CT Jewish Ledger • September 17, 2021 • 11 Tishrei 5782

Friday, September 17, 2021 11 Tishrei 5782 Vol. 93 | No. 38 | ©2021 jewishledger.com

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JEWISH LEDGER

| SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

Introducing Connecticut’s New Jewish Clergy jewishledger.com

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Celebrating the

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INSIDE

this week

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | SEPTEMBER 17, 2021 | 11 TISHREI 5782

8 Briefs

10 Opinion

11 Around CT

15 Torah Portion

17 Crossword

Texas Heartless..................................................................... 5 Leaders of multiple American Jewish denominations blast the new Texas Heartbeat Act that makes it nearly impossible for a woman to receive an abortion in the Lone Star state.

A Familiar Face...................................................................... 5 When she heard that 3,000 Marines were deployed to Afghanistan, a Jewish mom from NYC worried that her son was among them. Then she spotted a photo of the 27-year-old sergeant cradling an infant in Afghanistan.

What’s in a Word?................................................................. 6 The 9/11-themed Tony Award-winning musical “Come From Away” is back on Broadway and a new film version premiered last week – exposing even more audiences to the show’s unique brand of warmhearted hospitality and to its fundamentally Jewish roots.

Authors Corner....................................................................18 In 2015, Andrew Pessin, a Conn College philosophy professor, was branded a racist and subjected to antisemitic abuse for supporting Israel during the 2014 Gaza war. His response: A new satirical novel about campus “cancel culture.”

19 What’s Happening

20 Obituaries

21 Business and Professional Directory

22 Classified

CANDLE LIGHTING YOM KIPPUR WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 15 ON THE COVER:

Every summer, Jewish congregations throughout Connecticut welcome new clergy. In this week’s issue, we introduce you to this year’s recently arrived rabbis and cantors. Page 12 jewishledger.com

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To determine the time for Havdalah, add one hour and 10 minutes (to be safe) to candle lighting time.

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Joe Posnanski - The Baseball 100

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Tracy Walder - The Unexpected Spy: From the CIA to the FBI, My Secret Life Taking Down Some of the World’s Most Notorious Terrorists

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CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | SEPTEMBER 17, 2021 | 11 TISHREI 5782

Jewish organizational streams weigh in on Texas abortion law

The Jewish Marine cradling a baby got his start keeping kids happy at a JCC

BY DMITRIY SHAPIRO

(JNS) Representatives of multiple Jewish denominations in the United States expressed disapproval of a new law in Texas that makes it nearly impossible for a woman to receive an abortion in the state, especially after the sixth week of pregnancy.

Senate Bill 8, also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act, was signed by Gov. Greg Abbott on May 19 after passing on party lines in both houses of the Texas legislature.

Late on Sept. 1, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an emergency request for an injunction from women’s health organizations on the law while its constitutionality is being challenged in the courts.

Leaders of the Reform movement were quick to condemn the new law in a letter signed on Sept. 2 by multiple organizations

connected with the movement, noting many women don’t even realize they are pregnant in the first six weeks.

The legislation, they argued, thwarts the legal system’s ability from protecting “reproductive freedom” by prohibiting state officials from enforcing the law but allowing Texans to sue anyone who assists a woman in accessing or provides the abortion, which opens abortion clinic staff to potentially ruinous lawsuits.

“We are concerned about individuals who cannot afford to travel long distances to secure abortion care in neighboring states. We are also deeply concerned about Jews who will be unable to pursue an abortion in keeping with Jewish law, which mandates abortion when necessary to preserve the pregnant person’s well-being,”

TEXAS GOV. GREG ABBOTT CREDIT: CARRINGTON TATUM/SHUTTERSTOCK

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BY RON KAMPEAS

the letter read.

The statement also acknowledged traditional Jewish views on abortion, and that the movement was against enforcing through legislation the Jewish view for society at large and is against any other groups imposing their religious belief upon the Jewish community.

“We will continue to work to overturn this law, prevent similar laws from being adopted in other states and affirm the right of every person to make their own reproductive health decisions,” the letter read.

It was signed by leaders from 12 organizations affiliated with the Reform Judaism movement.

Agudath Israel of America, an organization that advocates for the ultraOrthodox communities in the United States, said it also opposed the bill.

“Agudath Israel opposes any abortion law that would restrict an American’s right to act in accordance with her religious beliefs. And the Texas law would seem to do that,” Rabbi Avi Shafran, director of public affairs for Agudath Israel, wrote in an email on Sept. 2.

Where Shafran disagreed with the Reform leaders was the insinuation that abortion was a choice in Judaism.

In an article for the Religion News Service this July, when Jewish organizations were weighing in on Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban as the Supreme Court decided to review the law, Shafran wrote that halachah (Jewish law) forbids abortion in most cases when the life or health of the mother is not in danger—something that he believes should be accounted for regarding laws.

This danger applies not only to the physical health but also to the mental health of the woman, such as if the result of carrying a pregnancy to term could lead to potential injury or even suicide.

“Those cases are not only rare but dependent entirely on halachic judgments, not on the ‘choice’ of a person carrying a potential life in utero. In halachic responsa—responses to real-life questions

(JTA) — Meryl Jaffe says she’s like any Jewish parent keeping track of her kids on social media, except it can be terrifying.

When she heard President Joe Biden deployed 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan, she had a gut feeling that her son Matt — she calls him Matthew — was among them. Her family was tracking the U.S. Marine Corps on social media to verify their suspicions.

“Matthew’s sister, Rebecca, saw it on one of the Marine websites that she follows on Instagram. And she said, ‘I think this is Matthew.’ We enlarged the picture,” Meryl Jaffe, a New York City resident, said in an interview. “And I’m like, ‘That’s him.’ So it was just the first time we had seen his face in days and days and days. So it was like a relief to see him.”

The photo was of Matt Jaffe, a 27-year-old sergeant, cradling a baby in Afghanistan on Aug. 20. The soldier’s smile, and the story behind the photo, helped make it go viral.

Matt Jaffe connected with the infant after another Marine handed the baby to him, according to news reports based on a Marines news release. The child was later reunited with its father.

“I’m just a Marine, same as the men and women I serve besides, doing a job to try and help people and protect people,” Matt Jaffe, who is based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, said in a statement attributed in the media to the Marines. “It’s pretty grim out here and sad. I had an opportunity to show some humility and do something that was good for the soul.”

Meryl Jaffe said Friday in an interview that the smile was her son through and through.

“Matthew has a great smile,” she said. “He has a really good heart. He’s a good soul.”

She was not surprised to see him bond with a child: Matt Jaffe had spent five years coaching kids at the JCC Manhattan. There was one family

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 9/11 musical ‘Come From Away’ returns to stage and screen, with Jewish values at its core

BY JACOB GURVIS

(JTA) — When U.S. airspace closed as a result of the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, 38 planes were grounded in Gander, Newfoundland, stranding nearly 7,000 international travelers “on the northeast tip of North America.”

So begins the story of “Come From Away,” the Tony Award-winning Canadian musical chronicling the real experiences of those “plane people,” and of the goodhearted locals who took them in.

With a filmed version premiering Friday on Apple TV+ to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11, and the musical returning to Broadway Sept. 21 after suspending its run last year due to COVID19, more audiences than ever before are about to be exposed to the show’s unique brand of warmhearted hospitality — and to its fundamentally Jewish roots.

David Hein, half of the Canadian Jewish couple who wrote the show, explained that “Come From Away” draws from both Jewish and Newfoundland traditions.

“There’s a line in our show of, ‘If a stranger ends up at your door, you welcome them in,’” Hein said. “That’s important in communities that have defined themselves as willing to help one another.”

Hein and his wife and writing partner Irene Sankoff got their start in theater with a much more explicitly Jewish show: the autobiographical “My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding.” That musical, which had a successful tour in Canada in 2009, tells the story of how Hein’s mother rediscovered her Judaism when she came out to her family and met her now ex-wife.

“I think for a long time it was a surprise for me that suddenly my mom was learning Hebrew and that she was singing at temple,” said Hein, who grew up nonpracticing. “It’s been really wonderful to explore those traditions with her, and every year we celebrate Chanukah and Passover with her, and whenever we come down we have seders.”

Sankoff grew up in an interfaith family — her father is Jewish — and also celebrated Passover and Chanukah growing up. She pointed to both her and Hein’s families’ experiences escaping “countries that no longer exist” as a formative aspect of their Jewish identities.

“You just say, in a different situation this was me, and this was my people. And you look out for people as best as you can,” she said.

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That theme is clear from the opening number of “Come From Away.”

The story is ultimately one about human kindness and pulling together in the face of tragedy. It is a show not directly about the events of 9/11, but rather its ripple effects around the world, and about the people who responded to help those in need.

In other words, “Come From Away” is about welcoming the stranger — those who physically “come from away.” And the inherent Jewishness of that message is no coincidence.

The show begins by introducing us to the small, tight-knit community of Gander: the mayor, the police constable, a teacher, a rookie television reporter and others. It’s the morning of Sept. 11, and the townsfolk barely have time to grasp what has happened before they are forced to prepare for unexpected guests.

“With thousands of passengers arriving at any minute, the town is asking for help with — well, anything you can do,” the reporter says during one of the opening numbers.

The Gander locals don’t hesitate. They begin gathering everything from food and blankets to toilet paper, diapers and tampons. As the ensemble sings later in the same song, “If a stranger ends up at your door, you get on the horn.” The telephone, that is.

The idea of welcoming the stranger is deeply Jewish. The Torah mentions the concept no fewer than 36 times, and there are reminders throughout Jewish text and tradition that “you know the feelings of a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9).

It’s also a Newfoundland tradition, Hein explains. As a large island, Newfoundland often faces harsh winters that can make food production difficult. When you know what it’s like to not have enough, you are more inclined to share, he said.

To research the show, Hein and Sankoff traveled to Gander for the tenth anniversary of 9/11 in 2011, interviewing as many people as they could, and distilling many of their stories into the musical that has now performed worldwide. Including the 9,000 local Newfoundlanders and 7,000 unplanned visitors, the pair joked that they were telling 16,000 stories.

“But it really felt that way,” Hein said.

“Every story was better than the next.”

One such story was that of Rabbi Leivi Sudak, a British Chabad rabbi who was

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THE CAST DURING THE “COME FROM AWAY” BROADWAY OPENING NIGHT CURTAIN CALL AT THE GERALD SCHOENFELD THEATRE IN NEW YORK CITY, MARCH 12, 2017.

(WALTER MCBRIDE/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES)

traveling from London to New York to visit the grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

In the show, the viewer meets Rabbi Sudak when Beulah, a teacher and a main organizer of the emergency efforts, is listing some of the options the guests had to eat.

Someone points out a kippah-wearing man who hasn’t eaten anything.

“Turns out he’s an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, and he only eats kosher food,” Beulah explains to the audience (the show doesn’t so much break the fourth wall as reject its existence outright). Newfoundland is home to many faiths, Beulah says, but not many Jews.

So the rabbi is given space to create a kosher kitchen, where he helps provide food for Jewish passengers as well as a handful of Hindus, Muslims and vegetarians.

Though Hein and Sankoff never met Sudak while writing the show, the rabbi himself told the New York Jewish Week that the depiction is an accurate one.

And it sets up the show’s emotional climax: a moving medley that overlays three different religious prayers for peace, including “Oseh Shalom.” In the midst of the prayer, Ed, an old man from Gander, seeks out Rabbi Sudak to share something he hasn’t even told his wife: he’s Jewish. He was born in Poland, and his parents sent him away before the war.

As the men sing together, the rabbi hands Ed a kippah.

The “Prayer” scene encapsulates not only the diversity of the strangers sent to Gander, but also the radical openness of the community that was created amongst the islanders and the visitors (alternately referred to in the show as “plane people” and “come from aways”).

“Telling that story instantly resonated with us,” said Hein. “It was one of the many, many stories that we were like, ‘This needs to be in here, this is a very special point.’”

In real life, not only did Sudak give Ed a kippah — he also kept in touch with the man, and later gifted him a Jewish prayer book and tallit. Years later, Ed’s son told Sudak that his father was buried wearing the kippah and tallit.

There was one minor tidbit about

Sudak that the play does not mention. His return flight to London was scheduled for a Saturday, which posed a challenge for the Shabbat-observant rabbi. If he missed that flight, he would still be in Gander on Rosh Hashanah.

But his new friends stepped up yet again: they drove Sudak and two other observant passengers 500 miles to an airport.

“And thanks to them I walked into my in-laws’ home in Brooklyn seven minutes before candle lighting on Erev Rosh Hashanah,” Sudak told the Jewish Week.

This year, the Broadway return of “Come From Away” and its debut on Apple TV+ — filmed for an audience of 9/11 survivors and first responders — also intersect with the High Holidays. But its creators will be back in Gander, where a ceremony commemorating the events of the show is taking place.

“You know, we’ve been so busy we haven’t even thought about that coincidence,” Hein said. “It’s going to be hard to not be with our family, but at the same time we’re going to be with our family in Gander, and going to be celebrating them and breaking bread with them.”

Hein and Sankoff added that the message and production of their show only gains meaning during the Jewish new year.

“We are renewing,” said Sankoff. “We’re going back to Broadway, but we’re hopefully going back stronger, going back more inclusive, with more diversity, with more compassion for one another.”

The idea of starting anew feels relevant on multiple levels: Rosh Hashanah, the gradual reopening of a society plagued by COVID-19 and the widely popular show returning to the stage and debuting on the screen.

“Hopefully, the concept of a new year [provides] the opportunities to change and remember what we can be,” said Hein.

“That we can be better, that we can come together in more ways than we can possibly imagine.”

“Come From Away” is now available for streaming on Apple TV+ and returns to Broadway Sept. 21.

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and situations put to rabbinic scholars, spanning centuries—not one responsum on abortion considers it to be a simple choice that can be made at will,” wrote Shafran.

“Judaism, as it happens, is overwhelmingly about responsibilities, not ‘rights,’ ” continued the rabbi. “And one such responsibility is the protection, in most cases, of fetuses. There may be rare cases where those responsibilities are superseded by other concerns, but, put starkly, it is almost always Jewishly wrong to end even a potential life.”

The Rabbinical Assembly, which represents the Conservative movement in the United States, echoed the concerns of the Reform movement.

“It is a law designed to restrict reproductive rights, rather than allow Texas women to choose freely for themselves, in consultation with medical professionals, religious authorities and their own consciences,” the organization wrote in a news release on Sept. 3. “The law also takes

the unprecedented step of allowing any Texan to sue anyone else who believed to have helped another access an abortion, regardless of their location in the state or standing in the case.”

It also stated that it will work to overturn the law—to return the right to choose and religious freedom to Texas women, and all other such laws the organization said it believes violate the U.S. Constitution.

“We learn in Judaism that while the fetus has a special status as a potential life, full personhood does not begin at conception, but rather at birth, as indicated

by Exodus 21:22-23,” the release stated.

“In our understanding of Jewish law and tradition, abortion is permitted and often mandated in cases where the life of the mother is at risk, regardless of the stage of her pregnancy. Barring a woman from accessing an abortion not only blocks her right to choose, but also her religious freedoms.”

Marine CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

whose boys especially adored him.

“He was their go-to babysitter,” mom recalled, saying both parents were professionals with unpredictable work schedules. Matt Jaffe would agree to babysit at a moment’s notice. “The boys loved him because he was fun to play with.”

Meryl Jaffe, the stage manager at WABC, the New York ABC affiliate, said she and her husband did not anticipate a military career for their son.

“Matthew was a kid that the only weapon he had was a very small water pistol in the playground, he was not allowed to have a Super Soaker,” she said. “We would not buy a Super Soaker for him.”

Matt Jaffe got work as a bouncer when he was studying criminology at the University of Maryland. He had made friends with other bouncers, some of whom were former Marines. He enlisted his senior year and was off to boot camp within days of obtaining his degree. He signed on for six years and is due for discharge in May, when he plans to pursue graduate studies.

“We were very, very, very concerned,” Meryl Jaffe said. “I mean, it’s not what we had expected. But we knew we needed to support him and get behind him. And that’s what we’ve done. We had to — we’re his parents, we love him.”

Still, it’s not an easy ride. Meryl Jaffe knew her son was in Kuwait when Biden deployed Marines to Afghanistan to help wind down operations.

“It’s almost like summer camp, where you’re trying to find your kid” in photos, jewishledger.com

granding! reopen

SGT. MATT JAFFE HOLDS A BABY DURING AN EVACUATION AT HAMID KARZAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, KABUL, AFGHANISTAN, AUG. 20, 2021.

(SGT. ISAIAH CAMPBELL/USMC)

she said.

When Biden warned just before the last troops left Afghanistan that a second deadly attack could be imminent, she was beside herself, saying it was “very frightening.”

Meryl Jaffe had spoken to the media about her son’s photo before then, but she decided to decline interviews.

“I just didn’t want to say a word,” she said.

Mother and son have spoken since then, and she has provided the dates of the High Holidays starting Monday night. Matt Jaffe has tried to observe Jewish holidays in the Marines, fasting on Yom Kippur, but it can be hard. A particular challenge was avoiding leavened bread during Passover.

“Matthew was not that kid who loved going to Hebrew school,” Meryl Jaffe said.

“But he does have a Jewish identity.”

Sept 24 - Nov 28 Celebrating over 30 hit songs from all their musical treasures like Oklahoma!, South Pacific, The Sound of Music, Carousel, The King and I, Cinderella and more.

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Briefs

Muslims in Gulf spark interest in learning about High Holidays

In Israeli first, doctors separate twins with conjoined skulls (Israel Hayom via JNS) Doctors at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva have made Israeli medical history, successfully separating twins that had been conjoined at the head. The 12-hour operation was carried out on Thursday, Sept. 9, and involved 50 staff members from a variety of medical fields, including experts from abroad.

The twins were born in August with separate brains but a shared skull. In the months that followed, dedicated teams were set up to prepare for the massive undertaking of separating them, which was carried out in stages, with medical staff using sophisticated 3D models to practice the delicate procedure.

Atlanta Jewish Times removes essay by politician with far-right ties (JTA) — The Atlanta Jewish Times has removed an op-ed by a former Georgia state legislator who has associated with figures on the far right. The piece by Vernon Jones was titled “How one Jewish family shaped my views: Vernon Jones recalls the family that inspired him to speak up for Jewish Americans.” It was removed from the newspaper’s website on Wednesday night, after a Jewish staffer for Stacey Abrams, the prominent voting rights activist in Georgia, called it “disgusting” on Twitter.

“Literally during the Days of Awe, @ AtlJewishTimes is platforming a far-right extremist who held multiple rallies *LAST YEAR* with antisemites Alex Jones and holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, along with the head of the Proud Boys and other white supremacists,” Marisa Pyle wrote.

The editor, Kaylene Ladinsky, said in a statement that the op-ed was published by mistake. “The AJT is a bipartisan news source and we do not support white supremacists, nor extremists,” she said.

Jones, a one-time Democrat who is now running for the Republican nomination for Georgia governor, appeared at a rally last year at the Georgia Capitol protesting recounts that affirmed that Joe Biden had beaten incumbent Donald Trump in the state’s presidential count. Some of the extremists named by Pyle also attended the rally. Ladinsky also apologized to Pyle for telling a local television reporter that her tweets were “despicable” for launching a political debate during Rosh Hashanah. The editor had made her remarks about the Pyle tweets after the Jones op-ed was removed.

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(JNS) With Jews around the world set to begin the High Holiday season, the small Jewish communities in six Gulf states, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are planning to take part publicly in some of the traditional holiday rituals for the first time in decades.

This newfound openness is a direct result of the Abraham Accords signed a year ago between Israel, the United States, the UAE and Bahrain, followed by Sudan and Morocco.

Ebrahim D. Nonoo, leader of Bahrain’s Jewish community and president of the newly founded Association of Gulf Jewish communities (AGJC), whose goal is to develop Jewish life in the region, said that “the best thing about Rosh Hashanah this year is that we are able now to advertise it. We are saying ‘Happy New Year’ to our Bahraini friends and government officials. It’s beautifully really out in the open now.”

Nonoo is hopeful that the community will soon have a full-time rabbi and make greater use of the local synagogue in the city of Manama, Bahrain’s capital. He said that more local Jews”—he estimates 50 community members—“are coming to the synagogue and want to see what’s going on.”

The largest Rosh Hashanah event in the region took place in Dubai, the UAE city that boasts the largest Jewish community, with an estimated 500 practicing Jews.

Alex Peterfreund, a co-founder of Dubai’s Jewish community, its cantor and an AGJC board member who arrived in the country from Antwerp, Belgium, in 2014, said the community hosted services and kosher meals for several hundred guests in a local hotel under the leadership of Rabbi Dr. Elie Abadie, the Jewish Council of the Emirates’ (JCE) senior and resident rabbi.

Like Nonoo, Peterfreund said “the biggest difference between this Rosh Hashanah and in previous years is that we were a group of Jews coming together in a discreet way, and now it’s much more open and people feel more comfortable.” Peterfreund said another big difference is that this year “the main focus is the interaction between Muslims and Jews. … When you sit and explain why you eat the head of a fish, pomegranate, apples and honey—what we have been doing for thousands of years—and you feel how the locals are curious and eager to interact with us, this is an amazing experience. …The same way that we have learned about Ramadan and their traditions, they will be a full part of our festivities.”

World Jewish population rises slightly (JTA) — The world population of those who self-identify as Jews stands at about 15.2 million — an increase of 100,000 over last year — with the number in the U.S. differing measurably from this year’s Pew survey. Israel

| SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

has 6.9 million Jews and the United States has “about 6 million,” according to the estimate by the Jewish Agency for Israel based on work

by Sergio Della Pergola, a demographer from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Pew survey on Jewish Americans had estimated the figure at 7.5 million. The researchers for the Jewish Agency consulted the Pew survey, the Jewish Agency said in a statement Sept. 5.

The statement did not provide a reason for the difference.

“When also including those who are eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return, the world total rises to 25.3 million people, of which 7.3 million are in Israel and 18 million live outside Israel,” the statement said.

France has the world’s third largest Jewish community with 446,000 people, according to the report, followed by Canada at 393,000 and the United Kingdom with 292,000.

Ukraine was listed as having 43,000 Jews — a major difference with the 360,000 number provided by the European Jewish Congress and the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine. That would make that country the world’s fifth largest Jewish community.

In Israel, some 6.94 million Jews constitute 74% of a population of 9.39 million, according to a separate statement by the Central Bureau of Statistics. Nearly 2 million Arabs comprise account for 21% of the Israeli population.

That’s an increase of 1.5% percent in the general population in Israel and a similar rise in the Jewish population over last year.

The Arab population of Israel has also seen a similar increase to about 1.98 million.

Israeli president, Jordanian king meet in Amman Israeli President Isaac Herzog met with Jordan’s King Abdullah two weeks ago at the king’s palace in Amman. The two leaders discussed “core issues in the dialogue between our states,” including an agreement to import agricultural produce during Israel’s shmita (agricultural sabbatical) year, according to a statement from Herzog’s office. Also discussed were energy, sustainability and the “climate crisis,” according to the statement. Herzog noted after the meeting that it has been a year since the signing of the Abraham Accords normalization agreements, which he said had “created an important regional infrastructure.”

“They are highly important agreements, which are transforming our region and the dialogue within it,” he said. Such dialogue, he added, is “very important” for Israel’s strategic and diplomatic interests.

Herzog’s meeting with King Abdullah was the latest in a series of recent high-level meetings between Israeli and Jordanian officials. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid met with his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi, on July 8 at the King Hussein Bridge.

Following the meeting, they announced new agreements on water and trade.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had met secretly with Abdullah in Amman the

week before. It was the first meeting between a sitting Israeli premier and the Jordanian monarch in more than five years. According to Israeli media reports, the two leaders agreed to open a “new page” in relations between their respective countries.

Birthright to resume Israel trips (JNS) Birthright Israel received confirmation from the Israeli Ministry of Health that it can resume its trips to Israel. The first Birthright Israel trip since the start of the coronavirus pandemic took place in May, but the 10-day programs were stopped again in August due to new travel restrictions aimed at curbing the Delta variant of the virus. To join a Birthright trip, participants must now be fully vaccinated with two or three shots of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, with no more than a six-month gap from the last shot and the trip’s departure date. Alternately, they can be fully vaccinated by one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine with no more than a sixmonth gap from the shot until their trip’s departure.

Birthright Israel will not have to enforce a seven-day quarantine period for people who have completed their vaccination process within the past five months. Those who have recovered from COVID-19 and received at least one FDA-approved vaccine, also no more than six months from the last shot until the trip’s departure date, can also join a trip. A person is considered fully vaccinated seven days after receiving the final shot. Participants will still have to do PCR and serological tests when arriving in Israel and wait for PCR results before starting the trip.

Ben Stiller and Diego Schwartzman’s friendship continues (JTA) — The Ben Stiller-Diego Schwartzman bromance is still going strong. While Schwartzman was eliminated from the U.S. Open in New York on Sunday, Sept.5, he snuck in some more quality time with Stiller, the Jewish actor who happens to be one of Diego’s biggest fans. On Wednesday, the Jewish tennis star’s girlfriend posted a photo of the three of them at a New York restaurant, captioned “Date night.”

The Stiller-Schwartzman friendship surfaced last week, after Schwartzman defeated his second round opponent in straight sets. Severe weather from Hurricane Ida caused delays and the players had to switch courts — but Stiller stuck it out to cheer Schwartzman on until the very end. After the rain delay, Schwartzman stopped by his box, where Stiller was sitting. “I said to him, ‘This is a movie, it’s for you, it’s your day,’” Schwartzman recalled. “He was smiling. Then he waited for the change to Ashe. He stayed here until 2:30 a.m. when everyone was able to go back to the city. It was great.”

But Schwartzman and Stiller had first met jewishledger.com

at the U.S. Open in 2019, when Schwartzman lost to Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals.

“We took a picture. I put it on my Instagram at that time,” Schwartzman told the ATP Tour website. “After that we had a very good relationship on WhatsApp. We texted a few times. Obviously nobody came to the tournament [last year]. This year since I arrived in New York, I was in contact with him, texting him.”

Stiller remained an ardent Schwartzman fan, tweeting constantly during this year’s Open in support of the Argentine. And while Schwartzman ultimately lost in an upset to Botic van de Zandschulp, a Dutch qualifier, Stiller remained a loyal fan.

Schwartzman’s girlfriend Eugenia De Martino posted the date night selfie on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. It’s unlikely the group celebrated the Jewish New Year together, but Schwartzman did tweet out his own New Year message.

Taliban wants ties with US — but not Israel (JTA) — The Taliban, the extremist Islamist movement once famously insular, is ready to build relations with the world — except for Israel. Suhail Shaheen, the spokesman for the movement that assumed control of Afghanistan last month, told Sputnik News that his country is ready to work with the United States and other countries in rebuilding the Asian land. “Yes, of course, in a new chapter if America wants to have a relation with us, which could be in the interest of both countries and both peoples, and if they want to participate in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, they are welcome,” Shaheen told the Russian government-run news agency. “Of course, we won’t have any relation with Israel. We want to have relations with other countries; Israel is not among these countries.”

Shaheen gave an interview last month to an Israeli state broadcaster as the Taliban was taking control of the country and the Biden administration was ending America’s 20-year military presence in Afghanistan. Shaheen later said he did not realize he was speaking to an Israeli journalist.

The last time the Talban ruled Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001, they were known for their insularity and rejecting foreign influence and assistance.

Arizona first state to divest from Unilever over Ben & Jerry’s boycott (JNS) Arizona moved to divest from Unilever, the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s, over the ice-cream maker’s decision to stop selling its products in the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem, becoming the first state to take such action. Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee announced on Tuesday, Sept. 9 that the state will pull some $143 million of investments from the multinational firm by jewishledger.com

Sept. 21.

Yee announced on Twitter that “Israel is and will continue to be a major trade partner of AZ. I will not allow taxpayer dollars to go towards antisemitic, discriminatory efforts against Israel.”

Under Arizona law, the state cannot conduct business with any person or company that boycotts Israel, including limiting commercial operations in Israel or territory controlled by Israel. Some 34 states have passed or enacted anti-BDS laws in recent years, and 21 of those states also include Israeli settlement boycotts in their definitions.

Several other states have also announced reviews that could lead to divesting from Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s, including New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Maryland and Rhode Island.

Israel’s Consul General to the Southwest Hillel Newman said, “We are delighted that the state of Arizona, under the leadership of a true friend of Israel, Governor Ducey, the attorney general and the team see boycotts against Israel for what they are—a form of antisemitism,” said Newman.

Afghanistan’s last Jew has left the country (JTA) — Zebulon Simantov, the last remaining Jew in Afghanistan, has finally left the country for fear of persecution by the Taliban, an Israeli television channel reported. Simantov, the 62-year-old former keeper of Kabul’s lone remaining synagogue, left the country for the U.S. in recent days with several other exiles, the Kan broadcaster in Israel reported Wednesday. The report was based on information given by Moti Kahana, an IsraeliAmerican businessman who said he was involved in the extraction along with Moshe Margaretten, a Jewish philanthropist from New York. “Moshe Margaretten please take me to New York with God’s help,” Simantov said in a video. The trip is a five-day journey, according to the Kan report.

After the Taliban took over Afghanistan last month, several Jewish groups immediately reached out to Simantov, offering to help him out of the country, but he initially had declined the offers, citing his desire to stay in his homeland and preserve the synagogue, in which he had lived. Kahana had previously said Simantov demanded “personal funding” in exchange for leaving. After Simantov rebuffed Kahana and Margaretten’s first offers for help, they helped evacuate dozens of other Afghans.

According to multiple reports, Simantov has for many years refused to allow his wife, who lives in Israel with their two daughters, to divorce him. In Orthodox Judaism, spouses may not divorce unless they both consent to the dissolution of their marriage. Spouses who are refused a divorce act, or get, are called “chained.”

Israeli rabbinical courts cannot declare a marriage void, but they can legally punish recalcitrant spouses with fines or even imprisonment.

At the Hebrew Center for Health and Rehabilitation, we understand that comfort and familiarity is a key part of the journey to wellness. We also understand that maintaining your religious beliefs and principles is fundamental in continued enrichment of life.

Our Kosher meal services allow residents to maintain their dietary requirements throughout their stay with us. At the Hebrew Center, we ensure we follow all principles of Kosher including purchase, storage, preparation, and service.

At the Hebrew Center for Health and Rehabilitation, we also offer a variety of other services and amenities to ensure your stay is as comfortable as possible.

THESE SERVICES INCLUDE: • Passport to Rehabilitation Program • Long-Term Skilled Nursing Care • Specialized Memory Care • Respite Care Program • Palliative Care and Hospice Services Coordination

OUR AMENITIES INCLUDE: • Barber/Beauty Shop • Café • Cultural Menus • Laundry and housekeeping services • Patient and Family education • Life Enrichment

HKC

‫כשר‬

For more information on our Kosher program, please contact: DIRECTOR, PASTORAL SERVICES - (860) 523-3800 Hebrew Center for Health and Rehabilitation One Abrahms Boulevard, West Hartford, CT 06117

L IKE U S ON

JEWISH LEDGER

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SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

9

OPINION

If you are going to spell it ‘antisemitism,’ then you should remove the hyphen from ‘anti-Zionism’

BY KENNETH MARCUS

(JTA) — Deborah Lipstadt, recently named

by President Joe Biden as the U.S. Special Envoy To Monitor and Combat AntiSemitism, won’t just combat anti-Semitism but may well eliminate it.

And that would be a mistake.

To be clear, the Emory University historian is a fierce opponent of Jew-hatred and Holocaust denial, having vanquished the Holocaust denier David Irving in a British court, among other triumphs over bigotry.

But over the past few years, Lipstadt has led a campaign to eliminate the hyphen in the word “anti-Semitism,” preferring “antisemitism.”

Why do hyphens matter? Lipstadt argues that “anti-Semitism” is misleading because it denotes hatred of Semites, not Jews. She notes that the German historian who coined the term “anti-Semitism” was a far-right polemicist who sought to blame Jews for the “Semitic” characteristics that allegedly incited anti-Jewish bigotry.

She joins several authorities who have eliminated the hyphen in response to those who, either for political reasons or in error, misuse the term to minimize its anti-Jewish character. [The Associated Press and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency are among the news organizations that have recently agreed to the change.]

The issue generates surprising controversy. In Palgrave’s new collection of essays, “Key Concepts in the Study of Antisemitism,” some authors eschew the hyphen, arguing that it lends credence to offensive arguments about Jews’ racial otherness. Others, however, prefer the hyphen either because of common usage or to emphasize that the term originates in a tradition that viewed Jews and Arabs as sharing a common “Oriental” heritage.

This caused the editors to throw up their hands in frustration. Unable to choose, they permit both spellings, skittering back and forth in a way they acknowledge may be “disconcerting.”

Lipstadt is right that “anti-Semitism” has misleadingly conflated Jews and “Semites” since it was first coined in the 19th century. But she is wrong to think eliminating the hyphen will solve anything.

In German, “Antisemitismus” has been hyphen-less for over a century. This has not averted the confusion that worries Lipstadt.

Nor did it eliminate Jew-hatred in that country.

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JEWISH LEDGER

The problem lies not in the hyphen but in the term itself, which was invented

by Jew-haters who thought its pseudoscientific sound would give social acceptability to their prejudice. Scholars and linguists, however, have yet to devise a suitable alternative. “Jew-hatred,” “antiJudaism” and “Judaeophobia” have their partisans, but each term has problems.

Until a better term arrives, we are stuck with anti-Semitism. Hyphen removal is no panacea.

The dilemma worsens when the hyphen is removed from “anti-Semitism” but not its handmaiden, “anti-Zionism.” Much commentary surrounds the contested relationship between these concepts.

Some say that anti-Semitism refers to discrimination against “Jews as Jews,” while anti-Zionism means opposition to Zionists as Zionists. They are wrong about both. Anti-Semitism opposes Jews based on false stereotypes and gross fantasies.

It hates Jews not as Jews but as monsters whose villainy is concocted by the haters. In the same way, anti-Zionism hates Zionists not as Zionists but as figments of the haters’ imaginations.

Zionism can be many things: a political ideology, the yearning of a people for return to a land, the Diaspora’s support for Israel’s security. But it never means the murderous, world-dominating conspiracy that its opponents fantasize about. The hyphen in “anti-Zionists” wrongly suggests that such people oppose what Zionism really is, as opposed to what they imagine it to be.

Historian James Loeffler argues that anti-Zionism, as a concept and a construct, deserves the same historical analysis as anti-Semitism. Anti-Zionism, as opposition to Jewish national aspirations, arises from many strands within the Jewish and Arab worlds. As a distinct ideology, however, antizionism (the spelling is mine) was forged in Soviet propaganda, in the context of the Cold War and the rise of post-colonialism, as a reaction to Israel’s orientation toward the United States and the West. This ideology of hate fuses ageold anti-Semitic stereotypes, European conspiracy theories, left-wing antinationalism and post-Cold War geopolitics.

This new ideology, which has gained considerable steam since the Second Intifada and the United Nations’ 2001 Durban anti-racism conference, should not be conflated with the political movements

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PROTESTERS IN STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, HOLD A SIGN READING “ANTI-ZIONISM IS NOT ANTISEMITISM. STOP ISRAEL,” JAN. 10, 2009.

(ROBIN/FLICKR COMMONS)

— including the opposition to Zionism that arose among Jews themselves — that preceded it. If ever there is a place to remove the hyphen, it is here: Antizionism today is no mere opposition to Zionism. It reflects instead an independent form of hate with its own history and logic.

At the Louis D. Brandeis Center, we frequently defend Jewish students and professors who are stigmatized, excluded or attacked for their sympathies toward the State of Israel. If their antagonists were merely critics of Zionism as a political movement, then this might be a mere political dispute, albeit one conducted with unusually nasty tactics.

In fact, students are targeted because Zionism is an overt element of their identity as Jews. This Zionophobia, as some prefer to call it, can only be understood on its own terms as a distinctive form of prejudice.

This notion is lost when anti-Zionism is hyphenated but antisemitism is not. Thus between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, there should be two hyphens or none.

Most commentators have praised Lipstadt’s nomination, given her international reputation. A few critics oppose based on her perceived partisanship.

As a former Republican appointee, I

am willing to go out on a limb: Confirm Lipstadt, but let her fight anti-Semitism. If she wants to go hyphenless, she must fight antizionism, too.

Kenneth Marcus is a former Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education for Civil Rights and author of The Definition of Anti-Semitism. He is founder and chair of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. NOTE: The Connecticut Jewish Ledger subscribes to Deborah Lipstadt’s view of the hyphenated term “anti-Semitism” and has eliminated the hyphen from the publication’s use of the word for several years now.

jewishledger.com

AROUND CT Temkin family makes first commitment to Life & Legacy program HARTFORD—Gayle and Steve Temkin of West Hartford have announced that they will designate an after-lifetime gift of $1 million to Greater Hartford’s Jewish community, officially launching the area’s “Life & Legacy” program, a four-year partnership with the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford and the Harold Grinspoon Foundation. The program is designed to promote afterlifetime giving to build endowments that will help provide financial stability to 14 local Jewish organizations.

“We’ve chosen this community to plant our family’s roots – so that our children, and our children’s children, and everyone who comes after will have not only a strong community, but one that will always remember those who came before them,” explained Gayle, whose commitment to Jewish life dates back to her participation as a girl in Unites Synagogue Youth, and her professional career with State of Israel Bonds in Rockland County and, later, the UJA Federation of New York in Westchester.

Today, the Temkins and their two teenage daughters, Alyssa and Lily, participate in Jewish life at the Mandell JCC, Solomon Schechter Day School, Beth El Temple, JTConnect, Friendship Circle, and other Jewish organizeations.

The Temkin daughters play a major role in their parents decision to participate in the Life & Legacy program.

“We want Alyssa and Lily to understand the importance of paying it forward, and want to help our community organizations remain vital and vibrant. A legacy gift will let us make a difference – far beyond the measure of one lifetime – and offer a joyous Jewish life for all,” Steve said.

Since the Temkins’ commitment, 63 after-lifetime commitments from 50 Legacy donors have been made to Greater Hartford’s LIFE & LEGACY program in just two months, including members of Congregation Kol Haverim in Glastonbury, Temple Beth Hillel in South Windsor, Farmington Valley Jewish Congregation in Simsbury, and Hebrew Senior Care, Congregation Beth Israel and the Mandell Jewish Community Center in West Hartford.

Anyone can help provide longterm financial stability for the Jewish organization of their choice by leaving an after-lifetime gift in their will, trust, retirement account or life insurance policy.

Once funded, these Legacy gifts are placed in an individual or collective endowment fund at the Jewish Community Foundation, which invests and manages them to yield jewishledger.com

a consistent source of income for Jewish organizations for generations to come.

For more information, contact Elana MacGilpin at emacgilpin@jcfhartford.org.

CT Jewish Federations form partnership with Secure Community Network GREENWICH – To better protect members of the Jewish communities who attend area synagogues, day schools, and other facilities in the area, the leadership of the Jewish Federations in Southern and Western Connecticut announced a new partnership with the Secure Community Network (SCN) to launch a new regional security program, including the hiring of a full-time regional security advisor who will oversee the initiative. SCN is the official safety and security organization of the Jewish community in North America.

With the announcement of the Community Security Initiative (CSI), Southern/Western CT joins the growing network of Federations and communities partnering with SCN to launch communitybased security initiatives designed around an “All Threats, All Hazards” approach to preparedness, safety, security, and resiliency across the community. The program will be connected to SCN’s national network, providing direct access to the National Jewish Security Operations Command Center, SCN’s Duty Desk and Intelligence Analysts, as well as best practice security resources and support related to policies, procedures, physical security, facility assessments, training, and incident response.

Public safety expert and law enforcement veteran Michael J. Shanbrom has been hired to serve as the first Regional Security Advisor (RSA) for the region.

Shanbrom will work full-time to develop and administer a comprehensive program that provides threat mitigation, security consultation, and trainings to Jewish institutions throughout the region.

Shanbrom is a 20-year veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), serving in a variety of national security leadership roles within the organization, including acting assistant special-agent-incharge, National Security, in the New Haven Field Office. He currently serves as Police Commissioner for the Town of Woodbridge and sits on the board of multiple Jewish organizations in the Greater New Haven area. Most recently, he served as a senior administrator for research compliance for the University of Connecticut.

“With the dramatic increase in antisemitic incidents and acts of hate over the past several years, Jewish communal security has never been more important.

Mike’s tremendous knowledge, expertise, and law enforcement relationships and partnerships will help keep our local community safe and secure,” said UJA-JCC Greenwich CEO Pam Ehrenkranz.

Shanbrom will serve as an advisor to Jewish institutions such as synagogues and day schools to establish a system of collaboration, coordination, and communication among organizations. He will also serve as a liaison to local, state, and federal law enforcement and represent the Federation and the Jewish community in public security forums.

“I am excited to hit the ground running and contribute to the safety and security of the greater Southern/Western Connecticut Jewish community,” noted Shanbrom, who will be onsite in Connecticut for the launch of the community security program in midOctober.

Harc joins Endow Hartford 21 giving program HARTFORD – Harc has been selected to join 51 non-profit organizations in the Hartford area participating in Endow Hartford 21, a new matching gift endowment campaign initiated by the Zachs family and supported by other donors.

Unique in the breadth of agencies the campaign will benefit, Endow Hartford 21 brings two of the city’s leading foundations together in a community-wide campaign for the first time: The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford. The organizations are collaborating to provide administrative support and, in so doing, have helped to create a unique program designed to incentivize endowment giving throughout the community.

“This endowment opportunity will create a long-term resource to help us fulfill our mission during periods of revenue fluctuations,” said Maureen Madden, chief philanthropy and marketing officer. “Harc is building for the future, and thanks to the vision and leadership of the Zachs Family Foundation, and the other matching donors, we have an opportunity like no other to begin that journey.”

The Zachs Family Foundation has committed $1 million to the Endow Hartford 21 match program. They are currently approaching other organizations and individuals for additional matching funds. To date, they have raised an additional $580,000.

Launched on June 1,2021, Endow Hartford 21 will run for a minimum of one year. Any gift between $250 and $10,000 per participating organization will be matched 1:2 by Endow Hartford 21.

Pledges alone will not qualify for the match.

Donations are accepted through checks, credit cards, or gifts of appreciated stock.

For more information, visit www.

EndowHartford21.com.

For more information about how you can make your gift to Harc, contact Maureen Madden at mmadden@harcct.org or (860) 218-6048.

Hartford HaZamir@ JTConnect Jewish Teen Learning Connection (JTConnect) invites Jewish teens to join the Hartford chapter of HaZamir, an International Jewish Teen Choir with 37 chapters across the U.S. and Israel.

In weekly rehearsals, regional gatherings, and the HaZamir International Festival, HaZamir teens study Jewish text and history, grow as leaders, cultivate a deep connection to Israel, and create enduring friendships that transcend geographic, political, social, and denominational differences.

During the program year, all HaZamir chapters learn the same repertoire developed annually with a curriculum

by HaZamir professional staff. Weekly chapter rehearsals are led by skilled and knowledgeable choral conductors.

HaZamir is open to all teens in 8th-12th grade who love to sing! Synagogue membership is not required. Teens must commit to the full year.

The first performance as a large choir takes place at InterVisitation: the Northeast Regional gathering in January, in an “open rehearsal” attended by parents and community members. The main event is the Gala Performance in March, onstage at David Gefen Hall, located at Lincoln Center in New York City.

HaZamir Hartford is led by our conductor, Yehudis Schreiber, with support from our parent coordinator, Elana Doron.

Yehudis teaches the National Repertoire and helps everyone in the chapter become a knowledgeable and confident singer, well prepared to shine onstage at the Gala Performance. She is a graduate of the Juilliard School and a former member of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. She has a Masters Degree in Music Education (University of Bridgeport), Kodály Certification (The Hartt School, University of Hartford), and has been teaching music in various educational settings since 2001 HaZamir meets weekly from 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. at The Emanuel Synagogue in West Hartford in tandem with the JTConnect program. Annual tuition in JTConnect is $500. Financial aid is available for families who need assistance.

For more information, contact Yehudis Schreiber at hazamirhartford@gmail.com or Cara Levine at Cara@jtconnect.org.

JEWISH LEDGER

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SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

11

Introducing Connecticut’s new Jewish clergy

This past summer, Jewish congregations in communities throughout Connecticut welcomed new clergy. The Ledger is pleased to introduce this new group of rabbis and cantors.

BY STACEY DRESNER

Rabbi Rachel Zerin

Beth El Temple, West Hartford Rabbi Rachel Zerin has joined Beth El Temple in West Hartford as assistant rabbi. She comes to Beth El from Temple Emanu-El in Providence, R.I. where she served as spiritual leader for five years.

Growing up in Billerica, Massachussetts, Zerin and her family attended Temple Beth El in nearby Lowell.

“I grew up in a very small congregation but, in large part that’s what led me to where I am today because it afforded me a lot of opportunities to be RABBI RACHEL ZERIN involved,” she says.

While preparing for her bat mitzvah, Zerin and her mother attended services. It was then that her interest in Judaism was sparked.

“I’ve also always been musical. So, as soon as I celebrated my bat mitzvah, I was a 12

JEWISH LEDGER

person in the congregation who knew how to lead services and had a beautiful voice,” she recounts. “We had no cantor at the time, so I became one of the regular service leaders and periodic Torah readers. Once I finished our religious school program I co-taught in the religious school for the little kids. So, I had a lot of leadership opportunities from a pretty young age.”

She started studying music at college, dreaming of being on Broadway or becoming a professional opera singer.

“That first year of college when I did not have a strong Jewish community around me, I very quickly realized that [Judaism] wasn’t just an extracurricular activity; it really was the lifeblood of who I am and who I want to be,” she says.

She transferred to Syracuse University and majored in Voice Performance and Religion.

“When you’re a singer and you are majoring in Religion, the assumption is, well of course you’re going to become a cantor. So initially I thought that might be the direction I was headed in,” she said. “I do love music and I do love singing and I do love leading services, but I also really love the text study,

| SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

the teaching and the ritual moments that expand beyond the music. I just felt that I had so many more possibilities as a rabbi and so many more opportunities open to me as a rabbi, and so that was what veered me towards rabbinical school.”

After graduating from Syracuse, she spent a year studying at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem before entering the Jewish Theological Seminary. She was ordained in 2015 and in 2016 received her MA in Talmud and completed a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE).

Since starting her position at Beth El in July, Zerin has been busy getting to know the Beth El community and West Hartford.

“At first, I was meeting people and able to see their full faces but now it’s back to masks. We are having services in person, but my sense is, we have just as many people watching online as we do physically present in the sanctuary. So, it’s an interesting time to be starting in a new congregation.

“But the community has just been wonderful,” she says. “So many people have reached out. It’s a really warm and welcoming community and West Hartford is a great

place – It just feels like the perfect balance of everything I’m looking for in a community.”

Rabbi Zachary Plesent

Assistant Rabbi Temple Israel, Westport Zachary Plesent double majored in Political Science and Jewish Studies when he was a student at Indiana University.

“One of the things that led me to the realization that I could or should be a rabbi was that so much of what I would have done in the legal profession or the profession of politics is a part of being a congregational rabbi,” he laughed.

Plesent, ordained in May from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, joined Temple Israel in Westport as assistant rabbi in July.

A native of Larchmont, New York, Plesent says he was actively involved at Larchmont Temple when he was growing up.

“It was where I was comfortable. It was where I felt good, certainly. It was a point of connection for me,” he explains. “I played sports in high school and I did temple stuff, jewishledger.com

and those were my two groups outside of public school that made me feel like part of a community which is a connection that so many of us RABBI ZACHARY PLESENT are seeking.”

Early on, his rabbi may have had an inkling Plesent would someday be up on the bimah.

“My rabbi on the morning of my bar mitzvah joked with the congregation and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be good if he were up here in 15 years?’ And everybody laughed.

That was sort of the beginning of the thought process,” he says. “I was not sold on it until I finished college and realized that everything I love and feel passionate about and feel like I can do good for the world, can be a part of Jewish communal life.”

After graduation from Indiana University in 2014 and before rabbinical school, Plesent worked as a full-time educator and song leader at Central Synagogue in New York City. While in school, he served Jewish communities in Greenwich, White Plains, and Laramie, Wyoming. He was selected to participate in the Bonnie and Daniel Tisch Rabbinical Fellowship, and was the recipient of a Be Wise Entrepreneurial Fellowship. He was also a member of the New York Worship Working Group, a collective of faculty, rabbinical students, and cantorial students working together to reimagine and refocus various elements of prayer and worship on the HUC campus.

After his ordination, he knew Temple Israel was the place he wanted to be.

“I know all Jewish communities purport to be warm and welcoming, but I really felt that this community … cared about being warm and welcoming. They cared about who we are as a community and not just what we have accomplished or what we offer, but they cared about the warmth of the community, and they wanted to show that,” he says.

In addition, he says, “I get to work with a really talented, exciting, younger team that is poised for growth, innovation and creativity,” he said. “The thing that I was so excited about in this community was that there are four clergy and two of us were just hired July 1. So, the opportunity to build and create and work as a team was exciting for me as a younger rabbi – to be part of a team but also to learn while I begin my rabbinate. It became clear that this is where I wanted to be.”

Julia Cadrain

Senior Cantor, Temple Israel, Westport For Cantor Julia Cadrain, moving to jewishledger.com

Westport to serve as senior cantor at Temple Israel in Westport is kind of a homecoming.

She grew up in West Hartford, where her parents still reside and where she attended Hall High School, where she was a member of its singing group, the Choraliers. She went on to receive a Bachelors of Music in Classical Voice at New England Conservatory.

“My plan was to get a good classical foundation, and then to become a Broadway star,” she said. “I really liked Broadway music and musical theater because of its ability to kind of speak straight to the heart and be so accessible and so expressive. Then I graduated college and I started to realize that a performers life wasn’t really a good fit for my personality,” she says. “I had this longing for real community and a spiritual home and ritual. I wanted to be using the music to have an impact on people’s lives, but I didn’t really know what form that would take.”

It was while at a High Holiday service the year after graduating from college that she had an “aha” moment.

“Watching the cantor, I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do. That’s my thing.’”

But Cadrain wasn’t exactly sure what being a cantor really entailed.

“West Hartford is a very Jewish town, so growing up I was surrounded by Jewish culture and a lot of Jewish friends,” she says. “I had some JULIA CADRAIN Judaism in my home – my dad is Jewish. My mom is not. So we grew up with some with Jewish holidays, and also Christian holidays, I didn’t have a robust Jewish education.”

A few weeks after that High Holiday service she met with the cantor she had been impressed by who described his role and responsibilities in his congregation.

“Everything felt exactly right – it was community, it was teaching, it was a spiritual home, it was ritual. It was using music as a healing tool and a tool to bring people together and it just seemed like the perfect fit and such a rich, rich life. I just fell in love with it.”

She spent the next two years studying with a rabbi and learning Hebrew. She then studied at Hebrew Union College in the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music, where she was ordained as a cantor. Right out of cantorial school in 2012, she joined Manhattan’s Central Synagogue.

“It was an absolutely amazing place to ‘grow up’ professionally and spiritually and musically. I had incredible mentors there, in particular Rabbi Cantor Angela Buchdahl, who was just a huge inspiration and mentor for me.”

After nine years, she says it was time to move on. She found Temple Israel to be a good fit.

“I think Temple Israel rose to the top for me because it’s such an exciting place.

The synagogue is growing and welcoming new members…The senior rabbi here, Rabbi Michael Friedman, is someone that I knew – he had been a rabbi at Central Synagogue,” she says. “There’s something so sweet about coming back to work in the place where I grew up.”

She moved to Westport in July with her wife, Elana Arian, a Jewish musician and composer, and their two children.

“I’m really excited to lead this congregation in the High Holidays to understand more about them through that experience.”

Rabbi Kevin Peters

Assistant Rabbi/Director of Jewish Education & Youth Programs, Temple Sholom, Greenwich Judaism came later in life for Rabbi Kevin Peters.

“I come from a mixed family – my father was Jewish and my mother is Catholic. I was raised Catholic. When my father passed away when I was 16, that started me on my journey toward Judaism.”

Peters converted to Judaism on his 30th birthday and was ordained a week and a half later turning 40.

Although Peters just became assistant rabbi and director of Jewish education at Temple Sholom in Greenwich in July, he has been at the synagogue for the past three years – first for his Jewish education internship, then for his rabbinical school internship, and then part-time as Jewish educator – he has already forged strong bonds with the congregation.

“I really do care about the community here,” Peters says “They are so wonderful and interesting and diverse.”

Originally from Staten Island, New York, Peters graduated with honors from CUNY, College of Staten Island with a BA in Psychology. He worked for more than seven years in the field of developmental disabilities at an agency on Staten Island called Eden II, for individuals with autism.

Peters himself had been diagnosed with ADHD as a child.

“I think I had always had a calling to be a rabbi, but at some point, I said, ‘I don’t think that is realistic,” he says.

Then, at 30, “I finally started listening to my RABBI KEVIN PETERS parents who always said, ‘You have to work three-quarters of your life so you might as well do something that you love.’”

He looked into attending rabbinical school but decided on the field of Jewish education,

getting an MA from the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education at JTS. But encouraged by the dean of admissions and assistant dean of the rabbinical school, he went for it, graduating from JTS and receiving ordination this year.

It wasn’t until his second year of rabbinical school that he was diagnosed with a mild case of dyslexia. That and his ADHD, have made him the rabbi he is today.

“The things that make me a better rabbi are the things I don’t take for granted,” he says. “For example, I haven’t been a ‘Jew in a pew’ for a while but when I was, I was always very intentional about holding the siddur open so that people around me could see where we were in the service. So if anyone around me didn’t know where we were, I didn’t want them to have to ask,” Peters explains. “And also, not publicly asking ‘do you want an aliyah?’ because there was a time when, even with transliteration, I struggled to read it. I think being sensitive to those things and having the experience of getting up there and leyning and bombing and saying, ‘Ok,, I’m going to come back up here and do it again!’ is important.”

Peters says he is excited to settle down into this next phase at Temple Sholom.

“I wear a lot of hats here. My responsibilities touch a lot of different facets of congregational life. For that piece of it, I am excited.”

Hazzan Daniella Risman

The Emanuel Synagogue, West Hartford When Daniella Risman graduated from H.L. Miller Cantorial School at the Jewish Theological Seminary in April, she was ‘ordained’ as a cantor – not ‘invested,’ as graduating cantors always have been at JTS. “It’s exciting,” Hazzan Risman explains.

“One of the biggest changes is mostly thinking about the structure of a synagogue and what it means to be a cantor. A cantor isn’t just somebody who shows up on Shabbat and sings high and loud and walks the b’nai mitzvah around and says, ‘stand here, stand there.’ The cantor is there for lifecycle events, for baby namings and visits in the hospital and for funerals and for having a counseling session before a wedding. The cantor is an integral part of the everyday life of the shul and the musical heart of the synagogue. Music is such an integral part of our tradition.”

Born in Israel to American parents who made aliyah in 1973, Risman was raised in the San Francisco Bay area.

She was always musical.

“I sang. I played instruments. I HAZZAN DANIELLA played the piano, RISMAN I played flute,

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| SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

French horn, and I always sang in musicals when I was in elementary school. I took voice lessons in high school and did the high school vocal competitions.”

She attended Oberlin College, where she double majored in music and environmental studies, then went on to get her master’s in voice at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

“I was always performing and I also was involved Jewishly. I was co-chair of Hillel and teaching Hebrew school and leading High Holiday services at school. In graduate school I worked for the synagogue I grew up in and also for the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) in the East Bay.” After getting her master’s she stayed on at the JCRC, but also sang opera at various local small opera companies in San Francisco.

After four years, she decided to travel overseas, auditioning in Israel and Germany and doing a summer music program at a synagogue in Paris. When she came home to the U.S., settling in New York to sing opera, she worked in an orthopedic surgeon’s office.

“I got to sit in a room with a patient who was feeling vulnerable and had just been given this diagnosis of needing surgery. I got to be the one who said, “Let’s figure this out. …What do we need to do to support you?’… I really got to directly help people who were suffering. The suffering of body can lead to suffering of spirit.

I got to help them take a step toward healing.

That was pretty powerful.”

She went on to enroll in cantorial school.

“I realized that was the way to have a life of meaning, of creativity, of helping people and connecting with people, and doing the thing I was already doing, but doing it well. …So I went to cantorial school and I got to study liturgy and nusach, and I got to study with some great cantors of our time. …I hope I’ll be learning for the rest of my life.”

Risman and her husband, Eric Hoffman, are the parents of three-year-old Zahava and oneyear-old Judah.

Arriving at The Emanuel has been a joy.

“Everyone has been welcoming and generous,” she says. “Rabbi Small was someone I really thought I could work with, side by side. He is creative and kind and collaborative and learned, and really loves his community.

Their well-being matters to him in a way that I admire and in a way that I strive to emulate.”

Rabbi Jesse Nagelberg Beth El, Woodbury

JTS Rabbinical School student Jesse Nagelberg began serving as rabbi of Beth El Congregation in Woodbury at the beginning of August.

(Beth El always hires student rabbis from JTS to serve as spiritual leader for the entire year, from August to July.)

A native of East Brunswick, New Jersey, Nagelberg said he has wanted to be a rabbi since he can remember.

“I always wanted to be a rabbi. I have very early memories of sitting in synagogues

– both my parents’ synagogue and also my grandparents’ synagogue in northern New Jersey, which I attended frequently – and I watched the clergy and said, ‘I can do that,’” he recalled. “I love being with people and I could see myself even as a young kid, being with people in good times and in the worst of times, in happiness and sorrow, and for all of the lifecyle events. Later on I really did develop a love of the prayers and ritual, and the holidays, but it began in that relational place.”

He even developed a Tot Shabbat class at his shul at the age of eight.

“I saw this opening in our synagogue and I said, instead of doing babysitting for these young kids, I could offer something,” he said.

“I wrote my own siddur using a photo album and I picked 10 or so prayers that I thought were important for really young kids to learn.

And I made a 40-minute service for them every Saturday.”

He attended Golda Och Academy, a Jewish day school, and worked as a counselor at Camp Ramah in Nyack every summer as a teen. At the age of 16 he founded a successful catering company called Chez Nagel Kosher Comfort Catering.

When it came to getting his undergraduate degree, he attended the Conrad N. Hilton College at the University of Houston. Receiving a B.S. in Hotel and Restaurant Management.

“One of the things that I personally believe we are missing most, especially in the Jewish world is customer service. At RABBI one point I didn’t JESSE NAGELBERG want to be a pulpit rabbi, I wanted to work in Jewish camping, and I thought what would benefit the community most is operations, logistics and customer service,” he said.

During college he worked in food service, hotels, and event planning.

“I think that is my backbone – everything stems from how you welcome someone to the table, how you treat them, how you pick of the phone – so I loved getting that degree.”

Nagelberg, who has experience conducting High Holiday services, just finished his 10th summer at Ramah, where is senior program director, before arriving at Beth El in Woodbury.

“It’s a great fit for me as a student rabbi.

They are really excited to be a training ground and likewise I am learning every day from them,” he says.

When he is ordained next year, Nagelberg will also receive a master’s degree in Jewish Education from the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education and hopefully find his next pulpit.

He doesn’t yet know where he will land but, he says, “I’m open for an adventure.”

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Rabbi Danny Moss

Temple Beth Tikvah, Madison Before joining Temple Beth Tikvah in Madison, Rabbi Danny Moss served as assistant rabbi at Temple Israel in Westport, where he had arrived in July 2017 after receiving his ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

A native of Chicago, Moss is a graduate of Oberlin College with degrees in Jewish Studies and Comparative Religion.

While at Temple Israel, he spearheaded initiatives in Adult Jewish Learning, Caring Community, and CONECT (community organizing for social justice).

Before his post in Westport, Moss served as a student rabbi at Brooklyn RABBI DANNY MOSS Heights Synagogue in New York, and as an educator and youth director at Temple Micah in Washington, D.C. He completed internships at Fairmount Temple in Cleveland and Temple Israel in Boston.

Moss studied in Israel for two years and has served as a tour guide for teens traveling through Israel and Europe. During the course of his rabbinical studies, he also administered the tefilah curriculum at Congregation Emanu-El in New York and served as a critical care chaplain at a Chicago hospital.

A 15-summer alumnus of Union for Reform Judaism Camp OSRUI in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, Moss has also studied cantorial arts and plays several musical instruments.

According to his bio, “You might find him singing silly songs, teaching Talmud, dreaming up experiential family learning activities, or re-enacting epic lightsaber duels with B’nei Mitzvah students who share his love for Star Wars.”

Rabbi Moss lives in Guilford with his wife, Rabbi Susan Landau Moss.

Rabbi Joshua Ratner

Congregation Beth El, Fairfield Rabbi Joshua Ratner has joined Congregation Beth El in Fairfield as its new spiritual leader.

Previously, he served as director of advocacy for JLens, a New York-based network of more than 9,000 investors, seeking to “apply a Jewish lens to the modern context of values-based impact investing.”

“COVID really helped me reframe what I felt to be my rabbinic priorities and I really missed, when the pandemic started, not being in a community, in a place where I RABBI could be a relational JOSHUA RATNER presence for those jewishledger.com

who were suffering in so many different ways from the pandemic,” he says. “While I still found the work at JLens to be intellectually stimulating and engaging, I felt that the piece of my rabbinic identity that was predicated on interactions with other people and daily communications with other people and being there for people when they needed more of a pastoral presence was something that just felt strongly missing.”

So, he decided to see if he could find a community that would be a good fit — and he found one at Beth El. A native of San Diego, California, Ratner worked as a corporate attorney for five years before entering rabbinical school. He was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in May 2012 and earned a master’s degree in Midrash and a certificate in pastoral care.

While in rabbinical school he was a Rabbinic Fellow for the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. He served as rabbi of the now defunct Congregation Kol Ami in Cheshire from 20122014.

Before joining JLens, Rabbi Ratner was the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven for four years. At the same time, he served as associate rabbi and director of Jewish Engagement at Yale University.

“My primary goal is to be here for my congregants in whatever ways they need as they continue to struggle through the uncertain, present and future of what it means to be in community at a time when we can only be together in some ways and often masked and all that. Still so many people are suffering, whether it’s physically or financially or emotionally and psychologically.”

He also wants to “reimagine what it means to be a community in late 2021.”

“With all the bad things that came with Covid, there’s also some silver linings of a burgeoning of creativity, of rethinking old paradigms and deciding what’s still important and what’s not,” he says. “So, [I want to help] our community think through what we want to look like going forward. Reimagining and restructuring will be an important piece of what I’m going to bring, and that ranges from thinking through our services and how we can make them more spiritually engaging to revamping our adult education curriculum and finding ways to stimulate people intellectually, with issues that they care about.”

Ratner would also like to expand Beth El’s presence in Fairfield and Fairfield County.

“What’s important to me is interfaith work and so I’m going to be working at Sacred Heart in their multi-faith chaplaincy center, working with students and to offer some support. My predecessor, Rabbi Kormis, had done that and created some important inroads into that community and so I will continue to maintain that; it’s a really important one for us.”

TORAHPortion Haazinu

T

BY SHLOMO RISKIN

he joyous festival of Sukkot comes at the heels of Yom Kippur, the Day of Forgiveness and Purity. Now that, hopefully, we have been forgiven for our transgressions, we begin afresh with a clean slate. We celebrate, by eating our meals in colorfully decorated booths (sukkot) which remind us of God’s protection in the desert. And our prayers in the synagogue are punctuated by the waving of the Four Species through which we thank God for His agricultural bounty.

From this description, it would seem that the emphasis is on religious ritual connecting God and Israel. However, the great legalist-philosopher Maimonides makes the following comment in his Laws of Festivals (6: 18): When a person eats and drinks in celebration of a holiday, he is obligated to feed converts, orphans, widows, and others who are destitute and poor. In contrast, a person who locks the gates of his courtyard (or sukkah) and eats and drinks with his children and his wife, without feeding the poor and the embittered, is not indulging in rejoicing associated with a mitzvah, but rather the rejoicing of his gut.

With regard to such a person the verse, (Hoshea 9:4) is applied: “Their sacrifices will be like the bread of mourners, all that partake thereof shall become impure, for they kept their bread for themselves alone.” This happiness is a disgrace for them, as implied by the verse (Malachi 2:3): “I will spread dung on your faces, the dung of your festival celebrations.”

The Four Species are symbolically described by the Sages of the Midrash as representing four types of Jews: the “Etrog Jew” is both learned and filled with good deeds; the “Lulav Jew” has learning but no good deeds; the “Myrtle Jew” has good deeds but no learning and the “Willow-branch Jew” has neither learning nor good deeds.

We are commanded to bind these four together, in order to remind us that a Jewish community consists of many types of Jews all of whom must be accepted and lovingly included within our Jewish community. Hence, a festival which superficially seems to be oriented solely in the direction of religious ritual actually expresses important lessons in human relationships.

To this end, I would like to relate a story. Reb Aryeh Levin, of sacred memory, was renowned as a righteous person of Jerusalem. He was known for his punctilious observance of each of the ritual commandments and his

overwhelming compassion for every human being. Two days before the advent of the Festival of Sukkot, he went to the Geula district of Jerusalem to choose his Four Species. Immediately, word spread that the great tzaddik Reb Aryeh was standing in front of a long table in the street selecting his species. A large crowd gathered around him, after all, the etrog (citron) is referred to in the Bible as a beautiful fruit (eitz hadar), and since we are enjoined to “beautify the commandments,” observant Jews are especially careful in purchasing a most beautiful and outstanding etrog. Everyone was interested in observing which criteria the great tzaddik would use in choosing his etrog. To the amazement of the crowd, however, Reb Aryeh looked at one etrog and put it down, picked up a second, examined it, and then went back to the first and purchased it together with his three other species. The entire transaction took less than five minutes. The crowd, disappointed, dispersed.

One person decided to follow Reb Aryeh to see where he was going. What could be more important than choosing an etrog the day before Sukkot? he thought to himself. Rav Levin walked into an old age home. The individual following him, waited outside and 90 minutes later the great Sage exited. The Jerusalemite approached him “Revered Rabbi”, he said. “Please don’t think me impudent, but I am asking the question: The great commandment of Sukkot include the waving of a beautiful etrog. I am certain that visiting the elderly is also an important mitzvah, but they will be in the old age home during the Festival of Sukkot as well as after it. The purchase of the etrog is a once a year opportunity. I would have expected the revered rabbi to have spent a little more time in choosing the etrog.”

Rav Levin smiled lovingly. “My dear friend,” he said, “there are two mitzvot which the Torah employs the term hidur (beautification), one is: the mitzvah of a beautiful etrog (pri etz hadar) (Leviticus 23: 40), and the second is beautifully honoring the face of the aged – (vehadarta pnei zaken) (Leviticus 19:32). However, the etrog is an object and the aged individual is a human being, not a fruit. Hence, I believe one must spend much more time in beautifying the commandment relating to the human being than beautifying the commandment relating to a fruit.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is founder and rosh yeshiva of Ohr Torah Stone, and founding rabbi of Efrat.

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THE KOSHER CROSSWORD SEPT. 17, 2021 “TV Idols?” By: Yoni Glatt

Difficulty Level: Medium

Vol. 93 No. 38 JHL Ledger LLC Publisher Henry M. Zachs Managing Partner

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ANSWERS TO SEPT. 10 CROSSWORD

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Across 1. Not take the high road 6. Odor 11. Bed on wheels, perhaps 14. Advil alternative 15. “Esa ___” 16. “Ledodi” preceder 17. Rocker born Chaim Witz 19. Vigor 20. Jewish song 21. “School ___” (1992 film about a Jewish quarterback) 22. Three, to Henri 24. Build 26. With vigor 27. Rav Schneerson of note 31. Ipso ___

32. McKellen and McEwan 33. Actor Gross with a lion name 34. Awards that could be another title for this puzzle 36. One from Edinburgh 40. With 6-Down, Matt Damon plays one in 21-Across 41. Legend Epstein of the Israeli Airforce 42. Voice of Melman the Giraffe in “Madagascar” 47. They might be used for some games 48. This ___ (package direction) 49. Alternative to a Skor 50. Bad Biblical king with a woeful wife

52. A 36-Across might call a girl this 55. ___ Chaim 56. “The New Colossus” poet 59. View 60. Like the Leaning Tower of Pisa 61. Had a Shabbos meal at home 62. Roush in the Baseball Hall of Fame 63. “Star Wars” title 64. Nudniks

Down 1. Some shticks 2. New Israeli 3. Mercy, from a judge 4. Judge too highly 5. Director Anderson 6. See 40-Across 7. The silent type?

8. Son of Seth 9. “Dancing With the Stars” judge Goodman 10. Enjoys “Unorthodox” or “Israel Story”, say 11. Bad Al 12. “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” writer 13. Like some at the end of Seder 18. Target for nails?

23. Kind of herring 25. “Green”: Prefix 26. Burns and Jennings 27. Music teacher’s deg., often 28. A music teacher often has a good one 29. Ape 30. Lag Ba’Omer month 34. Finishes 35. Ararat and Everest, briefly 36. Pretend 37. Examines side by side 38. Catan resource 39. Pothole-patching stuff 40. Laffy Taffy alternative 41. ___ HaNasheh 42. Followed Atkins, e.g.

43. Awed

44. One who fought on Yom Kippur in 1973, for short 45. It’s more important than money 46. League Adam Silver’s league keeps alive 47. “We hold ___ truths to be self-evident...”

50. Sefardic “Srugim” character 51. Word before “Who goes there?”

53. Spades or clubs 54. “Last four” ID verifiers 57. Letters on N.Y.C. trains 58. Blast, sci-fi style

JEWISH LEDGER

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SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

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AUTHOR’S CORNER

Former Conn College prof pens novel about antisemitic lunatics usurping the academic asylum

BY MELANIE PHILLIPS

(JNS) The vicious doctrine of “intersectionality,” which links different categories of “victims” together and demonizes their purported “oppressors” such as white people, men or those who believe in biological differences between men and women, also targets Zionism and the Jews.

Those who support Zionism often find themselves “canceled.” That’s because the Marxist dogma of identity politics divides people into powerful and powerless according to crude economic or political status.

Consequently, tiny, besieged Israel is viewed as a white oppressive country (even though the majority of its people are brown or even black-skinned) simply because it’s considered a Western nation, has a powerful military (albeit solely for its defense) and is supported by America. So on account of these supposed “crimes,” its supporters are targeted for vilification, too.

Andrew Pessin, a philosophy professor at Connecticut College and a Jew, experienced this in 2015 when he was falsely accused of having dehumanized the Palestinians by supporting Israel during its 2014 war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Branded a racist peddling “hate speech,” he was subjected to death threats and antisemitic abuse and forced to take medical leave from teaching for two years.

Now he has fashioned his experiences into a literary weapon in Nevergreen, a sparkling and savagely satirical novel about campus “cancel culture.”

The book is set in the ultimate “woke” environment of Nevergreen, a college situated on a remote island. The name alludes to an infamous event in 2017 at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash.

A biology professor there, Bret Weinstein, was hounded out of his post after he objected to the college asking white students to absent themselves for a day to attend a course on race issues. Like Pessin, Weinstein was physically intimidated and not allowed to defend himself against the accusations made against him.

In Pessin’s novel, a physician generally referred to only as “J” is invited to Nevergreen to give a lecture. Although not one student hears this presentation, the rumor mill immediately accuses J of making an unspecified offensive statement that has flouted the college’s Virtue Code.

Required to confess, he is never told what he has done. Unable to leave the 18

JEWISH LEDGER

island on which he is stranded, he finds himself running for his life from students intent on killing him. He faces being literally canceled.

The narrative brings to life the surreal, nightmarish quality of finding oneself in an asylum where the lunatics are in control.

Pessin achieves this by relentlessly following the insane circular logic of identity politics, demonstrating that it is as ludicrous as it is terrifying.

At Nevergreen, the students hate the hate that, to them, people like J represent, and so accordingly hold sessions of “hatehate.” Yet as haters of hate, the students themselves embody what they claim to be against.

In addition to groups such as the Only Black Lives Matter Club, the White Is A Color Too Club, the Jihadi Martyrs Club and the DIT Club for Diversity, Inclusion and Tolerance, the campus also boasts an Ur-Nazi Club and affirmative action quotas for white supremacists. A tourist brochure says the college is “a real haven for the violent and racist demographic” because its “commitment to full diversity and inclusion attracts those who feel unwelcome elsewhere.”

Not only is this a comical paradox, since, of course, white supremacists are anything but inclusive. It is also a comment on liberals supposedly committed to human rights but who march shoulder to shoulder with Islamists and others committed to extinguishing these rights.

Through this sustained satire, Pessin sprays “cancel culture” with the most effective disinfectant—mockery and ridicule.

Reflecting the fact that identity politics is as ludicrous and even insane as it is sinister and totalitarian, his novel channels Kafka’s The Trial, George Orwell’s 1984 and Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

As a result, it is both hilarious and deeply disturbing.

But Pessin has realized something else.

Beyond the issue of Israel, identity politics is profoundly anti-Jew. Intersectional zealots don’t just target Israel because they see it as Western and therefore colonialist.

They target it because it embodies Jewish power.

Like other antisemites, these culture warriors believe that the Jews possess infernal, demonic power that enables them secretly to control the world in their own interests. Since Israel has military power, they view Israel as intrinsically a threat

| SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

to the world. To them, Jews can never be allowed to have power. They must always remain powerless.

Critical race theory, which sits at the core of intersectionality, is deeply, incontrovertibly anti-Jew. It holds that the Jews control the finances, professions and politics of the West and are therefore part of oppressive and racist “white privilege,” even if they are brown-skinned.

So Jews can never be considered victims. In Nevergreen, the deepest element of J’s fiendish predicament is that, even while people are hunting him in order to murder him on the basis of an insane lie, he can never be recognized as a victim because he is a Jew. Notably, however, this remains unspoken. For Nevergreen makes no mention of Jews. Instead, the narrative is stuffed with coded references that can be spotted by alert readers.

The victimized protagonist is referred to at the college only as J. This is an allusion to the novel J by Howard Jacobson in which “J” stands for Jew, the word that can never be mentioned because, in Jacobson’s own satirical dystopia, the Jews have been written out of the cultural script.

In similar vein, there are references in Nevergreen to the “Episode,” about which we are told only that students went to the Middle East to help bring peace between warring factions but got slaughtered for their efforts.

We are told that Professor A.M. Alek of the Near East Languages and Literature Department had some kind of role in this “ Episode”—not surprising since his name, spelled out, happens to be the name of the ultimate enemy of the Jewish people that the Torah tells us must be both blotted out and never be forgotten.

A Nevergreen student named Ariana, who loves “hating hate with close friends,” rejoices that the college is “solidly normal” because of the absence of “those people.”

Ariana is warmly embraced by A.M. Alek after she testifies to the “pain” of being denied “the privileges that others took for themselves when it was her people who deserved them, the privileges that specific others took, cheated, stole, from her people … these Fat Cats, these backstabbers, these parasites … .”

There are many more such Jewish references which it’s fun to spot, in a grisly kind of way. Yet the striking thing is that, although this Jewish theme is so important,

ANDREW PESSIN, A PHILOSOPHY PROFESSOR AT CONNECTICUT COLLEGE AND AUTHOR OF “NEVERGREEN.”

it is concealed in a kind of literary code.

This suggests a caution caused by the fact that that many people are actively turned off by the topic of antisemitism.

Despite the record levels of anti-Jewish hatred and attacks on campus and elsewhere, relatively little is written about it.

For antisemitism is the one prejudice that dare not speak its name. Many people are deeply uncomfortable with the Jews being presented as victims.

Partly that’s because of western Holocaust guilt. Partly it’s because it exposes intersectionality for promoting bogus victimization. But mainly, it’s because so many people really don’t care for the Jewish people. The murderous hunting of J in Nevergreen suggests the unspoken desire to cancel the Jews that is now poisoning the Western cultural air.

Derangement about the Jews drives the derangement of “cancel culture.” Pessin’s novel shows how irrationality and a total disconnection from reality define both our culture wars and the antisemitic mind, and that these are indissolubly linked. To read this brilliant novel is to laugh—and to cry.

Melanie Phillips, a British journalist, broadcaster and author, is currently a columnist for “The Times of London,” her personal and political memoir, Guardian Angel, has been published by Bombardier, which also published her first novel, “The Legacy.” jewishledger.com

WHAT’S HAPPENING SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 “The Four Horsemen” in Concert The Four Horsemen will perform at the JCC in Sherman (9 Rte 39 South) on Sept. 18 at 6:30 p.m. Band members include David Ray, Mike Latini, Dave Goldenberg and George Mallas. All four of the Horseman are singer-songwriters, each with their own unique style. Reservations a must. Tickets: $20/member, $25/non-members. At this time, the concert is to be held outdoors; if it moves indoors, masks will be required to be worn.

5K court will wind through the residential neighborhoods of Woodbridge. Groups are encouraged. Free event t-shirts. Save 20% by registering before Sept. 1. For information, visit jewishnewhaven.org.

West Hartford Mitzvah Fair Hosted by the Young Israel of West Hartford on Sept. 19, 10 a.m. - 12 noon.

Featuring: lulav & etrog market; soar on site; mezuzah and teffilin check, Sukkot decoration project for kids.

Mitka’s Secret The Mandell JCC, the Gordon Jewish Community Center of Nashville, Tenn., the Nashville Holocaust Memorial and Voices of Hope are hosting a special author event on Sept. 19 at 7:30 p.m. to discuss the compelling book Mitka’s Secret with the book’s authors: Joel Lohr, president and professor of Bible and Intereligious Dialogue at Hartford Seminary, who will join the conversation from West Hartford, and authors Steven Brallier and Lynn Beck who will be in Nashville. Mitka’s Story tells the story of Mitka Kalinski, who escaped from an execution site during the Holocaust as a young boy. He was later found by Nazi soldiers, and served as a subject for medical experimentation. Having been orphaned before the war, Mitka did not know his origins or even his name. Torture, slavery, and a false name stripped him of his identity. He was eventually freed and established a new life in the United States.

For more information, visit mandell.og.

Keney Park Reunion Share memories of Keney Park and the North End at this in-person reunion to be held at the park on Sept. 19 at 2 - 4 p.m.; Share your memories of spending time in the park; learn about the Keney Park Sustainability Project; take a short tour their demonstration garden, beekeeping and maple syrup making. Light refreshments.

Hosted by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford. $15/members; $18/ non-members. For more information or to register, visit jhsgh.org/keneypark.

10th Anniversary Murray Lender 5K Bagel Run The annual Murray Lender 5K Bagel Run Road Race, 2-mile Family Fit Walk and Free Kids’ Costume Run will be held Sept. 19; 8 a.m. registration, 9 am Kid’ Costume Race, 9:30 a.m. Bagel Run and 2 Mile Family Fit Walk, 10:30 a.m. Bagel Breakfast and Awards. Enjoy music, food and activities for the kids. USA Track & Field Certified jewishledger.com

and John P. Webster Library will host the final exhibition of “ABRAHAM: Out of One, Many,” October 5 – November 16, 2021.

Curated by CARAVAN, an international peacebuilding arts non-profit, “ABRAHAM: Out of One, Many” is an exhibition that originally premiered in Rome, Italy in 2019 and has since traveled throughout Europe and the United States, with the final stop of its global two-year tour in West Hartford.

For more information, visit mandell.org.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7 WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 22

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19

SEPTEMBER 18 – OCTOBER 30

Literature and Life Award winning novelist and short story writer Nicole Krauss will deliver the Diane Feigenson Lecture in Jewish Literature as part of the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies Fall 2021 Lecture Series. The author of Great House (2010), Forest Dark (2017), and To Be A Man (2020), Kraus will speak on the topic of “Here and There: The Parallel Worlds of Literature and Life.” The free Zoom webinar will be held on Sept. 22 at 7:30 p.m.

All fall lectures and events will be virtual webinars, free and open to the public.

Online registration is required for each event. Spring lectures will be in-person, with some events live streaming via Zoom.

The Bennett Center for Judaic Studies will follow Fairfield University regulations regarding in-person events and gatherings.

For more information, contact Jennifer Haynos at bennettcenter@fairfield.edu or (203) 254-4000, ext. 2066.

Sukkah Crawl Young Israel of West Hartford presents their 2nd Annual Sukkah Crawl, Sept. 22 at 8 p.m. With d’var Torahs and drinks.

Location to be announced.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 Mandell JCC dedicates President’s Courtyard and Tribute Wall Past presidents of the Mandell JCC (previously known as the Greater Hartford Jewish Center), dating back to the early 20th century, will be honored on Sept. 26 at 11 a.m. at The Dedication of the President’s Courtyard and the President’s Tribute Wall.

For more information, visit mandelljcc.0rg.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5 Opening Night of the exhibit “ABRAHAM: Out of One, Many | Hartford Seminary and Mandell JCC, in partnership with Episcopal Church in Connecticut, First Church West Hartford

Wildland: An Evening with Author Evan Osnos After a decade abroad, the National Book Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Evan Osnos returns to Greenwich and two other U.S. cities to illuminate the seismic changes in politics and culture that crescendoed during the pandemic.

His conversations with local residents in all three places coax out how individual lives entwine with the state of the nation.

Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury exposes critical fault lines in the national psyche and envisions what it will take to once again see ourselves as larger than the sum of our parts. Osnos will speak in conversation with Andrew Marantz, staff writer at The New Yorker, on Oct. 7 at 7:30 p.m. at The Berkley Theater, Greenwich Library, 101 West Putnam Avenue. Hosted

by UJA-JCC Greenwich and AuthorsLive.

Limited in-person attendance. For more information, visit ujajcc.org.

Daniel Pearl World Music Days Concert Alicia Jo Rabins, composer, singer, violinist, poet, writer, and Torah teacher performs for Zoom her indie-folk song cycle “Girls in Trouble: Songs about the Complicated Lives of Biblical Women,” on Oct. 7 at 7:30 p.m., as part of Daniel Pearl Music Days.

Concert is free, but registration is required.

Sponsored by the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies of Fairfield University. For more information, contact Jennifer Haynos at bennettcenter@fairfield.edu or (203) 2544000, ext. 2066.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10 Walk Against Hate Join ADL and the Connecticut Sun on Oct. 10 on the campus of the Watkinson School at 180 Bloomfield Ave. in West Hartford for a “Walk Against Hate” in-person event. The event will be filled with music, fun, and an opportunity to hear from the Sun’s leadership and others how to move forward as a community toward a future without antisemitism, racism and bigotry.

Food and beverages will be available for purchase. Check in and registration at 10 am.; event begins at 11 a.m. Register at WalkAgainstHate.org/Connecticut.

Those who can’t join the event in person are welcome to register to walk virtually, anytime and anyplace.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13 Jews of the Italian Renaissance Gabriel Mancuso, PhD, director, The Eugene Grant Research Program on Jewish History and Culture in Early Modern Europe at The Medici Archive Project, Florence, Italy will deliver a free webinar on the topic, “The Other Dome’ – The Jews of Italian Renaissance Italy, Between Paradigms and Paradoxes,” on Oct. 13 at 7:30 p.m. The webinar is free, but registration is required. Sponsored by the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies of Fairfield University. For more information, contact Jennifer Haynos at bennettcenter@ fairfield.edu or (203) 254-4000, ext. 2066.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 18 Mayoral Candidate Forum in Stamford The United Jewish Federation of Greater Stamford and the Jewish Community Relations Council will host a Mayoral Candidate Forum on Oct. 18 at 7:30 p.m.

Moderated by JCRC chair Joshua Esses, the forum will be held at the Stamford JCC, 1035 Newfield Ave., or may be viewed on Zoom (TBD). For more information, email slewis@ujf.org. Register at /ujf.regfox. com/mayoral-forum-2. Co-sponsored by the Stamford JCC, Congregation Agudath Sholom, Temple Beth El, Temple Sinai, and Young Israel of Stamford.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30 Rabbi Ethan Tucker to speak in New Haven Rabbi Ethan Tucker will discuss “Navigating Relationships in a World of Difference: How do we proceed when aspects of our Jewish observance create discomfort with family members and friends?” at Congregation Beth El - Keser Israel, 85 Harrison St., at the corner of Whalley Ave. on Oct. 30 at 1 p.m., following Shabbat services and kiddush lunch. Rabbi Tucker is president and Rosh Yeshiva at Hadar, an observant, egalitarian yeshiva. Sabbath rules will be observed. Masks are required.

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OBITUARIES ALBERT Karen Joy Albert, 62 of Newton, Mass. has died. She was the wife of Jason Albert. Raised in West Hartford, she was the daughter of Henrietta Lee Levins of Sarasota, Fla., and the late Marvin Allen Levins. She was also predeceased by her brother Myles Scott Levins. In addition to her husband and mother, she is survived by her stepsons, Justin Albert of Newton, Mass., and Julian Albert of Cambridge, Mass.

BERSHTEIN Attorney Herman S. Bershtein of Hamden dies one day after his 96th birthday. He was the widower of the late Shirley Lufer Bershtein. Born in New Haven, he was the son of the late William and Bessie Burke Gamm Bershtein. He served in the U.S. Army in 1943. A WWII veteran, he attended The Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. He served with the 86th Black Hawk Infantry Division, and later as a lieutenant under General Douglas McArthur at General Headquarters, Allied Forces Pacific AFPAC in the Far East. He is survived by his daughters, Joy A. Bershtein of Branford, Jan Bershtein of Bethany, and Richard A. Bershtein of Madison; and 10 grandchildren, William, Allison, Sheryl Leigh General of Branford, Marc and Alexa Cafasso of Bethany, Richard William, Hunter Sammy, Dylan James, Cody Sap and Shayann Shirley Bershtein of Madison; his great-granddaughter Jada Joy Lyman; and his companion. Lucy LaCava. He was also predeceased by his five brothers, David Bershtein, Alexander Gamm, Henry Gamm, James Bershtein, and Morris Gamm.

LARMAN Naomi (Netupsky) Larman, 101, of Boynton Beach, Fla., formerly of West Hartford, died Sept. 3. She was the widow of Julius E. Larman. Born in Bristol, she was the daughter of the late Harry and Mary (Kaufman) Netupsky. After working as an operating nurse for several months, she volunteered for service in the Army Nurse Corps where she served during World WarII as a First Lieutenant in Australia and the Philippines. She was a member of The Emanuel Synagogue in West Hartford.She is survived by her sons, Stuart H Larman and his wife Stephanie of Tucson, Ariz., and Barry W Larman and his partner Jill Finberg of Portland, Me.; her sister Pearl Shilberg; her grandchildren, Benjamin Larman and his wife Tasha, Sarah Smythers and her husband Jim, and Jacob Larman; her great-grandchildren, Zola, Ari and Gemma Larman, and Julian and Oliver Smythers; and numerous nieces and nephews.

SIEGEL Fay Siegel, 97, of Boynton Beach, formerly of Teaneck, New Jersey, died Sept. 3.

She was the widow of Jack Siegel. Born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in the Bronx, New York, she was the daughter of Aaron and Ethel Saperstein She was also predeceased by her daughter Barbara (Herbert) Kamm, and her beloved brother Bernie Saperstein. She is survived by her daughter Lynn Goldman and her husband Leslie; her grandchildren, Adam Kamm and his wife Toni, and Emily Yolkut and her husband Ari; her step-grandchildren, Rachel Alper and her husband Eli, and

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Emily Goldman and her husband Mike Rubin; and her great-grandchildren, Noa Yolkut, Jacklyn Kamm, Zachary Kamm, Maayan Yolkut, Aaron Alper, and Micah Alper.

STEINBERG Jay H. Steinberg, 75, of Cheshire and Southington, died Sept. 4. Born in Manhattan,and raised in Scarsdale, he was the son of Norman and Gladys (Adelson) Steinberg. He is survived by his brother

David Steinberg and his wife Katherine Moloney of Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; his sister Bernice aSingleton and her husband George of Osprey, Fla.; his nephew Jesse Steinberg and his wife Sandy; his niece Sarah Steinberg of Lake Worth Beach, Fla.; his grandniece Sorrel Steinberg of Richmond, R.I.; and several cousins.

For more information on placing an obituary, contact: judiej@ jewishledger.

More than 100 headstones smashed at Jewish cemetery in Argentina (JTA) – More than 100 headstones were smashed at a Jewish cemetery in Argentina that had seen similar damage in 2009.

The vandalism at the Tablada Cemetery in the Buenos Aires area was discovered on Sunday, the Jewish news site Visavis reported. The headstones were between the cemetery’s older section and the new one, which also contains the remains of dozens of victims from the 1994 terrorist bombing at the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.

AMIA, the umbrella of Argentine Jewish communities, condemned the vandalism and lamented the “neglect and lack of control” by law enforcement THE JEWISH CEMETERY OF LA TABLADA IN BUENOS around the cemetery in La AIRES, ARGENTINA, PICTURED IN 2013.

(WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/DARIO ALPERN) Matanza, an eastern district of the Argentine capital.

Police are investigating, AMIA said in a statement. It did not say whether there are indications of the vandalism being an antisemitic hate crime. There are no suspects.

In 2009, unidentified individuals defaced more than 60 headstones, including victims of the 1994 bombing. That vandalism also happened shortly before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which this year began on Monday evening. AMIA did call that vandalism antisemitic.

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CT SYNAGOGUE DIRECTORY To join our synagogue directories, contact Howard Meyerowitz at (860) 231-2424 x3035 or howardm@jewishledger.com.

BLOOMFIELD B’nai Tikvoh-Sholom/ Neshama Center for Lifelong Learning Conservative Rabbi Debra Cantor (860) 243-3576 office@BTSonline.org www.btsonline.org BRIDGEPORT Congregation B’nai Israel Reform Rabbi Evan Schultz (203) 336-1858 info@cbibpt.org www.cbibpt.org Congregation Rodeph Sholom Conservative (203) 334-0159 Rabbi Richard Eisenberg, Cantor Niema Hirsch info@rodephsholom.com www.rodephsholom.com CHESHIRE Temple Beth David Reform Rabbi Micah Ellenson (203) 272-0037 office@TBDCheshire.org www.TBDCheshire.org CHESTER Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek Reform Rabbi Marci Bellows (860) 526-8920 rabbibellows@cbsrz.org www.cbsrz.org COLCHESTER Congregation Ahavath Achim Conservative Rabbi Kenneth Alter (860) 537-2809 secretary@congregationahavathachim.org

EAST HARTFORD Temple Beth Tefilah Conservative Rabbi Yisroel Snyder (860) 569-0670 templebetht@yahoo.com FAIRFIELD Congregation Ahavath Achim Orthodox (203) 372-6529 office@ahavathachim.org www.ahavathachim.org Congregation Beth El, Fairfield Conservative Rabbi Marcelo Kormis (203) 374-5544 office@bethelfairfield.org www.bethelfairfield.org GLASTONBURY Congregation Kol Haverim Reform Rabbi Dr. Kari Tuling (860) 633-3966 office@kolhaverim.org www.kolhaverim.org GREENWICH Greenwich Reform Synagogue Reform Rabbi Jordie Gerson (203) 629-0018 hadaselias@grs.org www.grs.org Temple Sholom Conservative Rabbi Mitchell M. Hurvitz Rabbi Kevin Peters (203) 869-7191 info@templesholom.com www.templesholom.com

HAMDEN Congregation Mishkan Israel Reform Rabbi Brian P. Immerman (203) 288-3877 tepstein@cmihamden.org www.cmihamden.org Temple Beth Sholom Conservative Rabbi Benjamin Edidin Scolnic (203) 288-7748 tbsoffice@tbshamden.com www.tbshamden.com MADISON Temple Beth Tikvah Reform Rabbi Stacy Offner (203) 245-7028 office@tbtshoreline.org www.tbtshoreline.org MANCHESTER Beth Sholom B’nai Israel Conservative Rabbi Randall Konigsburg (860) 643-9563 Rabbenu@myshul.org programming@myshul.org www.myshul.org MIDDLETOWN Adath Israel Conservative Rabbi Nelly Altenburger (860) 346-4709 office@adathisraelct.org www.adathisraelct.org NEW HAVEN The Towers at Tower Lane Conservative Ruth Greenblatt, Spiritual Leader Sarah Moskowitz, Spiritual Leader (203) 772-1816 rebecca@towerlane.org www.towerlane.org

Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel Conservative Rabbi Eric Woodward (203) 389-2108 office@BEKI.org www.BEKI.org Orchard Street ShulCongregation Beth Israel Orthodox Rabbi Mendy Hecht 203-776-1468 www.orchardstreetshul.org NEW LONDON Ahavath Chesed Synagogue Orthodox Rabbi Avrohom Sternberg 860-442-3234 Ahavath.chesed@att.net Congregation Beth El Conservative Rabbi Earl Kideckel (860) 442-0418 office@bethel-nl.org www.bethel-nl.org NEWINGTON Temple Sinai Reform Rabbi Jeffrey Bennett (860) 561-1055 templesinaict@gmail.com www.sinaict.org NEWTOWN Congregation Adath Israel Conservative Rabbi Barukh Schectman (203) 426-5188 office@congadathisrael.org www.congadathisrael.org NORWALK Beth Israel Synagogue – Chabad of Westport/ Norwalk Orthodox-Chabad Rabbi Yehoshua S. Hecht (203) 866-0534 info@bethisraelchabad.org bethisraelchabad.org Temple Shalom Reform Rabbi Cantor Shirah Sklar (203) 866-0148 admin@templeshalomweb.org www.templeshalomweb.org NORWICH Congregation Brothers of Joseph Modern Orthodox Rabbi Yosef Resnick (781 )201-0377 yosef.resnick@gmail.com https://brofjo.tripod.com

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WALLINGFORD Beth Israel Synagogue Conservative Rabbi Bruce Alpert (203) 269-5983 info@bethisraelwallingford.org www.bethisraelwallingford.org

Kehilat Chaverim of Greater Hartford Chavurah Adm. - Nancy Malley (860) 951-6877 mnmalley@yahoo.com www.kehilatchaverim.org

Congregation Or Shalom Conservative Rabbi Alvin Wainhaus (203) 799-2341 info@orshalomct.org www.orshalomct.org

WASHINGTON Greater Washington Coalition for Jewish Life Rabbi James Greene (860) 868-2434 jewishlifect@gmail.com www.jewishlife.org

The Emanuel Synagogue Conservative Rabbi David J. Small (860) 236-1275 communications@emanuelsynagogue.org www.emanuelsynagogue.org

PUTNAM Congregation B’nai Shalom Conservative Rabbi Eliana Falk - Visiting Rabbi (860) 315-5181 susandstern@gmail.com www.congregationbnaishalom.org

WATERFORD Temple Emanu - El Reform Rabbi Marc Ekstrand Rabbi Emeritus Aaron Rosenberg (860) 443-3005 office@tewaterfrord.org www.tewaterford.org

United Synagogues of Greater Hartford Orthodox Rabbi Eli Ostrozynsk i synagogue voice mail (860) 586-8067 Rabbi’s mobile (718) 6794446 ostro770@hotmail.com www.usgh.org

SIMSBURY Chabad of the Farmington Valley Chabad Rabbi Mendel Samuels (860) 658-4903 chabadsimsbury@gmail.com www.chabadotvalley.org

WEST HARTFORD Beth David Synagogue Orthodox Rabbi Yitzchok Adler (860) 236-1241 office@bethdavidwh.org www.bethdavidwh.org

Young Israel of West Hartford Orthodox Rabbi Tuvia Brander (860) 233-3084 info@youngisraelwh.org www.youngisraelwh.org

ORANGE Chabad of Orange/ Woodbridge Chabad Rabbi Sheya Hecht (203) 795-5261 info@chabadow.org www.chabadow.org

Farmington Valley Jewish Congregation, Emek Shalom Reform Rabbi Rebekah Goldman Mag (860) 658-1075 admin@fvjc.org www.fvjc.org SOUTH WINDSOR Temple Beth Hillel of South Windsor Reform Rabbi Jeffrey Glickman (860) 282-8466 tbhrabbi@gmail.com www.tbhsw.org

Beth El Temple Conservative Rabbi James Rosen Rabbi Ilana Garber (860) 233-9696 hsowalsky@bethelwh.org www.bethelwesthartford.org Chabad House of Greater Hartford Rabbi Joseph Gopin Rabbi Shaya Gopin, Director of Education (860) 232-1116 info@chabadhartford.com www.chabadhartford.com Congregation Beth Israel Reform Rabbi Michael Pincus Rabbi Andi Fliegel Cantor Stephanie Kupfer (860) 233-8215 bethisrael@cbict.org www.cbict.org

SOUTHINGTON Gishrei Shalom Jewish Congregation Reform Rabbi Alana Wasserman (860) 276-9113 President@gsjc.org www.gsjc.org TRUMBULL Congregation B’nai Torah Conservative Rabbi Colin Brodie (203) 268-6940 office@bnaitorahct.org www.bnaitorahct.org

Congregation P’nai Or Jewish Renewal Shabbat Services Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener (860) 561-5905 pnaiorct@gmail.com www.jewishrenewalct.org

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WESTPORT Temple Israel of Westport Reform Rabbi Michael Friedman, Senior Rabbi Cantor Julia Cadrain, Senior Cantor Rabbi Elana Nemitoff-Bresler, Rabbi Educator Rabbi Zach Plesent, Assistant Rabbi (203) 227-1293 info@tiwestport.org www.tiwestport.org WETHERSFIELD Temple Beth Torah Unaffiliated Rabbi Alan Lefkowitz (860) 828-3377 tbt.w.ct@gmail.com templebethtorahwethersfield.org WOODBRIDGE Congregation B’nai Jacob Conservative Rabbi Rona Shapiro (203) 389-2111 info@bnaijacob.org www.bnaijacob.org

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