Jewish News, April 2, 2021

Couple talks about special challenges

Arizona prepares to observe Yom HaShoah

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

George Kalman was 9 years old when he was shoved into a cattle car to be deported to a concentration camp. He was 10 years old when a Russian soldier entered his forced labor camp and liberated him on April 2, 1945.

“The Holocaust did not end in 1945,” he said. “The ‘Never Again’ continued and is continuing today.”

Kalman is one of 54 local Holocaust survivors who received the Phoenix Holocaust Association’s Shofar Zakhor award this year. It’s the first time since the award’s inception in 1989 that PHA is giving the annual award to more than one person.

Given during the annual Yom HaShoah commemoration, the award recognizes contributions made to genocide awareness and Holocaust education. It is usually given to an educator.

“Hearing from or meeting a survivor is educational and one of the best ways to combat Holocaust denial,” said Sheryl Bronkesh, president of PHA. “We wanted to express our gratitude to all our survivors for their courage in telling others that they are Holocaust survivors — whether that is speaking to a class, telling their children and grandchildren or telling friends at their assisted living facility.”

The decision to break from tradition and give this award to Holocaust survivors was made last year.

“We had no time to waste as the number of survivors is dwindling because of their advanced age,” Bronkesh said. “In 2020 and thus far in 2021, 10 survivors in the community have passed away.”

Kalman has been active in Holocaust education for over 25 years, speaking with a variety of men’s clubs, senior groups and students who want to learn about the past, he said.

“Instead of giving a prepared talk, I conduct my meetings as a one-on-one Q&A format,” he said. “I tell them that I like hostile questions like, ‘I hear frequently that the Holocaust

With vaccines opening up to more people across the state, there is a sense that the end of the pandemic might finally be in sight. While health care professionals promote vaccines as the quickest way to achieve that end, they warn against declaring victory too soon.

Once Dr. Mitchell Ross, an interventional cardiologist and the managing partner of Arizona Cardiology Group, feels he can travel freely and attend live sporting and theater events, he’ll feel like life is back to normal. But there is still much work to be done before that can happen, he said.

“There is still significant resistance to simple mitigation strategies, including masking in public places and reluctance to accept vaccination,” Ross said.

Masking enforcement in the state was complicated last week when Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey prohibited government mask mandates, saying, “I’m confident Arizona’s businesses and citizens will continue to practice the fundamentals and act responsibly as we gradually get back to normal.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and local health officials, people need to continue to wear masks, remain socially distant and get vaccinated to combat the threat of emerging new variants and a surge in cases due to relaxed vigilance.

Twelve secret spots to see in Israel

Fancy seeing a flamingo in the desert? Look no further than the evaporation ponds in Evrona near Eilat, which a group of previously migrating flamingos has decided to call home. To read more, go to p. 23.

PHOTO BY MILA AVIV/FLASH90 VIA JNS.ORG

Dr. Alexzandra Hollingworth wears personal protective gear to treat COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit.

PHOTO BY ALEXZANDRA HOLLINGWORTH

‘Don’t let your guard down,’ local health care professionals advise

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

never happened. Why?’ Excellent question, let’s talk about it in detail.”

The PHA is holding its annual commemoration virtually on April 11 at 1 p.m. Holocaust survivors will speak accompanied by music and a memorial candle-lighting ceremony. Rep. Alma Hernandez (LD-3) will present the keynote address. Hernandez reintroduced her Holocaust education bill in February, which would require public schools in Arizona to teach students about the Holocaust and other genocides — including the Rwandan, Bosnian and Armenian genocides — at least twice between grades seven and 12.

“My message is simple: we must pass the legislation that mandates Holocaust education if we truly want to ensure that this never happens again,” said Hernandez. “We must teach the future generations about the atrocities of the Holocaust and ensure that they understand what hate, bigotry and xenophobia can do.”

Those wishing to attend must register at phxha.com.

PHA is one of several organizations in Greater Phoenix that have planned events around Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls on April 8, 2021.

Hillel at Arizona State University is hosting a 24-hour name reading on campus from sundown April 7 to sundown April 8. Student volunteers will read the names of thousands of the six million Jewish people who perished at the hands of the Nazis. In addition to the names, the victims’ age and place of death will be read out..

For students not living on campus and those uncomfortable with in-person events, Hillel is encouraging attendance of a Zikaron Basalon (Remembrance in the Living Room) event on Zoom, at 7:30 p.m. April 7, hosted by PHA. Holocaust survivor Marion Weinzweig will share her story, and a poem written by Holocaust survivor Anna Geslewitz will be read.

Those wishing to attend must register at eventbrite.com.

Valley Beit Midrash is hosting Janet R. Kirchheimer for a virtual commemoration at 11 a.m April 8. Kirchheimer is a teaching fellow at The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership and the daughter of Holocaust survivors. She’ll be sharing her family’s story and reading some poems she wrote over the course of about 15 years related to her family’s experiences and what they’ve meant for her.

“Poetry is about what’s on the page, but — perhaps more importantly — about what’s not on the page,” she said. “Poetry allowed me to enter the maze that is the Shoah and try to figure out my place in this world.”

Growing up, she knew 90% of her family was missing. “I was lucky — I had one grandmother,” she said.

There will be time for participants to share their own stories and poems during the event.

It is important to create an opportunity for people to come together and remember the Holocaust, because “unfortunately, never again has meant again and again,” as evidenced by ongoing genocides, she said.

Those wishing to attend must register at visitvalleybeitmidrash.org.

The Israeli American Council organized a worldwide six million steps in honor of the six million Jewish lives lost campaign and invited people to wear a black shirt, take a walk and add their number of steps to the global count at iac360.org/6m.

Yamit Harel, who does community engagement for IAC Arizona, invites anybody who wants to participate to walk with her at 5 p.m. April 8, at Paseo Vista Park in Chandler and to

2021 Phoenix Jewish

News

RSVP at tinyurl.com/a9paf69x.

“It’s important to remember all the lost lives and to appreciate all the things we have now,” said Harel, whose grandmother successfully hid from the Nazis and escaped. “It’s part of our history. It’s part of the reason we are here.”

Harel moved to Phoenix from Israel three years ago, and goes out of her way to mark Yom HaShoah and other days that would be more easily observed in Israel.

“It’s easy to forget here,” she said. “You can let special days and holidays go by without even telling your kids or remembering or doing anything. I have three girls and every time I point out, ‘Listen, I know it seems like a regular day but it’s not.’ And there are still traditions and things that we need to remember and talk about.”

The Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley will present a 90-minute webinar for Holocaust Remembrance Day at 3 p.m. April 11.

Representatives of children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors will speak about the impact their family stories had on their upbringing and their ways of coping with challenges.

Print Dates

January 8

January 22

February 5

February 19

March 5

March 12

March 19

March 26

April 2

April 16

May 7

May 21

June 4

July 9

August 6*

August 20

August 27

September 3

September 10

September 24

October 1

October 15**

November 5

November 19

December 3

December 17 *Best of Magazine **Annual Directory

PUBLISHER Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Phoenix

GENERAL MANAGER Rich Solomon | 602.639.5861 rsolomon@jewishaz.com

MANAGING EDITOR Shannon Levitt | 602.639.5855 slevitt@jewishaz.com

STAFF WRITER Nicole Raz | 602.872.9470 nraz@jewishaz.com

ADVERTISING SALES CONSULTANT

Jodi Lipson | 602.639.5866 jlipson@jewishaz.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS

602.870.9470 x 1 subscriptions@jewishaz.com

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Frank Wagner | 410.902.2300 ads_phoenixjn@midatlanticmedia.com

Publisher | 2013-2016

Florence Newmark Eckstein, Publisher | 1981-2013

Cecil Newmark, Publisher | 1961-1981

Pearl Newmark, Editor | 1961-1981

M.B. Goldman, Jr., Founder | 1948-1961

PROUD MEMBER OF

Left: Photo courtesy of Seth Ettinger | Top Right: Photo by Nancy Pollinger | Bottom Left: Photo by Ben Torres for Chabad.org via JNS.org Bottom Middle: Photo via WikimediaCommons via JNS.org

Bottom Right: Photo via YouTube/Screenshot via JNS.org

Holocuast survivor George Kalman, 86, holds his Shofar Zakhor award from the Phoenix Holocaust Association.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PHOENIX HOLOCAUST ASSOCIATION

Before he lifted restrictions on masks, Ducey said he’s focused on getting “vaccines into the community as quickly, widely and equitably as possible.” On March 24, Arizona opened vaccination eligibility to all residents aged 16 and older.

The decision to expand vaccine appointment eligibility to all residents was fueled in part by the high amount of appointment cancellations, said Dr. Cara Christ, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, in a press conference Monday, March 22. As of that morning, 58,000 appointments released the prior Friday were left unfilled. The State Farm Stadium site in Glendale was getting almost 3,000 cancellations a day as people were finding appointments elsewhere, Christ said.

“Vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate,” said Monica McCullough, Madrona Hospice & Palliative Care’s nursing director. She agreed that vaccinating is the way to get past COVID, and she worries that some people don’t recognize how critical vaccinations are.

Debbie McCune Davis, executive director of The Arizona Partnership for Immunization, a nonprofit which advocates for a well-vaccinated population, estimates that seven to 10% of Arizona’s population is completely resistant to getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

“It’s a relatively small number,” McCune Davis said, “but the way it poses a threat is that they misinform others about the vaccine and they build fear and anxiety.”

The group has the most potential negative impact on the 20-30% of the population that is hesitant and taking a wait-and-see approach, she said.

Ross too, is concerned about vaccine hesitancy. “I do think we need more public education and messaging to help alleviate fears and encourage vaccination,” he said.

Heather Ross, special adviser to Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, hopes people who don’t consider themselves to be “early adopters, will feel the time is right for them now,” after watching millions of others get the vaccine around the world and experience “amazing results” of minimal side effects while getting protection for themselves and their loved ones. She also said the likelihood is that the vaccine will be similar to the flu vaccine in that people will need to have a booster each year. How that will complicate things remains to be seen.

Lana Susskind-Wilder, a neuropsychologist, said she isn’t quite sure what metric she will use to feel safe again. “Perhaps once we reach levels of herd immunity that experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci are

hoping for,” she said.

Dr. Alexzandra Hollingworth, a trauma surgeon who’s board certified in general surgery and surgery critical care as well as the chair of surgery and anesthesia at Midwestern University in Glendale, agreed that herd immunity is the goal, but enough people have to get vaccinated to make that happen.

“We may have herd immunity by the summer, according to Dr. Christ, but other countries may not. And people are going to be traveling back and forth,” she said.

Hollingworth, who is also assistant clinical professor and quality improvement officer at Creighton University School of Medicine, said there is a lot of misinformation about the COVID vaccine, and vaccines in general, that may be leading people to be hesitant about getting their shots.

For anybody with doubts, she recommends heading to the CDC website. She is taking her cues directly from the governmental organization, including her own metric for feeling like the pandemic is over.

“I will not let my guard down in the immediate future because I know that these variants are around,” she said.

“Until I get more information from studies and I get more data and information from the CDC, I won’t be able to say that (this pandemic is over).”

In the meantime, life with COVID has improved for hospital workers as the number of hospitalized patients infected with the coronavirus declines.

Over the past few months, Hollingworth, like many others, stepped up to care for critical intensive care unit COVID patients in addition to her trauma patients because of a shortage of pulmonary critical care doctors.

“A few months ago we were dealing

with packed ICUs, packed ERs, people coming in left and right, people getting dropped off in the lobby in cardiac arrest (due to COVID) — just unimaginable amounts of people flooding into the hospital,” she said. Now, she is back to treating fewer COVID patients and more trauma patients.

Yet, even after the pandemic ends, Susskind-Wilder and Hollingworth foresee long-term impacts on health care workers.

“The biggest challenge to ‘getting past’ COVID is the trauma it has left in its wake, to those of us who have been in the trenches, so to speak, but also to the many others who have been marked by COVID in other ways — serious illness survivors, family members of the dead, people in long term care facilities who have been so isolated and afraid,” Susskind-Wilder said. Hollingworth said the nonstop crisis and long hours have taken a toll on her personally as well as her colleagues. “We’ve had to start talking about things that we usually don’t talk about,” she said. “Usually surgeons don’t think about ourselves or our wellness. But after COVID, we definitely have become more aware of the consequences of that intense kind of experience where people are dying constantly, and they’re dying without their families.”

Despite all that McCullough has seen dealing with hospice patients and their families, she is allowing herself to believe that the worst is over. And she is anxious to travel to her husband and her home in Canada without a 14-day quarantine.

“People are looking for hope — I feel the increased vaccines that are available, the positive messages that can be shared about our numbers and our desire to get over this is what will bring us to the finish line, ” she said. JN

Jewish parents looking to adopt face unique challenges

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

Sarah and Seth Ettinger are expecting their second child, a baby girl, in May. Plans are already underway for their third.

“We struggled so much to conceive the second child that we would move straight towards the adoption phase and wouldn’t go through with trying the way that we did for the second,” Sarah said.

The couple started the adoption process before conceiving their second child. “As they say, the minute you go to adopt, you end up getting pregnant,” Sarah joked. But they know they want three kids and the adoption process can take a while. They’ll pick it back up in a few months.

The adoption process can seem overwhelming for any family. Phoenix-based Yatom: The Jewish Foster and Adoption Network has been offering support and guidance, and Seth and Sarah found there are challenges unique to Jewish parents looking to adopt.

For starters, there aren’t a lot of Jewish kids up for adoption.

Relative to the number of kids in the system, the number identifying as Jewish is relatively small, said Caron Blau Rothstein, Yatom’s program manager. That fact is one of the first things she

explains to Jewish parents looking to foster or adopt.

National data show there are about 424,000 kids in foster care, with about 14,500 in Arizona, according to the state Department of Child Safety. Data on how many are Jewish is not available.

There are also fewer adoption agencies focused on Jewish families as opposed to Christian families.

“There are less options for someone who doesn’t identify as Christian,” said Katie Zimmerman, founder of Phoenixbased Purl Adoption Advisory.

Yatom encourages Jewish families to be more “expansive in their idea of who they should be willing to foster or adopt,” Rothstein said. And that leads to another challenge.

“If we adopt a child who’s not Jewish, what do we do? How do we raise this child?” Sarah asked.

The Ettingers expect to adopt their third child privately from an agency and are expecting a semi-open or fully open adoption process, where the birth mom chooses the adoptive family for her child.

Expectant mothers tend to choose families that have a belief system similar to their own, and there are probably fewer expectant moms who are Jewish that are

contacting an attorney or agency to match them with a prospective adoptive family, Zimmerman said.

“That’s probably because the Jewish culture is supportive of their own,” she said. “And so if a woman is in a situation where she is facing an unplanned pregnancy and her Jewish faith is important to her, she might reach out to a rabbi, she might reach out to someone that can help her identify a family that might be interested in adopting her child.”

Seth, the cantor at Congregation Beth Israel, and Sarah, a teacher at Pardes Jewish Day School, are already thinking about the kinds of conversations they will have with their child’s birth mother.

“On the one hand, we’re a clergy family, and we’re Jewish. But I’m also a convert. So I understand what it must feel like for a birth mom, if she selects a Jewish family, the questions she might have,” said Sarah, who converted to Judaism when she was 23, about five years before she met Seth.

At the same time, the couple feels strongly about honoring the wishes of the birth mother.

“Even though we have a very religiously tolerant home, our kids are raised Jewish, our kids are Jewish,” Seth said.

support and education program. The program consists of up to six sessions that take place about every other month. Parents get the opportunity to meet others on a similar journey and learn about the adoption process.

Holocaust survivor shares the story she once tried to forget

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

Mary Hirschfeld, 89, only recently began thinking about the title of Holocaust survivor.

Hirschfeld and her family arrived in the United States from Hungary in 1947. She was 15 and ready to start a new life. In order to do that, she tried to forget the Holocaust.

“I pretended like I was the American girl I should have been at age 10,” she said. Her family was originally scheduled to come to the U.S. five years earlier, before the war interfered with their plans.

Now, Hirschfeld is ready to share her story and recently began writing a memoir. Her children and grandchildren have asked her to share her experience, and “I really have a sense of responsibility to let them know what happened,” she said.

Her coping mechanism was to forget as much as she could, and she did. But every once in a while, a vivid memory flashes in her mind.

“All I can remember from being the little kid I was, was that we’re going to the United States, that it’s a wonderful country, a country of freedom,” she said. It was the 1930s and her family — her parents, her grandmother and her sister —

had everything lined up. They got a spot in the U.S.’ quota immigration system, and they had their passports and their exit visas. “We were leaving at the end of December 1941.”

But due to the bombing at Pearl Harbor, their ship never came. Her father had already sold his business. “We got stuck. We had no place to go,” she said.

They reluctantly stayed in Budapest.

She remembers when German forces occupied Hungary in March 1944. She and her sister, five years older, woke up early in the morning to what she thought was an earthquake.

“The sound was horrible — all these tanks and all kinds of war equipment ran through the city. And we knew at that time that we’re going to be in big trouble,” she said. The Germans immediately swept the country of Jews, she said, including her own aunts and uncles who were sent to Auschwitz.

Hirschfeld and her family were somewhat protected because — due to the efforts of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish humanitarian credited with saving thousands of Jews — they had forged papers to show they were under the protection of the Swedish government. They were placed in an apartment in a building that

was identified as “protected.”

“My mother was able to go out for one hour a week just to get us some food if she could find somebody willing to sell to us,” Hirschfeld said. The restrictions were suffocating. Because they had to wear a Jewish star on their chests, she and other Jews could not use public transportation and had to walk through the city.

She doesn’t have many memories from this point on living under the Nazi occupation or the Soviet occupation that followed. “It was just horrible bombings. And I don’t know how often, but the Nazis would come to the building and call everybody down to the lobby and they would select people to go kill by the Danube (River) — they were using them for target practice,” she said.

At some point, her father was selected to be part of a death march. “He had some pills in his pocket and he took them to commit suicide,” she recalled. The Nazis thought he was dead and didn’t shoot him. Some peasants found him and nursed him back to health, and he was reunited with his family.

The Nazi occupation of Hungary lasted a year. Near its end, the Nazis took her and other Jews living in her building to join the thousands of others living in

Budapest’s ghetto. They were preparing to kill everybody. Hirschfeld doesn’t recall the details, but she and others ended up very deep in a basement, with no food, water or bathrooms while a Nazi guarded the entry. She isn’t sure how many days she was there, but at some point a young boy appeared and said, “We’re free.”

“What I remember is all these weapons all over the courtyard,” she said. “The Nazis just ran and left their guns behind.”

It was 1945 and her family again

Mary Hirschfeld holds the Phoenix Holocaust Association’s Shofar Zakhor award.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PHOENIX HOLOCAUST ASSOCIATION

Tina Sheinbein to receive JFL’s President’s Award at virtual event

Tina Sheinbein, Jewish Free Loan’s former executive director, will be presented with JFL’s President’s Award as part of a special virtual event on May 23, 2021.

“I am humbled and honored to share this exciting news,” Sheinbein posted on her Facebook page for family and friends. “Jewish Free Loan is a passion that I am blessed to be a part of. Thank you to JFL for bestowing this honor and recognition on me.”

The award, established in 2007, is presented to a person, organization or institution that “encourages Jewish continuity and reflects the values and principles” of the organization,

according to JFL. Ora Zutler, JFL’s president, will present the award to Sheinbein on behalf of the board of directors.

Sheinbein was selected for her service and leadership “in enabling Jewish individuals and families to improve their lives and achieve greater stability with regard to their long-term well-being,” according to a statement by JFL.

“Besides being humbled and honored I really do recognize that none of us succeeds in a vacuum,” Sheinbein said, via email. “It is always a team — the village that makes for a success. The staff, the board of directors and volunteers, professional colleagues, the donors and, in the case of Jewish Free Loan, the borrowers who trust in our program and come to us for loans and the guarantors who stand besides the borrowers. Truly an incredible group of talented, caring and dedicated individuals creating an amazing team. My success is their success.”

Sheinbein worked for JFL for more than 15 years. She started out as the director of development and outreach and later became the organization’s executive director. She contributed her vision and dedication to JFL, and was also a key proponent in creating the named loan fund program.

Since her retirement in June 2020, Sheinbein became the part-time coordinator for the international association of JFL.

Kathy Rood of Jewish Family & Children’s Services received the last President’s Award in 2019. Usually the award is presented as part

of JFL’s annual meeting, a large in-person gathering. But in order to ensure the health and safety of the community, Zutler will present the award to Sheinbein during a virtual Gratitude Gathering event. It will be a live broadcast thanking the community for its support throughout the last year, as well as providing an update on JFL’s impact.

Beth Ami fundraiser deemed a success

Beth Ami Temple's annual fundraiser in March was a success, said Judy Lohr-Safcik, Beth Ami's vice president and head of the fundraising committee.

“Unusual Jewish Locations in Asia” was the title of this year’s virtual fundraiser, which took place on Sunday, March 14 and raised a total of $1,852. More than 50 people tuned in to hear Dan Fellner, a Fulbright scholar, journalist and world traveler, talk about his time visiting various Jewish sites throughout Asia. His presentation included many photos as well.

Long-time Beth Ami member Mel Selbst said watching the presentation brought back many memories from his own travels.

Arnold Schwartz, another long-time member, commented on how enjoyable and informative the program was. Schwartz especially appreciated that many people participated in the Q&A portion of the event.

Fellner surprised many viewers when he explained that Shanghai was the most

welcoming community on the globe during the 1930s for Jews looking to escape Nazi Germany. But in present-day Shanghai, there are no longer any synagogues. He also said that the second most welcoming community to Jews during the '30s was the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean.

He described his travels in India, which has one synagogue dating to 1567. Today Mumbai, once known as Bombay, has eight synagogues. Meanwhile, Hong Kong is home to 3,000 Jews and Tokyo, Japan has 2,000. Thailand, too, has a vibrant Jewish community with many Jewish visitors. Fellner pointed out that almost all of the Asian countries have at least one Chabad.

By the end of the evening, members felt they had a good idea about the Jewish community in Asia, said Lohr-Safcik.

Elyssa Schneider chaired the event. JN

This is what memory care is all about.

It’s not to say that dementia isn’t an emotional and challenging disease. It’s just that when you see the person instead of the disease, you don’t see sadness. You see

Longevity Secrets:

Tina Sheinbein PHOTO COURTESY OF TINA SHEINBEIN

Musmeah Yeshua Synagogue in Yangon, Myanmar PHOTO BY DAN FELLNER

‘Maus’ creator Art Spiegelman talks at Holocaust teach-in

JESSE BERNSTEIN | CONTRIBUTING WRITER

More than 400 students, educators and community members tuned in from around the world on March 7 to attend Philadelphia’s Gratz College Zoom event with cartoonist Art Spiegelman.

As part of the biennial Arnold and Esther Tuzman Memorial Holocaust Teach-In, Spiegelman, creator of “Maus” and the first cartoonist to ever win the Pulitzer Prize, gave several talks to different groups over the course of the afternoon. For a few hours, viewers heard from the 73 year-old Spiegelman on topics like MAD magazine, American cartooning, Donald Trump, Zionism, Elie Wiesel, Charlie Hebdo, “Maus” and more.

“Maus,” Spiegelman’s graphic memoir for which he is best known, is both the story of his father’s experience of the Holocaust in Poland and Spiegelman’s own experience as the son of Holocaust survivors. It is based on recordings that Spiegelman made of his father’s testimony. The resulting work, published serially between 1980 and 1991, won praise and awards for Spiegelman from across the globe.

“Maus” is well-suited to the themes of the teach-in. The late Arnold and Esther Tuzman, the namesakes of the teach-in, were both Holocaust survivors. Their son, Marty Tuzman, and granddaughter, Kira Foley-Tuzman, described the experience of carrying on the legacy of their forebearers for the teach-in attendees, emphasizing the responsibility that they feel to honor their memory.

After leading VIP sponsors on a tour of his at-home studio, Spiegelman spoke to all attendees for close to an hour.

Puffing on a blue-ringed vape, Spiegelman said that he tried to avoid talking about

REMEMBRANCE

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

Those wishing to attend should visit jcsvv.org.

The Arizona Jewish Historical Society is hosting Holocaust survivor Oskar Knoblauch for an online presentation on April 16. His family fled Germany in 1936 to Poland, only to see it invaded by Germany in 1939. His family was forced into the Krakow Ghetto, and when it was liquidated, put to work for the Gestapo.

In the preface of his autobiography, “A Boy’s Story, a Man’s Memory — Surviving the Holocaust 1933-1945,” he wrote a short segment directly to Holocaust deniers.

“I ask those Holocaust deniers to explain to me where the six million Jews are. What happened to them? Did they just disappear into thin air? No, you deniers, those six million were turned into skeletons and ashes and were buried in almost every European country.”

Because such a large number can be

“Maus” for many years, as the same questions came up repeatedly. He even wrote a companion book, “MetaMaus,” that sought to preempt many of them. But the Trump presidency, he said, compelled him to be more vocal.

“I just got more and more scared about the reality I was in,” Spiegelman said, “because it seemed to me that ... well, I never quite thought I’d see fascism rear its head in America.”

When a commenter expressed dismay that Spiegelman’s discussion was focusing too much on politics, the cartoonist was indignant.

“This isn’t politics as some kind of abstraction. This is politics. The Holocaust was politics. And we’re living through politics now,” he said.

Spiegelman also discussed the history of American cartooning and the publication of “Maus.” Mostly, he answered questions about particular choices he’d made in the creation of “Maus,” covering everything from his portrayal of Polish people as pigs to a shadow on the cover.

Preregistered participants then broke into two groups. One session, led by Gary

difficult to process, he asked readers to imagine the entire population of Arizona, which was just over six million at the time of his book’s publication in 2014. “The next time you find yourself in a traffic jam, let your mind wander for a minute and picture Arizona without a living soul,” he wrote.

AZJHS is also streaming the documentary film, “Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz,” about the last surviving lead prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials.

Streaming will be April 16-18. Those wishing to attend either program must register by emailing afusco@azjhs.org.

Some events occurred ahead of Yom HaShoah.

On March 17, University of Arizona Hillel hosted two Holocaust survivors to share their survival stories over Zoom and hosted a vigil.

Zach Schlamowitz, a sophomore, was co-chair of the 30th annual Holocaust vigil. He said remembering the Holocaust is critical for all humanity — past, present and future.

Weissman, an adjunct professor at Gratz and an associate professor of English at the University of Cincinnati, was intended for educators at the high school and college levels. Weissman discussed the various ways in which “Maus” could be used to teach students about the interplay between literature, history and memory.

In the other session, Spiegelman addressed more than 40 Gratz students. He discussed his relationship to Israel, the difference between him and Elie Wiesel, and a new project he’d illustrated for the novelist Robert Coover; he talked about fascism, Plastic Man and the difference between the Republican and Democratic parties.

The work of Wiesel and some other survivors, Spiegelman said, felt “emotionally manipulative” to him; additionally, he had no intention of becoming a writer who would be called upon every time someone needs a pronouncement on a matter of the Holocaust.

“I have no real problem with his work,” Spiegelman said of Wiesel. “But I certainly didn’t want to spend the rest of my life having to become a second generation explicator of something that I put everything I could know into this one

“For those taken eight decades ago, we must remember to ensure their memories against a final death; for ourselves, we must remember precisely how such flagrant assaults on human rights evolved, to ensure our own ability to diagnose resurgences of anti-Semitism and xenophobia today; and, for those to come, we must remember to never lose hope that impregnable safety for our children’s children may one day be assured,” he said.

Michelle Blumenberg, executive director of the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation, said 29 students participated in the reading of names. Each student read names for 15 minutes, and about 12,600 names were read over the course of seven hours.

A PHA-affiliated group of third-generation descendants of Holocaust survivors called 3GAZ hosted a Zoom presentation March 25 about tracing Jewish family history despite the Holocaust.

Adena Astrowsky, founder of 3GAZ, said she

13 year-long project, and live only in that.”

Spiegelman recommended the work of younger cartoonists, and plugged Astra Quarterly, a new international literary magazine edited by his daughter, Nadja Spiegelman. He answered many questions regarding teaching techniques when it came to “Maus”; most were preceded by an outpouring of gratitude for Spiegelman’s work.

Spiegelman insisted that education wasn’t on his mind when he first put pencil to paper.

“I never made ‘Maus’ to teach anybody anything consciously. I didn’t think the world could learn,” he said. “I just knew this was a story that people at that time, which was 1972, barely knew.” (Spiegelman drew the first “Maus” strip in 1972.)

Spiegelman tried to situate “Maus” in the history of American cartooning, explaining that the genre wasn’t usually considered to have any literary merit for most of its history. It was his work and that of a few other cartoonists in the late ’80s, he said, that finally brought a more sympathetic critical eye. JN

and the other members organized this event because of their own interest in researching their family history.

About 30 people tuned in to hear genealogist Emily Garber, who is also Jewish. “In genealogy in general what we’re told to do is start with what we know, and then work backwards chronologically. And you can still do that with Holocaust records on our families,” she said. “More and more information is not only coming online but becoming available from many archives from Europe.”

Places like the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum are also now acquiring records from some European archives, she said, like the Arolsen Archives in Germany. And many records are free of cost.

For Garber, observing Yom HaShoah is important to help put life in perspective.

“When you destroy somebody’s life, you can’t destroy our memory of them, and it’s the memories that we’re trying to restore and carry on through the ages.” JN

Jesse Bernstein is a staff writer at Jewish Exponent, a Jewish News-affiliated publication.

From left: Rabbi Lance Sussman and Art Spiegelman SCREENSHOT BY JESSE BERNSTEIN

Nu? Want to learn Yiddish? There’s an app for that.

JUSTIN VELLUCCI | CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Kvetch. Mensch. Mazel tov. Schmooze. Colorful Yiddish words and phrases have been in America’s collective cultural bloodstream throughout generations — and many more might soon follow. Duolingo, the technology company that bills itself as “the most popular way to learn languages online,” will release its long anticipated Yiddish course on April 6.

The course, which has been under development at Duolingo for the better part of ve years, is ideal for those just learning about the language, Jews uent in Yiddish who want to brush up on grammar and spelling, as well as people whose ancestors spoke Yiddish and who want to explore a family tradition, said Myra Awodey, a senior community manager at Duolingo.

“We, of course, started with the largest languages — English to Spanish, Spanish to English —for the rst couple of years,” Awodey said. “Over time, we realized not only were people asking about other languages, there were other people reaching out, saying, ‘I’m an expert and I want to help.’”

To illustrate that trend, Awodey pointed to Irish-Gaelic, which Duolingo estimated about one million people spoke uently when it launched its Irish-Gaelic course ve years ago. In just the rst year Duolingo o ered Irish-Gaelic, one million people signed up to learn from the course.

Awodey stressed, though, that the Yiddish course Duolingo is releasing is merely a beta version; the company constantly invites participants to report errors and provide it with feedback.

“The courses are never completely finished,” Awodey said. “There’s always room for improvement.”

The Yiddish course was created by contributors representing the three major Yiddish dialects and from a variety of

backgrounds — from a civil engineer who grew up speaking Yiddish at home to three Gen Z’ers (those born after 1997) inspired by their heritage to carry on the tradition, according to a Duolingo spokesperson.

Meena Viswanath, the aforementioned civil engineer, grew up in New Jersey in a Modern Orthodox family and today lives in Maryland. Her family includes experts versed in various aspects of Yiddish. Her grandfather teaches the subject at Columbia University, her aunt is an editor at the Yiddish version of The Forward and her mother published a Yiddish-toEnglish dictionary. Viswanath’s brother even translated some of the popular “Harry Potter” series into the language, she said.

“We come from the secular, from the academic world,” Viswanath said. “We don’t live in communities where Yiddish is the vernacular. It’s a conscious decision we make.”

ere are three main dialects of Yiddish, according to Viswanath: Litvaks, or northern Yiddish, which was spoken in Lithuania, Belarus and Latvia; Galitsyaner, or central Yiddish, spoken in Poland and parts of Hungary; and southeastern Yiddish, spoken in Romania and Ukraine, which o en is a “compromise” dialect between Litvaks and Galitsyaners. e southeastern Yiddish is the form of the language most o en depicted in the Yiddish theater and in Yiddish lms, Viswanath said.

Duolingo chose to teach Galitsyaner, or central Yiddish, as it is the most commonly spoken dialect of the language, especially among Chasidic Jews, Viswanath said. Parts of the Jewish world already are responding positively to news of the Yiddish course.

“[Duolingo’s] Yiddish program has been trending on the Jewish/Chasidic

Twitter,” Viswanath said.

e Yiddish program, like Duolingo’s popular Hebrew course, will help bilingual or trilingual speakers who code-switch between languages when they stumble on a word predominantly known by an English name. To that end, Viswanath points to Israeli pronunciation of “sandvich” for sandwich or Russian fill-in words like “mobilka” for mobile phone.

“People are very loyal to their family’s dialect,” Viswanath said. “There is definitely pride in the Yiddish community. I’m looking forward to see how this happens.”

Duolingo launched its Hebrew course in 2016. To date, about 900,000 have registered to learn that language, which Awodey said is a good estimate for what the company expects of its Yiddish program.

Duolingo, which launched in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in November 2011, o ers 100 courses across nearly 40 distinct languages.

“We want to ensure that anyone who wants to learn these languages, can,” Awodey said. JN

Phoenix Holocaust Association

Featuring Rabbi Jeremy Schneider of Temple Kol Ami, Cantor Dannah Rubinstein of Congregation Or Tzion, and Shevet Shemesh Israeli Scouts

Screenshot of Duolingo app SCREENSHOT COURTESY OF BRITTANY SMITH

Israel in stalemate

One week after Israel’s fourth national election in two years, the country remains in political gridlock. As in previous rounds, in addition to the traditional political, religious and national allegiance issues that divide them, Israelis are profoundly divided over whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should continue his longest-ever leadership of the Jewish state.

Pundits, prognosticators and politicians are having a field day. Scenarios abound with dizzying versions of potential political alliances and compromise possibilities. Yet, in the cold light of reality, most agree that a fifth election will be necessary.

In this fourth round of voting, Netanyahu and his right-leaning allies are again a few seats short of the necessary 61 needed to create a governing coalition in the 120 seat Knesset. And those opposing Netanyahu can’t do it, either.

While a likely fifth round is no more promising, there are several significant takeaways from last week’s results that could have a bearing.

First, of the 120 Knesset seats, 72 will be filled by right-wing or Orthodox MKs. This, of course, would be Netanyahu’s natural constituency. In the normal course, 72 seats held by such like-minded politicians would have little problem forming a right-wing government — hawkish, ultra-nationalist, pro-settlement and annexationist, with plenty of influence for the haredi parties.

But right-wing leadership is divided over Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption and has antagonized many of his former allies. That leaves right-wing politicians who oppose Netanyahu with

Another ‘Other’

nowhere to turn other than an unlikely grouping with small center and leftwing parties from the Tel Aviv Bubble, plus the largely Arab Joint List. That won’t happen.

Second, last week’s election was haunted by the ghost of Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose Kach party was banned from the Knesset for racism in 1988 and who was assassinated in 1990. Some of Kahane’s followers are leaders in the newly constituted Religious Zionist Party — an anti-Arab, anti-LGBTQ, anti-secular amalgamation, which secured a surprising six seats in the election. The prospect of that group being an essential part of the country’s governing coalition is frightening. Nonetheless, based on last week’s results, Netanyahu cannot form a majority coalition without them.

Third, the political influence of the Arab MKs has been compromised. In the last election, the Joint Arab List became the third largest party with 15 seats. As a result, for the first time, Jewish politicians were talking about breaking the taboo of welcoming Arab MKs into the government. This time around, the Ra’am Islamist party split from the Joint List. Voter turnout was lower, Ra’am got 4 seats, and the Joint List fell to 6 MKs. Prognostication about Netanyahu courting Ra’am and actually getting them to join his coalition seems pretty far-fetched.

Fourth, so long as a new government is not installed, and if a fifth election is equally inconclusive, alternate prime minister Benny Gantz of the Blue and White Party will become prime minister in November under the terms of the current coalition agreement. Something has got to change. JN

Museum discoveries

JEROLD S. AUERBACH rom boyhood into adulthood, I was never fond of museums. Whether it was a grammarschool trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan or, as a young adult, the Louvre in Paris, I found the endless maze of rooms and paintings a tiresome bore. But I dutifully went along, whether because my fifth-grade teacher required it; or, years later, because my girlfriend seemed to condition

In the last year, Asian Americans have suffered at least 3,795 hate incidents. The upsurge in this disturbing trend seems to stem from some level of “blame” associated with the coronavirus outbreak in China, and the taunting fingerpointing and name-calling that was shared widely as the dreaded virus spread around the world.

The pandemic has put us all on edge. But there is absolutely no excuse for the transfer of blame for the virus or anything associated with it to our Asian American community generally, or to elderly Asian Americans who have been attacked while walking through the streets of several major metropolitan U.S. cities.

It makes no sense. But reading the reports and hearing the disquieting stories of the Asian American victims makes it real. And for our community, the stories are disturbingly familiar.

In a recent article in The Washington Post, Jeff Chang described the thinking behind epithets like “China virus” and “Kung flu” as the result of “the twisted logic that connects two opposed, infernal ideas: that Asians and Asian Americans are impure and inferior — and if not stopped, they will conquer our world.” Disturbing, indeed. Replace “Asian” and “Asian American” with “Jew,” and longlived and reviled anti-Semitic canards are brought back in full color. Quite simply, blaming a Chinese American grandmother in New York City for the spread of the coronavirus is not much different from believing that

our relationship on it. The only exception was the Baseball Hall of Fame, its unique version of a museum, where I delightedly admired photos and mementos of my idols (Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig) and my cousin (Hank Greenberg).

Eventually, once I became an American historian, my chosen past for research, writing and teaching started at the beginning of the 20th century. Coincidentally, or not, it was then that my grandparents arrived from Eastern Europe, launching our American family history in the land of freedom and opportunity. My parents eagerly assimilated as loyal Americans;

your grandmother has control of Jewish space lasers.

During the past few years, we have seen a distressing reawakening of aggression and hate crimes against minorities, including a serious uptick in anti-Semitic activity. Our sense of complacency has been disrupted. As the poisonous infection of hate grows, other vulnerable communities are inevitably targeted. Suddenly, our nation of immigrants transforms into a nation of scapegoats, as we fall victim to a rising blame culture and the politics of anger.

We can do better, and we must.

We need to stop the hate and embrace the hated. Our Asian American friends have done nothing wrong. Yet they have suffered a disturbing history of anti-Chinese immigration legislation, anti-miscegenation laws and the internment of Japanese Americans. Today’s threats and violence are unfortunately nothing new — the animosity and hate simply never went away. And now, they are simply rearing their ugly heads, again.

We urge our community to see the recent threats and attacks on Asian Americans as a wake-up call. This is our opportunity to reach out to our neighbors and to give them comfort, support and empathy. That is the way coalitions of caring and relationships of trust are built.

Let’s make clear to our Asian American neighbors that they can count on us. We will certainly appreciate their support when the wheel turns. But beyond that, it is the right thing to do. JN

I was the inheritor of their adopted faith. My Jewish indifference was eventually upended by a sabbatical year in Jerusalem, sparked by a brief trip to Israel sponsored by the American Jewish Committee for “disaffected” Jewish academics (I was clearly qualified). Except for my weekly teaching day as a Fulbright professor at Tel Aviv University, I was free to wander through the Holy City that was becoming my home away from home.

My meandering invariably drew me to the Old City and, inevitably, to the Western Wall. Its cavernous interior chamber was endlessly fascinating. Watching and listening to bearded old men and young boys with long tzitzit

Time for D.C. statehood

The Jewish News' editorial on March 16, “It is time for a voting rights compromise,” notes that D.C. statehood is “an issue worthy of serious consideration and support.” I agree and write to offer several reasons why.

In Talmud, Rabbi Hillel says “what is hateful to yourself, do not do to your fellow man.” In the early 1900s, both Arizona and D.C. desired to be admitted as states. Congress granted Arizona’s petition for statehood, yet over 100 years later, the 712,000 residents of D.C. remain without voting rights and representation that we now take for granted. Those in D.C. bear the responsibilities of citizenship without sharing its privileges. D.C. is home to 32,000 veterans, and residents pay more in taxes than 22 other states.

Legislation has been introduced in Congress to grant D.C. statehood. I hope our senators, Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, will support it. We are fortunate to have senators — the people of D.C. have none. As we celebrate Passover, we recall our own struggles and the freedom that followed. Perhaps by next year’s seder, the Americans who live in our capital will have equal rights, and democracy will be more complete.

Ellie Sims, Phoenix

as their davening echoed within the ancient stone walls, I knew that I was encountering “real” Jews, not the assimilated American Jews of my parents’ generation (and, of course, their children).

At the time, a few years after the Six-Day War in 1967, the ancient Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, destroyed during Israel’s struggle for independence, was slowly being rebuilt. I occasionally stopped by to watch the remnants of old buildings excavated in the digging. One afternoon an Arab worker approached me, holding several ancient coins that he had discovered underground SEE AUERBACH, PAGE 11

We are a diverse community. The views expressed in the signed opinion columns and letters to the editor published in the Jewish News are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the officers and boards of the Jewish Community Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Media or the staff of the Jewish News. Letters must respond to content published by the Jewish News and should be a maximum of 200 words. They may be edited for space and clarity. Unsigned letters will not be published. Letters and op-ed submissions should be sent to editor@jewishaz.com.

and was clearly interested in selling. As yet unaccustomed to Middle East bargaining ritual, I gladly paid his asking price. Our transaction marked my initiation into the world of Jewish antiquities.

Several weeks later, while walking along the Via Dolorosa, a shop window caught my attention. I ventured inside, wandering past keffiyehs, beaded jewelry and beautifully embroidered wall-hangings. In the rear was a fascinating array of ancient clay pitchers of various sizes and shapes. Some, with handles and spouts, clearly had been used to store and pour liquids. Others, flat and tapered with small openings, were oil lamps. There also were fascinating clay figurines: a donkey with a package bag on each side; a bird with spread wings resting on a stump; and a trio of tiny stone cats, my favorite domestic animals. They were all between 1,000 and 3,000 years old.

Most intriguing were ancient statuettes: a woman nurturing her child; another propping up her disproportionately sizable breasts; the head of a man wearing a tall pointed hat and another with his forefinger touching his chin;

people and animals with huge round rim eyes. During that year, and in years and visits to come, I purchased them from Mahmoud, the knowledgeable and genial store owner, for my own burgeoning antiquities collection — or, as I ironically identified it, my museum.

In my wanderings, I discovered shops in downtown Jerusalem that sold old religious objects. As a boy, my favorite Jewish holiday — and the only one observed by my parents — doubtlessly to undermine any temptation for Christmas, was Chanukah. But the celebration of Chanukah in Jerusalem was unlike anything I had ever experienced. In the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods of Mea Shearim and Sha’are Hessed, menorah candles flickered outside nearly every home. The eighth-night celebration at the Western Wall, where large vats of oil simultaneously burst into flame and many hundreds of celebrants sang “Ma’oz Tzur” together, was extraordinary.

Soon after, following my first (reluctant) visit to the Israel Museum, where an entire wall displayed more than one hundred chanukyiot of various sizes, shapes and decorations from Jewish communities worldwide, I was inspired to start my own collection. Several of my early

purchases were decorated with birds — one with the Ten Commandments. After returning home, I arranged them on a wall in my study as a miniature replica of the Israel Museum exhibit. Two others, different in size and ornamentation, earned privileged locations near my desk. One displays two lions flanking a tall candelabra above the words “Betzalel” (the chief architect of the Tabernacle) and “Jerusalem.” The other has an engraved backdrop of Jews praying at the Kotel; Me’arat Hamachpelah, the Hebron burial site of the patriarchs and matriarchs; and Kever Rachel, where Jacob’s favorite wife and Joseph’s mother was interned.

In my explorations, I discovered two silver spice boxes: one topped by a flag, the other by a Magen David. Also two beautifully filigreed silver siddur covers, one etched with Stars of David flanking a replica of the Ten Commandments; the other with two men praying at the Kotel. I found an elaborately decorated tzedakah canister with “Betzalel Jerusalem” engraved above a bearded man carrying a Torah. I came to realize that each acquisition not only was a tangible reminder of my time in Jerusalem, but a symbol of escape from my long-buried Jewish self.

Most painful — and the heartrending exception to my aversion to museums — was my visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. Its Children’s Memorial, a huge dark chamber with endlessly rotating ceiling photos of 1.5 million children, my age at the time, who were murdered by the Nazis because they were Jews, was especially searing. Had my grandparents not left Russia and Romania, I might have been among them. No other museum has had, or could have, its deeply sorrowful and enduring impact.

These days, writing and reading in my study, I am surrounded by books about Israel and Jews, antiquities and 19th-century lithographs of the Holy Land. They stir Jerusalem memories linking past and present, the sorrows and joys of my people. Jewish antiquities have enabled me to track — and embrace — that history from its biblical antecedents to Jewish statehood. Ironically, Israel not only undermined my aversion to museums but inspired me to create my own. JN

Jerold S. Auerbach is the author of "Hebron Jews: Memory and Conflict in the Land of Israel" and “Print to Fit: The New York Times, Zionism and Israel 1896-2016." This article was first published on JNS.org.

What I’ve learned teaching Jewish texts in the UAE

n 2011, on one of my first trips to the United Arab Emirates, I sat in on a class taught by then-New York University president John Sexton on law and religion at NYU Abu Dhabi. It was a thrill to watch this legendary law professor take 20 Emirati students through a Talmudic reading of the Establishment

Clause. But little did I know, I was about to be called to the stand.

“We have a special guest today. Yehuda, introduce yourself.” I said my name and title, explaining that I ran the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at NYU in New York. “That’s not enough,” Sexton said. “They’ve never met a Jew before in their life, let alone a rabbi. We’re trying to analyze these Supreme Court cases. Can you explain to the class, briefly, what Judaism is?”

I hesitated, realizing suddenly that anything I said could or would be used

against me in the court of this classroom. “Judaism is the belief that because we were redeemed from bondage, we are obligated to do all we can to bring redemption to ourselves and others. The stories and rituals are largely based on that belief.”

At this point, the questions came fast and furious. A rabbi in the classroom? The Establishment Clause was forgotten; Judaism became the subject of curiosity.

Throughout the past decade, Judaism has remained a subject of curiosity. The Jewish community in the Emirates

is blessed with diverse voices who are quenching that thirst. Ross Kriel, president of the Jewish Council of the Emirates (JCE), and Rabbi Dr. Elie Abadie, senior rabbi of the JCE and rabbi of the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities (AGJC), have provided eloquent explanations of the holidays of Rosh Hashanah, Chanukah, Purim and Passover on the pages of the Khaleej Times (at the newspaper’s request) — the largest English daily newspaper in the UAE. Jean Candiotte edited a

SEE SARNA, PAGE 12

Energy diplomacy opens new chapter of independence

JULIE FISHMAN RAYMAN

odern Greece is marking its bicentennial, celebrating the nation’s emergence from 400 years of rule under the Ottoman Empire. While ancient Greek culture pioneered democracy, philosophy, geometry and more, modern Greece kick-started a more recent seismic shift: normalization with the State of Israel.

Energy ministers from Greece, Cyprus and Israel have agreed to speed up work on the Euro-Asia Interconnector, a 2,000-megawatt underwater cable that

Mconnects the three countries to European and Asian power grids and cements their standing as energy exporters. Stretching 2,700 meters underneath the Mediterranean Sea, the high-voltage highway offers more independence for Greece and its allies.

Accelerating the interconnector is only one piece of the energy diplomacy that offers stability to the region. For the last decade, Greece and its partners have forged a new model of statecraft focused on cooperation and investments in technology — a prototype for the Abraham Accords that pave the way for normalized relations between Israel and the Arab world.

Numerous bilateral and trilateral

agreements between Greece, Israel and Cyprus have yielded strategic military alliances, including shared intelligence, technology and joint drills to bolster security. Energy agreements have lessened their dependence on nefarious regimes.

Since its independence in 1948, Israel’s energy security has been tenuous at best. In 2005, Israel’s diplomatic ties warmed with Egypt, which signed a 15-year agreement to export natural gas to the Jewish state. Israel relied on Egypt for 40% of its natural-gas supply. But under the regime of Mohamed Morsi, the stability of that supply faced constant threats. The pipeline carrying gas to Israel through the Sinai Peninsula was regularly sabotaged.

Meanwhile, Cyprus also paid a premium for energy from Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Saudi Arabia — some of which exploited Greece by offering gas and oil on credit at the height of the country’s economic crisis.

When Greece, Cyprus and Israel discovered their own natural-gas reserves, an angel appeared. For the first time, a major source of natural gas in the region was controlled by Western democracies. They were no longer beholden to regimes that didn’t align with their interests. Now, Israel has inked a deal to export its own gas to Egypt.

Israel’s more secure boundary has long been the Mediterranean Sea. It established

SEE RAYMAN, PAGE 12

Will Passover Ever End? A guide to Passover’s final day

inner sense of appetite and dissatisfaction, an expectant push launching us forward, searching for better.

SHABBAT CANDLE LIGHTING

APR. 2 - 6:32 P.M.

APR. 9 - 6:37 P.M.

As the birthday of our people, Passover is not just about history. It just isn’t “Once

Of course, the Haggadah helps us through the story of our ancestors’ slavery in Egypt and their miraculous Exodus, but that’s just the beginning. The Exodus was how we got started.

Passover was the moment in time when a new identity was born, when we became the Jewish People. This was not merely a benevolent act of G-d to let an oppressed people leave captivity, it is the festival of our freedom, free to be who we really are.

Passover is when we began to chart our destiny, when our act began. It’s the time when we were freed from our shackles of slavery so that we can free the world from its constraints. Indeed, born into the very fabric of the Jewish psyche is an

SARNA

Perhaps on a humorous note, this can explain a central seder tradition: the afikomen search.

After the seder preliminaries, but before we get to the story, a matzah is broken into two, and the afikomen portion is hidden. In classic Jewish style, it is the smaller part that makes it to the table and it’s the larger “half” that we are left searching for. Somehow, being left to search for more, to expect more, isn’t just a rite of seder night. Rather it’s a trait that resonates deeply with Jews of all backgrounds — it’s part of who we are.

Each year, Passover doesn’t just remind us of the fact that we are no longer slaves, but it also opens us up to our true potential. It empowers us to not be limited to the status quo. It allows us to expect more, to yearn for better and to never be satisfied with a hurting, imperfect world.

Interestingly, Chasidus teaches that the eight-day Passover holiday itself is structured around this theme. It is on the first set of days that we connect with the

Exodus of the past, while it’s in the final days that we celebrate what is yet to come.

It is in these last days of Passover when our ability to create a world of good and usher in the arrival of Moshiach is especially possible. This is reflected in the final day’s Haftorah where Isaiah’s descriptive prophecy of the future redemption is read.

So, will Passover ever end? I would like to say, not yet. Passover hasn’t yet ended because we haven’t stopped expecting more, expecting better. We never consider redemption to be a thing of the past.

It is in this vein that Jews all over the world follow a tradition instituted by the Baal Shem Tov and celebrate the waning hours of Passover, Sunday, April 4, with Moshiach’s meal, a feast celebrating the Divine revelation yet to come.

Why more food, you may ask.

At the seder, we didn’t just tell the story of our Exodus, we ate it. We tasted the bitter herbs, we ate the matzah and savored the cups of wine. We internalized the experience. In the final hours of the holiday, the purpose of the Exodus is waiting to be realized. It is our chance to get the family together and focus

RAYMAN

SHABBAT ENDS

APR. 4 - 7:29 P.M.

APR. 10 - 7:33 P.M.

on the future. To celebrate our inborn expectation that things should be better, much better. And no, not just to talk about it, but to eat it too. Complete with matzah, four cups of wine and any other Pesach goodies, let’s get ready to celebrate the part of Passover that is yet to come! JN

For a printable DIY program for your Moshiach’s meal, visit Chabad.org/4712962/.

Rabbi Naftoli Hertz Pewzner is a New Jersey resident and serves as an instructor of Chasidic thought and practice, as well as a professor of Jewish philosophy and mysticism at Rabbinical College of America. He is also a frequent visitor to Chabad of Scottsdale.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11 chapter on the Jewish community in a book published by the UAE Ministry of Tolerance and Co-Existence. ChabadLubavitch emissary Rabbi Levi Duchman has led seminars on kosher ritual law for the tourism sector.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

The Bronfman Center at NYU decided to offer the Jewish Learning Fellowship, a 10-week, non-credit course on Jewish texts, to students at NYU Abu Dhabi. We expected that between five to 10 students would sign up. More than 80 students enrolled within a few days after a student sent one single email.

The highlight for me of every class is the “Ask the Rabbi” segment. The questions range from the most philosophical to the most practical — from questions about God and prophecy to differences in head covering. This past week in response to a question about kosher food, I walked my laptop through my meat and dairy kitchens, past the cereal box shelf and into our meat freezer. Next week, I will address a student’s question about what Jews believe about Jesus.

To be sure, we have respected the sensitivities around teaching texts of nonIslamic religions. We have made it clear that we do not aim to sow confusion in anyone’s previously held faith; we are not seeking converts. Our purpose is simply to reverse the decades of division that have planted ignorance as a hedge between Judaism and Islam.

These teaching experiences, above all

others, give me hope for the region. It may sound strange to hear, but I believe that the key asset the Middle East needs in order to succeed is not oil, natural gas or a booming tourism industry; neither global finance hubs nor strong militaries. The key resource that must be carefully cultivated is intentional curiosity.

There is no time to waste, and we must also do our part. The Passover seder is at its essence an exercise in nurturing our curious instincts, as we find creative ways to prompt questions from younger members of the table, though no one is exempt:

If his son is wise and knows how to inquire, his son asks him. And if he is not wise, his wife asks him. And if even his wife is not capable of asking or if he has no wife, he asks himself. And even if two Torah scholars who know the halakhot of Passover are sitting together and there is no one else present to pose the questions, they ask each other. (Pes. 116a)

A child is deemed “wicked” if they feign curiosity. A child who does not question must be taught to ask.

Passover is the Jewish festival of curiosity. If we foster it within ourselves, we can, true to Judaism’s essence, redeem ourselves and others JN

Rabbi

formal relations with Greece and Cyprus decades ago, but it’s just within the past decade that the Israel-Greece-Cyprus trilateral relationship has transformed the Eastern Mediterranean into a real political and economic region.

What started as a partnership based on energy has developed into something much broader and strategic. The Interconnector — geared to become the world’s longest and deepest underwater cable — will link Israel’s power grid to the European one, forming another bridge to the West. Seeking to reduce its reliance on Russian energy, the European Union has committed funds to the Interconnector, deeming it a Project of Common Interest (PCI) that will bridge Asia and Europe.

But energy independence is just one bridge built by this diplomacy. As countries move away from oil and coal towards greener sources of energy, natural gas offers a bridge from oil to a more renewable future and green energy infrastructure in accordance with the Paris Climate Agreement. The EuroAsia Interconnector, which can transport energy generated by a variety of sources, will accelerate progress in all three countries towards that goal.

Israel has already pledged to derive a third of its electricity from solar power by 2030 and is pouring profits from natural gas into its electric-car industry. Meanwhile, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has declared Greece will be coal-

free by the end of his term in 2023. As the Biden administration rejoins and commits to upholding the terms of the Paris Climate Agreement, Congress should follow through on the commitments of the Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act signed into law in December. The American Jewish Committee and its partner, the Hellenic American Leadership Council, vigorously advocated for this law. From authorizing the Eastern Mediterranean Energy Center to deepening the security relationships with Greece and Cyprus, and calling out Turkey’s malign influence in the region, the EastMed Act advances key shared energy, climate, security and democracy promotion goals.

The Abraham Accords are creating a new path to peace for Israel in the broader region, but in recognizing those tremendous advancements, the path forged by Greece and Cyprus should not be forgotten. In the turbulent Eastern Mediterranean, these two democracies proved that there is much to gain from deepening and widening their links with Israel. The region, the United States and the world stand to benefit from this strategic alliance. JN

Julie Fishman Rayman is senior director of policy and Political Affairs for the American Jewish Committee. This article was first published on JNS.org.

Find area congregations at jewishaz.com, where you can also find our 2021 Community Directory.

Yehuda Sarna, NYU University Chaplain, is the Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Council of the Emirates and the Honorary Chairman of the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities. This article was first published on JNS.org.

Wise Aging’s virtual fundraiser will ‘knock it out of the park’

SHANNON LEVITT | MANAGING EDITOR

When Nancy Pollinger moved to Desert Ridge in 2016, she found herself wondering where all the Jewish people were. She had moved from a rather tight-knit community — “kind of a ghetto” — in Baltimore, Maryland, and Greater Phoenix’s Jewish community wasn’t as clearly marked as in her hometown, she joked.

Luckily, the internet provided assistance. Pollinger was intrigued by something called Wise Aging on the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Phoenix’s website. It seemed like it could be right up her alley — after all she was aging too. But more than that, she didn’t want to move to Arizona only “to live in a cocoon after retiring,” she said. “I wanted to give back to the Jewish community.”

She investigated the program and soon was part of a group of people who would become close friends and confidantes. She became a facilitator herself and has run her own Wise Aging cohort since.

On April 25, BJE will host Wise Aging’s fourth annual fundraiser gala. Last year, the gala took place soon after COVID-19 restrictions took effect and before many people were Zoom savvy, but it still “went beautifully and was very successful,” said Linda Levin, the program’s first facilitator and director of the

Wise Aging Center. Now that people understand the virtual world better, she expects “to knock it out of the park.”

This year’s gala will feature Ashton Applewhite, anti-ageism activist and author of The Chair that Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism. Levin expects people from all over the country to tune in.

The Wise Aging program is based on the book “Wise Aging: Living with Joy, Resilience, and Spirit” by Rabbi Rachel Cowan and Linda Thal and is part of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality.

“The program is a way to transition as you age into living a life filled with purpose, vitality and knowledge, which translates to wisdom and happiness,” said Pollinger. “It breaks down the myth that we need to just decline or that we’re irrelevant. It lets people feel relevant, connected and supported.”

While that idea might seem a shoe-in for a city filled with retirees, Wise Aging arrived through a somewhat circuitous path.

Harriet Rosen, an active volunteer in the community, was familiar with the program and believed in its mission. She enlisted the help of her friend, Connie Wolf, and the two of them visited with synagogue and community leaders about bringing the program to Arizona. Rosen gained support before bringing it to a board member of the Jewish Federation of Greater

THERE’S MORE TO LOVE AT ANDARA

PREMIUM SENIOR LIVING IN SCOTTSDALE

At Andara, we’re committed to adding more to your life. Whether you choose Independent Living or Assisted Living, you’ll find more luxuries, more culinary choices, more arts opportunities and more adventures than any community in Scottsdale.

Your best life awaits! Ask about our new move-in specials and schedule a tour by calling us at (480) 660-6768.

Phoenix who provided initial funding and eventually asked the BJE to become a home for the program.

Myra Shindler, executive director of BJE, then asked Levin to become a facilitator and a coordinator for the program.

Levin also keeps track of new Wise Aging groups and continues to train new facilitators.

Levin, who had experience teaching college classes in developmental psychology and aging, was excited to sign on. In part, she was motivated by the simple fact that “I’m aging myself, and the program has a wonderful perspective on aging — instead of the typical negative one about aging bodies and wrinkles,” she said. “I wanted to grow from this and learn from it.”

And she did. Along with a group of volunteers, Levin was trained by Thal to become a facilitator for BJE’s first cohort. The whole process was enlightening and fun, she said.

“Personally, it helped me to grow spiritually, emotionally and mentally,” said Levin, “and to look at life from a more resilient perspective enabling me to help others.” She has been pleased to watch it catch on with both men

and women from all walks of life: teachers, doctors, lawyers, counselors and many others. And while it has Jewish origins, the program is open to people of all faiths.

Pollinger continues to be inspired as well and is proud that her class has sustained itself over the last few years — even in the face of COVID-19. When the group was forced onto Zoom, they called themselves the Hollywood Squares. Joking aside, she said her group has been successful “because we’ve created a sense of trust — a confidence in knowing what we say is confidential and valued. More importantly, everyone is heard.”

A silent art auction begins on April 7 and can be accessed until the gala. JN

For tickets to the event, visit bjephoenix.org.

Cadence Living operates within state and local guidelines for health and safety.

INDEPENDENT LIVING • ASSISTED LIVING

Nancy Pollinger’s Wise Aging cohort doing their version of “Hollywood Squares.” PHOTO BY NANCY POLLINGER

Holocaust survivor battles into her 90s

ANDY GOTLIEB | CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Even at 96, Holocaust survivor Cherie Goren doesn’t like sitting still.

The pandemic’s ended her regular bridge game for now and an insurance company decision cost her some mobility last month, leaving her largely confined to her condominium in Merion Station, Pennsylvania.

Goren said she’s been paying into a long-term care insurance policy with Transamerica for 40 years. With her health starting to decline last year, she filed a claim and, in July, the company approved her for five hours a day with an aide, who helped her run errands and other day-to-day activities.

“If I don’t walk, I’m fine,” she said. “If I walk, I fall.”

But in February, the company sent out a nurse to assess Goren and determined she didn’t need the help, daughter Ellen Goren said, and stopped approving payments. The case is under appeal, marking yet another chapter in a long and interesting life.

Transamerica Public Affairs Director Erin Yang responded to an inquiry that, “Due to customer confidentiality, we are unable to provide information to you, but we have been in contact with the customer to address their concern.”

Born March 16, 1925, in the seaport town of Memel, Lithuania, as Sarah Fleishman and nicknamed Tutti (a cousin changed her name to Cherie upon arrival to the United States in 1939), Goren described a happy, prosperous childhood with her two sisters and brother. Their father, Leo, sold wholesale textiles, while her mother, Judith ran her family’s Schwartzen Adler Hotel.

“It was a good life — it was a very good life,” she said. “We had help. We had a beautiful apartment. We had the only car in the city.”

That started to change in 1937, when her father returned from a business trip to Czechoslovakia, sensing growing antiSemitism and general unrest.

“He said, ‘War is coming’ and ‘We’re taking a trip,’” she recalled.

For the next two years, Goren and her sister Frances lived with their aunt in Riga, Latvia, while her father liquidated his store and began making preparations to immigrate to the United States. Most of the family’s wealth went to grease palms to enable their travel, Goren said.

When it came time to depart, the family avoided Germany, moving through the

Scandinavian countries before taking a ship to Great Britain. From there, they took the Queen Mary to the United States, arriving in New York Harbor and passing the Statue of Liberty on April 20, 1939, which also was Adolf Hitler’s 50th birthday.

“The ship passed close to the majestic lady holding her torch,” Goren wrote in her book “A Time to Keep.” “New York appeared in the background. People around us were crying openly, so were my parents. I could not quite understand why, but I knew that this was the most auspicious moment in our life.”

There they were met by her aunt, Rachel Domont, who enlisted the Pepsi-Cola Co. in dealing with the red tape associated with immigration. The Domonts owned a bottling company in Indianapolis and bottled Pepsi for all of Indiana.

The story of Goren’s family’s departure from Lithuania is chronicled in the 2018 documentary “Leaving Memel - Refugees from the Reich,” directed and produced by nephew Fred L. Finkelstein.

The family spent the next few years in Indianapolis, eventually moving to New York, although Goren stayed behind to finish high school. She enjoyed the freedom of basically being on her own and recalled seeing an unknown “skinny young kid standing by himself” backstage at a Tommy Dorsey concert and asking for his autograph. The singer was happy to do so, signing, “To Cherie, Sincerely Yours, Frank Sinatra.”

“I didn’t graduate with my class because I cut too many classes,” she said. “I had to go to summer school.”

And she met one of her most valued friends, Rabbi Elias Charry.

“He was my mentor. I miss him a lot,” she said. “He was a big influence.”

At a wartime USO show, Goren met an Army Air Corpsmen from Pennsylvania named Joe Goren who specialized in “making false teeth for all the generals,” she said. They married and moved to the area a few years later, settling in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania.

From there, they lived the American dream, raising two children in the suburbs and staying involved with the Jewish community.

Goren doesn’t think too often these days of her wartime experiences — she refers to her book as a coming to America tale, not a Holocaust story — but did make a return trip to Memel about 30 years ago. She found little recognizable, although her grandfather’s tombstone was just one of six saved from a cemetery there.

At the age of 50, Goren entered the work force, taking a part-time job at a National Beauty Stores location. Although she didn’t have retail experience, she

eventually became merchandise manager for the eight-location chain and created a store-brand cosmetics line called Cherie Cosmetics.

Around the time she moved to the condominium she still calls home, she bought the insurance policy now in dispute.

“Forty years and never missed a payment and they just pulled it,” she said.

Goren might want some help, but doesn’t want anyone to believe she’s helpless.

“All of a sudden, you become a charity case,” she said. “The first time they sent me Meals on Wheels, I sent it back. ... The longer I live, the less I know.”

Still, Ellen Goren isn’t letting the insurance denial go easily, noting that her mother uses a walker and has been hospitalized on three occasions because of falls.

“I said, ‘You’re just waiting for her to die, so you don’t have to pay the claim,’” she said. “It’s just a very draconian way to do business.”

Ellen Goren said she’s still making quarterly payments of about $500 to keep her mother’s policy active.

“She’s gotten very dependent on her provider,” Ellen Goren said. “She’s sitting alone.” JN

Andy Gotlieb is managing editor for Jewish Exponent, a Jewish News-affiliated publication.

From left: Frances (Fanny), Cherie (Tutti) and Gisella (Gisa) in 1929 PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHERIE GOREN

Much of my grandfather’s life is classified but the rest is pretty special

LISA WOOLFSON

When my sister and I were little and we visited my grandpa, all we thought he did was play cards and watch TV. We knew little about him besides his hobbies and that he was a loving grandpa. As it turns out, there was a reason for that. Most of the work he’d done in his life was classified. And the work that wasn’t, well, it wasn’t easy to explain to a couple of kids.

Now that I’m older, I know a lot more about my once mysterious grandpa.

My grandfather, Martin G. Woolfson, lives in Pikesville, Maryland and is a member of Beth Tfiloh Congregation there. He recently turned 85. He was born in the Bronx, New York but moved to Maryland during World War II, during which his father worked in a shipyard.

After the war, they returned to the Bronx, and my grandpa left home at 15 when he had one year left of high school. He decided to move back to Baltimore, Maryland because he liked it and had a lot of family living there. He went to Baltimore City College for high school and graduated sixth in the class.

After high school, he got accepted to a workstudy scholarship program with Johns Hopkins

University and Westinghouse Electric, a military contractor that produced defense electronics. My grandpa worked 32 hours a week and went to school at night and during the summer. It took about six years for him to earn his bachelor’s degree.

In 1958, he was drafted into the army and was at Fort Knox for about four months. But they decided his skills would make him more useful on inactive reserve, so he returned to Westinghouse. He was honorably discharged from the army eight years later.

He went for a master’s degree at night, which took around another five years.

My grandfather also worked on Project Gemini, NASA’s second spaceflight program. He helped design the circuitry and metering of the Westinghouse rendezvous radar, which allowed people to take an object in space and hook it up to another object in space.

NASA liked my grandfather’s designs so much they patented his designs for themselves in his name. This is part of why he won a fellowship from Westinghouse. Out of 100,000 employees with only one or two offered fellowships, he was chosen.

My grandfather was supposed to go on to Stanford, but his mother had just passed away

and he had an 8-year-old brother. So instead, he decided to stay at Hopkins and begin a Ph.D. program. In 1973, he finally earned his Ph.D. in arts and sciences.

In the summer of 2016, when I was between high school and college, I went with my grandfather to the National Air and Space Museum in D.C. When we arrived, my grandfather told me that he worked on the design of something in the museum. We walked through the sprawling building to the space section, and he pointed out a capsule that he had partly designed. It was amazing to see that his work was such an important part of history that it was featured in a national museum.

While he was working at Westinghouse, he learned a lot of classified information, much of which still cannot be shared today. But the information about Project Gemini now belongs to the public domain.

He eventually retired from Westinghouse, which, by then, had been bought by Northrop Grumman, an aerospace and defense technology company. Now, he focuses his

time on music. All in all, he started working at

My grandfather has been interested in music since he was a child. Every road trip I’ve gone on with my grandparents has included listening to 3-4 hours of Frank Sinatra and other 1940s and ‘50s hits.

After retirement, he took classes in music theory and jazz theory. Then he saw a private teacher to learn how to compose music.

Whenever I visit him, he plays me his new songs and explains how he wrote them. I love hearing the music he composes and that he still finds a way to make brilliant creations, even after retirement. JN

Lisa Woolfson is a freelance writer for Baltimore Jewish Times, a Jewish News-affiliated publication.

Lisa Woolfson, right, with her sister, Rachel Woolfson and her grandfather, Martin G. Woolfson, in front of the capsule at the National Air and Space Museum that Martin Woolfson PHOTO COURTESY OF LISA WOOLFSON

Fitness is key to healthy aging

JONELL MERTENS

As the saying goes, “Aging isn’t for the faint of heart,” and fitness is how we make sure that our heart, and the rest of our body, stays strong. The list of fitness options is endless. The key is to find what you enjoy and keep moving.

So where do you begin? If you aren’t a regular exerciser, a trip to your doctor is always the first step. Knowing if you have a current health concern or injury can be vitally important in planning your exercise goals.

If you are a regular exerciser, start by setting small goals. If you always walk 1.5 miles outside, try increasing the distance to 2 miles. Your next goal can be to do the same distance, but at a faster pace. Set similar goals for cardio machines like the elliptical or treadmill. In the end, all of those small changes will result in a stronger heart and healthier body. No matter your age, your body will respond to a progressive plan of action and you will see improvements that will make your daily activities easier.

If you require more motivation, a certified personal trainer may be for you. A CPT is a great option to assist you with balance and strength. The Martin Pear Jewish Community Center in Scottsdale has a number of nationally certified trainers who will meet with you — at no charge — to help you with your fitness plan.

Fitness classes are also a great option and are often included in a gym membership. Check to see if your gym has classes that would be a fit for you. Senior Fit, Yoga 101, Water Aerobics, Aging Backwards and Zumba Gold, are a few of the titles that describe active adult classes. Group fitness classes that aren’t specifically for seniors are also an option. Instructors are trained to offer safe options for everyone, no matter their age or fitness level. If you aren’t sure, ask to observe a class before you join.

Due to COVID-19, senior classes were paused and converted to online options for safety. At the MPJCC, we now offer active adult classes with options both on site and online. Our schedule also includes classes for those with a Parkinson’s diagnosis.

Gyms are often a social setting, and that is a huge incentive to get you in the door and coming back. It’s the perfect time to join your friends and encourage each other. The social aspect of working out — walking with

friends, lifting weights together at the gym or playing pickleball with a group — is often the main reason people will stick with an exercise routine. This reflects my earlier point of finding what you enjoy to keep yourself moving.

For those of you exercising at home, you can purchase a set or two of hand weights from an online retailer like Amazon. Start with a set of light weights and add a few pounds as you set higher goals. A yoga mat is great for stretching and provides a non-slip surface. Sitting in an armless chair provides a secure position for exercising on your own. Circle and handle bands offer extensive exercise possibilities for the upper and lower body.

If you aren’t able to get on and off the floor without help, you may need to stay in a chair for safety. Many senior fitness classes are chair-based, yet incredibly challenging. If you are planning to work out at home, make sure that there are no loose rugs to slip on, and wear your tennis shoes. Your space should be large enough to move and groove without obstruction.

If you’ve fallen or are worried about falling, doing exercises to improve your strength, balance and flexibility will help make you stronger and feel more confident on your feet.

For additional guidance, the CDC recommends that adults aged 65 and older should do the following:

• Aim to be physically active every day — any activity is better than none.

• Do activities that improve strength, balance and flexibility at least two days a week.

• Do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity every week or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity. If you are already active, you should combine both.

• Reduce time spent sitting or lying down and break up long periods of not moving with some activity.

When you think of exercise as a prescription for your health, it becomes a daily pill you take. But to hit your fitness goals, find what you love so you will stick with it and keep moving. Aging doesn’t have to be for the faint of heart! JN

For complete CDC exercise recommendations, visit cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/older_adults.

Jonell Mertens is a NASM-CPT, AFAA-certified instructor and Parkinson’s coordinator for Martin Pear JCC. For more information, visit mpjcc.org/ personal-training.

Senior fitness classes at Martin Pear JCC.

How to ignite your relationship at any age or stage

MARTIN KUPPER

Many of us spend an enormous amount of time and energy in finding a love relationship. That can still be the case as we age. Whether we meet through friends, family, a synagogue, online or by happenstance, the quest to find “the one” consumes many anxious encounters with those who turn out to be “not the one.”

Maybe you found the right person long ago and are now looking to ignite a new spark in a decades-long marriage. Or you’re caught in a romantic transition and feel lost. People who were in a very long-term relationship and now find themselves dating again, might need a little help figuring out what to focus on.

It’s easy to give up on love, especially amid COVID-19’s obstacles, which have strained all of our relationships this past year. Ordering food in and watching the latest Netflix show might seem easier than working on your current relationship or finding a new one.

Trying new experiences together invigorates, connects and bonds couples while deepening their relationship, according to Dr. Arthur Aron, professor of psychology at Stony Brook University in New York. That’s

true no matter what stage of the relationship you’re at.

Here are six tips to increase connection, passion and romance in your relationship whether it’s new or decades in the making.

Create a morning ritual

This can be as simple as alternating tasks, with one partner making coffee while the other makes the bed. It’s truly the little things we do for ourselves and our partners on a regular basis that make the most profound impact on our relationship. Writing and hiding little love notes for your partner to find during the day is another ritual that can be done easily. Or just send a fun playful text.

Speak your partner’s love language

This is one of the easiest and most powerful things a couple can do to directly impact and enhance their relationship. Check out Gary Chapman’s 5lovelanguages.com and take the quiz with your partner to discover your love language. If you already know it and have been in a relationship for more than one year, take it again with your partner and you’ll be pleasantly surprised to learn how the order of the languages may have shifted. Be sure to do one thing each day that speaks to your partner’s primary love language.

Make a deposit into your love bank account

When you do something nice for your partner or go out of your way to make them feel special, you’re making a “deposit” into your “love bank account.” Conversely, when something negative occurs in your relationship you are making a “withdrawal” from the account. You get the idea.

When you make daily deposits in the love account, it’s like having an insurance policy for a failproof relationship that stands the test of time.

Celebrate your love

My partner and I celebrate the anniversary of the day we met each and every month. We acknowledge the commitment to our relationship in various ways but always on the 14th of every month. Even if we are apart, we send a note, flowers or a small gift recognizing our special day. We usually go out to dinner or have a romantic dinner at home.

Make your relationship a priority and do the little things on a regular basis. Watch your love blossom and bloom over and over again.

Have a spiritual practice

In Judaism, we practice tikkun olam — repairing the world. Our faith places an

emphasis on this special idea, and with our partner we can identify projects close to home that can make a resounding impact on those less fortunate. Relationships thrive when you deepen a spiritual connection with your partner as well.

Hello and goodbye

After we were together for some time, my partner and I noticed a difference in how we greeted each other. We were once so excited to see each other that we always embraced and gave each other a kiss. But after time, we noticed a pattern of coming and going without even saying hello or goodbye. Once aware of this, we made a conscious effort to take the time when we leave or return to give each other a heartfelt hug and kiss.

Take the time, energy and effort to overflow your love bank account with more deposits than withdrawals by being present in your relationship, prioritizing it and integrating these six tips. It’s guaranteed to make you the happiest couple you know. JN

Martin Kupper is a Phoenix-based coach, consultant and co-founder of Surprise Date Challenge. His latest book, “Surprise Date Challenge: Home Edition,” he co-wrote with his partner, Dana Lam.

JESSE BERMAN | CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Inspired by her young grandson’s love of challah, Ellen Kahan Zager was spurred to write, illustrate and self-publish her children’s book, “Challah!” that could capture the joy he feels for his favorite food.

A member of Beth T loh Congregation and B’nai Israel in Baltimore, Maryland as well as a past president of the Macks Center for Jewish Education, Zager, 65, built a career for herself in graphic design. She got her start in the eld of children’s literature by collaborating with her friend, Harriet Cohen Helfand. Together, they co-authored their illustrated retelling of the creation story, “And ere Was Evening, And ere Was Morning,” selling 33,000 copies to PJ Library alone.

Her new book “Challah!” is currently available for sale on Amazon.

“I wrote it, originally, for my grandson [Elior], whose rst word was ‘challah,’” said Zager, who lives in Baltimore’s Little Italy neighborhood. “It’s still his favorite food. And any carbohydrate, until he developed any kind of vocabulary, he identi ed as ‘challah.’ So it really didn’t matter what the food was, he called it ‘challah.’”

Her grandson’s habit of referring to things that are not challah as “challah” helps explain the speci c design of Zager’s new book. “ ere are six spreads where there’s a picture of something that’s not challah. ‘Challah? No.’ And then the seventh picture is, of course, ‘It’s challah, yay!’” she explained.

Some of the pictures of items that qualify as not challah include a blueberry mu n, a chocolate layer cake, a croissant and pancakes.

As her background is in art direction, rather than illustration, one of the biggest challenges Zager faced came from creating the book’s artwork, she said.

Zager views the primary audience for her book as parents and grandparents who have Jewish children between birth and 4 years old, she said.

Zager chose to self-publish “Challah!”, as she has found working with a professional publisher to be challenging. “It was a very, very di cult process,” Zager said. “Not that I was looking to make a lot of money. But there was so little money in it, and so much aggravation, that I decided not even to pursue it this time.”

ough the book is available for purchase, Zager’s primary motivation for creating the book was for the enjoyment of her grandson. She thought, ‘Oh, well I’ll get ISBN numbers, and I’ll put them up for sale, and if there’s a market out there, great, good for me.’”

Zager also wanted to have an outlet to focus her creativity. “ is keeps my creative juices owing,” she said. “I need to create. When you’re a creative person, when you’re an artist, you have to have outlets for your creativity.”

Zager is currently working on a new book focused on the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren in the midst of social distancing, she explained.

“The idea is that grandparents love their grandchildren even when they can’t see them,” she said. “And they will love them always.” JN

Jesse Berman is a staff writer for Baltimore Jewish Times, a Jewish Newsaffiliated publication.

First person: Lessons of an unintended caregiver

STU TURGEL

s a career nomad I have had the joy of experiencing life from coast to coast. Each new job brought me to a new community in which to live and work. For some, the idea of making numerous cross-country moves over the span of five decades would be a frightening proposition. For me, it was the thrill of new adventures, new cities, new friends and new experiences.

But one of the downsides of being in what sometimes felt like perpetual motion was the separation from family. In all the moves I made to wonderful parts of the country, I never had the opportunity to live and work near my closest relatives. Occasional visits were fine, but nothing takes the place of being close to family members to share happy occasions or to offer help in time of need.

Both of my parents are now gone. When my mother was very ill, I lived 2,000 miles away. Fortunately, my father served as her caregiver until the time of her death. And decades later when my father was seriously ill, his second wife was his caregiver since I was still living far away.

I never had the burden or the privilege to act as a caregiver for my parents. I never learned what it was like to interact with physicians, nurses, hospitals, insurance companies and the myriad other people and places that provided vital health services. It wasn’t that I didn’t care about them, I just never had to care for them.

Both of my parents went through their final illnesses with a spouse at their side while I was on the other side of the country.

Now, I’m suddenly faced with being a long-distance and unintended caregiver for my aunt who has neither a spouse nor any children to care for her. My late father’s sister celebrated her 88th birthday as a COVID-19 patient in an acute care hospital 2,600 miles away. The physical distance that separates us can’t separate the closeness I have felt for her throughout my life.

So, with no background in being a caregiver and no prior experience caring for my parents at the end of their lives, I couldn’t let my lack of knowledge stand in the way of trying to do the best for a person who has cared for so many others during her lifetime. I simply jumped into the deep end of the pool and did old-fashioned on-the-job training.

I spent the majority of my working years as a hospital executive. I learned a great deal about medical lingo and the way in

Awhich health care professionals relate to their patients and their patients’ families. I learned how to navigate the medical industrial complex and what physicians, nurses, technicians, hospitals and insurers deal with in the ever-changing dynamics of health care from the perspective of a provider and a payer.

After decades working in hospitals, I thought I knew all I needed to know about how to be an effective family caregiver and health care advocate. I quickly learned that what I knew was barely enough to make me a minimally literate health care consumer and proxy for an elderly relative.

home in her assisted living community with the help of non-medical home care aides, it still felt like a full-time job overseeing her care. It is hard to calculate the number of phone calls I’ve had with countless health care workers and with my family members who have been a constant source of advice, counsel and emotional support.

Throughout the months of dealing with this on a daily basis, certain question continued to gnaw at me: What happens when a seriously ill or injured individual doesn’t have one or more family members acting as their caregiver? What happens when a patient’s family members are

to have one of the most remarkable resources in the country that has as part of its mission concern for the elderly who are homebound and their families who find themselves unexpectedly enlisted as caregivers. Duet: Partners in Health and Aging has been devoted to this work for 40 years. I am proud to have served on Duet’s board of directors for the past few years.

According to Duet, “A family caregiver is defined as someone who provides unpaid care for a loved one. Many family members don’t consider such care ‘caregiving’ — they are just doing what comes naturally. Whether the care is provided in town or across the country, it’s a responsibility that can take a physical, mental and emotional toll.”

My work as a family caregiver continues because I believe that COVID is likely to leave my aunt as a COVID longhauler, in need of attention for a long time to come. I hope I can live up to the task and be a caregiver capable of providing the support that she needs and deserves.

But for those who anticipate playing such a role, or for those who have suddenly been thrust into the role of a family caregiver, it is important to know that there are resources available to help you be the best helper you can be for your loved one.

If you live in Greater Phoenix, consider contacting one of these agencies to seek assistance:

Duet: Partners in Health and Aging: 602-274-5022

Area Agency on Aging: 602-264-2255

Senior Help Line: 602-264-4357

But I am one of the fortunate family caregivers who has the benefit of a life partner who is an expert in the area of aging. Without her abiding support and counsel, I would have been lost.

And I have been doubly blessed to have a cousin who has been a nurse for more than 30 years at one of the nation’s elite medical centers and who shares my love and deep concern for my aunt, her cousin. This cousin lives close to my aunt, but in the era of COVID, a few miles or a few thousand miles don’t make a great difference.

Even with knowledgeable family members working in partnership to ensure that our family member was well cared for while in the hospital for many weeks, in a rehabilitation center for a few more weeks and eventually back

unprepared, ill-equipped and completely overwhelmed with the prospect of caring for a loved one? What happens when those who care the most are not even sure what questions to ask or how best to advocate on behalf of the person they care so much about?

As I pondered these questions, my first reaction was to feel grateful that I had a modicum of ability to deal with this situation. My second reaction was to think about those who lacked the support system to deal with such a difficult challenge. I feel compassion for both the patients who lacked a family support network as well as family members who struggle dealing with what few people are ever trained to do — be a caregiver for someone they love.

My community is incredibly fortunate

Dial 2-1-1 to reach the Community Information and Referral Service

AARP Arizona State Office: 866-389-5649

If you live in another region or state search for your local area agency on aging or contact the local office of AARP for suggestions on how you can be an effective family caregiver.

Being a caregiver is a noble task that calls on us to show our compassion, love and respect for the dignity and well-being of others. It may be a weighty responsibility but it can also be the greatest labor of love you will ever experience.

Stu Turgel is a broadcaster, blogger and nonprofit consultant in Scottsdale. This article was published first on his blog, thephoenixfile.net.

ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS / FIZKES

I QUICKLY LEARNED THAT WHAT I KNEW WAS BARELY ENOUGH TO MAKE ME A MINIMALLY LITERATE HEALTH CARE CONSUMER AND PROXY FOR AN ELDERLY RELATIVE.

Colel Chabad ups the ante to help fight poverty in Israel

DEBORAH FINEBLUM | JNS.ORG

“All who are hungry, come and eat. All who are needy come and celebrate Passover.”

Each year, comforted by the ancient words of the Haggadah and the fragrances of brisket, potato kugel and matzah-ball soup wafting in from the kitchen, at least on seder night, Jews everywhere can enjoy the overwhelming sense that all is right with the world.

But what if we really meant it: “All who are hungry come and eat. All who are needy come and celebrate Passover”?

This year in Israel, that’s a taller order than usual. Consider the nearly 200,000 families who can’t pay their rent and utilities, and still have enough money left for food. This segment of the Israeli population has ballooned in the year of COVID-19 and in the wake of mass job losses. Just compare the Central Bureau of Statistics’ January unemployment rate of 13.9% to the 3.9% a year earlier.

Add in the extra costs of the Passover holiday and the pressure mounts.

But what can be done to help, outside of shlepping a soup pot from home to home of every hungry Israeli?

It turns out that this is pretty much what the folks at Colel Chabad are doing — and increasingly with Israel’s government as partner.

It all began 232 years ago. In 1788, the first Chabad Rebbe, Schneur Zalman of Liadi (also known as the Alter Rebbe) issued a plea to his faithful to send more than they could spare (poverty being an ever-present fact of life for most) to sustain Jewish immigrants braving the hardships of life, including food shortages, hostile neighbors and disease, in a pre-state Israel under less-than-welcoming Ottoman rule. A decade later, the rabbi was jailed for treason by the Russians for raising these funds to support Jews in Israel.

Today, Colel Chabad is the oldest continuously operating charity in Israel, still fulfilling that mission to feed and clothe Israel’s poorest citizen — Jews, Arabs, Druze and Christians alike.

Including Sofia, who made aliyah from Russia in 1990. Now 85, she lives alone in Jerusalem and knows that meals will be delivered to her home twice a week. “I don’t have to worry where I will get food to eat, and I don’t have to cook it myself,” she said through a translator. “I am so thankful for this help.”

And Menachem, who lives with his wife and 11 children in Jerusalem and lost his job due to the coronavirus pandemic. The family receives both a debit card for use at supermarkets and deliveries of food boxes. “Especially during the holidays, when food is so expensive and still you want to give a sense of ‘specialness’ to the meals, it helps tremendously,” he said.

These are the stories that keep Colel Chabad director Rabbi Sholom Duchman going.

Ever since the day the Lubavitch Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, told the young newlywed that starting with the first Rebbe Schneur Zalman and including himself as the seventh, “all of the Chabad rebbes had a special place in their hearts for Israel,” recalled Duchman. “He told me that I am the one who needs to raise the money for everyone there who is hungry.”

Forty-three years later, Duchman is still heading up this mission. And it’s one that has expanded in the last year to embrace what Rabbi Menachem Traxler, director of volunteering for Colel Chabad, calls “Israel’s newly poor.”

“This year it can happen to anyone,” said Traxler, who directs Colel Chabad’s Pantry Packers, a volunteer-run food packing facility in Jerusalem. “Many of those in need today are people who, until COVID, had jobs with enough coming in to feed their families. Now, for the first time in their lives, they can’t pay their bills and buy enough food for their children.”

Pantry Packers, which got its start in 2013, is just one of Colel Chabad’s dozens of programs benefiting Israelis in need.

Chief among them is the National Food Security Initiative, a food-distribution system that feeds 10,800 families every month — with the cost of the multimillion-dollar program split evenly between the organization and the government.

Other Colel Chabad programs include 23 soup kitchens, feeding some 3,000 seniors a day, half of whom now require “Meals on Wheels” home deliveries; a safety-net program especially for widows and orphans; a lunchbag initiative for low-income school kids; four not-for-profit supermarkets selling food below market cost; scholarships for youngsters who have lost a parent to COVID-19 or other causes; nine dental clinics; rehabilitation centers for those with neurological conditions; and 16 day-care centers in low-income neighborhoods allowing mothers to work.

This winter, as the social and economic costs of the crisis continued to increase, Israel announced the most sweeping distribution initiative in its history. To maximize the program’s impact, the Israeli Ministry of Interior asked Colel Chabad to distribute monthly food cards — each worth as much as 2,400 NIS ($725) — to needy families in Jerusalem and central and southern Israel (another organization, Pitchon Lev, is covering the north). A total of 200,000 families are being helped through the 700-million-shekel ($211 million) program.

“Together, we’re performing miracles,” said Duchman. “And the program’s only qualification is need, including 64,000 households in Arab villages during Ramadan.”

And, as Interior Ministry spokesman

Riel-Shamir Blatt, puts it: “We know we have children going to bed hungry and old people who can’t even get out to soup kitchens this year. We knew we needed a huge program to reach as many of them as possible, and we’ve seen that Colel Chabad could do the job.”

Much of what the charitable organization is able to accomplish is not only donor-funded but also volunteer-driven. A factor that, organizers say, significantly reduces their costs.

Take Alex Katz, for instance. The former Californian has been supporting these efforts with both his time and financially for more than six years.

Katz said it’s of paramount importance to teach his five children the mitzvah of giving to those in need. As a family, they often volunteer at Pantry Packers, distribute gifts to hundreds of orphans each Chanukah and have supplied a printing press so adults with multiple sclerosis can earn an income.

“It’s all hands-on chesed (‘lovingkindness’),” said Katz. “And it’s inspiring to watch Rabbi Traxler, who never backs down from even the biggest challenge. The lesson for us all is to focus more on what we can do and less on what we can’t do.”

Indeed, one bonus of Colel Chabad’s work is its invitation to Diaspora Jews to get involved. Bar and bat mitzvah groups are welcome to help pack food during the year, as are visitors from overseas.

“By supporting us, they know they’re improving the lives of Israel’s poorest of the poor,” said Duchman. “These are people who literally have no food in the refrigerator unless we provide it and do it in a way that maintains their dignity.”

In his 43 years on the job, Duchman said one crystalizing sight was watching an orphan who had been able to finish high school and become an officer in the army thanks to Colel Chabad’s support.

For Blau, one point of pride was when Israeli TV personality Guy Lerer approached them last September with a request: After putting out a call for all those who wanted to turn over their governmental stimulus checks to the poor, he was swamped with more than 20,000 responses.

So Lerer asked Colel Chabad to be among the select few organizations to distribute it.

“The donors needed us to make it happen, to turn their money into food, electricity and heat for people who’d otherwise be going without,” said Blau. “That’s what we do best — getting what’s needed into the right hands.” JN

Thinking outside the [gift] box: An education in giving

ALLISON KIERMAN

ast year was rough, but communities still banded together to support those in need. In August 2020, the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe had more than 16,000 active fundraising projects for small businesses affected by the coronavirus and hundreds of thousands more for individuals and families. On Giving Tuesday, Americans donated nearly $2.5 billion, a 25% increase from 2019, according to the GivingTuesday movement. Many understand the need to support their communities in times of distress.

The definition of charitable giving includes the concept that the “donor receives nothing of value in return.” However, we know that charitable giving provides substantial rewards — beyond the tax benefits — to the giver. It is for this reason that parents and grandparents are increasingly using giving as a tool for educating young people.

This education focuses on exposing the giver and their family, particularly

Lchildren, to the needs and struggles of our friends, neighbors and community members of various socio-economic groups. This helps to develop empathy, which is the gateway to other positive emotions including joy, pride, motivation and wonder. This, in turn, leads to a more fulfilling life and teaches our children to become community leaders.

As Jews, we are reminded daily to teach our children to love Hashem with all our hearts and to perform his mitzvot.

Local organizations have begun to respond by creating charitable programs that allow the whole family to participate in giving. Jewish Family & Children’s Service, for example, specifically promotes giving and volunteerism programs that parents and children can participate in together. This includes a school backpack project and art supply kits, as well as others.

Other organizations have also begun to create givers and an expectation of volunteerism among children directly. For the 2020-2021 school year, Girl Scouts-Arizona Cactus-Pine rolled out regular volunteer and charity programs

for girls as young as 5. Girls are specifically encouraged to “identify a problem they want to do something about” and “be active and informed members of their communities.”

These programs have taken to heart the words of Margaret Mead: Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

From an estate planning perspective, parents have started setting forth activism, volunteerism and giving requirements in their estate plans for their children at all ages. Traditional estate planning focuses on what happens at the time of death. It plans only for the two inevitables — death and taxes. Yet, more and more families want to engage their heirs on levels that transcend money and financial transactions. Families are encouraging and even requiring giving and charitable support as a condition of inheritance, as in the following examples:

• Before a beneficiary may inherit, the beneficiary must perform a certain number of volunteer hours or other acts of service. This can include serving on a committee or board of directors, running a food drive or planning a volunteer program.

• A beneficiary must give a certain portion of the inheritance to a charity of their choice and within a specific time frame. This is intended to help the beneficiary identify what is important to them and start to make a valuable contribution to that cause.

• A beneficiary must establish their own donor-advised fund to hold and annually distribute funds to various charities of their choice. Donor-advised funds create a pattern of annual giving.

• A beneficiary must make a charitable donation and create a physical gift to honor their deceased loved one. This type of donation often leads to the

creation of a scholarship in memory of the loved one. Other ideas are to create a garden or dedicate a bench or other physical item in the name of the deceased.

• A beneficiary must create a private family foundation to support charities that are meaningful to the family and/ or that create a family legacy. These types of foundations are often multigenerational and endeavor to bind the family together even after the matriarch and/or patriarch of the family has passed.

For families with lifetime irrevocable trusts, some requirements of giving and volunteerism can start now instead of waiting until there's a death.

Each of these types of requirements have the good intention of educating the beneficiary and building within them a sense of obligation to give and actively participate in the local community.

Giving and receiving an inheritance is generally thought of as a way to provide long-term financial security and make education and travel more accessible, especially for younger children. Yet, a beneficiary must have the skills and maturity to successfully receive an inheritance and not waste it foolishly. Establishing giving requirements as a condition for inheritance can help educate and train a beneficiary to appreciate the inheritance and use it for societal good.

Maimonides noted, and scientific studies have proved, the act of giving benefits both the receiver and the giver. Focusing on the giving as a tool for education may provide a longer legacy for giving than the financial contribution alone. JN

Allison L. Kierman is on the board of directors for Congregation Beth Israel and is the managing partner of Kierman Law, PLC, an Arizona estate planning law firm based in Scottsdale. To learn more, visit kiermanlaw.com.

ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS WAVEBREAKMEDIA

Twelve of the most beautiful secret spots in Israel

NAAMA BARAK | JNS.ORG

Israel being a pretty small country, you’d think that every last inch of it would be well-known and well-covered. That’s far from being the case. Avid or armchair travelers can relish in reaching endless little locations where they can bask in the glorious silence, as well as in the glow of boasting about it to friends less in the know.

So that you, too, will be able to sound all adventurous and mysterious next time Israel comes up, we’ve gathered 12 secluded spots up and down the country. Because really, who wants to hear about overflowing markets anymore?

1.) Evrona evaporation ponds, Arava Desert

Fancy seeing a flamingo in the desert? Look no further than the evaporation ponds in Evrona near Eilat, which a group of previously migrating flamingos has decided to call home. The birds used to fly over the area on their way to Africa, but more than 20 years ago made their pit spot a permanent one, thanks to the readily available food at the site. The pools are located right on the border with Jordan, meaning that the flamingos simultaneously receive audiences from both countries, whose people, in turn, can also wave hello to one another. Coexistence, flamingo-style.

2.) Timna hidden lake, Arava Desert

The hidden lake at Timna is perhaps one of the most striking sights in Israel — a bright turquoise body of water surrounded by red mountains in the middle of the desert. Located a short ride from Eilat, the lake isn’t a natural one but was formed when the copper quarries at the site were flooded. Since the lake is situated among mines, it’s a little off the beaten track and isn’t the easiest place to get to. And yet, keen travelers are making their way there for a swim in the salty waters and even, as has become somewhat popular lately, for diving in the unusual location.

3.) Hamukei Nitzana, Negev Desert

Hamukei Nitzana (Nitzana Curves) is a natural park full of large, brightwhite chalk rocks that form in curvy, smooth patterns reminiscent of, well, curves. Its location right on Israel’s southern border with Egypt means that it’s not flooded with tourists even in the most COVID-free of times, enabling enterprising visitors to walk around and enjoy the moon-like setting in peace and quiet. It’s also a great destination for a moonlight hike, when the chalky stones shine bright.

4.) Little Crater, Negev Desert

Despite its name, the Little Crater is quite a large secret location, coming in at five miles long, almost four miles wide and 1,300 feet deep. The crater is a rare geological phenomenon and far less famous than its cousins, the Ramon Crater and the Big Crater. It was only deemed a nature reserve in 2019, following a decades-long struggle with Israel’s defense establishment, which opposed the move because some of the reserve belongs to the Negev Nuclear Research Center. It is home to unique geological forms, colorful rocks and endangered wildlife, and is a wonderful site for a desert hike.

5.) Kedem hot springs, Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is one of Israel’s best-known travel destinations, but it too is full of surprises, including deliciously hot springs — dotted along the shoreline where the Kedem Stream meets the Dead Sea — some of them large enough to fit a family or a few friends, and some of them just big enough to seat romantic couples. Getting there isn’t easy and requires going off-road and avoiding dangerous sinkholes, but that doesn’t seem to deter the brave few who venture out there, especially in the winter season.

6.) Ancient fortress, Ashdod Beach

While the beaches in Tel Aviv are perhaps the most famous, the coastline in Israel in fact runs down a substantial part of the country. And the beach in Ashdod, half an hour’s drive south of Tel Aviv, even boasts its very own fortress.

First built by Arab rulers in the seventh century, the fortress was used in later centuries to unsuccessfully defend the Holy Land from the Crusaders, who, after taking over the area, also took ownership of the stronghold. Today, the fortress strikes a magnificent picture against an otherwise empty strip of sand, even leading couples to choose the venue to tie the knot in small, corona-era wedding ceremonies.

7.) Austrian Hospice rooftop, Jerusalem

The Old City of Jerusalem has many rooftops from which to take in the breathtaking views, with one of the best — and relatively accessible — ones belonging to the Austrian Hospice. Opened in 1863, the building first served as the Austrian Catholic Church’s pilgrim hostel before turning into a military convalescent home during World War I, an internment camp during World War II, a hospital and again a present-day hostel with its very own Viennese coffee shop.

While the coffee shop is famous for its hot chocolate and apple strudel, those looking for a different experience would do well to saunter up the staircase to the roof, from where they can comfortably view the very heart of the Old City.

8.) Mount Scopus amphitheater, Jerusalem

The open-air amphitheater located at the edge of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Mount Scopus campus is one of the university’s best-kept secrets, alongside its botanical gardens. The amphitheater originates in 1925, when a temporary wooden structure was laid down at the site ahead of the university’s opening ceremony, which included grandees, such as the British Lord Balfour and General Allenby. The current stone structure was built 10 years later and withstood historic events, such as Israel’s War of Independence and the Six-Day War. Today, visitors who make the endless trek all the way to the edge of the campus are rewarded with beautiful desert views stretching into Jordan.

9.) Saint Peter’s

Church,

Tel Aviv

The bright pink Russian Orthodox Saint Peter’s Church towering over treetops makes an unusual addition to an otherwise rather nondescript residential area of southern Tel Aviv. Built in the 19th century, the complex includes both a church and a monastery and is open to the public for only a short time each week, very much adding to its secretive status. Enjoyed mostly by locals, the complex and surrounding park are a breath of fresh air in the metropolitan area.

10.) Midron Slopes beach, Jaffa

Located at the southern, less well-known side of Jaffa, the Midron Slopes beach, rolling down from the Ajami neighborhood to the Mediterranean Sea, boasts expansive grass lawns, bike paths, walking lanes and strips of sand, but somehow have yet to attract the crowds found elsewhere in Jaffa and Tel Aviv. The beach is best enjoyed early on Friday evenings when families get together for dinner, couples go out on romantic dates and kids whizz around, all in a uniquely pleasant, local atmosphere.

11.) Ein Sukkot Spring, Jordan Valley

Ein Sukkot is a wonderfully large spring surrounded by reeds, giving the whole place a very private and secluded vibe. The spring is located off-road in between a couple of settlements, making getting there a bit of a challenge, but is a firm favorite among travelers who absolutely cannot bear the thought of sharing an afternoon with the masses. Secret indeed.

12.) Alma Cave, Galilee

Alma Cave in the northern Galilee region is everything you could wish for in a cave: long, dark, cold and full of bats. It has a few legends surrounding it, such as the one claiming that Jews returned to the land of Israel from their Babylonian exile through it (because it’s so long).

Fast-forward a few thousand years, and the cave is equipped with pegs and light reflectors to ease the way in for visitors, who should still come in longsleeved clothes and anti-slip shoes. The cave is currently closed to protect its bat population, but once it reopens, it’s well worth the descent. JN

Featured Event

SUNDAY, APRIL 11

All-Star Yom Ha’atzmaut Celebration: 6 p.m. Celebrate Israel with an all-star concert produced by Jewish Rock Radio and presented by the East Valley Jewish Community Center. The concert features Rick Recht, David Broza, Nefesh Mountain, Rabbi Josh Warshawsky, Laurie Akers, Rabbi Lisa Silverstein, teens and college students singing in Israel and special guest leaders. Cost: Free. Register to receive the Zoom link at evjcc.org/yom-haatzmaut.

Events

THURSDAY, APRIL 15

Yom Ha'azmaut with the Klezmer Band Zaftig: 6:30-7:30 p.m. The musicians of Zaftig have played together for over 25 years throughout the Southwest, sharing their love of Klezmer music as it speaks to the Jewish soul. Join us outside at The Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus as we celebrate Israel’s Independence Day with a candlelight concert. Cost: $25 for members, $36 for guests. For more information or to register, visit apm.activecommunities.com/ valleyofthesunjcc/Activity_Search/1764.

SUNDAY, APRIL 18

Jewish National Fund-USA Breakfast for Israel: 10:30 a.m. Stars of the Israeli Netflix hit series Fauda will be joining Jewish National Fund-USA and thousands of supporters across the country for the organization’s virtual Breakfast for Israel. Cost: Free. Register at jnf.org/bfi . Fore more information, contact Leila Mikal, Senior Campaign Executive, Arizona at lmikal@jnf.org or 480-447-8100 x987.

TUESDAY, APRIL 27

JBox Delivery. The East Valley Jewish Community Center will deliver kosher meals for East Valley residents in need. The deadline to sign up for a meal is Tuesday, April 20.

Virtual Meetings, Lectures & Classes

MONDAY, APRIL 5

Latin Dance: 11 a.m. Michelle Dionisio teaches basic Latin dances like the merengue, mambo salsa, cha-cha and more for a fun dance workout on Zoom. For more information and to register, visit jfcsaz.org/ cse or contact seniorcenter@jfcsaz.org.

Little Chefs: 3 p.m., East Valley Jewish Community Center. Chef Melinda McNeil will demonstrate how to make Yom Ha’atzmaut cupcakes in this prerecorded cooking class for children (accompanied by an adult). Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit evjcc.org/littlechefs.

TUESDAY, APRIL 6

Swift Shakespeare: 11 a.m. Learn all things Shakespeare: his life, his works, and his world. The class is an acting and history lesson disguised as a comedic play. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit jfcsaz.org/cse or contact seniorcenter@ jfcsaz.org.

In the Kitchen with Chef Melinda: 7 p.m. Chef Melinda McNeil demonstrates Yom Ha’atzmaut recipes in this virtual class hosted by the East Valley Jewish Community Center. FCost: Free. For more information and to register, visit evjcc.org/ littlechefs.

Antiquity: 7 p.m. The canonic sources of Judaism — the Bible, the Mishnah, the Talmud, and the Midrashim — were generated roughly between 1200 BCE to 500 CE. This ASU Jewish Studies webinar explores how new scholarship on ancient archeology, literature, and social organization helps us to understand the treasures of the Jewish tradition. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit jewishstudies.asu.edu/jewishstudiestoday.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7

Making of a Torah Scroll: 1 p.m. What goes into creating Torah scrolls and other sacred writing? Join Julie Selzter for a virtual inside peek into the materials used and the process of writing, which includes letter formation and spiritual intention. Cost. $18. For more information and to register, visit valleybeitmidrash.org.

THURSDAY, APRIL 8

Looking to the skies: 11 a.m. How does an artist attempt to capture a subject which is as ever changing and vast as the sky? Journey across time and across the globe in this fascinating exploration into the variety of ways an artist responds to and interprets the sky. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit jfcsaz.org/cse or contact seniorcenter@jfcsaz.org.

Virtual live tours of Auschwitz: 1-3 p.m. or 7-9 p.m. In commemoration of Yom Hashoah, the Center for Holocaust Education at the East Valley Jewish Community Center offers a virtual tour of the concentration camp led by a professional tour guide live from Poland. Cost: $30. Space is limited. For more information and to register, visit evjcc.org/ auschwitz-tour.

SUNDAY, APRIL 11

Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration : 3-5 p.m. East Valley Jewish Community Center at Espee Park, 450 E. Knox Road, Chandler. Live music, children’s activities, donate toiletries and make cards for soldiers. Bring a picnic, EVJCC will supply dessert. Register by April 7, at evjcc.org/yom-haatzmaut.

Take this Job: 2 p.m. Temple Chai has selected the short play “Take this Job” that explores issues of aging to be performed live on Zoom. For more information and to register, visit bevival.com/events-1/ take-this-job.

Yom HaShoah Commemoration: 1 p.m. Join the Phoenix Holocaust Association as they honor the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust and recognize those who survived. Rep. Alma Hernandez is the featured speaker. RSVP necessary. To register, visit phxha.com.

MONDAY, APRIL 12

Mothers in the Bible: 10 a.m. Hadassah Tikvah West Valley will host Jewish educator

Andre Ivory for a Zoom presentation about mothers in the Bible. To get the Zoom link and for more information, call 623-252-3161 or email tikvahwestvalley@yahoo.com.

Jewish Wisdom and Leadership: 1 p.m. Join Chief Rabbi of the United Arab Emirates, Rabbi Yehuda Sarna, for a virtual discussion called, “How Jewish Wisdom Can Inspire a Paradign Shift with Renewed Leadership.” Cost. $18. For more information and to register, visit valleybeitmidrash.org.

TUESDAY APRIL 13

Musical Instrument Museum: 1:30 p.m. Learn about the traditions and celebrations of Klezmer music via Zoom. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit jfcsaz. org/cse or contact seniorcenter@jfcsaz.org.

Blast from the Past: 11 am. Arizona’s Hip Historian Marshall Shore will explore 1963. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit jfcsaz.org/cse or contact seniorcenter@jfcsaz.org.

Medieval/Early Modern Judaism: 7 p.m. During the middle ages (500-1500) and the early-modern period (1500-1800) Judaism greatly evolved to generate the masterpieces of biblical exegesis, jurisprudence, philosophy, mysticism, poetry, and liturgy. This ASU Jewish Studies webinar explores how new studies of the interplay between Jews and nonJews transformed our understanding of Jewish history and the history of Judaism. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit jewishstudies.asu.edu/ jewishstudiestoday.

THURSDAY, APRIL 15

Sun Lakes Sisterhood: 1 p.m. At Sisterhood of the Sun Lakes Jewish Congregation’s next meeting, see the latest Spring fashions during a virtual fashion show with clothing and accessories by JudyWear via Zoom. Sisterhood members will receive an email with the link. Cost: Free. For more information, call Carol Biales at 480-895-3168 or Janey Burnce at 480-895-4815.

Lunch and learn: 11 a.m. In this Herberger Theater Lunch Time Theater, Karen Burns invites us into her life--from an overly dramatic childhood spent in leg braces, to a narrow escape from the Golden State Killer, to the glamorous life onstage at Radio CityMusic Hall and back again to leg braces. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit jfcsaz.org/cse or contact seniorcenter@jfcsaz.org.

Author presentation: 2 p.m. Adena Astrowsky, author of “Living Among the Dead: My Grandmother’s Holocaust Survival Story of Love and Strength” will lead a book group discussion for the The Arizona Jewish Historical Society. For more information, visit azjhs.org/living-among-the-dead.

FRIDAY, APRIL 16

Holocaust Survivors Speaker Series: 10 a.m. The Arizona Jewish Historical Society will host a virtual presentation by Oskar Knoblauch. Learn about his survival story and how he has left a legacy for future generations including his inspiring autobiography, “A Boy’s Story, A Man’s Memory – Surviving the Holocaust 19331945.” Cost: Free. RSVP to afusco@azjhs.org.

SATURDAY, APRIL 17

Jewish Animal Advocacy: 7:45-9 p.m. The New Shul is hosting an online presentation by Shamayim, called “Havdalah For Health: Eating For Health and the Planet” after a short Havdalah ceremony. Lisa Apfelberg, Director of Shamayim and Aaron Guttman, owner Guttman Fitness, LLC, a Havdalah will lead the presentation. Cost: Free. Tune in here via Zoom using this link: us02web.zoom.us/j/8101222054. For more information, visit thenewshul.org or contact Marty Rosenstein behappybike@gmail.com.

SUNDAY, APRIL 18

Israeli Film Series: East Valley Jewish Community Center will host a daylong streaming of “The 90-Minute War,” a sharpedged political mockumentary about the century of intractable conflict between Israel and Palestine being settled once and for all … on the soccer field. Cost: Free. Registration is required. Visit evjcc.org/film.

TUESDAY, APRIL 20

Modern/Contemporary Judaism: 7 p.m. Since the French Revolution (1789) that granted Emancipation to the Jews of Western Europe, Jewish life was profoundly transformed. Emancipation, acculturation, assimilation, urbanization, industrialization, mass migration, and secularization are the main forces that profoundly altered Jewish life in the modern period. This ASU Jewish Studies webinar will reflect on new historical and sociological scholarship on the place of Jews in modern and contemporary societies. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit jewishstudies.asu.edu/ jewishstudiestoday.

MONDAYS

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

Ethics of Our Fathers: 7 p.m. Learn with Rabbi Zalman Levertov online. Tune in at: bit.ly/2Y0wdgv. Cost: Free. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Quotable Quotes by our Sages: 7 p.m. Learn with Rabbi Shlomy Levertov online. Tune in at: JewishParadiseValley.com/class. Cost: Free. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Promotion for All-Star Yom Ha’atzmaut by Jewish Rock Radio and the East Valley Jewish Community Center IMAGE COURTESY OF EVJCC

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

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

MONDAYS, APRIL 5-MAY 24

Welcome to Judaism: 5 p.m. This introductory Bureau of Jewish Education course provides a foundation in the basic tenets of Judaism. The class is open to nonJews, and any adult interested in further exploring Judaism. Cost: $50. For more information and to register, visit bjephoenix.org/courses/available-courses.

TUESDAYS

Keep Calm and Play Mahjong: 6:308:30 p.m. Play mahjong from home with myjongg.net. Cost: Free. To join a table, email Nicole at nicoleg@vosjcc.org.

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

3TUESDAYS, JAN. 12 - MAY 25

Introduction to Judaism: 7-9 p.m. Learn the basics of Judaism with Rabbi Stein Kokin. For more information or to register, visit bethelphoenix.com/adult-education.

TUESDAYS, APRIL 6-MAY 25

Mastering the garden: 9:30 a.m. During this eight week series, master gardeners, Gail La Tour and Mary Lu Nunley from Keep Phoenix Beautiful will teach you what you need to know. The class is called “Doin’ the ‘rot’ thing!” Did you know that waste from your veggies, coffee grounds, egg shells and shredded paper are just a few of the things that can end up being good for your plants? Cost: Free. To register, visit jfcsaz. org/events. For more information, contact seniorcenter@jfcsaz.org or call Jennifer Brauner at 602-343-0192.

TUESDAYS, APRIL 6-JUNE 22

Why We Do What We Do: History, Customs and Laws: 10 a.m. An online 11-week class exploring Jewish history, customs and laws. No class May 18. Cost: $110. For more information and to register, visit evjcc.org/obm.

WEDNESDAYS

Happiness Hour: 11:30 a.m. An online class taught by Rabbi Pinchas Allouche that delves into texts and references culled from our traditions to address a relevant topic and draw uplifting life lessons from it. For more information or to join, visit cbtvirtualworld.com.

JACS: 7:30-8:30 p.m. Virtual 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.

Knit a Mitzvah: 1-3 p.m. On the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month, check in with fellow knitters who are making items to donate as part of this Brandeis National Committee Phoenix chapter study group. For more information, contact Ronee Siegel at ronees@aol.com.

WEDNESDAYS, APRIL 7-28

The Jews of American Jazz: 10 a.m. In this four-week virtual class, examine the lives, careers, and music of a slew of great Jewish-American jazz legends. Topics covered include: Benny Goodman and the

genesis of the Swing Era, clarinetist Artie Shaw and black stride pianist Willie “The Lion” Smith and more. In partnership with The JCC of Greater Baltimore/The Gordon Center. Cost: $100 for 4 classes. For more information and to register, visit apm. activecommunities.com/valleyofthesunjcc/ Activity_Search/1734.

WEDNESDAYS, FEB. 3 - APRIL 7

The Lights of Rav Kook: 11 a.m. Learn the foundational roots of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook’s teachings and the soaring winds of his vision. Cost: $18. For more information, visit valleybeitmidrash.org.

FRIDAYS, MARCH 12-MAY 14

Wise Aging: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. A Bureau of Jewish Phoenix course designed specifically to meet the social, emotional and spiritual needs of Jewish seekers entering second adulthood. Explore the tools and resources to age wisely through the lens of Jewish wisdom. Learn positive ways to navigate a meaningful transition to your next chapter on life’s journey. $130. For more information or to register, visit bjephoenix.org.

SATURDAYS

Saturday Mindfulness Gatherings: 9:30

a.m. 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.

SUNDAYS

Soul Study: 7:15 a.m. An online class exploring the secrets of the Tanya and Jewish mysticism, taught by Rabbi Pinchas Allouche. Cost: Free.

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

more information and to obtain the Zoom link, visit jcsvv.org/contact.

Seniors

MONDAYS

Featured Presentation: 12:30 p.m. Join Smile on Seniors Mondays and Wednesdays to learn from a variety of presenters about topical issues, like Q&As with medical professionals, entertainers and lectures. Cost: Free. For full details visit sosaz.org/ virtual or email Rabbi Levi Levertov at levi@sosaz.org.

TUESDAYS

Brain Games with Friends: 2-3 p.m. Challenge your brains while having fun. Experts believe that active learning helps maintain brain health by preventing loss of cognitive skills such as memory, reasoning and judgment. For more information or to register, visit vosjcc.org/j-at-home-adults.

THURSDAYS

In the Kitchen with Benita: 12:30 p.m. Join Smile on Seniors on the fourth Thursday of every month for some delicious cooking or baking fun! Cost: Free. For full details visit sosaz.org/virtual or email Rabbi Levi Levertov at levi@sosaz.org.

FRIDAYS

Adult Chair Ballet Class: Noon-12:45 p.m. Join Jennifer Cafarella and Elaine Seretis from Ballet Theatre of Phoenix as they teach a ballet class that will help improve strength, flexibility, movement and balance. No prior dance experience required. Presented by the JFCS Virtual Center for Senior Enrichment. Cost: Free. For more information, visit jfcsaz.org/cse. JN

Upcoming Special Sections

Camp & School Guide

April 16

Parents are making decisions for next summer and next year now! Showcase your offerings to Jewish News readers.

Bar/Bat Mitzvah Planner

April 16

Ideas and resources for families planning celebrations or B’nai Mitzvot. Don’t miss the opportunity to highlight your products and services for events that take several years to plan.

Senior Lifestyle

May 7

From home health aides to financial planners, independent living facilities to nursing homes, this is the perfect venue to showcase how your business can help older Jewish residents navigate these challenging times.

PHOTO

PHOTO

“It’s as important to know what you can do as what you can’t do, or what you want to do or what you don’t want to do,” Rothstein said. “In a couple, you may have partners in different spaces after they go through the experience.”

For example, Seth and Sarah have had to come to terms with not only a potentially complicated religious household, but also the reality that many kids up for adoption have health risks.

“You really have to ask yourself questions, because external people are going to be asking you questions and evaluating,” Rothstein said. “It’s not that you have to be in lockstep with each other, but you have to be solid in your relationship.”

Seth and Sarah will finish the Yatom program in May, and feel committed to proceeding with adoption.

“We’re older parents,” said Seth, noting he and Sarah had their son, now 3, in their early 30s. If they were to conceive another child, Sarah would be

SURVIVOR CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

prepared to leave for the U.S. But their spot in the quota immigration system had expired. They had to wait for legislation that would recognize their visas and allow them to enter the country.

“And then, in May 1947, we were picked up by an American bomber in Budapest from the airport,” she said.

Eventually she, her parents, her sister and her grandmother made it to San Diego, where her aunt and cousins had been since the early 1940s. “I cannot tell you what a shock that was,” she said.

Her life had been in a Communist-era bombed-out city with horribly depressed people, and “all of the sudden I’m in San Diego a few days later, with the sunshine and the palm trees and the ocean.”

She was eager to fit in and leave the

MILESTONES

giving birth when she is close to 40.

“I would rather adopt the third and not assume that health risk, so I can be there to take care of my family,” Sarah said.

They plan to pick the adoption process back up when their daughter is around 7 months old. They have a few things still to decide, but they both agree on adopting a child whose age maintains birth order.

“Adoption is a very lengthy process, because to get certified and to get all this stuff, it can take years and then they could also put you on a waitlist,” Sarah said. “Depending on when our paperwork goes through and when we’re fully licensed by the state of Arizona, we would take an infant (aged) all the way up to whatever age our youngest is at that time.”

Yatom’s first fellowship program for parents began in 2016. The organization offered the program for a Phoenix-only cohort in 2020, in addition to a national cohort and will do so again this year. JN

Applications for Yatom’s next cohort will open this spring. Those interested can email yatom613@gmail.com.

war and its horrid memories behind. She started eleventh grade and went on to graduate from University of California Los Angeles. She got married, had two kids and then went back to school to become a family lawyer.

“I think when you get older, I’m almost 90, your early years come back to visit you. And I think more about that now than I ever did,” she said.

Hirschfeld is one of 54 local survivors receiving the Phoenix Holocaust Association’s Shofar Zakhor award this year. The Shofar Zakhor award, given during the annual Yom HaShoah Commemoration, recognizes contributions to genocide awareness and Holocaust education. It is usually given to an educator.

Hirschfeld said once COVID-19 is no longer a threat, she plans to share her story in classrooms. JN

Corinne Weiss Flegenheimer, 94, passed away March 14, 2021.

Born in Elizabeth New Jersey, Corinne left to pursue a Journalism degree at Ohio State University where she met her first husband and father to her children, Michael Harry Weiss, who was attending Dental School at OSU. After college, she assisted her husband with establishing his dental practice first in the Coolidge/ Florence area, where he worked as the first full-time dentist at the Arizona State prison.

A return to Phoenix to establish his practice was cut short by his recommission in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and a move to Camp Irwin, near Barstow California. At the conclusion of his service, they moved back to Phoenix and reestablished his practice, where she resided for the rest of her life and raised three children. In the 1970s she went back to school to receive a Masters in Education at Arizona State University, and later worked as a reporter for the Phoenix Jewish News, where from 1976 to 1983 she interviewed a diverse range of Jewish figures, including Abbie Hoffman, Congresswoman Bella Abzug and Simon Wiesenthal.

She was active in Jewish civic organizations, including a lifetime member of Hadassah and with the Brandeis National Committee Phoenix Chapter, of which she was President for a two-year term 2000-2001. She enjoyed travel with her two husbands, sailing vacations in California with the family and her dear friends.

Corinne was preceded in death by her first husband, Dr. Michael H. Weiss, D.D.S., and her second husband, Herman “Hy” Flegenheimer. She is survived by her 3 children, Donna Ballard(Terry), Dr. David Weiss, D.D.S.(Daphne Atkeson) and Steven Weiss(Kateri) and two grandchildren, Robert Ballard and Alexander Atkeson Weiss.

A private family ceremony was held graveside at the Temple Beth Israel Cemetery on March 17, 2021. Memorial contributions can be made to the Brandeis National Committee Phoenix Chapter “Book Fund” or “Honoring Our History” Campaigns, and Hospice of the Valley.

Madeline Lee (Maddy, Meema, Mimi) Roth, 74, of Fountain Hills passed away Friday March 19.

Maddy was born in the Bronx, New York and raised in Bayside, Queens. Her parents Irene and Stanley Schannon predeceased her. She graduated from Arizona State University, was an executive for the Jewish National Fund and was a longtime supporter of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix and beloved in the community.

Maddy, a loving mother and wife, is survived by her husband, Sheldon Roth of Fountain Hills; her two children, Jennifer (Angela) of Phoenix and Jason Shapiro (Natasha Bolouki) of Sherman Oaks, California; and her brother, Dr. Robert Schannon (Paula) of Delmar, California. She is also survived by her blended family, Joe Roth, Bobby (Susie) Roth and Jonathan (Lori) Roth; and grandchildren, Sami Jo, Courtney, Alli, Spencer, Megan, Harrison, Jessica, Benjamin and Joelle Roth. Funeral services were held privately on Monday, March 22, at Mt. Sinai Cemetery. Memorial contributions can be made to Congregation Beth Israel and/or Hospice of the Valley.

Sloane Farrah Gorman becomes a bat mitzvah on April 10, 2021, at Congregation Beth Israel. She is the daughter of Brenda and Andrew Gorman of Scottsdale.

Grandparents are Helene and Roger Wolheim of Scottsdale; and Arlene and Mark Gorman of Scottsdale.

For her mitzvah project, Sloane is raising money and collecting wish list donations for Arizona Small Dog Rescue.

A student at Cocopah Middle School, Sloane enjoys skiing, dance and hanging

Shirley Zimmet, passed away peacefully on March 16, 2021, in Arizona. For the past five years, she lived at a senior residence in Phoenix. She led an impactful life of 96 years.

Shirley was born in the Bronx, New York. She was the beloved wife of the late Josef Leo Zimmet, She resided in Queens, New York for 60 years, where she raised a family. She was the loving mother of Judy Zimmet of Scottsdale and Carol Zimmet (Paul Kononenko) of Boxborough, Massachusetts; and the cherished grandmother of Kevin Kononenko of Somerville, Massachusetts and the late Trevor Kononenko of Denver, Colorado.

Michael Zorro Shedroff, 83, died March 18, 2021. He was born in Chicago, Illinois and lived in San Tan Valley.

He is survived by his daughter, Amy Hertig-Shedroff; his sons, Walter and Benjamin Shedroff; and two grandchildren, Gideon and Hunter Hertig-Shedroff.

Services were held at National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona.

Arrangements by Sinai Mortuary. JN

Shirley endowed several Hunter College scholarships, organized many fund-raising events and was named to the Hunter Hall of Fame. She was an enthusiastic initiator of cultural and educational activities for herself, friends and various groups. She cared about all people and loved to travel. When she moved to the Phoenix senior residences, she continued initiating enriching activities for all around her. These activities were with Jewish Family & Children’s Service, Smile on Seniors and within her residence.

Shirley will be dearly missed by all who knew and loved her. Memorial donations can be made to Hunter College Foundation, 695 Park Avenue, Suite E1313, New York, NY 10065 or Smile on Seniors Arizona, 2110 East Lincoln Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85016

Give

Make a charitable donation to Jewish News and help support Jewish community journalism.

Recent gifts helped support the kind of reporting that has consistently won the paper many honors, including multiple awards from the American Jewish Press Association, and the kind of critical community coverage that you’ve come to expect from the Jewish News.

With Jewish residents spread out across Arizona, Jewish News helps create a sense of community by providing information readers can use to connect more deeply with our heritage. Your generous gift helps to support local news coverage.

We are a 501(c)(3) organization, so your contributions are tax-deductible. Whether you read us in print or online, please help us continue our commitment to bringing you the local Jewish news that you have come to count on.

the divisiveness of this election cycle. For those involved in the election process, whether it was informing voters, advising poll observers or canvassing for a candidate, it was a long campaign season. Ahead of Election Day, voters were bombarded with outreach efforts and reminders to vote, all of which helped produce record voter turnout: In Maricopa County, over 2 million ballots were cast, representing just over 80% of eligible voters. Temple Chai’s civic engagement initiative was one of many outreach campaigns. Since July, volunteers were busy participating in phone banks that focused both on the Temple Chai community itself and on reaching marginalized communities where people were less likely to vote. For Kaylie Medansky, director of teen, community and social action programs

Camp plans for next summer in light of COVID-19

Synagogues work to limit community spread

With COVID-19 cases rising in Maricopa County and reports of new positive cases in the Jewish community of Greater Phoenix, synagogues are tightening restrictions and even closing their doors to limit the spread of the disease. Two synagogues, Congregation Beth Israel and Congregation Or Tzion, closed in recent weeks, citing the increasing number of COVID-19 infections. Since mid- October, the number of confirmed cases per day in Maricopa County has risen steadily, surpassing 2,800 cases on Nov. 9. Both synagogues reopened in September for the High Holidays. CBI’s first in-person service was held on Rosh Hashanah with 60 members in attendance; after the High Holidays, attendance fell to around 30 people, and Friday evening services moved outside. Speaking to the Jewish News last month about CBI’s decision to reopen, Rabbi Stephen Kahn said that CBI

Please subscribe and continue to support JEWISH NEWS with a tax-deductible contribution. Complete the form below or go to jewishaz.com/subplus