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VOLUME XIII, NUMBER 9
APRIL 23, 2015
Jewish Federation of NEPA: “We Stand with Israel”
A series of Federation programs scheduled for the coming months will seek to underscore the “close ties” the Jewish communities of Northeastern Pennsylvania have with the state of Israel. In addition to the continual financial support for the Jewish homeland through the annual UJA Campaign, the Federation has announced events it hopes will be attended by “all who hold the state of Israel dear.” In honor of Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, the Federation hosted a screening of the film “Beneath the Helmet,” a coming-of-age film about the lives of Israeli high school graduates as they enter the Israel Defense Force. The movie was free of charge and was shown on April 23 at the JCC. Lee Glassman, also known as the Federation’s tour guide, will be visiting the community on Thursday, May 28, and will speak on some of his favorite locations in the holy land. Glassman
A previous Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania mission to Israel group posed for a photo.
has led more than 200 members of the Northeastern Pennsylvania community on tours during its missions to Israel. He is said to be “passionate about Israel” and to have developed “a particularly warm relationship” for the mission, as he grew up in Scranton. The annual Celebrate Israel Parade has been scheduled for Sunday, May 31, in New York City. This year’s theme will be “Imagine Israel.” The Federation will present a banner and T-shirts with its slogan, “Imagine YOU in Israel.” To register for the parade, call Dassy Ganz at 570-961-2300, ext. 2. The culmination of the year will be the Israel Mission, this year planned for October 18-28. This year’s theme will be “Bring Your Friends to Israel.” The Federation is looking for groups of friends to join together to make this “a most exciting and meaningful experience.” Jay Weiss will give trip highlights at the May 28 event when Glassman will speak.
Scranton Hebrew Day School 67th anniversary dinner set for May 3
Final preparations are under way for the 67th anniversary dinner of the Scranton Hebrew Day School, which will be held on Sunday, May 3, at 5 pm, at the Jewish
Community Center, 601 Jefferson Ave., Scranton. The gala dinner will pay tribute to Rabbi Yosef and Tziporah Guttman,
the guests of honor; Diamond Alumna awardees Hindy Fink Wolf, Judy Fink Eiger and Shelly Fink Presby, class of 1955; and Pearl Alumnus awardee
Competing views of Iran deal highlight challenges ahead analysis By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) – Now that the outline for an Iran nuclear agreement has been released – or, more precisely, two outlines, one by Iran, the other by the Obama administration – major gaps have emerged that will need to be resolved ahead of a June 30 deadline for a final deal, including when sanctions on Iran are lifted. President Barack Obama and Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, issued conflicting statements recently on the sanctions issue, with Obama suggesting sanctions would be relaxed only once Iran begins to implement its obligations and Khamenei demanding that all sanctions be suspended upon signing an agreement. Khamenei also vowed that military sites would not be open to nuclear inspectors, which clashes with the American text, which says inspectors have the right to visit suspicious sites “anywhere in the country.” The next round of talks is likely to be held within three weeks in New York City, on the sidelines of a meeting of the United Nations Disarmament Commission, and both Obama and Khamenei have said
that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. In the coming weeks, both sides will endeavor to sell the deal to its various constituencies: Iran to its domestic hardliners, and the Obama administration to Congress, Jewish groups and skeptical allies, Israel chief among them. What the Obama administration wants to see In its outline of a framework accord reached earlier this month in Switzerland, and in subsequent statements and interviews, the Obama administration has focused preeminently on the strict limits it is seeking on Iran’s capacity to enrich uranium. These include limiting Iran’s advanced centrifuges to scientific research and reducing the number of active first-generation centrifuges, from 19,000 to 5,060, for 10 years. Enrichment would be limited to 3.67 percent, the level required for medical research and well short of weaponization levels. Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium would be limited to 300 kilograms for 15 years. The deal would also provide for a regimen of intrusive inspections at all Iranian facilities.
“You have assurances that their stockpile of highly enriched uranium remains in a place where they cannot create a nuclear weapon,” Obama told National Public Radio recently. According to the administration’s outline, sanctions relief is conditioned on Iran abiding by its commitments. The sanctions architecture will remain in place so they can be quickly reimposed if Iran defaults. Additionally, Obama administration officials have emphasized that Iran’s breakout time will be extended from the current two to three months to a year, although how this will be quantified is not yet clear. See “Iran” on page 6
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE Antisemitic attacks
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Rabbi Ely Karp, class of 1985. The dinner will be preceded, at 3:45 pm, by a reception and ribbon-cutting for the David and Norma Harris Memorial Education Center at the school, 540 Monroe Ave., Scranton. A commemorative journal will be distributed at the program. To place an ad or make reservations for the dinner, call the school office at 570-346-1576, ext. 2, by Monday, April 27.
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Pay it forward & give to the 2015 Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania Annual Campaign! Goal: $896,000 For information or to make a donation call 570-961-2300 ext. 1 or send your gift to: Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania 601 Jefferson Ave., Scranton, PA 18510
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Candle lighting April 24......................................... 7:34 pm May 1............................................. 7:42 pm May 8............................................. 7:49 pm May 15........................................... 7:56 pm
A report by Tel Aviv University The fledgling natural gas industry Argentina’s Senate OK’s AMIA researchers finds attacks against is opening the door for a better bombing victim families getting PLUS Jews is on the rise worldwide. future for northern Israelis. one-time payments; and more. Opinion........................................................2 Story on page 5 Story on page 6 Stories on page 15 D’var Torah..............................................10
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THE REPORTER ■ april 23, 2015
a matter of opinion Want to stop Iran’s nukes? Use less oil By Edwin Black (JTA) – With the conclusion of a framework agreement over Iran’s nuclear agreement, many remain profoundly unsure whether the deal will successfully prevent Tehran’s acquisition of a nuclear weapon. Under the terms of the agreement, much of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure will remain in place. Its Shahab-3 missiles are still capable of reaching Tel Aviv. And its capacity to produce enriched uranium, while diminished, would not be erased. The diplomats negotiating with Iran are understandably focused on two key fuels, uranium and plutonium, but they ignore the one ancient fuel driving the entire process: oil. Petrodollars have been financing Iran’s nuclear program for almost two decades. The world powers negotiating with Iran are struggling to establish a robust monitoring system to ensure that Iran cannot break out to build a bomb, but the average person can help slow the centrifuges simply by reducing their household and commercial demand for oil. Even though Iranian oil has been proscribed by international sanctions, all oil is fungible. When oil consumption is measurably reduced in America and elsewhere, it lowers the value of oil in global markets. That cheapens the value of Iran’s oil, the financial furnace of its nuclear program. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Iran needs oil to sell at approximately $143 per barrel to maintain its social, governmental and military programs. But
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Opinions The views expressed in editorials and opinion pieces are those of each author and not necessarily the views of the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Letters The Reporter welcomes letters on subjects of interest to the Jewish community. All letters must be signed and include a phone number. The editor may withhold the name upon request. ADS The Reporter does not necessarily endorse any advertised products and services. In addition, the paper is not responsible for the kashruth of any advertiser’s product or establishment. Deadline Regular deadline is two weeks prior to the publication date. Federation website: www.jewishnepa.org How to SUBMIT ARTICLES: Mail: 601 Jefferson Ave., Scranton, PA 18510 E-mail: jfnepareporter@jewishnepa.org Fax: (570) 346-6147 Phone: (570) 961-2300 How to reach the advertising Representative: Phone: (800) 779-7896, ext. 244 E-mail: bonnie@thereportergroup.org Subscription Information: Phone: (570) 961-2300
the global glut, combined with the recession and some conservation, have driven recent prices into the high $40s and $50s per barrel. This means that even if sanctions are relaxed, Iran will still be hurting at the pump and in the bank. Iran has been storing its unsellable surplus in 13 supertankers parked in the Persian Gulf, Bloomberg reported. Each tanker can carry about two million barrels, and estimates based on the depth of their hulls suggest the ships are laden with crude. These ships have floated like seaborne warehouses for more than a year, and many suggest more than two years. In the meantime, Iran has cut its output from a pre-sanctions 2012 level of 2.5 million per day to just over one million today. Oil impoverishment is the only reason Iran is now negotiating on its uranium enrichment. The two are linked.
In any international accord, it would take Iran some time to recover from its oil glut, especially with millions of barrels at sea waiting for customers. The floating oil reserves would likely be sold first. Consumers and businesses can make that recovery more difficult without buying an electric car, peddling a bicycle to work or canceling a road trip. Transportation accounts for roughly two-thirds of U.S. petroleum imports. Most gasoline today contains 10 percent ethanol, an alcohol fuel derived from corn and other crops. The recent Hollywood documentary “Pump,” in which I made a brief appearance along with numerous other oil addiction experts, revealed that most modern motor vehicles can accept E-85 – that is, up to 85 percent ethanol – with a simple software update, and in some cases a single click, automotive engineers explain. Even more compelling, “Pump”
demonstrates how more than nine million American flex-fuel automobiles, the ones with a yellow gas cap, are already built to accept E-85. This one software update could drastically cut American oil consumption if ethanol supply rose commensurately. The engineers in the “Pump” documentary demonstrated that the software update process takes only a few minutes. If government and commercial fleet managers, as well as ordinary consumers, see how easy it is to switch, America could be swept by a sea-change reduction in our dependence on foreign oil. Regardless of what the nuclear negotiators and inspectors do, average people could help permanently drive the outcome. Edwin Black is the author of “IBM and the Holocaust,” a New York Times best-seller, along with several books on the oil industry.
Seventy years later, recalling the liberation of Bergen-Belsen By Bernice Lerner The Jewish Advocate/JNS.org On April 15, 1945, the British Second Army entered Bergen-Belsen. One week later, prisoners in the concentration camp beat Rachel Genuth (my mother) until she lost consciousness. The 15year-old had managed throughout the war to evade punishment at the hand of a Nazi officer or kapo. Now, after the liberation, while blows fell on her, she thought, “We who survived will never be human again.” In the winter and spring of 1945, Bergen-Belsen, in northwest Germany, had morphed into the largest repository for inmates shunted from the east, away from Allied forces. In this massive camp complex, Jews who had escaped the crematoria of Auschwitz and survived slave labor camps and death marches met a new Nazi version of hell. Rachel arrived in mid-March, a month that saw the deaths of more than 18,000 inmates, including Anne Frank. Together with other lice-infested and starved young women, she encountered thousands of men so emaciated that their ribs could be counted; it would have been impossible to recognize one’s father or brother among them. Rachel soon became inured to the sight of skeletal beings collapsing, people relieving themselves wherever, corpses being thrown onto open trucks. She existed in an overcrowded hut, without sanitary facilities and with practically nothing to eat. She contracted tuberculosis. Her childhood friend died in a typhoid delirium in her arms. These diseases were spreading like wildfire. On April 10, the SS stopped distributing food and water. No rotten turnip soup. No bread. Nothing. Rachel heard that the dying inmates of Bergen-Belsen were about to be served bread laced with crushed glass.
But there was no last ration. There was no bomb explosion to kill them all. On April 12, German officials approached an outpost of the British Second Army’s 8th Corps. They asked for a truce. The battlefront was near, Bergen-Belsen would be discovered and health issues – should sick survivors wander into the German countryside – were “a matter of international concern.” The British agreed to a no-fire zone around the camp, and to treat and contain an ostensible 1,500 typhus cases. They agreed to escort the camp’s Wehrmacht and SS officers to the front lines, leaving 120 administrative SS to remain in the camp during the handover. Meanwhile, in Bergen-Belsen, the SS tried to hide evidence of their crimes. They burned documents. They ordered inmates who could still walk to drag the dead to a mass grave. Forced to join the “burial parade,” Rachel and her 17year-old sister Elisabeth pulled corpses by their ankles to a pit at the end of the camp’s swampy road. Under the threat of overseers’ whips, the slaves began their work at 6 am and continued until dusk. The clean-up attempt lasted three days; famished inmates moved slowly and many died on the job. On the sunny and warm Sunday that soldiers of the Second Army’s 63rd AntiTank Regiment entered Bergen-Belsen, they found 60,000 tortured souls. They counted more than 13,000 unburied dead in all states of decomposition. They vomited. They cursed. They suffered psychosomatic symptoms, such as severe headaches and paralysis. Had they not seen such wretchedness with their own eyes, they never would have believed it possible. The “liberators” called Camp One – with 41,000 prisoners and piles of corpses – the “Horror Camp.” Languishing in the large compound of Camp One’s
female section, Rachel had the advantage of a resting place against the wall and near the door of her fetid hut. Like most other Camp One inmates, she was too weak to rise and greet her saviors. On April 16, the 63 rd Anti-Tank Regiment brought in and distributed food and water, a task fraught with challenges. More than 2,000 died after eating meals too heavy for their shriveled intestines. With some nourishment, Rachel revived enough to forage. She found the cookhouses bare. While the British mobilized resources, they left Nazi-allied Hungarians in charge. Perched in high posts, these guards shot inmates who ran to mounds of potatoes. Darting toward buried spuds, Rachel saw another daring girl collapse, her leg pierced by a bullet. On April 18, the Second Army’s 11th Lightfield Ambulance pitched tents for ambulatory inmates; by reducing numbers in the huts, they could better reach those too sick to line up for food. Rachel, Elisabeth and three sisters from their hometown shared one tent. Each evening one of them was responsible for closing the tent’s flap door. After three nights, it was Rachel’s turn. Too weak to perform her duty, she had to crawl the short distance back to the hut. When she tried to reclaim her spot against the wall, the women occupying it attacked her. She never blamed them. The SS created the conditions that had led to such untold depths. Bernice Lerner, director of adult learning at Hebrew College, is author of “The Triumph of Wounded Souls: Seven Holocaust Survivors’ Lives.” She is working on a dual biography of her mother, Ruth Mermelstein (nee Rachel Genuth), from Sighet, Transylvania, and Brigadier H. L. Glyn Hughes, liberator of Bergen-Belsen. This article was originally published by The Jewish Advocate of Boston.
letters to the editor Neville Chamberlain and Barack Obama “cut from the same cloth” To the Editor: Some of us are old enough to remember Neville Chamberlain returning from Nazi Germany, waving a piece a paper which, according to him, guaranteed peace with the Nazis and the rest of Europe. We all know how that turned out.
Now President Obama has promised us that his agreement with Iran will bring peace to the world. He keeps emphasizing how we will be able to monitor their actions, although that has never worked before. It seems to me that he is only in-
terested in his own legacy, with no regard as to what will happen after he leaves office. This is a bad deal for Israel, the United States and the rest of the world. Allan Trynz Hemlock Farms
april 23, 2015 ■
THE REPORTER
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community news JFHF Men’s Club to present Tuvia Tenenbom on May 3 The Men’s Club of the Jewish Fellowship of dramatic writing and literature. Hemlock Farms will present Tuvia Tenenbom Tenenbom has written more than 16 plays on Sunday, May 3, at 10 am, at the Jewish for The Jewish Theater of New York and is Fellowship of Hemlock Farms, Lords Valley. widely recognized by American and EuroTenenbom will give a book reading of “Catch pean critics. The German newspaper Die Zeit the Jew!” and facilitate a discussion of current described Tenenbom’s play “The Last Virgin” events in Israel. as “more desperately needed in Germany than Reservations will be required. The cost to suspected”; The New York Times, reviewing attend will be $5 per person, which includes “Father of the Angels,” called it “irresista continental breakfast. For reservations or ibly fascinating”; and Italy’s Corriere Della more information, contact Carole Weiss at the Tuvia Tenenbom Sera, reviewing “Last Jew in Europe,” named Jewish Fellowship at 570-775-7497. Tenebom “one of the most iconoclastic and Tenenbom, born in 1957 in Bnei Brak, Israel, is a innovative of contemporary dramatists.” theater director, playwright, author, journalist, essayTenenbom writes for various newspapers and websites, ist and the founding artistic director of The Jewish and his political articles, cultural criticism and essays Theater of New York, the only English-speaking have appeared in media outlets that include Die Zeit, Jewish theater in New York City. Tenenbom was Corriere Della Sera, Yediot Achronot in Israel, and Fox called the “founder of a new form of Jewish theatre” News. Tenenbom is also a columnist for Zeit Online, by Frances’ Le Monde and a “New Jew” by Israel’s writing on sports and spirituality. Maariv. Tenenbom is also an academic, having uniTenenbom’s book “I Sleep in Hitler’s Room,” pubversity degrees in mathematics, computer science, lished by The Jewish Theater of New York, is a psy-
Program on Jewish-Catholic relations to be held on May 7 The Weinberg Judaic Studies Institute of the University of Scranton has invited the community to attend “The Church and the Jews, Fifty Years After Vatican II” on Thursday, May 7, at 7:30 pm, in the Brennan Auditorium. The speakers will be Dr. David Berger, of Yeshiva University, and Dr. Philip Cunningham, of St. Joseph’s University. They will discuss changes that have occurred in Catholic-Jewish relations in the last 50 years. Berger is the Ruth and I. Lewis Gordon Professor of Jewish History and dean at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University. For many years, he was a professor of history at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of “The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High Middle Ages” and numerous articles on medieval Jewish history, Jewish-Christian relations, antisemitism, contemporary Judaism and the intellectual history of the Jews. Cunningham is a professor of theology, special-
izing in Christian-Jewish relations, and director of the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations of Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. He also serves as president of the International Council of Christians and Jews, secretary-treasurer of the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations and has been a member of the Advisory Committee on CatholicJewish Relations for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He is also webmaster of Dialogika, the CCJR’s online resource site. He is the author of the forthcoming book, “Seeking Shalom: The Journey to Right Relationship between Catholics and Jews,” slated for publication in 2015 by Eerdmans Publishing Co. He is also a member of the Christian Scholars Group on Christian-Jewish Relations and contributed to its 2002 statement, “A Sacred Obligation: Rethinking Christian Faith in Relation to Judaism and the Jewish People,” and its 2005 book, “Seeing Judaism Anew: Christianity’s Sacred Obligation” (Sheed and Ward).
chological travelogue through present-day Germany. Described by the Israeli paper Ha’aretz as an “alarming account of antisemitism,” the book details the wide spread of modern antisemitism in Europe. Tenenbom’s book “Catch the Jew!,” published by Gefen Publishing, recounts the adventures of Tenenbom, who wanders around the Israel calling himself “Tobi the German.” According to The Jewish Theater, “In the course of numerous interviews, he extracts information, sentiments, hidden theories and delusional visions motivating the miscellany of peoples forming the present-day Holy Land.” Published in Israel in September 2014 by Sela Meir Publishers, “Catch the Jew!” became a best-seller, reaching the number one spot on Ha’aretz, Steimatzky and Yediot Achronot bestseller lists, and winning major praise by Israeli critics. MIDA (Magen David Alom) called Tenenbom “the ultimate leftist and humanist who loves all people, is everything the left pretends to be but is not,” while Channel 2 TV named it “the most important book in the last five years.” Ha’aretz advised its readers to “read Tenenbom’s book; we don’t have the luxury not to know what he’s telling us.”
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Thursday, April 23.............................. May 7 Thursday, May 7............................... May 21 Thursday, May 21............................... June 4 Thursday, June 4............................... June 18
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THE REPORTER ■ april 23, 2015
Meet the new “Jewish Oprah”
By Beth Kissileff (JTA) – On April 1, Naomi FirestoneTeeter became executive director of the Jewish Book Council, which promotes the reading, writing, publishing and distribution of English-language Jewish books. Firestone-Teeter, whose predecessor Carolyn Hessel has been called “the Jewish Oprah” for her success at promoting books, has been working her way up in the organization since graduating from Emory University in 2006, serving most recently as its associate director. JTA recently caught up by e-mail with the 31-year-old exec. The interview has been condensed and edited. JTA: What interested you in this kind of work? Firestone-Teeter: I studied literature in college, a passion of mine from as early as I can remember, so the importance of both having literature in my own life as I moved forward and helping to cultivate that interest in others has been one of my key drivers. In academic environments, reading and literature are a natural part of the culture, but beyond these institutions it often requires effort to both keep up with one’s reading and also create situations in which one can engage with others about what they’re reading. On the Jewish side, I grew up in a family that took Judaism very seri-
and literary, obviously everyously and was surrounded one should be using Jewish (literally, wall to wall in Book Council’s online resome rooms) by both Jewish sources, but for more general and secular texts. literary resources, some of my JTA: I know that you have favorite sites include Electric done a great deal with using Literature, PEN American the Web and social media to Center, Largehearted Boy, create a presence for Jewish One Story, MobyLives! and books. How does the Internet Words Without Borders, affect reading habits? among others! Firestone-Teeter: I think Naomi FirestoneJTA: Who are your favorite the Internet is a very exciting Teeter (Photo courtesy Jewish authors? place for the literary comof the Jewish Book Firestone-Teeter: My list munity and has created many Council) is constantly changing, and new paths for discovery for readers and many new opportunities for I work with so many incredible authors, authors to find their readers. Essentially, that this is truly an impossible question in a way, it mirrors what has always to answer! I can say, though, that in existed – mega-sites serving a similar the current crop of writers, I’m very function as big-box stores that sell books excited about the most recent batch of and smaller, literary sites serving a role Sami Rohr Prize winners and finalists: that’s similar to independent bookstores Ayelet Tsabari, Kenneth Bonert, Molly (with both usually working in tandem Antopol, Boris Fishman and Yelena with their physical counterpart). But it Akhtiorskaya. And of course, I’m over has expanded opportunities across the the moon about the nine authors who board. People have more access to au- are participating in JBC’s literary series thors and more opportunities to engage “Unpacking the Book: Jewish Writers with others about their ideas – even if in Conversation.” JTA: Do you have time to keep up with they’re not geographically in the same all the required reading, and do you have area – including publishers. JTA: What literary sites do you rec- time to read any non-Jewish authors? Firestone-Teeter: It’s definitely difommend? Firestone-Teeter: For all things Jewish ficult to keep up, as I’m also in two book
clubs, both of which started about a year after college and are still going strong. I do the best I can though and always have a towering stack of books at my bedside, much to my husband’s chagrin! I don’t have time to read books by nonJewish authors, but I make time! I think it’s important for me both personally and professionally to be in tune with what’s happening in the literary scene in general as well as filling in classics, Jewish and non-Jewish, along the way. JTA: What Jewish literary trends have you been noticing lately? Firestone-Teeter: One of the most obvious trends has been the influence of immigrants. Both as Americans and as Jews, we are a nation of immigrants and this is represented in our literature. We’re also seeing more about more great works by Jewish authors from around the world that have been translated into English, and new publishers that are devoted to bringing these works to the United States. And in conjunction with these trends, we’re seeing more books that reflect the experience of Jews in English-speaking places like South Africa, England and Australia. All of these works create a greater understanding of the breadth and variety within the Jewish experience as well as the links and traditions that connect Jews across the world.
Book review
Three for spring By Rabbi Rachel Esserman First it’s snowing, then it’s raining, then it’s icy, then there’s a beautiful, warm spring day followed by... snow, then rain, then ice... You get the idea. There’s only one thing to do when the weather is this volatile: read. (Bet that came as a surprise.) The three novels in this review don’t have much in common except for featuring Jewish characters, but all offer something of interest. “Florence Gordon” Have you ever fallen in love with a fictional character? By page 3 of Brian Morton’s “Florence Gordon” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), I was in love with the 75-year-old Florence. Her current life is so intellectually interesting she has no interest in recapturing her youth. She accepts what it means to be old, but feels young
inside because ideas still inspire her. After all these compliments, what confirmed my love for her, though, was this statement: “She was also, in the opinion of many who knew her, even in the opinion of many who loved her, a complete pain in the neck.” Florence is a crotchety, feminist New York City Jewish intellectual who has no patience for anyone not up to her intellectual speed. This includes her son, Daniel; daughter-in-law, Janine; and college-age granddaughter, Emily. In fact, she’s not thrilled that Daniel’s family is on an extended stay in the city, even though they have their own apartment and lives. Florence finds Janine’s admiration irritating and doesn’t understand Daniel’s life choices – from his enlistment in the armed services to his current work as a police
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officer. Only Emily may prove interesting, but that depends on her intellectual stamina and her willingness to follow Florence’s example. However, anything that interferes with Florence’s current work – a memoir of the 1960s feminist movement – is an inconvenience. What she doesn’t realize, though, is that the members of her family are facing their own challenging dilemmas. The beauty of Morton’s work is not only the creation of four fascinating characters, but the author’s ability to make us feel their emotions – the wise and foolish ones. The novel also features several wonderful chapters that make it crystal clear just how easily we misinterpret other people’s reactions – seeing them as a mirror of our own emotions rather than understanding their behavior may have nothing to do with us. “Florence Gordon” is the rare novel I didn’t want to see end, at least until I could read Florence’s memoir. “Playing with Matches” Poor 16-year-old Raina Resnick. After traveling around the world with her family, she finally made friends at her new school in New York City. Unfortunately, trying to be popular got her into so much trouble that she was expelled and forced to move to Toronto to live with her strict Orthodox aunt. If Raina messes up there, then she’ll be moving to China to live with her parents and be home schooled. In “Playing With Matches” by Suri Rosen (ECW Press), this engaging teenager
discovers that doing a good deed is not as simple as it seems. Toronto is difficult for Raina: the girls in her new school snub her and her beloved older sister, Leah, blames Raina for her broken engagement. The only good thing to happen is Raina’s successful attempt at matchmaking. Although that was supposed to be a one-time deal, word soon gets out and Raina is forced to set up an anonymous “Matchmaven” e-mail account. After being inundated with requests, her schoolwork suffers so badly that Raina wants to close down the account, that is until she has the opportunity to help someone she loves find happiness. While “Playing With Matches” is aimed at a teen audience, adults who enjoy light fiction will also find it absorbing reading. Raina seems like a sweet teenager, even before she learns the life lessons the author is intent on teaching her. Rosen has a light touch, so these lessons – which include some for the adults in Raina’s life – are easy to swallow. “Jewish Mothers Never Die” While I’m going to resist the temptation to make jokes about the title of Natalie David-Weill’s “Jewish Mothers Never Die” (Arcade Publishing), many people would suggest Jewish mothers stay alive in their children’s minds long after they’ve gone to their grave. Whether or not that’s a good thing is open to debate. See “Book” on page 14
april 23, 2015 ■
THE REPORTER
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Israeli researchers say attacks against Jews spiked in 2014 By Ariel David Reprinted with permission of the Associated Press Jewish communities around the world faced an “explosion of hatred” last year, with the number of violent antisemitic attacks rising by 38 percent, according to a report released by Israeli researchers. With most of the violence concentrated in Western Europe, Jewish leaders warned that many in their communities are questioning whether they have any future in the region. The report by researchers at Tel Aviv University recorded 766 incidents – ranging from armed assaults to vandalism against synagogues, schools and cemeteries – compared to 554 in 2013. Many Jews feel like “they are facing an explosion of hatred toward them as individuals, their communities and Israel, as a Jewish state,” wrote the researchers from the university’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry. The center releases the report every year on the eve of Israel’s Holocaust memorial day. The researchers said the increase in attacks on Jews was partly linked to last summer’s conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip as well as to what they called a “general climate of hatred and violence” fostered by the rise of the Islamic State group in the Middle East.
The report said 2014 was the second most violent year for Jews in a decade after 2009, which also saw a surge in antisemitism following an Israeli military operation in Gaza. The violence in 2014 spiked during the July-August war in Gaza, particularly in demonstrations organized in France, Germany and other countries, during which protesters chanted antisemitic slogans, looted Jewish shops and attacked synagogues, as well as people identifiable as Jews. However, researchers stressed that attacks had been on the rise also before the summer and said the controversy over Israel’s operation was used as a pretext to attack Jews. “Synagogues were targeted, not Israeli embassies,” said Dina Porat, a historian who edited the report. The reported incidents do not include the killing of four shoppers at a kosher supermarket in Paris following the deadly shooting at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, since those events occurred in January. However, the researchers noted that the wave of attacks has continued this year, and that the acts and propaganda videos of the Islamic State are also encouraging the radicalization of Muslims in the West. Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish
Congress, an umbrella group representing communities across the continent, said Jewish life has reached a “tipping point” in Europe. “Some are choosing to leave the continent, many are afraid to walk the streets and even more are retreating behind high walls and barbed wire,” Kantor told The Associated Press in an e-mail. “This has become the new reality of Jewish life in Europe.” Kantor said that while governments have pledged to boost security for their Jewish communities, they must do more at a pan-European level to share intelligence, toughen legislation and combat pervasive antisemitic attitudes in the general population. “European Jews should not leave out of fear and should push their leaders to defeat antisemitism and radical Islamist terrorism,” he said. As in past years, the highest number of attacks was reported in France, which saw 164 incidents, compared to 141 in 2013. In Britain there were 141 attacks, up from 95, and in the United States there were 80 incidents versus 55, including a shooting at Jewish sites in Overland Park, KS, that killed three people. Some western European countries saw even greater increases, with the number of incidents more than doubling in Germany, Belgium, Austria and Sweden. The attacks also target individuals more frequently, with 306 cases involving people as victims, a 66 percent increase.
Portraits of Irish Holocaust survivors present nation with a teachable moment By Jeffrey F. Barken JNS.org When Irish artist Diana Muller first presented her works in progress – paintings of some of her country’s few remaining Holocaust survivors – to the Irish Jewish Museum in Dublin City, museum Vice Chair Yvonne Altman O’Connor sensed a teachable moment in the making. “We consider it very important to teach about the Holocaust, especially as Irish people were somewhat removed from the experience. [Some even] refer to World War II as ‘the emergency,’” an obvious understatement, O’Connor tells JNS.org. Muller suggested that the museum host a temporary exhibit. Three years after beginning the project, which includes portraits of Irish Holocaust survivors Jan Kaminski, Suzie Diamond, Tomi Reichental and Zoltan Zinn-Collis, her artwork will be unveiled to the public on April 12 at the Irish Jewish Museum as part of a Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) event. Throughout the process of her journey across Ireland to paint the portraits, Muller kept a blog that detailed historical anecdotes and introspective reflections on her interactions. She admits that her knowledge of Irish Holocaust history was very limited before she started the project. “I had read the autobiography of Zoltan Zinn-Collis years before, and so I knew about the ‘Belsen Children’ who had come to Ireland with Dr. Collis. But I didn’t realize that Ireland had a policy against accepting Jewish refugees and that Dr. Collis had essentially smuggled those children into the country,” Muller tells JNS.org. The Collis she refers to was an Irish pediatrician who volunteered with the British Red Cross at the end of the war, assisting with the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Only recently, in 2012, did Irish Justice Minister Alan Shatter acknowledge that the “doors to state [in Ireland] were kept firmly closed to Jews fleeing Hitler.” Shatter has called Irish neutrality during the war and the administration of then-Prime Minister Eamon de Velera “morally bankrupt.” He has described de Velera’s peculiar 1945 visit with a German ambassador,
Diana Muller’s portrait of Irish Holocaust survivor Jan Kaminski. (Photo by Diana Muller)
Diana Muller’s portrait of Irish Holocaust survivor Suzie Diamond. (Photo by Diana Muller)
in which de Velera expressed his condolences regarding the death of Hitler, as evidence that antisemitism taints that chapter of Irish history. Muller credits Lynne Jackson, one of the trustees at Holocaust Education Trust Ireland, for making the introductions that led to her portrait series becoming a reality. “I honestly felt a lot of trepidation when I started,” Muller says. “It was only after contacting HETI that I realized just how few survivors actually live in this country. Six at the time, three now.” When one of Muller’s subjects, Zinn-Collis, passed away, the artist felt a renewed sense of urgency. She began to see her portraits of the elderly survivors as
enduring symbols of their triumph. Muller believes the images she has crafted grant an element of immortality to her subjects. As she wrote on her blog in the wake of Zinn-Collis’ death, the portraits are “a slap in the face to the genocide that tried to take them.” “There’s an old adage that we all have ‘the face we deserve’ by the time we’re 50,” Muller remarks, describing how she transferred perceptions of her subjects to the canvas. “The idea that our experiences mark us in some visible way is true,” the artist adds. Zinn-Collis, for example, had a physical disability from his experiences in Bergen-Belsen as a child, suffered from tuberculosis and had a spinal curvature – yet Muller says she “chose not to emphasize this in the painting because I didn’t think it defined him, at all. “He had an amazing sense of humor,” says Muller. “He also volunteered for the Samaritans for years and had so much sympathy for suffering people.” A colorist at heart, Muller was conscious of the elements. “Interestingly, they all went for navy, light blue and gray in their clothing choices,” she says. “I used quite a cool palette and brought greens and yellows through. They all had nice gardens and a love of nature. I included some earth tones also.” Mostly, Muller was touched by the conversations her visits evoked. From survivor Jan Kaminski, she learned about his experiences as a Polish teenager attending Trinity College in Dublin. “He’s had an amazing career... [he] was a restaurant owner, and he used to run Ireland’s first-ever nightclub. He also started the Irish See “Irish” on page 8
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THE REPORTER ■ april 23, 2015
Natural gas lights a brighter future for northern Israelis
By Jennifer Tzivia MacLeod JNS.org Jobs are coming to northern Israel in the country’s fledgling natural gas industry and Erez College is opening the door to those new careers. People have long joked that after 40 years in the desert, Moses still led the Jews to the only place in the Middle East without oil or gas. In 2009, that all changed with the discovery of the Tamar and Leviathan offshore gas fields. But while natural gas offers the prospect of freedom from foreign energy interests, Israel has few qualified practical engineers ready to populate the industry. Into this gap leapt Sandee Illouz, CEO of Erez College, a vocational college in the town of Shlomi on Israel’s northern border. “The discovery of natural gas in Israel opens a whole new realm of jobs and job opportunities,” Illouz said at a March 10 ceremony that unveiled the college’s mechanical practical engineer program and new Natural Gas Laboratories. Illouz, who made aliyah from Iowa in 1975, welcomed
Iran What
Iran wants to see In contrast with the phased relief outlined in the U.S. document, a “fact sheet” published by the Iranian Foreign Ministry posits an immediate lifting of sanctions after a deal is reached. On April 9, in a speech broadcast live on Iranian television, Khamenei said there would be no point to the negotiations if they did not yield immediate sanctions relief. “All sanctions should be removed when the deal is signed,” Reuters quoted Khamenei as saying. “If the sanctions removal depends on other processes, then why did we start the negotiations?” On Twitter, Khamenei went further, accusing the United States of overall bad faith. “Hours after the #talks, Americans offered a fact sheet that most of it was contrary to what was agreed,” said a tweet posted on his feed on April 9. “They always deceive and breach promises.” On the enrichment question, the Iranian and American outlines are not mutually exclusive. “None of the nuclear facilities or related activities will
Shlomi Mayor Gabriel Naaman (left) and Ken Krupsky, Jewish National Fund’s assistant vice president for the “Go North” initiative. (Photo courtesy of Jewish National Fund) leaders and investors from World ORT, the Nefesh B’Nefesh aliyah agency and government representatives, along with American donors from the Jewish National Fund “Go North” initiative, which has supported the new
be stopped, shut down, or suspended, and Iran’s nuclear activities in all of its facilities including Natanz, Fordow, Isfahan and Arak will continue,” said the Iranian document, which goes on to name only Natanz as a site for 3.67 percent uranium enrichment, which comports with the U.S. document. The other sites are deemed acceptable for scientific research in the American version, a status that conceivably comports with “related activities” in the Iranian document. What Israel wants to see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in the immediate wake of the agreement that the framework deal would threaten Israel’s survival. He counseled “standing firm and increasing the pressure on Iran until a better deal is achieved.” Netanyahu did not provide details, but in interviews he has said that Israel could tolerate a deal that left “hundreds” of centrifuges in place, as opposed to the 5,060 the U.S. outline anticipates – itself a significant concession for Netanyahu, who had previously said that Israel would tolerate no more than a zero capacity for
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program from the beginning. Go North aims to bring 300,000 new residents to northern Israel, taking the pressure off the center of the country, but the initiative can only accomplish its objective if high-quality jobs and training exist in the north. The jobs will be there, said Amit Marom, CEO of the philanthropic Marom Group. Speaking for industry giant Noble Energy, a Texas-based Fortune 1000 oil and gas company, Marom said, “We need 1,500 practical engineers now. We will need another 500 every year.” With its Israeli partners, Noble Energy has led the way in helping Israel broker deals with neighbors Egypt and Jordan that could build political stability in the region, in addition to building alliances within Israel. Marom said that as a non-profit, Erez College is an important piece of the puzzle. “We should build the [Israeli natural gas] industry through the non-profit world,” he said. Leviathan is the largest gas field discovered in the 21st century, said Erez College’s pedagogical advisor, Edward See “Gas” on page 8
Continued from page 1 uranium enrichment. Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s minister of intelligence, also provided more details of Israel’s desires for a final deal in a briefing for reporters in Jerusalem, demanding a complete end to research and development of advanced centrifuges, the shuttering of the underground Fordo facility, and freedom for inspectors to go “anytime, anywhere.” In an Op-Ed published on April 8 in The Washington Post, Moshe Yaalon, the Israeli defense minister, called for dismantling much of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. “Intelligence and inspections are simply no substitute for dismantling the parts of Iran’s program that can be used to produce atomic bombs,” Yaalon wrote. Israel also has an eye on Iran’s destabilizing activities elsewhere in the region. The Obama administration and its five negotiating partners – China, Russia, France, Germany and Great Britain – see the nuclear deal as discrete from other Iranian actions. “Restrictions imposed on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program will expire in about a decade, regardless of Iran’s campaign of murderous aggression in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere across the Middle East; its arming, funding, training and dispatching of terrorists around the world; and its threats and violent efforts to destroy Israel, the region’s only democracy,” Yaalon wrote. Netanyahu recently also demanded Iran’s recognition of Israel as a component of a final deal, a requirement that Obama has said is unrealistic. What Congress wants to see Two bills under consideration in Congress, both backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, could affect the outcome of an Iran deal. One, sponsored by Sens. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ), would mandate new sanctions should Iran default on a deal or walk away from the talks. Obama has said such a bill would scuttle the talks and has pledged to veto it. The bill was approved in January by the Senate Banking Committee. Now its fate is in the hands of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the majority leader, who must decide whether it advances to the full body. McConnell has not shown his hand, but he is unlikely to move it forward unless he can build a veto-proof majority of 67, which would require the support of 13 Democrats. With Menendez sidelined as he faces indictment on corruption charges, that is unlikely. The other bill, backed by Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, would require congressional review of an Iran deal. That bill stands a better chance of passage. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), who is in line to become his party’s Senate leader in the next Congress, backs the bill as it is. Other Democrats, including key Obama allies like Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), Menendez’s replacement as the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), the top Democrat on its Middle East subcommittee, say they would back the bill if Corker removes non-nuclear related elements, among them requirements that Iran cease backing for terrorism. The Corker bill was to come up for review by the Foreign Relations Committee on April 14, and Cardin said he hoped to shape it to make it a “process” bill and not one that prescribes the terms of an agreement. “One of my concerns is that the bill carries out its mission – a way for Congress to review and take action,” Cardin told JTA. Obama, who had previously said he would veto the Corker bill, indicated recently that he could work with a modified version.
april 23, 2015 ■
For Vail’s Chabad rabbi, inspiration comes on ski slopes
automated “minyan maker” program that allows visitors to sign up for potential weekday services on Chabad of Vail’s website and receive automatic notification if 10 men or more commit to coming. Mintz has shared the technology with a handful of other Chabad Centers. Morning minyans are held at Chabad’s rented space at Vail Run Resort. Afternoon minyans usually meet near a Starbucks shop and worshippers come in their ski boots. Vail doesn’t have a kosher restaurant, so Mintz employs a full-time chef to cook meals visitors can order for delivery to their hotel or condo. The service, which provides double-wrapped entrees so consumers can warm up their food without fear of non-kosher contamination, generates a modest profit. And then there’s the skiing. The eldest of Mintz’s three kids, 6-year-old Isaac, spends several hours a day studying in an online school for the children of Chabad emissaries. But he gets in-person socialization by ice skating and at ski school, where he takes lessons twice a week. Hanging out with non-Jewish peers has also taught the boy a valuable skill, Mintz says: The ability to stick to his Jewish commitments even when tested with, say, the offer of non-kosher pizza at a friend’s birthday party.
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––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– At left: With some 5 , 3 0 0 a c re s o f terrain, Vail is the third-largest ski resort in North America. (Photo by Uriel Heilman)
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Dovid Mintz, the Chabad rabbi in Vail, CO, works the phone trying to corral a minyan on a powdery morning at one of North America’s most popular ski towns. (Photo by Uriel Heilman)
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By Uriel Heilman VAIL, CO (JTA) – When Dovid Mintz was growing up around the corner from the Lubavitcher rebbe in Brooklyn, he never imagined he’d find inspiration for Jewish outreach work on a black-diamond ski slope. But after one of his nine siblings took up the post of Chabad emissary in Aspen, CO, Mintz began making the trek to the Rockies to help out on holidays. He soon found himself drawn to the mountains of western Colorado – not, like so many others, for the skiing, but for the potential for Jewish outreach. Located midway between Denver and Aspen, and home to the second-largest ski resort in the United States, Vail was chock-full of vacationers, retirees and ski bums – many of them Jews ripe for outreach. At the time, the only synagogue in town, B’nai Vail, did not hold regular Shabbat services. Nearly a decade since he moved to Vail in 2006 (following another older brother who opened a Chabad Center in a Denver suburb in 2004), Mintz says skiing gives him the emotional fuel for his Jewish outreach work. He’s on the snow about once a week, often with his kids and sometimes with his wife, Doba, who wears a skirt over her ski pants. “Skiing with your family is one of the most powerful experiences in all of life,” Mintz, 33, told JTA. “You’re in your own domain, nothing can get in your way. You’re with your kids on the top of the world. Wow. We did it. What are we doing next? What are we going to fulfill?” Many of the challenges Mintz faces are familiar to Chabad emissaries, or shluchim, the world over. He’s both rabbi and fund-raiser, program director and spiritual leader, sexton and caterer. It’s tough getting a minyan – the quorum of 10 men required for Orthodox prayer. He struggles to instill in his kids a strong Chasidic Orthodox identity while balancing their need for a healthy social outlet in a place with practically no other religiously observant Jews. But Mintz has come up with some unique responses to these challenges. A techie working with Mintz created an
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THE REPORTER ■ april 23, 2015
Japanese culinary curiosity gives hummus moment in the rising sun
By Cnaan Liphshiz TOKYO (JTA) – At the end of his 13-hour workday, Hidehiko Egata takes a seat at the bar at his regular eatery in this city’s upscale Shibuya neighborhood. A senior adviser at a local financial firm, Egata sips sake and nibbles on traditional Japanese pickles as he chats with the owner in Japanese. Then he orders his usual dish: hummus topped with warm chickpeas, tahini and olive oil. “I first ate hummus a few years ago on the other side of town,” said Egata, a slender man in his 50s who keeps fit by practicing Japanese martial arts daily. “I found that it was more healthy than my usual dinners then. It was filling, but it didn’t make me tired the way a noodle dish would. When this place opened, it became my regular spot.” This place is Ta-im, an intimate 16-seater that is one of no fewer than eight Israeli restaurants to open in Japan in the past five years, serving up hummus and other Middle Eastern staples to the novelty-oriented and health-obsessed urban elite. In January, the Chabad House in Tokyo joined the trend when it opened Chana’s Place – the capital’s only kosher certified restaurant – serv-
ing hummus, shakshuka, matbucha and other popular Israeli dishes. “The urban population in Japan only recently became exposed to real international cuisine beyond the obvious dishes like spaghetti, pizza and hamburgers,” said Israeli businessman Dan Zuckerman, 54, who moved to Tokyo in 1985 and ran a deli before he opened Ta-im in 2011. “Now they are discovering the more exotic foods like Mexican, Portuguese, Spanish and Greek.” As new foreign restaurants open in Japan – Taco Bell announced its entry to the island nation in January – Israeli and Arab food enjoys an advantage because of its reliance on fresh vegetables and other lean substances, according to Rabbi Binyomin Edery, a Tokyo-based Chabad rabbi who supervises King Falafel, the city’s only certified kosher food stand. “In a city where the population is so health conscious that about a third of them regularly wear surgeon masks whenever they go out, a lean, fiber-rich food that’s full of vitamins is going to have a serious advantage compared to fat-dripping tacos,” Edery said. “Israeli food is becoming super trendy in this country, and hummus is leading the charge because people here are already used to the idea of bean paste from their lo-
Gas
cal food. It just fits.” Chana’s Place, housed in the Tokyo Chabad Center and run by the movement’s envoy to Japan, Rabbi Mendy Sudakevich, is small, accommodating only 14 diners at a time. The restaurant’s profits are used to fund activities for Tokyo’s Jewish community of a few hundred people. “If this restaurant is to succeed, it needs to appeal to the Japanese public,” Sudakevich told JTA. “The Jewish, kosher-observing community is too small to sustain this business.” Unlike Zuckerman’s Ta-im, which feels like a typical Tel Aviv hummus bar, complete with the Israeli pop radio station Galgalatz playing in the background, Chana’s Place fuses Middle Eastern cuisine with a local Japanese design, including a miniature Japanese garden. Sudakevich says he realized he would need to adapt hummus for the Japanese after he served the dish at an event he catered for an Israeli firm in Tokyo. Hummus is consumed typically by wiping the paste from a plate with pita bread, but the Japanese cut the bread into pieces and made tiny hummus sandwiches. “The Japanese marry an almost impossible mix of hunger for new stuff with See “Hummus” on page 9
Continued from page 6
Breicher. Approximately 30 times larger than Tamar, Leviathan contains as much as 19 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. “With oil,” Breicher said, “you must use 50 percent of every shekel for development, to take it from the ground, refine it, to complete the whole process. It’s expensive energy. Natural gas, on the other hand, comes to you ready-to-use. Every country is trying to use it.” Half of Israel’s current power emanates from natural gas and the Jewish state is now working on a major pipeline to carry natural gas across the country. Natural gas remains the cleanest fossil fuel, with far lower emissions than petroleum. It is also easier to access and store. But as is the case with any fossil fuel, it can be dangerous, demanding specially trained professionals to handle it safely. Additionally, the natural gas industry is being held up in the governmental arena. Regulations and anti-trust matters must be dealt with before the gas is made available. Once the government gives the green light, Erez College graduates should be ready, having trained in Israel’s largest laboratory for the processing and testing of industrial materials, built with JNF’s partnership. Yaniv Bracha, a student in the Erez College practical engineering program, said, “Natural gas will create an economic revolution, along with new business opportunities for me.” Married with two children, Bracha is currently the northern region manager for Paz Oil, Israel’s largest fuel company. When Breicher devised the idea of a practical engineering program as an enticing new area of study, he approached two large training schools, but was turned down. Yet Illouz recognized the potential the natural gas industry could have for Erez College and the town of Shlomi, in terms of educational and employment opportunities, and quickly made Erez’s program a reality. Illouz founded Erez College 30 years ago, with assistance from the Jewish Agency for Israel, to bring new hope to Shlomi’s nearly 2,000 residents. “Most of them had no high school diploma and would have
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left if they could for the wealthier central areas of the country,” she said. Development towns like Shlomi sprouted up all over Israel in the 1950s to house a flood of refugees from Arab countries and to ensure the country’s security in sensitive areas. But even today, funds remain scarce for these residents and many are still among the poorest in Israel. Shlomi itself, a quiet town nestled in Israel’s woody northern foothills, was the target of the initial rocket volleys that were launched at the Jewish state during the 2006 Lebanon War. While many organizations speak about breaking the cycle of poverty, Erez College has seemingly smashed through every obstacle in its path. Shlomi Mayor Gabriel Naaman is one of 13 children, and only one – his younger sister – managed to study beyond high school, since so few options were available in northern Israel for education and vocational training. That was the first thing that needed to change, Naaman believed. When he became Shlomi’s mayor in 1999, he demanded 25 million shekels (about $6.3 million) from
Israel for the building that now houses Erez College. “I wanted something with a long future,” said Naaman. “This is what the region needed.” Along with its new natural gas program, Erez College offers education in mechanical engineering, software design and food preparation, in response to labor-market demands. Shlomi now has more than 7,000 residents and Erez College has become a magnet for the entire Western Galilee. Since many of Erez’s students have day jobs, the college holds classes in the evenings and on Fridays, when most Israelis don’t need to work. More than 14,000 students have graduated so far, including single mothers, new immigrants, Arabs, Druze and demobilized soldiers. Eighty percent of Erez graduates are employed. Today, Naaman’s own children, nieces, nephews and their friends are laying down roots in northern Israel rather than leaving the area. “JNF and Sandee Illouz’s vision is fast becoming a reality,” Naaman said. “Erez College is giving the entire region a huge boost, and now training our workforce for the field of natural gas.”
At right: A delegation from Jewish National FundUSA visited a classroom used for the new practical engineering program at Erez College in northern Israel. (Photo courtesy of Jewish National Fund)
Irish Polish Society and met with Pope John Paul II during his 1979 visit. He struck me as a really gentle guy, but with huge amount of willpower,” Muller says. Survivor Suzie Diamond “is a very intelligent, open person,” says Muller, recalling the time they spent together. “She is the last of the ‘Belsen Children’ who came over with Dr. Collis still living in Ireland…We talked about her early memories of [Zinn-Collis] and the camp and the journey to Ireland. She was the youngest of the [adopted] children and said that people assumed she was too young to remember, but she remembers very well.” Lastly, Tomi Reichental impressed Muller with his warmth and spirit. “He and his partner met me at their front door with tea and cake,” she says. Reichental, Muller adds, “told me about his uncle, who was an amazing impressionist painter. He showed me some pictures of his family, 35 of whom died in the Holocaust.” “I never told anybody what I went through,” Reichental tells JNS.org, explaining how he kept silent about his experiences at Bergen-Belsen for more than 60 years – not even telling his wife. When Reichental was asked to speak in front of his grandson’s middle school class in 2004, however, suddenly the vault opened. “I realized I was one of the last witnesses for this horrific thing that happened,” he recounts in a short film made in honor of his recent ef-
Continued from page 5
forts to educate children about the Holocaust. Reichental has since made two documentaries and has traveled back to Germany to meet a former SS guard, an encounter chronicled in the film “Close to Evil.” Reichental has also performed reconciliation work with the children and grandchildren of Nazi war criminals and was honored by the German government with the Order of Merit. Amid its hosting of Muller’s exhibit, the Irish Jewish Museum has stumbled upon difficult times. “The current state of the museum is in danger,” O’Connor says, noting that the building is no longer fit for its purpose and that plans to build an extension are in jeopardy due to lack of financial support. “The community is too small, [and] fund-raising is difficult for the skeleton all-volunteer staff who have poured so much energy into keeping the museum alive for the past 30 years.” Yet the exhibition of Muller’s portraits will go on as planned. Following a private reception, the pictures will be on display to the general public for one month. O’Connor hopes that the gallery will inspire renewed interest in the museum’s resources. At the very least, the portraits will make the Irish Holocaust survivors’ legacies particularly tangible for current and future generations. “To be cheeky, we’re the ones that got away,” says Reichental. “We survived.”
april 23, 2015 ■
THE REPORTER
After intrigue, theft and deterioration, Holocaust collection secure at CU Boulder By Uriel Heilman BOULDER, CO (JTA) – The yellowing document is crumbling and fading, but the smooth signature on its cover is as legible as it is chilling: Rudolf Hess, the Nazi who served as a Hitler deputy from 1933-41. The signature, which adorns a 70-year-old leniency plea for top Nazi Hermann Goering during the postwar Nuremberg trials, is one of some 500,000 discrete items and 20,000 books donated last year to the University of Colorado at Boulder – nearly the entirety of one of the world’s largest privately owned Holocaust collections. The unusual trove includes aerial surveillance photos of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, decaying copies of the Nazi newspaper Der Sturmer, Nuremberg trial transcripts, and a trove of pro-Nazi and Holocaust denial literature. “We don’t even know what we have,” said David Shneer, director of the Jewish Studies program at University of Colorado at Boulder and the person responsible for bringing the archive to the university. “We have teams of students inventorying it. We hope to get through
Hummus
everything by the fall.” The unlikely story of how the archive, known as the Mazal Holocaust Collection, ended up in Boulder is a tale of Holocaust denial, a hidden Jewish past and the shady market for Holocaust artifacts. The collection represents the life’s work of Harry Mazal, a businessman from Mexico City who was raised Protestant and discovered during his teen years that he was Jewish. Mazal’s family emigrated from present-day Turkey before World War II, and his father built a successful women’s lingerie business that he subsequently passed on to his son. Though neither Mazal nor his parents personally experienced the Holocaust, Mazal became increasingly disturbed by the rising tide of claims that the genocide against the Jews was fabricated. Determined to do something about it, Mazal, who made his first research trip to Germany in the 1960s and died in 2011 at age 74, began collecting and carefully documenting evidence of the concentration camps, the Final Solution and the murder of the six million Jews. Mazal became fixated on documenting the Holocaust.
Continued from page 8
a deep conservatism,” Sudakevich said. “If you want to serve them something new, you need to make sure you do it in familiar ways.” Roy Somech, a 33-year-old Israeli who last year opened his second restaurant in Sendai, 220 miles north of Tokyo, takes a different approach. Somech believes in totally immersing his patrons not only in the Israeli experience, but that of the entire Middle East. “When you come to our restaurants you find three flags: Israel, Turkey and Tunisia,” Somech said. “There’s Arab and Israeli music, there’s hookahs – all the fun stuff of the Middle East and Israel that many Japanese don’t know because they only hear of terrorism and bombs from that part of the world.” Somech says he receives approximately 200 patrons
daily at his two restaurants in Sendai and that 70 percent of them are returning customers. The Israeli restaurants are able to supply their patrons with fresh pita thanks to the only bakery in the country that produces the flatbread, an operation set up a decade ago by the Israeli entrepreneur Amnon Agasy. But white tahini, the sesame spread that is a key ingredient of hummus, must be specially imported – a constraint that has 3.5 ounces of hummus selling in Japan for about $6. “There’s demand for hummus, sure,” said Somech, who opened his first restaurant, Middle Mix, five years ago. But, he added, in a country where even cheap street food is expected to meet strict standards, and whose capital city has more Michelin stars than Paris, “competition is very, very tough.”
9
He traveled to Europe to photograph the camps and bought rare Holocaust artifacts on eBay. He established a relationship with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and became a repository for trial transcripts that were duplicates of material the museum already had. He collected Yizkor memorial books, original sketches of extermination camps and aerial photographs of the camps taken by the U.S. military, American Nazi newspapers from the 1930s and ‘40s, materials relating to the David Irving-Deborah Lipstadt Holocaust denial trial in England, and an extensive array of Holocaust denial literature. He also wrote scholarly articles and lectured about the attempted genocide of the Jews. “I remember him being very offended by the fact that Holocaust denial was so prevalent,” Mazal’s daughter, Aimee Mazal Skillin, told JTA. “He really took it to heart. He began to collect as much information as he could about the Holocaust and the war, and about how the Jews were mistreated. Combating Holocaust denial was his real motivation. It was like he was walking around with horse blinders and saw nothing else other than this mission.” By the mid-1990s, there was no more room for Mazal’s collection in his home in San Antonio, TX, where he had moved with his family. So Mazal built an addition to his house, which proved inadequate even before it was completed. He later added two more expansions, bringing the total space dedicated to his in-home Holocaust library to 3,000 square feet. It became one of the largest privately held collections in the world, according to Lipstadt, the Holocaust historian who was sued by Holocaust denier David Irving in 2000. Mazal even kept some bone fragments collected at Auschwitz in a glass case on his desk (his daughter later buried them). As Mazal’s collection grew, he enlisted help. That ultimately led to one of his most devastating discoveries: that someone working for him was stealing one-of-a-kind materials and illicitly selling them online. Mazal, who by the time of the discovery was ill with cancer, mounted See “Boulder” on page 12
Get ready for the 51st Annual
Celebrate Israel Parade Sunday, May 31 This year’s theme is Israel Imagines! $10 per person - to make your bus reservations, please contact Dassy at Dassy.ganz@jewishnepa.org or 570-961-2300 x2
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10
THE REPORTER ■ april 23, 2015
d’var torah
Tazria-Metzora, destroyer of worlds by RABBI BARUCH BINYAMIN HAKOHEN MELMAN, TEMPLE ISRAEL OF THE POCONOS, STROUDSBURG, PA Tazria-Metzora, Leviticus 12:1-15:33 Tazria-Metzorah, this week’s parasha, discusses the cleansing process of the leper, as well as the purification processes for bodily secretions of a reproductive nature, both male and female. It must be made clear that this is not referencing a physical uncleanness. Rather, it is solely discussing a spiritual form of impurity. Human speech, as well, can be either pure or impure. In fact, the English word for contamination derives from the Hebrew word for spiritual impurity, which is tumah. And “pure” itself derives from the Hebrew word parah. One could only become pure by being sprinkled with the ashes of the parah adumah, the red heifer. Nor is this evidence of any misogynist bent in the Torah itself. Quite the opposite! Both males and females are deemed spiritually impure by dint of the secretions of their respective male and female fluids. What is the connection between two strange, seemingly disparate topics, viz. the juxtaposition between the narrative of ritual impurity for the secretion/emission of male and/or female fluids, and general impurity resulting from general psoriatic skin ailments? It is generally understood that Miriam developed “leprosy” from her lashon hara (evil speech) against her brother Moses. The Torah itself makes that connection. Hence, we can extrapolate from the particular to the general that there is a connection between “leprosy,” possibly psoriasis (related to the word tzoraas), and the improper use of the Divine gift of speech. And what she said wasn’t so much “evil” as it was widely understood to be “merely” involving herself in his personal sphere, intruding, as it were, on the private zone of relations between man and woman. Lashon hara has the capacity to destroy people’s reputations, careers and even lives. It may not be the actual death blow per se, but it certainly has the power to create the conditions in potential form. In Western society, entire industries are devoted exclusively to the spread of slander, gossip and talebearing. In fact, the more salacious, the more lucrative. So too, male and female emissions and secretions have within them the potential for human life. Conversely, since their emissions carry within them the sense of loss of potential life, in a sense their emission bears with it the concomitant sense of potential death. Since the advent of modern science, no one believes in the idea of a homonculus, i.e., the idea of a fully formed miniature human residing in male seed. Nevertheless, to some degree it represents symbolically a potential for life, similar to the woman’s unfertilized eggs which are lost through her monthly cycle. Hence the connection: both ideas speak of the idea of potential death. One is the potential death of reputations, lives and careers. The other is the potential life that was lost, the life that never came to be. They intersect with the idea of nidah. This usually refers to a woman in her menstrual state, to be off-limits to her husband, but the very first case of a person said to be (in a state of) nidah in the Torah was a man! The first nidah in the Torah concerned Cain, when because he took a life he was to wait outside the figurative camp of humanity, literally “off-limits,” by becoming a perpetual wanderer, a displaced person. He was to be a fugitive and a wanderer – na venad ba’aretz (Genesis 4:12). Being nad, he was the first to be in a state of nidah. He cut off the potential of another’s life by killing. He cut down the flowering seed potential of a human life, still in its youth. Therefore, his compensatory karmic healing was that his seed/life could never be allowed to
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take root. He was forced to wander in perpetuity. While we may not kill others in a physical sense, our words have the power to destroy lives, families, even communities. Robert Oppenheimer, lead scientist in the Manhattan Project, the secret program to develop America’s first nuclear bomb during World War II, was reported to have said, upon witnessing the first nuclear test detonation, “I have become Shiva, goddess of Death, Destroyer of Worlds.” Now, Iran has feverishly been working to develop its own nuclear arsenal, all the while targeting Israel publicly for destruction. But Israel, sounding the alarm against its own destruction, and threatening potential action, has itself become a pariah among the nations of the world. European surveys proclaim that Israel is now viewed as the single greatest threat to world peace. Those who slander Israel and invert truth and justice derive their energies and power from Jewish voices who lead in the struggle to defame the Jewish state. All their arguments and accusations are echoes of the voices of Jewish self-hatred and slander. Without these Jewish voices, their claims would have no traction, their charges would have no grounding. If the Jewish people were united by a vision of a shared destiny and national goal, no nation in the world would dare oppose us. Instead, every Jewish voice that slanders Israel enables our enemies to speak out forcefully against Israel, sure in the knowledge that they are free of the accusation of antisemitism since there are actually Jews themselves who promote the same charges. This is nothing new. It is no different than the Jewish kapos who worked at the behest of the Nazis to do their dirty work for them, hoping in the end to be spared, to their own self-delusion. The Jewish people were na vanad ba’aretz, wanderers of the world, for two millenia, suffering every form of abuse heaped upon them by a scornful world. And now, the Jewish slanderers of Israel, who for reasons of their own deep-seated neuroses, give ammunition daily to our enemies who wish to eradicate us from the earth, have the power through their words and deeds to once again lead to Israel’s destruction, and our people to once again experience the pain of exile and wandering, chas ve shalom. Their words of slander are, indeed, weapons of death. Let this connection be a reminder that our words are like actions – that we can destroy worlds, or create them, depending on how we use our gifts. Shabbat shalom! Good Shabbos! ©2015 by Rabbi Baruch Binyamin HaKohen Melman
Exhibit of designer Paul Rand
The Museum of the City of New York is holding the exhibit “Everything is Design: The Work of Paul Rand” through July 19. It features more than 150 advertisements, posters, corporate brochures and books by the American designer. Rand is said to have brought European avant-garde art movements such as Cubism and Constructivism to graphic design in the United States. The exhibit features 150 examples of his work and follows his career from magazine designer to design consultant to such corporations as IBM, ABC, UPS and Steve Jobs’s NeXT. For more information, visit http://mcny.org/exhibition/everything-design or contact the museum at info@ mcny.org or 212-534-1672.
Colonial New Amsterdam Tour
The Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy will hold a “Jewish Community of Colonial New Amsterdam Walking Tour” on Sunday, May 17, at 10:45 am. The tour will trace the origins of Jewish settlement in New Amsterdam and visit Jewish sites in Lower Manhattan. Sites will include early Spanish and Portuguese rented synagogues and Mill Street Synagogue, the first synagogue built in North America. It will also include a tour of Congregation Shearith Israel’s cemetery at Chatham Square (now Chinatown), which is the oldest known Jewish cemetery in New York City. From 1654-1825, all Jews in New York City belonged to this one congregation. The Jewish cemetery dates from 1683. Walkers will be meet at the corner of Pearl Street and Broad Street across from Fraunces Tavern. The cost is $22 for adults and $20 for seniors and students. There is an additional $2 charge the day of tour. For more information or to register, visit www.nycjewishtours.org/ or call 212-374-4100.
april 23, 2015 ■
THE REPORTER
11
Israel NEWS IN bRIEF From JNS.org
Israelis mourn victim of suspected car-ramming attack
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) – Thousands of Israelis accompanied Shalom Yohai Sherki, who was run down and killed by an Arab driver in Jerusalem on April 15 in a suspected terrorist attack, to his final resting place on April 16. Sherki, 26, was the second of seven siblings. He attended a hesder yeshiva (a religious school that incorporates mandatory military service with Torah studies) in the southern town of Yeruham and served in the Israeli Navy. He was a youth counselor at his yeshiva and later became a tour guide for the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. He attended the Herzog teachers’ college in Gush Etzion. Sherki’s father, Uri Sherki, is a rabbi and a lecturer of Jewish studies. He eulogized his son, saying, “The doctors who treated you said that there was no doubt that you saved the life of the woman standing next to you. Shalom, shalom, and there is no peace. You, my dear son, have it easy. Your noble soul is rising directly through the heavens to the kingdom of peace. ” Shira Klein, 20, from Yakir, who was injured in the same incident, is still hospitalized in Jerusalem in a medically induced coma. The Israel Police and the Shin Bet security agency are investigating the incident. The evidence shows that Khaled Koutineh, 37, a resident of northern Jerusalem, was driving from the center of Jerusalem toward the French Hill neighborhood when he suddenly swerved into a bus station. He hit Sherki and Klein, who were sitting at the station, with great force, and then reversed and hit a traffic light pole. Yair Sherki, Shalom’s brother, said he is convinced the incident was a deliberate act of terrorism. “I saw the photos from the attack. I have no doubt that this was not an accident. No gag order will change that,” he said. Upon his release from the hospital, Koutineh denied having deliberately attacked the two victims. He was placed under arrest and his remand was extended by five days, during which he will be given a psychiatric evaluation. Koutineh’s attorney asserted that “this was a regular car accident. It was raining heavily at the time.”
Actress Moran Atias to represent Israel at world expo in Italy
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) – Israeli actress, model and television hostess Moran Atias was selected to represent Israel at Expo Milano 2015, the upcoming world’s fair set to begin in the Italian city of Milan on May 1. Atias, who has worked extensively in Italy, is expected to participate in the opening ceremony and other events at the expo’s Israeli pavilion. Israeli musician Ivri Lider was chosen to compose the original music to be presented at the fair. The expo, which will be open for five months, is the largest current world’s fair and has taken place once every five years for the last 150 years. The theme for this year’s fair is “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.” At the last expo, in 2010 in Shanghai, some three million people visited the Israeli pavilion. This year, organizers expect 140 countries and international organizations, including the United Nations, to participate, along with some 20 million visitors. The Israeli pavilion will present Israel’s culture and character, while focusing on its technological advances in farming.
Hamas leader calls for more kidnappings of Israelis
A Hamas terrorist leader called for more kidnappings of Israelis in order to facilitate the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Speaking at a rally on the so-called “Pales-
tinian Prisoner Day” in Gaza, Hamas official Khalil al-Haya said that “we will fight you (Israel) until we get rid of you for good and we will take as many prisoners as possible to liberate our heroes. ... Our men, our women, our children always think of kidnapping your soldiers and settlers, wherever they may be,” AFP reported. “We say to our prisoners, rest assured! For the Palestinian resistance, with the Izz ad-Din al Qassam Brigades at the front line, can liberate you like they liberated your brothers” in 2011, added Haya, referencing Israel’s exchange of more than 1,000 prisoners for Hamas captive Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier abducted in 2006 via a tunnel underneath the Israel-Gaza border. According to the Times of Israel, Hamas has accelerated its rebuilding of terror tunnels underneath that border using heavy machinery and new engineering tools. Last summer, Israel launched a ground operation as part of Operation Protective Edge in order to destroy the Hamas tunnels. A report earlier in April in The Telegraph said that Hamas has received tens of millions of dollars from Iran in order to rebuild its tunnel infrastructure and rocket arsenal.
Israel’s Elbit creates system to detect terror tunnels
An Israel-based international defense electronics firm announced that it has created a system to detect terror tunnels that run under the Israel-Gaza border. Elbit Systems developed the new tunnel-detection system together with the Israeli Defense Ministry and other partners in Israel. The system includes a series of sensors that receive information. This information is then analyzed through a control system of algorithms, which allows for identifying the construction of tunnels and their locations. The system is already operational along parts of the Israel-Gaza border, but its wider implementation is awaiting security and budgetary approval. “The tunnel threat for us is a threat on the community’s morale. Because of the nature of its danger, the surprise factor and the inability to defend oneself, it truly constitutes a personal threat,” said Amit Caspi from Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, which was directly threatened by Hamas tunnels during Israel’s war with the Palestinian terrorist group last summer. “I have no doubt that this will improve the morale and lives of all the residents of the Gaza border community. I hope it will help to save lives and of course to improve our day-to-day routine here,” he added, Yediot Achronot reported.
Israeli High Court: state may punish anti-Israel boycotters
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) – The Knesset did not violate constitutional rights when it legislated a bill aimed at punishing those who call for a boycott of Israel, the Israeli High Court of Justice said on April 15. A panel of nine justices ruled that the Law for the Prevention of Boycotts Targeting Israel is constitutional, noting that the state of Israel has the right to defend itself against those who want to forcefully undermine its foundation. The court said it is possible to reconcile freedom of speech with certain restrictions on boycotts, so long as the restrictions are designed to protect the state from a real threat to its well-being. The 2011 law, sponsored by MK Ze’ev Elkin (Likud), says that the government may seek damages from anyone who actively promotes an economic, cultural, or academic boycott of Israel or any other entity because of its affiliation with the Jewish state. This includes boycott campaigns that target Judea and Samaria. The law allows the Israeli finance minister to prevent those who promote or take part in such a boycott from submitting bids for various projects, and to deny them state funding and other benefits.
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THE REPORTER ■ april 23, 2015
Jorma Kaukonen on Jefferson Airplane and Judaism
By Gabe Friedman (JTA) – Jorma Kaukonen, who played guitar in classic rock bands Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, has just released “Ain’t In No Hurry,” his first solo album since 2009. While Kaukonen’s guitar skills are legendary, few people know that he bought his first electric guitar by cashing Israel Bonds he received from his Jewish grandmother. On the eve of Jefferson Airplane’s 50th anniversary, the 74-year-old Kaukonen, who lives in Athens, OH, with his wife, a Jew-by-choice, talked to JTA about his Jewish family roots, the Torah scroll his great-grandfather worked on and why so many blues guitarists are Jewish. This interview has been condensed and edited. So you’re half Jewish and you didn’t really have a Jewish upbringing, but I’ve read that if things went differently you could have been Orthodox? Interestingly enough, my father’s parents came over from Finland in the 1800s and my mother’s came over from Russia. So I’m Jewish on my mother’s side, which of course makes me Jewish. But my grandparents were a really interesting pair of people. My grandmother was a very, very secular Jew, even though she was a lifelong member of Hadassah and all that kind of stuff. And my grandfather, had he not been married to my grandmother, would have been an Orthodox Jew, but that’s not how it played out. My dad was in the service during the Second World War, so I grew up with my grandparents a lot – and everything in their world was completely Jewish. I just didn’t know much about the religion. They either spoke
Jorma Kaukonen, far right, was a member of the seminal rock band Jefferson Airplane, shown here in 1966. (Photo by Wikimedia Commons)
Hebrew, Yiddish or Russian, especially when they didn’t want us to know what they were talking about – which worked really well by the way. And your great-grandfather was a Torah scribe? In Ellington, CT, there’s a shul that one of my great-uncles helped design when he was 15. And my great-grandfather Shmuel actually – I don’t know the correct word for this – but he actually scribed the Torah himself. When I was up there seven or eight years ago, my mom’s last living first cousin was still alive, and she said, “Would you like to see the shul?” Now I just happened to have a yarmulke in my pocket. I put it on and she goes: “You’re such a good boy.” I’ll never forget that. We went in and they had a number of Torahs, and there was a small one that my great-grandfather had done. You spent so much time on the road with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna. Was there anything religious or spiritual going on while you were on the road all those years? I didn’t really discover my Jewish identity in a concrete way until my wife converted about a decade or so ago. Were there spiritual things? Sure, because many people of my generation were questioning things in a way. And interestingly enough, think about how many Jewish guys were blues guitar players – whether they were electric guys like Mike Bloomfield, or guys who did everything like Dave Bromberg? There were so many of us who were of Jewish heritage who fell into that type of music. When my wife converted, the rabbi suggested that even though I had a bris when I was a kid that I was never really exposed to any of this stuff, largely because, I realize now, of my grandmother’s vocal antipathy. So I went through the whole [conversion] process with my wife. We studied biblical Hebrew and all that kind of stuff. As a result I’ve become very involved in our community, which is organized around what happens in the school [Ohio University]. Interestingly enough, 70 miles away in Huntington, WV, there is a large synagogue. So as a result of my wife getting involved in this, I did too, and one time we were invited to come down by Margot Leverett, the great klezmer artist, and my friend Barry Mitterhoff, who plays mandolin with me. We went down and I remember we went to the synagogue – and I’m sure
Vail
Continued from page 7
“It doesn’t even bother him that he can’t have the pizza,” Mintz said. “That discipline you give them, they become masters of themselves. He’s capable of overcoming this.” Plus, Mintz noted, the other kids’ families by now are familiar with their dietary restrictions and are respectful of them; they always make sure to have kosher snacks on hand. On Shabbat, when up to 25 people may show up for meals, the Mintz children welcome guests, handing out yarmulkes and setting up the kiddush table. On Passover, up to 200 people attend Chabad’s seders. Mintz says he has outgrown his current space and has begun fund-raising in earnest for $4.5 million to buy a permanent property in Lionshead, one of Vail’s base villages. Vail isn’t just any ski town. It’s home to the third-largest ski area in North America, with nearly 5,300 acres of terrain. That’s about eight times larger than nearby Aspen Mountain, 11 times larger than Stowe in Vermont, and more than 20 times as big as New York’s Hunter Mountain. World-famous skiers Lindsey Vonn, Sarah Schleper and Mikaela Shiffrin are all from Vail. Chabad is not the only Jewish option here. B’nai Vail, an independent synagogue with about 230 members that’s been around since 1977, started holding regular Friday night services for the first time last summer after hiring an ex-Navy chaplain as its full-time rabbi. The
services, which draw about 25 people, are held at the Vail Interfaith Chapel. There’s also a Hebrew school with about 50 kids that meets every Sunday – except for weeks when the kids have ski races. “The people here didn’t move to Vail for a Jewish life. They moved to Vail for the outdoors,” B’nai Vail’s rabbi, Joel Newman, said. “But now that they’re here, they say: What is there Jewish that we can participate in?” Newman, who is affiliated with the Conservative movement, says he doesn’t compete with Chabad. B’nai Vail has no Shabbat morning service, and he says his congregants typically don’t want the Hebrew-only service with gender-segregated seating that Chabad offers. “It’s like two restaurants: He’s Chinese and we’re Italian,” said Newman, who at 62 still skis. Some of the Jews who end up at the Chabad seek it out, but many discover it by accident when they spot Mintz on the mountain. Though he hardly stands out in his ski gear, the tzitzit ritual fringes that hang over Mintz’s snow pants are a dead giveaway. Mintz says that being a shaliach in Vail is like a dream come true. “We’re pumped to be here. We have that excitement, energy and motivation that we want to be here, fulfilling the rebbe’s shlichus,” or mission, he said. “This is who we are, this is what we embody. And then you get the skiing and that’s a bonus.”
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At right: Guitar legend Jorma Kaukonen, 74, recently released his first solo album since 2009. (Photo by Scotty Hall)
this isn’t the only time it’s happened, but it’s the only time it’s happened to me – this guy came out with a cowboy hat on and boots, and he looked at me, put his hand down and said “Shalom, y’all.” That’s how they do it in West Virginia sometimes. So with Jefferson Airplane approaching its 50th, are you guys on good terms? Yeah, we are. Obviously with a big thing like a 50th anniversary, people wonder whether some of the guys would like to put the band back together again. Grace See “Airplane” on page 14
Boulder
Continued from page 9 a sting operation to find the perpetrator. Ultimately, a young man named Mansal Denton who had volunteered at Mazal’s Holocaust library was arrested in January 2011 and charged with stealing some 17,000 pages of documents valued at $100,000 to $200,000. Last June, Denton was sentenced to eight years in prison. Some of the material Denton pilfered still has not been recovered. The Denton theft underscored the need to find a proper home for the collection, especially after Mazal’s death in 2011, when it became clear his family wouldn’t keep the big house. Skillin considered selling the materials, whose value was estimated at $1 million to $1.5 million, but she didn’t want the collection to be broken up. While planning to move her own family to Boulder, Skillin, who is an interpreter and social media consultant and is raising her children as Jews, was introduced to Shneer. In 2011, Shneer had helped bring the collection of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the father of the Jewish Renewal movement who died last summer, to the University of Colorado. Skillin and Shneer hit it off, but with Skillin’s imminent plans to sell her San Antonio home, Shneer had to act fast. When he flew to San Antonio to examine the collection, he only had 24 hours or so to figure out what to do with it, he recalls. Eventually, a small portion of the collection went to Texas A&M University-San Antonio, including about 8,300 books. The rest was packed into 367 boxes and trucked to Boulder. In the months since, Shneer has been overseeing a team of student interns and graduate students cataloging and digitizing the collection in a windowless office in the bowels of the university library. Schneer says it has been challenging not just to figure out what’s in the trove, but how to deal with the copious collection of Holocaust-denial and pro-Nazi material, including literature produced by the American Nazi Party beginning in the 1930s. “We have to think about how we deal with Holocaust denial literature,” Shneer said. “Libraries are afraid of the material. We can’t just put it on shelves without context. How do we deal with this?” Once the Mazal collection is categorized and digitized, the university plans to make it accessible to researchers all over the world by putting it online. Some of the collection’s 20,000 books will end up on the library’s shelves. Rare and one-of-a-kind volumes will be preserved in the university’s 60,000-square foot archive.
april 23, 2015 ■
THE REPORTER
13
yom hashoah commemorations IN bRIEF From JTA
Thousands march at Auschwitz to remember the Holocaust
Thousands of young people from at least 45 countries participated in the March of the Living in Poland at the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex of concentration camps. The 27th International March of the Living took place April 16 on Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. Each country’s delegation was accompanied by a survivor to tell his or her personal story. Yad Vashem Chairman Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv-Yaffo and former Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, led the two-mile march from the Auschwitz concentration camp to the Birkenau extermination camp. Lau told the participants how he survived the Holocaust, and he showed a Torah scroll that had survived and required extensive repair. Survivor Sigmund Rolat recalled his Polish nanny, Elka, who remained with him in the Czestochowa ghetto in order to protect him. “We stand here in solidarity, mourning and fear,” he said. “Our unity is rooted not only in our Jewish peoplehood, which we share with those whom we remember today. Their Jewishness was not incidental to their fate; it determined it. But our unity today encompasses all, Jews and non-Jews, who remember, grieve and mourn – and participate in our solidarity.” Pope Francis sent a message to the march. “All the efforts for fighting in favor of life are praiseworthy and have to be supported without any kind of discrimination,” the pope said. “For this reason I am very close to these initiatives, that are not only against death, but also against the thousands discriminatory phobias that enslave and kill.” The participants spend a week in Poland studying the Holocaust before traveling to Israel for another week of study, which includes its national Memorial Day commemoration and Independence Day celebrations.
Czech couple posthumously honored as Righteous Among the Nations
A Czech couple was posthumously recognized as Righteous Among the Nations for saving a Jewish girl in Ukraine during the Holocaust. A daughter of the honored couple, Anna and Vincenc Bohata, received the honor from the Israeli envoy to the Czech Republic, Gary Ko-
ren, at the Israeli Embassy in Prague on April 15. The Bohatas, ethnic Czechs who were born in Ukraine, hid Mindla Svarc from Nazi troops and Ukrainian nationalists during World War II. After the war, they moved to what was then Czechoslovakia along with the girl, who went on to marry and have three children. One of Svarc’s daughters, Ruzena Stehlikova, also attended the brief ceremony. “It’s a wonderful feeling,” she told Czech Radio. “We always knew the family accepted us as their own and they loved my mother very much.” The Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem has recognized 115 Czechs as Righteous Among the Nations, a title given to non-Jews who rescued Jews during the Shoah.
FBI director: Holocaust museum program a must for new agents
FBI Director James Comey called the Holocaust the most significant event in history and said that’s why a U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum program on its lessons is mandatory for new agents. Speaking on April 15 at the museum’s National Tribute dinner in Washington, DC, Comey made a point of noting that new special agents and intelligence analysts must attend the Law Enforcement and Society: Lessons of the Holocaust program. “It is of course significant because it was the most horrific display in the world of inhumanity,” Comey told the 1,000 donors, dignitaries and survivors at the dinner. “But I believe it was also the most horrific display in world history of our humanity, of our capacity for evil and for moral surrender.” He added, “Good people helped to murder millions. And that’s the most frightening lesson of all. That is why I send our agents and our analysts to the museum. I want them to stare at us and realize our capacity for rationalization and moral surrender.” The FBI has participated in the program since 2009. The program, which was developed in conjunction with the Anti-Defamation League, was launched in 1998. Prior to Comey’s remarks, the 2015 Elie Wiesel Award was presented to Benjamin Ferencz and Thomas Buergenthal. Ferencz is the last surviving prosecutor of the war crimes trials at Nuremberg. Ferencz was 27 years old when he won convictions against 22 Einsatzgruppen, known as a particularly ruthless faction of German SS, who were charged with the murders of one million people. After
the war, Ferencz helped lay the groundwork for the International Criminal Court. “Never again has been happening ever again,” Ferencz said in a pretaped message. “We need laws and courts and enforcement. And the enforcement arm is very weak, so the public is the court of last resort. I turn the world now back to you and hope you’ll have a more peaceful world than I have seen. Good luck.” Buergenthal, one of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz, served for 10 years as a judge to the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Netherlands. In his remarks, he drew parallels between himself and his friend, and the award’s namesake, Wiesel, a Nobel peace laureate and renowned Holocaust memoirist. He also paid homage to the more than one million children murdered in the Holocaust. “Think of the scientists, medical doctors, scholars, artists, musicians, poets, writers, astronomers, teachers and philosophers these children might have become had they been allowed to live,” he said. “We will never know how many future Nobel Prize winners were among the children who perished.” Among those on hand for the dinner were Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League’s national director; Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee; Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S.; and Mohammed Dajani, the former Al-Quds University professor who led Palestinian students on a visit to Auschwitz last year.
Obama condemns antisemitism in Holocaust Remembrance Day message
President Barack Obama condemned antisemitism in a Holocaust Remembrance Day message. “It is incumbent upon us to make real those timeless words ‘Never forget. Never again,’” Obama said in the statement released on April 16. “Yet even as we recognize that mankind is capable of unspeakable acts of evil, we also draw strength from the survivors, the liberators and the righteous among nations who represented humanity at its best. With their example to guide us, together we must firmly and forcefully condemn the antisemitism that is still far too common today. Together we must stand against bigotry and hatred in all their forms. And together, we can leave our children a world that is more just, more free, and more secure for all humankind.”
Quick Reference Guide to Planned Giving Use this planned giving quick reference guide to help determine the best strategy for achieving your philanthropic and financial goals. For more information or to discuss these planned giving options, please contact Mark Silverberg, Executive Director, Jewish Federation of NEPA, 570-961-2300 (x1) or mark.silverberg@jewishnepa.org.
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THE REPORTER ■ april 23, 2015
April 2015 • Non-Feature Films • *NEW* American Masters: Mel Brooks: Make A Noise - After more than 60 years in show business, Mel Brooks has earned more major awards than any other living entertainer. A comedy force of nature, Brooks is very private and has never authorized a biography, making his participation in this film a genuine first. Showcasing the Brooklyn native’s brilliant, skewed originality, American Masters: Mel Brooks: Make A Noise features never-before-heard stories and new interviews with Brooks, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Cloris Leachman, Carl Reiner, Joan Rivers, Tracey Ullman and others. This career-spanning documentary of the man behind Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, The Producers, Spaceballs and of course the 2000 Year Old Man journeys through Brooks’ professional and personal ups and downs, providing a rare look at a living legend, beloved by millions. *NEW* Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy - Engaging, humorous, and provocative... examining the unique role of Jewish composers and lyricists in the creation of the modern American musical. The film showcases the work of legends such as Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim. Interviews with songwriters and luminaries including Sheldon Harnick, Stephen Schwartz, Harold Prince, Arthur Laurents, Charles Strouse, and Mel Brooks provide insight, alongside standout performances and archival footage. Everything is a Present: The Wonder and Grace of Alice Sommer Hertz - This is the uplifting true story of the gifted pianist Alice Sommer Hertz who survived the Theresienstat concentration camp by playing classical piano concerts for Nazi dignitaries. Alice Sommer Hertz lived to the age of 106. Her story is an inspiration. Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story - Yoni Netanyahu was a complex, passionate individual thrust into defending his country in a time of war and violence. The older brother of Benjamin Natanyahu, the current Israel Prime Minister, Yoni led the miraculous raid on Entebbe in 1976. Although almost all of the Entebbe hostages were saved, Yoni was the lone military fatality. Featuring three Israeli Prime Ministers and recently released audio from the Entebbe raid itself. Hava Nagila (The Movie) - A documentary romp through the history, mystery and meaning of the great Jewish standard. Featuring interviews with Harry Belafonte, Leonard Nimoy and more, the film follows the ubiquitous party song on its fascinating journey from the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the kibbutzim of Palestine to the cul-de-sacs of America. Inside Hana’s Suitcase - The delivery of a battered suitcase to Fumiko Ishioka at the Tokyo Holocaust Museum begins the true-life mystery that became the subject of Karen Levine’s best-selling book Hana’s Suitcase. The film follows Fumiko’s search to discover the details of Hana’s life, which leads to the discovery of her brother George in Toronto. Israel: The Royal Tour - Travel editor Peter Greenberg (CBS News) takes us on magnificent tour of the Jewish homeland, Israel. The tour guide is none other than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The viewer gets a chance to visit the land of Israel from his own home! Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story (narrated by Dustin Hoffman) - This documentary portrays the contributions of Jewish major leaguers and the special meaning that baseball has had in the lives of American Jews. More than a film about sports, this is a story of immigration, assimilation, bigotry, heroism, the passing on of traditions, the shattering of stereotypes and, most of all, the greatest American pastime. Nicky’s Family - An enthralling documentary that artfully tells the story of how Sir Nicholas Winton, now 104, a British stockbroker, gave up a 1938 skiing holiday to answer a friend’s request for help in Prague and didn’t stop helping until the war’s beginning stopped him. He had saved the lives of 669 children in his own personal Kindertransport. Shanghai Ghetto - One of the most amazing and captivating survival tales of WWII, this documentary recalls the strange-but-true story of thousands of European Jews who were shut out of country after country while trying to escape Nazi persecution. Left without options or entrance visa, a beacon of hope materialized for them on the other side of the world, and in the unlikeliest of places, Japanese-controlled Shanghai. The Case for Israel - Democracy’s Outpost - This documentary presents a vigorous case for Israel- for its basic right to exist, to protect its citizens from terrorism, and to defend its borders from hostile enemies. The Jewish Cardinal - This is the amazing true story of Jean-Marie Lustiger, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, who maintained his cultural identity as a Jew even after converting to Catholicism at a young age, & later joining the priesthood. The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg - As baseball’s first Jewish star, Hammerin’ Hank Greenberg’s career contains all the makings of a true American success story. Unmasked: Judaophobia - The Threat to Civilization – This documentary exposes the current political assault against the State of Israel fundamentally as a war against the Jewish people and their right to self-determination. *NEW* When Jews Were Funny is insightful and often hilarious, surveying the history of Jewish comedy from the early days of Borsht Belt to the present. • Feature Films • Fill the Void - This is the story of an eighteen-year-old, Shira, who is the youngest daughter of her family. Her dreams are about to come true as she is set to be married. Unexpectedly, her sister dies while giving birth to her first child. The drama of the story reaches its peak when the girls’ mother proposes a match between Shira and the young widower. Shira will have to choose between her heart’s wish and her family duty. Footnote - The winner of the Cannes Film Festival (Best Screenplay) is the tale of a great rivalry between a father and son, two eccentric professors, who have both dedicated their lives to work in Talmudic Studies. Each has a need for recognition in his chosen field and the day comes when father and son must look deeply inside themselves for the truth- advancement of his own career or of the others. Hidden in Silence - Przemysl, Poland, WWII. Germany emerges victorious over the Russians and the city comes under Nazi control. The Jews are sent to the ghettos. While some stand silent, Catholic teenager, Stefania Podgorska, chose the role of a savior and sneaks 13 Jews into her attic. Noodle (compatible only on PAL – DVD players - Hebrew with English subtitles) This film was a beloved entry in the Jewish Federation of NEPA’s Jewish Film Festival. It tells the heartwarming story of an Israeli stewardess, Miri, whose personal life as a war widow leaves her without much joy. Everything changes for Miri when her Oriental housemaid disappears one day leaving her with her young Oriental child! The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - Based on the best- selling novel, this movie is unforgettable. Set during WWII, the movie introduces us to Bruno, an innocent eight-year-old, ignores his mother and sets of on an adventure in the woods. Soon he meets a young boy and a surprising friendship develops. The Concert - Andrei Filipov was prodigy- at 20 he was the celebrated conductior for Russia’s renowned Bolshoi Orchestra. Thirty years later, still at the Bolshoi, he works as a janitor. Ousted during the communist era when he refused to fire the Jewish members of the orchestra, a broken Andrei now cleans the auditorium where he once performed in front of thousands. The Debt - In 1966, three Mossad agents were assigned to track down a feared Nazi war criminal hiding in East Berlin, a mission accomplished at great risk and personal cost- or was it? The Other Son - As he is preparing to join the Israeli army for his national service, Joseph discovers he is not his parents’ biological son and that he was inadvertently switched at birth with Yacine, the son of a Palestinian family from the West Bank. This revelation turns the lives of these two families upside-down, forcing them to reassess their respective identities, their values and beliefs.
Airplane
Continued from page 12
[Slick] doesn’t sing anymore, so that means that’s really out of the question. We’d like to do something. We don’t know what that is, whether it’s just wandering around and yakking on talk shows or something like that. Maybe having some acoustic guitars and playing some songs and talking. I was looking through some of your old solo albums, and some songs seemed to have some religious undertones – especially “Quah,” which includes the songs “Genesis” and “I Am the Light of this World.” Right. “I Am the Light of this World” is a Rev. Gary Davis song. This is another thing that David Bromberg and I have talked about – and we wonder half-jokingly – why so many of us guys who are Jewish folk guitar players do so many songs that are from a Christian tradition. When I listen to a song like that, even though the reverend was obviously a Christian and spoke about Jesus a lot – to me, that’s a metaphor. And as Bromberg himself says, Jesus was a great rabbi. But there is something about spiritual songs that without focusing on the things that make them denominational, I find very uplifting. How has your relationship to Judaism changed since your wife converted? When I was finding my Jewish roots when my wife was converting, and when I spoke to the rabbi, one of the things that always came up for me, even when I didn’t think about it, was that I felt very comfortable in the context of a Jewish milieu. I don’t live in a Jewish context most of the time because that’s not how my world works, but whenever it happens, I feel like I’ve come home. One of the things that I really enjoy about my friends who are Jewish is that almost to a man or a woman, everyone really has a different take on the whole thing. I like that that is allowed to happen. I’m not fond of dogma of any sort. And I know there’s dogma in Judaism, too, but I like that in spite of that there’s a lot of wiggle room. And just to keep your mind open without losing the strength of the heritage, I think it’s a really cool thing.
Book
Continued from page 4 When Rebecca Rosenthal dies, she finds herself in a heaven inhabited by the mothers of famous men, for example, the mothers of Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Groucho Marx, Marcel Proust, Romain Gary and Albert Cohen. Rebecca realizes she has one thing in common with these women: she, too, worries about the son she left behind. According Minnie Marx, you don’t have to be Jewish or a mother to be a Jewish mother: “It’s an expression, that’s all: a synonym for being loving, devoted, heroic, possessive, demanding, paranoid, anxious, unbearable, nosy, and obsessed with one’s children.” Obsessed is the correct word: Although, except for Rebecca, their children are long dead, the women spend their time talking about their sons, for example, whose accomplishments were the greatest, who suffered the most difficulties in life, who was closest to his mother... The list could go on, as each mother tries to prove her son was special or unique. This leaves readers with more talk than action. However, that’s not a complaint, since the discussions are interesting, particularly when they focus on literature. I was so intrigued by the material on the unfamiliar Cohen and Gary that I looked for more information about their Jewish-themed novels online. Sections of “Jewish Mothers Never Die” struck me more as a lecture than a novel, but that’s not surprising since, David-Weill has a Ph.D. in French literature. This odd-ball work was a fun change of pace, especially since it was short. At 180-some pages, these women are interesting; if the novel was much longer, they might have become unbearable.
april 23, 2015 ■
THE REPORTER
15
NEWS IN bRIEF From JTA
U.N. envoy Samantha Power: U.S. won’t dismiss resolutions targeting Israel
The United States would continue to “work closely” with Israel at the United Nations but would not count out advancing resolutions targeting Israel, the U.S. ambassador to the world body said. Samantha Power testified on April 16 before the foreign operations subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), the top Democrat on the committee and the subcommittee, told Power that she was troubled by reports “suggesting a reevaluation of our longstanding policy of defending Israel at the U.N.” and said “supporting or remaining agnostic” on U.N. resolutions targeting Israel would violate the 1993 Oslo peace accords. Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), the chairwoman of the subcommittee, also was disturbed by reports that the United States may allow such resolutions to go forward. “I am also very concerned about recent statements from administration officials that suggest the United States is reevaluating its approach to the peace process and reports that the U.S. may support a U.N. Security Council resolution laying out conditions and establishing deadlines,” Granger said. Power said the United States would continue to stand with Israel “when it matters. We will continue to work extremely closely with Israel in New York,” Power replied. “As you know well we have a record of standing when it matters with Israel.” However, Power would not count out advancing U.N. resolutions regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She noted that the United States had as recently as last summer’s war between Israel and Hamas contemplated advancing a U.N. Security Council resolution on the conflict. “We will look to see what will advance Israel’s security and what will advance peace in the region,” she said. Israel is concerned that the Obama administration will no longer stand in the way of a Palestinian statehood resolution in the Security Council and may advance a measure outlining the parameters of a final status peace deal. Obama administration officials have not discounted such moves. Power repeated an Obama administration talking point that the “re-evaluation” comes in the wake of mixed signals from Israel and the Palestinians regarding their commitment to a two-state solution. “Our objective as an administration is what can we do to defuse tensions, what will it take to get those negotiations back on track,” she said. U.S. policy for decades has been to mostly block Israel-critical resolutions, although successive administrations have on occasion allowed resolutions targeting Israel for condemnation to advance.
Congress’ antisemitism task force meets with European envoys
A new congressional task force charged with combating antisemitism met with the ambassadors to the United States from France, Britain and Germany. The U.S. Congressional Task Force Against Anti-Semitism, a bipartisan effort that was established in March, had its inaugural meeting on April 14. Among those attending the briefing with the envoys were Reps. Eliot Engel (D-NY), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Robert Dold (R-IL), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Jan Schakowsky (DIL), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Ted Deutch (D-FL). “I was pleased to hear from our French, German and British partners that they are taking this issue very seriously and are working to bolster security for Jewish communities,” Lieu said in a statement. “I look forward to working across party lines to explore creative ways not only to protect these communities but also to reverse these trends.”
Argentina’s Senate approves one-time payments to AMIA bombing victims
Associated Students Senate president cast the deciding vote against the resolution. The resolution, written by Students for Justice in Palestine, called on the university to divest from companies selling equipment to the Israeli government for use in the West Bank. The resolution singles out Hewlett-Packard, Raytheon, Motorola, Caterpillar and General Electric. Dozens of students spoke during the student government’s public forum, according to the Daily Nexus, the student newspaper. Santa Barbara and Merced are the only University of California undergraduate campuses whose student governments have not passed divestment resolutions. Earlier in April, the student senate passed a resolution condemning antisemitism by a vote of 24-0 with one abstention.
Senate panel approves congressional review of Iran deal
A key Senate committee approved a bill mandating congressional review of any Iran nuclear deal, and the White House said it would not block the measure. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 14 voted 19-0 to approve the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act. Negotiations over recent days between the committee chairman, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), who authored the bill, and its top Democrat, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), stripped elements that the White House found objectionable, including linking sanctions relief to Iranian actions on terrorism, and shortened the review time from 60 days to 30 days. Obama had threatened to veto earlier versions of the bill, but Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman, said before the vote that if reports on the compromise legislation bore out, that would no longer be the case. “That would be the kind of compromise the president would be willing to sign,” Earnest said. The major powers and Iran announced earlier this month the outline of a nuclear deal that would swap sanctions relief for restrictions aimed at keeping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Israel and a number of Republican senators have strongly opposed the deal, saying it would leave Iran a nuclear weapons threshold state. The deadline for a final deal is June 30. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee praised the Senate committee for reporting the bill to the full body, where it is guaranteed passage. “Congress should review any agreement to ensure it meets U.S. objectives and object if it fails to do so,” AIPAC said in a statement. “Serious concerns have been raised over the framework understanding. A final deal, with its immense national security implications, must be subjected to the constitutional system of checks and balances that is the bedrock of our democracy.”
Ecuador’s president tweets “Heil Hitler”
Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, tweeted “Heil Hitler!” to his 2.12 million followers. The April 9 tweet is believed to be a sarcastic response to a tweet from Panamanian politician Guillermo Cochez about how Ecuador’s ex-president, Osvaldo Hurtado, called Correa a “typical fascist” in a recent speech to the right-wing organization Fundacion Libertad. “Though Correa’s supporters claim his ‘Heil Hitler!’ was a sarcastic retort to the charge of fascism, it shows at best a conscious insensitivity to the victims of the Nazis,” Shimon Samuels, director for international relations at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said in a statement on April 14. “In the context of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s intimate neo-Nazi and Iranian jihadist ties, such language may serve as a provocation that endorses antisemitic violence.” Correa long has been allied with antagonists of Israel and the Jews, including former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Chavez. In a December 2012 interview, Correa compared the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people, to NATO bombings of Libya. “I am familiar with the case, which is a very painful part of Argentina’s history. But look at how many died in the NATO bombings of Libya,” he said in a TV interview. “If we compare these two events, we can see where the true danger lies.”
Argentina’s Senate unanimously approved a bill that offers one-time compensation to the families of the 85 people killed in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center. Under the bill approved on April 15 without debate, the compensation will be about $170,000 for each fatality in the Buenos Aires attack. Also, for those whose injuries were “extremely grievous,” the reparation is reduced to 70 percent of the amount, and those with “grievous” injuries will receive 60 percent of the amount. The bill advances to the Parliament’s lower chamber. If it is approved there, it will become law. In June 2011, the Argentina Parliament unanimously ruled that the relatives of victims of the 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires would receive compensation from the state. Under that law, the families received $225,000 in the case of death, and $158,000 for dramatic and severe injuries, for a total of $40 million from the Argentine government. The perpetrators of both crimes have never been caught.
German-language Jewish magazine Aufbau changes ownership
The former publisher of Aufbau, a German-language magazine founded by Jewish refugees in New York, transferred ownership of the publication in an effort to save it. The Switzerland-based former publisher, Susanne Braginsky, earlier in April handed over Aufbau to another Swiss publishing firm, JM Judischen Medien AG, according to a report in the April edition of Tachles, a Swiss Jewish magazine also published by JM Judischen Medien. Braginsky took over publishing Aufbau in 2004, some 70 years after it was founded in New York by German Jews who escaped Nazi Germany. Her firm, Serenada Verlag, is transferring ownership “in order to secure the long-term viability of Aufbau,” according to an April 12 news release by JM Judischen Medien. The paper, whose names means “construction,” was a forum for authors and thinkers such as Hannah Arendt, Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann. “Writing a history of Aufbau would mean telling the story of the German-Jewish immigration to New York and the tumultuous fates of the immigrants,” Aufbau Editor Manfred George wrote in 1941. Under George, Aufbau went from being a monthly newsletter of the New World Club immigrants association to establishing itself as a weekly paper with a global readership. Aufbau has since returned to the monthly format but also has an online edition. Under JM Judischen Medien, the U.S. “remains an area of focus alongside Europe, Israel and other regions,” the publisher’s statement read. “Aufbau has become a venue for younger, as well as prominent, Jewish and Gentile writers such as Jared Diamond, Eric Foner, Walter Laqueur, Robert Menasse, Isabel Wilkerson and Elie Wiesel.”
U.C. Santa Barbara student senate votes down Israel divestment resolution
The University of California, Santa Barbara, student senate narrowly voted down an Israel divestment resolution. Following an eight-hour debate, the resolution was defeated early April 16 in a vote of 13 against and 12 in favor, with one abstention. The
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16
THE REPORTER ■ april 23, 2015
You are cordially invited to the
ANNUAL MEETING of the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania Please join us as we elect Officers and Trustees, celebrate the achievements of the past year and honor several individuals for their leadership contributions to our community and to Israel
Thursday, June 11th, 2015, 7:00 PM Koppleman Auditorium, Scranton Jewish Community Center, 601 Jefferson Ave., Scranton Dessert reception will follow the meeting. Dietary laws observed - RSVP to 961-2300 (ext. 4)
Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania
2015 Annual Meeting Program Welcome & introductions...................................... Douglas Fink, Federation Vice-President Invocation............................................................. Rabbi Daniel Swartz, Temple Hesed Federation Perspectives......................................... Douglas Fink, Federation Vice-President Presentation of Presidential Award......................... Mark Silverberg, Executive Director Presentation of Campaign Awards......................... Douglas Fink, Federation Vice-President 2015 UJA Campaign Report.................................. Mark and Joan Davis Nominating Committee Report............................. Seth Gross, Chairman Installation of Officers and Trustees....................... Rabbi Daniel Swartz, Temple Hesed Closing Remarks - Dr. David Malinov
Dessert Reception & Film Will Follow the Meeting: “Israel Inside: How a Little Nation Makes Such a Big Difference”
Proposed Slate of Officers & Trustees 2015 - 2018 Officers*
President...............................................................David Malinov* Administrative Vice-President...............................Douglas Fink* Vice-President.......................................................Elliot Schoenberg* Vice-President.......................................................Eric Weinberg* Treasurer...............................................................Barry Tremper* Assistant Treasurer................................................Jerry Weinberger* Secretary...............................................................Mark Silverberg Assistant Secretary................................................Donald Douglass*
Board of Trustees
Elected to serve a 1-year term ending June 30th, 2016* Alex Gans, Karen Pollack, Filmore Rosenstein, Stan Rothman, Jay Schectman and Irwin Wolfson *Trustees to be elected at the Annual Meeting
3-year term expiring in June 2016
*Officers to be elected at the Annual Meeting
Elected to serve a 3-year term ending June 30th, 2018* Esther Adelman, Susie Blum Connors, Mark Davis, Eli Deutsch, Lynn Fragin, Dale Miller, Larry Milliken, Gail Neldon and Molly Rutta. *Trustees to be elected at the Annual Meeting
• Continuing Terms •
Jim Ellenbogen, Joseph Fisch, Leah Laury, Phyllis Malinov, Mel Mogel, Geordee Pollock, Alma Shaffer, Suzanne Tremper and Eric Weinberg
3-year term expiring in June 2017 Sandra Alfonsi, Phyllis Barax, Shlomo Fink, Susan Jacobson, Dan Marcus, Ann Monsky, Barbara Nivert, Eugene Schneider and Ben Schnessel
The Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania expresses its gratitude to those Trustees whose terms of office will expire in June 2015. It is hoped that each of them will continue to serve the Mission of our Federation by participating in its many important committees, programs and projects. Our appreciation is extended to Herb Appel, Phyllis Brandes, Lainey Denis, Richard Fine, Natalie Gelb, Laurel Glassman, Ed Monsky, Laney Ufberg and Jay Weiss