Ukraine: Jewish refugees and traitors

UKRAINE

Ukrainian state agency adds Ukrainian Jewish leader to list of pro-Russia ‘traitors’ Ukrainian refugee with Tidewater ties uses words to emote fear, hope, and gratitude

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(JTA) — Ukraine’s government has placed Vadim Rabinovich, a lawmaker and Jewish community leader, on a list of 111 people it called traitors in the war with Russia.

The list was published this month by Rukh Chesno, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to promoting honest governance, and Ukraine’s National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption. It includes bureaucrats, journalists, and mayors accused of collaborating with Russia, which invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The government agency was a partner in compiling the list, according to TSN, a leading television station.

Rabinovich was elected in 2019 to the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, and headed a small opposition party whose critics say is pro-Russian. A former billionaire, he entered politics in 2014.

Rukh Chesno’s website called Rabinovich a “collaborator, pro-Russian politician,” adding that he has “been abroad since the beginning of the war” and on Feb. 14 wrote on Facebook that the war had begun “and the West Ukraine began it.”

In 1997 he founded the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress, which has been one of the main local Jewish groups active in the country. He also heads the European Jewish Parliament, a largely inactive Jewish umbrella group founded in 2012.

Last year, Rabinovich launched a failed attempt at impeaching President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is also Jewish, over the government’s shuttering of three television stations deemed to be pro-Russian. on stressless with a

Along with Anna German, a former free leather upgradepolitician, Rabinovich is among a handful of Jews on the list and the only leader of a Or, take $300 off select Jewish organization. Many of the people on the list have not stressless recliners. been arrested or otherwise punished. Some See store for details. Offers end May 31. are dead, including Volodymyr Struk, 57, a former mayor of the city of Kreminna, who last month was kidnapped and shot dead, possibly for allegations of collaboration.

Rabinovich did not immediately reply to a request for comment by JTA to his inclusion on the list of alleged traitors. Stella Kremen emigrated from Ukraine in 1994 to Tidewater with her husband, two boys, and her parents. Her children attended Hebrew Academy of Tidewater. Kremen’s brother stayed behind in Ukraine. Kremen shares the following Instagram post from her niece, Karyna who 33 years old and was living in Ukraine on February 24. “I am a Ukrainian mother of two daughters, 3 and 7 years old, who had to escape from Kyviv, the capital of Ukraine on February 24, on the first day of the war when Russia began to bombard my city and my country hard, because I would not be able to protect them myself before the bombs, because I don’t want their psyche to be from sirens 6 times a day and I don’t want their childhood passed in bomb shelters without schools and kindergartens. “Together with my husband’s sister and her son (4 years old), we traveled for 15 hours in a cold evacuation train to Lviv. From there, we got to Poland and now we live in a small Polish village in a refugee camp and pray every day that the war ends, that our relatives, husbands, mothers and fathers remained alive and intact. “We will be grateful for any help and support.”

SANDLER FAMILY CAMPUS

Marty Einhorn Pavilion set for completion next month

Terri Denison

In almost perfect coordination with the appearance of spring flowers, a new outdoor structure at the Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus is making its own debut. The Marty Einhorn Pavilion is rapidly taking form, with an anticipated completion of early next month.

Named in memory of Martin A. Einhorn, a past president of the Simon Family JCC and a leader in countless organizations, the Marty Einhorn Pavilion sits adjacent to the basketball court on the rear lawn of the Sandler Family Campus.

Plans call for the pavilion to be used throughout the year by the Simon Family JCC summer camp for outdoor programming, by Strelitz International Academy for outdoor learning, by United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and Simon Family JCC for adult and family programming, for community events, and more.

Einhorn, who died in February 2021 at 63 years old, “shared his generous spirit, time, advice, and contributions throughout Tidewater and beyond,” says Betty Ann Levin, UJFT and Simon Family JCC CEO and executive vice president. “The Marty Einhorn Pavilion will bring joy to the entire community—including to so many children and families—just as Marty did to everyone he met.”

Growing up not far from the Jewish Community Center on Newport Avenue in Norfolk, Einhorn spent countless hours (and days) there—especially as a teenager. Serving as president of the JCC, a post his father, Bernard Einhorn also once held, was a natural progression for him.

“Marty loved the community and felt a responsibility to support it in all sorts of ways,” says Susan Einhorn, Marty’s widow. “I know he’d be proud to have the pavilion named for him and thrilled to know that it will be a meeting place for Marty Einhorn.

so many.”

COVID-19 made clear the need to have an outdoor space at the Sandler Family Campus, says Levin. “Having an outdoor structure that can protect from the hot sun or even a simple rain shower will be a huge benefit to so many on the Campus. COVID pushed us to act now so that we can meet and still feel safe.”

“We anticipate the Marty Einhorn Pavilion opening up all sorts of programming opportunities,” says Laura Geringer Gross, UJFT president and a past JCC president.

Ground was broken for the pavilion last month, and other than a few weather delays, construction is moving along as planned, according to Glenn Saucier, facility director, Sandler Family Campus.

The 40- by 60-foot structure will have a comfortable seating capacity of 160 people. Lighting for evening events with power and WIFI will make it flexible for a variety of uses, including setting up picnic tables for dining. The pavilion will also have ceiling fans.

The Pavilion’s budget is approximately $175,000. In addition to a Community Impact Grant from Tidewater Jewish Foundation, support from UJFT and Tidewater Jewish Foundation, and individual donor gifts, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation will provide $20,000 in matching funds once the initial $40,000 has been committed.

To contribute, contact Betty Ann Levin at balevin@ujft.org or 757-965-6130.

Photos by Steve Budman.

The Pavilion just after the concrete was poured.

The Pavilion is 40 feet by 60 feet.

NATION

New York Times makes Joseph Kahn its 5th Jewish executive editor since 1964

Ron Kampeas

(JTA)—The New York Times named Joseph Kahn as its next executive editor, the fifth Jewish editor in the position since it was instituted in 1964 as the newspaper’s top journalist job.

Kahn is currently the Times’ managing editor and was widely expected to succeed Dean Baquet, who is retiring at the age of 65, as is Times custom.

“Joseph grew up in the Jewish tradition,” spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha said Tuesday, April 19 in an email. “Though he is not a practicing Jew he identifies as Jewish.”

The past Jewish executive editors were A. M. Rosenthal (1977–1986), Max Frankel (1986–1994), Joseph Lelyveld (1994–2001, 2003) and Jill Abramson (2011–2014).

Kahn, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who earned his chops as a foreign correspondent reporting for the Dallas Morning News in China in during a turbulent period in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is the son of the late Leo Kahn, a founder of Staples, the office supply giant.

The elder Kahn, who also founded a chain of health food stores that was wrapped into the Whole Foods enterprise, was known for his philanthropy, including in promoting Holocaust education, according to his 2011 obituary in the Times. He was born to Lithuanian Jewish immigrants.

Both Kahns, father and son, attended Harvard, and Leo Kahn earned a masters in journalism from Columbia University. The Times, in reporting Kahn’s elevation, said father and son enjoyed “dissecting” newspaper coverage together.

The family is Boston-based, and Leo Kahn’s memorial service in 2011 was held at Memorial Church in Harvard Yard.

Kahn became a leading China reporter, writing dispatches from the country in the 1990s for the Wall Street Journal and the mid-2000s for the Times. His reporting there in 2006 scored his second Pulitzer Prize.

Joseph Kahn, who goes by Joe, is close to Baquet, the Times’ first Black executive editor, who will be stepping down by June 14.

The Times is owned by the OchsSulzberger clan, many of whom decades ago stopped identifying as Jewish. A.G. Sulzberger, the current publisher, announced Kahn’s appointment.

University that fired Jewish professor who reported antisemitic incidents violated his academic freedom, panel finds

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Andrew Lapin

(JTA)—A university in Oregon that fired a Jewish professor last year after he accused the school’s president of making antisemitic comments violated the professor’s academic freedom, according to a new report by a group that represents university professors.

The American Association of University Professors concluded that Linfield University, a private school in McMinnville, violated academic freedom guidelines when it fired tenured English professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner a year ago. The report, released this month, also said the university “contributed to a culture of abuse” by its actions. Linfield fired Pollack-Pelzner shortly after the professor went public with his accusations against the school’s president, Miles K. Davis. He accused Davis of making multiple antisemitic comments to faculty, including commenting on the size of Jewish noses and making jokes about sending Jews to gas chambers. Pollack-Pelzner also accused the school of covering up reports of sexual assault and instances of swastikas and other hateful messages painted on campus.

The standoff attracted attention from Jewish groups, with the Anti-Defamation League and the Oregon Board of Rabbis both calling on Davis to resign. Local outlets reported that members of the university community who rallied behind Pollack-Pelzner were being intimidated into silence. Pollack-Pelzner subsequently sued the university for $4 million for whistleblower retaliation and other claims; meanwhile, a parallel investigation by the local NAACP found that Davis, who is Black, had been subjected to racism at the university, and it called the professor’s allegations into question.

Now, the AAUP report corroborates much of Pollack-Pelzner’s allegations against the school. It details how Linfield forced him out of his job and locked him out of his email without first holding a disciplinary hearing required for charges against a tenured professor. It also details how, as the school board’s designated faculty trustee, Pollack-Pelzner had reported several relayed instances of sexual assault and harassment, as well as reported instances of swastikas and racial slurs found on campus, to the board, allegations that the report says were swept under the rug.

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