CT Jewish Ledger • October 1, 2021 • 25 Tishrei 5782

Friday, October 1, 2021 25 Tishrei 5782 Vol. 93 | No. 40 | ©2021 jewishledger.com

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WHAT THE NAZIS STOLE JEWISH LEDGER

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JORGENSEN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

OCTOBER 2021 @ JORGENSEN

Oct 9, COMEDIAN JIMMY O. YANG – laugh out loud fun!

Oct 15, VOCES8 – perfectly blended a cappella Oct 26, TAKÁCS QUARTET – Haydn, Coleridge-Taylor, Schubert

Note: all artists, events, dates, programs and COVID-19 policies are subject to change.

Please check website for livestream event opportunities.

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| OCTOBER 1, 2021

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INSIDE

this week

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | OCTOBER 1, 2021 | 25 TISHREI 5782

8 Authors Corner

9 Around CT

10 Briefs

17 Crossword

18 Life in Israel

Arts & Entertainment.......................................................... 4 Jeudy-Lamour is a Haitian Canadian Jew who lives in Los Angeles and works in London, Toronto and around the world. He’s also plays goalkeeper Moe on the Emmy-award winning TV show “Ted Lasso.”

Ancestors................................................................................. 5 A new photography exhibit at Westville’s Beth El-Keser Israel celebrates life, family, and the strength that can come from connections to the past.

19 What’s Happening

20 Obituaries

21 Business and Professional Directory

22 Classified

ON THE COVER:

Johannes Felbermeyer’s photograph, “Artworks in storage at the Central Collecting Point,” Munich [ca. 1945-1949] (Courtesy of the Jewish Museum) depicts dozens of stacked up paintings that were stolen from Jews by the Nazis during World Wr II. Several such pieces of art stolen from Austrian-Jewish art collector Richard Neumann have been returned to his descendants and are on display at the Worcester Art Museum until January 2022.

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Campus News.................................... 5 A new survey finds an alarming level of antisemitism experienced by Jewish students on college campuses, with students who claim a strong sense of Jewish identity feeling unsafe and the need to actively hide their identity.

Into the Forest................................... 7 West Hartford native Rebecca Frankel has written a new book that recounts Ruth Lazowski’s Holocaust experience…and the love story that followed.

OPINION.............................................14 The refusal of left-wingers to go along with a bill that included funding for Israel’s Iron Dome defense system is being spun by Democratic leaders as a momentary tactical blip. It isn’t.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT ‘Ted Lasso’ goalkeeper Moe Jeudy-Lamour is a (Jewish) citizen of the world

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BY EMILY BURACK

ctor Moe Jeudy-Lamour really needs to get his Star of David necklace repaired. One day, he took it off, accidentally yanking the chain, and it broke. So, on our Zoom just after the Jewish New Year, he’s wearing a different necklace: one that has a silver “chai” charm dangling — chai, being the Hebrew word for life.

“The funny thing is I don’t like jewelry,” Jeudy-Lamour explains. “But those are the two things that I wear. I’ve had them for maybe 10 years. And really, it’s part of who I am — it’s part of my identity.”

Jeudy-Lamour, has a global identity: He’s a Haitian Canadian Jew who lives in Los Angeles and works in London, Toronto and around the world. “It sounds very cliche and pretentious, but it feels better when I say that I’m just a citizen of the world.”

He was raised in Montreal to parents from Haiti and is fluent in English, French and Creole. His mother converted to Judaism when he was little — so young he doesn’t remember ever not being Jewish — and he grew up Shabbat observant, with Saturdays spent in a synagogue where no one else looked like him and his brother.

But we’ll get to all that later, because first we need to talk about “Ted Lasso.”

Jeudy-Lamour’s journey to his role on “Ted Lasso” could be traced back to when he started acting professionally in 2011, but really, it started with his role in “Race,” a Jesse Owens biopic focusing on the Black athlete’s decision to compete in the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. Jeudy-Lamour plays Mel Walker, Owens’ Ohio State teammate. “Race” was released in 2016, filmed in 2014 in Montreal — and was the start of his friendship with Jason Sudeikis, a connection that would change the course of his acting career. (In “Race,” Sudeikis plays track and field coach Larry Snyder.)

“I’ve been friends with Jason for seven years,” Jeudy-Lamour says, dating back to the filming of “Race.” “It’s thanks to Montreal that our friendship began. I showed him around the city; I showed him my friends and how cool the city is, and all of that. And then we stayed in touch. When I moved to LA, I saw him at a play. And [he told me], ‘Oh, I’m filming this TV show soon in London and it’d be cool to have you.’ So I auditioned for it, and then got to be in London for a few months. It was amazing.

That “TV show in London” turned out to be “Ted Lasso,” the feel-good smash hit comedy about an American football coach trying to make it as a British football 4

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(aka soccer) coach for AFC Richmond, which is currently airing its second season.

Jeudy-Lamour portrays goalkeeper Thierry Zoreaux.

Zoreaux is, thanks to Jeudy-Lamour, a French Canadian athlete who is likely also Haitian and Jewish, though that hasn’t come up on screen yet. Zoreaux, AFC Richmond’s goalkeeper, is present in all the main scenes with the team, though he doesn’t have his own storyline (yet).

Nonetheless, Thierry Zorreaux has an entire wiki about him before there’s even a Wikipedia page on Jeudy-Lamour himself.

Jeudy-Lamour’s mom, who still lives in Montreal, doesn’t watch the show — she doesn’t have Apple TV+, nor does she speak English. But he tells me, with a big smile, “Every time it’s on the news or something like that, she’ll send me the clippings.”

The “Ted Lasso” writers encourage their actors to bring themselves into their roles. So, when in episode 10 of season one, the players suggest names for trick plays, Zoreaux, a proud Québécois resident, adds: “Midnight Poutine!” Coach Lasso (Sudeikis) replies, “Poutine?” and his assistant Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt), replies, “That’s not dirty, it’s just super Canadian.”

In season two’s Christmas episode, Zoreaux brings poutine to the team’s potluck holiday dinner, calling back to the season one play.

“With the poutine, it was definitely a thing that happened to bring [more of] myself to the role. But apart from that, we haven’t really touched on the other stuff yet, like my Haitian or my Jewish [identities].

In the Christmas episode, we talked about maybe bringing a Jewish dish, but it didn’t really work out; they went with poutine,” he said.

Still, his Jewish identity is clearly important to him and something that has shifted throughout various stages of his life. “There’s Jewish, the culture, and then Jewish, the religion. When I was younger, it was hard to get into the culture because I’m Black. Going to the synagogue, it was always my brother and me, alone together.”

Jeudy-Lamour, his brother and their mom attended an Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogue in Montreal, where their mom sat in the women’s section and the brothers sat alone.

“It was hard,” he recalls, “it was just the two of us.”

“Builds character, I guess,” he added.

People were nice, though. People would tell us where in the Torah we were, where in

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MOE JEUDY-LAMOUR AS AFC RICHMOND GOALKEEPER THIERRY ZOREAUX. (APPLE TV)

the prayers we were, people were super nice and welcoming.”

As he got older, he made Jewish friends who weren’t Orthodox, and one weekend, he went to a Reform synagogue. JeudyLamour remembers, “That was like, oh my God. We were sitting with his entire family.

It was just all us! I [thought], that’s so cool.

It’s so different.”

The pull of observing Shabbat decreased as he got older and had the ability to decide for himself his own practice.

“For 10 years, we were like shomer Shabbat, we were super into it. Then you get older and you’re like… but my other friends are going to the park and playing video games on Saturdays,” he said. “You become your own person. And you have to make your own choices and see what you want to do.”

Since moving to Los Angeles, however, he’s begun reconnecting with Jewish observance. His neighbors happen to be Israeli; they do Shabbat together, and recently all celebrated the first night of Rosh Hashanah. For Jeudy-Lamour, who was raised Ashkenazi, he has been loving their Sephardi food.

Meanwhile, Jeudy-Lamour continues to build his own community — whatever that looks like in 2021. The “Ted Lasso” cast, especially the actors who comprise the AFC Richmond squad, have grown close over the

course of filming. They play the FIFA soccer video game “almost every weekend” and have a group chat that’s always popping.

As actors who portray a soccer team, one would think they’d bring a love of soccer to the show. Yet for Jeudy-Lamour, growing up in Montreal, he never played soccer; as a teenager, he played American football for a time as a wide receiver, but never got very into athletics.

“When Jason [told me], ‘Maybe you’ll be the goalkeeper since you’ve never played,’ I was like, ‘Nah, I think being a striker would be more fun, you know, running around.’

And he looked at me and was like, ‘Trust me, man. You’re older. You want to be the goalkeeper.’ I was like, ‘eh, OK,’” JeudyLamour said. “Now I get it. It’s so much better. I’m just hanging out in my corner, I’m chillin’ and I see all the guys running around. I’m like, yeah, I’d rather be where I’m at.”

As a byproduct of being on a TV show, he’s become a fan of Los Angeles FC games.

“They’re my team, I root for the,” he says.

“But every time that I’m at the game and the opposing goalkeeper does a nice save, I have to cheer. I’m a fan of goalkeepers now: That’s my thing. I’ll always watch them.”

We’ll be cheering for Jeudy-Lamour.

This article originally appeared on Alma.

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UP FRONT

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | OCTOBER 1, 2021 | 25 TISHREI 5782

BEKI reconnects with ancestors

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t’s an old photograph, of three people walking hand in hand in hand down the street. All of them are in mid-stride. All of them are looking straight at the camera. One is in a suit, one in a dress, one in a military uniform. They have a story to tell, and what a story it is.

“Abraham (1920-2010) Chana (19262020) and Fiszel (1910-1986) Tugentman were the only survivors of their family after WW II,” writes Ghislane Palumbo on an accompanying note. The Tugentmans had lived in Warsaw before the war began. They fled to Russian-occupied Bialystock in 1939.

The brothers were drafted into the Russian army. When the Nazis occupied the city they sent Chana to a work camp; everyone else was killed.

“After the war my uncles Abraham and Fiszel checked with the Joint in Warsaw to see who in their family had been listed as survivors, and they found my mother Chana working as a seamstress in Lodz, Poland.

They all had married by 1946 and wanted to leave Europe, so they went and signed up through the Joint Distribution Committee, which sent them to the displaced persons camp in Heideheim, Germany. I believe the picture was taken in Munich on their way to the DP camp. In that picture my uncles still had their Russian Post-War boots, and my mother wore a new coat my father had made for her.”

Palumbo’s story is just one among multitudes in “Ancestors,” an engrossing photography exhibit up now through Nov. 7 in two floors of Congregation Beth El–Keser Israel at 85 Harrison St. in Westville.

Curated by BEKI’s art committee, the exhibit — composed of family photographs from congregants, along with accompanying stories about the people in the photographs — commemorates the rich and complex story of the survival and persistence of the Jewish people. Some of the faces in the images belong to those who died in the Holocaust. Others are of those who escaped to the United States. But also, there’s a rabbi who appeared on the cover of Life magazine; cowboys, one of whom was the inspiration for Lonesome Dove; a lawyer who sang in a glee club; a grandfather who emigrated from Poland — or Russia — to become a tailor in Boston.

The exhibit weaves together the harrowing and the mundane, the humor jewishledger.com

Survey of Jewish frats and sororities finds most students experienced antisemitism on campus

BY BRIAN SLATTERY

(COURTESY OF GHISLANE PALUMBO)

and the hard work, to celebrate life, family, and the strength that can come from connections to the past.

For Cynthia Beth Rubin, a New Havenbased artist who exhibits regularly here and abroad and is a member of BEKI’s art committee, the exhibit is a long time in the making. The idea for an art gallery at BEKI, Rubin said, began with Helen Rosenberg, fellow member of BEKI’s art committee.

“She had the idea of using the upper gallery,” Rubin said. When the area a floor below was renovated a few years ago, they made sure it had the lighting needed to be able to use it as a gallery space too. “People were really behind it,” Rubin said.

From the start the art was understood as a way to build community, whether it was to display Judaica that BEKI members owned or to host a number of individual shows by artists from New Haven and beyond. BEKI’s gallery also hosted an exhibition of photographs BEKI members had taken of synagogue buildings across the world — whether they currently housed congregations or had been repurposed for another use (as is the case of the Educational Center for the Arts’s use of the former Mishkan Israel synagogue on the corner of Audubon and Orange Streets).

“Most were international but it could have been in Connecticut or local,” Rubin said. Rubin and fellow artist Bruce Oren put

that project together over two years, 2018 and 2019, and “that was hugely successful,” Rubin said.

It opened the door to thinking of other ways to involve many of BEKI’s members, which got the committee thinking about ancestry, and put out the call to BEKI members to share the photographs they had.

“We spent a lot of time making sure that we were not giving a narrow definition of ancestors,” Rubin said. The subjects of the photographs didn’t have to be Jewish, nor did they have to be direct ancestors.

“Anything that people felt fit” was allowed, Rubin said. “There were people who wanted to honor ancestors who didn’t survive,” or “people who were hidden children and were the only ones who did survive.”

That broad definition is part of what makes the exhibit so rich. Among the images is a painted family portrait, the ancestors of Tina Rose.

“My grandfather was in the Polish army in WWI, my mom and uncle were not born yet, my aunt Ada is standing (she died as a lawyer getting Jews out of Poland during the Holocaust), my other aunt Clara, sitting, survived and passed away 20 years ago, my uncle survived and passed 15 years ago.

My mom and her brother were not born yet. My mom passed 32 years ago,” Rose writes. “My mom and dad found this photo painting at a Bronx street fair after the war in the ‘50’s, my mom had to pay to get it back.”

Rubin started getting pictures from congregants in 2020, just as the pandemic shutdown was settling in. “We started seriously in May” of that year, she said, and “we got so many — twice as much as we thought we would have.” Many of the photographs from congregants were small, so they were scanned, resized, and reprinted, making them visible from a standing distance.

They finished framing in August and installed the photographs at the end of that month, “to keep the idea of community building around the holidays,” Rubin said, even if “we only had a fraction of people show up in person” for services. The images were and are “something that would make people feel like it was their space.”

The resizing emphasized the

BY BEN SALES

(JTA) — A survey of members of AEPi and AEPhi, the most prominent national Jewish fraternity and sorority, found that large numbers of respondents have experienced antisemitism on campus.

The survey also found that about half of respondents have felt the need to hide their Jewish identity on campus or in virtual campus settings. A slim majority said they “are somewhat or very reluctant to share their views on Israel,” according to the survey.

The survey was commissioned by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a legal organization that aids Jewish and pro-Israel college students. It was conducted by Mike Cohen of the Cohen Research Group in Washington, D.C. The survey was conducted last April, before the spike in antisemitism in the United States surrounding the IsraelGaza conflict the following month.

The survey was made available to all AEPi and AEPhi members nationally, and 1,027 chose to respond — 710 of the 5,158 AEPi students and 317 of 3,310 AEPhi students. It is unclear how representative the respondents are of AEPi and AEPhi as a whole, though Cohen said it was an unusually high response rate.

The survey comes amid concern among Jewish organizations, and Jewish campus activists, about marginalization and harassment of Jews on campus. National Jewish groups have long seen college campuses, and particularly the debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on campus, as a front in the fight against anti-Jewish bigotry. In the past year, Jewish student activists have organized CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

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BEKI

Campus News

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(COURTESY CYNTHIA RUBIN)

idiosyncrasies of the photos as physical artifacts — blurred images, sepia coloring, frayed edges. It also brought out details that were harder to see in the smaller originals. That was in part due to Rubin’s scanning work. “There were a few things I went crazy with because, stupidly, I enjoy fixing photographs,” she said with a laugh. But in seeing the images blown up to a larger size, people saw “family resemblances that they never saw before.

They’re related in a way they never did before.”

The exhibit sometimes highlights the fragility of our connections to the past.

Most families’ living memories don’t go back much farther than a few generations — perhaps to great-grandparents. Those collective memories are further tested by the circumstances in which BEKI congregants’ ancestors arrived in the United States. Many “wanted to leave the old country behind” and start over,” Rubin said. Many left no records. Many people have pictures of ancestors they don’t know.

But sometimes those connections to the past were strengthened, too. Rubin said in her own case, a photograph of her family holding a seder during World War II “gave me an opportunity to put things in a historical context.” She had shared the image during her family’s own virtually held seder this year. “It was this juxtaposition between having a seder during the war and having a seder during the pandemic,” the sense of threads that weaved their way through calamity and upheaval, irrevocably changed but unbroken. “I think everybody has that,” Rubin said. “Can we share what happened?”

Even as the exhibit overtly reaches 6

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back into the past, it reflects the present in which it was put together.

“The pandemic year has made people take a longer view of their lives,” Rubin said. “That means continuum with the past and future — seeing themselves in the big spectrum of time and place.”

She noticed that on the summer days in which people brought in their pictures for her to scan, which was done in the BEKI lobby. “I think the stories would have been different” in a normal year, Rubin said. “People were telling me these stories — they really wanted to tell them.” She got text messages from people afterward as well. “I love these,” she thought, “but they’re not just for me to hear.”

Rubin said the committee plans to repeat the exhibit and engage even more participants. She’s glad to see BEKI’s interior space being used as a place to show art, and to expand the sense of what an art exhibition can be. It is a way of “having art be a part of people’s lives,” she said. “We’ve got these walls. Let’s do something.”

themselves to fight anti-Zionism and antisemitism online.

Those concerns have reached the highest levels of government. Kenneth Marcus, the founder of the Brandeis Center, served as assistant U.S. secretary of education for civil rights under President Donald Trump. In 2019, Trump signed an executive order mandating “robust” enforcement of civil rights protections for Jews on campus, which included some anti-Israel activity in the definition of antisemitism. The order prompted a series of federal complaints alleging antisemitism at campuses in the U.S., some of which were filed by the Brandeis Center.

The survey found that half of AEPi respondents, and two-thirds of AEPhi respondents, had personally been targeted with an antisemitic comment in the 120 days before the survey was taken.

Cohen said the higher number of sorority members who experienced antisemitism was due partially to their having been called gendered terms such as “Jewish American Princess.”

Roughly a quarter of each group said they heard offensive jokes about Jews. A slightly lower number said they heard people repeat age-old antisemitic stereotypes about Jews being greedy or cheap. Smaller percentages reported

hearing offensive statements about Israel, like comparing Israel’s actions to those of the Nazis.

More than 60% of students in AEPi and AEPhi said that at some point, they have felt unsafe as Jews on campus or in virtual campus settings. Most of both groups said they’re worried about verbal attacks, and about a third of each group said they’re worried about online harassment or being “marginalized or penalized” by a professor, according to the survey. About one in six respondents feared a physical attack.

The survey found that more than 80% of both groups consider other Jews their extended family and are supportive of Israel. A majority of respondents has been to Israel.

“These findings ring some pretty consequential alarms, more closely resembling previous dark periods in our history, not the 21st century in the U.S.,” Marcus said in a statement. “They reveal that students for whom being Jewish is a central or important aspect of their identity are feeling increasingly unsafe visibly expressing their Judaism for fear of harassment, social bullying and other antiSemitic attacks.

This article is an excerpt of an article that appeared in New Haven Independent (www. newhavenindependent.org), and is reprinted with permission.

A STUDENT BIKES ACROSS CAMPUS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANACHAMPAIGN. (JEFFREY GREENBERG/ UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP VIA GETTY IMAGES)

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TORAHPortion Bereshit

BY SHLOMO RISKIN

“And these are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, on the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.” (Gen. 2:4)

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magine a world conducted according to strict Divine justice: punishment immediately meted out to a person committing a wrongdoing. What kind of world would this be?

On the one hand, we would never have the question of why bad things happen to good people, because an evil act would be stopped in its tracks; after all, any innocent person’s suffering would violate the principle of Divine justice.

On the other hand, if evil could not exist because of the all-encompassing powers of Divine justice, how would a human being differ from a laboratory rat, conditioned to move down a certain tunnel, jolts of electricity guiding its choices?

For the world to exist with human beings granted the choice to wield either a murderer’s knife or a physician’s scalpel, with human beings not as powerless puppets but rather as potential partners with the Divine, God must hold back from immediate punishment.

Compassion (rahamim) must be joined with justice (din) so that the Almighty will grant the possibility of the wicked to repent, the opportunity to those who have fallen to rise once again, and offer the challenge to a fallible humanity to perfect an imperfect world.

Indeed, Rashi, the renowned Biblical commentator, notes that the first verse of Genesis, in describing the world’s creation, uses not the Divine Name “Y-HV-H” (“Hashem”), associated with the Divine attribute of compassion, but rather the Divine Name “Elohim”, associated with the Divine attribute of justice, because initially The Holy One, Blessed be He, intended to create a world of strict justice.

However, the Almighty realized that the world could not endure in such a mode, and therefore gave precedence to Divine compassion, uniting it with Divine justice. This explains, says Rashi, why the verse (Gen. 2:4) that leads this essay utilizes the Divine Names “Hashem Elohim”, combining the Divine attributes of compassion and justice.

There is, however, a steep price we must pay for this Divine compassion and human freedom of choice: the suffering of innocents. If people have the free will

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to act, then some people will take actions that harm others. And even those who act appropriately will not necessarily see the blessings of their good deeds.

In fact, the Talmud declares, ‘there is no reward for the fulfillment of commandments in this world’ [Kiddushin 39b], leaving Divine reward and punishment for the afterlife. In effect, Divine compassion allowing for free will and ultimate repentance must enable individuals to do even what God, in a perfect world, would not allow them to do!

In accordance with this theology, a Hasidic teaching provides an alternative way of reading the first three words in the Torah, ‘Bereshit bara Elohim,’ usually translated, ‘In the beginning God created…’ Since there is an etnachta (‘stop’ sign; semicolon) cantillation underneath the third word in the phrase, the words can also be taken to mean, ‘Beginnings did God create.’ This reading provides hope and optimistic faith even in a world devoid of reward.

Anyone who has experienced significant lifestyle changes understands the significance of the challenge and opportunity of ‘another chance.’ Free will, the concept of making your own choices, implies that sometimes mistakes will be made and tragedies will occur. But instead of Divine justice descending as a bolt of lightning, Divine compassion emerges to absorb the lethal voltage.

Holding off Divine justice is saying we always have another chance to better ourselves, to redeem the tragedy, to try again. Is this not what ‘ beginnings are all about?

True repentance means carving out a new beginning for oneself. Beginnings, therefore, go hand in hand with Divine compassion, and Divine faith in the human personality to recreate him/ herself and to forge a new destiny. The sinner isn’t shut out forever; he is always given another opportunity through repentance, another possibility of recreating for himself and his immediate environment, a new beginning.

Thus, in the Torah’s opening word, Bereshit (“beginning”), we find not only the theme of the Torah, but of the entirety of existence: God created an imperfect and sometimes unjust world to allow the possibility of change and growth. If change weren’t possible then there would be no need for, and no uniqueness within, human beings. The Glory of God and humanity is to be found in the opening phrase of the Bible: ‘God created beginnings’ – new opportunities and manifold re-awakenings.

Bennett Center for Judaic Studies LECTURES AND EVENTS: Fall 2021 A Semester of Free Virtual Learning

Daniel Pearl World Music Days Concert

“Girls in Trouble: Songs about the Complicated Lives of Biblical Women” Alicia Jo Rabins, Composer, singer, violinist, poet, writer, and Torah teacher performs from Portland, Oregon, her indiefolk song cycle “Girls in Trouble”.

Thursday, October 7 at 7:30 p.m.

- free virtual event Virtual Events

Registration is required at fairfield.edu/bennettprograms. For questions,Virtual contact the Event Bennett Center at bennettcenter@fairfield.edu or (203) 254-4000, ext. 2066

1073 NORTH BENSON ROAD, FAIRFIELD, CT 06824 JEWISH LEDGER

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OCTOBER 1, 2021

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AUTHOR’S CORNER

Author Rebecca Frankel’s new book traces Ruth Lazowski’s Holocaust experience…and accidental love story

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BY STACEY DRESNER

ebecca Frankel has close personal ties with the subjects of her new book, Into the Forest, A Holocaust Story of Survival, Trimph and Love.

When she was a child growing up in West Hartford, Frankel’s family belonged to Beth Hillel Synagogue, which was led by Rabbi Philip Lazowski. Into the Forest is the story of the rabbi’s wife, Ruth, who as a child, hid from the Nazis with her family in the Bialowieza Forest near the Polish town of Zhetel.

“I remember how warm and loving the Lazowskis were,” Frankel remembers.

Thought she calls both Lazowskis [they] “very special,” she also notes that “Their personalities are very different. He has a little bit of mischief in his eye and could always be counted on for a hard candy. She is very warm.”

Frankel became aware of the Lazowskis’ wartime experiences early on.

In the fourth grade, she recalls, the Lazowskis visiting her Hebrew school classroom to talk to students about the Holocaust. Rabbi Lazowski’s experiences during the Holocaust are well known in the Greater Hartford area – he has not only spoken about his life many times in public forums, but also wrote a memoir, Faith and Destiny.

However, in Into the Forest, published Sept. 7, Frankel shines a spotlight on Ruth’s family – her parents Morris and Miriam Rabinowitz, their extended family and their lives in the Polish towns where they grew up, and their flight from the Zhetel ghetto during its liquidation to the Bialowieza Forest. With other fragmented families and partisan fighters – both Polish and Jewish — the Rabinowitz family hid in the forest from the summer of 1942 until the Soviets arrived in 1944.

Frankel will discuss her new book at a free Sunday morning Brotherhood breakfast at The Emanuel Synagogue on Oct. 3 as part of a weekend-long L’chayim Tribute Shabbaton honoring the Lazowskis and Rabbi David Small ands wife Debbie Chameides. The celebration also includes a Friday night oneg, a Shabbat morning kiddush, and a Saturday night tribute program. Frankel’s Sunday talk, in conversation with Andy Fleischmann and Ruth Lazowski, is sponsored by The Emanuel Synagogue and Voices of Hope.

Frankel got the idea to write the book while working as an editor at Moment magazine several years ago.

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“We did a feature called ‘Love Stories from the Holocaust.’ When the editorial team was talking about how to find these stories, I said, ‘I know one actually,’” she recalls.

That love story belonged to the Lazowskis. The Moment story told of how Ruth’s mother Miriam came to the aid of young Philip in the ghetto and how many years later they were all reunited – with Philip marrying Miriam’s daughter Ruth.

For several years after that article was published, Frankel thought about writing a book about the Lazowskis.

In 2015, she reached out to Ruth. She began interviewing her in February 2016. “I was in Connecticut and I spent two weeks doing hours-long interviews with her,” says Frankel, who later also interviewed Ruth’s younger sister, Toby Langerman.

In her book, Frankel introduces the readers to the Rabinowitz family, weaving in family history along with the political and Jewish history of Zhetel, the small town where both of Ruths parents — Miriam Dworetsky and Morris Rabinowitz — were born and raised.

Over the years, Zhetel had belonged to Russia, Lithuania, Sweden, and Germany, but by 1921 it was a part of Poland.

“I had to sharpen my education about the politics of pre-, during- and post-war Poland. I had to educate myself about the town of Zhetel, which I learned mostly through testimony that’s the preservation of this town’s history,” she explains.

Miriam and Morris are the heart and soul of the book. Miriam, a tiny, independent spitfire who owned her own small patent medicine shop in Zhetel, was 24 years old before she married Morris Rabinowitz, a tall lumber mill worker.

The couple settled in Zhetel, had their two daughters – then known as Rochel and Tania – and spent a few idyllic years, relatively untouched by antisemitism.

Frankel weaves the Rabinowitz’s story through the lens of World War II – Germany’s invasion of Poland; Russia’s occupation of Zhetel; the young family’s flight from Zhetel to Novogrudek and back to Zhetel; and their confinement in a Jewish ghetto in Zhetel in the winter of 1942.

It was in the ghetto that Miriam first came in contact with a young Philip Lazowski. During a ghetto selection, where a child alone – like Philip – would be sent with the group to be killed, Miriam, who had working papers told the German guards that the young boy was her son.

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“I think, for both sides of the family, that intervention is really [the Lazowskis’] origin point,” Frankel says.

Morris, Miriam, seven-year-old Rochel and five-year-old Tania, eventually made it into the 580-acre Bialowieza forest, filled with ancient oaks and swampland, after a harrowing escape from the ghetto.

In a series of conversation with Ruth and Toby, Frankel culled the memories of very, very young children,” which she says recalled living in bunkers dug out from the earth; hunger and illness. Both girls suffered from body lice and rashes and Miriam nearly died from Typhus. Morris nursed his wife back to health. Given his skill as a former lumber worker, he had a keen knowledge of the woods and became a “reluctant leader” for the families gathered in the forest.

“There was something truly remarkable about Morris and Miriam’s love for each other that endured everything and made them stronger,” Frankel says.

The book follows the Rabinowitz family from their liberation from the woods by the Red Army in 1944, to the family’s difficult journey to Italy where they lived as refugees before coming to the United States, and settling in Hartford.

And of course, it tells the story of a chance encounter at a Brooklyn wedding in 1953 that would end up reuniting Miriam with Philip Lazowski – the youngster she had saved during the Zhetel ghetto selection. Philip wed Ruth in 1955 and have shared their own enduring love story ever since.

Frankel uses the term “karmic righteousness,” that appeared in a review of her book, to describe how the fates brought Lazowski and the Rabinowitz family together after war.

“It’s such a beautiful description of what happened, given everything this family lived through,” she says. “The legacy being those moments of intervention, bravery and maternal instinct.” jewishledger.com

AROUND CT “Trailblazer: Connecticut Jewish Woman Making History” goes online A new online version of our 2019 exhibition profiling 12 extraordinary Connecticut Jewish women is now available. It can be found on the website of the Jewish Historical Society of Connecticut (www.jhsct.org) under Online Exhibitions.

The “Trailblazer” exhibition, which opened at the Mandell JCC in fall 2019 and moved to the University of Connecticut’s Thomas J. Dodd Center, highlights the lives of Jewish women from Connecticut who achieved remarkable things in business, education, entertainment, health care, fine art, journalism, and Jewish life. These women include: business leader Beatrice Fox Auerbach, entertainer Sophie Tucker, artist Anni Albers, Judge Ellen Ash Peters, Yiddish writer Miriam Karpilove, Our Bodies, Ourselves author Esther Rome, and Hartford educator Annie Fisher, among others.

Emanuel Synagogue to stage original play by Ben Engel The Emanuel Players of The Emanuel Synagogue of West Hartford will return to the stage Sunday, Nov. 7, with a staged reading of Ben Engel’s latest play, “Havdalah,” directed by Adrian A. Durlester.

The play focuses on the prominent Mendelssohn family to examine the pressures, conflicts and opportunities Jews faced when they encountered modern life

in 19th century Berlin.

“Jews won more freedom as they emerged into the modern era, but handled it in different ways,” Engel says.

“Some sought to change the religion.

Others converted. Still others remained traditional. This set brother against brother, partner against partner, Orthodox versus Reform. You see all this in the Mendelssohns and their friends. But also, the pressures they faced are mirrored by challenges we face today.”

Leading the cast is Rabbi Steve Chatinover as Joseph Mendelssohn; Pat Kazakoff as his wife Hinni; Mike Isko as Felix Mendelssohn; Mel Simon as the violinist Ferdinand David. The cast also includes Elizabeth Ehrlich, Esther Aronson, Fred Spaeth, Eric Hoffman, Moshe Pinchover, Mark Wolfberg, Lesley Weiner, Rabbi David Small. Carolyn Topol will serve as narrator.

Part of the story involves creation of the great Violin Concerto in E Minor by Felix Mendelssohn. The play suggests that the Jewish-born composer, who was converted to Lutheranism by his father at age seven, was conflicted as an adult about his religion, and that the conflict surfaced during composition of the concerto. While the play is speculative, Engel notes that overall it is based on historical events.

Engel inserted snippets from the Violin Concerto, and some of the composer’s short piano works, into the play.

In advance of the production, Yale Professor of History David Sorkin will deliver a lecture on the Jewish encounter with modern life on Oct. 10, and Cantor Daniella Risman will headline a concert featuring the music of Felix Mendelssohn on Oct. 20. See page 19 for details.

Tickets to “Havdalah” are $18 and $25.

B’NAI MITZVAH RAPHAEL BLOCHER, son of Lori and Barry Blocher, will celebrate his bar mitzvah on Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021, at The Emanuel Synagogue in West Hartford.

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

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Briefs After Democrats fight over it, Israel Iron Dome funding to get separate House vote (JTA) — Congress appears poised to send $1 billion to Israel to replenish the Iron Dome missile defense system that Israel depleted during its conflict with Hamas in May. But the funding won’t flow as a usual part of Congress’ comprehensive spending bill after a group of progressive Democrats vowed to vote against that bill if it included Iron Dome support. The threat by members of “the Squad” and their allies is likely to have the effect of making clear how far outside the mainstream they are on issues related to Israel. Republican lawmakers voted against the overall spending bill but are all but certain to support the Iron Dome spending.

Democrats who want to maintain a strong relationship between the U.S. and Israel pressed the point. “We will pass this bill with the support of the majority of my colleagues and reiterate our ironclad support for our ally, Israel,” said Rep. Kathy Manning, a Jewish Democrat from North Carolina who led the effort to move the Iron Dome funding to a standalone bill.

While the Democratic mainstream, including the Biden administration, remains unchanged on issues related to Israel, a number of progressives during the Gaza conflict called for diminishing or ending defense assistance for Israel, which runs about $3.8 billion a year, including hundreds of millions of dollars for Iron Dome.

Some progressives, like Rep. Pramila Jayapal, said they were angry to have the new money inserted into the funding bill without warning or debate. But at least one member of the “Squad,” Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, opposed the $1 billion spending because Iron Dome, she said, is part of a system designed to oppress Palestinians. “We must stop enabling Israel’s human rights abuses and apartheid government,” she tweeted on Wednesday.

President Joe Biden himself assured Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett last month that the money would come through.

Moderate Democrats and Republicans cast the rejection of Iron Dome funding as inappropriately targeting Israel. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a moderate Jewish Democrat from Michigan, in a Twitter thread said Iron Dome was an inappropriate target because it is strictly used for self-defense. “Whatever your views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, using a system that just saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives as a political chit is problematic,” she said.

The stopgap emergency spending bill passed Tuesday, without Republican support and without the Iron Dome allocation. Rep. Steny Hoyer, the Maryland Democrat and House majority leader, pledged to have the 10

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standalone vote by the end of last week. “I talked to the [Israeli] Foreign Minister, Mr. [Yair] Lapid, just two hours ago and assured him that this bill was going to pass the House,” Hoyer said in a speech on the floor of Congress. “There were 4,400 rockets in 10 days that rained down on Israel, one of our closest allies and friends. Luckily — no, not luckily, because they had Iron Dome, very few lives were lost and very little property was lost.”

Israeli philanthropists help dozens flee Afghanistan for UAE (JTA) — Several Israeli philanthropists have helped bring to Abu Dhabi dozens of asylum seekers, including female athletes, fleeing Taliban rule in Afghanistan. The rescue operation led by Aaron G. Frenkel, an aviation professional who had helped airlift thousands of Jews out of the Soviet Union, ended on Sept. 6, as 41 asylum seekers from Afghanistan reached Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress detailed the operation in a statement Sunday, Sept. 19.

Frenkel, who is the chairman of the Congress, teamed up with the group’s honorary president, Alexander Machkevich, and the Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams to extract the passengers from Afghanistan to neighboring Tajikistan. Adams provided the funds for chartering a private jet from Tajikistan to Abu Dhabi, carrying on board members of Afghanistan’s former women’s cycling team, human rights activists and members of a robotics team, including women, the statement said. All were deemed at risk of reprisals from the Taliban, the statement said. The Israeli international humanitarian agency IsraAID and officials from several governments also were involved in the rescue operation.

“When troubling events such as the current situation in Afghanistan occur in the world, we have an obligation to act as leaders,” Frenkel said. “If it is within our power to provide assistance then it is our duty to come to the rescue of any human being.”

In the 1980s, Frenkel used his connections in the aviation industry to help the Jewish Agency airlift Jews out of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union prior to its collapse.

Abraham Accords nations issue first joint statement at UN (Israel Hayom via JNS) For the first time since signing the Abraham Accords, Israel and three of its new regional partners—the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco—issued a joint statement at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva Wednesday, Sept. 22. Based on U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325 on women and security, the statement stressed the value of women’s influence on human-rights matters, peace,

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sustainable development and security, and called on member states to integrate women in peace processes and conflict-prevention.

Ambassador of Bahrain to the U.N. Yusuf Abdulkarim Bucheeri introduced the statement on behalf of the four nations.

“We call upon all member states to strongly commit to ensure that women have a seat at every table, that they are heard and that they can contribute to find solutions and prevent conflict,” he said. “Only then can we have a peaceful and equal society.” The statement had been endorsed by the U.N.’s University for Peace, and was supported by 52 member states, including Turkey.

Ankara’s support constituted Turkey’s second political “wink” at Israel last week.

On Sunday, Sept. 19, the Turkish American National Steering Committee and the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce signed a cooperation agreement “based on shared values and solidarity in diversity.”

According to the agreement, the two aim to “cooperate for the common good of Turkish Americans and Jewish Americans, and to support relations between our homeland the United States and our respective motherlands, Turkey and Israel.”

At UN, Iranian president condemns ‘Zionist occupier’ (JNS) Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, addressing the 76th session of the U.N. General Assembly by video on Tuesday, called for an end to ongoing American sanctions, describing them as the United States’ “new way of war with the nations of the world.”

“Sanctions, especially sanctions on medicine at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, are crimes against humanity,” said Raisi, asserting that Iran is the “medical hub of the region” whose nuclear program is geared for peaceful purposes such as radiopharmaceuticals.

Referring to the U.S. unilaterally withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal in 2018, Raisi said it had “totally failed.” Raisi called for the United States to end its sanctions policy and for “all parties” to return to the JCPOA. The Biden administration has said it wants to return to the deal, engaging in indirect negotiations with Iran in Vienna.

President Biden, addressing the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 21, said that while the United States is determined to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, “we’re prepared to return to full compliance with [the deal] if Iran does the same.”

Iran has been “the centerpiece of a lot of back-room diplomacy” at the General Assembly meeting, reported The New York Times. The sixth round of negotiations in Vienna over a possible return to the JCPOA wrapped up in June, and no date has yet been set for a seventh round of talks.

Raisi also sharply criticized Israel in his speech, saying “the occupier Zionist regime is the organizer of the biggest state terrorism, whose agenda is to slaughter women and

children in Gaza and the West Bank.”

He called for a referendum involving “all Palestinians of all religions and ethnicities including Muslims, Christians and Jews” to determine the fate of the Jewish state.

Mark Zuckerberg and wife give $1.3 million to Jewish causes (JTA) — Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are contributing $1.3 million to 11 Jewish groups, eJewish Philanthropy reported, citing a spokesperson for the couple. News of Zuckerberg and Chan’s donations comes as the couple has gradually emphasized its Jewish identity in public in recent years. Privately, Zuckerberg and Chan have also been meeting with rabbis and scholars to discuss Judaism and the Jewish community, according to eJewish Philanthropy.

Two of the grantees are national organizations: OneTable, which supports Shabbat dinners hosted by young Jews, and PJ Library, which distributes Jewish children’s books and music for free. But the rest primarily serve local needs in the San Francisco Bay Area. Three educational institutions received funding: Contra Costa Jewish Day School in Lafayette, Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto and the Jewish Community High School of the Bay. Three summer camps in California, URJ Camp Newman, Camp Ramah in Northern California and Camp Tawonga, also were beneficiaries. The Oshman Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto and the local Jewish Family and Children’s Services are also receiving funding to boost their local offerings. Meanwhile, a grant to the Jewish Community Relations Council will pay for a new social media campaign to educate the public on antisemitism.

“Mark and Priscilla are proud to support the important work each of these organizations does in building communities, education, celebrating traditions and faith, and giving people a voice — especially in fighting antisemitism,” the spokesperson told eJewish Philanthropy.

The couple that controls much of Facebook became a major philanthropic power in 2015 when it launched the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, pledging to donate 99% of their Facebook fortune to charity. The recent spate of Jewish donations was made out of the couple’s family office, separately from the initiative, according to eJewish Philanthropy.

After several lawsuits, Hillel breaks ground for center at UC San Diego (JNS) The Hillel of San Diego has started construction on a new Jewish center across from the University of California San Diego campus after facing several lawsuits that challenged the project. The Beverly jewishledger.com

and Joseph Glickman Hillel Center will include three separate, one- and two-story buildings that will surround a central outdoor courtyard, reported NBC San Diego. It will serve the UC San Diego community by hosting Jewish holiday programs, Jewish learning and community activities. The center broke ground on Sunday, Sept. 19, and is expected to open in the fall of 2022.

A decision by the California Court of Appeal allowing the project to move forward ended a long legal battle against the center that started in 2006 and continued into 2021.

In 2000, Hillel was given exclusive rights to purchase the land from the city to build a Hillel center and the project was approved by the city council in 2017. Residents initially opposed the project, but Hillel worked with the work and community to make the changes.

Karen Parry, executive director of Hillel of San Diego, said the center will be “a hub for Jewish life at UC San Diego,” added that “as antisemitism is on the rise all over the country, our new Hillel Center will serve as a connector to the larger UC San Diego community to build bridges and foster allyship.”

Ukraine passes legislation effectively outlawing antisemitism (Israel Hayom via JNS) Ukraine’s parliament passed a law Wednesday, Sept. 22, defining and banning antisemitism. The bill was approved by 283 votes, pending approval by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to enter into force. “The lack of a clear definition of anti-Semitism in the Ukrainian legislation does not allow for the proper classification of crimes committed on its basis,” said the lawmakers who authored the bill.

The law defines antisemitism as hatred of Jews, including attacks on the minority, making false or hateful statements about them or denying the mass extermination of Ukrainian Jewry during the Holocaust.

Damaging buildings and religious institutions also falls under the definition. Under the new law, victims of antisemitism will be able to claim compensation for moral and material damage.

World Zionist Organization chief Yaakov Hagoel praised the move. “This is an important milestone in the long international struggle” against antisemitism, he said, expressing hope that Zelensky—who is Jewish—will sign the law, making it “a model for parliaments around the world.”

Fewer than one percent of Ukraine’s 40 million citizens are Jewish. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Babi Yar massacre, where over 30,000 Jews were killed over the course of just two days in a ravine outside Kiev.

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Holocaust survivor awarded Balzan Prize honoring scientific achievements (JNS) A historian and Israeli-FrenchAmerican Holocaust survivor was one of the recipients of this year’s international Balzan Prizes, which recognizes distinguished scholars, artists and scientists. Saul Friedlander, 88, was awarded the prize for Holocaust and Genocide Studies for his “unparalleled impact” on the development and study of the persecution of European Jews, and for “creating a historical narrative that expresses the unspeakable, intertwining scholarly analysis with the disruptive voices of the victims, perpetrators and bystanders.”

The prizes will be presented in Rome on Nov. 18 by Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella.

Born in Prague in 1932, Friedlander and his Jewish family fled to France after the German occupation in March 1939, reported.

His parents hid him in a Catholic boarding school before they were captured and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Friedlander was baptized as a Catholic with the permission of his parents. He later considered becoming a priest, though said that after he was told in 1946 that his parents were killed at Auschwitz, “my Jewish identity was restored.”

Friedlander is a professor emeritus of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Tel Aviv University. He received the Pulitzer Prize in 2008, was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1999 and was awarded the Dan David Prize in 2014 for outstanding achievement in interdisciplinary research.

The Balzan Foundation awards four prizes every year: two in sciences and two in humanities. Winners also receive $815,000, half of which must be used for research projects that are preferably conducted by young scholars or scientists.

Memorial honoring Dutch victims of Holocaust opens in Amsterdam (JNS) A new memorial in Amsterdam’s Jewish Cultural Quarter pays tribute to the more than 102,000 Dutch victims of the Holocaust, the Associated Press reported.

The National Holocaust Memorial of Names, which was unveiled on Sunday, Sept. 19, is comprised of stainless-steel panels and a series of brick walls placed at different angles that together form four Hebrew letters, which spell out a word that means “In Memory of.” Each brick is inscribed with the name, date of birth and age at the time of death of a Dutch citizen who was murdered in Nazi concentration camps during World War II or died while being transported to the camps.

The memorial, designed by Polish-Jewish architect Daniel Libeskind, is located near a former concert hall where Nazis detained Jews before sending them to concentration camps.

Jacques Grishaver, chairman of the Dutch

Auschwitz Committee, officially unveiled the memorial with King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands in a ceremony attended by Holocaust survivors and others. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte noted that the memorial will remind citizens to “be vigilant” against anti-Semitism and should prompt people to question whether the Netherlands did enough to protect Jews during and after World War II. He talked about “the cold reception for the small group who returned from hell after the war” and called that time “a black page in the history of our country.”

The monument was commissioned by the Dutch Auschwitz Committee but funded in part by the public, with 84,000 people paying $58 each to dedicate one of the bricks.

NYPD officer charged for vandalizing Jewish summer camp (JNS) An officer of the New York City Police Department has been arrested and charged for breaking into and vandalizing a Jewish camp on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

Matthew McGrath, 37, of Middletown, N.Y., broke into Camp Young Judea in the town of Union Vale and caused damage to the property. Sources told Mid Hudson News that McGrath smashed several windows, destroyed contents in the director’s residence and did widespread damage to the Jewish camp when he trespassed onto the property on Sept. 8.

The New York State Police, in conjunction with the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office, arrested McGrath on Sept. 15. He was charged with burglary in the second and third degrees, as well as two counts of criminal mischief.

McGrath, who was off-duty at the time of his arrest, was arraigned before the town of Union Vale Court and released on his own recognizance to stand before the court on Oct. 6. The NYPD officer reportedly has a history with the camp and his mother lives close to the site, according to Mid Hudson News.

COVID outbreak at bar mitzvah of Chris Christie’s nephew shuts middle school (JTA) — A middle school in New Jersey went virtual for at least a day to stem a COVID-19 outbreak that followed the bar mitzvah of one of its students — the nephew of former state Gov. Chris Christie. The New York Post quoted Mendham Township schools Superintendent Salvatore Constantino, who said that Mendham Township Middle School went virtual on Friday, Sept. 17, because of an outbreak reported Thursday night.

Constantino said the school had fewer than half a dozen cases stemming from the bar mitzvah the previous weekend and other existing cases, and predicted the kids would be back in the building on Monday. Todd Christie, 56, the former governor’s brother, refused to respond to queries from the Post.

His wife Andrea Lessner Christie is Jewish.

The couple has five children. Chris Christie

told the newspaper his brother had been vaccinated. Christie, 59, was the governor of New Jersey from 2010-2018.

Kathryn Hahn’s next Jewish role: Joan Rivers (JTA) — Showtime is producing a limited series on the late Jewish comedy legend Joan Rivers, and its lead actress should not come as a surprise. Kathryn Hahn, the non-Jewish star known for playing a rabbi on the very Jewish series “Transparent” among other Jewish roles, will portray Rivers, who died in 2014 after complications from a surgery.

The series “The Comeback Girl” will focus on the years in the 1980s after Rivers dealt with a string of professional defeats and contemplated suicide. Rivers often referenced her Jewishness in her stand-up comedy and left donations to several Jewish institutions in her will.

Hahn, who grew up Catholic but is married to Jewish actor Ethan Sandler, will also soon appear in “The Shrink Next Door” on Apple TV+, an adaptation of a 2019 reported podcast about a Jewish psychiatrist on the Upper West Side of Manhattan who takes control of the life of one of his Jewish patients. In 2016, Hahn talked to JTA about her research for the role of Rabbi Raquel on “Transparent.” “Playing a rabbi on this show has changed me in so many ways I can’t articulate. It’s perfect timing for me in my life as a mom with two kids and wandering spirituality,” she said at the time.

30+ countries stay away as UN commemorates Durban conference (JTA) — More than 30 countries sat out the United Nations commemoration of the 2001 Durban conference, notorious among Jewish groups for devolving into antisemitism and virulent anti-Israel activism. “Thank you for your withdrawal from the 20th anniversary event of the UN’s Durban Conference,” Israel’s foreign ministry tweeted on Wednesday as country delegations, already in New York to attend the annual General Assembly, gathered to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Durban. At least 33 countries boycotted the commemoration, including the United States, Britain, Canada, France, and Australia. In the end, the commemoration did not refer to Israel and the Palestinians; its focus was on “reparations, racial justice and equality for people of African descent,” according to a UN release. Still, Israel sees the original conference as so tainted by anti-Jewish animus that it urged boycotts of its commemoration. “The original Durban Conference, a UN-hosted event, became the worst international manifestation of antisemitism since WWII,” the Foreign Ministry said in its tweet.

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What happened to all the art that Nazis looted?

THIS JEWISH MUSEUM EXHIBIT TELLS THE STORY OF SEVERAL MASTERWORKS

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BY CHLOE SARIB

reat works of art often become so present in our everyday lives — the “Mona Lisa” on a mug, “The Starry Night” on a sweater, Basquiat in Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Tiffany campaign — that it’s easy to forget how fragile the originals are.

These images that populate our collective conscious-ness all started as a single destructible canvas. But most museums don’t highlight the life these artworks have had as physical objects — often be-cause that history is wrapped up in colonialism and theft.

At the new Jewish Museum exhibition “Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art,” which opened last month in New York, this over-looked aspect of a painting’s history becomes the focus.

“It is often difficult to understand the ‘biography’ of an artwork simply by looking at it, and even more difficult to uncover the lives and experiences of the people behind it,” reads the text on the first wall visitors encounter, displayed beside Franz Marc’s “The Large Blue Horses.”

The gallery is organized around how the artwork it features — including works by Chagall and Pissarro (both Jewish), Matisse, Picasso, Bonnard, Klee and more — came to hang there. All the pieces displayed have one quality in common: They were either directly affected or inspired by the looting and destruction of the Nazis.

“The vast and systemic pillaging of artworks during World War II, and the eventual rescue and return of many, is one of the most dramatic stories of twentiethcentury art… Artworks that withstood the immense tragedy of the war survived against extraordinary odds,” the text continues. “Many exist today as a result of great personal risk and ingenuity.”

One of the most striking instances of bravery the exhibit recounts is that of Rose Valland, a curator at the Jeu de Paume, which housed the work of the Impressionists. During the collaborationist Vichy regime, the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, or ERR, took over the museum build-ing. The ERR, “one of the largest Nazi art-looting task forces operating throughout occupied Europe,” used the space to store masterpieces it had taken.

Valland, who had worked at the Jeu de Paume before the war, stayed on during the Occupation and collaborated with the French Resistance to track what the Nazis did with the stolen paintings.

“At great personal risk,” including sneaking into the Nazi office at night to photograph important documents, “she 12

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JOHANNES FELBERMEYER, “ARTWORKS IN STORAGE AT THE CENTRAL COLLECTING POINT, MUNICH, [CA. 1945-1949].”

(JEWISH MUSEUM)

recorded incoming and outgoing shipments and made detailed maps of the extensive network of Nazi transportation and storage facilities.” Pieces by Jewish or modernist art-ists were often labeled “degenerate” and slated for destruction. Valland was unable to save many of them and referred to the room where they were housed as the “Room of the Martyrs.”

In the exhibit, Valland’s story is overlaid on a 1942 photograph of this room. Some of the works in it — by Andre Dérain and Claude Monet, among others — are believed to have been destroyed. But three of the paintings that survived are on the adjacent wall: “Bather and Rocks” by Paul Cezanne, “Group of Characters” by Pablo Picasso, and “Composi-tion” by Fédor Löwenstein.

They last hung together in the Room of the Martyrs, awaiting their fate like many of the Jews of Europe.

Some Impressionist paintings on display at the Jewish Museum, like Ma-tisse’s “Girl in Yellow and Blue with Guitar,” spent the Holocaust in the personal collections of high-ranking Nazi officials — Hermann Goering in this case.

Others — like Marc Chagall’s “Purim,” a study for a commissioned St. Petersburg mural he never painted — were confiscated, labeled “degenera-te” for their Jewish authors and content. But that didn’t stop the Nazis from selling them to fund the war effort. The exhibit calls out these finan-cial incentives that spurred the Nazis to steal from Jewish collectors: It was as much about seizing Jewish wealth as about any ideological be-liefs. Germany was in debt when the Nazis came to power, and even “de-generate” art was often sold on the international market “to raise funds for the Nazi war machine” if they thought it would fetch a good price. So, the Nazis weren’t even principled in their anti-Jewishness; they were happy to profit off of works by

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Jewish artists and were often motivated by simple greed.

“Purim,” painted in 1916-17, contains “folkloric imagery and vivid colors drawn from Chagall’s memories of his childhood in a Jewish enclave in the Russian empire.”

Seeing a depiction of a holiday that celebrates Jews surviving persecution in this World War II context is poignant.

The exhibit includes documents from the collection points, in Munich and Offenbach, where the Allies traced the paths of stolen work, stored them when recovered, and eventually tried to “reverse the flow” by sending them back where they belonged. Staring at a map of how far some con-fiscated Jewish literature had traveled is intimidating in the sheer scope of this staggering pre-internet task.

“Afterlives” also features art by Jews who faced persecution directly — pieces made at the camps themselves or while in hiding. The haunting, delicate drawings of Jacob Barosin, who made them while fleeing to France and ultimately to the U.S., were moving. And the presence of “Bat-tle on a Bridge,” a looted painting so revered by the Nazis that Hitler had earmarked it for his future personal Fuhrermuseum in Austria, was chilling. Its inventory number, 2207, is still visible on the back of the canvas.

But what is most captivating about the exhibit was how it helps the visitor imagine what Jewish cultural life was like before the Nazis came to power. I often have the impression that accounts of the Holocaust concentrate more on the horrors of the camps and less and on the individual lives and communities they destroyed. Here, I learned about Jewish gallerist Paul Rosenberg, whose impressive gallery the Nazis co-opted — after seizing his valuable art, of course — for the “Institute of the Study on the Jewish

Question,” an antisemitic propaganda machine. I learned about his son Alexander, who, while liberating a train with the Free French Forces thought to be full of passengers, recovered some of his father’s art against all odds. I saw August Sander’s “Persecuted Jews” portrait series from late-’30s Germany, and looked into the faces of people forced to leave their homes.

And I saw a huge collection of orphaned Judaica and ritual objects from Danzig (now Gdansk), Poland, where the Jewish community shipped two tons of their treasures to New York for safekeeping in 1939. If no safe free Jews remained in Danzig 15 years later, these items would be entrusted to the museum. None did.

The exhibit also includes the work of four contemporary artists grappling with the contents of “Afterlives” and the era it evokes. Maria Eichhorn pulls from the art restitution work of Hannah Arendt. Hadar Gad uses her painstaking process to paint the disassembly of Danzig’s Great Synagogue. Lisa Oppenheim collages the only existing archival photograph of a lost stilllife painting with Google Maps images of the clouds above the house where its Jewish owners lived. And Dor Guez, a Palestinian North African artist from Israel, created an installation from objects belonging to his paternal grandparents, who escaped concentration camps in Nazi-occupied Tunisia. They previously ran a theater company, and a manu-script written by his grandfather in his Tunisian Judeo-Arabic dialect was damaged in transit. Guez blew up the unfamiliar handwriting and ink blots into abstracted prints that hang on the wall.

In Guez’s words, “the words are engulfed in abstract spots, and these become a metaphor for the harmonious conjunction between two Semitic languages, between one mother tongue and another, and between homeland and a new country.”

I’ll let the exhibit’s curators sum up how I felt as I left: “Many of the artists, collectors, and descendants who owned these items are gone, and as the war recedes in time it can become even harder to grasp the traumatic events they endured. Yet through these works, and the histories that at-tend them, new connections to the past can be forged.”

“Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art” is on view at the Jewish Museum in Manhattan through Jan. 9, 2022.

Chloe Sarbib is associate editor of arts and culture at Alma, where this ar-ticle originally appeared. jewishledger.com

Worcester Art Museum showcases art stolen from prolific Viennese collector during World War II

BY STACEY DRESNER

FRANZ MARC, “THE LARGE BLUE HORSES” (JEWISH MUSEUM)

HENRI MATISSE, “GIRL IN YELLOW AND BLUE WITH GUITAR”

RICHARD NEUMANN PHOTO: LOOTEDART.COM

(JEWISH MUSEUM)

DOR GUEZ, “LETTERS FROM THE GREATER MAGHREB” AND “BELLY OF THE BOAT”, AND COLLAGES BY LISA OPPENHEIM. INSTALLATION VIEW BY STEVEN PANECCASIO. (JEWISH MUSEUM)

MARC CHAGALL, “PURIM” (JEWISH MUSEUM)

jewishledger.com

W

ORCESTER, Massachusetts – Several pieces of art looted by the Nazis during World War II are now on display in an exhibit at the Worcester

Art Museum.

“What the Nazis Stole from Richard Neumann (and the search to get it back)” arrived in Central Massachusetts in April; the exhibit will be on display until Jan. 16, 2022.

Richard Neumann was an Austrian-Jew, born in Vienna to a wealthy family that owned textile mills throughout the country.

He received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Heidelberg but went on to serve as the president of his family’s textile business.

He was a lover of art, who by his 40s had collected more than 200 works, mostly Baroque art of the early 1700s. He lost much of that art after the Nazis occupied Austria, through forced sales and an inability to get export licenses. Neumann and his wife escaped from Nazi-occupied Vienna in 1938 and was able to send some of his art ahead of him to Paris. Forced to flee again in 1942, he sold what was left of his collection – for below market prices -- and booked passage on a boat to Cuba. The Neumanns lived for several years in Cuba where Richard worked in the textile mill industry. He moved to New York in the 1950s.

While he attempted lawsuits to have his art returned to him, none of his efforts were successful. Neumann died in 1959.

For more than 50 years, members of his family have tried to reassemble his art collection. Two of the pieces on display at the Worcester Art Museum, “Monks at Mealtime”

by Alessandro Magnasco (1667-1749) and Neri di Bicci’s ‘Madonna With Child’ (mid-1400s) were put up for sale at Sothby’s in recent years and were reacquired by Neumann’s family.

In all, 14 pieces of art that have been returned to Neumann’s descendants make up the exhibit at the Worcester Art Museum.

They include 13 Old Master paintings and sculptures, including works by artists of the Italian Renaissance including Alessandro Magnasco, Giovanni Battista Pittoni, Alessandro Longhi, Alessandro Algardi and Giuseppe Sanmartino.

The exhibit also documents his escape from Vienna and Paris during the war, his passion for art, and the family’s 50-year effort to reassemble his collection.

The Jewish Federation of Central Mass. is a major sponsor of the Richard Neumann exhibit. The Federation sponsored a Zoom lecture on the Richard Neumann and his art last spring.

“I look at it through the lens of Holocaust

remembrance and the lessons that are associated with that,” said Steven Schimmel, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Central Mass.

“What I’m impressed by about the exhibit itself is that it helps to tell the story of the Holocaust in a personal way,” Schimmel continued. “It provides insight into the fact that the victims of the Holocaust were not only real people, but in some cases, very prominent leaders in their communities. The story of the Neumanns is told through this art which helps to bring a light and personality to Holocaust remembrance.

“I think anything that can be done to help tell the story of those who were affected by the rise of Naziism and the terrors of that time is important, but when you are able to do it in a creative way like this, there is something more visceral about it.”

As part of its sponsorship, Federation members will be able to visit the exhibit free of charge in the month of October.

Also providing support for the exhibit is the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University.

“The tragedy of the Holocaust is so vast and complicated, and the restitution of these artworks may not seem like the most compelling aspect from the tragic angle, in the context of all the last lives, but I think it’s still very important to understand that a major part of the Nazi project had an economic dimension, a cultural dimension,” explained Mary Jane Rein, executive director of the Strassler Center. “Taking these artworks and basically forcing Jewish collectors to sell them, or to leave them behind, is a very important aspect of the economic dimension of the Holocaust and I think that it demands our attention. The fact that so much material still remains in museums is deeply shameful.

While it may not be tragic in terms relative to the massive loss of life that the Jewish community experienced during the Holocaust, it’s still something that is a part of the Nazi project that deserves our attention and really deserves our outrage. And I think that museums that hold on to these materials should be really ashamed of it. So, I’m very proud of the fact that the Strasser center is partnering with the Worcester Art Museum and bringing attention to this subject… I hope that the museum is successful in showing the public the importance of this effort to bring artwork back to its rightful owners.”

For more information, email information@worcesterart.org or call (508) 799-4406.

JEWISH LEDGER

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OCTOBER 1, 2021

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OPINION

How a budget standoff demonstrated the par

BY JONATHAN S. TOBIN

(JNS) The Iron Dome missile-defense system has long been one of the least controversial aspects of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Funding for the idea was approved in principle by the George W. Bush administration in 2007 after the Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems conceived the project. It was an answer to the heavy missile fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza that Israel faced in 2006. The Iron Dome would give Israel the ability to shoot down the rockets and missiles shot at its villages, towns and cities. That meant that each time those terrorist groups chose to escalate the conflict, Israel wouldn’t be obligated to send forces over the border to stop the launches.

The purely defensive aspect of Iron Dome is why the Obama administration went allin on funding for the project. Obama was besotted with the idea of forcing Israel to accept a Palestinian state, as well as concerned about not ruffling the feathers of his preferred nuclear negotiating partners in Iran who give Hezbollah its orders. He was for anything that he thought might restrain Israel from pursuing aggressive policies against terrorism emanating from Hamas-ruled Gaza or Lebanon. That it also allowed him to pose as Israel’s friend, despite his antagonism for it, was merely a political bonus that he and other Democrats who understood how popular the Jewish state is

with most Americans were happy to collect.

Israel gets $3.8 billion in defensive aid from the United States yearly. But almost all of that must be spent in America. That means the aid package has, in fact, become a federal handout to U.S. arms manufacturers as much as anything else. Iron Dome, however, is funded separately. And that is why it became the focus of a complex but ultimately revealing political tussle.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi faced a problem this past week when attempting to pass a stopgap bill to keep the U.S. government funded. She knew that Republicans were unalterably opposed to her decision to raise the debt ceiling again. While the GOP has been similarly profligate when it comes to spending the public’s money, the Biden administration’s hard-left ideological turn and plans for a vast expansion of entitlements and spending make fiscal compromise impossible.

So in a cynical plan to embarrass the Republicans, she threw into the bill something that her opponents would find hard to resist: funding for Iron Dome. Had her party gone along with it, Pelosi and other Democrats would have been able to crow about Republicans voting en masse against Iron Dome and Israeli security, which is the moral equivalent of motherhood and apple pie for the 21st-century GOP.

SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE NANCY PELOSI. (SHEILA FITZGERALD/SHUTTERSTOCK)

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JEWISH LEDGER

| OCTOBER 1, 2021

But she never got the chance. That’s because a significant portion of her own party said that they would refuse to vote for the bill if Iron Dome was included.

The most prominent member of the leftwing “Squad,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), has been vocal about wanting to cut aid to Israel and her more overtly anti-Semitic comrades—Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.)—agreed that there was no way they would vote to fund a system that shoots down terrorist rockets.

Nor were they alone. The ranks of “The Squad” have expanded since the 2020 election.

Radicals like Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Jamal Bowman (D-N.Y.) have joined their ranks, echoing their anti-Israel rhetoric.

Veteran left-wingers like Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) have also been increasingly vocal about wanting to end the alliance with Israel.

Pelosi’s margin of error in a House where she has a razor-thin majority over the Republicans is small. Had it just been “The Squad,” she could have ignored them. But the increasingly leftist tilt of the Democratic caucus is no longer a matter of a few loudmouth publicity hounds. The popularity of intersectional ideology, which falsely identifies the Palestinian war against Israel with the struggle for civil rights in the United States, and the influence of critical race theory, which

similarly misidentifies the Jewish state as a beneficiary of “white privilege” over “people of color,” has altered the political landscape on the left.

Many Democrats, including the House leadership, still identify as, and to a large extent, actually are friends of Israel. But as the negotiations over the inclusion of the Iron Dome funding proved, they are not only incapable of controlling their caucus, but it is the supposedly marginal radicals who call the shots when push comes to shove.

That’s the only way to interpret the situation faced by Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. They wouldn’t have the votes to pass their bill by a party line vote if they kept Iron Dome in it. With the assistance of Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), a veteran liberal who is chair of the crucial House Appropriations Committee, the anti-Israel faction sent a clear message to Pelosi and, as she had in the past two years when Omar was about to be censured by the House for anti-Semitism, the speaker folded and removed it.

Subsequently, Hoyer vowed to bring back Iron Dome funding in a separate bill. And on Thursday, the House did pass a separate Iron Dome funding measure by an overwhelming vote of 420-9. One way or another, U.S. funding for Iron Dome is likely to continue.

That’s why the Israeli government, which is desperate to woo support from Democrats, has chosen not to make too big a deal of the incident, with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid doing his best to sound as if it didn’t matter.

The problem here is not the fate of a funding measure that was, from its start, a tactical political maneuver more than anything else. It’s that the left actually chose to make an issue of an Israeli defense system.

As many who are liberal critics of Israel but still claim to support its right to exist, pointed out, attacking Iron Dome funding would seem to be the weakest possible argument for foes of the Jewish state. As a purely defensive weapon, it saves lives—both Jewish and Arab—by preventing terrorist projectiles from hitting the civilian targets at which it is aimed. As Obama originally hoped, its effectiveness also makes a ground attack against Gaza less likely every time Hamas decides to try to enhance its credibility with the Palestinian street by trying to cause Israeli casualties, as it did in May. But as the arguments from not just the congressional radicals but the avalanche of support they got on liberal Twitter showed, the increasingly influential left-wing of the Democratic Party doesn’t care about any of that. They think that preventing terrorists from killing Jews (and Arabs) with rockets gives jewishledger.com

rtisan split over Israel

n

g

g

Israel an unfair advantage. They believe that Israel should be essentially disarmed and forced to give in to the demands of its enemies. Instead of showcasing their desire to promote peace, their dislike of Iron Dome illustrates their hostility to the existence of a Jewish state, no matter where its borders are drawn.

Far from being an unimportant kerfuffle, the Iron Dome squabble is just one more indication of a sea change in the Democratic Party as the younger and more popular left-wingers are beginning to edge out the senior citizens (Pelosi is 81 and Hoyer 82) that lead them in the House aside. Try as some might, including the Israeli government, it’s not possible to pretend that

a party being pushed around by anti-Zionists and anti-Semites, like those in “The Squad,” on funding issues and that openly advocates for appeasement of Iran can any longer be considered pro-Israel. Resisting this trend is the duty of the many supporters of Israel who remain loyal Democrats; still, it would be dishonest to pretend that their struggle is anything but uphill and increasingly likely to fail in the long run.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS—Jewish News Syndicate. Follow him on Twitter at: @jonathans_tobin.

House overwhelmingly approves Iron Dome funding

BY RON KAMPEAS

(JTA) — The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved an extra $1 billion in funding for Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system, following a pushback effort from Israelcritical progressives that had limited reach. The vote Thursday was 420-9, with two voting present. The bill now goes to the Senate, where it is likely to be approved.

Pro-Israel groups anxiously tracked the vote to see how extensive the influence was of the “Squad,” the grouping of leftists in the Democratic Party who in May directed their fury at Israel during the Gaza conflict. But most progressives in the Democratic caucus, including those who vocally opposed the insertion in the broader funding bill, ultimately backed the Iron Dome funding, which was limited to Israel’s defense system and not to any offensive artillery.

The nay votes, in the end, numbered only nine and included just four members of the sixmember Squad — including Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., who had enjoyed positive relations with many in the mainstream Boston Jewish community prior to her outspoken criticism of Israel in May. Among other members of the Squad, Jamaal Bowman of New York voted for the funding and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York voted “present.” The “no” votes included one Republican, Thomas Massie of West Virginia.

The debate beforehand engendered a bitter exchange between one Squad member, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich, who is Palestinian American and who voted “no,” and Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., who is Jewish and chairman of the Middle East subcommittee. Tlaib called Israel an “apartheid” state and Deutch said that was “antisemitism.”

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jewishledger.com

THE KOSHER CROSSWORD OCT. 1, 2021 “Same Names?”

By: Yoni Glatt

Difficulty Level: Easy

Vol. 93 No. 40 JHL Ledger LLC Publisher Henry M. Zachs Managing Partner

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ANSWERS TO SEPT. 24 CROSSWORD

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Across 1. “Kid tested. Mother approved” cereal 4. ___ chag (day after yomtov) 9. Not full 14. 2010 health legislation, in brief 15. Some iPads 16. Former Israeli dough 17. Tax for actor Eugene?

19. Change 20. Secret hideaway 21. Furniture material 22. Words before “arms” or “the air” 23. Wharton’s “The ___ ___ Innocence” 25. Broadway show about a notable deli?

29. Ailment that makes things harder to pick up 31. “Giddyup!”

32. “Not ___ shabby!”

33. Wedding or Bar Mitzvah 36. Judaism doesn’t believe in it as a long-term punishment 37. Beach buds for gangster Bugsy?

42. “Ella Enchanted” star Hathaway 43. Like the crosswords in this publication 44. Conditions 45. See 67-Across 47. Common classes 51. Part of a gifted body part for

singer Lisa?

55. One would become one in Israel instead of heading to 36-Across, perhaps 56. It’s delivered 57. 18 mgs. of iron, e.g.

59. Eve’s middle son 60. Local Israeli 62. Drink for Rabbi Berel?

64. Karen of the Indiana Jones films 65. Oil baron J. Paul 66. “Cancel” PC key 67. Water and 45-Across 68. Tribe the Igbo Jews claim to be descended from 69. Wino

Down 1. Chatan’s gal 2. 2002 animated film featuring a wayward mammoth 3. Marvel’s Charles with mental powers 4. Contacts online, for short 5. Agricultural tower 6. Quarterback ___ (throwing alternative) 7. Yitzchak’s 1-Down 8. BBYO alternative 9. Fly by 10. Do a take-off on 11. Vitamins for moms to be 12. Heavy weight

13. “Jan. 1 to now” period 18. It came way after 2-Down 22. Israeli gun 24. Colonial flute 26. A crowd, they say 27. Work at 28. What days are called on Mars in “The Martian” 30. New York Jets’ org., until 1969 34. A Houston baseball player 35. Israeli man?

36. Most recent Albus Dumbledore portrayer 37. Leave port 38. Data 39. Entire company on stage

40. Electric guitar go-with 41. Salon substances 45. Largest percentage of humans 46. Sick and tired?

48. 11-Down helps them arrive safely 49. Despite the contrary 50. Make a choice 52. Revealed, as one’s soul 53. 2010 Super Bowl MVP Drew 54. First name behind 23- Across 58. Payment to play 60. Diego preceder 61. Lager alternative 62. Org. for those creating scripts 63. Aleppo’s country: Abbr.

JEWISH LEDGER

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OCTOBER 1, 2021

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At this Tel Aviv cafe, baristas serve you espresso — with a side of Jesus

BY ABBY SEITZ

TEL AVIV (JTA) — From the outside, HaOgen Cafe looks a lot like the many other espresso spots that line the streets of Tel Aviv.

Located just north of the central Dizengoff Square, it has floor-to-ceiling windows and a colorful chalkboard sidewalk easel that, on a recent weekday, advertised breakfast sandwiches and an upcoming acoustic concert. Inside, a crowd of 20- and 30-somethings sit at tables, typing away at laptops. It’s decorated with string lights and floor plants, with upbeat quotes and doodles scribbled in marker on the opaque windows in the back.

But HaOgen also offers something its neighborhood competitors do not — the gospel of Jesus Christ.

According to the website of Dugit, a Messianic Jewish organization based in Tel Aviv whose name means “small boat,” HaOgen is an “outreach coffee shop” that’s “staffed with evangelists ready to share the good news with every guest that comes in.”

“Thanks to this trendy location the ministry gained access to a whole new group of people in their city who are in great need of a Savior,” reads a 2019 blog post on the website of the Fellowship of Israel Related Ministries, a Messianic organization that describes HaOgen as a member of the fellowship.

The coffee shop’s deep ties to Dugit and Messianic Judaism, a movement that believes in the divinity of Jesus while claiming to practice Judaism, are not immediately detectable to patrons. A bookshelf at the back of the cafe is stocked with Hebrew copies of the New Testament and stacks of pamphlets about “the Messiah,” and the cafe’s logo is an anchor, a historical symbol of Christianity.

Yet no signage inside or outside indicates any ties between HaOgen and any organization or religious movement.

Nor does the cafe’s website mention its affiliation with Dugit or any religious mission.

“I didn’t know it was owned by missionaries,” said Jessica Arnovitz, a Jewish American immigrant to Israel who lives near the cafe. “I’ve been before, and it’s a nice place.”

Messianic Judaism, some of whose followers were known in the past as “Jews for Jesus,” appears to be growing in Israel.

Messianic Jews refer to Jesus as “Yeshua” and use Christian holy books, such as the New Testament, that have been translated to Hebrew. Messianic Jewish groups often have ties to explicitly Christian organizations, and none of the mainstream 18

JEWISH LEDGER

Jewish movements consider them Jewish.

As with many mainstream Christian denominations, missionary work is part of Messianic practice.

Dugit’s executive director told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the cafe is not the site of efforts to proselytize to Jews.

In fact, he said, Dugit does not directly run HaOgen — although he said it does own the space and pay the salary of the cafe’s manager, a man named Argo who is also the lead pastor of an Ethiopian Messianic congregation. Argo declined an interview request from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“We are not trying to missionize anyone, bribe anyone, or do anything to people,” said Avi Mizrachi, who was born in Israel and is himself a pastor at a Messianic congregation in Tel Aviv. “We are Jews who love our country, serve our country in the army, and pay taxes. And we celebrate the Jewish holidays and feasts, and we believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

And yes, we believe that Yeshua is the messiah.”

He added, “Now, if [customers] ask us what we believe, we tell them, but we don’t go and, as we call this, missionize people or, or convert people.”

Only proselytizing to minors without their parents’ consent and offering religious conversions in exchange for a material gift are barred by Israeli law. But there is a widely held misconception that missionary activity in the country is illegal, and the government has at times seemed open to advancing that reputation. In its 2010 International Religious Freedom Report, the U.S. State Department wrote that Israel has “taken a number of steps that encouraged the perception that proselytizing is against government policy,” such as detaining missionaries and citing “proselytism as a reason to deny student, work, and religious visa extensions.”

The idea that missionary work is illegal — and the associated idea that believers in Jesus face persecution because of their faith — leads many Messianics in Israel to mask their activities, according to Sarah Posner, a journalist and author who writes extensively on evangelical Christianity. “[Messianics] really played up the idea that proselytizing to Jews is illegal in Israel,” Posner said. “It’s not as severe as they make it out to be, but they do play that up as evidence that they aren’t treated fairly. Elsewhere in the world, and especially in the United States, there aren’t those constraints at all, so they don’t have a reason to have a cafe that seems like it

| OCTOBER 1, 2021

HAOGEN CAFE, IN CENTRAL TEL AVIV, IS AN OUTPOST OF A MESSIANIC JEWISH ORGANIZATION. (ABBY SEITZ)

has nothing to do with religion and is just a place you can go get a coffee.”

Most Israelis who identify as Messianic have direct Jewish ancestry, “while in the United States, you’re more likely to encounter people who identify as Messianic Jews but are actually evangelical Christians,” Posner said, adding that many American evangelical Christian churches fundraise for Messianic congregations and missionary efforts in Israel.

The number of Messianic Jews in Israel has multiplied in recent decades, according to representatives of the community. Today, Messianics in Israel number some 10,000 to 20,000, according to Yonatan Allon, managing editor of Kehila, an umbrella organization for Messianics in Israel.

Representatives of the community attribute the growth partially to missionizing efforts and partially to immigration. There are Messianic congregations that reach out specifically to Russian-speaking as well as Ethiopian Israelis.

“In 1999, the number of believers in total was approximately 5,000,” Alec Goldberg, Israel Director of the Caspari Center, an evangelical organization in Israel, said in a 2019 Q&A on the center’s website. “Today, 5,000 is just the number of believers in Russian-speaking congregations in Israel. And of course, as observers of the Messianic scene in Israel are aware, the number of local ministries has also multiplied, with new initiatives constantly underway.”

Those initiatives include more than 70 Messianic congregations throughout Israel, according to Kehila, including one, Adonai Roi, run by Dugit and led by Mizrachi that’s a a seven-minute walk away from HaOgen.

In addition to the cafe and the Messianic congregation, Dugit’s website says it runs a prayer room in Tel Aviv, a charity for the poor and an annual conference for women.

The website also says Dugit was involved in an evangelical TV station that Israel’s broadcasting authority shut down last year.

“The messaging of these Messianic groups is very evangelical,” Posner said.

“For a lot of Israeli Jews, it’s an unfamiliar message, unless they have a lot of political connections with evangelical Christians who, as we know, are very interested in supporting Israel and supporting settlements.”

That’s unlikely to describe the typical customer of a Tel Aviv coffee shop, so some in Israel are working to alert potential HaOgen visitors to what their patronage supports.

Recently, two years after it opened, HaOgen caught the attention of Beyneynu, an Israeli organization that monitors missionary activity in the country. Founded last year by Shannon Nuszen, an American immigrant to Israel and former evangelical missionary who converted to Orthodox Judaism, the watchdog group made headlines earlier this year after it outed a family that had been actively involved in a haredi Orthodox Jerusalem community for several years but were actually Christian missionaries.

Nuszen declined an interview request, but the nonprofit wrote on Facebook last month that it had received tips regarding HaOgen Cafe’s Messianic mission. The post said that Beyneynu has “no objection to people of different faiths operating businesses in Tel Aviv” but wanted to alert potential customers to the cafe’s ties.

“People should know, however, that this eatery is not just another bohemian café.

Rather, it is part of a well-funded, organized effort by evangelical donors to convert young, vulnerable Jews to Christianity,” the Facebook post said. “We’re simply asking for transparency and respect.”

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Events are placed on the Ledger website on Tuesday afternoons.

Deadline for submission of calendar items is the previous Tuesday. Send items to: judiej@ jewishledger.com.

Curated by CARAVAN, an international peace building 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.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1 SUNDAY, OCTOBER 3

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7

The Emanuel Synagogue hosts “L’Chayim Tribute to Life” Shabbaton “L’Chayim Tribute to Life: A Shabbaton Tribute to Rabbi Philip and Ruth Lazowski, and Rabbi David Small and Debbie Chameides will feature a weekend of events including an One dessert reception on Oct. 1 at 8 p.m.; a kiddish lunch honoring Holocaust survivors after services on Oct. 2 at 12:15 P.M.; a celebratory event following Havdalah at 7:11 p.m.; and a Sunday Brunch (see Book Brunch that follows). All events free. Registration required (no walk-ins).

Live-stream option available. Proof of vaccine and PCR test within 48 hours of event required. For information: Emanuel synagogue.org. Regi

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3 Book Brunch with author Rebecca Frankel

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.

Celebrate the release of Into the Forest: A Holocaust Story of Survival, Triumph and Love, the story of how West Hartford resident Ruth Lazowski, husband of Rabbi Philip Lazowski, survived the Holocaust.

The brunch, to be held Oct. 3 at 11 a.m., will feature written by NY Times bestselling author and West Hartford native Rebecca Frankel in conversation with former State Rep. Andy Fleischmann, who is currently president and CEO of Nutmeg Big Brothers and Sisters. The Book Brunch is the concluding event of L’Chayim: To Life Shabbaton hosted by The Emanuel Synagogue and honoring the Lazowskis and Rabbi David Small and Debbie Chameides.

The brunch is co-sponsored by Voices of Hope and Emanuel.

Daniel Pearl World Music Days Concert

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5

Yale Professor of History David Sorkin speaks at The Emanuel Synagogue on Oct. 10 at 4 p.m., in advance of the Nov. 7 staged reading of “Havdalah,” a new play by Emanuel member Ben Engel (see story this page). Sorkin’s lecture is co-sponsored by Emanuel Synagogue, UConn Department of Jewish Studies, the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies of the University of Hartford and Rabbi Gerald B. Zelermyer Lecture Fund. Admission to Sorkin’s talk is

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

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 “Faith Divided: The Jewish Encounter with Modern Life”

OCTOBER 1 – OCTOBER 30 FREE. For more information: (860) 2361275.

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

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.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20 Daniella Risman, Emanuel Synagogue’s new cantor, will headline a concert at the Synagogue that includes the music of Felix Mendelssohn and explores “What is Jewish Music” through other musicians of the time.

The concert is in advance of the Nov. 7 staged reading of “Havdalah,” a new play by Emanuel member Ben Engel (see story this page). Admission to the concert is FREE. For more information: (860) 236-1275.

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.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28 Chabad to honor Hartford HealthCare CEO Jeffrey Flaks “On the Front Lines: Mind, Body and Soul” is the theme of the 2021 Chabad Gala honoring Hartford healthCare CEO Jeffrey Flaks on Oct. 28, 5:30 p.m., at Emanuel Synagogue, 160 Mohegan Drive in West Hartford. Flaks will be recognized for his crucial work during the pandemic.

The event will be held according to CDC guidelines in place at the time of the Gala.

For information: Miriamgopin@yahoo.com, (860) 232-1116.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17 Noah’s Ark family program in West Hartford “In the Same Boat,” a FREE Noah’s Ark virtual family program hosted by the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford will be held Oct. 17 at 9:15 - 10:15 a.m. on Zoom. Local Jewish children in grades K-2 (plus an adult family member) are invited to “visit” the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem and craft their own 3-D ark models using the story of Noath as a guide. Materials are provided. To register: contact Deb Howson at dhowson@ jewishhartford.org or your local synagogue director by Oct. 4 (membership in a synagogue not required)

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.

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 JEWISH LEDGER

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OBITUARIES BECKERMAN Stuart Beckerman, of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., formerly of Glastonbury, died Sept. 22, one day before his 87th birthday. He was the husband of Estelle Beckerman. Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., he was a civil engineer. He was a former president of both Beth El Synagogue in Ponte Vedra Beach and Temple Beth Torah in Wethersfield.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his sons Steven Beckerman and his wife Nancy of Oldsmar, Fla., David Beckerman of Cheshire, and Douglas Beckerman and his wife Maureen of Franklin, Mass.; his grandchildren, Adam Beckerman, Kari Beckerman Faber (Yonathan), Ashley Beckerman, Brian Beckerman (Moriah), and Jamie Beckerman; and his great-grandson Noah Faber.

COHEN Marilyn Cohen, 90, of Orange, died Sept.

13. She was the widow of Stanley Cohen.

Born in Patterson, N.J , and raised in Miami Beach, Fla., she was the daughter of Samuel and Ruth Goodman. She attended Vanderbilt University and was a teacher in the Orange School system. Upon retirement, she founded Educational Problem Solvers, a tutoring and consulting practice that enabled her to assist students with special educational needs. She was a member of Temple Emmanuel in Orange. She is survived by her brother Marvin Goodman and his wife Rosalie of Kingston, Jamaica; her sister Sandra Sohcot and her husband Brian Stern of San Francisco, Calif.; her children, Edward Cohen and his wife Abby Ruben of Minneapolis, Mn., Jo Cohen and her husband Ron Cohen of West Hartford, and Stephen Cohen and his wife Susan of West Orange, N.J.; and five grandchildren.

EPSTEIN Dr. Simon Epstein, 87, of Stamford, died Sept. 20. He wa the widower of Patricia Marlowe Epstein. He attended Yale University and graduated from New York

University School of Medicine. In addition to his private psychiatric practice, he was associate medical director of the Child Guidance Center of Southern CT, past president of the Connecticut Psychiatric Society, and Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He is survived by his daughters, Sharon Epstein and her husband Edward Dzubak, and Joanne Owens and her husband Douglas; and his brother Abram.

EVERY Marilyn D. Every, 84, of West Hartford, died Sept. 21 at the age of 84. She was the widow of Hal Every. Born in Dorchester, Mass., she was the daughter of Harry and Helen Daniels, who were both killed in a car accident when she was age 8. She and her brother Murray were then raised by their Aunt Ida and Uncle Ned of Hartford. She attended Hartford High and studied nursing at Union Hospital in Fall River, Mass. She worked as an RN at Hartford Hospital. She was a member of Beth David Synagogue.

She was an active member of the Hartford Jewish Nurses Association. She is survived by her daughters, Lauri Every of West Hartford, and Judy Every and her husband Spencer Jurman of White Plains, NY.; and her grandchildren, Hunter and Kylie Jurman.

GINSBERG Dr. Martin Ginsberg, 100, of Stamford, died Sept.17. He was the widower of Lee (Rubin) Ginsberg and Janice Blickensderfer Eastlack. He was the son of Mary and Aaron Ginsberg of Brooklyn.

After receiving a pharmacy degree from St. John’s University in 1943. he entered military service. He then attended the University of Oregon School of Dentistry and opened his first dental practice in New Haven. He returned to military service in the U.S. Air Force, serving in Libya, then moved to Stamford and opened his dental office. He was president of the Stamford

Dental Society (1962-63) and was attending dentist at both Stamford and St. Joseph’s Hospitals. In 1977, he became the director of the TMJ (temporomandibular joint) clinic at Stamford Hospital. He is survived by three children from his first marriage, Trina Weyeneth and her husband John, Marcia Ginsberg and her husband Tim Hadro, and Richard Ginsberg and his wife Janet; his four grandsons and three greatgrandchildren; and his longtime partner Jewell Cornell.

LEBOWITZ Marcia (Lipman) Lebowitz, 81, of Cheshire, formerly of Woodbridge, died Sept. 22.

She was the widow of Dr. Paul Lebowitz.

Born in Cambridge, Mass., she was the daughter of the late Jacob and Frieda (Frye) Lipman. She is survived by her children, Arthur Lebowitz and his wife Claudette, and Charles Lebowitz, both of Cheshire; and her grandchildren, Mazie and Jacob Lebowitz. She was also predeceased by her brother Ira Lipman and his wife Ann Ruth. She received her MSW from the Simmons College School of Social Work in Boston. She established the Children’s

Divorce Center in 1979, and later wrote the book I Think Divorce Stinks, lectured, ran conferences, and became an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac University Law School to help educate the legal community and encourage more importance be put on a child’s perspective during divorce.

MAG Patricia Lucille Passehl Mag, 79, of New Britain, died Sept. 20. She was born in Indianapolis, Ind. She was a nurse, an accomplished artist, and a member of the League of Women Voters, the Avon Art Leagues. She is survived by her sons, Gregory, and Henry and his wife Susan; her grandson Jonathan; and her siblings, Diane Davidson and her husband Harry of West Hartford, Beth Passehl-Grant and her husband Allan of Woodstock, Ga., David of Englewood, Fla., Chris and his wife Janet of Essex, and Melissa Groeneveld of San Jose, Calif.; and several nieces and nephews, and their families.

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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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