FIRST PERSON
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2011
21
Incidentally, Iris is back Incidentally Iris
By Iris Ruth Pastor Contributing Columnist If there is one thing we can count on continuing unabated in the new year, it’s our well entrenched Jewish habit of being a wandering tribe of people. We send our children to Israel on Birthright. We pack up our college-bound kids for places of learning located all across the country. We send them on semesters of study abroad. Our young adult children think little of accepting job-related cross-country career moves. We make aliyah GOLDBERG from page 1 graduated from the City College of New York (CCNY) in 1939. While at CCNY, he played basketball and would often referee games. One time an angry fan demanded, “Who do you think you are? Pat Kennedy (Matthew “Pat” Kennedy was a famous referee at the time)?” The nickname “Pat” stuck and remained with him throughout his life. Mr. Goldberg began graduate school to study social work in 1941, but then World War II intervened. From 1942 – 1945, he served as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army, where he was a celestial navigation trainer. In 1947 he completed his masters in social work from the University of Pittsburgh. Recruited to Cincinnati in 1952, Mr. Goldberg began a more than 30 year career with the Jewish community of Cincinnati. When he arrived, he took on the position as assistant executive director of the Jewish Community Center. He played a prominent role in developing total family-oriented social services from DIRECTORY from page 12 Description: Kids play in the outdoor and indoor pools, play games outside and in the gym, and create art projects. Time: 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. Laffalot 1-week Summer Camp for grades 1 - 6 Dates: June 13 - 17 Description: High energy sports camp run by Laffalot Summer Camp at the JCC. To register, call Laffalot Summer Camp at 513.313.2076. Time: 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Camp at the J 1-week camp for
— leaving our extended families without our physically accessible presence. (Thank goodness for Skype.) Aging parents put down roots where their children have settled, and the newly retired move closer to their grandchildren. And because of our wide dispersal across the Diaspora, very few things seem to survive the test of time. We pare down. And pare down. And pare down some more. We uproot. We change residences, zip codes, times zones and area codes. In the 35 years we have been married, my husband and I have lived in nine different homes — three apartments, five single family homes and one condominium — in three different cities. And though we never could have envisioned leaving our hometown of Cincinnati, we did just that in 2006 and are now living 1,000 miles away in Tampa, Fla. “The Keeping Quilt” by Patricia Polacco is a children’s book that helps counter this growing trend of being not only uproot-
ed, but unmindful of our pasts and disconnected to our ancestors. Awarded the Sydney Taylor Award for Jewish literature, this tale is about helping us remember home, even when we no longer live there. A Russian immigrant mother and family arrive in the United States. The mother plans to make a quilt from a basket of old clothes, telling her daughter, “It will be like having the family in backhome Russia dance around us at night.” The story centers around a babushka, a shirt, a nightdress and an apron all becoming revitalized, restored and renewed by being used as part of this quilt — a quilt that will be passed down from mother to daughter for over a century. It will serve as a Sabbath cloth, a wedding canopy and a blanket to carry a new baby home from the hospital. And it will honor the importance of both making and keeping memories intact, especially those surrounding milestone events. And it will ultimately be a testament to a fam-
ily’s story of love, faith and endurance. I have my own way of keeping my roots alive. In the front foyer of our Spanish-style house in Tampa, an entire wall is devoted to Cincinnati — large black and white photos of downtown around the turn of the 20th century adorn the wall. Below that sits an authentic street sign of Elland Circle — the first street I ever lived on. The entire street was later bulldozed down to rubble to make room for an expansion of Cincinnati’s Children’s Hospital. Books on Cincinnati, both past and present, line the free-standing bookshelf made by my husband in woodshop at Woodward High School. And a calendar from 1957, pasted onto a piece of cardboard and crudely decorated with figures playing in the snow, is a relic of an art project I did at Bond Hill Elementary School sometime in the 1950s. It too is in the front foyer. Besides the physical manifestations of our hometown, we still
root for the Bengals, the Reds, UC’s teams, Ohio State’s teams and Miami of Ohio’s teams. Our oversized pantry is well stocked with Montgomery Inn Barbeque Sauce. We buy UDF ice cream at the local Fresh Market. And occasionally we indulge and order Graeters packed in dry ice. And we’ve been known to drive an hour to the closest Skyline Chili in nearby Tarpon Springs. We joyously welcome company from home. We joyously embrace those Cincinnatians living within driving distance. And we come home as often as possible. So though we are on most days physically far from the Queen City, thoughts of home and the people and places we still love passionately are never far from our thoughts. Home is home. Roots are roots. And that is why it gives me such great pleasure to once again be writing for my hometown audience. Keep Coping, Iris Ruth Pastor
preschool to older adults at the center and was instrumental in planning the new facility on Summit Road, which opened in November 1960. He continued his tenure at the JCC as director from 1965-1968. During this time Camp Livingston was redeveloped and moved to a new location in Indiana. Beyond his work in the Jewish community, Mr. Goldberg played a key role in the development of a liberal concept for the Jewish Forum during the stormy Civil Rights era of the late ‘50s and ‘60s. He was remembered for quietly, yet forcefully bringing black authors to speak at the Jewish Forum. His son, Seth, commenting on the turbulent 1960s at Woodward High, said, “I knew if dad’s car was in the parking circle, the school wouldn’t burn down that day.” Throughout his career, Mr. Goldberg was also on the board and worked for the Cincinnati Community Chest. Mr. Goldberg moved from the JCC to the Federation in 1968 as its first Director of Social Planning.
He went on, a year later, to become the executive vice president of the Federation in 1969, where he remained for the next 13 years. A few of the many noteworthy contributions during his time as executive vice president were: an increase in Federation fundraising; private foundation and government funding of social services for older adults; a 1973 Yom Kippur War emergency campaign which ranked among the top in the U.S.; and a capital funds drive to develop the new Hillel House at U.C. Rabbi Abie Ingber was hired in 1977 to serve as the Hillel Rabbi at U.C. Rabbi Ingber remembered Pat Goldberg, whom he viewed as a mentor, and the tireless work he did to establish the JCC in its modern fashion, as well as for the wisdom and direction he gave the community through his work at the Federation. “His strength, passion for Israel, for community and doing what’s right never left him,” commented Rabbi Ingber. “He was relentless in knowing the Jewish community of Cincinnati could be
greater, more compassionate.” Following 13 years as executive vice president of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, Mr. Goldberg assumed his new position as the director of the Endowment Fund Division. He served as a member on the board of the American Jewish Committee and was active with the Soviet Jewry and the Mid-East committees of the Jewish Community Relations Council. He was among the founding members of Temple Sholom in Amberley Village. In a tribute to Mr. Goldberg included in the 1986 annual report from the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, it was remarked: “Pat has never forgotten that he is a proud Jew. He is a shining example for us to follow. He has never been remiss in his service to our community and under his leadership our community reached new heights.” Also in 1986, Mr. Goldberg received the Community Service Award from the Cincinnati Chapter of the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ).
He was honored for “spreading the doctrine of brotherhood and good human relations” throughout his lengthy career in Cincinnati. Mr. Goldberg was preceded in death by his first wife, Ruth Friedman Goldberg. Surviving relatives include his wife, Inge Robens Ehrlich Goldberg; his children, Jonathan (Marian Rosen) Goldberg, of St. Louis, Mo., Seth Goldberg, and Debby (David Jernigan) Goldberg, of Silver Spring, Md.; his step-children, Randall Ehrlich, of Los Angeles, Calif., and Barbara (Mitch) Charney, of Louisville, Ky.; his sisters, Grace Cohen, of New Haven, Conn., and Estelle Handelman, of Panama City, Fla.; nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Graveside services were held at United Jewish Cemetery in Clifton, on February 9, 2011, with Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp of Temple Sholom officiating. The family would appreciate memorial contributions to the charity of one’s choice.
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