The Dayton Jewish Observer, May 2023

concerts May 7 8 book p. 2 form p. 22 David Moss Klezmer designs Grace After Meals in and comic

THE DAYTON Published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton

May 2023 Iyar/Sivan 5783 Vol. 27, No. 9

OBSERVER

The Miami Valley’s Jewish Monthly • daytonjewishobserver.org Photos: Mike Jaffe

Remembering Audrey

5

Israel@75 NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID DAYTON, OHIO PERMIT NO. 59

Panels from Beth Abraham Synagogue's Israel Independence Day window by A. Raymond Katz.

A tense anniversary

Former longtime JCC Early Childhood Director Audrey MacKenzie

Hillel Academy co-principals to retire

6

Dan & Kathy Mecoli

For Shavuot, a blintz recipe that survived the Holocaust

Address Service Requested

Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton 525 Versailles Drive Dayton, OH 45459

21

DAYTON

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Beth Jacob Congregation's Third Annual Jewish Women Inspiring Women luncheon will be held at 11 a.m., Sunday, June 4. The event presents women from across the Jewish community sharing their stories of empowerment, strength, and courage. This year's speakers are

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Klezmer concerts May 7-8 Israeli singer/

songwriter for Israel at 75 celebration April 30

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PAGE 2

The Flying Klezmerians

Dayton's Flying Klezmerians and Aaron Kula and Chaim Rubinov of the Boca Raton-based Klezmer Company Jazz Orchestra will team up to perform two concerts, May 7 and 8.

The JCC will present their performance of Jubano Jazz — a blend of Latin rhythms and klezmer tunes — at 2 p.m., Sunday, May 7 at Cline Elementary School, 99 Virginia Ave., Washington Township. Tickets are $10 adults, $5 children (15 and under).

PJ Our Way and PJ Library will host Klez4Kids, an outdoor concert at 6 p.m., Monday, May 8 at Wright Memorial Public Library, 1776 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood.

Dayton Jewish Observer Editor Marshall Weiss will narrate the PJ Library children's book Mendel's Accordion as part of the program, which is free and open to the community.

Register for both concerts at jewishdayChaim Rubinov (L) and Aaron Kula ton.org/events.

Strug keynotes Presidents Dinner Gold medal-winning Olympic gymnast Kerri Strug will keynote the Jewish Federation’s Presidents Dinner at 6 p.m., Sunday, May 21 at the Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. Tickets are $100 each, $50 per young adult (ages 35 and under). Kashrut will be observed. Participants will be asked to make their pledges to the 2023 Jewish Federation Annual Campaign. RSVP by May 15 to jewishdayton.org/events.

Arts & Culture.........................23 Calendar..................................19

Kerri Strug

Family Education....................22 Obituaries........................... 26

Rami Feinstein

American Israeli singer and songwriter Rami Feinstein will perform at the community Yom Ha'atzmaut celebration of Israel at 75, Sunday, April 30, 2-5 p.m. at the Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture and Education, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville.

Kosher Israeli food by Rochel Simon will be available for purchase at the event, which will showcase Israeli innovation and culture. The JCC presents the celebration in partnership with Beth Abraham Synagogue, Beth Jacob Congregation, Dayton Sister Cities, Dayton Hadassah, Hillel Academy, Jewish War Veterans Post #587, Temple Beth Or, and Temple Israel.

Admission is free. For more information, go to jewishdayton.org or call 937-610-1555.

O p i n i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 7 Religion.......................... 20

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

DAYTON

12-year-old's head and heart are with her parents in Ukraine

By Marshall Weiss The Observer Like so many middle schoolers, 12-year-old Polina hangs out with her friends, riding bikes after school and on the weekends.

She and her friends constantly check on their chats to find out the latest news among their classmates.

Unlike her friends, she keeps up with assignments from two schools: Magsig Middle School in Centerville, where she is enrolled as a seventh grader, and online for her school in Ukraine on evenings and weekends.

Polina is determined that when the war in Ukraine ends, she will return and pick up her studies seamlessly, without falling behind.

She arrived in Centerville last August accompanied by her mother, who then returned to Ukraine, where her husband fights in the army and her parents and his parents live. It was a harrowing journey of three months across five countries to get Polina out of a war zone.

Polina lives with her aunt and uncle, Maryna and Michael Braginsky, and their six children.

"I hope I'm coming back to Suma so soon. I hope so," she says of her family's hometown.

She hasn't seen her dad, Maryna's older brother, since March 2022 — and that was for 15 minutes. He is now stationed in Slovyansk, near Bakhmut.

"My grandmother misses my dad so much, like me," Polina

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DOWNSIZING OR RIGHTSIZING? Maryna Braginsky with her niece, Polina, now a seventh-grader at Magsig Middle School in Centerville. Polina arrived from Ukraine last August.

says. She follows the news from Ukraine every day.

"I need to know everything that's happening in my country because I miss my country. I want to go back there so soon.

I hope I'm going this summer to Ukraine, but I don't think the war will be finished."

It's a painful realization for Polina to accept.

"At first, she wouldn't make friends with even my kids — her cousins — she wouldn't make friends at school," says her aunt, Maryna. "She knows a Ukrainian-speaking girl, so she was friends with her, and that's it. She didn't care about schoolwork because she was expecting that she wakes up the next

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morning and the war is over.

As the time goes by, at some point she realized that it's taking longer than she thought. So she started making friends and her school grades improved, and she started to go in to (worship) services with us, and to attend religious community functions."

Polina says her best friend at Magsig is a girl from Japan.

"She's been here two years."

To cope with the constant stress about her parents and the war, the youngster plays volleyball, listens to Ukrainian pop music, and talks with her cousin, Maryna's daughter Elizabeth, who is in eighth Continued on Page Four

From the editor’s desk

As this issue goes to press, we don't know when Ukraine will launch its anticipated advance on the Russian army.

But the news from Maryna Braginsky (see above story) is that right now, her Marshall family in Ukraine is safe. Her parents have the food and medicines they need Weiss at their home in Suma. "They do bomb that city," Maryna says. "They just don't get as far as they used to." Her younger brother, also in the Ukrainian army, married a woman with the army's medical personnel in December. "He says that she really kept him sane, because he lost his friend, dying in his arms," Maryna says. "He lost another friend, shot somewhere, so he traveled just to see him in the morgue."

On the cover: The main panel of this Beth Abraham window depicts laborers and scholars blending their efforts in harmony and fellowship, rewarded by the vision of Jerusalem restored, fulfilling the vision of Isaiah, "For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."

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PAGE 3

DAYTON

THE DAYTON

OBSERVER daytonjewishobserver.org Editor and Publisher Marshall Weiss mweiss@jfgd.net 937-610-1555 Maryna Braginsky’s older brother, Igor, Polina's father

Ukraine

AMERICANS AND THE HOLOCAUST WHAT DID AMERICANS KNOW? WHAT MORE COULD HAVE BEEN DONE?

May 18 – June 21, 2023

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PRESENTED BY:

PAGE 4

Polina and her mother, Yulia, of Suma, Ukraine, in Centerville, August 2022.

(beet soup) so much."

Polina says that since she arrived at the Braginsky home, she has all but Continued from Page Three stopped eating pork, because the famgrade at Magsig. ily keeps kosher.

"She knows everything about it, "Right now, I'm so fine with this," but doesn't tell everybody," Polina Polina says. "If I eat pork, it's at a says of her cousin. restaurant and not very often."

Polina is in contact with her dad Polina was raised as a Christian, almost every day. "I talk with him her mother's faith. more when I can, but it's war. And I "We did have that adjustment have to adjust." about dietary restrictions," says Her mother continues her work in Maryna, who keeps a traditional Jewa grocery store in Suma. ish home.

"We are not talking every day, but "In August, she would make herself we're trying," Polina says, "because a sandwich with turkey and the she comes home at seven or eight, cheese on top. And everybody just and she goes to work at 5 a.m. in the faints. And of course, there is an ismorning." sue of dress code. We try to maintain Her mother helps her with Ukraimodesty. And that is a huge and big nian school assignments. struggle."

"She doesn't want to miss the When Polina first attended services grade," Maryna says of her niece. with the Braginskys at Chabad, Rabbi "That's why they agreed, the UkraiNochum Mangel gave her a Siddur nian school, that she will do some as- (prayer book) with a Russian translasignments. Not every day, but some tion. assignments, so she has grades going "Rabbi Mangel said, 'Well, we there. And now, they are approachcouldn't find it in Ukrainian, but this ing final exams in May. I don't know will do.' And it did," Maryna says. how they will arrange that."

"I was trying some singing," Polina As her first school year wraps up adds. "Rabbi Mangel was so nice to at Magsig, Polina describes her situa- me." tion as "actually good."

Through the Uniting for Ukraine "My grades are good because my program of the U.S. government, PoEnglish is just a little bit better. I'm so lina is able to stay in the United States glad my English is much better right for two years, until May 2024. now. Teachers can understand me.

"Our concern is, what if the war I love this school. It's a good school. is not over until after May 2024?"

It's good teachers. They help me with Maryna says. "We know for sure that everything." this program has absolutely no mechAn only child, she's also had to ad- anisms of extending her legal time in just to a family dynamic of six other the U.S.; Homeland Security said they children in a household. do not have anything in place yet.

"And her parents worked constant"It was super hard to get her here. ly, so Polina was home by herself We fought through lawyers and senaafter school," Maryna explains, which tors and congressmen. We are preparis the norm in Ukraine. "People in ing already to research the options.

Ukraine have much less flexibility It would be easier if she was going with working hours and do not have to transfer to high school next year, a system of afterschool care." because we can apply for a student "Yeah, I did whatever I wanted," visa. But they don't do it for middle Polina says of her life in Suma. "Here, school-age kids."

I always have my aunt staying home.

Polina says her plans for the sumAt first, it was uncomfortable for me mer include "lots and lots of swimbecause somebody's always home. ming," riding bikes, and to join a And there are so many kids." volleyball team when she turns 13 in She sleeps in the girls' bedroom, August. with her three female cousins.

Except for the littlest one, Polina's Along with the American fast food cousins will go to Camp Livingston she's come to enjoy, Polina says she overnight Jewish camp this summer. loves her aunt's cooking.

"We offered to take her also," Mary"She can cook Ukrainian food and na says. "But she said no, she didn't I'm so happy about it, because I can want to. It's too many new places for eat this food, what I was eating in her to handle in such a short period my home," Polina says. "I love borsht of time."

Contributors Rabbi Aubrey L. Glazer 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 Proofreader Rachel Haug Gilbert 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. 27, No. 9. 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.

• 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.

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Please recycle this newspaper.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

DAYTON

Former longtime JCC Early Childhood director Audrey MacKenzie dies at 68 Audrey MacKenzie, who worked in the Jewish Community Center Early Childhood program for 20 years — 17 of them as its director — died April 5 following a prolonged battle with cancer. She was 68.

A Chicago native, Audrey came to the JCC with 24 years of early childhood experience, including four as director of a local KinderCare Learning Center and 12 as a KinderCare district manager.

"You're fortunate if you find something to do in your life that is your calling," she said in a 2005 Observer interview. "And I always felt that being involved with children in some way has been my life calling."

It was community members Gina Kahn and Phyllis Royce who approached Audrey about working for the JCC when the Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture and Education was being built in 2002.

At the time, Audrey was leading part-time Mommy & Me classes at the Kettering Recreation Center. Gina and Phyllis were in the class with their 2-year-old boys.

"They said, 'this center is opening up and you have got to go and apply for a job to become a teacher," Audrey recalled.

After three years as the JCC's lead 4-year-old teacher at the Boonshoft CJCE, the Jewish Federation asked Audrey to interview for the JCC's early

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JCC Early Childhood Director Audrey MacKenzie with preschooler Einav Salman at the Boonshoft CJCE in 2005.

childhood director position.

The JCC operates under the auspices of the Federation.

"Her passion for her role at the JCC in 2021 was just the same as when I first met her," said JCC Senior Director Marc Jacob, who was the JCC's program director in 2005 and its director from 2006 to 2008. He returned to Dayton's JCC two years ago.

"As she was retiring last fall, I asked what she loved about her job. She looked at me, smiled, and said there was only one reason she stayed for so many years: the children," Marc remembered. "She knew every

one of them and their families.

She loved to see them learn and grow. She took great pleasure when former students returned to visit her or when she saw them at community events.

"We'll continue to provide the excellent early childhood experience she gave to all as we honor all she achieved in her time with us."

Former JCC preschool teacher Danna Kaplan recalled Audrey as "a force to be reckoned with and the backbone of the school. She ruled with her heart. Anyone who truly knew her knew that."

— Marshall Weiss

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DAYTON

Beth Abraham Sisterhood Women of Valor luncheon honors spiritual leaders

For this year's Women of Valor luncheon, Beth Abraham Synagogue Sisterhood will celebrate women who provide spiritual leadership to local Jewish congregations and make unique contributions across the Jewish and general community.

The honorees are Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz, Temple Israel; Rabbi Judy Chessin, Temple Beth Or; Courtney Cummings, Temple Israel; Cantor Andrea Raizen, Beth Abraham Synagogue; Mary ‘Mahira’ Rogers, Temple Beth Or; and Rabbi Tina Sobo, Temple Israel.

The annual fundraiser will be held at 11:30 a.m., Wednesday, May 10 at Beth Abraham Synagogue, 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood.

A portion of the proceeds will be given to organizations that support Jewish women in spiritual roles. Participants are asked to bring donations of rain ponchos and umbrellas for Montgomery County's Women in Reentry Initiative.

RSVP by May 1 to Beth Abraham Synagogue, at 937-293-9520.

After 12 successful years, Hillel Academy Jewish day school co-principals to retire When Hillel Academy hired husband and wife Dan and Kathy Mecoli in 2011 as its co-principals in the hopes that they could turn the Jewish day school around, Dan and Kathy agreed they'd try it for three years.

Twelve years later, they've more than doubled its enrollment to about full capacity, have brought a project-based learning approach to the school, and successfully integrated Judaics across the secular curriculum.

At the end of March, they announced they'll retire at the end of this school year.

"When we accepted the leadership

Hillel anniversary celebration, part two

Part two of Hillel Academy's 60th anniversary celebration will be held virtually, at 4 p.m., Sunday, May 7 featuring Broadway News Executive Editor Ruthie Fierberg and Grammy-nominated performer Alexandra Silber discussing Jewish identity in the arts. The event will also honor Sandy Sloane-Brenner for her years of service to Hillel. Admission is free, donations are accepted.

Register at jewishdayton.org/events.

of Hillel Academy, we could not have imagined how sweet and rewarding our time here would become," Dan and Kathy wrote in a letter to the school community. "Working at Hillel has been one of the most rewarding experiences of our careers. We've had the privilege of watching our students grow and thrive, and are proud of all that we have accomplished together with you. That shared commitment to academic excellence, Jewish values, and social responsibility produced beautiful threads woven deeply into the fabric of our work with children. We are confident that those threads will continue to intertwine — strengthening and sustaining Hillel Academy for generations to come."

Hillel President Andy Schwartz said the Mecolis provided the school with "outstanding academic leadership that has fostered individual growth in an atmosphere of Jewish values."

He also credited them with empowering older students to guide and teach younger students in prayer and academic subjects, "learning leadership skills that they take with them on their next educational paths."

Schwartz also announced that while

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the day school conducts a national search for a new head of school, parttime Hillel teacher Anna Smith will serve as interim head of school for the 2023-24 academic year.

Smith received her doctorate in educational leadership from Northeastern University and a graduate certificate in Jewish education leadership from Hebrew College. She has taught at Hillel since 2019.

Schwartz said that Hillel will soon have details about an event to honor the Mecolis.

— Marshall Weiss

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

DAYTON

Dayton Metro Library hosts Americans and the Holocaust exhibit

The traveling version of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Americans and the Holocaust exhibition will be on display at the Dayton Metro Library Main Library from May 18 to June 21. Dayton Metro Library is one of 50 academic and public libraries selected to host the exhibit for its initial tour.

What did Americans know and what more could have been done are the overarching questions explored in the exhibit, which opened at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 to mark the museum’s 25th anniversary.

Museum staff and curators collaborated with Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein for their 2022 PBS documentary, The U.S. and the Holocaust.

In conjunction with the exhibit, Dayton-area Holocaust survivor Ira Segalewitz will share his story at 2 p.m., Sunday, May 21 in the Main Library's Eichelberger Forum and Atrium. Volunteer docents will lead 25-minute guided tours of Americans and the Holocaust at 1 p.m. on Thursdays, May 18 and 25, with drop-in tours available on Saturday, May 20 from 1 to 2 p.m. and 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Registration is requested for all tours and programs.

In June, Dayton Metro Library will host four programs at the Main Library connected to the exhibit, including a panel discussion about immigration, part of a conference for Holocaust educators, a JCC Film Fest screening, and a talk about local history connected to Americans and the Holocaust.

The Main Library is located at 215 E. Third St. For more information and to register for these events, go to daytonmetrolibrary.org.

Chabad 30th anniversary gala honors children of Mangels and Simons

Devorah and Rabbi Nochum Mangel's children (L to R): Schneur, Rikki, Mendel, Sara, Chaya, and Lazer.

Chabad of Greater Dayton's 30th anniversary gala will honor the children of its founders and directors, Devorah and Rabbi Nochum Mangel; and the children of Chabad's longtime youth and program directors, Rochel and Rabbi Levi Simon.

The dinner will be held at 6 p.m., Sunday, June 4 at Chabad, 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood.

The Mangels arrived in Dayton as shluchim (emissaries) of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in the summer of 1993. Through programming and wor-

Rochel and Rabbi Levi Simon's children (L to R): Shmuel, Chaya, Moshe, Yoel, Yisroel, and Menachem.

ship services, the Chasidic Jewish outreach and educational organization aims to "foster and bolster Jewish knowledge and identity, thereby ensuring Jewish continuity."

The Simons came to Dayton in 2004. Rochel Simon also provides Judaic education at the JCC Early Childhood program. Levi Simon is also the director of Judaics at Hillel Academy Jewish day school.

The cost to attend the gala is $100. RSVP at chabaddayton.com or 937-643-0770.

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THE REGION

Mom deserves the best on her special day.

Jewish artifact of late Daytonian's youth restored by Holocaust & Humanity Center

Survivor's little prayer shawl to be exhibited as part of Cincinnati museum's permanent collection

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Above: David Hochstein's tallit katan from his teenage years, now restored for the permanent collection of the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center in Cincinnati.

Right: Hochstein at age 19 in London, 1944.

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PAGE 8

The day 15-year-old David Hochstein boarded a train fleeing from Nazi Germany in 1939, his father's last words to him were, "Never forget that you are a Jew." He never saw his parents again. Hochstein honored his father's words, continuing to wear his tallit katan (little prayer shawl) on that Kindertransport rescue mission to London, and during the six years he lived there.

His tallit katan — which has been restored by the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center at Union Terminal in Cincinnati — is now part of its permanent collection. It formally goes on exhibit there beginning Sunday, May 7.

At 11 a.m. that day, Cheryl Hecht, daughter of the late David Hochstein, will share her father's story in the Reakirt Auditorium at Union Terminal.

According to Curator Cori Silbernagel, the center raised the funds to preserve the tallit katan on Giving Tuesday in 2021 because it was in poor condition and couldn't be shared with a wide audience.

"The tallit katan has undergone conservation treatment that stabilized the fragile fabric," Silbernagel explained. "The tallit katan can be displayed for the very first time."

In traditional Judaism, boys from the age of 3 and men wear the tallit katan over or under their garments as a reminder of God, and to follow the mitzvot (commandments).

Kindertransport brought 10,000 Jewish children to live with families in England. Hochstein learned the fur trade as a teenager there; relatives in London secured him a six-year apprenticeship with the London Fur Company.

From 1950 to 1988, Hochstein operated a fur business in Dayton and then in Oakwood. He died in 2018.

— Marshall Weiss

BMB

Does your son or daughter graduate high school this year?

The Observer is happy to offer you a FREE announcement, including a photo, in our June graduation issue.

To receive a form for this free announcement, contact Marshall Weiss at mweiss@jfgd.net.

Forms received after May 9 will be held for the July issue of The Observer.

JWV to place flags at graves for Memorial Day

Jewish War Veterans Post 587 invites volunteers to help place American flags at the graves of Jewish veterans in advance of Memorial Day. JWV will place flags at Beth Jacob Cemetery at 10 a.m., Friday, May 19, and at the Temple Beth Or section of David’s Cemetery, Beth Abraham Cemetery, and Temple Israel’s Riverview Cemetery at 10 a.m., Sunday, May 21.

Other veteran and civic groups will place flags at other cemeteries. JWV places a metal flag holder beside each Jewish veteran’s grave. The holders help JWV to quickly find veterans’ graves.

To have a flag holder placed at the grave of a Jewish veteran in time for Memorial Day, call Post Commander Steve Markman at 937-886-9566.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

THE REGION

ADL report: 3,697 antisemitic incidents in 2022, another all-time high Ohio numbers increase 22% to 61 reported incidents last year; 36% increase nationally

By Courtney Byrnes Cleveland Jewish News The Anti-Defamation League’s annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents showed reported antisemitic incidents had reached an all-time high across the United States in 2022, including large increases in Ohio.

The ADL began tracking incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism against Jews across the country in 1979. It recorded a high of 3,697 incidents in 2022 – an increase of 36% from 2021, Kelly Fishman, education director and interim regional director at the ADL Cleveland office said.

The ADL Cleveland office oversees Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania.

“In the region that we cover, Ohio saw some of the largest increases in the region,” Fishman said. “And so, I think it’s

alarming – that rise of antisemitic incidents. It really needs to serve as a wake-up call to people that growing antisemitism is signaling an increase in bigotry overall. It really does tear at the fabric and threaten the security of our communities.”

Similar to the national data, the region saw a 37% increase with 107 incidents reported in 2022, compared to 78 in 2021.

In Ohio, there were 61 antisemitic incidents reported, representing a 22% increase from the 50 reported in the previous year.

A further breakdown into the types of reported incidents reveals Ohio saw harassment increase by 16% and vandalism by 80%, while across the U.S. there was a 26% increase in antisemitic assaults, a 29% increase in harassment and a 51% increase in vandalism. “(Ohio) really unfortunately surpassed the national percentage in vandalism,” Fishman said.

While there were 111 antisemitic assaults across the United

paint on various signs and the States in 2022, she said there pool deck of the Shaw Jewish were no assaults reported to Community Center in Akthe ADL for the region overron. Also, graffiti consisting seen by ADL Cleveland. of a Celtic Cross and “1488” A news release of the audit symbols adopted by neo-Nazis relayed several of the antisemitic incidents in Ohio in 2022. appeared in Columbus, the One such incident involved ha- release stated.

The ADL report rassment at a Cleveshowed incidents land synagogue that of White supremareceived a message cist propaganda via an online contact distribution and form with violent events were also antisemitic threats at an all-time high, and support of with 6,751 incidents Nazism. across the country – Another incident an increase of 38% involved a private from last year. security guard for a “We always say Jewish school in Co- ADL Interim Regional lumbus who made Director Kelly Fishman that antisemitism is that canary in the threats on social media about shooting people at coal mine,” Fishman said. “So, then when we see the rise in the school. antisemitism, we’re also seeing Additionally, an individual that rise in White supremacist in Kent received an anonypropaganda. And so, I think mous text that read “Jewish that those two things really go Trash” and was followed by a hand-in-hand.” swastika.

She added there has been Incidents of vandalism an increase in participation in included three people breakgroups like White Lives Matter ing windows, setting off fire and Goyim Defense League extinguishers and using spray

over the last couple of years, which has an impact on the number of reported antisemitic incidents.

Right-wing extremist and White supremacist groups were behind 945 incidents nationally – nearly twice as many as in 2021.

There were 26 such incidents in the ADL Cleveland region, according to the news release.

The data gathered from the annual audit allows the ADL to track extremist propaganda and incidents in order to connect with those who are impacted, provide education to others and promote allyship, Fishman said.

“I’ve said to students before, sometimes it’s really hard when you’re the first one to stand up,” said Fishman, who has served as the ADL's education director since June.

“It’s scary because you’re afraid that you will be a target, but I think that when one of us stands up, other people then feel empowered to stand up beside them, and that’s so important."

Israel is celebrating 75 years.

Magen David Adom has been there for all of them.

Magen David Adom has been saving lives since 1930, some 18 years before Israel became a state. We take immense pride in being Israel’s national emergency medical service and in supplying the blood and medical care for the soldiers who have ensured Israel’s existence. Join us in celebrating Israel’s 75th year of independence on Yom HaAtzma’ut.

Support Magen David Adom by donating today at afmda.org/give. Or for further information about giving opportunities, contact 847-509-9802 or dcohen@afmda.org.

afmda.org/give

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

PAGE 9

THE WORLD

Mayhem at Jewish Federations conference in Tel Aviv as protesters, panelists fight over judiciary & immigration

Ben Sales

‘The cemetery is where I feel tied to my family.’

W

— Erv Pavlofsky

ith generations of his family buried at Beth Jacob’s cemetery, Erv Pavlofsky feels a strong connection to the place that holds his family’s history. “It’s more than just my parents.

I look around and see my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. I’m never sad when I’m there.

It’s a very respectful place.”

After a recent visit to the cemetery, Erv noted that being surrounded by multiple generations of relatives is a reminder of how he will always be connected to Dayton. “Even though I’m no longer living in Dayton, it’s always important that I take the time to visit the cemetery. As I’ve gotten older, it’s taken on a more significant meaning in my life. It’s my connection to where I’m from.This is where my family is.”

Erv contributed to the Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Dayton campaign to secure an everlasting future for the generations that came before him.

“I can’t expect anyone else to care for my family.

It’s my responsibility. I look around at all the family names and I’m filled with good memories.

It’s simply comforting to be with them.”

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

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

daytonjewishcemeteries.org 525 Versailles Drive • Centerville, OH 45459 PAGE 10

By Ben Sales, JTA TEL AVIV — A panel at a major American Jewish conference here descended into pandemonium as protesters in the audience shouted down a leading far-right politician.

Panelists also sniped at each other over the government’s controversial attempt to overhaul Israel’s judiciary and its threat to tighten immigration rules.

Security personnel forcibly ejected multiple protesters from the event, which took an unplanned five-minute break to calm the tensions in the room. It was the first reprimand of protesters at the conference whose organizers had made clear they supported any that did not interfere with the proceed- A panel featuring Simcha Rothman, an Israeli lawmaker and architect of the divisive judicial reforms proposed by Israel's right-wing government, ings. descended into chaos April 24 at JFNA's conference in Tel Aviv.

“We wanted very much to include anyone out his remarks. Rothman was the most prominent who wanted to be here, to learn and to be part of the advocate for the judicial overhaul to speak at the conversation. It’s unfortunate it was disrupted so we General Assembly, a conference in Tel Aviv organized couldn’t engage in the kind of learning we had hoped by the Jewish Federations of North America. Prime for,” Jewish Federations of North America Board Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to speak Chair Julie Platt said after the interrupted panel. “It at the conference’s opening on April 23 but backed out was more than we expected.” hours earlier in the face of protests.

The drama at the event surrounded Simcha RothThe events of April 24 came about 12 hours after man, an Orthodox lawmaker who is one of the hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside the architects of and a vocal advocate for the governGeneral Assembly’s opening event. Inside the conferment’s proposal to sap power from the Supreme ence kickoff, addressing the protesters, Platt said, “We Court. Protests against him on April 24 began before see you, we hear you and we are inspired by your love his speaking engagement and followed him through-

The Dayton Jewish Observer New & Renewing Voluntary Subscribers, March 9-April 11 New Guardian Angels In memory of Dorothy Cherny Shane by Stanley J. Cherny Renewing Guardian Angels Marvin & Susan Mason New Angels Scot & Linda Denmark Barbara Sanderow Renewing Angels Mrs. Jack Goldberg Debby & Bob Goldenberg Dr. & Mrs. Stephen Harlan Rachel Jacobs Cantor & Mrs. Jerome Kopmar Edye Leuin Laurie & Eddie Leventhal Irvin & Gayle Moscowitz Double Chai Gary & Andrea Abrams Jack & Maryann Bernstein Neil Friedman Ralph E. & Sylvia S. Heyman Phyllis & Morton Levine The Levy Family Franklin & Cheryl Lewis Marnie Prigozen Lowden Cantor Andrea Raizen Dr. Judith Ribak Annie & Craig Self Susan & Alan Witte (Fitterman) Subscribers Janet & Barry Block Kelly Carpe Judy Cohen Thomas Yosef Diviak Shirley Gotlieb Frankowitz

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To make your Voluntary Subscription, go to daytonjewishobserver.org THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

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HARPER LEE’S TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD AARON SORKIN BARTLETT SHER A new play by

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that as we see are very tense,” Rothman of Israel.” said, referring to the Supreme Court.

Rothman opted to come, and met “Not the democratic body politic of the opposition in the conference’s halls State of Israel, God forbid.” almost immediately. While sitting with Plesner responded by saying, “You’re a reporter in he gathering’s breakfast misrepresenting what I said. Every dearea, a small gaggle of protesters armocracy has an independent court that rived at his table and started chanting protects rights.” “shame” in Hebrew. One protester Rothman responded, “They lied to offered Rothman a bracelet bearing the you, they lied to the public in the U.S., word “democracy,” which has become the anti-government protests’ one-word they lied to the public in Israel.”

The panel’s stated topic, the Law of slogan, and another yelled, “Rothman, Return, also led to sharp disagreement. go to hell.”

Rothman is in favor of making the law The protests intensified at the mornmore restrictive by canceling the proviing panel, which centered on proposals to change Israel’s Law of Return afford- sion allowing the grandchild of a Jew to gain citizenship. ing automatic citizenship to Jews, their The clause has allowed for a sigchildren and grandchildren. nificant proportion of Israel’s Russian Every time Rothman spoke, a group speakers to immigrate. of protesters standing in a kind of Rothman said the idea of canceling informal ring around the room shouted the clause “is not new, it’s not (origihim down with chants of “shame” and nally) from this government, it’s to deal “liar,” in both Hebrew and English. with the problem that arose…in the Protesters on one side of the room held 90s,” when large numbers of Jews imIsraeli flags — another mainstay of the migrated from the former Soviet Union. street protests — as well as an LGBTQ Because he said the change would rainbow pride flag.

Multiple protesters were dragged out mostly affect immigrants from Eastern Europe, he suggested it shouldn’t be as of the event by security — Ben Sales concerning to American at least one of whom came Jews and added, “Sadly, back in and continued prosome people are trying to testing. One yelled, “Rothmake this issue a split beman is destroying Israel, tween American Jewry and destroying our future! My Israeli Jewry in an unjustikids! My kids!” fied way. We need to have Rothman repeatedly had this conversation and find to pause his remarks and a solution.” shot back at the protesters Rif responded by acthroughout his comments. cusing Rothman of telling “What we see here is exRussian-speaking Israelis, actly the problem we need ”You’re here by mistake.” to address, a person that She called on Israel to ease shouts ‘democracy’ while immigration for Jews from trying to shut up other Russia and Belarus. people,” Rothman said In an explicit allusion after a protester shouted, to last century’s American “You’re an enemy of the Jewish people!” Rothman A security guard removes a Jewish activism on behalf of Soviet Jewry, which later said, “Some people protester at JFNA's conferemployed the slogan “Let are looking for consensus ence in Tel Aviv, April 24. my people go,” she branonly when they’re in the dished a sign onstage reading “Let my opposition.” people in.”

The shouting was not limited to Both Rif and Plesner drew cheers protesters in the audience. Rothman’s from the audience when they spoke. co-panelists were Yohanan Plesner, the “When you change the law of Return, president of the Israel Democracy Institute think tank, and Alex Rif, founder of you close the door for them forever for the Jewish people,” she said of Rusthe One Million Lobby, which advosian speakers already living in Israel. cates for Russian-speaking Israelis.

Plesner objected in strong terms both to “You’re telling them, ‘We don’t want you here.’ Now, they’re living here for Rothman’s views on the Law of Return 30 years feeling second-class.” and to the judicial overhaul.

Following particularly intense “The government came in with an protests and onstage argument, Jewish agenda to fundamentally alter the Federations personnel called for a fivefragile arrangements that existed for 75 minute break. Protests against Rothman years,” he said. “Somehow this balance continued following the break, though was kept because the Supreme Court played a balancing role, and the Knesset the panel’s discussion continued. After the break, Plesner offered an olive and government respected that role.” branch of sorts to Rothman.

Rothman at one point suggested that “I want to say, to Simcha Rothman’s Plesner join the protests and criticized credit, that he is a staunch ideologue. him personally.

I disagree, almost, with everything he “The person that is the head of the says, but he’s a staunch ideologue,” PleIsraeli Democratic Institution basically sner said. “Before the elections he said praises the idea that an undemocratic exactly what he’s going to promote. We organization in Israel, powered in Issat together, and he said so.” rael, unelected…will make a decision

2023-2024 Season GET YOUR SEASON TICKETS NOW AT DAYTONLIVE.ORG BROADWAY SERIES SEASON TICKETS START AT $174

PAGE 11

Temple Beth Or

congratulates all of our

“Smarties”

THE WORLD

Tensions at Memorial Day ceremonies in Israel as Netanyahu urges unity Erik Marmor/Flash90

in the

Class of 2023 We honor our learners, thank our teachers, our Makor Committee, and celebrate our graduates.

A man holds an Israeli flag with signatures from the Israeli Declaration of Independence during a silent protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a state memorial ceremony for victims of terror, in Mount Herzl military cemetery, Jerusalem, April 25.

Teachers

Scott Beckerman Deb Char Rabbi Judy Chessin Jude Cohen Rachel Dillon Alicia Ostrow Renee Perry Mary Rogers Esther Weiss Evan Weiss Jay Weiss Sarah White

Makor Committee Stephanie Kirtland Carrie Siegel Shara Taylor Summer Pachman

Temple Beth Or 5275 Marshall Road Dayton, Ohio 45429 www.templebethor.com 937-435-3400

Today...and for Generations PAGE 12

By Ben Sales, JTA TEL AVIV — In an unusual politicization of Israel’s Memorial Day on April 25, several senior Israeli government officials faced protests at ceremonies commemorating fallen soldiers.

The tensions unfolded as an Israeli was wounded in a shooting in the West Bank, and after five people were wounded in a car ramming April 24 at Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market.

The observances of the day, which is treated with solemnity and reverence in Israel, came days before the government intends to resume advancing legislation that would sap the Supreme Court of much of its power.

The proposed reforms have caused upheaval and massive street protests in Israel, and both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leaders had called for a pause on demonstrations out of respect for the day.

Despite those calls, several ministers in Netanyahu’s government faced opposition and ridicule as they appeared at official memorial events. The farright national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, addressed a ceremony in the southern city of Beersheva despite requests from bereaved families for him to refrain. Ben-Gvir was not enlisted in Israel’s mandatory military service due to his extremist activities.

Ben-Gvir ascended the stage at the event without coming into contact with the crowd, which was separated by barricades, according to the Times of Israel. Attendees shouted at him and at each other as he spoke, and engaged in scuffles after the event. One woman had

an open water bottle thrown at her.

“I apologize to the fallen that we did not succeed in defending their honor,” said Ei Ben Shem, the head of a memorial organization, according to the Israeli news site Ynet. “Minister Ben-Gvir did not act intelligently. He caused blows and a rift between bereaved families...

Never have bereaved families raised a hand against each other.”

On the evening of April 24, at a perennially controversial joint memorial service, 15,000 Israelis and Palestinians commemorated their fallen, amid rightwing protests. Palestinian participants had initially been barred by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant before the Supreme Court ruled that they must be allowed to attend.

Another minister, Gila Gamliel, was prevented from entering a Druze memorial ceremony, while other colleagues of hers were heckled at other ceremonies.

Amid the clashes, Netanyahu urged unity in his address.

“This year, more than ever, on the Memorial Day for the brave of our nation, we will remember that we are brothers: Jews, Druze, Muslims, Bedouin, Christians and Circassians,” Netanyahu said at an official state ceremony, according to the Times of Israel. “Brothers in service, brothers in arms, brothers in blood.”

In a separate speech, he called on Israelis to “deepen our hold on our homeland.”

Former Defense Minister Benny Gantz, a Netanyahu opponent, tweeted that this was his “saddest Memorial Day."

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

May 2023 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

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like never before

The JCC of Greater Dayton in partnership with Beth Abraham Synagogue, Beth Jacob Congregation, Dayton Sister Cities, Hadassah, Hillel Academy, Jewish War Veterans, Temple Beth Or, and Temple Israel.

Boonshoft CJCE 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville

This program is proudly supported by the Israel Engagement Fund: A JCC Association of North America Program Accelerator, and the Dayton Sister City Committee.

Celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Israel’s Independence THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

Sunday, May 7, 2-4 PM JCC and Klezmatics Jubano Jazz Concert Monday, May 8, 6-7 PM Klez4Kids

Wednesday, May 31, 5-6:30 PM Camp Shalom Open House

ADMISSION IS FREE! EXPERIENCE ISRAELI FOOD (AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE), INNOVATIONS, CULTURE, MUSIC, ACTIVITIES, AND FUN FOR ALL AGES!

YOM HA’ATZMAUT SUNDAY, APRIL 30 2–5PM

Thursdays, All May, 3-6 PM Open Mah Jongg

Sunday, May 21, 5-8 PM JFGD Presidents Dinner

EXPERIENCE

ISRAEL

Connect with us! Check out our events. For more information, see our calendar at jewishdayton.org.

Jewish Dayton gives back to the Dayton community by creating care bags for those in need.

The Catalyst

The Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton was chosen along with 10 other Federations from across the country to participate in a pilot called “The Catalyst: A transformational fellowship to inspire volunteerism supported by partnership between JFNA and Repair the World.” The Young Adult Division (YAD) of the Jewish Federation, in collaboration with Federation’s agencies, implemented the project to make our world a little better place. YAD adopted a new strategy “We make volunteering fun,” combining real acts of service with fun activities afterwards.

PAGE 13

May 2023 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

SUNDAY, MAY 7, FROM 2-4PM Cline Elementary School Auditorium 99 Virginia Ave., Washington Township 45458

Jubano Jazz CONCERT OPEN TO ALL KLEZMER COMPANY JAZZ ORCHESTRA

Accordionist and arranger Aaron Kula and Trumpeter/Arranger Chaim Rubinov will fly in from Florida for performances with Dayton’s own Flying Klezmerians for a mix of Latin rhythms and Klezmer melodies.

$10 ADULT $5 CHILD (15 & UNDER)

REGISTER AT JEWISHDAYTON.ORG.

JUNE 5 – JULY 28 Camp Shalom is planning a summer full of excitement!

MONDAY, MAY 8 6-7PM The Flying Klezmerians and the Klezmer Company Jazz Orchestra, with narrator Marshall Weiss, present Klez4Kids.

Based on the PJ Library children’s book Mendel’s Accordion, come and enjoy the music and dance with the whole family!

Register at jewishdayton.org/events.

Klez4

Kids

WRIGHT MEMORIAL LIBRARY | 1776 FAR HILLS AVE., OAKWOOD

We are offering a variety of specialty camps including tennis, golf, magic, art and theatre. We have field trips planned to fun destinations throughout the Miami Valley.

SPOTS ARE FILLING UP QUICKLY. REGISTER YOUR CAMPER TODAY!

And we’ll celebrate Israel’s 75th birthday!

See jewishdayton.org for more information.

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

Do you know someone 16 or older who is looking for a meaningful, challenging and FUN summer work experience?

CAMP SHALOM IS HIRING SUMMER STAFF! Interested candidates should contact Meryl Hattenbach at mhattenbach@jfgd.net or 937-401-1550 for instructions on how to apply.

PAGE 14

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

May 2023 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

WOMENS SEDER On behalf of the JCC Women’s Seder Committee, we thank everyone in attendance for making our community event such a special evening!

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

PAGE 15

May 2023 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

Legacies, Tributes, & Memorials JCC

FEDERATION LINDA RUCHMAN MEMORIAL FUND

HOLOCAUST PROGRAMMING FUND

In Memory of Helen Ross Marshall and Judy Ruchman In Honor of Ralph E. Heyman’s Special Birthday Marshall Ruchman In Memory of Beverly Kantor In Memory of Susan Jacobs-Davis Leslie Duberstein Glenn and Family

In Memory of Rick Fishman Cathy Gardner David and Susan Joffe

CANTOR DJCC FUND

In Memory of Susan Jacobs-Davis Judy Lipton

JOE BETTMAN MEMORIAL TZADIK AWARD

In Memory of Helen Ross In Memory of Richard Potasky In Memory of Jean Walther Todd and Jean Bettman In Honor of Susan Gruenberg’s Award Elaine Bettman Todd and Jean Bettman

THURSDAYS, 3-6PM

OPEN MAH JONGG Feel free to bring your own refreshments. Everyone is welcome! No charge.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

OPINION

Experiments in Jewish sovereignty have self-destructed after 75 years. Can Israel defy history again?

By Mijal Bitton and Masua Sagiv We now mark Yom Ha'atzmaut, our beloved Israel’s 75th birthday — the day on the Hebrew calendar when David Ben-Gurion proclaimed “the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate” by establishing a Jewish state in the land of Israel.

Together with countless Jews around the world, we express our gratitude to be alive at this moment in history when the Jewish people have sovereignty and a nation to call their own.

But on this anniversary, Yom Ha'atzmaut’s special prayers and festive afternoon barbecues fail to capture the fraught feelings many of us are experiencing.

Jews across the globe in all our different peculiarities and particularities — from all political orientations, religious and secular, progressive and conservative, for and against the judicial overhaul being proposed by the current government — are reeling.

The past few months of terrible turmoil in Israel surrounding the judicial overhaul proposal have shown us how fragile our singular and precious Jewish state is. While Israel’s history is replete with instances when external forces threatened its people, this moment is unique in revealing internal threats to its democracy and social cohesion. We have seen toxic hatred rising among Israeli Jews, with fears of a civil war at an all-time high.

How, then, are we supposed to celebrate Israel on its 75th birthday?

The answer to this question lies at the heart of Jewish history and reveals that now is the moment for a new Zionist revolution led by both Israeli and Diaspora Jews.

Zionism was never just about establishing a Jewish state. It was about defying Jewish history. In 1948, when Ben-Gurion and his fellow Zionist leaders declared Israeli independence, it was nothing less than a radical assault on diasporic Jewish history. It defied the thousands of years of Jews being a minority in other countries, subject to the whims and caprice of other rulers. It defied the image of the weak and defenseless Jew. It even defied Jewish tradition itself, which for centuries was understood by many of its adherents to demand passivity by Jews as they waited for divine deliverance.

For two millennia, Jewish existence was one of vulnerability and victimhood — most often either hiding who we are or suffering for it. The Zionism of 1948 defied diasporic Jewish history by giving Jews power, self-determination, and sovereignty to respond to external threats and establish a Jewish state.

Understandably, most of the work of early Zionism was focused on mere survival — establishing a state, providing safe refuge to the millions of Jews fleeing inhospitable lands, and contending with enemy countries sworn to destroy the new nation.

It succeeded beyond any of the wildest imaginations of its founders. The first 75 years of Israel, in which it has become a powerful and thriving state, are a testament to the success of Zionism in defying diasporic Jewish history.

But the next 75 years of Zionism present and impose on us a different task: To be Zionists today means we must defy a different chapter of Jewish history — one that might be called sovereign Jewish

Related Text of Israel's Declaration of Independence...Page 27

So, what do you think?

Photo by Zoltan Kluger/GPO via Getty Images

David Ben-Gurion, who would become Israel's first prime minister, reads the Declaration of Independence, May 14, 1948 at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, during the ceremony founding the State of Israel.

history.

Historians and educators have pointed out a critically important pattern in the history of Jewish selfrule. There are two pre-modern eras in which the Jewish nation enjoyed sovereignty in the land of Israel: at the end of the 11th century B.C.E. with the Davidic Kingdom and the first Temple in Jerusalem, and in 140 B.C.E. when the Hasmonean dynasty reestablished Jewish independence in Judea.

But as each approached their 75th year of existence, each started to disintegrate because of internal strife and infighting. The Davidic reign over a united Israel effectively ended when it was split into the two competing kingdoms of Judea and Israel. The Hasmonean kingdom began to fall apart due to infighting between the sons of Alexander and Shlomtzion, the rulers of Judea in the first century BCE. Sovereign Jewish history tells us that at around the 75th year, experiments in Jewish self-determination faced the most dangerous threat of all: self-destruction. On its 75th birthday, Israel and its supporters face the internal tensions of sovereignty: What does it mean for Israel to be both a Jewish and democratic state and a home to all its citizens? How can Israel be both at home in the Middle East while modeled on Western democracies? How should its leaders balance majority Jewish culture with minority rights?

The concerns of the old Zionism certainly still exist: how to pursue peace even as Jewish vulnerability and safety continue to be threatened. But they take on a new character in this day and age, forcing us to ask

how we can manage and embrace conflicting visions of Jewishness and Israeliness while nurturing social solidarity and cooperation across deep and painful divides.

This Yom Ha'atzmaut comes at a moment of rupture. But the current crisis in Israel represents an opportunity – a moment for our generation to ensure this rupture defies the pattern of sovereign Jewish history.

The generations before us proved that we can rewrite diasporic history, turning a tale of vulnerability and weakness into one of strength and power.

Our generation and those that follow must likewise defy sovereign Jewish history and prove that we can protect our Jewish state from the internal threats it faces. Our generation’s task is to overcome our divisions and not let fraternal hatred destroy our shared home.

On this 75th birthday, then, let us learn from our past and look forward toward a new future. Let us continue to celebrate the incredible success by writing a new chapter in the magnificent story of Israel and Zionism.

Mijal Bitton is the rosh kehillah of the Downtown Minyan in New York, scholar in residence at the Shalom Hartman Institute, and a sociologist of American Jews.

Masua Sagiv is the Koret Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish Law and Israel Studies at UC Berkeley School of Law, scholar in residence for the Shalom Hartman Institute, and a scholar of Israeli law and society. Distributed by JTA.

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.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

PAGE 17

MAZEL TOV!

Chava Dorothy Gilbert will be called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah at Temple Beth Or on May 27. Chava is the daughter of Dr. Heath Gilbert and Rachel Haug Gilbert, big sister to Zeke and Livy, younger sister of Avi, and granddaughter of Sue and Ron Nelson and Gary Haug, as well as Vera Warner, Shirlee and Ron Gilbert, all three of blessed memory. After completing her primary school education at Hillel Academy, Chava is now in seventh grade at Watts Middle School in Centerville. Her hobbies include performing in the JCC Children's Theatre productions, baking and cooking, entertaining, and all things sports. In fact, she will be competing in the Maccabi Games in Ft. Lauderdale this summer playing basketball. We are so proud of Chava!

Those at Temple Israel's Friday night Shabbat service on March 31 heard two classically-trained vocalists on the bima.

Dayton Opera's Tenor Artist-In-Residence Carl Rosenthal joined Temple Israel Music Director Courtney Cummings. Carl opened the service with Hinei Mah Tov, Lecha Dodi, and Shalom Aleichem. He also presented a "musical sermon" with three Yiddish songs: Rozhinkes mit Mandlen, Oyfn Pripetshik, and Tumbalalaika. Carl and Courtney concluded services with an Adon Olam duet. Courtney said Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Artistic Director Neal Gittleman and Dayton Opera Artistic Director Kathleen Clawson connected Carl to Temple Israel. "Other artists-inresidence with the Dayton Opera this year have visited churches during their tenure here, and they both thought it would be great if Carl could join us at temple," Courtney said.

Linda Kahn, CEO of Ohlmann Group marketing and advertising agency, has announced the donation of its office building at 1605 N. Main St. to Omega Community Development Corporation.

"We care deeply about the Northwest Dayton neighborhood, which Ohlmann Group has called home for 56 years," Linda noted. She added that her agency has evolved to a hybrid working environment. Ohlmann Group has relocated to the 130 Building on West Second

‘Within

our hearts, the Jewish soul sings.’

Carl Rosenthal and Courtney Cummings on the bima at Temple Israel

Piqua Mayor Cindy Pearson with Temple Anshe Emeth President Steve Shuchat

Street in Downtown Dayton.

16 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of its building on Caldwell Street, Piqua Mayor Cindy Pearson presented the temple's president, Steve Shuchat, with a proclamation in honor of the milestone. Temple Anshe Emeth was established in Piqua in 1858.

Ryan T. Shannon graduates cum laude with a bachelor of science in education in middle childhood education from Wright State University. After 10 incredible years working in the banking industry, Ryan will pursue his ultimate dream of teaching middlelevel students. Ryan will hold licensure to teach grades four to nine in social studies and language arts. This journey was possible with the love and support of friends and family, especially his wife, Melanie, and sons, Philip and Myles.

At Temple Anshe Emeth's community open house April

Ryan T. Shannon

After 43 years in the jewelry business, Larry Jaffe now readies to close Jaffe Jewelers in Oakwood. Larry started in his family business, Mayors Jewelers, and was in partnership with Robert Gross (Jaffe & Gross) from 1979 until Robert's passing in 2005.

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

Now accepting K-6 applications for the 2023-2024 school year.

• Exemplary secular & Judaic education • Art & science professional residencies • Project-based learning & critical thinking • Hebrew language immersion via Ulpan Or & Tal-Am curricula

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daytonhillel.org • 937.277.8966 • dkmecoli@daytonhillel.org PAGE 18

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

CALENDAR Classes

Beth Abraham Classes: Mon., May 8, 15 22, 29, noon: Lifelong Learning w. Rabbi Glazer. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. 937-293-9520.

Beth Jacob Classes: Sundays, 2 p.m.: Conversion Class on Zoom w. Rabbi Agar.

Tuesdays, 7 p.m.: Torah Tuesdays on Zoom w. Rabbi Agar.

Thursdays, 7 p.m.: Thursdays of Thought on Zoom w. Rabbi Agar. 7020 N. Main St., Harrison Twp. bethjacob1@aol.com.

937-274-2149.

Chabad Classes: Wednesdays, 7 p.m.: Talmud Class in person. Thursdays, noon: Lunch & Learn on Zoom.

Fridays, 9:30 a.m.: Women’s Class in person. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. Register at chabaddayton.com. 937-6430770.

Hybrid Virtual Torah Study on Zoom. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. tidayton.org. 937-4960050.

Babka Bake: Tues., May 23, 6 p.m. $36. Adults only. RSVP to dlmdayton@gmail.com. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood.

Family

Adults

JCC Camp Shalom Parent Orientation: Tues., May 16, 6:30 p.m. Via Zoom w. Meryl Hattenbach. Register at jewishdayton.org/events or 937-6101555.

Temple Israel Classes: Wed., May 3, 17, 24, 31, 10 a.m.: Social Justice Commentary w.

Rabbi Bodney-Halasz at home of Cathy Lieberman. Saturdays, 9:15 a.m.: Virtual Torah Study. Sat., May 13, 9:15 a.m.

Exhibit

JCC Camp Shalom Open House: Wed., May 31, 5 p.m. At Temple Beth Or, 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash., Twp. Call 937-610-1555.

Americans and the Holocaust Exhibit: May 18-June 21. Free. Dayton Metro Library, 215 E. Third St., Dayton. 937463-2665. daytonmetrolibrary. org.

Children & Teens

Shavuot

Temple Israel Prayer & Play: Fri., May 12, 5:30 p.m. Infants2nd grade. Contact Rabbi Sobo, educator@tidayton.org.

130 Riverside Dr., Dayton.

Temple Beth Or Classes: Sundays, 12:30 p.m.: Adult Hebrew. Wed., May 3, 10 a.m.: Apocryphal Study on Zoom.

Thurs., May 11, 7 p.m.: Chai Mitzvah. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 937-435-3400.

JCC Open Mah Jongg: Thursdays, 3-5 p.m. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. 937-610-1555.

Chabad CKids: Sun., May 21, 4 p.m.: Shavuot on the Lawn.

Free. Ages 5-11. Optional dinner following. RSVP to chabaddayton.com/ckids. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-6430770.

Men

Chabad Bagels, Lox & Tefillin: Sun., May 7, 9:30 a.m.

937-643-0770. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood.

Women

Chabad Women’s Circle Shavuot-Themed Dinner &

Beth Abraham Taste of Tikun Leil Shavuot: Thurs., May 25.

6 p.m.: Dairy meal (RSVP).

6:45 p.m.: Learning w. Cantor Raizen & Rabbi Glazer. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood.

937-293-9520.

Temple Israel Shavuot: Thurs, May 25, 6 p.m. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 937-4960050.

Beth Jacob Shavuot Lunch & Learn: Fri., May 26, 12:30 p.m. BBQ & dessert at the home of Anita & Rabbi Agar.

RSVP 937-274-2149.

Chabad Ten Commandments & Dairy Dinner: Fri., May 26, 5:30 p.m. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. Register at chabad-

dayton.com. 937-643-0770.

Community

Temple Beth Or Art on the Lot: Sun., Apr. 30, 11:20 a.m.

Free. Contact Ruth Schumacher, ruth.schumacher@wright. edu. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash.

Twp. 937-435-3400.

Israel @ 75 Yom Ha'atzmaut Celebration: Sun., Apr. 30, 2-5 p.m. Free admission.

Kosher Israeli food available for purchase. Entertainment

by Rami Feinstein. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. RSVP to jewishdayton. org/events or call 937-6101555.

JCC's Klezmatics Jubano Jazz Concert: Sun., May 7, 2 p.m. $10 adults, $5 children 15 & under. RSVP to jewishdayton.org. Cline Elementary, 99 Virginia Ave., Centerville.

Hillel Academy 60th Anniversary Celebration Pt. 2 Virtual Event: Sun., May 7, 4 p.m.: Free. Jewish Identity in the Arts w. Ruthie Fierberg & Alexandra Silber. Register at jewishdayton.org/events or call 937-6101555.

PJ Library Klez4Kids: Mon., May 8, 6 p.m. Free. Flying Klezmerians & Klezmer Company Jazz Orch. RSVP by May 8 to jewishdayton.org/events or 937-610-1555. Wright Memo-

rial Public Library, 1776 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood.

Chabad Lag B’Omer BBQ & Outing: Tues., May 9, 5:30 p.m. $18 adults, $7 children 5-12. RSVP to chabaddayton. com/rsvp. Hummel Airport Works Flying Field, 10491 Carlisle Pike (Rt 123), Germantown. 937-643-0770.

Beth Abraham Women of Valor Luncheon: Wed., May 10, 11:30 a.m. $72. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. RSVP by May 1, 937-293-9520.

Survivor Ira Segalewitz: in conjunction w. Americans and the Holocaust Exhibit. Sun., May 21, 2 p.m. Free. Dayton Metro Library Main, 215 E. Third St., Dayton. 937-4632665. RSVPs requested to daytonmetrolibrary.org.

Jewish Federation Presidents Dinner: Sun., May 21, 5 p.m.: $50-$100. W. Kerri Strug.

RSVP to jewishdayton.org/ events or 937-610-1555. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville.

Temple Beth Or Exploration of the Jewish Short Story: Wed., May, 24, 7 p.m. Register at templebethor.com or 937435-3400. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

PAGE 19

RELIGION

CONGREGATIONS 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 320 Caldwell St., Piqua.

Fri., May 5, 7:30 p.m. led by Jese Shell. Contact Steve Shuchat, 937-726-2116, 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., May 5, 6 p.m.

Fridays, May 12, 19, 26, 6:30 p.m.

Sat., May 13, 10:30 a.m.

130 Riverside Dr., Dayton.

937-496-0050. tidayton.org

Temple Sholom

Reform Rabbi Cary Kozberg 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.

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

PAGE 20

Weeping a ‘Tractate of Tears’ on the tablet of the heart as a (re)discovering of Torah from Passover to Feast of Weeks

By Rabbi Aubrey L. Glazer Beth Abraham Synagogue "I cry, cry, cry Cry all day I cry all night I cry all day" — Cry all day (Schmilco, 2016) "...crying before compiling a holy book as insights into Torah are rivers & first one has to make rivers of tears" — Reb Nachman of Bratzlav, Likutay Moharan #262

Perspectives Always be on the alert for Kleenex— as one of my seeker friends once told me, that's the marker of a good, and safe place for true prayer. But if we are honest, it is rare that we let our tears flow in prayer, nevermind in life—why? From the salt water at the Seder table commemorated as Passover (Pesach) to the tears spilled over the death of Rabbi Akiva’s students commemorated during the Counting of the Wheat Sheafs (Sefirat haOmer) to the Revelation at Sinai commemorated during the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), there is a river leading us back to the ocean of tears from whence we all emerged.

I trace one such river of tears in a remarkable Americana singer-songwriter from Wilco, named Jeff Tweedy who is a Jew by choice. His journey through tears to embrace Torah is one that can inspire us all.

Many recall the early sounds of Wilco’s precursor band, Uncle Tupelo, as they struggled through the challenges of gigging in the Windy City — that’s when Tweedy first met his Jewish partner, Sue Miller, when she was booking acts in music clubs in Chicago, and then in 1989, starting her own club, Lounge Ax. From those

Candle Lightings

first gigs where Uncle Tupelo ior, so there were tears being performed, Tweedy and Miller shed as felt in Jesus, Etc. (Yankee began dating in 1991, culminat- Hotel Foxtrot 2001): ing in marriage four years later. “Jesus, don't cry But Tweedy’s true colors were You can rely on me honey more at home in the bowling You can combine anything you alley of his hometown want in Belleville, Ill., where I'll be around his mother held their You were right first baby shower. One about the stars of the strangest gifts Each one is a setting they received included sun “a powder-blue leather Tall buildings shake Precious Moments Bible: Voices escape singNew Testament.” Many ing sad sad songs tears were shed that Tuned to chords paved the way to their strung down your Rabbi Aubrey L. Glazer older son, Spencer, cheeks eventually reaching bar mitzBitter melodies turning your vah age. Tweedy apparently orbit around…” sang Forever Young at Spencer’s bar mitzvah, carrying forward Then there is already an orbit Bob Dylan’s ethos of rewriting returning to God and away the Priestly Benediction from from his former connection to Num. 6: 24-26 as a common Jesus that dissolves into someblessing recited over children. thing more: More tears were shed...

“Our love is all of God's money As their next son, Sammy, Everyone is a burning sun eventually reached bar mitzvah Tall buildings shake age, this liminal moment then Voices escape singing sad sad inspired the father, Tweedy, songs to dive deeper into the wellTuned to chords strung down springs of Judaism. “When your cheeks it was Sammy’s turn to start Bitter melodies turning your Hebrew school,” Tweedy reorbit around…” counts, “and he began begging to get out of it, I offered to help Secondly, Tweedy transhim by studying with him, and forms these tears as a weeping decided I was going to convert. patriot in Ashes of American He was bar mitzvahed, and I Flags (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, had a conversion ceremony.

2001): It was more involved than I “I'm down on my hands and thought it would be on a numknees ber of levels, including a level Every time a doorbell rings that required a mohel, a storage I shake like a toothache closet, and a sharp object.”

When I hear myself sing And then even more tears were All my lies are only wishes shed...

I know I would die if I could So where do all these tears come back new” flow on this journey for Tweedy and seekers like him? Tweedy’s Thirdly, Tweedy transforms inspiration reflects this journey his tears in a deeply personal in many key lyrical moments. self-reflection through the Firstly, taking leave of his rearview mirror in Cry all day birth religion is a departure not (Schmilco, 2016): just for him but also from his “I had a hole in my heart professed allegiance to his savI had accompanied me

Lag B’Omer

Torah Portions

Shabbat, May 5: 8:17 p.m.

Shabbat, May 12: 8:23 p.m.

Shabbat, May 19: 8:30 p.m.

May 6: Emor (Lev. 21:1-24:23)

Erev Shavuot, May 25: 8:35 p.m.

May 13: Behar-Bechukotai (Lev. 25:1-27:34)

Shabbat, 2nd Eve Shavuot, May 26: 8:36 p.m.

May 20: Bamidbar (Num. 1:1-4:20)

33rd Day of Omer May 9 • 18 Iyar The 33rd day of the Omer breaks up the seven weeks of semi-mourning between Passover and Shavuot. It marks the end of a plague among Rabbi Akiva’s students and a victory of Bar-Kokhba’s soldiers over the Romans 2,000 years ago. Celebrated with picnics and sports.

It kept me holding from rolling Someone in the something like me Something like me You don't wanna be I cry, cry, cry Cry all day I cry all night I cry all day” Finally, most recently, Tweedy transforms the tears of relationships in this semiconfessional lyric leading to the possibility of self-transforming teshuva (return) in Tired of taking it out on you (Cruel Country, 2022): “Freeze my warmth away Tear the tears out of your quiet face I can't take the way I am with you Or recreate things we used to do I'm tired of taking it out on you” Tears have many emotions they carry with them, interwoven within, shedding outwards, oscillating from weeping to rejoicing. It is those tears tied to so many of our life stories that will catalyze new Torah to stream forth and renew it constantly.

And so, as we continue the journey that began upon being liberated from our personal Egypts on Passover into the encounter with Revelation of Torah at Sinai on the Feast of Weeks, perhaps that recording of that journey in the tablets of our hearts is the “tractate of tears” Reb Nachman of Bratzlav alluded to when he taught: “When some new book is written or printed, the crying that created the book ‘and my drink— musachti— I mixed with tears’ ricochets like masechet, my tractate of tears spills into your scroll...”

— Likutay Moharan #262

Shavuot

Festival of Weeks, Giving of the Torah May 26-27 • 6-7 Sivan Marks the end of the counting of the Omer, a 49-day 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 allnight study session called a tikun, originally a mystical practice, is held at some synagogues.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

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By June Hersh, The Nosher Blintzes are one of Shavuot’s most popular dishes. Long associated with Ashkenazi cooking, the light and airy hug of the blintz pancake envelopes pillowy fillings such as whipped farmer’s cheese or fruit compote.

For Florence Tabrys, a Holocaust survivor, blintzes were a lifeline to her former life near Radom, Poland. I spoke to Florence when writing my first book, Recipes Remembered, a Celebration of Survival, a compendium of stories and recipes I gathered from Holocaust survivors.

I learned that as a child, Florence and her sister were separated from their parents in 1942 and sent to work in a munitions factory.

They were eventually moved to BergenBelsen, where they remained until liberated by the British army. Florence never saw her parents again, but the memories of her childhood’s favorite foods sustained her throughout the years.

Her sweet and creamy cheese blintzes became a family tradition; she would prepare them in large batches and freeze them so they would always be at the ready.

Topping blintzes is always a game of chance.

For those who grew up in Poland, most likely it was whatever was on hand from yesterday’s breakfast or Sabbath lunch.

Hanna Wechsler, a survivor of Auschwitz, described her mother’s naleshniki as a cross between a thin crêpe and a traditional blintz.

She remembers her mother filling them with strawberry preserves, chopped nuts, and a touch of sugar, then topping them with a strawberry sauce.

Hanna described her experience in Auschwitz to me in the most poignant way. Her mother would sneak out of the barracks and bring back food that had been stolen from the camp’s kitchen to sustain Hanna.

She said, “My mother gave birth to me every day we lived in Auschwitz, because without her I would not have survived.”

As an homage to these remarkable women, I present Florence Tabrys’ creamy cheese blintzes topped with Hanna Wechsler’s strawberry sauce. Enjoy them on Shavuot and all year long.

And remember, the thread that weaves Jewish food is vital but fragile, and needs to be lovingly maintained.

Note: The strawberry sauce will keep for one to two weeks in the fridge. You can also follow the same preparation using frozen blueberries or raspberries.

For the blintz batter: 6 large eggs ½ cup warm water

½ cup whole milk 1 cup all-purpose flour For the blintz filling: 1 (4 oz.) package cream cheese, softened at room temperature 1 cup (7.5 oz.) package farmers’ cheese 1 tsp. melted butter ¾ tsp. ground cinnamon ½ cup sugar 1 egg, beaten butter for frying

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For the strawberry sauce: 1 (16 oz.) bag frozen strawberries 3 Tbsp. sugar ¼ cup water 1 tsp. cornstarch juice and grated peel of half a lemon To make the strawberry sauce, in a medium saucepan, cook the strawberries, sugar, water, and cornstarch over medium-low heat, until the berries are very soft, about 15 minutes. Puree the berries and stir in the lemon juice and grated peel. Serve hot or cold over blintzes.

Prepare the blintz batter by whisking together all the ingredients. The batter should be thinner than a pancake batter, and a golden color.

Refrigerate the batter while you prepare the filling.

For the filling, combine all the filling ingredients and gently blend until smooth.

Heat a pat of butter in an 8-inch nonstick skillet. Ladle about a quarter cup of batter into the center of the pan and quickly swirl the pan in a circular motion to evenly distribute the batter.

Fry for one minute and then flip the blintz over.

Cook for just a few seconds on the flip side and remove to a waiting paper towel.

Cover with a second paper towel to prevent the blintz from drying out. Wipe the pan clean of the residual butter, add a fresh pat, and follow the same process until you have used all the batter.

When cool to the touch, begin filling the blintzes. A large tablespoonful plopped right in the middle of the blintz should do it.

Fold the blintz by bringing the two ends to the middle, and then fold the two sides into the middle, creating an oblong little package.

Their irregular shape lets people know they are homemade, so don’t fret if they don’t look perfect. (You can freeze the prepared blintzes and fry them at a later time.)

Fry the filled blintzes. Heat several pats of butter in the same skillet and fry them for several minutes or until golden brown.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

Contact Patty Caruso at plhc69@gmail.com to advertise in The Observer.

PAGE 21

JEWISH FAMILY EDUCATION

Tiny windows

supporting those who engage revolutionary notion that child in these activities. rearing is a mitzvah, a comEndlessly valuable and mandment, a moral good. infinitely necessary, each child “Be fruitful and multiply, is an entire world, Maimonides and fill the earth,” is the first teaches. On a grand scale, evRabbi Joseph Potasnik tells commandment, the “great dren have been desired for ery one has a singular mission the extraordinary story of mitzvah,” through which family and cultural continuity, to accomplish toward comdays-old twins, one born with all the other mitzvot can be viewed as sources of identity pleting the grand purpose of a serious heart condition and performed, generation after and pride, valued for their not expected to live. As the tiny labor and economic contribugeneration, the rabbinic treatise creation and hastening the final redemption. infant’s health began to fail, a Sefer Hachinuch observes. tions to family and society, But more immediate in our nurse petitioned for putting the even cherished as blessings and The purpose of having and daily lives is the ability of evsiblings together in the same raising children is to civilize priceless treasures. ery child to reflect and express the world through the comAs social and cultural a unique pormandments conditions have become more tion of God’s and to work complex, potential parents are Children are filled Candace R. hesitating, concerned about glory, helping toward makwith deep spiritual us to grasp ing it a place mental health issues, bullying, Kwiatek where God can connection, awe, and God’s greatviolence, and rising rates of ness. The most dwell among wonder, and often drug and alcohol use. The rise pure forms creus. of individualistic culture has reveal what adults ated in God’s incubator, and the two babies Thus, this further led to children being image, children were placed side by side. When regarded as inconveniences, commandment have forgotten or are filled with they were next observed, the is understood burdens, too expensive, and do not see. deep spiritual healthy boy’s arm was around in Jewish not worth the effort. connection, his sick sister, embracing her tradition to Recent Pew Research pollawe, and wonder, and often in a hug. Soon thereafter her include not only childbearing responses indicate that 44 reveal what adults have forgotheart began to stabilize, and to- percent of non-parents under ing, but raising and caring for ten or do not see. day the twins are healthy and children, adopting and foster50 are unlikely to have any Godly deeds. When a group strong. There is unfathomable ing, mentoring and teaching, children at all. of scholars visited the rabbi of power in a child’s hug. inspiring other Jews to deepen The Torah approaches the Viedislav, he asked his 5-yearThroughout the ages, chiltheir Jewish commitment, and topic of children with the old son, Simcha Bunem, to prepare an innovative interpreLiterature to share tation of the laws of hospitality to share with the guests. After The Tower of Life: How Yaffa Eliach Rebuilt Shayna, a Novel by Miriam Ruth Black. In 1919, dinner, Simcha invited the Her Town in Stories and Photographs by Ukrainian Cossacks went on a rampage, scholars into another room of Chana Stiefel. The Polish shtetl of Eishyravaging shtetls and murdering Jews. Having the house where he had shok was a bustling place filled with the lost nearly everything, 17-year-old Shayna neatly prepared for joys of family and friends, work and play, Rifkin set out on a perilous journey across each guest a bed with and endless celebrations captured on film.

Europe with her 4-year-old nephew, her pillows and quilts.

Until the summer when the Germans infiancé and his mother, hoping to reach the “And where is vaded and erased the entire town. This richsafety of America. Set in a little-known era of the novelty in your ly illustrated and captivating story traces Jewish history, this epic tale is inspired by her interpretation?” one of the life of Yaffa Eliach who, clutching a few father’s story of strength, courage, responthe rabbis asked. “With family photographs, escaped and eventusibility, survival, and above all, family. And respect,” Simcha answered, ally became the designer of the Tower they remain true to themselves. A National “A new set of words would of Faces in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Jewish Book Award winner, this historical interest only your minds, but Museum. Highly recommended for middle novel is highly recommended as an individuin this way I offer you a chance grades and above. al read and a book club selection. to rest your bodies as well.”

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Holding hands. One summer day, two children were busily constructing an elaborate sandcastle on the beach, accented with towers, gates, bridges, and even a moat.

They had nearly completed their project when a big wave came along and plowed into it, reducing all their hard work to a heap of wet sand.

But instead of bursting into tears, they ran up the shore away from the water, laughing and holding hands, and then sat down to build another castle.

God's image. Even though only 51/2 years old, Lior was an important and vibrant member of his synagogue community.

Wearing his child-size tallit (prayer shawl), he would check on his beloved regulars sitting in their usual spots, join enthusiastically in prayer, and help open the ark. He would then walk through the entire congregation, shaking everyone’s hand and greeting them by name, starting a wave of smiles that flowed from one end of the room to the other.

“Can you imagine what his bar mitzvah is going to be like?” his mother heard someone whisper. A very special soul who personifies “in God’s image," Lior is a child with Down’s syndrome.

A listening heart.

As Shiraz knitted on a Tehran rooftop, a gust of wind blew her ball of wool down into one of her neighbor’s courtyards. When she went to retrieve it, the disheveled elderly woman there asked her to do a few chores in return.

“Of course!” Shiraz replied.

Giving Shiraz a heavy hammer, the woman told her to smash everything in the squalid kitchen. Instead, Shiraz cleaned and tidied, and put on a pot of soup.

In the overgrown garden, Shiraz was given some heavy shears and told to cut down all the plants. Instead, she trimmed and weeded and unblocked the natural spring.

The old woman instructed Shiraz to cut short her tangled silver hair, but Shiraz brushed out the tangles, braided it, and pinned it up.

The old woman smiled and returned the wool. Shiraz returned home thinking, "People don’t always know how to ask for what they need.”

Rabbi Meir said, “Each (child) is like a tiny window through which we can obtain a glimpse of godliness."

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

Arts&Culture

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

From ‘how to’ to ‘why bother?’

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

Michael Strassfeld writes new guide to being Jewish

By Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA “What the son wishes to forget the grandson wishes to remember.” That’s known as Hansen’s Law, named for the historian Marcus Lee Hansen, who observed that while the children of immigrants tend to run away from their ethnicity in order to join the mainstream, the third generation often wants to learn the “old ways” of their grandparents.

In 1973, The Jewish Catalog turned Hansen’s Law into a “do-it-yourself kit” for young Jews who wanted to practice the traditions of their grandparents but weren’t exactly sure how. Co-edited by Michael Strassfeld, Sharon Strassfeld and the late Richard Siegel, it went on to sell 300,000 copies and remains in print today.

Fifty years later, Rabbi Michael Strassfeld has written a new book that he calls a “bookend” to The Jewish Catalog. ”If the first book is a Jewish “how to,” the latest is, he says, a “why bother?”

Judaism Disrupted: A Spiritual Manifesto for the 21st Century asserts that an open society and egalitarian ethics leave most Jews skeptical of the rituals and beliefs of Jewish tradition.

In the face of this resistance, he argues that the purpose of Judaism is not obedience to Torah and its rituals for their own sake or mere “continuity,” but to “encourage and remind us to strive to live a life of compassion, loving relationships, and devotion to our ideals.”

Strassfeld, 73, grew up in an Orthodox home in Boston and got his master’s degree in Jewish studies at Brandeis University.

Coming to doubt the “faith claims” of Orthodoxy, he became a regular at nearby Havurat Shalom, an “intentional community” that pioneered the havurah movement’s liberal, hands-on approach to traditional practice.

He earned rabbinical ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College when he was 41 and went on to serve as the rabbi of Congregation Ansche Chesed on the Upper West Side and later the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, the Manhattan flagship of Reconstructionist Judaism.

“To be disrupted is to experience a break with the past and simultaneously reconnect in a new way to that past,” writes Strassfeld, who retired from the pulpit in 2015.

We spoke about why people might find Jewish ritual empty, how he thinks Jewish practices can enrich their lives,

Women of Valor Honorees

Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz, Temple Israel

Rabbi Michael Strassfeld

Rabbi Judy Chessin, Temple Beth Or

Courtney Cummings, Temple Israel

and what could be the key to unlocking the central idea of Judaism.

Let's start with the 50th anniversary of the Jewish Catalog. What connects the new book with the work you did back then on the Catalog, which was a do-it-yourself guide for Jews who were trying to reclaim the stuff they either did or didn’t learn in Hebrew school?

I see them as bookends. Basically, I keep on writing the same book over and over again. (Laughs) Except no, I’m different and the world is different. I’m always trying to make Judaism accessible to people. In the Catalog I was providing the resources on how to live a Jewish life when the resources weren’t easily accessible.

The new book is less about “how to” than “why bother?” That’s the challenge. I think a lot of people take pride in being Jewish, but it’s a small part of their identity because it doesn’t feel relevant. I want to say to people like that that Judaism is about living a life with meaning and purpose. It’s not about doing what I call the “Jewishly Jewish” things, like keeping kosher and going to synagogue. Judaism is wisdom and practices to live life with meaning and purpose. The purpose of Judaism isn’t to be a good Jew, despite all the surveys that give you 10 points for, you know, lighting Shabbat candles. It’s about being a good person.

'Judaism is about living a life with meaning and purpose.'

So that brings up your relationship to the commandments and mitzvot, the traditional acts and behaviors that an Orthodox Jew or a committed Conservative Jew feels commanded to do, from prayer to keeping kosher to observing the Sabbath and the holidays. They might argue that doing Continued on Page 24

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

Cantor Andrea Raizen, Beth Abraham

Mary ‘Mahira’ Rogers, Temple Beth Or

Rabbi Tina Sobo, Temple Israel

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Strassfeld

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PAGE 24

I think some people bristle against ritual because they find it empty. But you’re saying there’s another way to apContinued from Page 23 these things is what makes you Jewish, proach rituals which is to think of them but you’re arguing something different. as tools or instruments that can help If someone doesn’t feel bound by these you focus on core principles — you actually list 11 — which include finding obligations, why do them at all? holiness everywhere, caring for the I don’t have the faith or beliefs that underlie such an attitude (of obligation). planet, and engaging in social justice, to name a few. But that invites the critiHalacha, or Jewish law, is not in realcism, which I think was also leveled at ity law. It’s really unlike American law the Catalog, that Judaism shouldn’t be where you know that if you’re violating instrumental, because if you treat it as a it, you could be prosecuted. What I’m trying to do in the book is reframe rituals means to an end that’s self-serving and individualistic. as an awareness practice, that is, bringCertainly rituals are tools, but tools ing awareness to various aspects of our in the best sense of the word. They help lives. So it could be paying attention to us pay attention to things in our lives food, or cultivating attitudes of gratiand things in the world that need repair. tude, or generosity, or satisfaction.

And people use them not to get ahead My broad understanding of the fesin the world, but because they want to tival cycle, for example, is that you can be a somewhat better person. I talk a lot focus on those attitudes all year long, but the festivals provide a period of time these days about having a brief morning once in the year to really focus on, in the practice, and in the book I write about case of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the mezuzah. For most Jews it’s become wallpaper, but what if you take the mofor example, saying sorry and repairing ment that you leave in the morning, and relationships. there’s a transition from home to the Passover is just behind us. Probably no outside and to work perhaps, and take a moment at the doorpost to spiritually holiday asks its practitioners to do so frame your day? What are the major much stuff in preparation, from cleanprinciples that you want to keep in your ing the house of every trace of unleavmind when you know you’re gonna be ened food to hosting, in many homes, stuck in traffic or a difficult meeting? two different catered seminars on JewAnd a lot of traditional ish history. Describe rituals are instrumental. how Passover cultivates Saying a blessing before awareness, especially you eat is a gratitude of the idea of freedom, practice. which plays an important part thematically in But why do I need a your book. particular Jewish ritual The Sefat Emet (a or practice to help me 19th-century Chasidic feel gratitude or order master) says Torah is my day? Aren’t there all about one thing: other traditions I can use freedom. But there’s a to accomplish the same variety of obstacles in things? the way. There are tempAnybody who is a plutations. There’s the inner ralist, which I am, knows issues that you struggle that the Jewish way is not with, and the bad things the only way. If I grew that are out of your conup in India or Indonesia trol. The Sefat Emet says and my parents were the 613 commandments are 613 etzot, or advice, that teach us how locals I probably wouldn’t be a rabbi and writing these books. to live a life of freedom. The focus of But a partial answer to your quesPassover is trying to free yourself from tion is that Judaism is one of the oldest the chains of the things that hold you wisdom traditions in the world, and that back from being the person that you there has been a 3,000-year conversacould be, not getting caught up in mation by the Jewish people about what it teriality or envy, free from unnecessary means to live in this tradition and to live anxieties — all these things that distract in the world. And so I think there’s a lot us or keep us from being who we could of wisdom there. be.

The Passover Seder is one of the great So much in Jewish tradition says rituals of Judaism. We’re trying to do boundaries are good, and that it’s a very ambitious thing by saying, not, like, “let’s remember when our ancestors important to draw distinctions between what’s Jewish behavior and what’s not were freed from Egypt,” but rather that Jewish behavior, between the holy and we were slaves in Egypt and we went free. And at the Seder we actually ingest the mundane, and that making those that. We experience the bitterness by eat- distinctions is a value in itself. But ing maror, the bitter herb. We experience you argue strongly in an early chapter the freedom by drinking wine. We don’t that that kind of binary thinking is not want it just to be an intellectual exercise. Judaism as you see it.

Underlying the book is the notion that Unfortunately the Seder has become Rabbinic Judaism carried the Jewish peorote. But Passover is about this huge theme of freedom that is central to Juda- ple for 2,000 years or so. But we’re living in a very different context, and the binaism.

Continued on Page 26

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

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PAGE 25

OBITUARIES Shirley Mae Brook Klausner passed away on March 30 in Atlanta at the age of 97. She is survived by her three adult children: Taree Klausner of Berkeley, Calif., Richard Klausner of Bridgton, Maine, and Debra Klausner of Atlanta. She has three grandchildren: Nate Klausner, Lauren Foehl, Cydnee Jones Klausner, and three great-grandchildren: Isaac Klausner, Carter Foehl and Ethan Foehl.

She is also survived by her sister Lois Unger of Dayton, as well as eight nieces and nephews: Shelley Sherman, deceased, of Dayton, Suzie Katz of Dayton, Philip Unger of New York, Amelia Ramer of Reston, Va., William Rudner of Columbus, Sharon Dillon of West Bloomfield, Mich., Gary Klausner of Akron, Gail Weintraub of Cleveland. Shirley was married to Joseph Klausner, a physician, for 62 years. They met at Ohio State University, where Shirley graduated with a degree in occupational therapy. After graduation, the couple moved to Dayton, where they resided, raised a loving family, and had fulfilling careers. They enjoyed art, tennis, golf, bridge, the symphony, and theatre. They were members of Temple Israel and had many friends. Shirley had a variety of roles in her life. In addition to being a loving partner to Joe and mother to her three children, she was an occupational therapist, an adoption specialist, and a substitute elementary art teacher. In her 40s, she returned to college and received a master's in counseling at Wright State University. She worked at the Eastway Mental Health Clinic before opening up her private practice as a psychologist in Dayton, which she had for many years. The couple retired to Marco Island and then Naples, Fla., where they built

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a full life. Shirley lived the last 12 years at Huntcliff Summit, an Independent Living Community in Atlanta, where she enjoyed many activities, the company of friends, caring staff, and in the end, the companionship of compassionate and loving caregivers. Throughout her life she was gracious, smart, accepting, athletic, and beautiful with a fun sense of humor. She met life’s challenges with dignity and grace. Shirley Klausner was an inspiration to many and will be deeply missed. Contributions can be made in honor of Shirley’s memory to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Washington D.C.; the Jewish Family and Career Services Aviv Older Adult Services, Atlanta; or the charity of your choice.

Herman Charles Knoll, M.D. passed away peacefully at his home on April 2 at age 97.

Herman “Charlie” Knoll was born March 12, 1926 in Lodi, Ohio to parents Celia and Adolph Knoll, both European immigrants.

He served in World War II as a first lieutenant in Italy. After the army, he attended The Ohio State University, where he met his wife, Joan. The G.I. Bill and his wife enabled him to complete his undergraduate and medical degrees at Ohio State. He was inducted into AOA medical honors fraternity. Charlie came to Dayton in 1956 to complete his internal medicine residency at the Dayton VA hospital, where he served as chief resident. He started his own internal medicine practice in Dayton in 1960 and practiced through 2012. In the 1990s, his son, Aaron, and daughter, Elaine, joined him in practice. He was on staff at St. Elizabeth Hospital, Good Samaritan Hospital, and the Dayton Heart Hospital. He was active in teaching medical residents and won teaching awards. He was active in the Montgomery County Medical

Society, and served on the admissions committee of Wright State University College of Medicine.

His favorite activities were seeing patients, watching the Browns and Buckeyes football, Cleveland Indians baseball, and working in his garden. His springtime ritual was to start vegetable plants for his patients. He was an excellent physician and taught us all to be kind to others. He was a father figure to many. He is survived by his wife of 70 years, Joan; and son, Aaron Knoll, M.D.; daughter-inlaw, Karen Knoll; daughter, Elaine Gaglione, M.D.; and son-in-law, John Gaglione; grandchildren Elizabeth and Alexandra Knoll, and Claire and Sarah Gaglione, as well as nieces and nephews. The Knoll family thanks his caregivers, Douglas, Sabrina, Leticia, Reva, Ari, Renita, Dianna, Roxane and Dot. Interment was at Riverview Cemetery. Contributions may be made in his memory to Dayton MetroParks/Wegerzyn Gardens (metropark.org/donate) or the Humane Society of Greater Dayton.

Audrey L. MacKenzie, 68 of Kettering, passed away peacefully on April 5 surrounded by friends and family. Audrey was born on Oct. 16, 1954 to Sam and Rosalle Goldstein in Chicago. Audrey will be greatly missed by her two sons, Christopher (wife Cassia) and David (wife Kandice), brothers Mark (wife Lisa) and Alan, granddaughters Isabella and Madelyn, grandsons Ellis and Leroy, her dog Luci, and countless other family and friends. She was preceded in death by her parents, Sam and Rosalle, and her brother, Barry.

Audrey grew up in Chicago. Her favorite Cub was Ron Santo. She graduated from Northern Illinois University with a degree in early childhood education, moved to Dayton, and began her career caring for children. Audrey had a beautiful smile and infectious

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laughter, always quick to smile and laugh. She was an amazing mother, teaching her boys how to love, what it means to be a great parent, and that Clausen’s are the best pickles. She made the best turkey gravy, loved Fleetwood

Mac and tie-dye, and her favorite drink was a vanilla vodka martini with a splash of Kahlúa. Her love for children will be her legacy.

Please donate to the Dayton JCC in her name. May her memory be for a blessing.

Strassfeld

Judaism is being disrupted by this very different world we’re living in. The contents of the ocean we swim in is very different than in the Middle Ages.

But I’m also using it to say that Judaism is meant to disrupt our lives in a positive way, which is to say, “Wake up, pay attention.” You are here to live a life of meaning and purpose, and to continue as co-creators with God of the universe. You’re here to make the world better, to be kind and compassionate to people, to work on yourself. In my mind it is a shofar, “Wake up, sleepers, from your sleep!” Judaism Disrupted says you have to pay attention to issues like food, and justice, and teshuva (repentance).

Continued from Page 24 ries, the dualities — too often they lead to hierarchy, so that, for example, men matter more than women in Jewish life. And we’ve tried to change that. We are living in an open society where we want to be more inclusive, not less inclusive. We don’t want to live in ghettos.

Now, the ultra-Orthodox say, “No, we realize the danger of trying to live like that. We don’t think there’s anything of value in that modern world. And it’s all to be rejected.” And it would be foolish not to admit that in this very open world the Jews, as a minority, could kind of disappear. But I think that Judaism has so much value and wisdom and practices to offer to people that Judaism will continue to be part of the fabric of this world — the way, for example, we have given Shabbat as a concept to the world.

You know, in the first 11 chapters of the Torah, there are no Jews. So clearly, Jews and Judaism are not essential for the world to exist. And that’s a good, humbling message.

OK, but one could argue that while Jews aren’t necessary for the world to exist, Judaism is necessary for Jews to exist.

And you write in your book, “If the Jewish people is to be a people, we need to have a commonly held tradition.”

I think the pushback to the kind of openness and permeability you describe is that Jews can be so open and so permeable that they just fall through the holes.

It certainly is a possibility. And it’s also a possibility that the only Jews who will be around will be ultra-Orthodox Jews.

But if Judaism can only survive by being separatist, then I question whether it’s really worthwhile. That becomes a distorted vision of Judaism, and withdrawing is not what it’s meant to be. I think we’re meant to be in the world.

Your book is called Judaism Disrupted. What is disruptive about the Judaism that you’re proposing?

I meant it in two ways. First,

You were ordained as a Reconstructionist rabbi. Do you think your book falls neatly into any of our current denominational categories?

(Reconstructionist founder) Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan’s notion of Judaism as an evolving religious civilization is the one that I feel closest to. But I feel that the denominational structure isn’t particularly useful anymore. There’s basically two categories, Orthodox and the various kinds of liberal Judaism, within a spectrum. The modern world is so fundamentally different in its relationship to Jews and Judaism that what we’re seeing is a variety of attempts to figure out how to respond. And that will then become the Judaism for the next millennium.

It’s time for a lot of experimentation. I think that’s required and out of that will come a new Minhag America, to use Isaac Mayer Wise’s phrase for the emerging custom of American Jews (Wise was a Reform rabbi in the late 19th century). And we don’t need to have everybody doing it one way. As long as people feel committed to Judaism, the Jewish tradition, even if they’re doing it very differently than the Jews of the past, they will be writing themselves into the conversation.

Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor at large of the New York Jewish Week and managing editor for ideas for JTA.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

THE DAYTON

Israel @75

OBSERVER

Israel's Declaration of Independence • 5 Iyar 5708, May 14, 1948 ERETZ-ISRAEL [(Hebrew) - the Land of Israel] was the birthplace of the Jewish JEWISH STATE IN ERETZ-ISRAEL, TO BE KNOWN AS THE STATE OF ISRAEL. people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal WE DECLARE that, with effect from the moment of the termination of the Mandate being tonight, the eve of Sabbath, the 6th Iyar, 5708 (15th May, 1948), significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books. until the establishment of the elected, regular authorities of the State in accordance with the Constitution which shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and Assembly not later than the 1st October 1948, the People's Council shall act for the restoration in it of their political freedom. as a Provisional Council of State, and its executive organ, the People's Administration, shall be the Provisional Government of the Jewish State, to be called Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every succes- "Israel". sive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering decades they returned in their masses. Pioneers, ma'pilim [(Hebrew) - immiof the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its grants coming to Eretz-Israel in defiance of restrictive legislation] and defendinhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the ers, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to and towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own economy and all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the of progress to all the country's inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter nationhood. of the United Nations.

In the year 5657 (1897), at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish THE STATE OF ISRAEL is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and repreState, Theodore Herzl, the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the sentatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country.

Assembly of the 29th November, 1947, and will take steps to bring about the This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of the 2nd November, 1917, economic union of the whole of Eretz-Israel. and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, WE APPEAL to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the building-up gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish peoof its State and to receive the State of Israel into the comity of nations. ple and Eretz-Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home.

WE APPEAL - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people - the massacre of participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenmillions of Jews in Europe - was another clear demonstration of the urgency of ship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions. solving the problem of its homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz-Israel the Jewish State, which would open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fully privileged member of the WE EXTEND our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of comity of nations. cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the Survivors of the Nazi holocaust in Europe, as well as Jews from other parts of the world, continued to migrate to Eretz-Israel, undaunted by difficulties, restric- advancement of the entire Middle East. tions and dangers, and never ceased to assert their right to a life of dignity, WE APPEAL to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews freedom and honest toil in their national homeland. of Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the redemption of In the Second World War, the Jewish community of this country contributed its Israel. full share to the struggle of the freedom- and peace-loving nations against the forces of Nazi wickedness and, by the blood of its soldiers and its war effort, gained the right to be reckoned among the peoples who founded the United Na- PLACING OUR TRUST IN THE "ROCK OF ISRAEL," WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES TO THIS PROCLAMATION AT THIS SESSION OF THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF tions.

STATE, ON THE SOIL OF THE HOMELAND, IN THE CITY OF TEL-AVIV, ON THIS SABBATH EVE, THE 5TH DAY OF IYAR, 5708 (14TH MAY, 1948).

On the 29th November, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel; the General Assembly required the inhabitants of Eretz-Israel to take such steps David Ben-Gurion Daniel Auster Rachel Cohen as were necessary on their part for the implementation of that resolution. This David Zvi Pinkas Mordekhai Bentov Rabbi Kalman Kahana recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish Aharon Zisling Yitzchak Ben Zvi Saadia Kobashi their State is irrevocable.

This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State.

ACCORDINGLY WE, MEMBERS OF THE PEOPLE'S COUNCIL, REPRESENTATIVES OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ERETZ-ISRAEL AND OF THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT, ARE HERE ASSEMBLED ON THE DAY OF THE TERMINATION OF THE BRITISH MANDATE OVER ERETZ-ISRAEL AND, BY VIRTUE OF OUR NATURAL AND HISTORIC RIGHT AND ON THE STRENGTH OF THE RESOLUTION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HEREBY DECLARE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2023

Moshe Kolodny Eliezer Kaplan Abraham Katznelson Felix Rosenblueth David Remez Berl Repetur Mordekhai Shattner Ben Zion Sternberg Bekhor Shitreet Moshe Shapira Moshe Shertok

Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Levin Meir David Loewenstein Zvi Luria Golda Myerson Nachum Nir Zvi Segal Rabbi Yehuda Leib Hacohen Fishman

Eliyahu Berligne Fritz Bernstein Rabbi Wolf Gold Meir Grabovsky Yitzchak Gruenbaum Dr. Abraham Granovsky Eliyahu Dobkin Meir Wilner-Kovner Zerach Wahrhaftig Herzl Vardi

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PRESIDENTS

DINNER 2023

KERRI STRUG is an Olympic Gold Medalist who earned nationwide 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. After injuring her ankle on her first vault attempt, Kerri needed to land her second and final vault in order to seal the victory over Russia for the team combined gymnastics gold medal. With millions of people watching, and two torn ligaments in her leg, Kerri got the job done with a solid landing before collapsing to her hands and knees.

She was carried to the award ceremony where she received her first gold medal. It was the first time the U.S. Gymnastics Team won gold.

Kerri received her Bachelor’s Degree in Communications and a Master’s Degree in Social Psychology at Stanford University. She currently works for the United States Juvenile Justice Department and formerly worked at the White House in Student Correspondence. Kerri is the mother of two young children.

Kerri will talk about her career and touch on the role Judaism has played in her life. Kerri was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2008. She is one of only three gymnasts to receive this honor.

DATE: May2121 DATE: Sunday, Sunday, May TIME: 6PM 5PM TIME: LOCATION: Boonshoft CJCE LOCATION: CJCE 525 VersaillesBoonshoft Dr., Centerville

45459 525 Versailles Dr, Centerville 45459

For more information and to RSVP, go to jewishdayton.org.