CT Jewish Ledger • November 27, 2020 • 11 Kislev 5781

Friday, November 27, 2020 11 Kislev 5781 Vol. 92 | No. 48 | ©2020 $1.00 | jewishledger.com

The Jewish connection to the COVID vaccines 1

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INSIDE

this week

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | NOVEMBER 27, 2020 | 11 KISLEV 5781

12 Briefs

14 Chanukah Prep

16 Around CT

16 Torah Portion

17 Crossword

19

Hate by the numbers.................... 5 There’s bad news and there’s bad news.

The number of antisemitic hate crimes in the U.S. increased significantly in 2019, according to a new survey by the FBI. And the ADL says that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Food, Glorious Food....................... 5 Pandemic or no pandemic, two new kosher restaurants that appeal to a variety of tastes are set to open in New Haven – one serving sushi; the other a twist on traditional Middle Eastern fare, with spices from India through northern Africa.

The Jewish Vote............................. 10 Two polls tell vastly different stories about how many Jews voted for which candidate in the recent presidential election. But is either group correct about the change they say happened over the past four years?

Bulletin Board

19 What’s Happening

20 Obituaries

21 Business and Professional Directory

22 Classified

ON THE COVER:

Unless you’re living on a desert island without access to any kind of communications technology (eek!), you’re no doubt aware that in the past two or three weeks, two U.S.-based pharmaceutical companies have announced success in large-scale testing of COVID-19 vaccines.

But did you know that among those in the forefront of these life-saving breakthroughs are scientists and medical researchers with strong Jewish backgrounds? PAGE 8 jewishledger.com

The Ledger Scoreboard...................................................11 Deni Avdija, the 19-year-old Israeli basketball phenom, made history last week when he was taken by the Washington Wizards with the ninth overall pick of the NBA Draft.

Living Arrangements.......................................................18 A decade-long attempt to build North American Jewish co-housing communities – a type of intentional community that aims to foster deeper relationships among households and champion the spirit of interconnectivity – is alive, but not so well.

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UP FRONT

CONNECTICUT JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | NOVEMBER 27, 2020 | 11 KISLEV 5781

Two new kosher restaurants set to open in New Haven

Anitsemitic hate crimes rose by 14% in 2019, according to the FBI

BY PAUL BASS AND THOMAS BREEN

A

n Argentinian entrepreneur is about to start selling kosher sushi up the block from a new Peruvian restaurant, a new Mexican eatery, and a new Turkish coffee shop.

Did somebody say something about a pandemic recession?

If so, that somebody forgot to tell Choni and Esther Grunblatt and the other restaurateurs bringing cuisines from around the world to Westville Village and bravely launching businesses in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Grunblatts received needed zoning relief recently to obtain a liquor license for Fin and Scale, a kosher sushi restaurant they plan to open in the coming weeks in the former Polished Hair & Beauty Bar storefront at 920 Whalley Ave. The Grunblatts’ is one of two kosher restaurants in the works for the west side of town. The other, Ladle and Loaf, will occupy the former Domino’s Pizza storefront at 357 Whalley Ave. near Edge of the Woods Plaza; it will feature glatt kosher Middle Easternstyle meals spiced with flavors found from

Morocco to India.

The two budding restaurants address a pent-up demand for kosher dining among the growing number of observant Jewish families in town. Fin and Scale is also aimed at the broader market interested in Westville’s rapidly growing international dining scene.

“I love the diversity of cuisines in just two blocks,” said Choni Greenblatt, who moved to New Haven from his native Argentina seven years ago with New Jersey-born Esther. They’re both 36 years old; they’re raising four children. Choni also runs a contracting firm called Upside Construction; he has a sideline as a singer.

“New Haven is multicultural. That’s what’s beautiful about it. We want to tell a story also, our story as Jews in eating fish,” he said.

“We have a passion for food, for fine dining, for the details. We love to bring people together; we love to host and make people warm and comfortable,” Esther said.

She’s hoping eventually to host guest chefs, speakers, and workshops in the space.

The restaurant’s title “says it all, what

EPHRAT AND BENNY LIEBLICH’S LADLE AND LOAF RESTAURANT WILL OPEN SOON NEAR EDGE OF THE WOODS.

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a kosher fish is,” Esther noted: Kosher dietary laws prohibit eating shellfish. They do permit eating fish with scales and fins.

So don’t expect to find crab or lobster or shrimp in the sushi. Do expect salmon, yellowtail, tuna, imitation crab, as well as vegetable fillings and other fish dishes.

Kosher restaurants offer two guarantees to observant Jewish diners: That all ingredients are kosher-certified; and that a rabbinical authority has inspected the place to make sure no utensils or other aspects of the cooking process have come into contact with non-kosher ingredients. Kosher restaurants have long served a double clientele, Jewish as well as gentile.

At first the emphasis at Fin and Scale will be on takeout and delivery. But the restaurant, which the Grunblatts have been remodeling, will have room for up to 24 diners and, thanks to a vote Tuesday, Nov. 10 by the Board of Zoning Appeals, permission to add alcoholic beverages to the menu.

The prospect of launching a business doesn’t intimidate them, Choni said. “Every new business is a challenge,” he reasoned.

“Those challenges are overcome by strong convictions, passions, and being able to get to the finish line.” With, in this case, rolls from the sea.

During Tuesday night’s BZA hearing, local attorney Ben Trachten and Westville Village Renaissance Association (WVRA) Executive Director Lizzy Donius both spoke up in enthusiastic support of the new kosher sushi eatery.

“It’s great to have a new sushi restaurant with alcohol in the mix,” Trachten said.

“Once we have a critical mass of these kinds of uses, I think Westville will really flourish.”

“We are also excited about this addition to our restaurant scene, which is starting to really connect in Westville,” said Donius.

“All of these restaurants create a critical mass and help support the vitality of the village.”

The only neighbor to speak up with

BY BEN SALES

(JTA) – The number of antisemitic hate crimes in the United States increased significantly in 2019, according to the FBI, in a year that saw three lethal attacks against Jews.

Antisemitic incidents again comprised the majority of hate crimes based on religion. In addition, the number of hate crime murders overall more than doubled nationwide last year.

But the Anti-Defamation League cautioned that the FBI’s numbers probably represent just a fraction of total hate crimes committed in the country.

The FBI recorded 953 hate crimes against Jews in 2019, a 14% increase from the 835 recorded in 2018 and similar to the 938 in 2017. In 2019, hate crimes against Jews comprised 62% of all hate crimes based on religion, up from 58% in both of the previous two years.

Last year saw a series of lethal antisemitic attacks that sparked fear and anxiety among American Jews.

A synagogue shooting in Poway, California, killed one person exactly six months after the October 2018 synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in which 11 Jews were murdered.

In December, a shooting in Jersey City, New Jersey, that ended at a kosher supermarket killed two Jews and two others. Later that month, a stabbing at a Hanukkah party in Monsey, New York, killed one. The New York-area attacks came amid a spate of anti-semitic harassment and assaults in Orthodox neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

“The surge of hate in the last few years is unmistakable,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the ADL, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Monday. “We’ve been talking about our anxiety about the normalization of CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

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Restaurants

Hate crimes

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concerns was Geoffrey Johnson. He said he owns a six-unit apartment located directly behind the planned new eatery.

He asked if the two new restaurateurs plan to add backyard outdoor seating, and if they plan to host loud concerts that might disrupt the neighborhood.

“We have no outdoor seating in our plans,” Choni said. “It’s not part of our lease.” He said the space behind the restaurant is too small to accommodate even two chairs and a table. “It’s just not feasible.”

As for their live entertainment plans, Choni said the restaurant will host oneman bands for special occasions, but has no plans for a specific concert schedule.

“We are not looking to disturb,” he said.

“We’re looking to add.

So are Benny and Ephrat Lieblich.

The couple, who live around the corner in the Beaver Hills neighborhood, has been working on Ladle and Loaf, which will feature take-out and eat-in menus.

They originally planned to open earlier this year; the onset of the pandemic delayed those plans. Now they’re waiting on final inspections so they can open in

the coming weeks – Chanukah at the very latest.

Benny, who attended culinary school, said he’s ready for the holiday with a Tunisian dish: a fricasse, a stuffed fried-dough concoction like Chanukah sufganiyot, but savory rather than sweet.

He describes the planned dishes as a twist on traditional Middle Eastern fare, featuring spices from India through northern Africa (carried back by soldiers participating in Alexander the Great’s conquests) ranging from cumin, coriander, turmeric, cloves, all-spice.

Since the May 2019 closing of Westville Market, New Haven has not had a glatt kosher meat restaurant. (Claire’s Corner Copia and Edge of the Woods offer kosher vegetarian dining.) Meanwhile, hundreds of kosher-observant neighbors have moved into the area in recent year – and soon will have both glatt kosher and pareve sushi eateries as options.

This article has been reprinted with permission of The New Haven Independent (newhavenindependent.com).

FIN AND SCALE CO-OWNERS CHONI AND ESTHER GRUNBLATT WITH OPERATIONS MANAGER ZEE KESSLER OUTSIDE THEIR SOON-TO-OPEN WESTVILLE VILLAGE RESTAURANT.

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THOUSANDS OF NEW YORKERS CONVENE AT THE “NO HATE. NO FEAR” SOLIDARITY MARCH AGAINST ANTISEMITISM IN JANUARY 2020. THE MARCH FOLLOWED A YEAR IN WHICH ATTACKS AGAINST JEWS SPIKED. (CREDIT: ERIK MCGREGOR/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES)

antisemitism, and sure enough in 2019 we saw a 14% increase in anti-Jewish hate crimes.”

Greenblatt said the antisemitic attacks of last year show that Jew-hatred transcends political allegiances. While he hopes “we’ll be able to hit a bit of a reset button” as Joe Biden prepares to enter the White House, he cautioned against attributing the rise in antisemitism solely to President Donald Trump.

“No one person is responsible for antisemitism,” he said. “There are those who want to pin this all on President Trump. I think that’s wrong. No one was wearing MAGA hats in Brooklyn last December when we saw a wave of assaults.”

The string of attacks last year came amid what the ADL has described as a years-long rise in antisemitic activity. Just days after 2020 began, 25,000 people marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to protest antisemitism in New York City and elsewhere.

Earlier this year, the ADL found, similarly to the FBI, that antisemitic incidents rose by 12% in 2019 to their highest number in 40 years (though its criteria differ from the FBI and the Jewish anti-bigotry agency has recorded a higher number of antisemitic incidents over the years).

The FBI recorded 7,314 total hate crimes last year, a slight increase over 2018 and 2017, but a sharp uptick from the 5,850 in 2015. As in previous years, the majority were based on race. AfricanAmericans experienced the most hate crimes, 1,930. Hate crimes based on religion made up approximately 20% of total hate crimes.

Last year also saw a huge increase

in hate crime murders, to 51 from 24 in 2018. That includes the mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, that killed 23 and wounded the same number. The shooter wrote in a manifesto that he was acting against a Hispanic “invasion.” AntiHispanic hate crimes, according to the FBI, rose 9% in 2019, the fourth straight year they’ve risen.

The ADL said the FBI numbers are almost certainly a significant undercount of the true number of hate crimes in the United States because many municipalities do not submit hate crime data to the FBI. According to the ADL, 86% of participating agencies reported no hate crimes to the FBI, including 71 cities with populations greater than 100,000 – though the largest cities tend to report their hate crime data. The ADL also said that the number of agencies reporting hate crimes to the FBI has declined each year.

“We have an incomplete picture,” Greenblatt said. “That being said, I think the trends over two decades are telling. Hate remains a reality for people from marginalized communities in this country, particularly Jews, who represent somewhere between 1.5 and 2% of the population and [experience] a disproportionate number of the hate crimes.”

Greenblatt said the ADL hopes the incoming Biden administration will support increased anti-bias education in schools and work on a plan to confront white nationalism.

“Extremists feel emboldened, and anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and antiJewish ideas generally are taking root,” he said. “Jews feel less safe. Jews are extremely worried about this.” jewishledger.com

This has Been Quite A Year!

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TOGETHER! The Crown Market Is Ever Grateful For Your Support And Love Throughout This Turbulent Year. We Thank You From The Bottom Of Our Hearts And Wish Everyone Continued Good Health And Good Spirits. We Hope And Trust You Had A Wonderful Thanksgiving.

Thank You! The Crown Market 2471 Albany Ave West Hartford, CT 06117

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The Jewish connection to the C

Meet Mikael Dolsten, the Jewish immigrant leading Pfiz

BY GABE FRIEDMAN

(JTA) – When Mikael Dolsten, the head scientist at Pfizer, heard the news two weeks ago that the COVID-19 vaccine that he has been helping to develop for the better part of a year was over 90% effective, he and his colleagues literally leapt with joy at a corporate office in Connecticut.

“This may turn out to be one of the biggest medical advances of the past 100 years,” Dolsten said by Zoom from his home office, the emotion clear in his voice and on his face.

MIKAEL DOLSTEN

(PFIZER/GETTY IMAGES)

He was pointing to not only the historic need to medically combat a virus that’s again ravaging the world – particularly the United States, which is setting case records by the week – but also the fact that the Pfizer product is part of a groundbreaking new type of vaccines made quickly from synthetic versions of the virus’ genetic material.

But when Dolsten took time to reflect on the development, he also saw it as a proud moment for Jewish immigrants like himself who have contributed to American scientific innovation.

“A lot of the great breakthroughs in America have come from people that immigrated,” he said, pointing out the example of Albert Einstein and others.

“There has been a strong Jewish tradition around contributing to humanity and a strong tradition within medicine.”

Dolsten, who moved to the New York area from Sweden in 2004, is far from the only Jewish immigrant in his field.

In fact, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla is a Jew from Thessaloniki, Greece. The chief medical officer for Moderna, a competing drugmaker that announced Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine was nearly 95% effective, is an Israeli immigrant named Tal Zaks.

8

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The German biotech company that Pfizer teamed up with to create the vaccine, BioNTech, was founded and is still led by Turkish immigrants Ugur Şahin and Ozlem Tureci. Sahin told The New York Times that he and Bourla bonded over “their shared backgrounds as scientists and immigrants.”

The new Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, like the Moderna one announced Monday, Nov. 16, is made from mRNA, a relatively new technology that Dolsten says will allow companies to combat pandemics in the future with greater speed and effectiveness.

The vaccine success rates so far have impressed Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, who has said he was hoping for a 75% success rate.

The scientist responsible for the pioneering breakthroughs that allowed for the development of an mRNA vaccine is University of Pennsylvania professor Drew Weissman, who is Jewish and once worked under Fauci at the National Institutes of Health.

Dolsten is wary of taking that kind of multiculturalism for granted. He says he grew up in a very different era, post-World War II, when opportunity and security was guaranteed to all in Sweden and the U.S. was a beacon to immigrants looking to make world-changing innovations. Both countries now face political and social tensions that threaten those traditions.

“I do hope we can heal as a nation and again be a shining sun, and bring people together rather than move back from the world,” he said. “I do hear a lot from Europeans who miss seeing the U.S. as the image of the future, and now see the U.S. as isolated.”

Dolsten took a winding path to end up as a leader in pharmaceutical development.

Born in 1958, he grew up in the small Halmstad Municipality on Sweden’s western coast, the son of a Jewish father with prewar roots in the country and a Jewish mother who escaped to Sweden from Austria in the early days of World War II – a “mix,” he said, of second-generation Swedish heritage and direct trauma from the Holocaust.

His home wasn’t very religiously observant, but he visited Israel several times growing up, something that helped inspire him to spend nearly a year of his doctoral studies at the renowned Weizmann Institute just south of Tel Aviv. He trained as a physician and began his career on the medical faculty at the University of Lund,

| NOVEMBER 27, 2020

but his experience in Israel learning about cutting-edge immunology helped inspire his turn to pharmaceutical science.

He went on to work for Sweden’s two largest drug companies at the time – Pharmacia, where he was asked to build a new institute to develop medicines, and then Astra AB (which would later become part of the British company AstraZeneca, which is in the process of developing its own COVID-19 vaccine). He developed a top reputation in the industry and was approached by Boehringer Ingelheim, the world’s largest private pharmaceutical company, to run global research. He worked at their Frankfurt headquarters for a short period, then agreed to work for them in the U.S. His wife, also a Jewish physician, was enthusiastic about the idea.

“She was keen to experience a bit of the American melting pot, particularly the New

York area,” he said.

Dolsten eventually led research and development at Wyeth, an American company known for manufacturing ubiquitous drugs such as Advil. Wyeth was bought by Pfizer in 2009 and Dolsten stayed on, working on research and development Pfizer’s biological divisions, then for the entire company. Today, he occasionally gets time to “roll up the sleeves” on research projects, but more often oversees other scientists and takes the “wide angle perspective” to help form the company’s goals.

“I take part and discuss what the big problems we are addressing in cancer, in genetic disease, inflammation, vaccines, and in diseases like diabetes and obesity, and make sure we crisply focus on a few things that translate into medical breakthroughs,”

Moderna’s Israeli medical ex

BY ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN

(Israel21c via JNS) As Israel marked its 2,737th death from COVID-19 last week, and with confirmed 817 new infections, hopes are pinned on vaccines being developed domestically and abroad.

Israel has pre-ordered doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines currently in clinical trials in the United States, pending their approval by both countries’ health regulators.

There’s a homegrown connection to Moderna. Its chief medical officer, Dr. Tal Zaks, was raised in Israel and received his MD and PhD from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Zaks, now 54, conducted post-doctoral research at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and did a medical oncology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, where he now is an associate professor of medicine.

He began his career in the genetics research group at pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline, where he built the oncology translational medicine team and led translational research on oral cancer drug lapatinib. He also sits on the board of Adaptimmune Therapeutics.

Prior to joining Moderna in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Zaks was senior vice president responsible for oncology drug discovery,

development and commercialization at Sanofi.

“During my time at Sanofi, I kept examining new technologies that could have a real impact in the world of medicine,” Zaks told Israeli financial daily Globes. “When I encountered Moderna’s platform, which used RNA in order to create medicine and various vaccines, it was an offer that I couldn’t resist.”

As CMO of Moderna, Zaks oversees all clinical development and regulatory affairs.

Moderna’s vaccine, created in cooperation with the NIH, is being studied in 30,000 volunteers.

On Nov. 16, Zaks told the Jerusalem Post he felt “awesome” to receive news that interim data showed its COVID-19 vaccine was 94.5 percent effective in preventing the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Five participants in the group of 15,000 that received two doses of the vaccine candidate became mildly ill with COVID-19, while 90 people in the placebo (control) group of 15,000 got sick. It is not yet known how long the protective effects last.

In interviews on Israeli television, Zaks said final trial results are expected within several weeks. Additional safety data is needed before either Moderna or Pfizer can seek approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. jewishledger.com

COVID vaccines

zer’s vaccine charge he said.

Growing up in Sweden, Dolsten said he benefited from the country’s large social safety net, which included universal health care and free education and an overarching sense of solidarity, or “caring about your neighbors.” But he said he was always conscious of Sweden’s sense of cultural homogeneity. His accent was perfect because he was born there, but he recalled that others who didn’t speak Swedish perfectly were looked at differently.

Though he never personally felt any explicit antisemitism, that has become an issue in Sweden in recent years, along with several other European countries, amid an influx of largely Middle Eastern refugees and a surge of far-right nationalism. He said he sees how his three children – one of them former JTA reporter Josefin Dolsten

– could have had a very different experience from him growing up in Sweden.

So Dolsten looked forward to his move to the U.S., which he also saw as the world’s scientific and entrepreneurial “frontier.”

“I do think there is something historically unique in New York and some other places where the melting pot has led to this tremendous success,” he said. “Like the success of biotech and pharma … so many of the big discoveries have come from here, from this diversity of people coming here all feeling a chance to contribute.”

He and his family live in New York’s Westchester County, where his Swedish accent gets noticed – but not in the way he ever expected.

“In the U.S., people tell me, ‘Wow, you have such a nice accent,’” he said. “And they make [jokes] – ‘Are you from Brooklyn?’”

xec ‘awed’ by vaccine results Zaks said a peer review of the data is planned.

After being approached by Zaks with the opportunity to become one of the first countries to receive the vaccine – if it is approved – the Israeli government agreed in June to purchase at least one to two million doses.

“Israel was one of the first countries that believed in us,” Zaks told Globes. “The advance that Israel paid helped to build the company’s production lines.”

Moderna’s main facility in the United States is earmarked for domestic distribution. Zaks told Channel 12 that the doses for Israel would come from a Moderna production facility in Switzerland.

“I hope this happens at the beginning of 2021. I cannot give an exact number, but I can guarantee that we are making every effort to supply the vaccines to Israel, as we promised,” he said.

Zaks told reporters that he hopes his 80-year-old mother in Ra’anana can soon get vaccinated “so life can return to normal,” and urged his fellow Israelis to be careful during the winter months until the vaccines are approved and available.

In Israel, six COVID-19 vaccines are in development. One of them, BriLife from the jewishledger.com

Israel Institute for Biological Research, is undergoing clinical trials at two hospitals.

Both Moderna’s and Pfizer’s experimental vaccines use a new approach, messenger (mRNA) technology, which carries “instructions” to cells to make proteins that may treat or prevent disease.

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

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

L IKE U S ON DR. TAL ZAKS, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER OF MODERNA. (COURTESY OF BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY)

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Analysis How did Jewish Americans vote? Polls offer imperfect takes, but the big picture is clear.

EDITORIAL Stacey Dresner Massachusetts Editor staceyd@jewishledger.com • x3008 Tim Knecht Proofreader

BY RON KAMPEAS AND GABE FRIEDMAN

(JTA) – It’s a Jewish ritual: Every four years after a presidential election, the question arises about how American Jews voted.

“Check the Jewish exit polls” is the rallying cry.

Those days may be over.

Blame apples and oranges and other assorted fruit: There is no longer a single exit poll to compare and contrast. That’s left the field open to partisan Jewish groups to post polls claiming movement in the direction they favor.

For instance, a poll commissioned by the Republican Jewish Coalition found that 30.5% of Jewish voters voted for GOP incumbent Donald Trump nationally compared to 60.6% for Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

“It’s not just the embassy that moved.

Jewish voters are moving, too,” Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush’s former press secretary, said on an RJC conference call Nov. 4, the day after the election.

Meanwhile, a poll commissioned by the liberal group J Street found that 77% of Jewish Americans voted for Biden and only 21% for Trump.

“Trump pushed the Jewish vote further to the Democrats,” the group’s pollster wrote in a memo summarizing the results.

The two polls align on the big picture that the vast majority of Jewish voters supported the Democrat, as has long been the case in national elections. But is either group correct about the change they say happened over the past four years?

We may never know, in part because the major media consortium that traditionally co-operates in exit polls – the National Election Pool, which includes The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN, among other outlets – did not post Jewish results this year.

In 2016, the National Election Pool found that 71% of Jewish voters chose Hillary Clinton and 24% opted for Trump.

But there were no Jewish results posted this year, The Washington Post said, because there were “not enough respondents to break down details.”

The Associated Press, which once belonged to the consortium, left in 2018 and set up Votecast, which this year did include a Jewish breakdown. It found that 30% of Jewish Americans were voting for Trump 10

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and 68% for Biden. That analysis included about 3,300 Jewish voters (3% of the total 110,000 people surveyed).

Votecast includes major shifts in methodology from the National Election Pool exit polling system, including online panels and, in some cases, compensation for participating – departures substantive enough to make it impossible to compare with past National Election Pool polling.

Into the breach stepped the exit polls commissioned by the partisan RJC and J Street, which each revealed results that were favorable to the party that the commissioning groups side with.

Jim Gerstein, the GBAO Strategies founder who ran the J Street poll, said Friday that the AP analysis was not a reliable reader of Jewish attitudes because it did not seek to weight the Jewish subset.

“I would like to emphasize that the AP Poll is a very sound and helpful poll. They certainly know what they are doing, particularly when looking at the full electorate,” Gerstein told the Jewish Democratic Council of America during a conference call that allowed reporters. “But unlike our poll, that poll is not a Jewish poll. They cannot have the full body of demographic questions that are necessary to acquire a representative Jewish sample.”

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency was unable to view the breakdown of Jewish voters in the Votecast poll without paying a

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The RJC and J Street polls did release detailed information about the voters they surveyed, but both had a relatively small number of respondents. And other aspects of their survey design meant that they cannot be cleanly compared.

Both the RJC and J Street polls were completed during the same time period, had similar margins of error (3.5-4%) and included hundreds of Jewish voters – 600 for the RJC and 800 for J Street. But the RJC survey included more Orthodox Jews, who tend to vote Republican, and fewer Reform and unaffiliated Jews, who tend to be solidly Democratic, than the J Street poll.

That could explain why the RJC poll yielded a result that suggests more Trump voters.

The RJC’s executive director, Matt Brooks, emphasized during the postelection conference call that his group’s results mirrored those in other polls, such as one taken in September and the AP analysis released last week.

“Polling, like any other science, depends on replicating results to provide proof,” the group’s communications director, Neil Boylan Strauss, told JTA. “In this case, our results have been replicated.”

Gerstein said on the call Friday that the J Street model was based on religious affiliation surveys by the Pew Research Center, the leading company analyzing religious affiliation. The Pew analysis is from 2013, however, and the proportion of Orthodox Jews since then is likely to have increased.

“Our poll is specifically designed to get a representative sample of Jewish voters, and we follow the language and demographic information that’s used by the Pew Research Center, which has set the gold standard for researching American Jews,” he said.

Both surveys asked a range of questions, but again in ways that made them difficult to compare. For instance, asked to rank issues, both J Street and the RJC included handling of the pandemic as an option. It ranked first among J Street respondents, but RJC included a category that J Street did not, “character of the candidates,” that ranked higher among respondents.

In both surveys, foreign policy and Israel were among the lowest-ranked issues.

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THE LEDGER SCOREBOARD Israeli teen Deni Avdija goes to Washington Wizards with 9th pick of NBA Draft

BY MARC BRODSKY

(JTA) – Deni Avdija, the 19-year-old Israeli basketball phenom, was taken by the Washington Wizards with the ninth overall pick of the NBA Draft on Wednesday night, Nov. 18 – the earliest an Israeli has been picked in league history.

Avdija, a lanky 6-9 forward for Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel’s top professional league, becomes the second player from the Jewish state to go in the first round. Omri Casspi, also a standout forward for Maccabi Tel Aviv, went 23rd to the Sacramento Kings in the 2009 draft and played 10 years in the NBA for several teams.

“Israel is a small country, to represent the country and be in the highest spot is amazing,” Avdija told ESPN. “I’m super excited to take my game to the next level.”

Asked what message the so-called “Prince of Tel Aviv” would send to family, friends and fans at home in Israel, he said, “I love them and I’m gonna make you proud.”

One ESPN broadcaster called Avdija, considered the top international prospect, maybe the “steal of the draft” while lauding his basketball IQ. The draft was held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking to the media by Zoom after being chosen, Avdija said he couldn’t imagine being a lottery choice out of a small country like Israel. Making history, he said, is “a blessing.”

“I had the whole nation behind me,” he said. “I’m still thinking it’s a dream.”

He and Casspi spoke about playing in the NBA. “We talked a lot about the rookie year specifically, about the skills I would need, all the travel and the schedule,” said Avdija, who turns 20 on Jan. 3.

ESPN has described Avdija as a future “big playmaker” – tall enough to play power forward, but also with the “ballhandling, creativity and playmaking skill” of a point jewishledger.com

DENI AVDIJA, SHOWN AS A MEMBER OF THE MACCABI TEL AVIV TEAM IN 2019.

(CREDIT: SEFFI MAGRISO/EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL VIA GETTY IMAGES)

guard. Its scouting report adds that he brings “toughness, competitiveness and swagger.”

Avdija, a native of northern Israel who lives in the coastal town of Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, holds dual Israewli and Serbian citizenship. His father, Zufer, a Muslim Serbian-Israeli citizen, played for his native Yugoslavia’s national basketball team as well as several Israeli pro teams in the 1990s. His mother, Sharon Artzi, is a Jewish Israeli and former track and field athlete.

Asked about his father’s role on his basketball journey, Avdija told the media, “It was great to have another competitive spirit in the house. He told me how to act on the court, some small tricks he used in his game that I could use, to work hard, how to be a professional, always to be competitive and to play to win.”

Though he’s just getting started in his NBA career, Avdija was asked about paving the way for future generations of Israelis.

He also called that a blessing.

“I’m glad that they will have somebody to look at and learn,” the teen pro said, “to show that even though we’re a small country we can do big things.”

During the ESPN broadcast, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl, who guided the U.S. team to the Maccabiah Games gold medal in 2009, made an appearance to praise his player Isaac Okoro, who went fifth to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“Character counts,” Pearl said of Okoro.

“He’s a winner.”

Pearl took some ribbing from ESPN’s Rece Davis over his gray beard.

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NOVEMBER 27, 2020

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Briefs (JTA) – The Trump White House is throwing an in-person Chanukah party, one of a series of recent events the administration has held despite coronavirus concerns. The reception will be held Dec. 9 in the afternoon, a day before the holiday’s first candle lighting, according to an invitation obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jewish staff held semi-formal Chanukah parties during the Clinton administration, but George W. Bush was the first president to make them a formal event. President Barack Obama continued the tradition, increasing the parties to two per year to meet demand. Trump also has held two Chanukah parties each year of his presidency.

Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) in Natanz,” according to Reuters. The report comes nearly a week after the IAEA’s revelation that Iran had completed the transfer of the above cascade from an above-ground plant to the underground facility at Natanz.

The move is the latest Iranian breach of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers from which President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018. The JCPOA stipulates that only first-generation IR-1 centrifuges can be operated at Natanz’s underground facility.

In early September, Iran’s nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, announced plans to build a new production hall for advanced centrifuges near the Natanz site. The facility is slated to replace one that was damaged in a fire on Aug. 2 that Iran has attributed to sabotage.

“Due to the sabotage, it was decided to build a more modern, larger and more comprehensive hall in all dimensions in the heart of the mountain near Natanz. Of course, the work has begun,” Salehi told state TV. In October, IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi confirmed that Iran had started construction on the plant.

Palestinian Authority resumes ties with Israel

Biden speaks with Netanyahu and Rivlin

Trump’s White House is throwing in-person Chanukah party

(JTA) – The Palestinian Authority has resumed security and financial ties with Israel.

Israel will now resume funneling taxes to the Palestinian Authority and security cooperation. According to reports, the preeminent reason that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas resumed the ties was because Palestinian areas were suffering a cash crunch. Hussein Al Sheikh, a senior official of Abbas’ ruling Fatah Party, announced the change Monday in a Twitter post of his appearance on a Palestinian news program. In the appearance, Al Sheikh cited the election of Joe Biden as president, saying that Biden’s announced changes to U.S. policy on the Palestinians facilitated the change. Biden has said he will resume diplomatic ties with the Palestinians ended by President Donald Trump and resume U.S. assistance.

Biden also is aopposed to Israel’s annexation of any part of the West Bank and emphasizes a two-state solution.

IAEA: Iran firing up advanced centrifuges (JNS) Iran has begun enriching uranium with the advanced centrifuges it installed at its underground Natanz nuclear facility in Isfahan, according to a new International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report. The report, dated Tuesday, Nov. 17 states: “On 14 November 2020, the Agency verified that Iran began feeding UF6 [uranium hexafluoride] into the recently installed cascade of 174 IR-2m centrifuges at the 12

JEWISH LEDGER

(JTA) – President-elect Joe Biden assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call Tuesday, Nov. 17 that the ties between their countries would remain strong.

“The president-elect noted that he expects to work closely with the prime minister to address the many challenges confronting our countries,” Biden’s transition team said in a statement following the call. “The president-elect expressed his determination to ensure that the U.S.-Israel relationship is strengthened and enjoys strong bipartisan support.”

Netanyahu’s office put out a similarly worded statement on Twitter. “Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke this evening with US President-elect @JoeBiden,” the tweet said. “In a warm conversation, the President-elect reiterated his deep commitment to the State of Israel and its security.”

Netanyahu had previously congratulated Biden, but the tweet Tuesday was the first time he referred to Biden as “presidentelect” – a title for the former vice president that Trump adamantly rejects. The statements also were significant because Biden appeared to be going out of his way following the election to reassure Netanyahu that the relationship would remain close. Some Democrats, including a number of Biden’s rivals during the primaries, have called for distancing from Netanyahu’s government as it drifts to the right, at one point considering annexation of parts of the West Bank. Netanyahu particularly would want reassurance that

| NOVEMBER 27, 2020

Biden would continue Trump’s policy of confronting Iran – one of the “challenges” Biden alluded to in his statement.

In both statements describing the calls with Netanyahu and Rivlin, Biden also emphasized his support for “Israel’s security and its future as a Jewish and democratic state,” a reference to Biden’s oft-stated support for a two-state outcome and his opposition to any further Israeli encroachment on areas claimed by Palestinians.

Britain’s Labour leader clarifies Jeremy Corbyn reinstatement (JTA) – Labour has decided to reinstate Jeremy Corbyn, the British party’s former leader, as a member after his suspension for allegedly downplaying the party’s antisemitism problem. Five members on the National Executive Committee of Labour decided to reinstate Corbyn after meeting for several hours on Tuesday. Early reports about the decision did not offer the committee’s reasoning for the move.

The decision came shortly after Corbyn issued a statement apologizing for his reaction to last month’s finding by Britain’s racism watchdog that antisemitism was present within Labour’s ranks under Corbyn’s leadership. His successor, Keir Starmer, suspended Corbyn from the party after he said, “One antisemite is one too many, but the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media.” In a statement on Facebook Tuesday, Corbyn walked back those comments. “To be clear, concerns about antisemitism are neither ‘exaggerated’ nor ‘overstated,’” he wrote.

“I regret the pain this issue has caused the Jewish community.”

British Jewish groups protested his reinstatement. “The shambolic suspension and readmission of Jeremy Corbyn appears to have been nothing more than a media stunt to blunt the blow of the EHRC’s report last month, which forensically analyzed the hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument we submitted as complainant,” Gideon Falter, chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism group, said in a statement.

In response, a day after reinstating Corbyn into the party, Labour leader Keir Starmer clarified that he was not giving back Corbyn his “whip” title or allowing him to run for Parliament under the Labour banner. Corbyn will continue to serve as an independent lawmaker in the House of Commons, the Press Association reported.

Starmer’s announcement is the latest development in an internal Labour power struggle between his more centrist supporters and Corbyn’s far-left advocates, many of whom remain in the party.

Bahrain and Israel agree to open mutual embassies (JNS) The foreign ministers of Israel and Bahrain announced that the two countries, which signed normalization agreements in September as part of the Abraham Accords, will open embassies in their respective countries by the end of the year. On Tuesday, Nov. 17, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani met with his counterpart, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem, where they made the announcement.

During the meeting, Al-Zayani submitted a memorandum stating the Bahraini government’s approval of the establishment of an Israeli embassy in Manama, as well as an official Memorandum of Request to establish a Bahraini embassy in Israel.

“I was pleased to convey to Minister Ashkenazi the Kingdom of Bahrain’s formal request to open an embassy in Israel, and to inform him that Israel’s reciprocal request for an embassy in Manama has been approved,” said Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani. “This is a process which I hope can now move forward relatively quickly.”

Al-Zayani also invited Ashkenazi to attend an IISS Manama Dialogue security summit in Bahrain in December. Ashkenazi said: “I thank the Foreign Minister for his invitation to visit Bahrain in early December and hope that we will be able to inaugurate the embassy already during this visit.”

Theo Epstein stepping down as Chicago Cubs president (JTA) – Theo Epstein, the wunderkind baseball executive who led the Chicago Cubs to its first World Series championship in more than a century in 2016, is stepping down as the club’s president of baseball operations after nine seasons, the team announced Tuesday, Nov. 17. His successor: another Jewish executive, Jed Hoyer.

Epstein rebuilt the Cubs into world champions after the National League squad had not won a title since 1908. “For the rest of my life, I will cherish having been part of the great Chicago Cubs organization during this historic period,” Epstein said in a news release. “All of the things that have made this experience so special – the fans, the players, the managers and coaches, ownership, my front office colleagues, the uniqueness of the Wrigley experience, the history – make it so tough to leave the Cubs. But I believe this is the right decision for me even if it’s a difficult one. And now is the right time rather than a year from now.”

Epstein, who will leave at the end of the week, will not be pursuing another job for the 2021 season, according to reports. T he suburban Boston native, who was raised in a secular Jewish family, had come to Chicago from his hometown Red Sox, where in 2002 he became the youngest general manager in Major League Baseball jewishledger.com

at 28. He built a World Series champion in 2004 – the Sox hadn’t won a world title in 86 years – and another in 2007.

Hoyer now serves the Cubs as general manager. He came to Chicago after being the San Diego Padres general manager from 2009 to 2011. The New Hampshire native was part of the leadership team that helped run the Red Sox when Epstein left for the Cubs.

Pentagon adviser: US support for Israel was due to ‘Israeli lobby’ money (JNS) A new senior Pentagon adviser repeatedly said that U.S. support for Israel was due to money from the “Israeli lobby” and accused prominent political figures, including U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, of getting “very, very rich” from their support for the Jewish state–echoing the antisemitic tropes of Israeli control of the U.S. government and Jewish money controlling politics and policy. Retired U.S. Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, who became a senior adviser to acting U.S. Defense Secretary Christopher Miller last week, made the remarks in two media appearances in 2012 and 2019.

When asked in a September 2019 interview if then-U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) sought war with Iran, Macgregor said, “Mr. Bolton has become very, very rich, and is in the position he’s in because of his unconditional support for the Israeli lobby. He is their man on the ground in the White House. …The same thing is largely true for Mr. Pompeo, he has aspirations to be president. He has his hands out for money from the Israeli lobby, the Saudis and others.”

In a 2012 interview with the Russianstate outlet RT, Macgregor alleged that the Israel lobby has “enormous influence” on Congress and accused the lobby of “pushing military action” against Iran. “I think the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its subordinate elements or affiliated elements that represent enormous quantities of money that over many years have cultivated an enormous influence in power in Congress.”

In a tweet on Friday, AIPAC called Macgregor’s remarks “ill-informed and illegitimate.”

“We are proud that we are engaged in the democratic process to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship. Our bipartisan efforts are reflective of American values and interests. We will not be deterred in any way by ill-informed and illegitimate attacks on this important work,” tweeted AIPAC. Earlier this year, Macgregor he was nominated as U.S. ambassador to Germany to succeed Richard Grenell, but his nomination stalled in the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee due to past controversial comments. jewishledger.com

Incoming Rep. Cawthorn says he’s tried to convert Jews to Christianity (JNS) Congressman-elect Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) has tried to convert Jews and Muslims to Christianity. In an interview with Jewish Insider on Saturday, Nov. 14 that was published on Monday, the incoming Republican member of Congress, who won in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, said that after reading the Koran, there “is a very easy switch to make to lead a Muslim to Christ.”

“They believe Jesus is a real person,” said the 25-year-old, referring to Muslims.

“They believe he was a prophet, though.

And so when you’re trying to lead an atheist to Christ, or, say, kind of a traditional Jewish person, you kind of have to make people really–you have to sell Jesus a lot, because, one, they don’t really believe that, you know–some very devout Jews just think he’s kind of a good guy. That’s great. But, you know, the Muslims, they already believe that he was somewhat divine, and so all you have to do is just be like, he wasn’t just a good man, he was a god, and now if you can submit to that then you believe in Christ.”

When asked if he has tried to convert Jews to Christianity, Cawthorn, replied, “I have, unsuccessfully. I have switched a lot of, uh, you know, I guess, culturally Jewish people. But being a practicing Jew, like, people who are religious about it, they are very difficult. I’ve had a hard time connecting with them in that way.” During a July 2019 sermon at a church in Highlands, N.C., Cawthorn said.

Celebrity chef Alton Brown apologizes for Holocaust joke (The Jewish Journal via JNS) Alton Brown, an American television personality and chef, apologized on Wednesday, Nov. 18 for tweeting a joke about the Holocaust.

After issuing a series of since-deleted tweets speaking out against President Trump on Tuesday, Brown tweeted, “Do you think the camp uniforms will be striped, like the ones at Auschwitz or will plaid be in vogue?” This tweet has also been deleted. One Twitter user said in a reply, “Depends on what you’re worth going in,” prompting Brown to respond, “I have no gold fillings.” The Nazis had removed gold teeth and fillings from Jews at the concentration camps. Brown’s “gold fillings” tweet has not been deleted.

Additionally, Brown wrote, “F*** you” in response to someone who told him to “take it easy.” Following a backlash, Brown issued an apology. “I apologize for the flippant reference I made to the Holocaust in my tweet last night,” he tweeted. “It was not a reference I made for humorous effect, but rather to reflect how deeply frightened I am for our country. It was a very poor use of judgement and in poor taste.”

Brown is the host of the Food Network’s “The Good Eats: The Return,” the sequel series to “The Good Eats.” The Food Network did not respond to the Jewish Journal’s request for comment.

This article was first published by the Jewish Journal.

U of Illinois pledges to fight antisemitism after gov’t launches investigation (JTA) – The statement by the University of Illinois pledging to fight antisemitism and co-signed by several Jewish organizations left out one crucial piece of information: The federal government had just opened an investigation of the school for antisemitic discrimination. The signatories to the statement, which included the group that sparked the investigation, all agreed not to mention the civil rights investigation when they announced their plan to work together.

The statement Monday, Nov. 16 from the university was issued three days after the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights opened an investigation into complaints of a “hostile environment of antisemitism” on campus. Among the signatories of the Monday statement was the organization that had filed the March complaint that sparked the investigation: the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a Jewish and pro-Israel legal rights group.

The Brandeis Center – whose founder led the Office of Civil Rights as it expanded its charge related to discrimination against Jews on campuses – said it would not be withdrawing its complaint.

Alyza Lewin, the group’s president, said she sees the investigation and the statement as two parallel tracks to fight antisemitism at the school. The statement committed the university to setting up an “Advisory Council on Jewish and Campus Life,” as well as to instituting educational programing on campus against antisemitism and reviewing its policies to make sure they adequately combat antisemitism.

“A statement is just a statement, and now the hard work starts because now we have to convert those words into actions,” Lewin said. “We’re very gratified that OCR has opened its investigation.”

The incidents cited in the complaint date back to 2015 and range from vandalism of the school’s Chabad center to incidences of swastika graffiti to a mandatory diversity training program that praised a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which the United States has designated as a terrorist group. Days after the complaint was made public, dozens of Jewish faculty members signed an open letter opposing it and supporting the school’s chancellor. Representatives of several signatories to the joint statement – including the university, the Brandeis Center, Hillel International and Chicago’s

Jewish federation, called the Jewish United Fund – told JTA that the opening of the investigation had no bearing on the timing of the statement.

“The statement is independent from any DOE process,” a university spokesperson said. Lewin said the statement had been in the works for weeks. “The timing of the opening of the investigation did not change one word in the joint statement or the timing of the release of the statement,” she said, adding that the statement omitted reference to the investigation “by mutual agreement” between the signatories.

The university spokesperson told JTA Tuesday that the university would respond to the complaint, and that it is “focused on working together on clear, concrete and actionable steps to support Jewish students, staff and faculty.”

Walter Mosley receives National Book Foundation award (JTA) – Black Jewish novelist Walter Mosley has received one of the National Book Foundation’s highest honors: the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Established in 1988, Mosley is the first Black man to win the medal, but not the first Jewish man – writers such as Saul Bellow, Philip Roth and Arthur Miller have won it in past years.

Mosley, 68, is perhaps best known for his Easy Rawlins mystery series, centering on a Black private detective in Los Angeles in the 1960s. The first of the series, Devil in a Blue Dress, was adapted into a 1995 movie starring Denzel Washington. Mosley has also written more than 60 books spanning genres, from Afrofuturist science fiction to plays. He won a Grammy Award in 2001 for Best Album Notes for comedian Richard Pryor’s compilation “…And It’s Deep Too!” Mosley began writing at age 34. One of his mentors, the Irish novelist Edna O’Brien, encouraged him to write his first novel, telling him: “You’re Black, Jewish, with a poor upbringing; there are riches therein.”

“In a way, to be a Jew is to be a part of a tribe,” Mosley said in 2010, reflecting on his Jewishness. “Being a part of a tribe, you can never really escape your identity. You can be anything inside, but in the end you’re always answerable to your blood.”

He was born to a Jewish mother and a Black non-Jewish father in Los Angeles.

He once told the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival: “I grew up with half-sour kosher pickles and collard greens, and I enjoyed both sides of my family. … I feel equally descended from both of my parents and their backgrounds.”

JEWISH LEDGER

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CHANUKAH IS COMING! 8 children’s books bring new characters into the Chanukah story

BY PENNY SCHWARTZ

(JTA) – Move over, Maccabees. This season’s crop of seven new Chanukah books for kids puts the spotlight on new heroes, from playful llamas to brave and kind knights on horseback. An eighth book, Honey on the Page, that shines light on Yiddish children’s stories in new translation, makes a perfect family gift. As the COVID-19 pandemic prevents families from celebrating Chanukah with large gatherings, round up the cousins on Zoom, light the menorah, nibble on latkes and share in the joy of a new book.

There Was a Young Rabbi: A Hanukkah Tale

Happy Llamukkah!

The Ninth Night of Hanukkah

Suzanne Wolf; illustrated by Jeffrey Ebbeler Kar-Ben; ages 4-8

In this playful, rhyming story, Chanukah meets “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.” On the first night of Chanukah, a rabbi reads from the Torah and lights the menorah. Each night, she adds something new – cooking applesauce, playing dreidel with her family and enjoying chocolate coins.

Laura Gehl; illustrated by Lydia Nichols Abrams Appleseed; ages 3-5 How does a family of llamas celebrate Chanukah? With Llamakah, of course!

Laura Gelb’s tender rhyming verse is perfect for cozying up with the endearing little llamas as they light the Chanukah menorah, play dreidel and build a snow-llama.

Kayla and Kugel’s Happy Hanukkah

Erica S. Perl; illustrated by Shahar Kober; Sterling Children’s Books; ages 3-8

The Littlest Candle: A Hanaukkah Story

Rabbis Kerry and Jesse Olitzky; illustrated

by Jen Kostman; Kalaniot Books; ages 4-8 On the eve of Chanukah, a box of colorful candles tucked away in a drawer comes to life. While the big candles bicker about who will be chosen to light the first candle on the menorah, the wise candle notices that it’s the littlest, Flicker, who is always helping others. When Flicker is chosen as the shamash, the small candle shines in the highest place on the menorah.

Ann D. Koffsky; Apples & Honey Press; ages 3 -8 As Kayla gets ready to celebrate Chanukah, she and her rambunctious dog Kugel are searching for the family’s Chanukah box.

In Koffsky’s clear verse, the spunky Kayla explains the origins and traditions of the holiday to Kugel.

Chanukah face masks make for a festive and safe holiday season

JEWISH LEDGER

Leslie Kimmelman; illustrated by Galia Bernstein; Holiday House; ages 3-8

Hark! In this playful tale, Lady Sadie challenges her eight young knights to save their kingdom’s Chanukah celebration from a dragon who’s wreaking havoc on the villagers. She sends them out trotting on horseback to make things right with kind deeds and bravery. A lively, off-beat story that tickles the funny bone. (Added bonus: the cast of characters are very diverse.)

The Hanukkah Magic of Nate Gadol Arthur A. Levine; illustrated by Kevin Hawkes; Candlewick Press; ages 5-8

In Levine’s warm-hearted tale, embellished with Hawkes’ glorious art, Jewish superhero Nate Gadol swoops in to brighten the lives of the Glaser family, poor but kind new immigrants. In the winter of 1881, the Glasers stretch what they have to help their neighbors, the O’Malleys. When Chanukah and Christmas coincide, Nate and Santa help each other out and surprise both families with gifts.

Honey on the Page: A Treasury of Yiddish Children’s Literature

This year, the Festival of Lights begins on the evening of December 10. And, given yet another wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the challenge is to celebrate AND stay safe.

One way to make the holiday festive without putting your health – and that of friends, family and community – at risk is by getting into the spirit with a Chanukah-themed face mask. Here is just sampling of the Chanukah masks, most of which come in adult and children sizes. Check out websites like Etsy and Redbubble for details. And have a chag Chanukah sameach – a happy Chanukah!

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The Eight Knights of Hanukkah

When Max and Rachel move into a new apartment on the first night of Chanukah, their Chanukah box is nowhere to be found.

The siblings craft their own menorah and knock on the door of a neighbor who comes to the rescue with birthday candles.

For eight nights, a multicultural array of neighbors helps the kids improvise. And Max and Rachel invite their new friends to a Chanukah celebration.

| NOVEMBER 27, 2020

Edited and translated by Miriam Udel

New York University Press (ages 10-adult) Miriam Udel, a scholar of German and Jewish studies at Emory University, has gifted the world with a treasure of a book that introduces readers of all ages to the wealth of little-known Jewish children’s stories by more than 25 early 20th century Yiddish writers, including Sholem Asch, Zina Rabinowitz and Mordkhe Spektor. The rich anthology, perfect for reading aloud, is a keeper to return to over the years.

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NOVEMBER 27, 2020

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TORAHPortion Vayetze

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BY SHLOMO RISKIN

ur Torah portion, Vayetze, tells of Jacob’s journey into exile and, not coincidentally, the first instance of a monument (matzeva) to God in Jewish history. Until this point, the great Biblical personalities have erected altars (mizbahot, singular mizbeah), to God: Noah when he exited from the ark, Abraham when he first came to Israel, Isaac when he dedicated the city of Be’er Sheva, and Jacob on two significant occasions. An altar is clearly a sacred place dedicated for ritual sacrifice. But what is a monument? An understanding of this first monument in Jewish history will help us understand the true significance of the Land of Israel to the Jewish People.

Fleeing the wrath of his brother, Esau, Jacob leaves his Israeli parental home and sets out for his mother’s familial home in Haran. His first stop is in the fields outside Luz (Beit El) – the last site in Israel he will spend the night before he begins his exile. He dreams of a ladder standing (mutzav) on land with its top reaching heavenwards, “and behold, angels of God are ascending and descending on it” [ibid. v. 12]. God is standing (nitzav) above the ladder, and promises Jacob that he will return to Israel and that this land will belong to him and his descendants eternally. Upon awakening, the patriarch declares the place to be “the House of God and the Gate of Heaven” [ibid. v. 17]. He then builds a monument (matzeva) from the stones he has used as a pillow and pours oil over it.

Jacob’s experience leaves us in no doubt: a monument is a symbol of an eternal relationship. It is the physical expression of a ladder linking Heaven and Earth, the Land of Israel and the Holy Temple of Jerusalem (House of God), which connects the descendants of Jacob to the Divine forever. A monument is a gateway to Heaven, a House of God on Earth. The Land of Israel, with its laws of tithes, Sabbatical years and Jubilee, expresses the link between humanity and the Almighty, and the promise of Jacob’s return from exile bears testimony to the eternity of the relationship between the people of Israel and the land of Israel.

Furthermore, a monument is made of stone, the Hebrew word for stone being even, comprised of the letters aleph-betnun. It is also a contraction of parentchild (Hebrew, av-ben) which also uses the letters aleph-bet-nun symbolizing the eternity of family continuity. And

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the monument is consecrated with oil, just as the Redeemer will be consecrated with oil – and herald eternal peace and redemption for Israel and the world.

In exile, Jacob spends two decades with his uncle Laban, who does his utmost to assimilate his bright nephew/ son-in-law into a life of comfort and business in exile. Jacob resists, escaping Laban’s blandishments, and eventually secretly absconds with his wives, children and livestock to return to Israel. Laban pursues them, and they agree to a covenant-monument: “And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a monument” [ibid. 31:45]. Here again, we find the expression of an eternal promise: Abraham’s descendants will never completely assimilate – not even into the most enticing Diaspora.

The Torah continues: “And Jacob said to his brethren, gather stone, and they took stones and made a heap…. And Laban called [the monument] YegarSahaduta, but Jacob called it Gal-Ed” [ibid. v. 46-47].

The wily Laban wants the monument to bear an Aramean name, a symbol of the gentile aspect of Jacob’s ancestry, while Jacob firmly insists upon the purely Hebrew inscription of Gal-Ed – the eternal, Israelite language.

When they take their respective oaths at the site of the monument, Laban still endeavors to manipulate: “May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor, the gods of their fathers, judge between us’ [ibid. v. 53]. Jacob refuses to give an inch; this monument must give testimony to the eternity of his commitment to Israel, both the faith and the land: “But Jacob swore to the fear of his father Isaac’ [ibid.]. Jacob’s response is a subtle – but emphatic – rejection of Laban’s attempt at assimilation.

Although this monument is erected with Laban after Jacob leaves his home, it is nevertheless still established in exile; therefore it is not anointed with oil. Whatever important role the Diaspora may have played in the history of Israel – as long as we maintained our unique values and lifestyle – the oil of redemption will emerge only in the Land of Israel. When Jacob returns to Beit El, the House of God, he will erect another stone monument in order to fulfill his oath [ibid. 35:14]. And, of course, that monument – erected to God in the Land of Israel – will be anointed with oil.

AROUND CT

Friendship Circle tells teen voluntee

O

n Sunday, Oct. 25, dozens of local teens from throughout the Greater Hartford area gathered outdoors (socially distanced) for the Friendship Circle of Greater Hartford’s Teen Orientation. Their mission: Brainstorm creative new ways to bring together children and young adults with or without special needs who, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, are currently living in isolation.

“Social isolation is difficult for everyone.

However, during the pandemic it is especially difficult for that segment of the community who are living with disabilities.

That is why it is more vital now than ever before to ensure these connections continue,” said Shaya Gopin, director of the Friendship Circle, a group that brings together people from toddlers through young adults, with or without special needs, for a variety of Judaic and social programs.

“Friendship Circle fills that void and facilitates friendship between members through weekly home visits, holiday celebrations, Jewish education, cooking, fitness and art programs – all while developing strong friendships,” he explained.

At the heart of Friendship Circle is a group dedicated teenage volunteers from local high schools, who give freely of their time, devotion, and unconditional love.

To drive home the vital role these teen volunteers continue to play during these difficult times, the theme of the Friendship Circle’s fall orientation was, “You Are ESSENTIAL, not optional services.”

The teen orientation was highlighted by a panel of parents and siblings, who shared

their perspective on how the pandemic is effecting their entire family, as well as tips on how to successfully engage with those with special needs.

Tammy Krulewitz, Friendship Circle volunteer coordinator, introduced a new program called “FC Connect,” which challenges the teens to use think creatively in connecting with children

FRIENDSHIP CIRCLE TEEN VOLUNTEERS BAYLEE KRULEWITZ (LEFT) AND CLARA SORKIN AT THE GROUP’S ORIENTATION EVENT.

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

| NOVEMBER 27, 2020

jewishledger.com

living wit Friend Shayna G baking w that the p life messa healthy r someone Chaba

THE KOSHER CROSSWORD NOV. 27, 2020

ers “You are ESSENTIAL!”

“Terrific Teams” By: Yoni Glatt Difficulty Level: Medium

Check out Yoni’s new book “More Kosher Crosswords…And Word Games!” on Amazon.com

Curbside pick up and local home delivery available!

FRIENDSHIP CIRCLE TEEN VOLUNTEERS AT THE ORGNIZATION’S TEEN ORIENTATION PROGRAM THIS FALL.

SHABBAT DINNER TRADITIONAL DAIRY LUNCHEON DELI SANDWICH PLATTER DINNER MENU

th disability. dship Circle program director Gopin led the teens in a challah workshop, explaining to them process of challah baking has ages that can be applied to all relationships, especially engaging e who is different than yourself. ad of Greater Hartford launched

the Friendship Circle in the fall of 2009.

Since then, it has grown include multiple programs and 100 members.

To learn more about the Friendship Circle, visit FriendshipCircleCT.com, email Info@FriendshipCircleCT.com or call (860) 833-4035.

ANSWERS TO NOV. 20 CROSSWORD

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Across 1. Famous garbage can resident 6. Give a potch 11. Chain that opened its first kosher branch in Isr. in 1980 14. Big name in halva 15. Creepy 16. “Again, this fish in a crossword?!”

17. Family members who chase an accidental killer to a city of refuge in the Bible?

19. “In Cold Blood” writer, informally 20. Days of ___ (old times).

21. Mag. staffers 22. Mayday relative 23. ___atine (sports supplement)

24. Beer 26. “The Legend of Zelda” console, for short 28. “___ Mi Yodea” 30. Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel, e.g.

34. Chilly, in Chile 35. The Hawks, on scoreboards 36. N.Y. engineering sch. near Albany 37. Tzahal, e.g., with “The” 41. Period prior to year zero, in dates 43. DKNY rival 44. Raiders quarterback Derek 47. Group for Kagan and Breyer, with “The” 51. What superheroes do when

they form teams 52. Water, in Paris 53. Hatzalah workers, for short 55. Cries during the terrible twos 56. Sprint competitor 59. Like one playing for Maccabi Tel Avi 61. “... ___ bad witch?”

62. Shortened name of the first forefather 63. Flyers that are not kosher 66. ___ Izzy 67. Spoken thought, on stage 68. Big birds that can’t fly 69. He was liked in the ‘50s 70. Looked with amazement 71. Lengthen, as a lead

Down 1. Hall’s partner in music 2. Jewish nap 3. Cheese cracker flavor 4. Pop singer Max 5. Vert positive review 6. There are five (but some claim to have six) 7. Throw, as a dodgeball 8. “Iliad” war god 9. Robert De ___ 10. Israeli bread?

11. You might slather it on a dog 12. Auto with a horse logo 13. Like crossword puzzle entries 18. Bart (Simpson’s) teacher 25. Most derisive

27. If not for him most (if not all) of the teams in this puzzle would not exist 29. Flower to wear 31. Ballerina’s pivot point 32. “___ be my pleasure” 33. 2016 W.S. losers to Chi. 38. Start of many a forwarded email 39. Top left PC key 40. Pioneer in color TV 41. Ryan Howard portrayer on “The Office” 42. Jewish or cajun, e.g.

45. Like much lashon hara 46. What Syria did at the Valley of Tears

48. Green or black packet 49. Expired, as a subscription 50. One is worth quite more than a Shekel 51. 16-Across, at a treif sushi restaurant 54. Verbal authority 57. Parsha with “Ki” 58. Tiyul 60. Haza who sang as Yocheved in “The Prince of Egypt” 64. Initials of 69-Across 65. Einstein deg.

JEWISH LEDGER

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NOVEMBER 27, 2020

17

JEWISH LIVING A Jewish cohousing movement is on the rise – but challenges remain

BY RACHELLE STEIN-WOTTEN

V

ANCOUVER, Canada (JTA) – On a January afternoon, snow blanketed the streets of this western Canada city of famously weather-fickle residents. But it didn’t keep 30 Jews from packing into the living room of Noam and Val Dolgin to talk about Jewish cohousing.

The group ran the gamut in age, from young adults to families with kids to retirees. Some were secular in search of cultural fellowship, while others were more religiously observant and cared about living in a space conducive to observing Shabbat and keeping kosher.

They were united, however, in their curiosity about living in a setting that offered daily connection and support built out of a shared, uniquely Jewish community vision.

SEPHIRAH STACEY OSHKELLO CO-FOUNDED THE LIVING TREE ALLIANCE, A JEWISH COHOUSING COMMUNITY AND FARM ON 91 ACRES IN VERMONT TAGGED “THE KIBBUTZ REIMAGINED.” (COURTESY OF OSHKELLO)

“There’s potential to do a lot here that can really beautifully integrate generations, socioeconomic groups, different religious expressions, and could be an example of what a progressive Jewish community can look like,” said Noam Dolgin, a realtor specializing in co-ownership models who envisions an inclusive community built around diverse Jewish life. “It’s about the ability to take [Judaism] out of institutions and into your own home. There is something different between having Shabbat in your own backyard versus going to a synagogue, something really powerful about the intimacy of a smaller community.”

The Dolgins’ effort is the latest in a decade-long attempt to build Jewish cohousing communities across North America. Cohousing is a type of intentional 18

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community that aims to foster deeper relationships among households and champion the spirit of interconnectivity, with families living in separate but proximate housing and sharing certain resources collectively.

This craving for kinship has led to a ripple of activity, including an annual Jewish Intentional Communities Conference, and the creation of advisory teams, like the Jewish Cohousing Network.

From Seattle to Boston, San Diego to Brooklyn, groups began coalescing in an attempt to make Jewish cohousing a reality.

“Culturally, our history has been around living within community, so I imagine that our DNA structure might be oriented towards that,” said Sephirah Stacey Oshkello, co-founder of Living Tree Alliance, a Jewish cohousing community and farm on 91 acres in Vermont tagged “the kibbutz reimagined.”

Despite this affinity and more than a decade of work, the root system of North American Jewish cohousing remains shallow. Of the seven communities listed on the Jewish Cohousing Network website, only Oshkello’s has residents living together onsite.

The multigenerational community is hands-on and attracts plenty of nonresidents to holiday events and landconnected programs at their education center. Each household has an active role in either running the farm, education center or the cohousing component, the “heart” of their earth-based living model.

Despite having approval for seven single-family residences, Living Tree has attracted only two additional families.

They’re now building a common house that will have three short-term rental units.

Oshkello expected the project would be further along by now, but she accepts the realities.

“We’re on God’s time schedule,” she said.

In Northern California, Roger Studley and others have spent five years building Berkeley Moshav, an urban Jewish cohousing community with an egalitarian, hyperinclusive bent – residents don’t even have to be Jewish. The organizers desire to also accommodate every expression of Jewish observance, even planning to volley between group Shabbat observances with and without music.

Last November, the group acquired a half-acre site in southwest Berkeley, but Studley expects it will take another three years until they can move in. One-bedroom, 650-square-foot units are estimated to start at over $600,000 and rise to over $1

| NOVEMBER 27, 2020

million for three-bedroom units. Interest surged when the land purchase was announced – 23 core member households have made a down payment toward their eventual homes.

“The intuition that cohousing would resonate in a Jewish context turns out to be right,” said Studley, a cohousing consultant and founder of Urban Moshav, a nonprofit development and advisory partner whose projects include Berkeley. He hopes lessons learned from Berkeley will help groups reach the land-purchasing stage within one year. That, combined with developing a community vision, is what he believes prolongs the whole process.

Aharon Ariel Lavi, founder and director of Hakhel, an incubator of Jewish intentional communities run by the Jewish sustainability organization Hazon, agrees that establishing residential intentional communities such as cohousing can take a while because of the real estate commitment required of individuals. Additionally, everyone involved needs to gel as a group.

“The disadvantage is that it’s much more complicated and more demanding to create [a residential] community, but once you have succeeded, these communities tend to be much more sustainable over the long term because people put so much time and energy and money into them.”

While Studley advises a three- to fouryear move-in timeline once a group has land, Karen Gimnig of the Cohousing Association of the United States tells wouldbe cohousers to expect more like five to seven years.

Cohousing began in Denmark in the 1960s. There are now 110 intergenerational communities in the country of 5.8 million, a 2019 article in the Journal of Housing Studies estimates. The first cohousing community in the United States appeared in the early 1990s. The online directory of the Cohousing Association of the United States lists 174 established communities.

The movement appears to have an outsized Jewish representation: A 2012 survey from the Cohousing Research Network found that Jews make up 10% of cohousing residents in the U.S. The vision for a specifically Jewish cohousing community echoes various attempts at Jewish communal living over the years, including the kibbutz movement in Israel and the Jewish agricultural settlements that sprang up in the United States in the early 20th century. Many of the cohousing communities have an ecological mandate, often centered around sustainable living or, if they’re in rural areas, a working farm.

When the coronavirus crisis hit, Rachael Love Cohen and her family felt spurred to purchase a five-acre property north of Orlando to establish the Jewish cohousing and eco-community they had been envisioning for years. The property features two homes, stately oaks, farm animals and a school. Cohen hopes to see another three or four families join them.

Cohen and her family have bounced around the United States for years in search of a cohort that matches their values and lifestyle. She was an early organizer of the Jewish Intentional Communities Conference that started in 2013 and is now a project of Hakhel. Over the years, she has experienced the challenges of establishing a Jewish cohousing community firsthand.

“People come in and out. They are interested in the end product, but I have yet to meet very many people who are interested in being a part of the long-haul process,” Cohen said. “You have to continue to be a cheerleader and continue to find that excitement that you felt from day one and bring that through for a decade or two.”

That perseverance is particularly hard to come by as the coronavirus has upended lives.

Planning for the Vancouver community stalled as the pandemic took hold, as did efforts in Seattle and Boston. Others have long since disbanded before ever becoming established.

The Baltimore-area Pearlstone Center’s master plan includes a subsidized tenant model of cohousing to house the center’s staff and the broader Baltimore Jewish community, but is in search of funding. Nor is it a current priority for the institution, though Executive Director Jakir Manela acknowledges there has been “strong interest” for the past 10 years. He called it “a project of national importance” that could be a model for other communities.

Of all the conferences hosted by Pearlstone during his tenure, Manela said the intentional communities conference held there in 2018 had the highest attendance – 190 people plus a long waitlist.

“I can hope that after the crisis we will have some sort of movement of cohousing communities at least in the United States,” said Hakhel’s Lavi, who serves as an adviser to Living Tree Alliance. He estimates 15-20 Jewish cohousing communities could be functioning in a decade once the virus passes. “We see people flocking in this direction. They want to live in a community, but they don’t want the old institutions that are, from their perspective, kind of rigid, very expensive, not so relevant for the kind of life they want to have.” jewishledger.com

DEC. 1 – DEC. 8

WHAT’S HAPPENING

Jewish organizations are invited to submit their upcoming events to the Ledger’s What’s Happening calendar section. Events are placed online on the Ledger website – both on our home page and our digital issue – on Tuesday afternoons. Deadline for submission of calendar items is the previous Tuesday. For more information, contact Judie Jacobson at judiej@jewishledger.com.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1 Modern Orthodoxy in a post-modern world panel discussion The Center for Community Education of Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy will host a virtual panel discussion on the topic of “Modern Orthodoxy in a Post-Modern World” on Tuesday, Dec. 1 at 8 p.m.

Panelists include Rabbi Dr. Gil Perly, heads school at Ohele Yeshiva in Philadelphia, Pa., and Rabbi Tully Harcsztark, founding principal of SAR High School in Riverdale, N.Y. Register and receive Zoom link at bchact-org.zoom.us.

to Generation event, to be held on Zoom, Wednesday, Dec 2, at 7 p.m. The virtual event also will include an interview with third-generation Holocaust survivor and Michael Zegen, a star of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, by Tablet Magazinedeputy editor and Unorthodox podcast co-host Stephanie Butnick. The klezmer-rock band Golem will perform.

The event may stream live on YouTube, and Facebook. For reservations, visit https://mjhnyc.org/generation-togeneration.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2

Zoom lecture on Jewish entrepreneurs during Reconstruction

Cooking for Chanukah with Michael Solomonov

The Bennett Center for Judaic Studies at Fairfield University presents “Cotton Capitalists: American Jewish Entrepreneurship in the Reconstruction Era,” a free webinar with guest speaker Michael R Cohen, PhD, chair of the Stuart and Suzanne Grant Center for the American Jewish Experience at Tulane University, on Thursday, Dec. 3, 7:30 p.m. Registration required at fairfield.edu/bennettprograms.

For information: bennettcenter@fairfield. edu or (203) 254-4000 x2066.

James Beard Foundation awardwinning chef Michael Solomonov, executive chef and co-owner of Zahav, the 2019 James Beard Foundation award winner for Outstanding Restaurant, the first Israeli restaurant to win the award, will give a Chanukah cooking demonstration on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 8 p.m., hosted by United Jewish Federation of Greater Stamford. The menu will include Apple Shrub, Abe Fisher’s Potato Latkes, Roman Artichokes with Arugula and olive Oil, Poached Salmon and Sfenj with Cinnamon and Sugar. Recipes and ingredient list will be sent before event.

Register at juf.com/solomonov. For more information, contact dianesloyer@ujf.org.

Cookbook author and TV chef Ina Garten Hartford’s Mandell JCC book festival presents a Zoom webinar featuring TV food show host Ina Garten, author of Modern Comfort Food, in Conversation with comedian/actor/author Michael Ian Black, on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: $45/includes copy of the book. For more information, visit mandelljcc.org/ bookfestival.

Museum of Jewish Heritage to host annual benefit The Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will honor Howard and Elyse Butnick and their family at the organization’s annual Generation jewishledger.com

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5 Annual Manchester Jazz Festival goes virtual 5th Annual Manchester, CT Jazz Festival, hosted by Manchester’s Beth Sholom B’nai Israel synagogue, will be held Dec. 5, 7:30 - 9:30 p.m. This year’s festival will be broadcast virtually and will feature both up-and-coming and internationally recognized performers.

The Festival kick’s off with the Max Dvorin Group from Nashville, Tenn. A talented woodwind doubler, Max is a graduate of Hall High School and a former member of the Hall High School Jazz Band who was invited to perform with the AllAmerican High School Band in Nashville.

He will be joined will be joined by Sophia Goodman on drums,Al Janelle on guitar, Thomas Altman on bass, and David Rodgers on piano. The headliner quartet features some of the top jazz musicians in the world: Eric Alexander, tenor saxophone, Peter Bernstein, guitar, Eddie Gomez, bass and Greater Hartford area native Jonathan Barber on drums.

Tickets: $20/household. To purchase tickets, visit: www.myshul.org/jazzfest2020.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8 Hartford’s own Sophie Tucker the subject of book fest talk Lauran Rebecca Sklaroff will discuss her new book, Red Hot Mama: The Life of Sophie Tucker, on Sunday, Dec. 8, at 7 p.m. The virtual Zoom talk is hosted by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford.

The “First Lady of Show Business” and the “Last of the Red Hot Mamas,” Sophie Tucker was raised in Hartford and became a star in vaudeville, radio, film, and television.

A gutsy, song-belting stage performer, she entertained audiences for 60 years. Lauren Sklaroff, associate professor of history at the University of South Carolina, will talk about her recent biography, which places Tucker in the context of American cultural history.

Register at https://jhsgh.org/tucker/

BULLETIN BOARD Action Alert: Ask Congress to allocate $360 million for security The Jewish Federations Association of Connecticut (JFACT) urges all members of the community to join them in reaching out to the seven members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation, asking them to fund the Nonprofit Security Grant Program at $360 million for the coming year.

“Security continues to be a major concern for the Jewish community. Let’s use our voice to advocate for money security dollars,” says JFACT Director Michael Bloom.

To send a letter to Connecticut’s congressmen and senators, click on https://jfact.salsalabs.org/nonprofitsecuritygrantprogram.

Seeking teen leaders who are changing the world Applications and nominations are now being accepted for the Diller Tikkun Olam Awards, which honor Jewish teens who demonstrate remarkable leadership and en-gagement in projects that embody the values of tikkun olam, “repairing the world.”

Up to 15 recipients will be awarded $36,000 each to further their project or for their educa-tion.

Those eligible are teens 13–19 years old who self-identify as Jewish, live in the United States, and are not compensated for their work. Projects may focus on the Jewish or general community.

Teens may apply directly online by submitting an application by Jan. 8, 2021.

Teachers, rabbis, community leaders, or any individual aware of the value of the teen’s leadership may submit a nomination online by Dec. 18, 2020. Nominated teens will then be asked to complete a full application.

For an application or for more information, visit dillerteenawards.org.

JEWISH LEDGER

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NOVEMBER 27, 2020

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

ADAMSKI Gisela Adamski (nee Sachs), of Queens, N.Y. and West Hartford, died Nov. 15. She was the widow of Severyn Adams. Born in Oppeln, Germany, she was the daughter of Kurt and Else (nee Kristeller) Sachs. A Holocaust survivor, she was interned in Terezin, Auschwitz-Birkena, and Katzbach, concentration camps, and survived the Death March. She is survived by her daughter, Eliane and her husband Larry; her granddaughters, Danielle, Shiri and her husband Chris, and Jessie and her husband Jimmy; her great-grandchildren, Sylvie and Jonas.

BALDWIN Susan Weaver Baldwin, 66, of Stamford, died Nov.14. She was the wife of Gary Lewis Gepner. Born in Morristown, N.J., she was the daughter of Drs. Russel R. Baldwin and Marcella Vig Baldwin. In addition to her husband, she is survived by her daughters, Abigail May Gepner of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Dorothy Rose Gepner of Japan; her brothers, John V. Baldwin of Cernobbio, Italy, Christopher Baldwin of Belvedere, S.D., and Timothy Baldwin of Irving, Tex.; and her sisters, Rosemary Baldwin of Chicago, Ill., and Maria Sloan of Jackson Hole Wy; and many nieces and nephews.

BERMAN Rhoda Russota Berman, 94, of North Branford, formerly of Branford, died Nov. 5.She was the wife of David Berman.

She was the daughter of the late Carrie Kupferberg Rubens and Benjamin Kupferberg. In addition to her husband, she is survived by her stepchildren Lisa Gant Kops and her husband Steve, Linda Berman Soffer of Guilford, and Ellen Schlesinger Murphy and her husband Kent of New City, N.Y.; her grandchildren, Jacob (Alyssa) and Aaron Gant of New Haven, Zachary,

Brett, and Daniel Soffer of Guilford, and Jeffrey Schlesinger of Hoboken, N.J.; and her brother, David Kupferberg (Judy) of Cranford, New Jersey.

FIGARSKY Abraham A. Figarsky, 94, of Norwich, Conn., died Monday, Nov. 16, 2020 at William W. Backus Hospital. Abraham was born in Springfield, Mass. on Nov. 13, 1926, to the late Benjamin and Emma Figarsky.

He was a member of the Brothers of Joseph Synagogue in Norwich. Abraham is survived by children: David A. Figarsky, Deborah R. Figarsky and life partner Philip M. Small, Philip E. Figarsky and wife Deborah Kudej Figarsky; grandchildren: Adam Louis Figarsky and wife Elizabeth, Kim Bucko and husband Aaron, Kenn Armstrong III and wife Melanie, Sara Figarsky Morrison and Paul Maracic, Ezra Figarsky Morrison, Ilana Figarsky Morrison, Anna Figarsky Morrison and Eric Foley, Andrew Small and Emma Connell, Rebecca Small and husband Seth Fink, Jennifer Small, Jessica Festa, David Festa and wife Karen, Courtney Figarsky and Richard House, Benjamin Figarsky and Sydny Hamilton, great-grandchildren: Jack Abraham and Stella Figarsky, Avery, Jack, and Evan Bucko, Isabella and Emilia Festa, Brayden and Brody House, Ava Irene Figarsky and Vivian Fink; brother Philip and wife Sheila Figarsky, sister in law Mildred Goldstein as well and many nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. Abe was predeceased by the love of his life Irene, daughter-in-law Karen Armstrong (David) and his brother George Figarsky.

A graveside service was held on at Hebrew Benevolent Cemetery #3 in Preston, Conn..

Donations may be made in Abraham’s memory to the charity of one’s choice. To leave an online condolence please visit www.churchandallen.com.

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CALL 1.800.852.8865 • 203.287.1593 • nolanshamdenmonumentco.com 20

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| NOVEMBER 27, 2020

GOTTLIEB Marvin Bernard Gottlieb, 78, of Cheshire, died Nov. 11. He was the husband of Nancy Cantor Gottlieb. Born in New York City, he was the son of George and Edith Gottlieb of New York. He was a longtime member of Temple Beth David. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Robert Gottlieb and his wife Adrienne of Cheshire, David Gottlieb and his wife Candice of Denver, Colo.), and Julie Gottlieb Schulman and her husband Ethan of New York, N.Y.); his grandchildren, Zachary, Elise, Natalie, Isabel, Maddie and Andrew; his brother Louis Gottlieb of Winston-Salem, N.C; several nieces and nephews and their families.

GREDINGER Mark Jacob Gredinger, 101, of Hamden, New Haven and Woodbridge, died Nov. 15. He was the husband of Marilyn (Schwartzman) Gredinger and the widower of Adele Gredinger and Madelyn Shure. He was the son of the late Annette and Isadore Gredinger. He served in the U.S. military during World War II. He is survived by his children Lynne (Gredinger) Rozen, and Martin Gredinger and his wife Randy Kamen; his step-children, Martin Schwartzman and his wife Lucy, Alan Schwartzman and his wife Mindy, and Carol Press and her husband David; his grandchildren, Amy Gredinger, Max Gredinger, Kathryn Giordano, Justin Rozen, Rachel Lang, Michael Schwartzman, Andrew Schwartzman, Jayme Amarone, Jodi Nero, Brad Schwartzman, Adam Press and Danielle Isaacson; and 13 greatgrandchildren.

JORDAN Judith (Rosen) Jordan, 85, of West Hartford, died peacefully on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020. She was the beloved wife, for 63 years, of Allan Jordan. Born in Philadelphia on July 19, 1935, she was the daughter of Samuel and Sara (Feldman) Rosen. Judi worked as a medical research technician, which included time with Hartford Hospital, and volunteered with several Jewish organizations. She had a love for reading, all things musical, and her daily crossword puzzle, as well as a brilliant mind and endless love in her heart. An expert quilter, Judi belonged to the Quilter’s Guild of West Hartford. She was also a ham radio operator and could be spotted around town with her call sign license plate KA1LF, and was an avid UCONN women’s basketball fan, always cheering on “her girls.” But the greatest joy in Judi’s life was her family. She was a beloved wife, mother, Bubbie, greatgrandmother, sister, and aunt. Besides

her husband Allan, she is survived by her children, Lauri Miller and her husband David of West Hartford, Ronald Jordan and his wife Elizabeth of Syosset, New York, and Donna Edelstein and her husband Joe Bordalo of Windsor; five cherished grandchildren, Jason and his wife Rochelle, Elise, Samuel, William, and Nathan; adored great-grandson Robert; and many nieces, nephews, and dear friends. She was predeceased by her two sisters, Esther and Natalie. A private graveside service was held at the Congregation Beth Israel Cemetery in Avon. Donations in her memory may be made to the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford, Girl Scouts of the USA, or an organization of your choosing.

The family expresses heartfelt appreciation for the care provided by Assisted Living Services and the staff at the Hebrew Center in West Hartford. May her memory be a source of strength and a blessing. Funeral arrangements provided by Hebrew Funeral Association, West Hartford.

KAUFMAN Walter J. Kaufman, 84, of Yardley, Penn., died Nov. 8. Born in Sobernheim, Germany and raised in Hartford, he was the son of Willy and Irma (Wolf) Kaufmann. He is survived by Walter his son, Bryn and his wife Ellen; his grandchildren, Zachery and Jasmin Kaufman of Kailua, Hawaii; his step-daughter, Charmian Leslie-Hughes; his step-grandchildren, Emily, Madelyn and Tristan Gilmore of Yardley, Penn.; his former wives Nancy Gordon Patterson of New Jersey and Margaret Murphy of Yardley, Penn., his sister, Beatrice Mitlak of West Hartford; and many nieces and nephews.

SMALL Joel Small, 73, of Newington, died Nov. 7. He was the husband of Sheila Small. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his son Michael; his sister, Rhoda; his brother, Bruce; and his sister-in-law Barbara Kerson and her husband Fred.

ZAKAR Beth Joy Zakar, 67, of the Bronx, N.Y., died Nov. 8. She was the daughter of Beverly Zakar and the late Isidore Zakar.

In addition to her mother, she is survived by her , brothers, Steven Zakar and his wife Irene, and Jay Zakar and his wife Janice Nista; and her nephew Robert Ireland.

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CT SYNAGOGUE DIRECTORY To join our synagogue directories, contact Howard Meyerowitz at (860) 231-2424 x3035 or howardm@jewishledger.com.

BLOOMFIELD B’nai Tikvoh-Sholom/ Neshama Center for Lifelong Learning Conservative Rabbi Debra Cantor (860) 243-3576 office@BTSonline.org www.btsonline.org BRIDGEPORT Congregation B’nai Israel Reform Rabbi Evan Schultz (203) 336-1858 info@cbibpt.org www.cbibpt.org Congregation Rodeph Sholom Conservative (203) 334-0159 Rabbi Richard Eisenberg, Cantor Niema Hirsch info@rodephsholom.com www.rodephsholom.com Jewish Senior Services Traditional Rabbi Stephen Shulman (203) 396-1001 sshulman@jseniors.org www.jseniors.org CHESHIRE Temple Beth David Reform Rabbi Micah Ellenson (203) 272-0037 office@TBDCheshire.org www.TBDCheshire.org 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

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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

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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 Earl Kideckel (860) 442-0418 office@bethel-nl.org www.bethel-nl.org NEWINGTON Temple Sinai Reform Rabbi Jeffrey Bennett (860) 561-1055 templesinaict@gmail.com www.sinaict.org NEWTOWN Congregation Adath Israel Conservative Rabbi Barukh Schectman (203) 426-5188 office@congadathisrael.org www.congadathisrael.org NORWALK Beth Israel Synagogue – Chabad of Westport/ Norwalk Orthodox-Chabad Rabbi Yehoshua S. Hecht (203) 866-0534 info@bethisraelchabad.org bethisraelchabad.org Congregation Beth El-Norwalk Conservative Rabbi Ita Paskind (203) 838-2710 Jody@congbethel.org www.congbethel.org

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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 WALLINGFORD Beth Israel Synagogue Conservative Rabbi Bruce Alpert (203) 269-5983 richardcaplan@sbcglobal.net www.bethisrael/wallingford. org WASHINGTON Greater Washington Coalition Rabbi James Greene (860) 868-2434 admin@jewishlifect.org www.jewishlife.org WATERFORD Temple Emanu - El Reform Rabbi Marc Ekstrand Rabbi Emeritus Aaron Rosenberg (860) 443-3005 office@tewaterfrord.org www.tewaterford.org WEST HARTFORD Beth David Synagogue Orthodox Rabbi Yitzchok Adler (860) 236-1241 office@bethdavidwh.org www.bethdavidwh.org Beth El Temple Conservative Rabbi James Rosen Rabbi Ilana Garber (860) 233-9696 hsowalsky@bethelwh.org www.bethelwesthartford.org Chabad House of Greater Hartford Rabbi Joseph Gopin Rabbi Shaya Gopin, Director of Education (860) 232-1116 info@chabadhartford.com www.chabadhartford.com

Congregation P’nai Or Jewish Renewal Shabbat Services Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener (860) 561-5905 pnaiorct@gmail.com www.jewishrenewalct.org Kehilat Chaverim of Greater Hartford Chavurah Adm. - Nancy Malley (860) 951-6877 mnmalley@yahoo.com www.kehilatchaverim.org The Emanuel Synagogue Conservative Rabbi David J. Small (860) 236-1275 communications@emanuelsynagogue.org www.emanuelsynagogue.org 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

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