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Candlelighting 4:36 p.m. | Havdalah 5:38 p.m. | Vol. 66, No. 48 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
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Appeal Staying connected with the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle Board chair Evan Stein
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s my fifth decade is well underway, my two boys are growing into their own, our home routine has (finally) settled into a predictable rhythm, and my wife and I are getting better at juggling work, kids and life. Nonetheless, 23% of the way through the 21st century, one can’t help but feel that the rate at which we are reacting to major worldwide existential forces is more frequent than ever. Five years ago, only 10 months after my oldest son was born, our community was rocked by the deadliest antisemitic attack in United States history. Eleven of our brothers and sisters were
murdered that day; they will never be forgotten, and Jewish Pittsburgh will be forever changed. Our community was assaulted and we read about it in the Chronicle. Fifteen months later, we all saw it coming, but almost no one believed it. We came home from work on Friday, March 20, 2020, and many of us still haven’t returned. COVID-19 shut down our schools and offices, obscured our faces in masks and transformed our daily routines. Our community was impacted and we read about it in the Chronicle. When the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to death, we read about it in the Chronicle. When the attack on Ukraine reverberated around the globe, we felt it, and we read about it in the Chronicle. When Nazi-looted artwork was discovered in
the Carnegie Museum of Art; when the Violins of Hope made their way to Pittsburgh; and when Israeli choreographer Barak Marshall graced the Pittsburgh stage, we read about all these relevant stories in the Chronicle. And on Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists launched a brutal, unprovoked attack against Israel on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War — a conflict that continues to unfold — we are reading about it in the Chronicle. At each of these moments, we turn to our kehila (community) for support; to our mishpacha (families) and chevra (friends) for love and validation; to our shuls and rabbis for spiritual direction and guidance; to our JCC for social interaction (and for us, child care). And we turn to the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle to connect us and inform us, with balanced, unbiased and nonpartisan journalism, in print and online.
We are proud of our work. We hope you are, too. Editor Toby Tabachnick
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he last few months have not been easy for our Pittsburgh Jewish community. They have not been easy for us at the Chronicle, either. Last winter, our small but dedicated staff began strategizing our coverage of the trial of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter. The trial began in April with several weeks of jury selection and concluded the first week of August with a sentence of death for the perpetrator of the most violent antisemitic attack in U.S. history. Thanks to an innovative collaboration with the staff of the Pittsburgh Union Progress — the striking workers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — we were able to provide comprehensive daily coverage of the court proceedings and many related community stories. Often, we published two or three articles a day online. A full recap
appeared in our printed paper each week. Those were long days and long months. But our commitment to our readers never wavered. We knew it was essential to not only provide the news in real time, but to create a full record for future generations. Then, just two months later, on Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, brutally slaughtered 1200 Israelis — mostly civilians — and abducted 240 others. As Israel launched its mission to rescue the hostages and put an end to the reign of barbarism, antisemitism surged across the world, including in Pittsburgh. Anti-Israel campus rallies, vandalism and vicious graffiti started popping up like Whac-A-Mole. Our Pennsylvania politicians took sides. Some have staunchly stood with the Jewish community, while others, unfathomably, have seemingly supported the terrorists. Again, the Chronicle is there, providing the coverage of the incidents and rhetoric that our readers need in order to keep themselves safe and vote responsibly. For more than 60 years, the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle has shared our community’s accomplishments and innovations, challenges and
Now more than ever Publisher and CEO Jim Busis
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have a sense of déjà vu as I write this and perhaps you will when you read it. To some extent my message this year is the same as it was last year because the fundamentals of publishing local Jewish news haven’t changed. The internet destroyed the economics of news publishing by transferring almost all the advertising and reader revenue from news publishers to tech giants like Google and Facebook. COVID made things worse. Costs, which had been relatively stable for years, skyrocketed due to renewed inflation. News publishers, including local Jewish new publishers, continue to shrink: reductions, mergers and acquisitions, and closures. And yet we still hang on. We are working on
growing our ad revenue despite the industry conditions and are making progress. However, the biggest opportunity is to continue to grow our donation revenue by asking you, our readers, to make a voluntary donation if you value what we’re doing. Many in the industry believe that voluntary reader support is the only viable path for local news publishing. As 2023 began, there were some things we could predict. We knew that economic conditions would continue to be challenging, but we were buoyed by the terrific response to our 2022 annual campaign — 1,000 of you donating a total of $100,000. In terms of the news we would cover — although most of it is unpredictable — we knew there would finally be a trial of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter, and that we would have to figure out how to cover that each day while still reporting the rest of the news. What we didn’t see coming was a major war for Israel, even though intellectually we always knew that with Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran a major war is a constant threat. For many in the
During this festive, humbling, thank-filled time of year, I find myself reflecting on the teachings of Rabbi Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” We are so fortunate to have many wonderful support systems in our community that were established by the selfless investment of generations before us. We must continue to reinvest in the institutional assets our community relies on. So this holiday season, in my fifth decade on this Earth, with my two handsome sons in their warm beds, and our home routine finally finding its groove, I sleep at night knowing that I am not only for myself: I am for my mishpacha, I am for our kehila, and I am for staying connected with the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. Please join me in supporting the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. PJC
disappointments. We have been a vital resource for news from around your neighborhood and from around the world. We have been with our readers as they celebrated and as they mourned. We are proud of our work and we hope you are, too. If not for you, this newspaper could not continue to thrive. The Chronicle connects us with our Jewish past — both personal and communal — by providing a record of our life cycle events and our institutions’ events. It is a reflection of our views and preferences on everything from religion to politics to the arts. It is a chronicle of where we have been, and why, and how. Likewise, the Chronicle is a link to our Jewish future as generations to come will be able to peruse our own stories, challenges and celebrations online and in print archives. Finally, the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle connects us to each other in the here and now. From calendars of programs that bring us together, to opinions representing our diverse array of thought, to news of individuals making a difference in the Jewish world and society at large, the Chronicle serves as a vital conduit to
create and maintain community. Through our weekly print edition, our expanded online coverage and our social media presence — Facebook, Instagram and Twitter — we strive to meet you where you are. The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle is consistently recognized regionally and nationally for the quality of our content. In 2023, the Chronicle received the Service to Journalism award from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania for its 60 years of outstanding service to the community. It was nominated for 12 Golden Quill Awards and won four. It also won four Rockower awards from the American Jewish Press Association. Our team is committed to serving you. We are committed to bringing you the stories you want, and need, to read. We are committed to finding new ways of keeping you informed, engaged and inspired. Only through your generosity can we continue our mission. Please consider a donation to help us chronicle our community’s legacy for generations to come. PJC
Pittsburgh Jewish community, both individuals and organizations, the war has taken over thoughts, actions and plans. In particular, the need to make donations to Israel and to organizations that support Israel and its people is paramount in many people’s minds. As our readers know, we fully support Israel in its moment of need as well as every other day. And yet, we ask you to consider the vital role we play in the community’s support of Israel, and indeed in the community’s support of every Jewish organization in Pittsburgh. As we go about our daily work, finding, researching and publishing news stories about the people and organizations in our Jewish community, we are informing everyone else about them and building the connections and engagement that they need to thrive. There’s also the issue of antisemitism, a constant in our lives and a threat that has mushroomed since the start of the war. A good part of our work is also finding, researching and publishing news stories about antisemitism,
whether it comes from the far right, the far left, or elsewhere. Once again we ask for your generous support. You count on us to bring you Jewish Pittsburgh, and now, more than ever, we count on you — our readers, our supporters, our fellow community members — to help provide us with the resources we need to continue to serve you every day online and every week in print. Looking around the country, we see that Jewish communities that support their local Jewish newspapers generously have a quality local news product, while those that don’t have either a very poor one or none at all. Although some of you have generously made contributions this year, this is our first and only campaign for 2023. Now more than ever we ask you now to help maintain award-winning, critical news and information about and for the Pittsburgh Jewish community with your contribution. Thank you for reading, caring and doing what you can to help. PJC
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DECEMBER 1, 2023
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Headlines Pittsburgh clergy look to Chanukah for light and hope — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
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n the first night of Chanukah, three blessings are typically said. The first one praises the Ruler of the Universe for “commanding us to kindle the Chanukah lights.” The second prayer offers additional praise for “performing wondrous deeds for our ancestors in those ancient days at this season.” The third blessing, the Shehecheyanu, thanks God for “giving us life, and sustaining us, and enabling us to reach this season.” With the first night of Chanukah set for Dec. 7, Rabbi Elchonon Friedman is fixated on the second blessing. “The miracles we are seeing now are more evident than what the people saw during the time of Chanukah,” said Friedman, rabbi at Bnai Emunah Chabad. Nearly 2,200 years ago, during the time of Chanukah, two miracles unfolded. The first was that a small group of Jewish fighters, led by Judah the Maccabee, defeated a larger Syrian-Greek army. The second miracle was that after the war, a small jug of oil in the desecrated Holy Temple provided eight days of light from the menorah — seven days longer than that amount of oil should have yielded. The Jewish people are a “nation of light and a nation of miracles,” Friedman said. “It’s important during Chanukah to focus on that light. Our greatest blessings come from the light, from the light of Torah and tradition in our lives.” The holiday’s relevancy is “brighter” this year, Temple David’s Rabbi Barbara Symons said. With Israel’s war against Hamas reaching the two-month mark, Chanukah serves
p Local spiritual guides are encouraging people to “look to the light” this Chanukah. Photo by Len Radin via Flickr at https://rb.gy/mjzrpi
as a historic and hopeful lens. “We hope for miracles, and we hope that the few will overcome the many,” Symons said. “We hope that all hostages will be freed and healthy, that Palestinian civilians will have leadership that cares for them and seeks a two-state solution, that Israel will not be targeted by so many other countries and institutions, and that light will come.” Symons will share those messages at Temple David’s religious school, from the pulpit, within her home and as she visits nursing homes and senior living centers. In each setting, she will convey that as the Jewish people return to the story and symbolism of Chanukah, “We should seek light, not only physical light but the light of joy,” she said. Rabbi Shlomo Silverman of Chabad of Carnegie Mellon University is counting down the days until the holiday’s start.
“The greater the darkness, the greater the opportunity for light,” he said. “And this year, with so much going on, we need that extra boost of Chanukah light.” Jewish students on campus often turn to Silverman and Chabad for advice, meals and programs. Given Chanukah’s rich story and ripe messaging, Silverman is eager to celebrate with them. As opposed to years past, school is in session during Chanukah. And, because of the overlap, Silverman is planning holiday-related events at Chabad and around Oakland. He noted Chabad’s recent purchase of a nine-foot menorah. With an ability to completely illuminate, “it will be exciting for students to see the menorah while walking to class on campus,” he said. Chanukah is predicated on miracles, but joy is also an important part of the
holiday, Beth Samuel Jewish Center’s Cantor Rena Shapiro said. Since Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, it’s been difficult for many following news of the war to find joy, but there are sprinkles of hope, she said. Shapiro shares glimmers of optimism through weekly notes to congregants. One message, she said, is to look to Israel and its commitment to simcha (joy). Pop-up weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs and a host of other celebrations have continued despite the war. “If we are feeling down, we need to take a cue from them,” she said. “This is the darkest part of the year. The days are short. There’s darkness in the world, but it’s important to know there is light in Israel, and it’s important to know we can be the light for others.” She implores others to be kind and helpful. “Relatives in Israel have told me they have a lot of light shining in their hearts. We should do the same.” One feature of the holiday is that as Chanukah progresses, the number of candles, and the amount of light, increases. “This should be a model for us and the light in our neshama (soul),” Shapiro said. Jews in Pittsburgh are thousands of miles away from war, but there are ways to help. “We can donate, we can keep going and being the light onto the nations,” Shapiro said. The musician Leonard Cohen used to sing, “There is a crack, a crack in everything/ That’s how the light gets in.” Now is the moment to cling to that lyric and the Chanukah story, Shapiro said. “Our world is fractured, but those cracks will let some light in,” she said. “And with the light is tikvah (hope).” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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Headlines Countering misinformation during Israel’s war with Hamas — LOCAL — By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
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ave you heard about Israel’s purported use of white phosphorus bombs in its war against Hamas? Maybe you’ve read about its intentional targeting of hospitals or read social media posts arguing that the country is an apartheid and/or colonizing state. Or, have you turned on a cable news station and heard talking heads make false equivalencies between innocent Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners who committed violent acts, including murder? Misinformation and lies against the Jewish people and the state of Israel are as old as the blood libel. Of course, when that canard was born in the 10th century, there wasn’t Facebook and TikTok. Kim Salzman, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s director of Israel and overseas operations, is frustrated by some mainstream media outlets. She said she’s troubled when they take Hamas at its word, and she takes particular umbrage at reports of the number of civilians killed by Israel based on information provided by Hamas. “Why doesn’t the media question how many of them were actually terrorists?” she asked. “In Israel, we’re still counting our bodies a month and a half after the attack. So, when they [Hamas] claim they’re all civilians, how do they know that? Why don’t they question that number?” Salzman, who lives in Israel, said that she seeks out information from both Israeli and American sources. Often, she said, the English language sources get information wrong in their attempt to break news. “The best example of this is what happened at the hospital when The New York Times put a headline in its paper within minutes, alleging that Israel had bombed the hospital and 500 people were dead,” she said. [On Oct. 17, The New York Times reported that Israel bombed a Gaza hospital, repeating an unverified Hamas claim. Israel eventually provided proof that the explosion was caused by an errant missile fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group.] Israeli media, she said, verifies information through the Israel Defense Forces, which vets its data before reporting it. Salzman also takes issue with some reporting about the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners. “They completely fail to mention that those released are convicted terrorists,” she said. “Many of them have been charged with attempted murder, some have been caught on camera stabbing Israelis in the head. They’re not innocent Palestinians who have been held in underground tunnels for 50 days with no access to the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) — unlike the PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG
p This photo distributed by the Israel Defense Forces on Nov. 28 shows Israeli troops maintaining positions in the Gaza Strip, amid a temporary ceasefire.
Photo courtesy Israel Defense Forces
Israelis, where it’s children and completely innocent civilians held hostage.” Salzman is attempting to combat the misinformation by meeting with various people and groups, as well as publishing stories online and through news organizations like The Times of Israel. Rabbi Danny Schiff, the Federation’s Gefsky community scholar, is also using education to combat the false narratives
virtually immediate,” Schiff said. “As a result, people believe things that, even when proven to not be true, they still hold on to them.” The Federation scholar takes issue with the idea that Israel is bad at public relations or fails to get its message out. “I think there’s something different going on,” he said. “I think there are those who are simply disinclined to pay attention to
Often, a combination of public and private outreach works best to combat misinformation, including letters to elected officials and letters to the editors of local papers. about Israel being bandied about on social and mainstream media. He recently taught the course “Making the Case for Israel,” offering suggestions on how to counter misinformation. When the class was announced, more than 200 people registered. Schiff recommends that, rather than take published claims about Israel at face value, people do the work of old-school journalists and verify the reports they’re watching or reading by checking sources. If that isn’t done, he said, people are only dealing with innuendo. “That can be extremely damaging in a variety of ways,” he said. “Take it as your responsibility, to the best of your ability, to let people know the truth once it’s been verified.” He doesn’t express much faith in social media to present the truth. Rather, he said, the various platforms encourage people to be set against each other and amplify prejudices. Schiff wrote about social media in his book “Judaism in a Digital Age.” “We live in an age where social media has made the dissemination of gossip, half-truths and sheer falsehoods
the reality of Israel’s message.” Julie Paris, the Mid-Atlantic regional director of StandWithUs, said her organization prides itself on sharing verified facts in a nonpartisan way. “Anyone who comes to us knows they can count on the information we’re sharing to be accurate,” she said. As a result, that information may come out a few minutes later than other sources to ensure the reports are correct. That’s different than some online influencers, like Gigi Hadid, who post something to social media and have their message amplified almost immediately to millions of followers, Paris explained. When Hadid gets something wrong, like she did when she claimed Israel kidnaps, rapes and tortures Palestinians, the message nevertheless is shared repeatedly. “When they try to correct themselves, the message is already out there,” Paris said. “So, we know we’re working against the clock.” While Israel is fighting an existential threat for its existence, Paris said, organizations like StandWithUs are fighting wars on social media, in local communities, on college campuses and high schools, using
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fact-based information that they encourage people to share. Paris urges people to access information they know will be correct and from trusted media sources. The Federation has set up a page on its website entitled “Take Action,” (jewishpgh. org/info/take-action), which provides information countering some of the false narratives about Israel, as well as other tools, such as links for contacting local elected figures and Schiff ’s most recent class. “There seems to be a huge appetite for people who are having conversations with friends, relatives and neighbors to be able to understand, at a relatively simple level, a complex topic,” said Adam Hertzman, the Federation’s marketing director. And while the Federation, through its leadership and Community Relations Council, is talking with politicians and community organizations that may post or publish false narratives, it’s important that constituents reach out as well, Hertzman said. “Narratives can be dangerous,” he said. “All American Jews seem to be blamed for the actions of the Israeli government like all American Muslims are blamed by some people for the actions of Hamas, which is a terrorist organization.” Much of the Federation’s heavy lifting falls on the shoulders of the CRC and its existing relationships. Laura Cherner, CRC director, said that how the council reacts when false narratives are amplified depends on the person or organization. “Nine times out of 10, the recipient knows us and trusts us and understands that we are representing the Jewish community and, therefore, want to elevate our voice and take our concerns seriously,” she said. Often, a combination of public and private outreach works best to combat misinformation, including letters to elected officials and letters to the editors of local papers. There’s a difference, Cherner said, between misinformation and willful antisemitic messaging and tropes. The latter should be reported to the police and the Federation. The Anti-Defamation League, she said, can be a useful resource for activities and rhetoric that cross the line into antisemitism. When it comes to possible false narratives in the media, “We always have to be wary about the source of information,” Schiff said. “Israel is a democracy with multiple factcheckers looking into what’s going on and many lawyers who track the activities of the IDF,” he said. “Israel is not well served lying to the public. The same cannot be said for terrorist groups who are totalitarian and secretive in their operations. So, to pretend, as it seems to me much of the world does, that you should take these two sides as if they are equally credible is to fundamentally misunderstand the structure of where the information is coming from. And that is highly problematic.” PJC David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. DECEMBER 1, 2023
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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, DEC. 1 Families with young children are invited to join Rodef Shalom Congregation for a Hanukkah Shabbat, a pre-Shabbat playdate, services and dinner to celebrate Shabbat. $5. 4:30 p.m. 4905 Fifth Ave. rodefshalom.org/shabbatwithyou. q SUNDAY, DEC. 3 Get into the Chanukah spirit with Chabad of Squirrel Hill by baking Chanukah gelt crinkle cookies to take home and to share. Also, enjoy a special Chanukah balloon show. 3 p.m. $10/child. 1700 Beechwood Blvd. chabadpgh.com. Join Classrooms Without Borders on Zoom for “A Daughter’s Kaddish” with author Sarah Birnbach in which she recounts her yearlong odyssey to persevere through an unfamiliar world of Jewish prayer and honor her father. 7 p.m. cwbpgh.org/ event/a-daughters-kaddish-with-author-sarahbirnbach/?mc_cid=3e7160b202&mc_eid=300cbb1627. Join Chabad of Squirrel Hill for a meaningful and uplifting evening on the new year of Chassidut. Together, we will say l’chaim, share inspirational words about the impact of Chassidism, and sing lively Chassidic melodies led by the Davidson brothers and accompanied by local musicians during a Men’s farbrengen. $10. 7:30 p.m. chabadpgh.com. q SUNDAYS, DEC. 3, 10 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. Join Chabad of South Hills for Babyccino, a chic meet for moms and tots. Three classes of Chanukah delight for ages 0-3. Location given upon registration. 11:15 a.m. chabdsh.com/babyccino. q SUNDAYS, DEC. 3 – 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 MONDAY 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-jewish-philosophy/2023-10-16. Join Rodef Shalom Congregation for CutTime Simfonica, a free program with host Rick Robinson and musicians from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The program includes vignettes from Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Ellington, as well as original, funky-romantic pieces composed by Robinson. 7 p.m. Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave. rodefshalom.org/cuttime. q MONDAYS, DEC. 4 – DEC. 18 Join Congregation Beth Shalom for a weekly Talmud study. 9:15 a.m. For more information, visit bethshalompgh.org. q MONDAYS, DEC. 4 – 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. 9:30 a.m. $225. Zoom. jewishpgh.org/event/torah-2-2/2023-10-09. q TUESDAYS, DEC. 5, 12, 29 Israeli politics is at the center of many critical Jewish conversations. But how does the Israeli political system
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really work? In the Israeli Political System, Rabbi Danny Schiff will describe how the Knesset functions, how elections are handled, and how the courts, the laws and the demographics make Israel so politically unusual. Noon. $55. jewishpgh.org/series/the-israelipolitical-system.
q SUNDAY, DEC. 10 Join the Joint Jewish Education Program for Latkepalooza. Enjoy games, crafts, prizes, doughnuts and latkes. $5 per person or $20 per family at the door. 10 a.m. Congregation Beth Shalom, 5915 Beacon St. jjep.org.
q WEDNESDAY, 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.
Join Chabad of Squirrel Hill for the Squirrel Hill Chanukah Walk and Menorah Lighting Festival. Enjoy a variety of activities, including cookie making, a dreidel craft, cards for Israeli soldiers, a juggling show and more. The walk culminates with a Grand Menorah Lighting Festival complete with a fire show, ice-carved menorah, photo booth and hot latkes and doughnuts. 2:30 p.m. Corner of Beacon Street and Murray Avenue. chabadpgh.com.
Join Chabad of South Hills for a pre-Chanukah Legoland and build your own light menorah, enjoy a mystery Maccabee quest, mega-dreidel showdown, glow nut lab and hot dinner. 4:15 p.m. $13/child. chabadsh.com/lego. 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. Join Chabad of Pittsburgh for The World of Kabbalah, a six-week JLI course. Discover the core mystical and spiritual teachings of Kabbalah and their relevance to everyday life. You’ll learn to think like a Jewish mystic and gain powerful insights to fuel deeper selfunderstanding and personal growth. Curious why there’s so much buzz around Kabbalah? Discover it for yourself by attending The World of Kabbalah with Rabbi Yisroel Altein. 7:30 p.m. $90/course. 1700 Beechwood Blvd. chabadpgh.com. q WEDNESDAYS, DEC. 6 – 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 WEDNESDAYS, DEC. 6- MAY 15 The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh virtually presents two Melton courses back-to-back: “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 THURSDAY, DEC. 7 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. Rodef Shalom Congregation. rodefshalom.org. Join Chabad of the South Hills for the annual South Hills Lights Chanukah festival. Enjoy a car menorah parade, live music, an 8-foot LED robot, photo booth, fire truck gelt drop, latkes, doughnuts and grand menorah lighting. 4:30 p.m. Free. 1801 Dormont Ave., Dormont pool parking lot. chabadsh.com/lights.
Join Classrooms Without Borders in partnership with The Collaboratory Against Hate and the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh for the premiere of the film “Irena’s Vow.” 3 p.m. McConomy Auditorium, 5032 Forbes Ave., 15213. cwbpgh.org/event/irenas-vowcommunity-film-event/?mc_cid=3e7160b202&mc_ eid=300cbb162. q TUESDAY, DEC. 12 Join Chabad of Squirrel Hill for a Menorah Car Parade. Drive through the streets of Pittsburgh with menorahtopped cars and music. Share the joy and spread the Chanukah light. 4:45 p.m. JAA parking lot, 200 JHF Drive. chabadpgh.com. Join Chabad of Squirrel Hill for a Schenley Plaza Menorah Lighting as they light the menorah on the sixth night of Chanukah. Celebrate with live music, latkes and doughnuts and a juggling show. 5:45 p.m. Schenley Plaza, outdoor tent. chabadpgh.com. q WEDNESDAY, DEC. 13 Enjoy an hour of nourishment for the mind, body and soul and explore words of wisdom for the month of Tevet at Chabad of Squirrel Hill’s Ladies Lunch and Learn. $18. Noon. chabadpgh.com.
Classrooms Without Borders scholar Avi Ben-Hur presents an update on Israel with analysis into the war as it unfolds. 2 p.m. cwbpgh.org/event/israelupdate-with-avi-ben-hur-12/?mc_cid=3e7160b202&mc_ eid=300cbb162. Women are invited to join Chabad of Squirrel Hill on Zoom for a Rosh Chodesh gathering and to hear words of wisdom on the month of Tevet. 7:30 p.m. chabadpgh.com. q SUNDAY, DEC. 17 The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh presents Advanced Community Active Threat Training, a four-part course that will address: The mind of the active shooter, predator vs. prey, situational awareness and survival mindset, basic self-defense techniques, weapons awareness and disarming techniques. Reality based training. 2 p.m. Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave. jewishpgh.org/event/advanced-catt. q WEDNESDAY, DEC. 20 Join the Squirrel Hill AARP for their holiday meeting and party. There will be bingo with prizes, a Sarris gift basket and special refreshments in addition to the meeting. 1 p.m. Rodef Shalom Congregation, Falk Library. For more information contact President Marcia Kramer at 412-656-5803. q SUNDAY, DEC. 24 Join Shaare Torah and Poale Zedeck for United in Laughter, an evening of achdut and comedy to support United Hatzalah, featuring international Jewish comedy sensation Eli Lebowicz. $72. 5:30 p.m. Shaare Torah social hall, 2319 Murray Ave. shaaretorah.net/ event/comedy2023. q THURSDAYS, JAN. 11-FEB. 8 Bring your lunch and join Cantor Toby Glaser for Lunch Time Liturgy to look at the prayers of Kabbalat Shabbat, the opening psalms and prayers of the Shabbat evening service. $54. 1 p.m. Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave. rodefshalom.org/lunch. PJC
Join the Chronicle Book Club!
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he Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle invites you to join the Chronicle Book Club for its Dec. 17 discussion of Senior Staff Writer David Rullo’s new book, “Gen X Pittsburgh: The Beehive and the ’90s Scene.” The discussion will take place in person at noon at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh in Squirrel Hill. A Zoom link will also be available. About the book: “Beginning in the early 1990s, Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood began to transform from the post-industrial morass it had been suffering for the last few decades. Artists began to rent empty apartments, what were once shot-and-a-beer bars became hip dive bars and entrepreneurs found inexpensive real estate to follow their visions. It was in this landscape that the Beehive Coffeehouse began to attract a new '90s alternative crowd. The South Side Beehive ... was where the night often began, and weekends ended.” Come meet the author and hear more about this thoroughly engaging story.
Join Mayor Ed Gainey for a Downtown Menorah Lighting and enjoy live music, latkes and doughnuts. 5 p.m. City County Building, 414 Grant St., 15219. chabadpgh.com.
Your Hosts:
q SATURDAY, DEC. 9 Join Chabad of South Hills for a latke cook-off. Sixth and eighth graders will compete for the title of “latke masters.” Enjoy a doughnut bar, get special swag and write letters to the soldiers. 6:30 p.m. $10. Address given upon registration. chabadsh.com/latke.
What To Do
Email: Contact us at drullo@pittsburgh jewishchronicle.org, and write “Chronicle Book Club” in the subject line to register. Specify if you will be attending in person or would like to participate online. Registration closes on Dec. 14. Happy reading! PJC — Toby Tabachnick
David Rullo, Chronicle senior staff writer Toby Tabachnick, editor of the Chronicle
Buy: “Gen X Pittsburgh: The Beehive and the '90s Scene.” It is available at most local book stores, from online retailers, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and through the Carnegie Library system.
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Headlines Chabad of South Hills celebrates a quarter-century in Pittsburgh’s suburbs — LOCAL — By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
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hen Rabbi Mendy Rosenblum and his wife, Batya, first decided to open Chabad of the South Hills, Steve Jobs was nine years from releasing the first iPhone; Michael Jordan hadn’t yet retired for a second time; Netflix had just started shipping DVDs to customers through the mail and “Titanic” was the hottest movie in the country. “Ultimately,” the rabbi said, reflecting on what brought him to the South Hills, “God has a plan for everybody.” Rosenblum said that after getting married and spending a year studying at a Kollel, he moved back to Pittsburgh intending to set up a Chabad center. Where that center would be located, though, wasn’t as clear. “Growing up in Squirrel Hill, that was my whole world,” he said. “Monroeville could have been next to Mt. Lebanon for all I knew.” The couple spent the next three years in Squirrel Hill working. Rosenblum was a sort of “traveling rabbi,” visiting various locations and demonstrating Jewish traditions, such as matzah-making or selling outdoor menorahs for public displays. His wife worked at the Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh while serving as matriarch to a growing family. All the while, Rosenblum was researching what communities might be best served by a new, suburban Chabad house. Eventually, he narrowed his search to two neighborhoods: Fox Chapel or Mt. Lebanon. Then, while hosting an event at the Children’s Museum, a group of families expressed interest in having a Chabad center in the South Hills. The fateful die was cast and, by 1998, a decision was made. “We set up a meeting with that group and a few others and, literally, we moved out here [the South Hills],” he said. “We knew three or four families. No one said they would fund us or give us anything. It was a dream.” Showing what Mary Tyler Moore’s Lou Grant would call “spunk,” the Rosenblums started offering Shabbos and holiday services in their basement. They also started a Hebrew school — which Rosenblum recognized might have made Temple Emanuel of South Hills and Beth El Congregation of the South Hills, the two established congregations in the area, feel anxious. “The first thing I did was go and visit Rabbi Mark Mahler [of Temple Emanuel] and Rabbi Neal Scheindlin [of Beth El] and talk with them, and tell them our goal wasn’t to compete, and that I thought it would be beneficial for the whole community,” Rosenblum said. A relationship was born from those initial conversations and, Rosenblum said, the three rabbis began studying together and continued to do so for several years. The first year, Rosenblum said, Pittsburgh’s PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG
p Chabad of the South Hills often takes its messages of Judaism and community outside of its walls. Mussie Rosenblum (left) has worked as part of the center’s team for years. Photo provided by Chabad of South Hills
“We want Judaism to be enriched in the world and we want more Jews to experience being Jewish. That’s the goal.” – RABBI MENDY ROSENBLUM first suburban Chabad center rented a small office on Cedar Boulevard. “We had 10 kids in our Hebrew school and a nice little shul in our basement with kiddush in our dining room,” he said. “It was a special year.” Realizing the need to get out of the basement, Rosenblum next rented a place on North Wren Drive, sharing space with a dermatologist. Despite Chabad having a different set-up than most congregations — no membership dues, an open policy on attending programs and events — the center continued to grow. In 2002, Rosenblum again moved to a larger location at the Bower Hill Swim Club. Chabad stayed in that space until 2007 when it moved to its present location on McFarland Road. Rebbetzin Batya Rosenblum said she grew up with the idea of spreading the joy of Judaism but was nervous when her husband first approached her with the idea of moving to the suburbs. “In Squirrel Hill, you have everything in walking distance,” she said. “With my first son, I was able to put him in a stroller and go to Giant Eagle or wherever I needed. It [the South Hills] was definitely more spread out than Squirrel Hill and further from the epicenter of Jewish life.” Realizing that other Chabad emissaries were living in conditions further from Jewish community centers, Batya Rosenblum knew the South Hills presented an opportunity, especially since she could still send her children to the Yeshiva School. In the early years, she said, she started a Mommy and Me program hosted in people’s homes and backyards. She and her husband supported each other in the center’s nascent days and continue to do so, she said.
“If I’m having a woman’s event, he’s encouraging me and helping in any way possible, and it’s the same thing when he’s
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teaching a class,” she said. The impact of the center in the community, she said, is apparent. “When people see Jewish children walking around in the streets of the South Hills with a kippah and they see Jewish girls walking around in beautiful, modest clothes on Shabbat, that speaks louder than anything else,” she said. “It’s Jewish pride on display in the most beautiful way.” David Friedlander moved to the South Hills in the mid-1980s from Squirrel Hill, where he had been a member of Congregation Poale Zedek, an Orthodox congregation. When he moved to the suburbs, he attended both Beth El and Temple Emanuel but wanted to find something closer to what he experienced growing up. He said his wife, Cindy, told him of this little Orthodox shul she had found in the basement of a professional building near St. Clair Hospital. “She said, ‘Dave, I found this place I think you’re going to be comfortable with.’ I thought, ‘I’m not really interested,’ but she said, ‘Give it a shot, you’ll really like Rabbi Rosenblum,’” he said. “We ended up going and it felt like home. To say I fell in love with it is an understatement.” The Friedlanders became involved with Please see Chabad, page 22
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Headlines Rabbi Stanley Savage, downtown spiritual guide and wrestling savant, dead at 74 — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
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tanley Savage, an anachronistic rabbi whose personality and profession treated congregants to a tag team of ropy puns and sincerity, died on Nov. 17, two years after receiving a cancer diagnosis. The spiritual guide, who approached his sanctuary with a wrestler’s reverence for a squared circle, was 74. Years before Savage became known for dropping puns and malapropisms in downtown Pittsburgh to businesspeople, passersby and congregants of Beth Hamedrash HaGadol–Beth Jacob Synagogue, he was rabbi at Congregation Ahavath Achim in Carnegie, New Light Congregation in Squirrel Hill and Tree of Life Congregation in Uniontown. The posts, said his nephew Rabbi Yossi Azose, were “off the beaten path.” But like the pulpits, so was Savage — a Talmudist who kept kiddush cups beside life-sized stuffed giraffes, cardboard cutouts of wrestlers and the Three Stooges adjacent to volumes of Jewish wisdom, in a home he called “The Batcave.” Savage was the son of Holocaust survivors, Sam Savage and Jolan “Yetta” Savage, and the oldest of three children. He grew up in Pittsburgh, attended high school in Baltimore, studied at Brooklyn College, was ordained at Yeshiva Gadol (Talmudical
p Rabbi Stanley Savage
Photo courtesy of Ira Frank
Institute of Pittsburgh) and occupied odd jobs, such as being a shomer (guardian of dead bodies), before becoming a congregational rabbi. Whether behind a lectern or in the passenger car of a New York-bound Amtrak train (Savage was afraid of flying), he was always the main event, his brother-in-law Leslie Unger said: “There was no one he couldn’t talk to. My family would say he could hold a conversation with a tree.” Savage could (and did) spend hours talking baseball, hockey, football and wrestling. Any and every topic was “worthy of a good sermon,” said Eugene Savage, the rabbi’s brother.
Whatever his interest, he had a knack for connecting it to “that week’s Torah reading,” according to Unger. Sprinkled within the rabbi’s speeches and conversation were one-liners and other Borscht Belt bits. There was the one about the receding hairline, which began with Savage asking, “What do you call a thousand rabbits moving backwards?” Then there was the joke about Gladys Done, a woman who walked into shul, sat next to a sleepy congregant and introduced herself at the end of the rabbi’s sermon. When the rabbi finished speaking, the woman said, “I’m Gladys Done.” The person next to her replied, “So am I.” Savage’s signature move wasn’t just telling a quick joke but keeping a dozen more in his back pocket, Azose said. Less a gimmick than a singular motif rendering him dissimilar from most people he met, Savage had “Abrahamic tendencies,” Unger said. He constantly visited the sick, regaled any who would listen, and employed gags and witticisms best suited for the 1950s. His banter wasn’t only of another era, but so were his practices. He didn’t use a cellphone until the last year of his life. He never operated a computer nor learned to type. When he penned an obituary, which he literally did, after the legendary wrestler Bruno Sammartino died, Savage scrawled the words on synagogue stationary then hand-delivered them to the Pittsburgh
Jewish Chronicle office. “Stanley was a step out of pace both in time and place,” said his ex-wife Fran Conway, who faithfully cared for him during the final two years of his life. Superficially, that fact and the other oddities of Savage’s life were perplexing. “Who calls someone their ex-wife and best friend?” Unger asked. “Stanley does.” To those who benefited from his love and care, Savage’s storyline makes sense, especially the ending, said his nephew Rabbi Jon Savage. Stanley Savage died during the Hebrew month of Kislev. Before the month’s completion, the Jewish holiday of Chanukah is celebrated. “It’s the holiday of light. And Uncle Stanley brought light to the city,” Jon Savage said. Five years earlier, Stanley Savage offered a similar tribute upon the demise of a Pittsburgh icon. “In this world, you will meet and see few people like Bruno Sammartino. This city, state, country and planet had a special soul amongst us while he was in the land of the living. To be eulogized the way he was, brought tears to all the attendees at his funeral service,” Savage wrote after the wrestler’s death. “In this world and in the heavenly spheres that he now occupies, his sense of humor and caring for others will forever stick with us.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
JCBA grows, welcomes new leaders — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
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lmost four years after taking the helm of the Jewish Cemetery and Burial Association of Greater Pittsburgh and helping grow the organization in stature and scope, Barry Rudel is stepping down. Effective Jan. 1, Kelly Schwimer will succeed the retiring Rudel as executive director. Schwimer, the operations manager at JCBA, praised Rudel and the organization’s board for enabling meaningful and sustainable development. “In 2020, when Barry came on board, we had 11 cemeteries under our purview. Now, we’re at 43,” she said. Rudel said he was hired “on the first day of the pandemic to strengthen the existing JCBA.” According to financials, that charge has been largely accomplished. In the fiscal year ending June 2020, JCBA had net assets of $751,008. That sum has grown every year since. According to tax filings published by ProPublica, JCBA’s net assets in the fiscal year ending in June were $3,738,145. Developing a “large unrestricted endowment” has been successful, but the organization has also increased the number of cemeteries under 8
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p Barry Rudel
Photo courtesy of Barry Rudel
its care, Rudel said. “Some of the cemeteries have gone from a deplorable condition to a good condition. And we’ve been able to add so much dignity to these places.” Of particular note, Rudel added, is there are “no more abandoned Jewish cemeteries in Western PA.” The retiring staffer credited the tireless work of JCBA’s board and its president, Harvey Wolsh. “Few boards are as important to an organization as ours is,” Rudel said. “Most of our gifts are new gifts. Our staff is effective, but we’re rather small, so our board members have had a great impact in building our donor base.”
p Kelly Schwimer
Photo courtesy of the JCBA
Schwimer (a former Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle staffer) said that beyond her and Rudel, the JCBA team includes Jennifer Primack as operations manager and Phyllis Weinkle and Lauren Friedman as part-time administrators. The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh has also served an important role, but much credit goes to the lay leaders who’ve demonstrated why the JCBA matters to the community, Rudel said. JCBA was created in 1992 following the merger of the United Jewish Federation Cemetery Association and the Hebrew
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Burial Association of Pittsburgh, which was originally called “Chesed Shel Emeth of Pittsburg,” according to JCBA materials. The surrounding cemeteries represent one of the “few permanent aspects of our Jewish landscape that has to be maintained in perpetuity,” Rudel said. “Our cemeteries cannot be downsized, merged, sold or abandoned. They are here for us to maintain and sustain.” The community recognizes that halachic and moral mandate, Schwimer said. “People understand that the one sure thing in life is that we are all going to die,” she said. “So when one thinks about the care of a cemetery and the care of our dead, the expectation is that both should be treated respectfully in perpetuity.” To date, the community has built JCBA’s endowment such that it can sustain 12 cemeteries that have no funds, according to Rudel. “That’s a success for the entire community,” he said. As needs grow, Rudel said, the community can rest assured that Schwimer and incoming board President Skip Grinberg will build on past successes. “Our future is even brighter with this top leadership,” he said. PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG
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Headlines Antisemitic, anti-Israel vandals strike Squirrel Hill and Oakland — LOCAL — By Toby Tabachnick | Editor
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very few days, Dovid Jacobowitz and some friends plaster dozens of posters depicting the hostages abducted by Hamas throughout the Squirrel Hill business district. Within 24 hours, they are all torn down, he said. “It doesn’t matter how well we glue them or how high we put them or anything like that — they get ripped off,” said Jacobowitz, who grew up in Israel and moved to the United States in 2010 after he completed service in the Israel Defense Forces. “We even saw people designing missing dog signs that look exactly like the missing children signs — the same logo, same colors, same everything. They just rip them off or they deface them every day.” It happened again on the night of Nov. 27. Approximately 50 posters that Jacobowitz and others hung the previous day — in advance of a neighborhood vigil supporting the children and adults still held captive in Gaza — were ripped down. But this time, passersby took fairly clear photos of the vandals.
p Two individuals took down posters of the Hamas hostages in Squirrel Hill on Nov. 27 Photo courtesy of Julie Paris
p Antisemitic graffiti on the raiing of a bridge in Oakland Photo courtesy of Shawn Brokos
Shawn Brokos, director of community security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, said that having photos of the perpetrators is important, regardless of whether their activity is considered criminal under the law. “From a security perspective, the concern goes beyond tearing down flyers,” Brokos said. “Who are these individuals doing it? Are they associated with an anti-Israeli or anti-Jewish group that we should be aware of? From my perspective, it’s about intelligence gathering. What is the motivation of the individuals doing it? Can we get them identified?” Brokos said she reported the incident to 911 as it was occurring, but by the time police
arrived, the vandals were gone. She has shared their photos with law enforcement. The following day, Jacobowitz and his friends hung twice as many posters. While he expects those to be removed as well, Jacobowitz said he will keep posting them. “We will hang them until all the hostages are home,” he said. His motivation is simple: to raise awareness. “So that people are aware of what happened, that babies got kidnapped from their houses to be bargaining chips for terrorists,” he said. “I think that people need to know about that. And it’s very important that people know what’s happening because otherwise they might get
the wrong idea and think that it’s a land dispute or some other argument, but it’s not. It’s people that murder parents and then kidnap the baby and then demand to get terrorists in return, as if it was a commodity. And that’s just not tolerable. We think that people should be aware of it. Hanging the signs is one way to do it.” Brokos said the Federation receives reports of antisemitic or anti-Israel activities every day. Last weekend, she said, someone set fire to a Squirrel Hill resident’s We Stand With Israel sign. And there were two reported incidents of graffiti: The phrase “Free Palestine” was painted on a street sign in Squirrel Hill, and the words “Good Jew = Dead Jew” were written on the railing of the bridge in Oakland that leads to Phipps Conservatory. The Federation is working with the city’s graffiti task force to determine who is responsible for the graffiti, Brokos said. She urges community members to contact the Federation (412-992-5229) or Zone 4 of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police (412-422-6520) if they see people ripping down hostage posters or vandalizing We Stand With Israel signs, or if they have information about the people in the photos. PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsurghjewishchronicle.org.
Many signers of letter calling for ceasefire, and thanking Summer Lee, are anonymous — LOCAL — By Toby Tabachnick | Editor
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bout 150 individuals, identifying as “Jewish community members from across Pittsburgh,” signed an open letter last week asking the Biden administration and Congress to call for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The letter, which was circulated in a press release from a group calling itself “Pittsburgh Jewish Community,” and also in a press release from Rep. Summer Lee, thanked Lee for “leading the calls in Congress for a ceasefire and the safe return of hostages.” Shortly after Hamas’ invasion of Israel, Lee, along with four other progressive members of Congress, introduced a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in “Israel and occupied Palestine.” She continues to call for a ceasefire on social media and has accused Israel of human rights violations. As published, of the letter’s 152 signatories, 58 were either “Anonymous” or failed to include a surname. The sign-on form for the letter does not require a signatory to identify as Jewish or to confirm Pittsburgh residency. Sam Wasserman, a leader with the group Pittsburgh Jews for Ceasefire and the former communications director of incoming County Executive Sara Innamorato, said that it was not necessary to confirm the signers’ Jewish identities, nor their residency, because the letter “has just been circulated amongst Jewish Pittsburghers ourselves. So, someone 10
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p Rep. Summer Lee
Photo courtesy of summerlee.house.gov
to get the letter had to have been sent this by someone else who was Jewish in Pittsburgh to get the sign-on.” “People submit a Google form,” Wasserman added. “We look at it, we check it, we look at the name and we have been very familiar with all of the names of the people that have signed on.” The letter states that “[a]s we enter the second month of the Israeli government’s deadly airstrikes and brutal siege, the number of Palestinians killed has passed 10,000 including over 4,300 children with countless more trapped and buried under rubble. Over 240 Israeli hostages remain in Gaza — and every day the airstrikes continue putting their lives and safe return at greater risk.”
The total number of those killed in Gaza since Israel launched its response to the Hamas attack is unverified, however. The numbers released by the Gaza Ministry of Health do not distinguish between combatants and noncombatants, and there is much evidence that shows Hamas terrorists fighting in civilian clothing. Moreover, according to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Hamas videos show children undergoing military training with heavy weapons. In the past, Hamas has included in its casualties those killed by errant Hamas or Islamic Jihad rockets. The letter does not mention Hamas and does not assign responsibility for the attack on Israel. Asked why Hamas is not mentioned in the
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letter, Wasserman responded: “So we focus very much on actionable items right now, which includes the release of hostages — which we put three different times in the letter. It’s very important to us that we talk about peace, about the path forward and about bringing the hostages home.” “We have an obligation right now to push for peace and to push for the only thing that has actually brought hostages back, which is ceasefire, diplomacy and negotiation,” he added. Just one local Jewish spiritual leader signed the letter — Keshira haLev, a Hebrew priestess who runs Kesher Pittsburgh. Many Jewish clergy have expressed “frustration and anger” with Lee over her stance on the war. In an Oct. 31 open letter to Lee, 40 local rabbis and cantors from every stream of Judaism wrote: “Rep. Lee is one of only 10 members of Congress who voted against a House Resolution expressing America’s solidarity with the State of Israel and the Israeli people in the aftermath of the October 7th wave of Hamas terror. “Worse yet, she is one of only 17 members of the House supporting a grotesque resolution which does not mention Hamas terrorism, denies Israel the right to defend itself by calling for an immediate ceasefire while Hamas still holds more than 200 hostages, and asserts a false equivalence between victims of savage terrorist butchery and the tragic deaths of those Palestinians whom Hamas uses as human shields while Israel exercises its responsibility to defend its citizens.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG
Headlines — WORLD — Israeli, Polish national soccer teams hold unauthorized moment of silence
Israel’s under-21 men’s national soccer team took the field on Nov. 17 for the first time since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that killed and injured thousands and brought much of Israeli life, including sports, to a standstill, JTA.org reported. The Union of European Football Associations, Europe’s football governing body, had reportedly rejected a request to hold an official moment of silence before the match between Israel and Poland. The two teams were facing off in a qualifying match in Lodz, Poland, for the 2025 European Under-21 Championships. The teams ignored UEFA and held a moment of silence anyway. For the first minute of the game, players on both teams remained in formation and did not move as the clock began to run. The stadium was quiet, too.
Illinois tax credit program for private schools set to end, upsetting Jewish advocates
For the last five years, thousands of Jewish children in Illinois and their families have taken advantage of a state program that lets them defray the cost of private Jewish schools, JTA.org reported. Now, those families could see their payments rise after state lawmakers allowed the tuition tax credit program to expire, with little clarity
about whether it could resume in the future. The demise of Illinois’ “Invest in Kids” program points to deep and lasting political divides over the propriety of redirecting public funding for education toward private and religious institutions. The lapse of the program is drawing criticism from Jewish leaders in the state, including some who initially did not go to bat for it. “There are a wide variety of opinions on the use of these kinds of programs and public funding for private schools, which was the reason we stayed out,” said Dan Goldwin, executive director of public affairs at the Jewish United Fund, Chicago’s Jewish federation. But he said now that he’s seen the benefits, he’s feeling “profound disappointment on behalf of a whole bunch of families and students” about the program’s end. Invest in Kids, launched in 2018, has given private donors hefty tax breaks if they contribute to a private school scholarship fund for children from low-income families.
Police detain dozens of proPalestinian demonstrators for disrupting Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
Police detained 34 anti-Israel protesters during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan, New York Jewish Week reported. The activists disrupted the procession in Midtown and were forcibly removed by police. Video showed the demonstrators lying in the street, dousing themselves with fake blood and chanting “Liberation, for Palestine and planet.” They wore white jumpsuits emblazoned with
Today in Israeli History — ISRAEL — Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.
Dec. 1, 1932 — Palestine Post prints first edition
The Palestine Post, the precursor of The Jerusalem Post, distributes 1,200 copies of its first, eight-page edition to meet the demand for an English-language newspaper. It nearly quadruples its circulation within a year.
Dec. 2, 2001 — Bus bombing in Haifa kills 16
p Security and rescue forces work on the remains of the bus destroyed by a suicide bomber in Haifa on Dec. 2, 2001.
By Moshe Milner, Israeli Government Press Office
During a surge in S e cond Int ifada violence, a Palestinian plumber from Nablus detonates an explosive device on a No. 16 Egged bus in Haifa, killing himself and 15 other passengers and injuring 35 others.
Dec. 3, 1995 — Begin adviser Shmulevitz dies
Matityahu Shmulevitz, a member of Lehi (the Stern Gang) and the directorgeneral of the Prime Minister’s Office under Menachem Begin, dies at 75 one day after collapsing during a chess game in Tel Aviv. PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG
Dec. 4, 2000 — Law bars discrimination in schools
The Knesset passes legislation proposed by Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who is also the education minister, to prevent discrimination against students based on ethnicity, socioeconomic status or political alignment.
Dec. 5, 1949 — Ben-Gurion rejects international status for Jerusalem
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion declares in a Knesset speech that “Jewish Jerusalem is an organic, inseparable part of the State of Israel” and that Israel will not give up sovereignty over its “eternal capital.”
Dec. 6, 1867 — Zionist leader Leo Motzkin is born
Leo Motzkin, the chairman of the Zionist Executive from 1925 to 1933, is born in what is now Brovary, Ukraine. Motzkin becomes interested in Zionism after witnessing the 1881 pogrom in Kyiv.
Dec. 7, 1921 — First nurses graduate in Jerusalem
Twenty-two women graduate from the Nurses’ Training Institute at Rothschild Hospital in Jerusalem, making them the first nurses to receive degrees in the Land of Israel. They go to work at Hadassah-run hospitals. PJC p Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold poses with the first graduating class of the Nurses’ Training Institute on Dec. 7, 1921.
words including “consumerism,” “colonialism,” “ethnic cleansing” and “capitalism.” In footage from the event, bystanders are heard booing the activists as the protest holds up the iconic parade. Police said 34 individuals had been taken into custody. Four were arrested for charges including trespassing, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Thirty individuals received criminal court summonses for trespassing.
Jewish groups ask Pope Francis to clarify Israel ‘terrorism’ comments
Jewish groups are criticizing Pope Francis for appearing to accuse both Israel and Hamas of “terrorism” in their ongoing war that started Oct. 7, JTA.org reported. “This is what wars do,” the pope said at his general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Nov. 22. “But here we have gone beyond wars. This is not war. This is terrorism.” Francis’ comments followed separate meetings with Jewish relatives of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinians with family in Gaza on Nov. 22. His remarks come a month after he called on Hamas to free the hostages being held in Gaza and weeks after calling for a cease-fire and more Palestinian aid. Noemi Di Segni, the president of the Union of Jewish Communities in Italy, issued a statement saying that she would have preferred Francis had issued a clear condemnation of Oct. 7. “Certainly we cannot equate the responsibilities of those who have a design of extermination and terror versus those who are defending themselves and defending an entire
country and a community that includes both Muslims and Palestinians,” Di Segni said.
Elon Musk visits Israel and tours ravaged kibbutz with Benjamin Netanyahu
Elon Musk, the tech titan who is under fire for his role in amplifying antisemitism on his social media platform X, visited Israel on Nov. 27 and toured the devastation at a kibbutz ravaged by Hamas on Oct. 7 alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, JTA.org reported. Musk toured the kibbutz, where dozens of people were killed and an estimated 17 were kidnapped. Afterward, Musk and Netanyahu spoke live on X, formerly known as Twitter, about Musk’s reaction to seeing Kfar Aza and a video that Israel compiled showing footage from the day of the massacre. Musk said the experience was “jarring” and that he was struck by what appeared to be “joy” on the part of the terrorists in the video. “The rebuttal is often made that well, you know, Israel has killed civilians also in Gaza,” he said. “But there’s an important difference here, which is that Israel tries to avoid killing civilians, doing everything it can to avoid killing civilians. And, you know, there’s not sort of joy expressed.” Musk also said that “there’s no choice” but for Israel to destroy Hamas, but that Israel then needs to “help those that remain,” likening a future postwar scenario to the post-World War II U.S. occupation of Germany and Japan. PJC — Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
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DECEMBER 1, 2023
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Opinion Israel’s choice: Body or soul Guest Columnist Michael Oren
B
ecause everything about this war defies reason, it’s lately had me thinking about “Sophie’s Choice.” Yes, William Styron’s 1979 novel, the National Book Award winner that was later made into a critically acclaimed movie starring Meryl Streep and even an opera. “Sophie’s Choice”is a Holocaust story written by a non-Jew who was later accused of dejudaizing the Holocaust by focusing on a Polish Catholic survivor of Auschwitz. Yet it was not only Styron’s heroine that some critics found objectionable but also the prurient nature of her choice. Entering the death camp with her son and daughter, Sophie is forced to choose which of them will go to the gas chamber. Israel, I’ve been thinking, is now confronted with the same choice. Not between our sons and daughters, but between the two halves of our raison d’être. The war with Hamas is forcing us to decide between Israel’s body and our nation’s soul. Israel was created with a double identity, Jewish and democratic. Yet that duality was mirrored by Israel’s twin missions: to guarantee our fundamental security and sanctify our citizens’ lives. The state would defend itself while promising that those who we send off to defend it will never be left behind. Israel pledged to ensure both our physical and moral existence, our body as well as our soul. The IDF, accordingly, sent commandos to rescue the hostages at Entebbe in 1976 and,
five years later, fighter jets to blow up the Iraqi nuclear reactor. The same Israel that launched a pre-emptive strike against gathering Arab armies in 1967 airlifted Ethiopian Jews in the 1980s and 90s. For 75 years, Israel succeeded in pursuing both of its founding goals: safeguarding the land as well as its people, without contradiction.
army?” To which my son replied, “Without an Israel, you won’t have an army to send them to.” Between my daughter’s position and my son’s, which was I to choose? This is our fundamental, nightmarish, dilemma. Either we give priority to restoring our deterrence power and returning the more than 200,000 displaced Israelis to their
In the end, Israel will almost certainly have to decide whether to destroy the terrorists completely or save the remaining hostages – to choose, once again, between our national body and soul. Then, just as the state was struggling to reconcile its Jewish and democratic identities, came the onslaught of Oct. 7. Hamas did far more than catch us off-guard. It struck us directly between the state’s two objectives — literally between our I’s. If Hamas had only butchered, burnt, and raped 1,200 Israelis and not taken any of them hostage, then Israel could have invaded Gaza and crushed the terrorists without hesitation, flooding their tunnels with seawater. Conversely, if Hamas had killed no Israelis but only taken hostages, Israel could have exchanged them for all the terrorists in Israeli jails. But Hamas, savagely, did both, wholesale murder and mass abduction. “Forget the military victory,” my daughter exclaimed. “Israel’s only goal must be to free the hostages. If the state won’t do everything to rescue my children should they someday fall prisoner, how can I send them to the
homes, or we focus primarily on securing the hostages’ freedom. Either we convince Iran and its proxies never to attack us again and persuade additional Arab countries to make peace with an indomitable Jewish state, or we fulfill Israel’s oath to never abandon our fellow Israelis. Either we accept an Israel that may well be rendered defenseless or an Israel that our citizens may no longer be willing to defend. Body or soul, we had to decide, and yet Israel refused to choose either. Instead, we declared a twofold target of destroying Hamas and rescuing the hostages, as though they were not mutually exclusive. And yet, by sheer perseverance and the determination of our troops, we succeeded in pursuing both goals simultaneously. Downgraded and surrounded by the IDF, Hamas opted for a deal. In exchange for a 5-day ceasefire, it agreed to free 50 Israeli hostages.
With that agreement now in effect, Israel has offered to extend it. For every ten hostages released, the IDF will hold its fire for one additional day. If accepted, this deal means that Israel will once again give precedence to saving Israelis over saving the state itself. The choice will once again be delayed. But for how long? Ultimately, Hamas will not release all the hostages, knowing full well what the IDF will do to it once the last of them is freed. In the end, Israel will almost certainly have to decide whether to destroy the terrorists completely or save the remaining hostages – to choose, once again, between our national body and soul. Yet a third option exists. There is still time to reframe the goal of the war from annihilating Hamas to securing Hamas’s unconditional surrender. There is still time to offer Hamas free passage from Gaza – recall the PLO’s evacuation from Beirut in 1982 – in return for the hostages’ release. The terrorists can sail off to Algeria, Libya, or Iran. Our captives will be united with their families. In the novel, Sophie has to make the most unthinkable of all choices, but Israel can be spared that fate. By maintaining the military pressure on Hamas and keeping the door open to further negotiations, we can defend our state and redeem its defenders. Our dual purpose, our body and soul, can be preserved. PJC Michael Oren, formerly Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Knesset member and deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, is the author of “Israel 2048: The Rejuvenated State.” This first appeared on The Times of Israel.
I believed diverse coalitions would benefit Jewish women. Now I fear we were all alone. Guest Columnist Daphne Lazar Price
I
am the executive director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance and a lifelong feminist. I advocate for Orthodox Jewish women’s representation and inclusion in all areas of life. Before joining Jofa in 2019, I spent 20 years working with faith groups, women’s advocates and other social justice organizations. We worked in coalition towards social change by sharing awareness raising campaigns, in-person gatherings and through the legislative process. I once found it meaningful when people set aside differences to build bridges towards positive change. It was not always easy to be in these spaces because of political or religious differences, sometimes related to Israel/Palestine, and sometimes because I was the only Orthodox Jewish woman in the room. But I really believed that the more diverse the coalition, the more likely we could reach success. 12
DECEMBER 1, 2023
These days I’m so sad. Sad for the tremendous losses all around. And on a personal level, I’m also sad that I devoted so many years of my life to groups that don’t seem to care about me or my pain. I’m used to being uncomfortable; my work at Jofa presents an uphill battle. I am constantly fielding criticisms from rabbis who accuse me of ruining Orthodoxy by including women in rituals, positions and spaces they think should be reserved solely for men, and from pluralistic Jewish people who accuse me of upholding the patriarchy. It can be lonely to be an advocate for Orthodox Jewish women. Working with diverse advocacy groups gave me solace as I considered them to be a safety net when the resources in my own community fell short. I worked with many groups for years on areas of shared interest. We collaborated on reproductive justice, sex trafficking, prison rape and obstetric fistula prevention. We released resources for our communities, created awareness raising campaigns, including marching together at the Million Mom March, the March for Women’s Lives and Save Darfur. So after partnering
for years, I expected my sister feminist groups to share their outrage about Hamas’ war crimes against Israelis on Oct. 7. After all, it is clear that kidnapping civilians of all ages, and brutally attacking women, men, children, babies and the elderly, all the while viciously raping women, is abhorrent. Instead, I’m shocked and horrified by too many national and global women’s and children’s advocacy groups – none worse than UN Women. After remaining virtually silent since the Oct. 7 atrocities, on Nov. 25 it published an Instagram post condemning the attacks and calling for the release of all hostages only to replace it with one that says they “remain alarmed by the reports of gender-based violence on October 7 & call for rigorous investigation, prioritizing the rights, needs & safety of those affected.” An investigation? What happened to “believe women”? There is video footage and survivors’ testimonies that bear out the claims of rape — so when did it become OK for women’s groups to become rape apologists? Surely women’s organizations shouldn’t be allowed to continue to exist while they ignore or second-guess hundreds and hundreds of
PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE
Israeli women who were slaughtered in their homes, in the streets and at a music festival. To be sure, I know many are worried about the death and suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. I am, too, but does this mean that they cannot express sympathy for the Israeli women who were brutalized and murdered, and for those of us who grieve for this devastation? This conflict is personal. My family and I were in Israel when the war started. My children, extended family and hundreds of friends live in Israel. My relatives, my friends, my friends’ kids and my kids’ friends all serve in the Israeli military. From the moment the war broke out, not a single person in there — myself included — was immune from the horror and loss. Between death tolls and injuries, every single person in Israel attended funerals, shiva houses and made hospital visits. My worry for my loved ones there keeps me up every night. When the groups I’ve worked with over the years fail to speak out against these atrocities committed against women, I take it personally. I hope my former colleagues’ Please see Price, page 13
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Opinion Chronicle poll results: Hostage deal
L
ast week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “Do you approve of the hostage deal between Israel and Hamas which was announced on Tuesday, Nov. 21?” Of the 239 people who responded, 49% said yes, 25% said no and 26% said they weren’t sure. Comments were submitted by 85 people. A few follow. This sets yet another bad precedent; it encourages bad people to continue to profit from their kidnapping misdeeds. I understand the pressure on Bibi from the victims’ families, but this was a myopic and ill-fated decision.
Do you approve of the hostage deal between Israel and Hamas which was announced on Tues., Nov. 21?
Why are we negotiating with Qatar and Hamas? Why are we exchanging hostages for prisoners? I want all of the hostages released, but this will set a bad precedent and encourage future hostage-taking.
Price: Continued from page 12
hearts will open up. I hope my own heart will heal. I’m not optimistic, but I’m hopeful they will come around and try to reconcile. As a Jewish person of faith, and an activist who looks for the good and seeks out justice, my work in this space to fight for a fairer world for all girls and women
Israel still needs to be allowed to finish the job of removing Hamas. Hamas needs to be eradicated immediately. A cease-fire will only allow them to re-arm and continue their onslaught.
26% Not sure
Happy for the families who will get somebody back, unhappy for the rest of Israel.
49% Yes 25% No
All hostages should be released before any cease-fire!
How is this even a question? To oppose this deal would suggest support for keeping hostages from their families and for continued destruction and death in Gaza.
This deal incentivizes more hostagetaking.
It is an encouraging start and best solution given the current environment. I strongly support it.
Hostage-taking versus jailing after due process are two different things. Hamas can say its jailed fighters were taken hostage. Plus this emboldens Hamas to take more hostages, which is against international law.
is not complete. But I can’t continue to work with those who don’t see me in the same light, as someone deserving of love and respect, no matter how they feel about my Judaism or Israel. My attempts to engage former colleagues have been hurtful and fruitless because of their unwillingness derived from ideological differences or a defensiveness of long-held views. Those groups’ attempted mind games to decide
who is worthy of care and who is entitled to protections needs to end — or they will become irrelevant. We are people who are worthy of care. Full stop. At this moment I am reevaluating my relationship with the people and organizations I engage with. I can say with certainty that we can and will recreate a community of coalitions that will not deny our humanity and our Jewish and Zionist
It’s a start. Hopefully, there will be more exchanges. Israel should have demanded more. And, there should be no cease-fire until Hamas is destroyed! While redeeming hostages is of the utmost importance, we must continue to show the world that Hamas is not to be trusted and is still a barbaric terrorist organization. Anything that halts firings for any time and frees hostages with the possibility of more is good. PJC — Compiled by Toby Tabachnick
Chronicle weekly poll question: Latkes or doughnuts?
Go to pittsburghjewishchronicle.org to respond. PJC
identities. Either way, their silence will neither erase me nor deter me from fighting the good fight. PJC Daphne Lazar Price is executive director of Jofa, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance. She is also an adjunct professor of Jewish Law at the Georgetown University Law Center. This first appeared on JTA.
— LETTERS — Gazans are responsible for the Hamas attacks
Victims, yes. Innocent, no! (“An alternate view,” Nov. 22). A plurality of Gazans elected Hamas to run the government. Hamas did not attack Israel; Gaza did. Humanitarians have been suckered into believing the propaganda of Hamas and its sponsors. Arab countries have tried to destroy Israel several times, but were defeated dramatically. There is no way that a few thousand Hamas terrorists could defeat the Israeli Defense Forces, but they could provoke an embarrassing situation for Israel. Hamas terrorists are pawns who will all be sacrificed along with Gaza residents in a well-designed attempt to deny Israel world support, and especially American support. Hamas attacked Israel to provoke the bombing and the deaths in Gaza. Israel dropped flyers, made phone calls and used the internet to encourage Gaza residents to move south. People are reluctant to change, but after hearing the first bomb explode, a typical response would be to put on your shoes and start walking south. Why did the Gaza residents stay in the north where all the bombing was occurring? The more Gazans die, the worse it looks for Israel. Sacrificing thousands of Gazans and terrorists may not make sense to us, but it is a cheap price to pay for people who invented the philosophy “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” By creating circumstances where Israel looks bad, Iran and Hamas are trying to convert Israel’s supporters into Palestinian friends. Too subtle? Remember 9/11? Terrorists obtained Saudi Arabia passports, enrolled in an American flight school to learn how to fly Boeing 707s, and then picked flights originating in the east so that they could attack New York and the Pentagon. That took a lot of planning, just like the Gaza conflict. We dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to force Japan to surrender and to avoid an invasion which would have cost thousands of American lives. Experience in Guadalcanal, Corregidor and Iwo Jima revealed that the Japanese would fight to the death rather than surrender. People protested the death of so many Japanese. Everyone likes to play Monday morning quarterback, but only one person had responsibility for the war and the soldiers’ lives: President Truman. You are damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. Prime Minister Netanyahu has the same problem. When 1,200 Jews are killed and 240 more are kidnapped, he has to make some hard decisions. Fighting Hamas door to door in Gaza would result in many dead Israeli soldiers. The Israel Defense Forces are not just soldiers. Every Jew is descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and they are blood relatives. Netanyahu had to bomb Gaza to lessen the threat to his soldiers’ lives. Many have died, and humanitarians insist that the bombing must stop. Everyone likes to play Monday morning quarterback, but only one person has responsibility for the war and the soldiers’ lives: Prime Minister Netanyahu. You are damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. Lee Feldman Dormont
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Some things are worse than war
Following the worst anti-Jewish massacre since the Holocaust, how could any illusions remain that there could soon be “a regional federation of two states based on democracy, freedom of movement, settlement of refugee claims and guaranteed rights for all. There would need to be leaders who are committed to reconciliation and repentance.” (“An alternate view,” Nov. 22). Hamas’ unspeakably brutal atrocities on Oct. 7 displayed an extraordinarily high level of Jew hatred among the Palestinians that will likely take generations to eradicate. The Palestinian Authority refused to condemn those assaults, and the Palestinian street and diaspora largely applauded them. Is it possible to make peace with such people? Have they any prospective leaders, capable of democratic governance, likely to be respectful of citizen rights, or undisposed to the extreme corruption and despotism of the current two Palestinian political entities? The “two-state solution,” under such circumstances, is but an irrational illusion. Actual implementation would be an unmitigated disaster, both for Palestinians and Israelis. While Palestinian civilian casualties are to be deplored — though the Hamas Health Ministry supplied numbers are highly suspect — the IDF makes every effort to avoid them. That is nearly impossible when Hamas has burrowed itself deeply into civilian spaces. Its “dead babies” propaganda strategy depends on civilian shields and media intimidation. Israel warns civilians, via leaflets and other means, of impending attacks, urging temporary flight, while Hamas urges them, many forcibly, to shelter in place. Except there are no shelters for them, only tunnels for Hamas. War is awful but some things are worse than war. Letting the Hamas Nazi-like regime survive — an ongoing danger to its own populace and a continuing existential threat to Israel — would constitute highest level geopolitical folly. Hamas must be wholly destroyed. Richard Wilkins Syracuse, New York We invite you to submit letters for publication. Letters must include name, address and daytime phone number; addresses and phone numbers will not be published. Letters may not exceed 500 words and may be edited for length and clarity; they cannot be returned. Mail, fax or email letters to: Letters to the editor via email: letters@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org Address & Fax: Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, 5915 Beacon St., 5th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15217 Website address: pittsburghjewishchronicle.org We regret that owing to the volume of correspondence, we cannot reply to every letter.
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DECEMBER 1, 2023
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Life & Culture Lamb cassoulet: a simple meal with a gourmet flair — FOOD —
Lamb cassoulet Serves 4
By Jessica Grann | Special to the Chronicle
Ingredients:
f you’ve ever wanted to make a meal that whispered, “I love you,” I suggest this recipe for cassoulet. Cassoulet is French country cooking at its finest. It’s simple food with fairly basic ingredients like meat, white beans and herbs. As a kosher cook — who was not raised keeping kosher — it’s been my mission in the kitchen to replicate the best meals I’ve experienced across the globe and to make them accessible for myself and for my readers. Cassoulet is traditionally made with pork and sausage, but I started thinking about the flavors and herbs used and realized that lamb would be the perfect meat to reproduce this southern French staple. The lamb is seared, then slowly braised in the pot of beans with white wine and chicken broth until the meat is ready to fall off the bone. Choose a good quality dry white wine for this meal. You will use a portion for cooking but have several glasses left in the bottle to enjoy with your meal. This recipe takes about 25 minutes to prep. Although it’s considered a simple meal, this is as gourmet as it gets in the flavor department and definitely worthy of Shabbat or a festive celebration.
To prepare this recipe, you need a heavy-bottomed pot with a tight-fitting lid. Use a Dutch oven if you have one. I suggest using lamb shanks for this recipe, but I have also used lamb labeled “Scotch roast” and it came out well. The important thing is that the lamb is on the bone. The bone marrow adds flavor and fat to the beans, which is what makes this meal taste heavenly. The meat should be seared at room temperature, so remove the lamb from the refrigerator an hour before you plan to
I
4 lamb shanks ¼ cup olive oil 1 large onion, diced 1½ cups celery, sliced thinly 2 large carrots, peeled and diced 4 large garlic cloves, peeled and sliced 1 cup dry white wine 2 cups chicken stock 3 cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained 2 bay leaves Kosher salt Coarse black pepper 2 bay leaves 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary 5 sprigs of fresh thyme
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cook. Blot each piece with a paper towel, sprinkle both sides with coarse kosher salt and set the lamb on a tray to rest. Prepare the vegetables as noted, rinse and drain the beans and measure the wine and chicken stock. Warm the olive oil over medium heat and
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Life & Culture After backlash over silence, UN Women tweets, then deletes, statement condemning Hamas attack in Israel — WORLD — By Jackie Hajdenberg | JTA
N
early 50 days after Hamas’ attack on Israel left 1,200 dead, and after weeks of criticism over its silence about allegations of sexual violence during the attack, the women’s rights group UN Women issued a statement condemning the terror group on Friday. Then it deleted the post. “We condemn the brutal attacks by Hamas on October 7 and continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” read the initial statement, posted on UN Women’s Instagram page. It was soon replaced with a statement that dropped the condemnation of Hamas and only called for the release of the hostages. Word spread quickly among Jewish women activists and Israelis, reigniting their contention that UN Women — an official arm of the United Nations focused on promoting gender equality and women’s
empowerment — holds a double standard when it comes to gender-based violence against Israeli women. Some of the critics — including Sheryl Sandberg, a former top Meta executive — have lobbied openly on the topic. Many have used the hashtag “#MeToo_UNless_UR_A_Jew.” Reached for comment, UN Women told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the Instagram post had been scheduled in advance and was deleted because the message in it no longer reflected where the organization wanted to put its main focus. “In any social media team managing multiple campaigns and during a very busy time like the one we are now with 16 Days of Activism, mistakes can occur,” a representative for UN Women said in a statement sent to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. In particular, said the media specialist, the release of some hostages over the weekend as part of a temporary truce changed the organization’s priorities. “UN Women social media team had pre-planned days in advance [of ] this
p Flags of member nations at the United Nations Headquarters
Photo by I, Aotearoa, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
particular post, but then the news broke on the release of hostages and we really wanted to focus on that,” she said. “UN Women has condemned the attacks by Hamas and the deaths of Israeli civilians from the beginning as well as called for the release of hostages, and we will continue doing so until the conflict ends. We have also called for all allegations of genderbased violence to be rigorously investigated, prioritizing the rights, needs, and safety of those affected.” In late October, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza but voted down a provision condemning the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks. On Monday, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, held a session on crimes against humanity committed against women during the Oct. 7 massacre. After an initial statement on Oct. 13 condemning the attacks on civilians in Israel, all of UN Women’s public comments
about the war and its impact on women had centered only on Palestinians. Last week, Sima Bahous, the group’s executive director, called for an extension of the current temporary truce into a permanent ceasefire and for the release of all hostages. The National Council for Jewish Women, which had previously criticized UN Women’s silence on sexual violence against Israeli women, said the group’s second statement last week was inadequate. “The delayed issuance of a statement that fails to explicitly address the severity of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel — such as the brutal murder of over 1,200 people in Israel, torture, and rape of women, as well as the targeting of civilians and families — is equally reprehensible,” the statement said. “Immediate and unequivocal acknowledgment of these atrocities is imperative, given the blatant violation of international law.” PJC
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Create Chanukah bags filled with menorahs, candles, gelt, dreidels, and more to celebrate at home.
Saturday, December 2 · 5-6:30 pm
JCC Levinson Hall, 2738 Forbes Ave., Squirrel Hill No cost Open to all JCC members and non-members. Families are welcome!
Register HERE
South Hills Chanukah Donuts and Dreidels
Join the JCC, PJ Library, Beth El Congregation and Temple Emanuel for an evening filled with latkes, sufganiyot, BINGO and more!
Monday, December 11 · 6-7:30 pm
Temple Emanuel, 1250 Bower Hill Road, Mt. Lebanon Free to attend and open to the community Please RSVP by December 1 HERE:
More info: Abbey Plumb aplumb@jccpgh.org 412-339-5409
FREE & O OPEN T ALL
A Whole
More info: Emma Litwak elitwak@jccpgh.org 412-278-1782
LIGHT!
A Multifaith Celebration Through Song
Thursday, December 14 ∙ 7-8:30 pm Levinson Hall, JCC Squirrel Hill
5738 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15217 Please enter through the Darlington Ave. Entrance
Sing with us and shine light in the darkness as we bring our diverse faith traditions together. We will light candles for the eighth night of Chanukah.
Choirs include:
Rodef Shalom � Temple Sinai � The Church of Latter Day Saints � Baptist Temple Church “Fresh Anointing”
More info: Rabbi Ron Symons rsymons@jccpgh.org
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Register HERE tinyurl.com/ MultifaithCelebration2023
DECEMBER 1, 2023 17
Celebrations
Torah
Bat Mitzvah
Responding to potential threats: Two case studies
Talia Brooke Block will celebrate becoming a bat mitzvah on Dec. 2, 2023, Parshat Vayishlach, at Congregation Beth Shalom. Talia will be surrounded by proud parents Bev and Zack Block; brothers Jordan and Benny Block; grandparents Ed and Ellen Betel and Larry and Sharon Block; and her extended family and friends. Talia is a seventh grader at Community Day School. Talia excels at playing virtually all sports, but she loves flag football and basketball the most. When she’s not playing sports, Talia enjoys writing and walking to Forbes with friends. PJC
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Stop in for some Ruggalah, Hanukkah cookies, potato pancakes, matzo ball soup, brisket, and more!
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Rabbi Larry Freedman Parshat Vayishlach | Genesis 32:4 – 36:43
E
verybody’s wrong in Parshat Vayishlach. I know. That’s not what you want to hear. People tell me all the time that they are so troubled by the actions of various characters in the Torah. People misbehave or sin or do something terrible. Folks new to Torah — or new to looking closely at the Torah — are scandalized. Here’s the thing, I tell them. If you want happy-happy, go read Proverbs. If you want real life, read the Torah because sometimes in real life you do the right thing and sometimes you do the wrong thing, and sometimes you’re not even sure. Jacob and Esau, brothers, had a rift. A big one. Then word comes to Jacob that Esau is approaching with 400 men. Is this a military formation? A violent mob? Or maybe just a very large posse, retinue, troop of happy travelers. We don’t know. But Jacob is scared and decides to send gift after gift after gift down the road to Esau. Hundreds of goats and sheep. Thirty camels, 50 cows, 30 donkeys. He staggers them so, as Esau approaches, he will be met by a gift, then another mile down the road, he will meet another gift. And again and again. Jacob’s goal is to soften up his brother, leach the anger out of him with these very generous gifts. So many gifts. Then Esau arrives and Jacob bows to the ground seven times. If there was any anger in Esau, it has dissipated. This is a tale of obsequiousness run amuck. But was it the right call? When faced with an enemy or the threat of an enemy, is the best choice humility in the extreme? Should one give abundant gifts, accept a posture of subservience? Here it worked for Esau and Jacob. They cooperated a little, and then as their flocks and families grew, each went his own way. Esau traveled to Seir and lived his life there, in the land of Edom. And there was peace. (That won’t last forever, but that’s another story.) Jacob, meanwhile, settles in Shechem.
His daughter, Dina, meets Shechem, a man with the same name, who rapes her but also loves her and asks to marry her. Dina’s brothers are horrified by the insult to their sister. They tell Shechem and his people that they can’t marry the women in Jacob’s tribe unless they become circumcised. So they do. All of them. And they do so gladly, imagining a day when they will all share the land and intermingle peacefully. As they are recuperating, two of Dina’s brothers pick up swords and slaughter them all. Simeon and Levi steal all the animals, too. Jacob is horrified by this, but the two brothers are unrepentant. They felt righteous indignation on behalf of their sister. An abuse must be met with justice. Perpetrators must be held accountable. But was this scorched earth approach the right way to do it? Was it proportional? And given Jacob’s reaction (Jacob, the father and leader of the tribe) it seems these two brothers were acting the vigilante more than ensuring justice. Two approaches. Meekness and humility. Utter fury. To be honest, both approaches worked even though the parsha is clear that doubts could be had as to whether either was the best approach. In short, everybody’s wrong. Sometimes a successful course of action is not the best course of action. It will work but the fallout won’t be worth it. What did Jacob lose in his extreme humility? What were the negative outcomes when word got around of the brutality of the two brothers? Difficult situations require great deliberation and thought. Strategic thinking is called for and multiple perspectives from experienced leaders help with good decisions. Two case studies of how you could react to potential threats, how you could react to violence against your tribe are on offer. Kindness and toughness. Perhaps the two case studies in one parsha suggest we consider both and figure out how much of each are needed today. PJC Rabbi Larry Freedman is the director of the Joint Jewish Education Program. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Clergy Association.
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Obituaries ANOUCHI: Patricia Love Anouchi, on Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023. Beloved wife of the late Murray S. Love and Abraham Anouchi. Loving mother of Charles Love, Lauren Love and Pamela Love. Sister of the late Paul Goldberg. Cherished grandmother of Aaron Love, Dara Love Miller, Theodore Koepf, Isabella Koepf and Camille Koepf. Also survived by nephew Charles Goldberg and niece Susan Goldberg Savoie. Adored godmother of Steven Landay. Patricia was born in Oil City, Pennsylvania, to Charles and Sara Goldberg. She completed both her undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of Pittsburgh, where she was elected senior queen. Patricia donated much of her time to helping abused women and incarcerated people rebuild their lives. She was a patron of the arts, supporting the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Public Theater, museums and the Phipps Conservatory. Graveside services and interment were held at Beth Shalom Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Pittsburgh Hebrew Free Loan, 4905 Fifth Ave., Suite 211, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com BLOOM: Dr. Patricia W. Bloom, on Monday, Nov. 20, 2023. Beloved daughter of the late Reuben and Rosalind (Glick) Caplan of Pittsburgh, mother of Reid (Linda) Wilk of Novi, Michigan, Jessica Wilk of Charlottesville, Virginia, and Jonathan (Tracie) Wilk of Short Hills, New Jersey. Sister of Lynn (Frank) Fisher of Pittsburgh. Grandmother of Lauren, David, Noah and Alex Wilk. “Penny,” as she was always known to friends and family, was born and raised in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. In addition to raising three children while working full time, she earned both her master’s and Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh in higher education in the evenings and served for many years as a dean at community colleges in Western Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York. She was very proud to have been a working mom who was able to make a difference in the lives of so many students and be a role model for her children and grandchildren. Services and interment were held at B’Nai Israel Cemetery–Penn Hills. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Penny’s memory to the Lewy Body Dementia Association lbda.org/donate/. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com FRANK: Bernice Kamisar Frank passed away at age 99 on Nov. 26, 2023. A devoted wife to the late Irvin “Chick” Frank; mother of Susan McClure and Betsie Frank (Ken Nelson); grandmother of Brian McClure and Eric McClure (Erica Sobanski); great-grandmother of Emily and Eva McClure. She was preceded in death by her parents, Samuel and Zelda Kamisar, along with five sisters, Yetta Frazier, Anne Stein (Moe), Dora Kamisar, Rose Weinstock (Bill) and Hylda Kamisar. A loving aunt, Bernice generously spent time with her many nieces, nephews, and great-nieces and -nephews. The first of her parents’ three American-born daughters, Bernice grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, where she attended Youngstown University in preparation for her most enduring career as a librarian’s assistant at Mt. Lebanon High School in Pittsburgh. She lived her life committed to her family, a wealth of friends and beloved coworkers. Generosity and consummate caregiving defined all relationships. She made time to volunteer for B’nai B’rith, Hadassah and many other activities sponsored by Temple Emanuel. Bernice led a rich social life filled with entertaining in her home, attending cultural events with friends and providing companionship to friends in need. She delighted in following the latest fashion trends, cooking and involvement in her daughters’ and grandchildren’s school activities. Bernice’s love and caring spirit touched those of all ages, the qualities for which she will truly be missed. Services occurred Thursday, Nov. 30. Arrangements entrusted to William Slater II Funeral Service, Scott Twp., 412-5632800. Donations in Bernice’s memory may be sent to The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, 1 N. Linden St. Duquesne, PA 15110, pittsburghfoodbank.org, or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105, stjude.org. slaterfuneral.com KOTLER: Marion Kotler, on Monday, Nov. 27, 2023. Beloved wife of the late Milton Kotler and companion of the late Russell Makrauer. Loving mother of Ken Kotler (Lois), Mark Kotler, Ron Kotler (Jane) and Sherry Greenberger (Andy). Grandmother of Zachary, Jeremy, the late Michael, Brett (Katie), Jennifer (Marc), Rachel (Michael) and Drew (Elana). Great-grandmother of Aviva, Noémie, Amiel, Solal, Ari, Luca, Lilia, Misha and Asa. She is the younger sister of Asher Oppenheimer, who, in two months will celebrate his 102nd birthday. Marion was born in Karlsruhe, Germany on Feb. 3, 1927. At the age of 10, just one year before Kristallnacht, and soon after Please see Obituaries, page 20
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THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday December 3: Gertrude P . Elias, Leonard Enelow, Arthur Forman, Jack J . Friedman, Jacob Gold, Norma Harris, Harry Haynes, William Hersh, Milton Iskowich, Max Janowitz, Sylvia Kalmenson, Nannie Klater, Shirley Krouse, Ruth Kwall Land, Joseph Levitt, Allan Lippock, Maurice Malkin, Rebecca K . Malt, Harris Nathan Miller, Ruth Murman, Annette Nussbaum, Harry Rosenfield, Harold J . Rubenstein, Frank Smith, Zelig Solomon, Anne C . Weiss Monday December 4: Maurice P . Ashinsky, Esther L . Bialer, Saul Broverman, Julian Falk, Harry First, David Frank, Louis Frank, Rose Goldstein, Martin W . Hepps, Sarah Jacobson, Alvin Lichtenstul, Jennie Markovitz, Julia Monheim, Myer Palkovitz, Morris Rudick, Morris J . Semins, Aaron Siff, Dr . Jacob Slone, Shirley Starr, Morris Weiss Tuesday December 5: Susan Barotz, Irving I . “Chick” Bogdan, Victor Chesterpal, Marc Leon Front, Rae Kleinerman, Dr . Hyman Levinson, Fannie Malkin, Max Mallinger, Louis Menzer, Fannie Rice, Marvin L . Silverblatt, Sam Swartz Wednesday December 6: Julius Berliner, Jacob Braun, Florence Meyers Clovsky, Leonard Samuels Finkelhor, Edward L . Friedman, Alfred Krause, Max Lemelman, Sarah Young Pretter, Hymen Rosenberg, Annie Segall, Lillian Shermer, Max Strauss, Samuel Z . Udman, I . Barnes Weinstein Thursday December 7: William Aronovitz, Fannie Gertrude Becker, Belle Bennett, Nathan Bennett, Joseph Braunstein, Hannah Cohen, Meyer Fineberg, Benjamin Finkelhor, Philip Hoffman, Milton Kuperstock, Samuel Kurfeerst, Benjamin Levin, Abraham Lincoff, Benjamin Jacob Platt, Leon Ryave, Fannie Solow, Philip Stein, Max Zeiden Friday December 8: Essie Finesod, Hymen Glickman, Ralph Hoffman, Harry Katzen, Sylvan Meth, Max Osgood, Mary R . Sachs, Dorothy Saul, Dorothy Weiss Schachter, Sylvia Snyder Sealfon, Benjamin S . Shapiro, Elaine Supowitz, Charles Tillman, Mary Weinerman Saturday December 9: Rose Blatt, Reuben Bliwas, Raymond Cole, Lena Eisenberg, Jacob Erenrich, Birdie Weiler Greenberg, Celia Liberman, Morris Miller, Ed Newman, Stella G . Pervin, Louis Riemer, John Rothstein, Lawrence E . Schachter, Marcia E . Schmitt, Sarah Schor, Faye Schwartz, Herman Schwartz, Charles Stewart, Anna Swartz, Fannie White, Dave L . Wyckoff
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DECEMBER 1, 2023
19
Obituaries Obituaries: Continued from page 19
the death of her mother, she fled the Nazis with her father. This escape was made possible by founding cousins of the Kaufmann and Baer department store of Pittsburgh. Marion lived most of her life in Squirrel Hill and died two months shy of her 97th birthday. She shared the same birthday as her older brother Asher. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment Beth Shalom Cemetery. Contributions may be made to the American Heart Association, 444 Liberty Ave., #1300, Pittsburgh, PA 15222. schugar.com REIDBORD: Faye H. Reidbord, on Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023. Beloved wife of Howard E. Reidbord, M.D. Loving mother of Steven P. Reidbord, M.D. (Kirsten), Kenneth B. Reidbord and Sharon L. Reidbord (Mignonne Halpern). Daughter of the late Al and Ethel Hinkes. Sister of the late Charles Hinkes, M.D. Cherished grandmother of Eliza Zhitnick and Sarah Zhitnick. Faye was a kindergarten teacher and an active member of ORT. She was a director for Meals on Wheels. Faye was a wonderful wife and devoted mother, and will be dearly missed.
Services and interment were held at Homewood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to your favorite charity. Arrangements entrusted to Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. schugar.com SPEISER: Yetta Speiser, on Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023. Beloved wife of the late Herbert R. Speiser; loving mother of the late Harriet Siskind; mother-in-law of Arnold Siskind of Media, Pennsylvania; sister of Sidney Blatt of West Palm Beach, Florida, and the late Saul, Benjamin and Simon Blatt. Also survived by nieces and nephews. Yetta grew up in the Hill District and then moved over to the North Side when her father opened the Union Market on East Ohio Street. She is a 1944 graduate of Allegheny High School. She worked many places, including Tisherman’s Bakery and American Foam Latex Corporation. Yetta was also a longtime member of Hadassah and could be seen for well over 30 years holiday gift wrapping at Monroeville Mall. Yetta and her husband, Herbie, were members of New Light Congregation. She will be sorely missed by all who knew her. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment B’Nai Israel Cemetery-Penn Hills. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Hadassah, 40 Wall St., 8th Floor, New York, NY 10005. schugar.com PJC
Stark images of murder and torture in Israel leave US senators in tears and silence — NATIONAL — By Ron Kampeas |JTA
W
ASHINGTON — If there’s a trait that unites the 100 members of the U.S. Senate, it is volubility: These folks, who invented the filibuster, know how to talk. It was remarkable to see them then exiting a screening room on Tuesday in the bowels of the Capitol building, barely able to shape their mouths into a single word. The unusual silence came after two senators, Jacky Rosen, a Jewish Nevada Democrat, and Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, screened for their fellow senators 43 minutes of harrowing footage of the carnage Hamas terrorists committed on Oct. 7. “I don’t want to talk about it,” New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, said as she walked away, her eyes filled with tears. Israel’s government, which produced the film to combat denial about the horrors that unfolded during the attack, has made the video available for private screenings, on strict condition that its images are not shared. It has been shown in statehouses and Hollywood, and New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who leads the Democratic minority in the U.S. House of Representatives, has screened the video for House members. The latest viewing comes at a pivotal time for support in Washington for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. A short ceasefire is now underway as Israel trades Palestinian prisoners for some of the 240 hostages Hamas terrorists abducted on Oct. 7. Israel wants to resume the war soon to maintain its momentum. But even as President Joe Biden staunchly supports Israel’s aims — to return the hostages and dismantle Hamas — the Biden administration is pressing Israel for assurances that it will protect Gazan civilians when it resumes its campaign. And skepticism of how Israel has waged war in Gaza has increased among Democrats, with 49 members of Congress now supporting 20
DECEMBER 1, 2023
p Sen. Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat, runs out of a Senate room where there was a screening of the Oct. 7 Hamas atrocities, in the U.S. Capitol, Nov. 28, 2023. Photo by Ron Kampeas
some sort of extended ceasefire, a dynamic that Punchbowl News reported has Israelis so concerned that they dispatched a senior military figure to speak to congressional Democrats on Monday. Two Democrats who back a ceasefire were among the 40 senators from both parties who attended the screening. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren blanched and brushed away a reporter as she exited, whispering “No comment.” Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin was the first to leave. A reporter asked him if seeing the violence changed his outlook in any way. “All I know is that it was horrific and this makes it clear just how horrible it was,” he said before ducking into a senators-only portion of the building. Most of the senators exiting the room said nothing, despite pleas from reporters. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, held upon her hand and kept walking, her eyes
cast down. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat whose mother is a Holocaust survivor, literally ran out of the room. (A spokeswoman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency he was “deeply disturbed” by what he saw but was also rushing to preside over the Senate floor.) Only Rosen and Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, spoke at any length to reporters. Cruz, a skilled orator, spoke slowly and deliberately in low haunted tones, fixating on the joy evident in the terrorists as they carried out their butchery. “Much of the footage is from Hamas’ own body cams from their own cell phones,” Cruz said. “We saw terrorists celebrating as they murdered children and women, as they desecrated the bodies, we saw them beheading bodies with knives, we heard audio of the terrorists calling their parents celebrating the people that they murdered.”
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He paused a long moment. “There is a level of evil and hate and depravity that defies words,” he said. For Cruz, what he saw made Israel’s case for continuing the war. For Rosen, it was a case she felt he had to make to the Senate; she said in a statement after the screening that she was hoping to convince her colleagues to support $14 billion emergency aid package to Israel that Biden has requested. “It’s important that we see it now in real time because Hamas has avowed to repeat this day, over and over, over and over,” she said immediately after the screening, in a low, reverent tone, her face still blanched white. “We need to move forward to find a way to end the cancer that is Hamas terror. And that’s what we need to do. That’s what I’m going to focus on.” Her aide reminded her she had a meeting. It would have to wait. “I’m going to take a moment for myself after this,” Rosen said. PJC PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG
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p Batya Rosenblum is proud of the women’s events and relationships Chabad of the South Hills has organized over the last quarter-century. Photo provided by Chabad of South Hills
p Chabad of the South Hills has become part of the Jewish DNA of Pittsburgh’s southern communities through events like its annual gathering of men from all Jewish backgrounds during Sukkot. This year’s event was organized by Rabbi Levi Rosenblum, Rabbi Mendy Rosenblum’s son, who now works with organization. Photo provided by Chabad of South Hills
Chabad:
“We all got to finish a letter into the new Torah — that was a lot of fun,” she said. While Rosenblum understands that some might see him as a pioneer, he prefers to think of himself as someone willing to take a calculated risk. Over the years, he said, the risks he’s taken have made sense and he’s relied on the counsel of a strong board and good advisers. The initial move, he said, felt like an adventure and was exhilarating. Over the years, Chabad of the South Hills has grown with the Chabad movement, offering programs as they’ve become available, like the popular Jewish Learning Institute courses. The center, Rosenblum noted, has become part of the South Hills’ Jewish DNA and is supported by the community. As an example, last year, the center raised more than $150,000 in just 48 hours as part of its annual fundraiser. Part of Chabad of the South Hills’ success,
Continued from page 7
the center, helping with various events over the years and taking courses offered by the rabbi and rebbetzin. “I have to say, I love the guy,” Friedlander said, in reference to Rosenblum. “I really mean it — he’s a great guy.” Susan Sofayov moved to the South Hills because of the Chabad center. “We lived in Squirrel Hill, and I wanted to move to the suburbs,” she said. “My husband, who is Israeli, thought we were moving into the forest. We stopped at this
old supermarket on Bower Hill Road and my husband met the rabbi. Once he knew there was an Orthodox rabbi and a Chabad center he said, ‘OK, we can move now.’” Sofayov said that her family became very involved in Chabad, and her children attended Hebrew school there. In fact, she said, her family sponsored the kitchen at the McFarland location. “It was my son’s bar mitzvah, and we only had days to get it together,” she remembered. “It was really running around like crazy.” Especially poignant for Sofayov was when a Torah was dedicated.
MARCH 28 CARNEGIE OF HOMESTEAD MUSIC HALL
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David Rullo can be reached at drullo@ pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
Cassoulet: Continued from page 14
oil remaining in the pot and sauté for 12-15 minutes in the olive oil and lamb fat, stirring occasionally. Add the sliced garlic and sauté for an additional 2-3 minutes. Add the wine and cook for a minute or two, using a wooden spoon to scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pot, and allow the alcohol to dissipate. Turn off the flame and set the oven to 325 F. Pour the chicken broth into the pot and gently stir in the rinsed cannellini beans. Nestle the lamb shanks into the bean mixture and sprinkle with a half-teaspoon
MODI: MODI: KNOW KNOW YOUR YOUR AUDIENCE
Rosenblum said, is the organization’s willingness to reach out beyond the confines of its building. He noted that they’ve done Purim parties and Chanukah events, featured speakers and programming at various public spaces, including hotels, the Jewish Community Center and more. He said that his inspiration came from the Lubavitch Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who encouraged the growth of Chabad in the suburbs after the Holocaust. The goal, Rosenblum said, has never changed and never has been strictly about growth. “We want Judaism to be enriched in the world and we want more Jews to experience being Jewish. That’s the goal,” he said. “Ultimately, to bring about the coming of the moshiach.” PJC
p Sear the lamb on both sides.
PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE
p Nestle the lamb into the cannellini beans, then add seasoning and herbs.
Photos by Jessica Grann
of salt and coarsely ground black pepper to taste. Tie a bouquet of herbs with kitchen string, or just place the bunch of herbs in the pot on top of the beans. Bake for 90 minutes. Remove the lid and check the meat with a fork. It should be very tender. If it is a little tough, put the lid back on and return the pot to the oven for 15-20 minutes. Let the pot rest covered for a halfhour before serving. Remove the herb bouquet and plate the beans. Serve one lamb shank per person. Enjoy and bless your hands! PJC Jessica Grann is a home chef living in Pittsburgh. PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG
Community Bring the hostages home
Community members gathered in Squirrel Hill on the corner of Darlington Road and Murray Avenue on Nov. 26 to demand the return of hostages taken by Hamas nearly two months ago. The demonstration welcomed nearly 50 attendees and concluded with signs bearing the names and images of hostages being placed on Squirrel Hill street poles.
p From left: Ben Gueta, Helleny Dvir and Ron Korelaro
p From left: Gal Peretz and Rebecca Dupuis
Photos courtesy of David Dvir
Cooking up a smile
The Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh hosted a cooking club program.
p Veggie skewers, strawberry cheesecake and berry mocktails is a recipe for smiles.
p Hooray for friendship.
Challah for Israel
Grandparent and special friend day at CDS
Chabad at Pitt students held a Challah Bake for Israel. Proceeds were sent to the Israel Defense Forces.
p Loaves with love
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Photo courtesy of Chabad at Pitt
Photos courtesy of The Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh
Community Day School hosted a grandparent and special friend day. The event featured a challah bake and quality time together.
p From left: Lev Shropshire and his grandfather Jimmy Cohen make memories.
PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE
Photo courtesy of Community Day School
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