Jewish News, Oct. 15, 2021

ORGAN DONATION

Three-year-old boy gets liver

Returning to normal, Hillel at ASU welcomes students back in person

DEBRA GELBART

Now that students are back on campus at Arizona State University after months of hybrid and remote instruction and activities, Hillel Jewish Student Center has resumed much of its pre-pandemic schedule of events and services.

Prior to COVID-19 vaccine availability, Hillel limited in-person events and hosted most events virtually, although some social and holiday events were held in the parking lot, according to Debbie Yunker Kail, executive director for Hillel at ASU. The outdoor in-person events included a seder last March and a celebration of Israeli culture in April.

Currently, an updated COVID protocol makes in-person events safer to host, said Yunker Kail, via email. The protocol includes providing proof of a COVID vaccination at all Hillel events and mandatory face coverings indoors.

Hillel has brought back larger social events in the parking lot, she added, as well as Shabbat services, plus dinner and weekly bagel brunches on the Tempe and downtown campuses. She said a majority of students now request in-person events whenever possible.

The staff and students “were thrilled to be able to get together in person for High Holidays this year. Because we are so relationship-based, a highlight of being in person has been the simple joy of meeting a student for coffee and getting to know each other in person,” she said.

Stresses, challenges different from 2020 Yunker Kail said she wants to increase outreach to sophomores this academic year, pointing out that “they essentially missed an on-campus experience as first-year students last year.”

Resuming pre-pandemic life can be more stressful than many anticipated. “While having classes and events in person has been a welcome change, we have also heard that classes feel harder and

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Phoenix’s oldest Jewish building turns 100

Central Phoenix’s oldest Jewish building is turning 100 years old.

“People often will say Phoenix doesn’t have a lot of history,” said Lawrence Bell, executive director of the Arizona Jewish Historical Society. “The other thing that people like to say about Phoenix is that it’s not a very diverse city. And both of those things are completely untrue.”

The Cutler-Plotkin Jewish Heritage Center was built in 1921 and began as Temple Beth Israel. But it wasn’t just a synagogue, it was also a community center. “It was the absolute beginning of our community,” Bell said.

After the congregation, which would eventually be called Congregation Beth Israel, outgrew the building, they sold it to the Southern Baptist Convention in 1949. Later, it became Phoenix’s first Chinese-speaking Christian church. In 1981, the First Chinese Baptist Church sold the building to a Mexican Baptist Church, Iglesia Bautistia Central.

The building’s centennial is a celebration of the harmony and diversity among the three cultures, and the birthplace of the Jewish community in Phoenix. AZJHS is marking the occasion with a month-long series of events.

“You had three different cultures, two different religions — and they all had the same space,” Bell said.

Selling the building involved relationships. The religious leaders of the Chinese Baptist and Mexican Baptist churches knew each other, and the pastor of the former helped the minister of the latter get established, Bell said. The Mexican Baptist minister was also a friend of Rabbi Albert Plotkin, who led Beth Israel from 1955 to 1991. He let Plotkin know that his church was moving and he thought the building should

be back in the hands of the Jewish community. So Plotkin informed AZJHS, which had been created in 1981.

For the Jewish community, the building at 122 E. Culver Street, didn’t just house a synagogue, it was also a social hall. “They had services, they had dances, they had community social events, all sorts of activities,” Bell said. “Everything is descended from there.”

The building served a similar function when it was First Chinese Baptist. It was a religious space, but it also served as a community center with social events, celebrations and other gatherings.

Roxanne Song Ong, who grew

Prepared to shake the lulav

The East Valley JCC held a drive-through event for people to fulfill the mitzvah of shaking the lulav during Sukkot. To see more, go to p. 21.

Jewish graveyards were destroyed. They are being rebuilt online

Israeli-American Joshua Angrist shares Nobel Prize in economics Merkel pays last visit to Yad Vashem as German chancellor

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

PHOTO COURTESY OF HADASSAH BALDINGER

more demanding than before the pandemic,” noted Rabbi Suzy Stone, campus rabbi and senior Jewish educator at Hillel, via email. “Many students said they feel like professors are making up for lost time and so they have more homework than ever.”

Students also have noted that while they’re relieved to see friends on campus, Stone said, “simple things like going to an on-campus job or club meetings make their lives feel busier than ever.”

Hanna Griffin, student president of Hillel at ASU, concurred. “Our greatest challenge at the moment is probably the excitement of returning to in-person events, classes and life. Many students, myself included, have found themselves overwhelmed with clubs, activities (and) sports to participate in. I’ve found that students are overbooking and too overwhelmed to commit to most things. We need to focus on creating an environment that caters to student needs right now.”

Stone said she and other Hillel staff “are encouraging students to make sure they’re taking care of themselves mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally. That means we’re focused on taking students to coffee to hear about their day, checking in with them by text, making sure they are well-fed on Shabbat and holidays and reminding them that perfection is not a Jewish value.”

Stone said her sermon on Rosh Hashanah focused on the need for people to treat themselves with compassion rather than focusing only on self-care:

“While self-care is important…it often becomes one more thing we must check off our list on the road to becoming a high-functioning and well-balanced human being. Instead of being a source of strength, it has become an added source of stress. In many ways it has become a new form of perfectionism wrapped in the guise of self-care. Just as G-d moves from the seat of judgment to the seat of mercy on

Rosh Hashanah, we, too, must be more compassionate to ourselves in this New Year as we cope with the utter exhaustion of another wave of COVID-19.”

To better address students’ needs, Hillel at ASU has expanded its staff recently and added a slew of new positions: Stone is the first senior Jewish educator; Taylor Millman is the first assistant director; Molly Shulman is the first business manager; and Ali Seltzer is the first campus marketing/development manager.

Hillel board president, Aaron Sacks, said the positions of assistant director, marketing/ development manager and senior Jewish educator were made possible by a competitive Hillel Talent Grant from the Marcus Foundation, which awarded funds to fewer than 10 Hillel chapters across the country, specifically to expand their staffs.

Additionally, Jake Shulman is an engagement associate who focuses in part on new students to ASU, and Lior Ashkenazi is the Israel Fellow for Hillel.

Facility may be enlarged in the future Yunker Kail said the size limitations of Hillel’s Tempe campus location continue to be challenging. “The size and layout of the space is not conducive to indoor socially distant activities, nor is it modern or particularly welcoming by design.”

Sacks agreed. “In a dream world, I’d triple our staff, tear down and rebuild our building and secure space on each satellite campus,” he said. “Obviously, these things can’t happen overnight or without the support of our wonderful community. That said, as an organization, I believe we’re ready to meet these challenges head on with aggressive but sustainable growth in our operations and fundraising.”

Message to the broader community Sacks is looking forward to communicating

community. “Hillel at ASU does not only exist in Tempe or even on geographically separated campuses,” he said. “Hillel at ASU is the Greater Phoenix Jewish community Hillel. So many of our students come from the Phoenix area or stay here after graduation. These students are the lifeblood and the continuity of the Greater Phoenix Jewish community. If Jewish continuity and security and positivity are important to you, then your support is more important than ever.”

In the meantime, life on campus is slowly returning to normal. “We cannot assume we know what students want now that they’re back on campus,” Yunker Kail said. “In fact, many of them are still discovering that in this new rhythm of life. What we do know is that students are craving community and connection.”

She said Hillel solicits ongoing feedback from students via social media polls and in-person gatherings. “We’re willing to change plans and schedules whenever necessary to ensure we are meeting our mission to enrich the lives of Jewish undergraduate and graduate students, so that they may enrich the Jewish people, Israel and the world.”

Griffin, in her role as student president of Hillel, wants to “promote a universal sense of Jewishness on campus, regardless of background or belief, and focus on establishing genuine connections with students, student organizations and the general community.” JN

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up in that church and is still a member, said it was the one place she could go other than school to be among young Chinese-Americans.

“Otherwise, we would not have had any opportunity to see each other. Most of us went to schools that were local to our families, businesses and homes,” she said. She and most of her peers helped their parents run grocery stores, making the church a prized outing between working in the family store, going to school and doing homework.

Because of their parent’s hard work, she and most of her friends became professionals, she said. Song Ong retired in 2014 as the chief presiding judge at Phoenix Municipal Court.

She looks back at her time in the building and at the building’s history and sees divine intervention.

“It was purposeful that these four groups have occupied the building and have made wonderful use of it. And not just for themselves,” she said. “All of us used that building for our individual and unique purposes, but also understood it didn’t really ever belong just to one group.”

Originally, however, the building was exclusively focused on a fastgrowing Jewish community and its needs. Bell said that growth is significant in and of itself.

“When people create a building, that means they’re here to stay. You could celebrate Judaism and practice it on your own. But until you build a building, you’re not really here for good,” he said. A century ago, there were approximately 120 Jews living in the Phoenix area, in AZJHS’s estimation. Today, there are over 82,000 Jewish residents, according to Arizona State University’s 2019 Jewish Community Survey.

Jerry Lewkowitz, whose parents were among Beth Israel’s founders, went to Sunday school there, and has many fond memories.

Lewkowitz, 92, said it has meant a lot to see the building become such “an integral part of our cultural community,” and not just for the Jewish community.

His daughter, Barbara Lewkowitz, grew up in the congregation’s second Phoenix location, but said the 100 year mark of Beth Israel’s original house of worship is deeply meaningful to her. Her grandparents on both sides were among the temple’s founders.

“We now have fifth-generation members of Congregation Beth Israel in our family and I hope that we continue the participation, impact and the support that we can give both to the Jewish community and the congregation in the future,” she said.

AZJHS purchased the building from the Spanish-speaking Baptist church in 2002 for $540,000, thanks to the help of Larry Cutler, who was president of the organization from 1998 to 2000.

Plotkin and Cutler made first contact with Iglesia Bautista Central’s senior and junior ministers and its board of directors representative. He established a building fund at the end of 1998 in hopes of purchasing the building.

Cutler said it was difficult to raise the money to buy the property, and there was a point when AZJHS was in danger of not succeeding and losing the deposit.

Cutler was the first contributor to the building fund, which became the earnest money deposit to purchase the building. It was important to Cutler because it resonated with his passion for multicultural and interfaith dialogue.

“I’ve always been very involved in not just human rights, but in bringing different groups together,” Cutler said. “It was important to my parents as well, especially my mother.”

Cutler said he wanted to preserve the building as a holy place shared by people of different faiths and culture, and bring it back to the Jewish community where it started.

He shared his passion for community bridge building with Plotkin.

“He really brought together the Jewish community and all the other communities, both ethnic and religious, and that was always important to me,” Cutler said.

Plotkin’s impact on the Phoenix area extended beyond this one building. He helped to establish the Jewish Studies Program at Arizona State University and its interdisciplinary program.

Cutler named the building after his parents, community leaders and philanthropists, who were killed in a car crash in 1980, and Plotkin — Cutler’s rabbi growing up.

Plotkin was so moved about being the building’s namesake, Cutler said, he was brought to tears when Cutler took him to lunch to tell him. Plotkin died at 89 in February 2010, shortly after AZJHS moved into the building following a $3.1 million renovation.

Cutler and Bell said 100 years is significant on its own, and especially in Arizona.

“A hundred years of anything in the state of Arizona is a celebration. It only became a state in 1912,” Cutler quipped.

To mark the occasion, AZJHS will feature a historical exhibit called “If These Walls Could Talk” about the building. “The building itself is artifact number one,” Bell said. The exhibit is slated to open Oct. 18 and run through March 31.

The organization is hosting a gala, honoring Cutler, on Oct. 30, to coincide with the date the cornerstone was laid in 1921. The event, at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort, 7200 N. Scottsdale Road, is only open to those who have been vaccinated.

“If you’re not vaccinated, we’re not trying to discriminate against you, we’re trying to have an event and make it as safe as possible,” Bell said. He hopes anybody who may not feel comfortable attending the live event will still donate online, as their goal is to raise around $150,000.

On Nov. 7, AZJHS is hosting a free community festival from noon to 4 p.m. at the Heritage Center, which will include musical performances, guest speakers, food trucks and activities for families and children.

Cutler said a place like the Heritage Center is “almost more important now than ever,” with the polarization seen in the U.S. on political, social and moral issues.

“We all have the same colored blood and we’re all brothers and sisters. Something like this reminds us of that. And it’s a place that all people can go to to learn about others and to appreciate our differences,” he said. JN

A Passover seder at Temple Beth Israel in 1926 COURTESY OF THE ARIZONA JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY, PEARL AND CECIL NEWMARK MEMORIAL ARCHIVES

The founding members of the First Chinese Baptist Church in 1957. COURTESY OF THE ARIZONA JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY, PEARL AND CECIL NEWMARK MEMORIAL ARCHIVES

Gilbert family begins new year with new baby and a new liver for 3-year-old son

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

Valen Krasnov, like many other 3-year-old boys, loves playing sports with his dad, pushing his dump trucks and helping to set the table. But unlike most other 3-year-olds, he recently underwent a liver transplant.

It usually takes kids an average of 86 days to receive a liver transplant, according to News Medical, but Valen received an offer within 12 hours of being on the waiting list.

“We call his liver ‘Quickie’ in our family,” said his mom, Kelsey Krasnov. She and her husband, Zaccarri Krasnov, are very aware that the wait could have been much longer due to a shortage of organ donors. Valen was in acute liver failure, and they didn’t have much time. Valen also received donated blood at a time of an unprecedented national blood shortage driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their gratitude ignited a passion for raising awareness about organ and blood donation.

“This is like the very least that we can do to try to give back,” Kelsey said.

The couple is volunteering to speak with groups, lending support to national organizations like Donate Life America, and promoting blood drive events. The first was in Gilbert in early October, and the second is on Sunday, Nov. 7 at the MadeforMama Market and Expo WestWorld in Scottsdale.

Before Valen’s unexpected hospital stay, Zaccarri said he had no idea what other families in the hospital went through. “Before, it was like ignorance is bliss,” he said. “Families are stuck there with their kids, and all you want to do is take them home but you can’t.” Meanwhile, the world outside the hospital goes on as if everything’s normal. He said he appreciates the second chance his family received and wants to do what he can to help other families.

“For some reason it was meant to be for Valen to be a transplant survivor, and for us to be a donor recipient family,” he said. Nationally, there are more than 112,000 people on the transplant waiting list,

according to academic medical center Penn Medicine. While the number of living donor kidney and liver transplants increases, the vast majority of procedures involve organs from deceased donors.

Kelsey doesn’t know much about Valen’s organ donor except that he was a teenager living out of state.

“That day was so celebratory for us, ‘Yay, he’s getting a liver and we’re going to have this big procedure and he gets a second chance.’ But someone else lost their family member on that day. There’s not a day that goes by that we don’t think or talk about that,” she said.

Zaccarri said it was as if life came full circle in just a matter of hours. “Everything changed overnight. They lost their loved one to save ours,” he said.

Sept. 27, the American Red Cross announced an emergency blood and platelet shortage. Red Cross blood supply has dropped to its lowest level for this time of year since 2015. “Throughout the pandemic, we have experienced challenges collecting blood for patients from blood drive cancellations to surging hospital demand,” Chris Hrouda, president of Red Cross Biomedical Services, stated.

Sue Thew, communications manager at Vitalant, Arizona’s largest nonprofit community blood provider, told Arizona PBS in July, that high school blood drives typically bring in the majority of supply, but with schools operating remotely last spring, there weren’t any.

Valen’s experience seemed to start out of nowhere, with few hints of what was happening. Kelsey remembers it was a Thursday in June when she noticed the whites of Valen’s eyes had a grayish, brownish color to them. But it was gone the next day. The day after that, Zaccarri and Valen went on a camping trip.

“They came back on Sunday, it was a short trip, and as soon as I saw Valen I knew

something was wrong. The whites of his eyes were completely yellow,” Kelsey said.

Zaccarri didn’t notice anything strange with the whites of Valen’s eyes, but observed that he seemed sleepier than usual and wasn’t eating as much as he usually did. He thought it was just from the long drive and the camping trip.

“Looking at the pictures from that trip, it could have been our last. How did we get from camping to almost losing his life?” Zaccarri asked himself.

On Monday, they called their pediatrician who ordered immediate blood tests. The results came back Tuesday, and they were told to go to the emergency room because he was showing signs of liver failure.

“This was completely out of nowhere for us,” Kelsey said. Up until that moment, Valen was a perfectly healthy little boy.

Valen stayed at Phoenix Children’s Hospital for two months.

The hardest part was the first two weeks of waiting, Zaccarri said. Valen either had to get better on his own, or worsen enough to need a liver transplant.

“Somehow with all this technology, medicine and genius doctors, there were no answers. We just had to wait,” he said.

Valen got worse. But after doctors determined he needed the transplant, things moved quickly.

Staying at the hospital was difficult. Because of the pandemic, they weren’t allowed any visitors.

They appreciated the visit from their rabbi, New Shul Rabbi Michael Wasserman, but it was the Jewish Care Network that helped them keep their sanity most, Kelsey said. Rabbi Moshe Levertov, co-founder and co-director of JCN, was able to visit once or twice a week.

“It brightened my day just to see his fighting spirit and his spunk,” Levertov said, noting he was moved by how Valen’s parents stayed so positive. “It was really touching to

see over the course of his journey how they kept their spirits up, and they were able to keep his spirits up.”

Levertov brought Shabbat boxes every week to the hospital containing prayers, grape juice for kiddush and challah.

“When I would bring the Shabbat box, Valen would go for the grape juice, so I started bringing grape juice even during the week sometimes,” he said. “It was all about just supporting and being there for them and letting them know they’re not alone.”

Kelsey said she and her family are “endlessly grateful” to have met Levertov and to have received the benefits of JCN. “He would bring us Shabbat boxes every single week, and Valen is convinced that Rabbi Moshe Levertov is his best friend,” she said.

Valen is back to playing and eating his favorite foods, and finally getting adjusted to being a big brother. A portion of the new liver is “being a little stinker” and not draining properly, Kelsey said, so Valen might need another procedure in December or January depending on how things progress.

In addition, the family had another big event this year. Nearly two months before Valen ended up in the emergency room, Kelsey and Zaccarri celebrated the birth of their daughter, Kora Krasnov, on April 13.

“It’s been a lot this year,” Kelsey said. “We always joke and say, ‘Oh, we got a new baby and a new liver this year.’” JN

Valen Krasnov with his sister Kora in the intensive care unit at Phoenix Children’s Hospital PHOTO BY

Tucson Jewish community welcomes new interfaith couples group

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

Khylie Gardner liked it when her dad came along to synagogue services while she was growing up. But he didn’t really know what was going on.

“In order to go to services or go to a community event that’s based in Jewish culture or religion, there’s so much you have to know,” Gardner said.

She felt like there wasn’t a space for her dad in the Jewish community, even though he was married to a Jewish woman and raising Jewish children.

“I don’t want that to happen to Jacob,” Gardner said of her boyfriend.

Gardner, 26, and Jacob Nelson, 32, have been dating for about two years and Gardner has made it clear that when they get married and have kids theirs will be a Jewish family. “He understands that that’s really important for me, but he doesn’t have any cultural touchstones at all,” she said.

Working with the Tucson Jewish Community Center, where she was the director of marketing for about two years, the couple is creating a new social group for young people in interfaith relationships.

“Our vision is to create a nonjudgmental, super-accessible place for ourselves and other interfaith couples who want to create Jewish community together,” Gardner said.

According to the Pew Research Center, 61% of American Jews who have married in the last decade have married a non-Jewish partner, compared to 45% among Jews who got married the previous decade.

Gardner hosted the group’s first event

Sept. 23 in the JCC’s sukkah. Four other couples attended and “it was a really cozy event,” Gardner said. She hopes to plan a family-friendly Shabbat this fall for the next event.

Rachel Jarrett couldn’t attend the first meeting but is hoping to make it to the next one.

Jarrett grew up in the Jewish community, going to synagogue and Jewish summer camps. She misses having a group of Jewish friends to celebrate holidays with.

She has been married seven years to Benjamin Jarrett, who grew up a Christian. They are raising their 5-yearold and 14-month-old sons as Jews, but Rachel said her husband hasn’t felt very comfortable going to events at the Tucson JCC or at her synagogue in the past.

“He feels very out of place,” she said.

Getting to know other interfaith couples would likely make him feel more comfortable, Rachel said, and make her feel like she is able to experience Judaism with her husband.

Rachel always thought she would “marry Jewish,” and told people as much, she said. But when she met Benjamin in graduate school, their relationship blossomed into something special.

“We were just comfortable with each other, more so than anybody else,” she said.

Rachel hasn’t talked with Benjamin yet about the new interfaith group, but she thinks he’d be open to it, especially since their oldest son is learning so much about Jewish life in school.

“My husband has kind of been veering away from a lot of the Christian beliefs lately, and I think he does want to learn more about Judaism,” she said.

The Tucson JCC is helping to spread the word about the new group and lending it space.

Rachael Mitchell, the JCC’s director of communications, said the organization strives to engage people at various junctures in their Jewish journey, and the so-called microcommunity Gardner is creating is an opportunity to connect with more people and grow Tucson’s Jewish community.

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“Interfaith couples and families are a community that we value because it represents the diversity of our community and helps to engage people who might not have otherwise felt at home at the J,” Mitchell said. JN

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Khylie Gardner and her boyfriend, Jacob Nelson, dress up for Christmas in 2020.

"OUR VISION IS TO CREATE A NON-JUDGMENTAL, SUPER-ACCESSIBLE PLACE FOR OURSELVES AND OTHER INTERFAITH COUPLES"

Arizona’s new abortion law blocked hours before taking effect, Jewish group ‘relieved’

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

Hours before it was set to take effect, a federal judge temporarily blocked Arizona’s new anti-abortion law.

On Sept. 28, Judge Douglas Rayes ruled against a provision of the statute that would have allowed the state to bring felony charges against doctors who perform abortions solely based on a genetic abnormality. However, he denied the plaintiffs’ request to block another part of the law that classifies fetuses, embryos and fertilized eggs as people starting at the point of conception.

The National Council of Jewish Women Arizona, doctors Paul A. Isaacson and Eric M. Reuss, the Arizona Medical Association and the Arizona National Organization for Women filed the lawsuit in mid-August.

Civia Tamarkin, president of NCJW AZ, said the organization is “relieved” the state has prevented the law from going into effect, but is concerned about the personhood provision still in place. “The failure to enjoin the personhood provision will create chaos once that law goes into effect and is subject to broad interpretation and application under every Arizona statute,” she said.

The organization participated in Phoenix’s Women’s March on Oct. 2, in support of reproductive rights.

Rayes did not rule out the possibility that this provision could ultimately be deemed unlawful.

Attorney General Mark Brnovich, along with county prosecutors across Arizona — including Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel — the Arizona medical Board and a handful of state health officials are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

In a statement to Jewish News, Brnovich said it is his office’s job to defend the law. “Whether it’s pushing back against unconstitutional mandates or defending our laws against pro-abortion activists, we will continue to lead the charge and stand up for Arizonans,” he said.

In his 30-page decision, Rayes wrote, “If a woman wishes to terminate her pre-viability pregnancy because of a fetal genetic abnormality, [this law] require[s] her to conceal this information from or lie to her doctor, neither of which fosters trust or encourages open dialogue.”

The law, SB 1457, would have made it a felony to perform an abortion solely because of a genetic abnormality, or accept

or solicit money to finance an abortion because of a child’s genetic abnormality. It would not have applied to cases where the child has a lethal fetal condition and would not have prohibited abortion sought for other reasons allowed by law, including the life and health of the mother.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed SB1457 last April, saying at the time “there’s immeasurable value in every single life — regardless of genetic makeup.”

According to a 2014 Pew Research Center survey, 83% of American Jews believe that in all or most cases, abortion should be legal, making American Jews the fourth most pro-choice group surveyed behind atheists, agnostics and Unitarians.

In February 2021, Tamarkin wrote an opinion article for Jewish News about the bill, arguing the abortion restrictions are antisemitic.

“Jewish law is clear that life begins at birth and that there is no personhood until birth, according to the Mishnah (Ohalot 7:6),” she wrote. “Judaism also teaches that the mother’s life comes first and that the fetus may be sacrificed to save her life, unless the baby’s head has already emerged.”

She went on to argue that the abortion restrictions enshrine Christian beliefs into law and they “blatantly violate

the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prevents the passage of any law that gives preference to or forces belief in one religion.”

But Cecily Routman, president of the Jewish Prolife Foundation, said Tamarkin’s argument is flawed. Routman, who is not involved in the lawsuit, said Christian beliefs and values all come from the Hebrew Bible.

“Judaism was the first religion in human history to sanctify human life from conception to natural death and the first religion to prohibit child sacrifice,” she said. “The abortion industry is antithetical to Judaism, which is based on compassion, protecting innocent life, respecting women, nurturing families and living our biblical commandments to choose life and multiply and bring a vision of God’s will into the world.”

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Arizona and the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Ruth Harlow, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said the ruling is a “victory for Arizonans” and their ability to communicate with their physicians and access abortion care if they need it. “We’ll do everything in our power to continue fighting this cruel policy and ensure no one is forced to carry a pregnancy against their will regardless of where they live.”

Emily Nester, senior counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, stated that people should not be interrogated about their reason for seeking an abortion.

“Abortion access in the U.S. is in very real peril. We will keep fighting this ban and the personhood requirement until they are struck down for good.”

On Dec. 1, the Supreme Court will hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade. In that case, Mississippi has asked the court to allow states to ban abortion before viability. If that happens, Arizona and nearly half the states in the country are poised to ban abortion entirely.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, there have been 561 abortion restrictions, including 165 abortion bans, introduced across 47 states so far this year as of June 7, and 83 of those restrictions have been enacted across 16 states, including 10 bans. JN

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Civia Tamarkin, president of the National Council of Jewish Women Arizona, speaks during a press conference held in opposition of SB1457 earlier this year.

Hebrew High teens begin 5782 with ‘deeper understanding’ of Judaism, meaning of mistakes

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

For the longest time, LeahHadas Targovnik Jacobs felt she was a Jewish misfit. Her neighbors in Phoenix are Orthodox and she considered them “the real Jews.” But the 14-year-old started going to Hebrew High this year and learned that is not the case.

“Once I got to Hebrew High, I realized I’m like everybody else,” she said. Before, she didn’t think she knew much about her culture or faith. “But once I got to Hebrew High, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh. I know just as much as these other kids. We’re learning together. I’m not alone.’”

She recently gained a “deeper understanding of what we’re doing as Jews, and what the High Holidays mean to us.”

Jacobs is one of about 55 students enrolled in the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Phoenix’s Hebrew High, which offers weekly Jewish learning and experiences for Jewish teens, along with a monthly community mitzvah project. Last month, it capitalized on the learning opportunity afforded it since the regular Tuesday meetings coincided with this year’s High Holidays.

“We had some pretty unique programs,” said Rabbi Aviva Funke, principal of Hebrew High.

For Rosh Hashanah, the students enjoyed several activities that involved dipping: dipping holiday candles in colorful waxes and dipping apples in honey-based caramel. “We showcased that the sweetness can be something not only that we taste and experience, but also something that we create for others,” Funke said. Students also made greeting cards for the Jewish Family and Children’s Service senior community.

“I think it was a great reminder that passion and creativity can actually create kindness in the world,” she said.

Funke created a “sweet cafe” for students to enjoy sweet treats, but also reflect. The goodies were paired with questions: What would the song be of your last year? How have you experienced God in your life?

It was a fun, lighthearted way to learn about Rosh Hashanah and to experience its meaning, Funke said. For Yom Kippur, she had counter programming that offered a reality check.

“I did an event called #sorry,” she said. “I wanted to bring up the

conversation of messing up.”

In a community beit midrash, students discussed whether it would be better if people could live perfectly without making mistakes.

“It was incredible to see such engaging conversations with students who never even really get a chance to talk to each other — whether that’s because they’re different grades, they had never met before, different genders or social circles,” she said.

The ideas the students came up with about how people respond to mistakes in different cultures and communities was

“eye opening,” Funke said. They brought up cancel culture. “Are we able to see each other as somebody who is different from the mistakes we’ve made in the past? Can we actually make teshuva not just for ourselves, but can our community accept us for the changes that we’re making?”

Some students began to reflect on how their mistakes have impacted other people’s lives, and what they can learn from that.

Jacobs appreciated realizing how much she impacts others.

“I affect other people, even when I don’t know it. And that’s what she taught me.”

Julia Lange, 16, has been going to Hebrew High since the fall of 2018, when she was a freshman. She found its High Holiday programming to be helpful preparation.

“I took away that it’s important to pause and reflect about life during the High Holidays and not be too hard on myself,” she said.

Her personal goal this year is to accept that “it’s OK to make mistakes.” JN

Congregation Beth Israel’s free tuition program aimed as an ‘investment in connection and continuity’

SHANNON LEVITT | MANAGING EDITOR

Greeting the new first-grade class at Congregation Beth Israel’s Mark L. Haberkorn Religious School last month, Stacy Rosenthal looked around the room at the small faces and thought many seemed familiar. She asked to see the hands of those who had gone to preschool there. All hands shot up in the air — including those of the teacher and his young aide.

Rosenthal, who began her tenure at CBI teaching kindergarten and is now senior director of education and youth engagement, was a little taken aback. But she also felt vindicated.

This fall, CBI is offering free tuition for kids in Haberkorn’s kindergarten and first grade. The program is about keeping kids, who have spent up to five years in CBI’s Chanen Preschool, and their parents involved with the school and the synagogue.

After seeing declines in enrollment, Robin Roeder, CBI’s chief communal and executive officer, proposed the financial break to the board, who readily agreed. Another impetus is to “better introduce families to all things CBI and continue the special relationships that we had developed over the past three to five years,” Roeder said, via email.

“I know from my own experience many years ago, as well as hearing from preschool families, that those connections and relationships with other families, especially Jewish ones, is so important as a young family grows.”

The fledgling program is an “investment in family connection and continuity,” she said.

Gaging its success will be simple for Roeder — it’s about how happy the children are. “I heard one little boy say to his parents on the first day that ‘this was the best day of my life.’ We are off to a great start,” she said.

In recent years, fewer than 50% of Chanen’s graduates have gone on to its religious kindergarten, Rosenthal said. She observed that often the kids who go to secular school miss some of the touches only religious school offers and their parents will bring them back by the third or fourth grade. But after a few years away, kids forget Jewish concepts.

“We don’t want gaps,” Rosenthal said. “We want to show parents that the foundation laid in preschool can only get better and be built upon.”

Roeder agreed. “In the longer term, we hope that families become part of the CBI family and continue their relationship with us as well as each other. Having families go through their major lifecycle events with CBI starting as babies and through confirmation is so powerful.”

Some current staff members already personify that hoped-for outcome.

Abe Leiferman, the first-grade teacher who raised his hand for Rosenthal, is now a student at Paradise Valley Community College and working at Haberkorn parttime. But he started volunteering as a madrich, teacher’s aide, when he was still in high school.

Back then he found it “really cool to be back in the classroom,” he said. “I could tell how much I’ve grown. It’s humbling.”

He found out about his current job through Jason Bronowitz, Haberkorn’s principal, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to work with kids. Now that he’s teaching, he attributes coming full circle — from student to

teacher — to divine intervention.

“God made me get that job and now I’ve developed a love for kids. I want to spread my love for Judaism, and hopefully, the kids will also be proud to be Jewish.”

Melanie Garber, Leiferman’s madricha, always knew she wanted to do this and loves the nostalgic feeling she has helping out in the same rooms where she learned so much.

“It’s crazy to be in the same building giving these kids similar experiences,” the 14-year-old said. “Some of my madrichim have been my counselors at camp, too, and I wanted to be that for more kids and give back to our Jewish community.”

Melanie’s mother, Jennifer Garber, was happy to hear about the tuition break, even though both her daughters are too old to benefit from it. For families with multiple children, she explained, lifting some of the financial burden will be a boon and allow more kids the benefit of seeing CBI as her family does: “a home away from home.”

“The kids stay connected socially and the religious component is there and woven into the fabric of your life,” she said.

Those words are music to Rosenthal’s ears, who acknowledged that this program is a conscious choice to invest in young families. As a group likely to disengage from organized religion, “we want to show them Jewish life can be vibrant and enriching and we can help them raise Jewishly literate young adults,” she said.

Roeder pointed out that this is not to the exclusion of other demographics at CBI, but only “one pillar of a strategy to retain and grow synagogue life.”

Marcy Lerner, a second-grade teacher at Haberkorn and floater at Chanen, just graduated from University of Arizona and is another example of the continuity CBI hopes to build. She was in Rosenthal’s kindergarten class, went to Haberkorn and now teaches there as well as helping out at Chanen.

She was working at Camp Stein at the beginning of her gap year when she found out about the job.

“It kinda just happened, but I’m glad it did,” she said.

But even though she feels deeply connected to CBI and the Jewish community, she hopes synagogues create programs to seek out people her age, just graduating college and without children “to be connected to Jewish life.” Maybe meet-ups or happy hours, “without being a singles thing,” she offered. “Just a way to hang out.”

The current focus on its youngest members, Rosenthal said, is ultimately about the wider community.

“The hope is that those of us who are part of our preschool community and don’t have a Jewish home will become members — when families realize the importance of Jewish education and see our relationship doesn’t have to end,” she said. JN

Everyone, including the teacher and his aide, in the first-grade class at Congregation Beth Israel’s Mark L. Haberkorn Religious School went to Chanen Preschool. PHOTO COURTESY OF STACY ROSENTHAL

PHOTO COURTESY OF STACY ROSENTHAL

Arizona Musicfest

2021-22 Concert Season

Over 30 Concerts in N. Scottsdale

THE STARS RETURN TO MUSICFEST

YEARS OF ROCK & ROLL 3/28

PINK MARTINI 3/22 WITH CHINA FORBES

THE McCARTNEY YEARS 4/4

EMANUEL AX 4/21 IN RECITAL

THE TEXAS TENORS 4/1

LeANN RIMES 11/13

ABBA 10/31& 11/1 THE CONCERT

RAY ON MY MIND 11/19

CHRIS MANN 1/7 CELEBRATES THE TONY BENNETT SONGBOOK

JOHN LLOYD YOUNG 1/10

G 2/19 INON BARNATAN 2/24

SARAH CHANG 2/22

BEETHOVEN’s 9th — ODE TO JOY! 2/27

THE CALLAWAY SISTERS 3/7

PAUL ANKA 3/14 & 16 ANKA SINGS SINATRA

Local Jewish doctor hits the road for Crohn’s and Colitis cure

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

There’s no good time during Phoenix’s hot summer to train for a cycling event.

Dr. David Tessler, a gastroenterologist at Central Arizona Medical Associates in Mesa, avoided the heat by taking his road bike out first thing in the morning, often at 5 a.m. It’s hard to get motivated to get out of bed at that hour, he said. But doing it for a cause made the early morning rides worthwhile.

On Sunday, Oct. 24, Tessler will be in New Mexico participating in the Day of the Tread bicycle ride, part of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation’s Team Challenge. Funds raised through Team Challenge will support the foundation’s mission to find a cure and to improve the quality of life for children and adults impacted by inflammatory bowel disease, an umbrella term to describe Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

“Inflammatory bowel disease is one of those things that is constantly evolving. We don’t know the exact cause, so we don’t really have a cure. And that makes it difficult to treat,” he said.

Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are relatively uncommon. In 2015, an estimated 1.3%, or 3 million, U.S. adults reported being diagnosed with IBD, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Treating IBD is one of the most complicated things that we do in gastroenterology, which also makes it one of the most rewarding things that we do,” Tessler said.

Ulcerative colitis is a disease of the colon. Symptoms usually include pain, diarrhea and bleeding, Tessler explained. Crohn’s disease presents in varied places along the digestive tract. “It can be in the middle of the small intestine, where you will not see it with a colonoscopy; it can be right at the exit; it can skip around,” he said. Some people have pain, bleeding and diarrhea, while others may have constipation or just pain. “Crohn’s disease is more difficult to treat because it’s so varied,” he said.

Treating patients with IBD can include pills, IV infusion, shots or surgery, he said. It takes some problem solving to figure out the best treatment for each patient.

“The reason why various people have inflammation is not the same at the cellular level, so you sometimes have to find what drives their inflammation.

There’s no test right now that tells you that, so sometimes it’s trial and error to find what medication is effective for various patients,” he said.

Tessler has been involved with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation for about a decade, and is co-chair of the Arizona chapter’s medical advisory committee.

He’s known about the foundation’s Team Challenge for several years, but this is his first time participating. Usually High Holidays become an obstacle to training, but this year the timing finally worked out.

“It’s difficult to train around the holidays,” he said. Often, he and his family go back to Michigan, where he grew up, to spend High Holidays with family. “If I go back for a week, that’s two weekends in the whole week that I don’t ride and that really sets you back,” he said.

Last year, the foundation’s Southwest chapter honored Tessler during a virtual “Night of Champions” event. He planned to participate in the Team Challenge bike ride, but it was canceled because of the pandemic.

“Instead of just saying, ‘Well, I missed my chance,’ this is the year I’m going to do it,” he said. “I’ve had great support in raising a lot of money and hopefully, anything I can raise will make a difference.”

So far he has raised more than $5,100. He plans to bike 50 miles, though others on his team of nearly 30 will be doing 100 miles.

“I didn’t envision that they would all be patients,” he said. He expected many of his teammates to be parents, siblings or friends of people with ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s. “It’s very motivating to hear that all these people who have real, legitimate problems are the ones who are riding. I’m even more glad that I’m doing it to help support them, and, of course, my patients in my practice.”

Mary Rein, executive director of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation’s Arizona chapter, said she appreciates that Tessler is representing their chapter and the Crohn’s and colitis community in the Day of the Tread.

“He’s having such a tremendous impact, not just through fundraising, but through all the awareness that he is creating through his participation,” she said. “He is very much a champion and an ambassador for patients with inflammatory bowel disease and is very compassionate.” JN

Dr. David Tessler rides in the Tour de Scottsdale. COURTESY OF DAVID TESSLER

Dr. David Tessler does a colonoscopy.

PHOTO BY ROXANNA HOLMES

Dr. David Tessler points out his specialty.

PHOTO BY KELLY RICHMOND

Bahrain’s charm offensive

Much has been written about the political and emerging economic significance of the historic Abraham Accords. For the most part, the focus has been upon high-level governmental interactions and business-tobusiness collaborations. Tourism and travel between Israel and new Accord states has also been pursued, highlighting regional cooperation and interaction.

So, it was particularly interesting to learn about the diplomatic “charm offensive” pursued by Bahrain’s undersecretary of state for political affairs, Sheikh Abdulla Al Khalifa, during a two-day visit to New York City last week, in advance of traditional political meetings scheduled in Washington, DC. While in New York, Al Khalifa reached out directly to the local Jewish community and held a series of meetings with rabbis, communal and business leaders and several university students, all with an eye toward improving people-to-people connections between Bahrain and American Jews.

Reports from the Al Khalifa meetings show how deftly Al Khalifa navigated many of the thorny issues that need to be addressed as Bahrain seeks to capitalize on its ground-breaking normalization process with Israel. Showing classic diplomatic dexterity, Al Khalifa gave credit to the Trump administration for orchestrating the Accords and to the Biden administration for helping to implement and expand them. And he was careful to avoid the uncomfortable discussion of human rights issues in Bahrain, focusing instead on the development and expansion of the “warm peace” being pursued by Bahrain with Israel, and emphasizing people-topeople connections. And as part of that pitch,

Al Khalifa did not hesitate to make clear his interest in assistance from the American Jewish community in helping to spread a positive message about Bahrain.

By all reports, participants were impressed — and with good cause. This is an entirely new grass roots approach to international relationship building and presents some appealing prospects. But it also has risks, and we urge caution. Participants were invited by Sheikh Al Kahlifa to spread the word about “the values of coexistence and acceptance and tolerance that Bahrain has been upholding for so long.” While that sounds good, it paints an entirely misleading picture of the Bahrain the world knows.

Freedom House, which monitors human rights around the world, refers to Bahrain as “one of the Middle East’s more repressive states” and says it violently crushes prodemocracy protests and political dissidence. And according to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor of the U.S. State Department, Bahrain is a human rights mess, with cringe-inducing violations of citizens’ personal, political and societal freedoms. The Sunni-dominated monarchy of Bahrain rules the country’s Shia majority with brute force. And there are few signs of the “acceptance and tolerance” to which Al Khalifa referred.

The Abraham Accords offer an unimaginable array of possibilities. But we can’t be blinded by the glitter of opportunity and the smooth talk of diplomacy. As much as we may want to promote enhanced relationships with our Accord cousins, we must demand that our partners respect human rights and human dignity. JN

A plan for Jewish security

In testimony this summer before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, called on Congress to provide significantly increased funding for security resources to help protect the Jewish community.

Last week, at the opening of the organization’s online General Assembly, Fingerhut demonstrated that JFNA is putting its money where its mouth is with the announcement of an ambitious campaign to raise $54 million in three years for LiveSecure, JFNA’s safety and security initiative.

LiveSecure’s goal is to equip all 146 Jewish federations in North America through the organization’s Community Security Initiative, described as “a single point of contact for critical incident coordination, information and intelligence sharing, safety and security training, and resources for every Jewish institution in a community.”

CSI is already a part of 45 federations. If JFNA can raise the millions projected in the next three years, it will more than triple the number of communities with comprehensive community security initiatives. And with the infusion of additional dollars, the program will expand significantly efforts to help each community upgrade its defenses and ability to address emerging threats.

JFNA’s LiveSecure program reflects a recognition that rising antisemitism in America is a serious threat, and that community security is essential. Jews need to be free to go to services without being harassed. Jewish children need to be able

Sharing my history of depression

CARLOS GALINDO-ELVIRA

Idecided that for 5782 to start right, I have to share my truth. For this, I found strength and inspiration in the words of Rabbi David Wolpe: “A good year is not a perfect year, a triumphant year or even an easy year. It is a year in which we see goodness and do goodness.” By speaking out and bringing awareness to the issue of suicidal ideation, I have the opportunity to do goodness.

Behind the drive to end my life was a stubborn voice continuously whispering, “You have no value.” I was always depressed and lonely, even in a full room of people. I

recognized having to take sedatives to get through the day wasn’t a normal or healthy way to exist. I lost sleep, lethargy set in and weight gain further added to my depression.

In the spirit of commemorating World Mental Health Day, which fell on Oct. 10, I’m choosing to help others and encourage them to seek help, especially if self-harm is about alleviating the pain of despair. Honestly, I can identify with this mental health issue and can confirm suicidal ideation and standing on the final ledge is real. I felt chained to hopelessness.

What started as a storm of sadness grew into a hurricane of helplessness. On Jan. 18, 2019, I put a bottle of sleeping pills in my pocket and headed out for the day. The day progressed slowly. There was one thing I needed to do

before taking the bottle out of my pocket to use: talk to someone. I talked with a personal friend and vented — a lot. I shared my feelings and my shame. My friend heard me out patiently, expressed support and offered advice. I drove home that evening, handed my wife the bottle and went to bed.

The stigma associated with mental health was a barrier to seeking help earlier. Mental health is not commonly a topic of conversation at many families' kitchen tables. Seeking help became my priority. I decided shame and fear was not going to hold me back from sitting down with a therapist and getting the help I desperately needed.

After twenty calls, I was able to get an appointment to see a psychiatrist, which

to go to school without catcalls and rocks and bottles thrown at them.

It has become clear that the ongoing threat and painful reality of antisemitism get in the way of the work federations and other Jewish organizations are doing. Put another way, the Jewish world cannot function under a cloud of antisemitic threats. A proactive response is necessary. The large sums of money being raised will mean that local security efforts will be funded in a regular and ongoing manner rather than as a reaction to an emergency event or a terrible tragedy.

And the unprecedented sum to be raised — which includes grants to match and encourage local fundraising efforts — also puts the Jewish community in a strong position to lobby local and state governments to increase their commitments to secure individual Jews and their institutions. Last week, during an event at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced $25 million in grants to boost security at nonprofits threatened by hate crimes. Similar grants are being pursued nationwide.

The LiveSecure initiative also illustrates a shift in Jewish communal culture and fundraising. Going forward, the list of needs that Jewish federations will be raising funds for — Israel, the elderly, social services, Jewish education and a host of others — will include security as part of the fundraising “ask.” As the LiveSecure Growth Plan puts it, the effort will “grow a culture of giving to security to maintain long-term support in our communities.”

We welcome the LiveSecure program and look forward to its success. JN

then led to anti-depression and anti-anxiety prescriptions and an appointment with a therapist. I finally sat across a desk sharing details and feelings freely with a professional.

There’s reality in what Dr. Jonathan Singer, past president of the American Association of Suicidology and associate professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work, has said about this struggle: “The suicidal person often feels like a burden to others, sees their pain as endless and suicide not as necessarily the best option but the only option.”

The propensity for suicidal ideation subsided while I was in therapy but didn’t fully go away. There were times when I experienced setbacks

SEE GALINDO-ELVIRA, PAGE 12

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triggering dark thoughts. I recall one of those moments while on a flight in late March of 2019. I felt crushed while I wrote the following: “You look at yourself. Your hands. Your eyes. There’s no spell to cast to stop the persistent voice telling you to be invisible and that your worth has evaporated.”

After months of therapy and looking for a better me, I was renewed and began to think of a future and to look forward. I found hope and regained creativity.

I was relieved of the oppressive weight of the mask I wore. There was no longer a need for the exhausting task of a forced, fake public smile. I was a very public person,

gave speeches, used social media to enable my “happy” side and attended numerous community events. Outwardly, people saw the smile, laughter, handshaking — an extrovert. Inside I was an introvert with an altogether different and dark mental environment. There was an intense need for me to learn more. How many more people suffered through the experience of suicidal ideation, or worse, took their lives? I researched statistics and discovered the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, which annually publishes statistics on suicide from the CDC Data & Statistics Fatal Injury Report. The 2019 Arizona statistics revealed the following:

• Suicide was the eighth-leading cause of death in Arizona.

• Over five times as many people died by suicide in 2019 than in alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents.

• 57.01% of all suicides were by firearms.

• There were 1,419 suicide deaths in Arizona.

The AFSP also provides statistics on suicide for each state and a link to get help and find support for yourself or those who may be at risk for suicide.

I survived because I talked to someone who listened and cared, saw a therapist who helped me put my life and challenges in perspective and had the love of my wife and family. The dark thoughts are gone. I am lending my voice to this urgent cause as we need increased understanding around this subject and to have tough conversations with

family members and friends.

With ever-growing confidence and a feeling of self-worth, I have come to appreciate more the choice of Joshua as my Hebrew name. That had vanished for a while, but now it is the way that I am living: Be strong and of good courage.

I am no longer afraid or ashamed. JN

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741; For teens, call or text Teen Crisis Line at 602-248-8336 (TEEN).

Carlos Galindo-Elvira is director of community engagement & partnerships for Chicanos Por La Causa, a nonprofit empowering people in Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas.

RACHEL HARTMAN | JTA

My sister and I grew up in a small settlement surrounded by Arab villages in the disputed West Bank. We have ended up, however, in very different places.

I am currently pursuing a PhD in social psychology, studying the science of moral understanding and how it can be leveraged to bridge divides. My sister is an activist and full-time employee at an Israeli organization that strictly opposes personal relationships, especially romantic ones, between Jews and non-Jews.

My research focuses on bridging divides, but I am somewhat at a loss for how to traverse the widening gulf between my sister and me. She faces a similar dilemma — she is becoming increasingly (in)famous in Israel for her rhetoric against intermarriage while her own sister is … marrying someone who is not Jewish. Conflict, of one form or another, has defined our entire lives. Our family moved from the United States to a settlement in the West Bank

when I was five. We used to stop by Palestinian watermelon stands on our way back from Jerusalem. My brother became friends with the Arab workers who built our home.

At the turn of the millennium, everything changed and this sense of peaceful coexistence was gone. Riots broke out in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. My father bought bulletproof vests for us to wear when we had to travel that same road to Jerusalem. The watermelon stands were gone. In their place, children threw rocks at cars that drove by. Two teenagers from our town went for a hike and never returned. Their bodies were found in a cave, mutilated beyond recognition. We grieved, then grew angry. I was keenly aware of the Jewish side of the conflict: We were the rightful occupants of the land; they were our enemy. We were righteous; they were evil.

As a child I was unschooled. My mother was your typical “hippie liberal all-natural health nut” when we lived in the United States. Over time, however, my mother, and the rest of my family, became less and less liberal.

At 15, I enrolled myself into a Jerusalem high school. The narratives in my classes conflicted

with my political and religious upbringing. I began to understand there were two sides to the story. After high school, I worked at a store where my closest friend was Palestinian. We shared lunches and gossiped about our co-workers, and through our interactions I realized how prejudiced I had been.

Months later, in the military, I led an intelligence team, gathering data to inform the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Aspects of intelligencegathering may be morally questionable, but it gave me the unique opportunity to come as close as possible to reading another person’s mind. We spent long hours learning everything about the “enemy” only to discover that they ate, slept, fought and loved just like we did. There was a wide gap between my family’s beliefs about the enemy’s thoughts and their actual thoughts.

My experiences growing up in the midst of an ongoing conflict fraught with violence and political volatility motivated me to work on bringing people together. Whether the conflict is between Israelis and Palestinians, Black and white people, or liberals and

A silent Arab Spring is sprouting … in Israel

DAVID SUISSA | JNS

Good news is never that exciting. It’s always more dramatic to ring the alarm about one problem or another. Calling Israel an “apartheid” state, as Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) did recently, is a good example. It’s so inflammatory that it’s guaranteed to attract maximum attention, both from critics and supporters of the Jewish state.

I was thinking about Tlaib’s accusation last week as I was strolling through the streets of Jerusalem. At a cafe in the trendy Mamilla mall, a young Muslim woman wearing hip jeans and an elegant headscarf sat next to my table, ordering lunch and working on her laptop.

“Are you living in an apartheid state?” I felt

like asking her. I wondered if she even knew, or cared about, the brouhaha that routinely goes on in America around Israel.

Here’s the thing about Israel: You can read a thousand tweets and media commentaries spouting one opinion or another, but it really helps to actually walk the streets. And when you do, “apartheid” is probably the last word you’d want to use to describe this place.

If anything, the opposite is starting to happen—more and more Arab Israelis are pushing back against the accusation. A prominent example is Yoseph Haddad, an Arab Israeli who defends Israel on social media and abroad in both English and Arabic.

“Despite all of its deficiencies,” he wrote recently on Ynet, “Israel is not an apartheid state. Not even close.”

Haddad, who visited the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg and met with black residents who lived under the regime, says that using the apartheid label for Israel “diminished and cheapened the suffering of black South Africans who had been subjected to the ills of apartheid for many years.”

Just as I wondered about the Muslim woman sitting next to me at the cafe, Haddad asks:

“Is Samer Haj Yehia, the chairman of Israel’s largest bank, Leumi, living under an apartheid regime? And what of Dr. Masad Barhoum, the director general of Galilee Medical Center, or George Karra, the Supreme Court justice? Are they living in an apartheid state, too?”

The Arab grocer who schmoozes in Hebrew with Jewish shoppers; the Arab

conservatives, I’m looking for ways to move beyond dehumanization and toward empathy and compassion.

My youngest sister, who was born a few months before the second intifada broke out and has known nothing but conflict her entire life, has chosen a different path. Rather than resolving to bring people together, she is working hard to keep them apart. She works for Lehava, which means “flame” in Hebrew, but in this case is also an acronym for the Hebrew phrase “For the Prevention of Assimilation in the Holy Land.” Lehava fights to prevent “relationships between Jewish girls and Arabs, non-Jews, and foreign workers.” Lehava has been described on several occasions as a far-right and Jewish supremacist group, and elected officials in Israel have embarked on the process of declaring it a terrorist organization.

Given my sister’s chosen career path, telling her that my non-Jewish partner had proposed was … difficult. She had previously told me (on national television) that she would be happy if he broke up with me, since then there would be

manager at a Jerusalem hotel who put his kids through college; the Arabs who mingle naturally with Jews of all colors in the Mahane Yehudah market—none of those moments I’ve experienced make for exciting news. They lack the drama of confrontation.

But it is precisely this prosaic reality that has a chance to ameliorate Arab-Jewish relations. Those relations are driven not by grand statements or geopolitical strategy, but by answers to simple questions, such as: Am I allowed to have a coffee here, to get a university degree there, to hang out at this park, to get a job in this hotel, to vote for this candidate, to take my kids to this hospital? Those answers, as much as any argument, are the sharpest rebuttal

My militant sister campaigns against intermarriage. I am engaged to a gentile. Here’s how we remain family.

The better to see you with: When eyes aren’t enough

or see the obvious.

ven if our eyes glance at something, we do not always see it. One common assumption to explain why women spend more time cleaning is that men do not notice or identify a mess to the extent that women typically do. Researchers from the University of California Santa Barbara, with colleagues at Emory University and the University of Melbourne, ruled out this explanation after showing 622 men and women photographs of a messy home and a neat home. Since the men did not respond differently than the women, the study concluded that men are not blind to messes but must have a higher tolerance for them.

On the other hand, we often do fail to notice

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a chance of me marrying a Jewish guy. Needless to say, she refuses to come to the wedding. The only solution I have is to try and pull her in, rather than push her away. As painful as it is to hear her talk about how my actions are a threat to the Jewish nation, I know that hating her for saying hateful things will result in nothing but more hate. Instead, I’ve chosen to focus on loving her. I love her for being passionate about her values. I love her for stepping outside her comfort zone. I love her for reasons unrelated to her zealousness — she’s smart, funny, caring and beautiful, inside and out.

During my latest trip to Israel, my sister and I didn’t shy away from tough discussions. We talked about our conflicting values and beliefs. She expressed sadness about the sinful life she thinks I live; I expressed similar sorrow at hearing her talk about Palestinians. We agreed to disagree, then disagreed some more. But we also talked about other things. She took time off work to be my personal chauffeur for the week because I’d gotten too used to American roads and driving in Israel terrified me. I beat her at multiple games of Scrabble. We prepared meals together. I teased her about being too picky in her search for a husband, but also gave her some stern sisterly advice about not settling for someone she doesn’t like.

In his excellent book, “The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World,” Jamil Zaki tells the story of Tony, a Canadian ex-neoNazi. One of the pivotal moments in Tony’s transformation is when he confesses his deeds to his (Jewish) therapist Dov, who accepts him with open arms: Here was this man who loved me

ETo my mild chagrin, I once experienced this in the sanctuary of a shul when I wanted to know what time it was. My surprise mounted as I was unable to find a clock anywhere in the room after searching each of the walls and then double-checking. I began to speculate why someone would not want a clock in a sanctuary. Then, I finally saw it, directly in the center of the room — an enormous digital clock with brightly illuminated red digits.

How did I miss a fully visible, conspicuous clock despite looking over the spot where it was hanging several times? I realized that since I was expecting and looking for an analog clock — with 12 numerals and minute and second hands, I was unable to “see” the bright display of the digital clock even though my eyes took in its image.

If our mind is seeking and focused on one thing, it may not register a different one. Our vision is ultimately a partnership between our eyes and our minds.

When Hagar runs off into the desert, she

and wanted to heal me, and here was I, a person who had once advocated for the annihilation of his people.

Tony felt he didn’t deserve a shred of compassion from Dov, but Dov extended it nonetheless. This cracked Tony open. He’d created a surface of hatred to cover his shame and loneliness. Once someone accepted him warts and all, he no longer needed it.

I don’t live in fantasyland. I don’t think my sister will drop her beliefs on intermarriage just because I love her and treat her kindly. But I do think that by responding with love, I might be able to prevent her extremism from getting worse. Perhaps by regularly exposing her to the fact that I’m in a relationship that makes me happier than I’ve ever been, she will soften her views, even just a little. Or at least, maybe she will continue talking to me rather than cutting me off entirely, as some family members do in such cases.

Though it is (arguably) easier to love someone if they’re related to you, this approach might be helpful in other contexts. Many people would rather shut down or at least disengage from discussion with people whom they view as intolerant, whether the intolerance comes from their religiosity, political ideology or some other driving force. But they should consider how counterproductive this approach is. It does nothing to change the intolerant person, and may even motivate them to become even more intolerant. Instead, approaching them with kindness, accepting them, and, yes, even loving them, may have a more positive effect. JN

Rachel Hartman is a Doctoral Student in Social Psychology at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Writing Fellow at Heterodox Academy.

encounters an angel but is not caught by surprise since she was accustomed to seeing angels in Avraham’s caravan. Her muted reaction contrasts with Manoach’s hundreds of years later in the Book of Judges (Ch. 13), who is stricken with horror and awe when he and his wife witnessed an angel. (See Rashi, Genesis 17:13)

According to the third-century sage, Rabbi Chiya, this discrepancy demonstrates the greatness of the earlier generation, which was lost to the later generation. While it is tempting to interpret Chiya as decrying the reduced merit of the later generations and their consequently reduced angelic visits, I prefer what is perhaps a more profound interpretation that asserts that although angels are everpresent, the later generations lost the spiritual competence to see them.

Manoach, according to this approach, also merited living with angels in his midst, perhaps to the same extent as Avraham and Sara. His eroded sensitivity to their presence interfered with him discovering them — except the one

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to the apartheid charge.

Of course, just like imperfect America, imperfect Israel still has a long way to go to bring equality and justice to all its residents, including its minorities. Animosity between Jews and Arabs continues.

But if the country aims to be a work in progress, at least it is putting its money where its mouth is. For the first time in Israel’s history, an Arab-Muslim party is part of its governing coalition. (That’s like having MAGA and the Squad in the same party.) This is a hopeful sign that pragmatic needs in the Arab sector, like infrastructure, crime reduction and health care are superseding the ideological toxins that feed passions but leave stomachs empty. That would be in keeping with the new spirit of the Abraham Accords, which are reshaping Israel-Arab relations around mutual interests. Feeding passions, though, is what feeds the three-second narrative wars. That’s why you’re not likely to hear about this Silent Spring through social media or sexy headlines. The story is too slow, too multi-layered, too positive.

It’s also real.

“The tides seem to be turning as Israeli Arabs are increasingly speaking out in support of the State of Israel,” author and political expert Ben-Dror Yemini wrote last week on Ynet. Yemini cites a slew of Arab-Israeli advocates, among them:

“Mohammad Kabiya — a Bedouin from northern Israel who served in an IDF combat unit; Jonathan Elkhoury — the son of a former officer in the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army who was resettled in Israel after its 2000 withdrawal and dedicates his life to coexistence

exceptional time that he did.

While we cannot know whether we, too, have hidden angels present, there is little doubt that we do have innumerable miracles, wonders and extraordinary human beings in our midst. How much of this beauty, genius, inspiration and godliness goes unnoticed?

Much like the clock on the wall of the shul, if we don’t know what we’re looking for, if we are in too much of a rush or if we are solipsistically wrapped up in ourselves, they will be missed even when our lines of sight pass directly over them. When we slow down and think about what our eyes see, we will tap into ancestral greatness that may not enable us to see angels but will not fail to enrich us. JN

between Arabs and Jews … Shadi Khaloull — a Maronite Christian who served as an officer in the Paratroopers Brigade; Dima Tayeh—a Muslim woman from northern Israel and a stalwart Israel supporter who ran in the Likud primaries for a spot on the party’s list for Knesset; and Liana Khatib—a member of the Druze community who works part-time for the Foreign Ministry.”

Yemini, who has met many of these advocates, writes that “More and more young Israeli Arabs choose to present an alternative to the animosity. Israel is not perfect, many of them have told me, but it provides more equal rights and opportunities not only compared to its Middle Eastern neighbors but also other advanced Western nations.”

The Arab advocates realize that recognizing their rights in Israel is “the best way to both strengthen Israeli Arabs and promote reconciliation and peace.”

Needless to say, these brave activists are meeting opposition from those with a vested interest in maintaining a narrative of animosity. When your cause — and your fundraising — depends on depicting Israel as oppressor and Arabs as oppressed, the last thing you need is a shift in narrative.

But on the promenades and cafes and hospitals and markets and universities and voting booths and beaches and children’s playgrounds of the world’s only Jewish state, the narrative is quite the opposite of apartheid. Those benefiting most from this reality don’t really care whether Rashida Tlaib hears about it or not. They just want their almond cappuccino extra hot. JN

Rabbi Yisroel Isaacs is director of the Greater Phoenix Vaad Hakashruth, rabbi at Beth Joseph Congregation and director of the Jewish Enrichment Center.

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

PARSHAH LECH-LECHA GENESIS 12:1-17:27

RABBI YISROEL ISAACS

David Suissa is editor-in-chief and publisher of Tribe Media Corp, and “Jewish Journal,” where this article was first published.

Fall gardening tips from the experts

R.C. “ROMEY” ROMERO

Triple-digit temperatures are nearly a memory. Pumpkin spice flavor has made its first splash in coffee. The days are getting shorter. It’s a fall trifecta and time for pruning and planting. Grab your gardening gloves, hoe and seeds and let’s get started

Pruning

The growth of the mesquite and palo verde trees was likely very aggressive this summer. Go ahead and trim and shape them, especially to clear a path because the overhang is too low. They require pruning twice a year.

Pro Tip: Prune and mow before overseeding. Why? Because if you have branches that need to be cleared away and you seed first, you will sweep away the seeds. First, move the branches. Otherwise, you will have to wait another month for new grass to be established.

Fertilization

We have early, mid and late-season fertilization schedules. Be sure to hit the fertilization season at the right time. In this round, you can give any tree, citrus or otherwise, a light fertilization which will provide nutrients before and to store during winter and will help the trees recover. Many landscape companies offer their three-time fertilization schedules at this time of year. Call now to get on their schedule for 2022.

Flower gardens

For a beautiful burst of spring flowers, plant your wildflower seeds now. Petunias, pansies, snapdragons, alyssum and violas, commonly known back east as Johnny Jump-Ups, will last until we reach 90 degrees.

It is also a great time to plant African Daisies. In the spring, you will have bold, beautiful, orange and yellow blooms. As they dry up, gather the abundant seeds off the blooms and put them in a jar for use in the next planting season.

Vegetable gardens

For a bountiful vegetable garden, plant cabbage, root crops (beets and carrots), spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, lettuce and onion.

Rosie on the House’s garden and landscape expert, John Jay Harper, noted during a radio broadcast, that the record rainfall this year softened the ground, thus making it easy to till your fall garden. He suggested preparing your garden soil over three weekends for 30 to 60 minutes each week to make the task less daunting and easier on your back. On the first weekend, till the soil to the depth of the shovel blade. The next weekend, add the compost and turn in a bit of gypsum. On the third weekend, add organic fertilizer. Finally, create the trenches, rows or plots and add the seeds. “It makes it a lot less like work and you will do a more thorough job,” said Harper.

Don’t be afraid to use starter plants from the nursery. You may have better gardening success than starting from seed, (as long as it is not a root vegetable). To ensure the seeds are not bunched together, put potting soil and seeds in a mason jar. Mix it thoroughly so the seeds separate. Then put the mixture in the plots.

If you are not confident about your gardening skills, try seed tape. The seeds adhere to biodegradable paper tape. Just prepare the trench and lay the tape in. The seeds are already pre-spaced. Seed tapes save time and help space out tiny seeds, such as radish, lettuce, beets and carrots. With seed tape, there’s no measuring the spacing or worry about over or under seeding. Just place on loose, well-drained soil. Water the seed tape frequently. The paper protects the seed during germination and dissolves throughout watering.

“Planting in the fall is like gaining an

extra year of harvesting because the soil is still warm,” said Harper. “The air is getting cooler, and nights are getting longer. The plants get rooted, and the tops are not stressing for water.”

Speaking of water, summer vegetables should be watered daily until the cooler temperatures arrive, or there is humidity. In the cooler months, two to three times a week is sufficient. For plants going into the ground, mix 50% potting soil with 50% of land soil. For raised beds or pots, just use potting soil. Remember to fertilize herbs and vegetables over the winter so they grow.

Wood chips

To maximize the growth and vitality of trees, plants and flowers, put down wood chips. In comparison to finished compost, wood chips are an amazing contributor to tree health. Because they have not decomposed, they have a lot of nitrogen to give back to the soil. The wood chips will promote nitrogen cycling under the trees. If you rake the leaves away, you rake away the needed nitrogen.

Wood chips also serve as dust and weed control. “Most importantly,” said John Eisenhower, tree specialist, “wood chips moderate the soil’s temperature and improves its microbiology. The chips create an environment for producing a layer of soil just below them that will be an active zone for microorganisms and beneficial bacteria to promote root growth.”

In early fall, rose bushes and other plants may see a renaissance and push out a few new blooms after a long, hot summer. Put down the wood chips to encourage moderate-temperature soil. “It will perk your plants up,” said Eisenhower.

Back off birds and bunnies

Now that the seeds and the wood chips are down, you need to protect them from uninvited diners. Fencing off special planting zones is your best weapon against rabbits. Put pots of tasty plants on walls or shelves. Trim the bottom of low-lying shrubs so they have few places to hide. Build a barrier.

Keep birds away from your seeds and new growth. The Farmer’s Almanac suggests securing mylar balloons to posts with shiny ribbons. Place inverted crates or disposable cups (with the bottoms cut out) over vulnerable seedlings. Chicken wire can also be placed over a seedbed. Construct an inexpensive net framework to cover plants. A hi-tech spinning screech owl fitted with a microchip emits the sound of an attacking hawk.

Now that you have the knowledge, get out there, enjoy the fall weather, and garden to your heart’s content. JN

R.C. ‘Romey’ Romero is co-owner of Arizona’s home improvement radio program ‘Rosie on the House.’

Two moms who ‘know how to get things done’ create special agency

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITE

Becca Hornstein’s move to Phoenix in 1983 coincided with reaching her breaking point: She had had enough of her son’s exclusion from Jewish life.

“Judaism is a religion that celebrates families. When you cannot celebrate Judaism as a family — that’s exclusion,” she said. Her son, Joel, is autistic and couldn’t participate in children’s programs at synagogues. He wasn’t even allowed in the synagogues’ childcare while she attended services.

At the time, Hornstein said the expectation was that children with autism were violent, unresponsive to their environments, “profoundly intellectually incapacitated” and that they couldn’t love or express love. Joel couldn’t sit with Hornstein during services, because he would make noises and be considered disruptive.

“I wasn’t going to let other people’s biases stop me from being the person that I am. Being a Jew largely defined who I was and my husband as well. Why would we deny our children the legacy of a beautiful religion and community?”

Hornstein’s determination for her son to be included led to what is now Gesher Disability Resources, which serves 3,000 Jewish children and adults affected by a disability every year.

If parents reach out to most Jewish organizations in Greater Phoenix today, Joyce Berk-Lippincott, Gesher co-founder, is confident they will find accommodations for children with special needs. But it wasn’t always that way.

When Joel was 9 years old in 1983, Hornstein knew she wanted him to have some form of a bar mitzvah and begin religious school.

“It was his right and his privilege as the son of Jewish parents, grandparents, great grandparents,” she said.

But nobody would enroll him.

“In that year, I got more and more upset,” she said. Every Sunday, she’d drive Shana, her daughter, to Sunday school with Joel in the backseat, and he’d watch his sister and all her friends get together and play. But he had to stay in the car.

There were about a dozen congregations around Phoenix at the time, and Hornstein called them all: Orthodox, Conservative and Reform.

She explained she would like to bring her autistic son, who had only begun to speak in the last year and a half to religious school. They would need to have a sign

language interpreter on site and a special education teacher who understands how to communicate with him, but he can read and write.

It took her about a year to get a “yes,” and it came from Temple Chai.

Rabbi Bill Berk, Temple Chai’s senior rabbi from 1983 to 2006, asked her why it was important to her.

“I said, ‘Because Joe’s a person of value and dignity and I want to celebrate that when he turns 13.’ And Rabbi Berk said, ‘Best answer. Let’s do it.’ That was it,” Hornstein recalled.

Once a week he would meet one-onone with Joel, and Hornstein would be there to translate lessons in sign language.

After a while, Joel was ready for more. He was growing and had learned to speak.

“All of the sudden, the world was opening up for him,” Hornstein said.

Berk asked Hornstein what was next, and she suggested starting a class for Joel and other students with disabilities. To her surprise, he again was receptive and the two worked together to make it happen. In the fall of 1985, the class began with four students with varying disabilities.

Hornstein called the Reform movement’s national office, which at the time was the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, and asked if there was another similar class that they knew of. She wasn’t looking to reinvent the wheel. But there was nothing.

“They said, ‘If you’re creating it, can we use it as a model?’ And they did. So we became a model for the Reform movement’s Jewish special education program,” she said.

Berk said Hornstein immediately struck him as somebody who not only had dreams, but “knows how to get things done,” and Joel seemed like a sweet boy.

Berk was open to it all primarily because of his mother, who as a young girl had polio, he said. “The rest of her life she had an astounding level of concern for those with special needs, for the poor, for African-Americans, for the most defenseless elements of society. She hammered this into her children,” he said. “I was also motivated to work in this area because of how I took seriously the Jewish tradition’s challenge to look at every single human being as tzelem elokim, an image of God.”

In 1984, Berk also got a call from BerkLippincott. Her son, Kregg Berk, is on the autism spectrum and she was grateful

that the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Phoenix accommodated his needs. “He loved it,” Berk-Lippincott said. “He was in special ed in high school and he didn’t have any Jewish friends.”

Separately, Berk-Lippincott had decided around the same time that the Jewish community needed more special education teachers. She started going through the phone book calling temples and asking if they knew of any families with special needs children.

“Lo and behold, Rabbi Berk at Temple Chai said, ‘I have the perfect person for you,’” she said. It was Hornstein.

Berk-Lippincott told Hornstein about her desire to have her son participate in a Jewish summer camp. They teamed up, and Berk-Lippincott garnered the support of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, while Hornstein worked on the programming and educational support staff. In the summer of 1985, they successfully worked with the Jewish Federation and the then-Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, at the time on Maryland Road, to offer a summer camp program for kids with disabilities.

Next, they hosted a meeting for the Jewish community to gauge interest for doing something beyond a summer camp.

“Famous last words,” Hornstein quipped. “I said, ‘Sure I’ll help you, but I’m not going to start an agency.’”

More people than she imagined, 87, showed up, and they had many ideas and requests: more religious school classes and summer camps, after-school programs, a parent support group, support groups for the siblings of children with disabilities and community forums to educate the public.

“When you’re passionate about something, it’s really hard to say no,” Hornstein said. She offered to start a committee at the JCC to look into these

requests. People began to realize it was possible to create a Jewish community “that is truly inclusive.”

In 1985, the pair formed the Council for Jews With Special Needs.

Berk-Lippincott was in charge of fundraising and Hornstein was in charge of programming. Their first task was to educate the Jewish community that Jews with special needs existed: Hornstein would speak during Friday night or Saturday morning Shabbat services, as well as at Hadassah and ORT America chapter gatherings.

She met with synagogues and day schools about the demand for religious school programming for kids with special needs, and she started the parent support group.

With the JCC’s support, she and BerkLippincott also began planning for the following summer’s camp.

“From that moment in 1985, we’ve never had a JCC that refused our kids with special needs,” Hornstein said. “Once they started, they committed.”

As the children grew, Hornstein developed programming to fit their needs, including modified b’nai mitzvah training.

“I remember parents coming up to me at the end of Joel’s bar mitzvah and standing there crying and saying, ‘Now I know my son or daughter can do it,’” Hornstein said.

Hornstein has a degree in art and takes pride in her creativity in either developing programming herself or finding all the resources available to make her vision come to life.

To suit kids with special needs who have aged out of religious school or were b’nai mitzvahed without a service they could understand, she made monthly

Rabbi Dean Shapiro, left, with members of Gesher Disability Resources during a monthly Simchat Shabbat service at Temple Emanuel of Tempe. COURTESY OF AMY HUMMELL

The man who’s seen more than 400 Holocaust movies — almost every one ever made — has some takeaways

ANDREW LAPIN | JTA

At least 440 narrative films have been made about the Holocaust — and Rich Brownstein has seen just about every single one of them.

As a lecturer on Holocaust film for Yad Vashem’s international school, Brownstein has both a personal and professional interest in viewing and cataloguing so many depictions of Jewish suffering.

“Dealing with Holocaust education is akin to dealing with oncology, in that you have to set aside your personal feelings,” he said. “You can’t be drawn in.”

Now, Brownstein has published “Holocaust Cinema Complete,” a comprehensive book-length guide to the ever-expanding cinema of the Shoah. The book, which went on sale in September, contains statistics on the content of the films, essays on their methods, descriptions and capsule reviews and information for educators looking to use Holocaust films in their curriculums. Documentaries are not included, but made-for-TV movies and miniseries under three hours in length are.

Brownstein said he has seen “every film that is available to be seen” (excluding unreleased outliers such as Jerry Lewis’ “The Day The Clown Cried”). In the book, he gives his unvarnished opinions on the giants of the genre, including “Schindler’s List,” “Life is Beautiful” and “Jojo Rabbit” — and fans of those movies may not like what he has to say.

Born in Portland, Oregon, Brownstein hasn’t always focused on such dour subject matter. Prior to moving to Israel in 2003, he worked as a producer for Jewish comedy legend David Zucker (“Airplane!”) and “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker (Stone is Jewish), even appearing in an uncredited cameo in the trio’s 1998 comedy “BASEketball,” before founding his own video transcription company. He said he has no familial connection to the Holocaust, and first became interested in the subject after reading Leon Uris’ novel “QB VII.”

Brownstein spoke to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about his years watching Holocaust reenactments, what qualifies as a “Holocaust movie” in his book and how the public and educators, should approach the genre.

How did you become drawn to catalogue these films?

I started collecting movies when I was in my twenties. In Los Angeles, I had over 1,000 movies on VHS, and I knew VHS wasn’t going to exist anymore. So I started over on digital, but the

whole time, I kept a database, and in the database I had created I would separate Jewish and Holocaust films from others. So I was always attuned to it.

After I moved to Israel, I had a cousin who was on a Young Judea [year abroad] course. And I asked her what she was learning and she said, “We have a Jewish film class. We just watched ‘Private Benjamin’” [a 1980 comedy starring Goldie Hawn as a grieving Jewish widow who enlists in the Army]. I said, “‘Private Benjamin’ is not a Jewish film. It has a Jewish character, but that doesn’t make it a Jewish film.” I happened to have known the educational director for the program — he and I grew up in Portland together. And so I went to him and said I would teach a class for free, on Holocaust films. And he said, “Fine, free is a very good price.”

And then, my daughter was a high school senior, and most Israeli high school kids used to go to Poland on their class trips, and she was the spokesperson for her class. Someone asked her if she would represent the State of Israel at Yad Vashem, at their international conference. I looked at the program, and one of the seminars that they had was on using the documentary “Shoah” in the classroom.

I called up the director, whom I did not know, and said, “I think this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, that you would consider using a 10-hour documentary in a classroom. Students would fall asleep. To have a symposium where you’re advocating to people using ‘Shoah’ pedagogically is reckless.” And he said, “You sound like you know what you’re doing, so we’ll try you out [on a class].” And his blurb is on the back of my book.

Why do you think there are so many Holocaust films?

Well, I actually don’t think there are that many Holocaust films. I think that in

terms of the total number of WWII films, for example, it’s a tiny fraction. We just know about Holocaust films because 25% of all American-made Holocaust films have been nominated for an Academy Award. And from 1960 through 2015, every other year, one of the best foreign language films nominated [at the Oscars] was a Holocaust film.

So you think that they’re coming at you like snowflakes in a blizzard, but they’re not. They’re just very well targeted and very well marketed, and we have a hunger, especially in the Jewish community, for this story to be told properly.

I think that the percentage of good Holocaust films is far greater than the percentage of good non-Holocaust films. That is, I think that if I’m recommending 50 Holocaust films in my book, out of 450, that means I’m recommending 11% of Holocaust films. I couldn’t recommend 11% of non-Holocaust films.

You use a categorization system in the book. Can you break it down for us?

You can’t compare apples to oranges; you have to compare apples to apples. I created these categories — it’s a grid. The first [box] is “victim film.” So if a film took place during the Holocaust and it was principally about a Jew, then it’s a victim film, and there are like 100 of them. If a film took place principally during the Holocaust and it’s about a Gentile saving Jews, then it’s a “righteous Gentile film.” If it’s after the Holocaust and it’s primarily about a survivor, then it’s a “survivor film.” After the Holocaust and mostly about a perpetrator, a Nazi, then it’s a “perpetrator [film].”

And then I had a little bit of a problem with this general theory because of “Sophie’s Choice” and “Inglorious Basterds,” which don’t fit into any of these categories but clearly are Holocaust films, so I added a miscellaneous or tangential category.

You consider “Harold & Maude” and “X-Men” to be Holocaust films. Is anything that references the Holocaust a Holocaust film?

No, not at all. There are many, many films that aren’t Holocaust films in my eyes that other people think are. The most famous ones are “The Book Thief” [a 2013 drama about a young girl in Nazi Germany who steals books to share with a Jewish refugee] and “The Sound of Music” [the famous 1965 musical about a wealthy family in prewar Austria, in which several characters are Nazis], neither of which I consider to be Holocaust films.

“Harold & Maude,” if you think about it, she lives in a train car. And there’s a scene where she’s in the train car with Harold, and he points to the umbrella over her hearth, and she says, “That was when I was a kid in Vienna,” and she’s tearing up. And then she says, “But that was all before.” She’s clearly a survivor, and then they reveal the tattoo. It’s not just that she happens to be a survivor and Hal Ashby threw that in there. Her entire being is shaped by her experience.

“X-Men,” too, not that it’s a great film, but you don’t have “X-Men” without Magneto suffering in the first three minutes, in Auschwitz. The mutants are a metaphor for Jews during the Holocaust, and it’s not a hidden metaphor. Magneto rips down the gates of Auschwitz! Of course it’s a Holocaust film.

Your favorite Holocaust film is “The Grey Zone,” a 2001 drama about the Jews who worked as “Sonderkommando” at Auschwitz-Birkenau. What are your least favorite Holocaust films, and what distinguishes a bad Holocaust film? It depends on how far down into the sewer you want me to go, because there are some that are spectacularly horrible.

Let’s talk about “The Reader” [a 2008 drama, based on a novel by Bernard Schlink, that won Kate Winslet an Oscar]. “The Reader” is a story about an East German woman after the war, who is really, really hot. But she can’t read. And so she makes this really sketchy deal with a young man, that if he reads to her, they can have sex. And then we find out, after all of this hot sex, that this really nice lady was a Nazi guard, who had, with other women Nazi guards, locked 300 Jews in a barn and burned it down. And she gets put on trial. But she can’t adequately defend herself, because she’s illiterate, and we’re supposed to feel bad for this woman who killed 300 Jews in a barn, because she’s illiterate. That’s really weird. That’s a bizarre notion.

Rich Brownstein is the author of “Holocaust Cinema Complete,” a guide to every Holocaust movie ever made. COURTESY OF RICH BROWNSTEIN VIA JTA.ORG

Artist behind Jewish theatre in Oklahoma is still Arizonan at heart

NICOLE RAZ | STAFF WRITER

Debra Rich Gettleman considers Scottsdale home, but in 2019 she found herself in Oklahoma after her husband, a pediatrician, accepted a position there.

“I visited a few times and I realized that Oklahoma City was a burgeoning artistic community on the brink of a big time arts evolution, but I still was concerned because there’s very little theatre here,” she said.

Gettleman, a writer, actor and playwright, has long worked with Theatre Artists Studio in Scottsdale, and will be performing there in January 2022 in “A Doll’s House, Part 2.” Just months after moving to Oklahoma, she met Roberta Sloan, who was in the process of founding the Jewish Theatre of Oklahoma.

The pair launched the theatre with four virtual performances in 2020, and they hope to offer four in-person and hybrid performances this year. Oklahoma has a small Jewish community — the American Jewish Year Book estimates 0.1% of Oklahoma’s population is Jewish or about 4,000 people. But Gettleman and Sloan are confident in their vision.

“It’s truly a small but mighty community,” Gettleman said. “I love the Jewish community in Phoenix, but this community in Oklahoma City is like nothing I have ever experienced.”

In 2019, Roberta Sloan, artistic director of the theatre, founded it shortly after she

HOLOCAUST

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16

“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” [a 2008 British drama about a child of a Nazi guard who befriends a Jewish boy held prisoner in Auschwitz] is the same idea… It was an absolute train wreck. It was just a terrible, terrible, terrible movie.

The glorification of Nazis, I’m going to say, the humanization of barbarians is a hard no for me. I’m gonna hold the line there. And that’s my main complaint about “Schindler’s List.” Oskar Schindler was a repulsive, repugnant, horrible human being while the first five-and-ahalf million Jews were killed. He didn’t care; he participated. And then all of a sudden, he grew a conscience, so he became a normal person. He didn’t become a good person. You would think somebody who was a cog, who had been participating with the Germans since 1936, that guy doesn’t get elevated.

I know this is an incredibly difficult thing to hear and say, but almost every Holocaust film that ever came out of

returned to the state after 15 years away.

“We have a strong Jewish community here and a Jewish theatre is something we didn’t have,” Sloan said.

The two women imagine offering shows followed by refreshments, panel discussions and discussions with the audience. “That makes it a really interactive experience, which we think will be very worthwhile,” Sloan said.

Gettleman, who is the associate artistic director, said the shows “are just topnotch theatre” that happen “to show things through a Jewish lens.”

Their first show, “Oh God,” is by late Israeli playwright Anat Gov, in which a psychotherapist gets a visit from a new, desperate patient: God.

“It’s really compelling and it brings about great conversation in the end about

Canada, and was directed by a Canadian, there’s not a one of them that I can recommend. Every single one of them is horrible.

Your book is structured partially as a teaching guide. In general, how do you think Holocaust films should be used in educational settings?

Holocaust film should be a supplement to lessons. If you are teaching the Holocaust using Holocaust films, then you should rethink your teaching methods, because they are not the beginning of Holocaust education. They are the end of it.

So, if you want to teach about what happened in Birkenau, you can, if your students are old enough, mature enough, you can show “The Grey Zone.” But not before you’ve spent weeks explaining what this place is, and the history of it.

You can teach about the Wannsee Conference, and you can show the film “Conspiracy” [a 2001 made-for-TV drama about the planning of the Final Solution] — a wonderful film, with Kenneth Branagh and Stanley Tucci.

religion and everything that’s going on in our world today,” Gettleman said. They are working on organizing an after-show discussion with different faith leaders to discuss some of the issues raised.

As last year went on, each virtual show gained audience members. And at one point, revenue from donations exceeded that from ticket prices.

“It’s a very excited audience and they truly are hungry for culture and arts — and it hasn’t been here,” Gettleman said.

Sloan said she feels lucky to have met Gettleman. “She has been such a help with the vision, and she’s a terrific actress. But beyond that, she is a dreamer, and she has enough skill and imagination to help dreams become reality,” she said. “I don’t think we could have come this far without her.”

It’s one of the finest films I’ve ever seen. But if you don’t know what they’re talking about, then it’s a complete waste of time.

What would you like to see filmmakers and audiences keep in mind when it comes to making, or viewing, Holocaust films?

Well, let’s establish from the beginning that every [historical] narrative film, Holocaust or otherwise, whether we’re talking about “Lincoln” or “Argo” or “Apollo 13,” is a fictionalized account of something that happened. Every narrative film is fiction. If the intention is to represent something true, that happened, then it is raising the bar, and you need to be able to ascertain what elements of the truth are relevant and what are irrelevant.

There’s a difference between watching “Inglourious Basterds” and watching “Schindler’s List.” Everybody should know, after watching “Inglourious Basterds,” that Adolf Hitler was not killed in a movie theater by Ryan the temp from “The Office.” But you don’t know

Carol MacLeod, artistic director of Theatre Artists Studio in Scottsdale, described Gettleman as a “dynamo.” Wherever she goes, Gettleman gets involved in something that’s multicultural and makes an impact, MacLeod said. “She is probably one of the most talented people I have ever met,” MacLeod said. When she found out Gettleman was moving to Oklahoma, she thought, “Good heavens, how many Jews are there in Oklahoma?” But, apparently, those that are there are very involved in this theatre, she said.

Gettleman hopes to come back to Scottsdale eventually, she said. She and her husband love and miss their family. But so far, living in Oklahoma has been an “incredible experience” and she’s excited about what lies ahead. JN

when you’re watching “Schindler’s List” that Jews were not marched into a dualpurpose shower that actually did have water, but that was hermetically sealed, and that the Jews, going in, actually thought that they might be gassed. The misrepresentation of the shower scene in “Schindler’s List” is so egregious that it ruins the veracity of the film.

The second thing is within the context of all filmmaking, where does it stand? Do I need another one of these? Every story has been told, basically. We all know, within general strokes, what’s going to happen. There aren’t a lot of alternatives — people live or they die. But are they going to tell a new story in a new way?

I have to make this really clear: When I sit down to any movie, Holocaust or otherwise, I am the most optimistic person in the world. I want the movie to succeed. I believe in everything that I’m watching until they make me disbelieve it. And even then I sit there and I try to find some reason to like this movie. JN

Roberta Sloan, left, and Debra Rich Gettleman performing a short play written by Gettleman called, “And you are…” for the Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City.

Formidable fruits: Squeezing the most out of etrogim

SASHA ROGELBERG | CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Sukkot is meant to celebrate the beauty of impermanence, symbolized by the temporary structure under which one dwells.

However, after chag , there’s one ritual item — the etrog — that some are reluctant to part with, as its scent is emblematic of the holiday’s rich themes of harvest. It’s also exorbitantly priced.

“You paid $70 for a lemon!” said Gratz College President Zev Eleff, who authored “The History of the Etrog in America,” which appeared in Segula magazine in August.

Perhaps because of its steep cost, or perhaps for sentimental reasons, Jews are turning to creative epicurean ventures to make the most of the citrus following Sukkot.

Though fragrant, the smell of an etrog is a bit deceiving. The fruit is bitter if eaten raw, due to the thick white pith that dominates the inside of the fruit below its delicate and oily rind. If one were to squeeze an etrog and expect juice to flow out of the fruit like a lemon, they would be disappointed.

“You can kind of think of an etrog as a citrus fruit that puts all its energy into fragrance; it’s all about the oil,” chef and food writer Aliza Green said.

Yet home cooks and chefs alike have managed to turn the formidable fruit into something delicious anyway, using the pectin-rich pith to create thick and syrupy etrog marmalade.

Green offsets the bitterness of the fruit by slicing it and soaking it in syrup, though etrogim can also be boiled — once in water and again in simple syrup — to candy it.

Greg Kirkpatrick of Lindcove Ranch in Lemon Cove, California, the country’s only commercial etrog grower, suggests a riff on limoncello.

By peeling etrogim rinds and soaking them in the highest proof alcohol available, one can have a fragrant liqueur after about two months of waiting.

Debbie Lavinsky, owner of Phoenix Pilates and Rossiter Center, said that she used to make a similar liqueur with her used etrog every year until she learned that they’re often “doused in pesticides. The vodka leaches them out even more,” she said. Now, she’s satisfied just watching them “shrivel into little almond-sized fossils.”

Along with the plethora of dishes that can be made with etrogim are the plethora of varieties of the fruit.

According to Green, Moroccan etrogim are preferred by Sephardic Jews and aren’t commonly found in America; the Diamonte variety, popular among Lubavitch Jews, is grown in the

Calabria region of Italy.

Yemenite etrogim are the most rotund; Balady, or native, etrogim are grown in Israel; and within the Balady variety, there are Halperin, Braverman and Chazon Ish etrogim, among others.

Green sources many of her etrogim from Lindcove Ranch, which grows five varieties of etrog and is experimenting

with a sixth. She deviates from many Jews who prefer to ship in the citrus from Israel, preferring fruit grown for consumption.

In Israel, etrog farms abound, but because the fruit is prone to pests and fungus, chemical interventions must be taken to protect the fruit. If the rind becomes too blemished, the

fruit is no longer deemed kosher.

“They’re not really grown to be consumed,” said Rebbetzen Reuvena Grodnitzky from Mamash! Chabad in Philadelphia. “They have a very intense level of pesticides.”

At Lindcove Ranch, however, though some pesticides are used, threats to the etrog trees are thwarted by the growth of avocado trees, which are resistant against fungal growths.

But growing etrogim is no easy feat. Kirkpatrick has worked with local farms to grow the fruit, but there have been 13 failed attempts.

“People just think they can throw seeds in the ground and make a lot of money, but it just doesn’t happen,” Kirkpatrick said.

Israeli etrogim are easier to grow, but it comes at the cost of the etrog’s taste.

Because she sources her etrogim from Israel, Grodnitzky opts to dry out the fruits and use them as besamim for Havdalah. Before the etrogim dry, she and her children, each with their own etrog, pierce the fruit’s flesh with aromatic cloves.

Tova du Plessis, the pastry chef behind Philadelphia’s Essen Bakery, takes a similar approach, boiling etrogim with cinnamon stick and sage, or whatever herbs and spices she has in the house. Lavender stems, rosemary, cloves and eucalyptus are popular in her household. The fragrance of the simmer pot acts like a scented candle, refreshing a space.

“It’s especially useful after cooking a strong-smelling dinner or when having people over,” du Plessis said.

Though not typically edible, etrogim from Israel still have an advantage over their U.S.-grown counterparts, Eleff said.

“As American Judaism embraces Zionism more and more ... Jews — Orthodox, Conservative and Reform — are taking on the mitzvah of the etrog, not just because of religious sensibilities, but also because it’s in concert with their Zionist fealty,” Eleff said.

Though Eleff joked about the priciness of etrogim, he was insistent that their lingering beyond the holidays, whether in the form of a snack, drink — or even dried and piled in a bowl in the kitchen — is remarkable.

“In a time in which there’s a lot of questions about continuity and observance, here’s an example of how people try ... to extend that meaning,” Eleff said. “The liqueurs and the jams and the like are an example of how we pour our religion into all sorts of spaces.” JN

Sasha Rogelberg is a staff writer for Jewish Exponent, a Jewish News-affiliated publication.

The bitterness of etrogim can be tamed by slicing the fruit and soaking them in syrup. COURTESY OF ALIZA GREEN

Yaakov Rothberg, owner of Esrogei California, examines his products..

PHOTO BY DAVID KARP

Featured Event

THURSDAY, OCT. 21 - SUNDAY, OCT. 24

Virtual film Screening: For the first time in its 26-year history, the Greater Phoenix Jewish Film Festival is presenting a horror film. “Dibbuk” is the tale of Dan, a pious man who lives on the fringes of the Jewish community in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. Dan is summoned by the wife of Eli, who is possessed by a frightening entity, a dibbuk. View the 39-minute short film and then watch a special interview with the film’s director and lead actor, Dayan Oualid. Cost: Free. Reserve your ticket at gpjff.org.

Events

MONDAY, Oct. 18

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

THURSDAY, OCT. 21

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

Join the Martin Pear JCC for a Northern Arizona wine tour that includes a private tasting at three wineries in the Cornville/Cottonwood Vineyards region, lunch at one of the vineyards and roundtrip private transportation to and from The J in a luxury van. Register now as space is limited to 14 people. Cost: $250 for members, $280 for guests. For more information and to register, visit apm.activecommunities.com/valleyofthesunjcc/ Activity_Search/1890.

SUNDAY, OCT. 24

Sculpture Garden: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. The Tucson JCC presents “A Celebration of Sculpture,” the J’s annual Sculpture Garden Exhibit and indoor Fine Art Gallery Opening. This juried annual outdoor exhibition featuring 9 sculptures joins the Sculpture Garden’s robust collection of sculptures by local, national and international sculptors. The indoor fine art gallery features works by 15 local artists. The opening celebration is free and open to the public of all ages. For more information, visit tucsonjcc.org/culture-community/studiofine-art/sculpture-garden. The Tucson J is located at 3800 E River Rd., Tucson, AZ 85718.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 27

Founder Presentations: 6:30 p.m. The founders of two prominent Jewish organizations, Becca Hornstein of Gesher Disability Resources and Andi Minkoff of the Minkoff Center for Jewish Genetics will each speak about their agency’s remarkable origins at the New Shul, 7825 E. Paradise Lane, Scottsdale. This panel is sponsored by the Women’s Leadership Institute. For more information and to register, visit bit.ly/WLIOct21.

Prescott’s Hadassah chapter hosts fall gathering: 3-5 p.m. Bring your own chairs and some wine to share and enjoy being together in nature at the park-like home of Carol Flinner. Special guest Eric Moore, owner of Jay’s Bird Barn will introduce attendees to the wonderful world of birds sojourning in the Prescott area. RSVP and obtain the home address of Carol Finner by Oct. 22 by emailing Hadshalommt19@gmail.com or calling Linda Hochman 623 293-8285.

SUNDAY, NOV. 7

It’s Not That Simple: Join the Martin Pear

JCC, 12701 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, for an in-person author presentation by Pam Ostrowski If your loved one has been diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer’s. Ostrowski’s guidebook, walks you through what can happen and prepares you for the challenges you may face.. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for guests. For more information and to register, visit jewishphoenix.regfox.com/ meet-the-authors-series.

Community festival: Noon-4 p.m. Join the Arizona Jewish Historical Society, 122 E Culver St, Phoenix, for a community festival celebrating the 100th anniversary of the construction of the Cutler Plotkin Jewish Heritage Center. There will be music, food trucks, activities for families and children, and special guest speakers. For more information and to donate, visit azjhs.org/ cpjhc-centennial.

TUESDAYS, OCT. 12 - NOV. 16

Drawing and watercolors painting for beginners: 6-8 p.m. Join impressionism artist Tal Dvir for a workshop at the East Valley JCC where students will learn stages of sketching, drawing and painting with watercolors. Students will observe still-life objects and landscape photos, as well as learn about the proper use of drawing tools and watercolor paints and techniques from the masters. Open to those aged 14 and up. Cost: $120 for the six-week class. For more information, and to register, visit eastvalleyjcc.regfox.com/drawingand-watercolors-with-tal-dvir. The EVJCC is located at 908 N Alma School Rd, Chandler.

WEDNESDAYS, OCT. 6-NOV. 10

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

SUNDAYS, OCT. 17-NOV. 21

ACEing Autism Tennis Program: The Tucson JCC’s ACEing Autism tennis program for kids and teens will run every Sunday from 9-10 a.m. at the Sarver Tennis Center, at the Tucson J: 3800 E River Rd, Tucson, AZ 85718. The 6-week program is open to kids and teens ages 5-18. Cost: $120. The J is seeking participants as well as volunteers ages 14 and up to run it. No tennis experience is necessary to participate or volunteer. For more information and to register, visit aceingautism. org/locations/tucson-az. To sign up to volunteer, email program director Miguel Coelho at tucson@aceingautism.org.

WEDNESDAYS

Generations After Descendants Forum: 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Join The East Valley JCC's Center for Holocaust Education, in partnership with the Phoenix Holocaust Association, for this in-person weekly discussion for children, grandchildren and descendants of Holocaust

survivors, as well as those interested in learning more about the impact of the Holocaust. The program is designed for those who have received their COVID-19 vaccination and masks will be required. Coffee and tea provided. Reservations are mandatory. Cost: Free. Call 480-897-0588 to make your reservation or visit evjcc.org/ generations-after. Contact Barbara Bloom at 928380-2360 with further questions. The EVJCC is located at 908 N Alma School Rd, Chandler.

THURSDAYS

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

SUNDAYS

Bagels: 9-11 a.m. Join the Martin Pear JCC, 12701 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, for Bagels And Gabbing every last Sunday of the month in-person. Grab a bagel and a cup of coffee and enjoy some time with your friends and make new ones. You must register to attend. Bagels and coffee will be provided. Cost: Free for members, $5 for guests. For more information and to register, visit apm.activecommunities.com/ valleyofthesunjcc/Activity_Search/1787.

J Youth Theater Rehearsals: 2-4 p.m. Beginning Sunday, Sept. 26, the Martin Pear JCC, 12701 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, is hosting rehearsals for kids in Kindergarten and first grade for this year’s production: Schoolhouse Rock Live! JR. Cost: $175 for members, $250 for guests. For more information and to register, visit mpjcc.org/theaterk.

Hybrid Meetings, Lectures & Classes

THURSDAY, NOV. 4

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

WEDNESDAYS, NOV. 3-17

Jewish Personalities in the Christian Bible: 10-11 a.m. In this Bureau of Jewish Education Class, examine the Jewish personalities in the Christian Bible. Have a Christian Bible (print or electronic) in time for the first class meeting. The in-person class will be at the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus, 12701 N Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale. Cost: $58. For more information and to register, visit bjephoenix.org/course-events/2021/11/03/ jewish-personalities-in-the-christian-bible.

WEDNESDAYS, NOV. 3-17

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

Virtual Meetings, Lectures & Classes

SUNDAY, OCT. 17

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

TUESDAY, OCT. 19

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

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 20

Restorative Justice: 1-2 p.m. In this virtual Valley Beit Midrash presentation by Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen, look at a rabbinic understanding of justice. It is not punishment centered, but rather centers the victim’s experience and looks at the three-way relationship between victim/survivor, offender, and society as the basis for creating safety and justice for everybody. Cost: $18. For more information and to register, visit valleybeitmidrash.org/event.

THURSDAY, OCT. 21

Legacy of German Judaism: 1-2 p.m. In this virtual Valley Beit Midrash presentation by Professor Paul Franks, learn about German Judaism, and what it still can offer us today. Cost: $18. For more information and to register, visit valleybeitmidrash. org/event. Cost: $18. For more information and to register, visit valleybeitmidrash.org/event.

MONDAY, OCT. 25

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

TUESDAY, OCT. 26

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

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 27

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

MONDAY, NOV. 1

Song of Songs: 1-2 p.m. In this virtual Valley Beit Midrash presentation by Rabbi Dr. Devorah Schoenfeld, learn about the Song of Songs, a collection of poems describing romantic love, that is traditionally read as an allegory for the love between God and God’s people. Traditional commentaries have tended to read the Song of Songs as one continuous narrative, telling a single

COURTESY OF THE GREATER PHOENIX

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December 3

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love story between two lovers. But is the Song of Songs one story or many? And how many lovers are there really? Cost: $18. For more information and to register, visit valleybeitmidrash.org/event/ how-many-lovers-are-in-the-song-of-songs/ TUESDAY, NOV. 2

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

Author Presentation: 4:30 p.m. Michael BarZohar, author of “The Mossad Amazons,” will virtually discuss his book, in a series presented by the Marcus JCC of Atlanta Book Fest in Your Living Room and the National JCC Literary Consortium. Cost: $11 without a copy of the book, $32 with a copy of the book. For more information and to register, visit showclix.com/ event/michael-bar-zohar-mossad-amazons/tag/ scottsdale.

Seniors

SUNDAY, OCT. 17

The Beauty of What Remains: 11 a.m. Rabbi Steve Leder will inaugurate the Wise Aging Speaker’s Bureau, a program of the Bureau of Jewish Education, for Fall 2021. As the senior rabbi of one of the largest synagogues in the world, Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, Leder has learned over and over again the many ways death teaches us how to live and love more deeply by showing us not only what is gone but also the beauty of what remains. The class will be virtual. Cost: $50. For more information and to register, visit bjephoenix.org/events/2021/center-for-wiseaging-fall-speaker-series-rabbi-steve-leder.

New York Deli Night: 5 p.m. Join Smile on Seniors for a corn beef or pastrami sandwich or an icecold Dr. Brown’s. Cost: $12. For more information and to reserve a spot, visit sosaz.org/deli.

FRIDAY, OCT. 22

Shabbat Dinner: 4:45 p.m. Join Smile on Seniors for an in-person Shabbat meal held outdoors at 2110 East Lincoln Drive, Phoenix. Cost: Suggested minimum donation of $5. The true cost per person is $40. For more information and to RSVP, visit sosaz.org/shabbat. RSVP by Oct. 24

SUNDAY, OCT, 24

Grandparent Playdate at the park: 3 p.m. Grandkids…leave your parents at home! Grab your Bubbie, Zadie, Saba, Savta or your Grandfriend, bring a blanket & pack a picnic! Crafts, activities, games, face painting by Storybook Entertainment & Kona Ice. Northsight Park, 8400 East Thunderbird Road, Scottsdale, 85260. Hosted by the PJ Library Grandparent Committee. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, visit jewishphoenix.regfox.com/ pj-library-picnic-at-the-park-with-grandparents.

SUNDAY, NOV. 14

Stress, Anxiety and Aging: 11 a.m. Join Dr. Larry Waldman for this virtual Wise Aging Speaker’s Bureau presentation. Waldman is a recently semiretired certified school psychologist and licensed clinical, forensic psychologist in Phoenix, Arizona. He conducted a highly successful private practice of 45 years working with children, teens, parents, couples, and adults in a solution-focused manner. He also consulted with family, personal injury, immigration and estate planning attorneys. Cost: $20. For more information and to register, visit bjephoenix.org/events/2021/center-for-wiseaging-fall-speaker-series-rabbi-steve-leder.

SUNDAY, DEC. 19

Getting a Good Night’s Sleep: 11 a.m. Join Dr. Mark Gotfried for this virtual Wise Aging Speaker’s Bureau presentation. He is a recently retired board-certified physician in internal medicine, pulmonary disease and sleep disorders. Cost: $20. For more information and to register, visit bjephoenix.org/events/2021/center-for-wiseaging-fall-speaker-series-rabbi-steve-leder.

MONDAYS

Sip & Schmooze: 11 a.m. Sip on kosher coffee or tea, enjoy a homemade pastry and Schmooze with great company every second Monday of the month at Luci’s Barn at the Orchard, located at 7100 North 12th Street, Phoenix. RSVP Appreciated: chani@sosaz.org or (602) 492-7670. For more information, visit sosaz.org.

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.

Dance Fusion with Michele Dionisio: 11 a.m.-noon. Presented by JFCS Center for Senior Enrichment. Cost: Free. For more information, visit jfcsaz.org/cse.

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

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction: 1-2:30 p.m. In a seven week series that begins April 5, learn how to use mindfulness techniques to help relieve anxiety, depression and pain. Cost: Free. For more information and to register, contact seniorcenter@jfcsaz.org or call Jennifer Brauner at 602-343-0192.

TUESDAYS

Zumba Gold with Adriana Padilla: 9:30-10:15 a.m.. This virtual class is perfect for active older adults who want a modified Zumba class with lower-intensity. Class focuses on all elements of fitness: cardiovascular, muscular conditioning, flexibility and balance. Come to this virtual class ready to sweat, and prepare to leave empowered and feeling strong. 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 Games with Friends: 2-3 p.m. Challenge your brains while having fun. Experts believe that active learning helps maintain brain health by preventing loss of cognitive skills such as memory, reasoning and judgment. For more information or to register, visit vosjcc.org/j-at-home-adults.

Movie Discussion Group: 11 a.m. Join Smile on Seniors on the third Tuesday of every month hosted by Issy Lifshitz. Cost: Free. For full details and the movie of the month visit sosaz.org/virtual or email Rabbi Levi Levertov at levi@sosaz.org. Because of Shavuot, May’s event will be May 20 instead of May 18

WEDNESDAYS

Fitness Fun with Zoe: 10-10:45 a.m. In this virtual class, do some light chair exercise class 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. JN

Mahjong Mondays are back!

Sukkah on wheels

Simchat Shabbat services.

“We created a prayer book that was made very specifically for as many challenges as I could anticipate,” she said. Instead of having Hebrew and transliteration, they contain pictures which serve as visual cues for what to do and when — be it putting on a tallit, singing a song or standing up or down.

For the kids who became adults and no longer wanted to live with their parents, she created group homes. The first of them, Shalom House, opened in September 2001 and just celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Hornstein retired in 2014 and has been an engaged Gesher board member since, as is Berk-Lippincott.

MILESTONES

“Who wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I’m going to go to work and maybe make someone’s life a little better.' How did I get that lucky to have that opportunity? What a blessing,” Hornstein said.

In 2017, the agency changed its name to Gesher Disability Resources to more accurately reflect what it’s become. Gesher is a Hebrew word meaning “bridge,” and that’s what the agency is for its members.

Looking back, Hornstein and Berk-Lippincott are proud of what they accomplished.

“I’ve learned that just as autism is a spectrum disorder, that there is a spectrum of people out there — and while some of them may disappoint you tremendously, there are so many people who are just waiting for you to ask for some help. And they will,” Hornstein said.

Madeleine Sandra Gross of Scottsdale, formerly of Pittsburgh, died at age 83 on Monday, Sept. 13, 2021, surrounded by her family.

Madeleine was the third child of Samuel and Gertrude Rubin, and niece of Jean Ruben Miller. She was predeceased by her sister, Joyce Rubin. She is survived by her sisters, Norma Olszewski, Karen Bond, Linda Marzurek; her brother, Gary Ruben; her sons, Lee (Megan) Gross, Stuart (Tina) Gross, Andrew (Tracy) Gross and James (Nureet) Gross; 13 grandchildren, Ophir, Max, Roni, Lewis, Jake, Carly, Tav, Tessa, Akiva, Hinda, Elimelech, Gavin and Alexander; and two step-grandchildren, Trae Nelson and Jamiah Ming.

Madeleine succumbed to renal failure after putting up a valiant fight over the last few years of her life. Madeleine will be remembered as a loving and very generous sister, mother and grandmother.

Graveside services and interment were held at Mt. Sinai Cemetery in Phoenix on Friday, Sept. 17, 2021. Contributions in her honor can be made at Arizona Kosher Pantry, azkosherpantry.org, United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s Fund uwswpa.org/donate or a charity of your choosing.

Emily Kay Solnick, 69, died on Sept. 18, 2021. A lifelong educator and hard worker – always organized.

Emily was a born teacher. As a child, she taught her dolls; later she was a trailblazer, teaching in the early days of Project Head Start as visualized by President Lyndon B Johnson. A constant organizer and facilitator, she went on to teach kindergarten through third grade in Lubbock and El Paso, Texas public schools. Known previously at work as Emily Barksdale and Emily Harris, Ms. Solnick earned her master’s in education from University of Texas, El Paso, in 1997, while originating a Child Development Lab at Franklin High School, El Paso. She taught high schoolers how to interact with and nurture kindergarteners. Emily continued to teach in elementary and high schools in Tempe and Phoenix -- Tempe Elementary Central Office, Central High School, Camelback High School in Phoenix -- finally retiring when cancer surfaced and took over her life. Emily had worked at least two jobs most of her life without complaint, while treasuring time with her dear daughter, Leah Evelyn Solnick. In addition to her daughter, Leah, Emily is survived by sisters, Stefanie Solnick Cargill (Jerry) and Susan Solnick Schecter (David). Emily was buried in the Temple Mount Sinai Cemetery, El Paso, Texas, next to her parents, Clarence and Etta Solnick. Donations in her memory may be made to Temple Emanuel of Tempe (emanueloftempe.org/donate), Temple Mount Sinai, El Paso, TX (templemountsinai.com/donate) and Hospice of the Valley, Phoenix (hov.org).

To parents who have just been handed a diagnosis, “I want to say, ‘Give it a try. You can do it. There’s strength in you that you don’t realize you have.’”

Berk-Lippincott said it takes a village to put an organization like this together, “and we’re blessed to be living in such a village. Group homes and social groups and just everything that we have now — we couldn’t dream of those things back in 1985,” she said.

Amy Hummell, who joined Gesher as executive director in 2015, said she is honored to continue the work started by Hornstein and Berk-Lippincott.

She is looking to develop more organizational partnerships. For example, she is hoping to partner with the Martin Pear Jewish Community Center for Wednesday night social groups.

“I want Wednesday nights at the JCC to become the place to be for adults with disabilities,” she said.

Next steps for the organization also include more residential housing and continuing to grow special education resources and infrastructure for Jewish schools.

Hummell’s children do not have disabilities, but she joined Gesher after about a decade with Autism Speaks.

“It’s hard when you’re in the thick of it, struggling as well as working in the industry,” Hummell said. “When I was at Autism Speaks there was a big movement of parents asking for help, saying, ‘We’re tired. We’ve been doing this fundraising and programming and also dealing with our kids.’ I’m really fighting for all these kids and families.” JN

Jonas Montgomery Fergal becomes a bar mitzvah on Oct. 30, 2021, at Temple Emanuel of Tempe. He is the son of Robyn and Daniel Fergal of Chandler.

Grandparents are Charlene and Thomas Hajny of Scottsdale; and Mary and James Fergal of Sun Lakes.

For his mitzvah project, Jonas has been making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Arizona Friends of the Homeless.

A student at Santan Junior High School, Jonas enjoys playing trumpet, cooking, rock climbing, biking, making beats on his computer and is learning jiujitsu.

Ari David Lipschultz becomes a bar mitzvah on Nov. 6, 2021, at Beth El Congregation. He is the son of Naomi and Rabbi Jeffrey Lipschultz of Phoenix.

Grandparents are Shirley and Charles Grossman of Phoenix; and Marilyn Mitchell and Donn Kessler of Phoenix; and the late Dr. Allen Lipschultz.

For his mitzvah project, Ari volunteers with Gesher Disability Resources.

A student at Pardes Jewish Day School, Ari enjoys playing strategic video games, piano and with his new puppy.

Samuel Reign Perrin becomes a bar mitzvah on Oct. 16, 2021, at Temple Chai. He is the son of Allison and Edward Perrin of Phoenix. Grandparents are Lynn Barnett of Cape Charles, Virginia and John Crissman of Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan; and Marilyn and Charles Perrin of La Jolla, California.

For his mitzvah project, Samuel is providing one-on-one technology tutoring for older adults in a senior living community. A student at Sunrise Middle School, Samuel enjoys soccer, piano, swimming and caring for his many pets at home.

Isaac Rubenstein becomes a bar mitzvah on Oct. 23, 2021, at Temple Emanuel of Tempe. He is the son of Rachel Pitt Rubenstein and Gregory Rubenstein of Tempe.

Grandparents are Dr. Michael Pitt of Boca Raton, Florida and the late Sheila Dale Brown Pitt; and Eileen and Gary Rubenstein of Sun Lakes.

For his mitzvah project, Isaac volunteered at Feed My Starving Children, a nonprofit that prepares meals in schools, orphanages and feeding programs. A student at ASPIRE Academy at Connolly Middle School, Isaac enjoys playing baseball, chess, video games and with his dogs. JN

BAR MITZVAH

BAR MITZVAH

BAR MITZVAH

BAR MITZVAH

JONAS MONTGOMERY FERGAL

SAMUEL REIGN PERRIN

ARI DAVID LIPSCHULTZ

BERNARD WILLIAM LEVINE

Born September 6, 1935, died September 25, 2021.

Bernie (or Billy as he was called in his younger days) was born Sept. 6, 1935, to Rose and Jack Levine in the Bronx, New York. Bernie was adored by, and in-turn adored his family, especially his older sister Joyce. Separately, Bernie’s parents immigrated to the US from Europe in the early 1920s. They had witnessed the horrors of the antisemitic pogroms in Eastern Europe following World War I, and each sought lives free from hatred against Jews. Rose and Jack both followed older siblings to the US. Their parents and several siblings remained in Eastern Europe and were among the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. The Holocaust remained a wound throughout Bernie’s life, and is a scar that continues to guide the moral compass of Bernie’s family.

Bernie graduated from Columbia University, with a degree in political science, and the University of Michigan Law School. His favorite memory from his days at Columbia was his interview with Eleanor Roosevelt for the college radio station.

It was while at the University of Michigan that Bernie met his first wife, Marian Goody. In the early years, Bernie practiced real estate law in New York and in 1962 their first daughter, Randie, was born. The following year, the stars in the universe aligned in such a way that Bernie, Marian and Randie left New York for the tropical paradise of Montego Bay, Jamaica. Bernie and Marian owned and operated a small hotel across the street from a beautiful beach on the Caribbean and in 1965 welcomed their second daughter, Melissa. Despite rolling electrical brown-outs, TV that ended in the early evening, ice that was delivered in a huge block into a dirt pit on the side of the road and an occasional hurricane, life in Jamaica was idyllic. The Levines welcomed guests to the hotel with their Irish setter, Cindy, chased trucks carrying sugar cane and even greeted Queen Elizabeth. In 1969, with young daughters in tow, Bernie and Marian packed up, sold the hotel and boarded a plane for Florida. In Florida, the family purchased a car and proceeded to spend the next several weeks driving across the southern portion of the US in search of a new home. Upon arriving in Phoenix, Marian declared that the palm trees were beautiful. True to Bernie’s unconditionally supportive manner, the matter was settled – Phoenix would be their new home.

Bernie had a commercial real estate practice for several years and again, Bernie and Marian entered the hotel business. As part of the

Quality Inn brand, Bernie’s hotel ventures were successful and he rose to leadership positions in the franchisees’ association and the Arizona industry associations. Without drama, Bernie and Marian divorced in the mid-1980s. Several years later, Bernie met Lois Klein, also a hospitality industry professional, and the two were married in 1990. Lois brought out a fun-loving side of Bernie and they were happily married for nearly 30 years until Lois’ passing in 2019. He has missed her terribly.

Bernie and Lois doted on grandchildren, spent weekends at their condo in Prescott, took up bicycling, traveled the Greek Isles, toured Britain with stops to visit Bernie’s dear friends from Jamaica, enjoyed numerous trips to Chicago and New York, cruised Europe, delighted in the wonder of the Copper Canyon in Chihuahua, Mexico, adventured to Australia and New Zealand in 2000 for the Olympic Games, sampled the latest restaurants in Phoenix, relished spending time with their friends and Lois got Bernie to exercise and eat breakfast for the first time in his life.

True to his nature, Bernie was fully devoted to Lois and her care from the moment of her diagnosis until the time of her passing. Bernie became Lois’ chief chef, shopper, appointment maker, driver and comfort. He took on these responsibilities willingly and cheerfully, and did his best to execute them in exactly the way Lois would have had she been

able to do them herself. This was Bernie’s true persona: selflessly caring and devoted.

Bernie was well-known in the Arizona Hospitality Industry. In 1974, Bernie purchased Quality Inn Desert Sky motel and quickly became involved in the governance of the International Operators Council of Quality International and served as president from 1981 to 1985. Bernie purchased a second hotel in 1980. He served on numerous boards in the Valley and was president of both the Valley Hotel & Resort Association and the Arizona Lodging and Tourism Association.

Bernie was appointed by two governors to the Arizona Tourism Advisory Counsel and was inducted into the Arizona Governor’s Tourism Hall of Fall at the 2003 STAR Gala. After selling his hotel properties, Bernie continued in the hotel/motel real estate business until shortly before his passing. He last renewed his real estate license in the fall of 2019. Bernie loved driving the beautiful state of Arizona and the rich history of Phoenix and many of the small towns. Bernie always loved his work.

Bernie was an exceptional conversationalist and a voracious reader, who especially enjoyed political biographies and historical novels. Bernie was enamored with the trappings of politics and was a life-long student of public policy. He was a loyal and devoted husband, cherished father, fiercely proud grandfather, dedicated son and brother and a gentle, trustworthy and thoroughly decent human being.

Bernie is predeceased by his parents, Jack and Rose and stepmother Elsie; sister, Joyce Brenner (Milty); and wife, Lois. Bernie is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Randie and Lee Stein; daughter and daughter-in-law, Melissa Levine and Lisa Byrnes; grandchildren, Alex Stein, Elizabeth Stein, Josh Levine and Jeremy Levine; niece, Susan Morton (Chet); nephew, Gary Brenner; stepson, Jordan Klein; and numerous granddogs.

Bernie died from complications associated with esophageal cancer, originally diagnosed in February 2019. The family is grateful for the wonderful care Bernie and Lois received over the past seven years from Connections in Home Care. Bernie’s final days were peaceful and spent together with his daughters and family. Contributions in Bernie’s memory can be made to the American Cancer Society, Temple Kol Ami in Scottsdale or Congregation Or Chadash in Tucson. Arrangements by Sinai Mortuary.

40-CLASS SERIES: The 40 Greatest Debates in Jewish History!

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz

Aug 10, ‘21 - Jan 11, ‘22 @ 10:00 am PT

Brave Space Dialogue: Racism in the Jewish Community

Kiyomi Kowalski

Tuesday, Oct. 26 @ 3:00pm PT

Beyond Caging: Restorative Justice and Rethinking Safety

Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen

Wednesday, Oct 20 @ 1:00 pm PT

How Many Lovers Are in the Song of Songs?

Rabbi Dr. Devorah Schoenfeld

Monday, Nov 1 @ 1:00 pm PT

Honeybees and Torah

Rabbi Amalia Haas

Wednesday, Nov 17 @ 1:00 pm MT

Requiring Brit Mikvah for female trans converts?

Rabbi Adina Lewittes

Thursday, Jan 20, ‘22 @ 1:00 pm MT

A Nation That Dwells Alone: Questions and Implications

Dr. Noam Weissman

Wednesday, Feb 9, ‘22 @ 1:00 pm MT

Hannukah in the Bible?

Professor Marc Zvi Brettler

Monday, Nov 29 @ 1:00 pm MT

Early Zionist Approaches to the Existing Arab Population

Lauren Cohen Fisher

Monday, Jan 24, ‘22 @ 1:00 pm MT

Rabbinic Inferno: Hell in Classical Judaism

Professor Dov Weiss

Thursday, Feb 17, ‘22 @ 1:00 pm MT

Torah with the Way of the Land: The Legacy of German Judaism and Some Questions for Ethically Engaged Jews Today

Professor Paul Franks

Thursday, Oct 21 @ 1:00 pm PT

The Jewish Genius for Surviving Catastrophe In-Person or Virtual Options

DR. SHERMAN MINKOFF MEMORIAL LECTURE

Rabbi Ed Feinstein

Thursday, Nov 4 @ 7:00 pm PT

How Heschel Taught Me To Be An Artist

Mindy Weisel

Thursday, Dec 2 @ 1:00 pm MT

The Chassidic Story: A New Window to God

Jonnie Schnytzer

Monday, Oct 25 @ 1:00 pm PT

Embers of Pilgrimage –Interview with Dr. Eitan Fishbane on his new book!

Dr. Eitan Fishbane

Tuesday, Nov 9 @ 1:00 pm MT

Disability and the Politics of Healing

Rabbi Julia Watts Belser

Monday, Dec 6 @ 1:00 pm MT

From Flood to Rainbow

Rabbi Avi Strausberg

Monday, Jan 31, ‘22 @ 1:00 pm MT

The Significance of the Mitzvot of Purim in our lives today

Rabbanit Sharona Halickman

Thursday, Mar 10, ‘22 @ 9:00 am MT

How to Answer a Fool

Professor Christine Hayes

Thursday, Feb 3, ‘22 @ 1:00 pm MT

A Virtual Tour of the First Jewish Community in North America!

Janet R. Kirchheimer

Thursday, Mar 24, ‘22 @ 1:00 pm PDT

Almost all events on Zoom, just $18 per event! Season Pass Holders enjoy unlimited attendance for $54 a month Learn More at www.ValleyBeitMidrash.org

Ruach Hamidbar