Style Statman and country Famous klezmer star found inspiration in Wheeling Jamboree
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THE JEWISH CHRONICLE thejewishchronicle.net ocTober 13, 2011 tishri 15, 5772
Vol. 55, No. 22
Pittsburgh, PA
You shall dwell in booths
$1.50
Project Harmony offering discreet assistance to abused women BY TOBY TABACHNICK Staff Writer
Chronicle photo by Ilana Yergin
Tzipora Sachs helps her son, Eliezer Henteleff, 4, decorate Eliezer’s paternal grandparents’ sukka, Sunday, in Squirrel Hill. Sukkot, the Festival of Booths, began at sundown, Wednesday. Jews all over western Pennsylvania and West Virginia were busy this past weekend erecting their booths for the holiday.
South Hills man’s heart attack spured him to start, finish Torah BY TOBY TABACHNICK Staff Writer
On June 12, 2010, Jay Feuer, then age 59, was running on a treadmill at Bally Total Fitness in Bethel Park when he collapsed. He woke up three days later at St. Clair Hospital. Feuer, who had always taken good care of himself, and thought he was in good health, had suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. He would have died had it not been for a quick-acting paramedic who just happened to be exercising near him when his heart stopped beating.
“He did CPR on me,” Feuer said, “and he yelled at the employees to get an AED [automated external defibrillator]. When they finally found it, he said he had to use it three times on me until my heart started beating again. When I got to St. Clair, they had to use defibrillators three more times.” Four months later, after having additional problems with scar tissue and arrhythmia, Feuer had open-heart surgery. He has since had a complete recovery. But his terrifying ordeal left him motivated to finish a project he had been working on for years: commissioning a new Torah for his synagogue, Beth El
Congregation of the South Hills, and paying for it with tip money collected at the synagogue’s weekly bingo games. Feuer has been running Beth El’s bingo games, along with fellow congregant Fern Schwartz, for about 10 years. Bingo is a large source of revenue for the congregation, and attracts regular players from throughout the South Hills community. Often, when players win a game, they will tip the volunteers who bring them their cash prizes. The volunteers do not keep the tips, but turn them over to Feuer and Schwartz. “Before Fern and I took over bingo, Please see Torah project, page 21.
A Pittsburgh program is working to raise awareness of the presence of domestic abuse in the Jewish community in the hope of reducing the stigma of women who are victims and encouraging them to seek help. Project Harmony has joined forces with the Shalom Task Force, based in Brooklyn, N.Y., to provide a hotline that women can call to get help and referrals to professional services. Local therapists have undergone training regarding domestic abuse in general, and specifically from a Jewish perspective, in order to help those calling the hotline in need, said Dr. Jordan Golin, the director of clinical and elder care services at Squirrel Hill Psychological Services. “If a woman from Pittsburgh calls the [national] hotline, a trained volunteer will speak with her on the phone, and direct her to resources,” Golin said. “A Jewish woman would get directed to our agency.” Domestic abuse is an issue that affects women of all walks of life, including Jewish women from all streams of observance. According to Deborah Rosenbloom, director of programs for Jewish Women International, outreach organizations that serve Jewish women from the secular to the Orthodox “all are very busy.” In fact, Rosenbloom noted that the feedback from JWI’s Misheberach for victims of domestic violence, which was read over the High Holy Days in synagogues of all four streams of Judaism, inspired many women to come forward. “Slowly people have been writing in that women came forward,” said RosenPlease see Project Harmony, page 23.
B USINES S 18/C L AS SIFIED 21/O BITUARIES 22/C OMMUNITY 12 O PINION 6/R EAL E STATE 20/S IMCHAS 16/S TYLE 10
Times To Remember
KINDLE SABBATH CANDLES: 6:24 p.m. DST. SABBATH ENDS: 7:21 p.m. DST.