Rosh Hashanah, September 13, 2012

Rosh Hashanah 5773

Nate Pinhas, 11, Rockwern Academy

Jacob Kotzin, 12, Rockwern Academy

Will Schneider, 9, Rockwern Academy

Asher Weinstein, 12, Rockwern Academy

2012 Rosh Hashanah Cover Coloring Contest Runner-Ups

ROSH HASHANAH • 3

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

Cincinnati 5772 — Year in Review

By Joshua Mizrachi Assisstant Editor The year 5772 went by fast. A lot happened over the last year nationally and internationally.

Sometimes we get lost in the daily shuffle of our own lives and forget about all the things that have happened over the year in our community. As we take our first steps into the new year, let us not forget the steps that got us here. The American Israelite wishes you a happy, healthy and fruitful New Year. Shana Tovah u’metukah!

September 29 — Cincinnati Chapter of Hadassah will hold its first Coffee Talk / Decaf Cafe of the season on Monday, Oct. 10, at 7:30 p.m. at the home of Marianne Mandel-Brown. Guest speaker Michael Bassin, the 25-year-old son of Hadassah member Gayna Bassin, will talk about his experiences in the Arab world and in the Israeli army. Tobe Snow is Coffee Talk Chair and Programming Vice President.

Michael Bassin, Cincinnati native and new immigrant to Israel

The kick-off event for the new Wolf Center for Arts and Ideas at the Mayerson JCC drew a capacity crowd of over 600 people on Thursday evening, Sept. 22.

Joshua Foer, a U.S. Memory Champion and best-selling author, captivated the large audience with anecdotes and demonstrations, led a lively question and answer session, and signed copies of his book, “Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything.”

The entire community is invited to attend the Daniel Pearl World Music Day concert at the Mayerson JCC on Sunday, Oct. 30 at 1 p.m. This special event at the JCC is free and will feature family-friendly musical performances by Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s string quartet and woodwind quintet.

October 6 — Michael R. Oestreicher of Amberley Village will receive the Community Service Award of the American Jewish Committee Cincinnati Regional Office at an Initial Gifts

ing to the needs and religious interests of Conservative Jews,” noted Rabbi Irvin M. Wise, spiritual leader of the congregation.

Adath Israel Sisterhood is off to a fabulous start in the new year 5772. The year kicked off with an Intergenerational Tea at Gazebo Tea Garden in Kenwood. Over 70 mothers, daughters, granddaughters and grandmothers gathered on a beautiful, sunny Sunday.

Michael R. Oestreicher

Reception on Tuesday, Oct. 25, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Mayerson Jewish Community Center.

Celebrate the release of the recently published memoir “Whisper Your Name into My Ear” by local author and Holocaust survivor, Marguerite Levy-Feibelman, on Tuesday, Oct. 11 at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The program features a conversation with the author, dramatic readings of selected excerpts, book signing, remarks by the honorary consul to France, Anne Cappel and refreshments.

October 13 — Jerry and Sue Teller of Amberley Village are raising money to further expand the rehab unit at Cedar Village Retirement Community, which will include an aquatic therapy center.

“Doing fundraising together just seems natural,” Jerry Teller said. “We each come up with different ideas and strategies. We’re able to calmly discuss and debate them, and the better idea wins.

Each of us is a good solicitor and we feed upon one another.

Sue and Jerry Teller

This High Holy Day season, the new Mahzor (High Holy Day prayerbook) of the Conservative Movement, Lev Shalem, was used at Adath Israel Congregation for the first time.

“Mahzor Lev Shalem represents the best of our Conservative movement, reflecting our commitment to both tradition and change and our commitment to respond-

October 20 — Sunday morning breakfast out — who doesn’t love that? You head to the pancake house, bakery, or bagel place, or maybe a brunch spot, and you order breakfast treats made by someone other than yourself, served with an endless pot of good coffee.

That’s not, however, the Sunday morning breakfast Craig Rozen has in mind for Sunday, Oct. 23. That’s when he, his family, and other volunteers he’s organizing from Rockdale Temple and beyond will serve homemade breakfast to about 130 residents of Ronald McDonald House, near Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

Entering the fourth week of the school year, UC Hillel has already had innovative, fun and community building programs. The Hillel has undergone many new changes including a new look, new staff, and new Hillel students, and is looking forward to a busy and successful year.

At its 28th Annual Tribute Dinner on Sunday, Nov. 6, the Cincinnati Associates of Hebrew Union College will introduce newly appointed Dean Dr. Jonathan Cohen, who will outline fresh initiatives that will lead the College-Institute—which is celebrating 100 years on the Clifton campus — into a new era of scholarship, community partnerships and innovation.

October 27 — OXFORD, Ohio — Miami University has looked to guidance from the AntiDefamation League (ADL) in order to deflect publicity from the Westboro Baptist Church’s (WBC) planned picketing here against homosexuals.

If you aren’t sure how or where your children will spend their days off school for Veteran’s Day and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, remember the J. Even though school is out, many parents may still have to work and need a plan how to keep the children entertained.

Northern Hills SynagogueCongregation B’nai Avraham will begin its series of programs on Jews, civil rights and freedom on Sunday evening, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m.

Featuring Dr. Ethan Katz of the University of Cincinnati, the pro-

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The Board of Directors of Congregation Ohav Shalom wishes the entire Cincinnati Jewish Community a

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gram, “Jews: Tolerant and Intolerant,” will consider both tolerance of Jews in the larger society, and tolerance by Jews of others.

November 3 — The congregation of Rockdale Temple invites the community to join in the temple’s fourth annual Mitzvah Palooza on Sunday, Nov. 13. Mitzvah Palooza is a day-long event featuring opportunities to learn about social action programs and participate in a variety of service projects at the temple or in the community.

Jewish Family Service was awarded a $25,000 grant from The Bahmann Foundation to support a hearing service program for Jewish Holocaust survivors in the Greater Cincinnati area. The grant will provide them with hearing tests, interpretive services, assistive listening devices, and other adaptive technologies.

On the eve of Simchat Torah, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 41 children of the Isaac M. Wise Temple were welcomed as consecrants into the study of Torah at the Plum Street Temple. This beautiful ceremony was a very exceptional and meaningful milestone in the lives of the children and their families.

Hundreds of Wise Temple congregants will once again experience the excitement, meaning and power of coming together to engage in “tikkun olam.” On Nov. 6, congregants will participate in the sixth annual Tikkun Olamathon, a marathon day in which volunteers of all ages join together to make the world a better

place, one mitzvah at a time.

November 10 — By the end of a Congregational Town Hall meeting on Sunday, Oct. 23, congregants were excited by the vision laid out by Ohav Shalom President Steve Segerman. This was a result of the work done by the synagogue’s Vision Committee, led by Segerman—a new model of collaboration with newly founded Congregation Ohr Chadash, led by Rabbi Pinchas Landis, which conducts services in the Goldsmith Chapel at Ohav Shalom.

Northern Hills Synagogue Congregation B’nai Avraham invites all families with pre-Bar and Bat Mitzvah age children to join in a Family Shabbat celebration on Friday evening, Nov. 18.

Jewish Women International (JWI) has named Kim Morris Heiman as one of this year’s “Women to Watch” — JWI’s prestigious national leadership award honoring exceptional Jewish women from across the United States. JWI strives to promote women’s leadership in ways that captivate and inspire the Jewish community by highlighting those who continue to impact so many disciplines: the arts, culture and community; business, politics and media; family, science and spirituality.

On Oct. 31, 2011, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, through the generous sponsorship of Ben and Dee Gettler, welcomed retired Israeli ambassador, Yoram Ettinger, to Cincinnati as part of the Gettler JCRC Breakfast Briefing Series.

Ambassador Ettinger, an insider on U.S.-Israel relations, presented on Israel’s important role in the global economy and the increasing attention the small country is receiving as a leader in diverse technologies.

Wishes the Greater Cincinnati Jewish Community a Year of Health and Happiness Yoram Ettinger speaks to the Federation.

DEVINDER S. MANGAT, M.D., F.A.C.S. DANIEL G. KUY, M.D., F.A.C.S. ALLISON M. HOLZAPFEL, M.D., F.A.C.S.

November 17 — The Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education (CHHE) announced a transformational gift from the Gary and Loretta Rabiner Family at its annual meeting on Sept. 15.

The significant annual and ongoing commitment establishes the

Mapping Our Tears: Tours for Tolerance program, providing students from economically disadvantaged schools with the opportunity to tour the exhibit.

On Sunday, Dec. 4, John Fox will be performing with his allJewish rock band, The 4 Hubcaps, at a benefit event for Cedar Village Retirement Community.

For only the second time, the band will perform its Jewish repertoire—a show featuring songs made famous by Jewish singers, songwriters, managers and producers.

Loren Long speaking about the book, “Of Thee I Sing”

New York Times #1 best-selling author and illustrator Loren Long visited Rockwern Academy on Thursday, Nov. 10, to talk with students of all ages, from preschoolers to sixth graders, about story-telling, painting and the creative process.

Dr. Stanley Kaplan

November 24 — Dr. Stanley M. Kaplan died on Nov. 10 at Christ Hospital after a long illness. He was 89 years old. Kaplan will be deeply missed by his family, friends and all the lives he touched with his philanthropy.

Dr. Kaplan and his wife Mickey, who died in 2003, had a major hand in shaping many aspects of Cincinnati art life as well as the Jewish community.

On Nov. 6, 2011, the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati was presented with the prestigious Sapir Award for its 2010 Community Campaign. The Sapir Award is given each year by the Jewish Federations of North America to acknowledge and thank communities that have demonstrated outstanding achievement in their annual campaigns while also maintaining their overseas giving.

The award is named for Israel’s third Minister of Finance, Pinhas Sapir.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

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cooperation on Israel’s behalf.

The keynote speaker for Standing Together is the Honorable Raslan Abu Rukun, Israel’s deputy consul general to the mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

Bret Caller and Danielle Minson accept the Sapir Award from Susie Stern, JFNA National Campaign Chair.

The fastest growing population in the United States is aging adults who want to improve their quality of life. No one knows that better than Tsippy Gottlieb, Director of Senior Adult Services at the Mayerson JCC, who for the past decade has been dedicated to improving the lives of seniors.

The Association for Professionals in Aging (APA) has recognized Gottlieb as a 2011 Outstanding Leader.

December 1 — With 400 guests gathered in the ballroom of the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Cincinnati on Nov. 6, the Cincinnati Associates of Hebrew Union College hosted the 28th Annual Tribute Dinner honoring Mike Michael, president of FifthThird Bank, Cincinnati. The event marked the formal celebration of the 100th anniversary of the College-Institute’s move to Clifton.

Cincinnati Chocolate Festival organizers must be experiencing some of the same feelings after providing the City of Cincinnati another opportunity to sample multiple forms of chocolate at the second annual Cincinnati Chocolate Festival, held on Oct. 23. Over 5,000 chocolate lovers attended this year’s festival, breaking the 2010 record of nearly 2,500.

Mr. Raslan Abu Rukun

The second “Standing Together: An Evening of Christian-Jewish Support for Israel” will be held on Thursday, Dec. 8, at 7 p.m. at the Mayerson JCC. This program will focus on the motivation, rationale and nature of Christian support for the Jewish State and explore new possibilities for Christian-Jewish

December 8 — After a career in the television and film industry in Los Angeles and New York, Mollie T. Newman has returned to her hometown to become the Youth and Family Program Coordinator of Adath Israel. “I am thrilled to be part of the staff of Adath Israel because it is an amazing synagogue and organization where people can grow, share, learn, make lasting friendships, and of course have fun,” she said.

Mollie Newman

The third annual Chanukah Shabbat dinner on Dec. 16 at 5 p.m., sponsored by the Herb Byer Memorial Fund at Adath Israel Congregation, has become one of the synagogue’s largest events.

“The Fund has sponsored two dinners yearly for the past four years and they have grown from 150 people when we first started to 430 last year at the Chanukah dinner,” said Dara Wood, chairperson and daughter-in-law of the late Herb Byer whose family have been Adath Israel members for several generations.

Northern Hills Synagogue Congregation B’nai Avraham will conduct Shabbat morning services on Saturday, Dec. 17, using its popular Chavurat (learning partner) Shabbat format, including a variety of educational and religious programming options alongside the standard traditional service. In anticipation of Hanukkah, which will begin during the following week, the theme of the morning will be “Gevurah,” which means courage or heroism.

December 15 — The Wise Temple madrichim program continues to grow! We now have 97 high schoolers who dedicate their time and enthusiasm to working in our Religious School each week.

Madrichim—Hebrew for guides—serve as teaching assistants and positive Jewish role models for younger students.

Madrichim work in every class-

room, as well as the library, art room and office. This year, we even have two madrichim assigned to assist with Gesher, one of our family education programs.

On Dec. 16 and 17, Congregation Sha’arei Torah will be spending Shabbat with the Maccabeats! The Maccabeats will lead services at RITSS High School, with Mincha beginning Friday at 4:55 p.m., and Shacharit beginning on Saturday at 9 a.m., followed by kiddush. Babysitting and youth groups will be available for children of all ages on Shabbat morning.

December 22 — In a dramatic show of support for the community’s central fundraising effort, The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati pledged $500,000 to the Jewish Federation’s 2012 Community Campaign—the largest single contribution ever made to the Community Campaign. In addition, in an effort to motivate increased individual giving, the Foundation will match dollar-fordollar any new or increased portion of Campaign gifts from community members.

To combat a growing problem, Cedar Village Retirement Community next month will be launching the first elder abuse prevention shelter in Ohio and one of the first in the nation.

Until now, police, social service agencies, hospitals and other organizations in Southwest Ohio have not had appropriate places to refer victims of elderly abuse. But with the creation of the Shalom Center for Elder Abuse Prevention, Cedar Village will serve as a safe harbor.

December 29 — The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati is proud to announce a five year, $2.6 million grant to Cedar Village, an investment which represents the first installment of the Foundation’s broader initiative to enhance senior services in the Cincinnati Jewish community.

The Maccabeats

The Maccabeats rocked the house at the JCC on Sunday, Dec. 18, before a sold-out crowd. The a cappella group delivered a performance to more than 600 guests, surpassing expectations.

On Wednesday, Dec. 21, Krohn Conservatory held a menorah lighting event in honor of Hanukkah. The event featured the Rockwern Academy Student Choir and guest speaker, Dr. Jonathan Cohen, dean of Hebrew

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Broadway’s master song man, Mandy Patinkin, accompanied by Paul Ford on piano, will bring his critically acclaimed theatre concert to the Mayerson JCC for one performance on Saturday, March 3 at 8 p.m. Only 400 tickets will be available beginning Monday, Jan. 16.

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Dean Jonathan Cohen of Hebrew Union College lights the menorah.

Union College.

The Jewish Discovery Center in Mason pioneered a groundbreaking event held on the first night of Chanukah last week by lighting a giant 12 foot tall silver menorah. This is the Mason area’s first public outdoor lighting ceremony, with global impact and significance for the entire Jewish community.

January 5 — Cedar Village Retirement Community is creating a pioneering creative arts therapy program to improve the lives of people with dementia, greatly expanding and enhancing Cedar Village’s already innovative dementia care.

When school is closed on Monday, January 16 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, where will your children spend the day? Even though school is out, parents may still have to work and need ways to keep their children occupied.

That’s why the JCC “MLK Day at the J” for grades K-6 is the perfect solution.

The Blue Ash Recreational Center is honored to host Jon Entine, Emmy Award-winning producer and best-selling author, on Tuesday, Jan 17, at 7PM at the Blue Ash Recreation Center, 4343 Cooper Road. Entine’s presentation is entitled, “Our DNA – Why bigotry and prejudice should be a thing of the past.” Entine, founder of the Genetic Literacy Project, is a frequent speaker on university campuses, and at professional seminars and conferences.

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January 12 — The comedy of Laurel and Hardy will be featured when Northern Hills SynagogueCongregation B’nai Avraham holds its monthly HaZaK program for seniors on Jan. 18. The free program will take place at the synagogue, beginning at noon.

Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati (JCGC) announce the purchase of a 23 acre property on Loveland-Miamiville Road in Loveland. It plans to develop the property as JCGC’s first community cemetery. The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati is pleased to join JCGC in announcing this purchase, which was made possible through a special grant by an affiliate of the Foundation to assist JCGC in the financing of the purchase.

January 19 — Dr. Gary P. Zola, executive director of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives and professor of the American Jewish Experience at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, was awarded the 2012 King Legacy Award on Jan. 16.

The award—presented annually by the Martin Luther King, Jr. Coalition and the Freedom Center—is given to persons whose lives reflect the characteristics and attributes of Martin Luther King, Jr. and to those who have made significant and tangible contributions in the areas of race relations, justice and human rights.

Saturday, Feb. 4, is opening night of the 2012 Cincinnati Jewish and Israeli Film Festival at the Mayerson JCC. This year’s film festival runs Saturday evening, Feb. 4, through Thursday evening, Feb. 16, with seven feature length and three short films.

The Goldstein Family Learning Academy and the Jewish Learning Institute will present the new course, “Money Matters: Jewish Business Ethic.” This sixsession series will commence during the week of Jan. 26.

Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones

January 26 — Jewish National Fund will present the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones with the Attorney of the Year award from the Judge Carl B. Rubin Legal Society on Feb. 26, in Cincinnati.

The next performance in the Concerts on Clifton series, presented by the Cincinnati branch of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, will be held on Sunday, Jan. 29, at 4 p.m. The concert will take place in the Scheuer Chapel and will include music by Mozart, Debussy and composer Hans Krasa, who perished in the Holocaust.

February 2 — Professor Herbert

Paper (January 11, 1925 – January 23, 2012) was among the first people to teach university level Yiddish courses in the United States and had to create course materials for his students at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he specialized in Near Eastern languages. During his 24-year tenure there, he also played an instrumental role in founding their Jewish Studies program.

Professor Herbert Paper

Despite inclement weather, a crowd of about 500 greater Cincinnati community members filled the Mayerson JCC’s Amberley Room the evening of Saturday, Jan. 21, to hear Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren speak.

He spoke for approximately 30 minutes about Israel’s challenges and successes in an environment of uncertainty and then took questions from the audience.

The motto “Have Fun, Feed the Hungry and Support Charitable Works” perfectly described the Eighth Annual Chicken Soup Cook-off held Sunday, Jan. 29, at Isaac M. Wise Temple. The gathering had allyou-can-eat soup—30 varieties— as well as door prizes, music by Shir Chadash and auction items.

The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati is again offering a summer trip to Israel for Jewish students ages 16–18 in the greater Cincinnati area. On the J*Quest trip, students will travel with peers from Cincinnati and its sister city, Netanya, Israel, through Israel, Berlin and Prague.

Learning to help others bounce back after a traumatic experience will be the focus of Ways to Bolster Resilience in Children and Adults, a workshop with Donald Meichenbaum, Ph.D., presented

Donald Meichenbaum

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

by Jewish Family Service 8 a.m. – 4 p.m., Tuesday, March 20 at the Mayerson JCC. February 9 — Following the creation and approval of a dynamic five-year strategic plan, The Board of Trustees of Rockwern Academy has announced that it will be implementing a comprehensive leadership structure that will include two new positions: an Executive Director and a Director of Jewish Life and Learning.

“These new appointments, combined with the school’s existing Director of Education, Dr. Susan Moore, create a powerful team which is unprecedented in the history of our school and on par with the premiere independent and Jewish day schools in the country,” explained Benjamin Schneider, Rockwern Chairman of the Board.

The Board of Directors for the Mayerson JCC has decided to restructure management of the J. The goal is to position the organization for supporting the plans for Cincinnati 2020, as well as further developing the JCC’s leadership role within the community.

Mike Mills

serve as the International President of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs (“FJMC”), Adath Israel Congregation received an additional honor when Mike Mills took over this post in 2011. Adath Israel also became the temporary home of the President’s Torah Mantle which will be displayed during Adath Israel’s Brotherhood-led Shabbat services on March 3.

February 23 — Prominent Hamilton, Ohio, attorney Carl Morgenstern, a 1948 Harvard Law School graduate and former Miami University Trustee, whose life was devoted to public service, died Feb. 19, 2012 at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich. He was 90.

Rabbi Avrohom Weinrib, Rabbi of Congregataion Zichron Eliezer

Rabbi Avrohom Weinrib has been hired as the new rabbi of Congregation Zichron Eliezer as a result of a membership vote.

Rabbi Weinrib brings rabbinic leadership to the shul and is eager to start building relationships with the Cincinnati community.

February 16 — Northern Hills Synagogue—Congregation B’nai Avraham will welcome Shabbat on Friday evening, Feb. 24, with services and a special congregational dinner. Highlighting the dinner will be Rabbi Jonathan Perlman, who will lead a study session and discussion on “New Perspectives on Tzedakah.”

On Thursday, March 1, at 1 p.m., Luke Bocher, the director of Contemporary Slavery Initiatives at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, will speak on the issues relating to human trafficking, in Teller Lounge on the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

Along with the privilege of having one of its own members

Carl Morgenstern

Last fall Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and Ohio Rep. Connie Pillich took part in bipartisan seminars in Israel sponsored

by American Jewish Committee’s Project Interchange. On Monday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m. at Rockdale Templel, Mallory and Pillich will tell the community how Israel looks through their eyes.

March 1 — Students at Walnut Hills High School had the unique opportunity to host a temporary exhibit, “A Reason to Remember: Roth, Germany 1933-1942,” at their school Feb. 6 – 16. Through 27 museum quality panels, the exhibit tells the personal story of the five Jewish families who lived in the small village of Roth. The exhibit introduces the families, in an intimate and emotional way, as they lived in 1933 and details what happened to them during the Nazi era. The demise of this tiny Jewish community is chronicled

in detail, using primary source materials such as photographs, documents and artifacts, as well as eyewitness testimonies. The exhibit illustrates how the relations between these families and their neighbors were systematically dismantled.

Identity theft, scams and privacy issues are on the rise, with thieves often targeting seniors.

The Mayerson JCC is joining with Attorney General Mike DeWine and other government and nonprofit organizations to address these problems. Annual National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW) is March 4-10. On Thursday, March 8, the JCC will host an event to share tips and information that help consumers protect their privacy, manage money and debt, avoid identity theft, and avoid frauds and scams.

Last summer, local moms Amy Frankel and Heidi Weisman joined 18 others for Cincinnati’s first-ever “transform and grow” Israel trip. They joined women from across the U.S. for an amazing week in Israel as part of the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project (JWRP). The trip was so thoroughly enjoyable and inspiring that Amy and Heidi are going back again this June, this time as “madrichot” (team leaders).

March 8 — The fourth annual Eight Over Eighty event sponsored by Cedar Village will honor distinguished older adults, 80 years or older, who have dedicated their time, talents and lives to our Jewish community and the Greater Cincinnati area. The event will be held on Thursday evening, May 17, at Adath Israel Congregation.

Neale Godfrey, the #1 New York Times bestselling author and nationally recognized expert on family and children’s finances, will speak to several audiences at Wise Temple on Sunday, March 11, and Monday, March 12, about the importance of being financially fit. Godfrey will be joined by educators from UC’s Economics Center to discuss a variety of financial topics ranging from budgeting, savings and debt management, to college funding, retirement planning and tzedakah. These sessions, targeting different age groups, will provide information and resources to help any child/tween, teen, adult or senior improve his or her financial fitness level.

Donations of food, money and time are needed for the 14th annual Dr. Samuel S. Rockwern Passover Delivery of Jewish Family Service. With the help of over 120 volunteers, boxes filled with Passover food will be handdelivered Sunday, April 1, to approximately 425 Jewish community friends and neighbors who would otherwise be unable to

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March 15 — The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati has announced that Ben Gettler, one of the original Trustees and first president of the organization, has retired from the Foundation’s Board.

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Project T.E.N. initiative, will arrive in Cincinnati on Friday, March 16. Lahav will meet with leaders from the local Jewish community and the Jewish Federation. The goal of his visit is to build awareness of the project and discuss the possibilities for the Cincinnati Jewish community’s involvement in the launch of Project T.E.N. Ann Sutton Burke, MPA, CMC, Jewish Family Service director of Aging and Caregiver Services, was honored as the 2012 Outstanding Professional in Aging by Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio at its annual meeting Wednesday, March 7.

Father Michael J. Graham

Tuesday, April 3. “The award recognizes Fr. Graham’s outstanding professional achievements, generosity of spirit and vision of excellence,” said AJC Cincinnati president, John M. Stein.

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The entire community is invited to enjoy a special guest, Beth Schafer, master songwriter and guest musician-in-residence, at Isaac M. Wise Temple, on Friday, March 16, during Shabbat evening services. “We anticipate a wonderful, creative spirit that will enhance our worship that evening, both from the bima with so many of our musical volunteers, with our talented and nationallyacclaimed musician-in-residence, and from the congregation itself, as members and guests add their voices and measure of joy to the music and the prayers,” commented Rabbi Lewis Kamrass.

Nir Lahav, a developer of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s new

Ann Sutton Burke

Israel Up to the Minute, a series of casual briefings on the current “hot button” issues in Israel, returns on Tuesday, March 20, at 7 p.m., at the Mayerson JCC. The topic of this second session is “What is the Jewish State?”

In a discussion led by Yair Cohen, Cincinnati’s community shaliach, participants will explore what makes Israel a Jewish state.

March 22 — The vision of Cincinnati Hillel is to attract and retain young Jewish adults, to encourage students to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life, to bring more meaning to the college experience of Jewish students and to educate the university at large about Judaism. The first half of the academic year has been full of growth and excitement at Cincinnati Hillel.

The Mayerson JCC has begun the process to hire a CEO, a new position as part of a recent restructuring. Debbie Brant, co-chair of the search committee, explained, “After careful consideration, we are pleased to announce the formation of a search committee made up of professionals and volunteers dedicated to supporting the J’s mission to serve as Cincinnati’s central gathering place where people of all ages and backgrounds can come together to exercise, learn, relax, share and celebrate.”

American Jewish Committee Cincinnati Regional Office will present its 2012 National Human Relations Award to Michael J. Graham, S.J., president of Xavier University, at a tribute dinner on

Teepa Snow

Teepa Snow, who teaches dementia care across the nation, will act out the roles of a person with dementia and their caregiver when she gives her presentation on Wednesday, March 28 at Cedar Village Retirement Community in Mason. It’s an effective way to help people recognize the symptoms and learn how to care for someone with dementia.

March 29 — “Do you know what was even better than making my first million dollars?” Manuel Mayerson once asked a group of young professionals who had gathered to hear him speak about his long and successful career as an entrepreneur and philanthropist. “It was giving away my first million dollars!” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

Rhoda and Manuel Mayerson

That was Manuel D. Mayerson…a truly extraordinary man who lived a life rooted in Jewish values and defined by his

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

devotion to his family and community. And even though he died this past Thursday at his home in Amberley Village at the age of 90, he truly lived every one of those years with purpose and meaning, and touched the lives of countless others all along the way.

Jan Armstrong Cobb has been named chair of Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) of Cincinnati. Prior to this, she had been an officer on the JVS board for eight years.

Cobb is a vice president of Duke Realty Corp. and replaces Joel (Jody) Brant, who was board chair for the past three years.

The next time you are grocery shopping, you can easily help feed families in need. Three local grocery stores, Meijer, Remke/biggs, and Kroger, are currently collecting donations to benefit Jewish Family Service (JFS) food pantry.

April 5 — Dr. I. Leonard Bernstein was a stalwart figure in the field of allergy and immunology, making sentinel contributions on a local, national and international level. Dr. Bernstein passed away March 26, 2012 at the age of 88.

Dr. I. Leonard Bernstein

Operations Moses, Joshua and Solomon are all fitting names for the immigrant iniatives of moving Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

Two Xavier faculty members recently got an up-close experience of these immigrations.

From Jan. 28 to Feb. 3, Rabbi Abie Ingber, founding director of the Interfaith Community Engagement, and Arthur Shriberg, Ed.D. professor of management and entreprenurship, helped a group called the Falash Mura—or Beta Israeli—consisting of 78 Ethiopian Jews, to emigrate from Ethiopia to Israel as part of an international religious relocation effort.

Rockwern Academy is proud to announce the continuation of grades 4, 5, 6’s innovative math program called “Math Challenge.”

This program is taught by staff teachers Judy Diekmeyer, Dana Gehri and Linda Jansen.

April 12 — Adath Israel Hazak will present its closing program for the 2011-2012 season on Sunday, April 29, at 4 p.m. in the Marcus Chapel. Dr. Michael A.

ROSH HASHANAH • 9

Meyer, currently Adolph S. Ochs Professor Emeritus of Jewish History at HUC, is an internationally recognized historian and scholar of modern Jewish intellectual history. He will explore “A Liberal Zionism: Is it possible today and how might it look?”

UC Blue Ash College is joining with The Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education to present “Stories from the Holocaust,” featuring four personal stories.

The event will be held April 19, from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Muntz Hall theater on the UC Blue Ash college campus.

April 19 — On Sunday, March 18, Mercaz Hebrew High School held its graduation ceremony. The senior class had six students representing Adath Israel, Northern Hills and Ohav Shalom. The evening began with a homemade dinner sponsored by Rob and Dara Wood and family for graduates and their guests, as well as Mercaz students and families.

It’s a state-of-the-art facility, with a soundproof music room, well equipped art studio, large auditorium that seats 800, 10 exercise rooms, a full-size gym, indoor and outdoor walking tracks and swimming pools, a spa, aquatic center and a café. At first glance, this may seem like a description of a luxury resort and spa, but it’s actually all part of the Mayerson JCC’s Senior Center, the first and only one in Greater Cincinnati, and one of only 200 Senior Centers in the entire nation to be awarded the Council on Aging’s National Senior Center Accreditation from the National Institute of Senior Centers (NISC).

April 26 — The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati’s Super Sunday event, chaired by Tulane and Jack Chartock, will take place on April 29, as one of 35 volunteer projects offered on Give a Day, a community-wide mitzvah day. On Super Sunday, from 8:45 a.m.–12:30 p.m., volunteers from across the community will make calls to raise funds for the 2012 Community Campaign, which supports 39 programs, 25 agencies and 13 congregations in Cincinnati, in Israel and around the world.

The Dor L’Dor (generation to generation) program at Rockwern Academy is in its 13th year. It was started by Yavneh Day School’s PTO in 1999. It has become an important part of the students’ day at Rockwern Academy.

On Saturday, May 5, the Wise Temple Brotherhood will host its Cabaret Night. Magician and Wise Temple member Chuck Arkin will serve as the emcee for this program.

May 3 — “After a search for

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Phyllis Binik-Thomas

someone to continue to serve as an inspiration to our youth, the Mercaz Board is excited to present Phyllis Binik-Thomas as our next Mercaz Director. We are so fortunate that Phyllis has accepted the position; she is a strong Jewish educator and administrator,” stated Yaffa Rubin, the Mercaz board chairperson.

Can understanding each other’s language and culture help Jews and Arabs in Israel find common ground? At the upcoming Israel Up to the Minute, representatives from the Hagar School, a Jewish-Arab school in Israel’s Negev, will speak about how they’re addressing that question.

The program, which is free and open to the public, will take place on Tuesday, May 8, at 7 p.m. at the Mayerson JCC. Adath Israel Congregation’s Youth celebrated Passover with a variety of seders. Our youngest children in kindergarten through second grade had a very creative look at the Passover Seder led by Kathy Wise. Kathy showed up with her interactive Seder plate puppets. The students loved learning about the items on the Seder plate through her retelling of the

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10 • ROSH HASHANAH

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May 10 — In May 2011, The Society for Classical Reform Judaism held its first Institute at Cincinnati’s Hebrew Union College. The Society’s inauguration of our annual program at the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College, held in March 2012, represented a major symbolic milestone, both for our endeavors, and arguably, for the history of Reform Judaism.

•

Hal Lewis

GENE, ELISE & LARRY MESH DR. CHARLES MESH, DR. DIANNE LITWIN & FAMILY DR. MICHAEL & SYDNEY HARRIS & FAMILY Jackie Sachs

Jackie Sachs dedicated her life to helping and educating young children at the JCC Early Childhood School (ECS). After her passing a little over a year ago, the Mayerson JCC dedicated a special area of the ECS as Jackie’s Corner. Now, the JCC is establishing the new Helping Hands fund in memory of her. This fund will support the educational experience for children at the JCC ECS. The community is invited to attend Cincinnati Chapter of Hadassah’s final Coffee Talk/Decaf Café of the season on Monday, May 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the home of Stephanie Gilinsky.

Judge Heather Stein Russell will be the featured speaker on “Hadassah and Hamilton County: Healing, Helping and Empowering Women.” She will show how the Hamilton County criminal justice system and Hadassah share a similar history in recognizing treatment issues unique to women and how these two institutions have developed programs to help women locally, nationally and in Israel.

Over 60 women from the Women of Reform Judaism Central District, representing 20 Reform Congregation affiliates from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan and Tennessee, gathered in Cincinnati April 27-29 to conduct business and participate in a program called “Your Heritage— Your Community.”

The weekend began Friday night at Rockdale Temple with an amazing Rock Shabbat led by Rabbi Sissy Coran and a group of outstanding musicians, followed by a beautiful Shabbat dinner.

May 17 — “Let My People Know,” a dynamic afternoon of Jewish learning, explores modern

day issues through the prism of Judaism at the Mayerson JCC on Sunday, May 20. The afternoon begins at 1 p.m. and is packed with engaging workshops, acclaimed speakers and lively conversation. Dr. Hal M. Lewis, nationally celebrated educator, author and speaker, will deliver the keynote address, “What’s Trending for Today’s Jews?”

On Sunday, May 20, at 10:30 a.m, B’nai B’rith will hold their annual Memorial Service at the Robert S. Kraft Memorial Garden in the Covedale Cemetery. This Memorial Service is held in memory of the servicemen of the Jewish faith from the Greater Cincinnati area, who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country while serving overseas in the U.S. Armed Forces.

May 24 — The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati announced two new significant investments in the Cincinnati Jewish community: a transformative five-year, $5.225 million grant that will enable Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) to enhance its rabbinical student curriculum and to focus more of its resources on serving the Cincinnati Jewish community; and a 10-year, $3.2 million grant to Jewish Family Service of Cincinnati (JFS), which, in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati and generous support from individual donors, is intended to secure a $10 million total community investment to expand and sustain JFS’s food pantry and case management center over the next decade.

Rockwern Academy, Cincinnati’s Community Jewish

Dr. David Finell

Day School, has announced that Dr. David Finell of Colorado has accepted the position of Head of School. Dr. Finell has over 15 years of experience leading Jewish religious and day schools.

He holds an Honorary Doctorate and a Master of Arts in Jewish Education from Hebrew Union College and a Master of Science in Education, Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Southern California.

At Shabbat services on Saturday, June 2, Northern Hills Synagogue - Congregation B’nai Avraham will bid a fond farewell to Tracy Weisberger and her family, who are moving to Israel. For the past six years, Tracy has served as Northern Hills’ director of education and programming.

Tracy Weisberger

The Abrom and Sarah Dombar Award for Excellence in Mercaz Studies is given during our Confirmation service to the Adath Israel Congregation graduating senior who best exemplifies the three criteria of this award: attendance, attitude and enthusiastic participation in our high school program. This year we have decided that two students met the criteria for this award: Angela Reiser and Sarah Wasneiwski.

May 31 — The American Israelite website has added an Infolive.tv feature on its homepage. On the top left side of the page, American Israelite readers can now view the latest television news direct from Jerusalem through one of the largest online video news operations in Israel. The news videos are regularly updated and are the first information network to be broadcast in five different languages— French, English, Spanish, Russian and Arabic.

Camp at the J has a reputation for offering incredible fun and rich learning experiences with a professional, caring staff. What you may not know is Camp at the J at the Mayerson JCC is one of only eight day camps in Cincinnati accredited by the American Camping Association (ACA), and can now boast that “We’ve been picked!”

The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati will hold its annual meeting on

ROSH HASHANAH • 11

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

Professor Ruth R. Wisse

Tuesday, June 12, at 7 p.m., at the Mayerson JCC. The keynote speaker will be Professor Ruth R. Wisse, author of Jews and Power.

North Cincy United Synagogue Youth, a joint effort of Northern Hills Synagogue and Congregation Ohav Shalom, invites the entire community to its annual Noodle Night on Sunday, June 3, at 6:30 p.m. The evening will feature an Italian dinner prepared by the USY teens, with pasta choices, garden salad, and dessert, followed by a talent show.

The event will be held at Northern Hills Synagogue.

June 7 — To tackle the growing needs of the most vulnerable members of our Jewish community, Jewish Family Service is transforming its Food Pantry into the Barbash Family Vital Support Center on the campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

Maksim Shilkrot

Northern Hills SynagogueCongregation B’nai Avraham is pleased to announce the selection of Maksim Shilkrot as its new Director of Education and Programming.

On June 16, Congregation B’nai Tzedek will honor three of its senior members in a celebration of a second life bar mitzvah, a modern tradition based on the Psalm 90 reference to the life of a human as being 70 years. This modern tradition calculates that after 70 we begin living our second life and therefore celebrate our second bar mitzvah 13 years later when attaining 83 years of age. The honorees are Jack Kwiatek, Robert Lemlich and Aaron Rubinstein.

June 14 — The Mayerson JCC

Senior Center, the only senior center in Cincinnati to achieve national accreditation by the National Institute of Senior Centers, will celebrate this landmark accomplishment by hosting an Accreditation Celebration luncheon on Thursday, June 21.

On Sunday, June 3, Blair Tieger, 17, joined 30 teens from across North America and the UK in Washington, D.C., for the second annual “Human Rights and Genocide Summit” (HRGS) focused on exploring the Jewish values related to standing up for populations in need. The HRGS,

Blair Tieger

sponsored by the BBYO Panim Institute, asks participants to answer the following questions: What is Genocide? Where are Human Rights being challenged?

What’s the Jewish response to genocide? And, what can I do?

June 21 — On June 20, eight 14year-old scouts from Israel (three boys and five girls) will arrive in Cincinnati, taking part in an exchange program facilitated by the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati. The scouts will attend two one-week sessions at Camp Friedlander, an overnight Boy Scout camp.

Sometimes we forget that not everyone is as fortunate as we are, has a home like ours, or has a loving family that surrounds them.

There are those in our midst who do not possess these luxuries. One such group is the boys that reside at the Lighthouse Youth Services – Youth Development Center (LYS-YDC). The LYS-YDC is a therapeutic community-based residential program for teenage boys who suffer from emotional or behavioral disorders or who have been unsuccessful in other out of home placements.

June 28 — Sylvan Reisenfeld, age 78, passed away on June 10, 2012—the 20th day of Sivan, 5772. Mr. Reisenfeld was the founding partner of Reisenfeld & Associates in 1960, a general practice with special emphasis on creditors’ rights representation.

Commenting on his Dad’s 52 years of practicing law, his son, Brad Reisenfeld said, “Dad was a shining example of the ultimate gentleman and professional. He

always went about the practice of law with class, humility, dignity and empathy for his fellow man.”

We are pleased to announce that Jewish Cemeteries of Cincinnati (JCGC) has reached a significant milestone. When JCGC was formed in 2008, each of the 22 contributing cemetery owners was given a limited option at the end of three years to withdraw from JCGC, if certain financial tests to assure the long-term viability of the merged organization were not met. JCGC’s Finance Committee reported to the contributing cemetery owners earlier this year that the tests had been met.

Mitch Cohen was nominated

by Mercaz Conservative Hebrew High School and Adath Israel Congregation for the GrinspoonSteinhardt Award for excellence in Jewish education this past school year.

July 5 — Café Chabad is back for the summer! Café Chabad has made a name for itself in Cincinnati for providing Jewish adults with social events that feature delicious food, great entertainment and good company. Held several times throughout the year, these evenings are a wonderful time to meet up with old and new friends in the Jewish community.

On July 1, some exciting changes will happen at Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) that will allow the organization to better focus its resources on helping members of the Jewish community move out of unemployment and

12 • ROSH HASHANAH

WWW.AMERICANISRAELITE.COM

achieve their career goals.

- Builds Bridges - Advances Security - Promotes Human Rights - Supports Israel - Strengthens Jewish Life

Best wishes for a happy Rosh Hashanah Dr. Michael A. Safdi, President

AJC.org

Barbara Glueck, Director

Happy New Year Alterations of Springdale

July 12 — The Olympics of choral music continued to rock the city of Cincinnati, specifically the Mayerson JCC, on July 9, as part of the 7th World Choir Games.

The concert—one of 58 Friendship Concerts planned for the Greater Cincinnati area—featured three choral ensembles: Poland’s Vox Juventutis Choir— an adult mixed choir from the State School of Higher Professional Education; the Prime Note Ensemble—an acappella choir composed of Filipino expatriates from Southern California; and Israel’s Ankor Choir—a group of 25 female students of The Jerusalem Academy High School of Music and Dance.

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Hilary Green-Suddleson and Roz Shapiro deliver items to Ronald McDonald House.

The Sisterhood of Northern Hills Synagogue Congregation B’nai Avraham is excited about its new project to collect needed items for the Ronald McDonald

(L-R) Nina Paul hosts Dr. Yaron Armon, Sharon Casper (Cincinnati Chapter co-president) and Dr. Marc Levitt at the Hadassah Brunch on June 24, 2012

House at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. The first shipment was delivered by Sisterhood volunteers in May. Hadassah Hospital pediatric surgeon Dr. Yaron Armon is currently concluding a one-year fellowship, training with Dr. Marc Levitt. He will return to Jerusalem next month to use the expertise gained in Cincinnati to increase the capability of performing complex colorectal surgery in Israel.

Cincinnati Chapter of Hadassah held a brunch in honor of Dr. Armon and Dr. Levitt on June 24, at the home of Nina and Eddie Paul.

July 19 — This fall, our community will have an opportunity to experience the 2,000-year old Dead Sea Scrolls in many different ways, including a spectacular five-month exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center for which The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati will be the Presenting Sponsor. “The Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Ancient Times” will open on November 16, and last through mid-April at the Museum Center.

Jewish Family Service has been approved by the State of Ohio as one of only a handful of sites in the Tri-state area to provide Medicare counseling and information; and the only Jewish communal site in Southwestern Ohio. The designation comes from the Ohio Department of Insurance after four Jewish Family Service Aging specialists recently completed certification training by the state’s Ohio Senior Health Insurance Information Program (OSHIIP).

David Fisher

Over the past 22 years, Chabad Hebrew School has become known as the Hebrew School where children don’t want to miss a day. It is known as a program that instills Jewish pride and creates spiritual connections that last a lifetime.

July 26 — David Fisher, a business leader in Cincinnati, Ohio and a lay leader in local and national Jewish nonprofit organizations, was named as president of the Birthright Israel Foundation, which has sent over 300,000 young Jewish adults on free educational trips to Israel since 2000.

On July 19, 15 members of the Reform Movement’s American Leadership met with Jack Lew, White House Chief of Staff to discuss important domestic issues and American-Israeli relations that expressed key Reform Jewish values. The meeting took place in the Roosevelt Room of the White House West Wing, and was an opportunity for Mr. Lew, also Jewish, to discern the policy concerns and hopes of the Reform movement, passing along those concerns to relevant staff members within the Administration. Similar meetings had also occurred in the White House between Mr. Lew and Conservative movement leadership, as well as Orthodox movement leadership.

Cincinnati has been awarded spots on a special Men’s Israel Mission this coming November.

Jerusalem-based Aish Hatorah is the mission provider and on the local front, the Cincinnati Community Kollel is coordinating the mission.

August 2 — 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.

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.”

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

The Brisket Babes: Stephanie Gilinsky and Lesley Loon

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.”

August 9 — Ashley Andrews, 17, was honored by Jewish Family Service Bigs & Littles as the recipient of the Betty R. Goldberg Community Service Award. This award, which included a $1,000 check, was established in honor of the many years of service that Betty gave to the organization and recognizes a Little who helps others by performing good deeds and acts of kindness. Steve Halper, a Friend of Bigs & Littles, presented the award at the Jewish Family Service annual meeting on July 19.

Amy Coppel, Ashley Andrews, Steve Halper

Rockdale Temple kicks off the school year and the month of Elul with a special adult education series entitled “Tis the Season, to Choose Life!” In preparation for the High Holy Days, a three- session course will be taught on the themes of the season.

During a recent visit to three synagogues (two Reform, one Orthodox) on eastern Long Island, Rabbi David Ellenson, Ph.D.— president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), the Reform movement’s seminary—sat down with JNS to discuss new developments in Jewish education and institutional life.

August 16 — Those close to Suellen Chesley Feck knew that she worked tirelessly as a volunteer for many local charities throughout Cincinnati. Her family knew her as a mother and grand-

ROSH HASHANAH • 13

mother with boundless energy and a zest for life. With her generosity of spirit and creative flair, everyone around Mrs. Feck benefited from her time and efforts.

Mrs. Feck passed away on July 31, 2012—the 12th day of Av, 5772—at the age of 74.

The Mayerson JCC and The Mayerson Foundation are pleased to announce the formation of a new strategic partnership designed to expand JCC teen programming with the goal of connecting Jewish teens with their peers through recreational, social and personal growth experiences.

Management and operations of JCC teen activities will fall under the guidance of The Mayerson

Suellen Chesley Feck

Foundation, and will be staffed by Matt Steinberg, the JCC teen coordinator.

In recognition of excellence and an ongoing commitment to children, the JCC Early Childhood School has received a Three-Star Step Up To Quality Award from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Bureau of Child Care and Development, the state agency responsible for licensing and promoting high standards among Ohio’s early care and education programs. To celebrate this major achievement, the Mayerson JCC is holding a 3-Star Celebration on Thursday, Aug. 23.

August 23 — More than 15 organizations will get a helping hand from Adath Israel’s upcoming Mitzvah Day. Volunteers can fight hunger, pack school supplies for needy children, or choose a project closer to their hearts on Aug. 26.

Yitzhak Navon, the fifth president of Israel and honorary president of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, recently sent a letter addressed to the people of the Cincinnati Jewish community, expressing thanks for the support and hospitality for the Academy’s Ankor Choir, who had visited Cincinnati in July as part of the 2012 World Choir Games.

August, 30 — Just two weeks ago Lainey Paul, daughter of Nina and Eddie Paul, made Aliyah (immigrated) to Israel. Starting next week, Lainey will begin writing a blog about her exciting adventures as she enters the Israeli army and begins her new life. It will be posted and updated weekly on The American Israelite’s website. The following is

an introduction to Lainey and her upcoming blog.

Golf Manor Synagogue is proud to sponsor the only Jewish-themed Boy Scout and Girl Scout Troops in Cincinnati.

Boys in grades 1-5 may become members of Cub Pack #613 under the leadership of our programming director and cubmaster, Phil Kahn, and girls in grades 1-7 may become members of Brownie Troop #613 under the leadership of program director Batya Kahn.

Financial Times Chicago and Midwest bureau chief Hal Weitzman will speak about his book Latin Lessons: How the U.S. “Lost” Latin America at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 10, at Xavier University’s Cintas Center. His visit is co-sponsored by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the Foreign Policy Leadership Group, and Xavier’s Brueggeman Center for Dialogue. The event is free and open to the public.

September, 6 — Edward Rothenberg, age 77, passed away unexpectedly on May 28, 2012— the 7th day of Sivan, 5772. Born in Chicago, Ill., on December 8, 1934, he was the youngest child of the late Benjamin and Bertha (nee Ellison) Rothenberg.

Wishing all our family and friends a year of health and happiness Jorian & Neil, David & Marisa Roth Bonnie Juran Ullner

The Cincinnati Chapter of Hadassah will hold its Opening Meeting/Installation Luncheon on Monday, Sept. 10 at 11:30 a.m. at Carrabba’s Italian Grill. All are invited to attend as we install our new president, Bonnie Juran Ullner and other new board members, as well as thank out-going co-presidents Sharon Casper and Bobbi Handwerger. Chef and cookbook author Sheilah Kaufman will present a delightful program about the history of the Jews and chocolate, including a chocolate tasting.

Rabbi Marshal Klaven

Rabbi Marshal Klaven, director of Rabbinic Services for the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life headquartered in Jackson, Miss., will return to the Valley Temple bimah this weekend.

14 • ROSH HASHANAH

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5772 Death Notices We remember those who have passed on during the time between last year’s and this year’s Rosh Hashanah. If any persons have been left out, please contact us.

BROWERS, Lilly Wander, age 93, died on October 6, 2011; 8 Tishrei, 5772.

SCHAEN, Earl, age 85, died on October 10, 2011; 13 Tishrei, 5772.

TENBOSCH, Gerald J., age 60, died on October 11, 2011; 13 Tishrei, 5772.

SCHLOSS, Bert James, M.D., age 67, died on October 12, 2011; 14 Tishrei, 5772.

SCHLOSSBERG, Alexander, age 98, died on October 13, 2011; 15 Tishrei, 5772.

MILLMAN, Sid, age 81, died on October 17, 2011; 19 Tishrei, 5772.

WEBER, Martha “Tillie,” age 85, died on October 17, 2011; 19 Tishrei, 5772.

GELTNER, Herbert B., age 82, died on October 18, 2011; 21 Tishrei, 5772.

LIEBERMAN, Bernard W., age 88, died on October 23, 2011; 25 Tishrei, 5772.

DREYFUSS, Lester, died on October 25, 2011; 27 Tishrei, 5772.

LEWIN, Karl, age 87, died on October 30, 2011; 2 Cheshvan, 5772.

COHN, Helen Harris, age 96, died on October 30, 2011; 2 Cheshvan, 5772.

BLATT, Hilda, age 75, died on October 31, 2011; 3 Cheshvan, 5772.

NEIGER, James Isaac, age 92, died on November 1, 2011; 4 Cheshvan, 5772.

WILKENFELD, Karen L., age 70, died on November 1, 2011; 4 Cheshvan, 5772.

KABAKOFF, Sylvia, age 91, died on November 5, 2011; 8 Cheshvan, 5772.

CUNDIFF, Sharon, age 60, died on November 6, 2011; 9 Cheshvan, 5772.

CLAYTON, Helen, age 91, died on November 6, 2011; 9 Cheshvan, 5772.

PLOTNICK, Dorothy, age 91, died on November 9, 2011; 12 Cheshvan, 5772.

MILSTEIN, Elaine, age 64, died on November 10, 2011; 13 Cheshvan, 5772.

KAPLAN, Dr. Stanley M., age 89, died on November 10, 2011; 13 Cheshvan, 5772.

FLECK, Elizabeth, age 99, died on December 7, 2011; 11 Kislev, 5772.

BRENNER, Gary J., age 65, died on November 11, 2011; 14 Cheshvan, 5772.

GROSS, Marlene, age 78, died on December 8, 2011; 12 Kislev, 5772.

SOLOMON, Lana, age 69, died on November 11, 2011; 14 Cheshvan, 5772.

SPRITZ, David H., age 88, died on December 10, 2011; 15 Kislev, 5772.

LIPSON, Sam W., age 94, died on November 15, 2011; 18 Cheshvan, 5772.

FINKELSTEIN, Betty, age 88, died on December 13, 2011; 17 Kislev, 5772.

STERNWEILER, Rudy, age 90, died on December 13, 2011; 17 Kislev, 5772.

SOMMER, Rosalind (Roz), age 75, died November 15, 2011; 18 Cheshvan 5772.

SCHWARTZ, Jacqueline H., age 68, died on December 15, 2011; 19 Kislev, 5772.

Happy New Year

PERLMAN, Harold, age 87, died on November 16, 2011;19 Cheshvan, 5772.

NEWMARK, Shirley Ann, age 68, died on November 17, 2011; 20 Cheshvan, 5772.

MEDOW, Kay Alisa, age 53, died on December 16, 2011; 21 Kislev, 5772.

FRIES, Anita, age 89, died on December 19, 2011; 23 Kislev, SCHWARTZ, Charlotte Jaffe, age 83, died on November 17, 2011; 20 5772.

WESTERN HILL DOWNTOWN CINCINNATI Cheshvan, 5772.

5098 610 Main Street 513-241-6246 SCHWARTZ, Janie, age 60,Glen died Crossing 513-347-9699 Elm on Street 513-721-4241 on December 21, 2011; 25 Kislev, LOEB, Albert, age 800 81, died 5772.

November 17, 2011; 20 FOREST Cheshvan,PARK COVINGTON, KY 5772.

300 Madison Avenu 1198 Smiley Avenue 89, died 513-825-3888ROBINSON, Jack B., age 859-292-0065 on December 21, 2011; 25 Kislev, TRABOUT, Sam Trabout, age 82, ANDERSON WEST 5772. died on November 21, 2011; 24 CHESTER 7625 Beechmont Av 8179 Princeton Glendale Road Cheshvan, 5772.

513-231-5550 513-942-7800 RUBENSTEIN, Dr. Eli, age 89, died on December 27, 2011; 1 SASKIN, Dr. Gordon A., age 65, Tevet, 5772. died on November 22, 2011; 25 Cheshvan 5772.

CHALIFF, James, age 82, died on December 30, 2011; 4 Tevet, 5772.

HELLMAN, Louis K., age 82, died on November 24, 2011; 27 TROUP, Dr. Stanley B., age 86, Cheshvan, 5772. died on December 30, 2011; 5 Tevet, 5772.

KORROS, Rita, age 78, died on November 25, 2011; 29 Cheshvan, TRAVIS, Gloria Faye, age 81, died 5772. on, December 31, 2011; 5 Tevet, 5772.

SCHEAR, Melvin R., age 84, died on November 26, 2011; 29 FOREMAN, Lee, died on January Cheshvan, 5772.

9, 2012; 14 Tevet, 5772.

PRESSMAN, Harold “Hal,” age 83, died on November 26, 2011; 29 RUDOLPH, Anne W., age 89, died on January 9, 2012;14 Tevet, 5772.

Cheshvan, 5772.

HATTENBACH, Eric, age 92, died on November 26, 2011; 29 Cheshvan, 5772.

GREENBERG, Frieda, age 88, died on January 10, 2012; 16 Tevet, 5772.

KRAVITZ, Samuel, age 87, died on November 28, 2011; 2 Kislev, 5772.

MOSROW, Sylvia Newburger, age 86, died on January 11, 2012; 16 Tevet, 5772.

SACHS, Anita, age 83, died on November 28, 2011; 2 Kislev, 5772.

LIPSICH, H. David, age, 91 died on January 12, 2012; 17 Tevet, 5772.

GOLDEN, Bernyce, age 74, died on December 2, 2011; 7 Kislev, 5772.

ROSENFIELD, Catherine R., age 89, died on January 14, 2012; 19 Tevet, 5772.

FRIES, Robert G. Jr., age 93, died on December 6, 2011; 10 Kislev, 5772.

PESKIN, Martin, age 84, died on January 14, 2012; 19 Tevet, 5772.

WINSTON, Judith Deutsch, died on December 6, 2011; 10 Kislev, 5772.

FRISCH, Herbert, age 93, died on January 15, 2012; 20 Tevet, 5772.

SIMON, Jill R., age 49, died on

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

January 15, 2012; 20 Tevet, 5772.

GALLOP, Paula “Peppi,” age 88, died on January 15, 2012; 21 Tevet, 5772.

LEVIN, Mary W., age 73, died on January 16, 2012; 21 Tevet, 5772.

SHAPIRO, Steven L., age 65, died on January 16, 2012; 21 Tevet, 5772.

ROSH HASHANAH • 15

GREENFIELD, Mitchell, age 56, died on February 15, 2012; 22 Shevat, 5772.

SEGEL, Leonard, age 89, died on February 15, 2012; 22 Shevat, 5772.

STEIN, Emily, age 88, died on February 16, 2012; 23 Shevat, 5772.

LAHM, Susan, age 78, died on January 20, 2012; 25 Tevet, 5772.

BECKER, Esther, age 90, died on February 17, 2012; 24 Shevat, 5772.

DAVIDSON, Stephen L., age 78, died on Janauary 22, 2012; 27 Tevet, 5772.

KAPLAN, Bernice, age 89, died on February 18, 2012; 25 Shevat, 5772.

PAPER, Herbert, age 87, died on January 23, 2012; 28 Tevet, 5772.

MORGENSTERN, Carl, age 90, died on February 19, 2012; 27 Shevat, 5772.

FABERMAN, Jay age 70, died on January 24, 2012; 29 Tevet, 5772.

SAMUEL, Citti, age 98, died on January 25, 2012; 1 Shevat, 5772.

BARTFIELD, Pauline, age 94, died on January 28, 2012; 4 Shevat, 5772.

KIRSCHNER, Myra M., age 85, died on January 29, 2012; 5 Shevat, 5772.

CAPLAN, Alvin M., age 82, died on January 30, 2012; 6 Shevat, 5772.

GALENA, Ayelet Yakira, age 2, died on January 31, 2012; 7 Shevat, 5772.

SOCKOL, Maynard F., age 87, died on January 31, 2012; 7 Shevat, 5772.

EPSTEIN, Joe, age 84, died on February 1, 2012; 8 Shevat, 5772.

FRIEDMAN, Bertha, age 87, died on, February 1, 2012; 8 Shevat, 5772.

FELD, Adam G., age 49, died on February 2, 2012; 9 Shevat, 5772.

EHRLICH, Abraham, age 88, died on February 2, 2012; 9 Shevat, 5772.

SLUTZ, Jerome “Jerry,” age 84, died on February 3, 2012; 10 Shevat, 5772.

SCHWARTZ, Bertram, age 60, died on February 6, 2012; 13 Shevat, 5772.

BERENFIELD, Barbara, age 68, died on February 6, 2012; 14 Shevat, 5772.

ZASLAVSKAYA, Adel, age 84, died on February 10, 2012; 17 Shevat, 5772.

GORDON, Milton, age 92, died on February 14, 2012; 21 Shevat, 5772.

AUERBACH, Stanley, age 77, died on Feb 14, 2012; 21 Shevat, 5772.

WEISBERG, David B., age 73, died on February 23, 2012; 30 Shevat, 5772.

IMMERMAN, Harvey A., age 86, died on February 26, 2012; 3 Adar, 5772.

SNOW, Shirley, age 97, died on February 26, 2012; 3 Adar, 5772.

IMMERMAN, Harvey A., age 86, died on February 26, 2012; 3 Adar, 5772.

FAGIN, Richard ‘Dick’, age 76, died on March 7, 2012; 13 Adar, 5772.

NIDICH, Louis, age 91, died on March 7, 2012; 13 Adar, 5772.

SCHWARTZ, Richard K., age 59, died on March 8, 2012; 14 Adar, 5772.

KRAUS, Alfred, age 89, died on March 9, 2012; 15 Adar, 5772.

MARKOV, Alex, age 85, died on March 14, 2012; 20 Adar, 5772.

GOTTSCHALK, Deanna Zeff, age 73, died on March 16, 2012; 23 Adar, 5772.

MAYERSON, Manuel D., age 90, died on March 22, 2012; 28 Adar, 5772.

KALTMAN, Roma, age 85, died on March 24, 2012; 2 Nissan, 5772.

BERNSTEIN, I. Leonard M.D., age 88, died on March 26, 2012; 3 Nissan, 5772.

KAMKHA, Minna Warshavskya, age 86, died on March 27, 2012; 4 Nissan, 5772.

GOLDMAN, Morry, age 85, died on March 30, 2012; 7 Nissan, 5772.

SEGAL, Sylvia, age 88, died on March 31, 2012; 8 Nissan, 5772.

EVANS, Samuel, age 91, died on April 3, 2012; 11 Nissan, 5772.

MANN, Robert E., age 72, died on

April 7, 2012; 15 Nissan, 5772.

ELKUS, Nancy J., age 58, died on April 9, 2012; 17 Nissan, 5772.

BERNSTEIN, Sandra “Sandi,” age 68, died on April 14, 2012; 22 Nissan, 5772.

JACOBSON, Ralph, age 83, died on April 16, 2012; 24 Nissan, 5772.

MOSKOWITZ, Miriam “Mimi,” age 88, died on April 16, 2012; 25 Nissan, 5772.

LEVITAS, Dr. John R., age 87, died on April 17, 2012; 25 Nissan, 5772.

JOSEPHSON, Robert, age 76, died on April 18, 2012; 26 Nissan, 5772.

KANDELSON, Mildred “Millie,” age 89, died on April 21, 2012; 29 Nissan, 5772.

CLAYBON, Mollie K., age 98, died on April 22, 2012; 30 Nissan, 5772.

WILLINS, Elaine, age 80, died on, April 25, 2012.; 1 Iyar, 5772 HIRSCHMAN, Florence, age 98, died on April 24, 2012; 2 Iyar, 5772.

SCHIFF, Dr. Gilbert M., age 80, died on April 25, 2012; 3 Iyar, 5772.

OSCHERWITZ, Dr. Morris G. “Moo”, age 75, died on April 27, 2012; 5 Iyar, 5772.

16 • ROSH HASHANAH

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FISHEMAN, Sarabelle, age 91, died on April 28, 2012; 6 Iyar, 5772.

FREEDMAN, Stanley H., age 74, died on April 30, 2012; 8 Iyar, 5772.

NORD, Barbara Kohn, age 99, died on May 1, 2012; 9 Iyar, 5772.

KAUFMAN, Florence, age 94, died on May 1, 2012; 10 Iyar, 5772.

on May 13, 2012; 21 Iyar, 5772.

5772.

KIRSCHNER, Alan G, age 91, died on May 15, 2012; 23 Iyar, 5772.

JUSTIN, Tillie, age 91, died on July 22, 2012; 3 Av, 5772.

CONISON, Annette, age 88, died on May 16, 2012; 24 Iyar, 5772.

GABBOUR, Charles, age 72, died on May 19, 2012; 27 Iyar, 5772.

GOLDSTONE, Bernard, age 88, died on May 22, 2012; 1 Sivan, 5772.

SCHWARTZ, Rhodina, age 87, died on July 21, 2012; 2 Av, 5772.

SCHWARZ, Ann, age 97, died on July 30, 2012; 11 Av, 5772.

FECK, Suellen Chesley, age 74, died on July 31, 2012; 12 Av, 5772.

ROSENTHAL, Leo, age 86, died on August 4, 2012; 16 Av, 5772.

BLUESTEIN, Deneal, age 85, died on May 3, 2012; 11 Iyar, 5772.

BARG, Louis, age 89, died on May 24, 2012; 3 Sivan, 5772.

BERG, Robert, age 90, died on May 5, 2012; 13 Iyar, 5772.

HARTMAN, Toby, age 87, died on May 27, 2012; 6 Sivan, 5772.

OSADCHY, Lev, age 81, died on, May 7, 2012; 15 Iyar, 5772.

WARSHAWSKY, David, age 67, died on May 28, 2012; 7 Sivan, 5772.

GLASSMAN, Sidney, age 97, died on August 11, 2012; 23 Av, 5772.

ROTHENBERG, Edward, age 77, died on May 28, 2012; 7 Sivan, 5772.

BIENENFELD, Freda, age 88, died on August 16, 2012; 28 Av, 5772.

ARONS, Lillian Glazer, age 98, died on May 28, 2012; 8 Sivan, 5772.

MARK, Ruth, age 75, died on August 16, 2012; 28 Av, 5772.

BRENNER, Claire, age 95, died on May 11, 2012; 19 Iyar, 5772.

GOLDBERG, Lynne (Leah), age 91, died on May 13, 2012; 21 Iyar, 5772.

SPITZBERG, David, age 94, died

MILLER, Nancy Haas, age 80, died on May 29, 2012; 8 Sivan, 5772.

POLEY, Philip, age 87, died on May 31, 2012; 10 Sivan, 5772.

KATZ, Rae, age 98, died on June 6, 2012; 16 Sivan, 5772.

SCHREIBER, Arthur L., age 87, died on June 8, 2012; 18 Sivan, 5772.

SINGER, Allen, died on June 8, 2012; 18 Sivan, 5772.

TAYLOR, Balbina, age 90, died on June 9, 2012; 19 Sivan, 5772.

BECKER, Elizabeth, age 79, died on August 5, 2012; 17 Av, 5772.

KOHN, Shirley E., age 87, died on August 6, 2012; 19 Av, 5772.

REISENFELD, Steven, age 41, died on August 18, 2012; 30 Av, 5772.

DORMAN, Marlyn E., died on August 22, 2012; 4 Elul, 5772.

BLATT, Sol, age 85, died on August 22, 2012; 5 Elul, 5772.

GALLON, Justin, age 84, died on August 26, 2012; 8 Elul, 5772.

KICHLER, Caroline, age 75, died on August 28, 2012; 10 Elul, 5772.

SHUR, Bonia, age 89, died on August 30, 2012; 12 Elul, 5772.

ROBENS, Ann, age 98, died on August 31, 2012; 13 Elul, 5772.

REISENFELD, Sylvan P., age 78, died on June 10, 2012; 20 Sivan, 5772.

KLOTZ, Eleanor, age 79, died on September 1, 2012; 14 Elul, 5772.

ADLER, Louise K., age 99, died on June 17, 2012; 28 Sivan, 5772.

FINE, Roy, age 95, died on September 1, 2012; 14 Elul, 5772.

LEVITE, Louis, age 85, died on June 20, 2012; 30 Sivan, 5772.

FRIED, Clara, age 81, died on August 17, 2012; 29 Av, 5772.

FOHLEN, Eugene, age 91, died on June 26, 2012; 6 Tammuz, 5772.

BETTER, Jill, age 64, died on September 2, 2012, 15 Elul, 5772.

HATFIELD, Jacob Ryan, age 20, died on June 30, 201; 10 Tammuz, 5772.

SCHREIBER, Sylvia, age 91, died on July 1, 2012; 11 Tammuz, 5772.

MARGOLIES, Joel A., age 71, died on July 5, 2012; 15 Tammuz, 5772.

RUTMAN, Gail, age 63, died on July 11, 2012; 21 Tammuz, 5772.

LEHRNER, Ann Gertzman, age 89, died on July 11, 2012; 21 Tammuz, 5772.

SOBEL, Manuel, age 77, died on July 11, 2012; 21 Tammuz, 5772.

MILLER, Samuel D., age 92, died on July 16, 2012; 26 Tammuz,

SPIZEL, Sheila K., age 86, died on September 3, 2012; 16 Elul, 5772.

KRAUS, Betty, age 85, died on September 5, 2012; 18 Elul, 5772.

LEVINE, E. Pike, age 89, died on September 6, 2012; 20 Elul, 5772.

TURCHIN, Henry, age 61, died on September 7, 2012; 20 Elul, 5772.

BLASBERG, Herbert, age 97, died on September 8, 2012; 21 Elul, 5772.

WARTH, Irvin, M.D., age 90, died on September 8, 2012; 21 Elul, 5772.

KANTOR, Marvin, age 79, died on September 8, 2012; 21 Elul, 5772.

ROSH HASHANAH • 17

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

5772 year in review: Jews grapple with growing sense of insecurity

By Uriel Heilman Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) — The Jewish year 5772 marked a period of growing uncertainty for the Jewish people.

From the threat of a nuclear Iran to Egypt’s newly cold stance toward Israel to the increasing chaos across the border in Syria, Israel found its longtime status quo imperiled on multiple fronts.

On top of that, a marked increase in attempts on Jewish targets overseas — from Israeli tourists in Bulgaria to Jewish schoolchildren in Toulouse, France — helped stoke Jewish insecurities.

That sense was fueled by calls in a growing number of European countries to ban ritual circumcision and shechitah, Jewish ritual slaughter.

As might be natural for those faced with great uncertainties, the Jewish state seemed to retreat to conservative positions.

Negotiations with the Palestinians stayed at a standstill, with seemingly little motivation by Israel, the Palestinian Authority or the United States to get things going again. Israel’s left wing remained unable to muster a significant political opposition movement or a viable alternative to Israel’s conservative prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

In the United States, Republican campaign strategists sought to take advantage of the anxious mood by raising questions about what a second-term Obama administration might mean for Israel. Their biggest help in that regard was casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, the Jewish philanthropist who vowed to spend up to $100 million to defeat President Obama. If there were a Jewish man of the year, Adelson — the moneyman reviled by some and beloved by others for bankrolling Israel’s right-wing tabloid Israel Hayom, Jewish programming like Birthright Israel and Republican presidential candidates – unquestionably would get the title.

It’s still not clear how successful the Republican effort will be: Polls show Jewish support for Obama is down, but still higher than among Americans generally and higher than it was at this point in the campaign four years ago.

The Jewish year started out with a measure of relief for many in the pro-Israel community as the unilateral Palestinian bid for statehood recognition at the United Nations ended in more of a flop than a showdown. After rebukes at the U.N. General Assembly from Netanyahu and Obama a week before Rosh Hashanah, the Palestinian effort died in the U.N. Security Council, where a clear majority supporting statehood failed to emerge, obviating the

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A protester outside Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court in Cairo carrying a sign that reads “No to Shafiq and to the Muslim Brotherhood and down with military rule too,” June 14, 2012.

need for a U.S. veto.

The only U.N. body in which the Palestinians made significant progress was at UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which voted in late October to accept the Palestinians as a member. That resulted in an automatic cutoff of U.S. funding, costing UNESCO some 22 percent of its annual budget.

For much of the year, however, the Palestinians were hardly Israel’s biggest concern. Intense will-they-or-won’t-they-attack speculation dominated the conversation about Iran, while U.S. and Israeli officials held a series of toplevel meetings on how to deal with the Islamic Republic’s suspected nuclear weapons program.

The outcome was more saber rattling, tightening of U.S. and EU sanctions focused mostly on banking and oil, and a campaign of clandestine cyber warfare against Iran’s nuclear facilities. The efforts may have slowed Iran’s program, but they did not derail it. Iran continues to enrich uranium even as sanctions have handicapped the country’s economy.

On the strategic level, Israeli and U.S. officials did not resolve their differences on their respective Iran red lines. Israel held firm to the notion that Iran could not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons capability, while the Obama administration said it would not allow Iran actually to weaponize. But the two allies seemed to reach an understanding whereby Israel would hold off on attacking Iran – possibly through the fall election – in exchange for a pledge to send more sophisticated U.S. weaponry to Jerusalem and more explicit rhetoric from Washington about the military option on Iran.

Iran was hardly the Israeli

defense establishment’s only source of anxiety.

The newly bellicose tone from post-Mubarak Egypt was met with increasing concern north of the border. The year started with Israelis still shaken by the Egyptian mob attack and ransacking of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo last September, and by a deadly terrorist attack in Eilat the previous month that had originated in Egypt’s Sinai Desert.

5772 on next page

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5772 from previous page In 5772, the Sinai continued to be a source of problems, including as a staging ground for attacks against Israel. The Egypt-Israel natural gas pipeline, a crucial source of energy for Israel that flows through the Sinai, repeatedly was sabotaged. Then, in April, the government in Cairo announced that it was halting all gas delivery to the Jewish state.

Meanwhile, Egyptian Islamists led by the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent organization of Hamas, triumphed in Egyptian parliamentary elections, and in June the country elected a new president from the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Morsi.

While the 30-year-old peace between Israel and Egypt largely held – thanks in part to the Egyptian army’s forceful and undemocratic dominance of Egyptian politics – Israel began to adjust to a new reality in which the quiet along the Egypt-Israel border no longer could be taken for granted. Likewise, Syria’s devolution into civil war raised Israeli fears that the quiet along Israel’s border with Syria might end, too.

The biggest problem facing Israel along its southern border this year was not the intermittent shooting attacks from the Egyptian side but the continued flow into Israel of Africans – most of them economic migrants but some of them refugees – from countries including Eritrea, Sudan and South Sudan.

In late spring, riots broke out in Tel Aviv targeting the African migrants and calling for their

Courtesy of The White House

President Obama, shown speaking at a White House reception honoring Jewish American Heritage Month on May 31, 2012.

immediate deportation; in some instances, crowds were egged on

by Israeli politicians. The government worked on erecting a barrier along unfenced portions of its border with Egypt, started building a long-term detention facility for the migrants, and enacted new laws to detain and deport them.

But the big showdown in Israeli society came over the summer in the lead-up to the Supreme Courtordered expiry of the Tal Law, which had granted haredi Orthodox Israelis exemption from the military draft. Reforming the law was one of the four major agenda items set by the remarkable coalition government that came together in May, when Israel’s centrist Kadima Party led by Shaul Mofaz joined Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, creating a super-majority in the 120-seat Knesset of 94 seats.

It was that same issue, however, that prompted Kadima to withdraw from the coalition just two months later, with Mofaz charging that Netanyahu’s proposed reforms did not go far enough and Netanyahu blaming Mofaz for playing politics.

Their breakup was overshadowed almost immediately by the year’s first major successful terrorist attack against Israelis overseas following several mostly failed attempts in India, Azerbaijan and the Republic of Georgia, among other places. Israel blamed Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah, for the July 18 bombing that killed five Israelis and their bus driver in the coastal Bulgarian city of Burgas.

It was the year’s second major attack against Jews, following the shooting deaths in March of three Jewish schoolchildren and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse by a Muslim gunman, Mohammed Merah.

European Jews also were unnerved by what they saw as growing attacks against Jewish practice – from the Dutch Senate’s consideration of a shechitah ban (later dropped) to a court ruling in Cologne banning circumcision that German lawmakers later clarified did not actually outlaw Jewish circumcision. Nevertheless, the ruling prompted the Jewish Hospital in Berlin and two Swiss hospitals to halt religious circumcisions, and Jews to worry that other European institutions or countries could follow suit.

The year was not without its high points. In October, longtime Israeli captive soldier Gilad Shalit was released after more than five years in captivity in a swap that saw more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel set free. Some criticized the Israeli government for releasing terrorists with blood on their hands, but Shalit’s liberation was greeted with euphoria by Jews around the world.

In the United States, Israel continued to dominate American Jewish conversation, whether with regard to Obama’s record, author Peter Beinart’s critiques of American Jewish Zionism or the ongoing battles over the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

Courtesy of Marc Israel Sellem/GPO/FLASH90/JTA

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, meets with Mitt Romney in Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem, July 29, 2012.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

ROSH HASHANAH • 19

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By Joel Rosenberg JointMedia News Service (JNS) — When cinema was still in its youth, Hollywood built a story around the High Holidays.

Its tale was a measure of Jewry’s ties to tradition, but also a gentle sign of its loss.

In The Jazz Singer (1927), America’s first feature-length sound film, Jakie Rabinowitz is a cantor’s son whose father expects him to follow tradition and stand by his side in the synagogue to chant Kol Nidre, the prayer that opens the Yom Kippur service.

But as the eve of the holiday approaches, the father is told that 12-year-old Jakie is singing in a saloon. The cantor angrily fetches him home and gives him a thrashing. Jakie vows to leave home for good. As the father chants Kol Nidre at shul, the son takes to the streets and embarks on a life singing jazz.

Years later, his career on the rise, his name now changed to Jack Robin (played here by the great Al Jolson, whose life had inspired the story), he visits his parents on his papa’s 60th birthday, announces he’ll soon be starring on Broadway, and hopes to make peace with his folks. Jack’s mama welcomes him back eagerly, but the father orders him to leave. Soon after, the cantor grows ill and hovers between life and death. Jack’s mother appears at the Broadway rehearsals and begs him to sing Kol Nidre in place of his father. But Yom Kippur is also the show’s opening night. The film constructs a virtual morality play around this dilemma.

I won’t tell you the outcome, except to say that the film would be incomplete without a Jolson version of Kol Nidre. Or at least it sounds like Kol Nidre — but in Jolson’s handling, the Aramaiclanguage lines are radically abridged and repeated, over and over, in a reverie of improvisation.

In effect, Kol Nidre as jazz. The film here subtly portrays the passing of tradition into a creatively eroded form — symbolic of what New World Jews have done with the old.

In 1937, Jews in Poland did a film version of S. An-sky’s acclaimed Yiddish play, The Dybbuk. In the film, two Hasidic Jews, Sender and Nisn, are longtime friends who meet up only infrequently during holiday pilgrimages to the Rebbe of Miropolye. One such time, they pledge their yet-unborn children in marriage. Soon after, Nisn is drowned and Sender, preoccupied with money, forgets his promise to his friend.

Years later, an impoverished scholar named Khonen makes his way to Brinitz, Sender’s town, where, as a Sabbath guest at

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Sender’s, he instantly falls in love with Sender’s daughter Leah, who loves him in return. The father, unaware that Khonen is the son of his long-departed friend, is determined to betroth Leah to the richest suitor he can find. Desperate to win Leah’s hand, Khonen immerses himself in kabbalistic magic so he can conjure up barrels of gold.

Intensely ascetic, Khonen grows ever more unbalanced, and when Leah’s engagement to a rich man’s son is announced, he calls on Satan for help, then keels over and dies. When Leah is later about to be married, she becomes possessed by her dead lover’s spirit.

Her father then takes her to Miropolye, where he petitions the Rebbe to exorcise the wayward soul.

The film, one of the last great cultural products of Polish Jewry, is a rich portrait of pre-modern Jewish life and custom. Unlike the play, it opens with an impassioned table sermon by the Rebbe on the youthful days of the fathers-to-be.

The sermon deals with the Yom Kippur ministrations of the High Priest in ancient times — if an impure thought were to enter his mind in the Holy of Holies, “the entire world would be destroyed.”

The Rebbe compares this to the precarious journey of some unfortunate souls, who pass through several lifetimes (these Jews believed in reincarnation) in striving toward their source, the Throne of Glory — only to be cast down, just as they reach celestial heights. As this point in the Rebbe’s sermon, Sender and Nisn inopportunely try to inform him of their pact.

When, a generation later, Khonen fantasizes union with his beloved Leah, he refers to it as “the Holy of Holies.” In retrospect, the Rebbe’s sermon becomes a prophecy of Khonen’s disastrous fall. But The Dybbuk never ceases to exalt the lovers’ bond, though the Rebbe and his

court try their best to undo it. The holiest moment of Yom Kippur, though fraught with catastrophe, remains a symbol for the resistance of these lovers to a world enslaved by money and class.

A third film, Barry Levinson’s Liberty Heights (1999), is a nostalgic comedy about growing up Jewish in 1950s Baltimore. It both opens and closes on Rosh Hashanah, when the Kurtzman family customarily attend synagogue. Nate Kurtzman (Joe Mantegna) has his own New Year custom of exiting early from shul to stroll to the nearby Cadillac showroom, where the coming year’s models are on display. Each year, Nate trades in his Caddy for a spiffy new one, which he can afford — not from fading profits of the burlesque house he owns but because of his thriving illegal numbers racket. Nate is otherwise a solid citizen, a devoted husband and father, who has raised himself up from humble origins, and had often, in his youth, proven himself a scrappy street fighter against neighborhood anti-Semites. Most of the film deals with the adventures of Nate’s sons, Van and Ben (Adrien Brody and Ben Foster) and and their relations with gentile girls — Van’s pursuit of a beautiful, Old-Money debutante named Dubbie, whom he met at a party; and Ben’s friendship with Sylvia, a black classmate.

Levinson’s framing the story inside the Jewish New Year and Nate’s Cadillac ritual is important.

The Kurtzmans are nominally observant Jews—perhaps even Orthodox, but in a laid-back, assimilated way. Though Nate’s wife shows remnants of clannishness, the Kurtzmans are open to the winds of change. While both the New Year and the “new car year” are equally important to Nate, their overlap seems a portrait of the tradition’s loosening grip since the days of The Jazz Singer.

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At the New Year, American Jews grapple with balancing faith, work and school

By Charlotte Anthony Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK (JTA) — Last Yom Kippur, a fasting Brenda Rienhardt sat in the hallway outside her classroom studying for a test while watching online Yom Kippur services on her laptop.

“I wanted to keep up with what was going on religiously and not fail my test,” said Rienhardt, 26, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., resident who was then a senior at Florida Atlantic University. “It was just a challenge because I was balancing what I should do with what I needed to do.”

For many American Jews like Rienhardt, the High Holidays mean balancing the demands of the American workplace and school with their Jewish observance.

Lisa Vaughn, who has worked as an urgent care and emergency physician for 17 years, said that being on call doesn’t give a lot of opportunities to take days off.

“When you have that job, you work every shift, holiday or not,” said Vaughn, 51, of Massillon, Ohio. “You hope God understands because you know your employer doesn’t.”

Jonathan Sarna, professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, says the High Holidays are a time when Jews are conflicted with their identity.

“I think because there are many non-Jews who know about the High Holidays and wonder if a Jewish person doesn’t celebrate them … Jews find themselves confronting the tension between identifying with the Jewish community or identifying with the general community,” Sarna said.

“It’s not about the High Holidays but about one’s larger identity as a Jew different from the rest of America.”

Shawn Green, a now retired Jewish professional baseball player, sat out a 2001 Los Angeles Dodgers’ game on Yom Kippur for just that reason. It was the first time in 415 games that he chose not to play.

“As a baseball player, it’s a little different, you don’t have the luxury of picking several holidays. But if I was going to pick one holiday to sit out, then that’s the one,” Green said about Yom Kippur. ”I felt that as one of the few Jewish athletes, it was important to acknowledge my connection to my heritage.”

His first major challenge came in 2004 when the Dodgers were locked in a tight battle with the San Francisco Giants for the division title. With only 10 games left in the season and two of them scheduled

for Yom Kippur — one on Kol Nidre, one on Yom Kippur afternoon — Green faced a dilemma.

“I was in a no-win situation because if I miss both games, that would be a little hypocritical because I really wasn’t very religious, but at the same time I wanted to acknowledge my connection and heritage,” Green said. “So I opted to play one and to sit one game as a compromise just to say look, I am acknowledging my Jewish roots, but at the same time I also have a responsibility to the team and to my fans at the Dodgers.”

Most Jews don’t face such public dilemmas and often can adjust their schedules. That’s true for Meyer Koplow, executive partner at the Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz law firm in New York.

“Most of the things you do as a litigator involves either briefing matters, taking discovery, trials and other court appearances. You almost always know well in advance what the schedule will require for each of those tasks,” said Koplow, 61. “It’s usually very easy to schedule them around the holidays so that holidays are not a problem.”

For some people, it’s not getting time off for the holidays that’s problematic, it’s the stress of being disconnected that causes tensions.

Take Stu Loeser, who recently left his job as press secretary for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Loeser said that with his BlackBerry turned off during holidays and the Sabbath, he doesn’t necessarily know about breaking news.

“When you pick up the newspaper the next day, then you can be in for quite a surprise,” said Loeser, 39. “I find it especially stressful and nerve-wracking. I have a deputy who steps in for me, but even though you have phenomenally competent people filling in for you doesn’t mean that it’s not stressful.”

For Loeser and other observant Jews, however, it’s the lesserknown holidays, such as Shemini Atzeret and Shavuot, that can be most challenging in terms of taking days off.

“Everyone’s heard of Rosh Hashanah and people understand that there are people who observe and some people who sort of observe,” Loeser said. It’s the other 10 days—Simchat Torah, Shemini Atzeret , two for Sukkot, the first two and last two of Passover and two for Shavuot— that are the most difficult. “People start thinking that you are taking the same two days off a month because people have never heard of them.”

David Barkey, the AntiDefamation League’s religious freedom counsel, said much of the confusion surrounding the holidays arises because not all people observe the holidays in the same way.

“You might have employers that look on the calendar and see that Yom Kippur is on Wednesday and not understand why an employee needs to leave on Tuesday night or why one employee takes two days off when another takes a week,” Barkey said.

Sippy Laster, 24, a recruitment coordinator at JPMorgan Chase in New York, does her best to compensate for the time that she takes off.

“I spend a lot of time working later, and the days leading up to the days that I have to take off, I end up spending later nights at work so a lot of preparation goes into it,” she said.

Barkey said that while most employees are able to observe holidays by trading shifts and talking with their employers, religious accommodation issues are still a problem.

There was a 32 percent increase in religious accommodation charges filed by Jews from 1998 to 2011, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. While Jews comprise 2 percent of the U.S. population, they represented 14.9 percent of all 2011 religious accommodation charges.

While Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides the primary protection, Barkey says there is no absolute requirement for an employer to give time off.

“If you have a religious conflict, especially if you know far in advance, you have a duty to tell your employer in advance,” he said. “A lot of complaints we get are from employees who waited two or three days before the holidays to ask for time.”

Jacqueline Simon, public policy director of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing government workers, says the problem often isn’t getting the time off but feeling left out.

“I think people are tolerant of someone taking time off for religious observance, but much less willing to alter the schedule of a group to accommodate one or two people,” she said.

Rienhardt has seen that firsthand. “If you go to the dean and make a fuss, yes, you can have the day off, but if you have a test, you are going to be at a disadvantage,” she said. “When they have tests scheduled, teachers tend to be less forgiving.”

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

ROSH HASHANAH • 21

Calendar conflict—When religious holidays coincide with college classes

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By Maxine Dovere Jointnews Media Services The 2012 High Holidays will be unlike any others that preceded them in the history of Stony Brook University.

This academic year, for the first time, the school will hold regular classes rather than suspend them during traditional Jewish and Christian holidays. The change was made “to ensure that some religions are not given preferential treatment,” according to Dean of Students Jerrold L. Stein.

While Stony Brook’s decision does bring it in line with the majority of American universities, which do not cancel classes for religious observance, the change drew the ire of many in the New York school’s campus community.

Jewish, Christian and Muslim officials from Stony Brook’s Interfaith Center sent a letter to University President Samuel Stanley saying changing the calendar was “ill advised.”

“Eliminating major religious observance for this calendar will damage the university’s image and reputation,” the letter said.

Yet Catherine Duffy, assistant to Stony Brook Dean of Students Jerrold L. Stein, told JNS that the informal reaction from students on campus was a sense that they “understood” the change.

“If a student has a religious need, of course they will be excused [from class],” Duffy said.

“But [the university] did not want to alter the whole calendar.”

“Everyone knew their own religious observance would not be impacted because the students would be excused if they have to miss class because of a religious observance,” she said, explaining that there was “no uproar” on campus.

How do other universities treat religious holidays?

To better understand how universities accommodate students’ religious observance, JNS looked at the policies of some major institutions. Virtually all schools enable students to observe religious holidays without academic penalties.

Princeton University has “very few holidays other than its formal break,” Susan Johanesen, executive assistant to Hillel Director Rabbi Julie Roth, told JNS. “The calendar has been the same forever,” she said.

“Princeton has very few times when it suspends classes.”

Johanesen noted that the university’s Office of Religious Life (ORL) sends a listing of all holidays to university professors.

Observant students are allowed to miss class and make up a test.

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A quiet Stony Brook University campus. What will the scene on campus look like when classes are held at Stony Brook on the High Holidays for the first time this year?

“The ORL helps adjust classes and assists professors in understanding the importance of observance. [ORL Director] Dean Alison Boden has been that way for a long time,” said Johanesen.

The University of Wisconsin states that it “seeks to be sensitive to the needs of individual students.” Accommodation for religious practice is based both on the law and on the school’s stated policy: a “student’s claim of a religious conflict, which may include travel time, should be accepted at face value…there is no practical, dignified, and legal means to assess the validity of individual claims.”

Wisconsin cautions that mandatory academic requirements “should not be scheduled on days when religious observances may cause substantial numbers of students to be absent from the university.” The school does require that students notify the instructor within the first two weeks of class of the specific days or dates “on which he or she requests relief.”

Indiana University’s policy is to accept student claims of religious need on “face value”— attendance of religious services or events need not be proven.

On the West coast, the University of Washington “Holiday Policy” suggests to faculty that “traditional observances, and major days of religious significance” be considered when “developing class syllabus and planning for examinations.”

Academics are not the only aspect of university life affected by the requirements of religious observance. The University of California has had a policy since 2007 ensuring that religious holidays do not conflict with residence hall move-in days.

The University of Arkansas says students are “expected to provide instructors with a schedule of

religious holidays they intend to observe in writing.” The university handbook explicitly states that it “does not observe religious holidays.”

Syracuse University does not suspend classes for Jewish holidays or those of any other religion.

The university, however, “recognizes the diverse faith traditions represented among its campus community and supports the rights of faculty, staff, and students to observe according to these traditions.” Students are asked to “consider their need for accommodation for religious observances as they plan their schedule each semester.”

North of the border, at Ryerson University in Canada, instructors are encouraged “to bear [religious observance] in mind when preparing their courses and to accommodate any student who cannot attend class due to religious observance.”

Ryerson provides a “religious observance accommodation form” students submit to instructors.

Why was Stony Brook’s calendar changed?

The current student population at Stony Brook, based on a demographic analysis of the 2009 incoming freshman class, shows Catholic students as the most significant minority at about 30 percent, with Jewish students amounting to 6.2 percent and a Muslim contingent totaling 6.6 percent.

Stony Brook issued a statement saying that student complaints “prompted us to look into an alternative academic calendar.” A “calendar committee” formed during 2011 recommend changes.

According to its statement, the university recognizes “the significant role of religion and faith in the lives of our students, faculty and staff and will ensure that no member of our community is comCONFLICT on page 26

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Campfires, meditation and mountain trails—alternative High Holidays celebrations

By Debra Rubin Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) — Throughout the day they dropped slips of paper into the beehiveshaped basket — snippets on which they had written the sins for which they were seeking forgiveness.

At nightfall, the group of about 15 people sat in a circle reading aloud the sins and then tossing the papers into the campfire.

This wasn’t the typical recitation of Al Chet, the confession of sins read on Yom Kippur, but for these Jews it marked the end of a Day of Atonement spent in a woodland park in Oakland, Calif.

“There was a real sense of recognition of a lot of things people were asking forgiveness for,” said Ari Kelman of Palo Alto, Calif., one of the day’s organizers. “All the things were individual, but there was a sense of collective recognition for the sins during the course of the year.”

While millions of Jews worldwide spend Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in synagogue sanctuaries, school auditoriums and other formal settings, some Jews find alternative ways to observe the High Holidays. That often means praying, meditating and reflecting while outdoors.

Kelman, 41, has done just that for the past few years, coordinating with friends he describes as having strong Jewish backgrounds.

“We were looking for something that didn’t feel like an endurance sport but was actually comfortable, and allowed us to interact with people we like and hit the parts of the service that meant something for us,” said Kelman, a professor of education and Jewish studies at Stanford University.

He says the service has consisted of selected traditional prayers from the machzor, or holiday prayer book, study sessions on the Torah portion in lieu of a formal Torah reading and “texts that ran the gamut from philosophy to poetry to Bible.”

Kelman says he was inspired by the experience of his friend, Amy Tobin.

“The years that I sat in synagogue, I didn’t get much out of it,” said Tobin, who has written a musical that interpreted the story of Lilith and a rock opera on the Book of Esther. “When I’m sitting there, I’m not interacting with the ritual, or the traditions or the text.”

Yet she loves the High Holidays.

“I love that there’s this intense sense of intention and renewal. And you’re always in a different place,” said the Oakland resident.

But a half dozen years ago, Tobin and her friend Devra Aarons decided to spend Rosh Hashanah in the woods. “We brought books and a blanket and some snacks,” Tobin recalled, alternating among reading, writing and talking.

“There’s something really nurturing about being outside,” she said. “I think the place is not even as important as the idea of giving ourselves the time and space to do what we need to do, both interactive and reflective.”

“I think the place is not even as important as the idea of giving ourselves the time and space to do what we need to do, both interactive and reflective.”

Ari Kelman

Spending time outside became a tradition for her and Aarons.

Other friends, including Kelman, soon joined them.

Kelman “has drawn on sections of the service, more so than I probably would,” Tobin said. “For me, I’m more interested in the spirit of the season than I am in the specific prayers that are part of the service.”

Rabbi Mike Comins also looks for the spirit of the service—and typically does it alone.

Comins runs Torah Trek, The Center for Jewish Wilderness Spirituality, a group that holds Jewish-content retreats and programs outdoors. While his organization doesn’t hold programs for the High Holidays, Comins, 55, takes to a mountain trail on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

“The reason I don’t go out on the first day of Rosh Hashanah and on Yom Kippur is I very much believe in being part of the community. I wouldn’t want to choose one or the other,” he said.

But the Los Angeles-based rabbi says, “I connect to God best in nature, so to go celebrate Rosh Hashanah, which marks the cre-

ation of the world in nature, is very meaningful for me.”

While on the trail—typically for at least half the day—Comins does “a lot of the traditional davening,” praying, “journaling, chanting and personal prayer.”

“Part of the beauty of praying in nature is that you can stop and listen,” he said. “Most people say they don’t hear a response from God to their prayers, but if you hang up right when you’re done talking, how do you know?”

Comins says he knows the response has come “when my energy lifts.”

Others trek to the woods for holiday experiences that combine formal traditional services with the informality of being in the wilderness. The Boulder, Colo.-based group Adventure Rabbi, for example, holds Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur retreats in the Colorado mountains, while the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village, Conn., hosts observances for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Tiferet Gordon, 29, has attended the Isabella Freedman retreats twice. A rabbinical student at Hebrew College in Newton, Mass., she’ll be leading the center’s music-filled Reconstructioniststyle service this year.

Not only does Gordon, of Brookline, Mass., find spirituality in nature, she says that attending the formal services at the retreat is more meaningful than being in synagogue at home.

In Brookline, she says, “if you want to take a break, you go outside and there are cars and people are living their lives; it’s still Wednesday, if it’s a Wednesday,” she said. “Here you go outside and it’s still Rosh Hashanah. Here, walking up and down the paths, it’s like walking in Jerusalem. You see someone walking and you know you can say ‘Shanah tovah.’ ” Experiencing the holidays outdoors doesn’t always mean climbing a mountain or going to a remote retreat. For some congregations it means a nearby park on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

Cherie Brown, 62, of Silver Spring, Md., belongs to one such synagogue, Am Kolel, a Jewish Renewal congregation in nearby Beallsville. She loves both the more formal service on the first day and the smaller outdoor service on the second day that includes lots of singing and discussion groups rather than a formal sermon and a potluck lunch.

“You’re outside, you’re in nature,” Brown said. “It has this totally relaxed feel.”

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

ROSH HASHANAH • 23

Keeping our word, improving the world

By Dasee Berkowitz Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK – Children beginning to acquire language face some amusing obstacles.

Confusing basic words is one of them.

My son, for example, loved to stretch out his arms and tell me about something that was the biggest or the best “... in the whole wide word.” My heart smiled every time.

There was something telling in his mistake.

Jewish tradition is no stranger to the link between words and the world. Words have great power.

We recite each morning in the liturgy, “Blessed is the One who spoke and the world came into being” or “Baruch she’amar v’haya ha’olam.” Words are more than signs. They have the ability to create. They are intrinsically holy. As S. Ansky relates in “The Dybbuk,” “every word that a man speaks with sincerity is the Name of the Lord.”

For children, words describe what is concrete around them (“book,” “banana,” “car”) and communicate their most basic needs (“water,” “pee”).

As adults, our relationship with words grows much more complex. We use words to build relationships (“I love you”) and to break them down (“You’re fired”).

We use them to direct people, manage situations, reflect and pray. We also use words to chart our future behavior. We make promises and vows (in Hebrew called “neder”). Rabbi Jonathan Sacks comments on the meaning of a neder by saying, “When we bind ourselves by words, we are using language not to describe but to create – to create an orderly future out of the chaos of human instincts and desires.”

No one knows this more than someone who is trying to stop some addictive behavior and makes a vow (“I will eat less sugar, I will stop smoking”), or who wants to create reliable work habits (“I will get that report to

you on time”) or build a relationship with others (“I will marry you”). Our promises to ourselves and to others guide our behavior and can shape our future.

Sacks continues, “What is unique to humans is that we use language to bind our own future behavior so that we can form with other human beings bonds of mutuality and trust.” The care with which we choose our words is at the core of building relationships, family lives, communities and a just society. When we speak, our words can be relied upon.

When we promise to do something, others know we will follow through.

But even with our best intentions, we fall short in many ways.

Yom Kippur is our time to reflect on the year that has passed and all the ways we wished we could fulfill the promises and nedarim we made.

One of the central aspects of the Yom Kippur liturgy is the confessional prayer, or vidui. In a chant audible only to ourselves, we beat our chest and recite a litany of missteps that begin, “We sinned before you ...” Hardly an exhaustive list, it represents the whole alphabet of sins (it starts with aleph and ends with tav). It is striking how many times that sins related to speech appear.

“We have sinned against you through idle chatter/ the way we talk/ foul speech/ foolish talk/ gossip/ speaking ill of others/ everyday conversation” – and the list goes on. The sheer number of sins on the list calling us to consider our speech confronts us to recognize that our talk is cheap. Far from holiness, we use our words to fill the silence at best and malign people at worst. Once sensitized to our overall use of speech, we can go a step deeper and consider another transgression mentioned in the confessional prayer: “We have sinned against you through empty promises”(Shvuot Shav).

Time and again we have said that we will do something and don’t follow through. Slowly,

these empty promises erode trust that binds people and communities together.

I have a personal practice every High Holiday season.

Instead of sinking into the feeling of “where to begin” with the project of self-improvement presented by the High Holidays, I start small by picking one character flaw and focusing on correcting it. One year it was my struggle with being late, so being on time was my focus. Another year I felt like my friendships were fading into the background of my recent marriage, so I focused on investing more energy into friendships.

Last year, aware that there were many things I did not complete, my vow was to “keep my word.” It was an amazing experience. I learned to measure my words. I wasn’t the first to volunteer for projects that I knew I couldn’t complete. And the ones to which I did commit, I was devoted to the end. By becoming more conscious about keeping my word, I worked to make my world a little bit more reliable. I certainly have more work to do in this area.

Maybe my son, in his innocent confusion, was onto something when he mistook “word” for “world.” By keeping our word, we keep our world together.

This Yom Kippur, let us be more conscious of our words, their intrinsic holiness and their powerful potential to create a better world.

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You ain’t heard Kol Nidre yet

By Edmon J. Rodman Jewish Telegraph Agency LOS ANGELES – On Kol Nidre, we sing for our lives. At the minyan where I pray, as a lay “shaliach tzibur,” or service leader, I was asked to lead the singing this year, and I was starting to wonder if I was up to it.

I wasn’t asked to lead the actual Kol Nidre prayer at my Movable Minyan – someone else was given that honor – but to chant the Maariv evening service that includes several key passages, such as the Ya’aleh, the medieval piyyut, or liturgical poem, that anticipates and prepares the congregation for the coming day from dawn to dusk of solemn introspection.

At prayer environment communities like the Movable Minyan, the former Jewish consumer is turned into a producer. I didn’t want to blow it.

For Kol Nidre, it’s one thing to sit as a congregant for the service, which as the sun begins to set usually finds me rushing to get to the shul on time. It’s quite another to stand before a group of friends, who also are beginning a day of fasting, to remember the nusach, melody, and come to it with kavanah, intention, as well as the proper Hebrew pronunciation.

I needed to consult with someone who had done it all before. So I took a drive out to the cemetery.

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Al Jolson’s final resting place in Los Angeles provides a source of inspiration for a lay service leader as Yom Kippur nears.

cantor who in film had his own issues with showing up and leading Kol Nidre – Al Jolson.

In the historic first talkie, “The Jazz Singer,” Jolson’s cantor father wants him to follow in his footsteps, but Jakie Rabinowitz instead turns to Broadway. In the 1927 film’s classic scene, after canceling a performance, Jakie returns to the synagogue to sing Kol Nidre with the spirit of his dying father at his side.

Melodramatic perhaps, but here was an act of “teshuvah,” returning, to which I wanted to get closer.

So I was off to Hillside – the final resting place of, among others, Eddie Cantor, Allan Sherman and Dinah Shore – to commune with the “Sweet singer of Israel,” as it says inside the tiled ceiling of the 75-foot-high white marble canopy resting atop six stone pillars that stand over Jolson’s tomb.

To ascend to the memorial, I had climbed a green hill that is waterscaped with five tiers of cascading pools flowing down its side.

At its top, beneath the canopy, is a marble sarcophagus that is simply marked “Al Jolson.” To one side is a bronze sculpture of the stage, nightclub, radio and movie star classically in “The Jazz Singer” pose, down on one knee.

Sitting on a stone bench nearby, looking out at the seagulls that were landing in the pools, I wondered what it all meant. Did I need to put my heart into my singing?

Go down on one knee? Certainly in the Vidui, with prayers like Ashamnu and Al Chait, there is a lot of pleading for forgiveness.

Communing with Jolson, I rephrased his classic movie line, “You ain’t heard nothing yet,” to “I hadn’t heard enough” – that to change up my act, I also needed to consult with someone who could help me sort this all out.

Cantor Joel Stern is not a Hollywood kind of guy at all.

He enjoys performing well, just like any singer in this

entertainment-driven city, but his approach isn’t theatrical. I know; I’ve heard him chant.

Stern works days as a business analyst and writer for an educational software company. But in the evenings and on off days he tutors others to lead services and read Torah. And on the High Holidays he is the cantor at Metivta, a center for contemplative Judaism in Los Angeles.

“Get familiar with the nusach – so familiar you don’t need to think about it,” Stern advised me after I told him my volunteer assignment.

“You certainly need to be able to sing on pitch,” he added, thankfully not asking me to sing.

Stern also recommended that I become proficient with the text.

“It’s not about you. It’s really about connecting with God,” he said. “If you’re not connected, no one else will be either.

“You need to become centered and calm. You really want to get into a quiet place before you go on.”

More practically, he advised that before singing, “no acids or caffeine.”

Stern also instructed how I should stand.

“Don’t turn away from the congregation,” he said. “It helps to see their faces, receive an encouraging smile. There’s warmth.”

“What about if I mess up?” I asked.

“You’re going to make mistakes; you need to move on,” he replied. “You’re doing the best you can with the utmost sincerity.

And that’s what counts.

“Leading services is about moments,” about getting people to a place they could not have reached on their own, he told me. “When you get one it’s incredible.”

As to kavanah, Stern underscored that “Unless you are davening with a full heart, it’s just a performance.”

That sounded even more heartfelt than getting down on one knee.

ROSH HASHANAH • 25

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

Casting away your sins at Tashlich – it’s not just fish food

By Edmon J. Rodman Jewish Telegraph Agency LOS ANGELES – Can ridding oneself of a year’s sins really be as simple as tossing a piece of bread into the water?

Basically that’s tashlich, or “casting away,” a custom that many Jews practice each year at the seashore, lakeshore, stream or even koi pond. Simply find a place with flowing water and fish, and toss in a piece of bread (others turn out their pockets) to symbolically cast off sins.

Any place with fish will do, as their eyes are always wide open – symbolically like God – watching.

But is it really that easy? The list of transgressions we will recite on Yom Kippur is a long and complicated alphabet of falling short, and each year standing before the water, I wonder how can tashlich possibly work?

I’m not alone.

The commentary in the Rabbinical Assembly’s Machzor Lev Shalem, which has a tashlich service, points out that “Some rabbis opposed Tashlich because it makes the complex process of separating sin from our lives seem too facile.”

Too easy or not, for the growing number of Jews I see at the beach each year, tashlich does seem to provide the crust of a new us.

The custom, which is not mentioned in the Talmud and has origins dating probably to the Middle Ages, is related to a verse in the Book of Micah (Chapter 7-19) that during tashlich is usually recited: “He will take us back in love; He will cover up our iniquities, You will hurl (v’tashlich) all our sins Into the depths of the sea.”

Maybe tashlich works because like our confession on Yom Kippur, it’s all so public. It’s one of those moments when we each get to see each other’s sins – or at least an expression of them – and discover that we’re not alone.

Standing side by side with other casters, we see the size and type of bread they toss and let the interpretations fly. Last year I received an email with some of those interpretations: pretzels for twisted sins, rice cakes for tasteless sins, a long loaf for laziness.

But in terms of size, does a bigger piece mean a bigger sinner? I suppose, or perhaps simply someone who likes to feed the fish.

Regardless, when the group is done tossing, the bread washes up on the beach: crusts, crumbs, crackers – while in terms of spirituality, I am still looking for the Wonder Bread.

Why bread anyway to represent our sins? Is it all those evil carbohydrates?

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On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, a body of flowing water with fish and some bread crumbs are all that’s needed to begin the transformative process of tashlich.

In another use of High Holy Days symbolism, on Yom Kippur we read about the scapegoat chosen to carry all the sins of Israel and then sent into the wilderness. At tashlich if the bread is our goat, then for me that’s a lot on which to chew.

My slice is that bread, in Jewish tradition, the thing our homes are not supposed to be without – represents the every day – the very thing we are trying to change.

At the New Year, whether placing my errors on a goat or on rye, the issue is does casting them away create space for change?

Last year before the High Holidays, tossing away two garbage bags full of column false starts, meanderings and half-finished angry letters gave me room to move creatively. Would tossing away a piece of bread, psychologically speaking, provide room to move in other ways as well?

Looking for an answer, I contacted Chaya Lester, a Jerusalem psychotherapist and observant Jew who believes that tashlich is the first step toward making a change. Last year, Lester wrote a piece titled “The Psychology of Tashlich” on her jpost blog in which she said that “Tashlich is like Jewish ritual medicine. It’s a classic psycho-spiritual technique for inner cleansing and health.”

According to Lester, with whom I spoke recently, before tossing their bread away an individual should ask, “What happened this year that should now have my attention?”

“The individual needs to be conscious of the personal issue that they are placing on the bread,” she said. “Movement happens when we access the power of our emotions.”

“Write down the top 10 things that you want to cast off,” said Lester, who with her husband, Rabbi Hillel Lester, founded the Shalev Center, a place for personal Jewish growth in Jerusalem.

Lester, who sees tashlich as “transformative,” suggested that after tossing away their bread, individuals need to ask, “What should my action be? What is my next step?”

Lester and family observe tashlich at a lake in Jerusalem where the fish come up and take the tossed bread.

“It connects me to the Jonah story,” said Lester, referring to the haftarah that is read each year on Yom Kippur afternoon and with verses – “you cast me into the depths, into the heart of the sea” – that also are recited at tashlich.

When we do tashlich, we are “casting out the negative narrative, authoring a new story,” she said, referring to the High Holy Days’ sefer chayim, the book of life.

And that’s the wonder, bread or no, we all seek.

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26 • ROSH HASHANAH

L’SHANA TOVA

Confessing our sins on Yom Kippur – and remembering to act nobly

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NEW YORK (JTA) — Few prayers are as well known to Jews as Ashamnu (“We have sinned ...”) and Al Chet (“For the sin ...”), the twin confessions of Yom Kippur. Belief in human sinfulness is more central to Judaism than we think. Sin may not be “original,” as it is in Christianity – inherited from Adam, that is, as a sort of genetic endowment ever after. But it is at least primal: It is there, patent, indelible and unavoidable. We may not be utterly depraved – the teaching with which American Protestantism grew up – but we are indeed sinners.

Talmudic practice, therefore, was to say a confession every single day, a precedent that continued into the Middle Ages and still survives in Sephardi synagogues. Ashkenazi Jews also announce that sinfulness daily in a part of the service called Tachanun (“supplications”), which includes a line from Avinu

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Wishing you the blessings of good health, good fortune, and happiness in the New Year.

Malkeinu, “Our Father, Our King, be gracious and answer us, for we have no deeds.”

That translation misses the theological point, however. Classical Christianity believed that we are too sinful to be of any merit on our own.

We depend, therefore, on God’s “grace,” the love God gives even though we do not deserve it. Jews, by contrast, preach the value of good deeds, the mitzvot. But Avinu Malkeinu hedges that bet. At least in Tachanun, and certainly from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, we proclaim “we have no deeds” and rely on God’s “gracious” love instead.

Our two Yom Kippur confessions appeared in “Seder Rav Amram,” the first comprehensive Jewish prayer book (c. 860), and became standard thereafter.

But do Jews really believe we are as sinful as the confessions imply?

Nineteenth-century Jews, recently emancipated from medieval ghettos, doubted it. For well more than a century, philosophers had preached the primacy of reason as the cognitive capacity that makes all human beings equal. These two influences, political equality and the fresh air of reason paved the way for a century when all things seemed possible. And indeed, scientific advances and the industrial revolution did seem to promise an end to human suffering just around the corner.

It wasn’t just Jews who felt that way. For Europeans in general, the notion of human sin, whether original (for Christians) or primal (for Jews), lost plausibility. Far from bemoaning human depravity, it seemed, religion should celebrate human nobility. Enlightenment rabbis began paring away Yom Kippur’s heavy accent on sin.

From then until now, new liturgies (usually Reform and Reconstructionist) have shortened the confessions, translated them to lessen their overall impact and

created new ones that addressed more obvious shortcomings of human society. But traditionalist liturgies too tried to underscore human promise and explain away the aspects of the confessions that no one believed anymore. Al Chet “is an enumeration of all the sins and errors known to mankind,” said Samson Raphael Hirsch, the founder of modern Orthodoxy. It is not as if we, personally, have done them, but some Jew somewhere has, and as the Talmud says, “All Israelites are responsible for one another.”

Some would say today that as much as the 19th century revealed the human capacity for progress, the 20th and 21st centuries have demonstrated the very opposite. Perhaps we really are as sinful as the traditional liturgy says. Religious “progressives” respond by saying that we suffer only from a failure of nerve and that more than ever, Yom Kippur should reaffirm the liberal faith in human dignity, nobility and virtue.

At stake on Yom Kippur this year is not just one confession rather than another, but our faith in humankind and the kind of world we think we are still capable of building.

I am not yet ready to throw in the Enlightenment towel. Back in 1824, Rabbi Gotthold Salomon of Hamburg gave a sermon in which he said, “All of us feel, to one extent or other, that, in spirit and soul, we belong to a higher order than the ephemeral. We feel that we are human in the most noble sense of the word, that we are closely connected to the Father of all existence, and that we could have no higher purpose than to show ourselves worthy of this relationship.”

Those words ring true for us today. We have something to gain from the Enlightenment’s belief that acting for human betterment is the noble thing to do, and that acting nobly is still possible.

CONFLICT from page 21

completely secular—with the exception of closure on Christmas.

When it was proposed last March, the calendar change engendered protests from nine New York state senators, led by Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. He asked Stony Brook to “re-examine your process and implement a policy that takes into consideration the best interests of students and faculty across your campus.”

Norman Goodman, a sociology professor at the university, said Stony Brook’s decision “does not take into account the variety of needs of faculty and students, and it shows no respect for religion.”

“I’m concerned that fellow faculty members and students who are observant will be put at an unnecessary disadvantage,” Goodman said.

pelled to work, teach or attend class in a way that impacts their ability to practice their faith.”

University spokesperson Lauren Sheprow told JNS that “the president of the undergraduate student government and others in the administration at the time were on record as being in favor of the calendar changes.” Asked to comment about the opinion of the campus Hillel, she stated that Hillel “is provided space on the [Stony Brook] campus just like many other religious denominations.”

“The university does not speak on behalf of the independent religious organizations that offer programs and services on campus,” she said.

The university calendar is now

ROSH HASHANAH • 27

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

Tzedakah, good by the book and easy on the checkbook

By Diana Burmistrovich Jointmedia News Services (JNS) — You’re walking home from an extra shift you picked up to cover this month’s rent and pass a homeless person burrowed into a tarnished blanket. It’s the same person you’ve seen occupying the block for the last few months. Out of habit, you throw $5 into the person’s cup — knowing you’ll have one less item for dinner and hoping the person will have one more thing to eat.

The Mishneh Torah describes tzedakah as a personal duty in which we give 5-10 percent of our income to sustain our community and to help those in need. Meaning “righteousness” in Hebrew, tzedakah is neither a charge nor charity. It’s a mitzvah, or commandment, that all Jews are obliged to follow. Even the poor are required to give tzedakah, according to their means.

That being said, tzedakah isn’t meant to be burdensome or run your personal finances into the ground.

Here are some tzedakah options that are both good by the book and good for the checkbook: • Fund or start a kosher food pantry in your city. Many people seek to uphold their religious principles during trying times, so why not make that a little easier for them?

• Get in touch with a local Hillel organization and help fund a scholastic trip for Jewish college students. The best place to check would be large state schools.

Courtesy of Apanuta

A beggar.

• Donate to an organization in Israel. Consider groups like Migdal Ohr, which provides education and social guidance to children from underprivileged and rough homes in northern Israel, with issues including overcrowded apartments, one-parent families, drug problems, poverty, and crime within the family. Table to Table harvests excess fresh food from caterers, cafeterias, manufacturers, grocers and farmers to feed Israel’s hungry. Paamonim helps Israeli families in financial distress regain their footing.

• Start two tzedakah boxes for your family: one for loose change and one for collecting names of

organizations to donate to. At the end of every month, draw a name from the second box and donate all the money from the change box to it.

• Incorporate tzedakah into your Shabbat meals. Declare one meal a month a “potluck” where guests bring canned goods and non-perishables to be donated to the local food pantry or soup kitchen.

• The recipient of your tzedakah does not necessarily have to know who you are. Donate to a larger organization that benefits the hungry like Bread for the World, USA or Mazon.

• Go through old clothes and see what you don’t need. Take all of what you find and bring it to the shelter in your city that has the highest demand. Shelters often have wish lists on their websites.

• Give a homeless person you pass on the street a few more dollars than you would regularly.

• Do you spend too much time working on a menial project at work or at home? Put up a temp job ad.

Hiring someone for that position will both help you finish the project and give work experience to someone who needs it.

• Give a donation in honor of a friend or family member as a gift.

Works best for those who seem to “have it all,” making it difficult to come up with original gift ideas for them. Instead of giving them another material object that’s likely to gather dust, help them contribute to a meaningful cause.

Putting the high back into the High Holidays

By Rabbi Zalman SchachterShalomi and Joel Segel Jewish Telegraphic Agency BOULDER, Colo.(JTA) — For many of us, let’s face it, the upcoming High Holidays will be anything but a high. Oh, we’ll pack every pew in the synagogues, dressed in our holiday best. We’ll be there for hours, rising when told to, sinking thankfully back into our seats, reading responsively.

Many enjoy the communal aspect of it, the tunes they remember from childhood. Some feel genuine awe at the ceremony and out-ofworldly blast of the ram’s horn.

But if Kol Nidre’s pleas to wipe out any unfulfilled vows and promises teach us anything, it is to mean what we say. Does language like “Our Father, our King, we have sinned before you; our Father, our King, we have no King but You” really speak for us? How do we avoid the High Holidays trap of spending hour after hour reciting prayers we don’t understand, in language we don’t subscribe to, to a God we may not even believe in?

Can we find a way to enter into the experience more fully without

putting our minds in the pawn shop and violating our Jewish compulsion for honesty?

One surprisingly simple and freeing solution begins with a distinction. Beliefs are the language of mind. Prayer, on the other hand, begins in the heart – not the muscle but the metaphor, the realm not of cardiologists but of poets. Real prayer – davening, as we Jews used to say back in the old country – is not a rational matter. It’s a romance.

Prayer is the language of heart because real prayer deals with need, with loneliness and sorrow, with thankfulness and joy, with fear and dread. “No God,” the mind insists.

But the heart, in its small, uncertain voice, cries “Oh God! Omigod!” In that cry, if we can allow ourselves to hear it, lies the beginnings of prayer.

Now take that distinction a step further. The trek through the liturgy is in fact a journey through four distinct spheres of human experience.

The Jewish prayer book, it turns out, is more in sync with modern beliefs than we might think.

Developmental psychologists now speak of multiple intelligences, distinguishing kinesthetic intelligence from musical ability, say, or

logical reasoning from emotional aptitude. Kabbalah prefers to think of four parallel landscapes, each with its own symbolic language and imagery, and each finding expression in the prayer service.

To kabbalists, the reality we know is rooted in assiyah (“doing”), the world of the tangible, the physical. This is the realm of the morning blessings that launch our prayers, the ones that thank God for our creature comforts and physical abilities.

Assiyah, too, is the dimension in which our bodies take action, rising when the ark is open, bowing, swaying back and forth in the silent Amidah, even prostrating ourselves in the High Holidays Musaf service.

The beating heart of prayer is found in the world of yetsirah (“formation”), a section of psalms that follows the morning blessings and opens us to our emotions. The key word here is Hallelujah! and the key expression is song. Yetsirah is the home of what Martin Buber called our “I-thou” relationship with God. It is in yetsirah that we turn to the sacred Other, whatever we understand that to mean. But don’t think about it too much. Sing! Your heart will understand.

28 • ROSH HASHANAH

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Rosh Hashanah—the right way

By Leo Margul JointMedia News Services (JNS) — January’s secular New Year is filled with obligations everyone enjoys like backwards counting, mass texts, and synchronized kissing in public. The Jewish New Year, while a joyous time, can be a maze of social, familial, and apple-related responsibilities that require more patience than waiting in the bathroom line during High Holiday services.

Here are some things to keep in mind to make sure your New Year goes from Rosh Hashan“ugh!” to Rosh Hashan-“ahh!”

TEMPLE FASHION For some Jews, Rosh Hashanah marks one of the only times of year they make it to the temple. It’s your yearly grand premiere, so it’s time to stroll in like a majestic, Jewish peacock.

For men, keep it classy with a form-fitting suit. Make sure your shirt is deeply unbuttoned and that you have Star of David necklaceshaped tan lines, so that everyone knows you care enough to still wear it on the beach. Also, it’s something that makes you stand out, like a cool eye patch. That

Courtesy of Gilabrand

A table of traditional Rosh Hashanah items.

way when you casually wink at Shoshanna from Sunday school with your one good eye, she’ll know you are a serious man.

I don’t know anything about women, so for a woman, probably some kind of shiny belt? And at least one shoe? Seriously I know nothing about women.

TEMPLE SEATING You show up to evening services, and suddenly you are neck and neck with hundreds of other

sharply dressed Jews scrambling for the good seats. It’s like that AE-Pi free Matisyahu concert all over again! Where exactly are those good seats?

You want to be far enough away from the front so no one sees if you start to drift and your head hits the person in front of you. You do want to be able to hear everything, like the exhilarating remarks from the Temple president at the end. You’re looking for a spot in the middle, to the left.

That way the rabbi won’t see you roll your eyes when he mentions iPods in his sermon so everyone knows he’s cool.

Don’t even get me started on people saving seats for someone “parking the car,” no one ever comes to claim them. I say save three seats on either side of your family. If anyone asks, say you drove multiple cars and you deserve a seat for each one that you parked.

That way you have a buffer zone. When you’re called upon to turn to your neighbors and say “Shanah Tovah!” you can avoid sweaty handshakes, and you won’t need to make 20-30 seconds of Jewish-themed small talk.

APPLE DIPPING It seems that apples gain magic powers during this time of year: you dip them into something sweet, and you have a sweet new year. If that’s the case, what happens when you dip apples into other things?

For a rich new year: Alfredo sauce.

For a happy new year: On a clown.

To meet a nice, Jewish girl: Old Birthright t-shirts.

Conversely, if you dip your fingers into honey and then rub it onto an apple, you get a sweet tan.

That’s a little weirder than these other ones, so you should probably avoid it.

FAMILY TIME Family dinner can only mean one thing: “Where are the Jewish babies?”

To avoid questions like this, besides the old stealing-a-babyand-pretending-it’s-yours technique, you need to comment on the food as much as possible. Your parents will notice you’re eating a lot, and this will please but more importantly distract them. Use phrases like: “This gefilte fish just spun a dreidel in my stomach, and it landed on gimel!”

“These scalloped potatoes come from the land of milk and yummy!”

“There’s a bar mitzvah in my mouth and this brisket just wrote me a check for $18!”

Follow these tips and you’ll be wearing an eye patch, alienating your neighbors in temple, and dipping apples into strange items, but your Rosh Hashanah will be truly special.

ROSH HASHANAH • 29

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

Fast and easy

By Lisë Stern Jointmedia News Services (JNS) — On the evening of Tuesday, Sept. 25, Jews around the world will begin the annual fast of Yom Kippur, abstaining from eating and drinking. “We devote an entire 24 to 26 hours to reflecting,” says Rabbi Sander Mussman, education director emeritus for Congregation Beth Shalom in Northbrook, Ill. “How can we do that? By not being concerned with how we look, how we dress, or worrying about the food.”

Bonnie Taub-Dix, RD, author of Read It Before You Eat It and co-author of Kosher By Design Lightens Up, believes, “We’re supposed to feel the discomfort of our ancestors, of those that suffered back in the day. And also that there are plenty of people that go hungry today.”

But for many, the idea of the fast looms large and intimidating.

Last year, the Jerusalem Post ran an article asserting that the emergency medical service organization Magen David Adom in Israel was on high alert for the holiday, “with hundreds of medics and paramedics—paid and volunteer – on duty to treat people who feel unwell in synagogues and elsewhere.”

JNS consulted with several registered dietitians and nutritionists on how to prepare for the Yom Kippur fast and how to get through the day the healthy way.

Here is their advice: DRINK UP Invariably, Yom Kippur seems to be the hottest day of the year. “Be sure to drink plenty of water the day before, so that you are fully hydrated,” says Ruth Frechman, RD, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and author of The Food Is My Friend Diet.

Taub-Dix agrees. “A lot of people don’t realize when you’re dehydrated you feel irritable, tired, lethargic — a feeling you don’t want, especially if you’re sitting in temple,” she says.

“Avoid sweetened beverages like soda or juices, as they contain added sugars and empty calories,” advises Toby Smithson, RD, CDE, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and founder of the website DiabetesEveryDay. “It will also help to avoid alcohol or large amounts of caffeine, since they can induce dehydration. The best way to stay hydrated is to drink clear fluids early and often the day before. Water is the best choice. For storing up on electrolytes, consume a variety of fruits and vegetables.”

Taub-Dix, noting that not everyone is crazy about plain water, suggests enhancing it with cut up fresh produce. “Watermelon and peaches make the water taste delicious, and when you’re done drinking, you have the fruit.

Courtesy of Jina Lee

Fruits and vegetables.

Cucumber is great during the meal, more refreshing, and doesn’t take away flavors, very neutral.”

MEAL PREPARATION How you eat the day before can affect how easy the fast may be.

“People are afraid of not having food,” Taub-Dix says. “Many people really overdo the night before because they’re not going to eat all the day the next day, and when evening comes they eat enough for three meals.”

Frechman notes, “Under normal circumstances, fasting for a day will not be harmful to one’s health. There are 3,500 calories in a pound. If the average intake is 2,000 calories a day, fasting for a day will not even result in a loss of one pound.”

Still, the last meal before the fast should be carefully considered.

“It is important to consume foods with protein as well as high fiber foods to help you feel fuller for longer,” says Smithson. “The day before the fast, focus on nutrientrich foods, those foods that are packed with nutrition versus packed with calories.” Joy Dobost, PhD, RD, a nutrition spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics adds, “It would be best to consume whole grains, lean protein, and a vegetable and fruit source for fiber to ensure adequate protein, complex carbohydrates, and fiber prior to fasting.”

Good protein sources include things like lean meat, poultry, fish, beans—and servings are smaller than you might think, “Three or four ounces is adequate protein,” says Taub-Dix. “It looks like a deck of cards.” For carbohydrates, she says, “You want carbs that are going to last in your system the longest – whole wheat pasta, brown rice, quinoa. When you have a carb that is whole grain and has fiber, it takes longer to break down, sustains you longer, as opposed to something that’s just white.”

“Eating a lot of sweets may cause blood sugars to rise and then crash, resulting in more hunger,” Frechman observes.

TO FAST OR NOT TO FAST Taub-Dix says, “When we talk about this holiday in particular, we talk about reflecting and self examination, what your year has been like.

A good question to ask is, ‘Did I take care of my body? Am I setting a good example for my family?’”

While eating and drinking properly the day before can make the fast easier, Smithson notes, “A fast will be more difficult for people who have diabetes or hypoglycemia, and actually they should not fast. People who have medical conditions are exempt from fasting as the purpose is not to make you ill.” Those with hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) need to be especially careful, she says.

“Hypoglycemia can lead to loss of consciousness, convulsions, or seizures, which require medical emergency treatment. Fasting for Yom Kippur should not cause a compromise in health.”

“If there’s a medical condition, eating is a must,” asserts Rabbi Mussman. “Life is the most important thing.” This also applies to pregnant women and those who must eat food at regular times to maintain health, or to those who take medications that need to be consumed with food. “They must do what is healthful for them, but at the same time be aware, reflect and go on from there.”

Taub-Dix notes that fasting can be easier for some than for others, no matter the foods they eat beforehand.

“There are people who are just able to put food out of their minds and not think about it as much, which is not an easy thing to do. Tell yourself you ate yesterday.” Frechman adds, “Yom Kippur is a special spiritual day. Dedicating the day to prayer and reflection and not thinking about the physical body may help.”

“My fondest memories as a kid of Yom Kippur and fasting are the time my family sat together and played games and told stories — we just did things together,” Taub-Dix says. “That’s something to be cherished. Food is a thread that holds us all together. During this holiday, sitting in temple, being with family, that’s what you can take in as food.”

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