The Dayton Jewish Observer, June 2024

our high graduates 11 p. 22 David Celebrating Moss designs Grace Afterschool Meals in comic bookp.form

THE DAYTON Published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton

June 2024 Iyar/Sivan 5784 Vol. 28, No. 10

OBSERVER

The Miami Valley’s Jewish Monthly • daytonjewishobserver.org Ofer Albobi/United King

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Beth Abraham Rabbi Emeritus Samuel B. Press dies at 87 Rabbi Samuel B. Press,who guided Beth Abraham Synagogue along Conservative Judaism's path toward women's full equality in worship, died April 29 at the age of 87.

He served Beth Abraham, the Dayton area's only Conservative Jewish congregation — then at Salem Avenue and Cornell Drive in Dayton View — from 1978 until he retired in 2002.

Born in Middletown, Conn. and raised in Springfield, Mass., Press received his bachelor's and master's degrees, and his rabbinic ordination at the Orthodox movement's Yeshiva University. At Press' ordination, Yeshiva honored him with its Talmud Award. He also pursued graduate studies at the

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service took place in the sanctuConservative movement's Jewary. A year later, a bat mitzvah ish Theological Seminary. girl could be called to the Torah In line with the Conservafor an aliyah by herself; the tive movement, Beth Abraham synagogue board also approved began allowing women to be women being called for aliyot (to counted toward a recite blessings minyan (quorum) over the Torah) in for daily services.

1975 on certain ocIn 1989, Beth casions.

Abraham's board By the early adopted a plan for 1980s, during full egalitarian worPress' rabbinate, a ship. girl was allowed to Before his time in have her bat mitzDayton, Press had vah on Shabbat served as a chaplain morning and could in the Air Force for have a Torah aliyah Rabbi Samuel B. Press the state of Alaska. if accompanied by He was also the founding rabbi her father. An adult woman of the Oyster Bay Jewish Center could also receive an aliyah if in Long Island. accompanied by her husband.

In Dayton, Press was active In 1985, 16 adult women in Black-Jewish and Christianparticipated in a b'not mitzvah Jewish relations, and race and ceremony at a Beth Abraham clergy relations overall. He Shabbat afternoon service. founded the Synagogue Forum Beginning in 1986, Press of Greater Dayton and served would occasionally conduct fully egalitarian Shabbat morn- on the boards of Womanline and Dayton Free Clinic. ing services in Beth Abraham's — Marshall Weiss small chapel while the main

Temple Israel's Jewish Cultural Festival June 9

Temple Israel will host its annual Jewish Cultural Festival from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday, June 9. This year's food/drink vendors are Brock Masterson's, Greek Street Food Truck, Graeter’s, Temple Israel’s bakery, Blue Bus Coffee Roasters, and The Dayton Beer Co. Entertainment includes The Flying Klezmerians, Mary “Mahira” Rogers with Steve Wyke and Marc Gilbert, the Shimmy Cats, trumpeter and singer Dean Simms as Louis Armstrong, the Dayton Jewish Chorale, and the Dayton Metro Barbershop Chorus.

The children's area, near the open-air vendor marketplace, will include a petting zoo, stories, games, and Andy Snow crafts. Israeli artist Moshe Monzon will sell his jewelry and Judaica at the festival.

The schedule of speakers inside the temple includes: • Cincinnati JCRC Assistant Director Jeremy Spiegel, Evolution of Hate: Antisemitism in Higher Education, 12:30 p.m.

• Associate Rabbi Tina Sobo, Timeless Jewish Values in Contemporary Jewish Life, 2 p.m.

• University of Cincinnati Assoc. Prof. of Judaic Studies Jennifer Caplan, Jews and Humor, Why Does it Matter? 3:30 p.m.

• Senior Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz, Special visitors at 2023's Jewish Cultural Festival Ancient Rites, Innovative Rituals, 5 p.m.

Nonprofits at this year’s Mitzvah Alley are Access to Excess, Closet TRANSformation, Our Farm Sanctuary, PFLAG Dayton, LiFeline Cat Rescue, and the Dayton JCRC Upstander program.

The festival is held at Temple Israel, 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton.

Admission is free. For details, go to tidayton.org/festival.

Arts..............................21 Ca l e n da r. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 9 Mazel Tov.................................10

Ob i tuarie s ........................... 26 O p i n i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 2 R e l i g i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 7

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

DAYTON Peter Wine

'We feel you have our back'

More than 150 people dined on a meal prepared by chef/restaurateur Uri Arnon (at podium) of Israel's Western Galilee region, at the Boonshoft CJCE on May 14 to mark Israel Independence Day. The JCC program also brought two IDF soldiers to the Israel at 76 event to share their stories of battle and survival following Hamas' Oct. 7 massacre.

Local updates connected to the Israel-Hamas war

By Marshall Weiss, The Observer "We had been in the restaurant — it was a Friday afternoon bar mitzvah. We work all together, and it was a nice party," chef/restaurateur Uri Arnon told 150-plus community members after the Israeli dinner he prepared for them with souschef Hila Septon and help from local volunteers.

Arnon talked about the day before the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre.

"Two waiters asked me to go early because they had to go south to a very nice party. It was the Nova Festival. From there, they have never come back. Two girls."

Seven months into the Jewish state's war with Hamas — with about 130 hostages still held in Gaza, an estimated 30 of which are dead — the JCC's Israel at 76 program May 14 was a time for sharing.

Israelis who visited Dayton shared their cuisine along with stories of trauma, survival, and gratitude. Jewish Daytonians and allies shared

their solidarity with Israelis through these dark times.

"Now, in the Western Galilee, we still feel the war. We specifically live under the line of evacuation, but you hear all the time the bombs," Arnon said. The Western Galilee is connected to Dayton via the Jewish Agency for Israel's Partnership2Gether program. "I want to thank you for the support of Israel. We feel you have our back and it's very good for us."

Along with Arnon and Septon, the JCC, through the Jewish Agency for Israel, also brought two IDF soldiers to Dayton, Lt. Cmdr.

Roi Friedlander and Sgt. Maj. Ohad Goldenberg.

Goldenberg fought off terrorists holding hostages at Kibbutz Be'eri, among the sites where the Hamas massacre began. There, Hamas terrorists slaughtered 100 people — women, children, toddlers, an infant. Thirty kibbutz members were taken as hostages to Gaza. Six were murdered Continued on Page Four

From the editor’s desk

Yiddishe Llama, what advice do you have for the Class of 2024?

One word: WELDING.

c O Menachem

L

On Oct. 8, the day after Hamas' horrific slaughter of approximately 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapping of 252 Israelis and foreigners, Israel had not yet launched its war on Gaza. I reMarshall member on that day seeing images of anti-Israel protesters here in the UnitWeiss ed States holding signs that read, "Stop the Genocide." For years before the Israel-Hamas war, anti-Israel protesters have accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians on the land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean.

With the International Court of Justice's pending case accusing Israel of genocide as put forth by South Africa, and now, the International Criminal Court prosecutor seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity, we bring you a story from Springfield that compels us all to pursue and analyze the empirical facts carefully and critically. The story begins on Page Seven.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

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DAYTON Samantha Daniel

Local updates connected to the IsraelHamas war

OBSERVER daytonjewishobserver.org

Continued from Page Three there in captivity, 13 were released in November.

"It's very important for me to say a lot of heroes didn't come back from the battles of Oct. 7," Goldenberg shared.

Friedlander described Be'eri as "one of the worst places to be on earth that day." A friend A protest rally May 4 in front of Wright State University organized by Students for a Democratic Society. of his, a navy SEAL, lost his life there, when he turned to save shame. They lift their heads up soldiers do feel support from the 7 p.m. show. "I don't mind the life of another wounded and they say the stuff that they Jews across the Diaspora. protestors or critiques of Israel," soldier. Friedlander, a former say and nobody has courage to "Getting letters in the hosDorf said, "But singling out a SEAL who is a reservist with say something back. That's hard Jewish comic who is not here to pital, from a Jewish school special forces, was first sent to to see. in Toronto, in the States, in talk about Israel is beyond. This Kibbutz Nir Oz to try to save "But when we see the JewLondon — most of the people is antisemitism." whoever was left. ish community rise up and say, in the hospital, they're always He noted there was a strong When the terrorists saw his 'You can't say this stuff in 2024, in pain. But it's like this couple police presence at the protest special forces helicopter arrivyou can't be antisemites and minutes when someone cares and that during the show, Seining at Nir Oz, they fled back to get away with it,' that warms about you." feld "did address the fact that Gaza. our hearts. That's what keeps "We see countries where there were protesters outside "We did see things that I us going. That is felt very very the Jewish communities don't and made some quip about don't think you want to hear," strongly in Israel." support us," he added. "To see comics not having any power."

Friedlander said. "We also had what's happening in Europe On May 12, dozens of stumoments when we saw families and other countries, how antiSeinfeld protest dents, some with Palestinian survive." before Dayton show semitism, antisemites have no flags, walked out of Duke UniSam Dorf His unit was then sent to Approximately a dozen versity's graduation ceremony join the taskforce in Be'eri. people protested against cowhen Seinfeld delivered the "Somehow, we survived median Jerry Seinfeld outside commencement address. that." the Schuster Center before his The comedian doesn't bring In a subsequent operation, sold-out 7 p.m. show there on Israel and the Middle East into he was shot in the shoulder April 19. his act. Since the Oct. 7 Hamas and hospitalized for a month.

Greater Dayton Peace Comassacre, Seinfeld has shown He's still under treatment. alition and Gem City Action strong public support for Israel.

"It's good to see a Jewish promoted the protest on social In December, he visited Israel community that's a strong media with language that and met with people whose community," he said of read, "Dayton Doesn't Tolerfamily members are being held his time in Dayton. "It's an ate Hateful Zionist Racist," hostage in Gaza. amazing site. We're strong and "Genocide Isn't A Joke." together, celebrating holidays Sam Dorf, a member of the Uneventful protest rally together. It's very heartwarmAnti-Defamation League's in front of Wright State ing. You stand up." regional board representing There were no incidents Protesters outside the Schuster Center Friedlander noted that IDF before Jerry Seinfeld's 7 p.m. show April 19. the Dayton area, had tickets to when Wright State Univer-

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Editor and Publisher Marshall Weiss mweiss@jfgd.net 937-610-1555 Contributors Rabbi Cary Kozberg Candace R. Kwiatek Advertising Sales Executive Patty Caruso, plhc69@gmail.com Administrative Assistant Samantha Daniel, sdaniel@jfgd.net 937-610-1555 Billing Sheila Myers, smyers@jfgd.net 937-610-1555 Proofreaders Rachel Haug Gilbert, Steven H. Solomon Observer Advisor Martin Gottlieb Published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton Mary Rita Weissman President Dan Sweeny President Elect Marni Flagel Secretary Neil Friedman Treasurer Ben Mazer VP Personnel Teddy Goldenberg VP Resource Dev. Dr. Heath Gilbert Immediate Past Pres.

Cathy Gardner CEO The Dayton Jewish Observer, Vol. 28, No. 10. The Dayton Jewish Observer is published monthly by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton, a nonprofit corporation, 525 Versailles Dr., Dayton, OH 45459.

Views expressed by columnists, in readers’ letters, and in opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinion of staff or layleaders of The Dayton Jewish Observer or the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton. Acceptance of advertising neither endorses advertisers nor guarantees kashrut.

The Dayton Jewish Observer Mission Statement To support, strengthen and champion the Dayton Jewish community by providing a forum and resource for Jewish community interests.

Goals • To encourage affiliation, involvement and communication.

• To provide announcements, news, opinions and analysis of local, national and international activities and issues affecting Jews and the Jewish community.

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• To build community across institutional, organizational and denominational lines.

• To advance causes important to the strength of our Jewish community including support of Federation agencies, its annual campaign, synagogue affiliation, Jewish education and participation in Jewish and general community affairs.

• To provide an historic record of Dayton Jewish life.

The Dayton Jewish Observer

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

DAYTON sity's chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, with support from Greater Dayton Peace Coalition, drew approximately 50 people to its Rally for Solidarity with Gaza, Saturday, May 4 on the sidewalk at the Col. Glenn Highway entrance to the campus west of Center Park Boulevard.

More than half of the protestors appeared to be students.

With the university's graduation ceremony held the weekend before the rally, the start of the summer semester yet to begin, and sporadic rainstorms that afternoon, the protesters stood alone. Occasionally, drivers honked their horns in support.

There was no visible police or security presence at the rally and no counter-protesters.

According to its social media post promoting the rally, Wright State's SDS selected May 4 for the protest because it's the anniversary of the shootings at Kent State University in 1970, when members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State demonstrators protesting the Vietnam war, killing four and wounding nine students.

"Stand with us in memorial of the lives lost and in solidarity with the encampments and global struggle for a free Palestine," read a Wright State SDS post promoting the rally.

Along with signs urging Wright State to disclose and divest from any investments in Israeli companies and companies with connections to Israel, other messages included "Long Live the Student Intifada," "Never Again Goes for All People: Jews for Ceasefire," "54 Years Since Kent State Massacre. Same S---," and "Jews, Muslims, Christians and all people of conscience united against the Ideology of Zionism."

As reported by the Ohio Capital Journal, Ohio Revised Code Section 9.76 prohibits state agencies such as universities from contracting with companies that are boycotting or disinvesting from Israel.

Miami University encampment

Students for Justice in Palestine at Miami University in Oxford led a march for Palestine May 2 and set up an encampment at the school's academic quad.

The Miami Student reported that a group of counter-protesters in support of Israel stood nearby the encampment. One student held a half Israeli/half

United States flag.

“We’re here to show proIsrael presence,” he said. “We want to make sure that Jewish students here on campus are unafraid. We’re going to show our pride and make sure that pro-terrorist sentiments are put to rest.”

On threat of suspension by Miami University, those in the encampment voted to disband two days later.

Whitney Lacefield Fisch, executive director of Hillel: Miami University, posted on social media May 6 about an incident connected to its Holocaust remembrance program.

"During Hillel: Miami University’s annual Reading of the Names for the Yom Hashoah program we hold in the middle of campus every year, one of our students who was reading the names of victims of the Holocaust was interrupted by a vicious visiting professor who yelled, 'Are you going to read the names of the 40,000 dead Gazans?!' Of course, the wonderful Devra Sadler (Hillel assistant director) and Miami police stepped in to stop this woman but so did a student who is also a member of Miami University’s Students for Justice in Palestine group.

"He told this grown woman that she was being totally inappropriate and needed to leave.

He then told Hillel staff that MUSJP had sent a message to their members that morning explicitly telling them to leave our program alone — that it is a sacred space and shouldn’t be interrupted. And don’t worry — this woman’s contract was not renewed, and she will no longer be a member of Miami’s campus moving forward.

Administration was so on top of this as soon as I reported it. #thereishope"

A social media post that StopAntisemitism alleged on Dec. 4 was made by Bethel H.S. teacher Sevinch Abbasova.

erations in Gaza with the Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and death camp complex.

The second showed an individual with a blurred-out face holding a sign that read, "There is blood on your hands" in what appears to be a school classroom. The letter A in the word hands is rendered as a Jewish star.

At the time, Chrispin declined to be interviewed by The Observer, stating in an email that the investigation was still in process. "I assure you that we are working diligently to conclude the investigation promptly."

Jewish families in the district have told The Observer that the superintendent never communicated the results of the investigation to parents.

He also declined to respond to The Observer's subsequent

requests for updates about the investigation's outcome.

But a local rabbi received an email from Chrispin May 8 in which he addressed the investigations' results.

"While I am unable to disclose specific details due to privacy and confidentiality reasons, I can assure you that appropriate actions were taken in accordance with our school policies and procedures," he said in the email to Temple Israel's Rabbi Tina Sobo.

The rabbi had emailed Chrispin May 7 because she was surprised to see on social media that Abbasova would oversee Bethel Local Schools' May 9 Multicultural Night.

Sobo has congregants whose children attend Bethel Local Schools.

In her email to the superintendent, the rabbi wrote that those congregants have expressed concern over the event "as a potential means for Abbasova to further antisemitic tropes."

"I certainly hope those fears do not come to fruition and I would like to give them what assurance I can that the program has been planned thoughtfully," Sobo added.

In his response back, the superintendent told Sobo, "given the concerns raised, it is imperative that the Jewish community is represented and included in the event." Chrispin

lf you experience or witness antisemitism

Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton CEO Cathy Gardner urges anyone in the Dayton area who has experienced or witnessed antisemitic acts or expressions to contact her at cgardner@jfgd.net.

"I encourage you to also report it to the ADL at adl.org/ report-incident," Gardner said.

June 22– September 8, 2024

'Still work to be done' at Bethel Local Schools

You may recall The Observer's report in January that Bethel Local Schools Superintendent Matthew W. Chrispin sent district families a letter Dec. 4 to inform them the district was "actively investigating the details" of "controversial posts shared by one of our employees on their personal social media platform."

The superintendent's letter came a day after StopAntisemitism posted screenshots of what it claimed were two posts from Bethel High School English language learner teacher Sevinch Abbasova's social media sites.

The first equated Israel's op-

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

shared contact information with Sobo for "those in the Jewish community interested in participating."

Chrispin declined to reply when Sobo followed up, asking him, "As the program is currently planned, prior to my email, would students see the Jewish community represented equitably at this event, or are you saying that the representation will only occur if it is arranged by me/my congregation within the next 24 hours?"

After Multicultural Night took place May 9, Sobo said the Jewish students she knows in the district didn't attend "as they did not feel confident that it would be a safe environment for them."

She has arranged a meeting with the superintendent, accompanied by Dayton Jewish Community Relations Council Director Jeff Blumer.

"Clearly there is still work to be done within the district," Sobo noted.

V. L. Cox, Hands Off II, 2017, mixed media.

Left: Casey Riordan, Shark Girl as Boxer (detail), 2016, mixed media.

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Heather Jones, There’s No Plan (detail), 2019, sewn cotton.

Chakaia Booker, Urban Butterfly, 2002, rubber tires, wood.

5/10/24 1:50 PM

PAGE 5

DAYTON Photos: Peter Wine

Greater Dayton

Yom Hashoah Observance May 5 • Beth Jacob

‘We owe it to our families to take care of them.’

B

— Gayle & Irvin Moscowitz with their parents, Milton & Harriet Moscowitz & Edward & Frieda Weisbrod

efore a vacation to New Orleans, Irvin Moscowitz researched Ancestry.com to find the cemetery where his great-grandparents were buried. “I have pictures and heard stories about my family, but standing by their graves from 1840 made me feel like I was right there with them. That’s when I knew we needed to maintain our cemeteries for future generations.”

3rd generation survivor Noah Gruenberg performs Variations on a Hebrew Melody on electric violin.

2nd generation survivor Ruthie Davis lights a candle on the Yom Hashoah Candelabra with shamos 4th generation survivor Lena Elder.

Closer to home, Irvin and his wife, Gayle, visit their parents and his grandparents at Beth Jacob’s cemetery in Dayton. They contributed to the Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Dayton campaign to “guarantee that we can take care of the people who took care of us.”

As a Kohen, Irvin kept clear of cemeteries for a long time. “I’ve made peace with the ways in which I could get close to the people that mean the most to me,” he said. “I figured out a way not to trample on my heritage but to fulfill my need to be respectful and honor my family. When I walk through a wellkept cemetery, I get a feeling that I’m actually close to someone who’s no longer here. I’ll put a stone on the headstone to let them know I’m there. It always brings back a lot of warm memories.”

Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Dayton is an endowment organization created to maintain our three Jewish cemeteries in perpetuity.

Please join us as we strive to maintain the sanctity, care, and integrity of these sacred burial grounds.

Preserving our Past Ensuring Our Future

Beth Jacob Congregation Rabbi Leibel Agar

Holocaust Ed. Committee Chair Renate Frydman (L) with teachers and winners of the 2024 Max May & Lydia May Memorial Holocaust Art & Writing Contest.

Max May & Lydia May Memorial Holocaust Art & Writing Contest 2024 Winners

Division I Art, Grades 5-8 1st Place: Zoey Lee, Stivers 2nd Place: Abigail Lucous, Brookville 3rd Place: Thea Kiewitz, Dayton Montessori Hon. Men.: Simon Hakim, Hillel Hon. Men.: Libby Mark, Hastings Division II Art, Grades 9-12 1st Place: Riley Wilson, MVCTC 2nd Place: Gwyneth Todd, MVCTC 3rd Place: Abigail Hilterbran, MVCTC Hon. Men.: Ellie Feucht, Chaminade Hon. Men.: Sophia Drugov, MVCTC Division I Writing, Grades 5-8 1st Place: Ethan Anderson, Hastings 2nd Place: Simon Hakim, Hillel 3rd Place: Adina Baumgarten, Hillel Division I Poetry/Prose, Grades 5-8 1st Place: Mariah Postell, Stivers 2nd Place: Laila Easterwood, Stivers 3rd Place: Logan Christian, Hastings Division II Writing, Grades 9-12 1st Place: Kaylee Adams, MVCTC 2nd Place: Rachel Meyers, Stivers 3rd Place: Kyler Nunn, Moeller

daytonjewishcemeteries.org 525 Versailles Drive • Centerville, OH 45459 PAGE 6

Division II Poetry/Prose, Grades 9-12 1st Place: Charlie Brewer, MVCTC 2nd Place: Anna Gross, MVCTC 3rd Place: Grant McLendon, Moeller

Speaker Marilou Brewster (R) is interviewed by Renate Frydman about how her parents rescued Jews during the Holocaust.

2nd generation survivor Mark Gordon talks with students before the Yom Hashoah Observance in a dialogue with teens and 2nd generation survivors facilitated

by Charlotte Golden.

2nd generation survivor Helene Gordon also participated, and then read stories to younger children with survivor Eva Clair for a PJ Library & PJ Our Way program, How to be a Mensch.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

THE REGION

Before co-leading Fulbright trip to study Holocaust in Poland, Wittenberg prof. proclaims Israel committing genocide in Gaza

By Marshall Weiss, The Observer Associate Prof. of Psychology and Department Chair Michael Anes is a beloved member of the faculty at Wittenberg University in Springfield. So beloved that the graduating class of 2024 named him an honorary member — the second time he's received such an honor over his 20 years with the small, private liberal arts college.

On June 1, he and his wife, Associate Prof. of Political Science Heather Wright, will lead Wittenberg students on the couple's third Holocaust field study trip to Poland.

This time, the U.S. Department of Education has awarded them a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad grant, allowing them to expand the 30day study trip to include two additional faculty members and six high school teachers from across Ohio who teach history, government, and psychology courses.

The 14 participants will specifically explore "the tension between democratic pluralism and nationalistic exclusion of the 'other.'" It will also involve “increasing, strengthening, and diversifying the coverage of Polish issues in Ohio public schools and at Wittenberg,

especially as it relates to the effects of Ukrainian immigration and the Holocaust.”

Anes has occasionally taught about the psychology of the Holocaust.

He's also one of the university's genocide educators.

Toward the end of the spring semester, he made it publicly known on campus and social media that he believes Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

However, he declined Wittenberg Assoc. Prof. of Psychology Michael Anes posted a selfie on Facebook April 29 seated on campus beside a to be interviewed by The banner that read, 'Stop Genocide And Famine.'

Observer about how he elaborated: "Students stop by and talk came to that conclusion. briefly. We have a few faculty involved.

"Current situation: not going to sit This is a very small-scale thing that will quietly behind a keyboard when I can be supportive of others wanting to learn continue through the week as I can, and will likely remain small. Some students and speak — in public. #stopgenocide expressed interest so I am just trying #stopgenocideingaza #stopfamine," Anes posted on his Facebook page April to model that they can do something in public and that we can all be non29 along with photos of him on campus confrontational or respectful." sitting beside a banner that read, "Stop Anes was one of two speakers to Genocide And Famine."

Continued on Page Eight In the comments below that post, he

Promotion flyer for a vigil at Wittenberg to remember those 'killed during this ongoing genocide in Gaza,' with Anes speaking.

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Beth Abraham, Dayton’s only Conservative synagogue, is enthusiastically egalitarian and is affiliated with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

For a complete schedule of our programs, go to bethabrahamdayton.org.

Shavuot

Tikkun Leil Shavuot Tuesday, June 11

6 PM - Dairy Lasagna Dinner. RSVP by June 6.

6:45 PM - Learning Sessions & Dairy Dessert.

Is Reincarnation Jewish? A Brief Secret History of Souls Rolling Over, aka Gilgul with Rav Glazer

The Art of Prayer: Western Art Music as Synagogue Sound with Cantor Raizen

Evening Service to Follow.

Shabbat Under The Stars Friday, June 21, 7:30 PM Welcome Shabbat amid the beauty of nature.

This outdoor, spirited service takes place at one of our congregants’ homes and features our band. A dessert Oneg Shabbat follows.

Contact office for location.

305 Sugar Camp Circle Dayton, Ohio 45409 937•293•9520 www.bethabrahamdayton.org PAGE 8

Wittenberg prof.

caust survivors across the world.

"The war is brutal, difficult, painful," Berenbaum said. "There are deep Continued from Page Seven and profound losses on the side of the offer "encouraging words for student Palestinians. That's not genocide. There activists" May 8 when Wittenberg could be an accusation of war crimes. students and faculty held a candlelight And if there are war crimes, there are vigil "to honor and remember the lives war crimes on both sides, because what of those who have been killed during happened on Oct. 7 was a war crime." this ongoing genocide in Gaza."

He added that Israel has the capacity "I'm very pleased to take part in it," Anes wrote of the event when he posted to commit genocide.

"It's an overwhelming power, it has about it. In the comments, he added the ability if it wanted to, to commit that the sign he has near him "when I genocide. Yet the population, and we 'protest' mentions the need for hostage see this in a very interesting way, the release. It is absolutely a genocide."

Palestinian population is increasing The Observer corresponded back and over the long run. Significantly. So if it forth with Anes about his accusations were committing genocide, it is deeply of genocide against Israel. The profesand profoundly incompetent doing it. sor, who is Jewish, touched on why he "Should Israel be more generous, decided to share his opinion publicly, more forthcoming in bringing aid but despite repeated requests, declined into the Gaza population? Absolutely. to present empirical evidence to back Should Israel be wiser about what it's his conclusion. doing? Absolutely. I think it should get The closest he came was a post to his rid of its current government, period.

Facebook page May 11 citing Hebrew But that's a different story."

University of Jerusalem Prof. of HoloPolish Jewish lawyer Raphael caust History Amos Goldberg, who says Lemkin invented the word genocide in Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

1944 to mean the intentional In his essay, Yes, it is geno"destruction of a nation or of cide, Goldberg writes: "What is an ethnic group." happening in Gaza is genocide "That's not what's happenbecause the level and pace of the ing here," Berenbaum said. indiscriminate killing, the de"You have urban warfare in struction, the mass deportations, which essentially the enemy the displacement, the starvation, is hiding in the normal infrathe executions, the elimination structure of a civilian popuof cultural and religious institulation, including schools, tions, the crushing of the elites mosques, and hospitals. And (including the killing of journalMichael Berenbaum therefore, Israel is, however ists), and the sweeping dehuyou want to evaluate it, trymanization of the Palestinians ing to face that. It is not slaughtering — create an overall picture of genocide, of intentional and conscious crushing of wholesale the Palestinian population."

Berenbaum did say he wishes Israel the Palestinian existence in Gaza." was going after Hamas more precisely.

Michael Berenbaum, director of the "It is fighting a war in which — and Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the you have a moral question of the highEthical and Religious Implications of est magnitude, and I've worked on just the Holocaust, and distinguished professor of Jewish studies at the American war theory — the question is whether you can fight a just war justly under the Jewish University in Los Angeles, has circumstances that Israel is facing. And spent his lifetime studying genocide. the answer to that is, He told The Observer in an interview that 'Can you fight a just we don't know."

He emphasized that he considers Goldberg war justly under the the only way a scholar a credible scholar of genocide. But Berencircumstances that could argue that Israel is committing genocide baum said Goldberg is Israel is facing? in Gaza would be based wrong. on what he described "The legitimate and The answer to that as a flaw, a "problemcredible scholars can atic element" in the lanbe wrong. What I'd like is, we don't know.' guage of one provision them to do is tell me of the U.N. genocide convention. what element of genocide is present at "The Convention on Genocide prothat point? There are those in Israel who hibits killing of persons belonging to advocate for genocide. Look, the entire a group in whole or in part. And the case of genocide made at the Internaproblem with 'in whole or in part' is it tional Court of Justice was made in never defines 'in part.' That can be one language with the government of Israel person, two people, three people — and its political leaders, which should that would technically be a part. But disturb us. That's not the policy that's there's certainly no comparisons to the being done."

Holocaust, certainly no comparisons to Berenbaum was the project direcCambodia, certainly no comparisons to tor who oversaw the development of Rwanda. Certainly, no comparisons to the United States Holocaust Memorial the Armenians.

Museum and served as the first direc"We all know in the human rights tor of its research institute. From there, community that the nonspecificity of he became president and CEO of the the 'in whole or in part' is a problemSurvivors of the Shoah Visual History atic element of it. It's an attempt to Foundation, which documented and preserved the testimony of 52,000 Holo- Continued on Page 26

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

LOOKING FOR SUMMER YOUTH CAMPS?

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Sessions Starting JUNE 17 & JULY 22

Full- and half-day camps are each filled with comedy, dance, acting, imagination and more – all led by carefully selected professionals!

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Sessions Starting JUNE 17 & JULY 22

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Go to daytonlive.org/creative-academy – or scan this QR code!

Tuition starts at $99 and varies by camp. Needs Based Scholarships are available.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

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PAGE 9

MAZEL TOV! Hillel Academy

After months of studying, each student in Hillel Academy Jewish day school's first and second grades received their own Siddur (prayer book) from Director of Judaics Rabbi Levi Simon in a special ceremony May 3.

Daniel Kahn

Daniel Kahn, son of Neil and Gina Kahn, has graduated from Sinclair College. He was awarded two Associate Degrees of Applied Science: one in automation and control technology with robotics, the other in electro-mechanical engineering technology. Daniel plans to use his degrees working for a manufacturing concern.

Danielle Zeisloft, senior program coordinator in the Division of Prevention & Early Intervention Services at the Montgomery County Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services Board, has been selected as a model for Girls on the Run of Dayton's Cocktails in Kicks athleisure fashion show, June 20 at The Brightside. Girls on the Run is a nonprofit that seeks Danielle Zeisloft to "enhance participants' social, emotional and physical skills to successfully navigate life experiences." Its curriculum integrates movement and life skills education to promote affirming inclusion and overall healthy outcomes for girls.

Jese Shell is the statewide winner of the Teachers Turn the Key Award from the Ohio Association of Agricultural Educators. The award recognizes one Ohio agriscience educator for dedication and innovation in the classroom, community, and student engagement. It honors teachers in their first four years of agricultural and career-technical education. RecipiJese Shell ents receive additional professional development opportunities. He'll represent Ohio in November at the National Association of Agricultural Educators Annual Conference in San Antonio. Jese is a middle school agriscience and career-technical educator at Global Impact STEM Academy in Springfield.

He just completed his third year of teaching.

DaytonMetroLibrary.org PAGE 10

The Dayton Holocaust Resource Center has received a grant from the Leon Norman and Mildred Miriam Nizny Memorial Fund and the Eleanor and John Kautz Fund of The Dayton Foundation to develop a

one-person play based on Renate Frydman's book, Anschel's Story, about her late husband's survival as a teenage partisan in Nazioccupied Poland. The play is now in development by Michael London of the Ohio Playwrights Circle. Initial readings of the play are planned for the Dayton Metro Library, Dayton Art Institute, local schools, and colleges.

Good things have come in threes for the Weiss family this spring. Dayton Public Schools nominated Fairview Elementary ELL teacher Donna Weiss and five other teachers across the district as its nominees for State of Ohio 2025 Teacher of the Year. Adina Weiss graduated cum laude from Denison University with an English literature major and a philosophy minor. While there, Adina served as president of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and Denison's Hillel. A member of Sigma Tau Delta English honor society, Adina also worked as a consultant for Denison's writing center and was a political and advocacy intern with Ohio Jewish Communities. In June, she returns for her fourth summer with the JCC's Camp Shalom, this time as assistant director. In August, Adina will begin her work as Hillel Academy

Levi, Adina, and Donna Weiss

Jewish day school's fifth- and sixth-grade secular studies teacher, and with the JCC Early Childhood Education program. Levi Weiss completes his third year as an intervention specialist at Ruskin Elementary School in Dayton, and in August will begin his work as an intervention specialist with the Hilliard City School District. Cheering on the Weiss family teachers is proud husband and papa Marshall Weiss.

Send your Mazel Tov announcements to mweiss@jfgd.net.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

The Class of 2024 Celebrating our high school graduates Caitlyn Becker

Alexis Becker

Parents: Annette Nathan, Albert Becker Stepparents: Ann Becker, Marc Gilbert Grandparents: Shirley and Paul Nathan, Margaret and Albert Becker School: Centerville Activities: BBYO President, Dance, Math Instructor, National Honor Society, Spanish National Honor Society Volunteering: Dance Student Ambassador at Epic Dance Academy, AP Mentors, Elk Connectors Honors: Graduating Summa Cum Laude, AP Scholar With Honors Award, 5-Year Achievement Dance Award, BBYO Silver Star of Deborah, BBYO Gold Star of Deborah, National Merit Qualifier, Governor's Merit Scholar Congregation: Temple Beth Or and Temple Israel After Graduation: Miami University, Biochemistry, Premed

Brianna Becker

Parents: Annette Nathan, Albert Becker Stepparents: Ann Becker, Marc Gilbert Grandparents: Shirley and Paul Nathan, Margaret and Albert Becker School: Centerville Activities: Choir, Summit A Capella, BBYO, JCC Youth Theatre Volunteering: Key Club, BBYO JServe, Temple Israel Jewish Cultural Festival, Chabad Camp Gan Israel Honors: Graduating Summa Cum Laude, National Merit Scholar Finalist, College Merit Scholarship, Washington Township Community Service Award Congregation: Temple Beth Or and Temple Israel After Graduation: Miami University

Parents: Annette Nathan, Albert Becker Stepparents: Ann Becker, Marc Gilbert Grandparents: Shirley and Paul Nathan, Margaret and Albert Becker School: Centerville Activities: BBYO, JCC Youth Theatre, GSA, Stage Club, JCC Camp Shalom Counselor, Server with Bernstein's Fine Catering Honors: Graduating Magna Cum Laude, National Honor Society, AP

Tal Glazer

Parents: Elyssa Wortzman and Rabbi Aubrey Glazer Grandparents: Cheryl and Raymond Morris, Barry and Ruth Wortzman, Esther and Bruce Glazer School: Oakwood Activities: Jr. Varsity Tennis Captain, Lead in Student Written Plays Volunteering: Beth Abraham Synagogue, NCCJ Anytown, Dayton Foodbank, Pantry Packers (Jerusalem) Congregation: Beth Abraham After Graduation: University of Dayton, Biology, Save the Turtles and Sharks.

Samuel Jacob

Congregation: Temple Beth Or and Temple Israel After Graduation: Miami University, English

Sofie Goodrich

Parents: Heather Goodrich and Robin Lensch, the late Mike Goodrich Grandparents: Barbara Mendelson and the late Sandy Mendelson, Kathy Goodrich, Darlene and Tom Lensch School: Bellbrook Activities: Lacrosse, Working Out, Reading, Hanging with Friends.

Volunteering: Supportive Peers Honors: Girls' Lacrosse 2023 Eagle Heart Award Congregation: Temple Beth Or and Beth Abraham After Graduation: Ohio University, Accounting and Business Analytics

Zach Goodrich

Parents: Heather Goodrich and Robin Lensch, the late Mike Goodrich Grandparents: Barbara Mendelson and the late Sandy Mendelson, Kathy Goodrich, Darlene and Tom Lensch School: Bellbrook Activities: Cycling Drone Club, Hanging with Friends.

Volunteering: Supportive Peers Honors: Many Cycling Awards Congregation: Temple Beth Or and Beth Abraham After Graduation: Ohio University, Industrial and Systems Engineering

Parents: Allyson and Marc Jacob Grandparents: Deb and Jeff Wacksman, Frankie and Joe Jacob School: Centerville Activities: Cross Country, Track, BBYO, Camp Ramah New England Honors: Magna Cum Laude Graduate After Graduation: University of Pittsburgh, Athletic Training

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PAGE 11

OPINION

The war against the Jewish story

Alex Kent/Getty Images

The ease with which anti-Zionists have managed to portray the Jewish state as genocidal marks a historic failure of Holocaust education.

By Yossi Klein Halevi , Times of Israel How has it come to this? How is it possible that Israel, rather than radical Islamism, would become the villain on liberal campuses? That thousands of students would be chanting “from the river to the sea” even as the Hamas massacre revealed that slogan’s genocidal implications? That the most passionate outbreak of student activism since the 1960s would be devoted to delegitimizing the Jewish people’s story of triumph over annihilation?

This moment didn’t happen in a vacuum. The anti-Zionist forces in academia have been preparing the ground for decades, systematically dismantling the moral basis of each stage of Zionist and Israeli history.

The attack began on the very origins of Zionism, which was transformed from a story of a dispossessed people re-indigenizing in its ancient homeland into one more sordid expression of European colonialism. (Europe’s postHolocaust gift to the Jews: leaving us with the bill for its sins.)

Next, the birth of Israel in 1948 was reduced to the Nakba, or catastrophe, a Palestinian narrative of total innocence that ignores the ethnic cleansing of Jews from every place where Arab armies were victorious and the subsequent uprooting of the entire Jewish population of the Muslim world.

Post-1967 Israel was cast as an apartheid state – turning Zionism, a multi-faceted movement representing Jews across the political and religious spectrum, into a racist ideology and reducing an agonizingly complex national conflict into a medieval passion play about Jewish perfidy.

And now, with the Gaza War, we have come to the genocide canard, the endpoint in the process of delegitimization.

To turn Israel into the world’s archcriminal requires three forms of erasure.

The first is of the connection between the land of Israel and the people of Israel. In the anti-Zionist telling of the conflict, a 4,000-year connection that has been the heart of Jewish identity and faith is irrelevant, if not contrived outright by Zionists.

The second is the erasure of the relentless war against Israel, placing

So, what do you think?

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its actions under a microscope while downplaying or entirely ignoring the aggression of its enemies. There is never any context to Israel’s actions. Only by erasing Hamas’ atrocities can Israel be turned into the villain of this war.

In focusing on Israel’s actions and dismissing those of Hamas, campus protesters are providing cover for Oct. 7 denialism. This is a new version of the Holocaust denialism prevalent in parts of the Muslim world: The atrocities didn’t happen, you deserved them, and we’re going to do it again (and again).

On a recent trip to New York, walking along Broadway on the Upper West Side, I saw dozens of defaced posters of kidnapped Israelis. Rather than tear down the posters, the vandals had blacked out the Israeli faces – a literal defacement. And a useful metaphor for the anti-Zionist assault on our being.

The third form of erasure is dismissing the history of peace offers presented or accepted by Israel and uniformly rejected by the Palestinian side. No offer — an independent Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza, the re-division of Jerusalem, the uprooting of dozens of settlements — was ever sufficient. It is hard to think of another national movement representing a stateless people that rejected more offers of self-determination than the Palestinian leadership.

The ease with which anti-Zionists have managed to portray the Jewish state as genocidal, a successor to Nazi Germany, marks a historic failure of Holocaust education in the West.

This moment requires a fundamental rethinking of the goals and methodology of Holocaust education. By overemphasizing the necessary universal lessons of the Holocaust, many educators too easily equated antisemitism with generic racism.

The intention was noble: to render the Holocaust relevant to a new generation.

But in the process, the essential lesson of the Holocaust — the uniqueness not only of the event itself but of the hatred that made it possible — was often lost.

Antisemitism is not merely the hatred

Students/demonstrators lock arms to block authorities from reaching fellow pro-Palestinian protesters who barricaded themselves inside Hamilton Hall at Columbia University, April 29.

of Jews as other but the symbolization of The Jew. That is, turning the Jews into the symbol for whatever a given civilization defines as its most loathsome qualities. For Christianity until the Holocaust, The Jew was Christ-killer; for Marxism, the ultimate capitalist; for Nazism, the defiler of race. And now, in the era of anti-racism, the Jewish state is the embodiment of racism.

Holocaust education was intended, in large part, to protect the Jewish people from a recurrence of the antisemitism that reduces Jews to symbols. Yet the movement to turn Israel into the world’s criminal nation emerges from a generation that was raised with Holocaust consciousness, both in formal education and the arts. And this latest expression of the antisemitism of symbols is justified by some anti-Zionists as honoring “the lessons of the Holocaust.”

Unlike the Iranian regime, which clumsily tries to deny the historicity of the Holocaust, anti-Zionists in the West intuitively understand that coopting and inverting the Holocaust is a far more effective way of neutralizing its impact.

Many, perhaps most, of the campus protesters are likely not antisemitic.

They may have Jewish friends or be Jewish themselves. But that is irrelevant: They are enabling an antisemitic moment.

What is under assault is the integrity of the mid-20th century Jewish story, of a people rejecting the self-pity of victimhood and fulfilling its most improbable dream: renewing itself, in its broken old age, in the land of its youth.

The shift from the lowest point Jews have known to the reclamation of power and self-confidence is one of the most astonishing feats of survival not only in Jewish but world history. It is that story that is being distorted and trivialized and demonized on liberal campuses.

I recently completed a lecture tour of some of the most Jewishly problematic

The vulgar protesters are a small minority, but they are shaping the attitudes of a whole generation.

campuses, from Columbia to Berkeley.

In meetings with Jewish students, I was repeatedly told about a pervasive atmosphere of hostility toward Israel, even among many otherwise apolitical students. While the protests are an immediate threat to Jewish well-being on campus, the far deeper problem is the impact of the anti-Zionist campaign, linking the name “Israel” with racism and genocide.

The vulgar protesters are a small minority, but they are shaping the attitudes of a whole generation.

By focusing only on the immediate threat of the protests, we risk repeating the mistake we’ve made over the last decades of failing to adequately confront the systematic assault on our story.

We are losing a generation, but we haven’t yet lost. Like other radical movements, anti-Zionism could go too far in its righteous rage, potentially alienating the majority. Perhaps that process has already begun.

The challenge of our generation is to defend the story we inherited from the survivor generation. We need to tell that story with moral credibility, in all its complexity, frankly owning our flaws even as we celebrate our successes, acknowledging the Palestinian narrative even as we insist on the integrity of our own.

We desperately need new strategies to counter the anti-Zionist assault. A good beginning would be the creation of a brain trust, composed of community activists, rabbis, journalists, historians, public relations experts, that would devise both immediate responses to the current crisis and a long-term strategy, emulating the decades-long patient work of the anti-Zionists.

The Jews are a story we tell ourselves about who we think we are; without our story, there is no Judaism. It is long past time to mount a credible defense of our mid-20th century story, which continues to sustain us as a people.

Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute.

Views expressed by columnists, in readers’ letters, and in opinion Send letters (350 words max.) to The Dayton Jewish Observer, pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinion of staff or layleaders of 525 Versailles Dr., Dayton, OH 45459 • MWeiss@jfgd.net The Dayton Jewish Observer or the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton.

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WEDNESDAYS (except June 12), 12:30 - 3:30PM Open Canasta Lessons will be available starting at 12:30 PM on June 5, 19, and 26 SUNDAY, JUNE 2, 5PM Presidents Dinner

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TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 7:15PM Dayton Jewish Film Festival • Home

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MONDAY, JUNE 10, 7:15PM Dayton Jewish Film Festival • The Interpreter

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THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 7:15PM Dayton Jewish Film Festival • An Evening of Short Films

SUNDAY, JUNE 16, 7:15PM Dayton Jewish Film Festival • All About the Levkoviches TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 10AM Dayton Jewish Film Festival • Remembering Gene Wilder THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 7:15PM Dayton Jewish Film Festival • Nathan-ism SUNDAY, JUNE 23, 10AM JFS Drive-Thru Mitzvah Mission SUNDAY, JUNE 23, 3PM Dayton Jewish Film Festival • An American Tail

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SUNDAY, JUNE 23, 7:15PM Dayton Jewish Film Festival • Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 7:15PM Dayton Jewish Film Festival • Less Than Kosher THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 7:15PM Dayton Jewish Film Festival • Stella. A Life.

SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 7:15PM Dayton Jewish Film Festival Closing Night • My Neighbor Adolf

Sunday, June 23, 10AM – 12PM The Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville, 45459, No cost Back by popular demand, JFS is hosting another Drive-Thru Mitzvah Mission! Help us feed guests at St. Vincent de Paul’s shelters with frozen casseroles and provide high-need items for YWCA Dayton. JFS will take your donations and provide you with a sweet treat in return. If you have questions, please contact Jacquelyn Archie, JFS administrative assistant, at jarchie@jfgd.net or at 937-610-1555.

High-Need Items for YWCA Dayton Baby wipes, diapers, underwear (children/women), socks (children/women), body wash (women/children), deodorant Frozen Macaroni & Cheese Casserole Recipe • 1-1/2 lbs (24 oz) elbow macaroni • 2 lbs cheese, melted • 1 can (10.5 oz) cream of celery soup • 2-1/2 cups milk Cook macaroni and drain. Melt cheese separately and add to macaroni. Add milk and soup. Mix well. Pour into sprayed pan. Cover loosely and place in refrigerator until completely cooled. Then cover tightly with sturdy foil lid and freeze. Casserole should be frozen for 36 hours.

Jewish Family Services OF GREATER DAYTON

Can't make it to the JFS Drive-Thru Mitzvah Mission that morning? Later that day, you can bring your high-need YWCA donations to the Neon when you attend one of the JCC's two Film Fest screenings.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

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June2024 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

Opening Night Thursday, May 30 at 7PM followed by speaker Dr. Jenny Caplan and a dessert reception

2024

The Catskills (United States, 2023, 86 minutes) • Documentary

The Roger Glass Center for the Arts 29 Creative Way, Dayton, 45479

The Catskills is a delightful account of the rise and fall of the Borscht Belt and the powerful women who made it happen. With a trove of lost-andfound archival footage and a cast of characters endowed with the gift of gab, this charming documentary journeys into the storied mountain getaway north of New York City that served as refuge for Jewish immigrants and affluent Jewish families alike. Stand-up comedians share their best shtick while former waiters, entertainers, and dance instructors recount tales of the family-run resorts and bungalows. Punctuated with expert commentary— including from Dayton’s Dr. Jenny Caplan!—The Catskills is where nostalgia and memory meet the American Jewish experience.

$18 for an individual ticket $95 for a season pass

TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 7:15PM AT THE NEON Home

NIGHT OF Short Films

2024 LINE UP TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 10AM AT THE NEON Remembering Gene Wilder

SUNDAY, JUNE 23, 7:15PM AT THE NEON Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara

9:30 AM Reception sponsored by Hadassah

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 7:15PM AT THE NEON Night of shorts: Sevap/Mitzvah, BrownWhite, Mazel Tov Cocktail, Call Me Alvy, Jack and Sam

MONDAY, JUNE 10, 7:15PM AT THE NEON The Interpreter also available online June 10-11

SUNDAY, JUNE 16, 7:15PM AT THE NEON All About the Levkoviches also available online June 16-18

TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 7:15PM AT THE NEON Less than Kosher also available online June 25-27

THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 7:15PM AT THE NEON Nathan-ism

THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 7:15PM AT THE NEON Stella. A Life.

SUNDAY, JUNE 23, 3PM AT THE NEON An American Tail No charge for tickets Must register online at jewishdayton.org

Closing Night

SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 7:15PM AT THE NEON My Neighbor Adolf

First 50 dads free for in-person attendance

TICKETS

THANK YOU TO OUR FESTIVAL SPONSORS!

$18 opening night $12 All other nights unless otherwise noted

$95 Festival pass

includes opening night and can be used for either in-person or online films.

To purchase tickets or a festival pass, visit jewishdayton.org For more information or assistance, contact 937-610-1555.

PAGE 14

Jewish Community Center OF GREATER DAYTON

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

June2024 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

JUNE 3 - JULY 26 Camp Shalom is planning a summer of fun!

We offer the traditional camp experience, a variety of specialty camps including outdoor adventures, magic, Ninja Warrior, cheerleading, and more! Join us for weekly swimming and field trips, great counselors, and lots of friends!

Spots are still available for Cheerleading specialty camp!

CAMP SHALOM IS HIRING SUMMER STAFF! Do you know someone 16 or older who would be a great camp counselor? Interested candidates should contact Suzzy Nandrasy at snandrasy@jfgd.net.

See jewishdayton.org for more information.

Register at app.campdoc.com/register/jccgreaterdayton.

CANASTA LESSONS CANASTA EVERY WEDNESDAY (except June 12) 12:30 - 3:30PM, No cost

At the Boonshoft CJCE 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville, 45459 Join us every Wednesday for Canasta – the perfect way to spend an afternoon with your friends at the J! Want to learn to play? Lessons will be available starting at 12:30 PM on June 5, 19, and 26.

Questions? Contact Stacy Emoff at semoff@jfgd.net or call 937-610-1555.

Jewish Community Center OF GREATER DAYTON

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

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June2024 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

2024 SUMMER SERIES Legacies, Tributes, VIRTUAL WORKSHOPS & Memorials

JOE BETTMAN MEMORIAL TZADIK AWARD In memory of Shirley Gotlieb Frankowitz In memory of Jean Lieberman Melissa and Tim Sweeny In memory of Robert Kahn In memory of David Saphire Elaine Bettman Jewish Family Jean and Todd Bettman Services of In memory of Paula Benjamin Levitt Greater Dayton In memory of Florence Silberg Sobol Family Services Approved Provider In memory of Francine Roberts#RCS032101 Jean and Todd Bettman

Sponsored by:

Family Catholic Social FEDERATION Services Services of the Association Miami Valley

PAST PRESIDENTS FUND In memory of Rabbi Samuel Press Sylvia and Ralph Heyman

Graceworks Lutheran Services

Politicization of LGBTQIA Youth DAYTON SupportingJCC Teens with Mental Health JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER ENDOWMENT FUND & Providers in Ohio Issues & School-Related Challenges

Lois Unger May In 10,memory 2024 of8:45am-12pm 3.0 CEUs Susan and Joe Gruenberg In*Meets memoryEthics of Florence Silberg Sobol Requirement* Mary and Gary Youra School boards, city gov’ts, and the state legislature In memory of Rabbi Samuel Press have enacted policies that impact gender diverse Judy and Howard Abromowitz

and queer youth—often by attacking the practice PROGRAMMING FUND of healthHOLOCAUST and human services providers. We’ll In memory of of Robert review current status theseKahn policies, what the Donnaand and Marshall future may hold, how to Weiss take advocacy, legal, & practice actions to preserve the right of social Helene Gordon workers andMelinda other health and Bill and Donerhuman service providers provideofcare.

We’ll also review how Intomemory Shirley Gotlieb Frankowitz behavioral health Melindaprofessionals and Bill Doner working with youth must adapt their practice in light of these laws.

July 12, 2024 ARTS 8:45am-12pm 3.0SERIES CEUs CULTURAL AND BOOKS In memory of Florence Silberg Sobol This training will explore Stacy Emoff the mental health crises among

teenagers within the school setting. We will discuss JOAN health AND PETER WELLS AND REBECCA common mental diagnoses for this population, tips LINVILLE FAMILY, CHILDREN AND FUND for addressing behavioral challenges, and how weYOUTH as In memory of support Robert Kahn professionals can help these youth when resources In memory of Lois Unger may be limited.

JFS

JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES In memory of Robert Kahn Jane and Gary Hochstein In memory of Florence Silberg Sobol Helene Gordon In memory of Ellen Stein’s mother Renee and Franklin Handel TALA ARNOVITZ FUND In memory of Jean Lieberman In memory of Steven Markman In memory of Irving Kaplan Beverly Saeks

In memory of William Schoenfeld

Presenter: Rachelle Kistner, M.Ed, PCC-S, LSW is the Program In yahrzeit memory of Rebecca Linville Manager for the ESC program with South Community Joan and Peter Wells Behavioral Health. She has 20+ years of experience working with youth and families in various settings such as foster care, juvenile corrections and school-based programming.

Mental Health Considerations for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities

Presenter: Danielle Smith is a social worker and the Executive Director of the National Association of Social Workers-Ohio Chapter.

August 9, 2024

8:45am-12pm

2024 SUMMER SERIES VIRTUAL WORKSHOPS

Trauma Basics

JEWISH CEMETERIES OF GREATER DAYTON In memory of Jean Lieberman In memory of Shirley Gotlieb Frankowitz Linda Ohlmann Kahn and Dennis Kahn

3.0 CEUs

Topics include understanding common mental health diagnoses among the population and providing strategies for assessment, intervention and support. Prevalence rates, Trauma. Everyone has it. Everyone reacts differently ily common challenges faced by dually diagnosed clients, deto it. From big "T" trauma to little "t" trauma, f Sponsored by: escalation techniques, and ethical and cultural ton understanding the effects of trauma helps us to be will alsoJewish be addressed. betterFamily therapists, caseworkers, parents, & humans. Familyconsiderations Services Approved Provider Family Graceworks Catholic Social Family Services #RCS032101 Services Services of Lutheran Services oftothe In our time together we will discuss how define Presenter: Carol Kimbrough, MSW, LISW-S, is the Mental Approved Provider Association Greater Dayton Services Miami trauma and, more importantly, how toValley address Health Services Mgr. at Mont. Co. Board of Developmental #RCS032101 Family Services Approved Provider ng Teens with Mental Health trauma within our own bodies and the bodies of #RCS032101 Disabilities Services (MCBDDS). Her undergraduate degree is School-Related Challenges those around us.

Sponsored by: in Rehabilitation Svcs., and she has worked as a therapist.

June 14, 2024

8:45am-12pm

3.0 CEUs

2024 SUMMER SERIES VIRTUAL WORKSHOPS

Supporting Teens with Mental Health Presenter: Aaron Earlywine, LPC, Politicization is the CarePortalof LGBTQIA Youth Presenter: MarkJewish Cummings, BSW, LSW, is a mental health Family &Valley ProvidersGraceworks in Ohio Issues & School-Related Challenges Catholic Social Family Family Jewish Family Graceworks Catholic Social xploreRegional the mentalManager health crises among for the Greater Miami therapist with experience providing support to persons with the school setting.

We will discuss Services Services of the Services Lutheran Services of Services of Lutheran Services of the May 10, 2024 8:45am-12pm 3.0 CEUs July 12, 2024 8:45am-12pm 3.0 CEUs Region. He is Social Resilience Model (SRM) certified, developmentalGreater disabilities and mental health needs, having health diagnoses for this population, Miami Valley Association Services Dayton Association Greater Dayton Services Miami Valley tips(COPE) a Cost of Poverty Experience facilitator, and a This training will explore the mental health *Meets Ethics Requirement* ehavioral challenges, and how we as worked with vulnerable populations in settings such as crises among Services Approved Provider trauma-informed practitioner and trainer. teenagers within the school Family will discuss n help support these youth when resources State Hospital and group homes. setting. We #RCS032101 School boards, city gov’ts, and theDayton state legislature

2024

8:45am-12pm

3.0 CEUs

common mental health diagnoses for this population, tips have enacted policies that impact gender diverse for addressing behavioral challenges, and how we as and queer youth—often by attacking the practice e Kistner, M.Ed, PCC-S, LSW is the Program professionals can help support these youth when resources Clinical Supervision Challenges health and human providers. We’ll Calling all socialofworkers andservices counselors!

Join Jewish Family SC program with South Community may be limited.

She has 20+ years of experience workingreview current status of these policies, what the in the Modern World Services and its partners for a morning of online learning for Presenter: Rachelle Kistner, M.Ed, PCC-S, LSW is the Program future may hold, and how to take advocacy, legal, milies in various settings such as foster care, Manager for8:45am-12pm the ESC program with South Community & practice actions to preserve the rightSeptember of social 13, 2024 3.0 CEUs ns and school-based programming.

3 CEU's.

Sessions will be held on the second Friday of12, every May 10, 2024 8:45am-12pm 3.0 CEUs July 2024 8:45am-12pm 3.0 CEUs Behavioral Health. She has 20+ years of experience working The 2024 workshop series offers a and totalother of 15health CEUs,and human service workers youth and families in various settings such as foster care, providers toand provide care. We’ll also review how *Meetswith Supervision Requirement* month through September. approved for licensed social workers al Health Considerations This training willcorrections explore and theschool-based mental health crises among juvenile programming. *Meets Ethics Requirement* behavioral health professionals working with youth counselors.

Registrants must log in by the official Clinical supervision always a challenging or Individuals with must adapt their practice in light of these laws. teenagershas within the been school setting. We and will discuss

Politicization of LGBTQIA Youth REGISTRATION & INFORMATION Providers in Ohio

Supporting Teens with Mental Health Issues & School-Related Challenges

School boards, city gov’ts, and the state starting time and complete the entire course to legislature Trauma Basics dynamic within the mental health Considerations field.for Modern elopmental Disabilities common mental health diagnoses this population, tips Mental Health Presenter: Danielle Smith is a socialcomplex worker and the have policies that impact gender diverse receive a enacted CEU No exceptions. times and events (post-COVID, advancement of with Director of National Association offor June 14certificate.

• 8:45AM – NOON •the 3.0 CEUs 2024 8:45am-12pm 3.0 CEUs Executive addressing behavioral challenges, and how we as for Individuals and queer youth—often byWorkers-Ohio attacking Chapter. the practice Social technology, explosion of can severe mental health issues Developmental Disabilities professionals help support these youth when resources Questions the workshop topics? derstanding commonabout mental health of health and human services providers. We’ll

among the populace, etc.) have further complicated the

Supporting Teens with Mental Health Issues may be limited. g the population and providing strategies August 9, 2024 8:45am-12pm 3.0 CEUs Contact Sabrina Chupp at schupp@fsadayton.org. review current status of these policies, what the supervisory relationship and significantly increased ethical Trauma Basics ntervention and support.

Prevalence rates, Please note that Sabrina can NOT assist you & School-Related Challenges Topics include understanding mental Presenter: Rachelle Kistner, M.Ed, PCC-S, LSW ishealth the Program and legal risks and liabilities.

This training willcommon break down may hold, anddehow to 14, take advocacy, legal, ges faced by future dually diagnosed clients, June 2024 8:45am-12pm 3.0 CEUs diagnoses among the population and providing strategies with registration.

Manager for the ESC program with understand South Community of these issues to help you better ques, and ethical and cultural &July practice to preserve the right ofCEUs socialthe etiology 12 •actions 8:45AM – NOON • 3.0 for assessment, intervention and support. Prevalence rates, Trauma. Everyone has it. Everyone reacts differently ll also be addressed. the challenges, as well as suggest a faced variety of supervisory Behavioral Health.

She has 20+by years ofdiagnosed experience working health and human service common challenges dually clients, deNO workers REFUNDS.and Feesother prepaid forit.aFrom missed workshop to big "T" trauma to little "t" trauma, interventions and tools to families meet theindemand competently imbrough, MSW, LISW-S, is the Mental Considerations youth and various settings such as foster care, escalation techniques, and ethical and cultural providers to provide care.

We’llinalso review understanding thesame effects ofhow trauma helps us with to be Mental Health for Individuals with can be applied to another workshop the gr. at Mont. Co. Board of Developmental and professionally. considerationsand will also be addressed.programming. better therapists, caseworkers, parents, & humans. juvenile corrections school-based behavioral health professionals working with youth year byundergraduate calling Jefferson Alcott at 937.223.7217 x1146.

Developmental es (MCBDDS).

Her degree isDisabilities In our time together we will discuss how to define Presenter: Carol Kimbrough, LISW-S, is is the must adapt practice in light of these laws. Presenter: Francis, Ph.D., LPCC-S,MSW, LICDC-CS, an Mental vcs., and she has worked as atheir therapist. trauma and, more importantly, how to addressJoshua D. Health Services Mgr. at Mont. Co. Board of Developmental August • 8:45AM – NOON • 3.0 CEUs Registration and9payment are required prior to the Associate Professor in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling trauma within our worker own bodies and the bodies of ummings, BSW, LSW, is a mental health Presenter: Danielle Smith a social and the Disabilities Services (MCBDDS). Her undergraduate degree is training, in order to receive youris link to the Zoom Program as well asinDirector of theSvcs., Addictions Counseling erience providing support to persons withthose around us.

Rehabilitation and she has worked as a therapist.

Mental Health Considerations

Executive Director of the National Association for Individuals with at Clinical Supervision Challenges inofisthe Modern session.

The Monday prior to the training, you will LPC, Program in the World College of Education and Human Services Presenter: Aaron Earlywine, the CarePortal sabilities and mental health needs, having Presenter: Mark Cummings, BSW, LSW, is a mental health Social Workers-Ohio Chapter. receive in ansettings emailsuch withas the Zoom linkManager and details Regional for the Greater Miami Valley Wright State University. rable populations

September 13 • 8:45AM – NOON • 3.0 CEUs

Region. He is Social Resilience Model (SRM) certified, pital and group abouthomes. accessing the training. a Cost of Poverty Experience (COPE) facilitator, and a trauma-informed practitioner and trainer.

Trauma Basics

l Supervision Challenges Register at cssmv.org/events 14, 2024online 8:45am-12pm 3.0 CEUs n the ModernJune World

•

Developmental Disabilities

therapist with experience providing support to persons with

developmental disabilities and mental health needs, having August 9, 2024 8:45am-12pm 3.0 CEUs worked with vulnerable populations in settings such as

Dayton State Topics understanding common $35 perinclude session orHospital $140and forgroup all 5homes. mental health

diagnoses among the population and providing strategies Clinical Supervision Challenges for assessment, intervention and support. Prevalence rates, REGISTRATION INFORMATION in the Modern World PAGE 16 big "T" trauma to little "t" trauma, common challenges faced by dually diagnosed clients, de- THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024 ts Supervision to Requirement* it. From September 13, 2024 8:45am-12pm 3.0 CEUs escalation techniques, and ethical and cultural the of trauma us toabe The 2024 workshophelps series offers total of 15 CEUs, on has alwaysunderstanding been a challenging andeffects *Meets Supervision Requirement* approved parents, for licensed& social workers and c within the mental health field. Modern considerations will also be addressed. better therapists, caseworkers, humans.

13, 2024

8:45am-12pm 3.0 CEUs Trauma. Everyone has it. Everyone reacts differently

RELIGION

CONGREGATIONS

To My Dearest on our anniversary A Shavuot love letter

By Rabbi Cary Kozberg Temple Sholom, Springfield Jewish tradition teaches that Shavuot is z’man matan Torateynu—the time of the giving of our Torah. It commemorates the moment when, after bringing us out of Egypt to Sinai, God called us to be a “kingdom of priests and a holy people" and gave us the means (commandments) to fulfill that mandate. Legend tells us that every Jewish soul — that ever was and ever will be — heard the Voice. That “Sinai moment” is imagined as the moment when God consecrated us as His own. In other words, it was our

Perspectives wedding: we were offered and accepted a ketubah, a marriage contract, the Torah (Ex. 19:8), “All that the Lord has spoken we will do."

That would make Shavuot our wedding anniversary. With that in mind, here is a question to those of us who are married: How would we feel if our spouse totally forgot our anniversary? Or worse, how would we feel if our spouse remembered, but totally ignored it?

So many of us forget or simply ignore this arguably most important Jewish holiday.

Without Torah, there would be no other holidays. We would have no direction and no compelling purpose or reason to even stick around as a people.

And yet we’re still here—a fact palpably more amazing this year, given the words we spoke just a few weeks ago at our Seders — “In every generation, some rise up to annihilate us.”

For the still-faithful among us, we’re still here because God still wants us here. But for many of us, we’ve forgotten

Candle Lightings

notion. Because as painful as it is for Me to watch, it’s still a possibility that needs to be considered — believe it or not, for your own good.

That said, I completely understand why you have doubts about Me and My intentions.

To My Dearest: Given the deplorable state of As we approach the day the world — particularly now commemorating the beginning — why wouldn’t of our commitment to you ask, Where is one another, I feel the God? If God is just, need to send you this. why does He allow I send it with some evil to exist? If God frustration, but more in is compassionate, disappointment than why does He allow anger. But know that so much suffering? these feelings are based In truth, from in My continuing love your perspective, and concern for you.

Of late, we have not Rabbi Cary Kozberg these are all fair questions. But I been on the best of would add that the fact that terms. Throughout our milthey bother you enough to even lennia-old relationship, we’ve ask them means I did somehad our ups and downs. When thing right. the ups were up, they were I’m glad they bother you. I’m way up; when the downs were glad you struggle with them. down…well, you know.

Not only do I not discourage or You’ve tried My patience forbid such questions, on the so many times, and yes, there have been times when I wanted contrary, I want you to struggle to end it, but never could. I nev- with them, to wrestle with them, and therefore with Me. er could because, even though This is why you are called by you may not believe in or feel the name I gave your ancesconnected to Me, I still believe tor Jacob, Yisrael, the one who in and feel connected to you. wrestles with God. Yes, I love Through the years, I’ve tried it when you and I wrestle. to reach you by sending you Because even when we struggle prophets and teachers to help with one another, we are in a you better understand Me and close embrace. what I’m about. And there But in fairness, just as you have been times when horrible ask where is God? I must ask things happened to you, and where are you? Where have some of you interpreted those you been? It’s the same questimes as My trying to get your tion I asked Adam when he attention. tried to hide from Me that But know this: ever since lovely afternoon in the garden.

I sent plagues in Egypt and And I can’t help feeling that created the “special effects” at Sinai, I’ve always been trying to like Adam, you also continue to get your attention — sometimes hide from Me. But why? Ever since I conmore subtly, sometimes more nected with your ancestor boldly. And if some of you Abraham, I chose you and had believe that what is currently great plans for you to be My happening to you is My trying “walking commercials” in the to get your attention? Well, I world. At Sinai, you agreed will not disabuse you of that this. Or we simply deny it.

If we would feel badly being forgotten, or ignored, how must God feel? How might God respond? Perhaps in this way?

Shavuot

Torah Portions

Shabbat, May 31: 8:40 p.m.

Shabbat, June 7: 8:45 p.m.

Erev Shavuot, June 11: 8:47 p.m.

2nd Eve Shavuot, June 12: 9:55 p.m.

Shabbat, June 14: 8:48 p.m.

June 1: Bechukotai (Lev. 26:3-27:34) June 8: Bamidbar (Num. 1:1-4:20) June 15: Naso (Num. 4:21-7:89)

Shabbat, June 21: 8:50 p.m.

June 22: Behalotecha (Num. 8:1-12:16)

Shabbat, June 28: 8:51 p.m.

June 29: Shelach (Num. 13:1-15:41)

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

Festival of Weeks, Giving of the Torah June 12-13 • 6-7 Sivan Marks the end of the counting of the Omer, a 49day period that begins on the second night of Passover, and recalls the giving of the Torah at Sinai. In Israel, it falls at the end of the spring harvest. An all-night study session called a tikun, originally a mystical practice, is held at some synagogues.

to be chosen. I chose you and loved you and saw great potential in you.

To be sure, there have been times when you’ve given Me tremendous pride and naches.

But lately it seems that you’ve been doing the Julia Roberts/ Runaway Bride thing. And that saddens and disappoints Me. I want you back. I need you back. I need you back because if you are no longer my “walking commercials,” if you are no longer My “light unto the nations,”whatever happens, the world will become very dark.

Look around and see a preview of just how dark the world can become.

As an anniversary gift to you, here are some thoughts of Mine that a poet among you somehow has intuited and expressed beautifully. They’re pretty spot-on and I share them with sincerity and with love: I know I often seem far away, says Hashem.

I know I have not lived up to your expectations, Especially at times of your greatest need.

But if it looks like I stand behind barriers — They are not my creation, But the result of your doing And the actions of others.

Dismantle them if you wish to get close to Me: Admit your own role in building them, And perpetuating them, And looking away when others fortify them.

If you rush by, I cannot respond.

If you deny your wounds, Put up walls, Or block Me, I cannot heal.

With each step to dismantle the barriers I will become closer to you.

If you surrender your defenses, I will feel so close That you can feel Me inside You Healing from within.

— from the poem A Prayer of a Distant God

by Rich Orloff My dearest, I cannot force you to stop hiding. But it is our anniversary, and I do hope we can get closer. If you feel distant, please remember that I am not the one who has moved.

B’ahavat olam, with everlasting love, Hashem/God

Beth Abraham Synagogue

Conservative Rabbi Aubrey L. Glazer Cantor/Dir. of Ed. & Programming Andrea Raizen Fridays, 5 p.m.

Saturdays, 9:30 a.m.

305 Sugar Camp Circle, Oakwood. 937-293-9520. bethabrahamdayton.org

Beth Jacob Congregation

Traditional Rabbi Leibel Agar Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. Evening minyans upon request.

7020 N. Main St., Dayton.

937-274-2149. bethjacobcong.org

Temple Anshe Emeth

Reform Fri., June 14, 7:30 p.m. led by Jese Shell. 320 Caldwell St., Piqua.

Contact Steve Shuchat, 937-7262116, ansheemeth@gmail.com. ansheemeth.org

Temple Beth Or

Reform Rabbi Judy Chessin Asst. Rabbi/Educator Ben Azriel Fridays, 6:30 p.m.

5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 937-435-3400. templebethor.com

Temple Beth Sholom

Reform Rabbi Haviva Horvitz 610 Gladys Dr., Middletown.

513-422-8313. templebethsholom.net

Temple Israel

Reform Senior Rabbi Karen BodneyHalasz. Rabbi/Educator Tina Sobo Fri., June 7, 6 p.m. Fridays, June 14, 21, 28, 6:30 p.m.

Saturday, June 22, 10:30 a.m.

130 Riverside Dr., Dayton.

937-496-0050. tidayton.org

Temple Sholom

Reform Rabbi Cary Kozberg Fridays, 6 p.m.

2424 N. Limestone St., Springfield. 937-399-1231. templesholomoh.com

ADDITIONAL SERVICES Chabad of Greater Dayton

Rabbi Nochum Mangel Associate Rabbi Shmuel Klatzkin Youth & Prog. Dir. Rabbi Levi Simon. Beginner educational service Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. 2001 Far Hills Ave. 937-643-0770. chabaddayton.com

Yellow Springs Havurah

Independent Antioch College Rockford Chapel.

1st & 3rd Saturday each month.

Contact Len Kramer, 937-5724840 or len2654@gmail.com.

PAGE 17

JEWISH FAMILY EDUCATION

Slavery or freedom?

Judaism's Worldview Series Enslaved in the USSR that intensely oppressed its Jewish citizens but disallowed emigration, the promising young physics student Boris Nadgorny would likely have languished in the shadows of

Candace R. Kwiatek academia and Soviet life.

However in 1987, Oxford University students took up his cause. Their most audacious plan was inviting Soviet official Sergei Shilov to a universitywide lecture on campus, ostensibly to speak on glasnost, the Soviet policy permitting more open discussion of political and

social issues and a freer press.

Students’ prearranged postspeech questions focused on Jewish refuseniks, specifically Boris Nadgorny. “Boris was not refused, it is not true,” Shilov protested. “He can go any time he wants.” In a surprise move, the program leader invited Boris himself to react via his live telephone link. In heavily accented English, Boris asserted, “I was refused just two weeks ago.” The chairman turned to Shilov, “Will you tell Boris directly that he has permission to leave?”

Unwilling to risk undermining warming relations with the West, the Soviet official had no option. “You are free to leave,” he said.

Just two weeks after reaching freedom in America, Boris began speaking out on behalf

Literature to share

Rising by Sidura Ludwig. In this unhurried picture book tale, a mother and child make challah together while preparing for Shabbat. Each double-page spread features an inviting, pasteltoned image accompanied by simple evocative text, both of which encourage questions and conversation. Gently woven throughout the story are themes of creation, work, rest, sharing, and gratitude. Magical!

The Genius of Israel by Dan Senor and Saul Singer. Why is Israel ranked as the fourth happiest nation in the world? Why is its population young and growing in stark contrast to that of other Western nations? Why is it the world’s leader in tech startups per capita? In this fascinating and highly readable exploration of what makes Israel tick, the authors also learn what makes Israelis so resilient. Inspiring and thought-provoking.

of his fellow refuseniks left behind.

“If there’s a top 10 list for the most abused words in the English language, freedom must be up there near the top,” writes Rabbi Yaakov Sinclair.

Modern dictionaries define it as the supremacy of the individual, exemption from shared responsibility, immunity from obligation, and lack of hindrance or restraint.

“Freedom has narrowed to an expression of the individual will,” adds the Rev. Cheryl Hauer, "an exercise in self-gratification.” In a strange inversion, freedom has become enslavement to one’s basest desires, emotions, and impulses.

The first century Stoic philosopher Seneca made a similar observation: "Show me a man who is not a slave: one is a slave to lust, another to greed, another to ambition, and all men are slaves to fear...No servitude is more disgraceful than that which is self-imposed.”

According to Seneca, true freedom means taking charge of your own mind, emotions, will, and actions. More than a thousand years earlier, the nascent Jewish people were already embracing that message.

The archetype of freedom is the Exodus from Egypt, Mitzrayim. Meaning narrow straits, Mitzrayim was a place of constricted movement, behavior, and thought.

The Exodus was emancipation, chofesh: freedom from slavery, a new life as free

spirits. Yet, just days into their journey, the Israelites began complaining about a lack of water and longing for the bounty and programmed simplicity of a slave’s life under Pharaoh.

It turns out there are no truly free spirits in Creation because freedom without boundaries is anarchy. Humans are unique only in that they can choose the source of those boundaries.

Hence, the purpose of the Exodus was not simply chofesh. Moses says to Pharaoh, “Let my people go that they may worship Me.” The purpose was equally cherut, the freedom to choose to serve God, to be guided by the commandments, to take charge of oneself.

Not enslavement but a covenantal relationship with boundaries. The purpose of Exodus was Sinai.

How do these stories illustrate chofesh and cherut, the free choice of a covenantal relationship with God and the boundaries of the commandments?

Underground shelter. In 1658, Spanish-Portuguese Conversos came to America from the West Indies, settling in Newport, R.I. For the first time in generations, they could openly practice their Judaism.

One hundred years later, during construction of a worship space later known as the Touro Synagogue, their descendants built a special hiding place under the bima (stage), a lesson learned from previous years of persecution and

'Now that you have your freedom, what have you done with it?'

Jewish Owned PAGE 18

clandestine practice of their Judaism.

They continued to tell their story, and in the years preceding the Civil War, the Jewish community used this hidden space, smuggling slaves from the South to the North as they made their way to freedom.

In so doing, they gave new life to the mitzvah, “You shall not turn over to the master a slave who seeks refuge with you.”

Lecture hall. A legendary teacher at Yeshiva University, Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik demanded that his students come prepared to class. At one session, he began by asking if there were any questions.

No one wanted to be first.

Maybe they lacked confidence.

They may have feared having stupid questions or appearing ignorant. Not one student raised a hand.

“No questions?” Rav Soloveitchik asked. He slammed his Talmud closed and left, saying, “No class.” In Ethics of the Fathers it is written, “A shy person does not learn.”

Rivington Street. In January 1916 on the Lower East Side’s Rivington Street, a knish price war broke out over who made the best knish.

Max Green’s knish was like a dumpling filled with mashed potatoes and onion and sprinkled with cheese.

Its popularity inspired M. Green to open a rival knishery with 'Coney Island' square fried knishes. When each claimed their knish was the best, the war was on.

Prices dropped. One shop hired a band. The other introduced a cabaret show.

Chaos ensued. While there are no news reports of how the battle ended, children’s author Joanne Oppenheim introduces a mayor who suggests a taste test.

In the end, he declares, “It’s like trying to choose between the sun and the moon. We need both, don’t we? There’s no such thing as one best!”

We read in the Talmud, “It was taught that Rabbi Shimon Ben Gamliel said, ‘The world is maintained by three things: by justice, by truth, and by peace.’

Rav Muna said, ‘These three actually are one. If justice is present, then truth is present and this makes peace.’”

Rabbi Rachel Bregman asks the essential question of the Passover Seder: “Now that you have your freedom, what have you done with it?”

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

CALENDAR Classes

Beth Jacob Classes: w. Rabbi Agar. Tuesdays, 7 p.m.: Torah Tuesdays on Zoom. Thursdays, 7 p.m.: Thursdays of Thought on Zoom. Call to register, 937-274-2149. 7020 N. Main St., Harrison Twp. Chabad Classes: Tuesdays, 8 p.m.: Code of Jewish Law. Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m.: Talmud Class. Thursdays, noon: Parsha Study on Zoom. chabaddayton.com. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-6430770.

Temple Beth Or Classes: Sun. June 2, 9, 16, 30, 12:30 p.m.: Adult Hebrew. Thurs., June 13, 7 p.m.: Chai Mitzvah on Zoom. Sat., June 15, 10 a.m.: Apocryphal Study. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 937435-3400.

Temple Israel Classes: Tues., June 4, noon: Talmud Study in person & Zoom. Wed., June 5, 19, 26, 10 a.m.: Torah Queeries w. Rabbi Bodney-Halasz.

Fri., June 7, 11 a.m.: Living w.

Loss w. Rabbi Bodney-Halasz.

Thurs., June 27, 3:30 p.m.: Living w. Ambiguous Loss w.

Rabbi Bodney-Halasz. Saturdays, 9:15 a.m.: Virtual Torah Study on Zoom. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. tidayton.org/calendar. RSVPs to office, 937-4960050.

Children

JCC Camp Shalom: June 3-July 26. For rising grades 1-9. Contact Suzzy Nandrasy, snandrasy@jfgd.net.

Family

Beth Abraham Rhythm ‘N’ Ruach: Fri., June 14, 5:30 p.m.- 6:15 p.m. w. Cantor Raizen. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. 937-293-9520.

Adults

Community

Men

Beth Abraham Shabbat Under the Stars: Fri., June 21, 7:30 p.m. Call for location & RSVP by June 17, 937-2939520.

JCC Canasta Lessons: Weds., June 5, 19, 26, 12:303:30 p.m. Free. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. Contact Stacy Emoff, semoff@jfgd.net.

Chabad Bagels, Lox & Tefillin: Sun., June 2, 9:30 a.m.

13+ welcome. chabaddayton. com. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-643-0770.

Shavuot

Beth Abraham Tikun Leil Shavuot: Tues., June 11, 6 p.m. Free. Call to RSVP. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood.

937-293-9520.

Temple Israel Shavuot & Confirmation Service & Dinner: Tues., June 11, 6:30 p.m.

130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 937496-0050.

Chabad All Night Learning: Tues., June 11, 11:45 p.m.

2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood.

937-643-0770.

Classes

Beth Jacob Classes: w. Rabbi Agar. Tuesdays, 7 p.m.: Torah Tuesdays on Zoom. Thursdays, 7 p.m.: Thursdays of Thought on Zoom. Call to register, 937-274-2149. 7020 N. Main St., Harrison Twp.

Temple Israel’s Jewish Cultural Festival: Sun., June 9, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Free admission.

Details at tidayton.org/festival.

Temple Israel, 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 937-496-0050.

JFS Drive-Thru Mitzvah Mission: Sun., June 23, 10 a.m.-noon. Drop off items for YWCA. List & mac & cheese recipe at jewishdayton.org/ calendar. For info., contact Jacquelyn Archie, 937-6101555. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville.

Chabad Classes: Mon., May 6, 7 p.m.: Decisions of Fate: Wright Brothers Home Your Jewish Compass for Asphalt Restoration Navigating Questions of Medical Ethics. Four-week course.

Year Make the “Wright Choice” Our 52nd Online or in person. Sign up at chabaddayton.com. Tuesdays, 8 p.m.: Code of Jewish Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m.: Paving, Repairs, Sealcoating,Law. Concrete, Walks, Patios,

Houser Asphalt & Concrete

937-223-9207 • 800-319-1114 • www.houserasphalt.com

Temple Beth Or Annual Picnic: Fri., June 28, 5:30 p.m. Outdoor service weather permitting. Hot dogs & hamburgers provided. Bring a side dish to share. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. RSVP to 937435-3400.

Beth Jacob Synagogue Shavuot Learn-A-Thon Tuesday, June 11 • 6:45—11 PM

Come hear our great speakers followed by Birkat HaMazon. We will be serving a dairy meal and dairy desserts during the program.

Our speakers are:

Chabad Shavuot Dinner: Wed., June 12, 5:30 p.m.

Free. RSVP chabaddayton. com/rsvp. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-643-0770.

Beth Jacob Shavuot LearnA-Thon: Wed., June 12, 6:45 p.m. Speakers Batsheva Fullenhull, Victoria Minor, Steve Renas, Joel Shapiro & Jese Shell. For info., & RSVP, call Tammy, 937-274-2149. 7020 N. Main St., Harrison Twp.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

PAGE 19

FOOD

A killer cheesecake recipe for Shavuot

By Liza Schoenfein Forward Looking for a killer cheesecake recipe for Shavuot? I found one in The Gefilte Manifesto: New Recipes for Old World Jewish Foods by Liz Alpern and Jeffrey Yoskowitz.

It calls for a mixture of farmer’s cheese, cream cheese, and sour cream, cholesterol be damned.

Shavuot falls seven weeks after Passover and celebrates both the grain harvest and the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai.

One explanation for why we eat dairy products on Shavuot is found in a bit of scholarly word association.

One of Mount Sinai’s many monikers is Mount Gavnunim.

Gavnunim means “manypeaked” in Hebrew and is related to the word gevinah, which is one of three Hebrew words for cheese.

Eating cheese on Shavuot can be seen as a way of commemorating Moses receiving the Ten Commandments.

The eating of dairy may also be tied to words from the Song of Songs, “Honey and milk are under your tongue,” and to the

PAGE 20

reference to Israel as the land of milk and honey.

Another theory is that when the Israelites received the Torah, complete with its new set of kosher laws, they subsisted on dairy foods until they’d sorted out the whole kashering-the-meat business.

Celebration Cheesecake Adapted from Cheesecake with Currant Glaze and Caraway Crust in The Gefilte Manifesto by Jeffrey Yoskowitz and Liz Alpern.

Yoskowitz and Alpern’s cake has a currant glaze and caraway crust. I didn’t have currants, but I did have rhubarb and a few strawberries, so I made a rhubarb-strawberry compote instead.

I also added a big squeeze of lemon juice to the cake batter, because I knew I wanted that tang, and I left out the caraway seeds because I don’t love that flavor.

Lastly, I worried that my cake hadn’t baked long enough after the prescribed 30 minutes, so I left the oven on for an additional 20 minutes before turning it off and leaving the cake inside as instructed. It turned out perfectly.

Liza Schoenfein

For the crust: 1½ cups graham cracker crumbs 4 Tbsp. (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted 3 Tbsp. sugar 4 tsp. caraway seeds For the cake: 12 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature 12 oz. farmer’s cheese, store-bought or homemade, at room temperature 1½ cups sugar 4 large eggs, at room temperature 1½ tsp. vanilla extract 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice (optional) 16 oz. sour cream, at room temperature For the currant glaze: 1 tsp. cornstarch 2 Tbsp. sugar 2 tsp. fresh lemon juice 2 Tbsp. water 2 cups fresh or frozen red currants Alternately, for Liza’s rhubarbstrawberry compote: 1 lb. rhubarb, trimmed of leaves and cut into 1-inch pieces 8 strawberries, trimmed and cut in half or quarters 1 cup sugar Preheat the oven to 375.

Grease a 9-inch springform pan.

To make the crust: Combine the crust ingredients in a small

bowl and pack the crust mixture firmly into the bottom of the prepared pan.

To make the cake: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat together the cream cheese and farmer’s cheese until fluffy, gradually adding the sugar in increments, then adding the eggs one by one.

Add the vanilla, lemon juice (if using), and sour cream and beat until incorporated. Pour the mixture into the pan over the crust. Bake for 30 minutes.

Turn off the oven and let the cheesecake sit inside, undisturbed, for at least two hours

so it sets properly. Place it in the refrigerator and let cool completely before serving, at least six hours. Cheesecake is delicate, so be gentle.

To make the red currant glaze: While cake is cooling in the oven, in a small saucepan, combine the cornstarch, sugar, lemon juice, and water and cook over very low heat, stirring, until the mixture starts to thicken, about four minutes.

Immediately stir in the currants and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture begins to bubble up slightly and thicken, 10-12 minutes more.

Remove from the heat and let cool. The glaze can be prepared up to three days in advance of serving and stored in the refrigerator.

To make Liza’s rhubarbstrawberry compote: In a medium saucepan combine the fruit and sugar and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the fruit has released some of its juice and the sugar has melted into it.

Simmer about 10 minutes, until the liquid has thickened into a syrup. Let cool. The compote can be prepared up to three days in advance of serving and stored in the refrigerator.

Use any leftovers in place of jam on toast or as a topping for yogurt or ice cream.

The cheesecake will keep in the refrigerator for up to one week. Serve it chilled with a spoonful of glaze (or compote) and a cup of coffee.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

Arts&Culture

Rafi Delouya

Director Benny Fredman talks about his movie about Haredim, Home

ing how his wife, called Nava in the movie and porBy Hannah Brown, The Jerusalem Post trayed by Yarden Toussia-Cohen (the granddaughter If the details in Benny Fredman’s latest movie, of renowned Jerusalem lawyer Shlomo Toussia-CoHome, the story of an ambitious young Haredi Orthodox man who opens a computer store in his neighbor- hen, who even had a street named after him), is at first upset that her husband chooses to become a businesshood only to see it destroyed by religious thugs, ring man rather than continuing full-time yeshiva study. true, that’s because it’s based closely on the director’s “When I went to make the movie, I had two choicown experiences. es: to make a movie about a guy who opens a store The movie, which screens June 4 as part of Dayand gets into trouble...to tell a story about the reality ton's JCC Film Fest, is fictionalized, Fredman said, in Geula, or to tell the story that I chose to tell, a much but he lived the basic premise: He built a business bigger story about a couple who lives together in in the Geula neighborhood of Jerusalem, which was embraced by some Haredim but demonized by others, the same house and discovers there is no connection between them — not in their dreams or aspirations, who harassed him and eventually on the border of a marriage that is a complete mistake, Benny Fredman: 'Everything that happens in the movie is burned the place to the ground. real; it's just concentrated.' and what they do with that, how they survive and The movie, which won Ophir manage to build a home, how they overcome their dif- this difficult period” was his wife. He went on to Awards for its lead actor, Roy Nik, ferences and stay together.” and for supporting actor Dror study filmmaking and was also kept busy with the triThis is very much the story of Fredman and his Keren, Fredman’s co-screenwriter, als of those who beat him and burned his store, some is an autobiographical film, he said. wife, who are celebrating their 21st year of marriage, of whom received prison sentences. “in spite of our differences, in spite of the fact that it “The real story happened between He met actor Dror Keren on the set of Suicide, seems unbelievable.” He worked to develop the movie his previous film, and when Keren saw Fredman’s 2006 and 2008. Everything that for 10 years, and “the focus is a love story that develhappens in the movie is real; it’s wife on the set, he was curious, wondering how this ops in unexpected ways...They go through a whole just concentrated. What really hapsecular director and his Haredi wife managed to make Via Dolorosa to come to a much stronger, happier pened was more brutal, more violent, with more incitheir marriage work. place.” dents, and it took place over a longer period of time.”

When he heard the whole story, Keren was enthuHe and his wife have four children, two of whom This is distressing to hear, because what happens siastic about turning it into a film, and, after a period are very observant and two of whom are less strict. in the movie is quite violent. “Since 2008, this kind of of healing, Fredman was able to work with him on thing has spread to other parts of Jerusalem, not just a draft of the script, which they fine-tuned over Ofer Albobi/United King several years.

Geula, and to Bnei Brak; it happens over and over, all the time. They burn a store down; everything “We built it as a Western; the inspiration was goes on as usual.

High Noon but with a Jewish heart,” he said, refer“Great fun,” he said sarcastically. encing the classic 1952 Western by Fred Zinneman, This is despite that the store sold computers and starring Gary Cooper as the only honest man in phones not connected to the Internet — with the town facing down the outlaws on his own — a permission of the local religious authorities — for movie that is widely seen as a metaphor for the people who wanted to write, many of them scholars, red-baiting scandals of the 1950s. and for children to play games. These authorities exBut they worked very hard to keep it faithful to acted a steep price for their seal of approval, which the reality of Jerusalem’s Haredi community, with was later challenged by zealots who harassed, his wife and one of the film’s producers, Shalom threatened, and beat Fredman and burned his store.

Eisenbach, who also comes from a religious backThis harassment had a deep and long-lasting ground, and others on set working to make sure effect on the young entrepreneur he was back then: every detail was accurate. he is no longer Haredi, and he became a filmmaker, They took particular care with the many outfits making movies such as the action thriller Suicide in worn by the wife in the film, including her wigs, 2014 and the television series Suspect, also a thriller. which show “the evolution of their relationship” “It was very complicated to explain the different as the main character encourages her to wear Roy Nik and Yarden Toussia-Cohen in Benny Fredman's Home. factions in the Haredi community, their autonostill-modest but more flattering and more feminine Growing up, he enjoyed his studies in a Lithuanian mous economy, the supervisors who pull down these styles than she was used to. “When she commits to yeshiva from an intellectual point of view. “But the high salaries for nothing,” he said. Then there are the their relationship, it changes the way she sees herself atmosphere suffocated me. You feel you need to extremists “who go by their feelings, and once they too, and you can see it through the styles she wears.” have the feeling that something is bad, there’s nothing breathe,” he said.

Looking back on what happened to him with his As a young man, he was studying near the Jerusayou can do.” store, he feels that he “made the mistakes of a 25-yearlem Cinematheque and started “escaping” to movies It would take another article to explain all the ways old. Now, as a 43-year-old, I would tell myself, ‘Get there. “I could study Gemara for 12 hours and then these extremists harassed Fredman and his family, up and leave; it’s not worth it to stay and get caught see Wild at Heart by David Lynch or Heavenly Creatures up in this.’ You learn to take the craziness of your even blocking the street where they lived so traffic

by Peter Jackson. I can recite (dialogue) from every could not pass on multiple occasions. “And you never dreams into perspective. You say, What am I endanmovie from the ‘90s.” know when it’s going to end.” gering? What am I risking? Is it worth it? But when Growing up with his American grandmother, who you’re young, you don’t say that. You’re all in. I built would visit for holidays, he was also introduced to The romantic element something back then; I didn’t want anyone to take it some children’s movies, he said.

But there is another side to this story, which is a away.”

After that period of visiting the cinematheque, he key part of the film: his relationship with his wife, to Despite his pessimism about the fate of anyone who opened his store, and the Haredim who wanted it to whom he was married when he opened the store and dares to open a store like his, he said firmly that Home close “really lynched me.” He ended up in the hosto whom he is still married. “I was Haredi, and she is is not an anti-Haredi movie. pital, beaten within an inch of his life and wiped out still Haredi. And what interested me when I made the “It’s not a movie where the Haredim are bad and economically. He also went through a social crisis. film was why did we stay married after what hapfight a secular figure who is good...In my movie, all “I had been Haredi; I didn’t know who I was anypened?” the characters are Haredi...There’s a real spectrum more; I didn’t recognize myself...Even though I knew Much of the movie details their relationship, showof Haredi characters...Of course, the situation is very the people who did this to me were from an extremist charged and tense now, with the proposed bill to draft faction and all that, I couldn’t be part of the commuHaredim being discussed, but I don’t think this film JCC Film Fest presents Home, 7:15 p.m., Tuesday, nity anymore.” will contribute toward anti-Haredi feelings. Anyone June 4 at The Neon, 130 E. Fifth St., Dayton. $12.

The one “who held my hand, who was at my side who gives the movie a chance will understand the Purchase tickets at jewishdayton.org/events. for all this, who supported me and helped through complexity of the issues.”

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

PAGE 21

Arts&Culture

Doc unspools storied life of Jewish outsider artist, Nuremberg trials guard Nathan Hilu

By Linda Buchwald New York Jewish Week In the documentary Nathan-ism, Jewish artist Nathan Hilu is hardly ever without a Sharpie or crayon in his hand, drawing something from his memories.

Hilu was a Lower East Side native who, as a U.S. soldier at 19, was assigned to guard Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. The experience left an indelible mark upon him: In the ensuing decades, Hilu processed these memories by obsessively creating art from this time in his life, often repeating the same images, simple figures with words written around them in a messy if compelling scribble.

“I’m not really a big, great artist. I’m a memory man,” Hilu, who died in 2019 at 93, says in the film, which will be screened as part of Dayton's JCC Film Festival. “That’s where my pictures come from.”

In 2012, Tablet Magazine called Hilu the “most significant Jewish Outsider artist you’ve never heard of.” With the documentary, Israeli-American filmmaker and editor Elan Golod hopes to change that. He spent eight years makJCC Film Fest presents Nathan-ism, 7:15 p.m., Thursday, June 20 at The Neon, 130 E. Fifth St., Dayton. $12. Purchase tickets at jewishdayton.org/events.

ing Nathan-ism, which chronicles Hilu’s daily life as a lonely, aging veteran and the history of the Nuremberg trials. The result is a movie that takes us inside the obsessive mind and cluttered apartment of a unique New York artist who is desperate for his story as a witness to one of the most significant trials in history to be heard.

“It’s not that he feels like drawing, he has to draw — it’s a way of communicating,” curator Laura Kruger, who has been credited with “discovering” Hilu, told the New York Jewish Week about Hilu in 2019.

Golod first learned about the artist almost nine years ago when he read an article about a small retrospective of Hilu’s art at Hebrew Union College’s museum that was curated by Kruger.

“I was fascinated by the circumstances of his story, but also the dissonance between a very heavy subject matter done in colorful Crayola colors,” Golod said.

“That felt cinematic to me.”

Golod envisioned his project as a short film, and at first Hilu, not understanding Golod’s intentions, was hesitant to participate. But after a few phone calls and in-person meetings without the camera, Hilu warmed up to the filmmaker. Golod ended up filming Hilu over the last four years of his life. Each time he visited — usually every week or

Elan Golod

two — Hilu would show him a shopping bag full of art he had made since their last meeting.

He ended up with more than 300 hours of film of Hilu, who shares with Golod his memories of how well the Nazis were treated in jail, as well as the time Hitler’s chief architect Albert Speer told him that Hitler made a mistake and didn’t have to kill the Jews.

Other talking heads in the film include Kruger; retired counselor for war Nathan Hilu, the subject of Nathan-ism. crimes accountability stories don’t sound true, he insists they for the U.S. Department of Justice Eli all are. As Hilu says in the film, “I am no Rosenbaum; and art journalist Jeanhistorian. All I can do is show you my nie Rosenfeld, who all weigh in on the part of history.” importance, volume, and validity of his In the film, Golod endeavors to verify work.

Hilu’s stories, albeit with mixed results The film also demonstrates the — largely because a 1973 fire destroyed importance of oral history — specifiHilu’s military records. And yet, even if cally, historical events as remembered the details get hazy, Golod insists that by those who were there — while also Hilu never tried to intentionally dupe grappling with the fallible nature of anyone, he was simply expressing his memory. As Hilu draws and narrates version of events as he remembered his often-repeated stories of his encounthem. “I think he’s obviously telling his ters with Nazi criminals, he is quick truth,” Golod said. to emphasize that though some of his

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

Arts&Culture

Gene Wilder doc salutes comedy legend

By Stephen Silver, JTA When Mel Brooks was filming The Producers, he recalled an executive approaching him and saying, “The curly-haired guy—he’s funny looking. Fire him.”

Brooks said he would fire the actor, but never intended to actually do it. And when The Producers came out, it became a classic in no small part because of that “curly-haired guy” — otherwise known as Gene Wilder.

That story is one of many retold about the actor in Remembering Gene Wilder, a new documentary about Wilder that Dayton's JCC Film Fest will screen June 18.

The relationship between Wilder and Brooks is a key subject of the film, and for good reason: The two worked together on three classic films, The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein, and were close friends. Brooks is interviewed at length in the documentary.

But according to the director of the film, it’s notable that Wilder’s Jewish comedic sensibilities came from a very different place than Brooks’ — they were subtler, more softspoken.

“His style was a little bit different; he wasn’t a borscht belt comedian, but he certainly learned from them,” the documentary's director, Ron Frank, said. “Take Mel Brooks, a New York Jew through and through, and pair him with Gene Wilder, a Wisconsin Jew.” Wilder grew up watching Jewish comedians like Danny Kaye and Jerry Lewis on TV in his Milwaukee home. But, Frank said, he himself “wasn’t a comedian — he was a comedy actor. He played it real. Most of his performances, he didn’t force the comedy, he didn’t force the humor, he was more or less himself, and that made it real and funnier.”

Gene Wilder entered the world with the given name Jerome Silberman, born in Milwaukee in 1933. His father was a first-generation Russian Jewish immigrant, and his mother was second-generation. He first developed his comedic gifts at a young age, when his mother became ill, and a doctor told young Gene to try to make her laugh.

“Jokes are in the genes when it comes to Jewish comedy,” Frank said. “I’d say that’s helped Jews survive, for centuries.”

Wilder soon headed to the Army, and from there, he went to the New York theatre scene and began his movie career in the late 1960s. His movie debut was the 1967 classic Bonnie and Clyde, in which he played a hostage of the titular couple. His second film, the following year, was Brooks’ The Producers.

He continued to star in popular movies throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, including the 1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and a series of comedies with Richard Pryor. In the 1990s, he appeared in a pair of Will & Grace episodes, one of which won him an Emmy.

Wilder died in 2016, at the age of 83, of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. Frank said the documentary had been in the works since 2018.

Perhaps Wilder’s most Jewish role was in 1979’s The Frisco Kid, in which Wilder plays Rabbi Avram Belinski, who travels from Poland to the American West and meets an outlaw played by Harrison Ford. In JCC Film Fest and Dayton Hadassah will screen Remembering Gene Wilder, 10 a.m., Tuesday, June 18 at The Neon, 130 E. 5th St., Dayton.

Tickets are $12 and include a 9:30 a.m. reception.

Purchase tickets at jewishdayton.org/events.

Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images

Gene Wilder (center) as a Polish rabbi in the 1979 film The Frisco Kid alongside Harrison Ford.

that movie, Wilder’s character sports a black hat and a bushy beard, and chants a convincing rendition of the end of the weekday morning prayer service, with correct Hebrew pronunciation, while wearing tefillin and a prayer shawl.

In reality, Wilder’s Jewish identity was mostly secular. “I have no other religion. I feel very Jewish and I feel very grateful to be Jewish,” Wilder told an interviewer in a 2005 book called Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish. “But I don’t believe in God or anything to do with the Jewish religion.”

Jenny Caplan, a scholar on American religion and popular culture at the University of Cincinnati and author of the 2023 book Funny, You Don’t Look Funny: Judaism and Humor from the Silent Generation to Millennials, told JTA, “Gene Wilder was a great example of a performer whose Jewishness was, at times, implicit, explicit, and invisible.”

She added, “In the hands of a writer and director like Mel Brooks, Wilder became the ideal blank Jewish canvas who could embody the sort of unspoken Jewish inflections and line readings that make characters like Leo Bloom, Frederick Frankenstein, and Jim in Blazing Saddles so hilariously Jewish to a Jewishlyliterate audience, without anything that would mark the characters as obviously Jewish to a less Jewishlyliterate viewer.”

The now 97-year-old Brooks is interviewed extensively in the film, sharing stories from his many years working with Wilder.

“I don’t think we could tell this story without him,” Frank said of Brooks. “It was just a delightful interview…Mel said, ‘I’ll give you a half an hour,’ and we

Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

ended up staying an hour. And he told stories that I wish I could put in the film, but it would probably be a three-hour movie.”

Frank added that Brooks, who was 95 when they sat with him, “remains an unbelievable storyteller, and he lived up to that reputation.”

Other interview subjects include the Jewish film historian Ben Mankiewicz, singer Harry Connick Jr., and actress Carol Kane. The archival footage extensively features Wilder with his third wife, Jewish comedy legend and Saturday Night Live original cast member Gilda Radner, who died of cancer in 1989. Frank said that the couple’s often unhappy marriage was one of the things he hadn’t known about Wilder coming into the project.

Frank is the director of the film, Glenn Kirschbaum is the writer, and it was executive-produced by David Knight and Julie Nimoy. Nimoy is the daughter of the late Jewish Star Trek legend Leonard Nimoy, and Frank had worked on an earlier documentary about him.

“The Nimoys and the Wilders were friends, and after Gene had passed, it was David and Julie’s idea to approach Karen, Gene’s widow, about (a film),” Frank said. The film focuses on Wilder’s entire life and career, including his battle with Alzheimer’s at the end of his life.

Frank said the film had some nontraditional funding sources, including what he termed “Alzheimer’srelated drug manufacturers and associations.”

Wilder’s own voice-over from his audiobook serves as narration for the film, and it contains a wealth of clips, whether from his movies, numerous talk show appearances, or home movies from throughout his life.

Frank noted that Jewish audiences in particular reacted very positively to the film when a test screening was held in Beverly Hills with Brooks in attendance, and that response continued into the Jewish film festival run.

“It appealed to them in all sorts of ways, and it’s not necessarily Jewish jokes…when they laugh really hard, you know it’s great when the laughs cover the following lines, that’s how long the laughs last. That’s what happened there,” Frank said.

He expects that to carry over to general audiences.

“People just love Gene, all across the country, Jewish or not Jewish,” he said.

PAGE 23

Arts&Culture

The true story of a 6-year-old Jewish boy who was baptized, kidnapped, and raised by the Pope Cohen Media Group

who was secretly baptized, takthe conflicting reports of en from his family, and made a the time — which either kind of ward to Pope Pius IX. claim Edgardo as a ferThe story, which Kertzer vid believer and evangelchronicled in a 1997 book, and ical prodigy or a terrified was for a time in development child whose mother was with Steven Spielberg and Tony driven to madness — is Kushner, is realized with period that Mortara entered aplomb by director Marco Belthe priesthood when he locchio. It is a righteously angry came of age and resisted work, portrayed with disturbreturning to his family ing beauty. The film is at its when the Kingdom of Itmost unsettling, and damning, aly snatched Rome away when the violence of Edgardo’s from the Papal States. Inabduction gives way to the deed, Edgardo left newly quieter trauma to his soul in the unified Italy rather than pristine halls of papal Rome. make a homecoming, Bellocchio, a Marxist and settling in France and atheist raised in the church, was eventually dying in Beldrawn to the story of Mortara gium in 1940.

— whose 1858 kidnapping Kidnapped sprinkles Paolo Pierobon as Pope Pius IX and Enea Sala as Edgardo Mortara in Kidnapped. prompted outrage throughout its stately presentation Europe and the United States with bombastic underscorthe pageantry of the church is child is eating well and feed— as a “crime committed in the juxtaposed with the domestic ing and moments of magical ing off the indoctrination of name of an absolute principle.” faith of the Mortaras. A detailed the priests. Edgardo’s terror, realism. It's certainly an indictAnd so we see the certainty ment of the church’s excesses, crucifix at an altar and a Latin and his desire to return home, of Pius’ functionaries, who ferry catechism are spliced with the highlighting its cruelty to Jews are bound up in a harder-toEdgardo away from his home and its stunning capacity for Mortaras’ grief as they preshake belief that his baptism and deposit him in the House of pare for Shabbat or, with their evading accountability, which was in fact an act of grace. The the Catachumens, an institution other young children, recite the message comes through when has a modern corollary in its JCC Film Fest presents for the conversion of Roman sex abuse scandal. More than Shema before bed.

In Bellocyoung Edgardo is asked to Kidnapped: The Abduction Jewry. Edgardo meets the Pope chio’s accounting, Jewishness that, the drama challenges the define dogma and describes it of Edgardo Mortara, 7:15 and, with other Jewish children, lives at home, with Edgardo’s dogma of Christian viewers as a matter set down and not p.m., Sunday, June 23 at The eats sweets at his table on the who may believe the unbaptrue family, and it is lovingly open for debate, a deeply unNeon, 130 E. Fifth St., Dayton.

Feast of the Immaculate Contized are doomed to hell. rendered.

Scenes in the House Jewish concept echoed in Pius $12. Purchase tickets at ception and even takes a seat The film can’t, however, fully of Catechumens are caustic in IX’s non possumus, in which he jewishdayton.org/events. on his lap. Throughout the film, their sterility, but terrifying for refused to return the child to his rebuke the church’s power of persuasion, or even the how pleasant and even gorparents.

Catholics who still defend the geous they often appear.

While presenting the Pope kidnapping. Belief, it argues, is When Edgardo (played as (Paolo Pierobon) as a paranoid a more mysterious force than a child by Enea Sala) reunites tyrant whose influence is in the mortal zealots who serve with his parents, wonderfully decline, Bellocchio is eager to portrayed by Barbara Ronchi grapple with the ambiguities of as its agents. It's tempting and not unfounded to regard and Fausto Russo Alesi, their the true story.

Mortara’s tenure in the church worst fears are realized. Their The truth, complicated by as a lifetime case of Stockholm A Healthy Alternative Syndrome, but that conclusion We Use The Best Ingredients is the easiest and least interestPrepared Fresh Daily ing.

Toward the end of the film, the adult Edgardo (Leonardo Maltese), whose journey began when a household maid, be536 Wilmington Ave. Serving Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana lieving him to be near death, COMMERCIAL • INDUSTRIAL • GOVERNMENT anointed him, hopes to save his Dayton, OH 45420 mother’s soul in the same way.

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By PJ Grisar, Forward Enough time has passed, the Vatican decided in 2019, to examine the record of Pope Pius.

The church unsealed papal archives long sought after by historians, and researchers have begun to paint a damning portrait. Pius XII, the head of the church through World War II, was not the quiet hero of Jews that many defenders long claimed. In September 2023, unearthed letters suggested that Pius knew the genocidal worst about the death camps and said nothing and, in 2022, historian David Kertzer’s book The Pope at War revealed that Pius only interceded on behalf of a very specific victim: ethnic Jews who were baptized.

Into this context arrives another reappraisal, of another Pope Pius, on a similar theme.

The film Kidnapped explores the case of Edgardo Mortara, a 6-year-old Jew from Bologna

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2024

Arts&Culture

logical tug-of-war goes on in parallel with their chess games.

The movie raises certain questions it can’t answer about the nature of evil — Herzog is certainly a pretty banal figure – and revenge, tally the year when Israeli forces capand at times the story tured Eichmann in Argentina — tells the meanders. It works story of Mr. Polsky (David Hayman), a best if you don’t take Holocaust survivor from Germany who it too seriously and lost his entire family and lives alone in a don’t ponder what it ramshackle house. would really be like to The only pleasure he seems to have in sit down for chess with life is watering the black roses that were the mass murderer who his late wife’s favorite before the war. killed your family.

The story gets going when a pushy Prudovsky, a director woman (Olivia Silhavy) with a German who is drawn to lowkey accent, who turns out to be a lawyer, heroes, made one of comes by looking to rent the house next David Hayman (L) and Udo Kier in My Neighbor Adolf. the only really enjoyable Israeli romon his neighbor’s lawn, the haunted door to Polsky for her client. Polsky is survivor sees these annoying but incon- coms, Five Hours from Paris, and is most upset at the prospect of anyone movcomfortable with the broad comedy of a sequential acts as nothing less than a ing in but when he gets a glimpse of schnook like Polsky trying to apprehend declaration of war. the new tenant, a bearded man with the worst criminal of the 20th century.

As he tries to retaliate in various piercing blue eyes who calls himself Mr. David Hayman, a Scottish actor, is Herzog (Udo Kier), he is stunned to the ways, he also works to entrap his neighunexpectedly touching as the lonely surbor, who is a painter and whose house core. vivor. Udo Kier, who has played his fair holds other clues that convince Polsky Years before the Final Solution was share of Nazis, underplays to the point underway, Polsky sat opposite Hitler at that Herzog is Hitler. where it skews the movie a bit toward But when he goes to the Israeli conthe World Chess Championship in Berthe theory that Polsky is just nuts. lin and is convinced that this neighbor’s sulate, the Intelligence officer (a deadKier has played Hitler before, in the pan Kineret Peled) predictably treats dead blue eyes are exactly the ones he strange 2002 short film Mrs. Meitlemeihr, him like a nudnik. remembers from that day. in which he portrayed Hitler hiding in Polsky won’t let go of his obsession When Herzog’s dog, a German shepLondon after the war and posing as a herd, naturally relieves itself on his lawn and decides to find some kind of smokwoman. He also played Hitler in the ing gun that will prove to the world he and when the lawyer insists the fence Amazon series Hunters opposite Al is right, which leaves him no choice but between their property is in the wrong Pacino. spot and Polsky’s beloved roses are now to befriend his neighbor. Their psychoUnited King Films/Luis Cano

In My Neighbor Adolf, the guy next door is you know who

By Hannah Brown, The Jerusalem Post We all have trouble with our neighbors at one time or another. But what would you do if you were convinced the annoying guy next door was none other than Adolf Hitler?

That’s the somewhat bizarre premise of the engaging dark comedy My Neighbor Adolf, directed

by Leon Prudovsky and co-written by Dmitry Malinsky, which screens as part of Dayton's JCC Film Fest June 30. This movie, which combines comedy with a certain amount of suspense and pathos, also works as a lightly comic psychological study of a lonely Holocaust survivor who thinks that only by catching Hitler can he move on from his own trauma.

The movie, set in a small town in Latin America in 1960 — not coincidenJCC Film Fest presents My Neighbor Adolf, 7:15 p.m., Sunday, June 30 at The Neon, 130 E. Fifth St., Dayton. $12. Purchase tickets at jewishdayton.org/events.

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OBITUARIES Rabbi Dr. Samuel B. Press, age 87 of Dayton, passed away April 29. Rabbi Press was born in Middletown, Conn. in 1936 and raised in Springfield, Mass.

He graduated from Yeshiva College with honors and received the Talmud Prize. After college, Rabbi Press served in the U.S. Air Force and was the Alaska Command Jewish Chaplain of Alaska serving the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, and Bureau of Indian Affairs. He was also the Chief Rabbi of Alaska. Rabbi Press was the founding rabbi of the Oyster Bay Jewish Center Synagogue in New York.

In 1978, Rabbi Press came to Dayton and served nearly 25 years as the senior rabbi at Beth Abraham Synagogue. He began programs with other faith communities and was president of the first joint synagogue programming with classes, and joint services. During his years, he served on numerous Jewish

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and community committees including several interfaith and interracial committees. He served the Dayton Jewish Community Center, Community Hebrew School, Hillel Academy, Jewish Family Services, and was the founder of the Dayton Synagogue Forum.

Rabbi Press was respected as a Jewish scholar, having published several articles. He was published in many magazines and journals, and his writings appeared in the media. Amb. Tony P. Hall stated that during Rabbi Press’s years in Dayton, he made an enormous difference in the lives of the congregants as well as the citizens of Greater Dayton. His service reached far beyond the synagogue, serving as the director of the Dayton Black-White Coalition, was a member of the board of directors of Womanline, Dayton Free Clinic, was a member of the advisory committee at Good Samaritan Hospital, and the ethics committee at Miami Valley Hospital. Rabbi Press is survived by his devoted son, Adam M. Press; his beloved and devoted sister, Dr. Rosalyn Avigad; and countless members of his congregation whose lives he touched in so many profound ways. Interment was at Beth Abraham Cemetery. If desired, memorial contributions may be made to American Friends of Magen David Adom in his memory.

Francine Roberts of Englewood, passed away on May 4, two months shy of her 97th birthday. She was born in the Bronx and grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. She was a graduate of Brooklyn College. Francine met the love of her life, Irwin, while double-dating with her cousin, and they were happily married for over 70 years. Francine

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PAGE 26

was a loving wife, devoted mother, grandmother, greatgrandmother, and friend. She was preceded in death by her mother, Betty; her father, Herbie; mother-in-law, Lillian; father-in-law, Arthur; and loving husband, Irwin. She is survived by her loving sons, Lawrence (Sherri) Roberts, Jeffrey (Connie) Roberts, grandchildren Chaim (Jessica) Roberts, Tama Roberts, Shoshana (Michael) Rubin, Benjamin Roberts, and great-grandchildren Aaron Roberts, and Dahlia and Miles Rubin. Francine was an active community volunteer and she loved gardening, oil painting, playing mah jongg, B’nai B'rith bowling, traveling, reading, and lifelong learning with classes from Sinclair Community College. Interment was at Beth Abraham Cemetery.

If desired, contributions may be made to the Beth Abraham Ritual Fund or the National Kidney Foundation.

David Saphire, age 80 of Centerville, passed away peacefully on May 5, with family by his side. He was preceded in death by his wife of over 40 years, Sandy Saphire, in 2021; his sister-in-law Pat Saphire; and his parents, Harold and Shirley Saphire. He was surrounded by love from his son and daughter-in-law, Jonathan and Maureen Saphire, his sister and brother-in-law, Marilyn and Carl Weiss, his brother Richard Saphire, sister-in-law Billie Blackmore, and numerous other family members and friends. Born in Cleveland, David spent his childhood in Shaker Heights before moving to Columbus to attend The Ohio State University, where he obtained his undergraduate and Juris Doctor degrees.

Before practicing law, David had many interesting jobs such as selling hot dogs at Indians games, driving a taxi in Columbus, and serving as a captain

in the Army. David eventually moved to Dayton where he spent the majority of his life as an attorney for E.S. Gallon & Associates. Dayton was also where he met the love of his life, Sandy. They built a house in Centerville and shared many memorable adventures in their over 40 years together. David’s life was led by his strong desire to help others in need.

He took a personal interest in each client he worked for, and treated them as if they were family. In his free time, he enjoyed watching sports, most especially Reds baseball and Buckeye football, or any game which his son Jonathan was officiating. David was a hero to more people than he was likely aware. His impact on others will continue to reverberate in the world. Interment was at Riverview Cemetery. May David and Sandy’s memory be a blessing.

The professor also emphaWittenberg prof. sized he will not draw a direct Continued from Page Eight ultimately identify the Israelis with the Nazis. This is not a Nazi operation. And that's whether you like or not like the nature of the Israeli response.

The people who are interested (in genocide) are certainly in the right-wing of Israel. They're interested in ethnic cleansing, forcing them out. Israel is not doing that."

Berenbaum said he doesn't trust the casualty numbers on either side of the Israel-Hamas war.

"I grew up in the Vietnam generation. But if we look at what Israel claims the numbers are and what the Palestinians claim the numbers are, there may be as little as a 2:1 ratio of civilian casualties with military casualties. If it's a 2:1 ratio for urban warfare, in the history of warfare, that's not good, but it's also not bad."

Wittenberg's Anes pointed out to The Observer that he doesn't align with calls to dismantle Israel, and that he prefers to think of his role as just a student facilitator.

"My activism is really only to get the students started. We have a very small number of students who are knowledgeable or care. My job has been to model that they can express themselves non-confrontationally. We had one event on campus that was well-attended and then a second smaller one, but not until April. We are hardly a hotbed of activity."

and mischaracterize Michael’s support of our students and his line between Gaza and the Hosharing of a flyer on Facebook, locaust as it was carried out in which you only had access to Poland, or any other genocide. because you and Michael are "Genocides are not conductpersonal Facebook friends." ed in the same way across the "I have to say that he's not world and over time." going to get away with that," He noted he'll continue to Berenbaum said of Anes' plans support student protests accus- to avoid the topic of Gaza and ing Israel of genocide in the fall Israel while in Poland. if students decide to pick them "The place from which you up. remember an event shapes how Anes' wife, Heather Wright, you remember it," Berenbaum is also Jewish. said. "Place Anes noted he'll An associate is not merely professor in the continue to support geographical, political science it's place in time. student protests department, she And everybody teaches classes accusing Israel of is going to ask a on human rights genocide in the fall question about and about Israel that. People are in her Holocaust if students decide going to ask Politics course. to pick them up. questions."

She told The The notion Observer in an email that she that Israel behaves like Nazi does not share her husband's Germany, Berenbaum said, has view that Israel's "self-debeen a staple of anti-Israel profensive response constitutes paganda for almost 50 years. genocide."

"It coincides with the Soviet Wright sent the email to reit- accusation that Zionism is racerate that Anes did not want to ism, which was in the '70s be interviewed "or included" in (1975 at the U.N.). That was a this story.

Soviet thing propaganda-wise "The Fulbright-Hays grant to associate Israel with Nazism was awarded by the U.S. Deand the like and to use it as a partment of Education to me, tool of delegitimization. as a political scientist, under "Every scholar who writes the auspices of Wittenberg Uni- that Israel is committing versity. The project proposal, genocide should be prepared content, and award contain to defend it. Not giving you an zero content about either Israel interview or not being preor the Gaza conflict, which pared to defend that, that's not Michael has told you on two scholarly. If I write something, separate occasions," she wrote.

I've got to be prepared to de"It is unfortunate that you fend it. Whatever I say, I have feel the need to exaggerate to be willing to defend."

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jewish cultural festival sunday, june 9th 11am to 7pm Temple Israel | 130 Riverside Dr, Dayton

local food trucks music & dancing judaica & more!

full schedule & info: tidayton.org/festival