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Marshall Weiss
Jewish Federation CEO Cathy Gardner (R) introduces Dayton Mayor Shenise TurnerSloss at the 12th Annual JCC Women's Freedom Seder, March 12 at the Boonshoft CJCE in Centerville. The mayor spoke about Anne Frank.
The Jewish Community Relations Council presented a panel on Black-Jewish reconciliation, Feb. 26 at the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce. Panelists were (L to R) Wilberforce Univ. Assoc. History Prof. Godfrey Vincent and filmmaker Avi Dresner (son of Civil Rights champion Rabbi Israel Dresner), with moderator Wilberforce Political Science Prof. Jacques Kahindo.
Demographer's deeper dive into Miami Valley region finds more Jews
Sheskin's new estimate of about 7,000, up from 4,000 in 2023, reflects more extensive research rather than Jewish population growth.
By Marshall Weiss, The Observer
There are more of us here than we thought. Significant funding for a national study on the number of Jews in all 435 U.S. congressional districts has allowed demographer Ira Sheskin to dig deeper into local Jewish communities that have not conducted population studies in recent years.
His 2025 estimate for the Miami Valley is about 7,000 Jews, up from 4,000 in 2023. The Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton's database identifies 2,493 Jews across the Miami Valley, 35% of Sheskin's estimate for the area.
Sheskin is director of the Jewish Demography Project of the Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies at the University of Miami. Since 2006, he has served as editor of The American Jewish Yearbook
He's also helped The Observer analyze the Federation's list of identified Jewish households across the Miami Valley since 2015.
The Miami Valley surrounding the Dayton area
The Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton's catchment area includes Montgomery, Greene, Miami, Clark, Darke, and Preble Counties, and the northernmost parts of Butler and Warren Counties.
"That's a conservative estimate. It's much more typical for Federations to have well under half on their lists these days," he said of his latest study.
"I think it's a lot closer to the truth than what we've had in the past," he said of data from the eight-month project for the Jewish Electorate Institute, a nonprofit that "surveys, interprets, reports, and educates the public about the perspectives, voting behaviors, and motivations of the American Jewish electorate."
The Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton defines its catchment area across the Miami Valley as comprising Montgomery, Greene, Miami, Clark, Darke, and Preble Counties, and the northernmost parts of Butler and Warren Counties.
Sheskin's latest estimate of Jews in these counties and sections of counties totals 7,038:
• Montgomery: 5,000
• Greene: 800
• Miami: 500
• Clark: 350
• northernmost Warren: 240
• northernmost Butler: 128
• Darke: 10
• Preble: 10
He also estimates 6,000 Jews live in Ohio's 10th congressional district, which comprises
In addition to weekly Shabbat dinners, One Lincoln Park provides an opportunity for residents, Jewish and non-Jewish, to gather together for meaningful holiday traditions.
Passover is a time to pause to reflect on the past, be grateful, and hopeful for the future. And, of course, to enjoy good conversation and delicious food!
I was taught that journalism is "the best obtainable version of the truth," a Carl Bernstein principle. Demography seems to go by this, too. A vast obstacle to find the demographic truth is the cost to do so. When The American Jewish Yearbook began publishing in 1899, its editors would compile local Jewish population numbers from leaders in the local communities. Nowadays, that's just the yearbook's starting point for its population estimates. Like so many communities across the United States, we have more Jewish people here than we thought. From the late 1950s through the early 1970s, the yearbook recorded our known Jewish population (Federation's mailing list) at its peak, above 7,000. Beginning in the mid-1970s, that list of Jews connected to our community steadily declined. It's now at 2,493. Now we come to find there may be as many as 7,000 Jews here after all. It reminds me of when people here say they've never met a Jew before. Sure they have. They just didn't know it.
From the editor’s desk
Marshall Weiss
WARREN BUTLER
Demographer Ira Sheskin
Bark Mitzvah Boy
DAYTON
Preschool director departs JCC
JCC Executive Director
Marc Jacob informed parents March 2 that Preschool Director Katie Lagasse has stepped away from her job.
"She has been dealing with several medical issues," Jacob wrote of Lagasse in his email. "Unfortunately, because of these issues, Katie has made the very difficult decision to leave her position as preschool director, effective immediately."
Lagasse worked at the preschool for more than 19 years, including as a teacher, site
Population
Continued from Page Three
Montgomery and Greene Counties and part of Clark County.
For Jewish communities that have not conducted a scientific population study in more than a decade such as the Dayton area, Sheskin employed what he calls the "New Multimethod Distinctive Jewish Names-Guided" estimates.
It's combines the long-accepted use of a multiplier based on distinctive Jewish surnames with address-based sampling from national household directories, estimated data from Pew Research Center's 2020 survey, and Brandeis University's 2020 American Jewish Population Project Estimates
Sheskin's revised method factors in information provided by professional leaders of local Jewish communities, from synagogues and other Jewish institutions, and census data.
"We'll never know the right numbers. The first rule in social science is, if you want to count something, you have to define it. And until the Knesset (Israel's parliament) can tell me who's Jewish, that's a problem," Sheskin quipped.
supervisor, assistant director, and director.
"Her exemplary leadership has proven to be a great asset for our organization," Marc added. "We will miss Katie and wish her good health as she recovers. Katie wanted me to share with you that it has truly been an honor to serve the community."
Jacob also announced that Assistant Preschool Director Rebecca Levi has been named interim preschool director while the JCC conducts its search to fill the position.
with those names aren't Jewish.
He verified Jewish identities beyond reliance on surnames, checking obituaries and other local sources to avoid counting non-Jewish people with traditional Jewish surnames.
One name he cut, for example, was Schwartz.
"Now, in a place like Miami or Brooklyn, probably almost every Schwartz is Jewish. But not in a place like Ohio, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, with large German populations. We picked 30 that we felt were good hits for Jews and not for Germans."
A name that is on the list of 30 that proved a challenge in the Miami Valley was Grossman.
What gives him confidence in his data is its similarity to Pew and Brandeis' 2020 findings.
He said his increased Jewish population estimate for the Miami Valley is less about growth and more about previous undercounting in the absence of research funding.
"As you can imagine, it took hundreds of hours," he said. "It was eight months of work. It was a tremendous amount of work."
Along with his staff, Sheskin worked with the authority on surnames at the U.S. Census Bureau.
Despite an increase in intermarriages in the U.S., 8-12% of U.S. Jews continue to have one of 36 distinctive Jewish names, Sheskin said.
For this study, Sheskin cut six of the surnames from the list because in some parts of the country such as Ohio, a high percentage of people
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"There were too many Grossmans in your area," Sheskin said. "Too many of the Grossmans are probably not Jewish, so I pulled them out. And seven Siegels from the total. You should have a lot of Cohens and a lot of Levys. Those should be among the top. I know from looking at select phone lists from the entire country at these 30 names, 11% of these 30 names are Cohens. So we don't just use the (local) counts."
Sheskin said of his 2025 American Jewish Yearbook estimates, based on his Jewish Electorate Institute study, "The only thing we can be sure of in terms of these numbers is that every single one of them is wrong."
What gives him confidence in his data is its similarity to Pew and Brandeis' 2020 findings.
"The Pew 2020 came up with 7.5 million Jews. The (Brandeis) American Jewish Population Project came up with 7.6 million Jews, and the 2025 American Jewish Yearbook has 7.7 million Jews," Sheskin said.
"I'm sure they're all wrong, but we have what's called convergent validity. We have three methods. Ain't none of them good, but they all basically came out with the same number."
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.
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Katie Lagasse
Yom Hashoah Observance
One Survivor's Story is the theme of this year's Greater Dayton Yom Hashoah Remembrance, with programs for children, teens, and adults on Sunday afternoon, April 19 at Temple Israel, 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton.
Holocaust survivors Felix Garfunkel and Larry Katz will participate in a community conversation facilitated by Beverly Farnbacher from 3:15 to 3:45 p.m.
Cheryl Hecht, daughter of the late David Hochstein, will be the guest speaker for the 4 p.m. memorial service. She'll talk about her father's rescue by Kindertransport and his life as a teenager on his own in London.
Winners of this year's Max and Lydia May Holocaust Art and Writing Contests will also be recognized at the event.
Concurrent with the service, PJ Library and PJ Our Way will host a session for young children, How to be a Mensch, with a story, craft, mitzvah activity, and snack.
Max and Lydia May Holocaust Art and Writing Contest entries will be on display from 3 to 4 p.m. and after the service. Registration is encouraged at jewishdayton.org/events.
No date yet for Beth Abraham's return to building
Beth Abraham Synagogue will continue to hold its worship services at Temple Israel in April, according to Beth Abraham President Julie Liss-Katz.
"There are still many moving parts in the remediation and construction, so it’s hard to project when we’ll be back in the building," she said, referring to the Feb. 19 sprinkler pipe break that flooded Beth Abraham. She added that the synagogue will continue to post updates on its website, bethabrahamdayton.org, under the Keeping You Informed heading.
Hillel Academy of Greater Dayton Jewish day school, which was based on Beth Abraham's third floor, has relocated to Temple Beth Or, months earlier than its planned move there for the next school year.
Cheryl Hecht
Purim Roundup
Dinsmore attorneys nationwide are driven by an unwavering commitment to empower our clients to accomplish their goals. We’re proud to serve Dayton with our award-winning client service and support a prosperous future for the community. Trust Dinsmore to guide you on the path to success.
Marshall Weiss
Hillel Academy
Beth Abraham Synagogue congregants performed their Elton John-themed shpiel at Beth Jacob Congregation this year due to extensive flooding in February at Beth Abraham.
Marshall Weiss
Beth Jacob Congregation went with a down-on-the-farm Purim theme, joined by Beth Abraham Rasta guy Dr. Gary Fishbein (L), shown with (L to R) Jese Shell, Rabbi Leibel Agar, and Gail Brody.
Students at Hillel Academy Jewish day school make their own hamantashen in preparation for the holiday.
Daniel Opris, D.O.
Barry Taylor, M.D.
Beth Duvall, M.D.
Chabad Temple Israel
Temple Beth Or
Above left: Ringmaster Rabbi Nochum Mangel and boss clown Rabbi Levi Simon at Chabad's circus-themed Purim celebration.
Above right: Temple Israel hamantashen-eating contest entrants (L to R) Jenn Holman, Michelle Prahl, and Rabbi Tina Sobo give it their all. Prahl was the winner.
Right: Temple Beth Or's Purim got the KPop treatment in a shpiel with kids and adults.
Israel at 78 dinner & concert
The Hashayara ensemble from Israel's Galilee will perform and Cincinnati-based Israeli Sapir Madar Coulson will prepare a kosher Israeli/Moroccan dinner for Celebrate Israel at 78, Wednesday, April 22 at the Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture and Education.
Doors open at 5:45 p.m. with dinner at 6 p.m. and the concert at 7 p.m. An activity for children will also begin at 7 p.m.
Before the program, at 5:45 p.m., participants will have the opportunity to pack care bags to be distributed to For Love of Children.
Hashayara comprises musicians and educators with Dror Israel, which brings educational-emotional support programs to Israelis.
The JCC presents Celebrate Israel at 78 in partnership with Beth Abraham Synagogue, Beth Jacob Congregation, Hadassah, Hillel Academy, Jewish War Veterans, Temple Beth Or, and Temple Israel. The Boonshoft CJCE is located at 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville.
The cost is $18 per person, $45 per family. Register by April 17 at jewishdayton. org/events.
The 30 names that help pollsters find U.S. Jews
By Asaf Elia-Shalev, JTA
Ira Sheskin is one of the most prominent demographers of American Jews. A professor at the University of Miami, Sheskin helps Jewish communities across the country carry out complicated population surveys.
He sometimes works for businesses, too, and several years ago, a major kosher poultry company turned to him with a quandary.
The company had convinced Publix Super Markets to stock its kosher chicken products, but not in every store. In Birmingham, Ala., the company had to pick just one of Publix’s several local branches. But how to pick the one closest to the largest number of Jews?
the phone book for distinctive Jewish names.
The way to obtain the most accurate results would be through making phone calls or even sending letters to a very large number of people across Greater Birmingham, asking if they are Jewish as part of a randomized survey. But it would be too expensive.
Instead, Sheskin opted for a method that Jewish demographers have been relying on for generations: checking
“Within three miles of this Publix location, there are 20 households with a distinctive Jewish name, and within three miles of this other Publix, there are 150 households with distinctive Jewish names. It’s clear which Publix the product should go in,” Sheskin said.
But what is a distinctive Jewish name? As it turns out, researchers have a list of 30 last names that are so com-
mon among Jews in the United States — and so uncommon in the rest of the population — that they can be used to draw demographic conclusions.
They are: Berman, Caplan, Cohen, Epstein, Feldman, Freedman, Friedman, Goldberg, Goldman, Goldstein, Greenberg, Grossman, Jaffe, Kahn, Kaplan, Katz, Kohn, Levin, Levine, Levinson, Levy, Lieberman, Rosen, Rosenberg, Rosenthal, Rubin, Shapiro, Siegel, Silverman, and Weinstein.
Not everyone with one of these last names is Jewish, and not all Jews in the United States — not even close to a majority of Jews — have one of them.
An obvious issue is that the list consists of entirely Ashkenazi (Eastern European) surnames, and would do poorly for identifying, for example, Persian or Israeli Jews, or Jews from the former Soviet Union in the United States, which is a growing concern as American Jewry becomes increasingly diverse.
But there’s still enough of a pattern to extrapolate total Jewish population estimates in most places using these names, according to Sheskin.
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Hashayara
A page from a 1947 Los Angeles area phone book.
THE NATION
“People will say, ‘I know a guy named Levy who isn’t Jewish’ or ‘I know a woman named McMahon who is Jewish,’ and, look, on a one-by-one basis, you’re not going to predict Jewishness 100% of the time,” Sheskin said. “If a person’s name is Richard Miller, they could be Jewish, you never know. But here’s the point: Collectively, it works.”
A team of computer scientists recently used the set of distinctive Jewish names to determine roughly how many of the authors whose texts appear in artificial intelligence training data are Jewish.
“The method felt both surprising and intuitive,” said one of the computer scientists, Heila Precel. In medical research, scientists testing medicines have turned to the so-called DJNs when they need to figure out which study participants are likely Jewish.
Angeles, researchers do a lot of random calling or a combination of phone calls and mailed questionnaires.
But even in those communities, screening for Jews is a major challenge. Assuming Jews are 2% percent of the population in a certain area, researchers have to screen 50 people to find one Jew or 150,000 people to find 3,000 Jews. And that’s assuming everyone picks up the phone.
The distinctive Jewish names technique is most commonly used to find respondents for surveys of local Jewish communities.
The distinctive Jewish names technique is most commonly used to find respondents for surveys of local Jewish communities.
Ideally, researchers would never need to go by last name. They would dial randomly from a list of local phone numbers — these days, via national household directories — and ask the person on the other end if they’re Jewish or not. If they are Jewish, they are asked survey questions, and if they are not, they’re screened out.
In the largest and wealthiest Jewish communities, such as New York, Miami, and Los
So instead of contacting anyone and everyone, researchers focus on people with distinctive Jewish names.
“Getting a representative sample is tremendously expensive, very time-consuming, extraordinarily difficult, and just grotesquely inefficient,” said Matthew Boxer, an assistant research professor at Brandeis University’s Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies. “If you can make that process more efficient, you should do so.”
The problem is especially challenging in places with small Jewish communities like in the Scranton area of northeastern Pennsylvania, which recently hired Boxer for a survey. He had to rely on distinctive Jewish names.
“We did the best we could with the resources that were available. They can’t afford to be spending millions of dollars searching for Jews,” he said.
Previous research has shown that people with names from the distinctive names list make up
Continued on Page 10
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Names
Continued from Page Nine
about one in 10 Jews in most areas of the United States. So by checking how many people in a given area have one of these names, it’s possible to produce a rough estimate of the total Jewish population.
The list of distinctive Jewish names isn’t a secret, but it’s almost impossible to find online. People tend to be surprised to learn that this is an indispensable tool in Jewish demographic research, Boxer said.
“When you’re studying the Jewish community, it’s one of these situations where nobody knows how the sausage is made,” Boxer said. “People
Tara & Dan Brodbeck
who hear about this method tend to react in one of two ways: Either, ‘That’s brilliant, what a wonderful way to be able to find Jews to participate in research,’ or, ‘That’s going to bias your results.’”
Bias would be a major problem for surveys, for example, if Jews with distinctive names tended to answer standard questions about their Jewishness differently than those without distinctive names. A few years ago, Boxer conducted a study to see if there is indeed a difference.
“What we found is that it didn’t matter what your name was, there were no differences. If you’re a Cohen or a Smith has no bearing on how connected you feel to the Jewish community, whether you seek out news about Israel, whether you join a synagogue, whether you do Jewish cultural things, eat Jewish foods, study Jewish texts, none of it makes a difference based on name.”
totally on DJNs," Sheskin said. "Other methods play a role."
The DJN technique was originally devised in 1942 by a researcher named Samuel Kohs, who was charged at the time with assessing the recreational and cultural needs of the Jewish community of Los Angeles.
He made a list of the most commonly appearing names in the files of Los Angeles’ Jewish Federation. He then found that a set of 35 last names accounted for about 12% of names appearing on the Los Angeles list and on registries maintained by various other Federations.
Matthew Boxer
Further research showed that 70%-92% of people with any one of 35 last names were Jewish.
These ratios have largely held to this day, although Sheskin has refined the list down to 30 names, plus variations.
Still, skepticism of the technique remains, and Boxer acknowledges it’s important to use it with care.
“We have to represent everybody, especially the people who tend to be underrepresented, and there’s a danger of people who don’t have distinctive Jewish names being underrepresented. That’s why I don’t rely exclusively on distinctive Jewish names to find people. It’s a method that we use to keep the costs down for the Jewish organizations that we work with,” Boxer said.
"In no place do we rely
Sheskin used the technique as part of a new effort to estimate the Jewish population in every county in the United States for the 2025 American Jewish Year Book
Where there are large concentrations of Jews, local Federations have carried out expensive demographic surveys, so existing data is accurate and current.
But for the 2025 project, Sheskin’s goal was to get better numbers for the many places where Jews are too few to have been counted.
“When you take someplace like Little Rock, Ark., you’ll
Continued on Page 12
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Marsha
& Stephen Goldberg
Best wishes to all for a Happy Passover
Carol Graff
Names
Continued from Page 10
never have an accurate count because that Federation can’t pay for the survey,” Sheskin said.
Even for his project, the technique has its limits. In one county in Louisiana, for example, Sheskin found a high number of Levys but few other distinctive Jewish names. A ratio like that is unlikely unless those Levys aren’t Jews. Sheskin assumes that the situation is a result of there being many descendants of people who were enslaved by a Jew with the last name Levy.
He ended up doing some calculations comparing the numbers of distinctive Jewish names in that county (besides Levy) to the rate in other counties and to the national average.
more limited situations.
In total, he has more than 1,200 names which he keeps in a Word document and amends regularly, including when this JTA reporter, interviewing him about the list, suggested adding an alternate spelling of his own name.
There’s a list of hundreds of highly Jewish names that aren’t very common, or at least not as common as the core 30 are, in the United States.
Ira Sheskin
“Sometimes, I have to do a little bit of finagling with it. But in the end, we’re going to come up with estimates of how many Jews there are,” Sheskin said.
Sheskin has been working with distinctive Jewish names since the 1980s and over time he has created new lists for use in
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These include names like Fingerhut, Cooperman, and Elkayim. He has lists for Sephardic, Russian, and Persian Jews. He also has a list for Jews from Spanishspeaking countries because they have distinct spellings of otherwise common Jewish names, such as Goldsztajn, Fridman, and Epelbaum.
Finally, there’s a special list of first names, because there’s a high likelihood that someone named Mendel or Ofra, regardless of last name, is Jewish. It’s on that last list where this reporter noticed the name Asaf, but not Assaf. Upon alerting Sheskin, an addition was made — a small, spontaneous contribution to social science.
THE REGION
Ohio Senate hears blood libel from Ohio CAIR leader Turaan i
By Jimmy Oswald Columbus Jewish News
Ohio Rep. Eric Synenberg, D-Beachwood, said there was a deep sense of irony about comments made by Khalid Turaani, Ohio region executive director of the Council on American–Islamic Relations, in front of the Ohio Senate in which he said that Israel operates the “largest human skin bank in the world.”
“This happened during a debate about the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition of antisemitism,” Synenberg said. “And here we see in this very testimony why we need the extra protections that the IHRA definition would provide Jewish Ohioans. You couldn’t have a better example of why
we need this special definition because antisemitism is unfortunately so rampant.”
Turaani made the remarks during the third hearing of Senate Bill 87 in the Ohio Senate’s Judiciary Committee on Feb. 18.
'They are literally skinning the dead bodies of my brothers and sisters in Palestine. That is where they are getting the human skin from.'
Terry Johnson, R-McDermott, sponsored the bill, with Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland; George Lang, R-West Chester Township; and Tim Schaffer, R-Lancaster; as co-sponsors. The bill would formally adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism to be used in Ohio’s civil rights statutes, providing state agencies with a standardized framework for identifying and addressing anti-
semitic actions, and expand the offense of ethnic intimidation to include the offenses of riot and aggravated riot committed by reason of race, color, religion, or national origin of another person or group of persons.
Turaani was one of 67 people to testify against the bill, along with two other CAIR representatives – Faten Odeh, executive director of CAIROhio, and Hoda Elahinia, CAIR Action Policy and Advocacy Coordinator.
“Where do you think they got all this skin from,” Turaani said in his Feb. 18 remarks. “They have more human skin than China and India. They are literally skinning the dead bodies of my brothers and sisters in Palestine. That is where they are getting the human skin from.” He said that if “I call Continued on Page 14
NO
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CAIR-Ohio Exec. Dir. Khalid Turaani
Blood libel
Continued from Page 13
them Nazis, your law is going to punish me.”
“I was shocked,” Sen. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, said. “I think it’s indicative of why the Jewish community is concerned about the conflation of, what I consider to be legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies, with deep, vile, false bigotry and antisemitism. I was absolutely shocked that somebody in that position would make such vile and outrageous claims in a place like the Ohio Senate, or
anywhere for that matter.”
Marc Ashed, interim administrator at Ohio Jewish Communities, agreed with Weinstein and Synenberg that this incident is an example of why having the IHRA definition coded in law is crucial for the well-being of Jews.
“Nothing prohibits this man’s ability to say what he said, but I think it makes crystal clear for people who are from the outside looking in that this is a hateful comment and defining it as such,” he said. “There’s a lot of really nasty, hateful things out in the political discourse these days. Unfortunately, too often people
& Vicky Heuman
try to hide behind comments like this one as a political disagreement or political commentary rather than pure hate, which it is.”
In a statement, the Anti-Defamation League said it was “appalled that the CAIR-Ohio executive director falsely accused Israel of skinning Palestinians.”
“The antisemitic organ harvesting myth plays on the blood libel trope, which has spurred the torture, murder, and expulsion of Jews for centuries,” the ADL said. “It continues to fuel violence against Jewish communities today. Such hateful, utterly false rhetoric has no place in our state Capitol.”
Blood libel refers to insidious accusations against Jews that they ritually murder Christian children — sometimes mocking the crucifixion of Jesus — and use the blood as an ingredient in matzah for Passover.
Oct. 7, 2023, shortly after the Hamas-led terror attacks — in its national strategy to fight Jew-hatred, but subsequently removed it.
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The firstknown blood libel was documented in Norwich, England in 1144 when a Christian boy, William, was found murdered in the woods of Norwich. His murder was blamed on Norwich's Jews.
Texas has designated CAIR as a terror organization, and some members of Congress are asking the IRS to investigate its tax-exempt status.
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Classical & Irish Fiddle Lessons
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'The antisemitic organ harvesting myth plays on the blood libel trope, which has spurred the torture, murder, and expulsion of Jews for centuries'
According to JNS, the Biden administration initially included CAIR — which blamed Israel for being attacked on
"Lies have a way of circling around the world before the truth can get out the door, and Turaani’s elevated role makes it all the more reason for concern," Weinstein said.
“It’s scary when you put Continued on Page 22
Something Delicious is Coming to the Jewish Cultural Festival...
State Sen. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson
OPINION
Both security training and sacred relationships prepared us for the worst
By Jason Plotkin
As the executive director of a synagogue, I read the daily security briefs from Secure Community Network and engage in regular security updates with my colleagues and friends in Jewish communal spaces across the country. I never imagined the security risks we talk about every day would literally be at the entry to our spiritual home.
On March 12, our synagogue, Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich. was attacked by an individual with the intention of causing harm to our community.
As my friend Rabbi Brian Stoller of Temple Beth-El of Great Neck, N.Y. shared in his sermon the next evening, “This is a scary time for Jews in America. And sadly, it can feel like a scary time to work in a synagogue.”
Our houses of worship — Jewish or otherwise — should never feel that way.
At Temple Israel, we say that every staff member is part of our temple family. We are extremely fortunate that all of our staff and community members — along with more than 100 children in our early childhood center — returned to the warm embrace of friends, family and the greater community after the events of March 12.
And we pray for and express great gratitude to our security team, who bravely responded and ran toward the attacker. Their training and experience saved lives that day.
Our temple, like those across the United States, has spent countless hours and dollars in recent years focused on security. At times, the threat facing our synagogues and Jewish community spaces feels abstract. But our experience is an important reminder that security preparedness is essential to ensuring the safety of our community members, and it is time and money well spent.
Security preparation can alter your instincts and equip you to respond effectively in critical situations, preventing you from freezing when action is required.
Our temple staff faced many different challenges March 12. We were spread out in different locations, some in groups, others isolated, and some so far away that they did not hear the disturbing sounds. However, we all executed our training protocols to protect ourselves and those around us, including the precious children under our care.
Just over a month earlier, the FBI conducted a training session for our staff. These trainings are common culture, and I have sat through dozens of them over the years. The FBI facilitator discussed active shooter scenarios, emphasiz-
So, what do you think?
ing the “run, hide, fight” strategy. Our preschool faculty had undergone similar training in recent months.
Our security personnel undergoes regular group training, even using federal holidays, when the rest of us are off, to practice their skills and response tactics in our sacred spaces with no one around to watch. It’s one of the many unseen preparation efforts we take.
Another essential preparedness tactic is the sacred partnership we have built between Temple Israel and our neighbor, Shenandoah Country Club.
The club’s executive director, Hassan Yazbek, was the first person to call me as I struggled to breathe in the temple parking lot after evacuating due to smoke inhalation. Hassan offered to house, feed, and provide shelter for our faculty, staff, and children. The country club was also the initial staging ground for local law enforcement and hosted our Shabbat services the following weekend.
But our community relationships extend much further. The local FBI officials, Department of Homeland Security team members, county sheriffs, and township police are all familiar with me and our security team. The same goes for our local West Bloomfield Township leadership and two state legislators who call Temple Israel “home.”
When I was taken into the command center at Shenandoah the afternoon of March 12 while the events continued to unfold across the street, I realized there was not a top official in the room from the dozens of local and national law enforcement agencies who did not know our security team members.
These are not fleeting relationships; they know us, our building, and our people. These local law enforcement professionals help us navigate special events, keep us informed when we need to be, and are present in our community.
We are deeply saddened when any of our communities are affected by hate events. March 12 was our turn at the front of the line. In Jewish tradition, we hold the sacred value of pikuach nefesh— the sacred responsibility to protect and preserve life. On March 12, our staff, faculty, security team, and the entire community lived out this value.
We are grateful for the security preparedness and the partnerships that enabled us to put our values into action when they were needed. The combination, as we now know firsthand, proved to create the best possible outcome in a situation. For that, my family and others involved in these events are grateful.
Jason Plotkin is the executive director of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich. Distributed by JTA.
In Broadway’s Giant, Roald Dahl is a warped messenger for a vital debate about Israel
John Lithgow stars in a new play about the beloved children’s author’s antisemitic outbursts.
By Andrew Silow-Carroll
Roald Dahl is a terrible messenger for a serious conversation about Jews and Israel.
Which is part of what makes Giant, the new Broadway play about the beloved children’s author’s 1983 antisemitic outbursts, so unsettling. The play asks urgent, complicated questions about Israel, Jewish solidarity, and Diaspora responsibility — but it puts them in the mouth of a man whose own views were so steeped in bigotry that they distort everything he says.
Mark Rosenblatt’s play revisits the controversy over an antisemitic book review Dahl wrote for a U.K. literary journal. That essay, meant as a heartfelt, outraged response to Israel’s 1982 war in Lebanon and the toll it had taken on civilians, veered off the rails into bigotry. Dahl attributed Israel’s perceived excesses to a “race of people” who “switched so rapidly from being much-pitied victims to barbarous murderers.” He also spewed that U.S. policy was controlled by “powerful American Jewish bankers” and charged that the government was “utterly dominated by the great Jewish financial institutions over there.”
John Lithgow stars as the towering — literally and figuratively — author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and Giant Peach. Over two acts, Dahl’s British Jewish publisher and an American Jewish sales rep dispatched from Farrar, Strauss and Giroux try to convince the author to issue an apology.
The play was conceived before Oct. 7, but its relevance has grown exponentially, even uncannily, since it first ran in London to great acclaim starting in 2024. In “Giant,” Dahl details the Israeli airstrikes that destroyed hospitals in Lebanon in 1982. On the night I saw the play, Israel had announced that it was stepping up attacks aimed at Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut. Lithgow’s line about the 1982 war was greeted by the audience with a sort of audible hush.
But the play is at its most immediate in its endoscopic exploration of the Diaspora relationship with Israel. Lithgow as Dahl demands his two Jewish guests account for Israel’s actions — not just defend them, if they dare, but confess their own complicity as supporters of Israel in what the IDF is doing in Beirut.
When Jessie, the American visitor,
suggests not all Jews support the Israeli government — and shouldn’t be held accountable for those who do — Dahl’s response is withering and specific. “Of course, yes,” says Dahl, “there’s those tiny weeny progressives — the New Israel Fund, I know about them — but they’re really a minor player, no? Seen as crazies? Are they? Tiny crazy gang of peace-loving bleeding-heart hippies. Hardly the main swim. Is that right?” The “seen as crazies” line lands hard. Rosenblatt hits on an uncomfortable truth: American Jewish organizations have worked hard over the years to isolate Jewish groups, from Breirah to NIF to J Street, that are critical of Israel. If you are the self-lacerating type, you might see the show and dwell on all the ways Diaspora Jews failed to speak out or support the dissenters inside Israel. That was a thrust of a conference in March, held by Smol Emuni, an organization of liberal, observant Jews deeply critical of Israeli policy in Gaza and the West Bank. “We must call out the suffering, the destruction, and destruction of justice,” said Rachel Landsberg, the group’s codirector, in a keynote address. “We must grapple with our own accountability, and we must ask, what are our world responsibilities as Jews shaped by Torah and as Americans whose government and institutions play a role in this reality.”
Those more inclined to defend Israel than atone for its sins also found moments to cheer in Giant. The night I saw the show there was raucous applause and hoots of approval when Jessie at last confronts Dahl, who was a Royal Air Force fighter pilot in World War II. She asks what Dahl might think if England were under attack from France, the way “the PLO fired hundreds and hundreds of rockets from Southern Lebanon into Israel.”
“What would your government do — if militants constitutionally committed to wiping Britain off the map started firing rockets into Kent from the French coast? For 10 days? Serve tea and scones?” she demands.
In the play as in real life, however, Dahl is not engaging in a good-faith debate about a country’s right to selfdefense. Nor is he interested in a deep conversation about Jewish peoplehood, the ways Jews can feel a deep attachment to Israel and have conflicted (and conflicting) feelings about its policies, nor how Israel’s government has zero interest in what Diaspora Jews think about its actions.
Lithgow portrays Dahl as many in Continued on Page 16
LETTER
When I read of Beth Abraham’s flooding and how everyone collaborated together to help, I was brimming with pride and gratitude.
For 54 years, Dayton was my home and provided me with a priceless legacy. Its significant institutions were not merely edifices. Jewish Dayton gifted me with the garden of life, enriching and enabling my family and me to grow and bloom. Though I now live in the Cleveland area to be near my daughter and her family, I still call Dayton home because it’s filled with unforgettable memories, family, and friends.
Hillel Academy: where my children attended and received their foundational Jewish education. Beth Jacob: where they had their bar and bat mitzvahs, where I cochaired the gift shop, taught religious school, and where I heard Holocaust legend Elie Wiesel speak in 1987. Temple Israel: where I enjoyed the annual Jewish Cultural Festival.
Temple Beth Or: where I shared my Holocaust story for Dayton’s Yom Hashoah observance. The JCC: it first gave us memorable summers with swimming pool get-togethers and served as BBYO central for my teenage kids. Beth Abraham: where we made lifelong friends when we joined a young couples club as newlyweds, where I was honored as a Woman of Valor, and where my final resting place awaits me at the cemetery.
How heartwarming that all of these places opened their doors and offered help and temporary new homes so Beth Abraham and Hillel Academy could continue without disruption. Congregants speedily came to the rescue to pack up and save everything possible. When everyone pitches in, everyone wins with successful results. There is no substitute for compassion, empathy, and heartfelt assistance.
What a positive reflection of Jewish Dayton, responding with dynamic concern, warmth and collaboration!
It’s not the size of the community that matters but the spirit and kindness that emanates from it.
Philadelphia may be the City of Brotherly Love, but Jewish Dayton proved to blessedly be not only a city full of love, but also compassion and a big heart.
— Cherie Rosenstein Beachwood, Ohio
OPINION
Is this Netanyahu’s Churchill moment?
The prime minister may come to resemble his political idol — just not in the way he hoped.
By Dan Perry
Much of Israeli society is living with a profound cognitive dissonance, one that few articulate openly and many would rather not confront.
On one hand, there is a broad and deeply felt desire to see the jihadist Iranian regime weakened or deposed. On the other, there is a pervasive fear that any success on that front will redound to the political benefit of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A boost significant enough to keep Netanyahu in power would prolong a domestic trajectory that many Israelis consider to be existentially dangerous. Within my own circles, I have seen a growing conviction that this trajectory poses such a profound threat to the country’s ability to survive that fears about it should dwarf fears of any external foe — including Iran.
The idea is that the entrenchment of Netanyahu’s rightreligious bloc challenges the liberal-democratic foundations of the state in a way that is for many people foundational. As a consequence, should it truly and irreversibly prevail, many people expect that they or their children will leave the country.
A popular war
To be clear: most Israelis do support the war. The Iranian regime has posed a threat for
Continued from Page 15
his lifetime saw him (he died in 1990): witty, winning, and charming at one moment; prickly, defensive, and cruel the next.
The publisher, identified as Tom Maschler, who was a revered figure in British publishing before his death in 2020, offers a stirring defense of Dahl’s gifts as a storyteller who “picks a glorious, playful path through the chaos of childhood.”
Coming from a Jew — a child survivor of the Holocaust who embodies a very British reserve
So, what do you think?
decades. Its stated hatred for Israel, its sponsorship of armed proxies devoted to harassing the Jewish state, and its nuclear program have defined Israel’s strategic environment for decades.
Even if the regime does not fall, the consensus position in Israel holds that hitting it carries real value. Setting an enemy regime back is worthwhile; so is creating space for the Iranian people to overthrow their oppressors — although no such domestic movement has manifested since the onset of war.
That consensus creates a willingness to sacrifice. But within Israel’s productive classes — the several million people responsible for the technological miracle known collectively as Start-Up Nation — there is a growing fear that some of the sacrifices to which this war might lead may prove to be too dear.
History offers examples of leaders who converted battlefield achievements into electoral advantage, reshaping their nations in the process. If Netanyahu, who is facing elections this year, succeeds in doing the same, the consequences for Israel could be severe.
Netanyahu’s efforts to establish an authoritarian regime might move forward; his pandering to the Haredim, whose rapid growth risks creating a devastating demographic crisis, would continue; and any prospect for a lasting future peace with the Palestinians would fade away. Emboldened by once more scraping out an electoral victory, the Netanyahu coalition, which depends on the
when it comes to his identity — his speech is the closest the play comes to answering the perennial question about whether you can separate the artist from the art.
But I suspect Lithgow’s undeniable charm and the unanticipated potency of his criticism of Israel — coming at a time when such criticism is heard regularly, sometimes in petitions signed by hundreds of writers — have led some reviewers to accuse the show of offering grist for the haters.
I didn’t hear sympathetic laughter to Dahl’s Jew-hatred, although I can imagine a pro-
messianic settler lobby, would keep expanding settlements in the West Bank. It might succeed in making the attachment of that territory to Israel irreversible.
Without offering the millions of Palestinians who live in the West Bank citizenship, charges of apartheid, including from liberal Israeli Jews, will grow. Israel will become a non-democratic and totally binational state at permanent war with itself.
Is potentially sacrificing the country’s democracy worth it to defeat — or temporarily hamstring — a bitter foe?
A looming mass departure
For many Israelis, the answer will be no. Although this prospect is heartbreaking, it is being seriously discussed as something close to an inevitability if Netanyahu spins this war into a renewed grasp on power.
The good news: Right now, the Netanyahu coalition is significantly behind in the polls. That’s true even though he can already, in a way, claim success: even if the war ends now, Iran’s regime will have been degraded and humiliated, its military power and nuclear program set back considerably.
Israeli public opinion has defied easy assumptions. The current polls have remained strikingly stable since before the war, despite Israel’s remarkable military successes. This stability hints at a public capable of distinguishing between the campaign in Iran and the desirability of the country’s current path.
This duality offers a way out of the current bind. It allows
Palestinian activist cheering when Dahl says that a character’s Zionism is based on the idea that “a Palestinian child ...has to be less equal than an Israeli.”
By the play’s end, when the script quotes the real-life Dahl verbatim, it’s made clear that Dahl’s screeds about Lebanon are not (only) those of a deeply troubled humanitarian, but an avowed antisemite.
In 2020, Dahl’s family issued a belated apology for his antisemitism. Not that his bigotry has had much impact on his legacy.
Top-tier directors like Steven
Israelis to support efforts that genuinely enhance national security without conceding the domestic future.
How does a country survive?
I hope that continuing skepticism about Netanyahu suggests that Israelis see a deeper principle at stake in these elections: the sense that the country’s worth lies not only in its survival, but also in its nature.
There is a perhaps useful analogy from recent history. Netanyahu has long admired Winston Churchill and frequently invokes him in his speeches. He celebrates how Churchill stood uncompromising before external threats. Indeed, Churchill won admiration for his style, and gets much credit for the Allies’ victory in the war against Nazi Germany. Yet soon after the war’s end he was unceremoniously turfed out by British voters. They understood that their post-war domestic concerns required something a little different. More blood, toil, sweat and tears wouldn’t cut it.
If Netanyahu wishes to be the Israeli Churchill, then he may get that wish — just not quite in the manner he’d hoped. Democracies are shaped by choices, and sometimes those choices become a test of maturity. Israel’s voters are about to show us whether, when it comes to Netanyahu, they’re really ready to grow up.
Dan Perry is former chief editor of Associated Press in Europe, Africa and the Middle East and the former chairman of the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem. Distributed by the Forward.
Spielberg and Wes Anderson continue to adapt his work, and in 2021, Netflix bought the rights to the author’s entire catalogue.
Dahl’s bigotry is undeniable, but the conversation Giant stages is not about redeeming him. It’s about exploring the fraught, ongoing moment — and conversations that are messy, uncomfortable and essential, no matter who is speaking.
Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor at large of the New York Jewish Week and managing editor for ideas for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
April 2026
UPCOMING EVENTS
SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 4 - 8PM
BBYO Top Golf Takeover
SUNDAY, APRIL 19, 3 - 5:30PM Yom Hashoah Observance Program
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 6 - 8:30PM Yom Ha’atzmaut Event
SUNDAY, APRIL 26, 2 - 4PM
CABS Closing Event — Dan Slater, The Incorruptibles
SUNDAY, APRIL 26, 5 - 7PM
Jr. Youth Group Pizza & Game Night
Connect with us! Check out our events. For more information, check out our calendar at jewishdayton.org
One Survivor's Story
Sunday, April 19
Starting At 3PM at Temple Israel 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton, 45405
Max and Lydia May Holocaust Art and Writing Contest will be on display from 3 – 4PM and following the program.
3:15 – 3:45PM: Community Conversation
Join us for a special community conversation with Holocaust survivors Felix Garfunkel and Larry Katz. Facilitator Beverly Farnbacher will help guide a dialogue between attendees, Felix, and Larry. Community members of all ages, including teens, are invited to take part in this very special conversation.
4PM: Yom Hashoah Memorial Service
Presentation of the Max and Lydia May Holocaust Art and Writing Contest winners followed by One Survivor's Story. Cheryl Hecht will share with us the story of her father, Holocaust survivor David Hochstein, of blessed memory, including accounts of his early life, his family’s forced deportation to Poland, his rescue by Kindertransport, and his life as a teenager on his own in London.
4PM (for ages 5-12): PJ Library & PJ Our Way Program –How To Be a Mensch
Children are encouraged to join us for a story, craft, mitzvah activity, and snack. We will discuss how people of all ages can make a di erence.
RSVP at jewishdayton.org/events. Questions about the PJ Library program? Please contact Kate Elder at kelder@jfgd.net. For all other questions, please contact Lidia Zambilovici at lzambilovici@jfgd.net.
Sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton. jewishdayton.org. Presented by the Yom Hashoah Committee, the Holocaust Education Committee, and the 2026 Max and Lydia May Memorial Holocaust Art and Writing Contest.
April 2026
CELEBRATE ISRAEL AT 78 with a community meal & concert!
Join us for Yom Ha'atzmaut Wednesday, April 22, 6 – 8:30PM at the Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Drive, Centerville, 45459
Join us for a KOSHER, AUTHENTIC ISRAELI & MOROCCAN MEAL prepared by Sapir Madar Coulson.
Please join us 15 minutes before the dinner and perform a meaningful mitzvah by helping pack bags for For Love of Children (FLOC).
6PM: Dinner will begin – doors open at 5:45PM
7PM: HASHAYARA performance A separate children's activity will be held
$18 per person, $45 per family for dinner and concert. Space is limited. Reservations are required by Friday, April 17. Vegetarian dishes available. Please visit jewishdayton.org/events for more information, menu, and to register.
Be part of something meaningful! In the spirit of the National Days of Jewish Service and with the support of Repair the World and the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton, our community is coming together for a hands-on mitzvah project.
We will pack care bags for For Love of Children (FLOC) — a 100% volunteer-run nonprofit that serves more than 12,000 children each year in southwestern Ohio, providing programs and resources for children who are abused, neglected, in foster care, or in need of community support.
The National Days of Jewish Service bring Jewish communities together nationwide to turn Jewish values into action through volunteer service. Repair the World is a national organization that mobilizes volunteers to strengthen communities through meaningful acts of service.
Please arrive at 5:45PM, 15 minutes before the Yom Ha'atzmaut celebration, to help pack bags and take part in this simple but powerful mitzvah. Together, we can make a real di erence.
JCC In partnership with:
Beth Abraham Synagogue, Beth Jacob Congregation, Hadassah, Hillel Academy, Jewish War Veterans, Temple Beth Or, and Temple Israel
Sapir Madar Coulson
Register
Camp Shalom is hiring!
Camp Shalom is on the lookout for AMAZING Summer Camp Counselors! We’re now accepting applications for caring, energetic Summer Camp Counselors who are excited to help our campers shine.
Ready to be part of something special?
Email your resume to Jennifer Holman at jholman@jfgd.net.
April 12 4 – 8PM
Water Front Drive, West
Join us for an exclusive “fore – members” only event! Come compete, connect, and chill with friends while enjoying food, games, and nonstop fun! Roundtrip transportation will be provided from the Boonshoft CJCE (525 Versailles Dr., Centerville, 45459) to Topgolf. For more information, please contact Jennifer Holman at jholman@jfgd.net.
Legacies, Tributes, & Memorials
JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER DAYTON ENDOWMENT FUND
In memory of Edward Jacobs
Cathy Gardner
PJ LIBRARY FUND
In memory of Marla Harlan
Diane and James Duberstein
HOLOCAUST PROGRAMMING FUND
In honor of Ira Segalewitz’s 90th birthday
Helene Gordon
JOAN AND PETER WELLS AND REBECCA LINVILLE FAMILY, CHILDREN AND YOUTH FUND
In memory of Howard Michaels’ brother
In memory of Joan Wells’ Father, Alexander Levitt
In memory of Larry Charme
In memory of Edward Jacobs
In honor of Noah Levinson’s bar mitzvah
Joan and Peter Wells
Did you know you can honor a friend or family member through a Legacy, Tribute or Memorial?
A donation to one of the Jewish Foundation's many endowment funds benefits our Jewish community while honoring a loved one. For more information, please call 937-610-1555.
Guided by Jewish traditions, Jewish Family Services of Greater Dayton provides individuals and families in the Miami Valley with the tools and services to lead happy and healthy lives.
If you or someone you know is in need of assistance, please contact Jewish Family Services at 937-401-1551 or email us at kscarpero@jfgd.net.
Classes
Beth Jacob Classes: W. Rabbi Agar on Zoom. Call to register, 937-274-2149. Tuesdays, 7 p.m.: Torah Tuesdays. Thursdays, 7 p.m.: Thursdays of Thought.
Chabad Classes: Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m.: Talmud Class in person & Zoom. Call for Zoom link & location. Fridays, 9:30 a.m.: Women’s Class. Call for location. Mondays, April 20-May 11, 7 p.m.: $54. JLIFor All Humankind, in person & Zoom. Register at chabaddayton.com/calendar. 2001 Far Hills Ave, Oakwood. 937-6430770.
Temple Beth Or Classes: Sat., April 11, 25, 10 a.m.: Apocryphal Study in person & Zoom. Thurs., April 16, 6 p.m.: Navigating Loss w. Andy Chaet. Thurs., April 23, 7 p.m.: The Jewish Short Story. Register at templebethor.com/calendar. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 937-435-3400.
Temple Israel Classes: Tuesdays, noon: Talmud Study in person & Zoom. Wednesdays, 10 a.m.: Torah Study Commentary in person & Zoom. For Zoom info., email info@ tidayton.org. Saturdays, 9:15 a.m.: Virtual Torah Study on Zoom. For Torah Study Zoom info., email Fran Rickenbach, franwr@gmail.com. Fri., April 10, 11 a.m.: Living w. Loss. Sat., April 11, 9:15 a.m.: Torah Study in person and Zoom. Thurs., April 16, 3:30 p.m.: Living w. Ambiguous Loss. Sun., April 26, 11:30 a.m.: Service Leading & Liturgy Class w. Rabbi Bodney-Halasz. tidayton.org/calendar. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. RSVP to 937-4960050.
Family
Beth Abraham Rhythm ‘N’ Ruach: Fri., April 10, 5:306:15 p.m. At Temple Israel, 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 937-2939520.
Temple Israel Prayer & Play: Sat., April 11, 10 a.m. Infants–2nd grade. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 937-496-0050.
Youths & Teens
BBYO Topgolf Takeover: Sun., April 12, 4 p.m. $15. Email Jennifer Holman for more info. & RSVP, jholman@jfgd. net. Transportation provided from CJCE (525 Versailles Dr., Centerville) to Topgolf, 9568 Water Front Dr., West Chester. 937-610-1555.
CALENDAR
Jr. Youth Group Pizza & Game Night: Sun., April 26, 5 p.m. $10. 5th-7th graders. RSVP by April 22. For questions & to register, email Jennifer Holman, jholman@ jfgd.net. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. 937610-1555.
Adults
Temple Israel’s Ryterband Lecture Series & Brunch: $10 Sundays, 9:45 a.m. April 12: Rabbi Tina Sobo, Midrash in a Visual & Digital Age. April 26: Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz, From My Side of the Bima. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 937-4960050.
Temple Israel Sacred Stitching: Tues., April 14, 28, 11 a.m. Make items for donation w. JCRC’s Upstander initiative. For info. email Alexandria King, garyuzzking@hotmail.com. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 937-4960050.
Temple Beth Or Art & Music Café: Sat., April 18, 6:30 p.m. $25. 7 p.m.: Live music. Register at templebethor.com/ event/art-and-music-cafe1. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 937-435-3400.
Women
Chabad Rosh Chodesh Society: Sun., April 19, 10 a.m. $15. Logic & Faith in Our Divine Relationship. RSVP at chabaddayton.com/rcs. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-643-0770.
JCC Cultural Arts & Book Series
Author Dan Slater: Sun., April 26, 2 p.m. Free. In partnership w. & at Wright Memo-
rial Public Library, 1776 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. Register at jewishdayton.org/events.
Passover
Chabad Community Pesach Seder: Wed., April 1, 7:30 p.m. $45 adults, $25 kids (3-12). More info. & RSVP to Rabbi Simon, rabbilevi@ chabaddayton.com or chabaddayton.com/calendar. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-6430770.
Community
Yom Hashoah Observance Program: Sun., April 19. 3 p.m.: Art & writing on display. 3:15 p.m.: Community conversation. 4 p.m.: PJ Library & PJ Our Way Program. 4 p.m.: Memorial Service. Registration encouraged at jewishdayton. org/events. Email Lidia Zambilovici for more info. lzambilovici@jfgd.net. Temple Israel, 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton.
Yom Ha’atzmaut Dinner & Concert - Celebrate Israel at 78: Wed., April 22, 6 p.m. $18 individual, $45 family. RSVP by April 17. Register at jewishdayton.org/events. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. 937-610-1555.
2313 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood 937-293-1196 oakwoodflorist.com family owned & operated military discount
Pasha Grill
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Beavercreek, Ohio 937-429 9000 www.pashagrill.com
Blood libel
Continued from Page 14
someone in a position like this to have a platform to say these things,” he said. “Through the internet and social media, this kind of misinformation and lies can be elevated to millions and millions of people. There is an active attempt by extremists to try to contort Israel’s actions with deeply antisemitic themes like blood libel and Jewish influence over the world.”
The Ohio Senate passed Senate Bill 87 on March 4, 27-4. It's now in the Ohio House for consideration.
On Feb. 25, House Bill 306 was introduced at a meeting of the Ohio House Judiciary Committee. The bill, which is co-primary sponsored by Reps. Dontavius Jarells, D-Columbus; and Josh Williams, R-Sylvania Township, would enact the Hate Crime Act to prohibit hate crimes and to create a civil remedy for a person who is terrorized by another because of specific characteristics or beliefs.
“House Bill 306 is an overall anti-hate bill that is broad and includes extra protections for people who are victims of crimes based on several categories, including race and religion,” said Synenberg, one of 26 cosponsors of the proposal.
Although Gov. DeWine has signed an executive order on IHRA’s definition of antisemitism, we need this legislation to pass because legislation is more binding and enforceable than an executive order.”
The Ohio Jewish Caucus, represented by Reps. Beryl Brown Piccolantonio, D-Gahanna; Dani Isaacsohn, DCincinnati; Christine Cockley, D-Columbus; Karen
Brownlee, D-Symmes Township; Synenberg and Weinstein, said in a statement that: “Antisemitism is at an extreme.
At a committee hearing on the IHRA definition, a bill meant to define and bolster education on antisemitism, a witness spread dangerous and antisemitic disinformation about the Jewish community. We call upon our colleagues to stand up against antisemitism in all forms and in all settings.”
OJC's Ashed said, “If you can’t agree on what defines hate against the Jewish community, you can’t fight against it in any
way or call it out in any way. There’s an incredible amount of hate right now being labeled as political discourse when it is threatening our community on a regular basis. And there is a place for political discourse, and there’s a right way to do it. But inciting hatred against the Jewish community, invoking blood libels like the one that this guy did in public, are not the way to do it.
“It’s a commentary on where society is at the moment, that people are willingly going into government hearings and saying those sorts of things.”
“Having SB 87 as an extra layer of protection along with House Bill 306 is important.
Patty Caruso at jewishobserver@jfgd.net to advertise
Perpetuation of the first blood libel: 15th-century Nuremberg woodcut of Jews crucifying William of Norwich.
Ohio Rep. Eric Synenberg D-Beachwood
RELIGION WORSHIP SERVICES
Beth Abraham Synagogue
Conservative
Rabbi Aubrey L. Glazer
Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. 937-293-9520
April worship services at Temple Israel, 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. bethabrahamdayton.org.
Beth Boruk Temple Reform
Cantor Andrea Raizen
2810 Southeast Pkwy., Richmond, Ind. bethboruk@yahoo.com. Friday night Shabbat service monthly, September through May. For schedule, go to bethboruktemple.com.
Beth Jacob Congregation
Modern Orthodox Rabbi Leibel Agar Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. Evening minyans upon request. 7020 N. Main St., Dayton. 937-274-2149. bethjacobcong.org
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
Temple Anshe Emeth Reform
Worship led by Jese Shell Fri., April 17, 7:30 p.m. 320 Caldwell St., Piqua. Contact Steve Shuchat, 937-7262116, ansheemeth@gmail.com. ansheemeth.org
Temple Beth Or Reform
Rabbi Judy Chessin Fridays, 6:15 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., April 3, 6 p.m. Fridays, April 17 and 24, 6:30 p.m. Sat., April 11, 10:30 a.m. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 937-496-0050. tidayton.org
Temple Sholom Reform
Rabbi Cary Kozberg Fridays, 6 p.m. 2424 N. Limestone St., Springfield. 937-399-1231. templesholomoh.com
Yellow Springs Havurah Independent Antioch College Rockford Chapel. 1st & 3rd Saturday each month. Contact Len Kramer, 937-5724840 or len2654@gmail.com.
From slavery to sovereignty
By Rabbi Judy Chessin
Temple
Beth
Or
We are living through historic times. American Jews have long lived with an uncomfortable truth: The world is far more sympathetic to powerless Jews than to powerful ones.
The writer Dara Horn described the reality bluntly in her book People Love Dead Jews. The world builds museums to Jewish suffering. It teaches schoolchildren about Anne Frank. It solemnly vows “Never Again.”
But living Jews — Jews who defend themselves, Jews who wield power, Jews who shape their own destiny — provoke a far more complex reaction.
Perspectives
Which raises a question many of us have been grappling with since Oct. 8, 2023: After 2,000 years of powerlessness, are we ready for what true Jewish power means?
The Jewish calendar in April places that question clearly before us. Within a few short weeks, we move through three observances that trace the arc of the Jewish story itself.
At Passover, we remember what it meant to be slaves. Days later, we observe Yom Hashoah and confront the catastrophic consequences of Jewish powerlessness in the modern world.
Jewish life were eliminated. A regime that had long chanted “Death to Israel” — and “Death to America” — discovered that those threats would no longer go unanswered — and that threatening destruction now carried consequences.
For the first time in generations, Jews were not simply asking whether the world would act. Jewish power — and the power of its allies — had unmistakably entered the equation.
Our children are growing up in a Jewish world unlike any their parents or grandparents knew.
For 80 years. Jews asked a haunting question: Why didn’t the Allies bomb the tracks to the Auschwitz concentration camp? The question reflected a deeper fear — that when Jewish lives were at stake, the world would not act.
Today we face a different reality. A Jewish army exists. Jewish power exists. And Jews no longer wait for the world to act. And the world, which loves dead Jews, is uneasy around Jews who successfully exercise power.
Over the past years, this tension has been impossible to ignore. The trauma of Oct. 7, 2023 revived the oldest Jewish fear — that Jews could once again be hunted simply for being Jews.
Then we celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut — the rebirth of Jewish sovereignty in the Jewish State of Israel.
In a single month we reenact slavery, catastrophe, and sovereignty. Few peoples commemorate that entire journey in such a short span. And this year, those words feel less like ancient memory and more like unfolding news.
On Feb. 28, 2026, the Jewish story changed once again. For decades, the regime in Iran openly called for Israel’s destruction while funding terror across the region. Those threats became part of the background noise of Jewish life — ominous, familiar, and relentless.
Then, overnight, something changed. Israel acted, and the United States acted alongside it.
The clerics who had spent decades issuing threats against
Yet even as Israelis buried their dead and confronted enemies openly committed to their destruction, loud voices around the world quickly cast Israel not as victim but as aggressor, accusing the Jewish state — and, in turn, Jews everywhere — of genocide even as Israel warned civilians and targeted those who attacked it.
They inherit the memory of slavery, exile, and genocide. But they also inherit something unprecedented in Jewish history: Jewish sovereignty.
Will they learn to carry that inheritance with pride and responsibility? Or will they be taught to feel ashamed of Jewish power?
Perhaps the hardest shift for Jews is not military or political but psychological.
For centuries, the Jewish people feared being hated and defenseless. Today, we face a different possibility: that we may sometimes be hated not because we are weak, but because we are strong enough to defend ourselves. Can we live with that?
Jewish tradition has never romanticized power. The Torah warned kings not to trust their own strength. The prophets insisted that power must always be restrained by justice and tempered by the Divine.
That may be why it feels so powerful that Jewish history places these observances so close together.
Pesach reminds us what it meant to be powerless. Yom Hashoah reminds us what happens when Jews have no refuge. Yom
The world, which loves dead Jews, is uneasy around Jews who successfully exercise power.
Ha’atzmaut reminds us that sovereignty — Jewish power — is both miracle and responsibility. Our generation, and especially our children, are still learning what it means to live with that truth.
April Nisan/Iyar
Erev Pesach
April 1: 7:43 p.m.
1st Eve Pesach, April 2 8:43 p.m.
This is the cognitive dissonance of the Jewish moment: Jews feel vulnerable, while the world condemns the power Jews use to defend themselves.
For centuries, Jews feared a world that would not defend us. Now we face a different challenge: living in a world that condemns us for defending ourselves!
Perhaps the task before us is not to apologize for Jewish power, but to learn how to carry it — and to teach the next generation to answer accusations not with shame, but with clarity, history, and moral confidence.
Jewish sovereignty is new in our long story. Learning how to carry it may be the work of this generation. But carry it we must.
Shabbat, April 3: 7:45 p.m. 7th Eve Pesach April 7: 7:49 p.m.
8th Eve Pesach, April 8 8:49 p.m.
Shabbat, April 10: 7:52 p.m.
Shabbat, April 17: 7:59 p.m.
Shabbat, April 24: 8:06 p.m.
Torah Portions
April 11: Shemini (Lev. 9:1-11:47)
April 18: Tazria-Metzora (Lev. 12:1-15:33; Num. 28:9-15)
April 25: Achare-Kedoshim (Lev. 16:1-20:27) Candle Lightings
Pesach Passover
April 2-9 15-22 Nisan
Eight-day festival celebrating the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Leavened bread products are not eaten.
Yom Hashoah
Holocaust Remembrance Day April 14 • 27 Nisan
Marked by memorials for those who perished in the Holocaust.
Yom Hazikaron
Israel Memorial Day April 21 • 4 Iyar Memorial Day for all who died serving Israel. Concludes with a siren blast as stars appear and Independence Day begins.
Yom Ha’atzmaut
Israel Independence Day April 22 • 5 Iyar Celebrated by Jews around the world. Israel celebrates with parades, singing, dancing, and fireworks.
Rabbi Judy Chessin
You’re Invited!
Art and Music Café
Saturday, April 18th 6:30 p.m. at Temple Beth Or
Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with wine & cheese reception (non-alchoholic beverages also provided) Live music from 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Featuring ‘Little Mary and friends’ With acoustic Blues, Folk and Yiddish favorites throughout the evening Including the Folk and Oldies stylings of ‘Marc and Steve’
More musicians to be announced & some items available for purchase, including glass sculptures, hand-crafted wood designs, photography and more...
$25.00 admission/donation for this long awaited, artsy, fundraiser! (this is an adult only event, please!) For tickets, please visit: https://templebethor.com/art-music-cafe
Temple Beth Or 5275 Marshall Road Dayton, Ohio 45429 www.templebethor.com 937-435-3400
Today...and for Generations
Brazil’s beloved Cheese Bread: Perfect for Passover
Pão de Queijo is delicious, packed with cheese, and naturally chametz-free.
By Eduardo Lifchitz, The Nosher I’ve always been passionate about the easy Brazilian cheese bread, pão de queijo. When it comes to Passover, pão de queijo is the card up my sleeve. It's a snack you can make in under an hour, it’s kosher for Passover and if you’re not sure what to eat during those hours before the Seder (when eating chametz and matzah are both prohibited), it’s an easy snack to make for the kids. Pro tip: Let the kids help roll the little balls. Everything indicates that pão de queijo originated in Minas Gerais, a region in central Brazil known for its cerrado (savanna) landscape. It is believed to have emerged around the mid-18th century, a time when wheat flour was an imported good brought from Europe to Rio de Janeiro and the surrounding areas. As a result, various cassava derivatives were developed, such as tapioca, cassava flour, and polvilho (cassava starch).
So, what’s the connection between pão de queijo and Passover?
Since pão de queijo contains no wheat flour or leavening, it has become a popular dairy snack for Passover. I’ve been seeing more and more versions of pão de queijo specifically adapted for the holiday. Forget gefilte fish, brisket, and mina de matzah — pão de queijo, like Brazilians themselves, is easygoing and unfussy. Plus, it’s gluten-free. There are a few ways to make it, but the most common method involves pouring boiling liquid over the flour.
In Brazil, the defining characteristic of pão de queijo — and a source of pride for people from Minas Gerais — is the type of cheese used. Years ago, many people made it with queijo Minas, a soft yet firm white cheese, sometimes adding Parmesan. Nowadays, most recipes call for Canastra or meia cura, both aged cheeses that range from white to creamy in color, with meia cura being a favorite.
If you don’t have the luxury of be-
ing surrounded by delicious Brazilian cheeses, we suggest a mix of ¾ mozzarella and ¼ Parmesan or a half-and-half blend. But if you have a favorite white cheese, go ahead and use that. And if you want to enjoy it like a true Mineiro, once your pão de queijo is ready, cut it open, spread a little butter or creamy cheese inside, and pair it with a good cup of coffee from the Minas Gerais cerrado.
Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.
Yield: 12-15 cheese bread balls
4 Tbsp. neutral oil, like canola, avocado or vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup whole milk
2 cups tapioca flour
½ Tbsp. salt
2 cups shredded cheese (a mix of mozzarella and Parmesan is recommended)
1 ½ eggs, mixed
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Add the water, oil and milk to a medium pot and bring to a boil.
In a separate bowl, mix the tapioca, flour and salt. Pour the boiling mixture of water, oil, and milk over the dry ingredients and mix well until lumps form.
Let the mixture rest until it becomes lukewarm and the bowl has cooled. If the mixture is too hot, it will cook the eggs in the next step. Once the bowl is cool, add the cheese and eggs. Now mix all the ingredients together until well mixed.
Measure out dough about the size of a golf ball and roll into balls in the palm of your hand.
Put the bread balls on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and into the preheated oven.
Bake for 30 minutes or until the balls are golden in color. They’re best eaten straight from the oven.
Milton Rodney Buzon/ Getty Images
Pesach Spinach & Cheese Lasagna
By Adeena Sussman, The Nosher Lasagna
for Passover? You bet. After days of preparing (probably meatbased) Seders, this dairy dish will be a welcome change — especially on a holiday where pasta is strictly forbidden.
Matzah makes a suitable replacement for lasagna noodles, and the moisture released by the marinara sauce and the cheese softens the stiff, unleavened boards, resulting in a tender lasagna with layers just as delicious as one made with conventional, wheat-based noodles.
I decided to keep this recipe simple, using frozen spinach and storebought marinara sauce. If the inspiration strikes you, by all means make your own sauce.
One cup of sautéed mushrooms would also be a welcome addition, but the goal here was to liberate cooks from hours in the kitchen.
¼ cup chopped parsley
½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
3 cups (¾ lb.) shredded mozzarella cheese
3 cups (1 ½ lbs.) small-curd cottage cheese
1 lb. package frozen spinach, completely defrosted
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine cottage cheese, 1½ cups mozzarella, parsley, salt and pepper in a bowl and stir to incorporate. Reserve. Using your hands, squeeze excess moisture from spinach and separate spinach until it is no longer clumped (you should end up with about 3½-4 cups spinach). Reserve.
Since ricotta cheese is difficult to find with kosher-forPassover certification, cottage cheese is substituted. If you’d like a more ricottalike consistency, whir the cottage cheese in the blender or food processor for a few seconds before combining with the other ingredients.
Note: This recipe constitutes gebrochts, the Yiddish word for “broken” which refers to matzah products that have come into contact with liquid.
Some Ashkenazi Jews do not eat gebrochts on Passover, believing that liquid causes the matzah to rise, rendering it unfit for Passover consumption.
Total Time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.
Yield: Serves 4-6
8–9 whole boards matzah (regular or whole-wheat)
2 jars (about 6 ½-7 cups) marinara sauce
¼ tsp. black pepper
¾ tsp. salt
eder with kosher wines, hemura Matza and a fourDiscover the Haggada and s messages of Passover.
Spoon ¾ cup marinara sauce into the bottom of a disposable, high-sided lasagna pan. Fit matzah to cover as much of the bottom of the pan as possible, breaking into pieces where necessary.
Pour 1½ cups sauce on top of matzah and distribute evenly.
Spoon about 1 cup of the cheese mixture onto the matzah and distribute evenly.
Sprinkle about 1¼ cups of the spinach on top of the cheese, then sprinkle two tablespoons of Parmesan cheese. Repeat matzah-sauce-cheese-spinachParmesan process two more times, then cover with a fourth layer of matzah. Pour remaining 1½ cups sauce on top of matzah.
Let lasagna rest for 15 minutes before baking to allow matzah to moisten slightly. Cover lasagna with foil and bake for 35 minutes.
andmade shmurah matzah er authentic. Do you need Seder items?
ng you need for Pesach at Chabad. Order online or call us! www.ChabadDayton.com/Seder or 937643-0770 x3.
April 2 & 3: Morning Prayers 10:00am April 8 & 9: Morning Prayers 9:30am Yizkor on April 9 11:00am
Remove foil and sprinkle remaining 1½ cups mozzarella on top of lasagna. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake lasagna an additional 30 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and browned around the edges.
Remove from oven, let rest for five minutes, and serve hot.
Following the custom of the Baal Shem Tov, Pesach concludes with a Feast of Moshiach. This festive meal complete with Matzah and, four cups of wine, begins before sunset. It is the perfect way to spiritually take leave of Pesach.
www
Adeena Sussman
Temple Beth Or Wishes
The chewy toasty coconut macaroon cake you didn’t know you needed for Seder
more on your dessert table after a night of eating, but trust me, you’ll want leftovers of this decadent dessert.
As we gather around our Seder tables, may the story of our freedom
I’ve always seen restrictions as a way to inspire creativity, so when I had a gluten-free, dairy-free guest RSVP, I knew I had to think outside the box.
Naturally, when I think of glutenfree desserts, I often think of the Passover table, where many gluten-containing grains are off limits.
And while this coconut macaroon cake is indeed Passover-friendly (and Passover-flavored), it’s also perfect yearround.
Total Time: 40 minutes. Yield: Serves 8-10.
4 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
It’s a dense, rich, coconutty cake with a hint of lime to brighten it up. If you want a more citrusy cake, you can double the zest, or try using lemon or orange zest.
Top this cake with your favorite whipped cream and fruit for a slightly fresher option. You won’t need much
3 cups unsweetened coconut
2 cups almond flour
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. lime zest ½ tsp. kosher salt Confectioners’ sugar to serve
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9-inch cake or springform pan before lining the bottom with parchment paper.
Using the whisk attachment, whisk the eggs on medium speed until very well combined.
Raise the speed to medium-high, and slowly add the sugar. Increase the speed to high, and whisk for five to six more minutes until the egg and sugar mixture is very light and fluffy.
Continue until the mixture reaches the “ribbon stage,” where a trail from the whisk holds its shape slightly.
Use a silicone spatula to gently fold in the coconut, almond flour, vanilla extract, lime zest, and salt until well incorporated.
Transfer batter to your prepared pan, smoothing the top with a small angled spatula. Bake for 28 to 32 minutes or until firm and golden brown.
Let cool in the pan on a wire rack, then remove from the pan to serve, dusting with confectioners’ sugar.
Everything you love about coconut macaroons baked into a cake.
Four Dayton-area Holocaust survivors — Felix Garfunkel, Larry Katz, Ira Segalewitz, and Yakov Shayevich — are included in the Cincinnati photography exhibit, Holding Hope: Stories of Survival During the Holocaust, on display through June 7 at Union Terminal, under the auspices of the Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center. Survivors' stories are on display along with their portraits, taken by Cincinnati-based photojournalist Madeleine Hordinski, a regular contributor to The New York Times and The Washington Post. The Holocaust & Humanity Center has also published a book of the exhibit, which is available for purchase.
Send your Mazel Tov announcements to mweiss@jfgd.net.
We wish the Dayton Jewish community a very happy Passover
Diane Rubin Williams & Ralph Williams
Marni Flagel & Family
Warm Passover greetings from Alan & Becky Elovitz
Tom & Katherine Cruse
Photos by Lidia Zambilovici
Yakov Shayevich at the Holding Hope exhibit opening, March 5.
Larry Katz at the exhibit opening.
Portrait of Ira Segalewitz by Madeleine Hordinski at the exhibit.
Felix Garfunkel's portrait by Madeleine Hordinski.
Best wishes to all for a Happy Passover
Brenda Rinzler
Our warmest wishes for a joyous Passover
Bruce & Debbie Feldman
A sweet and joyous Passover
Phyllis A. Finkelstein
Our warmest wishes for a joyous Passover
A sweet and joyous Passover
Best wishes to all for a Happy Passover
Have a Sweet Pesach
Warm Passover greetings from
Temple Anshe Emeth, Piqua
Wishing all of Dayton a Happy Passover
Rabiner A sweet and joyous Passover
We wish our Dayton Jewish family a very happy Passover
& Adam
Our warmest wishes for a joyous Passover
&
Our warmest wishes for a joyous Passover
Best wishes to all for a Happy Passover
&
Best wishes to all for a Happy Passover
Best wishes to all for a Happy Passover
Steve, Shara, Rachel & Natalie Taylor
Our warmest wishes for a joyous Passover
Best wishes to all for a Happy Passover
Our warmest wishes for a joyous Passover
Best wishes to all for a Happy Passover
&
Julie
Adam Waldman, Noah, Zoe & Oscar
Tara
Feiner
The Mikutis Family
Diane and Jim Duberstein
Debby, Bob, Alicia, Ted & William Goldenberg
Ritva Williamson & Milton Nathan
Andi Scher
Judy Woll & Ron Bernard
Susan & Nathaniel Ritter
Linda
Steve Horenstein
Harriet Klass & Michael Klass
Judy Lipton
Judge Susan Dlott
Bill
Joshua Marwil
Steve & Kim Adler
JEWISH FAMILY EDUCATION
Greater than ourselves
In the news series
Recent headlines tell a sobering story: Human freedoms 'fallen off the cliff,' new study reveals. Free speech is facing threats in the US and beyond. ‘The Last Generation of Freedom’? The Quiet Growth of Global Surveillance Culture. Liberty at risk as threats to freedom grow. Land of the Free? Fewer Americans Agree.
Painting a broad picture of world trends, these headlines also underscore specific challenges facing America, with origin and aspirations rooted in being “the land of the free.”
While the articles themselves analyze specific metrics — civil liberties, economic regulations, safety, the rule of law — the most compelling takeaway is a personal one expressed by one of the related survey questions: “How satisfied are you with your freedom to choose what to do with your life?”
This echoes the Greek Stoic Epictetus, who famously asked, “Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish?” For him, the answer was a blunt, “Nothing else.”
However, he wasn’t advocating for hedonism. Epictetus taught that living as we wish, in true freedom, requires disciplining one’s thoughts and reactions — prioritizing virtue over impulse. His philosophy is best captured by the maxim: "No man is free who is not master of himself."
The tension between internal
discipline and external rights continues in modern discourse.
In a recent forum discussion regarding what freedom means to Americans, one respondent perceptively noted, “The American concept of freedom is rooted in individualism… your (unlimited) right to be you…As a European…I like that there are some social expectations to keep me in order, but I also enjoy being able to express myself.”
These views all prioritize freedom in relation to the individual — whether through internal autonomy, moral selfreliance, or community boundaries.
Judaism, however, offers a multi-faceted alternative that harmonizes individual and communal identity, viewing them as interdependent forces rooted in the foundational narrative of the biblical Exodus.
From the burning bush onward, God’s message to Moses was clear: the Israelites were to be freed from Egyptian bondage not merely for the sake of liberty, but in order to serve God.
tians, how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Me. If you will obey Me and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession…a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
Speaking as one, the people affirmed this covenant, declaring, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do!"
At first glance, it seems the Israelites had simply traded one master for another.
But the Exodus from Egyptian slavery was never intended to be an end in itself.
In the terms of philosopher Isaiah Berlin, it was a transition from “negative liberty” — freedom from external restraint — to “positive liberty,” the freedom to serve a higher purpose.
Nature abhors a vacuum. Something had to replace the Israelites’ former taskmasters, the tasks, and even the social structure and culture built up over centuries of slavery.
The tension between internal discipline and external rights continues in modern discourse.
Had Israel not committed to serving God at Sinai, the void created by the absence of authority, structure, and purpose likely would have been filled by immediate reenslavement by surrounding nations, internal anarchy, or a turn to pagan servitude.
foot of the mountain, a transformative act that redefined the relationship between God and the Jewish people.
The first set, crafted entirely by God, had been presented as a gift to a passive audience, one who had played no role in their creation and put forth no effort to receive them.
It was a supernatural moment that briefly inspired the Israelites but failed to transform their character. This failure set the stage for a more active partnership.
The second set of tablets, hewn by Moses but inscribed by God, signaled the moment the Israelites became partners in Creation.
No longer passive recipients, they were now called to invest human effort to repair the world’s brokenness and to serve as a beacon of moral clarity and holiness.
Because a human hand helped shape the stone, a new paradigm emerged: a living Torah, Torat Chaim, a dynamic, ongoing guide that required continuous study, interpretation, and Divine-human partnership.
This Torah ceased to be merely an external gift and became a catalyst for permanent change in the individual and in the world. It offered a new freedom: freedom for the sake of making a difference.
Today’s headlines suggest that many people are less than satisfied with their freedom.
Perhaps this dissatisfaction reflects a life lived only with “freedom from” (restraint) or “freedom to” (impulse), but missing the “freedom for” described at Sinai.
In the words of theologian and writer Neal Hardin, “True freedom is not primarily a freedom ‘from’ external restraints, nor the freedom ‘to’ enact our own will, but a freedom ‘for’ something greater than ourselves.
This mandate was reinforced throughout the plagues, as Moses was repeatedly instructed to tell Pharaoh, “Let My people go that they may serve Me."
Barely settled at the foot of Mount Sinai after their miraculous liberation, the Israelites were reminded of the purpose of their freedom.
God declared, “You have seen what I did to the Egyp-
Literature to share
Fear No Pharaoh: American Jews, the Civil War, and the Fight to End Slavery by Richard Kreitner. A 2025 National Jewish Book Award Finalist, Fear No Pharaoh offers a gripping look at the diverse and often conflicting roles Jews played during the American Civil War. Written in a fast-paced, narrative style, the book profiles six figures ranging from abolitionists to Confederate leaders to show how the community grappled with the moral crisis of slavery. These vivid portraits reveal a community struggling to reconcile religious tradition with the era's brutal political realities.
Exodus itself makes this very point in the story of the Golden Calf. This was more than a rebellious sin. Unable to handle the “vacuum” of an invisible God, an absent leader, and a lack of direction or purpose, the Israelites fashioned a visible substitute in a tangible, familiar form.
Seeing that the Israelites had “broken their engagement” with the Divine, Moses shattered the original tablets at the
Prisoner and the Writer by
lot, illustrated by Sophie Casson. This visually striking account brings the dramatic story of the Dreyfus affair to life for upper elementary readers. Using a clever parallel layout, it contrasts Alfred Dreyfus’ lonely exile with Émile Zola’s brave fight to prove his innocence. It’s a fast-paced way for kids to learn about a major moment in Jewish history. Included at the end is an author's note and additional historical context to help explain why standing up against antisemitism still matters today.
The
Heather Cam-
Candace R. Kwiatek
Moses Showing the Ten Commandments, Gustave Doré, 1865.
community
Arts&Culture
How uptown Jews fought to clean up Lower East Side's criminal underworld
By Jon Kalish NY Jewish Week
“When a lady whistled at you on Allen Street, you knew she’s not calling you to a minyan!”
So goes a particularly illuminating quote from a lawyer named Jonah Goldstein, describing just how derelict life on the Lower East Side was in July 1913, when gangs, pimps, and assorted crooks ran rampant in the neighborhood.
In his 2024 book, Jewish lawyer-turned-author Dan Slater detailed the immense scale of crime in the neighborhood at the turn of the last century, where famed Jewish gangsters like Meyer Lansky, Lefty Rosenberg, and Dopey Benny got their start. But he doesn’t stop there.
In The Incorruptibles: A True Story of Kingpins, Crime Busters, and the Birth of the American Underworld, Slater spotlights a group of wealthy Jewish reformers uptown who waged war on the Lower East Side’s pimps and gangsters.
Slater closes out this year's Dayton JCC Cultural Arts & Book Series, April 26 at the Wright Memorial Public Library in Oakwood.
The shocking tale is largely forgotten by American Jews today, even if it’s also part of the dramatic backstory behind legacy Jewish institutions like the Educational Alliance and the American Jewish Committee.
“I’ve been a big reader my whole life and this stuff was new to me,” Slater, 46, said, “so it must be new to other people.”
The Incorruptibles describes the tactics employed by Jewish clergy, civic activists, and law enforcement officials to clean up the Lower East Side, including an undercover stakeout to document prostitution at a gritty hotel and one of the first uses of an NYPD wiretap to capture a murder suspect involved in the underground gambling scene.
From the late 1800s to the 1920s, Jewish residents of Manhattan inhabited two vastly different worlds. The affluent, assimilated German Jews mostly lived on the Upper East Side, where many lived in luxurious mansions and summered in massive country estates.
meant everything.”
As the book details, the scope of prostitution on the Lower East Side in the early 20th century was greater than some historians have chosen to admit. (“Communities struggling for survival seldom rush to announce their failures,” Irving Howe wrote in his 1976 book about the era, World of Our Fathers.)
There were brothels above, below, and next to synagogues. They were also situated next to schools, soup kitchens, and wedding halls.
There was even a fraternal group of pimps on the Lower East Side incorporated under New York State law: The Independent Benevolent Association supplied members with employment insurance and burial plots.
The Forward estimated in the early 1900s that close to 4,000 Jewish women went missing from New York City each year, many of them, ostensibly, to a life on the streets as sex workers.
Despite all the sordid details, Slater feels that The Incorruptibles is ultimately a story of hope. That’s because it shows a community taking matters into its own hands in order to create a better future for all its members, he said.
“What you had was the Germans spending a ton of money to elevate the refugees to provide all these services that were not yet available to the poor because there was no welfare net yet,” Slater said, noting that federal income tax wasn’t imposed until 1913.
“The wealthy didn’t even pay taxes. So, anything that was going to be done for a poor person would have to be done based on the goodwill and benevolence of a wealthy person. And fortunately, these German Jews, for whatever reason, felt this moral imperative to do whatever they could do.”
Meanwhile, their more recently arrived cousins from the Pale of Settlement lived below 14th Street on what was referred to back then as simply “the East Side.” The immigrants struggled to make a living in crowded, impoverished conditions that inevitably bred disease, vice, and crime.
“Today we don’t think of ourselves as Russian or German, we just think of ourselves as a Jewish American,” Slater said. “But back then, that distinction
The JCC Cultural Arts & Book Series presents author Dan Slater, 2 p.m., Sunday, April 26 in partnership with and at Wright Memorial Public Library, 1776 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. Register for this free program at jewishdayton.org/events.
Well-heeled Jews who had already formed the American Jewish Committee to represent their interests joined with an alliance of downtown organizations to form the Kehillah, a clearinghouse to “study and ameliorate social, moral and economic conditions” of the city’s Jewish poor, according to its 1914 charter.
The organization, as Slater points out in the book, was an outgrowth of the age-old tradition of self-governance in Jewish communities in ancient Israel and afterwards in Europe.
The Kehillah enlisted people like private investigator Abe Schoenfeld, a Wall Street lawyer named Harry Newburger, and Rabbi Judah Magnes, who was spiritual leader of Temple Emanu-El, the Reform congregation on Fifth Avenue.
The fiery rabbi was not pleased with what he deemed as his congregation’s lack of empathy for the
Dan Slater
hardscrabble lives of the Lower East Side Jews and eventually went to work for the Kehillah full-time. (Magnes later moved to Palestine and cofounded Hebrew University, serving as its first chancellor.)
The German Jews who funded and were active in the Kehillah included Jacob Schiff, the investment banker who was dubbed “the Jewish J.P. Morgan” by The New York Times, and his sonin-law Felix Warburg, a member of the oldest banking family in Europe. (Warburg’s home on 92nd Street and Fifth Avenue now houses the Jewish Museum.)
Other wealthy uptown German Jews included the Ochs family, which owned The New York Times, and the progenitors of future Wall Street powerhouses named Goldman, Sachs, Lehman, and Solomon.
“It was quite a crowd and they partied, they lived it up with all that untaxed wealth,” Slater observed. “Those mansions they lived in uptown were no joke: vacation homes on the Jersey shore and in Maine; yachts and horse farms. It was pretty insane.”
Nevertheless, out of a combination of selfinterest and charitable impulse they funded an asylum for orphans, provided free health care for the poor, and in 1889 created the Educational Alliance, a settlement house for newly arrived East European Jews.
Financing the reform effort on the Lower East Side, however, “was always kind of hush-hush,” according to Slater.
Despite the assistance from their uptown cousins, to some degree, the Eastern European Jewish immigrants themselves were also responsible for turning the neighborhood around, Slater said.
“The immigrants had not lived in a free world for centuries,” he noted. “They had lived under severe oppression, survived massacres, adjusted to laws that restricted which professions they could pursue, laws that pushed them into crime. When they arrived on the Lower East Side, even though it was
a ghetto with many problems, it was still a country where, theoretically, they could do anything.”
The one thing the uptown and downtown Jews did have in common was they both left observant Judaism.
“The children of the immigrants (downtown) saw (Judaism) as an old thing. They wanted to become American, they wanted to assimilate,” Slater said. “They didn’t want to be involved in some fusty religion thing and that was what united a lot of them with the German Jewish uptowners because the children of those people were the same way.”
Slater — whose previous book was 2016’s Wolf Boys, a true story of two American teenagers who served as assassins for a Mexican drug cartel — spent seven years researching and writing The Incorruptibles.
That included reading through transcripts of the trial of seven members of the United Hebrew Trades, a federation of Jewish labor unions, for the murder of a strike-breaking Jewish tailor. (They were acquitted.) He also had a translator comb through the 13 Yiddish newspapers published on the Lower East Side, as well as unpublished volumes of the Yiddish autobiography of Abe Cahan, founder and editor in chief of the Forward
The book also benefits from Slater’s personal collection of period photographs purchased during online auctions of the Brown Brothers Collection. A valuable collection of hundreds of thousands of pictures dating back to 1904 that included photos of slums, immigrants, and crime scenes, the images were auctioned off one at a time and Slater bought 700 of them.
“It was just amazing. All these characters and episodes and incidents that I’ve been researching and writing about like the horse poisoners — all of a sudden (they’re) in front of me on my computer,” Slater recalled. “I was seeing original and beautiful photographs of these very things and I was, like, ‘Oh, my God! This stuff is real. There it is.’”
The old Orchard Street Market on the Lower East Side, New York. Courtesy of Dan Slater
The Time Is Now.
Several years ago, the community came together and created Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Dayton to protect and preserve the eternal homes of our loved ones.
Research showed the need to raise $5 million for an endowment fund. Thanks to the boards of Beth Abraham, Beth Jacob and Temple Israel, as well as hundreds of donations, we are just $200,000 away from reaching our goal.
Once completed, JCGD will ensure the sanctity of our cemeteries and financial security for each congregation.
You can turn our dream into reality.
Now is the time to make your pledge.
As Death of a Salesman returns to Broadway, the question remains — how Jewish is Willy Loman?
Arthur Miller’s doomed and delusional protagonist has been seen as both a crypto-Jew and an American everyman
By Benjamin Ivry, Forward
Arthur Miller’s 1949 play, Death of a Salesman, currently on Broadway in a new production starring Nathan Lane as Willy Loman, was inspired by an uncle of Miller and a suicidal colleague of his father, both Jewish salesmen.
On the play’s 50th anniversary, Miller told an interviewer that Willy Loman and his family were indeed intended to be Jews. But, he added, they were oblivious to this identity since in postwar America, the Lomans were “light-years away from religion or a community that might have fostered Jewish identity.”
More to the point, in 1947, Miller had lectured at the Committee of Jewish Writers, Artists, and Scientists about a possible new Jewish literary movement in America.
After the success of Focus, his 1945 novel about antisemitism, Miller opined: “Jewish artists and writers have it as their duty to address themselves in their works to Jewish themes, Jewish history, and contemporary Jewish life.”
Yet despite this belief, Miller proceeded to explain that the Holocaust had temporarily made it impossible for him to write about Jewish life without being “defensive and combative” or to treat Jewish themes “in relation to antisemitism.” A delusional failure,
Loman was no role model in his professional or family life, and presenting him as a Jew might have fed already-burgeoning antisemitism among audiences. Miller would return to Yiddishkeit (Jewishness) in his later plays After the Fall (1964), Incident at Vichy (1965), The Price (1968), Playing for Time (1980), and Broken Glass (1994), but Salesman reflected a cagier ethnic identity.
Even so, alert audiences picked up on Yiddishisms or Brooklyn Jewish inflections, such as when Loman’s wife, Linda, says: “Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person.”
The literary critic Leslie Fiedler deemed these echoes of Yiddishkeit a symptom of Miller being “devious” in creating “crypto-Jewish characters” who are presented instead as generic Americans, supposedly to appeal to a wider American audience.
In a 1998 essay, the playwright David Mamet alleged that by not overtly dwelling on the characters’ Judaism in Salesman, Miller had shortchanged Jewish culture; the play is the “story of a Jew told by a Jew,” he wrote, but Loman’s fate is “never avowed as a Jewish story, and so a great contribution to Jewish American history is lost.”
To which Miller politely retorted that Mamet had discerned the Jewish content in the play, “so it couldn’t have been lost. I mean, what more could anyone want?”
What some observers wanted was a literal embrace of Jewish tradition, which they received from the Yiddish stage actor Joseph Buloff, best remembered for his role as the peddler in the Broadway musical Oklahoma! and as a Russian agent in the 1957 MGM musical film Silk Stockings. In 1951, Buloff translated and staged Salesman in Yiddish, a version which has since been revived and performed widely.
The roaring tone of the Yiddish Toyt fun a Salesman made it an audience pleaser, and the literary critic Harold Bloom, a native Yiddish speaker, considered the Buloff translation the “most satisfactory performance” he ever saw of Salesman
Less internationally celebrated was a contemporaneous staging by The Habima Theatre, the national theater of Israel. Directed by the Czech Jewish theatrical maestro Julius Gellner, it starred a powerhouse cast led by Aharon Meskin, an acclaimed Othello, Golem, and Shylock. Linda Loman was played by Hanna Rovina, who was known as the First Lady of Hebrew Theater; she had previously appeared with Meskin in
Arthur Miller, circa 1949.
Martin Harris/Underwood Archives/Getty Images
Lee J. Cobb, Mildred Dunnock and Arthur Kennedy in a scene from the original Broadway production of Death of a Salesman
Cecil Beaton/Condé Nast via Getty Images
the Habima production of S. Ansky’s The Dybbuk, and their exalted, visionary scope suited the epic, dreamlike moments in Salesman
Yet Israeli audiences seemed to prefer Miller’s All My Sons to Salesman, reportedly because Loman was a small-time loser, and his pathetic demise excluded him as an appropriate hero/martyr for the new Jewish state.
Unlike the tearful Yiddishlanguage Loman and exalted, mythical Hebrew version, both of which glorified Jewish identity, the original Broadway cast was more ambiguous. Loman was played by Lee J. Cobb (born Leo Jacoby), a bellowing bulvan (boor) of a performer whose one-note paroxysm riveted audiences with its grim weight.
In a televised interview (see the 51-minute mark), the Jewish performer Zero Mostel later complained that even a failed salesman needed humorous charm, entirely missing from the doomladen Cobb rendition.
explained that the play’s filial theme was as poignant in Chinese tradition as it is for Jews.
Indeed, Salesman in China, a 2024 Canadian play by Leanna Brodie and Jovanni Sy, freshly revisits that historic production.
As the literary historian Leah Garrett has noted, Willy Loman and Salesman can be simultaneously Jewish and universal.
Some theatergoers believe that the finest modern interpretation of the role was performed by Warren Mitchell, an English Jewish actor whose Loman at times sounded vaguely like the Jewish comedian George Burns (born Nathan Birnbaum).
Willy Loman and Salesman can be simultaneously Jewish and universal.
Of course, Mostel had suffered during the House UnAmerican Activities Committee hearings in Washington, D.C., at which Cobb and Salesman stage director Elia Kazan were friendly witnesses, naming names of former friends to placate the government witch hunt, just a few years after Salesman premiered.
By contrast, Miller himself courageously confronted HUAC and refused to yield to threats, winning admiration even from Jewish critics who did not always laud his work.
To celebrate Miller’s 87th birthday, the sometimes WASPish Robert Brustein proclaimed the playwright a “true public intellectual” who created “powerful plays, but also a shining moral example unmatched in American theater.”
This praise refutes decades of bad repute, often from fellow Jewish writers, some of whom oddly resented Miller for being married for a few years to Marilyn Monroe, who converted to Judaism before their wedding. Such personal attacks, like Loman, Miller, and the play itself, now belong to the ages.
Miller’s play has also won applause for productions with Black and international casts, including a celebrated staging in Beijing, which resulted in a book and documentary film on the topic. Miller, who traveled to China for the production,
The most powerful, yet nuanced, Loman I ever saw onstage was incarnated by a non-Jewish actor, George C. Scott, who had previously played the role of the biblical patriarch Abraham in the 1966 epic film The Bible: In the Beginning…
After a Loman tirade just before intermission, the house lights went up and the audience at New York’s Circle in the Square Theater sat in stunned silence, riveted. The impact resembled that of a 1950 Berlin production at which the audience refused to leave the theater after the show was over.
This immense force of Miller’s play is not always conveyed on stage or screen, even when accomplished actors like Dustin Hoffman and Brian Dennehy have played Loman.
But the drama’s inherent force shows how the play has survived triumphantly as an American Jewish literary achievement.
A VERY SWEET Passover! Sending lots of love!
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Irene Bressler of Englewood passed away on March 23, shortly before what would have been her 88th birthday. She was predeceased by her husband of over 61 years, Ronald Bressler, in 2018; her parents, Arthur and Louise Halsband; and her siblings, Steven and Emily Halsband. She was born in Providence, R.I. but raised in the nearby town of East Greenwich. She lived in the Dayton area for more than 60 years after relocating from Chicago. She is survived by her three children, Dawn (Jack) Kaye, Kevin (Karen) Bressler, and Andy (Shellie) Bressler; nine grandchildren, Rebecca (Gregory Garbuz), Kaitlin (Brant Appel), Hannah (Daniel Grasso), Korinne (Eytan Rosenblum), Allison (Christopher Graves), Brooke, Adam, Casey, and Ava; and seven great-grandchildren, Aubrie and Jasmine Bryant, Gloria and Miriam Graves, and Henry, Hallie, and Blake Appel. Irene was a dedicated homemaker who devoted her life to her family and community. Irene was an excellent cook who made sure her growing family had nutritious and tasty food to eat. She and Ron created a loving Jewish home, with the children getting their religious education at Temple Israel. Irene was a lifetime member of Hadassah and served, among other roles, as president of the Dayton chapter for several years. For the past seven years, she was a resident at Brookdale Assisted Living in Englewood. Contributions in her memory may be made to Ohio's Hospice.
Samaritan Hospital Foundation. In her volunteer work, Sandy had a special talent for bringing highperforming, talented individuals to the Dayton area to share their stories — Ivana Trump, Susie Orman, Marvin Hamlisch, and Elizabeth Dole, to name a few. She always went the extra mile for the family, friends and the community. In 1991, she was selected as one of the Ten Top Women sponsored by The Dayton Daily News. Sandy was dedicated to her friends. She was also a member of Temple Israel and Meadowbrook Country Club. Sandy was predeceased by her parents; her husband, Albert Ingberg; and daughter-in-law, Dena Hofkosh; and is survived by her loving daughter, Kim Patterson of Pittsburgh; and her sister, Kathy Renas of Estero, Fla.; in addition to numerous nieces, nephews, cousins, and devoted friends. Interment was at Riverview Cemetery. Contributions may be made to the charity of your choice.
his extended family. He was also delighted to discover that his ancestry reached back to early New England, including a Mayflower lineage to the John Alden family. Families he had read about for decades, whose homes and tools were familiar to him, were now part of his own story. Whether a company commander at Hargrave Military Academy, a volunteer as a colonial reenactor, a colonial building history lecturer, or in any other setting, Bill was known for his wry sense of humor, his storytelling that brought history to life, and his ability to easily connect with others. He is sorely missed by his family and friends. A memorial service will take place in the spring. Because of Bill's lifelong affinity with dogs, especially rescues, his family asks that memorial contributions in his memory be made to the nonprofit Last Chance Ranch, 9 Beck Road, Quakertown, PA 18951. lastchanceranch.org.
Sandy Ingberg, 87 of Dayton, passed away March 4. She was born on April 15, 1938 to Bess (Patterson) and Allen J. Menachof. She was a lifelong resident of Dayton, with the exception of living for five years in El Paso, Texas, where her beloved daughter, Kim, was born. Sandy graduated from Fairview High School, Stephens College, and Miami University, where she received her master's of education. Sandy taught special education in the Trotwood-Madison Schools for many years, and upon her retirement, she began her tireless commitment to the Dayton community. Always wearing a pair of fabulous glasses, she served on the boards of the Alzheimer’s Association, The Dayton Art Institute Guild, The Dayton Opera Guild, The Dayton Philharmonic Women’s Association, Friends of the Dayton Ballet, and the Good
William H. "Bill" Kibbel III, Jan. 23, 1963-Feb. 20, 2026. William H. "Bill" Kibbel III, 63, of Quakertown, Pa., unexpectedly passed away after a short illness. The son of the late William H. Kibbel Jr. and Anja T. (Inne) Kibbel, Bill was born in Trenton and raised in Pennington, N.J. He is survived by his wife, Dianna (Chilton) Kibbel; children William H. Kibbel IV and Julie A. Kibbel; siblings Candace R. Kwiatek (Kim), Elizabeth M. Sightler (Randy), and William "Billie" W. Mead, and many nieces, nephews, and cousins. Throughout his life, Bill was a builder. Almost exclusively self-taught, he built highly-coveted period-specific furniture, including museum reproductions, using period tools. He built a career in building inspections that led to another in historic homes and building preservation. Widely respected in his field, he traveled nationally to teach and speak about the care, structure, and story of older buildings. Many described him as a preeminent expert on American buildings from the 17th to the 19th century. Bill was also a gifted, self-taught oil painter whose works were highly sought-after at regional art shows. His artwork reflected his love of landscape, architecture, and quiet detail that revealed the careful observer he was. But most important to Bill was family, a value fostered during his early years at home and solidified by his strong marriage and children, the most important things in his life. In his later years, genealogical research led him to discover his birth mother and additional siblings, who he immediately embraced as part of
Dr. Mark Stuart Vangrov, age 77 of Maitland, Fla., passed away on Feb. 21 after a valiant fight against serious illness most of his life. He is survived by his son, Dave; and brothers, Dr. Jan Vangrov and Jim Vangrov. Mark was preceded in death by his son, Jeffrey; and the love of his life, Debra Vangrov (Furstman). A storybook romance of a Fairview Bulldog and a Meadowdale Lion who didn’t know each other in high school, the two were engaged the week they met and spent the rest of their lives devoted to each other and their family. Mark was born to Dr. Stanley and Zelda Vangrov in Dayton. An outstanding golfer at Fairview High School and a Meadowbrook Country Club champion, Mark was a proud graduate of Miami University and George Washington Medical School. After residency at UCLA, he spent his entire career at Florida Hospital in Orlando. Mark’s lifelong passions were his family, basketball, and golf. Mark’s deep love of music, especially jazz and classical, knew no bounds. His interest in always striving for the best audio sound was legendary among audiophiles. For many years, his hobby was buying and selling the highest-end audio equipment. His life was enriched by his many friends and colleagues. The family would especially like to thank our cousins Allan and Jane Clayman and sister-and-brother-in-law, Anita and Marc Goldberg, for the extraordinary loving care and companionship that made his final years so much better as Parkinson’s took its toll. Donations in his memory may be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
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