CT Jewish Ledger • July 23, 2021 • 14 Av 5781

Friday, July 23, 2021 14 Av 5781 Vol. 93 | No. 30 | ©2021 jewishledger.com

A New Beginning FOR A CHICAGO SYNAGOGUE

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INSIDE

this week

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | JULY 23, 2021 | 14 AV 5781

12 Briefs

17 Crossword

19 Milestones

19 Letters

20 Obituaries

Survey says…...................................... 5 A newly published poll by the Jewish Electorate Institute finds that 22 percent of U.S. Jewish voters think that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians.

Foul Ball............................................... 5 Stamford’s Rabbi Joshua Hammerman speaks out when the late head of the MLB Players Association, Marvin Miller, is finally granted entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame…in a ceremony set to take place on Rosh Hashanah.

Arts & Entertainment..................... 6 There’s no big Jewish show to cheer on for another powerhouse performance this year – as Shitt’s Creek was last year – but the upcoming Emmy Awards still boasts a bevy of Jewish nominees.

The Ledger Scoreboard................. 8 Anat Leilor’s love affair with the sport of surfing began when she was 5 years old.

Now, an unlikely journey has the 21-yearold Israeli surfer headed straight for the Tokyo Olympics.

Author’s Corner..............................14 Joshua Henkin’s new book Morningside Heights hinges on what happens when the person you married becomes a different person.

In the Kitchen..................................18 If you use Fleischmann’s yeast for your challah, you leaven your dough with the essence of American Jewry. The Fleischmann family’s story echoes the experience of many other immigrant Jews.

21 Business and Professional Directory

22 Classified

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UP FRONT CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | JULY 23, 2021 | 14 AV 5781

Survey: A quarter of U.S. Jews agree that Israel ‘is an apartheid state’

Marvin Miller, MLB union chief, gets his Hall of Fame induction – on Rosh Hashanah

BY RON KAMPEAS

(JTA) – A survey of U.S. Jewish voters taken after the Israel-Gaza conflict finds that a sizable minority believe some of the harshest criticisms of Israel, including that it is committing genocide and apartheid.

Among respondents to the survey commissioned by the Jewish Electorate Institute, a group led by prominent Jewish Democrats, 34% agreed that “Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is similar to racism in the United States,” 25% agreed that “Israel is an apartheid state” and 22% agreed that “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians.”

Among younger voters included in the survey released Tuesday, agreement with those statements was higher, though still in the minority. The poll found that 9% of voters agreed with the statement, “Israel doesn’t have a right to exist.” But among voters under 40, that proportion was 20%.

A third of younger voters agreed that Israel is committing genocide, a position that even human rights lawyers who are critical of Israel say is extreme; more than a third agreed that Israel is an apartheid state.

The findings are striking as mainstream pro-Israel organizations struggle to make the case that Israel is central to Jewish identity and that criticism of it often veers into antisemitism. They suggest that many American Jews agree with statements by some of Israel’s harshest critics on the left made during the Gaza-Israel conflict in May, including in some cases by a handful of Democratic members of Congress who were then criticized by their colleagues.

The survey of American Jewish political sentiment was wide-ranging, finding wide approval for President Joe Biden and deep concern about Republican efforts in Georgia and Florida to tighten access to the ballot booth. When it came to measuring criticism of Israel, the poll first asked respondents whether they thought each of the four critical statements was antisemitic; those who said a statement was not antisemitic were then asked if they agreed with it.

Of the four statements, only in one case, did a majority – 67% – agree that it was antisemitic to say, “Israel doesn’t have a right to exist.” For the other three questions, more respondents disagreed that jewishledger.com

the statement was antisemitic than agreed.

The survey of 800 voters, conducted

by GBAO Strategies from June 28 to July 1 online and via texts, has an overall margin of error of 3.5 percentage points; the replies of those under 40 have a margin of error of 6 percentage points. (The margin of error for the Orthodox subgroup was 11.6 percentage points.)

While the proportion of respondents agreeing with critical statements about Israel was higher than many pro-Israel advocates have characterized, at least one finding is in line with that of another recent survey. Asked if they felt emotionally attached to Israel, 62% of respondents to the Jewish Electorate Institute survey said they did and 38% said they did not, numbers that matched those in the Pew study of 4,700 American Jews released in May. The new survey presents the latest challenge as the new Israeli government endeavors to repair ties with a U.S. Jewish community that to a degree became alienated from Israel during the 12 years Benjamin Netanyahu was prime minister. Surveys have found that Israeli and American Jews know little about one another.

One statement in the survey, echoing a claim by former President Donald Trump, that “Jews who vote Democratic are disloyal to Israel” was also put forward to respondents to assess whether it is antisemitic; mainstream Jewish organizations have suggested that it is. However, while a vast majority of respondents, 77%, disagreed with the statement, only 26% said they believed it is antisemitic.

Asked about the two-state solution, 61% of survey respondents said it was their preferred outcome. But 19% said they preferred annexation of the West Bank that would deny Palestinians the right to vote in national elections, while 20% said they preferred “establishing one state that is neither Jewish nor Palestinian” and encompassing Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Gaza is currently controlled by the Hamas terrorist group.

The Democratic lawmakers who lashed out at Israel during the conflict, including Reps. Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, have also raised the prospect of cutting aid to Israel. While a substantial majority of survey respondents, 71%, CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

ACTIVISTS PROTEST ISRAEL’S MILITARY ACTIONS AGAINST PALESTINIANS OUTSIDE THE ISRAELI EMBASSY IN WASHINGTON, DC. ON MAY 18, 2021.

–––––– CT Rabbi Joshau Hammerman calls the scheduling a “scandal”

BY RON KAMPEAS

(JTA) – It took several tries, but Marvin Miller, the longtime Jewish Major League Baseball Players Association chief who changed the sport by transforming the players’ union into a powerhouse, will finally be inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame.

There’s one catch – the pandemicdelayed induction ceremony is set to take place on Rosh Hashanah.

The Cooperstown, New York-based Hall of Fame announced last month that the induction will shift from its usual July slot to Sept. 8, the second day of Rosh Hashanah this year. No reason was given explicitly, but a June 9 release suggested the shift was made in hopes that it would be safer to have an in-person ceremony by September, as the coronavirus pandemic abates.

“Planning continues to be adapted to guidelines set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and the State of New York,” said the release, since removed from the Hall of Fame’s website.

In a column last week for Religion News Service, Rabbi Joshua Hammerman of Temple Beth El in Stamford, said the schedule was a “scandal” and decried the silence of American Jews on the matter.

“Baseball had plenty of dates from which to choose but opted for one of the three most consecrated days of the Jewish year for this sacred enshrinement,” Hammerman wrote.

Baseball players and fans have long advocated for the induction of Miller, who died in 2012 at 95, into the Hall of Fame because of his profound influence on the game.

Miller grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn, rooting for the Dodgers. He worked for other unions, including United Steelworkers, before working in CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

(ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES)

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2021 Emmys: All the Jewish nominees, from RegéJean Page to Michael Douglas

BY EMILY BURACK

FROM LEFT: BRETT GOLDSTEIN, JURNEE SMOLLETT, MICHAEL DOUGLAS, HANNAH EINBINDER AND TRACEE ELLIS-ROSS. (APPLE TV, NETFLIX, HBO)

(JTA) – At the last Emmy Awards, “Schitt’s Creek,” the comedy from Jewish father-son duo Eugene and Dan Levy, swept the night, winning every comedy category for its sixth and final season. While there’s no big Jewish show to cheer on for another powerhouse performance this year, there’s still a bevy of Jewish nominees, which were announced Tuesday.

Black Jewish actresses lead the way Jurnee Smollett received her first Emmy nomination, as lead actress in a drama series, for her role in “Lovecraft Country” starring as Letitia “Leti” Lewis. While the show won’t be returning for a second season – and contained a plot point that some viewers found antisemitic – the HBO horror show had 18 nominations.

As a child actress, Smollett made her debut on “Full House.” Then she starred in “On Our Own,” a 1994 ABC sitcom, with her five siblings.

“We all were in the same school trailer.

We would eat hot links and bagels for breakfast every morning – very Black and Jewish of us,” she joked.

Tracee Ellis Ross was tapped for lead actress in a comedy series for her role in “blackish.” It’s her fifth nomination; she’s never won. Ross recently announced a docuseries with Oprah, “The Hair Tales,” about Black hair and a “love letter to Black women.”

British Jewish actress Sophie Okonedo, who calls herself a “Jewish Nigerian Brit,” received a nod for best guest actress in a drama series for “Ratched,” a Netflix prequel to “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s 6

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Nest.” She plays Charlotte Wells, a patient with dissociative identity disorder at Nurse Ratched’s hospital.

And Maya Rudolph scored her seventh and eighth Emmy nominations for her guest appearances on “Saturday Night Live” – for the episode she hosted and portraying Vice President Kamala Harris over the course of the season. She was nominated as well for her voiceover performance as Connie the Hormone Monstress in the puberty-themed (and very Jewish) animated comedy “Big Mouth.” Last year she won in both categories.

“Big Mouth,” co-created by the Jewish comedian Nick Kroll and his friend Andrew Goldberg, also was nominated for best animated show.

Jewish comedies “The Kominsky Method,” starring Jewish actor Michael Douglas, returned for its third and final season in May – but not with Alan Arkin, the show’s other Jewish star.

“The less work I get, the better my health,” the 87-year-old Arkin said. “The stress in the marketplace is enormous and my system has a fast reaction. I can’t deal with stress anymore.”

Even without Arkin, the show still garnered six nominations, including nods for Douglas as lead actor, Morgan Freeman and Jewish actor Paul Reiser as guest actor and supporting actor, respectively, and best comedy series.

And “Hacks,” the new comedy series from HBO Max starring Jean Smart and Jewish comedian Hannah Einbinder, received nominations in four major comedies: best comedy series, lead actress for Smart, supporting actress for Einbinder and

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supporting actor for Carl Clemons-Hopkins.

The show is from “Broad City” writers Paul Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky.

Einbinder, the daughter of Jewish comedian Laraine Newman, told Nylon Magazine, “I want to do any comedy that feels authentic and good and meaningful. I have totally readjusted my view of what TV and film can be as a comedy medium. I will always be doing stand-up. Until I reach an age where I’m just complaining at which point I will remove myself, as we all should.”

And while there’s nothing much Jewish about the breakout Apple TV hit “Ted Lasso” starring Jason Sudeikis, it features British Jewish actor Brett Goldstein as soccer team captain Roy Kent. Goldstein received a nomination for best supporting actor in a comedy series – helping “Ted Lasso” garner a total of 20 nominations, leading the comedy pack.

Jewish dramas The smash hit Netflix regency romance “Bridgerton,” based on Jewish romance author Julia Quinn’s series, scored 12 nominations – including for best drama and lead actor for Regé-Jean Page.

“I’m Jewish, and when I would read a book and one of the characters would be Jewish, I’d be like, ‘Oh, that’s me.’ And it was very powerful,” Quinn said of the diverse casting of the show. “And so now I feel like I’m able to start to extrapolate that and be like, ‘You know what, everybody needs that.’”

The second season of “The Boys,” the anti-superhero show on Amazon Prime, received six nominations, including for best drama. “I realized what a perfect metaphor this was for the exact second we’re living in,” Jewish showrunner Eric Kripke told

The New York Times. “For this world, where authoritarianism and celebrity are combined and fascism is packaged through social media.”

As Lior Zaltzman wrote on Kveller, “‘The Boys’ isn’t a very Jewish show – but that doesn’t make its exploration of Nazism any less poignant. While it alludes to the history of the Holocaust, it is much more interested in how Nazi ideology takes form and spreads in these modern days.”

Other notable Jewish nominees Dan Levy isn’t done with the Emmys just yet: The “Schitt’s Creek” star was nominated for guest actor in a comedy series for his turn hosting “Saturday Night Live” earlier this year.

HBO’s “Oslo,” a film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning play about the behindthe-scenes maneuvering that led to the Oslo Accords peace agreement in 1993, is nominated for best TV movie. In 2017, the play won Tony Awards as best new play and best lead actor.

Jewish multi-hyphenate talent Daveed Diggs scored a nod for supporting actor in a limited series or TV movie for his portrayal of Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the smash “Hamilton.” Diggs has already won a Tony and Grammy for the role. (“Hamilton,” which premiered on Broadway in 2016, debuted on Disney+ during summer 2020 and received 12 total nominations.)

“Top Chef” Jewish co-host Gail Simmons received her second Emmy nomination for best host of a reality show alongside co-hosts Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio.

The 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards will air Sept. 19 on CBS and Paramount+.

REGÉ-JEAN PAGE AND PHOEBE DYNEVOR IN “BRIDGERTON” (NETFLIX)

Miller CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

baseball. Leading the MLBPA from 1966-1982, he used hard-nosed tactics, such as lawsuits and strikes, to scuttle the century-old “reserve clause” which bound players to a team. The move effectively launched the era of free agency.

When Miller started, the minimum MLB salary was $7,000 a year; by the time he died, it was $480,000.

When Miller retired in 1982, Peter Seitz, the arbitrator who ruled in favor of players in the reserve clause case, told The New York Times that Miller was “the Moses who had led Baseball’s Children of Israel out of the land of bondage.”

Miller first made it onto the Hall of Fame ballot in 2003, but until 2020 fell short of the 75% vote ratio needed by the panel. Hall of Fame critics attributed the long wait to lingering resentment among owners, who have a say in the vote.

Hammerman noted that the Hall of Fame has on its website an article lauding Sandy Koufax, the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher who famously sat out a 1965 World Series game to observe Yom Kippur.

“So what would Sandy Koufax do about this unforced error by Major League Baseball?” Hammerman said. “What should Jews do? If we grant that a World Series game might not be easily moved from its natural October perch, the Hall of Fame ceremony,

Greater Hartford Shakespeare Festival

July 29–August 15, 2021

WITH THEN-NEW YORK YANKEE PLAYER REPRESENTATIVE REGGIE JACKSON STANDING BEHIND HIM, MARVIN MILLER TALKED TO REPORTERS FOLLOWING TALKS WITH THE OWNERS I ON JULY 1, 1981.

which typically is in July, most definitely could still be set for a day other than Sept. 8.”

Joining Miller on the 2020 induction roster are Derek Jeter, the New York Yankees shortstop; Ted Simmons, the St. Louis Cardinals catcher; and Larry Walker, the Colorado Rockies right-fielder. Miller will be the fifth Jewish hall-of-famer – players Koufax, Hank Greenberg and Lou Boudreau, along with Pittsburgh Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss, precede him.

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(BETTMAN/GETTY)

Survey said it was “important” to provide financial assistance to Israel, a smaller majority, 58%, said it would be appropriate to restrict aid to Israel so it could not spend U.S. money on settlements. A majority, 62%, support Biden’s reversal of Trump’s policy of cutting off aid to the Palestinians.

The survey showed continued support among Jewish voters for Biden and for Democrats, commensurate with an American Jewish Committee poll taken just before the Gaza conflict. In the latest poll, Biden earned 80% job approval, and 74% approval on how he is “handling relations with Israel.” He got 62% approval ratings for how he handled the recent Israel-Gaza conflict.

Among the Orthodox, who largely voted Republican in the 2020 presidential election, Biden had 31% approval overall, but notably a higher number – 44% – for how he handles Israel relations. He earned 37% approval among the Orthodox for how he handled the recent conflict.

Asked whether they would prefer a Democrat to a Republican in a vote for Congress in next year’s midterm elections, 68% favored a generic Democrat and 21% favored a Republican.

Democratic leaders Speaker Nancy

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Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer got 54% and 52% favorability ratings respectively and while Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell each got 10%.

On domestic issues, respondents placed high climate change, voting rights, jobs, and the economy, and the coronavirus pandemic.

Strikingly, 83% of respondents said they were concerned about Republican efforts in Georgia and Florida to tighten access to the ballot booth, which Democrats say are aimed at inhibiting minority voters. Some 76% of respondents backed federal legislation backed by Democrats that would block the state efforts to restrict voting rights, and 62% supported eliminating the Senate filibuster to allow the Democratic majority to pass the legislation.

Concern about antisemitism in the United States was high, at 90%, and more voters, 61%, believed the threat came from the right than they did from the left, 22%. Voters who felt said the threat was equal from both sides came in at 12%. Among the Orthodox, 69% said the threat came from the left, 10% from the right, and 18% from both sides.

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THE LEDGER SCOREBOARD

Israeli surfer Anat Lelior’s unlikely path to the Tokyo Olympics

BY ANNA DIMOND

A

nat Lelior’s first experience with surfing came at age five.

It was an inauspicious start to the sport that would become her career and, later this month, take her to the Tokyo Olympics.

Her father, Yochai, lay on the back of the board with her at their local beach in Tel Aviv and pushed both of them into a breaking wave. But instead of riding to the sand triumphant, the board nosedived. They tumbled off and the board shot into the air like an 8-foot, plastic-and-foam projectile.

On its return trip it hit Anat on the forehead, splitting it open.

As blood ran down his daughter’s face, Yochai recalled, “all the people on the beach were looking at me like I was a murderer.”

Anat, however, was unfazed. After dripping blood across the sand and getting stitches at the hospital, she asked to go back to the beach. When Yochai took her back to the scene of the crime, the lifeguards there made her tea and she sat, stitched up and bandaged, watching the waves.

Despite her injury, it was the beginning of Anat’s love affair with the sport. She continued to surf, and eventually began entering regional contests run by the Israeli Surfing Association, or ISA. Soon she was not only winning, but catching the eye of the local surf industry. Artur Rashkovan, the owner of Klinika, a Tel Aviv surf shop and pivotal figure in the Israeli city’s modern surf culture, remembers the first time he saw her surf.

“I was announcing a local kids’ contest

in Netanya, around 2007,” he said. “I saw this girl, like 12 years old, and she was laying back [a technical, snapping maneuver] and throwing water. I didn’t know her name and I freaked. I was like, ‘Who is this girl?!’”

That ability to throw water – the amount of spray coming from a board as a surfer turns it – requires strong legs, technical skills and confidence. In Anat’s case, it was just one indication of her power and prowess in the water.

In Israel at the time there were only a handful of other girls competing and Anat quickly ran out of people to surf against.

According to Rashkovan, surfer Maya Dauber had come up against the same problem in the 1980s. Known as Israel’s first female pro, Dauber ended up competing against boys due to the lack of female opponents. But by the time Anat began competing and pursuing a surfing career, not only were there fewer kids surfing, but national interest in the sport was all but dead. The barrier to entry had become even higher.

“The European surfers started getting bigger sponsorships and the ASP circuit [the global organizing body] would go to Europe,” Rashkovan said. “There was a geographic connection for them, too, and we were, you know, at the end of the [Mediterranean], left out.”

So the idea of surfing becoming an Olympic sport – much less an Israeli competing in them – seemed more than a little far-fetched.

But in 2002, Rashkovan became the director of the Israeli Surfing Association. He

(DESIGN BY GRACE YAGEL/GETTY IMAGES)

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dreamt of the day that Israel had a vibrant surf culture. However, while the industry as a whole was thriving, in Israel, competitive surfing was not.

Rashkovan went to work: He offered insurance and surf shop discounts as perks of membership. He threw a big relaunch party for the association, and brought in the major brands and registered new members. By the time he left the association in the mid-2000s, Rashkovan had reinvigorated competitive surfing, started to rebuild its membership roster and created the first events for girls.

In 2007, he and the ISA passed the reins to Yossi Zamir, an Israel native who had newly returned after nearly two decades living in Australia. Zamir had not only formed close industry connections there, but also saw a highly organized, governmentsponsored approach to surfing with competition that created a kind of feeder system to the sport’s upper echelon.

Zamir’s first goal was to get more kids into surfing and put some structure, rules and standards into the competitions. Next up was to bring higher-profile, international qualifying contests to the country. And together with a top Australian coach, Zamir developed a coaching program and highperformance clinics for ISA surfers.

Like Rashkovan, he also remembers his first time seeing Anat surf.

“At the first clinic, Anat arrived with her sister,” Zamir said. “She was really young and we actually saw her potential already at that time.”

It was around 2012, when Israel had just four or five female competitors in the entire country.

“It was very hard to get to a high level when you don’t really have someone to compete against in Israel,” Zamir said.

“Anat was working very hard; I respect her very much for what she did. And she has an amazing family supporting her.”

In fact, it was Anat’s father, Yochai, who lobbied the ISA to let her compete in the boys’ contests.

“In the beginning we said no,” Zamir recalled.

Eventually the association would relent.

Anat joined the boys’ contests, then began to travel and compete outside the country against bigger pools of female athletes. At the same time, surfing’s popularity in Israel continued to grow, and more girls began to compete.

While Anat sometimes struggled to find the competitive resources in a system that wasn’t yet ready for her, her family filled in with support in every way. Not only did her parents supply her with equipment and occasional plane tickets but also with

in-house training partners: her older brother, Ido, and her younger sister, Noa, who also competed until she was derailed by an injury.

Having each other to surf with helped them up their games.

It was Noa who spearheaded Anat’s first visit to a much bigger stage in surfing. Now 18, when Noa was 12, she asked if, in lieu of a party for her bat mitzvah, the family could go to a surf contest abroad. Yochai and the sisters packed up and headed for their first Qualifying Series (QS) and junior-level contest in France – a massive step up from local competitions.

“It was such a treat,” Yochai said. “We did this competition and then we went to Pantin [Spain, which also hosts a QS contest]. The seed was planted. One event can make a difference for a person’s life in her journey.”

The trip was the family’s first to a highertier, international event, but far from their last. Anat continued to compete at home and abroad, and in 2019 she provisionally qualified as Israel’s entrant to the Olympics at the International Surfing Association’s World Surfing Games in El Salvador. A few weeks ago, the family was there again to cheer on Anat as she secured her spot in Tokyo.

In contrast to many of her Olympic peers, Anat’s formative years in the sport were largely a journey of one.

“It’s so hard to be so alone in this kind of a journey, to have to break so many barriers,” Yochai said. “You question yourself so many times. You are not in a community of surfers.

To be a woman surfer with no competitions for you, and to be able to grow from that.

To go to the army, and to go to school; this feeling that you always have to be in two places at the same time.”

Those who have watched Anat’s evolution in the water and out say that it’s not only her talent, work ethic and uniquely supportive family that have gotten her here.

“Anat has a very strong internal energy,” Rashkovan said. “She’s something else, she’s a different kind of person. She’s very strongminded.” In other words, she has the kind of toughness required to forge her own way in a highly competitive, male-dominated sport.”

Anat’s road to the Olympics means more than just reaching the pinnacle of her sport.

Yochai said.

“In a way, making the Olympics says yes, your work, your achievement, is visible. Yes, you are a woman. You are a surfer. You are an Israeli. You are Jewish. You’re a lot of things. But the Olympics, it’s confirmation.”

This article originally appeared on Alma.

Baseball Briefs Baseball phenom Jacob Steinmetz becomes first Orthodox player drafted into MLB

BY ROB CHARRY

(JTA) – The Arizona Diamondbacks drafted Long Island, New York native Jacob Steinmetz 77th overall in the third round of the Major League Baseball draft on Mon-day. He’s the first known observant Orthodox player to be picked the league’s draft.

MLB.com ranked the 17-year-old as the 121st best major league prospect, so he was picked far earlier than expected.

Steinmetz, a 6-foot5, 220 pound pitcher, spent the past year at ELEV8 Baseball Academy in Florida, honing his pitching skills while attending The Hebrew Academy (MLB.COM) of the Five Towns and Rockaway in Long Island via Zoom. His fastball has reportedly reached as high as 97 miles per hour.

Steinmetz keeps kosher and observes Shabbat, but he also pitches on the Sabbath.

To avoid using transportation on Shabbat, he has in the past booked hotels close enough to games that he can walk to them, the New York Post reported.

Starting pitchers in the big leagues only pitch every five days, so his schedule could theoretically be planned to skip Shabbat.

Steinmetz comes from an athletic family – his father Elliot played basketball at Yeshi-va University and is now the New York school’s basketball coach. He had coached the team to record success before the pandemic.

Elie Kligman is 2nd Orthodox baseball player drafted into MLB in 2 days

BY GABE FRIEDMAN

(JTA) – It has now become a doubly historic Major League Baseball draft.

The Washington Nationals selected Elie Kligman with their final and 20th round pick on Tuesday, making him the second observant

Orthodox Jewish player ever drafted into the league – and the second in two days. The Arizona Diamondbacks picked 17-year-old Long Island, New York native Jacob Steinmetz 77th overall on Monday.

According to MLB.com, Kligman, 18, has moved towards becoming a catcher but has also played shortstop and thrown the ball 90 miles an hour as a pitcher. (The pitcher Steinmetz has reportedly touched as high as 97 miles per hour.) Kligman switch-hits as well, meaning he can bat righty or lefty, a skill that boosts his future value.

The Las Vegas native is also more observant than Steinmetz. While Steinmetz plays on the Jewish Sabbath – albeit in walking distance of his hotels on the road, so he does not have to use transportation – Kligman does not.

“That day of Shabbas is for God. I’m not going to change that,” he told The New York Times in March.

His father Marc is a lawyer and licensed baseball agent, and he represents his son.

On Tuesday, Marc Kligman was traveling with Israel’s baseball team, currently on a pre-Olympics road trip (ELIE KLIGMAN/ full of exhibition games INSTAGRAM) across the Northeast, when he heard the news. He shared it with the players on one of their buses.

The Times reported that Kligman’s recent switch to playing catcher could be in service of his professional goals. Even the best at the sport’s most physically demanding position are often given at least one day a week off – opening up the possibility that Kligman could line up his days off to be during Shabbat, from Friday night through Saturday evening.

Despite the excitement of being drafted, Kligman will likely look to first play at a Division I college program before a professional career, his father told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“Here’s a kid who won’t put God second,” Marc Kligman told the Times. “But he believes that the two can coexist. He’s got six days of the week to do everything he can to be a baseball player, and if colleges and Major League Baseball aren’t inclined to make any changes, then we’ll take what we can get.”

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

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

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JULY 23, 2021

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JEWISH LIFE

A Chicago couple are transforming a decrepit former So green community space

BY NAOMI WAXMAN

C

HICAGO (JTA) – Perched along a quiet, tree-lined street on this city’s South Side, the worn brick and concrete building on South Champlain Avenue is hard to miss.

The tall structure stands out among newer construction, a huge cross embedded in its front and wrought-iron Star of David window frames visible from the sidewalk. Casual observers can see the year it was erected, 1923, etched into a cornerstone. The letters that were once affixed above a row of doors are gone now, but their remnants are still legible: “Congregation B’nai Bezalel.”

Over the course of nearly a century, this 10,000-square-foot building in the Woodlawn neighborhood has served many religious communities, first as a synagogue and then as a series of churches. Over time, however, the building has fallen into disrepair – stairs sag, paint peels and stained-glass windows pull away from their frames.

Despite its appearance, the former synagogue’s service to its neighborhood isn’t ending. In fact, it’s on the brink of a new chapter.

Artist and teacher Amber Ginsburg and her husband, Dr. Tom Ginsburg of the University of Chicago School of Law, have purchased the property from the city of Chicago.

The pair are devoting themselves to rehabilitating and restoring the 98-year-old building to create an art space for them to work, teach and call home – in the process finding a new approach to Jewish life in a South Side neighborhood that was once a thriving Jewish community.

The project is an entirely private one, without financial support from outside organizations. It’s an expensive and expansive endeavor but the Ginsburgs have soldiered on, inspired by the building’s legacy as “a holy place,” says Tom Ginsburg.

Once it’s complete, the couple envision a three-story family compound where their three adult daughters can visit, as well as an art club with rental studios for local creatives in need of workspace.

“It’s kind of an exercise in rethinking property,” Tom Ginsburg says. “We’re going to live here, but it’s not designed to just be our house. It’s designed to be a community space

THE EXTERIOR OF CHICAGO’S FORMER B’NEI BEZALEL BUILDING. TOM AND AMBER GINSBURG, WHO ARE RENOVATING THE STRUCTURE, ARE INSPIRED

BY THE BUILDING’S LEGACY AS “A HOLY PLACE.” (NAOMI WAXMAN/JTA)

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JEWISH LEDGER

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and a place for creative people to come do their thing.”

The Ginsburgs come from markedly different Jewish backgrounds. Tom came of age at Congregation Beth Israel – a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Berkeley, California.

Amber’s parents were “hippies,” according to her husband, who had little connection to institutional Jewish life.

Now they attend services at Mishkan Chicago, a progressive nondenominational congregation, and participate in several minyanim, or prayer communities, including Yavneh at UChicago. They anticipate holding a rededication ceremony upon completion and could host minyanim in the future.

The Ginsburgs have been at work on the project for about a year and anticipate that reconstruction will take at least another 10 months. For the time being, project assistants buzz around with power tools and lots of questions, pausing occasionally to wolf down slices of pizza.

The basement, now gutted, will have its own separate entrance and eventually house a woodshop and artist studios. The former worship space on the main floor – a cavernous expanse with a ceiling that reaches at least 40 feet – will serve a variety of purposes, including as a place for family and community gatherings. The third and top floor, once the women’s section of the congregation, will become a private residence for family members.

B’nai Bezalel was founded in 1904 (accounts differ over its original location), and in the 1920s merged with two other synagogues: Congregations Beth Jacob and Anshe Mizrach, according to the Chicago Jewish Historical Society. The merger resulted in a new name: Beth Jacob B’nai Bezalel Anshe Mizrach. Worshippers from 1919 to 1920 gathered at Drexel Avenue and 62nd Street at a Jewish senior home, the Drexel Home for the Aged.

In 1955 the congregation relocated to South Shore, across the street from another Conservative synagogue, Congregation Habonim. B’nai Bezalel folded in the late ’60s.

The rise and fall of the B’nai Bezalel community mirrors that of the Jewish population of the South Side, which was home to a large and diverse population of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews into the 1950s, according to Irving Cutler’s 1996 book “The Jews of Chicago: From Shtetl to Suburb.” Around 1960, Black Chicagoans began moving to the

area in large numbers. As a majority of Jewish residents migrated to the suburbs, synagogue membership dropped across many South Side neighborhoods.

In the years that followed, numerous churches used the building, including Freedom Temple Church of God in Christ, Woodlawn Community Church and All Nations Worship Assembly. Cosmopolitan Church of Prayer – a longtime local institution originally founded by the famed gospel singer Dr. Charles George Hayes – held worship services in the space into 2019.

The Ginsburgs have uncovered numerous relics over the course of demolition. Rows and rows of dusty pews bear large Stars of David.

Other Star of David designs run throughout the space, left in place even as churches moved in and out of the building. The couple are eager to give away as many pews as possible.

outh Side synagogue into a

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STAINED-GLASS WINDOWS FEATURING JEWISH ICONOGRAPHY HAVE SURVIVED DECADES LONGER THAN THE CONGREGATION ITSELF IN THE B’NEI BEZALEL BUILDING. (NAOMI WAXMAN/JTA)

They’ve also found a genizah, a storage area for old and worn religious books before burial, that sat hidden beneath a stage for 70 years. The couple plan to display the books to highlight the building’s history.

The building may be Amber Ginsburg’s largest construction endeavor, but it’s not her first. In 2014, she oversaw a University of Chicago project called KilnHouse, a collaborative 380-square-foot ceramics center made out of a shipping container on campus.

The Woodlawn property leans on the concepts seen in the KilnHouse project: reconstruction, modification, reimagination of a preexisting place. How exactly to reimagine such space is a question that is also bedeviling the Chicago Loop Synagogue and other historic Jewish houses of worship that have fallen on hard times.

Though they are new to this block, jewishledger.com

the Ginsburgs lived for 12 years in the surrounding neighborhood and are eager to get to know residents. They’ve joined the local neighborhood association and have spent time with their alderman, Jeanette Taylor.

They’d like to have a positive relationship with neighbors and embrace the history of Chicago’s Jews.

“We’re not renting this [space] out, we’re not raising anyone’s rent,” Tom Ginsberg says. “We’re just trying to create a public good … there’s a lack of [studios], and we want to encourage folks to make more art. We want to invest in a project that’s bigger than ourselves.”

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JULY 23, 2021

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Briefs Ivanka Trump’s in-laws tout Nikki Haley for president.

(JTA) – Charles Kushner, father of Jared Kushner and father-in-law of Ivanka Trump, hosted a fundraising event for Nikki Haley and speculated about the former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador becoming president. If Haley declares, and Donald Trump, Jared Kushner’s father-inlaw, says he wants another shot at the White House, things could get interesting at the Kushner family seder. Vanity Fair reported Monday, July 12, that the day before, as Trump was on Fox hinting that he is likely to run again, Charles Kushner was hosting a brunch for Haley in New Jersey. The elder Kushner predicted Haley would be “the first woman president” and guests donated to her political action committee. Haley has said she will announce her decision about whether to run in 2024 early in 2023.

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump did not attend the event; they were in Aspen, Colorado, Vanity Fair said. But they have lunched with Haley since Donald Trump left office and Trump reportedly blames his loss of the presidency last year in part on Jared Kushner, who effectively managed the reelection campaign. Of those who are closest to Trump, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have been notably silent about Trump’s claims that the election was rigged. In December, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, a Jewish businessman and philanthropist, for his 2005 conviction for fraud, tax evasion and witness tampering. Haley is among the more popular potential Republican candidates among pro-Israel Jews. She visited Israel last month with pro-Israel Christian evangelists and, according to Vanity Fair, spoke on Sunday, July 11, night to a Chabad-Lubavitch event on Long Island.

IDF rescue team leaves Surfside to salutes and serenades

JEWISH LEDGER

Oregon prof fired after alleging antisemitism sues for $4 million (JTA) – A professor who was fired from an Oregon university after publicly criticizing its president for antisemitism and neglecting sexual harassment allegations has sued the university for $4 million. Daniel PollackPelzner, a tenured English professor at the Baptist-affiliated Linfield University, had accused President Miles Davis of making multiple antisemitic remarks to him in recent years. The antisemitism, PollackPelzner said, was partly a backlash to his demands that the school do more to address allegations of sexual assault against multiple university trustees, including Davis. PollackPelzner went public with the allegations of antisemitism in March, prompting statements of concern from the Anti-Defamation League and Oregon Board of Rabbis, the latter of which called on Davis to step down. Davis denied some of the allegations during an independent investigation, though he later admitted making a remark about Jewish noses.

In its own investigation, the local branch of the NAACP found that Davis, who is Linfield’s first Black president, was subjected to racism at the school.

In April, Linfield fired Pollack-Pelzner, citing “serious breaches of the individual’s duty to the institution.” The abrupt termination did not appear to follow the process for firing tenured faculty that is outlined in Linfield’s faculty handbook.

Now Pollack-Pelzner is suing Linfield for whistleblower retaliation, breach of contract and other claims. He is seeking $3.5 million in economic damages and $500,000 in noneconomic damages.

Blind man’s brain learns to ‘see’ through his ears

(JTA) – The Israeli military team that assisted in the search and rescue operation at the collapsed building in Surfside, Florida left on July 10 after received salutes and awards for their work. The seven-person team from the Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command, which arrived in Surfside three days after Champlain Towers collapsed last month, received thanks from Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and other local officials in a ceremony Saturday, according to The Times of Israel. The team received medals and gifted the officials with an Israeli flag in return. They then walked down a street flanked by other rescue workers while people sang “Ani Maamin” (“I Believe”), a traditional Jewish song affirming faith in redemption from difficult times.

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On Sunday, as the final members of the Israeli team departed, their El Al airplane was given a “water salute” by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. The salute involved the Fire Rescue team showering the plane with its hoses.

By Abigail Klein Leichman (Israel21c via JNS) Israeli neuroscientists trained a 50-year-old man, blind from birth, to recognize objects using a sensory substitution algorithm called EyeMusic. Developed by professor Amir Amedi, founding director of the Baruch Ivcher Institute for Brain, Cognition & Technology at IDC Herzliya, EyeMusic converts visual stimuli into “soundscapes” – sound units that convey information about geometric shapes.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of the man’s brain before and after he learned to recognize soundscapes revealed that neural circuits in his brain had formed “topographic maps” previously thought to be incapable of forming after infancy. “The human brain is indeed more plastic during infancy, but it maintains an enormous potential for

| JULY 23, 2021

reprogramming throughout a person’s life,” said Amedi, who did groundbreaking research into sensory substitution devices at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem before joining IDC in 2019.

The latest study, reported in the journal NeuroImage, provides new evidence of the brain’s ability to change. It holds out promise that people can be trained to restore lost function, for example after a stroke.

Study co-author Shir Hofstetter of the Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging in Amsterdam said that after the subject learned to interpret soundscapes, “His neural circuits were shown to be activated not only in the auditory cortices, but also in the occipital cortex, which receives visual stimuli in sighted people and is not expected to be activated in a congenitally blind individual.” The scans revealed topographic maps tuned to pitch and time that had not existed before. This is the first time that topographic maps have been shown to emerge in an adult human brain.

“Critical periods are not permanent cut-off points for developing new sensory abilities – rather, in a way, we can give the brain a second chance at any point in life,” Amedi said.

This article was first published by Israel21c.

NBA’s Rick Barry visits kids at Jerusalem basketball camp (JNS) Retired National Basketball Association (NBA) player Rick Barry visited children at a basketball camp in Jerusalem in early July during his stay in Israel. The NBA Hall of Famer stopped by the Jerusalem International YMCA to speak with youngsters taking part in the annual Tamir Goodman Basketball Camp about the fundamentals behind the sport. Barry, who played for the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets, told them: “You can talk about preparation, dedication, determination; you can talk about all these wonderful characteristics to help you be a successful person. What it all boils down to – the one characteristic you have to have if you really want to be good at what you’re doing in life – you have to get confidence in your ability to do what it is you’ve trained to do.” He also shared on Twitter photos from his visit to the basketball camp. The camp is run by former American-Israeli basketball player Tamir Goodman, dubbed by Sports Illustrated magazine as the “Jewish Jordan.”

Barry later talked to StandWithUs about enjoying his stay in Israel, which he called “an amazing country.” “I don’t think people around the world understand how many amazing innovations have come out of Israel,” he added. “The Jewish people are an amazing group of people. Wonderful people. I told Tamir yesterday that I don’t think you can have a better friend than a Jewish friend.”

UAE, Israel agree on joint project to combat climate change (JNS) United Arab Emirates Food and Water Security Minister Mariam al-Muhairi met on Wednesday, July 14, with representatives of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (H.U.) to promote a research and innovation partnership in the realms of food and agriculture technology, according to the university. The meeting marked the first official visit of a senior UAE government official to an Israeli academic institution since Israel and the UAE normalized ties in September of last year as part of the U.S.brokered Abraham Accords.

“Hebrew U. is known as a world leader in foodtech and agtech,” said Professor Benny Chefetz, dean of the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment. “We look forward to sharing our know-how with our neighbors in the Middle East, so that we may meet the challenges of climate change together and be better prepared.”

In addition to Chefetz, al-Muhairi met with H.U.’s Vice President of Strategy and Diversity professor Mona Khoury-Kassabri, faculty researchers and Agricora CEO Moshe Nadler. Among the topics discussed were plant adaptation to heat and desert-like conditions, intelligent uses of water and the latest innovations in agriculture, according to the university.

The meeting – which came a day after the first agricultural agreements were signed between Israel and the UAE – took place on the day of the official opening of the UAE embassy in Tel Aviv.

‘Missing’ section of Jerusalem First Temple era wall unearthed in Old City (Israel Hayom via JNS) Archaeological excavations at the City of David National Park in the Old City of Jerusalem have unearthed the remains of an Iron Age city wall, constructed in the First Temple era, which was designed to protect Jerusalem against attacks from the east, the Israel Antiquities Authority reported on Tuesday, July 13. The IAA is conducting the dig in collaboration with the City of David Foundation, as part of the park development process. According to excavation directors Dr. Filip Vukosavović, of the Ancient Jerusalem Research Center, and Dr. Joe Uziel and Ortal Chalaf on behalf of the IAA, the unearthed city wall protected Jerusalem from “a number of attacks during the reign of the kings of Judah, until the arrival of the Babylonians, who managed to break through it and conquer the city.”

The newly excavated section of the wall connects two previously excavated segments on the eastern slope. In the 1960s, British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon uncovered a section of the wall at the northern part of the slope and dated it to the days of the Kingdom of Judah. About a decade later, archaeologist jewishledger.com

Yigal Shiloh dug out a long section of the wall in excavations at the southern part of the slope. Over the years, doubts have been raised about whether these stone edifices were remains of the First Temple-era city wall.

However, the new section appears to prove that the remains were all parts of the wall that once defended ancient Jerusalem.

But it appears that the eastern part of the wall withstood the Babylonian attack, possibly due to the precipitous nature of the eastern slope of the City of David. Evidence of the Babylonian destruction can be seen in a building that stood next to the wall, which contained rows of storage jars that were smashed when the building burned and collapsed. The jars’ handles were stamped with rosettes, symbols associated with the Kingdom of Judah. Also discovered was a Babylonian stone seal bearing the symbols of two Babylonian gods, Marduk and Nabu.

Nearby, archaeologists found a bulla (a stamp seal impression made in clay) that was inscribed with the Judaean name “Tsafan.”

The latest finds from the ongoing excavation are scheduled to be presented in October at the IAA’s conference.

Judge: Victims of Chabad of Poway shooting attack can sue gunmaker (JNS) A California judge ruled that victims of the April 2019 shooting at Chabad of Poway outside of San Diego can sue the manufacturer of a semiautomatic rifle and the gun shop that sold it to the murderer.

Superior Court Judge Kenneth Medel said on Wednesday, July 14, that the victims and families have a case against Smith & Wesson, the largest gunmaker in the United States, for knowing its AR-15 rifle could be easily made into an assault weapon, which is against state law. Medel said the gunmaker negligently marketed its rifle to youth on social media.

The judge also said the gun shop in San Diego could be sued for selling the weapon to John Earnest, the man who used the rifle to shoot at worshippers during Passover morning services in 2019 since he was 19 at the time and did not meet the 21-year minimum age requirement for ownership.

Earnest was charged last year with murder for killing congregant Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, and wounding three people, including senior Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein.

really get this right.” The goal, stated Collins, was to “disrupt the ecosystem of hate” by limiting the “discoverability” of such content.

His comments coincided with a change in the platform’s terms of use designed to prevent the spread of hate online.

Yet despite these efforts, a study out of Israel found a staggering 912 percent increase in antisemitic comments and a nearly 1,400 percent rise of antisemitic user names on the social-media platform as compared to 2020– representing a rise in actual numbers from 41 to 415, and from four to 59, respectively, from 2020 to 2021. Conducted jointly by Gabriel Weinmann, a professor at the University of Haifa, and Natalie Masri, a research assistant at IDC Herzliya’s Institute for CounterTerrorism, the study found a significant Jewhatred on the site, which is especially popular with younger people. More than 40 percent of the site’s 1.2 billion users are between the ages of 16 and 24.

“TikTok claims on its homepage that it is ‘raw, real and without boundaries,’ ” the study concluded. “But the lack of boundaries, combined with the growing success of this platform, makes it an ideal virtual home for hate speech and extremist content.”

It is the second recent report to examine Jew-hatred on TikTok.

Fans ridicule Jewish man at European Championship soccer final (JNS) A Jewish actor and satirist detailed on Twitter how he was “racially abused” on Sunday night at Wembley Stadium in the United Kingdom as he watched the UEFA European Championship final between England and Italy. Jolyon Rubinstein said he wore to the game a jersey that had his last name on the back and immediately after he took off his coat, a group of six men in their 50s asked, “Are you even from this country?” and then said, “He’s a Jew,” which was followed by “laughs and jeers.”

Rubinstein wrote: “I told them that my grandad fought the Nazis. They laughed. My message to them is that you will never win.

That this team represents unity and diversity.

You are the past. You’re dying out.” He wrote, “I stand with progress and a new progressive patriotism that is about inclusion and respect.

We have work to do in this country. Those at the very top need to lead by example.”

Study reveals 912% increase in antisemitic content on TikTok

ADL offers $5,000 for info leading to arrest of Brooklyn attacker

(JNS) During a symposium about online antisemitism sponsored by the U.S. State Department last year, a representative from the social-media platform TikTok assured that his company was working to combat hate.

Speaking in October 2020, Jeff Collins said TikTok’s mission is “to inspire and bring joy. … There’s no place for hate on TikTok, and we are investing a lot in people and tech to

(JNS) The Anti-Defamation League New York/New Jersey is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of an African-American man who was seen on video last week assaulting a Jewish man in Brooklyn, N.Y. According to the New York Police Department’s hatecrimes division, on July 5 at around 11:30 a.m., a 25-year-old man “wearing traditional

jewishledger.com

Jewish garb was punched in the chest by a male who made an anti-Jewish statement.

The victim was also struck in the back with a thrown broken piece of furniture.” In the video, the assailant walks down a street, passes an old dresser left out for garbage pickup, throws a drawer on the sidewalk, breaks off a piece and continues to walk.

Moments later, he turns around, starts running and strikes at the Chassidic man walking behind him with it.

In announcing the award, ADL regional director Scott Richman said, “We are alarmed and extremely concerned about this alleged antisemitic assault. We are sending an unequivocal message that these hatemotivated acts of violence are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

According to recent statistics from the NYPD, antisemitic incidents have risen some 60 percent over 2020 with more than 110 acts of Jew-hatred to date.

British Jews to get apology 800 years after antisemitic laws led to their expulsion (JTA) – British Jewish leaders say an anticipated apology from the Church of England for antisemitic laws enacted in 1222 is “better late than never.” The church is planning a formal “act of repentance” for next year, the 800th anniversary of the Synod of Oxford, a set of laws that restricted Jews’ rights to engage with Christians in England, according to a report in the Telegraph.

The laws ultimately led to the expulsion of England’s Jews in 1290. They were not officially readmitted until 1656.

“The phrase ‘better late than never’ is truly appropriate here. The historic trauma of medieval English antisemitism can never be erased and its legacy survives today – for example, through the persistence of the ‘blood libel’ allegation that was invented in this country,” Dave Rich, the policy director of a British antisemitism watchdog group, told the Telegraph. “But at a time of rising antisemitism, the support and empathy of the Church of England for our Jewish community is most welcome as a reminder that the Britain of today is a very different place.”

England experienced a spate of highprofile antisemitic incidents this spring during and after the Israel-Gaza conflict. In planning the formal apology, the Church of England is taking responsibility for Christian antisemitism that predates its founding in 1534 “Among the many perplexing things about this perplexing news story is that the Church of England didn’t exist back in 1290 when the Jews were expelled from England,” tweeted Jeffrey Shoulson, a professor of Judaic studies at the University of Connecticut.

England’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, said the document represented a step forward but fell short because it did not reject the church’s history of seeking to convert Jews.

Israel is first country to offer a 3rd COVID vaccine dose (JTA) – Israel has begun inviting immunocompromised adults to receive a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, as case rates in the country have risen again due to the spread of the Delta variant. Israel led the world in vaccinating most of its population early this year, and the country fully reopened as COVID cases plummeted to a low of single digits during a few days in late May and early June. But cases have since spiked back up to more than 400 per day. In response, Israel is the first country in the world to approve a third dose of the vaccine as a booster shot. Two weeks ago Pfizer asked countries to approve a booster dose for those who have received a vaccine.

On the heels of the approval of the booster shot, the Tel Aviv-area Sheba Medical Center, Israel’s largest hospital, invited recipients of heart transplants to get a booster shot. A majority of Israelis are vaccinated. In addition to authorizing the booster shot, Israel also brought back an indoor mask mandate in an effort to curb rising infections.

AIPAC cancels 2022 policy conference (JTA) – The American Israel Public Affairs Committee will not host a policy conference in 2022, the second consecutive year it has made the decision citing COVID-19 pandemic concerns. “The health and safety of our conference delegates is our top priority each year,” AIPAC President Betsy Berns Korn said in an email late Monday that went out to AIPAC activists. “Unfortunately, there are still too many questions that remain unanswered to move forward responsibly, and thus we have made the decision to cancel the 2022 AIPAC Policy Conference. …This decision may seem surprising as we appear to be entering a post-pandemic world. … However, with uncertainty around the continued spread of COVID, we still have a fragile and uncertain path back to normal travel and mass gatherings.”

Another concern, the AIPAC source said, was that activists may not be able to fully access congressional offices on the last day of the conference, when thousands of activists lobby in person for a three-point legislative agenda based on what AIPAC’s staff have determined are the most pressing needs of the year.

Unlike other Jewish groups, AIPAC opted not to run a conference online, nstead focusing on a series of smaller online meetings throughout the year. Sources said that some regional events may return to being in-person.

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JULY 23, 2021

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AUTHORS CORNER

Conversation with…Joshua Henkin: Jewish memori

BY EMILY BURACK

(New York Jewish Week via JTA) – Joshua Henkin’s fourth novel, “Morningside Heights,” is the story of many things: a marriage, a changing neighborhood in New York City, an incurable illness, and love and families.

The plot centers on Pru, who grows up Orthodox and meets Spence, a largely secular Jewish professor – he’s a young superstar Shakespeare scholar teaching at Colum-bia.

Pru is Spence’s grad student, but they fall in love, marry and have a daughter. In his 50s, Spence starts becoming forgetful, and is diagnosed with early-onset Alz-heimer’s.

The novel, then, hinges on the question: What happens when the person you married becomes a different person?

Henkin himself grew up in Morningside Heights. His father, the professor and human rights law scholar Louis Henkin, provided the emotional impetus for the novel; he died at 92 after battling Alzheimer’s.

In a wide-ranging conversation, we spoke about the need for writing emotionally autobiographical fiction, growing up in New York City, his father’s view of Judaism as a “Reform Orthodox Jew” and how there

shouldn’t be easy takeaways or messages from fiction.

Below is an edited transcription of the conversation.

Jewish Week: “Morningside Heights” is as much a portrait of this woman and the path her life has taken, but also of their marriage and of how how the disease not only impacts the person who is sick, but all their loved ones.

What drew you to telling a story of early onset Alzheimer’s in this way?

Henkin: Even though Alzheimer’s is the tagline, I don’t see it as a book about Alzheimer’s. I really see it as a book about marriage. When my father was sick, my mother started to go to a class at the JCC on the Upper West Side of Manhattan for caregivers. My mother is very much not a consorting-with-strangers kind of person.

I was interest-ed in what her situation was like that she felt that she’d be happy to talk to people whom she might not have anything in common with – except for the fact that they’re all caregivers. So the book started

out as a very long short story that took place entirely at the JCC. And by draft 20, the JCC was gone. But I wrote 3,000 pages over the course of eight years, and I found the book in there. There are a lot of mistakes along the way. That’s just how I write.

How did you get from a story at the JCC to the whole novel it is today?

I tell my grad students that you should never write a story about a ball rolling down a hill because if you write a story about a ball rolling down a hill, it’ll roll down the hill. And I’m obviously speaking metaphorically, but I think that that was a challenge for writing a book about Alzheimer’s: If the book is taking place now, and it’s a realist fic-tion book, then unfortunately the medicine of it is not in question – you know what’s going to happen.

And so what was interesting was what it was like for his loved ones to experience his illness. Especially for Pru, she’s someone who hitched her wagon to this star, and what is it like when he declines for her.

In a weird way, it’s harder for her than it is

for him because he doesn’t really under-stand what’s going on. Whereas her identity is so tethered to him, and she really has to invent herself. … I was interested in exploring that.

I was struck by how we learn more of Spence’s childhood on the Lower East Side as he loses more of his mind, and he starts speaking in Yiddish. IWhat is it about the end that brings us back to the beginning?

In my experience with my father, the shortterm stuff recedes fastest and the long-term memories recede most slowly. …Circling back to his Yiddish upbringing, was really important to me.

In this book, Spence is deeply secular, a red diaper baby, Yiddish was his first language. Pru grew up Orthodox in Ohio. It’s the reverse of my own parents: My father was the son of an Orthodox rabbi who grew up on the Lower East Side, my mom was much more secular. But I used to go with my father to the Lower East Side every Sun-day to visit my grandfather when he was old. And there’s something about that trans-formation.

The book is about Morningside Heights, but it’s also about other neighbor-hoods. The transformation of the Lower East Side from this sort of old Jewish Mecca to hipster bands has been interesting to me. Coming back to that Yiddish of Spence’s felt like a way to bring the book full circle.

The title is obviously a neighborhood on the Upper West Side, where Spence and Pru lived, – but it’s also very Jewish New York. What does it mean to you to tell specifically a New York Jewish story?

(AUTHOR PHOTO: MICHAEL LIONSTAR)

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Writing that kind of story comes naturally to me, just because I’m a New York Jew [laughs]. I’m 57, I was born in 1964. I grew up in Morningside Heights, I lived there for 18 years, then I lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I lived in Berkeley, California, I lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and then I moved back to New York in 1999, with my then-girlfriend, now wife, and we moved to Brooklyn. But that too, is interesting! Brooklyn is where everyone escaped from. My older relatives are like, you moved to Brook-lyn?!

The New York Times Book Review of the book captured something about the book’s relationship to the city, even though I wasn’t consciously thinking [about it]. Flannery O’Connor once said that fiction writers have to have a certain measure of stupidity.

Some come by it naturally, others have to cultivate it. But I think we’re really proceedjewishledger.com

ies haunt a novel about a father’s Alzheimer’s ing intuitively. But I think Jean Hanff Korelitz’s review did capture something that’s im-portant to the book, even if I wasn’t aware of it in the writing of it.

I grew up at a time – I sound like I’m 90 – when there was a really meaningful distinction between the Upper West Side and the Upper East Side. There’s still a distinction, but it’s a much more nuanced distinction. But I was the son of an academic, in Morn-ingside Heights. I went to the Ramaz School, which is a Modern Orthodox Jewish day school, on the Upper East Side – a very Upper East Side kind of school. I was by no means poor, but I was the poor kid among the rich kids. I was the son of intellectuals among the kids who are the sons and daughters of professionals.

They had TVs in every room of their house, we had one small black-and-white TV that was brought out reluctantly from the closet for certain PBS specials. So I was always very aware of be-ing that kid.

I’m telling the story all by way of saying that I had friends on the Upper East Side whose parents did not want [them] to come visit me because I lived in what they perceived to be a dangerous neighborhood. In some subconscious way, I was writing about how the Upper West Side has changed. At the end of the book, Pru walks up-town and she passes all the establishments that are gone.

The book is about the re-ceding of memory, but it’s also about the receding of place.

What was the most difficult part of writing “Morningside Heights”?

There was an emotional hurdle I had to overcome in writing the book. That’s in large part because it’s inspired by my father, and although Pru is not my mother in so many ways, there are some similarities. At some point there’s the possibility of a new ro-mance between Pru and a character named Walter – this is while Spence is still alive.

I was worried how my mother would feel about a character who in many, but not all ways, resembled her taking up with another man while her husband was in serious decline but still alive. But my mother is both a reasonable person and a sophisticated fiction reader, and so I should have known better. I talked to her about it. And she was like, “Oh, that’s fine. I have no problem with it.” I was worried unnecessarily.

What was interesting to me is that I feel like my whole dichotomy was wrong to start off with. Pru remains incredibly loyal to Spence, even after whatever happens with Walter happens. And if anything, I think that her involvement with Walter might make her even more loyal to Spence. So I feel like that jewishledger.com

dichotomy I was making between loyalty to one spouse and betrayal was wrong. I learned something about my family and about life from writing the book. I guess it’s a good thing – to spend a lot of time in a book, you might as well learn something.

How do you separate or channel your emotions about your dad and his illness, and what the end of his life was like, with writing a good story?

I always tell my grad students this: I think fiction has to be emotionally autobiographical. What I mean by that is you have to feel like you’re at risk in some ways, and that you’re writing about things that are hard.

Because if there’s no feeling coming from the writer, the reader is not going to feel it.

There’s not a guarantee that just because there’s feeling from the writer, the reader will feel things, but there is a guarantee that if the writer doesn’t feel, then the reader won’t feel.

So it’s certainly necessary, if not suf-ficient.

But it’s interesting because my first novel, Swimming Across the Hudson, and this one, Morningside Heights, in the narrow sense are much more autobiographical than the middle two, Matrimony and The World Without You. But I actually don’t really feel that that’s true, even though it is true. I’m always writing from the heart and I’m always a fic-tion writer. I’m never really interested in fidelity to actual truth for truth’s sake.

In some ways, I always think what’s narrowly autobiographical is less interesting.

That’s just what happened to the writer, whereas what’s made up is more interesting because that tells you what the writer’s fantasies are.

Do you feel you gravitate towards Jewish stories in any sense or form?

I guess a lot depends on what you mean

by Jewish story. … I do tend to write about places I know. Because I grew up in a home that was steeped in Jewish tradition, I frequently write about Jewish characters. But I also write about non-Jewish characters, and I write about frum characters and secular characters. I sort of resist the label.

I’m certainly happy to have the label for the purposes of talking to [Jewish media], for pur-poses of traveling around the country to talk to JCCs. I recognize that writers like me like to have it both ways. But I’ll own up to that and say I do like to have it both ways. In other words, I love talking to Jewish audiences, but I also feel like my books are going to appeal universally to people who are serious readers of fiction.

It’s a bigger discussion, but people of color and Jews and women – people who are not in the “majority” culture. I don’t want to equate those three categories because there are different ways in which different people are and are not in majority culture, and I do not want to be glib, but what I will say is, no one says to John Updike: “How do you feel about being a WASPy, male, New England writer?” It’s like, “oh, you’re a writ-er.” When Jewish writers resist that [label], what they’re resisting is pigeonholing.

We want as wide an audience as possible, but certainly being Jewish is a very big part of my identity, so it’s not surprising that I often write about characters who are engaged with Judaism in some way or another.

What part did Pru’s Jewish faith play in her journey in the book, and your mom’s?

It’s interesting because Pru’s faith, and Judaism more generally, is really important to the book. But it hovers over the book – it’s not super explicit. Pru’s from Ohio, but she really drops traditional Judaism [after meeting Spence]. The first thing they do is ko-sher their home, but that home doesn’t remain kosher for long.

Everyone wants what they don’t have – not just about Judaism, but just period! Later in the book, Pru and Spence’s daughter Sarah says to Pru, “I wish you’d sent me to Jewish day school, I don’t know anything, you at least had a choice.” And I understand that perspective. And then I have a lot of friends from Ramaz who feel like, “I can’t be-lieve my parents forced it down my throat for 13 years.” There are a couple of times in the book that Pru goes back to shul, she goes back to say Kaddish for her father, then later, when Spence is sick, she goes back to say Mi Sheberach, the blessing for the sick. She is looking for solace in traditional Judaism, and wants to find it, but can’t quite find it because it’s no longer her. That’s maybe true of a lot of people I know, who ei-ther were never traditional but wish they had something to fall back on, or were once traditional and are no longer traditional – they miss something, but they can’t quite capture it. There’s a nostalgia and longing that she has for traditional Judaism that she wishes she could get back, but it’s not her any longer.

My father was born in Belarus in 1917, came over in 1923, lived on the Lower East Side. My grandfather [Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Henkin] was a very well-known Orthodox rabbi who lived in the U.S. for 50 years and never learned to speak English. He just lived Yiddish. My father basically remained

Orthodox until the day he died, but temperamentally, and culturally, he was a nonassertion of one’s identity, sort of Orthodox.

He didn’t wear a kippah on the street.

He liked to quote Moses Mendelssohn, the father of Reform Judaism, who said “a Jew at home, a human being on the street.” And that was what he was like: He was a Re-form Orthodox Jew. When he was clerking on the Supreme Court for Justice Frankfur-ter after he came back from World War II, he used to have to be at the Supreme Court pretty late Friday. He didn’t travel on Shabbat, his apartment was in Georgetown – he would secretly sleep on Justice Frankfurter’s couch so he wouldn’t have to travel on Shabbat. But the secretly is what’s interesting; he would never have told anyone.

When readers finish Morningside Heights, how do you hope they feel?

I can give you a vague and probably not very satisfactory answer, which is I want the reader to feel transported. I want them to feel like they know these characters as well as or better than people in their own lives. And I want them to have an emotional expe-rience.

I want to break their heart, but I say “break their heart” very loosely because I don’t feel like this is ultimately a sad book. There’s sad things that happen in the book, but I want them to have an emotional experience.

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JULY 23, 2021

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THE KOSHER CROSSWORD JULY 23, 2021 “Car Problems”

By: Yoni Glatt

Difficulty Level: Challenging

Vol. 93 No. 30 JHL Ledger LLC Publisher Henry M. Zachs Managing Partner

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10 days prior to publication. Advertising deadline: Tuesday noon one week prior to issue.

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The publishers cannot warrant, nor assume responsibility for, the legitimacy, reputability or legality of any products or services offered in advertisements in any of its publications. The entire contents of the Jewish Ledger are copyright © 2021. No portion may be reproduced without written permission of the publishers. JHL Ledger LLC also publishes Jewish Ledger MA, All Things Jewish CT, and All Things Jewish MA.

ANSWERS TO JULY 16 CROSSWORD

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Across 1. They inspire 6. Debilitated 10. “Chatima tova” preceder 14. Option after A,B,C, or D 15. Notable talmudic Rav 16. Anger 17. Moshe couldn’t keep a secret?

20. Capote of note, to friends 21. Company big shot, for short 22. Word of appeasement in Israel 23. Chanukah need?

27. Omar who (ironically) has criticized “the political influence”

in this country of dual loyalty 28. Clover-filled field 29. 12/25 alternative?

31. Word in several cereal names 34. Tafel’s partner, in halacha 36. Top flyer 39. Prophecy that isn’t clear?

43. Ben Yehuda and King George, for short 44. Disney option 45. Push toward 46. Circus jumper?

48. Region N of Afr. 49. Sister of Charlotte and Anne

52. Old gartels?

58. Some teeth 60. Pasty Hawaiian food 61. It’s Central in the Five Towns?

62. Faulty Ner Tamid?

66. Put at ___ (reassure) 67. Group pronoun 68. “ ___ Hashem” 69. Added color to 70. Mosquito cousin 71. Beginning section of a form

Down 1. “___ bene” (“Very well”: It.) 2. Development centers?

3. Shmuel anointed him 4. “A mouse! OMG!” 5. Lanka lead-in 6. Oregon Trail vehicle 7. Judaism’s priciest fruit 8. “Of course!”

9. Jokes (around) 10. Mythic chalices 11. Billy in the “City Slicker” movies 12. Shalom, in Oahu 13. Aired once more 18. Org. with a billion dollar tournament 19. Hip bones

24. Circulatory blockage 25. Perform a judge’s function 26. They often precede graduation 30. 3-D hosp. exam 31. “Survivor” company 32. Cereal bit 33. Some music purchases 34. Jacob to Osnot 35. NCAA’s Wildcats 36. Scholarship money 37. Machine part 38. Ashdod to Modi’in dir.

40. Kong, for one 41. Not send an expected invitation, say 42. Certain 46. Failed to follow through, in slang

47. Ancestor of a harp 48. Blyton of children’s books 49. Put a video in a blog post, say 50. Kind of eel 51. “How can ___?” (“This is a sure bet!”)

53. Crossword’s most common music genre 54. Prepare the Passover sacrifice 55. Goldstar output 56. “This is Us” or “Seinfeld” 57. ___ good example 59. Kiss, in “Harry Potter” 63. “Sweetums” 64. Amputate, with “off” 65. Garten of Food Network’s “Barefoot Contessa”

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JULY 23, 2021

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IN THE KITCHEN

How Fleischmann’s yeast built the Jewish Catskills

BY JOEL HABER

M

any home cooks this past year, in an Instagraminspired spirit, upped their challah-baking game with new braiding patterns, interesting flavors and vibrant colors. Yet it was a more standard ingredient that unwittingly connected many to their roots.

If you used Fleischmann’s yeast for your challah, you leavened your dough with the essence of American Jewry.

The Fleischmann family’s story echoes the experience of many other immigrant Jews. They built on their experience from Europe, using it to fully integrate into American society. Without routines to hinder them, innovative business practices brought them success. Finally, they used their power to benefit their community.

Hungarian brothers Charles and Max Fleischmann were part of the mid19th-century wave of Central European Jews arriving in America. They settled in Cincinnati where they became yeast manufacturers in 1868. Charles had learned the process in Prague and Vienna, eventually overseeing production on a noble’s estate. The origin tale of Charles bringing a single vial of pure yeast to America is likely fabrication, but he probably did see America’s poor-quality

baked goods as a business opportunity.

Soon, the Fleischmanns were mass producing pressed cakes of yeast. Many claim theirs was the first commercially produced version of this product. But while Charles did hold some production patents in America, the main steps were invented decades earlier in Vienna. His genius lay not in inventing a new product, but in its clever distribution and marketing techniques.

The compressed yeast could only survive a few days, so reaching customers quickly became essential. Cincinnati was a hub of transportation routes, and Fleischmann’s also built a network of production and distribution centers in order to reach most of the country. Delivery improved in the 1880s with the invention of refrigerated railcars.

With supply taken care of, however, demand for the unfamiliar product lagged.

Fleischmann’s had to familiarize America with compressed yeast. Unfettered by preconceptions on “proper” business practices, Fleischmann’s Yeast found out of the box solutions.

Their first major marketing coup was at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, where they featured a Vienna Model Bakery to demonstrate their product.

The fair attracted 10 million visitors, many

FLEISCHMANNS, CATSKILL MOUNTAINS, DELAWARE COUNTY, JULY 1925.

(THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY/GETTY IMAGES)

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FLEISCHMANN’S YEAST ADVERTISEMENT FROM 1915.

(CHRIS HELLIER/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES)

of whom stopped to sample the delicious bread. Soon compressed yeast became the preeminent solution for home bakers.

Another early marketing effort featured a promotional cookbook giveaway.

Fleischmann’s followed others in using this fairly new medium, continuing well into the 20th century. The company also offered wrapper premiums – customers could trade in yeast package labels for free kitchen utensils.

But Fleischmann’s most significant contribution to consumer marketing was in what we now call branding. From the start, Charles Fleischmann guarded the company’s name and image, zealously warning his customers against cheap imitators. Fleischmann’s branding was so successful that by the late 1920s they controlled over 93% of their market.

Fleischmann’s also paralleled other Jewish immigrants via their expanding product line. In the 2012 book “Jews and Booze,” Marni Davis highlights the disproportional representation of immigrant Jews within American alcohol businesses in the late 19th century. Within just a few years of starting the company, Fleischmann’s added distilled spirits to their offerings, using the grain alcohol that was a major byproduct of yeast production.

Adding juniper berries and other botanicals, they produced America’s first distilled gin, with other hard liquors soon to follow.

While this all ties the family into the American Jewish experience, their greatest related legacy is also their least recognized.

The late 1800s saw prominent antisemitic discrimination aimed at wealthy American Jews. More than once, the Fleischmanns were denied entry at fancy hotels and resorts.

Charles Fleischmann used his amassed fortune to beat the antisemites at their own game. Purchasing 60 acres in Griffin’s Corner, New York, he created a resort village specifically for Jews. Eventually incorporated as Fleischmanns, New York, the town grew to include mansions, summer homes and hotels (many with kosher food to accommodate Orthodox customers).

Fleischmanns was no budget-level

(CREDIT: GRACE YAGEL)

bungalow colony, either. The luxurious features included heated swimming pools, a golf course, a deer park, a stocked trout pond and an artificial lake from which they could harvest ice in the winter. This famous resort town launched a classic 20th-century Jewish phenomenon: vacationing in the Catskill Mountains, the so-called Borscht Belt that is indelibly linked with American Jewish popular culture.

Without Charles Fleischmann’s preimmigration experiences in Europe, he might not have started his company, and with deeper roots in the country, he might never have broken new ground to reach success. His family story prominently reflects that of broader American Jewry.

Although Fleischmann’s is no longer a family owned company, there may be no more appropriate ingredient to put in your challah than Fleischmann’s yeast. And for an extra dose of Jewish pride, have a Fleischmann’s gin and tonic after kneading the dough.

This article originally appeared on The Nosher.

jewishledger.com

TORAHPortion Va’etchanan

I

BY RABBI TZVI HERSSH WEINREB

am a worrier. My friends and family tease me about it.

It is only very recently that I came to consider the possibility that, although my worrying was not a sign of a psychological disorder, it might be a sign of a theological disorder, a spiritual fault.

What prompted that consideration was a passage in the writings of Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin, the late 19th century head of the Yeshiva of Volozhin, in Eastern Europe. In the introduction to his commentary on Deuteronomy, Rabbi Berlin, or the Netziv, as he is known, makes a remarkable statement: “Reading carefully the words of instruction contained in this book, Deuteronomy, words which were divinely inspired and uttered by Moses our teacher, each person will find ‘milk and honey’ in accordance with his spiritual level... Therefore, each person should read it contemplatively, according to his ability, and he will find a straight path upon which to walk… So let this book be a source of illumination for one’s life journey…”

I decided to heed the Netziv’s counsel in reading this week’s Torah portion, Va’etchanan, (Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11).

But I immediately found myself facing a dilemma. Among the many themes and topics in this week’s Torah portion are some strong words prohibiting idolatry.

“Do not act wickedly and make yourself a sculptured image in any likeness whatever... You must not be lured into bowing down to them or serving them.”

(Deuteronomy 4:15, 19) How does this apply to me?

What “milk and honey” can I find in proscriptions against idol worship? When was I last tempted to make for myself a graven image, or to bow down to the sun or moon or stars?

The only answer I can find to resolve this dilemma is to profoundly redefine the meaning of the prohibition against idolatry for our day and age.

Idolatry in ancient times was a process by which primitive men identified a single object to worship. They turned away from the vastness of the universe and its complexity and isolated either a heavenly body or some artifact of their own making, and came to believe that it, and only it, was worthy of their adulation. They became obsessed with one thing, and that thing was far from representative of the whole picture.

In more modern times, the process

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of idolatry took a different turn. Instead of fixating upon an object, human beings fixated upon an ideology. They came to believe that the vastness of the universe could be reduced to a set of ideas. Those ideas included the Enlightenment, nationalism, scientism, socialism, fascism, and communism. Those are but several of the idolatries of more recent history.

What they all have in common is a fixation or obsession with one set of ideas, as if that is all there is to life. That is where my habit of worrying comes into play. The worrier becomes consumed with one fear, which may be trivial or may be monumental, but which is only a small part of the totality of existence.

When worrying is conceived of in this manner, it becomes apparent that worrying itself may be form of idolatry.

When one is consumed by worry, the person is limiting his or her attention to one idea, or fear, or concern. Such individuals are ignoring the fact that there is a big world out there with a lot going on. They are certainly forgetting all the positive blessings that probably surround them.

Admittedly, this is a novel interpretation of idolatry, but it is one that fits our modern circumstances much better than sun worship or offering animal sacrifices to a totem.

This redefinition allows for a deeper understanding of another passage in this week’s Torah portion, the Shema. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One”. Only the Lord is One, because only He is all-encompassing. Nothing else is One in that sense – not the sun or moon, and not the currently popular ideology.

They are all but parts of the greater whole.

Only of God is it said, “He is the place of the world, and the world is not His place.” He contains the world; the world does not contain Him. This is the real meaning of monotheism. Not that there is one God, but that God is One. Only He is big enough, complete enough, total enough, to be worshipped. Everything else is partial, fragmentary, and fractional.

Everything else, including our worries, are mere idols which do not deserve the devotion we give them.

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

MILESTONES 2 CT shuls receive post-Covid grants from the OU to help welcome back congregants NEW YORK, N.Y. – Two Connecticut synagogues are among 35 synagogue throughout North America to be awarded grants by the Orthodox Union (OU), the nation’s oldest and largest umbrella organization for the North American Orthodox Jewish community.

Beth David Synagogue in West Hartford and Young Israel of West Hartford will share in a total of $100,000 in grants have been awarded to synagogues in 15 U.S. states and one Canadian province, in an effort to bring communities back to shul as more people are vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.

The OU received over 300 submissions across 34 states, from a range of synagogues large and small. The 35 winners chosen by the OU Grant Committee represented both out-ofthe-box thinking and opportunities that are more likely to rebuild and reaffirm the value of synagogue and community and therefore encourage congregants to return for the long term.

The submissions represent a large depository of ideas and are available to any synagogue that could benefit from the innovative thinking. Ideas included hosting communal Kiddush celebration as a “make-up” for missed milestones, a back-to-shul fair, and a communal parlor meeting project to truly understand the changed needs of congregants. A full list of the winning submissions is available at www.ou.org/grant21.

“The COVID-19 pandemic reminded us all that the shul experience creates a sense of community that is irreplicable,” said OU President Moishe Bane. “Shul leaders across the country are discovering new ways to bring back our communities stronger than ever – our families, our singles, our seniors and our youth – and we are thrilled to be able to partner with them on this endeavor.”

LETTER JCL IS HONORED TO PARTICIPATE IN ENDOW HARTFORD 21 The Jewish Association for Community Living is pleased to share that they will be participating in local philanthropist Henry Zachs’ visionary endeavor, Endow Hartford 21.

Henry Zachs and the Zachs family need no introduction when it comes to their commitment to community in general, and the nonprofit community in particular. Endow Hartford 21 is another example in a long history of not only direct generous giving by the Zachs family, but also in motivating others to do likewise. So many people in need will be better off when Endow Hart-ford 21 achieves its goals.

Endow Hartford 21 is a new matching gift endowment program, initiated by the Zachs family and supported by other lead donors who believe in the nonprofit community across Greater Hartford. The 1:2 match seeks to inspire donors to give generously to support the long-term future of the organizations they love. Organizations need endowments to secure their future. An endowment helps organizations sustain their mission during periods of revenue fluctua-tions and adapt over time. One donor can make gifts to as many organizations as they choose, with the understanding that a donor is also defined as a household. A gift made to any organi-zation will qualify for a match only if your annual gift to that organization has also been made.

Endowing the Jewish Association for Community Living’s future is the next step to ensuring that they are able to provide lifelong supports to West Hartford residents with developmental disabilities. The match is available through June 30, 2022 – but its impact will last forever.

The Jewish Association for Community Living helps adults with developmental disabilities par-ticipate in community life as independently and safely as possible. Our programs and services are open to all faiths and backgrounds. However, JCL is one of the few organizations in the area that help adults with special needs practice and reinforce their Jewish heritage.

Those interested in making a gift to JCL’s endowment may contact Sarah Winiarski at swiniar-ski@jcl-ct.org or (860) 522-5225 x2239.

Denis Geary, executive director Jewish Association for Community Living Bloomfield JEWISH LEDGER

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OBITUARIES BARRON Eliot Barron, MD, 86, of West Hartford, died July 10. He was the husband of Vida (Davis) Barron. Born in Washington, DC, and raised in Roxbury, Mass. and Providence, R.I., he was the son of Abraham and Sadie Barenboim. He served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in Germany. He was a member of Beth El Temple in West Hartford. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Leslie Barron Gilbert, Marcia Garfinkel and her husband Michael, and Eric Barron and his wife Heather Madden; his grandchildren, Jennifer (Bryan) Sadowski, Jeremy (Michelle) Garfinkel, Sam Garfinkel (Sarah Kranz), Isaac Madden-Barron; and his great-grandson, Cameron Sadowski. He was also predeceased by his sister Myrna Lamb.

BLUM Richard (Dick) Stephen Blum, 86, of West Hartford, died July 11. He was the husband of Kendall (Kendy) Jackson. Raised in New Britain, he was the son of the late Louis and Ida Blum. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his cousin Sidney Birnbaum.

CUNIN Carol Susan Cunin, 80, of Simsbury, and Tucson, Arizona, died July 5. She was

the wife of Dr. Burton Cunin. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, she was the daughter of the late Maurice and Elizabeth Lazarus. In addition to her husband, she is survived by her stepchildren, Joseph Cunin and his husband Sylvan, Elizabeth Kartsen and her husband Douglas, and Benjamin Cunin and his partner Martha; her step-grandchildren, Nathaniel and Kaitlin Kartsen, and Sofia Cunin; two nephews and their families. She was also predeceased by her sister Sandra Jacobs. She was a member of Beth El Synagogue in West Hartford.

GOULD Richard “Dick” Gould, 77, of Plainview, N.Y., formerly of Framingham, Mass., died July 6, 2021. He was the husband of Rhoda Gould. He was the son of Samuel and Dorothy Gould. During their 51-year marriage, the two lived their lives devoted to each other and their kids, Robert and Deborah. In addition to his wife he is served by his sister-in-law Linda Brieloff; his brother Martin Gould and his wife Rebecca; his children, Robert Gould and his wife Jennifer, and Deborah Marcus and her husband Scott; his grandchildren, Joseph, Jordyn, Jackson, and Jonathan Gould, and Sarah and Ashley Marcus.

Lichtenstein Company Maker of MONUMENTS for 4 Generations

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PAVA Joseph Jeremiah Pava, 62, of Northampton, Mass., died July 5. He was the husband Karen Pava Randall. He was the son of the late Simon and Marian Pava of Bloomfield.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by many family members.

RAFLOWITZ Julius (Julie) Raflowitz, 94, of West Haven, died July 7. He was the husband of Mary Kay. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was the son of the late Louis and Pauline Raflowitz. He was also predeceased by his sister Ann Koffer and her husband Simon, his brother Samuel Raflowitz and his wife Ruth, and his first wife Lois Flaks. In addition to his

wife, he is survived by his children, Michael Raflowitz and his wife Debi, Randi Scott and her husband James, and Debra Clark and her husband Thomas; his step-children Debi Melillo and her husband Tom, and Scott Blume and his partner Corrine; his grandchildren David (Crystal) Scott, Shauna (partner David) Scott, Elizabeth Raflowitz, Lauren (fiance Ben) Bressler, Connor Blume and Sophia Melillo; his greatgrandchildren, Benjamin and Abram Scott; and several brothers and sisters-in-law, and nieces and nephews.

For more information on placing an obituary, contact: judiej@ jewishledger.

Auschwitz survivor used music to help combat racism, antisemitism (JNS) Holocaust survivor Esther Bejarano died on Saturday, July 10 at the Jewish Hospital in Hamburg, Germany, at the age of 96, according to The Associated Press.

Born in 1924 in the French-occupied German town of Saarlouis, Bejarano was the daughter of Jewish cantor Rudolf Loewy. Her family moved to the city of Saarbruecken but after Nazi forces seized power in 1935, her parents and sister were deported and killed.

Bejarano performed forced labor before being sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943, where she volunteered to become a member of the girls’ orchestra. She played the accordion every time trains full of Jews arrived at the death camp.

“We played with tears in our eyes,” she told The Associated Press in 2010. “The new arrivals came in waving and applauding us, but we knew they would be taken directly to the gas chambers.” She also said that music helped keep her alive during her time at the notorious camp.

Bejarano was later transferred to the Ravensbrueck concentration camp and survived a death march at the end of World War II. After the war, she immigrated to Israel and married Nissim Bejarano, with whom she had two children, Edna and Joram. In 1960, the family moved to German, where Esther co-founded the Auschwitz Committee in 1986.

She played Yiddish tunes and Jewish resistance songs with her children in a Hamburgbased band called Coincidence and collaborated with the hip-hop group Microphone Mafia to bring anti-racism awareness to German youth.

“We all love music and share a common goal: We’re fighting against racism and discrimination,” she said of her musical collaborations.

Esther was the recipient of Germany’s Order of Merit. Following her death, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called her “an important voice in the fight against racism and antisemitism.”

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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

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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 23, 2021

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