Jewish News, Oct. 1, 2021

Holocaust ties influence family of immigration attorneys

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

The immigration attorneys at Goldman & Goldman, PC in Tucson can relate to their clients — perhaps more than most.

Gloria Goldman and her two children — all immigration attorneys — often see shadows of their own family’s story in those of their clients.

“I talk to clients who came here to flee torture and suppression in their countries. And I tell them I was a refugee, and I connect with them,” said Goldman, 73. Her family history makes her compassionate for her clients, many of whom have also lost family members.

When she was just 6 months old, Goldman and her parents came to the United States from Germany as refugees.

It was 1949, and just three years earlier, her mother, Esther Klein, was liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Her father, Morris Klein, was also a Holocaust survivor. Her parents met in a displaced persons camp.

Mo Goldman, Gloria’s son, said he sees a deep connection between his heritage and his work as an immigration attorney.

“To me it seems like we can use our own history as a catalyst to helping others and hopefully getting them the goal of becoming a citizen of this country,” Mo, 46, said.

Larissa Goldman, Gloria’s daughter, said she feels like she has a natural empathy and understanding of clients’ struggles.

“Because of the fact that they may be persecuted or experienced similar aspects to what my grandparents went through, it is rewarding to be able to see that we can help other people

Jewish community leaders speak out against comparisons of COVID precautions, Holocaust

by what we do, and to get them out of bad situations,” said Larissa, 44.

For Gloria, one of the legacies of the Holocaust was not having any family around while growing up — no cousins, grandparents, aunts or uncles. Her parents were able to come to the United States because her father’s cousin, who was already in the U.S., sponsored their visas, but the families did not stay in contact for long after their arrival. Reflecting on her past, she said her work as an immigration attorney means “quite a bit” to her, especially the gratitude people show her for changing their lives.

One of the people she helped even took her name. She did a pro bono case revolving around a young girl who was being raised by undocumented immigrants. She was a baby when they took her in because her mother was sent to prison. Gloria helped the couple obtain their green cards and they ultimately adopted the child they were raising.

“When they adopted her, they told her she would have their last name, finally, and if she wanted to change her first name, she could. And she changed her first name to mine.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, and a million more thank yous for helping me stay with my parents and my brothers who love me a lot,” her namesake wrote to her when she turned 10.

Despite their shared family history, each Goldman was drawn to immigration law for different reasons.

Gloria was 40 when she decided to go to law school with her husband’s encouragement.

“He thought it would be interesting, and I thought, ‘Well, let’s see if I can get in,’” she said. “And once you apply, then it’s a mission.”

She went to University of Arizona for law school and graduated in 1990. She opened

realized during his junior and senior years that the cut-throat field with limited job opportunities wasn’t for him.

He decided to follow his mom’s example and go to law school. He did some work in her office during some of his summer breaks and got a pretty good idea of what being an immigration attorney would be like.

“I enjoyed helping immigrants and I just felt like it was a good way to make a living and help people,” he said.

After finishing law school at Hofstra University in 2000, he opened his own office in New York. But after a few years, he moved to Arizona for a warmer, slowerpaced life, and “it was a natural fit to join in with my mom.”

In 2005, Gloria A. Goldman, PC became Goldman & Goldman, PC.

Larissa was the last family member to join the law firm, graduating from Arizona State University in 2018.

After being a physical education teacher for nearly 16 years at Prince Elementary School in Tucson, she decided it was time for a change.

Like he did with her mom, her dad suggested she go to law school. And like her

mom, Larissa gave it a shot. “I knew that it would only open doors at that point,”

Her family was excited at the idea of her becoming an immigration attorney and then joining the firm, too, but she wasn’t convinced that would be the route she would take.

“I told myself, I would go in with an open mind,” she said. “But as I learned more about law, I liked how immigration kind of combined a little bit of everything.”

She likes that immigration law touches on areas of business law, family law, criminal law and, most of all, she likes that she can help people.

“And doing it with my mom and brother was perfect for me at that point in my life,” she said.

Gloria and Mo work out of an office in Tucson, while Larissa works out of an office in Phoenix. Goldman & Goldman also has a branch in Battery Park City, though they don’t use it very often.

Reflecting on her career, Gloria said she would have laughed if somebody were to have told her when her kids were young that she would end up being an immigration attorney with them.

“It’s just a magical thing,” she said. JN

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such statements to review their community guidelines or codes of ethics to see if there was a violation of these rules.

Paul Rockower, executive director of JCRC, said the organization will “not tolerate the utterly inappropriate use of Holocaust imagery or Holocaust comparisons to current issues surrounding COVID, including mask usage and vaccinations.”

But it isn’t stopping the damage.

Phoenix Holocaust survivor, Marion Weinzweig, 80, is frightened.

“It’s just so stupid — so scary — that people actually believe them. All of the United States is starting to get scary for me.”

Another survivor, Rise Stillman, 91, said it is unbelievable that anybody would compare COVID precautions to the Holocaust.

“There simply is no comparison,” Stillman said. “The Nazis were taking lives and killing people and the government here is trying to save lives and save people from having to go to a hospital.”

On Aug. 9, Kellie Ward, chair of Arizona’s Republican party, retweeted a message that reads, “What’s the difference between vaccine papers and a yellow star? 82 years. We are increasingly living under national socialism. Stop Medical Apartheid.” Ward’s own tweet said, “Exactly. #WakeUpAmerica.”

State Sen. Kelly Townsend, R-Mesa, tweeted an image Sept. 12 of a Nazi flag with a caption that reads, “If you’re vaccinated but you’re complaining about the unvaccinated then what you’re really saying is that you don’t think the vaccines work.”

On. Sept. 10, Kim Fisher, a Deer Valley Unified School District board member, reposted a message on Instagram: “If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied during 1930’s Germany, now you know.”

On Sept. 6, Rep. John Filmore, R-Apache-Junction, told a crowd during a rally at the state capitol that the wearing of masks was like the tattooing of Holocaust victims.

“It’s reminiscent of the 1930s in Germany, when people on their own bodies were tattooed,” Fillmore told the crowd.

Michael Beyo, CEO of the East Valley Jewish Community Center, released a statement in response to Fillmore’s comments, calling his comparison “unacceptable.” Beyo invited Fillmore to participate in the EVJCC’s Holocaust lectures, classes and exhibits.

Beyo, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, said he and his siblings are the only living relatives of his grandparents’ families.

“I grew up amongst many survivors with their numbers tattooed on their arms that I would see every morning in shul while they wrapped their tefillin on,” he said.

“I am that person that has been violently attacked verbally and physically numerous times because I am a proud Jew, and as one, I wear my kippah.”

Linking mask requirements and/or vaccine mandates to the Holocaust is insulting to the memory of Jews and nonJews who perished at the hands of the Nazi regime, he said.

“The star that my grandmother wore and that is still in my family was to target her for death. The J stamped on her ID documents was to target her for death. The comparison (even when done by Jews) is antisemitic.”

While Filmore has since apologized for using a “bad analogy” and said, according to the Arizona Republic, that he never meant “to denigrate or belittle the atrocities of what happened in the Holocaust,” others are doubling down.

Ward did not respond to a request for comment. Townsend told the AntiDefamation League, in response to sharp criticism, to “learn your history.” She, too, did not respond to a request for comment.

In an emailed statement, Fisher told Jewish News she can understand why “some in the Jewish community may not feel it is the same and in many ways it is not.” But, she said, “that is because we have not yet seen the end of this and we have seen the atrocities that were done to the Jewish people.” She said she can’t stand by as parents’ rights are being “taken” and “people are forced to take experimental vaccinations.”

She hopes the Jewish community “would understand that I am in no way diminishing what atrocities they faced. I just do not want history to repeat itself and the government is going down that path again.”

She fears the media, which she said she doesn’t trust, is “conditioning a separation” of the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. In her email to Jewish News, she suggested, without citing any evidence, that some kind of concentration camp could lie ahead for those who have not chosen to get vaccinated.

“What is next? Camps for those who have not taken the vaccination? Camps for those who will not comply? What punishments will they face? Will the government tell them it is for their own good? Will they be lied to only to find they are separated from their family members? Will the children be taken?”

Janice Friebaum, vice president of the Phoenix Holocaust Association, said the comparisons being made to the Holocaust and 1930s Germany are painful for survivors and their descendants, like her.

“This is personal for us,” she said. “Our lived life stories are essentially being used to score political points, and that doesn’t feel good.”

It belittles what happened, she said.

“And regardless of what side of the political spectrum we’re on, we know that requiring masks and vaccines is not akin to a yellow star of David on our clothing. We

know that more than anyone.”

Civia Tamarkin, president of the National Council of Jewish Women Arizona, said it is hypocritical that politicians who articulate their support and loyalty to Israel are not speaking out against members of their own party who are making these kinds of comparisons.

It is “deplorable” for people to use Judaism and the Holocaust for their political gain, she said.

Alexander Alvarez, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Northern Arizona University, said comparisons to the Holocaust are trying to portray a sense of being unfairly victimized, “and it is absolutely, completely inappropriate.”

Sharing these ideas paired with imagery of swastikas is reckless, he said.

“Having some of these images connected to vaccines, public health issues — the consequences of that are that it continues to spread misinformation, and it changes what we understand about what the Nazis actually stood for and the policies that they pursued.”

On Sept. 9, a Jewish Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, Josh Mandel, compared government vaccination efforts to Nazi Germany.

“I call on my fellow Americans: Do not comply,” he said. “Do not comply with the tyranny, and when the Gestapo show up at your front door, you know what to do.”

The ADL released a statement on Twitter Sept. 10, calling on Mandel to apologize. Mandel responded by calling Greenblatt a “kapo,” a term denoting Jews who were coerced into working with the Nazis during the Holocaust.

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz, president and dean of Valley Beit Midrash, said antisemitism comes from both ends of the political spectrum. “The right is often complicit in defending the far-right white supremacists and the left is often complicit in defending the antisemitism emerging from far-left circles,” he said. “Stopping hate starts with each of us being honest and taking responsibility.”

Arizona Jews for Justice, a program of VBM, tries to call out antisemitism from across the political spectrum and has “developed many dialogue programs to foster deeper understanding and respect.”

Weinzweig said she wants to see Jews come together and march in the streets.

“We don’t do enough,” she said. “You have to educate them. You have to call them out. And if that doesn’t help, which it doesn’t seem to, you have to have gentile people on your side, too, and go out there and march and make a big deal about every little thing that comes out.”

Stillman hopes that people who make these kinds of comments and agree with them are in the minority, but she isn’t certain.

“I would hope so,” she said. “We know what is happening, but I still have faith in the country.” JN

Flagstaff’s Jewish and Christian communities come together to ‘share stories’

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

Bob Braudy wasn’t yet 10 years old when somebody painted a swastika on the steps leading up to his family’s house in Yonkers, New York.

“That stuck with me,” he said.

In his teenage years, he recalls overhearing his parents talk in hushed tones in the kitchen about how his dad was being passed over for promotions because he was Jewish.

As an adult, while he was consulting for a trucking company, somebody in leadership referenced a contract and told him, “I need you to Jew them down.”

“He didn’t mean it offensively. It was a microaggression. I didn’t know how to answer that,” he said. Now, at 78, he would know what to say, especially having been involved with the AntiDefamation League for about three years. Passionate about uplifting the Jewish community and doing what he can to eliminate bias and antisemitism, Braudy recently helped launch a series of interfaith conversations in Flagstaff.

“If Jews continue to look inward, we’re not going to be around,” he said. “We have to look at how we can participate in and be valued members of the community.”

In 2017, Braudy met Pastor Adam Barnhart of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran church while volunteering with the Coconino County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Unit. Their shared interest in search and rescue and passion for their faith communities brought them together.

In 2019, they were both involved with Violins of Hope, a program involving a traveling private collection of violins, violas and cellos that belonged to Jews before

and during World War II.

Working with the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix and the Arizona Community Foundation, Braudy brought the instruments to Flagstaff and created a two-day educational and concert program: one for students and one for adults. The adult program was hosted at Barnhart’s church. “It was a community event about the beauty that man can create with music contrasted with the horrors he can perpetrate,” Braudy said.

Braudy and Barnhart were both moved by the experience and decided to collaborate to make more opportunities for cultural and religious exchanges.

They planned a “Ladke and Lefse” for their faith communities to talk about the different foods, how they’re prepared and the symbolism behind them.

“It was going to bring the communities together around carbs, because carbs unite everybody,” Barnhart joked.

COVID has indefinitely delayed that event. Barnhart said a few members of his congregation were especially disappointed and brainstormed some ways the two faith communities could mingle during COVID.

“The idea came up of having these studies together of these stories in the Hebrew Scriptures that are part of our scriptures as well,” Barnhart said.

Braudy thought it was a “damn good idea” and asked Congregation Lev Shalom Rabbi Emerita Nina Perlmutter if she would get involved.

She didn’t hesitate. Her father, Nathan Perlmutter, was the executive director of the AntiDefamation League from 1979 to 1987, “so I grew up really valuing interfaith conversations.”

Perlmutter and Barnhart got to work choosing from a list of Bible stories selected by the church congregants who first came up with the idea. They held their first virtual presentation in March. They’ve had four more “Shared Stories” since, with about 40 people attending each time. The next discussion will be about Adam, Eve and the Serpent and is set for Wed., October 13, which Perlmutter noted lines up well with the Jewish calendar.

Braudy feels these events help to build understanding and respect between the communities. “Shared Stories is about listening: listening to what others think and why and what they believe. And not critiquing, just accepting that’s their view of the world,” he said. The effort has brought the community closer and shows “people with disparate views can still get together and learn from each other.”

Barnhart has enjoyed learning about how the Jewish calendar emphasizes biblical texts at different times.

“They’re not just a Sunday school lesson that you did 30 years ago, but they’re really alive and have great import. It’s just so cool to see those stories in that completely different light,” he said.

Perlmutter has been impressed with how familiar Barnhart’s congregants are with the stories they are discussing.

“Many of the people there probably know a lot more about the stories than many Jews I know, so I’ve been impressed with that. I’ve also been impressed by their honest curiosity,” she said.

Barnhart hopes the relationship building that comes out of Shared Stories will lead to “bigger and better things,” like combined service projects.

In the meantime, he said these dialogues are happening in an important time, when the country is so polarized on political, social and moral issues.

“Everything seems to be driven to the edges, and radicalized. And these conversations are about meeting in the middle,” he said. JN

Allison O’Bryant, left, and Kimberly Sullivan perform a musical duet as part of the 2019 Violins of Hope program in Flagstaff. SCREENSHOT BY NICOLE RAZ

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Founders honored at Women’s Leadership Institute

ELLEN WIDOFF

The founders of two prominent, local Jewish organizations, Becca Hornstein of Gesher Disability Resources and Andi Minkoff of the Minkoff Center for Jewish Genetics, will speak about the origin story for each agency on Oct. 27. The event is sponsored by the Women’s Leadership Institute and part of its Panel series. The Institute’s stated mission is to strengthen the Jewish community by increasing the presence of women in communal decision-making positions and by building a Jewish women’s network. This year-long leadership program is available to women between the ages of 25-45, who are seeking comprehensive leadership training.

The Panel series, an anchor program of the Institute, hopes to add a dimension of understanding to real-world challenges, skills and solutions to be a successful leader in a variety of arenas, which is why these founders were chosen, according to Rabbi Elana Kanter, the Institutes’s director.

Gesher’s story begins when Hornstein’s family moved to Phoenix 38 years ago. Upon arriving, she called many synagogues to see if her 9-year-old son Joel, who has autism, could attend religious school.

“Most congregations,” Hornstein said, ”had

absolutely nothing — no special education program, no sign language interpreters and no family support groups.” When she asked congregation administrators why they didn’t have any kind of assistance for people with disabilities, she heard one answer again and again: “I’m not aware of any Jews with disabilities in Phoenix.”

She felt that Joel was not only disabled — he was invisible, she said.

Because of her son’s disability, Hornstein’s family felt excluded from participation in Jewish life for many years. Instead of walking away from synagogue life, the family found a warm welcome at Temple Chai, which supported her efforts to assist children and adults living with special needs.

National statistics indicate that 1 out of every 10 people in the United States has a disability requiring assistance. Hornstein, based on her personal experience, decided to increase awareness and challenge the status quo. It was the beginning of a long journey, which started in 1985 with the creation of the Council for Jews with Special Needs. That organization continues today as Gesher Disability Resources.

Hornstein’s efforts led to the provision of a variety of services to accommodate the special needs of the Jewish community. The organization also aspires to acknowledge the value and

dignity of every member of ’lal Yisrael, the people of Israel. And Hornstein’s story helped get another agency off the ground.

Hornstein has given many educational presentations in the community about Jewish genetic diseases, too, and was invited by Andi and Sherman Minkoff to speak to their chavurah in 2002.

The Minkoffs were especially interested in this topic. Due to the mapping of the human genome which had been completed a few years before, the Minkoffs realized that testing was now available for a multitude of Jewish genetic diseases. Parents might be spared the tragedy of having a child with a fatal genetic disorder.

Together with Jewish Family & Children’s Service, the couple formed a group to explore community education and testing for Jewish genetic diseases.

In 2004, the Jewish Genetic Diseases Center of Greater Phoenix, currently called the Minkoff Center for Jewish Genetics, was established.

The Minkoffs envisioned a Jewish community free of genetic disease. The center’s mission has been, since its founding, to provide awareness, education and screening for Jewish genetic diseases. In 2005, the center provided the first community-wide screening event, which drew more than 130 participants. A

few years later, the office moved out of the Minkoff’s living room kitchen and onto the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus and an executive director was engaged.

It evolved from screening four diseases to testing for over 104 different genetic abnormalities. Prenatal screening and genetic counseling are also provided.

The couple hoped that Andi’s passion and extensive connections to the Jewish community combined with Sherman’s medical skills could make the vision of a Jewish community free of genetic diseases in the future possible.

The zoom panel is free and open to the public on Wed., Oct. 27, at 6:30 p.m. To register, go to bit.ly/WLIOct21.

Lunch & Learn

From left: Sherman Minkoff, Becca Hornstein and Andi Minkoff PHOTO COURTESY OF BECCA HORNSTEIN

Whether converting or ‘refreshing,’ intro to Judaism class welcomes students in person this month

SHANNON LEVITT | MANAGING EDITOR

Jennah Bauernfeind was raised in a Lutheran household but never really took to her Christian faith. Meanwhile, Joshua, her husband, grew up without much religion at all. But the absence of faith marked a deficit in their lives, and as 2019 came to a close, they each decided to investigate world religions determined to find something that suited them both.

Serendipitously, independent searching brought them to the same conclusion: They would become Jews.

Reform Judaism “felt right” to both — a feeling cemented by meeting Temple Kol Ami Rabbi Jeremy Schneider. They attended Shabbat services virtually — the pandemic had just begun — and started talking about an official conversion process. In a week, when the couple starts Introduction to

the movement’s umbrella organization. The class starts Oct. 7 and has 16 sessions, which touch on a wide range of subjects: holidays, life cycle celebrations, prayer, sacred texts, theology, not to mention the breadth of Jewish history, including the Holocaust and the American Jewish experience.

With each iteration of the class, one of the four synagogues takes the lead in hosting and setting the curriculum while clergy from the others assist.

The students have different reasons for coming. Some are Jewish and looking to brush up on their education — which likely stopped at a bar or bat mitzvah. Some are non-Jews, not looking to convert, but merely interested in expanding their general religious knowledge. But most students are considering converting or have begun the process. All four synagogues require the class for conversion.

Even though the class comes fast on the heels of High Holidays, a rabbi’s busiest season, Schneider finds teaching invigorating. And he’s been elucidating Jewish concepts since he was in high school. He had to — he was one of only three Jewish students out of

people had questions.

He loved it, even when some lessons necessitated a deft touch so as not to offend.

When his high school attempted to teach kids the dangers of drunk driving by talking about the possibility of fatal accidents, they illustrated the point by showing graves topped with crosses. At 16, Schneider pointed out that not every grave is marked with a cross. He still finds himself raising similar issues.

He likes to surprise and challenge students in his intro classes by “talking Jewish” right off the bat, he said. Semantics matter, and his class is a safe space for students to break down familiar words and phrases that are often misleading or wrong.

When students use “Old Testament” to describe the Hebrew Bible or follow the year 2021 with A.D. instead of C.E., for example, it is a reflection of living in a majority Christian society.

This class is a chance to see the world through a new lens, a Jewish lens, he said.

But his priority is showing students how to “do Jewish” rather than teaching a rote list of things Jews believe, he said, and emphasized that Judaism isn’t something to be done while sitting on a couch eating popcorn.

“I’m a very visual person so whenever I teach, I always like to do activities and not just explain it from a book or as a lecture,” he said. A lesson on Passover will involve a model seder — for Sukkot, students make a sukkah out of graham crackers and candy.

“Every moment of the day is a teachable moment. I teach through, doing, living, being — everything,” he said.

It helps that this fall’s course will be hybrid — both in person at TKA and virtual for those who still aren’t comfortable being in a group.

Solel Rabbi Debbie Stiel taught the

on-one conversations as well as the students’ ability to get familiar with the space in the synagogue, she said, but “the class did get to know each other fairly well and had some deep conversations on areas of Judaism that were important to them.”

Steven Giordano took the course with Stiel and didn’t find the virtual aspect a problem. There were moments of lost internet connection, but things ran smoothly overall, he said. The big plus was that his Jewish fiancee, Jessica Grossman, could join him from time to time.

The couple met at University of Arizona’s Hillel, where they both worked. In fact, his friends were a little surprised to hear he had signed up for the course. Even though he isn’t Jewish, his time at Hillel had surely taught him the basics, they assumed. But the course covers so much ground, he said, the couple both learned a lot.

“It’s like a refresher if you are Jewish,” Giordano said. “And if you’re not Jewish, it’s really helpful.”

Schneider agreed with that assessment. Most Jewish students haven’t had a Jewish education in 20 years and have likely never had an adult Jewish education, and that puts them on a similar footing with students new to Judaism, he said.

“They’re all a blank slate.”

The Bauernfeinds are anxious for the instruction to begin. Though they had the option of taking the class virtually during the pandemic, they decided to wait for an in-person opportunity since “community is part of what we were looking for when we decided to pursue conversion,” Jennah said.

They attended the recent High Holiday services in person, fasted on Yom Kippur and are ready to hit the ground running.

“We love to learn, which is also why Judaism fits us so well.” JN

PHOTO COURTESY OF JENNAH BAUERNFEIND

following antisemitic, racist

The city of Glendale issued a proclamation Sept. 14 against hateful and threatening speech.

The document came after several Greater Phoenix neighborhoods were targeted with racist fliers filled with derogatory language between June and September. White supremacist group Aryan Nations was responsible for at least one of the distributions, according to the Arizona Republic.

The fliers were distributed in four neighborhoods near Litchfield Park, El Mirage and Glendale and derided Black, gay and Jewish people, warning readers to accept Jesus as Christ.

“We were deeply disturbed that hate materials were being so brazenly distributed, and that residents in these areas were feeling both vulnerable and unsupported by civic leadership,” said Paul Rockower, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix.

Rockower worked with Maricopa County NAACP, Chicanos Por La Causa, ONE Community, Council on American-Islamic Relations Arizona and Arizona Faith Network to write a letter in August to Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers. They also wrote to Litchfield Park Mayor Thomas Schoaf and El Mirage Mayor Alexis Hermosillo.

Rockower said the coalition of community partners “banded together to speak with one voice,” sharing their concerns that hate speech was going unchallenged and

residents were feeling vulnerable.

“We urged the respective mayoral leadership to take a firmer stand against hate, and to use our organizations as resources in that fight,” he said.

According to the Arizona Republic, law enforcement was not able to act quickly because they weren’t able to find a chargeable offense, and elected leaders passed the buck to other government officials or agencies, unsure of jurisdictional responsibility. JN

PHOTO COURTESY OF PAUL ROCKOWER

The city of Glendale issued a proclamation against hateful and threatening speech. CITY OF GLENDALE

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series | Religion and science

Oct. 5, 2021

Religion

and Trust

Adam Cohen

Psychology, ASU

7 p.m. (MST) | Zoom

info + registration

jewishstudies.asu.edu/trust

Oct. 12, 2021

Religion’s role in human evolution

Paul Cassell

Leadership and Integrative Studies, ASU

7 p.m. (MST) | Zoom

info + registration

jewishstudies.asu.edu/humanevolution

Oct. 14, 2021

Campus antisemitism: where, when, and why Jews are targeted

Jewish Studies public programs

The Lowe Family Conference

Jewish-Muslim relations through the ages: co-existence and conflict

Sunday, October 17, 2021

10 a.m.–6 p.m. (MST) via Zoom

free and open to all | registration required jewishstudies.asu.edu/lowe program subject to change

conference program

10–10:15 a.m. Welcome

Hava Tirosh-Samuelson Director, ASU Jewish Studies

Jeffrey Cohen Dean of Humanities Arizona State University

Ronald E. Lowe Benefactor

10:15–11:30 a.m.

Jewish Life among the Muslims in the Middle Ages

11:30 a.m.– 12:45 p.m.

Jews and Muslims in the Early-Modern Period: Continuity and Change

12:45–2 p.m. Jews and Muslim Communities in Contemporary Europe

2–3:15 p.m.

Jews and Muslims in Modernity: Colonialism and Nationalism

3:15–4:30 p.m.

The Quran and Jewish-Muslim Relations Today

4:30–5:45 p.m.

Jews and Muslims in the Academy

Ayal Feinberg

Texas A&M University, Commerce

7 p.m. (MST) | Zoom

info + registration

jewishstudies.asu.edu/campusantisemitism

5:45–6 p.m.

Conclusion

Since the rise of Islam in the seventh century, Jews and Muslims have lived in close proximity, collaborating, interacting and cross-influencing each other. This conference examines the development of Jewish-Muslim interaction over time, with special attention to the difference between pre-modern and modern periods, and highlighting the confluence of social, economic, political, cultural, and religious dimensions. The conference contends that understanding the past is conducive to addressing the challenges of the present and the future. Worldrenowned historians, sociologists and scholars of religious studies will examine the past and present of Jewish-Muslim relations.

organized by ASU Jewish Studies sponsored by The Lowe Family Holocaust and Genocide Education Endowment and the Irving and Miriam Lowe Professor of Modern Judaism at Arizona State University in partnership with The Melikian Center: Russian, Eurasian & East European Studies

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Jewish Free Loan is offering its biannual interest-free student loan program to incoming and current undergraduate and graduate students.

To apply for funding for the 2022 spring semester, visit jewishfreeloan. org/apply-now and submit the student loan application by Nov. 1. Applicants must be at least 18, a resident of Arizona and a member of the Jewish community.

A parent or guardian can apply on behalf of incoming undergraduate students under 18.

For more information about Jewish Free Loan and its interest-free loan programs, call (602) 230-7983 or email info@jewishfreeloan.org. Visit facebook.com/jewishfreeloanAZ or find JFL on instagram @jfl.phoenix.

There have been reported incidents at middle schools, high schools and colleges across the country, including in Arizona. Cactus Shadows High School, Hamilton High School, San Tan Heights, the Peoria Unified School District and Mesa Public Schools have all seen issues with the TikTok challenge, according to AZfamily.com.

Leaders at Beis Chana, Cheder Lubavitch Arizona, Dessert Jewish Academy, Nishmat Adin-Shalhevet Scottsdale, Pardes Jewish Day School and Phoenix Hebrew Academy told Jewish News that their students have not been stealing or vandalizing school property. Officials with Shearim Torah High School for Girls and Torah Day School of Phoenix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

TikTok has been removing any videos hashtagged with #deviouslicks or other phrases associated with the challenge to help stop its spread.

people who hold different beliefs and ways to build common ground or understanding among people with different beliefs.

“We all felt the wanting for Israel to exist — there are different passions toward that. Some people are questioning how Israel is run, some people are confused and some people are very proIsrael,” she said. “But it still was just a healthy conversation to just express each person’s point of view.”

On July 29, the Weintraub Israel Center, a partnership between the Tucson JCC and the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, hosted a book discussion on Israeli actress and activist Noa Tishby’s book, “Israel: A Simple Guide To The Most Misunderstood Country on Earth.”

Tishby will present at the Weintraub Israel Center Oct. 10, followed by a Q&A and book signing. The event will also be available via Zoom.

JFCS to receive a ‘Now is the Moment’ grant from Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust

Jewish Family & Children's Service are among the beneficiaries of Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, whose endowment grew by $123 million in the 15 months following the start of the pandemic.

Despite economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19, many institutions experienced extraordinary growth in the value of their stock market holdings. Piper Trust felt compelled to share its earnings with the community by awarding it all in one day, the largest single-day grant initiative in Arizona’s history.

Arizona’s Jewish schools spared from TikTok’s ‘devious licks’ challenge

Students across the country are stealing and vandalizing school property as part of a national TikTok trend — but not at Arizona’s Jewish schools.

The “devious licks” challenge went viral earlier this month on the social media app, with videos encouraging students to steal everything from soap dispensers to exit signs. According to Urban Dictionary, a “lick” is a “successful type of theft which results in an acceptable, impressive and rewarding payday for the protagonist.”

Tucson Jewish community creating ‘safe spaces’ to talk about Israel Stephanie Landes has found there aren’t many spaces to talk about Israel — especially if you aren’t sure how you feel, or fall in the middle of what can seem a discussion of two extremes.

So, as the interim Israel engagement professional at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, Landes created one.

On July 27, seven Tucson young professionals, all with Jewish backgrounds, joined a Zoom call hosted by the Weintraub Israel Center and facilitated by The Center for Community Dialogue and Training.

“I felt called to create this space, so that people can really see each other and hear each other — especially after the recent war, where social media felt like such an unsafe space.”

Participants shared the feelings they associate with the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, experiences that significantly shaped their views, how being Jewish has impacted their views, how they’ve felt misunderstood by

“Piper Trust has been extremely generous to JFCS over the years,” said Gail Baer, JFCS’ vice president of philanthropic services. “I couldn’t hold back the tears when they shared that we would be receiving an unrestricted grant as part of their ‘Now is the Moment’ grants commemoration.”

According to Piper Trust, grantee selection was shaped by each organization’s respective mission and impact on the community. The grants ranged in size and were determined by a variety of factors such as an organization’s overall need, budget size and populations served. Some selections were based on Virginia Piper’s history of giving to organizations and her personal values.

“These past 18 months have been challenging, and social services programs like JFCS have seen an exponential increase in requests for services,” said Dr. Lorrie Henderson, president/CEO of JFCS. “We are honored to have been selected by Piper Trust to receive this generous grant as a testament to the important work we are doing in our community.” JN

A screenshot of several TikTok videos associated with the devious licks challenge.

Iron Dome can’t protect against everything

Some progressive Democrats are giving progressives a bad name with their views on Israel.

We try not to overuse the accusation of antisemitism. But it is difficult to explain the opposition to continued U.S. funding to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome batteries. The Iron Dome is a defensive system that saves lives. As a weapon of war, the Iron Dome should please even a pacifist. Indeed, the only thing the Iron Dome hurts is the effectiveness of the thousands of randomly sprayed missiles from Gaza, Lebanon or wherever else Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorists choose to launch them.

So why was it that some progressive Democrats insisted that funding for the Iron Dome be removed from a stopgap government funding bill, or they would

vote against continued funding of the U.S. government? And why did House Democratic leadership buckle to the demand? The simple answer, of course, is that the stopgap funding bill was an emergency bill that needed to be passed; Democrats needed the votes of their entire progressive block, and they could only do so by acceding to the demand regarding Iron Dome funding. In addition, party leadership knew that the anti-Israel grandstanding could easily be addressed by standalone Iron Dome funding legislation, which quickly passed the House a few days later on a resounding 420-9 vote. But there is much more to the story.

The small but vocal group of progressives in the House is well-known. They are public relations masters who have leveraged attention to their attacks. Those progressives who don’t

A vaccine for kids

Last week, we learned that after months of clinical trials, Pfizer determined that its COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective for children between the ages of 5 and 11.

Notwithstanding that welcome news, the child version of the vaccine will not be available immediately. Pfizer must first submit a formal application to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorization, after which the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will analyze the data. If all goes well, approval of the vaccine for the 5-11 age group will follow.

Hiccups in the approval process are always possible — and government health agencies will be extra careful in determining whether the vaccine is safe for young children. But

by some estimates, the 5-11 age group could get their first vaccines by the end of October, a 10-microgram dose of vaccine, compared with a 30-microgram doses given to adults.

The expansion of vaccines for kids is a big deal. There are 28 million children in the 5-11 age group. It is a significant segment of our population that is difficult for parents to police and which is highly unlikely to police itself. Considering the ultra-contagious delta variant that is currently overwhelming our health care system, we need to view every unvaccinated child as a potential virus spreader who could threaten our schools with infections and closures, potentially infect family members and friends, and further extend the threat and impact of the

join their ranks are given the demeaning label of “PEP” — Progressive Except for Palestine — and vilified for their blindness to the sins of the Zionist state.

Fortunately, this vocal group has not succeeded. Even so, they attract significant media attention, and their message of Israel’s abuse, discrimination and victimization festers.

Take, for example, the tearful message of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who last weekend apologized for changing her vote on the Iron Dome bill from “no” to “present,” which she did, she said, because she had been subjected to “hateful targeting” for opposing the funding. Ocasio-Cortez explained that she opposed the Iron Dome because of “persistent human rights abuses against the Palestinian people,” and she criticized “the reckless decision by House

leadership to rush this controversial vote [that] … without true consideration created a tinderbox of vitriol, disingenuous framing, deeply racist accusations and depictions.”

We don’t have space to unpack the errors in Ocasio-Cortez’s statement. Suffice it to say that on this, she and her cohort misfired. They picked the wrong issue to challenge and misjudged the depth of rejection their stunt would engender. There is nothing controversial about the Iron Dome. It is a miraculous system that has saved countless Israeli and Arab lives. Those who are blinded by their critiques of Israel should understand that without the Iron Dome, Israel’s response to missile attacks on its civilian population would have prompted a much more intense and destructive result.

Be careful what you wish for. JN

pandemic. It is for these reasons that the plan to make vaccines available to this young age cohort is so important.

There is also a possible highly beneficial ripple effect that could flow from the provision of vaccines to younger children: Schools could soon require children to be vaccinated, as many have required of teachers and staff. Once otherwise reluctant parents see the benefits of child vaccination, perhaps they, too, will agree to be vaccinated — thereby helping to bring us closer to the goal of herd immunity.

The question, of course, is whether parents will be willing to allow their children to be vaccinated. And, on that issue, there is reason for concern. Two recent national

No silence on domestic violence

Ten months ago, I suffered domestic violence from my wife. My child and I have lived with the consequences ever since. They will shape my daughter’s life even longer and more dramatically than mine.

As I consider this awful experience in retrospect, several thoughts come to the fore.

What strikes me about domestic violence is its sheer thoughtlessness. We often discuss domestic violence only in terms of dominance and control, but it has complex origins, forms of expression and shorter or longer durations.

The form of domestic violence that succumbs to passionate anger represents the antithesis of control. Emotion surges; rationality disappears.

When my wife later testified in court, “I

don’t remember hitting him,” I believed her. She had lost self-control to the extent that she no longer remembered — or wished to forget — her actions.

Forethought provides a fundamental guide to our actions. Once we lose our grip on that guide, we stand at great risk. To slide into the darkness of domestic violence is to enter a world where we have lost sight of rationality, consequences and the emotional bonds of family. To lose self-possession and engage in such violence is to lose any claim on decency.

My wife did not hurt me physically. As her fists slammed into my back, I kept my back to her, reached for a cellphone and called 911.

Half a dozen police officers flooded into the

house very quickly. As they did so, I felt shame for our family. We are educated people and this should not be happening, I felt. This is not who we are, yet it was. Calling for police assistance was a necessary demand for the restoration of decency, for an immediate end to abuse.

Unlike so many who suffer domestic assaults and physical harm, I did not end up in a hospital emergency ward or worse, in a morgue. Family concerned at earlier reports of my wife’s mental state had advised me to remove knives and sharp objects from the house, which possibly prevented greater violence.

Instead, the harms were psychological and deep. They were especially harsh for our nineyear-old daughter, who witnessed the assault.

A NOTE ON OPINION

surveys indicate that 51% of parents of kids between 3 and 11 are unlikely to have their children vaccinated when it is approved, and only 26% of parents of children between 5 and 11 would be willing to have them vaccinated right away. We need to find a way to address these parental concerns.

Over the past 18 months we have seen remarkable strides in the development and implementation of a safe and comprehensive vaccine program for adults under the supervision of the FDA and implementation guidance from CDC. Most of us have come to trust those authorities and to rely upon their guidance. We hope that similar trust will be accorded those agencies when they provide guidance regarding child vaccines. Our communal health depends on it. JN

She screamed and cried at the top of her lungs. It was more noise than she had ever made in her life. She gave witness testimony to the police against her mother, something no child should have as a childhood memory.

Police officers wisely kept our daughter in her bedroom, asked to see her dolls and separated her from the scene unfolding in the living room where an officer placed my wife under arrest. I watched from the hallway, horrified as she was handcuffed and her thin legs quivered. “This is how life together ends,” I thought.

She spent the night in jail, appeared before

SEE VIOLENCE, PAGE 11

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

a court and a police officer delivered an order of protection when she returned home. She has not lived with us since. Months later she pleaded guilty to assault, entered a diversion program and charges were dropped after she completed anger management classes. We always emphasized the value of kindness to shape our daughter. Such events were never supposed to happen under our roof. Nonetheless they did. Now we exchange our child at a distance in a parking lot in front of a police station, something that will color my daughter’s childhood and one of the harms to her that I cannot forgive.

There are no excuses for this behavior, although my wife’s were not in short supply. Excuses and false inventions only compound violation of human dignity. Equally in this and many other cases, they refuse to make the profound apology owed to child witnesses.

What do we do when we see something bad happening? How do we describe and engage with those acts to prevent them from continuing or happening in the first place?

Many years earlier in Israel, I stood at a Beit Shean bus stop on a Friday afternoon, waiting for the last Egged bus south to Jerusalem. There were several asbestos-board shelters and behind one of them I noticed two uniformed IDF soldiers, a young man and woman. He was holding her wrists in one hand and with

his other hand slowly, deliberately, slapping her face hard back and forth.

There was no one else in sight and the male soldier had an assault rifle hanging over his shoulder. I decided it was unwise to intervene unaided against an armed man who clearly thought slapping his girlfriend around was his male privilege. A man who was capable of such an act in public was capable of shooting me. I kept a distance. By the time my bus arrived 10 minutes later, the couple had walked off, his face angry and she crying and trying to pull herself together.

That scene and its dilemma of witness has disturbed me ever since. I do not know that I made the right decision and have been troubled by that memory. Whatever my individual

responsibility, the violence I witnessed was the product of male supremacy and its claims of privilege through violence. Any domestic violence, whatever gender its source, represents an unacceptable claim for entitlement to violence as a privilege.

The violence that occurred in our home carries wider lessons. Too many of us have witnessed domestic violence. It is our collective responsibility, as communities and a society, to prevent it through anti-violence education from earliest ages through to university level and beyond.

Silence is not an ethical choice. Speak up. JN

The writer resides in Arizona. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

A glimpse into one woman’s journey surviving breast cancer

TERI FRIEDLAND

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but the women I work with are reminded about their breast cancer every day.

I’m an occupational therapist, breast cancer exercise specialist and exercise instructor. I created Pink Ribbon 360 to help breast cancer survivors recover physically and emotionally through specialized exercise programs.

Every woman with breast cancer has her own journey. Two women may have the same type of breast cancer, the same surgeries, chemotherapies and hormone therapies, but each woman’s journey — how her body responds and the impact it has on her life — can be very different. Let me take you through the journey of one woman, who I will call “Emily,” to make this disease more tangible.

In April 2020, Emily was 41, lived alone, was active in a few community groups and worked in an office. Of late, her job

became remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She exercised regularly and ate a healthy diet.

When she went for her usual mammogram, it showed a shadow on her breast. She was devastated, though not surprised, when she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer. She had inherited the BRCA1 positive gene mutation, which gave her a higher chance of getting breast cancer and/or ovarian cancer.

People of Ashkenazi Jewish descent have a higher likelihood of having a positive BRCA gene mutation. Minkoff Center for Jewish Genetics is a great resource in Greater Phoenix for genetic screening for women of Ashkenazi descent.

Finding out she had breast cancer and that she needed surgery was traumatic enough for Emily, however, finding this out during the pandemic made the process lonelier, scarier and riskier.

In June, Emily went through a double mastectomy. She then began five months of chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy and surgery can cause a lot of side effects. Emily experienced numbness in her fingers and toes which caused her balance to be off and she had difficulty holding onto her hot cups of tea, which she enjoyed regularly.

She had lymph nodes removed to make sure the cancer hadn’t spread, which caused her to have lymphedema, a build-up of fluid in soft body tissue, in one arm. This came with pain, discomfort and tightness. She worked with a lymphedema therapist for six weeks to resolve the swelling.

Emily lost her hair and toenails, which was very painful. She couldn’t reach over her head and was extremely tired and fatigued, which prevented her from exercising.

Once she finished chemotherapy, she thought she’d begin to feel better and recover quickly. But this is where depression, anxiety and fear often increase. This surprised her, as it does many people. Emily was busy during her treatments, so it wasn’t until afterward that the feelings of emotional

trauma hit her. She also felt guilty because she was depressed while her family and friends were congratulating her on being “done.” Her body was free of the cancer, but she didn’t feel free. She still had difficulty moving, and experienced pain and weakness throughout her body. She was tired of asking for help. She wanted to be independent. She felt alone and blamed herself for not being better physically and emotionally.

Emily heard of Pink Ribbon 360 through a support group in town called Bosom Buddies. We began to work together virtually in May 2021. Emily’s doctors told her she should exercise while going through chemotherapy and afterward. Studies show exercise can decrease cancer recurrence and mortality by 40%. It also can help with the side effects experienced during treatments.

However, the doctors don’t realize that their patients need support and guidance

SEE FRIEDLAND, PAGE 12

HOWARD LOVY | JTA

In 1985, I stood in the corner of a crowded meeting room at the Wayne State University Student Center, stonefaced, while people I did not know lined up at a microphone to denounce me before the Student Newspaper Publications Board.

“I don’t think Howard Lovy should be editor of The South End because he is biased toward Israel,” said one, referring to the student newspaper, where I was up for the editor’s position.

The board would decide if I should take the top job. By virtue of my role at the paper, I was in position to assume the top editor slot.

“Howard is a Zionist,” said another critic, “so he should be disqualified from this important job as editor of The South End.”

Some of them said something about the racist rabbi, Rabbi Meir Kahane. Another said something about the massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon three years previously by an Israel-allied militia group

and with the knowledge of the Israeli army. Apparently, I was responsible for all these things and people. I should not have been surprised.

A few anti-Zionist students had targeted me months earlier, not only peppering the paper with letters to the editor about me but showing up at The South End office specifically to harass and threaten me.

But at this hearing, there were not dozens but hundreds of people I had never met telling the board about what a lousy journalist I was because I had

written pieces on the opinion page in support of Israel. The Student Newspaper Publications Board, wary of controversy because of a previous editor’s antimilitary activism, rejected me, and I did not get the job.

I was 19 years old at the time. I’m 55 now and over the shock, but I look back on it as a key event in my development as a Jew and as a journalist. It was an important lesson for me in how isolating antisemitism could be.

12

When I faced antisemitism on campus in 1985, I felt alone. I’m glad today’s college students have each other.

A world built on chaos

Let us learn the parshah according to Nachmanides

commentary: Bereshis bara Elokim es hashomayim ves haoeretz. In the beginning g-d created the matter with which all physical and spiritual worlds are formed.

Vehaoretz haysa sohu vavohu veruach Elokim merachafes al hamayim. And the physical world was in a state of cataclysmic upheaval and g-d’s presence hovered above the waters.

If one just ponders these verses for one moment, it is astounding to imagine that an all-powerful omnipotent Being chooses to build a world with the material of chaos and destruction.

In a similar vein, the Tikkuni Zohar (a

FRIEDLAND

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

to exercise safely, even if they exercised before cancer. Emily was extremely tired; she didn’t know safe exercises to do and wasn’t comfortable going to a gym.

We began with gentle stretches and exercises in a chair and progressed to core stability exercises on the floor, full body cardio movements and we are moving towards resistance work. Our sessions are private and focus on her goals and needs. She’s been introduced to meditation, breathing and self-massage techniques.

Talking with a specialist allowed her to feel understood. She accepted that she wasn’t at the physical strength she was prior to her diagnosis, and she began to appreciate the improvements she is making. Some days are better than others. She continues to have fears of the cancer returning. That fear is coupled with the challenge of staying healthy through a pandemic. But the fear doesn’t control her life.

When we first began working together, Emily’s goals were to wash her hair on her own, get up from a chair easily and have more energy throughout her day. Today, Emily can do those things. She’s able to work a full day and is stronger throughout her body.

It’s important to remember that Emily’s story is unique and breast cancer affects people differently. Emily’s journey isn’t over, but she sees how far she’s come and won’t stop until she’s thriving, not just surviving. JN

Teri Friedland, OTR/L, BCES, is the founder of Pink Ribbon 360. For more information, visit pinkribbon360.com.

profound kabbalistic commentary on the word Bereshis) records a debate between G-d and the angels, where G-d chooses Man over the Angels and, to add insult to injury, informs these perfect beings that Man shall lord over them and they will be his subjects. Why would an all-knowing Being choose a flawed individual to be the one responsible to provide meaning to G-d’s world? The perfection of a spiritually superior being is far more effective.

In order to answer both these questions we must utilize an analogy. If a great educator had designs to open an elite academy for the gifted, he would certainly select leaders in the particular discipline that they are going to teach. These individuals are going to be demanding, inspiring and persistent. This academy is designed for excellence in every way.

There is another master educator that wishes to develop a very different academy, one that will provide an education to those who struggle to focus, strain to comprehend, feel nothing but frustration at every academic turn. Theses educators will certainly need to

LOVY

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

It was difficult for me to explain to my friends and colleagues that this even was antisemitism at all. I mean, it seemed perfectly reasonable to many that my “bias” in favor of Israel’s existence compromised my impartiality. But what was the “other side” I was supposed to take equally? Israel’s nonexistence?

In 1985, at the age of 19, I lacked the words to explain to anybody that I was being targeted for harassment specifically because I was a Jew.

In this way, I understand what is happening on campus today, with the rise in antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism.

The AMCHA Initiative has been tracking antisemitic incidents and activities on U.S. college campuses since 2015. Out of curiosity, I punched Wayne State University into their database and found 16 incidents of “antisemitic expression” and activity in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel from March 2016 to June of this year. (Different groups use different standards to identify antisemitism. Another monitor of antisemitic activity, the AntiDefamation League, did not record any incidents at Wayne State during that time. The ADL recently announced a partnership with Hillel International to better understand antisemitism on campuses.)

The argument, of course, can be made that all these events are not antisemitic, that they simply express solidarity with Palestinians. And if you’re not a Jew on campus and don’t see and feel for yourself

be exceptional individuals, bright, charismatic and creative. Yet the singular criteria are people who have traversed the same crucible and emerged refined. The hard-won victories and lessons learned from common mistakes is by far the most important factor of their success in imbuing their charges with a path to their own personal achievements.

Look around you, see the sky, smell the air, revel in the resplendent colors of our world. What you are experiencing is a cosmic classroom. Every day a tutorial of reality, to teach and inspire us to greater wisdom and higher consciousness. The purpose of G-d’s academy is not for the gifted but for the struggling. The world is formed of chaos for Man with all of his failings to find meaning and make sense of this divine jumbled menagerie. It is preposterous to consider that a supremely benevolent Being thrust us beloved children into his world with no means to navigate his way to a life of purpose and meaning.

I challenge every one of our esteemed readers, from where do you draw the wisdom

how these things manifest themselves in reality, it is difficult to explain this gray area between pro-Palestinian activism and antisemitic hate speech. You just know it when you feel it.

Ultimately, Jews are gaslighted with the phrase “Criticism of Israel is not antisemitism,” which creates a nonexistent caricature of a Jew who takes offense at every criticism of Israel.

What got me into the whole mess, and sent me down a path I continue to this day, was a story I wrote about a pamphlet. Earlier in ’85, the director of the campus Hillel had approached me at the Wayne State Student Center. He tossed a book near my lunch tray and asked, “Guess what I found the Muslim Students Association selling at Manoogian Hall?”

It was “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion,” the infamous czarist-era Russian forgery that sets out the Jewish plan for world domination. The Hillel director knew I wrote about Jewish issues, so he challenged me to write a story about this.

“It doesn’t matter if the ‘Protocols’ are fiction. Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t,” the head of the Muslim Student Association told me in an interview at the time. “But you cannot deny that many of the prophecies in this book have come true. Jews run the financial systems.”

This student became my nemesis. Every time I’d write anything in The South End, there he was to refute it. Not only that, but it became a campaign. The Muslim Student Association began tracking everything I wrote. Once I ran into one of its members while shopping at Detroit’s Eastern Market. I heard him say “Zionist” as I walked by.

to educate yourself, your family, the world to the lessons learned in your academy? G-d has provided us with the ultimate text book. The Torah. The text of the Torah is not a historical, biological, scientific, social, psychological narrative. It is simply the lens that allows comprehension of life’s greatest lessons. Find a quiet moment, sit in a comfortable chair and begin. In the beginning… JN

OK. Yes. That was, and is, true. I am a Zionist. So how do you describe to non-Jews that for anti-Zionists, “Zionist” is the equivalent of saying “dirty Jew”? How do you tell people that this was not “just criticizing Israel” when it’s part of a coordinated campaign to attack everything a Jew writes and, ultimately, prevent him from attaining the editor’s position?

I was alone in 1985, but today, Jewish students can find solace in online communities. Julia Jassey, a University of Chicago student who runs a group called Jewish on Campus, is emerging as a leader among young people on campus fighting back against antisemitism that masquerades as anti-Zionism.

Of course, none of those things were available to me in 1985, so I did the next best thing: I interned for the Detroit Jewish News, which also ran a version of my story about the “Protocols.” This unexpectedly led to my career as a “Jewish journalist” and, years later, as managing editor at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Today my college experience is wrapped into a lifetime of experiences in recognizing the various shades of antisemitism. It is difficult, I know, for college students. But I am also optimistic that even though it may look worse than it was “in my day,” young Jews are working together to help define and fight the problem of campus antisemitism. JN

Rabbi Shafir Roizman grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the spiritual leader of Ohr Hatorah Congregation in Phoenix.

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

PARSHAH BERESHIT GENESIS 1:1-6:8

RABBI SHAFIR ROIZMAN

Howard Lovy is an editor and writer based in Traverse City, Michigan. This article first appeared in the Detroit Jewish News.

Miriam Hirschl, 102, still loves learning and JFCS can help with that

JENNIFER SCHWEGMAN

Miriam Hirschl prioritizes education, and at 102 she still enjoys learning about a lot of things, including ballet and art. She also listens to a variety of lectures offered through Jewish Family & Children’s Service Virtual Center for Senior Enrichment.

“Learning is essential to our existence,” said Hirschl, a Sun City West resident. “Just like food nourishes our bodies, information and continued learning nourish our minds.”

Hirschl grew up with a passion for learning. It is the reason she became a teacher.

“I had a long and meaningful career in education and my husband was a doctor so I know how important being active — both physically and mentally — is for staying sharp and being independent,” said Hirschl. This belief is something Hirschl and her husband, Daniel, instilled in their children. For 57 years, the couple led by example, and it served the family well.

“We challenged our children at every turn,” said Hirschl. “We encouraged them to be healthy and eat right. We preached the importance of education. And today I can proudly say, they listened.”

Hirschl’s three children all graduated from college and went on to earn advanced degrees.

“I am the proud mother of a pediatric surgeon and an electrical engineer,” said Hirschl. “My beautiful daughter was a nurse administrator before she died of breast cancer. It was devastating for our family, but I am an optimist. I know life must go on and what better way than through my eight grandchildren and four — soon to be eight — great-grandchildren.”

When it comes to staying sharp, Hirschl practices what she preaches.

is important,” said Hirschl. “I belong to a book club and we have been reading some wonderful stories. I usually get my books from Amazon and then give them to my kids. I learn a little about this and a little about that. I love it!”

Hirschl is an active participant in the programs offered by the senior enrichment center. Among her favorites are the free virtual ballet, art and lecture classes.

physical and social well-being through stimulating thoughts and ideas, movement and exercise, as well as socialization.

In addition to exercise and art classes, Hirschl attends talks from renowned professors about astronomy and history as well as lunch and learn sessions with actors from the Herberger Theater Center.

“I still drive and do my own grocery shopping, but I let others help me when I need something special,” she said. “It’s important to ask for help when you need it.”

Her advice for other seniors in Greater Phoenix is to stay engaged and keep busy.

“I’m not a dancer or an artist but I love the classes," she said. “They keep me busy and committed to doing something. I don’t just sit around and watch television. I want to engage with people. Plus, I like that I don’t have to worry about transportation or dressing up.”

“Preserving your mental abilities as you get older is easier than you think,” said Hirschl. “You just have to be open to new ideas or at least doing the old things in a new way. I, for one, am glad I gave it a try. JN

COLOR: Right click swatch, and find and replace with correct color

The CSE offers a wide variety of programming in the comfort and safety of one’s home. Seniors throughout Greater

For more information about the JFCS Virtual Center for Senior Enrichment, email Jennifer Brauner at seniorcenter@jfcsaz.org or visit jfcsaz.org.

Out of the synagogue, into the wilderness

RABBI JULIE KOZLOW

Iwas always taught that a sanctuary had to have a window in it so we could see outside. Only then would we be able to understand our Judaism in the context of greater creation.

Most Wednesdays of the year, I ask my congregants to go hiking with me. In our beautiful wilderness we can get out of the synagogue and reflect on the world around us and what drives us. I call these excursions “Holy Hiking.” I, too, use this time to examine who I am as a rabbi and a spiritual leader.

The passion that drives my rabbinate is the call to bring our mighty and profound heritage meaningfully into the hearts and souls of our Jewish community.

I am not interested in solely maintaining the status quo — that was never my passion. I understand my calling as both a searcher and a teacher of sacred truths.

I am compelled to bring alive our history, our mission, our God, our wisdom, all of it, into the hands of our people. I am driven to hand it over to those who are searching for answers. This wisdom provides spiritual nourishment at its best. And though for me, this work is an honor and a privilege, it is nonetheless quite challenging.

For many Jews, past experiences in synagogue life have left a bad taste in their souls. The constant refrain that many rabbis hear is how shallow, how political and how uninspired so many of their experiences with synagogue life has been.

They say, “It never spoke to me; it never touched me.” They tell me it was irrelevant and uninspiring. They say they don’t believe any of it, and that there is no connection to be found.

Each and every time I hear these words, my soul cries. Yet, it is this sentiment that is the driving force behind my passionate commitment to bring the truth, the vitality,

the spiritual magnificence of Judaism back home to modern Jews.

It may well be true that this is the experience that many Jews have of their Judaism, yet, this is not the result of an intrinsic lacking in the religion. Rather it is the result of an oftentimes shallow and spiritually insignificant way with which so much of Judaism has been delivered in our time. The bottom line has often been an attitude of “just do it” without explaining why do it.

I ask why and so should you.

My entire rabbinate has been about trying to find meaningful answers for the Jews I serve. I am hungry to know God, I am hungry to sense eternal life, to experience true prayer, to build true community, to dance with time, to wrestle with existence itself and mostly, to know the very meaning of life. This is what compels me in my work, in my craft, for these are the questions I assume others hunger to answer as well. I believe that a Jewish community should journey together to find these answers.

The challenge is that most humans will see what they expect to see, and that makes real religion very hard to see indeed. I close my eyes every night and pray that I can find ways to break through the limited expectations that my congregants have of Judaism, and of me as a rabbi, so that they might find even a hint of the treasures that exist just beyond their reach. Because there is so much more.

The missing piece is God — and the sky-rocketing numbers of those who don’t believe. I, too, do not believe in the God that most of our contemporaries do not believe in. But not to believe in anything is a loss beyond words.

God is the Spirit Creator of the mystery of the universe. God is as close to you as your own breath and as expansive as the entire cosmos. God is not human, yet God is a vital part of one’s life experience, if only they can

stop long enough to listen for something that they don’t even believe exists.

God is the first challenge for me and God is why I take my congregants out to hike into the magnificence of the beauty of Arizona.

So where does Holy Hiking fit in?

Demanding that folks sit in a room and read words that no longer have any meaning to them is not the way of my rabbinate. I teach Jewish liturgy as a mantra; I teach God as a Spirit; I teach Judaism as love. I try it all — whatever it takes to rattle the complacency of disbelief. We live in times where humans believe in mostly nothing. My job is to open the windows of souls to see more, to see farther, to see what has not yet even been imagined.

This, I believe, is the future of the spiritual and religious endeavor. It is no longer the stern patriarchy telling us why our voices don’t count or why we are wrong to feel what we feel. It's time for more listening and less lecturing. The trajectory has been breached. An angry God can no longer speak to the human heart. The speaking God can be heard today as a low murmur, and

for many it will find its voice in acts of love and goodness. Oftentimes it can be heard more easily outside in the beauty of God’s artistry — the living, breathing magnificence of God’s world of nature. Today, it is God’s goodness that will compel humanity towards goodness.

I will engage my congregants in any way that I can in order to give breathing space for the soul. Building a sacred community in our day includes participating in the fullness of life. To pray together we must learn to play together so we will stay together.

So, yes, let’s go hike or kayak or breathe or sing or pray or laugh. There are so many places to find God today and we, the leaders of our people, must expand the sacred space that calls itself a synagogue. The walls must come down so that new, broader, more inclusive, spiritually nourishing space can be built. For this is the future of all good religion.

Rabbi Julie Kozlow is the spiritual leader of Temple

Watson Lake in Prescott ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS/ BENEDEK

Experience a Holistic Approach to Memory Care

World Alzheimer’s Day

On June 7, 2021, the FDA approved a new drug to treat patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Manufactured by Biogen, Aduhelm (aducanumab) is the first novel therapy approved for Alzheimer’s disease since 2003. Perhaps more significantly, Aduhelm is the first treatment directed at the underlying pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease, the presence of amyloid beta plaques in the brain.

Every September, people come together from all around the world to raise awareness and to challenge the stigma that is associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. This past month marked the 10th year of this global awareness campaign. September is World Alzheimer’s Awareness Month and just a little more than a week ago, on September 21, was World Alzheimer’s Day.

And we should have a day and a month designated to this disease. After all, it’s the fifth leading cause of death for people over 65 years old. One in three seniors dies with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. It kills more people than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. Between 2000 and 2019, deaths from heart disease have decreased 7.3% while deaths from Alzheimer’s have increased 145%.

Why is this happening? Why are more and more people coming down with this progressive neurologic disorder that causes the brain to shrink (atrophy) and brain cells to die? Scientist have not discovered why but we do know that we need to bring awareness to this now more than ever as it is beginning to spiral out of control.

The toll of Alzheimer’s disease has reached epidemic proportions. One in nine (11.3%) Americans over age 65 is living with Alzheimer’s at a cost of $355 billion annually. Alzheimer’s dementia increases with age: 5.3% of people between 65 and 74 have it, 13.8% of those 75 to 84 and 34.6% of those 85 and older.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s are women. Someone receives a devastating Alzheimer’s diagnosis every 65 seconds and every three seconds someone in the world develops dementia. By 2050, nearly 16 million people in the United States will be battling the disease. The cost to care for them will exceed $1.1 trillion.

Shining a light on this is an imperative for our country but also for the world. This is a challenge that we need to figure out and problem solve soon or this disease will crush our very existence.

While this drug therapy is somewhat controversial, it is a breakthrough for those in the area of dementia/Alzheimer’s research. Researchers are hopeful that there will be breakthroughs with these trials that will lead to more drug therapy treatments being approved in the future. Planning for the future is paramount, and as a community we will need to pull together if we are going to eradicate our world of this horrible disease. The following are some of the signs we should be looking for that indicate a loved one may have Alzheimer’s:

• Memory loss that disrupts daily life.

• Challenges in planning or solving problems.

• Difficulty completing familiar tasks.

• Confusing time and place.

• New problems with words in speaking and writing.

• Trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships.

• Misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps.

• Decreased or poor judgment.

• Withdrawal from work and social activities.

• Changes in mood and personality. Now is the time to act. When people are united by a cause for the greater good of mankind act, great things can happen. Come and join me in this movement to end Alzheimer’s by signing up for the Memory Walk to end Alzheimer’s Disease on Nov. 6, in Phoenix. In addition, if you would like to learn about Alzheimer’s prevention and a registry that was formed to get the word out there, go to endalz. org and help make a difference in the lives of our future generations.

It may take a village to raise a child, but for us to find a cure it will take every bit of our village and many others too. At Cypress HomeCare Solutions we are committed to serve those afflicted with dementia and Alzheimer’s.

To learn more about the Nov. 6 Memory Walk, go to alz.org/dsw.

Bob Roth is the managing partner of Cypress HomeCare Solutions.

BOB ROTH

Unsure of her religious heritage, Phoenix woman feels solidarity with Jews as antisemitism rises.

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

“We can never have persecution of people whose legacy is so worldwide,” she said. “We can never let this happen again. And yet, look at what we’re going through politically.”

The FBI recorded the largest number of hate crimes last year since 2008, and the Jewish community was once again a top target of religiously-motivated crimes.

Hume’s parents were both immigrants from Europe. She isn’t certain how they both ended up in the United States, met and married, but she is certain she grew up with a strange relationship to Judaism.

When she and her parents lived in Chicago, they lived a Christian life.

said. “It’s not like she ever pretended to be Jewish, but I never understood this connection.”

Then, a few years ago she heard about a program geared toward people like her — with questions about Judaism and their heritage — and found a local participating synagogue.

She signed up and met other people like herself, with stories of what might be a lost Jewish legacy. She learned about the Diaspora and how much has been lost.

“Frankly, that has not been easy to deal with. I’m grateful for that information, but I’m still a spiritually homeless person. I don’t know how to reclaim a lost legacy,” she said.

bers of this temple showed involved never breaking down, never reacting in weakness.”

She was so emotionally overwhelmed, she said, she is still processing her feelings from the event.

“I wasn’t crying for the people in the synagogue in Pennsylvania. I was crying for my lost roots in Europe,” she said. She doesn’t know what the answer is to rising antisemitism. But she knows she has to speak up.

Josephine Hume describes herself as “spiritually homeless.” Hume, 79, isn’t entirely sure whether any of her heritage is Jewish. Regardless, she is very concerned about the rise in antisemitism she sees in Phoenix and nationally.

Hume remembers baptisms, weddings and funerals. “There was no Jewishness,” she said. But her parents were always very friendly with Jews.

“My mother seemed to know more about Jewish religion than she should, having been raised Catholic,” Hume

She went back to the same temple for a night of solidarity after the 2018 Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh.

About 200 people attended, she said. “I was the only one who couldn’t keep tears from streaming down my face,” she said. “The solidarity that the mem-

A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found more than 9 in 10 Jews say there is at least “some” antisemitism in the United States, including 45% who say there is “a lot.” Slightly more than half of Jews surveyed (53%) nationally say that they feel less safe today than they did five years ago as a Jewish person in the U.S. “How do I speak up against antisemitism without making myself a target?” she asks. “What can I do to prevent the persecution of Jews, gays, everyone that Hitler wanted to exterminate?” JN

Star of David by MAMJODH is licensed under CC BY 2.0

A senior living community teeming with life-enriching choices — from programs to groups to classes — gives you easy access to engagement and fulfillment. And having so many possibilities to choose from keeps life interesting.

Beatitudes Campus is a not-for-profit life plan community founded by the Church of the Beatitudes.

What makes a movie Jewish?

CHLOE SARBIB | ALMA

“Although no one should assume that there’s a simple one-to-one correspondence between what appears onscreen and what happens offscreen,” writes Helene Meyers in the introduction to her new book, “Movie-Made Jews,” “most critics agree that movies matter because representation matters... What we watch helps to form our images of ourselves, others, and the world.” She puts it more concisely a few lines earlier: “While it’s a truism that Jews make movies, this book brings into focus the diverse ways movies make Jews.”

In the eight chapters that follow, Meyers covers onscreen depictions of antisemitism, assimilation, the Holocaust, queer Jews, intersectional alliances (and struggles) and feminism. The book’s self-defined mission statement is to present “a rich, usable American Jewish cinematic tradition that extends well beyond ‘Fiddler,’ ‘Yentl,’ and ‘The Chosen’ and is too often overlooked.” It posits that Jewish audiences can be influenced by onscreen portrayals, or in opposition to them — and, of course, by arguing about them (we are talking about Jews, after all).

Meyers, who is the McManis University chair and chair of the English department at Southwestern University, touches on Jews’ singular place in Hollywood, and how not all Jews occupy the same space in the movie industry. “White Jews have historically made movies,” she argues, “and, in part because of this racialized cinematic history, are positioned simultaneously as cultural insiders and outsiders… However, that insistence on Jewish difference is also an intensive look at intra-Jewish difference. Because what is present — and absent — onscreen influences how we look and how we learn to look, it matters that a diversity of Jews along the cultural and religious spectrum are seen and recognized by one another and by non-Jewish eyes.” Amen!

“Movie-Made Jews: An American Tradition” puts words to a lot of trends I’ve observed in the wild as an arts and culture writer for a Jewish publication. For instance: Jewish audiences claim movies as Jewish that “often [aren’t] seen as such by mainstream reviewers,” and a movie’s Jewishness is “mainly in the eye of the Jewishly literate beholder.” But my favorite new vocabulary I learned from the book is “Jewhooing.” It’s defined by David Kaufman as “the naming and claiming of famous ‘members of the tribe’ — and the consequent projection of group identity onto them,” and is integral to “the construction of Jewish identity and the related countering of assimilation — an unconscious attempt to reverse the very processes of social integration and deJudaization that touch most every Jew in the modern world.” In other words, being

obsessed with Jewish celebrities actually protects Jewish culture. It’s noble, guys. And it has a queer cousin, Jewqhooing (how do you pronounce that?) — “a process that affirms and simultaneously constructs queer Jew-ishness.”

Meyers dedicates her book to “Klal Yisrael, in all its diversity and to those who know that it’s never only a movie.” I spoke to her via email about my new favorite word, what makes a Jewish movie and the best Jewish movie line of all time (in her opinion).

I’m obsessed with the term “Jewhooing” (and its queer cousin, “Jewqhooing”) which I learned from the book — that’s probably 80% of Alma’s reason to exist. Do you do it? Who are the celebrities you are most proud to call members of the tribe?

Of course, I do it — with a great deal of self-consciousness, sometimes with a bit of irony, and always with joy. Three of my favorite celebrity members of the tribe are explicitly discussed in the book: Harvey Milk, RBG and Babs. I would also add Jon Stewart to that list. Smarts, humor and menschlikhkeit — what’s not to like?

What is the first Jewish movie you remember seeing?

When it comes to movies as with lovers, I think we might put a bit too much emphasis on our first. “Yentl” was certainly not my first Jewish movie, but it was formative. That movie did provide my first glimpse of a woman in a tallit, and it spoke to my Jewish feminist angst and hunger. Like Yentl’s father, my dad was proud of my intellectual chops and died way too young, so that became another point of connection.

What makes a Jewish movie, for you personally? Or, what makes a movie Jewish enough to be counted in the canon of “Movie-Made Jews”? My vision of a Jewish movie is eclectic and pluralist. Too often, Jewish movies are only counted as such if they explicitly represent Judaic practice and ritual. Or as Barry Levinson snarkily puts it, “do they have to wear yarmulkes in all the scenes? How many religious artifacts have to be in the film?” To make the cut for “MovieMade Jews,” a film had to include explicit Jewish subject matter or had to be experienced as a Jewish movie by filmgoers. So, I not only took into account what was onscreen but also considered the reception of the movie. In the tradition I trace, those who might be identified as “just Jews” reside alongside those who are traditionally — and sometimes untraditionally — observant. I think of Jewish diversity as a real strength in the community and in cinema.

Do you think it matters, in a Jewish film, if Jewish actors and creatives were involved? Can

a great Jewish film be made without Jewish involvement? There was debate around “Shiva Baby,” for instance, which cast a non-Jewish female lead in a very Jewish role. My academic answer to this question is that Jewish literacy rather than Jewish identity is necessary to make a great — and even a not-so-great — Jewish film. But my kishkes (which BTW speak with a strong Brooklyn accent) can only answer that question with another question: Why would anyone make a Jewish movie without involving Jews (unless, of course, you’re Mel Gibson, and then we know why)?

Both “Fading Gigolo” and “Keeping Up with the Steins,” two films that I include in a chapter titled “Assertively Jewish Onscreen,” were directed by non-Jews, John Turturro and Scott Marshall. Both of these directors made use of Jewish consultants and included Jewish cast members. Elliot Gertel, a writer who is notoriously critical of most onscreen depictions of Jewish life, proposed an honorary Jewish director award for Turturro. And “Keeping Up with The Steins” is part of the b’nai mitzvah curriculum in some congregations. These two profoundly Jewish films complicate assumptions that you have to be a Jew to make a Jew onscreen. I should also mention that both Turturro and Marshall are married to Jews, which I gleefully note to drive the anti-intermarriage crowd crazy.

You talk about the “Jewish closet” as well as the “queer closet” in the book: “the most profound parallel between these two documentaries and thus Jewish and queer film history is the emphasis on gay and Jewish identifications and desires strategically being performed through codes, ‘subtext,’ indirection.” And you mention a line from the movie “Treyf,” in which someone RSVPs to an event with: “While I’m a Jew and a lesbian, I’ve never really seen myself as a Jewish lesbian.” Can you talk about the relationship/ overlap — and the separation — between these two minorities onscreen?

Historically, Jews and queers have shared the experience of being oppressed minori-

ties who have the “privilege” of being able to pass or assimilate onscreen and off. Think about all the Jewish movie stars who changed their names and all the queer actors who played it straight. Antisemitism and homophobia were baked into the Hays Production Code, which regulated what could be shown onscreen, and the blacklist was backlash against the open secret of Jewishness and queerness in Hollywood. Also, Jews historically have often been perceived as gender benders: Mouthy women and studious men don’t conform to dominant ideas of femininity and masculinity. So, for lots of complicated reasons, Jews and queers have been set up as parallels or substitutes for one another. There’s a great line in Paul Mazursky’s “Next Stop, Greenwich Village” that wonderfully captures this: A Black queer character named Bernstein is asked if he’s Jewish and he responds, “No, I’m gay.”

But when Jews and queers are paralleled, queer Jews can find themselves having to choose between one closet or the other. Of course, homophobia within Jewish cultural and religious traditions plays its part in this, as does antisemitism within queer communities. Even films that do really important anti-homophobic work such as “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” and, to a lesser extent, “Kissing Jessica Stein” end up separating the Jew from the queer. In “Movie-Made Jews,” I focus on films that explore and refuse this separation. Sometimes, as in the case of “Trembling Before God,” “Treyf” and “Hineini,” that claiming of Jewish queerness is explicitly onscreen. But the Jewishness of the queer icon Harvey Milk doesn’t appear onscreen in Van Sant’s monumental film, “Milk.” Rather, it appears thanks to the Jewqhooing done by queer Jewish viewers.

Barbra Steisand in “Yentl”

PHOTO BY HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES VIA ALMA

Robin Meyerson’s ‘miracle’: Becoming an Orthodox Jew

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

Robin Meyerson spends her free time delivering mezuzot to those who need one, helping other Jewish women learn how to bake challah and teaching Torah. This month she is busy getting ready for the Great Arizona Artisan Challah and Babka Bake on Oct. 18.

Meyerson identifies as an Orthodox Jew now, but it wasn’t until she was around 26 years old that she understood what that even meant.

She grew up aware of her Jewish identity, but didn’t know any other Jewish people aside from her family members. Her dad was an engineer, and her parents wanted to show her and her brother the world. They lived in Australia, Malaysia and England, and learned about Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity.

“I was completely ignorant about Judaism,” she said. “It’s a miracle I married a Jew.”

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. When they got married, they figured they ought to do something Jewish, so they held their wedding ceremony at Temple Chai, a Reform congregation.

A few years later, she saw a Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix ad in the Jewish News for a trip to Israel.

“I grew up all over the world,” she said. “I’d been to Greece, Egypt, all through Europe and Asia, but I’d never been to Israel.”

Neither had her husband, so they went together.

“We get on the bus with all these nice people from the Federation and they say, ‘Oh, King David lived here and Sarah was here,’ and I was like, ‘What? Those were real people?’” She laughs now looking back. “My husband and I both have master’s degrees. We looked at each other and we said, ‘We don’t know anything. This is ridiculous.’”

So began their spiritual journey, which pushed them out of their comfort zones.

When Meyerson was 30, they had their daughter and began going to services at Congregation Har Zion, a Conservative synagogue. There, her husband discovered he didn’t know what a tallit was or how to wear one, prompting him to learn about Orthodox Judaism. He told Meyerson he wanted to go to an Orthodox synagogue, Young Israel of Phoenix, to her dismay.

“‘What?’ I said, ‘I’m not going there.’” The mechitza, the barrier between men and women, made her uncomfortable. However, she reasoned that she would feel differently if she knew more about it. “There’s got to be something to this, if

it’s lasted 3,000 years.” She started reading more about Orthodox Judaism and getting to know the families who attended the shul.

“These women have degrees, they have good jobs and yet they have like 20 kids. How do they do this? How do they balance this? So I started going to their houses for Shabbat.” She loved it.

Meyerson and her husband started trying out all of the Orthodox shuls; they took classes everywhere. Then she got a study partner from a free service called Partners in Torah. Her partner was based in New York, and Meyerson learned with her for eight years over the phone.

“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.

Looking back, it wasn’t just one thing that prompted her to be curious about Judaism, she said. She doesn’t know where it came from, but when she was 11 and living in the United States for a year, she asked her parents to find a synagogue. For one year she went to Sunday school at a small temple in Paducah, Kentucky.

Then, as an adult, she sought meaning when she started a family. Working in the corporate world as a director of corporate communications for a Fortune 200 company, she was knee deep in office politics and privy to office infidelity.

“I’m just starting my family, and there’s all this gross stuff going on, and I’m just thinking, ‘There’s got to be a better way,’” she said. Meanwhile, she is attending Shabbat dinners and is taken with the family values she witnessed.

When Meyerson was a young professional, she didn’t want kids. Completely career-oriented, she figured she’d have one kid for her husband when she was 30. And that’s what she did. Eventually, she was able to have four more kids, her last when she was 45. Her five kids are between 9 and 23.

It was a long journey of learning, exploring and transitioning, but she hasn’t looked back.

“It’s been the greatest decision of my life,” she said. “I felt blessed that I found this secret society.”

The book has a whole chapter on cinematic alliances in films featuring Jews and other racial and religious groups. What role do you think Jews play in the supposed paradigm shift in Hollywood, represented by #OscarsSoWhite, WSYWAT (We See You White American Theater), #TheShowMustBePaused, and other movements that have come out of the racial justice consciousness of 2020? You mention the Kickstarter campaign for “Wish I Was Here” and the backlash around Braff’s perceived white (and studio) privilege, which feels relevant to this question. Whenever we talk about white Jews and race, I wish people would recognize the racial privilege of white Jews while simultaneously acknowledging that white Jews have historically had a complicated relationship to whiteness and might be usefully viewed as off-white. In other words, I wish we could manage to racially chew gum and walk at the same time. I also wish that we could remember that antiBlack racism and antisemitism are part of the cultural air that we all breathe — that strikes me as so much more productive than formulaic ideas about Jewish racism and Black antisemitism that often actively discourage alliance politics and keep white supremacy going strong.

So that gives you some insight into how I approach film criticism and history. As I make clear in the book, Black/Jewish relations are a complicated cinematic social problem that goes back to the use of blackface in “The Jazz Singer” (1927), that makes a productive pitstop in Robert Rossen’s “Body and Soul” (1947), and that works in provocative ways throughout Spike Lee’s career. So, if you want to understand contemporary conversations about Black and Jewish representations in film and make progress on very different but overlapping histories and problems, I think we need to go beyond 2020 hashtags. This is where scholarship might help us to see more diverse representation of Black and Jewish communities as complementary rather than competing goals. The backlash against the Kickstarter campaign for Braff’s really important film “Wish I Was Here” strikes me as an erasure of Jewishness that did absolutely nothing to chip away at the Black souldestroying whiteness of the film industry. If we’re going to beat white supremacy onscreen and off, we’ve got to get beyond zero sum politics.

Relatedly, what can we learn from the Castlemont story? And what about someone like Black Jewish filmmaker Janicza Bravo and her film “Lemon,” who has said that she felt, around that film, that people assumed she couldn’t speak to Jewishness when, in fact, she could?

In 1984, a well-intentioned teacher took a group of mostly Black Castlemont High School students to “Schindler’s List” without providing them with a muchneeded, grade-appropriate Holocaust curriculum. Students talked and laughed during the movie, which horrified white Jewish members of the audience. This got woven into the overwrought media

and political narrative of Black gentiles and white Jews as antagonists. Steven Spielberg visited the school, connected with the students and focused his efforts on both listening and educating.

Olivia Peace’s “Tahara” and Brad Rothchild’s “They Ain’t Ready For Me,” two 2020 films that came out after “Movie-Made Jews” was already in production, make me think that the representation and reception of Black Jews onscreen — and off — is going to be an important new chapter in American Jewish film history.

You address some of the complications of describing Holocaust movies as, in your words, a “viable and profitable subgenre.” Aside from the complexities of figuring out how to portray a genocide onscreen, do you feel like there is “Holocaust fatigue” in our culture at the moment, and in media?

At the moment, I’m not sure which is more disturbing and dangerous: Holocaust fatigue, Holocaust ignorance, Holocaust appropriation or Holocaust obsession. Paradoxically, movies have deJewed the Holocaust by Americanizing and universalizing it while also presenting it as the Jewish story. In “Movie-Made Jews,” I’m interested in films that are committed to never forgetting the Shoah while also reminding us that it didn’t happen to American Jews, though we do live in the shadow of it. I’m also committed to not reducing Jewishness — cinematically or otherwise — to attempted genocide.

“Movie-Made Jews” focuses on movies, of course, but what role does TV play in this mediadriven Jewish perception? Are there “TV-made Jews”? Israeli TV in particular has played a huge role in the Jewish cultural landscape of the pandemic — with “Shtisel,” a huge hit across Jewish and non-Jewish communities alike, and with remakes like “Euphoria.”

I’m not a television studies scholar, but I am an avid TV watcher. There have certainly been a number of series in recent years that have put Jews onscreen in meaningful ways and that I’ve watched religiously. You mention “Shtisel” (one of my faves). I’d add “Srugim” and “Transparent” (which I still think is worth talking about despite the Tambor problem). Based on media and community commentary, these shows seem to be impacting how Jews look at themselves (and how gentiles view Jews). There’s probably a book to be written titled “TV-Made Jews.” I’m not interested in writing it, but I sure would love to read it.

Favorite line from a Jewish movie? “Shut up, I’m atoning” from “Kissing Jessica Stein” has to be up there.

Definitely a great line, but it might be edged out by a lawyer (played by Adam Arkin) proclaiming in “A Serious Man” that a get is “not really a legal matter.”

As Irwin asks Benjamin around his bar mitzvah in “Keeping Up with the Steins,” what’s your favorite thing about being Jewish?

Answering a question with a question. What’s not to like about that commitment to debate and critical thinking? JN

This article first appeared on Alma.

Robin Meyerson displays some of the Haggadot she is donating to community members.

PHOTO BY CHARLES MEYERSON

Isaac Asimov’s epic ‘Foundation’ series is now a TV show. His Jewish life was complicated.

STEPHEN SILVER | JTA

brutalized,” had “turned revolutionary

Asimov did not have a bar mitzvah, which he attributed to his parents choosing to raise him without religion and not, as some suspected, “an act of rebellion against Orthodox parents.” However, he said, he “gained an interest” in the Bible as he got older, although he eventually realized that he preferred the type of fictional books that would one day make him famous: “Science fiction and science books had taught me their version of the universe and I was not ready to accept the Creation tale of Genesis or the various miracles described throughout

Having the first name “Isaac,” in the 21st century, isn’t necessarily a certain giveaway that a person is Jewish. But in Asimov’s time, it almost always was. And while Asimov sometimes faced pressure to change his name for professional reasons, he always stuck with his given name.

work that derive from Christianity than Judaism.”

“This is unfair,” Asimov wrote. “I have explained that I have not been brought up in the Jewish tradition. I know very little about the minutiae of Judaism… I am a free American and it is not required that because my grandparents were Orthodox I must write on Jewish themes.” He went on to write that Isaac Bashevis Singer “writes on Jewish themes because he wants to [while] I don’t write on them because I don’t want to.”

“I am tired of being told, periodically, by Jews, that I am not Jewish enough,” he wrote.

Last Friday, following a pandemic delay, Apple TV+ debuted “Foundation,” the first-ever screen adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s bestselling, award-winning science-fiction book series. First announced in 2018 and produced in association with Skydance Television, the TV show is one of the Apple streaming service’s most expensive and ambitious productions to date.

The series, which follows a mathematician struggling to convince a galactic federation that their society is on the brink of collapse, blends anxieties of the 1940s and ’50s, when the source material was originally written, with modern global concerns like climate change.

It was co-created by Josh Friedman and David S. Goyer. Friedman identifies as Jewish, while showrunner Goyer, son of a Jewish mother, wrote and directed the dybbuk-themed 2009 horror movie “The Unborn.”

But what of Asimov himself, a biochemist at Boston University and one of the most influential sci-fi writers of all time? That’s a much more complicated question.

Isaac Asimov was born in Russia in 1920, and his family emigrated to the United States when he was 3 years old. He had Jewish parents who were themselves raised Orthodox, and they raised him in Brooklyn, New York. However, Asimov gravitated to more humanist beliefs from an early age, and

as an adult identified vocally with atheism until his death in 1992.

So on the one hand, Asimov became one of pop culture’s most prominent atheists; and on the other, he was open and prideful about his Jewish heritage.

The author addressed his beliefs and background in his posthumous 1994 memoir, “I, Asimov,” stating that his father, “for all his education as an

“I would not allow any story of mine to appear except under the name of Isaac Asimov,” he wrote. “I think I helped break down the convention of imposing salt-free, low-fat names on writers. In particular, I made it a little more possible for writers to be openly Jewish in the world of popular fiction.”

Asimov is one of the most prolific authors in history, having written or co-written more than 500 books in his lifetime. And he did explore Jewish liturgy in such books as “Words in Genesis”

Asimov also devoted a chapter in the memoir to antisemitism. He noted that his family never suffered from pogroms or other overt antisemitic terror either back in Russia or in the U.S., nor did antisemitism impede his own personal success. But he did find it “difficult to endure… the feeling of insecurity, and even terror, because of what was happening the world,” especially at the time of the Holocaust. He also told the story of a public argument he once had with Elie Wiesel, in which Wiesel said he did not trust scientists and engineers, because of their role in the Holocaust.

As for Israel and Zionism, Asimov was something of a skeptic. In his final book “Asimov Laughs Again,” published around the time of his death, Asimov stated that he had never visited Israel and didn’t plan to, although he attributed that in part to his habit of not doing much traveling.

“I remember how it was in 1948 when Israel was being established and all my Jewish friends were ecstatic, I was not,” he wrote. “I said: what are we doing? We are establishing ourselves in a ghetto, in a small corner of a vast Muslim sea. The Muslims will never forget nor forgive, and Israel, as long as it exists, will be embattled. I was laughed at, but I was right.”

Isaac Asimov died in New York City in April of 1992, at age 72. His family revealed years later that he had contracted HIV from a blood transfusion following heart surgery nearly a decade prior, which led in part to his death.

Orthodox Jew, was not Orthodox in his heart.” While acknowledging that he and his father had never discussed such matters, he speculated that his father, having been “brought up under the Tsarist tyranny, under which Jews were frequently

(1992) and “Words from the Exodus” (1963). The bulk of his literary work, however, did not touch on Judaism.

His memoir also takes issue with an academic critic who, in 1989, accused Asimov of using “more themes in his

Asimov did not have a Jewish funeral, or any funeral at all — he was cremated. But at a subsequent memorial service, fellow author Kurt Vonnegut stated that “Isaac is up in Heaven now,” later joking that “that was the funniest thing I could have said to an audience of humanists.” JN

Lou Llobell in “Foundation”

PHOTO COURTESY OF APPLE TV+ VIA JTA.ORG

Portrait of the American biochemist and writer Isaac Asimov in the 1970s MONDADORI VIA GETTY IMAGES VIA JTA.ORG

Featured Event

SUNDAY, OCT. 10

Fiddler: 10 a.m. Join the Martin Pear JCC, 12701 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, for an in-person film screening of “Fiddler on the Roof.” Before the film, professional violinist, Maggie Martinc will play songs from the musical. Cost starts at $10. For more information and to register, visit jewishphoenix.regfox.com/movies-with-a-message-adocumentary-film-series. The program is in partnership with Temple Chai.

Events

SATURDAY, OCT. 2

The Red Rocks Music Festival will present a concert at the Arizona Jewish Historical Society, 122 E Culver St, Phoenix, on Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m. Cost: $36. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit redrocksmusicfestival.com.

THURSDAY, OCT. 7

Bingo for breast cancer: Join the Martin Pear JCC, 12701 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, 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.

THURSDAY, OCT. 14

Networking and Nosh: 8-9:30 a.m. Join the Martin Pear JCC, 12701 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, for an in-person outdoor breakfast and mingle with other business professionals from the J community. Facial masks are optional. Presented by Kierman Law and Weiss Wealth Strategies of Raymond James. Cost: Free. To register or learn more, visit eventbrite.com/e/networking-nosh-tickets168629422141?aff=erelpanelorg.

Monday, Oct. 18

The Great Arizona Artisan Challah and Babka Bake: 6 p.m. Founder and head baker at Oven Fresh Challah in Phoenix, Miriam Litzman, will lead a virtual and in-person challah and babka bake. The in person event will be at Pardes Jewish Day School, 12753 N Scottsdale Rd, Scottsdale. Virtual Cost: Free, if using your own ingredients, or $18 if you buy and pick up the ingredients at Pardes Jewish Day School. In-person Cost: $18 per person, $5 for every additional family member. Open to kids 9 and up. Masks required. RSVP by Sunday, Oct. 10. To RSVP and receive more information, visit shabbatprojectaz.org, or email contact@ shabbatprojectaz.org.

THURSDAY, OCT. 21

Wine Tasting Day Trip: 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

Join the Martin Pear JCC 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.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 27

Founder Presentations: 6:30 p.m. The founders of two prominent Jewish

organizations, Becca Hornstein of Gesher Disability Resources and Andi Minkoff of the Minkoff Center for Jewish Genetics will each speak about their agency’s remarkable origins at the New Shul, 7825 E. Paradise Lane, Scottsdale. This panel is sponsored by the Women’s Leadership Institute. For more information and to register, visit bit.ly/WLIOct21.

SUNDAY, NOV. 7

It’s Not That Simple: Join the Martin Pear JCC, 12701 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, 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, 122 E Culver St, Phoenix, 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 JCC, 12701 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, 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. Sixtyseven 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.

TUESDAYS, OCT. 12 - NOV. 16

Drawing and watercolors painting for beginners: 6-8 p.m. Join impressionism artist Tal Dvir for a workshop at the East Valley JCC where students will learn stages of sketching, drawing and painting with watercolors. Students will observe still-life objects and landscape photos, as well as learn about the proper use of drawing tools and watercolor paints and techniques from the masters. Open to those aged 14 and up.

Cost: $120 for the six-week class. For more information, and to register, visit eastvalleyjcc.regfox.com/drawing-and-watercolorswith-tal-dvir. The EVJCC is located at 908 N Alma School Rd, Chandler.

WEDNESDAYS, OCT. 6-NOV. 10

Intermediate Mahjong: 12:30-2:30 p.m. In this class at the Martin Pear JCC, 12701 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, learn strategies and techniques to improve your game. Though this class includes a brief overview, it is for those who have already taken a beginner class. Playing with instructor assistance will help you take your game to the next level. Cost: $100 for members, $150 for nonmembers. For more information and to register, visit apm.activecommunities.com/ valleyofthesunjcc/Activity_Search/1803.

WEDNESDAYS

Generations After Descendants Forum: 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Join The East Valley JCC’s Center for Holocaust Education, in partnership with the Phoenix Holocaust Association, for this in-person weekly discussion for children, grandchildren and descendants of Holocaust survivors, as well as those interested in learning more about the impact of the Holocaust. The first meeting of the season is Wednesday, Oct. 13. The meeting will be held outside. The program is designed for those who have received their COVID19 vaccination and masks will be required. Coffee and tea provided. Reservations are mandatory. Cost: Free. Call 480-897-0588 to make your reservation or visit evjcc.org/generations-after. Contact Barbara Bloom at 928-380-2360 with further questions. The EVJCC is located at 908 N Alma School Rd, Chandler.

THURSDAYS

Storytime at Modern Milk: 9:30 a.m. Bring your babies, toddlers and preschoolers to our weekly all ages in-person storytime at Modern Milk, 3802 N Scottsdale Rd STE 163. We will integrate favorite children’s books and songs while giving parents new ideas for play. Cost: $5. For more information and to register, visit modernmilk.com/after-baby.

SUNDAYS

Bagels: 9-11 a.m. Join the Martin Pear JCC, 12701 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, 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.

J Youth Theater Rehearsals: 2-4 p.m. Beginning Sunday, Sept. 26, the Martin Pear JCC, 12701 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, is

hosting rehearsals for kids in Kindergarten and first grade for this year’s production: Schoolhouse Rock Live! JR. Cost: $175 for members, $250 for guests. For more information and to register, visit mpjcc.org/theaterk.

J Youth Theater Rehearsals: Beginning Thursday, Sept. 23, the Martin Pear JCC, 12701 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, is hosting rehearsals on Sundays (1:30-4:30 p.m.) and Thursdays (4-6:30 p.m.) for kids in second grade through twelfth grade for this year’s production: Schoolhouse Rock Live! JR. Cost: $275 for members, $350 for guests. For more information and to register, visit mpjcc.org/theater2.

SUNDAYS, OCT. 17-NOV. 21

ACEing Autism Tennis Program: 9-10 a.m. Join the Tucson JCC at its Sarver Tennis Center, 3800 E River Rd, Tucson, for a 6-week program for kids and teens with Autism Spectrum Disorder ages 5-18. Cost: $120. The J is seeking participants for the program, as well as volunteers ages 14 and up to run it. No tennis experience is necessary to participate or volunteer. For more information and to register, visit aceingautism.org/locations/tucson-az. To sign up to volunteer, email program director Miguel Coelho at tucson@aceingautism.org.

MONDAYS

Mahjong: 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Join the East Valley JCC in-person on Mondays for mahjong. This program is intended for players with prior experience and for those who have received the COVID-19 vaccination. Masks will be required. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit evjcc. org/mahjong. For further questions, call the EVJCC at 480-897-0588. The EVJCC is located at 908 N Alma School Rd, Chandler.

Hybrid Meetings, Lectures & Classes

SUNDAY, OCT . 10

Book Discussion: 10-11 a.m. Join Tucson JCC’s Weintraub Israel Center in-person at 3800 E. River Road, Tucson or via Zoom for a presentation by Israeli actress, writer, producer and activist Noa Tishby about her book, “Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Place on Earth.” Childcare is available with advanced registration. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit tucsonjcc.org/israel. Contact the Tucson J with questions or for help registering at 520.299.3000 or info@tucsonjcc.org.

THURSDAY, NOV. 4

Surviving Catastrophe: 7-8:30 p.m. Rabbi Ed Feinstein will discuss the “Jewish genius for surviving catastrophe.” This event is tentatively in person--the location is to be determined--with a Zoom option. Only the first 100 who register will be permitted to attend in person. Masks will be required, and attendees must be vaccinated. Seating will also be socially distanced. Cost: $18. For more information and to register, visit valleybeitmidrash.org/event/ the-jewish-genius-for-surviving-catastrophe.

WEDNESDAYS, NOV. 3-17

Jewish Personalities in the Christian Bible: 10-11 a.m. In this Bureau of Jewish Education Class, examine the Jewish personalities in the Christian Bible. Have a Christian Bible (print or electronic) in time for the first class meeting. The inperson class will be at the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus, 12701 N Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale. Cost: $58. For more information and to register, visit

bjephoenix.org/course-events/2021/11/03/ jewish-personalities-in-the-christian-bible.

WEDNESDAYS, NOV. 3-17

Jews in Far-off lands: 12:30-1:30 p.m. In this Bureau of Jewish Education Class, explore through art what Jews living diverse lives in Syria, Yemen, Ethiopia, Kurdistan, Uzbekistan, Persia, and India, among others, fashioned for themselves and contributed to the world. The in-person class will be at the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus, 12701 N Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale. Cost: $58. For more information and to register, visit bjephoenix.org/course-events/2021/11/03/ jews-in-the-far-off-lands-of-other-continents.

Virtual Meetings, Lectures & Classes

FRIDAY, OCT. 1

“Ordinary” Antisemitism: 10 a.m.-noon. In this virtual presentation hosted by the Arizona Jewish Historical Society, Regents’ Professor Björn Krondorfer will explore the question of “ordinary antisemitism” through a personal story about the effects of the Holocaust and war memories in German society after 1945, especially as they are passed on generationally. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit azjhs.org/german-family-history.

SUNDAY, OCT. 3

Author Presentation: 5 p.m. David Rubenstein, author of “The American Experiment: Dialogues on a Dream,” will virtually discuss his book, in a series presented by the Marcus JCC of Atlanta Book Fest in Your Living Room and the National JCC Literary Consortium. Cost: $11 without a copy of the book, $40 with a copy of the book. For more information and to register, visit showclix.com/event/davidrubenstein-american-experiment/tag/ scottsdale.

MONDAY, OCT. 4

Squirrel Hill: 11 a.m. - noon. In this virtual Valley Beit Midrash class, Mark Oppenheimer, from the Podcast Unorthodox, will discuss the Tree of Life shooting and how the historically Jewish community of Squirrel Hill embodied resilience in the aftermath. Cost: $18. For more information and to register, visit valleybeitmidrash.org/event.

TUESDAY, OCT. 5

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

Author Presentation: 5 p.m. Joe Posnanski, author of “The Baseball 101,” will virtually discuss his book, in a series presented by the Marcus JCC of Atlanta Book Fest in Your Living Room and the National JCC Literary Consortium. Cost: $11 without a copy of the book, $31 with a copy of the book. For more information and to register, visit showclix. com/event/mindy-weisel-after-book/tag/ scottsdale.

TUESDAY, OCT 12

Museum at the J: 10 a.m. Join the East Valley JCC 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.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 13

Author Presentation: 5 p.m. Mindy Weiseli, author of “After: The Obligation of Beauty,” will virtually discuss her book, in a series presented by the Marcus JCC of Atlanta

Book Fest in Your Living Room and the National JCC Literary Consortium. Cost: $6 without a copy of the book, $46 with a copy of the book. For more information and to register, visit showclix.com/ event/joe-posnanski-baseball-book/tag/ scottsdale.

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.

Abortion and Halacha: 1-2 p.m. In this Valley Beit Midrash virtual presentation by Rabbi Yoni Rosensweig, examine the different attitudes within Jewish law towards the possibility of abortion. Cost: $18. For more information and to register, visit valleybeitmidrash.org/event.

SUNDAY, OCT. 17

Virtual Israeli film series: Available to stream “Good Morning Son” anytime on Sunday, Oct. 17. A young IDF soldier critically injured during a Gaza military operation, clings to life while his family maintains a bedside vigil, in the sensitive Israeli drama. This story of human resilience offers insight into the ordeal faced by military families in Israel and throughout the world.

Cost: Free. For more information and to register to receive the streaming link, visit evjcc.org/film.

TUESDAY, OCT. 19

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

Restorative Justice: 1-2 p.m. In this virtual Valley Beit Midrash presentation by Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen, look at a Rabbinic understanding of justice. It is not punishment centered, but rather centers the victim’s experience and looks at the three-way relationship between victim/ survivor, offender, and society as the basis for creating safety and justice for everybody.

Cost: $18. For more information and to register, visit valleybeitmidrash.org/event.

THURSDAY, OCT. 21

Legacy of German Judaism: 1-2 p.m. In this virtual Valley Beit Midrash presentation by Professor Paul Franks, learn about German Judaism, and what it still can offer us today.

Cost: $18. For more information and to register, visit valleybeitmidrash.org/event.

Cost: $18. For more information and to register, visit valleybeitmidrash.org/event.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 25

The Chassidic Story: 1-2 p.m. In this virtual Valley Beit Midrash presentation by Jonnie Schnytzer, learn about the ways Chasidic masters created a Jewish revolution, which rekindled a mass of souls that were on the verge of burning out.

TUESDAY, OCT. 26

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

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 27

Bake Bourekas at Home: 7-8 p.m. Join the East Valley JCC for a virtual bake along with Chef Melinda McNeil. Pick up a box of all the ingredients you need to make boureka, then Join Melinda on Zoom from your kitchen. Order your box by Thursday, Oct. 21 and pick it up between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 27. Cost: $15/box. For more information and to register, visit eastvalleyjcc. regfox.com/bake-at-home-oct-27.

MONDAY, NOV. 1

Song of Songs: 1-2 p.m. In this virtual Valley Beit Midrash presentation by Rabbi Dr. Devorah Schoenfeld, learn about the Song of Songs, a collection of poems describing romantic love, and is traditionally read as an allegory for the love between God and God’s people. Traditional commentaries have tended to read the Song of Songs as one continuous narrative, telling a single love story between two lovers. But is the Song of Songs one story or many? And how many lovers are there really? Cost: $18. For more information and to register, visit valleybeitmidrash.org/event/ how-many-lovers-are-in-the-song-of-songs/

TUESDAY, NOV. 2

Chopin: 10 a.m. Join the East Valley JCC 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.

Author Presentation: 4:30 p.m. Michael

Bar-Zohar, author of “The Mossad Amazons,” will virtually discuss his book, in a series presented by the Marcus JCC of Atlanta Book Fest in Your Living Room and the National JCC Literary Consortium. Cost: $11 without a copy of the book, $32 with a copy of the book. For more information and to register, visit showclix.com/event/ michael-bar-zohar-mossad-amazons/tag/ scottsdale.

MONDAY, NOV. 15

Author Presentation: 5 p.m. Alice Hoffman, author of “The Book of Magic: A Novel,” will virtually discuss her book, in a series presented by the Marcus JCC of Atlanta Book Fest in Your Living Room and the National JCC Literary Consortium. Cost: $11 without a copy of the book, $36 with a copy of the book. For more information and to register, visit showclix.com/event/ alice-hoffman-book-of-magic-novel/tag/ scottsdale.

TUESDAY, NOV. 16

Geneology: 10 a.m. Join the East Valley JCC for a virtual presentation by the Daughters of Jacob Genealogy called, “Bridge Generation: Preserving Your Family’s Story,” exoloring the benefits and challenges of preserving your family history. 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.

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.

MONDAYS, AUG 2.-AUG. 30

Intermediate Hebrew: 4:30-6 p.m. In this virtual Bureau of Jewish Education adult education course, Sophie Platt will teach intermediate Hebrew. Cost: $50. For more information and to register, visit bjephoenix.org/course-events/2021/08/02/ intermediate-hebrew.

TUESDAYS

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

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

Let’s Knit: 1:30-3:30 p.m. Share the pleasure of knitting, crocheting, etc. and help others with a project or pattern. We will be sitting outside at the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus and social distancing. Our last meeting before August will be Tuesday, May 11. Cost: Free . For more information, email Nicole Garber at nicoleg@mpjcc.org.

WEDNESDAYS

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

The Thirteen Petalled Rose: 1 p.m. An online Kabbalah class that studies “The Thirteen Petalled Rose” by Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz. For more information or to join, visit cbtvirtualworld.com.

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

Torah Study with Temple Beth Shalom of the West Valley: 11 a.m. - noon. TBS of the West Valley’s weekly virtual study group explores that week’s portion. Intended for adults, Torah study is open to students of all levels. The goal is to achieve an understanding of what the text is and what it can teach us in the contemporary world. Fore more information, contact the TBS office at (623) 977-3240. JN

Noa Orli Wein became a bat mitzvah on Sept. 18, 2021, at Temple Chai. She is the daughter of Sharon Zolondek and Kevin Wein of Phoenix. Grandparents are Marilyn and Joel Zolondek of Phoenix; and Anita Wein of Toronto and Sedona and the late Edward Wein.

REACH HIGHLY EDUCATED, AFFLUENT READERS IN THE VALLEY

OBITUARY

SEYMOUR SACKS

Seymour Sacks, 93, died Sept. 24, 2021. He was born in Chicago and lived in Phoenix.

He is survived by his sons, Paul, William and Joseph Sacks; and six grandchildren. He is preceded in death by his spouse, Gloria Sacks; and his son, Jerry Sacks.

Sylvia Rachel Klein, 90, died Sept. 7, 2021. She was born in Forest Hills, New York and lived in Phoenix.

Sylvia was larger than life. You’d always find her with a song, a smile, a hug and kiss and the most positive outlook. She was committed to bringing happiness to people, whether through singing, crocheting or cooking, and she was devoted to her family.

Being active in Jewish life was very important to Sylvia. Not only was she passionate about volunteering in her synagogue, but she also fostered a Jewish home. Family, friends and even strangers would be included in her Shabbat dinners and holiday celebrations. Music was also a big part of her life. She took joy in sharing her beautiful operatic voice in community choruses and choirs and sometimes sang semi-professionally in nursing homes and adult communities.

Sylvia was predeceased by her husband of nearly 60 years, Alexander, and passed away on his birthday because that’s what soul mates do. She is survived by her daughter, Susan (Ron); her sons, Mark (Sharon), Jay (Kim) and Eliyahu (Faigy); 19 grandchildren; and 24 great-grandchildren.

Services were held at Beth El Cemetery. Arrangements by Sinai Mortuary.

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