Winter 2009 B'nai B'rith Magazine

B’nai B’rith Broadens Its Scope of New Media - See Page 46

B’Nai B’rith m

PUBLISHED SINCE 1886

a

g

a

z

i

n

e

Winter 2009

Rediscovering

Cape Verde

Preserving Auschwitz

B’nai B’rith M a g a z i n e

winter 2009

Photos by Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum

21 Seniors Enjoy Camp Who says summer camp is just for the young?

This past summer, residents of 12 B’nai B’rith senior housing facilities went to B’nai B’rith Perlman Camp for a leadership retreat packed with camp activities. From bingo to talent shows to Israeli dancing, participants learned valuable leadership skills while having a blast.

8 An Uphill U.N. Struggle

By Rachel Mauro

When the U.N. Human Rights Council appointed the Goldstone fact-finding mission to investigate Israel’s “grave violations of human rights” against the Palestinians during the Gaza war, Israel decided not to cooperate, discrediting the mission as inherently biased.

Non-governmental organizations like B’nai B’rith International, which has been at the U.N. for six decades, stated the case for the Jewish state. The controversy surrounding the 574-page Goldstone report, later endorsed by the council, echoed the criticism Israel supporters have long leveled against the United Nations: that it is biased against the Jewish state. So what’s next for Israel at the U.N.?

By Uriel Heilman

16 Preserving Auschwitz

22 Camp Passport Since 2003, B’nai B’rith International has provided fully subsidized stays at its Pennsylvania and Wisconsin camps for Israeli children affected by terrorism. This summer, 12 Israelis participated in the Camp Passport program, which provides a “calm, safe, and peaceful environment where they can succeed,” according to Perlman Camp Director Lewis Sohinki.

By Joel Samen

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum is an important symbol of the atrocities committed by the Third Reich. But without reconstructive and preservation efforts, the camps’ buildings and important artifacts may not stand the test of time, taking with them lessons of indifference and intolerance. To begin such a costly preservation project—more than the museum or the Polish government can afford— the question first is how to raise the necessary sum.

By Joel Samen

26 Sam Schloss One of the oldest B’nai B’rith lodges still in existence, B’nai B’rith International’s Sam Schloss Lodge in Memphis celebrated its 150th anniversary in August. Speakers at the commemorative event included U.S. and world B’nai B’rith leaders.

From staff reports

36 Jewish Genealogy 101

Photo by B’nai B’rith staff

Instead of traversing the world through stacks of records to glean genealogical data, those seeking Jewish ancestry information can find it with the click of a mouse. Institutions such as the Jerusalem-based International Institute of Jewish Genealogy are looking to create an academic subset of Jewish genealogy within Jewish studies. They hope to train people in techniques such as digital “reconstitution” of communities to pass on to the next generation in the tradition of dor l’dor.

By Hillel Kuttler

page four

Cover illustration by Corbis/Alan E. Cober

A Presidential Farewell: Taking Pride in Our Values

By Moishe Smith, President, B’nai B’rith International

DEPARTMENTS From the EVP Letter to the Editor

6 39

Jewish Geography 30

Point of View

Taking Due Pride in Our Values, Heritage

By Moishe Smith President, B’nai B’rith International

I

n September, I had the occasion to spend a week at the annual United Nations General Assembly opening.

It was my eighth or ninth attendance at this yearly conclave, and, unfortunately, I was not expecting to hear anything from our foes but their oft-repeated anti-Israel and anti-Semitic venomous diatribes.

However, this time when the week was over, I surprisingly came away with something different. I had been presented with two diametrically opposing views, at two alternate venues, that made me realize the importance of B’nai B’rith, of Israel’s presence at the U.N., and—most importantly—of being a Jew. At the U.N., those who unfortunately decided to stay in the hall listened to rambling invective from Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi; sat through the merciless, hate-infused oratory of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; and heard the anti-Western rhetoric of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

It was the same old vitriol; it reminded me of how far the U.N. has fallen in stature, in prestige—really, how far it’s fallen from its original mandate.

It struck me hard because it is a shame and very sad, considering B’nai B’rith’s history at the United Nations. We have been a presence at the U.N. since it was formed in San Francisco in 1945. We believed in it, we supported it, we’ve been active in it. And here we are, 60, 70 years

4 Winter 2009

later, and what have we seen in return?

We have Ahmadinejad using the forum to deny the Holocaust and call for Israel to be wiped off the map. We have Gadhafi attacking the U.N. and the Western world as a whole, and offering bizarre theories on Middle East “peace.” We have Chavez and Gadhafi later signing a “terrorism” treaty, which slams Western colonialism.

These are people who are committed to what they say. If you really listened to their speeches, you would realize that, like every tyrant in the world, you can count on them to speak their truths. Ironically, these are not liars. Ahmadinejad, Gadhafi, Chavez, and their cohorts are just like Hitler, who truly believed what he professed when he made his speeches and laid out his mad visions for world domination and destruction of his real or imagined enemies.

So you have all of these rogues, all of these hoodlums, using the U.N.—which should be a platform for human rights, for freedom of speech, for all that is good among nations—as a podium for hate.

They use the United Nations to try and lend legitimacy to their lopsided views of what the world should be.

These are the people that capture the ears of many when they come to the United Nations: the ones who hate Israel, who hate Jews. The ones whose world visions are demonic threats to our Jewish ways of life.

I was once again deflated by my U.N. experience.

But then another voice caught my ear: that of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who spoke both to the General Assembly and later to a gathering of Jewish leaders at the venerable Jewish New York City venue, the 92nd Street Y. It wasn’t a political speech, which I found interesting and refreshing.

He talked about being Jewish, he talked about Israel as a concept, he talked about the Holocaust and how people continually try to deny it. Mostly, he talked about what it meant to be committed to our Jewish values. He spoke of the strength garnered from our previous generations, the power of our traditions, and the credence of our history.

Netanyahu stated that there are “three great lies” directed against the Jewish people and Israel: that the Holocaust didn’t occur, that Israel “has been the aggressor in the conflict,” and that “we are foreign colonials in the land of Israel.”

He spoke of the dangers of letting those untruths go unanswered.

“All it takes for memories to be erased and for lies to be propagated is for them to be unopposed,” Netanyahu said.

“We’re not conquerors and not colonialists. This is the land of Israel and this is the land of our forefathers. This is our past and our future.”

His was a call to communal arms, one

B’nai B’rith M a g a z ine

Winter 2009

that implored the audience to stand up for their Jewish faith. As this was just before Yom Kippur, Netanyahu asked his audience to light an extra candle on that holiest of nights, for “truth and justice” for the Jewish people and for the Jewish state.

Netanyahu reaffirmed my credo that Judaism is the glue that binds us together as a people, no matter how far and wide we’ve been dispatched into the Diaspora.

And it also reaffirmed my unconditional support for the mission of B’nai B’rith.

I found this divergent speech at the 92nd Street Y exhilarating, because usually when B’nai B’rith goes to the U.N. for the two-week period a year at the opening of the General Assembly, we’re pushed into defending Israel and having to listen to “If only you would do this” and “If only you would do that.”

As Netanyahu noted, Israel and the Jews have made “unbelievable concessions.”

Israel has always been the country that’s done what she’s supposed to do, whether it was withdrawing from Lebanon, Sinai, and Gaza or extending an olive branch— not only to the Palestinians but to the Arab countries around her. Yet Israel is always accused of being at fault, especially at the United Nations. At the U.N., it’s not just the Arab nations that blame Israel for the problems of the Middle East; it’s sometimes even those that profess to be her friends.

However, after listening to Netanyahu’s speech at the Y and a heartwarming introduction from Elie Wiesel, I understand why B’nai B’rith stays at the U.N.—even with all its imperfections—and tries to work from within the system, rather than from without. It also became clear how important B’nai B’rith is in toiling for the needs of the Jewish Diaspora, for individuals both within their pluralistic societies and in connection with the State of Israel.

B’nai B’rith as an organization has

embodied, and will continue to exemplify, the responsibilities Netanyahu has called for: strength garnered from our previous generations, power from our traditions, and pride in our historical contributions.

T T T This is my last column, as my term as president has come to a close.

After three years as your president and serving a term as chairman of the executive, I must thank each and every one of our members, donors, and supporters.

They afforded me an opportunity to do my part, to change the organization as best as I could, and to give back and advocate on behalf of the Jewish people worldwide. It was an outstanding opportunity, and I find myself very fortunate.

I want to thank our staff, which has kept up the good fight through trying economic times. And, of course, our lay leadership, for keeping our mission vibrant and alive.

B’nai B’rith presidents come and go. But I’m very hopeful that some of the programs that were very near and dear to my heart will live on, like attracting the next generation of Jewish leaders and preparing them to serve in the Jewish community.

We need to teach the next generation that even as time passes, we must not discard our Jewish values, diminish our support for the State of Israel, or forget the importance of Holocaust education and Holocaust remembrance. These are the things that bind us, that help us remember the onus we carry for being Jews.

Like those who came before me, from whom I have learned so much, I will miss leading our great organization. But I am confident your next president will be up to the challenges, particularly with your continued help and support.

God bless.

Vol 123, no. 4

Moishe Smith President, B’nai B’rith International Daniel S. Mariaschin Executive Vice President Harvey Berk Interim Director of Communications Hiram M. Reisner Editorial Director Dara Kahn Associate Editor Rachel Mauro Joel Samen Contributing Editors Simeon Montesa Art Director Vivian Hayward Graphic Designer Ruth E. Thaler-Carter Copy Editor Theodore Fischer Proofreader Advertising Office: Fulton Advertising 301-604-3466 Editorial Offices: 2020 K St., NW, 7th Floor, Washington, DC 20006 202-857-6681 or bbmag@bnaibrith.org Readership: Approximately 175,000 Signed articles represent the opinions of their authors and are not necessarily the view of B’nai B’rith or B’nai B’rith Magazine. Return postage must accompany unsolicited material, for which no responsibility is assumed.

Contents ©2009 by B’nai B’rith. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. The B’nai B’rith Magazine (ISSN 1549-4799) is published quarterly (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) by B’nai B’rith, 2020 K St., NW, 7th Floor, Washington, DC 20006, and is indexed in the Index to Jewish Periodicals. Subscription rates: U.S. and possessions, one year, non-member, $12; Canadian member, $12; Canadian nonmember, $17; overseas member (outside U.S. and Canada), $36; overseas non-member (outside U.S. and Canada), $48. Members of Hillel and BBYO, $7.50. $5 of member dues goes toward B’nai B’rith Magazine.

Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C., and additional mailing offices. Notification of address change should be sent to Circulation, 2020 K St., NW, 7th Floor, Washington, DC 20006, or call 888-388-4224. Please allow six to eight weeks for change. Postmaster: Send address changes to B’nai B’rith Magazine, 2020 K St., NW, 7th Floor, Washington, DC 20006.

B’Nai B’rith 5

From the EVP

Remembering William Korey (1922–2009) A BBI Giant, Colleague, and Friend

By Daniel S. Mariaschin Executive Vice President, B’nai B’rith International

M

y first encounter with Bill Korey—longtime Soviet affairs expert, leading authority on human rights, and preeminent warrior for Soviet Jewry and against European antiSemitism—was in 1972, when I worked on my graduate studies at Brandeis University.

It was a pretty exhilarating time to be young and Jewish in Boston. Just five years after the single most significant Jewish identity event of the time, the Six Day War, there sprouted an activist culture that extended into every area of Jewish life, from prayer to tradition to political thought.

Chavurot (informal Jewish prayer groups) cropped up everywhere; thought-provoking new Jewish journals appeared; interest in Yiddish was renewed; and young Jews took to the streets—not just over the war in Vietnam, but also for the right of Soviet Jews to emigrate freely.

Before arriving at Brandeis, I mostly followed the Soviet Jewry movement vicariously from the sidelines. In New Hampshire, where I was raised, the lack of a critical mass of Jews left few opportunities to march and demonstrate and become active with others. But follow the plight of our Soviet brethren we did, with keen interest, through the pages of the Boston Jewish Advocate, which arrived at our home every week; through the New

6 Winter 2009

York Times; and in other publications.

I arrived at Brandeis in the fall of 1971 and entered a graduate program in contemporary Jewish studies. I was immediately inundated with a multitude of courses and outside activities; I felt what can only be compared to a Jewish version of a kid in a candy store. So much to learn, and so little time!

There were lectures, marches, and discussions late into the night about all manner of things Jewish. Luminaries such as author Isaac Bashevis Singer, renowned Jewish leader Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan, and other Jewish community dignitaries spoke on Jewish communal service at our monthly seminars.

One evening, Soviet Jewry expert and B’nai B’rith’s Director for U.N. Affairs William Korey visited the Brandeis campus. The meeting was open to all students; the room was packed. Students stood in the back or sat on the floor, a foot or two away from Korey.

His new book, “The Soviet Cage,” was about to be published and outlined, in stark terms, both the condition of Soviet Jews and what needed to be done to set them free. I was equally enthralled by the subject matter and by Korey’s presentation, which was one of those “on-the-edge-ofyour-chair” experiences.

His passion for the issue, his knowledge of the details, and his animated speaking skills won me over. Being there that evening further validated my belief that I was pursuing the right career—Jewish communal service. Bill made such an indelible impression on me that I can recall that program as if it happened yesterday.

Right out of graduate school, I worked at the Jewish Community Council in Boston on, among other issues, Soviet Jewry. I followed Bill’s writings and read his articles.

When I moved to the Boston office of the American Zionist Federation, I continued to do the same.

In 1977, I moved to New York, and a new position at the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. We shared a building on Lexington Avenue with B’nai B’rith, and I had the opportunity to meet Bill in my new professional capacity. We hit it off, and I soon found myself finding reasons to visit his office to discuss U.S.-Soviet relations, Soviet Jewry, and a hundred other subjects.

We became close colleagues, and good friends. Our mutual friends were many, but none better than my employer at the time, Nathan Perlmutter, ADL’s national director. Nate and Bill had come to ADL at about the same time in the late 1940s, sharing intellectual acumen, and their

B’NAI B’RITH INTERNATIONAL International President Moishe Smith personalities meshed perfectly.

In 1980, the Empire Region of what was then known as B’nai B’rith Women honored Bill and me at their annual meeting. I recalled, as I received my honor, my first impressions of Bill at that Brandeis seminar, and what a privilege it was to now share a podium with him.

As the years passed, Bill became not just a friend, but a mentor. Those professionals who have mentors are fortunate, and I was lucky enough to have one.

I respected Bill’s piercing insight into all matters Russian; into the U.S.-Israel relationship; into the promise—and foibles—of the United Nations; and into the arcane world of the Helsinki human rights process. I took vicarious pride in his associations with some of the outstanding personalities of the Soviet Jewry and human rights movements, many of whom I would one day come to know.

Bill was a man of parts, so it was not unusual for us to shift gears into a discussion on the fortunes (or misfortunes) of the New York Mets, or about a new Broadway show opening. He always spoke with such pride about his family.

He and his wife Esther were inseparable; oftentimes, if she answered the phone, I’d enjoy speaking with her as well. There was rarely a call without an update on daughters Eileen and Alix.

Bill was a prolific writer. I think he may

hold the record for the number of op-ed articles in the New York Times. His books on the Helsinki process and on the role of non-governmental organizations in the field of human rights are standard reading for anyone who is a student of history and of the human rights imperative. He was also, in my view, among the very best orators in Jewish life.

And his devotion to perpetuating the memory of Raphael Lemkin, the human rights activist who coined the word “genocide,” was both a labor of love and a contribution to understanding why people can make a difference in the lives of those whose human rights are abused or nonexistent.

Last December, at B’nai B’rith’s annual policy conference in New York, we recognized Bill for his life’s work. As we planned the event, I requested the special honor of reading the citation on his award, and of calling him to the podium to accept it. I wanted the opportunity to tell the gathering—packed with so many of his friends, family, colleagues, and individuals he helped—how honored I was to have been his colleague all these years.

I’m glad I did. He was a champion of the oppressed; a role model to his colleagues; and a great husband, father, and grandfather.

He was also my friend, and I shall miss him.

Honorary Presidents Gerald Kraft Seymour D. Reich Kent E. Schiner Tommy P. Baer Richard D. Heideman Joel S. Kaplan Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin Honorary Executive Vice President Dr. Sidney M. Clearfield Chairman of the Executive Dennis W. Glick Senior Vice Presidents John R. Rofel Seymour G. Saideman Harold I. Steinberg Jacobo Wolkowicz Treasurer Harold Shulman International Vice Presidents Pablo Sergio Grinstein Argentina Dr. Peter Schiff Australia and New Zealand Matilde Groisman Gus Brazil Rochelle Wilner Canada Hernán Fischman Chile, Bolivia, and Peru

Endlessly devoted: William Korey accepts his Champion of Human Rights award at the 2008 B’nai B’rith policy conference in New York City. Not only was Korey devoted to “all matters Russian” and the U.N., but he was also dedicated to his students, his readers, and his family.

Photo by Julian Voloj

John Manheim Europe John P. Reeves Europe Arie Bar Zion Israel Leon Birbragher Northern Latin America and the Caribbean Enrique Jinchuk Uruguay and Paraguay

B’Nai B’rith 7

UNHRC has assembled an abysmal record on Israel—even worse than its discredited predecessor, the U.N. Human Rights NITED NATIONS—When the Unit- Commission. More than 80 percent of ed Nations Human Rights Council council resolutions have focused on Israel.

(UNHRC) in Geneva voted in January At its first session, the council voted to 2009 to appoint a fact-finding mission to review Israeli “human rights abuses” at investigate Israel’s “grave violations of huevery meeting. Things were so lopsided just man rights” against the Palestinians during six months after its opening session that the Gaza war, Israel and her U.N. supportthen-U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan ers faced a dilemma. criticized the council for establishing a Should they cooperate with the factrecord of “disproportionate” focus on Israel finding mission in a bid to engender the while ignoring human rights abuses in least-damaging report possible for Israel, or other world hotspots. boycott and discredit it as inherently biased?

When it came to the fact-finding mission During its three-year history, the on the Gaza war, the inquiry’s mandate 8 winter 2009

was, in itself, biased, critics noted. It called for probing “all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law” committed by Israel against the Palestinians and initially made no mention of Palestinian attacks. With its declaration that Israel had committed “massive violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people” and caused “systematic destruction of Palestinian infrastructure,” the council mandate effectively prejudged Israel.

Though the inquiry eventually expanded to include a review of Hamas’ actions during the war, the commission leader— former South African judge Richard Goldstone, a Jew, insisted upon this— Israel opted not to cooperate.

eilman

By Uriel H

In Israel’s absence, making her case fell to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as B’nai B’rith International (BBI), the first Jewish group accredited by the United Nations more than six decades ago.

“We engaged to try to present Israel’s perspective,” says David Michaels, director of U.N. and intercommunal affairs for B’nai B’rith. “The Goldstone mission,” he says, is an example of how “B’nai B’rith as an independent NGO can stand up for Israel and our principles at a time when an official government delegation understandably feels unable to do so.”

B’nai B’rith submitted written documentation to the U.N. fact-finding mission; provided oral testimony by telephone from Sderot, the Israeli city that has been battered

by Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza for more than eight years; and offered to facilitate

testimony by a 15-year-old Israeli who had lost her father in Sderot to a Kassam rocket.

When Goldstone issued his 574-page report in September, he said he found evidence of Israeli war crimes and possible crimes against humanity. The report faulted Israel for having created an “emergency situation” in Gaza; slammed the Israel Defense Forces for excessive use of white phosphorous, a chemical irritant used as an obscurant during the war; and chronicled several cases of Israeli soldiers shooting unarmed Palestinians without provocation. Goldstone demanded that Israel conduct an internal investigation and the Security Council turn the matter over to the International Criminal Court if she did not.

Israeli officials and Jewish groups immediately launched a public relations blitz.

They said Goldstone ignored Israeli efforts to minimize civilian casualties and completely failed to account for the actions that precipitated the war: eight years of Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza.

Israeli President Shimon Peres calls the report a “mockery of history” because it did not “distinguish between the aggressor and a state exercising its right for self-defense.”

Daniel S. Mariaschin, executive vice president of B’nai B’rith, calls it a case of “there you go again.”

The speaker of Israel’s Knesset, Reuven Rivlin, says, “The same U.N. that allows the president of a country to announce on a podium its aspiration to destroy the State of Israel [a reference to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] has no right to teach us about morality.”

The controversy surrounding the Goldstone report mirrored the criticism Israel supporters have long leveled against the United Nations: that it is biased against the Jewish state.

At the world body, critics charge, Israel is constantly singled out for opprobrium, and is used to distract nations around the world from more pressing international concerns, such as Iran’s march toward nuclear weapons; genocidal violence in Darfur; human rights violations in places like Myanmar and B’Nai B’rith 9

Zimbabwe; and global challenges like disease, climate change, and terrorism.

Israel is by far the subject of more condemnatory resolutions than any other U.N. member state. She is the only U.N. member state that is not a permanent member of a regional group. She is the predominant preoccupation of the 47-member UNHRC. And she is the subject of three anachronistic committees that are, by definition, antagonistic toward Israel: the U.N. Secretariat’s Division for Palestinian Rights; the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinians; and the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices.

After the Goldstone commission report was issued, some Israel backers compared it to the darkest days at the United Nations, when the infamous General Assembly Resolution 3379 that equated Zionism with racism was passed in 1975.

“The whole atmosphere, especially in the venomous speeches we hear at the General Assembly, brings us back to very dark days,” Gabriela Shalev, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, told B’nai B’rith Magazine in September, during the annual opening of the General Assembly.

The UNHRC later endorsed the report.

Nearly 65 years ago, representatives of 50 countries met in San Francisco to sign the founding charter of the United Nations.

Fresh from the horrors of World War II, they envisioned a collective of nations that would block the path to tyranny and war, safeguard fundamental human rights, and spread freedom and tolerance.

More than six decades later, the U.N. is criticized by many as a bloated bureaucracy plagued by corruption, ineffective at resolving international conflicts, and less than credible when it comes to human rights issues. To wit: The United Nations has failed to take action to stop the genocidal violence in Sudan, Rwanda, and Bosnia.

In addition to mounting grievances against the world body, there is another concern: The United Nations and the United States have been at odds for years.

But there is hope that the change in administration in Washington will give the U.N. a much-needed boost.

The United States is paying all dues it owes the United Nations, which amount to approximately 22 percent of its budget.

The Obama administration has elevated the position of U.S. ambassador to the United

Nations, held by Susan E. Rice, to Cabinet level. And the United States has joined the UNHRC in an effort, administration officials say, to reform it through engagement.

“It’s part of a broader world view which says that active engagement can produce results,” Mariaschin says. “We’ve not seen it put to a test yet in the United Nations. We’re going to know more in the coming months.”

U.S. officials acknowledge that the jury is still out on whether the United Nations can be an effective world body.

In his speech at the General Assembly in September, President Obama said the United Nations can be “a place where we indulge tyranny, or a source of moral authority.” To a large extent, which path it chooses will hinge on whether its fixation with Israel changes, observers say.

“The litmus test for true U.N. reform is whether the egregious anti-Israel bias remains as is or not,” says Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based monitoring group. “Everyone knows that this is one of the issues for the eroding credibility and professionalism of the U.N.” Some say U.N. bias against Israel is merely a function of the way member states—essentially, the nations of the world—feel about the Jewish state.

A high-ranking official from one Arab country who wishes to remain anonymous says U.N. member states consistently vote against Israel because she is the aggressor and an occupying power. Change this—end the

Former South African Judge Richard Goldstone, head of the UNHRC’s fact-finding mission to investigate the 2008 Gaza war, speaks during a press conference at the U.N. building in Geneva last July.

Photo by Corbis/EPA/Martial Trezzini

10 winter 2009

occupation—and Israel will be treated more fairly, the official suggests.

“At the core of the problem for Israel at the U.N. is still a situation where one people are dominating another against their will,” the official says.

Others call that assessment nonsense. Israel has signed a peace treaty with Jordan and multiple interim treaties with the Palestinian Authority, with whom Israel has been negotiating intermittently since 1993. Israel withdrew from Gaza and southern Lebanon. And the old Arab-Israeli fault line in the Middle East has transformed into a new alignment that pits moderate Muslim states together with Israel against extremist regimes.

The United Nations, however, remains an anachronism.

“The mentality remains as it was—in a time warp from 40 years ago,” Mariaschin says.

The structure of the United Nations is to blame; in particular, bloc voting, say Mariaschin and others. In the General Assembly—where the rule is one nation, one vote—Arab and Muslim states have 56 votes versus Israel’s one. Members of the Non-Aligned Movement, which includes African and Latin American states, vote with the Arabs as a matter of course. Usually, so does the E.U., which also votes as a bloc.

“Whatever we do at the General Assembly, we have this automatic bloc against us,” Shalev says.

Fortunately for Israel, General Assembly resolutions do not carry the force of

You’ll love Israel from the first

“Shalom”.

TM

Every day, 2,000 years of history runs through Dr. Guy Stiebel’s hands. He is the co-director of excavations at Masada. “I feel that I touch the people who lived here, loved here, died here,” he says. “I know many of them by name.” Guy, who also teaches archeology at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, often takes his family camping in the desert so “we can feel the history of Israel.” As we were taking his picture he unearthed an ancient coin. “You see?” he said. “Masada is talking to us.”

Israel. We hope to see you soon. Shalom.

On Masada

www.goisrael.com/bestdeals 1-888-77-ISRAEL

international law. That power is reserved for the Security Council, where the United States usually exercises its veto option when resolutions are deemed unreasonably tilted against Israel. This is the so-called Negroponte doctrine—a practice established by John Negroponte, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The United States is one of five permanent veto-wielding countries on the Security Council; there are also 10 rotating members who do not have veto power.

The General Assembly, however, is not irrelevant: Even though it cannot make international law, it remains a powerful opinionmaking force. In that sense, it is a political body, and an important one.

“The United Nations is an imperfect institution, but it is indispensable,” Shalev says.

If that’s the case, can Israel and her supporters do anything about anti-Israel bias at the United Nations?

“There are two essential problems with the U.N.: structural problems and substantive problems. Israel has suffered from both,” says Dore Gold, Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations and author of “Tower of Babble: How the United Nations has Fueled Global Chaos.”

First, there is the U.N.’s structural bias against Israel. Since Israel is excluded from any regional group (its membership in the Western Europe and Others Group [WEOG] is temporary and limited to U.N. headquarters in New York), it is kept off U.N. bodies that require election through a regional group.

The United Nations has institutionalized special sessions devoted to singling out Israel for human-rights censure.

There also are the three aforementioned special committees hostile to Israel. The Secretariat’s Division for Palestinian Rights is a one-of-a-kind office that employs more than a dozen people and annually spends millions of dollars on conferences, informational material, and fact-finding trips that constitute propaganda campaigns against Israel.

For the moment, there’s no real momentum for change and, even if the structural problems were resolved, it would do little to alter the problem Israel faces regarding the votes of member states. Countries vote with the powerful Arab-Muslim bloc against Israel to ensure Arab support for their own issues—or to avoid confrontations with the oil-rich Arab League.

12 winter 2009

“There still is, out there, a general fear—an intimidation of the international community—by the Palestinians and some of their friends in the Arab world, and by others,” Mariaschin says. “I believe that Israel does have many more friends than meets the eye, but that once you’re in this system where the mob rules—basically, where consensus rules—it’s just the expedient way to vote against Israel.”

The United States, along with a few Pacific island nations like Micronesia and the Republic of Palau, is virtually alone in its consistent alignment with Israel. But the assembly is not so much a reflection of the world as a distortion of it, analysts say.

Whereas outside the United Nations a small number of Western countries controls the lion’s share of the world’s military and economic clout, inside the General Assembly, the power belongs to an alliance of the many and the weak.

“The U.N. is the opposite of reality,” observes Jeff Helmreich, an expert on international law and a former staffer at Israel’s U.N. mission. “A lot of what goes on at the U.N. is about evening the score between the develop-

ing world and the developed world, and that puts Israel in a very difficult spot.”

The simple explanation for the surfeit of anti-Israel resolutions in the General Assembly is Palestinian initiative and persistence, observers note. Weak in the real world, the Palestinians use the diplomatic arena of the United Nations to their advantage.

The United Nations, therefore, does not reflect the reality of what’s going on in the world today because there is no political will to call attention to that reality. Sudan, Myanmar, and North Korea usually escape condemnation simply because not enough members are interested in confronting powerful blocs over massacres, conflicts, and human-rights violations.

There are many countries with which Israel has established extensive diplomatic, trade, or military ties in recent years but which, nevertheless, continue to cast votes against her in the United Nations—even in the Security Council. Israeli and Jewish analysts say many of them vote out of habit, because their foreign ministries are steeped in anti-Israel culture; they face pressure from the Arab bloc; they trade their votes

COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION HOPE COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION HOPE COMMUNITY CRE

At the 63 annual U.N. General Assembly meeting last September, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli U.N. Ambassador Gabriela Shalev participated in a Security Council meeting regarding the Middle East situation. rd

Photo by Getty Images/Mario Tama

for support on other issues; or they seek the path of least resistance.

“There’s no benefit to be gained by being a defender of Israel in a debate which is so dominated by a well-organized and very focused group on one side and a complacent, quiescent group on the other side,” says Felice Gaer, director of the American Jewish Committee’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for Human Rights.

As a consequence, U.N. bodies have become a tool against Israel, intensifying the conflict between the Jewish state and her Arab neighbors, rather than moving the parties closer to a resolution, many say.

“Every U.N. body—no matter how small or how technical or how weird-sounding— has been held hostage to resolutions and special bodies and special actions referring to Israel,” Gaer says. “It’s happened because of a combination of the willful acts of those who want to see it demonized and delegitimized, and the complacency of other member states who want to get on to other business.”

Sometimes representatives from countries not directly involved in the Middle East express astonishment or annoyance with the

THANKS TO

And thanks to socially responsible investors like you who help make HOPE possible, Pam Gentry, who owns and operates a daycare center in Louisiana, was able to increase the number of kids she could care for from 115 to over 200.

Pam received a commercial loan from Hope Community Credit Union to build a new facility, making it possible for more working parents to have quality, dependable daycare for their children.

HOPE

Supported by federally insured deposits from individuals and institutions all over the country, HOPE provides affordable financial products and services to thousands of home buyers, entrepreneurs, and working families each year in the nation’s most economically distressed region.

In this uncertain financial climate, HOPE is a great way to safely invest in your own future while you invest in the futures of low-wealth people and communities in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. People like Pam who have dreams and the determination to make them come true with a little help…and a little HOPE. Please join in this great mission today by calling us toll-free at 1-877-654-HOPE, or by visiting www.hopecu.org and downloading an application.

Strengthening communities.

Building assets. Improving lives.

1-877-654-HOPE www.hopecu.org B’Nai B’rith 13

degree to which non-Israel-related discussions can devolve into Israel-bashing sessions. It’s hard to get anything done, they say.

When last April’s follow-up conference in Geneva to the U.N. World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance became a battleground between anti-Israel forces and her supporters, “Many African countries felt that a potentially remarkable U.N. framework dedicated to fighting discrimination and bigotry was being derailed by those with a political axe to grind,” BBI’s Michaels says.

Despite numerous setbacks, Israel recently has made some noteworthy gains at the United Nations. Her previous U.N. ambassador, Dan Gillerman, was elected as one of the 21 vice presidents of the General Assembly—the first time an Israeli had held that position since Abba Eban in the 1950s.

In the last few years, more than a dozen Israelis have been elected to different U.N. forums and committees, most having nothing to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict.

www www..ISRAEL ISRAEL

They include committees on poverty, the disabled, women’s rights, medicine, health, and agriculture.

The usual tide of anti-Israel resolutions at the General Assembly has, in the past few years, lost some of its vigor. Clauses condemning suicide bombings have crept into Arab-backed resolutions against Israel.

There have been more abstentions from or “no” votes against the annual 20 or so anti-Israel General Assembly resolutions.

The assembly even passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism.

Officials at Israel’s U.N. mission and Jewish organizations that work with the United Nations say these gains are the fruit of patient, mostly nonpolitical, behind-thescenes lobbying. Israeli and Jewish officials are constantly meeting with delegates from U.N. missions and countries around the world to cultivate relationships, press for Jewish interests at the United Nations, and build coalitions wherever possible.

Every September, when leaders from around the world converge on New York’s Turtle Bay neighborhood for the opening session of the General Assembly, Jewish groups use the opportunity to meet with

PHARM. PHARM.com com

delegations from dozens of countries, including many heads of state.

“We’ve met with dozens of prime ministers, presidents, foreign ministers, and other government officials,” Michaels said in September of BBI’s delegation at the United Nations. “Each one of these meetings is characterized by a different tone. Occasionally, these discussions can be candid; occasionally, they can be difficult.

“One goal we, as an organization, need to have is to expand the circle of countries that we’ve engaged with. We think there’s a great deal of potential for building bridges.”

B’nai B’rith met with representatives from Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Germany, India, Italy, Micronesia, Panama, Russia, Spain, Turkey, and Ukraine.

It’s important for the sake of credibility that Jewish groups not become single-issue advocacy organizations, says Aaron Etra, an attorney who is the vice chairman of BBI’s Council on U.N. Affairs.

“I try to interact with the mission people and the Secretariat and other NGOs to show the full range of B’nai B’rith’s concerns; we’re not just concerned about Israel,” Etra says.

Save up to 70%

on prescription drugs!

Support the Israeli Economy !

IsraelPharm saves you money!

We offer huge savings on brand name and generic medications.

Israelpharm, an accredited and licensed pharmacy, located in Jerusalem Israel, has been servicing the local and international community for over 15 years.

Orders are shipped by express mail and received within 10 days.

Affordable, Reliable, Quality Drugs AFFORDABLE Save up to 70% on your prescriptions.

RELIABLE Receive your order quickly and conveniently.

QUALITY DRUGS Top quality brand name medications.

Easy and Secure Ordering from Israel Website: www.IsraelPharm.com Toll Free: 1-866-456-3768 Toll Free Fax: 1-866-544-8993 Email: info@israelpharm.com

All medications approved by The Israel Ministry of Health 14 winter 2009

“The minute we’re only the party line, no matter what, that credibility will not be high,” he says. “I think the best hope for B’nai B’rith and any other thoughtful organization is to present itself as a thoughtful, independent group—to avoid the risk of being looked upon as an extension of Israel’s information mechanism.”

Jewish groups are perhaps most successful when they are able to get U.N. member states to break out of their habitual anti-Israel stands.

Five years ago, the E.U. was instrumental in pushing for a special session of the General Assembly to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps. Though the special session was originally opposed by many Arab ambassadors, the E.U.’s lobbying dissolved opposition, and even Arab members were among those who made floor speeches on Holocaust commemoration day, in January 2005.

Likewise, the adoption two years ago of the first-ever Israeli-introduced resolution in the General Assembly—on agricultural technology for development—marked a symbolic gain.

In October, pressure from Western countries prompted the Palestinians to delay their UNHRC resolution calling on the Security Council to take up the Goldstone report.

“Whatever [advocacy] efforts one does can have an effect,” Etra says.

While Israel and her supporters campaign painstakingly for nonpolitical achievements at the United Nations, Israeli officials and advocates often find themselves locked in public, strident, and even vitriolic fights for her rights and reputation at the world body.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu used his September address at the General Assembly to chastise the organization.

“The jury’s still out on the United Nations and recent signs are not encouraging,” he declared. Railing against the Goldstone commission report, Netanyahu said, “Rather than condemning the terrorists and their Iranian patrons, some here in the United Nations have condemned their victims. This is exactly what a recent U.N. report on Gaza did—falsely equating terrorists with those they targeted.”

Shalev, like her predecessors, spends much of her time criticizing the United Nations.

One recent U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, famously said that if continued on pg. 28

ES T A 0D

Join Our Award Winning Tours to Israel

201

30 Years Escorting the Finest Tours to Israel!

Adult Tours Bar/Bat Mitzvah 16 Days & Families Including 2 NightsTours in Eilat

Bar/Bat Mitzvah & Family

Bar/Bat Mitzvah 16 Days & Families The Ultimate Family Tours Experience Jun 15 • Jun 29 • Aug 3 • Aug 17 Departure Dates

June 5 • June 19 • July 17 • July 31 13 Days • August 14 • December Dec 21 - Jan 2, 2011 18 Celebrant Goes Totally Celebrant Goes Totally Free *Free Includes: Includes: Ceremony on Masada Rabbi's Ceremony on Masada & Rabbi's&Services, Services, Gala Party, Archaeological Dig, Gala Party, Archaeological Dig, Kayaking, Kayaking, Camel Rides, Snorkeling, Hiking, Special Activities, GiftsSurprises & Many Surprises Gifts & Many

Departure Dates June 5 Departure • June 19 • July 17 • July 31 Dates: •Mar August 14 • December 18 9 • Apr 13 • Apr 27

MayCelebrant 11 • Oct • OctFree 19Includes: • Nov 2 Goes5Totally

Ceremony on Masada & Rabbi's Services, Guaranteed beKayaking, Gala Party, Archaeologicalto Dig, TheActivities, Trip ofGifts A& Lifetime Special Many Surprises

* Restrictions Apply

All Israel Tours Include R/T Via El Al • Deluxe Hotels • Israeli Breakfast & Dinner Daily • Comprehensive Sightseeing • Cocktail Parties • Entertainment • Dinner Dances • Cruise On The Sea of Galilee With Dancing, All Tipping Plus Much More!

1.800.327.3191 www.margaretmorsetours.com 954.458.2021

For Trip Highlights and Brochure

PassoverKosher Cruise 2010 9th Annual

Passover Kosher Cruise March 29 - April 9, 2010 (888)745-6951

12 Days / 11 Nights aboard the New Celebrity Equinox

Daily Prayer Services Conducted by our Rabbi and Cantor

Gourmet Kosher Cuisine freshly prepared by 5-Star Chefs served on our own china

Lectures and Special Events led by our Scholar in Residence, Rabbi, and Cantor

Kashruth under the supervision of our Rabbi (traditional Conservative supervision)

Shipboard Gratuities: Cabin Attendant, Waiter, Assistant Waiter, and Maitre’d

Two Private Seders

Port Charges, Taxes, and Government Fees Included

(ceremonial wines included at Seders)

www.PassoverKosherCruises.com

For more information contact: info@passoverkoshercruises.com B’Nai B’rith 15

16 winter 2009

Photo by Harvey Berk

Preserving Auschwitz:

Polish Government Seeks International Help

By Joel Samen

KRAKOW, Poland—Spending the night in what was once the Nazi

S.S. headquarters at Auschwitz, with barbed wire still visible from the windows, it is impossible not to realize where you are—a place where more than 1.1 million innocent people were murdered, including about 1 million Jews. The last remaining crematorium can be seen less than 200 yards away.

Between the camp’s construction in 1940 and its abandonment by the Nazis in 1945, more than 1.4 million people were transported to Auschwitz and Birkenau. The camps stand as key reminders of the atrocities committed nearly 65 years ago—Auschwitz and Birkenau are synonymous in the minds of many with the words “concentration camp” and remain one of the best teaching tools for future generations, because many of the buildings and artifacts still remain. “[They are] symbolic of all of the concentration and extermination camps,” says Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum Director Piotr M.A. Cywiński. “It is the place where we can understand the policy of concentration and extermination of the masses. It is one of the best-conserved camps, until now, and it is a symbol of all the atrocities that were committed by the Third Reich.”

However, the camps’ buildings are deteriorating at an accelerating rate; they were built to house low-value prisoners temporarily, not to withstand the tests of time and weather. Similarly, many of the important artifacts, including approximately 3,800 suitcases, 6,000 pieces of art, and countless photographs, are in desperate need of preservation.

Without reconstructive and preventive efforts, these evidences of the evils of indifference and intolerance might be lost for future generations,

B’Nai B’rith 17

taking their lessons into oblivion with them.

The Polish government needs help with the monumental task of preserving these important symbols of mankind’s history.

“This is a special place,” says Jacek Kastelaniec, development officer at the museum. “It is very symbolic of the tragic history of the Second World War and the Holocaust. It is the evidence of what can result from hatred, anti-Semitism, and racism. I think that this place has a real impact on the visitors— people coming here to think about those questions—how easy it is to go from some stereotypes to acting.”

Learning From the Past The lessons are clearly being taught. On any given day, the parking lot at the AuschwitzBirkenau State Museum is filled with cars and tour group buses. More than 1.1 million people from around the world visited the camps in 2008, including approximately 90,000 from the United States. Guides licensed by the museum continuously lead somber groups through the camps’ wellordered rows of barracks and utility buildings, 18 winter 2009

providing the grisly details: the humiliations, the exterminations, the executions.

The weight of the message delivered by the camps is apparent in the faces and actions of the visitors. Groups silently walk past exhibits in the former prisoner barracks: glass-fronted displays containing approximately 80 pounds of eyeglasses; 12,000 pots and pans; and an undulating sea of hair, now turned grey. The guides constantly remind visitors that these items were stolen from the prisoners brought to Auschwitz and Birkenau, many of whom were only steps away from the gas chambers.

The tours continue to weave through the museum, but the number of areas open to the public is getting smaller annually. Some buildings were destroyed by the Nazis as they abandoned the camp; others were taken apart and used by villagers returning to rebuild their homes; and many of the remaining structures are too dilapidated to be safe for visitors.

In addition to the erosion of the bricks and wood that the structures were built upon, high water levels in the area also play a significant role in nature’s slow demolition of the buildings. Each year, as water in

the ground freezes, the stonework and basic support systems for the bunkers contort.

Subterranean walls that were once straight are now—as a result of the annual freezing and thawing of the ground—misshapen and on the brink of collapse.

“Ten years ago, all of these buildings were open,” Kastelaniec says. “However, right now, because of the state of the buildings, only half of them are open to the public.

If things continue the way they are going without preservation, all will be closed in 10 to 20 years.”

Since establishing the former camps as a museum in 1946, the Polish government has provided 97 percent of the annual funding needed to maintain these remnants of history.

However, with many of the buildings falling into serious disrepair, it has become necessary to employ drastic conservation methods to keep the museum open. The proposed cost of the museum’s plan is $88.7 million—a sum much larger than the museum or even the Polish government can afford.

The importance of maintaining the camps as a museum is apparent to the governments

Photo by Joel Samen

Some of the luggage that was taken from prisoners at Auschwitz has been preserved and kept safe in storage at the museum.

Photo by Joel Samen

Top: Nazis destroyed what they could of the crematoriums in Birkenau before they abandoned camp.

Bottom: One of the many ovens found throughout Auschwitz and Birkenau.

recognize, however, that securing the appropriate funding will undoubtedly require adequate appropriation on the side of the U.S. Congress.”

To help efforts aimed at protecting the camps, B’nai B’rith International has supported appropriation legislation in Congress to aid the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation.

“We, of course, understand the immense importance of preserving Auschwitz and Birkenau,” says Eric Fusfield, public policy deputy director of the BBI Center for Human Rights. “We are committed to working with Congress, advocating the value of having these camps as a way to teach future generations about the tragedies of the past.”

Photo by Harvey Berk

of many countries— in fact, several donate annually. However, rather than approaching foreign governments, non-governmental organizations, or individual donors every several years, the museum has created the AuschwitzBirkenau Foundation.

“The task of the Foundation will be to amass a sum of €120 million [about $175 million] for the Perpetual Fund,” according to the program’s proposal. “The annual interest of €4-5 [about $6–$7] million will make it possible to plan and systematically carry out essential conservation work.”

The goal is to raise the money by 2010 and then begin major conservation efforts.

According to the foundation’s documentation, the German government has already pledged €1 million and intends to increase that number significantly in the future. Additionally, many provinces within Germany have vowed to donate to the fund from their own budgets.

Several non-governmental organizations and individuals also have promised to support the cause, including representatives from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, and Israel.

The U.S. government also realizes the importance of assuring that the camps remain as markers of history for future generations and is apparently willing to help fund the conservation efforts.

“President Barack Obama, in a letter to the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, underscored his dedication and intention to provide support for the initiative,” Robert Kupiecki, Polish ambassador to the United States, writes in a letter to B’nai B’rith. “We

Cywiński believes it is imperative that action be taken immediately to preserve these reminders of the lessons of history, because otherwise we may lose the keys to the past.

“In a few years—three years, five years maybe— there will be no survivors left,” Cywiński says. “They’re all 85 to 86 years old, so these are the last moments we can learn from survivors. What will be after? If their testimony disappears, I think that the importance of the authenticity of [the camps] will be bigger.

“You can talk about the Holocaust, about the Shoah, in many different museums around the world, but there are things you can feel, you can see, you can understand only here,” he says.

Since the museum was founded, it has remained relatively unchanged. Although its message is clearly reaching its visitors, Cywiński imagines another approach for telling the stories of the prisoners and victims of Auschwitz and Birkenau. While other museums might move toward technological devices to relate information, Cywiński wants to use a much older method to tell the prisoners’ stories: artwork.

In the numerous storage facilities kept up

B’Nai B’rith 19

For more information Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum: en.auschwitz.org.pl

20 winter 2009

BBI has backed congressional legislation supporting the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation’s quest to sustain the camps’ histories.

Photo by Harvey Berk

by the Nazis and the communist regimes that followed, the museum has thousands of pieces of art created by prisoners at Auschwitz and Birkenau during the Holocaust. Cywiński believes that showing that artwork to the public would be a powerful way to communicate the emotions of the prisoners at the time.

“The goal here is to show as much as possible to the public,” Cywiński says.

“Much of this artwork was created during or after liberation. It shows the humanity of the people here. If we have it, and we feel it appropriate to share, it is our obligation. The prisoners didn’t think the art would survive the war—these are real documents from that time.

“And, while memory is selective, artwork isn’t.”

Seniors Enjoy a Return to Summer Camp

By Rachel Mauro

A

Photos by B’nai B’rith staff

rts and crafts. Talent shows. Shabbat services and Israeli dancing. These activities could describe any standard U.S. camping experience for Jewish youth.

But who says that camping is just for the young? Between July 27 and Aug. 2, 2009, 34 residents of 12 B’nai B’rith senior housing facilities convened at B’nai B’rith Perlman Camp in Starlight, Pa., for a resident leadership retreat that included a number of traditional camp activities. The campers represented senior housing centers from PennsylGloria Miller proudly brandishes her bingo card. Bingo is one of many camp activities vania to Vancouver, Canada. senior housing residents participate in during leadership retreats at Perlman Camp.

The retreat, which is held every other year and staffed It is a refreshing and invigorat- agrees Daniel Greenstein of

by B’nai B’rith professionals, ing experience.

B’nai B’rith Chesilhurst House offers residents serving on their “I was pleased and happy that Inc., in Chesilhurst, N.J. “Usuhouse leadership boards a chance I was the one chosen to represent ally, going to ‘camp’ involves a to network and share ideas on our building,” says Ken Lester Hilton or Holiday Inn.” how to make their residents’ life of the Abe Cramer B’nai B’rith The retreat was filled with not more successful. As an added Apartments in Harrisburg, Pa. “It only workshops, but also games, summer bonus, they also get to was like running to connect with talent shows, and activities with interact with young campers and a union of minds and cultures.” the young campers also attendeat ice cream at the canteen.

“This is a wonderful program,” ing Perlman. These intergen-

22

26

erational activities of Israeli dancing, religious services, and more made a special impact on the senior residents.

“I’m planning to write a couple of people—two youngsters from Intergenerational Night,” says Ruth Cohen of B’nai B’rith Homecrest House Apartments in Silver Spring, Md. “I’m glad we met.”

Lester noted that the youngsters were “assisting us, entertaining us, and just helping us as needed. That was so uplifting to all of the [senior campers].”

Particular to this season was the installation of memorial benches honoring Eugene R. Fogel in between the Adult Lodge, where the residents slept, and the camp dining hall.

Fogel, a 10-year B’nai B’rith employee who dedicated his life to senior services, passed away last year. Now, his legacy will live on as respite for senior leadership residents who tire on the continued on pg. 23

Inside this Issue Camp Passport Brings Some Cheer Endowment Helps Israeli Terror Victims Memphis’ Schloss Lodge’s 150th Anniversary

22 24 26

B’nai B’rith Today

Camp Passport Brings Some Cheer To Israeli Victims of Terror

By Joel Samen

O

n a Thursday night in the Pocono Mountains, B’nai B’rith Perlman Camp looks more like a ghost town than a vibrant summer camp housing more than 300 campers and staff. The sports fields, basketball courts, and swimming pool are all empty.

But the sound of a hundred voices singing together suddenly erupts and splits the chilled air.

It’s the last night of their “Maccabiah” games.

In the five-day event, the camp divides into two teams—red and blue—to compete in a variety of sports and competitions. At the games’ closing ceremony, the two teams create a presentation including an elaborate skit, a camper-designed set, and a comical and competitive team fight song.

The incredible part of all this is that in the mix there are seven children from Israel who have been hurt by terrorism, having arrived at the camp only a week and a half earlier. But you wouldn’t know it to look at the mass of children, as the Israelis have become totally immersed in the camping tradition—painting their faces and dressing in costume to reflect their team’s theme.

Created in 2003, B’nai B’rith International’s Camp Passport program provides Israeli children directly affected by terrorism with a fully subsidized stay at an American camp—either B’nai B’rith Perlman Camp in Pennsylvania or B’nai B’rith Beber Camp in Wisconsin.

Israeli Program Coordinator Shany Shoham works together with Israeli agencies to select kids that fit the neces22 winter 2009

Photo by B’nai B’rith staff

This was the sixth summer B’nai B’rith provided an American summer camp experience to Israeli children who have been affected by terrorism.

sary criteria. In all, 12 campers participated this year. The Camp Passport children travel with an Israeli counselor to help ease the transition to another culture, but most quickly adapt to camp life.

“Coming here has been cool,” says Hadar Rosenwald, 16, from Bnei Brak. “It has helped us practice our English, get to meet other people…It’s hard to pick a favorite part because there are so many good things about this place.”

“It’s just so green! It’s calm and relaxed—it gives a good energy,” adds Peleg Goor, 14, from Holon.

Camp Director Lewis Sohinki believes that the opportunities provided by attending an American camp are the perfect prescription for these Israeli children.

“Part of our mission is to strengthen personal and Jewish identity,” Sohinki says. “These Passport kids have experienced a traumatic, life-changing event.

To show them a calm, safe, and peaceful environment where they can succeed is something

that’s very important both for them and us. They become a part of the regular camp program, which means that they’re enjoying it.”

The experience does not only affect the Israeli kids—it also has an immense impact on the American campers.

“My first experience with Camp Passport was two years ago when two Israeli kids came into our bunk,” says Ben Sternberg, 15, of Philadelphia.

“At first it was a little strange, because our bunk was very close.

It was a little hard to connect with them. But, as the summer goes on, we become really close to them. It’s like they’re already our best friends.”

“They’re pretty much just like us, except for the difference in language,” notes Adam Gershen, 13, of Rockville, Md. “Everyone in camp has had a connection with them.”

Sohinki believes that the presence of the Israeli kids and their counselor at Perlman Camp also provides another ingredient necessary for cultural development.

“They add a different perspective,” Sohinki says. “The Israeli perspective is very important to the Jewish community, to the Perlman community. So to add that element to the camp is amazing.”

At the closing ceremonies of the Maccabiah games, it is impossible to pick the Camp Passport kids from the other campers—all are dressed in costumes and enjoying the last moments of an extremely competitive five-day span. At the end of the night, one team rejoices and the other cries as the final tally is announced, but the whole camp seems to gather in a collective embrace afterward.

With the last few days of camp ahead, the Israeli kids have clearly enjoyed their stay.

However, there are still a few activities left to check off the list for some.

“I still want to try the zipline,” says Din Termefoush, 15, of Ra’anana, citing one of the campers’ favorite activities.

“Also, I haven’t been in the lake yet. That looks like a lot of fun.”

“This program has exceeded my expectations in every facet,” says Lane Elliott, founder of Camp Passport. “Unfortunately, we can’t reach every Israeli child who has been affected by terrorism. I would love to see the program continue to grow to reach more of them.”

B’nai B’rith contributes $6,800 for each child’s camp scholarship, raising the money through the generosity of donors. For more information about donating, please visit our website and click “Support Us.”

B’nai B’rith Today

Seniors Enjoy a Return to Summer Camp (continued from pg. 21) Photo by B’nai B’rith staff

10-minute trek between buildings under the summer’s sun.

“It’s particularly notable that this is the first year that we didn’t have Gene, and we missed him,” says Gloria Miller, volunteer chair of the retreat. “We were able to dedicate these benches placed in his memory, and it was a very enlightening experience.”

The beautiful outdoor area is a fitting memorial for Gene, who was an intregal part of the B’nai B’rith senior camp retreat program.

A Place to Network A primary goal was to channel the spirit of networking and interaction into improving fellow residents’ lives back home.

“Our goal is to help these leaders go back to their senior communities to make their resident councils more effective, which is a benefit to all the residents,” says Janel Doughten, associate director of the BBI Center for Senior Services. “And I love to see how young and active our seniors really are.”

Some residents figured out that they were already doing a spiffy job.

“After coming back from the retreat, I realized that we have more things going on here than most do. We’re probably one of the best residences in the U.S.,” Cohen says. Homecrest’s calendar is filled with exercise and artsand-crafts classes, field trips to local attractions, religious services, game nights, and more. “We’re pleased with ourselves,” she says.

Other communities have improved since their representatives came back from camp.

“We started on volunteering and getting our residents to participate more,” Lester says.

“It’s really meaningful to us here. Seemingly, before, it was a little difficult to get residents to take part in activities, but now, they’re no longer withdrawn.”

“We started a tentative association,” Greenstein says. “We want to get better participation, start a newspaper, get a calendar out each month, and recognize volunteers.”

The senior camping retreat does far more than provide a pleasant break for its participants. “It seems to get a little better every year,” Miller says. “[The seniors] mix in well and get enjoyment from each other’s experiences.”

Ruth Cohen of Silver Spring, Md., talks with fellow campers.

BBI Luminary Norman Simon Dead at 89 Longtime B’nai B’rith staff member Norman Simon, 89, died Sept. 15 in Northern California.

Simon was a B’nai B’rith professional staff member for more than 50 years, during which time he served for more than three decades as executive director of B’nai B’rith District 4.

“We are fortunate to have had some of the best Jewish professionals working for B’nai B’rith,” says B’nai B’rith International Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin. “Few were more dedicated to the field than Norman.”

As a student, Simon, a San Francisco native, played basketball for B’nai B’rith Youth Orga-

nization’s AZA, a passion he continued to follow as a volunteer basketball coach for BBYO. His volunteer work became a full-fledged career in 1945, when he became Northern California BBYO regional director. In 1956, he was selected as assistant director of District 4, which is composed of 10 western U.S. states and British Columbia. By 1960, he was executive director of District 4, its highest post, a position he held until his retirement in 1995. In 1994, he was awarded B’nai B’rith’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Simon’s professional training was in social work, which proved instrumental to his B’nai B’rith career. In turn, B’nai B’rith inspired him to pursue a master’s degree, which he earned from the University of California School of Social Work in 1954.

Norman Simon is survived by his wife, Frieda Simon; daughter, Carole Simon Mills; son, Mark Simon; and granddaughter, Devon Mills.

— Dara Kahn

B’Nai B’rith 23

B’nai B’rith Today

Endowment Helps Israeli Terror Victims

By Rachel Mauro

W

hen Roselle Roseman, a retired nurse, china and crystal saleswoman, and small-business owner, got sick in 2005, her son, Dave Roseman, gave her a new nickname—“Mama Gigante.”

His inspiration? Notorious mobster Vincent Gigante, who used to roam the streets of New York City in his pajamas, mumbling to himself, to throw police off-guard.

“I used to look at her and say, ‘You know, Mom, you’re like Gigante,’” Roseman says. “‘Because you’re in your pajamas [and] you can’t talk, but I know, deep down, you’re tougher than anyone.’”

Roseman’s devotion to his mother is evident. When Roselle first fell ill and was said to have only days to live, Roseman arranged for an ambulance to transport her from her Manhattan apartment to the Washington, D.C., area, where he lived and could best serve as caregiver.

“I looked at her, and I said, ‘Mom, I’ll never leave you and I’ll never give up on you,’” Roseman says, sitting across from Roselle, who now resides at the Kensington Park Retirement Community in Kensington, Md. Four years later, Roselle, now 94 and still a tough lady, lifts light dumbbells at night as Roseman watches.

Photo by Dave Roseman

Roselle was born into an Orthodox household in Chelsea, Mass., though she raised her own family in a Reform setting.

Beyond her professional achievements, which include nursing, selling china and crystal at Tiffany’s & Co., and starting up her own antique store in Great Barrington, Mass., she also raised two young sons alone after her husband died in 1964.

She even stood up to an antiSemitic antique-store owner in the Berkshires, which was what prompted her to open her own shop in the 1950s, Roseman recounts.

“Mama Gigante” made an impression on everyone, not just her son. The shopkeepers in her neighborhood in New York all knew her, Roseman says.

He used to reminisce with the owner of a coffee shop that his mother frequented every day.

“He used to tell me [that] when they’d see [my] mom, they’d yell out to the short order cook, ‘Here comes Roselle; put on the cheeseburger and the fries!’”

Roseman says he does have one grudge to bear against his mother.

Forty years ago, when he was a teenager growing up in New York, Roselle took a job that embarrassed him. “There’s nothing worse than having your mother as the nurse at your high school,” Roseman says.

To create a B’nai B’rith endowment or trust fund, please contact the Planned Giving Department by phone at 1-800-656-5561, by e-mail at plannedgiving@bnaibrith.org, or by mail at 2020 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20006.

24 winter 2009

A Family Tradition of Generosity The Rosemans are no strangers to philanthropy.

In the 1960s, when Roselle, her late husband Bernard, and sons Dave and Stanley would vacation in the Berkshires, the family helped improve the local library with their generous gifts.

Dave and Roselle Roseman have continued the family tradition of philanthropy through B’nai B’rith International Roselle Roseman, at 94, doing her daily exercises.

(BBI). Roselle’s sister, Edith “Pat” my mom said, ‘Go with B’nai Wolfson, was a retired medical B’rith.’ I was impressed; we both receptionist who cared deeply were impressed.” about kids and the state of Beyond partnering with his Israel. When she died in April mother to provide this gener2005, approximately six months ous endowment, Roseman is before Roselle fell ill, Roseman bequeathing a substantial sum to and Roselle donated $25,000 B’nai B’rith in his will. He also in her memory to establish has committed a current gift, the B’nai B’rith Edith “Pat” largely due to the kindnesses Wolfson Endowment Fund for and ongoing relationship that Israeli Youth.

BBI planned giving professionals The endowment, given in share with Roselle. “There’s more perpetuity, distributes income to to life than just buying yourself orphans and young families of a fancy car,” says Roseman, who Israeli citizens killed or injured was moved when he learned of in terrorist attacks. Their generthe first recipient of the Edith ous gesture is an example of how “Pat” Wolfson Fund, a widow endowment funds are often set whose husband was killed in a up in the memory of individuals rocket attack in the Israeli town and serve as a way to help comof Sderot. munities in need through BBI’s This year’s Edith “Pat” Wolfextensive programming. son Fund contribution will be “I made lots of calls to lots of used to help children in Jerusaorganizations, Jewish and nonlem whose parents were victims Jewish,” Roseman says. “And I of a terrorist attack. discussed it with my mom, and

Reach Your Income Goals.

Secure a Brighter Jewish Future.

A

s the calendar year draws to a close, take a few moments to consider your financial contributions that make a difference in our world, and enable you to achieve tax planning goals. Your planned gift to the B’nai B’rith Foundation helps to support a Jewish future and ensure that we continue our work in your community, in Israel, and around the world.

Contact our planned giving professionals today for a no-obligation review of a charitable gift annuity. Together, we can reach your financial goals and build a legacy for generations to come.

Annuity rates based upon age

AGE 60 65 70 75 80 85 90+

RATE * 5.0 5.3 5.7 6.3 7.1 8.1 9.5

* Two life rates available upon request

Please contact our professional staff for a no-obligation consultation.

Sharon Metro Roll Washington, D.C. National Director, Planned Giving 800-656-5561

Marna Schoen New York National Deputy Director, Planned Giving 800-656-5561

Denise Herschberg Boca Raton Director, Planned Giving Florida Region 561-620-8177

Danny Levy Los Angeles Director, Planned Giving, Western Region 818-387-8264

Bernadette Richardson Washington, D.C. Planned Giving Associate 202-857-2757

B’nai B’rith Today

B

’nai B’rith International’s Sam Schloss Lodge celebrated its 150th anniversary with a gala dinner on Aug. 23 at the Chabad Center in Memphis. The Jewish and secular communities in Memphis have long benefited from the lodge’s programs and service projects.

“The members of the Sam Schloss Lodge truly embody the spirit of giving,” says B’nai B’rith International President Moishe Smith. “They are tirelessly dedicated to helping both their immediate community and the greater world.”

Sam Schloss is among the oldest of B’nai B’rith’s lodges still in operation, and it’s the second largest

of the earliest ones. It was originally known as Euphrates Lodge #34 and was renamed for Schloss, who was a B’nai B’rith member for approximately 63 years and lived until the age of 93. He was the oldest living member of B’nai B’rith, according to B’nai B’rith Senior Vice President Harold I. “Hesch” Steinberg.

“Soon after there was a B’nai B’rith, there was a Sam Schloss lodge,” says Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin, a featured speaker at the dinner.

“This lodge is a testament to the power of community service.”

There were trying times in the South when the lodge began in 1859. But, according to Stein-

Photo by B’nai B’rith staff

Memphis’ Sam Schloss Lodge Celebrates 150th Anniversary

BBI Senior V.P. Harold I. “Hesch” Steinberg presents new Schloss Lodge President Neal Berlin with the president’s pin.

berg, the lodge’s operations were not harmed.

“The War Between the States began soon after the Euphrates Lodge was established, and despite the Photo by B’nai B’rith staff hardships, the lodge functioned throughout the Civil War,” says Steinberg, who emceed the 150th anniversary event.

“The lodge paid the dues for all of its members who enlisted in the army, presumably the Confederate Army. Historical documents tell us that, when the Union Army occupied Memphis, the lodge continB’nai B’rith International, as part of IsraAID, provided disaster relief to the Philippines after ued to functhe typhoons and flooding in October. If you would like to help, send donations to: B’nai B’rith tion, holding an th International Disaster Relief Fund, 2020 K Street, NW, 7 Floor, Washington, DC 20006. election of new

officers in 1864,” he says.

Before dinner, area government representatives and U.S. and world B’nai B’rith leaders spoke. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen announced a state day of recognition in honor of the Sam Schloss Lodge. Steinberg commended the lodge for its history of community service and promotion of Jewish rights, which Rep. Steve Cohen (DTenn.), a member of the Schloss Lodge, inserted into the federal Congressional Record.

One of the most popular programs the lodge undertakes each year is the Care Bear project, which provides teddy bears to several children’s agencies in Memphis.

“The Care Bear program is something that touches all of us,” says Joel Turetzky, lodge vice president. “We are so grateful to be able to bring just a small bit of comfort to children in need.”

—Staff Reports

Interim Director of Communications Harvey Berk Editorial Director Hiram M. Reisner

B’nai B’rith Today (BBT) is now a special section in B’nai B’rith Magazine. BBT will focus on timely major issues affecting the members, supporters, and leaders of B’nai B’rith International, including regional success stories, programming, departmental initiatives, events, etc.

Designer Vivian Hayward Editor Dara Kahn

MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION PART D

Look No Further...

OPEN ENROLLMENT November 15th through December 31st Medicare part d

At this time, you have another opportunity to enroll in Medicare Part D or switch plans. You have a choice of many different Medicare prescription drug coverage options and we understand how confusing this can be. *The Transamerica Part D Choice Program, sponsored by B’nai B’rith, is here to make it simple, while still offering you a choice of plans from leading providers. Contact our experts today. They have the tools needed to provide you with plan comparisons and rates.

There are two ways to use this service: by phone or web!

1. Visit our website, www.medsuppinfo.com and enter code: WBNAIBRITH 2. Call our Transamerica Part D experts at: 1-800-235-9922 * Part D Choice Plans are not underwritten by any Transamerica Companies.

Medicare SuppleMent inSurance

In addition to your evaluation of Part D coverage, you may also want to take a look at your Medicare supplement insurance options. Medicare supplement insurance is available to you through the B’nai B’rith Insurance Program and is designed to go hand-in-hand with your regular Medicare coverage.

Please call: 1-800-723-BNAI (2624) or visit us at: bnaibrith.org, to request program information.

This Medicare Supplement coverage is available to you through the B’nai B’rith Insurance Program, administered by Selman & Company and underwritten by AEGON companies including: (depending on state of residence) Transamerica Life Insurance Company, Cedar Rapids, IA, and (for NY residents only) Transamerica Financial Life Insurance Company, Purchase, NY.

1209BBM 13764663

An Uphill Struggle continued from pg. 15 U.N. headquarters lost 10 floors, it wouldn’t make a difference.

In a body whose main influence is public relations—since little the United Nations does has the force of law or results in concrete action vis-à-vis Israel or the Middle East—these public, drama-filled campaigns sometimes result in good publicity.

Perhaps the most salient recent example of this was the April 2009 Durban Review Conference in Geneva. In 2001, Jewish groups were caught off-guard when pro-Palestinian and anti-Semitic groups hijacked the antiracism conference to brand Israel as a racist state and turn the streets of Durban, South Africa, into an anti-Semitic carnival.

Jewish groups and Israel were determined to avoid a repeat. Thanks to an early, consistent, and concerted effort, they were able to turn the 2009 conference in Geneva into a triumph for Israel. B’nai B’rith sent the largest Jewish NGO delegation to Geneva, with 50 representatives from 11 countries.

Ten countries boycotted the conference out of concern that it would focus on Israel; the Czech Republic walked out in the middle of the event. When Ahmadinejad used his speech to issue a diatribe against the Jewish state, delegates from participating European countries walked out, creating a dramatic moment that was replayed on worldwide TV news.

While Israel and many of her allies were officially absent in Geneva—part of their campaign to discredit the conference, similar to the approach Israel took to the Goldstone inquiry—plenty of pro-Israel activists converged on the Swiss city.

Jewish and pro-Israel groups staged large demonstrations in support of Israel and Jewish causes. More than 350 Jewish students were accredited for the conference—about one-third of all accredited activists.

Rallies outside U.N. grounds and antidiscrimination panels inside drew some of the heaviest hitters in pro-Israel advocacy, including attorney Alan Dershowitz, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, and even actor Jon Voight. Some 4,000 people attended a Yom

Goldstone report and for Israel generally in the United Nations—is really all about narrative and public image. For those fighting for Israel’s reputation, it’s an uphill battle.

Ultimately, however, Israel and her supporters cannot afford to stay on the sidelines. And for Jewish NGOs that have U.N. accreditation, like BBI, defending Israel at the United Nations is a responsibility.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Mariaschin says.

“As NGOs, we have the opportunity from

One recent U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, famously said that if U.N. headquarters lost 10 floors, it wouldn’t make a difference.

Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) event during the conference. Another event celebrated Israel’s right to exist. Jewish groups, including B’nai B’rith, also worked behind the scenes to win positive media coverage for Israel’s defenders.

When the central document of the conference was voted on halfway through the weeklong gathering, participants adopted no new language singling out Israel—an accomplishment hailed by UN Watch’s Neuer as the “least-toxic ever from such a conference.

“It was the complete opposite of 2001,” Neuer says of the document. “It will stand out in history as one of the only times when a major U.N. conference was an unequivocal victory for groups fighting anti-Semitism and true human rights. Activists who care for human rights need to learn from what happened there, and replicate those results elsewhere.”

The battle in Geneva—like those over the

the inside to speak up. We’re given that opportunity; we should take it. Do we succeed most of the time? Unfortunately not. But if we have the opportunity to have our say, we must take it.”

You can ask our Director of U.N. and Intercommunal Affairs David Michaels questions about this story, or anything else that has to do with B’nai B’rith, the U.N., and Israel on Dec. 14 and Dec. 15 as part of our new “Ask the Experts” sessions. For more information, see story on page 46.

educationmart Shalom and best wishes to our many Jewish friends.

For program information please call 309.298.1618 www.wiu.edu/cofac College of Fine Arts and Communication 1 University Circle Macomb Illinois 61455 WE ARE COMMITTED TO A DIVERSE STUDENT BODY 28 winter 2009

Shalom! and best wishes to our many Jewish friends

Shalom! and best wishes to our many Jewish friends

THE UNIVERSITY of

TENNESSEE

COLLEGE OF SOCIAL WORK Knoxville, TN 37996 FOR PROGRAM INFORMATION (865) 974-3176 PLEASE CALL: or access our website at www.csw.utk.edu We Are Committed to a Diverse Student Body

The Rising Cost of Medicare: A Case Against Doughnuts

By Rachel Goldberg, Ph.D.

It’s all about me—and you.

Regular readers of this column probably know a few things about me. During the years, I have written about things from an increasingly personal perspective.

I’ve told you what I have learned from my parents about family and aging since my son was born, and even told you how much I wish my grandparents had lived long enough to see and have access to today’s healthcare.

This summer, we all became aware of how legislation affects us as the debate on healthcare reform (or healthcare insurance reform) heated up. In fact, it was often so hot that it melted and got distorted.

Since a lot of that conversation was about aging, of course I took it personally.

Every day I work on behalf of B’nai B’rith International members, at the direction of its president and board, to move the ball forward on aging issues in Washington.

I advocate for more services, better housing, and better access to health services. As part of that effort, the B’nai B’rith Board of Governors directed senior services staff to pursue comprehensive healthcare reform.

We are doing it for seniors and to make sure that healthy aging becomes an op-

portunity for us all. That said, all the noise about healthcare reform ruining Medicare, or establishing death panels, was pretty upsetting.

But let’s bring it back to me. In August, I drove my mother to a doctor’s appointment, and on the way home she stopped at a major chain pharmacy that takes her Medicare Part D plan. She came back out and said, “Guess how much I spent?” with a wry smile.

She spent $1,100 that day, because somewhere between her first prescription and her fourth, she fell into the “doughnut hole.”

The Medicare prescription drug benefit Part D, for which she pays an additional monthly premium in addition to her Part B premiums, has a hole—a doughnut hole— in it. After her costs hit about $2,700 this year, her insurance disappears until she has spent an additional $4,350 out of pocket.

She probably won’t hit that number and will spend the rest of the year in the doughnut hole.

There is much in healthcare reform for seniors and for the Medicare program.

Efforts to “bend the curve” or slow the increase in costs throughout the healthcare system can help Medicare save money too.

Doughnut hole by the numbers: About 3.5 million Medicare beneficiaries fall into the hole each year.

More than one-third of people with diabetes and hypertension fall in.

Many people who fall into the gap skip doses or stop filling all their prescriptions, reducing their drug use on average by 14 percent.

10 percent of people who take medicine to control diabetes stop taking those drugs when they fall into the hole.

Additional preventive coverage for Medicare beneficiaries can help ensure older people catch problems even before they start.

But if I had to pick one major “goodie” for Medicare in the healthcare reform proposals I have been poring over for months, it would be to shrink and eventually fill the doughnut hole. That’s something I think everyone can understand, but that doesn’t get as much attention as the more “political” parts of reform.

The doughnut hole was never a great idea—it was just a way to structure the benefit to cost what it was supposed to cost.

Getting rid of it is right, and not just for my mother. She, by the way, spent the rest of the ride home that day talking about how absurd the doughnut hole is, and how much she worries about people who make even less than she does from Social Security.

Which reminds me how much older people seem to care about not only what’s in it for them, but what’s in it for all of us.

Unlike younger people, who sometimes can’t relate to what they have not yet seen, seniors know what it’s like to try to buy a first house, raise a family, save for college,

Source: Medicare Rights Center

continued on pg. 39 B’Nai B’rith 29

Rediscovering the Jewish Heritage of

Cape Verde

By Larry Luxner

Ruins of the Chapel of Fatima, a Catholic shrine built by Jewish pioneer David Benoliel for his wife, overlooks the beach in Boa Vista.

Photos by Larry Luxner

30 winter 2009

Jewish Geography

PRAIA, Cape Verde — After a treacherous

The Jewish patriarch, who had come from Morocco, died in 1902, in the midst of a mountain drive, Olimpio Varela, 74, parked famine. “He told the people, ‘If you can’t bring his SUV in an alley on the edge of the town of me to the Jewish cemetery in Praia, bury me Santa Catarina and walked down the side of a on my own land,’” Varela says. “So they did.” hill where there was once a coffee plantation.

Varela, one of seven children, speaks Under the shade of a tree, he found what Portuguese and his native criolo in addition he had come for: the tombstone of his greatto English. He’s one of hundreds—perhaps grandfather, Hillel Ben-Shimol, inscribed thousands—of people with Jewish ancestry in Hebrew. in Cape Verde, a tropical archipelago of 10 “My mother told me that every day in his house, he put on a kippah and tallit and prayed islands located in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly in Hebrew,” says Varela, taking a faded photo- 300 miles west of Senegal. graph from his pocket, dated 1895, that shows Last summer, B’nai B’rith Magazine visited five of those islands—Santiago, São Vicente, Santo Ben-Shimol holding the baby, Lula, who was to become Varela’s mother. “Ben-Shimol never Antão, Sal, and Boa Vista—and discovered a mixed-race, predominantly Catholic nation married. He just lived with his woman befiercely proud of its Jewish heritage, even though cause he didn’t want to marry in the Catholic today there is not a single practicing Jew among church, and he didn’t want to be buried in a its 500,000 inhabitants.

Catholic cemetery.”

B’Nai B’rith 31

The descendants of those early Sephardim, along with the Washington-based nonprofit Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project Inc. (CVJHP), are fighting to save the country’s few remaining Jewish tombstones from encroaching development while encouraging Jewish “heritage tourism” to the West African nation.

“Even though I don’t have a Jewish name, I have Jewish blood and I know the history,” says Antonio Jorge Delgado, 57, an architect and politician in Mindelo, the main urban center of São Vicente and the country’s second-largest city after Praia, the capital. “I have a deep admiration for the Jewish people, to the point that my first son is named Zacarias Isaac.”

Delgado’s library is filled with books on the history of Cape Verde, which was a Portuguese colony from its discovery in 1460 until 1975, when it declared independence.

Today, more Cape Verdeans reside outside their country than in it, including some 260,000 in the United States—most of them in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

“The Cape Verdean people also have a diaspora, just like the Jews,” he says.

“Our people left the country because of poverty, and the Jews because of persecution.”

A specialist in historic sites, Delgado is a former minister of culture who’s taken a keen interest in the preservation of Cape Verde’s four Jewish cemeteries.

Two of those cemeteries are located on the island of Santo Antão, the third-largest island in the archipelago. Another can be found on the desert island of Boa Vista, which is being developed for

Tombstone of Moyses Auday, who died in 1886, is one of seven inscribed in Hebrew and Portuguese in the Jewish section of the Várzea cemetery in Praia.

32 winter 2009

tourism; and the fourth occupies a tiny spot within the vast Várzea municipal cemetery in Praia, on the southern coast of the island of Santiago. To the best of anyone’s knowledge, the grave of Ben-Shimol, in the center of Santiago, is the only one of at least 30 known Jewish graves in Cape Verde that’s not in a cemetery.

These crumbling tombstones—some etched in Portuguese, some in Hebrew, some in both languages, and some not readable at all—are the only remnants of a once-thriving community that dates back to the 15th century.

“The Hebrew tombstones were all made in Portugal and brought here. The Catholics did the same with their tombstones,” says Abrão Levy, 76, who, along with his son José Levy, helped establish the Cape Verde-Israel Friendship Society (AMICAEL) in 1994.

A Jewish Influx

In the five centuries following their colonization, the islands received thousands of

Jews fleeing religious persecution in both Spain and Portugal. Later on, in the 1800s, economic pressures brought many young men from Moroccan cities like Tangier and Tetouan, seeking opportunities abroad.

Once in Cape Verde, they married local Catholic women, meaning their offspring were no longer Jews despite their Jewishsounding names.

Vera Duarte is the country’s 56-year-old minister of education. A prominent writer, former Supreme Court judge, and president of the National Commission on Human Rights and Citizenship, Duarte comes from an interesting mix of ancestries.

“Sometimes I think that all I’ve been able to accomplish in my life is thanks to my Jewish origins and education,” she says. “I was the first woman magistrate in Cape Verde. My mother came from a family where the women had some power.”

Duarte’s ancestors on her mother’s side were Jews from Gibraltar and Portuguese from the island of Madeira; her grandfather was Isaac Benros, and her father is black. All settled on Santo Antão, which today is an island of 70,000 inhabitants, famous for its green valleys and its mountain cliffs that drop almost vertically into the sea.

This 300-square-mile island, about one-fourth the size of Rhode Island, is known locally as the cradle of Jewish settlement in Cape Verde.

A concrete marker along the oceanfront mountain road announces the town of Sinagoga, but there’s no synagogue here and hasn’t been for more than a century.

In the nearby little fishing

port of Ponta do Sol, high on a ridge overlooking the beach known as Praia de Lisboa, is a Catholic cemetery with more than a thousand crosses.

What most visitors don’t notice in the midst of all the crosses is a small walled enclosure, locked for security. Inside are seven Jewish tombstones, hidden from the world. The enclosure was once isolated but has now been enveloped by the expanding cemetery around it, as more and more Catholics are laid to rest there.

“As they integrated with everybody else, the Jews were buried in regular cemeteries,” says Delgado, the architect from Mindelo.

“Then in 1961, there was a mudslide that destroyed many Jewish graves. So the people pushed them aside to bury other people.”

Four kilometers away—along a gravelly road carved into the side of the mountains— is the seaside town of Penha de França, home to yet another Jewish burial site.

To find the cemetery requires walking through a maze of back alleys and staircases. A small plaque on a wall above says the restored cemetery was inaugurated by AMICAEL on June 19, 1999.

Some of the names on the tombstones— Joseph de Abraham Brigham de Mogador, Isaac Benros, Fortunato Maman, Shlomo Aharonai—are easy to make out; others are harder to see, thanks to the ravages of time and weather.

A surprise awaits visitors who stop in the village of Coculi, a few kilometers inland from the coast. Sulamita Pinto is the town’s only resident with Jewish roots, and the entrance to her house in the exact center of town proudly sports a mezuzah—the only one seen in 11 days of traveling around Cape Verde.

Photo above: Inocêncio Fernandes Xavier Moniz, wearing a Brockton Hospital School of Nursing cap from Massachusetts, cleans the Hebrew letters of a 19th-century Jewish tombstone in Praia’s predominantly Catholic cemetery of Várzea.

For More Information

Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project, Inc.: www.capeverdejewishheritage.org B’Nai B’rith 33

The 87-year-old grandmother is a descendant of Isaac Pinto, who was born in Gibraltar. She lived in Lisbon for 24 years, and has been to Israel.

“I feel Jewish, but I practice a spiritual Christianity,” she says.

Januário Nascimento is president of the Associação para a Defesa do Ambiente e Desenvolvimento, a local environmental group.

In 1995, he also helped set up AMICAEL, following a visit to Israel by the then-minister of foreign affairs, José Tomás Wahnon de Carvalho Veiga, who also has Jewish roots.

“There was always an interest in preserving the names and Jewish customs, but with time, it disappeared,” says Nascimento, 53, whose great-grandfather, Salomão Auday, came from Tangier in 1836 and settled in Santo Antão. “In my case, for example, my ancestors never converted to Christianity. They kept all their Jewish traditions, though because of persecution by the Portuguese authorities, some Jews changed their names.”

The physical evidence of that heritage is slowly crumbling away as the few Hebrew gravestones that remain are threatened by

erosion and increasing development.

Perhaps the most endangered of Cape Verde’s four Jewish cemeteries is the one on Boa Vista, about two kilometers down the road from the island’s chief town, Sal-Rei. Sitting practically at the entrance to the luxurious Hotel Marine Club, it’s a stone’s throw away from a new apartment-hotel complex being built to cater to the evergrowing hordes of European tourists on package holidays.

One of the seven graves here occupies a special enclosure all by itself: that of Isaac Anahory. The other six are arranged in a neat row, the oldest being that of D. Bidy Auday Benchimol, who passed in 1887, and the newest, that of David Benoliel, who died in 1950. Barely anyone knows the cemetery even exists; even most locals are unaware of it.

Rafael Benoliel, an architect who lives in Portugal and is a nephew of David Benoliel, is behind the restoration of the tiny Jewish cemetery, which would save it from nearby construction. His plan would avoid the mistakes made on the heavily developed island of Sal, only 15 minutes away by plane.

“On Sal, they overbuilt without concern for the environment or quality of life, and in the end, it didn’t really benefit the island,” Delgado says. “Boa Vista’s advantage

is that it’s the third-largest island in Cape Verde, with beautiful beaches. The cemetery will be one more attraction, and not just for Jewish tourists. The government needs to step up to the plate and approve these kinds of projects.”

The driving force behind this effort is Carol Castiel, president of CVJHP, which was founded in 2007.

Her project’s goal: to raise $250,000 over the next three years. Priorities include not only restoring the tombstones in all four cemeteries, but also publishing books, articles, pamphlets, and videos that document the community’s enduring legacy, while promoting Jewish “heritage tourism” to Cape Verde.

Castiel, a Voice of America journalist who’s made the forgotten community her life’s passion, became fascinated with the subject more than 15 years ago while working with Portuguese-speaking students at the New York-based African-American Institute. That job introduced her to Cape Verdeans with surnames like Levy and Cohen—and left her wondering how Sephardic Jews from Morocco and Gibraltar ended up in such a remote island archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic.

CVJHP is getting moral and organizational support from the Moroccan

“There was always an interest in preserving the names and Jewish customs, but with time, it disappeared. In my case, for example, my ancestors never converted to Christianity.

They kept all their Jewish traditions, though, because of persecution by the Portuguese authorities, some Jews changed their names.”

—Januário Nascimento, president of the Associação para a Defesa do Ambiente e Desenvolvimento, a local environmental group, and an activist in the effort to preserve Cape Verde’s Jewish heritage.

34 winter 2009

Crumbling storefront in Ponta do Sol was once owned by the Cohen family, one of several prominent Jewish merchant families on the island of Santo Antão.

Embassy in Washington as well as from B’nai B’rith International.

“When Carol brought this project to us, we took an immediate interest, because this is one of those very important stories of Jewish communal life in distant places,” says Daniel S. Mariaschin, B’nai B’rith’s executive vice president.

“We have a deep appreciation for Jewish communities large and small, and this is a unique opportunity to better understand the history of this once-vibrant community—in a place where we would hardly think such a community could exist,” he says. “Even though there are relatively few Jews in the world, every person counts, and here’s another example of that.”

Adds José Luís Rocha, director-general for external policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Praia and a descendant of the Brigham family, which came to Santo Antão from Mogador, Morocco, “Civil society can lobby the government, because the people of Jewish descent are businessmen and can finance the project.”

Rocha has been to Tel Aviv and Jerusa-

lem and has a keen sense of what must be done. “I think the government could start to create a legal framework to recognize the Jewish cemeteries as part of our national heritage, and to see how far they can take it.

But our government cannot do everything.

Our budget is limited,” he says.

In Praia lies the municipal cemetery of Várzea, where some 5,000 people are buried. City official Gilberto Silva pointed out a tiny but distinct section comprised of eight clearly marked Jewish gravestones.

“People won’t come to Cape Verde just for this, but it is one more element in our culture. But first we have to restore the whole cemetery,” Silva says. “Some tombs are higher than others; they need to be on the same level. We don’t want people walking on them.”

While Cape Verde isn’t exactly high on the priority list for Jewish travelers, the country already attracts nearly 400,000 tourists every year, making tourism its top source of foreign exchange. This past summer, the ancient port of Cidade Velha was declared a UNESCO World Heritage

Site, and Delta plans to begin flights from Atlanta to Sal—in addition to the twiceweekly flights already being offered by national carrier TACV Cabo Verde Airlines from Boston to Praia.

But 2009 will be remembered by some Cape Verdeans for two other historic events: the Aug. 14 visit of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the end of her seven-nation African tour, and the visit just over a month later by Israel’s ambassador to Senegal, Gideon Behar, who is also responsible for Cape Verde.

Behar conducted Rosh Hashanah services for some 30 locals of Jewish descent, marking the first time in modern history the Jewish New Year was celebrated in this West African republic.

That didn’t come a moment too soon for Sulamith Spencer, a 50-year-old real-estate agent and descendant of Hillel Ben-Shimol who moved back to Cape Verde this summer after three decades in Portugal: “If anyone asks, we say we’re Jews,” she says. “We haven’t practiced Jewish rituals in years, but we’ve always felt Jewish in our hearts.”

B’Nai B’rith 35

W

When Rolf Lederer began his quest to unearth his family’s history in 1976, he only knew his grandparents’ names.

Lederer, who lives in Toronto, wrote to German government offices and managed to secure his great-grandparents’ birth certificates. After discovering that his ancestors reached Germany from Bohemia, in what then was Czechoslovakia, he visited the municipal archives in Prague and pored over a slew of documents from 1791. He found the names of his great-great-greatgrandfather and of the man’s five sons.

The information helped Lederer trace his parents’ families back to the 1600s—and find relations he never knew he had.

He now keeps in touch with newfound relatives in Australia, New Zealand, England, Israel, and North America, and sends them an annual family newsletter. In 1985, he established the Toronto branch of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Canada.

Finding previously unknown family, says Lederer, has “enriched my life and the lives of my children and grandchildren.”

In today’s Internet age, such long-distance treks and searches through dusty files for genealogical information are mostly things of the past. But learning how to mine for the desired data, training people to pass on the knowledge to the next generation, and understanding the information’s broader significance remain challenges for Jewish genealogists and historians who have little to do with the Internet. Modern technology, however, is playing an important role in preserving and disseminating important information.

The International Institute of Jewish Genealogy (IIJG) was established in 2006 to meet those challenges. The volunteer-run, Jerusalem-based organization, founded by Neville Lamdan, a retired Israeli diplomat, and Sallyann Amdur Sack, a psychologist in Washington, D.C., aims to create an academic discipline of scholarly research, college courses, certification, and degrees.

The organization has already launched several research projects and solicited applications for grants. IIJG’s academic committee is also looking into developing university courses and study programs in the United States, Israel, Canada, and Romania.

Jewish genealogy “intensifies your Jewish identity,” Sack says.

“You can’t do Jewish genealogy without learning a huge amount about Jewish laws, history, and culture, and understanding the context in which your ancestors lived. These people become very real for you.

“It became clear to me and the others that it should become an academic subset of Jewish study—something you can focus on and learn everything about.”

The institute sees itself as complementing the work of Jewish genealogists worldwide and giving them more credibility in academic circles. Jonathan Sarna, a Brandeis University professor

and director of its Jewish professional leadership program, says historians have viewed Jewish genealogy “with some amusement” because of the tendency to focus on rabbis and other achievers while ignoring “the horse thieves” in the family.

According to Lamdan, IIJG wants to rectify that perception by advancing genealogy as “a scientific activity.”

“The IIJG can play an important part both in the study of Jewish genealogy, which is of considerable interest to individuals, and in the study of Jewish history, so much of which is the story of families as they evolve through many generations and in many lands,” says historian Martin Gilbert, a member of the IIJG advisory board.

Reconstituting History One IIJG research project underway is a University of Haifa study of the DNA and migration of Sephardic Jewry since before the Spanish Inquisition. Another is cataloguing workbooks and family trees bequeathed by Jerusalem genealogist Paul Jacobi.

The IIJG plans the digital “reconstitution” of European communities that the Nazis destroyed in the Holocaust. The group will assemble names to create family trees, combine the trees in a given Jewish population, and stitch together neighboring communities. Scholars then could examine the structure of communities and regions to gain greater insight into the power centers of those communities and the webs of relationships.

The institute is also working with volunteers to develop cutting-edge software to merge the vast information on individual Holocaust victims that now is dispersed in databases throughout the world. Genealogists and historians see last year’s opening of the Red Cross’s International Tracing Service records from the Holocaust as a likely source of even more data. The Red Cross committee for this project is made up of representatives of 11 nations,

Jewish Genealogy 101: W ii n n tt ee rr 22 00 00 99 33 66 W

oversees the archives, and last year gave scholars permission to examine materials and digitally distribute copies of the records to key research institutions.

A Less-cumbersome Process The fall of the Soviet Union and subsequent removal of barriers to historical records was one catalyst for Jewish genealogical study.

Before that, the release of two books—Arthur Kurzweil’s “From Generation to Generation,” and Dan Rottenberg’s “Finding Our Fathers”—spawned Jewish genealogy societies throughout North America, Israel, Europe, and Russia.

In addition, the popularity of personal computers and the Internet has led to more of Europe’s local civil records being digitized and placed online.

“Before the Internet age, you really did need to travel to do genealogy research. Now, with the Internet, Poland comes to you,” says Warren Blatt, managing director of a leading Jewish genealogy website, JewishGen.org. “You don’t have to traverse through the files, the muck, and the lack of electricity to get things done. You can sit in your pajamas in the den and access the same thing.”

Another significant aid was the refinement of the Soundex system, developed by computer software designers Randy Daitch and Gary Mokotoff, who, along with Sack, publish the genealogy journal Avotaynu. The

Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex organizes names by their sounds, rather than by their spelling. JewishGen uses this program, which makes it easier for Jewish genealogists to locate a surname in a list, regardless of how it was spelled in the Old Country. This saves “thousands of hours” in research, Blatt says.

That said, the Internet is not the be-all and end-all. “There’s still intuition involved,” he notes.

According to Lamdan, who was trained as an historian, most of the local and Jewish communal records for births and deaths were destroyed by “the havoc” of the 19th and 20th centuries.

However, as most of the documents from the heavily Jewish regions of Eastern Europe known as the Pale of Settlement were filed in triplicate, copies likely are available in a regional governate (county seat) and in either St. Petersburg or Moscow.

This made it possible for Daniel S. Mariaschin, executive vice president of B’nai B’rith International, to learn about his ancestry without ever having to leave Washington, D.C. Mariaschin researched his mother Rose’s roots in the Lithuanian shtetl of Musnik with assistance from Ilya Lempertas, a Vilnius teacher and an expert on Lithuanian Jewry.

Lempertas examined the state archives and emerged with a wealth of information from government and Jewish communal records: 60 references to the Berzak and Khvoles families, all believed to be relatives of Mariaschin. The documents included a copy of Mariaschin’s grandparents’ marriage record.

“To have two to three pages faxed to me, and seeing the references [to family]—it’s exhilarating, because it’s the equivalent of finding a lost treasure,” Mariaschin says. “It’s that important.”

Lamdan also started small. He wanted to uncover his father’s roots in the town of Lyakhavitch, in today’s Belarus.

“The more I got involved, the more my history background came into play,” he says. “I started off with absolutely nothing, and I can now document my family back 300 years. My voyage took me to the archives of Minsk three times. In the course of doing that, one begins to realize that there’s a fantastic amount of information that gives insight into the [impact] of individual Jews on history: ordinary Jews, how they lived, how they survived, how they kept their families together.”

Lamdan was surprised to discover that his ancestors “were all village Jews” who remained in and near Lyakhavitch, where they worked as innkeepers and blacksmiths; he had presumed that they “knocked around from village to village and town to town.”

Lamdan also learned that, when his grandfather emigrated to Scotland, he became the head of the synagogue in Glasgow. The family journey that the grandfather began, which culminated in Lamdan’s becoming an Israeli professor and diplomat, exemplifies “the geographic and social mobility of Jewish society,” Lamdan said.

Lamdan hopes to learn far more about his ancestral region

Photo by Corbis/Barbara Quinn

Evolving into its Own

By Hillel Kuttler

Na a ii BB ’’ rr ii tt h h 33 77 BB ’’ N

Photo by B’nai B’rith staff

beyond his own family’s place in it: about the relationships between the Jews of Lyakhavitch and those of nearby villages, how they provided their children a Jewish education, and how they married off their daughters.

“There’s a whole series of interesting questions that can be asked. Genealogy is another lens through which to look at Jewish history. It’s what one can learn from family relationships within society,” Lamdan says.

“We would hope that, by teaching courses [in genealogy], we’ll excite the imagination of young students. I hope that [this knowledge]…will add another dimension to an understanding of Jewish history.”

The International Red Cross (ICRC) is the custodian of the Holocaust-era archive at Bad Arolsen, Germany. Known as the International Tracing Service (ITS), which was founded in 1946 and formally opened to researchers and the public in 2007, the archive is the repository of 50 million documents covering 17.5 million persons. In the photo, Mariaschin is in the ITS Reading Room reviewing the ITS database to trace the fate of family members who were Holocaust victims. B’nai B’rith was among several American Jewish organizations invited by the ICRC. The ICRC, which has been criticized for bias in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saw this visit as part of a new outreach effort to the Jewish community. The group of Jewish organizations was also hosted at ICRC headquarters in Geneva, where it was briefed on Red Cross humanitarian activities in Africa and Asia in providing emergency medical, food, and other forms of relief to victims of armed conflict and natural disasters.

For More Information International Institute for Jewish Genealogy: www.iijg.org International Tracing Service: www.its-arolsen.org JewishGen: www.jewishgen.org

Are YOU Paying TOO MUCH For LIFE INSURANCE?

Transamerica Life Insurance Company offers term life insurance policies which guarantee that the premiums you pay will remain level for 10, 15, 20, or 30 years.

10-Year Level Premium Policies * Issue Age 30 40 50

Male Female Male Female Male Female

$100,000 $ 100.00 94.00 118.00 110.00 185.00 171.00

$250,000 $ 130.00 117.50 160.00 145.00 300.00 277.50

$1,000,000 $ 330.00 280.00 410.00 380.00 980.00 860.00

15-Year Level Premium Policies * Issue Age 30 40 50

Male Female Male Female Male Female

$100,000 $110.00 106.00 128.00 124.00 226.00 197.00

$250,000 $152.50 135.00 207.50 190.00 430.00 357.50

$1,000,000 $ 400.00 330.00 640.00 550.00 1,460.00 1,180.00

20-Year Level Premium Policies * Issue Age 30 40 50

Male Female Male Female Male Female

$100,000 $ 114.00 108.00 142.00 133.00 273.00 233.00

$250,000 $ 167.50 155.00 240.00 217.50 545.00 440.00

$1,000,000 $ 480.00 410.00 760.00 660.00 1,860.00 1,440.00

30-Year Level Premium Policies * Issue Age 30 40 50

Male Female Male Female Male Female

$100,000 $ 139.00 129.00 204.00 161.00 433.00 368.00

$250,000 $ 245.00 202.50 390.00 307.50 897.50 710.00

$1,000,000 $ 700.00 580.00 1,200.00 980.00 3,030.00 2,320.00

*Annual premiums shown are for preferred plus nonsmoker class. Equivalent premiums are available for other underwriting classes, ages, face amounts and payment modes.

Trendsetter® Super 10 (#1-306 11-107), Trendsetter® Super 15 (#1-305 11-107), Trendsetter® Super 20 (#1-304 11-107), and Trendsetter® Super 30 (#1-334 11-107) are term life insurance policies issued by Transamerica Life Insurance Company, Cedar Rapids, IA 52499. Premiums increase annually starting in year 11 for Trendsetter Super 10, in year 16 for Trendsetter Super 15, in year 21 for Trendsetter Super 20, and in year 31 for Trendsetter Super 30. Policy forms and numbers may vary, and these policies may not be available in all jurisdictions. Insurance eligibility and premiums are subject to underwriting. In most states, in the event of suicide during the first two policy years, death benefits are limited only to the return of premiums paid. In Missouri, suicide is no defense to payment of benefits unless the Company can show that the insured intended suicide at the time of application for coverage.

Call The Leibowitz Group at **No quotes are final until underwriting is completed.

38 Winter 2009

888-448-LEBO for a no obligation quote.** (5326)

FLD 172 0909

letterto the editor The Rising Cost of Medicare, continued from pg. 29 and live off retirement savings. That perspective often makes them less “me, me, me” than the rest of us.

But just this once, let’s talk about what’s in it for them, and what the doughnut hole would look like without reform.

By 2016 the amount seniors will have to spend to get back out of the doughnut hole would be about $6,000. $6,000! It’s so crazy I had to write it twice.

I wish even one of the congressional proposals had suggested closing the doughnut hole immediately, but the money just was not there. But even if it takes two decades to make it disappear entirely, as the House bill

proposes (it won’t), healthcare reform can stop the doughnut hole from growing to begin with.

Studies show that Medicare beneficiaries often skip prescriptions while in the doughnut hole (not good) and take less than prescribed during the year to avoid ever going into the hole (also not good). Making sure that $6,000 gap never happens is something healthcare reform can offer seniors that is real and makes sense.

Maybe by the time this is published we will have passed healthcare reform in a framework most people are comfortable with. Maybe all the fear generated this summer will have dissipated, and people will understand that aging advocates supported healthcare reform because it is good for seniors, and it makes healthy aging possible.

Publisher’s Statement Title of Publication: B’nai B’rith Magazine Frequency of Issues: Quarterly Publisher: B’nai B’rith International, 2020 K St., NW, 7th floor, Washington, DC 20006 Editor: Hiram M. Reisner Owner: B’nai B’rith Inc. (nonprofit organization) 2020 K St., NW, 7th floor, Washington, DC 20006 Known Bondholders, Mortgages, and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1 percent or more of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities: None Average No. No. copies

copies each issue single issue

during preceding published nearest

12 months to filing date

Total Number of Copies (net press run) 102957 98596 Paid/Requested Outside-County Mail Subscriptions 97935 94116 Paid In-County Subscriptions 0 0 Sales Through Dealers and Carriers 2086 2097 Other Classes Mailed Through The USPS 237 232 Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation 100258 96445 Free Distribution by Mail Outside-County 0 0 Free Distribution by Mail 0 0 Free Distribution Outside The Mail 0 0 Total Free Distribution 631 622 Total Distribution 100889 97067 Copies not Distributed 2068 1829 Total 102957 98596 Percent paid and/or requested Circulation 99.4% 99.4%

Brown University’s Openness to Jews Dear Editor: I am writing to comment on your article on Charlie Swartz in your fall 2009 issue, relating to his admission to college in the late 1920s. I was told the following story by one of his contemporaries, the late “Bill” Bloomingdale, Brown ’32: Bill was a senior in high school when he was told by his father that they needed to find a college for him to attend. His father told him that he had made an appointment with the director of admissions at Princeton University for the following Saturday. On Saturday morning, the driver brought the car up to the front of their home in Manhattan and they were driven to Princeton.

His father sat outside the admissions office, waiting for Bill to conclude his interview with the admissions officer.

When Bill came out of the interview, his father told him he looked pale and concerned, and asked what was the matter. Bill replied that he had just had two shocks: the first was that the admissions officer pointed out to him that he was a Jew; the second was that, for that reason, he would not be admitted to Princeton, since that quota was filled.

They went back to Manhattan and Bill’s father made some phone calls to relatives and friends, seeking advice on a college. He was told about this “little college in Rhode Island,” named Brown, that did not restrict their admission of Jews. Bill said that was how he got to be a Brown alumnus.

Apparently, Charlie Swartz was admitted the following year, although the story indicates there was a hitch in the process after he had been accepted. I do believe that, in that time of restrictive quotas at many institutions, Brown maintained its openness to Jews and other discriminated-against minorities.

Sincerely, Maurice Glicksman Provost emeritus, Brown University

B’Nai B’rith 39

Shalom! and best wishes to our many Jewish friends

Shalom and best wishes to our many Jewish friends.

THE UNIVERSITY of

TENNESSEE

For program information please call 309.298.1618

COLLEGE OF SOCIAL WORK Knoxville, TN 37996 FOR PROGRAM INFORMATION (865) 974-3176 PLEASE CALL: or access our website at www.csw.utk.edu We Are Committed to a Diverse Student Body

www.wiu.edu/cofac College of Fine Arts and Communication 1 University Circle Macomb Illinois 61455 WE ARE COMMITTED TO A DIVERSE STUDENT BODY

Shalom! and best wishes to our many Jewish friends

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

Dean Andrew M. Coats and The College of Law Norman, OK 73019 For program information please call

(405) 325-4726 or access our website at www.law.ou.edu We are Committed to a Diverse Student Body

University Of Missouri

Shalom! and best wishes to our many Jewish friends

40 winter 2009

Shalom! and best wishes to our many Jewish friends

UNIVERSITY OF

Shalom! and best wishes to our many Jewish Friends

Charlo e, NC 28223 For program information please call

(704) 687-8725

or access our website at www.uncc.edu We are Committed to a Diverse Student Body

Shalom! and Best Wishes to Our Many Jewish Friends

COLLEGE OF LAW

Learn How to Learn at

SEPS Learning Center

• Dayschool • Summer dayschool an independent private school and clinic • Intensive Reading Program • Tutoring 2120 South 1300 East, Suite 202 • Assessment Salt Lake City, Utah 84106 • Individualized programs www.sepslc.com • Nationally recognized experts in the field of Learning Disabilities & Reading Proud Supporter of www.sepslc.com B’nai B’rith

(801) 467-2122

7214 St. Charles Avenue New Orleans, LA 70118

For program information please call

504.861.5575

or visit our website at

www.law.loyno.edu We are committed to a Diverse Student Body

(801) 467-2148 (fax)

Shalom and best wishes to our many Jewish friends!

Graduate School of Education 113 West 60th St., New York, NY 10023

Fo r m o r e i nformation,

Call: (212) 636-6400 Write: gse_admiss@fordham.edu Visit: www.fordham.edu/gse

B’Nai B’rith 41

SIMI VALLEY CAREER INSTITUTE

Join The Next Generation Of Leaders.

“THE JOB TRAINING PLACE” VOCATIONAL TRAINING MEDICAL/DENTAL CAREERS HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA • PARENT EDUCATION SENIOR CITIZEN • READING SKILLS ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE SIMI VALLEY ADULT SCHOOL & CAREER INSTITUTE

805-579-6200 1880 BLACKSTOCK STREET SIMI VALLEY, CA 93065 Simi Valley Unified School District www.simi.tec.ca.us

Shalom! and best wishes to our many Jewish friends

culaw.creighton.edu

The Dedman School of Law at SMU has always been an innovator in legal education. With a small entering class size, an outstanding teaching faculty and a comprehensive curriculum, we provide one of the

SCHOOL OF HEALTH SCIENCES Rochester, MI 48309 For more information please call:

(248) 370-3562

best legal educations in the country.

or access our website at www.oakland.edu

Find out how a law degree from

We are Committed to a Diverse Student Body

Warner College of Natural Resources

SMU can take your career in a new direction. Both day and evening law programs are available.

For more information call, 214.768.2 5 5 0 or go to www.l a w. s mu.e d u

SMU will not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, or veteran status. SMU’s commitment to equal opportunity includes nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

42 winter 2009

www.warnercnr.colostate.edu

Proud supporter of B’nai B’rith

93 salt water enclosed pool all ages and abilities

We Amaze People With Our Results

EVERY DAY!

Come see the difference!

www.aquawaveonline.com 949-455-2535

27025 Burbank Road

The new and expanded

•

•

92610

ABINGTON FRIENDS SCHOOL

SUMMER ENRICHMENT PROGRAM

412-322-5058 www.pittsburghkids.org

Foothill Ranch, CA

Swimming • Sports Theater • Computers Ages 4-15 9 Weeks of Options Extended Day & Transportation Available www.abingtonfriends.net

Excellence in Elementary Education Since 1919 For enrollment information or a personalized tour

215-576-3996

1641 Hampton Road Meadowbrook, PA 19046

575 Washington Lane, Jenkintown

215-884-3238

B’Nai B’rith 43

CALIFORNIA

In recognition of the efforts and ontributions of B’nai B’rith

PYRAMID PIPE & SUPPLY CO. Canoga Park, CA IN

CALIFORNIA

PESTEC

IPM PROVIDERS

GREAT CUSTOM MADE HAND TOSSED PIZZA • FINE ITALIAN FOOD • CATERING • FOOD TO GO • TV • BANQUET FACILITIES FOR UP TO 40

Bedbugs, Mice, Roaches, Ants, Cockroaches Commercial Sanitation Reports Issued Residential, Commercial, Government & Transportation Pest Control (415) 587-6817 San Francisco

818-363-7705

Alameda

(925) 934-2284 Contra Costa County

(925) 757-2945 Contra Costa County

www.pestec.com

MISSION TUXEDOS

Delivery Sun-Thurs 11a.m.-10p.m.

Fri & Sat 11a.m.-11p.m.

(510) 251-9000

OPEN 7 DAYS M-F 9:30-6:00 • SAT 9:00-5:00 SUN 10:00-2:00 FEATURING RALPH LAUREN • PERRY ELLIS PIERRE CARDIN • AND MANY MORE

Ruhkala Monument Company, Inc. Serving Our Community for Over 3 Generations - Since 1889

Personal Service CEMETERY MEMORIALS GRANITE - MARBLE - BRONZE Large Monument Display At Both Locations

Serving All Cemeteries

805-569-3334

www.thepizzacookery.com

135 W. Mission St., Santa Barbara, CA

10371 Balboa Blvd. • Granada Hills

3615 Telegraph Road, Ventura, CA WWW.MISSIONTUXEDOS.COM

805-339-0000

Happy Passover

Rocklin

916-624-1176

Sacramento

916-441-2846

4501 Yankee Hill Ct. 1001 Broadway Mon-Fri 8:30-5 - Sat 10-2 Mon-Fri 9-5

PALM SPRINGS MIRROR & GLASS, INC. “Serving the Valley for 57 Years” FOR ALL OF YOUR GLASS NEEDS

ToLos advertise your business The in our Marketplace, Angeles County Finest Of Custom Mirrors Supervisorcall 866-612-4295. & Shower Enclosures t ] Michael D. Antonovich

Readership: Approximately & Mary Christine, 175,000

u

Mon-Fri 7-4:30

STATE CONTRS. LIC. NO 182954

760-328-0888

B’nai B’rith Magazine cannot guarantee the veracity of advertisements nor accept Christine & Michael, Jr. responsibility for them. B’nai B’rith Magazine does not screen advertisements for www.PalmSpringsMirrorandGlass.com compliance with the laws of kashrut. We do attempt to avoid advertisements that would be blatantly offensive to all who observe kashrut.

Advertisement inDRIV B’nai B’rith 34-040 DATE PALM (Corner oforDinah Cathedral City Magazine does not imply endorsement by the magazine B’naiShore), B’rith International.

44 winter 2009

CALIFORNIA

Greetings To B’nai B’rith Patrons

Happy Passover

Le Central Ser ving French Provincial Cuisine

Lunch & Dinner • Private Party Rooms

Since 1974

Reservations

526.4:2.3344

240 S. State College Boulevard Brea, CA (57 Freeway at Imperial)

453 Bush Street San Francisco, CA 94108

JOHN JACKSON MASONRY Commercial • Industrial BRICK • BLOCK • STONE • GRANITE GLASS BLOCK • MARBLE • TERRA COTTA

5691-B Power Inn Road Sacramento, CA 95824 CA Lic.# 255203 T: (916) 381-8021 NV Lic. #12071 F: (916) 381-1202 E: Jeff@JohnJacksonMasonry.com

Faz

714-529-8333 714-529-2751

Mon-Sat 11:30 am – 10:30 pm

Oakland Jet Center Managing Owned & Charter Jets Since 1963

(510) 569-9622 (510) 635-3173 fax www.kaiserair.com Oakland, CA

www.lavnrose.com

Hearing Resource Center of San Mateo Rebecca Dolan, Au. D. Kimberly Krantz, M.S. Christine Telleen, M.A. Katherine Salkin, Au. D. Donald E. Morgan, Ph.D. Audiologists providing: • Diagnostic hearing testing and counseling.

• Hearing aid fitting and service to individuals of all ages with hearing loss.

650-579-4470 100 S. Ellsworth Ave., Suite 303 San Mateo, CA 805 Veterans Blvd., Suite 115 Redwood City, CA 94063

Best Wishes Israel

FRUITRIDGE SHOPPING CENTER 28 STORES TO SERVE YOU

WHERE SERVICE IS STILL #1

916-451-6992 Corner of Stockton & Fruitridge 5657 Stockton Blvd.

Sacramento, CA

ReduceYour Heating & Cooling Costs By Over 50% 5111 ~ Lic.# 522164

Enhance And Protect Your Home With Our Factory Direct Exterior Shading Devices: Awnings, Sunscreens & Rolling Shutters

Mount Tamalpais Mortuary

Fully Retractable Awnings

- Designer on Staff -

European Rolling Shutters Visit Our Showroom - Open Monday - Friday 8-5, Saturday10-3

408.629.3740

www.ers-shading.com

404 Umbarger Road, Suites A&B ~ San Jose, CA 9

SINCE 1968 Serving the Entire Jewish Community

M-F 9-7

• • • • •

Sat - 9-5

SALES & RENTAL

MEDICAL EQUIPMENT SICKROOM SUPPLIES SPORTS MEDICINE SUPPLIES ORTHOPEDIC ASSIGNMENT MEDICARE ASSIGNMENT

Read past issues u ] 415-459-2500 t of B’nai B’rith 170 North San Pedro Rd. 714-846-0688 Huntington Harbour Mall San Rafael, CA 94903 562-592-3020 16881 Algonquin St. H.B. Congregation Rodef Sholom Magazine at www.bnaibrith.org.

Please Mention This Ad

B’Nai B’rith 45

Fraternal Groups Haven’t Died, They’re Just Adapting

By Harvey Berk

B

’nai B’rith has flourished as a fraternal organization since the 1800s. While many may argue over whether there is still a place for this kind of group, most agree that the fraternal organizations of the 20th century have lost much of their appeal.

What has emerged instead is a contemporary equivalent to fraternal organizations— “social networking” on the Internet—and B’nai B’rith is an active participant.

Social networking involves online tools like Facebook and Twitter, where friends, family, and people from around the world can meet, discuss issues, and share information. While you may not have the time or inclination to go to a meeting, you can carry on discussions and get useful information on your computer while relaxing in your pajamas.

Before you stop reading and say, “This is not for me,” think again. That’s where I was a month ago. Then I discovered that the fastest-growing group of Facebook users in the U.S. is people over 55!

B’nai B’rith has run the age gamut with social networking. For some time now, the B’nai B’rith Young Professionals Network has communicated via Facebook, as have some within the B’nai B’rith Center for Senior Services. Now we are inviting all B’nai B’rith members and supporters to join our online community.

B’nai B’rith social networking can be extremely useful, especially via our Facebook page. There, you will be able to: • Get access to our experts. From time to time, we will offer opportunities to ask B’nai B’rith experts about critical issues such as the United Nations, Israel, Latin America, healthcare reform, Social Security and Medicare, healthy aging, travel, insurance, and much more.

Our first Ask the Expert session will be Dec. 14-15, when you can ask our U.N.

46 winter 2009

director, David Michaels, anything you want to know about the U.N. Read Uriel Heilman’s story in this issue and ask away.

Go to the “B’nai B’rith International” Facebook page, click on the light blue “Discussions” tab at the top of the page, and post your question. See below for instructions on how to get on Facebook.

• Share your opinion. B’nai B’rith takes a stand and makes important statements on a wide variety of issues, but you may not always agree with our positions. Now you can share your thoughts with others, and even engage them in a discussion. You’ll find them on our Facebook page (see below), and we invite you to participate.

• Form a group to take action. Historically, B’nai B’rith members have reached out to fellow community members to address critical local problems. To name just a few such efforts: The Cuban Jewish Relief Project in Pittsburgh began this way; the Bagel Brigade in Los Angeles formed a cadre of members to collect and distribute bagels to those in need; and Project Hope in New York enabled members to deliver packages of food to poor elderly Jews at Passover. Now you will be able to reach out and share ideas in an online group.

• Solicit and share ideas on travel. Visiting Israel and want suggestions for a great falafel stand in Tel Aviv? Want to know the best museum in Chicago? Ask fellow members, be better prepared, and share your experiences with others.

In addition to Facebook, you can also: • Share information with others. B’nai B’rith Magazine is now online in an easy-to-read “flip-the-page” format. If you want to share the magazine with friends or relatives anywhere in the world, you can easily do so with a click of your mouse. To see this, go to www.bnaibrith. org, click on the B’nai B’rith Magazine

cover on the home page, and in a flash you have the magazine on your computer.

Here you can also access past issues.

• Be advised right away on important issues. Want to know what B’nai B’rith says and does on current issues? Join Twitter and get notified whenever we make a statement. Keep Twitter open on your computer and you’ll receive our tweets (short messages—140 characters or less). Sign up for free at www.twitter. com/bnaibrith.

Get Yourself on Facebook The leading social networking site now is Facebook. If you haven’t already joined, go to www.facebook.com and sign up. It’s free and easy. The next step is to become a “fan” of B’nai B’rith International. (You can also become “friends” of individuals and “fans” of other organizations.)

Simply type “B’nai B’rith International” into the search bar and you will be taken to our Facebook group page. Then click on “Become a Fan.” This is a new venture for us. We’re starting modestly, but we will grow and make the online B’nai B’rith experience even more valuable. We’ll keep you posted on new developments—in the magazine, on Twitter, and on Facebook. We look forward to seeing you online with B’nai B’rith.

B’nai B’rith International Communications Director Harvey Berk has recently become a new media aficionado.

Joi n

en ts

TO YO IT an V U ITC IS R ’S TU s of ubs IT i R Bir di I th zed SR N -ri tr te ip A kid fo E s ! r pa L r

In partnership with

ITC Tours

LLC

Image courtesy Israel Ministry of Tourism

Celebrating your Bar/Bat Mitzvah in Israel is PRICELESS!!

The greatest gift you can give your family and Israel—a gift that lasts a lifetime. An expression of your love and a celebration of our heritage.

TOURS INCLUDE:

Bar & Bat Mitzvah Tour Offers–

THE FINEST HOTELS IN ISRAEL!

JERUSALEM: 5 star Super Deluxe David Citadel Hotel and the newly opened 6 star** Mamilla Hotel Moderate tour prices are also available!

FREE* Israel Trip (Land and Air) for the Bar or Bat Mitzvah Child on a 2010 ITC Family Bar and Bat Mitzvah Tour

ITC Also Offers Tours as Memorable as the Land Itself, including: Bar and Bat Mitzvah, Private Custom Designed Family Tours • Jewish Educational • Jewish Heritage Tours Synagogue Group and Interfaith Tours • Guaranteed Weekly • Set Departure Tours - 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, and 15 Day Tours • PLUS: European and South American Tours THE ITC PROMISE: We do not cancel our tours! Prices All Inclusive! All sites and entrance fees are included per the itinerary. No additional charges are applied! *Restrictions may apply. **Please check back on costs–subject to change!

800-2-ISRAEL • 973-535-2575

www.israeltour.com

FESTIVAL FLIGHTS. OF

Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, is traditionally a time to give gifts. At EL AL Israel Airlines, the staff and crew have a gift for providing the most authentic Israeli experience to our Homeland from North America. Plus, we always give you: • State-of-the-art, widebody aircraft • Upgraded entertainment systems at every seat with programs for the entire family • New advanced sleeper seats in premium classes • Improved health-smart meal options

For more details, visit www.elal.com or call 800-223-6700 or any travel agent.

THE MOST NONSTOP FLIGHTS TO TEL AVIV FROM NEW YORK (JFK/NEWARK) AND THE ONLY NONSTOP FLIGHTS FROM LOS ANGELES, IN ADDITION TO NONSTOP FLIGHTS FROM TORONTO

www.elal.com