The Dayton Jewish Observer, May 2025

onGrace campus KentinState p. 8 form p. 22 David Moss Hate designs Afterat Meals comic book

THE DAYTON Published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton

May 2025 Iyar/Sivan 5785 Vol. 29, No. 8

OBSERVER

The Miami Valley’s Jewish Monthly • daytonjewishobserver.org Hillel Academy

Right: Hillel Academy's 3rd-5th grade Destination Imagination Team took 1st place in the instant challenge at the Ohio DI state finals, March 29. (L to R): Eliana Lader, Ethan Halasz, Zoey Lader, Moshe Simon, Adi Atzmon, Zeke Gilbert, and Cole Elder

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Below: Hillel's team receives medals at the state finals, March 29 at Barberton High School.

Hillel Academy Destination Imagination Team heads to Global Finals

DAYTON

Jewish War Vets brunch & talk

In honor of the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Memorial Day, Jewish War Veterans Post #587 will host a brunch, 10 a.m., Sunday, May 18 at Temple Beth Or with a speaker from the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Wilberforce.

Buffalo Soldiers served in African American U.S. Army regiments formed after the Civil War and until the army's integration in 1948. Buffalo Soldiers were among the first caretakers of the national parks; Brig. Gen. Charles Young served as the first African American National Park superintendent.

JWV Post #587 Vice Commander Alex Pearl noted the talk will focus on the causes and con- Brig. Gen. Charles sequences of prejudice and injustice, and how a Young person's response reveals his or her true character.

Temple Beth Or is located at 5275 Marshall Rd., Washington Township. The cost is $10, free for JWV members and their partners. RSVP to JWVPost587@gmail.com.

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PAGE 2

Teens draw swastikas, antisemitic message in chalk at Kettering's Indian Riffle Park A jogger at Indian Riffle Park in Kettering called the Kettering Police Department when she saw chalk drawings of swastikas and the phrase, "KILL YOURSELF, JEWS," on the trail near the park's playground at 10:40 a.m., Sunday, March 30.

According to Kettering Police Department notes, the caller said she saw "three young teen boys" —approximately 13 or 14 years old — in the area. One asked her if she liked their artwork.

The police notes also indicated that 23 minutes later, three youths — two males and one female — attempted to cover up the hate language and swastikas with chalk.

That afternoon, Kettering resident Melissa Groveman emailed The Observer images of three swastikas drawn in chalk that she and her daughter saw at that location.

Groveman said it appeared someone had altered the swastikas, closing off the open areas in different colors of chalk.

"I think it’s great that someone took the time to change it," she said.

All that remained of the phrase "KILL YOURSELF, JEWS," she said, was the word, 'YOURSELF." The word "KILL" had been crossed out in chalk and the word "JEWS' was gone.

Groveman said someone had written the letter L in chalk above where the word "KILL" had been crossed out, and that her daughter turned it into the word "LOVE." — Marshall Weiss

Melissa Groveman's March 30 photo at Indian Riffle Park in Kettering of one of three swastikas in chalk that had been altered.

Groveman's March 30 photo in Indian Riffle Park near the swastikas. The word 'KILL' had been drawn over and her daughter added 'OVE' to the already present letter L. Jojo Korsh Photography

Presidents Dinner May 18 to open Jewish Federation 2025 Annual Campaign Los Angeles-based Jewish activist Mandana Dayani's keynote address at the Presidents Dinner on May 18 marks the official opening of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton's 116th Annual Campaign.

Those attending the Presidents Dinner on May 18 will be asked to make their pledges to the 2025 Annual Campaign.

For more than a century, the Jewish Federation Annual Campaign has continually raised the funds to support social services and educational/cultural programs for Jews in the Dayton area, as well as the rescue and relief of Jews in need around the world.

Locally, the Annual Campaign supports Federation agencies and programs including Jewish Family Services, the Jewish Community Center and its preschool, the Jewish

Community Relations Council, The Dayton Jewish Observer, programs for teens and seniors, initiatives to combat antisemitism, Holocaust educational programming, learning opportunities about Israel, local Innovation Grants, Western Galilee Partnership programs, Miami Valley Jewish Genealogy & History, and Hillel Academy Jewish day school.

Overseas beneficiaries of the Federation's Annual Campaign include the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which provides aid to vulnerable Jews in 70 countries including Israel; and the Jewish Agency for Israel, which oversees the integration of Jews who make aliyah (immigrate) to Israel, and since Oct. 7, 2023, assists Israelis through its Fund for Victims of Terror.

The Federation's Annual

Campaign also supports ORT, which provides high-level science, technology, and Jewish education to more than 350,000 Jews a year in more than 40 countries.

Last year, the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton's Annual Campaign raised $1.22 million.

The Presidents Dinner will be held at 5 p.m., Sunday, May 18 at the Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture and Education, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville.

Tickets are $125 and kashrut will be observed. RSVP by May 12 to jewishdayton.org/events.

Arts..............................25 Calendar............................. 2 0

Mazel Tov................................. 21 Obituaries........................... 27

O p i n i o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 8 Religion.......................... 22

Mandana Dayani

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2025

DAYTON Hillel Academy

Hillel Academy Destination Imagination Team heads to Global Finals in May

Jewish day school first-year team takes first place for instant challenges at regional and state competitions

By Marshall Weiss The Observer Not only did Hillel Academy Jewish day school field its first Destination Imagination teams this year, its third through fifth grade team earned the top spot for its instant challenge at the regional competition, March 16.

And not only did the team receive the highest instant challenge score at the state finals March 29, it now heads to Hillel DI Team the DI Global Mgr. Keri Sauer Finals with the top teams from around the world, May 22-25 in Kansas City, Mo. "It's huge. We really got our name out there," says Hillel DI Team Manager Keri Sauer, a veteran teacher, in her first year as the school's pre-K and kindergarten instructor.

Amy Sera, who teaches third and fourth grade secular studies and third through sixth grade science at Hillel, manages the DI team with Sauer.

Sauer's DI experience goes back 15 years, first as a parent, then as a coach with her husband for Dayton Regional STEM

School's team, and ultimately as a judge.

Sauer and Sera asked Hillel Principal Anna Smith if she would be interested in bringing DI to Hillel.

"We did a couple of meetings with parents, and here we are," Sauer says.

According to destinationimagination. org, DI brings students together in teams to solve openended STEAM challenges Hillel DI Team designed to Mgr. Amy Sera teach the creative process.

DI defines the creative process as "a step-by-step approach that helps students better understand problems and ask better questions, come up with solutions, learn from failure, and celebrate their achievements."

Its best-known team program is its science, technology, engineering, arts and math-based Challenge Experience competition for grades three to 12 and undergraduate students.

At the regional and state DI competitions, the Hillel team

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presented its solution to a team challenge as well as an instant challenge.

The Hillel students began training after Thanksgiving for the March 16 regional competition, held at Sinclair Community College.

Sauer was in the room with the Hillel Academy's Destination Imagination 3rd-5th Grade Team at the DI regional Hillel team when it competition, March 16 at Sinclair Community College. The team took 1st place in the received its regional instant challenge and 6th in its team challenge. (L to R): Cole Elder, Ethan Halasz, Zeke Gilbert holding a photo of Moshe Simon, Eliana Lader, Zoey Lader, and Adi Atzmon. instant challenge.

"Only one coach can go in the room with them," she says. "The way they answered it, as soon as they started doing it, I was like, OK, this is pretty great. After they had done it, I wasn't surprised that they Premier Retirement Living had won, but being a first-year team, instant challenge is notoriously difficult, so I was surprised how well they did."

Sauer says DI teams and their managers are unable to discuss instant challenges with anyone outside of their team until after the global finals.

"But I can give you an idea of challenges," she says. "You go into a room with one coach and four to six appraisers, which are the judges. They put a challenge Continued on Page Four

'We really got our name out there.'

From the editor’s desk

The seven members of Hillel Academy's third to fifth grade Destination Imagination team squeal "yay!" They jump up and down in Principal Anna Smith's office. "We've officially been Marshall invited to Globals," she just told them.

Weiss "And in our first year!" a student says.

Another starts clapping, two others hold their hands on their heads in amazement, another puts her hands over her mouth. "The instant challenge is what made the difference," Smith tells the team. The state trophy reads, "Top Instant Challenge Score." It's right in front of the team on the principal's desk when she shares the news.

Mazel tov to Hillel Academy, the little Jewish day school that could, and to the members and managers of its intrepid third to fifth grade DI competitive team. Know that we send every bit of positive energy your way for the 2025 DI Global Finals, May 22-25 in Kansas City, Mo.

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PAGE 4

Hillel Academy

Continued from Page Three in front of you that usually must be done in eight minutes. Sometimes you'll have five minutes to plan and three minutes to perform, or six minutes to plan and two minutes to perform.

"Sometimes it's an impromptu challenge with no materials at all. Other times you'll go in and there will be everyday items like labels, paper clips, newspapers, straws, laid out on the table, Hillel's 3rd-5th grade DI Team performs its team chaland they'll give you a prob- lenge at state, March 29. lem to solve or something to act out." — Sauer requested that Ohio DI allow Each DI team also competes in a Hillel to perform at the regional and team challenge, which it prepares in state competitions on a day other than advance and performs at the competi- Saturday. tions. Teams select from five challeng"Unfortunately, Saturday was the es, each with a specific educational only day it was offered for the two focus. performances so far. With globals, Hillel's competitive team chose we have put in a request again. They the scientific challenge, which has a have said it shouldn't be a problem space-based theme this year. because it's several days."

"Our challenge was, someone DI doesn't penalize a team if memshows up on a real planet and thinks bers aren't able to make the competithey're alone, only to find out they're tion; they're still part of the team. not alone, and then you have to teach "You'll see a lot of teams that will them science and have techno-babble carry around a student's picture bein your performance," Sauer says."It's cause someone doesn't end up there, eight minutes long from beginning to generally because they're sick." end, all made by the kids, costumes True to form, Moshe's Cosmic Burby the kids, script by the kids. ritos carried a photo of its namesake.

"We're not allowed to help them at When the team went into their instant all. They have to look at the rules, inchallenges, judges asked Sauer whose terpret the rules, and create an answer photo they were holding. to the problem all on their own."

"I'd say, 'This is Moshe.' And then Teams receive scores that indicate they'd ask, 'Is he sick today?' And I what they did well and what they told them why he wasn't here." could improve, so members can make Moshe's teammates made sure his changes if they go on to the next presence was felt. His face was on levels. several props.

"They can scrap everything and "They talk about him being the completely start over — most teams owner of this company that sends do not do that," Sauer says. "They can this astronaut to space," Sauer says. make any changes they choose to. The "They also put in the skit why Moshe only thing they can't change is team wasn't there. Someone said, 'Why isn't members."

Moshe working' at whatever com"When we heard we were going pany 'that's sending me off?' 'He can't to state, we started preparing imbe here today because it's Saturday,' mediately," says third grader Cole and they gave a little bit of knowledge Elder, one of the younger students to the audience, as well, about why he on Hillel's DI competition team. "We couldn't be there." fixed what we thought was wrong, DI also hosts Early Learning, a and we had to switch something we noncompetitive program for pre-K to did wrong that could have taken off a second grade students. Hillel's kinderlot of points, because we realized we garten through second grade team didn't need it, and fixed our script." presented at regionals and received At both regional and state, Hilrecognition for its ability to navigate lel Academy placed sixth in its age disagreements, its whole team discuscategory for team challenges. sions, and its thinking outside the DI teams often come up with their box. own team names. The official name Yisroel Simon, Moshe's younger of Hillel's third to fifth grade team is brother, was on this team. His image Moshe's Cosmic Burritos. and voice were present in its skit.

"We voted on it," Cole says. "It's The 2025 global finals in May mark because Moshe Simon couldn't make Sauer's first time bringing in a team at it to regionals or state because it was that top level. on a Saturday, so we named the team "These kids are out there being after him." creative and scientific, and learning Because Hillel Academy is a Jewish all these new things in the DI comday school — with some students munity. They're a huge asset to the whose families are Shabbat-observant community."

THE DAYTON

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

Cathy Gardner CEO The Dayton Jewish Observer, Vol. 29, No. 8. The Dayton Jewish Observer is published monthly by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton, a nonprofit corporation, 525 Versailles Dr., Dayton, OH 45459.

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

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

Goals • To encourage affiliation, involvement and communication.

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

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

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

• To provide an historic record of Dayton Jewish life.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2025

Chabad

Peter Wine

Women's Passover celebrations Above: Chabad Women's Circle hosted a tambourine-making workshop on the theme of Miriam's message in the Exodus narrative, along with dancing and a wine tasting, March 30.

Left: Women from several faith communities dance together at the 11th Annual Women's Freedom Seder, hosted by the JCC and women from Beth Abraham Synagogue, Beth Jacob Congregation, Hadassah, Temple Beth Or, and Temple Israel, March 27 at Beth Abraham. Participants donated new children's books for the Brunner Literary Center.

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PAGE 5

THE REGION

Registration open for int'l. Jewish genealogy conference in Ft. Wayne, Ind., Aug. 10-14

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Fort Wayne, Ind. — site of one of the largest family history research centers in the world — will host the 45th International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies Conference, Aug. 10-14.

Only a two-hour, 15-minute drive from Dayton, Fort Wayne was chosen as the location for this year's IAJGS conference because of the expansive genealogical resources housed at the The Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne, Ind. Allen County Public Library is one of the largest family history research centers in the world.

Genealogy Center.

Miami Valley Jewish Geneal• An exhibit hall with venIts collection of more than ogy & History, a project of the dors from genealogy compa1.2 million physical items is Jewish Federation of Greater nies and local societies fully open and available to Dayton led by The Dayton The keynote speaker for visitors, who can also access Jewish Observer's the conference will several genealogical databases Marshall Weiss, is a be American genetic on site. member of IAJGS. genealogist CeCe Jewish resources at the cenConference tracks Moore, most recently ter are: are available for known for her work • Holocaust-related materithose new to Jewish on Finding Your Roots. als, including a large collection genealogy, as well Moore has assisted of Yizkor books as intermediatelaw enforcement in • Temple and synagogue level and advanced more than 300 cold histories researchers. cases of high-profile • Jewish genealogy research An estimated 1,000 human identificaguidebooks people from around Keynote speaker tion using DNA and • Jewish periodicals CeCe Moore the world are exgenetic genealogy.

• Jewish diaries and perpected to attend the conference, The IAJGS Conference will sonal memoirs which will include: be held at the Grand Wayne • The Jewish Life An estimated • Programs and Convention Center, adjacent in America, c1654to the Allen County Public 1954 database from 1,000 people workshops on DNA analysis, historical Library Genealogy Center. the American Jewish from around migration, records The conference's film festival Historical Society available worldwill feature more than 30 rare, the world The genealogy and Holocaust historically significant Jewishcenter, which will are expected wide, research themed films, shorts, and serve as the conto attend.

• Special events television programs spanning ference's resource with research divithe first films of the early 20th center, is led by Curt sions focused on a particular century to the present, across Witcher, former president of country or region of research major themes of immigrathe Federation of Genealogi• Networking opportunities tion, the Holocaust, and North cal Societies and the National with hundreds of genealogists American westward expansion.

Genealogical Society.

A highlight of the festival will be a screening of the 4K restoration of Joan Micklin Silver’s 1975 Hester Street, to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

The festival is curated by Steve Carr, director of the Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Purdue University, Fort Wayne.

For more information and to register for the conference, go to IAJGS2025.org.

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Six Israeli Arab students and their chaperone from the village of Kaokab and the surrounding Galilee region volunteered at the Dayton Foodbank during their 13-day visit to Dayton, April 12-24. The trip marked the culmination of a summer English language program for Israeli Arab students in the Galilee that Daytonarea volunteers lead on alternating years. Dr. Marti Moody Jacobs (front, R) has facilitated nine Israeli Arab student trips to Dayton for this project since 2007. The program is funded through private donations. Their packed schedule included Temple Beth

Or's Second Seder, Magnolia Theatre Company's allfemale production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, the Glen Helen Raptor Center, Clifton Gorge, John Bryan State Park, Young's Dairy, a day at Sinclair Community College, a session at the Dayton Mediation Center about conflict resolution, a boxing session at SG Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Carillon Park, El Meson, glass crafts at Busy Beaver, a day at UD and its Hub at The Arcade, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, and the Air Force Museum including Prejudice & Memory: A Holocaust Exhibit.

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THE REGION

Protesters disrupt pro-Israel program at Kent State

KSU

By Kristen Beard Cleveland Jewish News Mia Effron, a first-year nursing student at Kent State University, was one of five students to attend a March 31 event that drew over 200 protesters.

The event, Triggered: From Combat to Campus, hosted about 50 attendees.

It was organized by Students Supporting Israel, a student-led organization at Kent State whose mission is to be a clear, confident pro-Israel Kent State University Student Center voice on college campuses and Only those who registered She added that security from to support students in grasswere allowed inside the buildJewishAkron was also present roots pro-Israel advocacy, in at the event. partnership with Olami, a Jew- ing, separating most protesters from the event. However, she Effron said the IDF soldiers ish outreach organization. were taken out separately unSSI and Olami brought three said some protesters registered to attend, which led to disrupder heavier police presence due Israel Defense Forces soldiers tions. to specific threats. to speak with college students “It became pretty clear that She and other students were across the U.S., Effron said. there were people escorted out a back entrance The goal of the who were in the room and she was later driven to her event was to shed whose goal was to dorm because of safety conlight on the soldiers’ disrupt the event,” cerns. personal experiences Felber said. “I would Even after the event ended, before, during, and say about every five to the protest continued, Effron after the Oct. 7, 2023, 10 minutes, a differsaid.

Hamas surprise terent individual would “I had a lot of emotions,” she rorist attack on Israel, stand up with some said. “I felt very disappointed. as well as to address Kent State student disruptive speech and The police did a great job the rise in antisemiMia Effron then were quickly removing the people, but that a tism. escorted out of the room by po- Jewish student could be yelled Around the time of the lice and other administrators.” at by an adult that doesn’t even event, Students for Justice in Protesters said phrases go to Kent State and be told to Palestine, a student-led, antiincluding: “You should be be hung in their student center Zionist group, held a protest hung with your prime minis— I was angry that this was outside the Kent State Student ter,” “Free Palestine,” “Baby allowed to happen. I was angry Center called Day of Action: killers,” and that I had to be No IDF War Criminals on Our “From the river 'That a Jewish student escorted to the Campus . to the sea,” The protest began 30 mincould be yelled at by bathroom with Effron said. a faculty memutes before the event, accordSome accused an adult that doesn't ber because it ing to a March 25 Instagram post. Effron estimated over 200 the IDF soldiers even go to Kent State wasn’t safe for of being war me to go to the protesters were present, with and be told to be criminals. bathroom in my most wearing masks. hung in their student own student Effron said Rachel Felber, executive some atdirector of center — I was angry center.” tendees Kent State Hillel at Kent that this was allowed sent responded a statement State and The with “From to happen.' to the Cleveland University of Hamas” and Jewish News reAkron, said that singing “Am Yisrael Chai.” garding the event and protest. while Hillel was According to Effron, one “The speakers were brought not involved protester who entered the in by a registered student in organizing room got physically close organization. As with any the event, she to one of the soldiers before speaker invited to our campus, attended as a Kent State University does not representative Kent State & Univ. of police intervened.

Akron Hillel Exec. Dir. Felber said she colendorse or condone an opinion of the Jewish laborated with university or point of view represented by student commu- Rachel Felber administrators and police the speakers, nor does the uninity. to ensure that there was a safe versity advocate for any topic Once she became aware of exit, “which would allow for the speakers might discuss the protest and the “tensions during their visit to campus. that were arising,” she brought those in attendance to leave without having to have a Kent State upholds the First university administrators and confrontation with anyone who Amendment rights of free police together to ensure stuwas in protest to the event.” speech and peaceful assembly dent safety, Felber said.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2025

THE REGION for all. As a state university, we ported and safe.” permit groups and individuals Felber said Hillel also has to speak and share their views a great relationship with the on or about topics they feel are police, as well. important.

Sophia Witt, executive vice “Kent State has a long hispresident of SSI's national tory of allowing peacemovement and a ful dialogue from all Shaker Heights resipoints of view, includdent, said she attended ing those whom some the event and arrived may feel are offering early when she saw different or sometimes the group of protesters controversial opinions. outside the building.

We continue to supWitt said the first port and encourage thing she was told freedom of expression SSI National Exec. when entering the and the free exchange VP Sophia Witt event was that she of ideas. Consistent was a “genocidal baby with our core values, we killer.” Witt, an alumna of encourage open dialogue and KSU, founded KSU’s chapter of respectful civil discourse in an SSI in 2015, she said. inclusive environment.”

She added SSI students and Despite the tension, Rabbi leaders “don’t shy away from Berel Sasonkin, codirector of wearing our Magen Davids the Chabad at Kent State, who and showing our Zionist perarrived near the end of the spectives.” event, said he came to focus on “We’re the ones who brought community strength and pride. this tour because we don’t shy “My focus was promoting away from the people that hate the positive elements and tryIsrael,” she said. “We want to ing to show that we’re proud encourage free speech, and we to be Jewish, and we won’t be also want to encourage our pushed down,” Sasonkin said. perspective in this, and this He said the police response idea of being afraid to be a Jew was swift and supportive, as — Those days are over. We’re usual, while noting a good not in the Holocaust anymore.” relationship between law enforcement and the Jewish Campus police, admin. helpful community.

She said the students on her “Whenever the Jewish comteam were organized throughmunity requests support and out the event and that the camsecurity, the law enforcement pus police and administration is always there, and it’s very were also helpful and supportresponsive and helpful, and ive throughout the event. makes sure things happen in “They weren’t taking sides the most orderly way posor perspectives on the matter, sible,” Sasonkin said. “We’re but they were absolutely for very thankful for the law free speech and I think that enforcement. It helps the entire that’s commendable,” she said.

Jewish community feel sup“We think so often that ad-

at Kent, there has never been a ministration is always against question about students’ physius in this and I think that they cal safety,” Felber said. “And handled it really well at Kent.” we continue to work with the Felber and Sasonkin also university to ensure said they feel the that their safety is organizations have protected while worka good relationship ing on ensuring that with the university we can continue to administration. build other opportuThe following day, nities to support our April 1, as Effron emotional safety and was walking to class, vulnerability during she said she noticed these times.” graffiti on the large Sasonkin said brick letter K in front Kent State Chabad Codirector Rabbi Chabad has never of the student center, Berel Sasonkin had issues at Kent. with phrases such as, Effron said Students Sup“From the river to the sea” and porting Israel’s leadership met “Free Palestine,” along with with Josh Perkins, KSU’s dean profanities aimed at Kent State of students, following the event President Todd Diacon and to discuss their safety as Jews accusations that the university on campus and were told “beharbors war criminals. cause they were not physically But lack of response from Kent leadership Effron said she contacted Kent Hillel for support, but was disappointed by what she described as a lack of response from university leadership.

“I’m surprised Todd Diacon didn’t say anything, especially since they were writing such rude things about him, but there was no response,” Effron said. “Hillel and SSI were the only ones that supported the students through it.”

Felber said she assumed this was a part of the protest, as “that’s a typical student behavior at a protest.”

In the past, Students for Justice in Palestine has “engaged in some antagonizing interactions over social media with Hillel, but not this academic year,” Felber said.

“While I’ve been in my role

assaulted, that their safety is not a concern, despite the violent threats from protesters.”

Effron said she remains concerned about the fear many Jewish students feel on campus.

“We are scared to put a Jewish star on,” she said. “We are scared to hold a Jewish flag or have it in our dorm. And (we are) even scared to put a mezuzah up on our door because we’ve had students who have had antisemitic attacks because of that.”

Felber said students were encouraged to report experiences through the university and via ReportHate.org, a joint effort by Hillel International, the Anti-Defamation League, and the Secure Community Network.

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PAGE 9

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PAGE 10

By Grace Gilson, JTA Antisemitic incidents in the United States increased once again in 2024, the Anti-Defamation League reported, reaching a new all-time high and providing the latest indicator of a continued surge in antisemitism following Oct. 7, 2023.

The report, released April 22, recorded 9,354 antisemitic incidents across the country, marking a 5% increase from the previous year. That's almost 10 times the number recorded a decade ago, in 2014. ADL's report found that antisemitic assaults, vandalism and harassment all rose year over year, while the use of antisemitic propaganda fell.

For the first time since the ADL began publishing the audits, in 1979, a majority of all incidents were related to Israel or Zionism. Half took place at anti-Israel rallies.

And the report found that the increase was driven by an 84% spike in campus antisemitism in a year when the pro-Palestinian encampment movement swept campuses nationwide and, many Jewish students said, created a hostile atmosphere.

“This horrifying level of antisemitism should never be accepted and yet, as our data shows, it has become a persistent and grim reality for American Jewish communities,” said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, in a press release. “Jewish Americans continue to be harassed, assaulted and targeted for who they are on a daily basis and everywhere they go. But let’s be clear: we will remain proud of our Jewish culture, religion and identities, and we will not be intimidated by bigots.”

The audit appears to give statistical heft to widespread American Jewish anxiety over rising antisemitism — particularly on campus — since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the outbreak of the war in Gaza. For years, the ADL’s audit has been seen as an authoritative survey of antisemitism in the United States, trusted by groups across the political spectrum.

But in tallying thousands of instances in which it says criticism of Israel constituted antisemitism, the report touches on contentious territory. ProPalestinian groups have criticized the ADL for equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism and what they say is an outsize focus on their movement.

The findings also come as the Trump administration’s crackdown on campus antisemitism has reached a fever pitch: The White House is seeking to deport a string of student activists in the encampment movement and has frozen billions of dollars of funding to a growing number of elite schools. Some Jewish groups on the right hope to aid

Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images

Anti-Israel students and activists protest at an encampment in the campus of California State University, Los Angeles, May 6, 2024.

that effort and have criticized legacy organizations like the ADL for being too timid.

In its count of 5,452 incidents related to Israel or Zionism, the ADL says it focused on sentiments it said “crossed the line into antisemitism through a range of concerning expressions.” Actions taken by anti-Israel protesters that the ADL counted as antisemitic included glorification of Hamas or celebration of the anniversary of Oct. 7.

The tally also includes slogans such as “death to Israel” and tropes about the blood libel or “Zionist media.” It also counted symbols such as Hamas armbands, Hezbollah flags and signage equating swastikas with Stars of David.

The group also tallied the common slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Many Jewish groups say the slogan is a call for Israel’s destruction, while activists have countered that it is a call for freedom.

Campus incidents accounted for 18% of the total, the largest proportion in the audit’s history.

A month-by-month graph of the incidents tracks the school year: incidents peak in the spring, dip sharply in the summer and rise again in the fall, when classes resume.

The audit highlighted some specific campus incidents. At DePaul University’s encampment, the ADL noted that a person was told to “go back to Poland,” and another person was told they would be beheaded and that “(you) and the Jewish people like (you) should leave America.”

Broadly, the report documented an increase of around 20% in both assaults and vandalism since 2023. The ADL recorded 196 assaults in 2024 compared to 161 in 2023, and 2,606 incidents of vandalism in 2024 compared to 2,177 in 2023. There was a slight increase in antisemitic harassment.

In public areas writ large, antisemitic activity rose by 19%. And Jewish organizations received a total of 627 bomb threats, 89% of which targeted synagogues.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2025

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THE NATION two or three weeks Shapiro doesn't back Schumer’s call for federal where earlier, we had celebrated an dinner at the conclusion hate crime investigation into gov. mansion arson Iftar of Ramadan, and about a year burned in the space they had

By Philissa Cramer, JTA Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Sha- just vacated.

Police say Cory Balmer startpiro said April 17 that investigators had managed to retrieve ed the blaze in part because of his opposition to “what ritual Passover items from the Shapiro wants to do to the Paldining room that was heavily estinian people.” The reveladamaged by an arsonist’s fire tion of his motive on April 16 shortly after his family’s Seder confirmed for some that the aton Saturday night, April 12. tack was antisemitic in nature.

“Some just required a dustShapiro’s comments ing and a cleaning,” came shortly after Sen. he said outside a Chuck Schumer called Harrisburg firefor a federal hate house where he and crime investigation. his wife Lori were “While the local disserving lunch to first trict attorney has not responders who resyet filed hate-crime cued his family and charges, he acknowldoused the flames edged that Governor early April 13. “Others are destroyed.”

Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro Shapiro’s religion appears to have factored Shapiro, one of the into the suspect’s decisions,” most prominent Jews in politics, said he and his family had Schumer wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Our fedconcluded the public Seder around 10 p.m. and had retired eral authorities must bring the full weight of our civil-rights to their private quarters before laws to bear in examining this heading to bed around 1 a.m. matter.”

It was less than an hour later Shapiro declined to back that State Police officers roused Schumer’s call, saying he was them abruptly to evacuate confident in Dauphin County the building, as a raging fire

District Attorney Fran Chardo to handle the case.

“As to Senator Schumer or anybody else, I don’t think it’s helpful for people on the outside who haven’t seen the evidence, who don’t know what occurred, who are applying their own viewpoints to the situation, to weigh in that manner,” he said. “My trust is with the prosecutor to make the decision. He’ll make the right decisions and I will be fully supportive of whatever decision he makes.”

Shapiro said his return to the dining room for the first time was jarring — and had redoubled his commitment to making Pennsylvania safe for people of all backgrounds.

“At one point today when we stopped to see the chandelier that had come down from the ceiling and was kind of partly melted and partly covered, you know, in soot, what have you, from the fire — it was resting on a place on the floor where just the night before, we had celebrated our Passover Seder,

before that, where kids danced and played at our son Ruben’s bar mitzvah, and right where the Christmas tree stands every December in the governor’s residence,” he recounted, standing with his wife Lori.

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Today...and for Generations PAGE 12

THE NATION

Jewish students, alumni decry ‘weaponization of antisemitism’ across U.S.

By Grace Gilson, JTA Dozens of rabbis and cantors who graduated from Brown University have a message for their alma mater’s president: “Do not cede control to those who weaponize antisemitism.”

Their message came in an open letter to President Christina Paxson as she weighs how to respond to a $500 million funding cut threatened by the Trump administration, ostensibly over Brown’s handling of antisemitism on campus.

Brown is one of a growing number of universities, many of them in the Ivy League, to be threatened with similar cuts by the Trump administration. As the list expands, and as the Trump administration moves to retaliate against Harvard for resisting its pressure, Jewish students, alumni, and groups openly reject moves that the White House says are meant to protect them.

In mid-April, a chorus of dissent came from Jewish community members at Harvard, Emerson College, Georgetown University and more.

At Harvard, over 100 Jewish students signed a letter decrying the Trump administration’s announcement that it would review $9 billion in federal funding to the school. The letter was written before the administration froze $2.2 billion in funding.

“We are compelled to speak out because these actions are being taken in the name of protecting us — Harvard Jewish students — from antisemitism,” the students wrote, according to The Harvard Crimson. “But this crackdown will not protect us. On the contrary, we know that funding cuts will harm the campus community we are part of and care about deeply.”

Harvard Hillel said in a statement April 18 that the Trump administration’s actions harm Jews on its campus.

“The current, escalating federal assault against Harvard — shuttering apolitical, life-saving research; targeting the university’s tax-exempt status; and threatening all student visas, including those of Israeli students who are proud veterans of the Israel Defense Forces and forceful advocates for Israel on campus — is neither focused nor measured, and stands to substantially harm the very Jewish students and scholars it purports to protect,” the statement said.

More than a dozen Jewish faculty members at Emerson signed a letter published in the Berkeley Beacon April 16 that expressed concern over the “weaponization of antisemitism” to further the Trump administration’s agenda.

“This is a transparent move by the Trump administration to concentrate power and erode university independence under the offensive pretext of ‘protect(ing) Jewish students,’” the letter

read. At Georgetown, over 170 Jewish students, faculty, staff and alumni signed a letter condemning the detainment of Georgetown researcher Badar Khan Suri in March. His detainment was a part of a string of arrests of proPalestinian activists on campuses by the Trump administration to curtail campus antisemitism.

Dozens of Jewish groups recently joined an amicus brief in support of a Tufts University student who was detained over an op-ed she wrote in a student newspaper criticizing Israel.

The criticism comes from Israel, too.

On April 17, over 170 Israeli academics denounced the Trump administration’s detainments in an open letter, writing that “such draconian moves do not protect us” and lambasting the “cynical use of ‘combating antisemitism’” as an impetus for the administration’s actions.

And it’s not just people affiliated with universities who are pushing back on the Trump administration’s campaign against higher education.

Ten major Jewish organizations comprising leaders in the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements made a joint statement April 15 rejecting what they called the “false choice” between Jewish safety on campuses and democracy.

“We reject any policies or actions that foment or take advantage of antisemitism and pit communities against one another; and we unequivocally condemn the exploitation of our community’s real concerns about antisemitism to undermine democratic norms and rights, including the rule of law, the right of due process, and/or the freedoms of speech, press, and peaceful protest,” the statement read.

The Trump administration’s higher education moves have Jewish supporters, particularly when it comes to canceling the visas of students who have engaged in anti-Israel activism. Multiple activist groups have taken on the task of identifying students and reporting on them to the White House. The funding pressure has Jewish defenders, too.

But there are signs that the funding cuts — billions of dollars are so far on the line — may have overshot the ambitions of even the most demanding critics of antisemitism on college campuses.

On April 18, the Anti-Defamation League’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, sharpened earlier criticism of the Trump administration’s higher education agenda. While saying Harvard and other schools have real challenges when it comes to antisemitism, he said they were more likely to improve with support than with steep punishments and that penalties, if applied in rare instances, should be narrowly targeted.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2025

May 2025 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

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Connect with us! Check out our events.

For more information, check out our calendar at jewishdayton.org.

DINNE R 2025

P R ES IDENTS

S U N D AY , M AY 1 8 An evening with keynote speaker Mandana Dayani

Mandana Dayani

5PM at THE BOONSHOFT CENTER FOR JEWISH CULTURE & EDUCATION 525 Versailles Drive, Centerville, 45459

MARY RITA & NORM WEISSMAN | Event Chairs

RSVP by May 12 at jewishdayton.org/events

For more information, contact Melanie Vincent at mgomez@jfgd.net or 937-401-1547.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2025

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May 2025 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

2025

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JCC Boomers Dine Out before attending the JCC Film Festival Movie Bad Shabbos featuring Kyra Sedgwick and David Paymer.

Movie starts at 7:15PM. Meet up with the JCC Boomers for a Fun Night Out! Must purchase JCC Film Festival movie tickets separately in advance. Cost: Dinner on your own.

RSVP by June 18 for dinner and the movie at jewishdayton.org/events or contact Stacy Emoff at semoff@jfgd.net or 937-610-5513.

PAGE 14

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2025

May 2025 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

Opening Night Thursday, June 5, 7:15PM

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$18 for an individual ticket $110 for a season pass TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 7:15PM AT THE NEON Running on Sand also available online June 10

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THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 7:15PM AT THE NEON The President's Tailor, Fiddler on the Moon, How to Make Challah, Periphery, Mahjong and Mahashas

SUNDAY, JUNE 22, 3:15PM AT THE NEON Troll Storm

SUNDAY, JUNE 22, 7:15PM AT THE NEON Bad Shabbos

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May 2025 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

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JOAN AND PETER WELLS AND REBECCA LINVILLE FAMILY, CHILDREN AND YOUTH FUND In memory of Marjorie Mitchell In memory of Jeanne Betty Weiner In memory of Larry Sokol Joan and Peter Wells JFS

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THE NATION

Jewish Federations CEO privately opposed Jewish open letter criticizing Trump’s campus actions

By Andrew Lapin, JTA some Jews, particularly in Orthodox A coalition of 10 large Jewish groups communities, take the entire holiday off released an open letter April 15 decrying from work. the Trump administration’s approach to A JFNA spokesperson defended Finantisemitism. gerhut’s objections in a statement. “The Hours later, Eric Fingerhut, the CEO North American Jewish community of the Jewish Federations of North holds a wide diversity of views, espeAmerica, released his own letter. Writcially on politically controversial topics, ing privately to leaders of local Jewish including those referenced in the open Federations, he said the anti-Trump letter,” the spokesperson said. “If we letter did not adequately “reference the are to stay united in politically fraught diverse views we hold” in the Jewish times such as these, it is critical that community. statements claiming to represent the The text of Fingerhut’s email was broad mainstream of our community shared with JTA. It was first reported by acknowledge and include the diversity Ron Kampeas, a political reporter who of views we hold.” retired in December from JTA and now The disagreement has echoes of anpublishes independently. other recent split between JCPA, The dispute points to ongowhich led the letter, and JFNA, ing anxiety within the Jewish which is criticizing it. world over how or whether to JCPA used to set its policies via respond to Trump’s attemptconsensus across a network of loed deportations of foreign cal Jewish Community Relations student activists and cuts to Councils, which are often affilihigher education funding in ated with Jewish Federations. But the name of fighting antisemiin 2022, JCPA loosened those ties, tism. allowing it to make statements Signatories to the first letter such as the open letter without — spearheaded by the Jewish JFNA CEO Eric being beholden to federations.

Council on Public Affairs and Fingerhut JCPA’s CEO, Amy Spitalnick, including leaders of the Redeclined to comment on Fingerform, Conservative, and Reconstruction- hut’s letter. Her group has in the past ist movements — join a broad range of criticized government efforts to detain Jewish organizations that have critiqued immigrants without charge, including or condemned Trump’s campus crackunder the Obama administration. down. But JFNA, an umbrella for nearly The signatories of the open letter also 150 local Jewish Federations that often included the Jewish immigrant-rights act as their community’s main address, group HIAS and the National Council of is standing by its CEO’s insistence on re- Jewish Women. flecting a broader range of perspectives.

Fingerhut’s email expressed its own The anti-Trump letter rejected “any stance on the campus crackdown. policies or actions that foment or take He defended civil liberties, opposed advantage of antisemitism and pit campus antisemitism and urged Jewish communities against one another” Federations to let the deportation cases and condemned “the exploitation of play out in court. our community’s real concerns about “Our community has never sought to antisemitism to undermine democratic restrict free speech rights on campus or norms,” due process and First Amendelsewhere, but we have and will conment rights. tinue to seek action by universities and It added, “It is both possible and government against those who incite necessary to fight antisemitism — on against Jewish students,” he wrote. campus, in our communities, and across “Whether the cases that are currently the country — without abandoning the before the courts are examples of such democratic values that have allowed incitement will be determined in due Jews, and so many other vulnerable course.” minorities, to thrive.”

He also disputed the open letter’s In his email, Fingerhut objected to contention that students were being the letter’s claim to represent “a broad deprived of their rights, writing that swath of mainstream American Jewry.” “we do not support the curtailment of He pointed to several Jewish groups — due process rights” but that the targeted including the Anti-Defamation League, students “are receiving due process and the Orthodox Union and the Conference are represented by able legal counsel.” of Presidents — that had not signed it, Meanwhile, the Anti-Defamation and also expressed disappointment over League, American Jewish Committee, not being consulted about the letter. and Hillel International have all soundFingerhut also criticized the open leted notes of concern about the deportater for being circulated during Passover, tions and the defunding of university which he said proved it could not speak research in recent weeks, though none for the entire Jewish community since signed onto the JCPA-led letter.

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OPINION

They have a manual.

The ADL reversed its support need a movement. for Trump’s student deportations. We Hamas, Hezbollah and those working on their behalf are not supporters of free You should too. speech; they are carrying out the will

By Rob Eshman The Forward Jonathan Greenblatt, the leader of the Anti-Defamation League, walked back his organization’s previous support for President Donald Trump’s Trump campaign to detain and deport pro-Palestinian activists — thank God. “No one should minimize the hateful, violent acts committed against Jewish students,” he wrote in an April 3 essay in eJewishPhilanthropy.

“But if we sacrifice our constitutional freedoms in the pursuit of security, we undermine the very foundation of the diverse, pluralistic society we seek to defend.”

Now that the largest and most influential Jewish civil rights organization has reconsidered its unjustifiable initial support for the detentions, it’s time for others who may also have been seduced into believing such draconian measures are “good for the Jews” to speak out against them.

Because they are definitely not good for the Jews.

Look, I get why Greenblatt and the ADL were initially enthusiastic. After a year of campus protests that sometimes led to physical harassment of Jewish students, vandalized university property and prevented Jewish and other students from attending class, I can imagine finding it satisfying to see actual perpetrators held accountable.

And so the ADL did.“We appreciate the Trump Administration’s broad, bold set of efforts to counter campus antisemitism,” ADL posted to its X account on Mar. 9, after ICE agents took Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil into custody, “and this action further illustrates that resolve by holding alleged perpetrators responsible for their actions.”

That post went on to throw in one sentence calling for due process. But as Greenblatt now acknowledges, the organization should have known better.

“We were glad to see the administration taking action,” he said in an interview with Jewish

peared as she left her home in Somerville, Mass.

Her crime? The 30-year-old Turkish national co-authored Insider. “But the pattern of an op-ed in Tufts’ student behavior since then has raised newspaper calling for the uniconcerns that would be easy to versity to divest from Israel. address by being transparent “You cannot arrest people or about the charges.” eject people from the country Khalil has not been charged because they are bigoted or with any crimes; nor have racist,” he told Jewish Insider. any of the students or other “That’s not a crime. That has university staff so far arrested, never been an offense.” detained and deported as part A Department of Homeland of the Trump administration’s Security spokesperson told the push.

Associated Press that Ozturk’s The administration’s apvisa was terminated at the proach in this, as in deportations of alleged gang members, end of March, after the agency found that she engaged in achas been to imprison first and tivities in support of Hamas. ask questions later, going Of course the agency proafter anyone whose opinions vided no evidence. Her friends somebody somewhere found said she did not organize objectionable — all under the protests, and Tufts confirmed guise of protecting the Jews. that her op-ed did not violate I, like many liberal-leaning school policies.

Jews, found it difficult to “We can hold perpetrators of understand how the ADL and other Jewish organizations and unlawful antisemitism accountable while maintaining a comleaders could have failed to mitment to the Constitution,” immediately see the slippery wrote Greenblatt in eJewishConstitutional slope Khalil’s Philanthropy. “We can protect arrest put us on — and where the civil liberties of Jewish it would inevitably lead. students even as we preserve Even worse is the fact that the civil liberties of those who reporters have found that two protest, harass or attack them Jewish groups, Canary Misbecause they are innocent until sion and Betar, have targeted proven guilty.” pro-Palestinian Of course, activists for arrest Such draconian starting with and fed their names to authori- measures are not Khalil’s arrest ties. These are good for the Jews. there was good reason to oppose shadowy groups the administra— the ADL lation’s shotgun approach to beled Betar “extremist” — that represent a right-wing fringe of antisemitism.

Threatening to cut off all American Jewry. federal funding to a university It takes only the barest ac— including critical medical quaintance with Jewish history research, and grants to Jewish to understand that when free students and professors — speech and civil liberties erode doesn’t help Jews. for any group, Jews inevitably Eviscerating the offices at become a target. the Department of Education, In this case, we are doubly including those that investigate endangered — by government campus antisemitism, doesn’t actions attacking free speech, and also by groups blaming the help Jews.

What these measures help Jews as a whole for instigating are people who want to underthese attacks. mine liberal education, elite Good on the ADL for eveninstitutions, and government tually recognizing that, and bureaucracies. Which, you being able to admit they made know, might just be the point. a mistake. Greenblatt said Our job is not to be suckered his awakening came after the into supporting it.

March 25 detention of Tufts graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk, whom masked ICE agents Rob Eshman is a senior columnist for the Forward. swooped down on and disap-

So, what do you think?

PAGE 18

of foreign terrorist organizations.

By Michael Masters Free speech is a right enshrined in the fabric of our country.

Just as we must be vigilant in protecting it, we must also be clear-eyed about what it is and what it is not. Where speech is motivated by hate or is intended to support or encourage fear or violence or terrorism, the right of free speech is not absolute. Free-speech protections have never extended to terrorist activity.

Pro-Hamas documents found recently on college campuses and the Internet told people to: “Build your cell.”

“Pick your target.” “…remember that your action is to disrupt, damage or destroy your target.”

“With an efficient sledgehammer in your hand, you can cause quite a bit of damage!” “…make sure you have your routes planned for a perfect getaway.”

“Do not have your face on show at any point during the action.”

These are just some of the recommendations made in materials that have been discovered, including propaganda allegedly from Hamas’ media office that surfaced at Barnard College and a digital manual that explicitly promotes violent tactics. These are not handbooks for people on how to exercise their voice. These are guides for how to create a cell, avoid detection, engage in reconnaissance, and then how to carry out an attack. The details are frightening to read.

The presence and distribution of these materials on American college campuses underscore a chilling reality: Terror groups are becoming increasingly organized, strategic and emboldened in their attempts to foment outrage and attack Jews.

These materials and their dissemination, at times by

third parties who are not students, seem explicitly designed to turn educational spaces into battlegrounds for hatred instead of what they should be — safe spaces for students to learn and grow.

We should not be naïve or gullible enough to believe that the tactics some advocate — from using burner phones to recommending not wearing shoes that could identify you — will be limited to mere vandalism and destruction of property.

The discovery of these documents comes in the wake of warnings by the former director of national intelligence that Iran was playing a role in stoking protests on U.S. campuses in the spring of 2024.

This reality must galvanize us into action. Shame on us if we fail to act decisively in this critical moment. History will judge our response.

We have seen the impact in the United States when intelligence and information are not acted on as aggressively as they should be — on Sept.

11, 2001. We must learn by leveraging our lawful tools to counter the forces of terrorism and hate that seek to normalize themselves in our society and undermine our country.

We have Hamas’ playbook in our hands. We need to counter their manual with our own movement.

First, the difference between lawful, protected speech and First Amendment activity and support for designated terrorist organizations must be recognized. Under the law, 8 U.S.C. 2339B(a)(1), anyone who “knowingly provides material

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

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2025

OPINION support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, or attempts or conspires to do so” commits a federal crime.

This includes “speech to, under the direction of, or in coordination with foreign groups that the speaker knows to be terrorist organizations,” as ruled in Holder v. Humanitarian L. Project, which also says that our First Amendment and other freedoms do not protect persons who provide material support to these “particularly dangerous and lawless foreign organizations.”

Second, where individuals violate the law regarding support for terrorist organizations, they should be charged and prosecuted. Beyond that, we must pursue entities that are propagating this material and those who fund them, whether they are nongovernmental organizations or foreign state actors. We have seen strong action from law enforcement and prosecutors in this regard; they must be lauded.

Where institutions, including college campuses and universities, fail to support and undermine the enforcement of the law, they must be held accountable. Hamas, Hezbollah, and those working on their behalf are not supporters of free speech, they are carrying out the will of foreign terrorist organizations and undermining free speech in the process.

Lastly, none of us must be deluded as to what is going on.

The manuals that have been propagated are not designed to advocate for the oppressed or seek justice.

They are, in their own words, designed and intended to “disrupt, damage, (and) destroy” their targets. Individuals and organizations have been targeted. Their other target — our democracy and the values upon which it was established.

We know our enemy’s tactical war plan. Having this in our possession gives us the responsibility and advantage to act strategically and decisively.

This isn’t about free speech, which must be protected. It is about stopping terrorist organizations from spreading hate and violence against the Jewish community and undermining our country.

Michael Masters serves as the national director and CEO of the Secure Community Network.

Distributed by JNS.org.

Scholars have told important Jewish stories with NEH’s support. What happens now?

By Pamela S. Nadell As a historian focused on Jewish history for more than four decades, I was aware when I applied to the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Public Scholars program for support for my new book that the odds were not great.

After all, I had in the past reviewed applications to the NEH from scholars, curators and filmmakers seeking funding for their projects, and I knew how many worthy endeavors were vying for a limited pot of federal funding.

But I was lucky: I got a grant, and my book, Antisemitism, an American Tradition comes out this fall.

My grant ended last August, which means I was narrowly not among the scholars told in April that NEH grants they had received had been canceled — by a federal government that has made fighting antisemitism its signature issue.

Indeed, this administration is defunding universities’ cancer research expecting this will resolve antisemitism — a laughable prospect.

But if it cares so much about antisemitism, it should not go after the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The NEH not only subsidized my book on the long history of antisemitism in the United States, it has a significant record of backing books, documentaries, and museum exhibitions about Jewish history and culture that counter antisemitic lies.

In recent years, the NEH funded translating Luis de Carvajal’s diaries. Traveling throughout 16th-century colonial Mexico, a land that barred Jews, de Carvajal secretly practiced Judaism until, arrested by the Inquisition, he died in its jail.

The NEH supported translating the Yiddish stories written

by Rokhl Brokhes (1880-1945) before the Nazis murdered her.

Another award went to a book about spies in 1930s Hollywood

So, what do you think?

Imagine Photography

who had uncovered a plot to kidnap and hang 20 prominent Jews and their allies, including Charlie Chaplin. They expected this to launch a nationwide pogrom.

An NEH grant helped Washington, D.C.’s Capital Jewish Museum plan its new exhibition which is built around the city’s oldest synagogue building.

When that congregation, Adas Israel, dedicated its new house of worship in 1876, just in time to celebrate this nation’s centennial, Ulysses S. Grant became the first president to attend a synagogue service. He even donated $10, the equivalent of about $200 today.

Why would an administration battling antisemitism cripple an organization with a tiny budget — just $207 million The restored interior of Washington, D.C.'s oldest synagogue building (1876), last year — whose projects add incorporated into the new Capital Jewish Museum through NEH funding. to our knowledge about Jewish great triumphs of American In time, some of their dehistory and culture? scendants turned to the NEH This history is more essential ingenuity.

Just as the NEH has funded to help them tell stories about than ever today to counter the projects to support Jewish these brave men and women rising tide of antisemitism in history and culture, it has also of the past, their hopes, their this nation. backed projects spotlighting dreams, their legacies.

Support for projects about the array of cultures and heriThey are the men and Jewish history and culture are, tages that make up America. women who made this nation of course, a small Its funds helped develop an ex- great. We will lose their stories part of the funds hibition exploring Indigenous and this history if this administhe NEH has dispeoples’ heritage in Deerfield, tration succeeds in its plans to pensed in the 60 Massachusetts; restoring eviscerate the NEH. years since it was damaged statues of the great Those whose grant contracts established. abolitionist Frederick Douglass have been canceled now join It has funded in Buffalo, N.Y.; developing a the ranks of the federal workbook projects about New York’s digital history of Cuban Ameri- ers who have been summarily let go, without reason, without Archbishop Fran- cans; constructing new space cause. cis Cardinal Spell- at Chicago’s Korean Cultural Center; and recording audio Like them, these creators man, the poet about humanities collections are left stranded. As scholars, Robert Frost, and for the blind. we realize that our experiences Supreme Court These may be precisely the are just a tiny window into the Justice Louis D. Brandeis. Its chasm of this great calamity. grants have enabled millions to stories this administration wishes to erase in its effort to Individual creators are hurt view the Ken Burns films The recast the complicated, messy and devastated. But the loss Civil War and The Vietnam War, history of our nation’s past into of the stories they would have as well as a film about the hisa seamless narrative celebrattold, including those that could tory of comics. ing the accomplishments of have shorn up the struggle to The NEH has supported stem the tide of antisemitism, museums on the Underground great White men. But collectively, these projects narrate will reverberate far into the Railroad and San Francisco’s powerful, positive stories about future.

Angel Island, the largest imthis nation and its people. migration station on the West So many of our ancestors Pamela S. Nadell is a professor Coast, as well as an exhibition came to these shores seeking of history at American Univerabout toys. refuge. They made America sity. Her book America’s JewIt even provided funding to their home, becoming staunch ish Women: A History from develop a smartphone app for Colonial Times to Today won visitors to the new World War I patriots, titans of industry and business, government officials, the National Jewish Book Award’s Memorial and a virtual reality soldiers, wives, and homemak2019 Jewish Book of the Year. game about the construction ers.

Distributed by JTA. of the Hoover Dam, one of the

This history is more essential than ever today to counter the rising tide of antisemitism in this nation.

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

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2025

PAGE 19

CALENDAR Classes

Beth Jacob Classes: w. Rabbi Agar on Zoom. Tuesdays, 7 p.m.: Torah Tuesdays. Thursdays, 7 p.m.: Thursdays of Thought. Register, 937-2742149. bethjacobcong.org/bethjacob-happenings.

Chabad Classes: Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m.: Talmud Class in person & Zoom. Call for Zoom link. Mondays, April 28-May 19, 7 p.m.: JLI Colorful Profiles - Short Stories of Extraordinary & Unexpected Characters from Jewish History. Online & in person. $54.

chabaddayton.com. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-6430770.

Temple Anshe Emeth Judaism 101 - History of Judaism: Sat., May 3, 1 p.m. W. Rabbinic Intern Jonathan Benzion.

320 Caldwell St., Piqua. RSVP to ansheemeth@gmail.com.

Temple Beth Or Classes: Sundays, 10 a.m.: Adult Hebrew. Sat., May 3, 17, 10 a.m.: Apocryphal Study in person & Zoom. templebethor.com/ events. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 937-435-3400.

Weekly podcast

The Jewish News Hour

with The Dayton Jewish Observer’s Marshall Weiss

Search for The Dayton Jewish Observer in Spotify podcasts and subscribe

Temple Israel Classes: Tuesdays, noon: Talmud Study in person & Zoom. Wednesdays, 10 a.m.: Weekly Torah Commentary w. Rabbi BodneyHalasz in person & Zoom.

Saturdays, 9:15 a.m.: Virtual Torah Study on Zoom. For Torah Study Zoom info., email Fran Rickenbach, franwr@ gmail.com. Sat., May 10, 9:15 a.m.: Virtual Torah Study in person & Zoom. Fri., May 16, 11 a.m.: Living w. Loss. tidayton.org/calendar. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. RSVP to 937-4960050.

Children/Youths

Chabad CKids' In My Jewish Home: Sun., May 4, 4 p.m.

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

2nd grade. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. 937-496-0050.

Adults

Temple Israel Sacred Stitching: Tues., May 13, 27, 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.

JWV Post #587 Brunch Program: Sun., May 18, 10 a.m. Speaker on the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Wilberforce. $10. Free for JWV members & their partners. Temple Beth Or, 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. RSVP to JWVPost587@gmail. com.

Beth Abraham Rhythm ‘N’ Ruach: Fri., May 9, 5:30-6:15 p.m. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. 937-293-9520.

Presidents Dinner: Sun., May 18, 5 p.m. $125 person. RSVP

by May 12 at jewishdayton.org/ events. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. 937610-1555.

Temple Israel Prayer & Play: Sat., May 10, 10 a.m. Infants–

Temple Israel’s So a Rabbi Walks into a Bar: Thurs., May

Family

29, 6 p.m. First round on Rabbi Bodney-Halasz. BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, 2715 Fairfield Commons, Beavercreek.

Women

Chabad Women’s Circle End of Year BBQ: Sun., May 4, 6 p.m. $36. RSVP at chabaddayton.com/events. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-643-0770.

Men

Chabad Bagels, Lox & Tefillin: Sun., May 4, 9:30 a.m.

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

Community

Beth Jacob Jewish Women Inspiring Jewish Women Luncheon: Sun., May 4, 11 a.m. $26. Call 937-274-2149 to RSVP. 7020 N. Main St., Harrison Twp. Beth Jacob Cemetery Mitzvah Project: Sun., May 18, 10 a.m. Clean headstones.

For more info. & to RSVP, call Tammy Evans, 937-274-2149.

House of Jacob Cemetery, 4001 Old Troy Pike, Dayton.

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To schedule a private tour, contact the admissions office at Hillel Academy at mhattenbach@daytonhillel.org or 937-277-8966

PAGE 20

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2025

MAZEL TOV! Ed Leventhal has received the Richard L. Kuss Lifetime Community Achievement Award given by the Greater Springfield Partnership, the city's chamber of commerce. A Springfield resident for 54 years, Ed has served on three different school boards and the boards of several nonprofits. He's worked for the betterment of Springfield through his civic and charitable volunteer projects.

Ed and his wife, Laurie, are longtime members of Temple Sholom.

Allyson Jacob has received a 2025 Highlights Foundation Whole Novel Scholarship for Jewish Writers. Highlights Foundation scholarships are given to aspiring and established authors and illustrators of children’s books. They include full tuition for inperson workshops, community retreats, and personal retreats at the Highlights Foundation Retreat Center in Milanville, Penn., as well as online courses. Cheering Allyson on is her husband, Marc.

July 2020. "Watching our students grow in their knowledge and connection to Jewish life has been deeply fulfilling, and I am so proud of the vibrant learning community we have cultivated," he wrote in a message to the congregation.

Ehud Borovoy will lead a demonstration of Krav Maga, the Israeli selfdefense system, at the Dayton International Festival: A World A'Fair, 6 p.m., Saturday, May 3, at the Greene County Expo Center and Fairgrounds in Xenia.

Talia Doninger, a 2024 graduate of the University of Arizona School of Journalism, begins her work in May as the engagement coordinator with OC Hillel in Orange County, Calif. She'll build relationships with Jewish students at Chapman University, UC Irvine, and Cal State Fullerton, and will create opportunities for them to engage in Jewish life. Over the past year, she's sharpened her writing and editing skills curating digital content for Cottages & Gardens and writing freelance features for The Dayton Jewish Observer. Talia is the daughter of Sandra and Dr. Nick Doninger.

Temple Beth Or Associate Rabbi and Educator Ben Azriel has announced that he, his wife, Dr. Rachel Podell Azriel, and their daughter, Eliana, move to Chicago this summer. The rabbi has been with Temple Beth Or since Rabbi Ben Azriel

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

WEDDINGS, SOCIAL & CORPORATE EVENTS 2 S. MAIN ST. MIDDLETOWN, OH THEWINDAMERE.COM 513-818-5174

AFTER 77 YEARS, WE’RE STILL FIGHTING FOR A JEWISH STATE. In 1948, as Israel fought for its independence, the medics of Magen David Adom were there, treating wounded soldiers and civilians alike.

Today, as Israel celebrates Yom HaAtzma’ut, MDA is still treating the injured — even under fire.

But for MDA to continue being there for Israel, we need to be there for MDA. Make a donation at afmda.org/give.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2025

PAGE 21

RELIGION

CONGREGATIONS Beth Abraham Synagogue Conservative Rabbi Aubrey L. Glazer Fridays, 5 p.m.

Saturdays, 9:30 a.m.

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

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

Temple Anshe Emeth

Reform Rabbinic Intern Jonathan Benzion Sat., May 3, 10 a.m.

320 Caldwell St., Piqua.

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

Temple Beth Or

Reform Rabbi Judy Chessin Asst. Rabbi/Educator Ben Azriel Fridays, 6:15 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., May 2, 6 p.m.

Fridays, May 9, 16 & 30, 6:30 p.m.

Online, Fri., May 23, 6:30 p.m.

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

130 Riverside Dr., Dayton.

937-496-0050. tidayton.org

Temple Sholom

Reform Rabbi Cary Kozberg Fridays, 6 p.m.

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

ADDITIONAL SERVICES

What I learned about American Jews while collecting Judaica for LA fire victims Contributed

By Rachel Steinhardt, JTA Judaica, and which items their American Jews have overLOS ANGELES — While the peers around the city and the invested in decorating for the L.A. wildfires were still smolcountry are willing to part Festival of Lights and were dering in January, I sat down with. eager to off-load. Interestingly, to write a personal reflection We collected sizable donathese items were not the most on what Judaica means to the tions of brand-new items wished-for among our recipiheart of Jewish homes from Judaica compaents. like the ones that had nies, but the bulk of 19: Pieces of classic gold and been consumed in the donations came from cream floral ceramic Lenox inferno. Before I had hundreds of individuJudaica received, including written the last senal Jews and dozens of Seder plates, menorahs, Kidtence, I knew I wanted synagogue-run collecdush cups, candlesticks and to try to help those tion drives in Jewish mezuzahs. The style is iconic families replace what communities from to many American Jews, and Rachel Steinhardt far-flung states. they had lost. the Seder plate is a replica of a Little did I know We asked them 19th-century plate in the JewKehillat Israel's Ava and Addison Rich, that I was about to embark on a for great-condition, displayish Museum in New York. who lost their home in the Palisades fire, journey that would put my life worthy objects, used or new. wear matching tallitot received Six: Tissue boxes used by on hold and turn my home into What we got, however, was emotional recipients at our as part of a Judaica donation drive. a breathtaking, kaleidoscopic distribution events. Tears of array of relics spanning at least long. Many donees dig the vin- joy, grief, nostalgia, astona century of American Jewry. ishment and overwhelming tage verdigris Israeli style, and a makeshift distribution center, Not all of it was in giftable gratitude. we received it by the hundreds filled to the brim with boxes condition, and we quickly One dozen: Precious silver in the form of wall hangings, upon boxes of bubble-wrapped developed discerning eyes for Yeled Tov (Good Boy) and Yalda Seder plates, Chanukah menomenorahs and Seder plates quality that paid off when we Tova (Good Girl) baby cups rahs, and more. sent from all over. finally displayed our haul at with tiny handles.

224: Permanently stained I had managed to help start distribution events.

Three: Priceless pure-silver challah covers we received a Judaica collection and distriHere’s a look at some of mezuzahs made and ultimately bution team with some like'I don't have a what we gathered, and how it

by Holocaust discarded minded partners. A mere two was received, by the numbers: and (some were front door yet,' one survivor months later, despite knowRoughly $6,000: The amount repurposed). master silverwoman whispered smith Henryk ing next to nothing about These beautiRachel spent just on Steinhardt shipping costs organizing donation Winograd ful items are to me at an event drives and mass to Los Ange(1917-2008), each hard for Jews volunteer efforts, les by donors to throw away; while she selected donated from a our upstart across the U.S. we presumed several mezuzahs. family in a difteam of volunand Israel who ferent state. our collection teers succeeded collected items One pair: Of drive offered the 'But I will.' in our mission: on our behalf. matching pink satisfaction of in March, we We received gossamer-silk tallitot, sourced imagining a possible future for distributed packages from from our collection in the nick them. over 5,000 used places like of time for a set of b'not mitzFour: Bottles of silver polish and new Judaica Alaska, Montana, vah twins who had lost their we used to bring dozens of items to more than Maine and Texas, home. tarnished heirloom-quality 400 Jews impacted and a mother lode One: Bat mitzvah girl from candlesticks, Kiddush cups, One of myriad mezuzot from the Washingby the Palisades Pennsylvania, who, as her mitzand other once-prized possesthe organizers received. ton, D.C. area. and Eaton fires. vah project, rallied her comsions back to dazzling glory.

And we’re not quite Seven: The nummunity to collect four boxes’ 20%: The proportion of finished yet. ber of green brass mid-century worth of items to ship to us. donated items that consisted I’ve had an up-close look at “Made in Israel” oil jug-motif At least four: Synagogue of Chanukah decor (platters, what fire-impacted L.A.-area knickknacks collected, ranging gift shops, nearly liquidated of mugs, banners, cookie jars, Jews want, when it comes to Continued on Page 27 from 3 inches to nearly 3 feet etc.).

Perspectives

May • Iyar/Sivan

Chabad of Greater Dayton

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

Yellow Springs Havurah

Independent Antioch College Rockford Chapel.

1st & 3rd Saturday each month.

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

Yom Hazikaron • Israel Memorial Day • April 30 • 2 Iyar (Observed)

Shabbat Candle Lightings May 2: 8:14 p.m.

May 9: 8:21 p.m.

May 16: 8:28 p.m.

May 23: 8:34 p.m.

May 30: 8:39 p.m.

PAGE 22

Memorial Day for all who died serving Israel. Concludes with a siren blast as stars appear and Independence Day begins.

Yom Ha’atzmaut • Israel Independence Day • May 1 • 3 Iyar

(Observed) Celebrated by Jews around the world. Israel celebrates with parades, singing, dancing, and fireworks.

Lag B’Omer • 33rd Day of Omer • May 16 • 18 Iyar

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

Torah Portions May 3: Tazria-Metzora (Lev. 12:1-13:59; 14:1-15:33) May 10: Achare-Kedoshim (Lev. 16:1-20:27) May 17: Emor (Lev. 21:1-24:23) May 24: Behar-Bechukotai (Lev. 25:1-27:34) May 31: Bamidbar (Num. 1:1-4:20)

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2025

JEWISH FAMILY EDUCATION

Maledictions and mosquitoes Sacred Speech Series

In the region of ancient Babylonia, the first Gulf War and subsequent looting of Iraq’s National Museum in 2003 resulted in thousands of stolen “incantation bowls” entering international trade markets, according to Israel Antiquities

Candace R. Kwiatek Authority official Amir Ganor.

Twenty years later, as the IAA seized hundreds of illicitly acquired antiquities from a Jerusalem property, they discovered three 1,500-year-old earthenware incantation bowls, also known as “magic bowls” in Jewish circles.

Their geographic and cultural origins were immediately apparent from the distinctive epigraphs written in Jewish Aramaic, the unique language of the Babylonian Talmud.

Spiraling inside the bowls from rim to center, inscriptions included a writ of divorce from a house-invading demon, a quote from Psalms, and the image of a bound female demon labeled, “My brother, the son of Pearl,” Smithsonian magazine author Dieynaba Young reported.

“More than 3,000 bowls like these have been discovered to date,” Newsweek reporter Aristos Georgiou wrote, “the majority of which were created

by Jewish people.”

Used primarily as protective amulets, these bowls feature biblical quotations, Mishnaic texts, blessings, Aramaic incan-

Literature to share Red Sea Spies by Raffi Berg.

Most Jews have heard of Operation Solomon, the 1991 covert Israeli military operation that airlifted more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in two days.

Less well known is Operation Brothers, an earlier clandestine mission (19791984) involving a Mossadrun luxury diving resort on the Sudanese coast

tations and spells, references to angels, demon images, magical symbols, and even rabbinic legal formulas, all with the purpose of invoking divine help or warding off curses and other misfortunes.

“May an evil decree come upon him.” “Let him suffer and remember.” “May he find no rest even in the grave.”

“A curse is a verbal invocation pronounced to bring harm, evil, or detriment to another,” Rabbi Geoffrey Dennis explains. “More than a threat or a wish, a curse is assumed to have the power to make the desired harm a reality.”

According to the Talmud, the act of cursing has power regardless of the speaker’s rationale, their level of authority or skills, or their intention — even when it’s uttered unintentionally.

“May his name and his memory be blotted out!”

Among the most wellknown biblical stories of curses are God’s transformation of the serpent in the Garden into a belly-crawling, dust-eating reptile after enticing Eve to disobey God, the failure of the foreign prophet Balaam to curse the Israelites on behalf of King Balak, and the divine promise that Amalek’s descendants will be annihilated and his memory erased for his unprovoked attack on the wilderness Israelites.

“In the Torah there are more curses than blessings.”

But it is the annual reading of Deuteronomy’s 98 curses, the ones Moses commanded to and Israeli Navy Seals who ultimately smuggled about 8,000 people to Israel. This meticulously researched nonfiction thriller is the real story, gripping the reader in the first few sentences and never letting go.

Ping-Pong Shabbat: The True Story of Champion Ester Ackerman by Ann D. Koffsky. At 7, Estee began playing Ping-Pong in her family basement. She was soon

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2025

be recited upon entering the Promised Land, that elicits hints of their otherworldly energy and potent nature.

Belief in — or at least wariness about — the unusual power of curses, deliberate or unintended, has led to the modern custom of rapid, whispered reading of these verses.

tradition of curses highlights Judaism’s recognition of the tremendous power of words, how does it comport with the Jewish worldview that speech is sacred?

Today’s cursing is not about incantations or magic, but rather profanity, swearing, insulting, and general irreverence.

Furthermore, unlike “His intestines should be ancient curses that were pulled out of his stomach targeted and infrequent, and wrapped around his today’s cursing is wideneck!” spread and constant.

The rabbis of the TalThis endless barrage mud initially elaborated is “a powerful force that upon the biblical attitudes shapes the way we think, toward curses, continued perceive, and understand to stress their efficacy, and the world around us,” even occasionally demonnotes psychologist Mark strated their own power to An Angel Appears to Balaam, Gustave Doré, 1866 Travers, a spiritual pollucurse. tion that plays a pivotal he swallow an umbrella and Over the centuries, however, may it open in his belly!” — role in forming our attitudes limitations on the use of curses and beliefs. others, at the very least, give were significantly expanded, Such indiscriminate cursing one pause for thought. and eventually curses were also arouses baseless hatred, “May all your teeth fall out permissible only toward those except one, to give you a tooth- ultimately bringing about great guilty of disgraceful or sinful evil upon individuals, commuache!” religious behavior.

“May he have a big store full nities, and the world.

Rav Yehuda wisely captured of goods: May people not ask Rabbi Mordechai Becher the sentiment of the times by concludes, “Although 'curse for what he has, and may he recording a popular adage: “Be not have what they ask for.” words' may be common, so the one who is cursed and not are mosquitoes! (One) should Rosenbaum continues, the one who curses, as a curse avoid both. Speech should re“Other Jewish languages also eventually returns to the one flect the best of who we are and offer choice curses, includwho curses.” what type of person we want to ing Ladino — ‘Who knows if become.” you will finish a year?’— and “May you have a hundred After all, “If all curses actuJudeo-Arabic — ‘May your houses, a hundred rooms in ally materialized, the world eyeball burst.’” each house, 20 beds in each would be done for.”

But while this long-standing room, and may fever and chills toss you from one bed to the next!”

Today, Judaism continues to acknowledge the power of curses, although they’re no longer in the form of incantations or magic bowls.

Yiddish, the language of Eastern European Jews, has a A Healthy Alternative vast treasury, in fact a whole We Use The Best Ingredients genre, of formulaic curses Prepared Fresh Daily called klole, journalist S.I. Rosenbaum reports.

While many have been passed along as jokes — "May

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competing in tournaments. At 11, she made the finals of the U.S. National Table Tennis Championships. Winning the final match would give her the gold. But it was scheduled on the Sabbath. How could she, a Modern Orthodox Jewish girl, pursue her passion and still honor Shabbat? Dynamic illustrations enhance this engaging biography for elementary grades. A perfect family or classroom discussion starter about values.

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yogurt will work as a substitute.

Brands of vanilla pudding mix vary. Any packet that is around 2.8-3.1 ounces will work, or you can measure out 5 tablespoons from a larger packet of pudding mix.

By Sonya Sanford, The Nosher 3 sleeves (9 oz.) Kedem vanilla tea biscuits or One of Israel’s best-loved desserts is a no2 sleeves Osem petit beurre biscuits bake cake made with tea biscuits. You’ve likely 2 cups heavy whipping cream seen Israeli tea biscuits in your local grocery 1 cup milk store kosher aisle; they typically come in a 1 (2.8 oz.) packet instant vanilla pudding mix colorful paper sleeve and inside the packets are (or 5 Tbsp.) golden, flat rectangles with ridged edges and a ¼ cup sugar warm hint of vanilla. They are thin and crum¼ tsp. salt bly, buttery and not too sweet.

1 cup (8 oz.) quark or 5% Greek yogurt Israeli biscuit cake, ugat bisquivitim in He2 tsp. vanilla extract brew, is Israel’s version of an icebox cake or 1 cup cold coffee or milk tiramisu. It requires zero baking and is designed chocolate, for garnish (optional) to be thrown together on a whim, with simple products found in most kitchens.

In a large bowl using a handheld mixer or Recipes vary from family to family; aside whisk, beat together the heavy cream, milk, from tea biscuits, ingredients typically include instant vanilla pudding, heavy cream, and milk. instant vanilla pudding mix, sugar, and salt until the mixture starts to thicken and the Many recipes call for gvina levana, mixer or whisk leaves ribbons in the a white cheese we call quark in the A decadent batter, about two to three minutes.

States and Europe. Quark is a fresh dairy product that tastes like a cross celebration of Be careful not to overbeat the mixbetween sour cream and Greek yo- dairy from the ture.

Add the quark or yogurt and gurt, and adds a delicious tanginess land of milk vanilla extract, and beat until just to the filling. combined.

Instant vanilla pudding offers and honey.

To assemble, dip one tea biscuit at its unmistakable flavor and helps a time into the coffee or milk for two the cake set in the fridge. While it’s to three seconds (if using Osem tea biscuits, dip in the fridge, this cake transforms from a loose creamy consistency into a sliceable layered cake. for a few seconds longer). Line the bottom of a 9-by-13 baking pan with the dipped tea biscuits.

The biscuits soak up and expand with the Cut any biscuits to fit the pan as needed. Top the custard filling, creating a decadent celebration layer of biscuits with a third of the filling. of dairy from the land of milk and honey. It's Repeat the process twice until you have three the perfect treat for Israel's 77th birthday. layers of tea biscuits and three of filling.

To garnish, top with milk or dark chocolate Notes: shavings; you can do this with a vegetable peeler Kedem brand biscuits are ideal for this recipe and a bar of chocolate. Alternatively, you could as they are thinner and more delicate, Osem also top with cocoa powder or sprinkles. brand biscuits may create a drier cake.

Cover the baking dish tightly with plastic Dipping the biscuits in coffee adds subtle wrap and refrigerate overnight or for at least six flavor, but you can use milk instead if desired. hours. Cut into slices and serve cold.

If you can’t find quark, full fat 5% Greek

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2025

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pictured:Julie Riley

Elsa Guedj plays a rabbi inspired by Delphine Horvilleur in Max's Reformed.

One of France’s most prominent rabbis, Horvilleur says the show’s main character is 'very different from me' — but with some important overlap.

By Shira Li Bartov, JTA Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, asA young woman rabbi attempts to sassinated by a right-wing extremist in guide others while grappling with her 1995 at the end of a rally that Horvilleur own questions and facing down a comattended, where he promised Israelimunity’s utter bewilderment that she is Palestinian peace. in fact the rabbi.

Léa, the heroine of Reformed played The situation makes a premise ripe

by Elsa Guedj, lives in a world more for comedy and drama in the new Max sequestered from the political violence series Reformed, or Le Sens Des Choses in and war that encroach on modern French.

Jewish life. The series opens in picturIt was also a real chapter in the life of esque and peaceful Strasbourg, where Delphine Horvilleur, the third female she navigates emotional but comedic rabbi in France and a public intellectual conflicts among her first visitors — an known for leading the country’s Liberal intermarried couple who can’t agree Jewish movement and advocating for about the circumcision of their child, in Muslim-Jewish dialogue. the first episode, and a son who refuses Reformed, which prea bar mitzvah because of miered March 28, took in- The character his concern about climate spiration from Horvilleur’s change in the second. incorporates internationally bestselling In April, Guedj was her teachings memoir, Living With Our awarded best actress in Dead. The French dramedy about embracing a French series at Series was created by Noé Debré Mania, an international TV and Benjamin Charbit and uncertainty competition. produced by Fédération Although Horvilleur Studios. called Léa “very different from me,” The writers interviewed Horvilleur she said in an interview that the charabout her work and practice as a rabbi acter incorporates her teachings about but decided to make a series that largely embracing uncertainty. departed from her book.

“They decided to create a character Living With Our Dead, originally that is very full of doubt, which is nice published in French in 2021 and Engas a way to remind people that actually, lish in 2024, comprises 11 essays about certainties are very often a threat in the the dead who still live with Horvilleur. religious realm,” said Horvilleur, who is They range from private friends to more now 50 and the mother of three teenagwell-known figures, such as Elsa Cayat, ers. a Jewish columnist killed in the 2015 She herself, as a young woman, terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo, and Continued on Page 26

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2025

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A DOUBLE MITZVAH. Your gift will be matched dollar for dollar.

• Thanks to a generous anonymous donor, your gift — or additional gift — to Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Dayton will be matched, dollar for dollar.

• It’s a double mitzvah: the cemeteries of Beth Abraham Synagogue, Beth Jacob Congregation, and Temple Israel will combine into a single nonprofit. This ensures their sanctity in perpetuity, and strengthens each congregation’s financial security.

• Contact Kate Elder at kelder@jfgd.net now for details and to make your pledge.

The time to preserve our hometown Jewish cemeteries is now.

Preserving Our Past Ensuring Our Future

daytonjewishcemeteries.org PAGE 26

Reformed

ties. She acknowledges that after Oct. 7, everything she embodies can look naïve — sometimes even obsolete.

During wartime, she observed, “you always fire at the bridges.”

The Israel-Hamas war has reverberated sharply in France, home to Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities, along with broader parts of the population outraged over the deaths of more than 50,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

A recent history of Islamic terrorist attacks on Jews and institutionalized discrimination against Muslims already complicated interfaith dialogue in France.

But since Oct. 7, a new surge of antisemitic incidents has rocked the country. In one high-profile case last summer, two teenage boys were charged with raping a 12-year-old Jewish girl and hurling antisemitic epithets at her. More recently, the chief rabbi of Orléans was allegedly assaulted and called antisemitic slurs while leaving synagogue with his son.

In this climate, many French Jews don’t just want bridges, Horvilleur said. They want to feel protected by walls. She continues to advocate for dialogue with anyone, but said that she has added one seemingly unambitious — yet increasingly complicated — limitation.

“I don’t want to be in a conversation with someone

Continued on from Page 25 debated for years over her path. She questioned if she wanted to be a congregational rabbi or a Jewish writer, teacher or philosopher — and finally decided to build her rabbinate on refusing to choose among those commitments.

“The reason I can teach and speak in the media, and be present in intellectual French life, is because I accompany people on a daily basis,” Horvilleur said.

“And vice versa — I feel that my congregational work as a rabbi is very nurtured by the fact that I have a commitment towards French society.”

While women rabbis have become commonplace in the United States, they are still a rarity in France, dominated by a more traditional and right-leaning Jewish world. As of 2023, there were only seven in a country of about 440,000 Jews.

When Horvilleur became a rabbi, women were not yet being ordained in France. Her path was unconventional in other ways: Born in Nancy to parents who preserved Jewish culture but were not significantly observant, she grew up without any ideas of becoming a rabbi. At 17, she went to study medicine at the Hebrew University in Israel, where she also became Contributed involved with the left-wing Meretz party pushing for an Israeli-Palestinian twostate solution.

After Rabin’s assassination, she returned to France and worked as a journalist. But she brought from Jerusalem a love of interpreting ancient Jewish texts, and studied with figures such as the philosopher Marc-Alain Ouaknin and France's former chief rabbi, Gilles Bernheim.

Finding it impossible to study Talmud as a woman in France, she went to Drisha Yeshiva in New York before enrolling at the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College in 2008. Back in Paris, her profile grew as a leader of the Liberal Jewish Movement of France — affiliated with the World Union for Progressive Judaism — and as the rabbi of the Beaugrenelle synagogue, with more than 1,000 families. She also edits Tenou’a, a prestigious magazine on religion and art.

Early on, Horvilleur faced the chalDuring the pandemic, Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur found a large audience online. lenge of proving her legitimacy as a young woman rabbi — a task shared by who denies the other’s right to exist,” she said. “It’s Léa in Reformed. But Horvilleur, a burgeoning public not only true for Jews or for Israelis, it’s also true for figure, also had to fend off attacks for her political Palestinians. I believe that we have to strengthen constances. Early in her tenure, after saying in a televiversations with people, even with people who disagree sion interview that Jerusalem should not be used as a with us, as long as the core principle of the conversapolitical pawn by the United States and may become a tion is that the other has an absolute right to exist.”

Palestinian capital, in addition to the capital of Israel, In How Isn’t It Going?, penned in the aftermath of Horvilleur was harassed by a vocal minority of ultraOct. 7, Horvilleur recognizes that some perceive her conservative French Jews. as moving toward the right. She was accustomed to Horvilleur — who experienced a breakout moment complaints from ultra-conservatives, but she is more when she was the cover model for Elle France in early hurt by left-wing groups that say she does not advo2020 — is a longtime liberal. She's married to Ariel cate enough for Palestinian life. While attempting to Weil, an economist and the Socialist Party mayor of Paris Centre, a portion of the city that includes historic defend the rapidly vanishing position of the liberal Zionist, she has shifted away from calls to action.

Jewish neighborhoods.

Asked repeatedly to join calls for a Gaza ceasefire, she Despite drawing criticism, she did not back down has avoided doing so. from questioning Jewish supremacy in Israel. Two The Reformed series escapes thorny conversations weeks before Oct. 7, 2023, as masses of Israelis rallied about who can exist, and where, in favor of more uniagainst Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bid to versal dialogue about family relationships, marriage, weaken the judiciary, Horvilleur gave a Yom Kippur and religion. Still, Horvilleur hopes the show will offer sermon condemning Israel’s far-right government. a bridge of its own.

In her 2025 book, How Isn’t it Going?, she wrote, “In France, this week, is released a series about a “Their cult of the land and religious supremacy is, rabbi — and Jewish life and Jewish humor and Jewish from my point of view, as far as possible from what knowledge,” said Horvilleur. “It’s going to be interestJewish wisdom has taught us.”

For years, Horvilleur has defined herself as a liberal, ing to see how people welcome it, and how it can fit this mission of telling about Jewish life, but also being pro-Israeli, pro-Palestinian, pro-peace rabbi who seeks a kind of bridge and gate to the larger world.” to build bridges between Jews and other communi-

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2025

Judaica for LA fire victims

Continued from Page 22 inventory for our cause.

11: Stories shared with us by fire-impacted recipients about the vintage objects they found in our collection that matched specific family heirlooms and gifts from loved ones they lost to the flames (and in some cases, had already sifted through ash to find remnants of).

Some were predictable: a standard-issue menorah, a popular Seder plate design.

Others less so: an intricately beaded blue-and-white mezuzah case, a miniature ceramic house with Shalom over the door, an artisanal hand-glazed Havdalah set.

Six: Items that are likely over 100 years old, currently being examined by antiques experts because they should probably be in museum collections. These include an ornate Moroccan shofar, a patinated wrought iron etrog case, and the tzitzit of a German Jewish child who immigrated to the United States before World War I. 600+: Tote bags full of Judaica, filled and carried out of our distribution events by fireaffected families.

Some who lost their homes took an item or two; others loaded multiple bags in an attempt to bring a sense of Jewish normalcy to their environments.

“I don’t have a front door yet,” one woman whispered to me at an event while she selected several mezuzahs. “But I will.”

An elderly man and a young boy — unrelated to each other but united in their loss — browsed, touched and sorted objects for hours on end. It helped.

Many confessed they could’ve ordered new Judaica items for their mantels and display cabinets, but that there was something ineffable they could only get from the pre-owned objects we had laid out on dozens of tables in a synagogue social hall.

Based on the thick stack of notes on my desk that accompanied many of the donations inside their bubble-wrapped boxes, that quality is the personal touch emanating from a Jewish home.

It’s the little bit of hope and mazel imbued in each passedon Kiddush cup, from one Jewish family to another. It's the love and connection that keeps us bound as a people: usually gifting from one generation to the next, but sometimes from the next state, or even Zip code, over.

OBITUARIES Mabel Lou Becker, age 89, passed away on April 3. Mabel was born in Chillicothe, next to the railroad tracks where her father, a railroad man and great storyteller, inspired in her a life of adventures where she could follow her dreams. Through hard work and determination, Mabel received her nursing degree from the Jewish Hospital School of Nursing. While training to be a nurse, she met the love of her life, Louis Becker, M.D. Mabel and Lou were married in 1957 in Cincinnati. They were married 55 years. They had four children, Wendy, Marc, David, and Julie, who gave Mabel seven amazing grandchildren, Miriam, Elyse, Cameron, Griffin, Reagan, Tucker, and Erica. Immediately after their wedding, Mabel and her husband drove to California where they settled in Glendale.

In Glendale, Mabel was the assistant head nurse in the nursery at Los Angeles County General Hospital. They moved back to Cincinnati for a year. From there they moved to Bosier City, La. and eventually settled in Dayton. Mabel and Lou raised their children in Trotwood. The couple retired in New Albany, where she was able to be a part of her grandchildren’s lives.

Throughout her life, Mabel loved traveling with her husband, and they were able to travel to most of the places on their bucket list, including Israel, Russia, Europe, Turkey, Peru, and Hawaii. Mabel had the honor of travelling with other women lawyers to China where she learned the meaning of the Prince Charles Rule, and came back with great stories to share with friends and family. Mabel began her volunteer career with B’nai Brith Women in Dayton, organizing many philanthropic activities and holding several leadership roles. She was also a Girl Scout leader. During the turbulent civil rights movement of the 1960s, Mabel’s intelligence and drive to help others led her to become a civil rights advocate where she participated in neighborhood canvassing for voter registration and led grade school lessons to combat racism.

When her volunteer activities spread to fighting redlining and advocating for fair housing, she founded THROB (To Help Races Overcome Barriers), Inc. She was also a founder of the Jewish-Christian Dialogue group. During this time, she became interested in a law career.

She attended University of Dayton Law School from 1977 to 1980, when only a few

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2025

women were practicing law in law seminars. Her lifetime of be remembered for his kindDayton, and her class had less dedicated advocacy to make ness, humor, intelligence, and than 10% women. Based on the the world a better place for positivity. Del was preceded in lack of female role models in the minorities, women, and children death by his parents, Maurice area, at the end of her first year was recognized when she was and Katherine Footer, his sister of law school, Mabel organized honored by the Dayton Daily Marilyn Footer Scher, and his a road trip to Atlanta to attend News in 1986 as one of the Ten son-in-law, Sam Yacovazzi. He the First Annual Conference on Top Women of the year. Mabel is survived by his brother, Larry Women in the Law with several died in her home surrounded by (Hope) Footer, his daughter, Jill classmates. She felt honored to loved ones on April 3. She was Yacovazzi, grandchildren Taylor meet one of the presenters, Ruth preceded in death by her husand Cole Yacovazzi, as well Bader Ginsburg, long before she band, Louis Becker, and her son, as beloved nieces, nephews, became a Supreme Court Judge. David Becker. Interment was at and cousins. Interment was at Following RBG in Atlanta, Ma- Greenlawn Cemetery, ColumBeth Jacob Cemetery. Memobel attended the March for the bus. In Mabel’s memory, please rial contributions may be made ERA in Washington, D.C. in July vote for Democrats. Please to Ohio’s Hospice of Dayton, 1978, along with 100,000 other honor Mabel’s legacy with a do- Jewish Cemeteries of Greater women. Mabel was determined nation to the Southern Poverty Dayton, or the charity of your to live long enough to see the Law Center or the ACLU. choice. passage of the ERA but was comforted by convincing her Delbert I. Footer passed away Lillian Ruth Ohlbaum, age 94 granddaughters to take up the April 14 at the age of 95. He was of Beavercreek, passed away cause. After graduating from a lifelong resident of Dayton, April 5. The beloved wife of law school and passing the bar as he wanted to remain where the late Dr. exam, Mabel cofounded the most of his family resided. Fam- Morton first all-women’s law firm in the ily always came first for Del. He Ohlbaum, she area, Henley, Vaughn, Becker & was a wonderful and devoted is survived Wald, focusing on juvenile and son, father, grandfather, and by daughters family law. uncle. Del served in the Army and sons-inWhile working with families during the Korean Conflict. He law Karen in turmoil, Mabel found her graduated from Pratt Institute and Mitchell calling helping juveniles, which in Brooklyn with a degree in Rashkin, and led to a position as a magisindustrial design. He went on Lori and John trate judge in Montgomery to establish, chair, and teach Westerkamp, and grandchilCounty Juvenile Court, where industrial design at the Dayton dren Lee, Sara, Hannah, Rachel she presided until she retired.

Art Institute before turning to (Alex), and Jacob. Lillian created During her law career, in adindustry as design director for a warm and loving home, and dition to founding the Miami Digitec. He consulted on many she will always be remembered Valley Association of Women projects as well, including an with love. Memorial contribuAttorneys, she volunteered artificial heart, orthoscopic tions may be made to Ohio's at numerous organizations instruments, and remote maHospice of Dayton or the Jewish including the Battered Womchinery for worker safety with Federation of Greater Dayton, en’s Shelter, the Montgomery nuclear materials at Los Alamos. or an animal welfare organizaCounty Citizens Review Board, Del established a scholarship tion of your choice. the Dayton Women’s Network, at Pratt to help aspiring indusChild Advocacy of Ohio, and trial design students. Del will Daybreak. She also developed be greatly missed by his famand presented nursing and the ily and many friends and will

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