CT Jewish Ledger • December 17, 2021 • 13 Tevet 5782

Friday, December 17, 2021 13 Tevet 5782 Vol. 93 | No. 51 | ©2021 jewishledger.com

Miracle of Miracles 1

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INSIDE

this week

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | DECEMBER 17, 2021 | 13 TEVET 5782

8 Briefs

17 Crossword

18 What’s Happening

18 Bulletin Board

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Arts & Entertainment.......................................................... 4 Jews were the creative forces behind “West Side Story” 60 years ago — and two Jewish creatives — Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner — are at the helm of the remake that opened in theaters last week. A fact that has begged a few questions.

Shining a Light on Hate...................................................... 5 A week-long series of statewide events to address the spike in antisemitic acts in the U.S. was held throughout CT earlier this month, as part of a national initiative of the Jewish Federations of North America called “Shine A Light on Antisemitism.”

Torah Portion

20 Obituaries

21 Business and Professional Directory

22 Classified Field of Dreams................................ 5 Six years after Massachusetts native Ezra Schwartz was killed, along with two others, in a terror attack on the outskirts of Jerusalem, an Israeli baseball field is dedicated to his memory.

ON CAMPUS......................................... 7 A new ADL-Hillel Campus survey reports that antisemitic incidents reached an alltime high during the past academic year, though many schools were physically closed due to the pandemic. And other news from North American campuses.

In Memoriam..................................10 Jewish organizations remembered the late U.S. Senator Bob Dole as a man of principle who put country above partnership, championed the rights of disabled Americans, and was a steadfast supporter of Israel.

CANDLE LIGHTING ON THE COVER:

Chanukah may be over, but that doesn’t mean we can’t keep on celebrating the miracles of our people. Take the world of sports, for example. These eight miraculous Jewish moments — plus that one miracle that ignites them all (aka the Shamash) — prove once and for all that Jewish athletes have achieved some pretty awesome accomplishments. PAGE 12 jewishledger.com

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Jews were the creative forces behind ‘West Side Story’ then and now. Should they be?

BY JORDYN HAIME

(JTA) — In 1955, theater director Jerome Robbins approached writer Arthur Laurents and composer Leonard Bernstein with a new idea for a Broadway musical: a contemporary retelling of “Romeo and Juliet,” set among warring gangs of Jews and Catholics on New York City’s Lower East Side.

It would be called “East Side Story,” and it would take place at the turn of the 20th century during the holidays of Easter and Passover.

But something wasn’t working. The writers wondered if all they were doing was adding music to “Abie’s Irish Rose,” an early-20th-century play about an Irish Catholic girl and a Jewish boy who fall in love. The story didn’t feel fresh enough.

In his memoir, Laurents recalled the moment “East Side Story” became “West Side Story”: when he read a news headline that blared, “More Mayhem from Chicano Gangs.”

Thus, Robbins’ original idea morphed into a tale of a white gang — the Jets — and a Puerto Rican gang — the Sharks — clashing on the Upper West Side just a few years before the area was targeted for urban renewal. Bernstein, Robbins and Laurents remained the show’s creative leads, and later roped in Stephen Sondheim to write the musical’s lyrics. All four men were Jewish, though they were no longer writing about Jews.

“West Side Story” became one of the biggest Broadway musicals of all time. And by 1961, the film, co-directed by Robbins and Robert Wise, cemented the show’s status as a classic of the musical form — even as it cast ethnically white actors to play Latino characters, darkening their skin for the screen.

Sixty years after the first “West Side Story” film was released, another two highly acclaimed Jewish creatives — director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner — have returned to the material to helm a hotly anticipated remake. This new “West Side Story,” which is being released just weeks after Sondheim’s death, retains the general arc of the original musical while making notable changes to the story and presentation, including casting Latino actors to play the Sharks and their significant others.

Yet in the current cultural climate, when audiences are highly sensitive to onscreen depictions of underrepresented groups, new questions have emerged: Were Spielberg and Kushner the right people to attempt a 4

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remake of “West Side Story,” or should that task have fallen to Puerto Rican creatives?

And there is also a deeper question: Should the show, which some critics and academics have said is fundamentally outdated, even have been remade at all?

The original show’s transformation from a Jewish story to a Puerto Rican one mirrored the American Jewish community’s own assimilation and shedding of its outsider status in the mid-20th century.

By the 1950s, Jews were finding ways to assimilate into white America while new concerns about racialized violence among newer immigrant groups, particularly Latino communities, were bubbling up in the city.

“All of a sudden, all these questionably white groups at the beginning of the century are sort of coming together and becoming, in the case of the musical, a gang, a racial category,” said Warren Hoffman, executive director of the Association for Jewish Studies and author of the 2014 book “The Great White Way: Race and the Broadway Musical.”

“Puerto Ricans, Black Americans, people of color become the ‘new enemy’ in the U.S. So this is how whiteness is changing, and what’s happening in ‘West Side Story,’” Hoffman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

But rather than feel seen by their community’s depiction in the original show and film, many Puerto Ricans instead felt disparaged.

“As a child I found the music dazzling but the overall message racist,” Aurora Levins Morales, a Jewish Puerto Rican writer and activist, told JTA about her experience watching the 1961 film. “I wasn’t aware that it was created and directed by Jews, and that certainly makes the racist aspects of the film even more painful for me as a Jew.” Morales said her classmates would mock her when the film came out. “I used to be taunted at school with the lyrics ‘Puerto Rico, my heart’s devotion, let it sink into the ocean,’ and the fact that Rita Moreno was the only Puerto Rican actor cast in the film always appalled me, although I think she’s fabulous and I always admired her,” she said.

The song Morales is referring to, “America,” is one of the most controversial in the 1961 film; though the lyrics mock the mainland United States and Puerto Rico in equal measure, many listeners have taken offense at the way the Puerto Rican

| DECEMBER 17, 2021

THE JEWISH CREATORS OF “WEST SIDE STORY,” LEONARD BERNSTEIN, STEPHEN SONDHEIM AND ARTHUR LAURENTS, ON THE OPENING NIGHT OF THE ORIGINAL BROADWAY MUSICAL, SEPT. 26, 1957.

(BEN MARTIN/GETTY IMAGES)

characters callously deride their homeland.

Even Sondheim seemed hesitant about the project, at first declining to do the show because, he reportedly said, he had “never been that poor and I’ve never even known a Puerto Rican.”

Puerto Rico has a substantial Jewish community: The island is home to an estimated 1,500-2,500 Jews, according to a 2016 demographic survey by Hebrew University, making it the largest and wealthiest Jewish community in the Caribbean. Most Puerto Rican Jews are descendants of Polish Jews who moved to the island from Cuba after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959; many Puerto Rican Jewish families also migrated to the mainland United States during that time, mirroring broader Latino immigration patterns of the period.

There are links between the immigrant communities, too. In her book “Medicine Stories,” Morales defines the Jewish-Puerto Rican relationship as a history “made in New York garment sweatshops filled first by Eastern European Jews and then by Puerto Ricans, in times of both solidarity and betrayal, when the price of upward mobility for white Jews was the abandonment of People of Color.”

In 2018, when the “West Side Story” remake was in its early stages, Kushner and Spielberg held a Q&A at the University of Puerto Rico to hear out concerns about the new film’s direction. Kushner, in response to a question about “America,” said the thrust of the song reflected the creators’ Jewish roots. “They’re using the Jewish immigrant experience, the notion that you look back where you came from and go ‘yech,’” he said.

For the 2021 film, the song’s lyrics have been altered, its most offensive lines scrapped. Other changes include more conversations in Spanish, with no English subtitles, as well as the hiring of numerous experts to guide authentic culture and slang.

Those changes seem to have paid off: Early reviews, including from Latino critics, have been mostly raves, and critics are praising Spielberg and Kushner’s adaptation choices.

One prominent film critic even singled out

the new version of “America” as a highlight.

Those reactions would seem to fulfill the promises Spielberg made at the beginning of the film’s production.

“The reason we’ve hired so many Puerto Rican singers and dancers and actors is so they can help guide us to represent Puerto Rico in a way that will make all of you and all of us proud,” Spielberg told the crowd in San Juan.

For his part, Spielberg — whose representatives did not return a request for comment, but who frequently references his own happy childhood memories watching the original film — has maintained that, regardless of its problems, “West Side Story” is a “timeless” piece. That characterization rankles some.

“When someone says something is timeless, I’m not sure what they mean by that. Because I think shows are very particular about what they’re trying to say,” Hoffman says. “The politics of ‘West Side Story’ back in ’57 are not the politics of the U.S. in 2021.”

Rebecca Gleiberman, a 29-year-old who grew up Puerto Rican and Jewish in Florida, says she has never felt fully part of either community. She didn’t think much of “West Side Story” when she saw it as a child, but “as an adult, you definitely get the sense that it’s almost Puerto Rican caricatures that sort of make up most of the characters.”

Gleiberman says she’s open to a new remake by two Jewish creators, as long as it’s done right. The bigger issue, to her, is watering down authenticity or playing into stereotypes to make a production “comfortable” for anyone sitting in a theater — problems she said plagued another 2021 movie musical set in a New York Latino community, “In The Heights.”

“Those felt like Hispanic caricatures and stereotypes to me, and that was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda,” she said. “I felt like that was kind of written in a way that was more digestible for a white audience. So I don’t know if it necessarily matters who’s writing it.”

“West Side Story” is now open in theaters nationwide. jewishledger.com

UP FRONT

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | DECEMBER 17, 2021 | 13 TEVET 5782

CT’s Jewish communities — and Gov. Ned Lamont — “Shine A Light on Antisemitism”

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TATEWIDE – As Chanukah – the Festival of Lights — was coming to a close on Monday, Dec. 6, Jewish Federations across Connecticut continued to “Shine a Light on Antisemitism” through an online webinar attended by both the Jewish community and members of its ally communities.

Presented by the state’s seven Jewish Federations, their Jewish Community Relations Councils, the Jewish Federation Association of CT (JFACT), and the Connecticut office of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), in partnership with the NAACP, Urban League, and Office for Catholic Social Justice Ministry of the Archdiocese of Hartford, the webinar was just one of many statewide events held between Nov. 28 and Dec. 6, as part of “Shine a Light” — a national initiative of the Jewish Federations of North America in response to the continued increase of antisemitic acts across the country.

In Connecticut, in addition to the culminating webinar on Dec. 6, the Shine A Light events included a Nov. 29 press conference at the Greater New Haven Jewish Community Center in which Governor Ned Lamont, along with the leadership of the state’s Jewish Federations, ADL, the Archdiocese of Hartford, Urban

‘If you build it, they will come’ Israeli baseball field dedicated to terror victim Ezra Schwartz

BY STACEY DRESNER

League of Greater Hartford and the NAACP CT, joined together “in unity against antisemitism.” “‘Shine A Light on Antisemitism’ is a major nationwide and Canadian initiative to address rising antisemitism through education, partnership, advocacy and the media,” explained Judy Alperin, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven, in opening the webinar.

After a performance of “Maoz Tsur” by Cantor Julia Cadrain of Temple Israel of Westport, Alperin announced that, while Chanukah may be over, the ShineALightCT. org website will remain up and running to provide resources, links and tips on combatting antisemitic hate.

To shed light on how such hate was born, webinar guest speaker Oren Jacobson, co-founder of Project Shema, which helps Jewish organizations “engage more effectively with progressives on issues surrounding Israel and antisemitism,” discussed the history of antisemitism throughout the world.

“Many people think about antisemitism as starting with the crucifixion of Jesus and ending with the Holocaust. The truth is, anti-Jewish ideas existed before this moment. And unfortunately, they exist long after the Nazis were defeated,” Jacobson

said.

Jacobson traced the history of antisemitism from 70 CE, when the Romans drove the Jews out of the Biblical land of Israel. He continued on, taking listeners through the 14th century, when Jews were blamed and made scapegoats for the Plague, famine and war; the 15th century, when Jews were victims of the Spanish Inquisition and burned at the stake; through pogroms and attacks on Jews throughout Europe over the ages; and through the violence and expulsion of Jews from their native Middle Eastern countries.

Jacobson then brought the history of antisemitism to recent times, touching on the emergence of the KKK and the American Nazi movement in the early 20th century, and the legalized discrimination against and hatred against Jews that existed in the U.S. well into the middle of the 20th century. He also referenced some of the most recent and infamous incidents of antisemitism and hate including the massacre of Jewish worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the murder of the retired Jewish teacher Sarah Halimini in Paris, and the KKK Rally in Charlottesburg, Va., in 2017, in which White CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

BY DEBORAH FINEBLUM

(JNS) It was evident that organizers had no idea how many people felt they just had to be at a particular park in Ra’anana, in central Israel, on Dec. 3 to dedicate a baseball field in the name of Ezra Schwartz. With every seat taken and a couple of hundred people on the sidelines, remarkably none of them— not even the youngest baby—bore any sign of impatience during the entire 50-minute ceremony.

Ezra was the kind of guy who inspired that kind of devotion.

Six years have passed since the day when the car the 18-year-old was riding in was attacked by a terrorist who opened fire with a submachine gun on Nov. 19, 2015, killing Schwartz and two others. The car filled with students from Yeshivat Ashreinu in Beit Shemesh had been stopped in traffic at the Alon Shvut junction south of Jerusalem.

The young men inside were on their way to beautify an area that serves as a memorial to three Israeli teenage boys who were kidnapped and killed the summer before.

But last Friday, as the dazzling autumn sun smiled down on those at the proceedings—from young baseball enthusiasts with their mitts and balls at the ready and olim who hailed from Ezra’s hometown of Sharon, Mass., to American teens in Israel for their gap year and citizens of Ra’anana checking out the newest addition to their town’s recreation scene—everyone was there to celebrate Ezra’s life and legacy. That included his parents, Ari and Ruth Schwartz, who have four more children: Mollie, Avi, Elon and Hillel.

The Ezra Schwartz Memorial Baseball Field, a project of the Israel Association for Baseball (IAB), is only the second regulation baseball diamond in the country. And it’s no coincidence that this is the sport chosen to represent this particular young man. As his dad says, “Ezra lived the game, and he loved

GOV. NED LAMONT, 2ND TO LEFT OF “SHINE A LIGHT” POSTER, AT THE PRESS CONFERENCE IN WHICH HE PRESENTED A PROCLAMATION DECLARING THE WEEK OF CHANUKAH “SHINE A LIGHT WEEK” IN CONNECTICUT.

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Shine a Light

Ezra

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supremacists famously chanted, among other epithets, “Jews will not replace us.”

“Now once again, unfortunately, this type of hate and bigotry is rising once more, as people feel emboldened to let these ideas out from under the rocks, moving more towards the mainstream,” Jacobson told those listening in to the webinar. “And as this happens, unfortunately, we see violence targeting Jews once more.”

Webinar guest speaker Ellie Cooper, a recent college graduate and ADL volunteer, shared her family’s story of experiencing antisemitic vandalism at her home during Chanukah when she was a child.

“I remember being really scared and I noticed my moms were scared too. I asked one of my moms before bed that night, ‘Are we in danger? Does someone want to hurt us?” she recalled. “That was the first time that I learned that some people hate Jews.

My first lesson about antisemitism.”

Cooper, who describes herself as “a proud Jewish woman of color,” recalled antisemitic comments she heard from other students during high school, which led to her becoming a ADL trainer in its “Words to Action” program.

“I spoke to kids my age as well as parents and other adults across the state responding effectively against antisemitism and hate,” Cooper said. “A decade ago the hate was there, just under the surface – snide remarks and insults from young people…That hate is not just simmering anymore, and that brings us to where we are and why we are here today, to shine a light and to awaken our fellow humans to the crimes of antisemitism.”

Those crimes, according to the annual ADL survey, include 185 antisemitic incidents in Connecticut in 2020. During the same period, ADL tabulated 2,024 reported antisemitic incidents throughout the United States. Though that number represents a four percent decrease from the 2,107 incidents recorded in 2019, it is nonetheless the third-highest year on

the game.”

So much so that the day before his death, Ezra had sent off an email to the IAB asking to join the league; he’d been a star of the team at the Maimonides School in Brookline, Mass. Instead, a month later, when his parents flew in to meet with his rabbis and friends, the IAB suggested to them that a field be built and dedicated to their son’s memory.

‘When you lose someone, it leaves a hole’

record since ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979.

“We are gathered here in a moment in time in which antisemitism is once again on the rise across the globe,” Jacobson stated.

“Antisemitism is a hatred that knows no geographic boundaries, no time boundaries, no communal boundaries, no political boundaries, and is present in all eras, in all communities and in all political movements.

“Antisemitism is built on conspiracy theories,” he added. “And when conspiracy theories spread, facts and truths are undermined. And when facts and truths are undermined democracy and civil rights are threatened.”

To learn about more ways in which to help in the battle against antisemitism, visit www.shinealightCT.org.

It took six years for that vision to become real—years marked by bumps along the road, including a substantial pledge that failed to materialize.

The fundraising took time and perseverance with Ezra’s paternal grandparents, Mark and Heni Schwartz of New Haven, chipping away at a project that was eventually set at $500,000.

With Ezra’s Uncle Yoav Schwartz, who lives with his family in Ra’anana, managing the multi-year project of raising the money, it was an undertaking that would require the steadfast support of other partners such as Mel Levi of the IAB, as well as IAB board members Ruby Schechter and David Levy, both of Ra’anana. The Jewish National Fund filled the role of sending through donors’ contributions, and also on board was the Jewish fraternity AEPi, including the chapter at Rutgers University, which Ezra was scheduled to attend the following fall.

“So many people got behind this project because of Ezra’s endearing personality, his love of baseball and his love of life,” says Yoav Schwartz.

His wife, Ezra’s Aunt Pam Schwartz, puts it this way: “When you lose someone you love, it leaves a hole. For Yoav, this project has been a place to put all that love and all that missing into the hole left by Ezra.”

She notes that on Yom Hazikaron,

when Israel mourns her fallen soldiers and victims of terror, Ezra doesn’t make the list since he wasn’t a citizen. “But we make sure we add his name to those announced here,” she says.

According to Peter Kurz of the IAB, the building of the baseball (and soccer) field corresponds with a surge in interest in the sport among new immigrants from the United States and native Israelis alike, with the latter beginning to make up the majority of enthusiasts, both players and fans.

“We’ve exploded from 500 players five years ago to 1,500 today,” says Kurz. “And this year, we’re going from one regulation diamond in Petach Tikvah to three—here in Ra’anana, and next month, one is opening in Beit Shemesh.”

Other signs of growth: Israel sent its first Olympic baseball team in 45 years to the recent games in Tokyo, where it came in fifth.

‘His legacy has expanded tremendously’ Among the many ways that Ezra is being memorialized is the annual Ezra Schwartz Baseball Tournament through his high school alma mater, as well as scholarships through Camp Yavneh in New Hampshire, where he was a longtime camper and later a beloved counselor.

Indeed, summer camp gave Ezra yet another excuse to share his passion for America’s favorite pastime. “I loved watching him play, and he loved that I loved watching him play,” says his dad. After his aunt cleaned out her nephew’s room in the yeshivah, she brought his mitt to his father during shiva—a mitt Ari Schwartz wore at the field dedication.

“Part of Ezra’s soul is in this glove, it was probably his most precious possession,” he said.

He further told those assembled: “I’m CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

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THE EZRA SCHWARTZ MEMORIAL BASEBALL FIELD IN RA’ANANA, ISRAEL, DEC. 3, 2021.

| DECEMBER 17, 2021

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ON CAMPUS Fresno State U to consider renaming library honoring Nazi sympathizer

BY MAYA MIRSKY

(JTA) — Administrators at California State University, Fresno, announced last week they would consider renaming the school’s Henry Madden Library, after a professor at the university shared with students that Madden, a longtime librarian at the school, was an antisemite and vocal Hitler supporter.

“First and foremost, I want members of our Jewish community to know that we stand with you and against both the historic and ongoing antisemitism that remains all too present in our society,” the university’s interim president Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval said in a Nov. 29 email sent to faculty, staff and students about the renaming.

“I’m very glad the university is quickly addressing this,” said Rabbi Rick Winer of Fresno’s Temple Beth Israel, who serves on an advisory council on Jewish life at the school.

The development comes amid a national reckoning on names and monuments honoring figures who expressed racist views, a movement that has seen the University of California-Berkeley law school renamed, highways in northern Virginia bearing the names of Confederate generals rededicated to honor abolitionists, and a proposal to replace more than 40 San Francisco public school names because of associations with racism.

The Madden issue at Fresno State came to light because of research by Bradley Hart, a professor in the school’s Media, Communications and Journalism Department and the author of a book on American supporters of Hitler and fascism.

He praised the administration for the announcement.

“I think they acted with great sense of purpose,” he said. “Obviously they take it seriously.”

Hart’s book, “Hitler’s American Friends: The Third Reich’s Supporters in the United States,” was published in 2018 but, according to university spokesperson Lisa Boyles Bell, the school was only made aware of Madden’s views after Hart lectured on the material in a class on Nov. 17.

“The topic only came up right at the end,” Hart told J., describing the class. He said students caught the small reference to the school’s librarian and asked Hart about it.

“There was quite a bit of shock,” he said.

Madden was librarian at the school from 1949 to 1979, and the university’s central library was named for him in 1981. He donated his papers to the library, including private correspondence, but they were jewishledger.com

sealed until 2007.

According to local news station ABC 30, in the book Hart quotes a letter from Madden: “Whenever I see one of those predatory noses, or those roving and leering eyes, or those slobbering lips, or those flat feet, or those nasal and whiny voices I tremble with rage and hatred. They are the oppressors. … Whom do I hate more than the Jews?”

The university confirmed it had copies of Madden’s antisemitic writings in its collections.

“The views attributed to Dr. Madden are more than allegations; they are reflections of his beliefs as captured in his own words, and in documents he curated and donated to the Library before his passing,” JiménezSandoval’s email said.

A task force has been announced to rename the building.

Winer, a member of the task force, said the issues surrounding Madden’s views reach beyond the small Jewish community in Fresno, a city of about 500,000 with three synagogues and a Jewish federation.

“While the Jewish community is extremely small, the community of people of color and the community of religious minorities is very substantial,” he said.

A version of this story was first published in J. The Jewish News of Northern California, and is republished with permission.

Report: Student gov’t BDS resolutions at US colleges spiked last year BU SHIRA HANUA

(JTA) — Student governments considered resolutions to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel at 17 college campuses in the United States during the 2020-2021 school year, according to a new report from the Anti-Defamation League.

The watchdog group, which released the data Wednesday as part of its annual reporting, called the BDS resolutions a “cornerstone of anti-Israel campus activity during the last year.”

During a school year in which a May conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza was accompanied by widespread criticism of Israel on and beyond college campuses, the number of student governments entertaining BDS resolutions was not dramatically higher than in the recent past.

Of the bills supporting the Israel boycott, 11 passed, according to the report.

That was fewer than in the 2015-2016 school year, according to the ADL’s report about that year, when it documented 23 BDS resolutions, of which 14 passed.

The following year, student governments considered 14 BDS resolutions, passing six;

the year after that, five of 12 resolutions passed. (In the 2019-2020 school year, just four BDS resolutions came before student governments; likely a result of school closures caused by the pandemic.)

According to the U.S. Education Department, there are nearly 4,000 “degree-granting postsecondary institutions” in the United States, meaning that BDS resolutions were introduced at .425% of college campuses and passed at .275% of campuses last year.

None has been implemented and in some cases university presidents rejected the student government resolutions, noted ADL. The ADL’s position is that not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic, but that the BDS movement is. Its report concludes that anti-Israel activity on campus last year continued to “span from legitimate criticism of Israeli government policies to expressions of antisemitism from some activists.”

Student leaders at at least two universities, the report notes, faced “exclusionary calls because of their expressions of support for Israel and Zionism” and one of them resigned over it.

“As we saw acutely during the May conflict with Hamas, the anti-Israel movement’s drumbeat of rhetorical attacks on Zionism and Zionists can truly hurt and offend many Jewish students, leaving them feeling ostracized and alienated,” the ADL’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement accompanying the report.

In a different report released this fall, the ADL found that one-third of Jewish college students said they had personally experienced antisemitism in the last year.

USC president responds to faculty demanding censure of student’s hate tweets

BY SHIRYN GHERMEZIAN

(JNS) In a letter to faculty members, the president and provost of the University of Southern California wrote that legal considerations prevented them from discussing what, if any, actions were taken against a USC student who posted antisemitic and anti-Jewish tweets online, including one that mentioned wanting to “kill” the Zionists.

“As I am sure you are aware, we are legally required to protect student privacy and cannot discuss university processes or actions with respect to a specific student, much less denounce them publicly,” wrote USC president Carol Folt and provost Charles Zukoski, according to the online publication Insider Higher Ed. That letter was in response to a Dec. 1 open letter—signed by 64 USC faculty members—asking the university to “voice a

public, explicit and specific condemnation” of Yasmeen Mashayekh, a student in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, who posted the tweets.

On Nov. 22, the watchdog group Canary Mission posted a video on Twitter highlighting tweets by Mashayekh, which were uploaded between May and June as Hamas fired more than 4,000 rockets at Israeli population centers. In her tweets, Mashayekh wrote: “I want to kill every motherf***ing Zionist,” “Curse the Jews,” “Israel has no history just a criminal record” and “Zionists are going to F***ing pay.”

She also tweeted: “I f***ing love Hamas.”

Folt and Zukoski said they learned about the social-media posts by Mashayekh over the summer, prompting her removal from a “paid mentoring position” at the engineering school.

Mashayekh confirmed that she was fired from her campus job and taken off the Viterbi Graduate Student Association website, where she was listed as a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion senator, wrote The Forward.

The USC administrators also criticized the involvement of an “outside organization” in reviving the tweets.

“Just before Thanksgiving, the deleted tweets were republished by outside organizations, which urged supporters to protest by writing to the dean of the school, who had no control over either the original tweets or the student’s election to the student organization,” said the USC administrators. “Nevertheless, the Viterbi School quickly issued a public statement denouncing these hateful statements as being contrary to our university’s values. …

It is appalling that anti-Semitism continues to exist as a scourge across the nation and the world, and we will continue to work tirelessly with you and others to stamp it out.”

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told JNS on Tuesday, Dec. 7, that the administration’s response to faculty did not go far enough and will be included in the Wiesenthal Center’s annual list of the “Top 10” worst antisemitic incidents.

Cooper noted that last year, Folt came out strongly against racism and announced measures the university would take to combat it on campus. By contrast, he said, this letter “about an overt Jew-hater, which sounds like it was reviewed by lawyers, is an outrage. Jews deserve the same treatment and protection promised to all.”

“There is one question the university and its leader have to answer,” he said. “If [similar] comments were made about black students, what would the school’s response be?”

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Briefs Pressure increases on Unilever to end Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream boycott (JNS) Pressure is intensifying on the British company Unilever, the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream brand, because of its announcement in July not to allow products to be sold in Judea and Samaria, and parts of Jerusalem. Ben & Jerry’s Israel CEO Avi Zinger told the Israeli business daily Globes that Unilever thought the uproar would blow over after a few weeks. “The opposite has happened, and processes that needed time to gain momentum are happening now— more and more states and institutions are withdrawing investments, state governors are publishing harsh declarations and withdrawing their money,” reported Zinger.

The company’s stock price has dropped about 12 percent in the past few months ever since a backlash erupted over its new sales policy.

According to the report, the moves against Unilever began with removing the investment in Unilever by seven U.S. states that have massive pension fund investments. New York had pension fund holdings of $100 million in the company’s shares; another 33 states are considering taking similar measures. Attorney generals from 12 states wrote to Unilever CEO Alan Jope last week expressing their concern over the boycott.

Earlier this year, several U.S. Ben & Jerry’s franchisees wrote to the company calling on them to rescind their July 19 decision.

Last month, four congressmen urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Unilever should amend its regulatory filings to reflect the potential risks shareholders face over the ice-cream maker’s decision to boycott Israeli settlements.

NY Times updates style guide to ‘antisemitism,’ losing the hyphen (JTA) — The New York Times has updated its style guide and now favors the use of the spelling “antisemitism” over “anti-Semitism.”

The change was made in August but was only announced publicly on Dec. 7. The spelling of the term has been the subject of debate for years. One of the loudest voices for dropping the hyphen has been Deborah Lipstadt, the historian who was recently nominated by the Biden administration as the State Department’s antisemitism envoy. Lipstadt has argued that keeping the hyphen and capital “S” implies the existence of a racial category called “Semite” that obscures actual hatred of Jews. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and the AntiDefamation League also support the hyphenless version.

Earlier this year, the Associated Press updated its style guide, which is used by 8

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media around the world, including this one, to adopt the hyphen-less version of the word.

JTA followed suit and The Times adopted the change in August, which it announced in a memo to editors at the paper. “We are dropping the hyphen and lowercasing the S, which is now the style of The Associated Press and is preferred by many academics and other experts. Those who favor antisemitism argue that the hyphenated form, with the uppercase S, may inadvertently lend credence to the discredited notion of Jews as a separate race,” the memo stated.

NYPD: Hate crimes double in year, many markedly antisemitic (JNS) The New York City Police Department released statistics on Wednesday indicating that hate crimes have doubled in a single year. Of the nearly 500 hate crimes reported in the city as of November, some 180 were antisemitic in nature. The total is up from 121 incidents the year before and accounts for the largest number of hate crimes against any group. Scott Richman, NY/NJ regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, said “it’s alarming that in the past seven weeks alone, we have had to issue five reward offers asking for information about violent antisemitic incidents. Hate crimes affect entire communities, not just the victims. This trend is unacceptable, and we cannot let this hate become normalized.”

Evan Bernstein, national director and CEO of the Community Security Services, which trains volunteers to help secure synagogues and Jewish communal institutions, said, “We are tremendously fortunate to have the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force in our city that deeply understands the sensitivity around anti-Jewish bias. The numbers keep telling us the same thing: We must continue to ensure the highest level of security and safety for institutions. From a communal perspective, we remain laser-focused on empowering the Jewish community to take a more proactive role in this realm.”

Illinois inmates face murder, hate-crime charges for killing Jewish inmate (JNS) Two prison inmates in Illinois who are members of a white-supremacist group were indicted by a federal grand jury on Fec. 7, for beating a Jewish inmate to death.

Brandon “Whitey” Simonson, 37, and Kristopher “No Luck” Martin, 39, were each charged with conspiracy to commit murder, second-degree murder, a hate crime and assault resulting in serious bodily injury in connection to the death of fellow inmate Matthew Phillips, 31.

Both men, who are incarcerated at Thompson Penitentiary in Illinois, were part of a group called the Valhalla Bound Skinheads. On March 2, 2020, they conspired to assault Phillips because he was Jewish,

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according to the indictment in Rockford, Ill. Martin and Simonson repeatedly struck Phillips in the upper body, face and head, and continued to do so even after the victim became defenseless, the charges stated.

Phillips was imprisoned for distributing heroin and money laundering. Simonson and Martin face life in prison for the conspiracy to commit murder, second-degree murder and hate-crime charges, while the maximum sentence for the assault charge is 10 years.

Arraignments have not been scheduled yet.

Poll: 51% of Israelis would support attack on Iran without US go-ahead (JNS) A recent poll of the Israeli public found that 51 percent of respondents would support an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites without an American green light. The poll, conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute and published on Wednesday, also found that 18 percent of the sample did not know how to answer the question, and 31 percent said they thought an American green light would be necessary before a strike.

Only 18 percent of Israeli Arabs agreed that Israel should attack without American consent. In addition, while a majority on the political right agreed with the idea of an Israeli strike without U.S. consent, and half of the respondents in the center agreed with the statement, only a little more than a third on the left taking that position. “A certain majority of the public as a whole sees Iran as constituting a great existential danger to Israel,” the institute stated. “This majority is similar to the rate of those who thought so when we asked a similar question about half a year ago. The rate of Jews who see Iran as an existential danger is significantly higher than the rate among Arab citizens of Israel.”

Pop singer Pink lights menorah with her kids (JNS) Three-time Grammy winner Pink shared a video on Instagram of her lighting the Chanukah menorah with her two children. The 42-year-old, whose real name is Alecia Beth Moore, posted a clip on Friday, Dec. 3 of her son Jameson Moon, 4, lighting the menorah as the Jewish singer and her daughter Willow, 10, together recite the traditional blessing that is sung when lighting the candles. After finishing the prayer, the three give each other high fives before shouting, “Happy Chanukah!” Pink stumbled a bit with the words of the Hebrew blessing and captioned the post, “Happy Chanukah (I mess up the words to every song I sing). I wish everyone peace in their hearts.”

The singer, who has talked about her Jewish identity on social media, shares Willow and Jameson with her husband Carey Hart, whom she married in 2006.

Also on Friday, the pop-rock band Haim, which consists of Jewish sisters Este, Danielle and Alana Haim, released a rendition of Adam Sandler’s popular “Chanukah Song”

by updating his lyrics to mention more celebrities who celebrate the Jewish holiday, such as actors Maya Rudolph, Rashida Jones, and Eugene and Dan Levy. They also feature celebrities who are half-Jewish, including Timothée Chalamet and Doja Cat. The song was shared on their Twitter and Instagram accounts. Shortly after they posted the clip, Sandler retweeted the video and wrote, “Love you ladies! You are three badass jews! See you on tour!”

Israel plans for 400 selfdriving electric taxis in 2022 (JNS) Israel presented a draft law by the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety on Tuesday that would allow 400 self-driving electric taxis to operate in the country as early as next year. Avner Flor, an official at the Transportation Ministry, said 640 Israeli startups were working on autonomous vehicles with the goal of zero road accidents, coupled with reduced emissions and highway congestion, reported Reuters. “In the next decade, these vehicles will be mainly used for public transportation and less for private vehicles,” he told lawmakers in the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee. Flor also noted that 40 self-driving cars were already on the roads and that other self-driving cars are also being tested in Israel. Intel’s Mobileye unit is one of the companies developing self-driving cars.

Vandals tear through Chabad House in Kansas City, Mo. (JNS) Police in Kansas City, Mo., continue to search for the vandal or vandals responsible for destroying a Chabad center in the city.

Chabad on the Plaza was vandalized last week with electrical wires damaged, water lines broken, and items torn and strewn everywhere. The ark was found open, though the Torah was still inside. The space was deemed completely unusable.

According to the Kansas City Police Department, on Nov. 30 at around 1:15 a.m., a caller reported a prowler around the building.

The caller told police that he had seen an “unknown suspicious black SUV parked near the dispatched location and heard glass break in the immediate area.” The caller then saw the vehicle leave.

“This is an active investigation, and I do not have any updates at this time,” the police spokesperson told JNS. “We have full faith in the local authorities to get to the bottom of this,” said Rabbi Yitzchak “Itche” Itkin, director of Chabad on the Plaza. After notifying the police, Itkin took to social media, writing: “There is nothing more disturbing than walking into the Chabad House for an early-morning Torah class and finding the place torn up. Papers and books everywhere, electric wires ripped out, plumbing cut with water pouring everywhere.

That was my reality this week.” He also posted photos showing the extent of the damage and announced a fundraising campaign to rebuild. jewishledger.com

Within hours, tens of thousands of dollars had been pledged with the campaign closing on Sunday, Dec. 5, having raised more than $91,000, almost double the funds needed.

Though there has been no motive identified, the Anti-Defamation League Heartland branch said, “The targeting of this house of worship, especially during the festive holiday of Hanukkah, is particularly distributing and inflicts concern and fear in the larger community.”

As for Chabad on the Plaza, it went ahead with its planned events, including Shabbat services in a temporary space and a large outdoor Chanukah event on Sunday; all with the encouragement of the greater Kansas City community. “It is extremely heartwarming to see the outpouring of love from all parts of the community,” said Itkin. “It just shows how much good and light there is in the world.”

Bay Area Muslim leader warns about ‘polite Zionists’ (JTA) — A Muslim civil rights attorney who leads the San Francisco office of CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, is drawing sharp criticism, including accusations of antisemitism, from local and national Jewish organizations after a Nov. 27 speech. Zahra Billoo’s speech, which drew attention after excerpts were republished by the Israel-advocacy website Israellycool on Dec. 2, implored attendees gathered at a pro-Palestinian conference in Chicago to vigorously oppose not only extreme right-wing forces, but also “polite Zionists,” including the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Federations, Hillel and “Zionist synagogues.” “When we talk about Islamophobia, we think oftentimes about the vehement fascists,” Billoo said. “But I also want us to pay attention to the polite Zionists. The ones that say, ‘Let’s just break bread together. They are not your friends,” she said.

In the speech, delivered at an annual conference of American Muslims for Palestine, Billoo described a well-funded campaign to bolster Islamophobia around the world and an interconnected network of Zionist-supporting organizations working to harm Muslims. She also repeated an unsupported claim, one that circulates among some activist groups, that “police officers in the United States who kill unarmed black men, women and children are trained by the Israeli military.”

A number of Jewish organizations offered harsh criticisms of her comments, saying they echoed antisemitic tropes of Jewish power and control. The ADL’s national director Jonathan Greenblatt issued a searing rebuke on Twitter, calling them “textbook vile, antisemitic, conspiracy-laden garbage attacking the mainstream US Jewish community.”

The San Francisco-based office of the Jewish Community Relations Council also excoriated the speech in a statement, calling it “antisemitic and deplorable, seeking to divide and besmirch efforts at cooperation and coexistence.”

Billoo said during the speech she does not jewishledger.com

support a two-state solution to the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. “Allah has promised us victory,” said Billoo.

Billoo, a member of CAIR since 2009, was recently named a Pioneer in Justice fellow, a five-year program for social justice advocates, by the S.F.-based Levi Strauss Foundation.

This is not Billoo’s first time drawing scrutiny from Jewish and pro-Israel groups.

In 2019 Billoo became one of a handful of Women’s March organizers who either left or were removed from organizing roles amid claims of anti-Israel animosity and antisemitism. Her removal came after criticism from the ADL and others stemming from a 2015 tweet in which she wrote: “I’m more afraid of racist Zionists who support Apartheid Israel than of the mentally ill young people the #FBI recruits to join ISIS.” This story was originally published in J. The Jewish News of Northern California, and is republished with permission.

‘Jeopardy!’ devotes category to Yiddish theater (JTA) — In recent years, Yiddish theater has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence, with Yiddish-language performances wowing audiences in New York, online and, last month, Stockholm. But perhaps its biggest audience yet came on last Thursday night when “Jeopardy!” devoted an entire category to it. In its Double Jeopardy round.

It was Ed Hashima, a professor of history at American River College in Sacramento, California, who correctly responded to four of the five clues. He identified one play as the Yiddish “King Lear,” named the Jewish holiday of Purim as being tied to Yiddish theater’s origins, and answered that Marlon Brando’s acting teacher was Stella Adler, who grew up in a family of Yiddish theater royalty.

Hashima also revealed a “Daily Double” in the category. A smile broke across his face as host Mayim Bialik read the clue: “A surprise New York hit in 2018 was a Yiddish-language ‘Fiddler on the Roof’: This song becomes ‘Ben Ikh Bin a Rotshild.” The response:“If I Were a Rich Man.” One clue stumped all of the contestants.

“The play ‘Chantzhe in Amerika’ is about a woman wanting to learn this modern play; ‘How I Learned To’ do it is a non-Yiddish play,” Bialik read. The correct response: “What is ‘Drive,’” referring to the classic work by Paula Vogel, the Jewish playwright whose own passion for Yiddish theater has been a galvanizing force in her recent work.

Speaking recently with the Harvard Divinity Bulletin about her play “Indecent,” which incorporates scenes written by the classic Yiddish playwright Sholem Asch, Vogel offered an insight about why Jeopardy’s nonJewish contestants might be so knowledgeable about this niche entertainment. “Yiddish is a language of yearning, a language of anxiety.

I believe we’ve worked hard to communicate that love to the audiences,” she said.

“Audiences have said they feel the emotion we are trying to convey.”

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

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

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

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

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

HKC

‫כשר‬

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

L IKE U S ON

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DECEMBER 17, 2021

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IN MEMORIAM Jewish leaders mourn the passing of World War II hero, US Senator Bob Dole

BY DMITRIY SHAPIRO

(JNS) Former longtime Kansas Republican senator, leader and 1996 GOP nominee for president Bob Dole died on Sunday, Dec. 5 at the age of 98.

Dole’s death was announced by the Elizabeth Dole Foundation on Sunday morning, saying that Dole died in his sleep after it became known early this year that he had stage IV lung cancer.

His passing was met with words of respect from a bipartisan swath of the Jewish community.

Dole was the recipient of the Jewish Federations of North America’s 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award, recognized for his bipartisan work on the Americans with Disabilities Act during a Jewish Disability Advocacy Day. Although Dole was unable to attend the JDAD ceremony to receive his award in person, he wrote a letter thanking JFNA for the honor, saying that the act was a great example of what leaders from both sides working together can accomplish.

JFNA tweeted on Monday, Dec. 6 that it mourned the statesman’s passing.

The Anti-Defamation League also recalled Dole with admiration for the American leader.

“ADL mourns the passing of former Sen. Bob Dole, a valiant fighter for disability rights from his leadership in passing the Americans with Disabilities Act to his support for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. May his memory be a blessing,” the organization tweeted on Sunday.

“May Sen. Dole’s memory forever be a blessing,” the Republican Jewish Coalition also tweeted.

“Sadly, the passing of Bob Dole marks the passing of an era of political leadership in this country based on patriotism, love of country, honor, decency and a commitment to public service,” said RJC executive director Matt Brooks. “Bob Dole represented the best that this country has to offer—whether it was on the battlefield in World War II or serving the American people in Congress.

“He really was a man of principle; he was a man who stood up for what was right; and above all, he put country above partisanship,” continued Brooks. “That is one of the things that we sorely miss today. There are too many people putting partisanship over country; hopefully, Dole’s legacy will be an example going forward of what we should strive for.”

AIPAC tweeted that Dole was an American hero who gave his life to the nation: “Sen. Dole was an outspoken supporter of security assistance to Israel and was the lead sponsor of the Jerusalem Embassy Act.” Mort Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, told JNS that he worked with Dole to pass the Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995, which recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and ordered the U.S. embassy to be moved there from Tel Aviv, which eventually occurred in May 2018 during the Trump administration.

At first, he said, few senators supported the bill.

He and former Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) visited Dole, who at the time was running for president, to convince him to support the bill. Because of Dole’s agreement, more senators and Jewish organizations joined to support the measure.

“Although Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona deserves tremendous credit for the bill to move the embassy, it would never have happened without Robert Dole’s support and lobbying. Dole was the key to having made this happen. If Dole didn’t support it, we wouldn’t have this bill. So he deserves credit for it,” said Klein.

William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, who worked for Dole in 1996, said he was saddened to hear of the news and that Dole was a “war hero whose passing marks the end of an era.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said he was saddened by Dole’s passing, calling him a war hero and true friend of Israel.

Received two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star Robert Joseph Dole was born in Russell, Kansas, on July 22, 1923, the son of the owners of a small creamery. After graduating from high school, he went on to study at the University of Kansas, where he was recruited to play on the school’s basketball team. He was also a member of the school’s track and football teams.

His stint at the university was

WORLD WAR II VETERAN AND LONGTIME SENATOR BOB DOLE RECEIVES THE CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL AT A CEREMONY AT THE U.S. CAPITOL IN WASHINGTON, D.C., ON JAN. 17, 2018.

CREDIT: OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY SHEALAH CRAIGHEAD.

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interrupted by World War II when he enlisted to serve in the U.S. Army Enlisted Reserve Corps in 1942.

He was seriously wounded in combat in Italy in 1945 when a German shell struck his upper back and right arm, shattering his collar bone and part of his spine. He was at first left for dead by fellow soldiers due to the extent of his injuries.

Paralyzed from the neck down, he was transported to a military hospital near Kansas, where he was expected to die of his injuries. He recovered with the help of a then-experimental drug and multiple surgeries but would forever have limited mobility in his right arm and numbness in his left arm. He was medically discharged from the Army in 1947, receiving two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star with a “V” for valor.

Dole then attended the University of Arizona and Washburn University where he completed his bachelor’s and law degrees.

After serving in the Kansas state legislature and as county attorney, Dole was elected to Congress in 1960 and was re-elected three more times.

In 1968, he defeated primary and general election opponents to win an open seat in the U.S. Senate, to which he was re-elected four times, serving as GOP leader for 11 years before resigning in 1996 to focus on a run for president.

He ran unsuccessfully as vicepresidential running mate to incumbent President Gerald Ford in 1974, and, after two unsuccessful attempts in 1984 and 1988, became the Republican presidential nominee in 1996. At 73, Dole was the last presidential nominee of either major party to have served in World War II. Dole lost to incumbent Democratic President Bill Clinton, who captured 49.2 percent of the vote to Dole’s 40.7 percent and Independent candidate Ross Perot’s 8.4 percent.

After his election defeat, Dole spent part of his time as a lobbyist and was involved in a number of volunteer organizations. He was heavily involved in raising funds for the National World War II Memorial.

In the 2016 GOP primaries—after his first two choices of presidential candidates former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) dropped out of the race—Dole became the only former GOP presidential nominee to endorse thencandidate Donald Trump.

In January 2018, Dole was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal at a ceremony in the U.S Capitol. jewishledger.com

AROUND CONNECTICUT JFS of Greater New Haven appoints 2 new staff Alissa Wurtzel, LCSW, and Elanit Kayne Linder, LMSW, have been appointed to the staff of Jewish Family Service of Greater New Haven, it was announced recently by a spokesperson for the agency.

Wurtzel will serve as the JFS of Greater New Haven clinical mental health director for both the Child and Adult Outpatient Clinics. Having served the mental health and behavioral needs of Connecticut residents for the past 20 years, she brings with her experience working in individual, family, and group ALISSA WURTZEL, therapy, with clients LCSW ages four to 107. She describes her strength as teaching people about the impact that stressors and stimuli have on human beings, and she encourages individuals and groups to use their intuition and uniqueness to identify solutions.

Before joining JFS, Wurtzel worked in trauma informed care, EMDR, medical social work, Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT), and co-occurring disorders, and with hospice patients and their families, in community health clinics, the Connecticut Army National Guard. She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the University of Connecticut.

Linder has been appointed the Jewish Family Service of Greater New Haven aging adult and community outreach coordinator.

“I’m invigorated to be joining JFS at a time when the geriatric program is expanding as are the geriatric needs of our community.

I look forward to rolling out the JFS ELANIT KAYNE LINDER, LMSW Care Navigators Care Management Program,” said Linder, who will lead a comprehensive JFS program that provides needs and psychosocial assessments, care planning, advocacy, linkage to community resources, weekly check–in calls and collaboration with family members.

Linder, who earned her bachelors degree at TISCH School of the Arts at New York University and her masters at Columbia University School of Social Work, has extensive experience working with older adults, including experience as an assisted living memory care director, director of recreation, and clinical community liaison in various facilities. jewishledger.com

Southern New England sets records for Jewish National FundUSA Jewish National Fund-USA’s (JNF-USA) professional team and lay leadership in Southern New England announced recently that the organization has achieved a record-high fundraising result, with the greater New England community donating $11.4 million to the philanthropy’s equally record-breaking $120 million 2021 national campaign in support of the land and people of Israel. The unprecedented fundraising result represents a three-fold increase over total donations received in New England in 2020.

“No single organization better represents my desire to help the land and people of Israel more than JNF-USA,” said JNF-USA Southern New England Board president, David Peskin.

JNF-USA’s Southern New England Board of Directors’ campaign chair and co-founder, Eric Berg, added that JNFUSA has “an inspiring vision and strategy in promoting the development of the underpopulated Negev in the South and the Galilee in the North. Working with their numerous affiliates across the country, JNF USA is enriching the lives of so many Israelis by being at the forefront of agricultural innovation, water conservation, promoting job creation, making Israel a more inclusive society for people with

special needs, the building of fortified playgrounds, medical and resilience centers and so much more.”

Jewish National Fund-USA CEO Russell F. Robinson added: “The Jewish community in New England has always been there for Israel, and the fact that we recently established an official JNFUSA Board in this region is exciting. We have so many passionate, dedicate, and philanthropically minded partners (donors) throughout the region who continue to raise their hands and say: ‘yes! I want to be part of this movement.’ And because of them, we are there for young people with

disabilities; families looking to build new lives in the Negev and Galilee; American teens seeking to discover their connection to their ancestral soil; job seekers looking for employment through our Lauder Employment Center; and small businesses in the Negev and Galilee.”

JNF-USA’s National Conference is scheduled to take place in Boston Nov. 4-6, 2022.

For more information about JNF-USA in Southern New England, contact Dar Nadler at dnadler@jnf.org or call (617) 423.0999 x816. To make a donation, visit jnf.org/ donate.

AT A RECENT JNF-USA GET-TOGETHER ARE: (L TO R) DEBBIE AND DAVID PESKIN, ERIC BARKER, ERIC BERG, AND SHARON COHEN.

Trinity Hillel commemorates Kristallnacht Trinity College’s Hillel organization commemorated Kristallnacht, the “Night of the Broken Glass,” with a special program held Nov. 9 at the school. The program featured a screening of the Emmynominated documentary “Nobody Wants Us,” which tells the story of a shipload of

Jewish refugees who were allowed into the United States despite isolationist, anti-refugee and antisemitic sentiments.

The film also explored how the U.S. responded to Jews fleeing war-torn Europe and encouraged viewers to consider the country’s response to refugees today.

The screening was followed by a panel discussion with filmmaker Laura Seltzer-Duny, former Afghan refugee Alia Seraj, and director of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services Chris George, moderated by Richard Weingarten (’68).

AT THE COMMEMORATION: (L TO R) HILLEL DIRECTOR LISA KASSOW (LEFT), AADIV SHETH (’22) AND HANIFA DARISHN (’22), LAURA SELTZER-DUNY, ALIA SERAJ, OHRA MORAD (’22), RICHARD WEINGARTEN (’68), AND CHRIS GEORGE.

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The 9 greatest Jewish sp

BY JACOB GURVIS AND EMILY BURACKC

(JTA) — For Jewish sports fans, it can sometimes feel as if simply having star Jewish athletes to root for is a miracle.

Yet despite antisemitic stereotypes to the contrary, Jewish athletes have achieved some pretty incredible accomplishments.

So, even though Chanukah 5782 is now behind us, let’s take a moment to celebrate Jewish sport miracles from history. We picked one for each of the holiday’s eight nights, plus one for the shamash, the candle that lights them all. (Hint: It’s an extra special moment from Jewish sports history, one that has cast a long shadow over the Jewish athletes who have carried the mantle since.)

Our only criteria? Each Jewish sports moment had to feel miraculous — think underdogs, defying all odds, incredible feats of athletic skill.

These nine moments — not ranked in any order — felt right to highlight, but there are of course so many more that could have potentially made the cut.

Some honorable mentions include: • In 1945, Hank Greenberg became the first Major League Baseball player to return from service in World War II. He homered in his first game back.

• In 2004 and 2016, the whiz-kid baseball executive Theo Epstein led the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs to historic curse-breaking World Series championships, ending an 86-year and 108year title drought.

1: Sue Bird at the buzzer in 2001 Close your eyes. It’s the Big East Tournament Championship in March 2001, between two women’s college basketball powerhouses: the University of Connecticut Huskies and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. With a few seconds left to play, star Jewish guard Sue Bird grabs the ball from a free throw rebound and sprints down the court. She stops inside the paint and shoots a fadeaway that gives the Huskies the win at the buzzer.

Though the Huskies would go on to lose the NCAA Championships that year — in a stinging defeat to eventual winners Notre Dame in the semifinals — Bird’s buzzerbeater has gone down in history as one of the best shots of all time. There’s an entire book about it, titled “Bird at the Buzzer,” JEWISH LEDGER

UCONN GUARD SUE BIRD (JAMIE SCHWABEROW/ NCAA PHOTOS VIA GETTY IMAGES)

published by sports writer Jeff Goldberg (not The Atlantic editor) in 2011. Bird would go on to help UConn win the NCAA title in 2002, become the first pick of the WNBA draft that same year, and have a storied career — one that includes four WNBA championships, five Olympic gold medals and so much more.

Her dominance in women’s basketball has been so consistent that it’s easy to forget how miraculous she has been. But her buzzer beater in 2001? Definitely still looks like a miracle.

3: Linoy Ashram becomes the 3rd Israeli to win gold at the Olympics, by .15 of a point in 2021 At the postponed Tokyo Olympics, Israeli gymnast Linoy Ashram made history, by the narrowest of margins. The 22-yearold won gold in the all-around rhythmic gymnastics competition, breaking a streak of Russian gold medalists since the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Ashram narrowly beat out her Russian competitor, scoring just .15 of a point higher than Dina Averina. The Russian Olympic Committee called the result an “injustice” and submitted an official inquiry.

On Sept. 19, 2020, Jewish tennis player Diego Schwartzman achieved the nearly impossible: He defeated the “King of Clay” Rafael Nadal on a clay court, in the Italian Open quarterfinals. In their 10th meeting, Schwartzman stunned Nadal in straight sets after losing his nine previous matches to the Spanish player who has dominated the surface like no other tennis player in history.

Nadal has won a record 13 French Open titles, the grand slam played on clay, and 62 of his 88 ATP singles titles on the surface.

Schwartzman, 29, is immensely popular in

LINOY ASHRAM

The International Gymnastics Federation dismissed any allegations of unfair judging.

Ashram became the first Israeli woman to ever win a gold medal, and an instant celebrity in her native country. “I was especially proud of the fact that I could prove to others that even though this sport [has been] dominated by Eastern Europeans, I could win it and I could bring something new to it. And it’s not a given fact Eastern European athletes [win],” Ashram told JTA. If .15 of a point isn’t a miracle, what is?

4: Julian Edelman’s catch in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LI in 2017 DIEGO SCHWARTZMAN (RICCARDO ANTIMIANI/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES)

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wrong. No game encapsulated that better than Super Bowl LI, on Feb. 5, 2017.

With his New England Patriots down 28-20 with 2:28 left in the fourth quarter (they had been down 28-3), Edelman reeled in one of the greatest catches in Super Bowl history. (Watch it here.)

During what would become the gametying drive, Edelman fought off three Atlanta Falcons defenders to make a miraculous

JULIAN EDELMAN (EZRA SHAW/GETTY IMAGES)

2: Diego Schwartzman defeats the “King of Clay” — on clay — in 2020

• In 1977, the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team defeated the Soviet Union’s “Red Army” team on its way to winning the FIBA European Champions Cup — declaring “We are on the map!”

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his hometown Argentine Jewish community and is undeniably the world’s best Jewish tennis player right now.

After the match, Schwartzman called it “my best tennis ever.” And he was right. It’s a match we won’t forget for a long time.

Julian Edelman was used to having doubters.

The undersized wide receiver played every snap of his 12-year NFL career with a chip on his shoulder, constantly proving others

catch in the middle of the field, one that seems more improbable with each replay.

Tom Brady’s pass was swatted in the air by a Falcons cornerback, causing Edelman and three defenders to collide into a pile on the ground, limbs pointing in all directions, with each player trying to find the football.

Edelman somehow kept his concentration and got his hands around the ball, weaving through the arms and legs of his opponents to grip Brady’s 23-yard pass. Even a last-second bobble wasn’t enough to break Edelman’s focus.

Edelman finished the game with five receptions for 87 yards, as the Patriots completed the largest comeback in Super Bowl history, defeating the Falcons 34-28.

“There’s something we say around here: You gotta believe,” Edelman said after the game. “And that’s what we kept on saying.

You gotta believe; you gotta believe; you gotta believe.”

5: Aly Raisman makes an epic Olympic comeback as captain of the U.S.gymnastics Final Five team At the 2012 London Olympics, gymnast Aly Raisman became a Jewish sports legend when she performed her floor routine to “Hava Nagila” — and won gold. She became the first American woman to win a gold medal in the floor category and also helped the American jewishledger.com

port miracles of all time team win gold. “I take a lot of pride in being able to not only represent the USA, but also the Jewish community everywhere,” Raisman said at the time.

After the Games, most figured her Olympic career was over — gymnasts rarely compete on the world’s biggest stage into their 20s. She was injured and took a break from competing, attending Babson College for a year in 2013. In October 2014, however, she started training again.

And her comeback was swift: She was named to the 2016 U.S. Olympic Women’s gymnastics team, becoming one of only two U.S. women — alongside Gabby Douglas — to make back-to-back Olympic gymnastics teams since 2000.

So why a miracle? There was her age — at 22 in Rio, she was the oldest member of Team USA. “I’m happy I proved everyone wrong,”

ALY RAISMAN (IAN MACNICOL/GETTY IMAGES)

Raisman said at the Games.

But as we found out a little over a year after the Rio Olympics, Raisman had also been a victim of sexual abuse by Olympic physician Larry Nassar. Not only did she have the strength to return to the Olympics — knowing what she had faced at the last Games — she became one of the strongest voices speaking out against Nassar in the years following.

Raisman is a true heroine.

game winning streak in the international tournament, beating several of the top-ranked teams in the world.

Team Israel swept the opening round of the WBC, beating world No. 3 South Korea, No. 4 Chinese Taipei, and No. 9 the Netherlands. Israel then beat Cuba to open the second round, before losing to the Netherlands and Japan.

The team’s Cinderella run was captured

BLAKE GAILEN (YUKI TAGUCHI/WBCI/ MLB VIA GETTY IMAGES)

in a 2018 documentary, “Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel.” The movie follows the team from the qualifying round in Brooklyn to the group’s trip to Israel, where they toured historic sites and dedicated a new baseball field in Beit Shemesh. Israel automatically qualified for the 2021 World Baseball Classic — which was postponed due to COVID-19 — and would go on to compete in the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

For six days in March 2017, Team Israel was on top of the world. (Their trusty mascot, a lifesize Mensch on the Bench, enjoyed the ride too.)

7: Mark Spitz wins seven gold medals in the 1972 Olympics

as the Munich Massacre, 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were held hostage and killed by Palestinian terrorists.

But those summer games also saw one of the most dominant runs of any Olympic athlete: Jewish swimmer Mark Spitz won seven gold medals, setting a world record in each competition. He won the 100-meter freestyle, 200-meter freestyle, 100-meter butterfly, 200-meter butterfly, 4×100-meter freestyle relay, 4×200-meter freestyle relay, and 4×100-meter medley relay. Spitz’s seven gold medals in one Olympics set a record, which stood for a fitting 36 years (chai x 2!), until Michael Phelps’ eight golds in 2008.

After his incredible performance, Spitz left Munich early as a precautionary measure as a result of the violence. He then retired following the 1972 Olympics at the young age of 22. He finished his career with nine Olympic gold medals plus five golds at the 1967 Pan American Games, and 10 at multiple Maccabiah Games.

8: Annie Cohen Kopchovksy bikes around the world in 1894 In June 1894, at age 23, Annie Cohen Kopchovksy set off from her home in Boston, leaving her husband and three small children, to journey around the world — by bicycle. A Jewish immigrant from Latvia, she called herself Annie Londonderry after her sponsor, the Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Company of New Hampshire. And while she likely didn’t quite circumnavigate every inch

ANNIE COHEN

The 1972 Munich Olympics had the highest of highs and the lowest of lows for Jewish sports fans. In what is now commonly referred to

women it inspired or empowered,” her greatgreat nephew Peter Zheutlin wrote in his book “Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry’s Extraordinary Ride.”

“But Annie’s journey epitomized perfectly the confluence of the women’s movement and the bicycle craze and is, therefore, a small but revealing chapter in the story of women at the turn of the century.”

A miraculous chapter in Jewish athletic history.

9: The shamash: Sandy Koufax and the 1965 World Series In the long and rich history of Jews and sports, there remains one player, one moment, one feat, that eclipses them all. The cherry on top. The icing on the cake. The shamash on our Jewish sports chanukiah: Sandy Koufax and the 1965 World Series.

The undeniable greatest in the Jewish sports pantheon, and one of the most talented pitchers in baseball history, Koufax is perhaps best known for that game he didn’t pitch.

After a dominant 1965 season — for which he would win his second Cy Young Award — Koufax famously declined to pitch Game 1 of the World Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers, because it fell on Yom Kippur.

That’s right: the best pitcher on the planet wouldn’t pitch in a World Series game because of his Jewish faith. Dayenu.

But the miracles didn’t stop there. Koufax would go on to pitch Game 2, holding the Minnesota Twins to two runs over six innings, while striking out nine.

And that’s not all. On just two days of rest, Koufax took the mound for Game 7, and boy, did he pitch: Koufax hurled a complete game shutout, giving up just three hits while striking out 10. He was named World Series MVP. The best moment of the best Jewish player’s astonishing career. A true miracle.

6: Team Israel finishes sixth in the 2017 World Baseball Classic Entering the 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC), Team Israel was ranked 41st in the world — the ultimate underdog. ESPN called the squad “the Jamaican bobsled team of the WBC.” The team’s odds to win the tournament were 200-1. Talk about David vs.

Goliath. But the group, made up of mostly American Jewish ballplayers like Sam Fuld and Ty Kelly, pulled off an improbable fourjewishledger.com

MARK SPITZ (GETTY IMAGES)

of the globe by bike (she often traveled by boat from destination to destination), her journey took her around the entire world and was a huge accomplishment for women’s athletics.

“Truly there is no way to measure the impact of her adventure on the larger struggle for women’s equality — to know how many JEWISH LEDGER

SANDY KOUFAX (BETTMANN/CONTRIBUTOR/GETTY IMAGES)

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DECEMBER 17, 2021

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Ezra CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

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a better coach and certainly a better father because of him. I’m proud of how our other kids and my wife have dealt with our loss, proud of our community, and now I’m also proud that the kids of Israel who wanted to play but didn’t have a place will now be able to do so—and in Ezra’s name.”

There are also now a growing number of living memorials to Ezra—a group of little ones named after him, at least 20 of whom the Schwartzes know about, and whose exuberance would no doubt please their namesake.

With his wife Sarah, Rabbi Noah Cheses, who took the leadership of the family’s congregation, Young Israel of Sharon shortly after Ezra’s death, was among those who named a son Ezra. Nearly five years ago, Cheses spoke these words at their newborn’s brit milah: “Ezra was at his core an ozer, a ‘helper.’

He was a person who sized up any situation in terms of the needs that others had and how he could help address those needs. We want our son to be, at his core, a helper— someone who can be counted upon to lend a hand, to pitch in without being asked to do so. Our goal in choosing this name is to make a statement about our hopes and dreams for our little guy.”

The rabbi then had a vision: “We hope that all these Ezras, when they get to Israel in 18 years and their friends ask, ‘Why is everyone from Boston named Ezra?’ they will make a trip to the place where Ezra helped out and will say to their friends: ‘This is why we are called Ezra. Here walked a young man who was a uniquely caring friend. We carry his name and his legacy.’ ” That personal style impressed Noam Traum, who was a child growing up next door to the Schwartz family when Ezra was killed. “He was so much older than me, but he included me in every game,” says Noam, who is spending a gap year in Jerusalem and was on hand at the ceremony. “He never left us little kids out.”

Indeed, his Aunt Pam said when Ezra

would drop by their Ra’anana home for a visit, and afterwards, she’d thank him for spending so much time with his little cousins, he’d always say: “But that’s why I came.”

Now the children of Ra’anana are included in that spirit. “This field is a testament to who Ezra was; it’s a bridge between our new olim and the other Israeli families who are learning what baseball is all about, and between Ezra and his family, and the families in Ra’anana,” Mayor Chaim Broyde told JNS. “When I met his family, I felt their pain, and I knew this field was the right thing to do. With all the work that went into it, this field and baseball are Ezra’s legacy, and they will always tie us together.”

“Baseball is so familiar to our kids, and having it here makes them feel very much at home,” says Justin Pozmanter, a coach of the local Cadets baseball team, who four years ago made aliyah with his family from outside Washington, D.C. “It’s wonderful to now have an official baseball diamond for our kids and for the Israeli kids, too. It really brings the two groups together.”

Ezra’s mother hopes that her son’s philosophy transmits to the new Israeli players.

“Some kids have tantrums on the field when the game doesn’t go their way,” says Ruth Schwartz. “But Ezra never did. He was always calm and confident. And not only do all his brothers and sister play the game because of him, but today, his legacy has expanded tremendously, right here on this field. We hope every child who plays baseball here will feel Ezra’s cool, calm support and his love of baseball.”

“There’s no better way to keep his spirit alive than this,” adds his father. “Yes, I wish we could have one more catch, but this field is Ezra’s gift to every kid who will ever play here. A little spark of him will enter everyone who sets foot in this place that bears his name.”

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| DECEMBER 17, 2021

LITTLE EZRA SCHTAUBER (CENTER), ONE OF DOZENS OF KIDS NAMED FOR EZRA SCHWARTZ, HELD BY HIS MOTHER, ALIZA SCHTAUBER (NÉE MOR), WHO GREW UP IN SHARON, MASS.

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What’s New at the Mandell JCC Zachs Campus | 335 Bloomfield Ave. | West Hartford, CT 06117 | 860-236-4571 | www.mandelljcc.org

Zachs Campus | 335 Bloomfield Ave. | West Hartford, CT 06117 | 860-236-4571 | www.mandelljcc.org Everyone 12 and over, must be vaccinated to enter the JCC. All programming involving children under 12 will require masks be worn by everyone.

Welcome in 2022

Family Fun for All!

Saturday, January 8, 2022 | 5:30-6:45pm Together we will say good-bye to Shabbat with Havdalah and glow sticks led by Rabbi Bekah Goldman from Farmington Valley Jewish Congregation. The party continues in the gym with games led by Coach Thai and a rockin’ dance party with Sensei Dave.

FREE and open to all with a donation of individually wrapped snacks to be donated.

RSVP to Jane, jpasternak@mandelljcc.org

by January 6

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Repeated

by Popular Demand!

We are delighted to partner with our friends at The Osher Marin JCC (San Rafael, CA) to bring you

EXPLORING BROADWAY:

Fabulous “Fiddler”

Thursday, December 30 4:00-6:00pm (ET) | via Zoom

Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock’s beloved Fiddler on the Roof is widely considered the last of Broadway’s “Golden Age” musicals.

Before its premiere, some producers were concerned that it was “too Jewish” to attract mainstream audiences. However, the touching story and beautiful score proved to capture “the essential human longings for love, community, success, freedom, and family.”

For details, pricing & tickets, www.mandelljcc.org Tickets: $12.50, early bird price (before 12/21) Questions? Contact Sharon Holtzberg, sholtzberg@mandelljcc.org

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THE KOSHER CROSSWORD DEC. 17, 2021 Sleepy Time Classics

By: Yoni Glatt

Difficulty Level: Medium

Vol. 93 No. 51 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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Across 1. Slightly open 5. Impressive digs, perhaps 9. Relaxing locations 13. ___ Bora, Afghan region 14. Crooks’ alter egos 15. “Perry Mason” creator Stanley Gardner 16. 1982 classic by Stan and Jan Berenstain 18. Freeway, for instance 19. Dangerous trip for a leader 20. Not quite bite 21. Diploma word of honor 22. 1947 classic by Margaret Wise Moon

26. “Got milk?” response, perhaps 27. Most insignificant 28. Create an original website 31. Loughlin who didn’t have the best 2020 32. 1949 armistice locale: Abbr.

35. 1982 classic by Sandra Boynton, with “The” 39. Suppositions 40. Beer option 41. Negate 42. Do ghostly work 44. Windy City team, on scoreboards 46. 2002 modern classic by Kate

Banks 51. Suggestions 52. Bath 53. Cruella de ___ 55. A.C.L.U. part: Abbr.

56. Apt Jewish location for 16, 22, 35, and 46-Across?

59. Big name in plastic?

60. Where “Flaming” drinks were a craze in 90’s TV 61. Port near the Red Sea 62. “Esq.” user, briefly 63. Bad eye sight?

64. “The Thin Red Line” star Sean

Down 1. Cause of overtime 2. Mah-___ (tile game) 3. “Star Wars” droid, casually 4. Cheerleader’s shout 5. Sephardic cousin of Yiddish 6. Kosher striped animal 7. Quite a ways away 8. Sound made while shaking one’s head 9. Medical fluids 10. Marketing 11. Avis alternative 12. Kind of car 17. Root canal prefix 21. Prim and proper

23. The writing on the wall in Daniel, e.g.

24. “Daily Planet” logo 25. “Poh” 28. Type of graphics 29. “That’s rough, buddy” 30. Like many a politician, stereotypically 31. Get-rich-quick method that rarely works 33. Lay down new grass 34. Early Hollywood studio 36. Gorilla and Krazy 37. Minute 38. Engaged

43. Where most members of the lost tribes were led?

44. Big name in Scientology 45. Spud of NBA fame 46. Ancestor of Noach 47. Put a restriction on 48. Chase who was often booed at Citi Field 49. Avoid artfully 50. Mermaid 54. “24” actress Mary ___ Rajskub 56. Bennett and Bibi 57. Scribble 58. Genre of Israel’s Black

ANSWERS TO DEC. 10 CROSSWORD

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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.

BULLTETIN BOA Foundation for Jewish Camp receives $12 million grant

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 15 United Jewish Federation Annual Meeting in Stamford Guest speaker Archie Gottesman, co-founder of JewBelong.com and the woman behind the times square billboards calling out antisemitism, will speak about the recent rise of antisemitism at the United Jewish Federation Annual Meeting, on Dec. 15, 7:30 p.m., at Congregation Agudath Sholom, 301 Strawberry Hill Ave., Stamford. Also on the evening’s agenda: the installation of UJF of Board of Directors, the State of the Federation Address by David Gordon, and presentation of the Harvey Peltz Leadership Award recipient Seth Tobin. Virtual participation available. Reception to follow. Registration encouraged at ujf.org/annualmeeting21. For information: dianesloyer@ujf.org, (203) 321-1373.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19 Davis Film Fest presents “The Conductor” The Davis Film Festival present the drama “The Conductor” co-starring Lior Ashkenazi and Shira Haas. “Stream” tells the story of Noah, a world-renowned orchestra conductor who returns him to Petah Tikvah after 30 years, where he finds his father in a state of progressive Alzheimer’s with singing in the community choir as his only remaining joy. When the choir’s conductor dies, Noah decides to take his place…all the while, he is slowly going deaf. Sponsored

by UJA/JCC of Greenwich. Five episodes, streaming Dec. 19 through Jan. 16 at 9 p .m.

Tickets: 418

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23 Bluegrass in New Haven The Bluegrass Characters Revue will present “A Tribute to Phil Zimmerman and Stacy Phillips” at 7:30 pm on at Congregation Beth El - Keser Israel, 85 Harrison St. Also performing is Kol Kahol, a group of young musicians drawing inspiration from bluegrass musicians like Stacy Phillips, as well as contemporary Jewish bands such

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JEWISH LEDGER

“THE CONDUCTOR” AT THE DAVIS FILM FESTIVAL, DEC. 19.

as the Klezmatics, the Moshav Band, and Nefesh Mountain. Masks required; no food or beverages will be permitted. Admission is free, but the musicians will pass the hat.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 8 “Some of My Songs” with Mike Latini The JCC in Sherman presents “Some of My Songs,” a concert featuring Mike Latini with special guest Susanna Marker, on Jan. 8 at 7 p.m. (snow date: Jan. 15, 7 p.m.)

The concert will be held indoors at JCC in Sherman, 9 Rte. 39 South. Masks required, regardless of vaccination status. Reservation required: jccinsherman.org, info@ jccinsherman.org, (860) 355-8050. Tickets: $20/members; $25/non-members.

MONDAY, JANUARY 17 “Sublime Slime!” in Greenwich UJA-JCC Greenwich will host “Sublime Slime!” For children ages 3 and up on Zoom on Jan. 17 at 10:30 a.m. Led by Jaden of Jaden’s Craft Shack, kids will be able to customize slime color and scent. RSVP

by Jan. 5 to ujajcc.org. Fee: $25/includes complete slime kit (pick p kids Jan. 10-14 during business hours from UJA-JCC office.

security adviser, a program to help make Jewish Greenwich safer, more prepared and proactively responsive to antisemitic incidents. Tickets: $350 For more information or to register: ujajcc.org

SATURDAY JANUARY 29 “The City Without Jews,” film and musical presentation Jews are hounded by mobs and driven from Vienna in the 1924 expressionist film, “The City Without Jews,” based on the satirical novel by Hugo Bettauer. World-renowned musicians Alicia Svigals and Donald Sosin will play their collaborative score that has brought audiences to their feet at Lincoln Center, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, and other venues in the U.S. and Europe. To be held Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. The concert will be held indoors at the JCC in Sherman, 9 Rte. 39 South. Masks required, regardless of vaccination status. Reservation required: jccinsherman.org, info@ jccinsherman.org, (860) 355-8050. Tickets: $20/members; $25/non-members.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25 Men’s Paddle & Beer Night in Greenwich Hosted by UJA-JCC Greenwich, Men’s Paddle & Beer Night will be held by the Fire Pit at the new Innis Arden Paddle Hut in Greenwich. Proceeds will help fund the presence of the community’s new

| DECEMBER 17, 2021

Visit us online jewishledger.com

NEW YORK, New York—The Foundation for Jewish Camp (“FJC”) has been awarded a $12 million general operating grant, over the next four years, from the Jim Joseph Foundation in support of its revised strategic plan. This grant, which is part of a $67 million overall campaign, will help secure FJC’s ability to support the field of Jewish camp in its continued recovery from the pandemic and its expansion and enhancement of immersive Jewish experiences for an ever-increasing number of children, teens, and young adults each summer and year-round.

In 2019, FJC launched a five-year strategic plan to build adaptive capacity and accelerate innovation to help Jewish camps evolve and ensure long-term growth and sustainability.

During the COVID crisis, which created a $150 million funding gap for Jewish camps, FJC partnered with the philanthropic community to secure deficit funding, provided support and training to camp professionals and seasonal staff, and helped lead advocacy efforts on behalf of the field. With the approval of the FJC Board, this strategic plan has been extended two years.

FJC’s near-term focus is on rebuilding the pipelines of campers, counselors, and professionals; emphasizing character development across several dimensions to drive mental, emotional, and social well-being; and continuing to ensure the short- and longterm financial sustainability of camps in the system.

By mid-2023 as camps recover more completely from COVID, FJC anticipates returning to a variety of newer initiatives around adaptive talent, immersive learning, and field growth, supported by an enhanced environment of innovation, robust data, and research, and expanding its footprint to regional offices, as originally outlined in the 2019 pre-COVID plan.

Commenting on the grant, Barry Finestone, president and CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation said, “For nearly a quarter-century, FJC has been a central resource, advocate, convener, and catalyst for the field of Jewish camp. They execute, innovate, and adapt with excellence. FJC continues to be a crucial intermediary partner for the field of Jewish camping and the Jim Joseph Foundation is proud to partner with the FJC team as they execute their strategic For more information on Foundation for Jewish Camp, visit www. jewishcamp.org.

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DECEMBER 15 – JANUARY 29

TORAHPortion Vayechi

ARD Help save a life through Gift of Life Every three minutes, someone in the United States is diagnosed with a blood cancer such as leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society estimates that 186,400 people will receive this frightening news just this year.

While a bone marrow or blood stem cell transplant can serve as a cure for leukemia and other blood cancers, only 30 percent of patients have a matching donor in their families.

The remaining 70 percent must hope that a compatible stranger can be found through the global registry.

For the past 30 years, Gift of Life Marrow Registry, a nonprofit based in Boca Raton, Florida, has been working globally to find matching bone marrow and blood stem cell donors for patients battling nearly 100 diseases, including blood cancer, immune disorders and sickle cell.

The best chance of finding a matching donor is with people who share the same ethnicity and race—and Gift of Life was founded due to a lack of Jewish donors in the national registry when Jay Feinberg was 22 years old and unable find a match to cure his leukemia.

Determined to save his life, Feinberg’s family and friends set on a 4-year grassroots donor recruitment campaign, resulting in the enrollment of more than 60,000 new donors in the worldwide bone marrow registry. Feinberg eventually found his lifesaving match, and his diagnosis started the butterfly effect that became Gift of Life. Feinberg has never taken for granted the gift that his bone marrow donor gave to him.

Says Feinberg.,“Everyone has the power to spread light by joining the registry and giving the most precious gifts of all—hope and health.”

Today, under Feinberg’s leadership as founder and CEO, Gift of Life has grown into a multi-faceted organization that operates a global marrow and blood stem cell donor registry, donor collection center, cellular therapy laboratory and a soon-to-launch biotech entity. To date, the organization has a membership of nearly 400,000 individuals who have volunteered to save a life, and has facilitated more than 4,000 transplants.

Through many years of recruiting and partnerships with Jewish communities and organizations, Gift of Life has radically increased the rates of survival for patients of Jewish descent (from 5 to approximately 80 percent), and is working to do the same for other ethnicities and races.

Those between the ages of 18 and 35 and in

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H

BY RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

general good health can join Gift of Life’s Swab Sameach campaign that is dedicated to uniting the Jewish community with the common goal of saving lives. Joining the registry is simple and can be done with a quick and painless cheek swab.To get your free kit, visit www. giftoflife.org/swabsameach.

“Biblical Women: Emerging from the Margins through Midrash” topic of conversation in Greenwich UJA-JCC Greenwich will present a 10-session discussion on women of the Bible on Tuesdays, Jan. 11- May 24, 10-11:15 a.m., via Zoom and in person at UJA-Greenwich, 1 Holly Hill Lane.

Led by UJA-JCC Greenwich CEO Pam Ehrenkranz, the course will trace major female figures of the Bible through classic and modern midrashic commentary. Focusing on a dozen biblical heroines — some well known and some you may have never heard of — the course will take attendees behind the scenes to gain multiple perspectives on their lives, relationships, and choices, as we understand their roles in Jewish history and literature as full, well-rounded characters. Course cost: $295. For more information or to register, visit ujajcc.org or call (203) 552-1818. (For financial assistance, contact Pam Ehrenkranz at pam@ ujajcc.org.

Table of Contents Lesson 1 – Biblical Women and Midrash: An Introduction Lesson 2 – Chavah: Choice and Destiny Lesson 3 – Sarah: Hidden and Revealed Lesson 4 – Lot’s Wife and Daughters: Mortality and Eternity Lesson 5 – Rivkah: Continuity and Rupture

aving lived on the eastern seaboard of the United States for most of my life, I know the havoc wrought by a severe snowstorm.

Nevertheless, I am also very aware of the beauty of such snowstorms and especially by the beauty of each single snowflake.

The snowflake, held under a magnifying glass, is an exquisitely intricate and beautiful creation.

Furthermore, every snowflake is unique.

No two snowflakes are alike.

The uniqueness of each snowflake is but one example of an amazing fact, which is true of the entire natural world.

No two blades of grass are identical, no two leaves are exactly the same, and every individual member of every animal species is unique in some way.

This is true of human beings as well.

None of us has the same fingerprint, and no matter how closely one of us might resemble another, we are different from the other in some respect.

The Talmud recognizes this when it comments that “just as no two faces are alike, so too, no two personalities are alike.” We are different from each other physically, psychologically, intellectually, spiritually, and in every other way.

Any person who has parented several children knows that each child is different from the get-go. Mothers tell me that even while still pregnant with their children, they were aware of the potential differences that unfolded later in life.

Woe to the teacher who treats all of his students alike. The so-called cookie cutter method of education is doomed to failure. Each of us has different learning styles and differing intellectual strengths and weaknesses. The secret of successful pedagogy lies in the recognition of individual differences, and in the ability of the teacher to be flexible enough to adapt his or her lessons to each individual and his or her learning needs.

In this week’s Torah portion, Vayechi, we find that our patriarch Jacob was well aware of this secret.

Jacob blesses the two sons of Joseph, and later proceeds to bless each one of his sons, the twelve tribes. Reading these blessings, we cannot help but notice how each one is fundamentally different and seems tailor-made to the character traits and emotional makeup of each tribe.

Jacob blesses one son with power and dominion; another with agricultural wealth. One is compared to a lion, one to a wolf, and yet another to a serpent.

Jacob knows his children and knows how diverse and heterogeneous his family is. He knows how to bless them with the particular resources that they will need as they march forward, with varying talents and dispositions, into their historical roles.

The Bible underscores this when it summarizes the entire episode of the blessings with the following words: “All these were the tribes of Israel, twelve in number, and this is what their father said to them as he bade them farewell, addressing to each a blessing appropriate to him.” (Genesis 49:28) To each a different blessing, to each his own parting word.

The fact that each of us is uniquely gifted is a basic component of the thought of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who passed away more than 70 years ago, but whose written legacy keeps him very much alive.

Rav Kook insists that the very purpose of education is to help each person discover his or her own individuality, to learn what he or she can do best. Selfdiscovery, for Rav Kook, is the essence of the educational endeavor.

Rav Kook, besides being an educator, was also a mystic. From his mystical perspective, he views the world as being a unified whole, to which every individual is necessary, because each individual contributes something utterly unique to the cosmos.

Each snowflake is different from the other because the beauty of each snowflake is equally essential to nature’s beauty.

Each human being is unique because the contribution of every one of us is absolutely necessary for the accomplishment of humanity’s ultimate mission.

Like Jacob’s children, we all are uniquely blessed. Appreciating our uniqueness as that of every one of our fellow men is an essential component of Jewish spirituality.

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

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OBITUARIES Adam. She was predeceased by her sonin-law, Murray Oken, six sisters and one brother.

CASMAN Doreen (Kaplowe) Casman, 88, of Tucson, Ariz., formerly of West Haven and North Haven, has died. She was the widow of Burton “Burt” Casman. She was also predeceased by her son, David Michael Casman, who passed in March of 2021.

She was the daughter of Irving and Martha Kaplowe. She is survived by her children, Steven Howard Casman, Roberta Faith Patrick and her husband Mark, Mark Alan Casman and his wife Valerie, Robin Pozez and her husband Mitch, and Andrea Smith and her husband Bruce; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

LEVINE Mark Norman Levine, 81, of West Hartford, died Dec. 3. He was the husband of Shirley Levine. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Andrea Levine, and Eric Levine and his wife Wendy; and his grandchildren, Alexis and Tyler Levine.

FREEDMAN Helene “Sherry” Freedman if Delray Beach, Fla., formerly of West Hartford, died Dec. 5. She was the widow of Seymour Freedman. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., she was the daughter of the late Michael and Esther (Elkin) Angel. She was predeceased by her brothers, Jerry Angel and Henry Angel, her brother-in-law Jerry Levinson, and her sister-in-law Gloria Sack. She is survived by her children, Mark Freedman, Holly Berkon and her husband Alvin of Westbrook, and Amy Eisner and her husband Larry of Coventry; her grandchildren, Bethany, Eric, Emily and Ross; and her greatgrandchildren, Devon and Lincoln; and by Phyllis Levinson and Edward Sack. She was a founding member of Beth El Temple.

GORDON Joan (Lampert) Gordon, 91, of Farmington, formerly of Middletown, died Dec. 3. She was the widow of Jack Gordon. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., she was the daughter of the late Nathan and Frances Lampert.

She was a member of Congregation Adath Israel. She is survived by her daughters, Sheryl Oken and her fiancé Steve Kaplan of East Hampton, Nancy Raymond and her husband Michael of Chuluota, Fla., and Jill Weisenberg and her husband Neil; her grandchildren, Gregory, Erin, Kelly and

REITMAN Frieda Nassau Chalet Reitman, 93, of Gaithersburg, Md., formerly of Stamford, died Nov. 11. Born in New York, N.Y., she was the daughter of the Sadie (Blatter) and Robert Nassau. She was the wife of Julian Reitman, and the widow of Arnold (Arnie) Chaleff and Harold Tishkovich. She was also predeceased by her in-laws, and her halfsister Lillian Ray and her husband David.

She is survived by her children, Norman Chaleff and his wife Annelyse, Marc Reitman and his wife Ann Ginsberg, Beverly Rudman and her husband Richard, Randa Reitman and her spouse Jean Noel, and Madeline Chaleff and her husband David Arfin; her grandchildren, Michael, Aaron, Amanda, Nadine (Justin), Ethan, Ezra, Avi, Lauren (Jouke), Jason, Joshua, Nathan, and Jeremy; and her great-grandson, Oane.

SVEDLOW Andrew Jay Svedlow, 65, died Nov. 24.

He is survived by his partner Lisa Wolff; his brother Gerald Svedlow and his wife Cathy; his children Aaron Svedlow and his wife Stephanie, David Svedlow and his wife Claire, Hannah, Zoe, and Summer Svedlow; and his grandchildren Torin, Helen, Maeve, Adeline, and Josephine.

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

Ed Shames was ‘Band of Brothers’ vet who toasted son’s bar mitzvah with Hitler’s cognac

BY RON KAMPEAS

(JTA) –When Ed Shames described his Jewish self, he used the term “tough SOB.” Shames, the oldest surviving member of the legendary Easy Company parachute infantry regiment, could also have added “patient.”

Shames, who died Dec. 3 at age 99 at his home in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1945 secured bottles of cognac designated for Hitler’s use only from the palace of the man who wanted to wipe the Jews from the earth. He waited until 1961 to open one: The occasion was a bar mitzvah — his son’s commitment to a Jewish future.

The exploits of Easy Company were immortalized in the 2001 HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers.”

In a 2015 interview with the Jewish News of Southeastern Virginia, Shames described how growing up Jewish on the Virginia coast shaped him.

“Things were tough at that time for Jewish boys,” he said. “There were times when you had to fight your way through.

One thing people learned about me … they never called me ‘dirty Jew’ twice. I was a tough SOB; not mean, just tough.”

Being Jewish saw him through excruciating training, he said.

“Because I was a Jew, I didn’t want to wash out, and lots of guys did,” he recalled in the interview, conducted when he was 94. “Heck, they had 7,000 volunteers they had to whittle down to 2,500 soldiers. They wanted to discharge me after I hurt my knee on my first parachute jump. I wouldn’t let them. After walking 149 miles from our training base at Camp Toccoa to Ft. Benning in full gear over three and one-half

days, there was no way.”

His determination to give antisemites no quarter carried over into his military service. He recalled organizing an outing to a Passover seder for Jewish troops while they were training in England ahead of D-Day. “We had 18 men from the regiment sign up and this officer made a disparaging remark about Jews,” he said. “I could have received a general court-martial for what I told him.”

Easy Company saw some of the most consequential battles during World War II; Shames was at Normandy on D-Day and at the Battle of the Bulge, among other pivotal battles, the obituary posted on the funeral home’s website said. He was a noncommissioned officer who got his officer’s stripes on the battlefield. He retired as a colonel.

Shames was one of the first U.S. troops to enter the Dachau concentration camp but would not speak of the experience. About his prize of Hitler’s cognac, he was more voluble.

“When Germany surrendered, Ed and his men of Easy Company entered Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest where Ed managed to acquire a few bottles of cognac, a label indicating they were ‘or the Fuhrer’s use only’,” the obituary said. “Later, he would use the cognac to toast his oldest son’s bar mitzvah.”

Revenge served cold in a shot glass seemed worth it, although Shames said the bottle he opened at his son’s bar mitzvah was soon gone.

“My buddy Lee Kantor finished that bottle and I threw it out,” he said in 2015.

“Do you know it would be worth $15,000 today?”

After the war, Shames worked for the National Security Agency. His wife Ida, whom he married at Temple Beth El in Norfolk, predeceased him after 73 years.

Shames’ survivors include two sons, four grandchildren and 12 great-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 EAST HARTFORD Temple Beth Tefilah Conservative Rabbi Yisroel Snyder (860) 569-0670 templebetht@yahoo.com

FAIRFIELD 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 WendyBarr@grs.com www.grs.org Temple Sholom Conservative Rabbi Mitchell M. Hurvitz Rabbi Kevin Peters (203) 869-7191 info@templesholom.com www.templesholom.com HAMDEN Congregation Mishkan Israel Reform Rabbi Brian P. Immerman (203) 288-3877 tepstein@cmihamden.org www.cmihamden.org Temple Beth Sholom Conservative Rabbi Benjamin Edidin Scolnic (203) 288-7748 tbsoffice@tbshamden.com www.tbshamden.com

MADISON Temple Beth Tikvah Reform Rabbi 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-Keser Israel Conservative Rabbi Eric Woodward rabbi@beki.org (203) 389-2108 office@BEKI.org www.BEKI.org Orchard Street ShulCongregation Beth Israel Orthodox Rabbi Mendy Hecht 203-776-1468 www.orchardstreetshul.org

NEW LONDON Ahavath Chesed Synagogue Orthodox Rabbi Avrohom Sternberg 860-442-3234 Ahavath.chesed@att.net Congregation Beth El Conservative Rabbi Earl Kideckel (860) 442-0418 office@bethel-nl.org www.bethel-nl.org NEWINGTON Temple Sinai Reform Rabbi Jeffrey Bennett (860) 561-1055 templesinaict@gmail.com www.sinaict.org NEWTOWN Congregation Adath Israel Conservative Rabbi Barukh Schectman (203) 426-5188 office@congadathisrael.org www.congadathisrael.org NORWALK Beth Israel Synagogue – Chabad of Westport/ Norwalk Orthodox-Chabad Rabbi Yehoshua S. Hecht (203) 866-0534 info@bethisraelchabad.org bethisraelchabad.org Temple Shalom Reform Rabbi Cantor Shirah Sklar (203) 866-0148 admin@templeshalomweb.org www.templeshalomweb.org NORWICH Congregation Brothers of Joseph Modern Orthodox Rabbi Yosef Resnick (781 )201-0377 yosef.resnick@gmail.com https://brofjo.tripod.com ORANGE Congregation Or Shalom Conservative Rabbi Alvin Wainhaus (203) 799-2341 info@orshalomct.org www.orshalomct.org

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

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

United Synagogues of Greater Hartford Orthodox Rabbi Eli Ostrozynsk i synagogue voice mail (860) 586-8067 Rabbi’s mobile (718) 679-4446 ostro770@hotmail.com

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

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

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

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

Chabad House of Greater Hartford Rabbi Joseph Gopin Rabbi Shaya Gopin, Director of Education (860) 232-1116 info@chabadhartford.com www.chabadhartford.com Congregation Beth Israel Reform Rabbi Michael Pincus Rabbi Andi Fliegel Cantor Stephanie Kupfer (860) 233-8215 bethisrael@cbict.org www.cbict.org

SOUTHINGTON Gishrei Shalom Jewish Congregation Reform Rabbi Alana Wasserman (860) 276-9113 President@gsjc.org www.gsjc.org TRUMBULL Congregation B’nai Torah Conservative Rabbi Colin Brodie (203) 268-6940 office@bnaitorahct.org www.bnaitorahct.org WALLINGFORD Beth Israel Synagogue Conservative Rabbi Bruce Alpert (203) 269-5983 info@bethisraelwallingford.org www.bethisraelwallingford.org WASHINGTON Greater Washington Coalition for Jewish Life Rabbi James Greene (860) 868-2434 jewishlifect@gmail.com www.jewishlifect.org

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

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

Kehilat Chaverim of Greater Hartford Chavurah Adm. - Nancy Malley (860) 951-6877 mnmalley@yahoo.com www.kehilatchaverim.org The Emanuel Synagogue Conservative Rabbi David J. Small (860) 236-1275 communications@ emanuelsynagogue.org www.emanuelsynagogue.org

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