Jewish News - July 18, 2022 Issue

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Southeastern Virginia | Vol. 60 No. 19 | 19 Tammuz 5782 | July 18, 2022

Jewish responses to Supreme Court decision on Dobbs v. Jackson

5 Yair Lapid, Israel’s interim prime minister gives his first speech

—page 6 14 Charlie Nusbaum is TJF’s new chair

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Dear Friends & Colleagues:

O

n behalf of the 146 Jewish Federations of North America,

families will have to grieve before our society learns how to deal

I want to express my condolences to the community of

with this scourge of violence? As chair, I promise that we will take

Highland Park, to our brothers and sisters in the Chicago Jewish

every opportunity to seek out and advance solutions, building

community, and to our colleagues at the Jewish United Fund of

coalitions across civil society and working in partnership across

Chicago—our outstanding Chicago Federation—on the horrible

all our communities.

act of violence that shattered the Fourth of July. As the identities of the victims of the shooting became more widely known, our

We need everyone’s help for this crisis to be successfully addressed.

hearts break once again and our outrage reaches new levels. May

We are hardly the first generation of Jewish leaders to face

the memories of those lost be for a blessing, may their families

multiple challenges that threaten the safety and well-being of

be comforted among all the mourners of Zion and the world, and

our community. In the Torah reading the week following the

may the injured experience a full and complete refuah shlema.

shooting, Chukat, several examples of the hardships the Israelites

Our Jewish rituals of mourning and comfort are important,

faced during their travels through the desert are outlined. Each

but so is our communal commitment to action. We are, as you

challenge has a different solution—in certain instances by going

most likely know, working hard to secure our Jewish institutions,

around the threat and taking a different route, in others by nego-

which continue to come under serious threat. It is plain for all

tiating, and in yet others by going straight ahead into a battle.

to see that the perpetrators of recent mass murders had Jewish

And yes, some complain that the hardships are too great, and

targets in mind, whether they acted on it or not. Our LiveSecure

openly moan about having been brought out of Egypt at all.

initiative to ensure that every Jewish community has a compre-

Friends, we will tackle this challenge successfully. We will

hensive community security initiative led by its Federation is well

not waste time complaining that it is hard, or that there are for-

underway and moving quickly forward. And the benefits of the

midable obstacles, or that it is taking too long. All this is true,

many community security initiatives that already exist are being

but it is only relevant to the extent that we must mount an effort

felt every day. We are also working with our partners to protect

sufficiently robust and capable to overcome the challenges.

the mental health of our communities, which is strained and tested every time a shocking incident like this takes place.

Jewish tradition famously teaches that when we save one life lives through our security efforts thus far, but there are too many

islative initiatives to control access to the terrible weapons used

lives we have failed to save. We are still in the wilderness, but we

in many of these shootings, and to increase efforts to identify and

have the leadership and strength to find our way to the other side,

interdict those who would carry out such attacks. If Homeland

and we will not rest until we do.

Security officials can identify terrorists before they attack, surely domestic law enforcement can do the same, especially as it seems

Shalom,

the warning signs are often quite apparent.

Julie Platt Chair, Jewish Federations of North America

Terri Denison, Editor Germaine Clair, Art Director Sandy Goldberg, Account Executive Debbie Burke, Copywriter Marilyn Cerase, Subscription Manager 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 The appearance of advertising in the Jewish News does not constitute a kashrut, political, product or service endorsement.

The articles and letters appearing herein are not necessarily the opinion of this newspaper.

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Jeff Flax competes in Maccabi Games . . . . . . . . 27 Quilt Group brings warmth to others . . . . . . . . 28 Indian River HS honors memory of Holocaust survivors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 New director of Lifelong Learning at Ohef Sholom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 2022 Graduates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Area teen wins $36,000 Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Jewish Geography is a hit in Tidewater. . . . . . . 32 What’s Happening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Calendar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Documentary focuses on Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Obituaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

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CONTENTS UpFront. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Briefs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid makes his first speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Rabbi Roz Mandelberg’s sermon on Supreme Court Decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Leading Orthodox groups cheer end of Roe v. Wade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Rabbi Avi Shafran welcomes end to Roe v. Wade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Supreme Court’s decision on prayer. . . . . . . . . . 11 Rep. Schneider describes scene at Highland Park shooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Charlie Nusbaum elected TJF chair. . . . . . . . . . 14 Senior Living. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

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it is as if we have saved the whole world. We know we have saved

Our public affairs leaders are also hard at work supporting leg-

And yet we know there is more that must be done. How many

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“One of my friends comments that ‘the word retirement is not in the Bible.’

And I’ll end with that.”

—page 17

Friday, July 22/23 Tammuz Light candles at 8:02 pm Friday, July 29/1 Av Light candles at 7:56 pm Friday, August 5/8 Av Light candles at 7:50 pm Friday, August 12/15 Av Light candles at 7:42 pm Friday, August 19/22 Av Light candles at 7:33 pm Friday, August 26/29 Av Light candles at 7:24 pm

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BRIEFS KOSHER CERTIFICATION AGENCY SUES JETBLUE, SAYING THEY LIED ABOUT A KOSHER SNACK One of the United States’ largest kosher certifying agencies alleges that JetBlue airlines sold a snack it falsely claimed was certified as kosher.

In a lawsuit filed last month, Kof-K said JetBlue put the agency’s hechsher, or rabbinical approval symbol, on an artichoke snack that the agency never certified as kosher.

The company that makes the artichoke snack, Elma Farms, was not named in the lawsuit. A JetBlue spokesperson told Reuters the airline is investigating the claims. An attorney for Kof-K declined to comment to Reuters.

There are approximately 1,400 kosher certifying agencies around the world, but in the United States, the “Big Five”— the Orthodox Union (OU), Organized Kashrut Laboratories (OK), Kof-K, StarK, and the Chicago Rabbinical Council (CRC)—certify more than 80% of the country’s kosher food products. Kof-K started certifying food as kosher in the early 1970s.

JetBlue’s $9 Mediterranean-inspired vegan snack box also included products certified kosher by the Orthodox Union, the Kashruth Council of Canada, and EarthKosher.

This is not the first legal action taken against an airline relating to their provision of kosher food this year. In Brazil, a judge awarded plaintiffs $1,759 after they filed a complaint against American Airlines alleging that they were denied kosher food on board. (JTA) TOP AP BRASS ATTEND REOPENING OF GAZA BUREAU THAT WAS IN BUILDING BOMBED BY ISRAEL Top executives from the Associated Press launched the news agency’s new office in the Gaza Strip more than a year after Israel gave AP staff an hour’s notice to leave before bombing the building it said also housed a Hamas intelligence unit.

The importance the agency attached to reopening the bureau was signaled by the presence of Daisy Veerasingham, the AP president, and executive editor Julie Pace, at the dedication of the new office

4 | JEWISH NEWS | July 18, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

on Tuesday, July 5. Israel is already under intense scrutiny for how it handles the international media following the shooting death in May of a popular Palestinian American journalist.

“AP’s resilient Gaza team has never wavered, even in the moments our bureau collapsed and in the weeks that followed,” Veerasingham said in a release. “The Associated Press has operated in Gaza for more than half a century and remains committed to telling the story of Gaza and its people.”

The reopening comes after multiple news outlets, including the Associated Press, published analyses blaming Israeli troops for the death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot while covering an Israeli raid in Jenin.

The State Department said Israeli troops were the likely shooters, but also said the killing was unintentional.

Last year during the Israel-Gaza conflict, Israel bombed a 12-story building in Gaza City known as a center for journalists covering the region, including some working for the AP and Al Jazeera. IDF officials warned journalists to leave the building an hour before the attack.

Israeli officials said that Hamas was operating out of the tower. AP said Israel never provided evidence of Hamas’ presence in the building. (JTA)

GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF HOST DISCOVERS FAMILY MEMBER LIVED WITH ANNE FRANK’S FAMILY The Jewish comic actor and Great British Bake Off host Matt Lucas came across a very familiar name while researching his family’s history on BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?—that of Otto Frank.

In an episode of the celebrity genealogy show that aired June 16, Lucas learned that Werner Goldschmidt, his grandmother’s first cousin, had rented a room from the Franks while they were still living in their Amsterdam apartment. Goldschmidt was still living with them when they went into hiding in 1942 and was mentioned in Anne Frank’s diary.

In a clip from the episode on YouTube, Lucas reads a diary entry Frank had written on July 8, 1942, which describes Goldschmidt as a recent divorcee who was

hanging around in the house too long that night, despite the family’s polite hints for him to get on with his evening.

“I would have read this diary when I was younger and never realized that she was talking about a relative of mine,” said Lucas, who was only vaguely aware that some of his family members had died in concentration camps.

Lucas, who has also appeared in other shows like Doctor Who and movies like Paddington, was raised in a Reform synagogue in London, though his parents came from traditional Orthodox families.

He expands on his Jewish identity in his memoir, Little Me: My life from A-Z, which has a chapter “J,” for Jewish.. (JTA)

HISTORIC WELSH SYNAGOGUE GETS OVER $600,000 TO REOPEN AS CULTURAL CENTER The Welsh and British governments are giving a Jewish heritage organization over $600,000 to open a Jewish cultural center at a historic former Welsh synagogue.

The Foundation for Jewish Heritage, a British group that researches, advocates and restores Jewish heritage sites across Europe, announced that it will receive the funds from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF), which is administered by the British government, and the Welsh government’s Transforming Towns program to begin a development phase.

The Foundation bought the Merthyr Tydfil synagogue building in 2019 with the plans of creating the first museum devoted to the history of Jews in Wales.

The synagogue was opened in 1877, when an influx of Central and Eastern European Jewish immigrants to South Wales necessitated a second synagogue in the area.

However, as the local industrial economy declined into the latter part of the 20th century, so did the local Jewish population. With no one to fill it, the synagogue was officially sold in 1983. It had various purposes over the years, but was classified as so deteriorated in 2006 that it has been out of use ever since.

Dame Helen Hyde, chair of the Foundation for Jewish Heritage, said that the new center will “tell the remarkable story of the Welsh Jewish community

while also tackling important issues within our society of today.”

The 2011 national census, the last official estimate of the Jewish population of Wales, reported 2,064 people. Today the number is believed to be in the hundreds.

The closest active synagogue to Merthyr Tydfil is in Cardiff. (JTA)

UKRAINE WILL NOT ALLOW IN UMAN PILGRIMS More than four months into its devastating war against Russia, Ukraine is sending a new message to the world’s Jews: Don’t come here for Rosh Hashanah.

Tens of thousands of Jews flood into Uman, a central city that is home to the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, a 18th-century Jewish luminary, annually for the Jewish new year. Even in the first year of the pandemic, when global travel ground to a halt and the gathering was officially banned, Jewish pilgrims sought to make their way to Uman.

This year, their security cannot be guaranteed, Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel, Yevgen Korniychuk, said in a statement posted on the embassy’s Facebook page.

“Due to concerns for the lives and well-being of the visitors to Ukraine and in light of the blatant Russian war in our country, despite all efforts, we can not guarantee the security of pilgrims and do not currently allow tourists and visitors to enter Ukraine,” Korniychuk wrote.

The statement did not say whether it constitutes an official ban on traffic into Ukraine, which receives thousands of arrivals daily through its land borders with Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Moldova. Israelis and Jews from the around the world have been among those entering the country to provide aid and respite to war refugees, who are now estimated to number more than six million just within Ukraine’s borders.

Korniychuk exhorted would-be pilgrims to pray for the end of the war, which began on Feb. 24.

“We hope that the prayers will be fulfilled, and that Ukraine will once again be a country that generously receives visitors from Israel, and especially Jews who come to Ukraine to visit the graves of the righteous.” (JTA)

ISRAEL In first speech as Israeli prime minister, Yair Lapid calls to stem extremism in politics Philissa Cramer

(JTA)—Yair Lapid might only be Israel’s interim prime minister, but he appears to be determined to maximize the position in the four months he is guaranteed to occupy it.

In a speech delivered Saturday, July 2, Lapid laid out a set of beliefs that he said bind Israelis of all ideologies, as well as his diagnosis for why widespread agreement on fundamental ideas hasn’t translated into political harmony.

“The answer is politics,” he said in the speech, published in English by the Times of Israel and in adapted form in Hebrew by Lapid on Twitter.

“In Israel, extremism doesn’t come from the streets to politics. It’s the opposite,” he added. “It flows like lava from politics to the streets. The political sphere has become more and more extreme, violent, and vicious, and it is dragging Israeli society along with it. This we must stop.

This is our challenge.”

Lapid assumed power on July 2, days after the Israeli government officially dissolved and weeks after he and his predecessor, Naftali Bennett, announced that they could no longer maintain their coalition. In that announcement, Bennett announced that Lapid, who had been scheduled to cycle into the prime minister role next year, would become the interim prime minister while the country awaits its fifth round of elections in just over three years.

In his speech, Lapid said Israelis agree that their country should be “Jewish, democratic, liberal, strong, advanced, and prosperous.” He also said urgent issues including the danger presented by Iran and terrorism within Israel, the country’s “education crisis”—the school year just ended with a disruptive teacher strike—and the high cost of living cannot wait until the country’s political turmoil is resolved.

The leader of Israel’s centrist Yesh Atid party, Lapid also offered a vision for the country’s relations with its Arab citizens and Palestinian neighbors that is different from his two right-wing predecessors,

R I S T O R A N T E I N S P I R E D

B Y

I T A LY

Yair Lapid.

Bennett and Benjamin Netanyahu. (He also thanked Israelis for supporting a smooth transition of power, an apparent jab at Netanyahu, who sought to remain in power through multiple elections and now is seeking to return despite an ongoing corruption trial.)

“We believe that Israel is a Jewish state. Its character is Jewish. Its identity is Jewish. Its relations with its non-Jewish citizens are also Jewish. The book of Leviticus says, ‘But the stranger who dwells with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself,’” Lapid said.

He added, “We believe that so long as Israel’s security needs are met, Israel is a country that seeks peace. Israel stretches out its hand to all the peoples of the Middle East, including the Palestinians, and says: The time has come for you to recognize that we’ll never move from here, let’s learn to live together.”

Lapid moved into an apartment on the grounds of the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem late Saturday, July 2, according to a picture that Lapid’s wife, the author Lihi Lapid, posted to Instagram with the caption “A new beginning.” The official residence is under renovation, so he is staying in an apartment previously used to house security forces, in an arrangement that puts him near the symbolic seat of power, but not precisely inside it.

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Forever Helping Others

SUPREME COURT OPINION

Rabbi Roz Mandelberg delivered this sermon on Friday, July 1 at Ohef Sholom Temple.

Jefferson: Democracy’s success depends upon freedom of belief, expression, and practice Rabbi Rosalin Mandelberg

T

Architect Bernard Spigel died in 1968, leaving a legacy of homes, schools, and other buildings he designed.

Today, Spigel Scholars are designing buildings of their own.

A scholarship that Bernard’s daughter, LucySpigel Herman, created at the community foundation to honor him helps future architects pay for their education.

Find out how you can leave your mark.

Visit LeaveABequest.org 6 | JEWISH NEWS | July 18, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

wo hundred forty-five years ago, in October 1776, the first General Assembly of our Commonwealth appointed a five-man Committee of Revisors to review the existing laws and redraft them for an independent Virginia.

Much like it goes today, primary responsibility was assumed by the three lawyers on the committee, Thomas Jefferson, George Wythe, and Edmund Pendleton; but of the three, Jefferson assumed responsibility for the greater part of the drafting. In 1779, after Jefferson was elected Governor of Virginia, the committee’s catalog of 126 bills was presented to the General Assembly. Throughout his storied career, including serving as president of the United States of America, he considered Bill #82, which became Jefferson’s Statue for Religious Freedom, calling for the separation of church and state, to be one of the top three achievements of his lifetime.

You see, for Jefferson, an Enlightenment rationalist, reason had to govern in all areas, including religion. Jefferson explained, and I quote, “For the use of… reason…everyone is responsible to the God who has planted it in his breast, as a light for his guidance, and that, by which alone he will be judged.” Elaborating in a declaration to Benjamin Rush, Jefferson added, regarding religious freedom, “I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man;” any government effort to control religious beliefs is “tyranny over the mind of man.”

Politically and practically, Jefferson believed both the Commonwealth and the new nation required complete religious freedom and separation of church and

state. Indeed, given the broad diversity of ethnicities and religions in the 13 colonies, he knew that religious freedom was necessary if the union was to be successful. Without them, he feared, “kings, nobles, and priests” threatened to create a dangerous aristocracy.

It wasn’t that Jefferson wasn’t a religious man—he was. But he knew that if our nation imposed one religion’s belief upon others, it would not only be “tyranny over the mind” of those who held other religious beliefs, but also, it would literally destroy everything upon which this melting pot, now salad bowl, nation was established. The very success of our democracy depended upon freedom of belief, expression, and practice.

Fast-forward almost 250 years. Can we even imagine what Governor Thomas Jefferson might have to say to Governor Glenn Younkin about his desire to impose restrictions on a women’s right to choose what is best for her physical and mental health!?! What kind of a conversation would President Jefferson be having with Clarence Thomas, whose Supreme Court not only overturned the 50-year precedent of reproductive freedom in its reversal of Roe v. Wade, but also threatens, in his written opinion, to repeal DOMA, marriage equality, as well as contraception?

And what of the religious beliefs of Jewish women that are being trampled upon? Judaism absolutely mandates the termination of pregnancies that would harm the physical or mental health of the mother. Even in the most conservative Jewish believers, there are situations where abortion is necessary. That is because the life of the existing human being, the woman, always takes precedence over a fetus. In fact, according to Jewish law,

Rabbi Roz Mandelberg.

a fetus is not a full human life until the baby’s head emerges from the womb and takes its first breath. But I don’t believe this decision is about when life begins, whether at insemination, at conception, or at birth. To me, it is entirely political, a way of controlling women, their beliefs, their aspirations, their very lives.

Does this mean we believe that people should be terminating pregnancies as a form of birth control? Of course not. Does this mean that we don’t suffer the loss of a potential life from a miscarriage or, God forbid, stillbirth? Of course not. We grieve those tragic losses for what could have been, for all the hopes and dreams that potential seed of life meant to us. But for the government to force a woman to bear a child against her will is tyranny at its worst. It is tyranny over her mind. It is tyranny over her body. It is tyranny over her spirit. And, as Jefferson predicted, it threatens to destroy our democracy.

And it is only the beginning. We are already seeing infighting within states and

SUPREME COURT even between and amongst them. Doctors, whose oath is to do no harm and protect the health of their patients, are being threatened with legal action and, in some cases, physical harm.

And these draconian laws will hurt the poor and women of color most of all.

Women will die. Children will be born into poverty, with inadequate medical care, food, and shelter. For we know that the irony is that the same people who would force a woman to bring a pregnancy to term, could care less about the lives that emerge, save to guarantee them the right to bear arms.

I have heard from so many of you that you cannot believe in 2022 that our country is being taken back a half century to curtailing freedoms that the Supreme Court already ruled were guaranteed by our constitution’s First Amendment. You are frightened of what comes next. And we are all right to be afraid. Last year alone, 600 anti-abortion laws were introduced in 47 states, the most since Roe. But there is also reason to hope. We are rallying, speaking out, and organizing.

Also, the Jewish Fund for Abortion Access has been established by the National Abortion Federation, where 100% of the money raised goes to pay for travel costs and abortion care for those who need it. Healthcare providers in states where abortion remains legal have stepped up.

Much, much more work needs to be done and we hope to be able to call upon you as we do it.

Please know, your clergy, Cantor Jen and I, along with hundreds of others, are stating emphatically, “This rabbi and cantor will marry you and support you as you access reproductive care. Full stop.

No exceptions.”

I do want to say that, much to my disbelief, there are a few members of our congregation who are anti-choice.

For some, the Roe case was bad from a legal standpoint. For others, the fetus is a life and to terminate a pregnancy is murder. While I do honor your right to your opinions, it will not stop us from fighting for what Judaism tells us is our right—to have bodily autonomy; to take care of the health of our minds, bodies,

and spirits; and to terminate a pregnancy that is harmful to our mental or physical well-being. And we will fight for that right for others as well because we are commanded to pursue justice, and this is an issue of justice.

“It will not stop us from fighting for what Judaism tells us is our right—to have bodily autonomy.”

To that end, I recently participated in a press conference organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington on Reproductive Health and how it is a Jewish issue.

Among the other panelists were former speaker of the House of Delegates Eileen Filler-Corn, the first woman and first Jewish speaker in the 200-plus-year history of the Commonwealth; also Dr. Sara Imershein, an OB/GYN, clinical professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the George Washington University School of Medicine, and expert on abortion and Jewish law, who stated emphatically that access to abortion improves lives and is just good public health policy; my colleague and friend, Rabbi Amy Schwartzman, of Temple Rodef Sholom in Falls Church, Va.; and two JCRC directors, Ron Halber and Guila Franklin Seigel.

I concluded my remarks at the press conference with these words: “The Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade and Governor Youngkin’s push to limit access to safe abortion countermands our faith tradition. Forcing a woman to bear a child, simply contravenes Jewish law and common sense. Every person has the right to hold their view on when life begins— but, when those in power impose their religious values upon others, it is a clear violation of the Establishment Clause that separates church from state. As a woman, a Jew, and a rabbi committed to the pursuit of justice for all God’s children, I dissent.” And so should we all. Amen.

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SUPREME COURT

Leading Orthodox groups cheered the end of Roe v. Wade.

Many Orthodox women are panicking.

Ron Kampeas

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Pam Scheininger and J. David Bleich have this much in common: They are Orthodox Jews who are preoccupied with Jewish ethics and teach at New York City law schools.

But when Scheininger looks at an American map, she sees 16 states where Orthodox Jewish women would not be able to have an abortion otherwise sanctioned by Jewish law. Bleich sees a different number—zero.

Disagreements among Jews over where Jewish and state laws intersect on abortion, once theoretical, have taken on urgency in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last month overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 court decision that enshrined a woman’s right to an abortion.

The differences of opinion are especially acute among the Orthodox, where there is a yawning gap between a faction that says the reversal of Roe v. Wade has triggered a crisis that will put the lives of women at risk and another that welcomes the decision as life-affirming and aligned with traditional Jewish values. The latter position comes as Orthodox groups have in recent years drifted politically to the right.

“Society, through its laws, should promote a social ethic that affirms the supreme value of life,” Agudath Israel of America, the umbrella body for Haredi Orthodox groups, said in a statement welcoming the reversal of Roe v. Wade. “Allowing abortion on demand, in contrast, promotes a social ethic that devalues life.” The phrase “abortion on demand” irks many, including among the Orthodox, because it is seen as diminishing the thought that goes into the decision, and because even under Roe v. Wade, there were abortion restrictions.

Orthodox groups have yet to address how they will reconcile situations in which halacha, the body of Jewish law, mandates an abortion, and a state forbids it. There is already chatter in Orthodox online forums and on social media about setting up a network for Orthodox Jewish women in states where abortion is banned to travel to places

8 | JEWISH NEWS | July 18, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

like New York, where it is not.

Bleich advanced the proposal on Torah Musings, an Orthodox ideas exchange, after the court decision was first leaked in May. A number of Orthodox Jewish women already are pushing back, saying such a system would be impracticable and would compound the trauma of having an abortion.

The Agudath Israel statement said that abortions mandated by Jewish law are “extraordinary, rare exceptions to the rule that fetal life is entitled to protection.”

Bleich, a rabbi and professor of ethics at Yeshiva University and its law school, Cardozo, says those exceptions do not contradict any state laws.

“As of today, I do not think there is a single state which forbids abortion when the mother’s life is at stake,” Bleich says, adding, “I think district attorneys are smart enough not to bring a course of action” when a fetus threatens the life of a mother.

Scheininger, the president of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance and a court attorney referee who teaches law at the New York College of Technology, says prosecution was inevitable, in part because some laws were vague and did not account for health threats short of imminent death, which would be considered under Jewish law. Halacha includes exceptions for mental health, and some states do not; Georgia explicitly excludes it.

Orthodox Jewish women are going to have those who assist them in getting an abortion “prosecuted for availing themselves, or trying to avail themselves of halachically required abortions,” she says.

“It’s that simple,” she says. “It’s going to happen and women will die.”

The Orthodox Union, the umbrella body for the Modern Orthodox, has sought to straddle the divide.

“We cannot support absolute bans on abortion—at any time point in a pregnancy—that would not allow access to abortion in lifesaving situations,” it said after the decision came down. “Similarly, we cannot support legislation that does not limit abortion to situations in which

medical (including mental health) professionals affirm that carrying the pregnancy to term poses real risk to the life of the mother.”

Nathan Diament, the Orthodox Union’s Washington director, says his group and its state offices were conducting a review of the state laws before considering further action, including lobbying for changes to laws. It’s already clear, he says, that the laws will trigger litigation, although he could not say yet if his organization would join any such lawsuits.

“Most of the legislation that’s out there has some sort of physical health and other health exception, but because of how dramatic the changes are because of the Supreme Court, there still needs to be implementation by each of the states,” he says. “It’s going to be a long haul.” He predicted that the Supreme Court would soon have to resolve the issue again.

Within three days of the Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision, Israel loosened its already liberal abortion regulations.

Indeed, there have already been reports of confusion and fear among the physicians who provide abortions because so many of the state laws are written vaguely.

“We are currently having internal discussions about various matters related to the overturning of Roe,” Rabbi Abba Cohen, Agudath Israel’s Washington director, says. “We are also planning to consult with our rabbinic leadership.”

Outside of the Orthodox sector, most Jewish organizations, which trend

politically liberal, have said they will act to oppose abortion bans. And within three days of the Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision, Israel loosened its already liberal abortion regulations.

The Orthodox establishment may soon come under pressure to make clear what steps it will take to protect women who need an abortion. Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll says the reversal was lighting up online private forums for Orthodox Jewish women.

“It’s chaos,” says Keats-Jaskoll, a co-founder of Chochmat Nashim, which means “the wisdom of women,” a group that advocates for better female representation in Orthodox decision-making.

The gap within the Orthodox Jewish community, Keats-Jaskoll says, is between women who have had abortions or who have at least contemplated them, and the men who she says have no idea what goes into contemplating an abortion.

“The perceptions of who gets abortions versus who actually gets abortions are really far apart,” she says. “I think some people have no idea who actually ends pregnancies. There are people thinking willy-nilly, a woman’s waking up at 39 weeks saying, ‘I decided I changed my mind.’”

Keats-Jaskoll shares an account posted to a private forum from a woman who had an abortion in 2001, in New Jersey, which allows abortions in cases where the fetus is not likely to survive childbirth.

“At 21 weeks we found out there were multiple significant deformities,” the woman wrote. “The baby could survive in utero but could not live long outside of the womb. He would be poked and prodded and subjected to many treatments…but would die anyway.”

The woman, who consented to KeatsJaskoll sharing the account as long as she remained anonymous, said she and her husband consulted with a rabbi, who advised them to consult with a posek, an arbiter of Jewish law.

“The posek said that to save mother and baby suffering, the pregnancy should be terminated,” she said. “Had the law been

SUPREME COURT different, I may have had to carry that fetus to term, deliver, and watch it die. I don’t know that we would have gone on to have more children if we’d had to endure that.

It was traumatic enough as it was. People don’t understand how often this happens, who actually needs to terminate and how changing the laws even with exceptions they approve of is cruel.”

A 2018 article in the Forward by Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt, a writer and a rabbi’s wife, aggregated anonymous accounts she had gathered from Orthodox Jewish women of why they had an abortion: Some had been raped, some were in abusive relationships, some had life-threatening pregnancies, some fetuses would not have survived long after childbirth, some women were contemplating suicide.

The article was circulating among Orthodox women after the decision, which Keats-Jaskoll says was typical. “It gets shared every time abortion comes up,” she says.

The proliferation of such stories illustrates the gap between the Orthodox establishment and Orthodox women, who are infuriated when they see organizational officials decry “abortion on demand,” a phrase Agudath Israel used in its statement.

“Most cases where a woman needs an abortion are devastating and necessary,” says Sara Hurwitz, president of Maharat, the first institution to ordain Orthodox women as clergy. She called the Dobbs decision an “unconscionable infringement on the religious freedom of Orthodox Jews” in an op-ed for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that she co-authored after a draft opinion leaked in May. “It’s not like a decision that is ever taken lightly. And I think that the assumption that women are just having abortions for the sake of having abortions is not true.”

Keats-Jaskoll, who is Israel-based and busy engaging online with American Orthodox Jews who support the Roe reversal, says just seeing the phrase “abortion on demand” makes her livid.

“Abortion on demand. What does that mean?” she says. “They don’t know. They don’t know what they’re talking about.

This is what happens when people who have no idea what they’re talking about pick up a cause and start to vomit from

their mouths.”

She blames the politically rightward drift among American Orthodox Jews, which she says was distorting what had once been nuanced, deeply researched, and considered opinions on matters of Jewish living.

“I think they want to be identified, you know, as right wing,” she says. “They want to be identified with the more religious, and in America religious is Christian.

Christianity holds very different views on abortion.”

Bleich’s proposal of a fund to get Orthodox women to liberal states was unviable, says Keats-Jaskoll, Hurwitz, and Scheininger. Bleich proposed a “stipend to be limited to women who produce a statement signed by a recognized posek attesting to the halachic propriety of the procedure.”

Scheininger says the burden of proving need would be overwhelming. “Having them go and perhaps show financial need

and gain access, in some cases to financial documents that they may not have or may not have access to, if their spouses have control over that or if their father, their parents have control over it,” says Scheininger.

“And to then ask for money and then to make those travel arrangements and to get to that state. You know, you’re talking about so many levels for a woman who’s already living trauma.”

“If there’s a law on the books, then the prosecutors are going to prosecute.”

Hurwitz says a system that only accommodated Jewish women was

inherently inadequate.

“I think the Jewish community may have more means to support and help people who need abortions, but I think I’m worried about the whole system and the people who are really going to suffer because it’s not financially feasible,” she says.

Bleich says he did not believe his proposal would ever be needed; prosecutors were reasonable, he says, even in a state like Georgia where there is no mental health exception.

“I don’t think any district attorney, even in Georgia, would bring a cause of action against the doctor who claimed that his patient’s life was threatened because of a mental condition,” he says.

Scheininger, who like Bleich, teaches in a law school, says that was wishful thinking.

“If there’s a law on the books, then the prosecutors are going to prosecute,” she says.

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SUPREME COURT

Jewish Federations of North America’s statement on the Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs vs. Jackson

T

he issue of reproductive rights is of great importance. We are supporting

impact on our communities. We pledge to continue our decades-long history of

our Federations across the system and providing them with analysis of the

providing support and resources to our health and human service agencies to

decision and its repercussions, as well as informational resources to help them

ensure the well-being and health of all women.

respond to this monumental case. We know this decision will have a tremendous

OPINION

Why an orthodox Jewish organization welcomed the end of Roe vs. Wade Rabbi Avi Shafran

(JTA)—Agudath Israel of America, the national Orthodox Jewish organization for which I work, welcomed the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.

Predictably, we were immediately cast into an “enemy” or “ally” box, depending on who was doing the casting.

The first group assumed that we don’t care about women; the second, that we were embracing the Christian evangelical agenda.

Neither is remotely the case. We care about Judaism and embrace only it.

From a Jewish perspective, to be sure, the contention that there can be entirely proper reasons for a woman to seek an abortion is not arguable.

There are cases in which, according to Jewish tradition, the option of abortion needs to be available—such as when a pregnancy’s progression threatens the life of the potential mother. Moreover, in cases where a fetus has genetic abnormalities or will face a fatal disease after birth, there are Jewish decisors who would sanction abortion, at least up to a point.

Nor can anyone claim that American women, including Jewish ones, haven’t suffered, or even died, as a result of preRoe abortion restrictions. The stories are many, and they are rightly wrenching.

But no one can claim, at least not with

the support of facts, that the Jewish religious tradition considers abortion to be a mere matter of a woman’s (or, for that matter, a man’s) personal choice, the abiding mantra of so many Americans today.

The most common reasons—in 92% of cases, according to a 2004 Guttmacher Institute study—that women give for having an abortion have to do with economic, timing, or partner-related concerns.

While such motivations may be endorsed by many Americans as worthy, legitimate reasons to opt for abortion, Judaism rejects them as entirely inappropriate factors to be weighted in a decision of such gravity as the decision to end a developing life.

Abortion is a topic dealt with in detail by a wealth of both time-honored and contemporary Jewish religious law responsa.

While various Jewish legal opinions may take different approaches to the nature of the issue, the decisors of Jewish law who guide us indisputably hold that, absent extraordinary circumstances, terminating a pregnancy is a grave sin.

And so, the fact that a number of Jewish groups have wholeheartedly joined the “woman’s choice” chorus, no less in the name of Judaism, compelled us to speak up, if only to clear the Jewish record.

However, because of the exceptions, rare though they blessedly are, that allow

10 | JEWISH NEWS | July 18, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

abortions under certain circumstances, Agudath Israel of America has never supported, and cannot support, any state legislation that would outlaw abortion unqualifiedly or give a fetus the status of a “person.” Abortion-limiting laws must preserve a right to terminate a pregnancy in cases like those mentioned above, both as a matter of constitutional free exercise of religion and of moral principle.

But the bottom line for us is Jewish religious law’s indisputable judgment about fetal life: It is entitled to our protection. And no one should be allowed to misrepresent as a “Jewish view” anything other than that well-established truth.

Now, of course, there is no reason that American law need reflect Jewish values.

But even without looking to Judaism for guidance, a civil society, through its laws, should want to promote a social ethic that affirms the supreme value of life.

Allowing abortion at will does the opposite. It behooves Jews and non-Jews alike to be deeply concerned by the millions of potential lives—Jewish and non-Jewish alike—yearly snuffed out because fetuses were not protected.

In this post-Roe world, citizens in each state are charged with, through their elected officials, crafting laws to govern abortion. Our goal as Jews should be to promote laws that treat developing life with reverence, even while

accommodating the protection of women’s lives according to our religious concerns.

The ready availability of safe at-home abortifacients that can be mailed across state lines, and the ability of women to travel, at no expense, due to various groups’ offers, to other states where abortion is unfettered, would allow women to undergo an abortion in the rare circumstances sanctioned by Jewish law.

Nevertheless, outlawing abortion without allowing for exceptions, including sincere religious convictions, is unacceptable— arguably, unconstitutional.

And so, in the end, some of the laws that the “pro-choice” movement will oppose will be opposed as well by observant Orthodox Jews.

Not, though, because we embrace the idea of abortion as a choice to be made by anyone for any reason. But, rather, because of what our faith requires of us.

What it also requires, however, is that we—and all people—do all we can to greatly decrease the number of developing lives that some would, without the requisite contemplation, destroy. To embrace, in other words, a culture that celebrates life.

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.

SUPREME COURT

Supreme Court decision on coach’s prayer throws doubt on a 30-year-old victory for a Jewish family Ron Kampeas

WASHINGTON ( JTA)—The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Seattle-area football coach who lost his job after leading prayers on the field following his team’s victories, in a decision that could have ramifications for Jews in public schools and the military.

A number of Jewish groups say the 6–3 ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton, issued June 27 could roll back church-state separations that have protected schoolchildren from religious coercion for decades.

“This is a significant change in how we approach prayer in public schools, and one that will have a negative impact in particular on students of marginalized faiths and non-religious students,” says Rachel Robbins, chairwoman of the Anti-Defamation League’s Civil Rights Committee. The ADL, which joined a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the school district, says it was “deeply disturbed” by the decision.

The expressions of concern came despite reassurances by Justice Neil Gorsuch that the ruling was in line with a famous 1992 Supreme Court decision in favor of a Rhode Island Jewish family who objected to clergy leading prayer at their children’s public school.

Writing for the court’s conservative majority, Gorsuch quoted from that decision, Lee v. Weisman, in which the court held “that religious beliefs and religious expression are too precious to be either proscribed or prescribed by the State.”

The ruling in favor of Joseph Kennedy, an assistant coach in Bremerton, Gorsuch wrote, similarly protects First Amendment religious freedoms.

Jewish groups were not buying it.

“The Court’s see-no-evil approach to the coach’s prayer will encourage those who seek to proselytize within the public schools to do so with the Court’s blessing,” says Marc Stern, chief legal officer of the American Jewish Committee, which had joined a friend-of-the-court brief on

the side of the school district.

The Bremerton case centered on the activities of Kennedy, who started out by praying alone at the 50-yard line and did not call on others to join him. But soon after, students and others started joining Kennedy in prayer, alarming the school district. It proposed alternatives, including allowing him to pray after the game, but he declined and continued to pray to increased media attention. The school district decided not to renew his contract.

The court concluded, essentially, that by preventing a Christian high school coach from praying, the school district had violated his civil rights no less than had it forced other children to pray.

“Here, a government entity sought to punish an individual for engaging in a brief, quiet, personal religious observance,” Gorsuch said, emphasizing that Kennedy had not explicitly urged students to join him in prayer.

“It seems clear to us that Mr. Kennedy has demonstrated that his speech was private speech, not government speech,” Gorsuch wrote. “This case looks very different from those in which this Court has found prayer involving public school students to be problematically coercive,” he said, specifically citing Lee v. Weisman.

Lee v. Weisman involved a Baptist clergyman who said at a 1986 middle school graduation ceremony in Providence, “Please rise and praise Jesus for the accomplishments of these children today.”

Merith Weisman’s parents, Vivian and Daniel were unnerved, and the prayer triggered a series of events and lawsuits that culminated in the landmark 1992 case.

That decision was 5–4. Antonin Scalia, the late conservative justice whom Gorsuch replaced, said for years it was wrongly decided, and the religious right agreed. President Donald Trump named three conservative justices, and with the new balance of

power, the Supreme Court ticked off a wish list for religious conservatives, from school choice to overturning abortion rights.

AJC’s Stern says Gorsuch was cherry-picking quotes from the earlier decision to make his own opinion sound less far-reaching than it was.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the liberal minority in the dissent, made a similar point, illustrating it with a photo of students surrounding Kennedy in prayer.

“Several parents reached out to the District saying that their children had participated in Kennedy’s prayers solely to avoid separating themselves from the rest of the team,” Sotomayor wrote. “No [Bremerton High School]

students appeared to pray on the field after Kennedy’s suspension.”

The National Council of Jewish Women, also a signatory to a friend-ofthe-court brief, said the latest decision was one in a series that eroded churchstate separations, citing among others the recent decision directing the state of Maine to pay for religious schooling for students for whom reaching public schools is arduous.

Mikey Weinstein, the Jewish veteran who leads the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which advocates for religion-state separations in the military, says the ruling “will serve to utterly and expeditiously destroy the precious wall separating church and state in our country and especially the U.S. military.”

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‘Shattered in an instant’: Illinois Rep. Brad Schneider describes the scene of the July 4 Highland Park shooting

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( JTA)—Brad Schneider knows from Chicagoland July 4 parades.

The Jewish Democratic congressman has been working them since 2011, when he started running for his first term in Illinois’ 10th district. He packs five parades in on the day, and he can rattle off the established order, their start times staggered so there are no conflicts.

“Vernon Hills, Highland Park, Deerfield, Glencoe, and Northbrook,” he says. “I’ll walk 12 to 15 miles by the end of the day.”

On Monday, July 4, he started as always with Vernon Hills and he noticed something different. There was a post-pandemic buzz.

“There was a special energy this year because people felt it was so good to be back together, back together as a community,” Schneider says. “People are coming out, they’re showing me pictures from 10 years ago at the parade and we’re taking another picture now.”

He was enjoying the vibe just after 10 am when he got to the next stop on his itinerary, Highland Park. He was at the north end of the parade route on Central Street, and his staffers were at the south end, so he called them to work out where to meet.

“I was talking to my team, my team leader,” he says, referring to a campaign organizer. “And she said there’s shots and everybody is running away.”

In a moment, a fourth of July idyll had become a nightmare. A gunman in the heavily Jewish town—where Schneider himself lives—had opened fire from a rooftop, killing seven people and wounding dozens. Schneider, a businessman, was before entering Congress a lay leader in the American Jewish Committee and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and he has been a leader in Congress in

advancing pro-Israel legislation.

Schneider offered his phone to children trying to call their parents. He helped direct traffic away from the carnage. He told his staffers to meet him at his house to shelter in place.

He spent the next two days checking in with constituents and local officials to see what he could do to help.

By the time he spoke to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Wednesday, July 6, he was coming out of a haze. In a stream of consciousness, he describes the parade he had longed for.

“These are weapons of war intended to kill as many people as efficiently and as quickly as possible.

They have no business in our communities or on our streets.”

“Most people are smiling, some will agree with me, some don’t, but we have nice conversations, a lot of people wear these…headbands with the stars and stripes or red and white tassels and I’ll joke and I’ll say, ‘You’ve grown patriotic antennae’ and things like that,” he says.

“It’s the parents and grandparents sitting in the chairs,” he continues. “If they planned ahead, they’re either under a tree or they brought a little tent for some shade. And the kids are out on the street cheering and smiling and obviously a lot of different people in the parade bring candy and swag for the kids and they love it and it’s just it’s the happiest of times.”

And then he describes the July 4th that was.

“All of that was shattered in an instant when a guy with a military assault weapon climbed a ladder, sat on a rooftop, and

NATION fired off what’s being reported as many as 70 shots in a matter of seconds,” he says.

One of Schneider’s first calls was to the local sheriff. “He told me that he had seen two individuals who were dead at the scene and that there were other people being taken to the hospital,” he says. “We now know it was seven people murdered.… My heart is breaking for these families.”

A number were Jewish, he notes, at least three of the seven. Schneider starts reciting their names, but stops, perhaps because it seemed beside the point. The victims who most gripped him were the parents of a two-year-old toddler, found wandering amid the carnage.

“I was on CNN and I started to tell the story about Aiden McCarthy, the two-year-old who’s now an orphan, and I nearly lost it on camera and broke down afterward,” he says.

“The adrenaline is starting to leave.

I’ve been running on adrenaline for 48

hours and the emotions are starting to swell up,” he adds, sobbing.

And then he composes himself, and, when asked to explain what happens next, he recites the menu of reforms Democrats have sought for decades.

“These are weapons of war intended to kill as many people as efficiently and as quickly as possible,” he says. “They have no business in our communities or on our streets. We also have to address the mental health issues, the societal determinants of health. There are so many things that we need to address. But getting these assault weapons off the street should be first order.”

But what was preoccupying Schneider was the community, his community, and what would happen to it in the wake of a shattered July 4.

“The more we learn about the story, the more connections we will see to every aspect of who we are as a community,” he says.

jewishnewsva.org | July 18, 2022 | JEWISH NEWS | 13

TIDEWATER JEWISH FOUNDATION

Charlie Nusbaum elected Tidewater Jewish Foundation chair Thomas Mills

W

hen the Tidewater Jewish Foundation holds its executive committee meeting for the new fiscal year later this month, someone new will be at the helm. Charlie Nusbaum, who served as TJF’s vice chair, was elected in June to be the Foundation’s new chairperson.

“This is a great opportunity for me to help the community further,” says Nusbaum. “I feel like TJF is positioned to help not just this generation, but the generation after to be more sustainable, whether it be supporting their temple, local Jewish organizations, and even non-Jewish organizations.”

Nusbaum takes over for Jody Wagner, who served her full two-year term as

chairperson from 2020 to 2022. Wagner remains on TJF’s board as the nominating chairperson.

“This is something I never thought I’d do,” says Nusbaum. “Marty Einhorn and I were lifelong friends and I’m honored I get to carry on the legacy and heartfelt love that he had for everyone.”

Nusbaum brings a wealth of experience and leadership to TJF. Serving as president of the S.L. Nusbaum Insurance Agency since 1980, he is a past president of Ohef Sholom Temple, Norfolk Yacht and Country Club, Norfolk Academy Alumni Association, Tidewater Red Cross Chapter, and Norfolk Crime Line.

Additionally, Nusbaum has a plethora of volunteer commitments in the Jewish and Tidewater community, all of which earned

him the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities’ (VCIC) Humanitarian Award earlier this year.

“Charlie stepped right into the vicechair role when Marty became ill,” says Naomi Limor Sedek, president and CEO of Tidewater Jewish Foundation. “That is exactly who he is, a doer. Charlie is passionately committed to securing the Jewish community of Tidewater and honoring the philanthropic passions of our donors. I am excited for what the next two years will hold for TJF under Charlie’s leadership.”

“Philanthropy is not an elitist program.”

Nusbaum’s plethora of experiene has given him a unique leadership style. He wears his emotions on his sleeve and values everyone’s opinions. Despite all the accomplishments in his career, he insists on being called Charlie, not Mr. Nusbaum. He describes himself as very competitive, which may explain why he values teamwork so highly.

“I consider myself a team player in life and sport,” says Nusbaum. “To me, everyone is part of a team. Team, meaning together, everyone achieves more, which goes back to my college baseball coach who had us write that in our hats.”

“Charlie is the perfect choice for TJF chairperson because he cares deeply about the success of TJF, is very knowledgeable about the Tidewater Jewish community, and is willing to devote the time necessary to provide support to Naomi and the other TJF professionals,” says Wagner. “With Charlie as the new chair, the community should expect steady, well-thought-out leadership.”

Nusbaum has much he’d like to accomplish during his elected two-year tenure. In addition to getting more people

14 | JEWISH NEWS | July 18, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

Charlie Nusbaum.

involved and increasing contributions, he hopes to utilize the Foundation’s existing resources and avenues to help the community and donors.

“I want to get people more aware of who and what we are,” says Nusbaum.

“TJF has such a good base and foundation that we should be known throughout the Tidewater Jewish community. We can help anyone looking to make a charitable contribution.”

One area Nusbaum would like to improve is professional development, which he knows can help donors achieve their philanthropic goals.

“We need to strengthen our professional development,” says Nusbaum.

“By leveraging those valuable resources in our community, we can continue to help people with their estate planning, charitable contributions, and mindful philanthropy.”

Most importantly though, Nusbaum wants to create an environment where everyone can feel comfortable contributing to help their community.

“Philanthropy is not an elitist program,” says Nusbaum. “This is something for everyone. We want everyone to support their community, their family, and their places of business.”

r o i n e S g n i v i L Supplement to Jewish News July 18, 2022 jewishnewsva.org | July 18, 2022 | Seniors | JEWISH NEWS | 15

SHE’S NOT READY FOR THIS?

Senior Living Dear Readers,

R

emember when references to ‘seniors’ conjured up only images of ‘old’ people? Not anymore. Perhaps that’s why the age for qualifying as a senior keeps increasing.

Those profiled in this section focus not on their age, but on living life to the fullest, enjoying themselves and making contributions to the community in various ways.

Jack Fox, for example, is marking his 63rd year of flying. His soaring story is on page 20.

Nearly 88, Dr. Bruce Longman is a practicing dentist who recently completed the Simon Family JCC’s Ironman Challenge. He shares his secrets for a happy and healthy life on page 17.

Rabbi Michael Panitz doesn’t just watch films in his spare time. He analyzes them,

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A former college professor and academic librarian, David Titus manages the Bonk-

enthusiastic about this community treasure. Read about him and the collection on page 22.

Sherry Liberman has been running the JCC’s Senior Book Club since 2009. On page 24, she recalls the club’s history and invites new members to join.

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these people have fun!

Not all seniors, of course, are flying their own planes or drafting new books. For those at Beth Sholom Village, their care might’ve gotten even better as all employees just participated in a series of seminars on Alzheimer’s and dementia. Page 25.

These are just a few of the articles in this section. We hope you read them all and are as inspired as we all are at Jewish News to continue working, following our passions, and doing our best to stay healthy.

Thanks for reading,

Terri Denison Editor

Senior Living Family, faith, and fitness: Dr. Bruce Longman, DDS shares his secrets for living a healthy life Debbie Burke

D

r. Bruce Longman, DDS (Virginia Commonwealth University, 1960) folds his long, lean figure into a chair to talk about fitness, his career, and having a huge and loving family.

Right on the cusp of his 88th birthday, Longman is a practicing dentist whose early career began in 1960 in the military as a dentist stationed at the Air Force base in Orlando, Fla. and for many years had a private practice. He also worked at Sentara and CHKD for 47 years as “probably one of the only general dentists in the city who did hospital care.”

In 2018, Longman joined the Foleck Center (with offices in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, and Hampton). “I decided some time ago when you’re the boss and CEO and CFO you are required to handle the fiduciary responsibilities and after doing it 40-plus years, that’s the part I wanted to eliminate.”

Today, Longman says he sees a lot of patients who have problems with their teeth because they couldn’t get to a dentist during the pandemic. Then, there’s the stress of it all, which is causing dental issues as well. “My colleagues and I have probably seen more fractured teeth in the last two years than ever before. We all agree that this is due to clenching.”

Besides his work, he sees or speaks to his family often: Longman has five children (four daughters and one son), 18 grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren. They are spread out all over the world—in places like China, Berlin, and Israel, as well as the U.S. He tries to read a book a week (the latest, Dr. Mengele’s Assistant, was “an in-depth and emotional book”).

Longman embraces a healthy lifestyle that includes fitness and good nutrition. “I did weightlifting in college, then got away from exercise. I only walked. When I was in the service, I went in too heavy; I was 50 pounds heavier than I am now.” After a few experiences of not being mentally alert after lunch, he decided he was eating too much. “I cut out my large lunches that

were available at the hospital cafeteria.

They were probably 2,000 calories, which made me sleepy, and I couldn’t operate that way. Once I did, I started losing weight and went from a size 42 to 36. I found it was a happier weight for me.” The foods that work for him are mostly fruits and veggies, and proteins like egg whites, chicken, or fish. “If I still wanted dessert, I’d have bread with some of our homemade canned jams we make. I have large fig trees in the backyard, peaches when we pick them up in North Carolina, and last year I bought a lot of Bing cherries and made Bing cherry jam. I used all of it up and I’m waiting for them to show up again.”

In years past, his workouts would consist of running on a track and playing volleyball, handball, and racquetball.

“When I started seeing my hands being bruised and my fingers being injured, I couldn’t take that risk anymore. I laid off those injury-prone exercises and went to aerobics and weightlifting machines.

Then I went jogging outside. I got my first pair of running shoes from mail order— they were New Balance—and I used to get up early in the morning. People were honking their horns at me. Jogging was a new thing then. Now, I do aerobics at the Simon Family JCC gym, free weights, elastic weights, calisthenics, the step machine, the recumbent bike, and yoga.”

In fact, Longman completed the JCC’s Ironman Challenge that took place during February and March. The eight-week indoor Ironman challenge included 2.4 miles rower/swim, 112 miles on the bike and 26.2-mile run/walk.

According to Tom Purcell, wellness director at the Simon Family JCC, “Dr. Bruce has participated in several of my wellness challenges and we often talk about the importance of wellness to sustain quality of life. He understands the body very well and has varied his routine to create a balanced program that allows him to stay healthy.

“Our senior population is the first to have this ability to use exercise as a health care plan and to live an independent life as they age.”

Longman has been a member of Ohef Sholom Temple for many years and has served in multiple positions, including as a board member of the Temple’s Foundation and as president of the Men’s Club. “I was president under multiple rabbis,” he says. “I’ve also served as president of the Brith Sholom Fraternal Organization and I’m still on that board.

I work as the treasurer for the Town Foundation, a philanthropic organization that gets scholarships for local schools like JMU, Old Dominion Nursing, TCC, and Norfolk State University.”

Longman says the secret to a good life is being happy in your profession, having a loving family nearby or just a phone call away, and not eating past 6 pm. His advice? “Keep a schedule, keep a little day job, and don’t let the government make you ‘retire’ just because they’re going to

Dr. Bruce Longman, DDS.

send you a Social Security check. One of my friends comments that ‘the word retirement is not in the Bible.’ And I’ll end with that.”

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Senior Living Globetrotting with Edie Weiss Debbie Burke

E

die Weiss has embraced a life of travel and learned volumes about archeology, food, fashion, and how people relate to one another as a global community.

A retired self-employed CPA, she shares what she’s learned about seeing the world and soaking it all in.

Jewish News: When did traveling make such an impact on you?

Edie Weiss: The love of travel has flowed through my family’s blood. As a kid, I would listen to oft-repeated and somewhat embellished stories of a great aunt’s trip to Yugoslavia, one grandmother’s trip to visit relatives in Israel, my parents’ travel around Europe in my dad’s army days, or the other grandmother’s trip to Japan. I spent a teenage summer in Israel, lived some years in Mexico, and did the various cruises around the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas, but it was not until I was a divorced single mom approaching 50 that the travel bug hit. Overseas travel was a way to spend time with my teenage daughters, as well as broadening all our horizons.

JN: Where was your first major trip?

EW: With the girls in college or beyond, it was time for an “adult” excursion, a comfortable tour to a locale that combined my love of archeology and the touch of the exotic. When the travel agent suggested Egypt, both my sister and I jumped for a trip to commence in three weeks going into the spring of 2011. Yes, we landed in Cairo the day the Arab Spring started in Egypt. We got to see the museums, Luxor, and travel down to Aswan on boat, but as the last tour in each location, we were escorted out by machine guns and the smell of tear-gas. It was a learning experience as to how your fellow travelers support each other in times of stress.

JN: What are your top memorable trips?

EW: Nepal—Call me a product of the ’70s and a fan of Cat Stevens, but I always wanted to see Katmandu. And it was more “out-worldly” and spiritual than I could

have ever imagined. The carved wood structures, the temples, and the magnificent scenery. As you fly into the basin of the Himalayas that holds the city, you pass close to Mt. Everest.

Myanmar (Burma)—A seven-hour ride on a rickety boat upriver to the ancient city ruins of Mrauk-U in the Rakhine state (now restricted because of warfare) brought my companion and myself to an island where inhabitants represented 35 different tribes living in grass walled houses on the river. A bit of an ‘Indiana Jones’ adventure.

Uzbekistan—The heart of the Silk Road. The blue tiles of Samarkand. The old Jewish Quarter in Bukhara. Climbing ancient fortresses in the Kyzylkum Desert.

JN: What tips would you give to people traveling to other countries?

EW: Know your limitations. They are not liabilities, just something to work around.

(I say this as a 66-year-old woman who has rods in an arm and elbow and a hip replacement from a biking accident many years ago, as well as hearing aids, and, of course glasses.)

ITINERARY Many trips, many prices, many offers.

With age, be realistic. A bit more comfort on the trip, bathroom breaks, a good night’s sleep, and mobility challenges are to be considered. Daily hotel changes can be disruptive, long hikes challenging, and country jumping may mean time spent in airports rather than at sights.

Don’t be afraid to travel as a single person, especially on a tour. You will meet great folks along the way and never feel alone.

A good travel agent may save you much time on the phone and tailor your trip to work with your limitations, be they physical or economic. The internet may be a good purchase resource if the trip is simple, but expect long phone waits for changes or problems. Do look at Trip Advisor but remember it is not geared to the senior traveler.

Follow your passion (though you may want to limit trips to two weeks). A boring

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trip can drag and make you wonder why you ever left beautiful Hampton Roads in the first place.

SAFETY Sign up for State Department Advisory and Step Program. Review as you begin to plan your trip.

Travel insurance is important, and make sure it is comprehensive for medical issues.

Carry a cell phone. International plans are around $10 per day. You may need it in an emergency or just for using Google Maps to find a restaurant. Send emails and update photos to worried adult children.

Copy your credit cards, passport, visas, itinerary, and other important documents, and email them to family members securely. Also be able to [get on] the cloud yourself.

Review your specific medical needs.

In my case, I bring foldable walking sticks for climbs. (And this is just me: review where Chabad houses are in your destination as they are always a good place for food and assistance.)

PREPARATION Find good guidebooks such as Lonely Planet in the library or digitally online to review customs and expectations.

Clothing and visas will be discussed, as well as small regional idiosyncrasies such as what hand to accept a card with or how to nod “no.”

Update your apps on your smart phone to include a currency calculator and a language translator (I usually just use my hands a lot and smile).

Take luggage limits seriously, especially as they have changed in recent years. Pack in the zippered cubes to maintain organization. Bring all sizes of Ziplocs for snacks you can take from breakfast, wet clothing, and taking home items. Also, look at electrical adaptors and convertors ahead of time since some countries, such as India, require unusual prongs. Medical supplies should include Imodium and cold medicine, which are hard to find overseas.

Airports are long, and carry-on luggage

Edie Weiss in Turkey.

gets heavy. Small roll-arounds may be too big for some flights and buses. A lightly packed backpack with a day or two of clothing can double as a daypack during a tour and won’t tire you out shlepping.

SHOPPING Look at Amazon. The teapot you crave in Uzbekistan is only a few dollars more delivered to your door at home.

Plan what you can use when you get home. Nice silk shirts made to order in Vietnam will be worn once home; the heavy sequined Macedonian groom’s wedding shirt not so much (and still in my closet).

Your kids really don’t want the tchatchkas. They made it clear and will do so again when you bring home the unwanted items for the grandkids. Avoid the urge and keep within luggage weight limits.

Go for the experience! Spend on the African elephant ride in the bush in Zimbabwe. Get lathered and massaged in the Turkish hammam. Snorkel the Great Barrier Reef.

JN: Were you surprised to find there are things we all have in common, no matter where we live?

EW: It should be no surprise, but family is always the number one concern. And

Senior Living mothers always worry about their children, no matter the age. During my recent visit to a family that lives in dug-out caves in Cappadocia, Turkey, the translated conversation evolved from how the family lived there for hundreds of years to the female host’s worry concerning her independent eldest daughter. All the women on my tour could relate.

JN: Do you have a wish list of future trips?

EW: My heritage as a Jewish woman and our people’s history has become the focus of my future trips. A recently booked trip to Romania will take me to the country of birth of a paternal great-grandfather.

A trip to Eastern Turkey (my fifth to that country) next May will take me to Mt. Ararat, the traditional birthplace of the

Patriarch Abraham and other locations that are cited in the prehistory of the Jewish people. I had to postpone trips to Armenia and Georgia as well as Japan and South Korea due to COVID, so hopefully I will be able to see those countries as well.

JN: Other comments?

EW: Be a TOURIST (respectfully).

Chances are you will not blend in and that is okay. Local folks want to tell you their story and certainly, want to hear about yours. With the internet and streaming of Disney+ and Netflix around the world, you won’t be seen as the Ugly American.

You will be asked if you know their relative who moved to Brooklyn or Virginia or California.

Smile broadly.

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While Jewish News has always requested those outside of Tidewater pay a subscription fee of $18 per year—a small amount to assist in covering some print and mail costs—no one has ever been denied a requested subscription.

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jewishnewsva.org | July 18, 2022 | Seniors | JEWISH NEWS | 19

Senior Living Purposeful flights with Jack Fox Debbie Burke

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‘jack-of-all-businesses,’ Jack Fox is currently enjoying life flying, fishing, boating, and playing gin rummy and tennis. He also supports many projects at Ohef Sholom Temple as well as hospitals and museums/performing arts venues in Florida, where he splits his time as a part-time resident of both Boca Raton and Virginia Beach.

Educated as an industrial engineer, Fox ran a bakery and owned a motel in Norfolk, the Tidewater Auto Auction in Chesapeake, and a couple of Exxon service stations in Virginia Beach.

He recalls how he got started in business in 1973. “I left my position as a manager in a large company, and with little money, moved my family to the small town of Emporia, Va. There, I put a down payment on a small bakery operation with six employees.” The bakery made honey buns, cinnamon buns, and small cakes for other bakeries, supermarkets, and vending machines. Ten years later, his company had 400 employees, three bakery plants (Kingsport, Tenn., Baltimore, Md., and Emporia) and 45 tractor-trailers that delivered products from Boston to Miami and west to Chicago. Then, he discovered a way to be even more efficient. “During this period, I found I could do the work of three men by flying an airplane between the plants and visiting customers over this wide area.”

Fox was trained as a pilot through the GI Bill after his Army service. In 1957, he received his degree in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University, and in 1959 finished the final training and

was awarded his pilot’s license. This year marks his 63rd year of flying.

“While I have flown many types of aircraft, for the past 25 years, my wife Beverly and I have owned and flown our Beechcraft Baron twin-engine six-seat aircraft,” he says.

“We have enjoyed flying it across the country and up to Alaska, over the Atlantic Ocean to Tortola in the Virgin Islands. One hot Virginia Beach summer we decided to fly north until we could find a place that the temperature was in the low seventies. That flight took us to Western

“Jack, no harm will ever come to you when you are doing this work because God is your co-pilot.”

Newfoundland where we spent a week in cool weather.”

Fox has a hangar at both the Norfolk and the Boca Raton airports to house his Baron.

His most interesting story about flying might just be his volunteer work as a pilot for a charity known as Angel Flight. Pilots donate their time and their aircraft to fly medical patients (many with cancer) to destinations where they can get specific medical treatments or participate in Beverly and Jack Fox. clinical trials. These patients cannot afford the cost of travel, and the volunteers fly them at no charge. The program also services wounded military veterans, where the pilots fly them to their homes for visits when the government does not cover the cost.

“One interesting Angel Flight was a mission to fly a young couple and their baby from Norfolk back to their home in New Jersey. The baby had been treated for a rare medical problem at the Children’s Hospital in Norfolk,” he says. “I arrived at the airport to find the couple was Jewish and the husband was a young Hasidic rabbi. They were apprehensive about the

flight and as we approached the airport near his home, the weather closed in and we had to descend through the clouds.

I looked at the young rabbi seated next to me, and he was feverishly praying and davening. As we broke out from the clouds and the runway was in sight ahead of us, he shouted loudly, ‘Baruch Hashem!’ As I parted ways with them on the ground, I will never forget his words to me: ‘Jack, no harm will ever come to you when you are doing this work because God is your co-pilot.’”

Jewish News Digital Version See the paper 3 days before the cover date: JewishNewsVa.org/digital.

To have the paper emailed, send your email address to news@ujft.org.

20 | JEWISH NEWS | Seniors | July 18, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

Senior Living Rabbi Michael Panitz: Historian and film buff

SAME FACE DIFFERENT PLACE!

Debbie Burke

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casual movie-goer until his mid-30s, Rabbi Michael Panitz, PhD, found that the invention of the VHS allowed him to enjoy films at home—and he began to study them. At the same time, he realized that films on Jewish subjects would be very useful in his work as a rabbi and religious teacher.

Panitz, who is the rabbi at Temple Israel in Norfolk, is a historian with a particular interest in Jewish historical dramas and is writing a book about the cinematic retellings of Biblical stories. “The projected title is See O Israel,” he says. “I am preparing a lecture series on eight Bible movies at Harbor’s Edge (a luxury independent-living community in Norfolk) for the coming year.”

He is also one of the presenters for the film series Saturdays at Seven at Portsmouth’s Jewish Museum and Cultural Center, where he discusses movies with Jewish themes. Panitz serves on the board of the JMCC, which he calls “an underappreciated cultural resource for our local Jewish community.”

One thing he’s noticed is the evolution of how Jewish issues—for example, “otherness,” diaspora, and assimilation—are portrayed in film. “The marginal status of the Jew and the assimilationist mindset of the era are quite apparent in the first forays into the genre, such as The Jazz Singer,” Panitz notes. “Even in the 1950s, actual portrayals of Jewish religious loyalty are sparse and abbreviated, such as in Marjorie Morningstar. We see a fuller embrace of Jewish loyalties in films from the 1970s, such as Hester Street. Even comedies [like] The Frisco Kid are warmer to Jewish loyalties than their predecessors had been.”

Cinema, of course, is not always an accurate depiction of the world, but, for better or worse, movies play a huge part in shaping public perception. Panitz believes

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that too often, they impose their “erroneous or even delusional worldviews upon the historical material.” One egregious example he cites is Kingdom of Heaven.

“The Crusaders turn out to be post-modern ecumenists. The much-older Ivanhoe, for all its romanticism and Hollywood corn, gets the Jewish loyalties of Rebecca of York more fully.”

Coming up in his film talk series at the JMCC are eight Bible films, Samson and Delilah, David and Bathsheba, King David, The Ten Commandments, Moses the Lawgiver, The Prince of Egypt, Exodus: Gods and Kings, and Noah. “These films all serve as windows into the time and place of the retelling even more than the biblical stories they represent. I approach this from the realm of intellectual history, showing how, for example, The Ten Commandments (1956) speaks to the Cold War era or how King David (1985) reflects post-Vietnam questioning of political and religious authority.”

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jewishnewsva.org | July 18, 2022 | Seniors | JEWISH NEWS | 21

Senior Living Rare gems between the covers at the Bonk-Rivin Holocaust Collection Debbie Burke

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he Bonk-Rivin Holocaust Collection at Ohef Sholom Temple is managed

by David Titus, a former college professor and academic librarian, and it is here that all corners of the Holocaust are explored. Titus has been a librarian for more than 45 years. He tells Jewish News how he became involved in the collection, how it’s growing, and what you can find there.

Jewish News: When did you first become enamored of books?

David Titus: I discovered books and reading when I was very young. As a child I read anything available—history, Shakespeare, magazines—whatever came to hand. This was reinforced by my English teachers.

JN: Why did you start becoming involved in The Bonk-Rivin Holocaust Collection?

DT: [This] is part of Ohef Sholom Temple’s extensive collection of adult, young adult, and children’s books. My wife Alice and I moved to Norfolk in 2015 and joined Ohef Sholom Temple.

As a retired librarian, I was interested in volunteering in the temple library, and I quickly realized the importance of the Bonk-Rivin Holocaust Collection.

The Bonk-Rivin Holocaust Library was founded in 1993 at Temple Sinai in Portsmouth by Rick Rivin and the late Ted Bonk. In 2012, when Temple Sinai merged with Ohef Sholom Temple, it became part of the Ohef Sholom Library.

JN: Do you remember your thoughts at the time about this library collection?

DT: It is an impressive and important collection, and having met Rick and Ted, I became interested in moving the collection forward. Teaching the Holocaust to religious school classes has only increased my interest.

JN: What are some of the best-written or most impactful books about the Holocaust?

DT: That’s a tough question. Holocaust books fall into several categories: scholarly histories, survivor memoirs, and works of fiction. To me, the single most important Holocaust book is Elie Wiesel’s Night. Another powerful book is Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz. Books for young readers are particularly difficult to recommend.

The Bonk-Rivin Holocaust Collection contains more than 150 titles for young readers. Everyone is familiar with Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, but there are many more for young readers. A personal favorite is I Never Saw Another Butterfly—a collection of drawings and poems by children in the Terezín concentration camp. More than 12,000 children under the age of 15 were held in Terezín; more than 90 percent of them did not survive the Holocaust.

JN: Talk about the process of sourcing and acquiring the books.

DT: Over the years, Rick and Ted continued to add books to the collection, and from time to time, other individuals have donated books. Bibliographies from organizations like the Association of Jewish Libraries, the United States Holocaust Museum, and Yad Vashem provide valuable information for ordering new titles from book dealers. From its beginning with 250 titles, the collection now has 1,400 books.

JN: What was the most interesting or rarest book you have or the hardest one to track down?

DT: A few come to mind. One of the most interesting is a German volume from 1934, Männer im Dritten Reich, a collector’s album of brief biographies of 240 Nazi leaders. Published by a German cigarette company, each page has a color portrait “card” pasted in. Our copy is one of the very few complete with all portraits. The collection also includes books signed by authors, and some foreign language titles, including The Holocaust in Farsi, a four-volume set of many primary documents with commentary in Farsi for

22 | JEWISH NEWS | Seniors | July 18, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

David Titus.

teaching Iranians about the Holocaust.

Also in the collection is Never Again: The Holocaust, a small 28-page booklet of drawings, poems, and essays by students of Booker T. Washington High School in Norfolk. Created in 1989, it reflects students’ reactions to the Holocaust. Ours may be the only publicly available copy.

JN: Does the library have ephemera such as photos, posters, pamphlets, film, etc.?

DT: The collection includes DVDs and VHS tapes. Some relevant photos and other ephemera exist in the temple archives.

JN: Do you find that you continue to learn something new about the Holocaust?

DT: There is always more to learn. Two areas I am currently interested in are America’s actions during the Holocaust and graphic novels of the Holocaust.

The collection now has a graphic novel section with more than 20 Holocaustrelated titles.

JN: Other comments?

DT: With the Holocaust now more than 75 years in the past, it is critical that we continue to bear witness.

As Ted Bonk said when the Holocaust Library was dedicated in 1993 on Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, “Our young people must be torchbearers of truth. Through Jewish homes, synagogues, and libraries, the truth of the Holocaust survived. The Nazis first burned books, and then people. We will mourn their loss forever.”

When Ted Bonk died in 2020, the BonkRivin Holocaust Library Fund was established in his memory, creating a permanent source of funding for the collection. Donations may be sent to Ohef Sholom Temple, 730 Raleigh Avenue, Norfolk, VA 23507.

The Ohef Sholom Library, which includes the Bonk-Rivin Holocaust Collection, is open to the public. For more information, visit ohefsholom.org.

Senior Living Meet Patsi Walton, JCC Seniors Club president Robin Ford

T

he Seniors Club president, Patsi Walton, is always ready to try something new, introducing great entertainment and important classes to the active senior programs. Calling her a ‘firecracker!’ is a most apt description.

Jewish News: When did you join the Simon Family JCC? Patsi Walton: I joined the JCC several years after I retired in 2002 from the City of Virginia as an aquatic supervisor. The JCC offered a breath of fresh air from the very busy city pools, plus had an outdoor and a therapy pool.

JN: When did you join the Seniors Club?

PW: A friend in the water aerobics class invited me to a club Luau and I joined the

Seniors Club soon afterward.

JN: What interested you about the presidency of the Seniors Club?

PW: When I joined, the club needed help, so I co-chaired programming with another member. I eventually planned the programs by myself, and we enjoyed some great programs and trips! At the time, the current president was stepping down, and, to keep the club running at the same pace, I said I would be president and do programs, as well.

JN: What would you like for the Seniors Club in the future?

PW: I would like to see a variety of interesting programs, some for fun and some for important knowledge for seniors—always with camaraderie. I do not know how side trips will develop as

transportation is an issue. When COVID hit, everything changed!

JN: What other activities do you do at the JCC? PW: I usually do water aerobics, bunco, Mexican train, bridge, and this month, I’m trying the Book Club. The JCC was definitely a lifesaver when my husband passed away.

JN: What about life outside of the JCC? PW: I was an Army wife for 27 years, loved every tour of duty, and am so grateful for our life. When I retired, we traveled, visited 93 countries, and flew around the world. We raised three successful children, four grandsons, and I am grateful for every day G-d has given me!!

Patsi Walton.

jewishnewsva.org | July 18, 2022 | Seniors | JEWISH NEWS | 23

Senior Living FIRST PERSON

JCC Senior Book Club meets monthly Third Mondays, 1:30 pm, Sandler Family Campus Sherry Lieberman

S

imon Family Jewish Community Center’s Book Club has been active since it began in February 2008.

When I was senior adult program coordinator for Jewish Family Service and Jewish Community Center, I recognized the need and interest for a book club, and the JCC Book Club began.

The first book the club read and discussed was Suite Francaise by Irene Nermirovsky.

Our discussion was led by Rena Rogoff, a retired English professor. Rogoff was very

Opening in 2024

effective and helped guide us to success, suggesting great books, which we enjoyed and discussed. Some of the earlier books we read were The Genesis by Alan Dershowitz, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Sarah’s Key

by Titiana De Rosnay and so many more. Rogoff was our leader through 2008. I took over the helm and have been guiding this exceptional book club since 2009.

Our book club continues to grow as we gain new members. Each member is knowledgeable, intelligent, and unique.

We have active and inquisitive participants making our book club one of the best around. With book choices covering many genres, we pride ourselves on reading books as a group that we may not have read on our own.

Fast-forward 14 years, and the JCC Book Club is still strong and active. We have read more than 175 books, poems, short stories, and have attended movies as a group pertaining to books we have read. Some of our books’ authors have appeared at the JCC both in-person and on Zoom. We have had phone discussions

with authors and have enjoyed food at meetings that relate to the book to be discussed.

Anyone interested is invited to join the JCC Book Club. Meetings may be attended in-person or via Zoom. There is no pressure to participate…listening is fine.

Some members have moved from the area, but still attend the book club via Zoom.

For additional information, email Sherry Lieberman at Joeann124@aol.com.

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24 | JEWISH NEWS | Seniors | July 18, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

Senior Living Dementia Care training for BSV employees Marcia Futterman Brodie

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eth Sholom Village recently held an Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Care Seminar for all of its staff. The seminars were designed by the National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners LLC (NCCDP LLC), and the classes were facilitated by Tree of Life Dementia Care Consulting, LLC. This training was made possible by The Sephardic Foundation on Aging, whose mission is “Empowering all older people to live happier, healthier lives.” The Dementia Care Partner program supports and builds empathy for people with dementia and their caretakers and advances programs that encourage well-being and connections to their community.

BSV believes in offering the best care possible to all of its residents. However, BSV recognizes that its population of residents with cognitive impairment requires and deserves special consideration. The Village feels it is imperative to ensure that all of its direct care staff are adequately trained and educated in dementia-related caregiving. Direct Care Staff include all nursing staff—RNs, LPNs, Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs), and medical aides. Direct care staff also includes all members of the rehabilitation department—physical, occupational, and speech

therapists, as well as members of its recreation therapy department and social workers. These staff members care for residents daily and work to meet and exceed goals of care unique to each resident.

The week-long training was deemed a great success, with 131 employees completing the course required to obtain the certification of Certified Dementia Practitioner® CDP®. In addition, 70 ancillary employees attended the awareness and care training for people with dementia. In total, 201 Beth Sholom Village employees received specialized training on dementia care in a single week.

Beth Sholom Village is proud to have provided this training as it creates an environment of inclusivity and addresses all residents’ unique needs. Plans call to continue this training to ensure all new employees receive the same information and are adequately equipped to care for BSV residents.

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jewishnewsva.org | July 18, 2022 | Seniors | JEWISH NEWS | 25

Senior Living Where stamps intersect Judaism Debbie Burke

J

oe Weintrob has been collecting stamps specifically about Israel, Jewish life, and the Holocaust since he was in the Cub Scouts in 1954.

Now, Weintrob particularly likes to look for KKL (Keren Kayemet Le’Israel) stamps, which feature the early history of Israel and its leaders. He owns several Austrian tabs (an extra rectangular section on a sheet of stamps, often with information about the stamp) dedicated to Theodor Herzl and the Holocaust.

Weintrob is most interested in a stamp’s colors, theme, and who is being honored.

An active member of a stamp club that meets twice a month at St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church in Virginia Beach, he says his “great white whale” of stamps would have to be “the Israel Tab 7-9 and J1-5. It’s about $4,000. [My late wife] Irene would have had my head if I spent that much.”

Stamps with a Jewish connection.

A rewarding and robust retirement: Steve and Nancy Rosenberg

L

ong-time Virginia Beach residents Nancy and Steve Rosenberg have made the Simon Family JCC’s Fitness facilities a huge part of their life.

Steve, a retired health care administrator, works out on the elliptical, treadmill, free weights, weight presses, and band activities, while Nancy, who was a school counselor in the Chesapeake Public Schools, attends Pilates and Zumba classes three times a week. They are active members of Ohef Sholom Temple and Nancy serves on the Holocaust Commission. As a couple, they’ve been attending the Norfolk Forum for more than 30 years, and attend the Virginia Stage, Virginia Symphony, MOCA, and Virginia Musical Theater.

Outside of fitness, Steve enjoys reading, gardening, and for the past 26 years, has partnered with his son Evan in a fantasy baseball league (the couple has a son who lives locally and another son in Missoula, Mont.).

Nancy enjoys sending greeting cards to both relatives and friends.

Steve’s job brought the couple here from New Jersey. Says Nancy, “We loved the friendly people, Jewish worship and activities, and great climate compared to the north.”

This summer, they say they’re looking forward to a family vacation in Ocracoke, N.C.

26 | JEWISH NEWS | Seniors | July 18, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

Star Trek 50th anniversary stamp show, New York, 2016.

Doron Almog, retired general and disabilities advocate, set to head Jewish Agency Ron Kampeas

(JTA)—The Jewish Agency’s nominating committee recommended Doron Almog, a storied retired general and a longtime advocate for people with disabilities, to lead the body that bridges Israel and the Jewish Diaspora.

The nomination of Almog, 71, now goes to the Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors, where it is all but assured of approval. The nomination follows an extended period of consideration since May 2021, when the last chairman of the agency, Isaac Herzog, announced his successful run for the Israeli presidency.

The agency has been led in the interim by an acting chairman, Yaakov Hagoel.

Almog has a long career in the military, assisting in the 1976 raid on Entebbe, Uganda to free a plane held hostage by German and Palestinian terrorists. He helped to lead the secret airlift of Ethiopian Jews in the mid-1980s, and led the Southern Command, which had Gaza as a responsibility, during the Second Intifada.

An Israel Prize laureate, Almog has also led disability advocacy. He founded Adi NegevNahalat Eran Rehabilitation Village, named for his son Eran, who died at 23 from Castleman’s disease, a lymph disorder.

The Jewish Agency, established in 1929, handles numerous aspects of the Israel-Diaspora relationship, including fund-raising for Israel, encouraging and absorbing immigrants in partnership with the Israeli government, and running Jewish education and identity-building programs at home and abroad. Its funding is provided by North American Jewish federations, together with the federations’ counterparts in other countries and other donors.

The nomination committee reportedly considered more than a dozen candidates, including a number of women and Sephardic Jews—neither group is represented among the chairmen of the agency going back to 1929. Serious consideration reportedly was given to Idan Roll, the deputy foreign minister who is a leader of Israel’s LGBTQ community.

JEWISH TIDEWATER

Local golfer Jeffrey Flax competes in the 2022 Israeli Maccabi Games

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Debbie Burke

I

n August of last year, Jewish News extended best wishes and mazel tov to local attorney Jeffrey Flax for qualifying for the Masters Golf Division in the 2022 Israeli Maccabi Games (formally called The Maccabiah Games, a quadrennial Jewish Olympics). As of press time, Flax and his family (wife Mona and their two boys Jeremy and Harris and Harris’s partner) are now in Israel for—hopefully—many holes-in-one. The U.S. Masters Golf Team (for 50 and over) consists of six players who have qualified from all over the U.S.

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

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“Golf teaches you to be responsible for yourself, how to deal with adversity, and how to be respectful to your fellow competitors.”

An attorney at Childress, Flax, Levine, P.C. in Virginia Beach and the current Cavalier Golf Club Champion (Cavalier Golf and Yacht Club of Virginia Beach), Flax has been playing with his father since the age of 10 and “fell in love with the game.” He played college golf at the University of Georgia and has played competitively on a statewide level since he was a teenager.

“I still play five to seven statewide tournaments each summer, so my preparation for Maccabi has been the same as I do for other events.” So far this year, he’s played two tournaments, and he tries to play once a week as well as practice one afternoon a week during tournament season.

Flax qualified and played in the United Sates Amateur in 1975, was a quarterfinalist several times in the Virginia State Senior Amateur (for 65 and over), and won the Virginia State Super Senior Amateur in 2020.

How did he get involved in the Maccabi Games? It all started in 2017 when he was invited to go to London to play in the Transatlantic Maccabi Cup. “It was a Ryder Cup-style competition between a team from the U.S. against a team from Great Britain and Ireland, a really wonderful experience. I also have two friends who have played in the Maccabi games in Israel as golfers who said I needed to try to qualify because it is an amazing event.”

Besides the competition, he says, “Golf teaches you to be responsible for yourself, how to deal with adversity, and how to be respectful to your fellow competitors.

All of those things are necessary in your personal and business life.”

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jewishnewsva.org | July 18, 2022 | JEWISH NEWS | 27

JEWISH TIDEWATER

A stitch in time brings happiness to others Debbie Burke

T

he quilters at Ohef Sholom Temple are all about creating beautiful designs that bring joy and provide a rewarding sense of community. Marsha Moody says it’s fun, creative, and meaningful.

“I’ve always loved fabric,” Moody says.

“When we lived in Charlottesville in 1983/84, I walked into an Amish quilt shop. At that time, I couldn’t afford to buy one, so I decided to learn.” It took several years before she became serious about quilting.

“The Tzedakah Quilt Group was the first time that I actually started to sew with a group. We learn so much from each other and support each other.”

Nancy Wall, fellow quilter, says, “It’s a fabric hug made with love.”

A lot goes into the finished product. The basic steps are learning to use a sewing or sewing/quilting machine, having the right tools, understanding patterns, and choosing fabric. After colors

and fabrics are chosen, the squares need to be cut into strips and sewn into a muslin foundation and a top is put on the backing, followed by stitching, trimming, binding, adding a label, and ironing throughout the entire process. The different styles include patchwork, appliqué, paper-pieced, traditional, and modern.

“What our group does is a form of patchwork called string quilts,” Moody explains. “The inspiration for this type of quilting came from a site called the Heartstring Quilting Project, when I realized I had too many fabric scraps left over from other projects.” In addition to the string quilts, Moody says she loves to make small art quilts, something she was inspired to do after a visit to Ireland. “I came home and created one that gave me the feel of that beautiful country.”

Contrary to appearances, even though many of these are true works of art, one does not need to be artistic to quilt. One only needs “a desire to work with fabric and create something. There are many

Tzedkah Quilt Group’s display at the Sandler Family Campus: Celia Friedman, Nancy Wall, Jeanette Friedman, Roz Weinstein, Marsha Moody, Jeanne Zentz, and Paula Russel.

types and styles of quilts, and all abilities and skills can create,” Moody adds.

“We started with JFS to work with the Hampton Roads’ Jewish community.”

Quilts displayed outside of the Tzedakah Quilt Group’s sewing room.

28 | JEWISH NEWS | July 18, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

A true collaborative effort, “everyone comes to the group with different skill sets which are shared,” says Moody. “We will teach the steps as needed and cooperate on choosing the fabric. One of our favorite times is organizing the finished quilt blocks till we are satisfied with the design.”

“The opportunity to learn something new was exciting, and Marsha’s method made quilting simple,” says Celia Friedman, a member of the group. “Along the way, I’ve enjoyed the company of other congregants. There is such a warm feeling being able to offer some warmth through these quilts to others. A real treat is the most wonderful thank you letters from the recipients of our quilts.”

Moody’s favorite quilt ever? “It’s hard to say. I loved making the chuppah for my daughter, Diane, and also baby quilts for all four of my grandkids. But I think my favorite quilt was a miniature art quilt I made for the International Quilt Festival.”

The quilters have had two different displays at the Sandler Family Campus, and have also displayed the quilts at OST during several Jewish Family Service volunteer luncheons. “We started with JFS to work with the Hampton Roads’ Jewish community. At the beginning of the pandemic, JFS couldn’t take the quilts, so we gave them to Virginia Supportive Housing, as suggested by Sharon Nusbaum, who was on their board. We plan on splitting between both groups this year. It’s fun to quilt and to know our creations will be loved and enjoyed by many people.”

JEWISH TIDEWATER FIRST PERSON

Indian River High School honors the memory of Holocaust survivors Craig Blackman

I

n the first semester of the 2021–22 school year, I taught my Virginia and U.S. History classes about the Holocaust and mentioned the local survivors and rescuers who had graciously shared their stories with former Indian River High School students in the past. I reminded them about the trees planted near the faculty parking lot to remember the many visits by Esther Goldman, David Katz, Hanns Loewenbach, Dana Cohen, Kitty Saks, and Mary Barraco.

Soon after, Sean, a bright and well-spoken junior who identified with the mistreated, blurted out, “Can we walk over and see the trees?” Calculating the time left in class, I adjusted my lesson plan, and we walked to the “Kitty Tree.”

It was barely hanging on, as insect blight had plagued the tree for months. Seeing its condition and knowing that Kitty had just passed earlier that year, we agreed to raise money to plant a new tree.

Slowly but surely, the students made donations. Many gave coins and others gave greenbacks—some, more than once.

By the end of January 2022, the students had raised $80!

I chipped in the rest and drove to Carter’s Country Corner Nursery in Chesapeake to find an appropriate tree.

An Autumn Flowering Cherry Tree caught my eye. Given my recent bout with diverticulitis, I was unable to move the tree or

The new “Kitty Tree.”

the required new topsoil, much less dig the hole. Fortunately, as in the past, “the River” rose to the occasion, and a few Jr. Air Force ROTC cadets gladly volunteered to carry the 50-pound bags of topsoil and compost, as well as dig the hole.

The new “Kitty Tree” was planted the day after Yom Hashoah.

Craig Blackman has taught history at Indian River High School for 36 years, hosting local survivors, and subsequently the Holocaust Commission’s What We Carry program, for most of those years.

Jewish News 3 days before the cover date: JewishNewsVa.org/digital. jewishnewsva.org | July 18, 2022 | JEWISH NEWS | 29

Leaving a Legacy in Jewish Tidewater

JEWISH TIDEWATER

New director of Lifelong Learning at Ohef Sholom Deb Higgins

M “The use of our legacy has to be taught to each succeeding generation. One must give his or her all to enhance the spirit of belonging, leading, and giving back to our community.

The more effort we put into these endeavors the larger reward we will receive.

Our Philanthropic Fund gives us personal satisfaction and allows us the means to perpetuate our traditions.”

- Bert & Lois Nusbaum*

Bert and Lois Nusbaum’s* Donor Advised Fund established an unrestricted fund for Ohef Sholom and enabled their children to continue their philanthropic legacies through their own Donor Advised Funds, supporting multi-generation philanthropy.

Define your legacy with a gift to endow the Jewish community so future generations have the opportunity to embrace our shared heritage and the values you hold dear.

* of blessed memory

Contact us for your free guide: tjfinfo@ujft.org | 757-965-6111 foundation.jewishva.org

any congregants and families at Ohef Sholom Temple already know its new director of Lifelong Learning, Alyson Morrissey.

There are several reasons that Morrissey is well known around the temple.

A beloved Jewish educator, Morrissey has taught in OST’s Religious and Hebrew Schools for six Alyson Morrissey. years. In fact, in 2020, she became the school’s Hebrew School coordinator, creating an innovative curriculum and implementing the Hebrew-in-Motion program.

But, that’s not all. Morrissey has served on the Temple’s board of directors, co-chairing with Tammi Foer, the Religious School committee for several years. In 2021, she and Foer were the recipients of OST’s prestigious Kurt Rosenbach Award, presented to board members for their outstanding contributions to the congregation. In addition, Morrissey and her family can often be found on Friday nights at Shabbat services.

In her new role, Morrissey oversees all educational programming. This includes OST’s Hebrew and Religious School, B’nai Mitzvah prep, youth group, and adult and family programming.

“I strive to provide an engaging and innovative approach to Jewish learning,” she says.

Morrissey obtained her undergraduate degree from Old Dominion University in Education, specifically Physical Education and Health. She also earned a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction. She taught in the Norfolk Public School system for the past several years after spending time as a stay-at-home mom.

“Alyson’s energetic hands-on style engages our children and ignites their interest in learning,” says Foer. “Her positive outlook, dedication, and creativity communicate her love for Jewish learning and sparks that in our Temple youth.”

Married for 23 years to Chris, her high school sweetheart, Morrissey says, “I am the proud mom to three amazing kids. Leia is a recent high school graduate who will attend UVA in the fall to study architecture; Jacob is a junior at Granby High School in the IB program; and Elijah is a freshman in the IB program at Granby.

All three kids are products of OST’s Hebrew and Religious School.

“I’m looking forward to giving my ‘ALL’ to Ohef Sholom in my new role at Temple,” she says.

For information about Ohef Sholom Temple’s Religious School, call 757-625-4295 or go to ohefsholom.org.

30 | JEWISH NEWS | July 18, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

2022 Graduates Jewish News celebrates these 2022 graduates with their families and the community. Mazel Tov on these students’ achievements and best of luck as they take their next steps.

Ayden Cohn Virginia Tech Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, minor in Nuclear Engineering with the distinction of summa cum laude. Ayden also received the Potts Outstanding Scholar Award.

Next: Ayden is interning with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Atlanta, Georgia this summer and will pursue a Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering and a Master of Science in Business Administration (Business Analytics) this fall at Virginia Tech.

Ayden is the son of Lisa and Joel Cohn.

Brian Cohn Granby High School Valedictorian, International Baccalaureate Diploma, AP Scholar with Distinction, recipient of the Elizabeth River Crossings Good Citizen Scholarship, recipient of a Virginia State Golf Association VIP Scholarship, awarded Best Delegate in 2021 ODU Model UN Conference, captain of Varsity Tennis and Varsity Golf Teams.

Next: Brian will attend the College of William and Mary, as a Monroe Scholar, to study finance and economics.

Brian is the son of Lisa and Joel Cohn.

JEWISH TIDEWATER

Virginia Beach teen wins $36,000 Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award Debbie Burke

E

van Nied, a Virginia Beach teenager, has been awarded the 2022 Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award from the Helen Diller Family Foundation for his work in planting trees to mitigate the disastrous effects of climate change.

The $36,000 award is for his nonprofit organization Planting Shade, which has not only exceeded its initial goal of planting 1,000 trees with nearly 12,000 trees across different states, countries, and continents, but also increases literacy about the impact of climate change.

“I’ve been an environmentalist for as long as I can remember,” says Nied.

“But the idea of fortifying my community against the effects of pollution and flooding didn’t come until my family and I evacuated Virginia Beach due to Hurricane Florence. The most important

thing I remember thinking was this shouldn’t be happening, and what can I do to stop it? After speaking with community leaders and local environmentalists, I found that the best thing I could do to prevent future disasters is plant trees.”

Trees are “effectively super plants,” says Nied, that can clear the air, strengthen the soil, prevent erosion, and provide shade.

“Planting a tree adds to ecosystems and decreases high temperatures. Trees are vital in preventing the localized effects of flooding.”

He calls the Jewish community “instrumental” in helping him spread the word about his organization. Most of Planting Shade’s chapter organizations in the United States were founded directly or indirectly through the friends he’d met in BBYO (B’nai B’rith Youth Organization).

Nied’s goals for the organization are to plant more trees and expand into

environmental education.

“We’ve already held around a dozen Planting Shade seminars where we go to elementary and middle schools and talk about the importance of trees in the environment,” he says.

“I want the seminars to be even bigger and I will work to create a new curriculum that Planting Shade can disseminate internationally.”

Nied is the son of Emily and Joel Nied. He graduated from Kempsville High School and will attend the University of Virginia as a Jefferson Scholar and Echols Scholar.

For more information, visit plantingshade.org.

Evan Nied.

Create a Jewish legacy for the community you love through planned charitable giving . . .ask us how

BeAR seeks volunteers for upcoming school year

U

nited Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Jewish Community Relations Council’s Be a Reader (BeAR) literacy program is looking for volunteers to add to its team of young reader mentors.

BeAR works with eight area Title 1 elementary schools.

BeAR mentors say they “never regret helping a child learn to read.” For those concerned about

the time commitment, the program offers a “share” volunteer option where two volunteers share the weekly time obligation for their student.

Contact Robin Ford, BeAR program coordinator, at 757-321-2304 or RFord@UJFT. org to learn more about BeAR and volunteer.

Visit JewishVA.org/BeAR for more information.

Visit us on the web jewishnewsva.org

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IT’S A WRAP

Jewish Geography is a hit in Tidewater Hunter Thomas

D

avid Leon became the reigning Who Knows One? champion in Tidewater when he won the Jewish Geography competition against rival contestant, Anne Fleder.

Micah Hart, creator of Who Knows One?, hosted a live show at the Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus of the Tidewater Jewish Community on Thursday, June 30.

The show focused on Leon’s and Fleder’s search for “The Chosen One,” in this case, Devorah Glanz of West Bloomfield, Michigan, who they had to try to invite onto a Zoom call using nothing but phone calls and texts to their own friends, and their friends’ friends. As Hart always says, “It’s not about who you know,

it’s about who you know, knows.”

Though she wasn’t the winner, Fleder was prepared. “I had reached out to 40 people to let them know I was playing on the show, including four rabbis,” Fleder says, “but you never know who can help and who might not be able to.” Rabbi Roz Mandelberg of Ohef Sholom Temple was one who joined Team Anne on the Zoom call.

“It’s rare that a new type of event comes to the JCC and is so well-attended,” Fleder adds. “I had a blast and would do it again in a heartbeat!”

Ultimately, the game was decided when someone from Leon’s team was able to reach Glanz and got her on the Zoom call.

Audience members also had the

Abby Rothschild and Ralph Rotfus.

32 | JEWISH NEWS | July 18, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

Julie and Kenneth Kievit.

David Leon, Micah Hart, and Anne Fleder play Who Knows One?

opportunity to share their own Jewish geography stories, and later the audience engaged in a round during which everyone had the chance to compete. Rachel Goretsky and Alene and Ron Kaufman won the competition, finding someone to join the Zoom call that was married in Virginia and moved elsewhere, and someone who had served as a Jewish military chaplain, respectively.

Hart was in Virginia Beach with his

Micah Hart.

sons to visit his in-laws. He also conducted professional development sessions with the staffs of United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, Tidewater Jewish Foundation, and Simon Family JCC. For more information about Arts + Ideas programming, contact Hunter Thomas, United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s director of Arts + Ideas, at HThomas@UJFT.org.

Betsy Karotkin.

Fred and Laura Gross and Mike and Ally Yaaray.

Alene and Ron Kaufman.

Kendall and Audrey Fleder.

Lawrence Steingold, Judy Rosenblatt, and Joel Rubin.

Jamie, Emmett, and Micah Hart and Anne Fleder.

Pam, Danny, and Shauna Snyder.

The crowd at Who Knows One? at the Sandler Family Campus.

jewishnewsva.org | July 18, 2022 | JEWISH NEWS | 33

WHAT’S HAPPENING Hampton Arts announces celebratory 35th anniversary season

Bring Israel Home SEEKING HOST FAMILIES FOR ISRAELI SHINSHINIM WHAT IS A SHINSHIN? ShinShin Shenat Sherut

is the Hebrew acronym for , meaning year of service.

ShinShinim are a select group of promising Israeli high school graduates who defer their enlistments in the Israel Defense Forces so that they can spend a year as Israeli ambassadors in communities around the world.

MEET TIDEWATER'S SHINSHINIM! ARRIVING THIS AUGUST

Alma Ben Chorin

Aya Sever

WANT TO GET INVOLVED? Welcome them into your home.

Invite them for a holiday meal or service.

Take them on a local adventure.

LEARN MORE: JEWISHVA.ORG/SHINSHINIM

T

he curtain rises on a dynamic season as Hampton Arts celebrates 35 years of presenting performing and visual arts. Bold and exciting programming brings the very best to venues both historic and new, including The American Theatre, The Charles H. Taylor Visual Arts Center, the Hampton Coliseum, and a newly upgraded Studio Theatre.

“It’s been a long intermission, and we’re enthusiastic to welcome audiences back for this anniversary season,” says Richard M. Parison, Jr., Hampton Arts artistic director.

“From Grammy-winning musical acts, bold theatrical productions, and family-friendly holiday fun to curated exhibitions from some of the most recognized visual artists in the region, this season is all about storytelling in its many forms.”

Hampton Arts also welcomes the addition of a new performance space. The grand opening of the Studio Theatre offers audiences a more personal experience with artists in an intimate venue. The “Life is a Cabaret” series inaugurates the space, featuring drag legend Coco Peru, jazz artist Liz Terrell, and Desiree Roots celebrating the

career of Nancy Wilson.

T i c ke t s start at $35, Flex Pass subscriptions offer early access and customization, and restaurant partners offer day-of discounts for a night to remember.

The upcoming American Theatre productions include Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (jazz and swing, Dec. 17); DC’s Reflecting Fools (political satire, Oct. 15); The Acting Company’s “The Three Musketeers” (Jan. 27, 2023); Dee Dee Bridgewater (jazz, Feb. 11, 2023); Melissa Manchester (Feb. 25, 2023). Comedy @ The Coliseum will present Margaret Cho on March 11, 2023. The Charles H. Taylor Visual Arts Center hosts the Hampton Holiday Fine Arts Bazaar (Dec. 10–22) and “From the Sea to the Stars,” a curated exhibition on space exploration and nautical history (April 22–June 17, 2023).

Tickets can be purchased through the FLEX-8 Subscription when guests purchase eight or more tickets to select shows. For more information, visit theamericantheatre. org or call (800) 745-3000.

CALENDAR JUNE 8, WEDNESDAY–JULY 31, SUNDAY

Rising Tides, Rising Tensions exhibit, Leon Gallery at the Sandler Family Campus. Featuring the work of artist Renée Calway as part of the In[HEIR]itance Project. For more information, contact Hunter Thomas, director of Arts + Ideas, at HThomas@UJFT.org. See page 33.

JULY 20, WEDNESDAY

The Alma Ensemble, Chamber Trio, The Jewish Museum and Cultural Center, Portsmouth. Music by female composers. For more information, call 757-391-9211 orjmccportsmouth@gmail.com.

AUGUST 15, MONDAY–AUGUST 26, FRIDAY

Last Blast of Camp JCC, Summer Session 2022. Weekly sessions offered through the end of August. For information, visit campjcc.org.

Send submissions for calendar to news@ujft.org. Be Include date, event name, sponsor, address, time, cost and phone.

34 | JEWISH NEWS | July 18, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

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ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

WHAT’S HAPPENING Educators’ conference: Words still matter Thursday, August 4 8:30 am–3:30 pm Great Neck Middle School (tentative) Online option available

T

he 15th Biennial Educators’ Conference will take place next month. Presented

by United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Holocaust Commission, along with Echoes & Reflections and the Virginia Beach City Public Schools, the program is entirely free for educators.

This year’s theme is “Reflections of the Past: Words STILL Matter.” The program will be introduced by Christonya Brown, coordinator of history and social science for the Virginia Department of Education. The conference will emphasize 2009’s House Bill 2409, which mandates that every school division in the Commonwealth has access to teaching materials for Holocaust education, and further supports Governor Youngkin’s executive order to establish a commission to combat antisemitism.

Topics covered will include intolerance and prejudice, dealing with social media and cyberbullying, media literacy, refugees, historical and contemporary antisemitism, and more. The conference will provide participants with immersive, relevant, and thoughtful workshop sessions to learn strategies and deepen the understanding of the Holocaust and other genocides.

The Educators’ Conference is open to elementary, middle, and high school public and private school educators, and all other student advocates.

For more information, holocaustcommission.jewishva.org.

visit

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A new documentary gives Hallelujah back to Leonard Cohen, and to Judaism Andrew Lapin

(JTA)—Leonard Cohen wrote around 150 verses to Hallelujah, or so the scholars claim.

The beloved Canadian folk singer, who fused Jewish mysticism with pop mythology for a global audience, wrote several hit songs over his 50-year career, including many, such as Who By Fire and You Want It Darker, that are unmistakably Jewish in content. But none of them were as successful, or as pored-over, as Hallelujah, which has been covered around 300 times and played at weddings, funerals, church services, and every possible occasion in between.

With its allusions to King David and Samson and Delilah, questioning of a higher purpose and obscure but tantalizing lyrics, few works by a Jewish artist have been subject to so much scrutiny and interpretation—much to the bafflement of its composer.

The new documentary, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song does not recount all 150 verses, despite how fervently some of Cohen’s more devout acolytes may long to hear their minor falls and major lifts. But it does play Hallelujah many, many times, and allows some of the artists who have covered it, including Brandi Carlile and Rufus Wainwright, to explain what the song has meant to them.

Importantly, Hallelujah the film seeks to explore the song’s relationship not only to its creator, but also to Judaism in general.

Directors Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine, inspired by the nonfiction book The Holy or the Broken by Alan Light, use interviews with Cohen’s close friends, creative partners and lovers to explore both the song’s and Cohen’s legacies.

Other documentarians and authors have tread this ground before, exploring specific chapters of his story like his Greek Isle romance with Marianne Ihlen in the 1960s and his Israel concerts during the Yom Kippur War.

But the framing device of a single song affords unique narrative opportunities. The film structures Cohen’s life into the periods before and after Hallelujah, released on 1984’s Various Positions album when Cohen was already 50. It shows how his Jewish upbringing in Montreal and love of questioning certain aspects of the faith, including how he “was touched as a child by that kind of charged speech I heard in the synagogue,” played a pivotal role in its creation (his faith was strong but he needed proof). Cohen began work on Various Positions when he was in his 40s—the time when, according to Jewish tradition, Jews may begin studying Kabbalah.

Facing the end of his relationship with partner Suzanne Elrod and searching for a way to signify the former poet and ‘60s icon was turning over a new leaf, Cohen also briefly debated changing his name to September, which his rabbi Mordecai Findley notes in the film translates to Elul—the Hebrew month on the verge of autumn that signifies renewal.

Those new beginnings, the film argues, were best symbolized with Hallelujah: a blaze of light in every word. But nothing in Cohen’s life came easy, and the song’s road to popularity wasn’t straight.

Columbia Records opted not to release Various Positions in the United States, and the song languished in obscurity as a Cohen deep cut until first Bob Dylan and then John Cale revived it.

It wasn’t until the young Jeff Buckley discovered and did his own variation of Cale’s recording in 1994 (while Cohen, discouraged by the music industry, had decamped to a Zen monastery) that Hallelujah became the phenomenon it is today. New generations embraced Buckley’s haunted, ethereal take on the lyrics, and his death at a young age added to the song’s mystique. The Cale cover’s prominent exposure in Shrek in 2001 didn’t hurt, either.

As the influence of the song spins far away from this Montreal Jewish troubadour, and he loses his life savings after

Leonard Cohen in Venice, 1988.

being swindled by his longtime business manager, the film offers a memorable sequence that doesn’t feature Cohen at all.

It’s a montage of 2000s-era talent show contestants offering up endless covers of Hallelujah, backed by bombastic strings and synthesizers, lodging the song firmly in the American canon by any means necessary.

And while the initial versions of the song incorporated stanzas that mixed both Cohen’s spiritual and carnal musings, the American Idol and X Factor renditions on parade are decidedly G-rated and devoid of Cohen’s trademark doubt and ambiguity: They couldn’t feel, so they tried to touch. What the film winds up showing is the song’s steady march toward secularization.

Who does Hallelujah belong to, at the end of the day? Is it even Jewish? Is it even Cohen’s? The film spins out its influence and then tries to run it back. But when one hears the song enough times, in enough different settings, and realizes it’s touching everyone who hears it on some deep, imperceptible level, it becomes something else: a piece of art that simply came into the world, perhaps, as the song itself hints, through divine providence.

Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song opened July 1 in New York and Los Angeles.

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OBITUARIES MILDRED K. ABRAHAM CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.—Mildred K. Abraham, 91, of Charlottesville, Va., passed away peacefully on June 17, 2022, in the home that she loved so much at Westminster Canterbury of the Blue Ridge.

Born on November 28, 1930, in the city of New York, she was the daughter of Margaret and Monroe Kosches. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband Henry, her parents, and her sister, Joan Rodger.

Mildred resided for most of her childhood years in Woodmere, Long Island with her parents and her sisters Joan, Susan, and Peggy. It was there that she first gained her love of books and reading.

She received her undergraduate degree from Russell Sage College, a master’s degree in English from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in Library Science from Drexel University.

Mildred met her husband of more

than 60 years, Henry J. Abraham, while studying at the University of Pennsylvania and spent their life together sharing their love of travel, books, and spending time with friends and family. Mildred and Henry traveled the world together visiting dozens of countries, but no place was more special to her than her beloved Italy, which she visited more than 30 times in her life.

Mildred worked most of her adult life as a librarian, first as the head librarian at the Shipley School in Philadelphia, then at the Blue Ridge School near Charlottesville. She later joined the faculty at Alderman Library at the University of Virginia shortly thereafter and soon became a research librarian at the Special Collections Department, where she had a distinguished career before retiring in 1993.

Mildred’s love of books and reading inspired her in 1995 to create the nonprofit organization, Book Baskets, that

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provides new and used books to children who are less able to afford them and have few books of their own. Twenty-five years later, Book Baskets continues to provide the gift of books to children in the Charlottesville and Albemarle area with an average of 20,000 books donated annually. This work led her to receive the honor of being selected in 2014 by the Daily Progress as one of the “Distinguished Dozen” who were recognized for exemplary service to their community.

Mildred is survived by her sons, Philip and Peter, their spouses, Janet and Anne; her grandchildren, Ben Abraham, Lauren McKown, Marnie Abraham and Liesel Abraham; and her sisters, Susan and Peggy.

Memorial contributions may be made to Book Baskets, 105 Whetstone Place, Charlottesville, VA 22911.

A private funeral service was held.

Condolences may be sent to the family at www.hillandwood.com.

EVELYN TAVSS ADLER VIRGINIA BEACH—Evelyn Tavss Adler passed away on June 30, 2022 in Virginia Beach.

She was predeceased by her husband Marvin Adler, her parents Bessie and Daniel Tavss, her siblings Irving Tavss and Jeane Reznick, brothers-in-law Jerome Gross, Joe Reznick, Ted Adler, and Jerry Adler.

She is survived by her children Dorothy Salomonsky (Edwin) and Larry Adler (Ronna); grandchildren Beth Gerstein, Dan Salomonsky (Jill), Nancy Helman (Phil), Robin Kantor (Ross), Josh Adler (Ashley), and Lindsey Aftel (Todd); great grandchildren Mallory Gerstein, Max and Ben Salomonsky, Matthew and Megan Helman, Joey and Brody Kantor, Sonya, Ellie, Abe and Minnie Adler, and Lena and Johnny Aftel; sister Barbara Gross, brother Richard Tavss (Ruth), sisters-inlaw Sandra Tavss and Sally Adler.

A graveside funeral was held at Forest Lawn Cemetery with Rabbi Roz Mandelberg officiating. Contributions in her name can be made to Jewish Family Service and Ohef Sholom Temple.

Condolences may be made to her family at www.altmeyerfh.com.

NATALIE MANDEL ARON NORFOLK—Natalie Mandel Aron, 90, passed away on June 2, 2022.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, she was the daughter of Anna and Isaac Mandel.

Natalie moved to Norfolk at age 14 and became a true Southern Belle. Following graduation from Maury High School, she attended the University of Chicago, the Sorbonne and graduated from the University of Richmond. Natalie earned a master’s degree from Hampton University.

She retired from Old Dominion University as a French professor. She visited museums all over the world and volunteered as a docent at the Chrysler Museum for many years.

We will miss her famous chicken soup and exquisite formal table settings. She was an accomplished pianist who wrote her own music. Natalie always left the house impeccably dressed with matching shoes and handbags.

Natalie doted on her grandchildren. Each grandchild was so excited to turn eight and travel with Nanny to Washington, DC. She was extremely proud of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She followed their accomplishments closely and was always happy to introduce them to her friends and colleagues.

In addition to her parents, Natalie was predeceased by her husband, Fred Aron, and sister, Marcella Levi.

She is survived by her daughters, Connie Meyer and husband Bruce, and Laurie Slone and husband Jordan. Natalie adored her grandchildren: Miri and Jacob Slone; Dee and Aron Slone; Bracha and Jesse Slone and Anna and Eitan Bloom.

She was fortunate to be Nanny to 10 great-grandchildren. Aunt Natalie is also survived by a special niece who was more like a daughter, Jill Smith.

Please consider donations to Toras Chaim School, 3110 Sterling Point Drive, Portsmouth, Va., 23703. Please visit hdoliver.com to leave a message for the family.

WENDY ALLISON COOPER VIRGINIA BEACH—Wendy Allison Cooper, 61, died peacefully on June 15 at her home in Virginia Beach surrounded by loving family after a courageous struggle

OBITUARIES with a gastrointestinal illness.

She leaves to cherish her memory her mother and stepfather, Elaine Cooper and Worth Banner; her daughter, Sarah Eure; her brother, John Cooper and wife Monica; her sister, Kate Augus and husband Barry; her aunt and uncle, Minette and Charles Cooper; and her uncle, Robert Losada, as well as many devoted cousins, nieces, nephews, and lifelong friends.

Wendy graduated from Norfolk Collegiate School and received a B.A. in French and Spanish from New York University.

She was a loving, kind, intelligent, and beautiful woman whose smile, wit, and devotion brightened the lives of many.

A family service honoring her life was held.

Contributions in her memory may be made to the American Cancer Society, Planned Parenthood or Ohef Sholom Temple in Norfolk.

HARRIS RICHARD SLOANE DELRAY BEACH, FLA.—Harris Richard Sloane, 78, a resident of Boca Raton, Fla. and East Falmouth, Mass. (formerly of Virginia Beach, Va.), died peacefully in Delray Beach, Florida on July 4, 2022, surrounded by his family.

He was born in Randolph, Massachusetts on May 16, 1944 to the late Doris Kapstein Sloane and the late Dr. William Sloane, MD; they loved him so.

He was also the adored son-in-law of the late Alan and Esther Fleder.

Harris was a loving, bright, talented, kind, caring, gentle soul with the biggest heart. He was beyond selfless, with a devotion to the needs of the community around him and a love for his family like no other. The consensus among friends was Harris was the most wonderful man in every respect. He was sincere, always thought of others first, treated everyone well, and did not have a mean bone in his body. A true mensch, he was respected and loved by all. A graduate of Thayer Academy, Brown University, and Columbia Business School, he worked in insurance, was an analyst at Chemical Bank in New York City, and for the past 40+ years worked as an independent real estate professional and business mediator.

A firm proponent of supporting his Tidewater and Woodfield communities, Harris served many organizations.

He fulfilled multiple roles with the Beth Sholom Village culminating in his serving as president, active roles with Temple Israel leading up to vice president, chair of the tennis tournament for Norfolk Academy Field Day, chair of Super Sunday for United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, board member for Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, and a committee member at Woodfield Country Club, to name a few.

Harris was athletic and loved sports, especially skiing, tennis, and golf. He was an incredible pianist and enjoyed being on the water in any type of boat. Some of his happiest days were on the slopes or on Cape Cod with his family around him.

Harris is survived by his loving wife of 48 years, Cheryl, and their adoring children, David and Debra. They were his entire world, and he was theirs. Everything he did in life was for them. Cheryl was the love of his life, and Harris is and will always remain hers. David and Debra were the stars in his eyes. Harris is also survived by his brother, Dr. Robert Sloane, MD (Brenda), his sisters-in-law and brothersin-law, Gail Fleder, Eileen Kahn (Stewart), Lawrence Fleder (Anne), in addition to his nieces and nephews—Michele Sloane, Andrew, Steven ( Jaime), and Laura Kahn, Emily, Kendall and Audrey Fleder, his great nieces, Sloane Schulze and Vera Kahn, and many cousins and friends. He cherished his family and friends so much, and he will be greatly missed by them all.

The funeral was held at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Norfolk, with Rabbi Michael Panitz of Temple Israel officiating.

Contributions may be made in Harris’ memory to Beth Sholom Village, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, JARC, or the charity of the donor’s choice. Condolences may be left online at www.altmeyerfh.com.

SHARON P. HERMELIN NORFOLK—Sharon P. Hermelin, 70, passed away at home comforted by her devoted husband, Mark, on July 1, 2022, after a long battle with cancer.

Sharon was predeceased by her parents, Stuart and Shirley Peltz, in-laws Al and Bea Hermelin; her sister and

brother-in-law, Carolyn and T. Hornsby, all of blessed memory.

Sharon graduated from VCU and taught English at Menchville High School in Newport News. After marriage, she assisted in managing the front office of her husband’s dental practice. She had an impressive memory and uncanny ability to remember dates, obscure facts, and to

the delight of those she encountered had an unfailing flair of greeting every dental patient by name.

Sharon joined Mark for many travel adventures to Australia, New Zealand, Galapagos Islands, and other exotic ports of call.

Left to cherish her memory are her continued on page 38

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OBITUARIES continued from page 37

husband of 31 years, Dr. Mark J. Hermelin and her sweet shih tzu, Albea, as well as a host of nephews, nieces, and cousins.

The family extends special appreciation to Dr. Tom Alberico, for his longtime compassionate care as well as to her kind caregivers, who made it possible for Sharon to remain in her home throughout her valiant fight.

Sharon lived her life to the fullest with a passion for reading, watching sports, travel, good food, and red wine. When you enjoy a good meal or raise a glass, please think of Sharon!

Memorial donations may be made to the American Cancer Society, 4416 Expressway Drive, Virginia Beach, VA 23452.

Graveside services were held at Forest Lawn Cemetery officiated by Rabbi Michael E. Panitz. Condolences may be made to the family at hdoliver.com.

ROSE MARIE HINKLE CHESTERFIELD, VA.—Rose Marie Hinkle, age 92, of Chesterfield, Va., passed away on Tuesday, June 21, 2022.

Rose was born March 17, 1930 in Maine.

She is survived by her daughter Monica Saunders (Bobby) and her grandchildren, Nicholas and Mia Douglass.

There will be a private memorial service held at a later date.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www. v irg iniacremate.com /location s /r ichmond-cremation for the HINKLE family.

FLORENCE PEARL MILLER LAKE WORTH, FLA.—Florence Pearl Miller passed away peacefully on July 1, 2022 at the age of 97 in Lake Worth Florida.

She was born in 1924 in Brooklyn, N.Y., to Molly and Nathan Miller. Florence was a graduate of Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn and went on to complete two years at CCNY/City College of New York. It was at CCNY where she met the love of her life, and her now late husband, Harold Miller. They famously made a deal while sitting alphabetically by last name in class—Harold would speak and

Florence would take the notes. She went on to work on Wall Street as a bookkeeper and taking stock orders.

She started a family with her husband, an advertising executive, and moved to West Hempstead N.Y. There she raised two sons, Dr. Norman Miller and Howard Miller, an attorney. She was an active member of her community, serving as the vice president of the sisterhood at Temple Beth Israel and also an active member of the Hadassah.

She was an avid sports fan, which began with the Brooklyn Dodgers, still naming the 1955 roster to her grandchildren. She continued with this passion and progressed to attending championship winning events for the Jets, Mets and Knicks.

Moving to Sandbridge from New York, she loved going to the beach, spending time with her grandchildren and playing bridge.

She retired to Florida for the last 30 years of her life, enjoying time with her late husband and friends. She was an avid golfer who continued to play through her late 80s with her signature yellow ball, not letting declining vision slow her down.

Left to cherish her memory are her two sons Norman Miller (Gail Miller) and Howard Miller. She loved and is survived by her three grandchildren and four great grandchildren: Melissa Lonsk (Seth) and their two sons Wyatt and Sawyer; Matthew Miller (Jennifer) and their two children Reese and Hunter; and her grandson Nathaniel Miller.

Memorial services were held graveside in the King David Garden section of Woodlawn Memorial Gardens in Norfolk.

Memorial donations may be made to Hadassah, The BrightFocus Foundation or charity of the donor’s choice.

JOSEPH “JOE” SEGAL VIRGINIA BEACH—Joseph “Joe” Segal, a loving and dedicated husband, father, and “Pop-Pop” passed away on June 28, 2022 at age of 98.

He was born in Norfolk, Va. on October 26, 1923.

He was predeceased by the love of his life, Mildred “Millie” Segal. Their marriage

38 | JEWISH NEWS | July 18, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

was one we all admired. Their mutual love, devotion, and appreciation for one another was unsurpassed. Despite being devastated after her death, he was able to continue living a full life by surrounding himself with family and friends.

Joe was also predeceased by his parents, Harry Segal and Rachel Kofsky Segal and his siblings Al Segal, Meyer Segal and Rose Segal Simonoff.

He is survived by his three sons: Barry (Alyn, of blessed memory), Bob (Sue) and Burt (Lynn); grandchildren: Matthew, Adrienne (Moshe), Jaclyn (Craig), Hayley (Phil), Rachel, Stan, Josh (Tasia) and Michael (Lindsey); grandchildren by choice: Leanne (Kevin) and Joni; great grandchildren: Olive, Uma, Laila, Navah, Elliot, Milo, Kai and Niko; great grandchildren by choice: Jacob, Brett and Bryn. He is also survived by many nieces, nephews, and dear friends whom he considered family.

Joe graduated from Granby High School and attended the Norfolk Division of William and Mary College. He was a veteran of the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was a founding member of Temple Israel and its Men’s Club. Joe owned and operated Segal’s Economy Market and was secretary of Economy Stores, Inc. In 1970, he changed careers and joined Lincoln National Corporation. He later became vice president of Lincoln Financial Services of Virginia.

He was a friend to everyone he met and kept a positive attitude no matter what obstacles or health conditions he faced. He was a long-time fan of the Redskins and UVA sports. Joe played tennis well into his 80s and relished the camaraderie and competition.

Late in life he enjoyed a special relationship with Evelyn Eisenberg. They were childhood friends who, after many years, reunited in a special friendship.

He spent his last several years at the Beth Sholom Home and we are thankful for the wonderful care provided by the staff there. As the unofficial “Mayor,” he daily made his rounds in his motorized chair to greet and talk with everyone he saw. He enjoyed spreading good cheer to all. At 98 years old, when asked,“how are

you?” his standard reply was “not bad for a young man!” When his health was failing, and he was near the end, the “Angels” at Beth Sholom and Amedysis Hospice service took loving care of him. We are forever grateful to all of you.

The funeral service took place at Forest Lawn Cemetery. Donations can be made to Beth Sholom Home of Eastern Virginia or Temple Israel.

HAROLD VINIKOFF VIRGINIA BEACH—Harold Vinikoff passed away on Sunday, June 19, 2022 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He was 92 years of age.

He was born October 10, 1929 and raised in Troy, N.Y., the son of the late Benjamin and Florence Vinikoff. Harold attended Troy High School (Class of ’47) and after briefly attending Siena College, enrolled in and received his Law degree from Brooklyn (N.Y.) Law School before starting his law practice in his hometown.

Harold was married to the late Mona Sacks Vinikoff.

He is survived by his sons, Richard (Ellen) Vinikoff and Ken (Sally) Vinikoff and his grandchildren Robin, Andrea, Michael, Rachel (Brent) Pekarski, great granddaughter Stella, his sister Naomi Kessler, and close friend Diane Jacobs.

Harold was an accomplished athlete as a young man, playing for Troy High School’s basketball team, and enjoyed participating and watching sports all his life. He served on several community boards, including Temple Beth El and the Jewish Community Center, both of Troy, N.Y. He especially enjoyed spending time with his family and his close friends.

Donations may be made to the National Kidney Foundation, 30 E. 33rd Street, New York, N.Y. 10016. www.kidney.org.

To leave a condolence message for the family, visit levinememorialchapel.com.

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