CT Jewish Ledger • September 25, 2020 • 7 Tishrei 5781

Friday, September 25, 2020 7 Tishrei 5781 Vol. 92 | No. 39 | ©2020 $1.00 | jewishledger.com

“I am a judge, born, raised and proud of being a Jew” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 1933-2020

Sale Effective In Avon, Guilford, Lilly’s New Milford, Old Saybrook & West Hartford, CT Stores Only, Rugalech 8 oz, Chocolate,Sept.

Cinnamon, 17 - Sept. 28, 2020.

Raspberry or or Apricot, bakery

May you be sealed for good in the Book of Life

USE YOUR BIG Y MEMBERSHIP AND SAVE ON ITEMS IN THIS AD.

meat

frozen

Tabatchnick Soup

Empire Frozen Turkey

2

14.5 to 15 oz, Select Varieties

FOR

lb

dairy

produce

1

18 Count

49

lb

grocery

Yehuda Memorial Candles Single Count

2

Mrs Adler’s Pike ‘n Whitefish

Select Varieties, 6 oz

3 oz, Previously Frozen

4

Yom Kippur Begins Sunset Sept. 27, 2020 2

JEWISH LEDGER

FOR

Vita Wild Nova 99 Salmon

2FOR$3

| SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

49

Lilly’s Rugelach

499 Lilly’s Supreme Babka 599 floral

Warm Wishes Bouquet

3 12

Select Varieties, 12 oz

seafood

2

6

12 oz

16 oz, Chocolate or Cinnamon

2 $

24 oz..................................

Manischewitz Soup Mixes

69

Wein’s Honey Cake

12 oz, Chocolate, Cinnamon, Raspberry or Apricot

Manischewitz Egg Noodles

3 $

FOR

4

Big Y Large White Eggs

Royal Gala Apples

1

16 oz, Plain or Raisin

2 $

99

4 99 4

99

Fresh Baked Round Challah

49

99

A soft, charming floral bouquet which exudes warmth and light in celebration of the season.

deli

Chef’s Kingdom Vegetable Kugel

6

or Apple or Sweet Noodle Kugel

99

Visit bigy.com

lb jewishledger.com

INSIDE

this week

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | SEPTEMBER 25, 2020 | 7 TISHREI 5781

6 Around Connecticut

10 Opinion

17 High Holiday Services

17 Crossword

19 & 21

Blame Game.......................................................................... 5 Did Jews cause the Holocaust? A new survey reveals critical and cavernous gaps in what millennials and Gen Z’ers know (and don’t know) about the Holocaust.

Uninvited Guests.................................................................. 5 Zoombombers interrupt a Holocaust-related event in Connecticut with disturbing messages of hate. What’s a Jewish community to do about this growing problem?

Briefs

22 Bulletin Board

22 Torah Portion

24 Obituaries

25 Business and Professional Directory

26

From the Heart................................ 8 When 6-year-old Bibi Shapiro’s mom sent to family a one-minute video of her son singing an impassioned version of the High Holiday prayer Avinu Malkeinu she had no idea it would go viral with an inspirational message.

Ties that Bind................................ 11 Until recently, Israel was among the many countries that had not recognized the Muslim-majority territory of Kosovo. Now, news of formal diplomatic ties between the two countries is energizing its tiny local Jewish community.

ELECTION 2020.............................. 12 A recent study analyzing Jewish voting patterns in America reveals that in battleground states like Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, Jews are large enough in number to make a difference.

Classified

ON THE COVER:

A fierce jurist known for her outsized presence and outspokenness, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a tireless advocate for gender equality who often cited her Jewish values. This week, the country mourns the passing of the first Jewish woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court.

(Credit: Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States. Photographer: Steve Petteway.) PAGE 14 jewishledger.com

CANDLE LIGHTING

Sponsored by:

SHABBAT FRIDAY, SEPT. 25

YOM KIPPUR SUNDAY, SEPT. 27

Hartford: 6:24 p.m.

Hartford: 6:21 p.m.

New Haven: 6:24 p.m.

New Haven: 6:21 p.m.

Bridgeport: 6:25 p.m.

Bridgeport: 6:22 p.m.

Stamford: 6:26 p.m.

Stamford: 6:23 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

|

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

3

Fall

The Bitter Prescription:

INTO COMFORT

Engineering Your Diet, Digestion and Hormones After 35

Thursday, October 15 | 7:00 pm

Plant Based Comfort Foods

Mandell JCC Facebook LIVE @Mandell JCC Virtual JCC www.virtualjcc.com

Thursday, October 1 | 7:00 pm

Mandell JCC Facebook LIVE @Mandell JCC Virtual JCC www.virtualjcc.com Author, Dr. Jennifer Stagg gives us the bitter truth about how your dietary needs change with age, and how getting rid of bitter feelings will set you up for your greatest potential.

Coming this Fall to the Mandell JCC Zachs Campus | 335 Bloomfield Ave. | West Hartford, CT 06117 | 860-236-4571 | www.mandelljcc.org

Announcing

COMING THIS FALL!

J BAKER’S

TABLE An after school baking class with Chef Lindsay A safe, nurturing and social environment for students in kindergarten – 5th grade.

The program will follow the West Hartford Public School’s reopening schedule.

For details, please contact Brett Manion, bmanion@mandelljcc.org, or Karen Wyckoff, kwyckoff@mandelljcc.org

4

JEWISH LEDGER

| SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

jewishledger.com

UP FRONT

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | SEPTEMBER 25, 2020 | 7 TISHREI 5781

Study: More than one in 10 Americans under 40 thinks Jews caused the Holocaust

Voices of Hope event is Zoombombed by antisemitic Holocaust deniers

BY BEN SALES

(JTA) – More than one in 10 American adults under 40 believes that Jews caused the Holocaust.

That’s one finding from a survey published Wednesday, Sept. 15, trying to gauge Holocaust knowledge among millennials and Generation Z, a cohort ranging in age from 18 to 39.

The survey found that most respondents had heard of the Holocaust and 37% knew that six million Jews died. Slightly more than half could name at least one concentration camp or ghetto.

But 11% of the respondents believed the Jews were responsible for the Holocaust, 15% said they thought the Holocaust was a myth or has been exaggerated, and 20% said people talk about it too much. Nearly half said they had seen Holocaust denial online.

The survey of 1,000 respondents across all 50 states was organized by the Claims Conference, which coordinates restitution and reparations payments for Holocaust survivors and sponsors Holocaust education programs. It was conducted in February and March.

According to the poll, there was little correlation between state Holocaust education requirements and Holocaust knowledge. None of the 10 states with the highest knowledge levels required Holocaust education in high schools, while three states in the bottom 10 – Delaware, New York and Florida – did mandate it.

(Knowledge levels were based on whether respondents had heard of the Holocaust, knew six million Jews were killed and could name a concentration camp or ghetto.)

Holocaust knowledge was particularly low in New York, despite the state having the largest population of Jews in the country. Most respondents there could not name a single Nazi camp or ghetto, and 28% said they believed the Holocaust was a myth or has been exaggerated. Wisconsin had the highest knowledge score at 44%, while Arkansas had the lowest at 17%.

“Not only was their overall lack of Holocaust knowledge troubling, but combined with the number of Millennials and Gen Z who have seen Holocaust denial on social media, it is clear that we must jewishledger.com

F

BY STACEY DRESNER

A CHART SHOWING THE PERCENTAGE OF RESPONDENTS WHO BELIEVE THAT “JEWS CAUSE THE HOLOCAUST.” CREDIT: THE CONFERENCE ON JEWISH MATERIAL CLAIMS AGAINST GERMANY.

fight this distortion of history and do all we can to ensure that the social media giants stop allowing this harmful content on their platforms,” Greg Schneider, the executive vice president of the Claims Conference, said in a statement.

It found that more than three-quarters of respondents had definitely heard of the Holocaust and another 10% said they probably had. Among those, more than 70% knew that Adolf Hitler was responsible for the genocide and 86% knew that the Jews were its primary victims. Lower numbers of respondents were aware of other facts about the Holocaust. Among those who had heard of the Holocaust, more than a third wrongly believed that two million Jews or fewer were killed, while nearly half (48%) could not name any concentration camps or ghettos. Asked to describe Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration camp, 64% described it correctly.

The survey also found that approximately half the respondents had seen antisemitism and Holocaust denial

online. A total of 56% reported seeing Nazi symbols on social media, in their communities or both.

“The dual crisis of critical knowledge gaps, plus broad exposure to distortion and denial on the social-media apps that young Americans frequent, was the most alarming finding of the survey,” Arielle Confino, senior vice president at Schoen Cooperman Research, the firm commissioned to conduct the first-ever nationwide survey on Holocaust knowledge and awareness among millennials and Generation Z in each of the 50 states. “Social-media platforms and apps like Facebook and TikTok are undoubtedly serving as platforms for this and are clearly having an impact.”

Survey results are based on 1,000 interviews nationwide with adults ages 18 to 39 between Feb. 26 and March 28, 2020.

The margin of error for the national sample is 3 percent.

Nearly 60% said they believed

ARMINGTON – At an August 11 event hosted by Voices of Hope author/educator Daphne Geismar was discussing Invisible Years: Opening the Holocaust Drawers, her book about her family’s experiences in the Netherlands during the Holocaust, when the program was Zoombombed with antisemitic drawings of swastikas and comments denying the Holocaust.

Based in Farmington, Voices of Hope is a non-profit organization created by descendants of Holocaust survivors from across Connecticut to educate the community about the Holocaust through events like book discussions, films, educator workshops and school speaking engagements.

Hacking into the organization’s meeting with hateful messages has only inspired the organization to continue its work, the group said in a statement released following the incident.

“These anti-Semites want us to talk about the hate crimes they committed,” the statement read. “Instead we will talk about how we continued our program, how Daphne Geismar went on to share her family’s history and share with us a glimpse into the art and education that is her book. These bigots were so angry at our good work that they wanted to stop us. We did not stop. We will not stop.”

When Geismar presented sketches from her grandfather’s Holocaust journal, the hackers were able to draw swastikas on the screen for all of the participants to see. Reportedly, during Geismar’s presentation, a participant stated that they were “secondgeneration Holocaust survivors.” A voice answered, “Ha ha, the Holocaust never happened.”

“Holocaust denial is one of the antisemite’s favorite tool to use so it’s not surprising they would stoop CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

JEWISH LEDGER

|

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

5

AROUND CONNECTICUT

Connecticut’s Jewish day schools open for in-person classes n IN STAMFORD

n IN WEST HARTFORD At Solomon Schechter Day School in West Hartford, canopies and painted courtyard are new additions intended to help make the outdoor learning spaces more comfortable and engaging.

And engage students did!

Benny Rubinfeld and Maya Warmflash had fun letting their curiosity run free on the first day of preschool at the Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy in Stamford. Benny let the learning begin by examining a bug up close and personal; and Maya, looking whimsical in her pink cat mask, followed suit by holding a shell to her ear and listening to the sound of the ocean.

Ariella Altenburger (left) and Emerson Santiago, students in grades K-1, took time out from their studies to practice their hula hoop skills.

Kids weren’t the only ones having fun at Bi-Cultural. During professional development week, leading up to opening day, teachers were surprised with a delicious ‘thank you’ for all their hard work and commitment when an ice cream truck pulled up to the school. Here, preschool teachers Morah Nicole (left) and Morah Paige enjoy their treats.

6

JEWISH LEDGER

| SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

Solomon Schechter’s early childhood students prepared for Rosh Hashanah by singing songs about apples and apple trees with their teachers, Bonnie Schneider (left) and Linda Casasanta. jewishledger.com

Study CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

something like the Holocaust could happen today.

“The indicators are of concern, and that relates to ongoing concerns we have that education is in decline and social media use of hate and antisemitism is on the rise,” said Gretchen Skidmore, director of education initiatives at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and a member of the task force that oversaw the survey.”

Respondents agreed that Holocaust education is important, with 64% believing it should be compulsory in school.

Currently, 15 states require Holocaust education in high school, according to the Holocaust museum. A bill providing $10 million to the museum to enhance Holocaust education was signed into law this year.

Still, 50% agreed that the lessons about the Holocaust are “mostly historically accurate, but could be better. … There are some conditions that need to be present

for Holocaust education to be successful,” Skidmore said, adding that the survey showed there was “fundamental knowledge missing.”

In addition to mandating Holocaust education, states must ensure that teachers have proper training to teach the subject matter.

“The survey is the beginning of a conversation we must all have, not the end,” Matthew Bronfman, who chaired the Claims Conference task force behind the survey, told the Jewish News Service (JNS).

“It raises many questions and highlights many areas where scholarly and empirical research is required. Having said that, we are now eight decades past the Holocaust.

The world has made a promise to Holocaust survivors to ‘never forget,’ but perhaps inevitably, the world has moved on.”

He added, “The lessons of the Holocaust have eternal value–not only for the victims and their families, not only for the Jewish community, but for humanity.”

Voices of Hope CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

so low as to do it at a Holocaust themed book event, Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism.org, told the Ledger.

“Through large calls to action on alternative dark sites such as 4chan and 8chan, they seek out Zoom meetings to spew their vile bigotry.

The incident was reported to the Farmington Police Department, the Connecticut office of the FBI and the AntiDefamation League.

“We are still actively investigating,” said Lt. Tim McKenzie of the Farmington Police Department. “It is taking time with subpoenas and search warrants sent to Zoom and Zoom sending us the information back. We don’t have any suspects at this time. It’s going to take a little longer but it is an active investigation.”

McKenzie added that the West Hartford Police Department is assisting in the investigation.

The Voices of Hope Zoombombing is one of several similar incidents that have targeted Jewish organizations in Connecticut, and one of many that have become a problem for Jewish organizations around the country.

“Zoom claims they have stepped up their security. However, since March, we’ve been seeing incidents like this happen week after week. And thanks to the world of VPN’s, those involved are very difficult to track.” (A VPN is a virtual private network. It extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data

across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network.)

Since the Covid quarantine began in March and meetings and events have gone virtual, the incidence of disruptive, hateful or offensive Zoombombings. According to Zoom, the number of daily Zoom meetings grew from 10 million late last year, to more than 200 million this spring when the quarantine began.

“We’ve seen many zoom bombings nationally,” Andy Friedland, associate director of the Connecticut office of the Anti-Defamation League, told the Ledger.

“As more and more [people] move online, the people who are hateful, who seek to harass, who seek to be offensive, move online as well.

In July, a Friday evening Zoom Shabbat service at Temple Sinai in Newington was hacked by someone who drew swastikas over the text of the Kaddish prayer, made inappropriate comments via the chat box and used a stereotypical caricature of a Jew in one of the Zoom window screens.

On May 11, a Talmud class taught online

by Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe of Congregation B’nai Torah in Longmeadow, Massachusetts was Zoombombed with pornographic drawings.

Both Temple Sinai and B’nai Torah have since protected their Zoom meetings with, among other things, passwords for Zoom participants and by not posting virtual

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

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

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

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

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

HKC

‫כשר‬

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

L IKE U S ON

CONTINUED ON PAGE 9

jewishledger.com

JEWISH LEDGER

|

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

7

The ‘Avinu Malkeinu’ kid has a message for Yom Kippur. (And no, he’s not Amar’e Stoudemire’s son.)

BY PHILISSA CRAMER

(JTA) – Nina Shapiro didn’t intend for the video of her son’s singing to go viral. The Perth, Australia, mother of two describes herself as “paranoid about my kids being on social media.”

But after the minute-long clip of 6-yearold Bibi belting an impassioned version of Avinu Malkeinu, the plaintive poem sung on Yom Kippur, mysteriously landed on Twitter and Facebook on Friday, Shapiro is wondering whether she might want to take another approach.

“I’m totally overwhelmed by the impact it’s had,” Shapiro told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency from her home in Western Australia. “It wasn’t built with an intention to be a performance.”

Exactly how the video got from a family text chain to thousands of Jewish viewers is unclear, but there’s no question that Bibi’s performance of a song he learned at his school is resonating with many on the High Holidays.

“Someone please give me the URL to this kid’s Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur livestream,” tweeted Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg to her 115,000 followers. “Or maybe I’ll just spend the days watching this over and over again.”

Because nothing on the internet is simple, the video spurred a rumor, stated with authority by multiple people on social media, that the video starred a son of Amar’e Stoudemire, the basketball player and recent convert to Judaism.

“If we saw a cute video of a white kid singing Avinu Malkeinu, would we automatically jump to the conclusion that he was a famous Jew’s kid?” tweeted Tema Smith, who writes frequently about Black Jews within the Jewish community. “It feels like the digital equivalent of the experience so many Black Jews describe when stepping into communal spaces, being asked to legitimize their right to the space.”

Others who amplified the video did know who Bibi was, even though he is not identified in it. They included people associated with Sinai Academy, the school in Cape Town, South Africa, that 8

JEWISH LEDGER

he attended before the family moved to Australia two years ago. Shapiro credited both that school and the one he attends in Perth, Carmel School, with developing her son’s love for Judaism.

“I see how he comes back singing happily and with his own free will,” she said. “It hasn’t been a dictatorial kind of, ‘You will learn this because you have to.’

They teach with love. That’s been passed on to him and that’s what he gives back.”

We spoke to Shapiro – perhaps now to be known forever as Bibi’s mom – about the video; her take on the rumors; and what she hopes comes next for her son. First up, a new video of another High Holiday song.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

JTA: What’s the story behind the video and what do you make of how it has been received?

Shapiro: I took the video in our dining room and sent it to a few family members.

I don’t believe in exposing my children on social media. But obviously somewhere along the line, it wound up there. I don’t know how – none of the big Facebook posters are anybody I’ve ever heard of or sent it to.

It’s not something I would have chosen but it’s happened and the positive responses have just been overwhelming. I sent it to a close friend and said I’m so upset that this happened, and she said, “But Hashem obviously wanted this message to go out in this way.” I really am trying to take it from this perspective.

This is a Yom Kippur song, not exactly a happy song. Why do you think people are saying the video made them happy?

He is such a passionate little boy. He’s been singing all his life, all the time, from when he was a baby. When he heard an advert on TV he would copy it. He’s very sensitive and very passionate and I think it comes across.

I realize there were a few mistakes. If

| SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

I had been planning to share I would have made sure it was perfect before I posted worldwide – but this shows things don’t have to be perfect to have real impact and that also made me happy. His purity and his innocence and his passion are touching.

He knows nothing about this. I’ve made copies of some of the comments for when he’s older but not for now. He doesn’t know what Facebook is or Twitter, Instagram. He knows that I am happy and other people are happy when he sings and that’s all that matters.

What comments stuck out to you?

I saw someone say, “This is a future hazzan.” And that’s really meaningful to me.

When I knew that I was having a boy, one of the first things that went through my mind was I would so love him to be on the bimah at shul, not even knowing of his musicality.

I also saw someone say that this was more meaningful in the preparation for the chagim [holidays] than any other rabbinic text she had read. And for me – and a few people have commented on it – “Avinu Malkeinu,” I’ve never heard the English words for it. It certainly impacted me, and if as a child I had learned it this way, it would have been so meaningful. I’m so glad my child gets to understand what he’s singing.

People have said it’s made them happy and given them hope and even though I don’t understand it, the fact that it has done that to people especially at this time in the world, I’m so grateful for it.

Your son is Black, and some of the comments I saw mentioned that. There were also rumors that the video was of a son of Amar’e Stoudemire. What role do you think race played in the video’s reception?

If I had seen him and not known him, I would wonder about the color issue, too.

There was one comment that I saw, where someone said, “He doesn’t look

Jewish but he sounds it. It just shows you that you don’t have to look Jewish to be Jewish.” Somebody else commented to say, don’t be so stereotypical. Bibi is adopted – we adopted each other when he was a baby.

He has been raised Jewish, and it’s all he knows. Halachically [according to Jewish law] he is a Jew. I’ve come to realize he has a Jewish neshama [soul] even though entering the world he was not born into a Jewish family.

Perth is a very small Jewish community, with one school and no kosher restaurants.

And there are very few non-whites day-today if you’re in a certain area. A racially diverse Jewish community it is not at all, but from the first moment, I have never felt anything but accepted and included and welcomed across the board. It’s not to say it’s not ever going to be hard, but it hasn’t been our experience.

When I saw that people were saying he was Amar’e’s son, initially I was angry. But it wasn’t so much about racial stereotyping.

I googled the family, and they do look similar. I was upset that somebody had the audacity to post that without checking the facts.

I would love for Bibi to have more Jewish not-white role models. There’s a rapper who came to South Africa, Nissim Black. The concert was only for adults but I would have loved to have taken him to that.

So will your son’s many new fans get to see more from him?

Part of me is so tempted in some ways, now that the whole thing has been started.

There’s unlikely to be a Youtube channel, but Zeesy Deren [the principal of the South Africa school], her brother is Choni G, a famous South African religious singer. She said he mentioned to her that he would love to work with Bibi, and I would love that. Bibi’s biggest inspiration is the music of Jewish religious boys choirs, and my absolute dream is for him to be part of one of those groups. I would love that and he would love that. jewishledger.com

Voices of Hope CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

WHEN AUTHOR DAPHNE GEISMAR PRESENTED SKETCHES FROM HER GRANDFATHER’S HOLOCAUST JOURNAL, HACKERS DREW SWASTIKAS ON THE SCREEN AND A VOICE TOLD THE GROUP OF SECOND-GENERATION SURVIVORS, “HA HA, THE HOLOCAUST NEVER HAPPENED.” (CREDIT: STOPANTISEMITISM.ORG)

meetings publicly.

After the B’nai Torah incident, Robert Trestan, executive director of the Boston office of the ADL cautioned that, “in the same way we now take security measures in the physical sense, we now need to be taking the same measures in the virtual sense. A religious institution needs to be protecting its religious services virtually, the same way that they protect their physical building.”

Because many people are new to Zoom and may not be aware of ways to be safe and keep hackers out of their Zoom meetings, the ADL has worked with Zoom to “create new security features and settings so that people’s meetings will be safer,” Friedland said. “We’ve created a lot of resources, along the lines of, what you can do to prevent Zoombombings; what you can do when a Zoombombing is happening to get all of the information you need to get; how to talk to you kids about it. We have been looking at it holistically to see how we can stop these things from happening, but if they do happen, how to respond.”

The ADL website features several links with resources related to Zoom security issues, including how to prevent Zoombombing; updates on Zoom security; and steps to take during a Zoombombing.

(See links below).

In their statement, Voices of Hope says they have already improved security in advance of future virtual events.

“These crimes proved how much work we have left to do…This experience will accelerate our efforts, and we will work harder than ever before to create a culture of courage to stand up against hatred.” jewishledger.com

Stop the Bomb The Anti-Defamation League has worked hard to respond to and stop zoombombing.

They compiled a list of resources to help the community understand and deal with this growing problem:

How to Prevent Zoombombing: https://www.adl.org/blog/how-to-preventzoombombing

Bennett Center for Judaic Studies LECTURES AND EVENTS: FALL 2020 Don’t Miss A Single Virtual Moment

What is Zoombombing and Who is Behind it? https://www.adl.org/blog/ what-is-zoombombing-and-who-is-behindit

Adolph and Ruth Schnurmacher Scholar-in-Residence Lecture

Steps to Take During a Zoombombing Incident: https://www.adl.org/blog/stepsto-take-during-a-zoombombing-incident

Joseph A. Skloot, PhD, Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish Intellectual History, HUC-JIR, New York City.

Webinar ADL hosted on Zoombombing: https://youtu.be/T_ SPYXrrNP8 Zoom security updates that help fight Zoombombing: https://www.adl.org/ blog/zoom-security-update-provides-toolsto-fight-zoombombing Table talk on Hate Symbols: https:// www.adl.org/education/resources/toolsand-strategies/table-talk/hate-symbols Table talk on responding to online hate: https://www.adl.org/education/ resources/tools-and-strategies/table-talk/ cyberhate

“People of the (Printed/Digital) Book: Printing and the Birth of the Jewish Bookshelf”

Tuesday, September 29 at 7:30 p.m. - free webinar Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the US Constitution

“Speaking in a Political Voice: Jews and the Fight for Women’s Suffrage” Judith Rosenbaum, PhD historian and CEO of Jewish Women’s Archive.

Wednesday, October 14 at 7:30 p.m. - free webinar

Virtual Events Registration required at fairfield.edu/bennettprograms. For questions, contact Virtual the Bennett Center at bennettcenter@fairfield.edu or (203) 254-4000, ext.

2066 Event

See the Full Schedule Here JEWISH LEDGER

|

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

9

Opinion

I was on a plane hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. Why did a public university invite one of them to speak?

BY MOSHE RAAB

(JTA) – As my calendar announced the approach of September, I began to relive an event that took place exactly 50 years ago. On Sept. 6, 1970, my mother, my four siblings and I were on a plane that was hijacked by terrorists.

TWA flight 741 was one of three planes successfully hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine that day – the hijacking of an El Al plane was foiled by the onboard sky marshals.

At the time, I was a 14-year old kid living in Trenton, New Jersey, whose only care was how the Baltimore Orioles were doing. This event changed my life, as well as the lives of the other 350 people who were on those planes.

I agonize over the subsequent acts of terror that have been committed all over the world ever since my personal experience.

What cause can justify the threatening and taking of innocent lives?

Imagine the horror and disgust that I, my family and other hijack victims experienced when we read that Leila Khaled, one of the hijackers directly involved in the 1970 attacks, had been

invited by San Francisco State University to address a forum on Gender, Justice and Resistance.

Ms. Khaled is a convicted terrorist. She is a member of the PFLP. She is a symbol not of justice and resistance, but of wanton terrorism and death.

Khaled spent only a few days in jail.

After her failed hijacking of the El Al plane, she was transferred by the Israeli sky marshals to the British police and released in exchange for hostages when a fifth plane was hijacked to secure her freedom.

Had Khaled ever apologized for her role in the hijackings or taken steps to show that she is committed to nonviolent efforts to achieve her desired end, I would not object to her speaking at San Francisco State.

People who genuinely learn often make the best teachers.

But even after 50 years, Khaled has never expressed remorse or disavowed her actions or those of her comrades.

The most distressing and disheartening thing, 50 years after this horrible experience, is that the world has not eradicated this type of terrorism. As

LEFT: LAYLA KHALED, ONE OF TWO HIJACKERS OF A TWA JETLINER IN DAMASCUS, SMILES AFTER RETURNING TO HER GUERRILLA BASE IN JORDAN ON OCT. 17, 1969 (GETTY IMAGES).

RIGHT: KHALED SPEAKS AT THE O.R. TAMBO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, ON FEB. 6, 2015, IN JOHANNESBURG. (GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES)

10

JEWISH LEDGER

| SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

recently as January 2020, the PFLP (through Palestinian NGOs) receives financial support of millions of dollars from European countries, the United States, Canada, Japan, UN-OCHA and UNICEF. In theory, San Francisco State University President Lynn Mahoney is correct in stating that a university is a place where different ideas are presented, discussed and analyzed so that individual conclusions can be drawn. But does that justify giving an unrepentant terrorist a forum to address the students?

What will she teach them? The proper way to hijack an aircraft, based on her success in 1969, and what mistakes to avoid based on her failure in 1970?

When I was a student in university, I often faced new ideas that ran contrary to my beliefs. But these perspectives were presented by knowledgeable, respectable academics. Some were Nobel Prize winners.

None were terrorists.

Neither Mahoney, in her published response, nor the university indicated that anyone will be presenting an opposing view, one that is against terrorism and radicalization. I cannot imagine how Mahoney, or any decent person, can claim Khaled’s presentation will be an educational experience.

SFSU is no stranger to anti-Semitism.

They have prevented the presentation of pro-Israel and Jewish ideas. In fact, SFSU had been recently sued by Jewish students who claimed that they were victims of systemic anti-Semitism. Not long ago, SFSU prevented then-Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat from speaking at a public event, and San Francisco Hillel was excluded from a fair on campus.

Inviting Leila Khaled to speak is a dishonor to all those who suffered at her and the PFLP’s hands – and glorifies terrorism, which is unacceptable.

Moshe Raab is a software consultant who lives in Maale Adumim Israel with his wife. Along with his mother and four siblings, he was aboard a plane that was hijacked by the PFLP on Sept. 6, 1970.

Vol. 92 No. 39 34 JHL Ledger LLC Publisher Henry M. Zachs Managing Partner Leslie Iarusso Associate Publisher Judie Jacobson Editor judiej@jewishledger.com • x3024 Hillary Sarrasin Digital Media Manager hillaryp@jewishledger.com EDITORIAL Stacey Dresner Massachusetts Editor staceyd@jewishledger.com • x3008 Tim Knecht Proofreader ADVERTISING Donna Edelstein Senior Account Executive NonProfit & JHL Ledger LLC Media Marketing donnae@jewishledger.com • x3028 Joyce Cohen Senior Account Executive joycec@jewishledger.com • (860) 8369195 Joan Gaffin Central Mass. Account Executive joang@jewishledger.com • (508) 4146210 Trudy Goldstein Account Executive (860) 5731575 Amy Oved Account Executive amyo@jewishledger.com • (860) 8418607 PRODUCTION Elisa S. Wagner Creative Director elisaw@jewishledger.com • x3009 Christopher D. Bonito Graphic Designer chrisb@jewishledger.com ADMINISTRATIVE Judy Yung Accounting Manager judyy@jewishledger.com • x3016 Howard Meyerowitz Office Manager howardm@jewishledger.com • x3035

Samuel Neusner, Founder (19291960) Rabbi Abraham J. Feldman, CoFounder and Editor (19291977) Berthold Gaster, Editor (19771992) N. Richard Greenfield, Publisher (19942014) PUBLISHER’S STATEMENT Periodicals postage paid at Hartford, CT and at additional mailing offices.

Jewish Ledger (USPS # 131 150) is published 24 times per year by JHL Ledger LLC from our office at: Jewish Ledger 40 Woodland Street Hartford, CT 06105 Phone (860) 2312424 Fax (860) 2312485 Toll Free 18002866397 Postmaster, send address changes to: Jewish Ledger 40 Woodland Street Hartford, CT 06105 Subscriptions: $36 yearly, $9 Twelve Issue Institutional subscription. Send name, address, zip code with payment.

Editorial deadline: All public and social announcements must be received by Tuesday 5 p.m. 10 days prior to publication.

Advertising deadline: Wednesday noon one week prior to issue. Advertisers should check ad on publication.

JHL Ledger LLC and Jewish Ledger shall not be liable for failure to publish an ad for typographical error or errors in the publication except to the extent of the cost of the space which the actual error appeared in the first insertion. Publishers reserve the right to refuse advertising for any reason and to alter advertising copy or graphics deemed unacceptable. The publishers cannot warrant, nor assume responsibility for, the legitimacy, reputability or legality of any products or services offered in advertisements in any of its publications. The entire contents of the Jewish Ledger are copyright © 2020. No portion may be reproduced without written permission of the publishers. JHL Ledger LLC also publishes Jewish Ledger MA, All Things Jewish CT, and All Things Jewish MA. www.jewishledger.com

jewishledger.com

Kosovo’s Jews cheer their Muslimmajority state’s deal with Israel (JTA) – For Flori Dedoni, a member of the tiny Jewish community of Kosovo, the news that his country is establishing formal diplomatic ties with Israel is cause for celebration.

Until last week, Israel was among the dozens of countries that had not recognized the Muslim-majority territory sandwiched between Albania and Serbia.

“When someone learns I’m Jewish, they usually ask sometime during the conversation why Israel doesn’t recognize us,” Dedoni said. “Now, finally it’s happening and the feeling is just festive.

Plus, I don’t have to explain anymore.”

Israel’s implied recognition of Kosovo is part of a three-way deal announced on Sept. 4 by the White House. According to the announcement, Serbia, which claims ownership of Kosovo’s territory and has fought against international recognition of its declaration of independence in 2008, has agreed to cooperate on some economic issues with the government of the breakaway region.

The deal stipulates that both countries will open embassies in Jerusalem – a development that Israel and the United States are advancing despite opposition by the Palestinians and the European Union, who say that the city should only be recognized as Israel’s capital after a peace deal with the Palestinians.

The United States is one of the 116 countries that recognize Kosovo, a landlocked nation with about 1.8 million inhabitants with a land area roughly half the size of New Jersey. China, Russia and India, among other powers, have not. Their nonrecognition, and that of other important countries including Spain, Israel, Morocco and Ukraine, is believed to be a consistency issue: They fear encouraging unilateral independence declarations in territories they control.

But Israel’s position had been met with incomprehension in Kosovo, whose people are overwhelmingly pro-American and have a long tradition of philo-Semitism. During World War II, Kosovars and Albanians famously rescued local Jews and helped refugees fleeing from other Nazi-occupied countries.

“It’s ironic that Israel doesn’t recognize us,” Kosovar President Hashim Thaçi said in a 2016 interview with Ynet.

Kosovo’s 12-year-long quest for recognition, and the consistent opposition to it by major world powers, have made Dedoni and his wife question whether it’s the best place to raise their 7-year-old son Lior. Dedoni is a technical engineer and member of the World Jewish Congress’ Jewish Diplomatic Corps.

“It creates all kinds of issues, including visa and travel issues, when much of the jewishledger.com

A STATUE OF FORMER US PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON IN PRISTINA, KOSOVO. (CREDIT: ARMEND NIMANI/AFP VIA GET-TY IMAGES

world doesn’t recognize your country, your passport,” Dedoni said. “We want Kosovo to succeed and wish for it, but with all the difficulties we were wondering whether it will ever become a fully-recognized country because you also want to give your child the best start in life.”

The Dedonis have been considering immigrating to Israel for a number of years now, but the new Israeli recognition of their country, and Serbia’s apparent amenability to normalizing relations with Kosovo, are giving the Dedonis “new hope” for staying put, he said.

It’s unclear whether Israel will officially recognize Kosovo beyond the embassy terms – an anonymous source told The Times of Israel that an official declaration would “destroy” Israel’s relationship with Serbia.

But either way, the news has energized the local Jewish community of 100 or so, which is based in the Kosovar capital, Pristina, but has no synagogue there. Its members meet for Shabbat dinners and on holidays at a hotel in Pristina that is owned by a Muslim Albanian with an interest in Judaism – particularly Kabbalah and the spiritual book of Zohar, Dedoni said.

“There is an atmosphere of excitement” in the community right now, he added.

Dedoni was born in Kosovo, but many other members of his community are citizens of Israel and employed by international firms active in Kosovo, he said. About 50 people show up regularly for the Shabbat services, he said. Most of them earn salaries that are far above the country’s average monthly pay of about $500, but are on par with the income of other Kosovars employed in highly-skilled professions.

The Kosovar Jews also love Donald Trump. The U.S. president is not known for his popularity in Muslim countries. But in a Gallup poll this year, his approval rating rose was 82%, the highest in Europe.

Dedoni attributes this to reports of the diplomatic deal trickling in this month.

In Kosovo, “Trump is America, and America, and also Israel, stand for success and freedom,” Dedoni said.

HASSLE FREE LIVING There’s no place like

FEDERATION HOMES Affordable Living for Older Adults 62+ and Individuals with Disabilities 156 Wintonbury Ave., Bloomfield, CT

Call (860)243-2535 or visit us at www.federationhomes.org Sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford with funding from the Department of Housing & Urban Development

Newington 860.333.9032

Willimantic 860.717.9333

2280 Berlin Tpk. Newington, CT

1548 W Main St. Willimantic, CT

(In the MedCare Express plaza-use side entrance)

(Across from Papa’s Pizza)

hello@finefettle.com

newington@finefettle.com

Good Health.

Good Condition.

Stop by to speak to one of our pharmacists about Connecticut’s Medical Marijuana Program No appointment necessary and consultations are always free

Offering:

• Discounts for Senior Citizens, Veterans, and Low-Income Individuals • Huge Savings through our free Fine Fettle Club • Online ordering and more at www.finefettle.com A conversation with a healthcare provider can help you determine whether medical marijuana may be right for you.

JEWISH LEDGER

|

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

11

ELECTION 2020 This map shows the 20 congressional districts with the most Jews

BY BEN SALES

(JTA) – About one-third of American Jews live in just 20 of the country’s congressional districts. Nearly half of those districts are in New York, and all but one of them is represented by a Democrat.

Meanwhile, the district with the most Jews in the country is also the site of Mara-Lago, President Donald Trump’s Florida estate.

Those are among the findings from a recent study analyzing Jewish voting patterns. Key findings from the study, which was conducted by the Jewish Electorate Institute and the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis University, were published online August 25.

The study, like previous others, found that Jewish voters are more Democratic and politically liberal than the country at large.

It also found, similar to earlier research, that Jewish voters tend to be older than average.

What’s new here is that the researchers were able to identify not only how Jews vote but where they cast their ballots. The study found that the majority of Jewish adults live in four states – New York, California, Florida and New Jersey.

“In all of the so-called battleground states, not only Florida but places like Pennsylvania and Ohio and Michigan, those are states where if something similar to 2016 happens in 2020, Jews are large enough in number in those states where they could make a difference,” said Leonard Saxe, director of the Steinhardt Social Research Institute.

Approximately one-third of Jewish adults, about 1.8 million, are concentrated in just 20 congressional districts among the 435 across the United States.

The district with the most Jewish voters, Florida’s 21st, is drawing a lot of attention this year for its race between two Jewish candidates, the Democratic incumbent Rep. Lois Frankel and Laura Loomer, an antiIslam provocateur who won the Republican nomination and Trump’s endorsement.

Loomer released an ad this week that used Holocaust imagery and Yiddish to attack

Frankel as an opponent of Jewish interests.

The district covers southeastern Florida cities such as Palm Beach, Boynton Beach and Delray Beach, and includes 152,000 Jewish adults, according to the study.

In total, the district has about 524,000 registered voters. According to the study, the district is 24.3% Jewish, and more than half of those Jewish adults are older than 65.

The two adjacent districts down the South Florida coast, the 22nd and 23rd, also crack the top 20 for Jewish voters. Both are also represented by Jewish Democrats: Reps. Ted Deutch and Debbie WassermanSchultz, respectively.

Most of the other districts in the Jewish top 20 are in New York and New Jersey, including seven in New York City and two on suburban Long Island. The second-largest Jewish district overall, New York’s 10th on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, has 151,000 Jewish adults and is represented by longtime congressman Jerry Nadler, a Jewish Democrat. The other New York City districts cover large swaths of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.

The lone district on the list represented by a Republican, Rep. Chris Smith, is New Jersey’s 4th, which includes the heavily Orthodox city of Lakewood. That district is about 10% Jewish, with 51,000 Jewish adults, according to the study.

The rest of the top 20 districts are in Los Angeles County and the suburbs of Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston.

Overall, eight of the top 20 Jewish districts are represented by Jews. Saxe said the list of the most Jewish districts is a key data point ahead of the 2020 census, which will likely lead to congressional redistricting.

“The concentration of Jews and whether that concentration is allowed to continue, whether it’s not, will be an important issue,” he said. “In those districts where Jews are 10% or more of the population, they’re also a very significant force in choosing members of Congress.”

A MAP SHOWS THE 20 CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS WITH THE MOST JEWS. (CREDIT: LAURA E. ADKINS/JTA)

12

JEWISH LEDGER

| SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

ELECTION 2020 SHORT TAKES

Biden: Trump’s foreign policy is bad for Israel

BY RON KAMPEAS

Survey: Biden leads Trump 67-30 among Jewish voters

BY RON KAMPEAS

(JTA) – A survey of Jewish voters shows 67 percent plan to vote for Joe Biden in November and 30 percent plan to vote for Donald Trump. The numbers in the survey released Monday by the Jewish Electorate Institute broke the same way when voters were asked about President Trump’s performance: 67 percent said they disapprove and 30 percent said they approve.

The survey suggested gains for Trump among Jewish voters since 2016, when Hillary Clinton won 71 percent of the vote to Trump’s 24 percent. Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate in 2012, won 30 percent of the Jewish vote, the highest for a Republican since the 1980s.

However, support among Trump voters appears to be relatively soft.

Just 64 percent of the respondents who said they approve of Trump said they strongly approved, while 92 percent of those who disapproved said they strongly disapproved.

Respondents ranked Biden as better on handling a range of issues, including antisemitism and the rise of white nationalism, 67-26; the coronavirus pandemic, 66-24; security of the Jewish community, 55-29; and U.S.-Israel relations, 46-32. Voters ranked healthcare, the economy and the response to the coronavirus as their most important issues. Lowest ranked out of 19 issues asked about in the poll were Israel, Iran and “Support of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” Nonetheless, 88 percent of respondents said they were pro-Israel. Analysts have long believed that Jewish voters rank Israel low as an electoral issue when they believe both nominees will pursue a pro-Israel policy.

The online survey of 810 voters was carried out Sept. 2-7 by the Garin Hart Yang research group. The Jewish Electorate Institute is nonpartisan, although its leadership is comprised almost entirely of Jews who have been active in Democratic politics.

(JTA) – At a virtual fundraiser organized

by J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, Joe Biden said that President Donald Trump is bad for Israel because he runs a feckless foreign policy.

“Trump’s put Israel in danger by tearing up the Iran nuclear deal and replaced it with nothing,” Biden said Thursday, Sept. 10. “He’s allowed Israel’s foes to take residence in Syria, a dangerous power vacuum has formed.

He’s undermined the stability of selfdetermination for the Palestinians, undercutting hope for a viable two-state solution any chance that he gets.”

Also Thursday, Jewish Insider reported that Haim Saban, the Israeli-American billionaire entertainment mogul, is organizing a minimum $500,000 a ticket fundraiser for Biden. Saban, who supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, had stayed away from presidential politics this cycle until now. He had indicated in the past that he would break with the party if the Democrats nominated Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is critical of Israel and had talked of withholding U.S. aid.

Both fundraisers are signs that Biden is consolidating support from both the proIsrael left and center as the campaign rolls into its final six weeks.

Trump has built a formidable bloc of support among the pro-Israel right – they applaud his many moves in the Middle East, such as moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem – and hopes to poach centrist pro-Israel Jewish voters who might normally vote Democratic. Trump added to his Israel resume recently by brokering deals that would see Unite Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalize ties with Israel.

Meanwhile, Douglas Emhoff, the Jewish husband of Kamala Harris, has maintained a heavy schedule of Jewish outreach appearances. On Sept. 10, he participated in a live panel in Aventura, Florida, with six rabbis. Biden, he said there, is “good for Israel” and would be “a president that lives by the values” shared

by Jewish Americans, including tolerance.

Emhoff has pushed a central theme of the Biden campaign – that Trump embraces and encourages far right-wing extremists.

Emhoff also had appeared in virtual Jewish voter outreach events, including in the key campaign states of Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio. jewishledger.com

We provide top-notch reliable service!

SUPERIOR TIRE & AUTO SERVICES Oil Change • Brakes • Tires • Battery

Call today to make an appointment 860.233.5177 7 Raymond Road, West Hartford, CT Hours: Monday - Friday 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

www.moderntire-autoservice.com jewishledger.com

JEWISH LEDGER

|

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

13

Justice, justice, shall you pursue.” – RUTH BADER GINSBURG WAS A LIONESS OF THE LAW AND A FEARLESS CHAMPION OF JUSTICE AND EQUAL RIGHTS

BY SARAH WILDMAN

W

ASHINGTON (JTA) – Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first Jewish woman to serve on the Supreme Court and a tireless advocate for gender equality, has died at 87.

A fierce jurist known for her outsized presence and outspokenness, Ginsburg died from “complications of metastatic pancreas cancer,” the Supreme Court announced Friday night. She had survived multiple bouts of different cancers over the course of two decades, vowing that she was healthy enough to continue her work and at times returning to the bench shortly after hospital stays.

Ginsburg’s death comes on the first night of Rosh Hashanah, six weeks before the presidential election and at a time of intense political polarization.

Four years ago, the Republican-held Senate refused to consider President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he will attempt to fill any spots that open up on the

court while President Donald Trump is in office. He repeated that pledge on Friday night following news of Ginsburg’s death.

Trump has already appointed two judges, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, during his presidential tenure.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the minority leader, released a statement warning McConnell to wait out the election.

“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice,” said Schumer, who is Jewish.

“Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”

McConnell used precisely the same words to justify delaying a Supreme Court nomination in 2016 following the death of Antonin Scalia, a conservative justice, much earlier in the election year than Ginsburg’s passing.

Ginsburg reportedly told her granddaughter Clara Spera in her final days: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”

In her 27 years on the court, Ginsburg emerged not only as the putative leader of

RUTH BADER GINSBURG, HER HUSBAND MARTIN GINSBURG, AND THEIR CHILDREN JANE AND JAMES ON A BOAT OFF THE COAST OF ST. THOMAS IN 1979.

(CREDIT: SUPREME COURT)

14

JEWISH LEDGER

| SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

the court’s liberal wing but as a pop cultural phenomenon and feminist icon, earning as an octogenarian the moniker Notorious R.B.G. – a play off the deceased rapper Notorious B.I.G. She won liberal acclaim by penning blistering dissents in high-profile cases concerning birth control, voter ID laws and affirmative action even as she maintained a legendary friendship with Scalia, the staunchly conservative firebrand who died in 2016.

Ginsburg was frank as well about the importance of Jewish tradition in influencing her life and career, hanging the Hebrew injunction to pursue justice on the walls of her chambers.

“I am a judge, born, raised and proud of being a Jew,” she said in an address to the American Jewish Committee following her 1993 appointment to the court. “The demand for justice runs through the entirety of Jewish history and Jewish tradition.”

Ginsburg was nominated to the nation’s highest bench by President Bill Clinton following the retirement of Byron White.

In her Rose Garden nominating ceremony, Clinton lauded Ginsburg for standing with the “the outsider in society … telling them that they have a place in our legal system, by giving them a sense that the Constitution and the laws protect all the American people, not simply the powerful.”

Ginsburg attributed that outsider perspective to her Jewish roots, pointing often to her heritage as a building block of her perspective on the bench.

“Laws as protectors of the oppressed, the poor, the loner, is evident in the work of my Jewish predecessors on the Supreme Court,” she wrote in an essay for the AJC. “The Biblical command: ‘Justice, justice shalt thou pursue’ is a strand that ties them together.”

The Brooklyn native was the daughter of Nathan Bader, a Russian immigrant and furrier, and the former Celia Amster. She often noted that her mother was “barely second generation,” having been born a scant four months after her parents’ arrival from Hungary. Ginsburg was keenly aware

RUTH BADER GINSBURG TAKES THE OATH TO DEFE DURING A CEREMONY IN THE E HER HUSBAND, MARTIN, HO

of the Jewish immigrant experience and her own good fortune to be born on these shores.

The Holocaust colored her perspective of the world and the law.

“Our nation learned from Hitler’s racism and, in time, embarked on a mission to end law-sanctioned discrimination in our own country,” Ginsburg said at a 2004 Yom Hashoah commemoration at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. “In the aftermath of World War II, in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, in the burgeoning women’s rights movement of the 1970s, ‘We the People’ expanded to include all of humankind, to embrace all the people of this great nation. Our motto, E Pluribus Unum – of many one – signals our appreciation that we are the richer for the religious, ethnic and racial diversity of our jewishledger.com

Deuteronomy 16.18-21.9

END THE CONSTITUTION FROM CHIEF JUSTICE WILLIAM REHNQUIST, RIGHT, EAST ROOM OF THE WHITE HOUSE ON AUGUST 10, 1993.

OLDS THE BIBLE AS PRESIDENT CLINTON LOOKS ON. (CREDIT: SUPREME COURT)

citizens.” (For more excerpt from this speech, see this page.)

But while Ginsburg was fortunate to be born in the United States, even brilliant women in the 1950s had no easy path. Following her graduation from Cornell University, where she met her husband, Martin Ginsburg, Ginsburg lived for two years in Oklahoma and experienced the setbacks that women faced at the time: She was demoted from her job at the Social Security Administration after her supervisor discovered she was three months pregnant.

Two years later, Ginsburg was one of only nine women in her Harvard Law School class with about 500 men. She had a 14-month old daughter and had to battle the endless skepticism of her professors and colleagues. A well-known story has it that at a meeting of her female classmates with the law school dean, the women were asked why they deserved a spot taken from men.

When Martin, a Harvard Law graduate, took a job at a New York law firm, Ginsburg transferred to Columbia. At both schools she served on the Law Review, and she finished Columbia tied for first in her class. Yet not a single law firm would hire her.

Ginsburg eventually clerked for Judge Edward Palmieri and went on to teach law at Rutgers University. She created the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union and was the first jewishledger.com

tenured woman to teach law at Columbia.

Ginsburg quickly built a reputation for establishing gender parity before the law, arguing six major sex-discrimination cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, winning all but one.

In one of those winning cases, Weinburger v. Wiesenfeld in 1975, Ginsburg represented a widower left with a child in his care when his wife died in childbirth.

The father requested the childcare benefits that a woman would receive if her husband died but which were then denied to men.

“From the outset, she insisted that gender discrimination was not only an issue of women’s rights, demonstrating how using gender as a basis for different treatment was also harmful to men,” Judith Rosenbaum of the Jewish Women’s Archive said.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter named Ginsburg to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Her nomination to the Supreme Court was approved overwhelmingly by the Senate on Aug. 3, 1993. She took her judicial oath of office a week later, becoming only the second woman to serve on the court after Sandra Day O’Connor.

As a Supreme Court jurist, Ginsburg continued her fight for gender equality. In 1996, she wrote the majority opinion in United States v. Virginia, which deemed the Virginia Military Institute’s policy of not admitting women unconstitutional.

She also authored the dissent in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire, a pay discrimination case that would lead to the 2009 Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Though a critic of the landmark Roe v. Wade case that decriminalized abortion nationally, Ginsburg consistently argued for protecting the right to abortion.

Late in her career, she emerged as a cultural icon. In 2013, law student Shana Knizhik started a Tumblr blog collecting all manner of Ginsburg fan art, from celebratory tattoos to coffee mugs, T-shirts and onesies. The blog spawned a 2015 book with the Notorious R.B.G. tag co-authored with Irin Carmon. “ We have lost one of the most extraordinary Justices ever to serve on the Supreme Court. Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life and landmark opinions moved us closer to a more perfect union. And her powerful dissents reminded us that we walk away from our Constitution’s promise at our peril,” said former President Bill Clinton on Friday evening.

Ginsburg is survived by two children – Jane, a law professor at Columbia, and James, a music producer – and four grandchildren. Martin Ginsburg died in 2010.

How Jewish history and the Holocaust fueled Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s quest for justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of eight Jewish justices to have serves on the Supreme Court, spoke about her Jewish identity and the horrifying history of antisemitism in a 2004 speech at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Here are excerpts from her remarks.

I

had the good fortune to be a Jew born and raised in the U.S.A. My father left Odessa bound for the New World in 1909, at age 13; my mother was first in her large family to be born here, in 1903, just a few months after her parents and older siblings landed in New York. What is the difference between a bookkeeper in New York’s garment district and a Supreme Court Justice? Just one generation, my mother’s life and mine bear witness. Where else but America could that happen?

My heritage as a Jew and my occupation as a judge fit together symmetrically. The demand for justice runs through the entirety of Jewish history and Jewish tradition. I take pride in and draw strength from my heritage, as signs in my chambers attest: a large silver mezuzah on my door post, [a] gift from the Shulamith School for Girls in Brooklyn; on three walls, in artists’ renditions of Hebrew letters, the command from Deuteronomy: “Zedek, zedek, tirdof” – “Justice, justice shall you pursue.” Those words are ever-present reminders of what judges must do that they “may thrive.”

But today, here in the Capitol, the lawmaking heart of our nation, in close proximity to the Supreme Court, we remember in sorrow that Hitler’s Europe, his Holocaust kingdom, was not lawless. Indeed, it was a kingdom full of laws, laws deployed by highly educated people – teachers, lawyers, and judges – to facilitate oppression, slavery and mass murder. We convene to say “Never again,” not only to Western history’s most unjust regime, but also to a world in which good men and women, abroad and even in the U.S.A., witnessed or knew of the Holocaust kingdom’s crimes against humanity, and let them happen.

W

e gather here today, little more than a week after Passover, the holiday when Jews recount their journey from slavery to freedom. We retell the Passover, just as we commemorate the Holocaust, to educate our children, to remember those who died striving for a better world, and to rejoice in the resistance of the Jewish people to evil fortune, armed with the courage and faith that has enabled them to survive through centuries of exiles, plunderings, and persecutions.

The Passover story we retell is replete with miracles. But unlike our ancestors in their Exodus from Egypt, our way is unlikely to be advanced by miraculous occurrences. In striving to drain dry the waters of prejudice and oppression, we must rely on measures of our own creation – upon the wisdom of our laws and the decency of our institutions, upon our reasoning minds and our feeling hearts. And as a constant spark to carry on, upon our vivid memories of the evils we wish to banish from our world. In our long struggle for a more just world, our memories are among our most powerful resources.

May the memory of those who perished remain vibrant to all who dwell in this fair land, people of every color and creed. May that memory strengthen our resolve to aid those at home and abroad who suffer from injustice born of ignorance and intolerance, to combat crimes that stem from racism and prejudice, and to remain ever engaged in the quest for democracy and respect for the human dignity of all the world’s people.”

JEWISH LEDGER

|

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

15

Owners, managers and developers of commercial, residential and retail properties in central Connecticut for over 50 years.

We specialize in all sizes of office space and offer a wide range of living options including luxury apartments and townhouses.

For more information contact us at 860.232.1729

16

JEWISH LEDGER

| SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

jewishledger.com

Yom Kippur synagogue services in CT

THE KOSHER CROSSWORD SEPT. 25, 2020

“Heading to Jerusalem”

By: Yoni Glatt

Difficulty Level: Challenging

Temple Beth Sholom in Hamden In observance of the 5781 High Holidays, Temple Beth Sholom in Hamden is conducting virtual services for Kol Nidre, and Yom Kippur (Mincha, Yizkor, Ne’ilah). All services will be live streamed online. For more information, visit www.tbshamden.com or call (203) 288-7748.

Curbside pick up and local home delivery available!

Temple Sinai in Newington Temple Sinai, a Reform congregation in Newington, will host all Yom Kippur services on Zoom. The congregation as well as the entire community are invited to attend these virtual services at no cost. For information and/or to get schedule of services and log-in details, contact the office at templesinaict@gmail.com). In addition, check out Temple Sinai’s Facebook page for the most up to date information (www.facebook.com/templesinaict).

SHABBAT DINNER TRADITIONAL DAIRY LUNCHEON DELI SANDWICH PLATTER DINNER MENU

B’nai Tikvoh-Sholom in Bloomfield B’nai Tikvoh-Sholom will combine traditional melodies and prayers, along with more creative elements and the congregation’s usual interactive learning and discussions. The theme of this year’s services is “Higher and Higher: Ascending a Ladder of Holiness Together,” which will be held on Zoom. The Yom Kippur service will be highlighted by a special Yizkor, a challenge from the prophet Isaiah, an exploration of Jonah, prayer, discussion, song and reflection. Services are free; registration is required. Contact the office at (860) 243-3576.

Friday, August 7, 2020 17 Av 5780 Vol. 92 | No. 32 | ©2020 $1.00 | jewishledger.com

Your only resource to reach the Jewish market in Connecticut and Western and Central Massachusetts.

Call 860.231.2424 jewishledger.com

“A Matter of Life or Death”

Jewish groups fight for the right to vote by mail 1

JEWISH LEDGER

| JULY AUGUST 31, 2020 7, 2020

ANSWERS TO SEPT. 18 CROSSWORD

jewishledger.com

jewishledger.com

Across 1. Former Concorde fleet 5. Brother of Nadav 10. Some kosher symbols 13. Main character in “Groundhog Day” 14. 2022 World Cup host 15. HMO alternative 16. Shop follower 17. What those in the circled letters would bring to the 35-Across, once 19. “Lang Syne” preceder 20. Queens stadium name 21. City across the continent from NY, NY 22. One of the Allman Brothers

24. Cats, south of the border 25. “ ___ I saw Elba 27. Many a Miller play 29. Ibn Shaprut of note 32. Common suffix on chemical elements 33. Red or White 34. YU email ender 35. Destination for those in the circled letters during the Three Festivals, once 36. ___ Torah 38. Biblical name suffix 39. Guitar star Paul 42. Ending for ranch or Canyon 43. “Johnny ___” (children’s book set during the American

Revolution) 45. Slimy crawlers 48. 1961 British movie monster ala “Godzilla” 49. Disney lion queen 50. Head the pack 54. “If I Were King of the Forest” singer Bert 55. “Say it ___ so, Joe” 56. One who would party hearty on Sukkot at the 35-Across 58. ___ypus (Aussie animal) 59. They might be growing 60. D.C.-based radio network 61. A Netanyahu 62. Fishbein of “Kosher by Design” 63. Hatzolah letters

Down 1. Mine roof support 2. Jewish measurement or class 3. “Mila 18” or “The Hope”, e.g.

4. Hit with a heavy hammer 5. Al-___, building that stands where 35-Across once did 6. “Old MacDonald” sounds 7. Chickenpox symptom 8. Animal with one kosher sign 9. ___ L’Tzedek 10. Morphine and codeine, for two 11. Scanned bar 12. “___ child could do it”

18. Prop in some football games 23. Tools for cheese 24. Cause of a limp 26. “Old MacDonald” refrain 27. ___ in (score without shooting at basketball) 28. David or Asa, e.g.

29. Bulls, rams and bucks 30. Unisex Israeli name 31. Yam follower 37. Boating race 39. Original “SNL” cast member Newman 40. Early bedtime, perhaps

41. Annoying bunkmates 44. “___ Flanders” (Defoe novel) 45. Alternatives to claps 46. Undefeated boxer Ali 47. “Funny bone” nerve 50. They’re needed for blowing shofar 51. Uncle of Asher 52. Ben Canaan and Onassis 53. Shortened name of one who survived the lion’s den 57. Rechovot to Jerusalem dir.

JEWISH LEDGER

|

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

17

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 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

Paid Advertisers

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

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

Orchard Street ShulCongregation Beth Israel Orthodox Rabbi Mendy Hech t 973-723-9070 www.orchardstreetshul.org

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

NEW LONDON Ahavath Chesed Synagogue Orthodox Rabbi Avrohom Sternberg 860-442-3234 Ahavath.chesed@att.net

RIDGEFIELD Congregation Shir Shalom of Westchester and Fairfield Counties Reform Rabbi David Reiner Cantor Debora Katchko-Gray (203) 438-6589 office@ourshirshalom.org

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 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

18

JEWISH LEDGER

| SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

Temple Shalom Reform Rabbi Mark Lipson (203) 866-0148 admin@templeshalomweb.org www.templeshalomweb.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

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

Kehilat Chaverim of Greater Hartford Chavurah Adm. - Marcey Ginsburg Munoz (860) 951-6877 info@ kehilatchaverim.org www.kehilatchaverim.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 Beth El Temple Conservative Rabbi James Rosen Rabbi Ilana Garber (860) 233-9696 hsowalsky@bethelwh.org www.bethelwesthartford.org Chabad House of Greater Hartford Rabbi Joseph Gopin Rabbi Shaya Gopin, Director of Education (860) 232-1116 info@chabadhartford.com www.chabadhartford.com

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 WETHERSFIELD Temple Beth Torah Unaffiliated Rabbi Seth Riemer (860) 828-3377 tbt.w.ct@gmail.com templebethtorahwethersfield. org WOODBRIDGE Congregation B’nai Jacob Conservative Rabbi Rona Shapiro (203) 389-2111 info@bnaijacob.org www.bnaijacob.org

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

jewishledger.com

Briefs Instagram account ‘organized in antisemitism’ lists Jewish teens in California (JTA) – An Instagram account calls on followers to identify Jewish high school students in Northern California’s Marin County. The account is associated with the Redwood High School in the city of Larkspur, 13 miles north of San Francisco.

It named Jewish students in the county and called on followers to contribute the names of other Jewish students there.

“Redwood students organized in antisemitism,” read the message on redwoodhs_soas, which has since been removed, the Mercury News reported. “We currently composing a google doc of Jews in the district. Hit us up if you want to help.”

Redwood Principal David Sondheim told parents in a letter that the school is “treating this incident as hate-motivated behavior and will discipline any student found to be responsible to the full extent possible, up to and including expulsion.”

“These Instagram accounts promote antisemitism, racism, sexism and homophobia and have requested to follow several current and former (Tamalpais Union High School District) students,” Sondheim wrote. “Hate motivated behavior and prejudice that targets even one student on our campus or in our community wounds us all and is an affront to what we stand for and strive to demonstrate.”

School officials believe they have identified the student running the account.

Steve Cohen reaches agreement to buy the New York Mets (JTA) – Jewish billionaire Steve Cohen is set to become the next owner of the New York Mets baseball team. “I am excited to have reached an agreement with the Wilpon and Katz families to purchase the New York Mets,” Cohen said in a statement Monday.

The deal, rumored to be around a record $2.4 billion, needs to be approved by Major League Baseball.

Cohen, a hedge fund manager who grew up one of eight children in a Jewish family and whose father worked in New York’s garment district, had widely been expected to be the Mets’ next owner, as the Wilpons and Saul Katz – both Jewish – have looked for potential buyers over the past year. But in February talks about the sale seemed to had stalled. Cohen said he had given the deal his “best shot.” At one point, former star player Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez, who are a couple, were among the interested buyers. jewishledger.com

Cohen, who the Wall Street Journal has characterized as one of the industry’s most talented money managers, is valued around $14 billion, more than most sports franchise owners. His famed art collection is worth around $1 billion alone. Cohen’s former wife once sued him in a case that involved insider trading allegations. The case was dropped in 2011.

Mets fans, many of them New Yorkarea Jews, have long complained that the Wilpons have refused to spend enough money to attract star players in their prime, keeping the team locked in a cycle of nearsuccess and a lot of losing. Cohen is a lifelong Mets fan who has said he will spend more than his predecessors to construct a winning team. Fans rejoiced on social media.

Gal Gadot’s ‘Wonder Woman’ sequel debut delayed again (JTA) – The world is going to have to wait a little longer to see Gal Gadot in the sequel to the superhero blockbuster “Wonder Woman.” Originally scheduled to open in June, and delayed several times, the film is now set for a Dec. 25 opening. The first “Wonder Woman” film was the highestgrossing movie in the summer of 2017, making $412.5 million in the U.S. and $821.8 million worldwide. The sequel, in which the Israeli Gadot reprises her role as Diana Prince, the Amazonian Princess Diana of Themyscira, was expected to be one of the highest-grossing movies of the year. About 70% of movie theaters in the U.S. have reopened, but theaters in large cities like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco remain closed, Variety reported.

Meanwhile, Gadot will star alongside Ryan Reynolds and Duane Johnson in the thriller “Red Notice,” which is set for release in late 2020. She will also star in “Death on the Nile,” an adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel that is still scheduled for a theatrical release next month.

The White House releases details of UAE, Bahrain agreements with Israel (JTA) – Agreements between Israel and two Arab nations – the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain – include security components as well as pledges to expand cooperation in civilian areas. The White House sent the agreements to reporters several hours after the pacts were signed at the White House.

The deal with the United Arab Emirates, titled Treaty of Peace, Diplomatic Relations, and Full Normalization Between the United Arab Emirates and the State of Israel, was longer and more detailed: four pages and a three-page annex outlining areas of cooperation. The Bahrain agreement, which the sides have just begun to negotiate, was one page and broader in its outlines.

Both documents outlined areas of security cooperation. The UAE and Israel “undertake to take the necessary steps to prevent any terrorist or hostile activities against each other on or from their respective territories as well as deny any support for such activities abroad or allow such support on or from their respective territories.” The Bahrain agreement said Israel and that Gulf nation will come up with a security agreement in coming weeks.

The agreements, brokered by the Trump administration, formalize existing security cooperation between Israel and the Gulf nations that has existed for years. The agreements also pledge cooperation in a range of nonmilitary areas, including trade, health care, energy, education and the environment. The agreement with the UAE calls for a “just, comprehensive, realistic and enduring solution to the IsraeliPalestinian conflict,” but stops short of calling for a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Recently discovered prayer by 13th-century Talmudist Ramban goes online

(JTA) – What do Elana Kagan, Sacha Baron Cohen, Barbra Streisand, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Gal Gadot, Marc Benioff and Steven Spielberg have in common? Yes, they are all Jewish. And they all appear on the shortlist of the selection committee of the Genesis Prize to be this year’s laureate. This is the first time that the selection committee has released a list of potential winners, and the first time that the global Jewish community has been invited to weigh in on the choice of a winner. Voting is open now on the Genesis Prize website. Some 4,000 people were nominated by more than 45,000 people worldwide. The recipient of the 2021 Genesis Prize will receive a $1 million prize.

Previous winners have donated their prize money to support philanthropic causes such as improving the lives of individuals with special needs, advancing women’s equality and supporting refugees.

The Genesis Prize, known as the “Jewish Nobel,” was started in 2013 and is financed through a permanent $100 million endowment. The annual award honors “extraordinary individuals for their outstanding professional achievement, contribution to humanity and commitment to Jewish values.” Previous winners include New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and musician Itzhak Perlman.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg received a lifetime achievement award in 2018.

Last year’s laureate was Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident and former head of the Jewish Agency.

(JTA) – A recently discovered poetic prayer written by the Ramban, or Nachmanides, the 13th-century Spanish rabbi and renowned author of commentaries on the Bible and the Talmud, has been translated into English and is now available on the website of the National Library of Israel.

The Ramban, also a leading kabbalist, was known by the initials in his name, Rabbi Moshe son of Nachman. He was born in Catalonia, but was forced to leave at the age of 70 after being ordered to defend his faith against Pablo Christiani, a Jewish convert to Christianity. Eventually he moved to Jerusalem, where he is credited with reestablishing Jewish life and settlement in the city.

The prayer falls in the category of bakashot, or supplications, which was a common form among Iberian Jews of the period. It was published in Hebrew for the first time last year, appearing in Idan Perez’s Sidur Catalunya, the first printed prayer book of the Catalonian liturgy and ritual used by the Ramban and the once-thriving Jewish communities of Catalonia, Valencia and Majorca, which were ultimately decimated by the Spanish Inquisition and Expulsion over 500 years ago. It was found in a manuscript written just after the Expulsion that was likely used

by Catalonian exiles living in Provence. It is now held in Rome’s Casanatense Library.

The manuscript can be seen online as part of Ktiv, the National Library of Israelled initiative to open digital access to all of the world’s Hebrew manuscripts.

(JTA) – An Italian lawmaker has nominated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for the Nobel Peace Prize. Paolo Grimoldi of the right-wing Northern League party tweeted Wednesday that he had nominated Netanyahu because he signed peace agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, as well as the dialogue with Saudi Arabian officials that led to the opening of its airspace to all airplanes, including those coming from Israel. Trump, whose administration brokered the deals, was nominated for the prize earlier this week by a right-wing Norwegian lawmaker, Christian TybringGjedde, who heads his country’s delegation to NATO.

You can vote for the next Genesis Prize winner

Democratic super PAC mailers show Jewish GOP candidate clutching money (JTA) – A Democratic Super PAC aligned with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has CONTINUED ON PAGE 21

JEWISH LEDGER

|

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

19

Dental Insurance Get the dental care you deserve with dental insurance from Physicians Mutual Insurance Company. It can help cover the services you’re most likely to use —

Cleanings

X-rays

Fillings

Crowns

Dentures

Preventive care starts right away Helps cover over 350 services Go to any dentist you want – but save more with one in our network No deductible, no annual maximum

Call now to get this FREE

Here’s the information you requested on Dental insurance

Information Kit!

FIRST-CLASS MA

1-866-577-9028 dental50plus.com/ctledger

l

Product not available in all states. Includes the Participating Providers and Preventive Benefits Rider.

Acceptance guaranteed for one insurance policy/certificate of this type. Contact us for complete details about this insurance solicitation. This specific offer is not available in CO, NY; call 1-888-7994433 or respond for similar offer. Certificate C250A (ID: C250E; PA: C250Q); Insurance Policy P150 (GA: P150GA; NY: P150NY; OK: P150OK; TN: P150TN). Rider kinds B438/B439.

6154-0120

20

JEWISH LEDGER

| SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

jewishledger.com

Briefs CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19

sent out three mailers to voters in a New Jersey congressional district that depict the Republican candidate, who is Jewish, clutching money. One mailer shows the candidate, David Richter, holding a fistful of fanned-out $100 bills, with more raining down behind him, while the reverse shows his suit jacket lined with bills. Another, showing him holding $100 bills in the shape of a rose, says he “puts personal profits over New Jersey families and it is truly obscene.”

A third shows him with $100 bills flying out of his backpack, and carries another image of him using a $100 bill as a parachute.

Richter, the former CEO of a construction management company, is running to unseat the incumbent Democrat, Rep. Andy Kim, in New Jersey’s 3rd District. The ads were sent by the House Majority PAC, a super PAC closely associated with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Richter said that the ads were antisemitic and called on Pelosi to apologize. “Every single mailer that she’s sent attacking me has piles of cash either raining down on my head, shooting out of my backpack, lining my jacket pocket – every single mailer,” Richter told JTA. “It’s outrageous. It really is. I felt that these were very antisemitic.”

Brad Komar, the super PAC’s independent expenditure director, said in a statement, “The mail pieces have nothing to do with David Richter’s religion, and everything to do with the fact he ran a company into the ground. Perhaps David Richter would like to tell us what imagery he thinks is more appropriate to describe his corruption, mismanagement and fraud.”

A string of mailers this year and in 2018 were similarly criticized for depicting mostly Democratic Jewish candidates clutching money or, in some cases, with artificially elongated noses.

NJ town settles lawsuit to allow local Chabad to expand building (JTA) – A northern New Jersey suburb has reached an agreement to settle a federal lawsuit that accused it of improperly restricting an Orthodox Jewish congregation from expanding its house of worship. If a federal judge approves the agreement, the town of Woodcliff Lake will allow the Valley Chabad to expand its building on its property and pay $1.5 million in damages to resolve a second lawsuit, The Associated Press reported.

The congregation attempted to relocate at least three times since 2005, but could not because of action by the Borough Council or its members, including the use of eminent domain.

In 2014, the congregation applied jewishledger.com

to the borough zoning board to raze its building and replace it with one nearly six times larger. The board held 18 hearings, eventually suggesting six alternative properties, before denying the application, causing Valley Chabad to lose money, according to the lawsuit.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office sued the town in 2018, alleging violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act when it blocked Valley Chabad from buying additional property or expanding its existing building. Woodcliff Lake, a Bergen County town located some 25 miles from New York City, countered that Chabad’s building plans failed to meet zoning requirements for houses of worship, such as minimum lot size and parking capacity.

Trump tells American Jews ‘We love your country’ (JTA) – President Donald Trump spent much of his 20-minute call with American Jewish leaders making the case for more American Jews to vote for him. He closed by repeating a line that has raised their eyebrows before. “We really appreciate you,” Trump said as he signed off the call, an annual pre-Rosh Hashanah presidential tradition. “We love your country also.”

Earlier, introducing his Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who brokered the historic deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Trump called him “an unbelievable leader for Israel.” The comments echoed others he has made in the past that suggest that American Jews think of themselves as Israelis, including at a White House Chanukah party two years ago.

He suggested that Israel would suffer if he is not reelected this fall. “I have to say this, whatever you can do in terms of Nov. 3 is going to be very important because if we don’t win, Israel is in big trouble,” Trump said. Trump also noted that he exited the Iran nuclear deal, which Israel reviled, and was brokered by former President Obama.

“I remember Bibi [Netanyahu] coming over and begging him, begging him to a point of humiliation that please don’t do the Iran deal,” Trump said. “He did it. I broke it, but he did it. And yet the Democrats get 75% sort of like habit. It’s automatic. I hope you can do better with that. I hope you can explain to people what’s going on.”

Jews traditionally vote in large numbers for the Democratic presidential nominee.

A poll this week showed Joe Biden getting 67% of the vote and Trump 30%. But Jewish voters in swing states, particularly Florida, could swing what may be a close election.

“Which really amazes me, and I have to tell you, because I saw a poll that in the last election, I got 25% of the Jewish vote and I said here I have a son-in-law and a

daughter who are Jewish, I have beautiful grandchildren that are Jewish. I have all of these incredible achievements,” Trump said. “I’m amazed that it seems to be almost automatically a Democrat.”

Bidens tell Jewish supporters 5781 will be happier without Trump (JTA) – Jill and Joe Biden greeted Jewish supporters for the Jewish New Year and cast the holy day’s message as an imperative to drive President Donald Trump from office. “These are the Days of Awe that give us a chance to restart, to speak up,” the Democratic presidential nominee said Thursday in a webcast organized by Jewish Americans for Biden, an arm of his campaign. “What kind of country do we wish to be? Both of our faiths, yours and mine, instruct us not to ignore what’s around us.” Biden said he launched his campaign for the presidency last year because he was appalled at what he said were Trump’s equivocations in condemning deadly racist and antisemitic violence.

Biden’s wife, Jill, an educator, quoted the 19th-century rabbi, Yisrael Salanter, who founded the Jewish ethical movement, Musar. “As Rabbi Yisrael Salanter taught, ‘as long as the candle is still burning, it is still possible to accomplish and to mend’,” she said. “I hope these days of awe renew your spirit for these days ahead.”

Joe Biden, who has pushed back at progressives within his party who want to step up criticism of Israel, said, “we can pursue peace in the world including by remaining a steadfast ally of Israel.” He concluded, “Shana Tova everyone, we can do this, it’s got to be a better year than last year.”

2 US senators warn Poland’s president on antisemitism (JTA) – Two U.S. senators wrote President Andrzej Duda of Poland to express their concern about a rise in what they said was antisemitic discourse. The letter sent Tuesday, Sept. 15, by Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and James Lankford, R-Okla., notes the close defense ties of the United States and Poland and suggests a failure to address the antisemitism and to advance Holocaust restitution could impede the growth of the relationship. Much of the rhetoric singled out in the letter, which was released Wednesday, has to do with the debate in Poland over Holocaust restitution. It became an issue in the recent presidential campaign when Duda, a member of the ruling Law and Justice party, won reelection. “We are alarmed by growing anti-Semitic discourse in Poland and scapegoating of the Jewish community, which run counter to our nations’ shared values,” the letter said. “Specifically, during

Poland’s 2020 presidential campaign, the Law and Justice Party and state television peddled anti-Semitic tropes and thinly veiled demagoguery.”

It cited a number of insinuations that Duda’s rival in the election, Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, was in the pocket of Jews pressing the restitution issue. Among these was a July 9 statement by Duda. “I will never sign a bill which says that we will treat the inheritance of people from one ethnic group more favorably than from others,” he said.

Lankford and Rosen, who co-chair the Senate’s Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti-Semitism, also said in the letter: “In addition to putting Poland’s Jewish community at risk, these troubling statements undermine Poland’s obligations under the 2009 Terezin Declaration on Holocaust Era Assets and Related Issues.

We know you share our desire to strengthen the U.S.-Poland partnership, which is why we call on you to unequivocally condemn anti-Semitism, including when propagated by the Law and Justice Party and your political allies, and to adopt comprehensive legislation on Holocaust-era property restitution.”

Library of Congress honors Israeli literary program (JNS) The U.S. Library of Congress has announced that Keren Grinspoon Israel (KGI, the Grinspoon Israel Foundation) has been selected as a 2020 Library of Congress Literacy Awards Program Best Practice Honoree. It is the first in Israel to receive an honor from the Library of Congress, which each year recognizes 15 organizations for innovation in promoting literacy worldwide.

It was adapted from the popular PJ Library book-gifting program created by the Springfield, Mass.-based Harold Grinspoon Foundation.

KGI, founded in 2009, distributes some 3.5 million books in Hebrew and Arabic each year to more than 500,000 Israeli children, operating through public preschools and elementary schools in partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Education. Israeli children are introduced to a book at school, and each one receives a copy to take home and keep. By the time a child enters third grade, he or she will have a home library of at least 32 books as a result.

The foundation was granted the honor on the basis of a recommendation from David Dickinson, chair of Vanderbilt University’s Department of Teaching and Learning. He noted that Sifriyat Pijama and Maktabat al-Fanoos “provide exactly the type of supports known to nourish early development,” and that the programs create “sustained support for a child to learn and use the vocabulary and concepts and apply the lessons learned about values.”

JEWISH LEDGER

|

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

21

BULLETIN BOARD Featuring comedians Jason Choi, Rich Happel, Alysia Hush, Carly Montag, Adam Muller, Bobby Sheehan, Amy Veltman, Abby Washutal, Tayler Yarish. Reservations required. Tickets: $20/members; $25/nonmembers.

n Sukkoth, Simchat Torah prep-course, Sept. 24 “Sukkot and Simchat Torah - The Joys of Judaism,” Thursday, Sept. 24, 8 p.m.

Rabbi Shaya Gopin of Chabad of Greater Hartford will discuss how to make the holidays a meaningful at home experience.

For more information, email rabbishaya@ chabadhartford.com. Zoom Link: www.

ChabadHartford.com/study. Fee: $30

n Congregation Beth Israel fall events Events listed are virtual and hosted by Congregation Beth Israel unless otherwise noted. For details on viewing via Zoom , visit cbict.org/calendar.

n The digitization of Jewish books’ the subject of talk, Sept. 29 On Tuesday, Sept 29 at 7:30 p.m., Fairfield Unviersity’s Bennett Center for Judaic Studies will present the Adolph and Ruth Schnurmacher Scholar-in-Residence Lecture, “People of the (Printed/Digital) Book: Printing and the Birth of the Jewish Bookshelf,” by Rabbi Joseph A. Skloot, PhD. In his lecture – the first of the Center’s online series of fall events – Skloot will explore how the invention of printing – and with it the sudden availability of the printed word – changed pre-modern Jewish texts and readers’ experiences of them, as well as the implications of digitization for Jewish books and their readers.

The recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, Rabbi Skloot teaches at Hebrew Union College in New York, where he is the Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish Intellectual History.

He received his PhD in Jewish history at Columbia University (2017), where his dissertation was entitled, “Printing, Hebrew Book Culture and Sefer Hasidim.” His research explores the effects of printing on Hebrew texts during the sixteenth century, and his teaching encompasses courses in early modern and modern Jewish history, and Jewish religious thought.

The lecture will be held online and is free and open to the public. Register at fairfield.edu/bennettprograms for a program link.

n What’s Happening at the JCC In Sherman For more information on these events, visit jccinsherman.org.

Sunday, Sept. 26 at 6 p.m.

Live Performance of “Say Goodnight, Stacy” With musical guests Gary Blu, Barbara Bock, & MIke Wright, and your MC Kimberly Marcus Saturday, Oct. 3 at 6 p.m.

First Annual Steve Bennett Memorial Comedy Night 22

JEWISH LEDGER

Introduction to Judaism Wednesdays, 7-9 p.m. starting Oct. 14 The course curriculum includes basic Hebrew, Jewish history, liturgy, holidays and life cycle events, as well as the Jewish perspective on spirituality, values and community. Taught by reform rabbis of Greater Hartford. For more information, contact Wendy Berg at wberg@cbict.org, (860) 233-8215.

Red Cross Blood Drive Sunday, Oct. 18 To beheld at Congregation Beth Israel, 701 Farmington Avenue in West Hartford.

Donors will be screened outside before they enter. Donor tables will be spaced at least 10 feet apart. Sign up at redcrossblood.org.

Kreplach & Dim Sum – Yes, There are Jews in China Sunday, Oct. 18, 5 p.m.

Enjoy the talents of vocalist-storyteller Robyn Helzner in “Kreplach & Dim Sum– Yes, There are Jews in China!” who will also share her remarkable and uplifting story about serving as cantor for the United Jewish Congregation of Hong Kong.

n UCONN Center for Judaic Studies & Contemporary Jewish Life Wednesday, Sept. 30, 7.p.m.

Understanding and Teaching the Holocaust: Virtual Book Launch Cosponsored by the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford. Part one of the 2020 Virtual Holocaust Educators Workshop (HEW) For more information on these virtual presentations, visit judaicstudies.uconn.edu.

n A Virtual Evening of Hope, Sept. 23 Voices of Hope will host A Virtual Evening of Hope on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 7 p.m.

Guest speaker Elisha Wiesel will discuss “Rememebering My Father, Elie Wiesel”; | SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

and the “L’Dor V’Dor Award, Honoring the Next Generation,” will be presented to Gayle Temkin. For more information, visit ctvoicesofhope.org.

n B’nai Tikvoh Sholom prayer writing workshop, Sept. 23 Wednesday, Sept. 23, 10:30 a.m.- noon “Opening Our Hearts: A Personal Prayer-Writing Workshop” led by Rabbi Debra Cantor of B’nai Tikvoh Sholom.Use guided meditation and writing prompts to compose your own heartfelt prayers for the new year. No experience necessary.

For Zoom login information, call (860) 243-3576, or email office@btsonline.

n UJF Holiday Lunch & Learn Series continues Sept. 24 Rabbi Daniel Cohen will discuss “Sacred Strategies from the Holiest of Prayers” on Zoom, Thursday, Sept. 24, at noon. This series is presented by UJF of Stamford. For More information contact Diane Sloyer @ dianesloyer@ujf.org Zoom code: https://us02web.zoom. us/j/88273248302

n Calling all teens! Tara’s Closet needs your help!

Since Covid-19 hit, Jewish Family Service of Greater Hartford (JFS) has been unable to disseminate clothing to those in need through the Tara’s closet program – and is turning to the community’s teens for help in reimagining how Tara’s Closet can continue to give clients access to free clothes.

The challenge: Working in teams, teens in grades 8 through 12 will pitch their creative and out-of-the-box ideas to a panel of “sharks.”. The winning team will win a cash prize of $200 and, more importantly, will have its plan implemented at Tara’s Closet to benefit people in need. Teens are asked to sign up either as individuals or as part of a team by Sept. 16. Teams can have between 3-5 members.

Contestants will meet virtually to learn more about Tara’s Closet and the challenge on Sept. 23 & 30 and Oct. 14, 6:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Day 1 - Sept. 23: Teams will learn about Tara’s Closet and spend time considering ways to overcome the current the program’s dilemma. By the end of Day 1, teams will have defined the problem at hand and will be thinking of possible solutions.

Day 2 - Sept. 30: Teams will create prototypes and test their ideas to decide

on one solution to present to the “sharks.”

Groups will start working on their presentation for the judges.

Day 3 - Oct. 14: Teams will present their idea to the judges, who will choose the winning team.

For more information, contact cara@ jtconnect.org. Sign up at jtconnect.org at Mitzvah Tank.

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.

Remembering Babyn Yar, 79 Years Later Tuesday, Sept. 29 On Sept. 29, 1941, on the eve of Yom Kippur, almost 34,000 Jewish citizens of Kyiv, Ukraine were rounded up and shot over two days at Babyn Yar, a ravine on the outskirts of the city. More Jews were murdered in those two days than in any other single German massacre. Babyn Yar has since become a symbol of the “Holocaust by bullets” – shorthand for the mass shootings carried out in Eastern Europe.

On the 79th anniversary of the massacre, historian Alti Rodal and strategist Berel Rodal will reflect on the resonance of Babyn Yar today.

The Making Of A Danish Rescue Film: “A Day In October” 30 Years Later Thursday, Oct. 1 Denmark was the only occupied country to actively resist the Nazi deportation of its Jewish citizens. On the 77th anniversary of the historic Danish Rescue that saved 7,200 Jews, the filmmakers of the 1991 film A Day in October – a compelling resistance narrative that brings one Jewish family’s story to life – will examine the rescue operation. Speakers include screenwriter Damian Slattery, director Kenneth Madsen, and an actor from the film,.

A DVD of the film is available for purchase. While A Day in October is not yet available for online streaming, this program intends to generate awareness to make it available to the public.

The S.S. Officer’s Armchair: Uncovering The Hidden Life Of A Nazi Tuesday, Oct. 6 One night at a dinner party in Florence, historian Daniel Lee was told about a remarkable discovery. An upholsterer in Amsterdam had found a bundle of swastikajewishledger.com

covered documents inside the cushion of an armchair he was repairing. They belonged to Dr. Robert Griesinger, a lawyer from Stuttgart, who joined the S.S. and worked at the Reich’s Ministry of Economics and Labor in Nazi-occupied Prague during the war.

In this book talk, historian Lisa Leff will interview Lee about his book, The S.S. Officer’s Armchair, an astonishing narrative about the journey to learn more about Griesinger and how his most precious documents ended up hidden inside a chair, hundreds of miles from Prague and Stuttgart.

Resistance In Belarus: The Bielski Partisans And Today Thursday, Oct. 8 During the Holocaust, the Bielski Brothers formed the largest partisan detachment in Nazi-occupied Europe. Aron Bell (born Aron Bielski) was the youngest of four brothers who famously started a Jewish rescue movement through partisan communities hiding in the woods of German-occupied western Belorussia (now Belarus). In this program, Aron Bell, his wife Henryka, and niece Assi Weinstein (née Bielski) will be joined by Tamara Vershitskaya, a researcher and curator of the Jewish Resistance Museum, for a discussion of the Bielski Partisans and their enduring legacy.

Moderated by Tablet Magazine European culture correspondent Vladislav Davidzon, who was recently awarded a fellowship at the Atlantic Council for his coverage of the 2020 Belarusian protests.

n Memorial Service for the Six Million, Sept. 27 The annual memorial service for the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust will be held on Zoom on Sunday, Sept. 27 at 2 p.m. The service will be led by Rabbi Alan Lefkowitz and Rabbi David Small. Those wishing to visit the Holocaust memorial on the grounds of the Mandell Jewish Community Center in West Hartford must contact the JCC in advance by calling (860) 231-6315. For more information, contact Donna Goldstein at dgoldstein@mandelljcc. org.

n Applications now being accepted for The Bronfman Fellowship Applications for the 35th season of the prestigious Bronfman Fellowship are now being accepted and are due by Dec. 3.

The Bronfman Fellowship selects 26 outstanding North American teenagers for an intellectually challenging year of programming that begins with a free, five-week trip to Israel in the summer jewishledger.com

between the Fellows’ junior and senior years of high school, followed by monthly virtual experiences and a winter and spring seminar in the U.S. The program inspires exceptional young Jews from diverse backgrounds to have a significant impact on the world as community builders, deep thinkers, moral voices, and cultural creators. The program was founded by Edgar M. Bronfman, z”l, formerly CEO of the Seagram Company Ltd. and a visionary Jewish philanthropist.

During the program’s seminars, Fellows meet with leading intellectuals, religious and cultural leaders, and educators, and are guided by a faculty of rabbis and educators who help them explore a wide range of Jewish texts, from classic religious works to contemporary Israeli and American voices. Fellows also interact with a group of Israeli peers. They have the opportunity to participate in the Fellowship’s arts tracks: workshops in poetry, drama, visual narrative, and music taught by leading innovators in the field of Jewish art. Upon returning home from the summer in Israel, Fellows also explore major themes in North American Jewish life.

This past summer, The Bronfman Fellowship conducted a virtual program for its 2020 cohort. It is the Fellowship’s hope that the 2021 Fellowship year will proceed normally and that Fellows will be able to meet in person and travel to Israel.

If international travel is not possible, the Fellowship will continue to provide Fellows with a transformative experience through domestic travel options and/or virtual programming, as the current health situation warrants.

There are now over 1,300 Bronfman Fellowship alumni across North America and Israel. Among them are 7 Rhodes Scholars, 4 former Supreme Court clerks, 18 Fulbright Scholars, 36 Wexner Fellows and 27 Dorot Fellows. Fellowship alumni include Daniel Handler, a.k.a.

Lemony Snicket, author of the best-selling Series of Unfortunate Events children’s books; Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything Is Illuminated; Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl, the first woman to be named senior rabbi at New York’s Central Synagogue and the first Asian-American person to be ordained as a rabbi and cantor; Anne Dreazen, director for Iraq Policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense; and Itamar Moses, Tony award-winner for The Band’s Visit.

Applications for the 2021 Fellowship are available online at bronfman.org. High school students in the United States and Canada who self-identify as Jewish and who will be in the twelfth grade in the fall of 2021 are eligible to apply. For an application and other information, visit www.bronfman.org.

Shabbat Shuva

BY RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

I

t is now the period of time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

This ten-day period is known as the ten days of Teshuvah, or repentance.

During this time Jews become more contemplative, more serious, and more given to internal dialogue.

It is a time for each of us to look within, and to give special attention to those inner voices which call upon us to correct past mistakes, to redress past offenses, and to resolve to do better in the year to come.

Besides ones inner voice, there is another voice, which can be heard at this time of year, although not many of us are sufficiently spiritually sensitive to hear it. It is the voice of God. The Talmud tells us that this 10 day period is especially propitious for seeking out the divine and for hearing His voice.

This is a time when God is to be found; when he is very near.

Chassidim use the following parable to explain this unusual theological phenomenon. Imagine, the parable goes, a king who spends most of his year isolated in his royal castle. It would be no wonder that he would wish to become more familiar with his people, and with what they were all about. Imagine further that he would decide to disguise himself in ordinary clothing and travel about the countryside, visiting the common folk and becoming acquainted with their lives, their problems, and especially what they really thought of their king.

And so the king wandered through the countryside and visited his constituency.

The king was now extraordinarily close to many of his countrymen. Few, if any, realized however, that it was the king who was wandering among them, and that he was accessible in a very unusual manner.

The Almighty himself now “wanders” among us, just as the king of the parable.

During these first 10 days of the Jewish New Year, we have the opportunity to address Him in ways which were totally unavailable to us while He was in His royal castle, protected by guards and requiring appointments, usually impossible to obtain, often long in advance of when we needed them.

If we are aware of the presence of the Almighty in our midst, in this unique way, during this time of year, it is no wonder that we might just hear His divine voice.

And what would it say? What does the inner voice of our conscience say?

These voices, divine or the better part of our human selves, have three messages that apply to every one of us, Jewish or nonJewish, religious or otherwise.

The first message that I hear from the voice is a protest against my tendency, our tendency, to want gratification now.

There is something within us that can’t wait, that wants our pleasures now and our hopes realized immediately. But the inner spiritual voice, more clearly audible at this time of year, says, “Wait.” This spiritual voice stresses the need to postpone gratification, to work long and hard toward distant objectives, to set long-term goals and to work toward them ambitiously. This voice transcends the present and orients us towards the future with an attitude of optimism and hope.

The second message objects to the word “me.” It wants to counter the tendency we all have to be self-centered, to live a life based upon “me first”. This second component of our inner voice encourages us to be concerned with others. To realize, as the sainted Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin writes, that we are placed on this world not to fulfill our selfish needs, but to help others achieve their needs. The second message of the voice wishes to counter the culture of narcissism within which we find ourselves.

It emphasizes charity, compassion, and social concern.

The third message of the voice is a simple one. It says, “Be happy”. It recognizes our tendency toward depression, sadness, and despair. And it encourages us to celebrate life with joy, to cultivate that most important of biblical emotions, simcha. How succinctly, but how stirringly, the spiritual genius Nachman of Braslav put it: “It is a great mitzvah to be b’simcha, to be happy... always!”

These are the voices that I hear when I listen carefully during this time of year.

Perhaps these voices are divine in origin.

More likely they are simply being expressed by a part of me that intuitively knows what is right and how I should guide my life in the coming year.

But one thing is for certain: These voices are signs of clarity and expressions of valuable inner truths. I am sure that you too can hear these voices if you but allow yourselves to listen.

Do listen. Follow the messages of this inner voice. And enjoy, each and every one of you, a happy and sweet, successful and peaceful New Year.

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

JEWISH LEDGER

|

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

23

OBITUARIES BOLTON Mildred Edith Bolton, 97, of Wallingford, formerly of Hamden, died Sept. 11. She was the widow of Albert Luis Bolton. Born in New Haven, she was the daughter of Isaac and Sarah (Krevolin) Chain. She was also predeceased by her siblings, Samuel Chain, Marion Berry, and Dorothy Mazza.

She was a member of Mishkan Israel Synagogue in Hamden. She is survived by her children, Marlene Brownstein and her husband Robert of Meriden, Robin Jomini and her husband Marc of Meriden, and Robert Bolton and his wife Debra of South Carolina; her grandchildren; Karyn (Russell) Brents of New Zealand, Jason (Hannah Bately) Bolton of Maine, and Sarah (Kevin) Francoeur of Arizona; her great-grandchildren, Hannah Alison LaVoie of Glastonbury and New Zealand, Mitchell Rogan Brents of New Zealand, Sebastian Goodman Brents of New Zealand, Nathaniel Stearns Bolton of Maine, Gavin Michael Francoeur of Arizona, and Hunter of Arizona; and many nieces and nephews.

COHEN Gordon Seth Cohen, 83, of New Haven, died Sept. 10. He was the husband of Marjorie (Marge) Rennick Cohen. Raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., he was the son of Leon and Irene Cohen He was commissioned as a Captain in the Medical Corps of the United States Army Reserves, serving from 1965 to 1970. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughters, Terri Susan Alpert and her husband Bruce, Lisa Michelle MacDougald and her husband Joseph, and Bonnie Lynne Bernal and her husband Ronald; and his grandchildren, Sarah Alpert ( Leon Husock), Rachel Alpert, Katelyn MacDougald, Ian MacDougald, Benjamin MacDougald, Chad Bernal, Andrew Bernal, and Alexa Bernal.

DIETZ Ralph Dietz, 70, of Boston, Mass., died Sept. 7. He was the husband of 44 years of Shelley (Greenberg) Dietz. Born in Niagra Falls, N.Y., and raised in Youngstown, N.Y., he was the son of the late Russell and Mildred Diez. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his sons, Ryan, Ross and his wife Veronica, Brett and his wife Tara; his grandhildren, Ronan and Greyson; his sisters, Nancy Orsi and Margaret Dietz. He was also predeceased by his sister Sarah Lockhart.

FRANKL Jesse M. Frankl, 82, of West Hartford died Sept. 8. He was the husband of Donna Frankl. Born in Plainfield, N.J., and raised in the Hartford area, he was the son of John and Gertrude (Pulizer) Frankl. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Gregg Frankl and his wife Carla, Andrea Frankl Keilty and her husband Bryan, Debra DeNovellis and her husband Enzo, Lisa Sheary and her husband Peter, Dina McCann and her husband Sean; his 11 grandchildren, and 8 great-grandchildren; his brother Joel Frankl and his wife Marcia; his sister-in-law Sharon Dzurich; Gregg and Andrea’s mother Linda Frankl; and several nephews, nieces and cousins. He was also predeceased by his brother Steven Frankl.

HOMAR Judith May Spector Homar, 95, of West Hartford, died Sept. 10. Born in Hartford, she was the daughter of the late Harry and Anna Spector. She was the widow of Abraham Homar. She is survived by her children, Carol Waxman and her husband Joseph of West Hartford, and Joan Beschen and her husband David of Issaquah, Wash.; her grandchildren, Lauren Harrison and her husband Will, Corey Waxman and his

wife Megan, Emily Beschen, and Megan Malone and her husband Chris; her greatgrandchildren, Whit, Colton and Arianna Joy; her brother-in-law Ben Homar; and several nieces and nephews. She was also predeceased by her brother Irving, her sisters-in-law Naomi Spector and Shirley Homar, and her best friend Belle Lustig.

KLAPPHOLZ Lorraine Z. Klappholz, 89, of Old Saybrook, died Sept. 6. She was the widow of Lowell Klappholz. Born in Bayonne, N.J. she was the daughter of the late Meyer and Dora Rubin Zarchin. She is survived by her children, Marcy Littlefield of Columbia, Lisa Klappholz of Old Saybrook, and Michael Klappholz and his wife Gail of Hernando, Ms.; her tsisters, Rhoda Meisner of Rye Brook, N.Y., and Sandy Herzog of Old Saybrook,; and her grandchildren, Mandy Schooling and her husband Mike Schooling, Christopher Cooper and his wife Jennifer, Stephanie Walley and her husband Jacob, and Logan Littlefield; and seven greatgrandchildren. She was predeceased by her son-in-law Gary Littlefield.

RUBIN Phyllis Reha (Cohen) Rubin, 90, of Southington, died Sept. 9. She was the widow of Robert A. Rubin. She was born and raised in New Haven. She is survived by her children, Carol Wright and her husband Philip, David Rubin and his wife Denise, and Michael Rubin and his wife Linda; her grandchildren, Stacey Cardy and her husband Jansen, Heather Rubin, Kylee Rubin, Ryan Rubin and Tyler Rubin and his wife Saniya; and her great-granchild Karter Rubin.

SIRKIN Dr. Robert Sirkin, 90, died Sept. 14. He was the husband of Wendy St. John Gorman.

He was born in New Britain. He is survived by his children Jeff Sirkin and his wife Sally of Larchmont, N.Y., Amy Mulron and her husband Mulron of Nashville, Tenn., and Jon Sirkin and his husband Mark of Newtown, Penn. PA; and seven grandchildren.

Honor the memory of your loved one...

Call 860.231.2424 x3028 to place your memorial in the Ledger.

Human Right activist Jorge Kirszenbaum was former head of Argentina’s Jewish community

BY JTA STAFF

Lichtenstein Company Maker of MONUMENTS for 4 Generations

323 Washington Ave., Hamden AT WHITNEY AVE. (opposite K of C Hall)

CALL 1.800.852.8865 • 203.287.1593 • nolanshamdenmonumentco.com 24

JEWISH LEDGER

| SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

(JTA) – Jorge Kirszenbaum, an influential former president of Argentina’s Jewish community and an attorney and human rights activist who led the DAIA umbrella group in 2005 and ’06, died suddenly on Sept. 5 in his apartment in Buenos Aires. He was 72.

As a member of the Buenos Aires Bar Association, Kirszenbaum helped the relatives of those who were kidnapped and disappeared under the last military dictatorship that ruled Argentina, from 1976 to 1983, with their legal claims. In 1983, he became the first director of the National Program for the Democratization of Culture, or Prondec, which aimed to teach Argentines about how to participate in a newly democratic society.

Kirszenbaum, who is survived by two children, was buried at the main Jewish cemetery of Buenos Aires in La Tablada. His funeral was conducted over Zoom because of the pandemic, which has reshaped Jewish life in Buenos Aires, a city with a Jewish population of more than 150,000.

An online memorial service featured opening remarks from the writer Marcos Aguinis, a former Argentine secretary of culture and creator of Prondec.

Kirszenbaum died the same day as David Michan, a former DAIA vice president who previously held other roles in Argentina’s Jewish community, including president of the country’s network of Jewish day schools. jewishledger.com

BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY COMPUTER TECH

DRUM LESSONS

PRIVATE DRUM INSTRUCTION

Innovate|Simplify

Professional IT Consulting Upgrade home|office equipment Networking Home Theater Website Design Photo and Music consolidation Security Cameras

All ages and levels

CHRIS BONITO

860.748.0004

860-301-7019 • www.searobintech.com

BA Music Performance 20+ years private instruction • References available

ENERGY

HOME CARE

HOME IMPROVEMENT

For maintenance on your fuel oil or natural gas heating or cooling system, call:

We offer quality, loving in-home care services for families like yours.

Office: 860.728.5431 • Cell: 860-558-5948 40 Woodland Street (Rear), Hartford, CT 06105 www.deitchenergy.com

CALL US FOR OUR FUEL PRICES SERVING CONNECTICUT SINCE 1910

MASONRY

D & M MASONRY Chimney Repair Specialist

CELLARS WATERPROOFED / PATIOS / WALKS New • Bluestone • Rebuild Brick • Pointing • Concrete Foundation Cracks Repaired Servicing All Your Masonry Needs Since 1994

ROOFING U SIDING U WINDOWS & more...

INDEPENDENCE • COMPANIONSHIP • TRANSPORTATION LIVE-IN CARE • MEAL PREPARATION • HOME MAKING NURSING ASSISTANT CARE • SPECIAL CARE

Home Care Agency 860.461.0556 • marcialovingcare.com

23 Bidwell St., East Hartford, CT • Open Mon.-Fri. 9-5

MATH TUTOR

Free Upgrade to Lifetime Shingles

CALL NOW About Our Roofing Sale

Marcia Loving Care

(with this ad only)

860-645-8899 Factory Certified with

Lic. #604200 / Fully Insured / FREE Estimates

PEST CONTROL

Online Math Tutoring College and High School Prep Teacher Praxis Certification Medical calculations (RN, LPN)

One-on-one sessions $75 Per Hour

Service • Reasonable Rates • Free Estimates • Fully Insured

Contact: mathtutordamoreonline@gmail .com

ROOFING

TAX PREPARATION

860.930.2536 • Dan Messina

Creating a HARMONY between customer, contractor & community.

050511

S-1 303418 • HOD 0000962

Specializing in Dementia/Alzheimer’s

100% FINAN C AVAIL ING ABLE

Emilio N. Polce (860) 432-9444 • Fax (860) 432-7559 PEST CONTROL 109 Strawberry Lane • Manchester, CT epolce@ecochoicepest.com www.ecochoicepest.com

Daniel S. Levine, CPA Certified Public Accountant

WITH ZAMAN ROOFING

You’re in Good Hands

n Roof Replacements n Roof Repairs n Gutters n Exterior Carpentry jewishledger.com

Call to schedule your free estimate today.

860.977.8042

www.zamanroofing.com

Individual and Business Tax Preparaion Low Reasonable Rates

860.729.6036

email: dansethlev@cox.net Willing to travel to residence JEWISH LEDGER

|

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

25

CLASSIFIED

LOOK for these MAGAZINES in your INBOX!

To Place An Ad: PH: 860.231.2424 x3035 • Fax: 860.231.2485 Email: howardm@jewishledger.com

The Jewish Ledger assumes no responsibility for the product and services advertised

TRENDING

CELEBRATIONS • JUNE SENIOR LIVING • AUG.

MARCH JUNE SEPTEMBER NOVEMBER

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

FOR SALE OR RENTAL

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

New England Jewish Academy in Greater Hartford - Preschool aide to assist our two dynamic lead teachers - Wonderful children and supportive environment - Hours are 11:005:00 M-TH, 11:00-4:00 on Friday’s with the exception of winter when Friday hours are 11:00-2:20. We are also looking for an art teacher who can work one full day each week. Please email your resume to zsilver@ sigelacademy.org.

FOR SALE- Delray Beach condo.

Over 55 community. Furnished one bedroom. Fabulous meal plan in dining room. Daily social activities & amenities. Gorgeous community, great location. Rare opportunity. $48,500. Call 215740-1165.

Tricia’s Cleaning Service - Residential & Commercial Detailed cleaning for Home & Office - For Free Quote call 860477-8636.

BLACK FRIDAY GIFT GUIDE: NOVEMBER

Kosher NEW ENGLAND

MARCH

Polish certified nursing assistant.

Twenty years experience in hospitals, nursing homes and private home settings looking to help your loved ones. Please call 860-803-6007.

Certified Home Care Aide - Live-in - HHA Certficate Experience with dementia, stroke, alzheimer’s - Driver’s License - References - Lydia 718- Home Health Aide - Two Years 864-7600.

Experience - Reliable - Livein seven days. References Mikael Poreshi - Remodeling & available, negotiable rates. Call Painting - 860-978-2505 - miki.

Kwasi 774-253-5479. pori87@gmail.com.

Driver available for shopping & Home Health Aide - Companion errands in the greater Hartford available for live in/live out Mon. area. Reasonable rates, senior - Fri. Valid driver’s license. Over discount and references 15 years experience. Excellent available. Call Ira 860-849-0999.

References. Call 860-796-8468.

Caregiver looking for full time CNA - 8 Years Experience live-in job - HHA/Precursor CNA Reliable - Own Car - Live-in 24/7 - 12 Years experience - Friendly, - Negotiable Rates - Please call outgoing, dependable - Please Tina 860-461-8692. call Janet at 412-527-9285.

Compassionate Elder Companion - Driver & Cook Beth: alifeofplantsandart@gmail. com.

P.C.A. - HHA Caregiver - 17 Years Experience - Available Live In or Live Out - Five Days a Week - Car Available - Have References - Please Call K.B. 860-796-8468.

All Things

JEWISH

Nurse (LPN, Male). 2 Years Experience in long term care.

4 Years Home Care as CNA and Nurse. Seeks Private duty.

Reliable, honest, hardworking.

860-656-8280.

CONNECTICUT September

Caregiver for your elderly loved one available Thursday evenings to Sunday evenings. Kosher experience, stellar references.

Monica - 347-486-0911.

MASSACHUSETTS December For more information on advertising in these magazines, call Donna 860.833.0839 or DonnaE@jewishledger.com 26

JEWISH LEDGER

| SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

NURSE SEEKING POSITION: GETTING BETTER TOGETHER! Adult care only. Live-in, days or nights and weekends.

Responsible and dedicated caregiver with medical education. Leave message: 860-229-2038 No Text Please.

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

References available, and negotiable rates. Call Sandy 860-460-3051.

REAL ESTATE

For lease- Boca Raton, FL. Fully furnished 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo with kosher kitchen in beautiful Century Village. First floor, parking, pool & club house. Call Mike 561-654-4221.

WANTED TO BUY

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

Collector looking to purchase coins and currency, silver, copper, and gold. No collection is too small. Will travel. Call 860951-5191 paprfred@aol.com.

TUTOR

Accounting & Math Tutor Retired College Accounting Teacher Will Tutor at Your Home - Call For Appointment 860-402-1201.

FOR SALE

Motorized KD Smart Chair rarely used - excellent condition - Call or text 203-710-0615.

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

References. Call Jeff 860-7124115.

Have something to sell?

Have something to rent?

Have a service to promote?

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

Contact Leslie 860.231.2424 or leslie@jewishledger.com jewishledger.com

There’s only one place to be seen by everyone.

And it’s FREE!

WeHaCAL WeHaCAL

Introducing West Hartford’s all-inclusive online event calendar!

List your own event by going to WeHaCal.com and click on ADD MY EVENT. For more information or to advertise on this free service, contact Donna Edelstein at 860-833-0839 or Donna@20media20.com

jewishledger.com

JEWISH LEDGER

|

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

27

Thank You! During these strange and difficult times, The Crown Market wishes to thank you all for your continued support. Our amazing staff remains committed to providing the best customer service, prepared foods, kosher meats, artisan baked goods, sushi, pizza, fresh produce and grocery items that we are able to offer.

May the new year bring you continued happiness and good health and may you all be inscribed in the Book of Life!

The Crown Market 2471 Albany Ave West Hartford, CT 06117

860.236.1965

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

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

28

JEWISH LEDGER

| SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

jewishledger.com