Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 12-31-21

December 31, 2021 | 27 Tevet 5782

Candlelighting 4:46 p.m. | Havdalah 5:49 p.m. | Vol. 64, No. 53 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

The Chronicle’s top stories of 2021

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Honoring the victims of 10/27 New Light’s response: Learn more Torah Page 5

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It takes a village: Local communities respond to antisemitism

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

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Getting to know:

 Cheryl Thompson, a 34-year veteran of the JAA, was the organization’s first staff member to receive the Pfizer vaccine.

Photo courtesy of the Jewish Association on Aging

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

Martial arts expert David Sachs Page 6

LOCAL A fresh look at ‘Oklahoma!’

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic reimagined

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hile 2021 brought vaccinations and a renewed ability to connect with friends and loved ones, COVID-19 remains a looming presence in daily life. Navigating the seemingly unending pandemic has taken its toll on individuals and organizations throughout the region; as a result, there have been greater calls for mental health awareness and a need to help others and ourselves.

Throughout the year, the Chronicle followed Jewish Pittsburghers and community organizations through the highs and lows of local life. There were births, weddings, anniversaries and other celebrations, yet also considerable losses and fiscal hardships.

Below are our top stories of the past year:

Page 14

January

Vaccination day at JAA After 10 months of a COVID-related lockdown — a period when window visits between loved ones became the norm — representatives of CVS Health began administering the Pfizer vaccine at Jewish Association on Aging facilities on Jan. 12. For residents and staff, after such “an

incredibly difficult and challenging year,” there is a “sense of optimism that the end is in sight with this virus,” said Deborah WinnHorvitz, JAA’s president and CEO. “It’s been so long since we have had something really to celebrate and to feel very positive about.”

Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twersky dies Chasidic rabbi, acclaimed psychiatrist, prolific author and founder of Gateway Rehabilitation Center, Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski died Jan. 31, in Israel from COVID. Twerski was 90.

Twerski’s intrinsic belief in the value of humanity catapulted him onto an international stage. His more than 60 books mixed the spiritual with the secular, yet it was efforts with Gateway that may prove most lasting.

In more than 40 years of work, Twerski likely helped more than 40,000 people recover from substance abuse through rehabilitation at the center.

“Dr. Twerski is our founder, inspiration leader and the person we think of everyday as we execute our mission and vision,” said Gateway Rehabilitation Center CEO James Troup.

Please see Top Stories, page 12

egan Tuñón first learned of a flag emblazoned with a swastika flying on an Etna porch from a Dec. 14 social media post by Jessica Semler.

“I saw it that Tuesday night,” Tuñón said.

“The next day it just seemed like everyone knew about it.”

Semler and Tuñón are both borough council members for the small town that sits across from Pittsburgh on the Allegheny River. The flag was hung from a home in Semler’s ward, and she wanted to do something that would make an immediate statement.

Semler and Tuñón decided to create a fundraiser and reprint signs, created in 2018 by the Etna Community Organization (ECO), that read “Etna is For Everyone.” The GoFundMe campaign they launched had raised nearly $1,700 as of press time, and they are in the process of printing 120 signs.

Tuñón is also the director of the ECO, where she works to bring people together and encourages them to lead various initiatives, she said.

“Hopefully, we’ll get a positive response to a very negative thing and show the community doesn’t support this flag or what it stands for, and that Etna is for everyone,” Tuñón said.

Robert Tuñón said that while the police response to an incident of hate in a small community like Etna can be immediate, the community also wanted to quickly show support for those impacted by the hate symbol.

“There are Jewish residents that are hurting by the display,” Robert Tuñón said.

“There is also a large LGBTQ community.

We’ve heard the most from that group because they understand the history of how the swastika was used and understand that if Please see Antisemitism, page 13

HowLettery via iStock Photo

LOCAL

Appeal Planting for our future involvement in Jewish life in Pittsburgh.

For me, community is the hub of the wheel which connects the many spokes of my interests and involvement — Jewish education, spiritual and ritual expression, political action, actualizing Jewish tradition and customs and embracing our city’s diversity.

As a member of the Chronicle board during these last several years, I have been an active witness and participant to its ups and downs and to our difficult discussions and decisions. There has always been a beacon of light which has pulled us forward — those who support the Chronicle. Individuals and organizations who believe in the value of community, or those who want to share their simchas and sadness, or others who desire a touchstone to connect in an actual way to the Jewish world. There are a myriad of reasons to receive the Chronicle each week, whether on your computer or in your mailbox.

Planting and harvesting.

Each of us is a link, connecting the “I” with the “we,” creating a collective embrace, which is so very necessary in our present reality. As we can be lifted up and strengthened by our participation in community, so too should we recognize and appreciate the important role that the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle plays in our lives.

Please consider becoming a link in our collective whole by providing needed financial support to the Chronicle so that the life of our community can continue to develop and thrive — not only for our present, but also for our future.

We plant and we harvest. PJC

Guest Columnist Malke Frank

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December 3, 2021 | 29 Kislev 5782

oni the Circle Maker lived in the land of Israel during the first century B.C.E. He was known as a Jewish miracle worker because of his ability to bring the rain. His story is found in the Babylonian Talmud.

One day, Honi was walking along the road and met a man planting a tree.

Honi asked him, “How long will it be until this tree gives you something to eat?”

The man answered, “Seventy years.”

Honi asked, “So why are you planting it?

Do you think you will be around to eat its fruit in seventy years?”

The man answered, “I don’t know. But I do know that I found trees with fruit that someone else had planted a long time ago. I want to plant trees so my children will find trees with fruit as I did.”

We harvest from trees planted before we were born. We plant trees so our children and grandchildren will have something to harvest after we are no longer living. Both a literal and a metaphorical/spiritual truth, planting and harvesting connect us across the generations.

I was born in Pittsburgh at the Montefiore Hospital, where both my parents were also born. My mother graduated from B’nai Israel Hebrew School, and many years later, I became its principal. These parallels are typical for those of us whose families have lived in Pittsburgh for several generations. It is unique and indeed a blessing.

Another family parallel in my life has been the presence of the Jewish Chronicle.

Whether we lived with my maternal grandparents on Highview Street in East End or in our own home on Coleridge Street in Stanton Heights, my parents and grandparents looked forward each week to reading the paper from

Candlelighting 4:36 p.m. | Havdalah 5:38 p.m. | Vol. 64, No. 49 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

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No news is not good news

cover to cover. Perhaps they would know someone who had penned an op-ed, or who gave birth; perhaps they would learn about a program or read a political article, or even see their own names mentioned.

Pittsburgh’s first Jewish weekly was the Jewish Criterion (1895-1962), followed by

the American Jewish Outlook (1934-1962).

As these two newspapers folded in 1962, The Jewish Chronicle was founded, and is known today as the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

Planting and harvesting.

Over these past weeks, members of the Chronicle board have written about their

Malke Frank is a member of the board of trustees of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle and a founding member of The New Community Chevra Kadisha of Greater Pittsburgh.

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Headlines The focus is on friendship and fun for this grassroots Jewish men’s group — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

E

van Stein’s hobbies might seem uncommon to most.

The partner for information technology firm FSA Consulting has a pilot’s license, is working on obtaining his instrument rating (qualifications that a pilot must have in order to fly under instrument flight rules) and is certified as an advanced scuba diver.

“I try to achieve things that most people typically think are beyond their reach,” Stein said.

While Stein’s usual pastimes require a significant time commitment, he has found a way to at least sample some new activities as well.

The Squirrel Hill resident is the newest member of an informal group of primarily North Hills men who get together regularly to try out various activities.

“It’s not a club,” Stein said. “There is no membership or dues. They try to get together once a month and do something fun.”

Hesitant to call himself the founder, Mark Pizov said the group has been in existence for 10 or 15 years. Its core members, he said, are men who met through their children, most of whom attended BBYO and other Jewish youth groups together.

Initially comprised of men from the North Hills, the circle has expanded to include guys from Squirrel Hill and the South Hills as well, Pizov said.

In their most recent outing, the group sampled curling. Other activities have included axe throwing, poker, whiskey tasting, mud races and even shooting. In

 Men spanning the Pittsburgh region took to the ice for curling and friendship.

Photo provided by Evan Stein

January, the friends are going to Topgolf, a venue in Bridgeville which features climate-controlled hitting bays.

Yuval Kossovosky said the genesis of the group was when he received an email for the Ruckus Obstacle Race Series — an obstacle course on a mud track.

“I sent a note to Mark and a few other guys and said, ‘This is incredibly stupid.

We should do it,” Kossovosky remembered.

“It became this defining thing: ‘This is stupid, let’s do it.’”

He said the crew is comprised of a diverse group of Jewish professionals, including company vice presidents, IT experts, dentists and attorneys.

Unable to meet during COVID, the group took an 18-month hiatus. The December

curling outing was their first since the beginning of the pandemic.

Stein said the start of the event had a decidedly Jewish flair.

“Right before we got started, Mark pulled out his phone and Zoomed with his family and we lit the Chanukah candles all together as a group,” he said. “We said the prayers and then we started.”

The group, Kossovosky said, is intended to help men connect. “[Without the group] we wouldn’t see one another,” he said. “We have no overlap on a day-to-day basis. So, this is a way to strengthen community with a Jewish community and have friends.”

The group also provides a chance for the men to network, Pizov said, while ensuring they keep in touch.

“There’s definitely a need for this, for guys to get together,” Pizov said. “It seems like ladies do a better job than guys. My wife was part of a book club and gets together with the ladies once a month. Guys don’t have book clubs or things like that; we like to be more active,” he said.

And while the group is based on participation, the activities are secondary and can be suggested by anyone.

“It’s whoever wants to step up and plan things,” Pizov said. “I did the ice curling thing. Yuval is planning the TopGolf thing and then we’ll go to a bar to watch a game or maybe play poker at someone’s house.”

Kossovosky has another way to describe the group.

“It’s an excuse for a bunch of married guys to go out and not get in trouble,” he said. PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Littlestown Jewish teen gets liver treatment in Pittsburgh — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

D

jino Parker had a swollen spleen six years ago. His mother, Erica Finkelstein-Parker, remembered those days and the resulting hospitalizations.

While Djino mostly recovered, a recent incident brought back old memories and a score of new terrors.

A few months ago, as Djino, 16, was walking by his mother she noticed something strange about his shirt: The horizontal stripes weren’t lying flat across her son’s stomach.

“I thought, ‘Oh God,’ when I looked at him,” Finkelstein-Parker said, speaking by phone from her home in Littlestown, Pennsylvania.

She immediately called the doctor and said her son’s spleen was swollen and that Djino needed to be seen immediately.

Djino had a history of health issues. In 2015, as Djino and his sister Benedicte’s adoption was finalized, he experienced problems with his spleen. Within a week of his arrival to the United States from Congo, Djino was hospitalized at Penn State Hershey Hospital.

Diagnoses were made and treatments were ordered. A team of doctors began following him and for years the physicians monitored Djino’s spleen, abdomen and other organs through regular blood work.

 Djino Parker Photo courtesy of Erica Finkelstein-Parker

Most issues were resolved, Djino’s mother said, but everything changed last fall when she noticed her son’s distended belly.

“My assumption as a mom was, ‘OK, this has something to do with the three rounds of malaria that he had in (Congo),’” FinkelsteinParker said. “This is what it looked like when he came home. It’s probably no big deal.”

Imaging, ultrasounds and CAT scans were taken, but after reviewing the slides Djino’s Penn State Hershey Hospital team directed Finkelstein-Parker to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh for further analysis.

In February 2021, Finkelstein-Parker, her husband Brian Parker and Djino drove nearly 200 miles west. Due to pandemic restrictions, Benedicte stayed home. After arriving at UPMC, Djino received additional testing and a confirmed diagnosis: hepatocellular carcinoma and a cirrhotic liver.

It was surprising enough that her son had liver cancer, Finkelstein-Parker said, but cirrhosis as a teenager was almost beyond belief.

Physicians at UPMC recommended treatment, and in April, Djino began immunotherapy at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center.

Since April, Djino and his parents have traveled to Pittsburgh every three weeks for treatment. They stay at Family House in Shadyside before returning home to Littlestown, a borough 10 miles southeast of Gettysburg. When the family is in Pittsburgh, Benedicte, 13, stays in Littlestown with friends.

During the trips to Pittsburgh, Djino does his best to keep up with schoolwork, but even without a serious medical condition it isn’t the easiest time to be a teenager, as school, friendships and activities have all been upended by the pandemic. But Djino said he’s tried to not let his diagnosis dictate too much of his life and that he enjoys watching movies and going to school when he can.

Still, the routine of Djino’s teenage days has been disrupted. He is not able to play soccer or other sports with friends. He must remain hypervigilant about COVID. His

weak immune system means that although he’s been vaccinated, he must continue masking and distancing even when many of his classmates and friends do not.

Renee Siegel, who like the Parker family attends Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah Hebrew Congregation in Baltimore, said she’s watched Djino and his sister grow.

Every day, Siegel recites Djino’s Hebrew name — Ephriam Arye ben Esther Ginendel — praying for his complete and speedy recovery “He’s a wonderful kid and he deserves a chance to live,” Siegel said.

Siegel said she’s known Finkelstein-Parker for 18 years and remembers the family’s earlier struggles. After beginning the adoption process in 2011, and later becoming Djino and Benedicte’s legal parents in Congo, the Congolese government closed the door on international adoptions. More than 1,000 parents, including the Parkers, were left in limbo.

Although scores of parents had become their children’s guardians in the eyes of the Congolese courts, the Congolese government wouldn’t let the children leave.

What followed, Finkelstein-Parker said, were two years of visits to the U.S. Department of State and meetings with congressional representatives before Djino or Benedicte were able to come to the United States.

Please see Liver, page 18

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Headlines New Light congregants honor legacy of 10/27 victims by learning synagogue skills — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer

W

hen Julie Harris read the haftarah last Shabbat at New Light Congregation, it wasn’t the first time, or even second time, she chanted those particular verses. In fact, when Harris sang Isaiah’s words — and the prophet’s call for the Jewish people to reach their potential — it was the third consecutive year she chanted the haftarah for Parshat Shemot. arris, 60, has a long history with New Light. Her late mother, Helene, was a past president of the congregation, and while Harris has always been “invested in the future of New Light,” she only began chanting the haftarah there in 2019. That decision, Harris said, was prompted by the 2018 attack at the Tree of Life building, during which New Light members Rich Gottfried, Dan Stein and Mel Wax were among the 11 Jews murdered.

“My response to the synagogue shooting,” Harris said, “was to learn more Torah.”

So Harris reached out to Beth Kissileff, wife of New Light Rabbi Jonathan Perlman, a few months after Oct. 27, 2018, and asked for help in learning how to layn.

Harris had celebrated her bat mitzvah years earlier at Adath Jeshurun Congregation in East Liberty and was already comfortable reading Hebrew. What Harris didn’t know, however, was how to make sense of the musical notes above the biblical words or chant the tropes.

Kissileff agreed to teach her. Harris selected her parshat, Shemot, and started reviewing the corresponding haftarah, which comes from the middle chapters of Isaiah.

Beginning with 27:6 and running through 29:23, Isaiah vacillates between optimistic prophecy and scorn. He tells the Israelites that although they will later blossom, the leaders of Israel are confused by wine, dazed by liquor and muddled in their visions.

Ultimately, Isaiah says, the Israelites will stumble in judgment, fall backward, be injured, snared and captured. Yet, despite their disastrously poor behavior — and their tables covered “with vomit and filth so that no space is left” — the Israelites will ultimately be redeemed, according to the prophet.

The glimmer of optimism that’s offered at the end of the haftarah is significant, Harris said. It reminds all of us to “never lose hope, to always continue learning, to study Torah.”

When Harris first selected the portion three years ago, she did so based on the calendar, as Shemot aligns with her birthday. While later reviewing New Light’s records, though, Harris and Kissileff discovered that Shemot was also Gottfried’s bar mitzvah portion, and he often chanted the same haftarah for New Light.

“I don’t like to read too much into it,” Harris said, but added that it’s impossible to sing the words — the need for optimism after destruction — and not consider the

H

 Julie Harris

Photo courtesy of Julie Harris

surrounding circumstances.

“I know that he would be happy with people continuing to learn and carry on the services at New Light,” she said, and this “gives me a sense that I could honor Rich.”

New Light co-president Barbara Caplan credited Harris with honoring Gottfried’s memory, and said other congregants have also taken on new projects to preserve the legacies of Gottfried, Stein and Wax. For New Light, these three men were the backbone of ritual life, Caplan said. Whether it was reading biblical passages on behalf of the congregation or leading services, “this is what they lived for.”

Filling their shoes has not been easy, noted New Light co-president Stephen Cohen.

Kissileff agreed, and said Gottfried, Stein and Wax all “helped others find their Jewish voices and expressions in the synagogue.”

Wax helped people put on tefillin. Stein made people feel comfortable when they were called for an aliyah. Gottfried encouraged others to “follow Jewish practices and deepen their Jewish knowledge as adults,” she said. “When someone passes away the best way to honor that legacy is to emulate the individual’s deeds.”

In the aftermath of Oct. 27, Kissileff and Perlman have helped congregants improve their Hebrew; as a result, several individuals, like Harris, have adopted new synagogue practices.

Cohen said that in 2021 he read the haftarah twice — and prior to the 2018 attack, the last time he read haftarah was at his bar mitzvah decades earlier.

According to Caplan, members of the congregation are making meaningful contributions each week. New Light isn’t a large entity with a stable of individuals who can easily shepherd the ritual load. “It’s hard,” she said. “We’re small, we don’t have that many people.” That’s why it’s so meaningful when people like Harris or Cohen help out, she said.

Cohen agreed and noted that whether it’s reading haftarah or participating in the service, congregants are simultaneously preserving a legacy while safeguarding New Light’s future.

“We honor their memory every week,” he said, “and do the things that they did for us.” PJC

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Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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DECEMBER 31, 2021 5

Headlines Getting to know: David Sachs, martial arts expert — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Staff Writer

D

avid Sachs grew up as a nice Jewish boy who didn’t mind taking a punch to the face.

The future mixed martial arts fighter, coach and personal trainer attended Beth Israel Congregation in Washington, Pennsylvania, where he became a bar mitzvah. It was martial arts, though, not Torah, that captured his attention.

“I started martial arts when I was 6 and ultimately got more into boxing and wrestling — sports that you actually compete in,” said Sachs, 39.

Sachs earned a degree in exercise science from Slippery Rock University while competing in amateur fights between collegiate wrestling seasons. He made the jump into MMA fighting, he said, because “it looked like fun.”

Sachs didn’t initially consider a career in the sport because he thought he was too small and there wasn’t yet a small weight class. After training at a local gym, Pittsburgh Fight Club, he reconsidered and turned pro.

“I won some fights they didn’t expect me to and everything sort of snowballed,” he said.

“All of a sudden, I was fighting for a living for close to a decade. It wasn’t planned.”

Sounding like a musician who, after earning a degree, decides to try life with his guitar on the road before settling into a more traditional existence, Sachs said he opted to give fighting a try.

“I decided to do it for a while,” he said. “I always had my degree to fall back on.”

It turned out his fallback wasn’t necessary for quite some time.

Sachs began fighting in the New Jersey regional promotion Ring of Combat. He won both its Feather Weight Championship and the USA Feather Weight Championship.

His success led to opportunities in Florida, Minnesota and New York, and it seemed like he was poised to face national competition as part of larger promotions, like the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

His body, though, had other plans.

“I was one of those guys dogged by injury,” Sachs said. “Some of us just are.

I was 34, getting ready to turn 35. I had a fight lined up with a former UFC fighter. It was going to be my last big go because of my age. During training camp, I tore my bicep.

It turned into a nightmare training camp.

Eventually, I just had to call it a day because I couldn’t make it five seconds without being in excruciating pain.”

Sachs said he didn’t plan to go into coaching after hanging up his sparring gloves. He worked in sports performance at UPMC Sports Medicine and Greentree Chiropractic

Director of Programming & Operations (Part-time)

For over 100 years, Beth Samuel Jewish Center (BSJC)

p David Sachs

Photo by MMA Photography

& Rehab, and even considered going to Carnegie Mellon University for an MBA. He remembered the transition from fighter to spectator and later coach as a hard one.

“It was tough,” he said. “There’s no doubt that every fighter’s favorite place is always going to be in the spotlight. When I realized that wasn’t going to be me anymore, I decided to take a break. You’ll find very few people who leave the sport on a good note.

Most leave it as a fighter.”

He credits another Pittsburgh mixed martial arts fighter, Khama Worthy, with helping him make the transition.

Sachs said Worthy, a UFC fighter, was

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relentless in his efforts to get him back into the sport as a coach.

Sachs helped Worthy at his gym, The Academy, working as the wrestling coach.

After nearly six months, Sachs said he made peace with his decision, growing into his new role as the mixed martial arts coach at The Academy, and offering private sessions as a personal trainer at his own gym, HPF Pittsburgh, which he started with his brother.

Sachs said HPF offers personal training and small group training, allowing him to utilize his degree.

“It also helps other trainers, giving them jobs,” he said.

While Sachs has spent the bulk of his career fighting, he said that one doesn’t have to have a desire to enter the caged octagon to train with him.

“I have a normal weight room-style gym,” he said. “I’ve had football players, a female place kicker, hockey players, wrestlers and just people looking to get back into shape.

It’s a goal-oriented personal training studio.”

While he might not be competing before crowds cheering on each ground-and-pound or single-leg takedown, Sachs has learned to love his life.

“I wake up every day and work for myself,” he said. “I can’t wait to go to work.” PJC

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Calendar Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Submissions also will be included in print.

Events will run in the print edition beginning one month prior to the date as space allows.

The deadline for submissions is Friday, noon.

daily, weekly and annual rituals, as well as life cycle observances and essential Jewish theological concepts and ideas as they unfold in the Bible, the Talmud and other sacred texts. $300. 9:30 a.m. foundation. jewishpgh.org/melton-2

q SUNDAYS, JAN. 2-JAN. 16

q WEDNESDAYS, JAN. 5-JAN. 26

In the Briva Project’s weekly writing course, Sh’ma-Hear Your Inner Voice, students will reflect and write, moving through Chanukah to Tu B’Shvat. Each class will begin with a communal ritual and creative prompt. 6 p.m. $200 for all eight sessions. tickettailor.com/ events/briyaproject/604183

In The Jewish Moral Virtues, Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff will explore Jewish teaching on critical moral virtues.

Based on the qualities listed in the 13th century “Sefer Maalot Hamiddot” (“The Book of the Choicest Virtues”), Rabbi Schiff will explore the contemporary application of these moral virtues to our 21st century lives. $65 for all 13 Zoom sessions.

9:30 a.m. foundation. jewishpgh.org/jewishmoral-virtues

q SUNDAYS, JAN. 2-FEB. 6

Join a lay-led Online Parashah Study Group to discuss the week’s Torah portion.

No Hebrew knowledge is needed. The goal is to build community while deepening understanding of the text. 8:30 p.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org. q MONDAYS, JAN. 3-FEB. 7

Join Congregation Beth Shalom for a weekly Talmud study. 9:15 a.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org. q TUESDAY, JAN. 4

Classrooms Without Borders presents their weekly book discussion. Join them as they explore Rebecca Donner’s “All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days,” with Dr. Josh Andy.

4 p.m. classroomswithoutborders.org/ weekly-book-discussions-all-frequenttroubles-our-days-dr.-josh-andy q TUESDAYS, JAN. 4-MAY 24

Sign up now for Melton Core 2, Ethics and Crossroads of Jewish Living. Discover the central ideas and texts that inform our

q WEDNESDAYS, JAN. 5-FEB. 9

Bring the parshah alive and make it personally relevant and meaningful. Study the weekly Torah portion with Rabbi Mark Asher Goodman. 12:15 p.m. bethshalompgh. org/life-text Join Temple Sinai to study the weekly Torah portion in its hybrid class available on Zoom.

Open to everyone. 12 p.m. templesinaipgh. org/event/parashah/weekly-torah-portionclass-via-zoom11.html q THURSDAY, JAN. 6

Join Classrooms Without Borders for The Ringelblum Archives: Virtual Tour and Teacher Training with Dr. Katarzyna Person and Helise Liebermanas. They will explore “Archive More Important Than Life” and prepare for a communitywide teach-in on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jan. 27, 2022.

4 p.m. classroomswithoutborders.org/

Join the Chronicle Book Club: ‘The Lost Shtetl’

T

he Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle invites you to join the Chronicle Book Club’s Jan. 30 meeting, when we will be discussing “The Lost Shtetl” by Max Gross, winner of the National Jewish Book Award for 2020 and the Jewish Fiction Award.

From Amazon.com: “What if there was a town that history missed? For decades, the tiny Jewish shtetl of Kreskol existed in happy isolation, virtually untouched and unchanged.

Spared by the Holocaust and the Cold War, its residents enjoyed remarkable peace. It missed out on cars, and electricity, and the internet, and indoor plumbing. But when a marriage dispute spins out of control, the whole town comes crashing into the twenty-first century.”

Your Hosts

How It Works

We will meet on Zoom on Sunday, Jan. 30, at noon to discuss the book. As you read it, we invite you to share comments and join discussions in our Facebook group, Chronicle Connects: Jewish PGH. We invite you to join now if you are not already a member of the group.

What To Do

Buy: “The Lost Shtetl.” It is available from online retailers.

Email: Contact us at drullo@pittsburghjewish chronicle.org, and write “Chronicle Book Club” in the subject line. We will send you a Zoom link for the meeting.

See you in next month! PJC

the-ringelblum-archives-teacher-trainingworkshop-katarzyna-persn-helise-lieberman q THURSDAYS, JAN. 6-JUNE 30

The Alan Papernick Educational Institute Endowment Fund presents Continuing Legal Education, a six-part CLE series taught by Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff. Earn up to 12 CLE credits. Each session is a standalone unit; you can take one class or all six.

8:30 a.m. With CLE credit: $30/session or $150 all sessions; without CLE credit: $25/session or $125 all sessions. For a complete list of dates and topics, visit foundation.jewishpgh.org/ continuing-legal-education. q SUNDAY, JAN. 9

Join your favorite Moishe House residents at Frick Park for a nature hike and to take fun winter headshots. Hot chocolate and hand warmers will be available. RSVP at bit. ly/moho-010922 and they will email you final details before the event. 11 a.m. q MONDAY, JAN. 10

Join the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh on Zoom to learn more about the Mega Mission 2022. The mission will take place in Israel June 13-21, 2022. This is your chance to hear the details and ask all of your pressing questions. RSVP required to receive Zoom link. 6 p.m. jewishpgh.org/event/ mega-mission-general-information-session Join the Jewish Mega Mission Virtual Tour of Israel with Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. Tour Guide Reuven Zusman will cover Israel’s importance for the main three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam; interesting facts about Israel today; prospects and challenges for the future; and Pittsburgh’s connection with Israel. 7 p.m. jewishpgh.org/event/megamission-virtual-tour-5

home a Shabbat meal to remember. RSVP at bit.ly/moho-011422 and they will be in touch with the final details via email. 6 p.m. q SUNDAY, JAN. 16

Join the Yeshiva Schools for an evening of cheese and wine and a live raffle drawing to benefit their arts and music program. 7:30 p.m. 403 Greenfield Ave. yeshivaschools.com/annual-raffle q TUESDAY, JAN. 18

Join Cara Ciminillo, executive director of Trying Together, and Anna Hartman, director of early childhood excellence at the Jewish United Fund and director of the Paradigm Project, for a virtual discussion about President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better framework and what universal childhood education might mean for the Jewish community. 7 p.m. Free. jfedpgh.org/ universal-education q THURSDAY, JAN. 19

The Squirrel Hill AARP meeting is open to all seniors. Come and welcome the beginning of 2022 together. The meeting, in the Falk Library of Rodef Shalom, will feature Pittsburgh Police Zone Community Officer David Shifren, who will discuss home safety practices. All are welcome to learn precautions that will help safeguard you, your family, your home, your neighbors, your vehicle and your bank account. Mr. Shifren is also a well-known writer. Proof of vaccinations and masks are required. 1 p.m. Any questions, please contact our president, Marcia Kramer, at 412-656-5803.

Stop by the Moishe House porch to check in with a resident and pick up some craft supplies. From cross-stitch to crochet, there will be a craft for everyone. RSVP at https://bit.ly/moho-011922 6 p.m.

q WEDNESDAY, JAN. 12

q WEDNEDAY, JAN. 26

Classrooms Without Borders presents the fourth session of Confronting the Complexity of Holocaust Scholarship: Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of Holocaust Studies. Wendy Lower will present “Using Photographs as Evidence.” 3 p.m. classroomswithoutborders. org/confronting_the_complexity_of_ holocaust_scholarship

Join Moishe House Pittsburgh on Netflix Party to watch a movie together. Details and a link to connect will be sent out via email the day before. Goody bags of snacks will be available on our porch the day before and day of. 7 p.m. RSVP at bit.ly/moho-012622.

q THURSDAY, JAN. 13

Join Classrooms Without Borders for a post-film discussion of “In Search of My Sister” with film director Jawad Mir; Sabrina Sohail, executive director of The Peace Project; and Serena Oberstein, executive director of Jewish World Watch. 3 p.m. classroomswithoutborders.org/post-filmdiscussion-in-search-of-my-sister q FRIDAY, JAN. 14

Join Moishe House for a take-out Shabbat dinner. Candles will be lit. We will be socially distanced and masked up, and then take

Toby Tabachnick, editor of the Chronicle David Rullo, Chronicle staff writer

— Toby Tabachnick

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

q FRIDAY, JAN. 28

Join Moishe House for a take-out Shabbat dinner. Candles will be lit. We will be socially distanced and masked up, and then take home a Shabbat meal to remember. 6 p.m.

RSVP at bit.ly/moho-012822. q SUNDAY, JAN. 30

The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle invites you to join the next Chronicle Book Club meeting. We will be discussing “The Lost Shtetl” by Max Gross, winner of the National Jewish Book Award for 2020 and the Jewish Fiction Award. 12 p.m.

To register, email David Rullo at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. PJC

www.pittsburghjewishchronicle.org DECEMBER 31, 2021 7

Headlines 18 noteworthy Jews who died in 2021 Wiener to Winn and hid its Jewish identity.

Besides a 2018 essay in which she delved into this family history, Malcolm — who had married fellow writer Donald Malcolm in the 1950s — did not tackle Jewish topics, and instead often delved into the world of psychoanalysis and the journalism process.

Her reputation took a hit after being sued for allegedly fabricating some quotes and distorting others for a series of articles and a book on the former director of the Sigmund Freud Archives, but after years of public scrutiny, a court ruled in her favor in 1994. She died in June at 86.

— WORLD —

By Ben Harris, Ron Kampeas | JTA

E

very year brings the deaths of Jewish icons who leave behind outsized legacies, from the realms of art and culture, government, business, philanthropy and beyond.

Here are 18 whom we lost in 2021 — none from COVID — presented in alphabetical order.

Sheldon Adelson

Few people have exerted as significant an influence on American and Israeli politics as Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate who gave lavishly to Republican candidates and Israeli causes. The founder and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation and one of the world’s richest men, Adelson regularly set records for his donations. At $25 million, he was the largest donor to Donald Trump’s successful 2016 presidential bid and the biggest giver in the 2012 American election cycle, at nearly $93 million. He was also a leading supporter of Birthright Israel, the Republican Jewish Coalition, the Zionist Organization of America, the Republican Jewish Coalition and the Israel American Council. He had previously been a top AIPAC supporter, but cut off support more than a decade ago in favor of more conservative pro-Israel groups. He was also a principal backer of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He died in January at 87.

Ed Asner

Ed Asner was an established character actor when he signed on to play the gruff TV station boss in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in 1970. He would go on to win an Emmy Award for his work on the sitcom, and another for playing the same character on a spinoff, becoming the only actor to win Emmys for playing the same character on two shows. Born to Jewish immigrant parents in Kansas City, Asner never shied from his Jewish roots, touring the country playing a Holocaust survivor in “The Soap Myth,” a run interrupted only by the coronavirus pandemic. He died in August at 91.

Sheila Bromberg

Sheila Bromberg turned up at the famed Abbey Road studio on a winter’s evening in 1967 because the in-demand harpist needed the cash as a single mom living in London.

Her first clue that she was about to make history was a man with a Liverpool accent asking her, “What you got on the dots?”

Paul McCartney was asking her to play the sheet music to “She’s Leaving Home.” The gig, earning Bromberg about the equivalent of $190 in today’s money, made her the first woman to perform on a Beatles track. She had a stellar career otherwise, recording with artists such as Frank Sinatra and the Bee Gees, and she did not want to be famous only for the Beatles milestone — but she eventually grew into it. “It does feel a bit good,” she said in 2011. She died in August at 92.

8 DECEMBER 31, 2021

Joan Micklin Silver

p Ed Asner as Lou Grant in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” circa 1975 Photo courtesy of Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images

Helene Fortunoff

Helene Fortunoff became a powerful player in the jewelry industry long before many women had even entered the workplace. She helped turn her husband’s housewares business into a major player, which at its height operated six retail stores specializing in high-end giftware, including its flagship location on New York City’s Fifth Avenue. She was also a frequent donor to Jewish causes. Fortunoff died in November at 88 in Miami Beach.

Flory Jagoda

Flory Jagoda’s “Ocho Kandelikas,” a Ladino Hanukkah song, has become a holiday favorite widely covered by other artists. But it wasn’t written until 1983, when Jagoda was 60 years old. The Sarajevo-born singer-songwriter gained wide acclaim for her efforts to preserve Sephardic Jewish culture and Ladino music, winning a prestigious National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2002.

She died in January at 97.

Norton Juster

“The Phantom Tollbooth,” one of the most beloved children’s books of all time, was written by a Jewish architect who fell in love with wordplay through Yiddish novels.

Norton Juster said that his parents, Jewish immigrants from Romania and Poland, had multiple shelves of thousand-page novels and other tomes translated from Yiddish and Russian. “I just loved the language and the way the words sounded,” he said. He died in March at 91.

Larry King

Television talk show legend Larry King was nearly as famous for the 50,000 interviews he claimed to have conducted in his career as he was for his romantic history, marrying eight times to seven women. With his trademark suspenders and oversized glasses, King was a gentle presence on the air, known for asking open-ended questions and letting his interviewees respond at length. He also made much of his modest Jewish upbringing in Brooklyn, claiming to have done his entire bar mitzvah in Hebrew and raising money for Jewish charities into his 80s. He died in Los Angeles in January at 87.

p Larry King during an interview with Ross Perot in 1993 Photo by Jeffrey Markowitz/Sygma via Getty Images

Carl Levin

Carl Levin was Michigan’s longest-serving senator, holding a seat in Congress’ upper chamber from 1978 until his retirement in 2015. He was also known as a relentless inquisitor. Hauling Goldman Sachs leaders before a committee on investigations following the carnage of the 2008 financial collapse, Levin repeatedly quoted an internal email in which executives admitted they misled their clients. Levin died in July at 87.

Karen Lewis

Lewis led the Chicago Teachers Union from 2010 to 2018, during which the group exploded into public awareness as a model for a new breed of public education organizing. Her teachers, and others across the country who followed in her footsteps, fought tooth and nail not just for better pay but also significant policy changes. A widely-covered seven-day strike in 2012 transformed Lewis into a public figure, and she briefly contemplated running for mayor of Chicago. Lewis felt herself drawn to Judaism in her 20s and became a regular at synagogue after converting. Although she feuded bitterly with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the two reportedly became friends, in part bonding over their shared religion. She died in February at 67 from brain cancer.

Director Joan Micklin Silver was most famous for telling two love Jewish stories of New York’s Lower East Side, straddling both ends of the 20th century: “Hester Street,” almost entirely in Yiddish, was about a marriage of immigrants, and “Crossing Delancey,” made and set in the 1980s, was about a Jewish courtship involving a pickle seller. Both films, which her husband Ray helped produce, tackled the difficulties of assimilation. Her Hollywood ambitions were curtailed in part because of the Jewishness of her content, but also because of the challenges of being a female director in a sexist industry. She died in January at 85.

George Segal

George Segal’s long career, stretching from the 1960s to this decade, started with troubled heartthrob roles — many of them explicitly Jewish. He later transitioned into Jewish dad roles; he had played the patriarch on ABC’s “The Goldbergs” for eight seasons when he died. Segal heralded a generation of Jewish actors who were unabashed about their Jewishness. He told The New York Times in 1971 that neither his name nor his nose were “unwieldy,” so why change them?

He died in March, aged 87.

Neal Sher

Bernie Madoff, the fraudster whose Ponzi scheme lost billions for investors — many of them major Jewish institutions — died in April while serving a 150-year sentence in a federal prison in North Carolina. The exposure of Madoff ’s scam during the 2008 financial crisis rippled across the Jewish world. Yeshiva University, Hadassah and prominent Jews like Elie Wiesel and Sandy Koufax were among the thousands of investors who saw their profits wiped out overnight.

Neal Sher joined the Justice Department office tracking Nazi war criminals in the late 1970s and found it relied on tips from the public, which were not reliable. So he set about formulating a new system: Check immigration records against Nazi records.

His methodology led to the removal of 69 Nazis (so far) who lied about their pasts when they immigrated. His research got former United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim permanently uninvited from the United States. Sher never stopped being an advocate — he led the AIPAC pro-Israel lobby for a few years, and pressed for compensation for the beneficiaries of Jews who took out insurance policies before and during the Holocaust. He also lobbied for Purple Hearts for 13 troops killed in a terrorist attack on a Texas military base. He died in October, aged 74.

Janet Malcolm

Stephen Sondheim

Bernie Madoff

The influential New Yorker writer Janet Malcolm, hailed as one of the 20th century’s pioneers of New Journalism, didn’t know she was Jewish until she was called an antisemitic slur in elementary school.

Her family had changed its surname from

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Stephen Sondheim made his Broadway debut as the lyricist for “West Side Story” in 1957 and went on to redefine the American musical through a series of influential Please see Noteworthy, page 13

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Headlines — WORLD — From JTA reports

International Olympic Committee says countries that ban Israeli athletes won’t be allowed to host competitions

Countries that bar athletes from other countries will not be allowed to host international sports championships, the International Olympic Committee said in a letter this week.

The statement followed the cancellation of the men’s squash world championship last month, which was set to be held in Malaysia Dec. 7, after the country refused to allow Israeli athletes to participate in the contest.

Israel and Malaysia do not maintain diplomatic relations and Israelis are barred from visiting the South Asian country.

Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad once said he was “glad to be labeled antisemitic.”

“We urge all [international federations] to be extremely vigilant when allocating and organizing international sports competitions,” leaders of the International Olympic Committee wrote in a letter, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The International Olympic Committee leaders said that international sports associations must receive written confirmation from countries hosting championship games that all countries will be allowed to participate and treated equally. Those countries that do

not ensure equal participation will “exclude themselves from the right to host international sports events until all the necessary assurances can be obtained and respected.”

Israel will likely administer a 4th dose of coronavirus vaccine to seniors, immunocompromised and healthcare workers

Israel will likely begin administering a fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine to seniors, immunocompromised people, and healthcare workers in an effort to stem the spread of the omicron variant.

The move was recommended by the panel of experts advising Israel’s government on the coronavirus pandemic. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had been hinting at the possibility of a fourth shot and embraced the recommendation in a statement Dec. 21.

The step toward administering another booster shot came as the number of cases of the omicron variant in Israel continues to increase despite travel bans meant to keep out travelers from countries where omicron is spreading wildly. Bennett acknowledged Tuesday that a fifth wave of the coronavirus within Israel was inevitable.

“We cannot prevent the [next] wave.

It’s just not a possibility,” Bennett said in a meeting with members of the government’s coronavirus task force. “But we can certainly give the citizens of Israel the tools to protect themselves, mainly from serious illness, if some of them become infected.”

This week in Israeli history

Swiss-Jewish artist wants museum to take down her paintings over concerns about art purchased from Jews under duress during WWII

In probe of ethics process, Reform rabbis group finds late professor was able to duck abuse complaints

A Swiss-Jewish artist has asked the Zurich Art Museum to return her paintings due to concerns that the museum features works bought for below-market prices from Jewish refugees in dire circumstances in the years leading up to and during the Holocaust.

Miriam Cahn, 72, made her wishes known publicly Dec. 22, the Tachles Swiss-Jewish newspaper reported.

“I no longer want to be represented at the Zurich Art Museum and would like to withdraw all of my work from it. I will buy them back at the original price of the purchase,” she wrote in a letter obtained by Tachles.

Cahn, a feminist artist whose work has won numerous awards, wrote the letter in response to a controversy that has been swirling for years concerning the Emil Bührle Collection, which is a central element of the museum’s new extension that opened earlier this year.

Emil Georg Bührle was a tycoon who accumulated considerable wealth selling arms to Nazi Germany and used his wealth to purchase the artworks that currently make up the collection named for him. The museum has faced criticism for acquiring the collection due to allegations the collection contained art whose provenance had not been properly researched or that had been purchased from Jewish sellers who felt compelled to settle for a fraction of the market price.

Sometime while Rabbi Michael Cook was teaching Reform rabbinical students in 2000, two rabbis who had studied under him lodged formal complaints with their shared professional association alleging that he had been abusive.

But before the rabbinic association, the Central Conference of American Rabbis or CCAR, took any action, Cook resigned. The move cut him off from the Reform movement’s job hiring process — but also allowed him to evade an investigation that could have resulted in a public expulsion.

No longer a member of the CCAR, Cook continued serving as a professor at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, working with rabbinical students in his charge. It was not until his death last March that he was publicly accused of misconduct, which helped trigger a reckoning over the handling of sexual abuse allegations within the Reform movement.

The revelation that the CCAR had received allegations against Cook is contained in a new report, released Dec. 22, that emerged from that reckoning. It is the result of one of three investigations into different branches of the Reform movement that took place simultaneously in recent months.

CCAR is charged with upholding ethical standards among its roughly 2,200 members — virtually all ordained rabbis and seminary professors in the Reform movement. PJC

helping you plan for what matters the most

— WORLD — Items provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.

Dec. 31, 1973 — Golda Meir wins election after Yom Kippur War

Israelis elect the eighth Knesset. The Alignment wins 39.6%, keeping Prime Minister Golda Meir in power. The election was postponed by the Yom Kippur War, whose backlash forces Meir to resign in April 1974.

Jan. 1, 1837 — Earthquake devastates Safed

An earthquake estimated at 6.8 on the Richter scale starts a landslide that kills thousands and causes extensive damage in the Jewish and Arab sections of the Upper Galilee mountain city of Safed (Tzfat).

Jan. 2, 2002 — Operation targets arms bound for Gaza

Israeli navy commandos leave Eilat in helicopters at night to intercept the Karine-A, a ship carrying 50 tons of Iranian weapons to Gaza. The Israelis seize the shipment before dawn Jan. 3 without firing a shot.

Jan. 3, 2004 — Sharon orders 2 outposts dismantled

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon orders the IDF to remove two PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

illegal Jewish outposts, Tal Binyamin and Havat Maon, from the West Bank. The decision reflects Sharon’s shift from total support for the settler movement.

Jan. 4, 1935 — Mosul-Haifa pipeline opens

A pipeline spanning 590 miles from Kirkuk, Iraq, to Haifa begins carrying oil from the Mosul fields to the Mediterranean Sea. The pipeline operates until Israel’s independence in 1948.

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Jan. 6, 1909 — Communist politician Moshe Sneh is born

Moshe Sneh, a doctor known for left-wing politics and resistance to British rule, is born in Poland. He serves in the Knesset all but four years from 1949 to 1972, mostly with the Communist Maki party. PJC PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

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Jan. 5, 1930 — Mapai party is founded

David Ben-Gurion and Joseph Sprinzak merge their socialist-leaning political movements into Mapai, the dominant political party in the Yishuv (area of Jewish settlement) and the early state.

Michael H. Marks, Esq.

STATE SENATOR

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DECEMBER 31, 2021 9

Opinion An American Muslim leader said Zionist Jews can’t be trusted allies. Jews and Muslims who work together know better.

Guest Columnist Yehuda Kurtzer

A

long-simmering conflict between CAIR, the Muslim-American civil rights organization, and the Anti-Defamation League has now reached the boiling point: A Bay Area CAIR leader dismissed the ADL and groups like it as “polite Zionists” who could not be trusted as allies. The ADL’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, fired back, calling her comments “textbook vile, antisemitic, conspiracy-laden garbage.”

It would be a mistake to see this as a mere spat between two organizations. It reflects what could be an alarming turning point in Jewish-Muslim relations in America, and a symptom of how polarization can undermine civil society. All of us who care about what Muslims and Jews could do together should take note and work to repair the damage that is being done.

In late November, Zahra Billoo — CAIR’s San Francisco director — delivered a blistering address at the conference of American Muslims for Palestine. First, Billoo drew a straight line between support for Israel and a wide array of American social ills, including the killing by police of innocent Black and brown Americans. Those charges play on

tropes that have become commonplace in far-left criticism of Israel and the IsraelAmerica relationship.

But Billoo went much further, directing her listeners to be cautious about “polite Zionists” — naming Jewish federations, “Zionist” synagogues and Hillel chapters whose civil society world she said masks an Islamophobic agenda. Similarly, American Muslims for Palestine had just published a report that neatly divides the Jewish community between those to avoid — including the organizations listed above, as well as my organization and others — and those it was “safe” to work with. Both AMP and Billoo placed Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow as the only Jewish organizations on the “good” list.

For those of us familiar with interfaith work, this separation of “good” and “bad” groups is a familiar and pernicious rhetorical and political strategy. It happens to American Muslims all the time, especially since 9/11, when others who are suspicious of them and their motives demand they pass litmus tests.

Such tests are understandable: It is hard to engage with “the other,” so we often try to understand others through the prism of our own commitments and categories. Interfaith engagement, meanwhile, can be a strategy for building political power. And when the goal is to amass power, it is not surprising that groups would instrumentalize “the

other” toward that end.

Doing so is very, very dangerous. To divide American Jews this way — between the vast majority of American Jews who identify with Israel and are thus characterized as dangerous and duplicitous, and the small dissident minority who are “kosher” — has two major problems. The first is that Jews, no less than anyone else, should have the right to narrate the complexities of our own identities. We American Jews do overwhelmingly support Israel in one way or another, and most of us are comfortable with identifying as Zionist. Yet we exhibit enormous diversity concerning what those attachments mean to us and how they obligate us.

The overwhelming majority of Jews in the world see the emergence of a Jewish state as something that changes the meaning of being Jewish, and see ourselves attached to that story in one way or another. Our interfaith friends need to approach this aspect of Jewish identity with curiosity, rather than dismissing it out of hand through a predetermination of what Judaism is “supposed to be.”

Secondly, this caricature of American Jews and our commitments strips us of the capacity to build relationships with our Muslim friends and neighbors — relationships that could be rooted in compassion and could even lead to us interrogating our own commitments. Urging American Muslims

to write off the majority of American Jews as enemies from the start is to foreclose any possibility of serious interfaith work, and undermines relationships that could be politically valuable for American Muslims.

The strategy is as counterproductive as it is dehumanizing.

I am not primarily concerned with CAIR, but rather hope that this kind of thinking does not become normative in Muslim spaces (which at present, I do not believe it has). I am grateful to know Muslim leaders, like my friend and colleague Imam Abdullah Antepli, who are speaking out to rebuke CAIR, AMP and their leaders for misrepresenting American Islam, and instead are trying to forge new paths forward.

After all, the best critiques of any group or movement comes from leaders inside their own communities.

This has been the approach of our Muslim Leadership Initiative program at the Shalom Hartman Institute since it began: to invite Muslim leaders into the internal conversation of the Jewish people, and especially our debates about Israel and Zionism. Resilient relationships are built through trust and character witnessing rather than through demarcating red lines at the outset.

What I fear most, however, is how we as a Jewish community act in a moment like this.

Please see Kurtzer, page 11

‘A Diaspora calendar to revive Jewish life’: A response Guest Columnist Reuven Hoch

I

t was quite disconcerting to read “A Diaspora calendar to revive Jewish life” (Dec. 17), Rabbi Barbara Aiello’s odd proposal to adjust the dates of the Jewish holidays to correspond to designated secular weekend dates. She suggests, for example, that Erev Rosh Hashanah could always fall on the third Friday of September and, therefore, Rosh Hashanah would always be celebrated on a weekend. With this approach, applied to all Jewish holidays, she argues, the holidays would not interfere with school or work schedules and other secular activities. This would presumably alleviate the challenges “for families that must navigate between Jewish tradition and secular society” and would “create the opportunity for more Jews to participate consistently in synagogue life.”

(The astute among us might ask, “Aren’t Sabbath services already held in synagogues on Saturday — a day when people aren’t at school or work? Yet, how many non-Orthodox Jews attend those services?”)

What is particularly upsetting about the rabbi’s proposal, is the cavalier — one might even say, flippant — mindset that she 10 DECEMBER 31, 2021

manifests toward traditional Jewish beliefs and values. With no discernable hesitation, she dismisses thousands of years of Jewish religious practice and halacha (Jewish law).

She demonstrates no appreciation for the sacrosanctity of the Hebrew calendar. The ease and comfort with which she ignores halacha that has been in force since Torah was received on Sinai, is a clear indication of how this rabbi has lost touch with traditional Judaism. The same Torah that taught us how to celebrate the holidays taught us when to celebrate the holidays.

With her proposal, Rabbi Aiello sends the unequivocal message that Judaism is secondary: Let’s try to squeeze in the Jewish holidays amidst our busy schedules. If the rabbi’s goal is the revival of Jewish life and Jewish continuity, this approach has failed in the past and continues to fail. Judaism can only survive if it is primary. The forces of current western culture social, political and ideological — that operate against authentic Jewish values and beliefs, can be alluring and overwhelming. These forces must be confronted and met head-on, with a confidence and determination that can only exist in concert with a commitment to a life permeated with traditional Jewish values and allegiance to the Jewish people.

Clearly, Rabbi Aiello is not alone in her mistaken approach. Jewish history is replete

with movements intended to customize Judaism to the times, independent of a halachic framework. The most recent iteration is progressive Judaism — with fealty to its distorted concept of tikkun olam and pursuit of its need to be in perfect sync with the world’s social justice warriors. It apparently cleaves to the conviction that by ignoring halacha and surrendering traditional Jewish values and beliefs to the whims of political correctness and the fancies of the prevailing secular ideology, Judaism will be liberated from its antediluvian moorings. This strategy will presumably generate immeasurable appeal to the masses of Jews. In other words, G-d, Torah and mitzvot are out. Woke is in.

Of course, this belief is demonstrably false.

Jews are absent from synagogues — not because of the inconvenience of conflicting schedules — but because the holidays, as well as much of Judaism, have been drained of meaning by the omnipresent dictates of progressive ideology. When traditional Jewish values diverge from political correctness and from the edicts of a false application of tikkun olam, Judaism is reformulated to follow the progressive party line. Any thoughtful person might ask the question: “What then is the added value of Judaism?”

Ashreinu, mah tov chelkeinu — “How good is our portion! How pleasant is our lot! And how beautiful is our inheritance!” — words

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from the daily morning prayers. We are Jews and we are proud Jews! Authenticity in the practice of Judaism will safeguard the continuity of the Jewish people. In fact, making Judaism primary in our lives has empowered the Jewish people, throughout our history, to survive and to even thrive under the most difficult of circumstances. The refusal to tailor Judaism to the dictates of the times has guaranteed our survival.

Rabbi Aiello’s commendable goal to “revive Jewish life” might best be actualized by continued support for authentic Jewish education, both for children and for adults. We cannot be inspired to lead more meaningful Jewish lives without providing the education to do so. The importance of a Jewish day school education cannot be overemphasized.

Also, there is a proliferation of outstanding online sources for adult Jewish education.

Let us all work together to promote the many faces of authentic Jewish education.

This will, G-d willing, lead us to understand that true tikkun olam is achieved through fulfillment of Torah and mitzvot by which G-dliness is revealed in the world.

Through each of our efforts, the world will thus continue to become a revealed dwelling place for the Divine. PJC Reuven Hoch, J.D., is a legal editor living in Squirrel Hill.

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Opinion Chronicle poll results: Chinese food on Dec. 24 or 25

L

ast week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “Do you plan to have, or did you have, Chinese food on either Dec. 24 or Dec. 25?” Of the 237 people who responded, 39% said they would be eating Chinese food either at home or at a friend’s home, and 14% said they would be doing so at a restaurant.

Twenty percent of those who responded said they had eaten Chinese food in the past on Dec. 24 or Dec. 25, but would not be doing so this year, and 27% said that is not something they do. Fifty-nine people submitted comments. A few follow.

Do you plan to have, or did you have, Chinese food on either December 24 or December 25?

14% Yes, at a restaurant.

The 614th mitzvah.

I’m delighted that this year Christmas and New Year’s Day are on Shabbat. We’ll have great Shabbat meals and walk to shul.

Though I sometimes cook Chinese food, not this Shabbat. Seems kitschy.

I have a tradition of dining on Christmas Eve at a favorite Chinese restaurant in Mt. Lebanon. In an unfortunate sign of the times, the restaurant will not be open for

Kurtzer: Continued from page 10

Some of my ire is reserved for the Jewish organizations named by AMP and the Billoo speech as “good” Jews and who are relishing the designation. I mean, sure: Everyone wants to be liked, and I understand the political logic of using external allies to help fight battles inside your community. Allies are allies, I suppose, but these groups are welcoming endorsements from those who are actively and dangerously delegitimizing the majority of world Jewry. In doing so, these “good” Jews are giving aid to an antisemitic stratagem.

Yes, at my home or a friend’s home.

27%

No. That’s not what I do.

Of course I will get Chinese food on Christmas Day. (Takeout this year.) I am a traditionalist.

I grew up noticing that my extended family routinely got together on Christmas ...

Very clear about our Jewish identity, I finally asked my mom about it. She explained that it was because everyone was off from work.

Do Jewish people else at Christmas?

eat

In my opinion, along with cheap movies, this is the greatest of all Jewish Christmas traditions.

I desperately hope the mainstream Jewish community — those of us named as the bad Jews — will not allow the focus on CAIR and its failings to thwart the work we absolutely must continue doing to build stronger and more resilient intergroup relationships.

This is how polarization works: Extremists exploit fear to create divisions, and then they reap the returns when the massive middle is scared away from the important work of seeking common ground.

I appreciate that organizations like the ADL need to confront CAIR in a moment like this and call out the antisemitism, but I would hate to see this incident undermine years of patient work — by the ADL and many other organizations — in reckoning

with the past and building trust. It would be catastrophic if positive Muslim-Jewish engagement in America were to be sabotaged by individuals and organizations unable to imagine alternatives to acrimony.

There is so much work to be done.

Muslim-Jewish relations took on extra political significance with the rise of antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred since the 2016 election. The Israel-Palestine conflict continues to be exploited not just by marginal Jews and Muslims but by other Americans, including in Congress, to divide us. This is especially sad and ironic since America could genuinely be one of the few places on earth where Jews and Muslims might forge an extraordinary bond. Even in Israel-Palestine, a

Community Day School pride

I want to thank the Chronicle for the excellent article that David Rullo wrote in honor of Community Day School’s 50th anniversary (“Community Day School marks golden jubilee,” Dec. 24). I had a real sense of pride reading what he so eloquently wrote. The Jewish community has a wonderful example of a cross-denominational school that offers such a quality Jewish and secular education.

Lois Weinstein Boca Ratan, Florida

College students can benefit from diverse opinions on Israel

The article “Local college students face varying degrees of antisemitism on campus” (Dec. 24) narrates the firsthand experiences of five students on local campuses. An undergraduate education comes with the opportunity to broaden knowledge, encounter diversity of opinion and experience intellectual and personal growth. Elsewhere in that issue of the Chronicle are a news story describing this year’s rise in violence perpetrated by West Bank settlers against Palestinians and an editorial which details an increased perception of Israel as an apartheid state. Undergraduates can be expected to face questions about these realities. Labeling their

it’s tradition!

We used to go out to a restaurant, but this year and last year it’s been takeout at home due to you-know-what. While we usually have Chinese, sometimes we go for neighboring Asian cuisines, such as Thai or Japanese.

If not for our Chinese friends and neighbors, we would have starved to death over Christmas years ago. Chinese food and a movie is how we roll on Dec. 25. Our tribe makes the movies. The Chinese make the food. Like a charm, it works.

This year Dec. 24 is Shabbat, so traditional Shabbat dinner is in order. PJC — Toby Tabachnick

anything

dining-in this year due to a staff shortage.

Unless takeout orders make up for the in-person diners, the restaurant will likely be forgoing a great deal of revenue as Christmas Eve is its busiest night of the year. My family

— LETTERS —

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One, it’s Shabbat; and two, there are no kosher Chinese restaurants here.

We always get Chinese on 12/24! It’s our family tradition!

39%

20%

No. I have in the past, but not this year.

will go there to pick up our dinner — not what we would have chosen to do.

Why not! It’s like “Fiddler on the Roof ”;

This week’s Chronicle poll question:

Are you making any New Year’s resolutions this year? Go to our website, pittsburghjewish chronicle.org, to respond. PJC

future for peace and justice for all its inhabitants will need to be built by Jews and Muslims together.

If, like me, you are a member of the Jewish community alarmed by the CAIR story, don’t let it undermine your efforts in realizing such a future. Let their leaders navigate their own leadership failures, and let’s not make it harder for them by drowning them out. Instead, let’s lead our communities, and ask: What can we do to strengthen the relationship with American Muslims? PJC Yehuda Kurtzer is the president of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America and host of the Identity/Crisis podcast. This piece first appeared on JTA.

discussion on campus as microaggressions, antisemitism, or plain denial are insufficient responses. Further, to describe all criticism of Israel universally as an expression of antisemitism is both simplistic and not adequately substantive. I hope that future stories describing college students can highlight how exposure to diverse opinions has brought intellectual growth, built bridges and forged alliances.

Jared W Magnani Pittsburgh

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DECEMBER 31, 2021 11

Headlines Top Stories: Continued from page 1

February

Charles Goldblum’s sentence commuted After almost 45 years in prison, Charles “Zeke” Goldblum, the son of a Pittsburgh rabbi, was released. Goldblum had been charged with a murder that many believe he did not commit. His life sentence was commuted by Gov. Tom Wolf on Feb. 11.

Danielle Kranjec leaves Hillel JUC for Hartman Eight years after joining Hillel JUC as its senior Jewish educator, Danielle K r a nj e c m ov e d on from Oakland.

Effective March 1, Kranjec became the director of campus p Danielle initiatives for Shalom Kranjec File photo Hartman Institute of North America, overseeing the implementation of programming intended to strengthen Jewish peoplehood, identity and pluralism.

During her time at Hillel JUC, Kranjec introduced hundreds of students to formal Jewish life and a corpus of Jewish teachings. She also promoted the eponymous Kranjec Test, which recommends that study source sheets with more than two sources should include at least one non-male identified voice.

the virus, the electrical current of the wires change, showing a positive result for COVID. The Jewish researcher’s work improves on other rapid COVID testing because it can detect even a few coronavirus molecules in a sample, resulting in fewer false positives and false negatives, he said.

Partnership facilitates vaccination A months-long partnership between the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh and the Squirrel Hill Health Center resulted in thousands of people receiving COVID vaccinations. By April 8, the JCC had hosted 19 clinics between its Squirrel Hill and South Hills branches, resulting in 4,730 people getting vaccinated against COVID.

May

Kosher wine store opens in Dormont Cynthia Craig and Curt Friehs, co-owners of Chosen Wine, visited Israel in both 2016 and 2018. After being so impressed by the wine they sampled in the Jewish state, the couple decided to open a kosher wine store in Dormont.

Tree of Life selects Daniel Libeskin as lead architect

March

Peduto and Finkelstein join global antisemitism summit Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto joined leaders from 21 countries in pledging to defeat antisemitism at the first-ever Mayors Summit Against Anti-Semitism, held virtually on March 16.

Joining Peduto at the online summit was Jeffrey Finkelstein, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, who credited Peduto and other western Pennsylvania leaders — including former Islamic Center of Pittsburgh executive director Wasi Mohamed — with helping combat antisemitism.

April

Jewish Pitt researcher develops rapid COVID test

p Professor Alexander Star

File photo

Professor Alexander Star and fellow University of Pittsburgh researchers developed a rapid, COVID-19 antigen test that delivers results faster than a walk around the block.

The test, which builds on Star’s earlier research on a marijuana breathalyzer he created, uses tiny wires stitched with coronavirus antibodies. If the antibodies encounter 12 DECEMBER 31, 2021

p Daniel Libeskind

File photo

p Saint Rosalia School

June

Pittsburgh stands in solidarity against antisemitism On June 1, about 400 Pittsburghers showed up at the City-County building downtown at a rally organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh called “Stand Against Antisemitism.” Leaders from the broader community, including elected officials, addressed the crowd.

Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh and Chabad further Greenfield expansion Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh entered into contract to purchase the St. Rosalia site at 411 Greenfield Avenue, in Pittsburgh’s Greenfield neighborhood. The nearly 70,000-squarefoot property includes two former school buildings. In December, the school received $4.5 million in state funds for the renovation.

Daniel Libeskind, the internationally renowned architect who designed the World Trade Master Plan in New York following 9/11, was chosen as the lead architect to reimagine the site of the Tree of Life building.

Libeskind was selected unanimously by Tree of Life’s board of trustees and steering committee. The renovation of the Tree of Life building is part of the congregation’s REMEMBER. REBUILD. RENEW. campaign to commemorate the events of Oct. 27, 2018.

Studio Daniel Libeskind is collaborating with Pittsburgh-based Rothschild Doyno Collaborative on the project.

Community supports Israel during Operation Guardian of the Walls As Hamas terrorists fired rockets into Israel, about 200 Jewish Pittsburghers gathered in Squirrel Hill to show support for the Jewish state. The May 12 event, “A Community Gathering to say Tehilim,” was organized by the Vaad Harabonim of Greater Pittsburgh and included the recitation of Psalms and prayers for the safety and security of Israel and its citizens during Operation Guardian of the Walls.

On May 21, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh organized a rally in its parking lot dubbed “We Stand with Israel: A community Vigil for Peace.” Scores of Jewish Pittsburghers attended, demonstratraing their solidarity with Israel.

Pittsburgh educators receive mental health training Eighteen local Jewish professionals who work with young adults were trained to be “mental health first aiders,” thanks to a recent program offered by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh in partnership with the Jewish Teen Education & Engagement Funder Collaborative — a national nonprofit that aims to increase teen involvement in Jewish life.

The training was held in response to the alarming rise of mental health issues among teens and young adults, organizers said.

According to the Centers for Disease control, suicide was the second leading cause of death among people ages 10-24 in 2019. The pandemic, and ensuing isolation, has created significant strain on many young people.

July

Photo courtesy of Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh

Start of summer camp Following a summer in which thousands of campers remained home due to the pandemic, summer 2021 offered an opportunity to return outdoors and renew friendships. Months of planning ensured that camps operated safely.

August

JFCS to help resettle Afghan refugees During the United States’ nearly two decades in Afghanistan, tens of thousands of Afghan nationals gave assistance to the American military and American companies that offered support to their country. Because of their service, 53,000 Afghan nationals are arriving in the U.S. as part of the Special Immigration Visa program. Those coming to Pittsburgh are being assisted by JFCS, a local affiliate of HIAS (originally the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), a national resettlement agency working with the U.S. government.

Walter Jacob honored in Germany

p EKC staff give Summer 2021 a big thumbs up. Photo courtesy of Emma Curtis via Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh

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p Opening Potsdam ceremony with German President Steinmeier File photo

Nearly eight decades after the collapse of the Nazi regime in Europe, German Jews and elected officials dedicated a new space for the continuance of Jewish studies and worship in Potsdam, Germany. The new European Center for Jewish Learning at the University of Potsdam includes a synagogue, the first in post-war Potsdam; the School of Jewish Theology of the University of Potsdam; and Germany’s two rabbinical seminaries — the Abraham Geiger College, modeled on the North American Reform seminary, and the Conservative Zacharias Frankel College. As Please see Top Stories, page 13

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Headlines Antisemitism: Continued from page 1

hate exists it affects us all.”

Robert Tuñón is an architect with Rothschild Doyno Collaborative who, because of his work, has relationships with members of the Pittsburgh Jewish community. He reached out to leaders of the 10.27 Healing Partnership, the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. The result of that outreach will be a virtual community meeting, “Countering Antisemitism,” on

Noteworthy: Continued from page 8

works that included “Into the Woods,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Follies,” “A Little Night Music” and “Sunday in the Park With George.” Sondheim avoided traditional Broadway formulas known to immediately draw audiences, instead crafting musicals about subjects that had not received treatments on mainstream stages: loneliness, despair and the artistic temperament. He died in November at 91.

Top Stories: Continued from page 12

part of the Aug. 18 dedication ceremony, the building that houses the Abraham Geiger College — the first liberal rabbinical seminary in Continental Europe since the Shoah — was named after Rabbi Walter Jacob, rabbi emeritus at Rodef Shalom Congregation and co-founder of the college.

September

Holocaust Center leaves Greenfield The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh headed back to Squirrel Hill. After six years at 826 Hazelwood Avenue in Greenfield, the 41-year-old organization will partner with Chatham University on an exhibit in Squirrel Hill and put other artifacts and materials in storage for the time being.

Mental health concerns grow As the pandemic stretched on, organizations began to see a greater need for mental health services. Jewish spiritual leaders spent the year frequently attending to congregants and other p Rabbi Moishe followers. The efforts, Vogel

Photo by Quinn however, took their toll.

Glabicki/PublicSource In a jointly authored piece with Public Source, we explored how faith leaders navigate their congregants’ demands while managing their own mental health.

Monday, Jan. 10. The program will not only address concerns over antisemitism but also community trauma and thoughts on how to make the community safer and more inclusive.

Nearly five miles away, the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Highland Park is addressing its own recent antisemitic incident. On Nov. 29, someone smashed the car windshield of Jewish residents and painted a swastika on the front of their home. That night, their Black Lives Matter and Stronger Than Hate yard signs also were stolen.

When Stephanie Walsh, president of the Highland Park Community Council, became

aware of the attack, she posted to the organization’s website and Facebook page. Part of what she wrote, posted Dec. 1, the third day of Chanukah, urged community members to speak out against acts of hate and words of intolerance.

“But also, let’s go one step further and commit to living with our neighbors in peace. Period,” she wrote.

Walsh said the victims wanted to remain anonymous but that the community wanted to help. They offered to collect donations, but while the victims were appreciative, they said they didn’t need financial assistance.

Instead, the HPCC collected cards and

letters of support.

Inspired by the book “The Christmas Menorahs: How a Town Fought Hate” — based on a true story that occurred in Billings, Montana, in 1993 — the HPCC also distributed paper menorahs that could be colored and posted in windows, Walsh said.

Like the residents of Etna, the Highland Park neighbors wanted to do more. On Dec. 17, the community hosted the webinar “Community Dialogue on Countering Antisemitism,” led by 10.27 Healing Partnership Director Maggie Feinstein.

Jessica Walter

Sylvia Weinstock

Shirley Zussman

Jessica Walter earned a cult following for her portrayal of the manipulative Bluth family matriarch Lucille Bluth in the beloved TV comedy “Arrested Development.” But that role capped a long career in which she specialized in playing predatory women, beginning with “Bye Bye Braverman” in 1968. Another beloved character in recent years was Malory Archer, the mother to a dysfunctional secret agent in the animated sitcom “Archer,” to which Walter lent her voice. Walter died in March at the age of 80.

which ran from Oct. 18-20, hosted more than 100 experts on hate and extremism.

The experts, most of whom appeared in person at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, were charged with not only sharing insight but spending the next year working on specific “deliverables” that will be evaluated at next year’s summit.

Laura Ellsworth, first partner in charge of global community service initiatives for the law firm Jones Day, co-chaired the summit along with Mark Nordenberg, University of Pittsburgh chancellor emeritus. The massacre at the Tree of Life building loomed large over the summit, which was conceived following the attack, Nordenberg said.

November

Teens in trouble, JFCS seeks to help The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Children’s Hospital Association declared a national emergency

Weinstock was a grade school teacher living in Long Island until a bout with breast cancer at 50 led her into a career that would dub her the “Queen of Cakes.” She became famous for wedding cakes that were stunning handmade confabulations, among them a replica of Masada with the Dead Sea at its base. She paid close attention to detail and became a much sought after baker to the stars. Her husband Ben, an attorney who was handy with gadgets and who died in 2018, quit his job to build the devices that facilitated her masterpieces. She died in November, aged 91.

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While Shirley Zussman may not be as wellknown as Dr. Ruth Westheimer, one of the world’s most famous sex therapists, Zussman served as an inspiration to her fellow Jewish New Yorker. After studying with the famed Masters and Johnson sex experts, Zussman and her husband ran the Human Sexuality Program at Long Island Jewish Hillside Medical Center together for a decade, wrote a book about sexuality for couples, worked for several clinics and advised young people about sex into her 90s. She died earlier this month at 107. PJC

p Rabbi Jeffrey Myers presents Gov. Tom Wolf with a menorah at the Dec. 6 press conference announcing a $6.6 million state grant to rebuild the Tree of Life site.

Photo by David Rullo

in children’s mental health, citing a significant rise in the number of visits at emergency departments for mental health-related emergencies among children and young adults.

Representatives from the AAP, AACAP and CHA, which total 77,000 physicians and more than 200 children’s hospitals, mentioned fear, grief, physical isolation and continuing uncertainty as difficulties facing today’s youth. Following the declaration, JFCS asked resiliency expert Dr. Andrew Shatte to visit Pittsburgh, meet with day school students and provide the tools to navigate trauma.

December

TOL gets $6.6 million in state funding Gov. Tom Wolf announced that Tree of Life Congregation will receive $6.6 million in Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program funding from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for “economic, cultural, civic and historical improvement projects in Pennsylvania.” The grant, which will be used to rebuild the property, reflects the full amount of funding Tree of Life requested. PJC

October

Pittsburgh welcomes Eradicate Hate Summit The Eradicate Hate Global Summit 2021,

Please see Antisemitism, page 18

p The Eradicate Hate Global Summit 2021, which ran from Oct. 18-20, hosted more than 100 experts on hate and extremism.

Photo by Lindsay Dill

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Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

DECEMBER 31, 2021 13

Life & Culture A fresh take on a Rodgers and Hammerstein classic: ‘Oklahoma!’

p The cast of the touring production of “Oklahoma!”

— THEATER —

By Toby Tabachnick | Editor

W

hen it premiered on Broadway in 1943, “Oklahoma!” was heralded as a theatrical trailblazer. The first major collaboration between Jewish composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein — whose father was Jewish — the show was credited for developing the “narrative musical,” which emphasizes a story with a distinctive beginning, middle and end.

The show’s 2019 Broadway revival was acclaimed as well, winning two Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical. But its reviews were peppered with adjectives such as “dark,” “edgy” and “menacing.”

While the libretto and score of the show are intact, the new version of the show — whose national touring production opens in Pittsburgh at the Benedum Center on Jan. 4 and runs through Jan. 9 — lays bare undercurrents of danger while the “bright golden haze” shines on pre-state Oklahoma territory.

Benj Mirman, who plays the Persian peddler Ali Hakim in the touring production, praised the new iteration of “Oklahoma!” as a fresh — but not flashy — take on a Golden Age musical.

“This is truly like opening the score and the first page of ‘Oklahoma!’ as if it is something that we have never encountered before,” said Mirman, who is Jewish and grew up in Columbus, Ohio. “It’s approaching the material with no preconceived ideas. Not, ‘How did it happen in the movie?’ or ‘How was it staged before?’”

14 DECEMBER 31, 2021

Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade

The previous versions of “Oklahoma!” are “wonderful,” Mirman stressed. “There’s a reason why it’s ‘Oklahoma!’ — it’s part of the fabric of our country. So it’s exciting to take that thing that’s in our bones, and to approach it as something that is not in our bones.”

The revival, under the direction of Daniel Fish, “is a love letter to the source material of ‘Oklahoma!’ — which I think is really a profound piece of theater that gets overlooked,” said Mirman, who performed in a student version of the show in 2007 and in its professional workshop in 2015. “Essentially we are doing the text as written — performing and approaching ‘Oklahoma!’ not as if it is this antique that has to be handled with care, but as if it’s a new piece of theater.”

The production is “stripped down,” Mirman said, without a large traditional theater ensemble. Instead, there are just 10 actors on stage. And, in place of a full orchestra, there’s a seven-piece bluegrass band. The music has been “beautifully and meticulously reorchestrated by Daniel Kluger,” he said.

“The two things work so well together — having this smaller band and having the smaller cast,” Mirman continued. “The idea is that we are all in a big room together. So there’s no big sweeping set changes. For different chunks of the show the house lights are on, or in a very bright set. So it’s very much inviting the audience to feel like they are in a room with these performers, this community, who is telling their story.”

The show has a diverse cast in terms of “shapes, sizes, colors, creeds, ethnicities, gender identities,” Mirman said. “The bodies that are on stage are not what normally

p Benj Mirman

Photo by Alex Kikis

‘Oklahoma!’ looks like. But it’s kind of what our country looks like today.”

Mirman, who is white, plays the character of Ali, who is Persian. The role is often portrayed by a white person “who puts on like, a strange schticky accent,” Mirman said.

In his interpretation of the character, Ali simply “tells people he’s Persian so that he can seem exotic and sell things….he’s essentially just a traveling salesman who is trying to smooch some ladies and sell some stuff and get out of there. And to up his appeal, he says that he’s Persian. It is very much ideally, hopefully, a comic relief role.”

The “Oklahoma!” tour, which began in

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

November, is Mirman’s first time back on stage since the start of the pandemic. Being able to perform again for a live audience is “incredible,” he said.

“The way that the show begins, the way we enter the stage — we just kind of all walk on stage to house lights. And it’s an emotional experience every time, to just have that ‘pinch me’ moment [after two years] of being able to truly walk on the stage and to greet an audience, and to know that hopefully, everyone is feeling this kind of almost surreal feeling of like, ‘Oh, gosh, we’re back doing it.’”

While some audience members have been disappointed that this production of “Oklahoma!” is unlike the 1955 film version, others are “really, really on board and incredibly thrilled and moved by this ‘Oklahoma’ that has been here the whole time,” Mirman said.

“I just urge and hope that people think about what the show is about, which is really how a community functions and the powers of community — both good and bad,” he said.

“I hope people come in with open eyes and open hearts and knowing that this production is handled with such love and care for Rodgers and Hammerstein and for the piece itself. And that things are different than the movie or the Hugh Jackman production that they watched on YouTube. I hope that people come in excited to see something that they maybe know and love dearly, and to see how it can be interpreted in a very modern, fresh way.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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For Teens in grades 6-12 Open Monday-Thursday until 6 pm & Friday until 5 pm In Robinson Building at JCC in Squirrel Hill

Find us on Instagram and Facebook @thesecondfloorpgh for a daily look into the fun on The Second Floor!

Teen mental health is a priority The Wellness Room in The Second Floor Teen Department space at the JCC features a variety of calming pastimes like stress balls, biofeedback, acupressure, yoga, meditative practices and creative activities, and offers educational resources for teens to get help with mental health issues.

The Virtual Teen Resource Room enables anyone to locate and discover helpful resources for their personal, or friend’s, mental well-being. The room is a public virtual space and open to the entire community. There is no membership or payment requirement.

Check it out at: sites.google.com/view/pittsburghteenwellnessroom.

Second Floor Membership is FREE and includes access to the Robinson Gym. For more info & to join, contact Chris Herman at cherman@jccpgh.org

Masks & COVID-19 Vaccines required Join us! JCCPGH.org

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DECEMBER 31, 2021 15

Life & Culture Cauliflower turns ‘hot wings’ Cauliflower “hot wings” with Greek yogurt dip

— FOOD —

Serves 4+

E

ven though chicken wings are mostly skin and bone with little meat, I love nibbling on them. This American dish is generally deep-fried and coated in a hot sauce prior to serving along with celery sticks, carrots, and blue cheese or ranch dressing for dipping. I grew up keeping kosher, so I did not use the dairy dipping sauces with my chicken wings. I have tried many different seasonings and preparations of wings at home over the years — grilled, fried, roasted (you get the picture) — I like hot wings!

When I began my health journey three years ago I wanted the flavor of chicken wings without the fat and calories. Enter cauliflower! I use this versatile vegetable to make pizza crust, latkes and stir-fried “rice,” so why not wings?

Below is my adaptation for a flavorful and guilt-free duo of cauliflower hot wings and yogurt dipping sauce.

This is my go-to recipe for casual entertaining — think football game half-time snack. As a bonus, carrots, celery and any raw veggies are delish dipped in the Greek yogurt dip.

If you are preparing a meat meal, you can simply omit the yogurt dip.

For the hot wings: 1 large head of cauliflower, washed and broken up into small florets olive oil spray (or about 4 teaspoons olive oil) 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon hot paprika 1⁄2 teaspoon salt Optional: 1⁄8-1⁄4 cup of Tabasco or red pepper sauce, like Frank’s Redhot Sauce Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Lightly spray the lined cooking sheet with olive oil.

Spread the florets on the cookie sheet and generously spray each floret with olive oil.

Combine dry ingredients and then sprinkle over the cauliflower.

Roast for 20-30 minutes.

Optional: Pour Frank’s Redhot wing sauce over the cooked cauliflower and let stand for 5 minutes Serve with Greek yogurt dip Greek Yogurt Dip: 8 ounces Greek plain nonfat yogurt 3 tablespoon light mayonnaise 2 tablespoon feta cheese crumbles

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DELI & S GEL

Photo by Carole Mantel

By Carole Mantel | Special to the Chronicle

Spice mix: 1⁄8 teaspoon ground black pepper 1⁄8 teaspoon garlic powder 1⁄8 teaspoon onion powder 1⁄8 teaspoon dried parsley flakes or chives 1⁄2 cup chopped green onion 1 teaspoon dill pickle “juice” from a pickle jar

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. And just think: If cauliflower can be rice, pizza crust and wings, you can be anything! PJC Carole Mantel is an independent health coach and home chef living in Pittsburgh.

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DECEMBER 31, 2021

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Life & Culture The best Jewish shows and movies of 2021 — CULTURE — Jarrad Saffren | Contributing Writer

F

rom the familiar (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”) to the obscure (“The Club”), from the educational (“Jerusalem”) to the absurd (“Big Mouth”), from the controversial (“My Unorthodox Life”) to the meh (“The Shrink Next Door”), it was an active year of Jewish-themed entertainment.

Here’s a comprehensive list of the best Jewish-themed shows and movies of 2021.

Shows

HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” In its 11th season and third decade (it started in 2000), “Curb” has taken on a timeless quality.

It doesn’t matter which cultural moment we’re living through in American life. Larry David’s perverse but incisive questioning of social conventions and moral codes is always hilarious and thought-provoking.

Netflix’s “The Club” Unless you’re an avid watcher of Jewish shows (my wife) or Turkish shows (my grandma), “The Club” won’t come up on your Netflix algorithm. But it’s worth trying to find.

The six-episode season has several good qualities, starting with its Jewish protagonists. Plus, who knew the Jews had such a long history in Turkey?

Netflix’s “Big Mouth” Streaming’s endless library offers wacky creators a lot of space to be their weirdest selves. That’s what “Big Mouth,” an animated coming-of-age sitcom, is for Jewish comedian Nick Kroll, its creator, writer and primary voice actor.

But at its best, “Big Mouth” also sheds light on the awkward, painful and utterly hilarious experience of going through puberty.

And season five this year offered a new twist: What happens when teenagers learn to hate

p Adrien Brody in HBO’s “Succession”

and resent each other?

Netflix’s “My Unorthodox Life” Love Julia Haart as an embodiment of female empowerment or hate her as a denigrator of Orthodox Judaism, you can’t deny that she has your attention.

Any nine-episode binge series that has two Wikipedia sections devoted to its critical reception is, at the very least, starting a conversation.

CNN’s “Jerusalem” Forget your preconceived political notions about CNN. After all, Fox News is known for having a good polling operation. These cable news channels can do some things right.

In CNN’s case, “Jerusalem” is one of them. It’s a great beginner’s history lesson

Photo courtesy of Macall Polay/HBO

about the holy city, as told by history professors/total nerds.

Adrien Brody’s guest appearance on HBO’s “Succession” Maybe you don’t watch “Succession.”

Well, you should, because it’s the best show on TV right now.

And once you’re caught up, you will enjoy this tense season three episode that features Brody, the greatest living Jewish actor, playing a Jewish investor who holds the balance of power of a WASP-y corporation in his hands.

The episode also touches on antisemitism in a subtle, nuanced and even multi-generational fashion. It was one of the better modern portrayals of that perpetual illness.

Movies

“Upheaval” Menachem Begin was a soldier in the Zionist movement, the founder of Israel’s conservative Likud party and, eventually, Israel’s sixth prime minister from 1977 to 1983. Described as a “terrorist” by the British government as a young man, Begin would grow up to preside over the Camp David Accords with Egypt.

In other words, Begin is a fascinating character. And this movie does him justice.

It’s lean, colorful and revealing. It also homes in on the theme that defined Begin’s life: Jews were not going to stand down anymore. They were going to fight.

“Tick, Tick… Boom!”

“Rent” playwright Jonathan Larson’s semi-autobiographical story got the Lin-Manuel Miranda treatment in this 2021 adaptation. It’s a dramatic story about the Jewish playwright’s struggle to make it, and his uncertainty about his career choice.

When those are the notes, Miranda is probably the guy to play the music. Larson himself died in 1996.

“Asia” This Israeli film focusing on a mother-daughter story stars Jewish actress Shira Haas of “Shtisel” and “Unorthodox” fame.

Haas plays the 17-year-old daughter, Vika, of a 35-year-old, Russian expat single mother, Asia, portrayed by Alena Yiv. While Asia works long hours to make ends meet, Vika starts hanging out with skaters, smoking weed and drinking. But over the course of the movie, they form a gradual bond.

Somehow, too, according to a July review in the Exponent, that bond was uplifting without being overly sentimental. PJC

p Julia Haart, the CEO of Elite World Group, stars in the reality show “My Unorthodox Life.” The show documents her life after leaving the Orthodox Jewish community.

Photo courtesy of Netflix

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PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Jarrad Saffren writes for the Jewish Exponent, an affiliated publication.

DECEMBER 31, 2021 17

Celebrations

Torah

Wedding

Everyone has a second chance Randy Frankel, Terri Greenberg, and Debbie Frankel are thrilled to announce the marriage of their son David Frankel to Jamie Mayer, daughter of Julie and Joel Mayer of Los Angeles, California. David and Jamie were married on Nov. 21, 2021, at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. They both graduated from the University of Michigan. David is employed by LinkedIn and Jamie works for ReviewTrackers. The newlyweds reside in Chicago, Illinois with their dog Frankie. PJC

Antisemitism: Continued from page 13

Feinstein said she was heartened by the acts of allyship and solidarity in both Etna and Highland Park.

“Anytime things like this happen, it can feel like a snowball rolling downhill,” Feinstein said. “Anytime a community says, ‘We’re not going to let this snowball roll down the hill,’ it can be very empowering.

It’s beautiful when you see people working diligently, tirelessly and collaboratively to try and figure out how to make those snowballs stop so that communities don’t feel unsafe.”

Feinstein also will participate in the Etna webinar. She said she is looking forward to providing whatever support the community needs.

Shawn Brokos, the director of community security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, said that community responses like those in Etna and Highland Park are important.

“It’s the community saying we are not going to let the reprehensible actions of some dictate who we are as a community, and we are going to stand together and be the eyes and ears for one another, which is really helpful,” she said.

Brokos said the reporting of hate crimes has gone up each year, due in part to community awareness. She noted that antisemitism tends to be the barometer for all other forms of hate, and that “if there is a rise in antisemitism, chances are you’re seeing a rise in other hate-related crimes.”

Lauren Apter Bairnsfather, executive director of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, agreed with Brokos, recalling events in Germany before and during World War II. “The Nazis targeted Jews, they were obsessed with what they did to Jews, but they took actions that were harmful to many minority groups,” Bairnsfather said. “There were instances when people objected to what the Nazis were doing and that made a difference and saved lives.”

She said the support demonstrated by community groups and leaders in Pittsburgh doesn’t surprise her.

“But it gives me so much hope,” she said.

“It gives me so much hope that we’re building something in our region that’s very special and something other cities can emulate.”

Laura Cherner, director of the Federation’s Community Relations Council, praised the responses of not only community groups, but those of borough managers as well.

“We can’t fight antisemitism ourselves, the Jewish community,” Cherner said. “It really is important that we have neighbors and allies supporting us. The support and drowning of 18 DECEMBER 31, 2021

p Etna has responded to a Nazi flag flying in its community in several different ways, including reprinting signs created by the Etna Community Organization in 2018.

Photo by Robert Tuñón

hate through action and love has been really heartwarming to see.”

A few days after the flag was hung, it was taken down and burned by a group called Pittsburgh Fash Watch. Cherner cautioned against such actions.

“It puts the Jewish community in an awkward position of having to say, ‘No, don’t burn a Nazi flag,’” she said before noting that violence is never the answer.

“That sense of vigilante justice is absolutely not where we want to go,” Brokos said.

“I understand why people want to react that way, but that’s not what we mean by community support because it just exacerbates the situation and you don’t know how that’s going to have an impact.”

Robert Tuñón said the progression from hate speech, like the flying of a Nazi flag in Etna, to vandalism, like that in Highland Park, to overt violence, like the massacre of Oct. 27, 2018, is obvious.

“We all live in the city of the Tree of Life,” he said. “The Tree of Life is specific to the Jewish people, but it affects us all as Pittsburghers. It feels so clear, how you go from hateful statements to real, real violence. I think Highland Park’s response, our response, is certainly tied to the Tree of Life,” he said. PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Rabbi Yisroel Altein Parshat Vaera | Exodus 6:2 – 9:35

T

his week’s Torah portion tells the story of the first seven of the 10 plagues. When G-d sends Moshe to warn Pharoah of the plagues, He says, “I will harden Pharoah’s heart.” This idea is repeated multiple times throughout the story.

The commentators question the fairness of the punishments since it was G-d who caused Pharoah’s heart to harden. In the words of Abraham, “Will the Judge of the entire earth not perform justice?”

The answer given by the commentators is that G-d’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart was part of the punishment. As G-d told Bilaam, “In the path that you want to walk, you will be led.”

Pharoah chose to act stubbornly when originally asked to let the Jews go, so G-d, in turn, responded, “You want to be stubborn? Now you will have no choice but to be stubborn.”

In the words of Maimonides in the Laws of Teshuva (6:3): “A person may commit a great sin or many sins causing the judgment rendered before the True Judge to be that the retribution [administered to] this transgressor for these sins which he willfully and consciously committed is that his Teshuvah will be held back. He will not be allowed the chance to repent from his wickedness … For these reasons, it is written in the Torah, ‘I will harden Pharaoh’s heart.’ Since, he began to sin on his own initiative and caused

Liver: Continued from page 4

That was a trying period, but it was preceded by an even more difficult situation, Finkelstein-Parker said. In 2005, she and her husband adopted their daughter Emmalee from an orphanage in Pune, India. Emmalee was 2-and-a-half years-old and weighed 14 pounds — but those 14 pounds were “the biggest ball of energy you’ve ever seen,” Finkelstein-Parker said.

During breakfast one day, when Emmalee was 7, her head started tilting down. Her chin began touching her chest and Emmalee slouched off the side of her chair. All of a sudden, using silverware was difficult and so was walking. Emmalee was evaluated, and, after a series of tests, diagnosed with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a deadly brain disorder that develops years after experiencing a measles infection.

Finkelstein-Parker didn’t understand what had happened. The dossier that she and her husband received upon adoption didn’t include any information about Emmalee having had the measles, yet the diagnosis indicated Emmalee must have had the infection as a baby.

Emmalee began a treatment protocol under the care of an SSPE expert in Ankara, Turkey, but the disease remained incurable.

Five months after Emmalee’s diagnosis, she began experiencing “terrible seizures,” her mother said, and after Emmalee lost her memory and went into a coma at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, they brought her

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

hardships to the Israelites who dwelled in his land as it states: ‘Come, let us deal wisely with them,’ judgment obligated that he be prevented from repenting so that he would suffer retribution. Therefore, The Holy One, blessed be He, hardened his heart.”

However, the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, in Tanya chapter 25 writes: “[Even a person who] is not given an opportunity to repent, means that such a sinner is not granted the auspicious occasion to repent. If, however, he has seized the opportunity himself and has repented, ‘Nothing can stand in the way of repentance.’”

If Pharoah had really wanted to atone for his sins, he could have worked really hard and repented!

This is a message to each of us. Regardless of our situation, we should never despair. If Pharoah had a choice to repent even after being told that he “lost his free choice,” then certainly we who possess a G-dly soul and remain “always faithful to G-d even when we sin” (Tanya, chapter 24) can better our ways.

This is even more important when viewing other people. Too often, we write off people because of something they have done or said. A lesson we can take from Pharoah is to recognize that everyone has the ability to better themselves; we must never give up on anyone. PJC Rabbi Yisroel Altein is the spiritual leader of Chabad of Squirrel Hill. This column is a service of Vaad Harabanim of Greater Pittsburgh. home for hospice care.

“She was home for five weeks, and then we lost her,” Finkelstein-Parker said.

Emmalee had just turned 8.

When someone becomes a parent, there are things you hope for and things you dread, Finkelstein-Parker said. This is the second time the family has received a “diagnosis that stops your heart.”

Their hope, she said, is that Djino will be able to receive a living-donor liver transplant. But in order for that to happen Djino must be approved by his medical team.

Finkelstein-Parker said that Djino’s oncologist is optimistic about the current cancer treatment.

Djino is scheduled for his next oncology infusions on Jan. 14, and an endoscopy and meeting with the liver specialist on Feb. 7.

Djino said he’s staying busy and trying to be a regular teen. He said he enjoys baking cookies — some with molasses, some with peanut butter — cooking vegetable soup and making omelets or eggs.

Something else helps pass the days: bird watching.

From a window in his home, Djino often searches for various orders and families. He likes species of all different sizes and was amazed when he first saw a hummingbird. It was cool, he said, but he hopes to see a goldfinch — a small brightly colored songbird believed to bring luck and good health.

Until then, Djino keeps waiting. PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

,

Obituaries DARLING: Sanford “Sandy” Darling, on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021.

Beloved husband of Carole Darling. Loving father of Susie (Jimmy) Cohen, Michelle Darling and the late Andrea Darling Stoff. Son of the late Jake and Mary Darling. Brother of Wilbert “Will” Darling and the late Esther Weingarden. Poppy to Andrea Cohen, Erica (Justin) Leffakis, Stephanie (Elijah) Shropshire and Jonathan (Taylor) Cohen, Micah, Samantha and Lev Shropshire, Jordyn and Lily Leffakis. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Poale Zedeck Memorial Park Cemetery.

Contributions may be made to Make-AWish Foundation, 707 Grant Street, #3700, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 or The Hemophilia Center of Western Pennsylvania, 3636 Boulevard of the Allies, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. schugar.com ESTNER: Seymour Estner, on Monday, Dec. 13, 2021. Beloved husband of the late Cynthia Estner; beloved father of the late Dr. Michael Estner of Florida, the late Dr. Stephen Estner of California and Anita Estner of California; beloved father-in-law of Fern Estner and Philip Andreini; beloved grandfather of Ben Glauser, Rebecca and Julia Estner, and Paul Andreini; also survived by sisters and brother, nieces and nephews. Graveside services and interment were held on Friday, Dec. 17, 2021, at the New Gemilas Chesed Cemetery in White Oak. Contributions may be made to Jewish Family and Community Services Pittsburgh (jfcspgh.org). Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com PERLMAN: Marla Joyce Perlman passed away Tuesday evening, Dec. 21, 2021, in Pittsburgh.

Marla is survived by her children Rabbi Jonathan (Beth Kissileff Perlman), Abigai l Perlman Hoffman (Alan Hoffman) and Susannah Perlman, as well as her siblings Marisa Grossman and Dr. Charles Siegel (Lori), as well as her grandchildren Tova Perlman, Joshua Hoffman, Yael Perlman, Sidra Hoffman and Ada Perlman. Graveside services and interment were held on Friday, Dec. 24, 2021, at 10:30 a.m. at Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York. The family is returning to Pittsburgh for the remainder of shiva on Sunday, Dec. 26, 2021. If you would like to make a contribution in memory of Marla Perlman, we ask that you either contribute to the Pennsylvania Democratic Committee or New Light Congregation and specify that you are donating in her memory. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com PARADISE: Jack Leon Paradise, 96, loving and devoted father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother and pediatrician, died peacefully at his home in Belmont, Massachusetts, on Dec. 20, 2021, surrounded by his family. Paradise was born in Butler, PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Pennsylvania, in 1925, to Bella (Goodman) and Samuel Paradise. At the age of 16, he entered Washington & Jefferson College, not far from home. Two years later, he entered Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and, after graduating at age 21, Paradise began the pediatric practice and clinical research that he continued almost to the end of his life. In May of this year, at the age of 95, he co-authored a paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine with a research team led by one of the many physician-researchers he mentored over the course of his storied career. In the early 1950s, Paradise, along with several other physicians, opened a coal miners’ clinic in a small industrial town in southeastern Ohio, on the Ohio River. The Bellaire Clinic was part of a system of clinics set up across the Appalachian coal fields, where miners and their families, after decades of underfunded, fragmentary, and inadequate medical care, had access to free, comprehensive health care paid for by the mineworkers’ union. In 1967, the clinic applied for and received a federal grant to establish the first non-urban Neighborhood Health Center in the nation, providing health care and related services to low-income families. In 1970, Paradise joined the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh Medical School as a professor of pediatrics and the medical director of the Ambulatory Care Center at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. There, for 35 years until his retirement in 2005, he conducted clinical research focused on determining the appropriate indications for tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy in children — surgeries that at the time were exceedingly prevalent but lacking an evidence base. His landmark research helped to promote the use of strict criteria for tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy and changed the trajectory of treatment for children worldwide. The nearly 80% drop in pediatric tonsillectomies in the United States between 1971 and 1996 has been largely attributed to Paradise’s work. Paradise was also a renowned expert in the study of otitis media, or middle ear infections, the most frequently occurring disease of childhood.

His large-scale research studies, which were marked by clarity and elegance of design, demonstrated that the widely held fear that persistent ear infections in young children caused later speech, language, cognitive, or psychosocial impairments was unfounded.

In a body of research conducted over a period of decades, Paradise showed that, for children up to 3 years old, ear disease does not cause any developmental problems, and that delay in the insertion of tympanostomy tubes into children’s ears has no effect on their performance on language and speech tests. In subsequent studies, Paradise expanded this research to groups of older children, with similar findings. Paradise was a researcher at heart even from the earliest days of his medical career. As a post-doctoral trainee, he conducted an innovative study that served to effectively discredit the then-prevailing notion that infantile colic was a reflection in the baby of the mother’s tension, hostility toward her baby, or rejection of her maternal role. Results of that widely cited study have helped to spare countless mothers unnecessary guilt and

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David & Susan Rosenberg . . . . . . . . . . .Jacob Rosenberg

Mrs. Rachel Leff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . James Leff

The Love and Rutman Families . Charlotte Cohen Love

Rushie Leff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . James Leff

Andrea & Martin Sattler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Spokane

Michael & Anne Levin . . . . . . . . . Gertrude Shakespeare

Gertrude W. Supowitz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Albert J. Supowitz

Kenneth & Barbara Love. . . . . . . . Charlotte Cohen Love

Louis M. Supowitz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Albert J. Supowitz

Janice Mankin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mamie and Mark Levine

Linda & Martin L. Supowitz . . . . . . . . . Albert J. Supowitz

THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS —

Sunday January 2: Blanche Stein Banov, Matilda Barnett, Irene Bloom, Florence Ravick Fishkin, Goldie Friedman, Herman Friedman, Harry B. Harris, Jennie Hoffman, Albert Lebovitz, James Leff, Mathilda Lindner, Ilene Grossman Mattock, Bernard Peris, Leah Rosenfeld, Beatrice Rita Weil Ruben, Esther Sadowsky, Anna L. Saville, Max Schlessinger, Gertrude Shakespeare, William Solomon, William Spokane, Morton Stein, Rose Wedner, Mary Sulkes Wolk Monday January 3: Sylvia S. Berger, Frances Levenson Carey, Ruth H. Cohen, Fanny Eisenfeld, Harry T. Feinberg, Nochim Gelman, Philip Goldblum, Samuel E. Klein, Norma Marks Klein, Samuel Levine, Estelle E. Martin, Jacob Alex Miller, Harold J. Pasekoff, Dr. George Raffel, Anna Shapiro, Sophie Shapiro, Anna Sigesmund, Chaim Silberblatt, Yetta Singer, Henry Solomon, Elder H. Stein, Albert J. Supowitz, Rose Tabor, Louis Tenenouser, John D. Whiteman, Goldie H. Zacks Tuesday January 4: Isabelle Pitler Backer, Mollie Beck, Samuel Darling, Sidney H. Green, Florence Hiedovitz, Paul Ibe, Max M. Jacobson, Edward L. Kimball, Fannie Klein, Rose Klein, Regina Kossman, Geraldine Lerner, Blanche L. Schwartz, Bernice Semins, Russell Tanur Wednesday January 5: Samuel Baem, Harry N. Bailiss, Sara T. Davidson, George J. Fairman, Joseph Gray, Dr. John J. Horwtiz, Sara R. Jacobson, Sam Kaufman, Max Kweller, Fannie Kwalwasser Lazar, Morris Levy, Harry Meyer, Mary Myers, Lt. Louis Newman, Harry Pretter, Mollie Samuel, Florence Stone, Pauline Strauss, Jennie Walk, Victoria Zimmer Thursday January 6: Gertrude Berenfield, Nathan Bilder, Paul Carpe, Joel David Cohen, Lillian Cook, Minnie Farber, Morris Fleshman, Samuel J Frankel, Paul Freedman, Jennie Glick, Sanford K. Greenberg, Lipa Haimovitz, Edward Hertz, Anna Harr Krause, Harry Lautman, Madylene Platt, Dorothy Rosenthal, Dr.Eugene J. Schachter, Gertrude Silberman, Jacob W. Simon, Alvin Weinberger, Esther Pakler Weiss Friday January 7: Irving E. Cohen, Nettie Galanty, Phillip Harris, Edith Lazear, Rheba Markley, E.Harry Mazervo, Oscar Robbins, Rebecca Rosenfeld, Gertrude Schugar, Pauline Silberblatt, Abraham Ulanoff Saturday January 8: Rebecca Broudy, Rubin Davidson, Leonard A Fleegler, Raymond Goldstein, Jacob Graff, William Randall Greene, Anna Grossman, Sarah Haimovitz, Tina Kaminsky, Anna Kart, Rose Klein, Betty Kuperstock, Anne Bilder Mallinger, Joseph Cliff Ruben, Ida Seminofsky, Jack C. Siegel, Al W. Wolf, Rose Blattner Zionts

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Obituaries Obituaries: Continued from page 19

anxiety. Overall, Paradise’s body of work shed light on broad areas of primary care for children that had previously been clouded by uncertainty and controversy and characterized by conflicting and often divergent practices. His research materially influenced pediatric primary care in ways that led to important improvements in health care for children. In 1994, Paradise was awarded the Research Award of the Ambulatory Pediatric Association. In 1999, he was named Pennsylvania Pediatrician of the Year. The award recognized him for many attributes and contributions, in particular, for epitomizing the role of clinician-teacher, for the combination of his seriousness and the wonderful twinkle in his eye, and for teaching his colleagues how to question received wisdom and to probe for new answers to old problems. In 2000, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh established the Jack L. Paradise, MD Endowed Chair in Pediatric Research. Paradise was a committed social activist since his medical school days. He was especially active in Physicians for Social Responsibility and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985.

Paradise’s engagement in world affairs and humanitarian concerns lasted throughout his life. Above all, Paradise was known for his kindness, decency, sense of humor, loud plaids, late-night work, indefatigable rewriting, friendship, compassion and big heart. In the last few months of his life, colleagues from Pittsburgh, many of whom remained treasured friends, visited him in Belmont, Massachusetts, to spend time, reminisce and laugh with their friend one last time. As profound a source of meaning and purpose as his work was to him, his family was his greatest joy. No need of theirs

was too small for his attention, and his close relationships with them delighted and sustained him. Paradise had four children from his first marriage, Jan (deceased) (Gary Fleisher), Daniel (deceased), Julia (Emanuel Thorne), and Emily (Arn Franzen). He was a devoted and loving husband to his late wife, Mary Paradise. He is survived by his sister, Judith Hirst; six grandchildren, Daniel, Madeline and Carl Fleisher, Miriam and Daniel Thorne, and Elias Franzen; seven great-grandchildren, Isaac, Gabriel, and Noah Fleisher, Jane and Henry McKenzie, and Charlotte and Bennet Fleisher; and his longtime companion, Marjie Cahn.

A private interment took place at West View Cemetery, in Pittsburgh. A memorial service is planned for a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family encourages donations to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.

ROSENBAUM: Dr. Malcolm Kauffman Rosenbaum, 94, of Granada Hills, California, formerly of Wa s h i n g t o n , Pennsylvania, died Monday, Dec. 20, 2021, in the Encino Hospital, Los Angeles, just shy of his 95th birthday on January 15. He was born January 15, 1927, in Altoona, Pennsylvania, a son of the late Milton and Lillian Kauffman Rosenbaum, and nephew of Sylvia Kauffman. His grandfather, Joseph Kauffman, was one of the founders of Beth Israel Synagogue in Washington in 1891 where Dr. Rosenbaum had his bar mitzvah in 1940. Growing up in Washington, Pennsylvania, Dr. Rosenbaum graduated from Washington High School and Washington and Jefferson College.

He joined the U.S. Navy as a corpsman during WWII before matriculating at the

University of Virginia Medical School.

After graduating the University of Virginia, Dr. Rosenbaum moved to Los Angeles where he did his residency at VA hospital.

Meeting his wife at the time, Esther Lee, Malcolm stayed in Los Angeles where he practiced medicine for 45 years. A distinguished physician, Dr. Rosenbaum was the chief of staff of Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys, California, in 1978. He also served on the faculty of UCLA Medical School as an adjunct professor. In 2000, Dr. Rosenbaum retired and spent the next 10 to 15 years traveling with his companion Virginia Bass. In addition to practicing medicine, Dr. Rosenbaum was very active in many progressive and social justice causes. In the spirit of the Jewish tradition of tikkun olam, Dr. Rosenbaum’s mission on earth was to improve the world, whether it was volunteering his time as a physician or financially contributing to progressive causes. He also had many hobbies. He was a great athlete, playing tennis, golf, swimming, jogging, biking and even hitting 70-mile-an-hour fast balls at a batting cage at the age of 72! As a self-admitted “liberal” he loved to follow politics and through his life remained an avid fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Pirates even though he moved to L.A. in 1955. Surviving are two sons, Jeff Rosenbaum (spouse Sheliya Rosenbaum and son Ryan) from Santa Barbara, California, and Craig Rosenbaum (spouse Barbara Vogel and daughter Leah) of Chicago, Illinois. Although Dr. Rosenbaum moved to Los Angeles more than 65 years ago, his heart and soul has always been in Washington, Pennsylvania.

His wish was to have his final resting place in Washington, Pennsylvania. Services were held at 10 a.m. on Friday, December 24, 2021, in the Piatt and Barnhill Funeral Home, 420 Locust Avenue, Washington, with Rabbi David Novitsky officiating.

Interment followed in Beth Israel Cemetery,

Washington. Donations can be accepted in Dr. Rosenbaum’s memory to Washington and Jefferson College. Online condolences may be expressed at piattandbarnhillfh. com. Piatt and Barnhill Funeral Directors, Inc., Charles R. Piatt, owner/supervisor and Andrew C. Piatt, director.

WOLFSON: Joan Colter Wolfson died on Dec. 20, 2021, at 4 p.m. She was born to Irving and Anna Colter in Brooklyn on April 8, 1934; attended P.S. 219, Winthrop Jr. High School, and James Madison High, and then left Brooklyn for Brandeis. On June 4, 1955, she married the love of her life, Jerry Wolfson, whom she had met at Camp Boiberik in New York. Their 62 years together until his death in 2017 were full of love — love for her and love she shared with others. Love especially for her family, most important to her. She is survived by her four children and their spouses: Evan (Cheng He), Alison (Patti Perhacs), David (Nancy Roush Wolfson), and Michael; and by her beloved grandchildren (Emily, Ben and Sharmaine, Charlie, and Simon). After raising the kids, Joan earned her MSW at the University of Pittsburgh, then for many years served children, families, and the community at Craig House.

Joan built a life and a home full of friends, music and celebrations, enjoyed travel and conversation, and was always good for a hug, even as in her last years Alzheimer’s robbed her of much of what made her her. She is already missed. Because of the continuing COVID-19 risks, the funeral and shiva will be family-only. Donations may be made to the Jewish Association on Aging in Joan’s name (jaapgh.org/donate). Zei gezunt, Mom. We love you. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated. schugar.com PJC

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Community Be cool, skate in school Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh students in grades 2-12 enjoyed some winter fun on their annual ice skating trip.

Wechsler Fellowship: Building Pittsburgh’s Next Jewish Leaders Members of The Wechsler Fellowship: Building Pittsburgh’s Next Jewish Leaders, an initiative funded in Pittsburgh by the Irving J. and Jacquelin G. Wechsler Endowment Fund of the Federation’s Jewish Community Foundation met on Dec. 15.

p From left: Shmuel Kanal, Caleb Knoll, Coby Shaw, Rami Shaw, Akiva Camp, Azi Knoll and Dov Gelman Photo courtesy of Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh

Cooking up a good time at Temple Sinai Meet ‘n’ Eat Cooking Class sponsored by Women of Temple Sinai met on Dec. 13. Guest instructor Elizabeth Collura taught “Winter Root Vegetables: Foods our Eastern European ancestors might have eaten.”

p Faith Farkas, Perry Erlichman and Stephanie Libbon learn about the process of overseas funding in a mock session at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

Photo courtesy of Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh

p Jan Barkley and Tanya Bass

p Ellen Katzen and Elizabeth Collura

22 DECEMBER 31, 2021

Photos by Elizabeth Collura

p Carolyn and Frank Schwarz

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Community Mitzvah Day 300 volunteers joined the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh during its 21st annual Mitzvah Day on Dec. 26. Under the leadership of 2021 Mitzvah Day Chairs Linda and

Jimmy Joshowitz, along with Jill Joshowitz and Yoni Zisook, volunteers participated at more than 30 locations throughout Greater Pittsburgh. At all Mitzvah Day sites, the support of UPMC Health Plan and Giant Eagle helped make the work possible.

p Mitzvah Day volunteers gather for a quick photo break.

p Volunteers in Braddock paint Za’kiyah House, a center that addresses recovery and homelessness.

p At the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh in South Hills, participants create encouraging messages for people in need.

p Volunteers help Family House–Shadyside and the organization’s efforts to aid families coping with the hospitalization of a family member.

p Brian McElwain is joined by a Vitalant clinical staff member during a life-giving blood donation in the South Hills.

p Point Breeze resident Jeremy Kahn donates blood at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill.

Photo by Jim Busis

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p Volunteers prepare meals that will be frozen and later distributed by staff at Mainstay Life Services in Scott Township.

Photos by Joshua Franzos

p Mitzvah Day volunteers help neighbors by creating bags of personal care items for Global Links, which strengthens health systems in need in the Western Hemisphere.

p Residents of Weinberg Village of the Jewish Association on Aging in Squirrel Hill enjoy a game of bingo during Mitzvah Day.

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DECEMBER 31, 2021 23

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