Jewish News - April 3, 2023 Issue

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Published 20 times a year by United Jewish Federation of Tidewater.

Jewish organizations welcome suspension of judicial overhaul legislation

In response to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement that he would delay a vote on judicial reforms in order to seek compromise, the Jewish Federations of North America released the following statement alongside the Conference of Presidents, the Anti-Defamation League, and the American Jewish Committee.

“We welcome the Israeli government’s suspension of legislative consideration of judicial reform measures.

“The last three months have been painful to watch and yet a textbook case of democracy in action. We respect the political leaders, business executives, community activists, cultural figures, and ordinary Israelis who took to the streets, exercising their love of country, and their passion for democracy.

“As a next step, we encourage all Knesset factions,

CONTENTS

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coalition and opposition alike, to use this time to build a consensus that includes the broad support of Israeli civil society.

“Israel’s political leaders must insist on a more respectful tone and debate. A hallmark of democracy is public consensus and mutual consideration.

“The Conference of Presidents, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, and the Jewish Federations of North America will continue to confer with Israel’s governmental and civic leaders to ensure that the views of American Jewry are represented in the discussion. We are confident the resilience of Israeli democracy will successfully overcome the tremendous challenges it faces.”

The story behind the development of this statement is on page 6.

Terri Denison, Editor Germaine Clair, Art Director Sandy Goldberg, Account Executive Marilyn Cerase, Subscription Manager Patty Malone, Circulation Reba Karp, Editor Emeritus

United Jewish Federation of Tidewater Laura G. Gross, President Alvin Wall, Treasurer Mona Flax, Secretary Betty Ann Levin, Executive Vice President JewishVA.org

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CANDLE LIGHTING QUOTABLE

Friday, April 7/16 Nissan Light candles at 7:14 pm

Friday, April 7/16 Nissan Light candles at 7:21 pm

Friday, April 21/30 Nissan Light candles at 7:27 pm

Friday, April 28/7 Iyar Light candles at 7:33 pm

Friday, May 5/14 Iyar Light candles at 7:39 pm

—page

Friday, May 12/21 Iyar Light candles at 7:45 pm

“I separate the country of Israel from the current Israeli government. I believe in the Israel I know and love. The Israeli ruach will return.”

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BRIEFS

ONLY 16% OF EUROPEAN NATIONS HAVE LIVED UP TO PLEDGES TO FIGHT ANTISEMITISM

A year and a half after representatives of 37 European nations made commitments to combat antisemitism, only 16% of European Jewish leaders said they felt their countries had fully implemented those promises, a report released by the World Jewish Congress revealed on Tuesday, March 21.

The pledges were made at the Malmö International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism in October 2021, during which “states committed to supporting many initiatives dealing with combating antisemitism, fostering Jewish life, and promoting Holocaust remembrance.”

Just under half of the “Jewish leaders and professionals” surveyed, or 49%, said that their governments have at least partially implemented the plans they committed to during the Swedish forum.

“We have seen too many times throughout history that people will come together, say all the right things, make the right commitments, but fall short on the follow-through,” WJC President Ronald Lauder said. “The truly hard work is the actual implementation of good ideas.”

According to a report released by the Swedish government, “60 delegations made around 150 pledges in relation to the Forum themes and related areas.” The pledges included everything from improving educational resources on the Holocaust and modern antisemitism to establishing unique legal frameworks to address hate crimes and antisemitic attacks as separate from other forms of crime. Some addressed broad topics, while some country’s pledges were as focused as the establishment of specific monuments.

A delegation from the WJC presented their study to Spain’s Monarch, King Filipe VI, on March 21, as the group’s leadership was in Madrid for an annual summit. Spain takes the helm of the European Union’s Presidency next year.

“As Spain prepares to take the reins of the presidency of the EU Council, it is essential that it capitalizes on recent efforts by the international community to develop concrete actions to support and strengthen Jewish communities as they face rising

antisemitism,” said Lauder.

“The history of Jews in Spain is complex, filled with remarkable achievements but also deep sorrow and exile. Spain has an opportunity to write a new chapter in its relationship with the Jewish people.” (JTA)

MUNICH SAYS IT CAN’T BLOCK ROGER WATERS CONCERT

Weeks after the city of Frankfurt canceled a Roger Waters concert over his anti-Israel activism, the mayor of Munich says he cannot find legal standing to do the same.

“We do not currently see any legally secure possibility…to reverse the decision already made,” said Mayor Dieter Reiter, according to Deutsche Welle. “I do not want to have him [Waters] here, but now we’re going to have to endure it.”

Waters, the former Pink Floyd bassist, is suing the Frankfurt municipality after the city blocked him from performing in May at the Festhalle, a venue that was also the site of the deportation of 3,000 Jews during the Holocaust.

“The background to the cancellation is the persistent anti-Israel behavior of the former Pink Floyd front man, who is considered one of the most widely spread antisemites in the world,” the city said in a statement.

Waters has been a vocal leader of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, calling on fellow artists to avoid performing there. He has in recent months defended Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which led to cancellations of some of his concerts in Poland.

Deutsche Welle reported that the Munich City Council is looking into ways to show solidarity with Israel and Ukraine on the date of his show in the city in late May.

Munich Jewish Community President Charlotte Knobloch criticized Munich authorities, saying they have “missed a chance to follow through with deeds on their many declarations of intent against antisemitism.” (JTA)

AGATHA CHRISTIE NOVELS EDITED BY HARPERCOLLINS TO REMOVE OFFENSIVE REFERENCES TO JEWS

HarperCollins has revised multiple novels by the famed British mystery writer Agatha Christie to remove references to Jews and other minorities deemed offensive by

sensitivity readers.

The edits, which the British Telegraph first reported on Sunday, March 26, add Christie to a growing list of authors whose work is getting tweaked for contemporary audiences. Roald Dahl, the children’s book author whose family recently apologized for his antisemitism, also had versions of his books recently revised to eliminate potentially offensive language.

Christie, whose midcentury detective novels featuring the characters Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple made her one of the best-selling fiction writers of all time, included references to Jews in several of her books that prominent critics found antisemitic. She also included racist language that was more common during her time of writing, including the N-word and the term “Oriental” to describe characters with Asian heritage.

According to the Telegraph report, descriptions of characters as Jewish, Black, or “gypsy” have been scrubbed from multiple books. In one example, Poirot’s description of a character as “a Jew, of course” in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, has been deleted.

The Forward noted in a 2020 analysis that right after World War II and the Holocaust, Christie authorized her U.S. publisher to remove other language about Jews that the company deemed controversial. The Guardian reported that at least one of the titles of her books was changed to remove racist language in the 1970s.

“As her circle of acquaintances widened and she grew to understand what Nazism really meant for Jewish people, Christie abandoned her knee-jerk anti-Semitism,” wrote Gillian Gill in her 1990 book Agatha Christie: The Woman and Her Mysteries. (JTA)

GREECE ARRESTS 2 MEN SUSPECTED OF PLANNING ATTACKS ON JEWISH SITES IN ATHENS

Greek authorities arrested two men last month who were planning mass terrorist attacks on Jewish sites in Athens, including a Chabad outpost and a Jewish restaurant, according to reports.

The Mossad, Israel’s spy agency which contributed to the investigation, told the Associated Press that the men, who are Pakistani nationals, are also part of an

Iranian terror network. A third man is wanted for questioning. The group reportedly entered Greece from Turkey illegally four months ago.

“After the investigation of the suspects began in Greece, Mossad assisted in unraveling intelligence of the infrastructure, the methods of operation, and the connection to Iran,” the Israeli agency said.

The arrests offer the latest indication that Iranian operatives are active across Europe and frequently targeting Jews. Last summer, as a record number of Israelis visited Turkey, Israel’s intelligence service, the Mossad, and its Turkish counterpart, hunted through Istanbul for an Iranian cell that had reportedly been tasked with targeting Israeli tourists. Also last year, The Washington Post reported that Iran had targeted prominent Jews and Israelis around the world, including the French Jewish philosopher BernardHenri Levy. Josef Schuster, the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, has also been targeted, according to German authorities, who recently also revealed that multiple unsolved shootings at German synagogues are believed to be connected to Iranian operatives.

In Greece, home to between 2,000 and 3,000 Jews, the attacks were believed to be imminent, officials said, noting that the suspects “had received final instructions” to carry them out. Police searched for the suspects in Athens, southern Greece and the island of Zakynthos.

“Their aim was not only to cause the loss of life of innocent citizens, but also to undermine the sense of security in the country, while hurting public institutions and threatening [Greece’s] international relations,” Greek police wrote in a statement.

The statement did not name the restaurant targeted by the attackers, but Gostijo, a kosher Sephardic Mediterranean restaurant, is housed within the Chabad of Athens near of the city’s tourist center.

The United States has classified Iran as a state sponsor of terrorist activity around the world since 1984. Security analysts say the country is more often turning to “soft targets” such as Jews and Israelis, because its high-level assassination plots were too often foiled. (JTA)

Biden says Israel ‘cannot continue down this road,’ says he won’t invite Netanyahu soon

Ron Kampeas

WASHINGTON (JTA)—President Joe Biden said he remains concerned about the turmoil in Israel even after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paused legislation that would enact far-reaching reforms to the judiciary. Biden also said he had no plans to meet Netanyahu anytime soon.

“Like many strong supporters of Israel, I’m very concerned, and I’m concerned that they get this straight,” Biden said Tuesday, March 28 when he was asked by reporters about the health of Israel’s democracy.

“They cannot continue down this road,” he said at a press conference that took place during a visit to Durham, North Carolina. “And I’ve sort of made that clear. Hopefully the prime minister will act in a way that he can try to work out some genuine compromise, but that remains to be seen.”

Biden said he does not plan to interfere in the fate of the judicial reform but that he has made his opposition clear, and later said that he hopes Netanyahu “walks away from it.” He suggested that his stance dovetails with that of American Jews.

“We’re not interfering,” he said. “They know my position. They know America’s position. They know the American Jewish position.”

Biden answered with an emphatic “No” when he was asked if he is inviting Netanyahu to the White House. “Not in the near term,” he said. That dampened an expectation that his ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, stoked on when he said he expected Netanyahu to travel to Washington sometime after Passover. Nides later said there was no set date for such a visit.

Biden’s nixing a visit by Netanyahu anytime soon and his skepticism about Netanyahu’s good faith in suspending the legislation is not the lowest point in U.S.Israel relations. But it stands out because both men describe each other as friends of years’ standing.

Netanyahu, who according to Israeli media reports is anxious to receive a U.S. invitation, responded to Biden’s comments on Twitter by mentioning that relationship. “I have known President Biden for over 40 years, and I appreciate his longstanding commitment to Israel,” he tweeted. “The alliance between Israel and the United States is unbreakable and always overcomes the occasional disagreements between us.”

But, Netanyahu added in another tweet, “Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends.”

Netanyahu on Monday, March 27 yielded to weeks of mass protests against his proposed reforms, which would sap the courts’ powers and independence, and said he would pause the legislation until May and would invite opposition leaders to negotiate modifications to the legislation. An initial negotiation took place Tuesday, but it is unclear what concessions Netanyahu, and his right-wing coalition will be willing to make.

Biden administration officials have singled out a number of reasons why Biden is appalled at the legislation. Biden’s foreign policy stresses democratic values the State Department is running a virtual “Summit for Democracy” this week—and rollbacks in democratic rights in one of the United States’ closest allies sounds a jarring dissonance with that policy. Israel’s courts are seen as a bulwark against the erosion of rights for vulnerable communities, including women, Arab, the LGBTQ community, and non-Orthodox Jews.

Additionally, top Israeli security officials, including the defense minister, Yoav Galant, have said the deep divisions sowed among Israelis by the legislative push have created vulnerabilities that Israel’s enemies are eager to exploit. The Biden administration is counting on Israel to contain the ambitions of Iran, and has staged a number of joint military exercises with Israel in recent months.

Forever Helping Others

Ron Kampeas

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Major American Jewish organizations that hoped to send a unified message about the turmoil in Israel March 27 instead found themselves tussling, partly in the public eye, about what exactly they wanted to say.

Should they praise the massive anti-government protests that have taken shape in recent months? Should they criticize Israel’s sitting government? What, if anything, should they endorse as a next step in the ongoing crisis?

Five large Jewish organizations—all known for their vocal pro-Israel advocacy began Monday, March 27 trying to answer those questions in a unified voice that sent a positive message: praise for a decision to pause the government’s divisive judicial overhaul.

Instead, in a somewhat messy process that unfolded over the course of the afternoon, they ended up sending out a number of different statements that contrasted in subtle yet telling ways. The scramble to publish a statement reflecting consensus—and the resulting impression that consensus was lacking—was a reflection of how Israel’s politics have created a rift in the U.S. Jewish establishment.

For decades, large American Jewish groups have publicly supported Israel’s foreign policy, and mostly stayed quiet on its domestic conflicts. Now, a domestic policy issue threatening to tear Israel apart has compelled at least some of them to do two unusual things: opine on Israel’s internal affairs, and publicly chide the government that, in their view, is responsible for the crisis.

“For a long time, any criticism of Israel, even criticism of very difficult policies, was thought to be disloyal, and couldn’t be spoken out of love,” says Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, which was not a signatory to the statement but is a constituent of the group that organized it. “I think we now understand that there’s plenty of legitimate criticism and activism that comes from that very place.”

The five groups that began composing the statement together were the Jewish Federations of North America, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. All have historically been seen as centrist, pro-Israel, and representative of the American Jewish establishment, speaking for American Jews in international forums and in meetings with elected officials. All have annual budgets in the tens of millions of dollars, if not more.

Any vocal criticism from those groups has largely been limited to Israel’s treatment of non-Orthodox Jews. Because most American Jews are themselves not Orthodox, American Jewish groups have felt more comfortable advocating for policies that, they believe, will allow more of their constituents to feel welcome in the Jewish state.

But events this year have prompted the groups to speak out on another Israeli domestic issue: the judicial overhaul being pushed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which aimed to sap the Israeli Supreme Court of much of its power and independence. The court has, in the past, defended the rights of vulnerable populations in Israel such as women, the non-Orthodox, Arabs and the LGBTQ community.

“The recognition that what happens in Israel, the policies of the Israeli government and a broader range of issues in this particular case—on judicial reform, the perception of Israel as a vibrant democracy for all of its citizens—that perception has a significant impact on American Jewish life and American Jewish engagement,” says Gil Preuss, CEO of Washington, D.C.’s Jewish federation.

Most of the five groups had previously endorsed calls for compromise on the judicial reform proposal. The federations had also come out against one of its key elements. So, when Netanyahu announced on March 27—in the face of widespread protests and dissent from

allies—that he would pause the legislative push to allow time for dialogue, they all hoped to express their support.

What to write after that sentiment, however, proved contentious. A version of the statement put out by the American Jewish Committee included sharp criticism of Israeli politicians that was not in the other statements.

The Jewish Federations of North America sent out an addendum to the statement that was sympathetic to anti-Netanyahu protesters.

And the American Israel Public Affairs Committee ultimately opted out of the statement altogether—but not before a version had already been released in its name.

None of the five groups responded to requests for comment on the process behind the statement, but insiders say the differences between the statements, and AIPAC’s opting out, had little to do with policy differences. Instead, they blamed the confusion on missteps in the rush to get the statement out in the minutes after Netanyahu’s remarks, which aired in Israel at 8 pm and in the early afternoon on the East Coast, where all the groups are based.

The statement that ultimately appeared, after declaring that the groups “welcome the Israeli government’s suspension” of the reforms, said that the raucous debate and protests over the legislation were “painful to watch” but also “a textbook case of democracy in action.”

A key line included rare advice to Israel from the establishment Jewish groups: “As a next step, we encourage all Knesset factions, coalition and opposition alike, to use this time to build a consensus that includes the broad support of Israeli civil society.”

The Conference of Presidents was the first to release the statement, just past 2 pm, less than an hour after Netanyahu had completed his remarks. It listed its co-endorsers as the AJC, the ADL, and JFNA.

Five minutes later, the AJC put out a version of the same statement that

A chaotic response to Israel’s turmoil reveals a fraught new dilemma for Jewish legacy organizations

ISRAEL

added AIPAC to the endorsers. It included the same sentence offering advice, plus another two that added criticism and a caution: “Israel’s political leaders must insist on a more respectful tone and debate. A hallmark of democracy is public consensus and mutual consideration.”

Statements from JFNA and ADL, which went out subsequently, hewed to the Conference of Presidents version. An AIPAC official says that the group did not want to sign onto the statement because it had wanted more time to add edits.

Just before 3 pm, more than 40 minutes after its initial email, AJC sent out an email advising recipients that its inclusion of AIPAC was an error.

But its new statement still included the line criticizing politicians, which the other groups had eschewed. In the end, AJC removed that line, too: It is absent from the version of the statement posted on the group’s website.

AIPAC ultimately settled on posting a tweet that stuck to praising Israel for its democratic process, without further comment.

“For many weeks, Israelis have engaged in a vigorous debate reflective of the Jewish state’s robust democracy,” it said. “Israel’s diverse citizenship is showcasing its passionate engagement in the democratic process to determine the policies that will guide their country.”

JFNA, in an explanatory email to its constituents attached to the joint statement, was more pointed in its criticism of Netanyahu. On Sunday, March 26, the prime minister had summarily fired his defense minister, Yoav Galant, for publicly advocating a pause on the legislation. That decision sparked protests across Israel, which in turn prompted Netanyahu to announce exactly the same pause and compromise that Gallant had proposed.

“The response across Israeli society was immediate and angry,” said the email signed by Julie Platt, the chairwoman of JFNA, and Eric Fingerhut, its CEO. “Spontaneous protests gathered in the streets and commentators expressed shock at a decision to fire a Defense Minister for having expressed concern about the risks to the country’s military position…Netanyahu’s own lawyer in his corruption trial announced that he could

no longer represent him.”

The groups weren’t alone in releasing pained statements about Israel’s volatility—which has also stirred anguish among groups that have previously defended the Israeli right.

Last month, Rabbi Moshe Hauer of the Orthodox Union, who met in March with far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, praised Israel’s leaders for “the recognition of the value of taking time, engaging with each other with honesty and humility, and proceeding to build consensus.” (Smotrich, for his part, supports the overhaul and opposed pausing the legislation.)

“Our Sages taught, ‘Peace is great; discord is despised’,” Hauer, the group’s executive director, says. “We are deeply shaken by the upheaval and discord that has gripped our beloved State of Israel. In recent weeks, the Jewish tradition and the democratic value of vigorous debate have been replaced by something very dangerous and different.”

The two largest non-Orthodox movements were open about their opposition to the overhaul. “We believe ardently that the proposed judicial reform is fraught with danger and goes against the principles of democracy,” the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly said in a statement Tuesday, March 28.

A statement from the leadership of the Reform movement, including Jacobs, castigated Netanyahu for agreeing to create a national guard under the authority of Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right national security minister, and for being “willing to risk the safety and security of Israel’s citizens to keep himself and his coalition in power.”

That strong language, Jacobs suggests, reflects the wishes of those who fund establishment Jewish groups and congregations. He said those groups were hearing from donors whose frustration with the Netanyahu government is reaching a boiling point.

“I hear of donors telling organizations, ‘I have to tell you, I don’t hear your voice, speaking out in favor of Israel’s democracy at this very vulnerable moment. So, I’ll tell you what, why don’t you hang on to my phone number when you find your voice?’”

Mission returns from Israel with new appreciation for the work of Federation and partners

A small but mighty group of Federation donors recently returned from a magnificent week-long journey through time and space to ancient and modern Israel.

From Feb. 28 to March 9, participants of the 2023 UJFT Community Mission to Israel wandered through history, culture, spirituality, and time…soaking in all there was to see, hear, taste, feel and do. This is the first installment of the story of their trip.

Amy Zelenka

DAY ONE

Itwas an interesting time to be in Israel. With protest marches and blaring headlines decrying the proposals of the newest coalition government…it was often difficult to distinguish between fact and opinion. But what was completely clear to the group, with zero ambiguity, was the fact that the dollars we raise through the Federation’s annual campaign are hard at work, improving lives and changing futures.

Four days in Jerusalem. Sounds like it would be plenty, right? Four days did not begin to scratch the surface of the history, spirituality, and modern-day miracles taking place on each of those days and all others as well. The mission started with an incredible visit to an “Inclusive Community” program, run by our overseas partner, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (or JDC, as we know it).

Under a beautiful berry tree in the Beit Hakarem neighborhood of Jerusalem, we had the chance to meet several senior adults who are activists in their community. We heard their personal stories: how they came to be in Israel (from places like Italy, Australia, South Africa, and elsewhere around the globe); and how volunteering and being involved in their Inclusive Community has enhanced their quality of life. They shared stories about the isolation they felt especially during the early days of COVID, when Israel was on lock-down. One woman shared the story of how she had fallen in her apartment and wasn’t found for days, because no one was out to notice

her absence. This made the Inclusive Community not just socially rewarding, but in some cases, lifesaving. And today it remains a lifeline for seniors living alone and gives those involved an elevated sense of purpose.

The Inclusive Communities model, which is being piloted in 36 locations throughout Israel, is a robust support network for vulnerable older adults, increasing their social involvement, resilience, security, and health. Inclusive Communities create a platform for greater integration of older adults in the community, fostering a sense of social solidarity, raising awareness about the needs of older adults in designated neighborhoods, and creating a supportive community network comprised of friends, neighbors, and community members. It increases the impact of local elder care services by bolstering the neighborhood’s connection with local social services overseeing programming for older adults and creating solutions for older adults at risk. Together, these seniors engage in a variety of activities, including yoga, wellness, cooking classes, Italian language classes, dancing, and current events—not so very different from some of our own Tidewater adult activities at the Simon Family JCC.

Day one also found our group at JDC Headquarters for a rare glimpse inside the fascinating JDC archives housed there. Our friend Zvi Feine (now retired after a lifetime of service with JDC) joined the group and added great depth to the stories shared by the JDC archivist. Among the fascinating objects the archivist shared with us were old menus which were designed to teach parents

how to feed their children nutritious, well-balanced meals. It taught what to make and how to prepare it. Even today, in JDC parenting classes, similar materials are distributed to new parents.

During a comprehensive briefing on the state of Israel’s newest immigrants from Ukraine and the status of those remaining in Ukraine inside the war zone, it was impressive to see the JDC budget for various areas of service and how it’s changed since the Russian invasion. And it was inspiring to learn about the courageous JDC professionals and volunteers on the ground who continue their lifesaving work, even while putting their own lives at risk, to ensure the health and well-being of their clients.

We enjoyed our tour of the facility, which included a peak at the Miller

Garden and lunch in the Sandler/ Weitzman Cafeteria.

Our next stop in Jerusalem took us to the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI—supported Megameria Professional Training Program for new Israelis.) Housed with the world-renown Yvel Design Center, this program teaches Ethiopian immigrants a set of skills to achieve financial independence as jewelry designers and artisans. Established in 2010, the program offers a year-long course, after which graduates begin working at Yvel or other jewelry brands. The visit began with a slide show framing the work of the Jewish Agency—historic and contemporary. It also introduced us to a couple of the Megameria graduates who spoke about their own journeys from Ethiopia to Israel and the opportunity that the

JDC inclusive community.

school provided. The visit was capped off with a tour through the design center, where the group watched (through glass windows) Yvel artisans at work, creating what would end up as pieces from the Megameria collection, as well as those sold under the high-end Yvel label.

We then moved to an archeological and historic site—at Ir David, the City of David. From the excavations to the sweeping vistas on the exterior of the structure, the group learned about the unique aspects of archaeology in Israel and how specialists seek to tie the artifacts they uncover with the Biblical stories we reed in the Tanakh. We also learned that many, many new building projects around the country end up as archaeological sites (much to the chagrin of their developers!).

Later, our Welcome Dinner took place in a small Algerian restaurant in the heart of the Machane Yehuda Market. The intimate meal allowed us to get to know one another better as a group.

DAY TWO

Day two of the mission continued with partner visits, as we heard from Dr. Moshe Leiba of ORT. Leiba is the chief pedagogical and R&D officer of World ORT Kadima Mada. In this capacity, Leiba is responsible for all ORT educational activity in Israel, including 12 excellence centers located throughout the

country. Catering to more than 5,000 children, these programs integrate experiential learning in diverse curricular and extracurricular activities in the STEAM field. Leiba shared some startling statistics about the state of education in Israel and the gaps between students in the larger cities and those living in the periphery of Israel. He spoke of the need to bridge those gaps with enrichment programs (including several that are funded by our annual campaign) in order for these kids to have a shot at good postings in the IDF, which lead to college admissions and skilled high tech and other jobs in Israeli society. This, he assured us, was the key to breaking the cycles of poverty which exist in the periphery.

This led to many discussions among mission participants about balancing the way we meet immediate needs (Ukraine and other emergency situations excluded) versus investing in long-term solutions, which can literally change the face of Israel’s future economy and society.

In advance of our visit to Yad Vashem (Israel’s Holocaust Museum), the group met with Holocaust Educator Dr. Rachel Korazim. A freelance Jewish education consultant specializing in curriculum development for Israel and Holocaust education, Korazim was born in Israel, of Hungarian descent. She graduated from Haifa University with an award-winning MA thesis on Holocaust Literature and a doctorate in Jewish education.

Korazim, through an interactive dialogue with the group, provided a unique lens through which to view and experience our visit…reminding us to bear in mind the question of: Why? Why did the Holocaust happen? In the early days of the State of Israel, there were two prevailing schools of thought: one suggested that the Holocaust happened because of Zionism; and the other that the Holocaust occurred because there was no Jewish state. Two ends of an ideologic spectrum, with lots of ideas in between.… And still, today…there is no definitive answer to this question.

Korazim spoke of the “new” Yad Vashem (in contrast to the original museum which had stood for decades) and the need for a new narrative. The original museum had been built on old

ideas of shame and victimhood. Even its architecture was dark and depressing. But as the children of survivors grew into adulthood and developed their own ideas about the Holocaust, they determined that the old narrative was inaccurate and unfair and that it needed to change. Hence the new museum with a new way of looking at the Holocaust. And to emerge from the museum to a sweeping vista of the Judean hills was to emerge from a terrible, dark period—into a bastion of light and hope—Tikvah

Yad Vashem is located on Har Herzl

(also known as Har Hazikaron—the Mountain of Remembrance), next to Israel’s national military cemetery. This was by design and illustrates all that the Jewish People suffered to gain a Jewish state and all the sacrifices made (to this day) to ensure that the Jewish state is kept safe and secure. Within the cemetery are several memorials, including a “Memorial for the Last of Kin”—the last members of Holocaust survivor families who died fighting in the IDF. The connections here are unbreakable, as

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Students at the JAFTI-supported Megameria School at Yvel.

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from

illustrated by the ceremonies which take place on Har Herzl each year—Yom Hashoah at Yad Vashem, Yom Hazikaron, and Yom Ha’atzmaut at Herzl Plaza.

By now, it’s Friday afternoon and time for a trip to the Machane Yehuda Market, where we elbow our way into an iconic restaurant—Azura—for bowls of Kubbe and various other Kurdish and Iraqi delights. After a quick trip for fresh Rugelach at the famous Marzipan in the market, the group returned to the hotel to get ready for Shabbat. Shabbat at the Kotel is like Shabbat no where else on earth. Thousands of Jews from around the globe converge on the smooth cobbled stones of the plaza and make their way down to the Wall to touch the sunwarmed stones and connect with over 5,000 years of Jewish history. Squeezing a note into a crevasse and praying for the well-being of a loved one or friend, one feels a particular spiritual connection.

But even more, when standing together at the South Wall before the start of Shabbat, welcoming the Sabbath Queen (Leha Dodi!) and expressing our love for Jerusalem…it would be nearly impossible NOT to feel close to the people you’re with! And we had the added joy of celebrating two very special birthdays that erev Shabbat at the Kotel.

DAY THREE

On the face of it…with everything seemingly closed…Shabbat in Jerusalem would seem to offer very little in the way of program options. Wrong! Our brilliant guide, Zalman Spivak, took us on a wonderful walking tour of the Old City (the Christian and Armenian Quarters) and introduced us to a number of fascinating merchants within. We met Eli whose family photo shop had been housed in the Armenian Quarter since 1947 and whose family had documented the city and its changes throughout the years.

Mission group at the Ir David Archaeological site.

His stories were engaging, bringing history to life through black and white photo images! We also met Razouk Tattoo whose family had owned and operated

them, especially Christian pilgrims who brought them home as souvenirs of their time in the Holy Land. And we met Bilal Abu Khalaf Tattoo whose family has been in the specialty fabrics business since 1936. and has provided materials for kings and Popes!

Truly authentic stories of the Old City of Jerusalem that had it not been for Shabbat, we may never have heard.

The rest of Shabbat was free for individual and smaller group pursuits. We came back together just prior to Havdalah to meet and hear from Micha Feldman, who has worked for the Jewish Agency and other immigration and absorption organizations since 1970. Since 1982, he’s devoted his life to bringing Ethiopian Jews to Israel and helping them adjust to Israeli society. Prior to “Operation Solomon”—a massive airlift of Ethiopian Jews—Feldman headed the Jewish Agency mission to Ethiopia as well as the Israeli consul there. He was a chief architect of the airlift which

brought 14,310 besieged Jews out of Addis Ababa and into Israel, over the course of a single weekend. Micha speaks fluent Amharic and knows nearly every Ethiopian family in Israel. He is known in the Ethiopian-Israeli community as “Abba Micha.” He shared with us the story of the Ethiopian immigrants—their triumphs and their challenges (which continue to this day). He also gave us a first-hand account of the difficult task of bringing the Ethiopians to Israel and how those challenges continue even until this day. Feldman join us for a beautiful poolside Havdalah service which said farewell to Shabbat and separated it from the rest of the week.

Shavua Tov

Local Relationships Matter

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Our client relationships are anything but transactional. We are long-term partners, dedicated to the success of our clients, and most importantly, their people.

The Judean Hills as seen from Yad Vashem.

Amy Zelenka, Laura Gross, and Alene Kaufman at scenic overlook of Jerusalem’s Old City.

At unusual counterprotest, right-wing demonstrators air grievances against Israel’s courts

Ben Lynfield

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Gathered outside the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, thousands of pro-reform protesters, including settlers bused in from the West Bank, sought to back Netanyahu and Justice Minister Yariv Levin, even as the prime minister announced his intention to temporarily suspend the plan.

“We are trying to create counter-pressure to the demonstrations of the left,” said Yisrael Entman, who lives in the Kokhav HaShahar settlement and was accompanied by his wife and five children.

It was the first major demonstration by supporters of the Netanyahu government’s now-paused legislation to overhaul the country’s judiciary to sap the independence and power of the Supreme Court. Both proponents and critics of the legislation say it would benefit Israel’s right, which largely believes that the courts are out of step with mainstream sentiment. They also share the view that the dispute is not just about how Supreme Court justices are appointed but about what values will prevail in Israel.

“Israel cannot have a liberal approach devoid of Judaism,” Entman said. “If you destroy the Jewish character of Israel, we have no justification for being here.”

He and others at the rally offered a laundry list of grievances against the court, including the way it has deployed the 1992 Basic Law on Human Freedom and Dignity, which the court has at times used to combat discrimination against minorities.

Entman repeated the claim that the court had used the law to prevent the expulsion of African asylum seekers despite complaints from Israeli residents of south Tel Aviv. In fact, the court only limited the government’s ability to lock up asylum seekers in a Negev facility. It was Netanyahu who brokered a

third-country expulsion agreement only to backtrack on it the next day.

Entman’s wife said bitterly that the court had “expelled settlers,” an apparent reference to court-ordered evacuation of Jewish settlers trespassing on private Palestinian property.

The massive demonstrations from right and left marked the culmination of a dramatic day in Israeli history, following Netanyahu’s firing of Defense Minister Yoav Galant after Galant urged a delay on the divisive judicial reform legislation, citing concerns about national security. The firing triggered an outpouring of public rage and ultimately led Netanyahu, for the first time since retaking office in December, to offer a compromise, promising to suspend legislation for at least a month and enter talks with opposition leaders.

The larger demonstrations were by critics of the government. But pro-reform organizers said more than 100,000 people attended demonstrations March 27 across the country. In Jerusalem, more than a dozen cabinet ministers and Knesset members from coalition parties attended the rally, including Itamar BenGvir, the head of the far-right Jewish Power party, and Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism party. The men were reportedly among the last holdouts opposing the legislative pause, and each addressed the crowd.

The pro-government protests drew members of La Familia, a notoriously racist group of fans of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer club, alongside other right-wing activists. After the protest ended, several demonstrators made their way to Jerusalem’s Sacher Park where they clashed with police forces. In another incident in Jerusalem, protesters identifying as supporters of the judicial reform attacked an Arab taxi driver, injuring him and damaging his car.

A theme of the pro-government protest was that efforts to oppose the judicial

reform legislation represent a form of election denial, a critique that government lawmakers had advanced, citing their majority after last November’s election. One man wore an Israeli flag as a cape and held up a sign that read, “They are stealing the election.”

Yehiel Zadok, an 18-year-old from the Har Bracha settlement, who voted for Netanyahu’s Likud party, said, “The left lost the election and it’s time [for them] to admit it.” He argued that the battle over Supreme Court appointments is no more than an effort by the left to deny the right its ability to rule the country.

Zadok, who said he plans to study in a yeshiva before joining a military combat unit, offered a long list of grievances against the Supreme Court. “It harms settlement, ties the hands of the army and takes power that doesn’t belong to it.”

And while Zadok expressed support for Netanyahu’s decision to suspend the legislative drive and to enable dialogue, he warned that if the prime minister drops the plan altogether, he, for one, will abandon Likud in the next election and vote for Ben-Gvir’s party.

“Netanyahu needs to know that he is indebted to a huge number of people who voted for him and the reform,” said Zadok.

His friend, Yaakov Klein, who is also 18, said he was there not only to show support for the proposed judicial overhaul, but also for a greater cause.

“This is not just about the reform,” said Klein. “It is about control of the country, about whether the right can rule.” Like many other supporters of Netanyahu’s government, he feels sidelined in a society which, he claims, is dominated by the left.

“The left held on to centers of power like the army and the Histadrut,” he said, referring to Israel’s largest labor union, which joined a call for a general strike to protest the government on Monday. “Something has been exposed by the left’s protests: that when you take a little bit of cheese away from them, they burn down everything.

“The media,” Klein added, ”isn’t presenting the truth. It doesn’t show the other side.”

The massive demonstrations from right and left marked the culmination of a dramatic day in Israeli history, following Netanyahu’s firing of Defense Minister Yoav Galant after Galant urged a delay on the divisive judicial reform legislation, citing concerns about national security.

Passover

A fifth question this Passover: What makes Trader Joe’s matzah different from all other matzah?

Jackie Hajdenberg

(JTA)—For millennia, Jews have eaten matzah. And for years, Jewish patrons of Trader Joe’s have been able to purchase matzah off the shelves of the tiki-themed grocery chain—which has gained its own quasi-religious following.

Now, for the first time ever, Trader Joe’s will be selling matzah under its own famous private label.

The question, even among the store’s diehard Jewish fans, is: What makes Trader Joe’s-branded matzah different from all other matzah?

The grocery chain with more than 500 stores nationwide, and known for characteristically friendly, Hawaiian shirt-clad employees and a limited selection and high turnover of products, has gained a cult-like following in its 56 years of operation. An Instagram fan account boasts nearly 2 million followers; the internet is abounded with memes about falling in love with Trader Joe’s cashiers; and dozens of Facebook groups with thousands of members each exist to cater toward the specific dietary needs of loyal shoppers.

Those loyalists include no small number of Jews who keep kosher. The store stocks a number of Jewish, Israeli, and Middle Eastern foods—from an “everything but the bagel” spice mix to spicy zhoug sauce to kosher-certified turkeys ahead of Thanksgiving, and frozen latkes. Trader Joe’s caused a small uproar in 2012 when it stopped stocking kosher pareve semi-sweet chocolate chips. After a campaign by Jewish customers, the chain brought the product back to its shelves in 2021.

But whether that loyalty will extend to the store’s matzah is unclear. Some shoppers said they were excited about the new offering, while others wondered whether it would be any different from the matzah Trader Joe’s has sold in previous years. Still others said that by putting its name on one of the most quintessential Jewish foods, Trader Joe’s “signals that Pesach

products have gone mainstream,” in the words of Susan Robinson, a member of Kosher Trader Joe’s, a Facebook group with more than 63,000 members.

The decision also demonstrates that Trader Joe’s takes its kosher-observant customers seriously, says Rachel B. Gross, a professor at San Francisco State University who teaches a course on U.S. Jews and the history of food.

“My understanding is that they’ve never wanted to do everything,” Gross says. “But they have had a really strong kosher game because that worked really well with the way they approached the niche markets in general.”

For years, Trader Joe’s sold matzah made by a brand called Holyland, and it’s unclear whether the chain’s new boxes

hold the same old product. The company—which is secretive about who produces its private-label foods—told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency only that the new private label matzah is made by “one of the largest and oldest matzo-making bakeries in Israel.”

Whether the Holyland once sold by Trader Joe’s is made by the same company as Holyland Shmura Matzo—a circular handmade variety—is similarly unclear. But there are hints, beyond the name, that they come from the same company, which is based in Israel. Both share the same distributor, and both include a logo on the front bearing the web address NaturallyBetterWithYouInMind.com, a site that boasts “high quality, all natural,

continued on page 14

Passover

continued from page

kosher foods.”

A representative of the distributor of both Holyland products, a New Jersey company called Kayco, did not know whether the current Trader Joe’s product is the same as the Holyland matzah. The new Trader Joe’s matzah box says only that it is distributed and sold by Trader Joe’s, which is headquartered outside of Los Angeles.

That confusion has led to an ambivalent reaction among some members of Kosher Trader Joe’s. Multiple members of the group shared photos of the new boxes at their local stores, encouraging each other to buy the matzah to press the company to produce it again next year.

Some commented on the new box design, while others remarked on the price—$2.69 per box, a slight increase over the $2.49 Trader Joe’s charged for the Holyland boxes last year, according to an Instagram fan page. (Name-brand

boxes of matzah at the same weight cost slightly more at other retailers, ranging from about $3.22 for a 16-ounce box of Yehuda Matzos to $4.49 for Manischewitz’s version of the unleavened bread.)

“Trader Joe’s has sold Holyland Matzah for at least a decade, if not longer,” wrote one member. “I’m surprised that it has taken them this long to put it under the Trader Joe’s private label.”

Others were just happy to have access to matzah at all. Another member recalled that supply chain delays and restrictions related to COVID-19 led to shortages of Passover products, and that in Manhattan’s East Village, where he lives, “TJ—and the Holyland Matzo— became a Pesach saver. That’s what the commotion is all about.”

(Members of the group who adhere to strict kosher laws may not have tried the new matzah yet due to a tradition of not eating matzah between Purim

and Passover, although a few customers remarked that it feels thinner than Holyland matzah.)

In addition to matzah, Trader Joe’s will sell Teva Glatt kosher-for-Passover Angus beef brisket and a few kosherfor-Passover wines including Sara Bee Moscato and Baron Herzog chardonnay and cabernet. The company will publish a complete list of its kosher-for-Passover offerings closer to the holiday, which begins the night of April 5.

Gross says the conversation over Trader Joe’s matzah fits in with the way Americans celebrate Passover, which she says is intimately tied to brands. She cites the proliferation of well-known Passover products like the haggadah published by Maxwell House coffee, which was first printed more than 90 years ago, or Manischewitz’s many Passover foods. The way the holiday has been shaped by brands, she says, is “in some sense, a traditional American Jewish experience.”

“Jews have really learned over the last 110, 120 years how to trust brands, and trust brands around kashrut, especially around Passover,” Gross says.

“We know that the people who keep kosher are such a small minority,” she adds. “And we know that the number of people who look for heckshers are not primarily Jews, which makes me wonder how many non-Jews buy matzah, or [how many] they expect to buy matzah.”

But for at least one member of Kosher Trader Joe’s, brand loyalty was not enough to make the new matzahs stand out.

Israel @ 75

Israel at 75

Dear Readers, C

alling the current climate in Israel “complicated” could be the understatement of the century.

Never do I recall major Jewish organizations, donors, and celebrities making public statements against Israel’s domestic policy. Or tens of thousands of Israelis protesting practically daily (as of press time) against the government. The contrasting reporting of the news, depending on the news organization’s slant—Jewish as well as mainstream media—reflects the divisiveness now taking place in Israel and across the world as Jews, politicians, political analysts, and news junkies weigh in.

And it’s all happening as we prepare to celebrate Israel’s 75th year.

In addition to my near constant concern about Israel’s future, I’m thinking about the State of Israel’s national anthem, Ha Tikvah —The Hope.

This section, therefore, is filled with hope, memories, achievement, and perspective.

Tidewater’s own Avraham Ashkenazi, for example, is being honored by the Technion (sometimes referred to as Israel’s MIT) in June. Mazel Tov, Avraham! Page 17.

Barbara Dudley spent last month in Israel visiting her daughter’s young family on Kibbutz Yiftah. She writes about the impact of the protests on daily life, offering a unique perspective. Page 18.

Thoughts of Israel usually bring to mind its wonderful cuisine. Eitan Altshuler expresses his connection to Israel and Tidewater’s Jewish community through food on page 19.

Several people share their memories of trips to Israel in this section, as well as one about United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s recent mission on page 8.

An overview of Jewish Tidewater’s annual Yom Ha’Atzmaut celebration on Sunday, April 30 is on page 26. It promises to be a terrific day of making memories and celebrating a nation of hope, tenacity, innovation, and ruach (spirit).

When we celebrate Israel@75, I’ll have Ha Tikvah on my mind, hoping for a positive and peaceful Eretz Yisrael as she enters her 76th year.

L’Shalom, Terri Denison Editor

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Israel at 75

Avraham Ashkenazi to receive prestigious award from Technion

Terri Denison

Thesupreme governing bodies of the Technion, the Council acting on behalf of the International Board of Governors, and with the approval of the Technion Senate, resolved to confer upon Avraham Ashkenazi the Technion Honorary Fellow Award. The ceremony is slated to take place in Israel on June 11 and Ashkenazi says he will be there with all his family—from the United States, Canada, and of course, Israel.

In a letter to Ashkenazi informing him of the honor, Professor Uri Sivan, president of the Technion, wrote: “The decision to confer this honorary award upon you in honor of your life-long connection and devotion to Israel and the Technion, from which you hold two degrees; for leading by example at the American Technion Society, and as a member of the Technion Board of Governors; with gratitude for your many contributions as a Technion Guardian and alumnus in support of graduate fellowships and defense research.”

Ashkenazi joined the intelligence division of the Israel Defense Forces in 1957. Following his service, Ashkenazi was accepted at the Technion in 1962 and graduated in 1966. “I caught my second degree (masters) in engineering when I was working for Koor Industries in 1972,” he says, explaining that it was common in Israel to “do a masters while working.” Working during the day and studying at night, professors were driving forces behind students, he says.

Established even before the State of Israel, next year is the Technion’s 100th anniversary. “Most of the original professors came from Germany as they fled Hitler,” says Ashkenazi, who recalls Albert Einstein serving as a director of the school.

The Technion couldn’t find a better advocate than Ashkenazi.

“Without the Technion, we would not have any industry or high-tech in Israel.

Period.” Ashkenazi calls the Technion the cornerstone of all the developments in the industrial, mechanical, and weapons arenas in Israel, and for the past 20 years since it created its medical school, in medical breakthroughs, as well.

“The Technion is a melting pot and a research hub for so many fields in the forefront of the world today, everything from engineering to medicine and nanotechnology.”

A Technion Guardian, the designation for those whose support reaches the highest level, Ashkenazi established the Avraham and Patricia Ashkenazi Endowed Graduate Fellowship and the Avraham Ashkenazi Space Defense Research Fund.

“When the award is bestowed upon Avraham in a couple of months, we will all be applauding,” says Betty Ann Levin, executive vice president/CEO, United Jewish Federation of Tidewater/Simon Family JCC. “We are so proud that Avraham now calls Tidewater his home and benefit from his wisdom, experience, and generosity. Mazel Tov Avraham on this well-deserved honor!”

In the United States, disaster relief, ambulance, and blood services are handled by an array of organizations. In Israel, there’s one organization that does it all — Magen David Adom. As Passover approaches, whatever crises Israelis face — including terror or rocket attacks — MDA will be there to save lives.

Support Magen David Adom by donating today at afmda.org/give. Or for further information about giving opportunities, contact 561.835.0510 or southeast@afmda.org.

afmda.org/give

Why is this EMS organization different than all other EMS organizations?

Avraham Ashkenazi.

Forever Helping Others

Israel at 75

A personal perspective on Israel during the recent political crisis—March 2023

Barbara Dudley

During my formative years, the 1960s, my parents instilled in me a love of both Judaism and Israel. As a college student, I volunteered on a kibbutz one summer, working in the fields and hitch-hiking around Israel. I married a non-Jew, who later converted to Judaism and together we raised a Jewish family. As an adult, I have served as a lay leader at my temples and for my local federation. My youngest daughter made Aliyah after college and is now raising her family in northern Israel. Israel has always been and will be a part of my life and a part of my soul.

I now travel to Israel once or twice a year to be with my Israeli family and so that my three grandchildren can know their grandmother (safta). I stay one to two months on the kibbutz where my family lives and enjoy the kibbutz lifestyle and the Israeli ruach (spirit).

This trip to Israel during March 2023, however, feels different and the reason why saddens my heart.

Why? Netanyahu’s proposed judicial reforms pose a serious threat to Israeli democracy by concentrating all power into the executive branch of the government. Since January, Israelis have been protesting weekly against these proposed

judicial reforms. Grassroots organizations such as No Dictatorship organize these protests and disseminate information via WhatsApp groups. Netanyahu’s refusal to consider the concerns of the protesters and his firing of the defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for warning about the negative and de-stabilizing impact of the judicial reform on the army culminated in a national political crisis from Sunday, March 26, 2023, through Monday, March 27, 2023. Protesters across the country poured into the streets, universities and the worker’s union (the Histadrut) went on strike, and the airport closed. These actions forced Netanyahu to pause his proposed judicial reforms.

From my perspective, these protests have and are impacting daily lives. Examples of the impact on life that affected both my family and I include changing the time and day groceries are ordered so they can be delivered before local protests, changing times of work meetings with students, leaving for work early to avoid protesters, not being able to get to a protest because the roads are

blocked, and having to cancel an anticipated lunch with a friend because the roads may be blocked by protests. It’s the day-to-day unknown that wears on the individual and the family. The ruach that defines the Israeli spirit is diminished. For now, it has been replaced by anger, frustration, tension, a growing mistrust of government, and a loss of spontaneity that even this visitor can feel and see.

What will happen to Netanyahu’s proposed reforms? I do not know, and I will not speculate. What I do know is that Israelis are a strong, proud, vibrant, and intelligent people. They fully understand what is at risk with these proposed judicial reforms and will fight for their democracy—the only democracy in the Middle East. I separate the country of Israel from the current Israeli government. I believe in the Israel I know and love. The Israeli ruach will return.

Barbara Dudley serves as chair of United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Women’s Cabinet.

Photograph by Barbara Dudley

A home in the Kibbutz Yiftah. The sign says, “Free in our Country.”

Barbara Dudley with her granddaughters Lia and Nofar Dovrat.

Israel at 75 Connecting Jewish community with Middle Eastern food

my Jewishness. I felt that was something I needed to explore and refine, and I’ll be honest, at the time, considering I wasn’t affiliated with a synagogue, nor did I have many Jewish people in my personal life, I really wondered if being Jewish was a side of myself that had much place in my future.

EitanAltshuler is with the Cardo Café/ Humusiya at the Sandler Family Campus, where he has created a popular Israeli menu. Passionate about Jewish community, here he discusses his time in Israel and how he evolved…and the importance food played in his growth.

Terri Denison

Jewish News: When and how long did you spend in Israel?

Eitan Altshuler: I made aliyah on Israel’s 60th birthday and stayed until the end of 2015. I went to a foreign country, inexperienced and alone. It was quite a step. I thought that if I could make it a year or even two that would be a “success.”

Fortunately, I was able to make it there for almost eight years. During that time, I got to spend a year on Kibbutz Lotan in the Negev where I worked in permaculture design, but most of my years were spent in Tel Aviv, where I worked in a bakery and then as an English teacher. I ultimately, came back to be closer to family and pursue career plans. Now, I’ve been back as long as I was there.

JN: Why did you go?

EA: I always felt, being Jewish and growing up outside the mainstream of America, somewhat out of place. I grew up religious, but perhaps my cultural grounding was wanting. In America, the wider culture did not reflect to me anything about

The attraction of moving to Israel was that I could just be a regular guy. I was truly delighted when I checked into my El Al flight, and the attendant could read my name correctly without hesitation. Also, in Israel, I enjoyed how being secular and Jewish was not a contradiction. In the beginning of my time there, I actually hoped that I would become more religious or “da’ti”, but living in Israel I learned it’s not so simple. Instead, I gained a wider perspective of what practicing Judaism means.

JN: How important do you feel Israel is to American Jews?

EA: Great question! To me, it will always be the Jewish people’s true home…a place where the wider culture reflects the personalities, values, and history of our people. I love America, too. This area, in particular, I feel in my veins. However, from Israel, I believe Jews gain a sense of independence and pride. I know my personality changed a lot during my time in Israel. I learned how to be a much stronger, proud Jew as a result.

JN: Do you view Judaism as more than a religion?

EA: Absolutely…well kind-of. It’s complicated. This is my interpretation…. When someone moves to Israel, it is called “making aliyah,” which means to go up, but when you leave Israel, it is called “yo’red ma’aretz” or going down. In America, your primary connection to Judaism is through the Torah, and given that we have a lot of mitzvot (613), one can feel like they are constantly falling short or even a failure. However, in Israel, where the primary connection is with the society, keeping the mitzvot feels like there is only one direction and that is up.

So, I don’t think you can separate the

Torah from the land or the people. Without the others, they are out of context.

JN: What was your impetus for bringing Israeli food to the Sandler Family Campus, and therefore to Jewish Tidewater?

EA: Well, first of all, the food is awesome and healthy, and I think Middle Eastern food is much more compatible with a kosher diet. You know, even if kashrut is not the most important thing about Judaism, it’s these little things that bring us closer to who we are.

I also think that when we talk about building a strong Jewish community, we need to think “outside the box,” meaning outside the confines of the synagogue. Hummus is a great meal to commune with. Perhaps, sharing a meal with Jewish and non-Jewish friends at the JCC can be a way of extending our Jewish selves into our day-to-day lives.

Finally, Israel has an amazing culture. It’s very busy, fruitful, and industrial. I know it gets criticized, but they’ve got something going right there. Maybe, some of its attitude might be needed here.

JN: How did you learn to cook Israeli cuisine?

EA: By eating a lot of it. Before you start cooking, you need to know how to aim. It’s a different flavor profile than what we’re accustomed to in the West, and I think my palate developed a lot there. I’m a self-taught cook, partly out of necessity, but also partly out of encouragement. For a few years in Israel, every Friday, I would work a 15-hour, non-stop shift in my bakery from 9 pm to 1 pm the next day, so I needed to be ready to eat when I got home. So, on Thursdays I went to the shuk and did my cooking in advance. Taking on a different salad/appetizer, main, and dessert every weekenddid a lot to advance my repertoire.

JN: If you could impact Jewish Tidewater in one way, what would that be?

EA: My goal is: 1) bring great, healthy, affordable food to people, 2) bring the Jewish community closer to together and help them develop a stronger connection with their heritage, and 3) raise awareness about the Jewish community within the wider culture, something I feel is very necessary in these times.

To check out the Cardo Café menu, go to simonfamilyjcc.org.

Eitan Altshuler.

THANK YOU LEGACY DONORS!

Today, we honor and thank our Legacy donors, who have committed themselves to the future of the Tidewater Jewish community. Your gift will help meet the challenges and needs our community faces for generations to come.

If your name is in blue, you have formalized your LIFE & LEGACY gift with the Foundation and helped our cherished organizations reach their goals. By putting your gift in writing, you’ve made a lasting commitment to Jewish futures in Tidewater and around the world. Thank you.

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Israel at 75 It’s all about the People

Naomi Limor Sedek

Celebrating Israel at 75 for me always comes down to the people…and fortunately for me, many memories. Between my family’s experiences and my own, I’ve

chosen a few to share here.

• My father, Victor, and his parents, Irvin and Elizabeth with his brother, Alex, in utero, landing in British Mandate

Palestine in 1947. My Great Uncle, Menachem, a Holocaust survivor, served the fledgling state as a soldier in the war of Independence where he lost an eye and part of his thumb. There was nothing he wouldn’t have sacrificed for the freedom of being a free nation in our land, l’hiot am chofshi B’artzenue

1917

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• While I learned about Israel in day school and yearned to be reunited with Jerusalem through my prayers in synagogue or through Israeli folk songs shared by the Caravan at JCC summer camp, my personal relationship with Israel developed when I spent eight weeks at the Alexander Muss High School in Israel program with hundreds of kids from around the United States digging deep into the history, culture, language, and geology of Israel. That was the summer Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and it was also the summer where I told my parents there was no other place I wanted to be, and I would not get on a plane home.

• During the Gulf war, right after, where scud missiles were falling on the land, I thought about my teacher, Bob, and friends, Gila and Dube and their three young kids, Ben, Aviv, and Hadar and wanted to return to help.

• When I went back with my family the next summer, we explored the neighborhood of what was once the Caravanim in Haifa around the block from the school for the blind where by mother, Susan, lived until age eight.

• I spent my junior year Israeli dancing around Jerusalem with my best friend, Tamar, while learning Hebrew and Arabic at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, connecting with my Israeli family, the branches of families that survived the Holocaust with my grandparents, Ariyeh, Chana, Nira, and Yaakov and their children. This was the year following the Oslo Accords, where I was able to hear Yitzchak Rabin, a hawk turned dove share his hope, tikvah, with us on Yom Haatzmaut,

Israel Independence Day. Later that same year, I wept on the couch in the common room in my dorm at Brandeis, mourning at his funeral.

• Meeting Hibuki, while visiting Sderot and not sharing this site visit with my family until after so they would not worry if they heard a red alert siren in the area.

• Sending each of our children, Tali, Itzik, and Ilanit, to the same summer program I attended and seeing their own relationship with and understanding of the complexity of our homeland flourish. Leaving my eldest while she was there to plan a rally for Israel back home during a situation when rockets were falling because she, too, felt there was no other place for her to be and would not have left with me (nor would I have asked her to).

• Last month, at 1:45 am via zoom, I attended my great nephew, Michael Adir’s bris in a shul in Tel Aviv.

• Also last month, my friend, Yaara, an artist, had her first art opening in her gallery in Jaffa, showcasing the amazing stories of women and families in Israel, Jewish and Arab, who open their hearts and provide warm and loving homes to kids in need of foster families.

My Israel is made of the people. May they continue to go from strength to strength. Am Yisrael Chai

Naomi Limor Sedek is president and CEO, Tidewater Jewish Foundation. She may be reached at nsedek@ujft.org.

Naomo Limor Sedek (left) with her daughter, Tali Sedek on her summer experiience in 2015.

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Chris Sisler, Vice President, Member of Ohef Sholom Temple, Board member of the Berger-Goldrich Home at Beth Sholom Village, James E. Altmeyer, Jr., President, James E. Altmeyer, Sr., Owner

Chesapeake Chapel • 929 S. Battlefield Blvd. Chesapeake • 757 482-3311

Family owned and operated since

Israel at 75 Forever changed

Ellen Rostov Hundley

Thesummer of 1977 changed my life forever.

My parents, of blessed memory, provided me with the opportunity to travel to Israel through the American Zionist Youth Foundation. Along with 27 other college-aged students from across the United States, we embarked on a oncein-a-lifetime opportunity.

We spent six weeks exploring the State of Israel. We began our journey on a Kibbutz up north, from there we went to Yad Vashem, Haifa, Tel Aviv, the dessert, Masada, and of course, Jerusalem. Seeing the Wailing Wall for the first time at night brought tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat. I tried so hard to express my feelings in my journal, but I just couldn’t find the words to truly

ART OF ISRAEL

FREE FOR JCC MEMBERS WITH CODE 'MEMBERJAE' AT CHECKOUT.

MONDAY MAY 8 12:00PM

Survey the history of the land through art objects, beginning with the building of King Solomon’s Temple, and continue with the Jewish catacombs, the synagogue mosaics, and the establishment of the modern State of Israel.

grasp my emotions. It was so overwhelming, magnificent, plus inspiring. A night I will never forget!

Say Hello to Dr. Falsetta-Gilbert

Dr. Falsetta-Gilbert graduated from Nova Southeastern University in 2002 and worked in the Tidewater area since 2003. She also spent a year completing a residency in Philadelphia, focusing on vision disorders that affect children and adults.

In addition to treating and diagnosing medical conditions, Dr. Falsetta also fits and prescribes contact lenses and glasses. She is one of the few Optometrists in our area who fits contact lenses for pediatric patients.

When Dr. Falsetta-Gilbert is not working, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two children.

Israel at 75

Journey’s Trip to Israel 2023

Iraninto my dear friend Amy Lefcoe last spring at the Simon Family JCC and asked her, “So, when are we going back to Israel?”

“Hmmm, let me think about that,” Amy replied.

As always, Amy worked her magic and created what would fast become one of my most memorable adventures. Amy gathered an eclectic group of 18 (Chai) Jewish ladies—some had been to Israel before and for others this would be their first trip to the Holy Land. The “Journey’s Trip to Israel” group consisted of a mix of Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jewish women from Tidewater as well as six Russian American women from Baltimore. I knew this diversity would bring a special richness to our group.

The Itinerary was a gem consisting of visits to some of Israel’s most holy locations, as well as popular historic areas. The trip would entail a balance between

many scholarly sessions, historic sightseeing events, as well as an immersion into the local communities and people with many shared activities, and meals among the Israel people. As an added blessing, we had perfect weather every day! What a hug from G-d!

We hit the ground running as soon as we landed in Tel Aviv. Our bus followed the Mediterranean Sea north to sunny Caesarea, then due west to the Setai Kineret Spa Hotel in Tiberias where we spent the night. We were in awe of the gorgeous sunset over Lake Kinneret and excited about the special spa treatments some of us signed up for. The next day we enjoyed the scenic view as we made our way to the Old City of Tzfat. In Tzfat we shopped in the beautiful galleries and made our own mezuzah using a fused glass technique, under the direction of Kathleen Wasserman, a local artist/teacher.

The group shared a most impactful morning as we prayed at the Tomb

Dr. Deena Falsetta-Gilbert and Dr. David Gilbert.

Marilyn G. Johns

The entire group.

Israel at 75

of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on the mountaintop in Meron. Their scholarly and spiritual contributions to mystical Judaism are world renown, as well as extremely uplifting. I was grateful to be able to honor these great sages.

The next morning began with a tour of the Old City in Jerusalem, on our way to author Sara Yoheved Rigler’s beautiful home. The narrow streets of the Old City never change, and the warmth of the yellow Jerusalem buildings and stone roads always envelop me with awe and wonder of a city that has sustained a culture and people for millennia. We read her book, G-d Winked, and it was a rare opportunity to listen to her talk about the Jewish Soul and her most recent book, I’ve Been Here Before

From Jerusalem, we took several jaunts. We visited Shiloh, the site of the tabernacle prior to the building of the 1st temple in Jerusalem. The ancient mountaintop fortress of Masada, which is filled with amazing history and gorgeous views of the Judean Desert, was another

destination. We also had fun floating and swimming in the Dead Sea. The laughter and smiles were infectious. Of course, we had a riot of a time riding camels!

One of the most moving experiences for me occurred at our visit to our matriarch Rachel’s tomb. The high security walls and barbed wire on both sides of the road made this Jewish American traveler a bit nervous, but our Israeli Security was tight, and I felt safe. After finding just the right spot in the women’s section, we poured out our hearts in prayer. I was taken by surprise by how many women were uncontrollably crying, as well as myself.

Bringing in Shabbat by lighting the Shabbos candles together in the Aish haTorah building, which overlooks the Kotel, was a happy and special moment for all of us. Watching the setting sun reflect off the gold dome seemed surreal as we ate another delicious meal and shared many stories.

We made our way to the Kotel. Hearing the chanting of Hebrew prayers by the Western Wall and having the opportunity to place our own prayers into the wall, reminded us of who we are and our special relationship with Hashem. Throughout the week, we heard from so many wonderful and inspiring rabbis, rebbetzins, historians, and tour guides. They taught us valuable Talmudic concepts that we can assimilate back into our lives to help us become better Jewish women and thereby be a blessing to our communities. The sisterhood we shared is truly a solid foundation

that I know we will continue to build upon. I know that I speak for the group thanking Amy Lefcoe for being our shining star, lighting the way as we navigate our personal relationship with

Hashem and providing opportunities for spiritual growth and an amazing trip to Israel!

“So, I have to ask again, when are we going back to Israel?” Am Yisrael Chai!!

A chilly day for the group on an Israeli hillside.

The Journeys Trip is welcomed to Israel.

Israel at 75

Five reasons to celebrate Yom Ha’Atzmaut in Tidewater Sunday, April 30, 12–4 pm, Sandler Family Campus

Sierra Lautman

Celebrate Israel as she turns 75 at the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s and Simon Family JCC’s annual Yom Ha’Atzmaut celebration at the Sandler Family Campus this month.

Right here in Tidewater, it’ll be possible to experience some of the exciting tastes, smells, and attractions that make Israel the country she is today. Here are five reasons to attend Israel Fest.

1. Israel is known for its bright, flavorful food Have a taste of shawarma, falafel, middle eastern salads, sfenj (a Moroccan donut-fritter), hummus, pita, and more.

2. Visit the shuk, an open-air market bustling with activity. Shop locally-made and Israeli-sourced artwork, jewelry, Israeli snacks, and more.

3. Israel Fest offers activities for everyone. Gardening in the kibbutzim, a boardwalk carnival in Eilat, camel rides in the Negev Desert, and rock climbing in the Golan Heights—Tidewater’s celebration of Israel offers the opportunity to enjoy these activities and more.

4. Exploring a new country is an educational experience. Families will have the chance to get their “Israel Passport” stamped as they explore everything at Israel Fest. Throughout the day, participants will be able to collect facts about multiple Israeli cities, the landscape, and the people of Israel, and track their “travel” in a colorful, collectible booklet.

5. Israel is only complete with her people. A community celebration needs community involvement! Volunteer to help at the event or get involved as the community celebrates Israel at 75 by participating in the Israel@75 Challenge (which begins on April 2),

attending the celebration on April 30, and inviting family and friends. Purchase tickets online in advance of Israel Fest for a discounted rate.

To purchase tickets or to find more information about the celebration on April 30, the Israel@75 Challenge, or to sign up to volunteer, visit JewishVA.org/IsraelFest.

Israeli food in the Shuk at Israel Fest 2022.

Camel rides at Israel Fest.

Shopping in the Shuk at Israel Fest 2022.

All campers are B’tzelem Elohim

Dave Flagler

Camp JCC is a place for children to explore, challenge themselves, learn, grow, and experience new things outside of the construct and expectations of a classroom.

Each camper, camp staff member, camp parent, and camp supporter have their own strengths, challenges, interests, needs, talents, skills, and special gifts that they offer this world. Everyone is created B’tzelem Elohim, in the Divine image of God, and every camper, no matter the circumstances, deserves to be enriched and fulfilled at Camp JCC.

accessibility modifications, behavioral support, or trained care specialists, the guiding principle is that children requiring additional accommodations should be able to participate to the best of their abilities. These children are also created B’tzelem Elohim and deserve to be enriched and fulfilled by the camp experience.

A movement to a MESH model to provide support has gained momentum in recent years. MESH (Mental, Emotional, Social [and/or Spiritual] Health), acknowledges the needs of youth at this moment. MESH, like inclusion, is a holistic approach meant to actively provide support and remove obstacles to participation.

Over the past two decades, many Jewish summer camps, including Camp JCC, have implemented inclusion programs for campers with special needs. The goal of inclusive programming is to remove obstacles that would otherwise prevent campers from participating. Whether it be through physical

In the spirit of both inclusion and MESH, Camp JCC is establishing its own “Camper Care” team to support the camp community this summer and beyond. While many of the approaches previously used at Camp JCC will remain, the scope has changed to ensure that every camper is included in this holistic approach. By reinforcing positive social skills, instilling character development, creating a sense of belonging, “Camper Care” will enable more participation for campers with varying needs and backgrounds.

To learn more about Camp JCC, or to hear about year-round opportunities for teens in the community, contact Dave Flagler, director of camp and teen engagement, at DFlagler@ UJFT.org or 757-452-3182.

The goal of inclusive programming is to remove obstacles that would otherwise prevent campers from participating.

Looks Great...Who Did Your Fence?

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

In Mel Brooks’ History of the World Part II, Jewish jokes reign from BCE to the Beatles

Jackie Hajdenberg

(JTA)—In a scene that streams on Hulu, a group of early Christian bishops gathers to set a promotion strategy for their newish religion—to “make the Bible an international blockbuster,” as one puts it.

But the plot is unclear: “Who are the bad guys in this story?” asks one. He and his fellow clerics consider two options: the Jews and the Romans.

“Let’s make them the Jews, for sure,” says a bishop. “They run everything,” says another.

And thus the First Council of Nicaea, a gathering in 325 C.E. that is considered the birth of Christian antisemitism, gets the Mel Brooks treatment in History of the World Part II, the long-awaited sequel to the classic Mel Brooks film that revolves around Jewish history—and skewers it.

As with the 1981 original—written, directed, and produced by Brooks, who also stars—the new series is littered with Jewish subject matter, even in the sketches that aren’t about Jews. And although comedy mores have changed in the past four decades, the series aims to retain Brooks’ signature combination of sharp parody, vaudevillian vulgarity, and Borscht Belt antics.

“We really tried to embrace what we loved about [Brooks’] work and apply that to the work that we were doing, whether that was the themes of funny character names, or breaking the fourth wall or anachronisms or certain kinds of playful blocking,” director Alice Mathias says.

And the creators aren’t concerned about a show with repeated send-ups of Jewish history at a time of rising antisemitism.

“Saying ‘the Jews are the bad guys’ is only funny because you’re making fun of the people saying it,” said showrunner David Stassen. “You’re punching up, you’re making fun of the bishops in power. That was the intent.”

Part of the series’ Jewishness is thanks

to Nick Kroll, the Jewish comedian who had been interested in creating History of the World Part II for a very long time and “nudzhed” Brooks to agree, Stassen says, using the Yiddish word for pester. Kroll is the co-creator of the critically acclaimed cartoon Big Mouth, which was largely based on his experience attending the Solomon Schechter School of Westchester.

Kroll joins Brooks, 96, Wanda Sykes, Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen as a writer and executive producer, with Mathias of Netflix’s absurdist sketch series I Think You Should Leave as director.

“It wasn’t a matter of, is this the right time for this?” Stassen says. “It was just like, how do we honor Mel? How do we do a show that’s different than current sketch shows, that is in Mel’s tone?”

History of the World Part I spoofs the epic films of the mid-20th century, with sketches including a musical number take on the Spanish Inquisition; an alternate history of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments; and cavemen discovering music. The new series puts a 21st century spin on that idea.

Audiences will see comedic sendups of historical events including Black congresswoman Shirley Chisholm’s historic run for president; Marco Polo’s arrival at the palace of Kublai Khan in China; the Russian Revolution; and the signing of the Oslo Accords, the 1993 IsraeliPalestinian peace agreement.

Just a few of the Jewish jokes: Jason Alexander makes an appearance as a notary-slash-mohel who brings the wrong bag, full of his ritual tools, to the official signing of the Confederate Army’s surrender at the end of the Civil War.

The story of Jesus Christ gets parodied via multiple genres and is arguably one of the most Jewish recurring sketches s. One sketch spoofs the documentary The Beatles: Get Back, in which fans of the apostles eat matzah on sticks outside of the Apples & Honey recording studio.

BOOK REVIEW

Don’t Tell Your Brother

Meir Shalev

Am Oved Publishers, 2022

263 pages

Reviewed by Rabbi Israel Zoberman

Closeto one million Israelis live in the United States and Canada. I happen to be one of them. Thus, Don’t Tell Your Brother by veteran and master Israeli author Meir Shalev (born in Nahalal, Israel 1948), whose books have been translated to 26 languages, piqued my interest. The novel’s protagonist, Itamar Diskin, born in 1945 in Jerusalem and myself the same year in Kazakhstan (USSR), lives in Charlottesville, Virginia for 35 years, while I reside in Virginia Beach for the same time, though I arrived in Chicago in 1966. Itamar annually visits his younger brother Boaz and wife Maya in Tel Aviv, and I annually visit my family in Haifa.

The enthralling account focuses on a web of intriguing relationships in an Israeli context. Itamar is single and very handsome as Boaz tells his brother, “Like what mother used to say about you: “’ Itamar is the calf that Abraham offered the angels.’” Itamar is co-owner of a private gym in Charlottesville with his extensive military background as a body-training officer in the IDF’s Air Force, whereas Boaz served as a chief on a submarine. Itamar’s appearance attracts clients, particularly women. His transition from Israel to the States followed traumatic events. His father, Yechiel (also my father’s name), a lawyer and a colorful character, died. Michal, his girlfriend and an ex- Air Force intelligence officer, left him after five good years and five bad weeks that closely resonates with Biblical Joseph’s dream, reflecting the author’s fondness for the Bible.

Though Itamar’s initial plan was to recover and return home to Israel where he was born, grew up, had his family, friends, language, and culture—that did not materialize as is the case with many

Israelis living in America…not unusual

Israelis—even with some coming here on official Israeli assignments. Apparently, America is too enticing.

Itamar shares in a somewhat confessional, “I wanted to travel in a large and distant country in which I don’t have memories, plans, family.” With a chuckle, he tells his brother Boaz, “For this very purpose America was discovered for me.” He rented a small car, aimlessly traveling to small towns on side roads till arriving in Virginia that was destined to become his home and my own. “The last state journeyed in was Virginia where I was tempted to enter a city named Charlottesville. A small city but larger than the others I had previously visited. I didn’t yet know then how important was that city in the history of the country that would become mine, and I couldn’t imagine how important and good it would be in my own history.”

Michal, Itamar’s past love, introduced him to poetry when joining her for an evening dedicated to Yehuda Amichai (1924–2000) with the famous poet present in the packed hall. Consequently, Itamar was turned on to poetry. I too am fond of Amichai’s popular poems (He received the prestigious Israel Prize for Poetry in 1982), vividly recalling his visit in the early 1970s to Cincinnati’s Hebrew Union College where he recited his prosaic and profound poetry in his unassuming manner.

Amichai was born in Germany, immigrated in 1936 at age 12 with his parents to then Palestine and fought as a Palmachnik in the 1948 War of Independence. His generation represented the admired pioneering “Eretz Yisrael Hayafa ,” though admittedly it was a “macho” society where poetry and literature generally were reserved for women’s studies. Back then, an Israeli living abroad was derogatorily considered a Yored, one “Going down,” on the verge of a Boged, no less than a traitor. Currently there is hardly an Israeli family that is not represented in the States, now a source of pride attesting perhaps to a normalized society with both a complex past and present while continuing to evolve.

Nowadays moving away from Israel

is regarded as simply “leaving” with no criticism attached or a “relocation” spelled in Hebrew letters, one of multiple English words penetrating Hebrew with obviously the failed past attempt to keep Hebrew “pure,” yet with added new Hebrew words and forms. Indeed, American culture’s impact on Israel has been massive. Just as the novel’s protagonist, Itamar, is not in touch with the American Jewish community, so Israeli Americans tend to keep to themselves albeit experiencing a high rate of intermarriage with non-Jews. Curiously and ironically, the entire literary and life legacy of Amichai, once an iconic super-Israeli, is preserved at Yale University.

Meir Shalev’s endearing, rich, and layered Hebrew prose is often expressed in enchanting poetic form such as the following, both celebrating and mourning Itamar’s lost love of Michal—though something precious may be lost in translation:

“A branch moving in the wind, for once we slept under the tree. Your glowing face above me. Tiny and happy pebbles penetrated my back: We too are here. Participating. Sorry to be a bit thorny. The tree was excited. Its leaves were humming. The sun dropped off them melted gold.”

Rabbi Dr. Israel Bobrov Zoberman is founder of Temple Lev Tikvah and Honorary Senior Rabbi Scholar at Eastern Shore Chapel Episcopal Church, both in Virginia Beach.

Son of Polish Holocaust survivors who met in Siberia, he was born in Chu, Kazakhstan in 1945. He spent his childhood among refugees in Poland, Austria, Germany, and Israel.

Rabbi Zoberman grew up in Haifa, Israel and served in the IDF in the 1960s.

He arrived with his family to Israel from France on the boat, Independence on Israel’s first Independence Day in May, 1949.

Rabbi Israel Zoberman.

30th Annual Virginia Festival of Jewish Film wraps

Hunter Thomas

he Virginia Festival of Jewish Film, presented by Alma & Howard Laderberg, wrapped up its 30th anniversary on Wednesday, March 1, Farewell Mr. Haffmann at Virginia Beach’s Beach Cinema Alehouse. The French film, distributed initially as  Adieu, Monsieur Haffmann, was the fifth film presented for the festival’s milestone year. The thrilling Holocaust drama, which has won multiple audience choice awards at some of the nation’s most prominent Jewish film festivals, was the perfect film to bookend a successful week of Jewish cinema in Tidewater.

The festival began on February 23 with a screening of the Israeli film  Karaoke An additional film screening had to be added due to increased ticket Karaoke wasn’t the only film to sell out—audience members waited outside the theater before  Mr. Haffmann began on March 1, hoping to find an extra seat.

The festival’s annual Big Saturday Night Celebration of Jewish Film on February 25 featured the film  iMordecai, a delightful love letter to friendship, growing older, and the city of Miami. Following the screening, Mark Robbins, the festival’s screening committee co-chair, led a panel discussion with actor Nick Puga and the film’s director, Marvel Samels. Robbins presented Puga and his wife, Fernanda, with Virginia is for Lovers baseball caps, which the titular character, Mordecai (Judd Hirsch), wears throughout the film. Robbins noted that the hat has become a topic of conversation among Tidewater’s Jewish

community since the trailer was shared on the festival’s website.

While Puga was unsure how the cap ended up in the film, Robbins followed up with Samels, who noted, “There are three symbols of Mordecai’s resistance to change—his phone, his Jeep, and his hat. I wanted an ‘I [heart] NY’ hat…but we were unable to secure the license. Thankfully, the kind Commonwealth of Virginia was happy to oblige.” The post-film discussion was followed by a reception with desserts by Shari Berman of Cater 613, champagne, and live klezmer music by local band Bagels & Fraylox.

One of the festival’s most anticipated films was screened on February 26 at Norfolk Academy.  The Levys of Monticello tells the uniquely Virginian story of the Jewish Levy family, who acted as stewards of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello estate from 1831, eight years after his death, through 1923.

“I learned so much and appreciate the way that the stories of the Jewish experience and slave experience were woven together,” said one moviegoer. “The film was a reminder that we must be ever vigilant about creeping antisemitism and racism and be visible in standing for what’s right.”

Levys  was followed by a panel discussion with the film’s associate producer, Lisa Stark; Marc Leepson, author of  Saving Monticello and one of the historians interviewed in the film; and retired United States Navy Vice-Admiral Herman Shelanski, who lives in Norfolk and is featured in the film. Shelanski is also vice president of Congregation Beth

El, which partnered with the festival to bring the film to Tidewater.

The festival’s penultimate film was the 1976 classic by Paul Mazursky, Next Stop, Greenwich Village. Rabbi Michael Panitz introduced it in honor of the late Mal Vincent on February 27. The film was the last chosen by Vincent for the festival before his death in 2021 and starred the young faces of Christopher Walken and Jeff Goldblum, among others. Panitz auctioned off an original poster for the film before the showing.

The Festival Screening Committee will reconvene this summer to begin screening films for next year. For more information on how to get involved, email Hunter Thomas, director of Arts + Ideas at the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, at HThomas@UJFT.org.

Photography by Mark Robbins

William Laderberg and Linda and Leigh Baltuch.

Joel Rubin asks a question following The Levys of Monticello.

Lisa Stark, Herm Shelanski, and Marc Leepson.

New all-digital Hunger Museum charts US response to food insecurity through a Jewish lens: hungermuseum.org

An1888 portrait of Ellen Swallow Richards and her all-female home economics class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A 1915 campaign poster that maps out the 20 states providing food assistance for widows and single mothers. A 1940 photo of Japanese-American children eating hot dogs at a World War II internment camp in Idaho. A video of the 1950 launch of the Betty Crocker TV Show.

These are among the fascinating artifacts and mementos on exhibit at the Hunger Museum, a new barrier-breaking museum that seeks to inform and raise awareness about hunger in the U. S.

A virtual project of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, the museum’s six galleries chronicle well over a century of U.S. hunger and anti-hunger public policy, from the Civil War through 9/11, the 2018 government shutdown and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The all-digital Hunger Museum was conceived by Abby J. Leibman, president and CEO of MAZON, a national organization based in Los Angeles. It took three years to put together and opened March 9.

“The Hunger Museum began as an idea, and it has exceeded my wildest expectations,” says Leibman. “It’s visually stunning and incredibly immersive, as if you’re in an actual exhibit space. There’s so much to learn as you move through the museum’s galleries and artifacts.”

The website, developed by Dan and Tamara Zimmerman of Loyal Design, has six galleries with multiple exhibits and hundreds of webpages. Leibman says there is growing interest in and awareness of the issue of hunger among Americans generally—and U.S. Jews in particular.

“Because of the pandemic, hunger registered in a far more present way than it ever has before—and not only because millions of people instantly became food-insecure as jobs were lost and businesses closed,” she says. “It was also evident in media coverage and photos of literally hundreds of cars waiting in line for free boxes of groceries.”

Besides its galleries, the Hunger

Museum, like any physical museum, also features venues such as a multistory lobby overlooking an atrium, an auditorium (for online events), the Terrace Restaurant and a Wishing Tree inspired by Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree that allows visitors to leave a wish for those who struggle with hunger. However, at this museum, all these features are virtual. There’s also the SNAP Café—where virtual diners can select dishes from the five major food groups and calculate how much that meal would cost, and whether they could afford it if they were on SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program formerly known as food stamps).

“This is really an innovative initiative, because of the story it tells about hunger in this country—and our response—over a 100-year period,” says Mia Hubbard, vice-president of programs at MAZON, which has 23 full-time employees and an annual budget of $8.5 million.

“Food insecurity is a pervasive and persistent part of our history, and that becomes clear as you go through the galleries,” says Hubbard.

The Hunger Museum aims not only to raise awareness and inform people about hunger’s history in America, but also to create a Jewish call to action—to inspire people to help fight hunger.

Naama Haviv, MAZON’s vice-president of community engagement, says that while plenty of brick-and-mortar museums have created online exhibits, nobody has ever done an entirely virtual museum before.

The most significant changes in American society on hunger issues occurred during the 1960s and ‘70s, Haviv says, when bipartisan efforts shifted public understanding and political will to address hunger more comprehensively.

She adds that hunger in America can be solved because it was solved once before, citing household surveys showing that just 3% of Americans went hungry in 1969. Today, by comparison, 12% of the population is on SNAP, and over 34 million people are food insecure.

“During the first few months of the pandemic, that number skyrocketed to

around 80 million, but then, because we had robust government investment in food safety-net programs, we saw those numbers drastically reduced,” Haviv says. “We are now below pre-pandemic levels.”

But instead of understanding the lessons of history, and learning from the recent experience of the pandemic, efforts to make it more difficult for those who struggle to find stability and food security are now underway, she warns.

For example, under current U.S. law, SNAP work requirements restrict essential benefits for “able-bodied” adults without dependents between ages 18 and 49. Rep. Dusty Johnson, a Republican from South Dakota, has introduced a bill to expand this category to age 65. Earlier this year, Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, introduced similar legislation that would

raise the restriction to age 59. Both bills would also bar states from seeking a waiver to the “able-bodied adults” time limit—even if there aren’t enough jobs for all those in need.

“These changes are unacceptable and will make matters worse, because not only do they ignore history—they rely on narrow thinking about the lives of struggling Americans.

“But,” Leibman adds, “we know we can end hunger in America. The proof is in our history.”

This story was sponsored by and produced in collaboration with MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, which recently launched The Hunger Museum—a groundbreaking, all-virtual immersive experience. This story was produced by JTA’s native content team.

WHAT’S HAPPENING

The PhotoHouse: Israel’s past, present, and future at 75 years Screening of Life in Stills: Wednesday, April 26, 7:30 pm, Sandler Family Campus

Hunter Thomas

Asthe adage goes, a picture tells a thousand words. How many stories could be written, then, from millions of photographic negatives?

The PhotoHouse, founded in Tel Aviv in 1940 by Rudi Weissenstein, is the home of these negatives, Weissenstein’s life work, telling a story of a young Israel beginning a decade before and some decades after she became a state.

Weissenstein was born in 1910 in what is now the Czech Republic. After studying in Vienna, he arrived in Palestine in 1936— where he began documenting important events and day-to-day life as a freelance photojournalist. Weissenstein founded The PhotoHouse with his wife, Miriam, who also became his business partner. He continued working, becoming the official photographer of the signing of Israel’s Declaration of Independence in 1948.

The PhotoHouse is filled with photographs and negatives captured by Weissenstein from 1936 through his death in 1992. The archive—Israel’s largest private photography archive —has stayed in the family for three generations. Its current owner, Ben Peter, is Weissenstein’s grandson. Peter will visit Tidewater this

month as the community celebrates Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel Independence Day.

Peter began working with his grandmother in 2005. The pair fought Tel Aviv authorities to save The PhotoHouse’s original location at 30 Allenby Street. After a lengthy legal battle, the property ultimately went to the city for use in a controversial construction project in 2011. That same year, Miriam Weissenstein died at 97 and was buried next to her husband in Herzliya.

Peter opened a temporary location for the shop and archive at 5 Tchernichowsky Street in Tel Aviv, where it remained for 12 years. Peter and his partners are now returning to its original location. This made the recent visit to The PhotoHouse by UJFT Israel mission members special.

“We were very impressed by Ben’s desire to keep his family’s work active and alive, and a part of our history,” says Alene Jo Kaufman. The group from Tidewater visited the temporary location on its final operating day. “Here we are at the end of one part of his life, meeting him as he moves on to the next phase,” says Kaufman. “I look forward to seeing him again, seeing the photos he chose for the exhibit in the Leon Family Gallery, and making the most of this opportunity to celebrate Israel at 75 with him and The

PhotoHouse.”

The fight to save The PhotoHouse is documented in the 2011 film Life in Stills by Tamar Tal. The film, which won the Israeli Academy (Ophir) Award for Best Documentary in 2012, will be screened at the Simon Family JCC on April 26; a discussion and Q+A with Peter will follow. This event is presented as part of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, Simon Family JCC, & Community Partners’ 12th Annual Israel Today Series, in partnership with the Alma & Howard Laderberg Virginia Festival of Jewish Film.

A rotating collection of photographs from The PhotoHouse’s archive has been featured in the Sandler Family Campus’s Copeland Cardo since mid-November. A campus-wide exhibit of Weissenstein’s photos, curated by Peter and framed by

Annual Janet Gordon Mah Jongg event benefits Beth Sholom Village

Sunday,

April 23, 11 am, Sandler Family Campus

Amy Weinstein

The most common thing you may have heard about the 2023 Janet Gordon Mah Jongg Day & Luncheon in support of Beth Sholom Village? The tournament is back! After a 3.5-year hiatus, the event planning committee is bringing back the tournament portion of the event, responding to high demand from past participants. The day will also feature the popular playfor-fun option, a kosher catered luncheon, and exciting raffle prizes.

Beth Sholom Village’s most well-liked annual fundraiser will take place at the Sandler Family Campus. The ongoing pandemic continues to affect life at Beth Sholom Village, and large indoor events remain an added risk at this time. However, the decision was made to bring the Mah Jongg event back ‘home’ to the community. If it can’t be hosted on site at BSV, then there is no better place than the central address of the Tidewater Jewish community.

The Auxiliary Gift Shop will again offer

a pop-up shop boutique, with brand new fashions, accessories, and clothing for all— not just event attendees. It will be an exciting day to shop, play some Mah Jongg and catch up with friends, all while supporting residents and the BSV community.

The PhotoHouse, will be on display in the gallery through June 2023.

Peter will also attend the community celebration of Israel @ 75 on Sunday, April 30, 12–4 pm.

For more information about The PhotoHouse or Israel @ 75, email Hunter Thomas, director of Arts + Ideas at the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, at HThomas@UJFT.org.

With 100% of the proceeds from the event going directly to residents, helping bridge the gap between medical assistance and the true cost of care, BSV is grateful for the steadfast support of its leading sponsor, Daniel Gordon, and the Gordon Family. Visit www.bethsholomvillage.com/donate to register or become a sponsor.

Alene and Ron Kaufman at the PhotoHouse’s temporary location in Tel Aviv.

WHAT’S HAPPENING

Women’s activism in New Orleans: Staking claims and crossing boundaries with Dr. Anne Gessler

Thursday, April 20, 7:30 pm, Zoom

OldDominion University’s Institute for Jewish Studies and Interfaith Understanding, United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, and ODU’s Women’s Studies present a talk by Anne Gessler, PhD.

An Evening of Reflection and Remembrance

2023 Holocaust Day of Remembrance

Sunday, April 16, 6:45 pm

Temple Israel, 7255 Granby Street, Norfolk

Elka Mednick

Yom Hashoah, a time to remember and reflect on the Holocaust, will take place in Tidewater on Sunday, April 16 at Temple Israel in Norfolk.

The entire community is invited to the commemorative program in which the victims of the Holocaust will be honored and the survivors who made their homes in Hampton Roads following the Holocaust will be celebrated. The evening will include a speaker, candle lighting ceremony, and prayers and remarks from local clergy.

Student winners of the Holocaust Commission’s annual Elie Wiesel competitions and recipients of the Commission’s Excellence in Education awards will also be recognized for their hard work and accomplishments in furthering the lessons of the Holocaust.

The evening’s featured speaker will be local Holocaust survivor Michel Ashe, who survived the Holocaust hidden in France. As a young toddler in 1940, Ashe and his mother fled Paris for the South of France for Arthès. They were eventually joined by his father, and together they were hidden and

protected by the kind people of Arthès.

Through twists and turns of living as a hidden child, Michel Ashe, his sister, and his parents were all able to survive the Holocaust.

In recent years, Ashe has told his story and shared the lessons of the Holocaust. Through his hard work and determination, he managed to have the families that protected his own family named Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.

In his personal essay in To Life: The Past is Present, Ashe makes clear his thoughts on the importance of standing up in order to demonstrate strength of character and moral courage.

For more information, visit www. holocaustcommission.org, email info@holocaustcommission.org or call 757-965-6100.

Gessler’s talk explores the period between 1900 and 1945 when women’s interracial, cross-class, and multi-generational political coalitions pressured New Orleans to respond to its most vulnerable residents. A wealth of women’s organizations’ yearbooks, correspondence, meeting minutes, memorabilia, photographs, and other artifacts reveal the extent to which Orthodox and Reform Jewish and Christian rank-and-file women regularly joined and supported each other’s secular and religious organizations.

Gessler’s research follows German Reform community activist Ida Weis Friend, Russian Orthodox social worker Rose Brener, defender of Yiddish culture Mollie Gansar, and Polish socialist Eva Weinstein’s post-19th Amendment commitment to expanding city social welfare networks, advancing national democratic economic reforms, and pressing for global democracy, and peace. Not only does their activism unsettle the conventional portrait of Jewish Southerners who avoided radical political activity as a means of protecting their embattled class status, but it also bridges the gap in southern women’s social

movement organizing between attaining suffrage and organizing for civil rights and women’s rights 30 years later.

Director of the FirstYear Seminar Program and clinical associate professor in the Women’s and Gender Studies and Humanities Programs at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, Gessler received her doctorate in American Studies and a portfolio in Women and Gender Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2015.

Gessler teaches critical thinking, modern U.S. history, women’s and gender studies, humanities, and utopian history. Engaging with women’s and gender studies, social movement history, and consumer activism, her book,  Cooperatives in New Orleans: Collective Action and Urban Development, traces the impact of New Orleans neighborhood cooperatives on the city’s urban development.

To access the talk, go to HTTPS://TINYURL. COM/4AC83T4P.

One Happy Camper offers special grants and funding for new campers

TheFoundation for Jewish Camp is offering up to $1,000 per child of-age kids the ability to attend a Jewish sleepaway camp—for the first time.

For parents with children new to the world of sleepaway summer camps, and the wonderful opportunities they get to experience at one, this is a perfect way to jump in the waters. One Happy Camper provides funding for kids who meet the criteria, with a variety of grants and funds to help all families give their kids an unforgettable experience. Apply and learn more at Jewishva.org/one-happy-camper.

Michel Ashe.

Anne Gessler, PhD.

2023: Simon Family JCC Day Camp Employment

Looking for wonderful place to work? Try Camp JCC !

At Camp JCC, energetic and passionate staff provide a safe and positive learning environment for campers. Previous summer day camp work expe-rience and/or experience working with children helpful.

Excellent Career Experience for College students, high school students (rising Juniors, Seniors) or graduates, or for those looking to work in recreation, education, or social work. All positions serve as role models for campers and each other.

Now Hiring… for the following positions: Sr. Counselors (High School Graduates or 18 years old)

Junior Counselor (High School Rising Junior and 16 years old)

Specialists ( Activities: Sports, Music, Arts, etc.) •Camper Care Specialist

Special Needs Shadow Counselors •Administrative Assistant Camp Nurse ( RN or LPN)

Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience

For more information, contact:

Taftaleen Hunter, Human Resources Director

Applications available at www.simonfamilyjcc.org

Submit completed application to: resumes@ujft.org or by mail

UJFT/Simon Family JCC

Attention: Confidential: Human Resources 5000 Corporate Woods Drive, Suite 200 • Virginia Beach, VA 23462

Staff Orientation: June 11-17; Camper/Counselor Meet & Greet: June 19

Last Blast Camp (Post Camp) August 14 - 25

WHAT’S HAPPENING

Interactive Israel Fest activity with prizes for all

Byvisiting Jewishva.org/IsraelFest and registering for the free Israel@75 challenge this April, community members of all ages will automatically get access to a VIP prize, which they can pick up at the community Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration on Sunday, April 30.

A new challenge will be posted online each week. The more you play, the more you can win. Follow the Simon Family JCC on Instagram for clues throughout April.

EOE

CALENDAR

APRIL 3, MONDAY

Justine L. Nusbaum Lecture: Robert Shoup. Reception: 6:15 pm, Lecture: 7 pm, Virginia Wesleyan University. Hosted by the Robert Nusbaum Center at Virginia Wesleyan University, Shoup, a long-time and highly regarded choir director, seeks “to deploy music as a vehicle for meaningful human connection.” For information, call 757-455-3129 or go to NusbaumCenter@vwu.edu.

APRIL 16, SUNDAY

Yom Hashoah at Temple Israel. Honor local Holocaust survivors and remember those who perished at Temple Israel. 6:45 pm. For more information, visit www.holocaustcommission.org or contact Elka Mednick at emednick@ujft.org. See page 34.

APRIL 17, MONDAY

The JCC Book Club reviews Ticking Clock by Ira Rosen. This active book club was established in 2008. More than 190 books, poems, and short stories later, it is still going strong. The club meets on the third Monday of each month, 1:30-3:00 pm, both in-person and on Zoom. Visit JewishVA.org/Seniors or contact Sherry Lieberman at joeann124@aol.com.

APRIL 19, WEDNESDAY

JCC Senior Club Enjoy a meeting and catching up with friends over lunch while taking in a program. Members receive a monthly newsletter with updates and information about programming including the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and Simon Family JCC’s Lee and Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival, Israel Today, the Annual Virginia Festival of Jewish Film, the Konikoff Center for Learning, and much more. The JCC Senior Club meets on the third Wednesday of each month in the Fleischmann Lounge, 12:30 - 2:30 pm. $15 annual membership fee, $6 lunch. For more information, visit JewishVA.org/Seniors or contact Robin Ford at RFord@UJFT.org.

APRIL 20, THURSDAY

Monthly Moon Circle. The Konikoff Center for Learning of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater invites the community into a tradition that spans thousands of years: a monthly holiday known as Rosh Chodesh, meaning “head of the month.” 6:45 pm. Come together for self-reflection and rituals that will help connect with this ancient legacy, learn from Jewish wisdom, and embrace the unique spiritual energy of each month. For more information and to register, visit JewishVA.org/KCL or contact Sierra Lautman at SLautman@UJFT.org.

APRIL 23, SUNDAY

Beth Sholom Village’s The Janet Gordon Annual Mah Jongg Day and Luncheon . Sandler Family Campus. 11 am. $65. RSVP by April 18. www.bethsholomvillage.com.donate. See page 32.

Assistant Editor/Copywriter

Jewish News and United Jewish Federation of Tidewater are looking for a creative, detailed, deadline-oriented person to join the marketing team and newspaper staff.

Want more details? Go to www.federation.jewishva.org

APRIL 26, WEDNESDAY

The film, Life in Stills, followed by a conversation with costar and Photohouse owner, Ben Peter. Presented by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, Simon Family JCC, & Community Partners’ 12th annual Israel Today Series, in partnership with the Virginia Festival of Jewish Film. 7:30 pm. At the age of 96, Miriam Weissenstein never imagined that she would be facing a new chapter in her life. When her late husband’s life’s work was destined for demolition, she and her grandson, Ben, forged a special relationship to join forces to save the shop. For more information and to register, visit JewishVA.org/IsraelToday or contact Hunter Thomas at HThomas@UJFT.org. See page 32.

APRIL 30, SUNDAY

Community Celebration of Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s 75th birthday! 12–4 pm. Taste the cornucopia of flavors in Israeli food, a reflection of the diversity in the country’s population. Shop in the Shuk, the outdoor marketplace, create art, ride a camel, visit the “Jerusalem Petting Zoo,” and more. Ben Peter, the featured guest, is the grandson of the founding owners of the Tel Aviv PhotoHouse, a world-renowned private archive of historical photographs. For more information, to check out videos from last year, or to listen to a specially curated Israeli music playlist, visit Jewishva.org/IsraelFest. See page 26.

MAY 7, SUNDAY

Jewish Family Service’s 19th Annual Run, Roll Stroll at 31st Street Park, Virginia Beach Oceanfront. 8 am. Register at runsignup.com/runrollstroll.

Jewish Museum and Cultural Center’s fundraising event with dinner and a silent auction. For information, go to jewishmuseumportsmouth.org.

MAY 9, TUESDAY

One Hundred Saturdays: In Search for a Lost World with Michael Frank . Online—watch from home. One Hundred Saturdays tells the remarkable story of 99-year-old Stella Levi, the vibrant world of Jewish Rhodes, the deportation to Auschwitz that extinguished 90 percent of her community, and the resilience and wisdom of the woman who lived to tell the tale. 12 pm. Presented by United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and Simon Family JCC’s Lee & Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival, in partnership with UJFT’s Holocaust Commission. Online, free, and open to the community. Registration is required to receive the Zoom link. For more information and to register, visit JewishVA.org/BookFest or contact Hunter Thomas at HThomas@UJFT.org.

MAY 17, WEDNESDAY

Ticking Clock: Behind the Scenes at 60 Minutes with Ira Rosen . Writer and producer Ira Rosen reveals the intimate, untold stories of his decades at America’s most iconic news show. His story is a  60 Minutes story on  60 Minutes itself. When producer Ira Rosen walked into the  60 Minutes offices in June 1980, he knew he was about to enter television history. His career catapulted him to the heights of TV journalism, breaking some of the most important stories in TV news. Presented by the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and Simon Family JCC’s Lee & Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival, 12 pm. $12 admission, $6 ages 55+, (lunch included). $27 for lunch and signed book. Special pricing for lunch and book ends May 10. For more information and to register, visit JewishVA.org/BookFest or contact Hunter Thomas at HThomas@UJFT.org.

Send submissions for calendar to news@ujft.org. Be sure to note “calendar” in the subject. Include date, event name, sponsor, address, time, cost, and phone.

GRAPHIC ARTIST

Jewish News and United Jewish Federation of Tidewater are looking for a creative, detailed, deadline-oriented graphics professional to join the marketing team and newspaper staff. Want more details? Go to www.federation.jewishva.org

JOSEPH DRORY

NORFOLK—Joseph Drory, 89, passed away on March 26, 2023. Born in Haifa, Israel, he was the son of the late Shabtai and Yochevet Drory.

Joseph was predeceased by his loving wife of 56 years, Miriam Drory.

Left to cherish his memory are his children, son Nathan (Leora) Drory, of Virginia Beach and daughters Tammy (Jeff) Cohen and Ilana (Gary) Gamerman, both of Vienna, Va. He is also survived by his eight grandchildren, Erika, Danit, Aaron, Joshua, Leah, Ari, Noah and Zachary; three great-grandchildren Yaakov Moshe and Miriam and Chana Gruen; his brother, Sam Drory and brother-in-law, Arnold Schyer, both of Melbourne, Australia.

A funeral service was held at H.D. Oliver Funeral Apts., Norfolk Chapel, followed by burial at B’nai Israel Cemetery. Memorial donations may be made in Joseph’s name to B’nai Israel

Congregation (http://bnaiisrael.org/).

MARTY MANDELBERG

NORFOLK—Marty Mandelberg, 76, passed away peacefully on March 23, 2023, at his home in Norfolk, Va.

Brilliant, handsome, charming, and determined, Marty was known for his devotion to all things Baltimore (particularly the Orioles and Ravens), his remarkable gift with numbers (which aided him greatly in his weekly poker games and his work as a forensic accountant), his dedication to being a Holocaust educator for more than 30 years, and, above all, his love for his family.

Left to cherish his memory are his beloved wife of 22 years, Rabbi Roz Mandelberg; his children Elise Mandelberg and Adam and Staci Mandelberg; his grandchildren Brooke Mandelberg and Blake Mandelberg; his mother Evy Mandelberg; his brothers and sisters-in-law Terry and Shelley

Mandelberg and Robbie and Ilene Mandelberg; his nieces and nephews, close extended family, and good friends. He was pre-deceased by his father Billy and his brother Norman.

We are grateful for the care of the entire staff at the Terrace at Beth Sholom Village, each went above and beyond to assure his comfort.

A funeral was held at Sol Levinson Bros Funeral Home in Baltimore. The burial took place immediately following at the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation Berrymans Lane Cemetery in Reisterstown, Md.

A service and shiva also took place at Ohef Sholom Temple.

Contributions in his memory may be made to Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, 7401 Park Heights Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21208, Ohef Sholom Temple, 530 Raleigh Avenue, Norfolk, VA 23507, or the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, 5000 Corporate Woods Drive, Suite 200, Virginia Beach, VA 23462.

MARIANN B. TICATCH

NORFOLK—Mariann B. Ticatch, 87, passed away on March 25, 2023.

A native of Richmond, Virginia, she was the daughter of the late Dora and Nathan Bear.

Mariann grew up in a flat over her parents’ store, Nathan Bear’s Mens Wear at 1307 Hull Street with her older siblings Marvin and Nada. One of her fondest memories (she spoke of it just before her passing) was her daily afternoon walks hand in hand with her father to make the bank deposit. This was their special time to talk. Mariann took after her mother and was therefore energetic, gregarious, philanthropic, and intensely committed to making Judaism the foundation of her family’s life. She ensured that the same would be true of her children.

Mariann was also a trailblazer becoming an insurance and financial planning professional in the mid-1970s when it was rare for a woman to do so. Mariann had a long and accomplished career, retiring just a few years ago. Some of her most significant accomplishments included serving as president of Ticatch Financial

Management, receiving the Lincoln National Stuart Smith Award, being the first woman president of the Norfolk Life Underwriters Association, serving as president of the Estate Planning Council, president of Lee’s Friends, president of Beth Sholom Village, and as president of Norfolk Chapter of Hadassah. She was also a board member of Congregation Beth El, Tidewater Jewish Foundation, YWCA, and United Way Foundation. Amazingly, this list is only a fraction of her accomplishments.

Mariann was preceded in death by her brother Marvin Bear and by her former husband Melvin Ticatch, with whom she had four children.

Survivors include a sister Nada Ottenstein (Daniel) of New Haven Conn.; a daughter, Natalie Guld (Michael) of Raleigh, N.C.; three sons, Larry Ticatch (Brenda) of Yorktown, Va., Joel Ticatch (Elaine) of Fairfax, Va., and Nathan Ticatch (Paula) of Houston, Texas; eight grandchildren; Eli (Shannon), Micah (Nerissa), Spencer (Laura), Stephanie (Maxwell), Avi, Justin (Taylor), Harlan (Ashley), and Jillian; and seven great grandchildren; Keret, Aaron, Nava, Asher, Drew, Shiloh, and Ber.

A graveside funeral service was held in Forest Lawn Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Beth Sholom Village or a charity of choice. H. D. Oliver Funeral Apts., Norfolk Chapel.

ABRAHAM ZAREM, ONE OF THE LAST SURVIVING MANHATTAN PROJECT SCIENTISTS

Andrew Silow-Carroll (JTA)—Abraham Zarem was 28 when he joined the Manhattan Project, the vast U.S. government effort to develop the atom bomb.

Engineers like him gathered in secret laboratories in New Mexico, California, New York City, and elsewhere to provide the practical know-how the theorists lacked.

“‘They were geniuses but didn’t know how to build a f—king thing,’” Zarem recalled, according to his longtime rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, David Wolpe.

Zaum, who went on to a distinguished

career in technology, business development and leadership management training, died March 8 in Los Angeles. He was 106, and one of the last surviving members of the army of scientists, technicians, bureaucrats, and clerks who helped build the weapon that would force Japan’s surrender in World War II and usher in the Atomic Age.

After the war, Zarem joined the staff of the United States Naval Ordnance Test Station at Pasadena, where as head of the electrical section of the physical research division he developed a highspeed camera used to study intense light sources and other phenomena. Popular Mechanics called the Zarem camera— 25,000 times faster than any movie camera then available—a “miracle.”

In 1963, Zarem served as senior vice president of Xerox, leaving in 1970 to launch a consulting business. He returned to Xerox as founder and CEO of its Xerox Development Corporation in 1975. He later served as founder and managing director of Frontier Associates, a technology consultancy.

Born in Chicago on March 7, 1917, Zarem was valedictorian of his undergraduate class at the Armour Institute of Technology (now the Illinois Institute of Technology) and earned his doctorate on the physical properties of the electric spark at the California Institute of Technology. He headed the Stanford University Research Institute in Los

Angeles while still in his 30s.

Later he served as distinguished senior advisor for Neuroscience Technology Transfer for the UCLA Brain Research Institute and a member of the Urology Advisory Board of the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine. Additionally, he served as distinguished visiting executive in Science and Technology for Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

One of Zarem’s companies, ElectroOptical Systems, developed the “world’s first practical ion engine”—an experimental high-energy thruster for spacecraft. It now resides in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

Zarem was also a regular at Sinai Temple, where Wolpe said Zarem mentored him as a young rabbi. Zarem and his wife Esther were generous contributors to the congregation; Wolpe remembered Zarem chanting from the book of Jonah on Yom Kippur when he was 99.

“Abe Zarem was a brilliant, buoyant, passionate, pious, and philanthropic person,” Wolpe told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “He had a central role in some of the key scientific events of human history—the atomic bomb, the moon landing—and yet took an interest in everyone lucky enough to meet him. Abe was truly yachid b’mino—unique in his time. He will be greatly missed.”

Unlike with some of his collaborators on the Manhattan Project, there is no

public record of Zarem grappling publicly with the moral implications of the weapon he helped develop. Years after their war work at Caltech, a man who worked under Zarem as a lab assistant said he felt no guilt, because without the detonations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he told a local newspaper, “We would have lost 500,000 Americans in the

invasion of Japan.”

But Zarem did go on the record in 1952 on a different topic, in advice he shared with a labor and management magazine: “Keep your feet warm, and your head cool. And watch out for the hotheads with cold feet.”

His survivors include his children, Janet, David, and Mark.

Chris Sisler, Vice President, Member of Ohef Sholom Temple, Board member of the Berger-Goldrich Home at Beth Sholom Village, James E. Altmeyer, Jr., President, James E. Altmeyer, Sr., Owner

Which side are you on: Jewish American or American Jew?

Andrew Silow-Carroll

(JTA)—Last month the New York Times convened what it called a “focus group of Jewish Americans.” I was struck briefly by that phrase—Jewish Americans—in part because the Times, like the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, tends to prefer “American Jews.”

It’s seemingly a distinction without a difference, although I know others might disagree. There is an argument that “American Jew” smacks of disloyalty, describing a Jew who happens to be American. “Jewish American,” according to this thinking, flips the script: an American who happens to be Jewish.

If pressed, I’d say I prefer “American Jew.” The noun “Jew” sounds, to my ear anyway, more direct and more assertive than the tentative adjective “Jewish.” It’s also consistent with the way JTA essentializes “Jew” in its coverage, as in British Jew, French Jew, LGBT Jew or Jew of color.

I wouldn’t have given further thought to the subject if not for a webinar recently given by Arnold Eisen, the chancellor emeritus at the Jewish Theological Seminary. In “Jewish-American, American-Jew: The Complexities and Joys of Living a Hyphenated Identity,” Eisen discussed how a debate over language is really about how Jews navigate between competing identities.

“What does the ‘American’ signify to us?” he asked. “What does the ‘Jewish’ signify and what is the nature of the relationship between the two? Is it a synthesis? Is it a tension, or a contradiction, or is it a blurring of the boundaries such that you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins?”

Questions like these, it turns out, have been asked since Jews and other immigrants first began flooding Ellis Island. Teddy Roosevelt complained in 1915 that “there is no room in this country for hyphenated Americans.” Woodrow Wilson liked to say that “any man who carries a hyphen about with him carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of the Republic.” The two presidents were frankly freaked out about what we

now call multiculturalism, convinced that America couldn’t survive a wave of immigrants with dual loyalties.

The two presidents lost the argument, and for much of the 20th century “hyphenated American” was shorthand for successful acculturation. While immigration hardliners continue to question the loyalty of minorities who claim more than one identity, and Donald Trump played with the politics of loyalty in remarks about Mexicans, Muslims, and Jews, ethnic pride is as American as, well, St. Patrick’s Day. “I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants,” former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said in announcing her run for the Republican presidential nomination.

For Jews, however, the hyphen became what philosophy professor Berel Lang called “a weighty symbol of the divided life of Diaspora Jewry.” Jewishness isn’t a distant country with quaint customs, but a religion and a portable identity that lives uneasily alongside your nationality. In a 2005 essay, Lang argued that on either side of the hyphen were “vying traditions or allegiances,” with the Jew constantly confronted with a choice between the American side, or assimilation, and the Jewish side, or remaining distinct.

Eisen calls this the “question of Jewish difference.” Eisen grew up in an observant Jewish family in Philadelphia and understood from an early age that his family was different from their Vietnamese-, Italian-, Ukrainian- and African-American neighbors. On the other hand, they were all the same—that is, American—because they were all hyphenated. “Being parallel to all these other differences, gave me my place in the city and in the country,” he said.

In college he studied the Jewish heavy hitters who were less sanguine about the integration of American and Jewish identities. Eisen calls Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the renegade theologian at JTS, “the thinker who really made this question uppermost for American Jews.” Kaplan wrote in 1934 that Jewishness could only survive as a “subordinate civilization” in the United States, and that the “Jew in America will be first and foremost an

American, and only secondarily a Jew.”

Kaplan’s prescription was a maximum effort on the part of Jews to “save the otherness of Jewish life”—not just through synagogue, but through a Jewish “civilization” expressed in social relationships, leisure activities and a traditional moral and ethical code.

Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, the leading Modern Orthodox thinker of his generation, despaired that the United States presented its Jews with an unresolvable conflict between the person of faith and the person of secular culture.

When I read the texts Eisen shared, I see 20th-century Jewish men who doubted Jews could be fully at home in America and at home with themselves as Jews (let alone as Jews who weren’t straight or white—which would demand a few more hyphens). They couldn’t imagine a rich Jewishness that didn’t exist as a counterculture, the way Cynthia Ozick wondered what it would be like to “think as a Jew” in a non-Jewish language like English.

They couldn’t picture the hyphen as a plus sign, which pulled the words “Jewish” and “American” together.

Of course, Kaplan also understood that there was another way to protect Jewish distinctiveness: move to Israel.

The political scientist Charles Liebman, in The Ambivalent American Jew (1973), argued that Jews in the United States were torn between surviving as a distinct ethnic group and integrating into the larger society.

According to Eisen, Liebman believed that “Jews who make ‘Jewish’ the adjective and ‘American’ the noun tend to fall on the integration side of the hyphen. And Jews who make ‘Jew’ the noun and ‘American’ the adjective tend to fall on the survival side of the hyphen.”

Eisen, a professor of Jewish thought at JTS, noted that the challenge of the hyphen was felt by rabbis on opposite ends of the theological spectrum. He cited Eugene Borowitz, the influential Reform rabbi, who suggested in 1973 that Jews in the United States “are actually more Jewish on the inside than they pretend to be on the outside. In other words, we’re so worried about what Liebman called integration into America that we hide our distinctiveness.”

Recent trends support the skeptics. Look at Judaism’s Conservative movement, whose rabbis are trained at JTS, and which has long tried to reconcile Jewish literacy and observance with the American mainstream. It’s shrinking, losing market share and followers both to Reform—where followers tend to fall on the “integration side” of the hyphen—and to Orthodoxy, where Jewish otherness is booming in places like Brooklyn and Lakewood, New Jersey. And the Jewish “nones”—those opting out of religion, synagogue and active engagement in Jewish institutions and affairs—are among the fastest-growing segments of American Jewish life.

Eisen appears more optimistic about a hyphenated Jewish identity, although he insists that it takes work to cultivate the Jewish side. “I don’t think there’s anything at stake necessarily on which side of the hyphen you put the Jewish on,” he said. “But if you don’t go out of your way to put added weight on the Jewish in the natural course of events, as Kaplan said correctly 100 years ago, the American will win.”

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

Jews in the United States “are actually more Jewish on the inside than they pretend to be on the outside.”

Adam Sandler honored with Mark Twain Prize

Andrew Silow-Carroll

(JTA)—Ben Stiller offered his own High Holiday alternative to Adam Sandler’s Chanukah Song as his fellow Jewish comedian accepted the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

During an awards ceremony that took place on March 19 and aired March 26 on CNN, Stiller asked from the stage at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts how Sandler’s novelty song, first heard on Saturday Night Live in 1994, became a seasonal standard.

“It’s really just a list of rhyming celebrity names, and yet it goes multiplatinum, and it’s become a holiday radio staple that my daughter forces us all to listen to after we light the candles every year,” said Stiller.

Pretending to be baffled by Sandler’s

success, Stiller imagined what his own representatives would have said had he proposed his own song about Yom Kippur. He then went ahead and sang its “killer opening line,” which included a reference to a notorious slapstick scene in Stiller’s 1998 film There’s Something About Mary: “It’s time to atone / So let’s get in the zone. / Got my d–k caught in my zipper / and now it is Yom Kippur.”

It wasn’t the only Jewish moment in a night dedicated to a comedian who, in the course of a tenure on Saturday Night Live from 1991–1995 and more than 30 films since, has often displayed his own Jewishness, including playing an Israeli in Don’t Mess with the Zohan and starring in what may be the first and only big-budget Hanukkah animated film, Eight Crazy Nights

Fellow comic Chris Rock told a lovely story about meeting Sandler when they

were both struggling comics. Rock, who was among just a handful of Black kids at his Brooklyn elementary school, spoke about the one time he was invited to another kid’s house to play. The boy’s name was “David Moskowitz—a Jew,” Rock said, with evident admiration.

Years later, after their sets at a Manhattan comedy club, Sandler invited Rock to hang out with Sandler and his friends at his New York University dorm. Rock said the invitation meant a lot to him as a kid who often felt left out. “The Jews—they’re just nice,” he said.

Although the typical Sandler character is an often crude and frequently angry man-child, his generosity to fellow comics and actors was a recurring theme of the evening, which included presentations by Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Steve Buscemi, Luis Guzmán, Conan O’Brien, and David Spade. His

longtime collaborator Tim Herlihy called him a “mensch.”

Sandler’s mother, Judy Sandler, got in a dig about her son’s penchant for wearing baggy sweatpants and T-shirts despite the billions of dollars his films have grossed. “He’s a fashionista, they say, but I say he’s a slob,” she said.

In choosing Sandler, 56, for the prize, named for the 19th-century writer and humorist, Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter said Sandler has “entertained audiences for over three decades with his films, music and his tenure as a fan favorite cast member on SNL. Adam has created characters that have made us laugh, cry, and cry from laughing.”

Previous Jewish winners of the award include Carl Reiner, Lorne Michaels, Neil Simon, Billy Crystal, and Jon Stewart.