Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 9-25-26

September 25, 2026 | 14 Tishrei 5787

NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Beyond paper chains and plastic fruit

Unique sukkah decorations

Candlelighting 6:54 p.m. | Havdalah 7:51 p.m. | Vol. 69, No. 39 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

Eradicate Hate brings sixth annual conference to Pittsburgh

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endured profound suffering. Garfinkle said that one of the lessons he’s learned is that we can help prevent pain. “One of the best ways you can prevent or reduce people’s suffering is by the way you behave,” he said. “It’s not what other people do. It’s not about political solutions. It’s simply behaving in a particular way to the people around you.” And when a person experiences trauma, Garfinkle said he believes it’s best to face it head-on, noting that he travels to Poland every year and visits the death camp where his relatives were murdered. “I say kaddish, which is healing for me because I’m still grieving for them,” he said. “I’m still grieving this huge family that was murdered who I never got to know.” Eradicate Hate Global Summit co-Founder and Board Chair Laura Ellsworth said the summit, which has evolved over the years, continues its commitment to “get things done” to combat hate. Launched in Pittsburgh as a response to the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, Ellsworth said the summit will “never outgrow” its Steel City roots. “It exists,” she said, “because of what happened at the Tree of Life in Pittsburgh. One thing we’ve been very clear about within the organization is that it will always stay in Pittsburgh, but we also have an opportunity to being in other places around the world.” Ellsworth said the lessons learned at the

Butler County man who claims to be affiliated with the terror group ISIS has been arrested. Jonathan Hunter Kramer, 21, was charged in a federal complaint with “receiving a firearm and ammunition, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the firearm and ammunition would be used to commit a felony or a Federal crime of terrorism, including providing, attempting to provide, and conspiring to provide material support or resources to a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization,” according to the United States Attorney Office, Western District of Pennsylvania. The charges were announced Sept. 15 by U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti. According to the affidavit filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Kramer has been known to the FBI since 2023, when it received a tip about a person using the online platform display name “Nikolas Cruz,” and screenname “@ShootIntoACrowd,” and who had posted threatening statements alluding to a violent act to occur within three months, and documents showing how to make explosives, C4 and car bombs. Law enforcement officers identified Kramer as behind the Cruz account. During their 2023 investigation, FBI agents found that Kramer communicated with a 14-year-old German juvenile on the social media platform Discord. The juvenile sent Kramer sexually explicit material of himself, including video and images. When the FBI executed a search warrant at Kramer’s residence, where he lived with his parents, they found a recording of him pledging allegiance to then ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi. The matter was eventually adjudicated, and Kramer was sent to Pathways Adolescent Center in Oil City, Pennsylvania. He was released in March 2026.

Please see Summit, page 14

Please see ISIS, page 14

A tale of two grocers

p The 2026 Eradicate Hate Global Summit By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer

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LOCAL Lobbying for religious freedom

Interfaith contingent heads to Harrisburg

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HISTORY The Daughters of Israel Cemetery Association

Unraveling a mystery, in three parts

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Butler County man claiming ISIS affiliation arrested on terror-related charges By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer

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Dispute on Murray Avenue

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r. Alfred Garfinkle said he was “immensely impressed” with his time at the 2026 Eradicate Hate Global Summit. Garfinkle knows the consequences of unchecked hate from firsthand experiences and was pleased to see the large number of people attending Eradicate Hate, now in its sixth year. Born in the Polish Przemyśl ghetto and imprisoned in Bergen-Belsen as a child, Garfinkel was liberated by Soviet soldiers from a train bound for another concentration camp. He and his family then relocated to London. The Holocaust survivor eventually became a physician, psychiatrist and trauma expert. He delivered a keynote address at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit, held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center Sept. 15-17. Garfinkle said it was his experiences as a child that drove him to become an expert on trauma. “If you’ve suffered the way that I have, it makes you very sensitive to the suffering of other people,” he said. “Being a doctor, you sit with someone, you feel their pain, their struggle and that motivates me to be open and caring.” Holocaust victims, he noted, were ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances, but the experience of trauma can connect them with others who have

Joey Kennedy / Eradicate Hate Global Summit

Background: dvoevnore, & Text: Marina/ Adobe Stock

Headlines Decorated, drawn on and filled with guests, Pittsburgh sukkahs share communal story — LOCAL— By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer

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efore the wind has its way and the rain soaks neatly painted projects and colorful paper chains, Pittsburgh sukkahs are beautiful representations of home. Complete with personalized designs and knickknacks hanging from poles, these western Pennsylvanian dwellings reflect their erectors and years of inhabitants. When Sukkot arrives on Sept. 25, Rabbi Larry Freedman will enter an outdoor booth he’s built numerous times before; bolstering the hut, and testifying to the structure’s longevity, however, is a particular post. “I always knew that my career would have me moving a few times, so instead of measuring the kids’ height on a wall in the house, which we would one day leave, we measured our children on one of the posts for our sukkah,” he said. Decades ago, Freedman started inscribing single marks. The practice continued year after year and move after move. “I still have that post, and I still have that sukkah five houses later,” he told the Chronicle. Long before making Pittsburgh his home, Rabbi Elisar Admon used to make intricate sukkah decorations with his parents in Israel. “We did art projects that took hours and hours,” the Squirrel Hill resident said. As a way of furthering the generational practice, he and his wife adorn their sukkah with their children’s artwork. Whether the pieces were created in school or at home, “it means a lot to the kids when you decorate your house with their decorations.” Colorful creations aren’t the only thing lining the Admons’ sukkah walls. Within the East End sukkah are also photos of rabbis. Some are relatives, some are famous leaders of the Jewish people, Admon said. “The idea is that we will do what our rabbis did and what their rabbis did — that we are continuing the tradition.”

p The walls of Carl Fertman and Barb Murock’s sukkah tell a decades-long story.

Photo courtesy of Carl Fertman

Whether with fruit or other beautiful items, rabbinic literature maintains it is a mitzvah to decorate one’s sukkah. For Rabbi Henoch Rosenfeld, the concept has particular meaning. “Decorating a sukkah is a very fine Jewish custom that has great sources,” he said. “In Chabad, instead of focusing exclusively on the physical decorations that one would hang or put on their sukkah, we focus on decorating the sukkah with the mitzvah of the sukkah itself.” The idea, he continued, is that by “bringing other people into the sukkah, and experiencing the warmth and the spirituality of the sukkah, that itself decorates the sukkah’s environment.” Seeing guests as the adornment isn’t specific to Chabad. For Dor Hadash presidents Carl Fertman and Barb Murock, the sukkah tells a unique story. More than 30 years ago, the Squirrel Hill residents began hosting a holiday party. “We would set up a sukkah in the

backyard and we wanted to let people send messages to each other — kind of across the years,” Fertman said. The married couple made their sukkah walls from white bed sheets and placed markers on a nearby table. Signing the sukkah “became the activity for the evening,” he said. For years, the sukkah party, which also featured plenty of hot beverages, continued. Along the way, Dor Hadash began featuring the booth during its religious school sukkah hop. “Kids would come here and they would write on the sukkah,” Murock said. “Depending on the year, some [inscriptions] will be political. Some will be just really heartfelt,” Fertman said. Next to an “Obama ‘08” is a “Vote for peace and Social Justice 2020.” Several inches below, scrawled in green are the words, “It’s okay to be JEWISH.” Several feet to the right of one sheet, in blue and yellow are the ” a Hebrew words, “,

reference to Ecclesiastes 1:9, which translates to “there is nothing new under the sun.” On another side appears, “Friends make the best neighbors.” Since Fertman and Murock began the exercise nearly 30 years ago, dozens of people have written their names on the sheets. “It’s been so many years now, it’s not unusual for someone in their 30s or 40s to come back and say ‘Oh gee whiz, there I was,’” Fertman said. Depending on the location, there are rules about signing one’s name to mark one’s presence. At an East End orthodontist’s office where patients mark the end of the dental process, or some summer camps where graffitied cabins denote generations of campers, scrawling over another’s signature is bad form. Inside their sukkah, Fertman and Murock aren’t so worried that one person’s writing will erase another’s. That’s kind of the point. “Over the years it fades,” Fertman said. The sheets are washed, some names and messages disappear. New ones are written, and the process imparts a message that “life changes.” There have been people, he continued, who have come back to the sukkah and purposefully written over their past work. With the holiday arriving shortly, the Squirrel Hill residents have their markers ready. Affording guests this opportunity “gets people involved,” Fertman said. Within a sukkah, it’s nice to make friends and talk, “but to actually get up and to write something down changes the dynamics a little bit.” More than private messages, the writings represent communal regard, he continued. Coloring and inscribing the walls of a sukkah is a “way of being very public about being Jewish, and about being proud of being Jewish. And I think that’s a wonderful thing that we want to celebrate.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

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Headlines A new grocer is moving into Squirrel Hill. Its rival says the deal isn’t kosher. granted the lease. Renovations are expected to begin in the coming months with a planned opening in 2027. Whether it gets there without further complications is an open question. The underlying fight — over whether Glassner owes the Markovics anything and what should be done if he does — is now headed to the Beth Din of America, a rabbinical high court.

— LOCAL — By Benyamin Cohen | Forward

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ister Rogers was from Squirrel Hill, and it was here that he built a career on a small, perhaps radical idea: that showing up for your neighbor, day after day, is its own kind of moral work. It is a strange thing, then, that the neighborhood that made him famous — the same one that gathered in 2018 after the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history — is now consumed by a fight over what neighborliness is worth when there’s money, and a family’s retirement, on the line. For three decades, one grocery store has anchored Squirrel Hill’s kosher life. Soon it will have new company: a rival supermarket opening just blocks away. The family that runs the original store says the new store was built in part on their own private financial records, shared in confidence during a sale that fell through. The newcomer, for its part, says it has “acted properly” throughout. The dispute is now headed to a rabbinical tribunal, where both sides will make their case. This is a very Squirrel Hill kind of story, intimate enough that it’s hard to separate the business from the relationships underneath it. It’s also part of something bigger: The fight reflects a broader shift already underway in kosher retail, where small, single-location grocers are increasingly competing not just with each other but with regional chains and delivery networks that didn’t used to reach a market this size.

‘Cheek by jowl’

By midafternoon on a recent Thursday, Murray Avenue Kosher is deep into its weekly pre-Shabbat rush — cashiers ringing up customers as fast as they can, stockers racing to keep pace with what’s flying off the shelves. Behind the deli counter, a line of people wait while workers slice cold cuts and pack containers of whitefish and kugel. On the front door hangs a sign reading “Israel — We Stand With You,” put up after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. A few feet away, on a window, is a Steelers poster — a small reminder that this is a Jewish community that is also, unmistakably, a Pittsburgh one. For Ellie Feibus, 39, who lives within walking distance, the store is less an occasional stop than a daily habit: coffee some mornings on her way to work at a synagogue preschool, lunch, dinner in the evening, a Thursday wine tasting. She often has her dog, Anschel — a blind, toothless, 12-year-old pug — with her. She greets people by name, wishing “Good Shabbos” to those she passes and “Hi, honey” to several others. When Feibus got COVID during the pandemic, she called Aryeh Markovic, who runs the store with his parents, Saul and Beth. He personally delivered groceries to her doorstep. Without being asked, he added a container of chicken soup. It’s that kind of care, she said, that would be hardest to replicate in a new store: “the part that’s going to be missing.” Step outside and you’re in the heart of Squirrel Hill, home to a large swath of Pittsburgh’s roughly 50,000 Jews, three day schools and about a dozen synagogues across the denominational spectrum — a community that has been here, largely intact, for generations. “In Squirrel Hill, everybody lives cheek by jowl,” said Mark Oppenheimer, who wrote a book chronicling how the neighborhood held PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

A different kind of court

p Aryeh Markovic runs Murray Avenue Kosher with his parents, Saul and Beth.

Photo by Benyamin Cohen

together after the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. “Even the more liberal and Reform Jews will power-walk with the Orthodox on their lunch hour. In a lot of cities there’d be real distance between those worlds. Here, there isn’t.” The neighborhood’s epicenter is the corner of Murray and Forbes avenues, adjacent to the Jewish Community Center, and the same intersection where the community gathered for a vigil the Saturday night after the shooting. That corner was, until recently, home to a Rite Aid. But after the financially strapped drugstore chain declared bankruptcy in 2025, the building became available to lease.

Deal or no deal

Yitzchok Glassner, a transplant to Pittsburgh, wanted to get into the kosher supermarket business. The timing seemed fortuitous. Saul and Beth Markovic bought Murray Avenue Kosher in 1996; their son Aryeh joined as a partner in 2021. By last year, Saul and Beth were ready to retire — just as Glassner came looking for a store to buy. In June 2025, Glassner expressed interest in Murray Avenue Kosher, and the two sides signed a non-disclosure agreement. Over the course of several weeks, the Markovic family handed over the store’s tax returns and profitand-loss statements. Glassner wanted to put his supermarket — with the name Murray’s Market — in the former Rite Aid building. Doing so meant winning approval from a bankruptcy judge working with Rite Aid, who needed proof the new venture could pay the rent. The Markovics allege that without their permission or knowledge, Glassner submitted their financial records along with a declaration stating that Murray’s Market was, in Glassner’s words, “acquiring Murray Avenue Kosher.” No such acquisition existed. The Markovics say that they had yet to reach a deal with Glassner when he told the court he was acquiring Murray Avenue Kosher. They also claim that Glassner broke the non-disclosure agreement by sharing their private financial information, which is now in the public record as part of a filing in the Rite Aid bankruptcy case. “Nobody is going to buy the business now if there’s a competing store opening 200 feet down the block,” said Shaya Markovic, Aryeh’s brother. “Had we known he intended to use the documents to open a competing store, my parents would never have given them.” Talks between the Markovics and Glassner broke down. Brandywine Communities, the owner and landlord of the former Rite Aid building, announced in August that Murray’s Market was

Few outside the Orthodox Jewish world have ever heard of the Beth Din of America, let alone know that a fight like this one could end up decided there, by a panel of rabbis rather than a judge or jury. Murray Avenue Kosher’s Markovic said what he wants is straightforward: financial compensation from Glassner for damages he believes were caused to his business. Glassner struck a different note: “In the interest of peace, we attempted to reach an understanding with another establishment, but sadly, those efforts were unsuccessful,” read a statement he sent to the Forward. “Nevertheless, throughout the process, we have acted properly, and we remain confident that all matters will be settled amicably.” The Beth Din of America functions much like private arbitration in the secular world. Both sides have to agree to bring a dispute there, and once they do, the ruling is binding. A losing party can’t simply refile the same case in civil court and abide by that ruling instead. Cases like this one are typically decided by a panel of three rabbinic judges. The Beth Din of America, modeled after the rabbinical courts in ancient times, maintains a roster of rabbis it works with, each with different specialties — one might have more experience with family law, another with contracts and business disputes. Some of the rabbis are lawyers themselves. The arbitration can take place at the Beth Din of America’s Manhattan offices, or any other location that the parties and the Beth Din agree to, with follow-up sessions sometimes held over Zoom. Sources who have previously worked with the Beth Din of America expect a case like this to be litigated in the coming weeks — with perhaps a slight delay due to Yom Kippur and Sukkot. A written ruling can take additional weeks to finalize. Rabbi Yitzi Genack of the Vaad Harabonim of Pittsburgh, which certifies kosher establishments in the city, did not respond to multiple requests for an interview. A spokesperson for Brandywine Communities, the landlord and owner of the former Rite Aid building, declined a request for an interview.

A street with history

The new Murray’s Market is not facing off only against one other kosher option. Directly across the street from Murray Avenue Kosher, the local Giant Eagle — a large regional supermarket chain — runs its own in-house kosher bakery and stocks a decent selection of kosher meat: cold cuts, chicken, beef, steak and brisket. There was already competition, in other words, long before Glassner decided to open a new store. “For over a century, many important kosher establishments have served Pittsburgh’s diverse Jewish community, including Adler’s Delicatessen and Grocery, Kosher Mart, Murray Avenue Kosher, and Prime Kosher,” read a statement from Glassner. “For many years, these establishments — often operating side by side — contributed greatly to the Jewish community.” In the 1940s, Murray Avenue supported at

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least 10 kosher butchers, a handful of kosher poultry stores, two fish stores, six bakeries and 14 grocery stores, according to Eric Lidji, director of the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Heinz History Center. Rabbi Bernard Poupko, who led Congregation Shaare Torah in Squirrel Hill from 1942 to 1996, once called the street the yidisher gas, the Jewish street, even as the businesses lining it kept changing hands. Adler’s Delicatessen is a case study in how the markets have changed. Founded in the late 1910s, it became a Murray Avenue fixture — until the Adler family sold it, in 1974, to U-Se Chu, a Korean immigrant. Under Chu’s ownership, the deli kept its kosher-style menu and its Jewish character for decades, before the family retired and sold it in 1997. On Murray Avenue, in other words, a kosher institution outliving — or even changing hands entirely from — its founding family is not a new story.

A larger trend

Kosher shopping in Squirrel Hill does not even require a storefront anymore. Evergreen, a kosher supermarket chain with locations in New York and New Jersey, makes bulk kosher deliveries to eight cities across the Midwest as well as to Pittsburgh — part of a broader pattern of national and regional players reaching smaller Jewish communities that, until recently, only had access to whatever their local grocer carried. Customers have noticed. Feibus, a devoted Murray Avenue Kosher shopper, said some of Pittsburgh’s newer transplants from the northeast have grown used to bigger, more polished kosher chains like Seasons and want the same thing locally. The Grove, a South Florida-based kosher supermarket chain, has added locations in Ohio and Michigan in recent years. Many Costco and Trader Joe’s locations across the country stock kosher chicken and other products for Jewish customers. This fight is bigger than one grocer and one new competitor. Mom-and-pop kosher stores no longer have these smaller Jewish communities to themselves. Not everyone in the neighborhood sees a second kosher store as a threat. Ronna Harris Askin, 78, a longtime Squirrel Hill resident, said she plans to shop at both. “Competition is always good,” she said. She’s fond of Murray Avenue Kosher — it “mostly meets my needs,” she said — but doesn’t think one store should have to carry the whole neighborhood. “It’s good for the economy to have two places. It makes everybody be on their toes to do a good job.” Harris Askin has seen the alternative firsthand. Her daughter and son-in-law live in Toco Hills, a heavily Jewish Atlanta neighborhood, where both Kroger and Publix stock kosher meat and other products alongside two dedicated kosher markets — evidence, to her, that a bigger Jewish community can support more kosher retail without strain.

What comes next

Markovic isn’t waiting around to find out what the Beth Din of America decides. He’s already working on what comes next at Murray Avenue Kosher. In the coming months, he plans to move the deli counter to a new space in the store and expand its offerings to include restaurant menu items like chicken sandwiches and hamburgers. He’ll be adding tables for seating. He has also Please see Grocer, page 14

SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

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Headlines Pittsburgh faith communities join forces for advocacy day in Harrisburg — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer

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or years, a contingent of Jewish Pittsburghers has traveled to Harrisburg to advocate for issues ranging from security to teen mental health. This year, following the establishment of Om Shalom — a JewishHindu cohort that’s collaborated on various cultural programs — members of Pittsburgh’s multi-faith communities will travel together to Pennsylvania’s capital later this month to promote freedom and create new bonds. “The beautiful thing here is that for some people, this is going to be their first time in Harrisburg advocating for their cause, whereas for others this will be their third, fourth, fifth time,” Bhavini Patel, an Om Shalom co-founder, said. Sending a diverse delegation to Harrisburg sends an important message and represents a critical step in building relationships, said Karen Gal-Or, an Om Shalom co-founder and Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle board member. Cultural programs, including a joint Passover and Holi celebration, have allowed Pittsburghers to “support one another.” But, she said, “we really felt like there was more that we could do to really make an impact together.” The Sept. 30 trip, which is being organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations Council, is far from the first time state representatives will hear from impassioned Pittsburghers seeking greater attention. “In the past, our advocacy days have focused

p CRC representatives are headed to Harrisburg to meet with legislators and state officials. Photo by Kumar Appaiah, licensed as CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr

primarily on ensuring that Jewish voices and Jewish concerns were heard by legislators — that still remains critically important — but this year, we saw an opportunity to demonstrate something equally important, which is that combating hatred, protecting religious freedom and strengthening our communities are not solely Jewish concerns. They’re also concerns shared by people of many faiths,” David Knoll, the Federation’s associate vice president of public affairs, said. “A room full of Jewish advocates will always send an important message, but a room full of multiple faith leaders and advocates sends an even broader message, which is that protecting religious freedom, opposing hate, and fostering civil society are

priorities that are shared across faiths, nations and communities throughout Pennsylvania.” Gal-Or is looking forward to presenting a united front. “A lot of times, the Jewish community does a lot of these advocacy days where we advocate for things like nonprofit security grant funding and strengthening hate crime legislation, but we do it kind of on our own,” she said. “We naturally thought it would make a lot more sense for us to do it together as communities.” Topics to be addressed will include security grants as well as the rise in antisemitism, anti-Hindu hate, anti-Christian hate and violence directed against different faithbased communities.

A primary goal of the Sept. 30 gathering is “we want our legislators to enact legislation to provide protections,” Patel said. “We also just want to be able to create space for our legislators to meet us, so that they can put a face to the community, to humanize our stories and to hear directly from us about the challenges that we’re facing.” As much as the legislators should learn more about their constituents, organizers hope travelers to Harrisburg do the same. Knoll said nearly 30 participants will head out around 6 a.m. in multiple cars and return to Pittsburgh that evening. The hours traveling to Harrisburg are a chance to create friendships, Patel said. “You can’t build organic relationships by putting people in a room. It has to happen in those unexpected moments,” she said. “Hopefully, from that advocacy day, it turns into a lunch or a dinner. It turns into a text message wishing each other happy holidays on certain holidays.” Time together creates connection and offers opportunities to learn, she continued. “Everybody sort of has a different journey and phase that they’re at when it comes to their own civic engagement. And something that I’m really excited about is being able to create a space for people to experiment with what their own civic engagement journey looks like,” she said. “If you can see other people in action, and you can feel it, then you ultimately also become comfortable doing it yourself as well.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Ethics complaint filed against Summer Lee — LOCAL — By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer

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local community member has filed a House Ethics Committee complaint against U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, who represents Squirrel Hill. In the July 22 complaint, Jeremy Kazzaz alleges that Lee’s office improperly used House resources and the social media account Dear White Staffers for campaign and political activity. Originally created as an anonymous space for junior congressional staff to complain, the Dear White Staffers account is believed to be controlled by Philip Bennett. Bennett is Lee’s director of operations. p Rep. Summer Lee Photo courtesy of summerlee.house.gov/press He previously worked for U.S. Rep. Ilhan anti-Israel Omar of Minnesota. republished voluminous posts, Kazzaz’s complaint alleges that Bennett summer The Dear White Staffers Instagram account and earlier this collaborated on a engaged in prohibited campaign and political includes of genocide post calling for Immigration and Customs activity through the account, creating posts posts accusing Israel and the United States Capitol of Enforcement to hunt down ­ and “sh**t/k*ll” during the standard workday. ­ Police traveling to Israel for training. It has people mentioned in the Epstein files. The complaint cites the social media ­ ­ ­ account’s advocacy for candidates like Abdul ­ ­ ­ El-Sayed and William Lawrence, an anti-Israel ­ progressive candidate running for Congress in Michigan. ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ Lombardo Concrete, established in 1989, ­ The complaint also alleges that Bennett Fully Insured - inWe Do All! specializes and excels all types of It residential ­ ­ ­ Fully Insured We Do It All! concrete work: and decorative used the account for “conduct not reflecting • Stamping • Flagstone Patios ­ ­ ­ ­ creditably on the House.” • Exposed Aggregate • Floors ­ ­ • Colored Staining • Foundation Masonry Kazzaz does not allege that Lee person •­ Sealing ­ • Footers • Brick & Block Walls • Laying Stone ally performed prohibited campaign work or • Dry • Sidewalks Lay ­ Fully Fully Fully Insured Insured Insured---We We WeDo Do DoItItItAll! All! All! operates the Dear White Staffers account. • Driveway Construction • Steps Fully Insured - We Do It All! Fully Insured - We Do It All!

Fully Insured - We Do It All!

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Instead, he said that under longstanding committee precedent, “each Member is responsible for ensuring that employees are aware of and adhere to House rules and that House resources are used for proper purposes.” He contends that Lee bears “supervisory responsibility” for failing to prevent Bennett’s activities. Kazzaz told the Chronicle that the Dear White Staffers account started as a “cutesy airing of grievances of staffers about their bosses.” The account took a “sharp turn,” however when Bennett joined Lee’s office, Kazzaz said. “I think taxpayers deserve clarity,” he said. “Is this person on the campaign side in the middle of the day? How is it possible that this is taking place? Is he using government resources and his time to actively campaign?” In addition to the campaigning, Kazzaz said that some of the posts contain “overt hostility and rhetoric towards the Jewish community.” The account has even attacked other members of the Democratic caucus, he said. Kazzaz said the Ethics Committee is the only body that can examine the issues he’s raised since Congress isn’t subject to Freedom of Information Act requests. “I think I raised concerns that anybody observing the account can see,” he said. Lee did not respond to the Chronicle’s request for comment. PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Seven Romanishe organizations — HISTORY — By Eric Lidji | Special to the Chronicle

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n the high curving hillside in Reserve Township where Hoffman Road meets Irwin Lane, there are no less than seven Jewish cemeteries, and these are them: the Workmen’s Circle No. 975 cemetery, the Workmen’s Circle No. 932 cemetery, the First Podolier Independent Society cemetery, the “old” Kether Torah cemetery, the Cneseth Israel cemetery, the “new” Kether Torah cemetery and the Adath Israel cemetery. Where Hoffman Road bends, a private road continues straight for a few hundred feet, ending in a cul-de-sac. On a clear, humid day earlier this summer, I visited that road, hoping to solve a mystery. All I found were more mysteries and more dead ends. It started with a document, an affidavit from 1932 describing an arrangement at the First Podolier Independent Society cemetery. Under the terms of the deal, the Daughters of Israel Cemetery Association had agreed to pay $200 for rights to use that private road to access a 16-by-100-foot strip of land it held within the Podolier cemetery. “Who are the Daughters of Israel Cemetery Association?” I thought. There seems to be no end to the Jewish organizations created before World War II. Every effort to influence communal affairs was brought forth through some new entity with a name, a constitution, bylaws, a board of directors and a meeting calendar.

p By September 1904, the growing Romanishe community in the Hill District had divided into two congregations, Ohel Yaakov and Cneses Yisroel, seen here in competing High Holidays ads in the local Yiddish newspaper Der Volksfreund.

Photo courtesy of the National Library of Israel

Eager to know more, I pulled the Daughters of Israel Cemetery Association’s incorporation papers from the hefty, canvas-bound charter books at the County Records Office downtown. It was dated June 1917, and it listed 25 charter

members, all Jewish, mostly women from the Hill District. One name caught my eye: “Tony Ellovich.” Tillie Herman was an innkeeper’s daughter in Romania. She was cultured and intelligent, fluent in several languages and recognized for her scholastic achievements. Tillie’s parents made aliyah in the late 1880s, wanting to be buried in the Holy Land. Before they left, they hastily married their daughter to a local flour merchant. It was a poor match. Tillie’s new mother-in-law didn’t like her, and her new husband wouldn’t defend her. After eight years of abuse and beatings, she sought a divorce. The single mother went to live with an aunt. To make ends meet, she pawned jewelry and sold embroidery. Through a matchmaker, she met a widower who was 36 years her senior, a single father named Joseph Ellovich. They fell in love and married. Toward the end of October 1904, the couple arrived in New York with their two children. They chose to live in Pittsburgh, where they had relatives among the hundreds of newly arriving Romanian Jews who were turning the Hill District upside down. Famine, violence, and discrimination sent thousands of Jewish migrants out of Romania in the late 1890s. Some came to Pittsburgh. They partnered with recent Galician immigrants in 1889 to form Ahave Sholem Congregation. As more people arrived in Pittsburgh, these two constituencies branched off. The Galitzianers created Machsikei Hadas around 1896, and the Romanians created Ohel Yaakov in December 1899. The Romanians grew fast, for a time faster

Chag Sukkot Sameach

than any other Jewish group. Growth can foster ambition, and ambition can bring competitiveness. Over the next 20 years, the Romanians created no less than seven groups, each with similar members and missions. The Romanian Lebanon Society began in 1901. It was a charitable group, comprising the “better element of the Romanian Jews,” as they described themselves. The First Roumanian Sick and Beneficial Society began in August 1903, also to provide charity and mutual aid. Perhaps they were annoyed by the elitist tendencies of the Romanian Lebanon Society. The Roumanian Ladies Aid Society began in 1906. It was chartered in early 1907 “for the mutual relief of its members in case of sickness, disability or death and to aid in the case of the deserving sick and indigent and the burial of the worthy poor and unfortunate among the Jewish people of Allegheny County.” The community of Romanian Jews prayed in rented rooms until September 1903, when Ohel Yaakov, meaning “Tent of Jacob,” dedicated a synagogue on Roberts Street. Toward the end of the year, a contingent left to start a second Romanian congregation called Cneses Yisroel, meaning “Gathering of Israel.” In the Torah, Jacob is also named Israel, and so the names of these two synagogue were essentially synonyms. I haven’t found a good reason for the split, but you can see a trend. Splits often have to do with status. People who don’t feel respected start something new. Please see History, page 14

From the Staff and Board of the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh

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Calendar Submit calendar items on the Chronicle’s website, pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. Submissions also will be included in print. Events will run in the print edition beginning one month prior to the date as space allows. The deadline for submissions is Friday, noon. q SUNDAYS, SEPT. 27–DEC. 20 Join Chabad of Squirrel Hill for its Men’s Tefillin Club. Services and tefillin are followed by a delicious breakfast and engaging discussions on current events. 8:30 a.m. 1700 Beechwood Blvd. chabadpgh.com Join a lay-led online Parashah study group to discuss the weekly Torah portion. No Hebrew knowledge needed. The goal is to build community while deepening understanding of the text. 8:30 p.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org/online-parashah. q TUESDAYS, SEPT. 29–DEC. 22 Join Beth El’s Rabbi Alex Greenbaum and his Bible/

Talmud Adult Education class for a thoughtprovoking weekly session of Bible and Talmudic study. This program is available both in person and virtually. Call the office at 412-561-1168 to receive the Zoom link or to make an in-person reservation. 10:30 a.m. 1900 Cochran Road. bethelcong.org q WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 30 Join Chabad of the South Hills for Seniors in the Sukkah. Enjoy lunch, a holiday program and shake the lulav and etrog. This month’s topic is resources in the community for seniors. 1 p.m. $5 suggested donation. Wheelchair accessible. RSVP at 412-2782658. 1701 McFarland Road. chabadsh.com q WEDNESDAYS, SEPT. 30–NOV. 11 Join Hazzan Barbara Barnett as she leads a 10week Shabbat davening class. Whether you want to follow along with confidence, sing every niggun with the kahal, or step up to lead Kabbalat Shabbat, Shacharit, Torah service or Musaf yourself — this class builds the skills for it. Work through

Friday night and Shabbat morning davening, piece by piece. 7:30 p.m. Congregation Beth Shalom, 5915 Beacon Street. bethshalompgh.org/shabbatdavening-class q WEDNESDAYS, SEPT. 30-DEC. 23 Explore the weekly Torah portion with the mystical and interpersonal lens of the Hassidic rabbis with Rabbi Mark Asher Goodman. Hassidut for the People is a fun and engaging class taught online and in person meant to help learners find deeper meaning in Torah and in themselves. All levels welcome. 10 a.m. $5. Shoresh PGH, 4300 Murray Ave. Contact rabbimark@shoreshpgh.org for more information. shoreshpgh.org/class-schedule-and-events q MONDAY, OCT. 5 The Edith Balas Annual Lecture Series welcomes Rachel Perry presenting “Who Will Draw Our History: Women’s Graphic Novels of the Holocaust.” The lecture and small exhibition features the work of Zusza Merenyi, Maria Turan

Hacker, Edit Ban Kiss and Agnes Lukacs — four Jewish Hungarian women who used visual art to testify to their experiences under Nazism. 5:15 p.m. Free. Rachel Mellon Walter Room, Posner Hall CMU, 5000 Forbes Ave. Organized by the Jewish Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh and the Jack Buncher Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies at Carnegie Mellon University. q WEDNESDAYS, OCT. 21; TUESDAY, DEC. 1 The Beacon and Friendship Circle present “Let’s Talk About It: The Conversations Every Family Is Having … or Avoiding,” a parent and teen conversation series. Join other parents and teens for honest conversations about today’s biggest challenges. Teens hold an active role in planning and co-facilitating the conversations. Free. 7 p.m. 1922 Murray Ave. For more information, including topics, visit eventbrite.com/e/lets-talk-about-it-theconversations-every-family-is-havingor-avoidingtickets-1998932272236?aff=oddtdtcreator. PJC

Diskin Fund grant to support JCC dance programs

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— LOCAL—

$375,000 grant from the Arthur J. and Betty F. Diskin Cultural Endowment Fund will support and expand the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s School of Dance. The grant was announced last week by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Foundation and the JCC. “The Diskin Fund honors Arthur J. Diskin, a respected Pittsburgh attorney, and Betty F. Diskin, a lifelong devotee of the performing arts who was active in local

theater, including Little Lake Theatre and the original Pittsburgh Playhouse,” JCC and Federation officials said in a news release. “Betty established the Fund to honor Arthur’s memory, and it is administered by the Federation’s Foundation to support cultural, educational and civic organizations across the region, with particular attention to music and theater.” The grant will be distributed over five years. “One of our most important responsibilities as trustees is preserving the intent behind the Diskin family’s generosity,” said Fund trustee Nancy Rackoff. “This investment in

I n - Ho m e Care S e r v i ce s

the JCC Dance program reflects the very purpose of the Fund: supporting arts organizations that enrich lives and strengthen our community.” Jason Kunzman, president and CEO of the JCC of Greater Pittsburgh, recognized Betty Diskin’s “extraordinary legacy in Pittsburgh, grounded in her belief in the arts, young people and the importance of creating opportunities for others.” “We are deeply honored,” he said, “that her legacy will live on here, in spaces filled with young people learning, performing, building confidence and discovering what they are capable of." The JCC School of Dance serves students from preschool through high school, “combining strong technical instruction with an emphasis on confidence, creativity,

discipline and belonging,” according to the news release. Funding from the grant will be used to install professional sprung flooring in dance studios and the Katz Theater, upgrades to lighting and sound and an annual scholarship to support and attract new dancers to JCC programs, as well as “keep training accessible as students advance.” The Diskin Fund is one of many funds administered by the Federation’s Foundation on behalf of “donors who want their giving to reflect what they care about most,” Federation officials said, “and the Foundation welcomes the opportunity to help new donors create funds of their own.” PJC — Toby Tabachnick

Author Nicholas Lemann to join the Chronicle Book Club

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

What to do

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

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Headlines — WORLD— Police officer wounded in shooting outside synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, on Yom Kippur

A police officer was wounded on Sunday night in a shooting outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, during Yom Kippur, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed on Monday, JNS reported. The officer was in critical but stable condition as of Monday afternoon, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which later identified the victim, citing investigators, as Const. Jeff Smith. The report named the suspected shooter as Sean Ward, 29, who sustained life-threatening injuries in an exchange of fire with police. The incident reportedly occurred around 7 p.m. as Jews gathered for prayer services on their holiest day of the year. The synagogue’s president, Norman Weddum, told the CBC on Monday that the officer had been stationed outside the building in an unmarked car. “It was boom, boom, boom,” he was quoted as saying. “So that’s when we ran back into the auditorium of the synagogue, closed the doors behind us so as to not leave a visible target and we hit the floor.” The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and Jewish Federations of Canada–United Israel Appeal on Monday night called for immediate government action in a joint statement following the shooting. “Jewish Canadians are emerging from Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, to the horrifying images of gunfire outside Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville,

where members of the Jewish community had gathered to pray,” the groups said. “Jewish Canadians should not need armed police outside their synagogues simply to pray safely.”

Arsonist targets German synagogue ahead of Yom Kippur

An arson attack targeted the Bergische Synagogue in Wuppertal, Germany, days before Yom Kippur, the European Jewish Congress said on Friday, according to a JNS report. At about 2 p.m. local time on Thursday, Sept. 17, a man threw several bags filled with flammable liquid at a side entrance to the synagogue in North Rhine-Westphalia state and set them alight before fleeing, according to the EJC. The fire was extinguished within minutes and no one was injured. Police arrested a 37-year-old suspect shortly afterward. Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said attacks timed around Jewish holidays were part of a pattern intended to spread fear and push Jewish life out of the public sphere.

Leading Reform rabbi in Yom Kippur sermon: Unhinged, obsessive loathing of Israel is corrupting US values

Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, a leading voice in the Reform community, in his Yom Kippur sermon on Monday called on Jews to hedge their support for politicians, urged young Jews to take leadership roles amid rising hostility, and warned that hatred of Israel was corrupting the United States, The Times of Israel reported. “My advice to the Jewish community is to support only politicians who support us and

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

Sept. 25, 1982 — Israelis protest massacre in Lebanon

Some 400,000 protesters march in Tel Aviv to demand an inquiry into Israel’s possible role in the Christian Phalangist militia’s massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon.

Sept. 26, 1955 — Oil is found in Heletz

Oil is discovered in Heletz, a moshav founded by Yemeni immig rants in southern Israel. p A well pumps oil Holding an esti- at the Heletz field in 2004. mated 94.4 million By Moshe Milner, Israeli Government Press Office, barrels of oil, the CC BY-SA 3.0 field becomes the site of the state’s first successful wells.

Sept. 27, 1955 — Egypt announces Czechoslovak arms deal

Gamal Abdel Nasser says Czechoslovakia will supply major Soviet weapons systems, including tanks, MiG-15 fighters and heavy bombers, to Egypt. The deal influences Israel’s decision to attack in 1956.

Sept. 28, 1970 — Egypt’s Nasser dies

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

dies of a heart attack shortly after brokering a ceasefire between Jordan’s King Hussein and PLO leader Yasser Arafat. Near the end, he expressed openness to peace with Israel.

Sept. 29, 1947 — Arab Committee rejects U.N. partition plan

our liberal vision for America. Do not give to organizations that in the past may have allied with us, but so betrayed us after Oct. 7,” he said. Hirsch is a leader in the Reform movement in North America and the senior rabbi of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan, one of the city’s most prominent Reform institutions. He has consistently pushed for continued attachment to Israel and opposed anti-Zionist activity in recent years, as the Reform community, the largest denomination in the U.S., has contended with discrimination, anti-Zionist activism and hostile politics. In his Yom Kippur speech, he drew a continuity between historical persecution of Jews and contemporary discrimination, saying, “To be a Jew is to be part of a nation that others seek to harm.” “While pervasive anti-Jewish hostility is not new, it is new to us. We grew up in what has been described as the ‘Golden Age’ of American Jewry,” he said, according to a transcript shared with The Times of Israel before the speech. “It is this clear and obvious change that has so unnerved us.” Jews are targeted in hate crimes far more than any other group in New York City, with at least 229 confirmed antisemitic hate crimes so far this year, according to NYPD data.

Ed Sheeran expresses sympathy for both Jews and Palestinians at first tour stop since Macklemore was dropped

Pop star Ed Sheeran expressed sympathy for “centuries of Jewish pain” while calling what is happening in Gaza “catastrophic and unjustifiable” at a largely solo performance before

Mordechai Vanunu, a nuclear technician who in 1985 leaked details about Israel’s nuclear program in Dimona, is brought back to Israel to face trial on espionage charges, of which he is convicted in 1988.

Oct. 1, 1981 — U.S. to supply F-15s to Saudi Arabia

President Ronald Reagan announces a plan to sell F-15 fighter jets and Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) planes to Saudi Arabia. Israel adamantly opposes the sale, which the president insists is not a threat to Israel. PJC

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The Arab Higher C ommitte e for Palestine rejects the U.N. Special C om m itte e on p The U.N. partition Palestine’s partition plan called for an plan, which calls for international zone separate Jewish and around Jerusalem Arab states and an and a smaller Jewish international zone state than emerged after the War of around Jerusalem.

about 50,000 people at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, JTA reported. It was the tour’s first stop since Macklemore was dropped following pro-Palestinian remarks and the display of images from the Gaza war during his opening set. “I’ve tried in my career not to be a political commentator of any kind because I want my music and shows to be about unity not division, about humanity not politics,” he said in a speech before the music began. “But this is a humanitarian issue and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore. What happened in Israel at a … music festival on Oct. 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate,” he added. “I am already speaking to people across the spectrum to work out how to make a contribution that helps victims of these terrible times, and listening and learning because I do not know enough,” he continued. His views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict took center stage after the rapper Macklemore declared “Free Palestine!” in front of graphic Gaza war imagery during his opening performance for Sheeran in East Rutherford, New Jersey, earlier this month. Robert Kraft, owner of Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, where another stop was scheduled, said Macklemore would not be allowed to perform there, and other stadiums threatened to cancel Sheeran’s shows unless Macklemore was removed from the bill. After Macklemore was dropped, Sheeran’s other support acts and touring band withdrew one by one in solidarity. PJC

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Estate Planning and Planned Giving

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Estate plan design: Last will and testament versus revocable living trust Guest Columnists Matthew F. Schwartz and John P. Montoya

W

e are frequently asked by clients whether they should use a last will and testament or a revocable living trust as their dispositive estate planning document. Seniors are often overwhelmed by advertisements to use a trust to “avoid the costs and delays of probate.” While avoiding probate has value in many states, the costs of probate are often oversold, and particularly so in Pennsylvania. For example, the fixed cost of probate in Allegheny County is around $1,800 per million of probate assets (a little less for the first million). These costs only apply to assets that pass under the will (i.e., assets without beneficiary designations or joint owners). In addition, the privacy benefit of avoiding probate is most beneficial for clients who have had careers in the public light and is not as crucial for most people. Furthermore, a will is very effective for a straightforward fact pattern, such as naming direct charitable beneficiaries or one individual beneficiary. Finally, a will is likely easier

to read and less confusing for most clients than a revocable living trust. So, why might you want to consider a trust as your dispositive estate planning document? For many clients, the most relevant factor is whether you own retirement accounts that pass outside of your will. You may think that having a significant amount of wealth in retirement accounts

does not carry over any specific direction in your will to hold a child’s or grandchild’s share in trust if they are below a certain age. Many beneficiary designation forms do not permit specialized customization and therefore do not include the contingencies that you have planned for under your will or revocable living trust. Using a trust and naming it as a beneficiary (where appropriate)

You may think that having a significant amount of wealth in retirement accounts would support using a will, but a trust is often a better solution. would support using a will, but a trust is often a better solution. Many retirement account custodians (particularly custodians of qualified plans) will only accept simple beneficiary designations such as naming an individual or trust as a beneficiary with limited contingencies, including electing the “per stirpes” designation (per stirpes is when the children of a deceased parent or a parent who disclaims — does not accept an inheritance — step into the shoes of that parent). The “per stirpes” designation can ensure that the children of the deceased or disclaiming parent are named as beneficiaries but

enable these types of accounts to be fully integrated with the contingencies under your estate plan. Similarly, naming a special needs trust or a spendthrift trust as a beneficiary of a retirement account can be complicated based on the limitations of beneficiary designation forms. A trust is a solution that includes all your beneficiary options and can be named as the primary (if single) or contingent (if married) beneficiary of a retirement account, investment account or life insurance policy. The goals and implementation of each client’s estate plan are unique. Some

additional factors supporting the choice of a trust are whether you own real estate in another state and whether it is a priority to create less inconvenience for the trustee (compared to the executor of a will) and reduce the cost for administering the trust/estate. When a will has to be administered in other states, your executor would have to hire attorneys licensed in Pennsylvania and in the state where the real estate is located and pay court costs in both states. Even with virtual probate now available in most Pennsylvania counties, the probate of a will is still cumbersome and takes additional time compared to the administration of a trust. With many clients naming their children as an executor or trustee, many parents wish to lighten this burden for their children. Furthermore, a revocable living trust can generate cost savings if the value of the probate assets is enough that the court fees of probate outweigh the increased cost to prepare a trust. Do you have questions about whether a will-based or trust-based estate plan is the right fit? Please do not hesitate to contact us to discuss these considerations or if it is just the right time to review your estate plan. PJC Matthew F. Schwartz and John P. Montoya are partners at the law firm Schwartz and Montoya, Ltd. 412-419-1005

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Estate Planning and Planned Giving HSA can have important place in retirement planning — RETIREMENT — By Martha Sorohan | Contributing Writer

H

ow does a health savings account figure into estate planning? It is a powerful investment tool — even though there is no one-size-fits-all health savings account. By definition, a health savings account, or HSA, is a tax-advantaged account available to people enrolled in eligible high-deductible health plans, according to Rose Faye, director of financial planning at Edelman Financial Engines in Beachwood, Ohio. “One of its biggest benefits is the triple tax advantage: Contributions can be pretax, the money can grow tax-free and withdrawals for qualified medical expenses are tax-free,” Faye said. And unlike some other health accounts, the money rolls over from year to year and stays with you. “If you change jobs, an HSA isn’t a replacement for health insurance, but it can work alongside your coverage to help pay

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for deductibles and other qualified out-ofpocket health care costs,” she said. While Faye said that most people purchase HSAs to pay medical bills, over time this type of account can become a meaningful financial asset. “Especially if you’re investing the balance rather than spending it each year,” she said.

As such, it should not be overlooked in one’s broader estate plan. “As with your other financial accounts, it’s important to keep your beneficiary designations up to date and make sure they align with your overall wishes,” Faye said. Faye said that it is equally important to remember that a will is only one part of an estate plan, and that beneficiary

designations on all financial accounts such as HSAs can determine how the assets will be transferred upon one’s death. “You don’t want to assume your will automatically addresses every account you own,” she said. “Regularly reviewing your beneficiaries, particularly after a major life event, can help make sure your accounts are aligned with your estate plan.” An HSA can be a powerful long-term investment tool for those who can afford to cover medical expenses without tapping into it. “You may be able to invest the balance, give that money more time to potentially grow, and use it for qualified health care expenses later,” Faye said. She said she does have clients who use their HSAs in this way. “But, many people still think of them primarily as accounts for supplementing the costs of current medical bills,” she said. “Looking at an HSA through a long-term lens can make it a valuable complement to your broader retirement savings strategy.” PJC This article was first published by the Cleveland Jewish News.

ABERNETHY, HAGERMAN & MILLER or end-of-life treatment choices. A Will, of course, says who you choose to wind up your affairs after you are gone and who will inherit from you, but only as to the property that passes under the Will. Property passing under a Will goes through the additional legal process called probate.

USING THE TOOLS OF ESTATE PLANNING

Every day I work on winding up the affairs of someone who died in estate administration cases. Some are simpler and easier. Some are harder and more complex.

I want to remind you about using the tools of Estate Planning to make your own possible future estate easier and better for those who survive you.

We use tools every day to accomplish goals. Phone, computer, fork and spoon, toothbrush, car. “Estate Planning” means using tools to make plans and arrangements in case something bad happens to us, like becoming disabled or dying. We get to choose who will help us and make decisions for us, and what we want them to do. When we die, we get to say who will wind up our affairs and carry out our wishes, and who will inherit from us, and how and when. Using the right tools makes things easier for those who help us and for those we want to benefit. Here are some of those tools.

TRANSFER ON DEATH (TOD), PAY ON DEATH (POD), AND JOINT OWNERSHIP WITH RIGHT OF SURVIVORSHIP (JTWROS) DESIGNATIONS: These are written instructions attached to a particular asset, account, policy, or other property. They determine ownership rights and who will receive the property when you are gone. TOD and POD designations do not transfer any present ownership interest, only a future right. Property passing by TOD, POD, or joint ownership designation does not pass under the Will, and a Will does not override these designations.

DEEDS: Deeds determine title to and ownership of real estate, and sometimes future interests in real estate. Unlike a POD or TOD designation, which becomes effective only upon death, a deed transfer usually conveys some present ownership interest. Parents often ask me about adding a child’s name to a deed. I provide an organized list of the pros and cons to help them make a wellinformed decision.

LIFE INSURANCE: Injects cash at a key transition point following a death.

PRINTER, PAPER AND PEN: Legal planning in Pennsylvania almost always needs to be in writing. Sometimes BUSINESS OR FAMILY AGREEMENTS: oral agreements are enforceable, but why take the chance? Small business partners, shareholders, and co-owners are smart to have written agreements, in addition to or ESTATE PLANNING ATTORNEYS: Yes, I too can instead of relying solely on default legal rules. Good be a tool. Use my help, or someone else’s, but use someone agreements anticipate problems and define how relationships qualified. will proceed if circumstances change. Likewise, family POWERS OF ATTORNEY AND WILLS: In a Power members who own property together, such as an inherited of Attorney (POA), you choose who will help you during your vacation home, are smart to have written agreements to lifetime if you become unable to take care of business yourprevent problems and resolve them effectively if a co-owner self, usually regarding financial matters, healthcare decisions, dies or disagreements arise.

TRUSTS: I saved the broadest and most complicated topic for last. The word “trust” describes a very broad range of uses and applications. Trusts can provide for children or other beneficiaries who may need help receiving or managing an inheritance, exercise control over assets, avoid probate, preserve benefits eligibility for disabled individuals, accomplish charitable giving goals, provide privacy, or address tax planning concerns. There are always three participants in a trust: the creator, the trustee, and the beneficiary. The trustee is the person in whom the creator places confidence and responsibility, whether that is the creator or someone else. A common example is a Will in which parents of young children direct that a child’s inheritance be held in trust and managed by trusted adults as trustees. You do not have to be rich to use a trust.

OTHER KINDS OF TRUST TOOLS: There are many others. These are the main ones, to me. The point is to ACT, to make sensible plans and arrangements before you need them. Sooner is usually better than later. It’s too late to get a spare tire when you already have a flat.

You can try to do it yourself, but the smart money gets expert help. It’s important. You’re working to protect yourself, your family, and everything you’ve ever worked and saved for.

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Headlines Summit: Continued from page 1

summit can be used outside of Pittsburgh, including locations like Bondi Beach, where 15 people were killed and another 40 injured in a 2025 attack during a Chanukah celebration. “I knew how they were feeling and I know how hard all of us in this room and so many people in Pittsburgh, including the survivors, have worked to regain a new version of their lives,” she said. “That gives us a power to help other people who are facing what we faced and to deal with it informed with what we have learned.” The Eradicate Hate Global Summit, she said, is one of the repositories of the accumulated knowledge gained following the 2018 hate-based attack in Pittsburgh. And while Ellsworth pointed out Eradicate Hate’s commitment to stopping the rise of antisemitism, the summit has faced some criticism by local community members for not confronting the hate arising from antiZionism. In particular, four of this year’s summit speakers — Salam al-Marayati, Michael Loadenthal, Robert Pape and Shahd Safi — have all espoused antiZionist messages. Al-Marayati is the founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a Muslim advocacy and public policy organization. During a Sept. 11, 2001, interview he said that Israel

ISIS: Continued from page 1

According to an anonymous tip following his release, Kramer’s parents provided him with unmonitored internet access and a cell phone. Kramer, the tipster said, ordered “mysterious” packages and was talking to his “friends from before” the time of his 2023 arrest. Law enforcement reviewed various online accounts of Kramer’s under different aliases and found that he reposted ISIS material and Hamas propaganda. He also purchased a knife and pepper spray from Amazon. The FBI confirmed that Kramer had used the alias “Hamza Al Rashid” online, claimed an affiliation with ISIS and offered to share explosive manuals with others. He also said he was preparing for a “mission” and only

Grocer: Continued from page 3

hired a chef to make fresh sushi daily. A year ago, Markovic was contemplating

was responsible for the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C. and has refused to call Hezbollah a terrorist group. Loadenthal is the founder of the Prosecution Project, created to track and analyze felony criminal cases in the United States that involve illegal political violence, terrorism and extremism. He has written that violence against “colonialism” is “expected and just,” which is notable because of anti-Zionist accusations that Israel is a colonizing state. Pape served as a keynote speaker at the summit and spoke at a separate event at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a political science professor at the University of Chicago. He has argued that suicide terrorism is primarily a strategic response to foreign military occupation rather than primarily the product of religious ideology and has proposed the military containment of Israel, recommending that Congress pass legislation cutting off all U.S. military and economic aid to Israel if it attacks Iran, and requiring Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Safi has repeatedly called Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide. She has also been associated with the organization We Are Not Numbers, whose leadership has been accused of being connected to Hamas and antiIsrael incitement. Ellsworth is aware of community concerns about anti-Zionism, noting that the summit was founded by “a couple of lawyers.” “Lawyers have devoted themselves to the adversary process where we believe that

opposing viewpoints argued with respect and listening to one another produce the greatest truths,” she said. “We have always brought people with differing views to the summit for that purpose.” Ellsworth said she is grateful for community members who voiced their concerns with the summit, because she wasn’t previously aware of those concerns. And, she said, she’s committed to having conversations “about how we can bring other diverse voices to the summit.” “I want people to know that we welcome a diversity of voices and always have,” Ellsworth said. That diversity, she said, has drawn criticism in the past. “Eradicate Hate was one of the first organizations in the country to present hate on the left,” she said. “That was right before Oct. 7 and we got huge criticism for it.” The three-day conference hosted a variety of local, national and international experts in the field of hate and included a student summit for nearly 600 students from 42 schools. Another highlight of the conference was a session dedicated to the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, featuring Michael Bernstein, Tree of Life Center for Humanity board chair, and Maggie Feinstein, 10.27 Healing Partnership executive director. Ellsworth was featured on a panel discussing the Bondi Beach massacre and Rabbi Jamie Gibson, chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations

Council, was a speaker at the session “Faith as Frontline Preventions: The Role of Faith as a Protective Factor.” Another session examined the terrorist attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, featuring the congregation’s Taylor Weintraub as well as Steve Richter from the West Bloomfield Police Department. As the summit’s founder Ellsworth, had the opportunity to see the good it has done, she said. “I get to see people who have met one another because of this conference and done amazing things around the world. I get to see survivors like the woman who spoke this year on the nihilistic violence panel,” she said. “I have seen survivors come here who have been lost in the world, who find their purpose and go off to do amazing things, including the Tree of Life survivors.” When it comes down to it, she said, Eradicate Hate is about people. “It’s about connecting people with a lived experience that has given them a passion for this work that matches my own,” she said. “That’s what makes this organization great. If you can activate hundreds of people and connect them to hundreds of people, give them the spark, then that’s going to change everything.” The 2027 Eradicate Hate Global Summit has been scheduled for Nov. 9-11. PJC

needed a “weapon.” Using the name “Rashid,” Kramer allegedly posted a document that contained a section called “Jihad.” In it, various attack options were outlined, including fire, firearms, poison and vehicles, among others. On May 20, 2026, using the Rashid name, Kramer posted: “I might be able to carry out an operation soon against the kuffar [infidels], please pray for my success brothers.” Several days later, again as Rashid, Kramer wrote that he was “trying to find ways to synthesize ricin, or cyanide, or some other deadly chemical,” with the intention of injecting it into food at grocery stores or food events, “preferably synagogues.” Communicating with someone identified as an FBI “confidential human source,” Kramer said he intended to buy firearms and wrote of an “attack plan against a crowd.” On Sept. 12, FBI agents observed Kramer leaving his home carrying a bag, traveling to a

Walmart by a rideshare service, and buying a disposable phone. He met a second individual in the store’s parking lot, where he acquired a long black bag “that could have accommodated a rifle” from the trunk of a vehicle before traveling to a hotel in Cranberry Township, according to the FBI. After checking into his room, Kramer traveled to Dunham Sports and was observed by the FBI at the gun counter. When he returned to the hotel, FBI agents said they approached Kramer in the hotel’s parking lot. After executing a search warrant, agents seized a semiautomatic rifle, five rifle magazines — including two that were loaded — a rifle bipod and scope, a total of 190 rounds of rifle ammunition, an entrenchment tool, prayer rug, pepper spray and approximately 30 knives, along with a handwritten note stating “DoNt look For me[.] IDK what I did buT I cant live In constant Fear[.]” The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh

said in a statement that it is grateful to the FBI and law enforcement partners for their work. “This case shows exactly why our partnership with federal, state and local law enforcement matters every day,” said Shawn Brokos, the Federation’s director of community security. “It is also a powerful reminder that the voice of a concerned citizen reporting suspicions to law enforcement can save lives.” The United States has requested detention of the defendant and that he be held without bond pending trial. Kramer waived a detention hearing during his initial court appearance on Sept. 14. He appeared in federal court on Sept. 16 and waived his preliminary hearing. A date for his next court appearance has not been set. PJC

getting out of the business. Now he is doing the opposite: pouring money into the same store he nearly sold, betting that the surest answer to a rival two blocks away isn’t a rabbinical court, but a better rotisserie chicken. “It’s imperative to get it done quickly,”

Markovic said. One of his brothers is flying in to help him push through the vendor calls and the small decisions that used to take him weeks to get to. “I have 97 phone calls in between everything I want to do,” he said, and laughed, a little wearily,

before picking up to answer another one. PJC

History: Continued from page 5

The Romanians now had two shuls and no cemetery. Ohel Yaakov acquired land on Soose Road in Shaler Township in December 1908 for a burial ground. A short while later, a new breakaway group started a third Romanian congregation, called “Shaare Shamayim Anshe Rumanian,” meaning “Gates of Heaven, People of Romania.” According to Tillie’s son Philip, the cemetery caused the split. Ohel Yaakov planned to bury families by order of death. Philip recalled, “Mr. Marshall, who was in the wholesale tobacco business, came back at the next meeting and said, ‘I’ve talked that over with my wife and we don’t like that arrangement because a shoemaker might be buried next to us and we don’t want 14

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p Tillie Ellovich and her son Philip in 1910, a few years after the family immigrated to Pittsburgh from their native Romania. Photo courtesy of the Rauh Jewish Archives

that. We baal habatim (householders) should have the choice graves.’ So that started arguments, and it started another Romanishe shul.”

A few months after the split, Ohel Jacob formally changed its name to Oir Chudish, meaning “New Light.” The reason for the change is unclear. Coming shortly after the split, a name change sounds to me like a rebranding. The dispute was resolved, and the Shaare Shamayim group rejoined Oir Chudish sometime around 1912. By the time of this reunification, Cneseth Israel still did not have a cemetery. In August 1916, it acquired a half-acre plot near the Beth Abraham Cemetery complex in Baldwin Township from the First Roumanian Sick and Beneficial Society. It never developed the land. In November 1919, it bought 0.625 acres in Reserve Township. If you’ve kept count, I said there were no less than seven Romanian groups formed before 1919, but I’ve only named six. That’s why the name Tillie Ellovich caught my attention. She

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David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

This story was originally published on the Forward. To get the Forward’s free email newsletters delivered to your inbox, go to forward.com/newsletters. was Romanian. I started researching the other 24 charter members of the Daughters of Israel Cemetery Association. Almost all of them had origins in Romania, and many were also active members of the Roumanian Ladies Aid Society. Which brought a question: If the Roumanian Ladies Aid Society already had a mission to provide “burial of the worthy poor,” why did its members feel compelled a decade later to start a second organization specifically for purchasing cemetery property? NOTE: This is the first of a three-part series. In the second part, we visit the cemetery to search for remaining traces of the Daughters of Israel Cemetery Association. PJC Eric Lidji is the director of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center and can be reached at rjarchives@heinzhistorycenter. org or 412-454-6406. PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

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Opinion The importance of defining antisemitism Guest Columnist Dave Sunday

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s attorney general, I meet frequently with faith leaders to understand what people are facing. What I’m hearing from members of the Jewish community is that they feel especially vulnerable. Their message is unmistakable: Antisemitism is our present reality. It is no surprise many Jews feel this way and why many feel particularly vulnerable during the High Holiday season. Over the last decade, we have witnessed the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, the events of Oct. 7 and the Bondi Beach attack in Australia, among other tragedies. Last year, the Anti-Defamation League reported a record number of physical assaults. Indeed, FBI data shows anti-Jewish hate crimes comprised nearly 70% of all

religious-based hate crimes even though Jews are only 2% of the American population. Tellingly, Jewish institutions spend over $1 billion per year on security in North America.

who are appalled by this information to take a stand. In order to identify, condemn and fight something, though, you first must define it. The International Holocaust Remembrance

In order to identify, condemn and fight something, though, you first must define it. We have seen harassment at Jewish institutions, intimidation of Jewish students, cancellations of Jewish speakers and rhetoric that targets Jews as a group rather than expressing political disagreement. Antisemitic voices have been provided platforms on the right and the left, and too often these messages are not just from the fringes. Antisemitism has become normalized and, increasingly, it is being tolerated and celebrated. This reality should concern every Pennsylvanian. The fear is real, and it’s time for those

Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism provides a widely used framework for identifying contemporary antisemitism. It explains that antisemitism includes hatred or discrimination against Jews and outlines how discussions about Israel can cross into antisemitism when they target Jews collectively — such as by denying Jewish self-determination, applying double standards not used for other nations, attributing dual loyalty to Jews abroad, or holding all Jews responsible for Israel’s actions. These examples help distinguish legitimate

policy criticism from rhetoric that targets Jewish identity. The definition also makes clear that criticism of Israel, like criticism of any country’s policies or leaders, is not inherently antisemitic. Political protest that does not deny Jewish self-determination or rely on anti-Jewish tropes remains fully protected. A clear definition helps institutions separate protected expression from conduct that discriminates against or endangers Jewish communities. Over the next several months, the Office of Attorney General will be hosting regional trainings with our partners in law enforcement to learn more about how to identify and fight back against antisemitism. This work is urgent. Jews across Pennsylvania deserve security, and any society that tolerates antisemitism undermines its own integrity and safety. PJC Dave Sunday serves as the attorney general of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This article was first published by Philadelphia’s Jewish Exponent.

A trip to Jewish Amsterdam Guest Columnist Tim Miller

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ewish Amsterdam is a difficult place to visit. On the one hand, millions of people visit the Anne Frank House and the Jewish Quarter every year, as they should. On the other, you can’t ignore the fact that the tireless work of the organizations overseeing these and other monuments and museums commemorating the history of Dutch Jews are only necessary because 75% of Dutch Jews were murdered in the Shoah. You cannot accept the beauty and meaning of Jewish Amsterdam without also acknowledging the huge emptiness at its center.

Rembrandt’s sympathies

When I found Rembrandt’s “Jewish Bride” of 1669 in the Rijksmuseum, I was there with a dozen others trying to take a look and with many dozens more on their way. Also known as “Isaac and Rebecca,” the painting shows the moment in Genesis 26:8 when the Philistine King Abimelech, just told that the pair were brother and sister, sees definitive evidence that they are actually husband and wife. Before I was pushed along, I was at least able to lean in quickly and take in Isaac’s sleeve, a huge sweep of gold painted in incredibly heavy impasto. From only a foot away, the illusion is so real you can almost hear the fabric move. Thankfully, the Rembrandt House Museum allowed for more quiet. Much less crowded, the museum occupies the very house where Rembrandt lived from 1639 to 1658. Many of his neighbors were Sephardic 16

SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

Jews, and you can tell that Rembrandt had a real connection with them. In his art, he couldn’t get away from the scene in Genesis 40 where the imprisoned Joseph interprets the dreams of the cupbearer and the baker, which inspired nearly a dozen paintings and etchings. There were also etchings of

of people in each room of the annex almost always outnumbered the Jews who had hid there, and I at least wanted to apologize for making more noise than they were ever allowed. The few rooms are bare of daylight and furniture, and much of what survived from Anne’s time (the bookcase hiding

You cannot accept the beauty and meaning of Jewish Amsterdam without also acknowledging the huge emptiness at its center. Abraham casting out Hagar and Ishmael, Abraham with Isaac on his lap, and, most movingly, the 1648 etching “Jews in the Synagogue.”

The Shoah

The Anne Frank House was, as it should be, a study in contrasts. The 17th-century Westerkerk is only a few hundred feet away and its tolling bell could be heard from inside the annex itself, and just outside were canal boat tours and side streets filled with restaurants and shops. It would make no sense to sequester what happened to Anne Frank and so many others from the religious, commercial and everyday life of Amsterdam. This bustle and mixture (after all, we took one of the boat tours ourselves) felt emblematic of every place that Jews have been forced by circumstance to settle in to survive and succeed — or, in this case, hide to save our lives. But the Anne Frank House was just as crowded as the Rijksmuseum. The number

the annex entrance, walls of postcards and magazine clippings) were behind glass; most vividly, though, the original sink and countertop in the kitchen were not behind glass. I stared a long time at both, and it was hard to move on from them. If all that most non-Jews know about the Shoah is a place like this, it is about as good as we can expect, but I would have much rather seen an aging Anne in a documentary, running her hands across that countertop and remembering how she survived the war. But as my wife said as we left, the people of the Netherlands and Amsterdam failed her. An old and cherished nickname for the city, Mokum, comes from the Yiddish word makom, “place” or, more specifically and spiritually, “place of refuge,” also an epithet for God. Seeing this word all over the city — on postcards, the sides of buildings, on signs and T-shirts and magnets — was a painful reminder that Amsterdam was indeed a place of refuge for Jews — until it wasn’t. As later testimony put it about wartime

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Amsterdam: “The main support of the German forces in the police sector and beyond was the Dutch police. Without it, not 10% of the German occupation tasks would have been fulfilled.” We also saw two other sites related to the Shoah. The first was the National Holocaust Names Memorial, a labyrinth of walls where each brick is inscribed with the name and age for each of the more than 100,000 Jews of the Netherlands murdered during the Shoah. Since I turned 47 on the day we arrived in Amsterdam, my eye was particularly drawn to those who were killed at that age — Markus Solmanovits, Isaac Snuijf, Sara Smalhout-Blok, Sara de Rood-Kan were only four. The second was the Hollandsche Schouwburg, the site of a theater that became, in 1942, a place where thousands of Jews were rounded up and imprisoned before being deported to concentration and extermination camps. Compared to the Anne Frank House, the number of visitors at both sites was miniscule, and a remark from Primo Levi kept coming to mind: “A single Anne Frank excites more emotion than the myriads who suffered as she did but whose image has remained in the shadows. Perhaps it is necessary that it can be so. If we had to and were able to suffer the sufferings of everyone, we could not live.”

The problem with museums

I thought that Amsterdam’s Jewish Museum would be a balm of some kind, but it was just as devastating in its own way. While it was a powerful experience to see so many Kiddush cups, Torah scrolls, groggers, mezuzot, tallits, candelabras, challah covers, etrog holders, omer-counting calendars, siddurim, and so much else — while it was powerful because these objects are so Please see Miller, page 17

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Opinion Chronicle poll results: AIPAC or J Street?

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ast week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an online poll the following question: “Which of these two lobbying groups — AIPAC and J Street — do you support or mostly agree with?” Of the 266 people who responded, 47% said AIPAC, 33% said J Street, 15% said neither and 5% said both. Comments were submitted by 74 people. A few follow.

Reducing Israel-related political engagement to “AIPAC or J Street” flattens a much wider spectrum of views into a false binary, when in reality the two share significant common ground and differ mainly on strategy and specific policies rather than on Israel’s security and very existence. AIPAC is a bipartisan organization that supports a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. J Street takes a balanced view and is willing to call out Israel when it is wrong. Neither group has accepted the reality that there is no vision for ensuring the only path toward a lasting peace: Israelis

Miller: Continued from page 16

immensely familiar and beautiful, and were so obviously lovingly used — I would have preferred to have never seen them if it meant that three-quarters of the Jews of Amsterdam were not murdered in the Shoah. I would have preferred that four Ashkenazi synagogues — the Grosse Shul/Great Synagogue of 1671, the Neie Shul/New Synagogue of 1752, the Obbene Shul/Upper Synagogue of 1686 and the Dritt Shul/Third Synagogue of 1700 — still be welcoming Jews to Shabbat services, rather than be turned into even the most beautiful museum of Jewish daily and

Which of these two lobbying groups — AIPAC and J Street — do you support or mostly agree with? 5%

Both

15%

Neither

47%

33% J Street

AIPAC

and Palestinians living together with mutual respect. J Street has lost the plot and has supported candidates and policies that make American Jews less safe.

its amoral nationalism that it has promoted with bucketloads of money. J Street is an incredibly honorable and competent advocate for morally supporting Israel without discarding the values of Torah — justice in particular — as has AIPAC. Without J Street’s existence, I might feel I needed to give up on Judaism and Israel completely. While my emotional connection to AIPAC seems to modulate in relation to my support for specific Israeli governments and policy decisions, J Street’s positions are increasingly becoming indistinguishable from Jewish anti-Zionist organizations like IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace. In this respect, J Street may be the most dangerous organization for Jews in America. Anti-Zionism is antisemitism. J Street’s policies harm Israel and so they harm Jews worldwide.

I think AIPAC has disgraced Judaism by

AIPAC supports Republicans and racist anti-choice candidates. Why would I support them?

ritual life in Amsterdam. What I’d been looking for the entire time, I realized, was living Judaism, and we found it nearby at the Portuguese Synagogue, or Esnoga. When the Sephardic Jews of Spain were expelled in 1492, many of them fled west to Portugal only to face horrendous persecution there as well. When large numbers of them finally escaped Portugal for Amsterdam in early 1600s, they had already lived for generations as forced converts who continued to practice Judaism in secret. Now able to live openly as Jews, the Kahal Kados Talmud Tora was founded by this community in 1639, and the Esnoga

was completed in 5435/1675. Modeled on Solomon’s Temple, it is lit entirely by candles, and a dusting of sand (to absorb dirt and muffle the noise of footsteps) is scattered across the floor. Sitting on one of its benches and staring out toward the ark, I took out my phone to see how just old the benches were. And there was the shock of life that I was looking for because, like the timber roof, I read that the benches are the originals. I began to move to different seats and ask at each one how much warmth from how many bodies had sat where I was, since 1675? How much suffering had been answered with the statement which the building of this synagogue

J Street doesn’t see the forest behind the trees. Total support of Israel is very important in the current situation even if the Israeli government makes some mistakes. I don’t agree with J Street’s prior decision to support Rep. Summer Lee, but otherwise, mainly agree with their positions and actions. For someone who unconditionally “supports” Israel, including the Netanyahu administration and all its actions, AIPAC is the way to go. Most of us see nuance and believe there’s room to be pro-Israel, but oppose its current government. It often seems these two groups are competing with one another to get the world to say, “all Jews agree with this group.” Unfortunately, often the world does not see the differences — people perceive it as a bunch of Jews asserting themselves. PJC — Compiled by Toby Tabachnick

Chronicle weekly poll question:

What do you think about Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour? Go to pittsburghjewishchronicle.org to respond. PJC proclaimed, proudly and unapologetically Jewish? How much solace and happiness had the place housed — and continues to, with its membership today still more than 600? I leaned over and told my daughter, “Don’t ever forget that you came to this place.” And I should have added: “Do everything you can to keep your Bible and your siddur, your mezuzot and your kiddush cup and your Haggadah — do everything you can to keep these things from becoming pieces in a museum.” PJC Tim Miller is a poet and writer living in Pittsburgh. He is online at wordandsilence.com.

— LETTERS — Gaza and Hamas propaganda

Reading “New scrutiny over ‘NY Times’ Gaza coverage in journal article” (Sept. 18), I was reminded of a video I saw on Israeli TV near the start of the war. It was a video created by Hamas. It showed a Hamas sniper aiming a rifle out of an upper floor window in Gaza. In the street below you could see Israeli soldiers on patrol. Suddenly the video freezes. One of the soldiers is highlighted in red, with a red arrow pointing down at that soldier. When the video resumes the sniper fires, apparently killing the soldier. And that is why so much of Gaza has been destroyed. Every building in Gaza is a

potential Hamas ambush position. Hamas probably realized that releasing such videos weakens its claim that Israel’s destruction of Gaza is an act of genocide instead of a war against an enemy using civilian infrastructure as fighting positions. Hamas never made that mistake again. And the world has swallowed its propaganda hook, line and sinker. Mitchell Nyer Pittsburgh

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SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

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Celebrations

Torah

Bat Mitzvah

Dwelling in ambiguity

Nina Jacobs will become a bat mitzvah on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, at Temple Ohav Shalom. She is the daughter of Sam and Kristina Jacobs, and the granddaughter of Susan and Les Jacobs, and Kathy and Gene Soriano. Nina will be supported and celebrated by her grandparents, along with many other beloved family members and friends. Nina is currently an eighth grader in the North Allegheny School District, where she has cultivated a strong passion for theater and singing. In addition to her involvement in the arts, she is a competitive swimmer and enjoys music, dancing, sushi, the Marvel Comics Universe and above all, spending quality time with the people she loves. For her bat mitzvah project, Nina has chosen to fundraise for Rex Arts (rexarts. org), an organization that partners with local recreation departments to provide affordable, educational performance opportunities for students, and works with nonprofits to bring free arts programming to historically underserved communities. Nina is deeply grateful to share this meaningful milestone with her friends, family and the entire Temple Ohav Shalom community. PJC

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Rabbi Hannah Estrin Parshat Sukkot Leviticus 22:26 – 23:44

T

he rabbis devote considerable attention to the question of what makes a sukkah a dirah, a dwelling. How many walls? How high? What kind of roof? How much sky must remain visible? The precision of the questions is striking because the object itself refuses easy classification: a house that is not quite a house, a shelter whose defining feature is its exposure, a temporary structure in which we are nevertheless commanded to dwell.

that ambiguity. An interim is, by definition, a time between: between what has been and what will be, between endings that have already occurred and beginnings whose contours are not yet clear. The word interim is deceptively simple — it suggests a placeholder, a pause before the “real” thing begins. But perhaps the rabbis would resist that impulse. The bein, the space between, is not necessarily empty space. It can be a place of encounter, discernment, and possibility. The question is not simply what comes next, but what we might notice, learn and build while we are here. The Torah commands us to dwell in sukkot.

What does it mean to speak of simchah when joy itself can feel morally complicated? Perhaps this is part of Sukkot’s wisdom. The holiday does not ask us to resolve ambiguity. It asks us to inhabit it. For me, as an Israeli, Sukkot carries additional layers of ambiguity. In October 2011, during Sukkot, Gilad Shalit came home after more than five years in Hamas captivity. His return produced an extraordinary national outpouring of joy, even as Israelis wrestled with the enormous moral and strategic costs of the exchange that brought him home. The timing was almost unbearably apt: In the season of temporary dwelling, a son of Israel came home. Yet, since Oct. 7, 2023, I continue to struggle with the juxtaposition of Z’man Simchateinu — the Season of Our Joy — with the pain and uncertainty that have marked these years. The holiday that asks us to leave our permanent homes and enter a fragile shelter now carries an especially difficult resonance. What does it mean to dwell beneath a deliberately porous roof when vulnerability is no longer metaphorical? What does it mean to speak of simchah when joy itself can feel morally complicated? As an interim rabbi at Tree of Life this year, I find myself especially attuned to

Not securely. Not permanently. Not with the illusion that the walls can keep everything out. Yet we are also asked to invite guests inside. Sukkot is a place where we make room for whatever is actually present: grief and gratitude, fear and hope, the memory of those no longer with us, and the joy of sitting together with family and friends. It reminds us that shelter is precious precisely because it is never absolute. The sukkah does not resolve these contradictions. It gives us a place to sit with them. And perhaps that is what Z’man Simchateinu, the Season of Our Joy, asks of us now — not uncomplicated happiness, but the courage to keep making a human and Jewish life amid uncertainty. To gather. To welcome. To remember. To hope. To dwell, however imperfectly, in the space between what we know and what we pray will yet be true. PJC Rabbi Hannah Estrin is the interim rabbi at Tree of Life Congregation. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Clergy Association.

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Obituaries COSLOV: Lynda Coslov, 1947-2026, a lifelong resident of Pittsburgh, passed away on Friday evening, peacefully, with her husband, Joel, and their children, Nina, Nick and Jesse, by her side. Born on Jan. 30, 1947, Lynda was the eldest child of Regina (née Abravanel) and Ernest Stern. A graduate of Winchester Thurston School and Skidmore College, Lynda also earned a degree in elementary education from Chatham College. Lynda and Joel were married on Nov. 23, 1969, and settled on Inverness Avenue, in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, where they raised their three children. A wise woman of diverse talents and interests, Lynda first and foremost loved people (with dogs a very close second). Those in Lynda’s presence, including at Family House where she volunteered for many years, always felt cared for and listened to. Her kind and nurturing fingerprints are prominently displayed for all to see on her children and their children, who loved and will sorely miss their Gaga. A gracious hostess, Lynda liked nothing more than gathering family and friends (hers and Joel’s as well as Nina’s, Nick’s and Jesse’s) together in Pittsburgh or on Martha’s Vineyard, the latter transformed by Lynda from, initially, a one-week vacation spot into what became and remains the Coslov family’s cherished second home. Blessed with a voice of uncommon range and beauty, Lynda loved to sing. For many years she was a regular at More’s, a local piano bar, but took equal joy belting out her favorite songs during late night karaoke fests in the Inverness Avenue basement or, during car rides long or short, quietly adding background harmony to tunes playing on the radio. Lynda had other wide-ranging interest too. A voracious reader who loved her book club, Lynda was also an avid gardener and, for a time back in the day, a discotheque flower arranger. Lynda also could not get enough of babies or dogs, and was a world class spoiler of her, her family’s and her friends’ pets. In addition to Joel, Nina, Nick and Jesse, Lynda is survived by Nina’s husband Howie (Rice), Nick’s wife Nicole, Jesse’s wife Elizabeth, eight grandchildren — in age order, Zan (23), Will, Kate, Drew, Cameron, Ari, Eli and Ezra (3 months) — her sister Judy (Parkhurst) and her brother Rick. Services were held at Beit Kulanu. Interment Homewood Cemetery, Star of David section. Contributions may be made to Family House, 5308 Liberty Ave., Pittsburgh,

PA 15224 or Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh, 6926 Hamilton Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15208. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com GALLAGHER: Patricia “Patty” Anne Gallagher, on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. Beloved wife of Carl Metosky for 50 years. Loving mother of Aaron (Erin) Metosky and Ryan (Miki Horikoshi) Metosky. Sister of Carolynn (William) Stegman. Adoring grandma of Milo and Liam Metosky. Also survived by nieces, nephews and cousins. Patty was an exhibiting studio artist with an extensive resume of exhibitions, awards and publications. Her artwork was primary costume and installation, with an exploration of the female archetype. She exhibited internationally in Ireland, Great Britain and Canada, and nationally in cities like Pittsburgh, Washington. D.C., and Chicago. Her installations have been showcased at notable venues such as the Frick and the Carnegie Museum. She participated in various group exhibitions and received multiple awards, including the Award of Excellence at the Dairy Barn and a foundation grant for artistic excellence from the Pittsburgh Foundation. Her costume work was featured in several publications. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with an MSW degree and attended Pittsburgh Filmmakers, studying digital art, photo editing and web design, and produced three tarot decks, which were printed and sold all over the United States and in 18 different countries. She also produced other deck formatted artist’s books. She was an avid reader, often reading six books at a time. She was on the board of directors of IRVA-International Remote Viewing Association. Patty was such a superb cook and always enjoyed cooking for all of the holidays. She adored her two grandsons immensely. She was an animal lover of many pets and enjoyed boat rides with Carl, her son and daughter-in-law. Patty was also the type of person who could fix anything. Graveside services and interment were held at Temple Ohav Shalom Memorial Garden. Contributions may be made to Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh, 6926 Hamilton Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206 or Smile Train, P.O. Box 96231, Washington, D.C., 20090-6231. schugar.com. PJC

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HEAR A BROADWAY STAR. WITH A FULL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA. Mandy Gonzalez joins the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for the music of Lin-Manuel Miranda, from In the Heights to Hamilton to Encanto.

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JCC Super Sports Skills and Thrills for Pre-K Athletes JCC Squirrel Hill & JCC South Hills

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Community High flyer

After taking to the skies from Allegheny County Airport, Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle board chair and ABC Flying Club member Evan H. Stein joined his family at the FlyBy 5K and 2-Mile Fun Run/Walk at the Pittsburgh International Airport. The Sept. 19 event enabled participants to enjoy largely unseen portions of the Pittsburgh International Airport.

p From left: Evan, Mara, Sam, Jackie and Ronen Stein

Photo courtesy of Evan H. Stein

Purposeful remembrance

Holocaust survivor Irene Skolnick recounted her life during a public event with the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. The Sept. 10 program featured details involving life in the ghetto, identity changes and emigration.

p Irene Skolnick speaks at Eddy Theatre at Chatham University.

Photo courtesy of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh

Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh kicked off its new program year with an ’80s-themed Teen Leadership Night. Teens congregated to discuss leadership, friendship and inclusion.

p The future is a blast from the past.

Photo courtesy of Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh

Nourishing stomachs and souls

Chabad at Pitt welcomed more than 200 students to a post-Yom Kippur break fast. The gathering featured bagels, lox and lots of satisfied students.

p Making meaning throughout the new year

Teen Tov takes off

Teen Tov, a collaboration between Community Day School and Our Giving Kitchen, kicked off with participants making meals for families in need and learning about the lulav and etrog. In preparation for Sukkot, students were each given a lulav and etrog for use at home.

p Rabbi Chezky Rosenfeld teaches students about Sukkot and use of a lulav and etrog.

Photo courtesy of Community Day School

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New year old theme

Photo courtesy of Chabad House on Campus

What a tov time

Hillel JUC welcomed students to Café Ivrit. The weekly program enables students and staff, of all proficiency levels, to practice Hebrew together.

p L’chaim to learning

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photo courtesy of Hillel JUC

SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

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