The Dayton Jewish Observer, February 2026

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married Jeffrey Pence Dec. 31 in front of the entire preschool at the Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture and Education. Shown here with the couple (L to R) are cousin of the groom Terrie Pence, sister of the bride Susan Vendryes, and the officiants: brother of the bride Randy Yewey and Jewish Federation board member Jese Shell.

Right: Members of Jewish War Veterans Post 587 play dreidel with veterans at the Dayton VA Medical Center during Chanukah.

Nova survivor speaker at Chabad Shabbat dinner

Panel on Black-Jewish reconciliation Feb. 26

doug.kinsey@artifexfinancial.com 2305 Far Hills Avenue, Suite 206 | Oakwood, OH | 45419

Shoham Cohen, who survived the Oct. 7, 2023 Nova massacre, will be the guest speaker for Chabad's Community Shabbat Dinner, 5:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 6. The cost is $30 adult, $10 child. Chabad is located at 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. Register at chabaddayton. com/events.

The National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center will host the panel, Black-Jewish Reconciliation: (Re)Building the Bridge, 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 26, presented by the Jewish Community Relations Council. Panelists will be Wilberforce University Assoc. Prof. of History Godfrey Vincent and documentary filmmaker Avi Dresner, son of Civil Rights champion Rabbi Israel Dresner. Wilberforce Political Science Prof. Jacques Kahindo will moderate the discussion. The museum is located at 1350 Brush Row Road, Wilberforce. Registration for this free event is required by Feb. 25 at jewishdayton.org/events.

The article West of the Border in the January Observer stated that Gordon and Mary-Anne Thompson's family endowed the Elizabeth Thompson Jewish Studies Scholarship at Earlham College in memory of the couple's daughter. Gordon and Mary-Anne Thompson's son David, an Earlham graduate — along with members of the Vigran family, who grew up at Beth Boruk Temple in Richmond, Ind. — endowed the scholarship. Avi Dresner Godfrey Vincent Jacques Kahindo

Above: JCC Preschool Director Katie Lagasse

Shoham Cohen

Hillel Academy Jewish day school moves to Temple Beth Or in August

in Washington Township for the 2026-27 school year.

By Marshall Weiss, The Observer

Beginning with the 2026-27 school year, Hillel Academy of Greater Dayton will have a new home. In January, the Jewish day school signed a contract with Temple Beth Or in Washington Township to lease space in the Reform congregation's building.

Since 2010, Hillel has been based on the third floor of Beth Abraham Synagogue at Sugar Camp in Oakwood.

According to Hillel Principal Anna Smith and President Andy Schwartz, the move will provide the school with more classrooms and green space, and puts it in the middle of the highest concentration of Jewish households with schoolage children in the Dayton area.

"We're out of space here," Smith says of the school's current location. "We've been trying to get creative and make space where we could. We have our multipurpose room split into thirds because we're out of classrooms."

Hillel Academy's current enrollment is 31 students from half-day pre-K through seventh grade; it will add an eighth-grade for the 2026-27 school year.

At Temple Beth Or, Hillel will share space with Makor, the temple's religious school, which

meets on Sundays. "We'll have all the rooms we need," Smith says. "Rooms for us to dream and grow into and for us to play in. We'll have a nice green space for the kids to run around in. We'll have an outdoor prayer space, which is also beautiful. We'll have a school garden, and we are koshering and will use the smaller kitchen by the school area where we can make school lunches and do cooking projects."

She adds that most of Hillel's families live in the Centerville/Washington Township/Kettering area.

"It makes more sense to be where more of our families are and where more of the Jewish community is," she says. "We loved our time here at Beth Abraham. It's been wonderful. They've been very gracious about the move. We thank them for that and will continue to partner with them."

Established in 1961, Hillel Academy is a community Jewish day school that's not connected to any particular movement of Judaism. Its families are Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform. "Every family's practice is individual and personal and respectful, respected and celebrated," Smith says.

Hillel also accepts EdChoice Scholarship student vouchers and admits qualified non-Jewish students to all grades.

Before there was a World Wide Web, my mother would clip and mail me articles she thought I should read. In a way, I've taken up that role in these pages. And when there was something on TV she thought I should watch, she'd pick up the phone and let me know. In that spirit, I hope we all watch Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s new four-part PBS documentary series, Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History, which premieres Feb. 3 at 9 p.m. "When I was growing up, I only thought of race in terms of Black and White," Gates says in a series preview video. "It wasn't until much later, when I learned about antisemitism, that I realized Blacks and Jews face common enemies. But when we stand together, we are a formidable force."

Gates adds that he doesn't want to romanticize the alliance. "It wasn't an untroubled relationship." Among the numerous Black and Jewish people he interviews for the series is Black Jewish culinary historian/chef Michael Twitty, who will be in town for a public talk at UD, 5:30 p.m., Feb. 5 (see Page 23).

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Weiss

Hillel Academy

With 31 students from half-day pre-K through seventh grade, Hillel Academy will expand to eighth grade when it moves to Temple Beth Or

Bark Mitzvah Boy

Anti-Zionist/antisemitic speaker keynotes Dayton MLK dinner

Ahmed Rehab, who regularly denigrates Jewish supporters of Israel on his social media, gave the keynote address at the MLK Dayton Inc. Celebration Banquet Jan. 19 at Carillon Historical Park.

Rehab is executive director of Chicago's Council on AmericanIslamic Relations chapter as well as CAIR's national strategic communications director.

Toward the end of his speech, Rehab made two thinly veiled statements about Israel. The first emphasized that just as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was considered a dangerous threat by most White Americans in his lifetime, today's civil rights activists are considered dangerous threats, but someday will be celebrated.

of evil."

Regarding the unrest in Iran, Rehab posted Jan. 10: "I love how Zios everywhere are pushing the Shah of Iran as if they get to have any say over that country and as if they care for freedom and democracy. They just want another Zio puppet to rubberstamp their land theft and crimes against humanity. The stupidest thing about them is how smart they think they are."

According to the American Jewish Committee, antisemites often use Zionist or Zio as shorthand for Jew, an attempt to cloak hate by claiming to be anti-Zionists, but not antisemites.

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"Martin Luther King lives today," he said. "In our hearts and in our streets and in our civil rights movements, and he is also today not celebrated in these spaces. Colin Kaepernick was not seen as a hero. He was seen as anti-American. Linda Sarsour, who fights for the rights of Palestinians and all around the world those who face genocide is not seen as a hero today. She's seen by many as a terrorist or terrorist sympathizer."

Rehab also talked of his appreciation of other religions as part of God's plan, but added: "If I meet you and I don't know you, who you are, and you're cruel to me, if you're shooting at my family, if you're oppressing my community, if you're killing my kids from warplanes, if you're committing genocide, it's not your religion that concerns me, it's your cruelty."

Rehab is more direct in his invective about Jewish supporters of Israel on his social media posts.

"Step into the light Jewish brethren. We Arabs and Muslims actually honor you as a JEW. Our issue is with Zionism, which is, as you are discovering, a Temu rehash of White Supremacy and European colonization," he posted at his Facebook account Nov. 18.

At his Facebook account Dec. 25, he posted a screenshot of a conversation in which he asked someone to define Zionism. The person responded, "Well personally I define Zionism as the belief that Jews have a right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland of Israel."

Rehab replied, "Then you can go f--- yourself. If you think Poles, Belorussians and South Africans can descend on a land they have never lived in to displace and genocide natives because they had an ancestor there 2,000 years ago, you are a special kind

CAIR itself has garnered its own share of controversy. The Jerusalem Post reported Jan. 14 that the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee has referred CAIR-California to the IRS for investigation because of concern about its misuse of taxpayer dollars and possible violations of federal law.

"The chairman’s referral also noted concerns surrounding CAIR USA’s national network, including its purported connections to terrorism," The Jerusalem Post reported. "The letter outlined the organization’s alleged support for Hamas and links to the Holy Land Foundation, a now-shutdown tax-exempt organization under investigation for supporting Hamas."

MLK Dayton Inc., the organization that coordinates the dinner, is led by its president and general chairman, Anthony B. Whitmore. When asked who selected Rehab as this year's dinner speaker, Whitmore told The Observer he's been the adviser to the Turkish community in the Dayton area from its beginnings.

"Obviously they are Muslim," Whitmore said. "That is a part of also what we try to do with MLK, to make sure we expose folks to all of what we believe to be God's children who should be around the table of brotherhood."

MLK Dayton Inc. Pres. & Gen. Chairman Anthony B. Whitmore

Whitmore said he wasn't aware of Rehab's social media comments about Jews and Israel "any more than we would be with a lot of our speakers."

He said he had heard Rehab speak before, in Chicago; Whitmore added that he's involved with the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton's Upstanders project. — Marshall Weiss

The Dayton Jewish Observer, Vol. 30, No. 6. The Dayton Jewish Observer is published monthly by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton, a nonprofit corporation, 525 Versailles Dr., Dayton, OH 45459.

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

The Dayton Jewish Observer Mission Statement

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

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Ahmed Rehab addresses MLK Dayton Inc.'s Celebration Banquet, Jan. 19

Marshall Weiss

Oakwood High School senior: 'Israel's so close to my heart'

Anti-Israel vandalism at her school led Ruth Glaser to start a Jewish Student Union there. She's now a national Zionist youth activist.

By Marshall Weiss, The Observer

Ruth Glaser, 17, has a message for Dayton's Jewish community. "There are people in the younger generation of Jews who are pro-Israel and who are Zionists, and it's their identity, and they love it," she told The Observer after returning from the American Zionist Movement Biennial Assembly in New York, Dec. 7-8; she attended as one of 27 youth participants.

As the national board of Young Judea's representative to the conference — and that board's social action programmer — she met Israeli President Isaac Herzog. She's also a high school intern with Stand With Us, an international Zionist leadership training organization, and is about to begin her Eagle Scout project.

Here, Ruth talks about how she became a Zionist activist, why she started Oakwood High School's Jewish Student Union, and what she's learning in those roles. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

more year, and they didn't have a lot of people running for the Midwest region youth board that creates the programming. One of my friends was like, "Do you want to run?" I thought why not? I'll give it a try. I fell in love with doing Jewish leadership and found more opportunities, as many as I could.

What does your internship for Stand With Us involve?

'I fell in love with doing Jewish leadership and found more opportunities, as many as I could.'

When did you first get involved with Zionist activities?

With Young Judea. I've been going there since I was in third grade, summer camp. They have a teaching program also. I went to a convention my sopho-

It's around 200 teens out of 1,200 who applied. Every month, I meet with my local adviser, and I meet with my whole group, the whole Midwest region. We plan programming and talk about if I've experienced antisemitism or any anti-Israel stuff. I'll talk with her about it, what should I have done, what will I do? On the group meeting, it's educational presentations. Sometimes it's about Israel's heritage. Last time, it was about Mizrahi Jews (from the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia), which was interesting. A lot of it is leadership training. We hear from amazing speakers who have crazy and amazing stories to share.

What are you up to at your school?

I started a Jewish Student Union this academic year. This also goes into why I started getting involved with Zionist programs. A few years ago, there was a girl who vandalized the Israeli flags in my history teacher's classroom. He has a bulletin board border with all the world flags on there. And there happened to be Israeli flags. She took a marker and crossed them all out.

He said, "I don't know who did this, but if it's anyone in here, you are entitled to your opinions, but you can't take them out like this." This was a girl I've been going to school with since about third grade. I wasn't on social media at the time. I really didn't know how bad antisemitism was getting. This was my first time experiencing it. People aren't so forward about their opinions to me because I'm very outwardly Jewish. I

wear a Star of David every day.

The girl who vandalized the Israeli flags happens to be in my friend group by affiliation. She's dating someone in the friend group. I never want her to come with me. And then the whole group's like, but we can't kick her out because then we have to kick him out. My friend who knew that it was her and told the teacher told me, "I'm still friends with her because she's not antisemitic, she's anti-Zionist."

The next day, we're riding in the elevator, and I said, "Hey, yesterday you mentioned that anti-Zionism isn't antisemitism. And I don't think that's right." And she was like," I don't want to talk about it. We're going to disagree forever on this, so I don't want to talk about it."

I was like, "But I think we should. If you're going to ride in the elevator every Continued on Page Six

Daniel Opris, D.O.

Barry Taylor, M.D.

Beth Duvall, M.D.

Oakwood High School Jewish Student Union leader Ruth Glaser at the American Zionist Movement Biennial National Assembly, New York, Dec. 7-8.

Oakwood senior

Continued from Page Five

day with me, you're my friend. I think we need to. Israel is fighting this war right now, and unfortunately, casualties happen in war. I'm not saying I wish they happen on either end. If you think that Israel doesn't have a right to exist because they're in this war, that's antisemitic."

She started yelling at me about how we were never going to agree. A lot of the conversations I have result in yelling. And then I'm able to just remind myself that maybe I was right. I'm not going to be able to change their mind. It's definitely the hardest part of it all.

This was sophomore year. Junior year, I got involved in programs like Stand With Us and Young Judea. And then I

started thinking, well, there are other Jews at Oakwood who probably have seen something or heard something in the hallways, and they may feel really alone and might need someone, a group to go to. I ended up figuring out that the JSU was an option and got really excited. I did outreach to all the Jewish students. I sent emails, texts. We have a meeting every month. I know they feel it's really nice to have a place like that to go to, a safe place. And it's not nearly as much talking about antisemitic incidents. That's always been "Contact me if something happened." It's a lot of celebrating holidays and decorating. It's been really special to have that place at Oakwood.

How many Jewish students are at Oakwood High School? I would say 20 to 30. Nor-

DAYTON

mally get around seven to 10 each week for JSU.

What's the environment like there for Jewish students?

When I was in elementary school, being the Jewish kid was so fun. It was special. I got to miss school for the (Jewish) holidays. And I didn't believe in Santa, that was the biggest thing. I remember when the Pittsburgh shooting happened, I was in fifth grade. I had a few friends of mine who acknowledged it and were like, this is really terrible, how could this happen? It was such a big deal. Oct. 7 happened, and less people approached me. Teachers asked, how's your family? Are you OK? Because I'd just been in Israel that summer.

Then the Israeli flag incident with this girl happened, and I was like, Oakwood has this climate. It's a handful of students who go by unnoticed. That can be very frustrating. The occasional Nazi swastika gets drawn on the desk or someone jokes about it in the hallway. That immaturity. Those things for me, for a while went under wraps. Now I've gotten to a place where no, it's not OK to say that or joke about it.

It's not nearly as bad as other places I know in Ohio that do have much, much bigger problems with it. Students feel comfortable approaching the administration or teacher about it when they see it, whether they're Jewish or otherwise. I think Oakwood, because of how tiny and tight-knit we are, people mostly feel they have a safe adult to turn to.

Does the administration respond when these things happen?

Yes.

Are there anti-Israel activist students at the high school?

In the Jewish community, no one I have talked to or met is anti-Zionist. They have their right to criticize Israel, but it's never gone to "Israel shouldn't exist." Outside of the Jewish group, yes. Unfortunately a lot of people I was friends with or worked with did come out and start saying all this stuff.

The girl I mentioned earlier, she's very strong in her anti-Zionism beliefs. A lot are on the premise that Israel is committing a genocide and the U.S. shouldn't fund it. I think a lot of it comes from a misunderstanding of the conflict and what's happening. I think a lot of it is one-sided political and

After

seeing so much of the news.

How do you handle that?

It is really hard. It gets the blood boiling a little bit. You have to back down but also have a conversation. I text my Stand with Us adviser.

With the girl I mentioned, I went into "You're throwing around the word genocide a lot." Oakwood offers a Holocaust and genocide class. And the teacher I've taken it with does an amazing job explaining all the points and goes into the Holocaust, goes into other genocides, talks about what genocide actually means, debunks all these things. And I knew she was taking it at the time. I texted her, "I think you're too smart to be throwing around this word because it has a meaning." And she was like, "I'm not going to be able to see it as anything else than what it is."

sometimes you don't. But I think it's important to just have the conversation.

Stand With Us pushes a lot of the idea that you have to stay calm and collected. That's hard. But it is really important in an argument. When people talk about Israel committing this genocide, a lot of it is about Palestinian children. All these children are stuck, are starving and suffering, there's so much suffering.

You have to say, "Yes, and suffering is horrible." So many people forget that this is a war and there are casualties and it is unfortunate on both sides. You don't disregard that. There is empathy and there is sympathy towards this other side. There are problems and there are tragedies happening, and you don't get to turn it into hate towards the Jewish people.

You could just keep your beliefs to yourself. Why have you taken this on?

'And even when it is hard, I have so many people who have my back, I'm fortunate. And so it makes it a little easier.'

I feel like I lost this conversation because I didn't get to prove my point. But Stand with Us says that 90% of people will have an open mind. 5% are completely closed off. They're not changing their opinion. The other 5% are on your side. And I think she falls into the closed off 5%. I've tried so hard.

But I also had a conversation with my friend who looked me in the eyes and said, "Israel's committing a genocide" the other day. And I did debunk the theory because I went, "You know what the word genocide means? You took this class with me. Here's what's actually happening in Israel." And she went, "Oh, so it's Hamas." Sometimes you have really successful conversations and

It's a difficult question to answer. At one point I thought, as Jews, our job is to be Jewish. Our job is not to fight antisemitism. That's society's job. That's what they're supposed to be doing. And on the other hand, I look at it and I think I've been given such a privilege to be part of all these communities and all these groups that I've been able to be a leader in. I feel the need to speak out because you have to start somewhere. Eventually I hope I don't have to keep doing this and standing up for all these things. But Israel's so close to my heart and my religion is so close to my heart. As lonely and as anguishing as that feels, there have been a lot of learnable moments, and there has been a lot of good that's come out of it. And even when it is hard, I have so many people who have my back, I'm fortunate. And so it makes it a little easier.

What will you do after high school?

I want to go into music. I sing, I'm in music theory right now. I want to be able to write my own music and produce. Law is my backup. But I am taking a gap year in Israel next year. I'm going with Young Judea's year course.

graduation, Ruth Glaser will take a gap year in Israel.

'To be a hostage does not define me'

Israeli Yair Horn's testimony of 498 days in Hamas captivity

By Marshall Weiss, The Observer

"I told myself that I'm a dead man. So every second, every minute, every hour, every day, it will be a gift. So that was my technique. And you never lose the hope. You cannot," Yair Horn shares with an audience Jan. 14 at the Pentecostals of Dayton Church Center, of his mindset over the 498 days he languished in Hamas captivity after his abduction Oct. 7, 2023 from Kibbutz Nir Oz.

His talk in Dayton was presented by Christians United for Israel, an evangelical Christian organization that advocates and raises funds for the Jewish state. Pentecostals of Dayton's pastor, Wylie Rhinehart Jr., was recently named CUFI's coordinator for Ohio.

"Kibbutz Nir Oz is near the Gaza Strip. From my porch, you can even see the first village in Gaza," says Yair, who was the first of his family to make aliyah (immigrate to Israel) from Argentina and has lived on the kibbutz since 2014. Nir Oz was home to about 420 people.

Eitan was visiting him that morning and joined him in the safe room.

"A few minutes after that, we get the first message from the kibbutz that we have Hamas terrorists inside the kibbutz wearing IDF uniforms. A few minutes after, I start to hear shootings and shouts in Arabic. A few minutes later, they come into my house and they tried to open the door of the safe room."

The safe room, designed to withstand missiles, has no lock. Yair held the handle and struggled to keep them from getting through twice.

"The third time, they start to shoot with the machine gun, an AK-47, and my brother was sitting on the side. He was petrified. The first four or five bullets went like half an inch from my brother. When I told him to move to another corner of the safe room, they shoot again."

'Maybe they just shoot me in the face. I didn't know.'

Yair opened the door and came out with his hands up, to give his younger brother time to hide or get out by the window.

"That 7th of October began almost like a regular morning for me because we had the first red alert, which is the alarm we hear when the terrorists shoot off rockets," he says. "Sadly, once or twice a year, we have what we call 'little drops of rain,' which is the rockets."

His safe room was also his bedroom. Yair's brother

"Maybe they just shoot me in the face. I didn't know. I open the door and four or five Kalashnikovs are pointing at me. They take me a few meters to a motorcycle. Three minutes on the motorcycle and we were in the Gaza Strip. Every half a mile or a mile, they would stop the motorcycle and shout, 'Yahood! Yahood (Jew)! We have a Yahood!' A bunch of people

Continued on Page Eight

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Marshall Weiss

Yair Horn at Pentecostals of Dayton's CUFI event, Jan. 14.

Yair

Horn

Continued from Page Seven came and punch me, punch me, punch me, punch me. Another mile we drive, they stop, shout 'Yahood! Yahood!' A lot of people came to punch me, punch me — several times, three, four times until they take me to a house. From that house, they take me down to the tunnels. I didn't see the sunlight for almost 500 days. I didn't have fresh air to breathe for almost 500 days."

At Kibbutz Nir Oz that day, more than 500 Hamas terrorists murdered 47 people and took 76 hostages. Twenty-two hostages from Nir Oz would be killed or die in captivity. The kibbutz itself was all but destroyed.

After a few weeks, Yair was kept with his brother Eitan. Before that, neither knew if the other had survived. "We looked at each other's faces and decided without talking we're not telling them we are brothers," Yair said. "Why? Because we were afraid they can think, 'We have two from one family, we can shoot one.'"

Yair also withheld from his captors that he was diabetic. "The first day when they kidnapped us, the terrorists wanted to give me chocolates and candies because when you're in a panic situation you need sugar in order to not fade out," he said. "I know that I

should not eat chocolate, candies. But the first hours, I ate chocolate because I didn't want to tell them that I'm sick, that I will be problematic. Maybe they'll shoot me in the face if they know I have sugar problems. You actually need to think maybe three or four times before you talk or before you do something because you don't know the consequences."

Yair says he lost 70 pounds in captivity. He had no access to cigarettes, so he's no longer a smoker. And he left his diabetes in the tunnels.

"And because of the lack of sun, my skin looks like a baby. I look like an Italian model right now. If you want to get to a good spa, you can go to the Gaza Strip, to the Hamas spa," he quips.

Humor, Yair says, helped him and Eitan get through. "In my family, we have a very stupid sense of humor. And with my brother, we decided at some point that if we're going to die, at least we will try to laugh or even make life better."

But showing humor, he says, was also a gamble. "The people are terrorists. They hate me because I'm a Jew. They hate me because I'm living in Israel. They are radical terrorists. They are not crazy, because crazy people don't know most of the time what they are doing. These people know exactly what they are doing."

His captors gave his group of five people barely enough food and water to survive. They slept on the floor for a few months.

"The tunnels have organized places with rooms and a kitchen, even a bathroom," Yair says. "They also moved us a few times. We didn't know where we were exactly. And when the IDF bombed a few zones, we started to run through the tunnels. Can you imagine? In that situation, I need to trust in the same man that kidnapped me, in order to not get killed by mistake."

The vast maze of tunnels, Yair says, had explosives throughout. "They told us that if the IDF comes to rescue us, 'we'll just blow up everybody.' My group, behind bars, would sleep next to an explosive mine."

The room had a small LED lamp. When the terrorists would turn it on, it meant they were coming, possibly with food. "Every time they turn on that light, I started like a dog to salivate and get anxious. Like an animal."

That the hostages never knew what their captors put in their food and drinks weighed heavily on them. When Yair would try to eat with his dominant hand, his left, the captors would slam it and take his food away. "It's part of the Islamic tradition to eat just with the right hand."

Though he can't be certain, he thinks he received better treatment than the others in his group because Yair is in his mid-40s.

"In Islam, they have the tradition of respect the elders. And in my room, I was the oldest. I was also older than the terrorists. They never beat me after that (the beatings on the streets). A couple of times, I even get a coffee. In captivity, in order to survive, you try to generate empathy or to empathize with the terrorists."

Yair decided not to calculate the days and months while he was held captive. "I love being with my family and it would be worse if I know there is the New Year and I'm not with my family," the self-described secular Israeli says.

The worst day of his captivity was his last: Feb. 15, 2025. He and two other hostages were released as part of the

JEW POP: PURIM PROTECTORS

The Horn brothers (L to R), Amos, Eitan, and Yair Horn visit Hostages Square in Tel Aviv days after Eitan was released from Hamas captivity, Oct. 25, 2025.

Hostages and Missing Families Forum

sixth round of swaps for terrorists imprisoned in Israel.

"It was the day I left behind my little brother. The last day, before they

Should

Established by San Antonio-based Pastor John Hagee 20 years ago, Christians United For Israel now has 10 million members across the United States.

Its January event with former Israel hostage Yair Horn was its first in the Dayton area since 2019's Dayton Night to Honor Israel at the Victoria Theatre.

CUFI hosted three Dayton Night to Honor Israel events before that: in 2015 at the Schuster Center, and in 2016 and 2018 at Temple Beth Or.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, the evangelical Christian Zionist CUFI and its partner ministries have raised more than $11 million to fund equipment for first responders in Israel and assist Israelis forced out of their homes in the north by Hezbollah rocket attacks.

At the Dayton program, CUFI National Field Director Randy Neal addressed head-

DAYTON

take me out, they came to our group and they told us that just two of us get released.

"But they make us believe that we

on a concern that made area Jews uncomfortable at past Dayton CUFI events: speakers' disparaging statements about Arabs and Muslims.

"You know, being pro-Israel is never synonymous with being anti-Arab or anti-Muslim," he told the audience.

Neal addressed another issue that's been a concern to some Jews, to the extent he was able.

"Yair (a secular Jew) knows that I believe Jesus is the Messiah. He also knows that he doesn't have to agree with me theologically before I will stand with him, and hope that he'll be able to connect those dots."

As a matter of policy, CUFI doesn't proselytize. At the same time, some though not all in its evangelical base believe Jews won't be saved unless they accept Jesus Christ as their lord and savior.

At a time when Jews and Israel need all the friends they

can choose who's going: everyone with his own problem or disease."

Once freed, Yair tirelessly advocated to get his brother and the remaining

can get, some American Jews are grateful for CUFI's support and shrug off any concerns with a stance of, "We'll find out when we get there." But not all.

An example unrelated to the CUFI event was delivered Jan. 4 in the Greenville Early Bird weekly newspaper.

With the headline How does God feel about Israel and Jews, Pastor Timothy Johnson of Countryside Baptist Church in Parke County, Ind., wrote: "Yes, Jesus is the only means of salvation, and many Jews do not have everlasting life because of their rejection of Christ, but the fact remains that God is true to His promises. He blesses those who bless Israel and He curses those who curse her...Regardless of their rejection of His Son thus far, He plans to bring them to faith in Christ en masse someday. There is not an ounce of antisemitism in His heart."

One Jewish reader in Green-

hostages out. Eitan went home Oct. 13, 2025 with the last 20 living hostages as part of the ceasefire deal. He endured 738 days in captivity.

ville told The Observer, "As one of less than 10 Jews in the county (Darke), I appreciate that some people are supportive of Israel and recognize that Jesus was Jewish, and I’ve felt less antisemitism here than in New York, where I grew up in a very mixed neighborhood. But it was still very uncomfortable."

University of Dayton Prof. of History and Religion William Trollinger said Johnson expressed standard fundamentalist theology about the Jews. "That is, all people are consigned to hell unless they confess Jesus as their savior," Trollinger said. "He's holding to a dispensational theology, that Jesus will return at the end of time and call up the true Christians and they go up in the air. And then there will be what is called the seven-year tribulation period in which the world is ruled by an Antichrist. Midway through the tribula-

tion, the Jews will realize that Jesus is the messiah and they will convert and so they won't be condemned."

Trollinger added that this isn't universal Christian theology. "That said, millions and millions of people hold to this. Evangelicals are seen, according to polling data, as the strongest supporters of the State of Israel, stronger than (American) Jews. You can be a very strong supporter of the State of Israel and still feel that all Jews who do not convert are going to be sent to eternal hell."

When asked if Jews can only be saved if they accept Jesus, Pentecostals of Dayton Pastor Wylie Rhinehart Jr., CUFI's new coordinator for Ohio, declined to comment. Rhinehart did say, "We love the Jewish nation, the Jewish people. They have our full support."

— Marshall Weiss

After synagogue arson, Jackson’s Jews find solidarity, and complexity, at interfaith prayer service

By Grace Gilson, JTA

JACKSON, Mississippi — Days after their synagogue was burned in an arson attack, dozens of Jews in this city stood for prayer in a communal service.

The interfaith prayer event at the Thalia Maria Hall in downtown Jackson, billed by Mayor John Horhn as an All-City Call to Prayer and Action, had been planned as a general ceremony for the city.

But after Beth Israel Congregation was set ablaze Saturday, Jan. 10, Benjamin Russell, who serves as the student rabbi and spiritual leader of Beth Israel Congregation, said Horhn had called and said he wanted to tweak the event, “pray for you and provide blessings.” The call came amid cascading support from across the city.

port. “For the most part, we’ve always felt welcome, and so this was more of a confirmation of what we already knew.”

In Jackson, Beth Israel Congregation’s 140 families are far outnumbered by the city’s 400 churches. The gathering Jan. 15 underscored the complexity of Jewish life in Jackson, a place where the small community has been widely supported by its neighbors at a time of crisis, but always conscious of its minority status in a city defined by Christian institutions.

'We live in the buckle of the Bible Belt.'

“We pretty much expected it all,” said Russell of the outpouring of sup-

Throughout the service, participants were invited to huddle with their neighbors in prayer circles as the program’s faith leaders, almost all pastors, bishops and reverends, gave blessings over different aspects of Jackson’s city life.

“It is our intent to not make this a spectator-type event where you just

watch us up on the stage pray. Know everybody is going to get in on prayer tonight,” Bishop Ronnie Crudup said. “I want you to find a few folk you can huddle with, you can create a circle with. You can reach over and touch if you want to, and make them your prayer partners for this time tonight.”

While the third prayer of the evening centered on “peace and restoration” for the congregation following the fire, the rest of the service was laden with references to the city’s predominantly Christian faith.

During the second prayer, which

called for a “good working relationship” between Horhn and the city council, the pastor who led the prayer said, “in the name of Satan, you don’t have no power in him, there’s too much faith in him, it’s too much belief in you and in the name of Jesus.”

Following the prayer, Horhn told the crowd, “oftentimes, when I hear someone say I’m praying for you, I say, I thank you, keep me covered in the blood of Jesus.”

Toward the end of the service, former Mississippi Republican Rep. Charles Pickering called for Jackson to bring

Temple Beth Or Sunday, March 22, 2026

Beth Israel Congregation's president, Zach Shemper (R) and Student Rabbi Benjamin Russell pray seated with Jackson, Miss. Mayor John Horhn at an interfaith service in Jackson, Jan. 15.

JTA

THE NATION

“God’s kingdom to earth,” which he described as “one people with one mission and one language and one faith.”

Russell said the display was typical for the community. “We live in the buckle of the Bible Belt. Sometimes we just have to be grateful for the support that we’re receiving…even if some of the messages may not be exactly what we would say.”

Many of Jackson’s roughly 400 churches serve the city’s large Black Protestant community. About 80% of Jackson’s roughly 150,000 residents are Black.

“Because this event was geared so much toward the city of Jackson itself, that was its kind of main focus, that it made it a little harder for everyone to kind of hold everything in which is, again, is one of the things that we understand living here,” said Russell. “We’ve been here since 1860, and that goes with a lot of history and a lot of learning how to interact with each other, so we do it, we do a dance very well.”

The city is home to long and deeply etched ties between its Jewish and Black communities.

In 1967, members of the Ku Klux Klan bombed Beth Israel after its rabbi at the time, Perry Nussbaum, advocated for civil rights and desegregation. Months later, Nussbaum’s home was also bombed by the group.

really was when the community really came together and stood strong,” Schipper said. “I think harkening back to that time, we’re reflecting. We made such great strides from that time, (and) we will continue to move forward in a very positive direction, because we’re here for the long haul.”

Speaking at a local café ahead of the interfaith service, which streamed Christian pop songs from the sound system, Schipper reflected on what it meant to live as a Jew in Jackson.

“Hate is not inborn, hate is learned, and I’ve always said, especially being here in Jackson, being the minority, I’ve always felt like certain questions that people asked were one of just ignorance,” said Schipper. “It wasn’t negative, it was just ‘I don’t know anything about Judaism, so I don’t know how to ask the right questions.’”

The prayer service, which included a link to the synagogue’s rebuilding fund on its flyer, was not the only display of support from the city’s Christian community.

'We've been here since 1860, and that goes with a lot of history and a lot of learning how to interact with each other'

In the immediate wake of the attack, as congregants began to flock to the synagogue’s parking lot to see the devastation for themselves, the church across the street, St. Philip’s Church, immediately opened its doors to allow grieving members a space to process.

“Moving forward from the 60s, during the first bombing, there was an interfaith committee that was put together,” said Russell. “We’ve had several organizations that have kind of helped keep, at least in the metro area, the different faith traditions together, which has been really instrumental in things like we saw tonight where people are willing to reach out.”

Michele Schipper, the CEO of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which is housed in the synagogue building, grew up in Jackson going to Beth Israel Congregation. She was a toddler at the time of the bombing.

“Once the temple was bombed and the rabbi’s house was bombed, that

The congregation’s first Shabbat service since the attack was held at the Northminster Baptist Church.

Shari Rabin, an associate professor of Jewish studies and religion at Oberlin College and the author of the 2025 book The Jewish South: An American History, said that synagogues facing attacks in the South had largely been met by support from the community, even as Jews have also faced antisemitism in the region.

“Obviously, there have been times when there is more sort of Christian antagonism towards Jews and missionary zeal and the like,” she said. “But I think there also has generally…just Continued on Page 26

Jewish audience members rise during an interfaith service in Jackson, Miss., Jan. 15.

OPINION

For 250 years, American Jews have answered prejudice with defiance

By Austin Reid Albanese

In December 1778, as the American Revolution raged, a Jewish writer in Charlestown opened a newspaper and saw Jews made into wartime scapegoats. An article in the local press claimed that Jews in Georgia had taken “every advantage in trade,” then fled with “ill-got wealth” as soon as the state was “attacked by an enemy...turning their backs upon the country when in danger.”

The Jewish writer did not let this accusation go unanswered. He responded in print. And he signed his reply with a line that declared both his patriotism and his devotion to Judaism: “A real AMERICAN, and True hearted ISRAELITE.”

That combination — civic belonging and Jewish identity claimed in the same breath — feels newly resonant in United States' 250th anniversary year.

The American story has never been free of antisemitism. But this early source reveals something else that is often overlooked: From the country’s earliest years, Jews in the United States could answer public insinuations in newspapers, using the civic vocabulary of their time, as participants in the public square.

The 1778 letter is striking not only for its tone but for its immediacy. The author refutes the rumor with a blunt factual claim: “there is not, at this present hour, a single Georgia Israelite in Charlestown.” The people the earlier writer thought he had identified “upon inspection of their faces,” he suggests, were women “with their dear babes,” fleeing danger as countless families did in wartime.

Then he turns the accusation on its head. Far from abandoning Georgia, he writes, Jewish merchants from the state had been in Charlestown on “Sunday the 22d” of the previous month and when they learned of an enemy landing, “they instantly left this…and pro-

The article 'Zionism is anti-American' (December 2025) contains several inaccuracies. First, the definition of Zionism: Zionism seeks to affirm the right of the Jewish people to selfdetermination and sovereignty in their ancestral homeland. The article quotes that it was just the simple idea of a homeland for Jewish people. There is a notable difference. Let’s review the region’s history. In reverse chronological order: State of Israel, British Mandate, Ottoman Empire, Mamluk Sultanate, Ayyubid Dynasty, Crusader States, Fatimid Caliphate, Early Arab Caliphates (Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid), Byzantine Empire, Roman Empire

So, what do you think?

ceeded post haste to Georgia, leaving all their concerns unsettled.” They are now, he insists, “with their brother citizens in the field, doing that which every honest American should do.”

The accusation did not end with the Revolution. In the next century, amid another national crisis, it returned in a different form — and again drew a public reply.

A second text, published 85 years later, during the Civil War, records antisemitism appearing again. On May 22, 1863, the Natchez Daily Courier published an extract from a sermon preached at the German Hebrew Synagogue in Richmond, Va. on a fast day “recommended by the President (Jefferson Davis).”

The rabbi, M. J. Michelbacher, addressed what he called the “cry” heard in public life: “that the Israelite does not fight in the battles of his country.”

The sermon does what the Charlestown letter did. It names the accusation plainly, then insists that it is false. “All history attests the untruthfulness of this ungracious charge,” the rabbi declares.

and he appeals to the plain logic of commerce: “It is obvious to the most obtuse mind that the high prices of the Israelite would drive all his customers into the stores of his Christian neighbors.”

Taken together, the 1778 letter and the 1863 sermon extract show two strands present early in the American record: antisemitism, and the ability to answer it in print.

That right did not erase prejudice or guarantee safety. But it did give American Jews an early civic tool of belonging — something many European Jews could not take for granted.

The same paper record that preserves these rebuttals also holds another inheritance: early scenes of Jewish belonging, especially at synagogue dedications and cornerstone layings, when non-Jewish neighbors and civic leaders chose to show up.

'Belonging has never been guaranteed; it has been defended.'

He speaks of Jewish soldiers who have been “crippled for life, or slain upon the field of battle,” and of “several thousand” still in the war’s campaigns.

Then he turns to another long-standing claim — one that recalled the 1778 rumor about “ill-got wealth.”

“There is another cry heard,” he says, “and it was even repeated in the Hall of Congress, that the Israelite is oppressing the people — that he is engaged in the great sin of speculating and extorting in the bread and meat of the land.”

The rabbi reports having made “due inquiry” from the Potomac to the Rio Grande and concludes: “the Israelites are not speculators nor extortioners.”

He argues that Jewish merchants do not hoard a staple “to enhance its value,”

In Charleston, one of the nation’s earliest centers of Jewish life, Temple Beth Elokim rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1838. When the new synagogue was dedicated in March 1841, notices extended an invitation beyond the Jewish community. “Clergy of all denominations,” “His Excellency the Governor,” judges, other elected officials, the mayor and aldermen of Charleston, and “the public generally” were all “respectfully invited to attend.”

The notice shows the dedication as a civic occasion, not a private rite.

A similar pattern appears in Mobile. In 1858, after a fire left the Jewish community without its synagogue, a report in The Israelite spoke with gratitude of “Christian brethren” who “had generously and liberally contributed towards erecting a most beautiful and substantial edifice.”

The same theme surfaces again and again in early reports of synagogue building across the United States.

LETTER

(including Herodian kingdom/tetrarchy), Hellenistic Empires (Ptolemaic/ Seleucid), Achaemenid Persian Empire, Neo-Babylonian Empire, Neo-Assyrian Empire, Kingdom of Judah and Kingdom of Israel/Samaria, United Monarchy, Ten Tribes of Israel. There has never been a sovereign Palestinian state.

In the Torah, there are several times that Hashem (God) promises the land to the Jewish people: Gen. 12, 13, 15, 17 — promise to Abraham. Gen. 26 — promise to Isaac. Gen. 28, 35 — promise to Jacob. Ex. 3, 6 — promise to the nation. Num. 34 — boundaries of the land. Deut. 1, 30 — command to enter and possess the land.

The term "Palestinian," as it is used today, was created in 1964 with the founding of the PLO. Prior to that, the term applied to Jews and Arabs living in the region under British Mandate. In speaking of the casualties of this war, any loss of life of innocent people is a shame. However, Hamas has a history of inaccurate reporting of deaths. They have included natural deaths and have not discerned between combatants (Hamas) and noncombatants. The numbers relating to deaths of women and children are skewed based on analysis (using Hamas’ own Health Ministry data), showing this number is clearly overstated. This has been confirmed by independent researchers. A signifi-

That is why these sources matter in a 250th anniversary year: The paper record preserves both early prejudice and early practices of public belonging, and provides a template for what Jews can anticipate in the face of attacks, like the Jan. 10 arson at Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Miss.

That double inheritance still shapes American Jewish life: welcome and violence, belonging and suspicion. The balance is never guaranteed. Pluralism has to be chosen again and again.

In the 1778 letter, the writer does not ask for pity. He asks for fair judgment. “Let judgment take place,” the earlier author had written, after describing Jews fleeing Georgia.

The rebuttal responds with evidence and with a claim about the obligations of citizenship: Georgia’s Jewish merchants, he insists, are “with their brother citizens in the field.”

In 1863, Rabbi M.J. Michelbacher did not pretend that the accusations were harmless. He calls them “ungracious” and rooted in prejudice.

As the United States marks 250 years, there will be no shortage of speeches about what it means to be an American.

Newspaper archives offer one reminder: pluralism has always depended on choices made in public life — by editors who amplify slander or correct it, by neighbors who show up to moments of celebration across lines of faith, and by those who helped build places of worship not their own.

Belonging has never been guaranteed; it has been defended. The Charlestown “true hearted Israelite” offers an enduring lesson for the 250th: when prejudice is spoken, and you have the power to answer, you answer.

Austin Reid Albanese is a historian and writer based in Rochester, N.Y., dedicated to uncovering forgotten narratives of Jewish life in small-town America. He grew up in Lancaster, Ohio. Distributed by JTA.

cant amount of the Gaza Ministry of Health’s casualty data comes from “media sources” rather than hospital or morgue data.

Hamas has built its terror infrastructure under hospitals, schools, and civilian homes. When Israel bombs, it provides sufficient notice for people to leave. However, Hamas forbids their people to leave, resulting in innocent lives lost.

And let’s not forget, there was a ceasefire as of Oct. 6, 2023. Hamas violated that on Oct. 7, 2023.

— Lisa and Todd Harlan, Kettering Lisa Harlan is vice president of Beth Jacob Congregation.

February 2026

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

UPCOMING

EVENTS

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 8AM - 6PM BBYO Spring Regional Kicko

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 3 - 4:30PM PJ Library and Chabad Let’s Roll – Men and Kids Bowling Get Together

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 6 - 7:30PM CABS — Sarah Hurwitz, As a Jew

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 7 - 10PM BBYO Fundraiser: Parents’ Night Out, Kids’ Night In!

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 8AM - 5:30PM Winter Camp Shalom: School Day Out Field Trip

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 6 - 8PM Interfaith Emergency Preparedness Plan Training

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 7 - 9PM CABS — Lee Yaron, 10/7: 100 Human Stories

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 8 - 10PM AND SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2 - 4PM & 6 - 8PM JCC Youth Theatre performances of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 12 - 2PM CABS — Gila Fine, The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 7 - 8:30PM JCRC Black-Jewish Reconciliation: (Re)Building the Bridge

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 7 - 11PM JCC A Night in Vegas

SCHOLARSHIPS & STUDENT LOANS

Heuman Scholarship & Interest-free Student Loan applications are now available. Completed applications are due March 27.

Are you a member of the Dayton Jewish community who will be enrolled at a two- or four-year college, technical program, or graduate school in the academic year 2026-2027? If so, you may be eligible to apply for a college scholarship and/or interest-free student loan through the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton. It is easy to apply for both incredible opportunities at the same time on a single unified application.

To request the application and to learn more about the Heuman Scholarship and interest-free student loans, please contact Alisa Thomas, executive assistant, at 937-610-1796 or athomas@jfgd.net

SCHOLARSHIPS

AVAILABLE FOR SLEEPAWAY CAMP AND TRAVEL TO ISRAEL

Completed applications are due by March 27.

Is your child planning to attend a Jewish sleepaway camp or travel to Israel this summer? If so, you may be eligible to apply for scholarships through the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton. To request an application and to learn more about these opportunities, please contact Alisa Thomas, executive assistant, at 937-610-1796 or athomas@jfgd.net

Funding for these scholarships is made possible through the Carole Rabinowitz Youth Jewish Experience Fund, the Joan & Peter Wells and Rebecca Linville Family, Children and Youth Fund, and the Wolfe Marcus Youth Travel to Israel Fund.

February 2026

FEBRUARY EVENTS

Thursday, February 12 at 7 PM via Zoom — enjoy from the comfort of your home! No Cost.

As a Jew: Reclaiming Our Story From Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us

Sarah Hurwitz, a former speechwriter for Michelle Obama, has written a powerful, personal, and political reflection on what it means to be Jewish in today’s world. Hurwitz insists that being Jewish is not something to apologize for, hide, or water down. She critiques how Jews are often left out of conversations about oppression or even blamed for privilege. As a Jew invites Jews, especially secular, progressive, or culturally a liated ones — to reexamine their relationship to their Jewishness in a world that often misunderstands or misrepresents them.

Wednesday, February 18 at 7 PM via Zoom — enjoy from the comfort of your home! No Cost.

Lee Yaron 10/7: 100 Human Stories

Lee Yaron, author of 10/7: 100 Human Stories, is at 30, the youngest winner of the National Jewish Book Award. In her masterful work, she weaves stories illuminating the lives of a very unusual group that illustrates the diversity and complexity of Israeli society. Her portraits include peace activists, Bedouins, Israeli Arabs, Nepalese guest workers, Holocaust survivors and refugees from Ukraine. An investigative journalist, Yaron’s work describes the richness of their lives and places them within the broader context of the war that devastated the land of Israel. She delves into the intricacies of their lives, their hopes, and dreams.

Tuesday, February 24 at 12 PM via Zoom — enjoy from the comfort of your home! No Cost.

Gila Fine

The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic: Rereading the Women of the Talmud

The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic by Gila Fine is a groundbreaking work of literary and Talmudic interpretation. In this book, Fine explores the portrayal of women in the Talmud using tools of modern literary theory to reread classical rabbinic texts. The title alludes to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s and others’ “madwoman in the attic” - the silenced woman hidden from view - and applies it to women who appear in the margins of Jewish sacred texts. Fine examines the heroines of the Talmud such as Yalta the shrew, Homa the femme fatale, and four others, revealing there is more to these women than meets the eye.

SUNDAY, MAY 17

Jewish Community Center OF GREATER DAYTON

Sarah Hurwitz

Jonah Platt

February 2026

JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

2026’s grooviest party is here!

Saturday, February 28, 7 - 11PM

The Boonshoft CJCE 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville, 45459

Get ready to shine under the disco ball for an unforgettable evening of Vegas-style excitement and retro flair! Whether you’re feeling lucky or just ready to dance, this is THE event of the season. Bring your luck, bring your groove, and get ready for a spectacular night of games, music, and community fun! Must be 21+ to attend.

Join us for Blackjack, Roulette, Classic Table Games, a Poker Tournament, Silent Auction, Raffles, Disco Dancing, Music and More! Costume Contest: Strut in with your best '70s Disco outfit for a chance to win exciting prizes! Glitter, glam, neon, and platform shoes encouraged!

General Admission – $25

Includes one drink and raffle ticket

High Roller – $50 Includes two drink and three raffle tickets

Tournament Admission – $75

Includes general admission and entry into the tournament

Thursday, March 12, 6 - 9PM

A Women’s Freedom Seder

BREAKING THE BONDS OF OPPRESSION

Beth Abraham Synagogue • 350 Sugar Camp Circle, Oakwood

Cost: $54 per person

RSVP at jewishdayton.org/events by Thursday, February 19.

The JCC Women's Seder Committee invites you to the 12th Annual Women's Seder for a night of camaraderie, ritual, and dinner.

This year, the Women’s Seder will be assisting The Castle, a gathering place supporting adults in Montgomery County dealing with severe and persistent mental illness to help their members achieve the highest level of competence and independence. We are collecting art supplies such as scissors, Styrofoam trays, pipe cleaners, tissue paper, colored felt, mini canvases and liquid watercolor paints. We thank you for your support.

Questions? Contact Stacy Emoff at semoff@jfgd.net.

The Jewish Community Center is proud to collaborate with women from Beth Abraham Synagogue, Beth Jacob Congregation, Hadassah, Temple Beth Or, and Temple Israel.

Grand Raffle Tickets: $10 = 1 raffle ticket

$20 = 3 raffle tickets

Winners drawn at the end of the night. You do not need to be present to win.

Register online at jewishdayton.org/events or by calling 937-610-1555.

Enjoy an exciting JCC Youth Theatre performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat!

Saturday, February 21 at 8PM & Sunday, February 22 at 2PM and 6PM

Cost: $17 for adults, $14 for children

PNC Arts Annex 46 W 2nd St, Dayton, 45402

Tickets are available at daytonlive.org/venues/arts-annex/.

February 2026

Legacies, Tributes, & Memorials

ANNUAL CAMPAIGN

In memory of Irene Levy, mother of Paul Levy

Donna and Marshall Weiss

UNRESTRICTED FUND

In memory of Joseph Jacob

Karen Hasson and Family

JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER DAYTON ENDOWMENT FUND

In memory of June Youra

Marc and Laurie Friedman

ISRAEL SUPPORT FUND

In memory of Joseph Jacob

Susan and David Jo e

PJ LIBRARY FUND

In memory of Marla Harlan

Marcia and Ed Kress

JOE BETTMAN MEMORIAL

TZADIK AWARD

In memory of Roberta Zawatsky

Todd Bettman

HOLOCAUST PROGRAMMING FUND

In honor of Melinda and Bill Doner’s new granddaughter, Sophie Blair

Helene Gordon

2026

JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER FUND

In memory of Joseph Jacob

Judy and Alan Chesen

Stacy Emo and Du y Adams

Lynn Foster

Cathy Gardner

Dr. Heath Gilbert

Donna and Marshall Weiss

JCC PROGRAMMING FUND

In memory of Joseph Jacob

Cathy Gardner

EARLY CHILDHOOD FUND

In honor of Katie Lagasse and Je Pence’s marriage

Adina, Donna, and Marshall Weiss

JOAN AND PETER WELLS AND REBECCA LINVILLE FAMILY, CHILDREN AND YOUTH FUND

In memory of Martin Rosen

In memory of Roberta Zawatsky

In memory of Robert Leventhal

In memory of Hank Sobel

Joan and Peter Wells

JFS

JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES FRIENDS DRIVE

In honor of the great work of JFS and Kate Scarpero and Jacquelyn Archie; the dynamic duo who keep things running Tara and Adam Feiner

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 contact Janese R. Sweeny, Esq. CFRE, at 937-401-1542.

SHARING

YOUR JOY

@ PASSOVER

IS HIRING!

We are always looking for high-energy young folks who love working with kids.

If you know someone interested in becoming a camp counselor, have them email Jennifer Holman at jholman@jfgd.net

Tuning moments into lifelong memories

Do you have a favorite photo of nature that brings you joy? Share that joy with others!

You can submit your photos to Jewish Family Services. We will use them to create Passover cards as part of our holiday outreach. Email photos to Jacquelyn Archie at jarchie@jfgd.net by February 27.

Questions? Contact Jacquelyn Archie at jarchie@jfgd.net or by calling 937-610-1555.

JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES of GREATER DAYTON

Classes

Beth Abraham Classes: Tuesdays, 10 a.m.: Song of Songs. On Zoom. Register at bethabrahamdayton.org/events/holy-desire or call 937-293-9520.

Beth Jacob Classes: W. Rabbi Agar on Zoom. Register at 937274-2149. Tuesdays, 7 p.m.: Torah. Thursdays, 7 p.m.: Thursdays of Thought.

Chabad Classes: Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m.: Talmud in person & Zoom. Call for Zoom link & location. Fridays, 9:30 a.m.: Women’s Class. Call for location. Mon., Feb. 2, 9, 16, 7 p.m.: $72. JLI-Cases in Rabbinic Responsa, in person & Zoom. Register at chabaddayton. com/calendar. 2001 Far Hills Ave, Oakwood. 937-643-0770.

Temple Beth Or Classes: Sat., Feb. 14, 28, 10 a.m.: Apocryphal Study in person & Zoom. Thurs., Feb. 19, 6 p.m.: Navigating Loss w. Andy Chaet. Register at templebethor.com/calendar. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 937435-3400.

Temple Israel Classes: Tuesdays, noon: Talmud in person & Zoom. Wednesdays, 10 a.m.: Torah 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., Feb. 13, 11 a.m.: Living w. Loss. Sat., Feb. 14, 9:15 a.m.: Torah Study in person & Zoom. tidayton.org/calendar. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. RSVP to 937-496-0050.

Youths & Teens

BBYO Regional: Sun., Feb. 1, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. $65. Details & RSVP at jewishdayton.org/events. Questions, contact Jennifer Holman at jholman@jfgd.net. Drop-off & pick-up Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr. Centerville.

BBYO Fundraiser: Parents’ Night Out, Kids’ Night In: Sat., Feb. 14, 7-10 p.m. $25 per child. BBYOers host kids grades K-6. For more info. & RSVP by Feb. 9, email Jennifer Holman, jholman@ jfgd.net. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. 937610-1555.

JCC Winter Camp Shalom: School Day Out Field Trip: Mon., Feb. 16, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. $75, grades 1-8. To The Web Extreme Entertainment. For more info. email Jennifer Holman, jholman@ jfgd.net. RSVP by Feb. 8 at jewishdayton.org/events. Drop-off & pick-up at Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. 937610-1555.

Chabad Purim Hamantashen Bake: Wed., Feb. 25, 4 p.m. Free. Kids 5-12. RSVP at chabaddayton.com/ckids. 2001 Far Hills

Ave., Oakwood. 937-643-0770.

Family

Beth Abraham Rhythm ‘N’ Ruach: Fri., Feb. 13, 5:30-6:15 p.m. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. 937-293-9520.

Temple Israel Prayer & Play: Sat., Feb. 14, 10 a.m. Infants–2nd grade. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 937-496-0050.

Adults

Beth Abraham Pinsky Brunch Series: $9. Sundays, 9:45 a.m. Feb. 1: Rabbi Glazer, Allyship & Hospitality for the Q+ Community. Feb. 8: Dr. Kathy Platoni, Col. (Ret.), U.S. Army, Plight of Veterans. RSVP, 937-293-9520. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood.

Temple Israel Sacred Stitching: Tues., Feb. 3, 17, 11 a.m. Make items for donation w. JCRC’s Upstander initiative. For info. email Alexandria King, garyuzzking@ hotmail.com. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 937-496-0050.

Temple Israel Brotherhood Ryterband Lecture Series & Brunch: $10. Sundays, 9:45 a.m. Feb. 8: UD Asst. Prof. Abraham Rubin, Conversion in the Shadow of Catastrophe. Feb. 22: WSU Prof. Mark Verman, Zechariah's Coronation Narrative. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 937-4960050.

THE ALUMNI CHAIR IN THE HUMANITIES PRESENTS:

THE UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON FOOD & CULTURE FESTIVAL

Monday, 2 February 2026 at 5:30pm

A roundtable discussion with leading culinary artists in the greater Dayton region. This is a free event.

Tuesday, 3 February 2026 at 5:30pm

A panel discussion that brings together folks to talk about stories of food growing and distribution to share stories of food, joy and access. This is a free event.

Thursday, 5 February 2026 at 5:30pm

A keynote address by James Beard and Jewish Book Award winner, our culinary historian in residence, Michael Twitty on the history, myths, and controversies surrounding Southern Food, race and identity. This is a free, but ticketed event.

Friday and Saturday, 6-7 February at 7:30pm

Performances of a pair of operas about food by Dayton Opera: Lee Hoiby’s Bon Appetit (1981) and Shawn Okpebholo’s The Cook Off (2023). Tickets for this event can be purchased through the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, GO TO HTTP://GO.UDAYTON.EDU/ALUMNICHAIR

Interfaith Emergency Preparedness Plan Training: Tues., Feb. 17, 6 p.m. Free. Jewish Federation & Mont. Co. Emerg. Mgt. Agency, emergency operations plans for houses of worship. RSVP at jewishdayton.org/events. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. 937-610-1555.

JCRC Black-Jewish Reconciliation: Thurs., Feb. 26, 7 p.m. Free. W. Avi Dresner, Wilberforce Assoc. Prof. Godfrey Vincent & Prof. Jaques Kahindo. RSVP by Feb. 25, jewishdayton.org/events. National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Ctr., 1350 Brush Row Rd., Wilberforce.

JCC Vegas Night: Sat., Feb. 28, 7 p.m. $25-$75. 21+. RSVP by Feb. 20 at jewishdayton.org/ events. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. 937610-1555.

Women

Chabad Women’s Tu B’Shevat: Sun., Feb. 1, 6:30 p.m. $36. Dinner & craft led by Kate & Lena Elder. Register at chabaddayton. com/cwc. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-643-0770.

Chabad Rosh Chodesh Society: Sun., Feb. 22, 9:45 a.m. $15. Elated Living: Reaching & Reaping Genuine Joy. RSVP at chabaddayton.com/events. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-6430770.

Men

Chabad Bagels, Lox & Tefillin: Sun., Feb. 1, 9:30 a.m. 13+ welcome. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-643-0770.

PJ Library & Chabad Let’s Roll – Men & Kids Bowling GetTogether: Sun., Feb. 8, 3 p.m. Free. RSVP at jewishdayton.org/ events. Questions, email Kate Elder at kelder@jfgd.net. Woodman Lanes, 3200 Woodman Dr., Kettering. 937-610-1555.

JCC Cultural Arts & Book Series See Page 14.

Community

Beth Jacob Tu B’Shevat Seder & Brunch: Sun., Feb. 1, 11 a.m. Free. Collecting canned fruit for the Dayton Foodbank. Call Tammy to RSVP, 937-274-2149. 7020 N. Main St., Harrison Twp.

Chabad Community Shabbat Dinner: Fri., Feb. 6, 5:30 p.m. $30 adults, $10 kids 3-12. W. Nova survivor Shoham Cohen. RSVP at chabaddayton.com/ calendar. 2001 Far Hills Ave, Oakwood. 937-643-0770.

JCC Youth Theatre’s Joseph: Sat., Feb. 21, 8 p.m. & Sun., Feb. 22, 2 & 6 p.m. $20 adult, $17 child. Tickets at daytonlive.org/ events/joseph. PNC Arts Annex, 46 W. 2nd St., Dayton.

MAZEL TOV!

Zoey Shiraz Lader will become a Bat Mitzvah on Shabbat, Feb. 28, as she reads from Parashat Tetzaveh (Ex. 27:20–30:10). Zoey is a sixth grader at Hillel Academy. She enjoys creative writing and spending time with friends, and she especially loves Shabbat—unplugging from the week, lighting candles, and sharing family meals. In preparation, Zoey is studying with Rebbetzin Devorah Leah Mangel of Chabad, describing their learning as “wonderful, inspiring, and meaningful.” She is the daughter of Dr. Miri and Josh Lader, and the big sister of Eliana and Avi

University of Cincinnati Associate Prof. and Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati Chair in Judaic Studies Jennifer Caplan is one of three editors of Wit Happens: Global Jewish Humor, along with Jarrod Tanny and Avinoam Patt. Published by Wayne State University Press, the book investigates Jewish humor in television, film, comedy performance, and literature in Canada, the United States, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Jennifer also contributed to the book. Publisher's Weekly interviewed the three editors of Wit Happens in January. Its release date is Feb. 17.

Familyvacationsus.com named All The Best Delicatessen Best Deli in Ohio in its guide The Best Deli in Every State That Locals Defend Fiercely. The guide describes All The Best as a culinary gem. "Our team works every day to deliver authentic deli favorites made from scratch," All The Best owner Lee Schear said.

This year, Hadassah Dayton will celebrate its centennial with a series of festive events, culminating with The Grand Event, scheduled for Oct. 11.

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

Zoey Shiraz Lader

Book chronicles weddings of Jewish brides around world

By Renee Ghert-Zand

The Times of Israel

100

Jewish Brides:

Stories from Around the World takes readers on a grand tour of Jewish weddings around the globe and throughout time. It comprises personal accounts written by or about 100 brides from 83 countries. Collected and edited by Barbara Vinick and Shulamit Reinharz, these stories demonstrate that wherever Jews have lived over the centuries, the unique customs of the local Jewish communities are highly influential.

Published by Indiana University Press, 100 Jewish Brides is a colorful journey of meetings, courtships, engagements, prewedding events, ceremonies, and receptions. The book is a fascinating introduction to customs such as lavish henna parties thrown by Middle Eastern Jews, families of Ethiopian grooms gifting brides’ families with cows and goats, and a Sephardic groom’s hurling a glass against a silver platter at the end of the wedding ceremony in Curaçao.

said.

Vinick and Reinharz worked together previously on a book on Purim and the legacy of the biblical figure Esther around the world, as well as on one about how Jewish girls mark their bat mitzvah in different communities. Weddings seemed to them to be the obvious focus for their third joint project.

Both sociologists, Vinick and Reinharz used their many personal and professional contacts to reach out to a large number of Jewish women on all continents, inviting them to contribute short written pieces on their weddings or the weddings of women in their families.

Reinharz is an professor emerita of sociology at Brandeis University. She is also the founder of the university’s women’s studies research center and the founder of HadassahBrandeis Institute, a research institute for the study of Jews and gender.

“The book shows the huge variety of traditions and practices. Our single criterion was that the bride (or one of the brides in the case of a same-sex marriage) was Jewish,” Vinick

Vinick specializes in gerontology and is the secretary of Kulanu, an organization “supporting isolated, emerging and returning Jewish communities around the globe,” according to its website.

“I’ve been on Kulanu’s board for a long time and

involved with the organization for around 20 years, since early on,” Vinick said.

“I’m particularly interested in the fact that there are Jewish communities everywhere in the world and that people want to be Jewish. This was one of the reasons I wanted to do this book,” she said.

Vinick, who has visited many communities supported by Kulanu, spoke excitedly about being present in Madagascar in 2016 to witness more than 100 men, women, and children converted to Judaism by a beit din (a court of three rabbis) that came from abroad. The day after the conversion, 12 couples remarried according to halacha, Jewish law.

Vinick and Reinharz divided the personal accounts into 14 themed chapters, deciding which of each story’s multiple themes was most prominent or illuminating. Short comments by the editors at the beginning of each chapter, and sometimes before a specific entry, help give historical or Jewish legal context.

As would be expected, there are chapters on meetings, courtship, betrothal, invitations, pre-wedding events, wedding venues, ketubot (wedding contracts), ceremonies, Continued on Page 20

Bride Esther and groom Steeve are carried on ornate thrones at their henna party in the week leading up to their wedding in 2007 in Casablanca, Morocco.

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Brides around the world

Continued from Page 19

and married life, and in some cases widowhood or divorce.

It also has chapters on conversion before marriage and on intermarriage and Jewish interethnic marriage.

“It was really fascinating to learn about how it was only relatively recently that Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews married each other,” Vinick said.

Similarly, within Middle Eastern Jewish communities, families from one country often did not want their daughters to marry a man who grew up in another country.

One section deals with wartime and post-World War II weddings. Another has a couple of stories from Israel that highlight the difficulties posed by the lack of separation between religion and state. In these, couples make the conscious decision to opt out of the official system run by the Chief Rabbinate.

Amid all the happy stories about couples meeting at dances or work or through friends, there are also upsetting ones about forced marriage. Although Judaism formally

2313 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood 937-293-1196 oakwoodflorist.com family

prohibits child marriage — a universally recognized human rights abuse — some stories in the book illustrate that there have been instances in modern times.

Almost always, the underage bride is married off to a much older man, who can be a relative or family business associate.

This is discussed in a chapter titled Arranged and Forced Marriages. The editors differentiate between the two phenomena but point out that sometimes the lines are blurred due to the influence a family has over its daughter.

“The most important distinction is that the bride, often very young, has no say in a

forced marriage…In contrast, both partners in an arranged marriage have accepted the assistance of their parents or a matchmaker and have consented to the marriage," they wrote.

Readers may be familiar with arranged Jewish marriage through portrayals in television shows about Haredi Jews such as Shtisel, Unorthodox and The New Black One woman writes about leaving Iran for the United States so she would escape the fate of her mother, who was forced into marriage at 13 and began having children at 15.

Another story is about a 19-year-old girl in Fes, Morocco, who had no say when her father married her off to her 38-year-old uncle.

While not at all comparable to forced marriage, many today bristle at the fact that women are traditionally voiceless and are technically “acquired” by the groom in a halachic Jewish wedding.

Among the book’s accounts are ones highlighting how many modern brides have insisted on more egalitarianism and creativity when it comes to their marriage contract and what is said and done under the chupah (marriage canopy).

The point of 100 Jewish Brides is not to argue the merits of how different Jewish weddings are celebrated. The book is about broadening one’s horizons and hearing what women have to say about their own experiences. Whether their wedding or marriage was everything they dreamed of or not, it’s their story to tell.

Rut Wangeci with her bridesmaids at her 2014 wedding to Yosef Njogu, conducted by Rabbi Gershom Suzomu of the Abayudaya community in Uganda. Wagenci and Njogu are members of the Kasuku Jewish community in Kenya.

RELIGION

Judaism’s Conservative movement apologizes for decades of discouraging intermarriage, signals new approach

New report embraces engagement with interfaith families while leaving the ban on clergy officiation in place.

By Asaf Elia-Shalev, JTA

The Conservative movement, one of the major Jewish denominations, is formally apologizing for decades of discouraging intermarriage and is committing itself to a new approach centered on engagement.

The shift marks a significant change in tone for a movement that long treated intermarriage as a threat to Jewish continuity, even as its long-standing ban on clergy officiating at such weddings remains in place.

Leaders of the movement announced the shift in a report released Dec. 18 by a working group representing the denomination’s three main arms: the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the Rabbinical Assembly, and the Cantors Assembly.

“For decades, our movement’s approach to families where one partner is Jewish and the other is not was rooted in disapproval and shaped by fears about Jewish continuity,” the leaders wrote in a statement accompanying the report. “But today — as we connect with countless families who want to learn, participate, and belong — we are committed to welcoming people as they are.”

In the report, the movement also accepted responsibility for the consequences of that approach. “We acknowledge that our movement’s historical stance has resulted in hurt, alienation, and disconnection from our community. We deeply apologize,” the report said.

The report does not itself change binding policy. Instead, it asks the movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, or CJLS, to revisit how its rules are interpreted, while recommending new educational, pastoral and ritual approaches aimed at intermarried families.

“The idea that we could discourage people from intermarrying through disapproval — all that did was push people away who really should have

been part of our communities,”

Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, the CEO of both the Rabbinical Assembly and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, said in an interview.

The Conservative movement’s formal ban on officiating at interfaith weddings dates to a 1973 “standard of practice” adopted by the Rabbinical Assembly, which also barred clergy from speaking during such ceremonies.

While the rule remains in effect, the report argues that it effectively froze conversation for decades even as intermarriage became widespread across American Jewish life.

“What we stated in 1973 obviously did not deter intermarriage. So moving forward, how do we really embrace these individuals” who are part of intermarried families? asked Shirley Davidoff, a member of the working group and vice president of USCJ’s board.

time, leaders have argued that officiating at interfaith weddings raises complex legal and ritual questions that go beyond concerns about continuity.

The report contends, however, that halacha itself contains “expansive, creative” resources for welcoming interfaith families.

“We believe that our halachic process already contains the necessary ingredients to address the needs of our constituents,” the report said.

'We believe that our halachic process already contains the necessary ingredients to address the needs of our constituents.'

The ban has long been framed by the movement as a matter of Jewish law, or halacha, which traditionally understands marriage as a covenant between two Jews. While the Conservative movement has historically embraced the idea that halacha evolves over

Shabbat Candle Lightings

February 6: 5:45 p.m.

February 13: 5:53 p.m.

February 20: 6:01 p.m.

February 27: 6:09 p.m.

The report is the culmination of a nearly twoyear process that included responses to a questionnaire from 1,200 people, listening sessions, focus groups, and commissioned papers from scholars and rabbis. The 17-member working group included clergy and lay leaders from North America and Israel and operated by consensus rather than formal votes.

The new report builds on a 2024 clergy-led review that maintained the officiation ban

February • Shevat

but called for greater engagement with interfaith families, expanding that work into a movement-wide process that included lay leaders and focused on repairing trust and widening pathways into Jewish life.

In its section on marriage rituals, the report explicitly notes that there was not unanimity among members, a signal of persistent internal disagreement, particularly over whether and how Conservative clergy should participate in weddings between Jews and non-Jews.

The working group stops short of recommending an immediate end to the officiation ban. Instead, it asks the CJLS to clarify ambiguous terms such as “officiation” and “wedding,” and to consider whether rabbis might offer blessings or other forms of participation before or after a wedding ceremony.

The report arrives amid a broader rethinking of intermarriage in some corners of American Judaism. Reform and Reconstructionist movements have long permitted officiation, and individual Conservative Continued on Page 23

Torah Portions

February 7: Yitro (Ex. 18:1-20:23)

WORSHIP SERVICES

Beth Abraham Synagogue

Conservative Rabbi Aubrey L. Glazer Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. 305 Sugar Camp Circle, Oakwood. 937-293-9520. 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 Sat., Feb. 7, 10 a.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., Feb. 6, 6 p.m. Fridays, Feb. 20 and 27, 6:30 p.m. Sat., Feb. 14, 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

Tu B’Shevat

New Year for Trees

February

February 14: Mishpatim (Ex. 21:1-24:18, 30:11-16)

February 21: Terumah (Ex. 25:1-27:19)

February 28: Tetzaveh (Ex. 27:20-30:10, Deut. 25:17-19)

Yellow Springs Havurah Independent Antioch College Rockford Chapel. 1st & 3rd Saturday each month. Contact Len Kramer, 937-5724840 or len2654@gmail.com.

2/15 Shevat Marks springtime in Israel. Celebrated with picnics, fruit, and planting trees.

Courtneyk/Getty Images

A work in progress

The use of biotechnology and biomedical engineering for human benefit extends back at least 13,000 years, to physical evidence of rudimentary tooth cavity fillings made with a mixture of tar, hair, and plant fibers.

Deliberate holes drilled in skulls from the 7th millennium B.C.E. indicate the

use of trepanning, an ancient neurosurgical procedure used for treating head wounds and mental disorders.

A 4,800 year-old artificial eye was discovered in Iran, and archaeology in Egypt revealed a 3,000-year-old functional prosthetic toe. Documented in Egyptian papyri from as early as 1,600 B.C.E. is the use of moldy bread to treat infection and willow bark for pain relief.

Until recently, the human body was regarded with both reverence and practical concern as an entity described by the psalmist as “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

From ancient folk remedies to modern applications of research and technology to the human body, medicine was viewed as a sacred calling

focused primarily on physical repair, treating infection and disease, alleviating pain, improving diagnostics, and developing medical devices and processes to approximate or restore normal function and health.

Think pacemakers, noisecancelling hearing aids, health-tracking smart watches, advanced prosthetics like bionic arms, even gene editing to eliminate disease.

But headlines from this past year alone suggest a very different story about merging technology with medicine: Transhumanism: the future or the world's most dangerous idea? Is technology rewriting what it means to be human? How transhumanism dangerously ignores human nature. Transhumanism is not just latest tech advance but seeks to one day replace humans, says panelists. Artificially alive: How AI is bringing the dead back and what that means for the living. Elon Musk’s 2035 Prediction - Humans Will Merge with AI

integration of science and advanced technology with the human body and mind to fundamentally enhance human physical and cognitive abilities, overcome biological limitations, and even achieve radical life extension.

They also reveal medicine's evolving view of the human body from a sacred vessel to a complex machine.

These are the ideas embraced by transhumanism, a philosophical and cultural movement advocating for using science and technology to move beyond existing human limitations and cognitive limits in order to fundamentally transform the human condition. According to transhumanism, the human is always a work in progress.

The issue is not technology itself, but whether it serves 'divine purpose and ethics' or serves man, becoming an idol.

Futuristic ideas do have precedent. Throughout history, humans have tried to transform themselves: to become stronger, gain greater wisdom, overcome limitations, even triumph over death, contemporary philosopher John Philip notes. “(Humans yearn) to become better than (they) are, better than human.”

But the Bible warns against progress that oversteps divine boundaries.

glean this knowledge on their own terms, resulting in God banishing them from Eden.

After Noah, the people of the earth settled in Babel where they created bricks and built a city with a tower reaching into the heavens, seeking to make a name for themselves.

This attempt to become their own masters, to live forever through their legacy and technology, led instead to God confusing their speech and scattering them across the earth.

These stories highlight the core tension that lies between transhumanism’s drive to transcend human limits, identity, and even death, and Judaism's emphasis on accepting human limitations, finding sanctity within the created world, and recognizing mortality as central to a meaningful life.

a product to be optimized, but a creature endowed with intrinsic dignity, called not to self-creation, but to a relationship with God, with others, and with creation.”

Of course Judaism does encourage the use of technology to improve the human condition.

Engaging in medicine, science, research, and technology for the purpose of healing are considered holy endeavors, sacred acts of fulfilling the will of God, also known as rofeh cholim (healer of the sick).

But the increasing abilities of technology and medicine raise questions previously unimagined.

Does technological enhancement or alteration diminish or enhance the dignity of the human, created in God’s image?

Is transhumanism a modern form of idolatry, replacing faith in God with faith in technology? How will radical life extension or digital immortality impact the meaning that can be found in the finite, mortal nature of being human?

When does transhumanism overstep divine boundaries? The issue is not technology itself, but whether it serves "divine purpose and ethics" or serves man, becoming an idol.

These noteworthy snippets are just a sample of dozens of equally intriguing headlines that highlight the increasing

Email:

In the Garden of Eden, God commanded, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat.” Later, the snake added, “On the day you eat from it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God, knowers of good and evil.”

Instead of obeying the divine prohibition, Adam and Eve chose to eat from the tree and

Both worldviews consider the maxim “the human is always a work in progress” to be a foundational principle.

But for Judaism its meaning encompasses the commitment to personal growth, refining one’s character and behavior, and managing one’s yetzer hara (evil inclination).

Author Serenella Verduchi succinctly expresses Judaism’s perspective: "Man is not

Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine That Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict by Yardena Schwartz. Hebron, the burial place of Abraham, is home to one of the world’s most ancient Jewish communities. For centuries, it was a place of peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Jews: until the 1929 Hebron massacre. Inspired to undertake years of historical and on-the-ground research via the extensive writings of a young American Jew living as a yeshiva student in Hebron in the 1920s, Schwartz ultimately concluded, “There is a direct line between 1929 and 2023.” This acclaimed nonfiction work is the highly readable and intensely interesting account of Schwartz’s research journey that explains

In 1943 author C.S. Lewis wrote this prophetic warning: “For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike, the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men: the solution is a technique; and both, in the practice of this technique, are ready to do things hitherto regarded as disgusting and impious — such as digging up and mutilating the dead.”

why she says, “If you don’t understand 1929, you’ll never understand Oct. 7... Everything began there. ”

Rembrandt Chooses a Queen by Kerry Olitzky and Deborah Bodin Cohen. Friendly with the Jewish community in 17th-century Amsterdam, Rembrandt van Rijn often consulted Jewish theologians and texts for insights for his biblical scenes. But could his young Jewish apprentice also be of help? Inspired by Rembrandt’s Ahasuerus and Haman at the Feast of Esther, this imaginative historical tale weaves together the story of Esther with art, history, culture, and Jewish values into a delightful picture book for elementary ages.

Candace R. Kwiatek

The Tower of Babel by Gustave Doré, 1866

Koshersoul author Michael Twitty keynotes UD Food & Culture Festival

Culinary historian Michael Twitty will deliver the keynote for University of Dayton's Food & Culture Festival. He'll talk about the history, myths, and controversies surrounding Southern food, race, and identity, at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 5 at the Roger Glass Center for the Arts.

The full festival, presented by UD's Alumni Chair in the Humanities — Prof. Sam Dorf — runs Feb. 2 to 7.

Twitty is the author of Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew, which was named the Jewish Book Council's Jewish Book of 2022. His 2018 book, The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South, received that year's James Beard Foundation

Conservative movement

Continued from Page 21

congregations have increasingly tested the boundaries — including a high-profile 2024 case in Minnesota, where a Conservative synagogue announced it would allow clergy participation short of officiation. In a separate case, a rabbi left the movement rather than face possible expulsion following a complaint to his rabbinical association over his officiation at interfaith weddings. Blumenthal declined to comment on any internal disciplinary reviews, emphasizing that the report is about setting direction, not enforcing compliance.

“What we hope,” he said, “is that rabbis and congregations will think more deeply about what it means to truly engage people who want to build Jewish lives.”

Rabbi Dan Horwitz of Congregation Beth Yeshurun in Houston is among those opposing a more permissive policy, warning that attitudes in the United States are generally less traditional than elsewhere in the movement.

“Given what I know about the Rabbinical Assembly as a whole, a change in policy would rupture the assembly — particularly among older members and those living in Israel or Latin America,” said Horwitz, who was not involved

Book of the Year Award. His latest book is Recipes from the American South, published in October.

"I've been dreaming of bringing Mr. Twitty to Dayton before his book The Cooking Gene was published, as I read his articles and heard interviews with him," Dorf said. "Mr. Twitty is a brilliant historian, a beautiful writer, and a transformative thinker whose writing on food, on race, on history, on Judaism has shaped me in so many ways."

Twitty's keynote is a free but ticketed event. For reservations, go to am.ticketmaster.com/ rogerglass/buy.

Williams

in the working group and did not have a chance to review its report prior to publication.

But Keren McGinity, who served as director of intermarriage engagement and inclusion at USCJ until her position was eliminated in 2025, said fears of mass defection have long been overstated.

“I have heard the concern about the fracturing of the movement for years,” McGinity said. “It’s not that no one would leave, but generally speaking, when people make that threat, it’s often hyperbolic.”

While acknowledging deep divisions within the movement, McGinity said she was not convinced that lifting restrictions would fracture Conservative Judaism. Avoiding change, she added, also carries risks, pointing to the 2020 Pew study showing that fewer than half of Jews raised Conservative still identify with the movement. “That,” she said, “is hugely concerning.”

Despite inevitable disagreements over policy and pace, members of the working group said they hope the report itself will be seen as a sign of institutional seriousness and as a unifying moment for the movement.

“I hope people will feel proud that we’re having this conversation,” Davidoff said. “That we’re willing to pull back layers, listen carefully, and include people that want to build a Jewish home.”

Koshersoul, chef Michael Twitty’s memoir about his career fusing Jewish and African American culinary histories, was the Jewish Book Council's Jewish Book of 2022.

Clay

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.

Gila Fine reexamines the complex narratives of women in the Talmud

By Maya Zanger-Nadis The Times of Israel

Three days before her 12th birthday, Gila Fine found herself alone in her grandparents’ London home with a pile of books and a directive to write her bat mitzvah speech. Unsure where to start, she opened the Sefer Ha’Agaddah, or Book of Legends, to the section titled Women. A few stories in, she burst into tears.

The women in the stories were weak, irrational, greedy and vain.

“I was so hurt, so deeply offended that the rabbis, the architects of my religion and heroes of my childhood, could have such a low opinion of me and my kind,” she wrote in her latest book, The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic: Rereading the Women of the Talmud

Many girls and women are, like Fine, confronted with less-than-favorable portrayals of women in the Jewish literary canon. Fine’s relationship with Judaism was forever changed.

However, instead of writing off Jewish academia forever, Fine dug deeper. It began a decades-long struggle with rabbinic Judaism, leading her to dive deep into Talmud study and become a scholar and a teacher.

The book focuses on the six women in the Talmud who are protagonists of their own stories: Yalta (The Shrew), Homa (The Femme Fatale), Marta (The Prima Donna), Heruta (The Madonna/Whore), Beruria (The Overreacherix), and Ima Shalom (The Angel in the House).

Each one, as the title suggests, receives a rereading. Fine posits that a singular, literal reading of each story puts the women into one-dimensional, often sexist stereotypes.

“One of the hallmarks of rabbinic storytelling is what I call the ‘false front,'” Fine explained in an interview with The Times of Israel. “So what the story seems to be saying and what it is actually saying are often diametrically opposed. The rabbis write their stories to deliberately mislead us, so if we only read the story once, we will come away with the wrong idea.”

Don’t say the ‘F-word’

Beruria, the first-century wife of the Talmudic scholar Rabbi Meir whom Fine dubs “The Overreacherix,” may be the most famous of Fine’s characters given new life through rereading.

She is one of the precious few women in rabbinic literature described as a Torah scholar, a woman living in the world of men inside the beit midrash, or study hall. She tends toward arrogance, which is always justified as she consistently outsmarts her male counterparts in Torah study.

In the classical Jewish textual canon, however, Beruria is brought low by 11th-century French Jewish scholar Rashi. In his commentary on one section of the Talmudic tractate of Avoda Zara, Rashi claims that Beruria was shamefully seduced by one of her husband’s students and killed herself because of it.

Fine delicately expunges this incident from Beruria’s legacy, proving that it is not based on any Talmudic source and thus redeeming her character with the power of a second reading.

'I was so hurt that the rabbis could see us this way'

In each chapter of Fine’s book, she walks the reader through two separate readings of a story. She provides additional context and commentary between sections, which she refers to as Zooming In and Zooming Out” She explained that just reading a story twice is not enough — readers must establish parameters for each reading to break through the rabbis’ “false front.”

“If we do (the readings) properly,” she said, “we find almost always that the false front will fall away. In its place will emerge a richer, more complex, often far more radical truth the rabbis wanted us to learn from it.”

As is customary in the rabbinic tradition, Fine brought in an additional source, Jewish-American poet Adrienne Rich, whose quote appears in the book’s epigraph: “Revision — the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new critical direction — is for us more than a chapter in cultural history: it is an act of survival.”

The JCC Cultural Arts & Book Series presents author Gila Fine via Zoom, noon, Tuesday, Feb. 24. Register for this free program at jewishdayton.org/events.

She writes that the rabbis of the Talmud had a much more nuanced and sensitive understanding of women than they are often given credit for. However, Fine is careful not to use “the F-word,” feminist, when discussing them, as it would be anachronistic to attribute a modern school of thought to the thinkers of antiquity.

“I never set out to find feminism in the stories of the rabbis,” Fine said. “Reading is a relationship. And just like any healthy relationship, we shouldn’t impose ourselves on the other person. So, we (encounter) a Talmudic text with all of our beliefs and biases.

“But we also have to allow the Talmud to come to its encounter with us with its similar beliefs and biases. And if we are to read the Talmud on its terms rather than our own, we must be prepared to listen, even when the Talmud doesn’t say what we want to hear.”

Fine does not sugarcoat any of those difficult moments or the fact that the Talmud is rife with patriarchy. However, she points out that there are moments in which “the text transcends its historical context and tells us a story that either critiques patriarchal culture…or suggests a feminine point of view.”

Fine chooses to focus on those redemptive moments in her book.

The book is equally engaging and accessible to seasoned learners and those who have never studied rabbinic literature. The prose is fun and forceful, and at just over 200 pages, it is an ideal read for those troubled by the Talmud’s treatment of women.

Arts&Culture

Former White House speechwriter says it’s time for Jews to reclaim their story from the haters.

Interview by

Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA

Sarah Hurwitz calls her first book, Here All Along, a love letter to Jewish tradition. Describing a journey begun when she worked as a speechwriter at the White House— first for President Barack Obama and later for First Lady Michele Obama — the book celebrated her rediscovery of Judaism as a 30-something who grew up with what she describes as a “thin” Jewish identity.

Her new book explores the shadows and storm clouds of Jewish belonging.

As a Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us confronts the challenges of being Jewish at a time of rising antisemitism, a polarizing debate over Israel, and pressures and temptations that keep many Jews from appreciating a tradition that belongs to them.

Hurwitz is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School. She also served as a speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore and in Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

What hadn’t you said in your first book that you felt compelled to say now? And how does As a Jew extend or challenge the earlier journey?

In this new book, I began to really ask the question, why did I see so little of Jewish tradition growing up, why did I have to wait until age 36 to actually discover so much of our tradition? Why was my identity so apologetic, so kind of humiliating and, having grown up in a Christian country, how much of my approach to Judaism was really through a Christian lens?

This book really dives into those questions at a time of rising antisemitism, where Jews need to start thinking about these things.

What does it mean to be apologetic? How did the Christian lens distort your understanding of Judaism?

I certainly believed that Christianity is a religion of love, but Judaism is really a religion of law. And I really did buy that, that ours is a kind of weedy, legalistic, nitpicky tradition with this angry, vengeful God. I mean, that is just classic Christian anti-Judaism.

I also used to think this world is carnal, degraded, inferior, kind of gross, and the goal of spirituality was to transcend them. That is not a central Jewish idea at all. That is not what Jewish spirituality is. If you read the Torah, our core sacred text, you’re going to find a

great deal about our bodies, but how we treat them, about really contemplating how they are quite sacred.

You say in your book that you want to “take back the Jewish story.” What does it mean to take back the Jewish story, and from whom or what?

Our story has often been told by others, and you actually see this in this very old story about Jewish power, depravity, and conspiracy. You see it in the core story about a group of Jews conspiring to kill Jesus. And you see these themes winding their way through history. That story has been told about Jews for centuries. I want to replace it with our actual story, as told through Jewish texts and traditions.

The alternative you propose, in order for Jews to embrace their own story, is that they embrace the “textline,” which you call “the repository of our Jewish memory, the raw material for the story we tell about who we are.” I am not familiar with textline — how does it differ from text?

This is actually from (the late Israeli novelist) Amos Oz, and his daughter, historian Fania Oz-Salzberger. They say, “Ours is not a bloodline, it’s a textline.” Jews are racially and ethnically diverse, but our shared DNA, the thing that unites us, is our texts.

Sadly, in the early 1800s, as Jews gained citizenship in Europe, there was a decision to assimilate and reshape Judaism to look more like Protestantism — a kind of “Jewish church.” In doing so, we de-emphasized 2,500 years of textual tradition beyond the Torah, which is where much of Jewish wisdom and ritual is found. Reclaiming that textual tradition is critical.

The JCC Cultural Arts & Book Series presents author Sarah Hurwitz via Zoom, 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 12. Register for this free program at jewishdayton.org/events.

How does your book approach the moral and spiritual tension of Jews moving from centuries of powerlessness to now having power and a state?

Many Jews today feel distress over the responsibility that comes with power. For 2,000 years, Jews were powerless, blameless victims. The problem with statelessness was that it led to slaughter on a massive scale.

Some yearn for that innocence of powerless Jewish life, but I disagree that the cost of millions of deaths was worth it. With power comes moral responsibility. Israel, like all nations, is conceived and maintained in violence. I see the moral complexity, but I do not want to give up the power or the responsibility that comes with it.

You started writing this book before Oct. 7. How did the Hamas attacks and the Gaza war influence your writing about peoplehood, empathy and responsibility?

Oct. 7 didn’t change the arguments or themes of my book, but it gave more data points. For decades, Jews in Ameri-

ca and Israel lived somewhat disconnected lives. Oct. 7 revealed underlying tensions and reminded us that Jewish identity has always carried conditionality. Some had illusions about a “golden age” of safety in the 1980s and 1990s, but many had faced real threats. The attacks shattered any illusions of security and exposed deeper societal challenges.

You talk about students on campuses being excluded from college clubs and causes because they are Zionist. I found your response intriguing — that Jews again create their own institutions the way they created Jewish hospitals and universities in the early part of the 20th century as a response to exclusion. Do you worry that you are overreacting?

Campuses vary widely. Some departments are excellent; some are hostile. In difficult environments, I advise Jewish students to try dialogue, but if excluded, to create their own spaces — clubs, organizations and initiatives, that are radically inclusive and excellent.

Historically, Jews created hospitals, law firms, and universities that welcomed anyone committed to excellence and tolerant of Jews. We can do that again.

pictured: Kate Huser Santucci

Sarah Hurwitz argues how Jews can reclaim a tradition that has too often been shaped by others' prejudices and ignorance.

Continued from Page 11

Jackson a clarity about where the attack’s ideological roots lay.

been a sort of public outcry and support when synagogues are attacked.”

Rabin said the attack on Beth Israel Congregation underscored a deeper vulnerability facing Jewish communities, even those with long roots in the South.

“I think it is a reminder that Jews can live in a place, have a community in a place for decades, 150-plus years, they can be acculturated and part of the community and prominent members in all sorts of ways, and there still is sort of an underlying precarity that makes them vulnerable,” she said.

Following the 1967 bombing, Rabin said Nussbaum had taken aim at the leading Southern Baptist minister in Jackson, telling him “go to hell when he came around with his condolences, telling him to preach the following Sunday to his front pews, where all the rightists regularly gathered.” She said he had been motivated by

“For him, that attack was coming out of a sort of radical, certain kind of Christian discourse that he wanted to call out,” said Rabin.

Speakers at the Jan. 15 interfaith service likewise lay blame for the Jan. 10 attack. The man charged with the arson, Stephen Spencer Pittman, referred to Beth Israel as a ”synagogue of Satan” and espoused Christian content online. He was not mentioned by name at the interfaith service.

Hohrn told the crowd that it was “an indictment on our country, on our community, that there wasn’t a way, someone to stand in the gap, to turn him around, to make him inspired not to make that journey.”

The president and CEO of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson, blamed the Trump administra-

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tion, charging that the “political climate” in the country fueled the attack.

“I have no illusion of what is taking place, it is germinating directly from the White House,” said Johnson. “Some people say, ‘but don’t be politically praying,’ but let’s be very clear, the tone that is set for this country about accepting one another or other-izing our communities will be the tone that our young people buy into. It can be socialized on social media to be radicalized, to carry out these disastrous attacks.”

The comments elicited the only open dissent during the event. An audience member shouted from the back of the auditorium, “It’s not coming from the White House.”

But Johnson continued his remarks, telling the audience that “as we pray for Beth Israel, we should be even more vigilant and accepting of one another and all that we bring to the table.” He was met by a chorus of “amens” and applause.

Johnson’s address came

shortly before the prayer for Beth Israel Congregation commenced, in which dozens of Jewish audience members were asked to rise at their seats.

“God bless the families and the leaders of Beth Israel, may they feel the love of a community surrounding them from the ashes of despair,” said Bishop David Tipton, a district superintendent of the United Pentecostal Church.

A second Christian clergy member, Pastor CJ Rhodes of the Mt. Helm Baptist Church, also offered a prayer for the synagogue. In it, he referred to Jesus as a “Palestinian Jew” and told the crowd, “We thank you for being the God who watches over Israel, Palestine, the entire world.”

abundantly upon Congregation Beth Israel,” continued Rhodes. “We thank you for the compassion and the comfort they receive, not only from you Elokim, but from all of your people.”

Following the prayer, the synagogue’s president, Zach Shemper, thanked those present.

“Thank you for standing with the Jewish community this evening, for the overwhelming, overwhelming outpouring of support in words and in actions, for speaking out against this historic antisemitic event, for being a part of a rebuilding and believing that we all have a right to safely pray for one another,” Shemper said.

Shemper recalled the solidarity displayed by the city’s Christian communities with Beth Israel Congregation during its initial dedication in 1967, a few months before the Klan bombing.

Russell also addressed the audience, expressing gratitude for the “outpouring of care and love” from the community.

'There still is sort of an underlying precarity that makes them vulnerable.'

“This act was meant to make us feel unsafe and unwelcome in our own city, it was meant to push us inward, it was meant to tell us that we do not belong,” he said.

Rhodes then used the Hebrew words, including one meaning God, to call for benevolence toward Jackson’s Jewish community.

“God, we come before you asking for your chesed, your lovingkindness, be poured out

“But the response from all of you, from all of our neighbors, has made something unmistakably clear. Instead of fear, we have felt peace, instead of isolation, we have felt embrace, instead of being pushed to the margins, we have been healed by a wider community practicing radical love in a real, intangible, embodied way.”

Beth Israel Congregation's first Shabbat service after the arson, held at Northminster Baptist Church, Jackson, Miss., Jan. 16.

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" G r e a t A c a d e m i c a n d J e w i s h e d u c a t i o n . " ~ H i l l e l p a r e n t

" T h e d i f f e r e n c e ( w i t h t h e s m a l l c l a s s

s i z e s ) i s s o p a l p a b l e , b e t w e e n t h e o n e - o n -

o n e a t t e n t i o n o u r s t u d e n t s g e t a n d t h e

r e l a t i o n s h i p s w i t h t h e t e a c h e r s . "

DISCOVER HILLEL

App l ic a t io n s a r e op e n n o w f o r p r e - K t h r o ug h 8 g r a de t h

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t h e 2 0 2 6 - 2 7 s c h o o l y e a r :

N e w l o c a t i o n i n T e m p l e B e t h O r

( 5 2 7 5 M a r s h a l l R d . )

P r o j e c t B a s e d L e a r n i n g

D e s t i n a t i o n I m a g i n a t i o n

e x t r a c u r r i c u l a r

M a k e r S p a c e

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