THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2011 • 10 NISSAN, 5771 • SHABBAT: FRI 7:57 – SAT 8:58 • CINCINNATI, OHIO • VOL. 157 • NO. 38 • SINGLE ISSUE PRICE $2.00
HAPPY PASSOVER
Shayna Maltinsky, 8, Cincinnati Hebrew Day School - Winner of the 2011 Passover Cover Coloring Contest
LOCAL
THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2011
3
Beth Guttman newest Jewish Foundation trustee Beth Guttman, an accomplished Jewish and civic communal leader, is the newest member of The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati’s Board of Trustees. She becomes the fifth new Trustee to join the Foundation Board in the past five years. Guttman, the immediate past president of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati and an active volunteer in an array of Jewish and other charitable causes, will serve out the remainder of Warren G. Falberg’s term, following Mr. Falberg’s decision to step down from the Board after more than 15 years of service. She is eligible for election to a full term when the Foundation convenes its Annual Members meeting later this year. “In selecting Beth Guttman for the Foundation Board, the Trustees not only chose one of the most committed and involved members of our community, but also someone who has demonstrated the highest level of thoughtful leadership and responsible stewardship of the community’s needs,” noted Jewish Foundation President Gary Heiman. “Beth sets the standard for excellence. Her knowledge, experience and vision are precisely what the Foundation needs in order to help create and maintain a vibrant Cincinnati Jewish community.”
“The Foundation made a superb choice in electing Beth Guttman to its Board.” Bret Caller
Prior to becoming the Federation President, Guttman worked her way up through the ranks of that organization, including a term as vice president of Financial Resources Development, as well as service on the Planning and Allocations Committee and Youth and Family Council. In addition, she co-chaired Cincinnati’s celebration of Israel 50th birthday and was instrumental in creating a Biblical Garden of Peace on permanent exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo. The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati, Gettler Family Foundation and Rockwern Charitable Trust were the primary funders of that project. “The Foundation made a superb
Beth Guttman
choice in electing Beth Guttman to its Board,” said Jewish Federation of Cincinnati President Bret Caller. “Beth provided strong, confident leadership during the Economic Crisis, and she played a critical role in forging a partnership with The Jewish Foundation, which resulted in two extraordinarily generous Foundation emergency grants to support basic needs in the community. We are tremendously proud of Beth and know that our community will be very well served by her as a Foundation Trustee.” Guttman is also a devoted leader in her synagogue, Adath Israel Congregation, serving in a variety of roles during worship services and throughout the year. “Given the importance of the Jewish Foundation for our community and how much our community means to me, I commend the Foundation’s leadership for their wise choice,” said Rabbi Irvin Wise. “Beth is one of those special souls who sees the big picture of community without losing sight of the important details. Beth always sits in positions of responsibility and influence driven by her deeply internalized sense of mitzvah, and she can also roll up her sleeves as well as anyone I know to do whatever is required to get the mitzvah done. Beth has a strong foundation of principles and standards that inform her decisions and direct her love for and commitment to our Jewish community.” A 2008 recipient of the Cincinnati Enquirer’s “Woman of the Year” award, Guttman complements her involvement in Jewish causes by generously giving both time and resources to institutions and projects beyond the Jewish community. She is a member of the Cincinnati YWCA Board, volunteers weekly for the character-building “Winners Walk Tall” program at Silverton Paidea Elementary School, and is involved with the Tender Mercies
homeless shelter. Beth Guttman is married to Louis Guttman, and is the proud mother of four children. Alongside her new colleagues on the Foundation Board, Guttman will provide guidance and direction as the Foundation continues to plan an expansion of its philanthropic capacity to strategically invest its resources in a growing, vibrant and caring Cincinnati Jewish community. “Like so many others in our community, I stand in awe of the vision of the founding Trustees of The Jewish Foundation,” said Guttman. “I arrive at a time of great expectation and I look forward to working with many in our community toward the Jewish Foundation’s vision of a vibrant and invigorated Cincinnati.” Commenting on Warren Falberg’s resignation from the Foundation Board, Chairman Phyllis Sewell said, “As one of the original members of the Board of Trustees, Warren should be commended for his decades of service. Among Warren’s most important accomplishments was his leadership of the Israel Experience travel grants program, which has made trips to Israel possible for nearly 1,300 young people in the Cincinnati Jewish community.”
PASSOVER SEDERS MADE SIMPLE By Zell Schulman With PASSOVER SEDERS MADE SIMPLE, preparing for Passover has never been so easy! Passover holiday can be A CHALLENGE. That is why anyone hosting a Passover Seder needs the helpful handbook, PASSOVER SEDERS MADE SIMPLE (Wiley Paper, 2001, $16.95), by Zell Schulman. PASSOVER SEDERS MADE SIMPLE is the ultimate how-to cookbook and guide for planning a Seder, complete with lists, explanations, and sources for everything from kosher foods to ceremonial objects to stocking the Passover pantry. Zell guides the reader through the history, preparation, and execution of the Seder rituals, along with instructions for stocking the pantry and preparing the Seder plate. This book offers six different menus to suit individual religious backgrounds, special diets, budgets, and time constraints including the “Ashkeanzic” menu, the “Sephardic” menu, “Off the Shelf” menu, “Healthful Vegetarian,” and “Ecumenical Potluck” dinners. Samplings include Braised Shoulder Roast in Red Wine, Baked Apricot Ginger Chicken, Sephardic Carrot Salad, Charoset, Wild Mushroom Ragout, and No Yolk Fudge Cake. PASSOVER SEDERS MADE SIMPLE is an indispensable reference for hosting a Passover Seder for the first time and indeed anyone interested in learning more about this wonderful holiday.
About The Author Zell Schulman (Cincinnati, OH) is a feature writer for The American Israelite, “the oldest Jewish weekly in the United States.” She has also been a Columnist for Taste Cincinnati Magazine, and a contributor to www.interfaithfamily.com. She remains active in local and national Jewish community organizations and is also the author of the books Something Different for Passover and Planning Perfect Parties. Available from Amzon.com, Jospeh Beth Booksellers, Barnes & Noble or your favorite book store.
4
LOCAL
THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE NEWSPAPER AND WEBSITE @ WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM
New ‘Songs of Kindness’ at JCC day camp This summer, Camp at the J offers “Songs of Kindness,” an original and unique program that teaches values through music. Other features of this ACA accredited camp include Red Cross certified swim instruction, field trips, new late day stays at the J, and a 10-week camping season that supports working families. Registration is underway and programs for ages 18 months – grade 10 are filling fast. The new “Songs of Kindness” program builds on Camp at the J’s guiding values of respect, kindness and friendship. Campers will help select Hebrew and English songs that relate to friendship and caring. They’ll discuss the musical messages, rehearse and record the songs. Each camper will receive a CD and some groups will go offsite to perform.
Other aspects of “Songs of Kindness” include team building activities, and sessions led by Jewish Family Service professionals that teach children how to avoid bullying behavior and protect themselves. This innovative Camp at the J program is funded by grants from the JCC Association of North America and Cincinnati ArtsWave. Camp at the J is one of only eight day camps in Cincinnati accredited by the American Camping Association (ACCA). Accreditation demonstrates accountability, credibility, and commitment to the highest standards for risk management, child development, aquatics and health care. It means that Camp at the J complies with up to 300 ACCA health, safety and program quality standards. Working parents benefit from more than 10 weeks of summer
camp, as well as optional extended hours (7:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.) at Camp at the J. The camp season includes Summerstart Camp, June 6, 7, and 10; Laffalot Camp, June 13 – 17; sessions of 3-week and 6-week camps, June 20 – July 29; as well as 1-week S’More Camps, August 1 – 19. These many options offer families the flexibility to accommodate their schedules. A new counselor-in-training program, for teens entering grades 9 and 10, is also offered this summer. Mayerson JCC professionals work year-round developing new programs, attracting the finest camp staff, and attending professional conferences and seminars. Specialists, knowledgeable in their specific areas, lead activities in art, nature, sports and Judaic programs and celebrations. The song leader engages the children in song and
cheers throughout the summer. Camp at the J provides Red Cross certified swim instruction for campers ages 3 to entering third grade. Rain or shine, swimming takes place every day in either the heated outdoor pool or indoor waterpark. The ga-ga pit and archery range are always big hits. New this summer at Camp at the J are special days for campers in grades 2 and older to stay late at the J for swimming, outdoor games and cookouts. Plus, those same campers are offered at least one field trip, and more for the older children. New lower fees make this summer’s Camp at the J a great deal. 2011 camp fees for everyone are less than 2010 J member fees. To register or get more information, contact Katie Karmel, camp director, at the Mayerson JCC.
Passover books, media added to Wise library Fairy tales, Bible tales, and videos—Wise Temple’s Ralph and Julia Cohen library has just added these wonderful Passover items for children. Check the Wise Temple website for library hours. The Little Red Hen and the Passover Matzah, by Leslie Kimmelman — No one will help Little Red Hen make the Passover matzah, but they all want to help her eat it. Despite their chutzpah, Little Red Hen remembers the words from the Haggadah: “Let all who are hungry come and eat.” Includes
information about Passover, a matzah recipe, and a glossary of Yiddish words used in the story. Passover: Celebrating Now, Remembering Then by Harriet Ziefert — A beautifully designed book that captures both the meaning and the observance of the holiday in the present and at the time of its origin. As a modern family prepares for Passover and celebrates it at their seder, each element of the seder is connected to the Passover narrative. The Brave Women Who Saved Moses, by Alison Greengard — Tells in Hebrew and English trans-
lation the story of Moses’ birth and rescue by the midwives Shifra and Puah, and then by Pharaoh’s daughter, as related in Exodus 1-2. Miriam in the Desert, by Jacqueline Jules — The young artist Bezalel tells the story of his people’s exodus from Egypt and of his grandmother Miriam’s role in comforting the people through their trials. Bezalel, who draws pictures in the sand showing the miracles the people have seen, is chosen by his great-uncle, Moses, to craft the ark where the Ten Commandments will be kept.
Moses, by Margaret Hodges — A beautifully illustrated story of Moses, from his birth and “trip” in a boat of bulrushes to his bringing the Ten Commandments down from Mount Sinai. The Seder on Planet Matzah Ball — This movie with puppets and animation tells the story of a family of funny and furry Jewish aliens on the planet Matzah Ball, who do not know how to celebrate Passover. A visit to Earth lands them in Ohio, at the seder of the Rosenberg Family, where they learn what they need to know. For ages 4-10.
‘Math Challenge’ engages Rockwern students Entering Judy Diekmeyer’s sixth grade “Math Challenge” class at Rockwern Academy may be a cause for confusion. There are no calculators, no textbooks, and no problem-filled worksheets to be found. Some students have a few scraps of paper on their desks, to be used sparingly or not at all. Seventeen 11-year-olds at their desks look at a large, blank screen. The room pulses with expectation as the students prepare themselves to begin a drill. Diekmeyer flashes the first problem up on the screen, and after several seconds hands begin to shoot up. A student is called on and answers correctly. The problems continue to flash rapidly, and as they warm up the class answers with increasing speed. Students are respectful of each other, and seem undaunted as the problems become more complex, ranging from long columns of addition to multiplying sets of 3-digit numbers. Unlike most math classes, the expertise is not clustered around a few students. Every member of the
class is fully engaged in the exercise; both comprehension and skill seem to circulate and oscillate throughout the room. For the past seven months, the sixth grade of Rockwern Academy has taken part in an innovative new math program called “Math Challenge.” The emphasis and goal of the class is to expose students to a math experience that will strengthen their mental math calculation ability and increase their confidence. The program was created by Rockwern teacher Judy Diekmeyer with material from three sources: Jason Gibson, who wrote “Mental Math Secrets,” Scott Flansburg, author of “Math Magic” and sponsor of the American Math Challenge, and a 300-year-old Ancient India program called Vedics. Rockwern sixth graders say that the program has fundamentally shifted their understanding of numbers. “We understand numbers in a different way. Before it was boring, but it’s more fun now,” said one 11year-old girl. “It took lots of prac-
tice, but now this way is faster than the old way. I really enjoy it.” One boy said that mental math dramatically reduces the amount of time it takes to complete tests and homework: “I didn’t like homework before but now it goes a lot faster. I can finish my tests more quickly, too.” A student told how she has taught her fourth grade brother to do mental math. Others smiled with pride as they described using their newfound talents to calculate tips for their parents at restaurants. After watching a presentation in which the sixth graders demonstrated their skills, many adults approached Diekmeyer with a request for a speed math class of their own. Even high school teachers have asked for her help implementing the program in their own schools. What is the magic, you ask? According to these sixth-graders, there isn’t any. They explain that instead of thinking about numbers based on a one through 10 system, they have learned to focus on the numbers between zero and nine. Instead of working problems from
right to left, they work left to right. Although their lightning speed might suggest a secret trick, they insist that there are no complicated theories, complex methods or longwinded explanations. Instead, the Rockwern students offer simple statements to explain their techniques. Through many examples and a great deal of practice, they have learned to become careful observers of patterns. “In just six months and with only one session of practice per week, the students have become faster than me,” says Diekmeyer. “They are young and their minds are fresh and receptive to new ideas. The program has been a great equalizer for the class. While before there was a larger range in ability among the students, Math Challenge has been a tremendous help for those who previously struggled. Students who had difficulty keeping up or were reluctant to engage in math class are now enthusiastic voices in our classroom.” To learn more about Rockwern Academy, visit their website.
‘LET THERE BE LIGHT ’ THE OLDEST ENGLISH-JEWISH WEEKLY IN AMERICA FOUNDED JULY 15, 1854 BY ISAAC M. WISE
VOL. 157 • NO. 38 THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2011 10 NISSAN 5771 SHABBAT BEGINS FRIDAY 7:57 PM SHABBAT ENDS SATURDAY 8:58 PM THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE CO., PUBLISHERS 18 WEST NINTH STREET, SUITE 2 CINCINNATI, OHIO 45202-2037 PHONE: (513) 621-3145 FAX: (513) 621-3744 publisher@americanisraelite.com editor@americanisraelite.com production@americanisraelite.com RABBI ISSAC M. WISE Editor & Publisher, 1854-1900 LEO WISE Editor & Publisher, 1900-1928 RABBI JONAH B. WISE Editor & Publisher, 1928-1930 HENRY C. SEGAL Editor & Publisher, 1930-1985 PHYLLIS R. SINGER Editor & General Manager, 1985-1999 MILLARD H. MACK Publisher Emeritus NETANEL (TED) DEUTSCH Editor & Publisher MICHAEL MAZER Sales BARBARA L. MORGENSTERN Senior Writer NICOLE SIMON RITA TONGPITUK Assistant Editors ALEXIA KADISH Copy Editor JANET STEINBERG Travel Editor STEPHANIE DAVIS-NOVAK Fashion Editor MARILYN GALE Dining Editor MARIANNA BETTMAN NATE BLOOM IRIS PASTOR RABBI A. JAMES RUDIN ZELL SCHULMAN RABBI AVI SHAFRAN PHYLLIS R. SINGER Contributing Columnists LEV LOKSHIN JANE KARLSBERG Staff Photographers JOSEPH D. STANGE Production Manager ERIN WYENANDT Office Manager
THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE (USPS 019-320) is published weekly for $44 per year and $2.00 per single copy in Cincinnati and $49 per year and $3.00 per single copy elsewhere in U.S. by The American Israelite Co. 18 West Ninth Street, Suite 2, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-2037. Periodicals postage paid at Cincinnati, OH. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE, 18 West Ninth Street, Suite 2, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-2037.
The views and opinions expressed by The American Israelite columnists do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the newspaper.
LOCAL
THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2011
Wise Temple Sisterhood hosts Women’s Seder Wise Temple Sisterhood is having its annual Wise Women’s Passover Seder and dinner on Thursday, April 21, at 6 p.m. at the Wise Center. The Hagaddah used at the Seder was written by
members of the Sisterhood specifically for this annual program. The Hagaddah brings the perspective of contemporary women to the story of the exodus. Readings from various
female scholars are incorporated into the story, as well as both music and dance. The evening is open to the women of Wise and their guests age 10 and older. This has been a beautiful multi-
generational experience for the women who have attended in past years, and is sure to be so again this year. For more information, contact Wise Temple.
5
AMERICANISRAELITE.COM
STICK WITH THE OLDEST
FOR WHAT’S NEW... ARTS & ENTERTERTAINMENT • TRAVEL SOCIAL NEWS • CALENDAR EVENTS ANNOUNCEMENTS • AUTOS OPINIONS • DINING OUT PLUS MUCH MORE!
NHS focuses on Passover at ‘Chavurat Shabbat’ Passover will be the theme when Northern Hills Synagogue Congregation B’nai Avraham holds Shabbat services on Saturday morning, April 16, at 9:30 a.m. Using the “Chavurat Shabbat” format, the services will
provide a variety of programming choices. Following completion of the main morning (Shahrit) service, breakout sessions will provide learning opportunities about the upcoming Pesach holiday, focusing on family Seder traditions, the
laws of Pesach, songs, and the Seder. Special breakouts for children will focus on arranging the Seder plate and making haroset. Lunch will be served after services, featuring a special haroset bar. There is no charge for lunch, and
reservations are not required. The service will also recognize new members who have joined the congregation over the past year. For more information, please contact Northern Hills Synagogue.
‘The Case for Israel,’ at Miami U on April 25 Israel is a vital democracy and intellectual powerhouse. Yet it is viewed as a rogue nation—no better than the mad-dog totalitarian regimes of North Korea and Iran. A recent BBC-sponsored survey about global attitudes suggested that Israel is among the least popular countries on earth. Just three countries had more negative ratings: Pakistan,
North Korea and Iran. It is imperative that all who consider questions of Israel’s worth know the facts. For Jews, Israel is their only refuge; for Americans, Israel is a loyal friend and an increasingly important business partner. Israel sunk to its current stature by not addressing emotional narra-
tives about the Jewish State. Yet a few basic facts about Israel’s history and practices could improve its image greatly. It is to this end that “The Case for Israel” was produced: To provide facts from a centrist position with muted spin. “The Case for Israel” will be shown at Miami University’s
Wilk’s Center on its Hamilton campus on April 25, from 7 - 9 p.m. Admission is free. Parking is free, plentiful and a short walk to the auditorium. The showing includes a discussion period following the film, moderated by Avi Milgrom. Milgrom is an adjunct professor at Miami University.
O N L I N E
E D I T I O N
6
LOCAL
THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE NEWSPAPER AND WEBSITE @ WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM
Wise Temple’s fifth grade retreat On Friday, March 12, about 20 fifth graders gathered to celebrate a special Shabbat together with singing, games, good food and great friends. The fifth grade retreat helps build community and shows the students how much fun it is to be Jewish. The retreat began with lots of fun mixers and games led by the Chaverim M’Yisrael, Gaby Silver and Matan Moyal. The students have learned from Gaby and Matan in Hebrew School, but this was a great opportunity for them to make an even stronger connection with young
Israelis. Next, the fifth graders enjoyed Shabbat services led by Wise Temple’s own Sam Pollak, now a senior at Ohio State. The camp-style service featured lots of singing and was a wonderful way to welcome Shabbat. The delicious Shabbat dinner was generously provided by the Wise Temple Brotherhood, followed by making wooden groggers for Purim. The kids decorated cookies with frosting and sprinkles for a pre-movie snack before settling in to watch “Despicable Me” in pajamas. Everyone was exhausted
by bedtime (okay, maybe just the staff)! In the morning, following breakfast, the group enjoyed Shabbat services and a story with Rabbi Michael Shulman. The retreat ended with a friendship circle, where participants and staff shared their favorite moments and thanked each other for making the event both fun and meaningful. Everyone was sad to see the time together end on Saturday morning, but there is already excitement for next year’s —bigger and even better—sixth grade retreat.
L.A. comedy writer serves up Jewish deli-style fun at JCC Just like hot pastrami on rye, L.A. comedy writer and a rabbi’s son, Seth Front, is sure to give audiences something to sink their teeth into when he presents “A Comical, Culinary History of Jews in America as Chronicled through the Jewish Deli,” at the Mayerson JCC on Thursday, May 5, at 6:30 p.m. “It all began when I was sitting at a Chinese restaurant one Sunday night, waiting for my Moo Goo Gai Pan and reading the kitschy red and gold Chinese Zodiac placemat sitting on the table in front of me,” Front recalls. “It described the personal charac-
teristics of people born under specific Chinese animal signs, such as the Year of the Dragon or the Year of the Ox. Being the good rabbi’s son that I am, I wondered what a Jewish Zodiac would look like. It wouldn’t be Year of the Dragon or Year of the Ox, it would be Year of the Bagel and Year of the Lox!” he explains. “It had to be deli food! What else?” And thus the Jewish Zodiac was born. Being a comedy writer, Front couldn’t stop himself from coming up with personality types for each deli food symbol. “All I can say is, I was divinely inspired!” he jokes. “Between the inspiration from above and the enthusiastic response from mere mortals down below, I soon found myself hiring a food stylist, photographer and graphic artists to create the Jewish Zodiac line of products, including laminated placemats, retro design t-shirts, coffee cups and kitchen magnets that are now selling like ‘latkes’ all over the country.” It wasn’t long before Front’s fascination led him to learn all he could about the subject, helping him to become something of an expert in the history of the Jewish Deli, which he developed into a funny and interactive presentation that has been delighting audiences in cities across the country. In Cincinnati, he will help kick-off Jewish American Heritage Month by serving up a super-sized platter of Jewish cultural history, with a side order of nostalgia. Using his 12 iconic Jewish Zodiac deli foods as guideposts, he uses his trademark humor to weave this social history into a compelling narrative to transport the audience back to the time of the deli’s origins on the Lower East Side at the turn of the 20th century. The audience will also learn about the deli’s adaptation to American tastes, and assimilation into mainstream American culture.
Enjoy a kosher dinner while hearing comedy writer Seth Front.
It’s all free, and includes a reusable Jewish deli placemat and a Black and White cookie for all guests. The JCC’s spacious Amberley Room auditorium will be set up in a dinner theater style. There is a cost for the optional kosher deli dinners during the show, for those who make their paid reservation to the JCC by Friday, April 29. The first 40 Jewish young professionals (ages 21 – 35) who make reservations for this fun evening will get their deli dinners for free, courtesy of Access’ JGourmet initiative, a program of The Mayerson Foundation, and will get to sit at the tables specially reserved just for YPs. Non Jewish significant others are welcome. To RSVP, or for more information about this free dinner offer for Jewish Young Professionals, contact Access at the number or on their website listed in the directory section of this paper. Space is limited and will fill up, so be sure to reserve soon. This program is made possible by a grant from The Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson and is open to the entire community as part of Jewish American Heritage Month.
THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2011
LOCAL
7
Grants available for Jewish overnight camping The Jewish Overnight Camping Program provides grants for Jewish children from the greater Cincinnati area to encourage them to attend a Jewish overnight camp. Children who have never attended a Jewish overnight camp can apply for a grant. For the summer of 2011 the value of the grants will be up to $1,000 for camp sessions of three weeks or more and up to $500 for camp sessions of two weeks. A grant from the Jewish Overnight Camping Program is a gift. It is not need-based or contingent on other scholarship or financial aid dollars. To qualify under the program, the overnight camp
must be sponsored by a nonprofit Jewish organization. Application forms for the summer of 2011 are available on the Jewish Federation website. The application deadline is May 15, 2011. This program is made possible with funding from Shelly Shor Gerson and Sylvia Shor, the Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati and the Foundation for Jewish Camp and is administered by the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati. For further information please consult a congregational rabbi, the Jewish Federation or Professor Getzel Cohen.
Jewish Discovery Center offers Shabbat morning family program For the first time in Mason, a special Shabbat morning family program is being offered, where families come together to be inspired and get uplifted on Shabbat. Taking place on alternating weeks at the Jewish Discovery Center, the seven part series offers something for every member of the family. The next program takes place on May 7, 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Come with your family, and enjoy the beautiful experience of Shabbat with songs, stories and a live puppet show. Adults also have the opportunity
to ask questions about the prayers. Become familiar with the prayers, learn the melodies and explore deeper insight and meaning behind the text in a warm atmosphere and comfortable setting. Following the program, a Kiddush snack will be served. “What a great way to introduce the beauty of Shabbat and Judaism to your children,” noted Jeanne Aronoff, mother of two young children. Please call the Mason-area “Center for Jewish Life” or check out their website for more information.
‘Peace of the City’ dinner saluting Dick Weiland Save the date for the “Peace of the City” dinner that will benefit several Cincinnati nonprofit organizations Sunday, June 5, at the Hilton Netherland Plaza in Downtown Cincinnati. Dick Weiland will be saluted for his decades of marshaling support for the social service sector. Two community agencies, Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati and Jewish Family Service, are taking the lead role in restoring the Cincinnati tradition of this event, which will have Cincinnati native U.S. Senator Rob Portman as the special guest speaker. Weiland is the founder and president of Richard Consulting Corporation, a public relations consulting agency that provides lobbying and mediation skills to over 60 companies and numerous nonprofit organizations. He is a tireless community activist whose work has enhanced the quality of life in
Dick Weiland
Cincinnati, the States of Ohio and Kentucky, and throughout the nation. Weiland currently serves on more than 30 boards and commissions. At Weiland’s request, several significant local, state and national public officials have been invited to attend. For information about the “Peace of the City” dinner, tickets and sponsorships, visit or call Jewish Family Service.
8
NATIONAL
THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE NEWSPAPER AND WEBSITE @ WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM
Mitt Romney, John Thune make pitch to Jewish Republicans at RJC bash By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Courtesy of Fletcher Oaks
Berkeley’s Josh Kornbluth performing in “Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?,” his one-man response to the pop artist’s portraits of 10 famous Jews.
Josh Kornbluth finds Warhol, and Judaism By Sue Fishkoff Jewish Telegraphic Agency BERKELEY, Calif. (JTA) — Josh Kornbluth didn’t find his Jewish identity the typical way. It was pop artist Andy Warhol who sparked the process that brought the successful San Francisco Bay Area performer, now 52, to discover Torah, synagogue — and, in a few months, a bar mitzvah in Israel. “I was raised Orthodox – Orthodox Communist!” Kornbluth said as he sat down with JTA over a plate of bacon and eggs to discuss his newfound appreciation of his Jewish roots. “Zionism was the enemy in our house.” Kornbluth is a writer, activist and former host of the “The Josh Kornbluth Show” on TV. But he is best known for his one-man shows, where he offers pithy, highly personal witticisms on history and the human condition. Sometimes he assumes other personae, as in his performance piece about Ben Franklin. But his real genius comes through in his autobiographical monologues, especially “Red Diaper Baby,” a bit about growing up as the son of New York communists that he later turned into a book, and “The Mathematics of Change,” which chronicles his failed attempt to become a math genius at Princeton University. It was his most recent one-man show — “Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?” — that activated his pintele Yid, the Jewish spark that the kabbalists say lurks inside every Member of the Tribe. “My humor has always had a Jewish sensibility, but only recently have I come to terms openly with my Jewish identity,” he told an audience at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco during a recent discussion onstage of his Jewish journey. “I’ve always been culturally Jewish, but I in no way connected it to the religious aspect
of Judaism, to being ‘a Jew.’ ” Kornbluth grew up in New York shuttling between the homes of his divorced parents, both card-carrying members of the Communist Party. In the 1970s, when his Jewish friends were demonstrating on behalf of Soviet Jewry, he mocked them — something he’s not proud of today. “But at the time, I was so in love with the ideals of communism as transmitted to me by my parents,” he says. He recalls a trip he made as a teenager to visit elderly relatives in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. A great-aunt served him cold borscht, saying it was what the poor Jews ate in the Soviet Union. “I said, but there are no poor Jews in the Soviet Union!” Kornbluth recalls. “I can only imagine their bemusement.” Kornbluth says he knew “nothing at all” about Judaism when he got a call in 2008 from the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco asking if he’d put together a talk for an upcoming exhibit of “Warhol’s Jews,” 10 portraits the artist made of famous Jews in history. Eventually the talk became a full-blown monologue that Kornbluth opened at Theater J in Washington, then brought back to the Bay Area for a sold-out run and now hopes to take elsewhere. In many ways the show was typical Kornbluth. The lights go up to find him standing on the stage — a portly, colorfully dressed fellow whose continually startled eyes peer out from behind wire-rimmed glasses — gazing at a wall displaying huge reproductions of Warhol’s Jewish portraits. He begins working his way through the pictures, interweaving his own personal history of coming to terms with his Judaism as he explores what each character stands for in world Jewish iconography. KORNBLUTH on page 22
LAS VEGAS (JTA) — At the Republican Jewish Coalition’s winter leadership retreat here, it was the absence of certain likely candidates for president that had the crowd most excited. While names like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann generate enthusiasm at some other conservative gatherings, their absence over the weekend here had the Jewish crowd giddy that ahead of the 2012 race, the Republican Party may be retreating from the divisive hyperconservatives that have frustrated Jewish attraction to the party in recent years. At this GOP gathering the heroes were probable presidential hopefuls who are likelier to sway Jews from their traditional Democratic home and toward Republican candidates with positions on issues like the economy and foreign policy. Matt Brooks, RJC’s executive director, told a questioner that the social issues that have driven Jews away from the Republican Party in the past — abortion, gay rights, church-state separation — were hardly registering now. “Social issues get a large role in
campaigns when there’s not a lot of other issues at the forefront,” he said. Instead, the issues now are America’s economic health and job loss, Brooks said. “That’s what will drive the narrative,” he said. The economy — and foreign policy, particularly Israel — certainly were the issues driving the narrative at the RJC event. The two likely candidates to address the audience in the open forum, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, wove both the economy and foreign policy into their challenges to President Obama, whom they and just about everyone else pledged to make a one-term president. Notably, neither man mentioned social issues. Both lambasted Obama for what they said was the distance he had established between the United States and Israel, breaking with a tradition of decades of closeness. Romney said Obama’s attempt to appear evenhanded in IsraeliPalestinian negotiations led him to “castigate Israel while having nothing to say about thousands of rockets being launched into Israel.” The Obama administration has condemned Hamas rocket attacks on Israel, although its tense
exchanges with Netanyahu’s government over settlement building have received much greater attention in the Jewish community. Thune said the Obama administration’s emphasis on settlements made it appear that they were the reason peace talks were not advancing while ignoring Arab recalcitrance and the Iranian nuclear threat. “America’s ally is now and always will be the State of Israel,” he said. “I think the Obama administration sometimes forgets that fundamental fact.” Thune has said he is not running, but his supporters will not count him out, and his appearance at this event and others like it fuels speculation that he may return to the race. Dan Lederman, a Jewish state senator from South Dakota, joked that he had already reserved the VP spot on the Thune ticket. Romney seemed transformed from his failed 2008 bid for the GOP nomination, when he was faulted for appearing scripted and uncertain in his opinions. He barely consulted a single sheet of notes, and spoke in detail not only on his strengths — health care and budget management — but about the threats facing Israel from Iran and about the peace process.
Twin peaks: Itamar’s mayor knows the blessing and curse By Jonathan Mark N.Y Jewish Week NEW YORK (N.Y. Jewish Week) — From the highest elevation in Itamar you can see everything but the future. On a clear day, says Rabbi Moshe Goldsmith, Itamar’s mayor, “We can see the three seas”: the Dead Sea, the Mediterranean and the Kinneret (Galilee). To the west, “We can see Gerezim and Ebal,” the twin mountains linked in the Bible to “the Blessing and the Curse,” but untrained eyes can’t tell one from the other. To be the mayor of Itamar is to be the mayor of a yishuv, a settlement of about 160 homes deep in the rocky Samarian highlands, where more Jews have died from Palestinian bullets, knives and bombs than have died of old age; 22 murdered Jews in the last 10 years, including five members of the Fogel family on March 11. Three weeks ago, Goldsmith was in shul on a Thursday night, studying Gemara, when he looked to his right and saw his friend, Rav Udi, a teacher in the local hesder yeshiva. Rav Udi had some 24 hours left to live.
“I turned to look at him, twice, three times,” says Goldsmith. “He had a white light radiating from him; I couldn’t figure out what it was. I couldn’t know it then, but his soul was already so connected to the Upper World.” Now in the United States, the mayor can’t see Israel’s seas and hills, but he sees the Fogels before him always. He sees the Fogels as he drives the long miles from Long Island, where the mayor explained Itamar to Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, driving along to New Jersey’s Route 4, where he explains Itamar and that nightmarish Friday night to the Ma’aynot Yeshiva High School for Girls in Teaneck and the eighth-graders of the Moriah School in Englewood. The mayor, his long tzitzit visible below his black suit jacket, has been going from morning to night, from one school and shul and living room to another. “The young people in America,” says Goldsmith, “they need to see that we’re not giving up, that we’ll still be building the land.” He’s hoping that others, in the shuls he’s visiting, will help Itamar with more and better security cameras. He’s in America to talk about the
Fogels, but he’d rather not tell all that he saw in those bloody rooms. He was one of the first responders, but soon left it to others. “I didn’t want to look at children slaughtered in their beds,” says Goldsmith. Gun in hand, “I started checking each house [in the town], each room, in case the terrorists were still in Itamar.” When dawn broke that Shabbat morning, Goldsmith went to shul and while davening, “I broke down crying. I couldn’t control my tears and pain. I said to G-d, ‘I really would like an answer.’ At that moment a verse came to mind. Moshe Rabbeinu asked to see the presence of G-d, and G-d tells him, ‘No one can see me and live.’ “I realized,” said the mayor, “His ways are hidden to us. Yet there’s the chai in that sentence, ‘and live.’ Right now we’re going to live and build and strengthen. One day we’ll have answers.” It wasn’t supposed to be like this in 1985 when Moshe and Leah Goldsmith, sweethearts since seventh grade in Brooklyn’s Rambam yeshiva, made aliyah. They spent a Shabbat with friends in the thennew settlement of Itamar and “it felt like a blessing,” like home.
THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2011
INTERNATIONAL
Bs”D
9
Europe remembers how Eichmann trial and TV changed perceptions of Holocaust
SOBER PASSOVER SEDER (GRAPE
JUICE WILL BE SERVED)
“Using Passover to strengthen our recovery from addictions” Monday Night — April 18, 9 pm @ 7325 ELBROOK AVE, AMBERLEY VILLAGE 45237 RSVP: CINCINNATI JEWISH RECOVERY • (513) 733-4400 JEWISHEDUCATE.ORG • RABBI@JEWISHEDUCATE.ORG
By Toby Axelrod Jewish Telegraphic Agency BERLIN (JTA) — The face, with its twisted mouth, receding hairline and dark-framed glasses, is familiar around the world today. But 50 years ago, when Adolf Eichmann — former head of the Nazi Department for Jewish Affairs — first sat in a Jerusalem courtroom to face war crimes charges, his visage was known to very few. Television changed that. For West Germans, the impact was profound. Twice a week, for four months, entire families — and sometimes neighbors, too — gathered in living rooms to watch the reports from Jerusalem. “There was a lot of watching, and it changed the discussion about the Holocaust,” said philosopher Bettina Stangneth, whose book “Eichmann vor Jerusalem” (“Eichmann Faces Jerusalem”) is set to be published in Germany on April 18. It wasn’t as if most Germans wanted to watch the trial. “But back then, there was not such a big choice of programs,” Stangneth said. “They could not change the channel so easily.”
International Briefs New book: Man who arrested Anne Frank served West German intelligence BERLIN (JTA) — The man who arrested the family of Anne Frank in their Amsterdam hiding place 67 years ago worked for the West German intelligence agency for years, a new book has revealed. SS Oberscharfuhrer Karl Josef Silberbauer, an Austrian-born Nazi, worked for the West German secret service, or BND, according to author Peter-Ferdinand Koch, whose new book documents the biographies of Nazi soldiers and SS members who ended up working as spies for the democratic state. “It is outrageous and a disgrace to our country that the man who arrested Anne Frank and her family later worked for the BND,” Thomas Heppener, director of the Anne Frank Centre in Berlin, said in a statement Monday. The center is a partner to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. “I find it very regrettable that the
THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE IS CURRENTLY HIRING FOR THE FOLLOWING POSITIONS: Courtesy of Toby Axelrod
A visitor previewing the new Eichmann exhibition in Berlin listens to an excerpt of Eichmann’s testimony.
Now, as historical institutes and museums in Europe and elsewhere look back at the pivotal trial that began 50 years ago, on April 11, 1961, media coverage of the event is a key theme. In Frankfurt, German TV reports from 1961 will be shown at the Fritz-Bauer Institute, which is hosting a symposium on the Eichmann trial this month. At BND has only been involved in the processing of its own history since 2010, thus providing cover to Nazi-era perpetrators,” he added, while praising the work of Koch, a former editor at Der Spiegel magazine. Heppener urged the BND to speed up the release of more files on the Silberbauer case. According to the Austrian daily Kurier, Silberbauer was in the Soviet occupation zone in Vienna after the war. He was imprisoned for 14 months but later released to the German authorities, who wanted to tap the former SS man as an intelligence officer. German and Austrian authorities used numerous former Wehrmacht soldiers and SS men as spies against the Soviet Union, Koch writes. Koch reports that Silberbauer was a feared sadist. According to Haaretz, Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal located Silberbauer in October 1963. He was suspended from his job while an investigation was launched. Silberbauer died in 1972. Anne Frank’s father, Otto, the only one in the family to survive the war, reportedly believed the informant who revealed the family’s hiding place deserved punishment more than Silberbauer, who was just following orders.
Berlin’s Topography of Terror documentation center, videotaped testimony by witnesses and by Eichmann are part of a new exhibit. In Paris, the Memorial de la Shoah is dedicating a program to documentary filmmaker Leo Hurwitz, who directed the videotaping of the four-month trial. EICHMANN on page 22
- S TAFF W RITERS - B OOK R EVIEW COLUMNIST - F INANCIAL A DVICE COLUMNIST - T ONGUE - IN -C HEEK COLUMNIST To apply, please contact Ted Deutsch at 621-3145 or send your resume to publisher@americanisraelite.com
10
ISRAEL
THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE NEWSPAPER AND WEBSITE @ WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM
Pushed by Goldstone, Israeli army Remembering Henry Taub, Irving J. Shulman embraces new ‘smart’ warfare and Paul Baran
By Leslie Susser Jewish Telegraphic Agency JERUSALEM (JTA) — Despite Israel’s rejection of the Goldstone report on the Gaza war a year-anda-half ago, the international criticism it engendered has led the Israel Defense Forces to make a number of significant changes in policy and doctrine. And they’ll stay even though Richard Goldstone has recanted one of the most significant findings of his committee’s report — that Israel intentionally targeted civilians and may have perpetrated war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Among the changes made by the IDF were modifying the way soldiers fight in urban areas, teaching relatively low-level combat officers nuances in the laws of war, attaching humanitarian liaison officers to active forces and making media relations a priority. Last May, eight months after the Goldstone report was released, the IDF issued a new document defining rules of engagement in urban warfare. Although the ideas elaborated long had been standard practice, putting them down in writing was tantamount to introducing a new doctrine for fighting in built-up areas. The document noted that during the Gaza operation, even after every effort had been made to induce civilians to evacuate areas where combat was expected — for example, by dropping fliers and making direct telephone calls to area residents — more often than not some non-combatants stayed behind. The new doctrine requires that after efforts have been made to warn the civilian population to leave, the incoming troops first fire warning shots and give the remaining civilians a chance to leave safely. Then, to minimize casualties among civilians who nevertheless choose to stay, IDF fighters and commanders must use the most accurate weapons at their disposal and choose munitions of relatively low impact. The IDF also has taken signifi-
Israel Briefs Israel’s military ordering more Iron Dome defense systems JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s military is ordering four more Iron Dome missile defense sys-
By Alan D. Abbey Jewish Telegraphic Agency JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Eulogizer highlights the life accomplishments of famous and not-so-famous Jews who have passed away recently.
Courtesy of Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90/JTA
Israeli reservists taking part in an urban warfare exercise at a base in southern Israel in which they can simulate training as if they were fighting in the Gaza Strip or West Bank, October 2010.
cant legal steps. Officer training courses at company, battalion and brigade levels now include detailed study of international law, with special reference to the rules of war. The Military Advocate General’s Office and the Foreign Ministry consult regularly with foreign governments and international organizations to ensure that all IDF operations conform to accepted legal norms. During the monthlong Gaza War in the winter of 2008-09, legal advisers from the Military Advocate General’s Office served with combat forces, advising commanders in real time of what might constitute a breach of law. In January 2010, then Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi standardized this practice, instructing commanders to consult with legal advisers not only in the planning stages of military operations, but also during the actual fighting. To prevent possible loss of military focus, however, Ashkenazi ordered that the legal advisers be sent to divisional headquarters rather than battalions or brigades, as is common in some other Western armies. Another step the IDF has taken to help minimize civilian casualties and humanitarian distress on the other side is to attach humani-
tarian liaison officers to troops in the field. The officers come from a pool set up by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT, and are in regular contact with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and international aid organizations in Gaza. Their task in the event of hostilities is to help coordinate humanitarian needs on the Palestinian side and to point out locations of sensitive facilities like hospitals, schools and U.N. aid centers to ensure that they are not mistakenly targeted. Such officers were assigned during the Gaza War on an ad hoc basis and, according to the IDF, proved very effective. As a result, Ashkenazi decided in February 2010 to refine and institutionalize the system. The most radical change in IDF thinking since Goldstone has been in the realm of media relations. Now there is a firm consensus in the army that the way military actions are perceived is at least as important as their physical impact. Brig.-Gen. Avi Benayahu, the Israeli army’s outgoing spokesman, is fond of quoting the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen’s dictum that whereas public relations once was supplemental to battle, now battle is supplemental to PR.
tems, which successfully deployed during recent rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces said Monday that it would order the batteries from the Israel-based Rafael Advanced Defense Systems at a cost of up to $80 million each. The units reportedly will be delivered in a year-and-a-half and be ready for immediate use. Funding for the new defense batteries, which intercepted all of
the rockets in its coverage area in recent Gaza terrorist activity, is slated to come from an extra security aid allocation from the United States. The military aid, $3 billion for 2011, plus an additional $205 million for Iron Dome, has been tied up for five months due to a budget impasse in Washington. President Obama is scheduled to sign the 2011 budget bill, which includes the aid to Israel, later this week.
Henry Taub, 83, entrepreneur and philanthropist Henry Taub, whose Automatic Data Processing Inc. became an industry giant, launched Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s political career, took him to ownership of the NBA’s New Jersey Nets and led him to a second career as a leading Jewish philanthropist, died March 31, at 83. Among the leading Jewish and Israeli organizations praising Taub were the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, UJA Federation of Northern New Jersey, Hebrew University, American Technion Society and the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in New Jersey. Other recipients of funds from the Teaneck-based Henry and Marilyn Taub Foundation, which has assets of about $150 million, included Columbia University and New York University. Irving J. Shulman, 96, Daffy’s entrepreneur Irving J. Shulman, the retail entrepreneur whose discount clothing store chain Daffy’s moved onto Manhattan’s tony Fifth Avenue promising “bargains for millionaires,” died March 25, at 96. Shulman died just short of the 50th anniversary of the opening of his original store, Daffy Dan’s Bargain Town in Elizabeth, N.J. The family-owned chain, now with 17 stores in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and with plans to open in Times Square, had $150 million in sales in 2009, said Marcia Wilson, the company’s chairman and Shulman’s daughter. Shulman’s outlandish marketing stunts caught the public’s attention. Among other gimmicks, he once posted a mannequin on the roof prompting concerns of a suicide jumper; parked a Rolls-Royce outside a store to underscore the “bargains for millionaires” slogan; and offered a $700 monthly lease for a year on a furnished Greenwich Village apartment that normally rented for $7,000, The New York Times reported. Jack Gelfond, 80, salesman and ‘Santa’ Jack Gelfond, an ebullient salesman who played Santa Claus for children in tough Chicago housing projects, died March 27 on his 80th birthday. Over the
years he sold clothing, insurance and corporate awards. “He wasn’t afraid of being in the company of anybody, whether they were big executives — or the simplest of people,” said his wife, Marlene. According to the Chicago SunTimes, that same attitude prompted him to don a Santa costume and go “anywhere social workers said St. Nick was needed. Kids would line up around the block,” including at Chicago’s tough Cabrini-Green projects. Paul Baran, 84, engineer, Internet ‘creator’ Paul Baran, an engineer who outlined one of the core principles of the Internet in the early 1960s and an entrepreneur who later started companies that went public, died March 26 at 84 in Palo Alto, Calif. Baran outlined the basic idea for what has become the Internet while working at the Rand Corp., a think tank with close Defense Department ties, in the early 1960s. His idea was to transmit data in a safe fashion by dividing it into “packets,” sending the packets to their destination along separate routes, using redundant routes as well, and then “reassembling” them into a single file. Colleagues and friends described Baran’s ideas and research as essential to the concept. “Paul wasn’t afraid to go in directions counter to what everyone else thought was the right or only thing to do,” said Google Vice President Vinton Cerf. Stanley Bleifeld, 86, sculptor Stanley Bleifeld, a sculptor whose public monuments include the statue of the Lone Sailor U.S. Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the Baseball Players at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., died March 25 at 86. Bleifeld, who was born in Brooklyn, became known as a sculptor after a five-part bronze relief he designed for the Vatican Pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. Bleifeld divided his time between Weston, Conn., where he taught and worked, and Pietrasanta, Italy, where he recently completed a large bronze for the town hall. Adiva Mirza Soleiman Kalimi, Iranian dissident Adiva Mirza Soleiman Kalimi, a Jewish Iranian married to an Armenian Iranian Christian, was executed along with her husband in an Iranian prison on March 14, according to a news website focusing on news of Iranian Christians.
SOCIAL LIFE
THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2011
A N N O U N C E M E N TS
THE OLDEST ENGLISH J E W I S H W E E K LY I N A M E R I C A IS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE ONLINE
(L-R) Ronna Willis, Mona Kerstine, Joyce Salinger, Zell Schulman and Arlene Katz
GATHERING onna Willis of Amberley Village, Mona Kerstine of Montgomery, Joyce Salinger of Hyde Park, Zell Schulman of Walnut Hills and Arlene Katz of Amberley Village attended a March 25 organizational meeting in support of the seventh World Choir Games. Arlene, along with William Katz, are co-chairs of the WCG’s Philanthropic Engagement team. The “Olympics of Choral Music” will be held in Cincinnati on July 4-14, 2012. The 2012 event will mark the first time the World Choir Games will be hosted in the United States.
R
AWARD r. Ralph L. Becker, research psychologist and educator, was the recent recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, a distinguished honor that the Ohio Psychological
D
Dr. Ralph L. Becker
Association (OPA) bestows. The ceremony took place in conjunction with the annual convention in Columbus. Becker was presented the award by OPA president, Dr. Catherine Gaw, for his longstanding dedication and service to the field of psychology as a science and a profession. The award recognizes his scholarship and outstanding contribution to the specialty of test construction and psychological measurement. His evaluation instruments, developed during the 1970s and 1980s, have significantly benefited people with intellectual and physical disabilities for more than 40 years. Becker has written more than 20 scientific articles and reviews in professional journals. He has lectured at various universities and conferences in the United States and Canada. His research articles on vocational competency and the measurement of vocational personality traits of people with disabilities has appeared in professional literature for more than four decades. In 1975, a special homage was given Becker by Dr. George Soloyanis, executive director of the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR). The occasion recognized his research on the vocational interest measurement of adolescent youth and young adults with mental retardation. That same year, his research was published and copies deposited in AAMR’s archives in Washington, D.C.
11
EDITION
www.americanisraelite.com
PASSOVER COVER COLORING CONTEST HONORABLE MENTIONS
Noah Vigran, 11, Rockwern Academy
Asher Weinstein, 11, Rockwern Academy
Emma Schneider, 10, Rockwern Academy
Elyse Kadish, 8, Rockwern Academy
Olivia Edelstein, 10, Rockwern Academy
Jenna Caller, 11, Rockwern Academy
Jeremy Wittenbaum, 10, Rockwern Academy
Bayley Goodman, 10, Rockwern Academy
Olivia Vigran, 8, Rockwern Academy
PASSOVER COVER COLORING CONTEST HONORABLE MENTIONS
Solomon Kravitz, 10, Rockwern Academy
Jacob Peri, 8, Rockwern Academy
Elise Kravitz, 8, Rockwern Academy
Elizabeth Weisberger, 8, Rockwern Academy
Naomi Horner, 9, Rockwern Academy
Bernard Netanel, 9, Rockwern Academy
Calvin Miles, 7, Rockwern Academy
Ethan Kadish, 10, Rockwern Academy
Leah Mossman, 10, Rockwern Academy
14
DINING OUT
THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE NEWSPAPER AND WEBSITE @ WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM
Sugar ‘n Spice, still sparkling nice after all these years By Marilyn Gale Dining Editor Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold — is a tune I learned during my adolescent youth group days. Can you see the connection to our beloved Sugar ‘n Spice, 70 years old, and chock-full of memories? Though people have grown up and moved away, they often return with their children and even grandchildren to eat in the newly revived friendly and whimsical atmosphere of Sugar ‘n Spice. The Paddock Hills coffee shop is something of a landmark as generation after generation come for daytime meals, starting with the wispy pancakes and good coffee. Now, to make this charming old time urban diner more available to its many fans, Sugar ‘n Spice will offer dinner, open until 8 p.m., on Thursday through Saturday, beginning in April through September. Steve Frankel, owner, is an exuberant fellow who enjoys making his customers happy. He is your favorite relative, always ready to pull out a candy or a coin from oversized pants pockets, delighting you with an extra gift. A marketing man, Frankel has upgraded the food, still retaining the old recipes and lovable staff, and has added surprises. You might find yourself being offered a bit of cheesecake brownie—for free—small enough that most diet places would say go ahead, have a taste. Or Frankel might place a tiny old fashioned ice cream treat made from red cream soda pop in front of you. So how can you resist? Or, and there is still more, the golden dollars Frankel likes to pass out. He is gleeful when he pulls out of his shirt pocket a shiny coin, and I am equally pleased when he gives it to me. This gelt he gives to the children of customers and everybody is happy. Frankel is wisely a fan of memories, and his eating establishment is bulging with old energy merged with the new. He has launched a “Tell us your story campaign” where customers evaluate their dining experience and share a past memory. These short narratives are posted on the restaurant’s website. Plants have replaced fresh flowers. A new jazzy menu in turquoise,
Cincinnati's first and only true wine, restaurant and wine retail store. Come in and enjoy an appetizer or entrée paired with one of the 100 wines we pour daily.
101 Main St • Historic Milford
831-Brix • www.20brix.com
(Clockwise) Steve Frankel welcomes all to this long standing neighborhood restaurant; Cheesecake brownies and ice cream sodas are old fashioned “free” treats at Sugar ‘n Spice; Busy, bright, serving big portions, Sugar ‘n Spice is now open for dinner during spring, summer and early fall, Thursday through Sunday evenings; Sweet potato waffles paired with fried chicken wings are a new item on the menu.
orange and gold colors accented by mouthwatering pictures of food is visually satisfying. Local graphic artist, Chad Edward, has come up with the perfect update and given Sugar ‘n Spice a bold makeover. The food is filling and comforting, the service fast and snappy. Frankel has added turkey bacon, tilapia, New York strip steak, and sweet potato waffles with fried chicken wings to the menu. I tasted the waffles, loaded with healthy cinnamon, sweet enough to be dessert. The grills are out in full force in spring, summer and early fall. Turkey is roasting while chicken quarters are sizzling on the grill. Sugar ‘n Spice is within walking distance of a few residential neighborhoods. Baby boomers should put on their aerobic shoes and stroll
here for a cup of coffee, a pancake or split one of their huge omelets. The omelets are legendary with three plus eggs as the base. Build your own omelet starts at $5.25. Be creative — add vegetables, cheese or meat to the fluffy bundle. Kosher salami, red and yellow peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, turkey, corned beef, lots of choices are available. Include an order of wispy thin pancakes and you will feast upon food that has satisfied generations of taste buds. Sugar ‘n Spice is not just well known within the Jewish community. The Cincinnati Herald wrote a recent article extolling the virtues of its longevity and commitment to cultural diversity. It is nice to be recognized for this value. On March 22, 2011, Mayor Mark
Mallory presented Frankel with a city proclamation recognizing Sugar ‘n Spice as a “landmark establishment, a historical icon and dining tradition for generations in the heart of Cincinnati’s Paddock Hills neighborhood. Frankel is an advocate of giving back to community, another strong Jewish value. Sugar ‘n Spice has hosted multiple charity events and promises to continue to do so. Hearty meals, reasonable prices, plenty of parking, the old fashioned U-shaped counter remains, but the stools have been reupholstered. Whether you are in the mood for pancakes or a sandwich, salmon patties or a burger, Sugar ‘n Spice has it. Daily specials are on the board. Passover menu choices will also be available. You
can’t beat the prices. Grilled cheese for $3, 6 ounce burger for $5, wispy thin pancakes, a full order $4, such a deal. In an economy where prices are continually on the rise, this restaurant seems to be reversing the trend. Urban living is back on the map. Empty nesters are returning to the city, walking through neighborhoods has become popular. Having an amiable destination makes exercising more fun. Come to Sugar ‘n Spice for breakfast, lunch and sometimes dinner. Meet old friends and savor recipes that have withstood the test of time.
OUTDOOR DINING AVAILABLE
GET RESULTS.
Sugar ‘n Spice 4381 Reading Road Cincinnati, OH 45229 513-242-3521
Place your restaurant ad here! Daily Specials & Homemade Soups LIVE MUSIC ON FRIDAYS @ 7PM LIVE TRIVIA ON SATURDAYS @ 7:30PM
10738 KENWOOD RD. 791-2199 www.throughthegarden.com
Your restaurant will also receive featured articles and a spot in the dining out guide.
Call 621-3145 today.
DINING OUT
THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2011
15
DINING OUT 20 Brix 101 Main St Historic Milford 831-Brix (2749)
Ferrari’s Little Italy & Bakery 7677 Goff Terrace Madeira 272-2220
Parkers Blue Ash Grill 4200 Cooper Rd Blue Ash 891-8300
Ambar India Restaurant 350 Ludlow Ave Cincinnati 281-7000
Gabby’s Cafe 515 Wyoming Ave Wyoming 821-6040
Pomodori’s 121West McMillan • 861-0080 7880 Remington Rd Montgomery • 794-0080
Andy’s Mediterranean Grille At Gilbert & Nassau 2 blocks North of Eden Park 281-9791
Izzy’s 800 Elm St • 721-4241 612 Main St • 241-6246 5098B Glencrossing Way 347-9699 1198 Smiley Ave • 825-3888 300 Madison Ave Covington • 859-292-0065
Slatt’s Pub 4858 Cooper Rd Blue Ash 791-2223 • 791-1381 (fax)
Aroma Restaurant & Sushi 7875 Montgomery Rd Kenwood 791-0950 Baba India Restaurant 3120 Madison Rd Cincinnati 321-1600 Bangkok Terrace 4858 Hunt Rd Blue Ash 891-8900 • 834-8012 (fx) Bella Luna Café 4632 Eastern Ave Cincinnati 871-5862 Blue Elephant 2912 Wasson Rd Cincinnati 351-0123 Carlo & Johnny 9769 Montgomery Rd Cincinnati 936-8600 CUMIN 3520 Erie Ave Hyde Park 871-8714 Dingle House 9102 Towne Centre Dr West Chester 874-PINT (7468)
Johnny Chan 2 11296 Montgomery Rd The Shops at Harper’s Point 489-2388 • 489-3616 (fx) K.T.’s Barbecue & Deli 8501 Reading Rd Reading 761-0200 Kanak India Restaurant 10040B Montgomery Rd Montgomery 793-6800 Marx Hot Bagels 9701 Kenwood Rd Blue Ash 891-5542 Mecklenburg Gardens 302 E. University Ave Clifton 221-5353 MEI Japanese Restaurant 8608 Market Place Ln Montgomery 891-6880 Oriental Wok 2444 Madison Rd Hyde Park 871-6888
Sonoma American & Med. Grill 3012 Madison Rd Cincinnati 376-9941 Stone Creek Dining Co. 9386 Montgomery Rd Montgomery 489-1444 Sugar n’ Spice 4381 Reading Rd Cincinnati 242-3521 Sukhothai Thai Cuisine 8102 Market Place Ln Cincinnati 794-0057 Sultan’s Med. Cuisine 7305 Tyler’s Corner Dr West Chester 847-1535 Tandoor 8702 Market Place Ln Montgomery 793-7484
AMBAR
BABA
KANAK
350 LUDLOW AVE. CINCINNATI, OH 45220 (513) 281-7000
3120 MADISON RD. CINCINNATI, OH 45209 (513) 321-1600
10040B MONTGOMERY RD. CINCINNATI, OH 45242 (513) 793-6800
CINCINNATI’S BEST INDIAN RESTAURANTS
Now Serving
NEW YORK-STYLE
CORNED BEEF (FIRST CUT, LEAN) At ONLY $14.49/lb, it’s the BEST PRICE in Town! ...and don’t forget about these comfort food favorites!
ROAST BRISKET & CHICKEN DINNERS SERVED WITH CARROTS, POTATOES & GRAVY
HOMEMADE CHOPPED LIVER MADE WITH REAL SHMALTZ! All orders are to be made 2 days in advance of pickup.
CALL 761-0200 FOR DAILY SPECIALS MON 11-2, TUE-FRI 11-8, SAT 3-8, CLOSED SUN KENNY TESSEL’S
KT’S BARBECUE & DELI 8501 READING ROAD • 513-761-0200 View our menu @ ktsbbqanddeli.com CATERING AVAILABLE FOR ANY AND ALL OCCASIONS
Through the Garden 10738 Kenwood Rd Cincinnati 791-2199 View Restaurant 2200 Victory Pkwy Cincinnati 751-8439
Padrino 111 Main St Milford 965-0100
Enjoy Our al Fresco Patio Dining • Private Dining Rooms Full-service Dining • Carry-out • On-premise Italian Bakery
KIDS EAT FREE on Sundays 1/2 PRICE WINE on Tuesdays and Wednesdays $5 MARTINIS on Sundays and Mondays
Sushi • Steaks • Raw Bar Live Music Every Tues thru Sat! (513) 936-8600 9769 MONTGOMERY RD. www.jeffruby.com
9386 Montgomery Rd Cincinnati, OH 45242 (513) 489-1444
Lunch: Mon - Fri 11:30–2:30 Dinner: Mon - Thu 5–10 • Fri & Sat 5–11 • Sun 4–9
7677 Goff Terrace • Madeira, OH 45243 513-272-2220 • www.ferrarilittleitaly.com
OPINION
THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE NEWSPAPER AND WEBSITE @ WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM
A Song From Beyond
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Do you have something to say? E-mail your letter to editor@americanisraelite.com
Dear Editor Swinging my feet beneath the pew, I catch the yawn that threatens to expose my boredom. I furtively glance past the other children to Sister Olga further down the aisle. She is staring reverently at the sanctuary praying along with Father Dmitri. My best Sunday clothes are stiff and itchy, and my tightly pinned golden curls tug at my scalp. I wonder if Sister Olga wears her headdress because, over the years, the tight pins tore all her hair out. Biting my tongue, I barely contain my giggle. Sighing, I succumb myself to the remainder of mass by continuing the rhythmical motion of my legs. The pungent incense penetrates my senses. Father Dmitri lights the multitude of candles in the front of the sanctuary. His black robes flow around him as he treads over the stone floor. His deep and droning voice chants the endless ritual of prayers. Sister Olga pulls out her prayer beads, and her spindly fingers lovingly caress them. Her eyes flash to the children around her warning us that we had better do the same. As a result, the entire sanctuary bustles as we reach for our rosaries. My awkward adolescent fingers fiddle with the wooden beads meaninglessly. In the sanctuary, a brass cross thinly frames the distorted body of a pierced and beaten Jesus.
Mother Mary stands detached, gazing emotionlessly, while many scenes of Biblical people and events are played out in stained glass behind her. The lifeless figures are irrelevant; I prefer to talk directly to Jesus in Heaven. Jesus, I am so glad you always listen to my prayers. I want to ask you for a favor. You know that I usually don’t ask for myself, but there are some things I really want to know. Who is my family? Where do I come from? Father Dmitri says I was brought to them for protection from the Nazis during the war many years ago. However, I don’t think I belong here now. I’m looking for answers. Please, help me find who I am! I lift my head and face Sister Olga’s threatening glare. The other children are lining up to go back to the living quarters. Sister Olga points one pale brittle finger to the forming line and clears her throat. “Eliana,” she barks in a husky voice as she stares down her nose at me, “get in line now!” I hastily slide off the firm bench and take my position in line as Sister Olga strides to the front next to Father Dmitri. They march us silently through the dark hallways to our school room. A loud knock abruptly diverts Sister Olga’s attention to the orphanage entrance. “Children, please meditate on the sermon and peruse your
Bibles,” Father Dmitri instructs before he settles into his favorite chair in the far corner of the room. Obediently, we bring out our Bibles from within our desks. I gently stroke the gold embroidery of my Bible — my one treasure in this place. Father Dmitri had given it to me at my very First Communion. During the last few years, I have cherished every word. I flip through the worn pages and stop at a favorite verse in Deuteronomy 31:6. “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy G-d, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” Taking the words to heart, I fervently continue to read. Unexpectedly, the door latch lifts with a sharp click. Everyone in the room halts their breath. The large door swings open, and Sister Olga enters followed closely by an unfamiliar man. The stranger has creases in every shadow on his face. Beneath his chin, and from shoulder to shoulder, stretches a mass of thick whiskers. The man wears a small cap on the crown of his head over wisps of white hair. My eyes widen and my hand quickly covers my gasp. He’s Jewish! “Sister Olga, I see we have a visitor.” Father Dmitri’s voice booms as he stands up to greet the guest. LETTERS on page 19
T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: PASSOVER HAGADDAH 1. How long did the scholars in Bnei Brak tell over the story of the Exodus? a.) Until midnight b.) Until they finished eating the Paschal sacrifice c.) Until near sunrise 2. How is Jacob mentioned in the Hagaddah? a.) Father of the twelve tribes b.) Moved to Egypt only temporarily c.) He blessed Pharaoh 3. What was unique about the plague of the first born? a.) Done by Hashem himself into their country and enslaved us. When we gained our freedom, we perform the mitzvah of inviting guests without any thought of enslavement.
My dear mother, of blessed memory, has been gone for 22 years. Her yahrtzeit, the Jewish anniversary of her passing, 22 Adar I, fell on a Shabbos this year, several weeks ago. All who knew her will readily testify that she was one of the kindest, most caring people they had ever met. Despite her transplantation from Poland to the U.S. as a little girl, and then the loss of her grandmother, a brother and her father when she was a teen, no scars of those challenges were ever evident in her interactions with people — the moment she met you she began caring for you — and she was the most wonderful mother any child could ask for. And she was present at our Shabbos table on her yahrtzeit this year. She even taught my grandson a song. Two year old Shmuel, who was visiting with his parents and little brother, is an adorable, rambunctious little boy; to his good fortune, his propensity to display his impressive pitching arm and ability to break things have been divinely counterbalanced with preternaturally blue eyes and a smile that could melt Pharaoh’s heart. He’s a quick learner too. At one point, someone at the meal claimed to be directionally challenged, needing to consciously think about which way was right and which was left. I smiled as I realized, and explained, how I came to have a split-second recognition of which way is right. When I was a little boy, probably a bit older than Shmuel, I would accompany my mother on Shabbos afternoons to the shul in Baltimore’s Lower Park Heights neighborhood where my father, may he be well, was rabbi. There, she would host a gathering of neighborhood children for snacks and songs and stories. One song has remained with me over more than half-century since. It consisted of the verse “Kol rina viy’shua bi’oholei tzaddikim; yemin Hashem osoh choyil”: “The sound of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous; Hashem’s right hand does valiantly” (Tehillim 118, 15). And, in the song, the word for “right hand” — “yemin” —was repeated with gusto thrice, each time with everyone thrusting a right fist into the air. And so, I recounted, I need only think of the word yemin and my right arm starts automatically to
move. I demonstrated the song and the motion, much to the amusement of Shmuel, who then shouted “Yemin!” three times, complete with hand motion. As we all laughed, I realized with a start that, my goodness, my mother had just reached through the years — on her yahrtzeit no less — and taught her great-grandson a song! Of course, I think she is constantly teaching him many other more important things as well. Every time I am moved to do something kind or considerate, I know it is her legacy (bequeathed to her no less by her parents) that I am, if imperfectly, embracing, and hopefully passing on to others. My wife and I, and our children — Shmuel’s mother among them — along with their spouses are all links in a chain of generations, passing on the Jewish beliefs and values we have absorbed from our forebears to the young with whom we have been entrusted. In fact, being such links is arguably our most important role in life. And whether we’re adequately filling it should be our constant concern. More recently, my wife, perhaps in the spirit of chaos associated with the season, invited Shmuel’s parents to leave him with us for the Shabbos before Purim, an offer they couldn’t refuse. We had a wonderful time hosting our grandson. He managed to break only one child-proof gate, open only one child-proof cabinet (though several times) and drop just one book into the aquarium. (My wife’s quick move prevented Shmuel’s socks from following.) That Friday night, when I returned from shul, the house was very quiet. Shmuel had been put to bed, but hadn’t yet fallen asleep. To soothe him and ensure that he didn’t climb out of his crib (something in which he has considerable expertise and experience) and wreak havoc, our daughter was sitting in the darkened room with him. He was babbling quietly, probably planning his mischief for the next day. While we were waiting for the babble to fade to the peaceful slow breathing of well-deserved sleep, my wife excitedly motioned to me to come closer to the bedroom door, which was slightly ajar. And then, bringing me a rush — and a smile leavened with a tear — I heard what she had: “Yemin!” Shmuel’s little-boy voice was piping. “Yemin! Yemin!”
b.) The method was something never seen before c.) Came unannounced 4. What do we tell the son who does not know to ask a question? a.) Nothing b.) Communicate to him,that the seder is a reminder that Hashem took us out of Egypt c.) Give him a piece of the Afikomen 5. Which mitzvah do we mention before the start of the Magid? a.) Eating the Paschal sacrifice b.) Learning Torah c.) Inviting guests into our homes
4. B 5. A and C The reason we say “Ha Lachma Anya” before the start of the Magid could be to show true freedom. The Egyptians invited us
Rabbi Avi Shafran Contributing Columnist
Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise
Answers 1. C 2. B 3. A
16
JEWISH LIFE
THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2011
17
Sedra of the Week By Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
SHABBAT SHALOM: SHABBAT HAGADOL/PARSHAT AHREI MOT LEVITICUS 16:1–18:30
Efrat, Israel — “For seven days leaven may not be found in your homes, for anyone who eats even a mixture of food with the slightest amount of hametz, his soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel” (Ex. 12:19). Every festival requires preparation but no holiday is approached with the kind of frenzied, frenetic cleaning which marks the approach of Pessah. Indeed, the usual greeting among observant Jews before Purim is “Have a joyous Purim” (Purim sameah), whereas before Passover it is, “Have a kosher Pessah” (Hag kasher vesameah). An astute rabbi once commented that it should be the opposite: on Purim we should wish each other a “kosher” Purim, since we are commanded to drink on Purim, and under the influence of inebriating beverages, there is no limit to the unkosher words a person might express or unkosher deeds they might commit. On Pessah, however, we need to remind each other to be joyous, because the cleaning to rid our homes of hametz (leavened products) can sap the strength of even the most energetic. There are three biblical verses which command us to remove every trace of hametz before the festival: “...before the first day [of Pessah] you must destroy [or nullify] the leaven from your homes” (Ex. 12:15); “For seven days leaven may not be found in your homes, for anyone who eats even a mixture of food with the slightest amount of hametz, his soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel” (Ex. 12:19); “Since matzot must be eaten for these seven days, no leaven may be seen in your possession; no leaven may be seen in your boundaries” (Ex. 13:7). No wonder Jews become obsessive in preparation for Pessah! What lies behind this emphasis on eliminating hametz? Interestingly enough, both the rationalists and the mystics, the mitnagdim as well as the hassidim, agree that hametz symbolizes the evil instinct, the spirit of Satan which all too often invades
The inflated nature of hametz symbolizes crass materialism, the kind of self-importance which leaves no room for others, and certainly no room for G-d. It also symbolizes the swelling connected with the stimulation of the libido outside the context of love and marriage. the inner domain of even the best of us. How so? From a religio-legal (halachic) perspective, hametz is any one of the five grains — wheat, barley, rye, oats or spelt — mixed with water for more than 18 minutes, which then rises or ferments. Conversely, matza is any one of those same grains mixed with water for less than 18 minutes, so that the dough will not rise. These grains are known as the staff of life for every human being. Hametz is puffed-up matza, whereas matza is simple hametz. The inflated nature of hametz symbolizes crass materialism, the kind of self-importance which leaves no room for others, and certainly no room for G-d. It also symbolizes the swelling connected with the stimulation of the libido outside the context of love and marriage. Since the dough must be constantly kneaded with one’s hands to prevent fermentation, whereas a mere lack of conscious effort will allow dough to rise automatically, hametz also suggests sloth and bored passivity. Matza, from this perspective, suggests active intervention. Just as the same grains can produce either hametz or matza, the very etymology of the words is almost identical: hmtz and mtzh – the only difference is the soft or hard “h.” Moreover, matzot and mitzvot (divine commands) are spelled exactly the same way in Hebrew. This moralistic exposition emanates from our Talmudic texts. The first mishna in tractate Pessahim opens: “On the evening
of the 14th day [of Nisan—this year, Sunday night April 17], we must search for [and eliminate] hametz by the light of a candle.” The talmudic sages compare this to G-d’s ferreting out of evil in Jerusalem by the light of a candle before the coming of the Messiah (Zephaniah 1:12), and cite as the proof-text: “The candle of the Lord is the soul of the human being; He searches the innermost recesses” (Proverbs 20:27). Hence our search for hametz is much more than “spring housecleaning”; it is, rather, a cleansing of our inner selves, of our souls. And how appropriate that this is the way we prepare for Pessah, the festival of our birth as a nation. Tradition has it that Elijah will prepare the world for Redemption before the Passover of universal freedom, and will do so by “turning the hearts of the parents to the children and the hearts of the children to the parents,” through teshuva — repentance (Malachi 3:23-24). Our mission as a nation is to bring the world to compassionate righteousness and moral justice — tzedaka and mishpat (Genesis 18:19), the virtues for which G-d chose Abraham and charged him with bringing the blessing of redemption to all the nations (Gen. 12: 3). We cannot begin to fulfill our mission unless we first extirpate the hametz from our souls! Shabbat Shalom Rabbi Shlomo Riskin Chancellor Ohr Torah Stone Chief Rabbi — Efrat Israel
an innovative, warm and welcoming modern orthodox synagogue
BAT MITZVAH – RACHEL DEUTSCH SERVICES
MAY 7, 2011 HELD AT RITSS – 2209 LOSANTIVILLE RD.
W W W . S H A A R E I T O R A H C I N C Y. O R G
18
JEWZ IN THE NEWZ
Jewz in the Newz By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist PESACH, THE LIGHT SIDE For two years running, Pulitzer Prize winning humorist Dave Barry has come up with quite funny Passover-related remarks. Barry, who describes himself as an atheist, is the son of a Presbyterian minister. Since 1996, he has been married to Miami Herald sportswriter MICHELLE KAUFMAN. They had a daughter, SOPHIE, in 2000. Sophie is being raised Jewish and Barry sometimes accompanies his wife and child to synagogue services. On April 2, Barry did a radio interview held before a live (Miami) audience. He was asked if he would ever leave Miami. He replied: “No, because my wife won’t let me…My wife is really rooted here. She’s Cuban Jewish. Juban, they call them. Yes, there are Jubans in the audience. They didn’t come over on rafts, they parted the Caribbean.” In 2010, Barry told the NY Times: “My wife is Jewish, and when it’s Passover, we’ll have a house full of people eating roofing materials for a week. I keep telling them: ‘Come over to the lapsedPresbyterian side. We can eat anything.’” REISER RETURNS Comedian and actor PAUL REISER (“Mad About You”) returns to TV in the new NBC sitcom, “The Paul Reiser Show” (starts Thursday, April 14 at 8:30 PM). He plays a version of himself — his character is called Paul Reiser, and he is the former star of “Mad About You.” Reiser (the TV character) has two nice young kids and a very nice wife (played by Amy Landecker). He also has a group of buddies to hang out with (including one played by BEN SHENKMAN, 42). The question Reiser asks in the series preview is: “I have everything I want. What do I do now?” (Of course, “we know” that what Reiser is “doing now” is starring in another TV series.) In real life, Reiser does seem to be doing very well. As we know, he has a new TV show. Also, in real life, he’s been married to PAULA RAVETS, a psychologist, since 1988, and they have two sons, 15 and 10. In 2009, Reiser, 54, and his whole family visited Israel during Passover. He also was in Israel in 1984, when Ravets, his then-girlfriend, was studying at Tel Aviv University.
PLAY BALL (HARDBALL; NOT MATZOH) Here’s this year’s list of Hebrew major leaguers. All the players below have at least one Jewish parent and were raised Jewish or secular. This list was prepared with the aid of Jewish Sports Review magazine. The number of players is down this year: the Dodgers’ cut outfielder GABE KAPLER, 34, at the end of spring training. Also, Texas Rangers pitcher SCOTT FELDMAN, 27, is out indefinitely recovering from surgery. On major league rosters are: RYAN BRAUN, 27, outfielder, Milwaukee Brewers. The 2007 rookie-of-year, Braun has made the all-star team every year since 2008 and had another outstanding year in 2010—hitting .304, with 25 homers, and 103 RBIs; CRAIG BRESLOW, 30, relief pitcher, Oakland Athletics. Now in his third season with the A’s, he was quite effective in 2010, notching five saves in 75 appearances. The former captain of the Yale University baseball team, he has a degree in biophysics and biochemistry. In January, the Sporting News named him the “smartest professional athlete” in any pro sport; IKE DAVIS, 23, first base, NY Mets. In his rookie season, Davis did well—hitting .264 with 71 RBIs. Plus he can field; SAM FULD, outfielder, Tampa Bay. Fuld played only 19 games with the Cubs last season and was traded to Tampa in the off-season. He is on the roster as the fourth outfielder; JOHN GRABOW, 32, relief pitcher, Chicago Cubs. He suffered a serious knee injury in 2010. The team is hoping he’ll return to form; IAN KINSLER, 28, second base, Texas. Kinsler, who put up All-Star numbers during his first four seasons, was injured for much of 2010 and his hitting stats were way down; JASON MARQUIS, pitcher, Washington Nationals. Alternately brilliant and ineffective during his 10 year MLB career, Marquis was out for a good part of the 2010 season with injuries. He did show good control at the very end of 2010; DANNY VALENCIA, 26, third base, Minnesota Twins. He was called-up to the big club in June and had a good rookie season, hitting .311, with seven home runs; KEVIN YOUKILIS, 32, Boston Red Sox. The Cincinnati native was a 2010 All-Star and was posting his usual great numbers when an injury on Aug. 2 sidelined him for the rest of 2010.
THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE NEWSPAPER AND WEBSITE @ WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM
FROM THE PAGES 100 Years Ago Mr. Leo Snow and Miss Edith Binswanger were married Tuesday evening at the residence of the bride’s mother on Harvey Avenue, Avondale, Dr. Philipson officiating. Mrs. Louis Geismar, of Sans Souci Apartments, is spending the holidays with her daughter, Mrs. Theo Rosenfelder, of Charleston, W.Va., where she will be joined for the weekend by her son, Siegfried Geismar, of Walnut Hills High School. Mrs. Phoebe Cohen, the venerable mother of former Senator Alfred M. Cohen, calmly passed away on
Monday, April 10. Although 88 years old, Mrs. Cohen was in the best of health and spirits when her son left to go to his law office in the morning. She was ill less than five hours and did not suffer. The machinery of life was worn out, her heart failed and she sank to eternal rest. Mrs. Cohen lived with her son in Avondale since the death of her husband, Morton S. Cohen, about five years ago. They had lived together 62 years when the perfect union of hearts and hands was broken. Besides Senator Cohen six daughters, 17 grandchildren and
a number of great-grandchildren survive this mother in Israel. Her funeral took place from the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred M. Cohen, 3557 Reading Road, Avondale, Wednesday morning, at 10 o’clock. Mrs. Cohen had lived in Cincinnati 66 years, she and her husband having come here shortly after their marriage in New York. She was widely known and much loved. Dr. Philipson officiated at the last rites, and the remains were laid by the side of her departed helpmate in Lickrun Cemetery. — April 13, 1911
75 Years Ago In Honor of the 70th birthday of Mr. Sol H. Blank of Mt. Carmel, Ill., his son and daughter, Dr. and Mrs. Sheldon H. Blank, 211 Lafayette Circle, entertained at a family dinner at home, Tuesday April14th. Those present included Mr. and Mrs. Blank and their children, the host and hostess; Dr. Irvine Blank, Boston; and Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Solomon (Henrietta Blank), with their daughter, Nancy, Indianapolis. Mr. and Mrs. Philip Hirschberg will entertain with a family dinner
at their home on Cleveland Avenue Saturday evening, April 25th, in honor of Mr. Hirschberg’s 70th birthday, which occurs Tuesday, April 21st.With them on this joyous occasion will be their children, Mrs. Meyer Uhlfelder, Mrs. Sidney L. Samuel, Dr. Alex Hirschberg and Mr. Milton Hirschberg, all of Cincinnati. Mr. Victor Sedacca, maitre d’hotel of the Hotel Sinton for 19 years, has been appointed manager’s assistant in charge of all departments of
the hotel. In addition to his new duties, Mr. Sedacca will continue to direct the catering service. Mr. Sedacca is leader of the Sephardic grouping in Price Hill and is one of the outstanding figures in the congregation and the community. Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Weil, their son Gordon, Jr., and the Misses Margery and Caroline Weil, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Weil, returned this week from a motor trip in Florida. — April 16, 1936
50 Years Ago Mrs. Victor S. Greenebaum, 1325 Westminster Drive, has accepted the chairmanship of the house-to-house solicitation Tuesday night, April 25. Last year she was co-chairman of the division. Her mother, Mrs. Sidney Weil, Belvedere Apartments, 1960 chairman, will be her daughter’s co-chairman. Mrs. Greenebaum is a graduate of Walnut Hills High School and UC. She has served as a member of the Nursery
School Standards Board and is a member of the board of the local unit of the Cancer Society. She is a member of Rockdale Sisterhood. Dr. Louis M. Scheineson, 5047 Oberlin Boulevard, Bond Hill, is listed in the current 1960-61 edition of “Leaders in American Science.” This is an illustrated biographical directory of leaders in research, industrial, governmental and educational scientific fields in the United States and
Canada. Millard Hirschfeld, 3650 Washington Avenue, passed away Sunday, April 9. Survivors include his parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Hirschfeld; three sisters, Mrs. Gilbert Samders and Mrs. Jonas Benet of Cincinnati and Mrs. Ernest H. Breuer of Albany, N.Y. Mr. Hirschfeld was a partner in the Hirschfeld Printing Co., 410 W. Court Street. He was 47 years old.— April 13, 1961
25 Years Ago The Multiple Sclerosis Society will hold its first annual Dinner of Champions Thursday, April 24, at The Westin Hotel. The MS Society will honor Gene Elkus, president of Gentry Shops, for 10 years of exceptional volunteer leadership. Mr. Elkus will receive the National Sclerosis Society’s “Oscar,” the crystal Hope Award. Frank Gifford, ABC sportscaster, will be master of ceremonies. Connie
Phinney, 1984 Olympic gold medallist in cycling, and Buck Buchanan, former Kansas City Chief and Miller Lite All Star will speak. Mr. Elkus has served on the Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Board of Trustees for 10 years. In 1978, 1979 and 1980 he was the chairman for the chapter’s annual major event, Race Nite. He also chaired the Pete Rose farewell dinner in 1979 and served on the Athletes in Action Committee in 1980.
Mrs. Nancy Strikman Seltz has just been selected outstanding Latin teacher of the year by The Classical Association of The Midwest and South, representing 30 states and four Canadian provinces. Mrs. Seltz, a summa cum laude graduate of Walnut Hills High School and The University of Cincinnati, teaches Latin at Walnut Hills. She and her husband, Donald, have two daughters, Claire and Amy. — April 17, 1986
10 Years Ago Mariana Brown Bettman will be one of two individuals honored as 2001distinguished alumni of the University of Cincinnati College of Law at its spring alumni luncheon, Wednesday, May 2, at 12:15 p.m. The event will be held at the The Phoenix downtown. In 1992 Bettman was elected to the First District Court of Appeals, the first woman to hold that position. She has authored numerous Law Review articles and her judicial opinions have been cited
throughout the Ohio court system. Bettman lectures to community and civic groups about law and the courts, and is a frequent guest commentator on WVXU radio. Her oped pieces have appeared in various newspapers. Shirley Ann Hymon, 76, passed away March 20, 2001. Mrs. Hymon was born in Cincinnati, the daughter of Max and Sarah Oscherwitz. Mrs. Hymon is survived by her husband Harold Hymon, formerly of Cincinnati and presently of Cape
Coral, Fla., and her children Dr. Bruce Hymon and Pam Schartner, both of Dayton. Mrs. Hymon was also the mother of Robert Hymon, who predeceased her. Also surviving Mrs. Hymon are two siblings: Dr. Daniel Oscher and Helene Kallenberg, both of Cincinnati. Mrs. Hymon was the sister-in-law of Vivian Oscherwitz of Chicago, who also survives her. In Dayton, she is also survived by her grandchildren, Jason Noble and Tara and Tasha Hymon. — April 12, 2001
CLASSIFIEDS
THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2011
19
COMMUNITY DIRECTORY COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS Access (513) 373-0300 • www.jypaccess.org Big Brothers/Big Sisters Assoc. (513) 761-3200 • bigbrobigsis.org Beth Tevilah Mikveh Society (513) 821-6679 Camp Ashreinu (513) 702-1513 Camp at the J (513) 722-7226 • mayersonjcc.org Camp Livingston (513) 793-5554 • camplivingston.com Cedar Village (513) 754-3100 • cedarvillage.org Chevra Kadisha (513) 396-6426 Fusion Family (53) 703-3343 • www.fusionnati.org Halom House (513) 791-2912 • halomhouse.com Hillel Jewish Student Center (513) 221-6728 • hillelcincinnati.org Jewish Community Center (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org Jewish Community Relations Council (513) 985-1501 Jewish Family Service (513) 469-1188 • jfscinti.org Jewish Federation of Cincinnati (513) 985-1500 • shalomcincy.org Jewish Foundation (513) 792-2715 Jewish Information Network (513) 985-1514 Jewish Vocational Service (513) 985-0515 • jvscinti.org Kesher (513) 766-3348 Plum Street Temple Historic Preservation Fund (513) 793-2556 Shalom Family (513) 703-3343 • www.myshalomfamily.org The Center for Holocaust & Humanity Education (513) 487-3055 • holocaustandhumanity.org Vaad Hoier (513) 731-4671 Workum Fund (513) 899-1836 • workum.org YPs at the JCC (513) 761-7500 • mayersonjcc.org
CONGREGATIONS Adath Israel Congregation (513) 793-1800 • adath-israel.org Beit Chaverim (513) 984-3393 Beth Israel Congregation (513) 868-2049 • bethisraelcongregation.net Congregation Beth Adam (513) 985-0400 • bethadam.org Congregation B’nai Tikvah (513) 759-5356 • bnai-tikvah.org Congregation B’nai Tzedek (513) 984-3393 • bnaitzedek.us
Congregation Ohav Shalom (513) 489-3399 • ohavshalom.org Golf Manor Synagogue (513) 531-6654 • golfmanorsynagogue.org Isaac M. Wise Temple (513) 793-2556 • wisetemple.org Kehilas B’nai Israel (513) 761-0769 Northern Hills Synagogue (513) 931-6038 • nhs-cba.org Rockdale Temple (513) 891-9900 • rockdaletemple.org Temple Beth Shalom (513) 422-8313 • tbsohio.org Temple Sholom (513) 791-1330 • templesholom.net The Valley Temple (513) 761-3555 • valleytemple.com
EDUCATION Chai Tots Early Childhood Center 513.234.0600 • chaitots.com Chabad Blue Ash (513) 793-5200 • chabadba.com Cincinnati Hebrew Day School (513) 351-7777 • chds.shul.net HUC-JIR (513) 221-1875 • huc.edu JCC Early Childhood School (513) 793-2122 • mayersonjcc.org Kehilla - School for Creative Jewish Education (513) 489-3399 • kehilla-cincy.com Mercaz High School (513) 792-5082 x104 • mercazhs.org Reform Jewish High School (513) 469-6406 • crjhs.org Regional Institute Torah & Secular Studies (513) 631-0083 Rockwern Academy (513) 984-3770 • rockwernacademy.org
ORGANIZATIONS American Jewish Committee (513) 621-4020 • ajc.org American Friends of Magen David Adom (513) 521-1197 • afmda.org B’nai B’rith (513) 984-1999 Hadassah (513) 821-6157 • cincinnati-hadassah.org Jewish Discovery Center (513) 234.0777 • jdiscovery.com Jewish National Fund (513) 794-1300 • jnf.org Jewish War Veterans (513) 204-5594 • jwv.org NA’AMAT (513) 984-3805 • naamat.org National Council of Jewish Women (513) 891-9583 • ncjw.org State of Israel Bonds (513) 793-4440 • israelbonds.com Women’s American ORT (513) 985-1512 • ortamerica.org.org
SERVICES
SENIOR SERVICES
Do You Have Antiques That Need Refinishing? “Rated Best by Cincinnati Magazine Greater Cincinnati”
• Furniture Restorers & Makers, Over 45 yrs • Custom Built-Ins & Furniture • Olde World Craftsmanship • Reasonable Prices WORKSHOPS OF THE RESTORATION SOCIETY
Call 859-491-1292 www.restorationsocietyworkshops.com
LETTERS from page 16 “Let me introduce Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman.” Sister Olga briskly gestures to the man behind her. “He is on a mission to seek out the Jewish children strewn from the war and take them to Israel.” “Is that so, Rabbi?” Father says, apprehensively. The Rabbi nods his head and, confidently, responds, “I have discovered that many Jewish children have been graciously protected within Catholic churches throughout the diaspora. They have survived the atrocious war, but they have lost their parents and their faith. It is my deepest desire to restore their Hebrew heritage to them.” His compelling voice echoes in every mind. Father Dmitri scoffs, “Well, you will not find your kind here. As you can see, these children are Catholic.” The Rabbi slowly glances around the room. Pursing his thin lips, he wrinkles his shadowy brow and scans each young, curious face. The Rabbi casts his head down and appears to be praying. He then raises his right hand over his eyes. Rocking himself, his lips part, and he begins to calmly sing: “Shema Yisrael, Adonai eloheinu, Adonai echad.” Memories, previously suppressed, suddenly flood over me. “Mamma, Mamma!” I call out, rushing to the fence that is separating us. “It’s all right,” Mamma reassures, hushing my cries, “It’s all right, Eliana.” “Mamma, I don’t want to go with him! I don’t want to leave you!” I choke on a sob. Tears blur my vision. “Eliana, listen to Mamma.” Through the openings of the fence, she cups my toddler face within her icy fingers. The barbed edges cut her arms causing her to bleed, but she does not loosen her grasp. The man in the black robes paces anxiously. “Eliana, listen to me. This man,” Mamma nods her head beside me, “is going to lead you to a safe place. You’re going to grow up happy, away from the Nazis and their destruction.” I pull myself closer to her. She wraps her arms tightly around my slim shoulders. “However, even
• • • • •
Up to 24 hour care Meal Preparation Errands/Shopping Hygiene Assistance Light Housekeeping
(513) 531-9600 though I am not able to be with you,” Mamma gazes heavenward and then shifts her inspired eyes back to me, “Hashem will never leave you. Do you remember what I taught you, Eliana? Come now; sing it with me, one last time.” Mamma lifts her right hand over her eyes. Trembling, I do the same. Without looking at each other, but pushing closer through the fence, we sing the words inscribed within our hearts. “Shema Yisrael, Adonai eloheinu, Adonai echad.” I sniff and look one last time into Mamma’s gentle eyes. Stained with tears, they shine. She smiles tenderly. “Eliana, remember these words, remember your people, and remember your faith.” Mamma rubs my cheek restoring warmth from the bitter cold. I urgently press into it knowing that it will be her final touch. The man in the black robes immediately whisks me away. The last sound I hear is Mamma singing the Shema softly to herself. “Mamma, Mamma!” I cry as the vivid memory subsides into the room of the orphanage. The room echoes with the weeping of scattered children. They raise their right hands to their eyes and remember, as I had, the words of their past. My tears stream ceaselessly. I’m Jewish! I look to the Rabbi. His whole being is illuminated. He stares toward the ceiling, rejoicing. “Thank you, thank you, Adonai!” I slip out of my desk and race to Rabbi Yosef who gathers the dispersed children around him. We embrace the Rabbi in tears of elation. He gazes at me compassionately. “Do you want to go home, home to Israel?” I cast a glance to Sister and Father retreating in the doorway. Then, I close my eyes letting the warmth of joy surge out. I am reminded of Isaiah 11:12 about the regathering of His children in His land. “And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” Clenching my treasured Bible, I whisper, “Thank you, Jesus.” I meet Rabbi Yosef’s eyes. “Yes, I want to go home.” Heather Bachman Mt. Orab, Ohio
20
TRAVEL
THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE NEWSPAPER AND WEBSITE @ WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM
So Much to Sea: Canada, The Maritimes, and More Wandering Jew
By Janet Steinberg Travel Editor
Crystal Symphony Orchestrates the Quintessential Anniversary Cruise! PART 1 OF A SERIES At the 22nd minute past the 22nd hour of the 22nd day of October, my husband and I raised our glasses in celebration of our 22nd wedding anniversary. But this was destined to be no ordinary anniversary. This was our first night aboard Crystal Symphony, the ultra-luxe ship that was to be our floating palace for 11 colorful autumn days and 11 romantic moonlit nights. (How coincidental…11 plus 11 adds up to 22 perfect days and nights.) With a decadent anniversary cake presented at our dinner…three close friends at our side…and a reach-out-and-touch-me view of Montreal at our fingertips…the celebration began. Docked on the majestic St. Lawrence River, we were eagerly awaiting the beauty, history and culture surrounding this vast waterway. For the next 11 days, Crystal Symphony was to sail us 2,087 nautical miles from Montreal and Quebec City, to the Canadian Maritimes of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. From there it was on to Portland, Maine; Boston, Mass.; Newport, R.I.; ultimately disembarking in New York City. But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. As we embarked on the ship, white-gloved waiters greeted us with Champagne flutes in hand. All the while, pianist Joe Foss tickled the ivories on the crystal piano in the Crystal Cove. From that moment on there was little wonder why, for an unprecedented 17th year, the readers of Condé Nast Traveler magazine voted Crystal Cruises the “Best Large-Ship Cruise Line” for 2010. Crystal holds the distinction of having won the award more than any other cruise line, hotel or resort in history. Additionally, the readers of Travel + Leisure magazine once again voted Crystal the “World’s Best Large-Ship Cruise Line” for a record 15th consecutive year. The 922-guest, 51,000-ton
Crystal Symphony is among the most spacious and luxurious vessels cruising in the upscale market. This elegant floating hotel, with expansive decks, features firstclass entertainment in grand lounges; a lavish spa; state-of-theart exercise facilities; swimming pools; the popular Computer University@Sea®; great shopping; the Crystal Casino with a variety of gaming tables and over 200 slot machines; and complimentary golf, yoga, and Pilates instruction. With the aid of the innovative Walkvest, Crystal passengers can even “Walk-on-Water.” As an innovator in the luxury travel realm, Crystal now offers its guests sophisticated options, including a Priority Check-in and Planning Center. Crystal has also initiated its Perfect Choice Dining plan with Open Dining by Reservation — a complement to the line’s classic main and late seating options. This new flexible evening dining option allows you to choose when you dine, on a day-to-day basis. Seated in the ship’s main Crystal Dining Room, you will still order from the same dinner menu, and enjoy the same impeccable Crystal service. In addition to the elegant Crystal Dining Room, the ship has nine food venues including Silk Road where you will enjoy the worldrenowned cuisine of master chef Nobu Matsuhsia. Nobu-trained sushi chefs create eye-appealing and delicious delicacies at The Sushi Bar. In Prego, you will enjoy cuisine inspired by the regions of Italy. And, if you happen to be traveling alone, a reservation at Crystal Symphony’s innovative “Table for Eight” provides you with the opportunity to dine at a community table in one of the above specialty restaurants. Additionally, afternoon tea in the Palm Court is a “veddy, veddy” civilized custom. The Mozartthemed tea-time is memorable. Throughout the cruise, 580 passengers (from 25 countries) and I indulged ourselves with 30 pounds of caviar. We also drank our share of the 220 bottles of champagne that had their corks popped during our cruise. Jewish passengers who observe the dietary laws can request (in advance of sailing) a kosher diet of frozen meals to be brought aboard for the duration of their cruise. During Chanukah, Passover, the High Holidays, and its entire World Cruise, Crystal Cruises carries a rabbi aboard the Crystal Symphony and her sister ship Crystal Serenity. On the Passover cruises, Crystal’s ships always celebrate a traditional Passover Service complete with a guest rabbi and a five-course Seder. Shortly after embarking commenced in Montreal, a Shabbat Service was held aboard the ship.
(Clockwise) The Crystal Symphony anchored in Newport, R.I.; Twenty-second wedding anniversary celebration aboard Crystal Symphony; Crystal Piano in Crystal Symphony’s Crystal Cove; Mozart Tea Time aboard Crystal Symphony’s Palm Court.
A fellow passenger led the service that was followed by an Oneg Shabbat complete with gefilte fish, herring, challah, apple juice and wine. The service and oneg were also repeated on the following Friday evening. We overnighted on the ship while she was docked in Montreal. The next day, the ship remained in port and allowed us to explore that glorious city. Montreal is the secondlargest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. It is the second-largest, French-speaking city in the world. At 8 p.m. the following morning, we arrived at Quebec City, a World Heritage gem overlooking the St. Lawrence River. This irresistibly charming city magically melds together the best of Europe and North America. Following two days of cruising the St. Lawrence River and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, we arrived at Halifax, the cosmopolitan capital city of Nova Scotia. Time does not stand still in this friendly city, thanks to the stately round clock situated at the base of Citadel Hill. This historic timepiece was an 1803 gift of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and son of King George III.
Saint John, New Brunswick, our next port of call, is located on Atlantic Canada’s Bay of Fundy at the mouth of St. John River. Authentic British, double-decker buses have been brought to Saint John, offering hop-on, hop-off, bus tours. Those Big Pink Buses partnered with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and money from each ticket sold goes back to the Breast Cancer Association. Portland, Maine, nestled between Maine’s forest-covered mountains and spectacular rugged coast, is a rough-hewn gem of New England. Portland was a maiden call for Crystal Symphony on our cruise date. Our next port of call was Boston, the home of baked beans, swan boats, and amphibious Duck Tours. It is also home to the New England Holocaust Memorial. The six luminous, 54-foot tall glass towers of this striking memorial is etched with 6 million numbers in memory of the Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Newport, R.I., a city that pays homage to the past as it celebrates the present, was our last port of call. Newport is a beautifully preserved walking city with an architectural tapestry dating back to the 17th
century. It is the city where George Washington visited the Touro Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in the United States and the only one that survives from the Colonial era. Day 11, the day we were to disembark in New York City, was the most beautiful day, but also the saddest because our cruise was about to be over. Passengers arose in the early morning hours to be on deck for the thrill of sailing past that 124-year old Lady with the Torch, proudly holding her arm to the skies as she sat majestically on her pedestal in New York Harbor. They could almost hear her muttering those words of Emma Lazarus. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...” And then, there it was — that iconic skyline of New York City. For 11 glorious days and nights I had a ball. But the inevitable reared its ugly head and I felt like Cinderella. My Crystal Ball was over. But then, I need only to start planning for my next one. Janet Steinberg is an award-winning travel writer, international travel consultant, and winner of 38 national travel writing awards.
AUTOS
THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2011
21
2011 Audi A4 — Entry level luxury
www.audiusa.com
2011 Audi A4
The compact executive car, the Audi A4 sedan, holds the distinction of single-handedly reviving the Audi brand after its sales slump two decades ago. First released in 1994, the A4 proved a favorite among luxury-car buyers thanks to its handsome, well-finished cabin, sharp handling and available Quattro all-wheel drive. Tight panel gaps, high-quality materials and firm, comfortable seating give the interior the proper European ambience, while a supple ride and willing performance make the Audi A4 (now in its fourth generation), a great road trip choice. Power comes from a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine, good for 211 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. Front-wheel drive and a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT) are standard on the 2.0T Frontrak model, while the 2.0T Quattro gets all-wheel drive and a six-speed manual standard. A conventional eight-speed automatic transmission is optional on the Quattro. The car can go from 0-60 MPH in 6.4 seconds. The A4’s standard features are offered into three separate packages — Premium, Premium Plus and Prestige. Even with the upgrades found on the upper packages, the base Premium still comes with items like leather seating with lumbar support, a sunroof, a 10speaker stereo and Audi’s MMI electronics interface. MMI allows you to access various vehicle systems, such as navigation, radio, telephone, voice activation and car setup, to optimize your driving experience. Notable upgrades include trizone climate control, Bluetooth, bi-xenon headlights, a Bang & Olufsen stereo, a navigation system and a Sport package that includes a firmer suspension, sport
seats, signature LED daytime running lights, high-intensity headlights and high-performance 17inch tires. For the car’s interior, you will find a cabin designed with genuine leather, wood and aluminum. Also the car’s climate control allows for a more comfortable driving experience. Decorative inlay options include premium materials like Brushed Aluminum as well as genuine wood options such as Dark Brown Walnut and Nutmeg Laurel. The Audi’s gas tank can hold 17.1 gallons. Its fuel economy is such that the base model gets 30 miles to the gallon on the highway and 23 mpg in the city. Its available all-wheel drive makes it a compelling choice for those who frequently must drive in rain or snow. Safety wise, the Audi’s Electronic Stabilization Control (ESC) helps keep the vehicle traveling in its intended direction by utilizing ABS, the traction control of ASR and the electronic brake force distribution of EBD. When ESC detects loss of traction, it automatically adjusts the throttle and applies the brakes to help “steer” the vehicle where you intend to go. Braking is automatically applied to each wheel: at the outer front wheel to mitigate oversteer, or the inner rear wheel to mitigate understeer. In addition, the A4 comes with six standard airbags — front impact, side impact and side-curtain airbags to protect all possible riders. At its core, the A4 is still the sport sedan that many enthusiasts love, and the new larger, more mature sedan is now even better prepared to take on its class rivals. The 2011 Audi A4 has an MSRP that starts at $32,300.
Where else can you get information on the Local, National and International Jewish community without bias? NAME ADDRESS CITY
STATE
CHECK TYPE OF SUBSCRIPTION
1 YEAR, IN-TOWN
CHECK TYPE OF PAYMENT
CHECK
VISA
ZIP 1 YEAR, OUT-OF-TOWN
MASTERCARD
LIFETIME
DISCOVER
1 Year, In-town Subscription - $44 1 Year, Out-of-town Subscription - $49 Lifetime Subscription - $500 Fill out the form and mail to:
THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE 18 W. 9TH ST, STE 2 • CINTI, OH 45202-2037
U.S. MAIL
22
OBITUARIES
DEATH NOTICES ROSE, Andrew Z., age 51, died on April 8, 2011; 4 Nissan 5771.
OBITUARIES LEVINE, Diana Bailen Diana Levine, nee Bailen, was born in Boston on March 16, 1910, and died on March 9, 2011, a week short of her 101st birthday, at Weinberg Campus in Buffalo, N.Y. Mrs. Levine graduated from the Girls Latin School in Boston, received a B.A. from Radcliffe College (then part of Harvard KORNBLUTH from page 8 Golda Meir and Jewish pride. Sigmund Freud and self-examination. Louis Brandeis and commitment to social justice. With each portrait he delves deeper into the Jewish psyche — and his own. In preparation for the piece, Kornbluth wanted to learn more about philosopher Martin Buber, and was referred to Rabbi Menachem Creditor, a Buber aficionado and spiritual leader of Berkeley’s Congregation Netivot Shalom. Kornbluth had met Creditor some years earlier when EICHMANN from page 9 Back then, Israel was practically a country without TV, said Ronny Loewy, an expert on cinematography of the Holocaust at Frankfurt’s German Film Institute. Israelis either listened to a broadcast of the trial live on the radio or attended a simulcast in an auditorium near the court. “Beside the United States, there was no other country where they were reporting to the same extent as in Germany,” Loewy told JTA. A survey showed that 95 percent of Germans knew about the trial, and 67 percent favored a severe sentence, according to the 1997 book “Anti-Semitism in Germany,
University) in three years, then completed a M.S.W. at Smith College School for Psychiatric Social Work. She trained at the Institute for Juvenile Research in Chicago and worked as a caseworker at United Charities in Chicago and at Family Service in Cincinnati. In Cincinnati she met and married Maurice Levine, M.D., who served as the long-time chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, until his death in 1971. In her 75 years in Cincinnati, Mrs. Levine was exceptionally active in community work, serving on a number of boards: Visiting Nurse Association, Jewish Center Nursery School (chair), Cincinnati
THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE NEWSPAPER AND WEBSITE @ WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM
Psychoanalytic Institute, Library Guild of the University of
Cincinnati, Ohio League for Nursing, Preschool Education Council and Standards Committee of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, Radcliffe Club (serving as the first liaison between the Radcliffe and Harvard Clubs), Walnut Hills High School, and We Care Committee at the University of Cincinnati (which she helped to found, for spouses of deceased faculty members). Most recently, she was a founding board member of the Institute for Learning in Retirement. She is also fondly remembered for her dedication to the Department of Psychiatry as hostess and friend. Mrs. Levine is survived by three daughters: Ann Levine
Meyers (Richard Waller), Ellen Levine Ebert (Michael Ebert) of Guilford, Conn., and Martha Levine Dunkelman (David Dunkelman) of Buffalo, N.Y.; eight grandchildren: Philip Meyers, Lauren Meyers Warm, Dawn Meyers Blair, Benjamin Ebert, Daniel Ebert, Deborah Ebert Bloss, Marc Dunkelman, and Anna Dunkelman; and 17 great-grandchildren. Private graveside services have been held. Contributions may be sent to The Maurice Levine, M.D., and Diana Bailen Levine Lecture and Education Fund at the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, 200 West Fourth Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202, 513-2412880, or a charity of your choice.
he performed a one-man show at the synagogue as a benefit for Darfur, and the rabbi in gratitude offered him a family membership. Kornbluth declined. “Going to temple wasn’t anything I contemplated doing,” he says. “My fear was that I’d go in the coat room and have to check myself, that I wouldn’t be able to be me.” As he worked on the Warhol piece, Kornbluth spent more and more time in Creditor’s office. The talk turned from Buber to what Kornbluth calls “the big issues: G-d, the meaning of life, Israel.” Kornbluth found himself
opening up to new ideas about his own heritage. “I told him that I’d never experienced the supernatural G-d and didn’t believe in it,” Kornbluth says. “If that’s a requirement for being a Jew, I can’t do it. Then Menachem told me his definition of G-d, as the collective potential of the human imagination. That stunned me. The idea that this is his notion of G-d, and he’s as devout as he is, made me want to go to a service, to see.” Kornbluth went. And went some more. His discussions with Creditor turned into a class at the synagogue that was open to the
public. The class is serving as Kornbluth’s preparation for his own bar mitzvah, which he will celebrate in Israel in July as part of a synagogue trip, also open to the public (the deadline for signup is April 15). It will be his first trip to the Jewish state, and he’s a bundle of nerves. “It’s very deep, very complex for me,” he says. Since the Warhol project, Kornbluth has been reading voraciously about Israel, beginning with the early Zionists and working his way through the country’s 20th-century history up to the current politi-
cal situation. He’s studying Torah, midrash — whatever he can get his hands on. He keeps a notebook close at hand to record new facts, creative thoughts — anything that can help him construct his newly emerging Jewish identity and bring it into line with the rest of his beliefs. In doing so, he seems willing to turn everything he thought he believed on its head. “I’d always felt an affinity to Israel as a country set up by ‘my’ people, a place I could always go if something happened, but I’d never thought of actually going,” he tells JTA.
The Post-Nazi Epoch Since 1945” by German scholars Werner Bergman and Rainer Erb. To get out the news at the end of each court day, two hours of clips were flown to London for dissemination to European and U.S. news programs, recalled cinematographer Tom Hurwitz, who was 14 when his father was assigned to direct the taping. In Germany, the clips were used to produce biweekly, 20-minute reports called “An Epoch on Trial.” These broadcasts, and other coverage by some 400 German journalists in Israel, had a decisive impact, according to Stangneth. Until the trial, many Germans had dismissed the few books about
the Holocaust as biased. Teachers largely had avoided the subject. Once the broadcasts of the Eichmann trial began, however, they could ignore it no longer. Young Germans looked at the wartime generation differently. Dozens of new books about the Holocaust were written. The story of how Eichmann was brought to justice seemed made for TV. He escaped an American POW camp in Germany after the war, got help from the Catholic Church to flee to Argentina, and lived there for years under the pseudonym Ricardo Klement. Recently it was revealed that German intelligence officials knew of Eichmann’s location as early as 1952. Before his capture, Eichmann had boasted to friends of his involvement in the Final Solution and shared his dreams of resurrecting National Socialism. He even told Dutch fascist journalist Willem Sassen in the late 1950s that he regretted his failure to complete the job of genocide. Eichmann reportedly said he hoped the Arabs would carry on his fight for him, according to Stangneth, who recently recovered some 300 pages of “lost” interview transcripts. In 1960, the Mossad captured Eichmann in a dramatic operation that ended with his being brought clandestinely to Israel. As the date of the trial neared, German Chancellor Konrad
Adenauer became intensely worried, according to historian Deborah Lipstadt, whose new book, “The Eichmann Trial,” came out in March. Adenauer feared “that Eichmann might expose the number of prominent Nazis who served in his government,” she said. Even worse, Lipstadt said, by 1951 Adenauer was fed up with the guilt he felt was being foisted on the Germans for perpetrating the genocide of the Jews. “He thought it was time to move on,” she said. “It is shocking that he could say that. And here it was, coming back, in a very strong way.” The Eichmann trial was full of drama, drawing the world’s attention to the perpetrator and to his victims. Eichmann faced 15 criminal charges, including crimes against humanity and war crimes. Many millions of eyes studied Eichmann through TV sets, trying in vain to discern in his word, manner and expressions signs of remorse. Tom Hurwitz recalled how his late father once filmed Eichmann viewing a selection of film clips taken after the liberation of concentration camps; Eichmann had the right to see the clips before they were shown in the courtroom. During the screening, one cameraman focused on Eichmann as he watched one horrific image after another. Eichmann sat impassively. Hannah Arendt described the stony figure in her 1963 work,
“Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil,” launching a debate that continues to this day as to whether Eichmann was a cog in the Nazi machine or a true believer in genocidal anti-Semitism. The guilty verdict was pronounced in December 1961, and Eichmann was hanged on May 31, 1962 — the only judicial execution ever carried out in Israel. Eichmann’s ashes were scattered in the Mediterranean Sea. Even once Eichmann was gone, the impact of the trial and its coverage continued. With so many German journalists in Israel, reports about life in the young Jewish state abounded. An era of exchange began. And the obvious fairness of the trial — Eichmann had a German lawyer and obviously was not being tortured — “looked like justice, not revenge,” Stangneth said. “This also had an impact on the image of Israel. One can say that Israel came a little bit closer to Germany.” The trial also helped Germany come closer to confronting itself. Soon afterward, in December 1963, Germany launched its famous Frankfurt Auschwitz trial, which lasted through the summer of 1965 and lay out the brutality of former neighbors and relatives for all to see. “The Eichmann trial put the theme there,” Stangneth said. “One could not ignore it.”
Diana Bailen Levine
BAR/BAT MITZVAH 2011 SPECIAL SECTION
If your business or organization wants to REACH the Greater Cincinnati Jewish Community regarding BAR/BAT MITZVAHS, this is the issue to do it!
Publishes on May 12 Deadline is May 5 For more information or to advertise, call Ted Deutsch at (513) 621-3145 or send an email to publisher@ americanisraelite.com