June 22, 2018

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Volume XXIV, Issue XII  |  www.jvhri.org Serving Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts

9 Tammuz 5778 | June 22, 2018

SUMMER HEALTH and WELLNESS

Alliance annual meeting recognizes community leadership Reports offer glimpse into the future

BY FRAN OSTENDORF

Tslil Reichman

Israeli emissary Tslil Reichman says le’hitraot

On June 13, the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island gathered for its annual meeting, recognizing the past and looking to the future. For the seventh time, the group met as a combined organization to install leadership and to honor members of the community with several awards. For only the second time, the meeting took place in the renovated Gussie and Victor Baxt Social Hall at the Dwares Jewish Community Center in Providence. The crowd listened to Rabbi Noach Karp’s d’var Torah, which was followed by the presentation of the awards. Karp focused his message on the need to recognize the individual. “We need each other,” he said. Three awards were presented this year. Sharon Gaines, chair of the board of the Jewish Federation Foundation and immediate past chair of the board of the Jewish Alliance, received the Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award. It honors extraordinary women who have set a high standard for philanthropy and volunteerism. Recipients are chosen by peers

PHOTO | LEAH CAMARA

Joan Ress Reeves with Rabbi Wayne Franklin for being “women of valor” who have dedicated their lives to the Jewish world. Current chair of the board, Mitzi Berkelhammer, presented the

REICHMAN | 12

ANNUAL MEETING | 14

‘Terror kites’ shake residents in southern Israel, but not their resolve to stay put

BY TSLIL REICHMAN I can’t believe it really is time to say le’hitraot (not goodbye, just see you soon). Two years ago, I left everything I knew behind to embark on a journey to an unknown place called Rhode Island. I had so many questions, fears, dreams. When I arrived in Providence, I was completely in shock, not sure what to expect or what exactly I was thinking moving thousands of miles away from my family, my friends and my mom’s cooking. I’ll be honest, the beginning was not easy for me – I was just out of college, so far away from home, with a foreign language

award to Gaines, whom she called a dear friend. “She is a leader and a doer,” said Berkelhammer. “I am pleased to honor her tonight.”

Emily Dennen, a general studies teacher at the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island (JCDSRI), was the first recipient of the Rabbi Alvan and Giveret Marcia Kaunfer Day School Educator Award. Dianne Newman, along with her husband Martin, established the award, which she presented, saying “Teachers are at the core of day school or any other education.” The award honors the Kaunfers, longtime community members, educators, and among the founding families of JCDSRI when it was known as the Schechter School. Dennen received $3,000 toward a professional development learning opportunity in Israel; she will return to JCDSRI to continue teaching there. She said she sees herself as a “Jewish educator” although she teaches general studies, and she is working to incorporate more Hebrew into her classes. Rabbi Wayne Franklin, senior rabbi at Temple EmanuEl in Providence, received the Joseph W. Ress Community Service Award. Serving the congregation since 1981, Franklin will retire in 2019.

BY SAM SOKOL

PHOTO | SAM SOKOL, JTA

An Israeli holds a “terror kite” and the incendiary materials attached to it

NAHAL OZ, Israel JTA – Dani Ben David fiddles with his radio, switching between it and his cellphone as he drives through the Beeri Forest, a nature reserve located on the border of Israel and the Hamascontrolled Gaza Strip. As his Jeep jolts over the dirt road, he quickly and calmly jumps between multiple conversations, coordinating efforts to extinguish the multiple fires that have sprung up across his territory. As regional director for the Western Negev for Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund, Ben David is responsible for maintaining

the forest’s tens of thousands of acres in the face of Palestinian efforts to torch them and the surrounding farmland. Since April, more than 450 open-air fires have been set along the border region by kites and balloons carrying incendiary materials launched from Gaza. Flying aimlessly over the kibbutzim, they have turned large swatches of what was once an oasis of green in a dry and dusty south into a charred landscape. Many of those kites have landed in the wheat fields of farmers, causing millions of shekels in damage to the local KITES| 20


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