Jewish News, May 10, 2024

HEADLINES | 5

HOPE GALA

Noa Tishby was the headliner at American Friends of Magen David Adom’s gala

SENIOR LIFESTYLE

AZ volunteers in Israel, rescued postcards from the Holocaust, 100th birthday bash and more

PJ Library’s ‘Book Mitzvah’ celebrates 13 years of reading Jewish books, connecting Jewish families

SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER

Leah Amiot and her daughter, Elle, stood looking over the chocolate sauce, hot fudge, sprinkles and other yummy toppings, carefully deciding what to put on the ice cream they’d just been handed at the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus on Sunday, April 14. They ate their free scoops as they gazed around the large room, filled with games and activities and nearly 300 people who had come to celebrate PJ Library’s “Book Mitzvah,” an event commemorating the organization’s 13 years in Greater Phoenix.

Amiot has been reading PJ Library books to Elle since she was a baby. Elle’s grandmother sent the first book and it was immediately clear to Amiot that “the books are a great way to introduce Judaism, even to babies.” Elle is now 7 and still loves them.

“They’re real fun,” Elle told Jewish News while polishing off her ice cream.

Elle’s preferred theme in her favorite books is families coming together, her mom said. Amiot had never heard of PJ Library books before Elle came along, but now she loves them because they make her feel connected to her family, other Jewish parents and the Jewish community as a whole.

“Even if we’re not doing other things, we’re reading the same books,” she said.

SEE BOOKS, PAGE 2

CBI cantor leaves legacy of connection and musical community

Susan Guzman was not yet a member of Congregation Beth Israel (CBI) when she first heard, and fell in love with, Cantor Seth Ettinger’s voice. She wasn’t a member of any congregation at the time, though she had joined and left several during her 43 years in the Valley. However, that didn’t keep her from attending Jewish events, specifically musical events, and it was at a concert of local cantors that she heard Ettinger sing, “his voice so beautiful and so far above others,” she told Jewish News.

A singer herself, Guzman was delighted when Ettinger allowed her to sing with his High Holiday choir at CBI, though she didn’t belong. She joined the synagogue a year later, drawn by his voice, his showmanship and his inclusiveness. Now, as Ettinger prepares to leave the Scottsdale congregation for his new post at Temple Beth-El in San Antonio, she is one of many in the local Jewish community sorry to see him go.

One of Ettinger’s first goals when he arrived at CBI in 2018 was to make the congregation “the go-to place” for Jewish community events, whether general gatherings, rabbinic learning events, such as during Shavuot, and commemorations, such as Yom HaShoah. CBI hosted many Jewish communal events during his tenure.

“I wanted it to be like Abraham and Sarah’s tent, and it is,” Ettinger told Jewish News.

Ettinger’s broad embrace of the community was another of his qualities that appealed to Guzman. She sings with Cordially Yours, a senior choir run by the Center for Senior Enrichment and Creative Aging, a program of Jewish Family & Children’s Service. When its director left three years ago, Guzman suggested SEE CANTOR, PAGE 3

A unique Mediterranean experience awaits

Jewish brothers Mitch and Steven Rosenthal own Arboleda restaurant at the Scottsdale Quarter. See page 21.

SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER

Cantor Seth Ettinger, pictured at center, enjoyed working with his fellow cantors on musical events. COURTESY OF CANTOR SETH ETTINGER

That sentiment, the importance of creating Jewish community in myriad forms, is one that Marcy Lewis, PJ Library’s program director, promotes avidly. It was why she advocated so hard to bring the national PJ Library “Get Together” grant program to Greater Phoenix last summer, offering a little financial help ($100) for two or more families to get together to lead a Jewish experience on their own.

“It creates a natural chavurah,” she told Jewish News when announcing the grant program. “People make connections and become part of one another’s families.”

PJ Library, a Harold Grinspoon Foundation program, offers Jewish engagement and literacy for Jewish families with young children by mailing them Jewish children’s books every month by subscription — at no cost to the families. Locally, PJ Library is a program of the Center for Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix (CJP) and sends books to 2,100 families.

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Kaylie Medansky, CJP’s vice president of community engagement, said PJ Library was a perfect example of one of CJP’s core tenets, which is “meeting folks where they are in their Jewish journeys.”

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Alison Betts, CJP board member, couldn’t attend the party in person, but in a video she credited PJ Library with being essential to her “Jewish journey” in Arizona.

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“When I was a young kid, I had no Jewish books and I didn’t know all the stories,” Betts said. Discovering PJ Library opened a world of Jewish learning she could share with her own children, especially because each PJ Library book comes with suggestions for parents on how to navigate conversations with their kids. Now, she’s proud to be an advocate for a program that connects Jewish families and “helps people feel excited about

their Judaism and helps kids understand the values and journey of being Jewish,” she said.

said Jon Meyers, director of ADDPC.

“Our hope is to create and promote opportunities for people to be embraced, become part of the community and find equitable opportunities wherever they might live,” he said.

Ericka Zoll-Phelan, a philanthropy officer for the Harold Grinspoon Foundation who represents PJ Library in the American West and Upper Midwest, was on hand to tell the parents on Sunday that they are “helping to create a Jewish identity in your children they can really be proud of.”

She also said she’d never heard of a book mitzvah, so she had to come and check it out.

Meyers first came to know Stern through her mother, Amy Silverman, who read her personal essays about raising a daughter with Down syndrome on KJZZ, National Public Radio’s Phoenix affiliate station.

“This is the best PJ Library celebration I’ve ever seen!” she exclaimed.

Meyers was so captivated by the essays that he reached out to Silverman, and the two became friends.

That’s how Stern first learned of the open council seat, but there’s no doubt she earned her position, Meyers said.

To become a council member, Stern had to apply and demonstrate that she had something valuable to contribute, he said.

“She’s on the council because she deserves to be on the council,” he said.

Stern is creating a life and career as a member of her community, which makes her a great addition.

Lewis didn’t originate the idea of a bar mitzvah for PJ Library but she definitely expanded it with the help of partyplanning experts The Event Genies. “I decided to make it a ‘Book Mitzvah’ and throw a big party to celebrate 13 amazing years in Phoenix!” she said. Just a glimpse at the raucous scene of moms, dads and kids skipping from table to table to have their faces painted, hair glittered, portraits drawn, balloons twisted and ice cream served, plus a magic show, a silent auction and books galore showed her dedication to go all out.

Everyone had a favorite book, or series of books, to boot.

Stern graduated from McClintock High School in Tempe last year and now attends Glendale Community College, with a focus on dance. She is a regular performer at Detour Company Theatre, a Scottsdale theatre company for adults with intellectual, developmental and physical disabilities.

In fact, when Stern attended her first council meeting in January, she couldn’t wait to tell people of her involvement with Detour and share information about its upcoming shows.

Michael and Jennie Lusky heard about PJ Library from friends before their son, Jack, was even born. Now that he’s a few months past his 3rd birthday, Jack’s excited to see the book-shaped package when it comes in the mail. He tears them open with glee, his father said. The holiday books are a family favorite. Right now the focus is on “Peek-A-Boo Passover,” though “Be Happy, It’s Purim” is a close second.

“There’s no question that she is going to thrive,” Meyers said. “She’s very gregarious and passionate about the things that matter to her.”

Stern looks forward to sharing insights

“PJ Library is fantastic,” Michael told Jewish News while his family enjoyed ice cream before heading off to the next activity. “We love their books!”

SEE BOOKS, PAGE 4

about her Judaism with her fellow council members and speaking out for her rights

She already has some practice at

“One time, I was in class and someone called me the R-word and I told him not to. The teacher was in the hallway and another student repeated the word,” she said. Rather than letting the situation go, she told her theater teacher, who was able

“If someone has a disability, saying the R-word is like saying the F-word,” Stern said.

While performing in the musical “Hairspray,” she had another occasion to tangle with the offensive word, which

“That’s really bad and my friend said it on stage. I was not OK with that, so I went to the director and told her it was a bad word for people with disabilities,

She let her mother know about the conflict and they were able to convince the director of the need to remove the

“My friend Al was next to me when I told the director and he gave me the biggest hug ever and said that he loved me so much,” Stern said. Sadly, Al died in a car crash on Oct. 24, 2021.

Heart Can’t Even Believe It: A Story of Science, Love and Down Syndrome,” Silverman’s book about her daughter. When Gesher’s speakers’ bureau, Damon Brooks & Associates, was asked to find a speaker about Down syndrome for an event this spring, Hummell first asked Silverman to speak, thinking Stern might be too young.

They decided instead that Stern should tell her own story; it’s a real bonus that she is not afraid of public speaking.

“That was hard; it’s very hard to get emotions out and I was very, very upset,”

On the recent anniversary of his death, Stern made a cake and took it to the

“I don’t know how I did it without

Amy Hummell, executive director of Gesher Disability Resources, agreed that Stern is a good fit for ADDPC because

Hummell co-hosted a book event with Meyers a few years ago for “My

“It’s not the same when someone tries to tell a person’s story for them,” Hummell said.

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Additionally, helping people with disabilities find jobs was one of the reasons for acquiring the bureau. Unemployment in the disability community is upwards of 75% and of that percentage, 75% are ready, willing and able to work — but haven’t been given the opportunity, Hummell said.

“People have it in them to speak up but don’t know how, and often they’re not cheered on. Sophie has family support

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A magician entertains the crowd at PJ Library’s Book Mitzvah on Sunday, April 14. COURTESY OF JEWISH NEWS

Allison Kierman and her daughter, Felicity, volunteer at PJ Library’s Book Mitzvah, braiding glitter into the hair of Reagan Finkelstein, seated left, and Mackenzie Brooks. COURTESY OF JEWISH NEWS

Michael, Jennie and Jack Lusky finish their ice cream at PJ Library’s Book Mitzvah on Sunday, April 14. COURTESY OF JEWISH NEWS

Ettinger step in. He selected the choir’s music, helped with solos and led them in concert.

“When he introduced us, he told the audience how much he loves us. It’s such a boost for seniors to have this,” Guzman said.

“Besides my selfish enjoyment of his love and support, he makes every service very special — keeping people from getting bored by changing melodies, putting the bar mitzvah’s favorite tune into the prayers and wearing costumes,” Guzman said. When he departs this summer, she’ll miss the “gorgeous music and his light and joyful personality,” but she’ll stay at CBI. Ettinger brought her in and the appreciation of music she found there made it her home.

“CBI was, and in many ways, will always be, a home congregation for my family,” Ettinger said. “It’s the place where I got to really grow as the cantor of a community and I’ve been honored to carry on the legacy built by the cantors who came before me.”

In San Antonio, Ettinger will not only be the lone cantor in his synagogue, which is roughly twice the size of CBI, but he will also be the only cantor in the city.

“It will be lonely for sure. However, I do have colleagues in Austin (about an hour’s drive) and close friends in Houston (three hours),” he said. Ettinger is certain to find ways to connect with his colleagues and singers in the local Jewish community and beyond, another of his passion projects.

Ettinger initiated such memorable musical events as “Phoenix Sings Chanukah Sing-a-Long,” an annual family-focused holiday concert; “Dear Debbie,” a tribute to Debbie Friedman’s long legacy of Jewish music; and “Turn It Up! A musical Tu B’Av Celebration of Love,” a virtual concert of 11 local cantors and cantorial soloists that took place during the height of the COVID19 pandemic.

In a virtual class he taught during the pandemic, he had his students explore the power of music, especially how helpful it can be for alleviating stress. He posted all his classes on social media so anyone interested could learn how music evokes strong feelings.

Ettinger loves singing with every age group, from his youngest Jewish students at a tot Shabbat to his senior singers in Cordially Yours, but what he’s really proud of is having made CBI a multigenerational singing congregation.

“It was always a singing congregation, but I have worked hard to unite the generations,” he said.

Susan Sendrow, a CBI member for the last 46 years and a past president, said Ettinger’s encouragement of the entire congregation’s participation in services is

one of the best things about him.

“It wouldn’t be surprising for him to be on the floor with toddlers singing at a tot Shabbat in the morning, then singing traditional melodies that reach the older congregants in the evening,” she said.

Like Guzman, Sendrow remarked on her cantor’s showmanship and his creativity, both “remarkable qualities” that she’ll miss when he leaves. For example, Ettinger likes to mirror the message of the d’var Torah in a song, even a pop song, and “it’s always a perfect match,” she said.

She called Ettinger’s first High Holiday service at CBI and his final one, “bookend performances.” In 2018, he chose Leonard Bernstein’s version of the 23rd Psalm, which calls for a boy’s soprano. Ettinger told the congregation he hadn’t been able to sing it when he was a boy and always wanted to. Using a falsetto, a la Frankie Valli, he sang it, which turned out to be a memorable introduction to who he was and how he’d play with performance.

“I was in the choir on the bimah and could see the confusion in the congregation, people wondering who was singing it. It was fun to watch,” Sendrow said.

For Rosh Hashanah last fall, his rendition of “Hineni,” or “Here I Am,” “was one of the most moving, haunting and emotional I’ve ever heard,” Sendrow said. She described watching Ettinger walk to the bimah from the back of the synagogue as he sang, and called the performance “so striking that many of us in the choir had tears in our eyes. We told him later, ‘Don’t do that because it’s too hard to sing when we’re crying!’”

Sendrow has watched clergy come and go over the years, but Ettinger stands out in her mind for the way he brings people together and his breadth of musical knowledge.

“He’s a lynchpin. He brings the congregation, the Jewish community and the larger Valley community together. He will be missed, no question about

it,” she said.

Going beyond the Jewish community, in terms of interfaith and social justice work, is something Ettinger fostered in his time at CBI and Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles before he came to Arizona. It’s also one of the things that drew him to San Antonio. His new synagogue has a “wonderful relationship with the large Black Baptist church,” he said.

CBI’s relationship with Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, a predominantly Black congregation, has been especially important to Ettinger. The two congregations, along with the Arizona Jewish Historical Society, held an interfaith concert called “Sharing the Light” in December 2019, featuring music for both Chanukah and Christmas.

“That collaboration was so monumental for our community as well as theirs,” Ettinger told Jewish News at the time. “We had 1,200 people there at that concert. And it lit the fire within our community that we need to go ahead and further this relationship. We’re more similar than different and we can’t be isolationist. We have to come together, especially if our two minority groups are going to survive.”

Since then, CBI and Pilgrim Rest have joined together for another concert, “Songs for Social Justice,” as well as the Phoenix Martin Luther King, Jr. Day march, an interfaith Shabbat service, interfaith Torah studies and an interfaith Passover Seder. Members of the two congregations also traveled to Israel together in 2022.

“The work I’ve done at CBI is a springboard to the amazing work I’m going to be able to do at Temple Beth-El in San Antonio, a city with the largest Martin Luther King march in the country,” he said. Beth-El’s missing connection with the church is musical, something Ettinger can’t wait to amend.

“They have yet to combine the choirs and the musical programming; that’s the organic next step,” he said.

Martin Shultz, a CBI member since 1953, loves the musical aspect of the liturgy and has invested resources into recording and streaming Ettinger’s music to ensure that it is heard widely, including by Pilgrim’s Rest congregants.

“Music is positive, especially considering the context of bad things going on today. That’s what music can and should be,” Shultz told Jewish News.

“Cantor Ettinger’s made quite an impact. He’s very talented and he’s reached out to not only young people but to all ages. We’re going to miss him,” Shultz said.

Leaving CBI and Arizona is bittersweet for Ettinger and his family. (His wife, Sarah, taught at Pardes Jewish Day School.) Any sense of loss is tempered by the fact that he feels he achieved his goals while at CBI, allowing him to leave with no regrets.

Cantor Seth Ettinger, his wife, Sarah, and their two children. COURTESY OF ASHLEY DURHAM PHOTOGRAPHY

CJP thanks the Jewish community for its legacy of giving

SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER

Michael and Alison Feinberg sat at a table in the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus (ILJCC) last Wednesday evening, poised to sign one of seven new pages to be added to the Endowment Book of Life. Alongside them were their two youngest children, Sadie and Josh (Nora, their eldest, is away at college), and their good friends Cyndi and Jamie Rosenthal. The latter couple served as the Feinberg’s facilitators for the signing ceremony, significant partners in their Jewish journey.

Each person at the table held a glass of wine (grape juice for the kids) as the Feinbergs committed to a financial endowment for Congregation Or Tzion, their synagogue in Scottsdale, and Camp Ramah in California, where Michael and Alison first met and all of their kids still spend their summers, two as staff members and one as a camper.

Before signing, the Rosenthals, reading from the same script being repeated in other rooms with other signers and facilitators, thanked the Feinbergs for their promise to strengthen the future of the Jewish community. Going off script for a few moments, they advised Sadie and Josh to watch their parents, paragons of the Greater Phoenix Jewish community, to learn what it means to fully commit themselves to their fellow Jews.

“I hope you’re learning from them because they are true models, as well as unique and very special people.”

Jamie Rosenthal joked that when the couple first became friends in 2012 and convinced them to join Or Tzion, “we got a new shul and a new orthodontist (Michael Feinberg).”

They praised the Feinbergs for keeping a Jewish home, supporting Israel and staying involved in Jewish communal organizations, bolstering them with their love, leadership and funds, thereby laying a Jewish foundation for their children, their children’s children and all who come after.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

Jessica Monas stood by as her son, Lazar, had his portrait sketched by a local artist. “PJ Library is a wonderful organization,” she told Jewish News. “I think it helps promote Jewish life with our children.”

Monas first heard of the organization through her husband’s godmother, who happens to be a rabbi in Virginia. She is grateful that PJ Library keeps new Jewish children’s books coming, a service that didn’t exist when she was a kid. However, she still remembers her favorite Jewish book from childhood, “The Tale of Meshka the Kvetch” by Carol Chapman. Lazar’s favorite PJ Library books are

“This is about instilling the idea that there will always be a Jewish community,”

Alison Feinberg told Jewish News. When she was a kid and her parents couldn’t easily afford to send her to camp, it was Jewish Federation dollars that made it happen.

“This commitment is important because only Jewish people are going to give to Jewish causes,” she said.

The Center for Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix’s (CJP) “2024 Legacy Celebration” honored not only the 13 new signers of the endowment book, but also previous signers and those who have committed to leaving a legacy gift to one of the 20 Life & Legacy partner organizations in the local Jewish community.

Richard Kasper, CJP CEO, told the 150 people attending the event, its first time back in five years, that those signing the book that evening joined the 400 other signers over the past decade who “help to ensure that future generations of Arizona Jews will come together in this place, or someplace like it, to celebrate the existence of a strong, vibrant, enduring Jewish community locally and abroad.”

Gail Baer, CJP’s chief philanthropy officer, and her husband, Michael, signed the book on Wednesday, adding their own testimonials to its pages. “Each of these commitments is a public declaration of our collective belief in the future of our Jewish community,” she told the audience.

Having so many of the people committed to funding the causes and organizations they value and love, as well as the representatives of those organizations together in one room, is what made the night very special to Life & Legacy Program Director Rachel Rabinovich.

“What I love about the event is that it’s all about saying a big thank you to the participants,” Rabinovich told Jewish News.

In 2015, before CJP existed, the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Phoenix launched the Life & Legacy

from the “Sammy Spider” series by Sylvia Rouss, in which the spider protagonist learns about Jewish holidays and traditions.

Carl Mandell, a grandfather who divides his time between Scottsdale and Connecticut, likes reading a lot of the books to his three grandkids.

The “Spaghetti” book (“The Rabbi Slurps Spaghetti” by Leslie Kimmelman) is really good; I like so many of them, it’s hard to choose, he told Jewish News. “My daughter was a Jewish educator and PJ Library has been integral to our family.”

Barry Zemel, one of the Jewish community leaders who brought PJ Library to Greater Phoenix 13 years ago, was also on hand. When asked what he thought of the

program in partnership with the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, starting with 13 partner organizations, or Cohort One.

Rabinovich trained them to secure legacy commitments, formalize gifts and set goals, which they always reached. After four years, they had secured 789 legacy gifts from 570 donors with an estimated future value of $37 million. Cohort Two began with seven new partner organizations in January 2023, and in August, two more joined.

The good news was tempered only briefly to acknowledge the 34 past signers of the endowment book who died since the last time the event took place in 2019. Their photos were displayed in a moving tribute on a large screen at the front of the social hall while a recording of Temple Solel’s Cantor Todd Herzog’s haunting rendition of “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen played in the background.

“Their names and words live forever in the Endowment Book of Life. May their names forever be a blessing and we will always remember them for their generous commitments to our community,” Kasper said.

Katherine Sarlson, Harold Grinspoon Foundation Life & Legacy’s national director, spoke about the program’s possibility of bridging the past and the future. She spoke of all the grandparents and greatgrandparents who built a Jewish community and within it a Jewish legacy to be

program’s growth, he merely pointed to his grin and said, “Can’t you see the smile on my face? It’s a wonderful program and my grandkids love it!”

It’s no surprise that his favorite PJ Library book is “anything with a grandfather!” JN

For more information, visit phoenixcjp.org/ what-we-do/pj-library.

Jewish News is published by the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Phoenix, a component of the Center for Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix.

carried forward.

“We stand upon their sturdy shoulders, witnessing their resilience, their determination and are driven by the profound desire to ensure a flourishing future for our children and for theirs,” she said.

Scott Zucker, the evening’s keynote speaker, talked about ethical wills and their value in allowing people to pass down both family stories and life lessons. The Atlanta attorney and author of “Battle for Life,” a novel based on his father’s experiences in World War II, specializes in ethical wills. This way of writing one’s legacy “helps us to be remembered, not just for what we did, but why we did it; not for what we achieved, but why we even tried to achieve it,” he said.

Thus, those committing to the financial future of the Jewish community are also attempting to teach it the life of the community that came before it, what was believed in, what was fought for and what was accomplished.

“Each of us here tonight has built a life that has meaning and that we want to be remembered for,” Zucker said. JN

For more information, visit phoenixcjp.org/ planned-giving/life-legacy.

Jewish News is published by the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Phoenix, a component of the Center for Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix.

CANTOR

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

“It’s really nice to be able to go to a new place with a completely clean slate, not thinking, ‘Oh, I didn’t get to do that.’ I’m grateful for CBI’s support in making that a reality,” he said.

His whole family looks forward to building a home in San Antonio, especially his youngest, Georgina “Georgie” Mae Ettinger. When anyone asks two-year-old Georgie how she feels about the move, she tries out her new Texas drawl and belts out, “We’re going to Texas, y’all!” JN

Congregation Beth Israel is honoring Cantor Seth Ettinger at the May 24 Shabbat service. It is open to the community. For more information, visit cbiaz.org.

Michael and Alison Feinberg pose with their children, Sadie and Josh, and their page in the Endowment Book of Life. COURTESY OF LORI KRENZEN

Gail and Michael Baer hold their page in the Endowment Book of Life. COURTESY OF LORI KRENZEN

Phoenix community supports Magen David Adom at Hope Gala

AMY A. DUBITSKY | CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Filled glasses, long gowns and elegant hors d’oeuvres were abound on March 17, at Chateau Luxe in North Phoenix. This is not an unusual site for this event venue, but in the middle of the festivities sat a fully set table, each chair holding the uniform shirt of a missing or murdered member of Magen David Adom (MDA).

American Friends of Magen David Adom (AFMDA) is the charitable arm that supports the Israeli organization responsible for emergency medical response, the blood bank, a breast milk bank and other lifesaving services. The Hope Gala was originally scheduled for this coming May, but with the current war situation in Israel the need for funds was so great that the event was moved up. The sold-out crowd of almost 600 people was comprised of all ages and stages of

life, who came together to support Israel.

Cindy Sigona, who chaired the event along with her husband, Jon, explained in her address that she decided to channel her grief after losing her mother several years ago into supporting AFMDA and bringing more awareness of the organization to Phoenix. Her timing was prescient. While there was an event last year with a keynote by Lizzy Savetsky, an ardently pro-Israel social media presence, Sigona decided that for the 2024 event, “We were going big!”

Part of “going big” was bringing in New York Times bestselling author, actress and Israel’s former Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and Delegitimization, Noa Tishby.

“She would be the headliner we needed to have a greater presence and reach in

SEE GALA, PAGE 6

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the Phoenix community, and 580 people here are making a statement. Tonight, is exactly what I envisioned,” said Sigona. She also pointed out how important it was that the table captains were reflective of all generations and from many different parts of the community.

According to a press release from AFMDA, a Life Support Ambulance sponsored by the Phoenix community was dedicated before the evening kicked off. Ido Rosenblat, MDA’s chief technology officer, demonstrated the organization’s cutting-edge dispatch system to attendees.

After a VIP reception and a cocktail hour, gala guests found their seats in the main ballroom. They were greeted with several toy MDA ambulances on each table as well as pre-placed desserts featuring red chocolate hearts and a red Star of David, reflecting the name of the evening and the meaning of the organization’s name. The committee chairwomen were also all dressed in red.

The official program began with the national anthems of the United States and Israel, as well as a moment of silence for the victims of October 7 and the singing of a chapter of Psalms. The audience heard firsthand from Ophir Tor, an MDA

EMT based in the Sderot station, about his harrowing experience on October 7.

Tor used his special training as a former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) paratrooper to evade gunfire and warn others about the present danger. Just minutes after the shooting started, Tor was working to save lives. In a video of Tor touring Sderot, he gets emotional remembering what he saw on that horrific day.

“MDA is part of the Jewish and Israeli spirit,” said Tor. “I came here tonight because we are one family, and we need each other.”

The evening continued with a live auction conducted by professional “auctiontainer” Letitia Frye. The prizes included jewelry, a private dinner party with local chef Eddie Matney and a piece of artwork painted by a 22-year-old IDF soldier that garnered a $30,000 bid. Frye then continued to energize the crowd and hand after hand was raised to pledge donations ranging from $1,000 to $50,000 to support AFMDA. The excitement in the room was contagious as supporters cheered and applauded for each other.

Event co-chair Jessica Rosenblum then conducted an hour-long Q & A session with Noa Tishby, who described how she was “live” on social media while the events of October 7 unfolded and how she has been on social media ever since.

“There is a deep-rooted suspicion of Jews that we just can’t get rid of,” she said. “So, since we are always going to be ‘othered,’ I say, let’s just be. Be more loud and more proud about our Jewish identity. It’s the only thing that we can do.”

When Rosenblum asked Tishby about how to stay hopeful when the world accuses us of false crimes, she replied, “We are coming up to even more difficult times … at the end of the day, we need to look at it from a generational point of view; we know we are going to be fine.”

She went on to describe the history of the Jewish people, how each person in the room is a survivor and how each of the vast empires that tried to destroy the Jews have disappeared and “that’s where Hamas is going to go too — right into the dumpster of history.” The crowd cheered. “No matter what, we are going to be OK. There is something that we are doing that we are doing right and that’s what we need to stick to and remember — it’s not our first rodeo,” said Tishby. “We have been through this before and we are going to not just survive this, we are going to thrive this.”

Local politicians, including Congressman Greg Stanton and Phoenix City Councilwoman Yassmin Ansari were present. Catherine Reed, CEO of AFMDA, attended from the New York offices. Elana Michael, director of major gifts for AFMDA’s Southwest Region, attended and worked very closely with the local committee to plan the event. Sigona summed up the evening, “When we come together, there is nothing we can’t accomplish.” JN

For more information, visit afmda.org. To get involved locally, contact Elana Michael at emichael@afmda.org.

A. Dubitsky is a freelance writer who has lived in Phoenix for over twenty years and plays an active role in the Jewish community.

Amy

Magen David Adom Director General, Eli Bin, left, with Noa Tishby. COURTESY OF AMERICAN FRIENDS OF MAGEN DAVID ELI BIN AND NOA TISHBY

Jessica Rosenblum, left, conducted an hour-long Q & A session with Noa Tishby. COURTESY OF TAYLOR OUELLETTE

CJP introduces security initiative for Jewish community

JEWISH NEWS STAFF

“Our Jewish community is strongest when we work together — especially in uncertain times, when the safety and security of our community is challenged on a daily basis,” said Richard Kasper, CEO of the Center for Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix (CJP), during a virtual meeting with rabbis and members of Jewish communal organizations on April 10, when he introduced CJP’s Community Security Initiative.

“A key point of this initiative is that it is designed to enhance the security measures organizations already have in place and support collaboration across the community,” said Kasper. “Ultimately, our goal is to raise the baseline level of safety and security throughout our community.”

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), 5,204 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the United States between the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and Dec. 31, 2023. This figure represents more than half of all the 8,873 antisemitic incidents that occurred in 2023. Last year was the highest year for antisemitic acts against Jews since the ADL started tracking this data in 1979. Arizona has seen antisemitic incidents at synagogues, on college campuses and in Greater Phoenix.

To help safeguard our community, the CJP was awarded a three-year LiveSecure grant from the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) to launch a communitywide security initiative. JNFA’s LiveSecure program is the largest philanthropic effort to secure the Jewish community in history and has raised over $62 million to ensure the security and resiliency of our communities.

CJP’s local initiative is designed to provide synagogues, Jewish community centers, schools, camps and other institutions with the tools, training and best practices to increase safety preparedness. These comprehensive services are provided by CJP at no cost to the organizations.

To help develop and implement the Community Security Initiative, CJP hired

Amarok Consulting, a reputable safety and security consulting company that specializes in training, event management, site assessments and intelligence gathering and sharing.

Amarok Consulting is a local company, owned and operated by Tony Wells and Nate Mullins, co-chiefs of security at the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus and active-duty Scottsdale police officers.

In addition to Wells and Mullins, the team dedicated to CJP’s security initiative is comprised of local active and retired law enforcement, fire department and former military personnel.

“By investing in the expertise of law enforcement professionals, who understand our community’s unique needs, we are taking proactive steps to mitigate risks and provide a safe environment where community members can gather, worship and engage in various activities with confidence and peace of mind,” says Kasper.

CJP will work with Amarok to provide a single point of contact for critical incident coordination, information and intelligence sharing, safety and security training, site visits, coordinated communications, event consulting and building relationships with local law enforcement agencies. Training programs are tailored to the specific needs of our community and will encompass a wide range of areas, including threat assessments, emergency response protocols, crowd management and situational awareness.

Amarok will also conduct site assessments identifying vulnerabilities and recommending appropriate security enhancements. Organizations interested in a site visit can complete a request form that can be accessed on CJP’s website.

Other resources available on CJP’s website include an event management checklist designed to provide guidance to organizations when they are planning an event, and training videos that can be accessed from a

secure web page. CJP and Amarok plan to hold a Community Security Summit on May 19 and a Community Training Event during the summer to provide hands-on training to community members.

Communication is another critical component of the plan. Amarok has developed the Titan HST app, an emergency and communication platform to facilitate community-wide communication. The app can be customized for each location, with icons for different alerts such as medical, fire, shooter, bomb, suspicious person, etc. The app is currently being tested at a few organizations with good results. “It’s not to replace 911 or emergency services, but it’s in addition to them,” said Wells. “So, if you were to select that icon and send an alert, CJP and Amarok would also get notified and we could call and check in.”

Though the initiative was just launched publicly, Amarok has been working behind the scenes on CJP’s behalf, having completed a few site assessments, pilot-testing the Titan HSP app and consulting on six large-scale community events, including the community vigil “One People, One Voice, A Gathering of Prayer, Support and Hope” held on Oct. 9, the Shabbat dinner dem-

onstration on the lawn of the State Capitol lawn, Jewish Community Day with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Jewish Community Night at ZooLights and Mazelpalooza.

“By combining comprehensive training programs, collaborative partnerships, continuous evaluation and community engagement, we will ensure that our community is well-prepared, resilient and capable of responding effectively to security challenges,” said Kasper. JN

For more information, visit phoenixcjp.org/ what-we-do/community-security.

Jewish News is published by the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Phoenix, a component of the Center for Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix.

PARSHAH KEDOSHIM:

LEVITICUS 19:1 - 20:27

About 30 years ago, I attended a dear friend’s Christmas party. Her family adhered to the Eastern Orthodox tradition, but her celebration with friends aligned with Christmas on the Gregorian calendar that year. Among her array of friends, I was the only Jew in the room. The evening was vibrant with conversation and delicious festive treats. Everyone seemed to be getting along wonderfully and having a good time.

As I was leaving, another couple was also on their way home. We did not have the opportunity to engage earlier but we captured this moment to briefly chat near the door. I had heard that they enjoyed world travels, so I asked them about their favorite place. The husband quickly replied, “Germany.” I inquired what about Germany made it a favorite place for them to visit. He replied, “It is very clean there.” I thought that was an unusual reason to enjoy traveling to a country and I inquired further. “What do you mean by that?” Then he said something that I still find rather chilling. “Germany is very clean. They got rid of the Jewish problem and the Black problem. There are no Jews

or Blacks there, anymore. It’s very clean!” This was one of two times in my life I lost the ability to formulate words.

Now, we know his description of Germany was not accurate then, and today that assessment is even less correct. Also, my friend, who witnessed the exchange, was as shocked as I was — perhaps even more so — because that couple had been her friends for many years and she had no idea of the prejudice they harbored.

When we think about the ancient Near East and the early ceremonies of B’nai Yisrael, honoring their relationship with the Divine and each other, we understand that holiness can be unpacked in a variety of ways. Clean. Pure. Unblemished. According to certain ritual practices, these are some of the words used when referring to that which is made holy. Also, what is considered holy is not only reflective of a direct relationship with God but contributes to that which is life affirming andreplete with profound significance.

Unlike a similar term employed by the husband in my initial story, “clean” did not mean holy. It implied annihilation. Some individuals and groups, as determined by certain people, simply have no right to live or share the same space with others. To this day, I vividly recall standing in the free and democratic nation of the U.S., in the living room of my friend’s home, in front of another American citizen, for whom there was no possibility of “us.” For the first time in my

life, I was looking directly into the eyes of someone who wanted me dead.

One of the Hebrew verbs for “stop” is la’ahtzor. To summon holiness, one of the things we need to do is to cease, ah-tzur, mundane activities. We stop to allow space for holiness to enter. We stop and listen for higher guidance. Conversely, we stop from listening to the static that permeates our world. Shabbat is emblematic for understanding how we stop.

Parshah Kedoshim is located at the midpoint of Torah and the concept of holiness is literally central to the message of Torah. This is where we pause and take note that there are many pathways to holiness and there are different expressed approaches to achieve holiness. Moreover, Kedoshim reveals that access to the partnership with the Eternal One becomes more expansive. The unfolding text highlights women in general; mothers, female offspring, servants attending households and the vulnerable. Here, they are provided rights and protections. While not illustrating our modern ideal, these incremental and meaningful improvements are significant for that point in time and demonstrate an evolution from earlier Biblical rulings.

Kedoshim begins with “You shall be holy because I, your God, am holy.” It does not say, “You don’t deserve to live, or the world would be a better, ‘cleaner’ place without you.” Quite the contrary. As mass media and public demonstrations assault our senses

MAY 10 - 7:00 P.M. MAY 17 - 7:06 P.M.

SHABBAT ENDS

MAY 11 - 8:00 P.M.

MAY 18 - 8:06 P.M.

with sounds from some who have imbibed disinformation and don’t know what they do not know, Kedoshim reminds us that our presence on earth carries with it purpose and meaning. In addition, we must never forget that our hearts are big enough to compassionately hold the expanse of God’s Creation in holy reverence and respect.

This year, the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology is running a marvelous marketing campaign. They are engaging their students in an exercise of “What if?” What if we committed to infuse our lives and communities with as many kinds of holiness as we could imagine? How could that work? What would happen as a result? We need to remember that through our Kedoshim, we will return to paradise on earth, one seedling at a time, one garden at a time, one day at a time.

While it seems that our societal norms have lost their shape and uncertainties have been pushed to their limits, seize the moment. Stop. Ask yourself this question. May you experience profound inspiration as you answer, “What if?” And may your answer bring forth a beautiful and memorable Shabbat. JN

I’m not letting pro-Palestinian protesters decide my choice of college

Banners hung between trees at Amherst College, proclaiming that Amherst should divest from genocide, that Jews demanded divestment.

Outside Johnson Chapel, where the Admitted Students Day opening remarks would take place, protestors crowded by the single door, with megaphones and pamphlets. “Divest now!” they cried, as they attacked the school’s president for “supporting genocide.”

I lowered my gaze, annoyed, but also afraid to make eye contact. How could I avoid getting a pamphlet? Cross my arms? Just ignore them — or would that make the protesters angry at me? I moved to my mom’s side, away from them, and skirted by thankfully empty-handed.

We

As the opening remarks began, the protests continued outside the back door. The school’s president spoke, addressing the protestors’ behavior as uncalled for — he left the opening ceremony to meet with them. The noise stopped. Thank God.

Student protests weren’t unknown to me — they’d started at Columbia University a couple days earlier. And when I attended Yale Univerity’s Admitted Students Day, Yale students had been protesting, too, approaching tour groups with fliers.

While I respect the rights of students to protest issues they care about, I find their militant attitudes and lack of nuance unproductive. Protest chants cannot not lead to helpful dialogue. Instead, students encase themselves in political echo chambers, only

fostering resentment and hatred. By harassing admitted students like me — people who don’t even go to the school, people who have no ability to divest or do whatever the protestors want — they told me I wasn’t welcome. They told me they didn’t want to discuss the war in Israel, only shout about it.

But the student protests also make me afraid. I know that the majority of student protests are peaceful, but what if they learn that I don’t think the war in Gaza is genocide, that I think both Israel and Palestine have a right to peacefully exist? What if they learn that I am Jewish? Do I become nothing more than a colonizer in their eyes, nothing more than a “Zionist,” a word they spit with fervor?

I try not to think about this. Fear can’t

A NOTE ON OPINION

control me. I try to think that if I did go to Amherst College, for example, that I would find people who want to talk about the war in Israel, who are willing to voice their opinions but listen to multiple perspectives. Whether this is during late-night dorm room discussions, in the classroom or on the quad, I hope these people will be my peers. And so, as upsetting as the protests were, they probably won’t affect my college decision. As these past few weeks of nationwide protests have proven, angry people are everywhere. But wherever I go, I will search for openminded peers. Together, we can have a conversation. JN

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

Rabbi Mindie Snyder serves as the rabbi and chaplain for Sun Health Communities.

Find area congregations at JewishAZ.com, where you can also find our 2024 Community Directory.

RABBI MINDIE SNYDER

Rabbi Mindie Snyder COURTESY OF RABBI MINDIE SNYDER

SENIOR LIFESTYLE

From left to right: Holocaust survivor Hanna Miley, Representative Teresa Martinez, survivor Haja Silberman, Consul General of Israel to the Pacific Southwest Israel Bachar, survivor Kathy Gross and survivor Rise Stillman stand together at the Arizona State House on Wednesday, April 3. COURTESY OF PHOENIX HOLOCAUST ASSOCIATION

Arizonans were ready and willing to volunteer in Israel after Oct. 7

SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER

Daniel Fisch was still working as a cop in New York City when the Twin Towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001. On that fateful morning, he was among the many first responders to rush to the site of the terrorist attack to offer help. Thus, it’s not surprising that as soon as he heard the news of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, he decided immediately to head to the Jewish State to volunteer his services.

Living in Paradise Valley and a member of Chabad of Scottsdale, the retired Fisch first tried to directly contact Sar-El, an Israeli organization that assists the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). He and his twin sister had volunteered with Sar-El in the late 1980s and again in 2015. When he didn’t hear back right away he contacted Mindy Franklin, who works with Volunteers for Israel in Arizona, to recruit and connect local people interested in volunteering with Sar-El. He found out he might have to wait a month or so to volunteer because things were in such a hectic state.

Several members of Fisch’s family live in Israel, including his mother, his sisters and their children — two of them members of the IDF — and he didn’t want to wait.

He booked a flight for Oct. 30, so he didn’t miss his son’s wedding a week earlier. Meanwhile, Franklin finally set him up as a volunteer with Sar-El three days before his flight left, something he appreciates.

“If it wasn’t for Mindy, I probably wouldn’t have been accepted,” he told Jewish News.

After arriving in Israel and before his volunteer duties began, he spent a few days going to public funerals as a sign of respect for Hamas’ victims. He also helped pack food and supplies for civilians and soldiers alike.

Sar-El put him to work separating and sorting sleeping bags, ballistic vests, uniforms, ammunition carriers, etc. During the first week, he stayed with other volunteers in a Jerusalem hotel and traveled daily to a base two hours away. The second week, he and others moved to a base in Tel Aviv to sort and pack medical supplies.

“We did this for eight hours per day; rinse, repeat. We would have breakfast, then work from 8 a.m. until lunch and then all afternoon until the job was done. Sometimes you stayed later if you were needed, even working until midnight some nights,” he said.

Almost three weeks later, he spent

Shabbat with his mother and twin sister and found out that his flight home had been canceled. With his extra day in Jerusalem, he hung photos of hostages on buildings and tied yellow ribbons to posts.

“You have to do everything you can,” he said. “Being a cop, you always want to help people; being Jewish, I wanted to help out, especially with my time.”

Gary Friedlander, a semi-retired podiatrist, has lived in Phoenix for 44 years and is a member of Scottsdale’s Congregation Or Tzion. He has traveled to Israel dozens of times and when war broke out on Oct. 7, he knew he would go.

“I wasn’t born in 1948, was too young in 1967 and in college in 1973. This time I was going, no ifs, ands, or buts,” he told Jewish News.

Or Tzion Rabbi Andy Green included information about Volunteers For Israel and Sar-El as well as Franklin’s contact information in the synagogue newsletter. Friedlander called her.

“I filled out the forms, and they gave me a date: Dec. 14 to Dec. 29 and Mindy was the intermediary,” he said.

The first week he stayed on a college campus in Jerusalem and was bused to a base outside of Tel Aviv.

“We washed and rolled sleeping bags, sorted fatigues and ironed them, assembled bulletproof vests and shipped it all back to the front line. I didn’t actually iron anything though,” he laughed.

The second week, he stayed in a Bedouin camp near an air force base in the Negev where he made goodie bags for soldiers with candy bars, potato chips, pretzels, energy drinks and other treats.

The weeks began on Sunday and ended on Thursday and he wanted to work more than that. Someone he met told him that some people needed help picking tomatoes on a moshav, a cooperative farmers’ village. During the weekend, he “picked a lot of cherry tomatoes. They were very thankful,” he said.

“I liked everything I did and it was very fulfilling,” he said.

Before he booked his ticket to Israel, he knew his wife was worried about him. In June, the couple will mark 50 years of marriage, so she knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t change his mind.

“These are my brothers and sisters. I was going to go and do whatever I could to help. I’m a hands-on type of guy and I wanted to do what they needed.”

He marveled at the number of

for

volunteers from all over the world and the fact they weren’t all Jewish. “There was a lot of camaraderie and we all got along. It was amazing,” he said.

When Carmen Chenal Horne learned the details of the brutal Hamas attack, she started to cry. Within a few minutes of hearing the horrible news, her husband, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, received a phone

call from Franklin. Carmen grabbed the phone from him to ask for Franklin’s help with how to volunteer in Israel.

“I knew I had to go to Israel and help the Jews even though I am Catholic,” she told Jewish News. Her father is descended from Sephardic Jews and she’s always thought about her Jewish heritage and

Carmen Chenal Horne volunteered to put kits together

Israeli soldiers. COURTESY OF CARMEN CHENAL HORNE

Daniel Fisch tying yellow ribbons in Jerusalem. COURTESY OF DANIEL FISCH

Gary Friedlander picked cherry tomatoes on an Israeli moshav between stints volunteering for Sar-El. COURTESY OF GARY FRIEDLANDER

Dr. Charles Matlin volunteered his medical skills in Israel after Oct. 7. COURTESY OF CHARLES MATLIN

“THESE ARE MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS. I WAS GOING TO GO AND DO WHATEVER I COULD TO HELP. I’M A HANDS-ON TYPE OF GUY AND I WANTED TO DO WHAT THEY NEEDED.”

GARY FRIEDLANDER

VOLUNTEER

CONTINUED FROM PAGE B2

is in the beginning stages of converting.

Originally from Cuba, she and her family were forced to flee to the United States in 1962 after her father was executed for his role in the Bay of Pigs, a failed military operation to depose Fidel Castro.

“I went through bad times in Cuba and I have a lot of empathy for the Israelis,” she said.

She landed in Israel on Nov. 30, her birthday, and spent a week organizing medical supplies into kits and putting the bulletproof material into vests for soldiers. Everything was picked up and taken to Gaza to supply the IDF. She also had the chance to develop friendships with other Jewish and non-Jewish volunteers

from Spain, France, Colombia and other countries.

She’s considering another volunteer trip this summer.

“The soldiers need so very much,” she said. “My heart hurts for our heroes.”

Dr. Charles Matlin, retired general surgeon and member of Young Israel of Phoenix, has a son living in Tel Aviv with his family. Though his son had been discharged from the IDF reserves at the age of 40 and has three children, he felt the need to reenlist after Oct. 7. His unit has been in Gaza ever since and he has only intermittent contact with his father.

“I felt compelled to go to Israel and be there for assistance and do what I could shortly after Oct. 7. I decided that my grandkids wouldn’t cower in a bomb shelter while I’m here in Phoenix. So I got a flight within a week after the war broke

out,” Matlin told Jewish News. His daughter-in-law tried to dissuade him from coming due to the chaos and fear of more attacks but when she opened her door to find him there, she collapsed into his arms, exhausted by the stressful situation.

He booked an Airbnb in Tel Aviv, walked around and was surprised to find its normally crowded streets more or less deserted, though he did find people making care packages for troops and donation centers for displaced people.

“The entire country had mobilized to this cause,” he said.

Before he left, Franklin helped connect him to Sar-El and he also reached out about using his medical skills. “Mindy was instrumental when I was trying to make connections,” he said.

The first week he volunteered to do whatever was needed on an army base and then he was asked to make a threeweek commitment with a group of French doctors. They went to a military training base to learn about military trauma. For three days, he went through simulations to learn how the equipment worked and practiced on simulator dummies in rooms that shook as if being hit by bombs, with flashing lights and noises estimating an active battle zone.

He was sent to the Lebanese border with soldiers, medics and paramedics. Everyone had a day job and was there to volunteer. Their work was to stabilize injured soldiers, so they could make it to the nearest hospital 40 minutes away.

He and the crew of Israeli doctors lived together as a unit, working, eating and sleeping together.

The group was made up of people with different political ideologies and religious observance levels but there was unity and a sense of community “like nothing I’d ever seen before. For once I didn’t feel like a tourist in Israel. I’d been there 100 times and I finally felt like a part of it. We had a common cause. We’re all Jews. Everyone was willing to give whatever it took,” he said.

Before returning to Phoenix, Matlin went back to Tel Aviv to volunteer and spend time with his traumatized grandchildren.

He’s anxious to go back and he’s already begun the process of making aliyah, something he’s always wanted to do but never got around to.

“Without Israel we have nothing; we are nothing. They’re fighting for all of us,” he said.

Franklin, who is still busy recruiting volunteers, has one message for anyone considering it: “Just get to Israel!”

She’s happily surprised at the large number of volunteers who signed up so quickly (if unhappy for the reason). However, “the number has tapered off now and Israel still has a great need for volunteers in every area,” she told Jewish News.

One thing all the volunteers agreed on was how sincerely grateful Israelis were for the help.

Friedlander recalled the “great feeling to know people who are hurting are grateful for the support. It was genuinely heartfelt.” JN

For more information on Sar-El, visit sar-el.org; for Volunteers for Israel, visit vfi-usa.org.

Daniel and Shari Fisch in Israel then (1988) and now (2023). COURTESY OF DANIEL FISCH

A German soldier looted postcards from doomed Jews in Poland.

80 years later, his granddaughter brought them back.

SHIRA LI BARTOV | JTA

When Karla McCabe was a child in East Germany in the 1970s and ‘80s, she knew her grandfather had been a German soldier in World War II. But exactly what he did during those years was not a topic of discussion in her family.

Nine years after his death, when McCabe was 18, she inherited part of his proud stamp collection. She rifled through relics of a lifelong hobby, including his first stamp album from 1926, an assortment of envelopes and, finally, 36 postcards that made her shudder. Though she could not read them, she recognized Hebrew letters and Jewish names. All the postcards were addressed to one place:

The Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva.

McCabe didn’t know it at the time, but the yeshiva was a famed Jewish house of study in Poland before the Holocaust. And there in her hands, she held rare fragments of a world ruptured by her

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The reading room inside the library at the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva in 1934.

COURTESY OF H. SEIDMAN/WIKIMEDIA

grandfather’s army. She soon learned that as the Jews of Lublin were murdered, her grandfather — stationed in the district until 1941 — fished some of their letters from a trash bin to augment his stamp collection.

On April 11, more than 80 years later, McCabe finally returned the postcards to their home in a ceremony at the former Lublin Yeshiva. Before an audience of about 25 people, she handed the collection to Iwona Herman, coordinator of the city’s Jewish community, along with directors from Lublin’s State Archive. Some 40 Jews live in Lublin today and a handful attended the event.

In a speech that turned shaky and trailed into tears, McCabe said, “These cards are neither a gift nor a donation. I am simply bringing home Holocaust loot.”

Before World War II, Lublin was a vibrant center of Jewish culture in Poland dating back to the 16th century. A large share of the city was always Jewish, roughly one-third — or 40,000 people — when the Nazis invaded. The Lublin Yeshiva opened in 1930, led by Rabbi Meir Shapiro, and lasted only nine years. In its brief life it became one of the world’s largest Jewish religious schools

and boasted a library of between 15,000 and 40,000 religious books, among them some of the earliest manuscripts in print.

The Nazis turned Lublin into a center of mass extermination, killing 99% of its Jews and eradicating symbols of Jewish culture. Although the broad yellow structure of the yeshiva remained, used as an office by the German army, its vast library disappeared. The destruction was so effective, leaving so few traces of the yeshiva’s documentation, that even how its books vanished has remained a subject of speculation. For decades, a popular theory said they went up in flames at a Nazi book burning.

Only in recent years have local researchers including Piotr Nazaruk, who studies the city’s Jewish history at the Grodzka Gate-NN Theater Center, strenuously investigated the fate of the Lublin Yeshiva and its historic library. Nazaruk believes the Nazis looted the books and planned to transport them to Germany, but when the Russians marched in, the collection was abandoned and eventually scattered across the globe.

Nazaruk has tracked down 850 books with Lublin Yeshiva Library stamps worldwide, which he is documenting in a digital catalog. The vast majority cannot be physically returned, since they now belong to public and private collections, but 10 volumes have made their way home to the former yeshiva.

“THESE CARDS ARE NEITHER A GIFT NOR A DONATION. I AM SIMPLY BRINGING HOME HOLOCAUST LOOT.”

Karla McCabe

The postcards returned by McCabe offer a rare window into the workings of an ambitious Jewish school. Voices from these letters agonize over the funding for such a large building, along with all its staff and students. Chaim Schwanenfeld from Przemyśl wrote in April 1939, “To the respected management board, in response I would like to inform you that I have transferred the sum of twenty-five guilders to our friends, Mr. Mosze Katz and Niestemfajer. I have about twenty guilders left. What’s the point in sending such a small amount? I will send, God willing, a large sum after Yom Tov [Passover].”

Other cards are more personal, noting holidays and the anniversary of Rabbi Shapiro’s death in 1933. A letter from student Efraim Flajszman of Sochaczew, dated 1937, details his arduous journey to being admitted into the yeshiva, from demanding studies to a miscommunication at the Rabbinate in Warsaw. “I have already made so much effort to be accepted into Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin. I worked hard to get there,” he wrote.

After McCabe presented the postcards at the ceremony, they were spread out for viewing, drawing awed murmurs from a lingering crowd. The documents have since been transferred to Lublin’s State Archive for professional preservation and will be available to view on request. The Grodzka Gate-NN Theater Center has posted the collection online, along with translations into Polish and English, and plans to exhibit copies of the originals in the former yeshiva in May.

“We have so little left of the yeshiva,” Nazaruk told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “We know so little about how it actually functioned. You couldn’t find such documents in the Lublin archives, regarding the yeshiva — everything was destroyed.”

Until McCabe arrived in Lublin, she didn’t know the cards were such a precious remnant of the city’s Jewish heritage. But for much of her life, the pile of papers in her cupboard weighed on her. Like other East Germans growing up in the 1980s, she felt stifled by an “endless silence” from her parents and grandpar-

SENIOR LIFESTYLE

ents about the Holocaust — and unlike in West Germany, rocked by student protests over the enduring Nazi past in 1968, rebellious youth movements were suppressed in the communist East.

“In my mother’s generation, it was still clear it’s a taboo, you can’t ask your father if he killed people. But my generation was the one that asked,” McCabe told JTA.

She tried and failed for more than 30 years to rid herself of the postcards, contacting Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum and memorial; scholars; and even members of Lublin’s small Jewish community, but no one expressed interest. Still, she regularly checked for updates on the Lublin Yeshiva. After many years of being used by the Medical University of Lublin, the building was returned to the Jewish community in 2003. Twenty years later, McCabe saw Nazaruk advertise his search for Lublin Yeshiva books. She had found her recipient.

She considered sending her delivery by mail, but feared it could get lost. So on April 10, she placed an envelope of 36 postcards in her car and drove eight hours from her home in Chemnitz, a city in the east German state of Saxony where she works in an organization aiding needy residents, to Lublin.

“I’m just relieved they’re no longer in my care,” McCabe told JTA. “I’m totally overwhelmed with the attention they’ve been getting, so one hopes they will be of use to someone — that’s what I really wanted.”

Already, Jews from disparate corners of the world have identified family members in the postcards.

Tzvi Grossman, who works for a real estate development company in Israel, knew some of his family lived in Lublin before World War II. When Grodzka Gate published the postcards online, he clicked through and was stunned to recognize the name of his uncle, Shlomo David Grossman — marked right above his father’s childhood address at Babina 1 in Kalisz.

Grossman has verified through Yad Vashem that his uncle was a student at the

yeshiva. He was killed along with most of the family; Grossman’s father was the only survivor from Poland. The 1933 postcard is hard to understand without context, but Grossman said he was struck by his uncle’s voice as a teenager.

“This boy who was writing at that time was 19, but it seems like a very mature conversation,” he said.

Meanwhile in Antwerp, author Toby Orlander saw her own uncle, Meir Lamet. Another Lublin Yeshiva student, Lamet traveled to obtain religious books for the library and funds for the maintenance of the yeshiva. He survived the war by hiding on a farm outside of Sambor, a city in today’s Ukraine, and moved to the United States in 1948.

The postcards are not only meaningful for descendants who look up Lublin online. Agnieszka Litman, a 30-year-old dance teacher in Lublin, said the city’s tiny Jewish community holds few traces of the past. Though a few dozen Jews meet regularly for Shabbat and holidays in the yeshiva building, they are mostly secular and aging. Some younger members join only to accompany their grandparents, who are gradually dying. Litman’s own grandfather, who was born in a nearby town, escaped to Russia during the war and returned to settle in Lublin, died three years ago.

As her grandfather’s generation passes on, Litman worries about how Lublin Jews will continue to learn about their history and remain a community. Already, they often go unacknowledged as a minority — many residents of Lublin don’t even know that Jews still live there. But the yeshiva’s postcards offer a tangible connection to the city’s Jewish past and present.

“These postcards show us a little bit more of who people were,” Litman told JTA. “People in the community are interested in it and talking about it, because it’s a little bit of a mystery that we are now uncovering, especially because we don’t have a lot of things that we can touch from that time. It seems so little, it’s just postcards — but also it’s someone’s life, it’s someone’s story.” JN

Harvey Ost’s 100th birthday bash

SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER

Phoenician Harvey Ost will celebrate his 100th birthday with family and neighbors in style at Ruth’s Chris Steak House next month.

“My sons are making the party for me and it will be really nice. It’s $100 a plate!” Ost told Jewish News.

Other than his two sons and their families, a few of Ost’s neighbors will be in attendance.

Inevitably, for someone who has reached this milestone, Ost finds himself one of the few remaining people among his contemporaries.

“Most of my friends have died. I’m the only one left,” he said.

Ost was born, raised, educated and married in New York, but he has lived in Phoenix since 1979. His wife was the person who convinced him to move. On a visit to a friend, she had the chance to see Phoenix.

“She visited the Camelback Inn and fell in love with the whole place,” Ost said. “We went from there.”

Before deciding, which would involve selling his house and finding a new job, Ost visited Phoenix “to make sure it was a place I could exist and it was — it was magnificent. It was the most beautiful place,” he said.

What struck him most on his first visit was the cleanliness.

“Everything was new and clean. New York was old and dirty,” he said, before quickly pointing out that he doesn’t like to talk against the city of his birth, for which he still feels a great deal of affection.

After all, it’s where he met and married his late wife, Selma, who died of leukemia on Sept. 28, 2015.

“She was a really perfect specimen. A great woman, very educated and knowledgeable,” Ost said.

Ost spent his career as a public accountant, a job so engrossing that when he got married on Oct. 31, 1954, he didn’t even realize he had set the date to coincide with Halloween.

“I worked according to my schedule as an accountant,” he laughed. He was only thinking of the date in terms of where it fell in the financial year.

During his accounting career in Arizona, Ost was appointed as director of the Arizona Association of Accounting and Tax Professionals, a nonprofit, voluntary, professional organization representing all Arizona accounting and tax professionals.

“I was very successful, and I played the game straight,” he said. “I found you could make money playing it straight just as quickly as you can playing it dirty but

without any problems.”

Selma Ost was a secretary for a large organization and the couple had two sons. One is now a thoracic radiologist living in Maryland, while the other lives in Scottsdale and has retired from a career in finance.

Ost served for two years in the U.S. Army during the Second World War and was attached to radio intelligence. His biggest assignment was to bring the famed General Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines.

“We accomplished it but he never knew I existed,” Ost laughed.

Ost is legally blind with macular degeneration in both eyes. He misses reading, but he has learned to enjoy listening to audiobooks. As a veteran, the Veterans Administration supplies him with the books and the listening device.

He has also lost 90% of his hearing but is more upset at losing his vision.

“The blindness is the worst thing because I can’t really write or read. I can’t see the letters, so I don’t write,” he said.

He can see differences between light and dark, so when he looks in the mirror to shave once a week — he has always been clean shaven and prefers it — he has to shave from memory.

“I never cut myself,” he said.

Ost grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household and still donates money to his New York shul. Since moving to Arizona, he has belonged to Beth El Phoenix, Chabad of Arizona and Temple Kol Ami, where he is still a member.

He continues to contribute to all of the synagogues.

“I do what I can because sometimes they need me more than I need them,” he said.

In talking about his upcoming centenary, Ost recounted that his father came to the U.S. from Austria as a child, the same country where his mother-in-law was born. Thinking about his family, who have long since passed away, his emotions welled up unexpectedly.

“I’m the last one,” he said. “God stretched out his hand and patted me on the shoulder. Thinking about all the things I went through makes me emotional. It’s the way life is.”

Turning back to happier thoughts, i.e. the party, he expressed gratitude for his sons, who planned such a lovely event, though he was clear there would be no gifts allowed.

“I told everybody to keep the presents or give something to their favorite charity. What do you need when you’re 100? I have everything I could use and I can’t possibly use it.” JN

Harvey Ost celebrates his grandson Matthew’s graduation with his family in 2017. The two share a birthday on June 18. Pictured from left are Ost’s grandson, Robert, his daughter-in-law, his grandson, Matthew, his son, Alan, and Harvey Ost. COURTESY OF ALAN OST

Harvey and Selma Ost as newlyweds in 1954. COURTESY OF ALAN OST

Harvey Ost will celebrate his 100th birthday next month with the help of his two sons, Gary and Alan. Pictured from left is Gary Ost, Harvey and Selma Ost, Alan and Kara Ost.

Harvey Ost was in the Army during World War II. COURTESY OF ALAN OST

HOW’S YOUR APPETITE FOR ADVENTURE?

National Healthcare Decisions Day: A gift to yourself and your loved ones

BOB ROTH | COLUMNIST

On April 16 each year, the United States recognizes National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD), a vital observance dedicated to encouraging individuals to think about, discuss and document their health care preferences in the event they cannot communicate their wishes themselves. While it may have passed already this year, NHDD deserves ongoing attention throughout the year. By understanding its importance, we can ensure that our loved ones are spared the anguish of making life-and-death decisions without

our guidance, and we can significantly reduce medical costs related to prolonged and potentially unwanted care.

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At its core, NHDD emphasizes a profound yet often overlooked truth: talking about end-of-life care is one of the greatest gifts you can give your family. By clearly documenting your preferences in advance, you save your loved ones from making emotionally charged decisions during an already challenging time. A clear plan alleviates the burden of second-guessing and potential family disagreements, allowing your loved ones to focus on supporting each other and processing their emotions.

Bob Roth COURTESY

REDUCED MEDICAL COSTS

A lesser-discussed benefit of NHDD is its potential for significant medical cost savings. When families know their loved one’s health care wishes, it can lead to fewer unnecessary treatments and interventions, which often come with a high price tag. In situations where individuals have specific wishes about their care — such as a desire to avoid aggressive life-support measures when their quality of life cannot be maintained — following their directives can prevent expensive and ultimately unhelpful treatments. By documenting your preferences, you not only ensure that your health care wishes are respected but also potentially reduce the financial burden on both your family and the health care system.

WHERE TO BEGIN

Starting the conversation about endof-life care can be daunting but there are resources available to guide you through the process. Here are some places you can turn to document your wishes:

1. Advance directives:

These legal documents allow you to outline your preferences for medical treatment if you cannot speak for yourself. They often include a living will and health care power of attorney.

• Living will:

This document specifies your wishes regarding treatments like resuscitation, mechanical ventilation and feeding tubes.

• Health care power of attorney: This designates a trusted person to make medical decisions on your behalf if you cannot do so.

• Mental health care power of attorney:

In Arizona, you can also create a mental health care power of attorney to specify your preferences for mental health treatment and designate an agent to make decisions on your behalf if you are unable to do so.

2. Free advance directive forms:

Many websites offer free forms to help you document your health care preferences. These can serve as an excellent starting point for recording your wishes. Websites such as the Arizona Attorney General, Arizona Secretary of State, American Bar Association and AARP, often provide free, state-specific forms.

3. Legal professionals:

While free forms can be helpful, it is advisable to consult with a legal professional to review your advance directives. An attorney can ensure that your documents are completed correctly and in accordance with your state’s laws. They can also offer advice on selecting a health care proxy and any other legal concerns you may have.

4. Five Wishes:

A popular and comprehensive advance directive planning program that goes beyond medical preferences to include emotional and spiritual needs. You can obtain this form online and tailor it to your personal situation.

5. The Conversation Project:

A nonprofit initiative that provides guides and resources for having open, honest conversations about end-of-life care with your loved ones.

6. Aging with Dignity:

This organization offers a range of resources, including the Five Wishes document, to help individuals document their health care preferences and plan for the future.

TAKING ACTION

1. Start the conversation:

Talk openly with your loved ones about your health care preferences.

Include your chosen health care proxy in these discussions so they understand your wishes. This is not a one-time conversation but an ongoing one.

2. Document your wishes:

Complete advance directive forms and make copies for your health care proxy, loved ones, and health care providers.

3. Review and update:

Keep your documents up to date as your preferences may change over time. Regularly review your advance directives and update them as necessary.

4. Share resources:

Encourage friends and family to plan ahead and document their wishes. By sharing resources and starting conversations, you can help others take action too.

National Healthcare Decisions Day is not just a day of recognition; it is a call to action for us all. By taking proactive steps to document our health care preferences and share them with loved ones, we can provide them with the peace of mind that they are fulfilling our wishes in the event of a medical crisis. Let’s seize the opportunity to plan ahead and ensure our voices are heard even when we can’t speak for ourselves. JN

Bob Roth is the managing partner of Cypress HomeCare Solutions.

Workshop allows participants to experience ‘dementia moments’

MALA BLOMQUIST | MANAGING EDITOR

W

hen Jewish Mayor Kate Gallego addressed the crowd at the ribbon cutting in April 2022 for Hospice of the Valley’s Dementia Care and Education Campus (DCEC) in Phoenix, she shared that she had a grandmother who had dementia. She admitted that their family was not well-equipped to deal with the diagnosis and called the new center “a very special place where caregivers and those who need care can get support.”

According to the Governor’s Office on Aging, Arizona’s total population is expected to increase by 80% from 2010 to 2050. During this same period, the number of Arizonans age 65 and older is expected to grow by 174%. By 2025, an estimated 200,000 Arizonans will be affected by dementia, a 43% increase from 2018. Alzheimer’s disease is now the fourth-leading cause of death in Arizona and the top-leading cause for women aged 65 and older.

One of the workshops offered at the DCEC to caregivers and medical professionals who work with dementia

patients is “Dementia Moments.” This workshop provides the participant a chance to perform some daily tasks as if they were living with Alzheimer’s or another dementia.

“Combined changes bring challenges to the ability to complete everyday tasks and can be frustrating for the person living with dementia,” said Belinda Ordonez, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, CHPN, nurse practitioner with the dementia program at the DCEC. “Gaining insight on the sensory changes can evolve an opinion of perceived ‘behaviors’ to a possible unmet need.”

She added that identifying and addressing unmet needs and using nonpharmacological interventions greatly reduces the need to prescribe medications. While wearing gloves, goggles and headphones blaring background noise, participants will try to button a shirt, count coins and follow other simple instructions. The goal is not to mimic dementia but to simulate the emotional experience of someone with dementia

trying to perform typically while living in a world of distorted perception and diminished cognition.

Participants then share their thoughts and feelings and learn ways to minimize the distress of people living with dementia.

“Having more empathy may decrease caregiver frustration, especially when trying to assist with personal care such as bathing or getting dressed. They can realize the person with dementia is not trying to be ‘difficult,’ they are doing the best they can,” she said.

“Over the past year alone, we have had over 1,500 participants complete the simulation,” said Kylee Volk, associate team leader at the DCEC.

Dementia Moments is offered once every other month and is free to attend, but registration is required. The next session will take place Saturday, July 13, from 12 to 3 p.m.

“The experience of Dementia Moments provides insight into what it might feel like to live with the sensory changes related to advancing dementia. You really see

and feel things differently when you are wearing their shoes,” said Ordonez. “This insight not only can create empathy and compassion but also improve interactions, communication and care provided, which improves the quality of life for the person living with dementia.” JN

For more information, contact 602-636-5393 or email events1@hov.org.

Participant at a Dementia Moments workshop.

Jewish owners of Scottsdale eatery have spent their lives cooking in world-class restaurants

SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER

Almost 25 years ago, the late chef Anthony Bourdain published “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly,” his memoir offering a humorous but candid view of the shadowy side of high-end restaurant kitchens. Bourdain described the world of professional chefs as “unremittingly intense, unpleasant, hazardous, and staffed by misfits” and said it’s no place for dilettantes or slackers.

Mitch Rosenthal, the Jewish co-owner of Arboleda in Scottsdale Quarter, has spent the majority of his life as a professional chef and knows something of the kitchens Bourdain described. When he was 15, his mother took him to a Jewish deli and said, “Put him to work.” He’s been in the kitchen ever since. Even while studying visual arts in New York, he kept working in kitchens.

“I cooked to get through art school,” he told Jewish News. “By the time I was done with art school, I actually loved cooking.”

He smiled at Bourdain’s description of a chef’s life a quarter of a century ago, admitting the representation was real at one time — “that deli I worked at, people were shooting heroin and it was insane” — but things have calmed down considerably since the book first came out. “Everyone thinks it’s glamorous, and maybe it is if you’re Wolfgang Puck, but for the rest of us, it’s work.”

His Scottsdale restaurant is staffed with “really wonderful cooks and the nicest people in the front of the house,” he said. “It’s a beautiful restaurant; the food’s really good and well priced. Well, we’re not cheap, but we’re not expensive.”

In his decades-long career, Rosenthal and his brother, Steven, worked together in some of the country’s top restaurants with the most renowned chefs: K-Paul’s in New Orleans, Postrio in San Francisco under Wolfgang Puck, Le Cirque in New York when Daniel Boulud was executive chef and Coco Pazzo, also in New York, with Mark Strausman, another Jewish chef.

“We worked for Wolfgang forever!” Rosenthal said. During their time in San Francisco, the brothers opened six restaurants but lost them all thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We looked around for years thinking, ‘Do we want another restaurant?’” Mitch Rosenthal said.

Arboleda is singular and the menu is not a replica of any of their other places.

“We never do the same thing. All our restaurants are different and we always own them together,” he said.

The Scottsdale restaurant is described as “a unique Mediterranean experience” and offers signature appetizers like a whipped smoked salmon cone mixed with a bit of butter and creme fraiche on top to be eaten “in a big bite.” The menu is replete with pasta dishes, fish and meat, and the grilled chicken with peri-peri hot sauce is a particular favorite.

“Most of the food is very straightforward and traditional but we do some fun stuff like our el bulli olive sphere — a deconstructed olive, juiced and then reconstructed,” he explained. “It just dissipates in your mouth.”

The name “el bulli” points to the recipe’s creator, Ferran Adria, and his restaurant, El Bulli, in northeastern Spain.

“I like creating this tension between fun food, something maybe you’ve never seen before and something simple, like short ribs with mashed potatoes. We have fun food but do it at a really high level,” he said.

Steven Rosenthal, who attended Culinary Institute of America, works mostly behind the scenes on the business end of things these days but his brother said he’s a wonderful cook, “maybe even better than me!” But cooking is a physical job and not everyone stays fit enough to do it as they age.

The day he spoke with Jewish News,

he’d already been in the kitchen for three hours preparing meat for the grill that he would be running that evening.

“I love to cook but I was with Wolfgang about a month ago, and he’s older than me, and he told me, ‘You’re too old to cook!’ Most chefs at my point have hip issues and bad knees but I’m OK,” he laughed.

His wife, who once worked under him as a cook in one of his restaurant kitchens, stayed in San Francisco and the two go back and forth, but he lives with his brother. Thus, when he’s not with his wife, he’s at the restaurant cooking or doing the other thing he really loves: “bulls***ting with everyone!”

From talking to his guests, he’s learned just how many of his customers are Jewish, a number that surprised him. They identify themselves as soon as they hear that his surname is Rosenthal.

His Orthodox grandfather immigrated from Lithuania when he was 11, and was the cook in the family. Rosenthal attributes his own cooking skills to him, and his paternal grandmother, “a phenomenal cook,” certainly not to his mother, who was “a horrible cook.”

He’s toyed with the idea of running a Jewish deli again, and he shared his latke recipe with Jewish News at Chanukah. Eli, his son named for his Lithuanian grandfather, is applying to a graduate program in the classics and working as a bartender at a New York restaurant. Athena, his daughter named by her Greek mother, attends the University of

St. Andrews in Scotland and belongs to a Scottish Jewish organization.

“I said, ‘They have Jews in Scotland?’ We weren’t religious but my daughter was always curious, especially when my dad lived with us. She would ask him questions about Judaism and he gave her his tallit from his bar mitzvah,” he said. He likes Scottsdale and said business is sound, though last summer’s record heat hurt restaurants across the board and he suspects a negative perception of the economy, no matter what is really going on, makes owning a business more challenging.

“I still love the restaurant business. It’s just become much harder than it used to be,” he said. JN

To learn more about Arboleda, visit arboledaaz. com.

Smoked salmon cones, a unique appetizer at Arboleda in Scottsdale Quarter. COURTESY OF JEWISH NEWS

Mitch Rosenthal stands in front of his restaurant Arboleda in Scottsdale Quarter. COURTESY OF JEWISH NEWS

Temple Chai concert is ‘sweet homecoming’ for young Jewish song leader

SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER

Lucy Greenbaum wasn’t sure what to expect when she walked into Temple Chai, the Phoenix synagogue where she was raised, became a bat mitzvah and first learned to love Jewish music. She had just returned for the synagogue’s “Cantor’s Concert” on Feb. 25, an event she had regularly participated in preCOVID-19. This was her first time being back at Temple Chai in person since 2019.

“I didn’t know what it would be like to come back, but I felt right at home as soon as I walked into the sanctuary,” Greenbaum told Jewish News.

Greenbaum grew up in Greater Phoenix, attended Horizon High School in Scottsdale and began her college career at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff before transferring to Washington University in St. Louis. She still lives there and works as the director of music engagement for Creve Coeur’s Congregation Shaare Emeth, the oldest and largest Reform Jewish congregation in Greater St. Louis.

“This was my first trip back to Arizona and it was a sweet homecoming for me,” she said.

By the time Temple Chai Cantor Ross Wolman created the “Cantor’s Concert” in 2017, Greenbaum was already in college but she, along with other past and current music leaders of Temple Chai, such as Cantor Emerita Sharona Feller and Allan Naplan, executive director of Arizona Musicfest in Scottsdale, was always invited to be part of the show.

“Inviting Temple Chai’s music leaders always meant a great deal because it opens a door and creates space to celebrate where we’ve been and where we’re going,” Wolman told Jewish News.

“The concert is really special and features a great smattering of the Temple Chai community’s musical talent,” Greenbaum said. “I still love listening to Cantor Sharona, whom I consider my cantor because I grew up with her music.”

In past years, the youth choir has also taken part in the concert, but this year’s

leader to her current role, which allows her to work with the whole congregation, “ages zero to 100 and everything in between,” she said.

performance took a more serious tone due to the events of Oct. 7 and the ongoing Israel-Gaza war. Wolman chose as the concert’s theme, “Our hope is not yet lost,” a lyric from “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem, and accordingly, there was a great deal of Israeli music on stage. Additionally, there were songs from Broadway shows, American folk music and a unique arrangement of “Hatikvah” in Hebrew and English, set to a different melody.

Greenbaum sang “Chai” by Ofrah Hazah “because the lyrics are about what I think is the central tenet of Judaism: to persevere and continue on. That’s what we’re tasked with today; to live and be joyful Jewish people.”

She also selected Holly Near’s “I Am Willing.” Though Near is not Jewish, the lyrics resonated with Greenbaum, especially after so much sadness in the Jewish community. “The song is about not being hopeless because that would dishonor the people who came before us,” she said.

While COVID kept the yearly concert at bay for a while, Wolman initiated singing circles on Zoom and always invited Greenbaum into them. She found it a nice way to stay connected with her home synagogue.

Greenbaum studied psychology and anthropology in college, originally intending to choose a career in social work, but music always had a strong hold on her. In fact, she worked as a song leader at various synagogues, including the “warm, sweet community” of Congregation Lev Shalom in Flagstaff, throughout her university years.

Shaare Emeth was one of the places she worked and during her final college year, the synagogue approached her about a fulltime position. Her role has evolved from youth group director, teacher and song

Now that her days are filled entirely with music, she’s grateful for her university studies, which she sees as “assets in understanding people’s behavior while working in synagogue life.”

She also has a family connection to the large synagogue that is home to 1,500 families. “My grandparents were married at this synagogue, I have family here; I walk by grandmother’s confirmation picture every day,” she said.

It’s also the place where she’s been able to grow into her musical leadership. Still, it’s Temple Chai that she credits with “planting the seeds, watering and nourishing them on my musical journey.”

Wolman was hired as Greenbaum graduated high school but he still managed to become one of her musical mentors. In fact, the prayer lab model that Wolman helped create at Temple Chai is something she incorporated at Shaare Emeth.

“I won’t say I stole the idea, but it was inspired by Cantor Wolman,” Greenbaum laughed. “I love the experimental way we explore prayer through music and poetry, asking what is the essence of prayer.”

“Of course she didn’t steal it!” Wolman said. To emphasize the point, he quoted Rav Yossi bar Choni in the Talmud: “A person may become envious of anyone else, except of his child or his student.” He feels only pride in Greenbaum. “It means the world to me that she was inspired by the prayer lab and is making it her own. We’re so proud of everything she’s done and her evolution as a vocalist, musician and how she leads people in prayer.”

Temple Chai Cantor Ross Wolman and Lucy Greenbaum sing together during the “Cantor’s Concert” on Sunday, Feb. 25. COURTESY

Telling her father’s story: Daughter of local Holocaust survivor publishes father’s tale of survival

MALA BLOMQUIST | MANAGING EDITOR

Samuel Soldinger always told his daughter, Laura Soldinger Yotter, that she would one day author a book about his life. “I would say, ‘OK, dad, whatever you think, but I’m not really a writer,’” said Yotter.

Soldinger survived seven Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust, worked for Oskar Schindler and was liberated from the Mauthausen concentration camp. After the war, he spent several years in Antwerp, Belgium, learning to cut diamonds. He eventually made his way to America and arrived in New York in 1950. He landed a managerial position with diamond magnate Harry Winston in 1962, to teach the art of diamond cutting to Native Americans in Chandler as part of an employment program created by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He attended Beth Hebrew synagogue in downtown Phoenix.

Soldinger tried several times to get the book project going himself, once working with some cousins who wrote a few chapters but didn’t have any luck finding a publisher.

When the movie “Schindler’s List” came out, “everyone wanted to hear and know his story because he was a Schindler Jew — one of the very few in the Valley at the time,” said Yotter.

A reporter working for the Mesa Tribune interviewed Soldinger and offered to help write his memoir. “He started coming every weekend and spending time with my dad and taping him,” said Yotter. But that project also did not come to fruition. When her father passed away in 2001, she reached out to friends she knew who were writers and a couple of publishers, but nothing came of it. “I thought, ‘I’m over this, this isn’t ever going to happen,’” she said.

Several years passed and a friend of a friend reached out to Yotter and asked her if she had any information on the diamond processing plant where her father once worked. The Chandler Museum was working on an exhibition and all they could find was one photograph.

“I ended up donating everything I could find related to diamonds and the factory,” she said. Along with her father’s diamond-cutting tools, she brought some articles that had been written over the years (including from the Jewish News) and realized that the people at the museum were unaware he was a Holocaust survivor.

In 2020, Nate Meyers, then the museum’s collection coordinator, shared Soldinger’s history in a lecture for “Our Stories,” a collaboration between the

Chandler Library and the Chandler Historical Society. In 2021, the museum created an exhibition, “Death and Diamonds: A Holocaust Survivor’s Journey from Krakow to Chandler,” chronicling Soldinger’s story.

When Yotter attended the lecture, she had an aha moment. “The way they put everything together, I thought, ‘This is the book.’ The full circle of him surviving the Holocaust, working for Schindler, becoming a diamond cutter and coming out of (the Holocaust) unscathed and so positive,” she said.

Right after the lecture, COVID-19 hit, and the state went into lockdown. A good friend from high school, Valerie Lee, moved back to Arizona from California. Lee is a public relations manager, and Yotter has always admired her writing ability. Thinking she might have some time on her hands during the pandemic, Yotter asked Lee if she would help with the book and her friend agreed.

Lee devoted her Sundays to working on the book, going through all of Soldinger’s notes, interviews and speeches. She also transcribed the six hours of his interview for the USC Shoah Foundation, created by “Schindler’s List” director Steven Spielberg to document survivor’s stories.

“Valerie did such a wonderful job, she was so detail oriented,” said Yotter. She explained that Lee was the one that wanted all the photos in the book, which is one of the things people have said they love about it. “She was so spot on with everything and she wanted to spend time with it and make it perfect. She did such an amazing job piecing everything together.”

When Lee started working on the project, she asked Yotter about her expectations. Yotter said that if it ended up being a book for her family, she would be happy. She doesn’t have any children of her own, but she is close to two great-nieces.

“I want them to know who they come from because I have so much admiration for my dad and they are never going to know him. My dad always was able to see the good in people; he taught us to give everyone the benefit of the doubt,” she said. The book, “Death and Diamonds. The Story of Samuel Soldinger. A Legacy of Oskar Schindler: A Holocaust Survivor’s Inspiring Journey of Survival, Faith, Hope, Luck and the American Dream,” came out at the end of 2023, and Yotter said it has been well received and she is absolutely thrilled.

She also believes her father would be thrilled to have the book out and has felt his “divine intervention” over the years.

“I’ve had a multitude of things that have come up and I know my dad has had his hands in all of this,” said Yotter.

Yotter’s cousin recounted an experience with a medium in Florida about a year after Soldinger’s death. The cousin’s father had recently passed, so she went to the medium, hoping to get a message since he told her he would try to make contact after he died.

“My cousin told me, ‘Your father came through; he wants you to write his book,’” said Yotter. “I thought, ‘He’s stalking me!’ but that is exactly what my dad would have said. I had to laugh because it was so my dad.”

Yotter said another reason the book, much of it told in her father’s own words, was so important to him is that he believed sharing his story would help ensure that something like the Holocaust does not happen again. He had many survivor friends who never spoke of what they endured.

“It was important for him,” said Yotter. “His friends would say, ‘Sam, enough

already, move on,’ and he would say, ‘I survived for a reason, and I survived because we need to tell our stories, so this doesn’t happen again.’” JN

“Death and Diamonds. The Story of Samuel Soldinger. A Legacy of Oskar Schindler: A Holocaust Survivor’s Inspiring Journey of Survival, Faith, Hope, Luck and the American Dream” is available on Amazon.

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Samuel Soldinger and his daughter, Laura Soldinger Yotter, in an undated photo.

COURTESY OF LAURA SOLDINGER YOTTER

Striking out

group of

to bowl on March 27 at a Smile On

Passover food drive

Volunteers at Beth El Phoenix prepared 80 bags of Passover products to donate to the Arizona Kosher Pantry on April 14 as part of the Social Action Committee’s Passover food drive.

OF BARBARA LEWKOWITZ/BETH

Where is your Jewish News? Camp Ramah edition

Teacher mission

To help plan for the future of Jewish education, Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, led a group of educators from across North America on a mission to Israel to ask the question: What has changed and hasn’t changed since Oct. 7 that impacts education about Israel in Jewish day schools? Elisa Kreisberger, a Hebrew teacher and coordinator at Pardes Jewish Day School, participated and is pictured third from the left.

by 10 a.m. Monday.

A

seniors gathered

Seniors event. Pictured from left are Rabbi Levi Levertov, Dave Shooten, David Termine, Janet Lottman and Susan Hall.

COURTESY OF SMILE ON SENIORS

Michelle Kaplan, left, and Diana Nashban traveled to Camp Ramah in Ojai, California for Passover.

COURTESY OF DIANA NASHBAN

Mazel tov!

Aviel and Elizabeth Yagudayev celebrate their wedding in March with members of the Bukharian Jewish community in Phoenix. COURTESY OF RABBI MICHAEL AMINOV

Featured Event

WEDNESDAY, MAY 15

Israel at 76 Celebration:

5-7:30 p.m. Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, 12701 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. Join the VOSJCC for an outdoor event to celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut with an Israeli marketplace, music, food, carnival games and cooking and art classes, Free; registration required. For more information, visit vosjcc.secure.nonprofitsoapbox.com/component/events/event/15.

Events

FRIDAY, MAY 10

The ShabbaTones!: 6:30 p.m. Online and in person at Temple Emanuel of Tempe, 5801 S. Rural Road, Tempe. Join Rabbi Cookie Lea Olshein and the ShabbaTones Band for an inclusive musical worship experience to acknowledge Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut. Cost: Free. For more information, visit emanueloftempe.org.

SUNDAY, MAY 12

Israel Memorial Day; Yom HaZikaron: 6:30-9 p.m. Address provided upon registration. Join Shevet Shemesh (Israeli Scouts of Arizona) and Temple Chai for a community observance to honor the lives of Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terror. Cost: Free; registration closes at 12 p.m. For more information, visit eventbrite. com/e/israel-memorial-day-2024--tickets873548315527?aff=od.

MONDAY, MAY 13

Honoring the Fallen, Celebrating the Promise: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus, 12701 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. Join the Board of Rabbis of Greater Phoenix for discussions, educational presentations and tributes to honor the memories of the fallen heroes and reaffirm a commitment to Israel’s future. Cost: Free; registration closes May 10. For more information, visit phoenixcjp.regfox.com/ board-of-rabbis-israel-at-76.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 15

Generations After: “The Jewish Escape to Uzbekistan”: 10-11:30 a.m. East Valley Jewish Community Center, 908 N. Alma School Road, Chandler. Join the EVJCC for a prsentation by Author Sandor Lubisch about his historical fiction book “Yitzhak’s Escape: The Jewish Flight to Uzbekistan,” which is based on the true story of his maternal family. Cost: Free; reservations required. For more information, visit evjcc.org/generations-after.

THURSDAY, MAY 16

Online Book Discussion: 2 p.m. Online via Zoom. Join the Arizona Jewish Historical Society for an online discussion of the book “Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews” led by Mark Sendrow, M.A. Cost: Free; registration required. For more information, visit azjhs.org/constantines-sword.

Fundraiser at Chompie’s: 4-8 p.m. Chompie’s, 3481 W. Frye Road, Chandler. Join Sun Lakes Jewish Congregation for a fundraiser. Chompie’s will be giving 15% of the meal purchase price to Sun Lakes. Must present flyer when seated. For more information, visit sunlakesjewishcongregation.org/theshpiel/theshpiel.html.

What is Heroism for American Jews Today?: 7-8:30 p.m. Online and in-person at Temple Chai, 4645 E. Marilyn Road, Phoenix. Join Valley Beit Midrash for a presentation by Rabbi Mike Feuer, educator, content creator and spiritual

counselor. He teaches people around the world through his Jewish Story history podcast and the newly launched Jewish Heroism Project. For more information, visit valleybeitmidrash.org.

SUNDAY, MAY 19

Lag Ba’Omer Community Celebration: 5-6:30 p.m. Location provided upon registration. Join the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Phoenix, Pardes Jewish Day School and PJ Library for a beginning of summer park party with s’mores, dancing crefts and more. Cost: Free. For more information, visit bjephoenix.org/community-celebrations.

MONDAY, MAY 20

Holocaust Author at Sisterhood Luncheon: 12 p.m. Temple Beth Shalom of the West Valley, 12202 N. 101st Ave., Sun City. Join TBSWV for a presentation by author Ruth Rokowitz, daughter of Holocaust survivors, on her new book, “Escaping the Whale.” Cost: $12 members; $15 non-members; registration required by May 14. For more information, visit tbsaz.org or ruthswhale.com.

SUNDAYS

B.A.G.E.L.S: 9-11 a.m.; last Sunday of the month. Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, 12701 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. Grab a bagel and a cup of coffee at Bagels And Gabbing Every Last Sunday and enjoy some time with your friends and make new ones. You must register to attend. Bagels and coffee will be provided. Cost: Free for members, $5 for guests. For more information and to register, visit vosjcc.org.

THURSDAYS

Storytime at Modern Milk: 9:30 a.m. Modern Milk, 13802 N. Scottsdale Road, #163, Scottsdale. Storytime for babies, toddlers and preschoolers. Integrates children’s books and songs while giving parents new ideas for play. Cost: $5. For more information and to register, visit modernmilk.com/after-baby.

Meetings, Lectures & Classes

SUNDAYS

Chassidus Class: 9 a.m. Online. Learn about the Chasidic movement with Rabbi Yossi Friedman. Cost: Free. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Jewish War Veterans Post 210: 10 a.m. Online. Any active duty service member or veteran is welcome to join monthly meetings, every third Sunday. Cost: Free. For more information, email Michael Chambers at c365michael@yahoo.com.

Sundays are for the Family Weekly Feed: 3-5 p.m. Tempe Beach Park, 80 W. Rio Salado Pkwy., Tempe. Join Arizona Jews for Justice and AZ HUGS for the Houseless every Sunday to serve food to those in need. For more information and to RSVP, email Arizonajews4justice@ gmail.com.

Anxiety in the Modern World: 6 p.m. Online. Learn the secrets of the Torah for living stressfree in the current environment with Rabbi Boruch of Chabad of Oro Valley. Cost: Free. Use this link: zoom.us/j/736434666. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

MONDAYS

Interfaith Antisemitism Course: 10-11 a.m. Temple Beth Shalom of the West Valley, 12202 N. 101st Ave., Sun City. TBSWV will present a fourpart interfaith series (April 1, 8, 15 and 22) looking at contemporary antisemitism and attempting to analyze its sources and likely results. Cost: $20 members; $35 nonmembers; registration deadline March 27. For more information, visit tbsaz.org.

Ethics of Our Fathers: 7 p.m. Online. Learn with Rabbi Zalman Levertov. Use this link: bit. ly/2Y0wdgv. Cost: Free. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Quotable Quotes by our Sages: 7 p.m. Online. Learn with Rabbi Shlomy Levertov. Use this link: JewishParadiseValley.com/class. Cost: Free. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Partners in Torah: 7:30 p.m. Online. Join a growing group of inspired learners with Project Inspire. Cost: Free. Use this link: us04web.zoom. us/j/3940479736#success, password is 613. For more information, email Robin Meyerson at robin@projectinspireaz.com.

Learning to Trust in God: 7:30 p.m. Online. Learn with Rabbi Yossi Friedman. Use this link: ChabadAZ.com/LiveClass. Cost: Free. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Torah & Tea: 7:30 p.m. Online. Learn with Rabbi Yossie Shemtov. Cost: Free. For more information, visit Facebook.com/ ChabadTucson.

Single Parent Zoom: 8 p.m. First and third Monday of every month. Join The Bureau of Jewish Education’s Family University single parents’ group for those looking to form friendships and build their support system with like-minded people. For more information or to register, visit bjephoenix.org/ family-university.

TUESDAYS

Let’s Knit: 1:30 p.m. Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus, 12701 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. Share the pleasure of knitting, crocheting, etc. outside the social hall in the campus. Can’t knit? They will teach you! Every level welcome. Cost: Free. For more information, visit vosjcc.org.

Maintaining an Upbeat Attitude: 7 p.m. Online. A class exclusively for people in their 20s and 30s, learn how Jewish Mysticism can help with your attitude with Rabbi Shlomy Levertov. Cost: Free. Use this link: JewishParadiseValley.com/YJPclass. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

WEDNESDAYS

History of the Jews: 11 a.m. Online. Learn the Jewish journey from Genesis to Moshiach with Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman. Cost: Free. Use this link: zoom.us/j/736434666. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Torah Study with Temple Beth Shalom of the West Valley: 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Online. Weekly study group explores that week’s portion and studies different perspectives and debates the merits of various arguments. Intended for adults, Torah study is open to students of all levels. For more information, contact the TBS office at 623-977-3240.

Happiness Hour: 11:30 a.m. Online. Class taught by Rabbi Pinchas Allouche that delves into texts and references culled from our traditions to address a relevant topic. For more information or to join, visit cbtvirtualworld.com.

Torah Study with Chabad: 12 p.m. Online. Take a weekly journey of Torah with Rabbi Yossi Levertov. Cost: Free. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Lunch & Learn: 12:15 p.m. Online. Grab some food and learn with Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin. Cost: Free. Get Zoom link by emailing info@chabadtucson.com. For more information, visit chabadtucson.com.

The Thirteen Petalled Rose: 1 p.m. Online. Kabbalah class that studies “The Thirteen Petalled Rose” by Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, focusing on the many concepts of Kaballah and Jewish Mysticism and applying them to everyday life. For more information or to join, visit cbtvirtualworld.com.

JACS: 7:30-8:30 p.m. Online. Zoom support group for Jewish alcoholics, addicts and their friends and family on the first and third Wednesdays of the month. Cost: Free. For more information, email jacsarizona@gmail.com or call 602-692-1004.

THURSDAYS

Interfaith Course: 10-11 a.m. Temple Beth Shalom of the West Valley, 12202 N. 101st Ave., Sun City. TBSWV will present a four-part interfaith series (April 4, 11, 18 and 25) focusing on two perspectives of the Gospels: Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. Cost: $20 members; $35 nonmembers; registration deadline April 2. For more information, visit tbsaz.org.

Ladies Torah & Tea: 10:30 a.m. Online. Learn about the women of the Torah with Mrs. Leah Levertov. Cost: Free. Use this link: ourjewishcenter.com/virtual. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Weekly Mahjong: 1-3 p.m. Temple Solel, 6805 E. McDonald Drive, Paradise Valley. Join Temple Solel each Thursday afternoon for mahjong. Lessons available for beginners. Cost: Free. RSVP via email to dottiebefore@gmail.com so they know how many tables to set up.

Frieda Allweiss

It is with sadness that we announce the sudden passing of Holocaust survivor Frieda Schiller Allweiss, 90, on April 11, 2024, in Phoenix. Born in Czortkov, Ukraine, Russia, she was 8 years old when the Nazis invaded her town. Frieda and her mother were able to get on the last train out heading east, eventually reaching Uzbekistan. By a miracle, she and her mother were reunited with her father. Following the end of the war, they were able to enter the American Zone to await immigration to the United States. In 1949, she and her mother, father and baby sister, Goldy, arrived in Detroit, Michigan.

Frieda married Salek Allweiss in 1952. They raised four children and were married for 52 years before Salek passed away in 2004. After raising her family, Frieda became active in her Jewish community in both West Bloomfield, Michigan, and after 2006, in Scottsdale and Phoenix. Along with continuing Jewish education and temple activities, she began relaying her story of survival to youth groups, school classes and community-interest groups. She derived great satisfaction in educating groups about this time in history through her own difficult experience as a young child.

Frieda was preceded in death by her son, Philip, her sister, Goldy, and her grandson David and his wife, Meghann. She is survived by her sons Jack (Patty) and Ben; daughter, Tami (a.k.a Ilana Moss); daughter-in-law Kat; and grandchildren Jonathan and Erin Moss (Paul Lietzan).

At this time, memorial services are under consideration.

Harold Olshansky

Harold Olshansky, 77, of Scottsdale, passed away on April 14, 2024. He was born in Detroit, Michigan on June 17, 1946, and graduated from Oak Park High School and Wayne State University. He worked as a pharmacist for 44 years and a health insurance broker for 10 years.

Harold is survived by his beloved wife of 45 years, Linda Olshansky; and their two cherished sons, Adam and David.

Contributions may be made to The Michael J. Fox Foundation (michaeljfox.org), Smile on Seniors (sosaz.org) or Hospice of the Valley (hov.org).

CALENDAR

Teen Discussions: 7-8:30 p.m. Online. Learn with Rabbi Tzvi Rimler. Cost: Free. Use this link: cteen.clickmeeting.com/east-valley. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

SATURDAYS

Saturday Mindfulness Gatherings: 9:30 a.m. Online. Hosted by Hospice of the Valley. To join by phone, dial 1-253-215-8782, meeting ID 486 920 2119#. To get the Zoom link or for more information, contact Gill Hamilton at ghamilton@hov.org or 602-748-3692.

Book Discussion: 1:30-2:30 p.m. Online. Join Or Adam Congregation for Humanistic Judaism on the third Saturday of every month for a book discussion. For more information and to register, contact oradaminfo@gmail.com.

Shabbat

FRIDAYS

Shabbat in the Park: 10-11 a.m. Cactus Park, 7202 E. Cactus Road, Scottsdale. Join the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Phoenix monthly for music, parachute play, crafts and a family Shabbat experience. For more information, visit bjephoenix.org.

Welcome Shabbat: 11-11:30 a.m. Online. Celebrate Shabbat with the JFCS Virtual Center for Senior Enrichment. Each week a different guest host will lead the program with song and celebration. Cost: Free. For more information, visit jfcsaz.org/cse.

Shabbat at Beth El: 11-11:45 a.m. Beth El Phoenix, 1118 W. Glendale. Ave., Phoenix. Celebrate Shabbat with songs, blessings and teachings with Rabbi Stein Kokin the first Friday of every month. Special guests will be welcoming Shabbat during the remainder of the month. For more information or to join, visit bethelphoenix.com.

Erev Shabbat Service: 5:30 p.m. Online. Rabbi Alicia Magal will lead a service livestreamed for members of the Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley. Cost: Free. For more information and to obtain the Zoom link, visit jcsvv. org/contact.

Shabbat Services: 5:30 p.m. nosh, 6:15 p.m. service; morning service has varying dates and times. Temple Chai, 4645 E. Marilyn Road, Phoenix. For more information, contact Joan Neer at jneer@templechai.com.

Pre-Shabbat Kiddush Club: 6 p.m. Online. Say Kiddush with Rabbi Mendy Levertov. Cost: Free. Use this link: ourjewishcenter.com/virtual. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Shabbat Services: 6 p.m; 9:30 a.m. Congregation Or Tzion, 16415 N. 90th St., Scottsdale. Services are also live streamed at otaz.org/ livestream. For more information about services, events and membership, visit congregationortzion.org or call 480-342-8858.

Shabbat Services: 6:15 p.m; 10 a.m. Congregation Beth Israel, 10460 N. 56th St., Scottsdale. Services held in the Goldsmith Sanctuary. Participants must pre-register by Thursday at 5 p.m. Priority will be given to members first and then guests. If there are more requests than available seats a lottery system will be used. For more information or to make a reservation, visit cbiaz.org/shabbat-services.

Kabbalat Shabbat and/or Shabbat morning service: 6:30 p.m.; 10 a.m.; dates vary. Congregation Kehillah, 5858 E. Dynamite Blvd., Cave Creek. Join Rabbi Bonnie Sharfman and cantorial soloists Erica Erman and Scott Leader either in person or via Zoom. For safety reasons, please register ahead of time. For dates, visit congregationkehillah.org/event/. Register by emailing info@congregationkehillah.org.

Third Friday Shabbat: 7-9 p.m. Group meets at a North Scottsdale location. The Desert Foothills Jewish Community Association hosts a Shabbat service followed by a program. Contact 602-487-5718 for more information.

Shabbat Services with Sun Lakes: 7 p.m. Sun Lakes Chapel, 9240 E. Sun Lakes Blvd. North, Sun Lakes. Sun Lakes Jewish Congregation conducts services on the second Friday of the month. For more information, contact 480-612-4413.

Shabbat Services with Beth Ami Temple: 7 p.m. Gloria Christi Federated Church, 3535 E. Lincoln Dr., Paradise Valley. Rabbi Alison Lawton and Cantorial Soloist Michael Robbins lead Shabbat services twice a month. For more information, visit bethamitemple.org.

Seniors

MONDAYS

Fitness Xpress Series with Zoe: 11-11:30 a.m. Online. Presented by JFCS Center for Senior Enrichment. Workout features weight and

band exercises as well as yoga poses. Exercises will be demonstrated standing, but can also be done sitting in a chair. Cost: Free. For more information, visit jfcsaz.org/cse.

Sip & Schmooze: 11 a.m. milk + honey, 12701 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. Sip on kosher coffee or tea, enjoy a pastry and schmooze every second Monday of the month. RSVP appreciated to chani@sosaz.org or 602-492-7670. For more information, visit sosaz.org.

TUESDAYS

Movie Discussion Group: 11 a.m. Online. Join Smile on Seniors on the third Tuesday of every month hosted by Issy Lifshitz. Cost: Free. For full details and the movie of the month visit sosaz.org/virtual or email Rabbi Levi Levertov at levi@sosaz.org.

WEDNESDAYS

Fitness Fun with Zoe: 10-10:45 a.m. Online. Presented by JFCS Center for Senior Enrichment. Workout features light chair exercises with optional weights. Cost: Free. For more information, visit jfcsaz.org/cse.

THURSDAYS

Memory Cafe: 10-11 a.m. first Thursday; 1-2 p.m. third Thursday. Online. Presented by Jewish Family & Children’s Service. Program for those with changes in their thinking or memory, mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease or a related disorder, along with their care partners. For more information, visit jfcsaz.org/our-services/older-adult-services/ memory-cafe/.

FRIDAYS

Welcome Shabbat: 11-11:30 a.m. Online. Celebrate Shabbat with the JFCS Virtual Center for Senior Enrichment. Each week a different guest host will lead the program with song and celebration. Cost: Free. For more information, visit jfcsaz.org/cse.

Musical Friday: 12:30 p.m. Online. Join Smile on Seniors on the first Friday of every month for a musical presentation. Cost: Free. For full details visit sosaz.org/virtual or email Rabbi Levi Levertov at levi@sosaz.org. JN

Claire Evelyn Liebhaber will become a bat mitzvah on May 25, 2024, at Temple Solel. She is the daughter of Ben and Jennifer Liebhaber of Scottsdale.

Claire’s grandparents are Alice Gartell of Tempe and the late Chuck Gartell; and Kaye and Richard Liebhaber of Phoenix.

For her mitzvah project, Claire is collecting pet items and creating foster kits for the local pet shelter Home Fur Good.

A student at Cocopah Middle School, Claire loves cats, music and dancing. JN

Lillian Lenore Beckerman of Santa Barbara, California, died on April 21, 2024. She was 97. Lillian was born in Cleveland, Ohio.

Lillian was preceded in death by her husband, Leo Marvin Beckerman; and her brother, Martin Davis. She is survived by sons Ira Carl Beckerman and Gary Marc Beckerman; and two grandchildren.

Services were held on April 26, 2024, at Congregation Beth Israel Memorial Cemetery and officiated by Rabbi Bonnie Kessler.

Donations in her name can be made at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) and The Food Bank of Santa Barbara. JN

CLAIRE EVELYN LIEBHABER

LILLIAN LENORE BECKERMAN

BAT MITZVAH

OBITUARY

MILESTONES