By design, nearly 2,000 teenage Jewish athletes at the JCC Maccabi Campus Games fulfilled the promise of former hostage Mia Schem, who upon release from Hamas captivity declared, “We will dance again.”
Those words, which Schem inked on her arm with the date Oct. 7, 2023, were referenced by social media influencer Montana Tucker during her address to attendees of the Opening Ceremonies of the JCC Maccabi Campus Games.
“From the Maccabees who fought for our freedom thousands of years ago, to our grandparents who survived the Holocaust, to every single one of you standing here tonight, all of us in here are living proof of that spirit,” she said. Those who’ve come here are doing so “not just to compete, but to connect and celebrate and to show the world that Jewish spirit is stronger than ever, and that
we are people who dance again.”
Tucker’s remarks, delivered inside the University of Pittsburgh’s Petersen Events Center in Oakland on Aug. 4, were among a series of speeches imploring more than 3,000 participants to both promote Jewish joy and embrace the spirit of the Maccabi Games.
Established in 1982 as a North American Olympic-style sporting competition, the JCC Maccabi Games are the signature summer event for young Jewish athletes, according to Barak Hermann, president and CEO of the JCC Association of North America.
Since its inception, nearly 500,000 youth have participated in the Games, he said.
Samantha Cohen, senior vice president of JCC Maccabi, described her own experience 25 years ago as a British tennis player embarking on her first Maccabi experience.
Rabbi Daniel Fellman wasn’t surprised to find his “We Stand With Israel” sign vandalized the morning of July 31. It has been a frequent target of attacks.
“We’ve had that sign in the yard since the first rally (after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack in Israel),” said Fellman, senior rabbi of Temple Sinai. “That was almost two years ago, and we’ve had to replace it 20 to 25 times.”
This was the first time, though, a vandal switched the sign with one displaying a different message.
Fellman said he had recently placed a new, clean sign in his yard. When he looked at the sign on his way out the door the morning of July 31, he noticed his fresh, unsoiled sign was replaced with an older, dingy sign. In place of the word “Israel,” someone had taped a piece of paper that read “Genocide,” altering the sign to read, ”We Stand With Genocide.”
Jewish teen athletes join social media influencer Montana Tucker to dance on Aug. 4 during the Opening Ceremonies of the JCC Maccabi Campus Games. Photo by Adam Reinherz Alina / Adobe Stock
Rabbi Daniel Fellman’s sign in support of Israel was recently vandalized. In the last two years, he’s had to replace the sign nearly two dozen times after it was stolen.
Photo courtesy of Daniel Fellman
Headlines
90% mental, 10% physical: Seniors learn safety strategies from former officer
By Andrew Rich | Staff Writer
Using physical force is only 10% of a total self-defense equation, according to David Wright, a former police officer and an expert in Krav Maga. The key to defending yourself, he told a group of senior citizens, is mindset.
“Most of self-defense is the proactive steps you take prior to an event ever happening, to ensure an event doesn’t happen,” Wright said.
Wright was the instructor at a July 23 self-defense class for senior citizens at the South Hills Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. The event, a collabo ration between the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and Wright, gave seniors the opportunity to learn more about how to protect themselves.
Wright, who served as a police officer for 25 years, spent most of his life competing in combat sports but eventually made the transition to teaching, he said, feeling the call to “give back.”
“You’re not put on this earth to serve yourself,” he said, stressing the importance of “service over self.”
Throughout the two-hour session, about 30 seniors were introduced to new skills and new ways of thinking to help them protect themselves and maintain their safety at all times.
The training began with a PowerPoint presentation, introducing participants to common mistakes made by older adults and offering simple ways to address them. Wright discussed ways to ward against
a home invasion, practices to follow when one is out alone and key mental attitude changes that can enhance seniors’ safety.
“Positive thought breeds positive outcome,” he said. “A mindset that ‘I won’t be hurt, I will survive,’ will breed a positive outcome that you will survive, you will win.”
After discussing different scenarios and specific strategies, it was time for the participants to get on their feet and work on that 10% — fighting skills. Wright first taught the participants how to get into a fighting stance. He emphasized having a wide base as well as keeping hands high to protect your face.
Then it was time for some partner
work. Participants practiced getting into a fighting position with a partner while Wright came around and corrected form. He also demonstrated how to physically combat someone from various positions. Whether they are grabbing you from behind or approaching you from the front, Wright gave the best striking options for each.
Another point of emphasis was using your weight to your advantage. Having a wide stance will make you difficult to lift and manipulate. Also, the use of voice is critical, Wright said. As participants threw punches, they were instructed to yell as loud as they could, simulating a real-life situation.
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“Positive thought breeds positive outcome. A mindset that ‘I won’t be hurt, I will survive,’ will breed a positive outcome that you will survive, you will win.”
―DAVID WRIGHT
While this was not the first defense course offered in Pittsburgh sponsored by the Federation and Wright, it was the first one designed specifically for senior citizens. Federation previously has offered self-defense training classes for women, children and other groups.
South Hills resident Beverly Rowan took some new skills away from the session.
“I think the awareness is key for all of us,” Rowan said. “The stance and what works, what doesn’t work — very, very helpful.” PJC
Andrew Rich can be reached at arich@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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— LOCAL —
p David Wright teaches senior citizens some self-defense tactics at the South Hills JCC on July 23. Photo by Andrew Rich
By Andrew Rich | Staff Writer
Israel Day at Emma Kaufmann Camp
is a long-standing tradition allowing campers and staff to show off their pride for the Jewish homeland, as well as learn new things about Israel.
“Israel Day is one of the most fun and energy-filled days of the summer,” Emma Kaufmann Camp Director Aaron Cantor said. “Through music, food, games and storytelling, campers get to experience Israeli culture in fun and hands-on ways. It’s the highlight of the summer that helps deepen our campers’ connection to Jewish identity and community.”
Preparing for Israel day — which was held twice this summer, on June 25 and July 23 — is a collaborative effort that requires insight from seasonal Israeli staff members as well as logistical planning from the full-time EKC team. Pippa McGinley, EKC’s director of camp programming, leads the charge to make this day as special as possible every summer.
“I think the really unique part about our Israel Day programming is that we use the strength of our Israeli delegation, who visit every summer, to make it different every single year,” McGinley said.
The overall structure of Israel Day has remained the same over the years. In the morning, campers don their blue and white attire to show their Israel pride. After that, rotations around camp begin, where campers have the opportunity to participate in different Israelrelated activities. Kids ages 7-14 play Israeli children’s games. There is a pita-making station and Israeli line dancing, a crowd favorite.
“My favorite part is Israeli line dancing,” McGinley said. “I think it’s my favorite because the whole point of Israel Day for us is to share the love of Israeli culture and the love of Israel, and I think that’s a time when everybody just
New traditions and timeless pride shine at EKC’s annual Israel Day
some of the older campers get a chance to ask Israeli staff members anonymous questions. The goal is to spark deeper conversation and allow older campers to get a better understanding of how Israelis live.
Another new activity is letter writing to Israeli soldiers. Campers can design and write letters, which are sent to Israel and delivered to soldiers.
Planning for Israel Day starts as early as December. Then, when the Israeli staff arrive at camp, multiple meetings take place to ensure that Israel Day is truly representative of Israeli culture.
lets loose. … I’ve never gone up to that station and not seen a smile on somebody’s face.”
The Israeli line dancing activity has seen changes over the years. For example, this year, there is an Israeli staff member who has danced the hora for most of her life. With her help, the activity was less “Americanized” than it may have been in the past.
“The campers loved it,’ McGinley said. “She got to teach all about why they dance hora, not only in Judaism, but in Israel, and what it means to her,” McGinley said.
This year, EKC tried out a new activity for Israel Day: crumple questions. In this activity,
“We could just teach it ourselves during the year, but it’s really wonderful that we have such a large and strong Israeli delegation to give us the first-hand experiences of culture, life in Israel and what it means to be Israeli,” McGinely said.
Israel Day serves a special purpose at EKC, she explained.
“We always say we’re trying to make better humans,” McGinley said. “The connection to Israel is really important, and to see [the campers] enter a new layer of self-discovery, and feeling an even deeper sense of belonging than we already promote at camp, is just so heartwarming to watch. It makes all the hard work worth it.” PJC
Andrew Rich can be reached at arich@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Anemic Maccabi Games protest fails to score
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
The planned protest of a sports event for Jewish children yielded a meek turnout of anti-Israel activists and little interest from passersby.
Fewer than two dozen people initially gath ered Monday on the corners of Bigelow and Fifth avenues to protest the start of the JCC Maccabi Campus Games held, in part, on the University of Pittsburgh’s campus.
A small assembly of mostly young adults, mixed with a spattering of senior citizens, some wearing T-shirts with slogans supporting the Palestinian cause, carried homemade as well as professionally printed signs, along with Palestinian flags and banners sporting slogans such as “Shame.” A few of the participants wore safety vests and masks — like those worn during the pandemic — beneath the late day sun. By 5 p.m. the protesters swelled from the roughly two dozen that arrived at 4 p.m. to nearly 40. The anti-Israel extremists gathered in small groups on each of the four corners of the two roads in the city’s Oakland neighborhood, banging a few pans with wooden spoons, shouting pro-Palestinian — and at times, antisemitic — chants, and walking in an unorganized manner from one corner to another.
starvation, but had an ongoing medical condition — protesters also shouted slogans such as “Stop starving Gaza” and “Let Gaza live.”
year; the union has thus far been unable gather the requisite number of signatures to force the grocery store’s board to consider an initiative to boycott Israeli products. By 5 p.m. his petition sheet appeared to remain mostly
The lack of on-site support from Pittsburgh’s progressive community may have been a disappointment to organizers, who heavily promoted the protests on social media, including Pitt Apartheid Divest, Students for Justice in Palestine, BDS Pittsburgh, Party for Socialism and Liberalism, Pittsburgh Palestinian Coalition and Jewish Voice for Peace.
A day before the event, JVP published a screed on Instagram claiming the Maccabi Games’ “underlying purpose is to promote Jewish teens’ connections to and uncritical support of the state of Israel.” , young Israeli emissaries temporarily in Pittsburgh, because of the work they do in the community.
• Teaching teamwork, integrity and community service
No political message or statement of support of any Israeli political party is noted on the website.
Jason Kunzman, president and CEO of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, the Games’ host, told WESA, that about 70% of those who participate in the Maccabi Games do not engage in any other form of Jewish activity throughout the rest of the year.
“The Maccabi Games are an important on-ramp for Jewish engagement for this age cohort,” he said.
Shawn Brokos, Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh community security director, said the Federation was aware of the protests in advance and that there was a large law enforcement contingent in place.
“We’re grateful for that,” she said.
The Games’ guests and athletes had been briefed on the possibility of protests.
Organizers screamed from a megaphone — seeming to take particular interest in shouting in the direction of Maccabi Games attendees — the same chants heard at numerous rallies since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on mostly unarmed, Israeli civilians, including “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “Free, free Palestine.”
Hoping to gain sympathy from the situation in Gaza — including the dissemination of debunked images of a Palestinian boy who The New York Times claimed was a victim of
An occasional horn honked in support of the protest, but most people, traveling during rush hour, silently made their way along the neighborhood’s busy thoroughfare. Even those attending the Maccabi Games, who walked through the protest on their way to the opening ceremony, seemed unconcerned by the demonstration. One father was heard telling his children, “Oh look, how cute. Take a photo kids.”
Disparate groups of protesters attempted to promote their own causes — a few Jewish Voice for Peace activists wore shirts with various anti-Israel slogans, and a representative from UE Local 667, the union representing workers from the East End Food Co-op, attempted to gather signatures for a petition that’s been circulating for nearly a
JVP’s support of the protests and promotion of anti-Israeli and Jewish sentiment appears to violate its own directive. The group’s webpage claims that, “Attacking Jewish individuals or communal spaces for being Jewish or blaming the Jewish people for the actions of the Israeli government, is antisemitic and unacceptable and flatly contrary to the values of our movement. Our movement for justice in Palestine stands firm as an anti-racist movement, which of course includes opposing all acts of antisemitism.”
Established in 1982, the Maccabi Games is the largest Jewish youth event in the world, engaging nearly 2,000 teens and thousands of families. Its website lists its aims as:
• Providing a supportive environment fostering respect, sportsmanship and fun
• Instilling Jewish values and cultural pride
• Promoting health and fitness through sports
“We’ve been monitoring intelligence for a while, expecting that we would see at least one protest,” Brokos said.
Laura Cherner, Federation’s community relations council director, said it was an honor to host the Games and that Monday’s opening ceremony “set an uplifting and energizing tone for the week ahead.”
“While there was a small protest, it was nothing more than a brief and irrelevant footnote in what has already proven to be a joyful and powerful expression of Jewish pride and peoplehood,” Cherner said. “The best way the community can continue to support the teens participating in the games is to cheer them on at their events.”
The Maccabi Games continue through Aug. 8. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
p Campers and staff enjoy Isael Day at EKC
Photos by Claire Lipman
Games opening ceremony. Photo by David Rullo
‘A shell of himself,’ ‘This is starvation’: Ex-hostage, leaders appalled by video of captive
— WORLD —
By Times of Israel Staff
Former hostages and Israeli leaders reacted with shock and outrage Saturday night to new footage issued by terror groups of emaciated Israeli captives held in Gaza’s tunnels, as politicians accused Hamas of being the true culprit behind the hunger crisis in the enclave.
Former hostage Tal Shoham said he had been held with Evyatar David and other captives in the tunnel where David was seen in a video released by Hamas, and that off-camera, terrorists were enjoying air conditioning, cable television and “plenty of food” stolen from aid deliveries.
The footage of David, a clip of which his family approved for publication on Saturday, came after Palestinian Islamic Jihad released similarly harrowing propaganda footage of hostage Rom Braslavski. The clip of David showed him to be skeletal and digging what he said he feared was his grave.
Shoham spoke with Channel 12 as Israel accused Hamas of starving both the hostages and Gaza’s civilians, amid mounting international criticism of Israel over the humanitarian crisis in the Strip. Meanwhile, some members of the opposition assailed the government for failing to secure the hostages’ release.
‘Shocked to the depths of my soul’
Shoham, who was released in February as part of the last ceasefire-hostage deal with Hamas, said he had been held together with hostages David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, as well as fellow former hostage Omer Wenkert, in the tunnel that could be seen in the Hamas footage.
Shoham said Gilboa-Dalal was likely behind a blanket seen in the video that the Hamas captors had put up as a curtain.
“Behind the curtain they’ve put up, which is just one of the blankets we used, apparently Guy Gilboa-Dalal is standing or sitting, because they don’t let them go to a different tunnel,” said Shoham when asked what the video didn’t show.
“And right behind the cameraman, there’s an iron door, and a well-lit room, with air conditioners and a group of terrorists who sit and sleep there. They have cable TV; they have plenty of food — food they have stolen from the humanitarian supplies that Israel sent in for a very long time,” he said. “We could see that they were well fed, that they lacked for nothing. They also bragged about having stolen it, that they had months of supplies in that tunnel and all their tunnels.”
Shoham said his captors’ weight appeared to remain stable even as he lost 30 kilograms (66 pounds) in captivity: “We didn’t see them losing even a kilo.”
Shoham said he was “shocked to the depths of my soul” to see David’s condition in the new footage. “He is broken mentally, emotionally. I can’t see now any of the joy of life that he had managed to retain in his eyes,” said Shoham. “Really, it’s a shell of the Evyatar I knew.”
ostensible grave in the clip on the orders of his Hamas captors, “but I can see that he believes it. He really believes that [he and GilboaDalal] will end their life there.”
Shoham also recalled that Hamas had at one point filmed himself, Wenkert, David and Gilboa-Dalal being fed generously in a propaganda video shot shortly before he and Wenkert were released.
Another video later showed David and Gilboa-Dalal pleading for release while being forced to watch the propaganda ceremony where Shoham and Wenkert were handed over to the Red Cross.
Appealing to his former cellmates, Shoham said: “Hold on … I want to believe that the government will do the right thing very soon, free you, make a deal.” He also expressed hope that Hamas could be pressured “to give you food, because there’s food meters away.”
“Do everything you can to hold on,” said Shoham, “so that we can embrace you both at home, God-willing, soon.”
‘This is what starvation looks like’
Writing in several languages, including Hebrew, English, Arabic and French, President Isaac Herzog accused Hamas of starving the hostages and the people of Gaza
by “looting aid and blocking humanitarian deliveries, which Israel has worked with its international partners to increase.”
“Now Hamas spreads lies and libels, blaming Israel to exploit global compassion,” said Herzog on X. “Hamas rejoices as it succeeds in distracting the world from its own crimes against humanity.”
“The faces of hostages Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski say it all. Forced to dig their own graves. Tormented with execution. Starved, tortured, wasting away,” wrote Herzog. “This is pure cruelty. I urge world leaders: Demand the hostages’ release. Ensure aid reaches civilians — not terrorists. This is a test of humanity. Silence is not an option.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he’d spoken at length to the hostages’ families and “expressed to them my deep shock over the horrific footage.” He said he “told them in the clearest terms [that] we are continuing our efforts to bring back all the hostages — persistently, resolutely, and tirelessly.
“Hamas’ cruelty knows no bounds. While the State of Israel allows humanitarian aid into Gaza, Hamas terrorists deliberately starve our hostages, documenting them in a cynical, humiliating, and malicious way. They are also starving the residents of Gaza — deliberately.
They prevent them from receiving aid, then lie to the world and conduct a false propaganda campaign against Israel. I call on all the nations of the world — stand up against this Nazi-like abuse. Do not stand idly by. This is a moral test.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and fellow opposition party leaders demand global condemnation of Gaza’s terror groups for their treatment of the hostages they have held for the last 666 days.
In an English-language statement on X, Lapid shared a side-by-side comparison of Evyatar David before he was abducted from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, versus his appearance in a Hamas propaganda video in February of this year and finally in the latest clip.
“This is what starvation looks like,” Lapid declared. “The entire world should condemn the murderous terrorist organization Hamas, which is intentionally starving the Israeli hostages,” he wrote. “The entire world should join the call for the release of all the hostages. Now.”
Avigdor Liberman, the hawkish leader of Yisrael Beytenu, also opted to address the situation in English, writing on X that “Hamas is the devil incarnate.”
“Our hostages are being held as human shields in horrific conditions,” he stated. “As long as they are in Gaza, Hamas knows that the IDF’s hands are tied.”
He said Israel must first recover the remaining 50 hostages, and only then “can we win and destroy Hamas.”
Finally, National Unity-Blue and White chair Benny Gantz suggested to world leaders to reconsider their plans to recognize a Palestinian state.
“Instead of rewarding terror and recognizing an illusionary Palestinian state – how about you first look at reality for what it is,” he wrote on X, sharing a still image from the video of David.
Former IDF chief of staff and ex-National Unity MK Gadi Eisenkot said, “As chief of staff, I never imagined that there would come a day when we would see images of Jews dying and there would be no savior.”
He said that “Netanyahu and the ‘October 7’ cabinet ministers are responsible for an unforgivable failure, and for the failed management of the war that brought us to this point.”
He said David was doubtlessly digging the
Eisenkot demanded that ministers make the “Jewish, ethical, moral decision to immediately sign a hostage deal — a mprehensive one, even at the cost of a permanent ceasefire.”
Lapid notes that on the agenda for the upcoming weekly cabinet meeting was “for the seven-thousandth time: a discussion about threats to the prime minister’s life.” Absent from the agenda, he said, was any discussion on the hostages or about negotiations for their release.
I obviously condemn any threat to the prime minister’s life, but he is the most secure person in Israel,” said Lapid. “I suggest replacing this topic with a discussion about the far more real threats to the life of
Evyatar David.” PJC
p Hamas-held hostage Evyatar David filmed digging what he says he fears will be his own grave in a tunnel in Gaza, in a Hamas propaganda video that his family cleared for publication on Aug. 2, 2025 Video screenshot
p A still of hostage Evyatar David taken from a Hamas propaganda video released on Aug. 1, 2025 Image courtesy of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum
José P. Zevallos, MD Head and Neck Surgeon
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.
FRIDAY, AUG. 8
Women are invited to bake and shape flower challahs at Chabad of Squirrel Hill’s Loaves of Love. 10 a.m. $12. 1700 Beechwood Blvd. chabadpgh.com/lol.
SUNDAY, AUG. 10
Join the Jewish Cemetery & Burial Association of Greater Pittsburgh as it honors those laid to rest this past year during a community unveiling at the Chesed Shel Emeth Free Burial Cemetery, o ciated by Rabbi Eli Seidman. The sacred service includes prayers and remembrance in the spirit of kavod ha-met (honoring the deceased). 11 a.m. 309 Oakwood Street, 15209. jcbapgh.org.
Join the Jewish Cemetery & Burial Association for a community book burial (Genizah) as it honors the tradition of burying sacred Jewish texts and ritual objects. Items will not be accepted the day of burial; call the JCBA at 412-553-6469 for drop-o dates and locations. Noon. Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery, 309 Oakwood Street. jcbapgh.org.
SUNDAYS, AUG. 10–DEC. 28
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.
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.
MONDAYS, AUG. 11–SEPT. 29
Join the 10.27 Healing Partnership for Roll for Insight: Community-Building Role-Playing Games. Meet every other week to connect and grow with new friends through playing tabletop roleplaying games designed to inspire emotional depth. They will use RPGs to explore the intersection of identity, emotional resiliency and games to fight isolation and disconnection, and to meet new people and form friendships. Free. No experience required. 16 and up. 5:30 p.m. Jewish Community Center, 5738 Forbes Ave. 1027healingpartnership.org/ rpg-club.
MONDAYS, AUG. 11–DEC. 29
Join Congregation Beth Shalom for a weekly Talmud study. 9:15 a.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org.
Join Temple Sinai for an evening of mahjong every Monday (except holidays). Whether you are just starting out or have years of experience, you are sure to enjoy the camaraderie and good times as you make new friends or cherish moments with long-term pals. All are welcome. Winners will be awarded Giant Eagle gift cards. All players should have their own mahjong cards. Contact Susan Cohen at susan_k_cohen@yahoo.com if you have questions. $5. templesinaipgh.org.
WEDNESDAYS, AUG. 13–DEC. 31
Temple Sinai’s Rabbi Daniel Fellman presents a weekly Parshat/Torah portion class on site and online. Call 412-421-9715 for more information and the Zoom link.
Bring the parashah alive and make it personally relevant and meaningful with Rabbi Mark Goodman in this weekly Parashah Discussion: Life & Text 12:15 p.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org/life-text.
THURSDAY, AUG. 14
The Summer Soirée is back. Join Chabad Young
Professionals of Pittsburgh for a rooftop celebration of friendship, connection and Jewish pride. Sip, mingle and take in the sunset with panoramic views, an open bar and the kind of vibe you wish every summer night had. Good people. Great energy. One unforgettable night. $30. 7 p.m. Over Eden Rooftop Bar. cyppittsburgh.com/summer.
SUNDAY, AUG. 17
Bring a friend and join Hadassah for its Evolve Kickoff event, a fun afternoon of building a new Hadassah presence in Pittsburgh for women in their 20s to 50s. Enjoy a selection of pareve refreshments, learn about Evolve and make new friends. 1 p.m. Address sent with registration. hadassah.org/get-involved/ evolve-young-women.
FRIDAY, AUG. 22
Gather in Rodef Shalom’s Biblical Garden for a 20s and 30s Kabbalat Shabbat. Get to know other young Jewish professionals and close out the week with apps, wine and great company. Registration required. 7 p.m. 4905 Fifth Ave. rodefshalom.org/lateshabbat.
Join Chabad of the South Hills for Baby Loves Shabbat, music and movement for ages 0 to 3. Challah making and Shabbat songs. 3:45 p.m. 1701 Bower Hill Road. chabadsh.com.
SUNDAY, AUG. 24
Join Chabad of the South Hills for Tee Off Together, a fun afternoon at Top Golf. 1 p.m. 400 Presto-Sygan Road, 15017. chabadsh.com/golf.
TUESDAYS, AUG. 26-SEPT. 16
Tree of Life Congregation will be o ering a series of four classes to prepare for the upcoming High Holidays. In these sessions led by Rabbi J e rey Myers, attendees will view the film “Bruce Almighty,” followed by discussion questions. Free. 7 p.m. Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave. treeoflifepgh.org.
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 3
Join Rodef Shalom Congregation for Biblical Garden Open Door Tours: free, docent-led tours of the congregation’s Biblical Botanical Garden the first Wednesday of the month. 12:15 p.m.. 4905 Fifth Avenue. rodefshalom.org/garden.
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 3, 8, 15
Join JFCS for Lunch & Learn: Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE), a three-part series designed to empower parents and guardians with skills, tools and confidence to support children with anxiety. All sessions are open to parents/guardians of school age children aged 7-18 still living in the home with a recognized anxiety disorder. Free. 1 p.m. Virtual through Zoom, link provided with registration. jfcspgh.org/event/lunch-learn-supportiveparenting-for-anxious-child.
SUNDAY, SEPT. 7
Join Chabad of the South Hills for Jewish New York. Visit the Rebbe’s resting place, enjoy a Crown Heights tour, shopping, Chabad world headquarters and a delicious kosher restaurant. Flight and dinner purchased individually. $125. chabadsh.com/jny.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 9
Join StandWithUs for its Pittsburgh Community Reception. Speakers and honorees include keynote speaker Luai Ahmed, student honorees Miriam Levari and Harrison Romero, community honoree the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle and a conversation with Rona Kaufman. 5:30 p.m. Location given upon registration. standwithus.com/2025pittsburgh-event.
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 10
The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh presents “Inseparable: A Presentation by Holocaust Survivor Marion Lewin.” Born in Holland, Lewin survived the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen with her parents and twin brother. One of a handful of families who survived the Holocaust intact, they arrived in New York City in 1947. Today Marion and her brother, according to available data, are the only surviving twins of the Holocaust. 6:30 p.m. Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave. hcofpgh.org/ event/save-the-date-presentation-by-marion-lewin.
MONDAY, SEPT. 15
Join Chabad of the South Hills for Ladies PreHigh Holiday Fashion Show, an elegant evening where Torah wisdom meets trending style. Delicious refreshments served. 7 p.m. $10 in advance/$15 at the door. The Grey Parrot, 320 Castle Shannon Blvd. Chabadsh.com/ladies. PJC
Join the Chronicle Book Club!
The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle invites you to join the Chronicle Book Club for its Oct. 19 discussion of “Sons and Daughters,” by Chaim Grade.
From Amazon.com: “Originally serialized in the 1960s and 1970s in New York–based Yiddish newspapers, Chaim Grade’s ‘Sons and Daughters’ is a precious glimpse of a way of life that is no longer — the rich Yiddish culture of Poland and Lithuania that the Holocaust would eradicate. We meet the Katzenellenbogens in the tiny village of Morehdalye, in the 1930s, when gangs of Poles are beginning to boycott Jewish merchants and the modern, secular world is pressing in on the shtetl from all sides. It’s this clash, between the freethinking secular life and a life bound by religious duty — and the comforts offered by each — that stands at the center of ‘Sons and Daughters.’”
Your hosts
Toby Tabachnick, Chronicle editor
David Rullo, Chronicle senior staff writer
How it works
We will meet on Zoom on Sunday, Oct. 19, at 1 p.m.
What to do
Buy: “Sons and Daughters.” It is available at some area Barnes & Noble stores and
from online retailers, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It is also available through the Carnegie Library system.
Email: Contact us at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org, and write “Chronicle Book Club” in the subject line. We will send you a Zoom link for the discussion meeting. PJC
— Toby Tabachnick
Headlines
In a first, Arab League countries condemn Oct. 7 attack, call on Hamas to disarm
The 22-nation Arab League has signed onto a declaration that condemns Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and calls on Hamas to disarm, JTA reported.
The league includes Qatar and Egypt, which have served as mediators in talks between Israel and Hamas during the subsequent war in Gaza. It also includes Turkey, which has adopted a stance of overt hostility toward Israel during the war.
The league joined the entire European Union and 17 other countries in backing the declaration at a United Nations meeting hosted by Saudi Arabia and France. The meeting’s goal included discussion of a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an objective that not all Arab League states had previously endorsed.
Record
number of Senate Democrats vote to block US weapons sales to Israel
A record number of Senate Democrats, representing a majority of the caucus, last week voted in favor of two resolutions blocking U.S. military sales to Israel, JTA reported.
The vote tally, including several senators who had not previously voted against such aid, underscores an apparent decline in support for Israel within the party.
The resolutions were sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Jewish Vermont Independent who has long been critical of U.S. aid for Israel. Twenty-seven Senate Democrats voted for at least one of them.
The first, which was defeated 27-70, sought to block the sale of tens of thousands of assault rifles. The second resolution, which would have blocked the sale of $675.7 million of bombs and other materials to Israel, was defeated 24-73.
Eight of the senators who voted for at least one of the resolutions had not supported past efforts to cut off aid to Israel. They were Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island; Patty Murray of Washington; Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware; Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin; Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota; Tammy Duckworth of Illinois; and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland.
A recent poll found that among Democratic voters, just 8% now say they approve of Israel’s war in Gaza, a share that has fallen by 28 points since the beginning of the war.
The decline is starker among young Democrats. Last month, the Young Democrats of America, the youth wing of the Democratic Party, narrowly passed an amendment to its foreign policy plank opposing the “Israeli government’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene calls Gaza war a ‘genocide,’ likely the first Republican lawmaker to do so
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right Georgia Republican who has previously
Today in Israeli History
Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.
candy maker from Poland recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s oldest living man, dies in Haifa one month before his 114th birthday.
advocated against U.S. funding to Israel and been accused of antisemitism, appeared to be the first Republican in Congress to call Israel’s war in Gaza a “genocide, ” JTA reported.
“It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct. 7 in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza,” Greene said in a post on X last week.
Greene’s statements came as part of a barrage of criticism aimed at fellow Rep. Randy Fine, a Jewish Florida Republican and one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in the House, over his recent comments on social media about the conflict.
“There is no starvation. Everything about the ‘Palestinian’ cause is a lie,” Fine wrote in a post on X. Last month, Fine also posted, “release the hostages. Until then, starve away.”
Greene posted that a “Jewish U.S. Representative calling for the continued starvation of innocent people and children is disgraceful,” and argued that his statement will “actually cause more antisemitism.”
The largest of the Jewish groups, like Israel, are adamant that the war in Gaza does not meet the legal definition of genocide, and that such comparisons are meant to denigrate and delegitimize Israel.
If Greene’s comments reflect a growing split among Republican lawmakers, it is not reflected in the grass roots: A recent Gallup poll found that the proportion of Republicans who approve of Israel’s actions in Gaza, 71%, is at the same level today as it was the month after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Canada joins France and UK in saying it will recognize Palestinian state in September
Canada, too, will recognize a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly in September as long as certain conditions are met, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced last week, JTA reported.
The move adds Canada to the United Kingdom and France as major world powers to announce plans to recognize a Palestinian state this week, marking a sea change among countries with significant Jewish populations. (Malta also announced recognition on Wednesday.) The moves offer a powerful symbol that some of Israel’s allies believe that a negotiated peace is currently out of reach.
As with France, Canada’s recognition is dependent on assurances from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, which Carney indicated he had gotten, to hold elections next year for the first time in two decades and to exclude Hamas from the elections and any future governance. Unlike British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Carney did not make recognition dependent on Hamas’ release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. (Starmer is also requiring Israel to end its fighting in Gaza.)
Israel staunchly opposes the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state and panned Carney’s move as rewarding terrorism. Iddo Moed, Israel’s ambassador to Canada, said in a TV interview, “We will not give in to that pressure because this is our security.” PJC
— Compiled by Toby
Tabachnick
p Avraham EvenShoshan is shown with the first edition of his dictionary. National Library of Israel
Aug. 8, 1984 — Linguist Avraham Even-Shoshan dies Hebrew linguist and lexicographer Avraham Even-Shoshan dies at 77 in Tel Aviv. From 1946 to 1958, he worked on the New Dictionary of the Hebrew Language, now known as the EvenShoshan Dictionary.
Aug. 9, 2006 — Wider offensive Is approved in Second Lebanon War Israel’s Security Cabinet approves an expansion of the offensive in southern Lebanon nearly a month into the Second Lebanon War against Hezbollah. A U.N.-brokered ceasefire ends the war five days later.
Aug. 10, 1920 — Treaty dissolves Ottoman Empire World War I’s victors and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Sevres to break up the empire. The treaty incorporates the Balfour Declaration’s call for a Jewish national home in Palestine.
Aug. 11, 2017 — Holocaust survivor dies as world’s oldest man Holocaust survivor Yisrael Kristal, an artisan
Aug. 12, 1944 — Labor leader Berl Katznelson dies Labor Zionist leader Berl Katznelson dies of a hemorrhage in Jerusalem at 57. He developed the concept of the moshav and created a program for labor unity that served as the basis for the Mapai party.
p Berl Katznelson helped build the infrastructure of Labor Zionism in prestate Palestine.
Aug. 13, 1942 — Eurovisionwinning composer Nurit Hirsch is born Nurit Hirsch, a musician and composer, is born in Tel Aviv. With Ehud Manor’s lyrics, she writes Israel’s first Eurovisionwinning song, “A-Ba-Ni-Bi,” performed by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta in 1978.
Aug. 14, 1944 — U.S. refuses to bomb death camps
U.S. Assistant War Secretary John J. McCloy notifies Leon Kubowitzki of the World Jewish Congress that the U.S. military has decided not to bomb Nazi death camps and their infrastructure even though it could. PJC
Back to School
Beth Samuel Jewish Center Religious School
We belong because…
…I want my kids to be proud of their Jewish heritage.
…my kids are the only Jews in their class.
…otherwise, the only other Jews my kids would know are family.
…dealing with antisemitism is easier with friends & community.
About Beth Samuel Jewish Center
Beth Samuel Jewish Center is an intimate, diverse, and welcoming community that brings together Jewish and multifaith families to play, pray, and learn together. We serve families in the north-western suburbs of Pittsburgh, including Sewickley, Moon, and the Ohio River valley.
Beth Samuel Jewish Center, 810 Kennedy Drive, Ambridge, PA 15003 https://bethsamuel.org 724-266-5238
About Beth Samuel Religious School
Our school creates a space for kids to embrace their Jewishness and feel connected to Jewish peers. It serves kids in kindergarten through Bar/Bat Mitzvah, in small classes that focus on Jewish culture and history, Hebrew decoding, and prayer and ritual. One-on-one tutoring supports children in the year leading up to their Bar/Bat Mitzvah.
Once-a-week classes on Sundays @ 9 a.m.–12 noon, September–May. School begins September 7.
Photo courtesy of Pexels
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Back to School
personalized digital assignments.
Adopting the new curriculum was spurred by data and parent feedback, according to Casey Weiss, CDS’ head of school.
“It became very clear to me that students were not hitting benchmarks, as far as their modern Hebrew fluency,” she said. “Parents, every year on the survey, say, ‘I wish my child would speak Hebrew fluently,’ or ‘I wish my child will have a better handle on it.’ I really saw this as an opportunity to pilot something and try something new.”
After learning about Niflaot, Weiss sent a delegation of Hebrew instructors to Boston for a five-day immersive seminar.
Ronit Pasternak, a CDS administrator and head of Hebrew and Jewish learning at the school, traveled with the group and said Niflaot provides students a three-year plan to develop “speaking, listening, reading and comprehension skills.”
After discussing the curriculum with educators who’ve implemented it, Pasternak said she was impressed by students’ abilities to master Hebrew through “role-playing, conversations, singing and interactive activities.”
One of the curriculum’s strengths is its flexibility, she said. “The program is structured in a way that allows teachers to adapt and differentiate instruction, ensuring that each student receives the support and challenge they need.”
benefit stems from its helical nature. “It’s designed to revisit key skills and themes over time with increasing depth and complexity.”
Weiss, Pasternak and Levy would like to see CDS students achieve Hebrew proficiency during their years at the Jewish day school.
Reaching that end would be impressive, as merely 2% of American Jewish adults described their Hebrew fluency as being “completely fluent or native language,” according to a 2021 American Jewish Committee survey.
Effortlessly swapping sentences in Hebrew about food or singing songs about trains is great, but the real goal, CDS educators said, is for students to speak fluently while traveling in Israel at the end of eighth grade.
The multi-week visit, which was canceled due to war the past two years, is the “culmination of a student’s experience here,” Weiss said. Eighth grade excursions feel lightyears away from first grade classrooms, but the building blocks are necessary, Pasternak explained.
“Beyond language acquisition, Niflaot weaves in authentic exposure to Israeli culture” through instruction about “customs, holidays and daily life of Israel,” she said. The goal may be ambitious, but the hope with this new curriculum, is that students develop a greater “sense of belonging to the wider Jewish world.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at arein-
BETH SHALOM EARLY LEARNING CENTER
At Beth Shalom Early Learning Center, we recognize the importance of the early years in a child’s development and acknowledge the impact that a quality early education experience can have on a child’s future success. We believe that each child is a unique individual, who is continually shaped by their social and cultural environments.
OPEN MONDAY- FRIDAY 8AM TO 5PM
Back to School
Jewish day schools tackle hunger with compassion and care
day is one challenge. Providing food at home is another.
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Sta Writer
As students return to freshly painted classrooms, smiling teachers and a year of learning opportunities, a grim reality remains: Many young people are hungry.
Nationwide, 18% of households with children experienced food insecurity in 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Within Allegheny County, 1 in 6 children “may not have enough food,” the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank reported.
The heads of Pittsburgh’s three Jewish day schools each said they are aware of the numbers and challenges faced when students lack sustenance.
“Kids need to have sleep, they need to have shelter and they need to be really well fed in order to learn for the day,” Casey Weiss, CDS’ head of school, said, while referencing Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
The 82-year-old theory, introduced by psychologist Abraham Maslow, suggests that individuals take a bottom-up approach to meeting human needs: One requires food and clothing before achieving friendship or self-esteem.
For educators, the concept is of “fundamental” importance, Weiss said. “We really work hard at the school to ensure that kids’ needs are met.”
The relationship between hunger and student achievement is well documented.
Indiana University researchers noted hungry students “suppress all other higher-order needs, including active engagement in the learning process.” Even when those learners “motivate themselves to engage in the learning process, they face fundamental physiological barriers preventing them from active participation in the learning process.”
When students come to school hungry they experience difficulty paying attention and regulating behavior; the result, researchers said, is a “disorderly and less effective learning environment for all students, even those not experiencing hunger.”
Schools respond
About 1 in 5 Pittsburgh residents “struggle to have healthy, adequate and culturally appropriate food,” according to city estimates.
Levari, whose tenure at the Jewish day school stretches nearly two decades, said a program dedicated in memory of a former student helps offset the challenges of food insecurity.
“Fayth Aronson Berkowitz was well known for giving of her time and giving of her food whenever there was a happy or sad occasion,” Levari said.
After the Hillel graduate died, her recipes were compiled into a cookbook. Students, parents and former teachers wished to perpetuate the legacy and built a program around the cookbook’s theory.
“People always need food and Fayth never stopped cooking,” Levari said.
Tomchei Shabbos, which translates to “supporters of the Sabbath,” was created to ensure families would have adequate meals on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.
The program, which functions anonymously, provides participants with baskets of food, including challah, chicken, meat and vegetables.
“On holidays, there might be something extra,” Levari said.
Those additional items, whether brownies or cookies, are prepared using the cookbook’s recipes and are often baked by high school students.
The beauty of the program, Levari explained, is its discretion and commitment to respect. There are times when students work on the project, and they know they’re the recipients of Tomchei Shabbos; but whether they are the ones preparing food for themselves or others, “there are no questions asked,” Levari said. “I’ve been very impressed.”
Rabbi Yossi Rosenblum, CEO and head of school at Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh, said the biggest challenges he sees stem from out-of-school hunger.
“We serve breakfast and lunch at Yeshiva for free,” he said. As for high school students, “they get dinner as well. It’s more of an issue on Shabbos, holidays and weekends.”
CDS has adopted several approaches to combatting student hunger, including free lunches, meal trains and the availability of snacks.
“One thing we recognized early on was the importance of providing hot kosher lunch for free to everyone in our early childhood programs through transitional kindergarten,” Weiss said.
Additionally, when cases of hardship are brought to educators’ attention, meal trains are quietly organized and food is often left on families’ doorsteps, she continued.
Within the building, snacks are readily available.
“It’s not about who has food at home or who does not,” Weiss said. “Kids know that at all times they can come to our main office, get a granola bar or get a bag of pretzels. There’s always an opportunity for kids to come get an extra snack no matter what.”
Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh provides a daily lunch program to support students in need, according to interim head of school Yikara Levari. Money is raised through private donations and “it’s taken care of.”
Keeping students fed throughout the
The Squirrel Hill-based school, which operates a Greenfield branch, partners with organizations, including The Aleph Institute and Our Giving Kitchen to ensure families have access to food.
Additionally, school-led committees regularly organize meal trains for families, Rosenblum said.
Empty plates, shared responsibility
Throughout the year, leaders of the city’s three day schools meet regularly; issues affecting one school often affect the others.
More than 1,700 local residents are “facing food insecurity and struggling to put enough food on their tables,” according to the JFCS Squirrel Hill Food Pantry.
When it comes to addressing hungry students there’s a shared approach, Weiss explained.
“We really do everything in our power to act with confidentiality and kavod, just respect for each family,” she said. “I think that all three Jewish day schools do an exemplary job of ensuring that all of those needs are met, for all of our children, daily.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Back to School Protecting children in a digital age
By Family Features
Keeping a watchful eye on your kids requires an increasing level of tech savvy many parents find intimidating. Not only are your kids vulnerable to bad actors online, but your family’s personal information could be at risk, as well.
Learn how to protect your children and family in this digital age with these tips:
Elementary-age children
• Encourage open communication. Have conversations about what your kids see and do online and talk with them about potential dangers. Avoid lecturing in favor of an open exchange of information.
• Make their inherent interest in privacy work in your favor. Kids in this age group, particularly toward the middle school years, understand the concept of privacy and value it immensely. Use that context to help them understand what goes online is there to stay. Talk about what kinds of information should always be kept private, including identifying details like addresses and social security numbers.
• Stay on alert. Not all apps are completely safe (even the ones you can access from trusted stores) and not all filters are
foolproof. Keep close tabs on what your kids are downloading by reading comments and reviews, and regularly monitoring what kind of content they see.
Middle school and high school kids
• Continue talking about privacy. You can never have too many conversations about privacy. What seems like harmless sharing on social media can be quite revealing. For example, frequent posts about visits to
a favorite store or restaurant can allow a predator to begin tracking behavior patterns that make your child a target. It’s also important for kids to understand how their privacy settings work. For example, settings that allow exposure to friends of friends make their visibility to strangers much broader than they may realize.
• Help manage their online reputation. Behaviors that once resulted in a day or two of hallway chatter can now live forever.
Documenting mischief online is only fun until it spills over into real life and everyone sees those mistakes in full color — including prospective future employers.
• Be clear about your position on bullying. From the safe distance of a screen, it’s easier for kids (and adults) to say things they’d never say in person. Teach your kids to handle problems constructively offline and avoid engaging in attacks on others through social media, email and other platforms.
College students
• Reinforce the risks. Once they’re on their own, kids may feel more liberated to make their own choices online. However, college students are easy prey for identity theft and worse. Remind them what’s at stake if they fail to protect their identity and private information, like where they live and what they do on a regular basis.
• Teach smart practices. With all the independence that comes with college life, this is an ideal time for your student to take personal responsibility for his or her online security, including learning about virus protection, updating software, avoiding scams and backing up data.
If you’re looking for more practical advice for everyday family matters, visit eLivingtoday.com. PJC
BACK TO SCHOOL
Photo courtesy of Getty Images
Thanks to volunteers, JCC staff contributed
CO-CHAIRS
Stefani Pashman and Jeremy
Dory and David Levine
Linda S. Simon
STEERING COMMITTEE
Eric Anish
Marshall Balk
Deborah Baron
Bev Block
Shawn Brokos
Erica and Hal Co ey
Andrea Ehrenreich
Je Felser
Karen Fortney
Karen Galor
Rachel Golden
Steve Hausman
Vicky Ho man
Teddi and David Horvitz
Jenny Jones
Carole Katz
Joelle Keats
to our wonderful co-chairs, sponsors, committees, volunteers, athletes and their families, coaches, spectators, and everyone in the Pittsburgh community who
contributed to the
2025 JCC Maccabi Campus Games.
LEADING SPONSORS
Jeremy Feinstein
Eric Kroll
Dana Kunzman
Robin Lebovitz
Karen Levitt
Alan Mallinger
Daniel Marcus
Liz Miller
Richard Pattis
Todd Reidbord
Alisa Paul
Stacey Seewald
Kevin Shevitz
Evan H. Stein
Michael Steinberg
Doug and Deb Taylor
Marcie Weinstein
The Chait Family
Dr. Stanley and Nikol Marks
Deborah and Lloyd Myers
Nancy and Woody Ostrow
Erica and Billy Goodman
Rita and Andrew Rabin
Todd Reidbord
Andrew and Nicole Ross Charitable Trust
Sylvia and Martin Snow Family Fund
Stacey and Scott Seewald
Lori and Bob Shure
Linda S. Simon
The Wimmer Family Foundation
Anti-Israel activists show true colors by targeting teenage Jewish athletes
It’s hard not to despair these days, with reports of antisemitic incidents coming from all over the world, and on a daily basis. From a local rabbi’s “We Stand With Israel” sign being replaced with one accusing him of “genocide” (see story on Page 1), to attacks on synagogues worldwide, the headlines in the Jewish press are alarming.
So it’s essential to celebrate Jewish joy when we can, the resilience of our people, our culture and heritage.
That’s one reason why we were delighted that Pittsburgh was serving as host city to the JCC Maccabi Campus Games, an Olympicstyle event for Jewish teenagers to showcase not only their athletic prowess, but their Jewish pride and connection. While we went to press before the Games concluded, we could see in just the first two days the positive impact on Jewish Pittsburgh, and on the 2,000 children from North America, Ukraine, Israel, Mexico, Great Britain, Argentina and Poland, who came together in competition and community.
The Maccabi Games are not political, but rather a robust opportunity to celebrate
identity and infuse the joy of peoplehood in the younger generation.
But local haters couldn’t stand to let Jews do that.
Instead, several anti-Israel groups, such as Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish
The post continued: “This attempt to deflect attention from Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinians cannot be whitewashed with such propagandistic efforts to portray Israel as a normal country instead of what it is in actuality, an oppres-
The Maccabi Games are not political, but rather a robust opportunity to celebrate identity and infuse the joy of peoplehood in the younger generation.
Voice for Peace and the Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee, promoted a protest of the Games — and in doing so, showed their true colors.
On social media, pro-Palestinian organizations urged a wide protest of the Games on Monday, accusing Maccabi of being “part of a growing trend of sportswashing, where governments and allied institutions utilize international sporting events to enhance their image and conceal their misdeeds.”
sive ethnocracy.” What?
The teen athletes who came to Pittsburgh have nothing to do with the war between Hamas and Israel. They are children playing sports while showing their ethnic pride.
We don’t think it’s the sports that troubles the haters; it’s the ethnic pride.
And that’s where these anti-Israel miscreants have crossed the Rubicon from being purportedly anti-Israel to being
bluntly anti-Jewish.
We need to call this what it is.
It is antisemitism and it is unacceptable.
Shame on these illiberal agitators for aspiring to throw cold water on Jewish teens playing soccer and baseball.
As it turns out, the number of protesters was anemic; in the first hour of the scheduled protest fewer than two dozen people showed up to intimidate the Jewish kids and their families who came to Pittsburgh to enjoy a sense of Jewish community. About 40 protesters showed up a bit later. They banged pots and pans and shouted, “Free Palestine.”
The Games proceeded as planned, with opening ceremonies Monday night showcasing Jewish peoplehood as delegations from various corners of the world took the stage amid applause from the thousands of spectators who had come to cheer them on.
But we shouldn’t forget the racist activity that transpired in Pittsburgh this week. Any pretense that these local pro-Palestinian groups are motivated solely by social justice issues and geopolitics has been stripped away irrefutably.
By going after children playing ball, they crossed a line. PJC
Editor’s note:
On Aug. 1, a paid advertisement appeared in the Chronicle titled “An Urgent Open Letter to the Pittsburgh Jewish Community.” In response, we received many letters criticizing the ad. As several of those letters expressed similar viewpoints, a sampling of those letters follows. Well-meaning, deeply misguided: A response to the ‘Urgent Open Letter’”
In the Chronicle’s Aug. 1 issue, some members of the Pittsburgh community purchased space for an advertisement calling it an “Urgent Open Letter to the Pittsburgh Jewish Community.” The letter starts off with an openly political statement: “Corrupt Netanyahu.” From the start, I figured it would be a one-sided blame game advertisement. But the tone of the letter and its statements would make Hamas proud, and it reads like it should be remembered alongside the infamous October 2023 Harvard student organization letter blaming Israel for the Gaza war.
The goals of the letter are admirable and I cannot think of anyone in our community who would not want a permanent end to the war, surging aid to Gazans and bringing the hostages home. But everything above those bullets in the letter is a one-sided blame of Israel.
There’s no mention of Hamas’ interference with aid delivery or the complacent approach and failure of the U.N. to distribute aid. The number and identity of those killing people trying to get aid is questionable, but do these letter signers accept Hamas Health Ministry numbers? The letter’s signatories seem to be swallowing the misinformation and media distortions on the situation in Gaza. They even state that some of their sources are The New York Times and NBC, whose reporting has been often biased or false. Twice, the Times pushed false news, inflaming the situation and hampering the chance for peace. Recall the recent photo of a starving child who has a significant illness — and a very healthy well fed mom; and the hot off the press false news early in the war that Israel bombed a hospital when it was an Islamic Jihad rocket.
Over the past few days it has become clearer there was plenty of aid in U.N. hands that was not getting distributed. And just last weekend Israel agreed to a ceasefire that Hamas refused.
Even the Arab nations finally called for Hamas to be disbanded.
Israel and Jews are facing a death cult of evil and Westerners’ standards of diplomacy and negotiation are not in the Hamas playbook. I know my communal leaders would love peace, too, but not at the expense of Israel’s survival, which is surely in line with Torah values.
Rocky Wice Squirrel Hill
The ‘Open Letter’ signatories are misguided pawns of terrorist rhetoric
It’s ironic that the signers of the “Open Letter to the Jewish Community” (paid advertisement, Aug. 1) have the chutzpa to publish such propaganda. First of all, if they don’t like Bibi Netanyahu as the leader of Israel, they are free to make aliyah and become part of Israeli society and vote their conscience. The electorate of Israel spoke and Bibi is their leader.
Second, Gaza was handed over to the so-called Palestinian people in 2005. They had every opportunity to show the world they could build a society and live in peace with Israel. Instead,
they elected a terrorist organization. Hamas has spent billions building a tunnel network under the Gaza Strip. They hide in hospitals, schools, behind women and children, and in houses of worship. They have fired thousands of rockets at Israel over the years, and on Oct. 7, 2023, they launched an attack killing more than 1,200 people and kidnapping more than 250. Israel has every right to fight back and eliminate Hamas and all terrorist threats. The civilian casualties are the fault of Hamas and its allies, not Israel. This war can end now if Hamas releases all hostages and goes into exile.
The food aid Israel sends is hijacked by Hamas and sold to fund their war. The fact that they cannot steal any more will only help in their defeat. Where is their humanity?
The signatories of the Open Letter are ignorant of history and are just repeating Hamas’ propaganda. They are but pawns. Andrew Neft Upper St. Clair
Let’s stand with Israel — not join the chorus of condemnation
Last week’s Chronicle had me wondering if I had accidentally picked up The New York Times. Israel is subject to a massive propaganda campaign, rooted in antisemitism, the success of which was in full evidence in the Chronicle. On Page 7 there appeared a full-page article on the starvation in Gaza, giving little credence to Israel’s assertion that there is no starvation. On Page 8 was a full-page ad calling for a ceasefire, increased aid and bringing the hostages home. On Page 13 a letter urged Pittsburghers to contact elected officials to demand a ceasefire.
A ceasefire now will leave Hamas with weapons, rockets and tunnel infrastructure, able to regroup and massacre again. After 22 months, Hamas still shoots rockets into Israel. So, Israel continues to fight, despite its soldiers being killed and severely injured — something never reported in the mainstream media. While all Israelis want to see the hostages home and an end to the war, polls show that most Israelis do not want it at any cost. There has been a high price paid to degrade Hamas. Most Israelis do not want to have to pay it again.
Civilian casualties are heartbreaking. However, all casualties are attributable to Hamas. They started this war and have purposefully kept civilians in harm’s way. Tragically, since the enemy’s stated goal is Israel’s destruction, Israel must eliminate Hamas, no matter the toll.
There is no mass starvation in Gaza. The only real starvation is that of the hostages being held by Hamas. Israel has facilitated the delivery of massive amounts of aid. There has never been an army expected to provide food and fuel to its enemy civilians. And here it is known that Hamas is stealing the aid!
A front-page story in the Times seared into the world’s brain a picture of an emaciated Palestinian child whose condition was not caused by starvation, but which they showed as proof of Israel’s cruelty. The retraction did not come close to undoing the damage. Be on the lookout for pictures of our skeletal hostages on the front page. But don’t hold your breath.
Please see Letters, page 15
Chronicle poll results: Food shortage in Gaza
Last week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an online poll the following question:
“Who is responsible for the reported food shortage in Gaza?” Of the 380 people who responded, 37% said Hamas; 22% said Israel; 3% said the United Nations; 37% said a combination of different parties; and 1% said they didn’t know. Comments were submitted by 107 people. A few follow.
Hamas and their terror sponsors in Iran and Qatar in collusion with the U.N. have created this humanitarian crisis. And let’s thank Western news outlets like The New York Times for being quick to parrot the fictitious narrative about critical starvation by Israel.
None of the older children or adults look like they are starving. Look at pictures of people from Sudan — they look hungry.
There is no question that Hamas is responsible for the reported food “shortage.” Stealing food that was supposed to go to the hungry free of charge is solely on them. Stealing donated food and selling it to the population may be its second largest source
of income. When the U.S. and Israel began distribution food it was the first time Gazans received food and it was intended to be free.
Hamas is responsible, but Israel and U.S. could do more, like they are starting to do now.
If we are humanitarians, we cannot stand by and view the many ways in which
Palestinian civilians have been harmed in this war. Not every Palestinian is a terrorist. Not every Palestinian supports terrorists.
Primarily Hamas, but the U.N. forces are complicit in a major way. Many actions of the U.N. show strong antipathy toward Israel. This has been true for many years.
Israel should flood Gaza with food. This fixes both the problem of public perception and removes any power Hamas has.
Hamas is withholding food as a weapon of war. Hamas has an excellent propaganda machine. What other country besides Israel has delivered food to the enemy during a war?
Israel is effectively an occupying power in Gaza. In that capacity it bears responsibility that harm is not done to civilians. It has failed to meet this responsibility.
I believe Israel could have done more for the starving Palestinians. It is in Netanyahu’s personal best interests to keep the conflict from being resolved, the hostages from being
returned and the Palestinians from receiving much needed aid. The Palestinians are not the enemy; Hamas is.
Between Hamas’ disregard for the value of human life, Israeli political gamesmanship, an anti-Israel media, U.N. bias and the “fog of war,” there simply is no way to know.
Aid (including food) and aid workers should never be blocked and/or killed. There’s so much propaganda that it’s hard to discern who is responsible. My greatest fear is that Israel is making many poor choices in this war with horrific consequences for all.
Hamas is at fault for everything.
It doesn’t matter who is responsible, we all have to get them food now. This is a sin. PJC
— Compiled by Toby Tabachnick
Chronicle weekly poll question: How important is Jewish education (day school, Hebrew school, adult learning) in your household? Go to pittsburghjewishchronicle. org to respond. PJC
continue the war.” (“11 experts on what might end the Gaza war,” online, May 15).
As for demanding an end to the hostage situation, why does everyone cry “Bring Them Home”? How is Israel supposed to do that? What about directing this at Hamas instead of Netanyahu? How about “Let Them Go”?
The demands and judgments being made of Israel during these difficult, complex times are highly inappropriate. Maybe if Israel had broadly publicized the images of Oct. 7 there would be more sympathy. Evidently the politicians and hardened war correspondents who viewed the film of the atrocities were left nauseated and speechless.
Maybe we fellow Jews can find it in our hearts to replace criticism with prayer and acts of kindness. Do a mitzvah, a good deed, to protect our brothers and sisters as they literally risk life and limb to prevent another holocaust. Leave the Israel criticism to the professionals at The New York Times. They’re doing a fine job without our help.
Dr. Miriam Weiss Pittsburgh
Professor Omer Bartov of Brown University, an expert on the Holocaust and genocide, created controversy when he recently said, “My inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. Having grown up in a Zionist home, lived the first half of my life in Israel, served in the I.D.F. as a soldier and officer and spent most of my career researching and writing on war crimes and the Holocaust, this was a painful conclusion to reach, and one that I resisted as long as I could. But I have been teaching classes on genocide for a quarter of a century. I can recognize one when I see one.” Many have disagreed with his conclusion. But when someone with this background makes this claim, it must be taken seriously. However, I do not think this is an argument worth having. If it is a genocide, it must end. Maybe if it is only (if you can use such a word here) war crimes or crimes against humanity, it still must end.
Lech
Lecha
In the Chronicle’s Aug. 1 issue, there was a full-page advertisement titled “An Urgent Open Letter to the Pittsburgh Jewish Community.” The letter expresses the anguish of people that see the horror of what’s happening in Israel and Gaza since Oct. 7. Netanyahu thinks he can defeat Hamas by increasing the suffering of the people of Gaza. His defense minister said that the gates of hell will open in Gaza if Hamas doesn’t surrender. What an evil statement. The gates of hell, both for Palestinians and Israelis, opened on Oct. 7, 2023.
I feel the pain of the signers of the letter. Since Oct. 7, I’ve written numerous letters to the Chronicle expressing my pain and frustration. Unfortunately, expressing one’s feelings in print has little effect on the ongoing disaster.
There is a way to help, if just a little.
Tourism to Israel has plummeted. Israeli businesses and workers are in crisis. I decided that the best way to do something was to fly to Israel. Sure, you can always write a check to some Israeli organization, but going to Israel, directly putting money into the pockets of Israelis, has an immediate effect, from helping the hotel you’re staying at to the falafel shop owner who just sold you lunch. For months I resisted going. I didn’t want to be a “war tourist.” But then I realized that helping put money into the pockets of Israelis was the best way to help. So, if you can, go. Lech lecha
What will it take to stop the conflict?
Mitchell Nyer Squirrel Hill
The conflict in Gaza continues. Israeli soldiers continue to die. Palestinian adults and children continue to die. The remaining hostages are still in captivity. Hamas continues to survive. The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle recently reported that “Polls of Israelis consistently show that most prefer a negotiated end to the fighting that releases the remaining hostages. Polling of American Jews indicates that most do not support Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to
How should we in the United States and in the American Jewish community respond? Should the tragic killing of tens of thousands of Gazans through malnutrition, displacement and violence be reason enough for us to act? Some suggest that the United States stop selling offensive and defensive weapons to Israel until Israel agrees to a ceasefire. There are two arguments in play here. If offensive weapons are perpetuating genocide or war crimes, we should stop the sale of offensive weapons to Israel that are contributing to this human tragedy of epic proportions unfolding daily in Gaza. What about the sale of defensive weapons? Would stopping offensive and defensive arms sales persuade the Netanyahu government to agree to a ceasefire?
Some will argue that stopping defensive arms sales will put Israel in jeopardy (e.g., Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez). Isn’t that the Netanyahu government’s decision? If the Netanyahu government thinks stopping the sale of defensive U.S. arms to Israel won’t put Israel in jeopardy, why should we think otherwise?
On the other hand, if the Netanyahu government believes it does need U.S. defensive weapons, would that cause it to agree to a ceasefire? If so, that’s a win-win-win: no more Israeli soldiers killed — no more Palestinians killed — hostages returned.
Mark Fichman and Allan Willinger Pittsburgh
What about the starving hostages in Hamas tunnels?
Is there starvation in Gaza? (“Experts say Gaza at ‘worst-case scenario,’ famine about to cause ‘widespread death,’” Aug. 1.) Yes, there is. Twenty-five innocent Jews are being slowly, cruelly, intentionally, starved to death. For over 22 months, they have been confined underground, locked up in tunnels, treated like animals, while their captors, Hamas terrorists, have been feasting on food packages stolen from the aid trucks delivered by Israel.
Where are the front page photos of the emaciated Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski, who each lost 40% of their body weight? Where is the international condemnation? Where is the Red Cross?
These two men and all of the other hostages are being left to die in a dank, dark narrow tunnel, tortured by Hamas for the crime of being Jews. World, wake up! We can end the war now by demanding that Hamas release the hostages and unconditionally surrender.
Simone Shapiro Pittsburgh
Headlines
Maccabi:
Continued from page 1
“It was life-changing,” she said. “I marched into an arena like this in Madison Square Garden. There were 10,000 people of every age, every background, every denomination, every spectrum — not just of Jewish life, but also of our allies in the Jewish commu nity — who were cheering and hollering and clapping, and we were all there for one purpose: to celebrate Jewish joy and cele brate Jewish life.”
Those goals remain the same a quarter century later, Jason Kunzman, president and CEO of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, said: “The power of this moment isn’t just what we have built; it is what we have believed. We have said loudly and clearly, we believe in our youth. We believe in Jewish connection. We believe in experiences that last a lifetime.”
Aiding those experiences is the University of Pittsburgh, as for the first time in the Games’ history, teen participants are staying, competing and connecting on a college campus.
University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Joan Gabel described the historic partnership between Pitt and the JCC Maccabi Games.
“Over the course of this week, our athletes will form a new community and they’ll make history,” she said. “Their individual journeys will come together into this new chapter of strength and tradition — attributes that we are proud of and define this great city.”
The Opening Ceremonies nodded to Pittsburgh and the wider Jewish world. Tributes were paid to the 11 Israeli Olympians murdered at the 1972 Munich
Vandalism:
Continued from page 1
Fellman isn’t sure if he was targeted because of his leadership role in the community. He is, however, certain that polite conversation has given way to vandalism and harassment.
“This is America in 2025,” he said.
And while he isn’t happy about the turn from civil discourse, Fellman said he isn’t putting his head in the sand, either.
“The only way through is to hold your head up and walk through it,” he said.
Security measures, Fellman said, continue to be reviewed after each incident, both at his home and at Temple Sinai and Rodef Shalom Congregation — the two congregations recently approved plans to unite.
“Our security costs have gone way up and rabbis are having to secure their homes in
Olympics. Pittsburghers Alan Mallinger and Amy Mallinger recalled the 11 Jewish worshippers who were killed in the Tree of Life building in 2018. The atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023, and the plight of the hostages and those affected by war, were mentioned.
For 18 months, organizers have strategized and planned the JCC Maccabi Campus Games, Scott Sewald, JCC Pittsburgh’s board chair, told the Chronicle. Along with celebrating Israel, community and heritage, this experience is about “Jewish pride.”
Appreciation for participants, and their
place in the Jewish story, was demonstrated Monday evening.
As each delegation entered the events center, captains and representatives held a large cardboard cutout of a Heinz ketchup bottle. Printed on each sign was the group’s origin. Among the more than 50 teams marching in were squads from across the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Israel and Mexico; and though both the Pittsburgh and Israeli groups garnered significant applause, the night’s loudest cheers may have been bestowed on the teenage team
“The only way through is to hold your head up and walk through it.”
―RABBI DANIEL FELLMAN
way we never imagined,” he said.
Shawn Brokos, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s community security director, urges anyone whose signs or property were vandalized to report it to law enforcement and the Federation.
Fellman’s home isn’t the only residence that has been repeatedly targeted since Oct. 7.
North Side resident Deena Blumenfeld’s property has been targeted with antisemitic graffiti, and people have spat on her Israeli flag. Last year, the phrases “We
demand blood” and “For Blood and Soil” were painted on the sidewalk outside of the home she shares with her family, and anti-Israel literature was left inside her front door.
Blumenfeld testified on July 28 in magisterial district court at a preliminary hearing for Michael Walter Lawlor, who was charged with stalking, harassment, ethnic intimidation, disorderly conduct and criminal mischief.
Lawlor was captured on camera spitting on Blumenfeld’s Israeli flag eight times over
who traveled 5,000 miles to reach western Pennsylvania.
Upon entering the arena, a small group of Jewish competitors representing Ukraine were welcomed. Thousands of attendees stood, shouted and cheered.
Corey O’Connor, Democratic nominee for the 2025 Pittsburgh mayoral election, told the Chronicle the Games have a clear purpose.
“Whether your team wins or loses, it’s not what it’s about,” he said. “It’s about how we can all get together for a good cause. How we can get together and talk about the youth, talk about the future, talk about how we can connect people from all different walks — yes, celebrating Judaism — from different parts of the world, and how easy it is to come together to celebrate that.”
At a time of increased polarization, the beauty of this experience should not be forgotten, City of Pittsburgh Controller Rachael Heisler said. “The opportunity for Jewish kids to come together to really experience community is particularly helpful for them. This is a very crazy environment. And from my perspective, to allow that community to occur is a really meaningful thing to happen.”
After hours of entrances, speeches and dedications, the Games were set to formally begin.
Tucker, a social media star with 9 million TikTok followers, told the teens there was only one thing left to do.
“Raise your flags up,” she said. “I want you all to dance with me.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
the course of two weeks.
In some ways, Fellman seems an unlikely target for anti-Israel activists. While he hasn’t shied away from his support of Israel, and has blamed Hamas for the war, he also has expressed concern for Palestinian victims.
“The first Shabbat after Oct. 7, I stood up and said, ‘This was a terrible thing and a whole lot of people are getting screwed, including the Palestinian people. Hamas is the problem,’” he said.
Still, Fellman is taking the vandalism in stride.
“It comes with the territory,” he said. “I’m not going to be intimidated by it.”
Anyone who has witnessed anything suspicious can report it to the Federation at jewishpgh.org/form/incident-report. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
p Attendees celebrate a delegation's entrance during the Opening Ceremonies of the JCC Maccabi Campus Games.
Photo by Adam Reinherz
Holiness and failure coexist — just ask the Israelites
ere’s the bottom line up front: It is very possible to be very good and very bad all at the same time. Now, a lot of folks can’t imagine such a thing. If you are good then you are good, they will say, but if you are bad there can be absolutely nothing good about you and therefore you should be canceled, defamed and abused, and destroyed with prejudice, glee and delight. Soon enough we will enter the Ten Days of Repentance where we thoughtfully consider our behavior and make honest attempts to become better. So that’s not the vibe today.
They fail all the time. Not only that, but in Deuteronomy 4:21-22, we are reminded by Moses that he himself — the Great Moses, Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our teacher) — had a sin so egregious that he is not allowed into the Land of Israel. Even he is not fully good. There are so many good people, good institutions and good nations that do such good things, and also — this really shouldn’t be a surprise — do terrible and awful things. People, institutions and nations make mistakes. You also will make mistakes. But I don’t think that one mistake, one crime, one or two or even a bunch of terrible choices, should make you subject to cancellation and erasure, or that I should ignore any notion that you, too, are a fellow creation of God. That being said, I also don’t want to make the mistake of putting you on a pedestal.
If we let folks create Yom Kippur today it would be 45 minutes long. People would spray paint “canceled” on your home, you would have no chance to improve, then we would eat.
Mazel Tov!
You’re not perfect. You’re not that great. You are you, prone to greatness, prone to sin. That’s how it goes.
SPECIAL OCCASIONS DESERVE SPECIAL ATTENTION
What is a special occasion…a birth, a b’nai mitzvah, an engagement, a wedding, an anniversary?
It wasn’t always like this. Let’s take a quick look at the opening of Parashat Vaetchanan. We get a bunch of rules for the Israelites. These are the same Israelites who have survived 40 years in the wilderness. Their parents and grandparents witnessed the receiving of Torah at Sinai and yet these children and grandchildren still have to be warned away from idolatry and forgetting Torah entirely.
I don’t presume people or institutions or nations to be evil simply because I don’t care for them, and I have no need to ignore reality so that I can insist they are perfect. I can demand that people and institutions and nations lean into what is best about them and resist what is wrong. They are to be praised for their positive actions and condemned for their negative actions. Both praise and condemnation can occur at the same time. That’s how it works. It’s not that complicated. It shouldn’t be that complicated. The Torah itself seems to have no problem praising Moses for his greatness and punishing him for his sin. One does not erase the other. Why is this so hard to understand? PJC
Absolutely!
But so is a birthday, a graduation, an athletic victory, an academic achievement…anything that deserves special recognition.
Can it possibly be that a generation so close to Divine Holiness can still err and sin? In Deuteronomy 4:33 we hear directly, “Has any people heard the voice of a god speaking out of fire as you have and survived?” Answer: no. So surely with such an experience, with direct witnessing (if they were children at the time) or hearing from their parents about God’s realness, you would think that this group of people would be upright, faithful and attentive to God’s law. But they are not.
Rabbi Larry Freedman is the director of the unified religious school of Beth Shalom, Temple Sinai and Rodef Shalom. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Clergy Association.
And there is no better place to share your joy than in...
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The more you celebrate in life… the more there is in life to celebrate!
The more you celebrate in life… the more there is in life to celebrate!
The more you celebrate in life… the more there is in life to celebrate!
The more you celebrate in life… the more there is in life to celebrate!
The more you celebrate in life… the more there is in life to celebrate!
SEND YOUR CELEBRATIONS, MAZEL TOVS, AND PHOTOS TO: announcements@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
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SEND YOUR CELEBRATIONS, MAZEL TOVS, AND PHOTOS TO: announcements@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
SEND YOUR CELEBRATIONS, MAZEL TOVS, AND PHOTOS TO: announcements@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
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Obituaries
Irwin
Jean
Esther
Joyce
Joyce Offerman
Eileen Snider & Family
Sharon Snider
Dr Susan Snider & Family
Connie
Sunday August 10: Esther Bennett, Dr Simon Berenfield, J Richard Bergad, Frances Cartiff, Bertha Feldman, Solomon Kramer, Beverly Lebovitz, Abraham Leibowitz, Rose Lipser, Benjamin Plotkin, Samuel Sidney Sakol
Monday August 11: Jacob Friedman, Gilbert Murray Gerber, Helen Goldberg, Diana D Gordon, Robert Green, Anna Greenberg, Morris H Hirschfield, Herman Jacobs, Rae Labovitz, Morris Lebovitz, Robert Shapiro, Ruth F Zeligman
Tuesday August 12: Sarah Bales, Adam Chotiner, Abraham Endich, Anna Friedman, Rose H Green, Eva Greenberg, Rebecca Gusky, Annetta Marks Horwitz, Marvin Klein, Isadore Mandelblatt, Tzivia Marbach, Milton Morris, Anna R Rosenbloom, Freda Barnett Safier, Cecilia Selkovits, Eleanor Ruth Simon, Louis A Skeegan, Myron Snider, Earle S Thall, Harry Winsberg, Esther M Wyner, Harry Zerelstein
Wednesday August 13: Sadye Bowytz, Julius S Broida, Bernard S Davis, Irwin Sowie Fein, Lester A Hamburg, Lois Hepps, Herman Hollander, Bessie Perr Miller, Larry Miller, Esther Patkin, Theodore Somach, Gilbert Stein, Edward Stern, Rebecca Supowitz, Bella Weiner, Renee Weinstock
Thursday August 14: Sara J Ansell, Earl Barmen, Esther Caplan, Harriet L Cohen, Rebecca Lebenson, George Lisker, Joseph Siegman, David P Zelenski
Friday August 15: Liza Canter, Elizabeth Cohen, Leonard Ehrenreich, Dr Morris H Glick, Bertha Klein, Harry Lipser, Paul A Love, Harry H Marcus, Rhea Mark, Sophie Masloff, Gussie Sacks, Morris Schwartz, Herbert Sternlight, Rose Zweig
and Bill Rudolph, all located in Pittsburgh. This group was always there for Esther. More recently, the great caregivers at Schenley Gardens Assisted Living and nurses and doctors at Select Specialty Hospital inside of UPMC Montefiore were incredibly caring in these last eight months. Esther is survived by her children, Eric (Katrina Karlson) Newberg of Barrington, Illinois; Mark Newberg of Pittsburgh; and Janet (Mark) Waggoner of Hingham, Massachusetts; grandchildren, Georgia Waggoner and Ruby Waggoner; and twin sister, Elaine (the late Robert) Katz of Bethesda, Maryland. In addition to her parents, Esther is preceded in death by her two brothers, Larry Suls and Daniel Suls, as well as her late husband, Dr. Jay A Newberg. Zichrona livracha — may her memory be a blessing … Services were held on Tuesday, Aug. 5, at Strifflers of White Oak Cremation and Mortuary Services, Inc., officiated by Rabbi Sharyn Henry. Burial followed at Temple B’nai Cemetery. To share a memory or condolence, please visit strifflerfuneralhomes.com. PJC
Saturday August 16: Zelda Cohen, Meyer David Elovitz, Fanny Kramer, Mary Lang, Hazel Pinsker Lemelman, Albert P Levine, Zelman Lee Moritz, Tillie K Morris, Irene I Posner, Mollie Rothman, Samuel Selkovits, Gabe Shapiro, Melvin Tobias, Eva Ulanoff, Rabbi Hugo Unger, Sarah Wesely
Community Monument Unveiling
Jewish Association on Aging gratefully acknowledges contributions from the following:
memory of...
Headlines
Antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein are proliferating — and going mainstream
— NATIONAL—
By Ron Kampeas | JTA
WASHINGTON – Jason Epstein travels internationally as a public affairs consultant, and although he is a proud Jew, he does not announce it in countries where that might be an issue.
Until now it hasn’t been a problem, he says: Last names immediately recognizable as Jewish in the West are not identified as such in much of the rest of the world.
Lately, though, his Jewishness is coming up, he says, and he suspects it’s because antisemitic conspiracy theories have resurged alongside renewed attention to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender at the center of one the United States’ strangest and most divisive political issues.
“You do have to wonder whether your last name might be the same as wearing a kippah,” he said.
Just as kippah-wearing Jews have experienced attacks from both right-wing and left-wing antisemites, so too are extremists on both the left and the right spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories about Epstein, a spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, who noted that Epstein’s crimes and alleged crimes had nothing to do with his Jewish identity.
“The ADL Center on Extremism has tracked a demonstrable increase in rhetoric that promotes antisemitic and anti-Israel conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein in recent weeks, many of which attribute Epstein’s deplorable crimes to a supposed covert Israeli operation run by Mossad,” the spokesperson said.
Five years after he was found hanged in his prison cell, Epstein is in the headlines because the Trump administration has flip-flopped on meeting a key demand of President Donald Trump’s MAGA base, to release all the files in a bid to expose whomever else joined Epstein in his criminal activity.
President Donald Trump, who was a close friend to Epstein from the late 1980s to 2004, is known to be named in the files. Trump has urged his followers to leave the case alone, calling it a conspiracy theory concocted by Democrats.
The scandal won’t die: Democrats and some Republicans want the files released, and some in Trump’s base, for the first time since his meteoric political rise in the middle of the last decade, are turning on him.
“It’s just a red line that it crosses for many people,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican long known for her fealty to Trump, told CNN last month. “It has been a very serious situation for the administration.”
Amid the surging interest, antisemitic conspiracy theories about Epstein appear to be moving off the fringes, the ADL spokesperson said.
“This rhetoric has surged in recent weeks across the political spectrum, on both fringe and mainstream social media, streaming
p Watchdogs point to the Epstein discourse as a textbook example of “horseshoe theory,” where the far ends of the political spectrum come together.
platforms and shows,” the spokesperson said.
The mainstreaming of Epstein conspiracies poses risks to American Jews, said Joshua Shanes, a professor of Jewish history at the University of California, Davis and a member of a task force at the Nexus Project, an organization that tracks antisemitism.
“Whenever you have this notion of collectivizing all Jews as this global nefarious force, that’s the most dangerous thing,” Shanes said. “It’s not about Israel, per se. It’s about this global Jewish conspiracy. And that is deadly, literally deadly,” he said, noting the conspiracy theories that have in recent years fueled deadly attacks.
Ari Ben Menashe, a onetime Israeli operative whom Israeli and American officials have said is a fabulist who vastly exaggerates and fabricates, claims to have run Epstein as an asset. There is otherwise no substantial evidence of any ties between Epstein and Israeli intelligence.
Allegations that Epstein has ties to the Mossad have circulated for years based on an array of disparate connections: The fact that he was Jewish, his longtime financial relationship and friendship with Les Wexner, the fashion magnate known for his Jewish philanthropy, his visits to Israel among many other countries, his friendship with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, one of many notable figures in the United States, Britain and elsewhere who hobnobbed with Epstein when he was an investor and a philanthropist.
The conspiracists also make an issue of Epstein’s sex trafficking coconspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, currently serving time in a federal position, being the daughter of Robert Maxwell, the scandal-plagued Jewish British media magnate who ran guns to Israel during its independence war.
The elder Maxwell died before Ghislaine Maxwell met Epstein.
The same extremists, ranging from Max Blumenthal on the left to Candace Owens on the right, have ramped up the conspiracy-mongering now that Epstein is in the headlines again.
Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said the
conspiracy mongering embodied the “horseshoe” model of extremists on both sides of the spectrum inspiring and spurring one another.
“There are those on the far right, like Tucker Carlson and others who are using this to advance antisemitic and other extremist conspiracy theories related to Mossad, related to broader issues,” she said. “And there are those on the far left who are eager to jump on them because it validates their own worldview. And so understanding the ways in which this looks like a horseshoe right now is important.”
The conspiracy theories have gotten widespread airplay in recent weeks. Tucker Carlson, the massively influential podcaster, aired the conspiracy theory at a conference of Turning Point, the youth wing of the MAGA movement. He got huge cheers when he named Israel as Epstein’s employer.
Carlson’s conspiracy mongering drew a rebuke from Naftali Bennett, the former Israeli prime minister. “Epstein’s conduct, both the criminal and the merely despicable, had nothing whatsoever to do with the Mossad or the State of Israel,” he said, singling out Carlson for criticism. “Epstein never worked for the Mossad.” Bennett’s statement appears to be the most sweeping Israeli repudiation of any Mossad-Epstein ties.
Carlson, who has platformed antisemites on his programming, is known to be a critic of the U.S.-Israel relationship. His former colleague at Fox News, Megyn Kelly, who like Carlson has a massive online following, is known for her pro-Israel sympathies — but she too has flirted the Mossad conspiracy theory.
“Where’d he get all that money?” Kelly said after airing Carlson’s claims Epstein was employed by the Mossad, in a contentious interview last month on her online show with the Jewish online media magnate, Ben Shapiro, who was on the show to debate Kelly on whether the current Epstein scandal merited the attention it was receiving.
Shapiro said that the Israel connection was dubious, especially since Israel has sworn off running American Jews as spies in the wake of the catastrophic Jonathan
Pollard espionage case in 1986. “Israel really wants to steer clear of pissing off the United States,” he said.
Ross Douthat, the conservative columnist at The New York Times who is also known for his pro-Israel positions, bought into some of the conspiracy theories in an interview with the Miami Herald journalist who has led reporting on Epstein, Julie K. Brown. “So this is a world of people who overlap with Israeli intelligence, and maybe Epstein is useful as a conduit of information,” he said.
Now the threat of the mainstreaming of the conspiracy theories could make it into congressional hearings on the Epstein files. On X, Greene used a term often associated with Jewish nefariousness, “elite evil cabals,” in calling for the release of the Epstein files. “Is there a blackmail list and are there foreign countries’ governments involved?” she told CNN.
Top congressional Democrats are leading the charge for the files’ release, seeing an opening to wound Trump early in his second term.
Shanes, the professor of Jewish history, said the pursuit was legitimate, but lawmakers should take care to vociferously denounce conspiracy-mongering.
“If someone is getting out there and in the news cycle and saying, ‘Show us the file, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein,’ they should be very careful at any opportunity that they see a hint of conspiracy thinking about Jews or Israel to clarify, ‘well, that’s ridiculous. That’s an antisemitic theory, that’s the basis of modern Jew hatred,” he said.
Halie Soifer, the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said it was up to Trump to forcefully denounce the antisemitic undercurrents of the conspiracy theories, if only because he has elevated so many baseless conspiracy theories himself.
“He’s never done anything to send a signal to conspiracy theorists that this form of hatred that we see so integral to his conspiracy theories is unacceptable,” she said.
Spitalnick said journalists, academics, politicians and other public figures should in every instance of mentioning the Epstein case emphasize that the Israel- and Jewishrelated conspiracy theories are baseless.
“You overtly name the fact that there are those exploiting us to normalize and advance antisemitic and other extremist conspiracy theories, and differentiate between the facts and those conspiracy theories.”
The ADL official agreed, saying that it was especially critical to rebuff antisemitic conspiracies as their penetration has metastasized since Hamas launched a war on Israel.
“We’ve observed and tracked an explosion of antisemitic rhetoric in the nearly two years since Oct. 7, 2023, including a considerable number of conspiracy theories and rampant online hate and harassment against Jews.” the spokesperson said. “The surge in Epstein conspiracy theories today feed on many other conspiracies and on this disturbingly normalized antisemitism. Lawmakers and public figures must avoid conspiracy mongering and unsupported speculation about Epstein, his motives, and associates.” PJC
Mugshot of Epstein; horseshoe via Getty Images
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I’m happy to share this new recipe. It has a truly gourmet flavor, especially if you infuse the cooking butter with a sprig of fresh rosemary. The parmesan and panko crust meld together beautifully.
Because this is already a dairy recipe, I cook the fish in real butter for a rich and beautiful flavor. This dish can be prepared in about 20 minutes from start to finish, so it’s an excellent recipe for weeknights, while tasting extra special.
The recipe works well with just about any white fish, fresh or frozen. This time I used halibut, but flounder and cod also work well. It’s a perfect dinner for two, but the recipe is easily adjusted for a larger crowd.
Ingredients:
1 pound white fish fillets
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 large egg, whisked
2/3 cup panko
⅓ cup grated parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper, to taste
3-4 tablespoons butter
Optional: sprig of fresh rosemary
Cut a 1-pound filet of fish into 2-3 pieces. You can also use a pound of frozen fish fillets. Rinse the fish in cold water and pat dry with paper towels.
Preheat the oven to 350 F and place the wire rack in the upper third.
Set up 3 shallow plates or wide bowls: one with flour, one with a beaten egg, and one with the panko crumbs and parmesan cheese, which should be well mixed.
“ e consequences of today are determined by the actions of the past. To change your future, alter your decisions today.”
Dust each piece of fish lightly with flour. Salt and pepper each side of the fish before dipping it quickly on both sides into the egg, and then dredging both sides in the panko, pressing down on each piece to make the mixture stick. Set aside until ready to pan fry.
Use a sauté pan that can be placed into a hot oven without ruining the finish or handles. Put the pan over medium-low heat to warm for 2-3 minutes before adding 3 tablespoons of butter to the pan. If you’d like to gently infuse the flavor with rosemary, put one sprig into the butter once it is melted and hot. Allow it to simmer in the butter for 3-4 minutes before adding the fish. Keep the rosemary in the pan for the entire cooking process. If you don’t want to add the herb, then add the fish to the pan once the butter is melted and hot. One pound of fish fits perfectly into a medium-sized sauté pan.
Sauté the first side for about 3 minutes or until you can see the panko turn golden about halfway up the side of the fish.
Carefully flip each piece and sauté for another 3 minutes.
You can add an extra tablespoon of butter if you feel the pan needs a bit more.
Place the pan into the oven to finish cooking for about 8-10 minutes, or until a digital thermometer inserted reads 140 F.
Taking the extra step to bake the fish in the oven is key — it stays moist but the oven time really improves the panko crust. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.
Salt to taste at the table — you may need more if you used unsalted butter.
This pairs well with my roasted vegetable orzo salad, which I hope to share soon.
Enjoy and bless your hands! PJC
Jessica Grann is a home chef living in Pittsburgh.
p Parmesan crusted white fish
Photos by Jessica Grann
Everybody clap your hands
Closing out Germany Close Up
Classroom Without Borders’ Germany Close Up seminar, operated in affiliation with the German Academic Ex change Service, enabled 26 young Jewish professionals to visit Munich, Nuremberg and Berlin between July 20-28. Participants explored the history and present realities of German Jewry with stops at the Munich Documentation Center, Nuremberg Trials courthouse and Synagogue Frenkleufer in Berlin.
participants join German Ambassador Christian
Germany’s relationship to
With hours remaining until Shabbat began, preschoolers in Rodef Shalom’s Family Center Summer Camp welcomed the weekly day of rest by dancing and singing with Rabbi
Tearing up the track
Days before the JCC Maccabi Campus Games began, members of Pittsburgh’s track and field team trained at the Schenley Oval. Led by coaches Eve Skirboll and Casey Weiss, the team
p Fans of the zoo Photo courtesy of Camp Gan Israel Squirrel Hill
p
Photo courtesy of Rodef Shalom Congregation
p Might have taken the T but still dahntahn.
Photo courtesy of Chabad House on Campus
p Seminar
Heldt at the German Federal Foreign Office and discuss
Israel, position on the war in Ukraine and the state of Holocaust memorialization.
Photo courtesy of Classrooms Without Borders
BETH SHALOM CEMETERY
and
“A place where memory lives and legacies endure.”
The Beth Shalom Cemetery has honored generations of the Jewish community since 1927 with compassionate burial services rooted in sacred tradition, care and respect.
Our 65 acre cemetery offers a final resting place that honors life and faith, following halacha (Jewish law) and time honored customs.
Pre-Need Planning
Family Plots, Grave and Mausoleum Crypt Selections
Granite Memorials Sales & Designs
Granite Memorials Panel Inscriptions
Bench Sales & Design Options
Memorial Park & Mausoleum Bronze Memorials
Concrete Grave Liner Sales & Service
For more information contact Congregation Beth Shalom’s Cemetery Director, Michael Smrek, at 412.421.2288 x293 or msmrek@bethshalompgh.org
Morning sunlight through the stainedglass window of the chapel
