Volume XXIV, Issue XIII | www.jvhri.org Serving Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts
29 Av 5778 | August 10, 2018
BACK TO SCHOOL
Jewish Collaborative Services up and running in one building BY FRAN OSTENDORF
The Great Synagogue of Rome
PHOTO | M. CHARLES BAKST
Rome’s Jewish Quarter: Seared by the Holocaust, still much alive BY M. CHARLES BAKST ROME, ITALY – Micol Piazza, our guide on a tour of the historic Jewish quarter here, is full of emotion as she speaks, and I tremble as I listen to her recount the horror of the German roundup of some 1,000 Roman Jews on Oct. 16, 1943. Most of them lived on these few blocks, in what for centuries had been a ghetto. Piazza says of the Nazis, “With the help of the Italian police, they had the names of the Jews. They were right here. It was Shabbat. Sukkot. People were sleeping in their homes.’’ The Nazis swooped in. “They go knocking door by door, catching
The merger of the Jewish Seniors Agency and Jewish Family Service into Jewish Collaborative Services continues as the two agencies moved into one building, at 1165 N. Main St. in Providence, at the end of July. The hope is that putting these services together in one place will help the community get more out of them and make them easier to access. The new building will house staff that formerly worked in offices at 100 Niantic Ave. and 959 N. Main St. Also in the building is the newly relocated Louis & Goldie Chester Full Plate Kosher Food Pantry. The three-story structure has been completely remodeled. The food pantry is on the first floor. The second floor is set up for clients from the community, and the third floor houses offices for those who do not see clients and affiliates of Jewish Collaborative Services, such as Lifeline.
Jewish Collaborative Services will still operate the “West Bay Campus,” which includes The Phyllis Siperstein Tamarisk Assisted Living Residences and The Shalom Apartments, in Warwick, and the two Kosher meal sites, one in Providence and one in Cranston. “The building is symbolic of the agency coming together,” said Erin Minior, interim CEO of the new agency. “We hope it will help people know where to go and help us to make appropriate referrals,” said Patty Harwood, chief of programs. “This allows for a wider, deeper reach for services,” said Susan Bazar, chief of strategy and administration. “Moving,” Minior added, “is a monumental task.” The staff has been very involved in the building renovations, said Sara Goodwin, director of major gifts. As they chose their new offices, and made decisions on items such COLLABORATIVE| 5
people. They give them a slip of paper... ‘You have to be ready in 20 minutes. Take your food, take your clothes, take your jewels, take your everything, and when you’ll be back, everything is in order.’” Piazza spits out the next word: “LIARS!” The Jews were deported to Auschwitz. Only 16 survived. In the shadow of the Great Synagogue of Rome, the old ghetto, which existed from 1555 to 1870, remains a magnet for Rome’s Jews. Only 400 Jews remain in this increasingly upscale neighborhood, but there are thousands of others in the city, and they still drop ROME | 12 PHOTO | BRACHA STUART
A Shabbat on the Italian coast BY M. CHARLES BAKST FORTE DEI MARMI, ITALY – Shabbat shalom from this gorgeous beach town on the Tuscan coast near Pisa and Carrara. Yes, in this upscale resort in this heavily Catholic country, there is a Sephardic Orthodox summer synagogue. On a Friday evening last month, I was privileged to attend a service, and stay for a delicious buffet supper of groaning proportions. The synagogue is a cluster of open-sided tents or awnings, surrounded by soaring maritime pine trees in the garden of a home owned by retired businessman Charles Metta, who is in his 70s. Well, it’s his, but
really, he tells me, “It belongs to God.” When not in Forte dei Marmi, Metta lives in Milan and Tel Aviv. The synagogue, operating since 1988, is called Beit Nessim (that is, House of Miracles), a name emblazoned in gold on the black yarmulke Metta gave me. To get to Beit Nessim, head away from the Forte dei Marmi beach clubs that line the sea, past the downtown restaurants, cafes, gelato stores, and tony shops like Prada and Gucci, and make your way up Via XX Settembre toward the jagged mountains that seem graced RETREAT | 13
Reuven Goldstein, one of the speakers at the retreat, with earliest examples of printed Hebrew.
National Jewish Retreat comes to Providence BY PATRICIA RASKIN PROVIDENCE – Some 1,200 Jews from all over the U.S. and other nations gathered at the Rhode Island Convention Center July 31-Aug. 5 for the National Jewish Retreat. The retreat is a component of the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, which serves learning centers in
over 900 communities, according to the group’s website, www.myjli. com. The institute’s mission is “to make Jewish learning accessible and personally meaningful for every Jew, regardless of background or affiliation.” Rabbi Efraim Mintz, executive director of the institute, said, “The JLI retreat is the continuation of RETREAT | 4