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Volume XXIII, Issue XIV | www.jvhri.org Serving Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts
3 Elul 5777 | August 25, 2017
Touro Fraternal celebrates 100 years BY FRAN OSTENDORF For 100 years, the Touro Fraternal Association has brought Jewish men together, offering a sense of community and belonging. Founded in 1917 and organized a year later, gatherings were social at fi rst. Later, community service and philanthropy were added to the mix. Today, its nearly 500 members are fathers and sons from all over Rhode Island, including newcomers to the area who are looking for friends or to get involved in the commu-
nity in some way. “Harmony, Friendship, Benevolence” is the group’s slogan, prominently displayed on their website. Jed Brandes, of Cranston, is the current chairman of the board of the Association, which claims the distinction of being the largest independent Jewish fraternal order in the Northeast. His journey to this post is typical for newcomers to Rhode Island and offers a glimpse into why Touro Fraternal has stayed strong and vital while other TOURO | 23
PHOTO | FRAN OSTENDORF
Adam Greenman in his office. The milkshake machine is a memento from his grandparents’ deli.
Meet Adam Greenman, the new head of the Alliance
BY FRAN OSTENDORF Some of you might identify with Adam Greenman’s road to the Alliance. Unaffiliated and living in Pawtucket, he wasn’t particularly connected with the
Jewish community in Rhode Island. But as a participant in the Alliance and Community Relations Council-sponsored mission to Israel for Rhode Island leaders in November 2015, he
realized he missed the connection he had growing up in what he describes as a conservative/ orthodox family in Philadelphia. GREENMAN | 7
George Washington letter resonates at annual reading BY SAM SHAMOON NEWPORT – On this remarkable Aug. 20, about 200 people participated in a ceremony at the Touro Synagogue in which a Catholic nun and Muslim imam played leading roles. During this annual event, President George Washington’s 1790 letter to the “Hebrew Congregation” of Newport is read and celebrated. Listeners were implored to be “upstanders” rather than bystanders in times like the present.
Sister Jane Gerety, president of Salve Regina University, in Newport, gave the invocation and noted that the promise of the fi rst president is being unraveled by the current one. Sister Jane paraphrased Washington’s words in the negative, noting that we are not able to sit in safety under our own vine and fig tree, and there are those who will make us afraid. But she also said that hope is at hand with events like the one at Touro and in Boston, where 40,000 who marched there protested
bigotry and the persecution of minorities. The same theme was sounded by Rhode Island General Treasurer Seth Magaziner, who recounted a personal and frightening brush with anti-Semitism and noted that our leaders must not draw moral equivalency between Nazis and those who protest against hatred. Magaziner went on to note that Rhode Island has been a bastion of religious freedom as the fi rst state to open its doors to many faiths and creeds. LETTER | 26
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