Jewish News, Oct. 7, 2022

A SON SEES HIS FATHER HONORED

Two days before Jewish New Year, Arizona brings back Civil War-era abortion ban

SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER

Pima County Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson ruled Friday, Sept. 23, that a Civil War-era abortion ban is once again the law of the land in Arizona. Except in cases of preserving the life of the mother, all abortions in the state are now illegal.

The determination of if the woman’s life is in danger is up to “the physician’s good faith clinical judgment.” This unclear metric may cause a doctor or clinic not to perform a potentially life-saving procedure for fear of legal ramifications. The “new” law carries a mandatory two-to-five-year prison sentence for performing an abortion.

The ban was originally enacted in 1864 and reauthorized in 1901, but was blocked in 1973 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the right to abortion in Roe v. Wade.

The Court reversed itself in June, however, with Dobbs v. Jackson, a decision that holds that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. That freed Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich to ask the state court last month to lift the injunction on the 1864 ban.

Planned Parenthood Arizona (PPAZ) argued that abortion legislation passed after Roe, including SB1164, a 15-week ban that the legislature passed this year and Gov. Doug Ducey signed, takes precedence. Ducey’s office maintains that the 15-week ban is in effect and supersedes the 158-year-old ban.

SEE ABORTION BAN, PAGE 3

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SAM

Children's book author Sam Baker celebrated turning 100 on Aug. 26

Holocaust survivor shares story with Arizona’s top judges

SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER

Running, tripping over dead bodies and an overwhelming sense of fear are the things that Marion Weinzweig remembers most from her childhood in Poland. She was one of only a few family members to survive the Holocaust. She recounted those painful memories and her story of survival to about 200 people at the Arizona Supreme Court on Thursday, Sept. 22, in “Living Through the Holocaust,” a talk sponsored by the Jewish Lawyers’ Association (JLA) and hosted by the Arizona Court of Appeals.

David D. Weinzweig, her son and the only Jewish judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals, proudly introduced his mother, calling her “a true survivor imbued with courage and grace, grit and gumption, virtue and intellect.

“All I am is from her,” he said.

A majority of Arizona Supreme Court and Court of Appeal justices were in attendance, along with lawyers, law students and community members.

Marion, a petite woman, opened her talk by impressing upon her audience the importance of learning Holocaust history and the dangers of antisemitism. She spoke of the rise in antisemitic incidents in the country and the prevalence of Jewish victims in religiously motivated hate crimes.

“The plague of antisemitism is more contagious today than at any time since the Holocaust, where 90% of Poland’s three million Jews were murdered,” she said. Her voice was soft but steady, and though she had to stop several times to sip water during her hour-long talk

— saying she was nervous because she is not a professional speaker — she never wavered in the clarity of her tale. She did tear up one time, however. That moment came when she spoke of her family’s decision to hide her with a Catholic family, the Ropelewskas, in her hometown of Opatów, Poland, early in 1942.

“My aunt told me that my mother was just so crazy about me,” she said. Before letting her little girl go, she said, “my mother just kept hugging and kissing me and holding me.

“My father took me up to the carriage and my mother stood back crying,” she said. “That was the last time I saw my mother and that was the beginning of the darkest period of my life.”

Marion described how her father and his siblings found a way out of the ghetto to find work, ending up as

Hidden in the

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Michael Baer traveled to Germany for the unveiling of a street named after his father.

Iran’s Supreme Leader blames protests on Israel and US Robert Menendez, pro-Israel Senate stalwart, warns Netanyahu against partnering with far-right extremists

‘We must speak to the Zionist lobby’: Mahmoud Abbas urges Palestinian Americans to engage with AIPAC

Marion Weinzweig stands in front of a photo of her book before her presentation at the Arizona Supreme Court on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022.

OF SHANNON

slave laborers at an ammunition factory in Starachowice, a nearby town. Her mother, who had stayed behind with her father’s parents, was in the Opatów ghetto on Oct. 20, 1942, when it was liquidated. Those who weren’t killed at once were sent to Treblinka, a death camp.

Marion’s mother was 25 when she was murdered by the Nazis. No one on that side of her family survived.

“I really was supposed to be in Treblinka with them, but I am with you here today through the unselfishness of my parents who gave me away,” Marion said.

However, she explained, she didn’t remain long with the Ropelewskas. The neighbors were suspicious of her presence and the Nazis investigated the family, who became too scared to keep her after that. They sent the little girl off with a driver, who left her by the side of a road near a convent. Nuns took her in and baptized her.

Then the convent was destroyed by errant bombs and Marion recalled her fear as the nuns gathered the children together. She ran from the place and so began a very harrowing period of time she chose not to share in detail. Eventually, she ended up at another convent before the war ended. After much difficulty and expense, her father was able to find and retrieve her.

Once they were reunited with her father’s siblings, they lived together as displaced persons until 1948, when they emigrated to Canada. Even there Marion had a difficult life, moving from her father’s home to foster care and finally moving in with her aunt and uncle.

She said that growing up around survivors was difficult. The adults all told her how lucky she was that she was a child and survived. But she felt angry and confused and received no help for her mental anguish.

“I was a tortured soul going day by day,” she said. “Only now, in my old age, am I starting to deal with it.”

Marion was only 4 years old when the war ended, but she spent years piecing together what had happened to her and her family. Some of the details came from her own memory, some from what her few surviving family members told her and the rest came from the help of a private investigator she hired as an adult. She was determined to recover what she could of her childhood.

The investigator found letters and documents from her parents, and Marion was able to talk to, and even meet in person, some of the people who had played a large role in her first years, including the driver who left her at the convent and some of the nuns.

She was relentless in discovering a past that she could share with her children.

“I wanted to give them my life so they would know things that I didn’t know,” she said.

After years of trying to find out every piece of information that still existed, she hired a Polish assistant and took her children with her as she “stormed city hall,” she said. She finally saw her own birth certificate. “At the age of 70, I found out that my real birthday was actually eight months earlier than my father told me.”

Marion’s talk weaved her personal history with the larger historical context of Germany’s invasion of Poland, the situation of Jews on the ground and the Holocaust. She said she wanted to give people enough examples that they could understand viscerally what that world had been like.

She mentioned the Wannsee Conference, where the Final Solution was decided. Knowing her listeners were made up mostly of lawyers, she pointed out that a majority of the participants at Wannsee had also been lawyers.

Looking out at her audience, she took a beat, and said, “Interesting.”

She ended her talk by exhorting her listeners to be vigilant and “to speak up when we see signs of hatred and discrimination — and that’s both from the left and the right because antisemitism does not have a party.”

Nina Targovnik, a member of JLA, said this event was organized after the group hosted her at Arizona State University’s law school in April during Genocide Awareness Week.

JLA is an all-volunteer group that does not charge dues and provides Jewish learning sessions for its members.

Targovnik said the event was “awesome.” It was well attended, “with an audience that doesn’t necessarily get to hear a story like this, a very powerful and timely story.”

Vanessa Kubota, a member of JLA’s board who was instrumental in organizing the event, said she was inspired to see so many venerable justices there. “It shows their dedication to ensuring the truth of this heinous event be told,” she said.

“It’s important to my heritage and ancestors to stand up to hatred and antisemitism,” she said. As someone who has acted as an interpreter for many refugees seeking asylum, she has a keen interest in human rights and shining a light on crimes against humanity.

Marion shares her story with many people these days and has written a book, “Lonely Chameleon: Memoir of a Child Holocaust Survivor.” But the first time she told her story publicly was when she was visiting Dachau with her daughter. The two listened in as the English-speaking tour guide told a group of tourists that none of the children survived; her daughter pushed her to speak out.

Marion raised her hand and said, “I’m alive,” and spoke to the group extemporaneously.

“I came out of the closet then,” she said. “I’m telling you who I am.” JN

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But Johnson said that even after Roe, Arizona legislators consistently held that abortion regulations did not confer a right to abortion in the state, and SB1164 even specified it would not replace the 1864 ban if the Supreme Court overturned Roe.

PPAZ filed a motion requesting a stay of Johnson’s ruling on Monday, Sept. 26, but it was denied on Friday, Sept. 30, when the court found “that PPAZ has not demonstrated probable success on the merits of its appeal.”

Immediately upon hearing Johnson’s ruling, the National Council of Jewish Women of Arizona took to Twitter to issue its dissent.

“Arizona plunged into darkness with Friday’s court decision to uphold an 1864 near-total abortion ban — a law that predates statehood, women’s right to vote and even electricity in American cities. Now it is up to AZ voters to decide which century they want to live in.”

NCJW AZ, a reproductive rights and justice advocacy organization, joined more than 30 Arizona organizations in signing a Sept. 28 letter to Gov. Doug Ducey asking that he “open a special session of the Arizona State Legislature to repeal A.R.S. § 13-3603, a Civil Warera abortion ban, first enacted in 1864.”

The coalition of signatories, which includes YWCA Arizona, League of Women Voters Arizona, Arizona Working Families Party and ACLU of Arizona, told Ducey: “Any hesitation on the part of your office to call a special session to repeal this outdated abortion ban demonstrates a blatant disregard for the health, wellbeing and liberty of people who can become pregnant and their families.”

Civia Tamarkin, president of NCJW AZ, told Jewish News, “We were hoping that the judge would grant the stay on her own order.”

Tamarkin said there was reason to hope because Johnson was clear that she was not ruling on the merits of the law, only on an injunction tied to Roe vs. Wade.

“Once Roe was overturned, we understand that the judge’s hands were tied,” Tamarkin said.

Still, Tamarkin said she had hoped that Johnson would “deploy some judicial reasoning” given the law is 158 years old.

“It threw us back in the Dark Ages, literally.”

The ruling came just before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Instead of wishing fellow Jews a “Happy New Year,” Tamarkin said she’s resorted to saying, “Let’s have a year filled with health and reproductive rights.”

Attorney General Mark Brnovich disagrees. He hailed Johnson’s decision.

After the ruling, Brnovich tweeted, “We applaud the court for upholding

the will of the legislature and providing clarity and uniformity on this important issue. I have and will continue to protect the most vulnerable Arizonans.”

However, on Wednesday, Sept. 28, Brnovich’s office called for a special session in order to clarify which law takes precedence.

“(We) request that you call a special session of the Arizona Legislature so that legislators may have an opportunity to give additional clarity about our abortion laws based on feedback they may be receiving from their constituents,” Solicitor General Beau Roysden wrote in his letter to Ducey’s top attorney.

Tamarkin said her organization had hoped for a different ruling on the stay.

“Literally, lives are in danger right now,” she said. The legal battle creates obstacles for women and doctors across the board.

“This goes far beyond ‘choice,’” she said. “We are hearing about ectopic pregnancies, mismanaged miscarriages and other pregnancy complications where doctors are afraid to intervene because of the ban.”

According to reporting by Axios, PPAZ has announced a pause on abortion services in the state, even those that fall within the 15-week window.

Most American Jews, especially Reform and Conservative Jews, strongly support legalized abortion: A 2015 Pew Research Forum survey found that 83% of American Jews, more than any other religious group, say abortion “should be legal in all/most cases.”

However, after the Dobbs decision was issued, the Orthodox Union, which represents Modern Orthodox congregations, released a statement saying, “The Orthodox Union is unable to either mourn or celebrate the news reports of the U.S. Supreme Court’s likely overturning of Roe v. Wade.”

Halacha, the body of Jewish law that Orthodox Jews abide by, holds that a mother’s life is paramount in considering whether a pregnancy should be seen through to term. That approach conflicts with some Christian ideas about abortion that have animated lawmakers in Arizona.

Tamarkin described what is happening with Arizona abortion law as “forcing one religious perspective on all of us in a concerted effort to create a Christian theocracy.

“It doesn’t prevent us from practicing Judaism, but it certainly infringes upon our laws,” she said.

Some Jewish politicians in Arizona have also weighed in.

On Sept. 23, after Johnson’s ruling was first issued, Kate Gallego, the Jewish mayor of Phoenix, tweeted her dismay.

“Today’s ruling by Pima County Superior Court is deeply disappointing. Reverting to a territorial law is absurd. I stand firmly with members of the city council who believe, as I do, that Phoenix remains pro-choice, and nothing should prevent women from accessing health care.”

Arizona House Rep. Alma Hernandez (D-20) wrote in an editorial for the Arizona Daily Star on Sept. 26, “It is clear that the Arizona Republican Party is taking the stance that women will not have freedom of choice, and this year our rights and freedom will be on the ballot. We must fight against extremism and the views of those who have officially taken Arizona back to 1901.”

Tamarkin said NCJW AZ is in the trenches fighting back. Meanwhile, the most important thing citizens can do now is “to fight back on the ballot. Voters are going to have to decide which century they want to live in.” JN

This article incorporated material from Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Abortion rights activists react outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on Jun. 24, 2022, when Roe v. Wade was overturned. COURTESY OF STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Rabbi rejects image appearing to endorse political candidate in Jewish News

SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER

Many Jewish community members expressed consternation and even anger after seeing an advertisement for Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for governor, on page 7 of the Jewish News’ Sept. 23, 2022 issue.

The ad showcased Jewish Voices for Kari Lake, (JVKL) a Jewish coalition supporting Lake, and was paid for and approved by Lake and her campaign.

The crux of the frustration was the fact that Congregation Beth Tefillah Rabbi Pinchas Allouche was pictured front and center next to Lake with a banner inscribed with a Star of David and the words “Jewish Voices For Kari Lake.”

Kari Lake's Campaign Launches

Jewish Voices for Kari Coalition!

The photo was identical to the one used in a press release announcing the new coalition that was sent to several news organizations on Aug. 31, by the Lake campaign.

After someone brought the press release to his attention, Allouche told Jewish News that he was caught off guard when he saw the photo because he doesn’t want to be seen as endorsing any candidate and is not a member of the coalition.

“I, as a rabbi, have always been apolitical,” he said. “I won’t speak about politics over the pulpit. It’s not the job of rabbis.”

On Sept. 7, he released a public statement of clarification to the Jewish community to explain the nature of the meeting with Lake and the policy issues discussed — mainly the maintenance of a good relationship with the State of Israel and “her alarming endorsement of an antisemitic Republican legislative candidate in Oklahoma.”

At the meeting, “I stated that I am sure that, if elected, ‘Kari Lake, will stand up against antisemitism and the BDS movement and that she will continue to support Arizona’s relationship with Israel.’ To my great dismay, this statement was taken out of context, and left to the

interpretation that these words were an endorsement of the candidature of Kari Lake for the Governor of Arizona.

“Therefore, allow me to state in the clearest term: In no way, shape, or form, was this statement uttered to endorse and/ or support Kari Lake and her campaign for the Governorship of Arizona. Rather, the sole goal of this statement was to ensure the continued support of the Jewish community and the State of Israel by a potential Governor of Arizona.”

Allouche told Jewish News that a handful of people had reached out to him with concerns after seeing the photo.

Community member Denyse Lieber wrote Rabbi Allouche directly and shared her letter to the rabbi with Jewish News:

“As a recognized leader of the Jewish Community, you are in a position to have an

enormous impact on those who value your views. However, when clergy lend public support to political candidates, it blurs the line that separates ‘church and state.’ Further, Kari Lake’s use of Jewish ‘props’ in her advertising suggests that old saying, ‘Some of my best friends are Jewish.’ You have allowed yourself to become one of her props.”

Allouche’s statement is clear that this is the last thing he wants to happen.

“I am deeply disappointed at the direct and/or indirect efforts to portray me as a public endorser and/or supporter of this politician or another. I have, am, and will forever remain apolitical and will refuse to fit into any and all political ‘boxes.’ Politics, and particularly the endorsement of any candidates, will never be included in any of my classes, sermons, or publications.”

Adam Kwasman, JVKL’s founder, told Jewish News the photo in the ad “was a mistake of the Lake campaign, and they have fully acknowledged it.”

Jewish News reached out to Ross Trumble, spokesperson for Kari Lake’s campaign several times, but he has not responded. Jewish News was unable to locate a public statement from the campaign acknowledging the error or apologizing for the mistake. At this time, it is not clear how the campaign has, according to Kwasman, acknowledged its mistake.

Allouche said he doesn’t tell congregants who to vote for, but because he cares about any elected official’s support of the local and global Jewish community and the

State of Israel, he does work behind the scenes to meet with various candidates and officials to discuss their positions.

“Whoever is elected needs to have a relationship with someone from the Jewish community to ensure the right policies are set forth.”

He said he meets with Democrats and Republicans. He told Jewish News he has a meeting with Democratic candidate for governor Katie Hobbs on Oct. 12, and he plans to ask her to clarify her stand on the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The photo with Lake was taken the same day as a round table discussion with Lake, Allouche and Jewish community members that was arranged by Kwasman, a member of Beth Tefillah and former Republican member of the Arizona House of Representatives, representing District 11.

After the discussion, Lake stayed to talk with people and take photos. That’s when the photo used in the press release and the ad was taken. Kwasman said Allouche “got corralled into the photo shoot” without realizing what was printed on the banner in front of the group.

When Allouche saw the photo, he clarified to Kwasman that he’s not a member of the coalition and doesn’t want to be used in any advertising. He never spoke to the campaign directly.

Kwasman said he emailed the campaign Wednesday after Rosh Hashanah and told them not to use the ad again. According to Kwasman, the campaign agreed. JN

This advertisement in the Sept. 23, 2022 issue of the Jewish News gave community members the impression that Congregation Beth Tefillah Rabbi Pinchas Allouche had endorsed candidate Kari Lake (R) for Governor. According to the rabbi, the picture was a mistake and no endorsement occurred.

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A German town honored his father. Now this Scottsdale resident can come to terms with the past.

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Adolph “Ed” Baer never intended to return to the small town of Griedel, Germany, after leaving his home in the middle of the night in 1939 when he was 9 years old. The Baer family fled Germany shortly after Kristallnacht and trying to remain anonymous, traveled to larger towns in Germany, through France and eventually to the United States.

In 1977, when Ed’s son, Michael, was 11 years old and his daughters were 13 and 15, Ed thought it was time to return to Germany to share his family’s history with his children.

Michael remembers the trip vividly.

“During that visit, we went back to the house where my father was born and we were welcomed inside. I remember walking up the steps and seeing the closet where my grandfather had hidden the Torah during Kristallnacht,” said Michael. “We had a yad that was in the family that is the only surviving artifact from the synagogue — it had fallen off the Torah in the closet in that house.”

Michael went on to share that he, his sisters, his three children and several cousins had all used the yad during their b’nai mitzvah and his wife, Gail, uses it every year when she chants the Torah during Rosh Hashanah. The couple are members of Congregation Beth Israel in Scottsdale.

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Ed didn’t have a desire to see many people during that visit. His memories of Griedel were of Nazi thugs beating him up, throwing stones and knocking his mother unconscious and a mob marching his father off during Kristallnacht.

He had a friend, a schoolmate named Erik Wetz, who would act as a scout when the Nazi boys were waiting for him to walk the three blocks home from school. Erik would guide Ed through people’s yards, hidden pathways and over walls so he could make it safely home.

During the visit in 1977, Ed and Erik rekindled their friendship and began corresponding.

In the 1990s, Ed’s first cousin, Rolf, who had survived the war in Switzerland and lived in France, returned with Ed to the village for the dedication of a plaque on the firehouse which now stood in the place where the synagogue had been burned. They paid for tombstones of their grandparents to be refurbished

after residual damage from the war and more recent vandalism. Immediately afterwards, antisemitic locals knocked the stones over, yet again, and the politicians in town blamed a “storm.”

Michael’s mother, Hannah, was from Nümbrecht, Germany about 80 miles away from Griedel. Leo, Hannah’s uncle, had been a Ritchie Boy during the war (an elite position held by German-speaking immigrants who interrogated Nazi prisoners on the front lines in Europe), liberated his hometown from the Nazis and became active in preserving the local Jewish history upon his return to Nümbrecht. Years later, he also supported a foundation that enabled a youth exchange program between Germany and Israel.

In 2015, the town of Nümbrecht honored Leo by naming a street after him. The family returned to Germany for the ceremony and that is when Michael met Klaus Jürgen Wetz, Erik’s son.

At the time, Wetz was a history teacher in the nearby town of Butzbach (Griedel is a borough of Butzbach). Since there was no longer a Jewish community in Griedel, Ed had given money to Wetz over the years to maintain the cemetery and for Holocaust education in his classroom and the community.

In 2019, Wetz presented the idea to the Baer family that he would like to arrange for a street to be named for Ed in Griedel, just like Leo Baer had in Nümbrecht.

“When Klaus had started planning this, I was a little skeptical to be honest, because my dad hasn’t really been that engaged in life in Griedel and Butzbach,” said Michael. “I didn’t want to be used. I believed the town felt guilty and they wanted to say that they’ve reconciled, so I was a little skeptical about the whole thing.” He decided, if nothing else, to make it into a mini family reunion and invite as many of his cousins as possible.

The naming was planned for the summer of 2020, but when the pandemic hit the event was canceled. Then on Sept. 6, 2020, Ed died suddenly at the age of 90. But on Sept. 5, 2022, 16 members of the Baer family came from across the U.S. and Israel to convene in Griedel to see the unveiling of Ed’s street sign.

Michael, the president of Energy For Airlines and the Grand Canyon State Caucus, a pro-Israel PAC and Gail,

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the vice president of philanthropy and community engagement for the Center for Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix, were there with their three adult children: David, 29, Rachel, 27 and Amy, 25.

The last time they were in Griedel as a family was 2004, when Michael and Gail took their children on a trip to learn about their ancestors, similar to the trip Michael’s parents had taken him on 27 years earlier.

But this time, instead of doing a selfguided tour of Griedel, the Baers were treated like celebrities as the town’s mayor, Bürgermeister Merle, welcomed them.

The day of the event started with a meeting in the biggest room in the town hall. The mayor had arranged for translators, so the family donned headsets as the mayor shared the history of the village.

“They opened themselves up to allow us to ask questions and we asked some pretty pointed questions like, ‘what were your parents doing during the war,’” said Michael. “We talked for an hour-and-ahalf and the mayor was very frank and honest and we learned a lot.”

One of the things they learned was that room in the town hall was used as the

prayer room for the Jewish community of Butzbach until a synagogue was built there in 1927. The Baers decided to frame a tallit that belonged to Ed and donate it to the town to be hung there with a

plaque commemorating its use as a Jewish prayer room.

“Both areas where my parents were from have embraced their responsibility to learn from [the Holocaust], to educate so that the people can work to prevent something from happening again in the future,” said Michael. “We were very impressed, and I think they are more authentic than we are in the U.S. about how they teach it because it was their ancestors or grandparents. They understand how horrific it was and they also understand how it overwhelmed otherwise good people.”

“In some ways it felt like the teaching and the carrying forward of the memories of our family and many others is being done so well there,” added Gail. “They are being purposeful, intentional and strategic about how they are acknowledging it but also teaching it and making sure that the lessons are learned. It is history.”

Merle then took them on a guided tour of the town. “We were looking for certain sites, like my great-uncle’s store,” said Michael. “They were answering questions and researching the archives for information in real time. We felt like celebrities for the day.”

After lunch, the family went to the cemetery and to see Ed’s childhood home. The street-naming event was held that evening.

The family was amazed at the festivities the town had planned. There was a Klezmer band playing with the Israeli flag hanging in the background; Wetz presented photos the Baers had sent the Wetzs over the years; many people spoke including a representative from the government and a rabbi from a

neighboring town.

“This event was all about my dad, it was surreal,” said Michael. “We lived in a small town, people knew him, but he never had an honor like this in the U.S. He was successful and he was generous. He had given a lot of money away to our synagogue and to different Jewish and non-Jewish organizations. [It’s incredible] to believe that the town he lived in for nine years, would be the place on earth that would remember him this way.”

Michael noted that one of the photos in Wetz’s presentation was of Ed at one of the pharmacies he owned and worked as a pharmacist. There was a sign in the corner of the photo that read, “Dr. Adolph Baer.”

When Michael first saw the street sign, it read, “Dr,-Adolph-Baer-Str.” He told Wetz, “He was a pharmacist, not a doctor, that’s not right.”

Wetz went on to explain that in Germany they call pharmacists “doctors.”

“This was a message to me because my dad loved being called “Doc” by his customers, he loved recognition and when I saw that picture, I thought my dad is sending that message to me right now to say, ‘Shut your mouth, I was a doctor!’” joked Michael.

After the other speakers were done, it was Michael’s turn. Because of the skepticism he had felt going into the event, he wanted to get some things off his chest.

“I had written a speech that I wanted to give with all of these negative things that I wanted to convey to these people to make sure that they knew,” he said. “I told Klaus Jürgen, ‘I want to show you what I’ve written.’ He went through [my speech] and said, ‘This is great and you

FATHER HONORED CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

can do it if you want, but I talk about this, this and this…,’ and everything that I had in my speech he had in his presentation — including all the hard stuff and more detail than I was aware.”

The skepticism that Michael felt going in had vanished by the end of his two days in Griedel.

a ‘one and done’ but you need to continue to build relationships with people. It’s not a transactional occurrence, it needs to be a relationship. That’s what I feel, that’s what changed for us and I believe that’s what’s changed for our kids.”

This experience caused Michael to reflect about hatred and what his

ED DIDN’T HAVE A DESIRE TO SEE MANY PEOPLE DURING THAT VISIT. HIS MEMORIES OF GRIEDEL WERE OF NAZI THUGS BEATING HIM UP, THROWING STONES AND KNOCKING HIS MOTHER UNCONSCIOUS AND A MOB MARCHING HIS FATHER OFF DURING KRISTALLNACHT.

“After going through this experience, I definitely want to go back,” he shared. “I want to go back and spend time and see these people again and learn more, but also introduce other people to what it is.”

“Having our kids and their cousins there was so meaningful — to see that they are both enriched by this experience but also humbled in feeling that sense of responsibility to ensure that these stories are carried forward,” said Gail. “When we took our kids in 2004, I thought that was

family has done to overcome it. He also recognized that all the people living today are not the people of the Holocaust.

“In hating for just the sake of hatred, it’s really no different than antisemitism being passed on from generations; we have to get beyond that.” JN

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

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Poverty numbers decline nationally, but that isn’t visible in Greater Phoenix, Jewish organizations say

SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER

On Sept. 13, the U.S. Census Bureau held a press briefing to spotlight some good news amid an otherwise uneasy economic climate. One of our nation’s stubbornly bad indicators just got a little better.

Poverty went down pretty much across the board — age, race and other indicators, according to the numbers. One of the most positive findings was that the Census Bureau’s supplemental poverty measure for children had reached its lowest level since the bureau started recording the figures.

“SPM (supplemental poverty measure) child poverty rates fell 46% in 2021, from 9.7% in 2020 to 5.2% in 2021, a 4.5 percentage-point decline. This is the lowest SPM child poverty rate on record,” the Census Bureau said in its report on the findings. “In 2021, SPM child poverty rates fell for non-Hispanic white (2.7%), Black (8.1%) and Hispanic (8.4%) children, also their lowest rates on record.”

The official poverty rate for the nation in 2021 was 11.6%, with 37.9 million people in poverty. While neither the rate

nor the number in poverty was significantly different from 2020, it is nearly half the rate when the Census Bureau started tracking U.S. poverty in 1959.

John Creamer, an economist in the Census Bureau’s Poverty Statistics Branch, said in a Sept. 13 blog posting that government assistance lifted 45.2 million people out of poverty in 2021 — or kept them from falling into it.

That’s a surprise to some of Greater Phoenix’s Jewish organizations that assist impoverished people every day. They haven’t yet seen a tangible improvement. According to the Census Bureau, the rate of people in poverty in Arizona statewide is similar to the national average of 12.8%. On the other hand, Phoenix has a poverty rate of 16.2%.

Yecheskel Friedman, program director of Ezras Cholim of Phoenix and Arizona Kosher Pantry, told Jewish News that as far as he can tell, things have gotten much worse since the pandemic. Ezras Cholim provides emergency support services for sick Jews and Arizona Kosher Pantry is a part of a national food-pantry network called Feeding America.

“The Census Bureau should come here and take a look,” he said. “There isn’t enough food on the shelves and everything has gotten really expensive. Definitely we see more people in here now since the pandemic, not less.”

He said more “regular people,” those who never sought food assistance before the pandemic, are still coming in to supplement their groceries.

“That’s a big difference from before the pandemic,” he said.

He’d like to see more support from the Jewish community, which “would be a blessing.”

Dr. Lorrie Henderson, CEO of Jewish Family & Children’s Service, said he too was somewhat surprised by the Census’ report.

“We saw a big need when the pandemic hit — a big increase in everything. We haven’t seen it go down a whole lot,” he said.

He said that roughly 90% of the people JFCS serves are at or below the poverty line. The organization works with about 40,000 unique individuals per year, and that number has held steady over the last few years.

JFCS provides a long list of services to the community, including emergency food assistance, behavioral and mental health care and tangible services to kids who have aged out of foster care.

“This population has a lot of needs with limited resources,” Henderson said. “I don’t expect it to change a whole lot. The overall need might go down a little through time, but things take a long time to ameliorate.”

He said he has been heartened by the additional resources coming from the Jewish community “by way of more donations and more tangible food donations and nonperishables.

“Without the additional funding and support it would have been worse. I’m really sure of that.”

JFCS works with other aid organizations across Greater Phoenix to connect people with any service it doesn’t provide. The goal for all such agencies is to keep people from falling into homelessness, which would exacerbate all the problems associated with poverty.

Austin Davis, Arizona Jews for Justice’s community outreach organizer and founder of AZ Hugs for the Houseless, said helping people navigate the patchwork system of programs is key to keeping people out of homelessness.

“It’s important to tackle housing insecurity and homelessness from different angles,” he said.

From what he’s witnessed, more people are living on the street now than before the pandemic.

“In Arizona, we’re in the midst of a

getting evicted and we talk to people who just can’t pay rent. It’s a big issue.”

The City of Phoenix aims to create or preserve 50,000 homes by 2030 as part of its Housing Phoenix Plan.

Nationally, at least, the Census Bureau said the American Rescue Plan Act, passed in March 2021, has been instrumental in keeping people out of poverty.

The law provided additional income in the form of a third stimulus payment sent to households starting March 2021. It also changed several refundable tax credits, including expanding the earned income tax credit to filers without children and making the child tax credit and the child and dependent care credit fully refundable.

“If people had the privilege of having a mailbox, then people were getting help,” Davis said. “A lot of homeless people didn’t receive anything.”

Creating affordable housing has to be a priority in Arizona, Davis said.

It’s difficult to know what next year’s numbers will say for Phoenix or the nation.

Liana E. Fox, assistant division chief of economic characteristics for the Census Bureau, told reporters on Sept. 13, “We can’t really speculate on what happens in 2022; we haven’t even begun to collect data.”

A lot can change the numbers, including the fact that much of the pandemic aid expired at the end of 2021, as did the child tax credit.

Davis said one quintessential thing he provides will not show up in any number.

“Hope is one of the biggest services we can provide. Navigating the system is difficult but helping people to get those resources really helps people to keep going.”

Hope is necessary for him to keep doing this work, he said.

“I will never give up on the people.” JN

For more information, visit azkosherpantry.org, jfcsaz.org or arizonajewsforjustice.org.

Does UC Berkeley really have ‘Jew-free zones’? We explain.

ANDREW LAPIN | JTA

It seemed like a headline out of the 19th century: a warning of “Jew-free zones” at the University of California-Berkeley.

That’s the phrase being employed by some prominent pro-Israel groups this week to describe a dispute at UC Berkeley’s law school, where nine student groups recently voted to adopt by-laws that state they will not invite any visiting speakers to campus who “hold views in support of Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine.”

But is the “Jew-free” label accurate?

Not according to Jewish leadership at the university. Here’s a rundown of the controversy, and where people have come down on it.

How did the UC Berkeley situation start?

In August, nine student groups at the UC Berkeley law school (out of more than 100) signed a statement authored by the group Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine.

Under the justification of “protecting the safety and welfare of Palestinian students,” the statement pledges not to invite “speakers that have expressed and continued to hold views … in support of Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine,” as reported by J. The Jewish News of Northern California.

The student groups who backed the pledge include Women of Berkeley Law, Berkeley Law Muslim Student Association, Asian Pacific American Law Students Association and the Queer Caucus, according to the organizing group. The statement also expressed support for the goals of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement targeting Israel.

Opposition was swift and came from the highest office at the law school. Erwin Chemerinsky, the school’s Jewish dean, wrote to the student body to condemn the pledge, calling it “troubling” and noting that “taken literally, this would mean that I could not be invited to speak because I support the existence of Israel, though I condemn many of its policies.”

Chemerinsky further pointed out that UC Berkeley’s chancellor, Carol Christ, has denounced the BDS movement in the past, and that the school has an Antisemitism Education Initiative specifically designed to parse anti-Zionist rhetoric.

The law school’s Jewish Students Association board also authored an Aug. 27 statement opposing the petition, writing that it “alienates many Jewish students from certain groups on campus,” and noting that their group was “one of the few affinity groups not contacted during this process.”

Even as all of this was happening, Chemerinsky insisted publicly that UC Berkeley’s law school was still a welcoming

environment for Jewish students and speakers, calling the petition “a minor incident” and any outside attempts to spotlight it as indicative of campus-wide antisemitism “nonsense.”

Does the story end there?

No. Last week, about a month after the law student petition circulated, Kenneth Marcus, formerly the head of the federal government’s Commission on Human Rights, published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal claiming that Berkeley now has “Jewish-free zones.”

“It is now a century since Jewish-free zones first spread to the San Francisco Bay Area,” wrote Marcus, who is also a Berkeley Law alum and founder and chairman of the pro-Israel legal group Louis Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. He compared the Berkeley Law petition to 19th-century signage in American cities with phrases like “No Jews, Dogs, or Consumptives,” and added that the incident was a sign of “university spaces go[ing] as the Nazis’ infamous call, judenfrei. Jewish-free.”

Other pro-Israel groups quickly followed suit in condemning Berkeley. Hadassah CEO Rhoda Smolow said the students’ actions “are not only antisemitic; they are anti-education.” StandWithUs repeated Marcus’ “Jew-free zones” comment in the subject line of a press release, threatening legal action against the school in the form of filing a Title VI civil rights violation complaint with the U.S. Department of Education.

The Jewish Journal op-ed also occasioned several open letters opposing the Berkeley student groups who signed the by-laws, from the American Association of Jewish Lawyers & Jurists (which accused the law school of having “tolerated, condoned, and by such inaction, encouraged” an antisemitic environment); more than

100 Jewish student groups nationwide, including more than a dozen Hillel and Chabad chapters as well as several Jewish fraternities; and a number of pro-Israel groups including AIPAC and the World Jewish Congress, alongside the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish National Fund.

Among others rising up in anger following the publication of Marcus’ op-ed: Barbra Streisand, who tweeted Oct. 1, “When does anti-Zionism bleed into broad anti-Semitism?” Streisand then linked to Marcus’ article.

So is Berkeley Law actually banning ‘Zionist’ speakers?

No. The law school’s policies around guest speakers remain unchanged, and the vast majority of law student groups have not backed the pledge to oppose such speakers.

Jews at UC Berkeley are mad, too — but mainly at Marcus, and others who claim the school is now a breeding ground for antisemitism.

“The idea .. that the Berkeley law school has ‘Jewish-free zones’ is preposterous,” two Jewish faculty members, Ron Hassner and Ethan Katz, wrote in an op-ed in J.

Hassner is the Helen Diller Family Chair in Israel Studies and co-director of the law school’s Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, while Katz is chair of an advisory committee on Jewish student life and co-director of the Berkeley Antisemitism Education Initiative.

They wrote that fears about an antisemitic environment at Berkeley don’t hold up to scrutiny, pointing to the law school’s recent hosting of Zionist speakers including Yossi Shain, a member of the Israeli Knesset.

The pair added that the actions of nine law student groups don’t change “Berkeley’s deep institutional commitment” to Jewish studies and Israel studies.

“Panic-mongering around anti-Zionism

on U.S. campuses serves no purpose, other than to offer free advertisement for extremist ideas, and to erode needlessly Jews’ sense of basic safety and security in places where Jewish life is actually thriving,” Hassner and Katz wrote, while also condemning the law student anti-Zionist campaign as “nakedly discriminatory,” “bigoted” and “an outrage.”

Chemerinsky also spoke up, again, both in a response to the Jewish Journal and in his own op-ed in The Daily Beast. “There is no ‘Jewish-Free Zone’ at Berkeley Law or on the UC-Berkeley campus,” he wrote.

Why Berkeley?

For one, there’s the Bay Area city’s reputation as an incubator for progressive activism, which has made it a regular target of right-wing campus free speech protests. But there’s something else, too.

The Berkeley law school’s Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies is a recent recipient of a $10 million donation from the Helen Diller Institute, money which was used to expand its Israel Studies programming — including guest speakers. When the donation was announced last year, pro-Palestinian law student groups, including the group that later organized the petition protesting Zionist guest speakers, called on the school to reject the money.

They pointed to a long list of past objectionable donations by the Diller family, including to Canary Mission, an anonymous group that has published the personal information of Israel critics; the American Freedom Defense Initiative, a group led by Jewish anti-Islam blogger Pamela Geller; and to efforts to oppose a rent control ballot initiative.

At the time, the school rejected students’ calls to return the money, possibly laying the groundwork for the intra-campus dispute today over Zionist guest speakers, some of whom (including Shain) were funded by the Diller endowment.

The Dillers’ foundation had previously donated $10 million to UC Berkeley across two separate donations: half to fund the campus’ Center for Jewish Studies, and half to endow the Helen Diller Family Chair in Israel Studies.

Since the work of faculty like Hassner and Katz is made possible in part by the Diller family’s generosity, donor concerns are another factor at play. Donors to university Israel studies programs are increasingly looking for assurance that their money is going toward research and political speech they agree with — often with the encouragement of groups like StandWithUs, who push donors to build pro-Israel safeguards into their large-dollar donations. Reassuring the public that all is well with Israel-related matters at Berkeley

Students walk past a building at the University of California-Berkeley’s law school, Jan. 30, 2020.

COURTESY OF JANE TYSKA/DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA/EAST BAY TIMES VIA GETTY IMAGES

SEE UC BERKELEY, PAGE 10

Italian Jews worry and wait as Giorgia Meloni, far-right leader, prepares to take power

SIMONE SOMEKH | JTA

The success of Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party in Italy’s national election on Sept. 26 means the country is poised to have its most right-wing government since World War II, when Italy was Hitler’s staunchest ally in Europe.

The prospect has unnerved many Italian Jews, even as several of their leaders appear to be taking a wait-and-see approach to Meloni’s leadership, refraining from making public statements about the results.

“Faced with the prospect of a prime minister that is affiliated with a party that ideologically is the heir of the Italian Social Movement, a good part of Italian Jews are concerned,” David Fiorentini, president of Italy’s Jewish Youth group, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Meloni’s first stop in politics was in the youth movement of the Italian Social Movement, known as MSI, a neofascist party founded in 1946 by people who had worked with Hitler and Benito Mussolini, Italy’s fascist leader from 1922 to 1943. Brothers of Italy is closely tied to the group, even housing its office in the same building where MSI operated and using an identical logo, a tricolor flame.

Fiorentini also cited as causes for concern “the party’s bombastic tones,” “unfortunate episodes at the local level” and the revelations last year that party leaders were closely tied to a convicted fascist and his followers.

“As long as the party does not distance itself from these factors, it is only natural that many Jews don’t feel represented,” Fiorentini said.

The party does boast some Jewish supporters and members. One of the party’s newly elected members of parliament, Ester Mieli, is a former spokesperson for the Jewish community of Rome and the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, with whom she co-wrote a book about his survival in Auschwitz. Mieli said that “each

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9

also reassures the donors.

Earlier this year at the University of Washington, a donor withdrew a $5 million gift from the school’s Israel Studies program because she didn’t approve of its endowed chair signing a letter critical of Israel. Katz signed a letter sent at the time to UW’s president supporting the affected professor.

What could happen now?

As of now the initial student letter hasn’t prompted much action on campus, apart

candidate represents themselves and not the community to which they belong.”

Meloni’s sharp rise — her party got 26% of the vote, compared to 4% four years ago — reflects the rightward shift across much of Europe as more populist, right-wing parties have gained popularity in recent years. Poland’s Law and Justice party and Hungary’s Hungarian Civic Alliance have been notable examples, and in Sweden, too, a far-right party looks poised to lead a government coalition after its strong performance in this month’s election.

In part by tamping down some of the extremist rhetoric from within the party, Brothers of Italy was able to persuade more moderate right-wing parties to enter a coalition with it. Together with the rightwing coalition, Meloni received almost 44% of the overall vote, enough to form a government, which she is likely to lead as Italy’s first-ever female prime minister.

The Brothers of Italy, whose motto is “God, homeland, family,” espouses firmly conservative, anti-immigration and Eurosceptic views. Meloni’s rallying cry during the electoral campaign became a quote from a speech, in which she declared “I’m a woman, I’m a mother, I’m a Christian.” Her party opposes samesex marriage and adoptions, abortion, euthanasia and the legalization of cannabis.

from a strong rebuke from UC Berkeley administration. But the reactions to it could be a signal of something more.

The forceful public tactics being employed by pro-Israel groups well versed in campus controversies are a sign that their approach to UC Berkeley may follow a by-now familiar playbook, much to the chagrin of Jewish faculty on campus who would prefer to keep things quiet.

StandWithUs, which is threatening to file a Title VI complaint, brings to mind several similar investigations that the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights has opened up against schools

However, unlike some of her ideological counterparts in other countries, Meloni has come out in support of Ukraine and NATO during the ongoing Russian invasion.

On the campaign trail, Meloni’s opponents portrayed her party as fascist, hoping the movement’s roots would discourage some Italians from supporting it. In 2014, one of the party’s newly elected members of parliament published a Facebook post praising Adolf Hitler as a “great statesman.” After the Italian press unearthed the post this week, Meloni’s party distanced itself from the candidate, but it was already too late to remove him from their list.

Stefano Jesurum, author and former board member of the Jewish community of Milan, said some Italian Jews are willing to overlook the fact that far-right leaders are “intrinsically fascist,” focusing on their parties’ championing of Israel.

“To these voters, the important thing is that the [far-right parties] say that they are unconditionally aligned with Israel,” Jesurum said.

Meloni visited Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial and museum, in 2009, when she served as youth minister in Silvio Berlusconi’s last government. She cited the visit as “a conscience-shaking experience” in a recent interview with Israel Hayom, an Israeli newspaper.

Meloni says she is fully committed to Israel’s security. “Israel represents the only fully-fledged democracy in the broader Middle East, and we defend without any reservations its right to exist and live in security,” she told Israel Hayom. “I believe that the existence of the State of Israel is vital, and Fratelli d’Italia will make every effort to invest in greater cooperation between our countries.”

But Meloni has not always portrayed herself as a staunch supporter of Israel. In 2014, she praised Hezbollah, the militant group based in Lebanon that frequently attacks Israel, for defending Christians

in recent years for allegedly fostering antisemitic environments on campus. Most recently, the Brandeis Center and campus antisemitism watchdog group Jewish On Campus succeeded in opening an investigation at the University of Vermont by filing a complaint about ad-hoc student groups that said they wouldn’t admit Zionist students, among other things (the school’s administration has vigorously denied the allegations).

Marcus declined to tell JTA whether the Brandeis Center would also be looking to file a complaint against UC Berkeley. But the organization argues that any

there. She also lamented “another massacre of children in Gaza” that year on social media, an apparent criticism of Israel though she did not mention the country by name.

Only after the installation of the new parliament in mid-October, and after both chambers elect their respective presidents, is Meloni likely to be appointed by Italy’s president to form a new government and appoint its ministers.

For now, few Italian Jewish leaders are speaking out about the election results. Some of them — including the president of the Jewish community of Rome Ruth Dureghello and the president of the Jewish community of Turin Dario Dario Disegni — declined to comment to JTA.

So did Noemi di Segni, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities. She instead referred JTA to her official Rosh Hashanah message, published on Sunday before the election.

In that message, she offered a plea to the victors of the looming election.

“We ask [our elected leaders] to address the issue of hatred and antisemitism in a united manner. You don’t pick a piece of ‘Jewish hatred’ or ‘Israeli hatred’ and defend it with a flag of political prowess,” Di Segni wrote.

She added a warning that could be seen as applying to both Meloni and the Italian Jews di Segni represents. The number of Italian Jews is estimated to be around 24,000, the majority of whom are concentrated in the communities of Rome and Milan.

“The memory of the Shoah, the responsibilities of Fascism, and the existence of Israel as a light among the nations are one and the same; they are not isolated issues that can be discussed as if the rest were superfluous or could be denied,” Di Segni wrote. “If our values are neglected due to a lack of interest or to benefit the individual’s interests or the interests of a specific party, the risk is really high. It will not be enough to say ‘let’s see’ and ‘let’s hope.’” JN

campus anti-Zionist speech or activity is tantamount to discriminating against Jewish students, and that universities have an obligation to oppose such speech by any legal means. The Brandeis Center wants the federal government to define anti-Zionist activity in the same way, and uses Title VI as a means of pressuring universities to take action against students who may be engaging in such activity.

Will they do so in this instance? Marcus told JTA in a statement that the center is “prepared to take whatever action is required,” but did not elaborate on what that action could be. JN

UC BERKELEY

Giorgia Meloni is seen holding a placard quoting “Thanks Italy” in a press room in Rome, Sept. 26, 2022. COURTESY OF VALERIA FERRARO/SOPA IMAGES/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES

Iran in trouble

Iran remains in the headlines. And the theocratic regime is taking a beating. But instead of criticism focused on the politically divisive nuclear deal — which has generated fits and starts of possible agreement, only to fall victim to Iran’s intransigence and unreasonable demands — the focus has been upon the mass outpouring of rage over the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of the regime’s morality police.

Amini was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict rules on how to wear a hijab. She died while in police custody, reportedly suffering multiple blows to the head. The mass protests have spread to at least 50 Iranian cities. For the conservative Islamic theocracy, these spontaneous acts of rebellion are a significant challenge to the state. Iranian law forbids any dissent and imposes fearsome punishments for those deemed a threat to the state. But the protests are growing nonetheless and are a clear reminder that Iranian citizens don’t all see eye to eye with their insular Islamic thought police and government.

While Iran watchers warn not to

misread the hijab protests as opposition to the scarf itself, there is no mistaking the message conveyed in the videos that show women burning their headscarves and crowds chanting “death to the

opposition. But there are some things Iran can’t control — like the complication that the unrest coincides with reports of the ailing health of Iran’s top authority, 83-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

WE ARE LEFT TO PONDER HOW TO RESTRAIN THIS INTERNATIONAL OUTLAW WHOSE GOAL OF STAYING IN POWER MEANS TURNING ITS BACK TO THE WORLD AND ARRESTING, IMPRISONING AND KILLING THE OPPOSITION.

dictator,” unfazed by security forces using tear gas, clubs and, in some instances, live ammunition.

Revolutionary Iran, now 43 years old, has proved as implacable as the old Soviet Union. And we are left to ponder how to restrain this international outlaw whose goal of staying in power means turning its back to the world and arresting, imprisoning and killing the

An EU opportunity

In 1995, Israel and the European Union (EU) entered into an Association Agreement which called for ministeriallevel meetings between EU representatives and Israel at least yearly, at which issues of mutual concern were to be discussed. For a number of reasons, it took almost five years for the Association Agreement to be ratified. And then in 2013, Israel canceled further meetings in reaction to the EU’s promulgation of a policy that prohibited EU funding for or cooperation with an Israeli body that operates or has links beyond the Green Line.

But now, thanks to efforts by Israel’s prime minister, Yair Lapid, and support from EU leadership — particularly representatives of France —the freeze has thawed and Association Council meetings are back on track. The first meeting in a decade was held in Brussels earlier this week.

Among the issues scheduled for discussion were the war in Ukraine, the global energy crisis and food insecurity. EU representatives also made clear their interest in discussing the Middle East peace process, in the hopes of building on what they saw as encouraging remarks by Lapid during his recent United Nations address, in which he called a two-state

We

solution “the right thing for Israel’s security, for Israel’s economy and for the future of our children.”

Historically, the friction between the EU and Israel has centered on various aspects of Israel’s relationship with

There are reportedly deep divisions in Iran’s “ruling elite” over Khamenei’s eventual successor — including high-level negotiations and jockeying for influence within the country’s Assembly of Experts, the 86-member body that is supposed to decide succession. All of that is reportedly distracting regime leaders from unifying around security issues and the best way to deal with the growing protest movement.

Among the things Iran has done in reaction to the protests is to cut off the internet and block social media. The hope is that by restricting communication about the protests, they will die down. In response, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the U.S. will ease restrictions on technology exports to help counter Iranian state censorship activities. Which then prompted tech billionaire Elon Musk to announce that he was “activating Starlink” in order to save the Iranian people.

Starlink is Musk’s satellite internet company, and his announcement implied that his non-government service could solve Iranians’ tech problems. But it can’t. Among other things, Starlink customers need a special dish to send and receive internet data. Those dishes are not available in Iran, and the regime won’t let them in. Indeed, Iran has already blocked Starlink.

While Iran may be able to block Musk, it hasn’t yet figured out how to explain Amini’s violent death or how to deal with the mounting outrage it has engendered. JN

and EU member deference to the historic antagonism of Arab oil states to Israel. Much of that seems to have changed with the regional embrace of the Abraham Accords, a heightened need for Europe’s cultivation of alternative oil sources

FROM THE EU’S PERSPECTIVE, THE STARS MAY HAVE ALIGNED TO OFFER AN OPPORTUNITY FOR A REBOOT OF EUROPE’S RELATIONSHIP WITH ISRAEL: ISRAEL’S CURRENT LEADERSHIP IS RECEPTIVE TO THE IDEA OF A TWO-STATE SOLUTION, AND LAPID IS SEEN AS A LEADER WITH WHOM THEY CAN PURSUE THAT APPROACH.

the Palestinians. EU member nations overwhelmingly support a two-state solution and oppose Israeli settlements in the West Bank. There were also economic tensions, driven by Europe’s thirst for oil,

because of the war in Ukraine and the shift in Israel’s leadership from the hardline positions of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the more moderate positions of Lapid.

From the EU’s perspective, the stars may have aligned to offer an opportunity for a reboot of Europe’s relationship with Israel: Israel’s current leadership is receptive to the idea of a two-state solution, and Lapid is seen as a leader with whom they can pursue that approach. In addition, Israel has increasingly strong connections to and business relations with Arab oil producers and is increasingly seen as a possible partner in Europe’s developing approach to a growing Russiatriggered energy crisis. Indeed, this past summer, Israel and Egypt signed a memorandum of understanding with the EU to boost gas exports.

All of that said, we hope that efforts toward renewed EU-Israel cooperation are not short lived. While the benefits of a meaningful joint effort are clear, there remain members of the EU who continue to vilify Israel and oppose rapprochement and there is the increasing likelihood that a less EU-sympathetic Netanyahuled coalition will retake control of the government following next month’s elections. Both sides should therefore seize the current opportunity to create facts on the ground that strengthen EU-Israel relations. JN

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, Center for Jewish Philanthropy, Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, 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.

We must stand united against antisemitism

RABBI MICHAEL BEYO

These are difficult times for the Jewish people.

I do not say this sentence lightly. I was raised in Italy, studied in yeshivot in London, Paris and Israel. I faced verbal and physical antisemitic attacks on a near daily basis. I lived in Israel during multiple wars and intifadas and waves of daily and weekly suicidal terrorist attacks. I have lost friends to antisemitic attacks and I have been injured multiple times. And yet I repeat: These are difficult times for the Jewish people.

We are seeing blatant, openly antisemitic candidates running for office or holding office locally as well as nationally. These politicians have either directly made antisemitic comments and innuendos, participated in events by known antisemites and Holocaust deniers or have been endorsed (and endorse) antisemites. These politicians are Democrats. These politicians are Republicans. These politicians are antisemites!

Today, more than ever, we are divided politically and our core values seem to clash. Whether you support Trump or whether you support Biden. Whether you are Republican or whether you are Democrat. Whether you are pro-life or whether you are pro-choice. Despite all

of these issues, if we want to ensure we have a Jewish future we must agree to one common denominator: We must always and under all circumstances fight together against any and all forms of antisemitism.

Some will say I am exaggerating, some will say I do not understand and some will say these antisemitic statements, endorsements, tacit support, etc., is not “so” bad. Some will say these politicians “do not really mean it.”

As a people we have suffered when we have not taken antisemitic actions and statements seriously. We cannot give accommodations to any form of antisemitism.

We are a Jewish people who have been persecuted for more than 2,000 years. We have fought and struggled to achieve the acceptance we only barely have today. Supporting antisemitic candidates for personal or ideological gain will destroy years of effort for acceptance and inclusion. Worse, it threatens the very physical safety of our families.

Twenty-five hundred years ago, our people were under threat of institutional mass murder at the hands of our neighbors at the directives of the ancient Persian empire. It’s the story of Purim that we are all familiar with. When Queen Esther heard the terrible news of the edict of extermination, she did not want to interfere and petition the King to rescind the edict. She was concerned for her personal life at the expense of the rest of the Jewish people, she was preoccupied with palace etiquette instead of the Jewish people, she was afraid of how her

husband — the king — would react. All legitimate concerns. And yet Mordechai admonishes her saying: “Do not imagine that you, of all the Jews, will escape with your life by being in the king’s palace. On the contrary, if you keep silent in this crisis, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another quarter, while you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows, perhaps you have attained to royal position for just such a crisis.”

Mordechai teaches us a great lesson: In the face of antisemitism, we must stand up, we must speak up, we must fight back. I write this with an honest concern of what I see happening in our political environment here in Arizona and in other states. These are difficult times for the Jewish people. We must stand united against antisemitism and put politics aside. JN

Improving the lives of all is the ethical legacy of Sukkot

RABBI ALEX WEISSMAN

In the fall of 2011, the “Occupy” movement was in full force, and with it, a strong Jewish presence that led rituals and services like Occupy Rosh Hashanah and Occupy Yom Kippur. Jews recited Kol Nidrei in New York City’s financial center — the symbolic center of economic inequality and the same spot where a slave market had been established 300 years earlier. It was a place ripe for atonement. This moment of political uprising also happened to be my first semester of rabbinical school.

As someone who had been a Jewish community organizer prior to rabbinical school, this was the sort of Jewish ritual I was accustomed to, linking contemporary politics to ancient practices, if not quite on this large a scale. At the same time, in my new context of being a rabbinical student, there was a part of me that wanted to be exploring more classical ways to observe the holidays. I was wrestling with how to balance the value of tzedek (justice) with the value of kedushah (holiness). Both tzedek and kedushah are central to Jewish life

and practice, and I worried about the possibility of one eclipsing the other. I wondered: How do we hold both tzedek and kedushah in balance? How do we elevate both without losing either in ways that are rooted in the holidays themselves?

While I still grapple with these questions more than a decade later, I found an initial answer in an ancient, rabbinic discussion about the holiday of Sukkot. While today, we mostly associate the celebration of

Sukkot with sitting in an actual sukkah, and shaking a lulav and etrog, the rabbis of the ancient world recalled the many Temple sacrifices that were also part of the holiday, including the sacrifice of 70 bulls. According to Rabbi Elazar, these 70 bulls correspond to the 70 nations of the world; when the Jewish people offered the bulls as sacrifices, we did so as a means to atone for the sins of the rest of the world. In the minds of the rabbis, they saw the Temple as providing a unique channel to God. With that unique point of access, the Jewish people had a responsibility to use our spiritual power to aid the entire world, including those we saw as our enemies.

This discussion in the Talmud concludes with a chilling question from Rabbi Yochanan: “In the time that the Temple is standing, the sacrificial altar atones for [the rest of the world], but now [that we don’t have a sacrificial altar], who atones for them?” (Sukkah 55b). In other words, Rabbi Yochanan is concerned that there is no atonement for the rest of the world due to the absence of the Temple. The text provides no answer to Rabbi Yochanan’s questions and moves on to a new topic. Part of what is so powerful about his question is that Rabbi Yochanan’s concern is

Rabbi Michael Beyo is CEO of the East Valley Jewish Community Center.

Rabbi Michael Beyo is CEO of the East Valley Jewish Community Center. COURTESY OF RABBI DR. SHMULY YANKLOWITZ

Rabbi Alex Weissman COURTESY OF RABBI ALEX WEISSMAN

IF WE WANT TO ENSURE WE HAVE A JEWISH FUTURE WE MUST AGREE TO ONE COMMON DENOMINATOR: WE MUST ALWAYS AND UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCES FIGHT TOGETHER AGAINST ANY AND ALL FORMS OF ANTISEMITISM.

WHILE TODAY, WE MOSTLY ASSOCIATE THE CELEBRATION OF SUKKOT WITH SITTING IN AN ACTUAL SUKKAH, AND SHAKING A LULAV AND ETROG, THE RABBIS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD RECALLED THE MANY TEMPLE SACRIFICES THAT WERE ALSO PART OF THE HOLIDAY, INCLUDING THE SACRIFICE OF 70 BULLS.

‘Every Jew is a letter’

RABBI DR. SHMULY YANKLOWITZ | PARSHAH HA’AZINU DEUTERONOMY 32:1 - 32:52

s we come out of the High Holidays of 5783, I hope we can all make one last reflection on our “Why,” on the most important questions of who we are and what our lives are about. I hope we’re also considering: When we face difficulties on the journey of actualizing our unique purposes, where will we turn for stability and guidance?

I believe a simple and essential answer is found in Parshah Ha’azinu, a Torah portion that is special in that it is primarily written not as prose, but in the form of a shir, a poem or song. Just looking at the unusual spacing of the text, we can see that the Torah is doing something special here.

And this is all for the purpose of helping us today hear Moses speaking or singing, in this parshah, a love letter to Torah itself. “Ha’Azinu, give ear,” he begins at the start of Deuteronomy chapter 32. “O heavens, let me speak; Let the earth hear the words I utter!” Moses continues even more poetically:

May my discourse come down as the rain, My speech distill as the dew,

Like showers on young growth, Like droplets on the grass.

AThis serves as a call to soak in and imbibe the instructions of the Torah, and to me it’s a further call to, like Moses, sing our own songs as we journey on in our lives. Our lives’ songs are our deepest expressions of our values and purpose in the world. When we experience an encounter that takes us beyond ordinary feelings, we can find satisfactory expression only in song.

“We sing because it’s the outpouring of our souls,” the Jewish musician Joey Weisenberg once said. “We fill up our cup, and then when the cup overflows, it overflows in song, and we sing to give thanks back to the world.”

But what’s even more powerful than singing our own song is learning to do it as a community. We must learn to not only provide space for each member to sing their own song, but to create a collective, harmonious chorus — a symphony, even, of many different parts together.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, passed on a teaching of the Baal Shem Tov: that just as one missing letter makes an entire Torah scroll unkosher, one missing Jew makes the entire Jewish people incomplete.

“Every Jew is a letter,” Sacks wrote in his book “A Letter in the Scroll.” “Each Jewish family is a word, every community

a sentence and the Jewish people through time constitutes a story, the strangest and most moving story in the annals of mankind.”

This grand vision only works if we leave the comfort of our own denominations, congregations, ideologies and echo chambers and learn Torah together. At my pluralistic learning organization, Valley Beit Midrash, we thrive by bringing together Jewish adults from around the Valley to reflect deeply about their own values and to grow in their Jewish wisdom. However, our goal of keeping Jewish wisdom alive cannot be reached if the knowledge is left in the recesses of individual minds and souls. Our ultimate measure of success must be whether we can sing a more beautiful song, which we can achieve only when we all sing together.

As it says is Psalm 96, one of the famous psalms recited at Kabbalat Shabbat, “Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth.” Singing a new song is not the task of Moses, or King David, or even the entire Jewish people. Everyone and everything must be redeemed by being elevated to its highest purpose.

At the end of Moshe’s poem, the parshah says, “Moses came, together with Hosea son of Nun, and recited all the words of this poem in the hearing of the people” (Deut. 32:44). With the Torah, we today are possessors of not just as sacred book, but a holy song. We’re sitting on moral and spiritual gold, more valuable

than any concrete asset. What we have in the Torah is transformative wisdom that shows us how to live a good life — and has done so for thousands of years. But it can only truly be actualized collectively.

Studying Torah, a habit I hope we all continue into the new parshah cycle and the new year, is not just about having a personal intellectual experience, although that would be enough. It should also inspire us to lift up all others in our communities and to emerge as harbingers of a better world, with an enthusiasm that feels to us more like music than prose.

I wish you blessings, community, and song in 5783. JN

exclusively for the foreign nations. In the understanding of the rabbis, the Jewish people have practices like teshuvah and Yom Kippur that atone for us. Rabbi Yochanan recognizes that the rest of the world does not have these practices. In his post-Temple moment, Rabbi Yochanan feels the obligation to continue to play the role of atoning for the other nations while lacking the previous avenue for action: the Temple.

As inheritors of this Sukkot conundrum, we are faced with Rabbi Yochanan’s unanswered question. The redactors of the Talmud chose to leave his question in the text, but did not provide any sort of answer. How do we respond to this textual silence 1,500 years later? How could grappling with this question be at the core of what it means to honor Sukkot’s ethical legacy?

As a Jewish spiritual practice, the forgotten legacy of the 70 bulls obligates us to bring our particular Jewish practices, coupled with our access and collective power, to be in service of the

entire world. This means choosing not only to improve the lives of some people — the people we like most or only the people we agree with — but truly all people. This is what the rabbis meant when they spoke of the “70 nations of the world”: all people.

This concept of the 70 nations that represent the entire world comes from Genesis 10, which includes a long list of the descendants of Noah after the flood — the lineage of the peoples who repopulated the earth after mass destruction. Invoking this moment in Torah just after the flood and before the Tower of Babel, the idea of the 70 nations calls to mind two challenges we currently face. The flood represents our climate crisis and the danger of ecological destruction.

The Tower of Babel, with the accompanying curse of the people being unable to speak to each other, invokes our challenges with polarization and speaking across difference. What holds both of these contemporary issues together is that they are issues that implicate all of us. They expand the idea of “we” beyond any attempt at narrowing, and instead

obligate us to each and every person on this planet. This, our tradition teaches, is what it means to celebrate Sukkot.

I look back on Occupy now as holding the right balance of tzedek and kedushah in the way that Sukkot teaches us to do. While Occupy may be in the past, we can look to its integration of these Jewish values as a model of how we might address issues like the climate crisis and polarization today. We can model our approach to Jewish life and practice on this integrative model offered to us by Sukkot that holds tzedek and kedushah in balance without favoring either essential value. This is how we answer Rabbi Yochanan’s unanswered question — by committing ourselves to living the ethical legacy of the 70 bulls of Sukkot. We can celebrate this Jewish holiday not only by sitting in a sukkah and shaking the lulav, but also by recognizing our obligation to use our power and access to improve the lives of all who dwell on this earth. JN

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is the president and dean of Valley Beit Midrash.

Find area congregations at jewishaz.com, where you can also find our 2022 Community Directory.

Rabbi Alex Weissman is the director of Mekhinah and Cultural and Spiritual Life at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, Pennsylvania.

COVID threw him a curveball, but fourth-generation barber didn’t strike out

SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER

Central Avenue in Downtown Phoenix is still relatively calm at 10 a.m. on a Wednesday and Eduard Zavurov, owner of Downtown Barber Shop, takes advantage of the quiet to spotlight a collage of family pictures on the wall as he preps for his first customer.

He first singles out an 1890 photo of his great-grandfather, the man who began the family barbering tradition in Uzbekistan.

“That’s my great-grandfather, and that’s his son, my grandfather, who died when he was 27,” he said in a heavily accented voice. Before his early death, he taught his wife, Zavurov’s grandmother, how to cut hair. “She was a barber for 65 years — no stop,” he added.

“My father was 60 years a barber — no stop,” Zavurov continued. He explained that his father was so well-regarded as a barber in Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital city, that customers had to book an appointment for his services — an unusual prerequisite for Uzbek barbers.

“He was super famous barber, like Michael Jordan in basketball,” Zavurov said, before pointing to another photo. “That’s my mom. My father teach my mom and she teach me. In 1975, I start to be a barber.”

He said his sister and brother also learned the trade and now he’s passed it on to his two adult sons, thereby creating a fifth generation of barbers.

He’s wrapping up his soliloquy as Tony Olvera, a customer, enters the shop and says a quick hello before sliding into his regular chair to await a haircut. He doesn’t need to ask Zavurov where to sit because for the last 15 years or so this has been his weekly routine, interrupted only when the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic forced Zavurov to close the shop for three months.

Even after reopening under the mask mandate, that period wrought devastation for Zavurov, especially for his plans to retire early.

Before COVID, the shop supported Zavurov, his son, two other barbers and a shoe-shine man. “He was amazing guy, unbelievable shine,” he said.

The chairs were always full and both he and Olvera remembered a shop full of loud conversation and laughter. Men — and women with short hair — walked in every day of the week and waited for one of the barbers to fit them in.

Zavurov talks about that time wistfully. The other barbers left and the shoe-shine man moved back to Missouri.

“It’s just me now,” he said. “Sometimes Arthur, my son, comes to help me. He has

his own spot in Scottsdale.”

Zavurov plans to retire in February and Arthur will take over.

These days, however, Zavurov is usually alone and cannot handle much walk-in traffic. So, like his father before him, he instituted a by-appointment-only rule.

Downtown Barber Shop sits at the foot of Hotel San Carlos, a historic — and supposedly haunted — hotel and tourist attraction. The area was once bustling with people going to work at places like Chase Tower, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo. Chase was already in the process of moving workers to its Tempe campus when the pandemic hit and many other employees have not returned to downtown offices and are still working from home.

“COVID, a little bit, destroyed my business,” he said.

Zavurov emigrated to the United States

about being a barber and why it’s one of the few professions to be passed down through generations.

“If I go to Japan right now, I don’t speak Japanese, but I can be busy and make money.”

He left New York — “the weather was not for me” — and headed west for Arizona’s warmer and drier climate.

Zavurov speaks Uzbek, Russian, English and, as a Bukharan Jew, he also speaks Farsi. When he first came to Arizona, he was drawn to Chabad and its Russian-speaking rabbi. Now he attends Beit Midrash, a synagogue with a large Bukharian congregation.

He first set up a barber business on 24th Street and Campbell Avenue. He moved to another location a few years later, but

when he learned that the downtown shop was for sale, he snatched it up in 2004. He liked the historic nature of the shop, which originally opened in 1928 under the name San Carlos Barber Shop. He also liked the association with Hotel San Carlos because his parents had worked in hotel barber shops in Tashkent.

Zavurov developed a loyal customer base in 18 years downtown, too.

Olvera said the first time he came, “I just liked the look of the shop, and I was looking for a new barber, so I came in to try it out — and I’ve been coming ever since.”

Aside from the three months in 2020 when the shop was closed and he had to cut his own hair, Olvera said he only went to another barber once.

“And Eddie had to fix it,” he laughed.

Arthur said his parents — his mother also cuts hair — encouraged him to work as a barber while he went to Paradise Valley Community College. He hesitated initially, but by his third semester he got his barber’s license and started working

part-time. That eventually turned into fulltime and soon, he was so busy he had to choose between college and his profession.

He chose the latter and said he’s happy with his decision.

“I had my first shop 11 years ago, and now I have a shop in Scottsdale on Shea and Scottsdale Road,” he said. Soon he’ll be running Downtown Barber Shop, where he hopes to hire more barbers. Arthur’s wife also cuts hair.

Zavurov’s youngest son moved to San Diego with his wife and children. He has both a barber and real-estate license there.

Zavurov said his sons were always free to choose their own paths but being a barber “is a unique profession” and will serve them well no matter where they might end up.

“When you don’t have the language and you have only your hands, you just work and you’re busy, busy. Not everyone can have that option,” he said. JN

The Downtown Barber Shop is located at 216 N. Central Ave. in Phoenix. For more information, call 602-253-7474.

Above: Eduard Zavurov prepares to cut Tony Olvera’s hair at his Downtown Barber Shop on Central Avenue on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. COURTESY OF SHANNON LEVITT

Left: A collage of family photos on the wall of Eduard Zavurov’s Downtown Barber Shop is pictured. COURTESY OF SHANNON LEVIT

Free tour lets the public see local Jewish artists at work

MALA BLOMQUIST | MANAGING EDITOR

The annual art event, Hidden in the Hills Artist Studio Tour (HITH), allows the public to peek into the private studios of artists to learn about their methodology and process and purchase art directly from creators.

The free, self-guided tour, presented by the nonprofit Sonoran Arts League, is celebrating its 26th year and features 174 artists at 47 private studios throughout the communities of Cave Creek, Carefree and North Scottsdale. This year, the event runs Nov. 18-20 and 25-27 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

HITH attracts both nationally recognized and emerging artists. Included in this year’s tour are a few local Jewish artists.

BOBBY HARR

When Bobby Harr was in junior high school, his art teacher told him that he would never become an artist — and her prediction stuck with him for years. He never went to museums or galleries unless someone took him. Harr was a partner in a company in Phoenix that designed and built displays for retail

stores, shopping centers and themed special events. He was one of the “vision” people at the company, artistic but never involved in the actual creation of the pieces they produced.

In 1998, Harr gave himself permission to explore his artistic side.

“I tried a few mediums and then found fused glass,” he said. “I basically had to teach myself since I couldn’t find any classes at the time.

“I love working with the glass because I can lay it out and play around with the pieces before I fire it. The glass is very forgiving — my pieces don’t need to be perfect.”

Harr creates Judaica and art objects using Dichroic glass, which displays vibrant, multiple colors depending on the way light hits it.

His work has been featured in over 200 galleries and shops across the United States and Canada, including The Jewish Museum in New York City and the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

He has taught more than 900 students how to create fused, kiln-formed glass in Greater Phoenix, including at the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center.

These days, he doesn’t have time for

art shows across the Midwest for five months of the year.

“My biggest challenge is that I don’t have a permanent studio,” said Harr.

everything in storage when I leave Phoenix each April and then get a new

Glass artist Bobby Harr’s menorah made with iridized glass on aluminum. COURTESY OF BOBBY HARR

JEWISH ARTISTS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15

apartment in October when I return. I am limited on how much supplies I can take with me as I only have a standard cargo van, which is mostly taken up with my art-show tent and set up.”

Currently unaffiliated, Harr was a member of Ruach Hamidbar in Phoenix for several years and a founding member of a small congregation called Kol Ahava. He also was one of the founders of a group, no longer active, called Jewish Artists of the Valley (J.A.V.A.) that at one time had 300 members.

“I try to infuse an emotional connection to Judaism into my pieces. I know that except for mezuzahs and menorahs, many Jewish people do not buy much Judaica,” said Harr. “I joke that my work is not our ‘grandparent’s Judaica,’ it is for their life and decor today. I get great personal satisfaction that I am providing art that fulfills that emotional connection to Judaism many Jewish people want.” For more information, visit bobbyharr.com.

LINDA SINGER

Scottsdale resident Linda Singer moved to Phoenix in 1981. Born in Rochester, N.Y., Singer’s mother taught her how to

knit and crochet when she was 10 years old, thus beginning her creative journey.

Singer is the owner and designer of Soup to Nuts Jewelry. She started her jewelry business in 2014 and before that, she owned an event planning company for 16 years with the same name, Soup to Nuts.

“My friend was taking a class in jewelry making, so I tagged along,” said Singer. “I immediately loved it and decided that it would be a great hobby.”

Her hobby soon morphed into a business when a small boutique called Femme, located in Scottsdale, asked to sell her jewelry in their store and others asked her to create custom pieces.

“The materials I use are mostly freshwater pearls, semi-precious stones, Swarovski crystals, sterling silver, gold and leather,” said Singer. This is her first time participating in HITH.

A member of Congregation Beth Israel for many years, Singer said that her children both had their bar and bat mitzvah there and it was also where her daughter was married.

“As a child, our family was Conservative and I became a bat mitzvah before my 13th birthday,” said Singer. “I learned my organizational skills and perfectionism from my mom.”

When asked how her Judaism impacts her art, she said, “I believe that somehow it is all tied together.”

For more information, visit souptonutsjewelry. com.

She studied art in Minnesota at Hamline University and the University of Minnesota as well as taking workshops from the best ceramic artists in the country. While studying for her master’s degree, she was impressed by the universal human desire to create art.

“I love experiencing new cultures and lived for a year in a third-world country,” said Swanstrom. “I love to travel and a couple of years ago, I stayed a month in China, taking the opportunity to study the art there.”

Lately, she has been incorporating more personally meaningful imagery in her pieces. “When I was young, my aunt Rose took me bird watching and watching birds became a life-long hobby,” shared Swanstrom. “Arizona lovebirds recently moved into my neighborhood — and onto my pottery. Birds have become a permanent part of my work. I have also added my mother’s flowers to my artwork as a kind of tribute to her and her influence in my life.”

She enjoys experimenting with different techniques but admits that throwing and hand-building are her favorites. She adds underglazes to the clay so that she can carve through it and occasionally adds metal pieces to

“I spend a lot of time glazing my work, layering oxides, stains and multiple glazes to get a rich surface,” she said. “I love experimenting with new techniques and even creating my own glazes. There’s always that pull to get the perfect surface for my work.”

Genie Swanstrom began her artistic career as a painter. Ever since she was young, she wanted to be an artist and received encouragement from both her parents and teachers. Her mother was an ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) artist and a horticulturalist, so she remembers her childhood was filled with flowers and nature.

“I am very inspired by nature. All its beauty and intricacy speak to me and clay seems to be the perfect medium to portray the life, movement and texture of the natural world,” said Swanstrom. She took a pottery class at the University of Minnesota and she was hooked. She believes clay is the most expressive and most frustrating medium in the art world.

“It practically cracks when you look at it, especially here in Arizona,” said Swanstrom. “You can create a beautiful piece and the kiln can misfire and make it a piece of trash. I have been working in clay for 20 years and still haven’t explored the depths of this great medium.”

Active in the local art community, she has served on several boards and run art shows in the Phoenix area. Swanstrom’s work is showcased through Practical Art in Phoenix and at the store inside the Mesa Arts Center. She has taught ceramic classes at the center for more than 13 years.

A member of Temple Beth Sholom of the East Valley, Swanstrom believes that anything a Jewish artist pours their soul into relates intrinsically to their Judaism.

“I am specifically interested in the idea of tikkun olam, the repairing of the world,” she shared. “Art is very therapeutic, and it is joyful for me to share my abilities with the community and help them grow as artists and humans. The imagery I put into my work is all about nature and at the core of it, is that the appreciation of nature leads to the protection of nature. It’s not in your face or obvious but that’s what I’m aiming for.”

For more information, visit swanstromstudios. com. JN

Downloadable maps for Hidden in the Hills Artist Studio Tour and details about participating artists will be available prior to the event at hiddeninthehills.org. For more information, call 480-575-6624.

GENIE SWANSTROM

The lovebirds on this ceramic jar were inspired by the birds that visit Genie Swanstrom’s neighborhood. COURTESY OF GENIE SWANSTROM

Black lava stone and large round hand-made clay beads on a necklace by jewelry artist Linda Singer.

SENIORS

Giving back may be the medicine you need to feel better

LEN GUTMAN | SPECIAL TO JEWISH NEWS

It may seem counterintuitive, but many experts believe the best way to improve your health is to do something good for someone else. Studies suggest a direct correlation between volunteering and positive health outcomes, including lower blood pressure, lower stress levels, less depression and even a longer lifespan.

Volunteerism also has roots in religious teaching. Muhammad Ali said, “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” As a Muslim, Ali knew giving, or Sadaqah, was a way to be closer to Allah. Buddhists have a required action called Dana, which encourages giving, sharing and selfless giving (there is even sweat Dana where the giver can donate time and effort in lieu of money). And, of course, in Judaism, we have tzedakah, which is the obligation to do what is right and that Judaism emphasizes as an important part of living a spiritual life.

While serving others can improve your health and make you feel pious, those who volunteer regularly do it simply because it makes them feel good. In these times of political strife, a global pandemic and economic uncertainty, we could all benefit from finding ways to be happier

— even better if it helps those in need.

Volunteering is especially important for seniors.

According to a study done by the Corporation for National and Community Service, Americans over the age of 60 that volunteered reported lower disability and higher levels of wellbeing compared to those who did not volunteer. Added benefits for seniors include spending time with younger generations, battling loneliness and promoting physical activity.

Opportunities for seniors to volunteer are endless and limited only by your desire to give back. I used to think volunteering meant you had to dole out food at a meal center or sort clothes at a donation center. These services are critical to the community, but they barely scratch the surface of the numerous ways you can give your time. In the early 2000s, I set out to explore the many ways a person could volunteer, and over two years, I discovered that volunteering is as varied as the stars in the sky. For example, I sorted books at a public library, answered phones at the local public broadcasting station, spent

time with kids at the zoo and coached baseball at a community center. I built a house for a homeless family, led arts and crafts at a homeless shelter, worked the disc jockey booth at a mock city that taught kids about commerce and delivered meals. I painted the toenails of a severely disabled person and collected change in front of a grocery store during the holidays while wearing a Santa hat. Volunteering in the community eventually led me to leave a successful career in public relations to work full-time in nonprofit management. It was not so much a mid-life crisis as a mid-life moment of clarity. I was happier when I was doing something for others. It wasn’t enough to volunteer my time; instead, I wanted to work for a cause. Why shouldn’t I be happy all the time?

A mentor of mine wrote a book about looking at your life as if it were a financial portfolio — life, like your investments, needs diversity to be successful. She believed everyone should spend time on their career, spend time with friends and family, spend time on hobbies and spend time giving

back. Each of us can illustrate our life as a pie chart and choose which wedges are big and which are small. I can tell you from my experience that the bigger the volunteer wedge is, the happier you will be.

If you spend time volunteering, you probably already know this lesson. If not, why not get out there and give some time? If you don’t know where to start, ask a friend to share where they volunteer. Find out what opportunities are available at organizations you belong to, whether a community center or synagogue or a grandkids’ sports league. Look into the organizations you support financially with donations — most nonprofits have volunteer opportunities. There are also resources to help you find a place to volunteer. I recommend VolunteerMatch (volunteermatch.org) and HandsOn Greater Phoenix (handsonphoenix.org).

Lastly, don’t wait until the holidays to volunteer. Nonprofits are swamped with volunteers in November and December but desperate for help the rest of the year. Get started now — you’ll be happy you did. JN

Len Gutman is vice president of philanthropic services for Jewish Family & Children’s Service. For more information about programs, services and volunteer opportunities, visit jfcsaz.org.

Len Gutman COURTESY OF JEWISH FAMILY & CHILDREN’S SERVICE

Scottsdale Jewish children’s book author celebrates becoming centenarian

MALA BLOMQUIST | MANAGING EDITOR

On Friday, Aug. 26, Sam Baker turned 100 years old with a special Shabbat celebration and dinner at Congregation Beth Israel with friends and family. “I’ve got so many friends there,” said Baker. “I was raised as a little Jewish boy in Mississippi. At the time I was growing up, we had the largest Jewish congregation in Mississippi.”

His hometown of Clarksdale, Miss. was home to a thriving Jewish community. The first Jewish person in Clarksdale, Baker said, was a Jewish tailor in the 1880s who opened a store and sent for friends and family, including Baker’s uncle. Baker’s family home was only a few blocks from the community’s synagogue. His father owned a large cotton farm and his mother ran a store that carried supplies for the local farmers.

Baker served in the South Pacific during World War II and afterward joined the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, now part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, stationed at Cape Canaveral. He had to travel once a

month to inspect tracking devices.

His wife, Janet, would read stories to their children, Sally and Michael, while he was away, but when he returned, they wouldn’t accept a book at bedtime — he had to tell them a story from his imagination.

One of their favorites came from a true story based on Baker’s childhood.

The family also grew cucumbers and dill plants to make dill pickles. As a boy, Baker recalls seeing large caterpillars (he would call them worms) on the dill plants. He would collect them in a shoebox and wait for them to emerge as “beautiful black swallow-tail butterflies.”

The children knew the story so well that they would correct their father if he missed a part. When his granddaughter was born, his son told him it was time to write the story down.

“So, I did, and it laid in my desk for a number of years,” said Baker. “Finally, both children said, ‘It’s time to publish a book.’ I got an illustrator friend of Sally’s, Ann Hess, and we published it.”

So, at 95, Baker wrote his first children’s book, “The Silly Adventures of Petunia

and Herman the Worm,” based on his children’s favorite story.

That was in 2018. In 2020, Baker’s daughter, Sally Simon, started a crowdfunding campaign via Canva to help Sam launch his second book, “Oscar the Mouse,” at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The campaign was a success, and Baker reached his $4,000 goal. In September 2020, “Oscar the Mouse” was released.

The inspiration for this book was based on a pet rat that someone gave Sam when he was a child, but since “rats have a bad name,” he decided to change Oscar from a rat to a mouse. “My mother wouldn’t let me keep the rat in the house, so I had to build a cage outside. I took her to school one day and she poked her head out and somebody saw. That was the end of that.”

Baker admits his whole aim in writing children’s books is to foster the need for imagination and get children reading. “If I could get one person to learn to read, I would succeed,” he said. “Children who can read will succeed. Reading is a foundation for all other learning.”

Baker is getting ready to release his third children’s book, “Oscar Goes to the Vet.” “He has EBS — you probably had it when you were a kid. I don’t know the professional name, but EBS stands for ‘eyes bigger than his stomach.’” joked Baker. “Well, you know, sometimes the food is so good, you eat more than you should.”

The themes in Baker’s books — kindness, inclusivity, acceptance and the desire to bring peace — were concepts he

Sam Baker celebrates his 100th birthday. COURTESY OF SALLY SIMON

learned from his parents, and they guided his actions his entire life.

“Everybody needs some joy in life, but, you know, if we could just replace half the hate with love — wouldn’t this world be a wonderful place?” said Baker.

In addition to writing, Baker is active in his senior living community, the Vi at Silverstone in Scottsdale, where he moved eight years ago, not long after Janet passed away. He also threw himself a party at the Vi to celebrate his birthday.

Baker used to play bridge but decided to quit. He had a friend that told him, “You play a beautiful game, but your bidding is so horrible, I could shoot you.” Baker said that he was thankful the community didn’t allow firearms and that “friendship is stronger than bridge, so I don’t play anymore.”

He also spends an hour every day at the gym. He has a personal trainer and does a combination of stretching, weightlifting and spending time on various exercise machines.

“It helps me sleep and you use it or lose it,” said Baker. “I have a pacemaker. I had my second and third one and they told me I’ll need another one in 20 months.

“I had a party at 95, now 100 and Godwilling, I’ll have another one at 105.” JN

For more information, visit sambakerbooks.com.

HonorHealth’s G-60 program tailors trauma care to older adults

MICHELLE TALSMA EVERSON | CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Baby Boomer generation began turning 65 in 2011 and will comprise 20% of the total U.S. population by 2029, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. As this generation ages, the need for health care that is tailored to their specific needs is imperative.

With this in mind, Alicia Mangram, M.D., F.A.C.S., medical director at HonorHealth’s John C. Lincoln Medical Center’s Trauma and Critical Care Services, created the G-60 program to address the specific needs of older adults who experience traumatic injuries.

G-60 is the older adult trauma services program at HonorHealth’s three hospitals with a Level I Trauma Center. These locations include John C. Lincoln Medical Center in Phoenix, Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center and Deer Valley Medical Center.

Mangram, who developed the program, is passionate about senior health care and has written over 100 publications, peer reviews, presentations and case reports on the topic in addition to her lab and bench research experience in the field.

“In the beginning of my career, I

quickly realized that a traumatic injury in patients 60 years and older could occur from a simple fall resulting in a hip fracture,” Mangram said. “The traditional approach was to admit them to a medical physician and await medical clearance for pre-existing conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, etc. prior to any surgery. But, while patients waited for medical clearance, other medical related complications could develop.”

Recognizing the cause of these complications led to a paradigm shift and implementing an aggressive care approach for senior patients, Mangram added.

“Designing a distinct medical program that tailors care to geriatric trauma patients has led to better overall patient outcomes,” Mangram said.

She explained that the G-60 program provides effective and expedited care for trauma patients over 60 beginning the moment a qualifying patient is identified in the emergency room. Once a part of the G-60 program, the patient benefits from a multidisciplinary team of staff dedicated to caring for geriatric patients; quicker care; and private hospital rooms, some with special accommodations for older patients.

Through research, Mangram and her team found that G-60 program patients experienced a shorter stay in the emergency department, waited less time to go from the ER to the operating room and had shorter intensive care unit and overall hospital stays than those not in the program.

In addition to the time efficiency of the program, G-60 patients benefit from a care approach backed by specialized research and data analysis, Mangram said. This includes utilizing alternative pain management modalities and an openness to a variety of care models, including the biopsychosocial model. “The biopsychosocial perspective is a medical model that attempts to demonstrate links between the biological, psychological and social aspect of a person and how it attributes to disease outcome,” according to HonorHealth.

All this specialized expertise leads to one goal: The achievement of optimal levels of functioning and independence for senior patients upon discharge from the G-60 program, Mangram said. JN

For more information, visit honorhealth.com/ medical-services/trauma-center/g-60-program.

Featured Event

MONDAYS

Un

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.

SUNDAY, OCT. 16 March

10

in the

Phoenix

Pride Parade

with AZ

Jews

for

Pride: 9:30 a.m.-12 p.m. Join AZ Jews for Pride as they march in the Phoenix Pride Parade in downtown Phoenix. For more information or to register, visit bit.ly/PhxPrideJews22.

Events

SUNDAY, OCT. 9

FitnessFest Fundraiser at The J: 6 a.m.-2 p.m. Join the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, 12701 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale for a day of fitness for members and non-members while supporting a good cause. The goal of FitnessFest is to raise money for The J and breast cancer research. 20% of all proceeds will be donated to the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center. For more information, visit vosjcc.org.

Screening of ‘Yerusalem: The Incredible Story of Ethiopian Jewry’: Join the East Valley Jewish Community Center for a documentary screening that brings to life the story of the Jewish Ethiopian community’s journey to Jerusalem. Free, available to watch online anytime on Oct. 9. Register for the link at evjcc.org/film.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 12

5783 Simchas Beis Hashoevah Concert with Chabad: 7-9 p.m. Arizona’s Grand Sukkot celebration comes to the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus, 12701 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. Chabad centers in Arizona will be hosting the annual Simchat Beis Hashoevah celebration with singer and entertainer, Boruch Sholom. For more information, visit chabadmesa.com.

THURSDAY, OCT. 13

Game Night at The J: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Join the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, 12701 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale for an evening of mahjong and canasta. Wine and snacks will be served. Bring your mahjong card if you are playing mahjong. For more information, visit vosjcc.org.

THURSDAY, OCT. 20

Bingo for Breast Cancer: 6:30 p.m. Join the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, 12701 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale for the 3rd Annual Bingo for Breast Cancer! Teri Friedland (the creator of Pink Ribbon 360) will guide us through stretching and gentle strengthening exercises for all ability levels before we play bingo! Don’t miss great raffle prizes, wine and snacks. For more information, visit vosjcc.org.

LIFE & LEGACY PLUS Kickoff: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Join the Center for Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix at Pardes Jewish Day School, 12753 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale to learn more about the impact this comprehensive endowment program will continue to have on the future of our Greater Phoenix community and how your organization can participate. For more information, contact Rachel Rabinovich at 480-481-1785 or rrabinovich@phoenixcjp. org.

SUNDAY, OCT. 23

J in the Community: In the Beginning: 10-11:30 a.m. Join the Early Learning Center at the East Valley JCC at a Chandler park for a creation-themed program with crafts, snacks and story time. Location provided after registration. Free. evjcc.org/creation.

Genetic Education and Screening Event: 1-4 p.m. Join Minkoff Center for Jewish Genetics at Beth El Congregation, 1118 W. Glendale Ave., Phoenix for a 30-minute genetics lecture followed by individual genetic counseling sessions for both prenatal disorders and hereditary cancer. Free. For more information, visit jewishgeneticsaz.org.

THURSDAY, OCT. 27

Experience Interfaith: 5:30 p.m. Join Arizona Interfaith Movement at Arizona Heritage Center, 1300 N. College Ave., Tempe for an evening of talking with and learning from practitioners of different faiths. This helps build understanding, compassion and respect in neighborhoods and in communities. Free event but pre-registration is required. For more information, visit interfaithmovement.com/ experience-interfaith.

SUNDAYS

BAGELS: 9-11 a.m. Join the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, 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.

MONDAYS

Mahjong: 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Join the East Valley Jewish Community Center, 908 N. Alma School Rd., Chandler in-person 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.

THURSDAYS

Storytime at Modern Milk: 9:30 a.m. Join Modern Milk, 13802 N. Scottsdale Rd, #163, Scottsdale for an in-person storytime for babies, toddlers and preschoolers. 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.

Meetings, Lectures & Classes

SUNDAYS

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

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

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

Anxiety in the Modern World: 6 p.m. Learn the secrets of the Torah for living stressfree in the current environment in a virtual class with Rabbi Boruch, with Chabad of Oro Valley. Cost: Free. Tune in using this link: zoom.us/j/736434666. 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.

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.

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.

TUESDAYS

Let’s Knit: 1:30-3:30 p.m. Share the pleasure of knitting, crocheting, etc. and help others with a project or pattern. Can’t knit? We can teach you! Every level welcome. We will be sitting outside at the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus and social distancing. Cost: Free. For more information, visit 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.

WEDNESDAYS

History of the Jews: 11:00 a.m. Learn the Jewish journey from Genesis to Moshiach online with Rabbi Ephraim Zimmerman. Cost: Free. Tune in here: zoom. us/j/736434666. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

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 and studies different perspectives and debates the merits of various arguments. 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. For more information, contact the TBS office at (623) 977-3240.

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.

Torah Study with Chabad: Noon. Take a weekly journey to the soul of Torah online with Rabbi Yossi Levertov. Cost: Free. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Lunch & Learn: 12:15 PM. Grab some food and learn online with Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin. Cost: Free. Tune in on Zoom by emailing info@ChabadTucson.com. For more information, visit ChabadTucson.com.

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

Knit a Mitzvah: 1-30 p.m. On the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month, check in with fellow knitters who are making items to donate as part of this Brandeis National Committee Phoenix chapter study group. For more information, contact Ronee Siegel at ronees@aol.com.

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.

Words & Whiskey: 8:30 p.m. Join a free weekly, virtual learning session for men. To RSVP, email rmollenaz@gmail.com or call/ text 310-709-3901.

THURSDAYS

Ladies Torah & Tea: 10:30 a.m. Learn about the women of the Torah with Mrs. Leah Levertov online. Cost: Free. Tune in at: ourjewishcenter.com/virtual. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Talmud - Maakos: 11 a.m. Learn with Rabbi Shlomy Levertov. Cost: Free. Tune in at: JewishParadiseValley.com/YJPclass. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Mindfulness Gatherings: Noon. Hosted by Hospice of the Valley via Zoom. Cost: Free. To join by phone, dial 1-253-2158782, meeting ID 486 920 2119#, to get the Zoom link or for further questions contact Gill Hamilton at ghamilton@hov.org or 602-748-3692.

The Science of Everything: 4 p.m. Explore the most fundamental work of Chassidut: the Tanya, with Rabbi Boruch. Cost: Free. Tune in at: zoom.us/j/736434666. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

Teen Discussions: 7-8:30 p.m. Learn with Rabbi Tzvi Rimler online. Cost: Free. Tune in at cteen.clickmeeting.com/east-valley. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

SATURDAYS

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

Middle Eastern Percussion - Beginner

Level: 12:45-1:45 p.m. Join One World Dance and Music Studio, 3312 N. Third St., Phoenix to learn the fundamentals of Middle Eastern rhythms on tabla/doubek (drum), riq (tambourine) and zills (finger cymbals). Cost: $20 per class. For more information, visit oneworlddanceandmusic.com.

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

Shabbat FRIDAYS

In-person services: Congregation Beth Israel is holding services in the Goldsmith Sanctuary limited to 100 people, excluding clergy and staff. Members and guests must be fully vaccinated (two weeks since your last vaccination) and wear a mask. Children may attend and must be able to wear a mask for the duration of the service. Participants must pre-register by Thursday at 5 p.m. Priority will be given to members first and then guests. If there are more requests than available seats a lottery system will be used. To make your reservation, contact Gail Gilmartin at 480951-0323 or at ggilmartin@cbiaz.org.

In-person services: Temple Chai is holding Friday evening (5:30 p.m. nosh, 6:15 p.m. service) and Shabbat morning (varying dates and times). For more information, contact Sheana Abrams at (602) 971-1234 or sabrams@templechai.com.

In-person services: Congregation Or Tzion is holding Friday evening (6 p.m) and Shabbat morning (9:30 a.m.) services indoors. Services are also live streamed at otaz.org/livestream. For more information about services, events and membership, visit congregationortzion.org or call 480-342-8858.

Baby & Me Shabbat: 9:30 a.m. on the first Friday of the month. Join the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Phoenix for this free program for parents and their little ones to welcome Shabbat. For more information, visit bjephoenix.org.

November 4

Ideas and resources for families planning celebrations or B’nai Mitzvot. Don’t miss the opportunity to showcase your products and services.

Camp & School Guide

October 28

Parents are looking for the best for their children. Showcase your offerings to our readers.

Chanukah

Greetings & Traditions

November 18 & December 2 Help

Museum exhibit at NAU

Pizza party!

Bringing in a dozen pizza pies to celebrate being back on Arizona State University’s campus with Levenbaum Chabad House at ASU.

Grandparent Shabbat at East Valley JCC

Fall into school

Nishmat Adin - Shalhevet Scottsdale students and teachers gather in the early weeks of the fall semester. The school is adding new staff and an additional grade this year.

OF

The Levenbaum Chabad House at ASU welcomed new students at the Freshman ChaBBQ on Aug. 14.

Björn Krondorfer, Northern Arizona University regents’ professor and director of the Martin-Springer Institute, works with museum guides and educators at the Cape Town Holocaust and Genocide Museum, preparing them for introducing groups of South African students, religious groups and various civic groups to the Bedzin exhibit.

Pam Morris, director of the Early Learning Center at the East Valley JCC, leads a Grandparents and Special Adult Kabbalat Shabbat on Sept. 9.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21

Tot Shabbat in the Park: 9:30 a.m. Free totShabbat every Friday morning at Cactus Park. Shabbat music, toys and a meaningful pre-school Shabbat experience. Is it your child’s birthday? Sponsor a Shabbat for $36.00. For more information and to register, visit playdatesbydesign.com/ upcoming-classes.

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

Welcome Shabbat: 11-11:45 a.m. Join the JFCS Virtual Center for Senior Enrichment each Friday for a soothing and inspiring program to welcome Shabbat. Each week a different guest host will lead the program with song and celebration. Cost: Free. For more information, visit jfcsaz.org/cse.

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

Kabbalat Shabbat and/or Shabbat morning service: 6:30 p.m. on various Friday nights and 10:00 a.m. on various Saturday mornings. Congregation Kehillah invites you to join Rabbi Bonnie Sharfman and cantorial soloists Erica Erman and Scott Leader either in person or via Zoom. For dates, visit congregationkehillah.org/event/. Register by emailing info@congregationkehillah.org. For safety reasons, please register ahead of time.

Pre-Shabbat Kiddush Club: 6 p.m. Say kiddush with Rabbi Mendy Levertov online. Cost: Free. Tune in here: ourjewishcenter. com/virtual. For more information, visit chabadaz.com.

In-person Third Friday Shabbat: 7-8 p.m.

The Desert Foothills Jewish Community Association hosts a Shabbat service followed by a program. Contact Andrea at 480-664-8847 for more information.

Seniors

MONDAYS

Tai Chi with Brian Stevens: 10-10:30 a.m. Tai Chi and Qigong are health practices that incorporate a form of ancient Korean healing martial arts known as DahnMuDo, which produces an overall limitless state of being, through focused movement and focused breathing. Experience a renewed sense of being, boost your immune system and enjoy doing so in this virtual class. For more information and to register, visit

jfcsaz.org/events/. Contact CSE Director Jennifer Brauner at seniorcenter@jfcsaz. org or 602-343-0192 with questions.

Brain Fitness: 1-2 p.m. Join Toby Lazarus in this virtual brain fitness class, which works to engage the brain in innovative ways in a variety of cognitive areas and can help increase mental acuity. Word play, puzzles, memory games and problem-solving activities are employed to enhance your brain power. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit jfcsaz.org/events/.

Contact CSE Director Jennifer Brauner at seniorcenter@jfcsaz.org or 602-343-0192 with questions.

TUESDAYS

Israeli Folk Dancing Series: 1:15-2:15 p.m. from Aug. 16-Sept. 20. Join the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, 12701 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale for a variety of Israeli and other folk line dances. This workshop is open to all levels, no prior dance experience of any kind is necessary. For more information, visit vosjcc.org.

WEDNESDAYS

Fitness Fun with Zoe: 10-10:45 a.m. In this virtual class, do some light chair exercise with optional weights. Class follows a format of a warmup weight free movement, optional weights, then a cool down. Some standing options, however all moves can be done sitting. Presented by JFCS Center for Senior Enrichment. Cost: Free. For more information, visit jfcsaz.org/cse. Contact CSE Director Jennifer Brauner at seniorcenter@ jfcsaz.org or 602-343-0192 with questions.

THURSDAYS

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

FRIDAYS

Welcome Shabbat: 11-11:45 a.m. Celebrate Shabbat virtually with songs, blessings and inspirational teachings. For more information and to register, visit jfcsaz. org/events/. Contact CSE Director Jennifer Brauner at seniorcenter@jfcsaz.org or 602343-0192 with questions.

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

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

MILESTONES BIRTH

COLBY ASHER SWOFFORD

Colby Asher Swofford was born on Aug. 20, 2022. He is the son of Miriam and Michael Swofford of Phoenix.

Grandparents are Dan and Lynda Ziskin of Phoenix and Britt and Nancy Swofford of Denver, Colo.

Colby has one sister, Olivia, 4.

ANNIVERSARY

LARRY AND BARBARA FINK

Larry and Barbara Fink of Phoenix celebrated their 60th anniversary at a special Shabbat morning service and luncheon at Congregation Beth Israel.

Family and friends joined in-person and online to commemorate this milestone occasion.

Hosted by their daughters, Sandra (left) and Abbie (right), a leaf was placed on the temple’s Tree of Life on their behalf.

JOAN UNGAR LEITZ, age 94, passed away peacefully at her home in Phoenix on Sept. 21, 2022 after a courageous battle with congestive heart disease.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio on May 27, 1928, Joan graduated from Walnut Hills High School, and married her high school sweetheart, Herbert Leitz, on August 29, 1948.

Joan was a devoted loving wife and homemaker, fabulous cook and baker. She helped raise two sons, Steve and Bob, while moving around the country as Herb was transferred to various assignments with Chevrolet Motor Division. Joan made friends easily, helping many synagogues with fundraising and social activities, hosting parties at home and helping with Cincinnati Cousins Club with Herb’s sister Margie (Leitz) and Mel Nadler.

Married to Herb for 66 years until his passing in 2015, Joan and Herb retired to Phoenix in 1986 to be with their two sons, who had moved to Phoenix in 1974 and 1976.

Having taken up golf in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. a few years earlier, Joan became active at both Biltmore Golf Club in Phoenix and Pinetop Country Club in Pinetop. They played many rounds of golf together, and perhaps just to keep Herb humble, Joan had a hole in one at the Biltmore in 1989. They were a magical couple!!

Joan’s love of family was always her first priority. She helped plan many family trips with Herb, her two sons, and Steve’s two sons, Josh and Aaron.

When Herb passed in 2015, Joan continued with her positive and upbeat attitude, welcoming four greatgrandkids from Josh and his wife Kehau (Hawaii).

As a GG (great grandmother) Joan baked the best chocolate chip cookies! At La Siena Senior Living Community, where she resided the last two years, she was known as “Cookie Lady!”

Joan is survived by her two sons, Steve (Phoenix) and Bob (Maui, Hawaii); grandsons Joshua William Leitz (Kehau) of Phoenix and Aaron Samuel Leitz of Yuma; great-grandsons Samuel Kuhi, Kavika Alohi and Lev Makai; and great-granddaughter, Akea Lani.

Arrangements were made by Sinai Mortuary, with private graveside services held at Mt. Sinai Cemetery Sept. 25, 2022

In lieu of flowers, the family encourages memorial donations be made to either Hospice of the Valley (www.hov. org/) or City of Hope www.cityofhope.org/giving

ALYCE HELFMAN of Commerce, Mich., died on August 27, 2022. She was 74. Beloved wife of 53 years of Dennis Helfman; cherished mother of Dawn (Sam Rollins) Helfman, Rabbi Jordan (Dr. Jemma) Helfman and Ernie Helfman; proud grandmother of Faith, Zyair, Toby, Mollie, Henriette, Dov, Skylar and Aiden Helfman; loving sister of the late Joel Sukenic and sister-in-law of Linda (Allen) Warner and Noreen (Alan) Klein; devoted daughter of the late Bernard and the late Mollie Sukenic.

Alyce is also survived by many loving relatives and friends.

A funeral service was held Aug. 30, 2022, at The Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield, Mich. Contributions may be directed to JARC, 248-940-2617, jarc.org, or Women of Reform Judaism, 212-650-4050, wrj.org/.

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