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On Capitol Hill, a look back at Oslo and forward on peace...
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Israeli summer camps venture into Jewish identity building
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Punishing juveniles who commit homicide offenses
Jewish Federation of Cincinnati’s planning and allocations process multiplies the impact of your gift With the successful close of its 2012 Community Campaign ($6.3 million raised, exceeding the $6 million goal), the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati is shifting gears to the process of distributing the community’s dollars, ensuring they go where they’re needed most. Over the coming months, 83 Planning & Allocations volunteers will spend over 600 hours thoroughly assessing the programs that have applied for funding. They will visit local agencies—meeting clients served, reviewing applications, analyzing budgets and interviewing program coordinators and agency executives—to measure the outcomes, goals, impact, quality and cost-effectiveness of each program. They will then meet as a council multiple times to discuss the evaluated programs and, eventually, make recommendations for funding, which the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati Board will take into account when making final allocations. But the Planning & Allocations process is more than just evaluating and assessing programs and distributing the community’s dollars. It’s also helping programs run as efficiently and effectively as possible, by improving program quality, prioritizing community needs and encouraging collaboration. Marcie Bachrach, vice president of Planning & Allocations, said, “In
my work with the P&A committee, I’ve come to realize what a difference the process makes in our community. I’ve seen duplicative programs combined or coordinated, I’ve seen agencies streamline their programs to make the best use of their resources and I’ve seen our local organizations bring their respective expertise and experience together to serve our community better.” We improve program quality. Through strategic planning, consultation and more, the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati helps local agencies increase program capacity and reach and improve services offered. In 2011, the independent agency Big Brothers/Big Sisters Association was merged into Jewish Family Service (JFS) and was renamed the Bigs & Littles mentoring program. Through this merger, JFS is utilizing their staff expertise in parenting, behavioral issues, promoting healthy family relationships, prevention and problem-solving to shape the program. The integration also means families served by the program have access to JFS’ broad range of services, including emergency food, case management and more. In consultation with the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, JFS convened a task force of volunteers and staff, who have been examining every aspect of the program, instituting new policies
and procedures and therefore evolving Bigs & Littles into a high-quality, well monitored program. We prioritize community needs.The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati ensures programs align with the vision set forth by Cincinnati 2020, which means keeping both the immediate and the future needs of the community in mind during assessments and decisions. PJ Library is an international program that supports families in their Jewish journey by sending Jewishcontent books, CDs and DVDs on a monthly basis to children from age six months to 5 1/2 years. The current capacity for subscriptions is 400, but the estimated number of Jewish children in the age range served is almost 1,500. The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati has been working with the Mayerson JCC and JFS on a plan to reach more of these families. Toward this goal, the program has expanded to provide Judaic resources, parenting tips and links to local family community events. A task force of staff and volunteers representing the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, JFS, the JCC, the JCC Early Childhood School, Rockwern Academy, Cincinnati Hebrew Day School, congregations, PJ Library parents and grandparents and community members have been meeting since February, and JFS and the JCC are now well-positioned to move PJ
Library ahead in its quest to engage young Jewish families. The PJ Library expansion—with its crosscommunity collaborations and focus on young families —is in alignment with the vision set forth by Cincinnati 2020. In order to achieve this vision, we all must work together across the entire community to attract and retain young families and to educate our children Jewishly. Doing so will help ensure the vibrant future of the Jewish community in Cincinnati. We encourage collabroation. By encouraging collaboration, we combine resources and expertise to multiply the effect on the community. We maximize our collective impact. Both of Cincinnati’s Jewish day schools, Cincinnati Hebrew Day School and Rockwern Academy, receive funding for need-based tuition scholarships, but the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati saw that, through collaboration, the community’s dollars could go even further in effectively supporting these schools and requested they work together to create a plan for engaging shared services, such as a nurse, a counselor and an accountant. Sharing these positions between the schools means better-qualified employees at a lower cost to the schools, and therefore the community. FEDERATION on page 19
LOCAL • 3
THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2012
Northern Hills introduces new Lev Shalem Mahzor
Northern Hills holds summer picnic
Northern Hills Synagogue — Congregation B’nai Avraham has adopted the new High Holiday prayerbook developed by the Conservative movement, Mahzor Lev Shalem, and will begin using it at High Holy Day services this year. The mahzor, published by the Rabbinical Assembly in 2010, brings Conservative liturgy up to date, including references to the matriarchs alongside the patriarchs as an integral feature of the text, and expressing a contemporary Conservative Jewish religious sensibility. The mahzor features a new English translation, new readings in English and in Hebrew, and considerable explanatory material
Once again, miniature golf will be featured when Northern Hills Synagogue – Congregation B’nai Avraham holds it summer picnic on Sunday, Aug. 12. Sponsored by the congregation’s Men’s Club, the fun will kick off at Etters Golf Center, beginning at 11:30 a.m. Trophies will be awarded in two divisions, under 13 and 13 and over, plus for pressure-packed one shot “PuttOff.” A fun time is promised for all regardless of age or skill level.
in the margins of the mahzor. The congregation solicited donations to pay for a complete set of the mahzorim, and the effort was quickly oversubscribed. In order to orient the congregation to the High Holiday experience using Mahzor Lev Shalem, the Shabbat service on Saturday, Aug. 4, beginning at 9:30 a.m., will be devoted to learning about the new mahzor. Worshippers will use Lev Shalem for parts of the service which are the same on Shabbat and the High Holidays. In addition, Rabbi Gershom Barnard will speak about various special features of the mahzor. Following Northern Hills’ popular Chavurat
Shabbat format, discussion sessions will take place in which volunteer prayer leaders from the congregation will discuss the parts of the High Holiday services which they will lead. Sonja Rethy will make a presentation on the Rosh Hashanah Musaf service and Don Hordes will make a presentation on the Kol Nidre service. In addition, Maksim Shilkrot, Northern Hills’ Director of Education and Programming, will conduct children’s programming based upon the High Holiday worship. A luncheon will follow services, which is free and open to all. No reservations are needed.
If you consider yourself a “pro,” you can bring your own putter and ball, which you can’t lose because the 18th hole won’t be played. Following miniature golf, the festivities will shift at 1 p.m. to the UAW Local 863 Picnic Area, with grilled hot dogs, veggie burgers, watermelon and other treats. The entire community is invited to join in the festivities. There is no charge for the picnic, and only a small entry fee for miniature golf. For more information, please contact NHS.
Cedar Village 13th annual golf classic, come for the golf, stay for the brisket
The Brisket babes: Stephanie Gilinsky and Lesley Loon
The Cedar Village Golf Classic has become famous for its kosher brisket dinner. According to Sally Korkin, executive director, Cedar
Village Foundation, “Our dinner crowd keeps growing—we even have non-golfers who come out just for the brisket.” Every year,
Stephanie Gilinsky and Lesley Loon, two long-time golf committee members, make the brisket several weeks before the outing to ensure maximum flavor and tenderness. The brisket has become such a tradition the two women are fondly known as the Brisket “Babes.” The golf outing is also well known for its fabulous prizes. All committee members work diligently on collecting a large variety of top quality items, but 91-year-old Florence Zaret consistently collects more prizes than anyone else. Florence has been an active member of the golf committee since the outing began in 2000 and states, “I am happiest when I am busy and doing something to help others— like the residents of Cedar Village.” GOLF on page 19
Book sale benefits JCC Senior Center As part of their ongoing mission to provide a wide variety of activities, classes and seminars for local Cincinnati senior adults (ages 60+), the JCC Senior Center has planned a gently used book sale at the J. This sale is open to the public on Sunday, Aug. 12, from 9 a.m. until the books are gone. The sale will offer gently used hardback and paperback books in every genre for a minimal price. Between 9 and 10 a.m., there is a minimal early bird entrance fee to get access to the best selection of books and a free coffee coupon to the JCafÈ! Feel free to come by and browse. You are sure to find something which will appeal to you. Nourish your mind while supporting your community. The book sale will help support JCC Senior Center programs, which includes weekday lunches, lively discussion
groups, health programs, day trips, classes for exercise and more. On Wednesday, Sept. 12, all seniors (ages 60+) are invited to enjoy a delightful cruise and lunch on one of Cincinnati’s premier river boats. The group will leave the J at 11 a.m and return at 2:30 p.m. This cruise is one of many JCC Senior Center day trips. Two programs designed specifically for J Members ages 60+, are Healthy Steps and Yoga for Seniors. Healthy Steps is a fun, gentle, therapeutic exercise program set to music. This zumba-style JCC class focuses on healing using easy-tolearn movement and dance techniques that help increase range of motion, energy and self-esteem. The Yoga for Seniors class uses a systematic method to ensure that students can comfortably relax and enjoy ease of
motion as they improve their strength, flexibility and concentration. The gentle stretching and strengthening positions benefit the entire body, with emphasis on the back, shoulders, hips and legs. Unlike traditional yoga, this JCC class caters to those with limited flexibility. Another popular program for seniors is the HealthRHYTHMS Group Empowerment Drumming class at the J. This is an evidencebased program that is practiced world-wide as an activity that helps strengthen the immune system; decreases stress; and improves moods, self-confidence, energy and communication skills. Mille Stroheim, who is currently enrolled in the JCC HealthRHYTHMS class, said, “This class is really invigorating. We have a great time and I wouldn’t miss it for anything.”
The Centers for Foot & Ankle Care welcomes MICHAEL RAHN, DPM. Dr. Rahn is trained in the most advanced and latest podiatric techniques. He is a graduate of the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine. Dr. Rahn completed a rigorous three-year podiatric surgical residency at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center. This program provided comprehensive podiatric training and focused on diabetic limb salvage, wound care, trauma, rearfoot disorders, and reconstructive surgery. With an individual approach to each patient, Dr. Rahn understands that taking time to really listen is important in patient care. As a graduate of Xavier University and LaSalle High School, Cincinnati is Dr. Rahn’s hometown. In his spare time, Dr. Rahn enjoys snow skiing, mountain biking and playing guitar.
Dr. Rahn joins the offices of AARON J. FRITZHAND, DPM. Dr. Aaron J. Fritzhand has been in practice in Cincinnati since 1994. His extensive training, years of experience and high devotion to patient care make Dr. Fritzhand a perfect fit for your professional foot care needs. A graduate of the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine in Cleveland, Dr. Fritzhand completed his residency programs at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center and at Jewish Hospital of Cincinnati. These programs included comprehensive training in foot and ankle surgery, diabetic foot care, and primary podiatric medicine. Dr. Fritzhand is board certified by the American Board of Podiatric Surgery and a Fellow of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons He and his wife Laurel have three children.
Saturday and evening hours
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4 • LOCAL
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Access throws a Political Party
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The American Israelite “LET THERE BE LIGHT” THE OLDEST ENGLISH-JEWISH WEEKLY IN AMERICA - EST. JULY 15, 1854
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Elida Kamine
our opinions and to understand the mindset of those who hold different views than our own,” he adds. “At every level of government Republicans and Democrats have to work together, and as voters and citizens we should seek common ground to detract from some of the vitriol and empty rhetoric that plague politics.” Julie Brook, executive co-chair of the Hamilton County Democratic party and campaign manager for Steve Black, Judicial candidate for the Court of Common Pleas, agrees. “Ohio is considered a ‘battleground’ state so every vote matters! We need to get YPs to the polls. According to
cynicism that elections are bought by special interests, it’s important to remember that voting is a privilege and a duty,” says Kamine. “The decisions made in Washington and Columbus, and especially in our local municipalities and the county do impact our daily lives. This year, more than in the past, some of the big issues being debated on the national stage affect young people who unfortunately vote more infrequently than the rest of the population. The effects of decisions made in the next term may also have long-term consequences. For example, the next president may select more than one Supreme
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 BARBARA L. MORGENSTERN Senior Writer YEHOSHUA MIZRACHI Assistant Editor ALEXIA KADISH Copy Editor JANET STEINBERG Travel 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 e Oldest Eng Th
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“This event will allow us to cast informed votes which is critical especially because Hamilton County may be a deciding county on the federal level.”
Court justice. In a presidential election year, so much attention is paid to that race, but there is a close and important Senate race as well as several state house, judicial and other local races.” Following the meal and feature presentations, guests will head to the lower level of the Weston Art Gallery to enjoy a dessert reception where they will have the chance to mix and mingle with one another, view more works by Cincinnati artists, and for those who are interested, meet dozens of local and state candidates representing both parties who will be on hand to answer questions and talk about important issues. The Political Party is part of Access’ JCafe program, which brings participants together around topics of particular interest to Jewish young adults. In addition to rich discussion, JCafe events seek to engage participants in thinking and learning about something they didn’t know before, or enhancing their knowledge and perspective about something they already did. The event is free with an advance RSVP and is open to Jewish young professionals, 21-35. Non-Jewish significant others are welcome. However, space is strictly limited and will fill up quickly. No one will be admitted without a reservation. The Caption Contest is open to Jewish young professionals 21-35. Multiple submissions are encouraged but must be received on or by Aug. 10 to qualify. For more information, to RSVP and/or to enter the contest please contact Rachel Plowden, Access Event Coordinator, whose contact information can be found in the Community Directory listing in this issue.
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an April 2012 Gallup poll, even though 60 percent of those ages 18-29 are registered to vote, only 56 percent of them plan to actually vote. This event represents a wonderful opportunity to help these young professionals to stay current and knowledgeable so they can cast their votes with confidence,” she stresses. “Amidst statistics that confidence in elected officials is at an all time low and an increasing
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ing ramifications when it comes to issues such as tax policy and healthcare. Sometimes the meat of the issues gets lost in the endless news cycle so I see an event like this as a way to learn about where the candidates actually stand,” he explains. “If we don’t know where they stand then there is no way to hold them accountable. It is also crucial for members of our generation to occasionally step out of the echo-chambers that reinforce
LEO WISE Editor & Publisher, 1900-1928
r in Am ape er sp i
Young Professionals are invited to caption this cartoon. The winning entry will be used in Access’ Political Party invitation.
RABBI ISSAC M. WISE Founder, Editor, Publisher, 1854-1900
ewish N h-J ew lis
Common etiquette says it’s not nice to talk about religion or politics in polite company. Well step aside Emily Post, because Access is about to do away with convention and host a conversation about both taboo topics when it presents The Political Party, a free bipartisan pre-election dinner and dessert reception for Jewish young professionals that combines a little friendly discourse with lots of information, and of course, fun on Wednesday, Oct. 3 at 5:30 p.m. at the Weston Art Gallery at the Aronoff Center. And even though the election and this event are still months away, YPs will have a chance to create a caption for the political cartoon shown above (see details below). The Political Party event is designed to give guests the tools they need to make informed decisions at election time, no matter which of the candidates they decide to endorse. “I am excited about this event because a forum like this will allow my peers to engage with candidates, or their representatives, on issues that matter to us specifically as young professionals and as Jews,” says Elida Kamine, a young professional and local attorney who is active in politics. “This event will allow us to cast informed votes which is critical especially because Hamilton County may be a deciding county on the federal level.” After drinks and appetizers on the first floor of the Weston Gallery, amidst works by local artists, participants will be treated to a sit down dinner in the Aronoff’s elegant Green Room, featuring favorite all-American fare where guests will have the chance to hear from representatives from the Board of Elections and League of Women Voters, as well as Alex Triantafilour (R) and Tim Burke (D), County Chairmen of their political parties who will give a jovial presentation entitled, “Why I’m a Democrat, Why I’m a Republican.” Following their presentation, surrogates from both the Obama and Romney campaigns will each speak for 10 minutes and then take questions and answers from the audience. “It’s vital for those in the 21-35 year old demographic to pay attention to local issues and get to know the local candidates and officeholders,” explains Eric Greenberg, member of the Leadership Council of the Hamilton County Republican Party and former campaign manager for Amy Murray for Cincinnati City council. “Those politicians will listen to the opinions of young adults and take them seriously. Every presidential election is important, but this one could have particularly long-last-
THE AMERICAN ISRAELITE (USPS 019-320) is published weekly for $44 per year and $1.00 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 columnists of The American Israelite do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the newspaper.
NATIONAL • 5
THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2012
On Capitol Hill, a look back at Oslo and forward on peace process
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By Suzanne Pollak Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) — Conflicting voices for and against renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks came to Capitol Hill as leading pro- and anti-voices gathered to recall the nearly 20 years since the dramatic signing of the Oslo Accords. The Oslo document, signed in Washington on Sept. 13, 1993, began the most ambitious push yet for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. “We can agree on one thing: Oslo is done, finished, kaput,” said Danny Danon, a Knesset member of the Likud Party. “We are all agreed, the ‘land for peace’ equation does not exist anymore.” Danon spoke Thursday in a large room in the Longworth House Office Building during two panels sponsored by the International Israel Allies Caucus Foundation, or IIACF. The U.S. chapter of the group, which operates in 19 countries, was formed in 2006. Danon joined Caroline Glick, deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post, and Ghaith alOmari, executive director of the American Task Force on Palestine, for a panel on why the Oslo Accords failed. The panel was followed by a discussion on possible paths forward featuring former Rabbi Benny Elon, head of Israel’s right-wing National Religious Party; Yossi Beilin, an architect of the Oslo Accords; and Aaron David Miller, a former top adviser to the U.S. secretary of state. Throughout the program, Congress members also offered comments to the audience of approximately 75 people. Speakers included U.S. Reps. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), Trent Franks (RAriz.) and Brad Sherman (DCalif.) “If there is one issue we do work together on, it is the strong support of Israel,” Engel said. “We have to look at the situation as it is, not as we want it to be.” More than 60 years since the founding of the State of Israel, the Palestinians “still can’t get the words out of their mouths” to recognize the Jewish state, he added. Beilin said the Oslo Accords were designed as a five-year negotiating framework, and that had Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin not been assassinated in November 1995, “We would now have peace.” Subsequent years have seen struggles to restart negotiations and rounds of violence, including a second Palestinian intifada and rockets from the Gaza Strip, with Israel taking major reprisal actions
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Courtesy of Vince Musi / The White House
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, left, shaking hands with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, with U.S. President Bill Clinton in the center at the Oslo Accords signing ceremony, Sept. 13, 1993.
in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Nonetheless, for Beilin the goal of Israel being a Jewish state with a strong democratic character and welcoming of all Jews is still paramount. “My interest is not necessarily a Palestinian state,” he said. “All I want is a Jewish majority forever.” Danon called for a three-state solution to include Egypt, Jordan and Israel. “If you want to see a Palestinian state, just look at Gaza today,” he said. “We do not want to see a terrorist state in our backyard. The Israeli government has never approved any motion of a two-state solution.” However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on June 14, 2009 said during an address at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv that Israel would agree to a Palestinian state were it demilitarized and if it recognized “Israel as the state of the Jewish people.” For her part, Glick said that Oslo’s path of giving the Palestinians control of the West Bank was conducted under the “false premise” that it would make the conflict “immediately disappear and we would enter into a messianic era.” Regardless, al-Omari said Oslo had lasting value as it was “a game changer” that established “mutual respect” and “a prerequisite to move forward.” He added, “We need to push for a way to get back to negotiations.” But Elon, director of the IIACF, said during his remarks that there will be no progress until the Palestinians understand that the Jewish people “are back in Zion, back in Jerusalem.” Elon and other Israeli panelists agreed that the Palestinians also must stop glorifying violence, such as when they have named soccer fields and town squares in memory of terrorists. “Their leaders have raised a
generation of kids who value death,” Glick said. “Their highest aim in life is to become the people who want to kill my kids, your kids.” Sitting in the audience, Rabbi Pesach Lerner, head of the National Council of Young Israel, referred to textbooks in Palestinian schools that teach hatred. “In that environment of hate, how did we ever expect [Oslo] to work?” he asked. Even if that issue was resolved, negotiations would not work, Danon said, because President Obama “came in to dictate,” he said. Danon called Obama “onesided” on issues such as dealing with Palestinian refugees.
NEW LOCATION! 700 RACE • CINCINNATI, OH 45202 (513) 241-WISP (9477) www.thebluewisp.com On Saturday, August 4, 8:30p-12:30a, The Blue Wisp Jazz Club will present MARBIN-a creative, accessible band made up of wonderful Israeli musicians. Marbin first started in 2007 as an improvised music duo consisting of Israeli-American guitarist Dani Rabin and Israeli saxophonist Danny Markovitch. Markovitch and Rabin met shortly after Markovitch had completed his military service as an infantry sergeant and Rabin had graduated from Berklee College of Music. Since 2008, Marbin has been living in Chicago and performing all over the United States, playing over 250 shows a year with the accompaniment of drummer Justyn Lawrence and Bassist Ian Stewart. They have released three albums: Impressions of a City, as part of Paul Wertico’s Mideast-Midwest Alliance, and two under the name Marbin, Marbin as a duo, and Breaking the Cycle with drummer Paul Wertico (Pat Metheny Group), bassist Steve Rodby (Pat Metheny Group), and Jamey Haddad (Paul Simon). Marbin is currently signed to Moonjune Records and Management.
FOR MORE INFO, GO TO WWW.MARBINMUSIC.COM FOR RESERVATIONS CALL 513-241-9477 OR GO TO WWW.THEBLUEWISP.COM
6 • NATIONAL
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Jewish travelers undeterred by worldwide threats By Alina Dain Sharon Jointmedia News Service WASHINGTON (JNS) — Since a terrorist bus bombing killed five Israeli tourists and injured more than 30 in the Bulgarian city of Burgas, travel agencies (unsurprisingly) reported a decline in Israeli reservations for Bulgarian vacations. Many who were due to depart for Burgas immediately after the attack were offered alternative destination packages. But the attack resonated far beyond Bulgaria, serving as a reminder of the dangers that Jews and Israelis can face when traveling, due to Islamist terrorism and religious persecution. European Union (EU) President Erato KozakouMarcoullis said Tuesday that the EU would not grant Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s request to declare Iran-funded Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, but senior Israeli security officials warn that Hezbollah still blames Israel for the 2008 killing of senior official Imad Fayez Mughniyah, and as retribution could be planning the kidnapping or murder of Israelis abroad. Iran also continues to blame Israel for the deaths of several nuclear scientists, and the Israeli government has frequently blamed the Islamic Republic for attacks against Israelis abroad. Israeli security officials also warn that jihadist terror organizations may be planning attacks against Israelis and Jews in African nations south of the
Courtesy of Dano Monkotovic/FLASH90
On July 19, Israeli ZAKA emergency rescue team members are seen in the area of the terrorist attack in Burgas, Bulgaria. The attack claimed the lives of seven people, five of them Israelis, and left 34 wounded, two of them seriously.
Western Sahara such as Mali, Mauritania, or Côte d’Ivoire. A U.S. State Department official told JNS that the U.S. government publishes “Country Specific Information (CSI) on our website for every country in the world…If our overseas posts notice a trend of discrimination or crimes against Jewish individuals, we note it in the CSI. It is important to read this information, as well as any relevant travel alerts or travel warnings, before embarking on a trip.” Specific threats to Israeli and Jewish travelers are not limited to Africa and the Middle East. Israeli embassies were attacked in Georgia and India earlier this year, and bombs in Bangkok, Thailand, may have been targeting Israelis.
Despite this, tourism workers don’t believe that Israeli and Jewish travel will ultimately be affected by such incidents. Israel Tourist & Travel Agents Association director Yossi Fattal recently told Globes that young Israelis wouldn’t ultimately be deterred from vacationing in Bulgaria. “Israelis will return to Burgas, especially the young,” he said. “The younger the audience, the less sensitive it is to warnings, and Burgas is a destination for the young: the beach parties, the booze, cheap accommodations, and everything that the young look for.” While the number of Jewish tourists visiting Bulgaria and other recently targeted regions may initially decrease, travel agents
believe normal patterns will ultimately be restored. “We have not seen any cancellations or changes after the (Bulgaria) bombing,” Sophia Kulich, from the Jewish Travel Agency in Palm Harbor, Fla., told JNS.org. “Most of the Americans do not go to Burgas. Israelis are rarely discouraged by bombing to travel.” Prior to the recent attack in Bulgaria, however, that country’s Jewish community had already increased its security arrangements after being warned that a bomb was found on a charter bus for Israelis traveling from the Turkish border to a Bulgarian ski resort. Turkey itself has been a popular destination for Israeli tourists, along with Thailand, India and Bulgaria. But according to data from the State Department’s JulyDecember 2010 International Religious Freedom Report, Turkish Jews were already worried about anti-Semitism in the country and believed it is directly related to events in the Middle East. Data from both the Jewish European Council and the Tel Aviv University Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary anti-Semitism and Racism reveals that it is actually democratic Western countries, primarily France and England, that have registered the highest numbers of anti-Semitic incidents between 2001 and 2010. The U.S. State Department’s Religious Freedom Report also said that the United Kingdom saw a spike in antiSemitic incidents after the Gaza flotilla incident, including property damage, threats and anti-
Semitic graffiti. In France, home to about 500,000 Jews and a popular tourist destination, 148 anti-Semitic incidents, 43 of which were violent, were reported between March 19 and April 30 of this year, more than twice as many as the 68 recorded incidents for the same period in 2011, according to data from the Service for the Protection of the Jewish Community (SPCJ). In 2009, after the Israeli military’s operation in the Gaza Strip, the number of anti-Semitic incidents in France doubled. Muslims perpetrated all 400 physical attacks against Jews recorded by the National Bureau of Vigilance against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA) in France in 2011, bucking the common perception that much of Europe’s anti-Semitism stems from other extremists such as neoNazis. Most recently, Islamist terrorist Mohamed Merah killed a rabbi and three children outside a Jewish school in Toulouse this March. Kulich said that security for her tours is always tight. Since her company holds Jewish heritage tours, synagogues in many countries like Turkey, France or Russia require a security clearance in advance, and the company provides them the passport information of all tourists. The company also specializes in private tours with drivers, transportation and guides that adhere to all security measures in each country. “Jewish travel is alive and well and tourists are not afraid to travel,” Kulich said. TRAVELERS on page 19
Jabotinsky’s antiracist legacy By JNS Staff Jointmedia News Service WASHINGTON (JNS) — The popular image of the Jews who took part in battles for black civil rights is of liberal activists and idealistic college students. Yet several important early civil rights efforts in the United States and South Africa were undertaken by—of all people — officers of the Irgun Zvai Leumi, the Jewish underground militia in British Mandatory Palestine. This week’s 70th anniversary of the passing of Ze’ev Jabotinsky, founder of Revisionist Zionism and the Irgun, is an occasion to reflect on Jabotinsky’s little-known legacy of anti-racism. Jabotinsky — who passed away on Aug. 4, 1940 (commemorated last week on the Hebrew calendar) — was arguably the most controversial Zionist leader of his era. He was dismissed as an alarmist when
he predicted that European Jews would be engulfed by antiSemitism. Socialist Zionists bristled at his preference for free market economics over Marxism. Because he promoted weapons training, he was denounced as a militarist. And because he believed the Arabs would never accept a Jewish state, he was branded a racist. Those who read Jabotinsky’s writings knew those labels did not do him justice. He envisioned a Jewish state that would have a large Arab minority alongside its Jewish majority. Arabs would have full civil, political, and cultural rights, including representation in parliament, and both Arabic and Hebrew would be official languages. Moreover, he argued that if there was a Jewish prime minister, there should be a deputy Arab prime minister (and vice versa). JABOTINSKY on page 21
NATIONAL • 7
THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2012
National Briefs L.A. hotel owner charged with anti-Semitism (JTA) — The owner of the Shangri-La Hotel in Los Angeles is on trial in a civil rights suit based on claims of anti-Semitism. The hotel owner, Tehmina Adaya, is accused of unjustly shutting down a pool party at the hotel for Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces in July 2010, according to the New York Times. The Times reported that the event’s organizer, Scott Paletz of Platinum Events, testified that Adaya “was acting out with antiSemitism against the group.” He said that the announcement shutting down the event came with an anti-Semitic slur. “Being that I’m Jewish, it absolutely shocked me,” Mr. Paletz testified, according to the Times. “I felt really small.” Paletz testified that hotel employees told him that the event was being cancelled because many of Adaya’s investors were Muslim. San Diego Jewish teen wins Google science prize NEW YORK (JTA) — An eighth-grader at the San Diego Jewish Academy won a science prize at the second annual Google Science Fair competition. Jonah Kohn, 14, won a $25,000 scholarship for his device that uses tactile sound to enhance music for people with hearing loss. “In essence they said that it has given them the best perception of classical music that they’ve heard since they lost their hearing,” Kohn said, ABC News reported. Kohn was one of five finalists in his age group from the 15 finalists at the fair, which received thousands of entries from more than 100 countries worldwide. New Yorker writer Jonah Lehrer resigns following Tablet expose NEW YORK (JTA) — Jonah Lehrer, a staff writer for The New Yorker, resigned hours after Tablet Magazine published an article revealing that he had fabricated Bob Dylan quotes in a recent book. “This was a lie spoken in a moment of panic,” Lehrer, 27, said in a statement Monday announcing his resignation. Three weeks ago Michael Moynihan, author of the Tablet article, first pressed Lehrer about quotes attributed to Dylan in Lehrer’s book “Imagine.” Lehrer, a neuroscience and psychology writer, initially claimed he had obtained certain quotes after gaining access to material provided by Dylan’s manager, Jeff Rosen.
American Hebrew Academy facing ambitious challenges in bid for elite status By Ben Sales Jewish Telegraphic Agency GREENSBORO, N.C. (JTA) — Sitting at an oblong table, 11 students, each with a school-provided computer tablet, discuss John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men,” parse the four types of classic love and veer off into talk about sex — all the while interrupting each other and their teacher. These ninth-graders attend the American Hebrew Academy, a Jewish pluralistic boarding school in Greensboro, N.C., that is trying to reach the status of highly ranked Jewish high schools such as Gann Academy in Boston or the Ramaz School in New York City, as well as elite college preparatory boarding schools like Phillips Academy Andover in Massachusetts or Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut. To achieve that aim, AHA, the only school of its kind in the United States, has a 100-acre campus, technology-filled classrooms, an athletic complex surrounded by sports fields and courts, students hailing from as far away as Thailand and Russia, and a faculty in which two of every three teachers has a graduate degree. About 20 percent of the teachers have doctorates. “The goal of the school was to create a single place in which Jewish teens of all backgrounds could come together to live and learn,” said Glenn Drew, the academy’s executive director. But as Drew himself noted, the school faces major challenges, inherent in its mission, that have prevented it from becoming the top destination for the country’s best and brightest Jewish students. More than 10 years after its founding, only 160 students attend AHA — far short of the 400 Drew hopes will one day fill the campus. Unlike other pluralistic Jewish schools, AHA asks parents to send their children far from home and far from a major Jewish population center for four years. And unlike other Jewish schools that accept boarders, such as the Orthodox Fasman Yeshiva High School near Chicago or the Yeshiva University High School for Boys in New York, AHA does not cater to students from one stream of Judaism in particular — meaning that parents cannot be certain that the school will reinforce their home’s Jewish practice. While all students must attend Sabbath morning services, the services have ranged from rock climbing to traditional Orthodox worship. “I’m sure students who come from a traditional background have peer pressure,” said Yosef Plotkin, the local Chabad rabbi, who teaches at AHA. “Your roommate may not be Shabbat observant, which can
Courtesy of Ben Sales
Ninth-grade students at the American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro, N.C., learning English.
cause a big challenge. But overall the students are very respectful.” As a young and small school, AHA also doesn’t have a deep base of alumni that it can tap for fundraising. Its founder, commercial aviation reinsurance mogul Maurice “Chico” Sabbah, who died in 2006, donated more than $100 million to the school and paid the tuition of the school’s initial 77 students. The school set aside $1.5 million for scholarships last year and for the coming school year. Last school term it still had to turn away 23 accepted students who could not afford the tuition of $31,000, including room and board. AHA, which runs on a $10 million annual budget, has not increased its tuition for this term. Students who live in the area and
commute pay $19,000. The tuition falls in a normal range for American Jewish high schools. Students at Gann will pay $34,350 this school year, for example, while students at the Weber School in Atlanta will pay $23,730. To help with its fundraising, AHA released an advertisement featuring the endorsement of Jewish mega-philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, who helped found Birthright Israel and sits on the academy’s board of trustees. In 2009, Steinhardt gave $5 million to AHA. “There’s no telling how many people learn about the academy and its cost, and automatically presume that the academy is beyond their means,” Drew said. He added, however, “When you look at the
price of day schools in the larger cities compared to the American Hebrew Academy, you begin to question the value that you’re getting” at the day schools. Drew says the school is not in direct competition with local Jewish high schools. Many AHA students come from areas with only one or no Jewish high schools, and a growing percentage is international. In addition to its course offerings, which range from plant biology in a botany lab to Basics of Fashion and Costume Design, from Holocaust and Human Behavior to Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism, AHA’s curriculum encourages students to stay physically fit. The school requires intensive physical and health education all four years, and hosts more than a dozen varsity, intramural and club sports teams. “There’s always this ambitious point here,” said Jimmy Gozal, a senior from Madrid, Spain. “You get good grades here, they’ll admire you. Here they want you to do stuff.” Gozal comes from an Orthodox Jewish community in which “there’s no Reform, no Conservative, nothing.” He says the school’s pluralistic community and focus on interdenominational dialogue have introduced him to new ways of practicing and thinking about Judaism. ACADEMY on page 19
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Blind camper’s case points up Jewish With special prayers camps’ struggle to meet special needs and kosher food, Jewish London embracing Olympic spirit
By Debra Rubin Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Solomon Krishef was thrilled to learn that this summer he could go to his Jewish sleepaway camp for eight weeks — twice as long as the previous four summers. It was not to be for the Michigan teenager. Ultimately the blind almost 16year-old was told he could stay at Camp Ramah in Canada. That was after the camp director had told his family that one month was enough for this year because “the camp couldn’t meet Solomon’s needs.” When Solomon’s father, Rabbi David Krishef of Ahavas Israel in Grand Rapids, Mich., wrote about his son’s experience — and his family’s anguish — in a July 18 blog posting, the response became the talk of the Ramah community. For camps, it also brought to the fore nationally the challenging efforts at inclusion in their programs. A day after his first post, the rabbi wrote a follow-up saying that word had spread—thanks in part to a petition drive launched by his 12year-old daughter, Sarah—and the director, new this summer, had apologized and said his staff could, in fact, accommodate Solomon for the full session. Solomon, however,
By Miriam Shaviv Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Courtesy of Camp Ramah
Canoers in the Tikvah program at Camp Ramah in Palmer, Mass., which accommodates youngsters with special needs.
decided not to return to the camp for the rest of the summer. The incident has many wondering how well Jewish camps accommodate youngsters with special needs — whether they be cognitive, developmental, physical, emotional or any combination — and what kinds of challenges are facing the camps. The need is clear. Autism diagnoses, for example, soared more than 45 percent from 2002 to 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and the number of children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has risen 66 percent in 10 years, according to a Northwestern
University study. “It’s hard to achieve a level of competence in meeting all needs of children with disabilities,” acknowledges David Ackerman, director of the Jewish Community Centers Association’s Mandel Center for Jewish Education and a former camp director. “Jewish camps have come a very, very long way, certainly in the last 30 years, definitely the last 20,” he says. “Many more camps are offering programs. In general, camp is more accessible than it’s ever been and we should feel good about it.” BLIND on page 20
In Poland and Slovakia, restoring awareness of a forgotten Jewish past By Ruth Ellen Gruber Jewish Telegraphic Agengy KRAKOW (JTA) — Thanks to a new iTunes app, new tourist routes and a towering replica of a destroyed synagogue, two “lost” Jewish cities in Europe are back on the map. One is the historic Jewish quarter of Bratislava, the Slovak capital, which survived World War II only to be demolished by communist authorities in the late 1960s. The other is Oshpitzin—the prewar Yiddish name for Oswiecim, the once mainly Jewish town in southern Poland where the Auschwitz death camp was built. The two projects differ in scope and structure, but their goals are the same: to restore awareness of the forgotten Jewish past in an effort to foster a better understanding of the present—for tourists and the locals. Oshpitzin uses a new iPad/iPhone application to augment a website, map and book, while the Lost City project in Bratislava focuses on a tourist itinerary and the temporary reconstruction of an ornate, Moorish-
style synagogue in the city’s picturesque Old Town. The Oshpitzin app “pioneers the use of the most advanced technology for the commemoration of a destroyed Jewish community in east-central Europe,” said Tomasz Kuncewicz, the director of the Auschwitz Jewish Center, a prayer and study center founded in Oswiecim in 2000 that produced the Oshpitzin project. The app, launched this month, is free from iTunes and soon will be available for Android. It is the latest part of a three-pronged Oshpitzin project that already includes a website and book published last year. Centered on an interactive map that can guide visitors through the anonymous spaces of today’s city, the app includes videos, testimonies of survivors, audiodescription and 3-D models of the destroyed Great Synagogue. The aim is to hammer home the fact that while Auschwitz, built on Oswiecim’s outskirts, was a mass death factory for more than a million individuals, the Shoah also annihilated a deeply rooted Jewish lifestyle and culture in Europe that was exemplified by
Oswiecim itself. Before the Holocaust, Oswiecim—Oshpitzin—was a bustling, majority Jewish town with synagogues, study houses, clubs, schools, shops and other businesses. Jews had lived there for centuries and were active in all spheres of life; in the 1930s there was even a Jewish deputy mayor. Only a few physical traces remain, including the Jewish cemetery and one small synagogue, now part of the Auschwitz Jewish Center complex. “The Oshpitzin project puts everything on the Oswiecim map,” Kuncewicz told JTA. “And the app opens a totally new way of educating about Jewish history and the destruction caused by the Holocaust. It’s a way that today is the most appealing to the new generations.” In Bratislava, the Lost City project uses somewhat different methods to tell a similar story. “We want to bring back historical memory,” said Slovak Jewish businessman Milos Ziak, who spearheaded the project. RESTORING on page 22
LONDON (JTA) — For Leslie Lyndon and the London Jewish community, it was a minor miracle. When Lyndon carried the Olympic torch through a north London neighborhood last week, it was more than representative of how Jewish Londoners have embraced the Olympic spirit. This was five years since Lyndon, at the age of 63, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. No longer able to recall instructions, he needed his stepson Matthew to help him through the day. But like most of the 8,000 torch bearers chosen to carry the Olympic flame in the run-up to the Games, he was being recognized for good works—in his case, as the former cantor of the Masorti New North London Synagogue. And his community came out by the hundreds to support him. “Never have I felt so confident of an early minyan,” quipped Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg in an email to his members. “To see you, Leslie, with your typical beaming smile, holding the torch high in both hands, running up the hill: I wonder how many of us cried for joy and love of you and all your family. Then you stopped, and lit the torch for the subsequent runner—I’m not sure what the [blessing] ought to be, ‘lehadlik ner shel humanity?’ ” To light the candle of humanity? This outpouring of pride— replicated across the Jewish suburbs for a couple dozen other Jewish activists also honored as torch bearers—was typical of how members of London’s Jewish community seem to have welcomed the Olympics into their lives. Since the opening ceremony last Friday, Jews have shown enormous involvement both personally and communally. In the Olympic venues there are, anecdotally, hundreds of Jewish volunteers, from Phil Ravitz, a retired journalist who is responsible for getting archers from their competitions to the press zone, to Anne Iarchy, a personal trainer who is marshaling the road cycling events. The most visible Jewish presence is the dozen or so Jewish chaplains of all denominations, part of a 190-strong team of religious leaders providing pastoral services to the athletes, media, volunteers and Olympic workers. “I’ve been quite busy,” said Alex Goldberg, one of the
Orthodox chaplains. “You see people who are away from home, others who are recovering from illnesses, who are quite happy to have made it here. Some people can get isolated in big buildings. Others just need to take a break.” While he is there to minister from people of all religions, “I’ve probably met around 100 Jewish people, mostly from the media,” he said. “Even when they are not religious, they are pleased to see a Jewish chaplain on the team; they come up and introduce themselves. I’ve been here for the past two Shabbatot and a lot of Jewish people came for some coffee and cake after the prayers.” The supply of kosher food to the Olympic Park, however, has been a complicated operation. David Colman, director at Hermolis, the kosher food supplier, said the company is delivering meals to 25 non-Israeli athletes who wish to keep kosher, as well as a stock of 1,000 meals meant for journalists, 1,000 for volunteers and workers, and 500 for corporate events. In addition, kosher sandwiches and hot meals for visitors are available from some vendors in the Olympic Park. However, due to Olympic sponsorship rules, shops are not allowed to advertise that they are selling kosher food and the packaging has had to be minimalist, without the company’s normal logos (but with a kosher and halal stamp). “We don’t know where our own meals are being sold,” Colman said. “It’s a bit of a crazy situation. If visitors go to a cafe and ask for kosher, hopefully they will either be offered it or told where else it is sold.” Across the city, there seems to be a rise in the number of tourists visiting Jewish attractions. “We certainly have had a more international audience coming through the doors, which is fantastic,” said Janice Lopatkin, external relations executive at London’s Jewish Museum. “Many people are coming in with Olympic passes, and we have had journalists from Singapore and Hong Kong doing a report about what else to do in London during the Olympics.” The museum has been listed in several Olympic guides to London, and many visitors, she added, may have been attracted to the museum’s display about Sir Ludwig Guttmann, a German Jewish refugee to London who inspired and founded the Paralympic Games.
ISRAEL • 9
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Campers at Camp Havaya in the Ayanot Youth Village in central Israel participating in Saturday morning prayers, July 29, 2012.
Israeli summer camps venture into Jewish identity building By Ben Sales Jewish Telegraphic Agency AYANOT, Israel (JTA) — Raised in a small and intimate Jewish community, Gal Herman, 14, has always been active in his local Reform youth group, attending services and participating in events. So it was an easy decision to spend summer at the Reform sleepaway camp a few hours away, where he could play sports, go hiking and learn about Judaism with his peers. Herman’s story may sound American, but he’s from Kibbutz Lotan, deep in Israel’s Negev Desert, and his camp is 11 miles south of Tel Aviv. He attends Camp Havaya, run by Noar Telem, the Israeli Reform movement’s youth group. Noting the success of American camps, some Israeli educators are trying to adapt the concept to fit their youth when it comes to informal Jewish education and identity building. “The idea we try to foster is that we are part of the Jewish people and you have to be an active Jew, to make that a real part of your life,” said Leora Ezrachi-Vered, Havaya’s director. “We felt that sticking with this model gives us a unique product.” On a weekday morning at Havaya, groups of teens work around ovens, hoping to bake lemon cakes in a building surrounded by trees and beaten by a midday sun. Across a nearby lush green field, another group of teenagers grasps rough ropes and crouches around a series of logs, as members of the nature staff teach them how to tie knots. Fifteen minutes later, counselors signal the kids to rush to the cafeteria for a typical camp lunch
— salad, noodles and fruit juice. Aside from nature programming and cooking, Havaya campers study Jewish texts together, pray twice a day, go on camping trips and complete a ropes course once a summer. And unlike campers at most other Israeli sleepaway camps, Havaya campers sleep in dormitories rather than tents. Summer camps have existed in Israel for decades, but most last only a few days and are focused more on outdoor living. Educational and Jewish enrichment at a weeks-long camp is a more novel concept. In addition to Havaya, Camp Ramah in Israel attracts children from families associated with the country’s Conservative, or Masorti, movement. The independent Camp Kimama offers training in technology and English lessons to Israeli campers and their peers who come from abroad. Another effort, called the Counterpoint Israel Program, aims to adapt the American day-camp model to five low-income towns in Israel’s South. Run by Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future, it imports groups of 10 American Jewish counselors to teach children arts, English and sports — and to keep them off the street during the potentially restless summer months. At one of the camps, sitting on a clean, beige-tiled floor of a community center in Kiryat Malachi, an assortment of Sephardi, Ethiopian and Russian Israeli 12to 15-year-olds bang on darbukas, traditional Middle Eastern handheld drums. Their teacher, a local resident with long peyot and tzitzit, motions for them to listen. CAMPS on page 22
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For Knesset’s Danny Danon, unapologetic Israeli nationalism is key to political success By Uriel Heilman Jewish Telegraphic Agency JERUSALEM (JTA) — If there’s one thing Danny Danon doesn’t do, it’s shy away from controversy. Danon, a deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset and chairman of World Likud, has come under fire for describing African migrants in Israel as a “national plague,” for hosting controversial U.S. TV personality Glenn Beck at the Knesset and for demanding government investigations of leftwing NGOs. Though Danon is in his first term in the Knesset, his profile is rising quickly on the Israeli political scene — perhaps more than anything else because of his unapologetically nationalist vision for Israel’s future. He wants Israel to annex all the Jewish-occupied and uninhabited land in the West Bank. He wants Palestinians living on the remainder of the West Bank to become part of Jordan, Egypt to take control of the Gaza Strip and the international community to reject the establishment of a Palestinian state on the west bank of the Jordan River (it’s fine by him if the Palestinians take over the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on the east bank). Danon does not believe in land for peace or the
Courtesy of Miriam Alster/FLASH90/JTA
Danny Danon, chairman of World Likud and deputy speaker of the Knesset, owes his rapid political rise in part to his unapologetic Israeli nationalism.
two-state solution. Danon outlines his blueprint for Israel’s future in a book due out in September, “Israel: The Will to Prevail,” though the book focuses more on history than the details of the blueprint. “I’m working very hard to present a different approach for the peace process,” Danon told JTA in a recent interview in his Knesset office. “Our goal should be to annex the maximum land with the minimum Arab population,” he said of the West Bank. “We should speak about our rights and not apologize for it. We have
biblical rights, historical rights, rights according to international law. We also have common-sense rights: We won the war.” While his ideas might seem far-fetched and antiquated — a throwback to notions that haven’t been discussed with much seriousness since the pre-Oslo era — Danon believes Israelis are warming to them. “We live in the Middle East; everything is dynamic here. With time it can be feasible,” he said. “I don’t accept that my views are on the fringe. I do believe one day they will be accepted.”
Danon’s detractors fear this is becoming true — in Israel, at least. “Ostensibly, one could even ignore the existence of this Likud backbencher, but little Danny Danon will be big, the sugar of the Israeli right,” Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy, a left-wing critic, wrote last summer. “So it’s better to pay attention to him now rather than later.” Levy’s column compared Danon to Joe McCarthy for backing legislation targeting left-wing nongovernmental organizations and for initiating a bill to dismiss Israeli-Arab Knesset member Hanin Zuabi for participating in a flotilla aimed at breaking Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. “Danon’s contribution to the political discourse is important: Enough with the euphemisms, dump the deceit, down with the pseudo-democracy under which one can be both a proponent of the occupation and a democrat, an oppressor of minorities and a liberal, a nationalist and enlightened, the way Likud ‘moderates’ are trying to be,” Levy wrote. “True, Danon is making Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu look like a moderate and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz look even better, but Danon is Likud’s 3G.” DANON on page 22
Burgas attack a sign of Hezbollah’s potency, but could Syria’s problems hinder its future? By Ben Sales Jewish Telegraphic Agency TEL AVIV (JTA) — Hezbollah may have landed a strike against Israel with the recent bus bombing in Bulgaria, but the Lebanese terrorist faction faces an uncertain future as one of its main sponsors — Syria’s Assad regime — faces a serious revolt and weakening support from once Arab allies, according to analysts. Still, no one is predicting the quick demise of Hezbollah. As has been the case throughout the Arab popular uprisings of the past 20 months, Israelis have viewed the turmoil gripping Syria with wariness. President Bashar Assad was no ally of Israel’s — the countries technically remain in a state of war — but the Syrian regime has kept its border with Israel mostly quiet for nearly 40 years under Assad and previously his father, Hafez Assad. “We don’t feel reassured that those who are trying to topple the Assad regime are a great improvement,” said Zalman Shoval, a former Israeli ambassador to the
United States. The Assad government, he said, “for its own interests, kept the armistice” with Israel. Some Israeli policy experts, however, are looking forward to a Syrian regime change because it is one of Hezbollah’s main backers, along with Iran. Syria has acted as a crucial pipeline for Hezbollah to receive money and weapons from Iran and elsewhere. A new Syrian government might close that route. “Hezbollah is losing support in the Arab world,” said Shlomo Brom, a former chief of the strategic planning division of the Israel Defense Forces. “It’s on the wrong side of history. Syria was a central source of support.” Hezbollah, however, remains a serious danger on several levels. In an address at an IDF ceremony on Sunday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak cautioned that Syria’s stockpiles of chemical and biologicalweapons may fall into Hezbollah control if they are transferred over the border due to a weakened Assad regime. “The State of Israel cannot accept a situation whereby advanced weapons systems are
transferred from Syria to Lebanon,” Barak said. “There is no doubt that we are facing a global terror campaign, against Israel in particular, with Hezbollah at its center, inspired by Iran.” Barak did not elaborate on the Israeli military’s plans. In a statement, the IDF said it “is carefully following events in Syria as they unfold, as they may have significant regional repercussions.” Further, Hezbollah is now reported to have up to 50,000 missiles — more than three times the 13,000 it reportedly held when it began launching rockets at Israel six years ago, leading to the Second Lebanon War. In that nearly monthlong conflict, almost 4,000 missiles landed on Israel, killing 43 civilians and wounding more than 4,000. Israeli authorities also are worried about the security of the IsraelSyria border in the Golan Heights as Assad loses control of the country. Last Friday, Syrian rebels took control of several posts on the country’s borders with Iran and Turkey.
In May 2011, masses of Syrians stormed the Israeli border in commemoration of Palestinians losing their homes in Israel’s War of Independence, which they call the Nakba. More than a dozen people died as Israel fired on the protesters. Now analysts fear that a rebel takeover could lead to a porous border that allows terrorists to infiltrate the country. “The Golan may become a kind of Sinai, with ideological extremist organizations that are on our border,” Brom said, referring to the current state of Israel’s border with Egypt in the Sinai desert. Regardless of the possible scenarios, the analysts all dismissed the idea that the July 18 terrorist attack in Bulgaria was a direct result of the Syrian fighting. Senior Israeli government officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have blamed Hezbollah for the attack, which they say is the product of a global Iranian campaign of terror aimed at Israeli targets. Hezbollah and Iran have rejected the allegations.
Israel Briefs Israel denies report that Netanyahu was briefed on U.S. attack plans for Iran JERUSALEM (JTA) — Unnamed senior Israeli sources denied an Israeli newspaper report that the U.S. National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon shared U.S. contingency plans for a possible attack on Iran with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Nothing in the article is correct,” a senior Israeli official told Reuters and The Associated Press on Sunday. “Donilon did not meet the prime minister for dinner, he did not meet him one on one, nor did he present operational plans to attack Iran.” Haaretz had reported the same day that Donilon on a visit to Israel earlier this month had described the plan to Netanyahu over dinner. The newspaper cited an unnamed senior American official and said that Israel’s national security adviser, Yaakov Amidror, attended part of the meeting. Donilon also shared information on U.S. weaponry and military capabilities for dealing with Iran’s nuclear facilities, including those deep underground, according to Haaretz, citing the American official. Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, had declined to comment to Haaretz on the details of the meeting. The Haaretz report appeared as presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney arrived in Israel to meet with Israeli and Palestinian officials. Israeli court orders army to find living solution for Palestinian villagers TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israel has 30 days to arrange a living situation for 27 Palestinian families whose homes are set to be demolished, the Israeli Surpeme Court ruled. The village of Zanuta, located in the southern Hebron Hills in the West Bank, is scheduled for demolition by the Israel Defense Forces because it sits on an archaeological site. But the villagers’ legal representative argued before the court on Monday that the state must allow for regular construction in the village because it has existed since before 1967, according to Haaretz. The court ruled that if the state does not allow for regular construction in the village, it must provide an alternative solution for the residents of Zanuta. “The role of a military governor is to find a solution,” Judge Hanan Meltzer said, according to Haaretz.
SOCIAL LIFE • 11
THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2012
SHALOM FAMILY’S SENSORY SUNDAY Step aside Access, the most happenin’ happy hour in the Jewish community is now for the two and under set! It’s Shalom Family’s Sensory Sunday, private, interactive playgroups which takes place on the second and fourth Sundays of the month from 2-3pm at Gymboree in Mason. They provide the perfect way for parents and babies in the Jewish community to connect with one another. These playgroups are always free and feature the popular Miss Meliss, who keeps even the youngest participants engaged and entertained with her unique brand of fun. Snacks are included. Sensory Sunday playgroups are open to families in the Jewish community with children two years and younger in which at least one parent is Jewish. Older siblings are welcome. Plus, at every event, two families will walk away with a $50 Target Gift Card. Dates and times are subject to change, please consult the community directory for the website. Shalom Family is an initiative of The Mayerson Foundation. PHOTOS CONTINUED ON PAGE 12.
ANNOUNCEMENTS ENGAGEMENT roud parents, Suzy Zipkin and Dr. Jeffrey Zipkin, are doubly pleased to announce the engagement of two daughters. Elise Zipkin is engaged to Brian Mattes. Brian’s parents are Melinda and Richard Mattes of West Lafayette, Ind. Ariel Zipkin is engaged to Daniel Weiss, who is the son of Karen Weiss and the late Steven Weiss, z"l, of Detroit, Mich. Elise and Brian live in Washington, D.C.; Ariel and Dan reside in Chicago. Honored grandparents of the girls are Alice Zipkin, the late Morris Zipkin, z"l, and the late Lee and Ben Silverman, z"l.
P
Brain Mattes and Elise Zipkin
WEDDING tephen Dann of New York City and Phyllis Leventhal of Stonington, Conn., announce the marriage of their daughter, Leah Ruth Dann to Daniel Marks, son of Richard and Gail Marks of Chicago, Ill. The wedding was held on July 14 at the Heritige Farm in St. Charles, Ill., and officiated by Rabbi David Levinsky of Temple Sinai. After a honeymoon on St. Maarten, the couple will reside in Wicker Park, Ill.
S
Ariel Zipkin and Dan Weiss
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14 • DINING OUT
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Indubitably delicious Indian cuisine at Baba India By Sondra Katkin Dining Editor The tongue tingling, healthy herbs and spices of Northern Indian cuisine at Baba India Restaurant saturate the senses with exotic flavors that the British have loved for centuries. Not long ago, only the elite cognoscenti were able to attain the best Indian cuisine. Now, thanks to Jassi Singh, a passionate proponent of Punjabi food and the “father” of five “offspring,” including Ambar in Clifton, we can go to restaurant row in Oakley, with convenient parking, and dine like pashas. The restaurant is bright with window walls on three sides and white tablecloths providing a touch of elegance to the simple decor. If you are a neophyte, the popular lunchtime buffet will introduce you to an enticing variety of meats, vegetables, soups, salads, sauces and desserts designed to satisfy the heartiest appetites. A frequent customer, Edie Moore, told me that, “The deliciousness of the food keeps me coming back.” Her favorite vegetable is the spinach (saag). I share a weakness for its homemade cheesy richness. On this visit, it was combined with chickpeas — a double health whammy of protein, fiber, chlorophyll, calcium and iron. Moore thinks, “The potato combined with turnip took it beyond the usual. The dal soup is another favorite of mine. It combines earthy and simple — very tasty.” She also appreciates the variety. “They keep altering the side dishes so you get new flavors to try,” she noted. My potatoes were combined with green beans. The solid and the soft were a texture and taste treat. Two types of bread, bhatura and naan, are used traditionally to scoop up your food. There are several Indian restaurants in New York City where using utensils is considered rude. Don’t worry, forks are favored here. The naan is chewy and wonderful and more than capable of curving to clear the crumbs that can’t run or hide. The bhatura, a bread that separates and becomes puffy when fried, is not to be missed. There is also a “bread” wafer for the gluten challenged made of lentils, called papadum. Indian food in general is gluten friendly. Where else can you have a fried vegetable appetizer (pakora) battered with chickpea flour (gram) and soups not thickened with flour? They offer a dal/lentil soup that is thick and redolent with the appealing scent of cumin, a delicious spice, considered an effective antioxidant. You can indulge and improve your health at the same time. A savory tomato soup with a sweet finish is another selection. There are several chicken dishes on the buffet including chicken
(Clockwise) Colorful and delicious selections from the buffet; Owner Jassi Singh with some of his talented staff (L-R) Kuldeep Singh Gill, Balbir Singh Maan and Swaran Ram pose in front of well-stocked bar; Balbir Singh Sandhu holds fragrant rice for the buffet; Inviting interior at Baba; One section of the copious buffet featuring sumptuous carrot cake, soups, tasty chicken tandoori and crispy vegetable pakora.
tandoori. My fork easily removed the mild, flavorful meat from its bone, and its moist, tangy goodness got gobbled quickly. Another choice, “the spicy chicken,” small cubes coated in a red pepper rub, lived up to its title. Most selections are mild and diners are warned when they are not. If you are a “heat seeker,” you can find wave upon wave of the wow factor on both the buffet and the menu. If you still want a more intense experience, there are sauces that will deliver the devilishly incremental spiciness you desire. Talk about tongues of steel! I was told by Vijayant Datta, a host and server with degrees in sociology and law from India, that owner Jassi Singh “can cook, serve, manage, he’s a very good multitasker and he takes care of everything. Singh trains the chefs and he can tell just by looking whether something was properly
prepared.” His favorite dessert, he declared, is the “carrot cake” (gazar halwaa). “Some customers call ahead to make sure it’s available,” he added. I tasted it and took some home for my husband Steve. He was pleased that it was another gluten free delicacy he could enjoy. We both thought its thick, pudding-like texture was reminiscent of cake, and the sweet richness and carroty chewiness added a caramelized intensity. Other desserts on the buffet include kheer/rice pudding and vanilla custard. One server likes to freeze the custard and relishes its rich ice cream taste. Singh recommends the chicken tikka, large marinated chunks of white meat with vegetables, sizzling hot from the tandoor (clay oven). To begin the meal, he suggests the vegetarian appetizer with six samples including homemade cheese, vegetables, potatoes, lentil
wafers, spinach and chickpeas. His favorite chicken dish is the chicken makhani, all white meat with a spicy marinade, cooked in the tandoor on skewers with a tomato based sauce. There are several curry selections offered. As a measure of their popularity, a customer ordered a carry out of curry sauce for the chicken she had at home. She commented that Baba has the best curry in town. Her husband, a doctor at Children’s Hospital, works with two Indian doctors who love the food here. Another lunch diner, David Johnson said, “I love Indian food. I used to go to Ambar but this location is easier for me with good quality, a great neighborhood, easy parking and great service. As soon as you walk in, someone is there to greet you and sit you down.” He always gets a mango lassi with lunch. This is a terrific smoothie, fresh and fruity with homemade
yogurt — a perfect counterbalance to the savory spices. Baba offers many vegetarian, chicken, lamb and fish entrees and seven bread choices. After lunch I observed the staff eating bhaturas stuffed with mildly spiced potatoes and cheese. They looked delicious and I will try them next time. There are dinner specials that feature samples of many of the appetizers, entrees and desserts. They also have full bar service with generous 7 - 8 ounce portions of wine and a large variety of international, Indian and domestic micro brews. The hours are Monday — Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 9:30 p.m.; Sunday, 12 to 9 p.m. Baba India Restaurant 3120 Madison Road Cincinnati, OH 45209 513-321-1600
DINING OUT • 15
THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2012
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16 • OPINION
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The small matter of 1929
I am writing as the public affairs director of a national Jewish organization, Agudath Israel of America, whose Education Affairs division services Jewish private schools across North America. A constituent who serves as a school librarian in two New York private schools has called to our attention some disturbing passages in a Parragon-published text. The “Encyclopedia of World History: From the Stone Age to the 21st Century” includes, in the section “The Modern World,” an entry for “Israel and Palestine” (pp. 208-209). It asserts that “the land around Jerusalem” was “the ancient homeland of the Jews,” and that after their expulsion from the Holy Land, their “desire to return led to a long conflict with the people living there.” It then notes that “small numbers of Jews, known as Zionists, began to settle in Palestine in the 1880s.” Leaving aside that the ancient Jewish monarchy in the Holy Land is understood by historians to have extended well beyond the environs of Jerusalem, the insinuation that there was no Jewish presence in the area for centuries until the late 19th century is not true. It is, to be sure, an assertion regularly made by some people today, but is at odds with the demonstrable facts of history. Even as many of their brethren were forcibly removed from their ancestral homeland, Jews maintained a presence in what is today Israel from antiquity to the present. There were years when invaders rendered Jerusalem itself “Judenrein,” but even during those dark times, Jewish communities existed in places like Hebron and Safed, among others. More egregious, though, is an entry in the timeline at the bottom of the section’s pages. For the year 1929, the description is: “First major conflict between Jews and Arabs.” What happened in 1929 is a matter of record. From August 23 through August 29, Arabs rioted against Jews in Jerusalem, killing
Thank you.
Dear Editor, Recently on a Shabbos morning in synagogue, flipping through my Chumash, I found a three year old synagogue bulletin which announced both the birth of my son and the passing of my mother-in-law, which occurred within the same week. I thought it interesting that this bulletin sat waiting for three years for me to find it. My wife often tells me there are no coincidences and I am sure she is right. I checked out the dedication page of the Chumash, and saw it was dedicated by a neighborhood couple, to their grandparents. I thought this a very respectful gesture of respect. Later that night, while at a different synagogue, I checked out the dedication page of the siddur I was using and was fascinated to see it was also dedicated by the same couple, but this time it was dedicated to their grandchildren. I thought of my wife’s words of wisdom. In reading the two different dedications from the same family, I was struck by the beauty of within the span of one day having the privilege of seeing five generations of a family committed to Torah and Judaism. None of us directly spoke with or knew our great-great grandparents, but through the guidance of our parents and grandparents, we can know of them and we can share their love of Torah, commitment to Judaism and Jewish values and pass them onto our own children and grandchildren. May all of us merit that our grandchildren and their grandchildren continue with a love of Torah and Judaism. If we are fortunate, it is a path that has been set by our own parents or grandparents. And if that path was not laid down in our families as strongly as in others, then we can create that path ourselves. Sincerely, Andrew Steinberg Cincinnati, Ohio
T EST Y OUR T ORAH KNOWLEDGE THIS WEEK’S PORTION: VAETCHANAN (DEVARIM 3:22—7:22) 1. When were the Children of Israel “shown” that Hashem is the only one? (not openly in the verse) a.) During the Ten plagues b.) By the splitting of the Red Sea c.) By the giving of the Torah 2. Where did Moshe explain the Torah? a.) In the land that was once ruled by Sichon and Og b.) In the land of Moab c.) In the land of Ammon 3. What is the Golan in Bashan? ability. Ramban 4. A 3:27 5. B 4:3
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a.) Mountain b.) City of refuge c.) A king over the Bashan 4. What happened at the top of Pisgah? a.) Moshe saw the land of Israel b.) Moshe taught Torah c.) A battle 5. What was Baal Peor? a.) King of a country b.) Idol c.) Place in the desert
3. B 4:43 Moshe is beginning to review and explain certain mitzvot. At that point, Moshe set aside 3 cities of refuge. Even though he did not complete the mitzvah, he did what was in his
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133 innocent people. The ostensible reason for the rioting was that some Jews had brought chairs to the Western Wall so that the aged and infirm might be able to pray there. The 116 Arab fatalities were largely the result of British security forces’ efforts to control the Arab mobs. That was the conclusion of the “Shaw Commission,” which also reported a subsequent massacre of innocent Jews in Hebron on August 24 of that year. The report describes “a most ferocious attack on the Jewish ghetto and on isolated Jewish houses lying outside the crowded quarters of the town. More than 60 Jews — including many women and children—were murdered and more than 50 were wounded. This savage attack… was accompanied by wanton destruction and looting. Jewish synagogues were desecrated, a Jewish hospital, which had provided treatment for Arabs, was attacked and ransacked.” Days later, Arabs attacked Jews in Safed too. In the Shaw Report’s words: “At about 5:15 pm, on the 29th of August, Arab mobs attacked the Jewish ghetto in Safed… in the course of which some 45 Jews were killed or wounded, several Jewish houses and shops were set on fire, and there was a repetition of the wanton destruction which had been so prominent a feature of the attack at Hebron.” An eyewitness described how women were cut to pieces and that Arab attackers entered an orphanage, smashing children’s heads and cutting off their hands. Students at the famous yeshiva in the town were killed and their bodies mutilated. Those were the most prominent events of 1929 in “Palestine.” Which your textbook synopsizes as: “1929 — First major conflict between Jews and Arabs.” I cannot know the thinking of the textbook’s authors, and will assume that they are not willful distorters of history. If the entry was an error, though, it was an astoundingly gross one, and needs to be corrected — not only in any future editions of the text but in the form of some communication with schools that currently utilize it. Please honor me with your response as soon as you are able.
Written by Rabbi Dov Aaron Wise
ANSWERS 1. C 4:35 At the giving of the Torah Hashem revealed the heavenly realms. Rashi. 2. A 4:46
By Rabbi Avi Shafran Contributing Columnist
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
JEWISH LIFE • 17
THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2012
Sedra of the Week
by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin Efrat, Israel — “[Nahamu] Comfort you, comfort you, my people, says your God” (Isaiah 40:1-26) This Shabbat, Va’etchanan—following the fast of the Ninth of Av, our memorial for the destruction of both Holy Temples (586 BCE and 70 CE) — is called Shabbat Nahamu, from the opening words of the haftora prophetic portion cited above. But when one tries to imagine the enormity of the tragedy—the loss of the central shrine of our nation, the abject defeat of Jewish national sovereignty in Israel, the cold-blooded murder of millions of Jews, the disappearance of an entire religious way of life that was built upon a complex and inspiring sacrificial system, and the beginning of an exile to all four corners of the world, filled with persecutions and pogroms that would culminate in the horrors of the Holocaust— one cries out in hopeless anguish, “What idea can possibly evoke comfort? What human action can possibly begin to bring balm to soothe the broken hearts of a dismantled and demoralized people?” To look for a response, let us turn to the very last Mishna in the Babylonian Tractate Ta’anit (fast days): “Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said, ‘There were no greater holidays for Israel than the 15th day of the month of Av and Yom Kippur [the Day of Atonement], when the young women of Jerusalem would go out bedecked in borrowed white dresses [so as not to embarrass those who could not afford a nice dress] and would dance in the vineyards.’ “And what would they say? ‘Young man, lift up your eyes and decide which maiden you shall choose for yourself. Do not set your eyes [only] on beauty, but set your eyes on a [woman from] a good Jewish family.’ As it says in the Scriptures, ‘grace is false and beauty’s vain, only a woman who
PARSHAT VAETCHANAN DEUTERONOMY 3:23-7:11
On that day, as they dazedly rose from their shiva, our Sages ordered a Sadie Hawkins Day. “Get married,” they commanded, “have children; remember that we still are God’s chosen children, that we will yet rebuild the Temple and bring about redemption in accordance with God’s promised covenant.” fears the Lord deserves to be praised' [Proverbs 31], and it says, ‘Give her the fruit of her hands and let her deeds praise her in the gates’ [ibid.], and as it also says, ‘Go out and look, daughters of Zion, upon King Solomon and upon the crown with which his mother crowned him, on the day of his wedding and on the day of the rejoicing of his heart’ [Song of Songs 3]; on the day of his wedding refers to the day of the giving of the Torah, and on the day of the rejoicing of his heart refers to the building of the Holy Temple, may it be rebuilt speedily and in our time’” (ibid. 26b). What a strange manner of celebration — a Jewish Sadie Hawkins Day? What special event occurred on 15 Av to have engendered such an uncharacteristic form of rejoicing? It is interesting to note that Amoraic discussion on the Mishna suggests no fewer than six events that occurred on Tu B’Av (15 Av), from “permission to the tribes to intermarry with each other,” to “the day when the Israelites ceased dying in the desert” (ibid. 30b). It goes without saying that if the Talmud gave six “historical” possibilities for this unique day, the true reason has been forgotten; no one of the mentioned six was apparently found to be truly compelling. Hence, I wish to suggest another possibility, along the lines of a present-day midrash, that would explain our celebration of the day, as well as the source of our comfort after the destruction according to the talmudic Sages. The Ninth of Av brought in its wake the destruction of the
Temples, a tremendous loss of lives including Kohen-Priests, Levites and defenders of Jewish independence, along with the end of the Jewish dream of world redemption. I would imagine that the survivors of the tragedy, especially those who lived in Jerusalem, immediately tore their outer garments and sat on the floor, began the shiva (seven-day) mourning period for the loss of a close relative (which indeed had probably occurred for many, if not most of them). If so, the seventh day—the day when their mourning was supposed to have ended and they were to resume mingling with society — came out on 15 Av (our Sages rule that partial mourning, even for a short period, on the seventh day, is considered a full seventh day of mourning). On that day, as they dazedly rose from their shiva, our Sages ordered a Sadie Hawkins Day. “Get married,” they commanded, “have children; remember that we still are God’s chosen children, that we will yet rebuild the Temple and bring about redemption in accordance with God’s promised covenant.” This not only explains the celebration of Tu B’Av, it explains why every Jewish wedding is a profound statement of faith in the Jewish future. Most importantly, it illuminates the talmudic teaching that “whoever causes a bride and groom to rejoice is restoring one of the ruins of the city of Jerusalem.” Shabbat Shalom Rabbi Shlomo Riskin Chancellor Ohr Torah Stone Chief Rabbi – Efrat Israel
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18 • JEWZ IN THE NEWZ
JEWZ
IN THE
By Nate Bloom Contributing Columnist THE OLYMPICS More Jewish Athletes: Last week, the Israelite published a Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA) article about six American Jewish athletes going to the London Olympic Games. This year, I didn’t do as much research as in years past as to “who is Jewish” among Olympic athletes. But I am aware of seven more Jewish athletes, outside the Israeli national team, participating in the Games. Here they are, with some extra notes. Athletes with a * near their name were mentioned in the JTA piece. By country: Australia: STEVE SOLOMON, 19, track, 4x400M relay team. He plans to attend Stanford Univ. after the Games and become a physician, like his father; Germany: SARAH POEWE, 29, swimming, 100M breaststroke. She was born and raised in South Africa, the daughter of a German (non-Jewish) father and a South African Jewish mother. In 2004, she swam for Germany and won an Olympic bronze medal in the 4X100M medley relay. New Zealand: JO ALEH, 28, sailing. In 2012, she competes in the twowoman “470” class (a small dinghy). Her team is very high ranked. In 2008, she competed in an individual sailing event. Ukraine: VASYL FEDORYSHYN, 32, wrestling. In 2008, he won the silver medal in the Men’s Freestyle 60KG weight class and competes in this class again in 2012. In 2009, he competed in the Maccabiah Games in Israel. United States: DAVID BANKS*, 28, rowing, Men’s Eight [man boat]. A Stanford graduate, he’s the son of an African-American father and a Jewish mother; ANTHONY ERVIN*, 31, swimming, 50M freestyle. The son of an AfricanAmerican father and a Jewish mother, in 2000 he was the first African-American to win an Olympic swimming medal (a gold in the 50M individual and a silver in the 4x100M freestyle medley). He retired in 2003, but came back this year after earning his college degree; JASON LEZAK*, 36, swimming. In 2012, he will compete on the 4x100M freestyle relay team. Lezak has been in every Olympics since and including 2000. He has won seven medals, including four gold ones. In 2008, he anchored the 400M relay team that won the gold medal in amaz-
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NEWZ
ingly exciting fashion; MARK MENDELBRATT, 39, sailing. In 2004, he finished 8th at the Olympics, sailing a “Laser” class boat. In 2012, he is back, sailing a two-man “Star” class boat; MERILL MOSES, 34, water polo. He was the goalkeeper on the 2008 US Olympic team that won the silver medal; ALY (ALEXANDRA) RAISMAN*, 17, gymnastics (floor, beam). A top competitor in a “marquee” sport, she’s likely to be the most seen and heralded Jewish athlete at the Games. She’s on the cover of the current issue of Sports Illustrated and her bio is “everywhere.” Here’s a little “Jewish color”: Raisman, who was bat mitzvah, has performed solo floor exercises to the music of “Hava Nagila”; SOREN THOMPSON, 31, fencing. He fences in the épée sword class. He was on the 2004 American team, taking 7th place in individual competition and 5th place in team competition; JULIE ZETLIN*, 21, rhythmic gymnastics. Her sport is much bigger in Europe than in America. She did well enough in international competition to earn a berth at the Games. In the last Olympics, no Americans competed in this sport. Extra Notes: The two Israelis with the best shot at a medal are both judo athletes: ARIEL ZE’EVI, 35, 100KG weight class. He won a bronze medal in 2004; and ALICE SCHLESINGER, 24, 64KG weight class. She’s ranked among the top 5 worldwide. Fencer Tim Morehouse, who was in the JTA article, has one Jewish grandparent. Famous basketball player Sue Bird is on the 2012 women’s team. Her father is Jewish, but she was raised in her mother’s Christian faith. In 2006, she took Israeli citizenship to more easily play in European basketball leagues. But, so far as I know, she has never identified with Judaism or even called herself Jewish. KOSHER KID Opening on Friday, August 3, is “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days of Summer,” the third movie in the “Wimpy Kid” series. The series’ star character, Greg Heffley, is ready for a relaxing summer now that school is over. But his vacation plans go awry. Heffley is played by ZACHARY GORDON, 14, a Southern California native who told an interviewer last year that he planned to be bar mitzvah in late 2011. His family keeps kosher and they are regular synagogue-goers.
FROM THE PAGES 150 Y EARS A GO Miss Fanny Marshuetz, having left this city Monday last, to go, in the company of her brother, to Italy, in order to complete her education in vocal music, takes this method to send a hearty farewell to all of her friends. Miss Marshuetz is young and very promising. She sang for years in our choir with much success and will after a short stay probably in Italy, meet with success on the stage. She unites in herself rare talents for dramatic and lyric music. We wish her a happy journey and the best of success. — August 8, 1862
pleased to welcome her friends. Dr. William Hillkowitz, who leaves in a few days for a years’ stay in Europe for study among the hospitals, was given a farewell banquet, Sunday night, at the Park Hotel in College Hill. The betrothal has been announced of Miss Rosalind Ach of Dayton, O., daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Ach, to Julian G, Schwab, son of Mr. and Mrs. A.G. Schwab of the Avon Apartments, Avondale. Isaac Tuch was buried from his late residence, 892 Lerington Avenue, Avondale, on Sunday morning last. The funeral was at the United Jewish Cemetery on Walnut Hills. Dr. Julian Morgenstern officiating. — August 1, 1912
125 Y EARS A GO Messrs Jak and Julius Workum are at the sea shore. Mrs. B. Bettmann and daughter, and Mr. Henry Bettman are at St. Clair, Mich. Miss Sallie Kubie, a highly accomplished and handsome young lady of New York City is spending the summer months with her sister, Mrs. Emmanuel Bamberger, of Baymiller Street. Misses Ruth Fecheimer, Julia Eisfelder, Miriam Brunner, Birdie Mayer, and Rosa Bloom gave a lawn party at the home of Mr. May Fecheimer, and realized quite a neat sum for the benefit of the Fresh Air Fund. Their noble and charitable example ought to be followed for in this heat the poor and needy are in great distress and need “fresh air.” This fete netted the very handsome sum of $125. It is gratifying to note that a large number of those composing the committee to invite President Cleveland and his charming wife are Israelites. This speaks volumes. That our coreligionists stand among the foremost is conceded, but that they play so important and unproportional a part is a sure proof of their general standing. Should the President honor us with a visit he will soon perceive that he is in the most tolerant, liberal, progressive and consistent municipality in the United States. There is but one Cincinnati. — August 5, 1887
100 Y EARS A GO Mrs. Nathan Cohen and children with maid are quite a sojourn East, is looking forward to the arrival of her husband and her sister, Miss Stella Glass, who after spending a few weeks in Atlantic City expect to return home after August 15. Mrs. Joseph Schmidt of 3120 Harvard Avenue, East Walnut Hills, accompanied by her daughter, Miss Madeline and her two sons, Milton and William, are visiting Mrs. Schmidt’s parents in Borough Park, Brooklyn, N.Y. Mrs. Jake Weil and children of St. Louis, Mo., are visiting her mother, Mrs. Helen Kahn of Rockdale Avenue, Avondale, where she will be
75 Y EARS A GO Attendance records for similar affairs are expected to be shattered at Price Hill Beth Jacob 25th anniversary silver jubilee picnic Sunday, Aug. 1st, at Lauterbach Grove, according to Joseph Rheins, chairman. Invitations have been sent to all living former officers of the Synagogue, as well as to its members and friends. Councilman Willis D. Gradison and Oscar Berman, a Council nominee, will be honorary guests. Features will include a Jewish musical concert. Kosher meals will be served. In addition to Bernard M. Altenberg and Nathan Kaplan, cochairman, the following will assist: M. Gertzman, B. Cohn, Meyer Shaw, Henry Benjamin, Oscar Golder, Chas. Corenthal, S. Gertzman, Leo Nidich, M. Goldberg, J. Granich, Jack Feuer, Phillip Applebaum, H. Kahn, Ben Greenstein, F. Gradman, F. Michaelson, Anna Kaplan, Abe Yaegerman, Sol Kaplan, Irving Finkelstein. Directions to Lauterbach Grove: Take the Elberon car, Number 32, to Eighth and Pedretti where free buses will take you to the picnic ground. — July 29, 1937
50 Y EARS A GO A 30-year-old native Cincinnati virologist — Dr. Gilbert M. Schiff — is being acclaimed in international scientific circles as one of two men who have just isolated and grown in tissue culture the virus that causes German measles. Dr. Schiff and Dr. John L. Sever did the work under Dr. Richard L. Masland, director of the National Institute for Neurological Diseases and Blindness at Bethesda, Md. Dr. Schiff is the son of Dr. and Mrs. Leon Schiff, 1027 Egan Hills Drive. Dr. Leon Schiff is professor of medicine and director of the gastric laboratory at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Mrs. Israel Edlin has returned from New York City, where she
received a teaching certificate in the Charles Goren bridge method. Dr. and Mrs. Milton H. Bronstein (Fifi Gallop), of Los Angeles, are the parents of a son, Michael, born Wednesday, July 11, in that city. The infant has three sisters. The grandparents are Mrs. Selma Gallop and Mr. George Gallop of Cincinnati and Mrs. Morris Bronstein of Rochester and the late Mr. Morris Bronstein. — August 2, 1962
25 Y EARS A GO Memorial services for Robert V. Goldstein of Wyoming, vice president of advertising for Procter & Gamble, have been scheduled for 2 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 13 at Adath Israel. Rabbi George Barnard of Northern Hills Synagogue will officiate. Goldstein, 50, an active member of the Jewish community, passed away Aug. 1 as a result of a whitewater rafting accident in British Columbia, Canada. Goldstein was assistant secretary and past vice president of the Jewish Federation, chairman of the Federation’s Public Relations Committee, former chairman of the Strategy Planning Board and a member of the Federation’s Executive Committee. The marriage of Judith Ann Pywen and Jeffrey Allyn Gibson took place July 12 at Adath Israel Synagogue. Rabbi Sidney Zimelman officiated. Judy is the daughter of Rita Pywen and the late Jack Pywen. Jeff is the son of Dorothy Gibson and the late Roy Gibson. — August 6, 1987
10 Y EARS A GO Isaac M. Wise Temple will begin its 11th year as a host congregation for the Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN) this fall. IHN is a national program that began in New Jersey in 1988. The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives has received a collection of letters from Leo Frank that were written from his jail cell to C.P. Connelly, the Colliers Magazine columnist. Leo Frank, a Jewish manager of a pencil factory in Atlanta, Georgia, was found guilty of murdering Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old employee, in 1913. Despite a Georgia court’s conviction of Frank and death sentence, irregularities in the case and the suspicion that the janitor was the real murderer caused the Georgia governor to commute Frank’s death sentence. Before any appeals could be heard, Frank was taken from his cell in 1915 and lynched by a mob who called themselves the “Knights of Mary Phagan.” Frank is the only recorded case of a Jew being lynched in the U.S. — August 1, 2002
THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2012
CLASSIFIEDS • 19
COMMUNITY DIRECTORY COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS Access (513) 373-0300 • jypaccess.org Big Brothers/Big Sisters Assoc. (513) 761-3200 • bigbrobigsis.org Camp Ashreinu (513) 702-1513 Camp at the J (513) 722-7258 • mayersonjcc.org Camp Chabad (513) 731-5111 • campchabad.org Camp Livingston (513) 793-5554 • camplivingston.com Cedar Village (513) 754-3100 • cedarvillage.org Chevra Kadisha (513) 396-6426 Cincinnati Community Kollel (513) 631-1118 • kollel.shul.net Cincinnati Community Mikveh (513) 351-0609 • cincinnatimikveh.org Eruv Hotline (513) 351-3788 Fusion Family (513) 703-3343 • fusionnati.org Halom House (513) 791-2912 • halomhouse.com Hillel Jewish Student Center (Miami) (513) 523-5190 • muhillel.org Hillel Jewish Student Center (UC) (513) 221-6728 • hillelcincinnati.org Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati 513-961-0178 • jcemcin.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) 214-1200 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 • 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 • btzbc.com 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 • btzbc.com
Congregation Ohav Shalom (513) 489-3399 • ohavshalom.org Congregation Ohr Chadash (513) 252-7267 • ohrchadashcincinnati.com Congregation Sha’arei Torah shaareitorahcincy.org Congregation Zichron Eliezer 513-631-4900 • czecincinnati.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 Kulanu (Reform Jewish High School) 513-262-8849 • kulanucincy.org Regional Institute Torah & Secular Studies (513) 631-0083 Rockwern Academy (513) 984-3770 • rockwernacademy.org Sarah’s Place (513) 531-3151 • sarahsplacecincy.com
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 BBYO (513) 722-7244 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
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FEDERATION from page 1 In 2013, JFS and the Mayerson JCC will work cooperatively to create the new Senior RussianSpeaking Program, which will fill the vacuum created by the closing of the Friends of Refugees of
SENIOR SERVICES
• • • • •
Up to 24 hour care Meal Preparation Errands/Shopping Hygiene Assistance Light Housekeeping
(513) 531-9600 Eastern Europe (FREE) Center in 2011. Recognizing that the expertise and knowledge of the two agencies could best address this need, the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati has encouraged and helped coordinate this collaboration.
GOLF from page 3 The 13th Cedar Village Golf Classic will be held Monday, Aug. 20 at the Heritage Club. There will be both morning and afternoon golf sessions with a scramble shotgun start. Morning play will begin at 8 a.m. and afternoon play will begin at 1:15 p.m. There will be contests on every hole, including a $2,500 Putting Green Contest, $10,000 Hole-in-One Contest, Beat the Pro and Weekend Car Rental Contests. The driving range and putting green will be open throughout the day. Following the tournament there will be a buffet dinner, raffle prizes will be drawn, and contest and team prizes will be awarded. You do not need to be present to win. There is a cost for the tournament, which includes breakfast, TRAVELERS from page 6 Tourism numbers around the world show travelers in general are undeterred despite international terrorism threats. According to the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization, international tourism grew 5 percent in the first four months of 2012, and 415 million tourists are expected to travel worldwide this summer. International tourism is expected to increase by 3 to 4 percent for the ACADEMY from page 7 Students at AHA rarely segregate by denomination, and they take classes on a range of Jewish philosophical perspectives. Dinner is followed by a mandatory two-hour study period — a schedule that leaves the students with little unstructured time. “Coming to a school where every second of every day was regulated, all of that is something you had to get used to,” said rising senior Jennifer Von Ende. “That was a struggle. It made me into a better student.”
Florence Zaret
lunch and dinner. Golfers can play with their own foursome or Cedar Village will set up teams. For more information, to request an invitation or to register, call Angela Ratliff. entire year, CNN recently reported. The State Department official also suggested to JNS that all U.S. travelers enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive the latest safety and security information from the U.S. embassy, maintain a high level of vigilance and increase their security awareness. “Terrorism has become a world problem, not just a problem for Israelis,” Fattal told the Washington Post. Drew expects that by the 201314 school year, 200 students will attend the school. While he acknowledges that AHA isn’t for every Jewish student, he also hopes that more Jewish teens — and their parents —at least will know what it is. “There’s no limit to what the academy has to do in terms of raising awareness of its institution,” Drew said. “For families of major metropolitan cities, when they are looking at options for their children’s Jewish high school education, the academy simply wants to be among those options.”
20 • LEGAL
WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM
Punishing juveniles who commit homicide offenses Legally Speaking
by Marianna Bettman In light of all the hoopla over the health care law, less attention was paid to Justice Elana Kagan’s authoring of her first 5-4 decision for the U.S. Supreme Court, striking down mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles who commit homicide offenses. In this case, Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the liberal wing; Chief Justice Roberts stayed with the conservatives. Kagan’s decision involves two companion cases. In the first, Evan Miller, who had been drinking and smoking pot with another juvenile and an adult named Cole Cannon, beat Cannon repeatedly with a baseball bat. Cannon had earlier sold drugs to Miller’s mother. The two boys later set fire to Cannon’s trailer to cover their tracks. Cannon died of his injuries and from smoke inhalation. Miller was 14 years old at the time. Kuntrell Jackson and two friends decided to rob a video store. On the way, Jackson learned that one of his buddies, Derrick Shields, was carrying a sawed-off shotgun. Jackson stayed outside while the other two went in. After the store clerk refused to turn over the money to Shields, and then threatBLIND from page 8 On the other hand, Ackerman adds, “If you’re the parent of a child who can’t be accommodated at the camp you want, it doesn’t matter what the field is doing. It’s heartbreaking. We’ve come a long way; we still have a long ways to go.” Others in the industry say there is a growing recognition that many more camping services are needed for youngsters with disabilities, whatever the disabilities are. “It’s a conversation that’s gotten much more active in the last year or so,” says Abby Knopp, the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s vice president of program and strategy. As part of FJC’s internal planning process, it is joining with the Jewish Funders Network next week to take individuals from both organizations to see seven special needs camp programs in the Northeast.
ened to call the police, Shields shot and killed her. Jackson was also 14 years old at the time. Both Alabama (the Miller case) and Arkansas (the Jackson case) allow 14-year-olds to be bound over to adult court, (as does Ohio) and both boys were. Miller was convicted of murder by an Alabama jury and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Jackson was convicted of capital felony murder and aggravated robbery by an Arkansas jury. He also was sentenced to life without parole. The supreme courts of both states affirmed the convictions and sentences. Much of the media coverage in this case reported that the Court had categorically banned life sentences without parole for juveniles who commit homicide offenses. That is in fact an argument both Miller and Jackson had urged on the high court, but was not what the Court held. What the Court actually banned was the mandatory imposition of life without parole for juveniles who commit homicide offenses. Specifically the Court held that the mandatory imposition of life without parole for those who commit a homicide offense before the age of 18 violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Still, the majority noted that even if state laws allow discretion in the imposition of life without parole for juvenile homicide offenders, such sentences would or should be very uncommon. The overarching reason for the majority’s finding was that a mandatory life sentence for juvenile homicide offenders runs afoul of the Court’s “requirement of individualized sentencing for defen-
dants facing the most serious penalties.” (The sentencing tide ebbs and flows. The federal sentencing guidelines were originally adopted to eliminate discretion. They were later abandoned for doing exactly that.) Justice Kagan spent much of her majority opinion following the line of cases dealing with the lesser culpability of juvenile offenders, probably because Justice Kennedy, whose vote she needed, has written so passionately in that area. Quoting from an earlier decision, Kagan wrote that “children cannot be viewed simply as miniature adults.” In 2005, in Roper v. Simmons, the U.S. Supreme Court banned the death penalty for juveniles who committed homicide offenses before they were 18. Then in 2010 in Graham v. Florida, the Court held that life without parole for juvenile non-homicide offenders violated the Eighth Amendment. Justice Kennedy wrote the majority decision in both of those cases. Justice Kagan relied extensively on findings in those two cases to bolster her conclusions in these two cases. The building blocks from those cases are first, that “children have a lack of maturity and an underdeveloped sense of responsibility leading to recklessness, impulsivity, and heedless risk-taking.” Second, children are “more vulnerable…to negative influences and outside pressures” and are less able to extricate themselves from “crime-producing settings.”And third, “a child’s character is not as ‘well-formed’ as an adult’s.” So neither deterrence nor retribution has the same justification in a juvenile context as in an adult context (whether these make sense as adult penal goals is subject to a different kind of debate). Indeed,
under such a sentencing scheme, juveniles will serve much longer jail terms than adults convicted of homicide offenses, and give them no chance whatsoever at rehabilitation, even “when the circumstances most suggest it.” There are two important take-aways here. Youth matters, and sentencing must be individualized. Justice Kagan also dealt deftly with the dissents in some very pointed footnotes. (Example— “While the dissents seek to relitigate old Eighth amendment battles, repeating many arguments this Court has previously (and often) rejected, we apply the logic of Roper, Graham, and our individualized sentencing decisions to these two cases.) At times, she sounded like a younger Justice Ginsburg. From me, that’s a compliment. Justice Breyer wrote a separate concurrence, joined by Justice Sotomayor. He agreed with everything Justice Kagan wrote. But he would go one step farther, and make the life-with-no-possibilityof-parole ban on juveniles mandatory if the juvenile involved in a homicide offense neither killed nor intended to kill the victim. And he worried that Kuntrell Jackson, who just went along with some older boys, and stayed outside when the murder occurred, is in that category. That would have to be determined on remand to the Arkansas trial court. Chief Justice Roberts (the old pre-health care version) wrote the lead dissent, joined by the rest of the conservatives, minus Justice Kennedy. He criticized the majority for ignoring the important fact that any punishment found to violate the Eighth Amendment must be cruel or unusual. He produced data show-
ing that if there is a national trend, it is against rehabilitation, and in favor of longer, determinate sentences, and that life without parole has become more common in the last quarter century. So, his point is that life without the possibility of parole, even for juveniles, is usual, not unusual, in many states, and it is not the role of the Court to disagree with that policy choice, even if the members of the Court personally disagree with it. Justice Thomas wrote a dissent joined by Justice Scalia. He sang his usual song, arguing that neither of the two lines of precedent relied on by the majority—the categorical prohibition of certain punishments for certain classes of offenders, and the requirement of individualized sentencing in the capital punishment context —was consistent with Original Intent. In the gospel according to Thomas, the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment was understood as barring tortuous methods of punishment, and contained no proportionality principle. The determination of who deserves what punishment belongs to the legislative branch. Justice Alito, also joined by Justice Scalia, wrote a particularly bitter dissent, criticizing the majority for pretty much making up the evolving standards of decency to suit its own view of what that should be, instead of deferring to actual legislative choices, which show a consensus permitting life without the possibility of parole for juveniles for both nonhomicide and homicide offenses.
The Krishefs’ experience notwithstanding, the Conservative movement’s Camp Ramah has been serving youngsters with special needs since 1970, according to Rabbi Mitch Cohen, Ramah’s national director. “Camp Ramah in Canada has included blind campers, Ramah Poconos used to run a program for deaf children and Ramah New England has been able to include some campers in wheelchairs,” he says. The JCCA, Reform and Orthodox movements also have various options for campers with special needs at day camps and sleepaway camps. Chabad offers Friendship Circle day camp programs, pairing high schoolers with special-needs campers. But not all campers fit the labels, Rabbi Krishef tells JTA. While many kids are well served by programs for specialneeds kids, the problem is for campers such as his son, “who do not fit into the regular category”
but don’t belong in the specialneeds programs. As a result, he laments, the Jewish community is leaving out “this group of kids who are on the margins who really want to be involved in Jewish life and want to be involved in Jewish life.” While camp officials admit that no one camp can possibly meet every child’s needs, they agree that communicating is key. “It’s really partnering with families,” says Howard Blas, who directs the Tivkah program at Ramah New England in Palmer, Mass., and emphasizes how crucial it is for parents to speak with camp staff. “You have to communicate with families; you have to do a careful assessment. It’s not the kind of program where you drop off the kids and come back in four weeks.” Marcy Yellen, whose 27-yearold son has been going to Palmer — where he’s now in a vocational program for older teens and young adults — also cites communica-
tion as vital. “I think the more you inform people of your child’s needs, the better off you are,” she says. Jeff Braverman, director of the Modern Orthodox sleepaway Camp Nesher in Lake Como, Pa., remembers how things changed at his facility. In 1997, a parent called after the camp’s first session. The mother, he says, asked typical questions about the camp and talked about her son’s likes and dislikes. “At the end of the conversation, she says, ‘Oh, I assume you can accommodate my son, who happens to be in a wheelchair,’ ” Braverman recalls. He was unsure what to do, but by the end of the talk he had invited her to visit the camp, where they would figure out how to make it more accessible to her son, who had muscular dystrophy. “There was cost involved; there was creativity involved,” Braverman says.
Nathaniel Cohen, then finishing up fifth grade, showed up the next summer. “He stayed with us for the duration of his life — as a camper, then a staffer, until he passed five years ago,” Braverman says. Nesher has since become one of the official camps for Yachad, a program offered by the National Jewish Council for Disabilities that provides camps with staff members specially trained to work with campers’ myriad needs. Families pay camp fees to Yachad, which then pays the camps directly. As with individual camp programs, Yachad also does its own fundraising. Money is certainly a factor. Not only is there the expense of making camps accessible — Jewish camps are exempt from the Americans with Disabilities Act — but there is the added cost of extra staff. That includes the oneon-one “shadow” staff members who often must be assigned to help campers.
Marianna Brown Bettman is Professor of Clinical Law at The University of Cincinnati College of Law.
FIRST PERSON • 21
THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2012
Is Tisha B’Av a meaningful holiday for Jews today? This Year in Jerusalem
by Phyllis Singer This past Sunday, July 29, we observed Tisha B’Av, the Ninth of Av, commemorating the destruction of the Holy Temples in Jerusalem. The First Temple was destroyed in 586 BCE, and the Second Temple in 70 CE. Is Tisha B’Av a meaningful holiday for Jews today? The Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon commissioned a poll, which found the following: 51 percent of Israelis said Tisha B’Av has no meaning for them; 22 percent said they feel connected to the holiday but do not fast; another 22 percent said they fast on the day. Although the report of the poll on Google did not give any further details, I assume that people who fast on the day also observe traditional mourning customs associated with Tisha B’Av, including reading the Book of Eicha (Lamentations) and Kinot (mournful elegies). But does the commemoration
have real meaning for those who observe the day? I attended a Tisha B’Av lecture by Rabbi Jeff Bienenfeld, formerly of St. Louis, who shared an amazing story about Ethiopian Jews who learned that the Temple had been destroyed only after they made aliyah. Ethiopian Jews were cut off from Eretz Yisrael and Jewish tradition for thousands of years. They knew nothing of the history of the Jewish people following their dispersion. When the two big waves of Ethiopian Jews came to Israel in Operation Moses in 1985 and Operation Solomon in 1991, they expected to see the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The story “The Heart-Rending Cry” by Keren Gottlieb, which Rabbi Bienenfeld told, was published on the Aish HaTorah website. I’d like to share part of the story with you. Gottlieb wrote, “It’s difficult to be truly mournful over something that took place 2,000 years ago — something that we’ve never seen and don’t really feel lacking in our daily life.” But her army experience as a teacher of Ethiopian immigrants, “who had been severed from our nation many generations ago,” changed her perspective. “They observed Shabbat, were familiar with most of the holidays and kept Jewish tradition in a devout and traditional manner. But it was clear that they didn’t know
JABOTINSKY from page 6 Jabotinsky also had more than a passing interest in the question of race relations in the U.S. Following a wave of race riots that erupted in the U.S. after black boxer Jack Johnson defeated his white opponent, Jack Jeffries, in 1910, Jabotinsky wrote (in the Russian periodical Odesskie Novosti): “In the United States, the most free republic on earth, there are ten million citizens suffering a shocking lack of rights simply because of the color of their skin...Theaters are closed to the black man, as are hotels, railway cars, and schools. He is assigned special railway cars and narrow, separate compartments on trains. Schools for black children are cheaply constructed, inadequate, and dirty. The political rights of the ‘free and equal’ black citizen are non-existent.” Ten years later, on a visit to the U.S., Jabotinsky witnessed a Ku Klux Klan march in Texas. It reinforced his disgust at racism in America. In a letter to a friend at the time, he wrote that both Jews and blacks in the U.S. would soon find it necessary to physically defend themselves against their enemies.
Courtesy of Rafael Medoff
Ze’ev Jabotinsky
So perhaps it should be not be surprising that officers of the Irgun stood up for black civil rights. In early 1940, Jabotinsky sent a number of young Irgun officers from Europe and Palestine to the United States, to mobilize American support for the rescue of Jewish refugees and creation of a Jewish state. Led by Hillel Kook, using the pseudonym Peter Bergson, they organized rallies, sponsored newspaper ads, lobbied in Washington and, in 1946, staged a Broadway play to rouse
everything; the separation they had undergone throughout all those years had influenced their system of traditions. I decided to allot a considerable amount of time each day to teach them about Judaism. “The month of Nissan had arrived and I started teaching about the holiday of Passover. “My class consisted of 20 students, grades 3-6. (They were placed according to their reading level rather than chronological age.) These children had come to Israel only a few months beforehand and more than anything else, they loved to hear stories. ‘Passover is one of the three festivals when the entire Jewish people used to go to Jerusalem to the Temple,’ I began. At this point, a student jumped up, cutting me off in mid-sentence. ‘Teacher, have you ever been to the Temple?’ “I smiled at him, realizing that he was somewhat confused. ‘No, of course not. That was a very long time ago!’ My student was insistent, and a few more pairs of eyes joined him. ‘Fine, it was a long time ago. But were you there? Were you at the Temple a long time ago?’…‘No, of course not. That was a very long time ago!’ “Now the rest of the students joined him in an uproar. ‘You’ve never been there?’ I tried calming everyone down. ‘Listen everyone — there is no Temple! There used to be a Temple many years ago but today we don’t have a Temple. It was destroyed, burned down. We
haven’t had a Temple for 2,000 years!’ The tumult in the class was steadily increasing. They began talking amongst themselves in Amharic, arguing, translating, explaining, shouting, as I lost total control over the class. “The next morning I got off the bus and leisurely made my way toward the school and saw a sizeable gathering of Ethiopian adult immigrants — apparently, my students’ parents. As I came closer, everyone quieted down. One of the adults whose Hebrew was on a higher level, asked me, ‘Are you our children’s teacher?’ “‘Yes,’ I answered. ‘What is the matter, sir?’ “‘Our children came home yesterday and told us that their teacher taught them that the Temple in Jerusalem no longer exists. Who would tell them such a thing?’ He looked at me in anger. “I told them that I explained to them that the Temple had been burned down thousands of years ago and that today, we no longer have a Temple. He was incredulous. ‘What? What are you talking about?’ “The man turned to his friends and in a dramatic tone translated what I had told him. At this point, things seemed to be finally sinking in. Now, however, a different scene commenced: One woman fell to the ground, a second broke down in tears. A man standing by them just stared at me in disbelief. Another woman suddenly broke
into a heart-rending cry. Her husband came over to her to hug her. “I stood there in utter shock. I felt as if I had just brought them the worst news possible. It was as if I had just told them about the death of a loved one. I stood there across from a group of Jews who were genuinely mourning the destruction of the Temple. “At that moment, I understood. I understood that this was exactly how we are supposed to mourn the Temple on Tisha B’Av. We are supposed to cry over the loss of the unity and peace throughout the entire world. We are supposed to lament the disappearance of the Divine Presence and holiness from our lives in Israel. We are supposed to be pained by the destruction of our spiritual center, which served to unify the entire Jewish nation. “We’re supposed to feel as if something very precious has been taken away from us forever. We are meant to cry, to be shocked and angry, to break down. The incredible closeness that we had with God — that feeling that He is truly within us — has evaporated and disappeared into thin air. “Now when Tisha B’Av rolls around, I go back to that incident with my students and their parents and try to reconnect to the meaningful lesson that they taught me — what it truly means to mourn for the loss of our holy Temple.” An incredible story indeed! And a lesson for us all.
support for Zionism. The play, called “A Flag is Born,” served a surprising role in the fight against racial segregation. Starring a young Marlon Brando, “Flag” had a successful 10-week run at Manhattan’s Alvin Theater (today the Neil Simon Theater) and then hit the road. A planned performance at the National Theater in Washington, D.C. in early 1947 was relocated to Baltimore’s Maryland Theater because the play’s author, Ben Hecht, would not permit his works to be staged at theaters, such as the National, that barred blacks. When Hecht discovered that the Maryland Theater restricted blacks to the balcony, Bergson’s group and the NAACP teamed up to protest: The NAACP threatened to picket and a Bergson official announced he would bring two black friends to sit with him at the play. The management gave in, allowing black patrons to sit wherever they chose. NAACP leaders hailed the “tradition-shattering victory” and used it facilitate the desegregation of other Baltimore theaters. “I am proud,” Hecht declared in a statement afterward, “that my play has been the instrument to break down one of the most un-
American and undemocratic practices that has disgraced our country.” Meanwhile, Jabotinsky’s followers took an interest in the fight against racism in South Africa, as well. Former Irgun commander Menachem Begin, leader of the opposition Herut Party, paid his first visit to South Africa in the autumn of 1953. Hertzel Katz, an Israeli attorney who was a leader of the local branch of the Revisionist youth movement Betar, was on hand when Begin arrived in Durban. He recalls that Begin’s hosts arranged for a rickshaw, the customary form of local transportation, to take him to a speaking engagement. “Begin was appalled at the thought of a black man undertaking such a degrading task,” Katz told JNS. “He refused to ride in the rickshaw.” Harry Hurwitz, who organized Begin’s visit to South Africa and later became an aide to Begin as prime minister, once recounted to me another memorable incident from that visit. Shortly before one of his speeches in Johannesburg, Begin learned that according to the law, blacks would not be permitted to sit in the same meeting hall as whites. Begin refused to
take the stage unless blacks were admitted, Hurwitz said. After frantic last-minute discussions with Jewish leaders, the local authorities relented and allowed blacks to attend Begin’s lecture. As for Katz, he divided his time between Betar and the struggle against apartheid. He and fellow Betar leader Kenny Gross were active in Helen Suzman’s anti-apartheid Progressive Party in the 1960s and ran for parliament as Progressive candidates in 1965. Katz also assisted in the defense of a member of the Pan-Africanist Congress accused of fighting the apartheid regime. Katz told me that Jabotinsky’s essay, “Every Man a King,” about the inherent dignity of every human being, inspired him to see a natural connection between the Jewish fight for independence and the blacks’ struggle against apartheid. From Baltimore to Johannesburg, Jabotinsky’s followers recognized that, as Ben Hecht put it, “to fight injustice to one group of human beings affords protection to every other group.” Dr. Rafael Medoff is director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust.
22 • OBITUARIES D EATH N OTICES ADLER, Louise K. Levy, age 99, died on June 17, 2012; 28 Sivan, 5772. SCHWARTZ, Rhodina, age 87, died on July 21, 2012; 2 Av, 5772. SCHWARZ, Ann, age 97, die n July 30, 2012; 11 Av, 5772. RESTORING from page 8 Sponsored by the Slovak-Israel Chamber of Commerce, the Lost City project entails a tourist route, complete with guidebook, to Bratislava’s crowded Jewish quarter, which stood for centuries beneath the city’s hilltop castle until communist authorities razed it in 1968-69 to build a highway and bridge across the Danube. “It’s an itinerary through a nonexistent city,” Ziak told JTA. “And people sometimes forget it was the communists who tore down the Jewish quarter.” For the launch in late June, Ziak led a group of Slovak officials,
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diplomats, businesspeople and Jewish representatives on a walking tour of the places where Jewish sites had once stood — synagogues,schools, a prominent yeshiva, houses. The tour followed Ziak’s guidebook, called “Demolished Jewish Bratislava,” which includes pictures of both the vanished sites and the demolition. (Footage of the Jewish quarter before and during its destruction can be seen on YouTube.) The tour wound up at the plaza where a grand, twin-towered synagogue once stood next to the city’s cathedral and at the very edge of the new highway. Here a ceremony inaugurated the centerpiece of the Lost City project — a towering, two-thirds scale replica of the ornate, Moorish-style synagogue. Constructed of scaffolding and canvas, the orange-striped mock-up will stand on the spot for three months. Built in 1894, the synagogue, which served the Neologue, or moderate, Reform congregation was a proud symbol of the Bratislava Jewish community. Its destruction little more than two decades after most of Bratislava’s 15,000 Jews
Headstone unveiling for
Gerald Lee Dennis Monday, August 6, 2012 at 4:00 p.m. United Jewish Cemetery, 7885 Ivygate Lane, Montgomery, OH 45242 Friends and family are invited to attend. For more information, contact Stephanie Dennis Bement at Stephaniehbement@yahoo.com or Renee Dennis Becker at reneedbecker@yahoo.com
BURIAL SERVICE FOR
JUDITH WINSTON FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 2012 - 11 A.M. United Jewish Cemeteries – Walnut Hills Cemetery 3400 Montgomery Road, Cincinnati, OH 45207 Friends and family are welcome to attend.
were murdered in the Shoah symbolized communist-era suppression of Jewish life. Indeed, right after the fall of communism in 1989, activists painted a big picture of it on the pavement where it had stood, with an angry scrawl alongside: “Here there was once a synagogue!”
About 600 Jews live in Bratislava today, and a few days before the Lost City launch, the city’s Jewish community unveiled an important project of its own—a Jewish community museum in the women’s gallery of the Heydukova Street Synagogue, the only synagogue in the city to have survived
the Holocaust and communism. It is a striking, cubist-style building from the 1920s that is still used by thecongregation. “The museum tells a story, our story, that dates back centuries,” Maros Borsky, the Jewish community vice president who conceived and curated the museum, told JTA. The new museum’s displays of Judaica, documents, photographs and other artifacts illustrate Jewish life before, during and after the Shoah. They include a portrait of the Chatam Sofer (Rabbi Moshe Sofer), an influential 19th-century rabbi whose tomb in Bratislava remains a site of pilgrimage. In another effort to restore historic memory, the Chatam Sofer, who died in 1839, has been embraced recently by the city as one of its key historic personalities. In June, just ahead of the museum opening and Lost City launch, the Slovak mint issued a special commemorative coin to mark the 250th anniversary of his birth. It bears a portrait of the rabbi with a menorah and Torah scroll on one side, and a panorama of Bratislava’s now-lost Jewish quarter on the other.
CAMPS from page 9
any of the kids they say they’re having an amazing time.” A difference in attitude is not all that separates Israeli day campers from American ones. Because of the intimacy in many of Israel’s small southern towns, counselors often see their campers outside of camp and come to their families’ homes for Shabbat dinner. Back at Havaya, Jewish programming takes on a different emphasis than it would in the United States. Jewish values and the country’s much-discussed political process are much more intertwined here. “What I try to promote more than Jewish continuity is Jewish peoplehood,” said Ezrachi-Vered. “To marry a Jew is a no-brainer. Our religion is more about how am I changing Israeli society? How can I make it more pluralistic, more equal?” But just as American Jewish camps teach about Israel, efforts such as Havaya make sure to teach
their campers about the American Jewish experience. “The way we pray and the tunes we use are very inspired by Americans. When Debbie Friedman passed away, kids knew her tunes,” Ezrachi-Vered said about the singersongwriter, who was particularly popular in the Reform movement. Of course, while campers such as Herman enjoy the Jewish content, they may also have the same qualms as some American Jewish campers. “Sometimes there are too many prayers,” Herman said. “Sometimes it’s too much. Sometimes you have to sit uncomfortably, and it’s outside, and it’s sunny and it’s hot.” The longest session at Havaya is two weeks — a long time to be away for some campers. That works well for Herman. He thinks camp “is not short,” but he doesn’t get homesick. “It’s fun,” he said. “It feels like family.”
University and later worked in Miami as an emissary for the Jewish Agency for Israel.) Earlier this year, Danon won praise for cosponsoring a Knesset bill that compelled advertisers to disclose on their ads whenever they digitally alter images to make models appear thinner. But Danon is better known for sponsoring nationalist legislation targeting left-wing groups and Israeli Arabs. Aside from his bills aimed at Zuabi, Danon in 2008 filed a petition with the Israeli Supreme Court to rescind the citizenship of former Arab Knesset Azmi Bishara for possibly aiding Hezbollah in the 2006 Second Lebanon War. The effort, aimed at
stripping Bishara of his Knesset pension, ultimately failed. Danon, who accuses IsraeliArab leaders of trying to “use democracy to destroy democracy,” also wants to outlaw Israeli-Arab incitement against Israel. Under his plan, Arab Israelis would be required to take an oath recognizing Israel as a Jewish, democratic state; those who refuse would not be able to obtain a passport or driver’s license. When a growing chorus of leftwing Israelis backed a boycott last year of a new cultural venue in the Jewish West Bank settlement of Ariel, Danon proposed a law allowing settlers to sue those behind the boycotts. The bill passed.
Courtesy of Ruth Ellen Gruber
Milos Zak, who spearheaded the Lost City project for the SlovakIsrael Chamber of Commerce, holds open his guidebook to show drawings of a synagogue that stood until the entire Jewish quarter of Bratislava was demolished in the late 1960s.
“Doom, doom, ta, ta, ta,” he says, standing in the middle of the circle. He repeats the sounds on his darbuka with precisely timed taps and tells the kids to copy him. Many of the activities at Counterpoint mirror those at American Jewish day camps: arts and crafts, music, outdoor activities and sports (though the basketball court is missing nets, surrounded by litter and sometimes doubles as a soccer field). But at Counterpoint, recreational activities double as enrichment ones. Unlike at most American Jewish camps, many of the participants here come from broken homes and attend low-performing schools. “American kids are used to going to summer camp; they take it for granted,” said Ayelet Kahane, 23, a recent Yeshiva University graduate and one of the head counselors. “You come to a place like this and they’re crazy, but if you ask DANON from page 10 Born in Ramat Gan, a city contiguous with Tel Aviv, Danon, 41, was raised in a deeply Zionist household. His father, who immigrated to Israel from Egypt in the early 1950s, was wounded in 1969 while serving in the Israel Defense Forces during the War of Attrition with Egypt. Danon grew up steeped in the Beitar youth movement, the Revisionist Zionist society founded by Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Aside from his penchant for controversy, Danon has a few things going for him: He’s personable, media savvy and articulate in English. (He earned a bachelor’s degree at Florida International
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