Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle 10-27-23

October 27, 2023 | 12 Cheshvan 5784

Candlelighting 6:05 p.m. | Havdalah 7:03 p.m. | Vol. 66, No. 43 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

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Hundreds gather in support of Israel at Oakland vigil

By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer

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lected officials, Jewish professionals, faith leaders and other community members gathered in support of Israel at an Oct. 19 vigil in Schenley Park in Oakland.

Hosted by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and co-sponsored by more than 25 local groups, the event included speeches, songs and prayers.

Lt. Gov. Austin Davis called the program at Flagstaff Hill a chance “for folks from

every faith community to come together and express our sorrow for the victims in Israel, as well as our support for our Jewish brothers and sisters.”

Please see Vigil, page 18

We remember the victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting See Page 4

Headlines Five years later, Dor Hadash, New Light and Tree of Life look to the future — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer

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ive years after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting — and just a couple of months after the conclusion of the trial of the shooter — Congregation Dor Hadash, New Light Congregation and the Tree of Life Congregation are working to move forward.

“When the guilty verdict was announced to the families there was a collective sigh — more than a sigh … an outpouring of sound — that we now have an answer,” New Light Congregation co-President Stephen Cohen remembered.

New Light co-President Barbara Caplan said that the congregation held its collective breath for the last five years.

“And now that the trial and sentence are done, I can breathe again. But what’s happening in Israel is really going to impact the commemoration,” she said referring to the Israel-Hamas war.

Cohen said that many in the congregation have been in a holding pattern but now “they can be themselves.”

There’s been a lot of work, he noted, during the last five years to heal the congregation, which lost three of its largest pillars — Richard Gottfried, Daniel Stein and Mel Wax — on Oct. 27, 2018.

“We were victimized, too,” Caplan said. “It was a big loss to the congregation — obviously not like the families — but they were the whole religious committee, they were it all, they were the rabbi’s right arm.”

“They made our minyan,” Cohen said.

Part of the healing process meant saying goodbye to the Tree of Life building, the space the congregation called home since it

p Alan Hausman, president of the Tree of Life congregation, and Barbara Caplan, co-president of New Light Congregation, hug after a press conference after the jury found the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter guilty of federal hate crimes on June 16.

Photo by Alexandra Wimley/Union Progress

sold its synagogue in 2017. It is now housed in Congregation Beth Shalom.

“We’re very happy,” Cohen said. “They’ve gone out of their way to help us.”

“They’ve bent over backwards,” Caplan said, “to give us anything we’ve wanted within reason.”

The last few years, Cohen said, have been good: The congregation’s Rabbi Jonathan Perlman has taught adult education classes;

there have been lecture series and numerous community events. Both spiritual and lay leadership will remain in place for the foreseeable future.

And while the last half-decade has presented challenges, including COVID-19, it also has created opportunities. Cohen pointed to the use of Zoom and a small contingent of loyal attendees who previously were unable to join services but now

stream each week.

“We’re planning for the future,” he said.

The congregation has started to organize a trip to Israel for the spring of 2024.

“We will continue as a congregation,” Cohen said. “It’s the nature of New Light.

We have been a family for so long, there’s no reason that should change in the future.”

Please see Congregations, page 19

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OCTOBER 27, 2023

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Headlines

Lone soldier parents preach solidarity, kindness, as children head to war — LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer

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eing 5,900 miles from war offers no reprieve for parents whose children are serving in the Israel Defense Forces. They are organizing, fundraising, praying and leaning on each other to weather a difficult period.

Chana Luba Ertel has a son serving in the IDF and a daughter volunteering in Israel.

Since the start of the Hamas-Israel war, she has focused on creating a website that serves as a “unity hub,” she said.

The site’s aim, Ertel continued, is “that the whole Jewish community can take action in a positive and meaningful way.”

Pittsburghsupportsisrael.com includes boilerplate letters for distribution to politicians, a prayer for IDF soldiers and links to “positive social media posts.”

Each tab reinforces a collective goal, Ertel said: Inspire Jews and allies in “a way that moves them.”

Ertel is not a web developer or programmer. Still, she’s creating content and working with volunteers to build a viable digital den that coalesces a community and counters online vitriol, the Pittsburgh Jewish mother said.

“It’s just so frustrating to me that there’s so many people out there that have been swayed by the propaganda that Hamas has cleverly woven into our American society,” she said. “When we’re together as a community and when we’re educated, then we can

be empowered; and when we’re empowered we can make big changes.”

Solidarity has been a recurrent theme in recent weeks. Squirrel Hill resident Dan Marcus, whose son is serving in the IDF, hopes to spread that message.

“What he’s told me is that he’d like to see the community stand strong and together, in unwavering support, as advocates and supporters of Israel in the war against Hamas and the other bad actors who are now joining this fight,” Marcus said.

He also hopes people “learn more and engage more in Jewish activities,” Marcus continued. “When I have had brief

p Chana Luba Ertel’s son is a lone soldier.

Photo courtesy of Chana Luba Ertel

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p Four of Stacie Stufflebeam’s sons have served as lone soldiers.

conversations with him, these are things that are important to him.”

The Marcuses have numerous friends in Squirrel Hill and the East End. Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, many have reached out to the family.

The words and gestures are appreciated, Marcus said: “I hope people will continue to be kind and supportive but also understand we don’t have answers either. We don’t know any more specific information — either from the news or briefings or authentic sources — than other people do.”

While he appreciates people inquiring about assistance, “please be patient,” Marcus said. “We will ask for help when we need it.”

As Pittsburgh parents rely on peers and family, the community is signaling its support. At synagogues and public gatherings, people have recited Psalms. Jewish day school students have sent supportive messages to soldiers. WhatsApp groups previously dedicated to determining who was bringing herring to shul for a Saturday morning snack have become platforms for fundraising drives.

Marcus hopes the communal concern continues.

“Engage more. Do more. Be kind,” he said.

Thoughtful messages from friends, neighbors and even people she hasn’t spoken to in decades, have inundated Stacie Stufflebeam’s phone.

“It’s wonderful and a little overwhelming, specifically for me because of my job,” she said.

Stufflebeam, who recently moved from Pittsburgh, is the executive director of the Michael Levin Lone Soldier Foundation.

The organization assists IDF soldiers who have no family in Israel, “before, during and after their army service.” More than 6,300 lone soldiers receive food, laundry, equipment, Shabbat meals and emotional support through the organization.

Four of Stufflebeam’s sons were lone soldiers. Three recently returned to the IDF as reservists; one is in Israel volunteering.

“When I talk to people about my kids serving, I always emphasize that they serve in Israel’s Defense Forces; they are defending

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Photos courtesy of Stacie Stufflebeam

Israel. They didn’t start a war. They’re defending Israel. And with the antisemitism we obviously know all too well in Pittsburgh, more than ever we need Israel to exist,” she said.

Stufflebeam said her children, like thousands of other lone soldiers, are deeply committed to defending the Jewish state. “ T h e y ’r e incredible human beings,” she said.

War is not their calling, she continued: “My kids, specifically, are kind and wellmeaning. This is not what they want to do, but it’s what they ended up having to do.”

Sending a child to battle is challenging enough; lack of contact can be consuming.

Stufflebeam, like parents of other lone soldiers, said she sometimes goes days or weeks without hearing from her children. When the phone rings, however, she must be ready.

“I need to be 100% there for them. I need to listen to what they need to tell me; and it’s not always easy to hear,” she said.

When the call ends, support is critical, Stufflebeam continued.

Both the Lone Soldier Foundation and Nefesh B’Nefesh offer resources, including mental health care, to parents.

“There’s a saying, ‘Put on your oxygen mask before you help others,’” Stufflebeam said. “It’s true. I do a lot of crying, but none of it in front of my kids. I need that support so that I can be supportive of them.”

The current intensity cannot negate the need for continued care, Stufflebeam explained.

“We all remind each other to try and sleep, to try and eat, because that’s not coming as easily as it should,” she should. “We need to pace ourselves. This is going to last a while, and we need that support now and later.”

Calls, texts, fundraisers, prayers and kindness must endure, Stufflebeam and other lone soldier parents told the Chronicle.

“We don’t expect people to solve things for us,” Marcus said. “We don’t expect people to be our therapists. Just be our friends.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Their memories are a blessing — LOCAL — Compiled by Toby Tabachnick | Editor

call you back when I am done volunteering.”

That was Mom. — Anthony Fienberg

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he Chronicle reached out to family and friends of the 11 people who were killed five years ago during the antisemitic attack in the Tree of Life building, and asked what Jewish values their loved ones exemplified, and how our community could best honor those values. Here’s what they said.

Richard Gottfried, 65, New Light Congregation

Joyce Fienberg, 75, Tree of Life Congregation

Our mother, Joyce Fienberg z”l (zichrona l’bracha, may her memory be a blessing), was a purveyor of chessed, translated from Hebrew as “loving kindness.” She championed this value on a personal level toward everyone with whom she came in contact. We were mesmerized by stories we heard after her passing: We knew the quality she had, we just did not realize the extent this was conveyed to broad spectrums of the community, Jewish and not.

She dedicated significant time and effort in her later years to volunteering at Family House (which provides a “home away from home” for patients and their families who travel to Pittsburgh hospitals for expert medical care) and the Children’s Room, an NCJW initiative to provide care/safe haven for children of (often single) parents who have to appear in court. She really enjoyed taking care of the little ones, because although my brother and I gave her grandchildren (b’ezrat Hashem — “blessed is/ with the help of G d”), we both had moved away from Pittsburgh after high school and our children were already out of their toddler years by then.

We see the first example of chessed in the Torah when Avraham shows hospitality to guests (Genesis 18:2). The idea is that in the relationship between people, acts of chessed are not performed with expectation of reciprocity.

This is a fundamental concept, one of the three pillars that sustains the world. (Pirkei Avot 1:2) Chessed is contrasted to another fundamental value of tzedakah, translated from Hebrew as “justice,” but also meaning “charitable giving,” because the latter can be achieved with or without the former. (Sukkot 49b) Our mother took her volunteer efforts very seriously, as though they were her lifeline, much like most people treat their paid jobs.

I called her almost every day, even though I am an ocean away. She had a cell phone and carried it with her everywhere, but when I had the misfortune of calling during one of her volunteer efforts, she would answer: “Is there anything urgent? No? OK, I will 4

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Richard Gottfried loved Shabbat. And Torah. And tradition.

Gottfried’s wife, Peg Durachko, stressed how important it was for her late husband to “help be part of a minyan.” When his father died, Gottfried sought out daily minyans, even when he traveled, so he could recite Kaddish, she said. That experience motivated him to continue help making minyans so others would be able to recite Kaddish as well.

“He would go to the Downtown shul just so that people from out of town would be able to pray for their loved ones,” Durachko said. “He would go there in order to be part of a minyan.

It was really important to him.”

Gottfried regularly attended services on Shabbat mornings, Durachko said, and was inspired by the weekly Torah portion, which he studied at home during the week as well.

While there is often an emphasis on attending religious services for the sense of community, Gottfried “was there to pray,” she said. “The reason he was there was to pray to God.” After his father died, and it fell to Gottfried to head family holiday gatherings, he took the responsibility seriously, his wife said. At their Rosh Hashanah table, he might bring up the topic of forgiveness; on Passover, he would lead the seder.

To honor Gottfried’s legacy, Durachko suggested community members celebrate Shabbat, show love for Torah, “show up at synagogue and embrace the faith.”

Rose Mallinger, 97, Tree of Life Congregation

Rose Mallinger held fast to traditional Jewish values, her daughter Andrea Wedner said. Attending synagogue services was important to her, as was keeping a kosher home. Wedner said her mother and her father, the late Morris Mallinger, “were very active in the synagogue.”

“They went Friday night, they went

Saturday, they were there Sunday for Men’s Club breakfast — the women cook the breakfast and they set up and clean up. My mom was in Sisterhood and the Sisterhood raised money to give to the synagogue. It was a big part of their lives.”

Participating in Jewish community activities was paramount for the Mallingers, whether at Tree of Life Congregation, the JCC or other organizations like B’nai B’rith.

“They were devoted to their Jewish life,” Wedner said. “We had a good Jewish upbringing because of them.”

Being together with family, and passing on Jewish traditions, meant everything to Mallinger and her husband.

“It was important to them to make sure the next generation would carry it on,” Wedner said. “It was important to me to marry somebody Jewish because of how I grew up and how I was raised. It was important to me, but it was also important to them.”

Rose Mallinger “was the matriarch of the family,” Wedner added. When it came to celebrating Jewish holidays, “she kept everything going.”

“When we would take pictures, the kids would all get around her — she’s in the center, and they’re all around her. And that’s just how it was. It was all about Bubbie.”

Attending synagogue, participating in other aspects of Jewish communal life and sharing Jewish traditions with family are ways the community can honor her mother’s legacy, Wedner said.

Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, Congregation Dor Hadash

Our sages teach, “The world stands on three things: Torah, worship of Ha’shem, and acts of loving kindness.” Pirkei Avot 1:2 Jerry lived a life devoted to Gemilut Chasadim. He readily gave of himself, performing acts of loving kindness, without anticipating receiving something in return.

I received dozens of letters from Jerry’s patients expressing their love of him, not only because he was an excellent practitioner, but for his warmth and compassion, even when delivering bad medical news. Many mentioned how they ended each visit with “Dr. Jerry” by exchanging a warm hug. Others wrote to say that the “highlight” of their hospital stay was Jerry’s daily visits. Seeing his smile buoyed their spirits.

Jerry’s acts of loving kindness extended beyond the living. He was a stalwart member of the New Community Chevra Kadisha.

Lovingly preparing the deceased for burial Jerry hoped would provide dignity to the deceased and comfort to the bereaved family.

Jerry saw the best in everyone and showered us with his kindness, positivity, and

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an unwavering dedication to his family, his patients and his community.

We can all practice Gemilut Chasadim just by doing something good out of the kindness of our hearts.

— Miri Rabinowitz

Cecil Rosenthal, 59, and David Rosenthal, 54, Tree of Life Congregation

While Cecil and David Rosenthal — known affectionately as “The Boys” — both had what some would call a disability, their sister Michele Rosenthal said, “They were far better than most in our world.”

“They went through life without judging others,” she said. “Their kindness and their love, and their compassion and their curiosity are really what our family would want people to remember about them.”

The values most important to The Boys were “family, going to synagogue and taking care of people,” their sister Diane Rosenthal said. “And despite their disabilities — mental and some physical limitations and just being vulnerable — they were the first to reach out to people and help them. If anyone was sick, they’d ask, ‘Did we send them flowers? Did we make them food? Did we stop by?’

“And they knew everything in town going on,” she added. “When someone was getting married, when someone’s granddaughter was getting bat mitzvahed, when someone was sick. And despite their disabilities, they reached out to everyone.”

The Hebrew word “chessed,” meaning lovingkindness, exemplifies how Cecil and David lived their lives, Diane Rosenthal said.

“The Boys really embodied everything in terms of just giving of themselves and taking care of people and wanting to help in all situations. They were a true embodiment of that.”

The values exhibited by Cecil and David were Jewish values, Michele Rosenthal said, but they were also the values taught by their parents, Joy and Eli. The community can honor the legacy of The Boys through “the simple act of just respecting one another, respecting our differences and being kind and not harming anyone,” Michele Rosenthal said, “especially with what is going on in our world today. There is so much brutality there is so much hate.”

Supporting the rebuilding of Tree of Life is another way to honor The Boys, their sisters said.

“That’s something that boys would want,” Diane Rosenthal said. “That’s what we want to support — making sure that Judaism lives on.”

Please see Blessing, page 5

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Headlines Blessing: Continued from page 4

Bernice Simon, 84, and Sylvan Simon, 86, Tree of Life Congregation

There are numerous Jewish as well as basic human values that were fundamental in the lives of my parents, Bernice and Sylvan Simon.

They regularly practiced these values in many different forms and variations while continuously sharing and expressing them to everyone they came in contact with.

Some of these values included bestowing great love, thoughtful deeds and caring upon family and friends. This was paramount in all of their personal interactions.

My parents always displayed loving kindness and caring to all by frequently phoning and visiting sick friends and bringing them food in order to ease their burden.

Representing another important facet of my parents’ lives: empathy and compassion for others, including strangers, were channeled through generous charitable giving to a plethora of helpful and worthy organizations.

Welcoming guests into their home on a frequent basis revealed my parents’ genuine friendliness, respect and expression of kindness and hospitality to others.

My parents’ devoted caring for animals throughout their lives was ongoing. They continually showered kindness, compassion and love in both health and sickness, toward their pets.

We as community members can honor these values expressed and promoted by my parents while utilizing this variety of examples to serve as a reminder to continue to uphold and promote Jewish and human values via automatically incorporating them into our daily “to-do” lists.

— Marc Simon

Daniel Stein, 71, New Light Congregation

Daniel Stein was raised in Munhall, Pennsylvania, in a home that promoted Jewish values, his daughter Leigh Stein said.

“My grandparents and great-grandparents were pillars of the Homestead Hebrew Congregation and my dad learned the values that Judaism offered at an early age,” she PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

said. Stein was committed to performing acts of loving kindness, his daughter said. He was always willing to lend a hand to anyone who needed help. He made it a point to visit those who were sick and comforted those in mourning through shiva calls.

Stein also was an active and generous volunteer. He often drove elderly community members to doctors’ appointments or to the grocery via the AgeWell rides program. He donated blood regularly. He was a reliable helper at the Squirrel Hill Food Pantry.

Community members wishing to honor Stein’s legacy can make volunteering a priority.

They can offer a ride to someone who cannot drive, help out at a food pantry or help make a minyan at a synagogue.

Other ways to perpetuate Stein’s principles include donating blood, Leigh Stein said, spending time with those who are ill and visiting departed loved ones at the cemetery.

Behaving honorably and respectfully were important values that Stein exemplified, Leigh Stein said. He valued honesty and shunned gossip. The community could consider following his lead.

“When he worked he wasn’t able to do that, but as soon as he retired, he was there every Friday night, every Saturday morning.

He always honored Shabbat. That was very important.”

So, Kart said, whether it is lighting candles or finding another way to acknowledge the day, celebrating Shabbat would be a nice way to remember her dad and the values that were important to him.

Irving Younger, 69, Tree of Life Congregation

Irv Younger was a man with many endearing qualities.

Irv was a very warm and outgoing person who loved being with people and telling jokes. He couldn’t walk down Murray Avenue without constantly being greeted and stopped by friends wanting to say hello, chat or reminisce, and it took only minutes after meeting someone new for them to be added to the long list of those who liked him.

He had a sweet and loving nature. He also had such a generous spirit; a giver and a nurturer with a desire to please and for whom it was very important that others felt he could be depended upon. He got great pleasure out of doing things for others and being needed.

He was a devoted family man who took care of his deceased wife through the many years she was ill. He was a foster parent many times over.

He was a coach to young baseball players who were so fond of him even many years later. He was a proud member of Tree of Life where he got such pleasure out of being the usher and greeter, and where he cared and was cared about. He was a doting grandfather; when he spoke of his grandson, it seemed as if his heart would burst because it couldn’t contain all the love Irv had for him. He was also the late love of my life, who with me was also incredibly affectionate, playful, easygoing and patient. He had the ability to make those he cared about feel his love strongly and feel taken care of, nurtured and protected.

He had an unusual capacity to feel and express a deep, whole-hearted childlike and unconditional type of love. He also knew that caring was not just noticing but overlooking.

He often seemed to hardly notice others’ flaws but which if noticed, were easily forgiven.

For Irv, it was even more important to love than to be loved. PJC — Judith Kaye Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

Great Issues Forum Reimagining Pittsburgh: Mel Wax, 88, New Light Congregation

For Mel Wax, it was very important to ensure that there were enough people to constitute a minyan so that Kaddish could be recited, his daughter, Jodi Kart said.

“That was critical to him,” she said. After Kart’s mother died, her father attended Shaare Torah congregation daily (New Light did not have weekday services) so he could say Kaddish. When that year was up, he remained on call to head over to the synagogue to help make the minyan whenever he was needed When New Light moved into the Tree of Life building, Wax began attending Sunday morning services with Tree of Life Congregation to help ensure they would have a minyan as well.

Being Jewish was an integral part of Wax’s identity, Kart said. Her earliest memories of her father are of him putting on his tallis and davening at home during the years that he was working and could not attend daily services at a shul.

“And on weekends, he would daven twice a day,” she said.

One way to continue Wax’s legacy, Kart said, would be to attend synagogue services when possible.

“If you could help your congregation, or any congregation, to make that minyan, that would ultimately honor his memory,” she said.

Another way to carry on Wax’s legacy would be to observe Shabbat, Kart said.

Possibility and Challenge Sunday November 5th, 2pm-4pm Church of Redeemer Episcopal Church invites you to join us for our first forum in our Great Issues Forum series addressing the possibilities and challenges that lie ahead of Pittsburgh as it moves into the future. We are excited to welcome two panelists for this important discussion.

Doug Heuck will provide an overview of where Pittsburgh stands today and some of the challenges it faces. Doug has been a Pittsburgh journalist since 1985, spending 20 years at the Pittsburgh Press and Post-Gazette, mainly as an investigative reporter. He left the newspaper in 2005 to become the founder and publisher of Pittsburgh Quarterly magazine. He is also director of Pittsburgh Today, which compares Greater Pittsburgh with 14 other regions in some 500 categories.

Doug Patterson will initiate our deeper dives by examining the challenge of homelessness. Doug is the recently retired senior minister of Smithfield United Church of Christ, downtown Pittsburgh, having served in that capacity for twenty-five years. During that time, Smithfield UCC gave birth to Bethlehem Haven, a shelter for homeless women, and for the past several years teamed with Mercy Hospital and Allegheny County to provide safe shelter to the un-housed in Pittsburgh’s downtown.

Join us for this open discussion.

Church of Redeemer, 5700 Forbes Avenue, Squirrel Hill redeemerpittsburgh.org

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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 FRIDAY, OCT. 27 The 2023 Commemoration Ceremony of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting will take place at 3 p.m. on Prospect Drive in Schenley Park.

All are welcome. q FRIDAY, OCT. 27 – SUNDAY, OCT. 29 Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s season opener tells powerful stories of tragedy, hope and human connection. The program’s central work, “Sounds of the Sun,” is a world premiere by Jennifer Archibald, which celebrates the life of Florence Waren, a Jewish dancer who lived in Paris and worked with the French Resistance during World War II. Also included is the emotional “Monger,” created by award-winning Israeli American choreographer Barak Marshall. The world premiere is presented in partnership with Violins of Hope Greater Pittsburgh. Byham Theater, 101 Sixth St. Tickets can be purchased at pbt.org. q SUNDAYS, OCT. 29 – DEC. 3 Join Chabad of Squirrel Hill for its Men’s Tefillin Club. Enjoy bagels, lox and tefillin on the first Sunday of the month. 8:30 a.m. chabadpgh.com. q SUNDAYS, OCT. 29 – DEC. 17 Join a lay-led online parshah study group to discuss the week’s 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.

q WEDNESDAY, NOV. 1 Join Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle Senior Staff Writer David Rullo as he celebrates the publication of his book “Gen X Pittsburgh: The Beehive and the ’90s Scene.” Rullo will be joined by Beehive founders Scott Kramer and Steve Zumoff, as well as several of the people featured in the book.

Performances by Liz Berlin, Phat Man Dee and Circus Apocalypse. Tiki Lounge, 2003 E. Carson St. Press only, 6-7 p.m.

Public, 7-11 p.m. q WEDNESDAYS, NOV. 1 – DEC. 6 Join H. Arnold and Adrien B. Gefsky Community Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff for The God Class.

Schiff will discuss Jewish views of God and how they’ve developed through the ages.

9:30 a.m. $150. jewishpgh.org/event/ the-god-class/2023-09-27.

Chabad of the South Hills presents a new six-week JLI course, “The World of Kabbalah – Revealing How Its Mystical Secrets Relate to You.” Discover the core mystical and spiritual teachings of Kabbalah and their relevance to everyday life. Learn to think like a Jewish mystic and gain powerful insights to fuel deeper self-understanding and personal growth.

7:30 p.m. Chabad of the South Hills, 1701 McFarland Road. chabadsh.com. q WEDNESDAYS, NOV. 1 – DEC. 27 Bring the parashah alive and make it personally relevant and meaningful with Rabbi Mark Goodman in this weekly Parashah Discussion: Life & Text. 12:15 p.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org/life-text.

Temple Sinai’s Rabbi Daniel Fellman presents a weekly Parshat/Torah portion class on site and online. Call 412-421-9715 for more information and the Zoom link.

q MONDAYS, OCT. 30 – DEC. 4 Join H. Arnold and Adrien B. Gefsky Community Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff for Modern Jewish Philosophy. In this course, Rabbi Schiff will introduce the great Jewish philosophers of modernity and will make their important ideas understandable and relevant to today. $95.

Zoom. jewishpgh.org/event/modern-jewishphilosophy/2023-10-16.

q WEDNESDAYS, NOV. 1 – MAY 15 The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh virtually presents two Melton courses back-toback: “Ethics” and “Crossroads.” In “Ethics,” learn how Jewish teachings shed light on Jewish issues.

“Crossroads” will present an emphasis on reclaiming the richness of Jewish history. 7 p.m. $300 for this 25-session series (book included). jewishpgh.org/ series/melton-ethics-crossroads.

q MONDAYS, OCT. 30 – DEC. 18 Join Congregation Beth Shalom for a weekly Talmud study. 9:15 a.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org.

q THURSDAY, NOV. 2 Facilitated by local clergy from Jewish and Christian backgrounds, the Jewish Christian Dialogue is a monthly discussion that explores topics of similarities and differences. Noon. Zoom. rodefshalom.org.

q MONDAYS, OCT. 30 – MAY 13 H. Arnold and Adrien B. Gefsky Community Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff presents Torah 2.

Understanding the Torah and what it asks of us is perhaps one of the most important things that a Jew can learn. In Torah 2, Schiff will explore the second half of Leviticus and all of Numbers and Deuteronomy. $225. Zoom. jewishpgh.org/ event/torah-2-2/2023-10-09. q TUESDAYS, OCT. 31 – NOV. 14 Join H. Arnold and Adrien B. Gefsky Community Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff for The Jewish Calendar. Sometimes the holidays come “early” and sometimes the holidays come “late.” Why? In this series, Rabbi Schiff will explore the Jewish texts that gave rise to the Jewish calendar. How does the cycle of the Jewish year actually work, and what meaning does it offer to us? 9:30 a.m.

Zoom. $55. jewishpgh.org/series/ the-jewish-calendar.

q FRIDAY, NOV. 3 Rodef Shalom Congregation wants to spend Shabbat with you. Families with young children are invited to join Cantor Toby Glaser and Family Center Director Ellie Feibus for a pre-Shabbat playdate, services and dinner to celebrate Shabbat together. 4:30 p.m. $5 per family. 4905 Fifth Ave. rodefshalom.org. q SUNDAY, NOV. 5 Join H. Arnold and Adrien B. Gefsky Community Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff and Nina Butler for this year’s Global Day of Jewish Learning – Pittsburgh Edition. As people gather for Jewish learning all over the globe, we will take part locally, focusing on the global theme of “The Values We Hold Dear” plus a light brunch. 10 a.m. $12. JCC Squirrel Hill, 5738 Forbes Ave. jewishpgh.org/event/the-valueswe-hold-dear.

The Israel Heritage Room at the University of Pittsburgh presents its 2023 Heritage Room Lecture. Dr. Hila Nehushtan will present “Paradoxical Bodies: Responsibility, Morality and Culture in Weight Loss Surgeries in Israel.”

Co-sponsored with the Jewish Studies Program of the University of Pittsburgh. 4 p.m. in the English Heritage Room, 144 Cathedral of Learning. q MONDAY, NOV. 6 Join Rodef Shalom for “Painter Ellis Silvette, My Grandfather,” a free lecture by David Heller about his grandfather’s portraits and their connection to the Pittsburgh Jewish community. 7 p.m. rodefshalom.org/silvette. q THURSDAY, NOV. 9 Join the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh for A Conversation with Holocaust Survivor Albert Farhy, the first of the Elizabeth Sylvian Memorial Lectures, which address issues related to the Holocaust, including lessons still to be learned and implications for the 21st century. This program also marks the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht. 6 p.m. Chatham University’s Eddy Theatre, Woodland Road, 15232. The recommended donation for this event is $10, but registration is free, and the cost should not

be a barrier to attendance. hcofpgh.org/events. q TUESDAY, NOV. 14 Join Temple Sinai for Songs of Hope with Cantor David Reinwald and author James Grymes, author of the book “Violins of Hope.” Several songs from the Holocaust will be performed by Reinwald, as well as on instruments from the Violins of Hope collection. Free and open to the public. 7 p.m. templesinaipgh.org/event/ songsofhope23.html. q WEDNESDAY, NOV. 15 Join AgeWell for an intergenerational family dynamics discussion group, led by intergenerational specialist/presenter and educator Audree Schall. Third Wednesday of each month. Free. 12:30 p.m.

South Hills JCC. q FRIDAY, NOV. 17 Temple Sinai presents a Tot Shabbat with Cantor David Reinwald. Snacks and fun at 5 p.m. Service starts at 5:30 p.m. Complimentary kid-friendly dinner at 5:45 p.m. Ages 0-5. Contact Danie Oberman to register: 412-421-9715, ext. 121, or Danie@templesinaiPGH.org. PJC

Join the Chronicle Book Club!

T

he Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle invites you to join the Chronicle Book Club for its Nov. 5 discussion of “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store,” by James McBride. From The New York Times: “The book is a murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel. The story opens in 1972, with the discovery of a skeleton buried in a well in Pottstown, Pa. The identity of the corpse is unknown but the few clues found (a belt buckle, a pendant and a mezuza) lead authorities to question the only Jewish man remaining from the town’s formerly vibrant Jewish community.

However, instead of a simple whodunit, the novel leaves the bones behind and swings back to the 1920s and ’30s, to Chicken Hill, the neighborhood in Pottstown where Jewish, Black and immigrant folks make their homes. It’s a community of people bonded together by the links of love and duty, and it’s here that McBride’s epic tale truly begins.”

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

Happy reading! PJC

—Toby Tabachnick

Your Hosts:

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

How and When:

We will meet on Zoom on Sunday, Nov. 5, at noon.

What To Do

Buy: “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.” It is available at area Barnes & Noble stores and from online retailers, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It is also available through the Carnegie Library system.

h THE BEST OF THE IN YOUR EMAIL INBOX ONCE A WEEK. Sign up on the right hand side of our homepage. pittsburghjewishchronicle.org 6

OCTOBER 27, 2023

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

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Headlines Interfaith service marks five-year commemoration of synagogue shooting — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer

S

urrounded by stained glass windows featuring images from the Torah as well as the New Testament — and under the watchful eyes of the Pittsburgh police — the words of Psalm 133 echoed through St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland on Sunday, Oct. 22.

Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers of Tree of Life Congregation led more than 100 Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus through the familiar Jewish refrain — Hineih mah tov u’mah na-im shevet achim gam yachad — during an interfaith service, “Healing, Solidarity and Prayers for Peace,” organized by the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.

In an interview before the service, Bishop David Zubik said that he reached out to Myers six months earlier, aware that the five-year commemoration of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting was approaching.

“What precipitated that massacre,” Zubik said, “still continues in the world and we have to be working at that collectively and addressing within ourselves the bigotry that exists in each of us. I think that was part of why I decided to do this.”

p From left: Bishop David Zubik and Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers

Photo by David Rullo

Because the southwestern Pennsylvania community came together “so beautifully” following the Oct. 27, 2018, antisemitic attack, Zubik said, he thought it was a good idea to gather again now to continue to pray and support each other.

Myers said that he was overwhelmed when the bishop called him during the trial of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter.

“I thought, what a thoughtful gesture at this

difficult time,” Myers said. “Thinking to where we are today in the world, there’s so much need for healing. People aren’t sure how to heal. I think where leaders of the faith community come forward, that’s part of what we do — to provide opportunities for hope and healing.”

When the trial concluded, Myers explained, Tree of Life Congregation began to work on healing after being stuck in neutral for the last half-decade.

“Then war broke out,” he said. “It compounds the trauma of the fifth commemoration with this added element, which makes it so very difficult. You can’t siphon out one trauma from another and say, ‘I’m going to put aside this one and focus on this one,’ because it’s a layer-uponlayer sort of thing.”

Zubik called the war between Israel and Hamas terrorists “tragic.”

“We need to pray for each other that we can have respect for every single person, whether we agree with them or not,” he said. “Obviously, that’s been heightened by the tragic discovery, what happened yesterday in Detroit.” (Samantha Woll, president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, was found dead of multiple stab wounds outside her home. As of press time, law enforcement officials had found no evidence that the attack was motivated by antisemitism.)

“These are occasions for us to stop and take a look at who we are,” Zubik

continued. “God created us in his image, but he created us to be sisters and brothers and we need to stop and reflect on that.”

Rabbi Doris Dyen, spiritual leader for the independent Havurah Makom HaLev, and Temple Sinai Rabbi Daniel Fellman participated in the service, as did several other community leaders, including the Rev. Liddy Barlow, executive minister of Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania, and Wasi Mohamed, the former executive director of the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh and now chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Summer Lee. Mohamed, who spoke after Myers, stressed the importance of being together and offered a prayer for peace.

Irene Cheng played “Two Hebrew Melodies, I. Kaddish,” by Maurice Ravel on a violin featured in the Violins of Hope Greater Pittsburgh exhibition.

The nearly hour-long service concluded with the recitation of the Shehecheyanu blessing by all three rabbis.

The five-year commemoration of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting will continue with a virtual Torah study, volunteer opportunities and a ceremony on Oct. 27 at 3 p.m. in Schenley Park. PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

StandWithUs brings pro-Israel message to the South Hills — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer

W

hen Julie Paris, the Mid-Atlantic regional director of StandWithUs, first spoke with Charlene Tissenbaum about bringing antisemitism awareness and Israel education to the South Hills, Hamas hadn’t yet murdered more Jews in one day since the Holocaust.

Jewish college students hadn’t yet confronted university administrators about their lukewarm statements of support for Israel while failing to mention Hamas’ terror attack. Social media influencers hadn’t yet focused their temporal gaze in large numbers on the Hamas-Israel war, calling Israelis “colonizers” and claiming they deserved the violence visited upon them.

The thought process,” Paris said, “was people don’t know what to do. So we’re working to provide information for our Jewish students and pro-Israel students on campus.”

After Oct. 7, the program planned by Paris and Tissenbaum, an Israel advocate who lives in the South Hills, was even more resonant.

Dimas Guaico, StandWithUs’ senior regional campus manager, came to Temple Emanuel of South Hills on Oct. 17 to tell his story and discuss what he was seeing on university campuses.

Guaico manages StandWithUs activities on close to 100 campuses, Paris said. He saw a dramatic rise in antisemitic rhetoric and PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

p Julie Paris and Dimas Guaico before the StandWithUs presentation at Temple Emanuel of South Hills on Oct. 17 Photo by David Rullo

anti-Israel actions targeting Jewish students even before Israel’s response to Hamas’ attack.

More than 100 South Hills residents, concerned University of Pittsburgh students, members of the Hindu Jain Temple, Pittsburgh’s shinshinim, as well as local political leaders, including Edgewood council member Bhavini Patel and Pittsburgh Deputy Controller Rachael Heisler, gathered for the program.

“We are here today to stand in

solidarity with Israel,” Paris said. “We’re here to support Israel, to support one another, to combat the misinformation and propaganda that we’re seeing and hearing.”

Temple Emanuel of South Hills Rabbi Aaron Meyer opened the evening by saying his “heart breaks” for the “innocents who lost their lives to Hamas terrorism.”

“Our community feels especially fearful and sick,” he said, “knowing that it feels like

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

so few are concerned for Jewish Life.”

Meyer introduced Guaico, saying he was born to Christian and Latin American parents and that he joined StandWithUs after a meaningful experience in Israel.

Guaico started his presentation by explaining that he has worked with StandWithUs, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, nonreligious organization, for the last 22 years.

After presenting a map of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank and explaining that the Jewish state is roughly the size of New Jersey, Guaico outlined the history of Hamas, beginning with its creation as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organization primarily focused in North Africa and Egypt.

Guaico touched briefly on the first and second intifadas and how Hamas was able to gain control of the Gaza Strip during elections in 2006. He mentioned that the terrorist organization, mainly focused on Israel, has also had violent exchanges with the Palestinian Authority and civilians living in Gaza. In fact, he said, there is a list of rules that those living there have to follow.

The StandWithUs representative briefly explained the regional powers, including the roles of Turkey and Qatar, and the importance of the Abraham Accords.

Addressing a hot topic on college campuses, Guaico presented the historical reasons Israel is neither a colonizer nor the administrator of an apartheid state.

Please see StandWithUs, page 18

OCTOBER 27, 2023

7

Headlines Behind the wheel of his Subaru, a Pittsburgh native helps in war

p Daniel Sokol loads his car.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Sokol

— LOCAL —

By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer

T

ightly wrapped around the steering wheel of a 2022 Subaru Forester is a leather cover bearing the word “Steelers.” Since last week, Daniel Sokol, 40, has clutched the accessory and its emblazoned red, yellow and blue diamond logo when driving from his home in Bet Shemesh, Israel.

With no guests to transport due to war, Sokol, a licensed tour guide, is fervently chasing a different mission: load up his 520-liter trunk with sandwiches, supplies, toys — whatever people give him — and take the contents where they’re needed.

His first delivery was a soldier.

“Sunday morning [Oct. 8] was total chaos,” Sokol said.

After Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, more than 360,000 reservists were summoned by the Israel Defense Forces.

“The whole country was being called up,” Sokol said.

His wife, fellow Pittsburgher Aliza Stiebel, included Sokol in a WhatsApp group for soldiers who needed rides.

Sokol’s phone buzzed. He got in his Subaru, a sporty gray vehicle with orange trim, and along with his son, picked up a soldier and drove north for two hours before depositing her in Afula.

Sokol received another message.

Soldiers were being feverishly dropped at bases “but they didn’t have anything,” Sokol said. “We organized a drive — probably 70 families donated.”

Medicine, deodorant, food, toothpaste, clothing and towels were crammed into the back of Sokol’s car. On Oct. 9, he took another of his three children, drove two hours north and met several soldiers.

“They literally took the stuff from my vehicle and threw it into tanks and whatever was going down south,” he said.

Sokol returned to his Subaru and drove home. A day later, he attended a funeral.

8

OCTOBER 27, 2023

Photo courtesy of Daniel Sokol

p Steelers pride is shown 5,900 miles from Pittsburgh. Photo courtesy of Daniel Sokol

disruption. Sokol, whose tour guide services are often booked months in advance, said he can’t think about its economic impact.

“We didn’t work for two years because of COVID. Then we had a year-and-a-half of plenty, and now it will be back to zero for a while. I feel like it’s all decided on Rosh Hashanah,” he said. “I do what I can with what I have. I have my tour guide vehicle and I can drive around the country.”

On Wednesday last week, Sokol received a message about Shavei Darom, a village located less than 10 miles from Gaza.

“I found out that these kids need toys,” he said.

Sokol and his 13-year-old and 7-year-old got in the Subaru and drove to a nearby store.

With money sent from former clients, friends and family, Sokol bought 7,500 shekels ($1,855 USD) worth of Magna-Tiles, Legos, Playmobil and chess sets.

He loaded the gifts into his car and drove home. The next day, he headed south.

Shavei Darom’s residents live in trailers with safe rooms. The conditions are such that “when there’s an explosion above their heads, the whole house shakes,” Sokol said.

“When they hear gunfire they’re petrified — not of the rockets, but of terrorists coming in and kidnapping them.”

Sokol removed large plastic bags of toys from his trunk, delivered the gifts then drove home.

On Friday he attended another funeral, this time for a soldier from Bet Shemesh.

Sokol didn’t know the deceased but felt he had to go.

“These soldiers are giving their lives,” he said. “It’s family.”

When Shabbat began, a period of quiet covered the community; most people, Sokol noted, refrained from using their phones.

The uncomfortable lull was exacerbated by absences inside the synagogue.

“There were no young people,” he said.

“I think 80 people from my shul were called up.”

Sokol and Stiebel moved to Israel in 2005, one month after they were married in Pittsburgh.

In the 18 years they’ve been in Israel, they’ve experienced other periods of unrest, but Sokol said the current vibes are impossible to ignore.

“Everyone has direct family members in the army,” he said. “Everyone knows someone who was kidnapped or killed.”

Sokol said he’s trying to wrap his head around the situation. He’s amazed at the unification of global Jewry, “the amount of tzedakah that has come in from around the world,” but he’s also aware of the microcosmic ripples of war.

On the day that he bought toys, he brought two of his children. After parking the Subaru, Sokol’s phone beeped.

A siren alarmed. Rockets had been fired.

Sokol’s 13-year-old and 7-year-old laid down next to the car. As the children’s bodies pressed against the ground, Sokol spread his above theirs.

“There was a big boom. It was terrifying,” Sokol said.

Minutes later, he and his children entered the store. They bought toys for kids in the south. Sokol drove home.

When asked about his kids, Sokol said, “It’s been tough.”

The war has disrupted countless children’s lives. As of press time, Sokol’s kids hadn’t been in class since before Yom Kippur.

“No joke: A message was sent that school was going to resume for a half-day, then a siren went off maybe five minutes later,” he said.

Fathoming children’s realities is nearly impossible, yet even in war, there is a familiar thread, Sokol said.

When asked if his kids were eager to return to class, Sokol chuckled.

“They aren’t excited,” he said.

“It’s school.” PJC

p Children hold toys purchased with donated funds.

“It was for a lone soldier who was killed,” Sokol said.

He and a friend drove to Mount Herzl, the site of Israel’s national cemetery.

“We weren’t sure how many people were going to show up,” Sokol said.

More than 1,000 people attended the funeral, which lasted until 1 a.m. he said, adding, “It was eerie.”

Beside the lone soldier’s grave were nine other plots for others who were killed early on in the war.

“Dozens of soldiers are being buried every day,” Sokol said.

Word spread that more graves were needed. The Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh graduate volunteered to dig, but before he and others could place their shovels in the earth a tractor arrived.

“It was intense,” he said. “We weren’t needed anymore.”

The next day, Sokol visited an electronics store in search of portable phone chargers.

“Soldiers are literally in the fields,” he said.

“There’s nowhere to plug in.”

With donated funds, Sokol bought 30 units. He got back in his Forester and delivered the chargers to people in his synagogue whose children were headed to war.

Sokol received another message. He headed to Aroma, a coffeehouse chain, and collected 150 sandwiches. He then “picked up cakes and other supplies, and drove them an hour to an army base,” he said.

Sokol was greeted by soldiers in a military vehicle.

“It had come straight from the field,” he said. “They’re staying in the field. That’s their home for days.”

Sokol transferred the contents of his car.

He has “no idea” who paid for the food or supplies, he said. “All I knew was someone needed a driver to drive something, and then I drove around the city trying to get everything figured out. Everything was last second, and it worked out.”

Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion, the war has brought devastation, trauma and absolute

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

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

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines — WORLD — Italy votes to build first Holocaust museum in Rome on 80th anniversary of Nazi raid

Italy’s government unanimously approved a bill to establish a Holocaust museum in Rome on Oct. 18, 80 years after the Nazis rounded up more than 1,000 Roman Jews to be deported and exterminated, JTA.org reported.

Initially proposed as Italy’s first Holocaust museum in 2005, the project has been mired in financial and bureaucratic delays. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her culture minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, announced plans to finally make the institution a reality in March.

A bill to establish the Shoah Museum passed the Senate this summer and received final approval in the Lower House Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday, along with a round of applause.

The bill includes 10 million euros in funding for the center, set to be constructed symbolically next to the park of Villa Torlonia, where fascist dictator Benito Mussolini resided from 1925 to 1943.

Oct. 16 marked the 80th anniversary of the Nazi raid on Rome’s Jewish ghetto on Oct. 16, 1943, when 1,259 people were rounded up from their homes. Within days, more than 1,000 were identified as Jews and deported to Auschwitz. Only 16 survived.

Mario Venezia, president of the Shoah Museum Foundation heading the project to build the museum, also said the center needed to emphasize Italy’s role in the Holocaust. Italy was the birthplace of fascism, he told the Associated Press.

Historic Tunisian synagogue heavily damaged in rioting tied to Israel-Gaza war

A historic but defunct synagogue in Tunisia was reduced to rubble on Oct. 17 amid mass rioting after an explosion in Gaza that Hamas blamed on Israel, JTA.org reported.

Hundreds of people were filmed setting fire to a synagogue in the central Tunisian city of Al Hammah in the hours after the explosion, at a Gaza City hospital where Hamas said many people died. Videos that circulated widely on social media showed people planting Palestinian flags and chipping away at the synagogue building’s stone walls, all without any police intervention.

Some users shared the video of the arson alongside a “#Palestine” hashtag. A video taken on Oct. 18 shows heavy damage to the site, including to the fenced-off grave of 16th-century Kabbalist Rabbi Yosef Ma’aravi, whose tomb has been a historic pilgrimage site for some Jews.

The Al Hammah synagogue was not an active worship site, as no Jews live in the city. The same site was previously damaged during the 2011 Arab Spring protests, which were not about Israel.

Tunisia’s small Jewish population of around 1,000 also contended with a deadly terrorist attack earlier this year when a shooter stormed a synagogue on the island of Djerba. Five people died, including two Jewish pilgrims who had traveled to the area from Israel and France, and several others were wounded.

War limits air traffic in and out of Israel

Most foreign airlines with service to Israel

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

Oct. 27, 2018 — Israel strikes 80 Gaza targets

After a barrage of roughly 30 rockets from the Gaza Strip toward Israeli border towns, the Israeli Air Force strikes 80 Gaza targets, including Hamas weapons plants, training sites and observation posts.

Oct. 28, 1948 — Israel adopts state flag

The iconic banner with two blue stripes and a blue Star of D avid b ecomes p Flag bearers lead the official Israeli a Yom Ha’Atzmaut flag more than five (Independence Day) months after the parade in Ramat establishment of Gan in May 1951, the state. The flag about 2½ years after was adopted by the Israeli flag’s the First Zionist official adoption.

Congress in 1897.

Oct. 29, 1973 — Israeli-Egyptian military talks start

The first talks between Israeli and Egyptian generals take place in Israeli-controlled territory 101 kilometers (63 miles) east of Cairo. Over three weeks, the talks go beyond military matters to political issues.

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Oct. 30, 1957 — Violinist Shlomo Mintz is born

Sh lomo M i nt z , a violinist and p Shlomo Mintz conductor, is born in conducts the Moscow.

When Mintz Jerusalem Symphony is 2, his family moves Orchestra during a to Israel, and he begins 50th anniversary celebration of to learn the violin at Yad Vashem in 3½. By 18, he is September 2003. touring Europe and

By Avi Ohayon, Israeli Government Press Office building his capacity as a conductor.

Oct. 31, 1917 — Australians capture Beersheba

Supported by three British divisions, the Australian 4th Light Horse Brigade surprises the Turkish defenders and captures Beersheba in a single day, breaking the Ottoman defensive line near Gaza.

Nov. 1, 1945 — Jewish Resistance blows up rails across Palestine

The Jewish Resistance Movement bombs more than 150 sites along the railway system of Mandatory Palestine and blows up three British gunboats in the Jaffa and Haifa harbors in the Night of the Trains.

Nov. 2, 1917 — Balfour Declaration is released

A letter from Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour reveals the British government’s endorsement of “the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish national home.” The wording is included in the Articles of the Palestine Mandate in 1922. PJC

have canceled flights into the country via Ben Gurion Airport, prompting Israel’s three airlines — El Al, Israir and Arkia — to add flights, Globes reported.

El Al said its Sun D’Or unit will operate more than 600 flights this week and has added flights to New York; Bangkok; Athens, Greece; and Frankfurt, Germany, while Israir is flying to Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Rome; London; Berlin; Budapest, Hungary; Prague; Istanbul; Varna, Bulgaria; and Baku, Azerbaijan. Arkia’s schedule includes rescue flights from Athens; Amsterdam; Barcelona, Spain; Tbilisi, Georgia; and Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt.

Airlines with limited schedules include Air Serbia, Ethiopian Airlines, Etihad Airways, Bluebird Airways, Georgian Airlines, Hainan Airlines and FlyDubai.

Portugal moves to end Sephardic Jewish citizenship Law

Portugal’s parliament has advanced a bill that would end the country’s citizenship law for descendants of Sephardic Jews who were expelled during the Spanish Inquisition, JTA.org reported.

The bill, which could take effect on Jan. 1, passed a first reading on Oct. 13 with backing from the ruling Socialist Party after a heated debate. It will next be reviewed and potentially amended by parliament’s Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms, and Guarantees Committee.

Speaking to parliament on Oct. 16, Justice Minister Catarina Sarmento e Castro said the citizenship law has been a “fair recognition” and a “duty of historical reparation.” But she

argued that it has served its purpose, saying it was a “symbolic gesture intended to mark a recognition that has been fulfilled through a generous time window.”

Discussions in parliament over the next several weeks could push the end date for applications to Dec. 31, 2024.

According to the latest figures, approximately 262,000 individuals had applied for naturalization under the law by the end of 2022, and around 75,000 were granted citizenship. Even since the introduction of stricter regulations in September 2022, over 74,000 applied in the past year, including nearly 21,000 Israeli citizens.

Tel Aviv Open canceled

The Tel Aviv Open, won a year ago by world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, was canceled for this year, The Athletic reported.

The announcement came on Oct. 12, five days after the Hamas attacks. The tournament was scheduled to run from Nov. 5-11, the last week of play on the ATP schedule, aside from the Tour Finals.

“The violence and acts of terror witnessed in Israel are beyond comprehension,” ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi said.

The ATP Tour may look to replace the event with a tournament during that period in Sofia, Bulgaria.

An ATP event was held in Tel Aviv from 19781999 before resuming in 2022. Several Jewish players, including Tom Okker, Harold Solomon, Aaron Krickstein, Brad Gilbert and Israeli Amos Mansdorf, have won the tournament. PJC — Compiled by Andy Gotlieb

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Headlines Meet Bhavini Patel, congressional candidate for Pennsylvania’s 12th district — LOCAL —

By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer

B

havini Patel believes her story is emblematic of the American dream.

Patel’s mother immigrated to America from India in the late ’80s and started a small catering company that grew into a food truck business. Patel grew up in Monroeville working with her brother in the family’s business. She graduated from Gateway High School before attending the University of Pittsburgh, then earned a master’s in international relations from the University of Oxford.

“I think the core of the story is hard work, grit and determination,” Patel said. “That’s something very special about western Pennsylvania, and I think it gets to the core of who we are as a region.”

Patel recently announced her bid to unseat Rep. Summer Lee in Pennsylvania’s 12th congressional district’s 2024 Democratic primary.

While politics weren’t always Patel’s focus, service was, she said, noting that she worked in the service window of her mother’s food truck.

“A lot of that is talking to people and having conversations and getting to know people,” she said. “That’s something I really enjoyed. Growing up I wanted to find a career path that would allow me to do that.”

Patel started a small business focused on civic innovation when she moved back to western Pennsylvania from the United Kingdom. She was then appointed to the Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Advisory Board by state Sen. Jay Costa before being elected to the Edgewood Borough Council and serving as a delegate for Joe Biden at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. She also served as Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald’s outreach manager and executive assistant.

“Public service is about being present in the community and serving the community,” Patel said. “For me, it’s about being in the district, getting a sense of people’s day-to-day lives and what people are

p Bhavini Patel

Photo courtesy of by Patel for PA

experiencing that positions you to best serve and lead an area. That’s critical for me.”

Patel said that serving the region means securing strong federal funding to support projects in the district, including infrastructure, small businesses, transportation systems and workforce development.

“Public service is about being present in the community and serving the community.”

–BHAVINI PATEL

“I think we’re uniquely positioned to attract federal funding that allows us to train our current workforce, making sure they don’t have to have four-year degrees to start small businesses and to stay here and find jobs, raise families and buy homes here.

That’s what my family was able to accomplish,” she said.

Patel has attended various events

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supporting the Jewish community in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israeli civilians and the ensuing war.

The congressional hopeful joined the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s “We Stand with Israel” rally on Oct. 8., and she attended an event sponsored by StandWithUs, a nonprofit pro-Israel educa-

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tion and advocacy group, on Oct. 17 at Temple Emanuel of South Hills. On Oct. 19, she joined a community vigil in solidarity with Israel at Schenley Park.

Patel said she has spent the last few weeks hearing the stories of Jewish Pittsburghers and listening to their experiences. She called the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack “absolutely devastating and tragic.”

“There’s a very visceral human component to this tragic situation in Israel and Gaza,” she said. “There was a terrorist attack in Israel by Hamas. Israel has the right to defend itself when 1,300 people are murdered. It’s pure evil. There will be a response to that. We cannot allow Hamas to exist. There is no debate about their wicked mission. They’ve made it very clear.”

Patel, who has previously run for state and federal office, noted that President Joe Biden has shown strong leadership in his commitment to Israel and in his work to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches civilians in Gaza.

The Hamas attacks accounted for the largest loss of Jewish life in one day since the Holocaust, Patel said, adding that because the attacks came just three weeks before the

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

five-year commemoration of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, many community members are feeling increased anxiety and tension.

Patel has disavowed the BDS (boycott, divest, sanctions) movement against Israel, prevalent on college campuses where many Jewish students have felt unsafe and unsupported while grappling with proPalestinian messaging.

“I do not support BDS,” she told the Chronicle. “I think we need to do a better job of educating on college campuses and being present on college campuses and engaging our students who are experiencing a lot of mental health challenges as it relates to antisemitism.”

Patel criticized Lee for her post on X (formerly Twitter) immediately following the Hamas incursion, in which Lee condemned the attack on “children and innocent civilians” but also called for a “de-escalation and an end to this tragic cycle of violence.

To achieve this, we must bring an end to the occupation and help broker a just and lasting peace.”

Patel said her opponent has made it clear, time and again, that “she consistently operates at the fringes.”

“This is just another example of her operating on the fringes when the community expects her presence in the district,” Patel said. “As I said, when 1,300 people are murdered, it’s pure evil.

Israel has a right to defend itself. This is just another example that shows she is out of touch with the people in the community.”

Patel is gaining the support of pro-Israel constituents disappointed with Lee’s voting record. In August, for example, Lee was one of only nine House members voting against a resolution declaring Israel “is not a racist or apartheid state.” She also joined a group of progressive lawmakers in co-sponsoring the Ceasefire Now resolution, urging an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in “Israel and occupied Palestine.”

Other sponsors included Reps. Cori Bush, André Carson, Delia Ramirez and Rashida Tlaib.

Meryl Ainsman, a Democrat who lives in Squirrel Hill described Patel as “very bright” and “committed.”

“She’s willing to put in the hard work and the time,” Ainsman said. “She’s well educated. And I think she is trying very, very hard to connect with and understand her potential constituents.”

Not surprising given her background, Patel said she supports immigration, calling western Pennsylvania an “absolutely special region.”

“The concept of the American Dream is a beautiful thing, and when we think about the region and when I’m talking to people in the community, our diversity, different cultures, different religious beliefs — that vibrancy is what helps us thrive collectively,” she said. PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

TODAY AND EVERY DAY, WE HONOR THE 11 PEOPLE KILLED ON OCT. 27, 2018, THE SURVIVORS AND THOSE STILL HEALING. WE REMEMBER: Joyce Fienberg Richard Gottfried Rose Mallinger Jerry Rabinowitz Cecil Rosenthal David Rosenthal Bernice Simon Sylvan Simon Daniel Stein Melvin Wax Irving Younger

May their memories be a blessing.

.‫ה‬.‫ב‬.‫צ‬.‫נ‬.‫ת‬

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

OCTOBER 27, 2023

11

Headlines The law and the future — HISTORY/REMEMBRANCE —

The things we choose

By Eric Lidji | Special to the Chronicle

T

he first reference to writing in the Torah is an act of memorialization. It comes immediately after the Jewish people in the wilderness successfully fought off Amalek: “Then God said to Moses, ‘Inscribe this in a document as a reminder, and read it aloud to Joshua: I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven!’” (Exodus 17:8) The account of Amalek in Exodus reads like an official record. It begins dryly and objectively, “Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim.” What follows is a description of a military campaign: how Joshua led an army against the ambush while Moses watched and prayed from a nearby hilltop, appealing for heavenly assistance.

Recalling the incident again in Deuteronomy, Moses provides a far more visceral account. Speaking to a generation born largely after the attack, to children and grandchildren of survivors, he says, “Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt — how, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear.”

The Israeli scholar Nechama Leibowitz was brilliant at analyzing moments like this, where two Jewish texts relate the same information in different language. Here, she noted, “Moses speaks as a historian in Exodus … but as a lawgiver and moralist in Deuteronomy. The difference between the two passages becomes clear if we bear this in mind. Where the Almighty is setting forth His program for the future there is no need to dwell on the cruelty of Amalek. The divine will stands in need of no motivation. But in (Deuteronomy) where Israel is commanded a specific precept, that of remembering and blotting out Amalek, the awesome character of the task requires explaining for them ...”

All throughout the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial this past summer, I kept noticing similarities between the ongoing judicial proceedings and the perpetual work to chronicle the past.

Before the trial, I never fully appreciated

to keep, the things we choose to preserve, the things we choose to remember — they are never inconsequential and never unbiased.

They always reflect our values. p Amira Wolfson of Squirrel Hill carried this candle at a Havdalah vigil at the corner of Murray and Forbes avenues on the evening of Oct. 27, 2018.

Image courtesy of Nicole Lauletta, Heinz History Center

the importance of documentation in the American judicial process. In the early “discovery” phase of the trial, all the parties to a case jointly compile a body of evidence.

Evidence can be physical objects collected from the scene, or photographs of the scene, or documents created by the parties or about the parties. Even when the evidence is voluminous, it is rarely sufficient on its own. Each side also calls witnesses, who first provide depositions and later give testimony.

The opposing legal teams use this body of evidence to make their competing cases about the events in question. The jury decides which case is more compelling.

At the heart of this process is a remarkable idea: All parties are working with the same body of evidence. Each legal team highlights, refutes or ignores information for its purposes, but

neither party is able to produce private documentation for its use alone.

A similar mechanism propels the creation of history.

Just as investigators collect evidence that will be used in criminal proceedings, archives collect artifacts, photographs and documents of the past events. When those inanimate materials don’t sufficiently capture the human experience, archives might also commission memoirs or oral histories — almost like calling witnesses to the stand.

There is no tidy discovery phase in history (to the dismay of many historians), but there is a collective body of material. It’s the archival record. It isn’t perfect, and it isn’t comprehensive. Some experiences were never documented. Some documentation wasn’t preserved. Some archives are hard to access.

But years from now, when we are all gone, and our memories have mostly departed with us, these records will remain to tell the story of our experiences. Our records become a shared body of evidence of our past.

Historians use the archival record to make

various cases for how the past unfolded, just as legal counsel use the shared body of evidence to make a case in court.

The jury is you. Every time you read a history book, or watch a history program, or attend a history lecture, or even listen to an acquaintance sharing some historical curiosity, your mind makes a reckoning: Do I buy this explanation for how the world came to be? And if so, what are the consequences of accepting this version of the past?

There are always consequences. This is why Leibowitz calls history a “program for the future.” History does so much more than recall the past. History makes a case for how the future should unfold.

History turns an experience into a mission.

History is a forward-looking form of justice — different from legal justice, but equally vital to society.

The archival record is not bound by the need for a legal conviction. It is free to wander.

It can collect things that would be irrelevant to the judicial process, things that might seem inconsequential today but could hold great use for the future. The things we choose to keep, the things we choose to preserve, the things we choose to remember — they are never inconsequential and never unbiased. They always reflect our values.

In the Amalek story, the Almighty created this archival record with a single divine document that read, “I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven!”

In our world, we need a multiplicity of voices, as many as possible. The past five years in this community have yielded such a vast range of human experience: every oddcolored shade of grief, gratitude, joy, dread, kindness, frustration and love. And the experience is constantly evolving as it encounters the times. How differently we all might have experienced the current events in Israel without our past experience of Oct. 27.

The trial documented its part of that story. The media documents its part of that story. The rest falls to us. Failing to provide future generations with the full measure of your life during this time would be a missed opportunity — and beyond that an injustice. 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.

Pennsylvania legislature unanimously supports Israel — REGIONAL —

T

he Pennsylvania Senate and House of Representatives unanimously passed resolutions to stand with Israel following the unprovoked terrorist attack by Hamas in which more than 1,400 Israelis were killed, more than 3,400 Israelis wounded, and an estimated 200 taken as hostages, including women, children and the elderly.

The Pennsylvania Senate passed two resolutions demonstrating its solidarity with the Jewish state. Resolution 191, introduced by 12

OCTOBER 27, 2023

Sens. Steven Santarsiero (D-Bucks) and Judy Schwank (D-Bucks), passed unanimously.

The resolution condemned “the unprovoked terrorist attack launched by Hamas against the State of Israel on October 7, 2023,” and expressed “deep condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives as a result of this senseless act of violence.”

Resolution 185, introduced by Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin) and passed unanimously, states that Pennsylvania stands “firmly with the people of Israel and their right to defend themselves.” The attacks by Hamas, the resolution says, were “shocking, barbaric and evil,” and “amount to war crimes of the worst kind.”

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed Resolution 245, introduced by Rep. Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny), also by a unanimous vote. That resolution urges Congress to provide Israel “with the support necessary to ensure its safety and security and condemn the terrorist attack in Israel by Hamas.” The resolution also recognizes “the terrorist actions of Hamas have no justification and no legitimacy.”

Jonathan Scott Goldman, chairman of the Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition, which advocates for Jewish communities in Pennsylvania, expressed appreciation to the Pennsylvania Senate and House “for their strong and unanimous stance in support of Israel and

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

against terror.”

“Hamas’ terroristic acts are an attack on Jews and all civilized people throughout the world,” Goldman said in a prepared statement. “The State of Israel was formed in 1948 to make sure the Holocaust ‘never happens again.’ As Representative Frankel stated in his remarks before the Pennsylvania House of Representative: ‘Never again is now.’

“I am proud to say that the entire legislative body of Pennsylvania, the Senate and House of Representatives, together with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, unanimously stand with Israel.” PJC — Toby Tabachnick PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

Headlines Tova Friedman: A child who survived Auschwitz — LOCAL —

By Abigail Hakas | Special to the Chronicle

T

ova Friedman doesn’t believe in fate or destiny. She doesn’t believe she was “chosen” to survive the Holocaust, she told the audience on Oct. 15 at a program hosted by Chabad of the South Hills.

“I don’t believe in miracles — sorry, I don’t believe in miracles,” she said. “And I don’t believe that I was chosen. Because if I was chosen, there is nothing special about me or my family. Why did the other million-and-a-half children, why did they go to the gas chambers? I just think it was luck. It was luck.”

with a blanket over the window. Her mother told her to never touch the blanket because the Nazis would see the movement. Friedman didn’t even know whether it was day or night; she still doesn’t know how long she was in there.

One day, her mother came in and told her she didn’t have to hide any longer. They were going to Auschwitz.

Friedman was only 5 years old, and her father was separated from them. It was the first time she saw him cry since his parents were killed.

When Friedman and her mother arrived at Auschwitz, she smelled smoke. Her mother told her it was burning bodies as the Nazis forced the new prisoners to undress. Those who were healthy would be put to work and those who were not would be killed.

p Tova Friedman at Chabad of the South Hills on Oct. 15

Friedman, 85, was born in 1938 and lived in Tomaszów Lubelski, a Polish town of 30,000 people, half of whom were Jewish.

When the Nazis invaded her town, the first thing they did was kill the children and elderly because they couldn’t work, she said.

Her grandmother was immediately shot right outside their window.

Friedman doesn’t have an explanation for why she survived but noted one factor that may have helped: Her mother taught her the rules.

No crying, making noise or asking questions.

If she saw a Nazi, she had to step out of the way. Her mother warned her to never look a Nazi in the eye, and Friedman knew if she tried running, the German shepherds would attack.

One day, a woman broke the rules. The Nazis publicly shot the woman while her children watched. Friedman’s mother forced her to watch as well.

Friedman’s memory is a foggy compilation of her own recollections and what her mother told her. She doesn’t remember how old she was or what language she spoke at the time, but she remembers the worst of it.

Her family was taken to a ghetto, and her father had to dig the communal graves his parents would later be buried in.

“They dug the graves for their parents and for the children,” Friedman said. “They used us to kill us, so they don’t have to do the dirty work.”

When the Nazis came to take children, Friedman’s parents hid her in a crawlspace. Her mother gripped her mouth shut so tightly it left a hand-shaped bruise for weeks afterward.

Her parents then hid her in a locked room PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

It’s your journey.

You have the power of choice.

Photo by Abigail Hakas

Friedman and her mother were kept alive and their heads were shaved. When the Nazis counted the prisoners, Friedman knew to stay still. The one day she didn’t, a Nazi beat her in front of her mother.

“My thoughts were, ‘You can kill me. You’ll never know how much you hurt me,’” she said.

“I heard stories that if you let them know how much they hurt you, they’ll enjoy it. They’ll hurt you more, so I didn’t.”

But Friedman’s strength did not make her immune to sickness. She slipped into the communal latrine and fell ill. She knew that sickness often meant death in Auschwitz, but for reasons unknown to her, she was taken to something akin to a hospital for prisoners.

She remembers being put in a room, but not much else. The fever blurred time until a Nazi opened the door and brought her out. It was the first time she saw other children her age in the camps.

Then she was tattooed.

“I remember they said, ‘Oh, what’s your name?’ I gave them my name, ‘No, no, no, your name is 27,633,’” she said.

A Jewish woman did the tattooing, and Friedman still recalls her kindness and gentle hands. Friedman never learned the woman’s name, but she told Friedman she would give her a neat tattoo so if she survived, she could cover it with a long sleeve. It was the first time Friedman thought she might survive the Holocaust.

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13

Headlines Pittsburgh Federation deletes Twitter/X account after being hacked by pro-Palestinian activists — LOCAL —

By Ron Kampeas | JTA

P

ro-Palestinian hackers briefly took over the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s feed on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Hours later, after retaking control, the federation deleted its account on the platform. The federation said the hack impacted its Facebook account as well.

The hack took place less than two weeks after the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, in Israel, and just days before the fifth anniversary of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, which was the worst antisemitic attack in American history.

“I’m appalled by the clear hacking of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s account,” wrote. Sheila Katz, the CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women, who drew attention to the hack in a post on X.

“The audacity is truly egregious. If anyone understands the impact of violence & trauma inflicted upon Jews, it’s them. They’ve already endured far too much.”

Jewish communal officials have been on the alert for cyberattacks since Hamas’ invasion of Israel, which killed 1,400 and wounded thousands more. More than 3,700 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s ensuing war on the terror group in the Gaza Strip.

Before dawn on Thursday, the hackers replaced the banner photo of the federation’s social media feed with a Palestinian flag emblazoned with the phrases “Free Palestine” and “Stop the Genocide.” The hashtags #JewsAgainstGenocide and #FreePalestine were added to the bio blurb on the feed, “Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s vision is a flourishing community where everyone feels included & supported.” An appended link led to an Egyptian Red Crescent donation page.

Officials of the federation quickly reassumed control of the feed, and by Thursday morning, a photo of a family had replaced the Palestinian

flag and the hashtags were removed. The link to the federation’s web page was restored.

By the afternoon, however, the account was deleted. Its profile was blank and a form message read, “This account doesn’t exist. Try searching for another.”

“We made a strategic decision to take down our Twitter page,” Shawn Brokos, director of community security for the federation told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. In an earlier statement, she said, “We can confirm that our Facebook and Twitter accounts were accessed by unauthorized parties and are now recovered and secured. We are not aware of other active threats at this time.”

Before being deleted, the Pittsburgh federation’s Twitter page appears to have been inactive for a year or so. The federation’s Facebook page is more active, and includes statements and actions in solidarity with Israel amid its war with Hamas.

“In light of the Hamas attack on Israel and the intelligence that we’ve received,

low-level cyberattacks are part of what Hamas has planned for Jewish organizations,” Brokos told the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

She urged community organizations to “be very vigilant and practice good cyberhygiene. That means reviewing your IP systems protocols, and also looking for email addresses or accounts that are no longer in use and making sure to delete them.”

Brokos said the Pittsburgh federation reported the hacking incident to the Secure Community Network so that other Jewish organizations around the country could take precautions.

“Even though it was certainly a disturbing and unfortunate event, what we experienced here in Pittsburgh has enabled us to better guide our other Jewish organizations and prevent this from happening going forward,” she said.

Earlier this month, the Chronicle’s website was briefly disabled due to a cyberattack. PJC Toby Tabachnick contributed to this report.

Pittsburgh medical examiner helps identify bodies of terror victims in Israel — LOCAL —

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

A

riel Goldschmidt, a Conservative Jew raised in Squirrel Hill, stood over what resembled human remains a few days ago in an Abu Kabir Forensic Institute exam room in Tel Aviv and tried to stay composed.

By that point, the deputy Allegheny County medical examiner had been volunteering for several days in Israel following Hamas terrorists’ gruesome attack on Israeli civilians on Oct. 7.

He was used to identifying bodies — and he had some horror stories — but it never resembled the work at Abu Kabir, Israel’s only forensic lab providing autopsies for unnatural deaths.

Unable to rely on dental records or fingerprints, Goldschmidt scoured countless bodies for tattoos, remnants of medical devices, scars, any clues to help shed light on the 400 individuals — out of an estimated 1,400 killed — whom Israeli officials weren’t able to identify.

“It’s not really what I’m used to,” he said. “The bodies, many of them were burned. The ones that weren’t burned were decomposed.

“Obviously, it was difficult,” Goldschmidt added. “It was also not just work. It was helping to document any and every crime.

Unfortunately, that’s part of being a Jew.” Most of the victims appeared to succumb to gunshot wounds, Goldschmidt said, but some were killed by shrapnel from nearby explosions. One or two had been tortured, tied up and stabbed or shot at close range. Some bodies came in pieces — one from a wheelchair lift.

The children were processed first.

“That, obviously, was still difficult,” said Goldschmidt, a father of three.

ZAKA helped.

The Israeli group, whose international rescue unit is based in Jerusalem, has assisted 14

OCTOBER 27, 2023

p Ariel Goldschmidt

Photo courtesy of Andrea Beth Goldschmidt

p Ariel Goldschmidt, second from left, arrives in Israel

first responders in identifying victims of terrorism and other disasters for decades.

Its members, many of them Orthodox Jews, gather body parts and spilled blood to ensure proper Jewish burial.

But, even ZAKA’s leadership sounded alarmed after Oct. 7.

“We are witnessing difficult sights that we have never seen before,” said ZAKA’s CEO Duby Weissenstern on the group’s website.

“Even the veteran ZAKA volunteers who are working on the scenes are struggling to digest the sights and the magnitude of the disaster.”

Goldschmidt didn’t know what to expect.

Shortly after the Oct. 7 massacres, he received a bulk email from the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME), a Missouri-based trade group for forensic pathologists and medicolegal death investigators.

They were seeking volunteers to take an El Al flight — the only airline entering or exiting the country — to Tel Aviv and help identify the dead. “[Ariel] read the email and said, ‘Should I go?’” said his wife, Andrea Goldschmidt, a clinical psychologist and University of Pittsburgh researcher who examines eating and weight

Photo courtesy of Andrea Beth Goldschmidt

disorders in children. “I said, ‘Yeah! We’re sitting over here, worrying and fretting. And you could go over and do something.’”

Ariel Goldschmidt, a dual U.S.-Israel citizen who speaks fluent Hebrew, was one of four professionals NAME selected. Two had worked in New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at Ground Zero; a third had volunteered in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 storm, decimated the island in 2017.

“I’ve never felt nervous for him to be in Israel, but this all felt very unpredictable,” Andrea Goldschmidt told the Chronicle. “You’re flying a huge plane with a big Star of David on it, and [terrorists] are launching rockets at the airport.”

The Goldschmidt family spoke constantly via What’s App, though Andrea Goldschmidt said her youngest child didn’t quite understand the weight of what was unfolding nearly 6,000 miles away.

“Is Daddy coming home?” the youngest would ask. “Is he on vacation?”

The parents asked their oldest son — she prefers to keep their names and ages private — to stay off social media, especially while his father was away.

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Andrea Goldschmidt took to Facebook and email to spread her husband’s story. Her mother-in-law, who attends services at Congregation Beth Shalom, was surprised; Ariel, after all, is a modest, even quiet, man.

“People should know that there are people making sacrifices to go over and help,” Andrea Goldschmidt said. “I tell my kids, ‘When terrible things happen, I want you to know there are people working to do good.’

“I want them to be proud of Ariel — I’m proud of him,” she said.

Ariel Goldschmidt previously worked as a medical examiner in several U.S. cities, from St. Louis to Chicago to Providence, Rhode Island; his curriculum vitae boasts nearly 20 years of forensic experience. Though little prepared him for his work in Israel, he feels fortunate to work alongside and learn from a tremendously talented group of volunteers.

Like many, the medical examiners had the Israeli TV news blaring in the background at all hours — “everyone was waiting to find out what was happening next,” Ariel Goldschmidt said.

On more than one occasion, they all stopped their work to run into the aging institute’s mamad, or safe room, when sirens shrieked.

On Wednesday, though, Goldschmidt went back to work in the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office in Downtown Pittsburgh. He couldn’t take off a day to rest or transition — he had used all his PTO and taken several unpaid days to volunteer in Israel.

“I really appreciate the county allowing me to do this,” said Goldschmidt, in a phone call before boarding a 1 a.m. flight Tuesday into Newark Liberty International Airport near New York City.

“But, definitely, I’m glad to be going home.” PJC Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

On the 5th anniversary of the attack in Pittsburgh and in the wake of the brutal atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel, ADL honors and remembers the victims. ADL unwaveringly supports Israel and the global Jewish community and we are more committed than ever to combating antisemitism and fighting hate for good.

Join Us at adl.org

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OCTOBER 27, 2023 15

Headlines Freed Hamas hostage recounts ordeal, slams Israeli failures, speaks well of captors — WORLD —

By Carrie Keller-Lynn, Michael Bachner and Times of IsraeI Staff

R

eleased Hamas hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, described Tuesday at a widely attended press conference outside Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital how her terrorist captors took her by motorcycle from Kibbutz Nir Oz to the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7 and into a “spiderweb” of tunnels, and accused Israel’s leadership of failures that made her and others into “scapegoats.”

She said her abductors beat her on the way to Gaza, but that she was treated well by her captors.

“I went through a hell that we’d never imagined. They [Hamas terrorists] rampaged through the kibbutz,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. She derided Israel’s costly border fence with Gaza, which she said the invaders blew up with ease and had been “no help at all” in defending her kibbutz against the terrorist mob.

Some 180 of the kibbutz’s 400 residents were killed or abducted, according to The New York Times. In total, the Hamas terrorists murdered some 1,400 people during their rampage through southern Israel, the vast majority of them civilians slaughtered in their homes and at an outdoor music festival.

Hamas released Lifshitz and Nurit Cooper, 79, after 17 days in captivity, the third and fourth captives freed by the terror group in recent days. The two were released from Gaza into Egypt late Monday, and were then transferred to the IDF, which brought them to an Israeli hospital for examination, where doctors said they were in good health.

At least 220 others — including the respective husbands of both women, Amiram Cooper, 84, and Oded Lifshitz, 83 — are believed to still be held hostage

by Hamas.

“I was taken, with my legs on one side and my head on the other” of the motorcycle, Lifshitz told reporters, and her abductors “flew through the fields” back toward Gaza.

En route, the wheelchair-bound woman said, she was beaten with sticks, “not breaking my ribs” but “hurting me badly and making it hard for me to breathe.”

The terrorists removed her watch and jewelry and then forced her to walk through fields before reaching a tunnel network, which she described as similar to “a spiderweb.”

Her daughter Sharone was kneeling next to her to help make her voice heard, repeating some of her remarks and translating her account into English.

Once in captivity, Lifshitz said, she passed through a tunnel and arrived at a large hall where about 25 other hostages were

p A still from a video released by Hamas’ armed wing showing hostages Yocheved Lifshitz, left, and Nurit Cooper before their release from captivity on Oct. 23.

Screen capture via The Times of Israel

gathered. “They told us they believe in the Quran and would not harm us, that they would give us the same conditions as they have in the tunnels,” she said of her captors.

After about two or three hours, she and about four other hostages from Kibbutz Nir Oz were taken into a separate room.

“A medic and a doctor came,” and the hostages were put on mattresses, she said.

The doctor returned every couple of days, and the medic arranged for medicines. “The treatment of us was good,” Lifshitz added, describing how the medic treated another of the hostages who was injured. She said her captors made sure the conditions were sanitary. “They cleaned the toilets, not us,” she said. “They were afraid of contagion.”

Asked about conversations with the captors, she said “they tried” to converse; “we told them, no politics… We didn’t answer them [on politics]. They talked about all kinds of things. They were very friendly to us. They took care of all of our needs; this must be said to their credit. We ate what they did,” she said, describing one meal a day of pita, cheese and cucumber.

She said “the lack of knowledge by the IDF and Shin Bet” about what Hamas had been planning “hurt us badly. We were the scapegoats for the leadership.” The signs were there ahead of the onslaught, including balloons flown over the border to set fire to kibbutz fields. “And the IDF, somewhere, didn’t take it seriously.”

“And suddenly on Shabbat morning, when everything was quiet, there was very heavy shelling on the communities, and along with the shelling, the mob burst in, burst through the [border] fence… opened the gate of the kibbutz and broke in en masse. It was very unpleasant, very difficult. My memory keeps replaying those pictures.”

Referring to the terrorists’ breaching of

Israel’s security barrier on the Gaza border, Lifshitz said: “A swarm of people came to the fence — it cost NIS 2 billion ($493 million) and it didn’t help, not even a little bit.”

She said her captors had plainly prepared long ahead for holding hostages, and even had shampoo and conditioner for them.

Asked why she shook hands, apparently with one of her captors, when she was transferred to a Red Cross ambulance, she repeated again that the hostages were treated with “sensitivity.”

Her daughter Sharone Luton, speaking after Yocheved, said “it’s wonderful” to have her mother back, calling her “a ray of light.”

“My mom is very much hoping that all the people who were with her will come back,” Luton added. “Our hearts are with the over 200 hostages still there. Our heart is with my dad and all the captives that are still there.”

She said she was happy to hear her mother was well treated, but stressed that she did “not know” how other hostages were being treated because her mother only saw about 25 fellow captives.

Lifshitz’s husband remains in Hamas captivity, and Luton said the family still has no information on his fate.

“He was not with my mom, so my mom doesn’t know where he is,” she told the BBC in an interview.

“My father was getting more frail. He was very involved in rights for Palestinians and working towards peace with our neighbors,” she said, adding that he was a long-time campaigner for coexistence with the Palestinians.

“And I hope that he’s there and he’s being looked after and he’s got the chance to talk,” she said. “He speaks good Arabic, so can communicate very well with the people there. He knows many people

in Gaza. I want to think he’s going to be okay.”

The Lifshitz couple, who were among the founders of Nir Oz, were peace activists and regularly transported patients from Gaza to receive medical treatment in hospitals across Israel.

Yocheved’s son Yizhar said after the press conference that his mother had been debriefed “sensitively” by the Shin Bet on Monday night. He said she had spoken her mind at the press conference, and would never say anything anyone had asked her to say.

The government thanked both Egypt and the Red Cross Monday night for their roles in freeing and transporting Lifshitz and Cooper, and vowed to “continue to work to the best of our abilities and with full effort to locate all the missing and bring all the hostages home.”

On Tuesday morning, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari thanked Egypt for playing a “key role” in the release of the two Israeli hostages.

“We are happy for their return, but at the same time, I want to mention that the husbands of Yocheved [Lifshitz] and Nurit [Cooper] are still being held captive by Hamas. They are just two among the 222 hostages,” he said.

He said the IDF had worked for their release and that “Egypt played a key role in the issue. Its efforts are appreciated.

We thank Egypt and the Red Cross and we are committed to returning all the hostages home.”

On a Hamas propaganda video showing Lifshitz and Cooper being released by Hamas terrorists, Hagari said: “We must not become confused for even a moment, this is part of the psychological terror that Hamas uses to seemingly show that it is a humanitarian organization.”

“It’s a cynical video and it won’t make us forget Oct. 7,” he added.

On Friday evening, Hamas released two American-Israelis, mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Ra’anan, also via the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

The two were handed over to the Red Cross, which then handed them over to Israel. Hamas also said that release was made “for humanitarian reasons.” Eight other members of Judith and Natalie’s extended family are among the hostages.

Two members of the extended family were killed by terrorists in Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.

U.S. officials over the past week have reportedly been urging Israel to delay its ground operation in the Gaza Strip to allow more time for negotiations to release more hostages. PJC Amy Spiro, Emanuel Fabian, Jessica Steinberg and agencies contributed to this report.

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17

Headlines Vigil: Continued from page 1

“I am proud to lend my voice and show my support for the commonwealth’s Jewish community now in this moment of crisis, grief and mourning, and always, as fellow Pennsylvanians,” he added.

Speaking with the Chronicle following the program, Davis elaborated on the role of public officials during times of crisis.

“I think it’s critical, that in a moment of pain, that all communities come together to support one another because it’s the Jewish community today, it may be the Christian community tomorrow, and as elected officials, we have a responsibility to speak for everyone,” he said.

Several other politicians attended, including State Rep. Dan Frankel, Allegheny County District Attorney Steve Zappala and Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor.

Federation President and CEO Jeffrey Finkelstein urged community members to not only thank “our elected officials,” but continue discussing Israel with them.

“Engage them on this issue,” Finkelstein said. “Stay informed and hold those who are seeking to spread misinformation accountable. It is really important for you to continue to stand up for Israel, even when it gets hard.”

Throughout the evening, the crowd — Pittsburgh Police estimated attendance to be about 500 — heard passionate cries for support.

Dr. Laurie Wasser-Klitsner, an AmericanIsraeli ophthalmologist who relocated to Pittsburgh last year for a postdoctoral fellowship at UPMC, said her husband, brothers, brothers-in-law and cousins have all returned to the Israel Defense Forces.

“Our entire family has been drafted,” she said.

The situation is unimaginable, WasserKlitsner continued.

“Hamas kidnapped 200 civilians, among them babies, women and the elderly, and they have taken them into Gaza,” she said.

“It is inconceivable that we find ourselves having to defend the reality of the vicious attacks, particularly because they were livestreamed by the Hamas terrorists in real time for the world to see.

“It is incomprehensible that members of the U.S. academic community are defending a deliberate attack on innocent civilians,” Wasser-Klitsner continued. “There is no moral equivalency here. There is only one acceptable outcome. Universities must condemn Hamas and denounce these heinous acts of terror unequivocally.”

Rev. Natalie Hall, rector at The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Squirrel Hill, described the grief and fear experienced by “Jewish friends and neighbors.”

“After the largest organized pogrom on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, there has been silence. Sure, there have been some statements released,” she said. “Yet many seem incapable of acknowledging that the deadly massacre of Jewish civilians was

consummately wrong.”

Dan Gilman, former chief of staff to Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto, stressed the need for “moral clarity.”

“As we gather together to mourn the loss of innocent lives and pray for those being held hostage, let us all come together to use this moment for clear moral clarity in our community,” he said. “Let us be unequivocal.

Let us be unrelenting. Let us be unrestrained and let us be unwavering in our recognition that Israel has a right to exist [and] in our recognition that Hamas is a terrorist organization.”

Teenage Israeli emissaries described their shock upon learning of the war and the difficulty of being so far from home.

“All four of us have siblings in the army. Let that sink,” one said.

Throughout the program, clergy gave voice to familiar liturgy and songs. Chabad of Greenfield’s Rabbi Yitzi Goldwasser read a chapter of Psalms before saying a prayer for the captives. Former Senior Jewish Educator at Hillel JUC Cantor Stefanie Greene and Rodef Shalom Congregation’s Cantor Toby Glaser chanted Debbie Friedman’s “Mi Shebeirach.” Congregation Beth Shalom’s Rabbi Seth Adelson recited the Mourner’s Kaddish and El Maleh Rachamim. Glaser closed the event with “Hatikvah.”

Laura Cherner, director of Federation’s Community Relations Council, told the Chronicle the program was an opportunity to “gather together as a community, to mourn the innocent lives of those killed and pray for

p Thursday, Oct. 12, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh hosted a Community Vigil for Israel at Flagstaff Hill. The purpose of the event was to come together as a community to pray for those who perished, those still in captivity and their families.

Photo by David Bachman

p Four Pittsburgh Shinshinim, young emissaries, connecting people of all ages to Israel and Israeli culture, spoke of their personal struggles being so far from home and how proud they are of their families fighting for Israel.

Photo by David Bachman

StandWithUs:

In 2018, he went to Israel with Passages Israel, a Christian group that takes college students to the Jewish state, much like Birthright Israel. It was this trip that eventually led to Guaico working with StandWithUs. Both Paris and Guaico took questions from those in attendance, including: How should one respond when Israel is called an apartheid state?; What is the right response to left-wing attacks on college campuses?; and will Israel’s response to Hamas’ terrorist attack trigger a backlash and create a larger divide between those who support peace and civilians living in Gaza?

As to whether Israel is an apartheid state, Guaico pointed out that the term is South African and should be applied to discrimination

Continued from page 7

Shifting to Hamas, he explained that the organization continues to commit war crimes.

“Israel has a right to defend itself,” Guaico said, “just like any other sovereign nation does.”

He pointed out that innocent Gaza residents have suffered under Hamas’ regime since the elections that brought the organization to power.

Guaico transitioned to discuss being born in Chile and moving to the States with his parents. His father, a pastor, was a political refuge from the Pinochet regime that governed the country.

18

OCTOBER 27, 2023

p Lt. Gov. Austin Davis came in person to show his support. The crowd heard from other politicians and interfaith leaders and joined in song and prayer.

Photo by David Bachman

and racial inequality that goes to an extreme.

“The fact is Arab Israelis make up a big minority in Israel,” he said, noting they hold political office, study in universities and get the same benefits of other citizens.

Asked how to respond to the allegation that those living in Gaza and the West Bank are in open air prisons, Guaico noted that Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005.

Before the end of the talk, Paris said that StandWithUs, along with a dozen other organizations, sent letters to every college administration around the country, asking that they designate Students for Justice in Palestine as a hate group and to defund them on campus.

Before the end of the talk, Paris said that StandWithUs, along with a dozen other

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those who remain in captivity.”

Ayelet Setbon, a Netanya resident and Israeli emissary, said she was moved by the event.

“I feel like I’m in a community that cares,” she said.

Zoe Klitsner, 10, agreed and said she was impressed by the diversity of attendees.

“I thought that everybody gathering together was very, very special,” she said.

Hopefully, that spirit of unity can carry forward, Naomi Rosenthal, 14, told the Chronicle.

To continue the camaraderie, in conjunction with Friendship Circle and NCSY, Rosenthal organized a “teen-wide unity Havdalah event,” for Saturday night.

The Oct. 21 program included “a musical Havdalah, hot cocoa bar and unified song,” she said.

Rosenthal’s sister, Ayala Rosenthal, 22, credited the work of older generations as inspiration for the teen event.

“What we’re seeing throughout this entire week is that people from every congregation, every community, and from all corners of Pittsburgh are coming together,” she said.

“It hasn’t happened yet for the teen group specifically,” she said.

Bringing young adults together now, “in solidarity and with hope for our brothers and sisters in Israel,” is essential, Ayala Rosenthal continued. “We know that young people are the next generation of leaders.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

p Jeff Finkelstein, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, gave closing remarks about how important it is to support Israel at this time. One way to help is by giving to the Israel Relief Fund.

Photo by David Bachman

organizations, sent letters to every college administration around the country, asking that they designate Students for Justice in Palestine as a hate group and to defund them on campus.

Near the end of the hour-long presentation, Paris said that those with questions about Israel’s war with Hamas should visit StandWithUs’ Situation Room at standwithus. com/situationroom for the latest news.

The event was sponsored by the Beth El Congregation of the South Hills, Hillel JUC of Pittsburgh, Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, StandWithUs and Temple Emanuel of South Hills. PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Headlines Congregations: Continued from page 2

“Families just don’t give up,” Caplan said.

Dor Hadash President Jo Recht said the Reconstructionist congregation is doing well.

During the years leading up to the trial, it developed its first strategic plan.

It also hired its first full-time rabbi: Rabbi Amy Bardack.

“There was a lot of rethinking and sort of repositioning,” Recht said. “But through it all, we stayed intact and have consistently been acquiring new members. The congregation is strong.”

While there will never be closure from the trauma of the attack, she said, the congregation has reached an inflection point.

“There is a tremendous sense of relief that the trial is behind us,” she said. “There was real anxiety about the trauma it was going to reignite. I think that we’ve moved from one chapter to another.”

Recht has been president of Dor Hadash since April. She’s prioritized helping the congregation, which started as a small study group in 1963, to implement its strategic plan. She said it’s a work in progress.

Dor Hadash is collaborating with Squirrel Hill Stands Against Gun Violence and

Friedman: Continued from page 13

on the day the Nazis prepared to send her and the other children to the gas chambers.

The Nazis promised them a real meal, not the scraps of bread and soup they had been eating.

They knew this meant they were going to be killed, but Friedman’s hunger was the only thing on her mind.

“When somebody said ‘Did you ever think of God? Did people ever think of God in Auschwitz?’ And the answer was, yes, it was a piece of bread.” she said.

The children were lined up in pairs and marched to the gas chambers, passing by a women’s camp to their right. Friedman heard her mother’s voice asking where she was going.

Friedman answered, “To the gas chambers.”

The women, many of whom had children in the line, began to scream. Friedman wondered why they were upset.

“I remember turning to the little girl next to me and I said, ‘Why are they crying? Every Jewish child goes to the gas chambers. That’s the way life is,’” she said.

She doesn’t know why, but the Nazis didn’t kill them. They were undressed, left to wait

CeaseFirePA as part of the commemoration events around Oct. 27.

There will also be a program where people can tell their personal stories about gun violence on videotape and send them to legislators.

“It’s something that would be meaningful to Jerry Rabinowitz and to his wife,” she said.

The other, more celebratory, event the congregation is looking forward to is its 60th anniversary.

“We’re planning a celebration in December, before the end of 2023,” Recht said. “We have a committee planning a year’s worth of events in the ensuing year to highlight some of the many ways Dor Hadash works to create community in different capacities with the congregation and community.”

Like New Light’s Caplan, Tree of Life President Alan Hausman said that many people in his congregation felt stuck in a holding pattern after the murder of members Joyce Fienberg, Rose Mallinger, Cecil and David Rosenthal, Bernice and Sylvan Simon and Irving Younger. And while he’s happy the trial is over, he’s clear: There are no winners.

“The winner is that the trial is over, and we have a final judgment, but it doesn’t bring anyone back,” he said, before noting that justice through the death

penalty is weighty.

“We got justice but, wow, that’s heavy justice,” he said.

Hausman noted that, historically, changes arise in a community that has experienced a mass shooting after the five-year mark.

“There’s something about that time frame,” he said. “I think we may have been close to putting closure to it, and then this Israeli conflict comes.”

Unlike New Light and Dor Hadash, Hausman noted, Tree of Life has not moved into its permanent home; it continues to rent space from Rodef Shalom Congregation.

And, even when it does eventually end up in its own building at the corner of Shady and Wilkins avenues, things will be different.

“It’s being designed by another organization,” he said. “So, to some extent, to some of our people, it’s not like we’re going back to our home and we’re in the driver’s seat. It’s going to be exactly what we want, exactly how we want. We’re going back to our home, but it’s going to be a new normal that we haven’t defined yet.”

There’s a huge learning curve for the future, Hausman said, mainly because the Tree of Life rebuilding project is breaking

and eventually told to leave. She passed by her mother and told her that the Nazis couldn’t do it this time, but they’d do it next time.

The two stayed at the camp. Friedman’s mother took her into the women’s hospital and hid her beneath a blanket covering a

“The reason I love talking to young people is because you have to be my memory after I’m gone. I want you to remember that because it’s important for me that the young people remember.

Who knows how long I’ll be here to tell it?”

– TOVA FRIEDMAN

Next time never came. The Russians did. Her mother found her in the chaos and told her that the Nazis wanted them to march to Germany, but the trek through the snow would be dangerous. Her mother had oozing, swollen feet and said she would not survive the death march.

Friedman remembers her mother asking, ‘Will you die with me here in Auschwitz?’”

dead body. Once again, her mother warned her to never touch the blanket, or the Nazis would find her. Friedman stayed there until she smelled smoke, and her mother returned.

All the prisoners who survived walked to the still-electrified gate. They waited until the Russians came and turned it off. Friedman was

new ground. The plans call for a museum, a memorial, a synagogue and other features all housed under one roof.

“There’s no manual here,” he said.

“This isn’t like repairing a transmission.

We’re bound to make many mistakes in this process because there’s nothing to look at.”

Similar to Dor Hadash and New Light, the immediate past is helping to define the future for Tree of Life.

“We’re always going to be Zooming and streaming services,” he said. “When I was young, people went to services, it was the center of our community. It was our community center. This was where you met people and had life cycle events.”

Hausman said that he’s working with the board and Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers to stay ahead of the curve and that he views synagogue life more like a university now, where the curriculum is always changing and the institution is always looking for different avenues to reach people.

“If someone asked what the future is, my answer,” he said, “is I just don’t know because it’s never been done before.” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

6 years old when she made it out of Auschwitz.

As Friedman wrapped up the story of her time in the death camp, she addressed the children in the audience.

“The reason I love talking to young people is because you have to be my memory after I’m gone,” she said. “I want you to remember that because it’s important for me that the young people remember. Who knows how long I’ll be here to tell it?”

She now makes the decisions that Hitler didn’t want her to make, she said. She grew up without practicing Judaism, but now she is devout. Hitler didn’t want her to live and have children, so she had four. The Nazis never didn’t want her to make any noise, so now she tells her story.

During a Q&A at the end of her talk, an audience member asked her how she found the will to live.

“Some people who get knocked down, stay down, and other people who get knocked down get up and hit the other person. I’m that person,” she said. “Everything he wanted to take away, I wanted to do it.” PJC Abigail Hakas is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

Second gentleman scheduled to visit Pittsburgh

D

— local —

ouglas Emhoff, the Jewish husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, planned to travel to Pittsburgh

on Tuesday to meet with survivors of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, according to The New York Times.

Oct. 27 marks the five-year commemoration of the antisemitic attack in the Tree of Life building during which 11 Jewish

worshippers were murdered and several other people, including first responders, were seriously injured.

No additional information was available as of press time. PJC — Toby Tabachnick

p Douglas Emhoff

Photo by Cameron Smith, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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OCTOBER 27, 2023

19

Opinion Now more than ever, the need for ‘grassroots love’ — EDITORIAL —

F

ive years ago, on a Saturday morning in October, an antisemitic murderer stormed the Tree of Life building and savagely gunned down 11 innocent Jews: Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Mel Wax and Irving Younger.

The world stood by our side and shared in our grief. Pittsburgh was “Stronger Than Hate” the lawn signs read. Statements of solidarity flooded in from local and national organizations representing other ethnic groups and religions.

While the caring and support could not relieve our sorrow, the outpouring of what looked like love was reassuring: We were not alone. “Never again” meant never again.

Three weeks ago — on another fateful October Shabbat — Hamas terrorists stormed across the Gazan border into Israel, barbarically attacking civilians, including infants, young children, the elderly and the disabled. The horrors are unfathomable, inhuman in the truest sense of the word.

And for us, the attacks are profoundly personal. Most of us feel a deep devotion and connection to Israel and what it stands

for, and many of us have loved ones living there. We are terrified for the hostages. We are concerned for the safety of the brave members of the Israeli military. We mourn for all those who were brutally murdered and weep for those who were maimed.

Pittsburgh have reached out and spoken out, but not all.

And while after Oct. 27, 2018, our friends and neighbors and colleagues, our sports teams and our local businesses were largely unified in pronouncing that we are “Stronger

We can take a cue from those 11 beloved community members who we remember on their fifth yahrzeit, and always.

The terrorists’ acts of inconceivable inhumanity were committed against Jews in Israel. And they were committed against us.

The reaction of our neighbors, of the world, is different than it was after Oct. 27, 2018. While the majority of our state and national legislators have expressed their solidarity unequivocally and loudly, that support is not universally shared among our elected representatives. Some have expressed sympathy for the terrorists or spread vicious lies against Jews, outrageously blaming the victims for the unspeakable acts committed against them.

Some of our interfaith partners in

Together,” too many of them are silent now as our Jewish community is left aggrieved by what has happened and terrified of what could happen next.

It’s hard to know how best to react, what to do, in the face of such evil and confronted with the reality that not everyone we counted on has our back.

The vigils and rallies organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and other organizations have been lifelines in allowing us to come together in unity and strength so that we can hold each other up during this excruciatingly difficult time.

But there is more that we can do. In the words of writer Anne Lamott, “Now is the time for grassroots love.”

We can take a cue from those 11 beloved community members who we remember on their fifth yahrzeit, and always.

Small acts of lovingkindness can bring some light and goodness into this dark and desperate time.

Visiting the sick. Showing up to help make a minyan. Offering a ride to someone who can’t drive. Bringing food to the hungry. A warm hug. A smile.

The great spiritual leaders of the world’s religions, from the Lubavitcher Rebbe to Mother Teresa, knew this to be true.

“Acts of kindness never die,” wrote the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. “They linger in the memory, giving life to other acts in return.”

He continued: “Whatever our life has been thus far, there is another chapter to be written, focused on being a blessing to others, sharing whatever gifts we have with those who have less, handing on our values across the generations, using our experience to help others come through difficult times of their own, doing something that has little to do with personal ambition and much to do with wanting to leave some legacy of kindness that made life better for at least someone on earth.”

Let us learn from Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Mel Wax and Irving Younger. Let us be their legacy, a legacy needed now more than ever. PJC

Over time, creating belonging Guest Columnist Maggie Feinstein

C

ontrary to the popular adage, time does not heal all wounds. While time plays a significant role, there is more complexity to the healing process. Healing is rooted in compassion and a sense of belonging around a traumatic event.

For our community in Pittsburgh, that’s never been so clear. We continue to navigate life while violence occurs in Israel and as the fifth commemoration of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting approaches. The trauma cues from the violence in Israel are visceral for many of those impacted by the attack of Oct. 27, 2018. Instead of assuming that time will ease the impact of trauma cues on us, we must understand instead how to react to these and other trauma cues that arise this month.

Trauma cues may include anniversary effects, which are the psychological and emotional ways that the date of a traumatic event affects us. Anniversary effects may be marked by avoidance of the event or our emotions, remembering the experience more vividly than usual, becoming angry, anxious or physically sick, or being bothered by feelings that are as intense as ever — despite time passing. These anniversary effects are programmed into our bodies 20

OCTOBER 27, 2023

and brains; they are biologically based, and they don’t wait for an invitation to come in.

Meeting these emotions with acceptance and insight is vastly more effective than shoving them down with shame.

even during rough periods. We grow from holding tenuous, fragile connections to one another into a deeper belonging. We begin to trust that conflict will not inevitably create splintering or cause us to lose

The bonds created during Oct. 27 cannot always be sustained at the same intensity with which they began, but they can be nurtured over time.

Some may also experience anniversary effects that are comforting. The date of the event may bring up memories of loved ones and a feeling of being closer to them.

Through the commemorative events that surround an anniversary, some may feel more connected to their community and enveloped in a sense of belonging.

Since Oct. 27, 2018, we have seen continuous efforts to cultivate this sense of belonging. Through our neutral role, the 10.27 Healing Partnership has been honored to observe deep collaboration and this community’s herculean efforts at building trust and offering support. Difficulty and rockiness can actually foster a greater sense of belonging. We can uphold a communal contract to show up for one another and continue to be in relationship together

one another. The fifth commemoration is a time to acknowledge the beauty of these continued efforts toward trust, belonging and repair.

This sense of belonging involves recognizing the event’s significance within your own identity. When you find healthy ways to identify with and belong to an event, you learn to integrate it into your selfunderstanding, your memory, your life story or your cultural heritage. What does it mean to belong to Oct. 27, 2018? In what ways have you changed because of it?

How has your life and the way you react when confronted with a traumatic incident changed since 2018?

A sense of belonging allows you to build insight and recognize your own place in an event, neither requiring you to be in the

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center of it at all times nor to downplay its significance to you. You can balance the idea that there may be others more intimately connected to the event than you are with the idea that your own experience still remains meaningful.

When we meet conflict together and when we build insight through our secure connection to the event and to ourselves, we begin to use this belonging to build a space for all of us in the legacy of Oct. 27. When we stay engaged and lend ourselves to this effort we enrich the fabric of this legacy, which is greater for each person added to its overarching story. We move into actively investigating ourselves and our connection to the event and actively connecting with others in shared struggle and joy. The bonds created during Oct. 27 cannot always be sustained at the same intensity with which they began, but they can be nurtured over time. This nurturing and maturing of both our own identities and our community creates this belonging, this deep sense of security, insight and care that our community deserves.

Time may not heal all wounds, but it grants us the opportunity to create belonging. Feeling that we are a part of this community, no matter how large or small, holds the potential for ongoing healing. PJC Maggie Feinstein is director of the 10.27 Healing Partnership.

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Opinion Chronicle poll results: Attendance at event supporting Israel

L

ast week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “Did you attend a rally, prayer service or any other type of event signifying solidarity with Israel following the Hamas terrorist attacks?” Of the 267 people who responded, 66% said yes and 34% said no. Comments were submitted by 57 people. A few follow.

We support Israel. Prayers to the soldiers and civilians. I was surprised that my Christian friends were supporting me and were horrified by the recent events. My biggest concern is the people who support Hamas. The propaganda against Jews and Israel worries me.

Of course my prayers are with Israel and the Jewish people worldwide. We must stick together, no matter what our political affiliations are.

Very helpful to convene with fellow Jews in solidarity.

We attended a rally to support Israel on the day after. While many religious and

Did you attend a rally, prayer service or any other type of event signifying solidarity with Israel following the Hamas terrorist attacks?

34% No 66% Yes

They took their last breath wrapped in tallitot…

And we will bury them the same way Eternally precious, enfolded within the fabric of our people.

They took their last breath in a building named for life…

And, in their spirit, we will ever cherish life’s beauty no matter how thick the darkness.

They took their last breath in a house of prayer Where people aspire to be the finest they can be And, just as they did, we will continue to reach for the heights.

They took their last breath uttering words that reject the lawless…

And, recalling them, we will refuse to allow evil to prosper.

They took their last breath believing in a better tomorrow And we will never forsake that vision, come what may…

They took their last breath as proud Jews, devoted to their heritage And, in their honor, that is exactly how we will now continue on.

Devastated. Bereft. But utterly resolute…

May their memory bless us all.

— Rabbi Danny Schiff

PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG

I’m quite elderly and unable to get out to many important events. I did, however, say my own prayers for the safety and well-being of the families in the Middle East in all areas.

May this upheaval be soon brought to an equitable and peaceful resolution.

While I have not yet done anything in person, I have been continually communicating immediate and lifelong support with individuals and organizations from around the world and from a wide range of political perspectives.

I appreciate the Federation convening events where all Jews in Pittsburgh can demonstrate their support of Israel together.

political speakers helped us to feel less alone, we were most gratified by an NAACP leader and a recent African American convert to Judaism. While some in the African American community have expressed antiJewish feelings lately, hearing the supportive,

— POETRY —

In memory of the eleven

empathetic words of these two individuals was very heartwarming during these terrible times.

I am too scared to show solidarity with Israel.

I am blown away by the sense of achdus (togetherness ) that I see amongst our people!

I attended a rally but left my wife and children at home because of my concern for their safety. The security/police presence was strong and, in retrospect, I wish I had brought them with me to feel the warmth, strength and hope of the community.

I have been to more than one service because I feel the need to be among friends.

The attacks weren’t traumatic enough — then we must be subjected, for who knows how long, to this hatred, this outcry, not against Hamas or Hezbollah, but against the only country in the entire world that exists to provide safety and a decent lifestyle to Jews? We need to rely on each other, more now than ever (again). PJC — Toby Tabachnick

Chronicle weekly poll question: What do you think should be Israel’s primary goal in this war with Hamas? Go to pittsburghjewishchronicle.org to respond. PJC

— LETTERS — So-called progressives’ reveal themselves

Like many in the Jewish community, I am still in mourning over the massacre of our people on Oct. 7. As I search for ways to advocate for my dear people, I find myself thinking about letters to the editor and opinion pieces over the last year in the pages of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle in praise of and in justification for Rep. Summer Lee and the organization J Street.

Summer Lee’s Rosh Hashanah ad in the Chronicle was a false and cynical act to obscure her repeated refusal to speak to the only newspaper of the Pittsburgh Jewish community. How many of us are really fooled by this ploy? Especially when she is unable to denounce with moral clarity that freedom-loving people should find no justification in Hamas’ slaughter of Israeli innocents. That’s because she doesn’t believe Jews are innocents.

We must understand and denounce in no uncertain terms that members of what is known as “the Squad” demonstrate repeatedly their contempt for Jews, as they for years have hidden behind the false distinction between Jew hatred and anti-Zionism.

Now the so-called progressives, wherever we find them — on college campuses, in our vaunted newspapers and media outlets and in government — reveal themselves, and I am

glad. It turns out that meaningless slogans and the embrace of Hamas propaganda leads to the bombing of synagogues and Jewish neighborhoods and huge, angry mobs here and all over the world.

No one in the United States Congress has a right to be there. Because Summer Lee loudly yells absurd lies about Israel while aligning with actual Islamo-fascists, she has shown she has not earned it.

Thankfully, the alternative is Bhavini Patel, an intelligent, thoughtful future leader who is running against Summer Lee for the Democratic nomination in 2024. The Lord has given us a gift, and we should acknowledge our good fortune and do everything we can to be worthy of it.

Annette Kolski-Andreaco Pittsburgh

Palestinian ‘indoctrination’ has led to ‘cycle of violence’

I’d like to remind Rep. Summer Lee that all Palestinians in Gaza and 95% of Palestinians in Judea and Samaria have been living under the administration of leaders of their own choosing for quite some time (“Summer Lee calls for ceasefire in Israel and ‘occupied Palestine,’” Oct. 20). Those leaders have rejected multiple Israeli and U.S. proposals that could have led to the establishment of

the first Arab state of Palestine years ago. No agreement has been reached because Israel has the audacity to expect that the future Palestinian state would coexist, peacefully, with the nation-state of the Jews. Rather than negotiate with Israel to set the “secure and recognized” borders called for in the Oslo Accords, Palestinian leaders have chosen the path of violence, even encouraging young children to seek martyrdom (and entry to Muslim heaven) by killing Jews.

It is this indoctrination that has led to the “cycle of violence.”

If Palestinian leaders were working on building a state in which their people could become productive citizens, instead of directing their efforts toward delegitimizing and dismantling the world’s only Jewish state, the average Palestinian would never see any Israeli security personnel.

People concerned about the suffering of Palestinians should not only be calling for ceasefires when Israel, quite correctly, acts to stop attacks on her citizens. Would-be protectors of the Palestinians should be urging Palestinian leaders to seek to resolve the conflict via negotiation and to prepare their people to become good neighbors to the people of Israel.

Toby F. Block Atlanta, Georgia

We invite you to submit letters for publication. Letters must include name, address and daytime phone number; addresses and phone numbers will not be published. Letters may not exceed 500 words and may be edited for length and clarity; they cannot be returned. Mail, fax or email letters to: Letters to the editor via email: letters@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org Address & Fax: Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle,5915 Beacon St., 5th Flr., Pgh, PA 15217. Fax 412-521-0154 Website address: pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

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OCTOBER 27, 2023

21

Life & Culture Pumpkin bread: A simple seasonal favorite — FOOD —

By Jessica Grann | Special to the Chronicle

I

’m so excited that autumn has arrived because it’s time to cook and bake my favorite tried-and-true recipes.

I’ve been eating this pumpkin bread since I was 4 years old, and it is always a staple in our home for the fall holidays and throughout the winter months.

It’s so easy to make that children can manage it on their own, and it freezes beautifully.

While I grew up making the bread version of this recipe, I have finally perfected how to bake it into muffins — and I’ll share that tip below. I love having muffins on hand, especially ones that you can pull out of the freezer as needed. I also make these muffins for our Rosh Hashanah seuda to use in place of fresh pumpkin/gourds.

This is the perfect addition to a lunch box or for a morning or an after-school snack.

The canned pumpkin creates a moist and flavorful dough without the need to add any dairy products.

I get most excited about sharing simple recipes like this one because it checks all of my boxes: one bowl, easy enough for kids to bake and kosher pareve.

I hope that you add this recipe to your family treasure trove.

Ingredients:

3 cups sugar 1 cup oil 4 eggs 2 cups canned pumpkin ⅔ cup water 3½ cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 1½ teaspoons salt 2 teaspoons cinnamon 1 teaspoon nutmeg ½ teaspoon ground ginger

Sift all the dry ingredients, including the spices, together and set aside.

I don’t recommend an electric mixer for this recipe. It’s simpler to do it by hand, and you’ll only have one bowl and a spatula to clean up.

Mix the oil and sugar in a large bowl.

Add the eggs, one at a time, combining each fully into the sugar and oil mixture.

Mix in the canned pumpkin and water and stir until well combined.

Add about a third of the flour mixture, stir well with a spatula, then repeat until the flour is well incorporated. Don’t overmix.

Grease and flour 3 loaf pans if you choose to make the bread version. Fill the pans to 1 inch below the top of the pan.

Alternatively, this makes about 36

 Pumpkin bread

muffins. Use paper or foil cupcake liners for the muffins so that there is no need to grease or flour the cupcake tins — this also makes for easier cleanup. When I make a batch of this batter, I often make one large loaf and use the rest of the batter to bake muffins; just remember that they need to be baked separately because the oven temperature is different for the muffins.

Bread loaves need to be baked at 375 F for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 F and continue baking for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Keep in mind that metal pans can bake bread faster than glass loaf pans.

Cool completely in the pans before turning out onto a platter or cooling rack. If you wrap the loaf well, it will stay fresh and moist for up to 5 days on the counter. These loaves freeze very well if wrapped in plastic wrap. I like to have them on hand to send to family and friends.

Photo by Jessica Grann

For muffins, fill each cupcake liner to a half-inch below the top of the pan. Muffins need to be baked for 10 minutes at 400 F before reducing the heat of the oven to 375 F, then continue baking for about 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

I always suggest keeping an eye on baked goods. I recently got a new oven and it bakes everything so much faster than my recipes call for, so I have to be extra careful.

This is a moist dough, so it won’t appear as dry as a cupcake would. You can pull these out of the tins once they are cool enough to touch, and allow them to cool completely on a wire rack. Pop extra muffins into a resealable bag and store them in the freezer to take out as needed. These keep well for about 2 months in the freezer. Enjoy and bless your hands! PJC Jessica Grann is a home chef living in Pittsburgh.

(The Chagall Musical) Musical )

By Daniel Jamieson and Ian Ross

Oct. 28-Nov. 26 Staged at Rodef Shalom Congregation Directed and Choreographed by Gustavo Zajac Music Direction by Douglas Levine

quantumtheatre.com/vitebsk

22 OCTOBER 27, 2023

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

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As we mark five years since October 27, 2018, we honor the memory of the eleven lives that were taken and continue to support our community healing through reflection, learning and action.

We remember Joyce Fienberg Rich Gottfried Rose Mallinger Jerry Rabinowitz

Jason Kunzman, President and CEO Scott E. Seewald, Chair of the Board Board and Staff of the

Cecil Rosenthal David Rosenthal Bernice Simon

Jewish Community Center

Sylvan Simon

of Greater Pittsburgh

Dan Stein Irving Younger Mel Wax

For more information: 1027healingpartnership.org 412-697-3534 info@1027HealingPartnership.org

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PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

OCTOBER 27, 2023

23

Life & Culture Scoring a great deal for a great cause: Designer Days opens Nov. 1 — LOCAL —

By Toby Tabachnick | Editor

F

or the last 11 months, the staff and volunteers of Thriftique, a resale shop run by the National Council of Jewish Women, have set aside the “best of the best” in anticipation of its five-day Designer Days event.

That means upscale donated clothing and accessories with labels like Burberry, Channel, Gucci and Missoni. And that’s just for starters.

Designer Days begins on Nov. 1 with a VIP preview party and continues with a public sale through Nov. 6 Thriftique, located in Lawrenceville, sells high-quality, new and gently used clothing, shoes, handbags, jewelry and home goods.

The proceeds from its sales provide funding for NCJW programming.

In addition to offering affordable items and sustainable shopping practices, Thriftique provides on-site job training to adults with special needs.

The shop bustles with business all year, but the atmosphere turns downright festive during Designer Days, Patricia Tsagaris, Thriftique’s director said.

“It’s just festive party time,” she said. “And we hope we can infuse the whole (opening) evening with that feeling. I think it will be a nice way for people to take a break from the overwhelming feelings that they’re feeling right now.”

The merchandise is high-end and in excellent condition, Tsagaris said.

“What sets our thrift store apart is the donations we get from our incredible donors,” she said. “It’s this bank of beautiful fashions and accessories that they bestow on us to help us raise money for our programs.

And we have a lot of nice items this year. We save all the best of the best that we collect all year-round, and on Nov. 1 it all comes out and that’s very exciting.”

This will be Thriftique’s 53rd consecutive Designer Days. Debbie Olszewski, Thriftique’s manager, has worked at the store for more than 40 years.

“Designer Days is special because we get people from all walks of life coming in here,” Olszewski said. “And the majority of them come to get those finds that they could not afford to buy at the regular price.”

Olszewski recalled a group of four flight attendants who each year — beginning in the 1980s and continuing until about 2010

p Chanel jacket, $200

p Stuart Weitzman boots, $125

p Vintage silver leather coat, $300

Photos courtesy of Patricia Tsagaris

“Style is individual and all-inclusive; at the same time, it is very diverse and we’re representing it through different fashions and fabrics throughout the store.”

– PATRICIA TSAGARIS — came to Designer Days for a two-day shopping spree.

“They would actually bring their lunch with them,” Olszewski recalled. “And the four of them would buy everything they needed for the year. They would buy suits; they would buy evening dresses. It was just a nice thing.”

Olszewski also remembered Sherri Shepherd, formerly of “The View,” coming to Designer Days one year when she happened to be in town.

“She ended up coming over to the store, buying four fur coats and then showing them on ‘The View’ that Monday,” Olszewski said.

The opening night of Designer Days typically draws hundreds of customers, Tsagaris said, and the bargain hunters “come from all over.”

“We have a lot of New York shoppers, Ohio shoppers, Canadian shoppers,” she said. “Some of them are resellers because they know we have a great market here and they take their items back to New York and resell them and mark them up. We’ve learned to live with that. That’s just the way the economy works with resale. But we feel our prices are great for our market.”

This year’s inventory includes a beautiful array of St. John knits, brightly-colored Pucci garments and “a lot of Louis Vuitton,” she said. The store also has an ample supply of upscale menswear and “an amazing number of boots and shoes,” including Jimmy Choo and Stuart Weitzman.

To make it to the Designer Days floor, all items must be in “near pristine” condition, Tsagaris said. “Gently used is putting it lightly, and some of them are new with tags.”

The inventory, which Tsagaris estimates to number more than 20,000 items, comprises an array of sizes, including petite and plus-size women’s fashion.

Designer Days is NCJW’s biggest annual fundraiser, she said. Last year, the event raised about $100,000 to support the organization’s programs to help improve the lives of women, children, and families.

This year’s Designer Days theme is “There’s a Place for Us,” celebrating diversity and self-expression.

“We really want to accentuate that,” Tsagaris said. “Style is individual and all-inclusive; at the same time, it is very diverse and we’re representing it through different

fashions and fabrics throughout the store.

But it’s really just the way Thriftique as a store always operates. We’re welcoming.

We’re inclusive. We just want you to feel at home when you’re shopping here.

“We’re here if you are buying your first dress and you have changed your lifestyle,” she added. “We want you to know that this is a safe place for you.”

Thriftique also provides clothing vouchers to women and families in financial transition.

When NCJW Pittsburgh launched in 1893, “it was started by women in the Squirrel Hill community wanting to clothe immigrant families that were coming to Pittsburgh,” Tsagaris said. “And we are still doing that work right now. We clothed a family from the Congo last week. It was a mother and her two children and they went out of here with winter coats. So I was thinking those women who were the founders, they would just be so proud of us that we’re still continuing that work.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Life & Culture Supporting Israel was in the cards for Beth El bingo enthusiasts — LOCAL —

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

I

t was an evening that started with the warmth of a sentiment.

Shortly after 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 10, Beth El Bingo co-chair Debbie Goldberg stood at the front of a community room full of regulars and talked about the war unfolding in Israel.

“It’s been a very difficult week for the Jewish community,” she said.

Public support meant as much in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas terrorists as it did when an antisemitic gunman killed 11 worshippers in the Tree of Life building five years earlier, Goldberg told them.

The response was quick.

One person handed co-chair Cheryl Kirschner a $50 check she made out to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Israel Relief Fund.

“Get it to Israel on my behalf,” they told her.

Then, the two co-chairs floated the idea of donating tips — cash from a bingo winner’s payout, which traditionally goes back to Beth El Congregation of the South Hill — to the relief fund, Kirschner said.

 Bingo at Beth El Congregation of the South Hills in 2018

“It really snowballed from there,” Kirschner said.

At the end of each game, the two women would collect $5 in cash, or $10.

“My heart breaks for Israel,” one woman told the two co-chairs as she shared a tip.

One person won a $1,000 jackpot and donated $100.

By the end of the night, 81 bingo

Photo by Toby Tabachnnick

players had donated $620 to the cause, Kirschner said. And not a single one of the players was Jewish.

“That’s what made it remarkable,” Kirschner told the Chronicle. “These were non-Jewish friends and supporters who wanted to help.”

Beth El Bingo is no small affair. The South Hills congregation’s largest fundraiser for the past 40 years, bingo raised some

$120,000 for the congregation last year, Goldberg said.

People come Tuesdays from as far as Ohio to take part, Goldberg said. Some show up two hours before the doors even open.

And, for many of the players, this is the only connection they have to the region’s Jewish community or those affected by the conflict in Israel, Goldberg said.

Pittsburgh’s Federation has raised more than $5 million to date for its Israel Relief Fund, said Adam Hertzman, the organization’s associate vice president of marketing.

“We have been encouraged by the outpouring of support from people all around Pittsburgh, including elected officials, interfaith partners and even countless people with no connection to the Jewish community,” Hertzman said.

Beth El’s $620 donation wasn’t the Federation’s largest, Hertzman said, but it did resonate loudly.

“This wonderful gesture shows just a small part of the incredible solidarity against terrorism and support for people suffering from terror attacks in Israel,” he said. PJC Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

Just Like Pittsburgh, today and always…

Hadassah is about compassion, healing, and life.

Today, and every day, Hadassah is proud to be part of this remarkable and resilient community.

Remember. Repair. Together.

Congregation Dor Hadash, New Light Congregation, Tree of Life * Or L’Simcha

Hadassah Greater Detroit

248.683.5030 | greaterdetroit@hadassah.org | www.hadassah.org/detroit Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. ©2023 Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. Hadassah, the H logo, and Hadassah the Power of Women Who Do are registered trademarks of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc.

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OCTOBER 27, 2023

25

Life & Culture Cancer survivors find healing, and friendship, in dragon boats — LOCAL —

By Justin Vellucci | Special to the Chronicle

N

aomi Herman was in her early 60s when cancer struck.

The Jewish South Hills woman, who grew up in Greenfield, was diagnosed about 17 years ago with breast cancer. When she first received the news, she quickly shot off a group email to her four daughters and three stepdaughters. The subject line? “A hiccup.”

“Hiccups go away eventually — you deal with them and you move forward,” said Herman, today a 78-year-old grandmother of 18 who has retired from a career working in area nonprofits. “I had people who were very supportive and I was fortunate enough to have health insurance.”

After Herman underwent a lumpectomy, as well as chemotherapy and radiation treatments, she was declared cancer-free. Then, one day, one of her children saw a flyer at the gym promoting a water sport looking for breast cancer survivors.

“I don’t swim — and water and me? Not great!” Herman laughed. “But I thought, ‘OK,

Hearts of Steel team photo, 2022

I’ll go and see what this is all about.’”

Within weeks of going to a coach’s home for a spring meeting, Herman was hooked — and

Photo by Paul Selvaggio

she could see herself rebounding from the strain of her cancer journey. In May or June, soon after Herman completed her radiation

regimen, she didn’t have quite the stamina to paddle through a whole ride.

“By August, I could do the whole thing,” she said proudly. “That said to me that I can see the improvement.”

Herman and the other paddlers on Pink Steel — the Steel City Dragons’ breast cancer survivor team, which works out of Fox Chapel Marine — are not alone. There are at least three dragon boating teams in the Pittsburgh area, from Pink Steel to the Paddlefish, which is a group without cancer survivors.

But dragon boat racing, which involves 20 paddlers, a navigator and a drummer, also has become an international movement for breast cancer survivors, with at least 240 breast cancer survivor dragon boat racing communities in 30 countries, from the U.S. and Canada to Israel and Australia.

Antarctica is the only continent without a dragon boating squad, some involved in the sport say.

The sport helps many survivors avoid a complication of breast cancer: lymphedema, painful swelling that sometimes occurs after surgeons remove the lymph Please see Dragon Boats, page 27

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Life & Culture Dragon Boats: Continued from page 26

nodes. New research shows that the upper body exercise entailed in this sport decreases lymphedema risk, and the exertion of the core muscles helps as well.

Herman still remembers her first competitive dragon boating race.

“I don’t remember where it was, but I remember being very nervous, thinking, ‘Am I going to have enough breath to get through this?’” Herman said. “Part of it was not wanting to let my team down.”

Laura Schatzkamer met Herman around 2010, two years after her own battle with breast cancer. It was just about the time she trekked to the marina near her Cheswick home to check out a special Memorial Day weekend practice by Pink Steel.

“They gave me a racing shirt and that was it,” laughed Schatzkamer, a Jewish woman known as “Schmack” to many on the team. “I came on a Saturday and never left.”

Schatzkamer had been teaching at the Community College of Allegheny County since 1991 and at Carlow University since about 2007. She left both, at least in a fulltime capacity, after her first grandchild was born this August.

Schatzkamer, who today paddles as well as coaches, swears by Pink Steel.

“It was the greatest thing, I think, that ever happened to me,” she said. “It changed my life — I like to say, ‘I didn’t think I needed anything.’ But that’s exactly what I needed.”

Sandy Hirsch, who lives in Squirrel Hill and attends services at Congregation Beth Shalom, battled breast cancer shortly before moving to Pittsburgh about 21 years ago. She’s a member

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of the Three Rivers Rowing Association’s breast cancer survivor dragon boating team, Pittsburgh Hearts of Steel. The 47-member team docks its three dragon boats in Millvale; its members, like Pink Steel, practice on the Allegheny River.

Members of the breast cancer survivor team “have this bond that brought us together — the breast cancer — but that’s not the focus,” Hirsch said. “I’m a person that likes being active. And Pittsburgh is known for its three rivers. I love there’s that piece to the dragon boating.”

Hirsch is dedicated to her squad. She trekked to New Zealand this year for the international IBCPC Dragon Boat Festival, which is held every three to four years by the International Breast Cancer Paddlers’ Commission. The festival is an international participatory event for breast cancer paddler teams.

The races weren’t competitive, but the organizers still posted each team’s times.

“We did pretty darn well,” Hirsch said.

Hirsch loves paddling back in Pittsburgh along the Allegheny.

“We see the skyline,” she said. “And it can be really beautiful.”

Herman, now well past her cancer battle, has other physical goals. She plans to walk, unaided and unassisted, to her youngest grandchild’s high school graduation. That child recently started third grade.

Dragon boating, she said, is helping her ensure she’s not slowing down.

“I told one of the girls, ‘I want to do this ‘til I’m 80,’” Herman said. “Well, I’m approaching that. Maybe I can go longer.”

“There’s no reason I can’t continue to do this.” PJC Justin Vellucci is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.

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Celebrations

Torah

B’nai Mitzvah

Striving to be a blessing

Scott Joshua Harinstein will be called to the Torah as a bar mitzvah on Oct. 28, 2023, at 10 a.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation. Scott is the son of Jennifer and Matthew Harinstein. His grandparents are Linda and David Harinstein and Jay and the late Sharyn Berliner. Scott is a seventh-grader at Falk School in Pittsburgh. His favorite activity is hitting the ski slopes with his family and friends. Scott loves being creative and making art projects and building. He also enjoys spending time with his sister, Madison, as well as playing tennis, golf, basketball and lacrosse.

Alex Mestre will become a bar mitzvah on Oct. 28 at Congregation B’nai Abraham in Butler. Alex is a Merit Scholar eighth-grader at Pine Richland Middle School. He has played soccer since he was 3 years old and currently plays for the Riverhounds as well as both soccer and volleyball for PR. Alex also plays the saxophone for the school band and enjoys gaming and creating TikToks, including his own cooking show called “Alex’s Cooking.” In the summer, Alex loves going to Camp Harlam and traveling to visit his family in New York City. Alex’s mitzvah project involves collecting soccer equipment, clothing and cleats from kids who have outgrown theirs.

He then distributes them to kids who do not have them in Latin America. Through his Hebrew school studies at JJEP, Alex has learned the virtues of helping the environment through recycling and the joy of sharing with those who are less fortunate.

Leo Murtazashvili is the son of Ilia and Jennifer Murtazashvili, big brother of Zoe, Eve and Max Murtazashvili, and grandson of Geraldine and the late Stanley Cutler of Wilmington, North Carolina, and Milan Sasic and the late Milena Sasic of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Leo enjoys playing soccer and basketball and is an avid student of world affairs. An eighth-grader at Community Day School, Leo will celebrate his bar mitzvah on Oct. 28, 2023, at Congregation Beth Shalom.

Aidan Pechersky will become a bar mitzvah on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023, at Temple David in Monroeville. Aidan is the son of Brett and Mindy Pechersky, and the brother of Sara Pechersky. He is the grandson of Mark and Debbie Pechersky of Monroeville, and Alan and Joy Firestone of Scranton.

Aidan is a seventh-grade student at Franklin Regional Middle School, where he competes in soccer and swimming and plays clarinet for the band and wind ensemble. He is an avid fisherman who also enjoys golf, tennis, playing the piano and summer camp at EKC.

Birth Gabrielle Dinkin Segal and Evan Griver Segal of Rittenhouse, Philadelphia, are thrilled to announce the birth of their daughter, Sloane Davie Segal on Oct. 7, 2023. Sloane Davie is the granddaughter of Laura and Elliot Dinkin of Squirrel Hill and Delray Beach, Florida, and is also the granddaughter of Jane and Steven Segal of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

Sloane Davie is named after her maternal great-grandfather, David Dinkin. PJC

Mazel Tov! 28

OCTOBER 27, 2023

Rabbi Sharyn Henry Parshat Lech-L’cha Genesis 12:1 – 17:27

T

his week’s Torah portion contains another approach to blessing. In the opening words of Lech L’cha, God tells Avram, “Lech l’cha — go forth, take yourself from your native land and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.” (Gen 12:1 – 2) According to Samson Rafael Hirsch, Avram is given this not as a promise but as a command. “To merit the promised reward, you must live as to be a blessing to the world.”

the word “doleket” untranslated for now).

He wondered: ‘Is it possible that the palace has no owner?’ The owner of the palace looked out and said, ‘I am the owner of the palace.’ So Abraham, our father said, ‘Is it possible that the world lacks a ruler?’ God looked out and said to him, ‘I am the ruler, the Sovereign of the universe.’” (Genesis Rabbah 39:1) In this parable Avram’s noticing creates an opening for God to enter his life.

The phrase “Birah Doleket” is often understood to mean a “palace in flames.”

Avram sees a structure on fire and wonders who is in charge, who will put out the fire. But “Birah Doleket” can also be read as “an illuminated palace.” In this case, Avram notices the palace of the

When things are right and good, we can be generous and openhearted, compassionate.

But when things are hard, when the world feels like it’s on fire — what then?

Being blessed is not the same as being a world aglow, a world shining with light, blessing. While our tradition tells us exactly and he wonders about the source of all how and when to make blessings, it is the beauty. less clear on how to be a blessing. Some In the illuminated palace, the world in of our ancient rabbinic sages offered their all of its glory, it’s easy to see blessing. And, understandings, including Rabbi Moses it’s easy to be a blessing. When things are ben Nechaman (Ramban) who teaches right and good, we can be generous and that “you shall be a blessing” means that openhearted, compassionate. But when You (Avram) will be the blessing by whom things are hard, when the world feels like it’s people will be blessed, saying, “God make on fire — what then? you as Avraham.” Hezekiah ben Manoah Do we wait for someone else to put out the (often referred to as “Chizkuni” after the title fire? Do our hearts harden? of his commentary) links this phrase with In the last two weeks since the massacre Isaiah 19:24: “on that day I will set up Israel of Jews in Israel by Hamas, I have held onto as a blessing in the midst of the earth.” And a line in Debbie Friedman’s Misheberach. In Rabbi David Kimhi (Radak) suggests that the first paragraph of that prayer we pray, with “you shall be a blessing” God is telling “May the Source of strength, Who blessed Avram that his blessings and his fame will the ones before us, help us find the courage be so great that they will spill over to benefit to make our lives a blessing.” I have found those around him. that I need courage to keep my broken We get the idea from these interpreta- heart soft, to safeguard my soul from hatred tions, and from the Torah text itself, that and fear, and to hold tight to my humanity to be a blessing is a good thing, a thing that and compassion.

OCCASIONS DESERVE SPECIAL willSPECIAL benefit both Avram’s descendants and And finally, IATTENTION pray for, and strive to work the entire world occasion…a ... although birth, exactly whatBut for, thea day when there will be only one palace, so is birthday, a graduation, What is a special blessing means is unclear. A midrashan athletic an illuminated palace aglow with beauty, victory, an academic abeing b’naia mitzvah, an engagement, Avram’s that is, how he wasachievement…anything that we will all be blessings to humanity, and that deserves aabout wedding, an backstory, anniversary?

OCCASIONS SPECIAL chosenSPECIAL to receive God’s blessing and toDESERVE be aspecial the world will be at ATTENTION peace. PJC recognition.

Absolutely! source ofisblessing to occasion…a others, provides What a special birth,some But so is a birthday, a graduation, is rabbi of Rodef insight intomitzvah, what it might mean. anRabbi athleticSharyn victory,Henry an academic a b’nai an engagement, Shalom Thisdeserves column is a “There was an a man who better was traveling And there is no place to Congregation. share your joy achievement…anything that a wedding, anniversary? service of the Greater Pittsburgh Jewish from place to place when he saw a Birah special recognition.

Absolutely! than in...

Doleket — a palace in Doleket.” (Let’s leave Clergy Association.

Mazel Tov! Mazel Tov! And there is no better place to share your joy than in...

The more you celebrate in life… the more there is in life to celebrate!

SEND YOUR CELEBRATIONS, MAZEL TOVS, AND PHOTOS TO: The more you celebrate in life… announcements@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org

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Obituaries CHOTTINER: Jean Chottiner (née Steiner) passed away on Oct. 20, 2023, in Plymouth, Michigan. Jean was born in Donora, Pennsylvania, on Feb. 10, 1926, to Harry and Rebecca Steiner. She was preceded in death by her husband of 62 years, Jacob Chottiner, brothers Isadore (June) Steiner and Johnny Steiner, and sister Rose (Harry) Selkowitz.

Jean is survived by her children, Elaine Chottiner, Gary Chottiner (Anne Poirson), Sharon Myatt, Rebecca Chottiner (Andrew Rosenzweig), and grandchildren Ariel Myatt, Diana Rosenzweig and Aaron Rosenzweig. Graveside service and interment were held at Pliskover Cemetery. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com MARCUS: Jack Marcus, on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023. Beloved husband of Patti Gordon Marcus. Loving and adored father of Philip (Michelle Olson) Marcus and Pam (David) Haber. Brother of Rachel Marcus, the late Marvin Marcus and late Essie (late Sherman) Shore. Brother-in-law of Joe (Babe) Gordon, the late Dr. Mark S. Gordon (surviving spouse Nancy Stoller). Zadie of Jordan (Marissa) Haber, Benjamin Haber and Sydney Haber. Great-grandfather of Reese and Cameron Haber. Also survived by nieces and nephews. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Tree of Life Memorial Park. Contributions may be made to Israel Relief Fund, c/o Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, 2000 Technology Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 or Ronald McDonald House Charities, Plaza Building, 451 44th St., Penthouse Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15201. schugar.com ROSE: Carol Elaine Rose, MD, 82 years young, died peacefully Oct. 16, 2023, at Family Hospice in Pittsburgh. Survived by her beloved husband of 63 years, Byron S Rose; her son, Jeffrey and his wife, Carrie; Carol’s five grandsons, Hayden, Tyler, Jacob, Maxwell and Zachary. Also her beloved dog, Gus. Also surviving are her brother, Richard (Linda) Miller, and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, Beatrice and George Miller, and her daughter, Jill. Carol was a force to be reckoned with and that was evident in her decision to go to medical school.

Carol had taken three years of nonmedical study at the University of Miami; she left to start a family and work as a substitute teacher. The other teachers encouraged her to return to school and finish her degree so that she could continue teaching. She reenrolled and thought she might teach science, but started to dream about attending medical school — an aspiration her husband supported. When she graduated in 1978, she was an atypical student; she was 33 when she began medical school, she was married with kids, and she was female — at the time, a rarity with only eight out of 100 students in her class women. “My classmates called me Mama Rose,” said Dr. Rose, who became an anesthesiologist. “I adored the nickname. I really did. I went to medical school because I enjoyed school as much as a I wanted to be a physician.” From there, her family supported her decision to complete her residency in Pittsburgh, which is where they remained, surprising even themselves. She enjoyed anesthesiology so much that she earned a residency at Mercy Hospital and fell in love with Pittsburgh. After spending eight years at South Side Hospital, she worked at UPMC for 19 years. She loved administering anesthesia and working in the operating room. During the later years of her career, she performed anesthesiology duties for patients at Western Psych who were undergoing electroconclusive therapy (ECT). She sees irony in the way her career ended. “I wanted to be a psychiatrist but couldn’t be, and I ended up being an anesthesiologist at a psychiatric hospital. I loved it because you can actually see the patients getting better,” she said. During her career, she was also the first female president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, the president of the Pennsylvania Society of Anesthesiologists, and also was appointed to serve on the state Board of Medicine.

Dr. Rose enjoyed retirement; for fun and community service, she crocheted blankets for Project Linus. Carol will be missed tremendously by those who knew her. Carol’s family would like to thank the St. Clair Hospital Cancer Center for their care. Services were held at Temple Emanuel of South Hills. Interment Mt. Lebanon Cemetery — Temple Emanuel section. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to The Foundation of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, 400 Winding Creek Blvd., Mechanicsburg, PA, 17050 (foundationpamedsoc.org) or a charity of your choice. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com Please see Obituaries, page 30

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Irving Clovsky Marlene Goldstein. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Capt. M. Allan Rudick Irwin Goldston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Isaac Goldstein Harry Green . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Esther Green Shirley L. Hirsch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Max I. Levine, Raschel G. Levine, Edward J. Levine Barbara & Kenneth Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Albert Jacob Love Stanley Marks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Herbert Marks Elaine M. McNeill. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sylvia R. Melnick Maxine & Larry Myer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Diana Z. Myer Theodore Pinsker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Capt. Morris A. Rudick Nathaniel S. Pirchesky. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michael Pirchesky Mrs. Shirley E. Preny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beloved Departed Mrs. Shirley E. Preny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday October 29: William Darling, David Friedman, Miriam Magadof Glantz, Sadie Goldberg, Goldie Gross, Sam L. Herer, Louis Kaufman, Sarah Krimsky, Louis Max Labovick, Diana Z. Myer, Capt. Morris A. Rudick, Philip George Savage, Goldie Schwartz, Mary Smalley, Sara R. Solow, Dr. Marshall Steinberg Monday October 30: Belle Abramson, Leroy E. Broder, Samuel Chaban, Bella Chotiner, Edward Goldstein, Isadore Goodman, Samuel Greene, Regina Labowitz, Sam Markowitz, Jennie Murstein, Minnie Protetch, Samuel Segal, Ben Smolar, Ben Vinocur, Florence H. Weiss Tuesday October 31: Freda S. Barbrow, Sadie Brand, Philip L. Escott, Lottie Haas Fried, Esther Green, William S. Lichtenstul, Mollie Malt, Addie Mayer, Ida Stein Morgan, Dr. Irving Perlmutter, Louis Pollock, Rose Richmond, Anna Snyder, Dorothy J. Spolan, Max Stein, Selma Zober Wednesday November 1: Irving Clovsky, Bessie Cohen, Samuel E. Jacobson, Sarah Levine, Max Lipkind, Doris Lipner, Joseph Mandel, Herbert B. Marks, Grace Miller, Aron Reznick, Lena Schuster, Myra Fern Seder Thursday November 2: Dorothy Bender, Joyce Fienberg, Harold I. Freed, Richard Gottfried, Elizabeth D. Gusky, David Lederman, David Jacob Lerner, Grace Levenson, Anna Roth Levitan, Rose Mallinger, Eugene Marchbein, Benjamin Miller, Freda (Fritzi) Paul, Michael Pirchesky, Esther Portnoy, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil Rosenthal, David Rosenthal, Rose Schultz Saltsburg, Isaac Serrins, Bernice Simon, Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Harry Tepper, Melvin Wax, Jessie S. Yorkin, Irving Younger Friday November 3: Herzl L. Amdur, Louis J. Azen, Wilma Rosenberg Blau, Dorothy Brand, Sally Brenner, Nat M. Cherkosly, Morris Cohen, Pauline Daniels, Gertrude Dektor, Gertrude Frank, Bella Friedman, Ruth A. Gold, Isaac Goldstein, Dr. Robert Grauer, Morris O. Guttman, Anna Lewinter Hirsh, Rose Hoffman, Sylvia Israel, Israel Leff, James Samuel Levine, Albert Love, Benjamin R. Protas, Elizabeth Rome, Samuel Rudick, Ruth Witt Simon, Sidney Wein Saturday November 4: Estherita Cohen, Emanuel Feldman, Solis L. Goldman, Helen Gottesman, Barbara Rom Krum, Abe M. Miller, Geoffrey Roberts

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Obituaries Obituaries: Continued from page 29

SASLAW: William C. Saslaw, on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. Beloved husbandfor 64 years of Joanne Joseph Saslaw. Beloved father of Marian N. Friedman (Gary). Son of the late Max and Estelle Saslaw. Bill graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School in June 1942 and worked in the steel mills to help the war effort before enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1943. He was a World War II veteran and served in Saipan in the Mariana

London sees antisemitic hate crimes jump 1,350% since start of Israel-Hamas war — WORLD —

By Shira Li Bartov | JTA

L

ondon’s Metropolitan Police Service said that antisemitic offenses are up 1,353% in the city since fighting erupted between Israel and Hamas.

Between Oct. 1 and Oct. 18, antisemitic crimes surged from 15 to 218 incidents compared with the same period last year, police said on Friday. Islamophobic crimes went from 42 to 101, an increase of 140%. A total of 21 have been arrested for these categories of hate crimes in that period.

Last week, one man was arrested on

suspicion of defacing posters in the Camden neighborhood that depicted Israelis taken hostage by Hamas. Another man was arrested in connection with Islamophobic graffiti at bus stops in the southern London neighborhoods of New Malden and Raynes Park.

Other reports include abuse targeted at individuals or groups, both in person and online.

Police prepared for tensions to flare in the capital after Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage through Israeli towns, which was quickly followed

by Israel’s pounding of Gaza with airstrikes.

But ramped-up patrols, including police visits to 445 faith schools and 1,930 places of worship, have not stopped hate crimes from spiking across London.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan met with

Islands in the South Pacific as a B-29 bomber radioman and radar signal/communications. Bill received an Honorable Mention from the Pentagon. He was a proud member of the Greatest Generation. After his service, Bill worked as a manufacturers rep for five handbag corporations in New York. Graveside services and interment were held at West View Cemetery of Rodef Shalom Congregation. Contributions may be made to the American Legion, 1000 Liberty Ave., Suite 1607, Pittsburgh, PA 15222. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., family owned and operated for over a century. schugar.com

Muslim and Jewish faith leaders, police officials and community groups to discuss the crisis on Friday.

“I know how the conflict in Gaza and Israel is having a direct impact on London and Londoners,” Khan said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Increasing cases of abhorrent antisemitism and Islamophobia seen in the capital show how important it is for us to be united against hate.”

A pro-Palestinian rally drew about 100,000 demonstrators to the streets of central London on Saturday. More than 1,000 police officers also attended the protest and made 10 arrests for offenses involving fireworks, disruption of public order and assault of an emergency service worker. Five officers sustained minor injuries.

Police blocked protestors from reaching an area surrounding the Israeli embassy, citing security concerns. They referenced the same reason for preventing a Jewish organization, Campaign Against Antisemitism, from displaying images of children abducted by

Hamas on billboard vans near a pro-Palestinian vigil on Oct. 18.

“There will be occasions where we try to avoid groups with strongly opposing views coming into immediate contact with each other,” police said. PJC

p London Mayor Sadiq Khan, center, holds a roundtable with Jewish and Muslim faith leaders and police officials at London City Hall, Oct. 20, 2023.

Photo by Stefan Rousseau/PA Images via Getty Images

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Community Racing to season’s end

Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh’s girls cross country team competed in the 2023 TSTCA Cross Country Championship Meet. The Oct. 19 event enabled 113 1A runners to traverse 5,000 meters at White Oak Park. With an average time of 24:36, Hillel Academy finished seventh of 11. The season concludes on Oct. 26 with PIAA District 7 WPIAL Championships.

p One more run means so much fun.

Photo by Adam Reinherz

Setting up house

Rodef Shalom Congregation’s Home Setup Team collected household items and prepared a residence while welcoming a new family from Guatemala. Volunteers partnered with JFCS Refugee and Immigrant Services.

p Helping hands carry a lot.

Photo courtesy of Rodef Shalom Congregation

Violins of Hope

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra musicians played a selection of restored violins, violas and cellos from the “Violins of Hope” collection during an Oct. 18, sold-out PSO 360 concert.

Nashville native Patrick Crossley drove 12 hours to Heinz Hall the night before the concert, according to organizers, to deliver his own double bass, whose provenance includes original ownership by an Oskar Schindler list survivor.

p Principal Bass Nicholas Myers, right, warms up backstage with Patrick Crossley before the PSO360 concert.

Photo by George Lange

From screen to stage

American-Israeli reality television personality and star of Netflix’s “Jewish Matchmaking” Aleeza Ben Shalom spoke at Bellefield Hall in Oakland. New ticket sales from the Oct. 12 event, presented

by Chabad Centers of Pittsburgh, supported IDF soldiers and victims of terror in Israel.

p Aleeza Ben Shalom, right, speaks with students.

Return the captives

Community members called for the release of hostages during an Oct. 22 gathering at the corner of Forbes and Murray avenues in Squirrel Hill. Approximately 220 people were abducted by Hamas during the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 invasion of Israel.

p Demonstrators hold signs of babies and other captives during the Oct. 22 gathering.

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Photo by Simone Shapiro

PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE

Photo courtesy of Henoch Rosenfeld

Small signs of hope

Temple David religious school students drew pictures for Israeli children through the PJ Library project: Little Hands, Big Hearts.

The campaign sends messages of hope from PJ Library kids in North America to Israeli children.

p Drawing strength from children

Photo courtesy of Rabbi Barbara Symons

OCTOBER 27, 2023

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KOSHER MEATS

• Variety of deli meats and franks • All-natural poultry — whole chickens, breasts, wings and more • All-natural, corn-fed beef — steaks, roasts, ground beef and more Available at select Giant Eagle stores.

Visit GiantEagle.com for location information.

Empire Kosher Chicken or Turkey Franks

3

16 oz. pkg.

49 ea.

save with your Advantage Card Price effective Thursday, October 26 through Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Available at 32

OCTOBER 27, 2023

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