CT Jewish Ledger • September 10, 2021 • 4 Tishrei 5782

Friday, September 10, 2021 4 Tishrei 5782 Vol. 93 | No. 37 | ©2021 jewishledger.com

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001...

20 years on

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JEWISH LEDGER

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INSIDE

this week

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | SEPTEMBER 10, 2021 | 4 TISHREI 5782

8 Briefs

11 Opinion

17 Crossword

18 Around CT

18 The Mystery of Yom Kippur

19

Buddy System......................................................................... 5 Following his first face-to-face meeting with President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the two men had “accomplished all their goals,” agreeing on a “joint working strategy” regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

In Memoriam......................................................................... 5 Prolific Jewish actor Ed Asner of ‘Mary Tyler Moore,’ ‘Up’ fame dies at 91. Born in Kansas City, Mo., he was the son of Orthodox Jewish immigrant parents from the Soviet Union.

Horror Story..........................................................................12 Philadelphia libraries agree to audit social-media posts, set new social-media policies, and meet with Jewish community members, after anti-Jewish, anti-Israel content aimed at indoctrinating young children is found on its site.

Rest Period............................................................................14 In Israel, every seventh year is supposed to be a sabbath year when farmers don’t raise crops. It’s a great rest for the fields, but a huge test of faith.

What’s Happening

20 Obituaries

21 Business and Professional Directory

22 Classified

ON THE COVER:

September 11,2021 marks the 20th anniversary of what has become known as the most horrific terrorist attack on American soil in our country’s history. West Hartford resident Leonard Holtz, owner and operator of the Hebrew Funeral Association, recounts his unique mission following the fall of the Twin Towers…and how it changed him forever. Pictured on the cover is a September 11th Tribute in Light from Bayonne, New Jersey (Photo by Anthony Quintano via Wikimedia Commons.)

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CANDLE LIGHTING SHABBAT FRIDAY, SEPT. 10

Hartford 6:51 p.m.

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ROSH HASHANA 1ST NIGHT MONDAY, SEPT. 6

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Bridgeport: 6:58 p.m.

Stamford: 6:59 p.m.

Sponsored by:

2ND NIGHT, TUESDAY, SEPT. 7 Light candles after Hartford 7:56 p.m.

New Haven: 7:56 p.m.

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Stamford: 7:58 p.m.

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

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UP FRONT

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | SEPTEMBER 10, 2021 | 4 TISHREI 5782

Biden and Bennett focus on Iran in first meeting: ‘If diplomacy fails, we’re ready to turn to other options’

Ed Asner was a proudly Jewish actor who won Emmys as Lou Grant

BY RON KAMPEAS

(JTA) — In his first meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, President Joe Biden said that although he prefers diplomatic means to keep Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, he is not afraid to “turn to other options” on the issue.

The pledge captured what both men, who are in varying degrees of political precariousness right now, hoped to extract from the meeting: A bigger focus on what they agree on than what they disagree on, and the start of a new era in relations between Israel and U.S. Democrats.

“We’re going to put diplomacy first and see where that takes us,” Biden told the press alongside Bennett during a break in their meeting on Friday. “But if diplomacy fails,” he added, his voice raising in volume, “we’re ready to turn to other options.”

For Biden, it was a welcome momentary distraction from the chaos unfolding in Afghanistan. The meeting, originally

planned for Thursday, was delayed after bombings at the Kabul airport killed 13 U.S. troops.

Back home, Bennett is presiding over a fractious political coalition with a single vote majority, struggling to control a new COVID-19 surge that has dented his popularity.

But for a few hours on Friday, the two leaders were able to pivot to Iran and other issues of import to Israel — a significant gesture on Biden’s part, given his preoccupations with the Afghanistan situation. Pro-Israel officials briefed on the meeting said that it went well for a first visit; there was chemistry between the two men, and it went longer than planned.

Bennett opposes Biden’s efforts to reenter the Iran nuclear deal — the diplomacy Biden referred to — but unlike his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, he is realistic about the prospects of dissuading

Biden from trying. So extracting a robust promise from Biden to consider “other options,” including possible military ones, will allow Bennett to claim he influenced the president.

“The Iranians are spinning their centrifuges in Natanz and Fordow,” Bennett said, referring to two uranium enrichment facilities. “We [have to] stop it, we both agree. So we’ve developed a comprehensive strategy that we’re going to be talking about with two goals. The first goal is to stop Iran on its regional aggression and start rolling it back into the box. And the second is to permanently keep Iran, away from ever being able to break out the nuclear weapon.”

Beyond Iran, Biden also emphasized the defense assistance the United States delivers to Israel, and reiterated a pledge to CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER NAFTALI BENNETT, RIGHT, MEETS PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN IN THE OVAL OFFICE, AUG. 27, 2021. IT WAS THEIR FIRST FACE-TO-FACE MEETING AT THE WHITE HOUSE. (SARAHBETH MANEY/POOL/GETTY IMAGES)

BY RON KAMPEAS

(JTA) — Ed Asner, the Emmy awardwinning Jewish actor who trademarked a gruff, flawed, and loving persona as Lou Grant in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and co-starred in the Pixar fan favorite animated movie “Up,” has died at 91.

“We are sorry to say that our beloved patriarch passed away this morning peacefully,” the family said Sunday, August on Asner’s Twitter account. “Words cannot express the sadness we feel. With a kiss on your head — Goodnight dad. We love you.”

Asner, who once told The Forward he was “too much of a Jewish bourgeoisie” to play conventional roles, was an established character actor when he signed on in 1970 to “The Mary Tyler Moore” show to play her boss at a local TV news operation in Minneapolis.

There were occasional hints throughout the Mary Tyler Moore series that the Lou Grant character was Jewish. In one episode, a toxic character suggests he get together with Mary Richard’s friend, Rhoda Morgenstern, who is explicitly Jewish, because they’re both “earthy.”

In 1977, after the Minneapolis TV station fires all but one of the fictional “Mary Tyler Moore” characters, the Lou Grant character moves to Los Angeles to helm a print newsroom in a spinoff show “Lou Grant.” Asner is the only actor to have won Emmys for playing the same character in two series.

The hour-long “Lou Grant,” considered one of the truest TV depictions of how news is gathered, abandoned the light sardonic touch its sitcom predecessor had in depicting journalists. In a newsroom modeled on the Washington Post depicted in 1976 in “All the President’s Men,” Grant’s character template was Harry Rosenfeld, the Post’s Jewish city editor known for simultaneously berating and nurturing young reporters.

Each episode grappled with an CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

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Biden

Asner

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fully restore Israel’s Iron Dome capability, after the short range anti-missile defense system was depleted by Hamas rocket fire during the latest Gaza conflict, in May. “We’re also going to express the unwavering commitment we have in the United States to Israel’s security, and I fully, fully, fully support Israel’s Iron Dome system,” Biden said.

Bennett thanked Biden for the support, and returned to the prevalent theme of his visit: reestablishing amicable ties between Israel and both parties in the United States, after years of tensions between Netanyahu and Democrats.

“You are going to write yet another chapter in the beautiful story of the friendship between our two nations, the United States of America, and the Jewish and democratic state of Israel,” Bennett told Biden.

Biden made clear that there was still lingering bafflement — if not anger — among Democrats at the hostility Netanyahu evinced toward Biden’s old boss, former President Barack Obama, who launched the most generous defense assistance package to Israel in history, $3.8 billion a year.

“You give me credit, much of which should go to Barack Obama,” Biden said.

“Please thank him as well,” Bennett said.

Only Biden mentioned a peace deal with the Palestinians, and in passing — his aides have said that they recognize that substantive moves toward peace are not in the cards right now, particularly given the unwieldy political coalition Bennett leads at home. They talked more about each country’s respective battle to combat the resurgent coronavirus.

Afghanistan, and more specifically the Taliban, have historically not posed issues for Israel. Bennett began the talk by expressing condolences for the dead in Afghanistan, but he also used the moment to get back to his main concern.

“These days illustrate what the world would like if Iran or a radical Islamic regime acquired a nuclear weapon,” he said.

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ASNER AS NEWSPAPER EDITOR LOU GRANT IN “THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW,” CIRCA 1975.

(SILVER SCREEN COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES)

ethical dilemma. In one memorable episode based on a true story, a reporter assigned a profile of a local neo-Nazi discovers that he is Jewish. The neoNazi beseeches the reporter not to reveal the truth; the reporter consults with Grant, who counsels her to include the information. The neo-Nazi kills himself, and Grant and the reporter are left to wonder if they made the right decision.

With such open-ended stories, “Lou Grant” heralded the transition from the pat moralistic TV dramatic fare that prevailed until the 1970s to the more fraught and ambiguous fare that has flourished since the 1980s. CBS canceled the series in 1982; it claimed ratings was a factor, but conservative groups had threatened to boycott the network because of Asner’s real-life activism. As president of the Screen Actor’s Guild, Asner spoke out against the Reagan administration’s backing of right-wing insurgents in Central America.

As Asner aged, many of his characters were more explicitly Jewish, from Joe Danzig, a worn-out principal at a troubled inner-city high school in “The Bronx Zoo,” in 1988, to Sid Weinberg, the abusive stepfather in the recent “Karate Kid” reboot, “Cobra Kai.” Asner acted until the end, and the Internet Movie Database lists more than a dozen roles that are in production or post-production, or that had yet to film. Beginning in 2016, he toured the

| SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

country playing a Holocaust survivor in “The Soap Myth,” a run interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

As a public persona, Asner was unabashedly Jewish. In 1981, he headlined a PBS documentary on Passover, and in 2012, he made a Jewish Chanukah pitch for a charity that distributes cattle to impoverished communities. He joined Jewish Voice for Peace initiatives in speaking out against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.

(Wikipedia describes Jewish Voice for Peace as a left-wing activist organization in the United States that supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel.)

“I’m amazed by Israel’s militaristic achievements and accomplishments, and yet I think I gloried more at the Jewish image of the Children of the Book,” he told the Los Angeles Jewish Journal in 2005, after receiving an activism award from a Jewish group.

In 2019, Asner narrated “The Tattooed Torah,” an animated version of the children’s Holocaust education tale. “This little Torah is the story of our people, tattoos and all,” Asner says in the narration.

Asner, born and raised in Kansas City to Jewish immigrant parents, told interviewers that his parents practiced a “midwestern” form of Orthodox Judaism, observing many of the religious laws but driving to synagogue.

More substantially, he said they instilled in him a belief that Jewish practice was inseparable from activism.

“I was raised to believe that giving back to your community is the good and right way above all, and that we were needed to uphold the faith, and if we upheld it, we would be doing right,” he told the Jewish Journal.

Asner was at times a go-to villain: Playing a murderous thief in 1975 and again in 2012, he is perhaps the only actor to straddle the original “Hawaii Five-O” action TV series and its most recent iteration.

But his trademark was a deeply flawed character who finds redemption in an unlikely place or relationship. In the “Mary Tyler Moore” pilot, Grant badgers job applicant Mary Richards with personal questions: Why did she never marry, what religion is she? When she stands up for herself and says his questions are inappropriate, Grant delivers the one-two that would come to define his characters.

“You know what? You’ve got spunk,” says Asner, as Grant. Moore, as Richards, grins. Grant follows up: “I hate spunk.” Yet he hires her.

He reprised that journey, from cynic to believer, in 2009’s “Up,” the Disney/ Pixar feature in which he voices Carl Fredricksen, an elderly man broken and embittered by widowerhood and a modern world seemingly intent on crushing him, who embarks on a balloon journey to South America with a young stowaway.

Like his characters, he told The Forward in 2012 that he had experienced an arc from self-righteousness to selfquestioning.

“My self-examination could have been more rigorous,” he said. “I could have been braver, better, more rehearsed for life.”

Asked if he had a wish, he told the Jewish newspaper: “Bury my ashes in Mount Scopus.”

jewishledger.com

Bennett Center for Judaic Studies LECTURES AND EVENTS: Fall 2021

A Semester of Free Virtual Learning

Diane Feigenson Lecture in Jewish Literature

“Here and There: The Parallel Worlds of Literature and Life” Nicole Krauss, award winning novelist and short story writer, including Great House (2010), Forest Dark (2017), and To Be A Man (2020).

Wednesday, September 22 at 7:30 p.m. - free webinar Daniel Pearl World Music Days Concert

“Girls in Trouble: Songs about the Complicated Lives of Biblical Women” Alicia Jo Rabins, composer, singer, violinist, poet, writer, and Torah teacher performs from Portland, Oregon, her indie-folk song cycle “Girls in Trouble”.

Thursday, October 7 at 7:30 p.m. - free virtual event

“ ‘The Other Dome’ – The Jews of Italian Renaissance Italy, Between Paradigms and Paradoxes” Gabriel Mancuso, PhD, Director, The Eugene Grant Research Program on Jewish History and Culture in Early Modern Europe at The Medici Archive Project, Florence, Italy.

Wednesday, October 13 at 7:30 p.m. - free webinar Open Visions Forum Lecture in collaboration with the Bennett Center and the Judaic Studies Program

24th Jacoby-Lunin Humanitarian Lecture

“Black Voters Matter: Our Obligation to Democracy and Equality” LaTosha Brown, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Black Voters Matter, social activist, political strategist, and jazz singer.

Tuesday, November 9 at 7:30 p.m. - free webinar In collaboration with Open Visions Forum

Lecture marking the 75th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials

“A History of Holocaust Trials: From Nuremberg to Demjanjuk and Back Again” Lawrence R. Douglas, J.D., James J. Grosfeld Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought, Amherst College; author, The Memory of Judgment: Making Law and History in the Trials of the Holocaust (2001), The Right Wrong Man: John Demjanjuk and the Last Great Nazi War Crimes Trial (2016).

Thursday, November 18 at 7:30 p.m - free webinar Registration required at fairfield.edu/bennettprograms. For questions, contact the Bennett Center at bennettcenter@fairfield.edu or (203) 254-4000, ext. 2066

Virtual Events

Registration is required for 9/22, 10/7, 11/18 events at fairfield.edu/bennettprograms. Register for 10/13 and 11/9 at quickcenter.com.

Virtualext. 2066 For questions, contact the Bennett Center at bennettcenter@fairfield.edu or (203) 254-4000,

1073 NORTH BENSON ROAD, FAIRFIELD, CT 06824 jewishledger.com

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Briefs

we have cautioned that antisemitism is a rising threat and that it comes from multiple sources, including the far right, the hard left, and Islamist extremists. Fighting Jewhatred in America must become a national priority and it must be a bipartisan and crosscommunal effort.”

FBI report: American Jews are ‘top target’ for hate crimes (JNS) The latest FBI report on hate crimes shows that the number of incidents continues to rise year to year in the U.S., with 7,759 hate crimes reported in 2020 as compared to 7,517 in 2019, but with fewer crimes categorized as “religiously motivated.”

“Preventing and responding to hate crimes and hate incidents is one of the Justice Department’s highest priorities. The FBI Hate Crime Statistics for 2020 demonstrates the urgent need for a comprehensive response,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland upon the report’s publication Aug. 30. “Last year saw a 6.1 percent increase in hate crime reports, and in particular, hate crimes motivated by race, ethnicity and ancestry, and by gender identity. These numbers confirm what we have already seen and heard from communities, advocates and law enforcement agencies around the country,” he continued, adding, “And these numbers do not account for the many hate crimes that go unreported.”

Anti-Jewish bias accounted for 676 incidents — 57 percent of the 1,174 religiously motivated hate crimes in 2020 — aligning with the annual finding that the Jewish community is disproportionately targeted by religiously motivated crimes, given that Jews account for less than two percent of the U.S. population. The total number of incidents is down from the 953 anti-Jewish hate crimes reported in 2019, but also occurred a time of national lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This report reminds us all that the Jewish community remains a top target for hate crimes,” said Michael Master, national director and CEO of the Secure Community Network, which describes itself as the “official safety and security organization” of the Jewish community in North America.

“Despite our relatively small population, these attacks show no signs of slowing down as our community was targeted the most among religiously motivated crimes. We must continue to work to be as prepared and secure as possible so the Jewish community can continue to thrive.”

Among the incidents against Jews last year, 56 percent targeted individuals directly.

Fifty-three percent involved vandalism or property destruction; 33 percent involved intimidation; and 10 percent entailed either simple or aggravated assault.

“The fact that American Jews — who make up no more than two percent of the U.S. population — are the targets of nearly 60 percent of religious bias crimes should set off alarm bells,” said David Harris, CEO of American Jewish Committee. “For decades, 8

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Politico employees won’t have to sign pro-Israel mission statement (JTA) — Ben Smith hid a significant nugget deep within his latest New York Times story, on the billion-dollar sale of Politico: The magazine and news site’s new owners, German publishing powerhouse Axel Springer, will not require its newly acquired American employees to sign the company mission statement pledging support of Israel.

Axel Springer, named after the journalist who founded it in the 1940s, has long been a staunch supporter of Israel. On its website, the second of the company’s five core principles reads, “We support the Jewish people and the right of existence of the State of Israel.”

The company, which owns some of Europe’s most-read publications, including Die Welt and Bild, apparently requires its European employees to sign a pledge in support of “the trans-Atlantic alliance and Israel, among other favored values,” according to Smith’s report. In May, during the latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the company’s headquarters raised an Israeli flag as a show of support.

In June, Matthias Dopfner, CEO of the German company, reportedly said, “I think, and I’m being very frank with you, a person who has an issue with an Israeli flag being raised for one week here, after antisemitic demonstrations, should look for a new job,” he was quoted as saying by Israel Hayom.

Israel will reportedly loan Palestinians money after high-level (JNS) Israel is going to lend the Palestinian Authority more than $150 million after Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday, Aug. 29 in Ramallah, Israeli officials said. An unnamed source close to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told Reuters that he had approved the Gantz-Abbas meeting and saw it as a “routine” matter.

“There is no diplomatic process with the Palestinians, nor will there be one,” the source said. PA official Hussein Al Sheikh said, according to the report, that the talks with Gantz covered “all aspects” of IsraeliPalestinian relations. The talks between Gantz and Abbas took place as Bennett wrapped up his trip to Washington after meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden.

The Israeli government withheld $180 million last month from the 2020 tax revenues collected on behalf of the PA

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because of the payments the Palestinians make to jailed or killed terrorists and their families.

Son of Holocaust survivor flew Afghan refugees to US (JTA) — Last week, Delta Airlines pilot Alexander Kahn flew hundreds of Afghan refugees from Germany to Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C., as part of a U.S. government partnership with commercial airlines. It had extra special meaning for Kahn, as he told CNN, for a few reasons — first and foremost, his own father was a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the U.S. in similar fashion. “I’m the son of an immigrant in the United States, my father was a Holocaust survivor, he was liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp by Patton’s Third Army and came to the United States not much differently than the people that are coming to the United States now,” Kahn said on CNN’s “New Day” on Friday, Aug. 27. “He was coming with the clothes on his back, no family, no English skills, and had to start life over again. Luckily he was starting life over in the land of opportunity.”

When asked how he felt on board, Kahn said that he was able to “put myself in their position….This is going to be a frightening experience for them, but it has the potential to be an excellent experience for them. My father made it into the United States, learned English, put himself through school, became a doctor, and years later actually was back in West Germany as a physician for the U.S. army…at the tail end of the Cold War,” he said.

The Ramstein Air Base in Germany was where Kahn flew his first plane in training, and it’s where he flew the Delta flight of refugees fleeing the Taliban. Kahn noted that the flight’s attendants prepared for the trip the night before by using their own money to buy things for the Afghan flyers, such as diapers, books, candy and other supplies, “because we knew these evacuees were coming with no opportunity to prepare,” he said.

In upset, Ian Seidenfeld wins Paralympic table tennis gold (JTA) — Jewish American Ian Seidenfeld upset the world No. 1 to win gold in table tennis at the Tokyo Paralympics on Saturday, Aug 28. The 20-year-old has now followed the footsteps of his father Mitchell, a fourtime Paralympic table tennis medalist who won gold in Barcelona in 1992. The elder Seidenfeld now coaches the Team USA Paralympics table tennis squad — in addition to coaching his son and a fellow Jewish member of the team, Tahl Leibovitz. The younger Seidenfeld defeated the defending gold medal champion Peter Rosenmeier of Denmark, 3-0, to win. He had previously lost to Rosenmeier in preliminary round play.

Both Seidenfelds have Pseudoachondroplasia dwarfism, an inherited bone growth disorder, and compete in Class 6, “for players who can stand but have severe impairments in their arms and legs.”

Seidenfeld, an Asian-Jewish athlete, started playing table tennis at age six and qualified for the Paralympics in 2019. Last year’s COVID-19 postponement allowed him to have more time training with his dad at home in Lakeville, Minnesota. As the team’s coach, Mitchell Seidenfeld was able to be there for his son’s gold medal moment.

Israeli Supreme Court: Moroccan Jews ineligible for Holocaust compensation (JTA) — Israel’s Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit seeking to recognize Jews who suffered under Vichy race laws in Morocco as Holocaust victims entitled to state compensation payments on Thursday, according to a report in Haaretz. A panel of three justices upheld a lower court’s ruling that the discrimination against Jews enacted in Morocco during World War II by Nazialigned Vichy France does not qualify as a form of Nazi persecution under Israeli law.

Morocco was a French protectorate until it achieved independence in 1956. The justices recognized that the antisemitic laws passed by Vichy- and Nazi-aligned authorities in 1940 resulted in systemic curtailing of freedoms for Moroccan Jews in areas such as employment, education and housing. But they ruled that because Moroccan authorities acted to harm Jews on their own accord, without being forced to do so by Nazi Germany, the victims are not eligible for compensation payments from Israel’s Holocaust Survivors Rights Authority.

If successful, the lawsuit would have meant payments totaling an estimated $123 million to Moroccan immigrants, according to Haaretz. The lawsuit had also argued that the discriminatory laws generated fear among Morocco’s Jews, raising another criterion for eligibility as Holocaust victims.

But the justices affirmed the ruling by the Haifa District Court that the lawsuit failed to provide evidence any subjective fears were warranted under the circumstances.

The Supreme Court said its conclusions reflect an interpretation of the law and should not be construed as a ruling on the historical truth. “The test of history has many participants and is subject to additions and updates which are inappropriate for a concrete legal procedure. The law, on the other hand, works according to precise rules, with all the pros and cons that that entails,” the justices wrote.

The plaintiffs who brought the case can still challenge the decision.

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Amsterdam to return Kandinsky painting to family

Parole board votes to release Sirhan Sirhan

(JTA) – Following an international outcry, Amsterdam said its city-owned museum should return a Wassily Kandinsky painting that it had acquired from a Jewish family that was under duress during the Holocaust.

Possession of “Painting with Houses,” which is believed to be worth at least $22 million, should be transferred from the city-owned Stedelijk Museum to the family of Irma Klein, which has been fighting for about a decade in court to retrieve the painting, the municipality said in a statement Thursday.

The museum and city are in talks with the family about making the restitution happen in the near future, the report said.

Klein and her husband sold “Painting with Houses” in the 1940s for the modernday equivalent of about $1,600 because they needed money to survive the Holocaust.

The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany considers the painting stolen. Dutch authorities recognized this but have said the “public interest” of having the painting on display at the Stedelijk outweighs that of the family trying to retrieve it. This position, which diverges from international restitution norms, has provoked international pressure and protests, including by Dutch officials entrusted with handling restitution claims.

(JTA) — California’s parole board recommended the release of Sirhan Sirhan, the Jerusalem-born assassin who shot to death Robert Kennedy in 1968 just as he appeared set to secure the Democratic presidential nomination. The board said Friday, Aug. 27, that Sirhan, 77, was repentant and unlikely to reoffend. Sirhan’s death sentence was commuted in 1972 to life after the state abolished the death penalty.

The parole board’s lawyers have 90 days to review the decision and then Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has 30 days to approve it.He has not indicated how he will decide.

Six of Kennedy’s surviving children said they were “devastated” by the board’s decision and urged Newsom to reverse it. Another two of the surviving children, Douglas and Robert Jr., favored his release. Sirhan, who may be deported to Jordan if he is released, has expressed regret for his actions.

Kennedy, then a New York senator, had just endorsed the sale of 50 combat aircraft to Israel which Sirhan, a Palestinian Christian, has said was one of the factors spurring his anger. He has said he was also drunk at the time of the killing. Kennedy visited what was then the British Mandate Palestine in 1948, just before Israel declared independence, and became a passionate advocate for the young state.

Hurricane Ida destroys Louis Armstrong’s ‘second home’ (JTA) — Hurricane Ida flattened the New Orleans home where a youthful Louis Armstrong spent time with a Jewish immigrant family who mentored him.

CNN reported Monday, Aug. 30, that the Category-4 storm destroyed the brick structure on South Rampart Street where the Karnofsky family lived and ran a tailor shop at the turn of the 20th century. Starting at about age five, Armstrong was friends with the five Karnofsky sons and the family would have him over for meals, leading to Armstrong’s lifelong love of matzah. His first job was blowing the tin whistle on the family’s coal and junk wagon, alerting potential customers. A musicologist has said that the whistle was Armstrong’s first instrument.

The Karnofsky patriarch bought Armstrong’s first trumpet, with the repayment being Armstrong would ride on the wagon for a year and blow the whistle.

The famed jazz musician was reputed to wear a Magen David and have a mezuzah on his door, said the musicologist, John Baron.

“The Karnofskys were a tremendous warm influence in his life,” Baron said in 1999. One of the Karnofsky sons, Morris, opened the first jazz record store in New Orleans and was a lifelong friend of Armstrong, who became a seminal figure in modern American music.

The building was long shuttered, although there was talk of restoring it as an homage to Armstrong’s New Orleans roots. jewishledger.com

Rashida Tlaib tells Israel to release body of woman who tried to kill Israeli troops (JTA) — Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib called for Israel to return the body of a woman who was killed while she attempted to kill Israeli soldiers. In a Twitter thread on Saturday, Aug. 28, Tlaib, one of Israel’s harshest critics in Congress, slammed Israel for its policy of holding onto the bodies of assailants who are killed during an attack.

“Meet Mai Afana’s mother, Khuloud, who is fighting to be able to bury her daughter & begin her healing,” wrote Tlaib, a Palestinian American. “Mai was a mother, loving daughter & successful PhD student. She was killed by the Israeli government last June.

Israel won’t release her body to her family.”

Afana was killed on June 16. The Israeli military said she had rammed her car into a West Bank checkpoint near Jerusalem and then, holding a knife, had rushed the soldiers at the checkpoint. An Israeli soldier was lightly injured in the attack. Israel routinely holds bodies of assailants as a means of bargaining for live Israeli captives and the bodies of Israelis held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Tlaib does not in her Twitter thread explain the background to Afana’s death except. “I am sharing Mai’s story because I began to only learn last year of this inhumane

practice by the Israeli govt,” Tlaib wrote.

“Without proof, they make claims, and all to just continue to dehumanize Palestinians even after they have died. We must stand against this form of collective violence.”

Tlaib also does not address the underlying rationale for the policy — Hamas’ refusal to return Israeli bodies and captives. She does link to a Human Rights Watch report condemning Israel for holding another Palestinian’s body; that report mentions Israel’s rationale for holding the bodies and condemns Hamas as well. “The Palestinian people deserve the same dignity as any other human being,” Tlaib wrote. “To deny the right to see their loved ones for a modicum of closure is another form of painful violence from the U.S. sponsored, Israeli arsenal. Mai’s dead body is one of hundreds being held.”

Tlaib is one of a handful of progressive Democrats who back the boycott Israel movement and who called for a cut in funding to Israel. She isays she believes Israel should not exist as a Jewish state.

Israeli swimmer Mark Malyar wins gold, sets world record at Paralympics (JTA) — Israeli swimmer Mark Malyar continued his historic Paralympics on Sunday, Aug 29, winning another gold medal and breaking his own world record. Malyar won the 400-meter freestyle race in the S7 category, days after winning gold in the men’s 200-meter individual medley in the SM7 category. He set a new world record in that race, too. At this writing, he still has three more events to go in Tokyo. He now has two gold medals at his first-ever Paralympics. His twin brother, Ariel Malyar, is also competing in the Tokyo. Both brothers have cerebral palsy and began swimming at age five as part of physical therapy.

Israel now has seven medals at the Tokyo Paralympics, six of which are in swimming.

Of those six swimming medals, four are gold — Malyar’s two golds; a first-ever medal for an Israeli-Arab swimmer, Iyad Shalabi; and a win for 20-year-old Ami Omer Dadaon.

Dadaon has also won a silver medal. Israel’s one non-swimming medal comes in rowing: Moran Samuel won a silver medal in the PR1 single sculls in her third Paralympic Games.

In Rio, she won bronze.

Shana Tovah from Jewish National Fund-USA May the New Year be filled with blessings, health, happiness, and sweet moments for you and your family.

David Peskin, Southern New England President Eric Berg, Southern New England Campaign Chair Sara Hefez, Executive Director Dar Nadler, Israel Emissary

jnf.org 800.JNF.0099

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SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

9 8/27/21 1:42 PM

REMEMBERING SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

A West Hartford man rushes to Ground Zero to help in the search. And finds a lasting spiritual connection.

BY STACEY DRESNER

D

uring the week following the 9/11 attacks, Leonard Holtz of Hebrew Funeral Association got a call from Rabbi Joseph Gopin of Chabad House of Greater Hartford.

“Rabbi Gopin asked me if I would act as a representative of the Jewish community at Ground Zero. He was concerned that there be Jews involved in the recovery,” Holtz explains, referring to the halacha (Jewish law) of collecting all body parts and blood for proper burial.

“Since I was 13 years old I had been working with my father, who was the former director of Hebrew Funeral Association. I was uniquely trained in handling human remains as a Jewish funeral director. After 9/11 so many people were coming together, of all faiths…and I wanted to be a part of that effort,” he says.

Rosh Hashana fell on Sept. 17 that year, just one week after the tragedy. Holtz, then co-president of Agudas Achim Synagogue in West Hartford, was the one who always blew the shofar at services.

But Holtz told his family and his synagogue co-president that he would not

be in attendance for High Holiday services that year.

Instead, he packed a duffel bag with all of his protective gear, bought a bus ticket to New York City and, as per Rabbi Gopin’s wishes, made his way down to the chaotic scene at Ground Zero. There, he connected with a network of Orthodox Jews, including members of Chabad, who pledged to take care of incoming rescue and recovery personnel, both Jewish and non-Jewish.

“It was an amazing network. They provided me with a place to sleep and eat, and converted a coffee house into a synagogue for Jewish responders,” Holtz says.

Holtz had no idea if he would even be able to get close to Ground Zero when he arrived. But with his funeral director identification ID hanging around his neck, he entered the chaotic fray.

“I made my way on my own, to the different police checkpoints. First I was, I was told, ‘You may get past one police checkpoint, but you’re not going to get past a second. But each time, I explained and identified myself as a licensed Connecticut funeral director and explained that my

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| SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

mission was to help in the search.”

Along the way, Holtz had picked up one of the numerous photos of missing victims posted on fences around the site.

“There were hundreds of photos and this one stood out – a handsome young Jewish man from [the investment firm] Cantor Fitzgerald. Joshua David Birnbaum, who was on the 102nd floor of the 1 World Trade Center. I said, ‘I’m going to make it my mission to find this young man,” he says.

Holtz eventually made it through three police check points.

“My intention was to aid in the search.

But it was a week later and I was told that all that was being found were little fragments,” Holtz quietly recalls. “It was a very moving feeling and it’s just beyond imagination what I was seeing – the gray dust and the squawking on the police phones, hearing all of the real graphic information being conveyed.”

Right then and there his mission changed.

“I was carrying with me a tallis (prayer shawl) bag with a machzor (Rosh Hashana prayer book) and a shofar. I took out the tallis and I opened up the machzor. And just as I opened it, a young couple came over to me, and said, ‘Can we help you?’ I said, ‘Well, I wanted to say some prayers.

And I thought I might blow the shofar,” he recounts.

The couple, who turned out to be Jewish, were members of a family that owned a respirator company. They were there to donate breathing equipment to first responders. They also knew the military commander in charge and introduced Holtz to him.

“I showed him my Connecticut licensed funeral director tag, and I said, ‘I’m here as a responder, but today I would just like to do something spiritual. It’s the second day of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashana,’” says Holtz.

The sympathetic commander had one of his soldiers take Holtz and the young couple as close to Ground Zero as they could.

They ended up near the pile of debris that President George W. Bush had stood next to two days earlier.

With the young couple calling out the Hebrew notes, Holtz blew the shofar, the sound of which calls on Jews to examine their deeds and correct their actions as the new year begins.

“Of all the millions of people in New York, I was standing there blowing the

shofar,” Holtz says. “The whole experience was so powerful.”

Earlier this year the disaster Surfside, Florida caused by the collapse of a high-rise condominium building, and the effort to rescue and then recover victims reminded Holtz of 9/11. But he never really forgets what he saw at Ground Zero 20 years ago.

“Every year since, when I have blown the same shofar, in my mind I am always remembering Joshua David Birnbaum,” Holtz says. “Whenever a clock digitally shows 9/11, my mind basically stops and I say one sentence: ‘Shema Yisrael Adonai eloheinu Adonai ekhad’ (‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one”) – the single most defining statement in Judaism.

And that has been etched indelibly in my mind every day of my life. I could be doing anything. I could be talking to you, I could be laughing… And then I see 9/11 and it’s a trigger. And the name Joshua David Birnbaum is a name that I think of almost every day.”

Serendipitously, 15 years later at a picnic in West Hartford, Holtz mentioned Birnbaum’s name and an Israeli woman he didn’t know said, “I know his mother.”

Holtz eventually was able to speak to Birnbaum’s father Samuel on the phone.

“I told him that I carried his son’s picture. I said, ‘I never found your son, but I’ve got to tell you, spiritually, your son found me. He’s been with me,” said Holtz, fighting for a few seconds to hold back tears. “I get emotional, even 20 years later.

“There’s an expression, that true death only occurs when the memory of a person’s life is lost or forgotten,” adds Holtz. “And that’s how I feel about Josh. His spirit found me.”

jewishledger.com

OPINION

The High Holidays: Why Are We Here?

M

BY SAM GLASER

y favorite comic strip of the season is Bart Simpson at the blackboard scrawling repeatedly, “I won’t count how many pages are left in the Machzor (High Holiday prayer book).”

Formal prayer is an acquired taste, and its acquisition is best achieved with frequency and familiarity. Hence the Jewish Catch 22: many Jews only show up to pray on the two days a year when the prayers are by far the most long-winded and daunting.

Even with preparation and competent leadership, the High Holidays are still a lot to handle. How can clergy best communicate the essential themes of this period? Hopefully, the rabbi uses teaching moments to answer the elephant in the room question: “Why are we here?” The following is a multifaceted answer to that fundamental question, inspired by my brilliant friend, Rabbi Simcha Weinberg.

Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are truly portals to newness. We have a completely fresh opportunity to be the people we want to be. The Talmud illustrates that free will only exists in the present. We are judged where we stand at any given moment. On Rosh Hashana, we can establish a radical new direction, regardless of previous transgressions. We know change is possible because we have changed as a result of our deepest experiences, both triumphant and traumatic. Rosh Hashana is commonly known as the anniversary of the creation of the world. In actuality, it is the birthday of Adam and Eve, the anniversary of the sixth day, the one that really matters. Just like Adam stands alone in a nascent Garden of Eden, the very definition of a fresh start, so, too, can we, on this first day of the year, and every day thereafter.

Adam’s first prayer in the Garden of Eden was one of aspiration. He saw an incomplete world and according to Rashi, felt in his heart, “This could be so much more!” This theme should inform all our prayers during this High Holiday period.

The herbage God created on the third day waited until the sixth day when Adam aspired for more. Let us all be like Adam, truly wanting greatness for ourselves and jewishledger.com

for our world. The High Holiday season is the time to speak these aspirations into being.

One of the crucial changes in the Rosh Hashana liturgy is the repeated emphasis of God as Melech, or King. Having a king as our celestial Parent elevates us to the rank of prince or princess. Our sages tell us that we earned our regal pedigree as the offspring of our exemplary matriarchs and patriarchs. If we do our job over the High Holidays, we emerge whitewashed of sin, at parity with the angels, reunited with our Creator and our meritorious ancestors.

Perhaps the best answer to the “why are we here?” question: we are being judged.

While it is serious business, we should be happy about it. The reality is that we crave judgment. We’re desperate to know we are on a true path. The idea of God judging us should provide a sense of comfort that God cares.

Yom Kippur is about begging forgiveness. There is a cleansing power implicit in the day, absolving us of all our collective shortcomings, giving us a fresh start in the relationship. How is it possible we can fix everything? Does God really forgive? Does God love humanity enough to care about each one of us? Remarkably, the answer is yes. A chet (sin) means “missing the mark;” in other words, there is no truly intentional sin. We are “off target” in life simply because we don’t perceive the gravity of our actions. Any personal shortcomings serving as the impetus to repair our relationship can become mitzvot.

The High Holidays are about restoring what we always have inside, which is a sweet, loving child. Our inner child is quick to recover from a setback, is openly affectionate and sees the world with wide-eyed wonder. That child knows he is beautiful in his parents’ eyes and since the world revolves around him, he can be a tyrant prince. When a toddler cries, a few moments later she may be laughing with joyous abandon. Rabbi Weinberg quotes the Zohar, stating that the shofar blast is really a lullaby. Imagine that the final tekiyah gedolah at the end of Yom Kippur is an extended lullaby from God, just for you.

This is why we are here.

Sam Glaser is a performer, composer, producer and author in Los Angeles. He has released 25 albums of his compositions and produces music for various media.

His book The Joy of Judaism is an Amazon bestseller.

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

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

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

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

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

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

L IKE U S ON

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SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

11

THE FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA. (TUPUNGATO/SHUTTERSTOCK)

Philadelphia librarians under fire, accused of indoctrinating children with anti-Israel material

BY DMITRIY SHAPIRO

(JNS) A public library system in Philadelphia is promising to make operational changes after drawing criticism for what some community members are considering an effort to indoctrinate children and parents against Israel through books, videos and resource links that show a biased proPalestinian agenda.

The issues were first discovered by members of the Jewish community, who contacted the Philadelphia Chapter of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) to express their concerns. ZOA Philadelphia’s executive director, Steve Feldman, a former reporter for The Jewish Exponent, looked into the concerns and said that he was disturbed by what he found on the website of the Free Library of Philadelphia—the country’s 13th-largest system of public libraries.

He found out that the 55 branches of the library system had individual Facebook pages where librarians would often post book suggestions and readings for children and their caretakers.

“I started looking, and I kept finding more and more disturbing content that was first of all directed at young people—children, middle-school age or maybe even younger frankly—and that it was all of an antiJewish, anti-Zionist nature,” said Feldman.

“There seemed to be a campaign going on to indoctrinate young Philadelphians, or whoever else uses the websites in the library or the branches of the library, to indoctrinate young people and their parents to be anti12

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Zionist, anti-Jewish, anti-Israel.”

The concerning posts first began during the 11-day conflict between Israel and the Hamas terror group that runs the Gaza Strip in May, when a children’s librarian at the FLP’s Lillian Marrero branch posted a video on its official Facebook page of her reading the illustrated children’s book, Baba, What Does My Name Mean? A Journey to Palestine

by Rifk Ebeid, as an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The librarian, Kayla Hoskinson, in a series of videos she calls “Storytime with Kayla,” introduces the books she is about to read.

Hoskinson tells viewers of a video posted on May 18 that that week’s program is going to be more of a discussion and review, as well as a sharing of additional resources on the subject.

Hoskinson says that it is important to bring attention to the book because “we all see that the children in our lives do see and hear what is happening in the world, including the violence committed by Israel.”

“I’m sharing it because the struggle for liberation and total freedom is interconnected across cultures and communities. So when children, young people, see and hear about what’s happening to Palestinian people today, and for many decades, they will probably see and notice that Zionism looks a lot like racism,” she said. “And it’s important as the adults in their lives to name it and say it out loud. We should be highlighting and showing that support for the Palestinian struggle is

| SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

global and rooted especially with support among black and brown people. And as we’re seeing right now, people across the world are rising up to reject Israel’s attempt to erase Palestinian people.”

In the book, a girl asks her father what her name means and then goes on an imaginary adventure through the various cities of Israel, which in the book are given Arabic names.

Hoskinson shows a picture from the book that omits the current nation of Israel, making the whole territory—not just the Gaza Strip and West Bank—Palestinian territory and calls Jerusalem by its Arab name, Al-Quds, which Hoskinson said is what she will call the city for the video.

After the library received complaints, the video was removed from the branch’s Facebook page.

The book’s official Instagram page calls Israel an apartheid state and accuses it of committing genocide and ethnic cleansing.

‘Libraries are not neutral’ On June 18, Hoskinson is featured in another Facebook video where she reads from a book of poetry geared at older children, Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye, the Poetry Foundation’s 2019-21 Young People’s Poet Laureate. Hoskinson describes Nye’s father in one of the poems as longing for his “lost homeland.”

“I wouldn’t necessarily call it lost. That’s what it feels like. It was stolen,” she said when introducing a poem.

Hoskinson, along with adult and teen librarian Erin Hoopes, co-wrote a blog post on June 21 that was posted on the homepage of the library, as well as linked to posts on the library’s main Facebook page and the Facebook pages of some of its branches.

The post contains a list of three books

by Palestinian authors with its stated aim of helping children make sense of what they hear on the news and develop empathy for young people throughout the world. A link at the end of the blog forwards readers to a more thorough catalogue of books, all from the Palestinian perspective and aimed at children.

A keyword at the bottom of the blog post was “Black Lives Matter,” allowing the blog post to appear in a Black Lives Matter keyword search of the library’s website.

A repost on the Lillian Marrero Facebook page included a link to additional resources for parents and children to learn about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with each link associated with a pro-Palestinian perspective.

On her personal Twitter account, Hoskinson complains numerous times about the lack of action from libraries in supporting the Palestinian cause, interspersed with other radical causes, including keeping police and police-related imagery from libraries.

“Thinking a lot about that refrain we hear so often—‘libraries are not neutral’—and the near total silence about Palestine in library spaces. Didn’t we all pivot together to build up anti-racist programming in 2020? And yet … ,” Hoskinson wrote in a pinned tweet.

She follows that tweet, saying that she

commended the Free Library materials management team that “immediately recognized the dearth of Palestinian voices in our children’s collection and are already buying new books to fill it.”

“I think there is a deliberate effort to delegitimize Jewish self-determination and even dehumanize the Jewish people to young Philadelphians, particularly of other minority groups,” said Feldman. “Out of all of the conflicts in the world, all the situations in the world, why have there been multiple programs and activities focusing on Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, and not, for example, what’s going on in China, Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela or any places where there actually are human-rights violations?”

Hoskinson posted another, less offensive video on July 26, reading another children’s illustrated book by Nye, Sitti’s Secrets, about a girl visiting her Palestinian grandmother from America. Hoskinson again says that she believes it’s imperative for parents, caregivers and educators to use picture books as a tool to instill empathy and a sense of justice in young people before saying that her first video was deleted from the branch’s Facebook page because of outside complaints and directing viewers where to find that book.

Hoskinson speaks in a calm, child-friendly voice, like a teacher reading to a class of children.

“The librarian in a couple of those videos comes off like a female Mr. Rogers, which intensifies the impact of the propaganda that she is delivering,” said Feldman. “Why

A SCREENSHOT OF LIBRARIAN KA

(SCREEN

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isn’t she the following week promoting a book about Zionism or about Israel or about the Jewish longing to return to [the Jewish] homeland? About what it’s like to be a young person with rockets, thousands and thousands of rockets fired at you frequently?

Nothing like that is there. So it indicates that there is a deliberate, one-sided campaign, and it’s all based on lies.”

Hoskinson and possibly Hoopes, whose name appears as “Eel Hoopes,” both were signatories to an open letter of solidarity with Palestinian liberation from the children’s book industry, which accused Israelis of “lynching” Palestinians with the participation of Israeli police, genocide, ethnic cleansing, stealing land and targeting children.

Library staff are employees of the city of Philadelphia with the city providing $46.3 million of the library’s operating budget in Fiscal Year 2019-20 and another $7.8 million coming from state grant funds.

“You’re also talking about a government agency, and you’re talking about an institution that people, I would say, let their guard down about,” he said. “You know, who would think that a public library would be trying to indoctrinate young people to hate another people? It would be the furthest thing that anybody would think of. A library is regarded as a safe space—maybe one of the safest spaces. If you’re going to sit your kid down in front of a website to watch videos, who would suspect anything untoward at the library?”

According to Feldman, ZOA reached out to

AYLA HOSKINSON’S STORYTIME.

NSHOT)

jewishledger.com

library leadership and were assured that the posts had been approved by supervisors.

Susan Tuchman, an attorney who is also director at the ZOA Center for Law and Justice, said that she followed up on Feldman’s email to the library’s interim director, Leslie Walker, making it known that the issue not only concerns the local ZOA chapter but the national organization.

“You had staff members propagandizing on the library’s webpages and promoting their personal agendas, which we said was not just anti-Israel, it crossed the line into antisemitism,” said Tuchman.

She said that ZOA urged the library staff to remove the offending posts, instructed the staff not to use library resources to express their personal political opinions and admonished staff members who engaged in that kind of behavior.

According to Tuchman, the library said that it would be auditing its social-media posts, which with all its branches was going to be time-consuming; update its blog guidelines and social-media policy; and meet with members of the Jewish community to help guide the library in the future.

“It is frightening to learn that a respected, neutral group at the Free Library is putting out anti-Israel lies and propaganda that [former PLO head] Yasser Arafat would be proud of. It’s just unbelievable. I’ve watched these videos—just incredible lies about Israel,” said Mort Klein, ZOA’s national president and a resident of Philadelphia, adding that Hoskinson’s narrations are worse than the books themselves. “I mean, the Free Library would never allow propaganda lies against blacks or gays or Muslims. Why do they allow it against the Jewish state?”

‘We were glad that they reached out to us’ Robin Schatz, director of government affairs of at the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, was contacted a few weeks ago about the situation by library board chair Folasade Olanipekun-Lewis. OlanipekunLewis was referred to Schatz by a member of the community.

Schatz said that she had met OlanipekunLewis before, when Olanipekun-Lewis worked for the city of Philadelphia, though they didn’t know each other well.

Schatz said that the library asked for input from the Jewish community because they “realized that there had been some missteps, and they wanted to gain a better understanding of what the issues were.”

Schatz said that she found the May 18 video disturbing.

“Some of it bothered me a lot, and some of it I thought was not too terrible,” she said.

“Because in one of the videos, it was clear bias, based on misinformation; I thought to some extent it was revisionist history.”

A meeting was held on Aug. 19 between Schatz, Olanipekun-Lewis, Walker and Philadelphia Jewish Community Relations Council director Laura Frank.

Schatz said that the library leaders agreed to hold another meeting at the end of August to include the federation and ZOA to further

THE COVER OF “BABA, WHAT DOES MY NAME MEAN? A JOURNEY TO PALESTINE” BY RIFK EBEID.

discuss the issue. The meeting was scheduled for the afternoon of Aug. 31.

They also discussed future programming collaborations between various groups of Jews in the community, including collaborating with other groups that may not have a working relationship or understanding of the Jewish community.

According to Schatz, the library has over the years hosted programs with Jewish or Israeli authors.

“Our position is that we were glad that they reached out to us. We’re happy to work with them,” she said. “We are big believers in education as they are, and I think it’s going to be the start of a really nice collaboration with the library.”

In a statement to JNS, the Free Library outlined the steps that it is undertaking to make corrections, which were similar as to what was told to Tuchman.

This includes auditing the social-media accounts of its neighborhood libraries, which so far includes it removing two videos with language that is not endorsed by FLP. With 75 accounts associated with the library, a full audit will take time, according to the statement.

The library has also convened its website and communications teams to update its blog and social-media guidelines, and its supervisors have been charged with addressing and reinforcing those guidelines with staff to prevent the production of inflammatory programs and content

produced in the name of the library. Finally, representatives will meet with partners and leaders in the Jewish community to discuss and help guide the library on culturally sensitive issues and concerns.

“The language used in social-media posts is not endorsed by the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the posts have been taken down,” Olanipekun-Lewis said in a statement on Aug. 19. “We are reviewing the guidelines for our content so that we can continue to give our employees platforms to share resources and voices from many cultures and perspectives grounded in our programs and collections, while ensuring it does not denigrate any members of the Free Library community or become an outlet for individual political or personal views. We will also be meeting with leaders in the Jewish community to discuss their concerns.”

FLP public-relations manager Kaitlyn Foti Kalosy said the library would not comment on whether the posts would lead to repercussions for library staff.

An email to Hoskinson offering her an opportunity to comment did not receive a response.

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SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

13

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(Israel21c) — Starting the second week of September, Israeli organic farmer Ben Rosenberg will stop planting in the field. He will grow his veggies in raised containers inside fabric-covered hothouses until next September.

The hothouse setup was expensive, and he will only be able to grow about half the usual 40 seasonal varieties he raises in the field during a normal year. But it’s not going to be a normal year. The year 5782 on the Jewish calendar is a sabbatical year for the land.

According to the Bible, every seventh year in the Land of Israel is a shmita (“release”) year, when debts are canceled and fields lie fallow and ownerless. Promoting growth through most forms of plowing, planting and pruning is forbidden, as are the usual methods of reaping and harvesting.

Any previously planted vegetable, flower or fruit that grows in the soil during the sabbatical year has a special sanctity. It must not be wasted or sold — it should be made available freely to anyone, in acknowledgement that the land is God’s, not ours.

The Bible promises a triple bounty in the sixth year of the agricultural cycle — enough for the sixth, seventh and eighth years until new crops can be planted and harvested (Leviticus 25:20-23).

In modern Israel, most large commercial farmers symbolically relinquish ownership of their land for the sabbatical year, enabling them to sell produce grown in the soil with certain modifications, such as plowing before shmita begins.

Farmers choosing to practice shmita more literally can use various methods to continue providing produce to the market. One option is to grow hydroponically or in raised containers, as Rosenberg does.

His quarter acre of shmita hothouses were built under rabbinical supervision to ensure the plants have no contact with the soil in his three-acre field.

“The ground is the best way to grow food because it’s the natural environment, but there’s no doubt that if the land rests it replenishes itself. I saw that when I started growing here 13 years ago,” he said.

Simple crop rotation could accomplish that goal, but shmita is a larger concept and is meaningful to this transplanted American.

“It’s an emotional thing for me,” said Rosenberg. “To be able to do a mitzvah [commandment] that is connected to the land is very special.”

‘A wonderful experience’ Rehovot-based patent attorney Sandy Colb agrees.

Colb’s charity farm, Hatov V’hameitiv,

provides 50 tons of fruits and vegetables each week from approximately 200 acres of leased, bought and borrowed fields. The harvest is distributed to 35 social-service agencies for allocation to nutritionally challenged Israeli populations.

In sabbatical years, he and his farm team consult with a local rabbi to make sure they strictly adhere to rules about resting the soil.

“I think shmita is a great mitzvah, and we do it right. It’s rather complex, but it forces you to do things in a different way,” said Colb. “You just have to plan it very carefully and, with the proper attitude, it’s a wonderful experience.”

Much of his acreage is devoted to fruit trees that produce perennially.

“Citrus and most other tree crops form before shmita begins and can be picked during the shmita year,” he explained.

Fruit that forms during the sabbatical year will have the special sanctified status even though it will be picked after shmita is over.

“Vegetables are different,” he said, because they must be planted anew each season.

Some field crops can be planted early to avoid planting during the seventh year.

Colb raises veggies such as tomatoes and cucumbers in greenhouses, disconnected from the ground.

He makes a point not to furlough any employees during shmita, “but we will use contractors less toward the end of the year because we won’t be planting.”

Agtech for shmita In the late 1950s, the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture established a Unit for Agriculture According to the Torah at the ministry’s Agricultural Research Organization-Volcani Center.

Pioneered by Moshe Sachs, a founder of Kibbutz Shaalbim, this unit experimented with solutions for growing crops without violating shmita rules, such as raising roses in haybales rather than in the ground.

Joshua Klein took over the unit in 1989.

Arriving with a PhD in plant science from Cornell University, Klein began introducing techniques for managing fruit orchards and vineyards during shmita.

One innovation is chemical thinning, which reduces the number of flowers to promote bigger, higher-quality fruit without performing any prohibited pruning.

Another project was developing seedling treatments to induce drought resistance so that crops can be sown early, before shmita and the rainy season begin.

“We have an experiment funded by the chief scientist of the Ministry of Agriculture on early [vineyard] pruning in the fall before Rosh Hashanah of a shmita year, rather than jewishledger.com

armers who are giving their land a year’s rest the usual timing in the spring, if you want to have a yield of grapes during shmita,” said Klein.

“If you don’t want to have a yield at all, you can do extreme pruning and the vines will only yield in the eighth year while renewing the vineyard.”

The unit’s plant scientists also are trying to extend storage of produce harvested in the sixth year so that it can be sold in the seventh year.

Experimental approaches range from wrapping in plastic (partially successful with citrons) to spraying with mint oil (more successful for potatoes than carrots).

“All of these projects have relevance to farmers who don’t keep shmita, as well as to farmers outside Israel,” emphasizes Klein, who lectures across the world and answers questions from agriculture students, farmers and rabbis.

He explains that shmita applies only within the borders settled by the ancient Israelites upon their return from Egyptian slavery.

This excludes the southern Arava Valley and large portions of the Negev, where farming continues as usual.

Advantages and disadvantages According to Klein, the main ecological advantage of letting the land lie fallow for a year is that diseases cannot infect unplanted soil.

“Nematodes — worm-like animals that live in the ground and chew on roots, and thus damage and infect plants with disease — die from lack of food. The same can happen with other diseases because with no food, there is no place for the disease to remain established, so you start the eighth year with a cleaner slate,” said Klein.

“On the other hand, letting weeds grow freely during shmita consumes water stored in the ground that could otherwise be used for crops after shmita, and makes for a very large investment in time and money to return the field to a productive state,” he added. “We developed methods of managing weeds in fallow fields to save water and effort.”

There is another advantage, that he can’t prove scientifically.

“I do not understand the reason, but wine from the grape harvest of shmita has been a superior vintage in four out of the five shmita years I have been in Israel,” he says.

Grape giveaway Ari Pollack is a partner in Tom Winery, founded after the sabbatical year that concluded at Rosh Hashanah 2008.

The boutique operation produces about jewishledger.com

4,500 bottles annually from its cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot and shiraz grapes.

When their first shmita approached in 2014, Pollack and head grape-grower/ winemaker Tomer Pnini pruned the vines in their seven-and-a-half-acre Kerem Meirav vineyard just before Rosh Hashanah.

“It’s risky to do it before the fall because the vineyard can ‘wake up’ early, but we were okay,” says Pollack, who works in high-tech on the side.

The partners took seriously the Bible’s admonition not to sell or waste the shmita fruit.

“When our grapes were ready, we sent messages on Facebook and email that anyone could come pick for free, and we would help them make wine from the grapes they picked,” Pollack said. “Everything was picked.”

BEN ROSENBERG WILL LET HIS ORGANIC FARM REST DURING THE SABBATICAL YEAR. PHOTO COURTESY OF BEN’S FARM

A powerful message To prepare for the coming shmita, Pollack and Pnini stepped up wine production by 50 percent to 70 percent as a hedge against lost income in the seventh and eighth years.

But pre-shmita pruning may not be possible, because Rosh Hashanah comes early this year.

“We might still be harvesting the sixth year after the holiday. If so, we won’t be able to prune for a long time because the point of pruning is to get better fruit and you can’t do that after shmita begins,” explained Pollack.

To find a solution, they may consult with experts such as Yishai Netzer from the chemical engineering department of Ariel University, who is testing methods of pruning before shmita.

“It’s a big test of faith to take a break from working the land,” Pollack admitted.

“Especially in today’s global market where you can get anything anytime.”

Yet he and Pnini find shmita meaningful.

“Everyone is talking about social justice and bridging gaps between poor and rich, and here we have something every seven years where there is no rich and no poor; everyone is equal. To remember that the land is His, not ours — it’s a pretty powerful message,” says Pollack.

Shmita innovations Agronomists from the nonprofit Institute for Torah and the Land of Israel (Machon Ha-Torah Ve’HaAretz) teach Israeli municipalities how public gardening can follow shmita rules.

Prior to the sabbatical year they switch from annuals to perennials and perform seasonal treatments. During the year, they only preserve and maintain existing trees and plants.

ARI POLLACK AND HIS SON BENAYAHU HARVESTING GRAPES IN 2015.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ARI POLLACK

The institute also educates the public about home gardening during shmita, and mechanisms for distributing, acquiring and handling seventh-year produce.

“It is very important that in our gardens we let the land rest and acknowledge that the fruits are not ours. We may maintain our gardens but allow everyone to come and harvest what was planted before shmita,” says Rabbi Moshe Bloom of the institute’s Englishlanguage department.

To ensure seeds planted early before Rosh Hashanah don’t sprout and die before the rainy season, the institute advises farmers to sow more densely and deeply and avoid watering. This way, the seeds will sprout only after the early fall/winter rains arrive.

One of the institute’s agronomists bought

a special refrigerator in Europe and found a unique use for it in Israel — keeping heads of bug-free cabbage fresh for three months. This enables farmers to plant extra cabbage, pick it just before shmita begins, store it and sell it for the first three months of the sabbatical year.

“Maybe these technologies are the fulfillment of the Torah’s promise of a surplus in the sixth year,” said Bloom. “We won’t have to rely on sources outside of Israel and we will have enough to eat in the seventh and eighth years.”

The Institute for Torah and the Land of Israel offers tours of its innovations concerning shmita as well as other biblical agricultural laws. Click here for more information.

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SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

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| SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

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THE KOSHER CROSSWORD SEPT. 10, 2021 “Yom Kippur Cinema” By: Yoni Glatt

Difficulty Level: Manageable

Vol. 93 No. 37 JHL Ledger LLC Publisher Henry M. Zachs Managing Partner

Curbside pick up and local home delivery available!

Leslie Iarusso Associate Publisher Judie Jacobson Editor judiej@jewishledger.com • x3024 Hillary Sarrasin Digital Media Manager hillaryp@jewishledger.com EDITORIAL Stacey Dresner Massachusetts Editor staceyd@jewishledger.com • x3008 Tim Knecht Proofreader

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

JHL Ledger LLC and Jewish Ledger shall not be liable for failure to publish an ad for typographical error or errors in the publication except to the extent of the cost of the space which the actual error appeared in the first insertion. Publishers reserve the right to refuse advertising for any reason and to alter advertising copy or graphics deemed unacceptable.

The publishers cannot warrant, nor assume responsibility for, the legitimacy, reputability or legality of any products or services offered in advertisements in any of its publications. The entire contents of the Jewish Ledger are copyright © 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 SEPT. 3 CROSSWORD

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Across 1. Mineo of “Exodus” 4. “Whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved the entire world.” e.g 9. Channel that might show Wasserman-Schultz’s house?

14. Emotion for Moses when seeing the Golden Calf 15. Disney animated film with Harvey Fierstein 16. “My ___” (how Mordecai might have addressed Ahasuerus) 17. 2007 Keira Knightly film about a Yom Kippur goal?

19. Biblical witch’s locale or home of the Ewoks 20. Rock genre of Guster 21. Vilna Gaon, with “The” 22. Makes a yutz out of

25. 1992 Clint Eastwood film about an unsuccessful Yom Kippur?

30. Shortened name of a Biblical strong man 31. Bird where 9 Av is in the winter 32. Give what’s own 33. Novelist Rand 34. Most recent pieces on Ed Asner?

36. An Uzi is one 37. Robert who fought against 21-Down 38. 1985 Judd Nelson film about the end of Yom Kippur? (with “The) 42. James of “The Godfather” 43. Length of time the world has not lasted, according to a literal Bible translation 44. Stoudemire who is now Yehoshafat 46. J.D. earner

47. Jew___ (hairdo) 48. ___air 50. Brady who played for Kraft 51. 1982 Paul Newman film about the outcome of Yom Kippur?

54. Some Mountain drinks 55. Gold played by Jeremy Piven 56. Little sucker 58. “Ahava”, in Paris 61. 1990 Daniel Stern film about one spending Yom Kippur in quarantine?

65. Talmud option 66. Some shapes 67. Mex. neighbor 68. Arguments between Bubbie and Zadie 69. Kelly and Wilder 70. Used a couch

Down 1. David Guetta’s “Titanium” singer 2. Work of Chagall 3. Uncle on “Seinfeld” 4. “I’ll second that” 5. Brand that makes a kosher bacon lollipop 6. Prayer at the end of minyanim 7. Swindler 8. Talking tree creature in “The Lord of The Rings” 9. Rabbis and priests 10. Moses spent a lot of time on it 11. Robinson Cano got the year “off” for using one: Abbr.

12. 73 years ___ (Israel was born) 13. Tamid or shel Shabbat 18. Money in the Holy Land: Abbr.

21. General Ulysses who tried to expel Jews from Kentucky,

Tennessee and Mississippi 22. G.I. entertainers (like The Marx Brothers) 23. It’s not a work day 24. Arab chieftain’s domain 26. Richard Dreyfuss’s “Mr. Holland’s ___” 27. Find out how much something is worth 28. Target for tweezers 29. Netanya to Tiberias dir.

31. ___ Einai 35. Number of Commandments 36. Eden was one 37. Common tree in northern America, but not northern Israel 39. 1996 Olympian Strug 40. Challah or gefilte fish, e.g.

41. It can be hard getting one around the Old City

42. Common Israeli stray 45. Ends of Purim and Shushan Purim?

47. Iconic role for Matthew (Broderick) 48. One of Marvel’s original mutants 49. ‘80s TV character Remington 52. Aly Raisman might jump off one...or a place for her medals 53. “Ani ohev” 54. Alternative to FedEx 57. Mama of music 58. Core workout targets 59. One that shows Israel’s borders 60. Eve’s eggs 61. Treif motorcycle?

62. They’re not on treif items 63. Spying org.

64. It’s a mitzvah to do this the day before Yom Kippur

JEWISH LEDGER

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SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

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The Mystery of Yom Kippur

BY RABBI SHMUEL REICHMAN

A

speaker once started his seminar by holding up a $100 bill. “Who would like this $100 bill?”, he asked.

Every hand in the room

went up.

The speaker looked around, and then crumpled the bill in his hand.

“Who wants it now?” he asked.

Every hand in the room remained in the air.

“Well,” he replied, “What about now?”

He dropped the bill on the ground and stomped on it with his shoe.

He picked up the now crumpled and dirty bill and showed it to the crowd.

“Who still wants it?”

Every hand was still up in the air.

“My friends, you have just experienced a very powerful lesson. No matter what I do to this money, no matter how crumpled or muddy it gets, it does not decrease in value. Many times in our lives, life has a way of crumpling us up and grinding us in the dirt. We make bad decisions, or deal with poor circumstances, and we begin to feel worthless. We feel that Hashem has abandoned us, that He no longer values us. But no matter what has happened, and no matter what will happen, you will never lose your value. You were created b’tzelem Elokim (in the image of God), and nothing can change that.”

Yom Kippur: A Mysterious Day As we approach Yom Kippur, we recognize that it is unquestionably one of the most important days of the year. And yet, in many ways, it is a mystery. While one might assumedly categorize it as a day of suffering and sadness, our Sages refer to Yom Kippur as a spiritually uplifting day of atonement and rebirth (Taanis 4:8). There is even an element of the day that is associated with the happiness of Purim (Yom “Ki”-Purim, a day like Purim). At the same time, though, it is a fast day. We normally characterize fast days as times of mourning and sadness, such as Shiva Asar B’Tamuz and Tisha B’Av. How is Yom Kippur different, and what is the nature of this day?

Soul Questions: What Are We? Arguably the most important concept in life, though often misunderstood, is the nature 18

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of the soul. Most people believe that they “have” a soul, some spiritual essence they possess within themselves. However, the deeper Jewish sources reveal a profound spiritual secret: you don’t have a soul, you are a soul. In other words, the soul is not an aspect of your self, or some spiritual component of your being; it is your very self. You are a soul, a consciousness, a spiritual being. When you say “I”, you are referring to your soul, your inner sense of self. You have a body, emotions, and an intellect, all different aspects and expressions of your soul. But you are a soul, a neshama, an infinitely expansive consciousness.

The Birth of Finitude A soul is angelic, perfect, pure, and transcendent. This is what our Sages refer to as your “fetal self,” when you were still in the womb, just before entering this physical world (Niddah 30b). However, the moment one enters this physical world, the infinite expansiveness of the soul is confined within the physical body. The body is the container of the soul, but it is also the soul’s vehicle and tool, allowing the soul to manifest its will in this world. This is our mission in life.

We enter this world with an undeveloped vehicle, our limited body. The soul, our existential self, is already perfect, but we don’t yet have access to the fullness of our true self. As we journey through life, we tap into greater and greater aspects of our soul, our self, and we must then manifest them into the world through our physical bodies.

In doing so, we uplift our physical vessels, and enable them to tap into greater and greater aspects of our true self. This is the beautiful cycle of life, the endless expansion and expression of self into this physical world.

Our Inner Struggle While this perspective is both powerful and fundamental, its implementation is elusive, and perhaps humanity’s most central struggle. Many people believe that they are a body, a physical, finite being. Having forgotten our true selves, we are born with the illusory belief that we are only that which we can see. We look in the mirror, seeing only flesh and bone, and we believe that this is all that we are.

However, this is merely our starting point. The turning point in life is the moment we realize that we are angelic souls

| SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

in a physical casing. We are not physical beings attempting to have a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings trying to uplift our physical experience. This is the central theme of Yom Kippur.

Yom Kippur: Flying With Angels Yom Kippur is the one day of the year when we completely free ourselves of our physical limitations, embracing our angelic self. This day embodies true teshuva — repentance — when we return to our ultimate root, to our spiritual, perfect self. The Sages characterize Yom Kippur as the one day of the year when we have the ability to become a malach (angel). On this day, our lower self and physical urges are powerless, they cannot bring us down. They formulate this idea through the following gematria: “Ha’Satan”the evil inclination, has the numerical value of 364. There are 365 days in the year, but the Satan only has power on 364 of those days. Yom Kippur is the one day where the Satan, the Yetzer Hara, has no power over you. On this day, you can completely transcend and experience angelic perfection (Yoma 20a).

Why Do We Fast?

There is a paradoxical relationship between the body and the soul: · Your soul, which is your “self,” is transcendent, infinite, and purely spiritual.

You cannot see, smell, or touch the consciousness, the mind. You will never see someone else’s inner world. · The body, however, is finite, limited, and physical. Your soul will never die, but your body will eventually age and wither.

If the soul and body are complete opposites, how do they manage to coexist as one? One would expect them to repel each other, like two opposite sides of a magnet.

This is the powerful purpose of food.

There needs to be something to keep your soul attached to your body, some kind of “glue”. Eating food generates the energy which keeps your neshama connected to your body. That is why the lack of eating has the opposite effect. What happens when you don’t eat? You become faint. What

happens if you continue to fast? You will pass out. And if you still don’t eat, your soul will leave your body and you will die. Eating maintains the connection between your soul and your body; it is what keeps you alive.

We can now understand the concept of fasting, especially on the day of Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur, we attempt to live as malachim, completely transcending the physical world. We therefore fast, allowing our soul to somewhat transcend our body, enabling us to experience one day of living in an angelic state. We don’t engage in the physical world because Yom Kippur is a day of transcending the physical aspects of human experience.

The Opportunity of Yom Kippur This is the unique opportunity that Yom Kippur presents: to transcend, to experience the infinite. Unlike other fast days, it is not a day of suffering and mourning, but one of spiritual transcendence. As the famous quote goes: On Tisha B’Av, who can eat, on Yom Kippur, who needs to?” This is why the Rambam (Hilchos Shevisas He’Asor 1:4) states that on Yom Kippur we “rest” from eating. This is not a day of prohibition and suffering, it is one of completely embracing the spiritual, tapping into our absolute root, our truest sense of self.

May we be inspired to fully experience our angelic selves this Yom Kippur, and then infuse the totality of our spiritual acquisition into our physical life, elevating our actions and intentions as we move this physical world towards its ultimate spiritual root.

Rabbi Shmuel Reichman, MA, MS is CEO of Self-Mastery Academy.

He is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Chicago. Visit his website at shmuelreichman.com.

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WHAT’S HAPPENING SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 Young Israel LegenDAIRY! The Young Israel of West Hartford invites everyone — members and nonmembers — to take a break from your Rosh Hashanah prep dn enjoy dinner, ice cream and fun with old and new shul friends at the LegenDAIRY Welcome Back Event on Sept. 5, 4:40 - 6:30 pm. ARSVP optional.

For more information: youngisaelwh.org/ legendairy.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 Game Night & Social with Urban Dor Urban Dor, a new group for Jewish young adults ages 21 to 39 living in the Hartford area, will host a Game Night & Social on Sept. 10 at 7 p.m. in downtown Hartford.

The evening will include ping pong and cornhole, kosher pizza, wine and beer.

Admission is FREE. RSVP required: urbandor.org/events.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 Teferes Israel Cemetery Memorial Service Teferes Israel Cemetery Memorial Service will be held in Elmwood at 11 a.m., and in East Granby at 12 noon p.m.

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin to speak in Darien The renowned author and spiritual leader Rabbi Joseph Telushkin will be guest speaker at “Celebration of Our Community’s Emerging Leaders,” hosted by United Jewish Federation of Greater Stamford, New Canaan and Darien, on Sept.12 at 6:30 p.m. Rabbi Telushkin will discuss “Words That Hurt, Words That Heal: How to be Civil in An Increasingly Uncivil World.” To be held at Darien Community Association, 274 Middlesex Rd. Admission: $54; $36 for NextGen and new arrivals to the community. Register at: ujf.ticketspice.com/ ujf-kickoff-event-2021-emerging-leaders 10th Annual Taste of Honey Beth Sholom B’nai Israel in Manchester will host a BBQ lunch to celebrate the new year on Sept. 12, 12 noon - 2 p.m. In addition to BBQ, the lunch will include honey cake, apples and honey, games and fun for the kids. Great way to meet new people.

Admission if FREE. Registration required: myshul.org.

Picking for the Pantry Pick apples at Silverman’s Farm in Easton on Sept. 12, 3 - 4:30 p.m. Hosted by PJ Library and UJA/JCC of Greenwich, this event will benefit local families who use the jewishledger.com

Schoke Jewish Family Service Kosher Food Pantry. No rain date. $36/family (includes a bag for picked apples to be donated to the food pantry. For information, contact uja@ ujajcc.org.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 Author Dale Atkins to speak at Hartford Federation annual meeting Shayna Gopin and Stuart Rabinowitz will be presented with the Zachs Spirit of Judaism Award, and incoming and outgoing Federation leadership, including outgoing Chairman of the Board Carolyn Gitlin, will be recognized, at the 2021 Annual Meeting & Celebration of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, to be held virtually Sept.

13, 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. In addition, Dr. Dale Atkins, TV personality, psychologist and co-author of “The Kindness Advantage” will be keynote speaker. Dr. Atkins will discuss “The Kindness Revolution: Building a strong and vibrant Jewish community through everyday actions.

The Spirit of Judaism Award was established seven years ago by the Zachs family to highlight the Greater Hartford Jewish community’s volunteer and professional “unsung heroes.” This year’s award recognizes Shayna Gopin for her passionate dedication to the West Hartford chapter of The Friendship Circle, where she has helped bridge gaps between local Jewish teens living with and without disability, providing countless opportunities for them to socialize, learn, and form lasting friendships. Award recipient Stuart Rabinowitz will be honored for his significant contributions to East Hartford’s Temple Beth Tefilah, where he has served as a steadfast volunteer for more than 30 years.

Registration is required, Visit, https:// bit.ly/JFGH2021AnnualMeeting.

For information: jewishhartford.org.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 “The Four Horsemen” in Concert The Four Horsemen will perform at the JCC in Sherman (9 Rte 39 South) on Sept. 18 at 6:30 p.m. Band members include David Ray, Mike Latini, Dave Goldenberg and George Mallas. All four of the Horseman are singer-songwriters, each with their own unique style. Reservations a must. Tickets: $20/member, $25/non-members. At this time, the concert is to be held outdoors; if it moves indoors, masks will be required to be worn.

SEPTEMBER 5 – OCTOBER 13 SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 Keney Park Reunion Share memories of Keney Park and the North End at this in-person reunion to be held at the park on Sept. 19 at 2 - 4 p.m.; Share your memories of spending time in the park; learn about the Keney Park Sustainability Project; take a short tour their demonstration garden, beekeeping and maple syrup making. Light refreshments.

Hosted by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford. $15/members; $18/ non-members. For more information or to register, visit jhsgh.org/keneypark.

10th Anniversary Murray Lender 5K Bagel Run The annual Murray Lender 5K Bagel Run Road Race, 2-mile Family Fit Walk and Free Kids’ Costume Run will be held Sept. 19; 8 a.m. registration, 9 am Kid’ Costume Race, 9:30 a.m. Bagel Run and 2 Mile Family Fit Walk, 10:30 a.m. Bagel Breakfast and Awards. Enjoy music, food and activities for the kids. USA Track & Field Certified 5K court will wind through the residential neighborhoods of Woodbridge. Groups are encouraged. Free event t-shirts. Save 20% by registering before Sept. 1. For information, visit jewishnewhaven.org.

West Hartford Mitzvah Fair Hosted by the Young Israel of West Hartford on Sept. 19, 10 a.m. - 12 noon.

Featuring: lulav & etrog market; soar on site; mezuzah and teffilin check, Sukkot decoration project for kids.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 22 Literature and Life Award winning novelist and short story writer Nicole Krauss will deliver the Diane Feigenson Lecture in Jewish Literature as part of the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies Fall 2021 Lecture Series. The author of Great House (2010), Forest Dark (2017), and To Be A Man (2020), Kraus will speak on the topic of “Here and There: The Parallel Worlds of Literature and Life.” The free Zoom webinar will be held on Sept. 22 at 7:30 p.m.

All fall lectures and events will be virtual webinars, free and open to the public.

Online registration is required for each event. Spring lectures will be in-person, with some events live streaming via Zoom.

The Bennett Center for Judaic Studies will follow Fairfield University regulations regarding in-person events and gatherings.

For more information, contact Jennifer Haynos at bennettcenter@fairfield.edu or (203) 254-4000, ext. 2066.

Sukkah Crawl Young Israel of West Hartford presents their 2nd Annual Sukkah Crawl, Sept. 22 at 8 p.m. With d’var Torahs and drinks.

Location to be announced.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7 Daniel Pearl World Music Days Concert Alicia Jo Rabins, composer, singer, violinist, poet, writer, and Torah teacher performs for Zoom her indie-folk song cycle “Girls in Trouble: Songs about the Complicated Lives of Biblical Women,” on Oct. 7 at 7:30 p.m., as part of Daniel Pearl Music Days.

Concert is free, but registration is required.

Sponsored by the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies of Fairfield University. For more information, contact Jennifer Haynos at bennettcenter@fairfield.edu or (203) 2544000, ext. 2066.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10 Walk Against Hate Join ADL and the Connecticut Sun on Oct. 10 on the campus of the Watkinson School at 180 Bloomfield Ave. in West Hartford for a “Walk Against Hate” in-person event. The event will be filled with music, fun, and an opportunity to hear from the Sun’s leadership and others how to move forward as a community toward a future without antisemitism, racism and bigotry.

Food and beverages will be available for purchase. Check in and registration at 10 am.; event begins at 11 a.m. Register at WalkAgainstHate.org/Connecticut.

Those who can’t join the event in person are welcome to register to walk virtually, anytime and anyplace.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13 Jews of the Italian Renaissance Gabriel Mancuso, PhD, director, The Eugene Grant Research Program on Jewish History and Culture in Early Modern Europe at The Medici Archive Project, Florence, Italy will deliver a free webinar on the topic, “The Other Dome’ – The Jews of Italian Renaissance Italy, Between Paradigms and Paradoxes,” on Oct. 13 at 7:30 p.m. The webinar is free, but registration is required. Sponsored by the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies of Fairfield University. For more information, contact Jennifer Haynos at bennettcenter@ fairfield.edu or (203) 254-4000, ext. 2066.

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OBITUARIES BASKIN Jerome “Jerry” I. Baskin, 81, of Ridgefield, formerly of Columbia and Manchester, died August 21. He was the beloved husband of Judith R. (Katz) Baskin. Born in Johnson City, Tenn., he was the son of Abraham and Gertrude (Cohen) Baskin.

He was a former member of the Temple Beth Sholom in Manchester. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his sons, Jonathan Baskin and his wife Jessica of New York City, and Jeffrey Baskin of New York City; his brothers, Michael Baskin and his husband Michael Haze, and Peter Baskin and his wife Joanne; his sister Linda (Sherman) Pinn and her husband Edward; his grandchildren, Jacob, Juliet and Joah Baskin; and several nephews and nieces.

FISCHEL Guta Fischel, 94, died Aug. 28. She was the wife of David Fischel. Born in Lodz, Poland, she was the daughter of Paltiel and Rachel Litera. A Holocaust survivor, she lived in the Warsaw and Lodz Ghettos with her mother and younger sister Edga. The three were liberated from Dachau together.

Guta’s father, grandparents, aunts, uncles and many cousins were among the six million Jews killed. She is survived by her children, five grandchildren and eight greatgrandchildren.

FRIEDMAN Michael E. Friedman, 72, has died. He was the husband of Nancy Apthorp. Born in New London, he was the son of Sara and Herman Friedman. He was the sibling of Aaron Friedman and Ruthann Friedman Mandelbaum. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his son Sam Friedman; his stepchildren, Kyle and Tyler Klewin, and Ashley McAuliffe; many grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

GOLDSTEIN Dr. Paul Goldstein, 96, of New Haven, died Aug 24. He was the widower of Betty Moore. Born in Providence, he was the son of Rose and Irving Goldstein.

He served in the Armed Forces Medical Corps in Japan during the Korean War. He is survived by his children, Lynn, Jill and Larry; their spouses, David Tauben, Phillip Freeman, and Diane Pappas; and his grandchildren, Sonya and Eliana Freeman, and Daniel and Julia Tauben.

MADOFF Adelaide Madoff, born Adelaide Mittleman to mother Goldie and father Louis on July 16, 1924, died peacefully at the age of 97 on August 27, 2021, in West Hartford, Conn. Hers was a life of the middle-class American dream of progress and prosperity, her lineage traced from shtetls to sweatshops to a postwar ascent into the idyll of suburban sunlight across small lawns. She was raised in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn and later in the Bronx, where she went to Roosevelt High School and then to Hunter College, a bastion like other public colleges of the city of a burgeoning Jewish intelligentsia, graduating in 1946. A child of Polish and Ukrainian immigrants, she spoke Yiddish before English, lived in tenements filled with the smells of borscht and boiled meat, a time of box-pleat skirts and atom bombs, her mother ruined by schizophrenia. Adelaide somehow found her way into the museums of the city, falling in love with art, and took up painting amid her college studies and afterward as an art librarian at Hunter. One day, needing watercolor supplies, she walked into a paint

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store not far from her home in the Bronx.

A young man at the counter, working on the weekends for his father, while attending Columbia after the war, looked up to find this elegantly slender young woman with dark brown hair in a fashionable pageboy and deep brown eyes. She came back again not long after on another weekend, perhaps intrigued by more than paints, and Henry Alexander Madoff asked her out for a chocolate egg cream on the following afternoon. They were married two years later in 1948, honeymooned pleasurably, if predictably, at Niagara Falls. First they lived in the Bronx, with the paint store now his after his father’s sudden death, then later in the Inwood neighborhood at the tip of Manhattan, and finally, with the vast exodus out of the city just at the moment of the ‘Summer of Love’, in West Hartford, where they remained together in the same two-story brick house along a cookiecutter street of postwar, petit-bourgeois modesty for the next 49 years. She smoked Parliament cigarettes, drank whiskey sours, and danced to swing jazz in the living room with Henry. He died in the sixty-eighth year of their marriage, in 2016, and Adelaide, crying at his deathbed, “My sweet, sweet boy,” survived him the past five years. A quiet life, trips to Maine and London and Copenhagen, though other moments of sadness besides Henry’s death arrived, too-her mother’s death in an asylum, her father’s quiet passing, and her daughter, Emily, first in the throes of multiple sclerosis, then dying of breast cancer at 47 in 1999. Nothing ever overcame that for her.

From a tiny family, Adelaide was an only child, a lover of poetry who gave that gift to her son, Steven Henry Madoff, who survives her with his two children, Lucian and Sloan.

SHIFFREN Irving Harold Shiffrin, 78, of East Haven, died Aug. 26. He was the widower of Andrea Shiffrin of Orange. Born in Schenectady, N.Y., he was the son of late PFC Morris and Ann Shiffrin. In addition to his parents, he is survived by his children, Marci Wagner and her husband Jonathan of Texas, Steven Lefkowitz and his wife Stacy of N.J., Traci Nabors of Conn., John R. Coyle of Wash., Glenn Shiffrin and his wife Kim of Guilford,; his grandchildren, Alexandra, Max, Victoria, Brooke, Jacob, Matthew, Justin, Allie and Lainey. He was also predeceased by his brother Barry Shiffrin of Lancaster, Penn, and his son-in-law Bruce Nabors..

SIEGAL Erik David Siegal, 46, of West Hartford, on August 27. Born in Hartford, he was the son of Barry and Judith (Beck) Siegal. In addition to his parents, he is survived by his sons Hayden and Camden and their mother Elizabeth (Fisher) Siegal; his sister Heidi Siegal Kogon an her husband Steve; his brother Jed Siegal and his wife Rachel; and his nephews, Tyler and Henry Siegal.

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CHRIS BONITO 860.748.0004 BA Music Performance 20+ years private instruction References available

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

EAST HARTFORD Temple Beth Tefilah Conservative Rabbi Yisroel Snyder (860) 569-0670 templebetht@yahoo.com FAIRFIELD Congregation Ahavath Achim Orthodox (203) 372-6529 office@ahavathachim.org www.ahavathachim.org Congregation Beth El, Fairfield Conservative Rabbi Marcelo Kormis (203) 374-5544 office@bethelfairfield.org www.bethelfairfield.org GLASTONBURY Congregation Kol Haverim Reform Rabbi Dr. Kari Tuling (860) 633-3966 office@kolhaverim.org www.kolhaverim.org GREENWICH Greenwich Reform Synagogue Reform Rabbi Jordie Gerson (203) 629-0018 hadaselias@grs.org www.grs.org Temple Sholom Conservative Rabbi Mitchell M. Hurvitz Rabbi Kevin Peters (203) 869-7191 info@templesholom.com www.templesholom.com

HAMDEN Congregation Mishkan Israel Reform Rabbi Brian P. Immerman (203) 288-3877 tepstein@cmihamden.org www.cmihamden.org Temple Beth Sholom Conservative Rabbi Benjamin Edidin Scolnic (203) 288-7748 tbsoffice@tbshamden.com www.tbshamden.com MADISON Temple Beth Tikvah Reform Rabbi Stacy Offner (203) 245-7028 office@tbtshoreline.org www.tbtshoreline.org MANCHESTER Beth Sholom B’nai Israel Conservative Rabbi Randall Konigsburg (860) 643-9563 Rabbenu@myshul.org programming@myshul.org www.myshul.org MIDDLETOWN Adath Israel Conservative Rabbi Nelly Altenburger (860) 346-4709 office@adathisraelct.org www.adathisraelct.org 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 Eric Woodward (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 Temple Shalom Reform Rabbi Cantor Shirah Sklar (203) 866-0148 admin@templeshalomweb.org www.templeshalomweb.org NORWICH Congregation Brothers of Joseph Modern Orthodox Rabbi Yosef Resnick (781 )201-0377 yosef.resnick@gmail.com https://brofjo.tripod.com

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WALLINGFORD Beth Israel Synagogue Conservative Rabbi Bruce Alpert (203) 269-5983 info@bethisraelwallingford.org www.bethisraelwallingford.org

Kehilat Chaverim of Greater Hartford Chavurah Adm. - Nancy Malley (860) 951-6877 mnmalley@yahoo.com www.kehilatchaverim.org

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

WASHINGTON Greater Washington Coalition for Jewish Life Rabbi James Greene (860) 868-2434 jewishlifect@gmail.com www.jewishlife.org

The Emanuel Synagogue Conservative Rabbi David J. Small (860) 236-1275 communications@emanuelsynagogue.org www.emanuelsynagogue.org

PUTNAM Congregation B’nai Shalom Conservative Rabbi Eliana Falk - Visiting Rabbi (860) 315-5181 susandstern@gmail.com www.congregationbnaishalom.org

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

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

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

Young Israel of West Hartford Orthodox Rabbi Tuvia Brander (860) 233-3084 info@youngisraelwh.org www.youngisraelwh.org

ORANGE Chabad of Orange/ Woodbridge Chabad Rabbi Sheya Hecht (203) 795-5261 info@chabadow.org www.chabadow.org

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

Beth El Temple Conservative Rabbi James Rosen Rabbi Ilana Garber (860) 233-9696 hsowalsky@bethelwh.org www.bethelwesthartford.org Chabad House of Greater Hartford Rabbi Joseph Gopin Rabbi Shaya Gopin, Director of Education (860) 232-1116 info@chabadhartford.com www.chabadhartford.com Congregation Beth Israel Reform Rabbi Michael Pincus Rabbi Andi Fliegel Cantor Stephanie Kupfer (860) 233-8215 bethisrael@cbict.org www.cbict.org

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

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WESTPORT Temple Israel of Westport Reform Rabbi Michael Friedman, Senior Rabbi Cantor Julia Cadrain, Senior Cantor Rabbi Elana Nemitoff-Bresler, Rabbi Educator Rabbi Zach Plesent, Assistant Rabbi (203) 227-1293 info@tiwestport.org www.tiwestport.org WETHERSFIELD Temple Beth Torah Unaffiliated Rabbi Alan Lefkowitz (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

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G’mar Chatimah Tovah as a reminder...the Crown Market will be closed on the following dates in observance of the following holidays:

Thursday, Sept. 16 - Yom Kippur Tuesday, Sept. 21 - Sukkot Wednesday, Sept. 22 - Sukkot Tuesday, Sept. 28 - Shemini Atzeret Wednesday, Sept. 29 - Simchat Torah We look forward to feeding you well!

The Crown Market 2471 Albany Ave West Hartford, CT 06117

860.236.1965

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

We’re not JUST kosher...we’re DELICIOUS! 24

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