CT Jewish Ledger • November 5, 2021 • 1 Kislev 5782

Friday, November 5, 2021 1 Kislev 5782 Vol. 93 | No. 45 | ©2021 jewishledger.com

HONORING AN

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UNSUNG HERO

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INSIDE

this week

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | NOVEMBER 5, 2021 | 1 KISLEV 5782

8 Briefs

10 Opinion

15 Around CT

17 Crossword

18 What’s Happening

Holy War..................................................................................12 A feud between Rabbi Arthur Schneier, the revered head of New York’s Park East Synagogue, and his assistant rabbi, Benjamin Goldschmidt, has left Goldschmidt without a job and the ritzy Modern Orthodox synagogue ruptured.

Call to Action.......................................................................... 5 A Jewish civil-rights group calls on UMass Boston to investigate the assault of a pro-Israel journalist by pro-Palestinian activists. By continuing to do nothing, says the Brandeis Center, the university is “setting a dangerous precedent.”

Arts & Entertainment........................................................11 The entertainment community suffered two loses last week. Satirist Mort Sahl, who made caustic political and social satire popular in stand-up comedy, died at 94. And Jay Black, lead singer of the 1960s pop group Jay & The Americans, died at 82.

Hold the Herring.................................................................16 “Sherry Herring,” the Israeli eatery famous for its delectable herring sandwiches, opens in NYC. Except it doesn’t have sherry or, come to think of it, herring.

19 Torah Portion

20 Obituaries

21 Business and Professional Directory

22 Classified

ON THE COVER: Every year for the past 15 years, Congregation Or Shalom in Orange, led by Rabbi Alvin Wainhaus, hosts a community-wide event honoring a hero of the Holocaust, as a way of commemorating Kristallnacht — the two-day rampage that took place Nov. 9 & 10 1938 and left many European Jews murdered or maimed and Jewish businesses and synagogues destroyed. Presented by Or Shalom in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven and with support by the American Society for Yad Vashem, this year the commemoration will be held on Nov. 14 and will honor the late Archbishop Damaskinos Papandreou, who was responsible for saving thousands of Jews in Athens during World War II. PAGE 5 jewishledger.com

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UP FRONT

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | NOVEMBER 5, 2021 | 1 KISLEV 5782

New Haven’s Kristallnacht Commemoration Honors Athen’s Archbishop Damaskinos

BY STACEY DRESNER

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EW HAVEN – This past February, Rabbi Alvin Wainhaus was among those gathered at the Jewish Museum in New York to hear Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla recount his parents’ experience as Jews living in Greece during the Holocaust.

It was then the spiritual leader of Congregation Or Sholom in Orange learned about Archbishop Damaskinos Papandreou, who was responsible for saving thousands of Jews in Athens during World War II. Wainhaus knew in an instant that the late archbishop had to be honoree at the community’s Kristallnacht commemoration, an event the rabbi has organized every November for the past 15 years.

The commemoration will be held Sunday evening, Nov. 14. The event, held on Zoom for the second year in a row owing to the pandemic, is presented by Or Shalom in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven and with support by the American Society for Yad Vashem.

Kristallnacht took place on Nov. 9 and 10, 1938. Regarded as the prelude to the Holocaust, the horrific attack on European Jews happened over the span of more than 48 hours, when mobs rampaged across Nazi Germany, Austria, and Germanoccupied Czechoslovakia, murdering and maiming Jews. When it was over, hundreds of synagogues were destroyed and thousands of Jewish-owned businesses were plundered. The violent attack because known as “Kristallnacht” – The Nights of Broken Glass – referring to the shattered windowpanes that littered the streets afterwards.

“My inspiration for [this year’s program honoring program this year came from the moment I learned that Dr. Bourla owes his existence to a rescuer. He, like I, should not be alive; we are miracles,” says Rabbi Wainhaus, whose father, Rabbi Anshel Wainhaus was among thousands of Jews rescued through a transit visa issued by Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara.

“We’re only here because of the incredible heroism and selflessness of moral giants, who stood up to the darkness; whose acts were beacons of light in the darkness,” Wainhaus adds. “The Archbishop of Athens jewishledger.com

ARCHBISHOP DAMASKINOS

set the tone and he set the example for the Greek Orthodox clergy around the country.

When I heard his story at the event in last February I said, ‘I’ve got to celebrate the hero who rescued thousands of Jewish people. It’s an amazing story that people don’t know about.”

As Rabbi Wainhaus sees it, there are two other good reasons for honoring Archbishop Damaskinos this year. One is the fact that this is the 80th anniversary year of the Nazi occupation of Greece. The other is the rabbi’s long friendship with Father Peter Orfanakos of St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church, just down the street from Or Shalom in Orange.

“I’ve known him for 20 years,” says Wainhouse. “He is my link to the Greek Archbishop to the United States, Archbishop Elpidophoros, who will also be with us to offer a prayer.”

Also attending the Zoom event will be U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, who will present a U.S. Congressional citation to two great-nieces of Archbishop Damaskinos. Also on hand will be Dr. Marlene W. Yahalom, director of Education at the American Society for Yad Vashem, Lea Micha of the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, and members of Kehila Kedosha Janina, a Jewish Greek synagogue in New York.

Judy Alperin, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven will lead a Q&A session.

“Rabbi Wainhaus is the guru,” says Alperin. “The passion and investment that he makes to ensure that this program is meaningful every single year is overwhelming. He researches and finds the most interesting stories that have not been told and then makes sure that we all learn about them. It’s remarkable what he does.”

This will be the third year that the Jewish Federation has partnered with Or Shalom on the Kristallnacht event. While Or Shalom has historically been packed for the commemoration, the goal is for the Federation to market this important event to an even larger audience.

“I started going to these when I first came to town and I sat there the first year, saying, ‘How can we not be a part of this?

This is so unbelievable. How can we reach more people?’ And we became partners,” Alperin recalls. “Rabbi Wainhaus does all the heavy lifting with the incredible programs, but we bring our marketing expertise to the table. We help to take that burden off the synagogue’s hands and we also are able to cast a much wider net.

We feel very responsible for helping our community with Holocaust memory in general.”

Moral courage Every year, Rabbi Wainhaus begins the Kristallnacht commemoration by speaking about the significance of Kristallnacht, “Even after Kristallnacht, the world was silent,” Rabbi Wainhaus says. “That widespread inaction in the face of evil is all the more reason to highlight the moral courage shown by a few during the Holocaust.

“It was the silence, the deafening silence after Kristallnacht, that blew me away when I read about it. And I said, ‘We have to honor those who did stand up to the evil.

So, at our community’s annual Kristallnacht Commemoration, we focus on the unsung heroes whose life-saving acts were beacons that defied the darkness of the Holocaust.”

Civil-rights group: UMass must act against harassment of ‘Zionist’ journalist (JNS) A Jewish civil-rights group is calling on the University of Massachusetts Boston to investigate an incident that occurred this summer, where pro-Palestinian activists targeted and accosted a journalist over his views on Israel.

The event took place on June 24 in front of the Anti-Defamation League’s New England Regional Office in Boston.

Dexter Van Zile, a journalist with the watchdog group CAMERA, was “accosted, spat at, shoved, and called a Nazi and a pig solely based on his perceived identity as a Zionist,” by members of the UMass Boston chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), who were protesting in front of the ADL office, according to the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under the Law. The group says that the incident was immediately reported to UMass, which has not taken any action.

“The videos taken by the CAMERA reporters speak for themselves: Mr. Van Zile was attacked at the UMass Boston SJP event because he has been a vocal supporter of Israel. Unfortunately, it appears the university has done nothing in the three-plus months since Mr. Van Zile filed his complaints, accompanied by this documentation. By its silence, the university has implicitly condoned the conduct of UMass Boston SJP … ,” wrote the Brandeis Center in its letter on Tuesday, Oct. 26, to the university.

It added that “if the university fails to act, its Jewish students are left to wonder what might happen to them if they were to go anywhere near a UMass Boston SJP rally, let alone dare to voice their objections to the antiSemitic discourse of the organization’s speakers.”

According to the Brandeis Center, the behavior by the pro-Palestinian students “directly violates the UMass Student Code of Conduct, which applies to misconduct even at offCONTINUED ON PAGE 7

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RABBI ALVIN WAINHAUS (LEFT) AT KEHILA KEDOSHA JANINA’S JEWISH GREEK FESTIVAL IN NEW YORK IN AUGUST 2021, WITH KOULA AND SOLOMON KOFINOS (SEATED), CONGREGATION MEMBER ELLEN EICHEO, RIGHT, AND ITS PRESIDENT, MARVIN MARCUS (STANDING).

Over the years, Rabbi Wainhaus has shared the stories of several unsung heroes of the Holocaust and some who have spread light in more recent years.

The first year’s heroes were some of the students and teachers from Tennessee who collected six million paper clips to represent the Jews murdered during the Holocaust for a school project. Their efforts were

documented in the documentary “Paper Clips.”

The next year’s guest was a U.S. soldier who witnessed the four chaplains – a rabbi, priest and two ministers – who gave up their life jackets to soldiers and went down with the SS Dorchester in 1943.

Heroes have also included U.S. diplomat Hyram Bingham IV, who issued lifesaving visas to more than 2,000 French Jews; Polish nurse Irene Sendler who saved 2,500 Jewish children during the war; Ruth Gruber, the journalist who on a secret mission rescued 1,000 Jews in Italy, flying them to the U.S.; and Carl Laemmle, the head of Universal Studios, who in the 1940s assisted about 300 families in coming to the U.S., giving them jobs at Universal to satisfy U.S. authorities.

“Each one of them was a moral giant,” Rabbi Wainhaus stated. “I want people to know that these people exist.”

And now Archbishop Damaskinos has been added to the list.

Standing up, speaking out

A FAMOUS PHOTO OF A JEWISH WOMAN CRYING DURING THE DEPORTATION OF JEWS FROM THE GREEK TOWN OF JANINA TO AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU DURING THE HOLOCAUST.

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When the Nazi regime began deporting and killing Greek Jews in 1943, Archbishop Damaskinos openly protested. He published public letters denouncing the Nazis’ actions, writing, “the Greek people must be willing to vouch for their Jewish brothers and sisters without hesitation.”

“He was openly defying the Nazis,” Wainhaus notes.

When the Nazi authorities threatened

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him with execution by firing squad, Archbishop Damaskinos responded, “According to the traditions of the Greek Orthodox Church, our leaders are hanged, not shot; respect our traditions!”

Churches under Archbishop Damaskinos’ authority were ordered to issue Christian baptismal certificates to Jews, and he advised priests to do their best to hide those to whom they could not issue certificates. In addition, the Archbishop convinced Athens’ Chief of Police to issue a false identification card to any Jew who asked for one.

“He created an atmosphere of rescue,” Rabbi Wainhaus says. “He used his office – his position – to publicly denounce the German campaign against Greece’s Jewish population. There were approximately 60,000 Greek Jews before the war. You know how many were sent to Auschwitz or murdered? Fifty-thousand. But what about the other 10,000? One of them was Albert Bourla’s father. It’s an amazing story.”

For his courageous actions, the late Archbishop Damaskinos was named one of the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.

Archbishop Damaskinos had no children of his own, but he does have two great-nieces living in New Rochelle, New York, who will be part of the New Haven commemoration. Rabbi Wainhaus travelled to New Rochelle to meet the two women, – Joan Dimonekas and Lorraine Romas, now in the their 80s and 90s. A portrait of Archbishop Damaskinos “adorned their

living room,” reports Wainhaus. “They are so proud of their great-uncle,” Rabbi Wainhaus said.

Determined to include in the commemoration survivors who were rescued by Archbishop Damaskinos, Rabbi Wainhaus travelled his past summer to the annual Greek Jewish Festival in New York, where Marvin Marcus, president of the Kehila Kedosha Janina, one of the festival’s sponsoring organizations, introduced him to congregants Solomon and Koula Kofinas, who will also attend the Nov. 14 commemoration.

Solomon and his older brother were hidden by neighbors in Thessaloniki during the war.

“He cried telling me the story of hiding with his brother and how he lost his baby sister, who ended up at Aushwitz with his parents,” Wainhaus says.

Sol, who was five at the time, and his 12-year-old brother were not saved by Archbishop Damaskinos, but were saved by righteous Greeks who lived in the same house, and who sheltered them during the war. But most Greek Jews know of and revere Archbishop Damaskinos for his bravery.

“What he did was something I have always wondered about,” Marcus says.

“What is it in an individual that allows them to risk their own personal wellbeing to save people that sometimes they don’t even know? It’s a dynamic thing. I guess you can’t even know whether you have the ability to do it unless you are put into that position. Even in the darkness, people come out and shine.”

And recent darkness in the world, including the rise in antimsemitic acts and violence in the United Sates and around the world, are one reason Wainhaus continues to organize this annual labor of love.

“Why do we do this? We do it because we refuse to allow evil have the final say.

We do it because we refuse to allow hate to have the final word,” Rabbi Wainhaus says.

“As we hear about the acts of senseless hostility that continue to dominate the headlines, and the acts of violence that continue to plague our society, some of us might find it hard to feel hopeful about humanity and humanity’s future. But that is exactly why such gatherings as this one are so important.

We come together at this time of year not only to remember hate and denounce hate,” [but also to celebrate] those who stood up to hate while most simply stood by and watched.”

The Kristallnacht commemoration on Sunday, Nov. 14 from 9-11 a.m. is FREE. To register , visit jewishnewhaven.org/kristallnacht. jewishledger.com

Civil-rights CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

campus events that are hosted by or affiliated with student organizations, registered or unregistered.”

It also noted that the university is required to investigate and sanction students or groups that violate this code.

The center warned that should the university fail to do so, administrators send a dangerous message that “students and student organizations are free to intimidate, harass and assault individuals who attend their events, based on such individuals’ perceived support of Israel,” and that “the school is a refuge for students [and student organizations] ready to disregard the rights of others and to inflict physical harm on individuals who belong to ‘out’ groups.”

“It is outrageous that participants in a protest hosted by a registered student group would feel free to insult, intimidate and physically assault a reporter silently covering the event simply because he was identified as a ‘Zionist,’ ” Rachel Lerman, vice chair of the Brandeis Center, told JNS. “If the university does nothing about attacks like this, it effectively condones them, sending an ugly message and setting a dangerous precedent.

It’s almost a wink and a nod at groups like SJP that their behavior will be given a pass, even when it violates the law and the university code of conduct, so long as the target is a ‘Zionist.’ ” Lerman added that “we know from our recent survey that Jewish students are already wary of publicly expressing their Jewish identity. Groups like SJP and Sunrise DC cannot be given carte blanche to treat supporters of Israel as racists—marginalizing and excluding Jews who affiliate with Israel as part of their ethnic identity is not just unlawful, history has shown us that it leads to violence, as this instance demonstrates.”

Bennett Center for Judaic Studies LECTURES AND EVENTS: Fall 2021 A Semester of Free Virtual Learning

24th Jacoby-Lunin Humanitarian Lecture

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

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

JOURNALIST DEXTER VAN ZILE IS ACCOSTED BY A GROUP OF PRO-PALESTINIAN ACTIVISTS ON JUNE 24, 2021.

SOURCE: SCREENSHOT.

Lecture marking the 75th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials

“A History of Holocaust Trials: From Nuremberg to Demjanjuk and Back Again” Lawrence R. Douglas, J.D., James J. Grosfeld Professor of

Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought, Amherst College; author, The Memory of Judgment: Making Law and History in the Trials of the Holocaust (2001), The Right Wrong Man: John Demjanjuk and the Last Great Nazi War Crimes Trial (2016).

Thursday, November 18 at 7:30 p.m. - free webinar

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Virtual Events

Virtual Registration is required for 11/18 event at fairfield.edu/bennettprograms.

Event Register for 11/9 at quickcenter.com. For questions, contact the Bennett Center at bennettcenter@fairfield.edu or (203) 254-4000, ext. 2066

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Briefs 200 celebs sign letter denouncing cultural boycott of Israel (JTA) — More than 200 celebrities, including actors Mila Kunis, Billy Porter, Neil Patrick Harris, Helen Mirren, Jeremy Piven and Emmanuelle Chriqui, NSYNC singer Lance Bass, and KISS frontman Gene Simmons, signed an open letter opposing efforts to boycott an LGBTQ film festival in Tel Aviv.

The letter published Wednesday, Oct. 27, is a response to calls from activists with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to boycott the Tel Aviv International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, also called TLVFest, an annual film festival showcasing LGBTQ films that was founded in 2006. It was organized by Creative Community for Peace, an organization of entertainment industry professionals that works to counter cultural boycotts against Israel.

“In Israel, movies have the unique power to bring together Jews, Arabs, and people of all races, ethnicities, and backgrounds in collaboration under a shared love of the arts, working together towards the common goal of telling their stories, and building bridges of compassion and understanding,” the letter reads.

In May of this year, Aswat, an organization focusing on Palestinian feminist issues, called on activists around the world to boycott “Israel’s pinkwashing events,” including Pride activities and the film festival. “Pinkwashing” is a term used by pro-Palestinian activists, who use it to argue that Israel uses its openness to the LGBTQ community to deflect criticism of what they deem its unfair treatment of Palestinians. The film festival has been the target of numerous boycott efforts in recent years.

Larry David gives Jon Hamm a Yiddish lesson in ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ (JTA) — Matzo balls, shiva calls and a Yiddish lesson all played a role in the first episode of the 11th season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which premiered on HBO Sunday night. The episode offered a case study in why “Curb” has been called “the most Jewish comedy show ever” and suggests that Larry David, its writer, producer and star, has no intention of ceding that mantle. The episode’s dual storylines each had Jewish elements: In one, David auditions actresses for his new show, using a scene that involves eating a matzah ball at a Passover seder. For his own reasons, he chooses a contender who mispronounces “seder” like “cedar” and “bubbie” as “boobay.”

The other main storyline is about a memorial service that David’s friend Albert Brooks, the famous Jewish actor whose given name is Albert Einstein, throws for 8

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himself while he is still alive. The actor Jon Hamm arrives wearing a torn black ribbon, customarily worn by Jewish mourners to approximate the tradition of rending one’s clothing upon learning of the death of a close family member. David asks why.

“You know, the shiva … the rending of the clothes,” says Hamm, who is not Jewish, using the Hebrew word for the seven-day mourning period that begins after burial.

“Wow, you’re really going Jewy here, aren’t you?” David said. Hamm then consults with David on the appropriate use of the Yiddish word “bashert,” meaning “destiny.” Can he say, he asks, “I’m feeling a lot of bashert at the loss of our friend Albert”?

David offers an alternative with the Yiddish word “tsuris,” meaning troubles, even spelling it out for Hamm. Hamm deploys the word during his eulogy.

Florida halts new investments in Ben & Jerry’s parent company (JTA) — Florida state entities will cease new investments in Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s parent company, as of Tuesday, Oct. 27, because the ice cream maker plans to stop selling its product in the West Bank. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, in July triggered a 90-day review mandated by Florida law which mandates divestment from companies boycotting Israel. Ben & Jerry’s says it is ending its sales only in the West Bank and is seeking the means to continue sales in Israel, but Florida law does not make the distinction between Israel and the West Bank.

As of today, the 90-day review, during which companies may notify Florida of any plans to reverse course, ends. Unilever, which has disavowed the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, has previously said it has no control over Ben & Jerry’s business decisions, due to an internal agreement between the conglomerate and the ice cream manufacturer’s independent board. The ruling over new investments does not affect the $39 million Florida already has invested in Unilever, the Florida Politics website reported.

At least eight states have initiated reviews of investments in Unilever in the wake of Ben & Jerry’s West Bank pullout.

Greece’s top court rules against ritual slaughter (JTA) — The highest court in Greece has ruled against allowing ritual slaughter, fulfilling fears that some Jewish leaders voiced last year after the European Union’s top court ruled in support of such bans. Last December, the EU’s highest court upheld the bans imposed in regions of Belgium against slaughtering animals for meat without stunning them first.

The ruling meant that slaughter in accordance with Jewish law, which requires animals be conscious when their necks are cut, would be prohibited in those regions, as it is in some other parts of Europe. Greece’s top court did

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not cite that ruling in its decision on a petition filed by the Panhellenic Animal Welfare and Environmental Federation. But Jewish watchdogs who have been monitoring bans on ritual slaughter across the European continent said the connection was undeniable.

“Jewish freedom of religion is under direct attack. It started in Belgium, moved to Poland and Cyprus and now it is Greece’s turn,” said Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chairman of the European Jewish Association.

In 2011, the Netherlands briefly joined several EU countries where ritual slaughter is illegal, including Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Slovenia. The Dutch Senate reversed the ban in 2012. Poland also outlawed the practice in 2013 but has since scaled back the ban to include only meat for export. The bans on kosher slaughter, or shechitah, are part of a struggle across Europe between animal welfare activists and Muslim and Jewish community representatives.

In recent years, anti-immigration activists and politicians who are unhappy about the immigration of Muslims in Europe have joined the debate A similar fight is unfolding around nonmedical circumcision of boys, or brit milah in Jewish tradition.

Senators move to block Biden’s plan to reopen Palestinian consulate (JNS) Three-dozen Republican senators introduced a bill on Tuesday, Oct. 26, that aims to block the Biden administration’s plan to reopen the U.S. consulate for the Palestinians in Jerusalem. Upholding the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Law Act of 2021 was introduced by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and co-sponsored by 34 additional Republicans.

It calls on the Biden administration to uphold the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 and not reopen the U.S. Consulate to the Palestinians, which was merged into the U.S. embassy when it was relocated to Jerusalem in May 2018. “It is regrettable that the Biden administration insists on making moves that divide the United States and Israel when our two nations should be laser-focused on stopping Iran’s terror-sponsoring regime from going nuclear; on countering growing threats from Hezbollah, Hamas and other Iran-backed terrorist groups; and on strengthening and expanding the historic Abraham Accords that truly have increased peace in the Middle East,” Hagerty said in a statement.

In June, Hagerty also joined a group of Republican colleagues led by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to press the Biden administration to adhere to U.S. law and refrain from reopening the Mission of the Palestinian Liberation Organization in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem for the Palestinians.

The Biden administration’s plan to reopen the consulate in Jerusalem remains a point of contention with Israel, with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.

Sunrise DC apologizes for singling out Jewish groups, but slams Zionism (JNS) The Washington, D.C. affiliate of the environmentalist advocacy group the Sunrise Movement reiterated its opposition to Zionism but also apologized for rebuking three Zionist, Jewish advocacy groups in a newly released statement. Sunrise DC pulled out of a voting rights rally that took place in the capital on Saturday, Oct. 23, because three pro-Israel groups—the National Council of Jewish Women, Religious Action Center and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs—were also participating. The Jewish groups are part of the Declaration for American Democracy Coalition. Sunrise DC said in a statement last week that it would not attend the rally because “we oppose Zionism and any state that enforces its ideology.” It described Israel as a “colonial project” that engages in “violent oppressive tactics” and called for the three Jewish groups to be removed from the coalition since “Zionism is incompatible with statehood and political sovereignty.”

The national Sunrise Movement said afterward that singling out Jewish groups for removal from a coalition is “unacceptable and anti-Semitic.” In a statement on Sunday, Sunrise DC said “in our [original] statement, we named three Jewish organizations and criticized their positions on Israel but did not mention other organizations in the Declaration for American Democracy Coalition with similar positions. We apologize unequivocally for this. … We now understand the way our action has fueled anti-Semitism, which benefits white nationalism and political movements that built power by dividing us, and endangers Jewish people drastically.”.

The group further claimed that Zionism is an ideology that led to Israel’s “continued violent” against and “systematic oppression” of Palestinians.

Survey: 1/3 of Jewish college students experienced antisemitism (JNS) A new national survey conducted for Hillel International and the AntiDefamation League revealed information about the number of Jewish college students across the United States who personally experienced antisemitism on campus during the last academic year. According to the survey, released on Tuesday, 32 percent of Jewish students were targeted in antisemitic incidents, which most commonly were offensive comments online or in-person, and damage or defacement of property. A total of 79 percent said that it happened to them more than once. Additionally, 31 percent of Jewish students witnessed antisemitic activity on campus that was not directed at them. Many respondents said they saw swastikas drawn on campus, in addition to the vandalism of Jewish fraternities, sororities and cultural buildings. jewishledger.com

Among students who experienced antisemitism firsthand, 51 percent said they felt safe on campus. Some 37 percent said they reported antisemitic property damage, defacement and vandalism, while reporting was higher for physical violence and threats of violent attacks. In addition, 24 percent reported antisemitic slurs and comments online and 23 percent reported incidents when they took place in person.

A smaller sampling, 15 percent of Jewish college students, also said they felt the need to hide their Jewish identity from others on campus, and 12 percent said they were blamed for the actions of the Israeli government because of their Jewish faith.

The survey was conducted by College Pulse, an online survey and analytics company that focuses on college students, from July 7 to Aug. 21. It included 756 undergraduate students who identify as Jewish and are currently enrolled in 270 different four-year colleges and universities across America.

educators and activists, each explained about the power that music and culture have to overcome prejudices. “In our polarized U.S. and world, we need leadership and wisdom to point the way through the complexity, darkness and hatred,” said Thomas.

Tepper noted, “This special event dedicated to combating racism and antisemitism, and shaping an omni-American future, will take us on a journey through the thought and spirit of the man who taught us the meaning of stomping the blues, Albert Murray.”

The event included a performance by the Itamar Borochov Quartet. Borochov, an Israel-born and Brooklyn-based jazz musician, recently received the prestigious “LetterOne Rising Stars Jazz Award” for his unique style, which musically brings together the sounds of Manhattan, Jaffa and Central Asia, along with the sacred sounds of the Sephardic liturgy.

Jazz brings Jews and blacks together against antisemitism, racism

(JNS) A novel approach to treating Type 2 diabetes is being developed at the Technion– Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. The disease, caused by insulin resistance and reduction of cells’ ability to absorb sugar, is characterized by increased blood-sugar levels.

Its long-term complications include heart disease, strokes, damage to the retina that can result in blindness, kidney failure and poor blood flow in the limbs that may lead to amputations. It is currently treated by a combination of lifestyle changes, medication and insulin injections, but ultimately is associated with a 10-year reduction in life expectancy.

Led by Professor Shulamit Levenberg, a Ph.D. student Rita Beckerman from the Stem Cell and Tissue Engineering Laboratory in the Technion’s Faculty of Biomedical Engineering presents a novel treatment approach, using an autograft of muscle cells engineered to take in sugar at increased rates. Mice treated in this manner displayed normal blood sugar levels for months after a single procedure. The group’s findings were recently published in Science Advances.

Currently, some 34 million Americans—a little more than one in 10—suffer from diabetes, 90 percent of them from Type 2 diabetes. An effective treatment, and one that is a one-time treatment rather than daily medication, could significantly improve both the quality of life and life expectancy of those who have diabetes. The same method could also be used to treat various enzyme deficiency disorders.

(JNS) A two-day cultural event in New York this week brought together members of the Jewish and black communities in an effort to take a stand against antisemitism and racism in the United States, the organizers said on Monday, Oct. 25. The “Fighting AntiSemitism and Racism Together” conference, held on Oct. 24-25, was a joint endeavor initiative of the Jazz Leadership Project, the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement and the American Sephardi Federation. At the event, organizers highlighted the long tradition of cooperation between the two communities, pointing to the Jews’ overwhelming support for Martin Luther King Jr.’s struggle for equality and cooperation. Participants agreed that this long-standing alliance must never waver, particularly in the current climate in which tensions are being fueled by “emerging ideologies.”

They also warned of the dangers of the spike in anti-Israel rhetoric, which is classified as antisemitic language by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s “working definition” of antisemitism. “We are many, let us also be one, unified in our embrace of humanism and cultural excellence and democracy,” said musician and composer Wynton Marsalis, who runs the Lincoln Center Jazz Program. “Let us not be tribal,” added Marsalis, who during the event was presented the Albert Murray Award for being a “trailblazer” in the “collective effort to build a more harmonious future free of racism and anti-Semitism.”

The event was attended by saxophonist Donald Harrison, winner of the 2022 NEA Jazz Master Jazz Music Award, along with many other figures from the global jazz community, as well as musicians, philosophers and social activists from the Jewish and black communities. Event initiators Greg Thomas and Aryeh Tepper, both jazz musicians, jewishledger.com

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OPINION

My fellow progressives ask me if anti-Zionism is antisemitic. Here’s what I say.

BY OREN JACOBSON

(JTA) — I’ve spent most of the last decade focused on grassroots organizing and capacity building inside the American progressive movement. From helping build the largest leadership development organization on the left, to launching a firstof-its-kind organization to mobilize male allies into the fight to protect and expand reproductive freedom, I’ve proudly helped elect progressive change makers and pass landmark legislation.

I’ve done all of that as a Jew who wears a kippah in public, as someone who, statistically speaking, shouldn’t exist. My grandfather is one of the 10% of Polishborn Jews to survive World War II. Three million of his Jewish neighbors, and another 3 million across Europe, were packed into boxcars and sent to the slaughter, to gas chambers, to the ovens.

What I am is central to who I am.

So when I saw the statement from the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Sunrise Movement explaining its refusal to march in a voting rights rally with Jewish groups because they are “Zionists”, I understood immediately that it was deeply problematic.

Not only did the decision have the potential impact of spreading anti-Jewish bigotry, but it also weakened our movement more broadly at a time when democracy, which is necessary to ensure civil rights, is under assault in America.

I also understood right away that, for many people, the anti-Jewish nature of the statement wasn’t so obvious. When moments like this arise, I get texts and calls from progressive peers across the country who ask: “Is this antisemitic?”

To answer the question, I begin by explaining what it means to be a Jew. Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people.

But Jewish identity is so much bigger and more diverse than religion. Some of us are deeply religious. Some of us are totally secular. All of us are Jews. We’re a people, not simply a religious community. Contrary to what most think, antisemitism is not anti-Judaism in its modern form (several hundred years). It’s anti-Jew. It’s not about how Jews pray, but rather about who they are and what they are accused of doing.

Jews get attacked for supposedly controlling the world (governments, banks, media), for being disloyal to our home countries, for killing Jesus, for making up the Holocaust, for being greedy, for undermining the white race and subverting 10

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people of color (among other things). We’ve been blamed for plagues, famine, economic hardship and war. Whatever major problem a society has, Jews have been blamed for it. None of those things has anything to do with religion.

Criticism of Israel or opposition to it isn’t necessarily antisemitic. Harsh criticism of Israeli government policy may make us uncomfortable but isn’t antisemitic. But the Sunrise DC statement wasn’t about policy. By attacking “Zionist organizations” in a voting rights coalition, and saying that they can’t participate in in a coalition that includes them, Sunrise DC basically said it won’t work alongside Jewish organizations (or Jews) that believe the state of Israel has the right to exist.

For the average Jew, Zionism has become simply the idea that Israel has the right to exist, rather than an embrace of the policies of its government. The Zionist movement got its name in the late 19th century, but it really put a label on a 2,000-year-old yearning to return to the native land Jews were violently forced out of (in an act of colonization). That yearning grew over time as we failed to find sustained peace and security elsewhere, including in Europe, North Africa and the broader Middle East.

That’s why when people attack Zionists, we hear “Jews.” We hear them saying that the 80-90% of Jews who believe Israel has a right to exist are unacceptable, and that Israel, a country that came into existence with the vote of the international community and today is home to 7 million Jews, must be ended.

Why is that antisemitism? First, it singles out Jews when most people believe Israel has the right to exist. (In fact, 85% of the general public in America believes the statement “Israel does not have a right to exist” is antisemitic, according to a survey released this week.) Second, it seeks to deny Jewish people the right to selfdetermination by erasing our peoplehood and connection to the land. Third, it declares that a national movement for Jews is uniquely unacceptable, while at the same time advocating in support of another national movement. Fourth, it divides Jews into good and bad. Only those who oppose their own national movement can stay.

Only Jews who reject Zionism are allowed.

Replace “Jew” with any other group and ask if that would be acceptable.

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Even if you forswear coalitions with anyone, Jewish or not, who thinks Israel is legitimate, that still denies the Jewish people’s right to self-determination. It says that Jews must be a perpetual minority on this earth subject to the whims and bigotries of the societies they live in. For thousands of years Jews tried that and failed to find permanent refuge — which, fairly or not, is part of the reason most Jews believe in the right to, and need for, national self-determination in some portion of a contested land.

Sunrise DC wasn’t interested in the nature of their shunned Jewish allies’ support for Israel — even though each of the three groups, like most Jews in America, have advocated for a Palestinian state and for an end to policies by the government of Israel that harm the Palestinian people, including, but not limited to, the occupation of the West Bank.

Ultimately, only Jews get to define who and what we are and what antisemitism is.

Too often in progressive spaces that right is denied to Jews. Instead, to justify their own positions, some rely on Jews whose voices, while relevant, are far from representative on the question of what constitutes antisemitism. If someone ignored the voices and lived realities of 80-90% of any other minority group, most progressives would quickly recognize that as an act of tokenization to shield biases (or worse).

Some who identify as progressive feel it’s OK to use the word “Zionist” to attack others, claiming that the word is not about Jews. I encourage everyone to go on far right-wing message boards

on occasion. Once there, you’ll see how white supremacists typically call Jews Zionists. The prominence of the word, in connection with claims that they control the governments and are trying to replace white “patriots” with Black and Brown “interlopers,” will stun you.

While there is plenty of room for criticism of Israeli government policy, there should be no room for the exclusionary, reductionist and dehumanizing language of white nationalists in progressive discourse on the topic, or the denial of the right for Jewish self-determination on this earth.

I believe in standing up for those who are attacked for the crime of being who they are as much as I believe in standing up for Jewish life. For me, this work is personal.

Not because every issue affects me directly.

But because I feel like I owe it to my grandfather. To Jews who were murdered and never had a chance to live. To my peers here who face systemic racism and bigotry.

And yes, because I believe “Never Again” isn’t just a slogan to hope for, but rather a mission to fight for.

Oren Jacobson is co-founder of Project Shema, which helps Jewish students, leaders, organizations and allies explore the difficult conversations surrounding Israel and antisemitism. Previously, Oren served as national chapter development director for the New Leaders Council, the largest social justice-focused leadership development organization in America.

(JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY ILLUSTRATION)

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Jay Black of ‘Jay and The Americans’ dies at 82

BY RON KAMPEAS

(JTA) — When Jay Black wanted The New York Times to understand that he was a hell-raiser, he said he was thrown out of New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn.

When he made the same point to The Forward, he added that he was subsequently tossed out of three yeshivahs.

“Three yeshivas,” Black said twice for emphasis in a 2014 interview. “I was a bad kid.”

Black, born David Blatt, died in Queens, New York, on Oct. 22 at 82, of cardiac arrest brought on by pneumonia.

He was selling shoes in 1962 or 1963 at Thom McAn when a buddy, Marty Kupersmith, who knew Blatt from the Jewish doo-wop circuit, asked him to take the place of Jay Traynor, who had quit Jay and the Americans, a group that had scored a single hit in 1962.

There was a condition: Blatt had to take on the first name Jay. There are differing accounts of how he got the name Black; there’s evidence he was using it professionally before he joined Jay and the Americans, but he insisted he muttered “Jay Blatt” when Mike Douglas, the daytime talk show host, asked him his name, and Douglas repeated “Black” and it stuck.

Black, raised in an Orthodox family, had sung as a youngster with the choir of Cantor Moshe Koussevitzky. He became known for his powerful reach-for-the-rafters voice and his dramatic delivery. Bandmates dubbed him “The Voice” and it stuck.

With his dark good looks and his operatic delivery, he affected a Latin persona; one of the band’s most popular numbers was “Cara Mia,” in which he pledges to his presumably Italian object of adoration that “I will be your love until the end of time,” escalating into a heartstopping falsetto. The song peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

There were other hits: “Come a Little Bit Closer” (which peaked at #3 on the charts), about an encounter with a seductress in a Mexican border town that ends badly; and their cover of the Drifters’ “This Magic Moment” (peaked at #6). The group was big enough to open for the Beatles in 1964, at the Fab Four’s very first U.S. concert.

The band wore sweaters and were cleancut, but Black liked to project a mysterious, bad-boy affect: he boasted of his friendship with the Mafia boss John Gotti, and in a 1994 profile refused to tell The New York Times what his name was before “Black” — in fact, nothing in the long profile refers to his Jewishness. (He also made sure the reporter knew that female fans were, in his sixth decade, still delivering panties to him.) jewishledger.com

POP GROUP JAY AND THE AMERICANS PERFORM ON THE NBC TV MUSIC SHOW ‘HULLABALOO’ IN NEW YORK CITY, FEB. 1965. JAY BLACK IS SECOND FROM RIGHT, HOLDING THE MICROPHONE. (HULLABALOO ARCHIVE/MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES)

He toured across America for decades, but New Yorkers loved their native son best. He sported a flag on his jacket, and said he was proud of the band’s 1963 hit, “Only in America,” recorded just when the counterculture was about to take off.

“Only in America can a guy from

anywhere go to sleep a pauper and wake up a millionaire,” he sang.

In his 2014 interview with The Forward, Black seemed taken aback that the reporter even knew he was Jewish. But then he went all in, noting that the interview was taking place hours before the onset of Simchat

Torah, and saying that he would light yahrzeit candles for his parents to mark the day.

The group broke up in 1973, but Black continued to perform under “Jay and the Americans” until 2005, when a chronic gambling habit drove him into bankruptcy.

Debts forced him to sell back the name to three original founders of the group, who were ready to reunite and take the show on the road.

The revived group let him continue performing as Jay Black, but he never quite forgave them for taking the band name from him.

“We shared both wonderful and very contentious times, and much like an ex-wife, we are so proud of the beautiful children we created,” the group said Saturday on its Facebook page. “We’ll always remember The Voice.”

Taking his place fronting the band is a younger guy named John Reincke. Now known as Jay. Jay Black, thrice-married and thricedivorced, is survived by three sons, a daughter and five grandchildren.

Comedian Mort Sahl fused stand-up with political satire and inspired the likes of Lenny Bruce

BY SHIRA HANAU

(JTA) — Mort Sahl, a Jewish satirist who was credited with making caustic political and social satire popular in stand-up comedy, died Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 94.

Often walking on stage holding just a rolled up newspaper, Sahl liked to riff on the headlines of the day in extended improvised monologues. At a time when comedians tended to steer clear of politics, Sahl took aim at politicians and was known to end his sets MORT SAHL with the line: “Are there IN 1960. any groups I haven’t (GETTY IMAGES) offended?”

Steve Allen, the first host of “The Tonight Show,” once introduced Sahl as “probably the only real political philosopher we have in modern comedy.”

Though Sahl was not religious and did not discuss his Jewishness in routines or often in public, he inspired a wave of fellow Jewish stand-ups. Woody Allen named him as a major influence and commented in interviews how Sahl also influenced

the fellow Jewish pioneer Lenny Bruce — who would take Sahl’s freeform style and cutting satire to crude new heights.

Sahl was born in Montreal in 1927 to Jewish parents from New York’s Lower East Side and eventually moved to Los Angeles. As a teenager, Sahl dropped out of high school there and tried to enroll in the ROTC program by lying about his age, but his mother found him out after two weeks and brought him home. Sahl was married three times and a had a son, Mort Jr., with his second wife. Mort Jr., died of a drug overdose at age 19 in 1996.

The elder Sahl got his break performing in San Francisco years after graduating from college, performing sets at a club known for attracting an intellectual crowd. His jokes about national politics eventually earned him a following and he started appearing on late night shows and performing in clubs across the country.

After appearing in several movies in the 1950s and early ’60s, his career took a dive after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, which Sahl came to believe had been orchestrated by the CIA. But he

continued to act and perform stand-up into his 90s.

In 1982, Sahl played the role of Werner Finck, a German-Jewish satirist, in a fivehour TV special. In 2003, the National Foundation for Jewish Culture honored Sahl with the Alan King Award in American Jewish Humor.

But Sahl explained to J. The Jewish News of Northern California in 2004 that he never emphasized his Jewishness on stage because it wasn’t a major part of his upbringing.

“I never stressed it,” he says, “because I didn’t have those kinds of parents. I grew up in a homogenized neighborhood, and was a kind of a mail-order, cardboard Jew.” Speaking with the paper not long after the premiere of Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ,” Sahl opined on the movie and antisemitism.

“Terrible movie,” he said. “Two hours of unrelieved sadism. But the Romans are nice! I think everyone’s second nature is antisemitism, so all the anxiety [over the film] is justified.”

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A world-famous rabbi, a popular assistant and a succession crisis Inside the rupture at Park East Synagogue

BY BEN SALES

N

EW YORK (JTA) — Near the start of his Rosh Hashanah sermon last month, Rabbi Benjamin Goldschmidt asked congregants a question: “Is there a person in your life that you feel you have done everything you could do to reconcile with, yet nothing works?”

The sermon was about the biblical rivalry between the young David and the older Saul, but Goldschmidt delivered it after years of simmering tensions with his synagogue’s senior rabbi, the 91-year-old Arthur Schneier. The two had split over the terms of Goldschmidt’s employment, his work with younger members — and even the safety of the apartment the synagogue provided him.

Five weeks later, that tension would escalate to a rupture: In mid-October,

Goldschmidt, 34, was fired from his job as assistant rabbi of the vaunted Park East Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, after a decade with the congregation. He and his wife, who is pregnant, pulled their children out of the school affiliated with the synagogue.

Goldschmidt’s relationship with Park East has been “permanently severed,” Park East’s board president said in a letter to members.

The abrupt firing has divided the monied Orthodox community; Schneier supporters and Goldschmidt supporters have launched dueling petitions. It has also drawn attention to the unusual leadership structure at Park East, in which Schneier, who is among the oldest pulpit rabbis in the United States, serves full-time while also drawing a salary from the foundation he runs — all without an

RABBI ARTHUR SCHNEIER SPEAKS AT PARK EAST SYNAGOGUE IN NEW YORK CITY, MARCH 3, 2017.

(DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES)

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apparent succession plan in place.

Both Schneier and Goldschmidt declined to speak with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Goldschmidt’s supporters say he is a talented rabbi who was popular with younger members and has been mistreated with too little explanation. Schneier’s allies, meanwhile, say Goldschmidt had sharply misjudged his status in the congregation and had erred by “attempting, effectively, a coup” against Schneier, a Holocaust survivor famous for his human rights activism who has cultivated relationships with some of the world’s most powerful people.

“When he surmised he was not going to be the rabbi, or that was not in the cards for him, that he did not have the stature, the education or the qualifications, he attacked the man who gave him the opportunity in the first

place,” Hank Sheinkopf, the veteran political strategist who has stepped in as Schneier’s spokesman, said about Goldschmidt. “You have an irresponsible, unacceptable, childish response to a set of facts.”

That response includes potential legal action: Hours after Goldschmidt was fired, his lawyer sent a letter protesting the decision and threatening to take the synagogue to court.

But the more pressing issue for the synagogue may be how it addresses the fact that its world-famous rabbi, while “a very spry 91,” according to one leader, appears not to have cultivated a successor.

“Everyone knows that Rabbi Schneier is getting old and has begun to think about the plan for the future,” one involved member told JTA. But what that plan might be is unclear — beyond the fact that the community’s 10-year former apprentice will play no role.

Everything about Park East Synagogue broadcasts prestige. Its Byzantine architectural facade, complete with a row of arches and a rose window, has earned it landmark status in New York City and a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. Its calendar is punctuated with events featuring Important People — such as, on consecutive days this coming November, the French Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy and the consul general of Austria. Those familiar with the synagogue say it sees itself as an institution as well as a congregation — if not more the former.

Cultivating important people, and being in important places, has been a defining theme of Schneier’s six-decade-and-counting career.

Park East was located across the street from what was then the Soviet Mission in New York and in 1965, three years after becoming Park East’s rabbi, Schneier printed a full-page ad in The New York Times with the signatures of Sen. Robert Kennedy and other leading officials announcing a protest in front of the mission (and synagogue) on behalf of Soviet Jews.

That effort morphed into the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, led by Schneier, which went on to advocate for Soviet Jews and for peace in other conflict zones.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was particularly active in efforts to bring peace to the Balkans in the 1990s. Schneier has spoken at a long list of international venues, including the U.N., where he was appointed U.S. alternate representative in 1988.

According to last year’s tax documents, Schneier received $200,000 in compensation from the foundation, which is run by his daughter, who received a similar salary.

Another column of the document lists $400,000 in “other compensation from the organization and related organizations.”

Schneier’s activism has raised the stature of his synagogue, which became the first in the history of the United States to host a pope, Benedict XVI, in 2008. The next year, it hosted Eastern Orthodox Patriarch jewishledger.com

Bartholomew.

Along the way, Schneier also founded a Jewish day school that shares space with the synagogue — and is named after him.

A virtual celebration of Schneier’s birthday last year, a few months into the pandemic, attracted tributes from a long list of prominent figures including both living popes, the patriarch, the United Nations secretary general, President Donald Trump, future President Joe Biden, Israel’s president, Israel’s prime minister, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and more. According to a graphic attached to a video of the party, Park East appears to have raised more than $1 million at the event, which doubled as a 130th anniversary party for the synagogue.

When Goldschmidt entered Park East as a rabbinic intern a decade ago after studying at well-regarded Haredi Orthodox yeshivas in Israel and Lakewood, New Jersey, he came in with connections of his own. He is the son of Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, who has been the chief rabbi of Moscow for nearly three decades. The elder Goldschmidt, who was born in Switzerland, is also the president of the European Conference of Rabbis, and has also been able to manage relationships with powerful people. He is known for being close with Merkel and, despite that, has mostly been able to maintain his position in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

By 2012, Benjamin Goldschmidt was Park East’s assistant rabbi, and focused his work on two overlapping constituencies — young families and Russian-speaking Jews. Until he was fired, he ran the Sunday Shkola, an education program for RussianJewish children. For a brief period between April and May of 2021, he also ran the NextGen Minyan, a prayer service for young professionals that shut down over the summer and then was reopened recently without Goldschmidt at its head.

He also built a public profile, publishing essays in the Washington Post and Israeli publications. Before arriving at Park East, he studied at Ponevezh Yeshiva, a prominent haredi yeshiva in Bnei Brak, Israel, and has been a contributor to Kikar HaShabbat, a haredi Israeli news site. In 2014, he married the journalist Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt in a wedding that was featured in The New York Times’ “Vows” column.

But in the years after the wedding, the relationship between senior and assistant rabbi frayed. Goldschmidt was never given a contract at Park East, and was never guaranteed vacation time or severance pay. Matters came to a head in early 2020 surrounding the rented apartment that Park East traditionally provides to the assistant rabbi.

By that year, the apartment provided to the Goldschmidts was in disrepair — including months of infestation — and they asked the synagogue for help finding a new place, which was not forthcoming. (Sheinkopf responded that in rental units, the tenants are responsible for handling maintenance issues. jewishledger.com

“Pick up the phone, call the super,” he said.

“The synagogue isn’t responsible for a rental property, he is.”)

They ended up moving out, bouncing between hotel rooms and crashing with friends and family, until friends chipped in to rent them a new unit in the neighborhood.

That decision has ended up being a boon to Goldschmidt and his family, as they can remain in their home even after his termination.

Schneier’s 90th birthday presentation in June 2020 reflected the strained ties between the rabbis. The 92-minute video produced in honor of Schneier featured tributes from a string of prominent rabbis around the world — including Goldschmidt’s father — but Goldschmidt himself was not invited to deliver one. He was thanked for his efforts during the pandemic, including conducting funerals alone during peak COVID, via a message that appeared on screen, well more than an hour in, for six seconds.

People close to Schneier say that Goldschmidt was never in the running to lead the synagogue after Schneier. They say Goldschmidt doesn’t have the leadership and fundraising chops necessary to lead the synagogue. A few people noted to JTA, unprompted, that Goldschmidt doesn’t have a bachelor’s degree, which they view as disqualifying.

He stayed at the synagogue for a decade, they claim, due to a mix of inertia, goodwill and the daunting nature of finding a replacement during the pandemic.

“He has no experience running a large institution, he has no experience raising the needed funds that are required, he does not have an appropriate education, the man does not have a bachelor’s degree,” Sheinkopf said.

Schneier’s backers, including Sheinkopf, are also adamant that the rabbi’s son, Rabbi Marc Schneier, is “absolutely not” being considered for the job. The younger Rabbi Schneier also caters to wealthy Jews — he founded the Hampton Synagogue — and has also parlayed his rabbinate into international activism. He’s an advisor to the king of Bahrain and works to promote ties between Jews and Muslims. He’s also drawn the attention of the New York Post’s Page Six for his string of marriages and divorces, in some cases to his congregants.

Marc Schneier showed up at Park East for services recently, but Schneier’s backers say that was only to support his father.

“Marc Schneier is not interested in being the rabbi of Park East Synagogue,” Sheinkopf said. “He’s quite successful and happy in Westhampton, in a congregation that continues to grow. The rumors to that effect are absolutely inaccurate.”

In fact, despite Schneier’s advanced age, it seems like there wasn’t a succession plan at all until Goldschmidt was fired. That may have been one of the triggers for the chain of events, conducted in large part via email, that led to the firing in the first place.

On Oct. 8, four men, led by Brad Colman

AVITAL CHIZHIK-GOLDSCHMIDT POSTED A THANK-YOU NOTE TO “ALL THOSE WHO HAVE REACHED OUT, CHECKED IN, AND BEEN THERE FOR US DURING THIS PAINFUL TIME” ON OCT. 24, 2021, NINE DAYS AFTER HER HUSBAND, RABBI BENJAMIN GOLDSCHMIDT, WAS FIRED FROM HIS JOB AT PARK EAST SYNAGOGUE. (SCREENSHOT FROM INSTAGRAM)

and Brian Kaufman, sent an email to the entire synagogue membership calling for a change of course at Park East. The email opened with a paragraph praising Schneier and his career, as well as “his story, his survival, his commitment and the spirit that he brings to daily Jewish life.”

What followed was less complimentary.

The writers said that they were concerned about the future of the synagogue and that “while Shabbat services used to bring in several hundred worshippers, now they bring in far smaller numbers, with few younger individuals and families (unless there is a special event).”

The email announced the formation of a committee “to revitalize the synagogue and build a sustainable future.” The committee proposed to work with Schneier, Goldschmidt and the board of trustees.

Allies of Schneier claim that neither Schneier nor the board of trustees knew about this committee. Two days after the email went out, members began to complain.

One person sent an email to the would-

be committee co-chairs, accusing them of having “misappropriated my confidential information.” He added, “I reserve my legal rights to protect the confidentiality of my information and will hold you accountable for any damage that results from its theft.”

Colman and Kaufman have not responded to a request for comment. But four days after sending the email, they began to do damage control. In an email sent to Schneier and the board, they wrote, “we want Rabbi Schneier to be Senior Rabbi of Park East Synagogue for life. Rabbi Schneier has served this community for six decades and we have no desire or intention of making changes to the Rabbinic leadership of the synagogue.” The phrase “for life” was underlined.

But they added, without offering details, that they had “heard for many years of the synagogue’s financial challenges,” and quoted an email they had received saying that the community was “at risk.” In the email, sent to a board composed largely of older men who

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are allies of Schneier and unelected by the congregation, they wrote that they wanted to “hear from all members (young and old).”

To Schneier and his allies, these emails constituted an act of brazen insubordination — and the board blamed Goldschmidt. In an email to the synagogue membership sent on Friday, Oct. 22, Board President Herman Hochberg described the Schneier camp’s view of events.

According to Hochberg, on Oct. 10, Schneier and Hochberg met with Goldschmidt, who had provided the members’ email list.

Hochberg claimed that Goldschmidt then “refused to apologize for his rogue actions. In fact, he further enflamed the concerns of Rabbi Schneier and myself by additionally stating that he would continue to use and disseminate the list at his discretion.” Hochberg also wrote that the people who wrote the Oct. 8 email “are neither trustees, nor actively involved in the Synagogue or the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Park East Day School.”

Five days later, the Park East board met via videoconference and voted unanimously, on Schneier’s recommendation, to fire Goldschmidt. A few days after that, Schneier sent a letter to congregants defending his record and attacking the emails from supporters of Goldschmidt.

“Surprisingly, no signatory of the letters ever approached me or any of the Trustees about the initiatives they had in mind,” he wrote regarding the Oct. 8 email. “I suspect it is because they have no real ideas beyond what we ourselves are already doing and that there are other motives afoot that I will not dignify in this letter to you, my beloved congregation.”

But Goldschmidt might fight back. The day Goldschmidt was fired, Daniel Kurtz, a lawyer working in support of Goldschmidt, sent a letter to a member of the Park East board arguing that, according to state law, only the synagogue members themselves have the authority to fire Goldschmidt.

Kurtz wrote that if Goldschmidt is prevented from returning to his job, the synagogue “will be met with swift legal action and a wrongful termination lawsuit.”

Kurtz declined to comment when reached

by JTA. But even if Goldschmidt provided the list of emails, he may not have broken the law. Synagogues often share contact information with members, and New York State’s Not-for-Profit Corporation Law says that any member of an organization has the “right to examine [a] list or record of members and to make extracts therefrom.”

And his supporters have since mobilized to defend him. Days after he was fired, a petition went online saying signatories were “shocked and disheartened” to learn of his firing. As of Oct. 26, it has more than 400 signatures. A competing petition, titled “Stand with Rabbi Schneier,” has 44.

“If I were bringing young children into the Upper East Side right now, I would have hoped that an individual like Rabbi Goldschmidt would be an assistant rabbi at an institution like Park East,” an engaged Park East member in his 40s told JTA. “What he’s done, his outreach, his individual support, his knowledge of members, his respectfulness and candor — he never complained about anything.”

Supporters of Schneier paint a different picture: One of a rabbi with limited appeal among young families who was unqualified for the job, and nonetheless made an illadvised grab for it. A common refrain among Schneier’s defenders who spoke to JTA is that Goldschmidt’s supporters weren’t really involved in the congregation, though a recent congregational newsletter does congratulate one of them on a happy occasion and notes the family’s affiliation.

“What happened here is an unfortunate case of a junior rabbi attempting, effectively, a coup to attain the position that he coveted from Rabbi Schneier,” said a congregant with knowledge of the situation.

“Rabbi Goldschmidt was happy having a small loyal cohort of congregants, he would schmooze, but when it came to going out and performing the duties alongside Rabbi Schneier he was really a shrinking violet.”

According to the member of the synagogue leadership, Goldschmidt in fact assumed a larger set of duties during the pandemic, officiating more while Schneier was limited in his activity due to his age.

And Goldschmidt’s wife has repeatedly written about his increased responsibilities over the past year and a half. In May 2020, after COVID had raged for weeks through New York City, she wrote that he officiated at a series of funerals, checked up on congregants and taught Zoom classes.

But the member of the synagogue leadership was still blunt when describing Goldschmidt’s reaction to being fired.

“What’s happened here — I’m not saying he’s like Trump, I’m not — but there’s a little Trump here, where he can’t accept being fired because it happened so quickly,” he said. “I think what’s happened here is he needs it to be said that he shouldn’t have been fired, or to fire him was wrong, because he can’t accept it.”

Regardless of what occurred, Goldschmidt appears to retain a base of support. One signatory on the proGoldschmidt petition wrote, “the Goldschmidts are exactly what Park East Synagogue requires. It’s both disheartening and shocking to [see] them being treated this way.”

Goldschmidt’s father, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, hasn’t commented on the affair. But last week, he did share someone else’s tweet about his son being fired.

It said, “Shame on those cowards who so brazenly sacrifice our Jewish communities on the altars they’ve erected to their own fragile egos.”

jewishledger.com

AROUND CONNECTICUT Special Shabbaton pays tribute to the Lazowskis and Smalls The Emanuel Synagogue and Voices of Hope sponsored a special Shabbaton tribute weekend Oct. 1-3 in honor of Rabbi Philip & Ruth Lazowski and Rabbi David Small & Debbie Chameides. The program included a talk by Rebecca Frankel, author of Into the Forest, which tells the story of the Holocaust experience of Ruth Lazowski’s family.

The weekend also featured recognition of Holocaust survivors and entertainment by Hazzan Daniella Risman, who was accompanied by clarinetist Zev Mamlok and accordionist Michael Schiano. Photos by Gary Cohen.

THE EMANUEL SYNAGOGUE SPIRITUAL LEADER RABBI DAVID SMALL AND HIS WIFE DEBBIE CHAMEIDES.

The Great Challah Bake!

AT THE SHABBATON: (SEATED, L TO R) SHEILA FRANKEL, RUTH LAZOWSKI AND REBECCA FRANKEL; (STANDING, L TO R) EMANUEL PRESIDENT KEN SIMON, ALAN LAZOWSKI AND RABBI PHILIP LAZOWSKI.

Jennifer Tolman Schwartzman named COO of Dignity Grows HARTFORD—Jennifer Tolman Schwartzman has been appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Dignity Grows Inc., it was announced recently by Jessica Zachs, the organization’s founder and CEO. Schwartzman has been instrumental in the launch and rapid growth of Dignity Grows Inc., an organization designed to empower women by providing menstrual and hygiene products to those in need.

Schwartzman brings to Dignity Grows more than 20 years experience in the nonprofit world, most recently as director of Community Connections at the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford. She has held positions as educator, program developer, curriculum designer and camp director, in both Hartford, and Atlanta, Georgia. “[Jennifer’s] commitment to community service is apparent in both her professional and personal experiences,” said Zachs in an email announcing Schwartzman’s appointment. “Jennifer brings her creative style, warmth and rich experience to Dignity Grows. Jennifer is always up for a challenge!”

For more information on Dignity Grows, contact Jessica Zachs at jessica@ dignitygrows.org, or Jennifer Tolman Schwartzman at jennifer@dignitygrows.org.

The Mandell JCC’s PJ Library/Family Room in West Hartford hosted families with young children for a workshop in how to make a round challah for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Here, Noa and her dad Trevor make strips of dough that will be used to braid the challah. “Noa told us the entire ride home how much she loved making challah,” Alyssa, Noa’s mom reported in an email to the JCC’s Family Room director, Jane Pasternak . What did Noa have to say about the final product: “It actually tastes great!’. “Thanks for all that you do,” wrote Alyssa.

JENNIFER TOLMAN SCHWARTZMAN

Visit us online jewishledger.com jewishledger.com

JEWISH LEDGER

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NOVEMBER 5, 2021

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JEWISH LEDGER

| NOVEMBER 5, 2021

(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Imagine arriving at the Pastrami Queen but finding no pastrami, or showing up at Holy Schnitzel to find its signature breaded chicken cutlet off the menu.

To quote Tevye, sounds crazy, no? But that is exactly what will happen if you visit Sherry Herring, the Israeli eatery that recently opened on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It is the first branch of the renowned sandwich bar in the port of Tel Aviv famous for — you guessed it — its herring sandwiches.

But for the moment, to quote Sherry Ansky, the driving force behind Sherry Herring, the New York outpost has “no Sherry and no herring.”

That’s because Ansky is still waiting for her travel documents to enter the United States — and the herring is still aging at a Dutch processor, patiently soaking up the brine and flavors that must meet Ansky’s approval.

Ansky is a food celebrity in Israel, where she has written six cookbooks (one of which was translated into English). For decades she was a food columnist for the daily newspaper Maariv. But in 2011 she hit a writer’s block. It was at that time that her daughter, Michal Ansky, herself a food journalist, opened the farmer’s market in the port of Tel Aviv, which soon became a draw for tourists, foodies and hipsters.

Sherry Ansky decided to create a sandwich shop there that featured herring.

Ansky has had a long-standing love affair with herring, the brined or pickled fish that is a staple of Ashkenazi cuisine.

When she was six years old, she went to synagogue with her father.

“Somebody made a kiddush and brought me a plate filled with lekach [honey cake], kugel and lots of herring,” she told The Jewish Week. “I ate one piece, then another, until I finished it all. I believe that there is a moment when you understand the power of candy. For me, it happened with herring.”

Ansky’s shop, featuring herring and other fish sandwiches, was an immediate success. Even those who aren’t normally fans of herring may find it hard not be taken by Ansky’s herring sandwich. It is a carefully constructed work consisting of a fresh baguette, sliced in half and slathered with sour cream and French butter, seasoned with hot pepper, seeds and juice from a tomato, onions and scallions, and finished off with brined herring.

Food celebrity Phil Rosenthal visited the Tel Aviv port for his Netflix show “Somebody Feed Phil” and declared Ansky’s

SHERRY ANSKY’S SIGNATURE SANDWICH.

herring sandwich was “one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had in my stupid life.”

During the pandemic, Ansky sent her son-in-law and business partner, Eyal Amir, to New York to scout out a location for the first of what they hope will be several Sherry Herring shops. They chose the Upper West Side. Their eatery, said Amir, builds on the culture of appetizing stores in New York, including Russ & Daughters and Barney Greengrass.

Like the Tel Aviv sandwich bar, the Manhattan shop offers a choice of smoked fish sandwiches: tuna from a smokehouse in the Hamptons, wild-caught Alaskan sockeye salmon, mackerel from, according to Amir, the “wild waters off of Spain.”

So why no herring? Because during his scouting ventures, Amir brought back samples of all of the herrings he could source in the five boroughs of New York City. None met the Ansky’s approval. So she flew off to Holland and worked with a fishery there to select the best herring — creamy with a soft bite — and to create the brine that would give her the flavor she was after.

“We kept on experimenting until we reached the right flavor in July,” said Amir. Then they had to submit the recipe and process to the FDA for approval. They started production last month. But the herring, said Amir, “needs 11 weeks in our unique brine to arrive at the flavor, colors and aroma that we want.”

So the herring will come, in a first shipment of 15,000 filets, in December. Will that be enough? That, said Amir, “depends on how much New Yorkers like it.”

Sherry Herring is located at 245 W. 72nd St., between West End Avenue and Broadway. jewishledger.com

THE KOSHER CROSSWORD NOV. 5, 2021 “Schluffing” By: Yoni Glatt

Difficulty Level: Manageable

Vol. 93 No. 45 JHL Ledger LLC Publisher Henry M. Zachs Managing Partner

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

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

ANSWERS TO OCT. 29 CROSSWORD

jewishledger.com

Across 1. Bronzes 5. Certain salad green 10. Some comps 13. Agnon of note 14. Feels pain 15. Feel pain 16. Muppet who’s a spoof of Borscht Belt comics 18. “Give ___ break!”

19. 1979 sci-fi classic 20. Train depot: abbr.

21. Put in an overhead bin, say 22. “Pick six” INT results 23. Some synagogue leaders (seen in 60-Across) 26. HBO rival, in listings

27. One in Vegas, maybe?

28. Modern name of the country that once housed the center of Jewish life 31. Former Delta rival: Abbr.

34. Accepts advice from 38. Jerusalem destroyer credited with writing a chapter in Daniel 41. Displeased expression 42. Saltwater body 43. You don’t want to catch them if you’re fishing for a kosher diner 44. Italy’s loc.

46. Palindromic family member 48. Kosher ones wont have real pepperoni 52. Nile serpent

55. Batman villain 56. Rubbish rummager 57. Barbara or Monica 59. Peacock network 60. Historic 1927 Jewish film...or its less historic 1980 remake (with “The”) 62. Menu phrase 63. Kettle’s output 64. Tip to one side 65. iPad platform 66. Workplaces 67. What many catch up on on Shabbat...or another name for this puzzle

Down 1. Holy city with an artist’s colony 2. “Get ___ of yourself!”

3. Villains of all villains 4. M or L 5. Cuba’s Guevara 6. ___ magic lamp (lets Genie out) 7. Kind of derech 8. Poem division 9. One of 15 until 1991: Abbr.

10. Port-au-Prince place 11. It can determine an etrog’s worth 12. Beans alternative 17. Bit of measurement 21. Made in-person co-workers

nervous, nowadays 24. Planet where Luke gets captured by a wampa 25. Feel the burn, perhaps 26. Tight situation 28. Those who can hook you up 29. Stimpy’s pal 30. Mary Todd’s guy 32. “...and the bush ___ not consumed” (Ex. 3:2) 33. Summer drink 35. Nytol alternative, Sleep-___ 36. Indian cousin of cholent 37. Next yrs. Shana Aleph students, now 39. Rays slugger Nelson 40. Efes

45. Appraise once more 47. Contemporary of (Rav) Ami 48. First name among legendary 20th century artists 49. Machu Picchu architects 50. Tears down 51. Perlman who inspires 52. Harmon of “Law and Order” 53. Merneptah or Tel Dan that prove aspects of the Bible 54. Aspects 55. Akiva or Yaakov preceder 58. Woody Allen animated film 60. Advanced law deg.

61. Some text messages, for short

JEWISH LEDGER

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WHAT’S HAPPENING Jewish organizations are invited to submit their upcoming events to the our What’s Happening section.

Events are placed on the Ledger website on Tuesday afternoons.

Deadline for submission of calendar items is the previous Tuesday. Send items to: judiej@ jewishledger.com.

East (January). Reservations required.

Tickets: $20/member; $25/nonmembers.

Concerts will be held indoors. Masks are required, regardless of vaccination status. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit jccinsherman.org.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3

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.

Prof. Corinne Blackmer discusses new book Professor Corinne Blackmer, a professor of English and Judaic Studies at Southern Connecticut State University, will discuss her new book, Poisoning the Wells: Antisemitism in Contemporary America via Zoom, sponsored by Congregation Beth El - Keser Israel, 85 Harrison St., New Haven. To request the Zoom link: office@beki.org or (203) 3892108 x114.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4 Love & Knishes in Southbury 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.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6 Camp Ramah reunion in West Hartford The Emanuel Synagogue hosts a camp reunion on Nov. 6, 7-9:30 p.m. The reunion features a laser light Havdalah, camp singalong with Sheldon Low, movie on the big screen, and snacks such as popcorn, s’mores and hot chocolate. Camp Ramah of New England, Ramah Sports Academy, Camp Shalom, Camp Laurelwood, Camp Jori and BBYO are among the event co-sponsors. The Emanuel Synagogue is located at 160 Mohegan Drive, West Hartford. To register, visit emanuelsynagogue.org. For more information, contact Josh Cohen, josh@emanuelsynagogue. org.

The Bruce T. Carroll Band in Concert The JCC in Sherman presents the Bruce T. Carroll Band in Concert, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. A musician and songwriter, within the short span of only five years Bruce T. Carroll has written, recorded, and released three albums: “Ruckus and Romance” (2016), “Finding You” (2018), and his latest album, “First Bird To Sing.” For this concert, Bruce is accompanied by musicians Tommy Mandel (Bryan Adam’s, Dire Straits, Ian Hunter), Marc Shulman (Suzanne Vega, Richard Shindell) and Miles 18

JEWISH LEDGER

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 7 Stamford Federation hosts Super Sunday

Talk show host and author Larry Rifkin in Southbury 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.

“Havdalah” on stage in West Hartford The Emanuel Synagogue (160 Mohegan Dr., West Hartford) will host a staged reading of Ben Engel’s play “Havdalah, Nov. 7, 7 p.m.9:30 p.m. Admission is FREE; registration is requirred. Visit emanuelsynagogue.org.

For more info, contact Marsha Wolfberg, marshawolfberg@yahoo.com.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9 From the ICC Command Center: AntiBDS Emergency Ops Have a child in high school or college? Hear Jacob Baime and Megan Nathan, leading strategists in the war on today’s shifting forces of antisemitism, speak on Zoom on Nov. 9, 7:30 - 9 p.m., hosted by UJA/JCC Greenwich.

Register and receive Zoom link at ujajcc.org.

Baime is executive director of Israel on Campus Coalition, a public affairs professional, and an expert on pro-Israel campus affairs. As former national field director with AI-PAC, he oversaw strategic campus initiatives and managed AIPAC’s

| NOVEMBER 5, 2021

national training platforms for college and high school students. He most recently served as area director in AIPAC’s New England Region.

Megan Nathan is managing director of the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) where she provides pro-Israel students with the tools to support Israel and fight BDS on campus. She worked at the US Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC) where she built coalitions of leaders from top NGOs, Fortune 500 companies, and the U.S. military to educate Americans about the importance of global development. Most recently, she worked at a crisis PR firm.

“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.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 10 Christian Kabbalists of 17th Century Europe Max DuBoff, a PhD student in Classics and Philosophy at Yale University, will explain how some European Christians became interested in Kabbalah to address puzzles about the nature of God and creation; via Zoom, sponsored by Congregation Beth El - Keser Israel (BEKI), 85 Harrison St., New Haven.

To request the Zoom link: office@beki.org or (203) 389.2108 x114.

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/

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15

Israel on Campus: What to Know Before You Get There Lappin Foundation’s Teen Antisemitism Task Force invites Jewish high school juniors and seniors to “Israel on Campus: What to Know Before You Get There.” The program will take place on Monday, Nov.15 at 7:30 p.m.on Zoom. Stephanie Margolis, New England High School Coordinator at StandWithUs, will explore transitions and trends from high school to college campus and ways to navigate difficult conversations. The program is FREE. Register at LappinFoundation.org. For more information, email Sharon Wyner at swyner@ lappinfoundation.org.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 17 Voices of Hope 13th Anniversary Celebration

Sharone Kornman will be the L’dor V’dor honoree at the Voices of Hope virtual “Evening of Hope 2021” event marking the group’s 13th anniversary, to be held on Nov. 17 at 7 p.m.

The event can be viewed on YouTube Live. In addition to the presentation of the L’Dor V’Dor award, the organization’s members and donors will also be honored. For more information or t oregister email info@ctoicesofhope.org, or call (860) 470-5591.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18

Novelist Sayed Kashua to speak at Wesleyan’s Contemporary Israeli Voices 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 jewishledger.com

TORAHPortion

NOVEMBER 3 – NOVEMBER 21 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) 2544000, ext. 2066.

Israel Trip Info Session

some of the best folk rock from the 60s and 70s. The singer/songwriter duo of Susanna Marker and Al Burgasser known as LUMONS, have been performing together continuously for more than a decade. Their special vocal harmonies accompanied by music written and arranged by them for guitar and violin (and other instruments) make for a unique sound spanning a wide range of style and content Reservations required. Tickets: $20/member; $25/nonmembers. Concerts will be held indoors. Masks are required, regardless of vaccination status. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit jccinsherman.org.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 21 Mark Oppenheimer, author of “Squirrel Hill,” in New Haven Mark Oppenheimer, the author of five books, director of the Yale Journalism Initiative, and a host of the podcast Unorthodox, will discuss his latest book, Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood, at 11 a.m., during the BEKI Sisterhood Book and Gift Fair. Admissin: FREE; masks required. At Congregation Beth El—Keser Israel, 85 Harrison St., corner of Whalley Avenue, New Haven. For more information: office@beki.org or (203) 3892108 x114.

The Emanuel Synagogue (160 Mohegan Drive, West Hartford) will host an Israel Trip Info Session on Nov. 18, 7:30-9 p.m.,—Learn about unique Israel trip led by Emanuel Executive Director Kobi Benita. For more info, visit Emanuelsynagogue.org.

SATURDAY, NOV. 20 Harmony Times Two in Concert The JCC in Sherman presents Harmony Times Two in Concert featuring Noelle and Tyler and LUMOS, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m., Noelle and Tyler combine their unique vocal talents to bring you acoustic, harmonized covers of

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

P.O. Box 3709, Woodbridge, CT 06525 jewishledger.com

Toldot

BY RABBI SHMUEL REICHMAN

E

ach and every person in this world has a story, one much deeper than a surface glance reveals. Similarly, every object and occurrence in the physical world is laced with layers of depth and meaning. We must choose to peer beyond the surface in order to discover these layers.

In Parshat Toldot, Rivka Imeinu (Rebecca) gives birth to Yaakov and Esav (Jacob and Esau). Her pregnancy is extremely difficult, with the two fetuses struggling violently within her. The great Torah commentator Rashi (Bereishis 25:22) cites the famous midrash which describes the battle that transpired between Yaakov and Esav in the womb.

Whenever Rivka passed a place of Torah study, Yaakov was drawn towards it, and whenever she passed a house of idol worship, Esav was drawn towards it. Yaakov desired the spiritual and the world to come, while Esav desired the physical and the physical world. This was the cosmic battle that took place within Rivka’s womb.

The problem with this “battle,” however, is obvious. If Yaakov wanted the spiritual, and Esav desired the physical, where is the point of contention? This is not a battle- they can simply each take what they desire, without any need for argument or disagreement. There’s nothing to fight over. For example, if there are two cups of ice cream, chocolate and vanilla, and one sibling wants chocolate, while the other craves vanilla, then surely there is no argument!

In order to understand the depth of this battle, we must understand the concepts of ikar (primary) and tafel (secondary). “Ikar” is the inner essence and the main entity; the tafel is what enables the ikar to flourish. For example, the ikar of an orange is the inner fruit, while the peel is the tafel, as it protects and enables the fruit. The same principle applies to a person; the ikar of a person is the neshama, the self, the mind and soul.

The body is the tafel, as it enables the soul to exist in this world, to learn, grow, and expand. This is the ideal relationship between the spiritual and physical world — the spiritual is the ikar, and the physical the tafel. The physical world is meant to enable, to reflect and express, the spiritual.

The ideal is for the tafel (that which is secondary and lower) to perfectly and loyally reflect the ikar (the inner spiritual essence)— for the body to faithfully reflect the truth and depth of the soul,

for the physical to be a loyal vessel, fully reflecting its spiritual root. The body is meant to be the vehicle which carries the soul though the world.

We don’t believe in rejecting the physical, but we don’t wish to get stuck in the physical either. The goal is a beautiful but nuanced balance, where the physical is used to reflect something higher, the spiritual. In this perfect balance, the wisdom and ideas of Torah become one with you, and you express that inner, spiritual depth through the physical.

This is why almost all the mitzvoth are accomplished through physical actions!

This was the very battle between Yaakov and Esav, a battle of perception, a battle of ikar versus tafel.

The truth is that both Yaakov and Esav wanted both the spiritual and the physical, and this was the root of their battle. Yaakov wanted to use the physical as a vehicle for the spiritual, as a tool to fully utilize and actualize spiritual potential. Esav, in contrast, wanted to use the animation of the soul, but merely as a means to indulge in the physical.

Essentially, Esav flipped the ikar and tafel. corrupting their ideal relationship; he viewed the physical as ikar (primary) and the spiritual as tafel (secondary), a necessary medium for experiencing the physical world.

Esav did not wish to use the physical to reflect anything higher than his own selfish desires. This is what he tried to do. He tried to focus on himself and his own ego instead of reflecting something higher. Just as he refused to reflect anything higher, he did not wish for the physical world to reflect any higher truth.

Esav distorted the ideal relationship between ikar and tafel, valuing only the physical, limited surface, and cutting it off from any higher reality.

Yaakov teaches us the true purpose of the tafel, using it as a means towards perceiving and experiencing the ikar. He bequeathed the legacy and responsibility of building deeper and more empowering perceptions of the physical world.

The physical is not an end in itself — it is meant to serve as a vehicle for transcendent, spiritual, conscious living.

This is the battle we face on a daily basis, a battle of perception. Let us be inspired to choose empowering paradigms, to peer beneath the surface, to experience the infinite within the physical.

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

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

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OBITUARIES BERKMAN Jerome Berkman, 80, of Stamford, died Oct. 20. He was the husband of Louise Berkman. He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and raised in Middletown, N.Y. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughters, Adena Conway and her husband Daniel, and Melanie Milgram and her husband Andrew); his grandchildren, Jonathan, Simon and Noah Conway, and Abraham, Madeline and Hannah Milgram. He was a member of Temple Beth El.

nephew and nieces, Conner, Kelly, and Lauren.

BROWN Jay M. Brown, 88, of Hopkinton, Mass., formerly of Hamden, died Oct. 20. He was the husband of Merle (Kaminsky) Brown. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., he was the son of late Sidney and Bertha (Bert) Brown. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughter Ellen Factor and her husband Mark of Hopkinton, Mass.; his brother Michael Brown and his wife Greta of Monroe Township, N.J.; and his grandchildren, Joshua, Eric, and Samuel Factor. He was also predeceased by his son Sidney Brown, He was a longtime member of Mishkan Israel Synagogue in Hamden where he served many years on the Brotherhood board.

KAPLAN Edward Kaplan, 57, of New Haven, died Oct. 24. He was the partner of Dr. Julie Tison. Born in New York City, he was the son of Esther (Ackerman) Kaplan and the late Bernie Kaplan. In addition to his partner, he is survived by his sister Beth Toomey and her husband James; and his

LEPOW Dr. Martha (“Dr. Marty”) Lipson Lepow, 94, of Slingerlands, N.Y., died Oct. 17. She was the widow of Irwin Lepow, PhD, MD. Born in Cleveland and raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, she was the daughter of Harry Aaron Lipson and Anna Miller. She is survived by her children, Laurie, David and Daniel; five grandchildren, and four greatgrandchildren. She participated in research and development for the Salk polio vaccine, and the Sabin oral vaccine trials in infants and young children. She was a longtime member of Congregation Beth Emeth in Albany, N.Y. MITTELMAN Eugene S. (“Gene”) Mittelman, 97, of Dedham, Mass. formerly of Willimantic, Conn., Bondville, Vt. and Palm Beach, Fla., died Oct. 25. Born in Middletown, he was the son of the late Corinne and Louis Mittelman. He served as a lieutenant in the Unite States Navy during World War II. Cherished husband of Georgia (Rubin) Mittelman. He is survived by his children, Joan M. Kraft and her husband Michael of Framingham, Mass., and Ellen M. Potter and her husband Tom of Rye Brook, N.Y.; his grandchildren, Lily and Zachary Kraft, and Rachel and Adam Potter; and his nieces, Sharon (Frank) Murphy and Marlene (Larry) Gavens. He was a former president of Temple B’nai Israel in Willimantic.

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Richard Wexler was a leader and then a trenchant critic of the organized Jewish community

BY RON KAMPEAS

(JTA) — Richard Wexler, who led the effort to combine U.S. Jewish fundraising bodies into a single behemoth and then become one of the resulting group’s most trenchant critics, died Oct. 19 of cancer. He was 80.

Wexler sought to make fundraising more efficient by bringing together under one umbrella the main Jewish philanthropic bodies.

A real estate lawyer, Wexler became the chairman, or lay leader, of the United Jewish Appeal, the lead fundraising entity for overseas Jewish philanthropy, in 1996.

The Chicago native had come up through the Jewish lay leadership ranks through Soviet Jewry activism.

Lauded at the time as a “dynamo” who led key efforts in the early 1990s to absorb into Israel former Soviet Jews, he envisioned closer ties with Jewish federations, then grouped under the Council of Jewish Federations umbrella.

Wexler also had a leadership role in the council, and he told JTA in 1996, anticipating a merger, “The only way we’re going to raise more money is in partnership with federation.”

That came about in 1999 on Wexler’s watch as UJA chairman, when three bodies — the United Jewish Appeal, the Council of Jewish Federations and the United Jewish Appeal — combined into a single body, the United Jewish Communities. UJC in 2009 became the Jewish Federations of North America.

Things soon went sour. Wexler unsuccessfully sought UJC leadership roles, and simultaneously argued that the new body was not leveraging the union of its component bodies to raise more funds. In

2003, he published a book, “United Jewish Catastrophes … A Love Story.” He accused UJC leaders of pursuing “pet projects” at the expense of the greater good of the overall enterprise.

Depending on who was telling the story, Wexler resigned or was forced out of his leadership positions in the UJC in 2008.

Wexler’s candid and lacerating blog, UJ Thee and Me, proved too much for the lay and professional UJC leadership to tolerate.

It was an unusually acrimonious departure with on-the-record mutual accusations.

Wexler remained in leadership positions at the Chicago federation, the Jewish United Fund, through 2012. He had an engaging writing style, with a knack for pulling off acidic and cheerful simultaneously. He was blogging until the end, shooting arrows left and right. In an August post, he likened Jewish organizations to Spirit Airlines, the budget carrier notorious for hapless management and painful journeys.

As acidic as he could be, he singled out those who sought to unify the Jews for loving praise. Remembering Richard Hirsch, the longtime Reform Judaism leader who died in August, Wexler eulogized: “Hirsch’s enthusiasm moved all of us forward …Richard’s enthusiasm for this work was part and parcel of his vision of modern Zionism — an inclusive, embracing Zionism.”

In their remembrance of Wexler, his family struck a similar note: “His commitment to the Jewish people was driven by his belief that the world can be repaired through hard work and force of will.”

“If you don’t have enemies you haven’t stood for anything,” attributed to Winston Churchill, was one of his favorite sayings, his daughter, Deborah Sobokin, said at his funeral. “For any of you who kept up with my dad’s blog, UJ Thee and Me, you know he stood for many things.”

He is survived by his wife, Roberta, two sons, a daughter and eight grandchildren.

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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 Joshua Ratner (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

Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel Conservative Rabbi Eric Woodward rabbi@beki.org (203) 389-2108 office@BEKI.org www.BEKI.org

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

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

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

MADISON Temple Beth Tikvah Reform Rabbi Danny Moss (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 admin@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 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.jewishlifect.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

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

Farmington Valley Jewish Congregation, Emek Shalom Reform Rabbi Rebekah Goldman Mag (860) 658-1075 admin@fvjc.org www.fvjc.org

Beth El Temple Conservative Rabbi James Rosen Rabbi Rachel Zerin Cantor Joseph Ness (860) 233-9696 info@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

SOUTH WINDSOR Temple Beth Hillel of South Windsor Reform Rabbi Jeffrey Glickman (860) 282-8466 tbhrabbi@gmail.com www.tbhsw.org

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

United Synagogues of Greater Hartford Orthodox Rabbi Eli Ostrozynsk i synagogue voice mail (860) 586-8067 Rabbi’s mobile (718) 679-4446 ostro770@hotmail.com Young Israel of West Hartford Orthodox Rabbi Tuvia Brander (860) 233-3084 info@youngisraelwh.org www.youngisraelwh.org 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 860-529-2410 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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