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July 19, 2024 Balak • 13 Tamuz 5784 • Vol 23, No 24
TheJewishStar.com
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Stop the insanity The Jewish Star’s view:
Sometimes, quiet contemplation beats a barrage of words. “There’s a mysterious quality to the idea of absence, of holding back,” writes the Jewish Journal’s David Suissa on page 11. “Designers call it negative space; Kabbalists call it white fire.”
Scranton, improbable Jewish venue, hosts art show and kosher food fest
Elke Sudin of Brooklyn, whose scarf and paintings are represented in “Jewish Art: Tradition and Transformation,” is pictured at a runway show in Manhattan where she modeled one of her scarves. Another New York artist showcased at the Everhart Museum is Steve Marcus, whose “Keep On Davenin’” is pictured above.
By Ed Weintrob Most New Yorkers don’t think much about Scranton, Pennsyvania, the onceupon-a-time railroad and coal town that famously helped shape Joe Biden’s youth. And if they think of Scranton at all, it might be as home to the fictional Dunder Mifflin paper company from NBC’s longrunning hit show, “The Office,” certainly not as ground zero for Yiddishkeit. With a Jewish community of just a few thousand in a city of 80,000, it’s definitely not the Five Towns or Riverdale — let alone Boro Park or Monsey — 2-1/2 hours west of Manhattan But Scranton, known as the Electric City, has three Orthodox shuls with an abundance of learning opportunities for adults, two Jewish day schools for young children (one traditional Orthodox, the other with a Montessori-style curriculum), a girls’ high school, a Lakewood-style yeshiva, mikvahs
for both men and women, a full-fledged JCC facility, numerous communal organizations including Federation and Chaveirim — plus superb parks, hiking trails and skiing, and an historic downtown where housing is mind-blowingly affordable. With the opening this week of “Jewish Art: Tradition and Transformation” in Scranton’s Everhart Museum, the city will inch a bit closer to Jewish ground zero. While in much of America proud Jewish men are tucking in their tzitzit and covering their kipot, and women are learning to mask the modest dress and hair-coverings that may reveal their religious identity, Scranton is pulling out all the stops to host both the art exhibition and a four-day kosher food festival in Nay Aug Park, where the museum is located. An opening gala at Everhart Museum was set for Wednesday, July 17, with the See Pennsylvania city on page 2
Scranton’s Kosher Food fest, pictured in 2021, will run for four days, July 28 to 31, near the museum in Nay Aug Park.