The Dayton Jewish Observer, September 2025

With JFNA funding, Federation to in full-time security p. 3 David Moss designs Graceexpands After Meals comic book form director p. 22

THE DAYTON Published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton

September 2025 Elul 5785/Tishri 5786 Vol. 30, No. 1

OBSERVER

The Miami Valley’s Jewish Monthly • daytonjewishobserver.org Giambra

Rosh Hashanah 5786

Address Service Requested Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton 525 Versailles Drive Dayton, OH 45459

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

L’Shanah Tovah!

937-836-1206

To a Sweet New Year

DAYTON

Documentary Oct. 8 next on Israel in Focus series The Jewish Community Relations Council will screen the next documentary in its three-part Israel in Focus series, October 8, at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 18 at the Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture and Education.

Executive produced by Wendy Sachs and Debra Messing and directed by Sachs, the documentary digs into the alarming rise of antisemitism on college campuses, social media, and on the streets in America since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel.

The screening and discussion are free, with a grant from the Esther and DeNeal Feldman Jewish Experience Fund of the Dayton Jewish Foundation.

The Boonshoft CJCE is located at 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. RSVP at jewishdayton.

Briarcliff Entertainment

A still from October 8, by director Wendy Sachs.

org/events. For more information, contact JCRC Director Jeff Blumer at jblumer@jfgd.net or 937610-1555.

Miami Valley Mikvah celebrates founders, 18 years

The women’s pool at the Miami Valley Mikvah Arts..............................35 Calendar............................. 24

The Miami Valley Mikvah will honor its founders, Patti and Lee Schear, Susan and Martin Schear, and Brenda Rinzler, at 5 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 7 at the facility, 600 Sugar Camp Circle, Oakwood.

The Miami Valley Mikvah was established as an entity in 2007; the facility opened in September 2009. A mikvah is a ritual purification bath where observant married Jewish women immerse themselves following their monthly cycle. Mikvahs are also used for conversions to Judaism and for immersion of new kitchenware products. Though not required by Jewish law, some men immerse themselves in the mikvah as a spiritual exercise.

The program includes tours, food, and music, with a grant from the Esther and DeNeal Feldman Jewish Experience Fund of the Dayton Jewish Foundation. RSVP to Devorah Mangel, mvmikvah@gmail.com or 937-643-0770.

Mazel Tov................................. 28 Obituaries...........................37

Opinion.........................23 Religion.......................... 29

Focus on What Matters Most.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

DAYTON

With JFNA funding, Federation expands to full-time security dir.

Retired longtime Centerville Police Officer John Davis will also provide security assessments/emergency plans for any local Jewish Marshall Weiss organizations at their request

By Marshall Weiss, The Observer Jewish Federation Security Director John Davis remembers the Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture and Education being built in Centerville.

When the Federation facility opened in 2002, Davis had already served 10 years as a Centerville Police officer.

"I had worked security details and kept an eye out, and knew the people who were here," he says of the complex, which houses the Federation and its agencies, programs and services.

A decade later, in 2012, Davis took over the department's crime prevention/public education work as its community relations officer. That's when he became the Federation's direct point of contact for security assessments and trainings — for 11 years — until his retirement from the Centerville Police in November 2023.

The Federation hired Davis as its security director on a part-time basis the year after. Now, thanks to funding from Jewish Federations of North America's LiveSecure initiative, Davis' role was expanded to full time on Aug. 25.

"One of the most important things as a security director is that relationship with law enforcement," Davis says. "We want them to know who we are, where we are, know that we support them wholeheartedly, because we want them to support us. Heaven forbid something was to ever happen, I want them to know this building, and getting them in here to know the lay of the land so they can be familiar with it and have a plan in mind before they get here is huge.

"When something's going on, I know the right

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When John Davis was a Centerville Police officer, he was the Jewish Federation's direct point of contact for security assessments and training for 11 years.

person to call, and that comes from 35 years of law enforcement in Montgomery County. I know all of them. And I can speak specifically to Centerville — all its agencies know the importance of the security factor for the Jewish community."

Until last year, the Federation's security was handled by its operations director, Roger Apple. When Apple retired, Federation CEO Cathy Gardner called Davis, then retired from the Centerville Police for a year; he was employed with a local hospital's police force.

"We had an amazing relationship with John," Gardner says. "I called him and said, 'I'm trying to fill this position and would like to find someone like you.' We made an arrangement where he could work part time for us, 10 to 20 hours per week."

Davis, 56, says he was happy to help. "It was humbling to think they were going to put that Continued on Page Four

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It was the same reaction every year. A month before the Jewish New Year, I'd get out the Little Shofar that Could — it came home with one of our kids from a Chabad Shofar Factory program. What a sound it has. Each day, when I went Marshall home for lunch and to let our doggies Weiss out, I'd practice it for Rosh Hashanah at shul. As soon as I brought the shofar out, Rorschach, our older Jack Russell terrier/pit bull, would run and hide. Our other not-as-old doggie, Eliza the hound/ beagle, always stuck around and howled along.

Rorschach didn't make it to Rosh Hashanah last year; she died at 14 and a half in September, surrounded by all the love we lavished on her and all the love she brought to our lives. After the holidays, we adopted a new older dog, Sonya the dachshund/Jack Russell terrier. We learned that she loves challah on Shabbat — and matzah at Passover, even without teeth (Rorschach would run away from matzah, too). When I start practicing the shofar tomorrow, I know what Eliza will do. We'll find out how it goes with "Sonny."

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

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DAYTON

THE DAYTON

7, 2023 Hamas massacre and the Security director Oct. start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Dayton Metro Library supports digital equity.

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PAGE 4

Continued from Page Three Davis is the Federation's point pertrust in me," he says. "I understand son to work with Secure Community the magnitude of the position I have, Network, the safety and security orand the trust people are putting in ganization of the Jewish community me." in North America. SCN is the Jewish Gardner soon realized the Fedcommunity’s official liaison with federation's security needs couldn't be eral law enforcement; it coordinates handled part time. closely with federal, state, and local "Especially with the area we cover, law enforcement partners on safety which is the Jewish congregations and security matters related to the across the Dayton area, Hillel AcadJewish community. emy Jewish day school, and our organization. We applied for and Top priorities were able to secure JFNA's LiveSecure Davis says right away he'll work grant for the full-time position starton sharpening Federation-wide ing in September." emergency plans for all locations LiveSecure is JFNA's $130 million where it presents programming, campaign to ensure the safety and and for local synagogues and Jewish security of Jewish communities across organizations that request it.

North America.

"A lot of the Federation's security The three-year LiveSecure grant measures are my doing and will funds Davis' full-time salary for the continue. We're never done with first year. It provides half of the salthat. Threat environments are always ary funding for the second and third changing. Just when you think years. you've got everything "We have created a task covered, they throw you a force made up of all local curve. You regroup and go Jewish organizations and at it again." synagogues to talk about He notes that emerhow we handle funding gency operation plans down the road, how we will vary among Jewish support this as a commuorganizations. nity," Gardner says. "Be"They've all got their cause it's a given that after own personality. But we the first year, we'll need need to have those good other sources of income." plans in place. Because Jewish Federation CEO The Federation has al- Cathy Gardner that's what we're going ready received LiveSecure to build on. Some of the funding to hire police officers and places have them now. I can certainly security for programs and events. be the resource and guide them, and Davis describes the Federation's try to get them as systemized as we full-time security director position as can." unfortunate but necessary.

Davis also serves as the Jewish "It's a scary world out there for community's resource for threat, vuleveryone," he says. "Not just the Jew- nerability, and risk assessments. ish community. There are so many "All the government security extreme views. And antisemitism is grants that we've applied for and off the charts right now. All those received in the past require a security extremist hate groups have one comassessment, not just of a physical mon enemy — and that's the Jewish area, but of the threats in the area," people. It's dumbfounding to me that Gardner says. "Jewish organizathey all tie back to that." tions, Federations, JCCs all over the In August, the FBI released a report country are experiencing an increase that hate crimes against Jews in the in security personnel at institutions United States reached an all-time and events. John will be in charge of high in 2024, accounting for 70% of assessing what's needed and finding all religiously motivated hate crimes. the appropriate security personnel The report also noted that hate crimes for our organization. And for those against Jews accounted for over 17% who need help, we're able to help of all reported hate crimes in the as well. He'll be responsible for a United States in 2024, a 16% rise from large number of trainings that we 1,998 anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2023 need to go through, everything from to 2,321 in 2024. active shooter trainings to situMore than half of the incidents ational awareness — trainings he's were related to vandalism, with inconducted for our Jewish community timidation the second-largest catego- regularly for years." ry. About 200 were assaults of varying Davis says he's glad Gardner and degrees, and 260 of the total incidents the Federation board found the way took place in synagogues. to expand his Federation security According to the Anti-Defamation work to full time.

League's 2024 Audit of Antisemitic In"And I'm going to do the best I cidents, Ohio's reported total was 233, can for you. One of the best relationa slight drop from 237 in 2023, but ships that came out of my career with still much higher than the 61 reported Centerville was the one I have right incidents in 2022, the year before the here."

OBSERVER daytonjewishobserver.org Editor and Publisher Marshall Weiss mweiss@jfgd.net 937-610-1555 Contributors Rabbi Karen Bodney-Halasz, Martin Gottlieb, 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. 30, No. 1. 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 • SEPTEMBER 2025

DAYTON

JWV program about PTSD

U.S. Air Force Col. (Ret.) Stafford Ouderkirk will talk about trauma and show the 2014 documentary Invisible Scars at Jewish War Veterans Post 587's brunch, 10:30 a.m., Sunday, Sept. 7 at Temple Beth Or. Invisible Scars was produced by the Crosswinds Foundation for Faith & Stafford Ouderkirk Culture, a Christian organization that helps veterans, Gold Star family members, and children navigate trauma, despair, and pain.

The film focuses on military personnel who were suffering mental and emotional trauma such as PTSD from their deployment, combat experience, or separation from family members who had been deployed.

The cost is $10. JWV members and their partners are free.

Temple Beth Or is located at 5275 Marshall Road, Washington Township. RSVP to jwvpost587@gmail.com or to Ira Segalewitz, 937-287-2948.

OSU MeshugaNotes sing for Hadassah

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OSU Hillel MeshugaNotes

Dayton Hadassah presents OSU Hillel's a cappella group, the MeshugaNotes, 2 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 5. Founded in 1999, the "Shugs" sing OSU spirit songs, oldies, current radio music, and classic and contemporary Hebrew songs, all arranged by current or past members.

The venue will be provided with registration, which is required. The cost is $20. Register

by Sept. 29 to events.hadassah. org/DaytonNotes or send a check, payable to Hadassah (indicate MeshugaNotes in the memo line), to Dayton Hadassah, c/o Hadassah Midwest, 900 Skokie Blvd., Suite 295, Northbrook, IL 60062.

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Jewish Family Services director heads East for synagogue work 'How grateful I am,' Tara Feiner says of her 11 years in Dayton It was Tara Feiner's brother, Josh Laster, who urged her to apply for the job — his job.

Josh had been executive director of Congregation Beth El in Voorhees, N.J. for a decade.

This summer, he accepted the executive director position with Congregation Rodeph Shalom, just across the bridge in Philadelphia.

Beth El, he said, would be a perfect fit for Tara.

After more than a decade as executive director of Dayton's Jewish Family Services and an active congregant, board member, and officer with Beth Abraham Synagogue, Tara returns to the Philadelphia area and her family in September.

Her last day with JFS, an agency of Dayton's Jewish Federation, is Aug. 29. Tara's husband, clinical and consulting psychologist Adam Feiner, will follow her in the coming weeks.

"This is a great opportunity," Tara says. "But in the moment here and now, it's hard to say goodbye. Dayton — and Jewish Dayton — has become our home. And has become our family."

The day she and Adam moved to Dayton in 2014 fell on her father's yahrzeit, the date of his death on the Jewish calendar.

"And so we stumbled into Beth Abraham in our jeans and flip-flops, still unpacking boxes, to say Kaddish for my Dad, and never left."

With a master's degree in education and a principal's certificate from her work with the School District of Philadelphia, Tara didn't see Jewish communal work in her future when she arrived in Dayton.

Jewish Federation CEO Cathy Gardner did.

"I have a passion for it," Tara

Marshall Weiss

'The Dayton Jewish community really is a special Jewish community that comes together to support each other,' says departing Jewish Family Services Executive Director Tara Feiner.

says. "I just loved it. Cathy gave me that start. Coming into JFS, my background was in education and strategic planning, writing grants. I did a lot of volunteer work earlier in my career at the Jewish Family and Children's Services in Philly.

And I relied heavily on Jewish Family and Children's Services for the care of grandmothers that my brother and I were responsible for."

During her tenure in Dayton, Tara earned her executive master's degree in Jewish professional studies from Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership in Chicago.

She was also a member of the Leadership Dayton Class of '23, served on the board of Hillel Academy Jewish day school for more than eight years, and on the South Community Behavioral Health Board for the

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last two years.

With JFS, Tara, along with Social Worker Kate Scarpero, Administrative Assistant Jacquelyn Archie, and transportation staff Vincent Gist and Nate Lyons, manage and provide services to between 125 and 140 clients a year.

"I'm usually the first person somebody in the Jewish community calls," Tara says.

"They'll start with me with whatever's going on and I'll do the warm handoff to Kate so that they are with the right person to get them to what they need to be connected with. I know they're in good hands.

I've become close to so many clients and members of the community and partners. What JFS does well is we care deeply about our clients, and we know them well. And we know their patterns."

Like the time a client who used JFS transportation, for example, wasn't ready for her ride; she didn't come to the door as usual.

"But what's not unusual, sometimes people miss their appointments because, given the nature of our clients, they'll be in the hospital and forget to call and cancel the ride. We called the hospitals to see if she was there. Nothing."

JFS then called the client's

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

DAYTON emergency contact, who had a key to her home. With JFS's social worker at the time, the emergency contact entered the client's home.

"It turns out this person had a fall. She was lucid, but had been down quite some time, unable to get up. And she couldn't reach her phone, and she couldn't reach her button.

She survived and thrived."

Check-ins are also a key aspect of JFS's holiday gift bag distribution. Those who receive bags at Rosh Hashanah, Chanukah, and Purim are Jews who live in independent, assisted living, skilled nursing, or memory care facilities.

"If they're not in a facility, that's a case management determination if they're truly isolated," Tara says.

Over the last two or three years, she notes, JFS has seen more case management clients in need of wrap-around services to stay on track, and ongoing advocacy.

"We have seen a significant increase in high-need clients who are really struggling with housing," she says. "Particularly seniors with making ends meet, typically those on fixed incomes or on Medicaid. We've seen an increase in some of our clients who don't keep their IDs current. And once you're out of date for two years, you need extra documentation. For

some of our clients who don't have the capacity and memory, it's very hard to get the documentation to help them stay on their benefits and in their housing."

Tara's work for nearly a decade with Jewish women in the Dayton Correctional Institution has been special to her on a personal level.

When one woman was about to be released, she reached out to Tara.

"She was going to be staying with family in another state, and the prison would only get her to the bus stop. She had a ticket for the airport to get to family. She had a reservation at a motel by the airport.

But she had no way to get there.

"I picked her up when she was released, I took her to breakfast. And she comes out — she hadn't flown since pre-9/11 — with clear trash bags and a box of books. We went to Goodwill, we got her a couple outfits, a rolling bag, a little purse so she would not have to go searching for her ID in her big bag. We shipped the books to her sister and then got her connected with the JFS where she was going. I took her to the library and we started a gmail account so she could have that communication.

"We called TSA because she had her ID from the prison.

'We have seen a significant increase in high-need clients who are really struggling with housing'

And I said, ‘It’s not on their list of approved IDs. I want you to know what to expect, what they’ll ask you, not because you’re a returning citizen, but because they would ask this of anybody.'"

Tara shares her happiness that Mitzvah Missions, a program she brought to JFS, has evolved and flourished since it began as a Jewish community mitzvah day, Dec. 25, 2017.

"It's always 60 to 80 people on the 25th, making almost 200 sack lunches for St. Vincent de Paul, no-sew scarves — we've added hats the last two years — rag dolls, and just coming together."

With Covid, Tara pivoted to a Drive-Thru Mitzvah Mission, collecting frozen casseroles and clothing for St. Vincent de Paul.

Now, it's the in-person Mitzvah Mission each Dec. 25 and three drive-thrus over the year to benefit St. Vincent's and other nonprofit community partners.

"The Dayton Jewish community really is a special Jewish community that comes together to support each other, to make people feel welcome and comfortable," Tara says.

"And not just the Dayton Jewish community, but as a whole.

There’s so much collaboration between organizations that want to support one another to better support community within the social services sector. It really has been a privilege to do what I do to serve our Jewish community, to serve the Dayton community, and to work with everybody here."

— Marshall Weiss

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PAGE 7

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THE REGION

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By Grace Gilson, JTA A Tipp City man pleaded guilty Aug. 15 to a federal hate crime for assaulting two Jewish students at The Ohio State University in November 2023 after asking if they were Jewish.

The Justice Department announced that Timur Mamatov, 20, of Tipp City, had pleaded guilty to violating the Hate Crimes Prevention Act for a Nov. 10, 2023, altercation between him and five OSU students outside of a bar in Columbus.

Prior to the incident, which took place a month after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the group of students yelled something at a food cart vendor, according to court records obtained by The Columbus Dispatch. One of the students was wearing a chai necklace around his neck, according to the Justice Department.

Mamatov and a friend then approached the group and asked the students if they were Jewish. When the students

replied that they were, Mamatov punched one of the victims, fracturing his jaw.

A second victim fractured his nose during the ensuing fight, according to the Justice Department.

“Mamatov admitted in court today that he assaulted victims because they were Jewish,” U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II said in a statement.

“No American should fear being violently attacked based on their religious beliefs.”

In April 2024, StandWithUs, the Anti-Defamation League, and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed a Title VI complaint against OSU accusing the school of failing to properly address “pervasive” antisemitism on its campus after the Oct. 7 attacks.

The complaint alleged that during the November 2023 attack, the assailants had shouted “free Palestine” and called the student wearing the chai necklace a racial slur.

Mamatov was charged on July 3 for violating the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

'No American should fear being violently attacked based on their religious beliefs.'

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

THE REGION

Appeals court upholds verdict in favor of former Butler Co. magistrate who claimed she was fired because she's Jewish The Sixth Circuit Court of the judge and two prosecutors Appeals on Aug. 19 upheld the named in the lawsuit dispar$1 million verdict in favor of a aged her to other employers, former Butler County Common making it difficult for her to Pleas Court magistrate who find work. claimed she was fired because Her lawsuit spun through she's Jewish, the Hamilton the court system where she Journal-News reported. had once worked for the next A U.S. District Court jury in several years.

Cincinnati sided with Kimberly Judges dismissed Edelstein’s Edelstein in the claims against case against one prosecutor Edelstein's Common Pleas and ruled against Court Judge Greg case has cost her appeal of the Stephens in Feb- Butler Co. at least case against the ruary 2023. other. $775,914 in legal Edelstein But they worked as a allowed her fees to date magistrate in religious disButler County crimination claim when she asked her supervisor against Stephens to go forward — Stephens — for eight days to a jury trial, saying there was off during the High Holidays in evidence that could find the 2016, according to the lawsuit judge’s dismissal “at least in she filed in 2017. part” motivated by Edelstein’s “Holy cow, eight days!” desire to observe the Jewish Stephens yelled back at her, ac- holidays. cording to the lawsuit. She was Edelstein’s case has cost fired four days later and claims Butler County at least $775,914

in legal fees to date, according to the Journal-News.

Court filings show that Edelstein accused Stephens, who is also a Baptist pastor, of “extreme Christian” beliefs and of following a doctrine with an “attitude toward Jews,” and also said that his court had made fun of her description of Passover preparations.

In 2019, as her lawsuit was making its way through the courts, Edelstein told the Cincinnati Enquirer she had experienced suicidal thoughts after being unable to find work.

She applied for nearly 200 jobs in the aftermath of her firing but didn’t get any of them, she said, adding that she had resorted to using food pantries to feed her family.

Court documents showed that Jewish Vocational Services, a local nonprofit, was reluctant to help her for fear of litigation.

— JTA & The Dayton Jewish Observer

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THE REGION

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Antisemitic Rally with messages hate-filled scrawled on signs targeting Pleasant Ridge Jews, ADL in sidewalks in Akron suburb Cincinnati Alexa Fisher

Chalk vandalism in Pleasant Ridge.

By Sam Fisher, cincyjewfolk.com Over the weekend of Aug. 16-17, several messages in chalk were found around Cincinnati's Pleasant Ridge neighborhood expressing the antisemitic conspiracy theory that Israel was behind the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The hate messages were found along Montgomery Road and in front of the only kosher restaurant in Pleasant Ridge, Café Alma. More were found across the street on the sidewalk in front of Everybody’s Records and Gaslight Café.

“I saw it in front of the café and washed it off with water, but then was told they were on the entire block from Revolution Rotisserie to the café,” said Lainey Richler, the owner of Café Alma.

Hate activity has increased in Cincinnati over the last two years, since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas massacre and the Israel-Hamas war.

An antisemitic banner was hung on Highway 50, Jewish cemeteries were vandalized, neo-Nazis displayed antisemitic banners over I-75 while attempting to intimidate the community and wearing assault rifles, and KKK and neo-Nazi groups distributed hate flyers in several Cincinnati neighborhoods.

The conspiracy theory that Israel was behind 9/11 has been around for over 20 years and sprang up immediately after the tragic event, according to the AntiDefamation League. “(The graffiti) makes me feel like this once safe bubble I thought I was in has now popped,” said Richler. “Seeing this kind of rhetoric is obviously concerning as a Jewish-owned business that is very active in the broader Pleasant Ridge community.”

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By Lydia Kacala, Akron Jewish News Approximately five people rallied in downtown Hudson, a suburb of Akron, Aug. 23, holding signs that read, “Jews rape kids” and claiming the Anti Defamation League was established “to protect a Jewish child murdering pedophile, Leo Frank,” garnering attention on social media following a post on Facebook.

In the video posted Aug. 23 by Katie Madio, people are wearing masks and holding signs as Madio calls them “Nazis” and “disgusting.” Another sign reads, “Pedophiles get the rope.”

“Today I stood in our downtown Hudson, Ohio, and I was confronted by hate,” Madio wrote on Facebook.

“A group on the corner with hateful signs – White supremacist rhetoric that does not deserve a foothold in our town or in our country. These people do not embody who we are as Americans. I am disgusted that this is happening in our hometown.”

Those at the rally can be heard arguing with Madio in the video, calling her a “pedophile protector” and telling her to “cry, b----.” After Madio says they should be ashamed of themselves and that “this is not our f------ country,” one person responds, “Nobody cares, b----,” and another says, “It is now.”

State Sen. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, responded to the video in an Aug. 23 Facebook post: “To this Nazi bigot and his buddies trying to intimidate my constituents on the Hudson green: Get your hate-filled trash selves out of our town.”

Weinstein, a Hudson resident and congregant of Temple Beth Shalom in Hudson, said he learned of the rally through messages on his social media accounts and texts as he wasn’t in Hudson at the time. People, including his

Screenshot from a video posted Aug. 23 by Katie Madio in Hudson.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

THE REGION wife, Amanda, sent him photos and videos.

“Folks know that when these things happen, I respond quickly once they’re validated,” he said.

According to a report by the Hudson Police Department, multiple calls were received about the protesters at the corner of state Routes 91 and 303.

The first call came in at about 1 p.m., and the department determined the protesters were “within their rights to free speech,” the report read.

Following the initial call, multiple others were made, with people reporting “disgusting” signage. Callers were made aware that an officer was watching the scene to ensure protesters remained “civil.”

Another call came in at about 1:30 p.m. with reports of a physical altercation between a female protester and a male walking his dog. Two witnesses made statements regarding the incident, but no victim or suspect had been identified as of Aug. 25.

Weinstein’s reaction to the rally was a mix of anger and concern for his constituents, he said, adding that “when it’s in your community, it hits differently.”

In response to the increase in antisemitism, Temple Beth Shalom in Hudson has increased its security with new alarms and other features, Rabbi Michael Ross said. He added that the rally reminded him of other

incidents of antisemitism and is not reflective of the city he has grown used to.

“These are outsiders coming to agitate and spread their hate, so it really didn’t seem like anyone we knew,” Ross said. “It seemed completely out of place for Hudson and for the community that I know.”

Weinstein said while many people think ignoring hate and not “giving them the time of day” is the proper approach, he sees things differently.

“I don’t think ignoring it helps,” he said. “I think strength and response helps and hitting it like a hammer

‫ב’’ה‬

in terms of the strength and speed of the response (helps).

So, let them know there’s no daylight here. They’re not welcome here. That message is not welcome here. And, rallying the community — if they see their state senator speaking up, maybe that helps give others the space to speak up themselves. It has to be called out.

It has to be called out strongly and unequivocally.”

Weinstein said that he is thankful to the community for speaking up and speaking out against hate.

“This is not normal,” he said.

“This is not OK. Hate has no home here in our community.

My constituents, Jewish or otherwise, have an ally in me, who will always stand up to bullies like this.”

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THE REGION

Richmond, Ind. Police believe antisemitic swatter also made Walmart bomb threat

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Richmond, Ind. Police believe the swatter who called in a bomb threat that evacuated Richmond's Walmart July 19 is the same individual who, beginning June 24, placed multiple swatting calls claiming to hold Jewish hostages in Richmond, that he was armed with firearms and explosives, and had already killed a hostage.

"We do believe it is the same person and are working both incidents as the same suspect," Richmond Police Maj. Adam Blanton told The Observer via email Aug. 25.

In a July 19 press release, the police stated that the store was evacuated in accordance with Walmart's policy while officers secured the area. The Wayne County Sheriff's Office and Indiana State Police also responded to the threat.

"This threat appears to be connected to a series of false emergency calls made by the same individual, who has already caused significant disruptions and unnecessary law enforcement responses recently," the release said.

It added that during the Walmart swatting call, the suspect told a dispatcher that he wants Richmond Police Chief Kyle Weatherly to say he's sorry for "talking s---" about him.

"I won't be offering an apolhome address and was going to ogy," Weatherly is quoted as kill the chief of police” because saying in the release. "But I the chief supported and prowould be happy to offer a set tected those of the Jewish faith. of handcuffs and I hope I'm the Blanton added that working one who gets to put them on with the FBI and U.S. Attorhim/her." ney's Office, the Richmond PoBlanton said Wayne County lice Department has developed emergency dispatch has a "promising lead." received more than a dozen adIn a July 19 post to its Faceditional swatting calls from the book page, Richmond Police individual who placed the first noted obstacles in the way of antisemitic swatfinding the susting call June 24. Working with pect.

“Essentially, he "Today’s techhad made refer- the FBI and U.S. nology allows ence to the same Attorney's Office, individuals to thing, the exact reroute, and Richmond Police mask, same rhetoric: ‘I encrypt their calls Dept. says it has in ways that make have hostages, I’m upset with identification indeveloped a Jewish people.’ credibly difficult," 'promising lead.' the statement read.

And the same rhetoric based on Blanton said the his girlfriend leaving him for a suspect has made a few more Jewish individual.” calls to emergency dispatch According to Blanton, on ad- since the July 19 Walmart ditional swatting calls through incident, but the department mid-July, the caller said he was hasn't heard from him since holding Jewish hostages at the mid-August.

700 block of East Main Street, "Generally speaking, yes, as he did on the June 24 call. they are swatting in nature," One of those additional calls, Blanton said of the calls, Blanton said, was made from though he added the degree of the McDonald’s at 1725 E. Main antisemitism appeared to be St. in Richmond. less of a topic for the suspect.

On another call, Blanton "Sometimes they are just said, the swatter claimed “he incoherent, obscenity-laced was at the chief of police’s tirades."

— Marshall Weiss

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PAGE 13

THE NATION

Will federal security grants require synagogues to cooperate with ICE? Concerns run high.

By Asaf Elia-Shalev, JTA into conflict.

With $274 million in federal security The unease is heightened by the adgrants about to go up for grabs, dozens ministration’s chaotic rollout with mainof progressive Jewish groups and several stream Jewish organizations working synagogues say they are boycotting the intensely behind the scenes to shape the program. policies while offering a limited public In an open letter launched Aug. 22, response. they said they can’t accept the strings Rising concerns about antisemitic atattached to the money, despite the risk of tacks have sharply increased demand for being targeted with violence. The letter funds distributed by the program, which comes in response to new requirements is run by the Federal Emergency Manthat grantees support federal immigraagement Agency under DHS. Created tion enforcement and avoid programs in 2004 and expanded after the Tree of advancing diversity introduced earlier Life synagogue shooting in 2018, it is the this year by the Department of Homemain federal source of money for houses land Security. of worship and nonprofits to bolster “We are committed to upholding our protection against terrorism and hatecommunal values and will not comply motivated violence. with these repressive conditions,” reads The grants can cover things like the letter. cameras, alarm and alert systems, hired The letter arrives as guards, fencing and barJCPA riers, or screening tools some Jewish leaders press those in need of funds such as metal detectors. to apply, arguing that They are meant to help objections may be settled nonprofits deemed at before recipients must high risk of terrorist formally agree to the or extremist violence conditions. strengthen both physical Many of the signatories and digital security. are progressive groups, Amy Spitalnick, CEO including Bend the Arc: of the Jewish Council Jewish Action and profor Public Affairs, shares Palestinian groups such many of the concerns as IfNotNow and Jewish raised by groups to her Voice for Peace. left but is still urging But they also include congregational rabbis a handful of nonpartisan and lay leaders to apply. synagogues. Other syna- Jewish Council for Public Affairs Submitting applications CEO Amy Spitalnick gogues independently now, she says, gives have also decided to boycommunities time before cott the program as long as the controdeciding whether to accept the funds versial conditions are in place.

— time in which the Trump administra“Jewish safety requires inclusive tion could yet rescind the controversial democracy and inclusive democracy conditions. requires Jewish safety. We do not comply “There is a deadline by which they so we will not apply,” Jill Maderer, have to apply, and the terms and condithe senior rabbi at Rodeph Shalom in tions only kick in if you accept the fundPhiladelphia, posted on Facebook. She ing, so there is still time,” she said. declined to be interviewed.

On the conditions concerning immiMeanwhile, one rabbi, facing what he gration enforcement, the Trump admindescribed as a choice between his conistration might have already retreated, gregation’s safety and his sacred obligaa development that isn’t yet widely tions, said he wishes to speak out. But he understood in part because of confusagreed to discuss the matter only anonying and contradictory messaging by the mously, fearing that public protest could administration. endanger two community members who Since April, those closely observing are refugees. the DHS communications have been “Money is being given to us on condiwhiplashed by conflicting directives, tion that we violate a specific mitzvah,” first exempting synagogues from immithe rabbi said, referring to the religious gration enforcement rules, then suggestcommandment to welcome strangers. ing those rules still apply.

“I don’t see how we can possibly accept DHS had unveiled conditions that that money.” were said to apply to all DHS funding, Anxiety over the Nonprofit Security part of a broader Trump administration Grant Program, which Jewish groups effort to wield the federal bureaucracy have long sought to expand, represents for political purposes. the latest instance of some American Soon after, 20 states filed a lawsuit Jews saying that Trump administration arguing that it is illegal to condition govpolicies force their priorities and values ernment funding on assisting with fed-

PAGE 14

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

THE NATION eral immigration enforcement, handled through the agency known as ICE. One immediate impetus for the lawsuit was the worry that the Trump administration would withhold disaster recovery funds from victims of the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles earlier this year.

In a June 6 filing, federal lawyers defended the immigration-related conditions by saying they wouldn’t be applied to a range of grant programs including the one for securing nonprofits.

Then, in late July, DHS appeared to confirm the exception when it gave official notice for this year’s nonprofit security grants.

The relief was shortlived because about two weeks later, on Aug. 13, DHS released another notice featuring new language that seemed to contradict the earlier exemption. The notice said the immigration conditions “may be material to the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to make this grant award, and the Department of Homeland Security may take any remedy for noncompliance.”

Spitalnick, whose team has been tracking the issue for months, communicating regularly with federal and state officials, said she was told the latest lan-

B''H

guage is a mistake that will be corrected in a forthcoming notice.

She acknowledged how dizzying the bureaucracy can be for prospective applicants.

“We have heard extensive confusion and concern from national, state, and local Jewish and interfaith partners,” she said.

To clear things up — and because rules against diversity and inclusion work are firmly in place — Spitalnick sent a letter Aug. 22 pleading with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

“The Jewish community is incredibly diverse — from LGBTQ+ Jews, to Jews of Color, to immigrant and refugee Jews,” she wrote to Noem.

“Many synagogues and Jewish institutions host programs and services to engage and support these vital parts of our community, as well as to support and advance core Jewish values of justice, charity, and equity with our neighbors and in our broader communities and society.”

The letter continues, “Our communities desperately rely on this security funding — and they need clarity that what they are agreeing to in accepting these funds won’t force them to override Continued on Page 28

'We have heard extensive confusion and concern from national, state, and local Jewish and interfaith partners.'

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A conservative curriculum has been approved for public schools in eight states. What does PragerU teach kids about Israel and Jews?

By Hannah Feuer The Forward A conservative educational nonprofit that touts its JudeoChristian pro-Israel bonafides is now the creator behind a White House museum exhibit, a test for incoming teachers in Oklahoma, and approved curriculum in at least eight states’ public schools.

The curriculum from Prager University includes crafting Israel’s Iron Dome out of a juice pouch and straw in a lesson designed for kindergarten through second grade, animated videos telling biblical stories, and a video for sixth graders titled How To Be a Rational Patriot that says, “It’s not fine to tell people that America is evil.”

PragerU, named for its co-founder Dennis Prager, built its brand on viral videos

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PragerU co-founder Dennis Prager speaks at AmericaFest, Phoenix, Ariz., Dec. 19, 2023.

promoting conservative viewpoints. What began as edgy social media content has now earned the support of government officials.

In June, the Department of Education partnered with PragerU to create a White House exhibit featuring what appear to be AI-generated videos of the Founding Fathers.

In July, Oklahoma’s superintendent announced the state

would give incoming teachers from New York and California an “America First” test developed by PragerU to keep “social justice warriors” out of its schools.

‘The Jewish Billy Graham’

The top three executives at PragerU — co-founders Dennis Prager and Allen Estrin and CEO Marissa Streit — are all Jewish.

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THE NATION instead. (PragerU is not an Prager, a 77-year-old talk accredited university and does show host on a Christian radio not confer any degrees.) station, was raised in a ModSome of the nonprofit’s bigern Orthodox household and gest donors include brothers attended yeshivas until the Dan and Farris Wilks, hydrauage of 19. He got his start as a lic fracking billionaires who national spokesperson for the have been closely linked to the Student Struggle for Soviet Christian nationalist movement Jewry, raising awareness for in Texas.

Soviet Jews denied permisOver the years, Prager — sion to emigrate to Israel, and both the person and the platleading the Brandeis-Bardin form — has been the subject Institute, a summer retreat for of controversy. In 2006, Prager Jews in Simi, Calif. said the first Muslim elected to Prager soon became a Congress, Keith Ellison, should fixture on Los Angeles local give up his post radio, known PragerU's latest for wanting to for his social annual report says be sworn in on conservatism a Quran instead and critiques of the platform had of a Bible — a secularism — 21 million unique comment that qualities that drew a rebuke earned him the visitors in 2024 from the Holonickname “the caust Memorial Jewish Billy Council, where Prager served Graham,” a reference to the on the board. famed televangelist.

In 2020, he said on his radio In 2009, he co-founded show that “it’s idiotic you can’t PragerU with Estrin as a counsay the N-word.” terweight to what they saw PragerU’s most controversial as the excesses of the left in videos include Christopher higher education.

Columbus saying, “Being taken They originally considered as a slave is better than being creating a brick-and-mortar killed, no? I don’t see the probuniversity, but settled on lem,” and Frederick Douglass, producing short-form videos

the abolitionist, saying, “I’m certainly not OK with slavery, but the Founding Fathers made a compromise to achieve something great: the making of the United States.”

That version of history likely appeals to President Donald Trump, who in August said the Smithsonian Institution was focusing too much on “how bad slavery was.”

PragerU’s latest annual report says the platform had 21 million unique visitors in 2024, with millions of views of its videos daily.

a "God Bless America” Christmas ornament.

Some of the content integrates commentary about Israel. An animated video for middle and high schoolers, Shira Prays for Peace, features an Israeli girl who will soon serve in the Israel Defense Forces and plays soccer with her best

‘We bring doctrines to children’

PragerU launched its children’s educational division, PragerU Kids, in 2021. The content features educational videos on historical figures like Theodore Herzl and Golda Meir, biblical lessons about Gideon, David and Goliath, and Moses, as well as stories about Queen Esther and the Maccabees.

It also includes hands-on art projects, such as creating a “12 Tribes of Israel Tree,” building a model of the Western Wall using sugar cubes, and crafting

Rabbi Leibel Agar

friend, a Muslim girl named Yasmin. The narrator says “Israel is the only country in the Middle East that does not oppress its minority populations.”

In 2021, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even tweeted a PragerU video, Israel: Continued on Page 18

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THE NATION

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Dennis Prager at an event titled Health, Wealth & Happiness, Tempe, Ariz., Feb. 8, 2023.

PragerU

PragerU content approved for Louisiana and South Carolina also includes Continued from Page 17 Holocaust education. Some of that conThe World’s Most Moral Army. The video tent is straightforward, for example the claims the Israel Defense Forces “does 5-minute video, What was the Holocaust? more to safeguard the rights of civilians But other content applies the Holocaust in a combat zone than any other army in to today’s politics. the history of warfare.”

In Louisiana and South Carolina, one In 2023, Florida became the first state of the approved videos to “contextualize to approve use of PragerU in its schools. World War II and the Holocaust” inThe approval meant teachers wouldn’t cludes Is Fascism Right or Left? featuring have to seek permission to use PrageDinesh D’Souza — an incendiary critic rU’s content in the classroom, but it is of President Barack Obama who was unclear how many teachers integrated it pardoned by Trump in 2018 for making into their curriculums. Last year, a local illegal campaign contributions. D’Souza Florida news station could not find a concludes the video by saying, “Fascism single school district that said they were bears a deep kinship to the ideology of using the content. today’s left.”

A PragerU spokesperson wrote in a Among PragerU’s advertised Holostatement to the Forward that “since our caust education resources is a video for resources are not required and educaeighth graders and high schoolers titled tors and parents can use them at their Israel at War. The video features Prager own discretion, there is no way for us himself in a fireside chat, with a section to measure how many teachers and of the video titled Israel ‘occupation’ is a schools are using them.” lie. The video also includes a message Still, PragerU Kids has continued to from Prager to liberals. gain traction as a supplemental option.

“You are voting the opposite of what Idaho, South Carolina, Louisiana, Okla- you believe,” Prager says. “You are homa, and Texas soon followed Florida, damaging our country and the West by making PragerU content available to doing that.” teach civics, history and more.

The video description also includes Both Alaska and New Hampshire ap- a link to sign a petition “to condemn proved the use of PragerU’s content to Hamas and stand with Israel.” teach financial literacy. Montana went a Prager has not denied the political nastep further, signing a textbook licensing ture of PragerU. At a Moms for Liberty agreement with PragerU. Convention in 2023, he said, “We bring And Oklahoma will now give incom- doctrines to children. That’s a very fair ing teachers from some blue states a statement. I said, ‘But what is the bad of 50-question multiple-choice assessment our indoctrination?’” developed by PragerU. Critics argue lessons like those from That test includes questions about PragerU erase Palestinian perspectives “which chromosome pairs determine while injecting ideology into public biological sex” and “why freedom schools. of religion is important to America’s “PragerU’s materials are hyperpartiidentity.” (The correct answer to the san to the point of propaganda, inaclatter appears to be “It protects religious curate, and incredibly substandard,” choice from government control,” which Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona a test taker must choose over “It limits Education Association, told The Washingreligious teaching in public life.”) ton Post.

“There is no better example of a “It’s not just an alternate reality to curriculum that rips the soul out of the what the existing curriculum is saying, liberal takeover of our schools than but an alternative to almost any mainproviding PragerU to every Oklahoma stream source of information,” John student,” Oklahoma superintendent Rogers, director of UCLA’s Institute for Ryan Walters said in PragerU’s 2024 an- Democracy, Education, and Access, told nual report.

NBC News.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

September 2025 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 10AM - 12PM JFS Drive-Thru Mitzvah Mission WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 5:30 - 7PM Community Situational Awareness Training

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 6:30 - 9PM Israel in Focus: A Three-Part Documentary Series

Connect with us! Check out our events.

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

Thursday, September 18, 6:30PM

Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture & Education 525 Versailles Drive, Centerville, OH 45459

October 8 (2025) A gripping exposé on rising antisemitism in America after 10/7, spotlighting student activism, social media, and the Jewish student experience on U.S. campuses.

Thursday, October 16, 6:30PM

A Three-Part Documentary Series continues.

Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture & Education 525 Versailles Drive, Centerville, OH 45459

This powerful series features film screenings and discussions exploring the events of 10/7 — a day that forever altered the course of Israeli history and impacted the lives of Jews around the world.

Torn (2025) A thought-provoking look at how NYC streets became a battleground over “KIDNAPPED” posters — exploring identity, empathy, and freedom of expression post-10/7.

Made possible by a grant from the Esther and DeNeal Feldman Jewish Experience Fund No charge. RSVP online at jewishdayton.org/events.

Questions? Contact Jeff Blumer at jblumer@jfgd.net.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

PAGE 19

September 2025 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

Guest Speaker Dr. Miri Bar-Halpern

2025 ANNUAL MEETING

of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton & its Agencies

Congratulations to our 2025 Award Winners!

JCC Volunteer of the Year Judy Chesen (left) with JCC Chair Elissa Dinsmore

Past Presidents Award Recipient Felix Garfunkel (left) with JFGD Past President Heath Gilbert

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JFS Volunteer of the Year Helen Markman (left) with JFS Executive Director Tara Feiner

Robert A. Shapiro Award recipient Irvin Moscowitz (left) with JFGD Past President Bruce Feldman

JCRC Volunteer of the Year Jennifer Holman (left) with JCRC Chair Bonnie Beaman Rice

Jack Moss Creativity Award Recipients “Moshe’s Cosmic Burritos” Hillel Academy Destination Imagination Team 2025 with Stephen Levinson and Meredith Moss Levinson

(Left to right) JFGD President Dan Sweeny, Community Volunteers Melissa Sweeny and Elaine Bettman, with Joe & Elaine Bettman Tzadik Award Recipients Burt and Alice Saidel

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

September 2025 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

Rosh Hashanah Apple Picking Sunday, September 14, 3 – 5PM Tuken’s Orchard & Farm Market 15725 Dayton Eaton Pike, West Alexandria, 45381

Down on the Farm Sunday, October 5, 5:30 – 7:30PM Candlebrook Farms 3269 Ferry Road, Bellbrook, 45305

PJ Library joins Beth Abraham Synagogue to celebrate Rosh Hashanah. Learn about the holiday and pick your favorite apples to dip in honey!

Enjoy a evening Down on the Farm!

No cost.

RSVP at jewishdayton.org/events by September 12.

No cost. RSVP at jewishdayton.org/events by October 3.

To register, visit jewishdayton.org/events Questions? Please contact Kate Elder at kelder@jfgd.net

To register, visit jewishdayton.org/events Questions? Please contact Kate Elder at kelder@jfgd.net

AUDITIONS

Sunday, September 28, 2 – 5PM & Monday, September 29, 5:30 – 8PM At The Boonshoft CJCE 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville, 45459

BBYO creates lifelong friendships, with a 101-year history of providing fun and meaningful experiences to Jewish teens in 8-12 grade. When your teen joins this amazing organization, they'll have an opportunity to be a part of a tight-knit group of local friends and a community of teens from across the globe. All they have to do is join, and they'll be able to create and participate in exclusive leadership programming and events throughout the school year.

If you are interested in joining, please visit BBYO.org/join or contact Jennifer Holman at jholman@jfgd.net or 937-401-1550!

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

Children in grades 3–12 should prepare a one-minute segment of a Broadway song. If your child is interested in the role of Joseph, please ensure they are familiar with the song Close Every Door.

Please wear comfortable clothing, as participants will also learn a basic dance routine. All who audition will be cast in a role.

Performance dates: February 21 – 22, 2026 | Program fee: $225 Please contact Jennifer Holman at 937-401-1550 or jholman@jfgd.net, or visit jewishdayton.org/youth-theatre-auditions to schedule an audition.

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September 2025 JEWISH FEDERATION of GREATER DAYTON & ITS AGENCIES

Legacies, Tributes, & Memorials JFS

FEDERATION

JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER DAYTON ENDOWMENT FUND In memory of Ken Elbaum Angela Balderson

JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES In memory of Jeremy Watts Cathy Gardner

HOLOCAUST PROGRAMMING FUND In memory of Natalie Katz Kathy and Mark Gordon JOE BETTMAN MEMORIAL TZADIK AWARD In memory of Rabbi Larry Karol Jean and Todd Bettman Elaine Bettman JCC

JOAN & PETER WELLS & REBECCA LINVILLE FAMILY CHILDREN & YOUTH FUND In memory of Rabbi Larry Karol In memory of Jeremy Watts Joan and Peter Wells CAROLE RABINOWITZ CAMP FUND In honor of Felix Garfunkel receiving the Past Presidents Award In honor of Burt and Alice Saidel receiving the Joe and Elaine Bettman Tzadik Award In honor of Irvin Moscowitz receiving the Robert A. Shapiro Award Bernie Rabinowitz

Did you know you can honor a friend or family member through a Legacy, Tribute or Memorial?

A donation to one of the Jewish Foundation's many endowment funds benefits our Jewish community while honoring a loved one. For more information, please contact Janese R. Sweeny, Esq. CFRE, at 937-401-1542.

JAZZ Thursday, September 4, 6:30 – 9PM Levitt Pavilion 134 South Main Street, Dayton, 45402 Join the JCC Boomers at the Levitt Pavilion for an End of Summer Evening of Smooth Jazz featuring the music of Jesse “J.T. Jazz” Thompson.

Concert starts at 7PM. Look for your Boomers Friends!

Bring your own chairs, blankets, food, and drinks (NO GLASS).

No cost. Some food and drinks are available for purchase at the venue. Or carry out to support nearby restaurants!

mitzvah

mission

Registration recommended by September 3 to jewishdayton/events or contact Stacy Emoff at semoff@jfgd.net or 937-610-5513.

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mitzvah Jewish Family Services mission OF GREATER DAYTON

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Sunday, September 7, 10AM – 12PM The Boonshoft CJCE • 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville, 45459 Family Services Approved Provider #RCS032101 Sponsored By:

Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley

Family Services Association

Graceworks Lutheran Services

Jewish Family Services of Greater Dayton

Join us for the 2025 Summer Series Virtual Workshops! The series is sponsored by Jewish Family Services of Greater Dayton, Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley, Family Services Association, and Graceworks Lutheran Services. Each session provides licensed social workers and counselors with 3 CEUs. Clinical Supervision & Artificial Intelligence: The Good, the Bad, and the Unknowns September 12, • 8:45AM – NOON • 3.0 CEUs

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Back by popular demand, JFS is hosting another Drive-Thru Mitzvah Mission! Help us feed guests at St. Vincent de Paul’s shelters with frozen casseroles and provide high-need items for Crayons to Classrooms.

JFS will take your donations and provide you with a sweet treat in return.

If you have questions, please contact Jacquelyn Archie, JFS administrative assistant, at jarchie@jfgd.net or at 937-610-1555. RSVP online at jewishdayton.org/events by September 5.

High-Need Items for Crayons to Classrooms: Pencils, crayons, markers, highlighters, colored pencils, glue sticks, kid scissors, pencil sharpeners, dry erase markers, and one-subject notebooks.

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

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

OPINION

Jew vs. Jew rhetoric breaks hearts in bitter internal debate about Gaza war

— played out last Aug. 10 in London at a rally in support of the Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Two rabbis, representing Great Britain’s version of the Reform movement, were jeered off the stage after they condemned both Hamas and the Israeli politicians whose “rhetoric” they said had made it harder to bring the hostages home.

Israel, the Jewish conversation

By Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA “Like thousands of Jews in has shifted. Jews who have tak- Israel and around the world, as After weeks of mounting en to social media to condemn pressure on Israel to address leaders of Progressive Judareports of a humanitarian crisis Hamas, anti-Israel protesters, ism, we express our fears about and the colleges and politicians policy in Gaza and the Jewish in Gaza, with longtime allies they say have enabled antisemi- extremist violence we see in the lining up to condemn the govtism are now turning on fellow West Bank,” Rabbis Charley ernment or recognize a PalesJews — and not just anti-Zionist Baginsky and Josh Levy said, tinian state, the largest Jewish Jews, who if anything united federation in the United States or tried to say, in their speech. the mainstream in a common took a newsmaking step.

“It is doing lasting damage to UJA-Federation of New York disdain.

Israel, its standing in the world, The current conversation pits and the prospects of secure said it would allocate $1 million fierce defenders of Israel and to IsraAID, a humanitarian orpeace for all Israelis and Palesthe war in Gaza against what ganization in Israel that would tinians.”

Rabbi Donniel Hartman, the provide clean water, medicine, Ironically, the event was president of the Shalom Hartand food to be delivered to pitched as a demonstration of man Institute, calls the “trouthose hungry in Gaza.

Jewish unity. “We are com“Understanding that Hamas bled committed” — Jews who ing together, regardless of our support Israel and have debears ultimate responsibility differences, for one purpose: for this conflict does not negate fended the war to rout Hamas to stand for the hostages,” the that civilians in Gaza are facing and bring home the hostages, Board of Deputies of British but are deeply troubled by the desperate conditions,” UJA Jews tweeted before the march reports of hunger, the extent CEO Eric Goldstein wrote in began. of the destruction in Gaza, and a letter Aug. 8 announcing the Leaders of the international the enormous death toll among Reform and allocation. non-combatants there.

Jewish Federations aren’t in Progressive JudaThe acrimony between the the habit of donating to Palesism movement two camps is seen on social tinians, especially in wartime, expressed their media and in everyday conver- dismay over such and blowback from some givsations, where calls for showing a public display ers and critics was inevitable. compassion to the Gazans are “Not everyone agrees on what of internal disshould be done, or how,” Gold- met with accusations of naivete, cord. hypocrisy, and shirking responstein wrote.

“Particularly sibilities to fellow Jews.

That may have been an at a time when The discourse is fraying a understatement. In the Facethe Jewish people book comments accompanying community already feeling are experiencdemoralized by rising antisemi- ing so many challenges from the announcement, following tism and what two Boston-area beyond our community, we are a scattering of positive reactrauma therapists — Miri Bartions, the conversation turned especially pained by such ofHalpern and Jaclyn Wolfman vitriolic. fensive and intolerant behavior — call “traumatic invalidation” from fellow Jews,” they wrote “Can you imagine Jews in — when outsiders deny Jews’ WWII starting a campaign for in a joint statement. “There is Germans, in the midst of a war? emotional pain and even their more than one way to be Jewright to express it.

This is obscene.” ish, more than one way to love “We are caught up in these “Why, nobody would ever Israel, and more than one way rigid political and ideological help us.” to achieve the goal of fulfilling “Not one more dime for you camps that define and segregate the mitzvah of pidyon sh’vuim us from one another as if we’ve (bringing home the hostages)...

UJA-Federation of New York.

What about our hostages?????” shattered into multiple tribes Our shared future depends on “The UJA-Federation of New again,” wrote Alana Zeitchik, our ability to hold our differYork has committed a profound who advocates for Jewish peoences with dignity, to listen plehood as executive director of even when we disagree, and to act of moral confusion. In alThe Narrow Bridge Project, in a remain in relationship despite locating $1 million to provide recent JTA op-ed. “I find myself our divisions.” aid to Gaza through IsraAID, calling out: Don’t you get that the organization has chosen Such schisms have some in we are at war with ourselves? fashionable sentiment over its despair over the war’s toll on And we have to find a way to founding purpose. This repreJudaism itself. sents charity as moral preening, put the pieces back, perhaps to “My connection to Judaism is create something new, or we divorced from Jewish interests almost gone. Even though I’ve will not survive.” and survival.” been living in Israel almost my Tension between the two Nearly two years into the entire adult life. Even though war launched on Oct. 7, 2023 by committed camps — the I’ve dedicated all my studying the Hamas attacks on southern troubled and the untroubled and all my professional work

to Jewish education and activism and thought,” wrote Elana Sztockman, a Jewish feminist author and educator in Israel.

“I’ve done all that. My entire life. And today, I have zero interest in being connected Jewishly. I feel like we have lost our moral core. Lost our ability to claim that we are some kind of good people, chosen people.”

Sentiments like hers suggest that the current Jewish disagreements are not just political, but deeply tied up in what it means to be Jewish.

Those calling for compassion and ending the war commonly express themselves in religious terms. A letter signed by 1,000 rabbis and other Jewish leaders, urging Israel to allow extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza, called on Netanyahu “in the name of the sanctity of life, of the core Torah values that every person is created in God’s image, that we are commanded to treat every human being justly, and that, wherever possible, we are required to exercise mercy and compassion.”

The letter warned that the current course of the war risks “the moral reputation not just of Israel, but of Judaism itself, the Judaism to which our lives are devoted.”

Critics of such calls for mercy also invoke Judaism and tradition, and suggest that in order to protect Jews from further attacks and free the hostages, Jewish security trumps compassion.

“Jewish history, with its long memory of persecution, demands recognition of the necessity of self-defense,” Mitch Danzig, an attorney and past president of the pro-Israel group Stand With Us in San Diego, wrote in response to a local Jewish politician’s despair about the “brutality” of the Gaza war. “It teaches that liberty cannot coexist with tyranny, and that protecting innocent life sometimes requires dismantling the forces that would destroy it.

Judaism is not a pacifist faith — it understands the concept of a ‘just war.’”

In a social media post on Aug. 13, as it did in its first announcement of the allocation, UJA-Federation emphasized that Hamas is responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,

Such schisms have some in despair over the war's toll on Judaism itself.

So, what do you think?

and that Israel is being unfairly blamed as international support erodes.

To counter that, according to the post, and to support a government strategy to ensure aid bypasses Hamas, the Federation is working with IsraAID, which has more than 20 years’ experience in 60 countries, delivering aid effectively in high-risk environments, and is working in conjunction with the Israeli army to deliver the aid in Gaza.

“This funding helps advance Israel’s strategic objectives while safeguarding its international standing,” read the post.

In addition, UJA-Federation, like some of its critics, framed its position in terms of Jewish tradition and values. (The organization, which distributed more than $250 million in 2024, is a supporter of 70 Faces Media, JTA's parent company.)

“We must hold tight to what has always anchored the Jewish people: the belief that all human life is sacred,” said Goldstein, referencing a theological concept, known in Hebrew as b'tzelem Elokim, which posits that all human beings are created in the image of God. Goldstein went on to quote an op-ed by Dani Dayan, the former Israeli diplomat who heads the Yad Vashem Holocaust authority: “There are many men, women, and children (in Gaza) with no connection to terrorism who are experiencing devastation, displacement, and loss. Their anguish is real, and our moral tradition obligates us not to turn away from it.”

Commenters objecting to the UJA-Federation allocation also invoked Jewish tradition and values. One Facebook commentator referenced the introspective period ahead of the High Holidays, which commenced Aug. 25 with the beginning of the Hebrew month of Elul.

“As we enter the month of Elul, I suggest that UJA New York make a cheshbon hanefesh (soul searching) and see if this money is being spent in the best place for Kol Yisrael (all of Israel),” they wrote.

Igal Hecht, an Israeli-Canadian filmmaker, complained that the UJA-Federation statement was “dripping with the empty clichés of ‘Torah values’ trotted out only when they want to justify helping those who seek our destruction. Our Torah also teaches how to deal with Continued on Page 29

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 • SEPTEMBER 2025

PAGE 23

15-18 hours per week BOOKKEEPER Beth Abraham Synagogue is seeking a dependable, highly-organized individual for a 15-18 hours per week bookkeeper (flexible schedule). This position involves financial data entry, record-keeping and report preparation, as well as general office administrative tasks. Strong customer relations skills for interacting with our congregational community, database experience and proficiency in MS Office Suite are essential.

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Commercial HVAC & Refrigeration Kettering, Ohio 45429 • 937-604-2049 Tim Crafton, Owner • storchvacr@gmail.com Wishing You A Happy New Year

PAGE 24

CALENDAR Classes

Beth Jacob Classes: w. Rabbi Agar on Zoom. Tuesdays, 7 p.m.: Torah Tuesdays. Thursdays, 7 p.m.: Thursdays of Thought. Call to register, 937274-2149.

Chabad Classes: Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m.: Talmud Class in person & Zoom. Call for Zoom link & location. Fridays, 9:30 a.m.: Women’s Class.

Call for location, 937-643-0770.

2001 Far Hills Ave, Oakwood. chabaddayton.com.

Temple Israel Classes: Tues., Sept. 2, 9, 16, 30, noon: Talmud Study in person & Zoom.

Wed., Sept. 3, 10, 17, 10 a.m.: Weekly Torah Commentary w.

Rabbi Bodney-Halasz in person & Zoom. For Zoom info., email info@tidayton.org. Fri., Sept. 5, 11 a.m.: Living w. Loss. Thurs., Sept. 11, 3:30 p.m.: Living w.

Ambiguous Loss. Saturdays, 9:15 a.m.: Virtual Torah Study on Zoom. For Torah Study Zoom info., email Fran Rickenbach, franwr@gmail.com. tidayton.org/calendar. 130 Riverside Dr., Dayton. RSVP to

937-496-0050.

Children/Youths

Chabad Ckids Rosh Hashanah Shofar Sound Lab: Sun., Sept. 21, 4 p.m. Free. For more info., email Rabbi Levi, rabbilevi@chabaddayton.com.

Optional dinner to follow. RSVP at chabaddayton.com/calendar.

2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood.

937-643-0770.

JCC Youth Theatre Auditions: Sun., Sept. 28, 2 p.m.-5 p.m. & Mon., Sept. 29, 5:30 p.m.-8 p.m. Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. $225. 3rd-12th grade.

Sign up at jewishdayton.org/ events. Rehearsals begin Oct. 5 (Show dates, Feb. 21-22).

For more info., contact Jennifer Holman, jholman@jfgd. net. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. 937610-1555.

Family

Hillel Academy’s Tiny Tinkerers: Sun., Sept. 7, 10 a.m.

Parents & young children are invited for STEM learning.

Contact Meryl Hattenbach,

mhattenbach@daytonhillel.org, for info., & RSVP. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood.

Temple Israel Apple Picking at Monnin’s Farm: Sun., Sept.

7, 2 p.m. RSVP by Sept. 2 at tidayton.org/calendar. Monnin’s Farm, 8201 Frederick Pike, Dayton.

Beth Abraham Rhythm ‘N’ Ruach: Fri., Sept. 12, 5:306:15 p.m. 305 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood. 937-293-9520.

PJ Library Rosh Hashanah Apple Picking: Sun., Sept.

14, 3 p.m. Free. In partnership w. Beth Abraham. For info., contact Kate Elder, kelder@ jfgd.net. RSVP by Sept. 12 at jewisdayton.org/events.

Tuken’s Orchard & Farm Market, 15725 Eaton Pike, West Alexandria.

Adults

Temple Israel Sacred Stitching: Tues., Sept. 2, 16, 30, 11 a.m. Make items for donation w. JCRC’s Upstander initiative. For info., email Alexandria King, garyuzzking@hotmail. com. 130 Riverside Dr., Day-

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

CALENDAR ton. 937-496-0050.

JCC Boomers Jazz at the Levitt Pavilion: Thurs., Sept.

4, 6:30 p.m. Free. Smooth Jazz w. Jesse “J.T. Jazz” Thompson. Food & drink at own cost. For info., contact Stacy Emoff, semoff@jfgd. net. RSVP at jewishdayton. org/events. Levitt Pavilion, 134 S. Main St., Dayton. 937-6101555.

JWV Post 587 Brunch: Sun., Sept. 7, 10:30 a.m. $10. USAF Col. (Ret.) Stafford Ouderkirk, PTSD, screening of Invisible Scars. Free for JWV members & their partners. RSVP to jwvpost587@gmail.com or Ira Segalewitz, 937-287-2948.

Temple Beth Or, 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. Community Situational Awareness Training: Wed., Sept. 10, 5:30 p.m. Free.

Registration required by Sept.

8 at jewishdayton.org/events.

For more info., contact John Davis, jdavis@jfgd.net. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. 937-610-1555.

Temple Israel’s So a Rabbi Walks into a Bar: Wed., Sept.

17, 6 p.m. First round on Rabbi Bodney-Halasz. Eudora Brewing Company, 3022 Wilmington Pike, Kettering. 937-496-0050.

JCRC's Israel in Focus Three-Part Documentary Series: Thurs., Sept. 18, 6:30 p.m. Free. October 8. For info., contact Jeff Blumer, jblumer@ jfgd.net. RSVP by Sept. 12 at jewishdayton.org/events. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. 937-610-1555.

Theatre

Beavercreek Community Theatre presents Parade: Through Sept. 7. $16.20-$20.

3868 Dayton-Xenia Rd., Beavercreek. bctheatre.org.

Community

JFS Drive Thru Mitzvah Mission: Sun., Sept. 7, 10 a.m.-noon. Collecting items for Crayons to Classrooms. For info., contact Jacquelyn Archie, jarchie@jfgd.net. RSVP at jewishdayton.org/events. Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles, Dr., Centerville. 937-610-1555.

Miami Valley Mikvah Chai 18 Celebration: Sun., Sept.

7, 3 p.m. For more info., or to RSVP, email Devorah Mangel, devorahleah@chabaddayton. com. Miami Valley Mikvah, 600 Sugar Camp Cir., Oakwood.

Collaborative Selichot Service: Sat., Sept. 13, 8:30 p.m.

Dessert reception followed by service. At Temple Beth Or. W. Beth Abraham Synagogue, Temple Israel & the Dayton Jewish Chorale. In person or livestream. 5275 Marshall Rd., Wash. Twp. 937-435-3400.

Rosh Hashanah

Chabad Rosh Hashanah Market: Thurs., Sept. 18, 5-7:30 p.m. Preorder at chabaddayton.com/calendar. 2001 Far Hills Ave., Oakwood. 937-6430770.

Chabad Rosh Hashanah Dinner: Mon., Sept. 22, 7 p.m. $40 adults, $12.50 kids 5-12.

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

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

PAGE 25

We don't say we bring you excellent journalism.

They do.

Jewish Cemeteries projectGrace gets After big boost $450K David Moss designs Meals with in comic bookmatching form p. 22 gift p. 2

THE DAYTON

OBSERVER

The Miami Valley’s Jewish Monthly • daytonjewishobserver.org Marshall Weiss

The Ohio Society of Professional Journalists Awards has named The Dayton Jewish Observer 2025's Best Monthly

Address Service Requested

­

­

Temple Beth Or at 40

Rabbi Judy Chessin has led the congregation since its founding.

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

Judge's comments: “These issues of The Dayton Jewish Observer provided a model of how to cover a community in a supportive, informed manner without shying away from controversy or serving as the public relations arm of its major institutions…At the same time, the issues were rich in stories on Jewish food, religion, history and culture.”

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

Hillel Academy Destination Imagination Team heads to Global Finals

The Observer also took Ohio SPJ's First-Place Award in its 2025 small newspaper category for Best Religion Reporting Judge's comments: “Robust, substantial reportage across the stories submitted. Strengths include deep, meaningful dives into historical and contemporary background to give needed context to current events and holding conspicuous space for a broad spectrum of views.”

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

Ohio Society ofDavid Professional Journalists Awards Observer Moss designs Grace After Meals innames comic book form best p. 22 monthly p. 4

THE DAYTON Published by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton

August 2025 Av/Elul 5785 Vol. 29, No. 11

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Traumatic invalidation

How Jewish distress has been ignored since Oct. 7

The American Jewish Press Association honored The Observer with its 2025 First-Place Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in News Reporting in the category of magazines and monthly newspapers

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

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MAZEL TOV! Eliana Bloom graduated from Boston University with a bachelor's degree in biology. She's the daughter of Amy and Dr. Mike Bloom.

Dayton's own Flying Klezmerians, led by Rich Begel, performed in the lobby of Cincinnati Music Hall before Cincinnati Opera's production of Fiddler on the Roof in July.

Mike Jaffe will present a photographic retrospective of his works, 2-4 p.m., Friday, Sept. 12 in the Creative Arts Center at Otterbein SeniorLife Lebanon.

Cantor Andrea Raizen will lead High Holiday services at Beth Boruk Temple in Richmond, Ind. Temple Beth Or has hired Elizabeth Woosley as its education director. A longtime Jewish educator, Elizabeth is also a financial wellness coach at Cincinnati Works. She's also served as Mayerson JCC's community educator.

Shana Tova

from Miami University AS WE APPROACH ROSH HASHANAH AND YOM KIPPUR, the Office of Transformational and Inclusive Excellence at Miami University wishes Jewish community members and friends Shana Tova during this time of reflection and new beginnings.

MiamiOH.edu/TIE Office of Transformational and Inclusive Excellence

PAGE 28

Melanie Barrett, CEO of Bailey Bug, was honored by the CEO of the Year Awards Midwest USA 2025 for mission-driven innovation in wheelchair-accessible design. Bailey Bug manufactures capes for wheelchair users.

Elyssa Wortzman led the Be a Blessing workshop for The Contemporary Dayton as part of Art in the City, Aug. 2. With a focus on art, compassion, and collective action, the workshop blended mindful art-making, reflection, and community connection.

Among the recipients of The Miami Valley School 2025 Alumni Awards at homecoming on Sept. 27 are Ralph and Fran Schwartz, and the late "Aunt" Shelley Lazar, "The Ticket Queen," for alumni parent impact.

Federal security grants

Continued from Page 15 their deeply held religious values and beliefs.”

It wouldn’t be the first time the Trump administration retreated after placing controversial conditions on government money. Earlier this year, the Trump administration floated a requirement that applicants for disaster relief funds pledge not to support boycotts of Israel.

While that provision was withdrawn after legal and political pushback, vague language against “discriminatory prohibited boycott” still appears in broader DHS rules, leaving some uncertainty about enforcement.

DHS didn’t respond to specific questions, instead releasing a statement saying the department “will no longer fund grant projects that don’t align with President Trump’s priorities.”

“Unlike the previous administration, grants will no longer be used to support DEI agendas, and illegal aliens in our country,” the statement says. “These Biden focused initiatives don’t serve the interest of the American People.”

Beyond Spitalnick and JCPA, many national Jewish organizations are not publicly engaging with the concern that, for some congregations, the Trump administration’s terms force the dilemma of choosing between security and conviction.

Two groups that have long championed the grant program, the Anti-Defamation League and Secure Community Network, didn’t respond to questions from JTA. A third group, the Jewish Federations of North America, encouraged optimism in a brief statement, only obliquely alluding to the issue.

“We are working closely with DHS and stand ready to provide guidance to any institution seeking support around this process and raise any issues that come up along the way,” the statement said.

Lily Aviva Hadassah Fullenhull graduated with honors from The Ohio State University in May, with a major in biology and a Eliana Bloom minor in business. She is the only child of Shlomoh and Batsheva Fullenhull and the only grandchild of the late Jerry and Lorraine Kotler. While at OSU, she volunteered 126 hours at Nationwide Children's Hospital, worked as a research assistant for three semesters, volunteered as an organic chemistry mentor for three semesters, worked three years as a computer literacy tutor for an elderly student, served as a volunteer note taker for disabled students, and was an active volunteer for the Magical Moments Foundation. She also served on the fundraising committee for the Columbus-based MMF, where she helped organize and run fundraisers for its OSU chapter. Lily Fullenhull Lily was an author on a publication for OSU's Center for Life Sciences Education. She also shadowed an OSU physician for 20 hours. When she came home from Columbus on breaks, Lily enjoyed working for Kettering Health as a patient access representative in multiple emergency and outpatient departments throughout the greater Dayton area.

Lily is a 2015 graduate of Hillel Academy and a 2021 graduate of Oakwood High School. She plans to apply to medical schools in 2026, with the goal of becoming a physician in clinical practice, specialty to be determined.

Isabel Kolodesh

Isabel Kolodesh graduated from Indiana University with a degree in public health and will attend Kettering College in the accelerated bachelor's of science in nursing program in August and will receive her second bachelor's upon completion. She is planning to get her nurse practitioner's license. Her parents are Shayna and Alex Kolodesh.

Rikki Mangel completed her master's degree in social work from Yeshiva University's Wurzweiler School of Social Work in partnership with the Sara Schenirer Institute. Her parents are Devorah Leah and Rabbi Nochum Mangel.

Oscar Waldman graduated from Washington University in St. Rikki Mangel Louis with a bachelor's degree in English creative writing and environmental studies. He moves to Washington, D.C. in September for an immersive year with the Avodah Jewish Service Corps and will work with Food and Water Watch. Oscar's parents are Julie and Dr. Adam Waldman.

Oscar Waldman

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

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

Internal debate

RELIGION

Continued from Page 23 enemies who rise to kill us, but they never quote those parts.

They cherry-pick compassion while ignoring justice.”

Rabbi Menachem Creditor, the scholar-in-residence at UJA-Federation, offered a gentle, even sympathetic response to that kind of overheated rhetoric on Aug. 18 during his daily live Facebook chat.

“The $1 million allocation is an important statement that humanity matters, we are called to be part of fixing the world, and that doesn’t override our commitment to our family, nor does it create a kind of naivete where we would, God forbid, ignore the vulnerability of the Jewish community, the Jewish state,” he said.

(Since the Oct. 7 attacks, the Federation has allocated roughly $300 million in support for Israelis, including mental health services, help for communities displaced by the war and hospitals, and emergency preparedness.)

He offered advice to viewers on how to deal with deep Jewish divisions, and how to respond to those who object to a Jewish organization offering aid to Gazans.

“Making an allocation that goes to the hungry and suffering in Gaza is a trigger for some…, especially given the hurt that Hamas has caused our family, our people,” Creditor said. “It’s understandable.

Reactivity is understandable.”

“If you see someone who’s responding with heat and anger,” he continued, “I would suggest you simply say ‘I understand that pain, I share that pain. This work is big and eternal, and all I wish for you is love.’”

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

Candle Lightings

Ten Shifts for a multifaith future

By Rabbi Karen BodneyHalasz, Temple Israel This summer, I had the privilege of attending a remarkable gathering at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps.

To mark the occasion, the 88th Air Base Wing Chaplain Corps brought in nationally recognized leaders from the Multi-Faith Neighbors Network, an organization dedicated to building trust and collaboration among Christian, Muslim, and Jewish leaders.

Perspectives The speakers — the Rev. Bob Roberts, Imam Mohamed Magid, Amb. Rabbi David Saperstein, and the Rev. Micah Fries — were dynamic, thoughtful, and deeply committed to the work of healing divides.

I left recharged by their enthusiasm and their willingness to have the hard conversations so many of us shy away from.

They didn’t gloss over differences or pretend they weren’t there. Instead, they leaned into the complexity and showed how genuine relationships can grow even in the midst of disagreement.

One of the first things that struck me was their deliberate choice of language. They used the term multifaith rather than interfaith.

Multifaith, they explained, means working side-by-side toward the common good without sacrificing theological or ideological identity. It’s not about blending beliefs or minimizing differences — it’s about standing fully in our own traditions while engaging openly and honestly with others.

That kind of trust, they reminded us, comes only when we see one another fully —

September Elul/Tishri

Sept. 5: 7:43 p.m.

Sept. 12: 7:32 p.m.

Sept. 19: 7:20 p.m.

Torah Portions

Erev Rosh Hashanah Sept. 22: 7:15 p.m.

Sept. 6: Ki Tetze (Deut. 21:10-25:19)

First Eve Rosh Hashanah Sept. 23: 8:11 p.m.

Sept. 20: Nitzavim (Deut. 29:9-30:20)

Sept. 26: 7:09 p.m.

Sept. 27: Vayelech (Deut. 31:1-30)

Sept. 13: Ki Tavo (Deut. 26:1-29:8)

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

differences and all — and still bringing in entire communirecognize that each of us is creties; and from holding onto old ated in the image of God. grievances to building new, Their message resonated forward-looking connections. because it wasn’t about polite Since Oct. 7, many of us have gestures or occasional joint felt the sting of silence from programs. It was about the interfaith partners who once kind of mutual care stood with us. that develops only Some have seen through consistent, us only through the intentional connection. lens of headlines or We live in a time social media, unwillwhen antisemitism is ing to see the fuller, at record highs. Hismore complex reality tory teaches us that of who we are — and hatred is never static of Israel’s right to de— it shifts. Today it fend itself. That hurt may be directed at is real.

Rabbi Karen Jews; tomorrow it may Bodney-Halasz But if we want to target someone else. change that reality, None of us should be left to the only way forward is to reface it alone, and none of us build trust — one relationship should have to build relationat a time. ships only in crisis.

This means showing up enough times that people The Ten Shifts know us beyond the headlines, The diverse panel of MFNN listening with curiosity instead leaders shared what they call of defensiveness, and leaving The Ten Shifts — a framework space for compassion to grow. for moving from old patterns It’s not about changing our of separation toward new ways positions, but about finding of building trust and partrespectful ways to have the nership across religious and conversations that matter. cultural lines.

Our tradition guides us here.

They spoke about shifting The prophet Micah teaches us from polite interfaith encounto “do justice, love mercy, and ters to robust multifaith relawalk humbly with your God.” tionships; from guarding our Doing so requires stepping tribal boundaries to embracing out from behind our walls, a sense of global responsibility; remaining grounded in our from public value statements Jewish identity, and standing to living and enforcing those alongside others for the sake of values within our own coma better world. munities; from quiet, backdoor And it means building relaengagement to an open, fronttionships where we can show door approach; from keeping up as our authentic selves, see our sacred wisdom inwardeach other in the fullness of our facing to sharing it in the history, faith, and perspective, broader moral conversation; and from that place of mutual from confrontation to collaborespect, work together toward ration; from focusing on others’ the good we all seek. flaws to addressing our own This doesn’t mean softening blind spots; from centering the our commitment to Israel or majority to elevating marginour values — it means deepenalized voices; from keeping ing relationships so they can dialogue only among clergy to bear the weight of our most important truths.

As we enter the month of Elul and prepare for the High Holidays, I challenge us all: Be brave enough to open doors that have been closed too long.

The shofar we will soon hear Rosh Hashanah is not only a call to personal Jewish New Year reflection — it is a call to acSept. 23-24/1-2 Tishri tion. It calls us into our neighCelebration of the beginning borhoods, into our city, into of the Jewish calendar year. relationships that allow us to Begins the Days of Awe, a see and be seen in the fullness 10-day period of repentance of our histories and faiths, and prayer that ends on Yom stand with one another in times Kippur. Celebrated with fesof need, and ensure that when tive meals, including apples the wind shifts, none of us will dipped in honey. ever stand alone.

WORSHIP SERVICES 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 Boruk Temple

Reform 2810 Southeast Pkwy., Richmond, Ind. bethboruk@yahoo.com.

Friday night Shabbat service monthly, September through May. For schedule, go to bethboruktemple.com.

Beth Jacob Congregation

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

7020 N. Main St., Dayton.

937-274-2149. bethjacobcong.org

Chabad of Greater Dayton

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

Temple Anshe Emeth

Reform Worship led by Jese Shell 320 Caldwell St., Piqua.

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

Temple Beth Or

Reform Rabbi Judy Chessin Fridays, 6:15 p.m.

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

Temple Beth Sholom

Reform Rabbi Haviva Horvitz 610 Gladys Dr., Middletown.

513-422-8313. templebethsholom.net

Temple Israel

Reform Senior Rabbi Karen BodneyHalasz. Rabbi/Educator Tina Sobo Fri., Sept. 5, 6 p.m. Fridays, Sept.

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

Sat., Sept. 14, 10:30 a.m.

130 Riverside Dr., Dayton.

937-496-0050. tidayton.org

Temple Sholom

Reform Rabbi Cary Kozberg Fridays, 6 p.m.

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

Yellow Springs Havurah

Independent Antioch College Rockford Chapel.

1st & 3rd Saturday each month.

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

PAGE 29

To purchase tickets for in-person events or to register for free events, please visit jewishdayton.org/events or call 937-610-1555.

Check out our website to see the full line-up of events.

Sunday, January 25, 2026 at 7PM

OPENING EVENT

via Zoom — enjoy from the comfort of your home!

No Cost

Sunday, October 19 at 2PM In partnership with the University of Dayton Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Department of Music, the Alumni Chair in the Humanities, and Jewish Federation's Women's Philanthropy

Howard Megdal, Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar Thursday, February 12, 2026 at 7PM

Featuring performances by student ensembles and faculty of the University of Dayton Department of Music

via Zoom — enjoy from the comfort of your home!

No Cost

University of Dayton – Roger Glass Center for the Arts (29 Creative Way, Dayton 45479) Free parking in Lot S-1 Cost: $10 (No cost to full-time students with valid student ID) Includes dessert reception

WOMEN'S Jewish Federation PHILANTHROPY ®

OF GREATER DAYTON

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

Tuesday, February 24, 2026 at 12PM

Jane Eisner, Carole King: She Made the Earth Move

via Zoom — enjoy from the comfort of your home!

No Cost

Sunday, November 9 at 2PM In Partnership with Washington-Centerville Public Library, Hadassah, and JCC Book Club

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

Woodbourne Library (6060 Far Hills Avenue, Centerville, 45459) No Cost

Sunday, March 8, 2026 at 9:45AM In partnership with Temple Israel as part of the Ryterband Lecture Series and Miami Valley Jewish Genealogy & History

Barbara Josselsohn, The Forgotten Italian Restaurant: A breathtaking and absolutely gripping World War Two historical romance

Thursday, November 20 at 6:30PM In partnership with Men’s Philanthropy

Temple Israel (130 Riverside Drive, Dayton, 45405) Cost: $10 Includes brunch JG&H Miami Valley Jewish Genealogy & History

The Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture & Education (525 Versailles Drive, Centerville, 45459) Cost: $10 Includes tailgate party supper MEN'S Jewish Federation PHILANTHROPY ®

OF GREATER DAYTON

Beth Abraham Synagogue (305 Sugar Camp Circle, Oakwood, 45409) Cost: $10 FEATURING a sampling of the author's recipes

Bethany Village The Village Center/Serr Grand Room (6443 Bethany Village Drive, Washington Township, 45459) No Cost

Jewish Family Services

Christopher C. Gorham, Matisse at War: Art and Resistance in Nazi Occupied France

OF GREATER DAYTON

C LO S I N G E V E N T

Beejhy Barhany, Gursha: Timeless Recipes for Modern Kitchens from Ethiopia, Israel, Harlem, and Beyond

Sunday, April 26, 2026 at 2PM In partnership with Wright Memorial Public Library

Tuesday, January 13, 2026 at 7PM

Wright Memorial Public Library (1776 Far Hills Avenue, Oakwood, 45419) No Cost

via Zoom — enjoy from the comfort of your home!

No Cost Lee Yaron, 10/7: 100 Human Stories

Jewish Community Center OF GREATER DAYTON

THE CULTURAL ARTS AND BOOK SERIES IS THE RECIPIENT OF A MONTGOMERY COUNTY ARTS AND CULTURAL DISTRICT SPECIAL PROJECTS GRANT. THIS GRANT IS ADMINISTRATED

BY CULTURE WORKS. THIS SERIES IS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE JEWISH BOOK COUNCIL.

PAGE 30

Sunday, March 22, 2026 at 2PM In partnership with Bethany Village and Jewish Family Services of Greater Dayton

Bill Rabinowitz, Buckeye Brotherhood: How Ohio State Navigated A New World To Win A National Championship with a foreword by Urban Meyer Sunday, December 7 at 2PM In partnership with the Beth Abraham Sisterhood and Men’s Club

Richard Kreitner, Fear No Pharaoh: American Jews, the Civil War, and the Fight to End Slavery

Dan Slater, The Incorruptibles: A True Story of Kingpins, Crime Busters, and the Birth of the American Underworld

January 20, 2026 PJ Library Parents' Night Out Stay tuned for more information!

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

JEWISH FAMILY EDUCATION

Speech with an I

not remember what it was.”

We may not realize how often our speech is “I”-focused, as in the following examples.

But simply being more mindmodern psychology research, ful as we talk can make a huge reinforcing one’s own views — difference in the content and for better or worse. quality of our speech.

Drawing upon centuries of Interrupting. As a native Jewish wisdom, Meshka’s rabbi New Yorker, Rabbi Bonnie implies much the same, hinting Koppell writes, “Interruptthat speech reflects a person’s ing was a way of life. It was perspective, which in turn the only way to be heard… shapes their reality.

So imagine my shock when I In keeping with the famous moved to Arizona and discovrabbinic teaching, “If I am not ered that people found me to be for myself, who will be for rude when I interrupted.” me?” Judaism encourages honLinguist Deborah Tannen est, authentic self-expression notes that interrupting is a typithrough speech. cal Jewish conversational style At the same time, it’s not to that can show engagement or be an exercise in egocentrism, validation of another’s ideas, as the adage continbut it can also signal ues, “If I am only a lack of listening.

Simply being for myself, what In either case, Pirke more mindful Avot warns that “a am I?" In Judaism, a as we talk can wise man…does not primary purpose of break into his felmake a huge speech is to foster low’s speech…” understanding One-upmanship. difference in and connections When God searched the content between indifor a suitable high viduals. This builds and quality place upon which relationships and to give the Torah, of our speech. communities. midrash teaches, To accomplish the mountains this, “I”-centered speech must squabbled with one another be balanced by, in the words of for the honor, each boasting many scholars, “an awareness its qualities to be superior. All of one's place in the larger com- except Mount Sinai, which God munity and one's relationship ultimately chose because of its with God.” humility.

Examples abound in Jewish To keep self-confidence texts. Petitioning Moses for the and humility — “I”-focus and right to inherit their father’s “other-focus — in balance, Reb land, the daughters of Zelophe- Simcha Bunim taught that evhad exclaimed, “Let not our eryone should have two pockfather’s name be lost to his clan ets. In one should be a note just because he had no son!” saying, “For my sake the world When God asked the newlywas created,” and in the other a anointed King Solomon what note saying, “I am but dust and he desired, he responded, ashes,” to be read as needed for “Grant your servant an underuplift or grounding. standing mind to judge Your Peremptoriness. Reb Yaapeople, to distinguish between kov Yitzchak of Pshischah sent good and bad.” several students to a distant In a Talmudic text, the firsthamlet where one of the locals century sage Rabbi Tarfon offered to prepare a meat meal recalls having learned a specific for them. The students immedilaw, but admits, “I cannot exately began interrogating him plicate the distinction, as I do about the meticulousness of his

Sacred Speech Series

Meshka, the village kvetch, couldn’t stop complaining. She grumbled about her aching body and too-small house. She whined about her daughter’s infrequent visits. She fretted about her son, lazy as “a bump on a kosher pickle.”

One morning, Meshka's complaining tongue began to itch.

Suddenly, her house shrank,

Candace R. Kwiatek and her aching feet swelled.

Her daughter forgot her altogether, and her son turned into a pickle.

Meshka poured out her troubles to the village rabbi who nodded thoughtfully and advised, “Replace your grumbling with gratitude.”

So Meshka complimented her son’s diligence in his studies and delighted in her daughter’s regular monthly visits.

She noted her sturdy home’s coziness and gave thanks that, despite her age, she could be on the go all day.

It didn’t take long for Meshka’s new outlook to change her life and that of her village for the better.

Although about gratitude, Meshka’s tale also highlights a common flaw in everyday speech: a tendency for “I” to be the sole perspective of the speaker or the focal point of an interaction.

Self-expression — sharing thoughts, feelings, attitudes, values and other aspects of one’s unique identity—is, of course, essential for communicating with others.

But “I” has a myopic view of the world that works as a feedback loop according to

Literature to share The Forgotten Italian Restaurant by Barbara Josselsohn.

An aged, handwritten restaurant menu discovered by a young woman in her family’s Connecticut home.

A journey to a picturesque Italian village, one that hid Jews from the Nazis and from which the woman’s grandmother fled, never to return. A secret with grave

consequences uncovered.

This multigenerational story by a bestselling author offers fans of historical fiction a fast-paced tale filled with adventure, betrayal, courage, and even a bit of romance.

Barefoot in the Sand by Hava Deevon. As a young boy living in Romania, Saul dreamed of living in the Promised Land, as did Solo-

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

mon, who lived in Yemen.

Eventually they both make their way to Israel where they chance to meet on the beach.

At first they seem to be different in every way, but something magical happens when Saul begins to chant the Hallel prayer (Psalm), “When the Jews left Egypt…” A powerful story for elementary ages about Jews’ deep connections to the Land of Israel and to each other.

kashrut, all the while critiquing, intimidating, judging, even belittling their host. A beggar nearby eventually commented, “With regard to what goes into your mouths, you are scrupulous. Yet, regarding what comes out of your mouths, you make no inquiries at all!” Chastened, the students returned much wiser to Pshischah.

Speechless. The 19th-century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli was once asked by a parliament member if the MP should weigh in on a controversial discussion.

“Do you have anything new to add?” Disraeli asked.

“No," the legislator conceded, "I just want to be on record as having participated in the debate."

Disraeli answered, ‘It is better to remain silent and have people say, "I wonder what he’s thinking,’ than to speak up and have people say, ‘I wonder why he spoke."

Disraeli’s contemporary and a renowned Bible commentator, the Malbim discovered similar wisdom in the verse from Ecclesiastes, “A time to remain silent and a time to speak.”

“It is possible for a person not to remain silent, and yet say nothing,” he noted after hearing a particularly vacuous speech.

“The Baal Shem Tov taught that a person is born with a fixed number of words to

speak, and when they are spoken, the person dies,” notes Rabbi Rami Shapiro. Every word counts, self-serving or relationship-building, meaningful communication or empty, idle talk. “The next time you are about to utter a word," Shapiro exhorts, "ask yourself whether the word is worth dying for.”

**Clarification**

A reader raised a question about fulfilling promises, which I addressed in last month’s column. To clarify, when giving one’s word, whether in the form of a covenant, oath, vow, or promise, the obligation must be fulfilled. However, already in Ecclesiastes 5:3-4, in the era of Israel’s kings, doubts were raised about the advisability of making vows because they were being made inappropriately or left unfulfilled.

This perspective was later amplified by the rabbis of the Talmud, to the point that those who fulfilled their vows were called “wicked and sinners”— not because they fulfilled them, but because they made vows in the first place (Nedarim 22a, 77b).

The modern expression bli neder (no vow) paired with a promise or similar commitment is an extension of these earlier views, but in no way allows for treating promises lightly or lessens one’s obligation to keep their word.

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The Sephardic Spice Girls

May you enjoy the fruits of a good new year.

Sephardi Rosh Hashanah soup steeped in symbolism This Simanim Soup is full of blessings for the new year.

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By Rachel Sheff, The Nosher Every Rosh Hashanah, my mother made a delicious simanim soup, which contained all the simanim (signs), symbolic vegetables that are used in the Sephardic Rosh Hashanah seder.

Rooted in Kabalah and with a clever play on the Aramaic names of the vegetables, at the seder, Sephardim say blessings over these vegetables, which include butternut squash, zucchini, and Swiss chard.

My parents were born in Larache, an ancient port city founded by the Phoenicians on the northwestern coast of Morocco. This is where my ancestors found refuge after the Expulsion from Spain in 1492.

A treasured Spanish Moroccan custom, this recipe has been handed down over generations. This soup includes apples for a sweet year.

In making this soup, my mother would soak the leeks and Swiss chard. She would peel the apple, carrots, sweet

potatoes, and turnip. She would patiently chop all the vegetables. Then everything would slowly simmer with the meat in a big pot.

After the brachot (blessings), my mother would serve this nutritious, flavorful soup as the first course of our meal, a tasty connection to the many generations that came before us, passing down the faith and the mesorah (tradition).

Over time, as more and more of my family became vegetarian, my mother started making this soup without meat. This year, I go back and make my mother’s original recipe.

To accommodate my guests, I will cook the meat separately in my pressure cooker, then the meat eaters can add it to their bowls of soup.

Total Time: 3 hours 35 minutes.

Yields a lot!

For the meat 3–4 lbs. beef ¼ cup olive oil

L’Shanah Tovah!

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1 large onion, finely diced 2 bay leaves 1 tsp. salt ½ tsp. white pepper pinch of saffron (optional) 1 cup water For the soup ¼ cup olive oil 4 leeks, washed thoroughly and sliced thinly 1 bunch Swiss chard, with stem removed and chopped thinly 2 cups butternut squash, cubed (or acorn or Delicata squash) 1 large green apple or quince, peeled and cubed 2 large zucchini, peeled and diced 2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed 4 medium Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cubed 1 large turnip, peeled and cubed 4 celery stalks, diced 3 large carrots, peeled and diced 2 parsnips, peeled and diced ½ small cabbage, thinly sliced 2 Tbsp. chicken consommé powder ½ tsp. white pepper 1 tsp. turmeric salt, to taste For the meat: In a pressure cooker or large pot, add oil and warm over medium heat. Add onion and sauté for five minutes. Add meat, bay leaf and spices. Cook for one hour in a pressure cooker or until tender in the pot.

For the soup: In a very large pot, warm oil over medium heat, then add sliced leeks.

Sauté for five minutes until they start to soften.

Add all the ingredients, except Swiss chard, zucchini, and butternut squash (set them aside).

Pour enough water to cover the top of the vegetables. Bring to a boil, cover the pot then lower heat to medium and simmer vegetables for one hour.

Add the zucchini and butternut squash. Simmer for another 30 minutes.

Add the Swiss chard, continue to cook on a simmer for an additional 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.

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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

Vered Guttman

Easy, iconic Israeli Honey Cookies

By Vered Guttman The Nosher Honey cakes are popular across the Jewish world around Rosh Hashanah. But if you grew up in Israel, you most likely came across a unique variation of honey treats: duvshaniyot. These dense, dark, round honey cookies are a must in many families’ High Holidays nosh rotation.

The modest duvshaniyot (their name derives from the Hebrew word dvash, meaning honey) seem to have been part of the Israeli repertoire forever and you can find them on the cookie shelves in every supermarket in the country. They are affordable, pareve, and last forever.

Duvshaniyot are the Israeli adaptation of a popular Russian cookie called pryaniki.

Dating to medieval Russia, pryaniki were made with honey, rye flour and berry juice, and were known simply as “honey bread.” Traditionally, pryaniki were spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, coriander, and even black pepper and cumin. In fact, their name, pryaniki, comes from the Russian word for spiced, pryanik.

Different versions of pryaniki can be found around Eastern Europe, like piernik in Poland and lect cookies in Slovenia, which are heart-shaped, painted red, and artfully decorated with colorful icing. These Eastern European versions were traditionally served around Christmas, but were adapted

by Jews for their own holidays, mainly Rosh Hashanah, for the use of the symbolic honey.

From Eastern Europe, the little honey cookie made its way to Israel and the United States. You can add any of the classic gingerbread cookie spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, coriander, clove, and even black pepper and cumin) as well as cocoa powder, strong coffee or chopped chocolate, candied citrus peel or any tart candied fruit, as well as citrus zest.

Some recipes, including centuries-old recipes, suggest letting the dough rest for a few hours before baking the cookies. This will deepen its flavors

and will make rolling the dough easier. But even if you bake it right away, the cookies will improve with time, so I suggest baking them at least two days before serving.

Notes: The cookie dough needs to chill in the refrigerator up to overnight.

Total Time: 4 hours, 35 minutes. Yields 30 cookies For the cookies ¾ cup honey ¼ cup light or dark brown sugar ½ cup butter 1 tsp. cinnamon ½ tsp. each cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, allspice ⅛ tsp. black pepper 2 large eggs, at room temperature 1 tsp. lemon or orange zest 1 tsp. baking powder ¼ tsp. baking soda 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour For the sugar glaze: 2 cups powdered sugar 1 tsp. lemon juice 2–3 Tbsp. water Place a saucepan with a half-inch of water on a burner and turn to medium heat. Put a large metal or glass bowl over the saucepan and bring water to simmer. Once the water boils, add honey, sugar, butter, and spices to the bowl and mix until butter melts and all the ingredients incorporate. Remove bowl from the heat and let cool for about 30 minutes.

Add eggs and lemon zest to the bowl and mix.

Add baking powder, baking soda, and flour to the mixture and mix with a wooden spoon or a spatula until smooth.

Cover bowl and place in the fridge for four hours and up to overnight.

When you‘re ready to bake, turn the oven to 350 degrees.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Use your hands to roll oneinch-round cookies and place them two inches apart on the baking sheet.

Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, switching between baking sheets after seven minutes,

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

until cookies are just golden at the bottom. Do not over-bake, as the cookies will become too hard. Transfer to a cooling rack until completely cold.

To make the sugar glaze, mix powdered sugar, lemon juice and two tablespoons of water with a spoon in a medium bowl. If the mixture seems too dry, add up to one tablespoon more water and keep on mixing until a smooth glaze is formed.

Dip the cookie tops in the glaze and put back on the cooling rack to set.

L’Shanah Tovah!

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PAGE 33

Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace

L’Shanah Tovah

Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace

Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace

L’Shanah Tovah

May 5786 be a year of joy and goodwill.

Miriamne Krummel, Matt Adkins, Shoshana & Yetta Krummel-Adkins

May the year ahead be blessed with good health & cheer Marion Chadwick

Debby, Bob, Alicia, Teddy & William Goldenberg

Cong. Anshe Emeth, Piqua, your northern neighbors

May good health and happiness always be with you

We wish the Dayton Jewish community a very happy new year

Brenda Rinzler

We wish the Dayton Jewish community a very happy new year

Sanderow Family

L'Shanah Tovah

Linda & Steve Horenstein

Mrs. Jack Goldberg

Wishing you the blessings of a good year

Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace

Susan & Joe Gruenberg & Family

Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace

PAGE 34

Robert & Vicky Heuman

Wishing you a new year of health, happiness & peace Ronni & Marc Loundy

L’Shanah Tovah

Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year

Judy Lipton

from Marcie, Mike, Bernie, Darah, Eila, and Leora

L'Shanah Tovah

We wish the Dayton Jewish community a very happy new year

Dr. Judy Ribak & Family

Cantor Jerome & Goldye Kopmar

Wishing you a new year of health, happiness & peace

Wishing you a new year of health, happiness & peace

Paula Gessiness & Jay Holland

Aaron Burke & Family

We wish the Dayton Jewish community a very happy new year

Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace

Steve, Shara, Natalie & Rachel Taylor

Susan & Nathaniel Ritter

from Gayle & Irvin Moscowitz

Wishing you a new year of health, happiness & peace Mel & Jan Berman

Felix Garfunkel

New Year's greetings from

Jeffrey Abrahams

Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace

The Serota Family Wishing you a new year of health, happiness & peace Sharon & Bob Burick & Family

Jeff & Cathy Startzman

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

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By Martin Gottlieb The Observer Some people, when they hear that there's a book about Teddy Roosevelt and the Jews, are surprised: A whole book?

Who knew there was enough material? TR is known – to history buffs, at least – for his activity in many policy realms. But Jewish issues?

Well, there is such a book, and the author says there's another one coming. The first one goes through Roosevelt's presidency. The second will pick up there.

Author Andrew Porwancher is a professor at Arizona State University who has something of a niche in surprising Jewish presences in American political history. He's the Photo of President Theodore Roosevelt by C.M. Bell, 1903. author of The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton. tees, and he wanted Jewish voters to Porwancher's new book is titled know about them.

American Maccabee: Theodore Roosevelt The bulk of the book is about Presiand the Jews. (Princeton, 2025). This is a dent Roosevelt's response to Russia's reference to TR's admiration of the Mac- pogroms. Here, it bogs down. One cabees as a fighting people. Whereas problem is that the options TR considers others in his time saw Jewish men as don't seem very fateful. Invasion wasn't lacking in physical strength and coura real option. Trade embargoes weren't. age, TR saw the physiques and health Sanctions weren't. Pulling the ambasproblems of Jewish men as resulting sador wasn't. The issue always seemed from the lives they had been consigned to be only whether to send this or that to in Europe. When he looked at them, angry note. he saw potential Maccabees.

That got hotly debated, because cusTR was a politician in New York tom held that countries should stay out City during the early stages of develop- of each other's business, and because the ment of the Lower East Side as a Jewish U.S. had it own embarrassments with world. Then he was president when po- Jim Crow and lynchings. groms in the Russian empire became a Actually, TR didn't seem much big international issue. So Jewish issues bothered by the latter point; he insisted were always present.

– incorrectly, says the author – that the From the beginning, Roosevelt was a number of lynchings didn't come anyfriend of the Jews, out of both political where near the number of deaths in the calculation and sincerity, Porwancher pogroms. believes. Appalled by the extreme Setting aside Russia, much here is poverty of the Lower East Side, TR was striking. Democrats and Republicans a big fan of photojournalist Jacob Riis, are always competing for the votes of who documented that poverty in his the Jews. Nobody seems to worry much seminal book, How the Other Half Lives. about any backlash, about losing the Roosevelt, unlike some others, didn't see votes of other groups as a result. Antithe poverty as somehow the fault of the semitism was common, of course, but Jews. He was a reformer even as police apparently not much of a political force. commissioner (an appointive role).

Appealing as TR's connection to Jews Much of the book resonates today. is to modern Jews, the book does not Porwancher uses the modern term leave one with a warm glow. There's “identity politics.” TR was determined also – not pervading the book, but sort to appoint Jews to positions they had of haunting it – the matter of race. On hardly ever had, including police jobs. that, TR's enlightenment did not preHe appointed the first Jewish cabinet vail. He did not fight the fight that also member. needed to be fought.

And he pointed with pride to these appointments. He insisted that he was Retired Dayton Daily News editorial only interested in treating everybody writer Martin Gottlieb is advisor to The equally. But he wanted Jewish appoinDayton Jewish Observer.

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PAGE 35

Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace

Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace

Sports

Jewish baseball fans have created an exhaustive list of Jewish players.

They missed Monte Pfeiffer.

Edye Leuin & Dave Ziegler

Mrs. Donald Klass & Michael Klass

By Scott Barancik, JTA For the first time in decades, a long forgotten major league baseball player has been posthumously identified as Jewish.

Monte Pfeiffer, who played a single game for the Philadelphia Athletics some 112 years ago, had vanished into baseball obscurity — until a sharpeyed Yankees fan uncovered a surprising truth written in Hebrew. The discovery, rooted in dusty box scores, old newspaper articles, and genealogical detective work, adds Pfeiffer to the rarest of rosters: Jewish major leaguers.

“It’s really like fishing: You throw out your line, and nothing, nothing, nothing,” said Zak Kranc, a 27-year-old lawyer from Connecticut. “Then when you get a hit, you start reeling.”

Such finds are rare. Only about 200 of the more than 23,000 men to play major league baseball since 1871 have been conclusively identified as Jews. It’s a surprisingly tiny fraternity, given the outsized number of honors they have earned over the years, including Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, Cy Young Award, and Gold Glove.

Journalist and author David Spaner did most of the detective work in the 1990s. He spent a year sifting through records at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, phoning players and their relatives, and assembling family trees, all in an effort to find unknown Jews.

The Vancouver native went on to reveal dozens of newly discovered Jews in Total Baseball,

Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace

Wishing you a new year of health, happiness and peace

Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year

The Levy Family

Ralph & Sylvia Heyman

L'Shanah Tovah

May the year ahead be blessed with good health & cheer

Sue & Don Zulanch

The Markman Family

Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year

May the year ahead be blessed with good health & cheer

Sis Litvin

L'Shanah Tovah

Bonnie Mendelson & Family

Annie & Craig Self & Family PAGE 36

Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year Dr. Stan Frankowitz

Marsha & Stephen Goldberg

Monte Pfeiffer is No. 12 in this image of the Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Coal Barons.

The shortstop had a breakthrough year for the minor league team in 1913.

a scholarly series edited in part by a baseball historian born to Holocaust survivors.

Thanks to Kranc, Pfeiffer is unknown no more. Montefiore “Monte” Pfeiffer, also known as Moshe Ben Shmuel Yosef, was born in New York City in 1890 to Yiddish-speaking Jews from Eastern Europe: Fanny Pfeiffer and husband Samuel, a seller of women’s hats. He began playing baseball for money in 1911 at age 19 for the Haverhill, Mass. Hustlers.

Statistically speaking, Pfeiffer was a middling hitter and error-prone fielder. But he thrilled fans with his speed and jaw-dropping plays.

The 1913 season saw breakthroughs for Pfeiffer, as well as a breakdown. Playing for Joe McCarthy, the Wilkes-Barre Coal Barons manager who later led the New York Yankees to seven World Series titles, Pfeiffer attracted major-league scouts — but not before vowing to quit baseball over an alleged antisemitic incident.

According to news reports, a teammate allegedly told a young woman Pfeiffer fancied that the player was “a Jew and a tightwad who never spent a nickel” — an insult that enraged the shortstop. McCarthy convinced Pfeiffer to return.

He wasn’t back on the diamond for long before Connie Mack, legendary manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, chose to rest his “$100,000 infield” for the 1913 World Series and yank three young men, including Pfeiffer, out of regional obscurity to temporarily replace them.

Pfeiffer made his debut in

enemy territory: Griffith Stadium, home of the Washington Senators, Sept. 29, 1913.

Observers predicted the three rookies would hit nothing but air against fearsome pitcher Walter Johnson, who arrived that day with a 35-7 record and an ERA hovering just above 1.00. Although the Senators wound up blanking Philadelphia 1-0, Pfeiffer never buckled, even after Johnson grazed his sleeve with a pitch.

When the Athletics returned to Griffith Stadium a day after losing to Johnson’s Senators, Pfeiffer’s two cohorts were in the lineup, but he had been cut loose. The Wilkes-Barre Record reported the rookie was “struck on the head by a batted ball and rendered unconscious.”

Pfeiffer’s career swiftly nosedived. He began the 1914 season with the Kansas City (Mo.) Blues, joined the Marinette-Menominee (Wisc.) Twins, and signed with the Topeka (Kan.) Jayhawks. The following year, Pfeiffer wrapped it up in Manitoba, Canada with the St. Boniface Bonnies. His best batting average over the two seasons was a dismal .176.

Pfeiffer also suffered misfortune at home. Things briefly had looked up in late 1914 when he married 18-year-old Rose Schechter, a Jewish native of New York who soon became pregnant. But two weeks after giving birth to their daughter, Rose died. Pfeiffer went on to work as a signal or subway repairman and enlisted in the military during World War I. As far as we know, he never remarried. He was 49 when he died of heart disease in 1941.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

OBITUARIES Doris Rosamond Constantine (née Sheinker) late of Kettering, passed away Aug. 1 at age 98, after a very full life of love, family, and friendship. Doris was a caring wife, beloved mother, grandmother, motherin-law, and a loyal and loved friend to many people in and around the Centerville, West Carrollton, and Washington Township area. Doris and her husband were founding members of Temple Beth Or and active in the Jewish community. Doris was originally from Chelsea, Mass., the daughter of Albert and Rita Sheinker, and was married to Bernard Constantine for 52 years until his passing in 2003.

She had moved to Muncie, Ind. with Bernard in the 1950s, where their children were born and eventually they ended up in West Carrollton, and then Washington Township. Doris was predeceased by husband Bernard, son Mark, brother Melvin, Aunt Mariam, and other family and friends. Aside from caring for her husband, Doris enjoyed cooking, playing dominoes and mah jongg, and creating beautiful stained-glass pieces at Hithergreen Senior Center, where she was also an active volunteer and could be found manning the front desk on Fridays. Doris is survived by her children Richard (Patricia), Michael and Beth (Bruce), her grandchildren Gabrielle, Morgan and Jake, and niece Lee and other family members.

Interment was at David's Cemetery beside her late husband.

Donations suggested to Temple Beth Or, Hospice, or Diabetes Dayton.

danced, and played the violin.

Her love of music and the performing arts was a lifelong passion, from participating in college orchestras and chorales to her unwavering support of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. Betty graduated as salutatorian of her high school class and went on to attend Syracuse University and Buffalo State Teacher’s College. where she earned her degree in elementary education. While at Buffalo, she met the love of her life, Melvin D. Crouse. They married two years later and moved to Kirksville, Mo. while he completed medical school.

Betty taught elementary school in New York, Missouri, and Dayton, and later managed the office of their busy general practice in Kettering. Betty often reflected, “We were friends and lovers for 55 years and had a wonderful life.” Betty was a devoted and cherished member of the auxiliary to the Dayton

Osteopathic Academy, serving as a role model and mentor to generations of physicians’ partners and spouses. She was also a passionate antique clock and watch collector and enjoyed her involvement with local and state collectors’ organizations.

Betty was preceded in death by her husband, Melvin D. Crouse, D.O. She is survived by her brother, Howard Kurs (Arlene) of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., as well as her close friends and confidantes, Glenda Wollenhaupt, Claire Berks, and Craig Ankney. Interment was at Beth Abraham Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Beth Abraham Synagogue Sisterhood, Hospice of Dayton, or the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra — causes close to her heart. Though Betty may be gone from us, her spirit, warmth, and legacy will never be forgotten.

Continued on Page 38

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Ohio’s Hospice of Dayton is proud to be accredited by the National Institute for Jewish Hospice

Betty Barbara Crouse (nee Kurs) age 94 of Kettering, passed away July 16 at Hospice of Dayton. Betty was born on March 4, 1931 in Albany, N.Y. and raised in Mechanicville, the smallest city in the state.

She was the only child of Louis and Rae (Freedman) Kurs for 11 years before welcoming her beloved brother, Howard. A bright, energetic child and an exceptional student, Betty sang,

Palliative & Supportive Care THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

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OBITUARIES

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 38

Continued from Page 37 It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Michael Goldstein, a devoted husband, father, brother, and retired United States Air Force lieutenant colonel, who passed away peacefully on July 27 at the age of 84. Born and raised in Freehold, N.J., Michael dedicated his life to service, both to his country and his community. After an accomplished career in the U. S. Air Force, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, Michael retired with honor and pride. His dedication to duty was matched only by his devotion to his family and his dedication to the Jewish community of Dayton. Michael was the beloved husband of Rochelle Goldstein, who preceded him in death.

They shared 60 years of love and partnership. He was the proud father to Ellen, Eric and David, grandfather of five, and a loving brother to his sister, Joan.

Michael found great joy and meaning in his Jewish heritage and took special joy in being part of the Beth Abraham Synagogue community. His presence and activity there was a source of inspiration and strength to many. Michael will long be remembered for his bustling energy, adventurous spirit, love of learning, and dedication to his family, community and country.

Interment was at Beth Abraham Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Beth Abraham Synagogue or a veteran’s organization of your choice. May his memory be a blessing.

Harold Gregory Nelson, beloved father, grandfather, brother, and friend, passed away on July 19 at the age of 81. Born on June 16, 1944, Harold lived a life marked by kindness, generosity, and devotion to his family. Harold graduated from the University of Iowa in 1967 with a degree in chemical engineering.

He devoted his entire career to the paper industry, where his expertise in environmental management was highly valued. Harold lost his wife of 47 years, Camilla, in 2021. They enjoyed several decades together raising their children, traveling through the western United States, and enjoying their grandchildren. Harold is survived by his two sons, Adam and Josh, their spouses, Betty and Kelly, and his four grandchildren, Peyton, Katie, Alex, and Parker. He found great joy in family gatherings where his warmth and kindness brightened the room. His strong bond with his sisters, Lauren and Joan, was a source of lifelong happiness. Harold was an avid reader and lifelong learner, something that he shared closely with his children. He was also passionate about education, participating in school board meetings, or writing letters to the local superintendent of schools advocating for improvements. Finally, Harold cared profoundly for his country. He was never shy about writing letters to his senators regarding the national debt and other issues, or engaging in spirited debates on politics and current events with friends and family. He leaves behind a legacy of compassion and kindness—a life well lived and an example to his children and grandchildren. Harold will be dearly missed. The family asks that donations be made to AMVETS in Harold’s memory.

Edie (Edith Rae) Pequignot (née Wollin) of Washington Township passed away July 22 at age 90, after a full and bounteous life of love, family, friendship, and faith. Edie was a devoted wife, beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, a treasured daughter, sister, aunt, mother-in-law, and a loyal and greatly loved friend to countless souls whose myriad paths she crossed as a Cincinnati-born daughter of Louis

and Pearl Wollin, a widely travelled Air Force wife to her husband, Jim, and finally, in her over five decades as a Daytonian and dedicated member of its Jewish community that was home to her faith and much of her vibrant social life. Edie cared deeply about the less fortunate, donated often, followed and liked to talk politics, worked at the polls, and served as secretary to Hadassah. She enjoyed reading, movies and TV, loved nature — especially elephants — hosted endless parties, barbecues, Thanksgivings, could never spend enough time with her grandkids and great-grandkids, formed deep friendships even in her final years, was a shockingly adept poker player, faithfully lit the Chanukah candles, and would wait for one of her kids to light the grill and start the cookout. She was a warm and welcoming hostess who loved to entertain, a consummate baker whose delicious cakes, cookies, pies, and cheesecake lovingly fattened up family and friends, and she made the best tuna salad Starkist has ever known. Edie was a good and loyal friend and empathetic listener who gave frequently, selflessly and generously of her time and attention. Dispenser of motherly wisdom, quips and jokes, late-night talks, above all, Edie showered laughter, love, smiles, and devotion on her friends and family. She grieved deeply over those she lost, as we now will grieve over you, Edie, and miss you terribly. Yet we are grateful beyond measure for your long and loving life, your vitally playful and joyful and beautiful spirit. You were and are loved by many, and your memory will forever be a blessing, our mother, our friend, our dear and beloved Edie. Edie was predeceased by her parents, Louis and Pearl; sisters, Shirley and Marion; husband, James; son Glenn; niece Beverly; and nephews Mathew and Michael; and many other family and friends. Edie is survived by her children Steve, Don, and Janel; her grandchildren, Jonathan, Brian, and Isabelle; her great-grandchildren, Eli, Judah, Zach, Naomi, Lydia, Brynn, and Everly; her daughtersin-law, Lynne Hertzog, Livia Treviño, Sabina Dean and her husband David; and numerous nieces and nephews. Interment was at Beth Abraham Cemetery.

Donations suggested to Dayton Hadassah or your local food bank, House of Bread, or Beth Abraham Synagogue.

Lawrence A. Wagenfeld, age 91, passed away July 22. Lawrence was born in Newark, N.J., and moved to Dayton in 1960. He was a lifelong member of Beth Abraham Synagogue. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife of 65 years, Sheila, and his parents Morris and Jeanette Wagenfeld. Beloved father of Steven and Taryn Wagenfeld and Richard and Hilary Wagenfeld. Beloved grandfather of Brandon, Alexis, and Jordan. Lawrence had many cherished friendships over his 60-plus years living in Dayton. Interment was at Beth Abraham Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Beth Abraham Synagogue.

Jeremy A. Watts, age 49 of Huber Heights, passed away peacefully July 18 at Hospice of Dayton. He is survived by his wife of 24 years, Jodi Watts; and his son, Brandon Watts; along with his mother, Sharon Wright (Ron) and his father, Sidney Watts (and the late Betty Watts); brothers, Joshua Watts (Amy), Michael Watts (Carla), and Phillip Watts (Nicole); sister, Rhonda Wright (Bill Effner); mother-in-law Cindy Pretekin (Jeff Froelich and the late Ron Pretekin); brothers-in-law Brian Pretekin (Ria), Dan Pretekin (Susie); and numerous nieces, nephews and many other relatives. Jeremy was devoted to his family, but also loved sports and was an avid Buffalo Bills fan.

Interment was at Riverview Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Hospice of Dayton, Dayton Children’s Hospital, or the charity of your choice.

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

Guinness World Record Holder Author

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Sunday, November 2

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Shows at 2 PM & 7 PM @ Roger Glass Center for the Arts A Benefit for

Scan QR Code or visit Daytonhillel.org/events for tickets

THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • SEPTEMBER 2025

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Wishing you a new year of good health and happiness.

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