CT Jewish Ledger • October 22, 2021 • 16 Cheshvan 5782 by WHMedia, Inc.

Anatomy of An American Jewish Radical

JEWISH LEDGER

| OCTOBER 22, 2021

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| OCTOBER 22, 2021

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INSIDE

this week

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | OCTOBER 22, 2021 | 16 CHESHVAN 5782

8 Briefs

15 Around CT

15 Torah Portion

17 Crossword

18 What’s Happening

Meeting of Minds.........................................................................................................5 When they met for the first time in Washington D.C., the U.S. secretary of state made clear to Israel’s foreign minister — and the world at large —that, when it comes to Iran, a military option could be on the table.

Conversation with…........................ 5 Rabbi Ethan Tucker will be guest speaker at New Haven’s 5th Elm City Kallah at the end of the month. Up for discusssion: Navigating the world as a Jew and a human being.

OPINION.............................................10 A novelist’s refusal to have her work translated into Hebrew, and Ben & Jerry’s inability to explain why they want to single out Israel for boycotts, tell us all we need to know about how Jew-hatred is justified.

Authors Corner...............................11 Authors like Sally Rooney, who launch exaggerated or misinformed attacks on Israel, have a lot to learn. And they can begin by reading Nancy Churnin and Bethany Stancliffe’s new book, “Dear Mr. Dickens.”

18 Bulletin Board

20 Obituaries

21 Business and Professional Directory

22 Classified

ON THE COVER: In this new book, “Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical,” Shaul Magid pens a cultural biography of the controversial Jewish figure, Rabbi Meir Kahane z”l, who keeps coming back to haunt us. Just how did the radical Kahane’s extremist ideas enter the Jewish mainstream? Photo by Nati Harnik/GPO PAGE 12 jewishledger.com

We Are One......................................... 4 In Venezuela’s tight-knit Jewish community everyone is part of one extended family — and, sadly, that family continues to reel from the pain of losing so many of its members to the Surfside tragedy in Florida.

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JEWISH LIFE One of the world’s most tight-knit Jewish communities, Venezuelans still mourn their Surfside victims. BY ORGE CASTELLANO

ARACAS, Venezuela (JTA) — The Champlain Towers building collapse in Surfside, Florida, impacted a range of communities whose members lived in the diverse Miami-Dade area: immigrants from across Latin America, Jewish retirees from the Northeast, Jews from Puerto Rico. One of them still feeling the most pain months later is the Jewish community of Caracas, Venezuela’s capital city. In the wake of the collapse, seniors Christina Beatriz Elvira and Leon Oliwkowicz, both Venezuelan Jews, were among the first victims to have their remains recovered. Then came the bodies of Luis Sadovnic, Moises “El Chino” Rodán and Andres Levine. The three young men, who were all in their 20s, were raised in the small Jewish community surrounded by the lush El Ávila National Park in the heart of Caracas. Miami had become an economic stepping stone and new home for the young Venezuelans. Many Jewish communities in Latin America are described as “tight knit,” but Venezuela’s is unique in the region for its intense closeness. Here everyone is part of one extended family. Those willing to speak to JTA about the Surfside tragedy emphasized how strongly the deaths of their fellow community members reverberated throughout the country. “The entire community feels this tragedy in the most innermost core of our beings,” said Miguel Truzman, vice president of the Confederation of Jewish Associations of Venezuela, known by its Spanish acronym CAIV. “They were boys that we watched grow up; the whole community is deeply traumatized and devastated by this tragedy.” The Caracas area’s Hebraica Jewish community center — the community’s only social, cultural and religious center, which serves as a country club, sports facility, elementary school and meeting hub — put out a statement in July saying the Surfside events “will undoubtedly shape the rest of our lives.” Besides having shared a joint address at the Champlain Towers South condo building, the three young Venezuelans had another thing in common before moving to the U.S.: They all attended Colegio Moral y Luces Herzl-Bialik, a private Jewish high school now housed inside the Hebraica center, in Caracas’ Los 4

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Chorros neighborhood. Founded in 1946 by Ashkenazi emigres after quick growth in the community’s population, the school has since served as a common link for almost all Venezuelan Jews, regardless of their religious denomination or ethnic background. It is one of the main pieces that contribute to the community’s sense of unity. “The Venezuelan Ashkenazim allowed the Sephardim to study in the school without the slightest problem. If you go to another Latin American country, like Mexico — or even around the world — every community, depending on their origin, has their own school,” said Sami Rozenbaum, journalist and current editor-in-chief of Nuevo Mundo Israelita, or New Israelite World, the community’s weekly newspaper.

A history of belonging, an uncertain future The majority of the Jews left in Venezuela are either the children or grandchildren of European or Moroccan immigrants. Their ancestors mostly emigrated from the late 1930s through the late ’60s. Newcomers quickly assimilated into mainstream Venezuelan society and never felt like outsiders, since the country was an ethnically and religiously diverse melting pot at the time. Antisemitism and racism were rarely major concerns for the community, and unlike Paraguay, Argentina, and Chile, the country has a much less significant history of harboring Nazi fugitives. The Jewish newspaper, founded by Moisés Sananes in 1943 as Mundo Israelita (Israelite World), was the community’s first systematic effort to unite both its Ashkenazi and Sephardic immigrants, before the Bialik school. “Our community stands as a reference point in the world because of its integration. We are fully united. Here there’s no distinction between who’s from Ashkenazi or Sephardi ancestry. The only separate components are the synagogues and the religious and cultural traditions of each group,” Rozenbaum said. Although the community was officially established in the mid-19th century, it wasn’t until 1939 that the country’s first synagogue, El Conde Synagogue, was built. The temple, however, wouldn’t last long, as the government at the time approved a series of urban restructuring projects in 1954, forcing it to be demolished. In

| OCTOBER 22, 2021

STUDENTS AT THE COLEGIO MORAL Y LUCES HERZL-BIALIK JEWISH SCHOOL IN CARACAS, VENEZUELA. (NUEVO MUNDO ISRAELITA)

1963, the Sephardic community in Caracas inaugurated the Tiferet Israel Synagogue, the city’s largest to date. In recent years, the community has seen several of its members leave, as a stagnant socioeconomic and humanitarian crisis continues to drive a large-scale exodus from the oil-rich country. From a population peak of 25,000 in the early 1990s, Venezuelan Jewry has dwindled to fewer than 6,000 members, a decrease of 70%. The country’s hyperinflation, rampant violence, hunger and deepening poverty have forced many into a new diaspora. Nearly all of these Venezuelan Jewish immigrants have settled in the United States, Israel, Mexico and Panama. Those who remain are predominantly Orthodox and live in Caracas, sometimes depending on each other for survival. Since there are so few left, nearly everyone in the community knows each other by name. Most of them consider themselves staunch Zionists. The regime of the populist firebrand Hugo Chavez tried for years to plant antiIsrael sentiment into the political fabric of the predominantly Catholic nation, and sought to establish closer ties with Iran and Palestinian leadership. Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s successor, and his supporters have continued that legacy, but to a lesser extent. According to the US State Department’s 2020 Report on International Religious Freedom on Venezuela, “criticism of Israel in Maduro-controlled or -affiliated media continued to carry anti-Semitic overtones, sometimes disguised as antiZionist messages.” Recent examples include Holocaust trivialization, as demonstrated by Maduro’s comparison of US sanctions against Venezuela to Nazi persecution of Jews, and the promotion of conspiracy theories linking Israel and Jews to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite that, the government’s rhetoric has not caught on with the Venezuelan population at large, which remains notably free of antisemitism. “Venezuelans are not antisemitic. For example, if they see someone wearing a kippah on their head and do not know what it is, they’ll ask you. The unfamiliar does not cause them estrangement but respect,”

said Isaac Cohen, chief rabbi of the Israelite Association of Venezuela (AIV), an umbrella organization representing Jews of Sephardic origin. “The reason I have been here for 43 years is that I do not feel, nor have I experienced antisemitism. Although, of course, in Europe, there is cultural antisemitism, but here there is no such thing as an antisemitic culture.”

Why some stay Venezuelan Jews give two answers as to why they stay — both religious reasons, and economic ones. “It’s hard to start again and reinvent yourself from zero,” said one community member who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons, fearing government retribution. “Senior members stay because their home is here. They know that the same comfort and life they have in Venezuela would be hard to obtain somewhere else, especially if one has to learn another language, like English.” And even amid all the turmoil, observant Jews still thrive in Venezuela. They can practice their traditions openly and maintain a steady relationship with government authorities, who provide statesponsored security in front of synagogues. Special food permits allow for the import and manufacture of kosher products. “Venezuela is a great country. We remain here because of the hospitality and the generosity of its people,” Cohen said. “In Venezuela, freedom of worship and whatever the community is willing to pursue is supported. One decides to emigrate because there is antisemitism, or because commercially, it does not work; I am not a businessman. My job is to maintain and preserve the religion in the country.” Truzman agreed, saying that the fact that everyone attended the same school binds them together for life. “Like me, there are thousands that have stayed. Why? Well, because it is our homeland, our country. We strive for whatever adverse circumstances there may be. We stay so that there is a presence of the Jewish community in Venezuela,” he said. “We have spent a lifetime together.” jewishledger.com

UP FRONT

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | OCTOBER 22, 2021 | 16 CHESHVAN 5782

With Yair Lapid at his side, Blinken consider “every option” in dealing with Iran BY RON KAMPEAS

ASHINGTON (JTA) — Yair Lapid got what he wanted out of his Washington visit: the word “every,” instead of

“other.” During Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s first meeting with President Biden in August, Bennett was happy with what he heard: the American president, despite his desire to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal, said that if Iran does not engage in good faith diplomacy with the nations involved in the deal, the U.S. would consider “other options” in getting Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions. It was a sign that Israel and U.S. Democrats, long far apart in their opinions on how to best contain Iran, were coming closer together. Lapid, on his official trip as foreign minister in Washington, pushed things along even further. He looked on Wednesday as Antony

Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, said “every” option was on the table if Iran does not engage in a good faith effort to negotiate the U.S. reentry into the nuclear deal. It was one of those blink-and-youmiss-it moments in diplomacy, but it had significant weight. According to insiders involved in the issue, “other options” can be seen as referring to enhanced sanctions, or other non-military forms of pressure. “Every option” means military action may be on the table as well. “We will look at every option to deal with the challenge posed by Iran,” Blinken said at a press conference called to announce initiatives that would advance the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements between Israel and four Arab nations. “We continue to believe that diplomacy is the most effective way to do that, but it takes two to engage in diplomacy, and we have not — we have not seen from Iran a willingness to do that at this point.”

FROM LEFT, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER YAIR LAPID, US SECRETARY OF STATE ANTONY BLINKEN AND UNITED ARAB EMIRATES FOREIGN MINISTER SHEIKH ABDULLAH BIN ZAYED AL-NAHYAN TAKE PART IN A JOINT NEWS CONFERENCE AT THE STATE DEPARTMENT IN WASHINGTON, OCT. 13, 2021. (ANDREW HARNIK/POOL/ AFP/VIA GETTY IMAGES)

Blinken made the statement on the State Department’s eighth floor, flanked by Lapid and the United Arab Emirates foreign minister, Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The foreign ministers were together to announce new Abraham Accords initiatives, but the symbolism of Blinken’s stronger language in the company of two of the Middle East nations who feel Iran’s threat most sharply was unmistakable. A senior Israeli official told reporters after the meetings that the Israeli and U.S. delegations discussed Iran extensively behind closed doors. “While there may not have been agreement, there was the discussion of options that have not been on the table previously,” said the official, who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the information. Along with Bennett, Lapid has spearheaded the effort to repair Israel’s ties with the Democratic Party, which were CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

Conversation with Rabbi Ethan Tucker Leading authority on egalitarianism in Jewish law to discuss “Navigating the world as a Jew and as a human being” at New Haven ‘Kallah.’ BY STACEY DRESNER

EW HAVEN – Rabbi Ethan Tucker will be guest speaker at New Haven’s 5th Elm City Kallah, a collaboration of Beth El Keser Israel (BEKI), Westville Synagogue, and Congregation B’nai Jacob, to be held Oct. 29- 31. The weekend’s theme is “Navigating the World as a Jew and a Human Being: A Weekend of Learning and Exploration.” “How we think of pluralism, integrity and community is so crucial to our world today – not only as Jews, but as human beings,” said Rabbi Eric Woodward of RABBI ETHAN TUCKER BEKI. “I’m so excited to get to learn from Rav Eitan at the Elm City Kallah.” Tucker’s will discuss “Filial Loyalty and Divine Commandments: What do we do when parents expect things of us that the Torah forbids?” At Westville Synagogue on Friday night, Oct. 29 at 8 p.m. following Shabbat services and dinner. On Shabbat afternoon at 1 p.m., he will lead a session at BEKI on “Navigating Relationships in a World of Difference: How do we proceed when aspects of our Jewish observance create discomfort with family members and friends?” And on Sunday at 10 a.m., Tucker will lead a session at Congregation B’nai Jacob on “Ethical Norms as Foundation of Torah: Can basic human ethics be in conflict with the demands of Judaism?” The son of Hadassah Lieberman and Rabbi Gordon Tucker, and the stepson CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

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JEWISH LEDGER

OCTOBER 22, 2021

Q&A

Lapid

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of former U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Ethan Tucker is a graduate of Ezra Academy in Woodbridge. He is president and Rosh Yeshiva at Hadar, an educational institution that aims to empower Jews to create and sustain vibrant, practicing, egalitarian communities of Torah learning, prayer and service. Ordained by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, Rabbi Tucker earned a doctorate in Talmud and Rabbinics from the Jewish Theological Seminary and a B.A. from Harvard College. A Wexner Graduate Fellow, he was a co-founder of Kehilat Hadar and a winner of the first Grinspoon Foundation Social Entrepreneur Fellowship; and he serves as a trustee of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation. Rabbi Tucker is also co-author with Rabbi Micha’el Rosenberg of Gender Equality and Prayer in Jewish Law (2017). He spoke to the Jewish Ledger about his upcoming learning sessions at the upcoming Elm City Kallah. JEWISH LEDGER: The overall topic for the upcoming Kallah is “Navigating the world as a Jew…and as a human being.” What is it about us that makes it hard to navigate the world as both a Jew and a human being? RABBI ETHAN TUCKER: In a way it starts with the framing the Torah gives on this which we’re in the middle of reading about right now, where we start off the Bible with a very clear picture of humanity writ large. God is the creator of the whole world and creator of all human beings who have a common ancestor. We also have this cherished story, which is our story of Abraham and Sarah and everything that emerges from them which is more particular. And I do think Jews in that sense have always had this balance of saying, “We’re not necessarily the template for everybody in the world,” and at the same time we have a very important culture, tradition and covenant that we are uniquely a part of. I think part of what motivates me with a title like this weekend is that when we get out of whack too much in one direction or the other, we can go wrong. We become too parochial; we become too narrow, and you forget the kind of universal horizon that you are supposed to be looking at. And if you just dissolve into a sea of undifferentiated humanity, you lose the very particular story of God and the Jewish people. So, these will be learning sessions with examples from the Torah and Jewish sources? Do you bring in modern examples as well? My style with a lot of these sessions is to take people through sources from across 6

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the generations, so we’ll often start with a Biblical passage and then we’ll move to rabbinic literature and then we’ll see what medieval sources have to say, and then think about modern and contemporary applications. In terms of just my own teaching and thinking I really like to give people a kaleidoscopic view of what the traditionists had to say about these questions over time. What was the impetus for the session at BEKI, “Navigating Relationships… How do we proceed when aspects of our Jewish observance create discomfort with family members and friend?” This has always been an issue and part of the interesting thing about this session is seeing how it has always been an issue. But I also think it is timely, and in some ways, more intense and, in some contexts, more aggravated than it’s been before. Look, on the one hand, the world we live in is more globalized, more transient. People move away from their parents, away from their families; they meet up with new people; they then go back home to those places. It’s also a world in which people are connecting and reconnecting with their Judaism at different phases in life. What that creates is kind of relational situations where it could be a child who suddenly becomes more observant is going home and trying to figure out how to navigate that. Or someone who shows up to a college campus which is incredibly diverse in terms of who’s there and tries to figure out how to be themselves but also how to be in this larger web of relationships. The question is “how are they going to navigate that?” So, I think the recent flow of people and ideals and practices in our global world have created more of these situations, but I’m interested in mining past precedents for getting guidance on them. Are there solutions to this kind of conflict in the Torah? The Torah, as in the five books of Moses, doesn’t do much to help you resolve it. It lays out a basic direction, a basic value, for instance, the obligation to honor your parents. It is rabbinic sources and the multi-vocality of those sources that really draws out the “well, what if your parent doesn’t practice the same way as you? What if your parent was abusive to you? What happens to relationships then? What are the limits of this obligation, what is the extent of this obligation? Part of what is so incredible about rabbinic sources is they’re really looking to turn raw general directives into a blueprint for how to actually live your life on a day-to-day basis. And that is why | OCTOBER 22, 2021

corroded during the 12 years Benjamin Netanyahu was prime minister. Netanyahu was antagonistic toward that half of the American polity, toward which the clear majority of American Jews are oriented. Netanyahu has accused Bennett and Lapid of showing weakness by not more robustly opposing the Biden administration’s efforts to reenter the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which former President Donald Trump left in 2018 at Netanyahu’s behest. Bennett and Lapid’s strategy appeared to pay dividends during Lapid’s 48 hours in the U.S. capital this week. The Biden administration, frustrated with the new hard-line Iranian government elected this summer, is edging closer to Israel’s posture, a development that came about without tensions. Blinken’s language on Iran was tougher than it has been since President Joe Biden made good on his pledge to seek to reenter the 2015 sanctions relief for nuclear rollback deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Biden sees it as the best option to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. “Despite the fact that we’ve made abundantly clear over the last nine months that we are prepared to return to full compliance with the JCPOA if Iran does the same, what we are seeing – or maybe more accurately not seeing from Tehran now – suggests that they’re not,” Blinken said. “I’m not going to put a specific date on it, but with every passing day and Iran’s refusal to engage in good faith, the runway gets short.” Lapid culled other dividends from his visit. The Biden administration showed itself fully committed to cultivating the Abraham Accords, one of the few areas of agreement it has with the Trump administration, which brokered the accords. Blinken at the press conference announced the launch of two working groups comprising Israeli, U.S. and Emirati officials, one tackling religious intolerance and the other fostering cooperation on water and energy. Lapid also met with World Bank officials to discuss plans to seek investors for infrastructure projects in the Gaza Strip as

those are my guides and what I try to introduce other people to as we take on topics like this. Will you be working with these rabbinic “blueprints” during the Kallah? Yes, we’ll look at tons of sources together on source sheets. My hope is always that people gain from the session itself and that they take them home and get a chance to delve into them even after we’ve had our time together.

a means of lifting the standard of living in the poverty-stricken enclave, while limiting the influence of Hamas, the terrorist group controlling the strip with which Israel periodically wars. The United Arab Emirates would likely also play a role in the investments. Lapid, who is set to take over as Israel’s prime minister in 2023, met Tuesday with Vice President Kamala Harris, and with Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. In a brief appearance for reporters, Pelosi emphasized bipartisan support for Israel, a pointed rejection of the calls by progressives within her party to cut funding to the country. On the U.S. side, Blinken said the Biden administration remains dedicated to reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Biden, he said at the press conference, has been “clear that a two-state solution is the best way to ensure Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state, living in peace alongside a viable, sovereign, and democratic Palestinian state.” Bennett has said that a Palestinian state will not arise on his watch, while Lapid has been less clear on the issue. Blinken did not refrain from mentioning points of contention, including American plans to reopen a dedicated consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem, replacing the one shuttered by the Trump administration. “We’ll be moving forward with the process of opening a consulate as part of deepening those ties with the Palestinians,” Blinken said, although the Israeli government is on the record as opposing it. State Department statements on the meetings also pointedly said that China was a topic of discussion with Lapid. The Biden administration, like the Trump administration before it, objects to the extent of Israel’s commercial ties with the most formidable rival to the United States in the international arena. Lapid is set to meet with Jewish organizational leaders in Washington on Thursday before he returns to Israel. He is expected to make the case to them that he wants to repair relations neglected by Netanyahu, who gravitated toward evangelical Christians as a more natural pro-Israel base.

The Elm City Kallah will be held Friday, Oct. 29 through Sunday, Oct. 31. Admission is free for the Saturday and Sunday events. Admission to the Friday night dinner at Westville Synagogue. Is $20/per person, $60 per family. Reservations are required by Oct. 24: westvilleshul.org/ElmCityKallah2021; or call (203) 389-9513 or (203) 589-1100. jewishledger.com

Google, Amazon workers call to cancel billion-dollar Israel contract (JNS) Hundreds of Google and Amazon employees have signed a public letter demanding that the tech giants cancel Project Nimbus, a billion-dollar contract to provide public cloud computing services to Israel. In the letter, published by The Guardian on Tuesday, the authors state that they were “morally obliged” to speak out against the project, calling on Amazon and Google to cancel the contract and sever all ties with the Israeli military. “We cannot look the other way, as the products we build are used to deny Palestinians their basic rights, force Palestinians out of their homes and attack Palestinians in the Gaza Strip—actions that have prompted war crime investigations by the international criminal court,” the letter states. According to the letter, 90 employees at Google and 300 at Amazon had signed the missive, but wished to remain anonymous “because we fear retaliation.” The letter goes on to state that the tech giants’ “aggressive” pursuit of military and law-enforcement contracts, including Nimbus, was part of a “disturbing pattern of militarization, lack of transparency and avoidance of oversight.” Moreover, the letter states, Nimbus involved the sale of “dangerous technology” to the Israeli military and government, and had been “signed the same week that the Israeli military attacked Palestinians in the Gaza Strip—killing nearly 250 people, including more than 60 children.” The letter was referring to the 11-day conflict in May between Israel and terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip, which was sparked by the launch of a rocket barrage at Jerusalem on May 10. For more than

the following week and a half, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched nearly 4,400 rockets at Israel (some 700 of which came down inside Gaza), according to the Israeli military. In response to the indiscriminate rocket-fire, Israel launched “Operation Guardian of the Walls,” striking more than 1,500 terror targets in the Strip. “The technology our companies have contracted to build will make the systematic discrimination and displacement carried out by the Israeli military and government even crueler and deadlier for Palestinians,” the letter states. This technology “allows for further surveillance of and unlawful data collection on Palestinians, and facilitates expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements on Palestinian land,” it continues. The authors conclude by stating, “We condemn Amazon and Google’s decision to sign the Project Nimbus contract with the Israeli military and government, and ask them to reject this contract and future contracts that will harm our users. We call on global technology workers and the international community to join with us in building a world where technology promotes safety and dignity for all.” Google and Amazon won the $1.2 billion contract following a public tender process, beating out Microsoft, Oracle and IBM. According to Mike Daniels, vice president of Google Cloud’s Global Public Sector, the agreement will deliver cloud services to all Israeli government entities, from ministries to state-owned companies. The project will run for an initial period of seven years, with Israel having the option to extend it for up to 23 years in total, Daniels said in a statement in May.

NOVEMBER 16-21 bush nell.org (CREDIT: SUNDRY PHOTOGRAPHY/SHUTTERSTOCK)

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OCTOBER 22, 2021

Briefs Ads urge stores to stop selling Ben & Jerry’s (JNS) The Simon Wiesenthal Center has launched an ad campaign in Jewish newspapers urging stores to stop selling Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream as a means to pressure its parent company, Unilever, to confront antisemitism within its ranks. The campaign comes several months after the ice-cream maker announced that it would stop selling its product in parts of Israel. “Ben & Jerry’s is boycotting Israel. Tell your grocer to stop selling anti-Semitic ice-cream,” says the ad, which appeared in the Sept. 24 issue of the Cleveland Jewish News, one of nine Jewish media outlets running the advertisement. Also at issue, says the Wiesenthal Center, is the company’s current board chair, Anuradha Mittal, who has expressed support for BDS, criticized AIPAC and in her previous job at a think tank posted positive articles about the Hezbollah and Hamas terror groups. The decision by Ben & Jerry’s, “was never just about ice-cream sold in East Jerusalem. It is all about Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream company profits being leveraged by an activist anti-Semite who hates Israel and defends Hamas—and the corporate executives at Unilever letting it happen,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and global social action director at the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “This is about arrogance and irresponsibility, enabling the odious antiSemitic BDS movement to use money from a global brand to brand Jews as occupiers in their own land at a time when there is a spike of violent attacks against Jews from Germany to the United Kingdom to the United States,” he said. The founders of Ben & Jerry’s—Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who sold the company in 2000 but maintain control over social-justice aspects—appeared on a television program, saying that they weren’t boycotting Israel, just choosing not to sell ice-cream in the“occupied territories.” As a result of their decision, several states— Texas, Florida and New Jersey—have made moves in response, saying it goes against anti-BDS state laws.

Israeli cancer care, heart treatment ranked among world’s best (Israel Hayom via JNS) In its annual World’s Best Specialized Hospitals list, the U.S. magazine Newsweek names three Israeli medical centers. The magazine ranks the top 250 hospitals for cardiology and oncology, the top 150 for cardiac surgery and pediatrics, and the top 125 for endocrinology, gastroenterology, orthopedics, neurology, neurosurgery and pulmonology. According to this year’s rankings, Israel’s Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer is No. 8

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42 in the world when it comes to cardiology care. The Heart Institute at Hadassah Ein Karem Medical Center was ranked No. 173 for cardiology, and cardiology care at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center ranked No. 204. Hadassah’s oncology care also came in for praise, with the hospital’s Sharett Institute of Oncology, located on Mount Scopus, ranking 211 in the oncology section. Sheba’s neurosurgery and gastroenterology departments also performed well, coming in at No. 40 and No. 44 in each category, respectively. Sourasky’s Orthopedics Department was ranked No. 123 in that category.

‘Sabbath for $400’: Cholent stumps ‘Jeopardy!’ contestants (JTA) — Contestants on an episode of “Jeopardy!” that aired Wednesday night were stumped when presented with a photo of cholent, a stew traditionally cooked by observant Jews over the course of Shabbat. The clue, for $400 in the “Sabbath” category: “Exodus 35:3 bans doing this on the Sabbath, hence the Jewish dish ‘cholent,’ which can go on the stove Friday and cook until Saturday lunch.” The contestants got close with guesses of “What is cooking?” and “What is work?” but failed to name the exact Shabbat prohibition Mayim Bialik, the show’s temporary host and herself an Orthodox Jew, was looking for. In the end, Bialik explained the answer: “What is ‘lighting a fire?’ And the word ‘cholent’ is from the French ‘chaud lent,’ [meaning] ‘cooks a long time.’” Explaining cholent on national television was a fitting role for Bialik, the first Jew to host the popular quiz show. Bialik, who served as a celebrity host during the search for longtime “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek’s replacement and was named a host for primetime specials in August. After Mike Richards, the show’s executive producer who was selected to host the show fulltime, was revealed to have made offensive comments about women and Jews, Bialik was temporarily promoted to full-time host. While Jeopardy producers continue to search for Richards’ permanent replacement, Bialik has said she’d like to keep the gig permanently. Bialik frequently writes about her Jewish identity and posted a video about her Jewish identity to Twitter Wednesday as part of a social media campaign organized by Hillel International to help Jewish college students feel proud of their Jewish identity. Bialik produced a series of videos for My Jewish Learning this year.

Texas Jewish death row inmate wins new trial (JTA) — A Jewish man who asked for a new trial on the grounds that the judge who sentenced him to death was antisemitic will be granted a new trial. Randy Halprin,

| OCTOBER 22, 2021

44,was originally set to be executed on Oct. 10, 2019 but won a stay from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals after he alleged that the judge who presided over his 2003 murder trial was biased against Jews and referred to him using antisemitic slurs, including “f—in’ Jew” and “k-ke.” The stay sent Halprin’s case back to Dallas County, where Judge Lela Lawrence Mays heard Halprin’s arguments in June and this week issued a decision granting Halprin a new trial. “Judge Vickers Cunningham possessed anti-Semitic prejudice against Halprin which violated Halprin’s constitutional right to a trial in a fair tribunal equal protection, and free exercise of religion,” Mays wrote in her decision. Halprin was serving a 30-year sentence for harming a child when he and six other inmates attempted to escape from prison. A police officer was killed during the attempt, and each member of the group, which came to be known as the “Texas 7,” was sentenced to death. Halprin claimed in his trial that he never fired his gun. The judge who presided over the original case, Vickers “Vic” Cunningham, has been accused of using several antisemitic and racist slurs and, according to the Dallas Morning News, set up a trust fund for his children on the condition that they marry white Christians of the opposite sex. Court documents quoted a childhood friend of Cunningham’s who said the judge “took special pride” in sentencing the Texas 7 to death “because they included Latinos and Jews.” Several Jewish groups got involved in Halprin’s case in recent years as he sought a new trial. The American Jewish Committee, Central Conference of American Rabbis, Men of Reform Judaism and Union for Reform Judaism were among those filing a joint amicus brief in support of Halprin’s 2019 appeal, and more than 100 Jewish lawyers in Texas signed on. The brief made the case that the appeal was not about Halprin’s guilt, but about Cunningham’s antisemitism. “[T]hose issues are irrelevant, because questions of guilt and punishment follow a fair trial; they do not precede it,” it said. “And if Judge Cunningham is the bigot described in the application, a fair trial has not yet happened.”

Prominent Italian politician calls for embassy move to Jerusalem (Israel Hayom via JNS) One of the most prominent politicians in Italy has called for the relocation of the Italian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Addressing a “Breakfast for Jerusalem” event on Wednesday at the Italian Senate—attended by coalition and opposition leaders, senators and Israelis Ambassador to Italy Dror Eydar—Senator Matteo Salvini declared: “The Jewish people and Jerusalem are one and the same, and therefore the relocation of the Italian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would be the moral, cultural and politically obvious thing to do.” After eliciting loud applause and even the support of a few other senators for his remarks,

Salvini, who formerly served as Italy’s deputy prime minister, said he was speaking from the heart, and added, “The new, cowardly shape of antisemitism is no longer just the hatred of Jews, but towards Israel, and they are the same, as far as I am concerned.” Eydar said, “Italy’s historic mission, which began at the San Remo conference, on the right of the Jewish people to their land, has not been completed. The Italian embassy in Israel is not located in its capital, in its natural place. I have a dream, and is it shared by many: to see the Italian flag waving in the eternal city.”

Billie Eilish attacked by antiIsrael bots (JNS) American singer and songwriter Billie Eilish was targeted by anti-Israel bots on Instagram after promoting her new album in a video for MTV Israel, a new report by the entertainment industry group Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) revealed. In a clip shared on July 31, the 19-year-old singer told her Israeli fans, “Hi Israel, I’m so excited that my new album, ‘Happier Than Ever,’ is out now.” Shortly afterwards, her Instagram page was flooded with bot-generated messages that consisted of Palestinian flags and “other Palestine solidarity-themed comments,” according to a 16-page report by CCFP’s Digital Entertainment Task Force. The task force analyzed the top comments on six of Eilish’s Instagram posts that were uploaded after the Israel video was released. They discovered that 30 percent were antiIsrael and posted by accounts that have zero posts on their personal profiles but hundreds or thousands of followers, which suggests bot activity. Some 48 percent were anti-Israel and uploaded by accounts with zero to two posts on their private profiles, another sign of bot activity. The task force noted that “this coordinated attack on Billie Eilish is another example of how social media can be used to manipulate public opinion. And of a specific effort by anti-Israel activists, who use social media to distort and influence public opinion against Israel via unauthentic means.” The report also includes screenshots of the botgenerated messages and information about the fake accounts.

BBC changes label calling French army captain Dreyfus ‘notorious Jewish spy’ (JNS) The BBC changed the description of a new French period crime drama that identified Alfred Dreyfus, an army captain falsely convicted of treason, as a “notorious Jewish spy.” The broadcaster edited the written synopsis of the BBC Four program “Paris Police 1900,” which premiered on Oct. 9, after receiving complaints from the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET) and British Jewish actress Tracy-Anne Oberman. A spokesperson for BBC explained the mishap, saying: “The sentence was not intended as an historical statement, but to reflect the rumors towards jewishledger.com

the Dreyfus case that we see in the drama, which also depicts the rise of anti-Semitism,” reported The Jewish Chronicle. The show’s new description simply refers to Dreyfus as someone “arrested for spying.” Karen Pollock, chief executive of the HET, was outraged by the mistake and tweeted on Sunday, “I don’t understand how these things aren’t checked and somehow get through.” British-Jewish actress Tracey Ann-Oberman asked the BBC, “Are you an actual Nazi propaganda channel?” Dreyfus was a French Jewish army captain wrongly convicted of spying in 1894 for allegedly selling military secrets to the Germans. A victim of antisemitism, he was pardoned in 1899 after it was revealed that evidence in the case against him was forged. His original conviction was overturned in 1906. He later served with the French army in World War I. “Paris Police 1900” focuses on the rumors that Dreyfus was released from Devil’s Island, where he served his prison sentence. The French-language show was created by graphic novelist Fabien Nury and is inspired by true events.

Netflix defends Dave Chappelle’s special featuring ‘Space Jews’ joke (JNS) Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the streaming service will not remove Dave Chappelle’s new comedy special “The Closer,” which has faced a backlash for featuring controversial comments, including an antisemitic joke. After “The Closer” premiered last week, Chappelle was criticized by the LGBTQ+ community for poking fun at trans people and gender identity. The comedian was also denounced for making an antisemitic joke about “Space Jews” seeking world domination, which plays into a common antisemitic trope. In a memo sent on Friday, Sarandos told senior staff members that “some talent may join third parties in asking us to remove the show in the coming days, which we are not going to do,” he wrote. “As with our other talent, we work hard to support their creative freedom, even though this means there will always be content on Netflix some people believe is harmful.”

Researchers at Tel Aviv U discover cancer cells acting as ‘double agents’ (JNS) Tel Aviv University researchers have for the first time studied the development of the most common type of brain cancer in animal models with normal immune systems to best simulate the development of the tumor in humans. The findings revealed immunesystem cells acting as “double agents” that increase and intensify the aggressiveness of the tumor, despite their primary function being to attack and kill cancer cells. Glioblastoma is the most violent and deadly type of cancer in humans. The study, published in the journal Cell Reports, was jewishledger.com

led by Dr. Dinorah Friedmann-Morvinski of TAU’s George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and Sagol School of Neuroscience, and Ph.D. student Prerna Magod. Also participating were researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science. The researchers hope that the new discovery can be implemented in future efforts to decipher the mechanism of interaction between the immune system and cancerous tumors.

Passover comes to the ‘Great British Baking Show’ (JTA) — Jürgen Krauss, the “basically a Jewish dad” on the latest season of “The Great British Baking Show,” lived up to his reputation during Desserts Week when he produced a Passover-inspired pavlova with a traditional charoset topping. Krauss, who is from the Black Forest region of Germany, is married to a British Jew. Their family belongs to a Reform synagogue in Brighton, where the Jewish Chronicle reported he has taught a challah-baking class to children. In the first episode of this season, a Passover Seder plate is visible behind him in a scene introducing viewers to his home and family. That proved a prescient symbol this week, when judges charged the contestants with producing a flavorful pavlova, a delicate dessert made with just whipped egg whites and sugar. Pavlovas are naturally kosher for Passover because they lack flour, and Krauss leaned into that as he designed an inspiredby-Passover version with a charoset topping and pyramids of chocolate-covered matzah. Krauss makes his charoset in the Sephardic style, using dates, oranges and cardamom while eschewing the apples and nuts that are common in Ashkenazi versions. The fan-favorite series has drawn criticism before for its handling of Jewish foods. In Season Five, the instruction to make a “plaited loaf” left some viewers wondering if anyone on the show knew about challah. Then last year, rainbow-bagel and babka challenges did not delve into the Jewish significance of the bakes. After judge Prue Leith wonders whether the topping will be too sweet against the pavlova, Krauss explains charoset’s symbolism. “It’s the mortar used by the Jews to stick the pyramids and Pharoah’s cities together,” he says. After Krauss’ creation earns a favorable review — judge Paul Hollywood announces, “Jürgen’s back!” — host Matt Lucas, who is Jewish, offers one more reaction. “Mazel tov,” Lucas tells him before moving on to the next baker — one who channeled the colors and flavors of Easter.

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

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JEWISH LEDGER

OCTOBER 22, 2021

OPINION

BDS proves once again that it’s all about the antisemitism BY JONATHAN S. TOBIN

IRISH AUTHOR SALLY ROONEY (SCREENSHOT)

(JNS) Irish novelist Sally Rooney thinks that she’s an advocate for human rights, and that prejudice and hate have nothing to do with her work or her various political stands. As far as Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield—the Ben and Jerry who founded the eponymous ice-cream brand—are concerned, they are among the nation’s foremost progressives. The pair believe that they are righteous advocates for social justice. Yet despite their well-advertised good intentions and enormous selfregard, Rooney, Cohen and Greenfield are promoting hatred against Jews. What makes it so infuriating is that none of them—and others who also support the BDS movement that targets Israel—are honest enough to own up to the consequences of their actions. By refusing to acknowledge that backing a movement that seeks Israel’s destruction is itself inherently antisemitic, they are not only in denial about what they are doing but demonstrating the way contemporary intellectual fashions on the left are enabling hatred that singles out Jews. Rooney’s case is pretty straightforward, despite her attempts to cling to the illusion that she has the moral high ground. The novelist, whose third book, Beautiful World, Where Are You, has just been released, has told the Israeli 10

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publishing house that handled her two previous works of fiction that she would not allow them to put out the new one. According to the company, Modan Publishing, she told them that she wasn’t interested in having her book published in Hebrew or in Israel. Subsequently, she said that prompted by a libelous report put out by Human Rights Watch that falsely labeled Israel as an “apartheid state,” she supported the BDS movement, which calls for an end to all commerce and contacts with the Jewish state. She told The New York Times in an email that while she had nothing against having her writing appear in Hebrew, “I simply do not feel it would be right for me under the present circumstances to accept a new contract with an Israeli company that does not publicly distance itself from apartheid and support the U.N.-stipulated rights of the Palestinian people.” In a further clarification, she said she was “responding to the call from Palestinian civil society” and expressing solidarity with “their struggle for freedom, justice and equality.” Two things about her position need to be understood clearly. One is that the goal of BDS isn’t to adjust Israel’s policies towards the West Bank and Hamas terrorist state in Gaza or to advocate for Palestinian independence as part of a two-state solution. Its aim is the eradication of Israel, the one Jewish state on the planet. The talk about apartheid isn’t merely a distortion of the anomalous situation in the territories where Palestinians have repeatedly rejected peace offers; it’s their false description of life inside the only democracy in the Middle East. As The Guardian reported, Rooney was one of many literary types who signed a “letter against apartheid” published in May which spoke of 1948 (and not 1967, when Israel came into possession of the West Bank as part of a defensive war) as the beginning of “Israeli settler colonial rule” and referred to Israel’s attempts to defend its citizens—Jew and Arab alike—against more than 4,000 terrorist rockets and missiles fired from Hamas in the Gaza Strip as a “massacre of Palestinians.” Simply put, the letter is not only a compendium of antiIsrael lies and antisemitic stereotypes but

| OCTOBER 22, 2021

incompatible with any notion of peace that doesn’t involve Israel’s destruction. That means that in order to comply with Rooney’s definition of an Israeli company that distances itself from “apartheid,” they would have to join that call for their nation’s elimination. Somewhat more subtle but no less damning was Cohen and Greenfield’s explanation for the partial boycott of Israel that is being carried out by the company they founded but subsequently sold to the Unilever Corporation. In an interview with Axios broadcast on HBO, the pair sought to defend the decision of the woke independent board that they insisted on putting in place when they sold their company. They consider the decision to drop their Israeli partner and ban the sale of its products in parts of Jerusalem illegally occupied by Jordan from 1949 to 1967, as well as in the West Bank, to be a protest against what they claim are Israel’s illegal policies. But when Axios reporter Alexi McCammond asked them why they thought it was right to boycott Israel but not other places whose policies they disagree with, the pair was stumped. McCammond wanted to know why they weren’t halting the sale of ice-cream in Texas, which has passed a law against abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected and which all progressives oppose. She also asked why they weren’t boycotting the state of Georgia, which has an election integrity law that liberals blasted and that motivated Major League Baseball to move its 2021 AllStar Game from Atlanta to Denver. The answer to these queries was stunned silence followed by a nervous laugh. As Axios reported: “I don’t know,” Cohen said with a laugh. “It’s an interesting question. I don’t know what that would accomplish. We’re working on those issues, of voting rights. … I think you ask a really good question. And I think I’d have to sit down and think about it for a bit.” When he was pressed about Texas and the new abortion laws, he replied “by that reasoning, we should not sell any ice-cream anywhere. I’ve got issues with what’s being done in almost every state and country.” Of course, Ben & Jerry’s isn’t going to stop selling its products in Texas and Georgia. Virtue-signaling their support for

environmentalism and other fashionable leftist causes has proven profitable for their company. They’re not going to endanger their bottom line by pulling out of areas where they make big money. It’s no accident that Israel is the country that is always singled out by so-called human-rights advocates for its alleged crimes even though other nations, which are actually tyrannies, get ignored. Israel is the only nation in the world that has spawned a worldwide movement that aims at its destruction. Only Jews and Jewish rights are treated in this manner, which is to say that BDS, in whatever form it takes, is, like anti-Zionism itself—inherently antisemitic. And the fact that some Jews, like Cohen and Greenfield, or groups with Jewish names like Jewish Voices for Peace, which promotes antisemitic blood libels, support it doesn’t give them a pass for a movement that targets their own people for hate and discrimination. That’s why laws being pushed in states all around the country to punish those companies that engage in discriminatory commercial conduct against Israel and Jews are not only not a violation of free speech but desperately needed. In much of the mainstream media and polite liberal society, BDS is still treated like a legitimate protest rather than antisemitism . The growing acceptance of critical race theory and intersectionality is part of the reason for this since those toxic ideas provide a permission slip to antisemitism so long as it is cloaked in the rhetoric of the left. But the actions of people like Rooney and Ben & Jerry’s rip the veil from this subterfuge. Those who think that only Israel’s efforts to defend itself against the Palestinian war on its existence or to assert Jewish rights are the most intolerable acts happening anywhere on the planet mustn’t be allowed to pose as do-gooders. Whether actively or passively, they are complicit in a hate campaign with an antisemitic goal that essentially justifies terrorist violence. Those who engage in such despicable behavior deserve the same opprobrium and boycotts that they would use against Israel and the Jews. Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS—Jewish News Syndicate.

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AUTHOR’S CORNER

Distressed by author Sally Rooney? Read how a Jewish fan once schooled Charles Dickens on antisemitism. BY ERIKA DREIFUS

(JTA) — As a writer, literature professor and one of the 82% of U.S. Jews who report that “caring about Israel” is either “essential” or “important” to their Jewish identity, I am pained when I see authors whom I admire launch exaggerated or misinformed attacks on Israel. But I also take solace in a correspondence, celebrated in a new children’s book, that showed how one Jewish reader engaged an author who she felt trafficked in anti-Jewish tropes. That the correspondence took place in the 19th century, and the author in question is Charles Dickens, does not make its lessons any less timely. I was distressed when Irish novelist Sally Rooney said Tuesday that she wouldn’t allow her latest novel to be published in Hebrew by an Israeli publisher “that does not publicly distance itself from apartheid and support the UN-stipulated rights of the Palestinian people.” Saddened but not surprised: Earlier this year, Rooney signed a “Letter Against Apartheid” — a text issued in the wake of the latest round of violence between Israel and Hamas. It called for governments to “cut trade, economic, and cultural relations” with the Jewish state, which it said had committed “ethnic cleansing,” “massacres” and more in its response to the thousands of rockets fired into Israel by Hamas. With their particular focus on words, writers should do better, especially when they organize, join or promote such endeavors. If their misrepresentations are without malicious intent, they’re in desperate need of further education. How such “education” might best be carried out is the subject of “Dear Mr. Dickens,” a new picture book written by Nancy Churnin and illustrated by Bethany Stancliffe. This true story of correspondence between the celebrated author and a reader named Eliza Davis — a Jewish woman who launched the exchange to protest antisemitic tropes in “Oliver Twist” — imparts a timeless lesson about speaking out against injustice. (Disclosure: Churnin and I currently belong to the same writers group; I hadn’t seen this manuscript before being granted pre-publication electronic access to an advance review copy.) Davis (1817-1903) refused to be daunted when writing the famous author, whose portrayal of “the Jew” Fagin in “Oliver Twist” landed “like a hammer on [her] jewishledger.com

heart,” as Churnin describes it. Davis lacked Dickens’s stature. But “she had the same three things that [he] had: a pen, paper, and something to say.” Quoting the correspondence, Churnin conveys Davis’s message: Fagin “encouraged ‘a vile prejudice’” against her people. According to Churnin, Davis had considered Dickens especially heroic — and the Fagin character especially discordant — because Dickens “used the power of his pen to help others.” In response, Dickens declared that Fagin was based on real-life Jewish criminals. In a mix of what we’d today call gaslighting and mansplaining, he went further: “Any Jewish people who thought him unfair or unkind — and that included Eliza! — were not ‘sensible’ or ‘just’ or ‘good tempered,’” Churnin relates. Davis tried again; evidently, Dickens didn’t write back. But the Jewish character in his next novel — the estimable Mr. Riah in “My Mutual Friend” — was no Fagin. After that novel appeared, Davis thanked Dickens for “‘a great compliment paid to myself and to my people.’” This time, Dickens responded much more warmly. He went further, notably in a magazine essay in which he referred to Jews as “an earnest, methodical, aspiring people” and in changes to a subsequent printing of “Oliver Twist,” when he instructed the printer to remove many instances in which he referred to “the Jew” and to use Fagin’s name instead.

There’s still another aspect of Eliza Davis’s story that resonates: Instead of calling Dickens out publicly, Davis approached him one-to-one. True, they weren’t strangers. According to an author’s note, the Davises had purchased Dickens’s former home a few years before this correspondence began. But Eliza Davis didn’t know how Dickens would receive her initial message. And when he scathingly dismissed it, she didn’t give up. Rudine Sims-Bishop speaks of books as “windows” and “mirrors” for the children who read them. With rising antisemitism in the United States and elsewhere, “Dear Mr. Dickens” is a sadly timely mirror for Jewish children; importantly, it provides a positive, action-oriented message of tikkun olam, or the Jewish value of repairing the world. For others, the book offers a window into Jewish experience, alongside that universal message about confronting injustice with written words. Moreover, Eliza Davis’s reaction to Dickens’s words — her sense of betrayal by an admired author whose compassion somehow didn’t extend to Jews — mirrors my own increasingly frequent experience. Like so many Jews, I am imbued with a sense of klal Yisrael, “Jewish peoplehood,” linking us with Jews everywhere — including in Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, where nearly half of the world’s Jews now live.

This doesn’t mean that I support all Israeli policies. But criticism of Israel needs to be leavened by facts and context, and a recognition that the situation is far more complex than declarations of an “apartheid” regime and “ethnic cleansing” suggest. Although I’ve gone the public route from time to time, private communications with writer-friends and acquaintances — especially in the wake of the May 2021 war between Israel and Hamas — have proven far more fruitful, yielding corrections, deletions and other changes. For which I, like Davis, have expressed thanks. I don’t expect “great compliments to me and to my people” from authorial idols and colleagues, particularly those of Palestinian descent. All I’m seeking is fairness — and freedom from vile prejudice Erika Dreifus is the author of “Birthright: Poems” and “Quiet Americans: Stories,” which was named an ALA/Sophie Brody Medal Honor Title for outstanding achievement in Jewish Literature. A fellow in the Sami Rohr Jewish Literary Institute and an adjunct associate professor at Baruch College of The City University of New York, she is currently seeking a home for her first picture-book manuscript.

THE CHARLES DICKENS MUSEUM IN LONDON IS FEATURING THE BOOK “DEAR MR. DICKENS” AS PART OF ITS CURRENT EXHIBIT, “MORE! OLIVER TWIST, DICKENS AND STORIES OF THE CITY.” (CHARLES DICKENS MUSEUM)

JEWISH LEDGER

OCTOBER 22, 2021

THE LASTING LEGACY OF AN AMERICAN JEWISH RADICAL How Meir Kahane’s ideas entered (and influenced) the Jewish mainstream

AMERICA THE J

BY EMILY BURACK

(JTA) — Meir Kahane is the “Jew whom Jews would like to forget.” Yet, as Shaul Magid writes in “Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical,” his new cultural biography of the controversial Jewish figure, Kahane keeps coming back to haunt us. Born in Brooklyn in 1932, Kahane was elected to the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, in 1984 on an extremist platform calling for Arabs to be expelled from Israel, among other ideas. In 1986, under a new “anti-racism law,” he was barred from running for re-election. In 1990, he would be assassinated by an Egyptian American in New York City. In today’s Knesset, the Kahanist party Otzma Yehudit (literally, Jewish Power) has one seat. But in 1968, before his time in Israel, he founded the militant Jewish Defense League. Focused on Jewish pride, Kahane called for “every Jew a .22” and popularized the slogan “Never Again.” He spoke out against intermarriage, believed a second Holocaust was inevitable and that antisemitism was a pervasive threat on the left and right, accusing less confrontational Jews of lacking Jewish pride. Although his militant and violent tactics alienated the Jewish mainstream, he was a key figure in publicizing the fight to free Soviet Jewry. Ultimately he pivoted to what Magid describes as “militant post-Zionist apocalyptism.” Magid’s book tells the story of Kahane’s radicalism — from his critique of liberalism through his ever-changing Zionism. “He became demonized because of his tactics, and because of his violence and his 12

JEWISH LEDGER

JTA: You write about how Meir Kahane’s ideas, and much of what he promoted in America, have entered our mainstream discourse, like that antisemitism is pervasive everywhere, or his, as you write, “assertive expression” of Jewish identity. Can you explain what you mean?

racism. But the worldview has really dug some pretty deep roots,” Magid said. In “Meir Kahane,” he sets out to unpack how that worldview lingers today, and he spoke with JTA about the project. Shaul Magid is professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College and Kogod Senior Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. Author of many books and essays, his new book, “Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical,” was recently published by Princeton University Press. This conversation has been lightly condensed and edited for clarity.

| OCTOBER 22, 2021

SM: You have to make a sharp distinction between his worldview and his tactics. His militancy was very much a product of his time. He was living at a time of the Black Panthers, the Young Lords, the SDS [Students for a Democratic Society], the Weather Underground; the idea of radical militancy and violence was very much a part of what was happening in America at the time. That, of course, has fallen away, in most cases. If you take that [militancy] away, it’s not that Kahane disappears, but what you actually have is a much more well-defined worldview that has really made its way into the subconscious of American Jewry: perennial antisemitism, antisemitism on the left is worse than antisemitism on the right, anti-Zionism is antisemitism. What we call now “Jewish continuity,” Kahane just called “Jewish survival.” The idea of Jewish pride: How do you actually create an environment where Jews can be proud to be Jews in an unashamed way? Questions of intermarriage — Kahane wrote a book about intermarriage in 1974 when nobody was talking about intermarriage. He saw into the future a bit on some of these questions.

Much of previous scholarship on Kahane focused on his time in Israel, and looked back on his time in America through that lens, but you argue we need to reverse that — that understanding him in America is key to understanding him in Israel. He fails in Israel because he’s bringing American categories and an American way of seeing society to an Israeli society which is very different. It’s more complex in all kinds of ways. First of all, in Israel, the Jews are the majority, not the minority, and that itself changes things. [Second,] he couldn’t re-conceptualize the complexity of race in Israel from the much more straightforward understanding of Black and white in America. As a result of that, he succeeds initially — he is elected to the Knesset — but ultimately the country rejects him. Yet in both places, Kahane used racist language to further his base and make a name for himself. Kahane uses race in very interesting ways. I don’t necessarily think that they were all worked out in his head. He saw race as a pivotal issue in America in the 1960s. He was very, very impressed by the Black nationalism of Black Panthers, and he saw the way in which they were able to cultivate a reaction to the racism that they were confronted with in ways that help produce their own sense of identity. And he tried to do the same thing, I think, with Jews. He didn’t call Jews a race because Jews didn’t call themselves a race at that point anymore, but he certainly saw race jewishledger.com

In the chapter on Zionism, you write about how he’s saying Israel can’t be both a Jewish state and a democracy, which was, correct me if I’m wrong, controversial to say back then. But we hear that all the time now.

AN-BORN RABBI MEIR KAHANE, FOUNDER OF JEWISH DEFENSE LEAGUE, IN JERUSALEM. (DAVID H. WELLS/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES)

as an important issue. In Israel, it’s actually pretty different, because race is a much more complicated story there. Ultimately, the conflict between the Jews and the Arabs is not really a racial conflict the way the conflict between whites and Blacks was in America. A lot of people say, oh, race is not really an issue in Israel, it’s really about dual nationalisms, or whatever. I think that’s also wrong. I think religion is very much at play, and obviously, national identities are very much at play, and I think race is at play, too. Why is Kahane’s language of Jewish power and pride not as successful in Israel? Because you have Israeliness. Jews can be proud of being Israeli; they can be proud of being Jews; they can be proud of being religious Jews; and it’s the majority culture. So you don’t need to cultivate that identity of pride in the same way that you do when Jews are a minority. Israel is facing antisemitism in a very different way than American Jews are. Israel is facing antisemitism as a collective, perhaps, but not necessarily as individuals. Whereas in America, Jews are facing antisemitism as individuals. It’s different to talk about Jewish power in America than talking about Jewish power in Israel, where actually Jews are the power. They have the power, they have the military, they have the police. I mean, the structure of the society is about Jewish power.

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It was controversial back then, but only for people in the center and on the right. People on the Israeli left were saying Israel can’t be a democracy and a Jewish state from early on. You had groups like Matzpen that were basically anti-Zionist precisely because of that: They wanted a democratic state, not a Jewish state. Kahane was saying it as a Zionist; he calls Israel schizophrenic in his 1986 book “Uncomfortable Questions for Comfortable Jews.” [For Kahane,] it just doesn’t work, so you have to choose: You want to have a Jewish state, or you want a democratic state. This also has to do with Kahane’s Americanism. For him, there was only one kind of democracy: the American style of liberal democracy. That was it. If you live in a democracy, then everybody that lives in that democracy has to be treated equally. So later, when the Jewish and democratic equation started to become more complicated, people came up with other theories, like “ethnic democracies.” Kahane’s line is like, “No, no, no. There’s no Jewish democracy or Arab democracy, there’s just democracy or no democracy.” Do you see this idea taking hold today more prominently? Oh, sure. We’re basically living on the verge of a post-two state Israel, where the Palestinians are not going to be given a state, where they’re not going to be citizens, and they’re going to be ruled over by Israel. If this is being done in order to ensure a Jewish state, what Kahane would say is, “okay, so that’s not a democracy anymore.” And a lot of people are saying that. If the Jews today are being confronted with a Jewish state or a democratic state, more and more are leaning toward a Jewish state. Which is what Kahane would’ve wanted… Well, he would’ve wanted it, but not in that way. Kahane basically gives up Zionism at some point, he realizes that it’s just a failed liberal project of “Hebrew-speaking goyim,” or “Jewish Hellenism,” or all these things that he called it. In other words, for him, Zionism failed. It failed to produce a true Jewish state. There has been a lot of consternation about Itamar Ben-Gvir, a disciple of Kahane, entering the Knesset. How does his being in Knesset compare to Kahane’s presence in the Knesset in the 1980s? Ben-Gvir, and [former Knesset member] Bezalel Smotrich in a different way, and a number of other Israeli parliamentarians somehow identify with Kahane. I think they’re really better understood as neoKahanists. Meaning, they come from the

religious national educational system, the system of Rav [Abraham Isaac] Kook, [the first Ashkenazic chief rabbi of what was then Palestine], and there’s a certain kind of theological romanticism that underlies their thinking. They’re not like [Israeli far-right politician] Baruch Marzel, a real Kahanist: For him, it doesn’t matter what the rest of the world thinks. He’s a leftover version of Kahane — which is, “we’re really talking about power and conquest. We don’t have to make excuses. We don’t have to say, oh, we’re doing this because of security reasons. We’re doing this because God gave the Land of Israel to the Jews. And that’s what we’re living out.” In a way, the neo-Kahanists are always trying to kind of construct a Kahanist vision that contains a certain kind of normalization apologetics that Kahane just didn’t have. Because ultimately, Ben-Gvir believes in the secular state. Kahane didn’t believe in the secular state. What do you think of Kahane’s legacy in the American Jewish community today, in terms of what it means to be a proud Jew in America? One of the things that’s happening in American Jewry today is all of this discussion about defining antisemitism. American Jews are feeling newly unsure whether America can ultimately protect them. That brings us back to what Kahane was feeling in the 1960s and 1970s: America has been better to the Jews than any other country in Jewish history, but antisemitism will always rise to the surface, and that Jews could never feel comfortable there. He’s giving up on American Jewry, saying that, as long as America remains a liberal society, it will ultimately not protect the Jews. Not that the Jews are going to feel physically endangered, but they’re also going to feel spiritually endangered because they will be asked to give up their own sense of Jewish identity. Kahane was speaking before the rise of multiculturalism, and multiculturalism may have changed that. He was living in an America where assimilation into Americanness meant a diminishing of one’s particular identity. Multiculturalism creates a different cultural model where difference is celebrated, rather than only tolerated. What Kahane felt was the danger of the American embrace of the Jew in the 1960s and ’70s. In the 1990s and the 2000s, through multiculturalism, I don’t think that’s necessarily as true anymore. We can talk about the rise of Orthodoxy in the 1980s and 1990s. Why does Orthodoxy come back into fashion? In large part it’s really riding the wave of multiculturalism — it has nothing to do with Orthodoxy per se.

You speak about how he predicted a lot of the issues that the American Jewish community are struggling with today, but he kept making the same mistake over and over again. Where do you view him failing in his tactics? Violence, that’s number one. Second of all, he always went too far, he always overextended. And [third,] he had this maniacal desire for power, his own personal power, that ultimately undermined it. What’s an example of Kahane undermining himself? I don’t think Kahane knew about the Sol Hurok bombing. [The Jewish Defense League, opposed to Soviet artists performing in the United States, bombed theater impresario Sol Hurok’s offices in January 1972, killing a young Jewish woman, Iris Kones.] I don’t think he knew what was going to happen. I think that he had lost control of the JDL by them. I think that he was horrified by it, but I think that he set something in motion, and at some point, you can’t necessarily control what’s going to happen and you still have to take the responsibility for it. After Sol Hurok, it all basically just started to collapse. The irony is that wasn’t even his fault. He wasn’t even there, and he probably didn’t even know it was going to happen. He tried to do damage control, but that was not an operation that he gave the green light to. I think the JDL was functioning without him by that point. Once you get to 1973, 1974, the JDL was dysfunctional; it had lost the vision that Kahane had for it. Speaking of violence, we must discuss Baruch Goldstein, the American Israeli physician and onetime JDL member who perpetrated the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in Hebron in 1994, killing 29 Muslim worshippers before he was beaten to death by survivors. Is the massacre part of Kahane’s legacy in Israel? Definitely, definitely. In Kiryat Arba, which is the Jewish city buttressing Hebron, there’s a place called Kahane Park. One of the other things I hope is that [the book] sparks a much more nuanced conversation about Judaism and violence. And not this kind of “Judaism is nonviolent.” No, Judaism is not nonviolent. Because no religion is really nonviolent. He was constantly discussing examples of Jewish violence and revenge. You see that early in “Never Again” and the JDL, and you see that in “The Jewish Idea,” and his very militant vision of Judaism. The two things [he cites]: one is Moses smiting the Egyptian [in Exodus 2:12], the other is the midrash about Abraham destroying the idols in his father’s idol shop. He’s basically saying Jews misunderstand violence. Kahane thinks that this whole “Jews are against violence” is a product of CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

JEWISH LEDGER

OCTOBER 22, 2021

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

centuries of Diaspora living where Jews are just trying to survive the violence that’s happening to them. For Kahane, the true tradition of Jewish history is really one of violence and militancy and rebellion.

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| OCTOBER 22, 2021

“Never Again” was one of the very first books he wrote, and we’ve really seen the phrase “never again” become popular today. I think about how this was the slogan of the JDL, the name of his book, he was talking about a second Holocaust in way that I’m not sure others were. How does Kahane’s vision of “Never Again” resonate today? “Never Again” sold 100,000 copies in the first year; none of his other books were that successful. It touched a nerve of a certain kind of anxiety, and also a certain kind of assertiveness that children of Holocaust survivors and first generation American Jews — who had been affected by the counterculture, and had become alienated from the New Left after 1967 — he basically allowed them to become radicalized as Jews. The problem with Kahane is that people love him and people hate him, but nobody actually reads him. It would be interesting to do a reading of “Never Again” among a group of liberal American Jews, because of the way he makes fun of the American bar mitzvah, the way he makes fun of the opulence of Great Neck and Scarsdale. His critique of classism, his critique of Jews abandoning elderly Jews in Bed Stuy and Crown Heights — I mean, in a certain way, if you read that book, without the rest of the history of Kahane, I think it still resonates in some way. We didn’t even touch on Soviet Jewry at all, but you talk about how he brings Judaism and ritual into protest. I feel like that is the cornerstone of American Jewish leftist protest movements today. Totally! I dedicated the book to my friend Aryeh Cohen, who’s a progressive leftist social activist, and yet was part of the JDL when he was young. I’ve said to him, “Aryeh, you don’t understand ‘the take Judaism to the streets’ that you’re engaged in while protesting for migrant workers and others. Where do you think you got that?” And he kind of laughs, he doesn’t really

AUTHOR SHAUL MAGID

think that. But it’s true. Basically, Kahane was saying Judaism does not belong in the synagogue, Judaism belongs in the streets, it belongs in protests. What do you hope people who read “Meir Kahane will take away from the book? Certainly within academic circles, we missed something very important in the telling of the story of 20th-century Jewry. [Brandeis University historian] Jonathan Sarna’s “American Judaism” has no mention of Kahane. That was not by accident, that was an intentional erasure. That’s the first thing: We can’t ignore this person. Whether it’s like including him in syllabi, teaching him in courses, whatever it is. For a more general audience, this is a figure who is incredibly important in terms of the cultivation of Jewish identity among Jews in America and in Israel after the Second World War. I hope that people start to read him critically, as part of the story and to say, “oh, how much of this has seeped in?” Editor’s note: Before working for JTA’s sister site Alma, Emily Burack worked for a year on the aforementioned book as author Shaul Magid’s research assistant. She wrote her undergraduate thesis, cited in Magid’s book, on the emergence of the Jewish Defense League.

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Mandell JCC dedicates “garden oasis” to its 44 past presidents

EST HARTFORD—On Sunday, Sept. 26, community leaders came together at the Mandell JCC in West Hartford to celebrate the organization’s long list of past presidents with the dedication of a new outdoor courtyard and indoor tribute wall in their honor. Designed by landscape designer Ching Lin of Artistic Outdoors, along with art students from the nearby University of Hartford, the courtyard, which was originally the JCC’s driveway entrance, was transformed into what the JCC’s executive director David Jacobs called “a garden oasis.” The tribute wall which exhibits photographs of the JCC’s 44 past presidents, is located in the lobby area outside the building’s Herbert & Evelyn Gilman Theater. “We are so deliberate about ensuring that every part of our JCC is carefully designed to serve many purposes,” said past president Joyce Mandell (1995-1997). “The Courtyard is no exception. We can’t predict all of the purposes that this space will serve in the years to come, but we do know that like all of the magnificent plantings, it will always be flourishing.” Jacobs thanked the Mandell

Braunstein, Samuels, Temkin Weiner, and Zachs families for their support in making the Presidents’ Courtyard a reality and noted the contribution of the past presidents. “It is truly an honor to celebrate a century of commitment and service each president has devoted to the JCC,” he said. “These men and women have played a crucial role throughout our history, meeting the ever-changing needs of our community – and they did this in partnership with countless lay leaders and professionals.” Newly elected Board President Brad Drazen agreed. “The president’s role at the Mandell JCC is sacred,” he said. “We are charged with fulfilling our very important mission to build community, cultural identify and bridges of understanding by celebrating diversity and foster appreciation for Jewish culture and heritage.” At the dedication, JCC past president Gayle Temkin (2017-2019) announced the creation of the Mandell JCC Presidents’ Courtyard Endowment Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation. “Like the JCC,” she noted, “the courtyard landscape will change and grow in the years to come. This endowment fund will support those efforts.”

AT THE JCC PRESIDENTS COURTYARD DEDICATION: (L TO R) DAVID FEDERMAN (JCC PRESIDENT 1986-1988), RICHARD ROBINSON (JCC PRESIDENT 1988-1990) AND HIS WIFE ANN DEE ROBINSON, BOB SAMUELS, AND JOYCE MANDELL (JCC PRESIDENT 1995-1997).

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Chayei Sarah

BY RABBI SHMUEL REICHMAN

hazal (our Sages) tell us that Avraham faced ten tests along his spiritual journey (Pirkei Avos 5:3). While it is commonly assumed that Akeidas Yitzchak (the binding of Isaac) was Avraham’s tenth test, several commentators believe that the tenth test was actually after the Akeidah. They suggest that Avraham’s tenth trial was the death of his wife, Sarah, and the subsequent episode of burying her in Ma’aras Hamachpeilah (The Cave of Machpeilah). This assertion is mysterious, as it seems that the command to sacrifice one’s own child would be the ultimate test, incomparable to the ordeal that followed. What, then, was the true nature of Avraham’s test of burying Sarah, and why is it viewed as so incredibly difficult? On the most basic level, it appears as though Avraham was challenged with overcoming the grief of losing his wife, as well as dealing with Efron, a conniving, merciless cheat. There is, however, a deeper answer, one related to the power of paradigms. Perhaps Avraham’s test was a question of perception; a challenge to view Sarah’s death as an opportunity to grow rather than a reason to give up, a chance to build rather than fall apart. In this light, Sarah’s death was not the end, but the beginning. Let us explore this idea. Chazal teach that marriage is eternal. Man and wife are created as one before birth; they are then torn apart and born individually, charged with the mission of connecting and recreating that oneness in this world. Man and wife are thus born into separate families, at different times and locations, and must then embark on the journey to find each other and reconnect as one. After a lifetime of building that oneness, man and wife remain eternally one in Olam Habah (The World to Come), enjoying the bond they created during this lifetime. This explains one of the unique sources for the laws of marriage. Meseches Kiddushin, the tractate of marriage, details the various methods by which a man and woman can get married. One of them is through money (kesef), which is derived from the transaction between Avraham and Efron. The Gemara (Kiddushin 2a) draws a parallel between Avraham’s use of money in acquiring Ma’aras Hamachpeilah and man’s ability to use money to create a spiritual and Halachic connection to his wife, pointing out that both use the word “kicha” (take). It seems strange, even ironic, to derive a source for marriage from a case in

which a man’s wife dies. However, this is not ironic, nor is it a coincidence; it is a reflection of the deep truth that marriage is eternal. Through buying this plot of land, Avraham planted the seeds of his eternal marriage with Sarah; they would be buried together and remain bonded as one even after death. This explains another unique feature of Ma’aras Hamachpeilah. We can take this idea of eternal marriage even further. In Jewish law, there are two stages of the marriage process. The first step is kiddushin, followed by nesuin. Originally, the custom was to perform kiddushin a year before nesuin, leaving a full year until the marriage process was completed. Many Jewish thinkers ask about the purpose and relationship between kiddushin and nesuin. Why is there a two-step process of marriage? While there are various reasons given, the Rambam explains that although kiddushin and nesuin are both fundamental to the process of marriage, they serve completely different functions. Kiddushin, the first step of marriage, is actually a “step back” in the relationship. It creates an issur (prohibition) between a man and his future wife, while also making them forbidden to anyone else. After this step back, nesuin is then “two steps forward”, creating a fundamentally stronger and more meaningful marriage, as the couple have just spent an entire year apart, longing for one another. This is a classic example of a “yeridah l’tzorech aliya”, a step down that enables a giant leap upwards. Perhaps this is why we specifically learn the mitzvah of kiddushin, and not nesuin, from the episode of Avraham burying his wife. In a very deep way, Sarah’s death was the epitome of kiddushin. Her death created a painful, heartbreaking separation between Avraham and Sarah. However, this was only temporary. This “time apart” would soon be followed by nesuin, when Avraham would join her, completing their eternal marriage. At the end of Parshas Chayei Sarah, Avraham is niftar (passes away), buried next to his wife in Ma’aras Hamachpeilah, connected eternally. This was Avraham’s tenth and final test, a challenge of deepening his perception. While on the surface, Avraham was burying his wife, facing the death of his life’s partner, there was a deeper layer here. He was also planting the seeds for their eternal connection. Let us be inspired to walk in the footsteps of Avraham and build deeper and more empowering perceptions in life.

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OCTOBER 22, 2021

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| OCTOBER 22, 2021

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THE KOSHER CROSSWORD OCT. 22, 2021 “Fated Intersections” By: Yoni Glatt

Difficulty Level: Medium

Vol. 93 No. 43 JHL Ledger LLC Publisher Henry M. Zachs Managing Partner

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ANSWERS TO OCT. 15 CROSSWORD

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Across 1. Biblical birthplace of many languages 6. Rough 11. Transcript fig. 14. Witchy woman 15. “Somewhere in middle America”, according to Adam Duritz 16. Hockey great Bobby 17. Jerusalem 19. Started Shabbat, perhaps 20. Good thing to get into 21. Sad fellow 22. Commotions 23. Endings for pay and schnoz 25. Each’s companion

26. Black Panther 30. Get up 32. It’s a long story 33. Duane ___ (N.Y.C.-based pharmacy) 35. Head honcho, briefly 38. Phil falls for her in “Groundhog Day” 39. Get on an Elal transport 40. Rabbi Norman of note 41. Newborn newt 42. Arial and Roman 43. Hayek of “Grown Ups” 44. Simcha circles 46. Follower and then some 48. Not the sharpest Corleone 50. Spouted vessel

51. G-d 52. Pad at a sink 54. David’s eldest brother 58. Game-winning trio 59. Like Romeo and Juliet...or another title for this puzzle 62. Cinema chain 63. Major player in fantasy football 64. Writer Calvino whose first name is one letter off from his home country 65. “’Tis a pity” sound 66. They can ruin or save lives 67. The Kingdom of Israel, in relation to the Kingdom of Judah

Down 1. Secretive e-mail abbr. 2. Ben Canaan and Onassis 3. Greedy either/or choice 4. Irish New Age vocalist 5. Bloom of literature 6. ___ HaSharon 7. Gather 8. Important Amora 9. Send 10. Ate 11. Idol worshipped in Exodus 12. Kind of commitment 13. Creative, in a way 18. What 17-Across did in 70 CE 22. Not a St. 24. Those named after a brother

of Miriam 25. Minimally make, with “out” 26. It wears on you during a road trip 27. Big name in energy bars 28. The one thing Moses should not have done 29. They might replace a 26-Down 30. “The Pianist” setting 31. Tack on 34. Opposite of fast 36. Stone of film 37. Yemen’s neighbor 39. Deadly wrapper 40. Brit’s bud 42. U-turn from to 43. Beef cut

45. Weird 47. Move out of the way 48. Parade sight 49. Inbal’s offerings 50. One costs way more in Tishrei than in Cheshvan 52. Headline 53. Island with Pearl Harbor 55. Comparison phrase 56. Trei ___ 57. Gartel, for one 59. “Danny and the Dinosaur” author Hoff 60. Trig. figure 61. Child’s Play item for Homer?

JEWISH LEDGER

OCTOBER 22, 2021

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

against extremism, will discuss the way forward in combatting racism, antisemitism and anti-Zionism on Oct. 19 at 10:30 a.m. Hosted by UJA/JCC Greenwich. To register, visit ujajcc.org. Zoom link will be provided upon Registration

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20 What is Jewish music?

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19 Former Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer speaks in Greenwich Ambassador Ron Dermer will share behind the scenes experiences and personal stories from his time as the Israel’s Ambassador to the United States (2013-2021), and as senior advisor to former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Oct. 19 at 7 p.m., at Temple Sholom, 300 East Putnam Ave. He will also give us his perspective on current events. Admission: $18/Temple Sholom members; $25/non-members; $180/talk and pre-talk cocktail reception with Derme. To purchase tickets, visit www.templesholom. com/ambassadordermer. Note: Masks are required for anyone age two or older (regardless of vaccine status). Building Bridges - Zionist Lives Matter Thirty-year-old IDF captain and Ethiopian Israeli activist Ashager Araro, recently profiled in Forbes as a social media warrior

Daniella Risman, Emanuel Synagogue’s new cantor, will headline a concert at the Synagogue that includes the music of Felix Mendelssohn and explores “What is Jewish Music” through other musicians of the time. The concert is in advance of the Nov. 7 staged reading of “Havdalah,” a new play by Emanuel member Ben Engel (see story this page). Admission to the concert is FREE. For more information: (860) 236-1275. “Jewish Youth in Argentina” with Prof. Adriana Mariel Brodsky Adriana Mariel Brodsky, a professor of history at Saint Mary’s College of Maryland, will discuss her first book, Sephardi, Jewish, Argentine: Community and National Identity, 1880-1960, on Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. Brodsky focuses on how the Sephardim resisted their minority status within the largely Ashkenazic Jewish Argentine community and its organizations and defended their individual identities. She has published articles on

BULLETIN BOARD Attention 10th - 12th graders in Stamford, New Canaan and Darien Teens in grades 10 through 12 are now invited to apply for the seventh cohort of the 2021-2022 Kuriansky Teen Tzedakah Corps. A program of the United Jewish Federation of Greater Stamford, New Canaan and Darien, the Kuriansky Teen Tzedakah Corps is a leadership training program that gives Jewish teens the opportunity to explore the fundamentals of philanthropy, preparing teens to become communal leaders. The curriculum brings together teen leaders to navigate a grant allocation process, culminating with awarding grants to organizations of their choice. This low commitment/high impact program runs during the school year with weekly meetings held on Sunday evenings, 6 - 7:30 pm. For now, meetings are being held on Zoom. Applications are due Oct. 20. For more information, contact Diane Sloyer at Dianesloyer@ujf.org.

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Raise your voice and be heard! Help build a stronger, more dynamic Jewish community in Stamford, New Canaan and Darien by participating in a communitywide survey sponsored by United Jewish Federation of Greater Stamford, New Canaan and Davien. The survey findings will help UJF navigate the future by understanding our current community and its needs and concerns. The anonymous survey takes only 5-10 minutes to complete and will help define UJF’s strategy for the next 3 to 5 years. The survey may be taken online or on paper. Confidentiality is guaranteed! As a way of thanking those who share their thoughts and opinions by taking the survey, upon completion participants will be invited to enter a drawing to win a gift card to Stamford’s Beldotti Bakery. For more information or to find out how to take the survey, call (203) 321-1373

| OCTOBER 22, 2021

Sephardic women and female philanthropic organizations in Argentina. The talk is co-sponsored by UConn’s History Department and Center for Judaic Studies. Register at: https://us06web. zoom.us/meeting/register/ tZUkcOyrrTItEtJpn4IUcwB1oMqkuKR3IqVj 10 Surprising Findings About Modern Orthodoxy Mark Trencher, founder of Nishma Research, which has conducted 17 Orthodox Jewish communal studies since 2015, will talk about what 13,000 surgery respondents have told us about the cost important issues facing American Modern Orthodoxy today, on Oct. 20 at 8 pm. Trencher is a former business executive with 40+ years experience heading th research departments at two Fortune 200 financial firms. Sponsored by the Center for Community Education, an initiative of Bi-Cultura Hebrew Academy of Connecticut. To register: bcha-ct-org.zoom.us. Author Emmena Elon speaks at Wesleyan Wesleyan University’s 19th Annual Contemporary Israeli Voices presents bestselling novelist Emuna Elon on Oct. 20 at 4 p.m. Elon will discuss her latest novel, House on Endless Waters, which deals with WWII and her family home in the Netherlands, and the reasons why the survival of past times continue to emerge in our survival of the present. The Contemporary Israeli Voices series, sponsored by Wesleyan’s Center for Jewish Studies and organized by Dalit Katz, celebrates the voices of women and minorities. All presentations are free. To register, visit http://civ.site.wesleyan.edu.

information, call (203) 438-5488 or email CantorDebbie@ourshirshalom.org. Tech2Peace: Israelis & Palestinians Innovating a Better Future Tech2Peace (T2P) brings together young Palestinians and Israelis through intensive high-tech and entrepreneurship training, dialogue, joint start-ups, and an active alumni community. This interactive program introduces Palestinian and Israeli staff and alumni of T2P who share their perspectives and what they’ve learned by working together. A BYO brunch and workshop presented on Oct. 24, 12-1:15 p.m., by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Hartford and co-sponsored by Federation’s Emerging Leadership Division, University of Connecticut Hillel, and University of Hartford Hillel. Advance registration required: https:// bit.ly/Tech2Peace1024. “The Sky is Not Falling” — Teen wellness and coping with stress All teens are invited to spend a morning focused on wellness and coping with stress through a Jewish lens. Choose from a broad range of workshops led by Jewish communal leaders such as Rabbi James Greene of Camp Laurelwood, drummer and educator Dennis Cotton, Sharon O’Brien of Holistic Health Options at the Mandell JCC, and others. Hosted by JTConnect, Mandell JCC, Jewish Family Services of Greater Hartford, on Oct. 20, 10:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m., and held outdoors at Solomon Schechter Day School, 26 Buena Vista Dr. Registration a must. Email Cara at cara@jtconnect.org.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 25 Facebook: The Inside Story

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24 Klezmer Musical Concert in Ridgefield Cantor Deborah Katchko-Gray, under the auspices of Congregation Shir Shalom, Ridgefield, will present a klezmer concert featuring the music of Beryllium’s String Quartet, featuring Beryl Diamond Chacon and Rena Isbin (on violin), Will Hakim (on viola), and Robert Burkhart, (on cello) on Oct. 24, 3 - 4 p.m. (doors open at 2:30 p.m.), at Shir Shalom, 46 Peaceable Street. Cantor Katchko-Gray will also sing a Yiddish Lullaby arranged for string quartet. Beryllium creates interactive concerts and recordings of chamber music, both classical and contemporary. Beryllium is the concert arm of Orion Music and has performed in public and private venues including New York Public Library, New York Historical Society, at The Wagner Arboretum as well as The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Reservations are not required. For more

United Jewish Federation of Stamford’s Rothschild Business Society will present on Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. renowned tech writer Steven Levy, author of Facebook: The Inside Story. Levy has had unprecedented access to Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and other staff for three years. He will discuss the history of one of Facebook — America’s most powerful and controversial companies. Dinner, drinks nd time to socialize followed by the program. Food individually packaged per person. For more information or to register., email Sharon Franklin, sharon@ujf.org. Venue to be announced. $25

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27 A Descending Spiral: Exposing the Death Penalty in 12 Essays United Jewish Federation of Stamford’s Cardozo Law Society presents “A Descending Spiral: Exposing the Death Penalty in 12 Essays” with Marc Bookman, veteran capital jewishledger.com

OCTOBER 19 – NOVEMBER 18 defense lawyer and seven-time Best American Essays “notable., on Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. Venue to be announced. Bookman is executive director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, a nonprofit that provides services for those facing possible execution. (Dinner individually packaged per person). For more information email Sharon Franklin sharon@ujf.org. $25

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28 Chabad honors Hartford HealthCare CEO Jeffrey Flaks “On the Front Lines: Mind, Body and Soul” is the theme of the 2021 Chabad Gala honoring Hartford healthCare CEO Jeffrey Flaks on Oct. 28, 5:30 p.m., at Emanuel Synagogue, 160 Mohegan Drive in West Hartford. Flaks will be recognized for his crucial work during the pandemic. The event will be held according to CDC guidelines in place at the time of the Gala. For information: Miriamgopin@yahoo.com, (860) 232-1116.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30

chabadhartford.com, email: rabbishaya@ chabadhartford.com or call (860) 232-8556.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4 Love & Knishes luncheon with entertainment by Airborne Trio, on Nov. 4 at 1 p.m. at the Jewish Federation of Western CT, 444 Main St. North, Southbury. For reservations, email cconti@jfed.net. Admission: $10.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 7 Stamford Federation hosts Super Sunday Volunteers are needed to make calls on the Jewish Federation of Greater Stamford’s Super Sunday on Nov. 7. Available shifts: 10 am-12 pm; 4 - 6 pm; 6 - 8 pm.; The day will also include UJF Family Fun Day with all sorts of activities for kids, including Petting Zoo, Stars of Hope Mitzvah Craft, a hat, glove and sock driver for refugees. Kids who bring their coins will get a prize. Volunteers are also needed for Family Fun Day. To volunteer or for more information, contact Sharon Franklin at sharon@ujf.org.

Rabbi Ethan Tucker to speak in New Haven

Talk show host and author Larry Rifkin in Southbury

Rabbi Ethan Tucker will discuss “Navigating Relationships in a World of Difference: How do we proceed when aspects of our Jewish observance create discomfort with family members and friends?” at Congregation Beth El - Keser Israel, 85 Harrison St., at the corner of Whalley Ave. on Oct. 30 at 1 p.m., following Shabbat services and kiddush lunch. Rabbi Tucker is president and Rosh Yeshiva at Hadar, an observant, egalitarian yeshiva. Sabbath rules will be observed. Masks are required.

Former CT Public Television executive and former WATR radio talk show host Larry Rifkin will discuss his soon-to-be-published book, No Dead Air, on Nov. 7 at 2 p.m. at the Jewish Federation of Western CT, 444 Main Street North in Southbury. Under his leadership, CPTV amassed more than 50 Emmy Awards in the Boston/New England competition. He now hosts the podcast, americatrendspodcast.com, where he looks at changes in our society and our politics. For information and reservation, email cconti@ jfed.net.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1

Ben Engel’s “Havdalah” on stage in West Hartford

Outsmarting Antisemitism: A 4-session course  A four-session course from the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute (JLI), titled Outsmarting Antisemitism. Using history, Talmudic sources, Jewish mysticism, and contemporary expert analysis, the course addresses: Why does antisemitism persist? How can we make hate go away? How can we counter Israelfocused antisemitism and prevent our own youth from unwittingly lending their voices to antisemitic agendas? A 4-session course held on Mondays at 7:30 p.m. and led by Rabbi Shaya Gopin of the Chabad House of Greater Hartford The four-week course begins Monday, November 1, 2021, at 7:30 p.m. The course will be offered in-person for a limited audience as well as on Zoom. Sign-in information will be provided upon enrollment For more information or to register, visit

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The Emanuel Players will present a staged reading of Ben Engel’s latest play “Havdalah” on Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. Directed by Adrian A. Durlester, the play focuses on the large and prominent Mendelssohn family to examine the pressures, conflicts and opportunities Jews faced when they encountered modern life in 19th-century Berlin. At The Emanuel Synagogue, 160 Mohegan Dr., West Hartford. Admission is FREE. Register at Emanuel synagogue.org.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9 “Black Voters Matter” free webinar LaTosha Brown, co-Founder and executive director of Black Voters Matter Social activist, political strategist, and jazz singer, will discuss “Black Voters Matter: Our Obligation

to Democracy and Equality,” in collaboration with Open Visions Forum. 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.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11 Author Elyssa Friedland to speak at Virtual Book Club Author Elyssa Friedland will discuss her new book Last Summer at the Golden Hotel, in conversation with Rebecca Anikstein, at the next Virtual Book Club meeting, hosted by UJA-JC Greenwich on Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m. on Zoom. Friedland is the author of four novels. She attended Yale University and Columbia Law School, and worked as an attorney until turning to writing full time. She currently teaches creative writing at Yale. Attendance is FREE. To register or for more information: ujajcc.org. 10th Annual Saul Cohen-Schoke JFS (Virtual) Lecture Rabbi Steve Z. Leder will discuss “If You Have to Go Through Hell, Don’t Come Out Empty-Handed” as keynote speaker of the 10th Annual Saul Cohen-Schoke JFS Lecture, presented by Schoke Jewish Family Service of Fairfield County. Co-sponsored this year by the Stamford JCC, the virtual lecture will take place on Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m. Rabbi Leder will discuss finding meaning in all sorts of painful losses: How can individuals transform loss into more than just loss? How can suffering be more than just painful? What do the sages teach about transcending pain and loss? Currently senior rabbi of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, Rabbi Leder is the author of four books including The Beauty of What Remains; How Our Greatest Fear Becomes Our Greatest Gift and More Beautiful Than Before; How Suffering Transforms Us. Newsweek Magazine twice

named him one of the ten most influential rabbis in America. For more information or to register, visit: https://www.ctjfs.org/saulcohen-jfs-lecture/

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18 Author Emmena Elon speaks at Wesleyan Wesleyan University’s 19th Annual Contemporary Israeli Voices presents bestselling novelist Sayed Kashua on Nov. 18 at 8 p.m. Author of three well received novels and the creator of the hit TV series Arab Labor, Kashua will present “The Foreign Mother Tongue., in which he will discuss Arab identity, Palestinian identity and Israeli identity, and explore what it means to sit at a point of intersection between them. The Contemporary Israeli Voices series, sponsored by Wesleyan’s Center for Jewish Studies and organized by Dalit Katz, celebrates the voices of women and minorities. All presentations are free. To register, visit http://civ.site. wesleyan.edu. “A History of Holocaust Trials? Under discussion in Fairfield Lawrence R. Douglas, JD, will deliver a lecture entitled “A History of Holocaust Trials: From Nuremberg to Demjanjuk and Back Again,” to mark the 75th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials on Nov. 18 at 7:30 p.m. Lawrence R. Douglas, JD, 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 Trials (2016). 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.

THE “B” FOUNDATION Now accepting grant applications from Internal Revenue Service qualified 501(C)(3) organizations which seek assistance consistent with the goals of the “B” Foundation to help feed, care, or educate society. The grants will range from $1,000 to $10,000 and will be awarded by the end of the calendar year. Please submit your written request by November 15, 2021 to: The “B” Foundation

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OCTOBER 22, 2021

OBITUARIES ABESHOUSE Matthew Abeshouse, 65, of Woodbridge, died Oct. 7. He was the son of the late Ruth and Jordan Abeshouse. He was also predeceased by his brother Stuart Abeshouse. He is survived by his brother Tevin Abeshouse; and his nieces, Julia and Olivia Cooper.

predeceased by her son-in-law Bob, her five siblings and their spouses, and all of her in-laws.

CHASE Phyllis R. Chase (Antarsh) Chase, 86, of Shrewsbury, died Oct. 7. She was born in West Hartford. She is survived by her children, Larry Chase and his wife Laurie of Southborough, and Amy Chase and her husband John Cryan of Shrewsbury; and her grandchildren, Emily, Noah, and April Cryan, and Sydney, Joshua and Eli Chase. KONOVER Doris Marcus Konover, 98, of Delray Beach, Fla., formerly of West Hartford, died Oct. 8. She was the widow of Simon Konover. Born in Norwich, she was the daughter of the late Clara and Harry Marcus. In 1945, she went into The United States Army Nurse Corps. After the war was over, she was in charge of the OR on a ship bringing injured soldiers home from Europe. From Camp Kilmer in New Jersey, she went for six months to an Indiana army hospital especially built for injured soldiers. She then transferred to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC. She was honorably discharged as a First Lieutenant. She is survived by her children, Jane Coppa, Michael Konover and his wife Vicki, and Steven Konover; four grandchildren and their spouses; eight great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews. She was also

PELTER Frances Rudnick Pelter, 103, of Stamford, died Oct. 10. She was the wife of Stanley Pelter. Raised in Albany, N.Y., she was the daughter of the late Sam and Jennie Rudnick. In addition to her husband, she is survived by her adaughters, Robin Suplinskas and her husband Mark of Bristol, and Donna Graubard of Los Angeles, Calif.; her grandchildren, Steven Suplinskas of Worcester, Mass., Adam Suplinskas of Auburn, Me., Aviva Ostreicher of New City, N.Y., Tzvi Graubard of Los Angeles, Calif., and Levi Graubard of Los Angeles; and four great-grandchildren. She was also predeceased by her brother Harry Rudnick of Stamford, and her son-in-law Eliahu Graubard. ROSENBERG Josef B. Rosenberg, 89, of South Windsor, died Oct. 9. He was the husband of Priscilla Rosenberg. He was born in Philadelphia. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Jon Rosenberg, and Dana Silverman and her husband Gary; his granddaughters, Sarah and Hannah and their partners Michael and Cam; his sister in- law-Suzanne Price; his brother Morton Rosenberg and his wife Ruth; and many other family members. For more information on placing an obituary, contact: judiej@ jewishledger.

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Jim Fleischer, CEO of AEPi, dies at 52 BY BOB JACOB

(Cleveland Jewish News via JTA) — Jim Fleischer, a Canton, Ohio native who served as CEO of the historic Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi since June 2018, died from cancer on Saturday. He was 52. In a statement posted on its website, AEPi said, “Jim fought a courageous battle against cancer for the last three years, but the fight was too much and he passed away yesterday evening surrounded by his family and fraternity brothers.” Fleischer graduated from Kent State University in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, and worked as an AEPi chapter consultant upon graduation before working as a fundraiser for UJA Federation of New York. He owned his own printing business on Long Island for nearly 18 years, during which time he was a volunteer chapter adviser and regional governor for AEPi. He was elected to the fraternity’s supreme board of governors in 2006. In 2013, Fleischer rejoined the fraternity’s executive staff as its assistant executive director and COO. In 2019, AEPi’s supreme council awarded him the Order of the Lion, the fraternity’s highest honor, for exemplary dedication and service to the fraternity. “Until he took his last breath yesterday, Jim demonstrated his love for two things above all else: his family and AEPi,” the fraternity said in the statement. “Jim’s love for AEPi was unmatched. Those of us who knew him well, knew that there was nothing that energized him more than having the opportunity to meet with undergraduate AEPi brothers, to help them better themselves and their chapters. His commitment to AEPi’s mission, our Jewish communities and Israel are why he devoted his life to our fraternity. We hope that we all use Jim’s life as further inspiration to better our fraternity and our communities.”

Founded in 1913, AEPi is active at around 180 campuses internationally, including in Israel, according to its website. Somewhere between 9,000 to 10,000 undergraduates are active in the fraternity every year, most but not all of them Jewish. The fraternity has more than 100,000 alumni. Fleischer was described by colleagues as a successful leader who had a passion for Jewish causes and the state of Israel. He was “very infectious with enthusiasm and energy, and Jewish community in his gut – that kind of person,” Ronald Klein, an AEPi foundation board of directors member, told the Cleveland Jewish News. “You could see even by the pictures, a very warm person, and I think that led to his being a successful leader, whether it was in different roles he took at AEPi or in other things he did in his life.” “I just felt he knew the Jewish community and the value of AEPi in his gut,” Klein said. “AEPi has been sort of a predominant Jewish fraternity for a number of years now… There was a lot of responsibility that went with the fraternity moving toward that direction, as opposed to some of these other fraternities that became more assimilated, and he was one of the people along with others who felt the Jewish nature of AEPi was so important from developing the next level of community leaders from our Jewish community – young men who at a younger age felt the passion of Israel, felt the passion of Jewish values, and he just obviously took it upon himself to lead in that direction.” Fleischer is survived by his wife of 26 years, Alison Braun Fleischer; his sons, Ethan and Spencer, his daughter, Madison “Madi”; his father, Frank Fleischer; his brother, Richard “Rick”; and his in-laws, nieces and nephews. A service was held Tuesday at Congregation Beth El Zedeck in Indianapolis. A version of this article was originally published in the Cleveland Jewish News and is reprinted with permission.

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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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