CT Jewish Ledger May 8, 2020 14 Iyar

Friday, May 8, 2020 15 Iyar 5780 Vol. 92 | No. 19 | ©2020 $1.00 | jewishledger.com

1

JEWISH LEDGER

| MAY 8, 2020

jewishledger.com

Providing financial guidance today, tomorrow & beyond

The financial advice you’ll receive comes with: • Personalized financial strategies with a broad range of investment choices • A wealth advisor who takes the time to listen and understand your individual needs • Support from a talented force of market analysts, investment planning specialists, and portfolio managers

Call us today to start a conversation.

West Hartford: 65 Memorial Road, Suite 530, West Hartford, CT 06107 | 844.248.9998 Westport: 20 Ketchum Street, Westport, CT 06880 | 800.491.8875 info@gylfinsyn.com | www.gylresnick.com

2

JEWISH LEDGER

| MAY 8, 2020

jewishledger.com

INSIDE

this week

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | MAY 8, 2020 | 15 IYAR 5780

8 KOLOT

8 Bulletin Board

9 Around CT

10 Opinion

16 Milestones

17

Homeward Bound......................... 5 Owing to the dangers of Covid-19 behind bars, Rabbi Daniel Greer, convicted last fall of sexually assaulting a teen at his New Haven yeshiva, is temporarily moved from prison to house arrest.

Crowd Control............................... 15 NYC Mayor De Blasio is blasted for singling out the entire “Jewish community” for violating social distance rules when hundreds of Orthodox Jews gather for a rabbi’s funeral. Turns out, the NYPD ok’d the event.

ELECTION 2020.............................. 15 Now that former Vice President Joe Biden is the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, questions remain about his “Jewish” campaign.

Crossword

18 Briefs

19 Torah Portion

22 Obituaries

23 Business and Professional Directory

24 Classified

ON THE COVER:

At a time when nearly all other aspects of communal Jewish life have shut down or moved online to stop the spread of COVID-19, chevra kadishas and funeral directors face difficult decisions about how to perform the rituals surrounding Jewish burials safely.

PAGE 12 jewishledger.com

Arts & Entertainment.......................................................20 Singer Shulem Lemmer is a pop star in his community – and still a cantor, too. Now he’s also the first artist raised Hasidic to sign with a major record label.

Bonds of Life........................................................................21 We pay tribute to some of the lives lost in the COVID-19 pandemic.

CANDLE LIGHTING

SPONSORED BY

SHABBAT FRIDAY, MAY 8 Hartford: 7:40 p.m.

New Haven: 7:40 p.m.

Bridgeport: 7:41 p.m.

Stamford: 7:42 p.m.

To determine the time for Havdalah, add one hour and 10 minutes (to be safe) to candle lighting time.

JEWISH LEDGER

|

MAY 8, 2020

3

Experience the

VIRTUAL MANDELL JCC www.mandelljcc.org/virtualengagement

Live-Streaming Everyday!

Adult Fitness | Youth Sports & Rec

Bake/Cook-Alongs

Mandell JCC of Greater Hartford (@MandellJCC) Mandell JCC Fitness Friends (FB Group) Mandell JCC Youth Sports and Rec (FB Group)

Tuesdays at 1:00pm

Kids Yoga

Mandell JCC Connecticut

Wednesdays at 10:00am

Family & Children Activities Health & Wellness Virtual Book & Film Festivals And Much More!

4

JEWISH LEDGER

| MAY 8, 2020

mandelljcc_ct

www.mandelljcc.org

jewishledger.com

UP FRONT

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | MAY 8, 2020 | 15 IYAR 5780

NY police knew a Brooklyn rabbi’s funeral was happening – but hundreds showed up New York City mayor warns ‘the Jewish community’ and faces swift backlash distancing guidelines. Critics said de Blasio ran the risk of inflaming antisemitism just months after a spate of violent attacks on Jews in the city and at a time when the Orthodox community is mourning many of its own losses from the coronavirus pandemic.

“Mr. Mayor, your words are unacceptable,” tweeted Kalman Yeger, an Orthodox Jewish member of the New York City Council. “To condemn our entire community over one group of people is something you would not do to any other ethnic group, and I know you long enough to know that you know this.”

The head of the Anti-Defamation League sounded a similar note. “Hey @NYCMayor,

N

BY PAUL BASS

BY SHIRA HANAU

(JTA) – The images were striking, the mayor had strong words and the backlash was swift.

On Tuesday night, April 28, hundreds of Orthodox Jews gathered for a rabbi’s funeral in Brooklyn, showing apparent disregard of public social distancing guidelines. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio issued a tweet in which he singled out the entire Jewish community.

“My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed,” tweeted de Blasio.

The Mayor drew swift criticism from Jews and others who said de Blasio had unfairly targeted New York Jews, which by and large has complied with social

Rabbi Greer released from prison

there are 1mil+ Jewish people in #NYC,” CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted. “The few who don’t social distance should be called out – but generalizing against the whole population is outrageous especially when so many are scapegoating Jews. This erodes the very unity our city needs now more than ever.”

Some of DiBlasio’s critics noted that the mayor had not responded similarly earlier Tuesday when New Yorkers gathered in parks to watch military planes fly over the city in a show of support for city workers.

Others pointed to the mayor’s own habit of walking in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, where CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

EW HAVEN – Moved by an appeal about the dangers of Covid-19 behind bars, a Superior Court judge has ordered Rabbi Daniel Greer temporarily moved from prison to house arrest.

Superior Court Judge Jon Alander issued the temporary order of release on Friday.

The 79-year-old prominent New Haven rabbi – who was in his first year of a 20-year prison sentence (suspended after 12) at Cheshire Correctional Institution for repeatedly sexually assaulting a teenage student at his Norton Street yeshiva – can now remain at home in the Edgewood neighborhood under house arrest for at least 45 days on a promise to appear in court. The order states that the court may extend or termination the 45-day order.

It was a striking move from a judge who had previously denied two separate motions by Greer’s attorneys to allow him to remain out of prison while he appealed his conviction.

“We live in extraordinary times,” Alander wrote in his order.

“Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures.”

He noted that the 79-year-old Greer suffers from chronic asthma, making him especially vulnerable to the coronavirus. Covid-19 is present in Connecticut prisons at a “substantially higher rate than in the general population,” while the state Department of Correction (DOC) has failed to supply “adequate” masks and other protective equipment to staffers, limiting its ability to contain the virus in what is already a challenging environment for social distancing, the judge stated.

“Given the present high incident of COVID-19 within Connecticut’s prisons and the lack of sufficient PPE for its staff, the defendant’s advanced

HAREDI ORTHODOX JEWS GATHER IN BROOKLYN FOR A RABBI’S FUNERAL, APRIL 28, 2020.

CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

(CREDIT: REUVEN BLAU/TWITTER)

jewishledger.com

JEWISH LEDGER

|

MAY 8, 2020

5

Funeral

Greer

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

crowds sometimes gather on sunny days in spite of social distancing guidelines.

“The Blue Angels flyover in NY City today was beautiful, but I didn’t see any outrage over the lack of social distancing.

That reaction is reserved for Jewish weddings & funerals,” tweeted Joel Petlin, who runs the school district in Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic town north of the city. “Two wrongs don’t make a right, but only one wrong makes the news and the condemnation of politicians.”

Still, de Blasio stood by his warnings of police action against social distancing violators but expressed remorse over the tone of his tweets.

“I regret if the way I said it in any way gave people the feeling of being treated the wrong way,” he said.

Was the gathering ok’d by the Mayor’s office?

Some are questioning whether the police could have done more to stop the public procession before the crowd grew into the hundreds or thousands.

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea acknowledged at a news conference Wednesday that members of his department were in contact with Hasidic community leaders to discuss “what to expect at that location” ahead of the funeral. That contact, he said, came “within minutes” of the rabbi’s death.

“Plans were put in place, a detail was put in place … contingency plans were put into place, a number of officers were detailed in the unlikely event that large numbers came and we thought that was a possibility,” Shea said. “But absolutely I think we’ve been

NEW YORK CITY MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO ADDRESSES QUESTIONS ABOUT THE POLICE DEPARTMENT’S COORDINATION WITH ORGANIZERS OF A LARGE FUNERAL IN BROOKLYN, APRIL 29, 2020.

(SCREENSHOT FROM YOUTUBE)

6

JEWISH LEDGER

pretty consistent, Mr. Mayor … that there are to be no gatherings in New York City such as what we saw last night.”

Asked for further detail on the plans made by the police with local community leaders, a spokeswoman declined to comment beyond Shea’s remarks at the news conference.

In a statement distributed to reporters, Jacob Mertz, a spokesman for the congregation that organized the funeral, said organizers had the streets closed for the funeral to allow mourners to participate while following social distancing guidelines.

“Unfortunately, this didn’t pan out, and NYPD had to disperse the crowds,” the statement said. “We shall note that everyone followed the police officers’ orders and the vast majority wore masks. Yet, the confusion and chaos led to scenes of large crowds. We understand Mayor Bill de Blasio’s frustration and his speaking out against the gathering. As said, we thought that the procession will be in accordance with the rules, and we apologize that it turned out otherwise.”

Mertz did not address whether the NYPD was involved in the street closures, but a City Hall spokeswoman told the New York Post on Wednesday that no permits were issued for the funeral.

David Greenfield, a former City Council member and CEO of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, said in a tweet that the police “wanted to work with the chasidic synagogue out of respect for their revered (and well-known) late Rabbi so they literally barricaded streets for this ‘socially distant funeral.’”

age and underlying medical condition warrant his temporary release from prison until the crisis abates,” Alander wrote.

The judge noted in his order that he had previously denied requests to release Greer on an appeal bond because he considers him a “serious and substantial flight risk.” He still does, Alander wrote, but added that pandemic stay-at-home orders and flight restrictions lessen the risk “to some degree.”

Alander’s order places Greer under electronic monitoring by the Office of Adult Probation. Greer may leave home for religious services or medical and legal appointments, subject to a bail commissioner’s or probation officer’s approval. He must surrender his passport, avoid contact with boys under 16 years old, and “not violate criminal law.”

Greer’s attorney, David T. Grudberg, Saturday night called for the state to release more inmates who are vulnerable to contracting Covid-19.

“I hope that the State of Connecticut and DOC will take similar decisive action to release the most vulnerable inmates from custody, even on a temporary basis, who have a stable alternative to incarceration,” he said in a statement to the In-dependent. “This will help protect not just those prisoners, but also their fellow inmates and the brave DOC employees who continue to carry out their duties every day.”

CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

Covid-19 Plea

CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

A jury found Greer guilty of four felony counts of risk of injury to a minor.

Before this latest motion for temporary release, Greer had previously filed two appeals to Alander’s denial of his request to remain out on bond. Both times the case went to the state appellate court, which upheld Alander’s denials.

Greer’s attorney, Grudberg, made a third attempt on March 31, asking the appellate court to release Greer based solely on the spread of Covid-19 in the prison system and the system’s difficulty in containing it.

On April 15 the appellate court denied the motion to release, but this time ordered Alander to reconsider the issue in light of the growing Covid-19 crisis behind bars.

So Grudberg filed a new motion to Alander’s court on April 16.

In the motion, he noted that the number of prison inmate and staff Covid-19 cases in Connecticut prisons had “exploded” from 4 to “nearly 340”

| MAY 8, 2020

in just 16 days. He also said that the travel restrictions imposed during the pandemic decreased the chance of Greer fleeing.

The state responded on April 22 with a motion opposing the request for release. The response, written by Senior Asst. State’s Attorney Maxine Wilensky (who prosecuted the criminal case against Greer), noted that Alander and the appellate court had already rejected similar Covid-19 arguments from Greer as part of a broader previous appeal for release. The court then “reasonably” decided that Greer’s crimes were serious enough, as is his flight risk, to warrant his remaining in jail even amid the pandemic.

In prison, Wilensky wrote, Greer was “housed in protective custody, complete with his own sink and, more importantly has the cell to himself. The only contact with other people are DOC guards and other inmates, who are also in protective custody, should he choose to interact with them.” In home release, Wilensky argued, Greer would also “potentially be exposed ... given the need for food shopping, doctor’s visits, and religious gatherings for prayers.” Wilensky argued that the DOC is taking appropriate steps to protect inmates.

Wilensky also elaborated on the potential flight risk: “The defendant has a car at his disposal, and travel between states is allowed. There are many Jewish orthodox communities, given their insular nature and distrust of outside authorities, that may be willing to help the defendant, and it would be difficult to locate him were he to flee there.”

Grudberg swung back with an attack on the DOC’s record of containing the virus. In a response to Wilensky’s brief, he noted that as of April 23, the infection rate in the general population of Connecticut was under 1 percent, at 0.63 percent. By contrast, the infection rate for corrections workers stood at about 4 percent, for inmates at 2.8 percent.

“DOC’s efforts are simply not working,” Grudberg wrote.

He also argued that placing Greer on electronic monitoring would negate the flight risk.

There were no in-court arguments.

The judicial system has largely cut back courthouse proceedings during the pandemic. Alander issued his order a day after Grudberg submitted his response brief, and sided with his arguments.

“We are exceptionally grateful that Judge Alander reconsidered his prior CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

jewishledger.com

“The Chasidic synagogue wanted to honor their saintly rabbi so they came up with a misguided scheme for an outdoor ‘socially distant’ public funeral. They were so convinced they could pull this off they COORDINATED with NYPD and even handed out masks.”

One Twitter account called Satmar Headquarters, but not known to be affiliated with any official organ of the Satmar Hasidic community in Williamsburg, said police had approved the funeral and helped coordinate the procession.

“This Funeral was originally approved and actually organized by @NYPDnews 2 hours b4 it started, PD brought trucks with barriers/tower lights to close off Bedford Avenue and the surrounding area. It’s the @ NYCMayor’s Dept who originally approved it before deciding to take it back,” the tweet said.

Videos posted to Twitter showed police telling mourners over a loudspeaker to move off the street and onto the sidewalk.

“Everybody go home, it is finished, there’s going to be traffic coming down the

decision and allowed Daniel Greer to be under house arrest until the current pandemic threat abates, instead of a life-threatening situation within the correctional system,” Grudberg told the Independent.

Community Leader Beginning in the 1980s, Rabbi Greer oversaw the revival of the neighborhood around his yeshiva at the corner of Norton and Elm streets, renovating neglected historic homes. He advocated for keeping nuisance businesses out of the Whalley Avenue commercial corridor, exposed johns who patronized street prostitutes in the neighborhood, and then in 2007 for launching an armed

street,” a police officer said in one video posted by Reuven Blau, a reporter for the local outlet The City.

Another video posted by Blau showed police barriers in the background, suggesting that officers had helped close off the street for the funeral.

The evening funeral, which was organized hastily in accordance with Jewish custom after Rabbi Chaim Mertz died on Tuesday afternoon, was publicized in a poster made by the rabbi’s synagogue, Tolath Yaakov.

The poster included a map of the funeral route on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg and advised mourners that anyone attending the funeral must wear a mask and stay 6 feet apart from others. The directive to wear masks was repeated by the Williamsburg Shomrim, a local patrol group run by Hasidic Jews, though videos from the scene clearly show some people without masks and within the proscribed 6 feet.

“Everyone on the street should have a mask,” a Shomrim member said in a video from before the funeral.

neighborhood “defense” patrol and then calling in the Guardian Angels for assistance to combat crime.

Over the years, Rabbi Greer also received national attention for his political stands. In the 1970s, he led a successful campaign to force the United States to pressure the Soviet Union into allowing Jewish “refuseniks” to emigrate here and start new, freer lives. Greer has also crusaded against gay rights in Connecticut, and filed suit against Yale University over a requirement that students live in coed dorms.

This article is reprinted with permission of New Haven Independent.

This Mother’s Day, honor a woman or girl you love while helping women and children in need with a $100 gift to the Lillian Fund. You might not be able to take her out to brunch, but with a $100 gift you can honor a special woman with a vote on where to donate The Lillian Fund’s annual grant.

The Lillian Fund is a giving circle of women that grants money to causes that help women and children in Greater Hartford and Israel. Last year’s grant allowed 70 neighborhood children to enjoy 15 weeks of free arts & music education at Charter Oak Cultural Center’s Youth Arts Institute in Hartford.

Make your gift for Mother’s Day today at https://bit.ly/2x6uNG4.

Questions? Email Elana MacGilpin at emacgilpin@jcfhartford.org.

RABBI DANIEL GREER WITH HIS ATTORNEY WILLIE DOW OUTSIDE OF COURT ON SEPT. 24, 2019, A DAY BEFORE A JURY FOUND GUILTY OF FOUR COUNTS OF RISK OF IN-JURY TO A MINOR. (CREDIT: CHRISTOPHER PEAK)

jewishledger.com

JEWISH LEDGER

|

MAY 8, 2020

7

KOLOT BBYO Hosts Holocaust Survivor for Virtual Yom HaShoah

O

BY JENNIFER KRUZANSKY

NEW LIMITED TAKE-OUT MENU

New Hours: Open 7 days, 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Hours subject to change. Please call ahead Take-out and curbside pick up

CALL TO PLACE YOUR ORDER: 860.875.1344 We are currently offering: Restaurant To-Go Hot and cold sandwiches • Hot entrees • Salad platters Sliced deli meats, cheeses and salads by the pound Grab n’ Go Retail Fresh cold entrees, soups and chilis • Frozen entrees Bakery (bagels and rye bread) • Our own ruggalach and cookies We also have beers and hard seltzer to-go in our cooler.

Note: all alcohol to go purchaes must be accompanied by a food order per government mandate.

We thank you and are tremendously grateful for your continued support with take-out.We are doing everything in our power to keep you safe. Be healthy!

The Taste of Quality is Long Remembered

n April 21, as part of the commemoration of Yom Hashoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day – more than 70 teens and parents of BBYO Connecticut Valley Region came together, virtually, to bear witness to the testimonies of New Haven resident and Holocaust survivor Andy Sarkany. Those gathered at BBYO on Demand for Zikaron BaSalon (Hebrew for “memories in the living room”), sang, talked and, most importantly, listened to Andy’s story.

Together we heard Andy speak about his experience growing up as a young boy in Hungary during the Holocaust.

He shared stories about life in the ghetto, his experiences in school as one of only a few Jewish children, and about reuniting with his father after he was liberated from concentration camp.

Like everyone else in attendance, Fairfield teen Nathan Zakim was inspired

by Andy’s story of resilience and faith. “It was incredible hearing such a profound account of survival through one of the world’s darkest times,” said Nathan.

“Andy had such a difficult childhood in occupied Hungary, and his family’s story is inspiring.”

After Andy shared his story, one of our BBYO members sang “Eli, Eli,” and teens shared stories of their own activism to help keep the stories and memories of The Holocaust alive. BBYO member Dara Sadinsky of West Hartford shared her experience testifying at the State Capitol in

2018 in support of Senate Bill 452, which made Holocaust and genocide education mandatory in all Connecticut public schools.

Woodbridge teen Jenna Zamkov remarked how listening to Andy made her motivated to continue raising awareness about the Holocaust. “The reason we listen to stories and share them is to make sure we never forget and that this never happens again,” said Jenna.

Before closing out our event, Andy shared some words of wisdom that he wanted us all to remember even during this difficult time.

“The door is open to do what you want in life, it is up to you,” he told those gathered. “There is no limit. I used to say the sky is the limit. But not now; now there is no limit.”

BBYO’s Zikaron Basalon is just one of thousands of events taking place on BBYO’s new worldwide virtual programming platform, BBYO on Demand, a 24/7 virtual hub formed during the COVID-19 outbreak to give all Jewish teens access to an innovative digital space filled with activities, events, and experiences they can tune into from anywhere, anytime. For information on BBYO on Demand programs, visit BBYO. org.

For more info on BBYO Connecticut Valley Regional Director, contact Regional Director Jennifer Kruzansky at JKruzansky@ bbyo.org, or follow @BBYOInsider on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.

BULLETIN BOARD The new norm for COVID-19 & nonprofits

Learn to drum this summer!

Online Zoom lessons All ages and levels BA Music Performance 20+ years private instruction References available 8

JEWISH LEDGER

| MAY 8, 2020

The Greater Hartford Jewish Leadership Academy will host “Covid-19 and Nonprofits: What is the New Normal?”

– an online workshop with Dirk Bird, associate vice president of planned giving and endowment of the Jewish Federations of North America, on Wednesday, May 6, noon-1 p.m.

The free Zoom workshop will explore how organizations and their leaders adjust to a new “normal” that will impact how they plan, engage their constituents and steward their donors, and measure success while maintaining core values. Open to the entire community, it is especially suited for lay leaders of Jewish nonprofits, schools, synagogues, etc.

Registration is required. RSVP to Jody Angela at jody@jlahartford.org, (860) 7276151.

Food & Supplies Drive in West Hartford The Jewish Family Services Anja Rosenberg Kosher Food Pantry and the Mandell JCC in West Hartford are hosting a food drive on Wednesday, May 6, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

In addition to all types of kosher/ non-kosher nonperishable food items, supplies such as paper towels. toilet paper, laundry detergent, body soap deodorant, toothbrushes and toothpaste are welcome.

To donate, drive up to the main entrance of the JCC at 335 Bloomfield Ave., and remain in your car while you drop your contribution in the bin. jewishledger.com

Around Connecticut

Stay home, stay safe.

CELEBRATING ISRAEL IN STAMFORD, VIRTUALLY Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy in Stamford didn’t let the statewide school shut-down keep students from honoring the State of Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terror attacks on Yom Hazikaron (April 28) or from following up that solemn day with a celebration marking the Jewish state’s 72nd birthday (April 29).

On Yom Hazikaron, Bi-Cultural’s Upper School students were joined by Rav Binny Friedman of Yeshivat Orayta, located in the Old City of Jerusalem, who shared personal stories relating to the day. Following his talk, students had the opportunity to watch the FIDF Yom Hazikaron ceremony held in Israel.

Times such as these add support to our belief that home care is safe care.

RAV BINNY FRIEDMAN VISITED WITH BCHA UPPER SCHOOL TEENS.

On Yom Ha’atzmaut, Upper School students were joined by Dov Solomont, who made aliyah with his family in 2003 at age 13, and served for five years in the IDF; and by Doron Shapir, who grew up in Haifa and is now in the U.S. serving as Director of Strategic and Economic Cooperation for the Government of Israel’s Economic Mission to the United States. Both Dov and Doron shared their stories of connection and contribution to the land and people of Israel. Upper School students also played an Israel fact “Kahoot!” created by Judaic studies teacher, Mr. Yarchi. They then joined together to recite the prayer for the State of Israel and to sing Hatikvah.

For the last 15 years, Companions for Living has helped people remain in their own homes, safely and independently. Now more than ever, we are adhering to strict protocols to help ensure the safety of our Clients and Caregivers.

SPECIALIZED MEMORY AND HOME CARE

Living younger, longer.

SM

SPECIALIZED MEMORY AND HOME CARE

Living younger, longer.

SM

Call us at (860) 882-0802 to learn more.

SPECIALIZED MEMORY AND HOME CARE Living younger, longer.SM

312 North Main Street | West Hartford, CT

• Specialized Memory Care • Companion/Homemaking • Personal Care • Hourly & Live-In Care

www.companionsforliving.com DOV SOLOMONT TALKS WITH BCHA UPPER SCHOOL STUDENTS.

jewishledger.com

JEWISH LEDGER

|

MAY 8, 2020

9

Opinion

In times of a pandemic, cremation is not the solution.

M

10

EDITORIAL Stacey Dresner Massachusetts Editor staceyd@jewishledger.com • x3008 Tim Knecht Proofreader

BY RABBI SHLOMO BRODY

ODIIN, Israel (JTA) – Rabbinic authorities throughout history have done their best to protect the public while also ensuring the burial of the deceased and preserving, as much as possible, their dignity. Their brave decisions demonstrate that one can preserve public health while respecting religious liberty, something as vital today as ever.

Amid the current pandemic, funeral homes around the world are overwhelmed, leading some to call for quick cremations instead of traditional burials. Last week, the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health issued an executive directive stating that “Licensed mortuary practitioners are strongly encouraged to provide for the disposition of human remains by direct cremation or immediate burial or entombment, regardless of whether the cause of death was related to COVID-19.”

These calls for cremation are unlikely to make meaningful inroads among Jews. Traditional Jewish practice is that corpses should be interred and not cremated in consonance with the belief that humans were created in the image of God. A desecrated body, as Deuteronomy 21:23 states, is an affront to God. The Jewish world is filled more with stories about overwhelmed burial societies and socially distanced graveside burials than about people considering cremation who wouldn’t have before the pandemic.

But that doesn’t mean the issue isn’t worth discussing. Unfortunately, the body of the first Jewish victim of coronavirus in Argentina, Ruben Bercovich, was cremated despite communal protests. Argentina is now committed to not cremating Jews against their families’ wishes, but many countries are still encouraging families to cremate.

That is especially not justifiable when the World Health Organization and other health agencies have asserted that there is no increased threat of transmission of COVID-19 through handling these corpses.

A recent study in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine Study concluded that transmission may be possible, based on a single case in Thailand, but asserted that JEWISH LEDGER

A RABBI ACCOMPANIES THE BODY OF ELIAHU BAKSHI-DORON, THE FORMER SEPHARDIC CHIEF RABBI OF ISRAEL, WHO DIED FROM COMPLICATIONS OF THE CORONAVIRUS. (CREDIT: AHMAD GHARABLI VIA GETTY IMAGES)

the threat can be mitigated by wearing protective equipment.

Thankfully, in most countries around the world, Jewish leaders have found solutions that satisfy the demands of health officials while ensuring the proper interment of coronavirus victims. In a few cases, this has even included rabbinic dispensations for immediate burials on the Sabbath or festivals without the presence of family members.

Unfortunately, rabbis have ample legal precedents from which to draw, as this is not the first time that Jews have faced the threat of cremation and other dilemmas of interment during a scourge.

For example, in 1824, Rabbi Eliezer Papo of Bulgaria (then a part of the Ottoman Empire) praised modern Western European societies for taking precautionary measures against plagues, yet criticized them for going too far by cremating their victims or leaving them unburied. In contrast, he claimed, Muslim societies took commendable measures to both treat the victims and bury them appropriately.

Sadly, Papo himself would require this benevolence when he died a few years later from cholera. His grave remains a pilgrimage site to this day.

As Papo’s statement indicates, burial decisions have not always been left in Jewish hands, with many diseased bodies quickly discarded in mass graves. This | MAY 8, 2020

Vol. 92 No. 19 JHL Ledger LLC Publisher Henry M. Zachs Managing Partner Leslie Iarusso Associate Publisher Judie Jacobson Editor judiej@jewishledger.com • x3024 Hillary Sarrasin Digital Media Manager hillaryp@jewishledger.com

scenario created predicaments for rabbinic authorities since Jewish law generally prohibits, out of respect for the deceased, the transfer of remains to an alternative burial spot.

Would the law be different if the current cemetery was not properly guarded? Might exceptions be made to transfer a casket to a family burial plot if the deceased requested to be interred there?

In recent weeks, these discussions were invoked again as disruptions in air travel make it difficult for Diaspora Jews to be flown to burial spots purchased in Israel.

In this circumstance, Jewish decisors have permitted temporary interment in their hometowns until normal travel conditions resume and the casket may be flown to the Holy Land.

In other historical occasions, corpses would be left unburied or cast aside in forests as no one wanted to handle their bodies for fear of contagion. Rabbis, however, demanded interment, even in the shallowest of graves, to prevent the body’s disgrace.

This does not mean, of course, that Jewish burial societies were callous toward the concerns of exposure of infectious diseases to their volunteers, especially during repeated cholera epidemics in the 19th century. Rabbinic decisors wisely minimized or waived the customary tahara washing process, especially with regard to external body orifices. We desire to provide this final act of respect to the diseased, yet we must prioritize the health of the living.

As contemporary science now shows from recent cases in West Africa, cholera will regularly spread through funeral rites performed without hygienic precautionary measures. In light of the coronavirus and the need to preserve social distancing among burial society workers, many burial societies have waived these honorific purification rites.

Similarly, rabbinic scholars have permitted corpses infected with COVID19 to be sealed in body bags before being placed into the casket. In this respect, they follow an example set by the Hungarian Rabbi Moshe Greenwald in the 1800s, who was an outspoken opponent of ritual reforms and generally was adamant that

ADVERTISING Donna Edelstein Senior Account Executive Non-Profit & JHL Ledger LLC Media Marketing donnae@jewishledger.com • x3028 Joyce Cohen Senior Account Executive joycec@jewishledger.com • (860) 836-9195 Joan Gaffin Central Mass. Account Executive joang@jewishledger.com • (508) 414-6210 Trudy Goldstein Account Executive (860) 573-1575 Amy Oved Account Executive amyo@jewishledger.com • (860) 841-8607 PRODUCTION Elisa S. Wagner Creative Director elisaw@jewishledger.com • x3009 Christopher D. Bonito Graphic Designer chrisb@jewishledger.com ADMINISTRATIVE Judy Yung Accounting Manager judyy@jewishledger.com • x3016 Howard Meyerowitz Office Manager howardm@jewishledger.com • x3035

Samuel Neusner, Founder (1929-1960) Rabbi Abraham J. Feldman, Co-Founder and Editor (1929-1977) Berthold Gaster, Editor (1977-1992) N. Richard Greenfield, Publisher (1994-2014) PUBLISHER’S STATEMENT Periodicals postage paid at Hartford, CT and at additional mailing offices.

Jewish Ledger (USPS # 131 - 150) is published 24 times per year by JHL Ledger LLC from our office at: Jewish Ledger 40 Woodland Street Hartford, CT 06105 Phone (860) 231-2424 Fax (860) 231-2485 Toll Free 1-800-286-6397 Postmaster, send address changes to: Jewish Ledger 40 Woodland Street Hartford, CT 06105 Subscriptions: $36 yearly, $9 Twelve Issue Institutional subscription. Send name, address, zip code with payment.

Editorial deadline: All public and social announcements must be received by Tuesday 5 p.m. 10 days prior to publication.

Advertising deadline: Wednesday noon one week prior to issue. Advertisers should check ad on publication.

JHL Ledger LLC and Jewish Ledger shall not be liable for failure to publish an ad for typographical error or errors in the publication except to the extent of the cost of the space which the actual error appeared in the first insertion. Publishers reserve the right to refuse advertising for any reason and to alter advertising copy or graphics deemed unacceptable. The publishers cannot warrant, nor assume responsibility for, the legitimacy, reputability or legality of any products or services offered in advertisements in any of its publications. The entire contents of the Jewish Ledger are copyright © 2020. No portion may be reproduced without written permission of the publishers. JHL Ledger LLC also publishes Jewish Ledger MA, All Things Jewish CT, and All Things Jewish MA. www.jewishledger.com

CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

jewishledger.com

Crown Market

2471 Albany Ave | West Hartford, CT | 860.236.1965 www.thecrownmarket.com Blending tradition and excellence for 80 years.

Perhaps We’re Separated By Distance Or Perhaps We’re Separated By Time but,

MOM

You’re Never Separated From Our Hearts.

While we may not see you often enough these days, know that we love you, we miss you and

we cannot wait to see you!

To maintain the health and safety of our staff and our customers, the Crown Market is offering no-touch curbside pickup or local home delivery as well as long distance deliveries to select spots throughout New England.

Please see our on line store at www.thecrownmarket.com/store/

HKC supervises the Bakery, Five o’clock Shop, Sushi, Pizza, Butcher Department and Catering.

We’re not JUST kosher...we’re DELICIOUS! jewishledger.com

JEWISH LEDGER

|

MAY 8, 2020

11

Jewish funeral directors & burial societies f

S

BY STACEY DRESNER

TATEWIDE – As he handles several COVID-19-related funerals over the past month, Leonard Holtz, director of Hebrew Funeral Association in West Hartford can’t help but recall Sept. 11, 2001, when he was a responder after the World Trade Center fell in New York City.

Dressed in protective gear – coveralls, mask, gloves, face shield, paper booties -- Holtz went immediately to Ground Zero to honor the remains of Jewish victims who died in that devastating tragedy.

“Now 19 years later in 2020, I’m dealing with a threat called COVID-19…and wearing all of the protective equipment that I had utilized in New York for 9/11,” he told the Ledger. “There I could see the disaster. I could see Ground Zero in front of me; I knew what I was facing. But here, the threat to life is all over, and you can’t see it. …I’m going from one COVID-19 death to another; sometimes more than one COVID-19 death in a day.”

These days, when Holtz enters a hospital or nursing home to collect someone who has died, he has to have his temperature taken.

“If your temp is over 99 you’re not allowed into the facility, and that’s just to get to the morgue,” he says. “Some offices are closed. Some require that you slide under the door a folder to file a death certificate. Some require mailing in a death certificate, whereas it used to be walk-in, walk-out with a death certificate permit.

“Before I even enter the funeral home, before I even go into the garage, I am in gloves and a mask. Every surface that is used, stretcher, refrigeration unit, the car – everything that could possibly be

contaminated is being sprayed, wiped, cleaned. The level of threat is constant, it changes with each case. With each funeral we are dealing with a need to sanitize. So everything about our environment has changed.”

Holtz and other local Jewish funeral directors are not only dealing with an increase in casualties during the coronavirus pandemic, they are now being forced to alter the way they hold Jewish funerals.

“Funerals are all private and graveside now,” says Michael Weinstein of Weinstein Mortuary in West Hartford. “Families are doing FaceTime funerals and Zooming funerals, as the only people that are allowed to be there are the immediate family.”

“At the funerals today we are social distancing,” Holtz said. “We are using cones to create a perimeter. Everyone must wear masks and gloves, including the rabbi.”

Busy with the prodigious number of COVID-related funerals in Fairfield County, the directors of Abraham L. Greene and Son Funeral Home were not able to return phone calls at press time. According to their website, however, Greene’s is conforming to the latest directives from Governor Lamont, the Connecticut Department of Public Health, and the Center for Disease Control...In addition, we continue to work with local clergy who are establishing their own protocols for officiating at and/or holding funerals within their synagogues and temples.”

The Connecticut Funeral Directors Association has sent its members guidelines for performing funerals as recommended by the Connecticut Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). At press time, the number of people

attending funerals has been limited to five, which can be difficult for grieving families.

“The CDC says there should be no more than five people. The reality is that we’re saying no more than 10 people and ideally, we’d like to think we could have a minyan,” Holtz says.

“It’s pretty tough to limit it to five people if there are four kids and the spouses,” Weinstein adds.

Rabbi Daniel Cohen, spiritual leader of Congregation Agudath Sholom in Stamford, says that at this difficult time, pikuach nefesh – the Jewish law stating that the preservation of human life overrides virtually any other religious rule – must take precedence.

“We are literally in the midst of saving lives by not having people at the [funeral] service,” Cohen said. “I try to remind people of that – that distancing is what God wants at this point, as painful as it is.”

A double loss On April 13, the Greater Hartford Rabbinical Association sent out guidelines for local funeral homes during the COVID crisis.

According to the Association, besides holding private graveside services and limiting the number of people at the cemeteries, those attending graveside services must be screened before they even get to the cemetery by the rabbi or funeral director who ask them a series of pointed questions about their current health and activities before allowing them to be present at graveside services.

Also as per the Association, those attending must wear masks and follow social distancing guidelines, and only a brief service should be held “including only the

essential and necessary components (as per each denominational tradition).” The tradition of shoveling dirt is allowed, but gloves should be provided and after the shoveling, attendees should immediately leave the graveside so that cemetery staff can fill in the grave.

The Association recommends livestreaming services on social media platforms like Zoom for those who can not be there in person.

Eulogies and other components of a normal service should be done post-burial online, as should shiva gatherings.

“I think we have to recognize that the loss at this time is a double loss, because you are mourning the loss of life but you are also mourning the ability to mourn properly,” says Rabbi Tuvia Brander, president of the Rabbinical Association. “I think the rabbinate and rabbis across the world without fail are working to take care of pastoral needs and being creative and at the same time, not throwing our sacred and tried and true traditions out the window.”

The ultimate mitzvah One such sacred tradition is tahara, the ritual purification of the deceased in which the body is cleansed with water and prayers.

“It’s called the ultimate in mitzvahs [known in Jewish law as a “chesed shel emet”] because it is a mitzvah that cannot be repaid,” says Jim Benjamin, president of the Stamford Chevra Kadisha [Jewish burial society]. “So you are doing something for someone and you don’t expect anything in return except to be respectful of the body and give them the proper send off.”

The tahara is performed by members of the local chevra kadisha coming together to perform the purification rite by gathering

MEMBERS OF CHESED SHEL EMES, A BURIAL SOCIETY BASED IN BROOKLYN, TRANSPORT A BODY FOR BURIAL AT THE CEMETERY IT OPERATES IN WOODRIDGE, N.Y. (COURTESY OF RABBI MAYER BERGER)

12

JEWISH LEDGER

| MAY 8, 2020

jewishledger.com

face difficult choices during COVID-19 crisis in a room at the funeral home and asking the deceased for forgiveness before pouring water over the body and reciting verses and prayers. They finish by dressing the body in white burial shrouds, placing it in the coffin and again asking for forgiveness for any mistakes they may have made during the tahara process.

The pandemic, however, has changed all that.

Some chevra kadishas across the country are performing tahara virtually. They meet over Zoom with a screen set up where the body lies. Using pitchers of water and empty bowls set up next to their home computers, they pour water from one vessel into another while reciting the verses and visualizing pouring the water over the body itself. Others are foregoing this the pouring of water over the body altogether. Still others are carrying on as before.

This in light of the CDC’s statement that, “There is currently no known risk associated with being in the same room at a funeral or visitation service with the body of someone who died of COVID-19”; but that, “People should consider not touching the body of someone who has died of COVID-19.”

In March, the Queens, New York National Association for Chevrah Kadisha (NASCK) and its leader Rabbi Elchonon Zohn put out a series of standards that chevra kadishas under their jurisdiction should follow the COVID crisis.

Benjamin called the NASCK standards for the tahara “very detailed, very difficult to comply with.”

“Some of our volunteers are in the medical field, but we felt it would be too long, too difficult to comply with and we would need a medical professional to be in there if we were to follow Rabbi Zohn’s March guidelines,” Benjamin says.

Instead, the Stamford chevra kadisha conferred with local rabbis and other chevra kadishas to learn how they were handling tahara.

“We wanted to see what they were doing to make accommodations to handle the tahara in a way that is what we call “kovod chodesh ha mais” – showing the utmost respect for the decedent,” says Benjamin.

Ultimately, says Benjamin, the board of directors of Stamford chevra kadisha voted to provide a limited tahara at the present time, operating under the standards now used by the White Plains, New York chevra kadisha.

“What they were doing was something that we felt we could implement, and we modified it to what we thought would be best for us in Stamford,” Benjamin says. “It took into account the safety of the volunteer…We talked to Rabbi Cohen jewishledger.com

about it, we talked to other rabbis about it.

They said that’s fine. A member, Michael Feldstein, talked to Rabbi Zohn in Queens, and he said the procedure we wanted to implement was acceptable at this time.”

The limited tahara minimizes the number of chevra kadisha members per decedent and the amount of time spent.

The modified procedure includes placing the garments and tallis on the deceased and the placement of soil from Israel inside the pine wood coffin. While one performs these duties, the other says the psalms and prayers. They are foregoing the cleansing of the body with water, “Then we take the top which is secured by wood dowels and we make a prayer for the decedent saying, ‘I’m very sorry about your passing, please accept my apology for the things that I did not do knowingly or didn’t do unknowingly,” Benjamin explains.

In the Hartford area, the Orthodox chevra kadisha is following Rabbi Zohn and NASCK’s guidelines.

“We’re following those guidelines, continuing to do regular tahara, modified,” says Rabbi Brander. “I know there are other chevras who have ceased to do tahara.

I think its really important that people recognize that we have to act in accordance with Jewish law, which takes into account very seriously the position and the direction of the medical community. Tahara is the last respect that we can pay to a person when they pass away, and it’s a last mitzvah.

“I can envision a time when, because there are these medical concerns and directions of doctors and the local department of health, that we might be not able to do formal taharas. In that case, what I have told families is that ultimately [the deceased’s] final mitzvah is keeping the living alive and that is an incredible mitzvah and one of the most important ones.

“Right now we still are doing taharas with careful protections and in accordance with state regulations. If there comes a point when we can’t, it is paramount for people to understand that tahara is a way for us to pay our last respects, and we are substituting that last mitzvah with another mitzvah -- protecting the living.”

Leonard Holtz, who in addition his role as a funeral director has also performed tahara for many years, said that a huge concern of his is the wellbeing of the chevra kadisha.

“While gloves and gowns are always used, I began realizing quickly that that was not enough protection, especially since many, if not most of the people doing Tahara are 60 and over and have healthrelated issues as well,” he notes.

Holtz said the during this health

(CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)

crisis, while performing “respectful and spiritual preparation” shrouds, known as “tahrachim,” are being placed in many cases, over the pouch that the bodies are kept in, to protect the chevra kadisha volunteers and the funeral home staff. Some prayers are being said in Zoom sessions where the name of the deceased is invoked and the chevra seeks forgiveness for what may be a departure from what is normally practiced.

“There’s a recognition that nurses and doctors who know what they are doing are still getting infected -- even those who are young and healthy, who exercise

the precautions, who have much more equipment, have still been exposed,” Holtz says.

“For me now, I want to protect those wonderful men and women who are in the chevra kadisha. I refer to what they do as kovod ha’chai, kovod ha’mait -- honor the living and honor the dead. …We need to understand that we live in an environment that is now threatening us… The safety of the people, I believe, is first and foremost.

We hope to return to what we can do traditionally…But I’m willing to do what is necessary for the foreseeable future in terms of the level of protection that is needed.”

A JEWISH BURIAL ASSOCIATION SEEKS PRAYER SHAWLS FOR BURIALS, AND DONATIONS POUR IN

BY HIRA HANAU

(JTA) – Andrew Parver’s phone hasn’t stopped ringing since a week ago Sunday.

That’s when Parver, the director of operations at the Hebrew Free Burial Association in New York City, put out a call for donations of prayer shawls for traditional Jewish burials. Less than 48 hours later, he had collected 150 himself and pledges of hundreds more to come from as far away as South Florida and Pittsburgh.

“My phone yesterday was nonstop – phone calls, emails, WhatsApps,” Parver told JTA on Tuesday, April 26. “I know

rabbis have been sending this out to their congregations and I don’t even know the rabbis.”

The Hebrew Free Burial Association performs free Jewish burials for any Jew who dies without the funds for funeral expenses. Usually it has enough prayer shawls on hand to last for months. But the coronavirus pandemic has caused an unprecedented spike in demand for its services, and the group quickly ran out of shawls.

JEWISH LEDGER

CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

|

MAY 8, 2020

13

Burial CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

HUNDREDS OF PRAYER SHAWLS HAVE BEEN DONATED TO THE HEBREW FREE BURIAL ASSOCIATION SINCE SUNDAY. COURTESY OF ANDREW PARVER

At the Hebrew Center for Health and Rehabilitation, we understand that comfort and familiarity is a key part of the journey to wellness. We also understand that maintaining your religious beliefs and principles is fundamental in continued enrichment of life.

Our Kosher meal services allow residents to maintain their dietary requirements throughout their stay with us. At the Hebrew Center, we ensure we follow all principles of Kosher including purchase, storage, preparation, and service.

At the Hebrew Center for Health and Rehabilitation, we also offer a variety of other services and amenities to ensure your stay is as comfortable as possible.

THESE SERVICES INCLUDE: • Passport to Rehabilitation Program • Long-Term Skilled Nursing Care • Specialized Memory Care • Respite Care Program • Palliative Care and Hospice Services Coordination

HKC

‫כשר‬

OUR AMENITIES INCLUDE: • Barber/Beauty Shop • Café • Cultural Menus • Laundry and housekeeping services • Patient and Family education • Life Enrichment

For more information on our Kosher program, please contact: DIRECTOR, PASTORAL SERVICES - (860) 523-3800 Hebrew Center for Health and Rehabilitation One Abrahms Boulevard, West Hartford, CT 06117

LIKE US ON

14

JEWISH LEDGER

| MAY 8, 2020

“We basically exhausted our supplies and our reserves,” Parver said.

“We’ve never had anything like this.”

So on Sunday, Parver send out the word on an email list for the Jewish community in Teaneck, New Jersey.

The next morning he posted an appeal on DONATED Facebook.

PRAYER SHAWLS LEFT “Do you have ON ANDREW any old Talleisim, PARVER’S DOORSTEP. regardless of condition, that you can donate to Hebrew Free Burial Association?” he wrote on the association’s Facebook page, using the Hebrew word for prayer shawls.

The donations started pouring in immediately.

By Sunday night, Parver had picked up about 100 shawls from homes in his area and found another 50 left on the doorstep of his home. Another 10 people volunteered their homes in New York, New Jersey and Baltimore as drop-off points for donations, thus far collecting at least 200 prayer shawls. With over 350 shawls collected already, Parver isn’t quite sure how many more to expect. But with calls from across the country continuing to come in, he’s sure there are more on the way. He’s also sure the need will continue to grow.

Traditional Jewish burial customs dictate that men are dressed in white shrouds and wrapped in a shawl before they are interred in a Jewish cemetery. The association does not dress women in prayer shawls, in line with Orthodox custom.

“For thousands of years, Jews have been buried the same way – plain shrouds, plain pine box,” Parver said, adding that it’s a way

of “connecting to our ancestors.”

The association typically receives donations of shawls at a steady pace year round. They come from synagogues that close down or people who buy new ones after an older shawl wears out. Sometimes they come from people who find old shawls that belonged to parents or grandparents.

“Each tallis tells a story,” Parver said. “Somebody wore that tallis in shul, somebody shed tears while wearing that tallis, praying for something that was important at that stage of life.”

Some of the calls he’s received have hinted at the emotional connection people feel to their shawls. One rabbi told Parver that he had held on to an old shawl for years because of its sentimental value, but was prepared to let it go after hearing about the need.

Parver sees the outpouring of donations as another way people are helping where they can at a time when leaving the house is a dangerous proposition.

“This is just a very tangible method for people to connect and give back more good into the world when we need it,” he said. jewishledger.com

ELECTION 2020

These are Biden’s Jews

W

Biden would keep US Embassy in Jerusalem, his foreign policy adviser says

BY BEN HARRIS

BY RON KAMPEAS

ASHINGTON (JTA) – Heading into Passover, Bernie Sanders set Joe Biden free: The Vermont senator ended his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination on April 8, hours before the holiday began, leaving the former vice president the presumptive nominee.

In the race for the White House, President Trump has some major advantages, notably in media play and fundraising. The president has the pulpit of his daily White House pandemic news conferences, which often veer into campaign-style rhetoric. Biden, meantime, is mostly confined to delivering daily pep talks from his Delaware home, where he barely registers online. As to fundraising, The New York Times reported recently that Biden was behind Trump by $187 million, meaning he would have to raise $1 million a day until the election just to catch up with where Trump is today.

Which leaves a slew of questions about Biden’s Jewish campaign: Who will he turn to for fundraising? What does it mean for his foreign policy?

JOE BIDEN SPEAKS IN WILMINGTON, DEL. (CREDIT: MICHAEL BROCHSTEIN / ECHOES WIRE/BARCROFT MEDIA VIA GETTY IMAGES)

THE FUNDERS The last time Biden ran for president, in 2008, his financial director was Michael Adler, a Miami developer who is ensconced in the Jewish establishment: For years he led the straight down the center National Jewish Democratic Council and he’s been active with AIPAC. Adler is back on board the Biden train, although not in a senior campaign position. He has held fundraisers at his South Florida home.

Call Adler Biden’s Jewish old guard.

He’s joined in that respect by an array of other establishment figures, including Comcast senior executive vice president David Cohen, who also has hosted fundraisers for Biden, and Stu Eizenstat, the jewishledger.com

veteran Holocaust reparations negotiator who penned an oped for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency favoring Biden.

But there are new Jewish kids on the Biden block, too. They earned their Democratic cred without having come up through the traditional pro-Israel channels, like accruing influence through AIPAC activism and fundraising.

Examples: Penny Pritzker and Bill Singer headlined a Chicago area fundraiser for Biden on April 27. Pritzker, the hotel chain heiress whose brother J.B. is the governor of Illinois, was an early backer of Barack Obama and was his Commerce secretary. Singer, a corporate lawyer, is the wunderkind you forgot about: In the 1960s and 1970s, when he was in his 20s and 30s, he joined the Rev. Jesse Jackson in leading left-wing insurgencies against the Democratic Party establishment. These days he’s on the board of J Street, the liberal Middle East lobby group that is AIPAC’s bete noir.

Notably missing from this array is Haim Saban, the entertainment mogul and major Democratic giver who is close to Israel’s political establishment. Saban, who has a no-table antipathy to Sanders and others on the party’s left flank, said in March that he was waiting out the primaries but has yet to pronounce.

On the Jewish donor angle, one intriguing establishment vs. insurgent skirmish is who runs the party’s digital campaign. According to coverage in The Intercept and Politico, the outfit that Michael Bloomberg launched for his campaign, Hawkfish, is vying for the job.

The appeal: It’s up and running, it’s already been funded to a significant extent by the media mogul’s cash, and so it is bidding low. The disadvantage: It’s Bloomberg. If there’s a victory that the party’s left can claim, it is booting the former New York mayor’s campaign to the street. Bloomberg was reviled for his corporatism and his record relating to the city’s minorities and as a boss relating to women. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the first-term progressive from New York, has emphatically ad-vised against using the group.

THE GROUPS Biden has brought into the mix two Jewish Democratic groups that otherwise spent much of the primary season reviling one another: He has the endorsements of both the Democratic Majority for Israel, which is aligned with centrist pro-Israel policy, and J Street. His acceptance of J Street’s

(JTA) – An adviser to Joe Biden said the former vice president would keep the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem if elected president.

Tony Blinken, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s senior foreign policy adviser, said that reversing President Donald Trump’s decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv “would not make sense practically and politically,” Jewish Insider reported. Blinken, a former deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser under President Barack Obama, made the

endorsement was effusive, although short on specific areas of agreement. Biden, notably, has rejected J Street’s recent policy of leveraging U.S. aid to Israel to influence its policy.

In addition, On April 17, the centrist Jewish Democratic Council of America has endorsed Joe Biden for president. “You share the Jewish community’s commitment to the principle of tikkun olam, healing the world, in addition to our commitment to combatting the rise of anti-Semitism and supporting a strong U.S.-Israel relationship,” the council said in a letter to the presumptive Democratic nominee.

FOREIGN POLICY Biden has told associates that his sharpest differences with Sanders are on foreign policy. So, naturally, much has been made of Biden’s reported readiness to accept Sanders advisers on his foreign policy team.

It’s not clear yet whether that’s been the case, but it could be a red flag for the AIPAC crowd – Sanders boycotted the lobby’s conference this year and has said he would leverage aid to Israel.

On Israel, Biden has robustly favored a return to making the two-state solution the par-amount outcome of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations; Trump has significantly retreated from that goal. The person most identified with Biden foreign policy is Colin Kahl, who was his national security adviser when he was vice president. Kahl, who is not Jewish, was on the team that shaped the 2015 Iran nuclear deal reviled by Israel and Trump has quit.

The Brookings Institution’s Thomas Wright says that the centrist Democrats who ad-vised Obama – and are likely to shape Biden’s outlook – have retreated from wanting to engage in the Middle East. He says they “now favor a significant reduction in U.S. goals” there.

comments in a webinar Tuesday, April 28, hosted by the Jewish Democratic Council of America.

The event also featured Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, a top Biden surrogate.

Both Blinken and Coons declined to specify what Biden might do if Israel proceeds to annex parts of the West Bank, though Coons expressed hope that Benny Gantz and Gabi Ashkenazi, both longtime Israeli military leaders who are preparing to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a unity government, would counsel the premier against such a move.

THE FIGHT BIGOTRY ANGLE Last year, Biden highlighted what he called the echoes of bigotry in Trump’s governing style – citing Trump’s Charlottesville response, for example, in the center of his campaign rollout. Sanders has said that the same threat is a major part of the reason he is endorsing him, and has cited that threat in shushing former aides who will not back Biden. The word is that this will be the preeminent feature of the Jewish Biden campaign.

On Monday, April 27, Biden marked the one-year anniversary of the deadly shooting at a synagogue in Poway, California, with a proposal to add protections for Jews and other targets of hate attacks. “These are acts of terrorism, plain and simple,” Biden said in a statement to JTA. “They are bound together by the common thread of perpetrators using fear and violence to undermine individuals’ ability to freely exercise their faith.”

Biden’s three-point plan would increase the $90 million the Department of Homeland Security now hands out for securing nonprofit institutions by “multiples.”

MISHPOCHA Biden has three children-in-law – all are Jewish. His Passover statement emphasized the loneliness that Jewish families would suffer during their pandemic seders. His personal relationship with Jews, in his families and during a long political career, also will be highlighted in his campaign.

A Delaware rabbi’s story of encountering Biden at a laundry room shiva has already featured multiple times on the campaign.

JEWISH LEDGER

|

MAY 8, 2020

15

Newington 860.333.9032

Willimantic 860.717.9333

2280 Berlin Tpk. Newington, CT

1548 W Main St. Willimantic, CT

(In the MedCare Express plaza-use side entrance)

(Across from Papa’s Pizza)

hello@finefettle.com

newington@finefettle.com

Good Health.

Good Condition.

Stop by to speak to one of our pharmacists about Connecticut’s Medical Marijuana Program No appointment necessary and consultations are always free

Offering:

• Discounts for Senior Citizens, Veterans, and Low-Income Individuals • Huge Savings through our free Fine Fettle Club • Online ordering and more at www.finefettle.com A conversation with a healthcare provider can help you determine whether medical marijuana may be right for you.

HASSLE FREE LIVING There’s no place like

FEDERATION HOMES Affordable Living for Older Adults 62+ and Individuals with Disabilities 156 Wintonbury Ave., Bloomfield, CT

Call (860)243-2535 or visit us at www.federationhomes.org Sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford with funding from the Department of Housing & Urban Development

MILESTONES BIRTHDAY

The secret to a long life: Take it one day at a time and hold your family close David Weintraub celebrated his 96th birthday on Monday, April 27, with a serenade by the Sweet Adelines, a local barbershop quartet, who stood on the front lawn of his West Hartford home – a respectable social distance away – and sang the many love songs he and his beloved wife Shirley cherished.

For David, it was not only the perfect way to celebrate his birthday, but also a touching way to remember the 70 joyful years he spent married to his high school sweetheart Shirley, who passed away a few years ago.

Shirley was David’s “angel on earth,” recalls Leni Weintraub, one of the couple’s three children. Theirs “was the most beautiful love story,” she says.

The couple traveled the world, enjoyed going to the theater – including the Goodspeed Opera House, Hartford Stage and Theaterworks, where they held season tickets – frequented local restaurants, cheered loudly for UConn’s women’s basketball team (he captained his high school basketball team), and supported many charitable organizations.

“My Dad generously supported many organizations, as he had strong feelings about giving back and sharing his good fortune,” says Leni, noting that her father, having lost his own father at a young age, felt especially committed to the Big Brother program.

Among his many hobbies, David, who had a pilot’s license, loved flying to Block Island and Martha’s Vineyard. He also skied and scuba dived, played tennis and took great pride in digging in the dirt and planning his garden every summer..

But his true love remains his family. In addition to his late wife, that includes his three children, two grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Guided by his mantra “one day at a time,” David’s advice to all is to love your family and, especially during these precarious times, to take all precautions to stay healthy. “If you have your family and your health,” he says, “you have everything.”

“My dad is an extraordinary individual.

Generous, bright, compassionate and very quick - to this day he still rolls out with oneliners and side-eyes that make you roar with laughter and surprise,” says Sue Weintraub who, at 66, is the baby of the family. “He has always had a profound understanding of the macro and micro views of the world, with unique insights about everything from business and technology to human nature and relationships,” she adds. “He’s my role model for how to live life fully, responsibly and with love and understanding.”

SHIRLEY AND DAVID WEINTRAUB CELEBRATED THEIR 70TH ANNIVERSARY ON A CRUISE.

Join our email list for the latest updates!

Find us online at www.jewishledger.com

Contact Howard Meyerowitz howardm@jewishledger.com 860.231.2424 x3035 16

JEWISH LEDGER

| MAY 8, 2020

jewishledger.com

Opinion CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

burial societies maintain the old practice of interring corpses in the ground without a casket. Yet he required the use of a casket when someone died from an infectious disease. The Torah demands prioritizing public health over burial customs.

More challenging, however, were cases in which the authorities required some form of physical tampering of the corpse, which is generally proscribed as a desecration of human dignity. In an attempt to bring under control an extended bubonic plague in 1713, Vienna officials demanded covering corpses with slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) to hasten decomposition of the body. Rabbi Yaakov Reischer of Metz, Austria, allowed this treatment for the sake of the deceased’s honor so he would be buried in his family plot and not in a distant forest.

Similar techniques were utilized in the 19th century on corpses of cholera victims, with Papo himself requesting that lime seed be posthumously placed on him. Following these precedents, Shlomo Goren, Israel’s chief rabbi in 1980, issued directives to the Israeli army to utilize body bags and chemical sanitizers in the event of mass casualties from biological warfare. Similarly, while Karelitz generally opposed anatomic dissection of cadavers, he permitted clinical autopsies during an outbreak so that scientific knowledge could immediately advance to save those now at risk.

Yet with all of these dispensations, Jewish legal scholars have always rejected the option of cremation against the trend of greater social acceptance of this practice since the 19th century and increased calls for it in a time of plagues. Part of this resistance stems from a technical legal distinction: While many burial rites have a lower legal status as mere customs, interment in the ground is a biblical commandment.

Yet underlying this distinction is the deeper belief that these laws are meant to bring honor to the deceased. No one who dies from an illness wants to see their body spread contagion. At the same time, all deserve a final interment that bears witness to the inherent dignity granted to all human beings created in the image of God. Pandemics call upon us to remember the mutual responsibility that we all have to protect communal health while preserving human dignity. Particularly as our global society faces such mortifying losses, we call upon national authorities to respect religious opposition to cremation and prevent this final grave indignity.

Rabbi Shlomo Brody is the director of the Tikvah Overseas Students Institute and author of “A Guide to the Complex: Contemporary Halakhic Debates,” which won a 2014 National Jewish Book Award.

ANSWERS TO MAY 1 CROSSWORD

jewishledger.com

THE KOSHER CROSSWORD MAY 8, 2020 “Hebrew States”

By: Yoni Glatt

Difficulty Level: Manageable

Sweets for your sweet!

PARVE store-made candy including gluten-free and vegan!

Across 1. Some years there are two 6. They may not see live sports too soon 10. Thomas Hardy’s “___ of the D’Urbervilles” 14. Samaria’s partner 15. ___ angle (how the leaning tower of Pisa stands) 16. Liking quite a bit 17. State that might come first alphabetically?

19. Part for a brain or flower 20. State that’s full of song?

22. Jewish orgs. with gyms 25. “The” to Jean-Luc

26. Lake locale of the Miracle on Ice 27. “Got it!”

28. Letters on ships 29. Skywalker that’s really a Palpatine 30. She, in Lisbon 31. Black tie events, perhaps 33. Sinai, for one 34. Snake, to a mongoose 35. Miraculous state?

39. It’s checked for at the start of camp 42. Long time 43. Old Biblical mother 47. Santa follower

48. Internet letters 49. Letters that epitomize a treif lunch 51. Suburban tree 52. Mets All-Star Jeff 54. Quattro predecessor 55. USY alternative 56. Narcissistic state?

59. ___ about (near) 60. State for dreidel losers?

64. Fjord city 65. Primary sch.

66. Clingy 67. Notable Diamond 68. Detectives connect them 69. Winter condition

Down 1. Org. that’s a cousin of the UJA 2. Singer Lipa 3. Org. that’s a cousin of the UJA... and the ACLU 4. Carriage driver’s controls 5. Umpire’s call 6. “ ___ a jolly good....

7. Kournikova and Karenina 8. “New Soul” singer Yael 9. Some red fish 10. ___ B’Av 11. One who tempts 12. Like many labs 13. In the indeterminate future 18. They can turn their heads almost all the way around 21. Shifty

22. TV military drama that spun off “NCIS” 23. “___ -ching!”

24. Ironman Ripken 28. “As directed” starter 29. Coll. dorm overseers 32. Had something 33. Feathered farm resident 34. Snow or snap 36. One who might have recently made a name change 37. “At once!”

38. Winter hrs. in N.J. 39. Satirize 40. It’s burned for its smell 41. Dessert mentioned in “The Godfather” 44. Rabbinic title. for short

45. Gold winner Raisman 46. Insurance plan, for short 48. Mich. neighbor 49. Lullaby composer Johannes 50. Controversial director Riefenstahl 53. Sign up for classes 54. Device with an HDMI input, these days 55. Bread boiled and baked 57. “Mission Impossible” composer Schifrin 58. Ramada, Sheraton and Holiday 61. Pebble Beach peg 62. Praiseful poem 63. “WSJ” rival

JEWISH LEDGER

|

MAY 8, 2020

17

Briefs Vanity Fair: Jared Kushner is ‘de facto president’ during pandemic (JTA) – According to a new report in Vanity Fair, Jared Kushner is the first Jewish Presidents. Sort of. “Jared is running everything. He’s the de facto president of the United States,” a former White House official told Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman, a political reporter. The article, full of anonymous insider accounts about President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, paints a picture of Kushner as Trump’s go-to deputy on every big issue – the pandemic included.

According to the story, Kushner warned his father-in-law against taking steps that could chill the stock market, and even after Vice President Mike Pence was named the head of the coronavirus task force, Kushner formed his own team to tackle the disease’s spread. “Pence people look at Jared apprehensively. Pence treats Jared as a peer,” Sam Nunberg, a former Trump aide, told Sherman.

The article also sheds light on how Kushner is squaring the pandemic with his Jewish observance. “Kushner quickly assembled a shadow network of coronavirus advisers that became more powerful than Pence’s official team,” Sherman wrote.

“He even worked on Shabbat, a source who spoke with him on a Saturday said. (A person close to Kushner says working on Shabbat is accepted for Orthodox Jews if it’s ‘to save someone’s life.’)”

Gazan journalist: All dialog with Israel is collaboration (MEMRI via JNS) Palestinian activist Rami Aman, who participated in a two-hour video conference with Israelis earlier this month, has been arrested by Gaza police for “normalizing relations with Israel” and for interrogation with regard to possible Israeli funding, according to Gaza-based journalist Alaa al-Asi. In a video uploaded to Facebook by Hamas’s Shehab News Agency on April 18, al-Asi said that all joint activities, cooperation or dialogue with any Israelis, including peace activists, must be viewed as collaboration with the enemy.

Aman’s two-hour online meeting with Israelis, said al-Asi, “angered the Palestinians, especially in Gaza.” The next day, she added, “police in Gaza arrested Rami Aman for interrogation on cases of receiving external funding from Israel and other issues, including normalization with Israel.” Any dialogue with Israelis outside of the framework of the Palestinian “resistance,” even with Israeli peace activists, is unacceptable to “anti-normalizers,” she said. “Dialogue – if 18

JEWISH LEDGER

it occurs outside the resistance framework– becomes dialogue for the sake of dialogue, which is a form of normalization, that hinders the struggle to end injustice. In the view of anti-normalizers, no form of joint activity, cooperation, or dialogue with Israelis is acceptable – even engaging with Israeli peace activists who have the best of intentions.” All such undertakings, she said, “must be viewed as collaboration with the enemy.”

South African seniors say Kaddish, names babies for those in lockdown (JTA) – The 400 residents of a Jewish nursing home in South Africa, which was locked down two weeks before the country ordered nationwide restrictions to contain the spread of COVID-19, are free of the virus. That has enabled the home, Sandringham Gardens in Johannesburg, to continue holding a daily prayer service with the required minyan – 10 Jewish adults.

It is believed to be the only such prayer service currently taking place in the city, and as word of the service spread, residents began receiving requests to say prayers on behalf of Jews worldwide who could not recite the prayers themselves because they could not gather a prayer quorum. “They feel privileged and honored to have the merit of doing this,” Rabbi Jonathan Fox, who officiates at the service, told the Times of Israel.

With social distancing mandated for much of the planet, virtually no services are being held anywhere – and mourners have been prevented from reciting the Kaddish. Also impossible is the public naming of a baby girl, a practice that typically accompanies the public reading of the Torah – another ritual that requires a minyan. The Sandringham Gardens minyan has been doing both on behalf of a growing list of Jews world-wide. The service is reciting Kaddish on behalf of 1,200 people and has named 15 baby girls. Requests have come in from as far afield as Canada, Uruguay and Brazil.

“This pandemic is teaching us many personal, spiritual and global lessons – some painful and others inspiring,” said Saul Tomson, the CEO of Chevra Kadisha, the Jewish welfare organization that established Sandringham Gardens over a century ago. “

Netanyahu’s son calls for return of a ‘free, democratic and Christian’ Europe (JTA) – Yair Netanyahu, a son of the Israeli prime minister, called for the return of a “free, democratic and Christian” Europe in a tweet that criticized a joint IsraeliPalestinian memorial ceremony for Israel’s Memorial Day. Netanyahu’s post on Tues-

| MAY 8, 2020

day, April 28, Yom Hazikaron (Israel Memorial Day), was in response to a tweet from the European Union delegation to the State of Israel, noting its participation in the ceremony sponsored by Combatants for Peace and Parents Circle, this year on Zoom.

“Shame on you for financing a disgrace in the holiest day of the Israeli calendar!”

Yair Netanyahu said. “We have one day in a year to remember our fallen soldiers!

And you destroy it with a ‘memorial’ to Palestinian terrorists! EU is an enemy of Israel, and an enemy to all European Christian countries! Schengen zone is dead and soon your evil globalist organization will be too, and Europe will return to be free, democratic and Christian!” The Schengen zone comprises 26 European states that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders, and includes Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Switzerland.

Netanyahu has stirred controversy with previous social media posts. Recently, he tweeted an apparent death threat against “old people” protesting the establishment of a national unity government, which will be led for 18 months by his father, saying he hopes the gathering spread coronavirus to the left-wing demonstrators. He later deleted the post and the prime minister distanced himself from his son’s comment.

In 2018, Facebook blocked his account after he shared content banned by the platform that called for avenging the deaths of Israelis killed in recent days by Palestinian terrorists.

Israel Film Archive starts to release films online (JNS) After years of work on digitizing its collection of Israeli film clips, the Israel Film Archive (IFA), part of the Jerusalem Cinematheque, is beginning to share its collection online with the goal of eventually digitalizing its entire archive of more than 5,000 hours of film.“To restore films is to touch history,” said IFA manager Meir Russo.

The IFA features a copy of practically every film ever shot in Israel, including feature films, documentaries, newsreels and home movies. The clips go back to the 19th century. Among them is an 1896 film shot in Palestine that is believed to be the earliest film made in the country that is still in existence. The IFA also contains prints of tens of thousands of foreign films released in Israel. The films, many of which are deteriorating and becoming damaged or faded, must be run through machines that process and repair them before they can be digitized, said Russo.

Texas Jewish family converts kippahs to face masks for homeless (JNS) A Jewish family in Houston is turning kippahs into face masks for their town’s homeless population to wear during the coronavirus pandemic. The Jason family has already collected nearly 700 from donations and has dubbed their campaign “Kippahs to the Rescue.” The family has collected many yarmulkes, as they are also called, from various events over the years.

“We decided to put them to good use,” said teenager Matthew Jason, the youngest of three brothers. He and his brother Jeremy were already volunteering every Friday in downtown Houston with the organization Food Not Bombs, a nonprofit that feeds the hungry, before they started their new effort.

The family’s synagogue, Congregation Brith Shalom, is helping by setting up a drive-through collection box so congregants could drop off unwanted kippahs. Food Not Bombs is helping hand out the masks to those in need. “There’s a lot of people out there that really need help and anything can help even in the smallest way,” said Matthew.

Antisemitic incidents in Canada rise to record high for 4th straight year (JTA) – The number of antisemitic incidents in Canada rose to a record high for the fourth consecutive year mainly due to online harassment. The League for Human Rights, part of B’nai Brith Canada, recorded 2,207 antisemitic incidents in its 2019 Annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents. That’s an 8% increase over the 2,041 incidents from the previous year and an average of more than six per day.

Ontario had the greatest increase and Quebec saw the largest number of incidents for the second year in a row. Ontario and Quebec are home to the largest Jewish communities in Canada. Harassment accounted for the largest number of incidents at 2,011, or 91.1%, up from 1,809 the previous year. Of the incidents last year, 83.2% occurred online, including over social media and in threatening emails and text messages. The number of vandalism incidents dropped to 182 from 221, but violent incidents, including assault, rose to 14 from 11.

Hillel Int’l and BBYO to offer virtual college visits for teens (JNS) In a first-of-its-kind partnership, Hillel International, the largest Jewish campus organization, and BBYO, the Jewish teen movement, are connecting graduating high school seniors with current college students for virtual campus visits and question-and-answer sessions so jewishledger.com

prospective and accepted students can get to know the cam-pus communities they are considering joining. Many of these campus visits are also open to parents and high school juniors.

“In this time of uncertainty and fear, one of the most important things we can do for the class of 2024 is to give them a chance to meet and hear from members of campus communities,” said Mimi Kravetz, chief experience officer at Hillel International.

“Working together with BBYO allows us to create real, personal connections for teens as they become a part of Hillel. Necessity has been the mother of this new approach, but we hope that this partnership creates a pathway for young Jews to move between communities for years to come.”

Rebecca Cohen, director of the Anita M. Perlman Women’s Leadership Initiative at BBYO, said “Partnering with Hillel in this way allows BBYO teens to meet future class-mates, understand what’s waiting for them on campus and ask important questions to help them commit to a college or university.” She added that “these virtual sessions allow for social connection that can last a lifetime.”

What is equally beneficial, say organizers, is the face-to-face meetings that take place online. Ian Hammer, a high school junior from Kansas City and “BBYO On-Demand” editor-in-chief, said, “Many of us planned our spring-break trips around college tours that had to be canceled due to the coronavirus, so this will make up for lost opportunities and give us a glimpse into college life.”

Second memorial ceremony for fallen ultraOrthodox soldiers goes virtual (JNS) A memorial commemorating fallen soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces who fought in haredi Orthodox units was broadcasted on Monday night, April 27, from the Hechal Shlomo auditorium in Jerusalem without an audience due to restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic. The Netzach Yehuda organization, which supports haredi soldiers, sponsored the event in collaboration with the Israeli Defense Ministry and the municipality of Jerusalem.

This was the second consecutive annual event held specifically to commemorate such soldiers. The event was dedicated in the memory of fallen haredi soldiers throughout Israel’s history, including those who served in the first Nahal Haredi unit established in the early 1960s that closed after the Yom Kippur War. Among those participating in the memorial were former Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem Shlomo Amar; Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau; Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas); Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion; Brig. Gen. (res.) Moshe Tzin, and jewishledger.com

others.

Representing bereaved parents, Rabbi Eliyahu Meirav, father of Sgt. Yosef Cohen, who was murdered a little more than a year ago in a shooting attack near Givat Asaf, said, “Approximately one year ago, I and my wife, Adele, lost our dear son Yosef.

Since that tragic day, we have relearned the concept of solitude every day, but loneliness is not everything. It contains a wonderful sense of unity. At first, we thought that it was incumbent on us to revive their memory, but we discovered that even more so, it is they, through our remembrance of them, who revive us.”

Yossi Levi, CEO of the Nahal Haredi organization, said “we have the privilege of holding for the second time in the history of the State of Israel a special evening event in memory of fallen soldiers who served in the haredi tracks of the IDF. Thousands of haredi soldiers contribute on a daily basis to the protection of the people and the country while they maintain their identity and way of life.”

Shira Haas, Ben Platt and Josh Malina send birthday wishes to Israel (JTA) – Actors Shira Haas, Ben Platt and Josh Malina were among the stars who joined a virtual ceremony on April 29 celebrating Israel’s 72nd Independence Day. The hour-long ceremony, organized by the Jewish Federations of North America and broadcast on YouTube and Facebook, also featured a musical performance by Matisyahu. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin also spoke to viewers. The program had been nearly 10,000 views shortly after it finished.

Malina cracked a joke and spoke in Hebrew before speaking. “Yom huledet sameach [happy birthday]! 72 – eze yofi [how beautiful!]! If you ask me you don’t look a day over 70,” the “West Wing” star joked. Platt, who won the Tony Award for his starring role in the musical “Dear Evan Hansen,” appeared with his brothers Ben and Henry. The trio sang the Hebrew song “Ahavat Olam.”

The program also featured an update on how Israeli scientists are working to come up with treatments for fighting the coronavirus and a discussion by chefs from around the world about falafel.

“Although we cannot be together this year, this crisis has made us feel more than ever that we are one family with shared history, shared value and shared destiny,” Rivlin said at the end of the celebration.

TORAHPortion Emor

I

BY RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

once read a very moving novel about the events immediately preceding World War I and the fate of those who were caught up in the chaos of the opening days of that war. The author of the book, a Jew, was Joseph Roth, and the name of the book is The Radetzky March.

I was drawn to this book because it deals, in part, with the Jews of Galicia and the effect that World War I had upon them. Both my paternal and maternal great-grandparents were caught up in the events of those times, and I wished to learn more about those events, if only from a fictional account.

I found the book informative and troubling, but the single event recorded in it that had the most impact on me was a description of the novel’s hero, a combatant in the initial outbreak of the battle and gunfire. At one point, as he was fleeing for safety, he encountered the corpse of one of his fellows. Rather than pass this corpse by in his flight, he chose to drag the corpse to a nearby graveyard, dig a shallow grave with his bayonet, and bury the poor man.

Although the hero of this story was not a Jew, he was acting in accordance with a supreme Jewish value. At great personal risk, he buried a met mitzvah, an abandoned corpse with no one else present to bury it. Our Torah insists that giving such a corpse the dignity of a proper burial is a mitzvah, one which takes priority over almost any other good deed.

The source for this great mitzvah is in this week’s Torah portion, Emor, where we read of the strict prohibition upon kohanim, members of the priestly caste, to come into contact with the dead.

Exceptions are made for the kohen’s parents, children, siblings, and spouse.

And an exception is made for the met mitzvah. Should the kohen encounter an abandoned corpse, and no one else is available to bury it, he is commanded to ignore the prohibition against contact with the dead, and he must bury that corpse himself.

This is the meaning of the phrase in the very first verse of our parsha, “... he shall not defile himself for any dead person among his people...” (Leviticus 21:1). Paraphrasing Rashi’s words: When the dead man is among his people, the kohen cannot defile himself, but when the dead man is not among his people, i.e., there is no one else to bury him, then the prohibition does not apply.

Our tradition is unusually sensitive to the sanctity of the human body. In life, certainly. But even in death. A proper Jewish burial is the last chesed shel emet (kindness of truth) that one can perform for another.

It is this important Jewish value which has led Jewish communities throughout the ages to do all that they could to recover the bodies of those of our brethren who perished in prisons, on battlefields, or in tragic natural disasters.

I must note a poignant incident in our history, an incident which culminated in the recovery of two metei mitzvah.

Part of the narrative of these two heroes is recounted in the book The Deed by Gerold Frank. It is the story of two boys who gave their lives to assassinate a high British official, based in Egypt, whose policies threatened to block Jewish immigration into what was then Palestine. Their names were Eliahu Bet Zouri and Eliahu Hakim. They acted under the orders of the high command of the “Stern Group.” They succeeded in assassinating the official, but were tried and hanged for their efforts. They were buried near Cairo in 1945.

But they were never forgotten. In 1975, the State of Israel exchanged twenty Arab prisoners for the bodies of these two young men and reburied them in hero’s graves upon Mount Herzl. In recovering their bodies and eventually affording them an appropriate Jewish burial, the Israeli government was adhering to the teaching of this week’s Torah portion.

They saw to it that these metei mitzvah were buried properly.

Today, the remains of several Israel soldiers are unrecovered and held by our enemies. We hope and pray that even in these uncertain times, and perhaps especially in these times, our efforts to reclaim the bodies of these heroes will be successful. These soldiers are metei mitzvah. They performed great mitzvot in their military service, and bringing them home for a proper burial is the least we can do to honor their memories.

And so, this week again, as so often in our study of the parsha, we discovered a value of paramount importance, a priority mitzvah, buried between the lines, nay between the words, of a simple phrase.

This week, that phrase is in the very first verse of Emor.

Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb is executive vice president, emeritus of the Orthodox Union.

JEWISH LEDGER

|

MAY 8, 2020

19

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Conversation with Shulem Lemmer The rising star talks about being the first recording artist raised Hasidic to sign with a major record label

BY CURT SCHLEIER

(JTA) – Shulem Lemmer’s singing career took a wildly positive turn over the past year.

He went on a major stadium and arena tour, playing to packed houses at Fenway Park in Boston, Citi Field in New York and Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City. For Shulem – he goes by one name like those other famous Jewish singing sensations Matisyahu and Drake – these were significant achievements, even if the fans were there to see the Red Sox, the Mets and the Utah Jazz, not him.

Shulem’s travels were a function of a genuinely unique feat: He became the first Jew raised Hasidic – who is still Hasidic –to sign with a major label, Decca Gold, which is part of the Universal Music Group. (The once-bearded and payes-wearing Matisyahu was brought up as a Reconstructionist Jew, later turned to Orthodoxy and has now mostly left the fold.)

Decca Gold released Shulem’s first album, “The Perfect Dream,” late last year.

It’s a collection of traditional Jewish and secular songs, from “Jerusalem of Gold” to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “You’ll Never Walk Alone” to the Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey hit “When You Believe” (from the “Prince of Egypt” soundtrack).

Shulem sings in a rich, passion-filled tenor that carries obvious traces of his roots in the haredi Orthodox Belz community and his work as a cantor, a position he still fills during the High Holidays at Ahavath Torah, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Englewood, New Jersey. He also makes numerous guest cantor stints throughout the year at various synagogues.

Shulem was raised in Brooklyn, the youngest of eight children in a house where he was always surrounded by music, but not by singers – neither of his parents carried a tune well. Yet both Shulem and his brother, Yanky – a highly regarded cantor at the Orthodox Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan – somehow inherited the singing gene.

“My father jokes that all the talent comes from him and that he gave it all away and kept none of it for himself,” Shulem says.

Shulem built a level of local renown for both his cantorial skills and performances before Jewish groups. But a YouTube video is how he came to the attention of Graham Parker, president of Decca Records US. “I found Shulem on YouTube, specifically the “Chad Gadya” video that he did a few years back. …It was the

combination of his spectacular voice, his personality and being a man of deep faith that made him a compelling person to meet,” says Parker.

The following are condensed excerpts from JTA’s interview with Shulem covering an array of subjects ranging from the meaning of success to antisemitism.

JTA: How did you start singing?

Shulem: I always enjoyed the music playing in my house. My father listened to a lot of cantorial music. My late sister, she passed away when she was only 23, encouraged me to sing and learn songs. At my brother’s wedding, she pushed me on stage. And at that moment I was in a happy place. I was a shy kid and that was kind of an awakening.

My brother, Yanky, and I had the same birthday and we convinced my father to buy us a drum set we shared and later a guitar I taught myself to play. When I went on to study in Israel, I quickly made connections [in the music business] there and sang some backup vocals on recordings. When I came back I joined the [haredi] Shira Choir [in Brooklyn]. I did some solos for them and soon requests came in for me to do more. I released an album in 2015 [titled “Shulem”] and started to build a fan base not only in the secular Jewish world but with a lot of Christians, as well.

(DECCA GOLD)

20

JEWISH LEDGER

| MAY 8, 2020

(CREDIT: MEREDITH TRUAX)

JTA: Does being Hasidic limit those opportunities?

Shulem: There will be limitations and challenges. Of course, I’m not going to perform on Shabbos, but there also will be issues that aren’t necessarily that black and white. I would ask my rabbi, based on the situation. I have it in my contract that I can say no to any-thing that isn’t OK with me religiously. I won’t perform a duet with a woman, for example. They wanted me to do that for the theme song for the movie “Quezon’s Game” [about Philippines President Manuel Quezon’s plan to shelter German and Austrian Jews during World War II, not yet opened in the U.S.]. I said no and so they let me do a solo version.

JTA: Do you ever get tired of being gawked at in public? Is it worse now as a public figure?

Shulem: First of all, success means being able to provide for my family. [Until recently, Shulem worked part-time as director of marketing for a tech startup.]

But also success means being able to reach out and inspire as many people as possible.

Music is a universal language, a way to start a dialogue, sending a message of unity, of positivity and hope. I want to spread a message of love between human beings through music.

Shulem: It’s always something that happened, even when I was a little kid. But it depends where I am. If I’m in the tristate area, people are already familiar with Hasids. Else-where I get stares and people ask me how I get my curls that way.

Worse than that are the online people who hide behind a screen. I started getting a lot of anti-Semitic hate messages. At first I thought it was just words, but then came Jersey City and Monsey. It became a reality and it’s scary. I know it’s just a small number of people, but it doesn’t take many.

We do have security. And I know a lot of people, friends and colleagues, are getting armed. That’s the vibe going around.

JTA: What about your music industry aspirations?

JTA: How do you get your curls that way?

Shulem: I never dream about becoming a celebrity. I’m not looking to become one specific thing. One opportunity leads to another, and I’m happy with everything that comes along.

Shulem: Mousse, and I just twirl them around my fingers.

JTA: Shulem, what is your definition of success for yourself?

SHULEM’S FIRST ALBUM, “THE PERFECT DREAM,” FEATURES TRADITIONAL JEWISH AND SECULAR SONGS, INCLUDING THE WHITNEY HOUSTON AND MARIAH CAREY HIT “WHEN YOU BELIEVE” FROM THE “PRINCE OF EGYPT” SOUNDTRACK.

SHULEM LEMMER IS A POP STAR IN HIS COMMUNITY – AND STILL A CANTOR, TOO.

jewishledger.com

Bonds of Life:

MEMORIALIZING THOSE WE LOST TO COVID-19 Music educator Paul Shelden, 79, founded instrument company

BY BEN HARRIS

(JTA) – As a young clarinetist, Paul Shelden performed under the direction of famed conductors Leonard Bernstein and James Levine. Later he would lend his talents to the work of Bob Hope, Tony Bennett, and the jazz-rock band Blood, Sweat and Tears. And as an academic, he spent more than three decades on the faculty of the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College, where he published widely about pedagogy and performance.

But in 2004, Shelden’s career took an unusual turn when he founded Diplomatte Musical Instruments, becoming, by his own reckoning, the only person running an instrument manufacturing company with a doctorate in music performance. Inspired by a trip to China with his wife in 2000, Shelden started Diplomatte in an effort to produce professional-quality instruments at affordable prices.

Shelden died April 17 of COVID-19 at his home in Long Island. He was 79.

Born in Brooklyn in 1941, Shelden studied at The Juilliard School and later earned his doctorate from the University of Maryland. He taught at Brooklyn College for 34 years prior to his retirement.

Inspired by Bernstein’s legacy of bringing classical music to young people, Shelden worked with the New York Department of Education for decades to bring hundreds of thousands of public school students to classical concerts, his son said. “His accomplishments were mind-blowing, and he could have given us still more,” said Seth Shelden. “But nothing was as important to him as me, and my sister, and my mother.”

Shelden is survived by his wife of 51 years, Pamela Shelden; two children, two grandchildren, and a twin brother.

Altamiro Zimerfogel, 80, president of Brazilian Jewish social club

BY MARCUS M. GILBAN

(JTA) – Altamiro Zimerfogel, a longtime Jewish community activist, died on April 28 of the coronavirus. He was 80.

Born in Rio to Polish Jewish immigrants who fled the Nazis in the 1930s, Zimerfogel had presided over the Brazilian Israelite Club for nearly a decade. Commonly known as CIB, the club, located in the heart of the jewishledger.com

Copacabana neighborhood, is a social and cultural center and a meeting point for thousands of Jewish families in southern Rio. Prior to leading CIB, Zimerfogel had served two terms as the head of another Jewish center, Mount Sinai, and was an honorary member of several other Jewish groups. Several Brazilian Jewish leaders mourned his death.

“Miro was a friend at all times. He would always make CIB available for our community events. His wife Ina and he were tireless activists of the federation’s pharmacy, which was headquartered at the club,” said Evelyn Milsztejn, a former vice president of the Jewish federation and former president of Rio’s largest synagogue, the 1,000-family ARI temple.

The Brazilian Army’s training body for reserve officers, of which Zimerfogel was a class of 1961 alumnus, called him “an idealist, a patriot, a man dedicated to multiple and noble causes.” The Rio municipality honored him in 2018, calling him “a dynamic and competent administrator. He is part of Israelite Club’s history and has also contributed to the whole Copacabana community.”

Zimerfogel is survived by his wife, three children and two grandchildren.

Purple Heart winner Ernest Einzig, 97, left behind 100+ descendants

BY BEN HARRIS

(JTA) – With his mustache, trademark suspenders and thick Hungarian accent, Ernest Einzig – or Zeide Ernie as he was known – seemed to come from another time.

Einzig was born in 1923 in Budapest, where he apprenticed as a tailor before fleeing rising antisemitism for America.

He was good with his hands, fixing his grandchildren’s clothing into his tenth decade. In his later years, he took up woodworking and learned to make stained glass, building himself a workshop at his home in Queens.

Einzig died of COVID-19 on April 5 in New York. He was 97 and left behind a sprawling family – roughly 30 grandchildren, over 100 greatgrandchildren, and even several great-greatgrandchildren.

Einzig arrived in the U.S. as a teenager and went to work in a factory owned by his brother fabricating metal parts for exit signs and emergency lighting. A steel-enclosed emergency lighting fixture common in New York City buildings was created by

Einzig and is still produced today. But within a few years, he was back in Europe as an American artilleryman fighting in World War II, winning a Purple Heart after injuring his finger in a cannon. After his service, Einzig returned to the U.S. and resumed his job at the factory where he continued to work for decades. After his retirement, Einzig went to work at Yeshiva Har Torah in Queens, and worked there for another 30 years.

“He was the grandfather of the school and impacted thousands of children,” said his grandson, Isaac Zablocki.“I sometimes have interns who attended Har Torah, and everyone knows Zeide Ernie.”

Avraham Yeshayahu Heber, 55, helped hundreds find kidney donors

BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

(JTA) – Avraham Yeshayahu Heber, an Israeli rabbi whose charity facilitated hundreds of kidney transplants, died of the coronavirus on April 23 in Jerusalem. He was 55.

Heber was the founder of Matnat Chaim (Hebrew for “gift of life”), an organization started in 2009 that matches kidney donors with transplant patients. The organization is believed to be responsible for facilitating 800 kidney transplants. Born in Tel Aviv, Heber was working as a yeshiva principal when he was inspired to start Matnat Chaim while receiving dialysis treatments in 2007, according to the organization’s website. In the hospital, he met an 18-year-old man named Pinchas who died while waiting for a kidney donor, prompting Heber to set up a nonprofit that would help expedite transplants. In 2014, Heber was honored

by Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin for his efforts.

Heber, who received a kidney transplant himself a decade ago, was hospitalized on April 13 with symptoms consistent with COVID-19. He died three days later.

He is survived by his wife, Rachel, and their two children, Channel 13 reported.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was among the dozens of politicians who eulogized Heber, saying he was “deeply sorrowed” by his death.

Stanley Chera, 78, coronavirus patient who made pandemic real for Trump (JTA) – Stanley Chera, the friend of Donald Trump whose coronavirus infection was an

inflection point in making the virus tangible for the president, has died. News reports said that Chera died April 11. He was 78.

“My deepest sympathies go out to Frieda Chera and the family of the late, great, Stanley Chera, one of Manhattan’s most brilliant real estate minds,” Trump said on Twitter. “Stanley was charitable, kind, and a wonderful friend. He will be truly missed!”

In a White House briefing last month, Trump described how he had come to appreciate the dangers of the virus. “When you send a friend to the hospital, and you call up to find out how is he doing – it happened to me, where he goes to the hospital, he says goodbye,” Trump said.

“He’s sort of a tough guy. A little older, a little heavier than he’d like to be, frankly.

And you call up the next day: ‘How’s he doing?’ And he’s in a coma? This is not the flu.”

Vanity Fair revealed that the person Trump was describing was Chera, a longtime leader in New York’s tight-knit Syrian Jewish community. Reports said Trump at one point had advised Chera and his wife Frieda to leave their New York City home for Deal, New Jersey, to avoid the virus. Deal has a large Syrian Jewish community. Chera nonetheless contracted the virus. His wife also contracted the virus and has recovered.

A longtime friend of the president and a fellow New York real estate mogul, Chera was an early and generous backer of Trump’s presidential campaign, contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Chera got into real estate when he bought the building housing the retail outlet his father had founded in Brooklyn in the 1940s. He acquired more buildings, becoming a major presence in New York real estate. He was an investor in the troubled acquisition in 2008 of 666 Fifth Avenue by Trump’s soon-to-be son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

“When you buy a building on Fifth Avenue, the first or second phone call you’re probably going to get is from Stanley,” The Real Deal quoted Kushner as saying at a 2014 event for the American Friends of Rabin Medical Center, at which Chera was the main honoree. Chera appeared to be a mainstay of fund-raisers for the medical center, appearing at a 2018 fund-raiser as well.

Chera was a co-founder of the Sephardic Community Center in Brooklyn.

In addition to his Jewish philanthropy, CNN reported, Chera funded soup kitchens and assistance for children with special needs.

JEWISH LEDGER

|

MAY 8, 2020

21

OBITUARIES The Ledger prints a basic obituary free of charge. Free obituaries are edited to fit the newspaper’s style. Obituaries that those submitting would like to run “as is,” as well as accompanying photos, may be printed for a charge. For more information: j­ udiej@jewishledger.com, 860.231.2424.

BERGMAN Gordon L. Bergman, age 71, of West Haven died April 9. He was the husband of Rhonda Mongillo Bergman. Born in Muskegon, Mich., he was the son of the late Vernon and Thelma Cook Bergman.

He served in the US Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, achieving the rank of Sergeant and received a Purple Heart.

DOBROW Judith Anne (Bailey) Dobrow, 82, of Bloomfield, died April 22. She was the wife of Robert Dobrow. Born in Danbury, and raised in Canaan, Winsted and West Hartford, she was the daughter of the late James and Dora (Gersten) Bailey. She was a member of Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford. In addition to her husband, she is survived by her children, Charles Dobrow and his wife Lynn of Wethersfield, William Dobrow and his wife Elizabeth of New York, N.Y., and Nancy Bean of Cambridge, Mass.; her sisters, Janet Stone (children Adam, Jessica, Louis) and Jacqueline Seaman (children Richard, David); her brother-in-law Alan Dobrow and his wife Vickie Dobrow; grandchildren, Benjamin Dobrow of Washington, and Madeline Wise, Julia Wise, and Grace Bean of Cambridge, Mass.; and several nieces and nephews.

EDELSON Ronald Edelson, 62, of Florida, died April 19. He was the husband of Heather Thomas Edelson. Born in New Haven, he was the son of Merwin and Marion Brown Edelson.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Michael T. Edelson of Haddam, and Katelyn Trindade and her husband Pedro of Plainville; his brother David Edelson; his sister Amy Oved and her husband Jacob; and several nieces and nephews.

FAGIN Jacob Fagin, 101, of West Hartford died April 25. He was the widower of Roslyn (Silver) Fagin. Born in Springfield, Mass., he was the son of the late William and Celia Fagin. He served in the U.S. Army during World War, stationed in Europe. He is survived by his sons, Michael Fagin and his wife Lennie of West Hartford, and Ira Fagin and his fiance Camilla Shestopal of London, England; his grandchildren, Adam Fagin and his partner Natalie Rogers, and Lindsey Fagin; and many nieces and nephews and their families. He was also predeceased by his brother Samuel Fagin and his wife Rhoda, and Solomon Fagin and his wife Katie; and several brothers- and sisters-inlaw.

HALPERT Stanley Joel Halpert, 77, of Southbury, died April 16. He was the husband of Marilyn G. (Hillman) Halpert. Born in Bridgeport, he was the son of the late Otto and Rose (Kohn) Halpert. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughters, Sue Gellerman and her husband Jeff of Charlotte, N.C., and Lisa MacFadden of Newington; and his grandchildren Sydney and Lexi Gellerman, and Jordan MacFadden.

KAPLAN Martin Kaplan, 92, of Farmington, formerly of Avon and Westport, died April 23. He was the husband of Ilene (Fives) Kaplan. He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., In addition to his wife he is survived by his brother Sidney Kaplan and his wife Dorothy (Schuchman) of Fort Lee, N.J.; his children, Steve Kaplan of Farmington, and Lisa Ann Steier and her husband Daniel of West Hartford; his grandchildren, Carly (Steier) Covieo and her husband William of Fairfax, Va., and Michael Steier and his wife Amanda Wagner of Bloomfield, N.J.; and his greatgrandchildren, Victoria and Robert Covieo.

LICHTZER Ida “Sarah” Lichtzer, 92, of Stamford and Boynton Beach, Fla., died April 14. She was the widow of Hy Lichtzer. Born in Jersey City, N.J., she was the daughter of the late Max and Rose Rosen. She was a member of Temple Beth El. She is survived by her daughters, Deborah Lichtzer and Judith Lichtzer, both of Stamford; her granddaughter, Erica Blumrosen; her greatgrandchildren, Alex and Rylie Walker; as well as several nieces and nephews. She was also predeceased by her son Keith Arthur Lichtzer; and her sisters, Dorothy Rosen and Jeannette Ambrosino.

MITTENTHAL Raymond Mittenthal, 84 years of age, of Cheshire, Conn., died April 27, 2020. Born in the Bronx, N.Y., he was the son of the late Irving and Lillian (Catron) Mittenthal. He leaves his wife, Arlene (Peck) Mittenthal; his daughters, Linda Mittenthal, Debbie Kohan and her husband Zavosh, and Cherie Mittenthal as well as grandchildren, Sarah Kohan, Daniel Kohan, Benjamin Upadhyaya, and Adam Upadhyaya. Ray was the Teaneck High School sweetheart of his wife Arlene for 62 perfect years. This truly was a marriage made in heaven. They renewed their vows at Temple Beth David in honor of their 60th wedding anniversary. Ray graduated from Fairleigh Dickenson University as an electrical engineer and took graduate studies at Columbia University. He enjoyed the progression from vacuum tubes, to transistors, to semiconductors, to integrated circuit design. He loved “firsts”… becoming a Dad (and Papa), buying their first home in Norwalk, Conn., discovering a new piece

of classical music, new and old books, the Jersey shore, the Catskill Mountains, buying his first “Hi Fi” with speakers and a scope, and then moving one house away so the children (all three of them) could have their own bedrooms. He taught EE at Bridgeport Engineering Institute, and was a mentor at the Manson Prison for Youth in Cheshire, Conn. He enjoyed travel, especially his trip to Israel. Best of all he enjoyed a good poker game and played unusually well. He was a very private man and “kvelled” at his children and grandchildren’s successes. He was a Yankee fan, and enjoyed watching the winning UConn women’s basketball games on TV. Ray was kind, funny, gentle, liberal, brilliant, humble, loving, and never spoke unkindly of anyone. He disliked bullies and the present administration made him angry watching the evening news. He fought against racism, and argued that all immigrants deserved the right to be treated fairly. Ray was what is known as a “mensch” (a good person). Arlene believed Ray was a “Lamed Vavnik,” one of 36 righteous people whose role in life is to help humankind live good lives. The 36 are simply too humble to believe that they are one of the 36x. He will be missed by all who knew him. Private funeral services were held April 28.

SOKOLOW Ruthann Sokolow, 62, of West Hartford, died April 24. She was the daughter of Stanley and Muriel Sokolow In addition to her parents, she is survived by her brother David Sokolow and his wife Marta Berger; her niece and nephew, Jana and Robert Johnson; her nephew Paul Sokolow; her great nephew Peter Johnson; her aunt and uncle, Rena and Carl Lipkind; her companion Thomas Hammonds; and her lifelong friend, Mary-Lou Kellner-Gomez.

Lichtenstein Company Maker of MONUMENTS for 4 Generations

323 Washington Ave., Hamden AT WHITNEY AVE. (opposite K of C Hall)

CALL 1.800.852.8865 • 203.287.1593 • nolanshamdenmonumentco.com 22

JEWISH LEDGER

| MAY 8, 2020

640 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut 06105 Telephone: 860.233.2675 weinsteinmortuary@comcast.net www.weinsteinmortuary.com

An 80-Year Commitment to serving the Greater Hartford Jewish and Interfaith Community jewishledger.com

BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY AUCTIONS

COMPUTER TECH

Innovate|Simplify

Professional IT Consulting Upgrade home|office equipment Networking Home Theater Website Design Photo and Music consolidation Security Cameras

New England’s Premier Estate & Business Liquidators 149 NORTH RD., RTE. 140, EAST WINDSOR, CT 06088

(860) 623-2100

(888) 457-7778

SERVING ALL YOUR AUCTION NEEDS AUCTIONS EVERY THURSDAY 7PM

PATRICK SOUCY - OWNER AUCTIONEERS & APPRAISERS

860-301-7019 • www.searobintech.com

E-MAIL: goldengavel@att.net WEB: www.goldengavel.com

DRUM LESSONS

PRIVATE DRUM INSTRUCTION

ENERGY

HOME CARE

For maintenance on your fuel oil or natural gas heating or cooling system, call:

We offer quality, loving in-home care services for families like yours.

All ages and levels

CHRIS BONITO

860.748.0004

S-1 303418 • HOD 0000962

Office: 860.728.5431 • Cell: 860-558-5948 40 Woodland Street (Rear), Hartford, CT 06105 www.deitchenergy.com

SERVING CONNECTICUT SINCE 1910

HOME IMPROVEMENT

MATH TUTOR

Creating a HARMONY between customer, contractor & community.

ROOFING U SIDING U WINDOWS & more...

Free Upgrade to Lifetime Shingles

CALL NOW About Our Roofing Sale

(with this ad only)

050511

860-645-8899 Factory Certified with

Lic. #604200 / Fully Insured / FREE Estimates

ROOFING

INDEPENDENCE • COMPANIONSHIP • TRANSPORTATION LIVE-IN CARE • MEAL PREPARATION • HOME MAKING NURSING ASSISTANT CARE • SPECIAL CARE

Marcia Loving Care

Home Care Agency 860.461.0556 • marcialovingcare.com

CALL US FOR OUR FUEL PRICES

BA Music Performance 20+ years private instruction • References available

100% FINAN C AVAIL ING ABLE

Specializing in Dementia/Alzheimer’s

23 Bidwell St., East Hartford, CT • Open Mon.-Fri. 9-5

PEST CONTROL

Online Math Tutoring College and High School Prep Teacher Praxis Certification Medical calculations (RN, LPN)

One-on-one sessions $75 Per Hour Contact: mathtutordamoreonline@gmail .com

Emilio N. Polce (860) 432-9444 • Fax (860) 432-7559 PEST CONTROL 109 Strawberry Lane • Manchester, CT epolce@ecochoicepest.com www.ecochoicepest.com

TAX PREPARATION

Daniel S. Levine, CPA Certified Public Accountant

WITH ZAMAN ROOFING

You’re in Good Hands

n Roof Replacements n Roof Repairs n Gutters n Exterior Carpentry jewishledger.com

Call to schedule your free estimate today.

860.977.8042

www.zamanroofing.com

Individual and Business Tax Preparaion Low Reasonable Rates

860.729.6036

email: dansethlev@cox.net Willing to travel to residence JEWISH LEDGER

|

MAY 8, 2020

23

Look for these

EXCITING, FULL COLOR GLOSSY supplements in the LEDGER!

TRENDING

CLASSIFIED To Place An Ad: PH: 860.231.2424 x3035 • Fax: 860.231.2485 Email: howardm@jewishledger.com

The Jewish Ledger assumes no responsibility for the product and services advertised PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

REAL ESTATE

Polish certified nursing assistant.

Twenty years experience in hospitals, nursing homes and private home settings looking to help your loved ones. Please call 860-803-6007.

NURSE SEEKING POSITION: GETTING BETTER TOGETHER! Adult care only. Live-in, days or nights and weekends.

Responsible and dedicated caregiver with medical education. Leave message: 860-229-2038 No Text Please.

For lease- Boca Raton, FL. Fully furnished 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo with kosher kitchen in beautiful Century Village. First floor, parking, pool & club house. Call Mike 561-654-4221.

Home Health Aide - Two Years Experience - Reliable - Livein seven days. References available, negotiable rates. Call Kwasi 774-253-5479.

Third Generation Jeweler - Gold & Diamond Buyer - Is Buying All Gold Jewelry - Sterling Silver Flatware Sets - Diamonds Over 2 Carats - Fast Payment Contact - mitchellrosin@gmail. com.

Certified Home Care Aide - Live-in - HHA Certficate Experience with dementia, stroke, alzheimer’s - Driver’s License - References - Lydia 718864-7600.

AUGUST & NOVEMBER

Mikael Poreshi - Remodeling & Painting - 860-978-2505 - miki. pori87@gmail.com.

Kosher NEW ENGLAND March

All Things JEWISH CONNECTICUT September MASSACHUSETTS December

For more information on advertising in these magazines, call

860.231.2424

24

JEWISH LEDGER

| MAY 8, 2020

Home Health Aide - Companion available for live in/live out Mon. - Fri. Valid driver’s license. Over 15 years experience. Excellent References. Call 860-796-8468.

CNA - 8 Years Experience Reliable - Own Car - Live-in 24/7 - Negotiable Rates - Please call Tina 860-461-8692.

Compassionate Elder Companion - Driver & Cook Beth: alifeofplantsandart@gmail. com.

P.C.A. - HHA Caregiver - 17 Years Experience - Available Live In or Live Out - Five Days a Week - Car Available - Have References - Please Call K.B. 860-796-8468.

Nurse (LPN, Male). 2 Years Experience in long term care.

4 Years Home Care as CNA and Nurse. Seeks Private duty.

Reliable, honest, hardworking.

860-656-8280.

Caregiver for your elderly loved one available Thursday evenings to Sunday evenings. Kosher experience, stellar references.

Monica - 347-486-0911.

New England Jewish Academy in Greater Hartford - Preschool aide to assist our two dynamic lead teachers - Wonderful children and supportive environment - Hours are 11:005:00 M-TH, 11:00-4:00 on Friday’s with the exception of winter when Friday hours are 11:00-2:20. We are also looking for an art teacher who can work one full day each week. Please email your resume to zsilver@ sigelacademy.org.

Driver available for shopping & errands in the greater Hartford area. Reasonable rates, senior discount and references available. Call Ira 860-849-0999.

Caregiver looking for full time live-in job - HHA/Precursor CNA - 12 Years experience - Friendly, outgoing, dependable - Please call Janet at 412-527-9285.

CNA with 25 years experience, reliable car, live-in or hourly.

References available, and negotiable rates. Call Sandy 860-460-3051.

WANTED TO BUY

Collector looking to purchase coins and currency, silver, copper, and gold. No collection is too small. Will travel. Call 860951-5191 paprfred@aol.com.

TUTOR

Accounting & Math Tutor Retired College Accounting Teacher Will Tutor at Your Home - Call For Appointment 860-402-1201.

FOR SALE

CHAUFFEUR, WEST HARTFORD Motorized KD Smart Chair rarely used - excellent condition will drive you to New York, - Call or text 203-710-0615.

Boston, New England tristate area. Reasonable rates.

References. Call Jeff 860-7124115.

VACATION RENTAL

Magnificent Vacation Condo Delray Beach 55+ Community Furnished One Bedroom - Meals Available -Monthly - Seasonal Please call 215-740-1165.

FOR RENT: 106 Jordan Street, New Britain, CT 06053

Spacious and pristine second floor, 5 room apartment with gleaming hardwood floors, washer/dryer hookups and convenient proximity to I-84, Routes 9/72, WestFarms, Hospital of Central CT and UConn Health. $1,300 monthly, excluding heat/utilities.

For more information, contact Ronda Bichunsky, Realtor® Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices NEP Email: rondabichunsky@bhhsne.com ~ (C) 860-620-4080

jewishledger.com

CT SYNAGOGUE DIRECTORY To join our synagogue directories, contact Howard Meyerowitz at (860) 231-2424 x3035 or howardm@jewishledger.com.

BLOOMFIELD B’nai Tikvoh-Sholom/ Neshama Center for Lifelong Learning Conservative Rabbi Debra Cantor (860) 243-3576 office@BTSonline.org www.btsonline.org BRIDGEPORT Congregation B’nai Israel Reform Rabbi Evan Schultz (203) 336-1858 info@cbibpt.org www.cbibpt.org Congregation Rodeph Sholom Conservative (203) 334-0159 Rabbi Richard Eisenberg, Rabbi-in-Residence Cantor Niema Hirsch info@rodephsholom.com www.rodephsholom.com Jewish Senior Services Traditional Rabbi Stephen Shulman (203) 396-1001 sshulman@jseniors.org www.jseniors.org CHESHIRE Temple Beth David Reform Rabbi Micah Ellenson (203) 272-0037 office@TBDCheshire.org www.TBDCheshire.org

Paid Advertisers

CHESTER Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek Reform Rabbi Marci Bellows (860) 526-8920 rabbibellows@cbsrz.org www.cbsrz.org COLCHESTER Congregation Ahavath Achim Conservative Rabbi Kenneth Alter (860) 537-2809 secretary@congregationahavathachim.org EAST HARTFORD Temple Beth Tefilah Conservative Rabbi Yisroel Snyder (860) 569-0670 templebetht@yahoo.com FAIRFIELD Congregation Ahavath Achim Orthodox (203) 372-6529 office@ahavathachim.org www.ahavathachim.org Congregation Beth El, Fairfield Conservative Rabbi Marcelo Kormis (203) 374-5544 office@bethelfairfield.org www.bethelfairfield.org GLASTONBURY Congregation Kol Haverim Reform Rabbi Dr. Kari Tuling (860) 633-3966 office@kolhaverim.org www.kolhaverim.org

GREENWICH Greenwich Reform Synagogue Reform Rabbi Jordie Gerson (203) 629-0018 hadaselias@grs.org www.grs.org Temple Sholom Conservative Rabbi Mitchell M. Hurvitz Rabbi Chaya Bender Cantor Sandy Bernstein (203) 869-7191 info@templesholom.com www.templesholom.com HAMDEN Temple Beth Sholom Conservative Rabbi Benjamin Edidin Scolnic (203) 288-7748 tbsoffice@tbshamden.com www.tbshamden.com MADISON Temple Beth Tikvah Reform Rabbi Stacy Offner (203) 245-7028 office@tbtshoreline.org www.tbtshoreline.org MANCHESTER Beth Sholom B’nai Israel Conservative Rabbi Randall Konigsburg (860) 643-9563 Rabbenu@myshul.org programming@myshul.org www.myshul.org

MIDDLETOWN Adath Israel Conservative Spiritual Leaders: Rabbi Marshal Press Rabbi Michael Kohn (860) 346-4709 office@adathisraelct.org www.adathisraelct.org NEW BRITAIN Congregation Tephereth Israel Orthodox Rabbi Andrew Hechtman (860) 229-1485 NEW HAVEN The Towers Conservative Ruth Greenblatt, Spiritual Leader (203) 772-1816 rebecca@towerone.org www.towerone.org Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel Conservative Rabbi Jon-Jay Tilsen (203) 389-2108 office@BEKI.org www.BEKI.org Orchard Street ShulCongregation Beth Israel Orthodox Rabbi Mendy Hecht 973-723-9070 www.orchardstreetshul.org NEW LONDON Ahavath Chesed Synagogue Orthodox Rabbi Avrohom Sternberg 860-442-3234 Ahavath.chesed@att.net Congregation Beth El Conservative Rabbi Rachel Safman (860) 442-0418 office@bethel-nl.org bethel-nl.org NEWINGTON Temple Sinai Reform Rabbi Jeffrey Bennett (860) 561-1055 templesinaict@gmail.com www.sinaict.org NEWTOWN Congregation Adath Israel Conservative Rabbi Barukh Schectman (203) 426-5188 office@congadathisrael.org www.congadathisrael.org

jewishledger.com

SOUTHINGTON Gishrei Shalom Jewish Congregation Reform Rabbi Alana Wasserman (860) 276-9113 President@gsjc.org www.gsjc.org

Congregation Beth Israel Reform Rabbi Michael Pincus Rabbi Andi Fliegel Cantor Stephanie Kupfer (860) 233-8215 bethisrael@cbict.org www.cbict.org

TRUMBULL Congregation B’nai Torah Conservative Rabbi Colin Brodie (203) 268-6940 office@bnaitorahct.org www.bnaitorahct.org

Congregation P’nai Or Jewish Renewal Shabbat Services Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener (860) 561-5905 pnaiorct@gmail.com www.jewishrenewalct.org

Temple Shalom Reform Rabbi Mark Lipson (203) 866-0148 admin@templeshalomweb.org www.templeshalomweb.org

WALLINGFORD Beth Israel Synagogue Conservative Rabbi Bruce Alpert (203) 269-5983 richardcaplan@sbcglobal.net www.bethisrael/wallingford. org

Kehilat Chaverim of Greater Hartford Chavurah Adm. - Marcey Ginsburg Munoz (860) 951-6877 info@ kehilatchaverim.org www.kehilatchaverim.org

ORANGE Congregation Or Shalom Conservative Rabbi Alvin Wainhaus (203) 799-2341 info@orshalomct.org www.orshalomct.org

WASHINGTON Greater Washington Coalition Rabbi James Greene (860) 868-2434 admin@jewishlifect.org www.jewishlife.org

RIDGEFIELD Congregation Shir Shalom of Westchester and Fairfield Counties Reform Rabbi David Reiner Cantor Debora Katchko-Gray (203) 438-6589 office@ourshirshalom.org

WATERFORD Temple Emanu - El Reform Rabbi Marc Ekstrand Rabbi Emeritus Aaron Rosenberg (860) 443-3005 office@tewaterfrord.org www.tewaterford.org

SIMSBURY Chabad of the Farmington Valley Chabad Rabbi Mendel Samuels (860) 658-4903 chabadsimsbury@gmail.com www.chabadotvalley.org

WEST HARTFORD Beth David Synagogue Orthodox Rabbi Yitzchok Adler (860) 236-1241 office@bethdavidwh.org www.bethdavidwh.org

NORWALK Beth Israel Synagogue – Chabad of Westport/ Norwalk Orthodox-Chabad Rabbi Yehoshua S. Hecht (203) 866-0534 info@bethisraelchabad.org bethisraelchabad.org Congregation Beth El-Norwalk Conservative Rabbi Ita Paskind (203) 838-2710 Jody@congbethel.org www.congbethel.org

Farmington Valley Jewish Congregation, Emek Shalom Reform Rabbi Rebekah Goldman Mag (860) 658-1075 admin@fvjc.org www.fvjc.org SOUTH WINDSOR Temple Beth Hillel of South Windsor Reform Rabbi Jeffrey Glickman (860) 282-8466 tbhrabbi@gmail.com www.tbhsw.org

Beth El Temple Conservative Rabbi James Rosen Rabbi Ilana Garber (860) 233-9696 hsowalsky@bethelwh.org www.bethelwesthartford.org Chabad House of Greater Hartford Rabbi Joseph Gopin Rabbi Shaya Gopin, Director of Education (860) 232-1116 info@chabadhartford.com www.chabadhartford.com

JEWISH LEDGER

|

The Emanuel Synagogue Conservative The Emanuel Synagogue Conservative Rabbi David J. Small (860) 236-1275 communications@emanuelsynagogue.org www.emanuelsynagogue.org United Synagogues of Greater Hartford Orthodox Rabbi Eli Ostrozynski synagogue voice mail (860) 586-8067 Rabbi’s mobile (718) 6794446 ostro770@hotmail.com www.usgh.org Young Israel of West Hartford Orthodox Rabbi Tuvia Brander (860) 233-3084 info@youngisraelwh.org www.youngisraelwh.org WOODBRIDGE Congregation B’nai Jacob Conservative Rabbi Rona Shapiro (203) 389-2111 info@bnaijacob.org www.bnaijacob.org

MAY 8, 2020

25

Special Offer FREE Shipping!

Spring Basket Box

ONLY

* 99 $29

+ FREE Shipping

Mention Promo Code SPG20

WOW! Handpicked fresh from the grove!

Brighten Someone’s Day! Mention Promo Code SPG20.

Handpicked and hand packed, our fresh, juicy oranges are delivered to your door fresh off the tree! As always, our famous citrus is picked and packed at its peak, fresher than anything you’ll find in stores. Paired with cookies and candy, this is the perfect gift box for birthdays, for yourself, or just because.

• 3 Grove Navel Oranges • 2 Honey-Sweet Tangerines • 3 oz. Chocolate Chip Cookies

• Jelly Belly® Beans • Saltwater Taffy

Call 1-860-352-6464 to order item 836 or Visit HaleGroves.com/MB00099 Order Item #836, mention Promo Code SPG20 for FREE Shipping.

Only $29.99*, plus FREE Shipping. Satisfaction completely guaranteed. Order by May 31, 2020.

Since 1947.

Hale Groves, Vero Beach, FL 32966

IC: HMVS-A237 26

JEWISH LEDGER

| MAY 8, 2020

Call now to receive

FREE Shipping!

Limited time offer, good while supplies last. Not valid with any other offer or previous purchases.

jewishledger.com

Dental Insurance Get the dental care you deserve with dental insurance from Physicians Mutual Insurance Company. It can help cover the services you’re most likely to use —

Cleanings

X-rays

Fillings

Crowns

Dentures

Preventive care starts right away Helps cover over 350 services Go to any dentist you want – but save more with one in our network No deductible, no annual maximum

Call now to get this FREE

Here’s the information you requested on Dental insurance

Information Kit!

FIRST-CLASS MA

1-866-577-9028 dental50plus.com/ctledger

l

Product not available in all states. Includes the Participating Providers and Preventive Benefits Rider.

Acceptance guaranteed for one insurance policy/certificate of this type. Contact us for complete details about this insurance solicitation. This specific offer is not available in CO, NY; call 1-888-7994433 or respond for similar offer. Certificate C250A (ID: C250E; PA: C250Q); Insurance Policy P150 (GA: P150GA; NY: P150NY; OK: P150OK; TN: P150TN). Rider kinds B438/B439.

6154-0120

jewishledger.com

JEWISH LEDGER

|

MAY 8, 2020

27

CLOG-FREE GUT TERS

OR YOUR MONEY BACK

TH

E

GU

TT

NATIO

1

–Doug L.

’S

BE

“My only regret is that I wish I had known about LeafFilter sooner.”

N

FOR

D

r ilte F f a E Le

R

ER AFT

GUARANTEED!

r ilte F f Lea

ER GUA

LIFETIME

INSTALLS ON NEW & EXISTING GUTTERS THE LEAFFILTER SYSTEM Micromesh

WARRANTY

15% OFF YOUR ENTIRE LEAFFILTER PURCHASE*

Virgin Vinyl

Exclusive Offer – Redeem By Phone Today!

ADDITIONALLY Hanger

10% OFF SENIOR & MILITARY DISCOUNTS

Existing Gutter

CALL US TODAY FOR

A FREE ESTIMATE

1-877-277-1440 Promo Code: 285

PLUS!

THE FIRST 50 CALLERS WILL

RECEIVE AN ADDITIONAL

5% OFF

YOUR ENTIRE INSTALL! **Offer valid at estimate only

FINANCING THAT FITS 1 YOUR BUDGET! Subject to credit approval.

Call for details.

1

Mon-Thurs: 8am-11pm, Fri-Sat: 8am-5pm, Sun: 2pm-8pm EST *The leading consumer reporting agency conducted a 16 month outdoor test of gutter guards in 2010 and recognized LeafFilter as the “#1 rated professionally installed gutter guard system in America.” *For those who qualify. **Offer valid at time of estimate only **One coupon per household. No obligation estimate valid for 1 year. CSLB# 1035795 DOPL #10783658-5501 License# 7656 License# 50145 License# 41354 License# 99338 License# 128344 License# 218294 License# 603 233 977 License# 2102212986 License# 2106212946 License# 2705132153A License# LEAFFNW822JZ License# WV056912 License# WC-29998-H17 Nassau HIC License# H01067000 Registration# 176447 Registration# HIC.0649905 Registration# C127229 Registration# C127230 Registration# 366920918 Registration# PC6475 Registration# IR731804 Registration# 13VH09953900 Registration# PA069383 Suffolk HIC License# 52229-H

28

JEWISH LEDGER

| MAY 8, 2020

jewishledger.com