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Hellish tales of a holiday strike seasonal chord
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Last holidays at temple are a time for mixed emotions By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer
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neighborhood collecting branches that fell or that gardeners had cut down.” Only once was it a pleasurable experience, recalled the now Squirrel Hill resident. “When I was 7, Hurricane Gloria hit right before Sukkos so there were trees knocked down everywhere,” Knoll said. “It was the happiest Sukkot we ever had, because piles of schach were everywhere.” Hebrew literature terms the holiday “the season of rejoicing,” but for South Hills residents, Sukkot 2010 was the season of the storm. On the night of Sept. 22 that year a “powerful microburst hit the South Hills,” recalled Marty Altschul. “Just as Temple Emanuel Torah Center classes were about to start,” the storm struck and lifted the temple’s sukkah “out into the middle of Bower Hill Road.” While the tumultuous tempest disrupted the planned spaghetti dinner and services at Temple Emanuel, all was calm outside of the rabbi’s house. Though the gale had leveled trees, uprooted frames and knocked out power throughout the neighborhood, “my new sukkah withstood the elements,” said Rabbi Mark Mahler. “To mix a metaphor, or more
ith memories of decades past and the uncertainty of days to come, there is an emotional surge ready to crest this holiday season. But given Temple Hadar Israel’s impending closure, the days of awe will have added emotion for members of the New Castle congregation. “It’s sad. We’ve been here for so many years, and this is it,” said Carole Schwartz, a temple member for more than 50 years. “Just saying goodbye to the temple and to friends from the congregation that you probably won’t see so often, it’s a tough one, it really is,” echoed Marcia Meyers, a board member who has attended the temple off and on since she was a young girl. With the synagogue slated to shut on Dec. 31, these High Holidays will be the last for Temple Hadar Israel, a congregation whose origins date to 1894. Back then, even before 40 people broke ground and incorporated what was once called Tifereth Israel Congregation, New Castle Jewish life had already been present for nearly 50 years. According to the Rauh Jewish Archives, the sprinklings of New Castle’s Jewish community started with Manassah and Sarah Heinlein in 1848, when a dry goods store was created by Heinlein and his father-in-law, Marx Arnold. Through employment at the shop, the city’s Jewish presence slowly grew. Years after Tifereth Israel, an Orthodox congregation, was established, Temple Israel, a Reform congregation, planted its New Castle roots in 1926. Tifereth Israel and Temple Israel catered to different religious interests, explained Jonathan Solomon, 70, a lifelong New Castle resident. With a mother who grew up in Temple Israel, and a father who was reared in Tifereth Israel, the High Holidays were an annual confrontation as each parent complained “about the other’s brand of religion, and it got really ugly.”
Please see Sukkot, page 16
Please see Services, page 16
Oncology nurse’s foundation brings smiles to families dealing with terminal illness. Page 2 LOCAL Robert M. Frankel, 89 Father of state legislator leaves legacy of civic engagement. Page 3
FOOD Grilled, but light
Try halibut and string beans for a satisfying meal. Page 14
Will this sukkah withstand the elements? Only time will tell.
Photo by Adam Reinherz
By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer
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he winds blow, leaves fall, and down goes the sukkah. Less a lyric than a nightmare, the reality of the approaching holiday is that for as joyous as it is to celebrate Sukkot outdoors, for many Pittsburghers, the festival’s recognizable makeshift dwellings are often boxes built of horror. “As a kid, all you want to do is fit in,” said David Knoll, 38. Considering the Knoll family’s construct, “fitting in” takes on new meaning. “Ours was from a guy from shul,” Knoll said. “This was pre-chat groups or Craigslist. My dad found some guy who was getting rid of a heavy wood octagon-shaped sukkah.” For 10 years, the Knolls used the same structure, and although there were a lot of sukkahs in West Hempstead, N.Y., where Knoll grew up, only one was octagonal, he said. Making matters worse was that apart from sticking out like a green-shaded stop sign, the eight-sided hut had the most natural of covers. As opposed to using rollable bamboo mats or freshly delivered evergreen bundles for schach (temporary roofing), “every year before Sukkos, we had to go around the
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Headlines Giving cancer the slip, for just one day — LOCAL — By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer
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ulie Miller was diagnosed with metastatic ovarian cancer last year, but the most severe pain she feels comes from neither the chemotherapy and its side effects, nor the neuropathy in her feet. Rather, what has been most difficult for Miller to bear is watching the light go out of the eyes of her usually animated 12-year-old daughter, Lucie, her only child. But for one day last summer, that light returned, thanks to the work of oncology nurse Rachel Antin and her newly formed foundation, One Day to Remember. Antin, who currently works at MageeWomens Hospital in palliative care, established her nonprofit less than a year ago and has already helped four local families, each headed by a terminally ill parent, experience one perfect day where his or her illness is kicked to the curb. “It’s hard to see the pain in your child’s eyes,” said Miller, “and know that you’re the cause of it.” “It has been very hard for my daughter,” Miller, 50, continued. “She really has had to grow up this year. She spends a lot of time home by herself, when my husband has to take me to the doctor.” Miller’s cancer also has taken its toll on her husband, Ron, who works full time in maintenance at a mental health facility. “He is very quiet and really doesn’t have anyone to talk to,” she said. “Now he does all the work around the house, and because I can’t drive because of the neuropathy in my feet, he has to drive Lucie, who is active in sports, everywhere. I worry a lot about him.” Those worries were left behind on July 17
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BOARD OF TRUSTEES David Ainsman, Chairman Evan Indianer, Vice Chairman Gayle R. Kraut, Secretary Andrew Schaer, Treasurer Richard J. Kitay, Immediate Past Chairman Jonathan Bernstein, Gail Childs, Elizabeth F. Collura, Seth Dresbold, Milton Eisner, Malke Steinfeld Frank, Tracy Gross, Catia Kossovsky, Andi Perelman, Amy Platt, David Rush, Charles Saul GENERAL COUNSEL Stuart R. Kaplan, Esq.
2 SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
p Julie Miller with husband Ron and daughter Lucie
when a limousine picked up the Miller family from their home in Monroeville and delivered them to PNC Park in time for batting practice. Ron and Lucie are big Pirates fans, so when a coach gave Lucie a ball, and then she climbed over seats to collect four more, she was ecstatic. “That just made her day,” Miller said. Following batting practice, the Millers headed over to Steel Cactus for lunch, then back to the park to watch the Bucs beat the Brewers, further fed with all the concessions they could eat. They were also followed around all day by a professional photographer who made them feel like celebrities and then created a book of photos to memorialize their special day. “The best part of the day was seeing the light return to Lucie’s eyes, because she lost part of her personality this year,” Miller said. “I wanted her to have a perfect day.” Antin, who moved to the Steel City for nursing school and decided to stay after she met and married Pittsburgher Ben Antin, was working at Hillman Cancer Center when she “noticed a void with families going
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Photo by Adam Michaels
through a cancer diagnosis,” she said. Watching kids “struggle with how sick their parents got,” Antin was inspired to help. She began by collecting funds to sponsor Christmas gifts one year for a single mother with a terminal prognosis and her three daughters, “to give them an uplifting feeling.” For another single mother beginning hospice, Antin arranged a limousine and dinner on Mt. Washington for the woman and her 10-year-old daughter. Then Antin set out to create a nonprofit that could help more families struggling with a terminal disease. One Day to Remember has been a 501(c)(3) since last September and is funded by both private donors and a few corporate sponsors. Antin, who does all the event planning herself, hopes to provide a special day for any family in which a parent has a “limited life expectancy,” is under the care of a physician and has at least one child under the age of 18. “Every outing is tailored to the family,” Antin said. “I talk to the family about
p Rachel Antin, founder of One Day to Remember
Photo by Lauren Renee
what they haven’t been able to do since their diagnosis.” Other days to remember that Antin has planned include a horseback riding excursion and a private tour of the Pittsburgh Zoo. “It provides a day of normalcy, a day of fun,” said Antin, who is a member of Congregation Beth Shalom. “It’s a day when the diagnosis is not the center of the world, and just a breath of fresh air for these people. It just gives them a break.” While most experiences take three to four weeks to plan, Antin said she can work on an expedited schedule if the progression of the disease makes that necessary. For the Miller family, the memories of their day at PNC Park will continue to be cherished. “Cancer is always the elephant in the room,” Miller said. “But for that one day, there was no elephant in the room. We were just a family having fun.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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Headlines Robert Frankel enriched city through arts, civic leadership
• Millions among us suffer and die from chronic, diet-related diseases each year. • Billions of animals are subjected to unfathomable cruelty in the meat, dairy and egg industries. • Animal agriculture is the No. 1 contributor to global climate change among all economic sectors.
— LOCAL —
As we enter the New Year, let’s align our actions with Judaism’s values – and solve these problems.
By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer
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obert M. Frankel, a lifetime Pittsburgher, patron of the arts and father of State Rep. Dan Frankel, died on Sept. 17. He was 89. Frankel built his career in the field of insurance, serving as president of The Frankel Company, then as vice chairman of the Hilb, Rogal and Hamilton Company of Pittsburgh. A graduate of Taylor Allderdice High School and the University of Pittsburgh, Frankel developed communication skills that he used to not only succeed in the business world, but to make an impact on the civic landscape of his hometown. Although not an artist in his own right, Frankel was devoted throughout his life to bolstering the viability of cultural organizations and securing their future. In the early 1990s, Frankel served as president of the City Theatre and chaired a capital campaign that raised nearly $3 million to move the theater to its current home on the South Side and effectively put it on the map as a player in Pittsburgh’s arts scene. “Bob was an inspiration to me, and he was such a great leader,” said Marc Masterson, former artistic director of City Theatre. “He taught me and many others what it meant to be involved civically.” Frankel was a “connector,” Masterson continued. “He could sit down with you at lunch and within 10 minutes ask you questions and then use your responses to connect your interests with the interests of the organizations he was trying to raise money for.” City Theatre established the Robert M. Frankel Award to honor his leadership and to recognize artists’ and patrons’ commitment to new play creation and support. In the 1980s, Frankel served as the chairman of the Three Rivers Arts Festival, tapping its potential to bring vibrancy to a city that was feeling the effects of the collapse of the steel industry. “He saw arts and culture as so important to the vitality of our city,” said his son Dan Frankel. “When he was chairman of the Three Rivers Arts Festival in the early to mid-1980s, he took that which was very much a struggling organization and instead of basically stopping the bleeding of the organization, he had a bigger vision for it. He was able to successfully raise the money to triple its budget, take its operating accounts from a deficit to a surplus and at the same time, expand the Three Rivers Arts Festival from 10 days to three weeks. “He viewed it not just as a cultural opportunity,” Frankel continued, “but as the steel industry was collapsing and as the city was shrinking and being challenged, as a way to revitalize the downtown and the city.” Robert Frankel’s love of the arts began in his youth, with the collection of playbills. Although he tried his hand at acting while a senior at Taylor Allderdice, he was “fired”
70-Plus Rabbis Urge Transition Toward Animal-Free, Plant-Based Diets
We, the undersigned rabbis, encourage our fellow Jews to transition toward animal-free, plant-based diets. This approach to sustenance is an expression of our shared Jewish values of compassion for animals, protection of the environment, and concern for our physical and spiritual well-being. Jewish Veg Rabbinic Council
p Robert M. Frankel
Photo provided
after being cast in the lead of the class play because he played hooky from rehearsals, Dan Frankel said. He had the looks but not the talent for theater, according to his son. “He was an incredibly good-looking guy,” Frankel said. “He had a Cary Grant kind of look and Paul Newman blue eyes.” His love of theater was enhanced after meeting the love of his life, Rebeca, while she was a theater major at Carnegie Tech, performing in an Ibsen play, Dan Frankel said. “My father was smitten,” he continued. “They had a remarkable love affair, and that marriage was one of the most defining things in his life. They met, went on a date and had this whirlwind romance and were married less than three months later.” The marriage cultivated and inspired Frankel’s interest in not just theater, but the arts in general, his son said. “My mother was a docent at the Carnegie Institute of Art, and my father was on the board of the Carnegie Institute of Art,” he said. “They enjoyed art and culture together throughout their lives, and it also blended in with their Jewish faith, because they cultivated that Jewishly.” The senior Frankel served as president of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture in the 1990s. “As president, Bob led the NFJC through some of its most productive and creative years, bringing to the organization his sophisticated appreciation for the arts and his deep commitment to contemporary Jewish culture,” recalled Richard Siegel, who, as executive director of the NFJC, worked alongside Frankel. Frankel devoted himself to Jewish education, serving as president of the Hebrew Institute. He also served on many other boards throughout the city, including UPMC Presbyterian and Montefiore Hospitals, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and Rodef
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For FREE help in transitioning to a plant-based diet, visit ...
JewishVeg.org/Pledge Jewish Veg is a 501c3 nonprofit organization devoted to encouraging and helping Jews to adopt plant-based diets in accordance with the highest values of Judaism. We thank the U.K.-based Jewish Vegetarian Society for its help in locating rabbis to sign this statement.
Please see Frankel, page 17
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SEPTEMBER 29, 2017 3
Headlines Chabad of Fox Chapel looking to sell building, refine focus — LOCAL — By Toby Tabachnick | Senior Staff Writer
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he building that has been home to Chabad of Fox Chapel since 2009 is now up for sale. Listed since April 2017, 1343 Old Freeport Road, a 3,000-square foot structure owned by Chabad of Fox Chapel, is being offered for sale for $650,000. The building is zoned for commercial use. “Financial” reasons were cited as necessitating the sale, although Chabad programming will continue in Fox Chapel, according to Rabbi Ely Rosenfeld, director of Chabad of Fox Chapel. The building is currently still being used for High Holiday services. “We have had a lot of changes over the years,” explained Rosenfeld, who is separated from his wife, Shternie Rosenfeld, the former co-director of Chabad of Fox Chapel. “We have a new concept now, and we don’t need a building for most of our programming.” As co-director, Shternie Rosenfeld directed the Hebrew school and had planned to open a preschool. She also helped run Chabad of Fox Chapel’s Camp Gan Israel and its Jewish
4 SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
“ We have had a lot of changes over the years. We have a new concept now, and we don’t need a building for most of our
”
programming.
— RABBI ELY ROSENFELD, DIRECTOR OF CHABAD OF FOX CHAPEL
p Chabad of Fox Chapel
Image provided by Google Maps
Women’s Circle, among other responsibilities. Chabad of Fox Chapel has not offered a Hebrew school program for several years, ceased hosting Friday night Shabbat services about two years ago and has never offered regular Saturday morning services, said Rosenfeld, so the organization no longer requires a building of that size from which to operate. “It made more economic sense to look at other options,” he said. Rosenfeld said he intends to continue educational programming, as well as programming for special events, such as Chanukah, utilizing community spaces, including public libraries and schools. “We will now have more of a laser focus,” he said, homing in on education and family
programming. “Less is more.” Rosenfeld will also continue to operate Chabad’s Jewish Relief Agency, which provides monthly food distribution to families in need. Earlier this month, JRA worked out of Repair the World headquarters in East Liberty, mobilizing 40 volunteers to pack and deliver food for 140 families and children. About 9 percent of Greater Pittsburgh’s Jewish population lives in the Fox Chapel/ O’Hara Township area and sections of the North Hills, according to the 2002 Jewish Community Study, which provides the most recent data available. Once the building on Old Freeport Road is sold, Chabad of Fox Chapel will continue to hold High Holiday services in the coming
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years, but at temporary venues, as it did prior to owning its own building. Former locations for services included the Holiday Inn and the Fox Chapel Racquet Club. Chabad of Fox Chapel is currently in negotiations with a potential buyer, according to Marc Rice, president of the organization’s board. “But the deal is not done until it’s done,” he said. “In religious Jewish communities, edifices are not important,” stressed Rice. “We’d rather put the money into programming and keep our costs down.” PJC Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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Headlines Israel’s ‘emotional pull’ tugs at author Nicole Krauss
ATTENTION LAWYERS & LAW PROFESSIONALS
— LOCAL — By Beth Kissileff
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ven before she left Brooklyn, N.Y., Nicole Krauss, author of four novels, heard good things about Pittsburgh. Krauss said that as she was leaving, a friend asked her where she was going. When she answered, “Pittsburgh,” the friend responded that she had a “fantasy of moving there” since it was supposed to be such a great place to live. Krauss did not have time to look around the city in her packed schedule, which was planned by the Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures program, but added , “I hope I have time to come back,” as she liked what she saw. Krauss is on a multicity book tour for her newest novel, “Forest Dark,” which recently garnered a featured review in The New York Times. In Pittsburgh, she spoke at the Carnegie Library in Oakland to an attentive audience of about 150 on Sept. 19. At the event, Krauss read two passages from her book and took questions from host Josh Raulerson of WESA and from audience members. She signed books for a long line of interested patrons at the conclusion of the program. Among a new generation of American Jewish novelists, Krauss is not unique in using Israel as the setting for her literary explorations. In a recent issue of the Jewish Review of Books, journalist Matti Friedman (also named as a character in the novel) discusses Krauss’ book along with three recent others set in Israel by Nathan Englander, Joshua Cohen and Jonathan Safran Foer (Krauss’ ex-husband). Krauss said about Friedman’s notion that all these writers have entered the “gravitational pull” of Israel: “I think he is right in the sense that Israel was for a long time a Diasporic idea … as a projector on itself of its own longings,” but “at some point in the last few decades, that has ceased to be the case. Israel hijacked the narrative with its own extraordinary literature and production of culture.” Krauss added that she feels “emotional pull as much as gravitational pull” toward Israel. Israel for Krauss personally represents another possibility, the life she could have lived had her family gone to Israel in her childhood years and not to America. Both sets of her grandparents lived in Israel. In response to how a book set in Israel has been received, Krauss stated that although it depends on the place, “surprisingly,” most audiences respond “in an interested and open fashion and not in a politically judgmental fashion.” She added that the conversation focused “on the idea of Israel, why these characters go to Israel, and why this is a crucial place — a place that has so
p Nicole Krauss
Photo by Goni Riskin
many thousands of years of history that keep reverberating now.” Though Kafka, a character in “Forest Dark” experiences an alternate version of history that has him moving to what was then Palestine and living his days out there instead of dying in Prague in 1924, Israel was not touched upon in the conversation or the questions at the Carnegie Library. Raulerson summarized the book and asked Krauss about what it means to be lost about the interpenetrating alternate realities she creates in the book, about whether Kafka could have lived out his days in Israel. During the question-and-answer period, Krauss was asked about Bruno Schulz and Kafka, whether her characters take over and function on their own in her writing, whether reading fiction is disorienting and why she chose to give one of the characters her own name Nicole. Krauss discussed the beginning of her writing career as a poet with Joseph Brodsky as her mentor and her turn to writing fiction because she found greater freedom in reinventing a self there. She recounted for the audience how on her trips to visit her grandparents in Israel she would walk past the apartment on Spinoza Street belonging to the inheritor of the manuscripts, the daughter of the secretary and lover of Kafka’s literary executor Max Brod. Krauss would wonder whether Kafka was really there in the unpublished and unknown manuscripts and thought of “what remains of Kafka” as well as whether the writer was “imprisoned” in the apartment. She spoke of her fascination with “shadow lives” — those possibilities that are unlived for people who are finite and how, like her character, she is “here on stage” while a part of her is elsewhere. For Krauss, a novel is a “searching vehicle” that provides an opportunity to “ask questions not necessarily receive answers,” though for those Pittsburgh literary groupies in the audience, the author’s talk itself provided its own kind of search even if the answers were not final. PJC
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SEPTEMBER 29, 2017 5
Headlines J-Fest on Darlington is a one-day party of boundless opportunity — LOCAL — By Adam Reinherz | Staff Writer
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teelers Sunday looks to be a Steelers fun day on Oct. 1, as teens from around the area are invited to participate in J-Fest on Darlington. The one-day event, which will last from noon until 3 p.m. on Darlington Road outside of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, will welcome an array of activities and free food for those seeking to join the collaborative engagement, explained Andrew Exler, an event organizer and Keystone Mountain Region BBYO regional director. Whether you want to watch the Steelers away game against the division-rival Ravens on a giant big-screen TV, participate in programs with AEPi fraternity members, engage in community service opportunities, learn about the upcoming holiday of Sukkot while sitting in a sukkah or even step into a free Zumba class led by JCC instructors, there are countless opportunities for teens at J-Fest. Said Exler: “We want every Jewish teen to come and enjoy it in some way.” J-Fest’s multiple program offerings denote that the event was designed to be as collaborative as possible, said Alex Cohen, co-regional president of KMR BBYO. “We want everybody to come no matter
p A photo from last year’s Voice Your Vote program at Dave & Buster’s. This year’s J-Fest on Darlington seeks to build on the momentum generated by last year’s teen collaboration. Photo by Adam Reinherz
background or affiliation,” agreed Exler, who added that all of the food will be “100 percent kosher.” The impetus for creating inclusive teen programming follows the success of last year’s Voice Your Vote event at Dave & Buster’s. As the nation tuned in to follow the state-by-state results of the most recent presidential election, hundreds of Jewish teenagers from diverse backgrounds and
locations across Western Pennsylvania descended on the Homestead-located arcade and restaurant for a night of discussion, free food and introductions. “J-Fest on Darlington is this year’s version of that event,” said Exler, who added that apart from the vast amounts of fun generated by the Dave & Buster’s event, Voice Your Vote was “an educational” experience. “Because of how successful last year’s
event was, we reached out to different organizations around the community to do something [similar],” the organizer said. Accordingly, a team of 10 to 12 teenagers from a host of Jewish youth groups planned J-Fest on Darlington, said Cohen. “With the reins in hand, those teens were able to take ownership of the event,” said Exler. “Because of the diverse representation involved, the product should be something of incredible inclusion,” added Cohen. Registration for the totally free one-day street festival is not required but encouraged, said the organizer, as it helps “track” where the teens are coming from. Free round-trip busing will be provided from the South Hills, Wexford and Fox Chapel. “We’re trying to hit every element of this,” said Exler. “This event is for teens and by teens.” Having community-wide collaborate programming for teens is important, said Chris Herman, division director of the Jewish Life Department at the JCC. When asked what people should know about the upcoming J-Fest event, Cohen, a senior at Upper St. Clair High School, said that it is a “culmination” of opportunities, adding that regardless of background or denomination, Jewish teenagers “can come together and do something awesome and inclusive.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
The Jewish Community Foundation 2017 Fall Event
News, Jews & Views October 22, 2017 10:00 am Rodef Shalom
Join us for a conversation between Foundation Scholar Rabbi Danny Schiff and Bari Weiss, editor and writer for The New York Times Op-Ed Section RSVP by October 16, 2017 Please contact Patti Dziekan at 412.992.5221 or pdziekan@jfedpgh.org. Brunch will be served Dietary laws observed. This is a non-solicitation event. Accommodations available to include differing abilities; please contact Patti Dziekan with needs.
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6 SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
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Headlines Birthday dinner a tribute to Pittsburgh family’s reach — LOCAL —
I
rwin Roth, a longtime resident of East End, was honored on Sept. 7, his 95th birthday, with a celebratory dinner in Bravo’s in the Waterfront. Family members came from four different states to attend, along with many Pittsburgh-area relatives and friends. Known alternatively as Irv and Srol, a derivative of his Hebrew name, Yisroel, he is a World War II veteran of the Army Air Corps who served as a B-17 mechanic in
Africa and Italy. He continues to work in real estate management, as he has for many years. And he tops a five-generation family tree that includes niece Harriet Gross of Dallas, a Texas Jewish Post columnist; her son, grandnephew Sol Marcus of Turtle Creek; his daughters, great-grand nieces Rose Marcus of Squirrel Hill, Lena Krutilla of Aliquippa and Mollie Wilson of Monroeville; and two great-great-grand nephews, Andy Krutilla and Lex Wilson. All were present for the event. In-town attendees included nephew David Steinberg and wife Barbara of Avalon; great-
p Irwin Roth’s family showed up in full force.
Insuring Our Community
p Harriet Gross with Uncle Irwin Roth
Photos courtesy of Harriet Gross
niece Donna Silverstein of Monroeville; and cousins Michael Melnick and Jackie Harris, plus longtime family friends Roselie Denny and Howard Ostfield, all of Pittsburgh. All of Irv’s seven sisters and four brothers are now deceased, but he continues to live in the same East End house that the five Roth sons bought for the family when they returned from their WWII service. The first dinner in that house was to celebrate Thanksgiving 1945. Now, Irv offers its hospitality to out-of-
town relatives whenever they visit Pittsburgh. Cneses Israel on Negley Avenue was the Roth family’s shul for decades. When aging membership and shifting demographics forced its closure at the end of the 20th century, Irv enabled his niece Harriet’s Dallas-area synagogue, Congregation Beth Torah of Richardson, Texas, to receive one of its Torah scrolls. There, the Roth Torah has become a favorite for Shabbat and holiday readings. PJC
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Calendar q SUNDAY, OCT. 15 Israel at 70: Looking Back, Looking Ahead with Consul General Dani Dayan, 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh in Squirrel Hill, 5738 Forbes Ave. Dayan, who is consul general of Israel in New York, will address issues including but not limited to: religious pluralism in Israel and the diaspora, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and other security threats to the State of Israel, and the prime minister’s most recent trips to Africa and Latin America. Contact Eric Probola at eprobola@jfedpgh.org or 412-9925247 for more information. q FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6
Break the Fast with Moishe House Pittsburgh and J’Burgh from 8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Full kosher meal provided (lox, bagels and so much more) at no charge. RSVP is required to attend at https://hilleljuc.wufoo.com/forms/ supei151aee35e/. Contact moishehousepgh@ gmail.com for more information.
On the Shabbat of Sukkot join the second annual Temple David vegan potluck Shabbat dinner followed by worship and speaker Sally Lipsky of Food for Health, a nonprofit service offering guidance and support for healthy, plant-centered eating. If you want recipe ideas for a plant-based dish, visit her website at https://www.plantbasedeatinghub.com/. Vegan means no animal products — no meat, chicken, fish, eggs, or dairy. Consider what you can make from vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains, legumes. 6 p.m., followed by worship at 7:30 p.m. at Temple David, 4415 Northern Pike, Monroeville. For more information contact Stan Beck at stanb@templedavid.org or 412-491-0313.
q SUNDAY, OCT. 1 J-Fest on Darlington is for the teens, by the teens and will be held from noon to 3 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh in Squirrel Hill. The first year of this free street festival will celebrate Jewish teens in Pittsburgh with activities like Zumba in the street, a Steelers big screen watch party outside, 100 percent kosher food, games, programming, community service and more. Contact Andrew Exler with any questions at aexler@bbyo.org. Brunch & Serve (& Build!) by Repair the World. Brunch 10-11 a.m. at Repair the World, 6022 Broad St., East Liberty. Service and sukkah building from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Sheridan Avenue Orchard. Register at http:// rpr.world/pghsukkot. q MONDAY, OCTOBER 2 Germany Today. Dr. Lauren Bairnsfather will discuss her trip to Germany in August 2017. Sponsored by Classrooms without Borders in Pittsburgh and Germany Close Up in Berlin, the trip provides Jewish young adults with an immersive and valuable experience. This is also an opportunity for the community to meet the Holocaust Center’s 2017-2018 ARSP volunteer from Germany, Tim Zenglein. 7 p.m. at the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, 826 Hazelwood Ave. Register at https:// is.gd/hsENtG. q TUESDAY, OCT. 3 Reservations must be in for the Squirrel Hill AARP trip Oct. 24 to Tara, near Sharon, Pa., for a tour of Gone with the Wind Hotel and lunch. There will be a stop at Reyers Shoe Store on the return trip. The cost is $58 for members and $65 for anyone that belongs to the national AARP group. Contact Marsha Kramer at 412-656-5803.
8 SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
q THURSDAY, OCT. 26
SOUTH HILLS NOSH & KNOW with Rabbi Danny Schiff, Foundation scholar, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh, 1635 McFarland Road. Sessions in recognition of “Israel at 70.” Visit southhillsjewishpittsburgh. org or call 412-697-6647 for more information.
Helen Faye Rosenbloom, writer, teacher and community reviewer, will review “Forest Dark” by Nicole Krauss at 10:30 a.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation. The book is about Jewish identity and the relationships between generations.
q THURSDAY, OCT. 19
q SATURDAY, SEPT. 30
Yom Kippur Afternoon Panel Discussion on “Courageous Conversations: Women of Faith.” How does one guide our faith communities in times of turmoil? What does it take to lead in a position traditionally held by men? Is raising teenagers one of the most courageous acts of this age? Rabbi Sharyn Henry will be joined by Dr. Malak Bokhari, Quranic Arabic teacher, and Ayana Teter, associate minister of the Pittsburgh Presbytery, for a panel discussion about courage and leadership. Open to the community at 3 p.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation.
q WEDNESDAY, OCT. 18-NOV. 15
q TUESDAY, OCT. 10 Seniors in the Sukkah at noon at Chabad of the South Hills in Mt. Lebanon. Lunch, music, shaking the lulav and etrog and a holiday program. $5 suggested donation. Wheelchair accessible. Contact Barb at 412-278-2658 or barb@chabadsh.com to preregister. q WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11 All-Rolled-Into-One Simchat Torah Activities: Roll into Rodef Shalom to roll out Torahs in the sanctuary, as well as roll up rugelach and vegetarian sushi to nosh on. It is sure to be a rock’n’rolling good time. 5:30 p.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation. q SUNDAY, OCT. 15 Helen Wilson, teacher, editor and author of “Squirrel Hill: A Neighborhood History,” will speak about her new book at 1 p.m. at Rodef Shalom. Wilson is president of the Squirrel Hill Historical Society. South Hills Jewish Pittsburgh presents the Jewish Family Fall Festival. Admission includes a kosher picnic lunch, hayride, pumpkin picking, hay/corn mazes, petting zoo and more. $5 per person through Oct. 5 and $10 per person thereafter; limited to the first 300 people. 12:30-3:30 p.m. at Simmons Farm, 170 Simmons Rd., McMurray. To register and for more information call 412-697-6647 or visit southhillsjewishpittsburgh.org. Make reservations by Oct. 5
The ninth annual Celebrating Senior Champions will be held at 5:30 p.m. at the Omni William Penn Hotel. Rick Sebak is master of ceremonies. Honorees include Community Champion Karen Wolk Feinstein, president and CEO of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation; and Grand Champion Arthur S. Levine, MD, University of Pittsburgh senior vice chancellor for the Health Sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean, School of Medicine. Make reservations by Oct. 5 at upmc.com/ celebratingseniorchampions or by calling Lynn Orbin at 412-864-3521. q SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21 Travel with Classrooms Without Borders to Gnadenhutten, Ohio, to see how genocide has taken place in our own backyard. Learn about the history of a town that was witness to a large massacre of Native Americans in 1782. For more information and to RSVP go to https://is.gd/bgkI6n. q SUNDAY, OCT. 22 Children’s Village Open House. Join Classrooms Without Borders for an informative and engaging afternoon focused on its 2018 Children’s Village Seminar. During the open house, attendees can hear from a guest speaker, review an outline of the itinerary, gain an understanding of costs involved, and ask questions. 2-4 p.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation. To learn more and to RSVP go to https://is.gd/6jdBh7. q MONDAY, OCT. 23 Celebrating 70 Years of Israel. Ghaida Rinawi Zoabi on Israeli Arabs in the Jewish State and the screening of “77 Steps.” Visit jfedpgh. org or contact Eric Probola at 412-992-5247 or eprobola@jfedpgh.org to register and for more information. q WEDNESDAY, OCT. 25 NA’AMAT USA Pittsburgh Council will hold its annual spiritual adoption scholarship dinner honoring Marcia J. Weiss.
q WEDNESDAY, NOV. 1 Zionist Organization of America will honor Lou Weiss with its Lifetime Achievement Award during ZOA’s annual tribute dinner and will also present two other distinguished members of the community with awards. Adrienne Indianer will receive the Israel Service Award for her love and support of the State of Israel. The Ivan and Natalie Novick Community Leadership Award will be presented to Ira Frank for his work with ZOA and other organizations emulating the Novicks, who were ardent Zionists. q THURSDAY-SUNDAY,
NOV. 2-5
National Council of Jewish Women Pittsburgh Section will hold its 47th Designer Days fundraiser. Buy tickets at https:// is.gd/LttIkc. q SUNDAY-MONDAY,
NOV. 5-6
Going Beyond Memory, a conference on synagogue archiving, will be held at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. Visit americanjewisharchives.org for more information and to register. q MONDAY, NOV. 6 Community Day School Class of 2018 families invite the community for Comedy & Cake featuring comedian Benji Lovitt from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at 6424 Forward Ave. There will also be an auction and dessert. The program will help raise funds to send the CDS eighth-grade graduating class to Israel in the spring. RSVP and pay online at comday.org/CDSIsrael. Contact Jenny Jones at jjones@comday.org or 412-521-1100, ext. 3207 for more information. q THURSDAY, NOV. 9 Temple David will present a Kristallnacht Commemoration and Holocaust Memorial Dedication at 7 p.m. at 4415 Northern Pike, Monroeville. For additional information contact the Temple office at 412362-1200. PJC
Screening of “Brundibar Revisited.” The film, which is available for students through Film Pittsburgh’s Teen Screen program, provides an engaging experience for adult audiences. Subjects include at-risk youth in Germany, immigration of Holocaust survivors to Israel, and the incredible children’s opera Brundibar that was written and performed in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp. 1 p.m. at the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, 826 Hazelwood Ave. Register at https:// is.gd/ayj9VN.
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q SUNDAY, OCT. 22 News, Jews and Views, A Conversation with Bari Weiss at the Jewish Community Fall Foundation Event at 11 a.m. at Rodef Shalom Congregation. The program will feature a conversation between Rabbi Danny Schiff, Foundation scholar, and Bari Weiss, editor and writer for The New York Times op-ed section. Brunch will be served; dietary laws observed. This is a nonsolicitation event. RSVP by Oct. 16 at https://jfedpgh.org/ foundation-fall-event. Contact Patti Dziekan at 412-992-5221 or pdziekan@jfedpgh.org for more information.
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Headlines In Belarus, some Jews don’t mind a dictator — WORLD — By Cnaan Liphshiz | JTA
M
INSK, Belarus — At the age of 36, Yishai Malkin and his family are leading what millions of people in the former Soviet Union would consider a charmed life. A web designer, Malkin and his wife, an event manager, earn a combined monthly salary of $2,000. That’s comfortable enough to allow them to travel abroad and pay the mortgage for the centrally located river view apartment where they live with their 6-year-old son. “We have made a very good life for us in this country,” Malkin said in a recent interview at his home, which is a stone’s throw from this capital city’s main synagogue and several kosher shops in an area where Jews say anti-Semitic harassment never occurs. “Especially as Jews, we are very fortunate to be living here.” It’s not the kind of statement one associates with members of a minority living in what is often called in the international media “Europe’s last dictatorship” — referring to the authoritarian regime of Alexander Lukashenko, the country’s president since 1994. Nonetheless, it reflects reality for many Jews in Belarus, where they enjoy less freedom but more stability and security than in some of the region’s chaotic democracies, with their rising xenophobia and nationalism. Still, critics of Lukashenko’s regime insist that its disregard for civil and human rights inevitably has a negative effect on local Jews — including in the absence of legal protection for their heritage sites. Last month, a Belarusian court approved a plan to construct luxury apartment buildings on a former Jewish cemetery in the eastern city of Gomel. That prompted the country’s Union of Public Associations and Jewish Communities to signal its “concern” — a rare sign of disagreement with the government in a country where the judiciary is merely an extension of the executive branch. In recent years, Belarus has seen none of the anti-Semitic violence that regularly occurs in neighboring countries like Ukraine, where the revolution triggered an explosion of nationalist sentiment and glorification of some nationalists who murdered Jews during the Holocaust, or Russia, despite President Vladimir Putin’s generally favorable attitude toward Judaism. Outside Belarus, expressions of anti-Russian sentiment have complicated the fight against anti-Semitism across Eastern Europe, notably in Poland. This summer, the community there became divided over the claim by some Jewish leaders that rising nationalism was generating an increase in incidents involving hatred of Jews. There is next to no Holocaust revisionism and glorification of pro-Nazi nationalists in Belarus — its government encourages nostalgia for the Soviet Union and has kept street names celebrating communist institutions.
p A residential building in Minsk, Belarus
Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
p Participants in the Limmud FSU Jewish learning conference in Belarus pose for a group photo in front of the Vitebsk National Museum of Fine Arts.
Photo by Yossi Aloni
In 2016, the lifting of visa requirements for American and EU citizens wishing to visit Belarus as tourists — a concession that had been extended to Israelis in 2014 — has ended the country’s relative isolation. Belarus is now attracting large numbers of Western tourists who are fast becoming a major source of income. Minsk — a safe, clean and inexpensive city — features stunning examples of Soviet architecture. The Minsk Opera is widely recognized as one of that style’s most beautiful specimens. In the summer, the city is full of curious visitors from Italy, France, Israel and beyond who enjoy its casinos, restaurants and cultural institutions, with their many ballets, concerts and performances. The Belarus Jewish community of 20,000 is also benefiting from tourists visiting Jewish heritage sites that in their significance and beauty easily match anything on offer in Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania or Poland. Some of the top attractions include the grave of Israel Meir Kagan, or the Chofetz Chaim, one of the most influential rabbis in Europe before the Holocaust. The 16th-century synagogue in Grodno, which UNESCO in 2007 considered declaring a World Heritage Site, also attracts a steady
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stream of visitors, as does the Khatyn Holocaust monument. The small Jewish shtetls of Pinsk and Babruysk are among the very last of their kind in Europe. Since 2014, hundreds of Jews, including foreigners, have gathered at the annual Limmud FSU Jewish learning festival, which Malkin said has vitalized the local community. “You see a growing stream of Jews from the West visiting the very rich heritage sites here, and of course this strengthens the Jewish community because it sort of puts us on the world map of Jewish communities,” said Shnuer Deitch, the country’s chief rabbi and the senior emissary of the Chabad movement to Belarus. Deitch and his wife have been operating a Jewish school for years in Belarus, where kosher meat and dairy from Russia is widely available to observant congregants. But Belarus’ treatment of its Jewish heritage sites in recent months has exposed the government to unprecedented criticism by local and international Jewish groups. The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress voiced its “strong opposition” to the planned apartment building in Gomel. It dismissed the Belarusian government’s claims that the construc-
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tion on the cemetery site was okayed by Gomel’s Jewish community and was unlikely to disturb the remains there. And the World Jewish Congress said it was “concerned and disappointed” by the plan, saying it was in violation of Belarus’ international commitment to preserve Jewish heritage sites. A leader of the fight against the Gomel plan is Yakov Goodman, a Jewish-American activist for the preservation of Jewish heritage sites in his native Belarus. He said that the plan was indicative of “state anti-Semitism” and was one of several cases of disregard for Jewish heritage sites. Such disregard, he said, does not occur with assets that are important or holy to Christians and the general population. Goodman, who was imprisoned briefly in 2004 for his activism, has called out the Belarusian government for allegedly destroying three synagogues — two in Minsk and one in Luban — and at least three Jewish cemeteries in addition to the former burial ground threatened in Gomel. Jewish heritage sites are desecrated, destroyed and built over regularly across Eastern Europe, where small communities decimated during the Holocaust struggle to preserve massive properties that belonged to once-huge congregations. “But the difference is that in Belarus, Jews can’t even speak out against this,” Goodman said. Sergey Lyapin, a Jewish social activist, said in a statement earlier this month that “the local authorities and state-controlled media are waging an information war against” Jews opposed to the construction. Several Belarusian media described a protest against the project as a “provocation,” with one popular news site calling it a scheme “devised by people with international connections and interests.” A spokesman for the Belarusian Embassy in Israel said that his government “rejects all and any expression of anti-Semitism” and insisted the construction plan in Gomel will not disturb the remains. Goodman, the spokesman added, “is a prominent fake newsmaker.” To Rahim Radhani, a Muslim immigrant from Uzbekistan who lives in Minsk, the rhetoric in Belarusian media and the government’s refusal to heed Jewish concerns are signs that Jews are ultimately in danger of being targeted by authorities in Belarus, where he says other minorities are already subjected to discrimination. “As a Muslim with a dark skin, I am used to being pulled over, questioned and detained here all the time,” said Radhani, a businessman who is training to become a commercial pilot in Belarus. “It’s true that until now Jews have not been treated this way, but they will be as soon as they upset Lukashenko in any way.” “Such claims are very much exaggerated,” Malkin said about media coverage of Belarus, where Al Jazeera in June said Lukashenko has a habit of “ruthlessly squashing all dissent.” Opposition activists may be imprisoned here, but ordinary people, he said, “and especially Jews, who don’t want to do politics but simply want to live in peace, are better off living in Belarus than across the border” in Ukraine. PJC SEPTEMBER 29, 2017 9
Headlines — WORLD — From JTA reports
German far-right leader says Jews have nothing to fear Jews should not fear the strong election showing by the Alternative for Germany, a leader of the populist far-right party said. “There is nothing in our party, in our program, that could disturb the Jewish people who live here in Germany,” co-party head Alexander Gauland told reporters Monday, a day after AfD garnered more than 13 percent of the vote to finish third in German national elections. Gauland also said that he was ready to meet with German Jewish leaders “at any time.” Chancellor Angela Merkel was re-elected to a fourth term and reportedly has rejected the idea of including AfD in a coalition government. “Unfortunately, our worst fears have come true: A party that tolerates far-right views in its ranks and incites hate against minorities in our country is today not only in almost all state parliaments but also represented in the Bundestag,” the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dr. Josef Schuster, said in a statement issued late Sunday. “I expect all our democratic forces to unveil the real face of the AfD and to expose the party’s empty, populist promises. The goal that should unite all democratic parties: to make it clear to the voters that the AfD is
not an alternative, so that it can land where it belongs — under the 5 percent hurdle! “ The council called on the parliament to “fight for democracy and to defend its values vehemently” in the face of the AfD successes. The Anti-Defamation League called AfD’s entrance into the national parliament “a disturbing milestone in modern German politics,” saying the party is “proudly extremist, anti-immigrant, and anti-minority.” The party leaders have made anti-Semitic statements and played down the evil of the Nazi regime, the ADL also said in its statement. “Chancellor Merkel has a strong track record of protecting the Jewish community and other minorities,” CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said. “We appreciate that she has excluded the possibility of AfD joining her coalition, and we count on her strong leadership going forward to diminish the appeal of AfD among German voters.” Hundreds of protesters gathered in cities throughout Germany on Sunday evening to protest the AfD’s election successes. In the Alexanderplatz public square in central Berlin, protesters chanted “Racism is not an alternative,” “AfD is a bunch of racists” and “Nazis out!” Canadian Jews can now get kosher medical marijuana Canadian Jews could get halachically high for the High Holidays: A Quebec company became the first in Canada to obtain kosher certification for its medical marijuana on the eve of Rosh Hashanah.
The certification was granted to the Hydropothecary Corp., a medical marijuana producer based near Ottawa, by the Vaad Hakashrut, a kosher certifier in Ottawa. “According to the Torah, according to the Talmud, this is something that if we are able to help [sick people], that is my obligation,” Rabbi Levy Teitlebaum of the Vaad told The National Post. The company’s CEO, Sebastien St-Louis, said in a statement: “As the only medical marijuana company in Canada with kosher-certified processed products, we take great pride in having the support of the kashrut council.” In 2016, Montreal kosher certifiers said medicinal pot needed kosher certification because it is ingested, while certifiers in Toronto said it did not because it is being used as medicine. Children’s performer arrested on child pornography charges A New Jersey music teacher and singer who has performed for children at synagogues, JCCs and camps over the past two decades was charged with receiving and distributing child pornography. Eric Komar, 46, was charged last week in U.S. Magistrate Court in Newark after being arrested by special agents of the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey. He is being held without bail. Komar used a peer-to-peer file-sharing program to obtain and distribute images and
videos that featured prepubescent children being sexually abused, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Following his arrest, Komar allegedly admitted to having “a large library of child pornography” containing “thousands of images and videos,” the Forward reported, citing court documents. The charge against Komar carries a prison sentence of five to 20 years as well as a $250,000 fine. Vermont teacher fired after teaching third-graders the Nazi salute A Vermont substitute teacher was fired after she was accused of teaching her students how to give the Nazi salute. Ned Kirsch, the school district’s superintendent, said in an email to parents last week that the Georgia Elementary School took immediate action after the teacher admitted to teaching the the third-graders the “Heil Hitler,” according to a local news station, WCAX. The students were seen “standing with their arm out in front of them and the teacher was modeling the position,” the email said. “She then raised her arm slightly and said ‘and now we say Heil Hitler.’” The teacher has substituted for several years, according to WCAX. A guidance counselor was to talk to the students in the classroom and make sure they feel safe, according to the report. PJC
Don’t miss an issue Today in Israeli history
Oct. 2, 1187 Saladin captures Jerusalem
— WORLD —
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Following a siege that began on Sept. 20, Jerusalem falls to Saladin, the sultan of Egypt.
Items provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.
Oct. 3, 2005 Sarah Levy-Tanai dies
Sept. 29, 1923 Syria gains control of Golan Heights
CHANGE OF ADDRESS
In border designations for states drafted primarily by Britain and France after WWI, the new State of Syria gains control of the Golan Heights.
Sept. 30, 1986 Mordechai Vanunu returns to Israel
ACCOUNT NUMBER NAME CURRENT ADDRESS CITY, STATE, ZIP PHONE
Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli nuclear technician who leaked details of Israel’s nuclear program to the British press, is extradited to Israel, one day after an undercover female Mossad agent posing as an American lured him to Italy from London.
NAME
Oct. 1, 1981 Ronald Reagan arms Saudi Arabia
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Sarah Levy-Tanai, one of Israel’s foremost choreographers and contributors to Israeli cultural life, dies at the age of 95.
Oct. 4, 1992 El Al Flight 1862 crashes
El Al flight 1862, a 747 cargo plane flight bound from New York to Tel Aviv, crashes into an apartment complex in Bijlmermeer, an Amsterdam suburb.
Oct. 5, 1941 Louis Brandeis dies
Louis Brandeis, retired United States Supreme Court Justice and celebrated American Zionist, dies in Washington D.C., at the age of 84. PJC
President Ronald Reagan announces a plan to sell military aircraft to Saudi Arabia.
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Headlines Why Trump’s UN speech thrilled Netanyahu — for the moment, anyway — WORLD — By Ron Kampeas | JTA
W
ASHINGTON — The number of times President Donald Trump mentioned Iran or its derivatives in his U.N. speech? Twelve, and each time to emphasize its threat. The number of times he mentioned the Palestinians or derivatives? That would be zero. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, paying Trump the rare leaderto-leader gesture of attending his speech and applauding throughout, was clearly pleased. “In over 30 years in my experience with the U.N., I never heard a bolder or more courageous speech,” Netanyahu tweeted immediately after the 40-minute address on Tuesday. “President Trump spoke the truth about the great dangers facing our world and issued a powerful call to confront them in order to ensure the future of humanity.” Short term, Trump delivered big time on the Netanyahu wish list: He came closer to pledging to kill the Iran nuclear deal reviled by the Israeli leader and did not even mention peace with the Palestinians,
to varying degrees has characterized U.S. foreign policy since the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. Indeed, that undergirded the U.S.-led effort following World War II and its devastation to establish the United Nations. “Our success depends on a coalition of strong and independent nations that embrace their sovereignty to promote security, prosperity and peace for themselves and for the world,” Trump said. “We do not expect diverse countries to share the same cultures, traditions or even systems of government.” What that means practically is not clear, much like the rest of Trump’s foreign policy nine months into his presidency. But Israel’s security establishment has been wary of an American retreat from world affairs, especially when it comes to its war-torn neighbor Syria and the alliance between Syria’s Assad p Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu takes his seat before President Donald Trump’s speech to the General Assembly at U.N. headquarters regime and Iran. Trump’s emphasis on Syria — the thrust of in New York. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images much of his speech — was the routing of the which Netanyahu does not believe has trac- be as enthused by Trump’s dream of a world Islamist terrorist threat embodied there by tion at this point. in which nations make a priority of “sover- the Islamic State. Iran and its Lebanese proxy But wait, there’s more. Trump mentioned eign” interests — or as the president put it, Hezbollah share that goal. Secondarily, Trump said he would interthe word “sovereign” and its derivatives 21 repeating a campaign phrase that unsettled times on Tuesday, the first day of this year’s many U.S. Jews, “America First.” Trump’s overarching theme was a retreat General Assembly in New York. Long term, Netanyahu and Israel may not from the robust interventionist role that Please see Trump, page 17
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BRET STEPHENS
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SEPTEMBER 29, 2017 11
Opinion Netanyahu’s slap at Diaspora Jewry — EDITORIAL —
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sraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likes to speak broadly about his long-term goal of Jewish unity. But his recent assertions with respect to Diaspora Jewry raise serious questions about his real commitment to that goal. Indeed, rather than leading as a unifier, Netanyahu is coming across as a cynical politician who will say anything to please the haredi Orthodox parties in his fragile governing coalition. How else does one explain Netanyahu’s offensive assertion that the Reform and Conservative movements are trying to get recognition “via the backdoor, secretly, under the pretext” of their partnership in the Western Wall agreement? That slap at Israel’s small liberal Jewish population and the much larger Diaspora one is as offensive as it is untrue. In making accusations of trickery and subterfuge, Netanyahu must have forgotten that it was his government that negotiated the creation of a pluralistic prayer space near the Kotel, and that it was his government that approved it in 2016. And while there is no question that the agreement upset the haredi leadership that controls a segment
of Netanyahu’s coalition government, there was no secrecy. But now, Netanyahu needs to find someone to blame (other than himself) for the mess his own government helped to create. The issue of religious pluralism goes to the heart of the identity of the vast majority of American Jews, whose ongoing support of Israel is considered crucial. But the festering impasse over religious pluralism is increasing tension with many liberal Jews whose Jewish bona fides are being questioned, and who feel devalued and insulted by the Jewish state. Even before Netanyahu’s comments, seven Jewish U.S. senators took the unprecedented step of voicing their concern to Netanyahu over Israel’s freezing of plans for the pluralistic prayer area. “Given all the challenges Israel faces on the international stage, we urge you not to alienate committed Zionists,” wrote Sens. Wyden, Feinstein, Sanders, Franken, Blumenthal, Cardin and Schatz. And the senators have a valid point. Pluralism at the Kotel has become a wedge issue within the Diaspora Jewish community and beyond, and Netanyahu and his government need to pay careful attention to the outraged voices of the Reform and Conservative movements. These movements continue
to stand with Israel in the public sphere despite disagreeing with her government on a host of vital issues. But how long can Israel expect such active and loyal supporters to continue to stand with her, when they and their religious observances are insulted, belittled, discredited and rejected? This year, a number of Reform and Conser-
vative congregations suspended their annual Yom Kippur Israel Bond fundraising drive in an effort to send a message that their support for an Israel that disrespects them should not be taken for granted. We hope that things improve, because an Israel without the active and engaged support of Diaspora Jewry will be a very lonely place. PJC
When hate comes to your town Guest Columnist Joel Rubin
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hat do you do when hate comes to your neighborhood? That’s a question my community and I, in Chevy Chase, Md., had to unfortunately grapple with a couple of weeks ago after an individual left anti-Semitic literature on the doorstep of several of our neighbors’ houses. At first, I was aghast that someone would feel confident about coming into my neighborhood to directly attack people he did not know, to terrify them just because they were Jewish. But then the neighborhood reacted, with sounds of anger and disbelief that such an event could take place. Neighbors expressed outrage and sympathy towards the affected families. Their support gave me and the rest of our community the strength we needed to stand firm against this hate. And many of these neighbors were not Jewish. There’s a lesson in this for all of us. When hate shows its ugly face, it affects us all, not just those who are directly targeted. Today it’s Jews, tomorrow Latinos, the next day homosexuals. Hate truly knows no boundaries, and when it arrives, there’s only one thing to do. Reject it loudly. As an American Jew who has grown up in a society that has given me and my family safety, freedom and economic security, I continually feel a need to give back and to 12 SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
I’m proud that the American Jewish community fights for the values of openness, inclusion and peace. But we must all be aware that, post-Charlottesville, these benefits of living in America are not free. speak out against injustice. And as an elected council member of the Town of Chevy Chase, I feel empowered to do so. There is no room for hate in our communities. If we have learned anything from Jewish history, it’s that when haters show up and begin to scapegoat others, it is time to shout them down. Yet this is not only the responsibility of our elected leaders, our police, the media and our clergy. This is also the responsibility of everyday citizens. Everyday citizens set the tone, in big ways and small, of the kinds of communities we live in. That is what I learned from my community after this incident, and that is what I thought about this Rosh Hashanah. Despite the challenges we are facing as a country and as American Jews, we have much to be grateful for this year. And for my generation of American Jews, who were brought up with a strong sense of identity
forged in the shadow of the twin dominant Jewish experiences of the 20th century — the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel — now is our moment to confront the dark wave of hate rumbling through our communities. And we will. But we will not do it alone. We will do it as both Americans and as Jews. To do this, we need to ensure that we are building bridges to every community in America, so that we create a resilient web against hatred. This has been done by multiple targeted groups in America throughout our country’s history. The greatest example is that of the civil rights movement, when people of all colors, races and religions banded together to fight back against discrimination. No one group can create the change it needs all by itself. People need allies and friends across multiple communities. It is
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the same now for American Jews. So in the lead-up to Yom Kippur and beyond, let us remember the time-tested truth that just like our ancestors and cousins around the world, we too will defeat hatred. But we can only do it in a quintessentially American way, by relying on our country’s diversity, tolerance and openness to help us towards this end. That belief is what my town provided to its Jewish residents. I’m proud to be living in a town that has neighbors who speak up against hate. I’m proud that the American Jewish community fights for the values of openness, inclusion and peace. But we must all be aware that, post-Charlottesville, these benefits of living in America are not free. They must be cherished and cultivated daily. It is not enough to talk about how the world may be changing in negative ways; you must do something about it. All it takes is for one hostile leaflet to create fear. So, during these tumultuous days, when hate is coming to many towns in the United States, we must all be resilient. We must all say “no” to the haters and “yes” to those who would lift us up rather than tear us down. Fortunately, those people are all around us. They are our neighbors and they are our friends. And if hate ever comes to your town, “they” should also include you. PJC A native of Pittsburgh, Joel Rubin is a visiting fellow at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School of Public Policy and Management in Washington, a former deputy assistant secretary of state and a councilman in the Town of Chevy Chase, Md.
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Opinion A resolution based on commandments Guest Columnist Bonnie Glick
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ur lives are busy. Kids, school, work, home, community involvement, and other activities fill our days and many evenings. In fact, these activities tend to overfill our time. It’s hard to cut out anything from our schedules because everything seems so important. But when our schedules become so packed, we sometimes miss the obvious things in front of us. Sometimes even the people in front of us who are suffering. We often don’t see suffering at all. When we look at friends and relatives, we often think they’re doing fine since their health seems good. What we miss a lot of the time is the loneliness. The boredom. The depression. These don’t necessarily present physical symptoms. My husband and I just dropped our sons at college and entered a new phase of life — the empty nest. The quiet that has descended upon our home is deafening. Simon and Garfunkel were on to something when they sang about the “Sound of Silence.” The quiet that we now come home to is not yet permanent — we still have the holidays and vacations — but it is looming. This has me thinking about people who have that quiet around them most of the time, often imposed by a move to a new city, divorce, the loss of a spouse or disability. The Torah commands us to honor our parents; we must rise before the aged. But neither the Torah nor the rabbis go into detail about what that means. The message is deeper than the commanding words. Actions should follow in a form that is more tangible than a weekly phone call to Mom and Dad, or writing a check to a local charity that focuses on the elderly. How should we honor our parents, especially as they age? How about listening to them? Really listening. As our parents age, they face uncertainties. Sometimes those uncertainties are about their jobs. Oftentimes those uncertainties are about their health. Frequently they are about finances — theirs, as well as their children’s. How can we listen to the uncertainties of people we love who have always had all the answers? We haven’t become experts in those fields overnight. People say there is an art to listening. I’m not so sure about that. If
— LETTERS — Benefit for both
you open your ears (and often your hearts) during conversations with older people, not only might you learn a lot, you also might hear a lot. When a grandparent asks how your kids are doing, he might really be asking when the grandkids will visit. When a parent asks, “Why do you work so hard?” she might really be sending a secret wish that you spend some time helping her. Listening and hearing will allow them to share with you. In the United States, we are a transient population. We move from home to school, from school to jobs, from jobs to family, etc. At some point in time, each of us is the “new kid.” I’m sure we all remember what that is like. It’s lonely. At this time of the year, as we celebrate the High Holidays, Sukkot and other holidays, we should remember the “new kids” — some of whom are older adults — and invite them over for a meal, a coffee or a conversation. We might make a new friend; we also might make someone’s day. Following these commandments in the modern day is easier than it might seem at first. Social media now allows us to share our lives and stories all too easily; but that is not the same as listening — it is only telling. A one-way conversation. Still, for many people, social media allows conversations between family members to start, even if it is only during a once-a-week phone call. Someone’s comment on a post — “that meal looks spectacular” — could lead to an invitation to dinner or a conversation about nutrition. Another person’s comment — “looks like a great vacation” — could lead to a conversation about budgeting and finances. Others have embraced technology with FaceTime and video chats to shrink distances. These tools should not be underestimated, as they can keep people connected in between visits. But nothing impacts a person’s life like human contact. We are social beings at heart. Taking to heart the commandment to honor our parents and the aged sends powerful messages to society. Those are messages that say: We care. We look out for each other. We listen to each other. At a time in our country’s history when we find less and less listening, perhaps a resolution to do so in the new year is something we can all try to live up to. It will make 5778 a much better year. PJC
It appears true that many Israelis have left Israel to come to United States to study or start a business and then eventually return to Israel. While they are here, however, they bring Hebrew-teaching talents and other skills that they share with those Americans who would never be exposed to Israeli thoughts and activities. So there is a benefit. On the reverse side, there are some observant and Zionistic Americans who make aliyah to become Israeli citizens and serve in the army. A noble act. Estelle Weissburg Katy, Texas
Shout out to VegOut It was very nice to see the Chronicle’s article on a San Francisco chef who proclaims that vegan is the next kosher. Moshe Barber with his local VegOut has been doing that for several years here in Pittsburgh. Ada Klein Squirrel Hill
J Street’s Importance On Sept. 8, the Chronicle published a letter by Ann Sheckter Powell criticizing J Street. As a longtime member of J Street and a member of its Pittsburgh steering committee, I want to share why I believe that anyone who loves Israel should be an avid supporter of J Street. J Street’s primary purpose is to support a two-state solution. Unless there is a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel will either become a non-democracy, without equal protection of the law for its citizens, or it will cease to be a Jewish majority state and effectively no longer be a homeland for the Jewish people. In this I side with several former heads of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, who spoke in the documentary “The Gatekeepers” about their fear for the survival of Israel unless there is such a peace. J Street’s secondary purpose at its founding in 2007 was to promote a full and open discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in our American and Jewish communities. Remember what it was like then? When any disagreement was met with ad hominen attacks of anti-Semitism or “self-hating Jew?” We are better situated now, partially because of J Street, to hear all voices and find a true solution. And I was especially proud of J Street’s role in promoting the Iran nuclear agreement, an agreement supported by dozens of top Israeli ex-military and security leaders in a letter to President Benjamin Netanyahu. The agreement stops Iran from developing a nuclear weapon for at least 10 to 15 years. J Street is a place where the values I treasure in Judaism can find a home and also serve the cause of a Jewish homeland that will exist for our grandchildren. Eileen Kraus Dobratz Pittsburgh
Bonnie Glick and her husband live in Bethesda, Md.
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SEPTEMBER 29, 2017 13
Life & Culture Dinner on the grill — FOOD — By Keri White
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s summer concludes, we continue to enjoy time outdoors, and simpler, grilled meals remain the order of the day. We recently enjoyed a meal that was cooked 100 percent on the grill — even dessert — which meant minimal cleanup and no hot, steamy kitchen. The sun-dried tomato vinaigrette sauce on the halibut delivered a lot of “bang for the buck” — it was simple, robust, flavorful and beautiful in color. And speaking of bucks, halibut is quite costly — it was definitely a splurge item. Any substantial, steaky fish can be easily substituted, and you can foil grill a more delicate white fish if that is preferred. The foil-grilled green and wax beans brought a fresh, seasonal burst of color and flavor, and grilled bread is always a hit. Sometimes the starch is a challenge to grill; potatoes take ages and other go-to carbs like pasta, rice and quinoa require a stove. So bread was a simple, crowd-pleasing option, and grilling it gave the meal some added interest. Dessert was a throwback to my son’s sleepaway camp of days gone by; they called them “banana boats” at Camp Dark Waters, but we called them simple and delicious. And if you want to gussy them up with marshmallows, graham crackers or vanilla ice cream, your guests will be all the happier. Grilled halibut with sun-dried tomato vinaigrette Serves four
with the sun-dried tomato vinaigrette sauce. Serve immediately. Foil-grilled string beans Serves four
Halibut has a wonderful texture and holds up well on the grill. But it if is not to your taste or budget, you can substitute tuna or salmon, or even a milder, delicate white fish like flounder, cod or haddock. In that case, you will need to foil grill.
When I told my husband we were having string beans with dinner, he registered an unenthusiastic OK. Then he tasted them and gave them a thumbs up. This simple technique gives mundane beans some added depth and flavor.
Sauce: 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes with oil 1 clove garlic, crushed 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2-3 cups string beans, stems removed 2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt Generous sprinkle of freshly ground pepper
In a double thickness of heavy-duty foil, place the beans in a single layer and toss with the remaining ingredients. (You may need to make two packets.) Seal the foil and grill on a medium-hot flame for about five minutes. Flip the packet, cook another five minutes, and remove it from the heat. Allow the beans to rest for a few minutes, then serve. Use caution when opening the packets so the steam does not burn you.
Place all the ingredients in a blender or mini Cuisinart and give them a whirl. I went for a chunky, coarse consistency, so I was quick with my trigger finger, giving the mixture a brief whiz. But you can certainly opt for a puree if a smoother texture is preferred.
Thick slices of hearty bread — Italian, baguette, whole grain, ciabatta, etc. Olive oil for brushing Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
Brush the bread slices with olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Place the slices on a hot grill and toast for about two minutes. Flip, allowing the second side to toast. Remove from the heat and serve solo or with the spread of your choice. Grilled banana boats Serves four 4 ripe bananas 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Fish: 4 halibut steaks, about 1-inch thick Juice of 1 lemon Sprinkle of salt and pepper
Place each banana on a piece of heavy-duty foil and slice a “valley” down the middle of the banana lengthwise, being careful not to cut all the way through. Place chocolate chips in the valley and close the foil packet. Grill on a medium flame for about six minutes until the chips are melted and the banana is slightly caramelized. Keep warm until ready to serve. PJC
Place the steaks in a shallow dish and spritz with lemon, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Lay the fish on a hot grill, sear for about a minute, and then move to an area of the grill that is less hot; cook for about three minutes. Flip the fish and repeat the second step. The fish is done when it flakes easily and is opaque all the way through. Remove the fish from the heat and cover it 14 SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
Grilled bread I had a half loaf of semolina bread left from a pasta dinner the previous night. This was the ideal way to repurpose it. We smeared it with surplus sun-dried tomato vinaigrette, but it was lovely on its own, too.
Keri White writes a food column for the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia. PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE
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Life & Culture Why Obama’s former speechwriter calls him the most Jewish president ever — BOOKS — By Gabe Friedman | JTA
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e was just 24, but speechwriter David Litt had already become President Barack Obama’s go-to guy for anything considered “kishke-related.” In Litt’s parlance, that meant he wrote the president’s speeches aiming to connect with Jewish Americans on a gut level — things like holiday and anniversary commemorations, but not, say, Israel or foreign policy. That explains Litt’s presence one Friday night in the White House library in April 2012. A jet-lagged Obama had just returned from a trip to Asia and the last thing on his schedule was to record a video greeting for Passover. “All right,” Obama said grumpily when he entered the room more than two hours late. “One take.” The president got partly through Litt’s script before stopping at a line that mentioned how some in the past have tried to “destroy the Jewish people” in every generation. “Isn’t that line kind of a downer?” the president asked. “What’s the deal? Like ‘Everyone’s out to get us, have some matzah.’” As it happens, that’s exactly the deal, Litt remembers thinking. That memory — and many more — are recounted in his entertaining new memoir, “Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years.” “POTUS had just summed up five thousand years of Jewish history in just eight words,” Litt writes. The story continues with Obama — in a move that simultaneously awed and embarrassed the young staffer, the sting made all the worse because the president was operating on zero sleep — rewriting the line in about five minutes to “express the same idea, but in far more measured tones.” “This, I thought, is why he gets to be the president,” Litt writes. That is just one of many nerve-wracking moments from Litt’s White House tenure, which he began by writing speeches for senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and then White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley. He gradually worked his way up the speechwriting ladder, and toward the end of Obama’s first term he became a special assistant to the president. Litt’s youth combined with his neurotic, Jewish sensibility — likely a product of his upbringing on New York’s Upper West Side — make “Thanks, Obama” an amusing read. The reader gets an inside look into some of the country’s most powerful people through the eyes of a rookie — one whose greatest worries include physically bumping into the president while walking through the White House halls or unintentionally starting an international crisis through a single misused word. (The former didn’t happen, but the latter nearly did: In one speech, he mistakenly led Obama to compare the dire situation in Syria to the far less dire one in Kenya.) The book is equal parts Woody Allen, a millennial nerd’s diary and Aaron Sorkin
p David Litt, center, confers with President Barack Obama and actor KeeganMichael Key at the White House. Photo courtesy of David Litt
(the creator and writer of “The West Wing,” a show Litt worships). The president comes across as the perfect foil to the young staffer — he’s the Dean Martin to Litt’s Jerry Lewis — partly because he is quite literally the most powerful person in the world and partly due to his legendarily calm and cool demeanor. As the book begins, Litt is a recent Yale graduate and Obama zealot who goes to Ohio to work for the Democratic Party during the 2008 presidential campaign. The book follows Litt’s time in the White House, through the ups and downs of the rockiest years of Obama’s presidency, from low poll numbers to the shutdown of the government to the passing of the Affordable Care Act. As his joke suggestions — written for events like the White House correspondents’ dinner — impress Obama’s top speechwriters, Litt takes on more responsibilities as one of the team’s main comedic speechwriters. Litt meets many of his idols and routinely experiences what he calls “life-changing” moments of triumph, but the job isn’t always glamorous. He becomes so stressed that he starts wearing a mouth guard at night to protect his constantly grinding teeth. It is a burnt-out Litt who leaves the job in early 2016, a little bored with his duties and frustrated with fact checkers who flag something trivial in seemingly every sentence he writes. With his White House years behind him, Litt is far less stressed. He’s now a writer and producer for the comedy site Funny Or Die, which was co-founded by Will Ferrell in 2007. “I’ve gone from wearing a suit every day to being sort of pleasantly surprised if it’s noon and I’ve remembered to put pants on,” Litt saod. Funny Or Die’s content is frequently polit-
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ical in nature. Take the episode featuring Obama of “Between Two Ferns,” a satirical interview show hosted by Zack Galifinakis, which has been viewed nearly 22 million times. The gig has allowed Litt to stay invested in politics while continuing to flex his comedy writing muscles. Funny Or Die has worked on videos recently with groups like the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and the League of Conservation Voters. “The line between culture and politics is blurring pretty quickly,” Litt said. “We’re measuring the success of [our] comedy by how many people take action for a cause, and that’s not something that would’ve happened … even 10 years ago.” Litt’s first big break was writing Obama’s speech for the Union for Reform Judaism’s 2011 biennial conference, which was widely considered successful. (Haaretz ran the headline “Obama Speaks Jewish, Republicans Don’t.”) And while Jewish culture was Litt’s stock in trade while on the job, there were some unique challenges along the way — such as having to write multiple Chanukah speeches. Obama’s official Chanukah reception became so popular that by his second term, the White House decided to host two every year. Since all of Obama’s remarks are transcribed for the public, Litt could not use the same speech twice, lest attendants at the second party think the president was phoning it in on a Jewish holiday. “You don’t get that from watching ‘West Wing’ or ‘House of Cards,’” Litt said, referencing two shows focused on the political process. “I put everything into Hanukkah speech No. 1, and now what do I do for Hanukkah speech No. 2?’”
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While Litt never lost his sense of humor, the president’s Jewish cultural agenda was not all lighthearted, he said. Litt, who grew up keeping kosher at home and regularly attended services at Manhattan’s B’nai Jeshurun synagogue, strongly believes that Obama is genuinely interested in Jewish history and culture, and that Obama’s way of seeing the world (“always asking questions,” with a “real capacity for doubt”) was in line with Jewish tradition. Litt said he often drew inspiration for his speeches from his own Jewish ancestors, many of whom courageously escaped pogroms in Russia to come to America. He wrote the speech that Obama gave in 2015 at the prominent Washington, D.C., synagogue Adas Israel as the debate over the Iran nuclear deal further soured his relations with a Jewish leadership class already wary of his Israel policies. Litt said Obama made more last-minute revisions to that speech than most of his others in an attempt to connect in a sincere way with his synagogue audience. “He saw the story of American Judaism as part of this larger story of a universal struggle for human rights and human dignity, in addition to all of its specific details,” Litt said. “He made that connection, and he wanted to make sure he made that connection publicly.” In light of what he witnessed, would Litt dare call Obama the most Jewish president we have ever had? “In the context,” Litt said, “I think that is absolutely right.” Although the current political environment is “dangerous,” Litt said — adding that Trump’s campaign was the first time he felt “scared” as a Jew in America — he wrote the book in part to inspire people to get involved in political campaigns. “[If] you want to see America reflect the values that you grow up with and that you hold dear, then you have to be involved in politics and public service in some way,” he said. “I don’t think I will ever do anything as fulfilling as the job that I did.” PJC SEPTEMBER 29, 2017 15
Headlines Services: Continued from page 1
The following decades brought greater harmony to the New Castle Jewish community. In the 1950s, Tifereth Israel aligned with the Conservative movement, a theological adoption that paved the way for combined educational activities, an eventual merger and the renaming of the two religious institutions (to Temple Hadar Israel) in 1997. Despite declining membership, the joint congregation operated steadily until 2015 when the building was sold to a local business owner. Since then, the congregation has rented the facilities to hold regular Sabbath and holiday services, said Sam Bernstine, the temple’s president. In recent years, Bernstine has worked with the temple’s board of directors and representatives from the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and the Jewish Community Legacy Project, a self-described “resource for small congregations located outside of metropolitan areas that have an aging population and dwindling leadership and a desire to ensure their legacy,” to establish a plan for winding down the temple and dispersing its resources and materials. “A lot of times emotions run high and things tend to end in somewhat of a negative fashion, and that hasn’t been the case here. People have been very helpful and constructive and have had time to reflect on the history of the temple, and it’s brought back a lot of really good memories. I think that people are at peace with the process and the decision,” said Bernstine. Based on conversations with the congregants, this High Holiday season is “bittersweet,” said Rabbi Howard Stein, the temple’s spiritual leader.
Sukkot: Continued from page 1
accurately to mix Jewish holidays, Nes gadol haya po: A great miracle happened here!” As wondrous as the holiday is, specific stipulations dictate the necessary dimensions of a sukkah. According to the Shulchan Aruch, a 16th-century code of Jewish law, the smallest ones may possess three walls, with each side being at least 28 inches long and 40 inches high. In practice, most sukkahs are much larger and because of the space required for erecting the provisional bungalows, they are commonly built in back or front yards, away from kitchens and up or down stairs. Given the placement of these transient domiciles, the festival of booths is often an exercise in schlepping. But before thinking about tables or chairs, whose state of fluidity is derived both from their perpetual movement and the incessant spilling that Sukkot spurs, Rabbi Stacy Petersohn shuddered at the memory of transporting materials years ago. “I do recall having to carry giant palm fronds for schach several blocks in the Jerusalem heat, then climbing about six or seven flights of stairs until we reached the roof where we were building our sukkah,” said the spiritual leader of Congregation Emanu-El Israel in Greensburg. 16 SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
p These High Holidays will be the last for Temple Hadar Israel, a congregation dating to 1894.
Whether it is acknowledging the past or anticipating the future, merely entering the building evokes reminiscences, said the congregants. “There are a lot of good memories, like when I was going there with my parents and my family. Now, that has changed so much; it’s just my sister and my niece and myself,” said Meyers. “I remember learning lots of things about the kitchen. When I was younger, the older women gave pointers on cooking different things like noodle pudding and potato kugel and even different ways to do brisket,” said Schwartz. “I was bar mitzvahed at this very temple; my confirmation was at this very temple,” noted Bernstine, 61. “I was born and bred in the briar patch,” echoed Solomon. “This is the only place of worship I’ve ever had.”
While the temple’s closing marks one chapter in New Castle’s Jewish history, another is soon to be written, added the New Castle resident. “Growing up, there’s always been a Jewish identity in this community; there’s almost always been a rabbi who has lived in this town. It’s kind of the beginning of the end.” Nonetheless, the beginning of a new year “gives us pause to think about what the year will bring” and also “how our people continue the tradition,” said Stein, a Regent Square resident. “So many times when a building closes or a congregation ends or a church ends people look at it as the demise or the end. I see it as a fresh beginning for us. It’s sad that we won’t be able to have services in New Castle or in our temple. But because of the country we live in, we will be able to be free to practice our faith and have relationships with other Jewish people
“We moved to Richmond, Va., in August 2004, and the first Shabbos we were there was the Shabbos of Sukkos,” recalled Rabbi Daniel Yolkut, spiritual leader of Congregation Poale Zedeck. On Sunday night, after a “very intense introduction to the community,” Yolkut and his wife sat down in their sukkah for a quiet meal of leftovers. Though connected to the house, the sukkah was on the back porch and up a few stairs from the ground. “We take our leftovers from yuntiff, we’re sitting there talking, and the next thing we know, a raccoon runs up the stairs and into the sukkah,” Yolkut said. “We start yelling. We’re totally shocked, and the door to the house was totally open.” Perhaps reacting to the surprise, the raccoon bolted from the sukkah and hurried into the home. Their initial fright became hysteria as the Yolkuts realized that their 18-month-old p One man’s trash may be an baby was sleeping upstairs. other’s schach. Photo by Adam Reinherz The raccoon had gone into a guest room and “in an act of bravery, I ran after the raccoon and At least it was only trekking to procure Mediterranean leaves. Rob Itskowitz, of Squirrel slammed the door to the room that it was in.” When the Yolkuts phoned next door Hill, remembers having to hop his neighbor’s fence, enter their yard and retrieve the family asking what to do, the neighbors offered to bring over their dog. sukkah that the wind had carried over. “We had these cartoon visions of the dog and While Itskowitz’s is a humorous holiday anecdote, in the vault of sukkah stories, one raccoon running circles around each other, so we decided to call 911. However we were told tale is a keeper. PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE
Photos by Sam Bernstine
in other local communities,” said Bernstine. Nearby options include synagogues in Youngstown, Ohio, a 30-minute drive from New Castle, or Pittsburgh, a 60-mile trek. Neither option is particularly appealing, said Solomon whose current commute consists of “walking down the street two blocks.” Staying positive is key, said the temple’s president. “We’ve left a footprint in New Castle. Now the mission is to take that footprint and implant it in other communities collectively with other people in those Jewish communities,” said Bernstine. “You never forget the relationships you’ve made and the history of the building you’ve been in. Hopefully, we can add some value to their communities and their congregations and carry forward what we’ve learned in New Castle.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
by the operator to contact animal control, who told us that they don’t open until 9 a.m., which was roughly 12 hours later,” said Yolkut. Not wishing to share the holiday with their mammalian guest, the rabbi used folding tables “and made a series of walls from the guest room out to the door and into the sukkah.” Next, “I very gingerly turned the knob with my hand and pushed it open with a broom.” Immediately, the raccoon “shot out of the door and followed the path.” Once the critter reached the sukkah, Yolkut slammed the door between both enclosures. As the couple watched from inside, the raccoon jumped on the table, grabbed a round challah, raised it up and began eating. “At this point we decided to call the neighbor and say, ‘It’s time for the dog,’” Yolkut said. Upon the sound of barking, the raccoon, which was still feasting on the circular bread, perked its ears up, looked around wildly and rushed out of the sukkah. Such seasonal stories may have been anticipated by another Jewish writer centuries ago, as when discussing the sukkah, Philo of Alexandria, presciently noted, “For there is no pleasure greater than in high prosperity to call to mind old misfortunes.” PJC Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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Headlines In Tunisia, an ancient Jewish community braves uncertain future — WORLD — By Cnaan Liphshiz | JTA
D
JERBA, Tunisia — Anticipating the sun’s rapid ascent in the African skies, six barefoot men align themselves early in the morning in a drafty corridor of the still-cool interior of Africa’s oldest synagogue. Casually humming a biblical hymn in Hebrew, they and an Israeli journalist hold off on holiday prayers in the hope of performing them in a minyan — the quorum of 10 Jewish men that Orthodox Judaism mandates for certain prayers, and a threshold requirement for any viable community. Members of a dwindling Jewish minority on this Tunisian island, they wait for hours under the ornate arches of the centuries-old El Ghriba Synagogue in Riadh, a town where thousands of Jews once lived but now has only a handful of Jewish families. It will take a while for reinforcements to arrive: three more Jews from Hara Kebira, the last remaining Jewish town in Djerba, located four miles north of the synagogue. Belonging to one of the Arab world’s few active Jewish congregations, their patience reflects a determination to preserve their ancient tradition in a tight-knit community of 1,000. Many members feel duty-bound to remain on the island even though they can envisage no future here for their children. “Everybody’s thought about leaving, myself included,” says Ben Zion Dee’ie, a 30-year-old yeshiva teacher who walked four miles to the El Ghriba Synagogue from his parents’ home in Hara Kebira, where nearly all Djerba Jews live. “The economy’s bad, the
Frankel: Continued from page 3
Shalom Congregation. “He was a very humble guy, but he took great pride in his accomplishments,” Dan Frankel said. He also took pride in the accomplishments of his children. “He was very supportive of my efforts,” Frankel said. “I became interested in politics
Trump: Continued from page 11
vene when what he called the “criminal” Assad regime uses chemical weapons. What Trump did not say — and what the Netanyahu government had demanded — was whether he would seek the removal from Syria of Iran and Hezbollah, which launched a war against Israel in 2006 and appears to be building a missile arsenal ahead of another war. (Trump did twice attack Hezbollah as a terrorist organization that threatens Israel.)
p Ben Zion Dee’ie takes a break from Rosh Hashanah preparations in the Jewish town of Hara Kebira on the Tunisian island of Djerba.
Photo by Cnaan Liphshiz
to prayer and the chiming of church bells. After prayers at the synagogue — a normally quiet place where the only sounds are the wind’s rustling of the wicker mats on the floor and the crackling of the glass oil lamps hanging over the windows — the 10 men walk to a deep well nearby to perform tashlich, a ritual of atonement requiring a large body of water. Running for 200 feet beneath the sun-baked desert soil, the well used to service a complex of communal buildings and orchards belonging to the thousands of Jews who once lived here. But now it stands at the edge of a barren and open field. Then the men head to the home of Joseph Azria, 42, and his ailing parents — three of the few Jews still living in Riadh — to blow the shofar for Azria’s father, who is too old and weak to walk to synagogue. The old man smiles as his only son still living in Tunisia speaks about his hope for finding a Jewish bride in Morocco and possibly moving with her to Israel. The synagogue now is surrounded by antitank obstacles and permanently guarded by a platoon of soldiers toting machine guns. They forbid visitors from taking pictures and turn them away altogether whenever members of the Jewish community are in the building. Photography is also forbidden inside Hara Kebira, which has permanently manned checkpoints at its two entrances. Police officers in civilian clothes patrol the town, quickly intercepting and questioning anyone who seems out of place. Inside Hara Kebira, which has a chief rabbi, four synagogues and three Jewish schools, Jews walk around
currency’s plummeting, tourism’s suffering because of terrorism and jobs are scarce and not well paying. It’s not perfect.” But leaving “would be very difficult,” adds Dee’ie, who comes each year with other congregants to make sure El Ghriba has a minyan. “It feels wrong to leave where my ancestors lived for so many years.” Nonetheless, various factors, including state-tolerated violence against Jews following Israel’s victory over its neighbors in the 1967 Six-Day War, have gradually almost emptied Tunisia of the 110,000 Jews who lived here before 1970. A few dozen families left following the 2011 revolution that briefly installed an Islamist and anti-Israel party in power. That bout of instability was the latest chapter in the story that led to the near-
total disappearance of centuries-long Jewish life from the Arab world amid hostility and poverty. Jews on Djerba have also experienced these problems, not least in the explosion that al-Qaida terrorists set off outside the El Ghriba Synagogue in 2002 in which 20 people died, including 14 German tourists. The explosion occurred three weeks before the Jewish holiday of Lag b’Omer, when hundreds of tourists, including from Israel, gather at the El Ghriba for a pilgrimage that is particularly popular among Jews of Tunisian descent. “It’s the only time of the year that we can count on having a minyan,” Dee’ie said at the synagogue, where the sounds of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah blended with the Muslim call
really because it was something we always talked about around the dining room table. Watching Walter Cronkite and the ‘CBS Evening News’ after dinner was always required.” Robert Frankel was also supportive of his daughter, Janina Frankel-Yoeli, when she decided to make aliyah in the late 1990s. “He was extremely supportive of that,” Dan Frankel said, “and I know it was difficult for my parents. Janina ended up making a life for herself in Israel, and I know he was very proud of that.”
For the last seven years of his life, Robert Frankel suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. “The last few years were really hard to watch and experience,” Dan Frankel said. “Alzheimer’s has done that to so many people. “It drains them of their being, and watching that slow process play out over seven years was very painful, especially for my mother, who literally every day went to be by his bedside.” In addition to his son, Dan Frankel (Debra), and daughter Janina Frankel-Yoeli
Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
More broadly, Israeli Cabinet ministers — especially the defense minister, Avigdor Liberman — repeatedly expressed the concern that the Obama administration diminished the U.S. profile in the Middle East. Israel has long considered a robust U.S. profile in the region as key to its security. On the Iran deal, Netanyahu could only be pleased at what he heard. “We cannot abide by an agreement if it provides cover for an eventual nuclear program,” Trump said of the 2015 agreement, which trades sanctions relief for rollbacks in Iran’s nuclear program. Again
calling the deal “one of the worst” he had ever encountered, the president said it was “an embarrassment to the United States and I don’t think you’ve heard the last of it, believe me.” “I couldn’t agree more,” Netanyahu said from the same podium several hours later. He lavished plenty of praise on Trump in his speech. Referring to Trump’s visit earlier this year to the Western Wall, Neyanyahu said, “When the president touched those ancient stones, he touched our hearts forever.” Netanyahu also said “we will act to prevent Iran” from establishing a permanent base in
Syria, developing weapons to be used against Israel from Lebanon and Syria, and establishing a terrorist front against Israel on the Lebanon border. The Israeli, who had a long meeting with Trump in the days before the General Assembly launched, suggested that his message was congruent with Trump’s. “Today I will say things that the rulers of Iran and the people of Iran will remember always,” he said in Hebrew in a social media post two hours ahead of his speech. “I think they will also remember what President Trump says.” PJC
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(Rafi), Robert Frankel is survived by his wife, Rebeca Frankel, sister Marcia Kane, grandchildren Aaron, Erica and Mark and stepgrandchildren Dana and Hagai. He is also survived by nieces and nephews. Services were held at Rodef Shalom Congregation on Sept. 20, with interment at West View Cemetery of Rodef Shalom Congregation. PJC
SEPTEMBER 29, 2017 17
Celebrations
Torah
Engagement
Now and then Rabbi Howard Stein Yom Kippur | Leviticus 16:1-34
T
he observance of Yom Kippur today is imbued with grand ceremony as has been true since the time of the Bible. From the haunting melody of Kol Nidrei through the intensity of the repeated confessions of our sins and the urgent beauty of Ne’ilah, the concluding service, every aspect of the rituals is intended to focus us on the soul-wrenching task of atonement. On the other hand, the real work lies not in praying in the synagogue, but rather in applying our good intentions and self-examination as we move on from the Day of Atonement itself. The traditional Torah reading for Yom Kippur morning describes the rituals associated with the observance in the mishkan (tabernacle) in the wilderness and then
standing of teshuvah (repentance) is very much rooted in personal responsibility to rectify our wrongdoings. In fact, the traditional haftarah for Yom Kippur morning, from the book of Isaiah, emphasizes this aspect of individual involvement in the process of teshuvah. “Is this the fast I desire? A day for each to afflict his soul? To bow his head as a bulrush, and spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?” asks the prophet. Clearly, the answer to these questions is, “No.” However, the passage then describes what our prayers and repentance ought to inspire us to do: “Is this not the fast I desire? To loose the chains of wickedness, to release the bonds of the yoke, to allow the downtrodden to go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the wretched poor to your house? When you see the naked, to cover him; and
Having made this admission of guilt, we are then obligated to do better, to Simmons/Batt: Reid and the late Pearl Simmons of Pittsburgh and Mitchell and Becky Batt of Rockville, Md., are pleased to announce the engagement of their children, Noah Simmons and Emily Batt. Noah’s grandparents are Barbara and the late Noel Simmons of Jerusalem, Israel, and Brenda and the late Richard Levenson of Alexandria, Va. Emily’s grandparents are the late Joshua and Rebecca Batt and Barbara and the late Thomas Thwaites, all of State College. Noah graduated from Penn State University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and went on to receive his law degree from Yale Law School. He is completing a clerkship at the Federal District Court for the District of Maryland in Greenbelt, Md. Emily graduated from the University of North Carolina with a degree in international studies and subsequently received a law degree from the University of Virginia. She practices employment law at Paul Hastings in Washington, D.C., where Noah and Emily first met. The couple got engaged at Machu Picchu, Peru. Their wedding is planned for May 2018 in Washington, D.C., to be officiated by the same rabbi who married Reid and Pearl 30 years ago. PJC
take up the cause of the oppressed and helpless all around us. in the Temple in Jerusalem. In addition to the details of the various sacrifices that are to be offered, we find a description of the special clothes the High Priest would wear to enter the Holy of Holies on this one day out of the year, as well as the description of the scapegoat, which would be dispatched to the wilderness carrying all of the people’s sins with it. In the biblical model, these sacrifices effect repentance for the Israelites. That is, the people are passive in the process; it is the priestly rituals that act on behalf of the individuals. Certainly, there is much in our modern observance that draws on the collective nature of repentance. For example, the confessions of sin are all phrased in the plural rather than the singular. By contrast, however, our modern under-
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not to ignore your own flesh?” We see here the point and counterpoint of the collective and individual aspects of atonement. We gather in the synagogue together, to draw strength from one another as we admit our failings before the great, awesome and holy Judge. Having made this admission of guilt, we are then obligated to do better, to take up the cause of the oppressed and helpless all around us. Only then will all of our self-affliction effect repentance for us. Shanah tovah teichateimu — May you be sealed for a good year! PJC Rabbi Howard Stein is the spiritual leader of Temple Hadar Israel. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.
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Obituaries BERNSTEIN: A. Leonard Bernstein, on Wednesday, September 20, 2017. Beloved husband for 59 years of Linda Bernstein. Loving father of Marci (Jeffrey) Hricik, David (Melissa) Bernstein, and Amy (Jeffrey) Scott, all of Pittsburgh. Brother of Edith (late Frank) Lichtenberger. Adoring grandfather of Julian Hricik, Alaina and Allison Bernstein, Samantha, Jamie and Matthew Scott. Also survived by nieces and nephews. Lenny was a practicing pharmacist for many years. He was an eternal optimist who loved spending time with his family and friends. He enjoyed traveling and taking family vacations. Lenny discovered his love of painting later in life, taking painting classes and participating in the art exhibits at the JCC. Services were held at Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc. Interment at Homewood Cemetery. Contributions may be made to American Diabetes Association, 100 W. Station Square Drive, #1900, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. FABIAN: Sue Ann (Gross ) Fabian, age 74, of Pittsburgh. Beloved wife of Louis A. Fabian. Mother of Marc (Benita) Haberman, David (Patti) Haberman and Adam (Emily) Haberman. Grandma Sue to Reid, Blair and Brandon. Predeceased by her sister Bea Green. Graveside services were held in Mt. Lebanon Cemetery. Services entrusted to William Slater II Funeral Service, Scott Township. GLATSTEIN: Cyna Wolman Glatstein, on the 3rd of Tishrei, Friday night, September 22, 2017. Beloved wife of 70 years of Rabbi Mordecai Glatstein. Loving mother of Hannah, Joseph, and Yitzchak Glatstein, adored by her nine grandchildren and many great-grandchildren. She was born into a rabbinic family in Sochaczew, Poland, where her father was the Rabbi, prior to the outbreak of World War II. She led an early life of unbearable hardship as a child in the Warsaw Ghetto during the war and living as a Gentile with false papers
until the liberation of Europe by the Allies from the German Nazis. She married her life partner Rabbi Mordecai Glatstein in a Displaced Persons Camp and never left his side since. While adjusting to her new life in Pittsburgh she surmounted challenges of language and culture and worked tirelessly to champion Jewish life and education, and to tend to the elderly and the infirm at a variety of institutions. She held classes to teach new Russian immigrants the beauty of Judaism and Jewish tradition when they arrived in Pittsburgh from the former Soviet Union. Despite surviving the crucible of fire that was WW II Europe for a young Jewish girl, she clung to her Judaism and stayed true to her upbringing and Jewish heritage and never wavered. She loved all whom she met and was beloved by all who knew her. Her warmth, radiance and good humor touched thousands that she came in contact with. Burial was on Sunday, September 24 in Jerusalem, at the Mount of Olives Cemetery. HARRIS: Beverly S. Harris, age 89, of Mt. Lebanon on Friday, September 22, 2017. Beloved wife for 62 years of the late Murray W. Harris. Dear mother of Betsy (David) Rascoe, Andrew J. (Jill) Harris and Michael (Stephanie) Harris. Treasured grandmother of Alex, Ben, Sarah and Alana Rascoe, Nathan and Joshua Harris, Hannah, Aaron and Rachel Harris. Sister of the late Helen Krantz, Irving “Budd” Schulberg and Jerry Schulberg. Also survived by many loving nieces, nephews and cousins. Beverly was a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a master’s degree and a dedicated employee of Kaufmann’s Department Store. She was a longtime volunteer at St. Clair Hospital gift shop. Beverly and Murray enjoyed many years of world travel and supported the arts with a large group of friends. Funeral service was held at Beth El Congregation of South Hills. Interment in the Temple Emanuel Section of Mt. Lebanon Cemetery. Memorial donations can be made to the Jewish Association on Aging, 200 JHF Dr., Pittsburgh, PA 15217 or the Greater PA Chapter of Alzheimer’s Association, 100 Liberty Ave., Suite E 201, Pittsburgh, PA 15222. Arrangements entrusted to William Slater II Funeral Service, Scott Township. PJC
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THIS WEEK’S YAHRZEITS — Sunday October 1: Charles Bahm, Herman Goldman, Ben A. Herman, Bernard Hoddeson, Jacob Jacobs, Ise Kramer, Frieda Miller, Benjamin Mossoff, Florence Rubin, Abraham Shapiro, Arnold Sommer Monday October 2: Max Danovitz, Hyman J. Dobkin, Max Dobkin, Ruth P. Kamin, Herman Lang, Mollie Levine, Rose Levine, Max C. Levy, Ruth O. Martin, Samuel S. Mervis, Ida Osgood, Irving Leonard Podolsky, Estelle L. Schaeffer, Samuel Siegal, Alfred Supowitz, Rebecca Zeff Tuesday October 3: Mollie Brand Amsel, Ruth Haltman Caplan, Fannie Coon, Gerald C. Davidson, Thekla Zimmern Gordon, Esther Mandell, Samuel Maryn, Morris Saxen, Jeanette Schutzman, Alexander Sharove, Harry T. Weiner Wednesday October 4: Belle L. Bloch, Joseph Bowytz, Freda K. Unikel Bregman, Leah Breman, Dr. Jacob Brodie, Dora Brody, Loretta Brody, Sadie Colton, Bess R. Escott, Laura Fletcher, Helen Goldfeder, Leana M. Herman, Sarah Lefton, Harold Martin Lewis, Ben Markowitz, Celia Miller, Mollie Osgood, Dr. Gerald L. Ostfield, Elizabeth L. Ostfield, MD, Israel Raphael, Clarence Rosenberg, Bessie Ruth Roth, Albert Solomon, Henry Ziskind Thursday October 5: Beatrice Ash, Max M. Bergad, Morris R. Cohn, Max Dine, Harry Dorsey, Jacob Florman, Bess Hansell, Millie Kanowitz, Morris Kempler, Selma Krouse, Pvt. Isadore Levy, Ernest Mannheimer, Katie Levine Marcus, Anna Mazer, Bella Olinsky, Esther Simon, Max Staman, Anna Stein, Nathaniel Steinberg, Barbara Ruth Weisenberg, Louis Wesoky, Louis Aaron White, Milton Wirtzman Friday October 6: Jack Bergad, Cecilia Weis Bluestone, Frances Sylvia Brown, Ann Colker, Annette Klee, Charles Kovacs, Bernard S. Labbie, Sadie Moldovan, Joseph Moskovitz, Samuel H. Richman, Louis M. Sachs, Aaron Joel Schwartz Saturday October 30: Sylvia Auslander, Leo Berkowitz, Gilbert B. Cramer, Iris Cummings, Murray Feiler, Rose Fisher, Jack Hirsch, Joseph Louis Hochman, Rose Isaacson, Sophia Korsunsky, Sam Nadler, David Nathaniel Racusin, Walter Jacob Robins, Myer Shapiro, Ben Shrager
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Headlines Tunisia: Continued from page 17
wearing kippahs, greeting passers-by with “shalom” and wishing one another “Shanah tovah” — Hebrew for Happy New Year. Sukkot, huts with palm-tree canopies, are erected in every yard on the Jewish holiday and the whole neighborhood falls silent on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Still, Hara Kebira residents do not advertise their Jewish identity outside their town: The men don hats over their kippahs upon leaving the enclave. “It’s a very good thing the police are here, they protect us, just like they protect you in Israel,” said Dee’ie, who studied at a religious seminary in Israel in 2007. He returned p A Djerba Jew prayS at the El Ghriba Synagogue. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons to Hara Kebira but moved away last year to Zarzis, where his wife was born and he teaches a classroom of 15 children from that city’s Jewish community of 130 members. Dee’ie’s father, the community’s most experienced mohel and schochet — respectively the person who performs circumcision and the ritual slaughter of animals — still lives in Hara Kebira with his wife and Dee’ie’s nine siblings. They meet on holidays for elaborate meals rich with alcohol, including a kosher wine that the Dee’ies produce themselves because importing it is too expensive and complicated in Tunisia, a Muslim country where many oppose the sale of any alcohol. Despite the challenges of living here, Djerba is one of the few spots in the region where a sizable Jewish community persists, thanks to what locals — Jews and non-Jews alike — say is a special set of circumstances: the local population’s relative immunity to waves of xenophobia and political agitation p The main prayer hall of the El Ghriba Synagogue seen on the mainland. Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Pretty much all aspects of life in Djerba bear the effect of centuries of interaction Jewish tailor, Makhiks Sabbag, and his son off on Jews here: They take off their shoes among Muslims, Christians and Jews, who Amos are widely considered the very best.) before entering their synagogues the way have lived here since Roman times. The symbol of the menorah, the Jewish Muslims do before entering a mosque. Whereas elsewhere in Tunisia the tradi- traditional oil lamp, is a local icon adopted This familiarity breeds intimacy and tional bean stew known as tfina pkaila is by the general population featured in deco- mutual assistance, according to Ridha considered a typically Jewish dish, here in rations of government buildings such as Arfaoui, a non-Jewish resident of Riadh Djerba everyone eats and makes it. The clinics and schools. And non-Jewish locals who owns a small restaurant near the El island’s best makers of blousas — a traditional are surprisingly familiar with the Jewish Ghriba Synagogue. Djerban woolen robe that Muslims wear on calendar and customs. “I grew up with the Jews, we had a Jewish religious holidays — are all Jewish. (One Muslim customs clearly have also rubbed neighbor on all sides of our house and on
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Yom Kippur we would not turn on the radio out of respect,” he said. But in Tunisia, expressions of anti-Semitism, often featuring anti-Israel vitriol, continue to occur, reminding the country’s remaining 1,700 Jews “that the Arab, he is very easy to incite,” Dee’ie said. A recent example came when Tunisia joined several other countries in banning the film “Wonder Woman,” apparently because its lead character is portrayed by the Israeli film star Gal Gadot. The Jewish-French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, who is not Israeli, was greeted during a 2014 visit to Tunisia by dozens of Islamists carrying signs calling on “Levy the Zionist” to leave. The invitation to a Tunisian festival in July of the Jewish comedian Michel Boujenah provoked protests in Tunisia that local anti-racism activists said were anti-Semitic. Tunisia has several pending bills, introduced by Islamist and secular nationalists, proposing a blanket boycott on Israel and a ban on any Israelis from entering the country. Notwithstanding, Tunisia’s government is showcasing its Jewish heritage sites, including Djerba, whose ancient synagogue is on Tunis’ list this year for locales put forth for recognition as world heritage sites by the United Nations. The government has made several statements about the positive role of its Jewish citizens, invested considerable resources in renovating sites of worship and is considering allocating two seats in parliament for representatives of the Jewish community. But in parallel, authorities in Tunisia are “quietly confiscating” Jewish antiques, including a 15th-century Torah scroll whose whereabouts the government is refusing to disclose, according to an expose published last month by the French news site Dreuz. The effects of anti-Semitism in Tunisia may be “unpleasant at times, but they are not a threat to the survival of this community,” said Dee’ie, who was ready to immigrate to Israel last year with his wife because they could not find an affordable apartment to their liking in Zarzis. “Practical things matter: Whether Jews can find a Jewish partner, make a living and live a comfortable life,” he added. “I grew up here, but I don’t know if this is the place where my children will grow up.” PJC
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Mail to: Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle | 5915 Beacon Street, 5th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15217
20 SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE
PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG
DEADLINE NOTICE DEADLINE The deadline for all NOTICE copy and art –
FOR RENT
Beautiful 1, 2, & 3 Bedroom Apartments! Beautiful 2, & 3 Bedroom Apartments! Spacious1, Floorplans, In-suite Washers/Dryers,
～ FOR SALE ～ ～inFOR BonitaSALE Springs, ～ Fl.
print and classified The deadline for alladvertising, copy and artpress – releases, simcha advertising, announcements print and classified press – is noon Friday releases, simcha announcements – is noon Friday We go to press at noon on Tuesday and regret
Newly Remodeled Kitchens*, Formal DRs, Sun Deck, Spacious Floorplans, In-suite Washers/Dryers, Social Room, Fitness Center, Garage Parking, Newly Remodeled Kitchens*, Formal DRs, Sun Deck, Oakland & Shadyside Area Social Room, Fitness Center, Garage Parking,
Real Estate
FOR SALE FOR SALE
*In Select Units
Oakland &&Shadyside AreaApartments Sherwood Towers Chalfont 412-683-8683 Sherwood www.mckinneyproperties.com Towers & Chalfont Apartments
*In Select Units
in Bonita Springs, Fl.
we cannot accommodate changes after the We go to press at noon on Tuesday and regret Friday noon deadline we cannot accommodate changes after the Friday noon deadline
412-683-8683
www.mckinneyproperties.com
$
$ 284,500 CALL 412.657.2766 284,500 CALL 412.657.2766
2ND FLOOR CONDO (approx 1810 sq. ft.) 2ND FLOOR CONDO
FOR SALE FOR SALE
TIMESHARE FFF TIMESHARE FFF
(approx 1810 ft.) In a Bundled Golfsq. Community In a Bundled Golf Community 3 Br's/2 full baths, over sized kitchen with office stainless steel sized appliances,custom wood 3 space, Br's/2 full baths, over kitchen with office “Spicebush” located in Hilton Head’s most cabinetry, granite tops,master bathroom space, stainless steelcounter appliances,custom wood “Spicebush” located in Hilton Head’s most prestigious plantation, “Sea Pines”. completegranite w/ duel sinks, custom mirrors cabinetry, counter tops,master bathroomand prestigious plantation, “Sea Pines”. lighting, w/ lrg. duel stall shower, lrg. walk-in closet with complete sinks, custom mirrors and 2 bedroom/2 bath; full kitchen; w/d; deck; sleeps 6; lighting, lrg. walk-in closet• with custom lrg. shelving. POINT BREEZE • $460,000 • stall 325shower, RICHLAND LANE OPEN 11-1 • SUN., OCT. 1 2 bedroom/2 full kitchen; w/d;tennis deck; sleeps 6; duplex within abath; cul de sac; pool and on property; custom shelving. 2 condition; &a3cul Bedrooms duplex within de sac; poolfrom and tennis on property; 2nd. bathroom has new cabinetry,quartz, custom perfect 1 block beachNEW and golf. LISTING! Unique town home/condo in a converted mansion on 2 plus acres. Enjoy 3 bedrooms, Corner1of 2nd. bathroom has new cabinetry,quartz, custom perfect condition; block from beach and golf. lighting and mirror. 2.5 Baths, 2 car int. Garage. Wonderful “High” Trading Weeks (II and RCI) lighting and mirror.open floor plan with 10 foot ceilings, wood burning fireplace in Fifth and Wilkins Greatisroom with lanai which looks that out onto a lake “High” Trading Weeks (IIApprox. and RCI) Annual Maintenance Fees: a$750 wonderful great room.Great This onewith of four town homes enjoy their own swimming pool and tennis lanai with whichgorgeous looks outsunset onto aviews. lake Spacious and room the golf course, Annual Maintenance Approx. $750 Anxious to Sell. NowFees: Living in Florida. court. Do not miss this rare opportunity. and the golf course, with gorgeous sunset views. Anxious to Sell. Now Living 1500-2250 square feet in Florida. FFF FFF ASKING PRICE—One Dollar!!! EDGEWOOD • 230,000.00 FFF ASKING PRICE—One + legal closing feesDollar!!! FFF + legal closing fees Fabulous 3 bedroom, 1.5 baths. advantage of the new dyed stamped patio and new landscaping. CLASSIFIEDS SELLTake IT FAST IN THE Call Barbara at 772-781-1212, if interested. SELL ITkitchen, FAST IN built-ins and Woodmode areTHE just aCLASSIFIEDS few of the perks of this charming home. Call Barbara at 772-781-1212, if Multiple interested.
FFF FFF
BUYING OR SELLING?
FOR RENT
SELL IT SELL IT FAST FAST IN THE IN THE CLASSIFIEDS CLASSIFIEDS
FOR SALE
5125 Fifth Ave.
”Finest in Shadyside”
412-661-4456
www.kaminrealty.kamin.com
FOR SALE FOR SALE
PERFECT PAIR FOR ALL YOUR PERFECT PAIR FOR ALL YOUR
REAL ESTATE ESTATE NEEDS NEEDS REAL Tamara Skirboll Tamara Skirboll Cheryl Gerson Cheryl Gerson
TAMARA and CHERYL TAMARA and CHERYL
412.401.1110 412.401.1110 412.401.4693 412.401.4693
FIRST TIME OFFERED OFFERED FIRST TIME
Beechwood Blvd 1,800,000 1,800,000 Beechwood Blvd This Historic home has been totally updated with many of the original This Historic home has been totally updated with many of the original characteristics remaining, including the beautiful wood paneling, marble characteristics remaining, including the beautiful wood paneling, marble fireplaces, gorgeous hardwood hardwoodfloors floorsthroughout. throughout.The Thespacious spacious fireplaces, mantels mantels and and gorgeous kitchen and the the bedrooms bedrooms and andbaths bathsare areexquisite. exquisite.There Thereisis kitchen is is top top of of the the line line and exceptional with aa lovely lovely deck, deck, slate slatepatio patioand and33car cargarage. garage. exceptional outdoor outdoor space space with Call Call for for appointment. appointment.
FOR RENT
BEACON PLACE
sell it OR rent it fast IN
Squirrel Hill Hill Ave Ave 749,500 2 Bedrooms, Squirrel 749,500
2 Baths Condo
Wonderful Farms house. house. Side Side entry entry with with spectacular spectacularhardwood hardwood Wonderful Murdoch Murdoch Farms floors! room & & dining dining room room and and fireplaces fireplacesfor forall alltotoenjoy. enjoy. floors! Spacious Spacious living living room Manageable and 22 new new baths. baths. Large Largefenced fencedininyard yardwith with22car car Manageable 44 bedrooms bedrooms and garage. garage. Call Call for for appointment. appointment.
62 yrs. old+ no pets.
THE PITTSBURGH JEWISH
FOR SALE SQUIRREL HILL/NORTH OF • $975,000 FOR FORBES SALE
5529 Dunmoyle: Spectacular 8 br, 4½ bath home. Formal living and dining rooms, first floor family room, wonderful rear porch that is the expanse of this grand home. Beautiful architectural features — woodwork, windows, high ceilings and much more. FOX CHAPEL MEWS - $349,000
FORSALE SALE FOR
FOX CHAPEL MEWS - $349,000
EXQUISITE 3 bedroom condo-Completely renovated with magnificent built-ins. In NORTH OF 3FORBES •in-unit $1,250,000 EXQUISITE bedroom condo-Completely renovatedhas with magnificent built-ins. In unit balcony,great room, laundry.Building many amenities -pool,guest unit suites, balcony,great room,room in-unitand laundry.Building has many amenities -pool,guest library,party much more. High end unit ready for move-in. suites, library,party room and much more. High end unit ready for move-in.
Designed by premier architect David Ross of Design Alliance. 4 br, 3½ baths, open concept kitchen, a MURDOCH FARMSlarge - $525,000 sunken diningMURDOCH room with 6 ft.FARMS windows, sunken living room with 10 ft. ceilings. Great room/kitchen. - $525,000 FIRST TIME OFFERED! Great 4 bedroom 2 bath and 2 1/2 baths home with integral FIRST TIME OFFERED! Great 4have bedroom 2 bath and 2 1/2 baths Living room master br deck space with views of CMU, Oakland and Downtown from this garage onand one of Pittsburgh's finest private streets. Magnificent livinghome roomwith withintegral fireplace, garage on onefirst of Pittsburgh's finest streets. Magnificent living with fireplace, floor den and much more.This is the homeroom you want. floor denThe and much This is the home to youawant. lovely privatefirst location. lowermore. level den opens private patio. Recently installed heated driveway and SQUIRREL HILL - SUMMERSET walkway to front steps. Lower level -also has radiant heat. Truly a treasure with many amenities. SQUIRREL HILL SUMMERSET ATFRICK FRICKPARK PARK- $569,000 - $569,000- SOLD - SOLD AT
FIRST TIME OFFERED! Spectacular 4 BR , 2 full $1,400,000 Baths and 2- 1/2 bath town home. METROPOLITAN CONDOMINIUM FIRST TIME OFFERED! Spectacular 4 BR , 2 full • Baths and 2- 1/2 bath town home. Owner thought of every detail. Beautiful amenities through out the entire home, Owner thought of every detail. Beautiful amenities through out the entire home,
even the bonus of two washers and dryers. Enjoy resort living as the home is even thebedroom bonus of twocustom-designed washers and dryers. Enjoy resort living as the home is Rare three spacious penthouse in one of Pittsburgh’s most distinguished directly across from the pool and the fitness center. DON'T MISS THIS! directly across from the pool and the fitness center. DON'T MISS THIS! buildings. Floor to ceiling windows bring natural light into the large living and dining areas with access SHADYSIDE- $230,000 - $230,000 SHADYSIDE to a lovely outdoor deck.3The largetownhome well-appointed exquisite eat-in gourmet kitchen has a pass thru to the FIRST TIME OFFERED! bedroom Maple Heights. Beautiful yard, FIRST TIME OFFERED! 3 bedroom townhome on on Maple Heights. Beautiful yard, great builtins, central garage . dining room. The master suite central includes aintegral luxurious and a huge dressing room closet. The amenities of great builtins, air,air, integral garage . bath the building include 2 parking spaces,-two guest suites, -catering SHADYSIDE CONDO $195,000 SOLDkitchen, wine and storage lockers, library, SHADYSIDE CONDO - $195,000 - SOLD FIRST TIME OFFERED! Chic and cozy.2 central air, laundry room in unit,balcony conference/party room, aand resistance pool, and an extensive exercise area. Outdoors, the serene grounds FIRST TIME OFFERED! Chic cozy.2 BR,BR, central air, laundry room in unit,balcony and garage. PET FRIENDLY! GREAT LOCATION! garage. PET FRIENDLY! GREAT LOCATION! boasts a puttingand green, koi pond, waterfall and a gazebo.
Jill&and &Mark Mark Portland Jill Portland JILL MARK PORTLAND
RE/MAX Realty Brokers RE/MAX Realty Brokers RE/MAX REALTY BROKERS
Please contact Kate: 412-421-0955
CHRONICLE
Chai
(412) 521-1000 ext. 200200 (412) 521-1000 ext. 200 412.521.1000 EXT. (412) 496-5600 (412) 496-5600 JillJill 412.496.5600 JILL (412) 480-3110 Mark | 412.480.3110 MARK (412) 480-3110 Mark
BUYING OR SELLING?
News for people who know we don’t mean spiced tea.
L’shanah Tovah A Happy and Healthy New Year.
Every Friday in the
TIME FOR A CHANGE? READY TO MAKE A MOVE? I work full time with home/condos buyers and sellers. CALL Ellen Livingston for an appointment.
and all the time online @pittsburghjewishchronicle.org. For home delivery, call 410.902.2308.
412.670.1366
Ellen Livingston REALTOR®, ABR City of Pittsburgh Regional Office Real Estate Professional Relocation Certifield Specialist Multi-Million Dollar Producer
Best contact no.: 412-670-1366 Bus: 412-521-5500 x229 EllenLivingston@ThePreferredRealty.com www.ellenlivingstonrealtor.com
Business & Professional Directory AUTOS WANTED AUTOS WANTED 724-287-7771 B U YING VEHICLE$ DENNY OFF$TEIN AUTO $ALE$
gutters, painting. Reliable service, with references. Call Scottie at 412-310-3769.
CEMETERY PLOT
PET SITTING
PLUMBING
TRAVEL AGENT
HOUSEKEEPING HOUSEKEEPING
Cemetery Plot for Sale
Pet Sitting Service
ROAD RUNNER PLUMBING
Exclusive Discounted Business Class Tickets
I’m Vieira, an experienced, compassionate, reliable and hardworking caregiver to the elderly. You can call/text me at 412-522-0217.
My name is Pamella and I offer in home cleaning services. I am hardworking, honest & dependable with more than 20 years experience. If interested you can contact me at 412-499-2561. Thank you.
GARDEN GARDEN AND & HOME MAINTENANCE HOME MAINTENANCE
CARETAKER CARETAKER
Spruce up your yard on a one-time or regular basis; clean out house, basement,
FIND IT IN THE
classifieds
PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG
One Plot For Sale
Adat Shalom/B’nai Israel Cemetery Lot 1, Block 217, Section 10
We are a well established (almost 25 years) pet sitting service. If you need help with your pets, please give us a call! We have dedicated personnel in your local area. 412-963-6933 Amshelpetsit.com
Will take best offer. Call 412-841-7252
• Registered Master Plumber • Sewer and Drain Experts • Full Service Plumbing
TO EUROPE AND WORLDWIDE
Call Mike 412-421-1538 412-292-5830
412-884-0543
Easy to arrange. Call me at or email me your info at joann.uts@gmail.
#HP3342
www.pittsburghjewishchronicle.org PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE
SEPTEMBER 29, 2017 21
Community Symbols of hope The Butterfly Project, a global call to action through the arts, uses the lessons of the Holocaust to educate about the dangers of hatred and bigotry and inspire empathy and social responsibility. Participants paint ceramic butterflies that are permanently displayed as symbols of resilience and hope, with the goal of creating a total of 1.5 million butterflies around the world — one for each child who perished in the Holocaust. As part of the global Butterfly Project, the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh unveiled two original art installations that showcase 875 butterflies painted by Pittsburghers from 20 different schools and organizations during 2016-17.
t Speaker Hana Kovanic in front of the Butterfly wall installation
t Butterflies on the quilt exhibit, made by Louise Silk
u Butterflies on the wall installation, made by Deb Engelbaugh and Alix Paul, fabricated by Mark Panza
p Ed and Arlene Lipsman, Holocaust Center Director Lauren Bairnsfather, Arleen and Sandy Lipsman, and Holocaust Center Development Manager Zachary Zafris pose in front of the Butterfly quilt.
Photos by Melanie Friend Photography
A great start
p It was a historic occasion in the history of Squirrel Hill AARP Chapter No. 3354. The first meeting at its new location at Tree Of Life*Or L’Simcha included a board of directors meeting, entertainment and a regular meeting with president Ilene Portnoy, entertainment and newsletter chair Lynne Gottesman (at the table), and speakers Marsha Stern, Barry Werber and Marcia Kramer. The chapter’s next meeting will be Wednesday, Oct. 18 with speaker Bill McKensie of Apprise, who will discuss what’s new for 2018 for Medicare. Photos by Barry Werber
22 SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
p Members of the New Light Congregation enjoyed the yearly picnic dinner at their former home and look forward to future meals at their new home at Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha. Barb and Harold Caplan and family produced the spread.
PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE
PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG
Community Fun for all! Fifty children and their parents enjoyed the pre-Rosh Hashanah Honey Bake 4 Kids, a project of Chabad of the South Hills, on Sept. 17 at the South Hill Jewish Community Center. South Hills Jewish Pittsburgh, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh and PJ Library were co-sponsors.
p Community Day School second-grader Lewis Depasse concentrates on drawing what the Rosh Hashanah dinner table looks like in his family to decorate his envelope of work about the holiday.
p Children enjoy a juggling show with Rabbi Aaron Herman.
p In a favorite Community Day School tradition, kindergarten students bake honey cake for Rosh Hashanah with their Hebrew and Jewish studies teacher Michal Schachter. From left: Adi Weinkle, Liran Naveh, Orel Ohayon, Evan Kossis, Gal Salzman and Ella Levy. Photos courtesy of Community Day School p Ari and Leslie Broverman
Your move t Michael Karoll, left, and Ira Karoll play chess at the new tables on the corner of Beacon Street and Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill.
Photo courtesy of Mollie Butler
p Slava, Benny and Elena Rovner
Photos courtesy of Chabad of the South Hills
PITTSBURGHJEWISHCHRONICLE.ORG  
PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE
SEPTEMBER 29, 2017 23
Empire Kosher Fresh Ground Turkey
• All-natural poultry — whole chickens, breasts, wings and more
Sold in 1 lb. pkg.
• All-natural, corn-fed beef — steaks, roasts, ground beef and more • Variety of deli meats and franks Available at select Giant Eagle stores. Visit GiantEagle.com for location information.
4
29 ea.
Save with your
Price effective Thursday, September 28 through Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Available at 17AD31336_PJC_0928.indd 1
24 SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
and PITTSBURGH JEWISH CHRONICLE
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