Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 10-2-26

October 2, 2026 | 21 Tishrei 5787

Candlelighting 6:42 p.m. | Havdalah 7:39 p.m. | Vol. 69, No. 40 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Conversation and compassion

Jewish professor files EEOC complaint against Duquesne University, charging discrimination

Friendship Circle’s new teen initiative

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T or oppose discrimination and harassment. Beginning in October 2023, Kranjec, a tenured professor who has taught at the university since 2011, reported anti-Jewish discrimination and harassment within the psychology department, including departmentwide communications and social media posts that, he alleges, invoked antiJewish stereotypes, celebrated or excused violence against Israelis and targeted him by name. In October 2024, Kranjec told department leadership that graduate students had posted antisemitic and anti-Israel content on social media, including one student’s posts supporting the terrorist group Hamas. In response to his objections in the department, Kranjec said he was reported to the university EthicsPoint reporting system and accused of bullying by a graduate student. According to the EEOC complaint, Kranjec continued to alert the department about antisemitic activity. He also notified Kristine Blair, dean of liberal arts, that planned antisemitism training in December 2025 would mostly likely fail to address the

he Pittsburgh Jewish Book Festival is returning to Congregation Beth Shalom Oct. 18-25, bringing authors and readers together for its third year with a focus on books, conversation and civil discourse. Festival director and Congregation Beth Shalom Derekh Program Coordinator Shari Woldenberg touted this year’s program, crediting both the authors and co-sponsors with delivering much needed opportunities for learning. During these “polarizing times,” it’s important to hear from people who can promote thoughtful public conversation, she said. “This is something that we’re passionate about.” The festival begins Oct. 18 at 11 a.m. with a book sale, hosted by Amazing Books and Records in the Palkovitz Library at Beth Shalom, and local author talks by Hazzan Barbara Barnett and Dr. Jonathan Weinkle. Hours later, at 7:45 p.m., festivalgoers can relish an address from celebrated writer Joan Nathan. Author of “My Life in Recipes: Food, Family, and Memories: A Cookbook,” Nathan is a “matriarch of Jewish cooking,” and will appeal to multiple attendees, Woldenberg said. Nathan’s address is co-sponsored by the Heinz History Center’s Rauh Jewish Archives and Beth Shalom Sisterhood. The following evening, Anita Wyzanski Robboy, author of “A Force for Good,” will discuss how in the face of Holocaust horrors Robboy’s mother, Gisela Warburg Wyzanski, partnered with Henrietta Szold and Chaim Weizmann to rescue thousands

Please see Duquesne, page 10

Please see Books, page 10

Political strategist Joel Rubin weighs in

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LOCAL

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Pittsburgh native, celebrated author

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HOLIDAYS Wine education

A Simchat Torah primer

p Alexander Kranjec By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer

Meet E.G. Silverman

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Pittsburgh Jewish Book Festival returns with aim to educate and entertain By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer

LOCAL

The future of the Democratic Party

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Jewish Duquesne University psychology associate professor has filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against the university, alleging that he was subjected to a hostile work environment, discrimination and retaliation — violations of Title VII, a 1964 federal law that prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. The complaint was filed Sept. 11 by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law on behalf of Alexander Kranjec. It urges the EEOC to investigate allegations of antisemitic harassment aimed at Kranjec that he says created a hostile work environment. The complaint alleges that when Kranjec reported the conduct, he faced retaliation affecting his teaching responsibilities and professional standing. The behavior, according to the complaint, violates not only Title VII but Duquesne University’s own anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation policies, which prohibit workplace discrimination based on religion, and retaliation against employees who report

Photo courtesy of Alexander Kranjec

Background: vetre, & Text: Marina/Adobe Stock

Headlines Friendship Circle’s ‘Let’s Talk About It’ series encourages conversation and understanding — LOCAL— Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer

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program predicated on communication should prompt plenty of thought. “Let’s Talk About It,” a three-part series hosted by The Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh kicked off Sept. 23 with a conversation between teens, parents and local medical experts. Geared toward explaining the “teen brain,” risky behavior and “how parents can respond,” the evening affair was guided by Aiden Drucker, 18. The Fox Chapel High School senior told the Chronicle he and fellow Friendship Circle teen leaders organized the chats as opportunities for dialogue and learning among parties of all ages. Thanks to prepared questions, and inquiries submitted by teens and parents in attendance, Aiden and Talia Akiva, Teen Programming and Operations Manager at The Beacon — a teen wellness center operated by the Friendship Circle — spent more than an hour conversing with local experts about neuroscience and healthy choices. Dr. Laura Voigt, a UPMC pediatrician, explained that in the past 30 years much has been learned about adolescence and the brain’s development. Textbooks from the early 1900s often negatively described puberty and relegated young adults’ choices to “hormones.” Instead, during adolescence, a young person’s brain is actually “remodeling,” Voigt said. During this stage of life, teens are “biologically programmed to go out there and go beyond the family unit and take risks and learn,” she continued. Although adults often deem adolescents incapable of appreciating risk, teens actually understand risk; they just measure risk and reward differently. The calculation is “what puts them at risk for things that could hurt them.” As adults, it’s important to not necessarily impede a child’s every move, she continued. The better approach is to routinely talk about safe choices and how best to “support our kids to do those things that make them grow

p Chayim Massart introduces panelists during “Let’s Talk About It” on Sept. 23 at The Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh. Photo by Adam Reinherz

up, and be adults, and be on their own, and take those risks.” Dr. Gabriel Cisneros, a fellow UPMC pediatrician and medical director of UPMC Children’s Express Care in Lawrenceville and co-chair of the Pennsylvania American Academy of Pediatrics Advocacy Committee, said teens often “get a bad rap” for their attitudes and actions. Best practices involve trying to understand where young adults are coming from, demonstrating acceptance and patience, and helping adolescents “move safely” through their earlier years. For teens, life isn’t only black and white, he continued. “Give them space to process and be there to help them see it more colorfully. They’ll get it. It’s something that comes with age and time.” Still, every choice isn’t similar. The physicians mentioned that during patient check-ups they ask about substance abuse, sexual activity, access to firearms and mental health. Delving into those topics yields discussion on “how can we minimize those risks,” Cisneros said. Rachel Usdan, co-founder and COO of Peace for DC, a nonprofit focused on public safety solutions to gun violence and a Pittsburgh leader with Moms Demand Action, cited

numerous statistics regarding gun violence, including data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States. School shootings capture significant attention; but among gun-related deaths affecting young adults, school shootings represent merely a “sliver,” she said. Most gun-related deaths are a result of homicide, suicide and unintentional firearm use. It’s important for parents to tell their children that whatever “crisis” is occurring, “they can come to someone, they can come talk with you.” Struggling is a normal emotional experience, “but the thing to understand about guns is their lethality,” she continued. There’s no second chance “if you change your mind, so it’s very important to try to keep guns out of the hands of someone who is in a crisis, who may be at risk of harming themselves or others. And that’s why safe gun storage is so important.” During her comments, Usdan displayed a red-looped tool that prevents a trigger from firing. Similar gun locks were made available to attendees at a table near the Friendship Circle’s entrance. Chayim Massart, 17, an Allderdice student and Friendship Circle Teen Leader who helped organize the series, said he hopes community members attend the next two installments.

p Chayim Massart introduces panelists during “Let’s Talk About It” on Sept. 23 at The Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh.

Photo by Adam Reinherz

“Drugs Today: Facts, Safety and Conversations that Matter” will occur on Oct. 21. “Social Media, Body Image and Building Healthy Identity: Scroll, Compare, Repeat?” will be held on Dec. 1. Both programs will be led by teens and local experts. Each session has “a lot of meaning,” Chayim said. “None of these can all be done in one night. They have to be spread out.” Whereas many previous Friendship Circle programs have been primarily for “parents or just for teens,” this series bridges the gap and offers new perspectives, Akiva said. “Adults don’t know what it’s like to be a teen right now. Teens don’t know what it’s like to be a parent.” Kaitlin Hens-Greco, Clinical Director of The Friendship Circle, praised the teen organizers, panelists and community members for recognizing the value of difficult conversation. “Bringing teens and parents into the same room to talk about gun safety, substance use or how to navigate peer pressure is brave,” she said. “It gives young people and adults the opportunity to hear each other, get good information and figure out how we can support one another.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Political strategist Joel Rubin says Democrats must address antisemitism, Israel tensions — LOCAL — By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer

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quirrel Hill native Joel Rubin — a J Street founder whose extensive political resume includes working on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign — is concerned by the alignment of some of his fellow Democrats with candidates espousing antisemitism and maligning Israel. In July, he opined to Jewish Insider that the wave of Democratic politicians’ support for anti-Israel candidates — notably former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner — would ultimately harm the Democratic Party. He specifically criticized his former boss. “I think what Sanders and the Sanders operation have done is shove into our system the most categorically anti-Israel, antisemitic candidates that we’ve seen in a generation — if ever, certainly within the Democratic Party — and it’s by design,” Rubin told Jewish Insider. “It’s not by accident, and it’s very disruptive intentionally. The goal is to undermine Democratic unity and even rationality on Israel at this stage.” Rubin was back in his hometown last week to speak at an event sponsored by the Democratic Jewish Outreach of Pennsylvania, a group that provides support for politicians and candidates, engaging them on a variety of Jewish positions. After the event, the Steel City native told the Chronicle that “as a Squirrel Hill kid, I just couldn’t for the life of me contemplate that Sanders would endorse someone who had Nazi tattoos on his chest and seemed to think nothing of it. It was a violation of my morals as a Jew and as a Democrat that I’ve been fighting for, certainly for the last decade. I don’t separate Jewish and Democratic at the moment, because our values are aligned, but the values that Graham Platner espoused with his Nazi tattoo are not my values.” Rubin said he considers himself part of the Jewish community that’s willing to “see the nuance of what it means to be an American Jew, who cares about Israel and is willing to work with this nuance to keep the party on track.” “I believe there’s a battle underway,” he said. “I’m not feeling like there’s no home here (in the Democratic Party), but I understand that people of goodwill, if we don’t say anything, there will be no home. The party needs to stand for liberal values, the diversity of its coalitions, human rights and ethics. We need Jewish support. That’s why I’m speaking out.” Rubin first felt the tug of public service as a child. “As a kid growing up, I read the paper tracking what was going on in national political conversation, spent some summers in Israel and traveling, got exposed to international affairs and the fact that the United States is just one place in the world, not the only place,” he recalled. Rubin attended high school at Shady Side Academy before majoring in political science with a concentration on Near Eastern and Middle East affairs from Brandeis University. After graduation, he spent time in Costa Rica with the Peace Corps as a teacher in environmental education. He had a revelation, he recalled, while serving in the Central American country. PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

p Joel Rubin

Photo courtesy of Joel Rubin

“I was working in a rural village doing environmental education and I remember thinking that the textbook was for an urban student body, but I was in the countryside. I thought, ‘My God, how do people in the capital make decisions for people all the way out here?’ A light bulb went on, and I said, ‘I want be in the capital.’ It was that experience that made me want to find a way to work in our capital.” His time with the Peace Corps, he said, taught him the importance of representing his country, coming up with strategies and organization, and the value of engaging local leaders, activists and organizers, which, he said, are “really powerful political skills.” When he returned to the States, Rubin first attended graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University. After finishing his studies, he went to work in the Energy Department as a presidential management fellow as part of the administration of George W. Bush. Working in a Republican administration wasn’t an issue for Rubin, who said the role was non-political. Al-Qaeda’s terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001, paved the way for Rubin’s next transition. “I was giving a speech outside of the Pentagon on Sept. 11 and was impacted by that immensely,” he remembered. “Seeing the terrorists come here and hit us, I felt like — as someone who’d lived in Israel and studied the Middle East extensively — that it was time for me to work in that space.” Rubin moved to the State Department and worked there nearly five years before heading to Capitol Hill. “I felt that what I needed to do was transition to have a career where I could be involved in the decision-making and policy arguments rather than purely on the execution of those policy decisions, which is what I had been doing,” he said. While on the Hill, Rubin served as a senior aide to Sen. Tom Harkin and Sen. Frank Lautenberg. He spent the next six years working in the nonprofit and political advocacy sphere. He was the founding political director of J Street and worked on Middle East issues for the Ploughshares Fund, the largest U.S. philanthropic foundation dedicated to preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. The siren song of politics was still ringing in Rubin’s ears, however, luring him back as a political appointee in the State Department

under Barack Obama’s administration, where he served as deputy assistant secretary of state for House Affairs. Rubin eventually ran for the House seat in Maryland’s 8th District, but lost to Jamie Raskin. The loss did nothing to deter Rubin’s mission of public service. He founded the Washington Strategy Group, was elected to local office three times — including serving on the town council of Chevy Chase, Maryland, and as its vice mayor — was a visiting fellow at the Heinz College program in Washington D.C., was the executive director of the American Jewish Congress and was a founding board member of the Democratic Council of America. Although he has been vocal in his criticism, Rubin still finds plenty in the Democratic party to align with, including its history of fighting for civil rights. But he thinks the party may be on the precipice of losing Jewish American support. “The leaders in this party understand there’s a problem,” he said, “that this is a challenge they have to address and deal with.” Still, he said, party leadership has been surprised at the ferocity of its base and the intensity of its shift. Asked about U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, who has shifted to the left on Israel — supporting bills like the Ceasefire Compliance Act of 2026 and

the Block the Bombs Act, seeking to limit the United States supplying arms to the Jewish state — Rubin said it’s important to keep lines of communications open. “He isn’t someone who is not be spoken to; instead explain to him what the problems are,” he said. The question, he said, is, will Democrats like Deluzio be willing to listen to Jews who are not comfortable with where the party seems to be headed Rubin isn’t one to shy away from uncomfortable conversations or to refrain from speaking to the values he holds and believes the Democrat party is built on. It’s the subject of his new book, “Saving Democratic Foreign Policy: How Democrats Can Earn the American People’s Trust to Lead the World Once Again.” Rubin said he’s concerned about the party’s willingness to accept diversity, especially after the anti-Israel attacks on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro when he was considered as a running mate for Kamala Harris in the last presidential election. That doesn’t mean he’s given up hope, though. “The battle is right now,” he said. “The core question for the Democratic party is going to be Jewish participation. I think that’s being defined now.” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines On the ground with the Daughters of Israel — HISTORY — By Eric Lidji | Special to the Chronicle

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n a clear, humid day this summer, I visited the First Podolier Independent Society cemetery in Reserve Township, hoping to find traces of a short-lived and long-forgotten group called the Daughters of Israel Cemetery Association. According to several sources, the Daughters of Israel held permanent rights to a 16-by-100-foot section of the cemetery. The section had 25 plots with four burials between 1922 and 1931. A private road passes in front of the cemetery for a few hundred feet. A caretaker’s house stands at the start of the road, followed by an unused “ohel” from the First Podolier Independent Society cemetery. A stone marker above the door honors the donors who underwrote construction of this small cemetery chapel in 1923. I descended down some old concrete steps. Sunbaked moss crunched under my shoes, and mosquitos buzzed in my ears. I was looking for any small section set apart from the others, but every promising candidate had some disqualifying detail. Either the dates were wrong, or the names didn’t match, or there were too many graves, or too few. I continued toward a clearing. It took me a moment to realize I had crossed into a different parcel of land. It turns out I had

p A year before it was legally incorporated, First Podolier Independent Society built a small “ohel” in front of an existing cemetery in Reserve Township.

Photo by Eric Lidji

been wandering around the wrong cemetery. Kether Torah Congregation started in 1907 as “Anshe Volynia,” a landsmanshaft for immigrants from the Volynia province of Ukraine. The group lifted its regional requirement around 1914 and renamed itself Kaiser Torah, meaning “Crown of Torah.” A few years later, in May 1916, Kaiser Torah acquired 2.756 acres in Reserve

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Township from August Hoffman for $3,200. At the time, the land already had at least eight Jewish burials at its eastern edge. All eight were children under the age of 6. This is not uncommon at local Jewish cemeteries and might indicate some sort of private deal made between families of the recently deceased and an accommodating landowner. In the summer of 1917, Kaiser Torah sold 0.6295 acres to the Daughters of Israel Cemetery Association for $900. Today, a line of trees separates the two cemeteries. The Daughters of Israel had obtained a charter a few months earlier with plans to start a cemetery. Almost all of its 25 charter members were Jewish women from the Hill District with Romanian origins. There was one woman from Squirrel Hill and one man. By the summer of 1917, the large Romanian Jewish population of the Hill District was divided between Oir Chudesh and Cneses Yisroel. Each had a synagogue and cemetery property. If the Daughters of Israel wanted to provide burials for the Romanian community, why not just use one of these existing burial grounds? If it wanted to provide burial for any Jew regardless of national origins, why not use the Chesed Shel Emes cemetery, which was created explicitly for families who could not afford burial costs? Even odder, the Daughters of Israel did not bury anyone in its first four years owning the cemetery, at least not according to the dates on the legible graves. And the first burials were members of a different group, the First Podolier Independent Society. Once I was properly oriented, I resumed my investigation. The First Podolier Independent Society cemetery sits on a hillside. I marched up and down its steps looking for some small, set-apart section of graves. My thighs ached, and my shirt grew damp. I sat down on the steps to rest. On my phone, I pulled up the 1932 agreement between the First Podolier Independent Society and the Daughters of Israel Cemetery Association. It described a “piece of ground being 16 feet in width by 100 feet in length and containing 25 burial lots, of which four burial lots have already been occupied.” I was about to leave when something caught my eye. Toward the bottom of the hill, a few mounds of dirt hugged the edge of a clearing. I wandered over. They weren’t mounds. They were graves, covered in the same sunbaked moss covering the steps. Standing at the edge of the cemetery, before

the four unmarked graves, I felt certain I had found the remains of the Daughters of Israel cemetery. There was even a line of three stone markers separating these graves from all the others. I rushed back to my car for a tape measure. Standing at one end of the four graves, I lay the tape measure on the ground. It measured exactly 16 feet. The entire cemetery is 100 feet wide. All the details matched, and yet, I was wrong. Charles and Ethel Finesman oversaw the First Podolier Independent Society cemetery for years and were buried there. Then it passed to their daughter and son-in-law Evelyn and Macy Levine, who were also buried there. Responsibility went to their son Paul. Since 2023, the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association has managed the grounds. When I was sharing all my research with Paul Levine the other day, he remembered that he still had an old map of the cemetery. It was created in 1934, a few years after the First Podolier Independent Society resolved its issues with the Daughters of Israel. The map marked 12 sections, each filled with rows of roughly uniform plots. The map showed the unmarked graves I had found. And then, on the other side of the cemetery, along the boundary with the old Kether Torah cemetery, was a strip labeled “Daughters of Israel.” Instead of 25 plots with four burials, it listed 52 plots with three burials — a husband, his wife and his sisterin-law, buried between 1927 and 1930. In talking with Paul Levine, he presented a new mystery. According to family lore, he said, the First Podolier Independent Society had to acquire its cemetery through a judge because the original landowner refused to sell the property to Jews. This didn’t make sense, since the organization had purchased the property directly from fellow Jews. And so, hoping to make sense of it all, I trekked back downtown to the County Records Office to try and get a better understanding the history of the property. NOTE: This is the second of a three-part series. In the final part, we unravel the complex sequence of events leading to the creation of the Podolier cemetery. PJC Eric Lidji is the director of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center and can be reached at rjarchives@heinzhistorycenter. org or 412-454-6406.

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OCTOBER 2, 2026

p What looked from a distance like several innocuous mounds of dirt were actually unmarked graves, set apart from the rest of the cemetery. Photo by Eric Lidji

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The Community Relations Council: A Voice for the Jewish Community, A Bridge to All. By David Knoll | Associate Vice President, Public Affairs

Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh

When athletic directors understand Jewish traditions and the experiences of Jewish students, they can create teams where every student belongs. That work doesn’t end when the conference does. It continues all year long, in schools across our region.

From left: Athletic directors, Beth Vander Stoep, Assistant Director of Community Relations Council, Chaim Galbut, Duquesne athlete and David Knoll, Associate Vice President of Public Affairs.

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or a Jewish student-athlete, a new season brings the same things it brings every teammate: early practices, long bus rides and the thrill of a close game. But it can also bring moments that coaches and athletic directors aren’t always prepared for, like a game scheduled on a major holiday, a team meal planned without dietary needs in mind or a comment in the locker room that crosses a line. That’s why on September 9, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations Council (CRC) hosted its first conference for public and private high school athletic directors, Building Inclusive Athletic Spaces: Understanding the Jewish Community. Athletic leaders came away with practical tools for supporting Jewish students and creating more inclusive team environments. Participants learned about Jewish identity and traditions, addressed common misconceptions and worked through real-world scenarios and best practices they can bring back to their schools.

The program brought together a range of perspectives: Rabbi Larry Freedman; Federation’s Deputy Director of Community Security, Eric Kroll; Carly Gammill, Director of Legal Policy & Litigation at StandWithUs; and Chaim Galbut, a Division I men’s basketball player at Duquesne University, who offered the view of a Jewish athlete competing at the highest level of college sports. But the conference is only one part of work that never really stops. All year long, the CRC works to combat antisemitism in K-12 schools and our universities, building greater understanding of the Jewish community and helping educators and school leaders recognize the experiences of Jewish students and respond when problems arise. We do this work because when athletic leaders understand the experiences of Jewish students, they can help make sure every student has a place on the team. Our students can step onto the field, the court or the track and simply compete, celebrating wins, learning from losses and belonging, without having to choose between their team and who they are.

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OCTOBER 2, 2026

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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. q SUNDAYS, OCT. 4–DEC. 20 Join Chabad of Squirrel Hill for its Men’s Tefillin Club. Services and tefillin are followed by a delicious breakfast and engaging discussions on current events. 8:30 a.m. 1700 Beechwood Blvd. chabadpgh.com

features the work of Zusza Merenyi, Maria Turan Hacker, Edit Ban Kiss and Agnes Lukacs — four Jewish Hungarian women who used visual art to testify to their experiences under Nazism. 5:15 p.m. Free. Rachel Mellon Walter Room, Posner Hall CMU, 5000 Forbes Ave. Organized by the Jewish Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh and the Jack Buncher Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies at Carnegie Mellon University. q TUESDAYS, OCT. 6–DEC. 22 Join Beth El’s Rabbi Alex Greenbaum and his Bible/ Talmud Adult Education class for a thoughtprovoking weekly session of Bible and Talmudic study. This program is available both in person and virtually. Call the office at 412-561-1168 to receive the Zoom link or to make an in-person reservation. 10:30 a.m. 1900 Cochran Road. bethelcong.org

Join a lay-led online Parashah study group to discuss the weekly Torah portion. No Hebrew knowledge needed. The goal is to build community while deepening understanding of the text. 8:30 p.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org/online-parashah.

q WEDNESDAYS, OCT. 7–NOV. 11 Join Hazzan Barbara Barnett as she leads a 10week Shabbat davening class. Whether you want to follow along with confidence, sing every niggun with the kahal, or step up to lead Kabbalat Shabbat, Shacharit, Torah service or Musaf yourself

q MONDAY, OCT. 5 The Edith Balas Annual Lecture Series welcomes Rachel Perry presenting “Who Will Draw Our History: Women’s Graphic Novels of the Holocaust.” The lecture and small exhibition

— this class builds the skills for it. Work through Friday night and Shabbat morning davening, piece by piece. 7:30 p.m. Congregation Beth Shalom, 5915 Beacon Street. bethshalompgh.org/shabbatdavening-class q WEDNESDAYS, OCT. 7-DEC. 23 Explore the weekly Torah portion with the mystical and interpersonal lens of the Hassidic rabbis with Rabbi Mark Asher Goodman. Hassidut for the People is a fun and engaging class taught online and in person meant to help learners find deeper meaning in Torah and in themselves. All levels welcome. 10 a.m. $5. Shoresh PGH, 4300 Murray Ave. Contact rabbimark@shoreshpgh.org for more information. shoreshpgh.org/class-scheduleand-events q MONDAYS, OCT. 12-FEB. 15 Chabad of the Souths Hills presents Kitchen of Kindness Junior Chefs Club, where kids cook, learn and give back. Grades K-8, teen volunteers welcome. Three five-week sessions. 5 p.m. For more information and to register, visit chabadsh.com/jrchef.

q TUESDAY, OCT. 13 Meet Diana Kapp and Rebecca Blumenstein, authors of “The Last Free Women: A Daring Escape from Afghanistan and Coming of Age in America,” and two of the women featured in the book: Chatham University students Marwa Rahim and Samira Rustami. 6 p.m. Chatham University, Laughlin Music Center, Welker Room, 242 Chapel Hill Road. events.chatham.edu/event/the-last-free-womena-daring-escape-from-afghanistan-and-coming-ofage-in-america# q WEDNESDAY, OCT. 21; TUESDAY, DEC. 1 The Beacon and Friendship Circle present “Let’s Talk About It: The Conversations Every Family Is Having … or Avoiding,” a parent and teen conversation series. Join other parents and teens for honest conversations about today’s biggest challenges. Teens hold an active role in planning and co-facilitating the conversations. Free. 7 p.m. 1922 Murray Ave. For more information, including topics, visit eventbrite.com/e/lets-talk-about-it-theconversations-every-family-is-havingor-avoidingtickets-1998932272236?aff=oddtdtcreator. PJC

March of the Living urges reversal of German town’s decision to ban memorial stones for Nazis’ victims — WORLD— By JNS

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he International March of the Living last week called on the German town of Heidenau to reverse its decision to ban installations of Stolpersteine memorial

stones for Holocaust victims, saying that its implication is to continue the effort to “erase them from history.” A Stolpersteine is a four-inch concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the names and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. The decision made last week by the council of the German town, situated in the state of

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“A History of the South African Jews: From The Pale to Pretoria – Part 2” with Ralph Cilevitz 1-2:30pm/Virtual on Zoom/$5

SUN, NOv 15, 2026

“How Did my Ancestors Live? Finding Historical Resources to Illuminate Ancestors’ Lives” with Sana Loue 1-2:30pm/Virtual on Zoom/$5

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“#Genealogy: Incorporating Social Media into Your Genealogical Research” with Adina Newman

Saxony near Dresden, must be a “wake-up call,” the March of the Living said. The nonprofit organization is dedicated to bringing people from around the world to Poland and Israel to study the Holocaust. “The Nazis murdered Jews and tried to erase their names, their communities and their place in history. Eighty-one years after the end of the war, elected officials in Germany have voted to prevent more of those names from appearing on the streets where the victims lived,” the statement read. The organization noted that similar attempts are being made elsewhere in Germany, which

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raises the question: “Are political interests being allowed to push the memory of Nazi victims out of public life?” PJC

Author Nicholas Lemann to join the Chronicle Book Club

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he Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle invites you to join the Chronicle Book Club for its Nov. 1 discussion of “Returning: A Search for Home Across Three Centuries,” by Nicholas Lemann. The author will join us for the meeting, and also will appear in person at the Jewish Book Festival, at Congregation Beth Shalom, on Sunday, Oct. 25, at 7:30 p.m. From Amazon.com: “Nicholas Lemann, a veteran New Yorker correspondent, grew up in New Orleans, the son of German Jews in a world of gilded privilege. Yet in contrast to his parents’ generation, which always sought to downplay their religious background, Lemann was intrigued by his roots, thinking he wanted to be like Jack Burden, the evercurious reporter in Robert Penn Warren’s 'All the King’s Men.' “And like his fictional hero, who gets drawn into a web of Southern political intrigue, Lemann in ‘Returning’ delves deeply into the family story from their arrival in the 1830s as peddlers from Germany, to their becoming plantation owners and department store owners after the Civil War, to their emergence as aspirants in the aristocratic world of New Orleans, where they could never quite belong.”

1-2:30pm/Virtual on Zoom/$5

Your hosts

Learn more about these and other programs at pghjgs.org/programming.

How it works

OCTOBER 2, 2026

p Stolpersteine memorial stones

What to do

Buy: “Returning: A Search for Home Across Three Centuries.” It is available from online retailers, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and in some local Barnes & Noble stores. It is also available through the Carnegie Library system. Email: Contact us at drullo@pittsburgh jewishchronicle.org, and write “Chronicle Book Club” in the subject line. We will send you a Zoom link for the discussion meeting. Happy reading! PJC

Toby Tabachnick, Chronicle editor David Rullo, Chronicle senior staff writer

We will meet on Zoom on Sunday, Nov. 1, at 1 p.m.

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Headlines A Jewish teacher in Philadelphia pretended to be Palestinian for years — NATIONAL — By Andrew Lapin | JTA

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Jewish public school teacher and pro-Palestinian advocate in Philadelphia has admitted to fabricating Palestinian, Tunisian and Black heritage to her colleagues for years, in a case that some online commenters are dubbing “the Palestinian Rachel Dolezal.” Hannah Gann posted confessions and apologies to social media last week, following confrontations from local pro-Palestinian groups she had worked with. In her apologies, she identified herself as “a white woman with significant privilege and wealth” who has “no Palestinian or Tunisian heritage.” A Jewish Telegraphic Agency request for comment to Gann was not immediately returned. Two local activist groups Gann had been involved with, Philly Educators for Palestine and Racial Justice Organizing Committee, said in their own statement that Gann was also “of Jewish heritage and [part of] an Israeli settler family.” They further accused Gann of falsely claiming to be Black at various points, until they confronted her about her background days ago. Comparisons to Dolezal, a white woman who posed as Black for years, taught Africana college courses and held a leadership role with a local NAACP branch before being exposed in 2015, spread over the internet last week.

p Hannah Gann, a Jewish public school teacher and activist in Philadelphia who pretended to be Palestinian for years, addresses a meeting of the Philadelphia Board of Education, Dec. 4, 2025. Screenshot

“I hid the truth or outright lied about my background to everyone in my life,” Gann, a teacher at West Philadelphia’s The Workshop School, said in her own Instagram video message. “I hid my family’s background from everyone in Philly and also hid from the people in my own family what I was doing.” Neither of Gann’s visible social media apologies mentioned Jewish heritage. But the Philadelphia Inquirer, citing internal documents from the activist groups, reported that she had identified herself in college as a “Jewish woman with family in the occupied West Bank.” Gann had also told colleagues her grandfather was born in Palestine, when he was

reportedly born in Baltimore, according to documents cited by the Inquirer. Fellow activists accused her of having darkened her skin using makeup and fake tanner and adopting a Black American accent after returning from a stint in the Peace Corps in Rwanda. As with Dolezal, commenters accused Gann of posing as a member of a marginalized group of color to gain clout. “When marginalization becomes a form of social currency some people will always do this,” one account under the name “regretmaxxing” wrote in Gann’s comments. Gann had made the pro-Palestinian cause central to her identity over the years, including a teach-in at her school in 2024 to protest “scholasticide” in Gaza, the Inquirer reported. That year she also told a local media outlet that the right-wing group Accuracy in Media had displayed her name on a truck calling her “Philadelphia’s Leading Antisemite.” Accuracy in Media, which has targeted activists in other states using similar methods, confirmed to JTA that they had also done so to Gann. “Hannah Gann remains one of Philadelphia’s leading antisemites,” the group’s founder, Adam Guillette, said in a statement, linking to a video of his group’s truck displaying the message outside the school where Gann worked. Delivering testimony to the Philadelphia Board of Education in December 2025, Gann, wearing a keffiyeh, urged them to “treat Islamophobia, anti-Black and anti-

Palestinian racism just as seriously as you treat allegations of antisemitism.” “Why are Jewish staff members’ experiences immediately assumed to indicate systemic failures, while Black, brown and Muslim students’ testimonies are treated as isolated incidents?” she continued, shortly before a board member cut off her mic. A fellow teacher of Gann’s said on Instagram that Gann had told her, following a trip to Israel in 2023, that she had both Jewish and Palestinian people in her family, later claiming that her grandfather had been an anti-Zionist Jew born in Mandatory Palestine who left over disagreements with the direction of Israel. “We will no longer work with Hannah, and she will no longer be welcome in any of our organizing spaces,” the pro-Palestinian groups said in their own statement. A biography of Gann still visible on the West Philly Participatory Defense Hub, a different local organizing group, describes her as having “loved ones directly impacted by the criminal (in)justice system” and notes that she is a member of The First Unitarian Church. In her apology, which she posted on Yom Kippur, Gann argued that her advocacy was genuine even though her persona was not. “The fact that I lied about who I was does not mean anyone else who speaks up for Palestine is lying and does not erase the urgency of listening to voices on the ground,” she said. She added that she would be “deleting anything posted by Zionists.” PJC

Chag Simchat Torah Sameach from the Staff and Board of the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh

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OCTOBER 2, 2026

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Headlines Jewish establishment heavy hitters are joining J Street in a sign of the changing times — NATIONAL — By Ron Kampeas | JTA

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Street, the Jewish advocacy group that calls itself pro-Israel and pro-peace, has sought a seat at the Jewish establishment table since its inception in 2008 — and has been repeatedly rebuffed. Now it is building its own table. The lobby has lined up heavy hitters from the Jewish establishment to further its claim to speak for a substantial portion of the American Jewish community on Israel. In doing so, it’s making the case that its record of putting pressure on Israel’s governments and its criticism of the Israeli military should no longer be dealbreakers for mainstream Jewish organizations. On Monday, J Street formed a Jewish Community Advisory Council that includes past leaders of groups that define the establishment. They include the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the UJA-Jewish Federation of New York. “Together their advice, support and critiques will help advance an agenda that bolsters the Israel promised in its Declaration of Independence, thriving in relationships with both the United States and the American Jewish community — steeped in our values — for generations to come,” the group said in a release shared exclusively with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. This fresh effort to test whether the American Jewish establishment can tolerate J Street’s brand of “tough love” Israel activism comes three years after Hamas’ deadly raids inside Israel. J Street supports the state’s existence but has been highly critical of how the Israeli military has prosecuted the war in Gaza. It also stridently opposes its right-wing governments and advocates for U.S. pressure on Israel to make peace with the Palestinians, including by withholding weapons sales to Jerusalem. The move is happening amid seismic shifts the Gaza war has seeded in the American Jewish community: On one side, younger Jews are increasingly alienated from Israel, evident in polling, as the country is led by its furthest right government ever; on the other, the Diaspora has been roiled by an explosion of antisemitic expression with criticism of Israel often exploited by the worst enemies of the Jews. At the same time, given Israel’s diminishing reputation among Americans, especially Democrats, J Street sees an opportunity to make inroads with Jewish leaders who want to have strong relationships with U.S. politicians. Its president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, told JTA in an interview that the group was the best avenue to stem the growth of extremist anti-Israel voices among Democrats — the party substantial majorities of Jews still vote for — especially as many Jews want to oppose the Trump administration because they believe it is veering toward authoritarianism and associates with bigots. 8

OCTOBER 2, 2026

p Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, speaks at the J Street National Conference in 2018. Photo by Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

“The issue that I would say we’re well positioned to address is to say, for Jews who want to not live under MAGA and Donald Trump, ‘We want to ensure that there’s a Democratic Party that adheres to the J Street line, that does not negate the right of the Jewish people to a state, but does oppose what the Jewish state is doing,’” he said. Ben-Ami argued that making J Street the voice of the community among Democrats would help it stem the insurgency on the party’s left because it would keep Jewish votes and donations flowing to Democrats, blunting both anti-Israel sentiments in the party and Trump’s power in the second half of his second term. Among the names on the new council: Bob Goodkind, the president of the American Jewish Committee from 2004-2007. John Ruskay, the CEO of the UJA-Jewish Federation of New York from 1999-2014. Alan Solow and Seymour Reich, both past chairmen of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Charles Ratner, past chair of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel from 2014-2017. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism from 1996-2012. Nancy Kaufman, the CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women from 2010-2019. J Street also announced in the same release that Rabbi David Saperstein, the director emeritus of the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center, is joining J Street’s Board of Directors. The new council, its members said in interviews, will exert influence on the Jewish conversation about Israel by reaching out to local federations, where many of its members have served. And it will also do so simply by existing — with a panoply of people who were once ardent establishmentarians welcoming J Street. “You have to try to find a way to get the leadership [of federations] to be at least open to hearing another point of view,” said Ratner, who headed the federation in Cleveland from 2000-2003 and who is a member of one of that city’s leading philanthropic families. UJA’s Ruskay told JTA that the consensus he and others once hewed to — that American Jewish organizations must defer wholly to

Israel’s government of the day when it comes to its security — is faltering. (70 Faces Media, the parent company of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, receives UJA funding.) “There are now multiple views of what it means to be ‘pro-Israel’ in the American Jewish community,” he said. “I believe this is healthy, reflecting different perspectives on what is best for Israel. We need to provide space for discussion and civil debate within our community for all groups committed to Jewish sovereignty in our ancient homeland — those we agree with, and those we don’t.” But many leaders of mainstream organizations aren’t convinced that endorsing J Street’s perspective is beneficial for Israel or American Jews. Jason Shames, the executive director of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, said differing perspectives on Israel’s security are a gift to Israel’s enemies at a time when the country is in crisis. “They want to see change within Israel, which is fair, and they do not want to see the demise of Israel,” Shames said. “The problem is that balancing act, in today’s social media era, means that the haters and those who do want Israel’s demise inherently see that as an asset and a value to their cause, and that’s where the breakdown is. That’s why I think you see resistance from people like me.” Other critics of J Street, however, said the group is simply not representative of pro-Israel activism in this country, and it’s a mistake to invite in an organization so contrary to the stances of so many. “Mainstream Jewish organizations should not pretend J Street represents the pro-Israel mainstream,” said one former top federation official who requested anonymity to speak frankly. “An organization that seeks to condition aid, block weapons, excuse votes to eliminate security assistance and support damaging actions against Israel at the United Nations has placed itself outside that consensus. A big tent still needs boundaries. If pro-Israel can mean anything, it means nothing.” J Street has long faced resistance to its advocacy for U.S. pressure on Israel to move toward a two-state solution and its criticism of many Israeli actions since its inception in 2008. For a time, the group concealed the

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

fact that a leading donor was George Soros, the billionaire who has been lacerating in his criticism of Israel’s governments and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. This is because J Street’s leadership believed his name was anathema in the community. Soros had initially declined to help launch the group out of concern that his involvement would be used against it. J Street initially avoided directly tangling with AIPAC, but in recent years, the two organizations frequently go head to head on social media. The dissembling about Soros was exposed in 2010, but even before the revelations, J Street’s outreach to the mainstream was having little success. Establishment organizations discouraged synagogues and Jewish community centers from hosting its speakers. It sought membership in the umbrella group, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, in 2014 and was rejected. J Street initially supported Israel’s military response in Gaza, saying that it “strongly supports Israel’s right to defend itself proportionately against the threat of relentless rockets and to destroy tunnels leading into Israel.” But it later accused the government of ignoring Palestinian suffering. “We take issue with those who say that discussing how to end the violence in the long run is not pro-Israel,” it said. J Street joined other liberal groups in March 2024 in calling on President Joe Biden to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza. The move came after months of pressure from progressives who accused the liberal Zionist groups of not doing enough to call for an end to the fighting. It also came as Israel was preparing to enter Rafah despite U.S. pressure to refrain from doing so. In November of the same year, when the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, J Street did not quite endorse the warrants. But it did call on the organized Jewish community not to “blame [the warrants] on antisemitism or inherent enmity for Israel” — a departure from the response of several major Jewish organizations, which strongly denounced the ICC’s action as anti-Jewish. Last year, Ben-Ami, under what he acknowledged was pressure from the left, retreated from his argument that Israel was not committing genocide, and now J Street is ambivalent on the issue. But despite the antagonism his positions have sparked among mainstream Jewish leaders, Ben-Ami argued that keeping young people invested in Israel’s survival is an acute challenge — and that it won’t happen by discouraging dissent. Finally, he said, that point has been absorbed by the establishment, which made it easy to get the former bigwigs on board with the council. “There is a level of fear setting in among people who have devoted decades and decades of their lives to Zionism and to the Please see J Street, page 11

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Headlines — WORLD—

Ward was a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces, Rodd noted.

Police label shooting in Belleville, Ontario, a hate-motivated attack against the Jewish community

More than 350 cultural figures slam Spanish festival for canceling a Jewish novelist for her Israel views

The shooter who opened fire on a Belleville, Ontario, synagogue on Yom Kippur committed an anti-Jewish hate-motivated offense, according to the city’s police chief, JTA reported. “This was a deliberate attack directed at members of the Jewish community during one of the holiest observances of the year,” Belleville police chief Murray Rodd said at a press conference, adding that the shooter had combustible materials, including gasoline, in his truck. Police stationed outside the Sons of Jacob synagogue had engaged in a shootout with the assailant, Sean Ward, that prevented him from entering the building as members of the congregation were about to begin Yom Kippur services. Rodd said the efforts of Constables Jeff Smith and Michael McCurdy prevented the attacker from using the explosive materials he had with him, as well as a “significant” amount of ammunition. “[The shooter] had the means, the mechanism, and the motive to perpetrate a greater act. The only thing that stopped entry into the synagogue to execute the intent were the two officers,” said Rodd. “He was equipped with other weapons and the means to carry on a gun battle for a long period of time.” The CBC reported that police obtained a video of the attack in Belleville, a town over 100 miles east of Toronto on the north shore of Lake Ontario. On the video, Ward is heard shouting. Police report he is saying, “You are going to die for the Jews.”

More than 350 writers and other cultural figures have signed a petition defending the author Ariana Harwicz, who was disinvited from a literary festival in Spain over her support for Israel, JTA reported. The Jewish-Argentinian novelist, longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize, was scheduled to participate in a talk on Sept. 26 at the Cultur Alh festival for arts and literature at the University of Granada. The festival organizers canceled her talk and rescinded her invitation after university activists complained about Harwicz’s views. The university said it was not involved in disinviting Harwicz and criticized the decision. Harwicz vocally opposes cultural boycotts against Israeli writers and artists, which she describes as “antisemitism.” She has also dismissed accusations of genocide against Israel. The Spanish government is among Europe’s staunchest critics of Israel, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called Israel a “genocidal state.” Harwicz received support from 352 cultural figures in a letter published last week. The signatories — including the Spanish philosopher Fernando Savater; the former French prime minister Manuel Valls, who is FrenchSpanish; and several prize-winning writers — called on the festival to explain its decision and offer Harwicz public redress. The renowned Irish writer John Banville, who was set to headline the event, dropped out after Harwicz’s cancellation.

Today in Israeli History — ISRAEL — Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.

Oct. 2, 1947 — Jewish Agency embraces Partition Plan

David Ben-Gurion, the longtime chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency, formally accepts the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine plan to divide the British Mandate for Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.

Oct. 3, 2005 — Choreographer Sarah Levy-Tanai dies

Sarah Levy-Tanai, a choreographer who incorporated Mizrahi and Ashkenazi elements and won the Israel Prize in art, music and dance in 1973, dies in her 90s. She founded the Inbal Dance Theater in 1949.

Oct. 4, 2003 — Suicide bomber strikes Haifa restaurant A suicide bombing kills 18 Jews and three Arabs and injures 60 others at Maxim restaurant in Haifa. The beachfront restaurant, co-owned by Jews and Christian Arabs, is known as a symbol of Israeli coexistence.

p A memorial to the Maxim victims now stands next to the rebuilt restaurant in Haifa.

Oct. 5, 1898 — Painter Nachum Gutman is born

Painter Nachum Gutman is born in what is PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

now Moldova. At 7, he moves to Ottoman Palestine. Gutman paves the way for Israeli artists, writers, painters and sculptors to move away from European influences.

Oct. 6, 1973 — Yom Kippur War begins

More than 70,000 Egyptian infantrymen and 1,000 tanks cross the Suez Canal on bridges erected overnight while Syria attacks Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, starting the Yom Kippur War.

Oct. 7, 1985 — Achille Lauro is hijacked

Members of the Palestinian Liberation Front seize the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro off the Egyptian coast, gather the passengers on deck and fatally shoot wheelchair-bound American Jew Leon Klinghoffer.

Oct. 8, 1576 — Sultan ousts Jews from Safed

The signatories said that the festival was denying “pluralism” and “the freedom to dissent.” The University Network for Palestine, a platform for Spanish students and university staff that has a branch in Granada, acknowledged that it asked the festival organizers to reconsider Harwicz’s participation. The activists denied posing “threats or calls to action.”

The Netherlands will return to Eurovision after boycott over Israel

The Netherlands will return to the Eurovision Song Contest, overriding a broadcaster that withdrew over Israel’s actions in Gaza, JTA reported. The Dutch organization that oversees public broadcasting, the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep, said last week that it will take over the country’s entry to Eurovision after Avrotros, the broadcaster that usually takes part in Eurovision for the Netherlands, pulled out of the 2027 event in Burgas, Bulgaria. Avrotros said last month that it withdrew because the event “can no longer be considered neutral,” citing Israel’s inclusion amid “the severe humanitarian suffering in Gaza and the ongoing restrictions on press freedom.” Avrotros dropped out of the most recent contest in May 2026, and the Netherlands did not participate after the NPO ruled out identifying another broadcaster. Spain, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia also boycotted this year’s Eurovision. Israel’s participation in the world’s largest music contest has become a source of intense controversy, sparking mass protests. The contest drew 35 million fewer viewers this year. For the next Eurovision, NPO is assigning the broadcaster NOS to provide coverage

Chanukah Barbie ‘looks like a lot of us,’ some Jewish women say

A new Barbie by Mattel, special for Chanukah, is stirring up controversy after critics said that it has a large nose, JNS reported. Sold on Target’s website for $27.49, the doll has brown hair, freckles and wears a blue knit Chanukah sweater, pajama pants and cozy winter slippers. The New York Post first drew attention to the controversy, noting that some Reddit posters described the nose as “prominent” and “hooked.” Enlarged and hooked noses are centuries-old antisemitic visual tropes. Bryce Gruber, editor of Extra Good, a style and consumer insights newsletter, said that she likes the new Chanukah Barbie. “I do feel like she looks like a lot of us,” Gruber said. “There’s obviously nuance and a lot of variations within the tribe, but I think there’s a good chunk of the population, myself and my daughters included, able to see themselves in this Barbie.” Others are happy to see the popular doll, which Ruth Handler, a Jewish woman, created in 1959 and named for her daughter Barbara, celebrating a Jewish holiday. Danielle Yablonka, “Miss Israel” 2026, said that “including Jewish holidays and Jewish people in mainstream culture should be the bare minimum.” “We shouldn’t have to be surprised to see ourselves represented,” she said. “But at the same time, I can’t pretend it doesn’t make me smile.” PJC — Compiled by Toby Tabachnick

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Ottoman Sultan Murad III orders 1,000 “rich and prosperous” Jewish residents of Safed moved to Famagusta, Cyprus, to spur p Ottoman Sultan economic develop- Murad III hoped ment on the island. to spur economic The Ottomans move development in 500 more Jewish Cyprus by forcing families a year Jews from Safed to move there. later. PJC

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Headlines Duquesne: Continued from page 1

specific types of antisemitic discrimination present in the psychology department. The professor’s concerns about the antisemitism training materialized when a Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh instructor allegedly told an attendee, “Just because a Jew says that something is antisemitic … [I] don’t ascribe to the belief that the oppressed group gets to decide 100% of the time what’s antisemitic and what’s not,” according to the complaint. Kranjec brought to the department’s attention social media posts written by a graduate student that mentioned him by name and called him “racist.” He also asked, without receiving a response, about bringing his concerns directly to the American Psychological Association, which accredits Duquesne’s program. Instead of offering solutions to the alleged discrimination, the complaint states that the university began to treat Kranjec as if “he was creating problems in the department.” Duquesne University officials advised Kranjec that his complaints did not meet the threshold for creating a hostile work environment and “took actions that affected his teaching responsibilities, evaluative roles and professional standing,” the EEOC complaint alleges. One of those actions was the creation of an alternative course students could take to avoid Kranjec’s PSYC 560 class. This new class was created, the complaint states, “to protect students from feeling pressured by his views after he raised those concerns.” Kranjec said he was told that department leadership considered whether the alternative course might be discriminatory toward

p The Duquesne University sign on campus

him but dismissed the concern. The EEOC complaint lists several other incidents that allegedly contributed to Kranjec’s belief that the university was creating a hostile work environment, including his removal from a Jewish graduate student’s Comprehensive Exam committee. Kranjec was told his ideology was “considered incompatible” with the student related to “Jewish identity.” The complaint asks the EEOC to grant Kranjec protection from further retaliation; take corrective and remedial action to address antisemitic discrimination and harassment; restore Kranjec’s teaching responsibilities and committee roles; remove, correct or prevent the use of any discriminatory or retaliatory records or complaints; implement training and policy measures to prevent future anti-Jewish discrimination; and, grant compensatory damages, including for emotional distress and reputational harm and for attorney’s fees and costs. The EEOC administrative complaint was filed with both federal and state agencies,

Photo by Althom via iStock

Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law Attorney Deena Margolies told the Chronicle. Margolies said that Kranjec’s complaints offer a view into a broader problem across universities and organizations. “People don’t recognize antisemitism,” she said. “We understand the IHRA definition and contemporary examples, but a lot of people don’t. They dismiss it as political speech. They don’t understand that for most Jews, Zionism is a core part of their Jewish identity and when you exclude people based on that or ostracize or harass them, that’s antisemitism.” Duquesne University, she said, “wrote off ” Kranjec’s complaints as ideological or political when, in reality, it was discrimination. Kranjec said that the troubling behavior can be traced back to the days following Oct. 7, 2023, when the university president issued what he called a “strong statement for Israel.” That spurred a reaction by graduate students who created a petition which, he said, “had some language in it that had a history of

Books: Continued from page 1

of Jewish children. The Oct. 19 program is co-sponsored by Hadassah and the Jewish Book Council. On Oct. 20, thanks to co-sponsors Classrooms Without Borders and the Jewish Book Council, attendees can hear from James Loeffler. Author of “Exceptional Hatred: Antisemitism and the Fight Over Free Speech in Modern America,” Loeffler is the Felix Posen professor at Johns Hopkins University and senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, and former co-editor of AJS Review. His research concerns antisemitism, human rights, international law and genocide. On Oct. 21, the Yiddish Book Center, Community Day School and the Pitt Jewish Studies Program are co-sponsoring a talk from Miriam Udel. Professor of Yiddish Literature and Culture at Emory University, Udel is author of “Modern Jewish Worldmaking Through Yiddish Children’s Literature” and winner of the National Jewish Book Award in Education and Jewish Identity. Udel, who received ordination from Yeshivat Maharat, is also winner of a National Jewish Book Award for “The Modern Jewish Picaresque.” On Oct. 25, Nicholas Lemann, an American writer, journalist and academic, who serves as the Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer 10

OCTOBER 2, 2026

p Pittsburgh Jewish Book Festival returns with purpose.

Moore professor of journalism and dean emeritus at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, will speak about “Returning: A Search for Home Across Three Centuries.” Lemann’s talk is co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. Days later, Lemann will join the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle Book Club for its Nov. 1 online discussion of his book. The festival’s strength, which also includes an Oct. 18 program presenting Joan Nathan

Photo by Esra Afşar via Pexels

and local author and academic Barbara Burstin with Lifetime Achievement Awards, Woldenberg said, rests as much on the authors as it does on local partners. Included among the list of co-sponsors are Carolyn Slayton and Seth Glick, the Jewish Book Council, the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. A grant from the Arthur J. Betty F. Diskin Cultural Endowment Fund also is supporting the festival.

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being used by antisemites and anti-Zionists. I pointed that out and that’s when people started to attack me for the first time.” The university, he said, initiated two Human Resources investigations. The first concluded that the incidents Kranjec reported didn’t meet the bar of creating a hostile work environment. A second investigation is ongoing. Asked if he believes the university will ultimately address the antisemitism he reported, Kranjec said, “It’s a hard question.” “One the one hand, I have to trust that they’ll recognize the problem,” he said. “They have not succeeded in doing that. That’s people in my department. The upper administration has not taken a clear position. So, the jury is still out on them.” On the other hand, Kranjec said, the broader question is how to get people to understand antisemitism. “There’s a lack of cultural understanding and education,” he said. “It’s a challenge to get people to understand how to change this sort of pervasive discriminatory culture.” As for his future at Duquesne, Kranjec was pensive in his response. “I used to think that the Catholic nature of the university inoculated it against stuff like this because of the shared religious and cultural traditions — values that made them nice places for Jewish faculty and Jewish students,” he said, before noting that his issues are specific to the psychology department. “The question is, can my department change? And what kind of life am I going to have in it? That’s a really big question mark,” he said. Duquesne University did not respond to the Chronicle’s request for an interview. PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Numerous groups and individuals have enabled the festival to continue growing, and although there are multiple opportunities to celebrate Jewish culture through cooking and music, the festival’s aim is to “get into some more difficult topics,” Woldenberg said. Polarizing issues, which include “antiZionism or antisemitism,” will be discussed by authors and moderators, with the hope that “the audience will ask questions and will learn from them.” Glick, an organizer and lead sponsor of the festival, said the program offers ample learning opportunities. “Every event has an author signing at the end, so you actually get to meet the people, and if you’re lucky, maybe even have a quick minute to ask them a question,” he said. “So many times we read books and we love the words, but we never really get to meet the person behind them.” Whether the interaction results in a handshake or a book dedication for a friend, the program creates new connections, he continued. Participating in this festival is a way to “support Jewish authors, and to support an ecosystem of writers and readers and bookstores.” Ticket prices for single headliner events begin at $18. Registration and a schedule of events is available at bethshalompgh.org. PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines J Street: Continued from page 8

U.S.-Israel relationship,” he said. “Fear about where we’re headed, fear about where Israel is headed, the kind of Israel that is going to be left behind, and a recognition that perhaps after all these decades, providing unconditional support and no daylight wasn’t the best idea, you know, and we need to have an open and honest conversation.” He continued, “Some of these folks are recognizing that the essence of what J Street argued for the last 20 years, it turns out, is really important right now.” Solow, a past chairman of the Conference of Presidents, recalled making those arguments himself when he advocated in 2014 for J Street’s inclusion in the organization. “It has become increasingly apparent that excluding J Street from these conversations is a communal error because it discourages many young people who want to be involved in a positive way in supporting an Israel that they very much want to believe in,” he said. “It discourages them from being included in the community and in the communal discussion.” UJA’s Ruskay said he was appalled by reports that the Jewish campus organization Hillel discouraged its chapters from working with J Street U, J Street’s student affiliate, most recently in the case of the Hillel chapter at the University of Michigan. “When I hear that J Street is not welcomed

in certain Hillels, we need J Street in Hillels!” he said. Hillel did not return a request for comment. NCJW’s Kaufman is on the board of a number of organizations that stridently oppose the current government led by Netanyahu. Similar to joining those other boards, her participation in the J Street council is a matter of penitence for her past at the NCJW and the Boston-area Jewish Community Relations Council before that. “I feel like we didn’t say enough. I really do. It’s my issue. I feel like we should have spoken out more,” she said. She recalled feeling ill when she saw J Street voted down at the Conference of Presidents, which at the same time allowed in AEPi, a fraternity that she believed held conservative views unrepresentative of young Jews. “This was a ‘We have met the enemy and he is us’ moment,” said Kaufman, who at the time was present in her capacity as NCJW CEO. “It was a shanda,” she added, using the Yiddish word for scandal. An influential vote against J Street at that meeting was the American Jewish Committee, which nullified the nod J Street had received from other mainstream groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Reform movement. David Harris, then the AJC CEO, said he doesn’t regret the way his group voted then and that he would recommend the same vote now. “I don’t believe it is the role of American Jews — who live thousands of miles from

Israel, reject aliyah, don’t face life-and-death military service and don’t have to take their children and elderly to bomb shelters day and night — to seek to influence existentially important issues affecting Israel and its vital link with the United States,” he said. He added that such lobbying for U.S. pressure on Israel is “inappropriate and, yes, harmful.” The same goes, he said, for rightwing groups that seek U.S. pressure on Israel for their favored outcomes. The Jewish Agency’s Ratner, who once gave to AIPAC, said that organization is now too closely associated with the right wings in the United States and Israel. “I think as AIPAC became more and more reactionary and right wing, and it just didn’t feel right to me anymore,” he said. AIPAC, which did not return a request for comment, has said that it continues to enjoy the support of donors and elected officials from both American parties. Ratner said that whatever “center” there was among American Jews is disappearing. “I don’t think J Street has yet achieved the position where it’s viewed as a centrist position. Nor do I think that AIPAC anymore is a centrist position, and I think that’s one of the challenges the community has. Where is there room for a centrist position?” he asked. Jeremy Burton, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, said the notion that the community can rally around a single Israel position is antiquated, though it was once commonplace among establishment Jewish organizations.

“The project of American Jews speaking with one coordinated voice — and I say this as a CEO of an independent JCRC that has 40 member organizations, including J Street — I don’t know that that project looks the same way it did even a decade or so ago in terms of the formal infrastructure of collective voice,” said Burton, who is not involved in the new J Street council. The groups who participated in the 2014 vote did not return or declined requests for comment on where they stand now, as did a number of federation officials. Among those not commenting were the Jewish Federations of North America, AIPAC, the ADL, the AJC and the Conference of Presidents. Saperstein said one role that he, as a board member, and the new council could play would be to advise J Street “that it has to be clearer about the Ahavat Yisrael aspect of its work,” referring to the principle of “Love of Israel,” which applies to the country and the Jewish community. Religious Action Center’s Saperstein said he expected J Street would robustly speak out against those who oppose all weapons sales to Israel since the organization itself only opposes some offensive weapons sales, which it believes should be conditioned on Israeli behavior. It does not oppose sales of defensive weapons, which anti-Israel political forces have increasingly proposed. Ben-Ami said J Street’s best strategy was to make its case and not seek the marginalization of others, however extreme their positions. PJC

Free & open to the community

October 7 Commemoration From Memory to Hope

WEDNESDAY 7:00 PM Short Program OCTOBER 7 7:15-8:30 PM Exhibits & Community JCC LEVINSON HALL — DARLINGTON ENTRANCE 5738 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217

Join us for an evening of remembrance, reflection and community as we honor the lives impacted by October 7. Explore interactive exhibits and memorial installations. Take part in a Yizkor Star memorial candle lighting. Perform a mitzvah in someone’s memory through the 2,047 Acts of Kindness initiative. And discover stories of resilience, healing and hope.

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Begin your mitzvah today at jewishpgh.org/event/october-7-commemoration

OCTOBER 2, 2026

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Opinion Jewish Pittsburgh’s next pioneers Guest Columnist Casey Weiss

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hen I was in ninth grade, my dad told me he read an article in the Forward about a new Jewish high school being built in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was called the American Hebrew Academy. We went to see it. What I remember most is a mud pit and a trailer. There were no alumni, no traditions and no older students. We were being asked to believe in a school that did not yet exist. My family took the chance, and I became a member of its inaugural class. In Hebrew, chalutza means pioneer. A pioneer does not simply follow a path. A pioneer helps create one. That was part of being in a founding class. We were building the traditions and culture that would come after us. I remember classes of 12 students intensely arguing about why chicken with cheese was not permissible and what our rabbis meant by creating a fence around the Torah. I remember AP Government and AP U.S. History seminars where we scrutinized the Constitution and studied our nation’s founding. I remember teachers who knew us extraordinarily well. I spent four months living and studying in Hod HaSharon, Israel. I walked a mile to a little blue falafel stand where the man behind the counter spoke no English. If I wanted to order, I had to use Hebrew. My Hebrew improved quickly. I traveled throughout Israel and experienced Jewish history in the places where it happened. I traveled to Poland and stood at Auschwitz. Hebrew was no longer simply a subject. Israel was no longer an abstract place thousands of miles away. Jewish history was mine.

Academically, I was extraordinarily well prepared. I was accepted to Northwestern University, an opportunity I ultimately declined to return to Israel, where I lived for the better part of four years. But Jewish high school gave me something beyond an exceptional education. It taught me that being Jewish was something to be proud of, to celebrate and to hold dear.

There is something powerful about spending adolescence in a place where being Jewish does not need to be explained before it can be explored. Where Torah and AP U.S. History can both be taken seriously. Where Hebrew, Israel, science, literature, athletics and service can all be part of one excellent education. That did not make my world smaller. It prepared me to enter a much larger one. Pittsburgh’s educational landscape is

A pioneer does not simply follow a path. A pioneer helps create one. More than 25 years later, I am head of school at Community Day School, the Jewish day school where I was once a student. My own children now attend CDS. CDS was founded as a community Jewish day school. We exist to serve the broad spectrum of Jewish Pittsburgh, without labels, bringing together families with different traditions, practices, backgrounds and perspectives. We do that without compromising academic excellence. Our students deserve exceptional teachers, rigorous coursework, serious scholarship and opportunities that prepare them to thrive wherever they go next. So we are asking a straightforward question: Why should a community Jewish day school, fundamentally here to serve the broad spectrum of Jewish Pittsburgh without labels and without compromising on excellence, stop after eighth grade? Why, at precisely the time when our children are beginning to wrestle with who they are, what they believe, where they belong and what Judaism will mean in their adult lives, do we say goodbye? David Zalik recently wrote that “Jewish day schools are a bubble, and that is the point.” I understand exactly what he means.

changing. Pittsburgh Public Schools is undergoing significant restructuring, and families are asking what high school will look like for their children in the years ahead at an affordable price point that does not compromise on excellence. Jewish teenagers are also coming of age amid rising antisemitism and complicated conversations about Israel and Jewish identity. Our response cannot be to shelter them from difficult ideas. We need to prepare them to encounter those ideas with knowledge, confidence and a strong sense of who they are. Pittsburgh is fortunate to have Hillel Academy and Yeshiva Schools, two fine Jewish schools that have educated generations of Jewish children and continue to play an important role in our community. What Pittsburgh does not have is a community Jewish high school designed to serve families from across the broad spectrum of Jewish life. So many people in our community have asked for a space for our teenagers to ask hard questions, learn and disagree. A place to wrestle seriously with Judaism, Israel, history, identity and the world around them. Pittsburgh has extraordinary rabbis, educators, communal leaders and professionals. It has world-class universities, hospitals, museums, archives, laboratories, nonprofits

I have kept this secret for 25 years Guest Columnist Romi Sussman

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kept a secret from my kids for 25 years. One that they only learned of a few weeks ago, when my oldest son got married. In 2001, a movie scene prompted me to start a journal for my 1-year-old. The idea was to write a letter to him once a year (or more often when possible) to discuss his milestones and struggles and to convey my hopes and dreams for him. As his wedding neared, I decided that this would be the appropriate time to share the letters with him, and perhaps to set the precedent of doing so with each of his brothers at their weddings. A few weeks before the wedding, my

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husband and I did the big reveal. I explained, with the journal in front of me, that I’d been keeping this secret for 25 years and that it was time to share it. We grabbed small snippets of time in the weeks leading to the wedding where I read the journal out loud. It included so many amazing memories: his first words; his life before we made aliyah and the adjustment afterwards; explanations of hard times that he experienced; the names of his friends through the years and how those changed; what it felt like to be the mother of a soldier on Oct. 7 and in the almost three years since. It included one aspect of his life story. And it was truly priceless. His brothers got wind of the secret during this time. One of them called out, “Well, I’m not getting married until I’m old so that I can keep getting letters!” The others were incredibly curious about what their own journals contained, about the secrets within. Those secrets will be shared with each of

them when the time is right. While reading the journal to my oldest, I had trouble at times keeping my composure. But I did keep it until the very last page. As I finished the journal, my husband and I both broke down crying and hugging our son. In a speech that he gave during the wedding festivities, our son referred back to the journal. He remarked about the insight he gained about the sacrifices we made for our children’s future when we made aliyah and about the vast cultural differences we struggled with on our aliyah journey. He thanked us for this sacrifice, and for enabling him to marry his true love in the hills of Jerusalem and to start a family in Israel. There were few dry eyes in the room. This was one of the best-kept secrets of my life and one of the most valuable projects that I’ve ever undertaken. During each subsequent pregnancy, I spent time finding the perfect journal. I started each one with a note to the unborn baby, telling them how excited we were for their arrival and how

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

and businesses. A community Jewish high school could draw upon all of them. Students could learn from scholars and professionals, pursue internships, serve their community and experience Pittsburgh as part of their education. But the case for a Jewish high school cannot be rooted in fear. We should not consider building one because of Oct. 27 or Oct. 7. We should consider building one in spite of them. The answer to antisemitism cannot be a smaller Jewish life. Our answer can be more Jewish learning, more Hebrew, more questions, more knowledge and more young people who know that being Jewish is something to be proud of, to celebrate and to hold dear. It also has to be affordable. If we are serious about exploring a community Jewish high school, access has to be built into the model from the beginning. Tuition assistance, philanthropy, partnerships and thoughtful use of existing resources all matter. A community school must be accessible to the community it exists to serve. Before any decision is made, we need to know: Is there sufficient demand? Do Pittsburgh families want this, will they enroll their children, and what would they need academically, Jewishly, socially and financially to say yes? More than 25 years ago, my family said yes to a school that was little more than a mud pit and a trailer. That decision changed the trajectory of my life. I became a chalutza. Now we need to determine whether Jewish Pittsburgh is ready for its next generation of chalutzim. Pirkei Avot teaches us: “It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.” So we begin. PJC Casey Weiss is head of school at Community Day School.

many dreams we had for them. I look forward to the day when I share each of these tucked-away journals with my sons as they become grooms. While the art of letter writing has all but disappeared, it’s never too late to start a project of this sort. With the new year, we take an accounting of our actions and interactions in the past year and set goals for the year ahead. Starting a journal of letters, whether to your unborn baby, your teenager, your spouse, your parent or yourself, could be a powerful tool for the year ahead to reflect, express love, and show growth and change. It has certainly proven to be a powerful tool for us as our son begins this next chapter of his life. PJC Romi Sussman is a writer and content manager. When she’s not at her computer, she’s juggling raising six sons ages 15 to 26 and conquering daily life as an olah. This article was first published by The Times of Israel. PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Opinion Chronicle poll results: Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour

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ast week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an online poll the following question: “What do you think about Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour?” Of the 216 people who responded, 66% said, “It was appropriate and the right thing to do”; 15% said, “It was appropriate but not the wisest thing to do — it could backfire”; 12% said, “It was complicated; both sides have legitimate concerns”; and 7% said, “It was an inappropriate restriction on free speech.” Comments were submitted by 60 people. A few follow.

Macklemore’s history of antisemitism makes Robert Kraft’s move understandable. He was also performing at a private venue, so I feel Kraft had the right to not let Jewish patrons (and other Israel supporters) feel uncomfortable at having to listen to Macklemore’s political views. People come to a concert to hear music, not politics. If they want that, go to a rally, not a concert. Kraft made Macklemore a martyr. I feel sorry for Ed Sheeran. He wanted to remain apolitical, but in these times, that is nearly impossible.

What do you think about Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour? 12% It was complicated; both sides have legitimate concerns

7% It was an inappropriate restriction on free speech

66% It was appropriate and the right thing to do 15% It was appropriate but not the wisest thing to do — it could backfire

Free speech isn’t always free; occasionally it has consequences — especially when the person speaking has a history of hate. Macklemore was only continuing his years of anti-Jewish performances: from leading “Free

Palestine” cheers to prancing around in longnosed Chasidic garb. He should be “canceled.” Music concerts are venues for music. They are not venues for political rallies. Many other platforms exist to express political views. Sheeran is the boss. He can decline to let others ride on his coattails, using the platform of his performances, for any reason. Macklemore is free to get his own platform, as he did; his speech remains free and this is not censorship. If you say that Sheeran is required to enable Macklemore, then do you also accept the obligation to support every cause that seeks your money or support regardless of how you feel about it? We need to stop pretending that this is a “free speech” issue. It’s incitement to violence and incredibly dangerous. The fact that Macklemore is notoriously antisemitic and has made crazy claims about Jews in the past did not stop him from being on Ed Sheeran’s tour in the first place but him talking about Palestine did? It is a confusing

and contradictory statement. I do think that doing this has gotten Macklemore more press and attention than he has had in a while and might have factored into his decision. I have no feelings about Ed Sheeran. Since this has no bearing on political machinations I don’t believe it is a free-speech issue. It is like being terminated from an at- will employer. There have been no restrictions on his speech, just consequences. No one is stopping Macklemore from saying whatever he wants. What is moral and what is legal are not always one and the same. All in all, I don’t think he should have been on the tour in the first place, but I wasn’t going to see Ed Sheeran anyway. Maybe now he’ll Mackle less. Who’s Macklemore?? PJC — Compiled by Toby Tabachnick

Chronicle weekly poll question:

How has Oct. 7 changed the way you feel about being Jewish? Go to pittsburghjewish chronicle.org to respond. PJC

— LETTERS — Looking beyond ‘Fauda’

The Sept. 18 edition of the Chronicle featured an article written by Fiamma Nirenstein, a guest columnist (“Two screens, one choice: The lie of ‘NAZA’ and the truth of ‘Fauda’”). She is an Italian-Israeli who is described as an adviser to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her article was a harsh critique of a new documentary by two Israeli filmmakers entitled “NAZA.” The title is the word the Israeli Defense Forces use for civilians killed because of military action. The American military refers to such deaths as collateral damage. The film is based on two dozen interviews with Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers whose identities were not revealed in order to avoid retribution. The two filmmakers have already received deaths threats and Prime Minister Netanyahu is trying to strip them of their Israeli citizenship. The film describes how the Israeli military selects targets for attack in Gaza. The decision is made in part based on how many civilians are likely to be killed. A ratio of 20 NAZA to one member of Hamas eliminated was said to be acceptable, though there were claims that in at least one case a ratio of 500 was used. The international standards governing military conduct during war include proportionality and discrimination. Civilians are not supposed to suffer inordinately by armies retaliating for their losses. And when attacking, armies should attempt to avoid harming civilians instead of targeting them. Those rules were developed for more conventional conflicts like World War II. Those wars were between opposing armies and did not have terrorists on one side. The best defense the latter have is to be indistinguishable from the noncombatants. The results can be catastrophic for civilians. In Gaza, almost a quarter of a million Palestinians have been killed or wounded, and over 80% of the buildings damaged or destroyed completely. Some think that is excessive to the point of being war crimes. Not Ms. Nirenstein. She asserts the opposite, writing, “Never in the history of warfare has an army done so much to protect the civilian population.” She cites her interviews with Israeli military officers and several victims of the Oct. 7 terrorism to make her case. She acknowledges there has been suffering in Gaza but asserts it “does not prove an Israeli policy of deliberately killing civilians.” She urges everyone to reject the NAZA version of events and says that “Fauda,” the Netflix series about a fictional Shin Bet hit squad, is more accurate. In other words, she argues there is more truth in fiction than in facts. What to believe about Gaza is something anyone who cares about Israel should contemplate instead of simply listening to the cartoon characters of Fauda. When it comes to civilian casualties, there is a difference between a deliberate policy of causing them and deliberate indifference, even though that distinction does not matter to the dead. The problem in this very polarizing war is that many on both sides are unwilling to look past their grievances and see the humanity of those on the other side. And until they do, there will never be peace in the Middle East. Ambassador Dennis C. Jett (Ret.) Squirrel Hill

Why I support J Street

In response to the Chronicle’s recent poll question —“Which of these two lobbying groups — AIPAC and J Street — do you support or mostly agree with?” (Sept. 18) — my response was J Street. Many years ago Meir Kahane, the founder of the Kach party, who had just written “They Must Go,” appeared in Pittsburgh. He wrote the book while in prison in Israel for planning armed attacks against Palestinians. Kahane spoke at the Hebrew Institute, a place for secondary Jewish education as well as a meeting place for the Jewish community; and many in the community were upset.

I made a sign and stood outside the Hebrew Institute when he was scheduled to speak. It said, “Never again. Not to us and not by us.” It happened that the car carrying Kahane passed by. He rolled down the window and asked me what it meant. I said “It means I’m afraid for the nefesh Yehudi” – for the Jewish soul. And I’m even more afraid for the Jewish soul now, after what I think is a terribly disproportionate response to the Oct. 7 attack, when violent settlers in the West Bank operate with impunity if not cooperation from the IDF, and when settlements are expanded into areas designated for Palestinians. I have to admit: I’m older than the state of Israel. As for many Jews of my age (and older), its coming into being seemed a miracle to me. That Hebrew, the language of the prayerbook, became a living language, seemed miraculous. A rebirth. We heard then, “A land without a people for a people without a land.” But we know now that British Palestine was not “without a people” and that the establishment of Israel and its growth made many of the people living there refugees. I was too young to be aware of the War for Independence, but felt horror many times when Israel was attacked or experienced terrorism: in the Six-Day War, when the Israeli Olympians were killed, when an Air France plane from Tel Aviv was hijacked to Entebbe and its Israeli passengers held hostage. I understand the need for security, for self-defense. But “a decent respect for the opinions of mankind,” as well as Judaism’s ethical teachings, mean that we must also consider the lives and suffering of others. I support J Street — which is pro-Israel without being anti-Palestinian (or anti-Arab, as some would say) — because J Street seeks solutions that promote peace and security for Israelis and their neighbors. Arlene Weiner Pittsburgh

Ed Sheeran weaponized anti-Jewish stereotypes during Philly concert

Derek Caney’s report “Ed Sheeran expresses sympathy for both Jews and Palestinians at first tour stop since Macklemore was dropped” (online, Sept. 21) misses the point. That Sheeran “expressed sympathy for ‘centuries of Jewish pain’ while” talking about Gaza is not as important as the fact that this episode revealed Sheeran’s fundamental misunderstanding of Israel’s strategic and moral imperatives. Delivering what was clearly a prepared statement while attempting to pass it off as an off-the-cuff moment of reflection, Sheeran instead weaponized a deeply flawed anti-Jewish, anti-Israel narrative. When Sheeran condemned Israel’s military operations as “catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate,” he echoed the highly dangerous accusation that Israel is driven by a need for revenge. This premise is entirely false. Israel’s objective since the atrocities of Oct. 7 has never been retribution; it has always been the complete removal of an existential terrorist threat to Israeli families and the securing of its borders so that its citizens can live without the constant danger of Arab terrorist attacks. Worse still, Sheeran’s framing echoes some of the darkest periods of anti-Jewish sentiment in British cultural history. By painting the Jewish state as an unreasoning, bloodthirsty aggressor, his rhetoric eerily mimics the worst classic antisemitic caricatures of British literature — from Shakespeare’s Shylock to Dickens’ Fagin. Pop stars reading prepared statements from a stadium stage may garner headlines, but they obscure the realities of a nation defending its people against Arab terrorism. Moshe Phillips National chairman of Americans For A Safe Israel New York, New York

We invite you to submit letters for publication. Letters must include name, address and daytime phone number; addresses and phone numbers will not be published. Letters may not exceed 500 words and may be edited for length and clarity; they cannot be returned. Send letters to: letters@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org or Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, 5915 Beacon St., 5th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15217 We regret that owing to the volume of correspondence, we cannot reply to every letter. PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

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OCTOBER 2, 2026

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SESSION 4 Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin is a political strategist and a public opinion researcher who has advised on nine national campaigns in Israel. She conducts extensive public opinion research, including joint IsraeliPalestinian surveys. She is a senior analyst for Haaretz. Her book, The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel: Promise Unfulfilled, was listed on Foreign Affairs’ Best Books of 2024. She is a board member of A Land for All. Moshe Koppel is founding chairman of the Kohelet Policy Forum, which Haaretz calls “the most successful initiative of the right in the past decade” and which is widely regarded as Israel’s most influential pro-liberty Zionist think tank. The Wall Street Journal has called him one of the “three American immigrants who have left the biggest mark on Israel”. (The other two are Golda Meir and Meir Kahane.) He is the author of Judaism Straight Up: Why Real Religion Endures.

Israeli Elections: Fear, Identity and Hope in a Polarized World Monday, November 2 • 7 pm JCC Squirrel Hill

Katz Theater • $36/person For more info: Fara Marcus • fmarcus@jccpgh.org Israelis go to the polls on October 27 for the country’s first national election since October 7, 2023. Just days later, two experts will join us to unpack the results and what they tell us about where Israel is headed. This session will explore the deep societal trends shaping Israeli society in light of the recent election results, including the ongoing tension between Israel’s identity as a Jewish state and its commitment to democratic principles.

Yisrael Klitsner Series Moderator, is a fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) who has deep connections to our community. He and his family lived in Squirrel Hill but returned to Israel after October 7 so he could rejoin his IDF unit. Klitsner, who has served as Diaspora Affairs Advisor to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and worked for AIPAC in Israel, is passionate about educating and building community around Israel and its relationship with the United States.

Coming Soon: Session 5: The Wild West: What Should Israel Do with the West Bank? Session 6: Are We One People? Diaspora Jewry and Israel at a Crossroads

JCCPGH ISRAEL ENGAGEMENT SERIES 14

OCTOBER 2, 2026

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

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Life & Culture Writer E.G. Silverman returns to Pittsburgh to read at JCC

p Author E.G. Silverman is returning to Pittsburgh for a public reading.

Photo by Princeton Headshots courtesy of E.G. Silverman

— LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer

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ecades after leaving Squirrel Hill, a Taylor Allderdice High School graduate is returning to the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh to read from his newest collection of published short stories. On Oct. 8, E.G. Silverman, who grew up on Darlington Road and attended Rodef Shalom Congregation, will share excerpts from “Your Only Best Hope.” Released Aug. 11, the work features seven short stories, including “Beacon Home,” a Pittsburgh-based tale involving a middleaged man who revisits his childhood home after the death of his mother. Speaking by phone from New Jersey, Silverman said his writing is purely “fiction — it’s not thinly veiled autobiography — but I do use settings that are kind of taken from real life.” The author’s description of East End residences and a market with scant “available inventory” is familiar. Similarly, his characters — one of whom references former Pittsburgh Pirates — converse and act with recognizable tropes. “They seem like real people,” but they’re not, he said. “Like most writers do, even though they may not admit it, we take characters, people that we know, and we make them into characters in other settings.” The individuals presented in Silverman’s newest collection run the gamut. There

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are teachers, doctors and real estate agents. Some speak caustically. Some are drinkers. Some are grievers. Silverman said he read a review which praised his work for possessing “something like easy dialogue or natural dialogue or something like that.” The review made him laugh, he said. “That easy or natural dialogue probably took me hours, and hours, and hours of revision, and revision, and revision to get it to sound easy and natural.” Writing is arduous, he said. The process involves “creating a work where every word is right. Every sentence is right. Everything is structured, and you’re kind of working for that end of the story or the novel: When the reader finishes the story or the novel you want them to sit back and sort of take a deep breath and go, ‘Yes, yes, I get it. I get what the writer is doing.’ To me, that’s a really important thing.” Even greater, however, is when the reader comes away with a particular question. The goal, Silverman explained, is to place characters in situations where they grapple with honesty and truth. Enabling the reader to see that emotional toil and to “be inside their heads and experience what they’re thinking, maybe that helps them deal with their own struggles and decision making.” Silverman has been a full-time writer for about 30 years, he said. His short stories have been finalists, semi-finalists or long-listed for the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, Ohio

State University’s Non/Fiction Collection Prize, Snake Nation Press’s Serena McDonald Kennedy Award, Livingston Press’ Tartt First Fiction Award (The University of West Alabama), and Regal House Publishing’s W.S. Porter Prize. His novels have been finalists for Black Lawrence Press’ Big Moose Prize, Columbus State University’s D.L. Jordan Prize for Literary Excellence, and Callisto Gaia Press’s Joshua Tree Novel Prize. Though returning to Pittsburgh is an opportunity to deepen ties, Silverman is curious to see what comes of the reading. “I’m interested in how people react,” he said, adding that he works “in isolation.” “A writer is in a lot of ways the loneliest occupation there is. I sit in a room in front of a computer. There’s nobody there. And yes, before the book comes out, I work with

an editor, and we go back and forth, so it’s not entirely a solo thing, but once you put stuff out there you’re never really sure what people are going to see in it or not see in it.” Reading before an audience — especially some of whom he hasn’t seen in decades — is a different literary experience, he continued. “When you’re writing, it’s all internal. It’s all in your head. It’s all you know on paper. It’s all very much just isolated. But when you’re doing a reading, you can actually connect with people. You got to look at the words, but you can also look at people, and you can see their faces, and you can see their eyes, and you can feel whether you’re connecting with them or not,” he said. “It’s a really gratifying feeling.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

“Don’t be pushed by your problems; be led by your dreams.”

p “Your Only Best Hope” is author E.G. Silverman's newest work.

Image courtesy of E.G. Silverman

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Lee & Lisa Oleinick

OCTOBER 2, 2026

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Life & Culture Getting to know: Roni Hen — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer

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ature’s beauty is finite. Flower artist Roni Hen reinforces that sentiment with each handmade creation. Her works, which rely on dried flowers, rocks, bark and other natural materials, have a relatively transient quality. “Each design tells a story,” she said. “And like a story it comes to an end.” Hen’s meticulously sculpted creations eventually crack, fade and turn to dust. It’s why the Israeli-born artist named her enterprise “Flower Dust.” From her home in Squirrel Hill, Hen sculpts and arranges each piece. Ranging in color, shape and size, no two works are identical; however, themes, like the sun, mountains and oceans, tie various pieces together. “I create with inspiration from the things that I see,” she said. “It’s not like a machine that does shapes, and circles and triangles. It’s more freestyle. It’s abstract. It’s like nature.” One of Hen’s pieces, which she titled, “The Circle of Nature,” encompasses all four seasons within one tree. Inspired by “an ancient rainforest,” the work includes a mosscovered hand-carved trunk that rests on stone. Ushering forth from the base are a collection of flowers and a handmade butterfly that gently floats within the mix. Another piece, which Hen titled, “Orca,” features hand-carved ocean rocks sitting atop a small epoxy sea. The work is intended to convey a sense of an orca rising from the depths, she explained. Before arriving in Pittsburgh two years

p Artist Roni Hen works from Pittsburgh.

Photo courtesy of Roni Hen

ago with her husband, Hen spent time in various locales. She grew up in Givat Ada, a small neighborhood in Binyamina-Giv’at Ada, located in the Haifa District in northern Israel. After completing national service in Beersheba, Hen moved with her husband to Switzerland. Her experience in the “Playground of Europe” granted an awareness, she said, of the way wood interacts with water, specifically lakes. Cold water, she explained, slows down decay and prevents wood-rotting fungi from forming. In Switzerland, Hen noticed not only the way wood responded to various climates, but how other creatures interacted with the environment.

Whether while living in Europe or on other travels, “I always like picking stuff up, and using it,” she said. In her possession are not just a host of simple barks and branches, but items bearing singular features, Hen explained. “They have signs of what bugs do, and it’s very beautiful,” she said. “You need to see it to understand.” Within the branches are intricate scratches and tracings revealing insect paths and other natural activity. Juxtaposed to dried flowers and rocks, the wood pieces add to the living quality of the work, she said. Hen has expanded her awareness and artistic undertakings. During the past two years as a Pittsburgh resident, she has readily made use of nearby paths and parks.

p “Forest Rock”

Photo courtesy of Roni Hen

She loves the city, she said, and is proud to call it home. “It’s really like an endless forest,” she told the Chronicle. “It’s the first time that I saw something like this, and I love the community and all the people and the neighborhood and the vibe.” There’s an organic quality to so much existing in such a small space. Having joined the fold, she said, she hopes to add to the area’s beauty. “My home is open,” she continued. “People can just let me know if they want to come pick something up or come over just to see my design.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at a reinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

On Simchat Torah, a toast to learning about wine — HOLIDAYS — By Emma Riva | Special to the Chronicle

S

imchat Torah is the last but by no means the least of the fall Jewish holidays. It’s one of the most joyous holidays on our calendar. I once heard a rabbi say that if you were only going to celebrate two Jewish holidays, Purim and Simchat Torah were the two to pick — maximal fun and minimal angst. There isn’t much of a tradition of sitting down for a meal on Simchat Torah, given that it’s observed in the synagogue rather than the home. Plus, the tradition of dancing around with the Torah leaves little time for sitting down for a glass of wine. So, rather than rattling off hypothetical pairings (though don’t worry, there will be wine), I want to focus on something else: wine education. Simchat Torah encourages us to value learning and find joy in study. Many people find it daunting to learn about wine, but there are many educational resources out there depending on what you’re looking for. The Wine & Spirit Education Trust is a good place to start, particularly if you have any aspirations of working in wine as a profession. WSET offers four levels of certification that increase in difficulty and 16

OCTOBER 2, 2026

scope. WSET also offers a kosher-specific branch of its classes to make it accessible to those who keep strictly kosher. You can find those at Capital Wine School taught remotely. In Pittsburgh, Deb Mortillaro of Palate Partners offers WSET classes on a rolling basis (though not with kosher wines). Palate Partners, a subset of wine shop and distributor Dreadnought Wines, is another great place to deepen your wine learning. They offer courses and tastings on wine pairings, winemaking, and specific regions and varietals. Dreadnought’s classes make great group outings to improve your wine knowledge. The other big governing body for wine education is the Court of Master Sommeliers. WSET is more focused on theory and knowledge, but the Court of Masters is more geared toward on-theground service in restaurants. CMS has a 1, 2, 3, and Master level as well. If someone has Master Sommelier certification, you know they mean business. However, both WSET and CMS use a systemic method for tasting wine and both can be useful for laypeople who want to learn more about wine. If you’re interested in learning about something specific like Champagne or Burgundy, there is also an organization called Wine Scholar Guild that offers region-specific certificates. Or, if you find

Photo by gregory_lee via iStock

yourself curious about kosher wine in particular, the Kosher Institute of America offers a specific masterclass on the ins and outs of kosher certification for wine and liquor, taught by Rabbi Akiva Niehaus, who runs a kosher bar. Pittsburgh has a growing number of small wine shops, too, which offer a straightforward way to learn more about wine without taking any formal course at all. P’Vino (5726 Ellsworth Ave.), where I work, has free tastings every month and we love to talk to people about wine. Cuvée (5886 Forbes Ave.) and Solera (4839 Butler St.) also have dedicated staff and varied selections that go beyond the state store offerings. Those of us who work in boutique wine shops learn to pick up on what regular customers might like based on their existing taste. We want to help!

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Now, for some wine recommendations. Though you might not have a dinner planned for Simchat Torah, and popping a bottle while dancing with the Torah is probably not a good strategy, the holiday is a great excuse to celebrate. To mark the occasion of finishing the Torah scroll, the Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Brut Champagne is an excellent champagne that happens to also be kosher ($89.99, not mevushal). The tail end of the fall holiday season, with agriculture or harvest-based holidays like Sukkot and Sh’mini Atzeret, is also a good opportunity to sample some producers making wine in Israel. Psagot, in Judea, makes some of the best value Israeli wine — their Sinai 2024 blend of shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, petit verdot, and petite syrah is only $24.99 (mevushal). Their rosé is also mevushal and the same price, great for a porch pounder while the warm temperatures last a little longer. However you’re observing Simchat Torah, this part of Jewish tradition encourages intentionality and curiosity about everything from wine to sacred texts. Take time this season to celebrate your own milestones, too, even if you didn’t participate in the cycle of Torah reading … there’s also always a chance to start after the holiday. L’chaim! PJC Emma Riva is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh. PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Exploring a CDS High School

Exploring a CDS High School

Community Families: Scan below to share your thoughts and interest on a potential CDS High School, beginning with 9th grade as early as Fall 2027.

Scan to learn more and fill out the survey. Thank you to our ad hoc committee members: Kari Vissichelli, David May Stein, Barbara Burstin, Lois Weinstein, Skip Grinberg, Micah Jacobs, Marjorie Manne, Margo Hinton, Maxine Kisilinsky, Manola Handler, Eric Lidji, Casey Weiss, Lee Oyahon Steckel, Andrea Glickman PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

OCTOBER 2, 2026

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Celebrations

Torah

Birth

The sukkah challenge Rabbi Moshe Levy Parshat Shemini Atzeret Deuteronomy 14:22 – 16:17

Tova and Ben Kohane of Fair Lawn, New Jersey, announce the birth of their baby boy, Eitan Michael. Grandparents are the late Dr. Leon and Miriam Kohane, of Squirrel Hill. PJC

Life & Culture

M ‘We hear you,’ says Sunkist,

odern thinking considers appreciation of life’s gifts as a method of achieving peace of mind and joy that helps one increase their productivity. The Torah sees appreciation as a goal in and of itself. At this time in the Jewish calendar, we are nearing the end of the Festival of Sukkos. Sukkos provides us with seven days of living in a simple hut where we realize that true joy is derived not from our fleeting physical possessions, but rather from our own spiritual development.

won’t cancel Fruit Gems — NATIONAL — By Jessica Russak-Hoffman | JNS

A

fter the news that Sunkist was discontinuing its Fruit Gems, and Jews nationwide wondered what soft but light kosher candy they could throw at boys and girls celebrating their bar and bat mitzvahs in synagogue, the brand said that it would avoid nixing the treat. “We hear you, Sunkist Fruit Gems fans,” the brand stated. “The good news. Sunkist Fruit Gems are not going anywhere.” According to the company, Sunkist is now “working with a new trusted family-owned candy maker to help us bring back the same great flavor, quality, kosher certification and fruit-forward goodness you know and love.” Though the product will be temporarily unavailable, Sunkist stated that it is “aiming to have them back on the shelves very soon.” “Thank you. It’s not an official simcha without Sunkist gummies being pelted at you full force by overenthusiastic 12year-olds,” one person wrote on social media. “Turns out, you can have your candy and

p Sunkist Fruit Gems

Photo by Shelly Russak via JNS

chuck it too,” another said. Others confessed to having bought in bulk the last of the candy in stock on Amazon when they heard the news. “I may have bought 10 pounds last week,” one stated. “Anyone need a bridge stash?” “I panic-bought in bulk for my wedding next year,” someone wrote. “Now I feel foolish. But enjoying a bunch of very yummy gummies.” Dani Klein, founder of YeahThatsKosher, told JNS that the Sunkist company “did not realize how integral” the product was to Jewish communal life. “As long as they were able to find a way to make it work financially, which it looks like they did, they’re able to bring it back,” he said. PJC

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are constantly toiling to “keep up.” We are bombarded with the beckoning of our phones and gadgets. Who has time to think? To reflect: to enjoy the fact that we are alive, healthy and have a plethora of tasty food to eat! With access to online shopping and fast delivery, the entire world is literally at our fingertips. Stop. Think. Reflect. Take a break. Sit in your sukkah under some leafy foliage, surrounded by old, waterlogged plywood. Breathe in the fresh air. It’s good to be alive. That is true strength. The ability to say no. I will not be subjected to the beckoning of that blinking light on my phone.

The sukkah gives us a dare. It gives us a challenge: to recognize and appreciate the good that we have. Our Sages (Avos) teach: Who is strong? One who overcomes their inclinations. When the Sages speak of strength, they do not refer to physical strength. That kind of strength ebbs and disappears with time. After all, the Torah is a book of truth. True strength is the strength of character and spirit, the ability to resist the urge of temptation, desires and pettiness. The power to rise above and release the potential greatness latent within ourselves. That is true strength. Of the greatest obstacles presented to man, the inclination to ignore the good that we possess, stands at the forefront. In his great work “Duties of the Mind,” written over a millennium ago, Rabbeinu Bachye ibn Pekuda teaches that the pursuit of our desires, the familiarity of life’s gifts, as well as the upsets of life are the impediments that stand in the way of our reflection upon the multitude of good that we are all recipients of. If this was true in the quieter life that existed 1,000 years ago, how much more is this true in the fast-paced world of today? In a society of constant “updates,” we

I will not be persuaded by advertisements that my life is empty without their latest products. The sukkah is fine for me. It’s flimsy, but who cares? That is true power. When my day doesn’t go as planned, it’s OK. Just a bump in the road. It’ll make me a better person. It will not rob me of my happiness, for everything else that went well today. That is true might. The sukkah gives us a dare. It gives us a challenge: to recognize and appreciate the good that we have. Appreciation is recognition of the truth. It is moral and correct. G-d gave us a beautiful world. Our job is to be happy customers. Appreciation is a goal, not a means. Our increased productivity is a reward. Chag sameach! PJC Rabbi Moshe Levy is the dean of the Kollel Jewish Learning Center. This column is a service of the Vaad Harabonim of Greater Pittsburgh.

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Obituaries CHOTINER: Gerald Norman Chotiner, born July 1929, passed away Sept. 23, 2026, at the age of 97. He grew up in Squirrel Hill. He was the son of Morris and Malvina and brother to the late Stanley (Audrey) and Shirley (Stanley Barish). He is survived by his sister-in-law Elaine Newman and many nieces and nephews. Jerry graduated from Allderdice High School where he was the star basketball player. He attended Carnegie Mellon University for architecture. Jerry served in the Korean War. He then attended the University of Pittsburgh and became a CPA. He worked for Grodin, Chotiner and Balmuth. His marriage to Barbara (Shulman) has lasted 67 years. They have two daughters, Eileen (Steve Majors) and Shari Khalil (Darryl), and a grandson, Jakob. Jerry was a huge fan of the Pittsburgh football and baseball teams. Barbara and Jerry were regular attendees at the Broadway plays and Pittsburgh Symphony. They enjoyed winters in Florida for 25 years. In his free time, Jerry enjoyed gardening, reading and home repairs. Services were held at Temple Emanuel of South Hills. Interment Mt. Lebanon Cemetery, Temple Emanuel section. Contributions may be made to the charity of your choice. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com LEBOWITZ: Sally Eisenstat Lebowitz. Sally, age 91, lover of ice cream, bagels, books, trees, flowers, friends in abundance, and her cherished family, died on Sept. 27, 2026, in Pittsburgh. Born Aug. 5, 1935, to Sam and Dora Eisenstat, Sally was the second of three sisters. In their final years as a trio, the sisters were devoted to their Friday coffee/ wine chats from opposite sides of the world. Sally grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, and graduated from Temple University with a degree in dental hygiene. In November 1958, she married her beloved Milton Lebowitz, whom she met on a blind date in June. (They just knew; he was the dearest man she ever met.) She and Milton raised David and Larry, moving a few times before settling in Mt. Lebanon, where she was the No. 1 fan at her sons’ football, baseball and basketball games. Vibrant and open to the world, Sally wore many hats. She worked for years as a dental hygienist, known for entertaining her patients in their chairs and putting them at ease. You could always count on her for a Stim-U-Dent (superior to the toothpick) in her purse. After quitting cigarettes using the Smokenders program, Sally was so inspired she bought a franchise so she could help others do the same. She signed up to become a hospice volunteer because she was moved to contribute to people’s end of life care. She wrote a book about that experience, called “Friend of the Family,” which reads exactly like she talks and is proudly displayed in the library of Friendship Village, where she spent her final years. Anyone who knew Sally knows how easy and rewarding it was to love her. She made “girlfriends” everywhere she went, and the friendships lasted for decades. She formed close bonds across her extensive family tree. The friends, nieces, nephews, cousins, and grandchildren who crossed the hall, country and globe to visit her are testaments to her magnetism, singularity and warm, open heart. Sally held court. She doled out catchphrases, truisms and candor (“well, that’s the truth”). Her mirth was matched only by her gratitude. “How did I get so lucky?” she often said in wonderment. She is survived by her sons, David (Audrey) Lebowitz and Larry (Lynn) Lebowitz; grandchildren, Leah (Jon), Daniel (Valery), Jake, Amy (Michael), Alyssa and Ben, along with 11 great-grandchildren; and sister Ruthie (Sheldon) Weinstein. She is also survived by her newest chosen family at Friendship Village and the caretakers who looked after her. She was predeceased by her beloved husband of 64 years, Milton Lebowitz; her sister and brother-in-law Barbara and Martin Yalisove; and her parents, Sam and Dora (née Tex) Eisenstat. Services were held at Temple Emanuel of South Hills. Interment Mt. Lebanon Cemetery, Temple Emanuel section. Sally has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Temple Emanuel of South Hills, 1250 Bower Hill Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15243. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com PJC

The Original

Jewish Association on Aging gratefully acknowledges contributions from the following:

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Anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sylvia B . Karpo Anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Martin W . Snow Anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Flora May Kahn Shadden Marlene Alpern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jack Greenberg Sherwin E . Glasser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jacob Joseph Kurtz The Goldberg Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bessie Ruth Roth Edward M . Goldston Z"L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yitzchok Moshe Isaac Goldstein Falk Kantor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sadye R . Kantor Jan & Edward Korenman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jacob Kuperstock Aaron Krouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ida Magdovitz Krouse Harold & Cindy Lebenson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leonard J . Lebenson Amy Lowenstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Louise Waxler Bernard Shire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Joseph Shire Thomas Sleisenger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Albert Sleisenger Ruth Yahr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I . Leroy (Lee) Yahr Contact the Development department at 412-586-2690 or development@jaapgh.org for more information.

THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS —

Sunday October 4: Lucy Balter, Sara Jean Binakonsky, Harry Bricker, Beatrice Charapp, Tillie Cohen, Samuel Jacob Eliashof, Dr . Howard H . Freedman, Hyman Goldstein, Paul Harris, Hyman L . Leff, Samuel Minsky, Hazel Oswold, Rose M . Rabinovitz, Florence Ruben, Abraham Schrager, Rivka Silverman, Leopold Weiss Monday October 5: Samuel Evelovitz, Dora Friedman, Frances Fromme, Morris Gordon, Ethel Hornstein Josephs, Phyllis K . Kart, Leonard J . Lebenson, Abram Hirsh Levine, Anna Mandel, Lena Moskowitz, Dora Rosenzweig, Abraham J . Rothstein, Bessie Rubinoff, Charlotte H . Shapiro, Joseph Shire, Florence M . Supowitz, Saul David Taylor, Rebecca Weinberg Tuesday October 6: Isadore E . Binstock, Jack Citron, Mary Levinson Cohen, Sarah Silverblatt Epstein, Edward L . Klein, Esther Rogow Landau, Louise Comins Waxler, Dr . Alfred L . Weiss, Samuel J . Wise Wednesday October 7: E . Louis Braunstein, Harry Cooperman, Dorothy Harris, Barney Holtzman, Sidney H . Lefkowitz, Lazor Lewis, Ida Linder, David S . Palkovitz, Rachel Povartzik, Celia Rakusin, Milton L . Rosenbaum, Florence Shrager, Rita Jo Skirble, Harry S . Smizik, Seymour Spiegel, William Stern Thursday October 8: Joseph Adler, Shirley Barr, Jean Singer Caplan, Saul Eisner, Louis Friedman, Sam Goldberg, Yitzchok Moshe Issac Goldstein, Jack Greenberg, Sadye R . Kantor, Charles Leefer, Louis Levy, Violet C . Miller, Alexander Reich, Flora May Shadden, Bertha Ethel Shamberg, Andrew H . Shapiro, Adolph Weinberger, Esther H . Winkler, Ada Marie Wolfe Friday October 9: William Abrams, Mary Astrov, Peter Davidson, Edward A . Feinert, Abraham Hansell, Sylvia B . Karpo, Allen Lebovitz, Allen W . Lebovitz, Harry D . Linder, I . Edward Plesset, Jesse Rogers, Sara Sadie Sobel, Anna Sokol, Dr . Daniel Solomon, Fannie Stein, Mary Stoller, Harry Ulanoff, Donald Eli Witkin, Rose Zasloff Saturday October 10: Jack Caplan, Morris Chamovitz, Isaiah Cooper, Laurel B . Devon, Rose K . Freed, Harry Freedman, Pauline J . Isaacs, Sarah Jacobson, Rose Bigman Kalmanowitz, Dr . Paul Kaplan, Anna Klee, Ethel I . Krauss, Ida Magdovitz Krouse, Jacob Joseph Kurtz, Milton Lehman, Dr . Leonard M . Monheim, Samuel Rosenfeld, Emanuel Rosenthal, Edith F . Simon, Joseph Weintraub, I . Leroy (Lee) Yahr

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Shana Tova ShanaShana Tova Wishing all a Tova Chag Sameach Shana Tova Wishing all a Wishing all Wishing all aaYear Happy New Happy Wishing all aNew Wishing all Year aSukkot Happy Happy New Year

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By Asaf Peled | Special to the Chronicle

“T

hey gave him four days,” our guide said, walking ahead of us down a lane barely wide enough for two people. “Four days to defend Judaism in front of the king, the court and the Dominican order.” It was September of last year, and I was in Barcelona’s old Jewish quarter with my wife and our two children. The man he was describing was Moses ben Nachman of Girona — the Ramban, whose commentary still turns up in these pages whenever a rabbi reaches for a difficult verse. In July 1263 he was summoned to the royal palace in Barcelona and made to argue, in public, whether the messiah had already come.

A quarter that doesn’t announce itself

The quarter is called the Call, from the Hebrew qahal, meaning community. It sits inside the Gothic Quarter, and if nobody tells you where it begins you will walk through it on your way to somewhere else. The lanes are shoulder-width. The stone is the same stone as every other street. Our local guide, an Israeli who lives in the city, kept stopping to explain who had lived here. Physicians to the Aragonese kings. Financiers. Translators who moved Arabic science into Latin. Poets. At its height this was one of the most accomplished Jewish communities in Europe, and it was housed in streets designed to be easy to miss.

We came to the Sinagoga Major down a few steps, below the level of the street. It is believed to be the oldest synagogue in Spain, with origins that may reach back to the third or fourth century. It is also very small. From outside, there is almost nothing to see. Inside, our guide asked the children what felt strange about the room. They worked it out before I did: It is crooked. Every building around it follows the Roman street grid that Barcelona has kept for 2,000 years. This one turns east, toward Jerusalem. When archaeologists began excavating in 1996 that misalignment was one of the clues that told them what they had found.

He won but lost everything

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Jewish Barcelona: The debate that started in 1263 and still hasn’t ended

The disputation ran for four days in the royal palace that stood at what is now Placa del Rei, a five-minute walk from where we were standing. Nachmanides was permitted to speak freely — not a small privilege to be awarded him. Both sides afterward claimed to have won. The king gave him a gift of money and told him he had never heard a “worse cause” better defended. Then the Dominicans obtained the written account Ramban had made of the debate, and the protection ran out. He left Aragon and never came back. He died in the Land of Israel a few years later as an old man who had won an argument but lost everything. The community he belonged to lasted another 128 years. In the summer of 1391, riots that had begun in Seville reached Barcelona. The Call was destroyed and the community never re-formed. That is why the sites here are so small: There is no medieval Jewish Barcelona to visit. There are only traces of one.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

p The old Jewish Quarter of Barcelona, with the Sinagoga Major on the left

Photo courtesy of Malik Shabazz, derivative work, Wikimedia Commons

Nothing lasts forever

This is the part of the walk I find hardest, and the reason I keep bringing people here. The Jews of 14th-century Catalonia were not a tolerated minority clinging on at the edges. They were established, prosperous and close to power. If you had asked them, I think they would have told you their position was permanent. But within a single lifetime it was finished. Jewish heritage journeys through the top Jewish sites in Spain, the Call and the Sinagoga Major, are the two places where that thought lands strongest. It sits oddly alongside the rest of the day. For families traveling with children, a Gaudi hunt can be added, running between his buildings solving clues, and the kids finish it delighted. The same city gives you both: a treasure hunt in the afternoon and a vanished world in the morning.

What the news says, and what the street says

Barcelona’s relationship with Israel has been publicly difficult. The city suspended its sister-city agreement with Tel Aviv and later restored it. An Israeli film festival changed venue over security concerns. So I asked our guide directly. He is Israeli, he lives there, and he does not hide it. He told me he has encountered no animosity — not toward him, and not toward his children at school. Spaniards can be critical of the Israeli government, he said, and entirely respectful toward Jews. The headlines and the street do not always describe the same country.

Why go?

Toledo and Girona give you a quarter to walk through. Barcelona gives you something stranger: an absence inside a busy, working, modern city, marked by a crooked little room most visitors pass without noticing. The argument Nachmanides was summoned to have was settled long ago. Nobody in Barcelona is debating the messiah. What has never quite ended is the other question underneath it — how much room this city is willing to give its Jews — and Barcelona has answered it differently in every century since. PJC Asaf Peled is the founder and CEO of Shin Tours, which specializes in Jewish heritage travel to Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and Israel. PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

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Once Upon a BIG NIGHT will be an evening of fun and philanthropy, where every dollar raised helps the JCC build a stronger community.

BECOME A BIG NIGHT SPONSOR Make it part of your year-end giving or fulfill your pledge in 2027. For exclusive sponsorship opportunities, contact Fara Marcus at 412-339-5413.

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Community Macher and Shaker

Kent State University freshman and Girl Scout of Pittsburgh ambassador Lily Sassani received a Keystone Award from Gov. Josh Shapiro and First Lady Lori Shapiro. Since Sassani created the Holocaust Education patch with help from the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, and wrote a related curriculum, more than 350 troop leaders have inquired how their troops can earn the patch.

p Lily Sassani

Photo courtesy of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh

Macher and Shaker

Jim Skirboll was recently named the 2026 ASCA/Fitter & Faster Age Group Coach of the Year for Small Clubs at the ASCA World Clinic in Orlando. Skirboll is the founder and head coach of Racer X Aquatics, an independent Pittsburgh-area swim program celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Racer X was also ranked the No. 1 age-group swim team in the United States in the small-team division for 2026. During the past decade, Racer X swimmers have broken five National Age Group records and 87 Allegheny Mountain Swimming records, with many continuing their careers at NCAA Division I programs.

p Jim Skirboll

Photo courtesy of Jim Skirboll

So much Sukkot spirit

Residents, friends and family joined a community living arrangement of The Branch for sukkah decorating.

p Raise the roof for holiday joy.

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Photo courtesy of The Branch

Macher and Shaker

Lenny Silberman was named CEO of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. In the role, Silberman will lead the organization’s work honoring Jewish athletes worldwide for their achievements in sports and their contributions to their communities. Silberman has spent nearly five decades working at the intersection of Jewish community life, youth development, sports, Israel and camp leadership.

p Lenny Silberman

File photo

Middle school mentors

Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh kicked off another year of its Middle School Mentors program. During the first meeting, mentors learned more about Friendship Circle’s mission and talked about the role they’ll play in the community this year. They also made their own mentor badges and took on a marshmallow and spaghetti challenge that put their teamwork and communication skills to the test.

p Bringing students together for leadership and inclusion

Photo courtesy of Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh

Paws-itive vibes

Hillel at Pitt students received a visit to campus from therapy dogs. Each week, as part of a new “Wellness Wednesday” initiative, Hillel JUC staffers bring a wellness activity to campus and encourage students to dedicate time for bolstering mental and physical well-being.

p Snuggles and smiles

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photo courtesy of Hillel JUC

OCTOBER 2, 2026

23

Pittsburgh Jewish Book Festival Congregation Beth Shalom October 18 - 25, 2026

PITTSBURGH JEWISH book festival

5915 Beacon St., Pittsburgh, PA 15217 | BethShalomPgh.org

Register at: BethShalomPgh.org or scan QR code.

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OCTOBER 2, 2026

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