CT Jewish Ledger • August 28, 2020 • 8 Elul 5780

Friday, August 28, 2020 8 Elul 5780 Vol. 92 | No. 35 | ©2020 $1.00 | jewishledger.com

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INSIDE

this week

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | AUGUST 28, 2020 | 8 ELUL 5780

14 Briefs

17 Crossword

17 Milestones

18 B’nai Mitzvah

18

Bay State Blues..................................................................... 5 With a wide open field of nine candidates to succeed Democrat Rep. Joe Kennedy in Massachusetts, some fear that a split of the proIsrael/Jewish vote could let a pro-BDS candidate enter Congress.

Circles of Life......................................................................... 5 Several giving circles of Hartford’s Jewish Community Foundation have banded together to help those impacted by COVID-19, provide assistance to survivors of domestic violence…and more.

Torah Portion

19 Bulletin Board

20 Obituaries

21 Business and Professional Directory

22 Classified

Election 2020................................... 6 The Democratic National Convention hosts an imam from an Islamic extremist institution inciting hatred against Jews…

Biden disavows Linda Sarsour…and an Israeli-born scientist wins Wyoming’s Democratic Senate primary.

A Call to Reason............................ 10 A new Knesset member’s impassioned speech about political moderation strikes a chord that reminds us all of our need to put aside partisanship. And Israelis sat up and listened.

Dutch Treat....................................... 8 The plight of the agunah – a woman metaphorically “chained” by her ex-husband’s refusal to grant her a divorce, has been a sticking point in Orthodox Judaism, with rabbis investing much effort to address it. Do Dutch courts have the answer?

CANDLE LIGHTING

Sponsored by:

FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2020 ON THE COVER:

Pandemic or no pandemic, this summer several congregations across Connecticut filled their pulpits with new rabbis and cantors – not all of whom are entirely new to Connecticut. We welcome them all.

Cover photo by Tomertu, Getty Images/ iStockphoto. PAGE 12 jewishledger.com

Hartford: 7:12 p.m.

New Haven: 7:12 p.m.

Bridgeport: 7:13 p.m.

Stamford: 7:14 p.m.

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

JEWISH LEDGER

2471 Albany Ave., West Hartford 860.236.1965 • thecrownmarket.com

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AUGUST 28, 2020

3

Fall

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JEWISH LEDGER

| AUGUST 28, 2020

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UP FRONT

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | AUGUST 28, 2020 | 8 ELUL 5780

ELECTION 2020

Could a pro-BDS congressional candidate win in New England’s largest Jewish district?

BY SEAN SAVAGE AND JACKSON RICHMAN

(JNS) The Democratic Party has undergone a shift in recent years, with a number of longtime incumbents falling to progressive upstarts. In heavily blue Massachusetts, the race to succeed Democrat Rep. Joe Kennedy (who is running for Senate) has become somewhat of a free-for-all, featuring candidates ranging from a Jewish former U.S. Marine captain with a Republican history to a suburban mother fed up with President Donald Trump to a progressive former Planned Parenthood senior leader and a Democratic socialist.

However, the campaign of Ihssane Leckey, a Democratic Socialist who has endorsed the BDS movement, is making many Jewish/pro-Israel observers in Massachusetts’s 4th District nervous.

Jeremy Burton, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, told JNS that the race is being closely watched by the Jewish community.

“The MA04 congressional race is of great interest to the Jewish community, more than the typical open seat, given that it has the largest Jewish population of any seat in New England. About 75,000 Jews live in the fourth,” he said.

The Democratic primaries in Massachusetts are held this year on Sept. 1.

Nine candidates are running with no run-off mechanism, meaning that a candidate can win without a majority of votes, but just a plurality. Statistically, a candidate could win the seat with less than 15 percent of the vote – meaning a likely winner could get in with somewhere around 25 percent of the vote.

“That means that it is highly likely that Democrats in the fourth will nominate someone who is not the preferred candidate of the vast majority of voters,” said Burton.

“This leaves the door open to someone who doesn’t represent the mainstream of the district, whatever that is.”

While Massachusetts is largely known for its progressive leaders and Democratic politics, the state’s 4th District covers a widely diverse region – stretching from jewishledger.com

2 giving circles at Hartford’s Jewish Community Foundation pool money to help those in need

F JAKE AUCHINCLOSS (RIGHT)

SOURCE: FACEBOOK VIA JAKE AUCHINCLOSS.

affluent Boston suburbs to the workingclass former mill town of Fall River on the south coast, home to many Portuguesespeaking immigrants.

Despite the district’s diversity, candidates from Newton, a heavily Jewish suburb west of Boston, have seemingly dominated district’s politics in recent decades. Former Rep. Barney Frank served as the 4th District’s representative for more than 30 years until 2013 when he retired and was replaced by political scion Rep. Joe Kennedy, the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, who is vacating the seat for a Senate run against Democratic incumbent Sen. Ed Markey.

Similarly, in the ongoing Democratic primary race, several leading candidates hail from Newton and neighboring Brookline to its east, also historically Jewish and affluent.

While there has not been any formal polling done on the race, an internal poll conducted by the Leckey campaign put her in third place at 11 percent, behind Becky Grossman (19 percent) and Jake Auchincloss (16 percent). Similarly, an internal poll by the Grossman campaign

also found her in the lead at 13 percent.

Surveys and candidate forums, which most of the candidates have joined, have also been conducted by Jewish media, political groups and the community.

“Seven of the nine Democrats running, and both Republicans, have participated in at least one, if not all three, of these opportunities to get their views out to the Jewish community in their own words. Two of the nine Democratic candidates, Ihssane Leckey and Chris Zannetos, have declined all three opportunities to engage with Jewish media and organizational forums and surveys,” said Burton.

On the U.S.-Israel relationship With several of the candidates coming from a Jewish background, most talked about their Jewish identity and expressed warm views Israel and the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Becky Grossman, an at-large member of the Newton City Council and daughterin-law of former DNC chair and AIPAC

ive local nonprofits will receive grants this month to support social justice, help people impacted by COVID19, and provide assistance to domestic violence survivors from two giving circles at the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford: JewGood Hartford for young professionals, and the Lillian Fund for women.

“There’s strength in numbers when people pool their money together to help causes that matter most to them,” says Jacob Schreiber, president and CEO of the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford. “Our giving circle members are rallying together to address urgent issues and making a positive difference in Greater Hartford,” he continued.

“That’s the power of collective philanthropy.”

JewGood Hartford, which was established in 2019, issued its inaugural grant of $10,000 to the Connecticut Coalition for the Homeless to help house 10 families.

The financial gift will also assist people who are highly vulnerable to COVID-19 due to crowded, confined shelter settings.

Interval House and Prudence Crandall Center (PCC) each received a grant from the Lillian Fund. Interval House will use its $5,000 grant to help clients gain their financial independence so they can live selfsufficient lives free from domestic violence and fear. The $10,000 grant for PCC will help low-income victims of domestic violence secure safe, affordable, long-term homes for their families, and empower survivors and their children to build a network of community supports.

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Election 2020 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

president Steve Grossman, mentioned in the JDCA candidate forum how growing up, she knew that the U.S.-Israel relationship was “a cornerstone of peace and security throughout the Middle East.”

Jake Auchincloss, also a Newton City Councilor and former Marine, blamed President Trump for making Israel a partisan issue, saying that the “U.S.-Israel relationship is strongest when it has strong, bipartisan consensus.”

Other candidates at these Jewish outreach events included Ben Sigel, who serves on the board of directors for the American Jewish Committee in New England; Dave Cavell, a speechwriter for the Obama administration (who recently dropped out); Alan Khazei, founder of the nonprofit City Year; Natalia Linos, executive director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University; and Jesse Mermell, a former aide to former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

However, Leckey, a former Wall Street regulator who was born in Morocco, has been notably absent from all of the events hosted by the Jewish community.

Leckey has been endorsed by a number of individuals and groups who support the BDS movement, including political activist Linda Sarsour, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, IfNotNow and the Jewish Voice for Peace Political Action Committee.

On social media, Leckey has been critical of Israel, calling for U.S. foreign aid to be cut to the Jewish state.

In a June 30 tweet, she called Israel’s proposed plan to apply sovereignty to Judea and Samaria as “land theft” and suggested that foreign aid to Israel “must be conditioned to protect human rights and dignity.”

In a July 10, 2019 tweet she also criticized “Israel’s detention of Palestinian children.”

Despite these tweets, her campaign has largely steered away from discussing foreign policy or the Middle East. In a campaign ad, Leckey focuses on her modest upbringing, immigrant roots and fight against Wall Street bankers in order to “dismantle every oppressive system that denies us basic necessities to live.”

On support of the BDS movement Pro-Israel groups have also sounded the alarm on her support for BDS. “Ihssane Leckey is one of the most strongly anti-Israel candidates on the ballot anywhere in the country this year,” Democratic Majority for Israel spokesperson Rachel Rosen told JNS. 6

JEWISH LEDGER

who are generally deplatformed, silenced, intimidated or targeted by pro-Muslim Brotherhood organizations, and to present these fringe elements as the mainstream in Islam, perpetuating ugly stereotypes about Muslim communities and promoting and fostering radicals, which becomes a selfperpetuating cycle,” she said.

“This also raises questions about the Democratic Party’s willingness to pander to hateful groups and to excuse extremist ideologies, instead of seeking out and building relationships to those preachers and imams in the Muslim world who have a record of opposing this hateful political ideology, which uses religion as a tool of subversion,” she continued.

IHSSANE LECKEY,

SOURCE: LECKEY CAMPAIGN VIA FACEBOOK.

Andrea Levin, executive director of the Newton-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), told JNS that while the organization is nonpartisan and doesn’t endorse political candidates, “we do endorse knowing the facts. Here there are facts on the public record that are relevant. For instance, seeking endorsement from the Democratic Socialists of America, Leckey responded ‘Yes’ on a questionnaire asking if she supports BDS. BDS is a radical, antisemitic campaign of lies about Israel whose aim is to cripple, isolate and destroy the Jewish state. This is the openly stated purpose of its founders and leading adherents.”

As the campaign heats up in its final weeks, the leading candidates in the race have come under increased scrutiny.

Auchincloss, who has been endorsed by The Boston Globe, recently apologized for controversial past comments and socialmedia posts. A number of candidates, including Grossman and Leckey, have used their personal wealth to launch a campaign advertising blitz. Leckey has also been called out by former campaign workers who said that the candidate mistreated staff and created a “toxic work environment.”

Burton said that he encourages all Jewish and pro-Israel voters in the district to educate themselves ahead of the vote.

“We at JCRC are encouraging the community to educate themselves about the candidates, their positions, who they’ve engaged with during the campaign and who they are endorsed by,” he said. “We are encouraging everyone to self-educate – and then to get out and vote.”

| AUGUST 28, 2020

BECKY GROSSMAN

SOURCE: FACEBOOK VIA BECKY GROSSMAN.

ELECTION 2020: SHORT TAKES Democratic Convention hosts imam from extremist institution (JNS) The Democratic National Convention hosted an imam from an Islamic extremist institution on Sunday, August 16. Noman Hussain, imam of ISM Brookfield in Wisconsin, was one of the religious leaders who took part in the convention’s “Interfaith Welcome Service.” Hussain is a scholar at the Texas-based Qalam Institute, whose officials have advocated “the use of female sex slaves, the killing of adulterers, and incite hatred against Jews and other non-Muslims,” according to the Middle East Forum. One of the Qalam Institute’s courses, “The Prophetic Code,” warns Muslims to strive for “cleanliness” and “purity,” so that they “do not resemble the Jews.”

The Democratic National Convention did not respond to a request for comment about Hussain’s affiliation with the Qalam Institute. In 2012, Hussain shared a cartoon of an Israeli soldier appearing innocent on TV without it showing the soldier mercilessly shooting people in Gaza.

Middle East analyst and human-rights lawyer Irina Tsukerman told JNS that the Democratic National Convention’s inclusion of Hussain was “extremely troubling.”

“This reflects the concerning and growing trend within the Democratic Party to equate Islamists with Muslims,

Biden disavows Linda Sarsour after she speaks at a convention forum (JTA) – Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, disavowed Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour after she appeared at an online meeting of Muslims who will be campaigning for Biden for president.

“Joe Biden has been a strong supporter of Israel and a vehement opponent of antisemitism his entire life, and he obviously condemns her views and opposes BDS, as does the Democratic platform,” Andrew Bates, a Biden campaign spokesman, said in a statement Tuesday, August 18 to CNN, referring to Sarsour’s embrace of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel.

“She has no role in the Biden campaign whatsoever.

Sarsour had appeared that afternoon at the Democratic National Committee Muslims and Allies virtual assembly.

Republicans immediately seized on the appearance, with party officials posting a few seconds on social media.

“If Linda Sarsour is the face of the Democrat Party, then the Democrat Party has truly become the party of antisemitism and too toxic for American Jews,” the Republican Jewish Coalition said.

Sarsour, who was a surrogate for Biden’s primaries rival Bernie Sanders, has been embroiled in multiple controversies over her activism related to Israel, including statements seen as crossing the line into antisemitism. Last year she attempted to walk back a recorded statement in which she lambasted progressive Zionists as embracing Jewish supremacy.

“How can you be against white supremacy in America and the idea of being in a state based on race and class, but then you support a state like Israel that is based on supremacy, that is built on the idea that jewishledger.com

(JTA) – Merav Ben-David, an environmental scientist at the University of Wyoming who was born and raised in Israel, is the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Wyoming. Ben-David, who had the backing of leading Democratic Party figures in the state, won 44% of the vote Tuesday, August 18 in a three-way primary.

Now, the 61-year-old professor who speaks with a thick Israeli accent faces an uphill battle in a state that is the most Republican in the nation. She will face off against Cynthia Lummis in November’s general election.

In an interview earlier this month with JTA, Ben-David said she thought the coronavirus pandemic created an opportunity for her message about the need to transition to an economy that is less reliant on fossil fuels to resonate. About half of Wyoming’s revenue comes from oil and gas and industries associated with them.

Ben-David roots in Israel predate the state; her family arrived from Belarus in the 1860s, making her siblings’ grandchildren seventh-generation Israelis. She grew up on a family farm outside of the Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, served in the Israeli army and studied at Tel Aviv University. After working and studying in Kenya and Alaska, she moved to Wyoming 20 years ago.

Wyoming, America’s least populous state, is home to an estimated 1,150 Jews.

In Laramie, where Ben-David lives, a small Jewish community is composed mostly of people who, like her, are associated with the university there. “We have a vibrant community here in Laramie, and we celebrate all the holidays,” Ben-David told JTA. “In effect, more often than not, I’m in charge of making the matzo balls.”

Her campaign website includes details about the Israel policy she would pursue in the Senate.

“People ask a lot about what is my position about Israel and are interested in my response especially relative to the Palestinians,” she said. “So far, most of people’s responses are positive, not negative. I mean, I do not support what the Israeli government is doing. I think it’s atrocious. And I voiced my opinion. And so people appreciate that.”

BY RON KAMPEAS

(JTA) – Joe Biden closed the Democratic National Convention the way he launched his campaign in April of last year: By invoking what he depicted as President Donald Trump’s callousness to racism and antisemitism.

Biden, speaking late Thursday night to the convention made virtual because of the coronavirus pandemic, recalled the deadly 2017 neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“Remember seeing those neo-Nazis and Klansmen and white supremacists come in in a field with lighted torches veins bulging spewing the same antisemitic bile heard across Europe in the 30s,” he said to viewers. “Remember what the president said when asked, he said there were quote, very fine people on both sides. It was a wake-up call for us as a country. And for me, a call to action. At that moment I knew I’d have to run.”

Trump, speaking in 2017 days after one of the neo-Nazi marchers killed one counter-protester and wounded others by driving his car into a group of people, said there were “very fine people” in both opposing camps of the rally. In the same remarks he also condemned neo-Nazis and white supremacists, but critics saw his comments as condoning the protesters’ racist message.

Biden launched his campaign in April 2019 in a video with footage from Charlottesville, saying Trump spurred the bigotry that fueled the violence, and the event was one of Biden’s first references in his acceptance speech Thursday night.

“We can choose a path to becoming angry, less hopeful more divided, a path of shadow and suspicion, or, or we can choose a different path and together, take this chance to heal to reform to unite a path of hope and light,” Biden said.

Multiple other convention speakers also invoked Charlottesville.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo also explicitly invoked antisemitism as a threat.

“Over these past few years, America’s body politic has been weakened,” Cuomo said. “The divisions have been growing deeper: the antisemitism; the anti-Latino, the anti-immigrant fervor; the racism in Charlottesville, where the KKK didn’t even bother to wear their hoods.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 9

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JEWISH LIFE AROUND THE WORLD

In the Netherlands, judges can punish Jewish men who won’t give their wives a religious divorce

BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ

A

MSTERDAM (JTA) – Sara’s marriage was dead, but she couldn’t end it herself.

As an Orthodox woman, Sara – not her real name, for privacy concerns – needed a “get,” or religious consent to divorce, from her husband to end the process. But he wouldn’t give her one, and rabbis couldn’t help.

Sara, a mother of one in her 40s who works as a buyer for large businesses, was what is called an agunah, or “chained woman.” The plight of these women is seen as a major point of gender inequality in Orthodox Judaism, and Orthodox rabbis have invested effort in recent years to address it.

In the end, Sara was helped most by a nonreligious entity: the Dutch judicial system. The Dutch judiciary is the only one in the world outside of Israel that punishes husbands who refuse to give their wives a get – with significant fines.

Sara’s husband relented after a Dutch judge threatened to slap him with a fine of nearly $30,000. Courts here can impose a fine four times that amount on so-called recalcitrant husbands and even issue arrest warrants against them, as per a 1982 precedent set by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands.

Last year, the Dutch jurisprudence was cemented in legislation: An amendment to the marriage act empowers judges to order individuals to comply with edicts of religious frameworks relevant to their marital bond.

Fines and warrants issued in the Netherlands apply, in turn, across the European Union, giving these husbands records – and chained wives a potentially powerful deterrent. Dutch judges have employed these measures against several dozen recalcitrant husbands since 1982, according to Herman Loonstein, a DutchJewish lawyer who has represented multiple chained wives before Dutch courts.

Many of the cases heard in Dutch courts in recent years have involved couples from Muslim communities, in which women seeking a divorce face similar roadblocks.

Millions of immigrants from the Middle East have arrived in Holland over the past decade or so.

Today, Sara has a new partner and is feeling “released from prison,” she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“You’re trapped, you can’t move forward 8

JEWISH LEDGER

ISRAELI JUDGES HEAR AN AGUNAH CASE IN 2017. (FLASH 90)

with your life and someone hostile has this power on you,” she said of being an agunah.

“It’s a terrible feeling.”

The Dutch judiciary’s willingness to get involved in this issue is unusual because it contradicts the separation of church and state principle, which is strongly observed in Western Europe. The Dutch courts do not directly interfere with the religious process, which usually involves a beit din, or rabbinical court. But they do label the process of refusing to give a get as “unlawful conduct,” Matthijs de Blois, assistant professor at Utrecht University’s Institute of Legal Theory of the Law Faculty, explained in a 2010 essay for the Utrecht Law Review.

The 1982 Supreme Court ruling here overturned the rulings of two lower courts that had refused to hear a case brought by a chained wife from Utrecht. She had sued her husband in a civil court for refusing to grant her a get.

The District Court of Utrecht, near Amsterdam, declined her lawsuit in 1979, stating that “only the civil aspects of a marriage should be considered.” The woman lost an appeal in 1981.

The high court’s decision bypassed the religious dimension altogether, reasoning that the husband “could be in violation of a rule of unwritten law pertaining to proper social conduct vis-à-vis his divorced wife,” de Blois wrote.

In Israel, which has no separation between religion and state, family courts

| AUGUST 28, 2020

are also religious ones and run by the Chief Rabbinate. The judges at those batei din belong to the country’s judicial branch and are empowered to fine and imprison recalcitrant husbands, as well as confiscate their passports.

Amid an increased outcry in recent years, the Chief Rabbinate has cracked down significantly on recalcitrant husbands. The pressure is showing results: The number of women who have been unchained in Israel has risen for five consecutive years. The largest increase occurred between 2015 and 2017 – from 180 to 216 – according to the latest statistics on the issue.

The Netherlands is the only country that comes close to that system. The Dutch Justice Ministry has not replied to a request for comment on the matter by JTA. In the United Kingdom, judges may condition the finalization of a civil divorce on the finalization of a religious one – an equation that is meant to place the recalcitrant spouse in limbo for as long as they do the same to their chained spouse.

And in the United States, some Jewish couples sign halachic prenuptial agreements, which stipulate that the spouses in a dissolving marriage must come before a predetermined court of Jewish law or face heavy penalties. As a contract, such agreements are enforceable in civil court.

New York state courts are empowered to enforce rabbinical court edicts on chained

spouses as per a landmark 1983 state Court of Appeals ruling. But the enforcement has been limited thus far only to awarding the chained wives higher amounts of alimony, according to Aryeh Ralbag, a former chief rabbi of Amsterdam and a major rabbinical arbiter and judge from New York.

Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, the Switzerland-born president of the Conference of European Rabbis, has been a key advocate of cracking down on recalcitrant husbands, but even he “didn’t think we’d be able to bring about the same kind of deterrence in Europe, with its strong separation of church and state, as there exists in Israel.”

The issue of holding a recalcitrant husband accountable has become more difficult over time, Ralbag said, as Jewish communities have become less centralized.

“When Jewish life in the Diaspora was more centered on community, a beit din could punish people severely for such behavior, imposing a herem,” he said, using the Hebrew word for excommunication or boycott. “Nowadays, many people who get a herem just go to another synagogue, or don’t go to synagogue at all.”

The Dutch law has “restored deterrence,” Ralbag added.

Ralbag, Goldschmidt and Loonstein all support the Dutch judiciary’s proactive approach, but they are also mindful of the risks it poses at a time when Jewish communities – including in the Netherlands – are fighting against government and judicial interference in other religious customs.

All three have been at the forefront of the fight to keep kosher slaughter legal – it was banned but made legal again in 2012. A similar debate is taking place across Europe about the legality of brit milah, the ritual nonmedical circumcision of boys.

“Am I concerned that this is creating a precedent for interference? In some places, yes, I am,” Ralbag said. “But I and every rabbi need to measure this against the pain and suffering that is being visited on Jewish women right now. And right now, this is what we can do to help them.”

jewishledger.com

Giving CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

Both giving circles launched a special fundraising campaign to collectively support social justice, and awarded a $1,000 grant to Connecticut Bail Fund and a $1,000 grant to Hartford Communities That Care. These two non-profits help improve lives and enhance local communities by advancing social equality and social justice.

A giving circle is a group of like-minded individuals who donate their time and money to a pooled fund and decide together which organizations and causes will receive their grants. Every voting circle member has an equal voice in these decisions.

Members also attend events that allow them to explore their philanthropic interests, deepen their knowledge of endowment and create new friendships.

The Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford operates two giving circles, JewGood Hartford and the Lillian Fund, and encourages a gift of $100 to become a voting member of a giving circle.

JewGood Hartford offers a fun and supportive community for young professionals who want to make a positive impact on the world. JewGood does this

through two kinds of activities – Hangouts, which are fun, informal gatherings; and Events, which blend hands-on volunteer projects with opportunities to learn about local organizations that are making a difference. JewGood Hartford launched in 2019 with generous funding from the Steve and Randi Piaker Family Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation, and has engaged more than 125 young professionals.

Launched in 1999, the Lillian Fund envisions a world in which all women and children have equal opportunity for personal and professional achievement.

They support this vision by funding children’s arts and education programs, domestic violence services, mental health counseling and job training, to name a few.

They view philanthropy through a lens of Jewish values and gender equality, while expanding their impact and deepening friendships.

For more information about these giving circles, email Elana MacGilpin at emacgilpin@jcfhartford.org, or visit www. jewgoodhartford.org, @Jewgoodhartford and @Lillianfundjcf.

Biden CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9

The theme featured large in multiple Jewish events around the convention, including at a meeting Tuesday of “Jewish Americans for Biden,” a group convened by Matt Nosanchuk, the Democratic National Committee’s Jewish outreach director.

Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, who is Jewish, referred to Trump’s equivocations after the violence in Charlottesville.

“We were not surprised to see the white supremacy or antisemites here in America, but we were shocked to see that the President of the United States gave credibility to white supremacy, to the antisemites,” he said. “It was not an isolated example. He’s done that over and over again. There’s a direct correlation between the president giving rise to nationalism, and the rise of antisemitism.”

Biden has said in a campaign message to the Jewish community posted on his website that he would restore funding, cut by Trump, that tracks domestic extremism, priori-tize the prosecution of hate crimes and “Lead a comprehensive approach to battling anti-Semitism that takes seriously both the violence that accompanies it and the hateful and dangerous lies that underlie it.”

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JEWISH LEDGER

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AUGUST 28, 2020

9

The View from Israel Newly-minted Member of Knesset Tehila Friedman has Israelis fired up about political moderation – and it’s worth repeating

BY MARCY OSTER

(JTA) – An Israeli political tradition is the “maiden speech,” the first time a member of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, addresses her fellow lawmakers.

The maiden speech is usually treated as a sort of acceptance speech, where lawmakers talk about what brought them to the Knesset and thank their families and mentors. So when Tehila Friedman turned the tradition on its head last week, delivering what she said “might very well also be my closing speech,” Israelis sat up and listened.

Friedman, a small and soft-spoken woman who had not garnered much attention since entering the Knesset this summer as part of the Blue and White coalition, delivered a fiery call for “a principled center” at a time when Israeli is riven by political polarization.

A Hebrew version of the speech has been viewed more than 1.5 million times, and a version with English subtitles released late last week is now also circulating widely.

Without mentioning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or any other contemporary politician by name, Friedman indicted the “trying to win” that has caused Israel to have three elections in the last year and a half. During an 11-minute speech that spanned Jewish history, Friedman exhorted Israelis to consider the lesson of Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai, the moderate leader who led the Jews of Jerusalem to safety and, ultimately, continued existence after the destruction of the Second Temple.

Prior to entering politics, Friedman worked as an attorney and previously served as chair of Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah, a nonprofit organization in Israel that focuses on education research and policy in the Religious Zionist community. Now, her speech has launched her to international prominence, much in the same way that Ruth Calderon, a former Knesset member, did when she used her maiden speech to deliver an impassioned defense of Jewish text study.

Friedman concludes her speech, choked up with emotion, “These are the days of the Third Temple. And exactly like the two that preceded it, it’s fragile. It’s flammable. It cannot be taken for granted. Its stability is 10

JEWISH LEDGER

MEMBER OF KNESSET TEHILA FRIEDMAN (SCREENSHOT)

our responsibility. Its existence depends on us. This is our watch.”

Tehila Friedman’ speech before the Knesset follows in its entirety: In these past few weeks, since I arrived here at the Knesset, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, one of the most important Jews in history. The man who at the last possible moment was able to save the Jewish people: from Jerusalem of the Temple that burns, to Yavne of the House of Study that unites, and was thus able to reinvent the Jewish people anew.

I haven’t been able to stop thinking of this rabbi, who lived in the heart of Jerusalem, in the middle of a terrible civil war, while outside the city walls the Romans were waiting for the right moment to enter and destroy everything.

A civil war that started as a disagreement about how to deal with the Romans, but turned very quickly into an identity war, a war of all against all.

Whatever you thought about the Romans became what you are, whatever you thought about what to do in the situation – that became who you are. If I don’t agree with you, I’m against you. Absolutely. Until the blood starts running.

Hatred that inundated everything. In the name of hatred, knives were sharpened in the temple. In the name of hatred, the

| AUGUST 28, 2020

cellars that held the food that could help a city under siege were burned. In the name of hatred, famine spread, and with the famine came despair.

Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai wasn’t from the UN. He and his students were part of the conflict. They fought against the Zealots, but at some point he chose a different path. He understood that in a war among brothers everyone loses, and he took a surprising step, and addressed his most bitter enemy, the one who he believed was responsible for the upcoming destruction.

Abba Sikra was his name, the leader of the Zealots in Jerusalem.

Abba Sikra also knew that a civil war is more dangerous than a foreign enemy, but this man who ignited the rebellion discovered that he could no longer control it. His people didn’t listen to him. The hatred he spread became stronger than him.

Together the leader of the Zealots and the leader of the moderates managed to help Rabbi ben Zakkai escape Jerusalem, not to turn back the historical events, but to create something new, establish the conditions for the day after.

For the opening speech of every MK there are certain norms. I’m supposed to tell about different stages of my life, thank the people that helped me become who I am, and share something about the hopes and dreams that in their name I came to this place. But my opening speech might very well also be my closing speech, and the relevance of the dreams and plans I came with are threatened by this ongoing chaos, the turmoil and devastation of a fourth round of elections.

For this reason I will deviate from the norm. I apologize to my mother and father who are here and truly molded who I am, to my life partner, and to all my partners in this journey that I would be expected to mention. But I feel obligated to say something else instead, it seems to me also in their names.

Two thousand years have passed since Rabbi Yohanan. We came back to Jerusalem, we built a country. But right now, in the middle of a massive political

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crisis, we find ourselves once again in a frightening moment. A terrible plague spreads wildly outside, and inside the same destructive desire to defeat each other, the same blindness, the same cancerous hatred that causes us to spend most of our energy in internal conflict. And again, like then, the reserves of trust are being burnt to the ground. We attack our institutions of government, we endanger in an unimaginably irresponsible way the very existence of this shared home.

In the middle of the Corona days, in the heart of a health, economic and social crisis the likes of which we’ve never experienced before, in the middle of a crisis of our institutions, after a year and a half of inactivity, without an approved budget, with a troubling deficit and an economic depression, we have again those voices that would like us to chop off our brother’s head, that want to take every social wound and scar and scratch it until it bleeds, once again indifferent and scornful of the pain of others. Three times in a year and a half you have tried to win, to establish oneself as the total winner, to defeat.

We have to stop this. We need to stop trying to win. We shouldn’t let the first Israel impose their will over the second Israel, but we also shouldn’t let the second Israel impose their will over the first Israel.

We must not try to beat each other.

I’m Jewish, religious, a Religious Zionist, a nationalist, a feminist, a Jerusalemite. I grew up into a particular tradition and language. I grew up in a home, community and tradition that shaped who I am. There’s a lot of truth, and good and beauty in my world, but not all the truth, not all the beauty, not all the good.

I don’t want everyone to become like me, I don’t want everyone to believe in the same things as I do, because I know that in other communities and worlds there’s truth and beauty and good, and that I have a lot of things to learn from them.

There’s a lot of things I need to learn about Mizrahi Traditionalism, from FSU Jews, from Ethiopian Jews, from the descendants of those early pioneers, from the individualist liberals, from the Haredi, from the Arabs, from the Druze, from the Bedouin, from Diaspora Jews. It’s true that part of these communities hold beliefs and values and actions that I oppose. Part of those are threatening to me, as a woman, as a Jew, as a Zionist, as a religious person.

But I know that in each of these communities, truly in each one, that although there are those who believe in their righteousness, who are waiting for people to see that they’re solely right, and who plan to rule and control. There are also those who understand that the differences between us aren’t going to go away, that we have been destined to live together, and that is the challenge of our lives, Along with them, I am suggesting the formation of an alliance of the moderates: with all the forces from all the communities jewishledger.com

that understand the challenge called living together, to bring back the forces from the extremes that ruin everybody’s lives and to build a shared center.

I speak in a gentle voice, I know, and you can be misled to think that my message is also calling to form a gentle and compromising center.

But it’s the exact opposite. The center I’m talking about is a principled center, a zealot’s center, that’s not willing to comprise about its “centeredness.” About its responsibility for all of the residents of our country. About the role that it plays for all those who really want to live together.

It puts a limit on self-righteousness, a limit on selfishness. A center that is willing to sacrifice in the name of moderation and democracy, of a Judaism that makes place for others. A center that with its very being protects the rules that allow us to manage our differences without breaking us into pieces.

HaRav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook wrote many years ago about three forces that are present among us: the holy, the Jewish people, and humanity. In other words: religion, nationalism and humanism.

Rav Kook himself was a person who was holy in his entirety, but he knew how dangerous is an all-encompassing holiness, the absolute nationalist or the total humanist. No one is completely right. A healthy society is a society which maintains all three forces, not only that they restrain one another. We need each of them in their own right.

In the six weeks I’ve been in this house I’ve heard endless mocking and scorn against whole parts of Israeli society, I heard hopes for “them” to disappear; and for us to be able to rule without limits.

I want to tell you something, they won’t disappear, Take us into as many elections as you want, no one will disappear. If we continue to try to beat each other, the only thing we will manage to beat is our children’s future. The only thing destroyed will be our mutual respect, our social resilience, the things that allow us the make this miracle named Israel possible.

We live in a miracle, I’m the daughter of a Paratrooper, one of the liberators of Jerusalem. My father-in-law was a Paratrooper, one of the liberators of Jerusalem. I live my life and raise my children in Jerusalem. I spend my day-today in the middle of the Prophets vision: elderly men and women living their lives, boys and girls playing in the streets. My everyday life is a dream that seemed impossible, one that I have never taken for granted.

Yehuda Amichai taught us: From far away everything looks like a miracle, but up close even a miracle doesn’t look like one. Even a crosser of the divided Red Sea saw only the sweating back of the walker in front of him CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

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JEWISH LEDGER

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AUGUST 28, 2020

11

B’ruchim Ha’baim!

Introducing Connecticut’s new Jewish clergy In July, Jewish congregations in communities throughout Connecticut welcomed new clergy to their midst. The Ledger is please to introduce this new group of rabbis and cantors.

BY STACEY DRESNER

IN DANBURY

Rabbi Rhonda Nebel Congregation B’ani Israel Rabbi Rhonda Nebel joined Congregation B’nai Israel in Danbury in July. She succeeds Rabbi Nelly Altenburger who is now senior rabbi at Congregation Adath Israel in Middletown.

(See page 13) A native of Mattapan, Massachusetts, Nebel says that her family was more culturally Jewish than religious.

“We were a Jewish family that didn’t keep kosher or Shabbat, per se. We would have bagels on Sundays, family get-togethers on the holidays. We went to synagogue with my grandparents, especially on the High Holidays.”

Still, she sure spent a lot of time in Hebrew School.

“We would go everyday Sunday [morning] through Thursday [after school].

And then we would go to Saturday morning junior congregation. I loved it!” she recalls.

“I remember coming home from the first day of Hebrew school and I had learned the words Ema and Abba [mother and father] and I came home [calling out]– ‘Ema! Abba!’ It just sparked something in me.”

Her family moved to Stoughton, Massachusetts when Nebel was in seventh grade. There, she celebrated her bat mitzvah and confirmation, continued through high school her love affair with religious school, and was actively involved in USY. 12

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“USY kept the fire alive,” she says. “By the time I was 15, I knew that it was being a rabbi for me. Because I always wanted to study psychology and I loved Hebrew school. So you put psychology and Judaism together, and you get rabbi!”

There was just one problem. At the time, there were no female rabbis in the Conservative movement.

In high school, Nebel could have graduated early, but decided to spend her senior year free periods studying Judaism.

“I arranged it with the high school, and told my rabbi that the high school would allow me to go to the temple to study in preparation for becoming a rabbi, even though it wasn’t exactly possible.”

Nebel began spending three days a week in the temple library, reading and studying, and “checking in with the rabbi every so often.”

The rabbi recommended she look into Reconstructionist Judaism, which had female rabbis, but she says, that was not a good fit.

She attended Boston University where she majored in psychology and religion.

After graduating, she went back home to Stoughton and became youth director at her old temple. In 1982, she married her husband, Robert, whom she had known since Hebrew school.

She soon was accepted and entered JTS’s graduate program for women “who wanted to study, get a PhD and then one day, when women could become a rabbi, go back and become ordained. So that was what I did.”

In 1984 while she was at JTS, the institution announced that they would start ordaining women. Nebel applied and was accepted to the rabbinical school and was in the first class of ordained female rabbis.

Ordained in 1990, she accepted a position as youth and education director at Congregation Beth El in New London.

“My youth group won chapter of the year three or four times. We were up for international chapter. I had a stellar Hebrew school. It was a wonderful experience,” she says.

After 10 years in New London, Nebel was ready to move on. Unable to find a rabbi educator position in a Hebrew school, which was her preference, she began to reevaluate.

“I was an education director, I was a youth director, and that was what I loved and what I was good at,” says says.

Still, the need to provide for her family

| AUGUST 28, 2020

led her to decide to seek a pulpit position.

(Disabled since 1988, Nebel’s husband, a botanist and science teacher, has always been a stay-at-home dad for their daughter Samara, now 23.)

And so, in 2002, Nebel accepted a position at Temple Beth Chai in Hauppauge, New York.

“It turned out that the pulpit was not something that I was so bad at,” she laughs.

“I found that I was actually good at all the other things that come with the rabbinate besides working with kids…that even though I can’t sing, people put up with my voice because they like the service. I am an out-of-the-box thinker, and I can come up with programming in my sleep. It was a love affair.”

Then, a little over a year ago, after 16 years at Temple Beth Chai, she decided to move on.

Unable to find a suitable position, Nebel says that for the first time in her life she began experiencing depression. And in February, she began feeling sick.

“There were three weeks when I didn’t feel well and couldn’t get out of bed,” she says. Ultimately, she tested positive for the Covid-19 antibody.

Now, she is looking forward to her role as spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Israel.

“We used to call Beth Chai the ‘Little Shul in the Woods.’ This synagogue calls itself the ‘Little Shul that Could.’ And it’s true.

“I was looking for something that was haimish, that I could be a part of congregant’s lives. I make personal relationships with everyone. My mother always called me a ‘people collector.’ I just love people, I love helping people and I love hearing people’s stories.”

IN GREENWICH

Cantor Michelle Rubin Greenwich Reform Synagogue Cantor Michelle Rubin joined Greenwich Reform Synagogue as cantor and Hebrew school director on July 1.

In her new role, her goal is to ensure that the religious school experience of students

is outstanding -- something, she says, that her Hebrew school days were not.

“I didn’t have the best experience,” she explains.“That is why it is so important to me to make sure that I help provide our students with a positive and meaningful Jewish education experience, unlike my own. Over the years, I have heard so many parents describe their Jewish education in the most negative ways and then thank me for providing their children with a very different experience and I am truly grateful to have the opportunity to do so.”

A native of suburban Philadelphia, Rubin grew up in attending a Reform congregation despite the fact that her father was an agnostic and her mother was an atheist.

“On the High Holidays my parents didn’t go [to synagogue], but I would go with my friend Jennifer. My parents were very good friends with the rabbi, but just not religious.

They thought it was the right thing to be a part of the community,” she says. “And I was always interested. I loved the music and I loved the community. I loved just learning about Judaism.”

Rubin, who had been giving music lessons since high school, considered going into psychology, but music was her first love.

She earned a Bachelor of Music in Opera from the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Music, and two Master of Music degrees in Vocal Performance and Vocal Pedagogy from the New England Conservatory.

A pivotal moment occurred when a friend asked if she wanted to go to Harvard Hillel so that they could introduce her to a friend.

“I was always up for meeting new guys, but I had never heard of Hillel,” she laughs. “The guy was not a match, but I was hooked and I became very active in the community…and in the Reform minyan and then the Conservative minyan.

“I loved the music, the community, celebrating Shabbat. It was very impactful for me,” she says.

Then one Friday night, Rubin had an epiphany.

“I was in Hartt’s select choir and I had a solo which was huge,” she recalls. “But it was on a Friday night and I remember thinking, ‘Oh man, I don’t get to go to services tonight.’ That’s when I had my a-ha moment, when I would rather be observing Shabbat and being with my community than have this huge solo.”

She began reevaluating her career – jewishledger.com

and decided to switch gears and become a cantor.”

She went on to study Judaism at Hebrew College and immersed herself in Judaism through the Boston Jewish community.

She continued to attend Harvard Hillel, and became Shomer Shabbat – Sabbath observant. She worked in a Jewish day care center, served as a Jewish youth group leader and taught music.

Eventually, she was invested in the Jewish Theological Seminary’s H.L. Miller Cantorial School, from which she received a Master of Sacred Music and a diploma of Hazzan in 1999.

Previously, she served for nine years as cantor at Temple Israel in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and for 12 years as cantor and education director at Montbello Jewish Center in Suffern, New York.

She came to Danbury looking for a change.

“I really wanted to ideally be cantor/ educator…I didn’t want to give up either of them,” she says. But the position GRS advertised for was education director.

When Rubin interviewed at GRS, she was struck by their “warmth and understanding. She thought, “I love these people.”

“When I came in for the bigger interview, they asked, ‘Would you consider doing a cantor/educator position again?’

They offered me both positions and it really was a dream come true.”

“We are a small congregation, around 110 or 115 familes,” says Ken Greenberg, co-president of GRS and a member of the search committee that hired Cantor Rubin.

“We had a part-time cantor and a part-time educator for a number of years and one of the things we have talked about forever was, wouldn’t it make sense if we could find the right person to combine the positions…It seemed like there could be a lot of synergy there.”

But, recalls Greenberg, “A member of our committee said ‘You guys are looking for a unicorn. He said, ‘Yes, there are people who do both, but to get someone to do both very well you will be incredibly lucky.”

And so they decided to conduct a search for an educator only. That’s when Rubin walked through the door.

“We did the interview for her as an educator,” he says. “But when she walked in we thought she was a person we could get to do both -- she had a beautiful voice, she had the educator experience…and she just wowed us. She was willing to take on both positions, and so far it is working out great.

She is the unicorn!”

Besides serving as running the religious school, Rubin had a hand in building and strengthening USY at her last congregation, and hopes to help GRS’s youth group grow and thrive as well.

For now, she has spent the past few months during the pandemic getting to know her congregants.

“The families are wonderful and jewishledger.com

receptive,” she says. “I think we are all just excited.”

IN NEW LONDON Rabbi Earl Kideckel Congregation Beth El

Rabbi Earl Kideckel joined Congregation Beth El in New London on July 1, succeeding Rabbi Rachel Safman, who is now spiritual leader of Temple BethEl in Ithaca, New York.

Kideckel and his wife Lisa moved to Mystic from the Boston area in May. He hopes to build upon the successes of his predecessors, Safman as well as her predecessor, Rabbi Carl Astor.

“Beth El is a wonderful congregation.

The individuals who are involved in this community who I have met already really understand Jewish life; really understand community.”

Kideckel says he knew he wanted to be a rabbi at a fairly early age.

“I grew up in a family that was very oriented to synagogue life,” says the Toronto native. “My father was the president of a major congregation [Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda] which he helped build from about 100 families to somewhere around 1,600/ 1,800 families. My mother was the sisterhood president. I went to Jewish day school my entire life – to Associated Hebrew Schools and then the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto.

My sister was a Schechter principal in LA for 29 years. So, synagogue life, Jewish life, is a part of who we are.

“My parents had us involved in Jewish life right from the beginning. We always had Shabbat dinner. Shul was very important to our family. When I was growing up, every Shabbos morning I was either at shul or I went to the junior congregation at my Jewish day school. I was involved in USY; I was vice president of the region.”

It’s no wonder then that, while still in high school, Kideckel told his parents that he wanted to be a rabbi.

“My father’s next reaction was to have me meet with as many rabbis as he could – Reform, Conservative and Orthodox – to let me know that it wasn’t a job for a good Jewish boy. After listening to all of them and deciding that I still wanted to go down to the seminary, my parents made it happen.”

Kideckel graduated with bachelors degrees from the joint program of the Jewish Theological Seminary and Columbia University and was ordained by JTS. He served as a rabbi in New York, at pulpits in Elmira and Long Island, and at the Israel

AROUND CONNECTICUT In addition to Connecticut’s newly arrived clergy, two local rabbis have take up posts at other congregations around the state Rabbi Alan Lefkowitz joins West Hartford synagogue On Friday, Aug. 21, at a sociallydistanced Shabbat Under the Stars service in the parking lot of The Emanuel Synagogue in West Hartford, the congregation’s spiritual leader, Rabbi David Small, was joined by Rabbi Alan Lefkowitz, the Emanuel’s new part-time assistant rabbi.

“Each week, Rabbi Alan will devote hours to pastoral and ritual support,” says Small. “He has already begun to reach out to elderly and ailing congregants to offer encouragement and support by phone. Rabbi Alan has led Daily Minyan and helped lead Shabbat Services and has appeared with me at an Interfaith Concert for Hope and Peace in Bloomfield.”

Pastoral care is something with which Lefkowitz has years of experience, having served as Jewish chaplain at the Hospital for Special Care in New Britain, the Connecticut House of Representatives, the Hebrew Center, and Hoffman SummerWood, as well as several other facilities and organizations. He also has a website called, “Rabbi Without Walls, working with “people who aren’t members of a synagogue but still want pastoral care.”

“I was approached by Rabbi Small to be an assistant rabbi to take care of pastoral needs and I am absolutely delighted to be here,” says Lefkowitz.

“I’ve been assisting at the minyan as needed. I’ve been sharing the pulpit with Rabbi Small and it has been an absolute delight. I feel honored to help out wherever I can…wherever I’m needed.”

After serving as spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Ahm in Windsor for 19 years, Lefkowitz has remained busy since that shul’s merger in 2018 with Temple Beth Hillel in South Windsor.

“I’ve had to reinvent myself,” he explains.

Besides his website and pastoral care experience, he has also taught at Temple Beth Hillel’s religious school and teaches a course at Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford.

Before serving Beth Ahm, Rabbi

Alan, as he is known to congregants, was cantor/educator at the former Beth Hillel Synagogue in Bloomfield and at Beth Jacob Synagogue in Norwich for 10 years. He also served as principal of the religious school at B’nai Sholom Beth Israel in Manchester.

“Rabbi Lefkowitz’ warmth and kind approach, his love of Jewish traditions and his musicality all add to the vitality of our communal and spiritual life,” says Rabbi Small. “Rabbi Lefkowitz shows a genuine love of people and of Jewish life that fits well with the spirit of Emanuel Synagogue.”

Rabbi Nelly Altenburger moves from Danbury to Middletown congregation Rabbi Nelly Altenburger, who served as spiritual leader and religious school director of Congregation B’nai Israel in Danbury for the past 14 years, is now the new rabbi at Congregation Adath Israel in Middletown.

Adath Israel, which merged with Temple B’nai Abraham in Meriden last July, has been without a full time rabbi for the past two years.

Altenburger, a native of Brazil, received her Bachelor degree in Hebrew Language and Literature from the University of Sao Paulo. She immigrated to the U.S. in 2001, received a Masters degree in Rabbinic Studies in 2004 from the Zeigler School of Rabbinic studies in Los Angeles, California, and was ordained in 2006.

She succeeds Rabbi Seth Haaz, who is now senior rabbi at Har Zion Temple in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania.

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JEWISH LEDGER

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Briefs Trump says he moved embassy to Jerusalem ‘for the evangelicals’ (JTA) – President Trump said he moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem “for the evangelicals.” Trump made the statement at a campaign rally Monday, August 17 at an airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

“And we moved the capital of Israel to Jerusalem. That’s for the evangelicals.

You know, it’s amazing with that: The evangelicals are more excited about that than Jewish people. That’s right, it’s incredible,” Trump said as part of a nearly one-hour speech punctuated by applause.

He was referring to his decision to officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017, and the move of the U.S. Embassy there the following May. While Israel considers Jerusalem its capital, most countries do not recognize the claim and keep their embassies in Tel Aviv.

“And the Golan Heights, don’t forget that, we did the Golan Heights. So we’ve done a lot,” Trump added, referring to his recognition in March 2019 of Israeli

sovereignty over the Golan, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed.

Trump has noted on multiple occasions that the pro-Israel evangelical community has shown the most appreciation for his Israel-related actions.

Gallup – citing the proportion of people who answer yes to the question “Would you describe yourself as ‘born-again’ or evangelical?” – says evangelicals have for decades comprised just over 40% of the population. And a 2017 poll commissioned by pro-Israel evangelicals found that the percentage of evangelicals who believe that the establishment of Israel was a fulfillment of prophecy was 80%.

Japanese municipality holds benefit to honor savior of Jews (JTA) – A municipality in Japan celebrated the 80th anniversary of the rescue of Jews by a local diplomat with a bake sale. The benefit, which began last week in Japan’s Gifu district, will continue until Sept. 10 and its proceeds will go toward commemorating Chiune Sugihara’s actions in Japan, Lithuania and beyond. The district had planned to hold a benefit concert but had to switch to an online sale of cupcakes because

of social distancing measures connected to the coronavirus.

From July 18 to Aug. 28, 1940, Sugihara, an intelligence officer and consul serving in Lithuania, issued thousands of visas to Jewish refugees, many of them from Poland. His visas, coupled with fictitious destination visas issued by his Dutch counterpart in Lithuania, Jan Zwartendijk, allowed thousands of Jews to flee the Nazis.

Sugihara acted in defiance of orders from his superiors in Japan, which was an ally of Nazi Germany.

The town of Yaotsu in Gifu district, which many believe was Sugihara’s birthplace, has a museum honoring his actions, as does the city of Kaunas in Lithuania, where he handed out the visas.

Both institutions are to benefit from the proceeds of the bake sale, in which sets of cupcakes featuring berries from Lithuania are to be sold for about $28 per basket, Kyodo reported.

USC student gov’t leader quits after being harassed for supporting Israel (JTA) – A Jewish student leader at the University of Southern California said she resigned due to harassment over her support for Israel. Rose Ritch, the vice

Clergy CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

Community Center of Levittown. He spent three years at a shul in Las Vegas, and then the next 25 years in the Boston area.

His last full-time position was Temple Beth Torah in Holliston, Massachusetts, where he spent 16 years before he “semiretired.”

Since then, he has served the Jewish community of Boston as a rabbi to the unaffiliated, providing counseling and lifecycle services including bar/bat mitzvah ceremonies, baby namings, weddings and funerals.

But as it turns out, he was not really ready to retire.

“Two years ago I took a holiday pulpit at Beth Shalom Congregation in Alberta.

My wife, Lisa, saw me on the pulpit and realized I was missing something in my life, and that was working with people, teaching people, and being inspired by what I was doing.”

When they got back home, he had a family meeting with his wife and their three adult children.

“They all looked at me and said, ‘Dad you need to go back and do what you love to do.’”

He contacted the rabbinical placement organization of the United Synagogues

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of Conservative Judaism and when the position at Beth El in New London became available, he and Lisa travelled to the area for a Shabbat.

“I realized, and my wife realized, that it’s a wonderful group of people,” Kideckel said. “They had two wonderful rabbis before me, Rabbi Carl Astor for 38 years, and Rabbi Rachel Safman for seven, and it was time for them to find a rabbi who could guide them, help them, and work together with them in taking the next steps in ensuring the future of Conservative Judaism in southeast Connecticut.”

He understands the challenges.

One is Beth El’s lack of a permanent home – their synagogue building was sold a few years back and services are held in a local church building.

Another is demographics.

“Just like every other community in America, there is less attendance at synagogue events, there are fewer people joining congregations,” he says. “The goal is to make everyone understand and realize how important it is to have a Conservative-based congregation in the area.”

For now, Kideckel has been busy

| AUGUST 28, 2020

reaching out to the community – calling many on the phone to introduce himself and meeting them in person through socially distanced means.

“We are doing something we call ‘Coffee without Coffee With the Rabbi.’

I have literally met more than 100 individuals already in settings like backyards of people homes, or one-on-one in parks. I’ve reached out to them both in challenging moments and in moments of celebration.”

“We are just so fortunate to have him,” said Kathleen McFadden, president of Congregation Beth El. “He is such an experienced rabbi and he has a beautiful voice and he conducts services so beautifully. He just has a tremendous amount of experience and knows how to deal with congregants and work with the board. He’s been an absolute pleasure to work with.

“We’re in a whole new era with Covid, and he’s been flexible in his approach, because you have to think about how to do Shabbat services and how to do High Holiday services, and he has been incredibly thoughtful and flexible, changing things up if we have to change it up. He’s been great.”

president of the Undergraduate Student Government, said in an open letter to the campus community that she had to resign to “protect my physical safety on campus and my mental health.”

The university administration had recently stopped impeachment proceedings against Ritch over allegations of complicity in racial misconduct on campus, and for not calling out alleged racial misconduct and microaggressive behavior by the student government president, who resigned last month, the Daily Trojan student newspaper reported.

“I have been harassed and pressured for weeks by my fellow students because they opposed one of my identities. It is not because I am a woman, nor because I identify as queer, femme, or cisgender,” Ritch wrote. “All of these identities qualified me as electable when the student body voted last February. But because I also openly identify as a Zionist, a supporter of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, I have been accused by a group of students of being unsuitable as a student leader. I have been told that my support for Israel has made me complicit in racism, and that, by association, I am racist. Students launched an aggressive social media campaign to ‘impeach [my] Zionist a**.’ This is antisemitism, and cannot be tolerated at a University that proclaims to ‘nurture an environment of mutual respect and tolerance.’”

Ritch said that “an attack on my Zionist identity is an attack on my Jewish identity,” and that the suggestion that her support for a Jewish homeland makes her unfit for office “plays into the oldest stereotypes of Jews, including accusations of dual loyalty and holding all Jews responsible for the actions of the Israeli government.”

12 rockets launched at Israel from Gaza (JTA) – At least 12 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel amid an escalation of hostilities between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants. Israel’s Iron Dome defense system took out several rockets, but one of them landed near a house in Sderot on Friday, causing extensive damage. No one was wounded from the rockets. Israeli troops have responded with artillery fire on at least three occasions since Thursday.

Exchanges of fire have taken place since Saturday and military sources in Israel are saying the army is preparing for a widescale operation if the situation persists. The current round of fighting began on August 13, when incendiary balloons released in Gaza toward Israel caused major fires.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered retaliatory strikes and warned Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, that they “will pay a heavy price” if their activities persist. Hamas responded with rocket fire, provoking fresh Israeli strikes. jewishledger.com

Join RBG and other celebs for the High Holidays (JTA) – Wanna join Daveed Diggs, Idina Menzel and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for High Holidays worship? The Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, D.C., has a way – virtually. The synagogue/arts and entertainment center, which has hosted dozens of Jewish celebrities in the past 15 years, has launched its “You In A Pew” fundraiser in which members and others can pay $36 to have a photo of themselves placed next to a cardboard cutout of one of the famous folks, like the trio noted above.

The pews will be shown during livestreams of virtual Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services. Proceeds from the fundraiser will go to pay for the production of the services.

“We miss seeing your face around Sixth & I,” the synagogue said in an Instagram post Wednesday announcing the program.

“Although this year isn’t quite what many of us pictured, a picture of you in our sanctuary during the High Holidays would help us feel more connected to you at a time when we especially want to be together. You might even see yourself on screen sharing a prayerbook with Matisyahu.”

Brandeis targeted by bomb threat (JTA) – Brandeis University was the target of a bomb threat on Thursday, August 20, less than a week before classes for the fall semester are set to begin. An alert was sent through the Boston-area university’s alert system at 10:55 a.m. advising those on campus to seek shelter and those off campus to remain there. An all-clear message went out at 1:40 p.m.

“Public Safety has concluded their search and determined that it is safe to end the shelter-in-place and resume activities. We thank you very much for your patience and understanding,” the message read.

This was not first bomb threat against Brandeis, which has a large Jewish population. In August 2017, an emailed threat caused the university to evacuate its campus. The threat was among a number of bomb threats against local institutions that were later found to be “hoaxes.” The perpetrator was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Jewish Americans founded Brandeis at a time when many universities were closed to Jewish students. According to Hillel International, the Jewish campus life organization, 33% a third of its undergraduates are Jewish.

In a first, an Israeli will race in the Tour de France (JTA) – For the first time, an Israeli will compete in the Tour de France, the world’s premier cycling event. Guy Niv, 26, is a member of Team Israel Start-Up Nation, jewishledger.com

the first Israel-based and -owned team to race in the Tour de France. The team, which was established in 2015 as the Israel Cycling Academy, joined the World Tour, the highest level of professional cycling, last year. That gave it a place in this year’s Tour de France, one of cycling’s three Grand Tours along with the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana, three-week races run in stages.

Until three years ago, Niv was primarily a mountain biker and had little experience in road racing. “I am honored and privileged to represent my country and team in the biggest race in cycling and one of the greatest sporting events in the world.

And to be the first Israeli to do so? It might sound like a cliché, but it’s a dream come true,” Niv said. He recalled that at the time of his bar mitzvah, he asked his parents to take him to the Tour de France as a birthday present.

Niv raced as part of Israel’s team in the 2019 Giro d’Italia. Israelis will race in two other Grand Tour races later this year: Guy Sagiv in the Giro d’Italia and Omer Goldstein in the Vuelta a Espana. Team co-owner Sylvan Adams, a Canadian-Israeli real estate magnate, in 2018 brought the Giro d’Italia cycling race to Israel for the first three stages, the first time any leg of cycling’s Grand Tour races took place outside of Europe.

FBI explains why it tweeted link to files on ‘Protocols of Elders of Zion’ (JTA) – The FBI explained why it tweeted a link to a 139-page selection of the bureau’s files on antisemitic text from the early 20th century The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Hours after the FBI Records Vault sent the tweet on Wednesday afternoon, August 19, without context, here’s what the FBI tweeted: “Earlier today FOIA materials were posted to the FBI’s Vault and FOIA Twitter account via an automated process without further outlining the context of the documents. We regret that this release may have inadvertently caused distress among the communities we serve. The FBI often receives information from members of the public, which is captured in our permanent files and released under FOIA law. The FBI must process historical files that were collected in the past, some of which may be considered offensive,” the thread continued.

Some Twitter users took the original tweet as a promotion of the message in the “Protocols.” However, the Twitter account regularly tweets declassified archival FBI documents. The original tweet spurred thousands of responses: Some Twitter users cheered it, while others condemned it.

Many responses to the “context” tweet called on the FBI to delete the “Protocols” link and others called for an explanation to be included with the original tweet of the document. “This isn’t about needing

more ‘context!’ And it’s not about ’causing distress.’ It’s about the most vicious antiSemitic propaganda ever created, which has caused persecution and murder on a vast scale at times and in places throughout the world. TAKE IT DOWN!!!!’ tweeted Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY).

Facebook restricts groups, tied to QAnon (JTA) – Facebook has restricted thousands of groups and pages with ties to the proTrump QAnon conspiracy theory. The social media site said Wednesday, August 19, that it had removed 790 Facebook groups and was restricting thousands of groups, accounts and pages on Facebook and its company Instagram. QAnon followers believe in a complex narrative about a group of powerful people working to bring down President Donald Trump who also run an international child sex trafficking ring. Critics say its focus on Jewish figures, especially the billionaire political donor George Soros and the wealthy Rotschild family, is antisemitic.

The movement has grown in recent months and last week Marjorie Taylor Greene, a congressional candidate who has promoted QAnon, won a Republican primary in Georgia. Jewish Insider uncovered a 2018 posting on a QAnon website signed by a Marjorie Greene that accused Soros and the Rothschild family of being involved in the conspiracy. Greene’s primary win in a heavily Republican district almost assures victory in November. Her closest opponent also was a right-wing Republican, but Greene received Trump’s backing.

“We have seen growing movements that, while not directly organizing violence, have celebrated violent acts, shown that they have weapons and suggest they will use them,” Facebook said.

To Facebook, Holocaust denial’ isn’t anti-Jewish hate speech (JNS) Facebook, according to an Aug. 10 report, “actively promotes further Holocaust-denial content to that user” and “has been unwilling to recognize Holocaust denial as a form of hate speech against Jews.”

“Hosting the Holohoax: A Snapshot of Holocaust Denial Across Social Media,” was released by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a think tank in the United Kingdom. The findings show that not only is Holocaust-denial content available on Facebook, but the social-media network actively lists it through the site’s algorithm.

Through a “snowball” method that allows content that starts out with little visibility to become viral, “when a user follows public pages containing Holocaust-denial content, Facebook actively promotes further

Holocaust-denial content to that user.”

ISD found 415 posts across 283 pages and groups, with an overall user engagement of 32,650, including 10,291 shares. The report also mentions that Twitter has acted against Holocaust denial on its platform, but only in “instances where individuals were using images of Holocaust victims to explicitly attack Jewish people, rather than individuals denying the Holocaust’s occurrence or severity.” Finally, the report lauds YouTube and Reddit for limiting Holocaust-denial content on their platforms.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, “welcomes the report.”

“As part of the coalition of [more than] 100 Jewish groups that wrote Facebook, we have submitted an extensive list of problematic antisemitic postings still appearing on their platform and have urged that Facebook adopts the IHRA definition. We expect a meeting with them in the coming days,” he told JNS. “As for Holocaust denial,” he continued, “Rabbi Marvin Hier and I spoke to [Facebook founder] Mark Zuckerberg directly on the issue, and have pressed him and his team to remove any and all postings of this monstrous lie. Much of those postings were removed, but as this study shows too many postings remain.”

Appeals court: Video of Robert Kraft at massage parlor can’t be used at trial (JTA) – New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft scored some points in court on Wednesday as he fights charges that he solicited prostitution in South Florida.

A state appeals court in West Palm Beach upheld a lower court ruling that an explicit video of Kraft from a massage parlor cannot be used at his trial. The court agreed that the police violated his rights when they secretly recorded the video, which is believed to show an employee performing a sexual act on Kraft.

Kraft was among some 100 men charged in February 2019 with solicitation in massage parlors in Martin County, in his case the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, near where he keeps a home. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of soliciting prostitution. One month later, however, he publicly apologized.

“Throughout my life, I have always tried to do the right thing. The last thing I would ever want to do is disrespect another human being. I have extraordinary respect for women; my morals and my soul were shaped by the most wonderful woman, the love of my life, who I was blessed to have as my partner for 50 years,” Kraft said in the statement.

Kraft’s wife Myra died of cancer in 2011 at the age of 68.

JEWISH LEDGER

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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 Jewish Senior Services Traditional Rabbi Stephen Shulman (203) 396-1001 sshulman@jseniors.org www.jseniors.org CHESHIRE Temple Beth David Reform Rabbi Micah Ellenson (203) 272-0037 office@TBDCheshire.org www.TBDCheshire.org

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CHESTER Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek Reform Rabbi Marci Bellows (860) 526-8920 rabbibellows@cbsrz.org www.cbsrz.org COLCHESTER Congregation Ahavath Achim Conservative Rabbi Kenneth Alter (860) 537-2809 secretary@congregationahavathachim.org EAST HARTFORD Temple Beth Tefilah Conservative Rabbi Yisroel Snyder (860) 569-0670 templebetht@yahoo.com FAIRFIELD Congregation Ahavath Achim Orthodox (203) 372-6529 office@ahavathachim.org www.ahavathachim.org Congregation Beth El, Fairfield Conservative Rabbi Marcelo Kormis (203) 374-5544 office@bethelfairfield.org www.bethelfairfield.org GLASTONBURY Congregation Kol Haverim Reform Rabbi Dr. Kari Tuling (860) 633-3966 office@kolhaverim.org www.kolhaverim.org

GREENWICH Greenwich Reform Synagogue Reform Rabbi Jordie Gerson (203) 629-0018 hadaselias@grs.org www.grs.org Temple Sholom Conservative Rabbi Mitchell M. Hurvitz Rabbi Chaya Bender Cantor Sandy Bernstein (203) 869-7191 info@templesholom.com www.templesholom.com HAMDEN Temple Beth Sholom Conservative Rabbi Benjamin Edidin Scolnic (203) 288-7748 tbsoffice@tbshamden.com www.tbshamden.com MADISON Temple Beth Tikvah Reform Rabbi Stacy Offner (203) 245-7028 office@tbtshoreline.org www.tbtshoreline.org MANCHESTER Beth Sholom B’nai Israel Conservative Rabbi Randall Konigsburg (860) 643-9563 Rabbenu@myshul.org programming@myshul.org www.myshul.org

MIDDLETOWN Adath Israel Conservative Spiritual Leaders: Rabbi Marshal Press Rabbi Michael Kohn (860) 346-4709 office@adathisraelct.org www.adathisraelct.org NEW HAVEN The Towers Conservative Ruth Greenblatt, Spiritual Leader (203) 772-1816 rebecca@towerone.org www.towerone.org Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel Conservative Rabbi Jon-Jay Tilsen (203) 389-2108 office@BEKI.org www.BEKI.org Orchard Street ShulCongregation Beth Israel Orthodox Rabbi Mendy Hech t 973-723-9070 www.orchardstreetshul.org NEW LONDON Ahavath Chesed Synagogue Orthodox Rabbi Avrohom Sternberg 860-442-3234 Ahavath.chesed@att.net Congregation Beth El Conservative Rabbi Rachel Safman (860) 442-0418 office@bethel-nl.org 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

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NORWALK Beth Israel Synagogue – Chabad of Westport/ Norwalk Orthodox-Chabad Rabbi Yehoshua S. Hecht (203) 866-0534 info@bethisraelchabad.org bethisraelchabad.org Congregation Beth El-Norwalk Conservative Rabbi Ita Paskind (203) 838-2710 Jody@congbethel.org www.congbethel.org Temple Shalom Reform Rabbi Mark Lipson (203) 866-0148 admin@templeshalomweb.org www.templeshalomweb.org ORANGE Congregation Or Shalom Conservative Rabbi Alvin Wainhaus (203) 799-2341 info@orshalomct.org www.orshalomct.org RIDGEFIELD Congregation Shir Shalom of Westchester and Fairfield Counties Reform Rabbi David Reiner Cantor Debora Katchko-Gray (203) 438-6589 office@ourshirshalom.org SIMSBURY Chabad of the Farmington Valley Chabad Rabbi Mendel Samuels (860) 658-4903 chabadsimsbury@gmail.com www.chabadotvalley.org Farmington Valley Jewish Congregation, Emek Shalom Reform Rabbi Rebekah Goldman Mag (860) 658-1075 admin@fvjc.org www.fvjc.org SOUTH WINDSOR Temple Beth Hillel of South Windsor Reform Rabbi Jeffrey Glickman (860) 282-8466 tbhrabbi@gmail.com www.tbhsw.org

SOUTHINGTON Gishrei Shalom Jewish Congregation Reform Rabbi Alana Wasserman (860) 276-9113 President@gsjc.org www.gsjc.org

Congregation Beth Israel Reform Rabbi Michael Pincus Rabbi Andi Fliegel Cantor Stephanie Kupfer (860) 233-8215 bethisrael@cbict.org www.cbict.org

TRUMBULL Congregation B’nai Torah Conservative Rabbi Colin Brodie (203) 268-6940 office@bnaitorahct.org www.bnaitorahct.org

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

WALLINGFORD Beth Israel Synagogue Conservative Rabbi Bruce Alpert (203) 269-5983 richardcaplan@sbcglobal.net www.bethisrael/wallingford. org WASHINGTON Greater Washington Coalition Rabbi James Greene (860) 868-2434 admin@jewishlifect.org www.jewishlife.org WATERFORD Temple Emanu - El Reform Rabbi Marc Ekstrand Rabbi Emeritus Aaron Rosenberg (860) 443-3005 office@tewaterfrord.org www.tewaterford.org WEST HARTFORD Beth David Synagogue Orthodox Rabbi Yitzchok Adler (860) 236-1241 office@bethdavidwh.org www.bethdavidwh.org

Kehilat Chaverim of Greater Hartford Chavurah Adm. - Marcey Ginsburg Munoz (860) 951-6877 info@ kehilatchaverim.org www.kehilatchaverim.org The Emanuel Synagogue Conservative Rabbi David J. Small (860) 236-1275 communications@emanuelsynagogue.org www.emanuelsynagogue.org United Synagogues of Greater Hartford Orthodox Rabbi Eli Ostrozynsk i synagogue voice mail (860) 586-8067 Rabbi’s mobile (718) 6794446 ostro770@hotmail.com www.usgh.org Young Israel of West Hartford Orthodox Rabbi Tuvia Brander (860) 233-3084 info@youngisraelwh.org www.youngisraelwh.org

Beth El Temple Conservative Rabbi James Rosen Rabbi Ilana Garber (860) 233-9696 hsowalsky@bethelwh.org www.bethelwesthartford.org

WETHERSFIELD Temple Beth Torah Unaffiliated Rabbi Seth Riemer (860) 828-3377 tbt.w.ct@gmail.com templebethtorahwethersfield. org

Chabad House of Greater Hartford Rabbi Joseph Gopin Rabbi Shaya Gopin, Director of Education (860) 232-1116 info@chabadhartford.com www.chabadhartford.com

WOODBRIDGE Congregation B’nai Jacob Conservative Rabbi Rona Shapiro (203) 389-2111 info@bnaijacob.org www.bnaijacob.org

jewishledger.com

Trudy Goldstein marks 44 years at the Jewish Ledger On August 21, Trudy Goldstein celebrated her 44th year as a valued member of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger staff, granting her exclusive elder-stateswoman status as the longest-employed associate of the organization.

“Trudy is still a very valuable part of our team,” says Ledger Associate Publisher Leslie Iarusso, who has worked with Trudy for close to 25 years. “She is sharp, wellorganized, and professional with a wealth of information from her many years in the community. We’re so happy she is still part of the Ledger family – with no signs of slowing down!”

A native of Hartford’s North End, Trudy Goldstein is the daughter of the late Julius and Sadie Weiner – owners of Weiner’s Men’s Clothes, a Hartford business chronicled in the 2013 book, Revisiting Our Neighborhoods: Stories from Hartford’s Past (Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford).

She and her husband Alex z”l raised their three daughters in West Hartford. It was when their youngest daughter was entering high school that she decided to find a job.

“I played Mah Jongg with three other women and they all worked,” she recalls. “When I’d say, ‘Let’s play another hand,’ they would say, ‘You don’t have to work tomorrow.’”

When she began her career at the Ledger – which was then owned and operated by Bert Gaster z”l and Shirley Bunis z”l – the newspaper was housed above The Crown supermarket at West Hartford’s Bishops Corner, within walking distance from the Goldsteins’ home. The job was clerical and Goldstein did everything, from ad design to label-printing to newspaper layout.

“I even took out the garbage,” she laughs.

Today, Trudy is one of the Ledger’s top advertising sales representatives. She’s also a whiz on the computer and has an uncanny ability to recite addresses and/or phone off the top of her head – a great help to her co-coworkers.

Above all else, she still finds satisfaction in her work and her Ledger “family.”

“I’m greatly appreciated by our publisher and our entire staff. I’m surrounded at the office by good company and close friends,” she says.

And it doesn’t get much better than that.

THE KOSHER CROSSWORD AUGUST 28, 2020 “Housework”

Difficulty Level: Challenging

Curbside pick up and local home delivery available!

SHABBAT DINNER TRADITIONAL DAIRY LUNCHEON DELI SANDWICH PLATTER DINNER MENU

Across 1. Cinematic Lee 4. Sports org. with pitching 7. Some are smart 13. Wentz and Daly 15. Beer with a bit of a branding issue 16. *Alternative to 17-Across?

17. *Social locale for some Jewish students?

18. Underpants or Man 20. Ernie of 4-Across 21. Nimble 23. Org. making major changes due to 15-Across 25. Tennis star Barty, to friends

27. *Acceptable reason for lying, in Jewish law?

29. Flight personnel 31. Detectives for hire, briefly 32. Newark’s airport code 34. Teary-eyed 35. Like one you should go out of your way to help...or a hint to solving the starred clues in this puzzle 38. Winter X Games host city 41. NaOH, familiarly 42. Person who plays for work 45. Ben you probably wouldn’t want to debate 47. *Rising city south of

Jerusalem?

50. “Baseball” documentarian Burns 51. A D’Urberville lass 53. Animal that might ask “why”?

54. Ararat and Everest: Abbr.

56. Major ___ (baseball pro) 58. *Jewish party?

60. *Locale to learn lore?

63. Applies to, as an ointment 64. Try to find 65. Something to coin 66. Balaam’s reprover 67. Some PCs and printers

Down 1. Windows installations, for short 2. Slangly denial 3. “Todah”, to Carlos 4. Longtime Grey portrayer 5. Tiny insect pest 6. Like fusion food, often 7. “The Oven of ___”, Talmudic tale 8. Law, in Nice 9. Mystery writer Stanley Gardner 10. They’re often required to be worn in Yeshivas 11. *Place to pray or maybe argue?

12. Tessio in “The Godfather” 14. David, compared to Goliath

19. Miranda Cosgrove sitcom 21. Crossword’s favorite snake 22. Letters under 4, on some dials 24. Gun holders?

26. Rte. alt.

28. 40 in gematria 30. USSR successor 33. Opposite of “they win” 35. “Cool,” back in the day 36. “Right away” 37. Catch that might give you a fright 38. Shoot 39. *Bright city south of Modi’in?

40. Christian McCaffrey, for one 42. Admirer of Joseph

43. Band with a hit about Andy Kaufman 44. German grandma 46. Do a brake job 48. Makes like yetis (if they’re real) 49. Court employee 52. Kafka’s Gregor 55. Persia’s purim city 57. Miep who hid Anne Frank 58. “Sure” 59. ___ Equis 61. Partake in Shulchan Orech 62. Abbr. after Brooklyn or Washington

ANSWERS TO AUGUST 21 CROSSWORD

jewishledger.com

By: Yoni Glatt

JEWISH LEDGER

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AUGUST 28, 2020

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TORAHPortion

Opinion CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

I am living in a miracle of which I am aware. I thank God for the privilege to live in this miracle. And for this reason I feel responsible for it, for my wellbeing and for its wellbeing, because my wellbeing is dependent on its wellbeing.

I came here to be part of a leadership that is committed to the miracle called the State of Israel. Leadership that doesn’t want to avenge past wrongs, to care only for our people, or to be always in the right; but rather a leadership that wants to repair and to rebuild to take care of those who voted for them in the exact same way as to those who didn’t. That doesn’t ridicule the pain of those who have lost, that believes in our connections one to another. A leadership that develops exceptional governance that will act for reconciliation and reconstruction, a leadership that doesn’t want to erase anybody.

I’m waiting and praying for a leadership not of “killers” but of healers. I believed in the value of a unity government. I still believe that is the only way to establish the foundations for the next stage in the country’s life, to save us from destruction, to reinvent ourselves anew.

I dedicated a big part of my life and my career to create the connections that would allow the creation of a new Jewish and Israeli center. I believe that our responsibility and duty is to do as Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai – create an alliance of moderates, a new Israeli center that defines itself around what we are for, and not what we are against.

These are the days of the Third Temple, And exactly like the two that preceded it, it’s fragile. It’s flammable. It cannot be taken for granted. Its stability is our responsibility. Its existence depends on us. This is on our watch. Thank you.

MILESTONES B’nai Mitzvah Eliana Goldberg, daughter of Elizabeth and Eric Goldberg, celebrated her bat mitzvah on Saturday, August 29, at The Emanuel Synagogue in West Hartford.

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“A Matter of Life or Death”

Jewish groups fight for the right to vote by mail 1

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Ki Tetze

BY SHLOMO RISKIN

“An illegitimate person [mamzer] shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even his tenth generation shwall not enter into the congregation of the Lord” (Deut. 23:3)

O

ne of the most difficult biblical laws to understand is that of the mamzer, the product of an adulterous (or incestuous) sexual liaison, who may never enter into a marriage relationship with another

Jew. We can readily understand why the adulterers themselves are forbidden from marrying each other, even after they become divorced from their previous spouses; they, who showed such disdain and disregard for the exclusive and sacred marital relationship by betraying their marital partners, dare not enter together into matrimony, since God “has sanctified His nation Israel by means of the nuptial canopy and the marital ritual of kiddushin” (the initial blessing, along with the blessing over the wine, at a wedding ceremony). The glory of the Jewish people has always been the purity of our family life.

But why punish the innocent product born of such an adulterous act? He/she has done nothing wrong. Why forbid him/her to ever become married in Israel? To understand this law, it is necessary to understand the difference between the Written Law (Bible), which the sacred Zohar calls “the harsh law” (dina de’takfa), and the Oral Law (Talmud and Responsa) which is called in turn “the soft and compassionate law” (dina de’rafiya). The interpretation I am now expositing in differentiating between these two corpora of legal doctrine is hinted at both in Maimonides’s Mishne Torah, Laws of Blows and Damages (1, 3) and Guide for the Perplexed (part 3, chapter 41).

Even a cursory glance at the Bible will reveal the many instances in which capital punishment is called for, the Bible declaring that the offender “must surely die, is certainly to be stoned to death” (mot tamut, sakel yisakel). The Oral Law, however, greatly limits these extreme punishments, insisting that a trial can take place only if two knowledgeable and objective witnesses give testimony that they saw the actual crime being perpetrated (circumstantial evidence not being admissible in a Jewish courtroom), and took the opportunity to give proper warning to the assailant, determining that he was aware of the action he was about to commit and its punitive consequences; hence R. Akiva and R. Tarfon both declare that if they had been on the Sanhedrin, no human being would ever have been tried for a capital crime. And our Sages declare that if a culprit was put to death once in 70 years, the court would be declared “a murderous court” (Mishna Makot 1;10 ).

The difference in punitive attitude becomes clear

when we remember the different purposes guiding each legal code: The entire Pentateuch is heard each year by every Jew who attends Sabbath services, so that the goal of the biblical readings each week is to inform and inspire the consciences–first and foremost of the Jewish attendees–by inspiring them to understand the critical importance of ethical and moral actions.

The Oral Law, however, which sets down the actual punishments, must mediate the law with life, taking into account that if, God forbid, the wrong person is put to death for a crime he did not commit, there is no judicial recourse to bring him back to life.

Hence the Oral Law softens and even sweetens the penalties, even bending over backwards to be lenient with the defendant.

For example, the Written Law warns “an eye for an eye,” since the only way an individual can understand the enormity of his crime of taking out a person’s eye is for him to have his eye removed; the Oral Law then explains that, since different people have different levels of eyesight and some professions require greater use of the eyes than do others, the actual penalty must be monetary remuneration rather than the removal of the eye.

The Bible, since it wished to inspire Israel to respect and protect the moral integrity of the marital union, teaches that if one degrades the marital fidelity, the product of such a liaison would never be able to enter a marital union, for all subsequent generations. However, the Oral Law made it virtually impossible to have a practical instance of mamzerut: not only would there have had to be two witnesses who gave warning to the transgressing couple prior to their act of adultery, which would have had to take place in front of those witnesses, but the halachic presumption is always that since the majority of sexual acts are between husband and wife, every child is presumed to be the child of that husband (and since paternity tests are not 100% accurate, they are not sufficient proof of adultery). When the case of a woman whose husband went overseas twelve months before she gave birth was brought before a religious court in talmudic times, the judges declared the child to be “kosher,” assuming that the fetus had gestated in the woman’s womb for 12 months! And in a similar incident they ruled that the husband had secretly returned for a night unbeknownst to anyone.

In more modern times, I do not know of a single case of mamzerut for which Hacham Ovadia Yosef or Rav Moshe Feinstein did not find a positive solution enabling the person in question to marry into the Jewish community. Unfortunately, the present religious establishment is not as bold as the decisors of previous generations.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is chancellor emeritus of Ohr Torah Stone and chief rabbi of Efrat, Israel.

Find us online at www.jewishledger.com jewishledger.com

BULLETIN BOARD Webinars prepare the Jewish community for a safe holiday With the High Holy Days approaching in a unique and challenging environment, between both the ongoing reality of threats facing the Jewish community and the impacts of COVID-19, the Secure Community Network, (SCN), the safety and security organization of he Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, is hosting a webinar series that will provide best-practices and guidance on cyber security, armed security in Jewish institutions, and outdoor event safety. Developed with input from major synagogue and religious movements, the national network of Jewish Federation community security directors, as well as law enforcement experts, the webinars will address the new challenges presented

by COVID-19 from a Jewish security perspective, as well as the continued violent threats the Jewish community faces every day.

For more information on the following webinars, contact Dena Weiss at dweiss@ securecommunitynetwork.org: Wednesday, August 26, “Firearms and the Faithful.” Law enforcement experts will discuss whether or not Jewish facilities are better protected with armed security. For groups interest in armed protection, the seminar will discuss who should provide it – volunteers, retired law enforcement, active law enforcement?

UJF of Stamford hosts Kosher Food Truck Truck Night United Jewish Federation of Greater Stamford will host a kosher food truck night with food provided by tNeil’s Wheels, a new kosher food truck under the supervision of the Vaad of Fairfield County. Menue includes falafel sandwiches and plates, salmon kabobs with Persian rice, Greek salad, pizza, baklava and more. Deadline to place orders is Aug. 25; pick up on Wednesday, Aug. 26 at Temple Beth El (parking lot), 350 Roxbury Rd. in Stamford, 4:30 - 7 p.m. Pay in advance and select a time slot for pick up. For more information: sharon@ujf.org, (203) 321-1373 x109.

“Food & Tunes!” PJ Library & PJ Our Way families are invited to pick up food and then find a spot on the lawn to enjoy jewishledger.com

Events at the JCC in Sherman All events/programs at the JCC in Sherman are being held outdoors. Reservations are required ; events limited to 40 people. Bring your mask and a chair!

For more information, including a list of health and safety rules for outdoor events, visit www.jccinsherman.org or email info@ jccinsherman.org Saturday, August 29, 7 p.m.

Live Performance “Say Goodnight, Stacy” Featuring the talents of Robin and StacyLee Frome With musical guests Beth Bonnebeau Harding, Gary Blu, Barbara Bock, & the performing talents of Sherman Playhouse President Steve Stott, & your MC Kimberly Marcus. FREE, donations welcome.

Saturday, September 12, 6:30 p.m.

The Four Horseman in Concert Band members David Ray, Mike Latini, Dave Goldenberg and George Mallas are singer-songwriters, each with his own unique style!

Rain date: TBD Tickets: $20/members; $25/non-members

Saluting the soldiers of the IDF, Sept. 13 The global Friends of Israel Defense Forces family will unite for a night of giving and solidarity on Sunday, Sept. 13 at 7 p.m., when FIDF hosts a national virtual gala celebrating those who protect and defend the Jewish state. For more information, visit fidf.org.

Museum of Jewish Heritage upcoming virtual programs The Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, continues to host virtual programs. All events take place at 2 p.m. Suggested donation for each event is $10. For more information or to sign up for events, visit mjhnyc.org/events.

Grief: The Biography of A Holocaust Photograph September 1, 2 p.m.

A conversation with Russian-Jewish history scholar David Shneer and historian Yigal Kotler about Shneer’s new book and the role of Soviet photography during the Holocaust.

GRIEF: THE BIOGRAPHY OF A HOLOCAUST PHOTOGRAPH

In January 1942, Soviet press photographers took pictures of the first liberation of a German mass atrocity, where an estimated 7,000 Jews and others were executed at a trench near Kerch on the Crimean peninsula. Dmitri Baltermants, a Soviet photojournalist, took photos that day that would have a long life in shaping the image of Nazi genocide in and against the Soviet Union. Presenting never before seen photographs, Grief: The Biography of a Holocaust Photograph shows how Baltermants used the image of a grieving woman to render this gruesome mass atrocity into a transcendentally human tragedy. Unlike images of emaciated camp survivors or barbed wire fences, Shneer argues, the Holocaust by bullets in the Soviet Union make Grief a quintessential Soviet image of Nazi genocide.

Book talk with author Pamela S. Nadell, Aug. 25

UJF of Greater Stamford to kick off annual campaign Enjoy United Jewish Federation of Greater Stamford’s 2020 campaign kickoff from the safety and comfort of your own car at UJF’s “Drive-in Movie Theater “ event on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 7:30 p.m. Join the community in honoring 600+ donors who have given an annual gift to UJF for 18 years; enjoy live entertainment; enjoy a boxed dinner and refreshments delivered to your car Event details and registration can be found at www.ujf.org/drivein or call (203) 321-1373.

s

Wednesday, September 2, “Safety and Security Considerations for Outdoor Services and Gatherings.” A panel discussion on best practices for outdoor event safety for communities planning on outdoor observances.

dinner, with entertainment by provided by Bobby Doowah, 5:30 - 6 p.m. Tickets: $5/ per family (space is limited; registration a must). Register at uff.ticketspice.com.

On Tuesday, August 25, 5 p.m., Prof.

Pamela S. Nadell will discuss her book, America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today, winner of the 2019 National Jewish Book AwardEverett Family Foundation Jewish Book of the Year. Co-sponsored by The Emanuel Synagogue, the Jewish Historical Society of Fairfield County and the UCONN Judaic Studies Program, Nadell’s talk will highlight activist Jewish women, including some of those who fought for 72 years for women’s suffrage. Nadell is professor of Women’s and Gender History at American University where she directs the Jewish Studies Program. She is also the author of Women Who Would Be Rabbis: A History of Women’s Ordination, 1889-1995.

To register, visit jhsgh.org/virtual-booktalk-with-pamela-s-nadell to receive a link to the virtual program.

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AUGUST 28, 2020

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OBITUARIES The Ledger prints a basic obituary free of charge. Free obituaries are edited to fit the newspaper’s style. Obituaries that those submitting would like to run “as is,” as well as accompanying photos, may be printed for a charge. For more information: ­judiej@jewishledger.com, 860.231.2424.

BERKE Sonia Kase Berke, 86, of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., formerly of West Hartford, died August 6. She was the wife of David A. Berke. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., she was the daughter of the late Abraham and Irene Kase. She was a former member of Beth El Temple in West Hartford, and a current member of Temple Beth David in Palm Beach Gardens. In addition to her husband, she is survived by her children, Allan K. Grande and his wife Cynthia Moran, Sara G. Gavens and her husband Andrew, and Ian R. Grande and his husband Richard Goldberg; her granddaughters, Melissa L. Gavens, Jennifer L. Gavens and Molly A. Gavens; her former husband Paul Grande; her step-children, Michelle Hatch and her husband Gary Garnet, and Heidi BerkeHalperin and her husband Jeff, and their families; her step-granddaughters, Rebecca Martelon and her husband Timothy, Joshua Hatch, Benjamin Berke-Halperin; and stepgreat-granddaughter Grace Martelon; her sister Sherry Kase Levy and her husband Alex; and her brother Harvey Kase and his wife Arlene. She was also pre-deceased by her brother Lawrence Kase.

BOBROW Rose (Golden) Bobrow, 95, of Newington, formerly of New York and New Jersey, died August 16. She was the widow of Alvin Bobrow. Born in Los Angeles, Calif., she was the daughter of the late Samuel and Sarah (Shwam) Golden She is survived by her children, Ruth Farber and her husband Fred of Newington, Deborah Schneider of Monroe Township, N.J., Jonathan Bobrow and his wife Tara of N.J.; her grandchildren, Amy, Andrew, Scott, Douglas, and Willy; her great-grandchildren, Anastasia, Ian, Nathaniel, and Rosalynn; and her greatgreat-grandchildren Mathilda, Donald, and Madeline.

GREENWOOD Susan Greenwood, 65, of Jamaica Plain, Mass., died August 16. She was the wife of Arnie Greenwood. Born in Hartford, she was the daughter of Fred and Eva Greenwood, both Holocaust survivors who fled Vienna on the Kindertransport. In addition to her husband, she is survived by her son Elijah, and her best friend Cate Carulli.

GURTMAN Gisella (Langer) Gurtman, 90, of West Hartford, formerly of New Jersey, died August 17. She was the widow of Mark Gurtman. Born in Sambor, Poland, she was the daughter of the late Meier and Ida (Stachelberg) Langer. She survived the Holocaust in exile in Kazakhstan, while numerous other family members perished. She is survived by her children, Frances Gurtman and her husband Richard Goldberg of Avon, and Michael Gurtman and his wife Lois Lourie of Highland Park, Ill.; her sister Lucille Libicki of San Francisco, Calif.; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

PARKER Thelma Drobnis Parker of New Haven has died just one month shy of her 102 birthday.

She was the widow of Henry Parker. She was born in Boston, Mass. She is survived by her daughters, Phyllis Silverman and her husband Harvey, Marlene Feldman and her husband Peter, Susan Schachtel and her husband Bernard; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren; and several nieces, nephews and their families.

KEMLER Joan R. Kemler, 94, of Delray Beach, Fla., formerly of West Hartford, died August 9. She was the widow of Dr. R. Leonard Kemler of Hartford. Born in New Haven,

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she was the daughter of the late James M. and Nellie (Cohen) Rosen. She was a member of The Emanuel Synagogue.

She was also predeceased by her brother Malcolm Rosen and his wife Muriel. She is survived by her sister, Barbara Goodkind and her husband Robert of Rye, New York; her children, David Kemler and his wife Susan of Alamo, Calif., and Louise Kaufman and her husband Todd of West Hartford; her grandchildren, William, Maxwell, James, and Grace; and many nieces and nephews.

LANDORF Herbert Landorf, 97, died August 18. He was born and raised in New Haven.

He was the widower of Carolyn Brehm. He served as a commissioned officer in World War II, in which he fought in many famous battles. Herb is survived by his children, Hilary and her wife Catherine, Kenneth and Richard; his granddaughter Stefanie Landorf; and his partner Miriam Lillian. He was also predeceased by his son Fred.

LASCHEVER Richard Benjamin Laschever, 91, of Bloomfield, formerly of West Hartford, died August 13. He was the husband of Estelle

(Weinman) Laschever. Born in Hartford, he was the son of the late Abraham and Ida (Seltzer) Laschever. He served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in the 50s. He was a past president of Temple Beth Tefilah in East Hartford. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughters, Bram Laschever of West Hartford, Rebecca Swett and her husband Vern, and Rachel Movitz and her husband Graham; and his grandchildren, Jordan and Jacob. He was also predeceased by his son Kennth.

STEIN Kenneth P. Stein, 98, of Naples, Fla., formerly of Holyoke, Mass., died August 1. He was the husband of Marion Pincus Stein. He was the son of the late Max and Sarah Kirle Stein. He was a first lieutenant and air observation pilot during World War II. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughters Margo Stein, Kathie Stein, and Susan Stein-Black and her husband John Black; his granddaughter Jasma Rose Gurung Stein; his sister-in-law Leone Stein; and many nieces and nephews.

He was also predeceased by his brother Lloyd Stein.

Ruth Gavison was influential Israeli legal scholar and civil rights activist

BY MARCY OSTER

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israeli legal scholar Ruth Gavison, a civil rights activist who worked to keep Israel both a Jewish and democratic state, died Saturday, August 15.

She was 75.

Gavison was a founder of the Association of Civil Rights, where she served at various times as chair and president. She was also a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem for more than four decades, where she taught and conducted research on issues including the relationship between religion and the state, law and morality, and the nature of law.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin was among the many leaders, scholars and friends in Israel and abroad who memorialized Gavison this weekend.

“Professor Ruth Gavison was a brilliant jurist,” Rivlin said in a statement. “Her acute and complex thinking, crystal clear and bright, could not be pigeonholed. In word and deed she put the ‘and’ between Jewish and democratic, democratic and Jewish.

Our society and our country will deeply miss her voice.”

Gavison was nominated for a position on Israel’s Supreme Court in 2005, but ultimately was not chosen due to opposition from then-chief justice Aharon Barak over her criticism of judicial activism. She was a fellow of the Israel Democracy Institute and served on several public commissions, including the 2006 Winograd Commission investigating Israel’s actions in the Lebanon War. In 2013, she was appointed to draft a constitutional proposal that would reconcile the country’s democratic and Jewish characters.

Gavison was born in Jerusalem in 1945. She received a bachelor’s degree from Hebrew University and a PhD from Oxford University. jewishledger.com

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jewishledger.com

JEWISH LEDGER

|

AUGUST 28, 2020

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Our drivers observe all safety protocols recommended for everyone’s safety.

Y

2020

OSH HASHANAH RO M

HOLIDAY ORDER DEADLINES FOR: CURBSIDE PICKUP, LOCAL HOME DELIVERY IN-STORE PICKUP

K

ORDERS MUST BE IN BY 4PM, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9TH LOCAL HOME DELIVERIES FOR HOLIDAY ORDERS Will be made on only one day: Thursday, September 17th, 2020, we are unable to make any exceptions to this in order to maintain a smooth holiday service for all.

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LAST DAY FOR REGULAR GROCERY OR PREPARED FOOD ORDERS: MUST BE IN BY FRIDAY 9/11/2020 FOR PICKUP/DELIVERY SUNDAY 9/13 (NO LATER) We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause, however due to storage and time limitations as well as our commitment to the best possible service for our customers, this is our policy during these different times.

We will be extremely busy cooking and filling all delivery and pickup orders for the holidays!

OUR WEBSITE STORE WILL BE SHUT DOWN COMPLETELY FRIDAY 9/11/2020 AT 5PM.

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The website will be back online as of 9/20 and accepting orders for pickup or local home delivery as of 9/21.

U The Crown Market R

2471 Albany Ave West Hartford, CT 06117

860.236.1965

www.crownmarketonline.com

L’shanah tovah tikateivu v’teichateimu

5780-5781

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

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

JEWISH LEDGER

| AUGUST 28, 2020

jewishledger.com