CT Jewish Ledger • July 16, 2021 • 7 Av 5781

Friday, July 16, 2021 7 Av 5781 Vol. 93 | No. 29 | ©2021 jewishledger.com

ON THE ROAD TO TOKYO

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INSIDE

this week

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | JULY 16, 2021 | 7 AV 5781

8 Kolot

8 Author’s Corner

10 Opinion

17 Crossword

19 What’s Happening

Boston Proud.................................... 5 The stabbing of a rabbi in Boston is just the latest in a series of violent antisemitic acts that leave the area’s Jewish community feeling threatened – but resolute and unafraid to speak out.

The Art of Science............................ 5 Who says science and art don’t mix? BarIlan University opens a unique museum that aims to expose visitors to the vast research possibilities in the natural sciences.

Class Wars.........................................16 At their annual conference, America’s largest teachers union votes on whether to boycott Israel, support pro-Palestinian causes, and urge the US to cut material support and funding of the Jewish state.

20 Briefs

22 Torah Portion

24 Obituaries

25 Business and Professional Directory

26 Classified

In Memoriam.......................................................................22 From a group of young Venezuelan immigrants to New Yorkers looking for a fresh start in a new state, the Surfside, Florida tragedy struck a diverse nexus of the American Jewish community.

Tisha B’Av Reimagined....................................................11 Most Jews know little about Tisha B’Av. What a great opportunity for Jewish educators to revisit how to teach about this meaningful day.

CANDLE LIGHTING ON THE COVER:

There’s the fencer looking for redemption, Israel’s first Olympic surfer, one of the greatest canoe paddlers of all time, a teen track star para-athlete, and so many more.

Here’s a look at all the Jewish athletes to watch at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

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UP FRONT CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | JULY 16, 2021 | 7 AV 5781

Boston Jews rally together after streak of attacks in the area

B

BY PENNY SCHWARTZ

OSTON (JTA) – Days after a series of violent acts stunned Greater Boston and threatened its Jewish community, residents are jolted but resolute, vowing to continue taking pride in their Jewish identity.

The latest incident occurred on Thursday, when Chabad Rabbi Shlomo Noginski was stabbed eight times outside of Shaloh House, a Jewish school and synagogue in Brighton, where he teaches.

Less than a week prior, on June 26, in Winthrop, a seaside town just north of Boston, a white supremacist who harbored virulent racist and antisemitic views murdered Air Force veteran Ramona Cooper, 60, and retired state trooper David Green, 68, both African American. The

shooting took place near two synagogues and is being investigated as a hate crime.

Both episodes of violence played out during a period of high alert in the area following a June 24 pro-Palestinian protest at the New England regional offices of the Anti-Defamation League in Boston, at which a non-Jewish writer for the Zionist website CAMERA was, according to video, spat at and called a Nazi by protesters. The local Jewish Journal-Massachusetts wrote in an editorial that the ADL encounter and the double murder were both “high-profile instances of antisemitism and hate.”

All three incidents worried local and national Jewish groups, but it was the attack on Noginski that proved to be the tipping point for many Jewish Bostonians. With only hours of advance notice, hundreds of

people gathered Friday morning in Brighton for a rally in support of Noginski, drawing a wide swath of Greater Boston’s Jewish community, its allies and scores of elected leaders, police and officials.

“Our community is feeling vulnerable,” Marc Baker, president of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, said at the rally. “And we are feeling angry, wondering whether we can be safe in our own country, and our own cities.”

Organized by Shaloh House, CJP, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston and the New England branch of the ADL, the rally was held across the street from the school and synagogue where Noginski was attacked. The RussianCONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

HUNDREDS GATHERED ON FRIDAY, JULY 1 FOR A UNITY RALLY IN BRIGHTON, MASSACHUSETTS, IN SUPPORT OF RABBI SHLOMO NOGINSKI, WHO WAS STABBED THE DAY BEFORE IN THE SAME PARK ACROSS THE STREET FROM HIS JEWISH DAY SCHOOL. (COURTESY OF COMBINED JEWISH PHILANTHROPIES OF GREATER BOSTON)

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Israel opens dazzling new Nanoscience and Art Museum

BY ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN

(Israel21c via JNS) How do 150,000 stretchy rubber bands depict the healing process of damaged neurons?

How do 16 electric violin players pinpoint the moment that synchrony transitions to chaos?

These and other works at Israel’s newest museum are brilliant experiments in what happens when scientists and artists put their talents together.

The one-of-a-kind Joseph Fetter Nanoscience and Art Museum opened at Bar-Ilan University’s Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (BINA) on July 8.

Displayed in spaces throughout five of the nine floors in BINA’s three-building complex, the artworks give visitors a dynamic view of the microscopic magic happening in the institute’s 71 biology, physics, chemistry, engineering and computer science labs.

The inaugural exhibit, “New Languages,” comprises 13 works co-created over three years.

A wooden arch created by Mahmood Kaiss with an arabesque motif was inspired by nanocrystal structures researched in the Light Matters Lab of professor Adi Salomon.

A multiscreen work by sound artist Elad Shniderman and Prof.

Moti Fridman uses 16 violinists to illustrate a new scientific discovery about patterns in the threshold between synchronization and chaos.

Vardi Bobrow’s rubber-band sculpture provides a visualization of professor Orit Shefi’s discovery of how defective neurons stretch and grow in the process of regeneration.

“We ventured on a journey to conceptually and technically distant worlds, which are at the same time very close to the essence of our being,” says curator Tal Yizrael.

“In so doing, we opened a window CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

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Museum

Boston

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to the wonderland of the invisible. Like art, nanoscience delves deep into substances and essence, allowing us to discover new phenomena and universes.”

This process continued for nearly a year, and resulted in the creation of more than 20 art-science collaborations. Thirteen of these formed the core of the museum’s first exhibition.

Beyond great science Caroline Maxwell used saltwater from the Dead Sea and the Great Salt Lake in Utah, crystallized over several years through nanometric processes, to create a work based on Gili Taguri-Cohen’s research into crystalline formations.

Eili Levy created a track for a water drop that moves on hydrophobic surfaces produced in the lab of Prof. Shlomo Margel.

It’s an allegory, Levy says, to the journeys undertaken by the human soul.

Ela Goldman translated professor Dror Fixler‘s experiments using gold nanoparticles as disease detectives in the human body into a sevivon–spinning top– showing how molecules emit light and then come crashing down when they run out of power.

Engaging the public Fixler, who took over the directorship in 2017, said he understood just how much science could excite the community when he went to Braga, Portugal, in September 2018 for an anniversary celebration at the United Nations International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory.

He bought some kosher items at the local supermarket, and the cashier asked if he had a loyalty card.

“I said, ‘No, I don’t live here.’ And then she asked if I had come for the INL summit.

I said, ‘How do you know?’ And she told me that everyone in town was planning to go to the gala that night. Even the supermarket cashier.”

Fixler realized at that moment the potential for BINA to engage and delight the public. The museum, he said, will offer hands-on activities for adults and children in addition to continuing exhibitions.

For more information, visit en.nanomuseum.org.il.

This article was first published by Israel21c.

ELA GOLDMAN’S SPINNING AND RESTING TOPS CARRY FLUORESCENT MOLECULES TO ILLUSTRATE PROFESSOR DROR FIXLER’S EXPERIMENTS USING GOLD NANOPARTICLES TO DETECT DISEASE.

Celebrating great science Fixler, BINA’s current director, said he is delighted by the museum’s potential to take scientific innovations out of the confines of the lab.

“I have always believed it is important to do great science but also educational initiatives that can contribute to the community and help people understand how science is relevant to them,” said Fixler.

“Now, everyone in our area will know what we are doing and celebrate with us the great science we do, and understand its importance.”

“New Languages” is just the beginning, said Fixler. “We are working with Tel Aviv University and with other museums on lots of collaborations.”

PHOTO BY MICHAEL AMAR.

born rabbi, an Israeli citizen and father of 12, was released Friday from the hospital.

Police apprehended the alleged attacker, Khaled Awad, who is being held without bail until a hearing scheduled for July 8. Former friends and college roommates of Awad’s, including a Jewish roommate, have described him as “violent” and “very antisemitic.”

Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins is investigating both the stabbing and the shootings. She has launched a civil rights investigation to determine if the stabbing of Noginski was a hate crime.

Rollins has also sought to alert the Jewish community to the antisemitic leanings of the Winthrop shooter, 28-year-old Nathan Allen, noting that his personal writings revealed racist and antisemitic views, including drawings of swastikas, and that he may have been looking to target Jews in addition to Black people. Allen had no prior criminal record and was killed by police at the scene.

“There is no more powerful and hateful a symbol than a swastika,” Rollins told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “When we saw that in the writings, in his own hand, he has said who he is. I know it’s scary to hear, but I feel compelled to tell people there are individuals who hate and want to harm

Magnificent experiences BINA’s previous director, professor Yuval Garini, was the visionary behind the museum, which was funded by the Fetter family.

“We wanted to dazzle visitors with magnificent experiences, exposing them to scientific principles and to the vast research possibilities in the natural sciences,” said Garini.

To encourage fruitful collaborations between artists and scientists, about seven years ago Garini and Yizrael organized a hackathon bringing together 30 BINA scientists and 40 artists from various disciplines.

After presenting their works and ideas to each other, they formed teams and brainstormed for two days on possible exhibits.

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[them].”

Details like these have shocked the local Jewish community. Winthrop resident Denise Mahoney, a member of the nondenominational Temple Tifereth Israel, had gone to school with Green, one of the victims, and remained friends in their close-knit town. News of his murder had been “devastating,” she said.

But attendees at Friday’s rally sought to project a resilient face.

“The Jewish community is angry, but the Jewish community is united,” JCRC Boston’s executive director, Jeremy Burton, told the crowd. “We demand that we have the right to live. The right to walk in the street. To be visible, or not, to live our lives as Jews, fully and without fear.”

His message was reinforced by Rabbi Dan Rodkin, executive director of Shaloh House.

“We are not going to sit back,” Rodkin said.

“We will make sure to send a strong message: Evil has no place in America.”

Rodkin asked attendees to commit to eight acts of kindness, representing the eight stab wounds inflicted on Noginski.

Noginski himself told the media on Sunday, “If people want to see a miracle, they should look at me.”

Speaking in Hebrew with a translator,

Noginski described his harrowing ordeal in more detail, the Boston Globe reported.

He said the armed attacker had been trying to force him into the school’s van, leading Noginski to fear that he was being kidnapped.

At an opportune moment, Noginski said, he ran across the street to draw the attacker away from the school, where kids were in summer camp.

In recovery, the rabbi said he is doubling down on bringing goodness and light into the world, by teaching and by helping more people. “And that will help me heal, and help the entire environment around me,” he told reporters.

More than a quarter of Greater Boston’s approximately 248,000 Jewish households live in Brighton and the contiguous communities of Brookline and Newton, according to the 2015 Greater Boston Jewish population study conducted by the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University.

“Yesterday’s attack left the rabbi injured and our community shaken,” said Boston’s acting Mayor Kim Janey. “An attack on any member of [our] community is an attack on all of us.”

The attack drew support for Noginski and condemnation against antisemitism from

many leaders, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Boston Cardinal Séan Patrick O’Malley.

Nina Baron, a 26-year-old Bostonian, was upset by the attack on the rabbi and accompanied her father to the rally. Growing up in a suburb, she didn’t have that many concerns about antisemitism, she told JTA at the rally.

“This time in America is different for all marginalized groups. But as a Jew, I definitely feel different than I used to,” she said.

In the Winthrop case, where there were no Jewish victims, Robert Trestan, director of the New England ADL, said he believes, as Rollins does, that sharing details of the shooter’s antisemitic leanings is important. “What we learn from the investigation may help prevent future attacks,” Trestan told JTA. Trestan, who has seen some of the writings, said they caused him “a bit of a shudder, to see the written words of someone who killed two people and likely was ready to kill more for no other reason than the hatred that was in his head. His writing confirms his motive.”

While the number of antisemitic incidents in Massachusetts and across New England decreased in 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, incidents against American Jews

nationwide remain historically high, according to the ADL. Rollins has taken the antisemitic angle of this incident very seriously, according to Josh Schreiber, the rabbinic intern at Tifereth Israel.

“She could have very easily downplayed this,” he said.

Many Tifereth Israel congregants attended a vigil in support of the victims’ families, where Schreiber gave the opening remarks.

“One of the strongest responses through a Jewish lens is for us to be part of the broader community,” he said. Schreiber told JTA the synagogue will receive a grant from the CJP to bolster security.

Mahoney was alarmed when she heard from her son, a transit police officer, that the shooting was fueled by racism and antisemitism.

But she will not heed her son’s suggestion that she tuck her two Star of David necklaces inside her shirt to hide her Jewish identity, as some Jews in America have said they are considering doing.

“I am not going to allow someone’s hatred to change my behavior,” she said. “That would allow his hatred to win.”

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AUTHORS CORNER “Imagine My World” teaches children about the power of one

KOLOT

n bookshelves this summer is a captivating new children’s book brimming with delightful illustrations that teaches important lessons about the power of one.

Written by West Hartford resident Harry Weller and illustrated by UConn grad Shaina Cooper, Imagine My World gives readers a glimpse into the vivid imagination of one young girl as she learns to use her imagination to transform herself and the world around her. It’s a book about empowerment and self-esteem, as she comes to the realization that even a young girl like herself can make her real world better.

The book’s clever verse and adorable illustrations combine to provide a wonderful adventure for any child – from a two-year-old being read to at bedtime to a seven-year old picking up a book to read by themselves for the first time.

How Imagine My World came to be is in and of itself a tale worth telling.

The seed for what would become Imagine My World was planted in the imagination of Harry Weller almost 35 years ago when Weller, a longtime member of Beth David Synagogue, wrote the book’s core poem.

A prolific writer, many of Weller’s works began ‘life’ as poems. Still, he seemed to have a special affinity for this particular piece. But with a busy life both at work and at home, and frustrated by the fruitless search to find just the right illustrator, he remained unable to transform his poem into a book. Nevertheless, the core poem lived on nightly, as Harry added a tune and sang it to his younger daughter Elayna each night at bedtime.

Fast forward to July 2019.

It was then that, after 32 years as a State

M

O

of Connecticut prosecutor, Weller retired and found himself with the time to indulge his heretofore repressed creative interests.

And it was then that serendipity stepped in. While attending a ceremony at which their good friend Ben Cooper received the French Legion of Honor, awarded to the West Hartford native for his heroic service as a medic during World War II, the Wellers – Harry and his wife Robyn – met Cooper’s granddaughter, Shaina Cooper.

Harry and Shaina, who had just graduated from UConn with a degree in illustration and animation, got to talking and, long story short, Shaina agreed to take a stab at illustrating Harry Weller’s nascent book.

And so, a synergetic team was born. The two began serious work in December 2019, meeting regularly in person or by phone, planning out all the details, from how the story’s hero looked to each illustration to the front and back covers. Throughout the process, Weller continued to expand and edit the story, with the help of Shaina’s mother, Teresa Cooper, an elementary school teacher and librarian, and his wife Robyn and their daughters Elayna and Sarah.

Finally, Harry Weller’s decades-long labor of love became a hardcover reality.

Now he hopes that children from all walks of life will get as much pleasure from Imagine My World as his family has throughout the years.

Imagine My World is available for $12.95 and may be personalized by the author. For more information, email Harry Weller at Harrwell3@ gmail.com. Books are also available on Ebay at https://www.ebay.com/ itm/203507704992 (add $5 for shipping and handling).

IMAGINE MY WORLD AUTHOR HARRY WELLER AND ILLUSTRATOR SHAINA COOPER AT THE JUNE 29 BOOK SIGNING EVENT IN WEST HARTFORD.

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JEWISH LEDGER | JULY 16, 2021

What my father never told me

A CONNECTICUT FAMILY CELEBRATES

BY JONATHAN GOLDMAN

y dad was a hero, but he didn’t like to talk about himself.

When we boys asked him about the war, he just shook his head. All he said was that he was wounded during World War II when an enemy plane hit his ship. But thanks to a U.S. Military initiative to honor “under-recognized” Jewish, Black, and Hispanic veterans, we have found out what he did, and why the Coast Guard recently named a ship after him.

Bob Goldman grew up on a farm in rural Woodstock, Connecticut, where he went to a one-room schoolhouse. Because the town was too small to have their own secondary school, high school students were sent to the Woodstock Academy, a private high school.

Depression times were tough, and in-town students were moved along, so Bob graduated when he was 16.

He thought he’d pluck chickens and pump gas for the rest of his life. But a gas station customer, a retired professor, saw that this young man was capable of more. He told Bob to hop into his car, drove him to the University of Connecticut, and helped him register for classes as an agriculture major. Bob put himself through school by working in the chicken coops. A perk: free eggs.

Nearby was the Coast Guard academy.

Bob always thought that if he ever joined the military, that was ROBERT GOLDMAN the uniform he’d want to wear.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor changed everything. In October, 1942, Bob enlisted in the Coast Guard.

He received medical training at Columbia University’s School of Pharmacy to become a pharmacist mate (medical corpsman). In July 1944, he reported for duty on the United States Coast Guard (USCG) LST-66, headed for the Philippines. The LST (landing ship tank) was a naval workhorse, designed for transportation of machinery and men, and able to approach and unload on shallow beachheads.

Nov. 12, 1944, was a day that my father never forgot. The LST-66 was onshore on Leyte Island embarking a combined Navy-Army reconnaissance unit. At 5 p.m., a Japanese Zero flew over the horizon and intentionally headed for the LST-66. What resulted was devastation on board. Four dead, and seven wounded. My father was on deck when the crash occurred.

The man standing next to him was killed

AT THE COMMISSIONING CEREMONY FOR THE ELEANOR GOLDMAN, HER SON RICHARD, AND AND YAL

instantly.

Although he suffered shrapnel wounds and severe burns to his back, my father’s priorities were clear. Fire surrounded him. He jumped into a gun turret, to administer morphine to a suffering shipmate. In the midst of this, there was leaking aviation fuel and live ammunition at his feet. He was the last on his ship to get medical attention. He had refused to even sit down to be examined until all the wounded had been treated. His uniform had to be cut from his burned flesh. Like many of his generation, he never spoke of his combat experiences.

Later in life, he served as Post 45 Commander of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America.

In 2016, Coast Guard historian Dr. William Thiesen began looking into my father’s heroic service record. Five years later, there we were, participating in the commissioning of a Sentinel

S AN HONOR LONG OVERDUE

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E USCGC ROBERT GOLDMAN ARE HIS THREE SONS AND THEIR FAMILIES: (L TO R) DAUGHTER-IN-LAW D HER HUSBAND JONATHAN; DAUGHTER-IN-LAW GAIL FRESIA AND HER HUSBAND SCOTT GOLDMAN; LE GOLDMAN. JONATHAN, SCOTT AND YALE ARE BOB’S SONS.

Class Coast Guard Cutter bearing the name “Robert Goldman.”

The Commissioning Ceremony took place on March 12, in Key West Florida. Among those in attendance: Vice Admiral Scott Buschman, Coast Guard Foundation President Susan Ludwig, and the commanding officer of the USCGC Robert Goldman, Lieutenant Commander Samuel Blase. My father’s daughters-in-law, Eleanor Goldman and Gail Fresia, held the traditional honors of ship’s sponsor and long glass presenter. Also present were my brothers, Yale and Scott, along with my sons Richard, Alexander, and Ari. The USCGC Robert Goldman blazon carries the ship’s motto “Beyond the call of duty” – a quote from a shipmate describing my father’s actions on that November day. It also appears in the recommendation for the Bronze Star Medal he received,.

The USCGC Robert Goldman is one of six Sentinel Class Cutters to be stationed in Bahrain as part of the Coast Guard’s Patrol Forces Southwest Asia. I have been told that the crew of the Robert Goldman is the finest and most experienced crew on the most technologically advanced cutter ever built, and I believe it.

We will be forever grateful to the Coast Guard for the honor given to my father.

Jonathan Goldman lives in West Hartford.

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OPINION

Condemning antisemitism is no longer allowed

BY PETER C. HERMAN

(The Jewish Journal via JNS) It seems you can’t condemn antisemitism anymore.

On May 26, the chancellor and the provost of Rutgers University in New Brunswick issued a statement condemning the precipitous rise in antisemitic incidents in the U.S.: “We are saddened by and greatly concerned about the sharp rise in hostile sentiments and antisemitic violence in the United States. Recent incidents of hate directed toward Jewish members of our community again remind us of what history has to teach us.”

Given the sudden rise in antisemitic rhetoric (the ADL tracked more than 17000 tweets saying “Hitler was right,” or some variation thereof, between May 7-14) and antisemitic attacks both in the United States and abroad, you would think that the chancellor’s and the provost’s statement would be unexceptional, even welcome–especially since many universities and colleges issues similar statements condemning anti-black and anti-Asian violence.

But no. A day later, they issued “An Apology,” because “the message failed to communicate support for our Palestinian community members.”

Then, they replaced the original statement with this one: “Neither hatred nor bigotry has a place at Rutgers, nor should they have a place anywhere in the world. At Rutgers, we believe that antisemitism, anti-Hinduism, Islamophobia and all forms of racism, intolerance and xenophobia are unacceptable wherever and whenever they occur.”

Odd. Why does a statement condemning antisemitism need to be broadened to include other forms of racism and bias?

Maybe his was a one-time mistake by administrators over-eager to please?

But then, it happened again.

On June 10, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) published their own fervent condemnation of antisemitism: “The SCBWI unequivocally recognizes that the world’s 14.7 million Jewish people (less than 0.018% of the population) have the right to life, safety, and freedom from scapegoating and fear.”

Then things got worse.

First, the executive director, Lin Wood, abjectly apologized for the statement on the grounds that saying antisemitism is bad and that Jews have the right to live in peace hurts Palestinians: “I would like to apologize to everyone in the Palestinian community who felt unrepresented, silenced, or marginalized. SCBWI 10

acknowledges the pain our actions have caused to our Muslim and Palestinian members and hope that we can heal from this moment.”

Then, the person responsible for the original statement, Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer April Powers, who happens to be both black and Jewish, resigned, but not before delivering her own apology for neglecting “to address the rise in Islamophobia, and [I] deeply regret that omission.” (The Society has since removed both apologies from their site.)

In an interview with Kat Rosenfield published by Bari Weiss’s Substack site, “Common Sense,” Powers said that her Judaism rendered her “inherently suspect.”

“You’re Jewish,” her critics said, so “you can’t be in a role like this.” Inclusion and equity, it seems, means exclusion and inequity for Jews.

This is just bizarre. How does recognizing that Jews have the right to live in peace, that Jews have the right to eat in a restaurant without being attacked, as happened recently in Los Angeles, harm anybody else? Would anybody say that protesting anti-black violence neglects the rise in, say, anti-Asian violence? Or that protesting the rise in Islamophobia harms black people if the statement doesn’t mention them as well? Why is antisemitism singled out for this sort of treatment?

These two incidents made national news, but this also occurs below the national radar. My institution, San Diego State University, responded to a recent spate of antisemitic incidents, ranging from swastikas inscribed on buildings to the repeated vandalizing of the local Chabad House, by organizing a task force to address antisemitism. I’m on this task force.

We soon learned that an outside group of faculty, led by a Palestinian professor, was unhappy with the task force’s membership (predominantly Jews) and focus (exclusively antisemitism). So they asked the university’s president to appoint another member they had chosen: an outspoken opponent of Israel who blamed an earlier attack on Chabad on Israel’s actions against Hamas and claimed that the university’s partnership with the ADL to fight antisemitism signaled indifference toward Arabs.

In a note posted to the College of Arts and Letters listserv, the professor wrote that Arabic and Palestinian students “deserve to know that they are valued on this campus and that we want it to be a safe campus for them.”

JEWISH LEDGER | JULY 16, 2021

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY.

CREDIT: BENJAMIN CLAPP/SHUTTERSTOCK.

Another chimed in, claiming that focusing on antisemitism alone resulted in an “inequity” and she hopes “our Administration [will] move to resolve this inequity whenever possible.”

In their view, condemning antisemitism must be accompanied by assurances that the university is equally concerned about Arab students, even though there have (to my knowledge) not been any attacks at SDSU on Arab students or any anti-Arab graffiti inscribed on buildings. One also wonders how condemning antisemitism without mentioning Palestinians results in “inequity,” but condemning anti-black racism or Islamophobia without mentioning the Jews, or anybody else, does not.

By now, it’s common knowledge that antisemitism is not taken very seriously on the left. At first, this was blamed on Jews being “white” and therefore privileged.

But in the wake of the war between Hamas and Israel, we see a new twist. Now, when there’s an antisemitic incident, Diaspora Jews are blamed, not the person who hates Jews.

We see this perfectly illustrated with my colleague, who wrote on the listserv that the attack on Chabad House was Israel’s fault because Israel’s responded to Hamas’ rockets: “It is highly disturbing that the message [condemning the Chabad House vandals] that was just sent out to the whole campus was sent without some contextualization about the current situation in Jerusalem and the 80+ jets that have just bombarded Gaza, killing 20 people, including 9 children, and toppling

a 13-story building that covered a whole block.”

Never mind the 4,000 plus unguided rockets Hamas launched with precise intent and hope that they would kill Israeli civilians.

Antisemitism, in other words, cannot be condemned by itself, as can other forms of bias. Nobody, for example, sought to “contextualize” the recent murders of Asian women in Atlanta by referencing the Chinese government’s treatment of the Uighurs.

In current woke discourse, you can condemn attacks on Jews only if you condemn attacks on Arabs and Palestinians, as well. Which is all part of the denigration of antisemitism on the left. Not only is Jewhatred blamed on the victim, but having the temerity to condemn hatred against Jews may cost you your job. And before you leave, you’ll have to write a Maoist selfcriticism.

We know where this ends, and it’s not good.

Peter C. Herman’s books include “Unspeakable: Literature and Terrorism from the Gunpowder Plot to 9/11,” and “Critical Contexts: Terrorism and Literature.” His opinion pieces have appeared in “Newsweek,” “Salon,” “Areo,” “Inside Higher Ed,” and “Times of San Diego.”

This article first appeared in the Jewish Journal.

jewishledger.com

Most Jews don’t know much about Tisha B’Av. That gives educators a huge opportunity.

BY TOV BIRNBAUM

(JTA) – On Tisha B’Av, which this year falls on DATE , Jews around the world mourn the destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem and the pain and suffering that the Jewish people have experienced for generations.

Jewish law demands that during the three weeks preceding the day, Jews limit rejoicing: no weddings, no haircuts, no listening to music and swimming is prohibited. In the last nine days of the three weeks, one isn’t allowed to eat meat or drink wine except on Shabbat, or even wash clothes.

Alongside the traumatic destruction of the first and second Temples, the sin of the spies, the Spanish expulsion and even the start of the Holocaust are said to have occurred on Tisha B’Av. The rabbis were ingenious in condensing many tragedies from Jewish history into one day. Sadly, if the Jews dedicated a unique day for every pogrom or expulsion, we would fast all year round.

I grew up in Bnei Brak, a predominantly haredi Orthodox community in Israel.

Jewish law was the solid foundation of my day-to-day life and its rules defined my identity. The Jewish calendar and the guidelines for each holiday stood at the core of my existence.

While my childhood memories of Tisha B’Av were central to my upbringing, most Jews don’t get a chance to experience the saddest day of the Jewish calendar.

Since Israeli public schools and Jewish day schools are the primary avenue for introducing holidays to children, those that fall during the summer months tend to be neglected.

But rather than focusing on what children have missed because of this reality, I suggest that we Jewish educators seize the opportunity to reimagine how we teach Tisha B’Av. With most students, we are essentially starting fresh: We don’t have any negative associations or oversimplifications of the holiday to overcome, and students are not fighting to reevaluate their childhood conceptions of the day. The holiday was never improperly infantilized by kindergarten teachers; no ceremony was organized in which kids stood on a stage and recited words they didn’t understand.

We have an opportunity to redefine the essence of the day and create a meaningful jewishledger.com

HASSLE FREE LIVING (CREDIT: YAAKOV LEDERMAN/FLASH90)

experience for adults and kids. The day involves some tried-and-true rituals – fasting and reciting Lamentations – but what more can be included?

One of the most life-changing Tisha B’Av experiences I ever had was at BINA, a secular yeshiva (the first of its kind!) in South Tel Aviv. As part of the educational team, I sat with students and staff in the beit midrash and learned the Talmudic passages about the rabbis trying to make sense of the tragedy of Jerusalem’s destruction. While in the classroom, we looked through the windows out into the surrounding neighborhood. We could see the sorrow of the world around us. After we finished studying, we went out to volunteer in the community, helping in any way we could.

Tisha B’Av was especially relevant last year. The global pandemic that we experienced damaged so much of what has been built through years of love and care.

We have been reminded of how little control we have and that racial justice, both in Israel and America, is still far from perfect.

[As I recommend last year], we can make Tisha B’Av a dedicated space in time to mourn the brokenness in our hearts and in our world. It can be a day for sharing our pain with others and for reenergizing ourselves to do more to make our world a better place. A day to meditate on how light creeps through the cracks and to think about rebuilding and healing.

When creativity and responsibility go hand in hand and are applied to a beloved tradition, important new opportunities emerge, even on Tisha B’Av. Tov Birnbaum is the director of Jewish Content at the Oshman Family JCC Palo Alto. She wrote this article for Tisha B’Av 2020, when the world was in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Tokyo Olympics: Al

BY EMILY BURACK

(JTA) – The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are finally happening, a full year after they were planned. And yes, they’re still being called the 2020 Olympics, even though they’re happening in 2021.

The Jewish athletes competing this year – and there are many – are the products of inspiring journeys. There’s the fencer looking for redemption, Israel’s first Olympic surfer, one of the greatest canoe paddlers of all time, a teen track star para-athlete, and so many more.

The games run July 23 through August 8; the Paralympics will be held August 24 to Sept. 5.

Here are many of the inspiring Jewish athletes to root for.

SUE BIRD Basketball, USA Is Sue Bird one of the greatest Jewish athletes of all time? Perhaps.

The basketball legend has won gold medals with the U.S. women’s basketball team in the last four – yes, four – Olympics. (The team has not lost at the games since 1992.) Bird, now 40, is back for her fifth, and likely last, Olympics.

The child of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother, Bird was born and raised in Syosset, Long Island. She’s been a basketball star since her debut for the University of Connecticut in 1998 and selection as the WNBA’s No. 1 overall draft pick in 2002 by the Seattle Storm. In her nearly 20 years as a pro, Bird has won four WNBA championships (including last year in

the COVID-19 bubble) and is a 12-time All-Star.

Bird also gained Israeli citizenship in 2006 in a basketball-motivated decision, so she could play for European teams. Her citizenship also allowed her to connect to her Jewish identity.

“It was cool because what I found was in this effort to create an opportunity in my basketball career, I was able to learn a lot about a culture that I probably wouldn’t have tapped into otherwise,” Bird told the Washington Jewish Museum.

The women’s basketball tournament begins on July 26; the U.S. plays its first game on July 27 against Nigeria. The gold medal game is August 8.

LINOY ASHRAM Rhythmic Gymnastics, Israel Israel’s best chance at winning a medal is 22-year-old Linoy Ashram. The Mizrahi and Sephardi gymnast (her father is Yemeni Jewish and her mother is Greek Jewish) is set to compete in her first Olympics after winning

SUE BIRD

(TOM PENNINGTON/GETTY IMAGES)

LINOY ASHRAM.

(ULRIK PEDERSEN/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES)

in the individual rhythmic category at the European Championships in 2020 – the first athlete to take the gold medal in decades who was not from a former Soviet country or Bulgaria.

Ashram has many firsts for her country: She’s the first rhythmic gymnast from Israel to win an individual all-around medal at the World Championships, the first to win gold in the World Cup series and the first to win a European All-Around title. Can she be the first to win gold in gymnastics at the Olympics?

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ll the Jewish athletes to watch they can do anything they want. There’s no limits. I mean, look at me. I had no idea that this would happen, and now I’m going to the freaking Olympics.”

The surfing competition is subject to change depending on wave conditions at Tsurigasaki Surfing Beach. The women’s competition is tentatively scheduled for July 25-28.

TEAM ISRAEL Baseball, Israel

ALIX KLINEMAN

(LACHLAN CUNNINGHAM/GETTY IMAGES)

DIEGO SCHWARTZMAN (TPN/GETTY IMAGES)

The rhythmic gymnastics competition takes place August 6-8.

DIEGO SCHWARTZMAN Tennis, Argentina Diego Schwartzman is the highest-ranked Jewish tennis player in the world. Last year he broke into the top 10 for the first time, becoming the shortest top 8 player since 5-foot-6 Harold Solomon, also Jewish, in 1981. The Argentine’s listed height of 5-7 is called “one of the more generous measurements in professional sports” – he likely stands around 5-4 (the U.S. Open lists him at 5-5). Watching him go shot to shot with players that are over a foot taller is nothing short of remarkable.

Nicknamed “El Peque,” or “Shorty,” the 28-year-old is set to play in his first Olympics. (For tennis, qualifications are based on world rankings, with the top 56 players becoming eligible.)

Schwartzman is proud of his Jewish identity. Last year he wrote movingly on his family’s Holocaust history, and how his great-grandfather escaped a train car headed for a concentration camp and ended up in Argentina.

“I am Jewish and in Argentina, we have many Jewish [people] there, and all the people there know me,” he said in 2017.

The men’s tennis tournament begins on July 24.

ALIX KLINEMAN Beach volleyball, USA Alix Klineman had played indoor volleyball for Stanford in college and professionally following her graduation in 2011. But in 2016, she failed to make the U.S. Olympic Volleyball Team and vowed to find another way to compete at the games. So she switched to beach volleyball. Unlike indoor volleyball, which has teams with rosters selected by coaches, beach volleyball is a twoperson sport dependent on your own results

with a partner.

“I looked at the beach as a new opportunity and a chance to chase my dreams without anybody having to give me approval or put me on a roster,” she said in 2019.

Klineman teamed with two-time Olympian April Ross – she had been partnered with three-time gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings – and they quickly rose in the rankings. They are entering the Tokyo Games with a world ranking of No. 2, with a more than solid chance of winning gold.

Klineman, 31, was raised in Southern California in a Jewish family. In 2015, she was inducted into the SoCal Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

The women’s beach volleyball tournament begins on July 24.

ANAT LEILOR Surfing, Israel

ANAT LELIOR

(JOSE MANUEL ALVAREZ/ QUALITY SPORT IMAGES/ GETTY IMAGES)

Anat Lelior is Israel’s first – and only – Olympic surfer. Surfing is new to the Olympics, and only 20 men and 20 women will be competing this summer. Lelior, 21, qualified as the highest-ranked female surfer from Europe (Israel competes in European leagues). Lelior, who hails from Tel Aviv and served in the Israeli military, started surfing at five, and by 12 she had won the Israeli national championships.

“I know people aren’t aware of surfing in Israel, and the fact that I get to be the one to show people that we’re capable of more than they think, that’s just amazing,” Lelior told Surfline. “But more than that, I want to show kids, women, everyone from everywhere, that

The Cinderella story continues.

In 2017, Israel’s national baseball team – which included several American Jewish players who became Israeli citizens to represent the country – surprised observers by placing sixth at the World Baseball Classic, an international tournament of the world’s best teams, with wins over top squads from South Korea, Chinese Taipei, the Netherlands and Cuba. Israel was far from a top-10 powerhouse at the time, not even ranked in the top 10 teams in Europe. That made sense, as few Israelis play the sport.

Along the way, the team ginned up enthusiasm for baseball in Israel and gave some under-the-radar Jewish players, many who had spent several years in the minor leagues, new chances to shine. Oh, and there was that endearing mascot – a life-sized Mensch on a Bench.

In 2019, Team Israel won the European Baseball Championship to qualify for the Olympics. The current roster is anchored by de facto captain Danny Valencia – who has Cuban and Jewish heritage and hit 96 home runs over eight Major League Baseball seasons – and Ian Kinsler, a former fourtime MLB All-Star who made it to Israel on one of the last flights before COVID19 shutdowns last year to earn his Israeli citizenship.

Only six teams are in play (the field also includes South Korea, Japan, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and the United States), so Team Israel has a chance of snagging a medal.

Keep an eye out for more coverage of the team closer to the games.

The baseball tournament runs July 28-Aug. 7. Israel’s first game is against the United States.

JESSICA FOX Canoe slalom, Australia Jessica Fox is known as the greatest paddler of all time: She has 10 World Championship medals, including seven gold medals, and seven overall World Cup titles. Her parents, Richard Fox and Myriam Jerusalmi, also were Olympic canoeists – Myriam, a French-

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TEAM ISRAEL

(JOEL ZOLONDEK)

ORI SASSON

(GETTY IMAGES)

ORI SASSON Judo, Israel

JESSICA FOX

ELI DERSHWITZ

(RYAN PIERSE/GETTY IMAGES)

(JESSICA RINALDI/THE ASTON GLOBE VIA GETTY IMAGES)

Jewish athlete, won bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Mom is now coaching her daughter.

Born in Marseille, France, Fox moved to Australia at four, so her dad could take up a coaching position with the Australian Olympic team.

“Both my parents competing in the Olympic Games is something pretty special,” she said. “It definitely inspired me to get to this position. Winning a medal is something that you dream [of] and I’m proud to follow in my mother’s footsteps.”

Fox, 27, won silver in the K-1 slalom competition at the 2012 London Olympics and bronze in the 2016 Rio Games. This year, for the first time, women will also be competing in C-1 slalom – so Fox, ranked No. 1 in the world, is favored to win not just one but two gold medals.

In 2012, Fox became the the second Australian Jewish athlete to ever win an Olympic medal.

The women’s K-1 slalom competition is July 25-27. C-1 slalom is July 28-29.

ELI DERSHWITZ Fencing, USA Eli Dershwitz is returning to the Olympics for redemption. At the 2016 Rio Games, the Jewish saber fencer lost in the opening round.

In 2021, he’s ranked No. 2 in the world and 14

JEWISH LEDGER

hoping to medal.

Dershwitz, who started fencing at 9, would win back-to-back NCAA championships for Harvard in 2017 and 2018. In Tokyo, he will aim to become the fifth U.S. man to win a medal in saber fencing. No American man has ever won gold in the category.

Born and raised in Sherborn, Massachusetts, to a Jewish family, Dershwitz’s maternal grandparents are Holocaust survivors. He has a twin sister, Sally, who worked on the frontlines caring for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dershwitz grew up attending a Conservative synagogue in Natick, Massachusetts, and told Hillel International before the Rio Games that he considers himself a “proud member of the Jewish community.”

“The Jewish community has been very supportive throughout my journey to the Olympics, and I look forward to representing them on the world stage,” he said in 2016.

The men’s saber fencing individual competition takes place on July 24; the men’s saber team competition is on July 28.

JEMIMA MONTAG Racewalking, Australia Jemima Montag was perhaps destined for Jewish athletic greatness. Her parents, Ray and Amanda, met at the 1989 Maccabiah

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JEMIMA MONTAG

(SCOTT BARBOUR/GETTY IMAGES)

Games – the Olympics for Jewish athletes held in Israel – where Amanda was competing in the heptathlon and Ray was a cricketer.

They hit it off on the flight home to Australia.

Growing up, the Montags encouraged their daughters (Jemima is one of three) to try everything, from long jump to shot put to ballet. But for Montag, race walking just clicked.

“I found that my combination of endurance, hypermobile joints and fiery competitiveness were a great trio for racewalking,” she said.

Montag soon became one of the best racewalkers in Australia, but after the World Youth Championships in 2015, she decided to step away from the sport. A family ski trip to Japan in 2017 reignited her competitive spirit. Her sister joked she’d love to return to the country for the Olympics, and her mom encouraged her to go for it. A year later, at the 2018 Commonwealth Games – a tournament of the Commonwealth nations, or the former territories under British control – Montag won gold in the 20km event.

Montag credits her Holocaust survivor grandparents for her work ethic and resilience. When a training session or race feels tough, she thinks about them and reminds herself that “grit and perseverance are in my DNA.” The women’s 20km race walk will take place on August 6.

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Or “Ori” Sasson won bronze in the men’s heavyweight judo competition and became a national hero overnight – not just for his skill but also his sportsmanship after one of his opponents, from Egypt, refused to shake his hand following a match.

“Every boy and girl saw not only a great athlete but a man with values,” then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Sasson in a phone call that was broadcast live on Israeli TV. “You showed the true face of Israel, its beautiful face.”

Sasson spent the pandemic year delay competing on Israel’s version of “The Masked Singer” – his costume was a falafel sandwich – and finished third.

This year, the Kurdish Jewish Sasson – now 30 and likely in his last Olympics – is set to compete in the heavyweight competition and in the team competition, an addition to the Olympics judo lineup. Judo has been the pride of Israel’s Olympic fortunes, winning five of the nation’s nine overall medals. (See more on one of Sasson’s teammates below.)

The men’s 100+ kg competition is on July 30. The team competition is on July 31.

SAGI MUKI Judo, Israel Sagi Muki made headlines when he befriended an Iranian judoka, Saeid Mollaei, who was forced to throw a match to avoid competing against an Israeli athlete. Mollaei fled Iran as a dissident and received refugee status in Germany. The story of their friendship is now being made into a TV show.

But Muki, 29, is an Olympic medal contender in his own right. The halfmiddleweight judoka is a two-time Israeli national champion, a 2019 world champion, and the 2017 and 2018 European champion.

He was expected to medal at the 2016 Rio Games but was hampered by an injury.

Born and raised in Netanya, Israel, to a Yemeni Jewish family, he started focusing on judo when he was eight years old.

The men’s under-81 kg competition is on July 27.

SAGI MUKI

EZRA FRECH

(ROY ALIMA/FLASH90)

(MOTO YOSHIMURA/GETTY IMAGES)

EZRA FRECH Paralympics track and field, USA

MARU TEFERI

(MARCO VERCH/FLICKR)

MARU TEFERI Marathon, Israel Maru Teferi, who was born in northwestern Ethiopia and immigrated to Israel with his Jewish family when he was 14, is the Israeli record holder in six distances, including the half marathon and the marathon. His fastest marathon time of 2:07:20, run right before the pandemic in February 2020 – is just six minutes off the world record.

Now he’s set to compete in his second Olympics. This time he’ll be joined by his wife, Selamawit “Selam” Dagnachew Teferi. They’ll be the first married couple to represent Israel at the Olympics.

Teferi, 28, met now-wife Selam while training in Ethiopia in 2012. Selam, 27, is not Jewish, but she moved to Israel in 2017 after the couple married and became an Israeli citizen. That made her eligible to represent Israel at the Olympics.

“Even in our wildest dreams, we didn’t think this would be possible,” Selam said.

The men’s marathon will take place on the last day of the Olympics, Aug. 8. To watch Selam, the women’s 5,000m competition begins July 30; the finals are August 2. The women’s 10,000m is on August 7.

Ezra Frech is only 16 years old, but he’s already made a name for himself as a paraathlete. The Los Angeles native competes in the high jump, long jump and the 100m race.

Due to a congenital abnormality, Frech was born with only one finger on his left hand, and he was missing his left knee and shinbone. At two he had surgery to remove the curved part of his leg, and had a toe attached to his left hand. By nine he was on “Ellen” talking about his athletics and advocating for adaptive sports, and at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships, he was the youngest athlete in the world to compete at 14.

“Everywhere you go, people don’t think you’re capable of what an able-bodied person can do,” Frech said. “I’ll go to my high school track meet and they don’t expect the onelegged kid to go out and win the competition.

When I was younger it got to me, but now it’s a motivation and excites me that I have a chance to prove people wrong, to shock them and turn some heads.”

His mom, Bahar Soomekh, is a Persian Jewish actress. She fled Iran with her family in 1979. His dad, Clayton Frech, left his job in 2013 to found Angel City Sports – to bring

adaptive sports opportunities to Los Angeles.

Frech said his goal in Tokyo is to win multiple medals. He has no shortage of confidence it will happen.

“You can quote me on this: I will be a multi medalist when I walk away from Tokyo,” he said. “We can look back after the Games and I’ll say ‘I called it.’”

MAOR TIYOURI Marathon, Israel Israel has another marathoner in Maor Tiyouri. Like Teferi, this is Tiyouri’s second Olympics, but qualifying this time was much more challenging for the 30-year-old runner.

For the women’s marathon competition, the Olympic standard – the time needed to qualify for the games – dropped 15 minutes, from 2 hours, 45 minutes to 2:29:30. For Tiyouri, that meant running 13 minutes faster than her personal best.

“When they changed it back in 2018 I was devastated because it seemed like such a huge jump at the time and I didn’t fully believe then that I could quite get it in time for Tokyo,” Tiyouri told Alma. “I knew I had to raise my game if I wanted to be on that starting line.” And she made it – running 2:29:03 in April.

Her grandparents are from Iran and Iraq, and she is proud to represent the Jewish nation.

“Representing Israel, such a small country that has known so many hardships in the little amount of time she existed, is such an honor and a privilege,” Tiyouri said.

The women’s marathon will take place on August 7. Tiyouri will be joined by Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, a Kenyan-Israeli runner who gained Israeli citizenship through marriage in March 2016 and ran for Israel in the 2016 Olympics.

MORAN SAMUEL Paralympics rowing, Israel

MAOR TIYOURI

(RICHARD HEATHCOTE/GETTY IMAGES FOR BEGOC)

MORAN SAMUEL

(JOHN TLUMACKI/THE BOSTON GLOBE VIA GETTY IMAGES)

in her lower body. She started playing wheelchair basketball, then decided to try rowing to get to the Paralympic Games.

Her two biggest dreams were becoming a mother and winning an Olympic medal – and now she’s achieved both.

“If you want to be a very successful woman, you should have a woman by your side,” she once joked. With wife Limor Goldberg, she’s now a mom of two. And in Tokyo, she’s going for gold.

MATTHEW LEVY Paralympics swimming, Australia Matthew Levy is returning to compete in his fifth Paralympics. The Australian Jewish swimmer, 34, competes in the freestyle, butterfly and medley races.

Levy was born premature at 25 weeks with cerebral palsy and vision impairment.

Following many surgeries, he started swimming at five as part of his rehabilitation.

At 12 he realized he could swim competitively.

Levy made his Paralympic debut at the 2004 Athens Paralympics. At the 2008 Beijing Games, he won his first medal – gold in the 4x100m medley. At the 2012 London Games he won five medals (a gold, a silver and three bronze), and at the 2016 Rio Games, he took home a bronze medal.

He’s looking to add to his medal count in Tokyo as the oldest member of the Australian Paralympic swimming team.

Fun facts: In 2014, Levy was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for his contributions to sport. And in 2017, at the Maccabiah Games, Levy became the first person in its history to break a world record while competing there.

MATTHEW LEVY

(ALEXANDRE SCHNEIDER /GETTY IMAGES)

Moran Samuel won a Paralympic medal at the 2016 games in Rio, taking bronze in the women’s 1,000-meter single sculls rowing competition.

Samuel, 39, grew up playing basketball, and was a member of the Israeli women’s national team. In 2006, at the age of 24, she suffered a spinal stroke and was paralyzed JEWISH LEDGER | JULY 16, 2021

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Teachers’ unions push anti-Israel measures – and receive major pushback

BY ANDREW LAPIN AND GABRIEL GRESCHLER

(JTA) – Public school unions in the U.S. are increasingly becoming a hotbed of Israel discourse, with the largest teachers’ union becoming the latest organized body to deliberate measures that censure Israel and support the Palestinian cause.

Members of the National Education Association (NEA) at the group’s annual meeting held the weekend of July 2 planned to debate two items on Israel and the Palestinians among the more than 60 items on its virtual agenda. Both sought to make the union publicize some measure of support for the Palestinians and oppose the actions of the Israeli government in the wake of May’s outbreak of violence in Israel and Gaza.

The escalation of major debates on Israel and the Palestinians within public education unions has included votes in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle on whether to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. It’s also ensnared prominent Jewish labor leaders such as Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, a longtime BDS opponent (and critic of Israel).

Union representatives say it is their duty as organized labor bodies to weigh in on issues of global import such as Israel, but their dual status as educators has contributed to an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty among both Jewish teachers and parents of Jewish public school children in their districts.

Pro-Israel organizations such as Hadassah, StandWithUs and the Zionist Organization of America have rallied against these proposals, including last week’s NEA votes. Hadassah’s national president, Rhoda Smolow, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the group searched its own member list to find people who may be, or know, NEA delegates to encourage them to vote against the items. A list of talking points circulated by the pro-Israel groups called the items “one-sided, divisive” and “directly at odds with NEA’s principles of inclusivity, diversity, and fostering diverse viewpoints.”

Ultimately one of the two items was defeated, while the other did not come up for a vote before the NEA’s debate time for new business items expired at the conclusion of the virtual meeting on Saturday, July 3. A separate item calling for the NEA to advocate for mandatory Holocaust and genocide education also did not have a vote. (Unlike in years past, when every new item would be debated, this year the NEA restricted debate time due to the virtual setting.)

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an umbrella organization representing 16

JEWISH LEDGER

dozens of American Jewish groups, issued a statement commending the NEA for its “rejection” of the items.

“It is important to ensure that our educators and education system do not take actions that could fuel the recent rise in antisemitism in the United States,” the Presidents Conference said.

Neither NEA item about the Palestinians mentioned the BDS movement, which calls for exerting financial pressure on any businesses or organizations with ties to the Israeli government. NEA bylaws dictate that any resolution calling for a boycott must be referred to the union’s executive committee.

But BDS has been in the air as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become a flashpoint of the American labor movement, public education unions in particular.

In May, United Educators of San Francisco voted to support BDS – the first K-12 teachers’ union in the country to do so.

Labor historian Jeff Schuhrke, who teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago, described the resolution as “the most visible support for Palestinian people that we’ve seen from the U.S. labor movement ever.”

Writing in the socialist publication Tempest, a UESF member said the BDS resolution was pushed by their newly formed activist caucus within the union.

The Seattle Education Association followed suit in June with its own successful BDS resolution. The Cholent, a newsletter covering Jewish Seattle, reported that neither SEA leadership nor Seattle Public Schools made any announcement about the vote, and that union members who advocated for the resolution appeared to be associated with End the Deadly Exchange Seattle, an activist group devoted to ending partnerships between U.S. law enforcement and Israel.

In September, United Teachers Los Angeles will vote on a similar resolution.

Higher-education unions at schools such as Rutgers University and the City University of New York have also held recent votes favorable to the BDS movement.

Some Jewish teachers and parents in the San Francisco Unified School District have said they felt unsafe after the union’s BDS vote. The local Jewish Community Relations Council and the Anti-Defamation League pushed back against the resolution, and Jewish and non-Jewish parents expressed their concerns during a San Francisco school board meeting on June 8.

In Los Angeles, at least one Jewish member of the teachers’ union resigned over the pending resolution, saying “I feel unsafe as a Jew.” Other labor unions have also taken forceful pro-BDS stances in the weeks following the recent violence in the region.

In June, the Vermont State Labor Council

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AFL-CIO voted to endorse a statement from Labor For Palestine, a pro-BDS group, and in Oakland, the local longshoremen’s union sided with anti-Israel protesters who blocked an Israeli-owned cargo ship last month.

Tania Kappner, an NEA delegate who teaches high school English in the city, authored New Business Item 29, which pushed the NEA to “call on the U. S. government to stop arming and supporting Israel and Saudi Arabia.” Israel was committing “ethnic cleansing,” the item also said.

The other Israel-related item debated by the NEA, New Business Item 51, sought “to educate members and the general public about the history, culture, and struggles of Palestinians, including the detention and abuse of children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Combined, the two items sought to earmark a combined total of $77,000 for Palestinian causes. For a vote, an item must be submitted by at least 50 delegates, but it doesn’t become NEA policy until the formal vote is held.

“I think a lot of people who support public education around the nation, in the world, are looking to us to take clear stands for justice on these international issues,” Kappner told JTA. She said she is especially passionate about ensuring that displaced Palestinians can attain refugee status.

Kappner, who said she is not religious, disagrees with critics who say measures like hers can foster unsafe environments for Jewish educators.

“I think the best way to fight antisemitism is to stand up for Palestinian rights and equality,” she said. “I think it’s really important that people stand against Zionist policies in order to make sure that Israel is not set up as a death trap for Jewish people and Palestinian people.”

The two Israel-related items were authored independently of each other, Kappner said, but she said she had been in touch with the other author, delegate Rahaf Othman of Oak Lawn, Illinois, upon realizing they had similar aims. (Othman did not respond to an interview request from JTA.) Kappner has proposed many similar items at NEA annual meetings in years past, according to Jewish labor advocates, and her items usually attract little notice or support. But the combination of the all-virtual setting, the addition of a second pro-Palestinian item to the agenda and heightened concerns in the Jewish world about recent spikes in antisemitic activity threw this year’s vote into greater uncertainty and opened it to involvement from outside groups.

Big names in the Jewish world have

become involved in similar union disputes.

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the AntiDefamation League, has publicly lobbied Weingarten to come out against any proBDS resolutions in AFT-affiliated education unions. (The San Francisco and Los Angeles unions are AFT- and NEA-affiliated; Seattle’s union belongs to the latter group.)

Other Jewish and conservative groups wanted Weingarten to take more drastic measures, such as overturning the resolutions in San Francisco and Los Angeles while implementing antisemitism training at the affiliates.

In a June 14 letter to Greenblatt that was provided to J. The Jewish News of Northern California, Weingarten said that while she and the American Federation of Teachers remained opposed to BDS, they would not intervene with pro-BDS decisions made on the local level.

Arieh Lebowitz, executive director of the Jewish Labor Committee, told JTA that he is not concerned by the spate of BDS votes in education unions, as he believes they reflect the beliefs of only a small number of active union members. He does not think teachers in the BDS-supporting local chapters “will be looking at Jewish students with any suspicion or hostility.”

Nevertheless, Lebowitz and his organization, which aims to serve as a bridge between the organized Jewish and labor communities, helped NEA’s Jewish Affairs Caucus oppose the pro-Palestinian items.

“There are people within the Jewish community, both organizations and individuals, who are very concerned about these resolutions,” he said. “They think they are part of the floodgate that’s opening up.”

Patrick Crabtree, chair of the NEA’s Jewish Affairs Caucus, who is also a retired teacher and Jew by choice from Mobile, Alabama, said the caucus opposed the items because it recognized that many of its more than 60 members found the language antisemitic. Though the caucus has successfully lobbied against similar resolutions, Crabtree said this year’s debate had the effect of turning off some Jewish educators from the NEA. “A lot of people say ‘I’m not going to belong to an organization that doesn’t support Jews or Israel,’” Crabree said. “Oh, please don’t do that. That’s not good for helping anything. Be a part of an agent of change, to make it better.”

This story was reported with the help of J. The Jewish News of Northern California and Emily Alhadeff of The Cholent.

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THE KOSHER CROSSWORD JULY 16, 2021 “Golden Jews” By: Yoni Glatt

Difficulty Level: Medium

Vol. 93 No. 29 JHL Ledger LLC Publisher Henry M. Zachs Managing Partner

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ANSWERS TO JULY 9 CROSSWORD

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Across 1. Powerful bugs 5. “Honey” 11. + meaning 14. “Nae” sayer?

15. Fiddle around on a flute 16. “There is zero evidence of there ever being a Jewish kingdom in ancient Israel,” e.g.

17. Salt Lake City 2002, figure skating 19. Japanese cheddar 20. Kind of dance 21. Coerces 23. A Guardian of the Galaxy 27. It may have a nice bouquet

28. Sauce brand 32. “Boiler Room” actress Long 33. “___ am your father” (“Empire” shocker) 34. 1,500-mile Russian chain 35. Accept, as a responsibility 38. One of its letters stands for “optimization” 41. Benicio of note 43. Hockey great Steve 45. Bit of Bavli 46. Jonah Hill can grow one 48. Stylish Lagerfeld 49. Neighbor of Fin. 51. Feldman of “Mad Men” and “Superstore”

52. Merely 53. Shabbat wear, for many men 55. Gets up 58. NFL target 60. Bridge hands 65. Green machine?

66. Vancouver 2010, bobsled 70. War stat.

71. Eastern Mediterranean lands, with “the” 72. He learned with Rav Assi 73. Title for Ted Cruz: Abbr.

74. City in Texas or Ukraine 75. Life-saving team

Down 1. No. 2 in the lab 2. “Bracketology” org.

3. Caught between two emotions 4. Forest father 5. Calendar abbreviation.

6. “___ got it!”

7. Pluto or Goofy 8. Early anesthetic 9. She can tell you the weather or sports scores 10. What Shabbat observers do 11. London 2012 and Rio 2016, gymnastics 12. Tries to slim down 13. Not so sharp

18. Act selfishly like a treif animal 22. Egg (Pref.)

24. Cavern or cave, poetically 25. Cat call: Var. 26. Source of acorns 28. Paul who doesn’t seem to age 29. Place 30. Athens 2014, windsurfing 31. Highest: Abbr.

33. 112.5 degrees from W 36. Bronte’s Jane and family 37. Layer with holes in it 39. “Downton Abbey” noble 40. Just 42. Breakfast glassfuls, briefly 44. “Bringing Up Baby” studio

47. RICO case maker 50. Potato chip brand 53. Britches stitches 54. Cause a knot not to be 55. Added to the pot 56. Christopher of “Superman” 57. Watch 59. Norway seaport 61. Forest Hills V.I.P. 62. Run-down neighborhood 63. Dwelling for Abraham 64. Barcelona Mmes.

67. Some govt. hospitals 68. “The Nanny” has three of them 69. N.Y.C. subway or Yeshiva letters

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There’s only one place to be seen by everyone.

And it’s FREE!

WeHaCAL WeHaCAL

Introducing West Hartford’s all-inclusive online event calendar!

List your own event by going to WeHaCal.com and click on ADD MY EVENT. For more information or to advertise on this free service, contact Donna Edelstein at 860-833-0839 or Donna@20media20.com

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WHAT’S HAPPENING Jewish organizations are invited to submit their upcoming events to the our What’s Happening section. Events are placed on the Ledger website on Tuesday afternoons. Deadline for submission of calendar items is the previous Tuesday. Send items to: judiej@ jewishledger.com.

THURSDAY, JULY 15 Virtual Book Group: Strangers in Their Own Land A Zoom discussion of the book Strangers in Their Own Land by sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild will be led by Rachel Ranis on July 15, 7 p.m. A finalist for the National Book Award and a New York Times best seller, Strangers in Their Own Land takes Hochschild on a journey from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, Calif., deep into Louisiana bayou country – a stronghold of the conservative right. As she gets to know people who strongly oppose many of the ideas she champions, Hochschild finds common ground and warms to the people she meets. For information or to register: coshalom@sbcglobal.net or (203) 799-2341.

Author Tal Ben-Shahar talks about being happy (no matter what) Harvard Prof. Tal Ben-Shahar, a trailblazing positive psychologist and serial entrepreneur, will discuss his New York Times bestselling book Happier No Matter What: Cultivating Hope, Resilience, and Purpose in Hard Times. A Free rent hotel

by UJA-JCC Greenwich. Link provided upon registration. To register and for more information, visit info@ujajcc.org.

SATURDAY, JULY 17 Tour of Botanical Garden of Healing Tour the new Botanical Garden of Healing with guides Marlene Pratt, a grieving mother who organized this garden dedicated to victims of New Haven gun violence, and BEKI member Jay Brotman, managing partner at Svigals + Partners, designers of the garden. July 17 after services and kiddush lunch. Meet at 12:45 p.m. to walk to the nearby garden.

Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel, 85 Harrison St., at the corner of Whalley Ave., in New Haven. Rain date July 31.

For information: office@beki.org or (203) 389.2108.

Tisha B’Av Service Tisha B’Av Maariv service with kinnot (dirges) & Eikhah (The Book of Lamentations) July 17, 9:20 to 10:30 p.m., in person and on Zoom. At Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel, 85 Harrison St., at the corner of Whalley Ave., in New Haven For information: office@beki.org or (203) 389.2108.

SUNDAY, JULY 18 Tisha BeAv morning service with Torah reading and the book of Eikhah, July 18, 9 a.m., in person and on Zoom.

At Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel, 85 Harrison St., in New Haven. For information: office@beki.org or (203) 389.2108.

JULY 15 – AUGUST 2 your senses through nature – and the lens of Judaism for relaxation and restoration, on July 19 at 10 a.m. Hosted by UJA-JCC Greenwich. Limited spots available.Link provided upon registration. To register and for more information, visit info@ujajcc.org.

FREE

WEDNESDAY, JULY 21 Kumsitz in the Courtyard Kumsitz in the courtyard of Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel (BEKI),, especially suited to those nostalgic for summer camp, will feature campfire, traditional American and Jewish songs, and niggunim (Jewish melodies) – which have no words. Song sheets will be provided; July 21, 7 p.m. At BEKI, 85 Harrison St., New Haven. Rain date: July 22. For information: office@beki. org or 203.389.2108.

FRIDAY, JULY 23 Services on the Beach Congregation Or Shalom will hold Friday evening services on Gulf Beach in Milford.

Drive to the corner of Cherry St. and Gulf St. in Milford; turn left on Gulf St.; proceed to the beach (set your GPS for #460 Gold St.). Services will be immediately on the right, alongside the inlet. Dress casually.

Bring a blanket or each chair, and hats.

Snacks will be available, but feel free to come early with a picnic supper. For more information: orshalomct.org, (203) 7992341.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 28 Elm City Winds Concert in the Courtyard Elm City Winds will perform in concert in the courtyard of Beth El-Keser Israel (BEKI). Composed of Jennifer Sidney Silva, flute; Caesar Storlazzi, oboe; Laura Caruthers, clarinet; Adrienne Gallagher, bassoon; and Emily Fine, French horn, this woodwind quintet performs both classical and popular music; July 28, 7p.m.

Reservations required: office@beki.org or 203.389.2108. FREE, but donations to Jewish Family Services requested. At BEKI, 85 Harrison St., New Haven. Rain date: Thursday, August 5.

THURSDAY, JULY 29 Emanuel Synagogue Solar Panel Celebration The Emanuel Synagogue will unveil its solar energy project at a ceremony to be held July 29, 5 p.m., on the grounds of the West Hartford synagogue at 160 Mohegan Dr. For more information, see story p5.

MONDAY, AUGUST 2 27th Annual Or Shalom Golf Tournament Save the date for the annual Or Shalom Gold Tournament to be held August 2, 8 a.m. at Orange Country Club. Breakfast and a BBQ lunch are included in the entry fee (kosher dietary laws observed). For information and to register: (203) 7992341.

MONDAY, JULY 19 Nature Therapy Placemaking Maura Smotrich, Certified Nature Therapy Guide Maura Smotrich will help awaken

BULLETIN BOARD ADL Connecticut invites applications for Glass Leadership Institute

Join our email list for the latest updates!

Contact Howard Meyerowitz howardm@jewishledger.com 860.231.2424 x3035 jewishledger.com

Applications for ADL New York/New Jersey and Connecticut’s 2021-2022 Glass Leadership Institute are now open Over the course of 10 months (September - June), Glass Leadership Institute (GLI) fel-lows attend monthly sessions to gain an insider’s perspective of ADL’s programs and impact.

Top ADL experts and community leaders facilitate each session to provide fellows with a deep understanding of the strategies ADL uses to confront hate in all its forms. The culmination of the GLI program is the annual three-day

National Leader-ship Summit (NLS) in Washington D.C., at which GLI participants from across the country, national and regional ADL leaders, and staff from ADL’s regional offices convene for plenary sessions, breakouts and workshops, and lobbying meetings on Capi-tol Hill to advocate for ADL’s policy priorities.

The GLI program provides a unique opportunity for emerging philanthropic leaders to connect with others passionate about ADL’s work and to learn about all aspects of our timeless mission - to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and secure justice and fair treatment to all.

For more information visit ADL. org.

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Briefs

together on additional projects inside and outside the United States. For StandWithUs, the partnership is at the center of a larger initiative called Connect for Progress.

Israeli water technology comes to Navajo Nation community (JNS) The Israeli company Watergen has implemented a pilot project, installing a GEN-M water generator at Rocky Ridge Gas & Market (RRGM) in the Hard Rock community of the Navajo Nation. It was facilitated by store owner Germaine Simonson, Tó Nizhóní Ání (TNA), StandWithUs, Bright Path Strong (BPS) and 4D Products & Services (4D), in coordination with Arlando Teller, former Arizona state representative and current deputy assistant secretary for tribal affairs for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Arizona State Rep. Alma Hernandez (LD3) assisted with the launch of this joint effort as well.

Watergen creates high-quality drinking water from the air. This project aims to address the lack of access to clean drinking water within the Hard Rock community.

According to recent estimates, nearly 10,000 families across Navajo Nation lack access to running water.

Nicole Horseherder, executive director of Tó Nizhóní Ání, said: “We live in a region in which drinking-water sources have been compromised by coal mining. Any way to mitigate the need for water while the aquifers recover is critical.”

TNA worked with Germaine Simonson and Marvin “Callo” James, owners at RRGM to prepare the site and install the electrical hardware needed to operate the GEN-M. Teller said, “Tó ííná át’é. In translation: ‘Water Is Life.’ Ms. Germaine Simonson and Ms. Nicole Horseherder have led this community-based effort to assure installation of this machine is operable and servicing community members.”

Max Samarov, executive director of research and strategy at StandWithUs, said “this partnership is an opportunity to engage with Israel and help ensure that Watergen technology reaches communities that need it most.”

BPS board member Dennis Hendricks explained that “access to clean drinking water has long been a threat to many Native American communities, and the onslaught of climate change is accelerating this challenge.

Bright Path Strong is grateful for the opportunity to partner with Watergen to bring their life-giving technology to help alleviate this need within tribal communities–areas where some of the most vulnerable reside.”

The GEN-M produces up to 211 gallons of purified drinking water per day, depending on climate conditions. Watergen, 4D and TNA will monitor its effectiveness in the Hard Rock Community, and then evaluate whether it can help other communities within the Navajo Nation.

Watergen and StandWithUs are working 20

JEWISH LEDGER

NYPD apprehends Staten Island man behind string of antisemitic attacks (JNS) The New York Police Department announced the arrest on Wednesday, July 7, of a man wanted in connection with a string of antisemitic incidents in late May that culminated with the tossing of an incendiary device that injured a woman in Midtown Manhattan. According to the NYPD Hate Crimes Unit, Mohammed Othman, 24, of Staten Island, N.Y., was seen on video tossing the device from the back of a pickup truck on May 20 as it drove through the “Diamond District” on 47th Street, where many Jews work, particularly Orthodox Jews. A 55-yearold woman who was walking by at the time was burned in the attack. Othman is being charged with three separate anti-Semitic hatecrime assaults, all of which occurred on the same day. The arrest comes a day after the NYPD released its latest crime statistics that show antisemitic attacks on the rise in the city, up some 60 percent over 2020 with more than 110 incidents to date.

Israel sends Nepal vital supplies to fight COVID-19 pandemic (Israel Hayom via JNS) Israel on Wednesday, July 7, sent Nepal supplies meant to help the country battle the coronavirus pandemic battering its population. The South Asian nation has recorded more than 650,000 cases of the virus so far, almost 9,300 deaths. The Israeli Foreign Ministry spearheaded the operation, which saw leading organizations such as IsraAid, Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer and the Commerce Ministry for Israel and Nepal, as well as other organizations, donate essential supplies.

The aid package, which includes ventilators, oxygen tanks and advanced protective gear, was delivered to Kathmandu via a Nepal Air aircraft.

“The State of Israel is proud to help Nepal fight the coronavirus pandemic,” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement.

“Israel’s allies and friends know that Israel will stand by them in times of trouble.”

Israel and Nepal this month mark 61 years of diplomatic relations.

Anti-Israel activists accuse IDF of exploiting Surfside disaster (JNS) Anti-Israel activists took to social media to accuse the Israel Defense Forces of exploiting the collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida.

Rafael Shimunov, a political activist from Queens, N.Y., questioned the motives

| JULY 16, 2021

of involvement by the Israeli military. He tweeted: “I really don’t understand the IDF’s involvement in rescue attempts of people tragically crushed under buildings in Miami.

Their expertise is crushing buildings with people in them, not rescuing them.” He added: “As if we don’t have any expertise or technology here in the U.S. Using these tragic deaths for pro-Israel propaganda is just quite something. These forces are literally stepping over buildings they crushed with children in them to go to Miami and do a PR stunt.”

Pro-Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour replied to Shiminov’s tweet with fingers pointing downwards in agreement. In response, Emily Schrader tweeted: “Imagine being such a small person you’re mad about people you don’t like saving lives.

Linda Sarsour is mad the IDF is saving lives in Miami.”

A rescue delegation from the IDF’s Home Front Command was sent to Surfside to assist in the search and recovery mission.

The delegation arrived within 72 hours of the building’s collapse, helping first responders using 3D mapping and conducting a humanitarian effort to support the families of the missing.

B’nai B’rith International was “outraged and disgusted” by the tweet and retweet from Shimunov and Sarsour. “This horrific statement comes as families are mourning the loss of loved ones and hoping for miracles in the tragic building collapse that still has 113 missing in the rubble. The IDF has worked tirelessly, as Lt. Col. Oz Gino told Hamodia, ‘on the pile as if everybody is alive,’ ” wrote B’nai B’rith International president Charles O. Kaufman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin. “The tweet is not only deeply insensitive but antiZionist and anti-Semitic,” they continued. “A people that, sadly, has had to deal with bombs from Palestinian terrorists is now told it has the temerity to help people in Florida based on their own tragic experience.”

Facebook will provide Holocaust education in 12 languages (JTA) – Facebook is expanding its efforts to combat Holocaust denial by directing users to Holocaust education materials in 12 languages, including Arabic, Russian and German. Beginning in January, people who searched in English for information about the Holocaust or Holocaust denial were given a prompt to visit AboutHolocaust.org, a website that provides basic facts about the genocide and provides testimonies by survivors. By July 13, the site will be available to people who search for those terms in several other widely spoken languages. The site is a project of the World Jewish Congress and UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization.

“It is essential that people all over the world have access to factually accurate information about the Holocaust,” UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said in a statement. “In the context of the global rise of misinformation, social media platforms have

a role to play in combating false narratives and hate, and redirecting users to reliable sources of information.”

The expansion of the Holocaust education site continues an about-face for Facebook that began last year, when the social media giant said it would ban Holocaust denial, after years of defending its distribution as a kind of misinformed but legitimate expression. The WJC has worked with Facebook on fighting Holocaust denial. Last year, before the policy change, the Anti-Defamation League co-organized a high-profile advertising boycott of Facebook to protest its approach to hate speech.

Survey: US Jews getting younger on average (JTA) – The median age of American Jews has dropped from 52 to 48 since 2013, according to a massive survey of Americans and religion, making Jews one of only two religious groups to grow younger on average.

Every other religious grouping except for mainline Protestants tended to age during the same period, although a number remained on average younger than Jews. The median age for all Americans was 47, the survey found.

The Public Religion Research Institute survey, published Thursday, was based on interviews with close to 500,000 people from 2013 until now. The survey, which said Jews comprise 1% of the population, also found, unsurprisingly, that Jews “are primarily concentrated in the Northeast and areas around New York City.” A majority of Jews, 51%, live in suburban areas, 40% live in urban areas and just 8% live in rural areas.

Politically, 44% of Jews identify as Democrats, 31% identify as Independent and 22% as Republican. Jews were one of three groupings among which a majority had college degrees: 58% of Jews, 59% of Unitarian Universalists and 67% of Hindus had degrees.

The report’s findings on age largely align with an earlier study this year by the Pew Research Center, which put the median age for Jews at 49. The Pew study also found that Orthodox Jews had a younger median age (35) than Conservative (62) and Reform Jews (53).

The report’s major takeaway is that a precipitous drop in recent decades among white Christians has stabilized. More than 80% of Americans identified as white Christians in 1976, NPR reported, and that proportion was at two-thirds in 1996.

3 years after shul massacre, PA lawmakers eliminate nonprofit security funding (JTA) – The Orthodox Union blasted Pennsylvania Republican-led Pennsylvania legislature for cutting security funding for nonprofits to zero. The General Assembly budget passed last month effectively ended a five-year fund the state established in

2019, just after the Tree of Life massacre in Pittsburgh, to secure nonprofits. The fund has so far distributed $10 million in grants of between $25,000 and $150,000 to organizations designated by the FBI as likely targets for hate crimes, including synagogues, churches and mosques.

White supremacist activity has only increased in the Pittsburgh area since then.

“Jewish community leaders across the commonwealth are disappointed with the Pennsylvania General Assembly’s decision to defund security support for at-risk groups last week,” the Orthodox Union said in a statement July 6. “Although authorized to fund the nonprofit grant program through 2024, the legislature has now curtailed the five-year directive, zeroing out a resource demanded by the biased crimes and violence rampant in the country.”

The cut was one of a number of programs zeroed out as Republicans led the passage of a $40 billion budget that invests in education and infrastructure, but reserves about $5 billion for savings in order to keep taxes from rising. Much of the reserved money comes from billions in federal stimulus funds directed to the state for coronavirus relief.

“How do you choose to be fiscally conservative and leave so many populations in need when you have excess dollars because of the federal stimulus dollars?” said Arielle Frankston-Morris, the executive director of Teach PA, an Orthodox Union project. “One of the hardest parts for me is going back to JCCs, synagogues and camps and saying, ‘I know you’re scared, but this year we don’t have the funding.’”

Marjorie Taylor Greene invokes another Nazi analogy (JTA) – Just weeks after touring the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and apologizing for using Nazi analogies, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene likened vaccination outreach to Naziera thugs. “Biden pushing a vaccine that is NOT FDA approved shows covid is a political tool used to control people,” Greene, a Georgia Republican, tweeted on Tuesday, July 6. “People have a choice, they don’t need your medical brown shirts showing up at their door ordering vaccinations. You can’t force people to be part of the human experiment.”

Greene attached her tweet to a video of President Joe Biden speaking earlier in the day about accelerated efforts to achieve herd immunity in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. Among other measures, he said, “Now we need to go to the community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood, and oftentimes, door to door – literally knocking on doors – to get help to the remaining people protected from the virus.”

Biden did not say vaccines would be coerced, and there is no record of federal officials coercing vaccination. All available vaccines have conditional federal Food and Drug Administration approval; it’s not clear what vaccine Greene is referring to in her

tweet.

Brownshirts is a collective term for militias prevalent before Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany and after he assumed power. They used violence to target Jews and some minorities.

Greene apologized last month for likening coronavirus protections to Holocaust-era restrictions on Jews. She had a private tour of the Holocaust museum before issuing her apology.

England’s Chelsea soccer club partners with ADL to fight bigotry (JTA) – The famed London-based Chelsea Football Club and the Anti-Defamation League have joined in a partnership to combat bigotry. For the next three years, Chelsea’s foundation will fund the expansion of the ADL’s Center on Extremism – which feeds information on extremist activity to law enforcement – and the ADL’s work with a British group tracking extremism, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

Also funded will be BINAH Europe, a resource for non-Jewish students to learn about antisemitism and Jewish identity, Chelsea said in a release last week. The team and the ADL already work together on “No Place for Hate,” an anti-bigotry curriculum for school-aged children.

Roman Abramovich, the dual RussianIsraeli citizen who owns Chelsea Football Club, has made combating antisemitism and bigotry in sports and elsewhere a focus of his ownership. In the statement announcing the partnership, Bruce Buck, the Chelsea FC chairman, alluded to online antisemitic attacks on Abramovich and racist attacks on players. “The online hate towards our players, both men and women, towards our executives and towards our owner has increased severalfold in the last year alone,” he said.

In April, the football club banned a fan from attending games for 10 years for targeting a journalist with antisemitic messages online.

Jewish man documents himself encountering antisemitic abuse in London (JTA) – A Jewish man documented himself encountering antisemitic rhetoric twice in one hour while using London’s public transportation system, refocusing British media attention to the issue. In one incident aboard a bus, a passenger threatened to ” shank” the Jewish man, who is an Orthodox Jew, and “slit his throat for Palestine.” The man also called the alleged victim “f***ing scumbag” and told him he’d “f***ing beat the s*** out of you.” An hour later, the same Jewish man filmed himself being mocked by young men while exiting a subway station.

One of the men shouted: “F***ing hate the Jews.”

The Daily Mail tabloid reported on the

incidents, which happened Saturday night.

Marie van der Zyl , the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, in a statement called the rhetoric “disgusting racist threats and abuse” and added that those responsible “should be must be tracked down and prosecuted.”

Community Security Trust, British Jewry’s security unit, documented 460 incidents from May 8 to June 7, the highest monthly total since records began in 1984, with 316 happening offline and 144 online. Israel’s latest violent conflict with Hamas militants in Gaza began on May 9.

Belarus president says Jews got the world to ‘bow before them’ (JTA) – In a speech about raising awareness of Nazi war crimes against Belarusian citizens, President Alexander Lukashenko said his country’s people should follow the example of “the Jews,” who got the world to “bow before them.” “I have already said that we began to do this, investigating the crimes of Nazism on the Belarusian land. This is akin to the Belarusian Holocaust, or the Holocaust of the Belarusian people. The Jews were able to prove it. The whole world today bows before them, they are even afraid to point a finger at them, and we are so tolerant, so kind, we did not want to offend anyone,” he said.

In the speech, timed to Belarus’ independence day, Lukashenko, an authoritarian leader, warned against revisionism of World War II history but did not say who is behind these attempts. The Nazis killed about three million civilians in Belarus, including about 800,000 Jews.

Public expressions of antisemitism are rare in Belarus, but the country saw an uptick in online antisemitic rhetoric in 2018, after a Jewish businessman opened a restaurant on the edge of a mass grave of non-Jewish victims of the Soviet secret police.

Technion ranked No. 1 in Europe in field of artificial intelligence (JNS) CSRankings, the leading metrics-based ranking of top computer-science institutions around the world, has ranked the Technion– Israeli Institute of Technology No. 1 in the field of artificial intelligence in Europe (and, of course, in Israel), and 15th worldwide.

In the subfield of machine learning, the Technion is ranked 11th worldwide.

The data used to compile the rankings is from 2016 to 2021.

An innovation for the Technion’s prowess is the Machine Learning and Intelligent Systems (MLIS) research center, which aggregates all AI-related activities.

Currently, 46 Technion researchers are engaged in core AI research areas with more than 100 researchers in AI-related fields: health and medicine, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, industrial robotics, cybersecurity,

natural language processing, FinTech, human-machine interaction, and others.

The MLIS is co-directed by two leading AI researchers: Professor Shie Mannor of the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor Assaf Schuster of the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science.

The center has four main goals: (1) establishing the Technion as a top-five university in the field of AI worldwide; (2) pooling resources, and recruiting researchers and students from Technion departments to advance and conduct joint research in the field; (3) connecting Technion researchers with relevant parties in the industry, especially tech companies and other organizations that generate Big Data; (4) establishing close research collaboration with other prominent research institutes in the AI field in Israel and the world.

In May 2021, the Technion entered a longterm collaboration with American software giant PTC, under which the company will transfer its Haifa research campus to the Technion, to advance joint research in AI and manufacturing technology.

PTC joins several other organizations that collaborate with the Technion in these fields, including the technological universities of Lausanne (Switzerland), Eindhoven (Netherlands), Munich (Germany), and the Paris Polytechnique (France) in Europe, as well as Cornell Tech, home of the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, Waterloo University, and Carnegie Mellon University, which operates the largest center for AI and robotics in the United States.

Palestinian Authority finds new way for terrorists to get cash (JNS) The Palestinian Authority announced a new mechanism for disbursing payments to terrorists and their families by using ATMs at P.A. post offices, according to a report by MEMRI. Those receiving funds will receive cards for withdrawing money from the P.A. postal bank using ATM machines.

The change came against the backdrop of a severe deficit in the P.A. budget, which stood at $417 million in the first half of 2021. It also remains in line with the policy of P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas, who has repeatedly declared that it the duty of the P.A. to compensate terrorists – whether in prison, released from prison, or injured or killed while carrying out terror attacks. In addition, their families also receive allowances. This, he says, is a national and social obligation, and will not be stopped despite intense Israeli and international pressure to do so.

According to the report, the P.A. attempted to set up a bank separate from the existing banking system to avoid Israeli penalties. However, long lines at the post office to withdraw the funds reportedly embarrassed the prisoners and their families.

JEWISH LEDGER

|

JULY 16, 2021

21

TORAHPortion Devarim

M

BY RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

any years ago, I spent a semester at an elite institution devoted only to Talmud.

At the school, one student in particular stood out for me. He was about 25 years old, and I soon learned that he was the school’s wunderkind.

His scholarly achievements impressed everyone. In early adolescence, he had found his studies extremely frustrating. He was not as bright as his peers, had great difficulties in following the give and take of Talmudic passages, and couldn’t handle the bilingual curriculum. At the suggestion of his high school’s guidance counselor, he made a trip to Israel to study there.

While there, still frustrated, he sought the blessing and counsel of the famous sage, Rabbi Abraham Isaiah Karelitz, more commonly known as the Chazon Ish. This great man encouraged the young lad to persist in his studies, but to limit the scope of his daily efforts to small, “bite-sized chunks” of text. He concluded the interview with a blessing, quoting the passage in Psalms which asserts that Torah study can make even a dullard wise.

I befriended the young man and attempted to enlist him as my study partner. But I soon discovered that his keen intelligence and the broad scope of his knowledge were now far too advanced for me. He had become an intellectual giant.

I learned a most important life lesson from this fellow. I learned that one can overcome his limitations if he persists in trying to overcome them. I learned that one could undo his natural challenges with a combination of heeding wise counsel, becoming inspired spiritually, and devoting himself with diligence and dedication to the task.

Later in life I realized that I could have learned the same important life lesson from this week’s Torah portion, Devarim, and from no less a personage than our teacher, Moses.

This week, we begin the book of Deuteronomy. Almost all of this book consists of the major address which Moses gave to the Jewish people before he took his final leave from them. “These are the words that Moses addressed to all of Israel...” (Deuteronomy 1:1).

Readers of this verse will that is was just six months ago when we first encountered Moses, back in the Torah portion of Shemot. We then read of how Moses addressed the Almighty and expressed his inability to accept the divine mission. “Please, O Lord, I have never

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JEWISH LEDGER

been a man of words, either in times past or now that You have spoken to Your servant; I am slow of speech and slow of tongue...” (Exodus 4:10), said Moses, who stammered and stuttered, and suffered from a genuine speech defect.

How surprising it is, then, that in this week’s Torah portion, albeit 40 years later, he is capable of delivering the lengthy and eloquent address which we are about to read every week for the next several months! How did he overcome his limitations? What are the secrets of his path to eloquence?

These questions are asked in the collection of homilies known as the Midrash Tanchuma. There, the rabbis speak of the astounding power of sincere and sustained Torah study. They speak too of the effects of years of practice. And they emphasize the healing which comes about from a connection with the One Above.

The rabbis of the Midrash Tanchuma could have cited the Lord’s own response to Moses’ initial complaint: “Who gives a man speech? Who makes him dumb or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?”

But those rabbis chose another proof text entirely to illustrate that man, with God’s help, can overcome his handicaps and challenges. They quote instead that beautiful passage in the book of Isaiah which reads: Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb shall shout aloud; For waters shall burst forth in the desert, Streams in the wilderness. (Isaiah 35:5-6) We seldom contemplate the development, nay transformation, of the man who was Moses. But it is important to do so because, although we each have our unique challenges and personal handicaps, we are capable of coping with them, and often of overcoming them. We all can develop, and we all can potentially transform ourselves.

This week, and in all of the ensuing weeks which lie ahead, as we read Moses’ masterful valedictory and are impressed with the beauty of his language, we must strive to remember that he was not always a skilled orator. Quite the contrary, he was once an aral sefatayim, a man of impeded speech, who grew to achieve the divine blessing of shedding his impediments and addressing his people with the inspiring and eminent long speech that is the book of Deuteronomy. He can be a role model for us all.

| JULY 16, 2021

These are the Jewish victims of

BY BEN HARRIS AND SHIRA HANAU

This article was last updated July 6.

(JTA) – The town of Surfside, Florida – site of the tragic Champlain Towers building collapse – is at least a third Jewish, with a large Orthodox population. And so, the tragedy has hit the Jewish community hard, with many of its members confirmed dead of missing.

We’ve gathered information here on those we could confirm as Jewish. Unfortunately, this list may grow as the days pass and more bodies are found. We will update it accordingly.

Confirmed dead Stacie Fang, 54, a New Jersey native who was the first victim of the Champlain Towers disaster to be identified, was the vice president of a Surfside-based company that produces an annual event in Chicago for retail and marketing executives. Her 15-year-old son, Jonah Hendler, was pulled alive from the wreckage of the building by a passerby shortly after it collapsed. “There are no words to describe the tragic loss of our beloved Stacie,” her family said in a statement.

Leon Oliwkowicz, 80, and Christina Beatriz Elvira, 74, were a Venezuelan Jewish couple who recently moved to Florida.

They were among the first victims of the disaster to be identified. In 2019, the couple donated a Torah scroll to a Chabad yeshiva in Chicago where their daughter worked as a secretary, according to a report on the Chabad website Collive. At the dedication, Oliwkowicz, speaking in Yiddish, expressed his joy at having finally commissioned a Torah scroll in memory of his parents.

Frank Kleiman, 55, had much to look forward to. His most recent public Facebook post on Feb. 22, captioned “New venture, new beginnings,” referred to a postal company he had just started. He had recently married Ana Ortiz, and was looking forward to the birth of his first grandchild. Ortiz and her son Luis are among the missing. Kleiman, a child of Cuban Jewish emigres, was raised in Puerto Rico. He attended Drexel University in Philadelphia, earning a degree in finance, and was a big fan of the Philadelphia Eagles. His mother, Nancy Kress Levin, also lived in the building.

And his brother, Jay, was visiting from Puerto Rico. They, too, are among the missing.

Michael David Altman, 50, had lived in his apartment, which had been in his family since the 1980s, for six years when the building collapsed. Altman, a Costa Rica native, came to the United States with his parents at the age of four. He is survived by his parents, both in their 70s, as well as his two sons, Nicholas and Jeffrey, both in college. Friends of Altman who posted to social media said he played racquetball regularly, according to the Palm Beach Post.

His older son, Nicholas, told the Miami

Herald that his father was “very loving,” “always smiling,” and “very fun and loved to tell jokes.” He was a great father, and a great son to my grandparents,” Nicholas said.

Tzvi and Itty Ainsworth, 68 and 66, had seven children and had lived in Australia for nearly 20 years where they were members of the Chabad of the North Shore in Sydney. They moved to South Florida several years ago to be closer to their children and grandchildren there. One daughter lives just a few blocks away from the Champlain Towers.

The Ainsworths had recently celebrated the birth of two grandchildren.

“Every person she encountered, ever in her life, became her friend. Everyone was treated as equals,” Chana Wasserman, one of the Ainsworths’ daughters, wrote in a Mother’s Day blog post about her mother last year. “The guy at the laundromat, the guy working at the fruit market …” Rabbi Nochum Schapiro, head of their former Australian congregation, told the Australian Jewish News that “the community is urged to pray, to say tehillim [psalms], and to do mitzvot so that a miracle happens.”

Bonnie and David Epstein, 56 and 58, loved to go jet skiing and kite surfing.

So when they retired early from their work as real estate investors and moved into an apartment on the 9th floor of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, it was something of a dream come true. They were set to take their annual drive to Philadelphia and make a visit to their son Jonathan, 26, in New York before the building collapsed but delayed their trip while David recovered from an injury “My parents were really the best and it’s been so comforting to relive the joy of their lives through the testimony of friends and loved ones,” Jonathan Epstein wrote in a Facebook post, according to the Miami Herald. “Mom and Dad, I love you both so much and I’m so so proud to be your son.”

Missing Jay Kleiman, 51, brother of Frank, was in South Florida, back in the condo where he grew up – only to attend the funeral of a good friend who had died of COVID-19, NBC Miami reported. “It is so tragic that he flew for a friend who died from COVID complications, and ended up there,” said Mark Baranek, who coached Kleiman and his friend, George Matz, on a flag football team at their synagogue. In Puerto Rico, Kleiman worked with his father in a garment industry company.

Nancy Kress Levin, 76, the Kleimans’ mother, had fled the Cuban Revolution in 1959. She and her husband first settled in Puerto Rico. In the 1980s, Levin moved as a single mom with her two sons to Surfside and lived in Champlain Towers, then a new building popular with Hispanic Jews who had jewishledger.com

f the Surfside building collapse arrived mostly from Cuba.

Moises Rodan, 20s, graduated this year from the University of Florida, where he studied computer engineering. Rodan attended a Jewish high school in Caracas, Venezuela, called Colegio Moral y Luces Herzl-Bialik and was involved in the Venezuelan Jewish community in the Miami area, according to the Miami Herald. In college he was involved in a student group called Hispanics and Latinos in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Andres Levine, 26, was supposed to be married in August. The 26-year-old, who worked in finance, had moved to Florida from Venezuela about seven years ago in search of better work opportunities. He had attended high school with Rodan. Esther Beniflah Melul, a friend who attended the same school and also was a close friend of Levine, told the Miami Herald that she had spoken with him the night before the collapse. “We had so many plans, so many things to do … I was going to have dinner with him that Thursday night,” she said. “We spoke the night before. I just can’t believe he’s gone.”

Luis Sadovnic and Nicky Langesfeld, were engaged on the beach in front of the Champlain Towers in December, though they had only moved into the building a few months before its collapse. Langesfeld, a lawyer whose family lives in Argentina, and Sadovnic, who had an MBA and also attended the Colegio Moral y Luces Herzl-Bialik Jewish school in Venezuela, were married in a private civil ceremony in January, according to The Associated Press.

Organizers of a GoFundMe page for the couple’s families wrote that the couple loved to spend time together on the beach. A colleague of Langesfeld said the couple liked to listen to reggaeton music. “Her presence is larger than life, and her sense of humor knows no bounds. She has the biggest heart and she loves to spoil her guinea pig Kali, and her dogs Capo and Zoey,” organizers of the fundraiser wrote of Langesfeld. Luis is down to earth, caring, and loving. He would do anything to protect Nicky,” they wrote about Sadovnic.

Harry Rosenberg, 52, had experienced a rough year. His wife, Anna, died of cancer last summer and both his parents died of COVID-19. Seeking a respite he moved to South Florida, where he rented a series of places before settling on the Champlain Towers. He purchased his unit there only last month, according to a report by Chabad.org.

Rosenberg returned to the apartment from a trip to New York just hours before the towers collapsed. “Chaim is a man of intense faith,” said Sendy Liebhard, a friend. “Life threw him a lot of curveballs, especially recently.

His faith in God and positive outlook is what’s nourished him.”

Malky Weisz, 27, and Benny Weisz, 32, lived in Lakewood, New Jersey and were in town to visit Malky’s father, Harry Rosenberg. Malky worked as an auditor at an accounting firm and Benny, originally from Austria, worked in finance.

Shushy Bernholtz, a friend of Benny’s since childhood, told Chabad.org that Benny had wide-ranging interests. He reportedly studied in a yeshiva in Israel and a kollel in Lakewood. “Benny knows everything,” Bernholtz said. “He can quote the works of the great German playwrights and poets like Goethe and Schiller, and explained the most complex debates in the Talmud with relevant commentaries.”

Ilan Naibryf, 21, and Deborah Berezdivin, 21, were a couple who had travelled to Surfside for the funeral of a family friend. Berezdivin’s family owned two units on the building’s eighth floor, according to The New York Times.

In March, the University of Chicago awarded Naibryf and two classmates $15,000 for their startup, a financial technology company that enabled the purchase of goods and services with stock. Naibryf, an Argentina native raised in Hawaii, was a physics major and the past president of the university’s Chabad student center. He had just completed his third year. Berezdivin was a marketing major at George Washington University who was raised in Puerto Rico. She dreamed of working in luxury fashion, according to a report in El Nuevo Dia. For more on Naibryf, see story on page 24.

Linda March, 58, left New York, her lifelong home, March, a lawyer, moved to Champlain Towers this past year, in search of a less cramped place to live near the beach.

Paula Silverman, a close friend who had texted with March just a few hours before the collapse, said March was looking to start over after becoming ill with COVID last year. March had lost a sister to cancer more than 10 years ago, then her parents not long afterward. “She was young and ready for the next stage of her life. I can’t wrap my head around it,” Silverman told the The Jerusalem Post. Silverman said her friend was a social person who cared about everyone and had a sense of humor that reminded her of Joan Rivers. “She knew everyone. You’d walk down the street and you’d see her talking to the mailman, talking to everybody, giving out masks to everybody,” Silverman said. “A heart of gold.”

Judy Spiegel, 65, was enjoying spending more time with her grandchildren since she and her husband, Kevin, moved to Surfside in 2017. The move brought them closer to their daughter, Rachel, and her family in Miami.

Spiegel, a Merrill Lynch stockbroker, taught Rachel’s four-year-old daughter Scarlett how to read, write, and count during the

IMAGES OF ANDRES LEVINE, ILAN NAIBRYF AND DEBORAH BEREZDIVIN, THREE OF THE JEWISH VICTIMS OF THE SURFSIDE BUILDING COLLAPSE, IN CENTER AMONG OTHER PHOTOGRAPHS OF THOSE MISSING POSTED AT A MAKESHIFT MEMORIAL ON THE BUILDING SITE IN SURFSIDE, FLA., JUNE 26, 2021.

(CREDIT: ANDREA SARCOS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES)

pandemic. Kevin Spiegel was traveling for his job when the building collapsed. “The other day [Scarlett’s] asking where is grandma, and I tried to explain that there’s been an accident,” he told the Miami Herald. “Scarlett responded, oh, she does this all the time, but I know all her hiding spots, just take me there and I’ll find her.” The Spiegels were longtime members of the Chabad of Southampton on New York’s Long Island. Her daughter Rachel described her to the Associated Press as a “passionate advocate for Holocaust awareness.”

Estelle Hedaya, 54, a 30-year veteran of the jewelry industry, had moved to Surfside from New York in 2015 to work at Continental Buying Group and Preferred Jewelers International, where she was director of operations. She celebrated the end of each work week at a Friday afternoon Zoom happy hour that she organized, called Hedaya Happy Hour. It always ended before Shabbat, which she observed. On her blog, “Follow the Toes,” Hedaya chronicled her life in Surfside and her visits to local spas and restaurants, as well as her foreign travels. A friend of Hedaya, Mindy Beth Silverman, told the Miami Herald her friend had thrived in South Florida. “If there was something fun to do, she was first in line,” Silverman said.

Brad Cohen, 51, an orthopedic surgeon and father of two, regularly attended synagogue and kept a “fully observant”Jewish home, according to Chabad.org, with his wife and two children. They were not in the building at the time of its collapse. Born in Dix Hills, New York, Cohen moved to Florida and lived near his parents, who reside in Boynton Beach.

When Cohen’s 12-year-old daughter, Elisheva, was brought with other families of the missing to visit the site of the collapsed building on the weekend after the collapse, she sat down on the ground to recite Psalms.

“She wasn’t crying. She was just lost. She didn’t know what to do, what to say, who to talk to,” Surfside’s mayor Charles Burkett said

of the encounter.

Gary Cohen, 59, also a doctor, was in town to visit his parents and was staying at his brother Brad’s apartment when the building collapsed. Cohen, a psychiatrist at the Tuscaloosa Veterans Affairs Medical Center, lived in Birmingham, Alabama, with his wife, Mindy. The couple has two children.

The pair had become more observant in recent years, thanks to his brother, according to Chabad.org.

Myriam and Arnie Notkin, 81 and 87, were married for about two decades.

Arnie, a former physical education teacher in Miami Beach, was the kind of teacher former students spoke of lovingly decades after graduating from school. Brian Gadinsky, a former student of Notkin, remembered his former teacher in an interview with the Miami Herald. “He was the teacher that if you saw in the hallway, you’d be happy, you’d be smiling.

You wouldn’t be looking the other way or try to duck in the bathroom,” he said.

Myriam worked as a real estate agent and later served on the co-op board of the Champlain Towers South. She immigrated to the United States from Cuba. “You could tell that they loved each other,” Fortuna Smukler, a childhood friend of Myriam’s daughter, told the Herald.

Ruslan Manashirov and Nicole Doran, were planning a honeymoon trip to Greece and France for September. They had just gotten married in May after rescheduling their wedding multiple times during the pandemic. And they were starting their married life together in a new apartment – they moved into Champlain Towers South after their wedding.

Both worked in the medical field and moved to Florida as adults. Manashirov, an Azerbaijani Jew originally from Baku, was a neurologist and Nicole, from Pittsburgh, was a physician’s assistant. “They were very, very much in love,” Wendy Kays, a nurse who worked with Nicole 11 years ago, told The Washington Post.

JEWISH LEDGER | JULY 16, 2021

23

OBITUARIES BACHMAN Robert Bachman, 88, died June 28. He was the husband of Irma Bachman. Raised in New Haven, he was son of the late Irving and Symmie Bachman. He was also predeceased by his sister Annette Cohen and her husband Sydney. He was a member of Congregation Mishkan Israel for many years. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, David Bachman, Alan Bachman and his wife Emily Ngo, and Erica Kramer and her husband Larry; his grandchildren, Jeremy and Mitchell Bachman and Alix, Kyra and Sonia Kramer.

BARKAN Rita Gailing Barkan, 87, of Norwalk, died June 30. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., she was the daughter of Sylvia Goldberg Gailing and Louis Gailing. She is survived by her sister, Ellen Gailing Deutsch of Cedarhurst, N.Y.; her sons, Seth J. Barkan (Lisa), and Adam Barkan; her grandchildren, Benjamin Barkan and Emelie Wittenberg; a niece and nephew and their families.

CROSKY Jacqueline (Jackie) Crosky, 96, of Williamstown, Mass., formerly of West Hartford, Conn. Boynton Beach, Fla., and Lenox, Mass., died May 5. She was the widow of Morris Crosky. Born in Chicago, Ill., she was the daughter of the late Fay and Roy Nepon. She was a founding member of Congregation Beth El in West Hartford She is survived by her children, Neal Crosky of Avon, Conn., Robert Crosky and his wife Cathy of Williamstown, Mass., and Laura Crosky of West Hartford, Conn; and her grandchildren, Benjamin Crosky of Santa Fe, NM and Sarah Crosky of Albany, NY. GALEWITZ Miriam “Mimi” Galewitz, 87, of Orange, formerly of Plainview, N.Y., died July 1.

She was the widow of Herb Galewitz. Born and raised in New Haven, she was the

daughter of Eva and Robert Nodelman. She is survived by her children, Eve and Philip; her grandsons, Jonah and Tanner; and her nephews, Bill and Bob Hartenstine.

GREENSTEIN Ruthe (Dober) Greenstein, 95, of West Hartford, died June 29. She was the widow of Joseph Greenstein. Born in Bridgeport, she was the daughter of the late Harry and Rose (Schlamuk) Dober. She was a member of the Beth David Synagogue in West Hartford. She is survived by her children, Lauri Greenstein of West Hartford, and Marc Greenstein and his wife Missy Rubley of Clermont, Fla.; many nieces and nephews and their families; her brother-in-law Leonard Alpert. She was also predeceased by her two sisters, Sophie Alpert and Yetta Dober.

GROSS Fred Howard Gross, 74, of New Haven, died July 2. He was the husband of Ina Wallach Gross. Raised in New Haven, he was the son of Moses and Anne Trachten Gross. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Barry Gross and his wife Lauren, Beth Messina and her husband Joseph; his grandchildren, Maxwell and Zachary Gross, and Lilly Messina; his brother Jerome; and his sister Robin.

REISNER Ronald Scott Reisner, 56, of Charleston, S.C., formerly of Bloomfield, died June 29.

Born and raised in Bloomfield, he was the son of Barbara (Lessinger) Reisner and the late Carl Resiner z”l, both of Bloomfield.

In addition to his mother, he is survived by his children, Lily Reisner of Plainville, and Jared Reisner of Farmington; his sister Heidi York and her husband Rick of Windsor; his brother Marc Reisner and his wife Lynn of Natick, Mass.; and several nieces and nephews.

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| JULY 16, 2021

The U of Chicago’s Jewish community reels with one student missing in Surfside and another killed by a stray bullet

BY BEN SALES

(JTA) – Rabbi Anna Levin Rosen has counseled Jewish students at the University of Chicago through crises before. But she says the last two weeks have been “devastating.”

First, Ilan Naibryf, 21, disappeared in last month’s Surfside, Florida, building collapse. He had been visiting with his girlfriend, Deborah Berezdivin, whose family owned two units in the building; neither of them has been found yet.

Then, last week, Max Lewis, 20, was struck by a stray bullet while riding the train back from his internship at a finance firm. Paralyzed from the neck down, he died on Sunday after he asked to be taken off life support.

Levin Rosen, who is the rabbi of the university’s Hillel, visited Lewis’ hospital the morning he died, standing in a circle with 15 of his family members and friends and leading them in reciting the Shema and singing Psalm 121, which is about trusting in God during hard times.

“The fabric of our community has been irreparably torn through these tragedies,” she said. “There’s a combination of unimaginable devastation for all who knew them, especially those who were friends with both, and the desire to be present for each other and support each other knowing that that’s the best thing we can do to give honor to what matters most to them.”

Both Lewis and Naibryf were prominent members of the University of Chicago’s small Jewish community, which numbers around 800 among an undergraduate student body of about 6,700. Naibryf, a rising senior, was president of the Chabad Student Board and an outspoken advocate for Israel. Lewis, a rising junior, was the president of the campus chapter of AEPi, the Jewish fraternity.

Baila Brackman, who runs the university’s Chabad center with her husband, Rabbi Yossi Brackman, said both students were inquisitive, caring and energetic.

“They were precious young men whom we cared about deeply and loved deeply,” she said. “Both of them always had a huge smile. Their smiles just brightened up the room. They were very happy, kind, caring and giving. Not once did I hear them say a bad word about someone.”

Brackman said that Naibryf became active in Chabad as a freshman and that

she and her husband came to view him as a family member, “almost a sibling” to their kids. When the pandemic hit, she said, he came up with ideas for Zoom programs to keep students engaged.

“He was unapologetic about Israel and how much he loved Israel, and he wanted to make sure that students had the history of Israel,” Baila Brackman said. “He worked very hard to make sure there was a lot of Jewish pride on campus. He would just come into the Chabad house, just smile and say, ‘What can I do and how can I help?’”

A similar spirit animated Lewis, said his best friend and roommate, Zach Cogan.

Cogan said Lewis, an avid runner and car enthusiast, was the kind of person you could talk to about anything, “the most kind person.” Cogan recalled that during the pandemic, Lewis stayed on campus to make sure he was there for other AEPi brothers.

“For Max, there was nothing bad you could possibly say about him,” said Cogan.

“He was the best of us. He was so caring and selfless, and he never asked anybody for anything.”

The past few days have been “extremely difficult and taxing,” Cogan said. “I’ve gone to text him several times and realize he’s not here, and it’s crushing.”

A fundraiser in Lewis’ memory, set up

by Cogan and another friend, has raised $67,287 as of Tuesday evening, more than triple its $20,000 goal. Cogan is also helping students go to Lewis’ funeral in Denver, and says as many as 70 or 80 might go.

“With the loss of Ilan in Miami and Max with this horrific senseless shooting, it is super unfortunate for the Jewish community of UChicago to have lost two incredible people,” Cogan said. “There are people who, in your first encounter with them, you kind of know – ‘Wow, that’s a great person.’ And Ilan and Max both had that effect.”

Now, Levin Rosen and the Brackmans are figuring out how to comfort their students over the summer and once school restarts in the fall. They held a joint Shabbat dinner for students and Lewis’ relatives on Friday. They’re helping students access professional counseling and are reaching out to Lewis’ and Naibryf’s friends to check in. The Brackmans hope to memorialize both students, perhaps dedicating a portion of the Chabad building in their memory.

But they’re also struggling with what Brackman, who has worked on campus for 20 years, called “one of our most difficult weeks.”

“Why????????” the Brackmans posted Sunday, shortly after Lewis’ death, on a joint Facebook account. “There’s no answer.

Our hearts just break, again.”

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

Service • Reasonable Rates • Free Estimates • Fully Insured

Contact: mathtutordamoreonline@gmail.com

Emilio N. Polce 860.432.9444 • Fax 860.432.7559 109 Strawberry Lane • Manchester, CT epolce@ecochoicepest.com ecochoicepest.com

ROOFING

TAX PREPARATION

WEB SOLUTIONS

860.930.2536 • Dan Messina

One-on-one sessions $75 Per Hour

Daniel S. Levine, CPA Certified Public Accountant

WITH ZAMAN ROOFING

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Call to schedule your free estimate today.

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Individual and Business Tax Preparaion Low Reasonable Rates

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

Web Design • SEO • Branding • Marketing UX/UI Design • Social Media Management E-Commerce • Graphic Design • Videography

860.595.2018 westhartfordwebsolutions.com JEWISH LEDGER | JULY 16, 2021

25

CLASSIFIED

LOOK for these MAGAZINES in your INBOX!

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

TRENDING

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Needed, a live-in caregiver for an elderly female home owner in Bloomfield. Duties include trash out, availability at night in case of emergency - attached apartment provided at reduced rent. Applicant must submit 3 references. Call Vivian at 860301-2066.

CELEBRATIONS • JUNE SENIOR LIVING • AUG.

MARCH JUNE SEPTEMBER NOVEMBER

BLACK FRIDAY GIFT GUIDE: NOVEMBER

Kosher NEW ENGLAND

MARCH

CNA - Five or Seven Days - Live In - Seventeen Years Experience - References Available - 860938-1476.

Mary and Alex Housecleaning.

We have experience and references. We are an insured company. Please call or Txt for a free quote. 860-328-1757 or servicesam.llc@gmail.com.

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: 860229-2038 No Text or Email.

Caregiver - Willing to care for your loved ones overnight - Excellent local references Avoid nursing home or hospital in light of Covid 19. Call 860550-0483.

Tricia’s Cleaning Service - Residential & Commercial Detailed cleaning for Home & Office - For Free Quote call 860477-8636.

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.

JEWISH

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

FOR SALE OR SEASONAL RENTAL

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.

Two bedroom, two bath villa in Boynton Beach. Available immediately. $2800 monthly for winter season plus utilities.

Community pool, tennis and pickleball courts 561-632-6662.

WANTED TO BUY

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.

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

Have something to sell?

Have something to rent?

Have a service to promote?

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

CONNECTICUT September

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

MASSACHUSETTS December For more information on advertising in these magazines, call Donna 860.833.0839 or DonnaE@jewishledger.com JEWISH LEDGER

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

CHAUFFEUR, WEST HARTFORD will drive you to New York, Boston, New England tri-state area. Reasonable rates.

References. Call Jeff 860-7124115.

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

All Things

26

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

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.

| JULY 16, 2021

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.

Reach our highly qualified readers by placing your display classified ad in our digital issue with a LIVE link to your website!

Contact Leslie 860.231.2424 or leslie@jewishledger.com 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, Cantor Niema Hirsch info@rodephsholom.com www.rodephsholom.com CHESHIRE Temple Beth David Reform Rabbi Micah Ellenson (203) 272-0037 office@TBDCheshire.org www.TBDCheshire.org 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

Temple Sholom Conservative Rabbi Mitchell M. Hurvitz Rabbi Kevin Peters Cantor Sandy Bernstein (203) 869-7191 info@templesholom.com www.templesholom.com

EAST HARTFORD Temple Beth Tefilah Conservative Rabbi Yisroel Snyder (860) 569-0670 templebetht@yahoo.com

HAMDEN Temple Beth Sholom Conservative Rabbi Benjamin Edidin Scolnic (203) 288-7748 tbsoffice@tbshamden.com www.tbshamden.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

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 Rabbi Nelly Altenburger (860) 346-4709 office@adathisraelct.org www.adathisraelct.org

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NEW HAVEN The Towers at Tower Lane Conservative Ruth Greenblatt, Spiritual Leader Sarah Moskowitz, Spiritual Leader (203) 772-1816 rebecca@towerlane.org www.towerlane.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 203-776-1468 www.orchardstreetshul.org NEW LONDON Ahavath Chesed Synagogue Orthodox Rabbi Avrohom Sternberg 860-442-3234 Ahavath.chesed@att.net Congregation Beth El Conservative Rabbi Earl Kideckel (860) 442-0418 office@bethel-nl.org www.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

NORWALK Beth Israel Synagogue – Chabad of Westport/ Norwalk Orthodox-Chabad Rabbi Yehoshua S. Hecht (203) 866-0534 info@bethisraelchabad.org bethisraelchabad.org

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Temple Shalom Reform Rabbi Cantor Shirah Sklar (203) 866-0148 admin@templeshalomweb.org www.templeshalomweb.org ORANGE Chabad of Orange/ Woodbridge Chabad Rabbi Sheya Hecht (203) 795-5261 info@chabadow.org www.chabadow.org Congregation Or Shalom Conservative Rabbi Alvin Wainhaus (203) 799-2341 info@orshalomct.org www.orshalomct.org SIMSBURY Chabad of the Farmington Valley Chabad Rabbi Mendel Samuels (860) 658-4903 chabadsimsbury@gmail.com www.chabadotvalley.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

WALLINGFORD Beth Israel Synagogue Conservative Rabbi Bruce Alpert (203) 269-5983 info@bethisraelwallingford. org www.bethisraelwallingford. org WASHINGTON Greater Washington Coalition for Jewish Life Rabbi James Greene (860) 868-2434 jewishlifect@gmail.com www.jewishlife.org WATERFORD Temple Emanu - El Reform Rabbi Marc Ekstrand Rabbi Emeritus Aaron Rosenberg (860) 443-3005 office@tewaterfrord.org www.tewaterford.org WEST HARTFORD Beth David Synagogue Orthodox Rabbi Yitzchok Adler (860) 236-1241 office@bethdavidwh.org www.bethdavidwh.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

SOUTHINGTON Gishrei Shalom Jewish Congregation Reform Rabbi Alana Wasserman (860) 276-9113 President@gsjc.org www.gsjc.org TRUMBULL Congregation B’nai Torah Conservative Rabbi Colin Brodie (203) 268-6940 office@bnaitorahct.org www.bnaitorahct.org

Congregation Beth Israel Reform Rabbi Michael Pincus Rabbi Andi Fliegel Cantor Stephanie Kupfer (860) 233-8215 bethisrael@cbict.org www.cbict.org Congregation P’nai Or Jewish Renewal Shabbat Services Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener (860) 561-5905 pnaiorct@gmail.com www.jewishrenewalct.org

JEWISH LEDGER

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Kehilat Chaverim of Greater Hartford Chavurah Adm. - Nancy Malley (860) 951-6877 mnmalley@yahoo.com www.kehilatchaverim.org 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 Ostrozynsk i 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 WESTPORT Temple Israel Reform Rabbi Michael S. Friedman, Senior Rabbi Rabbi Danny M. Moss, Associate Rabbi Rabbi Elana Nemitoff-Bresler, Rabbi Educator (203) 227-1293 info@tiwestport.org www.tiwestport.org WETHERSFIELD Temple Beth Torah Unaffiliated Rabbi Seth Riemer (860) 828-3377 tbt.w.ct@gmail.com templebethtorahwethersfield. org WOODBRIDGE Congregation B’nai Jacob Conservative Rabbi Rona Shapiro (203) 389-2111 info@bnaijacob.org www.bnaijacob.org

JULY 16, 2021

27

Summertime...

Summer Treats!

The Crown Market 2471 Albany Ave West Hartford, CT 06117

860.236.1965

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

We’re not JUST kosher...we’re DELICIOUS! 28

JEWISH LEDGER

| JULY 16, 2021

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