. It became one of the most significant pieces of evidence presented at the 1945 Nuremberg Trials.

When World War II ended, Sanz Briz resumed his diplomatic career. After leaving his post in Hungary in 1960, he was appointed ambassador to Guatemala. In 1962, he was appointed Consul General in New York.

He later became Spain’s Ambassador to the Holy See and died on June 11, 1980, while on diplomatic duty in Rome.

Hungary, whose Jews Sanz Briz helped, has honored him before. He was awarded the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary in 1994, and in 2015, a Budapest street was renamed after him.

The Centro Sefarad-Israel has set up an email address for anyone who recognizes their name or that of a family member on Sanz Briz’s lists to get in touch. PJC

This week in Israeli history — WORLD — Items provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.

Oct. 8, 1576 — Jews are ousted from Safed

When we are weary and in need of strength,

We Remember Them.

Ottoman Sultan Murad III orders 1,000 “rich and prosperous” Jewish residents of Safed moved to Famagusta, Cyprus, to spur economic development on the island. The Ottomans move 500 more Jews from Safed to Cyprus a year later.

Oct. 9, 1917 — Spy Sarah Aaronsohn dies

Sarah Aaronsohn, a leader of the Nili spy network for the British, dies eight days after being captured by Turkish authorities and four days after shooting herself to avoid further torture and interrogation.

Oct. 10, 1961 — Bones of Moshe Hess are brought to Israel

Lee & Lisa Oleinick 10 OCTOBER 8, 2021

Moshe Hess, interred in Cologne in 1875, is reburied at Kibbutz Kinneret beside other fathers of socialist Zionism.

His “Rome and Jerusalem: The Last National Question” may have inspired Theodor Herzl’s “The Jewish State.”

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Oct. 11, 1938 — Arab Congress rejects partition

Arab leaders adopt the Resolutions of the Inter-Parliamentary Congress, rejecting Palestine’s partition, demanding an end to Jewish immigration but offering to let Jews already in Palestine remain.

Oct. 12, 1999 — Christian extremists are denied entry to Israel

Israel refuses to let 26 Irish and Romanian tourists enter through the port of Haifa for being members of an extreme Christian cult.

The approach of the year 2000 raises fears in Israel about doomsday cults.

Oct. 13, 1969 — Allon Proposes Home Rule for West Bank

Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Allon, a retired general, reveals his plan for home rule for the 650,000 Arabs living in the West Bank, but his proposal gains no traction.

Oct. 14, 1994 — Rabin, Peres win Nobel Prize

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announces that Israel’s Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres are sharing the Nobel Peace Prize with the PLO’s Yasser Arafat for achieving the Oslo Accords in 1993. PJC

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Headlines — WORLD — From JTA Reports

Last Afghani Jew divorces wife, wants to move to NY

Afghanistan’s last Jew, Zebulon Simantov, granted his wife a Jewish ritual divorce after refusing to do so for years and now wants to start over in New York City, JTA reported.

Simantov left Afghanistan in September after the Taliban’s takeover of the country. He has relatives in Queens.

“I am a businessman, I’ll do business there,” Simantov said in an interview with the New York Post.

Simantov granted his wife, who is living in Israel with their children, a get after refusing for more than 20 years.

Alleged war criminal, 96, caught in Germany after skipping trial

German police arrested a 96-year-old suspected war criminal after she failed to show up for trial, JTA reported.

Irmgard Furchner was indicted in February for complicity in the murders of 10,000 people at Stutthof. She served as a secretary at that concentration camp in occupied Poland during World War II. Despite her age, she is being tried by a special youth court because she was 18 at the time of her alleged crimes. Furchner has admitted to working at Stutthof but denied knowledge of any murders there.

The Regional Court of Itzehoe near

Hamburg declared Furchner a “fugitive” on Sept. 30 after she failed to appear before the court, but police found her a few hours later.

The new court date is Oct. 19.

Before her trial, Furchner argued that her advanced age and medical complications prevent her from standing trial, but Efraim Zuroff, a Nazi hunter and director of Eastern European affairs at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, questioned that.

“If she’s healthy enough to flee, she is healthy enough to be imprisoned,” he said.

Lawyer seeks trial for last living alleged Babyn Yar perpetrator

German lawyer Hahns Brehm wants to bring to justice a man he says may be the last Babyn Yar perpetrator alive, a 99-year-old German named Herbert Waller, JTA reported.

In September 1941, Ukrainian collaborators brought more than 33,000 Jews to Kyiv’s Babyn Yar ravine, where Adolf Hitler’s army executed defenseless victims — children, as well as women and men of all ages — by machine guns.

Brehm and his partners believe indicting Waller is a symbolic, last-ditch effort to correct decades of what they see as inaction

by German authorities against participants in the largest single pogrom of Jews during the Holocaust. Out of about 700 participants, only 10 were convicted.

Brehm traveled to Kyiv recently to speak with relatives of Babi Yar victims. Under German law, parties affected by major

crimes may initiate criminal proceedings even if prosecutors don’t indict.

UK Labour Party announces new review process for antisemitism complaints

Labour members attending the British party’s annual conference passed a rule on how to handle antisemitism complaints, JTA reported.

“We’ve turned our back on the dark chapter.

Having closed that door, that door will never be opened again in our Labour Party to antisemitism,” Labour leader Keir Starmer said.

The change passed Sept. 26 in Brighton, England, calls for complaints about antisemitism to be reviewed by an independent committee. During his years leading the party, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was accused of allowing antisemitism to fester among some of the party’s left-wing supporters.

During the conference, Starmer reiterated an apology to Jews for the proliferation of antisemitism in Labour’s ranks in recent years.

UK professor who called Jewish students ‘pawns’ of Israel fired

A University of Bristol professor was fired Oct. 1 over his past comments about Jews and Israel, JTA reported.

During a lecture in February, David Miller, a professor of political sociology, called Israel “a violent, racist, foreign regime engaged in ethnic cleansing.” He referred to Jewish students who protested against his previous comments about Israel as Israel’s “pawns.”

There’s “a real question of abuse here

— of Jewish students on British campuses being used as political pawns by a violent, racist, foreign regime engaged in ethnic cleansing,” Miller said.

Miller’s comments provoked protests from the university’s Jewish students, as well as condemnations from members of Parliament and leaders of the United Kingdom’s Jewish community.

In an open letter in March, several hundred academics, including linguist Noam Chomsky and gender theorist Judith Butler, voiced support for Miller. An opposing letter condemning Miller’s remarks also garnered hundreds of signatures.

At the time, the university said an internal investigation into Miller’s conduct was underway.

In a statement Oct. 1, the university said it did not find Miller’s comments to be “unlawful speech” but that Miller was fired because he “did not meet the standards of behaviour we expect from our staff.”

In response, Miller called the investigation a “shambolic process that seems to have been vetted by external actors,” according to the Guardian. He added: “Israel’s assets in the UK have been emboldened by the university collaborating with them to shut down teaching about Islamophobia. The University of Bristol is no longer safe for Muslim, Arab or Palestinian students.”

Miller said he planned to appeal the decision. PJC — Compiled by Andy Gotlieb

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OCTOBER 8, 2021 11

Opinion Is it ever OK to praise the ‘truth’ of an antisemitic blood libel?

Guest Columnist Jonathan Tobin

D

oes it matter if politicians let lies told by people they meet publicly go unanswered? That’s the question that many in the Jewish community, especially the majority who regularly vote for Democrats, are asking in the wake of an incident last week involving Vice President Kamala Harris.

After giving a brief talk at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, advocating her party’s position opposing the passage of what Republicans believe to be voter integrity laws and that Democrats claim are voter suppression, Harris took questions from students. One of them, who identified herself as “half-Iranian and half-Yemeni,” launched into a diatribe where she contrasted the “protests and demonstrations in astronomical numbers” on behalf of “Palestine” with the fact that Congress had passed funding for the Iron Dome missile-defense system for Israel. “That hurts my heart,” the student said, because Israel’s existence is an expression of “ethnic genocide” and the same thing “that happened in America.” She went on to say that instead of funding Israel’s ethnic genocide, the money should have gone to health care.

As the student spoke, the masked vice president listened quietly and nodded. But rather than push back against that false and libelous characterization of the Jewish state — and why Israel has a right to self-defense and that it is America’s obligation to stand with a fellow democracy —Harris responded with a lecture about pluralism and the need for activism.

“Your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth cannot be suppressed, and it must be heard,” said Harris.

The vice president, whose performance to date in the undefined and generally non-challenging role of veep, has gotten generally poor marks from political observers for her lack of engagement and poor messaging on a number of issues, such as focusing on the border crisis. But instead of diffusing a difficult moment that she may have feared would provoke unnecessary controversy, she did the opposite.

The video of the confrontation, broadcast live on C-SPAN, went viral and led to an avalanche of criticism, largely from Republicans and Israelis, who regarded Harris’ refusal to express any disagreement with the student and her nodding along as she said those things as tantamount to agreeing with her.

It would be a full two days later, as comments about the incident began to intrude on the news cycle, when the vice president, through her spokespeople, said that she disagreed with what the student had said.

Reaching out to liberal groups like the Anti-Defamation League and the partisan Democratic Majority for Israel, and then to various news outlets, the vice president’s office said that she “strongly disagrees” with the student and sought to claim that she has always supported Israel.

At that point, the Democratic spinners also sought to point out that the video of the incident seen by most viewers had cut off before Harris replied to the student: “The point that you are making about policy that relates to Middle East policy, foreign policy; we still have healthy debates in our country about what is the right path, and nobody’s

voice should be suppressed on that.”

That last part is true. America is still a free country, and those who wish to debate U.S. support for Israel, even by making false and defamatory arguments, should be allowed to do so.

That still begs the question as to why Harris felt the need to validate the student’s point of view in some way. It also leaves open the matter of why, if the vice president was such a strong supporter of the Jewish state, she didn’t think it appropriate to preface her entirely superfluous defense of the right to dissent with even a hint that the views being expressed were not only wrongheaded but dangerous. That’s especially true since the protests in May the student was referring to, which took place as the Hamas terror organization was launching missiles into Israeli population centers, were largely a defense of the right of Palestinians in Gaza to kill Jews. Such sentiments, in the United States and elsewhere, led to antisemitic violence on campus and off.

The likely correct answer to these questions is both prosaic and provides an illustration of what it means to be a “progressive” in 21st-century America.

Not everyone is always ready with the right response or quip in the moment when it’s needed. A lot of us have to think a bit before we realize what is happening in a conversation and then only come up with what should have been said until much later. But Harris — a quick-witted veteran attorney, prosecutor and politician — is actually known for her sharp tongue and readiness to use it on anyone with whom she disagrees. That was something made abundantly clear by her conduct on the Senate Judiciary Committee during televised confirmation hearings.

It’s also true that politicians are generally not in the business of telling people

“no.” They love to be loved and generally seek applause wherever they go. Even when confronted with disagreement, protest or hecklers, most respond gently, even if something roils them.

There have also been politicians who take it as their obligation not just to engage and please voters, but to chide them when they are wrong. The late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is remembered for his willingness to scold those who made disparaging remarks about former President Barack Obama, his opponent in the 2008 presidential election. While some Republicans look back on this and say this proves the old baseball adage about “nice guys finishing last,” it was more than an example of his honesty and devotion to fair play. It was also a reflection of his belief that those in the public service were not obligated to pander to the lowest common denominator in their search for votes.

Yet in order to understand the significance of an incident that loyal Democrats insist is a meaningless kerfuffle, ask yourself this question.

What would Democrats have said if former Vice President Mike Pence had responded with the same sort of blather about diversity and pluralism if he was confronted with a question by someone who expressed racist views disparaging AfricanAmericans or Hispanics?

After all, Jewish liberals spent the four years of the Trump administration insisting that the coarse and imprecise language used

by Pence’s boss was somehow responsible for a rise in antisemitism, even if his policies were the most pro-Israel in history, and he had taken strong stands against Jew-hatred.

Please see Tobin, page 13

The year you finally get it right Guest Columnist Barry Rabkin

W

hen Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, said “Jews do not have a monopoly on wisdom,” it was a reminder that there are many sources beyond the Torah that directly support our sacred responsibility to tikkun olam — our work to repair the world.

On Simchat Torah we transitioned from the end of the Torah (Deuteronomy) back to its beginning (Genesis). Moses ascends to heaven in the final lines of the Torah, and God tells us that we will never experience Moses again. But we then immediately begin a new cycle of the Torah, starting with the story of creation at the beginning of Genesis, which will eventually lead back to the same inevitable conclusion.

The fact that the Torah ends with God saying we’ll never experience Moses again, just prior to us beginning to read the exact 12 OCTOBER 8, 2021

same story, suggests that each moment, each experience, and each interpretation is unique.

In “Walden,” Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Things do not change; we change.” While each year we return to the same verses, it is we who are different. With each passing year, we celebrate and mourn and grow and change. And the new people we have become are reading these words of the Torah and hearing its stories for the very first time.

As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus observed, “You cannot step into the same river twice.” We will perceive Moses and the Torah differently each time we engage because we will be different each time.

The Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh has said, “It is not impermanence that makes us suffer. What makes us suffer is wanting things to be permanent when they are not.” Each year we can mourn the loss of our former younger selves or celebrate our new growth and wisdom — but change will come whether we make peace with change or war with change.

As we transition from the end to the beginning of the Torah, we go through a

continuous series of growth and loss, paralleling the birth and loss of Moses and the start and finish of the Torah itself. This structure, flowing from the end to the beginning, reminds us, in the wise words of our very own Pittsburgh native Mister Rogers, “When you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.”

God creates the world and Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Beginning.

They are tempted by the snake, eat the apple of knowledge, and leave the Garden of Eden. End. They have two sons. Beginning.

Cain kills his brother Abel. End. Adam and Eve have another son named Seth, who leads 10 generations going down to Noah. Beginning.

God regrets having created humans and decides to destroy everything on Earth. End. Noah builds an ark so after the flood animals and humanity will get a fresh beginning. And so, the cycle goes on forever.

Martin Luther King Jr. said that “faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.” You do not know

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what challenges or lessons lie ahead, but you recognize that you will grow as you go.

You know that each time you confront the same story and the same challenges in your own life, it’s a new experience, being made by a new, wiser you who has worked and grown beyond the limitations of your former self. The late poet Maya Angelou reminded us, “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” Our caterpillar cocoon mistakes are valuable for the lessons they teach us to transform into our butterfly best selves.

No matter how many times you’ve gotten it wrong, the person you are at this very moment has never tried before. With a new you and a clean slate, this can be the year that you finally get it right. PJC Barry Rabkin, who lives in Squirrel Hill, serves on the JFCS board and the marketing committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. He was selected for the 2019 - Wechsler Fellowship and Pittsburgh Magazine’s 2019 - 40 Under 40.

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Opinion Why I made a podcast about Father Coughlin Guest Columnist Andrew Lapin

A

s a kid growing up in suburban Detroit, I used to pass a church right by my house every day. It was a huge church, standing 100 feet tall, with a massive, limestone carving of Jesus on the cross staring down at a busy thoroughfare. And when I came to learn about this church’s origins, it terrified me.

This wasn’t any church. This was the National Shrine of the Little Flower, seat of a parish started in 1926 by Father Charles Coughlin — known as the “Radio Priest” because he hosted a wildly popular weekly radio show that reached tens of millions of listeners (and donors) nationwide during the Great Depression.

His show began as a purely religious one, but soon Father Coughlin would taste the thrill of an adoring audience and exploit their fear and uncertainty. He started casting his followers as the “true” Americans while spinning wild, antisemitic conspiracy theories — tales of “atheistic Jews” running rampant across Europe and commanding the Communists to overthrow Christianity and Americanism. Over the air and in his magazine, “Social Justice,” Coughlin would say

that something must be done to combat this threat, and some took him up on his suggestion. During the course of Coughlin’s career, he created a political third party so his movement could mount a run for the White House — and, when that didn’t work, his followers instead plotted to overthrow the government.

It’s a strange experience to see a stillthriving institution in your community that was founded on the back of hate and intolerance. But Father Coughlin was pushed off the air in 1940 by a combination of pressure from the Catholic Church and new anti-sedition broadcasting laws, and died in 1979. Most locals seemed in agreement that his story was no longer relevant — after all, we didn’t stop driving Ford cars just because Henry Ford once published a newspaper with the headline “The International Jew: The World’s Problem.”

So my fascination with the Shrine began as a mere curiosity. But lately, it’s turned into something else: a sense of fear. If Father Coughlin’s story was just a footnote, why was I now hearing echoes of him everywhere?

Because there he was whenever conspiracy theorists and demagogic figures found a new toehold in our politics and media. There he was in the barely regulated world of social media, where every extreme voice can find its followers. There he was lurking in the background of the Charlottesville white supremacist march, the Tree of Life synagogue shooting, the

Jan. 6 insurrection and a multitude of other horrific moments in recent American history.

Few, if any, of the perpetrators behind those events could cite Father Coughlin by name, but they’re following his playbook all the same.

The Radio Priest has gone from a historical footnote to the modern era’s biggest progenitor — the one whose increasingly unhinged broadcasts predicted a society where antisemitism, scapegoating, xenophobia and disdain for democratic norms would thrive again in new forms of media.

This is how I realized Coughlin’s story shouldn’t be limited to the whisper networks of a few Jews in Detroit. It needed to be heard by everyone.

My new podcast, “Radioactive: The Father Coughlin Story,” is a deep dive into the rise and fall of the demagogue, the barely regulated mass-communication medium he took advantage of, and the antisemitic, fascist movement he inspired right here in America — including the “Christian Front,” a militia that plotted, on guidance from Coughlin himself, to overthrow the government. And it tells the story through audio — the very same medium Coughlin himself once exploited for personal gain — using archival tapes of his own words and music from his own programs, as well as new, recently unsealed material from the Archdiocese of Detroit that sheds more light on Coughlin’s tactics.

The podcast also charts my journey of correspondence with the Shrine itself, and my conversations with its spiritual leaders who have found very different ways to grapple with their founder’s legacy.

Produced with Tablet Studios, the limited series premiered on Oct. 5.

Though there have been biographies of Coughlin in the past, my hope is that this podcast will be something different: an attempt to reckon with his legacy through a modern lens. The world he created has paved the way for right-wing talk radio and social media disinformation, for the rise of suspiciously Coughlinesque figures in the highest corridors of power in our country, and for the continued and ever-evolving demonization of Jews.

I began work on “Radioactive” in early 2017, a time when many people were starting to openly debate the potential of American demagogues to shape our politics and distort our society, and I believe that every step of his story is fraught with implications for our collective future. I hope my exploration of the topic can shine some light on where figures like Father Coughlin come from ... and how they can be stopped. PJC Andrew Lapin is JTA’s managing editor for local news. JTA was not involved in the production of the “Radioactive” podcast.

This piece first appeared on JTA.

Chronicle poll results: Iron Dome funding

L

ast week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “Democrats clashed in Congress last week over funding for Israel’s Iron Dome. Do you think that military assistance to Israel should be subject to restrictions related to the Palestinians?”

Of the 175 people who responded, a solid majority (76%) said, “No, Israel needs to defend itself and its citizens”; another 20% responded, “Not for defensive systems like Iron Dome, but yes for any assistance that might impair the ability to reach a two-state solution or supports Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.” Six people (4%) responded, “Yes for all assistance because any assistance might harm the Palestinians.”

Thirty people submitted comments. A few follow.

Arab citizens of Israel, along with all people, must be protected from Hamas rockets.

Hamas needs to stop putting the people of Gaza in danger. They have rights, too.

Liberal Jews better wake up.

Tobin Continued from page 12

More than an example of liberal hypocrisy, what happened at George Mason was likely an expression of the dynamic that currently exists on the political left these days.

Harris went to the school to generate support for her party’s positions from PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Do you think that military assistance to Israel should be subject to restrictions related to the Palestinians?

75.43%

No. Israel needs to defend itself and its citizens.

1.71%

Don’t know

3.43%

Yes for all assistance because any assistance might harm Palestinians.

19.43%

Not for defensive systems like Iron Dome, but yes for any assistance that might impair the ability to reach a two-state solution or supports Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.

the United States? I know there are good answers to this questions, but we must be prepared to articulate them.

Unlimited military aid to Israel serves to maintain the status quo in the West Bank and Gaza. No one can deny that the status quo is leading toward a one-state solution with no citizenship or property rights for Palestinians.

If we love Israel we won’t let that happen.

The Iron Dome protects innocent Israeli citizens (which includes Christian Arabs and Israeli Muslims). Of course Israel is the only democratic country in the Middle East and should receive all the funding it needs to survive.

At some point the question can expected to be raised, given Israel’s economic strength/ success, why does it still need subsidies from

All aid should be cut off until Israel ends the occupation. We support the continuing repression of another people by continuing our massive aid to Israel. A country whose standard of living is equal to many European countries does NOT need our aid. If they want to be conquerors let them finance it themselves.

student activists. She had no interest in a Sister Souljah moment in which she would demonstrate either her moderate chops or her pro-Israel bona fides. Speaking up for the Jewish state under those circumstances would have undermined the whole point of the appearance and alienated the very leftist base that is the cutting edge of Democratic Party activism these days. Her instincts were to stay silent because that is what she

and many others in her party think are in their best political interests. It was only later when the incident blew up that she and her handlers came to a different conclusion, though it’s likely they still gauge that criticism from pro-Israel groups is a smaller price to pay than the blowback they would have gotten from party activists had she rebuked the student as she should have.

Instead of being a meaningless kerfuffle,

Be careful of your paper’s democratic bias. The party is becoming more and more anti-Semitic.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

If your neighbors, unprovoked, decided to physically attack you or your relatives how would YOU react?

We wouldn’t even be discussing this question if Congress were consistent. We don’t put military assistance restrictions on Saudi Arabia for its horrible human rights abuses, Afghanistan pre-Taliban takeover for its terrible corruption, Jordan for its repression of constitutional rights, Colombia for its tacit support of the drug trade, Nigeria for its environmental destruction, Pakistan for its human rights abuses, or Egypt for its corruption and legislated discrimination.

We don’t even discuss limitations on these countries, but Israel is held to an unreasonably high standard at the same time. My only conclusion is that the unreasonable standard is either due to A) a false premise that Israel should be held to a higher standard as a democracy, or B) antisemitism, or C) both. PJC — Toby Tabachnick more evidence that Harris isn’t up to the challenges of being veep or even the perils of living in a 24/7 news cycle in which no gaffe goes unnoticed, what happened at George Mason University gave us some insight into the lamentable state of discourse on the left about Israel. PJC Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS— Jewish News Syndicate.

OCTOBER 8, 2021 13

Headlines Summit: Continued from page 1

shooting at the Tree of Life building.

“Laura called and said, “We’ve got to do something to make certain that Pittsburgh becomes better known for the way it responded to the attack, as opposed to simply being the site of the attack,” Nordenberg said.

From those initial conversations, the Eradicate Hate Global Summit was born.

Beginning Oct. 18, the city’s David L. Lawrence Convention Center will host the three-day conference featuring a bevy of world leaders, media figures, academics and more.

Keynote speakers will include, among others, former President George W. Bush; CBS news chief, Washington correspondent and host of the podcast “The Takeout,” Major Garrett; Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt; former Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas; CNN personality Fareed Zakaria; and former Pennsylvania Gov. and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.

The conference will host more than 100 featured speakers and panelists, including local experts Kathleen Blee, University of Pittsburgh professor and co-chair of the Collaboratory Against Hate; 10.27 Healing Partnership Director Maggie Feinstein; and Carnegie Mellon University

professor and Tree of Life member Laurie Zittrain Eisenberg.

Nordenberg said that one of the things that differentiates this summit from other anti-hate programs that have been held in Pittsburgh is scale. Ellsworth, he explained, has tapped people in Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles and Europe.

“The reaction from people who are devoting huge parts of their life to this has been the same: No one has done this. No one has brought us together from disparate geographic locations across disciplinary lines with different strategic approaches to counter the spread of hate. She has unlocked a wellspring of interest, commitment and enthusiasm for this project.”

As proof of that commitment, Nordenberg pointed to the fact that the speakers, who can command thousand of dollars in fees, are appearing at no cost, and are even paying their own travel expenses.

Ellsworth said the speakers were moved by the authenticity of the invitation.

“It is real, and it is personal to people here and important to them,” Ellsworth said. “They want to see things get done, they want to see the needle move. They don’t want to just come and talk and go back to their desks. This is structured in such a way to drive change and check in at a future summit and see if you accomplished things.”

Ellsworth stressed that not only recognized experts will be featured at the

summit. For instance, she said, families impacted by hate will also participate.

“One of the panels we were talking about yesterday involved mothers whose children had been recruited online into white supremacist movements playing video games upstairs in their bedroom and the parents had no idea,” Ellsworth said.

The isolation created by COVID-19 has exacerbated online recruitment into hate groups, Ellsworth continued, and that is part of the reason she was adamant the summit not be soley virtual.

In almost all instances, speakers will be appearing in person.

The same goes for attendees. Ellsworth said it’s important that people to experience the seminar in person and have the opportunity to “engage with these people and share their own ideas.” She said there is a livestreaming opportunity, but those participating remotely will miss the chance to experience the summit in person and meet the people, “which is a huge part of what we’re trying to do.”

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge assisted in helping recruit government officials to appear live, Nordenberg said.

In a statement to the Chronicle, Ridge said it’s because of the ubiquitousness of hate that a solution-driven conference like this is needed.

“You can throw a dart at just about any map and it will land on a region impacted by hate-driven acts of violence,” Ridge said.

“That’s how pervasive this challenge is and why the Eradicate Hate Global Summit is so important. I’m pleased to be part of the Summit’s worldwide mission. While we can never truly eradicate hate, I’m confident we can weaken it at its sources and achieve a better, safer future for us all.”

While both Ellsworth and Nordenberg are pleased with what they’ve planned, they realize the summit can’t be a simple one-and-done endeavor.

Nordenberg said the expectation is that, in future years, the summit will move to the Collaboratory Against Hate, a joint research and action center created by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, dedicated to combating extremist hate groups.

“This is going to be a challenge,” he said.

“Part of that challenge will be fundraising but what I think we’re doing is sufficiently distinctive that, while the initiative is physically located in Pittsburgh, there will be people from more distant places who care deeply about stopping the spread of hate.”

The Eradicate Hate Global Summit takes place Oct. 18-20 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

Those interested in registering for the three-day conference can do so at eradicatehatesummit.org. PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

 The 10.27 Healing Partnership’s logo for this year’s commemoration of the Oct. 27 massacre Art provided by the 10.27 Healing Partnership

 Nearly 2,000 people gathered for a public memorial at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum on Oct. 27, 2019.

Photo by Adam Reinherz

Commemoration: Continued from page 1

it is a priority to make it accessible to our older community and to people with any kind of physical disability,” Feinstein said.

“The group was unanimous that Prospect Drive was a great site.”

In August, 11 trees were planted near

14 OCTOBER 8, 2021

Prospect Drive and Hobart Street in honor of the 11 victims murdered Oct. 27, 2018.

Commemoration events begin more than a week before the public ceremony.

Eighteen volunteer opportunities, beginning Oct. 18, were created by Repair the World as part of “Oct. 27: Remember, Reflect in Spirit and Action.” Most will occur on Oct. 24, the date marking the yahrzeit of the 11

people murdered, said Repair the World Program Manager Jess Gold. The volunteer opportunities include tending the earth, community care, civic engagement and health and wellness.

Many of the opportunities were created in conjunction with the victims’ families, Gold said, “in honor of individuals whose lives were lost.”

Other service events include an orchard harvest and weeding, a virtual workshop to advocate for gun safety reform, cemetery cleanup along with the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association, and a blood drive.

Pittsburgh’s Jewish Federation will hold virtual Torah study sessions on both Oct. 24 and Oct. 27. There will be three learning sessions on each day: On Sunday, Oct. 24, the sessions will be offered at 3 p.m., 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. On Wednesday, Oct. 27, sessions will take place at 11 a.m., noon and 1 p.m.

“There are 11 scholars from all over the country and Israel representing the diversity of Jewish Pittsburgh — so, there’s

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Reform, Orthodox, Conservative and Reconstructionist,” said Rabbi Amy Bardack, director of Jewish Life and Learning at the Federation.

A small group representing the affected congregations, victims’ families and survivors helped define the parameters of the 50-minute learning opportunities, Bardack said, based around the themes of remembrance, loss, hope and more.

Torah study, the rabbi explained, has always been a traditional way of honoring the memories of those who have died.

“And we want to keep the memories alive on this yahrzeit date by providing Torah study open to all, as a traditional response to loss,” she said.

More information about the various programs offered, as well as registration, can be found on the 10.27 Healing Partnership website, 1027healingpartnership.org. PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Chevra: Continued from page 2

Grasha, 25, joined the group in February 2020. After attending an NCCK dinner in March 2020, Grasha largely connected with other members digitally for the next 15 months.

He called the Oct. 3 in-person event “restorative.”

Coming together to honor the deceased is “really impactful for us because we have not had that physical connection,

Gyori: Continued from page 5

skill and started throwing money in a nearby cup. The manager recognized Gyori’s ability and quickly offered him a job.

The arrangement, explained Gyori, was that Gyori would play piano in the evenings, but his mornings would be spent cleaning the hotel’s toilets.

Gyori agreed to the position. Several days later, Rabbi Mordecai Finley, a professor of Jewish thought from California, passed through the hotel. He listened to Gyori’s playing before inquiring about the tone.

Why, asked Finley, was Gyori playing the piano with such sadness?

Gyori said he’d come from Czechoslovakia, “with certain dreams of oleh chadash” but was now a toilet cleaner without any idea of what his future would bring.

Gyori followed Finley to Jerusalem and

and we can at least repair some of that loss,” he said.

Grasha is one of NCCK’s youngest and newest members. Joining the group was spurred by an intimate awareness of mortality. At the age of 20, Grasha lost his mother. One year later, his grandmothers died one month apart.

“That connection with a very visceral understanding of death really motivates me,” he said. “I basically just want to return that sort of mitzvah and favor to people who have passed on.”

Standing feet away from Grasha was

Forest Hills resident Marcie Barent.

One week prior to Oct. 3, Barent reached out to Cluss and asked about membership in NCCK. Barent said she’d been aware of the taharah ritual for years and was drawn to its practitioners’ intentionality.

Cluss invited Barent to join the group and attend the service. Barent, alongside other NCCK members, participated in the readings and water pourings. At afternoon’s end, she introduced herself to those nearby and thanked them for welcoming her attendance.

“I was pretty nervous about coming,” she

said. “It can be a very emotional thing.”

The service, she said, gave her pause.

One of the names read was of a high school classmate who Barent didn’t realize had died.

Before exiting the cemetery, Barent chatted with other attendees. She reflected on NCCK’s work and her ability to join the group in its quest to aid the deceased.

“It’s gonna be a real honor for me,” she said. PJC

met up with Finley’s friends, who were also musicians. The group started jamming. As the hours stretched on, they worked their way through Led Zeppelin and The Doors before Gyori was forced to stop when a certain sound left him stumped.

The songs, Gyori said, were those from Jewish summer camps.

When morning came, the group disbanded, but the other players didn’t forget about Gyori. In time, they helped him get a scholarship to Hebrew Union College.

His arrival in the United States was eye-opening. Apart from discovering all-you-can-eat restaurants, Gyori learned about Jewish peoplehood.

Prior to reaching the States, it was difficult to find a place: As a child in eastern Slovakia, being Jewish often resulted in fistfights with other kids. And in Israel, Gyori was a blond-haired blue-eyed Eastern European who wasn’t accepted as Israeli. The U.S., however, was somewhere people could

feel Jewish without having to “discuss their Jewishness,” he said.

Gyori’s understanding of Judaism and his role within the faith was evolving. He said he was thoroughly enjoying his American stay, but when his scholarship funders said it was time to aid Eastern European Jewry he obliged.

Upon returning home, Gyori became a Jewish professional in Prague and helped revitalize a synagogue there. He worked alongside other religious leaders and used music as a means of creating interfaith partnerships. He organized concerts that blended artistic styles and welcomed ambassadors from across the Middle East.

The pandemic disrupted Gyori’s in-person gatherings, but throughout the last year, as part of his Light of Understanding project, Gyori met virtually with Jewish communities worldwide, explaining the importance of unification and how his time in Israel and the states helped forge his Jewish identity.

As he mentioned to the more-than-100 participants of the Classrooms Without Borders program, it would have been comfortable to remain in California or elsewhere in the States, “but I would have been maybe one of many.”

By returning to Eastern Europe, “I became a big fish in a little pond.”

There are 3,900 Jews living in the Czech Republic, according to the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research.

Ellen Resnick, Classrooms Without Borders’ educational outreach and programs manager, praised Gyori’s fascinating life and communal involvement. She described his “diplomacy through art” as a valuable takeaway of the Sept. 30 program.

“All I can say is, I’m very very happy,” Gyori said. “I live my dream.” PJC

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

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

Accused Pittsburgh synagogue Chronicle recognized for shooter given extension of time outstanding journalism, earns two Golden Quill awards to plead insanity

T

he Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle was recognized for outstanding journalism by the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania at the Golden Quill Awards ceremony on Sept. 28. Staff writers Adam Reinherz and David Rullo both won firstplace awards for their writing.

Reinherz was awarded a Golden Quill for Excellence in Written Journalism in the Profile category for “COVID Nurse Shares Observations From New York City.” Rullo won a Golden Quill for Excellence in Written Journalism in the Arts/Entertainment category, for “‘Hello Darkness, My Old Friend’ Recounts Friendship Between Author and Art Garfunkel.”

The Chronicle was a finalist for 10 additional awards. Reinherz was a finalist in the following categories: News Feature (“South Oakland Corner Dedicated to Late Holocaust Survivor”); History/Culture (“Rabbi’s Pandemic Edicts Saves Lives During Cholera

Crisis of 1831”); Education (“Leslie Frischman’s Sidewalk Math Equals Neighborhood Fun”); and Sports (“Clear the Way for the Goldmans Because They’re Not Slowing Down”).

Rullo was a finalist for: Traditional Feature (“Tuesdays With Jon and Helen,” “Late Checkout: Rabbi and Family Wait Out Pandemic 2,400 Miles From Home”); and Lifestyle (“Community Adapts Jewish Rituals During Coronavirus Crisis”).

Chronicle editor Toby Tabachnick was a finalist for: News Feature (“Two Years Later, Wounded Victims of Synagogue Shooting Staying Strong”); Profile (“Downtown Rabbi Weathers Pandemic With a Little Help From His Friends”); and Columns/Blogs (“Not Moving on But Moving Forward,” “Moving Beyond Our Differences to See the Bigger Picture,” and,“The Unique Challenges and Opportunities of Being a 2020 Grad”). PJC — Toby Tabachnick

T

he man accused of murdering 11 Jews in the Tree of Life building on Oct. 27, 2018, has been granted a six-week extension of time to declare whether he will be seeking an insanity defense.

On Sept. 30, Judge Donetta Ambrose granted the extension of the deadline, previously set for Oct. 1. The defendant’s attorneys had asked for an extension until Dec. 15, citing the pandemic, among other things, as reason for their delay in gathering information pertinent in forming their decision whether to assert insanity.

“While Defendant’s request is well taken, so are the Government’s opposing arguments,” Ambrose wrote in her decision granting the extension of time, albeit for a shorter period than counsel for the defendant requested.

No trial date has been set yet in this case, although the murders were perpetrated almost three years ago.

Pursuant to Rule 12.2 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, a defendant intending to assert an insanity defense must notify the prosecution in writing within a time set by the court.

“The defense has made substantial progress,” the defense attorneys asserted in their motion for an extension of time. “However, despite diligent efforts, counsel do not yet have the information needed to make an informed and competent decision regarding Rule 12.2 notice.”

In response, prosecution attorneys wrote: “Beginning on January 22, 2020, and continuing to the present, the United States has filed numerous pleadings urging this Court to advance the mental health aspect of this capital prosecution, an issue that will require lengthy processes to resolve. ... The defendant, at every turn, has resisted.” PJC — Toby Tabachnick

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OCTOBER 8, 2021 15

Life & Culture ‘Velvet Underground’ withstands test of time — LOCAL —

By Sasha Rogelberg | Contributing Writer

B

efore Lou Reed proclaimed, “My God is rock ’n’ roll,” The Velvet Underground front man was a Jewish boy who grew up in Freeport, Long Island, with Russian refugee grandparents. He was born Lewis Allan Reed — though his grandparents changed their family name from “Rabinowitz” to “Reed.”

The boy with a love for the “Murray the K” radio show grew into an amateur musician who played — and got arrested — at gay bars, who became the leader of the iconic rock ’n’ roll band the Velvet Underground with the help of pop artist Andy Warhol and New York’s finest anti-establishment creatives.

“The Velvet Underground,” produced and directed by Jewish filmmaker Todd Haynes, unravels the story of Reed and his eccentric cohort of avant-garde artists, cementing the titular band as one that will live on long after its dissolution and the deaths of its members.

The documentary will be available on AppleTV+ on Oct. 15 Haynes’ film — his first documentary, but not his first film to draw inspiration from Reed — is a mosaic of video clips and photographs: Reed as a baby, New York in the ’60s, a precious collection of 2018 interviews with Velvet Underground band members and their peers.

The sheer volume of Haynes’ archive is impressive, yet the curation of clips and photos somehow manage to be greater than the sum of their parts.

Haynes doesn’t shy away from Reed’s notoriety as abrasive and petulant, but rather tries to provide an explanation for it.

Reed was socially anxious and underwent electroconvulsive therapy at the request of his parents, who suspected him of having “homosexual urges.” He began using drugs in high school.

He dropped out of New York University after one-and-a-half semesters, transferring to Syracuse University, where friends say he developed an at-times bitter personality.

Early bandmates recall Reed punching drum sets if they missed a note or beat; Reed demanded perfection.

Yet time seemed to tame Reed a bit, as did the synergy between bandmates Moe Tucker, Sterling Morrison and John Cale. Their improvisations pushed the boundaries of what rock ’n’ roll — and music — could entail.

The Velvet Underground was unique, but Reed wanted to be cemented as a rock star, a feat which couldn’t have been made possible without Warhol, the band’s producer, who, in the band’s early days, would sit silently in the studio, session after session.

Warhol recruited German actress and model Nico, whose “ghostly” beauty and elegance foiled the band’s untidy sound and aesthetic.

Without Warhol’s signature pop art

p Lou Reed proclaimed that “My God is rock ’n’ roll,” hoping to become a famous musician at a young age.

banana on their debut album’s cover, the Velvet Underground would likely not have experienced the stardom they did.

Conversely, when Warhol and Reed’s relationship soured and Nico left to pursue an independent musical career, the Velvet Underground’s sound and synergism faltered, though the band continued creating music together for several more years.

Though the Velvet Underground was revived in the 1990s, the zeitgeist of the 1960s that helped create the band’s renown was long gone.

In its prime playing as part of Warhol’s Plastic Exploding Inevitable, the Velvet Underground would have images of polka dots and scenes from Warhol’s reels projected behind it during performances, prompting sensory overload for the audience.

Haynes employs a similar technique to his documentary: Over the narration of Cale, Tucker and musician and Velvet Underground protege Jonathan Richman, among other artists of the time, Haynes fills the screen with swirling geometric shapes and musical performances and footage sped up or slowed down.

To some, the indulgent use of archival footage may seem excessive, distracting from the documentary’s narrative. To Haynes, it’s emblematic of the 1960s epoch.

“Painters, musicians, filmmakers — they were not so much interested in telling narrative stories,” said Jonas Mekas, a Lithuanian-American avant-garde filmmaker, in the film. “The poetic aspect of cinema brought cinema to the level of the other parts.”

Courtesy of AppleTV+

p From left: Moe Tucker, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Lou Reed

Throughout the documentary, Haynes makes his fascination with the passing of time clear.

The story of Reed and the Velvet Underground digresses at one point to explain the evocative 1963 “Kiss” film by Warhol.

The 50-minute silent film is broken up into three-and-a-half-minute segments, each of a pair of people of various genders and races kissing each other. The film is shown at 16 frames per second, slower than the speed of the subjects while they were being filmed.

“The people in those images are breathing, and their hearts are beating in a different time frame than yours is when you watch it,”

film critic Amy Taubin said.

And as if he were a ghost, Reed’s voice appears and disappears throughout the documentary, coloring the black-and-white footage with his commentary, bringing archival clips — and the musician behind them — to life.

For a minute, the audience can forget that Reed’s presence in the documentary is only posthumous, that he died on Oct. 27, 2013 — a Sunday morning. PJC Sasha Rogelberg is a staff writer for the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia, an affiliated publication.

www.pittsburghjewishchronicle.org 16 OCTOBER 8, 2021

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Life & Culture Formidable fruits: Squeezing the most out of etrogim — RELIGION —

By Sasha Rogelberg | Contributing Writer

S

ukkot is meant to celebrate the beauty of impermanence, symbolized by the temporary structure under which one dwells.

However, after chag, there’s one ritual item — the etrog — that some are reluctant to part with, as its scent is emblematic of the holiday’s rich themes of harvest. It’s also exorbitantly priced.

“You paid $70 for a lemon!” said Gratz College President Zev Eleff, who authored “The History of the Etrog in America,” which appeared in Segula magazine in August.

Perhaps because of its steep cost, or perhaps for sentimental reasons, Jews are turning to creative epicurean ventures to make the most of the citrus following Sukkot.

Though fragrant, the smell of an etrog is a bit deceiving. The fruit is bitter if eaten raw, due to the thick white pith that dominates the inside of the fruit below its delicate and oily rind. If one were to squeeze an etrog and expect juice to flow out of the fruit like a lemon, they would be disappointed.

“You can kind of think of an etrog as a citrus fruit that puts all its energy into fragrance; it’s all about the oil,” Philadelphiabased chef and food writer Aliza Green said.

Yet home cooks and chefs alike have managed to turn the formidable fruit into something delicious anyway, using the pectin-rich pith to create thick and syrupy etrog marmalade.

Green offsets the bitterness of the fruit by slicing it and soaking it in syrup, though etrogim can also be boiled — once in water and again in simple syrup — to candy it.

Greg Kirkpatrick of Lindcove Ranch in Lemon Cove, California, the country’s only commercial etrog grower, suggests a riff on limoncello.

By peeling etrogim rinds and soaking them in the highest proof alcohol available, one can have a fragrant liqueur after about two months of waiting.

Along with the plethora of dishes that can

 Yaakov Rothberg, owner of Esrogei California, who helps Lindcove Ranch with marketing Photo by David Karp

 The bitterness of etrogim can be tamed by slicing the fruit and soaking them in syrup.

Photo courtesy of Aliza Green

be made with etrogim are the plethora of varieties of the fruit.

According to Green, Moroccan etrogim are preferred by Sephardic Jews and aren’t commonly found in America; the Diamonte variety, popular among Lubavitch Jews, is grown in the Calabria region of Italy.

Yemenite etrogim are the most rotund; Balady, or native, etrogim are grown in Israel; and within the Balady variety, there are Halperin, Braverman and Chazon Ish etrogim, among others.

Green sources many of her etrogim from Lindcove Ranch, which grows five varieties of etrog and is experimenting with a sixth.

She deviates from many Jews who prefer to ship in the citrus from Israel, preferring fruit grown for consumption.

In Israel, etrog farms abound, but because the fruit is prone to pests and fungus, chemical interventions must be taken to protect the fruit. If the rind becomes too blemished, the fruit is no longer deemed kosher.

“They’re not really grown to be consumed,” said Rebbetzen Reuvena Grodnitzky from Mamash! Chabad in Center City. “They have a very intense level of pesticides.”

“It’s especially useful after cooking a strong-smelling dinner or when having people over,” du Plessis said.

Though not typically edible, etrogim from Israel still have an advantage over their U.S.grown counterparts, Eleff said.

“As American Judaism embraces Zionism more and more ... Jews — Orthodox, Conservative and Reform — are taking on the mitzvah of the etrog, not just because of religious sensibilities, but also because it’s in concert with their Zionist fealty,” Eleff said.

Though Eleff joked about the priciness of etrogim, he was insistent that their lingering beyond the holidays, whether in the form of a snack, drink — or even dried and piled in a bowl in the kitchen — is remarkable.

“In a time in which there’s a lot of questions about continuity and observance, here’s an example of how people try ... to extend that meaning,” Eleff said. “The liqueurs and the jams and the like are an example of how we pour our religion into all sorts of spaces.” PJC

At Lindcove Ranch, however, though some pesticides are used, threats to the etrog trees are thwarted by the growth of avocado trees, which are resistant against fungal growths.

But growing etrogim is no easy feat.

Kirkpatrick has worked with local farms to grow the fruit, but there have been 13 failed attempts.

“People just think they can throw seeds in the ground and make a lot of money, but it just doesn’t happen,” Kirkpatrick said.

Israeli etrogim are easier to grow, but it comes at the cost of the etrog’s taste.

Because she sources her etrogim from Israel, Grodnitzky opts to dry out the fruits and use them as besamim for Havdalah.

Before the etrogim dry, she and her children, each with their own etrog, pierce the fruit’s flesh with aromatic cloves.

Tova du Plessis, the pastry chef behind Essen in South Philadelphia, takes a similar approach, boiling etrogim with cinnamon stick and sage, or whatever herbs and spices she has in the house. Lavender stems, rosemary, cloves and eucalyptus are popular in her household.

The fragrance of the simmer pot acts like a scented candle, refreshing a space.

Sasha Rogelberg is a staff writer for the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia, an affiliated publication.

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OCTOBER 8, 2021 17

Celebrations

Torah

B’nei Mitzvah

Sukkahs, arks and towers Ari Jacob Paris will become a bar mitzvah on Saturday, Oct. 9, 2021, at Chabad of Squirrel Hill. Ari is the son of Robert and Julie Paris and the older brother of Judah. He is the grandson of David and Rochele Paris of Squirrel Hill, Rodney Fink of Roslyn Farms, and the late DeDe Fink (z”l). Ari is a seventh-grader at Environmental Charter School. He enjoys playing basketball and tennis, reading, watching sports and spending his summers at Emma Kaufmann Camp. For his mitzvah project, Ari is raising money for the Israel Fire and Rescue Authority through Jewish National Fund.

Gavri Gilboa is the son of Drs. Noam and Deborah Gilboa, brother of Ari, Nadav, and Oren Gilboa, grandson of the late Arlyn and Nisan Gilboa (z”l), Arthur Goldberg and Renee Ramo, and the late Bernice Goldberg (z”l). Gavri is in the seventh grade at Community Day School. He is a Cadet Senior Airman in the Civil Air Patrol, Squadron 602. Gavri is involved in Young Judea as well. Gavri will celebrate becoming a bar mitzvah with Congregation Beth Shalom on Oct. 9, 2021.

Rabbi Ron Symons Parshat Noach | Genesis 6:9 - 11:32

I

write these words as I contemplate when I might take down my sukkah at the end of Sukkot. I love Sukkot for the natural elements that make it a unique fall harvest, for the spiritual impulses that allow us to invite guests of ages past into our sukkah and for the spiritual practice of waving lulav and etrog.

Most importantly, I love Sukkot because I get to build a sukkah. Our sukkah design at home is one that was influenced by the sukkah I grew up in in Temple Emanu-El of Lynbrook, New York. That sukkah, centered in our temple’s biblical garden, was expertly constructed of lattice and 2-by-2 lumber, stained a dark brown, without a wayward piece of lattice to be found. Wherever I have tried to duplicate that sukkah, in our child-

frustration with it because of the monolithic nature of communication. Ultimately, humanity was dispersed across the earth and across languages so that we could not rise up together again in one voice.

How sad for us? Our attempt to make a name for ourselves and to rise to heaven was thwarted way back when, even as we might strive for unity of humanity today. It seems like the message of the Tower of Babel is that we should not try to work together.

That’s what I thought until I came across the wisdom of Rabbi Mary Zamore, executive director of the Women’s Rabbinic Network, an affiliate of the Central Conference of American Rabbis: Now I see the Babel text differently. In contrast to their living as 70 different nations, the humans were able to create peace and harmony among themselves only when they were united by place, language, and mission. God foiled their plan and scattered them — and us, their descendants

The answer to the pre-Flood humanagainst-human violence is not evolving into a homogenous unit; only when we learn

Samantha Micayla Rosenberg, daughter of Michele and Rob Rosenberg, became a bat mitzvah, Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021. Samantha attends Mellon Middle School and enjoys swimming, ice skating and being with friends.

She is on student council, loves animals, researching history, reading and art. She continues to study the Holocaust and participated in the “Remembering the Children” project. She is a Beth El regular and loves to do for others. Samantha was happy to finally make this simcha official, after waiting 364 days. She was thrilled to be surrounded by loved ones to share this special moment and held the memory of those who were not able to be here close to her heart. Samantha is the granddaughter of the late Herzel and Betty Fakiro.

Engagement Larry and Adrienne Savitz are thrilled to announce the engagement of their daughter, Jessica Savitz to Derek Grossman, son of Barry and Caryn Grossman. They met on a dating app when Derek moved to Pittsburgh and have both been helping to grow Chabad Young Professionals over the past two years while dating. Jessica was born and raised in Squirrel Hill. She received a BFA in theater performance from Ohio University. She currently teaches and directs with Gemini Children’s Theater and Civic Light Opera (CLO). Derek is from Long Island, has a bachelor’s degree in animal sciences from Ohio State and a master’s degree in zoo management from Colorado State. He has worked in fundraising for the Pittsburgh Zoo and recently oversaw Women’s Philanthropy for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. He just began a role in major gifts fundraising for the Wildlife Conservation Society, which oversees the New York City zoos and aquarium. They will be getting married at Beth Shalom in Pittsburgh over Memorial Day Weekend of 2023. Here is a picture of the two of them right after the proposal at Woodloch Pines Resort. PJC 18 OCTOBER 8, 2021

to co-exist as different nations, cultures, religions, lifestyles, and languages will we find true peace. hood home and then our family homes in New York, Boston and Pittsburgh, I have never succeeded in making our sukkah as pristine as that childhood prototype.

Don’t get me wrong, I love our sukkah and its predecessors, not because of the design — although I am proud of its Lynbrook origins — but because of the shared effort it has taken over the years to design it, build it, assemble it, unassemble it and store it until the next Sukkot.

Over the years, all of us in the family have taken part in building, assembling, and decorating. I learned that process, too, from Temple Emanu-El where everyone from religious school to youth group, to sisterhood, to men’s club would help year after year as we prepared for Sukkot.

And now, with Sukkot behind us, we have two examples of building projects in this week’s Torah portion, Noach. Both the building of the ark and the Tower of Babel sit in a deep place of collective memory, even for those who have limited exposure to the Bible. Both projects required individuals to transform the world around them to survive and better suit their needs. That’s where the similarities end. After all, the ark was built by one man as his neighbors mocked him for decades while the tower was built by an entire community. The project of building the ark appeared to succeed by protecting the animals and Noah’s family from the waters of the flood; but it only protected them, and not his neighbors. They, alone, lived to see the world the day after the rain stopped. The project of building the tower appeared to fail when God expressed

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

— to send a strong message, one still needed today. True peace, true unity lies in respectful diversity. The answer to the pre-Flood humanagainst-human violence is not evolving into a homogenous unit; only when we learn to co-exist as different nations, cultures, religions, lifestyles, and languages will we find true peace.

Her embrace of diversity as a message of the Tower of Babel was echoed by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks when he wrote, “… they are attempting to frustrate God’s command in Genesis One, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.’ They attempt to concentrate in a city. And we have this critique throughout the Bible of urban civilisation.” The goal of creation was always for us to spread far and wide and live diverse lives.

The truth is that when we arrived to “build” the sukkah at Temple Emanu-El, it was already built. You see, Charlie, the Temple caretaker and his diverse staff of non-Jews had already built the frame. The job of the young and old, inexperienced and experienced, was to put the corn stalks on the walls and the roof. We built that sukkah year after year on a foundation of diversity.

That’s how we need to build community today, tomorrow, and the next day. PJC Rabbi Ron Symons is the senior director of Jewish Life and the director of the Center for Loving Kindness at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.

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Obituaries ANOLIK: Paul J. Anolik, age 74, passed away peacefully on Monday, Sept. 27, 2021. He was preceded in death by his parents, Bernard “Ben” Anolik and Esther Anolik; and his brother and sister-in-law, Alan and Patty Anolik. Survived by children Ben Anolik, Shana (Taylor) Farley, Jirod (Kierstin) Finn and Hannah Finn; grandchildren, Stella Farley and Scarlet Finn; sister Sherry (John) Greenberg; brothers, Michael (Abbe) Anolik, Danny (Gail) Anolik, Irwin Anolik and Steve (Lisa) Anolik; beloved uncle of many dear nieces, nephews, and great-nieces and great-nephews. Paul also will be missed by friends who knew him throughout his lifetime. Services and interment were private. Contributions may be made to The Jewish Association on Aging, 200 JHF Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15217, jaapgh.org/ or charity of your choice. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com GOLIN: Sanford Golin, 92, sailor, scholar and beloved family patriarch, died on Sept. 22 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, after a brief stay in hospice. He was a long-time Mt. Lebanon resident, who had retired to Florida and then moved to North Carolina. Better known by his nicknames Uncle Sonny, Grandpa Joe, Dad and just plain “Joe,” Sanford was a warm, funny guy with a passion for travel and a

wide-ranging interest in human nature. He trained as a psychologist and was known to respond to questions from his children and grandchildren with his own question: “What do you think?” It was a sincere inquiry — he really did want to know. He was also an avid fan of chocolate ice cream, college basketball, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Boston Red Sox. But his first love was family. He was born on July 24, 1929, in Providence, Rhode Island, to Nathan Golin and Sophie (Lecht) Golin. He spent his early years at the center of a large extended family of immigrants and first-generation Americans. Sonny, as he was known then, lived in a multifamily dwelling with his sister Evelyn, his parents, grandparents, many aunts and uncles. The Bubbe and the Zayde, his maternal grandparents, were the heart of this Jewish household. The youngest of the family, Sonny was the darling of his aunts and grandmother. When they wanted him to drink his milk, they would prepare homemade fudge for him as encouragement. He never did lose his sweet tooth, and later in life, his favorite fudge shop was the Candy Manor in Chatham, Massachusetts, where he vacationed for more than 50 years. Sonny was smart and athletic, earning a spot at Classical High School in Providence, where he also was captain of the basketball team. After high school, he enrolled at Brown University, where he had won a scholarship. He graduated from Brown with a B.A. in psychology in 1951. After college, he volunteered for the Army, and he took the nickname Joe,

which stuck with him the rest of his life.

Growing up in an immigrant household, he rejected many of the “Old World” ideas brought by his relatives from the Ukrainian town of Machelik. He believed scientific investigation offered a better path to explaining the world. He earned a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Iowa and became a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, where he published research on depression and trained generations of young psychologists over a 30-year career. While in graduate school, he met Anne Keefe and they married in 1957, raising their three children, Carol, Eric and Sarah, in Pittsburgh. The young family spent summers at Cape Cod, a destination that held a special place in his heart, and also spent much time sailing in the Chesapeake Bay on their sloop, The Kathy.

He divorced, and in 1987, he married Jane Berkey, of Pittsburgh. They spent many years in their cherished city, taking vacations with their combined families of five children and 11 grandchildren. Joe had also been close with his son-in-law, Andy Kaplan, Carol’s husband, who died suddenly at the age of 47. Joe and Jane enjoyed traveling extensively together and sailed regularly in the Chesapeake Bay and the Caribbean with a close group of friends. They retired to West Palm Beach, Florida, and at the age of 80, Joe took the psychologist’s licensing exam in Florida, partly just to see if he could do it. He spent a lot of time studying his index cards and passed the exam. Being fully licensed, he took a job as a consultant in an office in

Miami, where he worked two days a week up until age 87. During the pandemic, he moved in with Carol at her home in Chapel Hill and was able to wait out the quarantine with Carol and her dog, Furby, by his side. Last month, Joe was at a family reunion in Kure Beach, North Carolina, with his children and many of his grandchildren. It was the first time they had been together since the pandemic, and at dinner, he made a short speech, saying: “I recently had a 92nd birthday. And I just want to say I am so glad you all are here, and I am here to celebrate, for nothing means more than family.” Joe is survived by his wife, Jane Berkey, of Delray Beach, Florida; his children, Dr. Carol Golin, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Dr. Eric (Marion) Golin, of Newton, Massachusetts, and Sarah (Dan Gerger) Golin, of Maplewood, New Jersey; his stepchildren, Sue (Doug) Sesserman of Denver, Colorado, Paul (Lisa) Berkey, of West Bloomfield, Michigan; his grandchildren, James Golin, Anna Golin, Daniel Kaplan, Emily Kaplan, Jeffrey Gerger, Tommy Gerger and Vanessa Gerger; his step-grandchildren, Georgeta Sesserman, Mariana Sesserman, Sarah Berkey (Moshe) Lencer, Jack Berkey; his sister, Evelyn Baron, of Detroit, Michigan; and his nephews, Jeffrey, Tony and Dan Baron and their wives and children. Charitable contributions in his memory can be made to a charity of one’s choice.

Please see Obituaries, page 20

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Subject to exception, I generally prefer you not spend your Roth IRA dollars unless there is a compelling reason. The Roth IRA grows income

tax-free for the rest of your life, your spouse’s life and for 10 years after you and your spouse are gone. In addition, there is no required minimum distribution for you or your spouse with a Roth IRA. So, in general, the last dollars you want to spend are your Roth IRA dollars. Of course, there may be time when it makes sense to spend your Roth dollars before other retirement plan dollars if it keeps you in a lower tax bracket.

That said, subject to exceptions, you and your spouse will realize a benefit by deferring the income taxes due on your retirement plans for as long as possible and generally hold off on spending your Roth IRA. And with the SECURE Act now part of the law, your children, and grandchildren (subject to some important exceptions, which I will cover in Chapter 5) will have to pay income taxes on the Inherited Traditional IRA within 10 years of your death.

A New Wrinkle in our Bedrock Principle Since the passage of the SECURE Act, which will be explained in Chapter 5, however, adhering to the pay-taxes-later rule in the distribution stage might not always be the best advice. With income tax rates likely on the rise, for some professors it might make more sense to plan for a transition from the taxable world (most TIAA accounts, IRAs, retirement assets, etc.) to the taxfree world (Roth IRAs, 529 plans, life insurance, your children’s Roth IRAs, etc.). To get the best result, it is best to analyze each situation on a case-by-case basis.

Spend the Right Money First*

Spend After-Tax Savings First Spend IRA Savings First

* Detailed assumptions can be found at https://paytaxeslater.com/graph/

In short, the SECURE Act dramatically accelerates the taxes on your retirement plan after your death. For your children, losing the lifetime stretch on an inherited retirement account can carry a huge tax burden. I will cover this idea more in Chapter 5.

One reasonable strategy for some professors with significant IRAs and retirement plans who will not likely spend all their money is to make taxable withdrawals from the retirement plan and/or IRA, pay the tax, and then gift the net proceeds. The gift could be invested in something that grows tax-free like a 529 plan, your children’s Roth IRAs, life insurance, etc. That serves the purpose of getting some money out of your estate and allows tax-free growth for your children.

As a result, for many faculty members, an earlier transition from the taxable world to the taxfree world might work better than the standard rule of “pay taxes later.”

The foregoing content from Lange Financial Group, LLC is for informational purposes only, subject to change, and should not be construed as investment or tax advice. Those seeking personalized guidance should seek a qualified professional.

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OCTOBER 8, 2021 19

Obituaries Obituaries: Continued from page 19

HERMAN: Rita P. Herman was known for her love of children and flowers, for her generous spirit, and for her devotion to family and to friends from all walks of life. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Rita attended Peabody High School and graduated with honors from the University of Pittsburgh, where she met her husband, Emil W. Herman, ob”m. They married in 1957. Rita taught at Falk School, and later in Penn Hills, becoming a master first-grade teacher. She taught hundreds of children to read, including those with special needs, dyslexia and even deaf children. Mrs. Herman, together with her husband, embraced a traditional Jewish life in the early 1970s, when they enrolled their oldest two children in Yeshiva Schools and began attending the Lubavitch Center.

A pivotal moment in her life was meeting the Lubavitcher Rebbe in a private audience, where he expressed his hope that they would inspire others to connect with their Judaism in a deeper way. Rita and her husband went on to become pillars of the Yeshiva community.

Under the leadership of Rabbi Sholom Posner and Mrs. Keny Deren, z”l, she worked tirelessly to enhance the English department of Yeshiva Schools. Rita had a unique vision for a reading center and brought in students and artists to paint the walls and decorate the space. Then she partnered with the University of Pittsburgh to implement a state-of-the-art individualized reading and math program, unlike any in the city. Rita actively cultivated and maintained

relationships with friends from grade school, from college and with her neighbors, both old and new. One of Rita’s passions was gardening, `and she was well known for the way that she shared her flowers with others for their Shabbat tables and for those who needed centerpieces for weddings. After retiring from teaching, Rita’s creativity in children’s education led her to create a computer program to teach keyboard typing to elementary school students. Within the last year, she published her first children’s book, “Be Like the Sun.” Mrs. Herman died of pneumonia on Sept.

21, at Mercy Hospital. She was 85. Rita was predeceased by her husband Emil Herman.

She is survived by a daughter, Devorah Leah Rosenfeld of Brooklyn, New York; two sons, Rabbi Pinchas Herman of Miami, Florida, and Rabbi Aaron Herman, of Pittsburgh; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, as well as nieces and nephews who loved her deeply.

Graveside services were held on Sept. 30, at Cneseth Israel Cemetery, with her son, Rabbi Pinchas Herman, officiating. Memorial contributions may be made to the Rita P. Herman Jewish Education Fund, and sent to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, 2000 Technology Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.

MILLER: Philip H. Miller, 89, passed away after a long illness on Sept. 29, 2021. He is survived by his loving wife Margaret “Bunny” Miller; children Dr. Stuart (Dr. Jacqueline) Miller, Joel (Rebecca) Miller,

Jewish Association on Aging gratefully acknowledges contributions from the following: A gift from …

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Anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bella Cohen Marcie Greenfield. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Liuba Horvitz Kaddish Amy R. Kamin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Louis Kaddell Janice Mankin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sanford Mankin Rona Mustin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mary R. Sachs Mr. & Mrs. Neil Rosenstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Rosenstein Andrea J. Sattler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Michael Sattler Rhoda F. Sikov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Myer Rose Ruth Yahr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Miriam Yahr

and Gayle (Jan) Tesman; sister Morlee (John Ertlmeier) Miller; brother Melvin Miller; eight grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. He is predeceased by his parents, Sam and Minnie Miller of Butler, Pennsylvania. An accountant with devoted clients, Phil enjoyed playing golf and was a lifetime bridge master.

Services were held at Temple David. Interment Homewood Cemetery. Contributions may be made to Temple David, 4415 Northern Pike, Monroeville, PA 15146 or Crossroads Food Pantry, 2310 Haymaker Road, Monroeville, PA 15146. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com RASCOE: Todd E. Rascoe, on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021, peacefully, with his wife by his side. Todd was the beloved husband for 35 years of Batia, a devoted father to Shira (Ben), Ariel and Amallia Rascoe, and the proud son of Eric (Ann Bregman Rascoe) and the late Jeanne Rascoe; son-in-law of the late Dov and Yehudit Scheinin; brother of Rabbi Michael Rascoe, the late David Rascoe, Beth Rascoe Kilinc; brother-in-law of Betsy Rascoe, Aykut Kilinc, Zofnat and Aviad (Shani) Scheinin; also survived by many nieces and nephews in the U.S. and Israel.

Todd Rascoe graduated from Mt. Lebanon High School and went on to Carnegie Mellon University where he earned a degree in applied mathematics and computer science. Todd was a pioneer in software development and had an international career that spanned four continents in Israel, Germany, South Africa and the United States. Todd brought his family back to Pittsburgh to care for his mother, and joined his father and brother at Thermal Industries.

First his mother, then his brother David, and ultimately he himself succumbed to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), but this did not define him. A leader in his professional life and in his community, he brought his experience and expertise to his many community roles, including at Congregation Beth Shalom and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. Todd had a deep passion for Israel, and worked tirelessly to build connections between Pittsburgh and Israeli communities. Graveside services and interment were held at Mt. Lebanon Cemetery, Beth El Section. The family will announce a fund

for donations in Todd’s memory. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family-owned and operated, 412-621-8282.

Visit schugar.com for contribution details.

ROTHMAN: Susan C. Rothman, age 72, of Los Angeles, formerly of West Palm Beach and Pittsburgh, on Sept. 8, 2021, from injuries sustained in an accident while vacationing with family in Wyoming. Susan was predeceased by her parents, Bernice Bloomfield Cohen and Paul Cohen, and by her son, Matt Rothman. Devoted wife of 50 years to David Rothman, M.D., loving mother to Michael (Celia) Rothman of Los Angeles and Marc (Sara) Rothman of Chicago.

Sister and best friend of Ilene Cohen-Leefer (Ed Leefer) of Upper St. Clair and West Palm Beach and Marcia (Dennis) Seremet of West Palm Beach. Sister-in-law to Susan (Howard) Dorfman of West Orange, New Jersey. Adoring and adored GramMe to Charlotte and Claire of Los Angeles and Aaron, Samantha and Lydia of Chicago. Susan was a positive realist, fiercely loyal, and an organizer, moving through life with purpose and a plan. She instilled a sense of self confidence and esteem in her children and was working that magic on her grandchildren. Her light was put to rest too soon but she will live on in all who loved her. Arrangements were private. Contributions can be made to Alzheimers Association or Brain and Behavior Research Foundation.

SHEPMAN: Shirley C. Shepman, on Friday, Oct. 1, 2021. Beloved wife of the late Dr. Bernard H. Shepman. Loving mother of Ilene (Michael) Levy, Maxine Shepman and Bruce (Meghan Clark) Shepman. Sister of the late Paul (Bernice) Cohen, Ina (Saul) Paransky and Jean (Ed) Rothman. Bubbe of Mollie (Leland) Pepper, Marissa Levy, Madalyn Levy and Patrick Clark. Great-grandmother of Skylar Pepper. Also survived by nieces and nephews. Services and interment were private.

Contributions may be made to Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 or Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, 5738 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com PJC

THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday October 10: Phillip Americus, Claire Ann Block, Fanny C. Caplan, Ethel Epstein, Ida Sadowsky Frankel, Jack Goldman, Feige Gottlieb, Rae Hadburg, Nachame Levine Horvitz, William I. Isaacson, Ida A. Klodell, Krash Lois Snyder, Alvin S. Mundel, Gertrude Palkovitz, Morris Pattak, Frank Silverberg Monday October 11: Janice Gay Barovsky, Anne Tauber Dym, Meyer Jacobs, Louis Kaddell, Fannie Klein, Elizabeth Rothstein, Saul Schilit, Molly Schutte, William Schwartz, Frank Shakespeare, Gilbert Shepse, Freda Ulzheimer, Abe Wekselman, Tuesday October 12: Jules Joseph Anatole, Hyman Bales, Albert Blumenthal, Rachel Cohen, Jennie B. Glass, Minnie Hoffman, Louis Kaddell, Robert Klein, Jerome Meyer, Sylvia Steinberger Moskovitz, Arthur B. Moss, Helen Sachs, Michael Stone, Wolfe Tex, Roxine M. Weinthal Wednesday October 13: Milton Cohen, Rose Elinow, Fannie Titlebaum Frank, Elizabeth S. Kalovsky, Frank Mayer Marcosky, Dr. Geneva Markus, Mary Opter, Elaine R. Rubin, Morris Spector, Fae Velardi, Dorothy Weinberg, Harry Wishnev Thursday October 14: Sol Feinberg, Isadore Feldman, Milton Gottlieb, Sylvia R. Melnick, Rose Ratowsky Ohl, Minnie Toig Pearlman, Louis Rosner, Harry Sparks, Regina Brown Wand, Sarah Weinbaum Friday October 15: Pauline Berzosky, Anna Birnkrant, Leonard Farber, Hanna Ficks, Jeanette Kohen Kuperstock, Hannah Rae Levine*, Barnett Marcus, Lillian Pretter, Henry Rosenfeld, Sam Schllessinger, Peter Shaffer, Meyer Shepman, Alberta Myers Walken, Adolph Weitzen, Miriam Yahr, Max Zweig Saturday October 16: Mildred Caplan, Frances Citron, Marcia Green Farbstein, Eva Frank, Reva Cohen Goldberg, Elinor Sarah Goldman, Sarah B. Gordon, Lawrence L. Green, Rose K. Judd, Jacob Levinson, Samuel Nathan, Jerrilyn Ruth Perilman, Sara Recht, Sam Sambol, Herman Solow, David Srulson, Tobe L. Unger, Dora Sriglitz Wechsler

20 OCTOBER 8, 2021

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Community Reunion in the sukkah

Having fun at the farm

Ari and Rachel Goldberg shared their Squirrel Hill sukkah with current and past members of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Wechsler Fellowship on Sept. 24.

Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh visited Simmons Farm for an afternoon of apple picking, animal petting and hayrides.

 From left: David Scheimer, Ari Goldberg, Mendel Marcus, Stephanie Shapiro, Eden Sittsamer and Tori Weiner Photo courtesy of Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh

 Reese and Elle Ruttenberg, Kira Meyers and Reid Ringold enjoy a hayride.

Yummy in my tummy Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh celebrated students in grades 1-4 who participated in a summer book report project.

Photos courtesy of Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh

 Ryan Silverman, Sydney Smith and Raphi Berlin pick apples.

Macher and Shaker Rothschild Doyno Collaborative won a Social Impact in Design Award as well as an Honor Award in the Medium Projects category, for its work redeveloping the Ohringer Building, on Sept. 30 at Design Pittsburgh 2021. The annual celebration of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Institute of Architects was held at Nova Place on the North Side. Dan Rothschild is founder and CEO of Rothschild Doyno Collaborative

Dan Rothschild Photo by Rothschild Doyno Collaborative



 Rabbi Oren Levy dishes out a special breakfast of fruit, waffles, pancakes Photo courtesy of Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh and toppings.

Signs of the times More than 30 community members came together on Sept. 30 at the National Council of Jewish Women Pittsburgh’s Anathan House in Squirrel Hill to create posters promoting women’s reproductive freedom prior to the Oct. 2 Women’s March-Pittsburgh. Activist Tracy Baton of Women’s March-Pittsburgh, state Rep. Dan Frankel and NCJW Pittsburgh’s Interim Executive Director Sara Segel addressed the importance of standing up and speaking out, on behalf of all women, to defend reproductive rights.

 From left: Sara Segel, state Rep. Dan Frankel, Tracy Baton and Andrea Glickman

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Lynne Jacobson



 Rachel Kranson

Photos courtesy of National Council of Jewish Women, Pittsburgh Section

OCTOBER 8, 2021 23

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