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VOLUME XIII, NUMBER 13
JUNE 18, 2015
Irving and Frances Kaufman Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowment Fund established The Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania has acknowledged “with deepest gratitude” the establishment of the Irving and Frances Kaufman Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowment Fund, established by Howard and Sandra Kaufman to honor the memory of their late parents. A percentage of the annual income
from the fund will be added to the Federation’s annual UJA Campaigns in their names in perpetuity. Both Irving and Frances were considered “recognized and respected leaders” of the Scranton Jewish community. The fund intends to sustain their memory and the service they provided throughout their lives to the
community, to Israel and to people around the world. “May their memory forever be a blessing,” said a Federation representative.
At right: Irving and Frances Kaufman
Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennyslvania marches in the “Celebrate Israel” Parade
The group of marchers from Scranton and the Poconos attended the annual Celebrate Israel Parade in New York City on May 31. Participants marched down the famous Fifth Avenue waving flags, carrying the Federation banner and a parade theme banner. Hundreds of thousands of spectators shouted to the participants in welcome, including Micah Halpern, who has been to
Scranton to lecture on Mideast affairs. After the parade, the marchers continued to Teaneck, NJ, where they ate kosher food at various restaurants and shopped in local stores. Some newcomers participated this year who were said to be “particularly thrilled” with the opportunity to march in support of the Jewish homeland, to make new acquaintances from Northeastern
Phil Cutler and Charles and Benita Berman posed for a photo at the Celebrate Israel Parade.
Pennsylvania and to “experience a larger Jewish community.” Attendees expressed their gratitude that the Federation subsidized the trip, making participation affordable, and said they “look forward” to upcoming Federation programs. Those thanked for their participation included Benita and Charles Berman, Phil
Cutler, Joe Fisch, Iris Grubler, Michael Lilly, Marge Hartnett, Richard Keleman, Betsy Kosmerl, Ida Lambert, Andre McGowan, Sara McGowan, Shoshana McGowan, Aryeh Rosenberg, John Sanocki, Gene Schneider, Irene Solzenberg, Donna Waite and Frank Wholey. Additionally, Mark Silverberg and Dassy Ganz were thanked for organizing the trip.
Shoshana, Sara and Andre McGowen attended the Celebrate Israel Parade on May 31. (See more photos on page 5.) At left: Participants who marched in the Israel Parade carried the banners of the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Federation on Facebook
The Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania now has a page on Facebook to let community members know about upcoming events and keep connected.
Candle lighting
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Bridging the gap year
Meals on Wheels
A new gap year program seeks to Kosher Meals on Wheels programs create bonds between Israeli and can empower volunteers and the American teenagers. seniors they serve. Story on page 3 Story on page 4
We were there
June 19...........................................8:21 pm June 26......................................... 8:22 pm July 3............................................. 8:22 pm
A volunteer in Israel’s War of PLUS Independence reflects on the Opinion........................................................2 importance of his service. D’var Torah................................................8 Story on page 8 Annual Report..................................Insert
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THE REPORTER ■ june 18, 2015
a matter of opinion Time for a regional solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
By Yair Lapid (JTA) – During the last week, rockets from Gaza were again fired at innocent civilians. This cannot be tolerated. The Israel Defense Forces must respond swiftly and without hesitation. We, as the opposition, will support strong government action. Yet such action cannot stand alone. We need to initiate and be proactive in order to restore quiet and start the painful, but necessary, process of separating from the Palestinians to reach a two-state solution. I’m going to argue that the only way to achieve the two-state solution is to give up on direct talks and manage the negotiations through a regional conference supported by the United States. With that, allow me first to address the Iran issue and the fight against the BDS movement. This past year, the strategic dialogue between Israel and the United States focused on Iran. It’s been unproductive, often too personal and is leading to an agreement that Israel will struggle to live with. The deal being negotiated with Iran raises serious concerns, especially regarding supervision and the ability to reinstate sanctions in case Iran breaches the agreement. And make no mistake, Iran will breach the agreement. It is a regime that believes deceit is part of its holy war and fraud is a legitimate weapon when deployed in the name of Allah. In order to prevent that, we need to restore the full-scale intelligence cooperation between Israel and the United States, and try to come to an agreement on three
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Opinions The views expressed in editorials and opinion pieces are those of each author and not necessarily the views of the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Letters The Reporter welcomes letters on subjects of interest to the Jewish community. All letters must be signed and include a phone number. The editor may withhold the name upon request. ADS The Reporter does not necessarily endorse any advertised products and services. In addition, the paper is not responsible for the kashruth of any advertiser’s product or establishment. Deadline Regular deadline is two weeks prior to the publication date. Federation website: www.jewishnepa.org How to SUBMIT ARTICLES: Mail: 601 Jefferson Ave., Scranton, PA 18510 E-mail: jfnepareporter@jewishnepa.org Fax: (570) 346-6147 Phone: (570) 961-2300 How to reach the advertising Representative: Phone: (800) 779-7896, ext. 244 E-mail: bonnie@thereportergroup.org Subscription Information: Phone: (570) 961-2300
key issues: the penalties against Iran in case of any breach; the mechanism for supervision; and the question of which scenarios justify a military operation against Iranian nuclear sites. Israel will not and cannot take any option off the table to prevent a nuclear Iran. The explicit Iranian statement of intent to destroy the state of Israel is something unheard of since World War II. We are at a critical moment. The American government needs to work with us in the understanding that the Iranian nuclear program poses a threat to the whole world, but first and foremost to Israel. We are in range. We are the declared targets. My father was a Holocaust survivor from the Budapest ghetto. He used to say to me, “Do you know what the world will do if Israel is destroyed? They will all be very sad, they will open an orphanage for the surviving children and they will write a condolence letter.” Seventy years after the Holocaust, I cannot fathom, and neither can most Israelis, why the world is not even willing to demand that the Iranians retract their statements calling for our destruction. At the same time, Israel and the United States must return to intimate dialogue and the cooperation that typified the relationship since Israel’s first day. There is something to be remembered here, something we Israelis don’t say enough to the United States: We are grateful. The friendship between our two countries is not taken for granted. It is a choice built upon shared values that we must cherish. The fact that the world’s leading power chose Israel as its ally and close friend is a source of pride for every Israeli, and it is our duty to do everything to respect and preserve this friendship. Alongside our friends here and around the globe, it’s time for us to become proactive in the crucial fight against the new form of antisemitism represented by the BDS movements. It is time for us to move from defense to offense. Instead of trying to show the world that we’re a democracy, it’s time for us to expose the fact that the BDS movement is actually a puppet in a theater operated by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. We should go to the Europeans, we should go to American campuses and ask them, “Do you understand that you are not supporting the liberation of the oppressed, but are cheering for the people and values that brought 9/11 to this country? You are supporting people that kill gays and suppress women, people who look at you as nothing more than tools to be used.” They cynically use bleeding-heart, so-called intellectuals to promote the darkest version of Islam. They use wellintentioned liberals, who have no idea who they really serve, as camouflage for their campaign of death and destruction. This movement has nothing to do with the peace process or Israel’s behavior in Gaza. These are just their excuses for racism, for their hatred of Jews. The BDS movement should have no role in shaping our political reality or the decisions we take. But neither does it exempt us from the need to develop a new approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which will lead to a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel. For that to happen, we have to change direction. There is one thing we all know about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: It isn’t going anywhere. There is no option on the table which the two sides can accept. We should turn to the Arab League – of which the PLO, the umbrella organization
of the Palestinian national movement, is a part – to create a regional summit under the auspices of the Americans in which we can conduct regional dialogue leading to an agreement. For that to happen we need to give up – because there is no choice – on the idea of bilateral talks. It isn’t easy to accept the fact that the Israelis and the Palestinians cannot just sit together and find a solution, but the past 20 years have taught us that this isn’t going to happen. Why won’t it work? Because in the current circumstances, the maximum we can offer is lower than the minimum the Palestinians are willing to accept. There is no Palestinian leader today, and there won’t be one in the foreseeable future, who is able to reach the depth of compromise necessary for a deal. In the internal Palestinian dialogue, compromise is treason and any agreement hurts the Palestinian national ethos. The punishment is death. They can’t admit that publicly because it will contradict years of propaganda intended to present Israel as the sole refuser of peace. Added to the concerns of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his government about reaction on the Palestinian street and from the different terror factions – especially Hamas – to any agreement, there is the additional concern of the response from the Arab world. The leadership of the Palestinian Authority is simply not the only player on the field. Countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan, who see themselves as the custodians of the holy places, have made clear time and again that the Palestinians don’t have the sole authority over what they see as religious issues. On other issues as well, like the integration of the refugees into the future Palestinian state or the money needed to rehabilitate and build the Palestinian state, there is simply no way to reach an agreement without the involvement of the countries in the Arab League. For the sake of fairness, we have to admit that on the Israeli side as well, the commitment to the two-state solution at this time is half-hearted and doesn’t include the willingness to pay the political price needed to reach a deal. But that is more a matter of political circumstance than set conditions. There were Israeli governments in the past that were willing to pay a heavy price to separate from the Palestinians, and there may well be again in the future. A regional agreement that leads to an end of the conflict with the Arab League could also normalize our relations with much of the Islamic world – countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Algeria and other North African countries – opening up new markets, creating economic growth and new diplomatic relations. A regional approach provides us, the Israelis, with a clear incentive and a new set of tools with which to fight the BDS movement. The various mediators may have been wrong about the process, but they were right in their goal. They were right because there isn’t – and there cannot be – a solution other than separation from the Palestinians. The state of Israel cannot allow itself to absorb 3.5 million Palestinians. In every sense – security, economic, socially – the symbiotic connection with the Palestinians is destructive. In the long run, Israel cannot continue to be democratic and Jewish without separating from the Palestinians. In the short-term, the damage to our diplomatic relations is unbearable and the time between each round of fighting is getting shorter. In the current reality, the lack of
an agreement undermines our ability to cooperate with others to counter Iran’s aggressiveness and regional terrorism. The changes in the Arab world in the past five years present us with a unique opportunity. The Muslim Brotherhood no longer rules in Egypt. The civil war in Syria is occupying the terrorist organizations on our northern border. Saudi Arabia is leading a conservative Sunni coalition in Yemen against radical forces operating with Iranian support. The Arab world is divided in two: radical forces and conservative Arab states that seek to maintain the status quo. These countries are facing Islamic forces that are challenging the very notion of a nation state. To deal with that challenge, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states need to decide with which of their former enemies they will cooperate, Iran or Israel. According to all the indications we have, they would prefer Israel. The coalition formed by Saudi Arabia to fight the pro-Iranian forces in Yemen strengthens that understanding. For the first time since the state of Israel was founded, there is a coherent Arab coalition that prefers to cooperate with us. These are forces that we can and need to work with. Those countries lead the Arab League. The Palestinian Authority, which fears the rise of Hamas, sees itself as part of them. We can and we should speak to this Arab League. The opening point for these discussions should be the regional summit. Egypt is a natural candidate to host it and the world, led by the United States, should be the sponsor. The sides need to know that they aren’t beginning to walk the long path to an agreement alone, and that the international community will play a part in funding and implementing the solutions. We can assume that the Arab countries will demand a response to the Saudi Initiative of 2002. Our answer should be that we can’t accept the initiative as it is, but we are willing to address it as a basis for discussions, alongside the Kerry Framework. There are obviously clauses within the initiative that we will not accept – such as withdrawing from the Golan Heights or dividing Jerusalem, not to mention the right of return that is simply out of the question – but that is why we have negotiations, so that sides that do not agree with one another sit together and find solutions. Time is not on our side. The undermining of Israel’s international legitimacy is a genuine threat. The existential threat of a binational state is real and lies around the corner. Israel’s radicals, from right and left, are pushing us in that direction with all sorts of messianic delusions. That will be the end of Zionism and under no circumstances can we allow it to happen. During the previous government, in which I served as part of the negotiation team, we fought to push the idea of a regional summit. The response: “You don’t put leaders in the same room unless the results are agreed upon.” In my view, that is exactly the sort of thinking which has led us to where we are today – total paralysis. Leaders don’t sit together until there is an agreement on tax treaties or wage negotiations. But when there is a need for a historic change, leaders and only leaders can create the breakthrough. Leaders and only leaders need to meet in a closed room and come to the decisions that no one but them can reach. And then they, and only they, need to turn to their nations, to the See “Solution” on page 10
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THE REPORTER
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community news Lee Glassman spoke on Israel on May 28
Lee Glassman, who has been called “the Federation’s tour guide,” spoke in the Goodman Lounge of the Scranton Jewish Community Center on May 28. Glassman is originally from Scranton and now lives in Israel, where he is a professional tour guide. His knowledge of the land and history of Israel was said to be “astounding.” Program organizers added, “His passionate delivery takes one along on the journey of a lifetime.” Glassman told the story of the original Machal, volunteers from outside Israel, who formed the protocols for the Israeli Army and Navy and created the Israeli Air Force. Glassman included personal biographical stories of the various members. “Delivered with drama and humor, the audience sat spellbound during the program,” said
organizers of the event. For more information on the upcoming mission to Israel in October, contact the Federation at 570-961-2300, ext. 2, or dassy.ganz@jewishnepa.org.
At right: Jay Weiss (right), a member of the Board of Trustees and organizer of Federation’s missions to Israel, introduced Lee Glassman (left) and announced the upcoming mission to Israel, scheduled for October
B’nai Harim celebrated Shavuot
The holiday of Shavuot was celebrated on May 24 at Congregation B’nai Harim with a reading from the Torah by Beverly Novick. Shavuot is the Hebrew name for “weeks,” and refers to the Jewish festival marking the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. The Torah teaches that it was a seven-week pilgrimage from the life of slavery to freedom at the foot of Mount Sinai. At this time, observers read from the “Book of Ruth” the story of a young Moabite woman who left her land and people to go with her Jewish mother-in-law, Naomi, to the land of Israel. The holiday originally celebrated the completion of the barley harvest. Eating of dairy foods is traditional. The Ten Commandments are read as well. Congregation B’nai Harim will hold various up-
coming events. A progressive dinner will be held on Saturday, June 27, with appetizers and beverages at the first hosted home. From there, the group will split up for dinner at various local homes, and then the group will reunite at the temple for dessert. Participants will have opportunities to socialize with members and guests. The cost will be $25 per person. The program is chaired by Sunny Goldfinger. There will be a film festival featuring four films shown at the temple, with dessert followed by the movie. For dates of the screenings, contact the synagogue at 570646-0100. The cost of the movies will be $8 per person. Movies will be shown at 7 pm, except for July 26, when a deli lunch will be served at noon. The cost for that
Bridging the gap year: Hevruta program forges Israeli-American bonds
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Notice to our Pocono Readers Hevruta program participants celebrated Chanukah. (Photo courtesy of the Shalom Hartman Institute) with Rabbi Donniel Hartman, president of Jerusalem’s Shalom Hartman Institute, a dream he’d had for years: a gap year that would bring Israeli and American high school graduates together in learning, volunteering and “a deep sense” of communal belonging. “I told him that, since both our institutions already had high school programs, we had a great opportunity to partner on a gap year,” Lehmann tells JNS.org. The vision they shared, he says, was “forming a pluralistic
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See “Bridging” on page 9
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By Deborah Fineblum Schabb JNS.org Eighteen-year-olds have a habit of forming close, family-like relationships with each other. It’s rare, however, that Israeli and American teenagers living thousands of miles apart have the chance to create such bonds. But this year, 25 teens have been doing just that as part of a first-of-its-kind program. Watching the participants of the new Hevruta program for the so-called “gap year” between high school and college, it’s hard to imagine that these young adults didn’t always know each other, much less laugh at each other’s jokes. In reality, they grew up with languages, mores and cultures that were quite literally a world apart. Yet with Hevruta’s new wrinkle in the familiar gap-year concept, they spend the year learning and growing together in Israel – and breaking down those barriers. Further, if the initiators of the Hevruta program fulfill their mission, this will be just the first generation stepping into Jewish leadership roles better equipped to bridge the gap between their Israeli and American worlds. The conversation that was destined to give birth to Hevruta (Hebrew for friend or colleague, traditionally someone you learn Torah with) took place more than two years ago in Jerusalem when Rabbi Daniel Lehmann, president of Boston’s Hebrew College, shared
will be $15 per person. Anita Schneider is chairwoman of the program. Members and guests of B’nai Harim will take a bird walk with a local bird expert on Sunday, June 28. A comedy program with Phil Selman will be held on Sunday, July 19, at 2 pm. The fourth annual golf outing at the Pinecrest Golf Club will be held on Monday, August 24. For more information and instructions on how to attend these programs, call the message center at 570-646-0100 or visit www.bnaiharimpconos.org. Congregation B’nai Harim is a Reform Jewish Congregation located at 5346 Pocono Crest Rd., at Sullivan Trail and Rt. 940, Pocono Pines, PA.
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THE REPORTER ■ june 18, 2015
Kosher Meals on Wheels programs empower seniors and volunteers alike
By Maayan Jaffe JNS.org Beth sits patiently at her dining room table, waiting for her Kosher Meals on Wheels volunteer to arrive. A visit from a volunteer means dinner, which Beth receives five days a week from the kosher MOW program, run by the Torah Learning Center in Overland Park, KS. It also means some muchneeded socializing. “I look forward to them stopping in and chatting for a few minutes,” says the nonagenarian, who depends on the meals to continue living independently. “I don’t know what I’d do without Meals and Wheels. I have kept kosher since I was a little girl. It means so much to me and it would be so difficult,” notes Beth, which is a pseudonym because the woman interviewed asked to remain anonymous. Beth’s story is not atypical. While a kosher MOW in larger cities with thousands of Jewish senior citizens may seem like an obvious option to offer, it is less so in smaller towns, where there may be fewer seniors or people with disabilities who desire kosher food. Nonetheless, there are more than a handful of successful kosher programs. That’s because the program is not solely about the food – though that is still an important component, explains Esther Friedman, director of Kansas’ kosher MOW program. MOW is about “bringing joy, conversation, community connection and friendship to isolated Jewish older adults,” Friedman tells JNS.org. “It’s about empowering our community, including teen volunteers, to fulfill the important mitzvah of hiddur p’nai zaken, respect for the elderly,” says Friedman. In Minneapolis, MN, kosher MOW started around 20 years ago and is today a thriving organization, serving 24,000 meals per year. The program, funded by the local Jewish Federation through grants and private donors, employs four drivers who deliver food on four differ-
A delivery by the kosher Meals on Wheels program in Minneapolis. (Photo courtesy of JFCS of Minneapolis) ent routes. The meals cost around $15 apiece, when including overhead, according to Annette Sandler, director of aging and disability for Jewish Family and Children’s Services of Minneapolis. JFCS runs the program. While considered an official MOW, the JFCS program does not receive MOW national funds. Usually, MOW offers a kick-off grant to get new programs started, but then franchises must fund-raise and sustain themselves on their own. “Not all of our recipients did or want to keep kosher,” Sandler says. “But it is culturally specific food that they understand. It is not a ham and cheese sandwich or pork chops.” The Minneapolis program receives referrals from city and county case managers, as well as through other areas within JFCS. Sometimes, synagogues or individuals make referrals. Minneapolis kosher MOW will take anyone who qualifies and encourages people to pay what they can, up to $5.50 per meal. But some recipients cannot pay and nobody is turned away. “A couple of years ago, a driver went
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to deliver a meal to a particular client and the person didn’t answer her door,” Sandler recalls. “The policy is that the driver calls the office and we follow up. The case manager called and called and then reached out to the emergency contact, but could not get through. Then we called the police.” When the police arrived at the client’s home, they discovered she had fallen on a Friday and was still there, on the floor, several days later on Monday. Her hip was broken. She was alive, but severely dehydrated. An ambulance rushed the elderly woman to the hospital for care. She survived. “Our program, the daily visits, that is what saved her life,” Sandler says. In just two years, Friedman has already had similar experiences. The Kansas initiative is funded through private donors and grants. It supplies around 13,000 meals to between 40 and 50 recipients, depending on the time of year. Meals are prepared at one of the area’s ChabadLubavitch centers and delivered by volunteers. It costs Kansas around $13 per meal, including overhead. As is the case in Minneapolis, where recipients tend to be among the community’s poorest individuals, Kansas recipients are asked to contribute toward their meals, but many
cannot afford to do so. Friedman says kosher MOW accomplishes three goals: feeding the hungry, respecting the elderly and infusing the Jewish value of tikkun olam (repairing the world) into the next generation of Jewish philanthropists and leaders. The Kansas program is almost fully volunteer-run. Parents come with their children and there are dozens of teen volunteers. “The young volunteers learn to cook, they learn about kashrut, about holiday times and the foods associated with those holidays,” Friedman says. “We have a rabbi on board and the young people feel comfortable in this setting to ask their questions, so it accomplishes that, too.” She adds, “So many people come together to do a kindness to make this happen in our community. There are people who donate food, people who package it, the drivers and the people that come to cook and deliver. It is not just that it takes a village – it is a village.” That’s how Montgomery County (Maryland) kosher MOW volunteer Bill Zanoff describes his role. He has been volunteering as a delivery driver for 10 years. In Montgomery County, the program is funded with county dollars through the community’s Senior Food and Nutrition Program. The meals – in Montgomery County they deliver both lunch and dinner – range in content from tuna sandwiches or lasagna for lunch to chicken, turkey or meatloaf for dinner, as well as sides of fruits, veggies and desserts. Zanoff says he enjoys meeting the seniors and knows how grateful the recipients are. “Sometimes, I am the only person they see during the day, their only human contact,” he says. But Zanoff gets a lot out of it, too. “I think we get more out of it,” says Zanoff. “The drivers feel so good after we deliver.” According to Diane Hays-Earp, who runs the Montgomery County program, there are 80 kosher MOW volunteers who are “the lifeblood” of the program. “People are worried about the future, the Jewish future,” Friedman says. “This program is about the here and now. Every meal brings life today.”
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At the “Celebrate Israel” Parade
Gene Schneider, Joe Fisch, Irene Solzenberg and Richard Keleman marched in the Celebrate Israel Parade in New York City.
Michael Lilly, Iris Grubler, Donna Waite, John Sanocki and Sara McGowan marched in the Celebrate Israel parade.
Aryeh Rosenberg and Frank Wholey participated in the Celebrate Israel Parade.
Ida Lambert and Marge Hartnett attended the Celebrate Israel Parade.
Israel NEWS IN bRIEF From JTA
U.N. leaves Israel, Hamas off blacklist of children’s rights abusers
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon omitted Israel and Hamas from a blacklist of states and armed groups that violate children’s rights during conflict. The final list was sent to the U.N. Security Council on June 8, according to reports. Ban had final say on the states and groups that appeared on the list, which reportedly had included the Israel Defense Forces and Hamas in the draft sent to him for approval. His decision to remove Israel and Hamas against the recommendation of the U.N. special envoy for children and armed conflict, Leila Zerrougui of Algeria, is unusual, Reuters reported, citing unnamed U.N. sources. The report did include harsh criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinian children during its military operations in 2014 in the West Bank and Gaza. “In 2014, the security situation significantly deteriorated in the State of Palestine with another escalation of hostilities in Gaza and a significant increase of tensions throughout the West Bank, with devastating impacts for children,” the report says, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz, which obtained a copy. “Palestinian and Israeli children continued to be affected by the prevailing situation of military occupation, conflict and closure.” The report found that 557 Palestinian children and four Israeli children were killed in 2014, with 4,249 Palestinian children and 22 Israeli children wounded. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, on May 1 sent Ban a letter asking him to add Israel to the list, which was bolstered by a petition led by Palestinian solidarity groups. Both Israel and the United States reportedly pressured Ban to keep Israel off the list.
june 18, 2015 ■
THE REPORTER
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THE REPORTER ■ june 18, 2015
Remembering a fighter against oppression of Jews and blacks
By Rafael Medoff JNS.org Before he gained fame for posing as an African-American in order to expose racism, journalist John Howard Griffin secretly helped rescue Jewish children from the Nazis. With race relations in America now at the center of a national debate, this summer’s 75th anniversary of Griffin’s rescue work in Nazi-occupied France takes on special meaning. Griffin, author of the best-selling book “Black Like Me,” grew up Texas in the 1920s, in an era when racial segregation was strictly enforced and bigotry was the norm. He began reconsidering his assumptions about race after his casual use of an anti-black slur earned him a memorable slap across the face from his grandfather. Frustrated by the limited educational opportunities in Texas, the precocious Griffin responded to a newspaper ad for a high school in France in 1935 and, to his surprise, won a full scholarship. After graduating from the Lycee Descartes school, Griffin stayed in France, studying psychiatry at the University of Poitiers and working as assistant director of an asylum, where he helped introduce the therapeutic use of music. What happened next was a chapter in Griffin’s life that he never wrote about, but he described it in later interviews with his biographer, Robert Bonazzi, and with journalist Studs Terkel. In May 1940, the Nazis invaded France. Griffin’s American passport was his ticket to escape – yet he refused. “France had helped to form me,” he recalled. “I could not see deserting my friends there in a time of crisis.” The director of the asylum was soon drafted into the French army, leaving 20 year-old Griffin in charge of the 120 patients. But that was just his day job. Together with former classmate Jean Hussar, Griffin surreptitiously joined the French Underground. Recognizing the acute danger facing France’s Jews under the Nazis, Griffin and Hussar devised a plan to smuggle Jews out of the country. They disguised Jewish children as mental patients, dressing them in straitjackets and driving them out of town in the asylum’s ambulance.
The children were brought to French Underground cells in the countryside and then smuggled to Saint Nazaire, a port city. From there, they were taken to England. The United States was not an option for the children. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration imposed harsh restrictions to keep Jewish refugee immigration to a minimum, far below what U.S. law permitted. England, by contrast, had agreed to accept 10,000 Jewish children in what became known as the Kindertransports. Several dozen children were saved by Griffin and Hussar. But a single inadvertent misstep led to disaster. After getting two particular children out of the country, Griffin asked an ostensibly sympathetic French politician for helping in acquiring the paperwork needed to smuggle the children’s parents, an Austrian Jewish judge and his wife, out of France. The politician turned out to be an informer for the Germans. The judge and his wife were arrested by the Gestapo. Griffin and Hussar fled to England, and their rescue operation came to an end. At about the same time, another rescue operation in France was also halted – but for a very different reason. Unknown to Griffin, another young American, Varian Fry, arrived in Marseilles in the autumn of 1940 with a plan to rescue Jewish refugees. Fry’s network smuggled more than 2,000 refugees out of France, until the Nazis and their French collaborators learned of the operation and complained to Washington. Since the U.S. had not yet entered the war, and still maintained friendly relations with Nazi Germany, the Roosevelt administration responded to the Nazis’protest by canceling Fry’s passport, forcing him to leave France. Griffin returned home and, in the 1950s, became increasingly interested in the problem of racial segregation. He began to see a connection between what had happened to the Jews in Europe and the mistreatment of African-Americans. “In Nazi Germany, the fear of destroying purity through mongrelization was based on the false premise that the Jew was inferior to the Gentile,” he later wrote. “In the South, we segregate the Negro from the white to prevent mongrelization. The core of the matter is the same in both cases since
Friends of The Reporter Dear Friend of The Reporter, Each year at this time the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania calls upon members of our community to assist in defraying the expense of issuing our regional Jewish newspaper, The Reporter. The newspaper is delivered twice of month (except for December and July which are single issue months) to each and every identifiable Jewish home in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
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both ‘solutions’ proceed from the same false premise of racial superiority.” In 1959, Griffin undertook an experiment that would help shake the foundations of assumptions about race inAmerica. With the aid of a dermatologist, he used a combination of medications and intense exposure to sun lamps to darken his skin tone. He then spent three weeks traveling through the Deep South, posing as an African-American. Griffin’s subsequent memoir, “Black Like Me,” recounted first-hand the viciousness of the racism he encountered, the countless daily humiliations such as being forced to sit in the back of the bus and the dilapidated housing and schools that blacks endured. The publication of Griffin’s expose ignited a backlash. After being hanged in effigy in his home town, Griffin and his family were forced to flee to Mexico for nearly a year. “Black Like Me,” however, was an overnight sensation. It sold more than five million copies. Griffin was invited to brief members of Congress, give lectures for the Department of Justice, and speak about his experience in countless interviews with the news media. Griffin’s efforts are said to have played a major role in discrediting segregation and sensitizing the American public to the injustice of racism. John Howard Griffin’s fight for justice began not in Texas, but in German-occupied France, 75 years ago this summer, where he first risked his life in the fight against racist oppression. Dr. Rafael Medoff is director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, www.WymanInstitute.org.
Exhibit on “Repetition and Difference”
The Jewish Museum in New York City will host the exhibit “Repetition and Difference” through August 9. The exhibit explores the idea of repetition and difference in art, and features more than 350 historic objects from the museum’s collection and recent works by contemporary artists. Items from the museum’s collection will be juxtaposed with more recent works, including those of such artists as Walead Beshty, Sarah Crowner, Abraham Cruzvillegas, N. Dash, John Houck, Koo Jeong A, Kris Martin, Amalia Pica and Hank Willis Thomas. Among the items to be exhibited are 19th-century Chanukah lamps, silver coins from 126/25 B.C.E. to 58/59 C.E., 19th-century German Torah binders, Judahite pillar figurines from ancient Israel, 19th and 20th century Iranian marriage contracts and more. Contemporary artist installations include seek to “evoke the characteristics of mass production or to humanize their chosen materials through handmade variations.” For more information, visit http://thejewishmuseum. org/press/press-release/repetition-and-difference-release or contact the museum at 212-423-3200 info@thejm.org.
Exhibit on “Doll Girls”
The Jewish Museum of Maryland will hold the exhibit “Laurie Simmons: How We See” through August 9. The exhibit features photographs that draw on the “Doll Girls” subculture of women. These women alter themselves with makeup, dress and cosmetic surgery to look like Barbie, baby dolls and anime characters. Simmons used fashion models to evoke the trend. For more information, visit http://jewishmuseummd. org/single/the-a-mazing-mendes-cohen/ or contact the museum at 410-732-6400.
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THE REPORTER
Agnieszka Kurant and the art of what’s missing By Lucy Blatter NEW YORK (JTA) – On June 5, Agnieszka Kurant became one of only a handful of artists to have their work adorn the curved facade of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum here. Kurant’s “The End of Signature,” a neon white projection created from the actual signatures of museum visitors with the help of a computer program, is an evolving light sculpture that the Polish-Jewish artist calls an ode to the disappearing art of handwriting. The “collective signature” will be visible on the Manhattan building at night and is similar to a work projected in blue outside a shopping mall in Holland in 2013. “It’s like the signature of an invisible hand of a collective body,” said Kurant, a self-described post-conceptual artist now based in New York. Her work will also be on display inside the Guggenheim as part of its summer contemporary art show. “Phantom Library” comprises 112 fictional books, originally mentioned in novels, lined up on a shelf. Kurant has given the books physicality, complete with ISBN numbers and bar codes. “It relates to my general interest in phantom capital and how [the] contemporary economy is becoming based less and less on physical products and physical labor and more on virtual and immaterial products and immaterial labor,” Kurant told JTA. Invisibility and the power of what cannot be seen are constants in the work of Kurant, who learned only as a teenager that
her mother’s family was Jewish. Kurant’s maternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors, and her mother, who spent most of her life in communist Poland, had been afraid to tell her daughter the truth. Her family’s choice to keep her cultural and religious background hidden has weighed ever since on Kurant and her work. “I’m particularly interested in how certain narratives are suppressed in collective memory,” she said. Kurant was born and raised Catholic in Lodz. At 14, she accompanied her mother’s family to visit family graves in Warsaw. Noticing the Jewish stars etched on the tombstones – sometimes appearing alongside swastikas – she learned that her mother’s family was Jewish. “When my mother was growing up, Jewish origin was taboo,” said Kurant, who until now has not discussed her Jewish identity in the media. “My maternal grandparents changed their names during the war and kept the fake names... They had a fake Catholic wedding during the war and baptized my mother when she was born.” Kurant’s mother’s family had been secular Jews, part of the Warsaw intelligentsia before the Holocaust. During the war, they were hidden by a German businessman who allowed them to work in his factory. Her grandfather was a wellknown surgeon in Lodz after the war. But in 1968, amid a wave of antisemitism in Poland that led to an exodus of 20,000 Jews from the country, he lost his job and was forced to live out his professional life at a small provincial hospital on the
Book review
A world without “Js” By Rabbi Rachel Esserman Howard Jacobson is the best-known and most-praised contemporary British Jewish novelist, although many American readers are still unfamiliar with his work. His novel “The Finkler Question” won the Man Booker Prize in 2010; “Kalooki Nights” made the long list in 2006. Both books focused on the role of Judaism in their characters’ lives. So the plot of his latest novel, “J” (Hogarth) – which was short-listed for Man Booker last year – seemed puzzling. The man who’s been called “the British Philip Roth,” “the Jewish Jane Austin” and “England’s Jeremiah” – whose byword has always been realism – has written a futurist novel that seems to have no Jewish content. At least, that’s what I thought until the reviews began to appear. Yes, it’s true the novel doesn’t use any J words – Jews and Judaism are never
specifically mentioned – but below the surface, this is Jacobson’s most Jewish and most disturbing work. The future Jacobson offers is one that has banished the past. History is considered dangerous because that would mean talking about an event referred to as “WHAT HAPPENED, IF IT HAPPENED” (in all capital letters). While the specifics are never spelled out, it’s clear that an enormous tragedy occurred – one so awful that people aren’t allowed to talk about it directly. In order to prevent a repeat of the behavior that caused “WHAT HAPPENED, IF IT HAPPENED,” people must continually apologize for their behavior, even if they haven’t done anything wrong. This proves difficult for Kevern Cohen, a loner whose behavior is slightly paranoid. Fortunately, he lives in a small See “World” on page 10
Sunday, June 21, 2015 The Bais Yaakov of Scranton Tribute Dinner
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Detail of Agnieszka Kurant’s “Phantom Library”: embossed canvas, silkscreen on paper and cardboard, thermochromic pigment on paper, gold leaf, silver leaf and offset print on paper. (Photo by Jean Vong, courtesy of Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York) outskirts of the city, which is some 85 miles southwest of Warsaw. Now working out of the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in Manhattan, the upand-coming Kurant has exhibited her work at the Tate Modern in London and at New York’s MoMA PS1, one of the institutions in the United States dedicated solely to contemporary art. She is preparing for an upcoming exhibition at the Center for Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv. In 2010, she represented Poland at the Venice Biennale. Before moving to the United States permanently three and a half years ago, Kurant lived on Chlodna Street in Warsaw, the site of a bridge that once connected the small and large Jewish ghettos. She was struck by the absence of a Jewish memorial at the site, which has monuments to Polish victims of the 1919-21 Polish-Soviet war and a monument to a Polish priest who
lived on the street and was murdered by communists in 1984. The Jewish narrative, Kurant says, was suppressed. So in 2009, along with the Polish artist Anna Baumgart, Kurant created “(...),” a huge sculpture of movable balloons commissioned by the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. The ellipsis between parentheses suggests a gap in narration. “It was created as an ‘anti-monument,’ a way of showing what was not there,” Kurant said, describing the piece as a “portable monument-for-hire for places where unresolvable conflict exist, or where there are problems impossible to discuss and where certain discourses were suppressed in collective memory.” Since learning about her own family’s suppression, Kurant says she has embraced her Jewish-Polish cultural identity. “It’s who I am,” she said.
2015 Graduates in our Federation Family High School Avri Ben-Dov Miriam Tova Bilus Eliyahu Deutsch Yaakov Elefant Elozor Edelson Matthew Fiegelman Serach Flam Chana Guttman Moshe Kurtzer Emma Lorber Emily Mancus Mendel Rappoport Rina Rosenberg Tehilla Schnaidman Sarah Schnaidman Shaindy Shkedi Jake Silverberg Leah Silverman Rachel Smertz
College
Elena de Soto Sara Fish Brian Levy Jenna Pollock Becca Schoenberg Ellen Smith H. Cody Weinberger
Graduate School
Gittel Deutsch - Nursing Eliyahu Fink - Law School Cheryl Friedman - Nursing Avi Willis - Dental School
If you would like to have your name published on our list of graduates, contact Dassy Ganz at 961-2300 x2 or dassy.ganz@jewishnepa.org with your information.
Honorary Guest of Honor Rabbi and Mrs. Avrohom Goldstein Aishes Chayil Memorial Award Mrs. Chana Lapidus
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THE REPORTER ■ june 18, 2015
d’var torah
Casting a holy light
stands at the outside doorpost of a home, facing the outside, mundane world. It casts a holy glow both upon the residents of the home, as well as those on the outside. Even in a home that is filled with holy books, it is possible that the sanctity of those books, the holiness of those texts can remain abstract, completely removed from the consciousness and mind-frame of the residents. It is possible that the holiness within will remain just where it is – within. However, when one affixes a mezuzah to the door and then goes outside into the street, or comes inside from the street, he or she is personally reminded – and also clearly announces to the outside world – that this is a godly home, a residence that is dedicated to God and to His Torah, as the mezuzah proudly states the clarion call of the Jew, “Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem echod.” (“The Lord is our God, the Lord is one.”) This is the role of the kohen. Even though the entire Jewish congregation are all holy, in order for the holiness to be revealed, in order for this inner sanctity, the inner spark of the soul to grow into a bright flame, God has designated unique individuals, the kohanim and the saintly leaders, to cast their holy radiance upon the Jewish people, enabling and assisting each man, woman and child to bring that latent spirituality into their dayto-day lives. In our parasha this week, we learn that it is not enough to merely go through life experiencing infrequent encounters with Jewish holidays and observances, rather we must “affix a mezuzah,” so to speak, to our daily consciousness. Recognizing that “God is one” means that I can and must encounter His presence and purpose in my daily pursuits and that His holy Torah guides my work life, family life and everything in between.
RABBI BENNY RAPAPORT, CHABAD OF THE ABINGTONS/JEWISH DISCOVERY CENTER, CLARK SUMMIT, PA Korach, Numbers 16:1-18:32 This week’s parasha contains the story of the great rebellion of Korach and his followers. Korach, who was a relative of Moses, challenged his leadership and demanded that he and his cohorts should also be able to serve as kohanim, as priests in the Mishkan (Tabernacle), as no one Jew is more holy than the other. According to the parasha, “and they assembled themselves together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, ‘...the entire congregation are all holy and God is among them; why then do you lift yourselves up above the assembly of God?’” (Numbers 16:3) The midrash tells us that Korach actually challenged Moses with specific questions in Jewish law that seemed to bolster his position. “Does a house that is filled with holy books,” he asked Moses, “require that a mezuzah be affixed to its doorposts?” Insinuating that just as this house should not need a mezuzah, as it cannot be of greater significance than the many sacred volumes of the Torah inside, all of Israel is filled with holiness and there would be no need for any kohanim or spiritual leaders, as they cannot outweigh the inherent sanctity of the rest of the Jewish nation. It seems like Korach had a point. Why does a house that has an extensive Jewish library require a mezuzah? What is the point of God designating kohanim and other holy and righteous individuals amongst the Jewish people? What role do they play in our faith? What function do these people serve in a nation that the Torah already calls a holy congregation? Judaism explains that a mezuzah is unique in that it
For Israeli war volunteers, service was most important act of their lives By Tom Tugend LOS ANGELES (JTA) – In May 1948, I was walking down Market Street in San Francisco when I passed a small movie theater with a marquee that announced “The Jews Fight for Their State.” For the first time, it fully hit me that the Jews – by the Gentile consensus of the time, mainly cowards and draft dodgers – were actually taking on five vastly superior armies. I took the train back to Berkeley, but had a hard time focusing on my studies at the University of California. With the school year nearing its end, I decided to go join the fight. I was among some 4,000 volunteers from 57 countries who volunteered during Israel’s War of Independence, a group collectively known as Machal, the Hebrew acronym for volunteers from abroad. Some of their stories are told in two recent films focusing on the wartime contributions of the airmen who, to a large extent, gave birth to the Israeli Air Force. As far back as Melville Shavelson’s 1966 “Cast a Giant Shadow,” movies have rubbed layers of Hollywood gloss on this history. The macho flyboys featured in “A Wing and a Prayer” and “Above and Beyond” are celebrated for their ingenuity and courage in smuggling the first combat planes to the nascent Jewish state, and then using the aircraft to scare the wits out of the surprised Arab forces. But while these overseas volunteers certainly played a role in Israel’s victory, I believe that the major contribution of these volunteers was to lift the morale of the Israelis by showing them that their Diaspora brethren – along with a fair number of non-Jewish volunteers – were with
Tom Tugend during his time volunteering for Israel’s War of Independence in 1948. (Courtesy photo) them, atoning in a small way for their elders’ inaction during the Holocaust. As with all men who go to war voluntarily, our motives were mixed – and not always idealistic. After the emotional intensity of fighting as a U.S. infantryman in France and Germany during World War II, I found it hard to settle down. My early exposure to Zionism in Berlin in the mid-1930s had also left an imprint. And since a new Jewish state is established only every 2,000 years or so, I figured I probably wouldn’t be around for the next one. My first step was to figure out how to get there. The U.S. State Department, which did not share my enthusiasm for Israel, stamped most passports “Not good for travel to Palestine” and warned that serving See “Volunteers” on page 11
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june 18, 2015 ■
Bridging community that would reflect on the unique qualities both of these centers of Jewish life – America and Israel – have to contribute to the Jewish future.” Within a few months, the Hevruta program, a collaboration between the Hartman Institute and Hebrew College, began to take shape with a formula that included Jewish learning, Israel advocacy seminars and Jerusalem volunteer opportunities. Though many such programs timidly dip a toe in the water with a soft launch or a pilot year, that was not the Hevruta way. The program was immediately recruiting pretty aggressively and, last September, it welcomed 25 students – 17 Israelis and eight Americans – to the Hartman Institute campus. “When I heard about the program, I liked that mix,” says Hevruta participant Aaron Tannenbaum of New York City. “I knew from the start that I didn’t want to be isolated in an American bubble here.” Nine months in, he gives high marks to Hevruta’s balance of learning and volunteering – and there was one perk that really stood out. “For the first time in my life I had chance to see myself not as a tourist, but as part of Israeli life,” Tannenbaum says. Following a senior year of high school that “was all about SATs and college applications,” Hevruta meant that “I’ll go to college with a broader view of Judaism, Israel and the world.” Israeli program participant Noa Spielman, whose parents are American, looked high and low for the right mechina program (the Israeli term for the year between high school and mandatory military or national service). But she says that “nothing fit” until she saw an advertisement for Hevruta. “At first we didn’t see we would have anything in common, but now we are so tight that it doesn’t matter where we came from,” Spielman says of her American counterparts. The program has also deepened Jewish learning for the 25 young adults. Israeli participant Lital Fainberg’s favorite course focused on the women and several other lesser-known figures in the bible. The education, in her eyes, comes with a particularly practical benefit. “The children I hope to have someday are going to know more about Judaism than I did growing up,” Fainberg says.
THE REPORTER
Continued from page 3
Hevruta program participants engaged in Jewish learning. (Photo courtesy of the Shalom Hartman Institute. Hevruta courses also give program participants college credit, says Rabbi Leon Morris, a Hartman Institute vice president who directs Hevruta along with educator Chaya Gilboa. “This helps the parents feel more comfortable with the investment of time and money – especially since gap-year programs are still not de rigueur for Americans outside the Orthodox community,” Morris says. Recruiting for Hevruta is a two-pronged undertaking, going on simultaneously in both countries. Working through dozens of American Jewish day schools and rabbis who have attended Hartman Institute programs, Morris and his team track down high school seniors with leadership potential who are likely to benefit most from the Hevruta philosophy. The Israeli recruitment effort works with secular and religious high schools to pinpoint seniors who would resonate with Hevruta’s curriculum. “We look for young people who love ideas and learning, who are animated by community service and committed to building a community together,” says Morris. Next year’s Hevruta program is already filled, the rabbi reports, with half the incoming 40 participants from each country. He says that some of the students
receive financial aid from a number of local sources to help defray the $25,000 tuition. Israeli and American program participants have different – but in some ways similar – challenges to face after the gap year ends. Although their Israeli friends are destined to be in military uniforms in a few months’ time, the Americans may be preparing for another sort of conflict – against anti-Israel elements on their college campuses. “I feel like now we have the tools we need,” says Boston-area resident Jonny Koralnik, who plans to attend Washington University in St. Louis in the fall. “After this year [in Hevruta], I feel 100 percent better equipped with knowledge and understanding to talk about Israel with anyone.” Lehmann says he has been impressed with the distance the group has traveled in maturity and cohesion. He visited with the group three times during the academic year. “In the beginning, the Americans’ need for space and individuality conflicted with the Israeli focus on community,” he says. “But these differences soon gave way to deeper understanding and appreciation of each other. Seeing these future leaders learning to work together, it was more than we could have hoped for.” As Hevruta’s inaugural year winds down, co-director Gilboa says she has witnessed the program’s success in closing the gap not so much in years, but in the chasm that exists between Israelis andAmerican Jews. “They started out as strangers and now share mutual respect, understanding and love,” she says. “We’ve seen so much change in both groups. Living, learning and working together has fostered the kind of open communication and caring between them. It’s something we know they’ll take back home with them and use to create stronger ties between Jews.” Perhaps program participant Jackie Bein of Stamford, CT, puts it best. “It’s strange, my roommate came in with the worst English of the Israelis and I had the worst Hebrew of the Americans,” she says. “But now we understand each other perfectly and we’re able to have great conversations going back and forth in both languages.”
Quick Reference Guide to Planned Giving
Use this planned giving quick reference guide to help determine the best strategy for achieving your philanthropic and financial goals. For more information or to discuss these planned giving options, please contact: Mark Silverberg, Executive Director, Jewish Federation of NEPA, 570-961-2300 (x1) or at mark.silverberg@jewishnepa.org.
Outdoor camp for adults
The Mosaic Outdoor Clubs of America will host its 25th Annual International Jewish Outdoor Escape: Pocono Parks, Peaks and Paddles, which will be held from September 3-7, at Camp JRF in Sterling, PA. Also available will be an optional pre-trip to Philadelphia and an optional post-trip two-day paddle on the Delaware River. While the activities for this year are still to be announced, the escape usually includes hiking, kayaking, biking, nature walks, horseback riding, arts and crafts, dancing, workshops, swimming, campfires, field games, photography and swimming. For more information, visit or contact the organization at event@mosaicoutdoor.org or 888-667-2427.
Richard Avedon exhibit
The National Museum of American Jewish History will hold the exhibit “Richard Avedon: Family Affairs (from the Collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem) through August 2. Richard Avedon’s fashion photography and portraiture are said to have “broken boundaries and, for nearly a half century, helped define Americans’ perceptions of beauty, politics and power.” The exhibit unites two bodies of work by Avedon: a series of four portrait murals inspired by the revolutionary atmosphere of the 1960s and early 1970s, and a series of 68 portraits entitled “The Family,” originally published in Rolling Stone magazine on the eve of the 1976 election.
More “Masterpieces and Curiosities”
The Jewish Museum of Maryland will hold the exhibit “Masterpieces and Curiosities: Nicole Eisenman’s Seder” through August 9. The latest work in this series Nicole Eisenman’s “Seder,” was commissioned by the Jewish Museum as part of its “Shifting the Gaze: Painting and Feminism” exhibit. The exhibit seeks to how the painting in context with other collection works that help illuminate Eisenman’s approach and her chosen subject. Included are in the exhibit are paintings by Leon Kossoff, Hyman Bloom, Raphael Soyer and Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, along with an array of seder plates from the 18th century to the present. For more information, visit http://jewishmuseummd. org/single/the-a-mazing-mendes-cohen/ or contact the museum at 410-732-6400.
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THE REPORTER ■ june 18, 2015
June 2015 • Non-Feature Films • *NEW* American Masters: Mel Brooks: Make A Noise - After more than 60 years in show business, Mel Brooks has earned more major awards than any other living entertainer. A comedy force of nature, Brooks is very private and has never authorized a biography, making his participation in this film a genuine first. Showcasing the Brooklyn native’s brilliant, skewed originality, American Masters: Mel Brooks: Make A Noise features never-before-heard stories and new interviews with Brooks, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Cloris Leachman, Carl Reiner, Joan Rivers, Tracey Ullman and others. This career-spanning documentary of the man behind Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, The Producers, Spaceballs and of course the 2000 Year Old Man journeys through Brooks’ professional and personal ups and downs, providing a rare look at a living legend, beloved by millions. *NEW* Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy - Engaging, humorous, and provocative... examining the unique role of Jewish composers and lyricists in the creation of the modern American musical. The film showcases the work of legends such as Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim. Interviews with songwriters and luminaries including Sheldon Harnick, Stephen Schwartz, Harold Prince, Arthur Laurents, Charles Strouse, and Mel Brooks provide insight, alongside standout performances and archival footage. Everything is a Present: The Wonder and Grace of Alice Sommer Hertz - This is the uplifting true story of the gifted pianist Alice Sommer Hertz who survived the Theresienstat concentration camp by playing classical piano concerts for Nazi dignitaries. Alice Sommer Hertz lived to the age of 106. Her story is an inspiration. Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story - Yoni Netanyahu was a complex, passionate individual thrust into defending his country in a time of war and violence. The older brother of Benjamin Natanyahu, the current Israel Prime Minister, Yoni led the miraculous raid on Entebbe in 1976. Although almost all of the Entebbe hostages were saved, Yoni was the lone military fatality. Featuring three Israeli Prime Ministers and recently released audio from the Entebbe raid itself. Hava Nagila (The Movie) - A documentary romp through the history, mystery and meaning of the great Jewish standard. Featuring interviews with Harry Belafonte, Leonard Nimoy and more, the film follows the ubiquitous party song on its fascinating journey from the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the kibbutzim of Palestine to the cul-de-sacs of America. Inside Hana’s Suitcase - The delivery of a battered suitcase to Fumiko Ishioka at the Tokyo Holocaust Museum begins the true-life mystery that became the subject of Karen Levine’s best-selling book Hana’s Suitcase. The film follows Fumiko’s search to discover the details of Hana’s life, which leads to the discovery of her brother George in Toronto. Israel: The Royal Tour - Travel editor Peter Greenberg (CBS News) takes us on magnificent tour of the Jewish homeland, Israel. The tour guide is none other than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The viewer gets a chance to visit the land of Israel from his own home! Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story (narrated by Dustin Hoffman) - This documentary portrays the contributions of Jewish major leaguers and the special meaning that baseball has had in the lives of American Jews. More than a film about sports, this is a story of immigration, assimilation, bigotry, heroism, the passing on of traditions, the shattering of stereotypes and, most of all, the greatest American pastime. Nicky’s Family - An enthralling documentary that artfully tells the story of how Sir Nicholas Winton, now 104, a British stockbroker, gave up a 1938 skiing holiday to answer a friend’s request for help in Prague and didn’t stop helping until the war’s beginning stopped him. He had saved the lives of 669 children in his own personal Kindertransport. Shanghai Ghetto - One of the most amazing and captivating survival tales of WWII, this documentary recalls the strange-but-true story of thousands of European Jews who were shut out of country after country while trying to escape Nazi persecution. Left without options or entrance visa, a beacon of hope materialized for them on the other side of the world, and in the unlikeliest of places, Japanese-controlled Shanghai. The Case for Israel - Democracy’s Outpost - This documentary presents a vigorous case for Israel- for its basic right to exist, to protect its citizens from terrorism, and to defend its borders from hostile enemies. The Jewish Cardinal - This is the amazing true story of Jean-Marie Lustiger, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, who maintained his cultural identity as a Jew even after converting to Catholicism at a young age, & later joining the priesthood. The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg - As baseball’s first Jewish star, Hammerin’ Hank Greenberg’s career contains all the makings of a true American success story. Unmasked: Judaophobia - The Threat to Civilization – This documentary exposes the current political assault against the State of Israel fundamentally as a war against the Jewish people and their right to self-determination. *NEW* When Jews Were Funny is insightful and often hilarious, surveying the history of Jewish comedy from the early days of Borsht Belt to the present. • Feature Films • Fill the Void - This is the story of an eighteen-year-old, Shira, who is the youngest daughter of her family. Her dreams are about to come true as she is set to be married. Unexpectedly, her sister dies while giving birth to her first child. The drama of the story reaches its peak when the girls’ mother proposes a match between Shira and the young widower. Shira will have to choose between her heart’s wish and her family duty. Footnote - The winner of the Cannes Film Festival (Best Screenplay) is the tale of a great rivalry between a father and son, two eccentric professors, who have both dedicated their lives to work in Talmudic Studies. Each has a need for recognition in his chosen field and the day comes when father and son must look deeply inside themselves for the truth- advancement of his own career or of the others. Hidden in Silence - Przemysl, Poland, WWII. Germany emerges victorious over the Russians and the city comes under Nazi control. The Jews are sent to the ghettos. While some stand silent, Catholic teenager, Stefania Podgorska, chose the role of a savior and sneaks 13 Jews into her attic. Noodle (compatible only on PAL – DVD players - Hebrew with English subtitles) This film was a beloved entry in the Jewish Federation of NEPA’s Jewish Film Festival. It tells the heartwarming story of an Israeli stewardess, Miri, whose personal life as a war widow leaves her without much joy. Everything changes for Miri when her Oriental housemaid disappears one day leaving her with her young Oriental child! The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - Based on the best- selling novel, this movie is unforgettable. Set during WWII, the movie introduces us to Bruno, an innocent eight-year-old, ignores his mother and sets of on an adventure in the woods. Soon he meets a young boy and a surprising friendship develops. The Concert - Andrei Filipov was prodigy- at 20 he was the celebrated conductior for Russia’s renowned Bolshoi Orchestra. Thirty years later, still at the Bolshoi, he works as a janitor. Ousted during the communist era when he refused to fire the Jewish members of the orchestra, a broken Andrei now cleans the auditorium where he once performed in front of thousands. The Debt - In 1966, three Mossad agents were assigned to track down a feared Nazi war criminal hiding in East Berlin, a mission accomplished at great risk and personal cost- or was it? The Other Son - As he is preparing to join the Israeli army for his national service, Joseph discovers he is not his parents’ biological son and that he was inadvertently switched at birth with Yacine, the son of a Palestinian family from the West Bank. This revelation turns the lives of these two families upside-down, forcing them to reassess their respective identities, their values and beliefs.
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town, Port Reuben, that tolerates oddballs – maybe. It seems an acquaintance has been ordered by the government to keep an eye on Kevern, although no reason is given for the surveillance. Kevern’s life changes when Ailinn Solomons arrives in town. An orphan whose adoptive parents never made her feel part of the family, Ailinn has traveled to Port Reuben with a friend. Once there, forces seem to push her and Kevern together. They have different approaches to life, but together they protect each other from a world that’s confusing and challenging. Their family histories are slowly revealed, as are the reasons behind a murder that occurs in town. At the same time, the role of the government in their lives becomes clear. Kevern and Ailinn are then forced to decide what part they want to play in their country’s future. “J” does not make for easy reading, particularly its beginning, when the characters know far more than the reader. That meant that each page raises more questions than answers. Yet, slowly things become clear as Jacobson reveals – well, not exactly reveals, but gives enough hints for readers to discover what occurred. Along the way, he explores themes – including the world’s relationship to its former Jewish population – without ever specifically mentioning he’s talking about Jews. The same is true of Israel: the country’s name is never mentioned, although there is talk about a nation considered responsible for its own destruction. The word Arab is used, though, when discussing those stranded in Kevern’s country due to the destruction of their homelands. By reading between the lines, readers realize that the event,”WHAT HAPPENED, IF IT HAPPENED,” happened to Jews by the descriptions of the group that was destroyed. For example, they are said to look friendly and welcoming from the outside, but their “loyalty is solely to each other. Let one of their number suffer and their vengefulness knows no limits; let one of their number perish and they will make the planet quake for it... [this] is a manifestation of a sense of superiority that values the life of anyone not belonging to their ‘tribe’ as less than nothing. Only witness, in that country which they call their ancestral home... a recent exchange of prisoners with one of their many enemies in which, for the sake of a single one of their own – just one – they willingly handed over in excess of seven hundred!” The speaker notes that some think this “is not a justification for their destruction, though others argue persuasively for it.” He does suggest the groups’ presence should not have been tolerated. However, what happens in a world where there are no scapegoats, where no one can be blamed for the world’s ills? One character notes “from the dawn of time man has blamed the climate, the terrain, fate, the gods, some tribe or just some other person” when something goes wrong. Another suggests that without “a shapely, long-ingested, cultural antagonism,” people will turn on each other. To lose your scapegoat means to lose yourself: “We are who we are because we are not them.” Without someone to oppose, violence turns inward toward relatives, friends and neighbors. Does the world need the Jews? Jacobson’s novel offers two possible answers: readers will find themselves questioning both since each offers an equal amount of hope and despair. This bleak, sometime frustrating novel challenged me – forcing me not only to understand the plot, but to decide between two futures that seem equally desolate. Is the author’s vision real? That’s something that can and should be debated by anyone who reads this work.
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people they are meant to govern, and lead them to places they previously feared. We must turn to the Arab League – in coordination with the United States – and initiate negotiations with the aim of a demilitarized Palestinian state being created alongside Israel while protecting Israel’s security and ability to defend itself. This summit will force the sides to do what they have been avoiding for far too long – talk to each other. Take responsibility. Fulfill their duties and lead their nations instead of fearing their responses. Good things happen when people talk to one another. Good things happen when people believe in their inner strength and their ability to be agents of change. Good things happen when leaders act like leaders. Yair Lapid is a member of the Israeli Knesset and the chairman of the Yesh Atid party. This op-ed is adapted from remarks prepared for delivery to The Jerusalem Post’s 2015 conference in New York.
june 18, 2015 ■
Volunteers in a foreign army might well entail loss of American citizenship. My journey took me from the offices of the butchers’ union in San Francisco, whose business agent doubled as a secret recruiter, to Israel’s so-called “Land and Labor” headquarters in Manhattan, and then by ship across the Atlantic to the French port of Le Havre. There we were met by an Israeli contact who put us on a train to Paris, and from there on to Marseilles. At the city’s train station, another contact conveyed us to Camp Grand Arenas, which served as a transit point for North African Jews and European Holocaust survivors waiting for boats to take them to Israel. At the time, a temporary armistice had been declared between Jewish and Arab forces, supervised by a U.N. contingent which was to ensure that neither side brought in reinforcements. Nevertheless, we set out under tight security on the Pan York, a creaky former banana carrier. The ship’s hold had been reconfigured with planks, stacked four levels high, that served as beds – an arrangement familiar from concentration camp photos. Nobody was allowed up on deck, and the Israelis in charge, laboring under the delusion that the English and American volunteers represented a sane and stable element, assigned us to keep order until the ship cleared the harbor. When the ship ar-
THE REPORTER
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rived in Haifa, the genuine refugees passed quickly through immigration inspection, while we foreign volunteers were taken by a circuitous route around the U.N. inspectors enforcing the armistice rules. The Israeli manpower distribution system, as least for foreign volunteers, was a throwback to feudal times, when the local baron recruited troops by promising certain bounties. My recruiter was Lester Gorn, a Hollywood scriptwriter who had served as a U.S. Army major during World War II. Gorn had persuaded Israel’s army command to let him organize something called the 4th Anti-Tank Troop, which was to consist solely of English-speaking volunteers, or “Anglo-Saxim” in local parlance. The troop would be a “democratic” outfit, Gorn said, with no ranks or saluting and with all major decisions to be taken by majority vote – except in combat. For a lowly ex-GI with little fondness for military punctilio, the offer was too good to turn down and off I went in Gorn’s jeep. We soon arrived at the unit’s encampment and I quickly noticed that something was missing: There were no anti-tank guns in sight, only one wooden replica of a cannon. When I pointed out the omission, Gorn assured me that as soon as the Israeli infantry captured a gun from the enemy, we would be in business.
NEWS IN bRIEF From JTA
Spain passes law of return for Sephardic Jews
Spain’s lower house gave final approval to a law offering citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews. Under the law approved on June 11, the Spanish daily El Pais reported, applicants need not travel to Spain, as proposed in previous amendments that did not pass, but must hire a Spanish notary and pass tests on the Spanish language and history. Applicants can study for the tests and take them at the facilities of the Cervantes Institute, a government entity that offers courses on Spanish culture and its language in over 20 countries, including Israel. “The procedure for acquiring Spanish nationality regulated in this law will be electronic,” the law reads. “The request will be in Spanish and will be overseen by the General Directorate of Registrars and Notaries.” In addition, candidates will need to apply to the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain, or FCJE, which will vet applications along with government officials, the amendment states. The law comes into effect in October and expires after three years, though it may be extended another year if deemed necessary. “Today, we write a happy page of reunion, agreement, dialog and hope that enriches us as people and which makes Spanish Jews feel proud to be behind the door that our country is opening,” FCJE President Isaac Querub Caro wrote in an El Pais op-ed published on June 11. The law is the result of a government decision in 2012 that described offering citizenship to Sephardic Jews as compensation for their ancestors’ expulsion from Spain in the 15th and 16th centuries by the Spanish royal house and church during the Spanish Inquisition. Portugal passed a similar law, which went into effect earlier this year. It is open ended and does not require proven knowledge of Portuguese. Leon Amiras, chairman of the Association of Olim from Latin America, Spain and Portugal, said the Spanish law was cumbersome and too restrictive compared to the Portuguese one and called on Spain to follow the example of its western neighbor in applying the law. Ahead of the vote, the law also was criticized by opposition lawmakers from the United Left and Basque National Party who argued that it discriminates against non-Jews who were expelled during the Inquisition, including Muslims. Some historians have disputed that comparison, citing the presence of Muslims in Spain as occupiers who were driven out of Spain back to their lands of origin.
NYC Board of Health to reconsider regulations on circumcision rite
The New York City Board of Health may waive a consent form for a controversial circumcision rite. In an effort to cooperate with Orthodox community leaders, the Board of Health voted on June 10 to mull a plan for hospitals to distribute a brochure in English and Yiddish to Orthodox patients that talks about the danger of contracting herpes from metzitzah b’peh, The New York Times reported. Metzitzah b’peh, a ritual in which the mohel sucks blood from the wound following circumcision, is a common traditional practice among many haredi Orthodox mohels. When performed directly with the mouth as opposed to through a sterile pipette, it has been linked directly to the transmission of the herpes virus. Mayor Bill de Blasio reportedly has been behind to push to resolve the issue in an effort to improve relations with the haredi Orthodox community. A public hearing on the issue will be held in July, with the board expected to make a final decision in September. A law requiring parents to sign a consent form for the rite was enacted in 2012 after at least 11 boys contracted herpes from metzitzah b’peh between 2004 and 2011. Two died and two suffered brain damage. There were four cases of herpes allegedly contracted during metzitzah b’peh in 2014 and 17 since 2000, according to the health department. For the most part, however, the law has not been enforced. In August, a federal appeals court called for a review of the New York City law related to metzitzah b’peh, saying that under the federal guarantee of free exercise of religion, the law is subject to “strict scrutiny.”
Tom Tugend, fourth from left, and fellow foreign volunteers during Israel’s War of Independence. (Courtesy photo) Indeed, within a short time, the unit welcomed a 17-pound artillery piece that had been seized from the Jordanian Legion. We made do with this venerable weapon until the battle of Faluja, where Israeli troops surrounded a sizable Egyptian force under the command of one Col. Abdel Nasser, later to become president of Egypt. The beleaguered Egyptians fought stubbornly, but one day our unit, part of the encircling Israeli force, received a perfect present – a shipment of anti-tank guns from Czechoslovakia that was originally destined for Germany’s Wehrmacht. The weapons were so new, they were still wrapped in the original oilcloth, which we quickly ripped off to discover a curious emblem stamped into the side of the gun barrel – a big, fat swastika. Irony doesn’t get much better than that – a bunch of Jewish guys firing a swastikaemblazoned gun at the enemy. Our unit was a strange mixture of men, all from English-speaking countries. The youngest member was Jason Fenton, a downy-cheeked 16-year-old Brit who later became a professor of English in Southern California. The oldest guy, probably in his mid-40s, was a Polish-born immigrant to the United States who upon spying a young female urged us to “clean those rusty pipes.” To get a little closer to the enemy, I joined an Israeli infantry squad in a night patrol to feel out the Egyptian defenses. We got near enough to hear the voices of the Egyptian guards – there was an exchange of gunfire, but no casualties. “I am intensely alive and aware of everything,” I wrote of the experience a few weeks later. “Every movement or noise makes a sharp impression. Everything I see, hear and smell etches itself
into my memory.” On the way back, the mood is quite different. “After a few hundred meters,” I wrote, “my stomach muscles loosen, the tenseness is slowly drained from my body and in its place creeps a heavy tiredness. The senses are dulled and the box of ammunition gets heavier with every step.” In what proved to be the last major action of the war, our unit drove down the eastern edge of the Negev, along the Jordanian border, heading for the Red Sea. Around 5 am on March 11, 1949, we crested the final hill and spread out below us was the village of Um Rash Rash, consisting of two mud huts and a flagpole – the site of the future bustling city of Eilat. On both sides of the bay, craggy mountains flanking the waters of the Red Sea were turning reddish in the early sunlight. After weeks of dirt and dust, we stripped off our fatigues and jumped buff naked into the sea. After the war, the role played by the foreign volunteers was largely ignored by historians. Hollywood had the opposite problem – their renderings tended to exaggerate their contribution. Make no mistake – the Israelis won their own war, and paid the price in dead and wounded. Still, for most of us, our small part in the creation and survival of the Jewish state represents, I believe, the most important act of our lives. During World War II, GIs scrawled on the shattered walls of European battlefields the words “Kilroy Was Here.” In a similar sense, the surviving volunteers of the War of Independence can affirm with some pride that we were there. Tom Tugend is JTA’s Los Angeles correspondent.
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THE REPORTER ■ june 18, 2015
NEWS IN bRIEF From JTA
Israel denies link to computer virus used to spy on Iran talks
Israel has denied reports that it is linked to a computer virus used to spy on European hotels hosting the Iran nuclear talks. “The international reports of Israeli involvement in the matter are baseless,” Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely told Army Radio on June 11, referring to findings by the Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab ZAO first reported a day earlier by The Wall Street Journal. “What is much more important is that we prevent a bad agreement where at the end of the day we find ourselves with an Iranian nuclear umbrella.” Kaspersky’s finding, according to The Wall Street Journal, said each of the unnamed hotels was targeted by a version of the Duqu virus, widely believed to be used as spyware by Israel, about two weeks before hosting the negotiations between Iran and world powers. Following the release of the report, Israel’s deputy defense minister, Eli Ben-Dahan, denied its allegations, calling it “total nonsense.” Kaspersky does not identify Israel by name as being responsible for the virus, which allows the hacker to eavesdrop on conversations and steal electronic files, and could also enable the hacker to operate two-way microphones in hotel elevators, computers and alarm systems. But it does use hints, including the name
of the report: “The Duqu Bet.” Bet could be a reference to the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The Duqu virus reportedly is related to Stuxnet, the computer worm that set back Iran’s nuclear program by several months or years by affecting some of its computer systems and centrifuges used to enrich uranium after it was released in 2010. The New York Times reported that it was a joint project of Israel and the United States.
Study: Israeli, Palestinian economies: $170 billion with two-state solution
Israel’s economy would gain $120 billion and the Palestinian economy some $50 billion over the next decade in a two-state solution, a study has found. A peace agreement could also see Palestinian income rise by 36 percent and Israeli by 5 percent, according to the Rand Corp. study released on June 8, which also said the Israeli economy could lose some $250 billion in economic opportunities in the event of a return to violence. The Rand Corp., a U.S.based nonprofit research organization, said it interviewed 200 officials in the Middle East and elsewhere during more than two years of research into the costs of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. The study also found that a unilateral withdrawal by Israel from the West Bank would impose large economic costs on Israelis unless the international
community shoulders a substantial portion of the costs of relocating settlers; intangible factors, such as Israeli and Palestinian security and sovereignty aspirations, are critical considerations in understanding and resolving the impasse; and taking advantage of the economic opportunities of a two-state solution would require substantial investments from the public and private sectors of the international community and from Israel and the Palestinians. The study also considered the effects of a coordinated, unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank by Israel; uncoordinated withdrawal where Palestinians do not cooperate with Israeli unilateral moves; and nonviolent resistance by Palestinians. The implications of a unilateral withdrawal by Israel of West Bank settlers would depend on the amount of coordination. If Israel were able to coordinate with both the Palestinians and international community, the overall impact on the Israeli economy would be negligible and the Palestinian economy would gain nearly $8 billion over a 10-year period. With no coordination, Israel would lose up to $20 billion, according to the study. Under nonviolent resistance, Palestinians would call for international pressure including boycotts, divestment and sanctions, which could cost Israel $80 billion and Palestinians $12 billion. Rand used its costs of conflict calculator to figure the economic costs and benefits to Israel and the Palestinians.