Jewish News, Aug. 27, 2021

Enjoy pulling apart these apple rolls

Locals reflect on personal growth in 5781 as they approach High Holidays

Allison Summer spent the past year coming to terms with the “overwhelming lack of control” she felt personally, and despair she’s witnessed in her patients during the COVID19 pandemic.

“It’s been hard to watch everybody struggle,” said Summer, a therapist. “We have consistently been inundated with new consults, which is great for me, but also concerning because of what that says about what’s going on in the world right now.”

In her personal life, absorbing the global realities of the pandemic and the deep domestic political divisions that were laid bare by it “consumed” her.

It’s been emotional realizing that half of the country doesn’t share her value system or morals, she said. On top of that, she’s felt deeply troubled and hurt by the uptick in antisemitism and the flood of anti-Israel sentiment on social media following the spate of violence between Israel and Hamas in May.

But heading into the New Year, she feels like she’s found a way to grow from all of the turmoil.

Summer, along with many others in Greater Phoenix, is more introspective heading into 5782 than she has been in past years. For some, the pandemic forced a reckoning with new realities. For others, it sparked growth in ways never imagined.

“I’ve learned to understand that people have different viewpoints than me,” Summer said. She’s also learned to focus on the ways she can create the world she wants to have for her 8-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter..

“A lot of it is just with my kids and having them exposed to different cultures and having them know about different religions and that they’re not good or bad,

Greater Phoenix’s Orthodox community reflects on ‘explosive growth’

When Rabbi Ariel Shoshan and his wife, Ayala, moved to Phoenix from Baltimore in July 2002, he can only recall a handful of kosher restaurants, four daily minyanim and one K-8 school.

“It is not really possible to put words to the explosive growth of Torah Judaism in the Phoenix area (since),” he said.

In 2002, there were roughly 44,000 Jews living in the area, with 3%, or about 1,320 identifying as Orthodox, according to Arizona State University’s 2002 Greater Phoenix Jewish Community Study. In 2019, there were roughly 98,750 Jews, with 3%, or about 2,962 identifying as Orthodox, according to ASU’s 2019 Jewish Community Survey.

This growth has meant that there are now at least 15 daily morning minyanim, many kosher food options and several Jewish schools.

“I think the number of children receiving a Torah education is at least seven times the size it was in 2002,” Shoshan said. “The most amazing element of the growth is the hundreds of families and individuals who have bravely accepted upon themselves the joy and responsibility of an observant life.”

According to the Pew Research Center, 17% of Jews ages 18 to 29 nationally self-identify as Orthodox, while 11% identify as haredi Orthodox, compared with 3%, and 1%, of Jews 65 and older, respectively.

Robin Meyerson, Jeremy Rovinsky and Yisroel Loeb are among thousands of others who have contributed to the growth of the local Orthodox community over the past decade or so by becoming observant, by relocating or both.

Meyerson grew up knowing she was Jewish, but nothing more.

“My mom and dad wanted to show me and my brother the world,” she said. “We traveled to Australia, Malaysia and England and I learned about other cultures, like Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity.” But not Judaism.

She didn’t know what it was, but she was always searching for something. Looking back, she believes it was the pintele yid: a spark of Jewishness within every Jew, observant or not.

Check out High Holiday services around town.

To see listings of local High Holiday services, go to p. 14.

PHOTO OF “THE HOLIDAY SERIES, ROSH HASHANAH” BY ARTHUR SZYK (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Jeremy Rovinsky and his family PHOTO COURTESY OF JEREMY ROVINSKY

Spain is suddenly turning down many Jews who apply for citizenship. Why? Project to place defibrillators in Jerusalem synagogues before Jewish New Year

Two former California police officers charged with vandalism for swastika spray painted on a car seat

or wrong or right — they just are,” she said.

Like every Jewish New Year, Elianna Ickovic hopes to be able to stand before God as a better person than she was the year before.

She’s certainly been working on it.

Her dad died from COVID-19 just after Passover in 2020. “It was such a lonely, exhausting time,” she said. Ickovic said goodbye to her father over Zoom and wasn’t able to go to his funeral, or sit shiva in person with her family.

“Those things are not normal. Those are each major tragedies,” she said.

Life felt totally out of control, which was extra uncomfortable for somebody who doesn’t like to have a lot of “loose ends” in her life.

Over the past year she’s become more at peace with the limits of her power and has spent energy focusing on the good things that surround her.

“If you’re broken, you have to find strength within yourself. You can’t be the same person you were before. Just move forward,” she said.

She is grateful to be able to celebrate the coming year with friends and family, unlike last year when the pandemic forced her to celebrate alone.

Jodi Gross is going into 5782 feeling grateful to be connected.

The pandemic forced organizations and companies to offer services online, and Gross felt she could finally be part of the world.

“I have disabilities — and a whole bunch of stuff, chronic illness — and this allowed me to really join in,” she said. Before the pandemic forced the world to be accessible virtually, Gross was isolated.

“I don’t get out that much,” she said. “I was having a very difficult time.”

In the last year, Gross participated in a social justice group, Jewish learning and art classes.

“This whole year has basically been art therapy for me,” she said. She has learned to

let go of some of the urgency she felt about solving the world’s problems, too.

“They need attention, but they also need a lot of spaciousness and time,” she said.

She also discovered that she is part of a much larger community by participating in Crip Camp last summer, a 15-week virtual camp that brought together nearly 10,000 people from the disability community.

“I didn’t really feel community around my disability before,” she said.

She plans to tune in virtually to High Holiday services at a synagogue in Berkeley, California.

In the year ahead, she hopes to continue with her online learning, explore different virtual communities and connect more with family.

Esther Ades also had an uplifting 5781.

“We really rose up from this horrible situation,” she said of herself and her two sons, ages 12 and 9. “From my worst, I have now come to be my best. And I’m grateful every day.”

It turns out, being furloughed from her job as an advertising salesperson last spring was just the push she needed to live a life closer to the one she envisioned for herself.

“I was always too scared to leave my old job,” she said. “As a single parent household, you’re always worried about income, and I somehow made my old job work.”

Her sales job had her on the road. She estimates she would drive up to 40,000 miles a year for work, and she wasn’t able to be the mom she wanted to be.

Several years ago she trained for and received a license to sell health insurance, and last summer, she realized she had the time to dedicate to figuring out what to do with it.

“Slowly, slowly, every day while my kids were doing school, I would try and I would make calls and I learned the products inside and out,” she said. And last August, she turned it into a real job.

Between last April and October, she also lost 50 pounds while becoming a health coach.

“All of that — losing weight, getting healthy,

helping other people get healthy, establishing a client base for the health insurance and spending more time with my kids — we really have gotten closer,” she said.

She anticipates being an even more present mom in 5782. Working from home with her new job, she is able to pick up her kids from school, attend their sports games and even

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

ADVERTISING: 11

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

Jaime Roberts, 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

Top Left: Photo courtesy of Rochel Weiner | Top Right: Photo courtesy of Jennifer Starrett | Bottom Left: Photo via CBS2/screenshot via JTA.org Bottom Middle: Photo by Juan Naharro Gimenez/WireImage/Getty Imagess via JTA..org | Bottom Right: Photo couresy of JNS.org

Jodi Gross PHOTO COURTESY OF JODI GROSS

Esther Ades lost 50 pounds between April and October 2020. PHOTO COURTESY OF ESTHER ADES

Allison Summer PHOTO COURTESY OF ALLISON SUMMER

In high school, she played Auguste van Pels in the school play, “The Diary of Anne Frank.”

“And that’s it. That was the extent of my Jewish knowledge,” she said.

Meyerson, who lives in Scottsdale, met her husband when she was 19 studying business at Arizona State University. Coincidentally, he also did not know much about Judaism. After the couple married and had their first child, they began exploring Judaism together.

“It was a journey, it was not overnight,” she said. Through a free telephone service called Partners in Torah, she learned from a woman in New York over the course of eight years.

“We became really good friends and I met her in person a few times. She taught me almost everything I know,” she said.

Meyerson is now co-director of Project Inspire Arizona, chair of the Shabbos Project Arizona and provides life coaching to Jewish women.

Rovinsky grew up Reform in Long Island, New York. It wasn’t until he was a preteen that he was introduced to Orthodoxy. And in college, while he studied philosophy and political science at American University in Washington, D.C. in preparation for law school, he learned as much about Judaism as he could.

“I always had questions,” he said. “Some things didn’t make sense to me.”

He became active in Hillel and participated in a program by the Avi Chai Foundation, which exposed him to “the whole spectrum of Jewish ideas.” The program took him to Israel, where he realized he wanted to study abroad.

During his second semester of his junior year in 2006, he did.

While in Israel he spent time in different synagogues. “I was looking until something clicked,” he said. That click came when he met Rabbi Beryl Gershenfeld.

“He really spoke to me. He is the most selfactualized person I’ve ever met. When I met him I was in awe. I was like, ‘Wow. Whatever this guy has is what I want.’”

After Rovinsky graduated from American University, he decided to learn from Gershenfeld and applied to Machon Shlomo yeshiva, where Gershenfeld teaches and is dean.

He had already been accepted to George Washington University for law school, but deferred a year to attend yeshiva.

“The more you learn, the more questions you have. But the basic questions that I’ve always had, they’ve been answered,” Rovinsky said. “Living with the answers that I’ve always searched for and gotten has given me a deep, fulfilling feeling.”

Rovinsky, his wife and their young sons came to Arizona in 2013, when he had the opportunity to take a judicial clerkship.

Yisroel Loeb grew up in Far Rockaway, a neighborhood in Queens, New York. He was always aware that being Orthodox is a choice. His parents became religious independently before they got married even though nobody else in their families did.

“I was close with my extended family and none of them are Orthodox Jews or even totally Jewish,” he said. “Nobody else in my

family married a Jew.”

He appreciates that about his upbringing, because it allows him to be in “many different worlds” and helps him as a clinical psychologist.

Now as a parent to an 11-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old son, he also wants his kids to know that being Orthodox is a choice.

“I would like them to choose the lifestyle that I have chosen so I can eat in their kitchen,” he joked.

He and his family moved to Phoenix from New York in 2015 for his residency in clinical psychology. People generally move to the Southwest to start over, and to reinvent themselves, he said.

“And that is no different for the Orthodox community,” he said.

Loeb feels the local Orthodox community is warm and welcoming, and not insular.

“If you’re Orthodox, you’re not just going to be involved in the Orthodox community, or if you’re Conservative you’re not just going to be involved in the Conservative community, etc.,” he said. “There is communication and respect between the various branches in the Jewish community that may not be present in other communities.”

He noted the local community is one that allows people to explore their own Jewish identity on their own terms.

“Phoenix is a live-and-let-live type of place, more than the East coast.”

In their years in the Phoenix area, Meyerson, Rovinsky, and Loeb have watched the community grow firsthand.

Meyerson recalls when there was only one mikvah. “Now there are three and a few more being built,” she said. “We used to be one of a few families walking to synagogue on Saturdays in Scottsdale, but now the streets are growing so much we have a dedicated traffic light to help the Orthodox Scottsdale community.”

Rovinsky compares the rapid change to dog years.

“In one year, it’s like seven years worth of change,” Rovinsky said.

He has helped to represent Phoenix at the Orthodox Union’s annual community fair, geared to people living in the New York area to learn about different Orthodox communities around the country.

But Phoenix hasn’t been represented for several years.

“It’s more for communities that are desperate for people to move there. We’re kind of the opposite,” he said. “Phoenix is a really great place; we don’t need to offer incentives, like other communities offer, to get people to move here.”

He gets calls all the time from people interested in relocating to Phoenix. He attributes the interest to Phoenix’s cost of living and Jewish schools.

Shoshan moved to Arizona to become director of the Phoenix Community Kollel and founded Ahavas Torah in 2004. He said the community had a strong foundation created by the rabbis and community leaders before him.

“Today, there is a sense of togetherness and mission in an environment of religious sincerity and passion,” he said, “We have excellent shuls and places for Torah learning for every age.” JN

Mt.

•

Sinai Cemetery is pleased to partner with Hillside Memorial Park again for this year’s annual Kever Avot Memorial Service. Please join the virtual service by following the link provided below or by scanning the QR code in the lower right corner.

the days before Rosh Hashanah, and the nonprofit is hoping for donations to help provide for families in need.

“Everyone wants a beautiful table set for Rosh Hashanah and we would love to provide for as many people as we can but we need money to purchase items,” said Andrea Schneider, a volunteer.

Yecheskel Friedman, Ezras Cholim’s program director, said the food bank never turns anybody away, noting, “Our motto is chesed , chesed , chesed , which translates to kindness, kindness, kindness.”

“There’s always an increase of families

her to the hospital.

“She doesn’t have anybody here,” Haimov said, and has been making her neighbor's food regularly since. When the pandemic happened she began buying her groceries, too.

“I don’t want her to get sick and I don’t want us to get sick,” Haimov said.

Ezras Cholim began in 2015 to serve the needs of people facing illness in the Greater Phoenix Jewish community.

Two years later, Friedman promised a dear friend that he would continue her dream of running a tomchei Shabbos, a food pantry for Shabbat. “Baila was

Ezras Cholim of Phoenix’s garage is filled with boxed goods and frozen foods leading up to Passover in 2019.

New Reform teen org seeks to strengthen bonds between local synagogues

SHANNON LEVITT | MANAGING EDITOR

over the last 18 months, CBI educators plotted a course to “work smarter, not harder” with other Reform congregations on teen programming, Rosenthal said. Five Reform congregations are involved: CBI, Temple Chai, Temple Emanuel of Tempe, Temple Kol Ami and Temple Solel. From Zoom meetings to group texting, it didn’t take long before the synagogues’ religious school directors became a tight-knit group.

“We all started having more conversations as we approached the pandemic’s uncharted waters and asked ourselves how we can work together and support each other,” Rosenthal said.

cial. It’s the change of status — the end of Shabbat and beginning of a new week. And it will also symbolize the end of how we’ve done things in the past and how we are looking forward to possibilities and sweetness.”

She quickly added that there will also be some “good old eating of pizza” as well as games.

One question is what this new group will mean for each of the synagogue’s existing NFTY cohorts. The Reform Jewish Youth Movement held regional elections last spring and each of the five synagogues taking part in RTC have teens who were elected to NFTY’s Southwest regional board.

These events coincided with local religious directors asking one another what the future might look like when COVID restrictions eased and how they could do more with teens on the ground.

NFTY’s leadership has given its encouragement and support to RTC. Even the code of conduct RTC will use is NFTY’s.

RTC’s founders also see themselves as elevating and celebrating the recently elected teens and others for their leadership.

“We wanted to recognize our homegrown leaders to lead our local Jewish communities,” she said.

Stacy Rosenthal, Congregation Beth Israel’s senior director of education and youth engagement, has been working in Jewish education for nearly two decades and has held about every position there is. Now, she is one of several educators at the start of something new for Reform teens in Greater Phoenix. And ironically, it’s thanks — at least in part — to the COVID19 pandemic.

While being consigned to virtual meetings

The result is Reform Teen Coalition, a youth group for kids between eighth and twelfth grades. Its first official event will be a Havdalah service on Aug. 28, in Scottsdale’s Chaparral Park, where everyone will be fully masked and following COVID protocols.

This will be the organization’s welcome event, but it will also be tinged with religious significance.

“The Havdalah candle has to have at least three wicks to weave together,” Rosenthal explained. “We are weaving together the congregations to provide something spe-

But forming RTC was never about supplanting NFTY.

“We’re not breaking up with NFTY,” Rosenthal said, “We want to provide more. We know the social part of engagement is the reason teens come and the Jewish part is why they stay.”

The pandemic led the Union for Reform Judaism to make big cuts to NFTY, which meant that the adviser for NFTY’s Southwest region suddenly had a lot more congregations to oversee. And COVID denied NFTY much of its typical programming.

Eve Capin, 17, a high school senior and congregant at TKA, was elected this spring as NFTY’s regional president. She’s very passionate about the organization and “knowing I can help other people connect to their Judaism,” she said. “It makes all the hard work worth it.”

Yet, she believes NFTY can still thrive and have a partnership with RTC. She’s not sure how it will all work out, but said she and the other newly elected NFTY members are “excited about the partnership.”

Ben & Jerry’s dispute with Israel touches Arizona

JTA STAFF AND NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

Intifada, a publication covering the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, BDS movement co-founder Omar Barghouti said it “takes no position on the political solution to the conflict,” but advocates for a secular, democratic state based on the right of return for Palestinians.

Many people feel that BDS is a form of criticism of Israel, Newman said. But that is not the case. “The attempt to boycott Israel is another face of the attempt to delegitimize, and in the end, erase Israel.”

including Arizona, have passed laws or issued executive orders targeting the BDS movement against Israel, according to a database maintained by Lara Friedman on behalf of the Foundation for Middle East Peace and Americans for Peace Now, groups that oppose the anti-boycott legislation. Among the 33 states with antiBDS laws, 21 have measures that target boycotts that include areas controlled by Israel — meaning the West Bank.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey is one of a handful of governors to speak out against Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop selling ice cream in the West Bank.

Four days after the Vermont-based ice cream brand’s announcement, Ducey said on Twitter that Ben & Jerry’s decision “is discrimination.”

“Arizona stands with Israel,” Ducey wrote, and noted Arizona “will not do business with a company that boycotts Israel — in 2016 and 2019 I signed bills to make sure of it.”

His stance did not go unnoticed.

“Arizona is really a true friend of Israel. I don’t say this about every state,” said Hillel Newman, Consul General of Israel to the Pacific Southwest of the United States. “It’s a wonderful thing when you’ve got a friend like that, who comes out in real time and says, ‘We don’t allow such discrimination in our state.’ That’s a tremendous thing not many governors have done.”

During the week of Aug. 9, Arizona

became the eighth state to begin reviewing whether Ben & Jerry’s plans to withdraw from doing business in the West Bank merits sanctions under its law targeting the Israel boycott movement.

Ben & Jerry’s announced July 19, that it would continue operating in Israel, but would stop selling ice cream in the West Bank, which the company described as “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Israel disputes that designation.

Speaking to Jewish community leaders at the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus July 28, Newman said the move is an example of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which represents an ongoing attack on the legitimacy of Israel, he said.

“Unfortunately, many innocent people are swept up in empty or false slogans” he said. “They don’t understand the real roots of BDS actually comes from those that are against a two-state solution — they want to end Israel as a Jewish state.”

In a 2009 interview with The Electronic

Ben & Jerry’s Israel, the company licensed to produce and distribute Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in Israel, tweeted that it had refused to accept a demand from the American company to stop distributing its products in settlements. “This is an unprecedented action by Unilever, owner of Ben & Jerry’s Worldwide,” it said in a statement shared on Twitter. “Ice cream is not part of politics.”

Unilever CEO Alan Jope said on July 22, that the company remains “fully committed” to doing business in Israel and that it was not involved in Ben & Jerry’s decision.

On July 27, Anuradha Mittal, the chair of Ben & Jerry’s board of directors, tweeted her first comments on the boycott. She stood by the decision and denied being antisemitic following Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s statement that the boycott is a “shameful surrender to antisemitism.”

“I am proud of @benandjerrys for taking a stance to end sale of its ice cream in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” she tweeted. “This action is not anti-Semitic. I am not anti-Semitic. The vile hate that has been thrown at me does [not] intimidate me. Pls work for peace – not hatred!” (Mittal did not detail the “vile hate” she has received, though critics of the decision have attacked her on social media.)

The same day, Unilever sent letters to several American Jewish groups repudiating antisemitism and disavowing the BDS movement.

“We look forward to investing in our business in Israel long into the future,” said the letters, which were sent to the Anti-Defamation League and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, both of which had criticized Ben & Jerry’s West Bank pullout. “We have never expressed any support for the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement and have no intention of changing that position.”

Unilever faces the prospect of being penalized financially in states with antiboycott laws. As a result of a campaign since the mid-2010s led by center-right and Christian pro-Israel groups, 33 states,

Friedman said Arizona’s law treats settlements as part of Israel.

In emails obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Arizona’s state treasurer asked Unilever, the ice cream manufacturer’s parent company, to comply with its 2016 law. It requires state entities, including pension funds, to divest from companies boycotting Israel or businesses in territories under Israel’s control, explicitly including the West Bank. The treasurer’s office gave Unilever 90 days to do so.

Unilever bought Ben & Jerry’s in 2000 from its Jewish founders, Jerry Greenfield and Ben Cohen, under a unique arrangement that allows an external board to determine how the company embraces social and political causes.

In a New York Times opinion article published July 28, the brothers wrote they support the company’s decision and do not see it as part of the BDS movement. “That we support the company’s decision is not a contradiction nor is it anti-Semitic. In fact, we believe this act can and should be seen as advancing the concepts of justice and human rights, core tenets of Judaism,” they wrote. “The company’s stated decision to more fully align its operations with its values is not a rejection of Israel. It is a rejection of Israeli policy, which perpetuates an illegal occupation that is a barrier to peace and violates the basic human rights of the Palestinian people who live under the occupation. As Jewish supporters of the State of Israel, we fundamentally reject the notion that it is anti-Semitic to question the policies of the State of Israel.”

The last time a major company pulled out of business with Israeli settlements was in 2018, when Airbnb announced it would stop listing lodgings from settlements. Lawsuits alleging discriminatory practices were filed in the U.S., and Airbnb stood down within months, settling with the litigants.

That may not be possible in the case of Ben & Jerry’s: The ice cream ban on sales in the West Bank affects both Israelis and Palestinians in the territory, while Airbnb’s plans focused only on settlements. JN

Interest-FreeLoansfor HomeImprovement

A freezer full of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream with Hebrew lettering on the labels. PHOTO BY LINDA GRADSTEIN VIA JTA.ORG

Jewish winner of essay contest inspired by grandfather’s anti-KKK action

education. However, she is also contemplating starting an organization at school that could

Alondra Aceves Lopez, 15 and a sophomore at Mountain Pointe High School in Phoenix, took home second prize and $1,500 with her essay, “What Moral Courage Means to Me.”

Aceves Lopez also likes to write, but she entered the contest just “to see what happens,” she said. “You miss all the shots you

The topic wasn’t something she had considered before and she found it a fun challenge. She kept her entry a secret so her family was as surprised by her win as she was.

She, too, plans to use her winnings for college.

Emma Schwarz, 16 and a junior at Verde Valley School in Sedona, won first place in this year’s Anti-Defamation League’s No Place for Hate® essay contest. Her essay, “A Generational Legacy,” was inspired by her grandfather’s efforts to spy on the Ku Klux Klan and report on its activity to the ADL in the 1960s. For her first-place finish, she was awarded $2,500.

The essay contest was created by the Goldberg Foundation as a way to honor the family’s patriarch, Herb Goldberg, more than 10 years ago. Students are asked to reflect on the concept of moral courage in terms of how they define it, people who embody it and how it can effect change.

Schwarz enjoys writing short stories and fiction in her free time, so when her father told her of the contest she thought it could be an interesting challenge, as well as a change of pace.

“I’ve never written that type of essay,” she said, “and it’s a really cool topic, and I thought it would be cool to do something outside of school that wasn’t my normal fiction.”

But she never thought she would win. When she opened the email telling her she had, her first response was a simple, “Whoa!” She was surprised, excited and happy that someone outside her family and circle of friends was confirming her writing ability. “This was proof that I could write pretty well,” she said.

Her mom’s been sending her essay around for people to read and she’s had a few congratulatory emails. But best of all, “it’s really cool to know there are people reading my writing who aren’t just family and friends,” she said.

Her grandparents, who inspired the essay, think it is good, but she’s looking forward to a more in-depth conversation when she is able to see them in person.

Schwarz isn’t sure what she’ll do with her winnings but wants it to be something for her

Jessica Benites Olmedo, a senior at Gateway Early College High School in Phoenix, came in third with “Moral Courage,” and won $1,000.

Vicki Cabot, one of this year’s judges, got involved with the contest a few years ago when she found herself worried about the “hateful rhetoric and rancor in our country,” she said,

BETH

about a variety of issues and how they can make a difference by how they speak, how they act, how they relate to others and in that way become moral leaders and change makers.”

Cabot also pointed out than in a year “when we were wrestling with so many painful issues as a country,” she was happy to see students’ “thoughtful reflection” in their various essays. She hopes that things will be closer to normal by next year's contest, which could mean even more students participating.

Cathy Lee, ADL’s education director for Arizona, enjoyed reading this year’s entries. She found them inspiring and said they make her “optimistic about our future.” JN

Emma Schwarz PHOTO BY MELISSA BASKIN

Alondra Aceves Lopez PHOTO BY ALONDRA ACEVES LOPEZ

You should know … Alyssa Belanger

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

Alyssa Belanger started her eventplanning business in 2019.

It was an “amazing year,” she said. Then the pandemic came, and it’s been “a crazy time to be an event planner” since.

She only had a handful of events in 2020, and so far this year she’s done several indoor corporate events and backyard b’nai mitzvah, anniversary and birthday parties.

About 18 months into the pandemic and eight months after the first vaccine was federally approved, Belanger said she is beginning to see events requiring individuals prove they have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

“We’re starting to see kind of some — I don’t want to use the word segregation — but I don’t know what other word to use,” she said. “Right now it’s going to be: proceed with caution.”

Her calendar for October is nearly fully booked. “I think that in the back of their minds, too, everybody knows that we’re not totally out of the woods, and that we need to be mindful,” she said.

Belanger, 40, has been a long-time event planner within the Jewish community. She started a Jewish singles networking group in 2006 called Tribe Arizona “for Heebs who want to hang,” and later started Tribe for Tots, a group for Jewish parents and their young kids. In May, she teamed up with Jennifer Starrett to form TribeNet, a Jewish professional networking group. The group is holding its first event Aug. 31.

Belanger spoke with Jewish News about her career path, The Event Genies and the future of the events industry as the pandemic continues.

What have events looked like during the pandemic?

We did a bat mitzvah in January, in the thick of it, and the family was able to test everybody before they came in, so that was a huge help. We sat people at tables of who they came with, so if you’re a family of four, you sat at a table with your family of four. It was a lot more tables and kind of double the work, but we were able to have a successful event, where, to my knowledge, nobody got sick.

Coming up in October, 75% of the events are outside, and some might end up being smaller than planned. If things continue on the path that they are, there’s a possibility out-of-town guests won’t want to travel or venues may have restrictions on their capacity.

How have you managed?

I’ve been super fortunate. My clients have been amazing to work with, and we’ve

been able to work together to come up with alternative options. My vendors have been flexible and very accommodating. They have done everything possible to work with my clients, whether it be refunding or choosing an alternative date.

The key to navigating during this time is truly to be flexible. I will always do whatever it takes to accommodate my clients’ wishes. We all just have to be patient, roll with the punches and be kind to one another.

What does the future hold for the events industry given where we are in the pandemic?

I wish I had a magic ball that I could look at and answer that question. I think events can be held. We just need to be mindful of people’s health and safety. At the end of the day it is a choice to attend an event. It’s going to get very interesting here with mandating people to be vaccinated in order to go to events. And I’m starting to see that — at least some public events are saying that you need to show proof of vaccination.

I am part of a b’nai mitzvah group online where now some parties are actually saying that they are requiring all their guests to be vaccinated. It will be interesting to see what happens with future events.

How did you get into this career?

I always knew that this was the route I was going to take. Growing up, I was very involved in BBYO. Back in the day, you were able to do a lot more hands-on learning. For example, you could just call the local supermarket and get donations of sodas and food. Or call Party City and convince them to donate balloons. There are so many more hoops to jump through nowadays.

I did a lot of the logistics and planning for our parties when we were teenagers, and it was just something that I really enjoyed doing. As I got older, people asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up and I thought, I really like people, parties, taking charge and helping facilitate everything around me. It was just great experiences that led me to go in that direction.

I’m originally from Boston and my family and I had vacationed in Arizona and I really liked it out here and decided I wanted to go to ASU. Sure enough, they had a program in recreation and tourism.

What made you launch your own business, Event Genies?

I don’t know why I didn’t launch my own business sooner — I worked for a medical company doing all their trade shows and sales meetings, and I was very comfortable

and I still do work for them. Life was kind of crazy between getting married and having kids and my mom was sick. My hands were full and it just wasn’t time. I’m a big believer in faith — things happen for a reason — and as much as I love being everyone’s maid of honor and friend of a friend that can help with event planning, I got to the point where I thought, “I should be getting paid for this, and I really need to establish some boundaries and create a business.”

What have you learned as a business owner?

I have learned so much. I have learned a lot about contracts and negotiating. I have learned to be even more patient than I already am. I am always learning and growing. This is a creative business and has endless possibilities.

As a business owner you do the best you can do. I try to be very authentic and genuine, and I’m working really hard on trying to have better boundaries. I care a lot about what I do and I always do want to go the extra mile.

But the busier I’m getting, it’s hard to always have extra time for every single person. And with family life, it’s definitely a balance. I’m working a lot more on the weekends, so my husband hangs with the kids. And, the older I get, working long days and night shifts is harder on me. I have to come home and take a bath just

to be able to walk the next day after being on my feet for 15 hours.

How is Event Genies set up?

My clients work directly with me and I have a handful of staff that work events or assist with research. When I was at ASU I had an internship through the Recreation and Tourism Department and I am so excited that I now offer an internship through the same department. I currently have an amazing intern named Savannah and have loved working with her. I am always looking for staff that want to assist me on event days.

How did you choose the name of your business?

Coming up with a name was challenging. I really wanted a creative name that explained what I do. I strive to create unique and custom events — I’ve never done the same event twice. I constantly am looking for new ideas and educating myself on what’s out there, and up-and-coming trends. That’s really the fun part: Getting to know my client and what their vision is, and making it a reality.

I also like personal touches, and things that set you apart from somebody else — coming up with meaningful and memorable moments. The Event Genies ended up being the perfect fit; it captures that I try to make magic happen. JN

Alyssa Belanger

PHOTO COURTESY OF ALYSSA BELANGER

Chabad of Arizona opening new high schools

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

Chabad of Arizona is opening two new high schools this month.

Cheder Lubavitch Arizona opened as an elementary school in 2013. The first class graduated eighth grade in June.

“It’s very hard to get in anywhere, and it’s also not fun to have to send your ninth-grader away,” said Chabad of Scottsdale Rabbi Yossi Levertov. He spearheaded the development of Yeshiva Academy of High School for boys, which opened Aug. 24. Its first class was already full before the school even had a name. Beis Chana High School of Arizona for girls opens Aug. 30, and its first class is also full.

“There’s a certain flavor that sends the Chabad rabbis places that others wouldn’t go. And that happens because of a particular education,” said Levertov. “We process a certain way because of the unique education we receive in our younger years. It is that special worldview that we hope to teach and impart to our young boys in this new yeshiva.”

But the number of Chabad schools depends on the area.

For example, in New York — which has 21% of the American Jewish population according to a 2021 Brandeis University study — there were at least 15 Chabad high schools as of 2019, according to the Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch directory of Chabad educational institutions. Meanwhile, places like New Mexico, with less than 1% of the Jewish population, were not listed.

Depending on where people live, families may not have a choice but to send their kids away for a Jewish education.

Oasis School, another inclusive and coeducational Jewish high school, is set to welcome its first class in 2022.

Rochel Welner, head of school of Cheder Lubavitch and Beis Chana, said each school offers families something different. Both the new Yeshiva Academy and Beis Chana offer boarding opportunities, drawing a mix of locals and students from across the country and even the world.

The yeshiva’s freshman class will be around 20 students, only seven of whom are locals. The boys will study at the Jewish Learning Center, adjacent to the Chabad of Scottsdale, and will live in a dormitory nearby. Students have 13-hour days with breaks. “If there’s other subjects they want to cover on their own, they’ll have to stay later,” Levertov said. “It’s an intense program where they literally study all day.”

Beis Chana’s freshman class will start with 17 students, only seven of whom are locals. For the first year, the ninth graders will utilize the Cheder Girls’ building, which is adjacent to the Cheder, and live nearby. The Judaic studies curriculum will be “rich and diverse with in-depth, challenging lessons and thoughtprovoking, meaningful classroom discussions,” Welner said. The general studies program will be “challenging and rigorous” and will include all the core subjects meeting state standards for an Arizona high school diploma.

Plans for Beis Chana were developed over a Rishe Majesky, who was principal of Bnos

time job running the Chabad activities in Scottsdale,” he said. “We are very busy, but when we saw that nothing was happening, sometimes you have to stand up and make things happen.”

The two new high schools point to the growth of Greater Phoenix’s Jewish community.

Rabbi Zalman Levertov started Chabad of Arizona from scratch. He and his wife moved

to Arizona from New York 44 years ago as schluchim. Now there are around 40 Chabads in the state.

“When I came to town (in 1992), the Jewish Community Center was in Phoenix. And then there were years that it was just floating around. And I believe that we at Chabad have had a very large part in uplifting and raising the bar within the Jewish community,” said Yossi, Zalman’s youngest brother. JN

ropolitan areas, there aren’t options, “and it’s very hard to get into any school so we need one locally.”

Phoenix now has a few options for families looking for an Orthodox Jewish high school. Shearim Torah High School for Girls opened in 2007, Yeshiva High School of Arizona was founded in 2010, and co-ed Nishmat Adin, or Shalhevet Scottsdale opens this fall. The

Menachem girls’ school in Brooklyn, New York for 19 years, is the principal.

Many students from out of town have siblings who are familiar with Majesky, which Welner said is a draw for prospective families as well.

Levertov began forming the yeshiva two weeks before Passover.

“I wear a Chabad hat and I have a full-

David Ehrlich

Sandra Shapiro

Carmit Zori

A rendering of the new Chabad yeshiva high school in Scottsdale RENDERING BY MOOSAVI DESIGN GROUP ARCHITECTS

Young Israel branch opens in Scottsdale

Scottsdale has a new shul serving the neighborhoods around E. Thunderbird and N. Scottsdale Roads.

“There are enough people that live in our neighborhood, where there is demand for a synagogue, and we can sustain it,” said Izzy Yetnikoff, president of Young Israel Scottsdale.

Yetnikoff and a group of like-minded community members had been meeting weekly for services for a few years at an office space in North Scottsdale leased by Jewish Arizonans on Campus. Early last year, they hired Rabbi Ephraim Weiss to be their pulpit rabbi.

“They canceled their lease right before the pandemic started. I don’t know if that was any kind of a divine foresight, but we ended up saving a lot of money,” Yetnikoff said.

Last September, before Rosh Hashanah, the group signed a lease in a complex on N. Scottsdale and E. Thunderbird Roads,

JFCS seeks volunteers and donations

Jewish Family & Children’s Service is in need of food donations and volunteers. Its Just 3 Things food pantry in Phoenix needs non-perishable and non-expired foods, including soup, rice, pasta, canned fruit and vegetables, as well as cleaning supplies and personal care items, such as soap and toiletries, deodorant and diapers.

The pantry serves young people leaving foster care, clients at JFCS’ health care centers and people who participate in JFCS

near the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus. The shul has been “growing and getting stronger” since, Yetnikoff said. Young Israel of Scottsdale has about 25 families so far and two playrooms for kids.

During Passover, the board decided they wanted to become affiliated with a national organization in order to have an identity enabling locals and visitors to find them. Yetnikoff said Young Israel was a natural fit.

“They follow the precepts, the laws of Torah, but, for the most part, the members are active in the real world,” he said, noting the members of the Scottsdale shul are so far mostly Orthodox young professionals and young families.

“It’s a very open type of place. We’re very tolerant. We have people that are just starting in Judaism — they really know nothing about Judaism. And so they’re

programming, including seniors and those facing food insecurity.

“Food insecurity is something that can affect anyone at any time,” said Lisa Blumstein, JFCS’ volunteer coordinator. “JFCS is dedicated to strengthening the community by providing much needed programs and services to those in need. When the community comes together to donate or volunteer, it really makes a difference.”

In addition to donations for the pantry,

Menachem Mendel Academy adds preschool

Menachem Mendel Academy began its 2021 fall academic year with a new offering: a preschool in Scottsdale.

Open to children ages three to five, the preschool includes a language immersion program, with instruction in both English and Hebrew.

“We’re focused on small class sizes, projectbased learning, Jewish values, and not just academics, but social and emotional wellness and life skills,” said Chaya Mushka Ben-Shabat, co-founder and CEO of MMA.

Located at 6140 E Thunderbird Rd, MMA starts at $1,260 per month, and financial aid is available.

When the school opened in 2018, it offered education for boys through the sixth

Arizona Jewish teens participate in new national Israel-focused program

Emma Lammersen, 15, is one of two Arizonans who are part of a relatively new national Jewish teen group called Sababa Society.

“When I first heard of the Sababa Society, my interest was immediately drawn to it. It was pretty much based around everything I loved: volunteering, traveling and learning,” Lammersen said.

After being a part of this program for over six months, she said it’s everything she wanted it to be and more.

“I love how all of these Jewish teens are so dedicated to giving back to Israel and educating themselves on current issues in our world,” she said. “Sababa is not just a two-year program — it’s a family that will stick together.”

The Sababa fellowship is a 22-monthlong leadership program for ninth- and tenth-graders. Designed for teens interested in community service, the fellowship focuses on developing leadership and communication skills.

coming because it’s a welcoming place,” he said. “There’s really no judgment.”

Young Israel was also a good match, he said, because the organization is very sup portive of Israel.

The group applied to become a Young Israel branch and was approved in June.

Weis said he hopes the shul will be an open-minded, welcoming place “for all types of Jews.”

He’d like to see it become a community center where “people can come by once a week, once a month — whatever they’re comfortable with — and feel like they’re part of something.”

Young Israel Scottsdale is the second Young Israel branch in Greater Phoenix, joining Young Israel of Phoenix. JN

JFCS is seeking volunteers. The nonprofit organization relies on volunteers to help provide services and support to the community. Volunteer opportunities include academic and life skills tutoring, administrative support and assistance with JFCS events and food drive coordination.

“I like to know people get food to eat and don’t go hungry. Helping others makes us better and connects us to the world,” said Dr. Michele Scheiner, a JFCS volunteer. JN

grade and finished the school year with 12 students. In the 2019 academic year, MMA expanded into eighth grade for boys and through the sixth grade for girls and began with 30 students.

Though the school has experienced rapid growth, Ben-Shabat said MMA scaled back for the current academic year and is only offering the preschool along with first through fourth grade for boys and girls.

“We are resisting the temptation to grow in every direction,” she said. “We are really focusing on core excellence in these younger years and will grow from this point forward.”

Named for the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the

The program started in 2018 and its second-ever cohort is currently in session. At the program’s conclusion, fellows will travel to Israel free of charge with the Roots Israel Service-Learning Trip in Summer 2022, according to Sababa’s website.

Jennifer Sosnow, director of programs admissions at Jewish National Fund and the Arizona contact for Sababa fellows, said Sababa’s mission is to help Jewish teens learn more about Israel, Zionism,

For more information about volunteer opportunities, visit the JFCS website at jfcsaz.org/volunteer/. For more information about the JFCS Just 3 Things food pantry and to view a list of most needed items, visit jfcsaz.org/donate/other-ways-to-give/ donate-food/.

school has a curriculum focused on personalized lesson plans, hands-on learning and integrated Judaic and secular studies.

MMA’s goal is to instill its students with five core values: Torah, life skills, holistic happiness, world-class academics and goodness and kindness.

“We graduate, and we figured out how to do long division math, and we can remember when Columbus sailed the ocean blue. But do we know how to solve a problem?” Ben-Shabat asked. “Do we have emotional healthy boundaries? These are all the skills that we need to actually thrive in today’s world, but who teaches them? So at our school, those are part of the core curriculum.” JN

philanthropy and community.

Sababa fellows come from across the United States and attend JNF conferences and events as well as having online learning opportunities throughout the year, she said. Fellows are tasked with raising $360 from a minimum of 20 donors and recruiting a minimum of 10 Sababa Society members. JN

For more information, visit jnf.org/menu-2/ our-work/education-and-advocacy/ high-school-programs/sababa-fellowship.

In order to learn more about the shul, contact Izzy Yetnikoff at 800-279-6331.

Young Israel Scottsdale

PHOTO BY JEFF BECKER

Chaya Mushka Ben-Shabat stands inside a Menachem Mendel Academy Early Learning Center classroom.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHAYA MUSHKA BEN-SHABAT

The ignominy of Afghanistan

As we watch the ongoing tragedy in Afghanistan, we wonder: What did the U.S. government think would happen when it withdrew troops and government supports from Afghanistan? Is it possible that with all the military planning that went into the withdrawal effort, no one predicted the resulting collapse and chaos whose searing images now haunt us?

President Joe Biden was unquestionably correct in observing that the United States could not stay in Afghanistan indefinitely. But the weighty decision to withdraw was only the first step in what should have been a carefully orchestrated process that enabled departure with dignity and fulfillment of our promises. That’s not what happened. And it is shocking that the administration appears to have been

taken off guard by the speed, intensity and relentlessness with which the Taliban advanced and overtook every village and opportunity in its march toward Kabul.

While it appears that virtually all Americans will get out of Afghanistan, that isn’t enough. There are still the tens of thousands of Afghans and their families whom we asked for support and promised to help and protect, who have been left to fend for themselves. The impact of U.S. betrayal of those left behind is devastating to our nation’s credibility.

There are a number of lessons to be learned from this shameful moment. Among them is that it’s time to discard the notion that America is the world’s policeman. We’re not. That doesn’t mean we can’t support nations who ask for and appreciate our help, such as

The Biden-Bennett meeting

President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett already know each other. Nonetheless, there will still be some element of the two leaders taking each other’s measure at their White House meeting this week. That’s because each will be attending with new credentials and heightened responsibility from their past encounters, and as each is still emerging from the shadow of his predecessor.

For Bennett, the meeting provides an opportunity to further elevate his improbable ascendancy to the office of prime minister. It’s also a sign that his fragile coalition government may be able to survive and succeed. And for Biden, this could be an opportunity to address questions about the depth of U.S. support for allies in the Middle East following his Afghanistan difficulties, and to further

burnish the image of Democratic Party support for the State of Israel at a time when questions linger.

And, of course, there is work to be done.

The collapse of the Western-nurtured government and military in Afghanistan has raised serious questions about American competence and fidelity to allies. This apprehension is particularly intense among Israel’s Middle East neighbors who share concerns about Iran. Those players will be watching closely for messages about U.S. intentions and commitment in the region. Sensitivity to that scrutiny will make Bennett’s job a little more difficult, as he pushes continuing Israeli opposition to U.S. reengagement in the Iran nuclear deal, which Biden wants to resuscitate. Bennett understands the Iranrelated challenge and knows he must avoid

Germany, South Korea or Kuwait. But we don’t belong in places that don’t want us. The chaos throughout Afghanistan is a stark reminder that it is near impossible to police populations that don’t want to be policed.

In addition, we need to take a hard look at the self-righteous pursuit of nation-building. And we should stop fooling ourselves into thinking that we can succeed in imposing our brand of government on societies who aren’t interested in it. Our track record in pursuit of that goal is unimpressive. Our failure in Afghanistan is embarrassing.

The horrifying images of Afghan citizens clutching the landing gear of departing airplanes only to plunge to their deaths is eerily reminiscent of the thousands of South Vietnamese who tried without success to board

U.S. helicopters in 1975, hours before the fall of Saigon. The tragic scenes from Kabul are a reenactment of that nightmare.

Our military spent two decades in Afghanistan. During that miserable occupancy — which cost so much American blood and treasure — there was plenty of time to develop an orderly plan for withdrawal and departure that protected our troops, our citizens and our in-country friends. If there was such a plan and it was followed, it failed.

Our nation’s attention span is, unfortunately, remarkably short. We will grieve Afghanistan until the next disaster distracts us. Nonetheless, we hope that the haunting images of our botched withdrawal inspire our military and political leaders to do everything possible to assure we don’t make such mistakes again. JN

any Netanyahu-like confrontation, but says that he plans to address Israel’s misgivings about Iran, nonetheless: “We will be coming [to the White House] very focused, with an approach of partnership, an approach meant to stop the negative regional actions of Iran — its destabilizing, harming human rights and terrorism — and preventing Iran from getting close to nuclear breakout.”

This all comes at a time when Israel’s relationship with America is remarkably strong. Both leaders will celebrate that reality, as they should. And they will also highlight the anniversary of the historic Abraham Accords, which brought a bloc of Arab states into open and blossoming relations with Israel, with each bilateral agreement sweetened by the United States.

It is most unlikely that we will see any break-

throughs regarding to Israel’s relations with the Palestinians at the meeting — Bennett and a large segment of his Knesset oppose the creation of a Palestinian state. And, in any event, there is no credible and reliable Palestinian partner with whom such an effort could go forward at this time. So, for now, the issue of a two-state solution is off the table. But that doesn’t mean that a friendlier tone and some creative confidence for building efforts can’t be pursued.

We don’t expect any surprises in the BidenBennett meeting. We do, however, look for a tightening embrace of two longstanding allies committed to democratic principles and who also share a common vision of international security and peaceful co-existence. At a time of such instability in the Middle East, that would feel like a win. JN

Seven life lessons from my pool robot cleaner

s a child, I remember swimming in the sky blue, sparkling clean water of the Ben Weider community center in Montreal, Canada, where I was raised. I took for granted that this was simply how pool water looked all the time — until I moved to sunny, warm Tucson to serve as a Chabad rabbi, and became the owner of a pool of my own.

I quickly learned that without careful maintenance, those sparkling blue waters

will turn slimy green with algae and otherwise suffer from a chemical imbalance. I know now that just like everything in life, there is an effort behind the sparkle.

Recently, as I stood beside my pool, measuring the water’s pH and watching my robotic pool cleaner do its thing, it occurred to me that the robot’s purpose was much more complicated than simply moving around the pool in random patterns.

Chasidic teachings encourage us to learn from everything we encounter in life, so I’ve put together a list of seven life lessons my pool robot taught me one recent sunny afternoon.

Buildup is an avoidable problem

If you don’t carefully clean and maintain the water, calcium and mineral deposits will form on the tiles of the pool. It’s not that you did something wrong; merely the absence of proactive improvement can lead to setbacks. The pool robot isn’t just cleaning — it is preventing a problem from occurring.

Over time, our experiences of all types — positive and negative — can build into our personality and behavior, occasionally leaving unwanted debris in our outlook. To remain true to ourselves, we need to regularly scrape off the buildup.

Stay connected to the source

My trusty pool robot can do its thing for hours on end without tiring, as long as it remains attached to the pool pump. Sever the connection — even for a moment — and it will grind to a halt.

To maintain our spiritual vitality, we must stay plugged in to our source of power — our Creator.

Venture out of the comfort zone

I’ve noticed that the deep end of my pool tends to be cleaned the fastest. The reason is simple: heading downhill is the path of least

I used to judge ex-Orthodox Jews. Then I started listening to them.

JTA

en years ago, I sat shocked watching a new music video from one of my creative Jewish heroes, Matisyahu. Newly married and studying in yeshiva, my husband and I were trying to figure out how to uplift the art world in alignment with our Orthodox Torah ideals.

Yet here was my icon, Matisyahu — who rose to fame singing about his faith and wearing the black hat and modest suit of a Chasidic Jew — dancing around in a Santa suit for his “Miracles” video with a shot of an immodestly dressed woman and a guy dressed up as Antiochus using the word “babes.” Outraged, I wrote a blog post imploring the singer to remember that he was a “poster child” for a serious, beautiful and deep people.

A few months later I ran into Matisyahu himself in a random little shul on Shabbat. I introduced myself after services and took the quick opportunity to bless Matisyahu in coded language that he should “continue helping the Jewish world.” He bowed his head in thanks and I walked away feeling good about what I had said.

I understand now that I was really blessing him to continue to suppress his own truth and voice, and for him to toe the expected “traditional” Orthodox Jewish line out of my fear of what non-Jews might think. At the time, I believe he owed it to all of us.

A few years after we left Israel, my husband and I began hosting gatherings in Brooklyn for creative, out-of-the-box Jewish thinkers. Our guests included a significant number of what are derogatorily referred to as “off-the-

derech” Jews: those who had been raised in the haredi Orthodox community but had left it. Many of them no longer followed many or most of the traditional Orthodox interpretations of Jewish law. But, my God, their Jewish spirit and the depth of their insights blew me away.

I can still hear the haunting, booming melody of one man who occasionally came. Born and raised in a strict Chasidic sect, he cherished his memories of singing together with his father and brothers on Shabbat. He had chosen to leave that community because he needed to search for a truth and a life beyond it, but he loved Judaism so fiercely and deeply that I can cry just thinking about what it was like to hear him sing.

If I could say one thing to my outraged self watching Matisyahu shift directions 10 years ago, and what I would say to Orthodox Jews today who say they are hurt by “My Unorthodox Life” and any of the other critical examinations of the Orthodox world, it is this: Listen.

These Jewish people who have “left” and are now creating art that is critical of your community are your greatest teachers.

They have seen the belly of the beast and they have valuable information for you. They know how to make your world healthier, safer and more just. And they love the Jewish people and Judaism perhaps more than you will ever understand.

Instead of worrying about the optics of a celebrity Chasid going his own way, I should have been worrying about those who are hurting, who are being abused by the systems that structure the Chasidic world. Those who want a different life but can’t escape. Or those who escape with scars.

Humility in pluralism

YAEL PERLMAN

luralism has always been a central part of my Jewish identity, both in college and growing up in Pittsburgh. My family is a liated with New Light — the Conservative congregation where my father serves as rabbi — as well as Orthodox congregations. My three

Pgrandparents attend congregations from three di erent denominations. I am accustomed to Shabbat table discussions with Jews from all backgrounds and appreciate the range of rabbis, from Reform to Lubavitch, who live on my street.

In college, I am a part of a vibrant Orthodox community but also regularly attend other minyanim. Most importantly, I see that students on campus respect and value the experiences of peers with di erent religious identities.

Just listen to their stories, I would tell my past self, and see how you can be a part of the change.

I know that many thrive in Orthodoxy. But the point isn’t that the system works for some or even most people. The point is that when someone is sharing their story of what didn’t work for them, it creates an opportunity to discuss the change that can be made, from giving yeshiva students an adequate secular education to changing the way homosexuality is viewed.

If those critical of the Orthodox world are dismissed as traumatized, mentally disturbed or bitter, we miss out on the greatest gift our society could receive. To become whole. To become better. To end abuse. These voices are the checks and balances for a society.

Once upon a time, before I married, I was a kiruv, or outreach, professional. I worked with an offshoot of a Modern Orthodox youth group that worked largely with secular Jewish youth.

I was close with one high school student in particular, a dancer who had recently started keeping Shabbat and Orthodox modesty laws. The advisers told her that she could be a dancer or she could be a religious Jew, but she couldn’t be both.

As a religious artist, I disagreed. I printed out different opportunities for Jewish Orthodox dancers offered in Israel and America and brought them to a meeting with the student and my colleagues. I insisted that there was no reason she had to choose. I left the meeting feeling good about helping steer the discussion, yet never paused to consider how problematic the situation was in the first place.

Years later I look back and wonder: Why

was it OK to take a vulnerable girl into a room with people she looked up to and pressure her to make a choice about her life that did not need to be made?

This was not in some haredi Orthodox sect. This was a group of Modern Orthodox advisers, all kind and well-intentioned.

For the past 20 years I classified myself as “Orthodox,” although I always identified more as “post-denominational.” The denominations limit us. Especially within Orthodoxy, it becomes more about proving you fit in than about being part of an ongoing conversation.

Our creative community in Brooklyn was filled as well with those who jumped between cleaving to tradition and listening to the reality on the ground of what was and wasn’t working and shifting because of it.

This past year, I moved far away from everyone who shared their stories with me in the last decade. I now live in Long Beach, California, outside of an observant Jewish community. It’s quiet here, as my husband and I try to untangle for ourselves how Jewish practice and belief can serve us in contributing most to the world.

One thing has become clear to us: We need to listen to the critics, no matter where we are. Don’t worry about what the non-Jews will think. Don’t worry about a “backlash” from white supremacists or antisemites or other Jews.

Just listen. The future belongs to those who struggle and question and search and shift — and can inspire us to create a better Jewish world, if only their stories are taken seriously. JN

But pluralism for Jews in Israel is vastly different, largely due to the control of the Chief Rabbinate.

Israel is unique in that it is a democratic theocracy. e Rabbinate controls all aspects of Jewish life cycle events and acts as a gatekeeper for determining the Jewish status of any person wishing to live in Israel. As Israel is still learning to navigate these challenges, organizations like ITIM (Passages): Resources and Advocacy for

Jewish Life have emerged in order to provide resources for those struggling to maneuver the di cult bureaucracies in the Rabbinate, and more recently, challenge them in court. In the assistance center, ITIM handles many cases for people wishing to prove their Jewish status — which is required of anyone who wishes to participate in life cycle events in the country, such as marriage or burial. For some, this means helping nd the right documents or

SEE PERLMAN, PAGE 13

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.

Rivka Nehorai is an artist, art educator and community builder.

Giving thanks, even in the midst of hardships

RABBI BONNIE KOPPELL PARSHAH KI TAVO | DEUTERONOMY 26:1-29:8

hen you enter the land and get settled, this parshah tells us, the most important thing to do, your first priority, is to bring an offering of gratitude. Then follows a long series of blessings, and an even longer series of curses, that will devolve on the person who does not maintain their part of the covenant.

You will be cursed, we read in Deuteronomy 28:47: “Because you did not serve Adonai your God happily and with fullness of heart for all the abundance.”

We learn two priority values: gratitude and appreciation. The very word for a Jew, Yehudi, comes from the root, l’hodot, to

give thanks. It is the very foundation of our spiritual path.

WTo be a Jew is to be a grateful person. We enter Shabbat with Psalm 92. The first words of this psalm are: “It is good to give thanks.” What a beautiful way to end our week and begin our day of restoration and reflection.

Rabbi Zelig Pliskin writes that, “Living with gratitude elevates your entire life. You become a more spiritual person. You become a more joyful person. You become a kinder and more compassionate person. You become a calmer and more peaceful person. You become a person who lives in greater harmony with others.” There is a lot to be gained by simply saying thank you. As the year winds down, we devote time to reflecting on what went wrong, our failings, the relationships in need of repair. There are many more curses than blessings in Ki Tavo, reflecting on our natural human

inclination towards negativity. Ki Tavo also invites us to think about the positive, about the blessings in our lives. The Hebrew word for gratitude is “hakarat ha-tov,” recognizing the good. A reminder to pay attention to the good that we are blessed with in our lives. Don’t ignore it, don’t take it for granted.

As hard as our lives can be, as challenging as this past year-and-a-half has been, it’s easy to lose focus on all of the abundance. Of course we need to do teshuvah for the hurt that we have caused and the wrong we have done. But it’s also a moment to make sure that we are guided by the words of Ki Tavo, to give thanks for what is bountiful in our lives, and to fill ourselves with joy and fullness of heart.

Isn’t it curious that we wish each other a Shana Tovah, a good year? On Dec. 31, we say, “Happy New Year.” During this month of Elul, we say, “Shanah tovah

u’metuka — a good year, a sweet year.” We hope for happiness, of course, and we honor, too, the connection between goodness and happiness.

If we can learn to be modest in our expectations and generous in our gratitude, we have a much better chance of a year that is filled with goodness and happiness. JN

resistance. So my little robot tends to spend more time at the lowest points of the pool than at its higher reaches. As human beings, we tend to get mired down in what’s comfortable and familiar. Getting stuck in the ruts of our own routines can be holding us back from exercising our full potential.

Elevation is temporary

The walls of the pool need cleaning too, and so the robot is designed to climb up those walls. But even with a powerful motor, at some point in its climb, the robot will lose momentum, stall and head back down towards the bottom.

rabbis; for others, it means having to undergo a conversion, even if they were raised Jewish. Each case is di erent and re ects the diversity of people who live in Israeli society, many of whom the Rabbinate refuses to accept within its narrow de nition of Jewishness.

As an intern with ITIM this summer, I met with various players in the arena of religion vs. state. e spectrum ranged from a Reform rabbi to the head of the Orthodox Beit Din in Jerusalem. We talked with those who wish to abolish the Rabbinate’s control of life cycle events, and with those rabbis who are upholding the Rabbinate monopoly over Jewish life and ritual. During each conversation, I was struck by the openness and willingness of people to meet and discuss these issues with us, even if we fundamentally disagreed.

At one such meeting with Rabbi Ze’ev Litke, who runs an organization that proves Jewish

It’s great when we’re inspired and when we climb to new heights. But inspiration tends to be fleeting and temporary. To keep ourselves going in the grind of everyday life, we need to turn that inspiration into commitment, to keep us going when we slip back down from the heights.

Obstacles can lead to a new path

If the pool robot encounters a stray toy or object, it will turn and seek a new path. Sure, I’d prefer if my kids cleaned up after themselves a bit better, but sometimes that unwanted obstacle can have the effect of propelling the robot to change its direction away from its ordinary course.

Obstacles or detours can actually be an opportunity to point you in the right direction.

status through genetic testing, a debate arose about whether these tests help or hurt people wishing to prove their Jewish status. As I watched my colleagues passionately argue over the issue, I noticed the discussion was engaging and respectful. Rabbi Litke claimed there is a “Jewish gene” found in many Ashkenazi Jews which can be used as evidence in proving Jewish status for the Rabbinate. Rabbi Seth Farber, director of ITIM, claimed these tests o en provide more doubt toward someone’s Jewish status and, when refused, raise questions for the Rabbinate. Despite their di erences, they were able to conduct a civil conversation. While the two sides may disagree about the means, they both share the same end goal: helping the future of the Jewish people in Israel.

To me, shared passion for the future of Judaism in Israel is what pluralism is all about. ese small instances of civility prove to me there is a future for more inclusion and diversity within Israel. Pluralism requires a great amount

One branch can stop everything

The robot can go for hours, but there are things that can stop it in its tracks. For example, a thick branch jammed between the wheels or clogging the vacuum intake can bring this technological marvel to a helpless halt.

Most of the obstacles we face in life are twigs — inconveniences or small hardships that we can circumvent. But there are things that can halt us that are more like a thick branch. For example, the life of a person caught in the grasp of addiction might get stopped in its tracks. This leads me to the seventh lesson the pool robot taught me.

Intervention is sometimes needed

There is nothing the robot can do on its

of humility and respect from all sides, which even in the U.S. sometimes is hard to nd. In Israel, I nd this humility within institutions like ITIM, where many of the people ghting the existing religious institutions are in fact religious themselves. e fact that many of the dayanim at the Conversion Center (Giyur K’Halacha) formerly served in the Rabbinate and have now le proves to me that change is coming. A er asking one of the founders of Giyur K’Halacha, a former Shas member, why he wants to convert people outside of the Rabbinate, he stated that he would rather help people than make their lives more di cult.

Throughout my time at ITIM, I have observed many frustrating cases of people who are simply trying to live their lives as Jews in the country. Still, I am in awe of the strongwilled nature of those working around me. A er handling a di cult case, I o en ask my co-workers their thoughts on these issues and what they think Israel could look like. Should

own to free itself from that thick branch. It needs outside help. Only after it is taken out of the pool and the branch removed, can it go back to making its tracks through the pool, with the hope that it will not run into another obstruction.

Challenges that debilitate may require outside help — or intervention. Any one of us might need to reach out to someone else in order to be healed and be able to continue on life’s path. As the Talmud (Berachot 5b) states, “A prisoner cannot free himself.” The wondrous thing about the pool robot is that when it moves, it is always moving forward. We should all be so lucky. JN

the Rabbinate exist at all? Why do we need control over halachic issues in Israel? While I appreciate and value the religious aspects of the country, especially as a religious person myself, I see the forced Judaism that exists in Israel as tyrannical and su ocating. Without a humble and pluralistic approach, halachic Judaism, as enforced by the Rabbinate, will continue to hurt more people than it helps.

When I come back to the U.S., I will continue to take these questions with me and ask how pluralism, both in Israel and in the diaspora, can continue to improve. Judaism never existed as a uniform religion, and imposing religious guidelines on everyone in the State of Israel only makes people feel resentful and marginalized. I am hopeful that the e orts of ITIM and other organizations ghting the Rabbinate will continue to create a more inclusive future for Am Yisrael. JN

Yael Perlman is a junior at Brandeis University.

Rabbi Bonnie Koppell is the associate rabbi of Temple Chai in Phoenix.

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

Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin is the outreach director at Chabad Tucson in Arizona.

High Holidays roundup

Where to watch and attend services

It’s that time of year: Rosh Hashanah is just around the corner, and synagogues are still navigating unusual times. Some are streaming services and keeping activities entirely online. Others are holding services in person, and a few are offering a mix of options. For updated listings, visit our website jewishaz.com:

EAST VALLEY

Chabad Jewish Center of Gilbert Reservations required for High Holiday services. Free of charge. For more information, visit jewishgilbert.com.

Rosh Hashanah Day 1 Morning:

Tuesday, Sept. 7, 9:30 a.m. Tashlich and Shofar in the Park: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 5:30 p.m. in the Power Ranch community Day 2 Morning Services:

Wednesday, Sept. 8, 10:30 a.m. Yom

Kippur Kol Nidrei Service: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 6:15 p.m Morning: Thursday, Sept. 16, 9:30 a.m. Closing Service and Break The Fast: Thursday, Sept. 16, 5:30 p.m.

Chabad of the East Valley

All High Holiday services will be held at Chabad of the East Valley, 875 N. McClintock Drive, Chandler. Reservations required, seats limited. Free of charge. For more information, visit chabadcenter.com.

Rosh Hashanah Evening Services:

Monday, Sept. 6, 6:30 p.m. Day 1

Morning: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 9:30 a.m. Shofar Blowing: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 11:30 a.m. Mincha: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 4 p.m

Tashlich and Shofar Blowing: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 5:30 p.m at Desert Breeze Park in Chandler Day 1 Evening: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 7:30 p.m Day 2 Morning: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 9:30 a.m. Shofar Blowing: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 11:30 a.m. Day 2 Evening Service: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 7:15 p.m. Yom Kippur Kol Nidrei Service: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 6:20 p.m Morning Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 9:30 a.m. Yizkor: Thursday, Sept. 16, 12 p.m Mincha and Neilah: Thursday, Sept. 16, 4:45 p.m Break the Fast: Thursday, Sept. 16, 7:19 p.m followed by a bu et

Chabad Jewish Center of Mesa

Rosh Hashanah services will be held at Dana Park Village Square, 1652 S. Val Vista Dr., Suite 7-106, Mesa. Yom Kippur services will be held at the Holiday Inn at 1600 S Country Club Dr, Mesa. Reservations required, services free of charge. For more information, visit chabadmesa.com.

Erev Rosh Hashanah Evening Service: Monday, Sept. 6, 6:15 p.m. at Chabad of Mesa Morning: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 9:30 a.m. Shofar Blowing: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 10:30 a.m. Tashlich: Tuesday, Sept. 7, at 5 p.m., Greenfield Park Day 2 Morning: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 9:30 a.m. Shofar Blowing: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 10:30 a.m. Yom Kippur Kol Nidrei Service:

Wednesday, Sept. 13, 6 p.m. Morning Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 9:30 a.m.

Yizkor: Thursday, Sept. 16,11 a.m. Mincha:

Thursday, Sept. 16, 5 p.m. Neilah:

Thursday, Sept. 16, 5:45 p.m. Break the Fast: Thursday, Sept. 16, around 7:08 p.m. sponsored by Scott Snyder

Congregation NefeshSoul

High Holiday services will be mostly on Zoom. No tickets needed, but contributions suggested. For more information, visit nefeshsoul.com.

Selichot Service and Discussion:

Saturday, Sept. 4, 7 p.m. Erev Rosh Hashanah Evening Service: Monday, Sept. 6, 7 p.m. Rosh Hashanah Day:

Tuesday, Sept. 7, 10 a.m. Tashlich:

Tuesday, Sept. 7, 6:30 p.m. at the lake at the north corner of 40th St. and Chandler Blvd., behind Signature Salons

Yom Kippur Kol Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 7 p.m. Morning Service:

Thursday, Sept. 16, 10 a.m. Afternoon:

Thursday, Sept. 16, 4 p.m. Yizkor:

Thursday, Sept. 16, 4:45 p.m. Neilah: Thursday, Sept. 16, 5:15 p.m

Sun Lakes Jewish Congregation

All High Holiday services will be held in person. For more information, visit sunlakesjewishcongregation.org/ calendar/calendar.html.

Erev Rosh Hashanah Evening Service:

Monday, Sept. 6, 7 - 9 p.m. Rosh Hashanah Day: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 10 a.m. Kever Avot: Sunday, Sept. 12, 10 a.m. at Valley of the Sun Mortuary, including a continental breakfast Yom Kippur Kol Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 7 - 9 p.m. Day Services: Thursday, Sept. 16, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Conversation with the Rabbi: Thursday, Sept. 16, 2 p.m. Mincha: Thursday, Sept. 16, 3 p.m. Yizkor: Thursday, Sept. 16, 4 p.m. Neilah: Thursday, Sept. 16, 5 p.m. Break the Fast: Thursday, Sept. 16 at 5 p.m at Cottonwood Country Club. Reservations required.

Temple Beth Sholom of the East Valley

All High Holiday services will be held on Zoom. Free for members, $250 for nonmembers. For more information or to buy tickets, visit tbsev.org/highholidays-5781.

Erev Rosh Hashanah: Monday, Sept. 6, 6 p.m. Rosh Hashanah Day 1: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 9 a.m. Family Program: 10 a.m. Rosh Hashanah Day 2: Wednesday , Sept. 8, 9 a.m. Shofar Blast (Tashlich): Tuesday, Sept. 7, 5 p.m. Kol Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 6 p.m. Yom Kippur Day and Yizkor: Thursday, Sept. 16, 9 a.m. Family Program: 10 a.m. Mincha and Neilah: Thursday, Sept. 16, 4:30 p.m.

Temple Emanuel of Tempe

Most High Holiday services will be inperson on site or at Dayspring Church, depending on the program. Most will also be livestreamed. Deeper discussions will be held in person and on Zoom. For more information, visit emanueloftempe. org.

Selichot Discussion: Saturday, Aug. 28, 7:30 p.m. Selichot Service: Saturday, Aug. 28, 8:30 p.m. Shofar and Havdalah: Saturday, Sept. 4, 6:30 p.m. in person at Pima Canyon Trailhead at South Mountain Erev Rosh Hashanah

Evening Service: Monday, Sept. 6, 7:30 p.m. Rosh Hashanah Family Service (children aged 0-7): Tuesday, Sept. 7, 9 a.m. Rosh Hashanah Morning Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 10:15 a.m.

Youth Programming (children aged 8-12): Tuesday, Sept. 7, 10:15 a.m. Day 2

Morning Service: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 10:15 a.m. Tashlich Service and Family

Program: Sunday, Sept. 12 at 9 a.m. at ASU Research Park Yom Kippur Kol

Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 7:30 p.m. Family Service (children aged 0-7): Thursday, Sept. 16, 9 a.m. Yom Kippur

Morning: Thursday, Sept. 16 at 10:15 a.m.

Youth Programming (children aged 8-12): Thursday, Sept. 16, 10:15 a.m.

Discussion: Thursday, Sept. 16 at 1 p.m.

T’filat R’fuah Healing Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 2:15 p.m. Hineini Experimental/ Contemplative Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 3 p.m. Seder K’riyat HaTorah:

Thursday, Sept. 16, 4 p.m. Yizkor: Thursday, Sept. 16, 4:45 p.m. Neilah: Thursday, Sept. 16, 5:45 p.m.

PHOENIX

Beth Ami Temple

All High Holiday services will be in person. Attendees must be vaccinated. Cost is $125 for singles and $250 for families. For reservations call 602-9560805 or email bethamitemple@hotmail. com.

Rosh Hashanah Evening: Monday, Sept. 6, 7:30 p.m. Morning: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 10 a.m. Yom Kippur Kol Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept. 15 at 7:30 p.m.

Morning: Thursday, Sept. 16, 10 a.m. Afternoon: Thursday, Sept. 16, 4 p.m.

Beth El Congregation

Most High Holiday services will be held in person and livestreamed. For more information, visit bethelphoenix.com/ hhd2021.

Havdalah: Saturday, Aug. 28, 7 p.m., service followed by a schmooze and study session Musical Selichot Service: Saturday, Aug. 28, 7:45 p.m. Family

Intergenerational Interactive Seder:

Monday, Sept. 6, 5 p.m. Traditional

Maariv Service: Monday, Sept. 6, 5:45 p.m. Rosh Hashanah Day 1 Morning

Traditional Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 9 a.m. Preschool Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 9 a.m. Shofar Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 10:30 a.m. B’nai Mitzvah

Cohort, Kadima and USY Discussion:

Tuesday, Sept. 7, 11 a.m. Tashlich:

Tuesday, Sept. 7, 4:30 p.m. at 35 W. Dunlap Ave., west of Sunnyslope High School Evening Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 5:45 p.m. Rosh Hashanah Day

2 Morning Traditional Service with Shofar Service: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 9 a.m. Ma’ariv (Lay-led weekly minyan): Wednesday, Sept. 8, 7:15 p.m. Kever

Avot: Sunday, Sept. 12, 9:30 a.m. Yom Kippur Kol Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 5:30 p.m. Yom Kippur Morning Service and Yizkor: Thursday, Sept. 16, 9 a.m.

Preschool Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 9 a.m. Interactive Family Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 9:45 a.m. Yom Kippur Mincha and Neilah Services: Thursday, Sept. 16, 4:45 p.m. USY Youth Discussion: Thursday, Sept. 16 at 6 p.m. Havdalah and Break the Fast: Thursday, Sept. 16 at 7:15 p.m.

Chabad of Arizona

Reservations recommended. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Erev Rosh Hashanah: Monday, Sept. 6, 6:30 p.m. Day 1: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 9:30 a.m. Mincha and Tashlich: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 5:15 p.m. at Granada Park. Day 2: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 9:30 a.m. Evening Service: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 6:15 p.m. Yom Kippur Mincha: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 3 p.m. Kol Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 6:15 p.m. Services: Thursday, Sept. 16, 9:30 a.m. Yizkor: Thursday, Sept. 16, 11:45 a.m. Neilah: Thursday, Sept. 16, 5 p.m. Shofar: Thursday, Sept. 16, 7:10 p.m. followed by break the fast

Chabad Jewish Center of Anthem Reservations required for High Holiday services. Free of charge. For more information, visit jewishanthem.com or email Rabbi Yossi Friedman at rabbi@ jewishanthem.com.

Rosh Hashanah Day 1 Morning Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7,10 a.m. Day 2 Morning: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 10 a.m. Yom Kippur Kol Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 6:15 p.m. Yom Kippur Morning Service and Yizkor: Thursday, Sept. 16, 10 a.m. Yom Kippur Conclusion and Shofar Blowing: Thursday, Sept. 16, 5:15 p.m.

Chabad of North Phoenix Rosh Hashanah services will be held

ROSH HASHANAH

at Chabad of North Phoenix, 22044 N. 44th St., Suite 100, Phoenix.

Yom Kippur services will be held at Cambria Hotel, 4425 E. Irma Lane, Phoenix. Reservations required. Free of charge. For more information, visit ourjewishcenter.com.

Rosh Hashanah Evening: Monday, Sept. 6, 6:30 p.m. Day 1 Morning Service:

Tuesday, Sept. 7, 9:30 a.m. Shofar

Blowing and Family Prayers: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2 p.m. Rosh Hashanah Day 2

Morning Service: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 9:30 a.m. Yom Kippur Kol Nidre Service:

Wednesday, Sept. 15, 6:15 p.m. Yom

Kippur Morning Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 9:30 a.m. Yizkor Service (indoors):

Thursday, Sept. 16, 12 p.m. Second

outdoor Yizkor Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 4 p.m. Neilah: Thursday, Sept. 16, 5:15 p.m

Chabad of Paradise Valley

Rosh Hashanah services will be held at the Andaz Resort, 6114 N. Scottsdale Rd. Yom Kippur services will be held at the Embassy Suites, 4415 E. Paradise Village Parkway. Reservations required, services free of charge. For more information, visit jewishparadisevalley.com.

Rosh Hashanah Evening Services:

Monday, Sept. 6, 6:30 p.m. Day 1

Morning Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 9:30 a.m. Shofar Blowing: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 11:30 a.m. Rosh Hashanah Day 2 Morning Service: Wednesday, Sept. 8 at 9:30 a.m., call for address Shofar

Blowing: Wednesday, Sept. 8,11:30 a.m.

Yom Kippur Kol Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept. 15,6:15 p.m. Morning Service:

Thursday, Sept. 16,9:30 a.m. Yizkor:

Thursday, Sept. 16,11:30 a.m. Mincha and Neilah: Thursday, Sept. 16, 5:30 p.m.

Temple Chai

High Holiday services will be a mix of in person and livestreamed. For more information, visit holydays.templechai.com.

Havdalah and Selichot: Saturday, Aug. 28, 7:30 p.m. Erev Rosh Hashanah

Tot Service: Monday, Sept. 6, 4:30 p.m. livestreamed only. Erev Rosh

Hashanah Prayer Lab: Monday, Sept. 6, 7 p.m. Day 1 Morning Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 8 a.m. Teen Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 11 a.m., in-person only Late Morning Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 11 a.m. Family Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2:30 p.m. Tashlich: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 4 p.m. at Roadrunner Park. Rosh

Hashanah Second Day Morning Service:

Wednesday, Sept. 8, 10 a.m. Yom Kippur

Kol Nidrei Tot Service: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 4:30 p.m. Kol Nidrei Prayer

Lab: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 6 p.m. Kol

Nidrei Traditional Service: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 8 p.m. Morning Service:

Thursday, Sept. 16, 8 a.m. Teen Service: Thursday, Sept. 16 at 11 a.m. In-person only. Late Morning Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 11 a.m. Family Service:

Thursday, Sept. 16, 2:30 p.m. Social Justice Study Session: Thursday, Sept. 16, 2:30 p.m. Afternoon Service, Healing Service, Yizkor, Neilah: Thursday, Sept. 16, 4 p.m.

SCOTTSDALE/ NORTHEAST VALLEY

Chabad of Scottsdale

All High Holiday services will be held at Chabad of Scottsdale, 10215 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. For more information, visit chabadofscottsdale. org.

Selichot: Sunday, Aug. 29, 12:30 a.m.

Rosh Hashanah Evening Services:

Monday, Sept. 6, 6:30 p.m. Day 1

Morning Services: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 9:30

a.m. Shofar blowing indoors: Tuesday, Sept. 7, around noon Shofar blowing

outdoors: Tuesday, Sept. 7, around 1:30

p.m. Tashlich and Shofar: Tuesday, Sept.

7, 6 p.m., contact o ce for location

Evening Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7,

7:15 p.m. Day 2 Morning Services:

Wednesday, Sept. 8, 9:30 a.m. Shofar blowing indoors: Wednesday, Sept. 8, around noon Shofar blowing outdoors:

Wednesday, Sept. 8, around 1:30 p.m. Shofar in the Park: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 5:30 p.m., contact o ce for location Evening services followed by Seder Nigunim: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 6:15

p.m. Fast of Gedalia Morning Services:

Thursday, Sept. 9, 6:30 a.m. Fast of Gedalia Evening Services: Thursday, Sept. 9, 6:15 p.m. Erev Yom Kippur Morning Service: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 7 a.m. Kol Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 6:10 p.m. Morning Services: Thursday, Sept. 16, 9:30 a.m. Yizkor: Thursday, Sept. 16, 12:30 p.m. Mincha-Neilah/ Evening Services: Thursday, Sept. 16, 4:50 p.m.

Congregation Beth Israel

High Holiday services will be o ered inperson and online. For more information, visit cbiaz.org/high-holy-days.

Selichot: Saturday, Aug. 28, 7:30 p.m. Erev Rosh Hashanah Dinner: Monday, Sept. 6, 5:30 p.m. at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church Erev Rosh Hashanah Service: Monday, Sept. 6, 7:30 p.m. at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church Morning Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 10 a.m. at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church Family Service

(children ages 6+): Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2 p.m. at CBI Tot Yontif Service (children ages 0-5): Tuesday, Sept. 7, 4 p.m. at CBI Tashlich: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 5 p.m. at Roadrunner Park. Rosh Hashanah 2nd Day Service: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 10 a.m. at CBI Shabbat Shuvah: Saturday, Sept. 11, 10 a.m. at CBI. Kever Avot Service: Sunday, Sept. 12, 9 a.m. at Beth Israel Cemetery. Yom Kippur Kol Nidrei:

Wednesday, Sept. 15, 7 p.m. at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church Morning Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 10 a.m. Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church Text Study and Learning Session: Thursday, Sept. 16, 12:30 p.m. at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church Healing Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 3:45 p.m. at CBI Yizkor: Thursday, Sept. 16, 4:45 p.m. at CBI Neilah and Havdalah: Thursday, Sept. 16, 5:45 p.m. at CBI Break the Fast: Thursday, Sept. 16, 6:30 p.m. at CBI

Shanah Tovah u-metukah from the Board of Rabbis of Greater Phoenix, providing leadership to the community.

Rabbi Bonnie Sharfman President

Rabbi Jeremy Schneider Vice President

Rabbi Sara Mason-Barkin Secretary

Rabbi Mark Bisman and Rabbi John Linder Co-Treasurers

Rabbi Stephen Kahn Immediate Past President

Congregation Kehillah

All services will be viewable via Zoom, multigenerational and free of charge (donations accepted). For more information, contact, info@ congregationkehillah.org.

Havdalah and Selichot: Saturday, Aug. 28, 6:45 p.m. via Zoom. RSVP to receive Zoom link. Erev Rosh Hashanah: Monday, Sept. 6, 7 p.m. Day: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 10 a.m. Kol Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 7 p.m. Yom Kippur: Thursday, Sept. 16, 10 a.m. Afternoon, Neila: Thursday, Sept. 16, 4 p.m.

Congregation Or Tzion

All High Holiday services will be virtual and in person, with limited seating available and masks and reservations required. Everyone wishing to take part is asked to become a member and make a Gift of the Heart Commitment. For more information, visit congregationortzion.org/pray/ high-holidays.

Erev Rosh Hashanah Family service: Monday, Sept. 6, 5 p.m. Designed for families with kids ages 0-7. Erev Rosh Hashanah Main Service: Monday, Sept. 6, 6 p.m. Early Morning Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 8:30 a.m. Late Morning: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 11 a.m. Teen Tashlich: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 4 p.m. at Roadrunner Park Rosh Hashanah Day

L’Shana

2: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 8:30 a.m. Teen Service: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 10:30 a.m., in-person only, 7th-12th graders

Yom Kippur Kol Nidrei Family Service: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 5 p.m. Kol Nidrei Main Service: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 6 p.m. Yom Kippur Session 1: Thursday, Sept. 16, 11:05 a.m. Session 2: Thursday, Sept. 16, noon Teen Program: Thursday, Sept. 16, 3:30 p.m. Mincha Teens: Thursday, Sept. 16, 4:45 p.m., virtual only Neilah/Ma’ariv with Havdalah, final shofar blowing: Thursday, Sept. 16, 6 p.m., virtual only

Temple Kol Ami

High Holiday service will be in person, with masks required, at The Chateau Luxe and livestreamed. For more information, visit templekolami.org or contact Nancy Drapin at nancyd@ templekolami.org or 480-951-9660.

Selichot: Saturday, Aug. 28, 7 p.m. Erev Rosh Hashanah Service: Monday, Sept. 6, 7:30 p.m. Morning: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 10 a.m. Rosh Hashanah Pre-school Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 8:45 a.m., online only Tashlich: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 5:30 p.m. at Roadrunner Park Yom Kippur Kol Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 7:30 p.m. Yom Kippur Day: Thursday, Sept. 16, 10 a.m. Yom Kippur Pre-school Service:

Thursday, Sept. 16, 8:45 a.m., online only. Healing Service, How are you, really?:

Thursday, Sept. 16, 2 p.m. Study Session with Rabbi Schneider: Thursday, Sept. 16, 3:30 p.m. Yizkor and Neilah:

Thursday, Sept. 16. 3:30 p.m.

Temple Solel

All High Holiday services will be virtual. Registration is required. For more information, visit templesolel.org/highholy-days.

Selichot Service: Saturday, Aug. 28, 7 p.m. Erev Rosh Hashanah Early Service:

Monday, Sept. 6, 6 p.m. Erev Rosh Hashanah Late Service: Monday, Sept. 6, 8:30 p.m. Rosh Hashanah Early Service:

Tuesday, Sept. 7, 9 a.m. Rosh Hashanah

Family Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 9:30

a.m. Rosh Hashanah Late Service:

Tuesday, Sept. 7, noon Kol Nidrei Early Service: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 6 p.m. Kol Nidrei Late Service: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 8:30 p.m. Yom Kippur Early Service:

Thursday, Sept. 16, a.m. Yom Kippur Family Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 9:30 a.m. Yom Kippur Late Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, noon Yom Kippur Afternoon Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 4:30 p.m.

The New Shul High Holiday services will be indoors with masks required. Everyone is welcome. For more information, visit thenewshul.org/days-of-awe-2021/.

Selichot: Saturday, Aug. 28, 8:30 p.m. a screening and discussion of “Maktub” followed by a service.

Erev Rosh Hashanah: Monday, Sept. 6, 6 p.m.

Day 1: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 8:15 a.m.

Tashlich: Tuesday, Sept. 7, around 1:45 after kiddush lunch. Meet at shul entrance.

Day 2: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 8:15 a.m.

Yom Kippur Kol Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 6 p.m.

Yom Kippur: Thursday, Sept. 16, 8:15 a.m. Afternoon service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 4:10 p.m.

Temple Beth Emeth of Scottsdale

All High Holiday services will be in person. Attendees are required to be fully vaccinated, wear a mask and adhere to social distancing requirements.

Rosh Hashanah Morning Service:

Tuesday, Sept. 7, 9 a.m. Yom Kippur

Kol Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 6 p.m. Morning Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 9 a.m. Yizkor: Thursday, Sept. 16, 11 a.m.

Discussion: Thursday, Sept. 16, 3 p.m. Neilah: Thursday, Sept. 16, 5:30 p.m. Havdalah and Break the Fast: Thursday, Sept. 16, 6:30 p.m.

WEST VALLEY

Beth Emeth Congregation of the West Valley

High Holiday services will be in-person free of charge, however tickets are required. To receive tickets, come into the synagogue, located at 13702 Meeker Blvd, SCW between 9 am and noon with your COVID vaccination card. If you have lost or misplaced your COVID vaccine card, you can get a replacement by calling the Department of Health Services at 602-542-1025. Masks are recommended and seating is limited.

Selichot: Saturday, Aug. 28, 7:30 p.m

Erev Rosh Hashanah: Monday, Sept. 6, 7:30 p.m. Morning: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 9:30 a.m. Rosh Hashanah Day 2: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 9:30 a.m.. Tashlich: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 4 p.m. at the lake across from Del Webb Hospital Yom Kippur Kol Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 7 p.m.

Morning: Thursday, Sept. 16, 9:30 a.m. Yizkor: Thursday, Sept. 16, 11:45 a.m. Afternoon Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 4:30 p.m.

Temple Beth Shalom

All High Holiday services will be in person and virtual. For more information, visit tbsaz.org/about-us/ monthly-newsletter.

Selichot: Saturday, Aug. 28, 7 p.m.. Erev

Rosh Hashanah: Monday, Sept. 6, 7 p.m.

Rosh Hashanah Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 10 a.m. Family Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 4 p.m. Kol Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 7 p.m. Morning Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 10 a.m. Yizkor: Thursday, Sept. 16, 1 p.m. Family Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 4 p.m. Afternoon Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 4:30 p.m. Neilah: Thursday, Sept. 16, 5:30 p.m.

FLAGSTAFF

Chabad of Flagsta

High Holiday services will be held at the Molly Blank Jewish Community Center, 930 W. University Ave., Flagsta . For more information, visit jewishflagsta .com.

Rosh Hashanah Evening Service: Monday, Sept. 6, 6:30 p.m. Day 1

Morning: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 10 a.m. Day

1 Children’s Program: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 10:30 a.m. Tashlich: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 5 p.m. at Francis Short Pond Evening Service: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 7:30 p.m. Day

2 Morning: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 10 a.m. Day 2 Children’s Program: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 10:30 a.m. Shofar Blowing: Sunday, Sept. 20, 9:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Yom Kippur Kol Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 6:15 p.m. Morning Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 10 a.m.

Yizkor: Thursday, Sept. 16, 12:30 p.m.

Children’s Program: Thursday, Sept. 16, 10:30 a.m. Mincha and Neilah: Thursday, Sept. 16, 15:30 p.m. Break the Fast: Thursday, Sept. 16, 7:09 p.m. followed by bu et

PRESCOTT

Temple B’rith Shalom

Most High Holiday services will be in person at the Prescott United Methodist Church and livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube. Reservations required. There are contingency plans in place depending on the ongoing development of Covid and the Delta variant. For more information, visit brithshalom-az.org.

Selichot: Saturday, Aug. 28., picnic from 3-5 p.m. at Willow Lake Hilltop Ramada followed by a musical service. Cemetery Services: Sunday, Sept. 5, 11 a.m.

Tashlich: Sunday, Sept. 5, 2 p.m. call or visit the website for location Erev Rosh Hashanah: Monday, Sept. 6, 6 p.m. Rosh Hashanah Services: Tuesday, Sept. 7, 10 a.m. Yom Kippur Kol Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 6 p.m. Yom Kippur Services: Thursday, Sept. 16, 10 a.m. Yom Kippur Mincha and Neila: Thursday, Sept. 16, 5 p.m. Break the Fast: Thursday, Sept. 16 following services. $25 per person and RSVP requested.

SEDONA

Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley

All High Holiday services will be available online and in person, with masks required. Visit jcsvv.org to attend.

Selichot: Saturday, Aug. 28, 7:30 p.m. Erev Rosh Hashanah Evening Services: Monday, Sept. 6, 5:30 p.m. Day 1

Morning: Tuesday, Sept. 7. 10 a.m. Day 2: Wednesday, Sept. 8, 10 a.m. Yom Kippur

Kol Nidrei: Wednesday, Sept.15, 5:30 p.m. Morning Service: Thursday, Sept. 16, 10 a.m. Yom Kippur Discussion on Zoom: Thursday, Sept. 16, 3 p.m. Yizkor and Neilah: Thursday, Sept. 16, 5 p.m. JN

Apples, apples, apples

JENNIFER STARRETT | CONTRIBUTING WRITER

If there is one food that is almost always associated with celebrating Rosh Hashanah, it is the apple. Apples and honey represent sweetness for the coming year, and they’re in several traditional holiday desserts.

I love baking with apples and during this time of year, we usually go a bit overboard and purchase loads of them. Luckily, I have quite a few favorite recipes that use them. The first recipe I’m offering here is my version of cooked apples. It’s versatile and I even use it as a topping for the ice cream recipe and stuffing in the rolls recipe.

For these recipes you can use any type of apples you prefer or even a mix. I wish you all

on hand. Either way, it is likely my new favorite flavor. It is deliciously creamy and sweet with a strong apple taste making it perfect for Rosh

And if you have any leftover apple compote from the previous recipe, add a spoonful or two to the top for an over-the-top holiday dessert.

spice mixed inside of the dough brings a delicious and unique flavor that compliments the compote perfectly. These rolls go really quickly.

INGREDIENTS:

1 package of rapid rise yeast

This apple compote is delicious on its own and tastes like the filling of an apple pie. You can, in fact, throw this into a crust and bake, enjoy it as a topping for ice cream or even stuff it into bread for a delicious side dish for

My kids love when I make it and consider it dessert when it is served on its own or even mixed into some plain Greek yogurt. You’ll probably be making multiple batches, so you’ll want plenty of apples on hand for this recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

4 apples, washed, peeled and diced

2 ounces butter (or margarine* to make parve)

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon apple pie spice

1 tablespoon tapioca flour (to bind)

Heat a large saute pan over medium heat and begin melting the butter (or margarine). Once melted, add in the diced apples and stir to combine. Add the sugar, vanilla, and apple pie spice and stir to combine. Cover pan and cook for about 5 minutes.

Stir the mixture and sprinkle in the tapioca flour. Mix well to make sure the flour is fully combined. Cover again and let cook for an additional 5-10 minutes until apple texture is to your preference. The longer you cook, the softer the apples will be.

Once the apples are cooked, the mixture should look a bit sticky and thick. Set aside to cool and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to use.

APPLE & HONEY ICE CREAM

I got an ice cream maker at the beginning of summer and it is already one of our most-used kitchen devices. It saves a ton of time when making ice cream, but this recipe can also be made without a machine if you don’t have one

1½ cups whole milk*

½ cup honey

½ teaspoon apple extract

1 teaspoon apple pie spice

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup sugar

*use 3 cups of unsweetened coconut cream to make parve

Pour the cream, milk and apple extract into a large sauce pan over medium to high heat. Once the mixture begins to boil, add in the honey and stir until dissolved. Lower the heat to medium and continue to cook for about 5 minutes until mixture begins to boil.

While the liquids are cooking, mix together the apple pie spice, salt and sugar in a large bowl until fully combined.

After the cream mixture has come to a boil, pour over the dry ingredients in the bowl and mix for about 2 to 3 minutes with a whisk. Once the mixture has cooled slightly, cover and set in refrigerator for at least 5 hours or overnight.

When you are ready to make the ice cream, pour the cooled mixture into your ice cream maker for about 10-15 minutes per instructions.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker, pour the cooled mixture into an 8-inch-by-10-inch metal or glass baking dish. Place the mixture in the freezer for 90 minutes. Remove from freezer and mix again in the pan using a whisk. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the pan and break up any frozen chunks.

Return to freezer for 45 minutes and repeat the whisking and scraping before placing back into the freezer. Repeat this for a few hours until the ice cream is the desired consistency. After about 3 hours, you should have a softserve consistency. The longer you continue to whisk the ice cream and break up any ice, the more airy the final product will be.

Once ice cream is churned, scoop ice cream into a container to store in the freezer.

PULL-APART APPLE ROLLS

Nothing beats the smell of freshly-baked bread. And these pull-apart rolls are no exception. This version happens to use the apple compote to create a warm, gooey center to the rolls and they are a sweet addition to any holiday meal. The honey egg wash on top also adds a bit of sweetness and the apple pie

In a large bowl, pour lukewarm water over the package of yeast and add a pinch or two of sugar. Mix gently with a large fork to begin to combine, being careful not to overmix. Set mixture aside for 3-5 minutes until yeast begins to form a foamy texture.

Once yeast has bubbled, mix in the sugar, apple pie spice and salt until combined. Next, add the oil and give a good mix.

Add the flour to the bowl one cup at a time. Once the dough becomes too hard to mix with the fork, begin kneading the dough with your hands being mindful of the texture and adding a drop of oil if too dry or a tablespoon or two of flour if too wet.

Continue kneading for about 5 minutes and round out dough and place back into the bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and set aside in a dark space for at least one hour until doubled in size.

Tip: Heat oven to 150 F and then turn off once temperature has been reached. Place the bowl in the oven to rise.

Spray an 8-inch-by-8-inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.

Once the dough has doubled in size, divide into 16 equal pieces. Round each piece and flatten to about 4 inches in diameter. Place 1 tablespoon of the apple compote in the center of the flattened dough and fold dough over into a rounded ball with the filling securely wrapped.

Line the baking dish with the filled dough. Preheat oven to 350 F. Whisk together in a small bowl the egg and honey and set aside. Once oven has reached desired temperature, brush the top of the dough with the egg and honey mixture until evenly coated.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Take the pan out of the oven and let cool for 10 minutes in the pan. After 10 minutes, flip the dough out of the pan onto a baking rack and let finish cooling for at least 10 minutes before serving. JN

Jennifer Starrett is an events and marketing consultant.

Rosh Hashanah and a taste of renewal

Rosh Hashanah is one of my favorite Jewish holidays. There is such a beautiful renewal of spirit at this time of year. And I love that after a hot, quiet summer, where there’s been so little interaction with friends and family, we can all come together to celebrate a New Year.

Growing up in Toronto, a fuss was always made about which relative was

hosting which meal, and what everyone was bringing. As a child, I was more interested in the new clothes that I was going to get for shul than I was in the food, but that, of course, has all changed. In Arizona, we aren’t dressing for fall because it’s still as hot as ever, but what to serve at our celebrations is now the fun part for me, and it can be for you, too.

blender, pulse the roasted red peppers, toasted walnuts, pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, cumin, salt and aleppo pepper flakes until mixture resembles course sand. You want to leave in some texture here — don’t pulse too much or the dip will become too smooth.

Remove from food processor and stir in bread crumbs. Garnish with a drizzle of pomegranate molasses, pomegranate seeds and a sprig of flat parsley. Serve alongside chopped carrots and cucumbers, crackers or pita bread. Makes 3 cups.

COFFEE-BRAISED SHORT RIBS

Instead of a brisket or roasted chicken dish as my main course, I’m opting for coffee-braised short ribs. If any of you have been around town for a while, you might know of a wonderful little gem of a restaurant, Atlas Bistro. Years ago, I ordered this dish at Atlas and I have never forgotten it. I decided to try to recreate it. Rich with a red wine-coffee marinade, this is similar to brisket in that it can be made ahead and reheated very easily. I would even advise it so that the flavors deepen and you can skim the fat off the top of the dish before reheating.

INGREDIENTS

3 pounds boneless beef short ribs or chuck tail flap

2 cups cold-brewed coffee

2 cups Cabernet Sauvignon

2 cups veal stock (demi glace) (see Chef’s Note)

8 shallots, peeled and halved

1 carrot, peeled and quartered

4 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tablespoon white miso paste

1 fresh bay leaf

4 sprigs fresh thyme

2 ounces olive oil

Marinate the short ribs in wine and coffee for 12 hours.

Preheat the oven to 300 F. Remove the beef from the marinade and pat dry, reserving the marinade. Season generously with kosher salt and black pepper. In a dutch oven or large cocotte, heat the olive oil to medium high and sear the ribs on all sides, 3-4 minutes per side. Remove the beef from the pot, pour off the spent oil and add the shallots and

MUHAMMARA (ROASTED RED PEPPER WALNUT DIP)

This year, I am planning on having an epic mezze platter as my starter. One of the dishes that I adore is muhammara, a roasted red pepper and walnut dip. It looks so pretty on the platter and tastes amazing. It’s got a little crunch from the walnuts, and a little sass from the pomegranate molasses.

INGREDIENTS

2 red bell peppers, washed

1 cup toasted walnuts

2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 ½ teaspoons cumin

¾ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon aleppo pepper flakes

½ cup bread crumbs

Optional garnish: pomegranate seeds, flat parsley, and pomegranate molasses

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Slice the red bell peppers in half length wise and remove the core and seeds. Brush the insides and outsides with olive oil, then place cut side down on the bak ing sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, or until peppers have some char on them and have sweated out most of their moisture. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

In a food processor or high speed

Q&A: Miriam Litzman has one oven and 500 challahs to make

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

Miriam Litzman’s preparation for the High Holidays looks a little different than most. Picture a handful of giant mixing bowls and several 10-pound bags of flour, sugar and egg cartons all over a large kitchen island and counters.

“It’s a mess. A beautiful, fun, holy mess,” she said. “A challah oasis.”

Litzman owns Oven Fresh Challah, which she runs out of her Phoenix home’s kosher-certified kitchen.

She expects to make around 500 challahs for the coming High Holidays, and she’s also offering chocolate babka and honey cake — all while using just one oven.

“I do it in batches,” she said. “Bake and freeze, bake and freeze. I freeze it at its peak freshness and it works perfectly.”

She has full-time help, and during the High Holidays her husband pitches in. She also hires another part-time helper. “It’s super busy and just so much work. In order to get it all done, I need all hands on deck.”

She began accepting orders for the holiday rush Aug. 2. Customers choose when to pick up their order within a week of placing it and then their baked goods stay frozen until it’s time to dig in. She’ll take orders until Aug. 13.

Litzman is one of a few kosher bakers in town, and said she gets three to four calls a day.

Baking is her passion, but it wasn’t always that way. She only learned her way around the kitchen a couple years after she got married in 2008.

Litzman spoke with Jewish News about her foray into the kitchen and the origins of Oven Fresh Challah.

What made you get into baking?

There was a bakery here in town where we got our challah from every week and it was really good. But then it closed down and I didn’t know what I was going to do. And then I had an epiphany: I could make my own. I called a friend who walked me through it, because I fully needed to be walked through it. I had no clue what to do.

I didn’t know about yeast; I didn’t know about kneading; I didn’t know anything about challah. And I loved it right away. I loved the physicalness of it — working hard on making something and then having it come out beautiful in the end. And I liked the way it tasted — everything about it. It spiraled from there.

Now, baking is my passion. Cooking ... I do enjoy it, but it’s not as fun for me as baking. When I bake I don’t need a recipe. I can just put something together. If my kids want pancakes, I just whip up pancakes. Now I know the science behind all of it. So it’s something that I can kind of just do on a whim.

You didn’t grow up making challah?

I grew up Orthodox and I’m raising my kids Orthodox but it was just not something my mother did. If you live in a place where it’s easy

to buy, that’s just what she did. We were raised with so many other rich Jewish customs. A lot of times, as you’re raising your family, you just do the things that your mother does. But my kids love it and they always want to help me.

What was your intention when you first started Oven Fresh Challah and how has that changed over time?

When I first started, it was a very casual thing. I had no idea that it would become what it became. One time I made challah and a few people at the Shabbos table were like, “Oh, this is really good.” And then a few weeks later, I got comment after comment that it was good. And it wasn’t something I ever thought about — like maybe I could sell this — but then the idea came to me and I started very small, just selling to my friends. And then slowly but surely, over time, it just became my thing.

And I became known around town as the challah lady. A lot of times people will come to my house to pick up a challah and they’ll be surprised that I’m the challah lady, and I’m not an old lady.

It just took off. I started to really enjoy the process of baking. It brought me a lot of joy, and when you find something that brings you joy, you just run with it.

It started off with just challah and then it became babka and other baked goods: cakes and cookies. I just saw the need around the community of what people were asking for and I slowly added more products and got bigger and bigger. It took a life of its own over the years.

Another thing I was doing — it was really popular before COVID — was classes. Either people would hire me for a birthday party or I would do big events where someone would hire me and I would teach everybody how to make challah or babka. It was really popular.

How is business going?

I have five kids — 12, 10, 8, 4 and an 8-monthold baby. I’d say that business is going well because I love that I can work as much or as little as I want. And I love that I’m at a point in my business where people know who I am and I don’t have to run after customers. For so many years I would do so much advertising and do a lot of fairs to get my name out there. Once the baby gets a little older my plan is to totally revamp and go a lot bigger.

Why is Oven Fresh Challah still important to you?

Raising a family is definitely my priority. But it is important to me to have something that’s just mine, and it’s amazing that it also makes money. When you’re a mom, that can definitely take over your life and become your only identity. It’s so important for moms — whether they work full-time or part-time or whatever — to have something that’s just theirs.

Miriam Litzman PHOTO COURTESY OF MIRIAM LITZMAN

It’s important to show your kids also that there’s more to life; it’s important to have something that you love and do it. And I can show my kids that you can take nothing and turn it into something. I worked and worked, and I made it into something really special. It took years and years and sweat and tears and trying things that sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t and lots of failures.

It all pays off in the end, especially when you hear from people around the community that they love your product and they keep on coming back again and again. It makes you feel really good that you’re able to do something for the community.

How did COVID impact your baking?

During COVID I changed everything. I did a whole take-and-bake program, where I didn’t bake anything. I would make the dough and the customer baked it. I still offer that, but that’s what I was pushing during COVID because I felt people would feel more comfortable baking their own stuff.

How has your business impacted your Judaism?

Raising a family is very hectic and there’s not a lot of time to have to yourself to focus on God, focus on prayer. I take the opportunity when I make challah to pray. So it’s not only a business but it’s also a way for me to connect with God and take it really seriously.

Women have three mitzvot and making challah is one of them. There’s a mitzvah, which is when you make the dough, if you make more than five pounds, you take off a piece and you say a blessing and in that time you can pray to God for anything you want, and I take full advantage. I pray for my family, my friends and the world. Then you take that piece and you’re supposed to burn it, or you can wrap it and throw it in the garbage.

I really feel like it’s brought me closer to Judaism and made me feel like a part of all Jewish women all over the place. JN

For more information, email ovenfreshchallahaz@gmail. com or call 602-301-6170.

by Andra Karnofsky

Giftpack includes 1 lb. sweet, whole wheat or traditional white round hallah with or without golden raisins, 8 oz. jar of golden honey, a shiny red apple and a personalized New Year’s card.

$29 (includes shipping) call: 888-520-9080 email: sales@challah.com online: www.heavenlyhallah.com

Best

ROSH HASHANAH

Why are we still so obsessed with Hitler? An unconventional new documentary leaves the answer just out of reach.

art (from “The Producers” to “Star Wars”). We are in Hitler’s bunker; now we’re at the site of his birth; wait, now we’re at a World Cup celebration in France; now we’re driving down the empty COVID-afflicted streets of New York; now we’re at the site of the Sobibor death camp, which the Nazis took care to destroy any trace of, and which therefore makes a handy metaphor for the dangers of forgetting or denying the lessons of the past.

denier (and inspired the movie “Denial”). The filmmakers attend one of Irving’s distorted tours of Nazi death camps, during which they record him making all manner of antisemitic comments; they are appalled by what he stands for, and seem mainly fascinated that a man like him exists.

“Is it possible to make a film like this without contributing to the Nazi Cinematic Universe?”

This line of narration comes early in “The Meaning of Hitler,” a fiery new documentary about the persistent hold Nazism has on our culture, directed by Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker. It’s a cheeky reference to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a world shared by the comic book giant’s many onscreen superhero characters. Like Marvel fandom, Hitler and Nazi obsession encourages cultlike devotion to a sprawling, interconnected alternate reality — except the Nazi Cinematic Universe’s shared fantasy is that Hitler had the right idea about the Jews.

Based on the classic book-length essay by the German journalist Raimund Pretzel (published under his pseudonym of Sebastian Haffner), “The Meaning of Hitler” is a globetrotting excavation into the heart of our society’s fascination with Nazis, antisemitism and fascist ideology. Why does he remain so visible today? Why have we anointed him as

a figure of unique evil, rather than an evil that could be replicated in the modern day? And why do so many people still seem to admire or — worse — unconsciously emulate him?

Using Pretzel’s original text as a jumpingoff point, Epperlein and Tucker throw sideeyes at the entertainment and political apparatuses that have propped up the Hitler myth in the decades since his bunker suicide. Their efforts, like the “Nazi Cinematic Universe” line, simultaneously hope to be sarcastic, selfdeprecating and genuinely insightful.

All of this is accomplished in an unusual style that mostly rejects the patient, structural framework of a standard documentary in favor of a free-associative approach more befitting an internet skim (or one of Leni Riefenstahl’s propaganda videos the film takes care to dissect). Large text flashes on screen (words such as “Savior” and “Evil”) as we move through space and time at breakneck pace. The viewer sees archival footage, which collides with present-day memorials, YouTube videos and clips from Western

We get some traditional biographical material on Hitler, too, and — this being 2021 — much discussion of present-day political moments that the filmmakers offer as parallels to fascist thinking, including Europe’s reactions to the migrant crisis; the rise of far-right nationalism in Germany and Poland; the Charlottesville march; and even former President Donald Trump. The directors know they are not the first to make any of these parallels: a cheeky opening sequence places its source material alongside Hannah Arendt’s “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” Timothy Snyder’s “On Tyranny” and several other books that make up the new canon for cosmopolitans concerned about fascism. (Is this also, in a way, a Nazi Literary Universe?)

A segment on antisemitism makes the surprising choice to juxtapose an interview with Deborah Lipstadt (recently nominated to be the U.S. State Department’s antisemitism envoy) with segments featuring disgraced British author David Irving. Yes, that David Irving — the one whose 1996 libel trial against Lipstadt infamously ended with a British court ruling that he was a Holocaust

Irving’s inclusion in the film is the exception, though. The other talking heads are a familiar who’s-who of reputable WWII scholars, including Saul Friedländer and Yehuda Bauer, both Czech-born Jews whose personal Nazi survival stories inform their commitment to scholarship even in their advancing age, along with Nazi hunters Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, and assorted other experts and tour guides. All these figures who have devoted their entire lives to separating history from propaganda now must look on as the propaganda threatens to win out, and sensationalist documentaries about Nazis give way to ironic right-wing YouTube memes.

Everywhere we go, we also see the boom mics and clapperboards that remind us we are watching a movie — a trick Epperlein and Tucker also employed in their previous documentary, “Karl Marx City,” which investigated Epperlein’s father’s suicide in the former East Germany and which, like this film, was also a commentary on modern-day totalitarian forces. There, the filmmakers sought to make visible what the Stasi had repressed. Here, their deliberate presence has the feeling of a YouTube confessional, as they continually ask themselves what good their movie will do. Why take 90 minutes to warn everyone yet again about Hitler, they wonder, when every mention of him only seems to do more harm than good?

Why, indeed. JN

“The Meaning of Hitler” opened in theaters and on-demand Aug. 13.

With wishes for a sweet and healthy year

A still from the documentary "The Meaning of Hitler."

PHOTO COURTESY OF IFC FILMS VIA JTA.ORGPLUS

Featured Event

FRIDAY, AUG. 27

Beth Ami Temple Annual Open House: 2 p.m. Beth Ami is hosting its annual open house virtually. To view on the website, go to bethamitemple.org any time after 2 p.m. The active adult community is best suited to those over 50 seeking a spiritual and social connection with their Jewish roots in a warm, close-knit family Questions? Contact Judy Lohr-Safcik at jklohrsafcik@gmail.com.

Events

TUESDAY, AUG. 31

Vision Board for the New Year: 6-8 p.m. Join the Martin Pear Jewish Community Center for this in-person workshop. Create a vision board in preparation for the Jewish New Year 5782. Vision boards have long been used as a tool to help define the goals and dreams you have for yourself. There is no pressure to do it “right” — each board is completely unique and personalized, with no correct look or design. All supplies provided. Cost: $25 for members, $30 for guests. For more information and to register, visit apm.activecommunities.com/valleyofthesunjcc/Activity_Search/1809.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 1

Not Alone: 6:30 p.m. Join the Martin Pear Jewish Community Center for this in-person film screening of “Not Alone.” Through her intimate teen-toteen conversations, the audience will learn about depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicide attempts, getting help and treating mental illness. Join Rachel Rubenstein, LCSW and Therapist, after the film to discuss how you can better know the signs of teen suicide. In partnership with iGen Parenting. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for guests. For more information and to register, visit jewishphoenix. regfox.com/movies-with-a-message-a-documentary-film-series.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 1-2 and SATURDAY, OCT. 2

The Red Rocks Music Festival will present concerts at the Arizona Jewish Historical Society on Wednesday, September 1st, at 7:30 p.m. featuring works by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Bartok; Thursday, September 2nd at 7:30 p.m. featuring works by Boccherini, Piazzolla and Dvorak; and Saturday, October 2nd at 7:30 p.m. featuring works by Ravel, Rodrigo, Boskovich, Lavry, and Schumann. Cost: $36. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit redrocksmusicfestival. com.

MONDAY, SEPT. 13

From Shadows to Life: 6 p.m. Join the Martin Pear Jewish Community Center for an in-person author presentation by Judy Pearson. Learn about the creation of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship which forever changed the definition of what it means to be a “survivor.” Part medical history, part inspirational biography, Pearson tells the story of a social movement that continues to improve life for millions. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for guests. For more information and to register, visit jewishphoenix.regfox.com/ meet-the-authors-series.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 17

Wise Aging: 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. In this virtual Bureau of Jewish Education course, learn positive ways to navigate a meaningful transition to your next chapter on life’s journey. Wise Aging is 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. Cost: $10. For more information and to register, visit bjephoenix.org/ course-events/2021/09/17/wise-aging.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 23

COMEDY: 7 p.m. Jennie Fahn’s solo 90-minute comedy, UNDER THE JELLO MOLD, makes its Arizona debut at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts. The show was winner of the 2017 Hollywood Fringe Festival’s Best Solo Show and Producer’s Encore Awards and named Pick of the Fringe. Cost: $35. Purchase online at UnderTheJelloMold.com or call (480) 499-TKTS (8587).

Jews of the Southwest: 7 p.m. Join the Arizona Jewish Historical Society for an in-person film screening of “A Long Journey: The Hidden Jews of the Southwest.” The film is about self-awareness and reaffirmation, and a celebration of the richness and diversity of Jewish and Latino cultures in the American Southwest. Streaming is available as well. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit azjhs.org/documentary-film-series.

THURSDAY, OCT. 7

Bingo for breast cancer: Join Martin Pear Jewish Community Center for The J’s second annual event of which 10% of proceeds will benefit a local cancer organization. Enjoy a wine tasting, raffle prizes, dessert, and bingo. Cost: $30 for members, $40 for guests. For more information and to register, visit apm.activecommunities.com/ valleyofthesunjcc/Activity_Search/1831.

SUNDAY, OCT. 10

Fiddler: 10 a.m. Join the Martin Pear Jewish Community Center for an in-person film screening of “Fiddler on the Roof.” Before the film, professional violinist, Maggie Martin will play music from the musical. Cost: starting at $10. For more information and to register, visit jewishphoenix.regfox. com/movies-with-a-message-a-documentaryfilm-series.

THURSDAY, OCT. 21

Wine Tasting Day Trip: 9:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Join the Martin Pear Jewish Community Center for a Northern Arizona wine tour that includes a private

tastings at three wineries in the Cornville/Cottonwood Vineyards region, lunch at one of the vineyards, and round trip private transportation to and from The J in a luxury van. Register now as space is limited to 14 people. Cost: $250 for members, $280 for guests. For more information and to register, visit apm.activecommunities.com/ valleyofthesunjcc/Activity_Search/1890.

SUNDAY, NOV. 7

It’s Not That Simple: Join the Martin Pear Jewish Community Center for an in-person author presentation by Pam Ostrowski If your loved one has been diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer’s, be prepared for anything - it can be a shocking disease. Ostrowski’s guidebook, walks you through what can happen and prepares you for the challenges you may face.. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for guests. For more information and to register, visit jewishphoenix.regfox.com/ meet-the-authors-series.

Community festival: Noon-4 p.m. Join the Arizona Jewish Historical Society for a community festival celebrating the 100th anniversary of the construction of the Cutler Plotkin Jewish Heritage Center. There will be music, food trucks, activities for families and children, and special guest speakers. For more information and to donate, visit azjhs.org/cpjhc-centennial.

TUESDAY, NOV. 9

No Place On Earth: 6:30 p.m. Join the Martin Pear Jewish Community Center for an in-person film screening of “No place on Earth.” In 1942, 38 men, women and children slide down a cold, muddy hole in the ground, seeking refuge from the war above in a pitch-black underground world where no human had gone before. After 511 days, the cave dwellers, ages 2 to 76, emerged at war’s end. Despite all odds, they had survived. While in the Ukraine in the 1990s, American caver, Chris Nicola, stumbled upon this mysterious cave. Sixty-seven years later he led four of the survivors back to say thank you to the cave. Chris will zoom in following the film to share his story. Cost: starting at $10. For more information and to register, visit jewishphoenix.regfox.com/movies-with-a-message-a-documentary-film-series.

SUNDAY, DEC. 12

Deli Man: 2 p.m. Join the Martin Pear Jewish Community Center for an in-person film screening of “Deli Man.” Investigate the legacy and mythology of Jewish food culture and includes interviews with Larry King, Jerry Stiller and Alan Dershowitz. Indulge in the deli foods you love and learn about

the traditions that make deli one of America’s great cuisines. Cost: starting at $25. For more information and to register, visit jewishphoenix. regfox.com/movies-with-a-message-a-documentary-film-series.

THURSDAYS

Storytime at Modern Milk: 9:30 a.m. Bring your babies, toddlers and preschoolers to our weekly all ages in-person storytime. We will integrate favorite children’s books and songs while giving parents new ideas for play. Modern Milk is located at 13802 N Scottsdale Rd Ste 163. Cost: $5. For more information and to register, visit modernmilk.com/after-baby.

SUNDAYS

Bagels: 9-11 a.m. Join the Martin Pear Jewish Community Center for Bagels And Gabbing every last Sunday of the month in-person. Grab a bagel and a cup of coffee and enjoy some time with your friends and make new ones. You must register to attend. Bagels and coffee will be provided. Cost: Free for members, $5 for guests. For more information and to register, visit apm. activecommunities.com/valleyofthesunjcc/ Activity_Search/1787.

Virtual Meetings, Lectures & Classes

THURSDAY, AUG. 26

Intolerant texts: 9-10 a.m. Rabbi Norman Solomon will present on the topic virtually. Cost: $18. For more information and to register, visitvalleybeitmidrash.org/upcoming-events.

SATURDAY, AUG. 28

Selichot: 7:30 p.m. Congregation Kehillah is hosting an in-person Selichot program. For more information, email info@congregationkehillah.org.

TUESDAY, AUG. 31

High Holiday Prep: 10 a.m.Join the East Valley Jewish Community Center for a virtual presentation by Rabbi Arthur Lavinksy about preparing your heart and sould for the High Holidays. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit evjcc.org/tuesdays.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 1

Soulful parenting: Noon-1 p.m. In this virtual presentation, author Dasee Berkowitz will combine insights from thousands of years of traditional Jewish wisdom and contemporary literature on spirituality with her own utterly relatable firstperson storytelling, to help parents embrace every

CALENDAR

moment with their families. Cost: $18. For more information and to register, visitvalleybeitmidrash. org/upcoming-events.

Respecting the Elderly: 9 a.m. In this virtual presentation, Rabbanit Sharona Halickman will present about respecting the eldery. Cost: $18. For more information and to register, visit valleybeitmidrash.org/event/respecting-the-elderly.

Meditation: 4 p.m. The Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley is offering a virtual afternoon meditation. Cost: Free. For more information and to obtain the Zoom link, visit jcsvv. org/contact.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 9

Israel: 2 p.m. Join the Arizona Jewish Historical Society for this virtual book discussion on “Israel: A Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth” by Noa Tishby. While everyone seems to have a strong opinion about Israel, how many people actually know its history? Through bitesized chunks of history and deeply personal stories, Tishby chronicles her homeland’s evolution, beginning in Biblical times and moving forward to cover everything from the First World War, to Israel’s creation, to the disputes dividing the country today. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit azjhs.org/israel.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 14

Museum at the J: 10 a.m. Join the East Valley Jewish Community Center for a virtual presentation by the Chandler Art Museum about Dorothea Lange’s depression era photography in Chandler. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit evjcc.org/tuesdays.

TUESDAY, Oct. 5

Music of Broadway: 10 a.m. Join the East Valley Jewish Community Center for a virtual presentation by violinist Julie Ivanhoe. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit evjcc.org/ tuesdays.

TUESDAY, OCT. 12

Museum at the J: 10 a.m. Join the East Valley Jewish Community Center for a virtual presentation by the Chandler Art Museum called “Frank Lloyd Wright and a New Vision for Chandler.” Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit evjcc.org/tuesdays.

THURSDAY, OCT. 14

The Light of Days: 2 p.m. Join the Arizona Jewish Historical Society for this virtual book discussion on “THE LIGHT OF DAYS,” by Judy Batalion. Learn about the exploits of a cadre of Jewish women in Poland—some still in their teens—who helped transform the Jewish youth groups into resistance cells to fight the Nazis. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit azjhs.org/ the-light-of-days.

TUESDAY, OCT. 19

Healthy Aging: 10 a.m. Join the East Valley Jewish Community Center for a virtual presentation by Debbi Lavinsky, a health and wellness coach and Pilates teacher, about strategies for healthy agining. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit evjcc.org/tuesdays.

TUESDAY, OCT. 26

Odessa: 10 a.m. Join the East Valley Jewish Community Center for a virtual presentation by the Odessa, which will perform Klezmer music. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit evjcc.org/tuesdays.

TUESDAY, NOV. 2

Chopin: 10 a.m. Join the East Valley Jewish Community Center for a virtual presentation by concert pianist Elias-Axel Pettersson called, “Chopin: Bold, Imaginative and Introspective” a lecturerecital. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit evjcc.org/tuesdays.

TUESDAY, NOV. 16

Genealogy: 10 a.m. Join the East Valley Jewish Community Center for a virtual presentation by the Daughters of Jacob Genealogy called, “Bridge Generation: Preserving Your Family’s Story.” Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit evjcc.org/tuesdays.

THURSDAY, NOV. 18

Jews Should Keep Quiet: 2 p.m. Join the Arizona Jewish Historical Society for this virtual book discussion on “The Jews Should Keep Quiet,” by Rafael Medoff. Based on recently discovered documents, The Jews Should Keep Quiet reassesses the hows and whys behind the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration’s fateful policies during the Holocaust. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit azjhs.org/the-jews.

TUESDAY, NOV. 30

Holiday at the J: 10 a.m. Join the East Valley Jewish Community Center for a virtual presentation by Temple Beth Sholom of the East Valley Rabbi Herschel Brodie about Chanukah. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit evjcc.org/ tuesdays.

TUESDAY, DEC. 7

Elvis: 10 a.m. Join the East Valley Jewish Community Center for a virtual presentation by university instructor and travel writer/photographer Dan Fellner called, “Was Elvis Jewish?’ Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit evjcc.org/ tuesdays.

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. 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. JN

Field of dreams

Josh Arnold, son of Janet Arnold Rees, senior concierge and creative aging coordinator for Jewish Family & Children’s Service, snagged a job in a special baseball field in Dyersville, Iowa. It was built by Major League Baseball for a special “Field of Dreams” game between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees on Aug. 12.

Jade Carey Day

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego declared Aug. 17 Jade Carey Day in honor of her Olympic gold medal in gymnastics. Carey trained at Arizona Sunrays Gymnastics & Dance Center, owned by Julie Witenstein.

Holocaust education in Arizona is o cial! (Again)

Rep. Alma Hernandez (LD-3), sponsor of House Bill 2241, joined Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, Dr. Lawrence Bell, executive director of Arizona Jewish Historical Society, Congregation Beth Tefillah Rabbi Pinchas Allouche and Jonathan Hoffer, board chairman of the Martin Pear Jewish Community Center for a ceremonial signing of Holocaust education legislation. Ducey signed the law officially on July 9.

Gov. meets survivor

Gov. Doug Ducey talks to Holocaust survivor from Tucson at ceremonial signing of Holocaust education legislation.

PHOTO COURTESY OF AHAVAS TORAH

PHOTO BY DR. LAWRENCE BELL

PHOTO BY LILA BALTMAN

PHOTO COURTESY OF CAMP STEIN

FROM

Kaylie Medansky, Temple Chai’s associate executive director, belonged to NFTY as a kid, but she jumped between youth groups because her friends were in various groups. She hopes that RTC will give kids opportunities to see their friends from different synagogues.

“The NFTY brand isn’t as important as the relationships that are built,” she said.

Jessie Rubenstein, religious school director at Temple Emanuel, is excited about RTC because kids in her area will be able to see they are part of a broader Reform Jewish community outside of their synagogue.

She attended Mesa’s public schools as a kid, and well remembers being the only Jew in class. “Trying to develop a Jewish community in Mesa and the East Valley is really, really hard,” she said. She wants Emanuel kids to know “they’re not really alone and isolated in the East Valley. The Reform community extends beyond the walls of this temple,” she said.

The synagogues will not collaborate on everything, but each will be responsible for hosting two events during the year. Working together to provide monthly social and Jewish programming in the larger Reform community will be a “boon” to everyone involved, Rosenthal said.

“We’re better together and we enjoy sharing resources, ideas and the camaraderie,” she said. “It’s all snowballed and now we call each other up when we need something. We’ve become a community within a community and it’s bigger than any one of us. There’s no hierarchy. We all pitch in.” JN

MILESTONES

OBITUARY

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18

carrots. Lightly cook the shallots and carrots until they take some color and just begin to soften, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add the crushed garlic and miso paste and stir to coat the vegetables, taking care that they don’t burn.

Deglaze the pot with the wine and coffee used to marinade the beef. Reduce by half the volume. Add the ribs back in and add the stock. The meat should be covered.

Prepare a cartouche, or paper lid, and place directly on top of the meat (see chef’s note). Cover this with the lid from the dutch oven. Place the short ribs in the oven for at least 4 hours. They should be tender and yielding, but not falling apart to the touch.

When they are done, gently remove them and place into an oven-proof container. When cool, trim them into 6-to-8-ounce pieces. Strain the braising liquid back over the meat.

Chef’s note:

A cartouche is a paper lid made by crushing up a sheet of parchment paper. Place it over the top of the meat, directly touching the surface. Be sure to put the lid on the pot prior to placing in the oven. The cartouche is used to keep the steam in so the meat won’t dry out. If you want to make this ahead, which I highly recommend, place the dutch oven in the fridge after the short ribs have cooled. Refrigerate overnight. When you take them from the refrigerator the fat will have congealed and you can easily remove with a spoon. Reheat the short ribs at 350 F for 30 minutes before serving. Makes 6 servings.

BROWN SUGAR APPLE CRUMBLE CAKE

And, finally, in a nod to the tradition of apples and honey, I’ve decided to finish the meal with a luscious brown sugar apple crumble cake. It’s so good and looks so pretty with apple slices fanned out on top.

BROWN SUGAR CRUMBLE & APPLE

TOPPING INGREDIENTS

½ cup dark brown sugar

½ cup all purpose flour

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

½ cup pecans, roughly chopped ¼ cup cold margarine, cubed

3-4 apples, cored and sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices

MAPLE GLAZE INGREDIENTS

1 cup powdered sugar

1 -2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

BROWN SUGAR CRUMBLE DIRECTIONS

Whisk together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add cold margarine, and work it in with your fingers until crumbly. Add in pecans and work them in until crumbly. Set aside until ready to use.

Core your apples, and slice into ¼-inch slices. Set aside while you mix your cake batter.

BROWN SUGAR APPLE CAKE DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 10-inch round baking dish, one at least 2-3 inches deep.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the margarine, lemon zest and sugar until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, mixing until fluffy and scraping down the sides of your bowl after each addition. Add in vanilla and beat until fluffy.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

RUTH M. COHEN

Ruth M. Cohen, 92, died July 5, 2021. She was born in Youngstown, Ohio and lived in Peoria.

She is survived by her daughters, Linda (Susu) and Lori; her son, Jeffrey; her grandchildren, Ali, Jacob, Zachary and Lauren; and her great-granddaughter, Harper.

Arrangements by Sinai Mortuary. JN

Helen Kaplan, 100, died Aug. 12, 2021. She was born in Winthrop, Massachusetts, March 9, 1921 and lived in Sun Lakes. She moved to Arizona in 1983. During her 100 years she was blessed with a loving family and many wonderful friends.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Raymond in 2011 after 67 years of marriage, and her beloved son, Eliot (Carol). She is survived by her daughter, Marsha Speicher (Kirk), her grandsons Eric Kaplan (Samantha), Brad Kaplan (Jen), Scott Kaplan Dyer (Brittany) and Jared Speicher (Lesleigh); her great-grandchildren Lindsay, Owen, Madison, Harvey, Kira, Arlo and Bernard; and her nieces, nephews and cousins.

Donations can be made to Temple Emanuel of Tempe, Hospice of the Valley or the Arizona Humane Society.

BROWN SUGAR APPLE CAKE

INGREDIENTS

½ cup margarine

1 ¼ cup dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon lemon zest

2 large eggs

2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 apple, peeled, cored and grated

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon baking powder

1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ginger

½ teaspoon salt

Turn your mixer to low, and add the flour in three additions until everything is added. Turn mixer to medium and beat until smooth and there are no lumps, but don’t over mix. Fold in grated apple, and pour batter into prepared baking pan.

Fan apple slices out on top of the cake batter. Sprinkle all of the brown sugar crumble over top of the cake batter and apples, leaving some of the apple slices visible (if desired).

Bake cake in the center of your oven for 45-55 minutes or until the center is set and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes.

MAPLE GLAZE DIRECTIONS

In a bowl, whisk together maple syrup and powdered sugar until smooth.

If your glaze is too thick, add a splash more maple syrup ½ teaspoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. Similarly, if your glaze is too thin, add a bit more icing sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. You want it to be nice and thick, and just thin enough to drizzle over the top of the cake. Allow glaze to set for at least fifteen minutes. JN

Francine Coles is a food blogger based in Phoenix. Find more of her food insights at thefancypantskitchen.com.

Congregation Beth Tefillah is a welcoming, vibrant synagogue where you are sure to feel at home. Our name is an expression of our primary objective: to serve as a “house of prayer” and a spiritual lighthouse to every Jewish man, woman and child, regardless of background, affiliation or level of observance.

Congregation Beth Tefillah wishes that the year ahead will be filled with peace, happiness and health!

Rabbi Pinchas & Esther Allouche