Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 8-2-19

August 2, 2019 | 1 Av 5779

Candlelighting 8:16 p.m. | Havdalah 9:18 p.m. | Vol. 62, No. 31 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

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Rodef Shalom’s Biblical Garden Rabbis talk sure to blossom with new director about Jewish position on death penalty

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL A Kaddish journey

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

T

“In the early years, of course, it was the two of us, Irene and I, and who did what depended on when you got up in the morning,” he said. “It’s the sort of thing that needs daily looking after.”

Features of the garden, which is reminiscent of ancient Israel, include a waterfall, a desert, and a representation of the River Jordan, which meanders from a simulated Lake Galilee to an ersatz Dead Sea. More than 100 plants thrive in the garden, labeled with appropriate biblical verses and displayed among replicas of ancient farming tools.

Jacob is confidently entrusting the garden to Nichols, he said, because she has the “interest and the knowledge” to manage it well.

Although Jacob now holds the title of the Biblical Botanical Garden’s director emeritus, he is ready to take a back seat to his successor.

“Helena will have her own vision, and as far as I am concerned, I will tell you exactly the same thing that I told Rabbi [Aaron] Bisno when he succeeded me [as senior

he Department of Justice announced last week that after a nearly two-decade lapse it will resume executing federal death row inmates. The decision follows direction from U.S. Attorney General William Barr to the Federal Bureau of Prisons to adopt an addendum replacing a three-drug procedure previously used in federal executions with a single drug — pentobarbital — and to schedule the killings of five prisoners found guilty of murder.

“Congress has expressly authorized the death penalty through legislation adopted by the people’s representatives in both houses of Congress and signed by the president,” said Barr in a statement. “Under administrations of both parties, the Department of Justice has sought the death penalty against the worst criminals, including these five murderers, each of whom was convicted by a jury of his peers after a full and fair proceeding.

The Justice Department upholds the rule of law — and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.”

When asked about the Jewish perspective on capital punishment, local rabbis referenced a long corpus of rabbinic writings, but generally all agreed that the death penalty still requires considerable study, thought and conversation.

Tractate Sanhedrin of the Mishnah offers much insight on the subject, but the puzzle really begins elsewhere, explained Rabbi Keren Gorban, associate rabbi at Temple Sinai.

“The Torah allows the death penalty in certain cases, and actually commands it, but the question then becomes how do we actually enforce this,” said Gorban.

The Talmud teaches that “what you need is a clear eyewitness account, that it wasn’t contradicted by any other eyewitnesses, it has

Please see Garden, page 14

Please see Death, page 14

Catching up with globetrotting Anthony Fienberg, whose mother Joyce died on Oct. 27.

Page 2 LOCAL Transforming Braddock A Jewish developer helps revitalize the town.

Page 4

 Helena Nichols and Rabbi Walter Jacob

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

A

LOCAL Judaism basics

All about a bris, mohels and baby naming traditions.

Page 5

fter “30-some years of weed pulling,” Rabbi Walter Jacob is passing the trowel to the “next generation.”

True to form, Jacob, Rodef Shalom’s humble rabbi emeritus — and now director emeritus of its Biblical Botanical Garden — does not want to talk about his own accomplishments in cultivating one of the most renowned biblical gardens in the United States.

Rather, he wants the story to be about Helena Nichols, who has served as the garden’s associate director for more than three years, and who was recently named the garden’s new director.

Jacob, 89, said the timing was right for him to step away from the garden, which he established with his late wife, Irene, in 1987, and which he has devotedly tended since then.

“First, the new generation needs some new ideas and a new approach,” Jacob said.

“Second, you should give it up before you can no longer bend over.”

Jacob had been the primary caretaker of the garden since Irene passed away in 2012.

Photo by Toby Tabachnick

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LOCAL New Chabad community

LOCAL Kalson takes national post

ENTERTAINMENT Richard Pryor’s Jewish daughter

Headlines Tree of Life victim’s son straddles life on two continents — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

T

he surreal state of Anthony Fienberg’s mourning, which has taken him across the world and into synagogues of differing denominations where he has often, but not always, said the Mourner’s Kaddish, began nine months ago on Oct. 27 when his mother, Joyce Fienberg, was killed during the Tree of Life attack.

In the period since her loss, Anthony Fienberg, a Parisian resident who left Pittsburgh three decades ago, has observed and experienced multiple customs. In Zurich, Fienberg attended services but was silent since the practice in the Swiss space is for a single supplicant to recite the Mourner’s Kaddish. Although the individual’s proclamation effectively quieted all other mourners, Fienberg was not offended.

“I’d seen it two years ago for my father,” he said.

Less than a year after Fienberg finished mourning his father, Stephen Fienberg, the son began mourning his mother. During each stint, Fienberg studied, performed mitzvot and recited the Kaddish on each parent’s behalf, and although those tasks have enabled him to uphold particular values, the experience of saying Kaddish has afforded a unique view of global Jewish life.

Fienberg’s desire to recite the familiar text has taken him into religious venues where he has been both probed as to why he is saying Kaddish and sites where he has been largely ignored.

“I said Kaddish for about a week in Denver

p Joyce Fienberg lighting Hanukkah candles.

and not once did they ask,” he said.

The absence of inquiry didn’t bother him.

“That’s not why I go,” said Fienberg. “I don’t feel the need anymore to explain why or ‘I got to tell somebody so they feel pity, sorrow, compassion.’ No, I’m there to say Kaddish ...

I’m there to do what the Kaddish is supposed to do, which is to sanctify the name of God and to elevate the soul.”

Recitation independent of others’ awareness is a welcome state and one in which Fienberg is happy to operate free of judgement. During morning minyan recently, Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers reiterated to him that there is only one judge.

Photos courtesy of Anthony Fienberg

“I don’t need to tell anybody — I know why” I’m saying Kaddish, said Fienberg.

“I’m not there for that ... so I don’t need to be judged.”

Reciting the Kaddish is a deeply personal endeavor that is fundamental to Jewish practice. Yet the prayer’s origins are obscure.

Scholars cite the Machzor Vitry, an 11th-century French work, and its recounting of an anecdote involving Rabbi Akiva, the classic Jewish sage from the late first and early second centuries, as a possible initial source.

The practice developed in both Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities around the world.

These days it has become so intrinsic to the

p Anthony Fienberg

Jewish mourning experience that Brandeis University professor Jonathan Sarna once quipped, “The prayer for the dead gives life to the American synagogue.”

As for Fienberg, saying the Kaddish has been an illuminating undertaking. Both for his father, and again for his mother, Fienberg has vigilantly pursued countless opportunities for its recitation. In Marseille, he walked 20 minutes from his hotel to attend a 6:15 morning minyan, and in Metz, Frankfurt, London and throughout Israel, he stopped regularly at synagogues for daily prayer.

Please see Fienberg, page 15

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Headlines New Chabad community offers post-college connection — LOCAL —

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

J

onathan Shapero found a “home away from home” at Chabad on Campus when he came to the University of Pittsburgh six years ago, the 24-year-old Long Island native recalled.

Raised in the Conservative movement, he was accustomed to spending Friday nights celebrating Shabbat with his family, and felt comfortable at Chabad, where he was able to connect with like-minded young Jews in a warm and spiritual setting.

After he graduated in 2017 and took a job at the Bank of New York in Pittsburgh, Chabad on Campus was no longer exactly the right fit, because so many of his friends had graduated and moved away.

“It was a different feel,” Shapero said. He desired the type of Jewish community he found at Chabad on Campus, but he was now in a different stage of life.

But about seven months ago, a new Chabad community formed in Pittsburgh, seemingly tailor-made for young Jews like Shapero.

Called Chabad Young Professionals, and co-led by Rabbi Henoch Rosenfeld, 30, and his wife Sarah, 27, the new community is poised to fill a social, spiritual and professional void for Jews who are no longer in college and who have not yet started families of their own.

Pittsburgh’s CYP is part of a broader effort called Chabad Young Professionals International, which launched about 10 years ago “with the goal of focusing on the young professional demographic, a group that is often overlooked in the traditional setting,” said Rosenfeld. There about 90 other CYP branches around the world.

“Young professional is more a stage than an age,” Rosenfeld explained. “Typically, it’s going to be somewhere from 22 to 37, but it is really a stage of post-college, pre-family life. So it could be anyone that’s either in a relationship, not yet in a relationship, married or single.”

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Rosenfeld estimates that there are between 8,000 and 15,000 young Jews in Pittsburgh that would fall into the demographic CYP is targeting.

In fact, according to the 2017 Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Community Study, there are almost 12,000 Jews in Pittsburgh between the ages of 18 and 34. About 3,000 of them are students.

While there are many avenues of connection for young Jews who have children in Jewish preschools, day schools or religious schools, Rosenfeld said there are fewer organizations that provide “an organized Jewish community” for those who have not yet started a family.

CYP intends to focus on “three areas within our young Jewish community here in Pittsburgh,” he said. “We want to fill the need of professional life, social life, and spiritual life.”

Rosenfeld is seeking unconventional locales for some of CYP’s programming, catering to a population that may not be as eager to attend an event at a typical Jewish venue.

Last March, CYP held its first event, a Purim celebration for 80 people, at CAVO, a trendy nightclub in the Strip District.

“It was so much fun,” said Shapero, who met some new friends at the celebration, which included cocktails, mingling, a catered kosher buffet and a megillah reading.

“It was not traditional place to have a religious event, but we rented it exclusively for the evening,” Rosenfeld said. “People were able to socialize there around something meaningful.”

Other CYP programming has included intimate Shabbat dinners at the Rosenfelds’ Squirrel Hill home, a monthly Bagels, Lox and Tefillin group that meets on the South Side, and a Shavuot event at a home in Squirrel Hill, which featured a Torah reading and a garden brunch that attracted 50 people.

“For many people there, it was the first Please see Chabad, page 15

p Aaron Weiss and Rabbi Henoch Rosenfeld share a l’chaim at CAVO on Purim.

Photos provided by Henoch Rosenfeld

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AUGUST 2, 2019 3

Headlines Jewish developer helping to revitalize Braddock — LOCAL —

By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer

G

regg Kander likens the old Ohringer building on Braddock Avenue to the Empire State Building.

While the differences between the two structures are obvious, Kander does have a point.

Stretching eight stories high, the Ohringer building, once home to the thriving Ohringer Furniture Store, remains a prominent landmark on the main drag in Braddock — a sort of symbol of former glory and future possibility to the struggling town of just 2000 people, decimated by the decline of the steel industry in the Mon Valley in the 1970s.

The Ohringer building has been mostly abandoned for decades, as have most other buildings in Braddock’s business district.

But Kander, a Jewish lawyer-turned-developer from Pittsburgh, is intent on changing the landscape of Braddock by creating improvements and growth for its residents, beginning with the Ohringer building.

On July 30th, 2019, a groundbreaking ceremony was held at the Ohringer building, launching its anticipated yearlong transformation into an apartment residence for 37 artists.

The project is part of a community-driven revitalization plan that is gaining strong momentum, thanks in large part to Kander, who has been pivotal in obtaining funding.

“It’s all about community,” said Kander, who began his involvement with Braddock a couple years ago when he stepped in to help raise money to launch chef Kevin Sousa’s acclaimed Braddock restaurant, Superior Motors.

Kander was inspired to work on behalf of Braddock after hearing the words of Pastor

p Gregg Kander

4 AUGUST 2, 2019

Photo courtesy of Gregg Kander

“I believe artists transform communities,” Kander said. “They make a place interesting and exciting. I wasn’t doing it for these 37 artists, I was doing it for these 2,000 people who are in the community.”

The artists, he said, will all “be screened by the community,” as part of the effort to “fight gentrification.”

“We are going to shoot for a nice balance of black and white artists living together, as a way to learn from each other, be in relationships with each other, and live with each other. We really are excited,” Kander said.

Braddock was home to hundreds of Jewish families in the early and mid-20th century. It boasted three synagogues, two kosher butcher shops, a Jewish Community Center and active B’nai B’rith and AZA chapters. Braddock’s main streets were lined with Jewish businesses: jewelry stores, furniture stores and clothing stores.

The Ohringer building was built in 1929 by Abe Ohringer, a Jewish philanthropist who donated the first $50,000 to launch Hillel Academy in Squirrel Hill.

His wife, Helen Ohringer, was a founding member of p A 1941 view of the Ohringer building Image courtesy of Gregg Kander the Ein Karem Chapter of Hadassah and was one of the first women in the country to sell more than $100,000 in State of Israel Bonds.

Tim Smith, president “Maxine came to me and said, ‘There is “The Ohringer Project is one of the most and executive director this great opportunity in Braddock, this significant building projects in Braddock of the nonprofit Center Superior Motors restaurant, it’s stalled for over the past 60 years,” said Braddock of Life in Hazelwood. about two years, and it’s all about giving Council President Tina Doose in a prepared “He gave this great jobs to the community. I think it would be statement. “Community-minded artists are little talk one time up your alley to get involved,’” Kander said. proven to transform neighborhoods and we about how we are here “That decision to say ‘yes’ about three years welcome their participation and involvefor a limited time, and ago has totally changed my life.” ment along with the vibrant commercial when someone comes Now, Kander is all about Braddock. first floor retail. to you with something “I wake up thinking about it, I go to sleep “The timing could not be more perfect that can help a person thinking about it,” he said. “Superior Motors as Allegheny County, which provided gap or a community, we had the best success you could ever even funding for the Ohringer project, plans on often are inclined to say, dream of in the first year. The last thing I releasing approximately 55 formerly blighted ‘I’ll get to it later, or that ever wanted to do was to invest in a restau- properties for sale and development in the I’m too busy with the rant, but it wasn’t about the restaurant, it fall,” she added. kids,’” Kander recalled. was about jobs.”

Allegheny County has been “proud to “We make excuses More than 50 percent of Superior Motors’ be a partner with Braddock Borough and to not get involved. employees are Braddock residents, he said, the many organizations and companies He said, ‘Next time adding that among other recognition, the that have invested in and made Braddock you get that message, restaurant was named one of the top 10 in their home,” said County Executive Rich you’ve got to go.’” the United States by Food and Wine in 2018. Fitzgerald in a prepared statement. “We are Two days later, “This led to (then) Mayor (John) excited that those investments by the county Kander got the message Fetterman saying, ‘Keep going,’” said Kander. and others bring even more investment when Maxine Lapiduss, “Fetterman said, ‘Here are the keys to this to the borough.” the best friend of Ohringer building.’”

The project received additional funding his late wife, Ellen Kander has procured about $14 million from PHFA and First National Bank. PJC Kander, approached in funding, including historic tax credits, to Toby Tabachnick can be reached at him r e g a r d i n g convert the building into artists’ residences ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Superior Motors. to help revitalize Braddock.

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Headlines Newborn covenants: brit milah and baby naming — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

F

ew things are as joyous as the birth of a child. As with most other aspects of Jewish life, this special occasion has its own set of mitzvot to be observed.

The brit milah (bris) or ceremony of circumcision, is perhaps the oldest of all mitzvot and welcomes a son as part of the Jewish people. Abraham received the commandment in Genesis 17:10-12: “This is my covenant that you and your descendants after you are to observe: let every male among you be circumcised. When the flesh of your foreskin has been circumcised, it shall be a sign of the covenant between us. And in all your generations let every 8-day-old boy among you be circumcised.”

As Rabbi Elisar Admon explained, “The ceremony welcomes the baby into the covenant with Abraham. It’s a very emotional time for the family and the community.

It’s the first step for the baby into the Jewish world.”

Admon is a Pittsburgh-based mohel who

works with Jewish families regardless of denomination. A mohel has been trained to perform a brit milah and is conversant with the requirements of circumcision and Jewish law or halakhah.

The ritual carries a certain amount of anxiety for families. Admon feels it’s important to explain what happens during the bris. “I discuss the ceremony, we discuss the process. I show them all the tools we use. People feel more comfortable after we have the discussion.”

The responsibility of performing the circumcision belongs to the father.

Since this is a skill that requires a large amount of training, Admon continued, “the father appoints me as a messenger.”

He said he often jokes with the father, saying, “It’s your obligation, your mitzvah, maybe you want to do it?

And they say, ‘No, no, no …’”

Why is a father allowed to have someone fulfill this mitzvah for him?

According to Rabbi Daniel Yolkut of Congregation Poale Zedeck, “there are various aspects of Jewish life where we require a professional. Everyone is required to write a Torah over a lifetime, but most people don’t have the technical skills.” When needed, “we can appoint someone to do

Judaism Basics

p A grandfather holds his grandchild while he is circumcised by a mohel in Jerusalem, Israel.

Photo by chameleonseye/iStockPhoto.com

what we don’t have the skills to do.”

While the bris is often held in the home of the newborn baby, this is not always the case.

“Generally, in our community the custom

is to have a bris at the end of the morning service on the eighth day,” said Yolkut, who Please see Newborn, page 20

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Headlines Native Pittsburgher to chair Commission on Social Action Board and was elected to its Oversight Committee in 2015. She has served three times as chair of the URJ Biennial Resolutions committee, helping to shape policy positions that guide the movement’s social justice priorities.

Kalson pointed out that the work of the CSA and the Religious Action Center brings the vision of Reform Judaism to issues of social justice.

“Social action and social justice have always been an integral part of Reform Judaism and the Reform movement, particularly in this country, starting in the mid-20th century. It is part and parcel with the way we define Judaism and the work we are obliged to do as Jews.”

While discussing the priorities for her leadership, Kalson described a covenant created by the CSA and RAC called the Brit Olam. According to the RAC website, the Brit strives “to create a world in which all people experience wholeness, justice and compassion.”

The broad areas of concentration, according to Kalson, include “gun violence, racial justice, which includes how we look at our own internal communities and the way we look at diversity in our movement and the Jewish world, women’s health rights, immigrant and refugee justice and

— LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

P

ittsburgh native Susan Friedberg Kalson has been selected as the next chair of the Commission on Social Action, a joint body of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Union for Reform Judaism. Her four-year term begins in December.

Kalson is the chief executive officer of the Squirrel Hill Health Center. The center, according to Kalson, provides “health services regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. It’s primarily medical, behavioral and dental health care with a lot of care coordination.”

The community leader believes it is important to “make a difference in the world.” She has sought opportunities that have allowed her to weave together her professional and faith-based volunteer life and work toward that goal.

From 2004-’06 she served as the president of Rodef Shalom Congregation. Kalson has also worked with the Community Relations Council and serves on the advisory board of the Center for Loving Kindness and Civic Engagement.

After her tenure at Rodef Shalom, Kalson was appointed to the URJ North American

p Susan Friedberg Kalson

Please see Kalson, page 20

Photo courtesy of Kalson

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Calendar q SUNDAY, AUGUST 11 Join Chabad of the South Hills for a screening of the film “The Light of Fire,” by Bentzi Avtzon on Tisha B’Av at 4:30 p.m. at the South Hills JCC, followed by conversation. $5 advance tickets, $10 at the door. Call 412-344-2424 or visit chabadsh.com to preregister.

of Pittsburgh and Congregation Beth Shalom.

11 a.m.-1 p.m., Eisner Commons, Congregation Beth Shalom. The series is free, lunch included. Free on-site childcare available. For more information and to RSVP visit https:// tinyurl.com/WhollyHoly2019. q WEDNESDAYS, AUGUST 7, 14, 21,

28; SEPTEMBER 4

“Heal, Grow and Live with Hope” Nar-Anon and NA meetings every Wednesday evening at Beth El Congregation, 1900 Cochran Road, 15220 at 7:30 p.m. Come to office/school entrance at the end of the building to be buzzed in. Call Karen at 412-563-3395 and leave a message for more information. q THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 15, 22, 29

q MONDAY, AUGUST 5 Beth El Congregation of the South Hills presents their monthly lunch series with Rabbi Alex Greenbaum and a guest of interest. This month, George Savarese presents “The End of the American Empire.” $6, includes lunch. Visit https:// bethelcong.org/events/first-mondaysseries-2019-01-07-2019-08-05/ for more information and to RSVP.

q TUESDAY, AUGUST 6 How do different groups work together to effect change while being sensitive of each other’s needs? Playback Theatre leads Inclusivity in Activism at Repair the World beginning at 7 p.m. Free and open to the public. Food and beverages served. To RSVP visit hcofpgh.org/optic-voices-roots.

Thursday Evenings in My Garden offers weekly conversation and exploration about everyday spirituality for healing, growth, creativity and innovation. Thursdays through Labor Day, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Come once or come weekly, friends are welcome. Check http://bethshalompgh.org/thursdayevenings-in-my-garden/ for location and confirmation of upcoming dates.

q WEDNESDAYS, AUGUST 7, 14

q MONDAY, AUGUST 12

Wholly Holy: Exploring Faith, Practice and Belonging in Judaism and Christianity, a series about Jewish and Christian lifecycle events and why we do them the way we do them. This interfaith program is presented in partnership between the Episcopal Diocese

Enjoy a BBQ at Kesser Torah, 5685 Beacon Street, at 6 p.m. $12 adult; $8/child.

RSVP at ydcapland@gmail.com or https://www.paypal.me/kethertorah.

Beth Shalom hires interim executive director — LOCAL —

C

ongregation Beth Shalom has hired New England native Ken Turkewitz as its interim executive director.

Turkewitz succeeds Rob Menes.

Turkewitz most recently served as interim executive director at The Jewish Center, a Conservative congregation in Princeton, New Jersey. From 2014-2017, he was the executive director of Tifereth Israel Congregation in New Bedford, Massachusetts. In 2011, he served as executive director of Congregation Beth Israel in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Turkewitz has also served as president of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs, New England Region, of which he remains an active member. He will be chairing the FJMC’s Leadership Development Institute in January 2020.

“I’m on my second career,” said Turkewitz in an email to the congregation. “In the past,

I have held roles as a high-tech program manager, working on programs such as the establishment of internet infrastructure and creation of new driver Ken Turkewitz license systems for Photo by Toby Tabachnick several U.S. states.”

He holds a degree in computer science and engineering from M.I.T. He and his wife, Carol, live in Walpole, Massachusetts, and have five adult sons. He has temporarily relocated to Pittsburgh.

“Ken’s experience and recommendations stood out,” said Debby Firestone, president of Beth Shalom’s board of directors.

A search for a permanent executive director is anticipated to begin after the High Holidays, she added. PJC

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q WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21 Join members of the Jewish community for an opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet some new! The Pittsburgh Pirates meet the Washington Nationals at Jewish Heritage Night. Each game ticket purchased will include a limited edition “Pittsburgh Strong” Hebrew T-Shirt. A specially priced kosher meal can be purchased for just $5 per person. The menu can be found at www.pirates.com/jewishheritage or call 412-325-4903. q THURSDAY, AUGUST 22 Community Day School presents “Golda’s Balcony” at 6 p.m. at 6424 Forward Avenue.

Sandra Laub portrays Golda Meir in this one-woman play about Israel’s only female prime minister. $18/adult or $10/ages 12-18.

Includes heavy appetizers and hour-long performance. Visit comday.org/golda for more information. PJC

— Toby Tabachnick

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AUGUST 2, 2019 7

Headlines — WORLD — Compiled from JTA reports

Tlaib would boycott Muslim countries, too Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., defended her support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel and said she would support a boycott of Muslim countries, like Saudi Arabia or Egypt, with whose policies she disagreed.

During an interview on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper, Tlaib used her grandmother, who lives in the West Bank, as an example of “someone right now under occupation (who) is feeling less than.”

She called economic boycotts “a form of freedom of speech.”

“But people want to dismiss it because they’re trying to say it’s anti-Semitism.

That’s the way they’re trying to discredit the fact that we all know, under Netanyahu’s regime, human rights violations have gotten worse,” she said.

She is not singling out Israel, she said. “If there was an economic boycott movement around Saudi Arabia, I would be the first to sign up for it,” she said.

Tapper asked Tlaib twice if she believes Israel has a right to exist, the first time asking, “Do you think the Jewish people have the right to a state in the area where Israel exists now?”

“Look, I truly believe the state of Israel exists, correct,” she first responded, adding, “But, understand, does it exist in the detriment of inequality for the Palestinian people, detriment of not really moving forward in a peaceful resolution? We’re never going to have peace, I truly believe, if separate but equal is the way they want to go.”

When Tapper pressed her, asking, “yes or no, does Israel have a right to exist?” she responded: “Oh, of course. … But just like Palestinians have a right to exist. Palestinians also have a right to human rights. We can’t say one or the other.”

Israeli woman chases down flasher in Massachusetts An Israeli woman in Massachusetts chased down and held a man who exposed himself to her while she was jogging.

Single mother Aia Polansky, 33, was running in Cambridge when the male jogger dropped his pants to his knees as she ran by.

Polansky, a 6-foot-1-inch-tall veteran of the Israel Defense Forces who works as a personal trainer, said the man also reached out to grab her. She then ran after him and held him while asking passersby to call the police or 911, but no one was willing to get involved. He slipped out of her grasp when she reached for her phone. “I just knew that if I’m not going to get this guy now then the next girl will be raped,” she told ABC News.

The incident was caught on security

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Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said he would “absolutely” consider cutting U.S. aid to Israel to pressure the Israeli government to act differently.

“This is not easy stuff — to try to finally bring peace to the Middle East and to treat the Palestinian people with a kind of respect and dignity they deserve,” he told host Jon Favreau on the Pod Save America podcast.

“Our policy cannot just be pro-Israel pro-Israel pro-Israel. It has got to be pro-region working with all of the people, all of the countries in that area.”

Sanders, who spent time in the 1960s working on a kibbutz in Israel, explained his background: “I have family in Israel.

I am Jewish. I am not anti-Israel. OK, I believe that the people of Israel have absolutely the right to live in peace, independence and security.”

He criticized the current Israeli government, however, adding: “I think what has happened is in recent years under Netanyahu, you have an extreme right-wing government with many racist tendencies.”

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Composer Menachem Avidom dies at age 87. A native of Russia who made aliyah in 1925, Avidom was an innovator in fusing Middle Eastern and European musical styles.

Aug. 2, 1923 — Shimon Peres born

Shimon Peres, who makes aliyah in 1934 and is the only person to serve as Israeli prime minister and president, is born in what is now Belarus to Yitzchak and Sara Perski.

Aug. 3, 1945 — Report confirms horrible conditions in DP camps

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Aug. 6, 1923 — 13th Zionist Congress convenes

After visiting 30 displaced-persons camps in Germany and Austria, Earl Harrison reports to President Harry Truman that “we appear to be treating the Jews as the Nazis treated them, except that we do not exterminate them.”

Meeting in Carlsbad, Czechoslovakia, the 13th Zionist Congress opens to discuss details about the British mandate for Palestine and the prerogatives of the Palestine Zionist Executive, the future Jewish Agency.

Aug. 4, 1920 — Kaplan writes article leading to Reconstructionism

Aug. 7, 1970 — Cease-fire ends War of Attrition

A cease-fire ends the War of Attrition, in which Egypt heavily shelled Israeli positions along the Suez Canal and Egypt and Israel engaged in aerial battles and commando raids, especially since March 1969.

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An animal rights group filed a lawsuit against a Jewish center in Los Angeles to prevent it from using live chickens in a pre-Yom Kippur ritual known as kapparot.

The lawsuit against the Woodland Hills Hebrew Discovery Center was filed earlier this month in Los Angeles Superior Court by the Animal Protection and Rescue League and asks for an injunction to prevent the practice.

The center performed the ritual last year in its parking lot. The lawsuit alleges that the chickens were killed and discarded without using them for food, violating an animal rights law that bars maliciously and intentionally mutilating, torturing or wounding animals, the Los Angeles Times reported.

During some iterations of the ceremony, a chicken is swung by its legs above a person and then slaughtered; in others, practitioners simply turn in circles while holding a chicken. By performing kapparot, a person’s sins are said to be symbolically transferred to the chicken as part of the process of repentance ahead of Yom Kippur.

The meat of the chicken is then supposed to be donated to charity.

Earlier this month the center was vandalized, with white paint splashed all over the front of the building. Repairing the damage cost about $10,000. Vandals hit the synagogue also in 2016. PJC

Aug. 5, 1995 — Composer Avidom dies

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L.A. Jewish center sued to prevent chicken ritual

This week in Israeli history Items provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.

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cameras in the area and images of the man were released by Massachusetts State Police. She told several news outlets that the message she wants to send to the middle-age flasher is that “I’m going to get you” and that he “picked the wrong victim.”

The case remains under investigation.

Aug. 8, 1924 — Film pioneer Van Leer born Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan publishes the article “A Program for the Reconstruction of Judaism” in the Menorah Journal. He emphasizes Zionism as a key component in making American Judaism sustainable.

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Lia Van Leer is born Lia Greenberg in Beltsy, Romania. She and husband Wim Van Leer start film societies across Israel.

They create the Israel Film Archive in 1960. She launches the Jerusalem Film Festival in 1984. PJC

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Headlines Four takeaways from the House’s big vote against the Israel boycott movement — NATIONAL —

By Ron Kampeas | JTA

T

he U.S. House of Representatives approved a nonbinding resolution that condemns the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel. Much was made of the 398-17 vote, one that earns the hoary journalist adjective “overwhelming.” Democrats and Republicans at long last could bond on an issue, rejecting attempts to boycott Israel.

“It’s that bipartisan support for Israel that means the world understands that the United States is strongly in support of Israel,” Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill, the resolution’s lead sponsor with Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., told me. (Schneider and Zeldin are Jewish.)

But despite bipartisan support for the resolution, it’s hardly the last word on the Israel boycott among lawmakers.

Here’s a look at what the resolution means, the politics behind it and what happens next.

The resolution does nothing — and a lot.

The resolution is nonbinding, so it doesn’t mean much, right? As a “simple resolution,” it does not require passage in the other chamber or the president’s signature.

Simple resolutions are “used to express the sentiments of a single house, such as offering condolences to the family of a deceased member of Congress, or it may give ‘advice’ on foreign policy or other executive business,” a Senate explainer says.

So what’s the point? Getting folks on the record, and daring them to vote “no” on what their constituents might consider mom-andapple pie issues.

The BDS resolution was definitely about the politics: Republicans since the beginning of this congressional session have sought to embarrass Democrats with bills that would penalize Israel boycotters. A substantial portion of Democrats oppose the Republican measures — these would be legally binding — because the lawmakers say the bills infringe on free speech.

Even as they decried the resolution as toothless, Republicans almost unanimously voted yea. Democrats control the House, and Republicans could hardly afford not to support a pro-Israel resolution that surely would pass without them.

But the resolution isn’t meaningless. Much of the business of the world’s most powerful parliament is to create boilerplate language to which it can return to, in large part because overworked staffers would rather not reinvent the wheel every week. When 392 of 435 House members agree on a way to frame an issue, you can bet that policymakers will return to the resolution’s language as a reference and template for future legislation.

The BDS issue is not going away.

This isn’t going away anytime soon, if Republicans have anything to do with it.

p A view inside the U.S. House of Representatives in 2017.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said he will press ahead with the anti-BDS bills that have bite. Democrats are split over bills that penalize businesses and contractors who support the boycott of Israel, because they fear they impinge on the right of free speech.

The nonbinding resolution upholds speech freedoms three times, twice in the “whereas” clauses that typically start a resolution, and once in the “action” section that closes it.

For example, the resolution “affirms the Constitutional right of United States citizens to free speech, including the right to protest or criticize the policies of the United States or foreign governments.”

None of these caveats explicitly mentions “boycotts,” however, which helps explain why two BDS backers who opposed the anti-BDS resolution, Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, joined with Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a civil rights icon who voted for it, to draft a separate resolution protecting boycotts in general. (All three are Democrats.) Their resolution does not explicitly mention BDS, but appears to allude to the resolution that passed this week by urging “Congress, States, and civil rights leaders from all communities to endeavor to preserve the freedom of advocacy for all by opposing antiboycott resolutions and legislation.”

Lewis said he backed the anti-BDS resolution because he’s a “longtime friend of Israel,” and supported the separate pro-boycott resolution because he upholds “the fundamental First Amendment right to protest through nonviolent actions.”

The resolution doesn’t like any kind of Israel boycott.

The resolution derives its moral authority from its claim that the movement to boycott Israel seeks to destroy it.

“The Global BDS Movement does not recognize, and many of its supporters explicitly deny, the right of the Jewish people to national self-determination,” it says. Each

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of the nine times it refers to boycotts, the resolution specifically refers to the Global BDS Movement.

The reference is to the BDS movement of the Palestinian BDS National Committee, which does call for the absolute right of return of Palestinians who fled Israel in 1948, a population influx that Israeli officials say would effectively end the state.

Moreover, one of the movement’s founders, Omar Barghouti, has said explicitly that the movement opposes a Jewish state.

But there are also boycotters who don’t necessarily affiliate with the “official” BDS movement and don’t hold by its binational, anti-Zionist goals. These include movements, more prominent in Europe, that target only settlements for a boycott.

There are individual boycotters who insist that they also favor a Jewish state (Ilhan Omar among them).

Still, the resolution makes it clear that it doesn’t like any kind of Israel boycott.

As Lara Friedman — the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, a research and advocacy group that backs a two-state outcome — noted, the resolution opposes “boycotts of US companies ‘engaged in commercial activities that are legal under US law,’” which would include business carried out in the territories. The intent, she tweeted, “is to also indict boycotts aimed at settlements/occupation.”

Donald Trump may want you to consider “The Squad” as the new face of the Democratic Party, but in this case Tlaib, Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts did not vote in lockstep.

Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez and Omar voted against the anti-BDS resolution, and Pressley voted for it. Tlaib cited Israel’s “racist policies” and the need to protect freedom of speech.

“I can’t stand by and watch this attack on our freedom of speech and the right to boycott the racist policies of the government and the state of Israel,” she said. Omar and

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Ocasio-Cortez stuck to defending boycotts as a peaceful means of protest.

Pressley, in a candid Twitter thread, suggested that lawmakers must be true to their districts — and BDS was toxic in her Boston-area district with its substantial Jewish population.

“What I heard resounding in community was that voting yes on this resolution affirmed to my constituents raised in the Jewish faith Israel’s right to exist, a view I share as a supporter of a two-state solution,” she said.

The two-state solution gets a boost.

The resolution concludes by reaffirming Congress’ “strong support for a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resulting in two states — a democratic Jewish State of Israel, and a viable, democratic Palestinian state — living side-by-side in peace, security, and mutual recognition.”

That may be the major “get” for Democrats scrambling to preserve the two-state outcome at a time when the Trump administration is at best ambivalent on its prospects and when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected it. More delicious for the Dems, all but one Republican signed on — the GOP pulled two states out of its platform in 2016.

The resolution also gets virtually the entire Jewish community on board: right to left, from the Republican Jewish Coalition to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to J Street, there was backing.

There were opponents, however: On the left was the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace, which backs BDS and wants a single binational state. On the right was the Zionist Organization of America, which opposes what it calls a “Palestinian-Arab terror state” and said the resolution lacked bite. PJC A version of this post first appeared in The Tell, Ron Kampeas’ weekly newsletter on Jewish news from Washington.

AUGUST 2, 2019 9

Headlines Six years on, the parents of a Jewish Army veteran who committed suicide are still fighting for change — WORLD —

By Josefin Dolsten | JTA

I

n 2007, Sgt. Daniel Somers returned home after two tours in Iraq, where he worked in intelligence and special operations. For years he struggled to get on with his life, but his Army service had left him with deep scars, including post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and fibromyalgia. With time, his mental health issues worsened, and he started experiencing nightly panic attacks and auditory hallucinations.

Six years after his service ended, Daniel shot himself in the head just blocks from his home in Phoenix, Arizona. The 30-year-old Jewish veteran left behind a suicide note that detailed the severity of his mental health issues and the hurdles he faced when seeking help from the Veterans Affairs and Defense departments.

His parents, Howard and Jean, and his wife, Angeline, decided to publish his final letter as a way to draw attention to his struggles. In the note, Daniel said that during his first deployment, he was made to participate in “[w]ar crimes, crimes against humanity.”

“To force me to do these things and then participate in the ensuing coverup is more than any government has the right to demand,” he wrote. “Then, the same government has turned around and abandoned me. They offer no help, and actively block the pursuit of gaining outside help via their corrupt agents at the DEA [the VA’s Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance]. Any blame rests with them.”

On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., read from that letter in her maiden speech, in which she talked about a bill named after Daniel that she introduced

p Howard and Jean Somers testify about their son Daniel’s suicide before a U.S. House Committee hearing about the Veterans Affairs’ mental health care procedures in 2014.

Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

recently and was passed. The freshman lawmaker neared tears several times in her emotional address — one the late soldier’s parents had been invited to witness.

“Sergeant Somers’ story will sound too familiar to too many military families,” Sinema said. “Perhaps less common is the astonishing bravery demonstrated

by Sergeant Somers’ parents, Howard and Jean, after their son’s death.”

Jean Somers described being present during Sinema’s speech as “really amazing” and “humbling.”

“Every time she choked up, we choked up,” she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a phone interview.

Since Daniel’s suicide in 2013, Howard and Jean, who live in the San Diego area, have become tireless advocates for reform in what they see as a system that failed their son. Among other things, Daniel experienced delays in p Daniel Somers committed suicide after suffering getting treatment from from mental and physical health problems the VA and was denied as a result of his Army service in Iraq.

Photo courtesy of Howard and Jean Somers individual therapy even 10 AUGUST 2, 2019

though he said he feared disclosing classified information in a group setting.

His parents say they have been able “to perpetuate minor changes.” Many would describe them as far more than that: The couple, who were not involved in politics or activism prior to their son’s death, have testified before Congress and have had hundreds of meetings with lawmakers and government officials sharing their son’s story and advocating for change.

In 2016, a bill named after Daniel — introduced in the House by Sinema, then a congresswoman — was signed into law, ensuring treatment for veterans with access to classified information. If things go according to plan, soon it won’t be the only successful bill named after Daniel.

The Daniel Somers Network of Support Act passed in both the Senate and the House in the past four weeks as part of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. Both chambers now must reconcile the differences between the two versions before the final text is sent to the president to sign into law.

It would require the Department of Defense to provide updates about a service member’s mission and future benefits to the service member’s loved ones. Howard and Jean Somers say that having access to information about the routines and stresses of military service, as well as the benefits to which warriors are entitled, is crucial.

“We feel that if we had a better idea of what Daniel had been going through, we might have been able to help him a heck of a lot more

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

than we were able to — because we weren’t able to help him at all,” Howard told JTA. “We had no idea what he had experienced, we had no idea how to approach him.”

The couple still has plenty of work ahead of them. They have drafted a 23-point agenda of various gaps in the system that they want to fix.

“We’ve learned to temper our anger and work within our system,” Howard said.

“But I think that the injustice of it all and the way Daniel was treated by the system — this was a young man who had the world’s biggest heart and was the most generous person you’d ever want to meet — and the way he ran into these roadblocks was just incomprehensible for us.”

The Somerses, who attend Temple Emanu-El, a Reform synagogue in San Diego, say that Jewish values around social justice influence everything they do. Howard grew up in a Jewish family, while Jean became a Jew by choice after marriage. She said one thing that really spoke to her was the concept of tikkun olam, the Hebrew phrase for the Jewish precept to repair the world.

“The whole Jewish value system is what drew me to Judaism,” Jean said. “It’s how we live life.”

Another thing that guides them is their late son.

“We just always feel his presence,” she said. “He’s been a guiding force in everything that we’ve done, it’s another way to keep him close.”

To “keep him alive,” added Howard. PJC

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CELEBRATING COMMUNITY STRENGTH

2019 JEWISH FEDERATION ANNUAL MEETING Three experts share insights about resiliency.

JONATHAN WEINKLE, MD Physician, Squirrel Hill Health Center; advisor, Jewish Healthcare Foundation

RABBI SHIRA STERN, DMin

JAMES E. YOUNG, PhD

Disaster spiritual care provider, American Red Cross

Founding director, Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies

FARRELL RUBENSTEIN

DANIEL MARCUS

2019 recipient Emanuel Spector Memorial Award

2019 recipient Doris & Leonard H. Rudolph Jewish Communal Professional Award

The Jewish Federation reports on a year without precedent. prece THURSDAY, SEPT. 5 • AUGUST WILSON CENTER 980 Liberty Ave., Pittsburgh 15222 Program, 7–8 p.m.; dessert reception, 8–9 p.m.

Preregistration online: $10. Walk-in registration: $20.

Photos: header by Joshua Franzos; leader photos by David Bachman

The community celeb celebrates leaders.

DETAILS & PREREGISTRATION: jewishpgh.org/annual-meeting Full inclusion of people of all abilities is a core value of the Pittsburgh Jewish community.

Call 412-992-5251 to discuss disabilities-related needs or any event-related question.

The annual meeting is underwritten by a grant from the Lillian & Dr. Henry J. Goldstein Annual Meeting Endowment Fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Jewish Community Foundation.

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AUGUST 2, 2019 11

Opinion A safe haven for haters?

— EDITORIAL —

N

ews last week about the launch of Thinkspot, a new social media hub founded by controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, left us troubled.

Promoted as an “anti-censorship” platform, Thinkspot, which is scheduled to go live in August, will apparently allow its users free rein in terms of the content they post.

“Once you’re on our platform we won’t take you down unless we’re ordered to by a U.S. court of law,” Peterson said.

The site is intended to operate as an alternative to other online services, such as Twitter, which have banned some white nationalists and other extremists.

We are worried that Thinkspot will become yet another platform for haters to post their vile bigotry and conspiracy theories, radicalizing each other and inciting violence.

Other “free expression” platforms, such as Parler, have been overrun by racists, and Gab, founded in 2016 and headquartered in Pennsylvania, became a haven for white nationalists after launching as an alternative to Twitter and Facebook.

In fact, the anti-Semitic murderer who gunned down 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life building on Oct. 27 found a home on Gab, where he had a banner image of a

p A Jewish emergency crew and police officers at the site of the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue building. Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

white supremacist meme and was an active contributor of comments such as “jews are the children of satan.”

His account has been deactivated, but media reports shortly after the shooting

found he was preoccupied with Jews and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories popular among neo-Nazis. His final post on Gab before he tore into the synagogue was: “Screw your optics, I’m going in.”

These “anti-censorship” platforms have served as a means to connect bigots from throughout the world and are a conduit for online radicalization.

Now, many extremists are considering joining Thinkspot.

“I am open to using any platform that is brave enough to allow me to share my journalism and true facts with the public,” Laura Loomer, a self-styled “anti-Islam journalist” banned from Twitter, told the Forward. Though she does not currently have a Thinkspot account, “that does not mean I will not consider it in the future,” she said.

“I will sign up for Jordan Peterson’s thing, of course, and will be banned for some inane reason,” said neo-Nazi blogger Andrew Anglin. “But it will be necessary to sign up and be banned to prove the point.”

Jared Taylor, founder of the white supremacist web magazine American Renaissance who is also banned from Twitter, told the Forward he would most likely join as well.

We can only imagine the unfiltered, raw hate and dangerous postings Thinkspot will attract, as Peterson has refused to disavow even the most extreme voices.

We don’t see the merit in providing an outlet for the sewage of hateful minds, particularly in the wake of the Tree of Life murders, perpetrated by an anti-Semite who frequented a similar platform. We in Pittsburgh know too well where hateful language can lead. PJC

Reinstating capital punishment is a bad idea Guest Columnist Andy Gotlieb

G

iven that I’m a Republican, you’d think I’d be supportive of the federal government’s decision to reinstate capital punishment.

You’d be wrong.

Back in the early 1990s, I worked as a general assignment reporter and a Capitol Bureau reporter for the Arkansas DemocratGazette. The paper didn’t specifically assign someone to cover the state’s prisons, so I carved out a partial beat covering the punishment part of crime and punishment.

That included covering Arkansas’ death row and the execution status of inmates. The state had resumed executions in 1990 after a hiatus dating to 1964.

My reporting included a lengthy story about what life was like on death row. I interviewed four inmates, including one several times.

In 1992, there were two executions, which led me to ultimately believe capital punishment was wrong, as did the inmate interviews.

The first execution was of Ricky Ray Rector, who had killed a man and wounded two others in a dispute at a restaurant in 1981. A couple days later, a negotiated surrender went astray and Rector shot and killed a police officer.

Rector then turned the gun on himself.

12 AUGUST 2, 2019

He survived, but essentially gave himself a lobotomy. At his trial — and in subsequent appeals — his attorneys argued unsuccessfully that he wasn’t component to stand trial. The death row inmates I interviewed confirmed that Rector was child-like and “scared of his own shadow.”

There’s even a story you can still find on the internet that Rector set aside the pecan pie in his last meal so he could eat it after the execution. A prison official I trusted told me it wasn’t true, but the point seems clear that Rector was incompetent.

To complicate matters, Rector’s lethal injection was botched. During his years in prison, Rector had become obese. When it came time to find a vein, the execution team took more than 45 minutes of poking and prodding before the execution began.

Witnesses, who were shielded by a curtain, reported hearing Rector groaning.

A few months later, I was one of two media pool reporters serving as an official witness to the execution of Stephen Douglas Hill.

When he was just 18, Hill and a fellow inmate escaped from a work detail in 1984.

They came to a home, tied up its residents, stole weapons and a truck before leaving for another house. Police soon surrounded and captured them, but not before an investigator was shot and killed.

Hill confessed on videotape (although his accomplice later claimed that he had pulled the trigger, not Hill). Hill received a death sentence, while his co-conspirator, who kept changing his story, got 86 years.

During appeals, attorneys noted that the slightly built and frail Hill said he escaped because he was repeatedly raped by other inmates and fearful for his life.

Unlike with Rector, Hill’s execution went smoothly. When the viewing room curtains were parted, Hill was strapped down on a gurney; it looked as if he was prepped for surgery, an IV line in his arm. After the warden read the death proclamation, Hill mumbled his final words, apologizing to the trooper’s family, members of whom were in the viewing room.

The execution began, as the unseen executioner opened a valve that sent a three-drug cocktail into Hill’s veins. About a minute later, Hill’s face grew ashen and his body lurched slightly against the restraints before coming back to rest. He was pronounced dead six minutes later.

Driving home that night, I didn’t feel like the world was a safer or better place, and Hill’s death didn’t seem to provide a whole lot of comfort to the dead police officer’s family.

But what really cemented my opposition to the death penalty was something each of the four death row inmates interviewed said. All of them were motivated by the belief (no matter how unlikely) that they could get off death row — or even out of prison entirely.

So I asked them what they would prefer if they knew there was no chance they could ever get out of prison: a life sentence or the death penalty? All of them chose execution.

That signifies that a life sentence is actually

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

the better punishment, not an easy way out.

Let them think about what they’ve done for years upon years.

Don’t get me wrong: Rector’s diminished capacity and Hill’s physical liabilities aside, they were bad guys who deserved harsh punishment. So were the four inmates I interviewed. Of the four, one later was executed, one died of a heart attack while still in prison and the other two are now off death row, but serving life sentences.

None of them deserved to see the light of day.

In addition, by eliminating the death penalty, you eliminate the chance of executing an innocent person (yes, it happens). And you even save money. Back in the 1990s, there was an often-cited figure that housing an inmate for the rest of his/her life cost about $800,000, compared to more than the $3 million it took in legal and other expenses before a prisoner was executed. Today, studies show, the cost discrepancy remains.

Finally, shouldn’t we be better than our murderers?

Yes, there are Talmudic references to capital and corporal punishments, but interpretations have changed (and softened) over the years (see p. 1 for rabbinic perspectives). The “eye for an eye” mentality is better left in movies like “Death Wish” and “Dirty Harry” than in an enlightened society. PJC Andy Gotlieb is the managing editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent, a Chronicleaffiliated publication.

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Opinion Progressives must acknowledge violence against LGBTQ Palestinians Guest Columnist Mark Segal

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o matter what side of the IsraeliPalestinian divide you’re on, and there are many, there are positions that some in the LGBTQ community are taking that might give us all reason to question cultural and political practices.

We’re not going to debate religion or nationality here. Let’s simply debate the politics. Israel has a government that has programs and policies that many consider to be diplomatic, but others consider anti-Palestinian. For that reason, some in the LGBTQ community have embraced a boycott of Israel. Such a boycott is not in itself anti-Semitic unless you connect it to religion and attack that religion rather than the state. That would be anti-Semitic.

So a boycott on political positions is acceptable if you agree that Israel is a bad actor against Palestinians. But does that mean you’re pro-Palestine?

In the case of LGBTQ people or those who support the LGBTQ equality movement, being pro-Palestine is a dangerous position to take. The Palestinian authorities who control the West Bank, along with

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, are homophobic. LGBTQ activists should be calling them out for that homophobia. Those who don’t call it out have a serious lack of knowledge of the culture and politics of the Middle East, particularly the practices of the Palestinians toward its LGBTQ citizens.

If you call out Uganda for its kill-the-gays law, why not also call out the Palestinians, who in the Gaza Strip have a similar law?

While I am a full supporter of the two-state solution, I am not a fan of the policies of the current Israeli government. I am a firm believer in the need for a Jewish state, and I would support an Islamic state if the Palestinians choose to have one. But I don’t support the call for a boycott of Israel for a number of reasons.

Those calling for the boycott seem to be supporting people who embrace genocide of the LGBTQ community in Gaza and honor killings in the West Bank. LGBTQ people literally have to escape the region to save their lives. Many of them flee to Israel.

How bad is it? The grandson of Hamas founder/leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, Mosab Hassan Yousef, had to escape, worried that he, too, would be executed. Yes, he’s a gay man, and he is worried that his father would kill him in an honor killing. His father gave an interview where he clearly stated that if his son returned, he’d face Islamic justice. Even being the son of a leader is not a pass to be gay.

When asked if I support a boycott of Israel

by someone in my community, I often ask, “Do you support a boycott of the Palestinian lands where LGBTQ people are killed?”

They’re often shocked by that answer. I follow up by telling them that I’m certainly not thrilled with the current government of the United States, but this is my country and I know the issues, and then I usually ask: “Do you think we should ask Israelis or Palestinians to boycott the U.S.?”

Rather than a boycott of a different culture, our time would be better utilized fighting injustice in our own. Yes, Israel might be unfair to Palestinians, but Palestinians still wish to murder LGBTQ people, and they publicly say so. And if you say it’s just talk, just ask Mahmoud Ishtiwi, a former commander in the armed wing of Hamas, who according to the New York Times “was accused of moral turpitude, by which Hamas meant homosexuality,” and then was tortured and shot to death in 2016. Whether he was gay is a matter of dispute. What is not in dispute is that Hamas used his homosexuality as a legitimate reason to kill him.

If you call out Israel for its treatment of Palestinians, why are you not calling out Palestinians for their treatment and killing of LGBTQ people? It speaks to the inability of people to understand the gravity of the murder of LGBTQ people under Palestinian control.

How dangerous is it for LGBTQ people in

the Palestinian territories? There was a TV show last year in the West Bank and Gaza called “Out of Focus.” It was meant to be a comedy about a group of gay people living in Gaza. People demonstrated en masse in the streets and called for the actors’ imprisonment, and the producers were called in for questioning by the Palestinian Authorities in Ramallah for breaking Islamic law. It was taken off the air for being an offense against Islam simply for having LGBTQ characters.

Can you imagine, then, the treatment of real, live LGBTQ persons living under that threat? You don’t have to. Just Google “Ramallah, LGBTQ.” Ramallah is the capital of the West Bank. You’ll discover that there are no LGBTQ organizations or public meeting places. Even Uganda has LGBTQ organizations.

So here’s a suggestion for our leaders. The next time you are invited by the Palestinian Authority to visit the West Bank, simply ask, “When was the last time a LGBTQ person was killed?” When they don’t give you a clear answer, you might remind them of Mahmoud Ishtiwi, and walk away.

Mark Segal is the nation’s most awarded journalist in LGBTQ media. His memoir, “And Then I Danced: Traveling the Road to LGBT Equality,” was named best book by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

Don’t counter racism with racism Guest Columnist Susan Shapiro

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s a liberal writer and teacher, I applauded the House vote to condemn President Donald Trump’s comments that Reps. Alexandria OcasioCortez, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar should “go back” to where they came from.

I was outraged by the nasty language Trump used to encourage a mostly white Republican crowd at a North Carolina campaign rally to chant “Send her back!”

It seemed ignorant because three of the congresswomen were born in this country; Omar was a Somali refugee who became a U.S. citizen in 2000. The racist words sickened me, and Omar had my solidarity and sympathy — until she reacted to the rare show of Democratic unity in repudiation of Trump by ramping up her own racism.

A day after supporters cheered her at her

hometown airport in Minnesota, Omar told CBS’ Gayle King she had no regrets for her past anti-Semitic slurs. She’d tweeted that Israel “has hypnotized the world. May Allah awaken the People and help them see the evil doings of Israel,” and that congressional support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins, baby,” perpetuating stereotypes about Jews, money and influence.

She stepped up her position, pushing a pro-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions bill against Israel.

As a left-wing Jew, I know it’s possible to be pro-Israeli, pro-Palestinian, for peace and for a two-state solution, as I am. You can criticize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s settlement policies and not hate everything Hebrew. I’ve denounced Trump’s slander against black, Latino, gay and trans people, immigrants and Islamic countries, and co-authored a book on the horrific Muslim genocide in Bosnia. Yet I’m stunned that blatant bigotry against Jewish people somehow gets a pass.

“The BDS movement is, at its heart, intent on the destruction of Israel,” said Deborah

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E. Lipstadt in her book “Antisemitism: Here and Now.” Indeed, BDS co-founder Palestinian Omar Barghouti is opposed to recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. You can’t get more racist than saying an entire people should cease to exist. After I published an op-ed against New York University’s involvement with BDS, I received a threatening postcard in the mail at home. Someone had cut a picture of my head and pasted it onto a pro-Palestinian protester. The AntiDefamation League was not surprised by the intimidation tactics, common for BDS. The United States and Europe have shut down 30 BDS accounts with links to terror groups.

While I understand college students taken in by the underdog myth, older leftists seem indifferent to BDS propaganda that pretends to be about Israeli government. BDS masks the kind of Jew-hatred that fueled Adolf Hitler’s murdering crusade — one reason we needed a safe Jewish haven to begin with.

If you doubt BDS’ bias against Jews, consider why it denies the existence of the one Jewish state in the world while ignoring human rights violations in 50

Muslim-majority nations without challenging any Islamic country’s right to exist.

I don’t see Omar boycotting Saudi Arabia’s honor killings, beheadings or the lashing of rape victims for adultery.

Omar has denied being anti-Semitic, but her ongoing vendetta against Jews seems irrational. When I read Ayaan Hirsi Ali, another Muslim Somalian who was elected to Dutch Parliament, explain how she was raised in Somalia to be a virulent anti-Semite indoctrinated with anti-Zionism that she is only slowly learning to overcome, I wished Omar would follow suit.

The answer to hatred and race baiting is not more hate and racial division. By pushing her intolerance and bias against Jews, Omar is alienating obvious allies and further splintering her own party. Paradoxically, she’s only helping bolster the real enemy against her: Trump’s white nationalism. PJC Susan Shapiro, a New School professor, is co-author of “The Bosnia List” and author of “The Byline Bible.” This article originally appeared in Newsday.

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AUGUST 2, 2019 13

Headlines Garden: Continued from page 1

rabbi at Rodef Shalom],” said Jacob. “Rabbi Bisno said, ‘What do you want to continue to do?’ And I said, ‘Nothing.’”

Nichols has a long connection to the Biblical Garden.

“When my mother was pregnant, she would actually walk through this garden,” Nichols said. “She worked at Carnegie Mellon at the SEI (Software Engineering Institute) down the street, so during her lunch break, she would walk over. And my preschool was the [nearby] Cyert Center for Early Education, so I actually walked through this as a preschooler as well.”

Nichols has an undergraduate degree in English literature from Chatham University

— which she said gave her a strong foundation in “textual evidence skills” — and a master’s in food studies, with a focus on agriculture.

“This was really one of the few jobs that actually combines my passion for research and horticulture,” she said. “It was kind of amazing, and it opened up right as I was graduating with my master’s degree from Chatham.”

Nichols is committed to maintaining many of the garden’s longstanding traditions.

“We are always going to be free and open to the public, we will always be an open space of peace and meditation for anyone and everyone who wishes to come,” she said. “That’s something that’s never going to change. We will always have our primary exhibit, plants of the Bible, and we will always have a yearly special exhibit.”

Nichols is also planning to expand the reach of the garden, which will include the introduction of a story time program for preschoolers that incorporates a nature or plant-based art project, and the integration of more “hands-on learning of plants and horticulture with children of all ages,” she said.

Although the garden is only open annually from June 1 through Sept. 15, managing the garden is a full-time, year-round job.

During the winter, Nichols spends her time visiting and tending the garden’s plants, which are kept in greenhouses at West View Cemetery. Winter is also the time when the majority of the planning is done for upcoming special exhibits, like this season’s special exhibit on oils of the late biblical period.

The number of visitors to the garden has been increasing in recent years, with more

Death: Continued from page 1

to go through a lengthy cross-examination on the part of all the judges and they have to determine if they can find any reason to question the account. Only after the whole process would they administer this penalty, and the Talmud stresses that it would be expected to be very rare,” said Rabbi Levi Langer, dean of Kollel Jewish Learning Center.

The infrequency of its occurence is noted in Jewish law, which teaches that “if the death penalty was imposed once in 70 years, it was considered a cruel court,” said Rabbi Sara Rae Perman, rabbi emerita of Congregation Emanu-El Israel — and this is despite the fact that Jewish law prescribes four methods of capital punishment.

Gorban said the reluctance to actually enforce the death penalty “is fascinating to me because even though there is a command to punish someone who has committed a capital crime with the death penalty, the rabbis are so uncomfortable with doing that.

They recognize that that’s the worst possible thing they could do.”

By stipulating cases requiring capital punishment but creating barriers to its implementation, the topic becomes “somewhat ambiguous,” said Rabbi Amy Bardack, Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s director of life and learning, via email. “While the Torah teaches that capital punishment is allowed for certain serious crimes, rabbinic Judaism expresses tremendous reluctance to actually implement the death penalty. Our tradition holds a deep and abiding belief in the sanctity of life, perhaps even the life of one who has committed terrible acts.”

The ambiguity represents a cautious approach, Langer explained.

“There seems to me to be an idea that we want it as part of the code — one reason that some traditional sources give is the deterrent effect of having it as part of the legal system — but at the same time, you want to be very certain that you’re not applying it too broadly or wantonly.”

There are numerous conditions created by the rabbis that reveal their apprehensiveness.

“You could not have a trial at night,” Perman said. “It had to take place at daytime 14 AUGUST 2, 2019

Photo by digicomphoto/iStockphoto.com

because you needed real light to expose any evidence you have, and I like that there’s this idea. … They didn’t have electricity. They had oil lamps, and they are smokey and don’t always cast a broad view of the light.

Everyone can’t see the same things.”

As human beings, “we are fallible,” said Gorban. The early rabbis “put as many bounds around actually sentencing someone to death as they possibly can because they don’t want to accidently kill someone who is innocent, or particularly innocent of the crime that would require the death penalty.”

Fear, either of misapplication or of committing the act itself, actually leads to some incredible legal maneuvering, explained Rabbi Jeremy Markiz, Congregation Beth Shalom’s director of Derekh and youth tefillah.

The Torah says that capital punishment exists, so “the rabbis can’t say we can’t do it, but they created so many hoops to go through that the circumstances they require for someone to be put to death are profoundly difficult,” said Markiz. “They effectively legislated it out of existence.”

“I think it’s in such stark contrast to what we see in our current legal system,” said Gorban.

“It’s clear that the death penalty as administered today in the United States operates according to a much looser set of standards than that which is outlined by the Talmud and by Jewish law,” said Langer.

“To some extent, the people who are being convicted, while some of them are certainly guilty of the crimes, many are not and people don’t care,” said Gorban.

“If you look at the Innocence Project, the way that they’ve gone back over many cases and have found that the evidence was originally wanting and was lacking, and yet the prosecutors rammed through for example, should give us a cause for concern,” said Langer.

Since its founding in 1992, the Innocence Project has used DNA testing to clear wrongly convicted, resulting in 365 exonerations, including 20 for people who had been on death row.

For this reason and others, said Rabbi Sharyn Henry of Rodef Shalom Congregation, “the death penalty is a problem in concept and practice. I think it’s so flawed. It’s connected to race, wealth or lack thereof. It doesn’t feel evenly applied so there are a lot more African American

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

than 2,100 people walking its paths in 2018.

It takes about 70 hours of labor each week to maintain the garden, so volunteers play an important role. Currently, there are about 20 volunteers, but Nichols is hoping to grow that crew. She has started “an open volunteer two-hour period Friday mornings, from 10 to noon, for anyone who wants to come in and weed the garden, or deadhead for us, all the fun things that keep our garden beautiful.”

While many of the plants in the garden are those that grew in ancient Israel, some have earned their place for other reasons.

“Those are Goliaths,” said Jacob, pointing to a tomato plant in the garden. “It’s a plant with a biblical name.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

men proportionally on death row than other people.”

“In this country, it’s barbaric, it’s uneven,” she continued. “We haven’t even gotten it down. Mistakes are made where people haven’t died right away. These are barbaric, horrible deaths.”

“The fact that most of the states have cut back on it, there’s obviously a lot of struggling that people go through whether they have the right to go through with taking someone’s life,” said Perman.

The Death Penalty Information Center reports that 29 states, the federal government and the U.S. military authorize the death penalty, while 20 states and the District of Columbia do not.

For Henry, the fact that federal and state entities permit capital punishment is absurd.

“If murder is wrong then murder is wrong,” she said.

“I just don’t think as a community the kinds of things we should be supporting are the killing of people by our government,” echoed Markiz.

“I am generally not in favor of it,” said Perman, though she did mention the caveat of pursuing justice after genocide.

“I remember my parents during the Eichmann trial discussing what should be done to him, whether he should be tortured or gassed and I didn’t quite understand what was going on,” she said. “I just remember the conversations at the dinner table.”

With certain scenarios, when the discussion transitions from theoretical to actual, opinions may change, noted Gorban, especially given that Judaism offers no starkly clear answer.

“The traditional Jewish position is not consistent with the advocates of the death penalty the way that is presently envisioned,” said Langer, “but also not consistent with those who believe it should be entirely abolished.”

Even so, said Markiz, “I just don’t think we should be killing people. I think I understand the desire for retribution, but I think that’s coming from a place of pain and not a place of justice, and justice is the most important piece in that.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Fienberg: Continued from page 2

Visits to these places have granted “some different perspective,” he said. “It’s amazing, the world is so small and we’re all still Jews.”

Customs and pronunciations can differ, but “we all say the same prayers essentially the same way.”

Finding such commonalities is important to Fienberg as an American in Paris. In the Jewish French community, Fienberg’s Ashkenazi heritage places him in the minority, and he already feels a bit like an “oddball,” he said, in the larger Parisian population because of certain linguistic limitations.

Fienberg moved to France in 1995 after spending his junior year of college there. He is basically fluent in French, but some of his terminology can be baffling to native speakers.

“I can pass but not for very long. It will last for five or 10 minutes before somebody starts looking at me funny and people start thinking that my parents dropped me on my head when I was a kid,” he said. “Sometimes it’s not the right words in the right place or you pronounce a word a little bit funny, but I can go for a while. I can pass, but I’m not in the Second World War trying to get by. I’m just trying to live.”

Survival has been on Fienberg’s mind.

As an executive and senior risk insurance professional, he travels a lot, but finds great stability in his family. Fienberg and his wife have five children — ages 9 to 16, including two sets of twin girls — whose resiliency has proven educational, he explained.

They’ve made clear “it’s not like nothing happened,” he said, “but it’s a fact. OK, it sucks, but we don’t forget, you know, we have to move on.”

For Fienberg, the way he moves on is guided by what his mother would have wanted, which is to recognize the “importance of family and making people feel part of a family,” demonstrating a “love for others” and exhibiting “respect,” he said.

“As a son, irrespective of the circumstances, that’s what you’re supposed to do and that’s what I want to do,” said Fienberg.

“I believe that’s the best way to negate, to deny, the objectives of that event.”

Moving forward also changes depending on where Fienberg is. “When I’m in Paris, I have my Paris thing going on, and when I’m here, I got my Pittsburgh thing going on,” he said.

Between the two synagogues he attends in France, a few people and the rabbi know of his situation, but “most people don’t know in general” what happened on Oct. 27, he said. “Most of the Jews have a vague idea. Something happened in the United States. They couldn’t tell you the name of

the city. They couldn’t tell you where it was on the map: east, west, north, south.

They have no idea.”

It’s what Fienberg calls a “fait diver” in French and “a miscellaneous fact” in English.

“It’s one of a list of things, generic news, that happen. And that’s not because it’s not honoring. It’s just, it’s so far away, and they’ve got enough issues in France as it is,” he said.

Coming back to Pittsburgh isn’t always easy for Fienberg, who now prays in the same Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha minyan his mother did. Drives around the neighborhood take him past “Stronger Than Hate” signs in windows or by buildings he recalls from his childhood — including the one on the corner of Wilkins and Shady avenues, where the shooting took place.

“I went to Hebrew school in that building.

I had my bar mitzvah in that building. My brother had his bar mitzvah. He went to Hebrew school. I remember fasts of the firstborn, etc. So I’m intimately tied to the building.”

He has plenty of other Pittsburgh memories as well, including being a student at Sterrett Classical Academy and Taylor Allderdice High School. He played for the “first city school to ever win a high school hockey championship,” he said.

Old friends and family, such as his Washington, D.C.-based brother, Howard, who he messages daily, have offered comfort,

Chabad: Continued from page 3

time they had attended a Shavuos service,” Rosenfeld said. “But instead of bringing them to shul, we brought the shul to the garden.”

On August 2, CYP is launching its first Shabbat Social, inviting all local young Jewish professionals to a private home in Squirrel Hill for “happy hour, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres,” followed by “candle-lighting, kiddish, then a full gourmet dinner, and mingling late into the night,” Rosenfeld said.

He hopes to host several Shabbat Socials this year, in various neighborhoods, including Lawrenceville and the South Side.

“Our motto is really organic community growth,” he said. “We will be tapping into the knowledge and desires of our community to see what they want.”

For Pittsburgh native, attorney Aaron Weiss, 29, and his wife, attorney Emily Weiss, CYP provides another avenue for professional as well as Jewish connections.

“My wife and I enjoy all the young professional groups in the Pittsburgh area,” said Weiss. “Chabad Young Professionals opens

GET THE

p Jake Gold, Morgan Friedman and Sarah Rosenfeld at CAVO on Purim

Photo provided by Henoch Rosenfeld

up a more Orthodox approach to young professional inclusion.”

Emily, who is Catholic, has been warmly welcomed at all CYP’s events, Weiss said.

“Sarah [Rosenfeld] and Emily have become good friends, and have grabbed coffee together,” he said. “The Rosenfelds do a great job, and are inviting and inclusive.”

as has the larger community. But straddling two continents is not easy.

And of course, visits to Pittsburgh have different connotations now.

“I remember being on the plane between Stockholm and Chicago trying to get back here and pay less than $10,000 for a ticket,” he said of the aftermath of the shooting. “It’s just an absolutely surreal situation. Nine months and a bit in ... I’m OK. Whereas I think it’s very difficult to be OK, it’s very difficult to get over very specific events like this, but what I explained to a lot of people is that the hardest part is just that I lost my mother, and relatively quickly after my father. It’s less than two years Hebrew-wise, but also on the civil calendar, so losing my mother is tough. I was very close to her.”

Fienberg plans to remain in Pittsburgh for a few more weeks, then return in October to mark the one-year anniversary. Between now and then there will be several hundred opportunities to recite the Mourner’s Kaddish, and Fienberg plans to make the most of them.

“Nine months on, I think we’re doing OK. We got a long way to go,” he said. “I think we’re trying to make positive out of negative. That’s what we’re trying to do as much as possible.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

While attending the Purim event at CAVO, Weiss was able to reconnect with some old friends from Community Day School, and also met some other young Jewish men who live in his South Side neighborhood.

The Weisses are not yet affiliated with a congregation, although they intend to join one once they have children.

“For now, the young Jewish professional groups are filling that void for us,” Weiss said.

Many young Jewish adults “drop out or get off the grid” following graduation from college, and “don’t really connect with their Judaism during that time,” Rosenfeld said.

“Once they graduate college until they enter the stage of family life, there isn’t much out there for them in terms of organized infrastructure. Chabad Young Professionals was established to help bridge that gap so that young Jews would not have to spend so much time searching, at the age of 30-plus when they are looking to start a family, for a place to connect.”

Upcoming CYP events can be found at cyppittsburgh.com and on Facebook. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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AUGUST 2, 2019 15

Life & Culture Is there anything Jewish mama Rain Pryor — Richard’s daughter — can’t do?

9. As for her observance, Rain describes herself as “a black Jew who lights Shabbat candles and observes the holidays and the yahrzeits of her father and grandfather,” The Times of Israel reports.

Both her Jewish side and her father’s African mystic traditions are important to her: “I think spirituality is a very private and individual experience, and I think that combination with my Judaism makes me who I am.”

10. Rain detailed her father’s sexca-

pades in her book, writing that there were “so many hookers coming in and out” of Richard’s house that it was just deemed as normal. One time, Rain overheard a few sex workers complain that Richard had yet to pay them. Already a budding comic at age 8, Rain told her father at Thanksgiving dinner, “Daddy, the whores need to be paid.”

11. Like her father, Rain was married a few times. Unlike her father — who had seven children with six different women — she only has the one daughter. p The multifaceted Rain Pryor is trying her hand at politics.

Rain went through a series of Photo by Bobby Bank/Contributor/WireImage and Jose A. Bernat Bacete/Moment/Getty Images Plus miscarriages before giving birth to Lotus Marie, who she shares 1. Yes, Rain Pryor’s father is the late pioneering somewhere), the ‘you’re not Jewish because with her second ex-husband, Yale Partlow.

— ENTERTAINMENT — comic. Her mother is Shelley Bonus, a former Josh (the hot white boy) only dates Jewish In 2018, Rain married her third and current Jewish go-go dancer turned astronomer(!). girls,’ to the culmination of it all: ‘N*****.’” husband, Dave Vane.

By Arielle Kaplan | Kveller Her parents married just four years after the infamous Supreme Court case of Loving 5. It wasn’t until she created the one-woman 12. Rain moved from Los Angeles to ain Pryor Vane may be the daughter v. Virginia, which protected interracial show “Fried Chicken and Latkes” that she Baltimore to raise Lotus: “I wanted a life of the controversial late comedian marriages. So when Rain — a product of an resolved her difficult childhood as a black outside of Hollywood. A life that I created Richard Pryor, but she has never interracial marriage — was born in the tense Jew. Rain wrote that the boy who called her on my terms. Sure, I could have stayed, I lived in her father’s shadow. political climate, she was faced with immense the n-word attended one of the performances had a financially prosperous career in enterA singer, actress, author and comedian, racism. “I’m a product of this thing that and “immediately afterwards, with tears tainment. But I wanted something more Rain carved a space of her own in the enter- everyone was against,” she said on “Oprah.” in his eyes, approached me and said, ‘We meaningful and real.” tainment industry. But last week, the Jewish need to have coffee. Obviously we have a lot mom announced that she was dipping her 2. Her parents’ marriage was short lived; to talk about.’”

13. In 2008, Rain played the role of Sarah toes into another pool: politics. they divorced when Rain was 6 months old.

Palin’s makeup artist in “Game Change,” a On July 16 — her 50th birthday — Rain Despite her father’s fame Rain, who lived 6. Here’s a great line from her solo show: movie about the 2008 Republican vice presshared with her Facebook followers that with her mother and was largely raised with “I’m black and Jewish, which means I’m idential nominee. “Sarah Palin is going to be she officially registered to run for the the help of her maternal bubbe and zeyde, proud, but yet I feel so guilty for it!” so ticked off to see that her makeup artist is Baltimore City Council. Her aim is to unseat said she essentially had “a normal life.” being played by a black Jewish girl,” Rain said.

Councilman Ryan Dorsey, whose behavior 7. After attempting suicide for the second “I pass for a white girl. Now that’s acting.” she describes as “my way or the highway,” 3. In her book, “Jokes My Father Never Taught time when she was 16, Richard Pryor gave according to the Baltimore Sun. Me,” Rain wrote that her maternal family Rain a sports car and encouraged her to 14. On top of being a mother, wife, author What prompted this pivot to politics? Her urged her mother to put her up for adoption as drive it home. There was just one problem: and actress, Rain is also a successful singer, 11-year-old daughter, Lotus. opposed to raising her “in a world that wasn’t She didn’t have a driver’s license. motivational speaker and playwright. She Displeased with how school officials ready for biracial children.” But Shelley thought made her television debut in 1989 as T.J. handled bullying at her daughter’s school, that Rain’s birth would change America and 8. Rain owns a small business. Raindrop on “Head of the Class” — the character was Rain decided to do something about it. did not heed her Jewish parents’ advice.

Confections is a gourmet bakery serving based on several characters she performed “I’m listening to the people who have “portrait and whimsical cookies using royal at her audition — and has performed jazz to lived here for generation after generation,” 4. Growing up as a biracial child, Rain icing.” Each sweet treat is handcrafted by sold-out shows since 1993.

Rain said. “We need to keep them here was rejected by both the African American Rain, who credits her Jewish grandma, and invite new people to come and stay in and Jewish kids in her life. In an essay, Bunny Bonis, for teaching her how to cook 15. Rain was named the Strand Theatre’s our community.”

Rain wrote: “Many things were brought to and bake. Family legend is that Grandma artistic director in 2012, and made it her To honor Rain’s birthday and first political fruition: the coarse and kink and ‘bigness’ Bunny only shared family recipes with Rain, mission to elevate women: “The voice of the endeavor, we gathered 15 fascinating facts you of my hair, the olive-toned skin, the ‘you “leaving her aunt and mother clueless as to woman is kind of lost in the theater world, should know about this black Jewish mom. need to get your black back’ (as if it went what really went into making the brisket.” which is still very male-dominated.” PJC

R

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AUGUST 2, 2019 17

Celebrations

Torah

Bar Mitzvah

Fewer words, better world Jacob Morris Broudy, son of Daniel and Leah Broudy will become a bar mitzvah at Adat Shalom during the Shabbat morning services on Saturday, August 3, 2019. Grandparents are Dr. Arnold Broudy and Regina Broudy and Debbie Pitoscia. Great-grandmother is Leah Broudy, great-grandparents are the late Joseph Broudy, and the late Morris and Nancy Bialick.

as though it “left our mouths” and then not fulfill or deny what we say? How often, in this world of deep fakes and “fake news,” claims of falsehoods and denials, and a reluctance to take responsibility, would people finally be held accountable? Imagine, just for a second, what that world would look like and what it would be like to live in such a world.

We have a world that is far more interconnected than our forefathers could ever imagine, and our responsibility lies not only within our homes, our communities, but with the broader world of all humankind.

Go past the beginning of our parsha, and we find that we are commanded to have “one

Rabbi Jeremy Weisblatt Parshat Matot-Masei Numbers 30:2-36:13

I

have a question for you: What words do you keep in front of you?

I was asked this question by a rabbinic mentor of mine during my last year in seminary. I thought it was an odd question. So I replied that I wasn’t sure what he was asking, and asked if he could clarify what he meant.

He asked me to follow him into the sanctuary and had me look above the ark and asked me to read what was in front of the

We have a world that is far more

Engagement

interconnected than our forefathers

Michael Mitnick, son of Barry and Margy Mitnick of Fox Chapel, and Jessica Brickman, daughter of Marshall and Nina Brickman of New York, New York, have announced their engagement. The couple first met at the wedding of Jessica’s sister.

Michael, a 2002 Fox Chapel Area High School graduate, received his BA from Harvard University and MFA in Playwriting from The Yale School of Drama. Jessica received her BA from Yale University and studied Playwriting at The Juilliard School. Both are writers for theater, television, and film. The wedding will be in October in Central Park. PJC

could ever imagine, and our responsibility lies not only within our homes, our communities, but with the broader world of all humankind.

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ark. Of course, it was the relatively common phrase “know before whom you stand.”

My mentor then shared with me that the phrase above the ark doesn’t work if it remains only above the ark. He encouraged me to carry the phrase with me to put in front of me while I worked, to place on the reader’s desk on the bimah, and during board meetings.

Why do I bring up this lesson in connection with Matot-Masei? I share this teaching in my mentor’s name, Rabbi Jonathan Stein, because I believe it lies at the heart of the beginning of our double portion.

Our parsha this week opens with the command “all that shall leave your mouth … you shall do.” Ask yourself this question: What would your world be like if you carried this phrase with you all the time?

How often do we make statements, both in verbal and digital form, that should count

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Rabbi Jeremy Weisblatt is rabbi at Temple Ohav Shalom. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.

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law for all, Jew and non-Jew alike.” Should we not strive to model for our world, a world in which we fulfill the command to care for Jew and non-Jew alike, where we find fewer words, but more actions and responsibility, for we are careful and not so casual in our statements?

At the conclusion of Shabbat next week, we will be turning to observe Tisha B’Av. As our Sages taught us so long ago, we can in some ways attribute the destruction of the Temple to our words, and our lack of action and care for one another. I believe that my mentor’s teaching, that the words of our Torah can enable us to merit a day that we will inherit fewer words, but a healthier, kinder and more caring world. PJC

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Obituaries BRUNNER: Joseph Brunner (Dec. 21, 1928-July 24, 2019) passed peacefully at age 90 surrounded by his family. He is survived by his wife of 62 years Betty, his son Albert and his wife Melanie (Slomberg), and his four grandchildren: Lisa Caroline Brunner, Carrie Megan (Brunner) Fischer and her husband Jonathan, Samantha Brittany Brunner, and Sherri Lynn Brunner. Born in Vienna, Austria, Joe came to this country after surviving the Holocaust on Columbus Day 1949. After serving in the Korean War, he moved to Pittsburgh and founded the family business Brunner Appliance Repair, which has continued for over 50 years. Joe loved to travel and has taken his family around to world. He also loved the arts, especially the opera, and driving his convertible with the top down. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Beth Abraham Cemetery. Contributions may be made to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, ushmm.org. schugar.com CHARAPP: Jeffrey Alan Charapp, on Sunday, July 28, 2019; son of the late Bernard and Rhoda Charapp; beloved brother of Abbylee (late Peter) Baumhardt; devoted “uncle� of Heather Baumhardt and Brad (Angela) Baumhardt; adoring great-“uncle� of Brayden and Addilyn Baumhardt. It’s hard to describe a man as special as Jeffrey. He was the kind of man that you could never say a bad thing about. He had so many friends whom he adored and who loved and revered him in return. He was an avid sports fan who loved boxing and the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was a late-night TV watcher and loved the sun and warm weather. He was cherished by his entire family and will be deeply missed.

Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Tiphereth Israel Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Jeffrey’s memory may be made to the Scleroderma Research Foundation at srfcure.org. schugar.com FONER: Janet Braunstein Foner, on Wednesday, July 24, 2019. Beloved wife of Mayer Foner. Beloved mother of Joseph Mendel Foner and Carl (Rachel Teicher) Foner.

Sister of Rochelle Braunstein Abrams. Sisterin-law of Martin Frank Foner. Aunt of Fern Abrams, Eve Abrams and Eli Foner. Graveside Services and Interment were held at Beth Shalom Cemetery. Contributions may be made to charity of donor’s choice. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com GREENBERG: Harry Charles Greenberg, age 76, passed away peacefully on Sunday, July 28, 2019. He was preceded in death by his parents Bernard J. (Buzzy) Greenberg and Rosalie (Sissy) Greenberg and his sister, Jane Shefler. Survived by brothers William (Peri) Greenberg and John (Sherry) Greenberg; sister Lois (Jim) Sunseri, and

brother-in-law Dan Shefler. Beloved uncle of many dear nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews. Harry also will be missed by friends who knew him throughout his lifetime. He was a high school athlete who played tennis, football, basketball and squash and was city tennis champ. He was racquetball champion as a freshman at Penn State. Harry enjoyed success in various business ventures.

Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Private. Contributions may be made to the Tree of Life Congregation Building Fund, 5898 Wilkins Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15217. schugar.com KORNFELD: With much sadness, we regret to inform you of the passing of Lynn Felser Kornfeld on July 8, 2019. She is preceded in death by her parents Abe and Florence Felser and her son David Kornfeld. She is survived by her sister Sylvia Fischer of Pittsburgh and her niece, Jill Carnig, her son and his wife, Glenn and Natalie Kornfeld and their sons and daughter-in-law, Avi and Eliana Kornfeld, Dani Kornfeld, Aryeh Kornfeld, Koby Kornfeld, and her great-granddaughter Kaylee. Lynn was the executive secretary of the Morristown Rabbinical College for 42 years. She was an adoring mother and most loving grandmother. She spent many hours and holiday with her son, daughter-in-law and her four grandsons. She will be sorely missed by those who loved her and those she loved. May the family be consoled among the mourners of Tzion and Yerushalayim.

LINZER: Jack Linzer, of Pittsburgh, PA and Bal Harbour, FL, passed away on July 25, 2019.

He was 93 years old. He died in peace, with his family by his side. Longtime Pittsburgh resident and prominent Jewish philanthropist, Jack lived a full and rich life. Husband of Mildred (68 years), father of Don Linzer and Caryl Brown, grandfather of Katherine, Joanna and Andrew Linzer and Michael, Alissa and Laura Brown. He was a member of Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill. Born in McKeesport, PA, Jack served in the Pacific in WWII. Founder of Steel Town Builders, Jack retired in 2010. An avid runner, weightlifter and card player, Jack was an amateur nutritionist and loved cooking. A golfer for many years, he belonged to Lincoln Hills and Green Oaks Country Clubs. In retirement, Jack served for many years as President and Treasurer of the Majestic condominium in Bal Harbour, FL. A man of many achievements, he was most proud of his marriage to his beloved Millie, his wife of 68 years. His love for her knew no bounds. Jack particularly loved being a grandfather to his six grandchildren. He truly was the Linzer patriarch‌and will be terribly missed by all who knew him. Services and interment private. Contributions may be made to Classrooms Without Borders, 4905 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com Please see Obituaries, page 20

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THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday August 4: Frank Burnstein, Matel Cooper, Rae Danovitz, Charles Goldberg, Louis Harris, Mollie Lappin, Anna Levenson, Harry Levine, Nathan Lewis, Harry W. Liebman, Sol Rosenblum, Ruth Rebecca Sherman, Elizabeth Young Monday August 5: Samuel Fargotstein, Hilda Goldstein, David Lee Greenfield, Martin M. Kramer, Jessie W. Levenson, Ruth Grinberg Lincoff, Dorothy S. Pollock, William S. Winer Tuesday August 6: Rose Cramer, Bessie Rini Glass, Dr. Abraham D. Goldblum, Sophia Goldstein, Morris L. Kaufman, Helen S. Luptak, Gertrude Mitchel, Alvin J. Moldovan, Benjamin Olender, Eli Racusin, Harry Rapoport, Rae Rosenthal, Rose Smith, Philip Wekselman Wednesday August 7: Harry Adler, Mollie R. Bennett, Marvin B. Bernstein, Hannah Bromberg, Ida Cantor, Robert Congress, Dorothy Crutch, Sophia Freedman, Helen Handelsman, Dora Kaufman, Sarah Kleinerman, Gizella Krause, David Levine, Anna G. Rosenthal, John Schwartz, Irene Weitzman Thursday August 8: Lt. Richard Stanley Ackerman, Jack Neville Berkman, Ben Cowen, Albert Edelstein, James J. Gluck, Rebecca Goisner, Leonard Klevan, Samuel Maysels, Jacob Melnick, Rose Paul, Ethel R. Perer, Bernard A. Price, Molly Schwartz, Leah Shapiro, Max L. Siegle Friday August 9: Juda Birnbaum, Lillian Brody, Sarah Cohen, Nathan Fishman, Lawrence M. Grossman, Anne Levine, Ethel Linder, Ida Mandel, Maurice L. Moritz, Bernard Murstein, Judith Ashinsky Rosen, Martha Schwortz, Jacob Sheffler, Jack Sherman, Sidney Siegman, Harold Leighton Winkler Saturday August 10: Fryma Maete Berenstein, Herbert Cohen, Beatrice Galler, Julius Hemmelstein, Bluma Shaindel Labovitz, Irwin Levinson, Eva Corn Makler, Sophia Weinerman Sands, Eleanor J. Slinger, Cora M. Strauss, Harry Weisberg

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Obituaries Obituaries: Continued from page 19

MCKENZIE: B e ve rly Jayne McKenzie, age 82, of Upper Burrell Township, formerly of Churchill and Bethel Park, passed away on Tuesday, July 23, 2019, with her family at her side. Beloved wife of Jay S. McKenzie; daughter of the late Earl and C. Elizabeth (Herron) Hemphill; loving mother of Pamela A. (William) Swope and Randal S. (Christina) McKenzie; loving grandmother to Courtney Swope (Gary) Cannon and Julie A. Swope; great-grandmother to McKenzie Cannon. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Private. Contributions may be made to the American Diabetes Association, 112 Washington Pl., #1520, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. schugar.com

Newborn: Continued from page 5

noted that at Poale Zedeck “people schedule the bris with a festive meal following.”

That meal is called a seudat mitzvah, which is a festive meal required by Jewish law after the fulfillment of certain mitzvot.

Although the ritual is still observed by most traditional families, Rabbi Jeffrey Weisblatt of Temple Ohav Shalom pointed out that “circumcision and brit milah has changed in liberal Judaism, or at least in the Reform movement. It’s now fairly common that a family will have their son circumcised in the hospital and ask a rabbi to do a

POCHAPIN: Marsha A. Pochapin, age 83, of Squirrel Hill, on Wednesday, July 24, 2019. Beloved wife of Martin A.; loving mother of Pam (Emil M.) Quatchak, Robi (Carol Darwish) Pochapin, Kevin (Deanna) Pochapin, and Allison Pochapin.

Devoted grandmother of Miriam, Pablo and Antonia. Dear sister of Ellen (Joe) Kleinerman and Michael (Claire) Drapkin.

Faithful friend of Michelle Rodriguez, Sean and Carol Hughes and family. Marsha was the rock of her family and loved her 4 children unconditionally. Interment was in West View Cemetery of Rodef Shalom Congregation. Memorial contributions may be made to the Parkinsons Foundation of Western PA 575 Lincoln Ave., Bellevue, PA 15202. Professional Services trusted to D’Alessandro Funeral Home & Crematory Ltd., Lawrenceville. dalessandroltd.com

Segal; mother of Fred Segal and Dr. Jane legal; sister of the late Johnnie Owens and Rilda Brutchen; grandmother of Samuel Segal, Dr. Nicole Segal and Adina Segal; aunt of Bill Brutchen and Lisa and Kimberly Owens. Graveside service and interment were held at Tree of Life Memorial Park.

Contributions may be made to American Heart Association, P.O. Box 417005, Boston, MA 02241 or Temple O’hav Shalom, 8400 Thompson Run Road, Allison Park, PA 15101. Arrangements entrusted to the Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com

SEGAL: Liddie Segal, on Thursday, July 25, 2019. Beloved wife of the late Dr. Alan H.

SHAPIRO: Arlene P. Shapiro, on Saturday, July 27, 2019; beloved wife for 56 years of Lester F. Shapiro M.D. Loving mother of Carolyn Shapiro and Nanci (Daniel) Kane; daughter of the late Louis and Beatrice Port. Sister of Steven (Brenda) Port; sisterin-law of Edward Shapiro; grandmother of Florence Wyatt, Alex Kane, and Sarah Kane. Arlene earned a master’s degree in

ceremony afterward, akin to what we would think of as a baby naming for a girl.”

The idea of covenantal language and newborns shouldn’t be limited to boys, explained Rabbi Barbara Symons of Temple David. “When we say bris or brit, we want to use covenantal language for both males and females. Brit means covenant and I think it’s important because otherwise it creates a hierarchy and that’s problematic. I think just starting with the language is important. The milah is the male part.”

She illustrated this by explaining that when their eldest daughter was born, she and her husband said to friends and family, "'On the eighth day we’re having a brit’ and they said ‘mazel tov, you had a boy!’ We replied,

‘No we had a girl.’ We thought if people were going to take off work for a boy on the eighth day, they could do it for a girl as well.”

Another important ceremony for a newborn is giving the baby their Hebrew name. With boys this is done during the bris, but for families that choose to have their babies circumcised in the hospital or for girls, the baby naming ceremony can be done “30, 40, 60, 90 days out,” according to Weisblatt.

How do people select a Hebrew name?

Weisblatt said families often ask him what will work. "I ask them: 'Who has been beloved to you? What traits do you love about that person?' Then I give them five or 10 choices. Most times it’s biblical. People

Kalson: Continued from page 6

environmental justice.”

Congregations signed the Brit Olam agreeing to create cohorts and work for social justice. The CSA, Kalson explained “is creating a framework in which congregation can chose one or more of these issues and dive into them.”

“I’m looking forward to continuing that and structuring it to push it out more broadly.”

CSA Director and RAC Associate Director Barbara Weinstein agreed. She reiterated that the “period of robust implementation of these five pillars will be under Susan’s watch.

She will also take the lead in helping us to figure out what our civic engagement plan will look like for the 2020 election cycle.”

Weinstein pointed to Kalson’s time as a vice chair of the commission: “Susan used her deep knowledge of public health to shape our response to the opioid crisis. She helped implement our civic engagement campaign in the last election cycle and has been a strong voice for social justice on the URJ board. At a time when the world cries out for ever more justice, she is the leader our movement needs.”

Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the 20 AUGUST 2, 2019

“ Social action and social justice have always been an integral part of Reform Judaism and the Reform movement, particularly in this country, starting in the mid-20th century.

It is part and parcel with the way we define Judaism and the work

”

we are obliged to do as Jews.

— SUSAN FRIEDBERG KALSON

Religious Action Center, echoed Weinstein’s comments. “Susan is widely respected across the Reform movement and CSA, URJ and RAC leadership. She has been a distinguished

lay leader for us and has been so passionate in her work for social justice, both in Pittsburgh and on a national level. With Susan at the helm, I know we will continue

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

religious education from the University of Pittsburgh at the age of 40 and continued to pursue Jewish education for the remainder of her life. She was a principal, educator and administrator at Beth Samuel Congregation for 10 years. She was a member and co-chair of The Garden Club for four years. She was on the Executive Committee and a longtime member of Congregation Beth Shalom. She was a teacher for many years and also tutored elementary school children. She taught at Osher as well as being very active in the resettlement of Russian Jewry. She was an active volunteer for NCJW and took art classes at the JCC for many years. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Beth Shalom Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to a charity of the donor’s choice. schugar.com PJC

want to pick biblical names. It’s tradition.”

Symons believes this is an opportunity to connect the newborn to both family and tradition. As an example, she said, sometimes “the baby girl is wrapped in a tallit that was Grandpa’s or her tiny little hand is brought to the Torah and then touches her lips. The little hand can touch a family Bible or siddur.

It’s very powerful to think about what ritual moment is important to this family.”

As a keepsake, Symons gives the baby a stuffed Torah. “I always say, ‘The nice thing about this one is that if it touches the floor, no one has to fast for 40 days.’” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

to strengthen our congregations’ vital work of advancing immigration justice, racial justice, gun violence prevention, climate justice, reproductive justice and more.”

Asked to reflect on how Pittsburgh will influence her time as chair, Kalson said, “I was already very involved in (URJ) leadership but because of my role and the fact that I was from Squirrel Hill and grew up here and that Richard Gottfried, one of the dentists at the Squirrel Hill Health Center, was murdered at New Light on that terrible day, people ask me to share my thoughts. I embrace this opportunity to effect real change.

“We have an obligation both to protect ourselves and in doing so protect others.

When we align with people of color, immigrants, Muslims, Sikhs, other vulnerable communities, we aren’t only strengthening them, we are strengthening ourselves. That’s part of the perspective I bring to the position.

“Pittsburgh is a remarkable place. We’ve always been a place that Jews are interconnected in a way that isn’t necessarily true in other cities. In some ways, the world saw us as we truly were on those days (after the shooting). I certainly see Oct. 27 as a mandate to keep trying to do good and I’m really driven by that.” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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REGENT SQUARE • $378,000 Charming home with all the amenities of today. Master suite on 3rd floor has radiant heat. Great room on first floor with fabulous kitchen. Too much to list! Must see!

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new back porch with fabulous view and desired privacy. Enjoy a gourmet kitchen, formal living and dining rooms. Magnificent woodwork and leaded glass. Truly a home for one who likes character and charm as well as the amenities of today.

WASHINGTON’S LANDING • $535,000 Stunning 3 story townhome on the water! Newer fabulous kitchen, baths

and hardwood floors. Live here and feel like you are on vacation every day. Truly a move-in. Must See! JILL and MARK PORTLAND RE/MAX REALTY BROKERS 412.521.1000 EXT. 200

www.pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

AID AVAILABLE

HIRING

Professional nurse’s aid, cook, etc… to care for your loved one.

PA Connecting Communities is hiring staff to work on life and social skills out in the community with adults with disabilities.

Call Glen at 412.621.6151 Ext 2005

20 years of experience.

Over night, Tues., Wed., Fri. 15-20 hours/week.

NG

I First time offered.

ND 3-5 bedroom with art studio and carriage house with 2

Ask for Curtis: 412-277-6737

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

412.496.5600 JILL | 412.480.3110 MARK

 FIND IT IN THE BUSINESS SERVICES

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

AUGUST 2, 2019

21

Community Summer fun at the JCC Between horseback riding, swimming, outdoor sports and arts and crafts, there has been plenty of fun at Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh day, overnight and specialty camps this summer.

Emma Kaufmann Camp

p JCC Early Childhood Development Center

p JCC Specialty Camp: Let’s Get Crafty!

Photos courtesy of JCC of Greater Pittsburgh

South Hills Day Camp

Photo by Lynne Goldstein for JCC of Greater Pittsburgh

James and Rachel Levinson Day Camp

22 AUGUST 2, 2019

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Community Friendship Circle Mom’s Night Out The Friendship Circle celebrated its annual Mom’s Night on July 11. Using a “Spa Night” theme designed to make Friendship Circle moms feel pampered and appreciated, the organization held the event at its facility on Murray Avenue with help from local vendors and business owners. Moms in attendance enjoyed manicures, massages, facials, haircare, spray tans, mini makeovers, crafts and more.

p Sophie Moritz, Tricia Shelton, Traci Jackson and Weezie McVeagh

p Rivkee Rudolph, Katy Lev and Cindy Vayonis

p Nicole Kramer, Julia Averbach and Adina Waren

p Stephanie Pawlowski, Naomi Greenberg and Katherine Zesch

Photos courtesy of The Friendship Circle

Big win for little players

Pirates win again at PNC Park

p After winning Squirrel Hill Baseball’s Division 3 World Series, the Pirates won two elimination games before facing Brookline in the Pittsburgh Citisports Mayor’s Cup on July 26 at PNC Park. Coached all season by Squirrel Hill Baseball legend Zack Smith, the Pirates won their final game 18-4.

Photo courtesy of Zack Smith

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

p Squirrel Hill Baseball’s 7U team defeated Brad Mar Pine on July 21 to win the Greenfield Baseball Association Tournament. All games were held at Bud Hammer Field in Greenfield.

Photo courtesy of Chuck May

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

AUGUST 2, 2019 23

KOSHER MEATS

Empire Kosher Fresh Boneless Chicken Breasts

All- natural poultr y whole chicke ns , breast s , wings and more All-natural, corn-fed beef steaks, roasts, ground beef and more Variety of deli meats and franks Available at select Giant Eagle stores.

Visit GiantEagle.com for location information.

6

99 lb.

Price effective Thursday, August 1 through Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Available at 24 AUGUST 2, 2019

and PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG