Southern New England Jewish Ledger • March 8, 2022 • 5 Adar II 5782 by 2020 Media

SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND

Connecticut in Israel

Southern New England Jewish Ledger

March 8, 2022

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MARCH 8, 2022 • 5 ADAR II 5782

Connecticut in Israel

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Connecticut in Israel Southern New England Jewish Ledger

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Governor Ned Lamont is back from his weeklong economic development mission to Israel. And he had a lot to talk about…so he talked to the Ledger.

During his recent trip to the Jewish state, Governor Lamont made his first visit to Yad Vashem, where he participated in a wreath laying ceremony and gave brief remarks about the importance of remembering atrocities and genocide, like the Holocaust.

Features

Opinion

Briefs

Arts & Entertainment

The Long Goodbye

JTA reporter Toby Axelrod travels to Poland’s Ukrainian border for an inside look at how the Jewish community is responding to the burgeoning refugee crisis in Poland.

Around Southern New England

Studies names Hanna Halperin the 2021 Edward Lewis Wallant Award winner for her debut novel, Something Wild.

8 Family Ties

For one of Connecticut’s oldest and most successful family businesses the celebration of its centennial year is at its core a celebration of family.

The Ledger Scoreboard

Crossword

What’s Happening

Purim in CT

Authors Corner

The U of Hartford’s Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic

14 International Women’s Day

28 Happy Purim!

News flash! The culinary delights of Purim extend beyond hamantaschen. Jews the world over cook many dishes to celebrate the story of Persian redemption, and these foods tell their own story of Jewish acculturation and continuity.

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Obituaries March 8, 2022

As the world marks International Women’s Day on March 8, the head of the Jewish feminist organization Project Kesher expresses her fears for the women of Ukraine.

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Long bus rides, temporary shelters and lots of phone calls: Inside the Jewish response to the mounting refugee crisis in Poland doctor who understands the situation,” said Czesnyk. Also at Limmud, Natalia Czakowska took a midnight phone call and ended up sheltering a Ukrainian woman in her Warsaw apartment for the night. Aldona Zawada, an employee of the American Jewish Committee of Central Europe, invited her parents to move in with her so their apartment could be used by refugees. They took in a family that had traveled for three days and then waited on a line at the border for 23 hours. The Jewish Agency has doubled down its efforts to bring out Jews who had already started the process of emigration to Israel before the war. Warsaw is one of the hubs where Jews are waiting to fly out; the first Ukrainian immigrants were expected to arrive in Israel on Sunday. About 300 Ukrainians are expected on three different flights from Warsaw, Moldova and Romania, according to the Jewish Agency. A third of them are orphans who evacuated to Romania under the supervision of Chabad, which ran their Ukrainian orphanage. That’s a tiny fraction of the Jews who have fled Ukraine over the last week, as part of an abrupt migration of one million Ukrainians. To meet their needs, a handful of independent Jewish groups joined forces to create a crisis management center at Warsaw’s Jewish Community

WEST HARTFORD, Connecticut – The University of Hartford’s Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies has named author Hanna Halperin the 2021 Edward Lewis Wallant Award winner for her outstanding debut novel, Something Wild (Penguin Random House, June 2021). The presentation ceremony will be held on Wednesday, April 6, at 7 p.m. Based on current public health conditions, the ceremony is scheduled to be held at the Mandell Jewish Community Center in West Hartford, Connecticut. Attendees will be notified in advance if the ceremony is held virtually over Zoom. The Wallant Award is one of the oldest and most prestigious Jewish literary awards in the United States. Established by Dr. and Mrs. Irving Waltman of West Hartford in 1963, the Wallant Award honors the memory of the late Edward Lewis Wallant, author of The Pawnbroker and other works of fiction. It is presented to a Jewish writer, preferably unrecognized, whose published work of fiction is deemed to have significance for the American Jew. Halperin tackles a very serious topic in Something Wild – domestic violence – while brilliantly depicting the three women at the center of the novel–a mother and her two daughters. Reviewers have praised the novel for its gripping and compassionate treatment of a family coping with the trauma of abuse. Writing in The New York Times book review, Scaachi Koul noted, “Something Wild creates a compelling, believable,

Continued on the next page

BY TOBY AXELROD

(JTA) – It is nearly 10 p.m. at the emergency refugee shelter in Tomaszow Lubelski, Poland, near the Ukrainian border. It’s bitter cold; snowflakes catch in the headlights of the huge tourist bus from Hanover, Germany, as it pulls up at the guard post. Zohar Spivack’s bus company, Kings Travel – “the logo is blue and white, and I don’t have to tell you why,” he said – has been picking up refugees every day since Russia’s attacks began. Leaving Warsaw empty after sundown, stopping at shelters near the border, and returning after sunrise, carrying mothers, children, grandmas, and men too old or disabled to fight. “It is the thing to do,” says Spivack, who was born in Ukraine in 1987 and moved with his family to Israel before coming to Germany during the Gulf War. “People are suffering because of politics. We want to help, because at one point we have been refugees.” This night, it has taken driver Vitali Kopniak four hours to reach the first shelter. Julia, a 19-year-old soldier who is on board, knows this team already; she’s seen Vitaly or his co-driver, Jakob Mauer, every day since the war began. They politely greet each other. Her blond hair is pulled back and she is wearing khaki camouflage. “Don’t worry, we will not allow anyone on the bus who is not a Ukrainian woman or child,” she tells the driver. Now her eyes are shining and this soldier is brushing away tears. “I am very worried. It’s my country, and for the people coming here I need March 8, 2022

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to give them safety. We have a lot of kids who are crying, and have nowhere else to go.” Minutes later they appear: the first refugees to board the bus tonight. Dragging suitcases and gripping plastic bags with food, carrying babies. Accompanied by police or soldiers. Most have spent several days getting to the western border by car or train, and then waited more than 20 hours on the Ukrainian side, where able-bodied men aged 18 to 60 are immediately conscripted. These partial families board the bus silently, settle into the plush seats, and pull out their cell phones. It will be a long night. Spivack is one of a growing number of Jewish individuals and organizations propelled into action by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal attack on Ukraine. With the exception of the Jewish Agency’s emergency fast-tracking of applications for immigration to Israel, which is available only to Jews, most of the help is given regardless of religion. According to the United Nations, one to three million Ukrainians are likely to leave their country in the coming weeks. Many are coming through Poland. And Poles, including Jews, are rising to the occasion. Student Kamilla Czesnyk was at a meeting of Limmud Europe, a Jewish learning initiative, in Gdansk when the war broke out. She quickly switched gears to help organize donated medications – like heparin and morphine – for soldiers in Ukraine. “We really need a good

Author Hanna Halperin Wins Greenberg Center’s Wallant Award

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Ukraine CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28

Center. “We created a crisis management team as soon as the war broke out,” says Magda Dorosz, executive director of Hillel Poland. They had done some of the legwork in advance, not knowing what would be. And now, while they are focusing on Jewish refugees, they are “going to help whomever we can.” The crisis center, upstairs in the Warsaw Jewish Community Center, has about 30 volunteers so far, Dorosz said. They are taking calls, organizing sleeping bags and food, medical help and counseling, driving to the border and offering transportation westward, and bringing food to refugees in hotels. On Tuesday morning, several volunteers with Ukrainian roots were staffing the hotline. “Someone called because he does not know how to get to the border,” said Alexandra Roskawska, head of communications for the Warsaw Jewish Community group. Another man with dual Israeli-Ukrainian passports was blocked from crossing into Poland because he’s within the conscription age. “His wife and child could cross the border but he couldn’t,” Roskawska said. “We managed papers for him with the help of the Israeli embassy.” There have been a few waves of exodus, observers say. The first to leave were the wealthy, who had cars and could drive all the way into Poland. “They grabbed their passports and their kids and put them in the car and left,” said Igor Susid, co-founder and vice president of the Puszke Foundation, which is part of the new crisis center. “A lot of Jews came with this wave. But they did not want anything for free. We put them up in two hotels and they paid us and left.” “Then the new situation came, where the border was closed to men between 18 and 60. That started a whole new machlokes [the Hebrew word

for disagreement]: There were a lot of young guys with double citizenship. But they did not have their Israeli passports. … They didn’t want to show their Ukrainian passports, so they could not leave.” At this point, most of the Jews coming out want to move to Israel, Roskawska said. The others “don’t come – we don’t know if it’s because they want to stay or because it’s so dangerous to go to the border.” Gennadi Valigura, a hotline volunteer with roots in Kharkiv, knows this dichotomy well. His sister-in-law stayed because she didn’t want to leave her husband. And his mother waited too long; now the roads of Kharkiv are impassable, whether she would flee to the east or west. So, while answering calls from distraught strangers at the crisis center, Valigura also is constantly keeping an eye on his own phone: His mother sends a text every three hours just to say she’s still alive. “The roads are destroyed,” says Valigura, a 36-year-old lawyer and father of two. “It is not possible to drive to the railway station. … So now we wait and pray.” Karina Sokolowska, the Joint Distribution Committee’s director for Poland and Scandinavia, is used to taking practical action. She used to tell people, she said, “Support us, we will know how to use it.” That isn’t the message she’s delivering now. “Now I tell them: Just pray for [the people of Ukraine] – and for us.” Sitting in her office down the hall from the hotline room, Sokolowska said most of the Jews leaving Ukraine now do not intend to return. “I went to the border last weekend and you know, it doesn’t matter whether these are Jews or not: All these girls with little babies, kids crying … they are suddenly in a situation where they have no idea what to do with themselves and [they are cut off from] their husbands or boyfriends or partners and it is a war: people are dying. It is not a rehearsal. It is real….Like most

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people in the world, I will never understand how one person can do this to other people.” David Gidron of Jerusalem has been putting his skills as a social psychologist to good use. “Yesterday I was at the airport hotel with families going off to Israel,” said Gidron, a consultant with the JDC-Europe community resilience program. “They had a high level of anxiety and guilt.” His goal was to “help them become functional on a much better level.” One couple – “the husband got over the border, I don’t know how” – had made it to Poland with their daughters ages 12 and 8. “They spent a long time on the road, left their car somewhere along the way because they ran out of gas, and crossed the border by foot.” They will join family in Israel, “but the woman’s parents and brother are still in Kyiv. She was trying to persuade them to get out. She got her children out because she did not want them to see things and experience things, and she was successful. But she feels very guilty about leaving behind her family and friends.” In his office upstairs at the adjacent synagogue, Rabbi Michael Schudrich is fielding one call after another. Between organizing resources for refugees, he has to officiate at a funeral this afternoon and meet with the new American ambassador to Poland, Mark Brzezinski, to discuss plans to receive 120 Jewish orphans on their way from Ukraine. “Something is going on here,” says Igor Susid of the Puszke Foundation, which in ordinary times supports Jewish education and cultural events in Poland. People are donating items to Puszke for refugee relief, and the rooms at the Jewish Community Center are filling up with donated hygiene articles, clothing, sleeping bags and other items. “People who were not involved [in the Jewish community] on a daily basis are coming here to be together, and everyone has brought something.

And suddenly this place looks different,” he said. Back near the border, Vitaly is picking up more refugees at another center. Out of the darkness comes the gravelly sound of suitcases on wheels. Young women with children, an elderly man, and a younger man with crutches. They climb aboard the bus and find seats upstairs. There are four such stops in the night. Finally, at about 2 a.m., Vitaly heads back west. Twolane roads in pitch dark become four-lane highways under bright streetlights. The sun rises as the bus enters the city. And the passengers awaken to the next phase of their odyssey.

Wallant Award CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28

and upsetting portrayal of how trauma ripples through a family. I wish the plot were pure fantasy. But good books sometimes cut to the bone, and this one feels like a scythe.” Publishers Weekly describes the book as “bold and surprising” and ‘unflinching and brave,” and said, “Halperin’s story lays bare the characters’ nuanced and complicated responses to domestic violence. This haunting portrait of a broken family will stay with readers.” Halperin is a graduate of the MFA program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her stories have been published in The Kenyon Review, n+1, New Ohio Review, Joyland, and others. She teaches fiction workshops at GrubStreet in Boston and works as a domestic violence counselor. Something Wild was also a finalist for the 2021 National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction. For more information on the Edward Lewis Wallant Award and past recipients, visit hartford. edu/wallant. For more information about, or to register for, the award ceremony, contact Susan Gottlieb at the Greenberg Center, 860.768.4964 or mgcjs@hartford. edu. March 8, 2022

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Hoffman Auto Group’s centennial is a celebration of family

BY STACEY DRESNER

ARTFORD – Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Hoffman Auto Group is about more than the observance of a business milestone. For Co-Chairmen Jeffrey S. and I. Bradley Hoffman, the grandsons of founder Israel Hoffman. It is a celebration of family. From a single used car dealership started in 1921, to a car empire with locations in East Hartford, New London, Waterbury and Avon/Simsbury, the Hoffman Auto Group is one of Connecticut’s oldest and largest family-owned businesses, and a Jewish one at that. “We are grateful to our employees and the many customers who have played an integral part in attaining this century milestone,” says Jeffrey. “We look back with great pride, and are very excited about the future.” The Hoffmans’ American journey began in 1897 when their great-grandparents Joseph and Pauline Hoffman immigrated to the U.S. from their native Russia with their son Israel and daughter Rose. Another son, Barney was born in Hartford in 1900. “Our great-grandfather Joseph settled in Hartford in the North End as a lot of the Jewish families did in the late 1800s. He was actually a contractor and a painter,” Brad says. It was Joseph’s two sons who began the Hoffman auto business. In 1917, when Israel was 21 and Barney had just graduated from Hartford Public High School, they borrowed some money and bought a 2,000 square foot, two-car service station on Oakland Terrace in Hartford. “They started a used car lot,”

Brad says. “Then in late 1921, they opened up their first new car agency, which was Ford, in New Hartford on Route 44.” It was there that Israel and Barney sold their first Model T Ford. The Hoffman Motor Company soon had a waiting list of more than 100 customers wanting to purchase Model T’s. Each car sold for $565 and to attract more customers, the Hoffman brothers offered four free half-hour driving lessons with each purchase. The popularity of automobiles continued to grow so much that customers had to wait as several months for their new Model Ts. And then the cars had to be put together. “The train would be running right near the building and showroom, which is still there in New Hartford. They would take the parts off the train and the car was assembled inside the [Hoffman dealership],” Jeffrey says. It would take two and a half hours to attach the fenders, wheels, splash pans and running boards to the main body of the vehicle. By then, Israel had married Rose Krivitsky who grew up on Vine Street in Hartford. (Rose’s father Samuel had immigrated to Hartford from Motele, Russia where he was a classmate of Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Russia. According to the book Harford Jews, 19591970, Krivitsky and Weizmann remained friends throughout their lives.) Just a couple of years after starting their Ford dealership in New Hartford, Israel and Rose welcomed their son, Burton. As the family grew, Hoffman Auto business grew too with Hoffman purchasing a variety of new automotive brands. In 1922

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BRADLEY HOFFMAN’S FIRST DAY WORKING AT THE FAMILY BUSINESS; (L TO R) JEFFREY, BRADLEY, BURTON, AND TODD HOFFMAN.

SEATED FROM LEFT, BRAD HOFFMAN AND HIS SON ZACHARY. BACK ROW, FROM LEFT, JONATHAN, JOSHUA, JEFFREY AND MATTHEW HOFFMAN. JONATHAN AND MATTHEW ARE JEFF’S SONS; JOSHUA IS BRAD’S SON.

the Hoffmans began offering customers the chance to make down payments and financing – an innovative business practice for that time. In 1932, the Hoffman brothers purchased a Dodge Brothers-Plymouth agency. They received the Dodge Silver Trophy Award for leading the 750 Dodge-Plymouth dealers of New England in sales. But while increasingly successful, not everything was easy for Hoffman Auto. After having a fruitful business relationship with Ford for several years, in 1932 Henry Ford, a virulent antisemite, cancelled their Ford franchise when he found out Israel and Barney were Jewish. In 1938, the Hoffmans purchased a Lincoln-Mercury franchise.

Because Lincoln-Mercury was owned by the Ford Motor Co., the Hoffmans purchased the dealership under a different name, gaining full distribution for all of central Connecticut. (Hoffman triumphantly became a Ford dealer again, six years after Israel passed away. His son Burton re-acquired the Ford Franchise in Hartford.) By 1940, they sold the Lincoln-Mercury franchise. By 1945, Israel’s son Burton Hoffman, a Navy veteran of World War II, joined the business, and it continued to grow. When Barney Hoffman retired in the early 1950s, Israel and his son Burt, who later served as president of the Hartford Continued on page 23

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Opinion

Ukraine’s Jewish history is filled with trauma. But the past is prologue – not destiny. BY JOSHUA MEYERS

(JTA) – The first time I recall hearing someone describe a relationship akin to that between Eastern European Jews and the former Pale of Settlement was when my late African-American uncle spoke of Mississippi. Many immigrant groups in America – including those with roots in Ireland, Japan and Mexico – take pride in the lands they or their ancestors lived in before migrating to the new world. For Jews, the matter is different. Many a pizzeria proudly flies an Italian flag. Very few bagel shops fly a Polish flag or a Ukrainian one. Though my family has always identified as proudly Litvish, meaning that we come from areas where the Litvish dialect of Yiddish was spoken, but I cannot recall any of that pride being set aside for the nations of Belarus or Lithuania. These were lands we left for

good reason. But they were also the lands where our families lived and our history happened. They are where our ancestors were born and buried, even if – too often – in mass or unmarked graves. Seeing that land bombed and invaded evokes a difficult sensation that deserves to be sorted through. It would be a mistake to reduce Jewish history in Ukraine to suffering. Through the late 19th century, many Jews from around the Russian Empire migrated to Ukraine, drawn to the region’s relatively strong economy (the Israeli novelist Amos Oz’s father, for example, came to Odessa from Lithuania). Out of this melting pot emerged one of the richest stews of Jewish life, impacting Jewish politics, religion, literature and language. Cities now under siege

or threatened – Berdichev, Kyiv and Odessa – stand every inch as proud as Warsaw, Vilna or New York as centers of modern Jewish culture before the Holocaust. This is the land that produced the Ba’al Shem Tov, Golda Meir and Hayim Nahman Bialik, that was home to dozens of Hasidic dynasties. It is the backdrop to many of the stories of Sholom Aleichem. Tevye the Dairyman was a Ukrainian Jew. And yet, the traumas associated with Ukraine are real, and the worst of the traumas have emerged in Ukraine’s many bids for independence. Bohdan Khmelnytsky remains among the greatest villains in Jewish history for the massacres his forces perpetrated in the 17th century. Even approximate figures for the death toll are hard to come by; Israeli historian Shaul Stampfer estimated that

18,000 to 20,000 Jews, nearly half the Jewish population of Ukraine at the time, were killed by Khmelnytsky’s forces. Worse yet were the pogroms inflicted by the Ukrainian Directorate under Semyon Petliura in the aftermath of World War I, when 50,000 to 100,000 Jews were killed by Ukrainian nationalist forces before their defeat at the hands of the Red Army. This was the greatest killing of Jews prior to the Holocaust 20 years later. The details of the pogroms were so striking (mass rapes, extensive use of torture, and of course, killings) that when a Jew named Sholem Shwartzbard assassinated Petliura in Paris in 1926, a French court found Schwartzbard not guilty – because the French court believed the action justified. If not for Hitler and the Nazis,

AN OLD AGE HOME IN NIKOLAEV, UKRAINE, C. 1928, WAS MAINTAINED BY LOCAL AID SOCIETIES AND THE AMERICAN JEWISH JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE. (COURTESY JDC)

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there is every reason to think that Petliura and the Ukrainian nationalists would be the central emblem for evil in Jewish collective memory. And yet, Nazism did come, and it found a willing collaborator in Petliura’s heirs. The overwhelming majority of Ukrainians fought against Germany, serving heroically in the ranks of the Red Army. Nearly seven million Ukrainains – including some 1.5 million Jews– died at the hands of the German invaders. But the Ukrainian national movement, dominated by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and led by Stepan Bandera, made every effort to collaborate with Germany in World War II, including the murder of Ukrainian Jews. Though the OUN did break with Germany, this was not due to any opposition to German antisemitism, but to the German refusal to permit an independent Ukrainian state. It is no surprise that many Jews’ first instincts toward

Ukraine’s latest push for independence were skeptical. But though past is prologue, it is not fate. The building of monuments to pogromists and Nazi collaborators, including Petliura, has drawn criticism from Jews in Ukraine and abroad, the existence of the Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi national guard division, is a disgrace. Their influence, however, is unclear. The Azov Battalion numbers a few hundred in a military whose regular strength crests at a quarter million. Meanwhile, far more national effort and expense has gone into commemorating the murder of Jews than into lionizing their killers. Pew Polls on antisemitism in Europe have routinely found Ukraine among the least antisemitic countries in Europe (far lower than neighboring Russia). Antisemitic parties such as Svoboda and Pravyy Sektor have performed abysmally at the polls, gaining collectively one seat in Ukraine’s parliament and

2% of the total vote in the most recent elections. By comparison, the far-right Marie le Pen won nearly 34% of the vote in France’s 2017 presidential election while in Germany the Nazi-apologist Alternative for Germany won over 10% of the vote just last year. And Ukrainian voters are not only voting against antisemites, but they are also actively voting for Jews. President Volodomyr Zelensky, whose heroic leadership has impressed the world, is a Jew. The former Prime Minister Volodomyr Groysman is a Jew as well. In neither’s campaigns did their opponents use antisemitism against them, despite a political culture in Ukraine that all too willingly plays dirty. To the contrary, the only attention the media played to Zelensky’s Jewishness was to criticize him for not being sufficiently involved in commemorations for the Babi Yar massacres. Antisemitism still exists in Ukraine, as it does in most countries. But all signs

point to it being a minimal force in Ukrainian life. Ukraine has reinvented itself, reborn again without any Khmelnytsky, Petliura or Bandera, without the overwhelming antisemitism that has so long animated its national movement. One of the most sacred rights is the right to self-improvement, to be better today than you were yesterday. It is a right that exists for individuals and for communities. Ukraine has seized that right fully, if imperfectly, committing itself to be a better land than the one our ancestors left. Damn Putin for trying to take that away. Joshua Meyers is a scholar of modern Jewish history, with a particular interest in politics. Formerly affiliated with Stanford, Harvard and Queens College, his work has appeared in Jewish Social Studies, the Jewish Daily Forward, Tablet, Geschichte der Gegenwart and In Geveb.

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Governor Lamont finds a kindred spirit in the Jewish state BY JUDIE JACOBSON | PHOTOS COURTESY OF OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

EW HAVEN, Connecticut – It was billed as an “economic development mission … focused on building and strengthening connections between Connecticut and members of Israel’s innovation ecosystem.” And so it was. But, according to Ned Lamont, the Connecticut Governor’s recent week-long trip to the Jewish state – in which he and representatives from the state’s public and private sectors met with venture capitalists, incubator, accelerators and thought leaders – turned out to be just that…and so much more. “Israel really rolled out the red carpet for Connecticut. I was so impressed,” said Lamont upon his return to Hartford on Thursday, February 24. The Governor attributed the state delegation’s especially warm welcome by Israeli leaders at least in part to a special connection between Israel and Connecticut that makes them kindred spirits. “President Herzog said to me, ‘You know, you’re small and innovative and punching above

your weight class just like Israel, so we should do more together,” Lamont said, noting the “fun fact” that in his youth, Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett attended summer camp in the New Haven area. He also proudly noted that Connecticut is the first U.S. state to send an official mission to Israel in two years. The trip wasn’t all about business. Lamont also made a stop at Afula-Gilboa, Connecticut’s sister city. And he was especially moved by his first visit ever to Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, Israel’s national memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, located in Jerusalem. “It put a face on the victims and it gave a the voice to the six million who perished,” he told the Ledger. On Feb. 22, at Yad Vashem, he participated in a lighting ceremony of the Eternal Flame. Following his tour and a wreath laying ceremony, he gave brief remarks about the importance of remembering our shared history so that atrocities and genocide, like the Holocaust, never happen again. Lamont’s comments at

GOV. NED LAMONT LAYS HIS HAND ON THE KOTEL FOR A MOMENT OF PRAYER AND REFLECTION.

DURING HIS RECENT TRIP TO THE JEWISH STATE, GOVERNOR LAMONT MADE HIS FIRST VISIT TO YAD VASHEM, WHERE HE PARTICIPATED IN A WREATH LAYING CEREMONY AND GAVE BRIEF REMARKS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF REMEMBERING ATROCITIES AND GENOCIDE, LIKE THE HOLOCAUST.

Yad Vashem can be viewed on YouTube at https://youtu.be/ ryNfHZz6v_U.

Sewing the seeds of collaboration At a news conference in New Haven held on Monday, Feb. 28, just four days after Lamont’s return home, the Governor discussed some of the highlight’s of his trip, in which he was accompanied by a delegation that included representatives from Raytheon, Hartford HealthCare, Digital Currency Group, the Jewish Federation

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Association of Connecticut, the University of Connecticut, the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, and Connecticut Innovations. The Governor and the delegation met with partners and founders from Strauss Group, Viola, Vintage and OurCrowd and attended several roundtable discussions with Google. The trip culminated with a VentureClash event led by Connecticut Innovations, the state’s venture capital arm and featured six pitches from companies looking to expand to the United States. March 8, 2022

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In addition to meeting with business leaders, he met with several Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, President Isaac Herzog, and Dr. Salman Zarka, Israel’s chief COVID-19 officer. Interim UConn President Dr. Radenka Maric and representatives from Technion also led a session around their clean energy initiative. As for the mission’s goal – to meet with business leaders and learn more about the innovation ecosystem in Israel – the Governor described it as a great success. “In addition to meeting with more than a dozen businesses in Israel, we also met with leading investors, incubators, accelerators, and thought leaders in the country. From those meetings, we have already established next steps and additional opportunities to work together in the future,” he said. “When it comes to attracting businesses to our state, the first and best people to tell our story are Connecticut’s business people,” he told the Ledger. “So, for example, we got a senior member from Pratt Whitney –you know, they do jet engines– and we put that person in front of Israel’s leading military purchasing guys. They had an hour and a half talk about how they should set up some Israeli defense centers here in Connecticut, alongside our helicopters, alongside our jet engines. So we have better collaboration there. That was very interesting.” Lamont found several areas in Israel’s innovation ecosystem especially interesting. Consider FinTech – an emerging industry that uses technology to improve activities in finance. “We brought with us the Digital Currency Group – one of the biggest FinTech companies in the country. [Digital Currency Group is a venture capital company focusing on the digital currency market]. The company happens to have just moved to Stamford. And so, we had had the 12 leading young financial tech entrepreneurs in Israel around March 8, 2022

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the table. Now, when they think about where they want to expand – they used to be just New York and New Jersey – they’re saying, ‘Hey, there’s a real advantages to Connecticut.’ So, the financial tech guys were very interested. The same goes for food tech (Israel recently announced production of a chicken and beef product that they grow in a petri dish, with Lamont has tasted and declared “pretty good.”) and other industries. Lamont expects that many of these Israeli entrepreneurs will be visiting Connecticut in the near future with an eye towards forging collaborations and the like. “You know, there’s two and a half times more venture capital money being invested in Israel today than there was a year and a half ago. That’s a sign of optimism and people believing in the future,” Lamont told the Ledger. “From a political standpoint, they’re really working hard to show that Israel is governing itself and moving forward – and the business community is really leading the way. And that’s great,” he added. That sense of optimism is shared by others in the Connecticut delegation. “We had an incredibly productive trip to Israel,” Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner David Lehman said. “The Governor led delegation meetings with high-growth Israeli companies, venture firms, established companies, and the Israeli government. Our meetings were singularly focused on how to increase collaboration between our two economies and mutually beneficial direct investment. I am optimistic about the future of the Connecticut-Israel economic relationship.”

RUTH PORAT, CFO OF ALPHABET, THE PARENT COMPANY OF GOOGLE, CHATS WITH THE GOVERNOR AND U.S. AMBASSADOR TOM NIDES, OUTSIDE OF GOOGLE’S TEL AVIV CAMPUS. GOOGLE HOSTED MULTIPLE PROGRAMS DURING THE TRIP.

LAMONT TOURED FUTURE MEAT TECHNOLOGIES. THE INNOVATIVE ISRAEL COMPANY IS IN EARLY DISCUSSIONS WITH CONNECTICUT ABOUT COMING TO THE STATE.

GOV. NED LAMONT MEETS WITH ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER NAFTALI BENNETT DURING THE CONNECTICUT GOVERNOR’S VISIT TO ISRAEL EARLY THIS MONTH.

Southern New England Jewish Ledger

International Woman’s Day

The war in Ukraine has turned empowered and independent Jewish women into the displaced BY KARYN G. GERSHON

(JTA) – This is not a drill. This is a disaster. In my 28 years of working with Jews in Ukraine, Russia and the surrounding region, I have not seen a humanitarian crisis of this magnitude, and I have never been so scared for the women of Ukraine. The women I saw in Kyiv just two years ago who were starting businesses, getting their MBAs, creating art and building cultural and social institutions are now in a critical state. Project Kesher, a feminist organization supported by

more than 50 women’s groups, 15 interfaith coalitions and 1,100 nonprofits and academic, medical and government partners – a testament to the vitality of Ukraine’s Jewish community. Within the span of a week this war has turned empowered and independent women into the displaced. With most men banned from leaving the country and being urged to join the Ukrainian army, it is women who are carrying the responsibility for care and evacuation of children and the elderly.

PARTICIPANTS IN PROJECT KESHER’S GLOBAL BAT MITZVAH PROGRAM CELEBRATE THEIR B’NOT MITZVAH AT SHIRAT HAYAM PROGRESSIVE COMMUNITY IN ODESSA, UKRAINE, JAN. 29, 2022. (EUGENE NPOMNYASHIY/PROJECT KESHER)

a range of Jewish groups, trains women to build Jewish community and advance civil society in five Eastern European countries. In the 30-plus years that we have been working in Ukraine, we have developed a network of more than 300 trained leaders engaged in organizing and networking across 23 of the 27 regions of Ukraine. Prior to the war, we were engaging

Before the war, Project Kesher Ukraine volunteers donated nearly 100,000 hours per year to promote women’s leadership and economic empowerment, vibrant Jewish life, diversity and tolerance, and social justice in women’s rights, women’s health and gender-based violence. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Project Kesher was pioneering Jewish life online.

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Today, those aspirations for a civil, equitable society seem unfathomably distant. The same volunteers are identifying the needs on the ground, like medical supplies and food, but they are also anticipating the most basic immediate needs of those standing in line at the borders, like diapers and formula for babies, emergency mental health support and cash to survive until resettlement. We are working with partners to get medical supplies and food into Ukraine. Russianspeaking Israeli psychologists are volunteering to provide pro bono emergency mental health counseling and support new immigrants to Israel. The global Project Kesher staff is responding to requests from desperate and scared refugees and those who need evacuations, doing their best to make sure that no women and families fall through the cracks. In the United States, we are raising funds through an Emergency Fund for Women in Ukraine, and telling their stories, and we are praying. We are all praying for an end to war. On Thursday morning, Project Kesher got a call from a young Ukrainian woman, an artist from Eastern Ukraine who needed evacuation with her small son, a child with physical disabilities. She reports that relief efforts are overwhelmed, and she could not evacuate from her home alone. Project Kesher leaders called from woman to woman in Ukraine until we found a volunteer to help this mother physically carry her child to safe transport and out of danger. The poverty in Ukraine, before this war, was already pervasive. COVID-19 remains a great concern and there has been widespread unemployment

in Ukraine and throughout the region. So when I hear that women are arriving at the border with children and elderly relatives, I know that they have come this far with nothing except what might fit in their backpacks. These women are my friends. They have hosted me at their homes for meals with a dozen exquisite salads and visited me with gifts from their favorite artisans. Now they are in tears as they make impossible life-anddeath decisions. A friend I’ll call Inna is a 40-year-old Jewish professional whose husband was conscripted to fight for Ukraine while she and her 10-year-old daughter were under heavy attack in an eastern city. Finally, on Thursday, she made the difficult decision to evacuate by car, and she has even made arrangements to take two additional women, both pregnant, with her and her daughter. This same woman told me a few short weeks ago that she wouldn’t evacuate until there were tanks rolling down her street. This is where we are. Karyn G. Gershon is CEO of Project Kesher. She joined Project Kesher as its executive director in 1994 and was instrumental in growing its Jewish women’s activist network to more than 180 communities in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and Israel. She is a graduate of Cornell University and Northwestern University School of Law. The views expressed here are the author’s alone.

March 8, 2022

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Briefs Hundreds of Ukrainian refugees land in Israel. Thousands could follow. (JTA) – Around 300 Ukrainian Jewish refugees landed in Israel Sunday, among them some 90 orphans between the ages of two and 12, in the first round of what Israeli government officials are expecting to be a wave of thousands in the coming months. They were flown on three planes from Moldova, Romania and Poland. But whether Israel will accept Ukrainian refugees who are not Jewish, and therefore ineligible for Israeli citizenship under the country’s Law of Return, is unclear. The Law of Return allows any Jew who wishes to live in Israel to obtain Israeli citizenship. But Israel has not historically opened paths to citizenship or long-term visas for refugees who are not Jewish, including the thousands of African asylum seekers currently living in Israel. Fewer than 10% of Ukrainians who have entered Israel since the start of the war have been Jews, Israel’s Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked said Sunday, according to Haaretz. “We will reach 15,000 Ukrainians in a month. The State of Israel needs to do more in order to bring Jews and those eligible for the Law of Return. We can’t keep going at this rate, things need to be planned,” Shaked said. Israel has already tried to deport some of the Ukrainian refugees who are ineligible to immigrate under the Law of Return who have entered the country so far. The government has collected monetary deposits from some non-Jewish refugees to ensure they do not stay in the country longer than necessary, a tactic some have criticized as inhumane in light of the circumstances. Government officials discussed the issue of whether to

admit more non-Jewish refugees to the country at a cabinet meeting Sunday and the cabinet is expected to return to the issue during the coming week. The Jewish Agency, a nonprofit that brings large numbers of immigrants to Israel, received a flood of new requests from Jews trying to flee Ukraine as the war begin late last month.

Zelensky thanks Israel for support a day after Bennett meets with Putin (JTA) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Israel for its support for his country Sunday, the day after Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett flew to Moscow for a three-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I am grateful to Israel for their support for Ukraine,” Zelensky said, according to a translation by Sky News published by The Times of Israel. “We need the support of all countries and we were talking about the support we need now and how we are going to cooperate in the future after the war.” Zelensky did not mention Bennett by name, nor did he mention Bennett’s meeting with Putin. Zelensky, who is Jewish, said Thursday that he does not feel Bennett “has wrapped himself in the Ukrainian flag” throughout the first weeks of the war. Bennett met with Putin for three hours on Saturday before flying to Berlin to speak with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He also spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron over the phone and has spoken with Zelensky three times since the meeting with Putin. At the beginning of the weekly Israeli cabinet meeting Sunday, Bennett said Israel had a “moral obligation” to try to negotiate between Ukraine and Russia, though he said he could not elaborate on the status of his talks with Putin and Zelensky. “I returned from Moscow and Berlin a few hours ago,” Bennett

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said, according to The Times of Israel. “I went there to assist the dialogue between all of the sides, of course with the blessing and encouragement of all players.” Israel occupies an unusual position among Western countries due to its close relations with both Ukraine and Russia. Zelensky, who is Jewish, had previously asked Israel to serve as an intermediary between the two countries. Israel has declined to condemn Russia as forthrightly as other Western countries since the beginning of the war. Though Israel declined to sign a UN Security Council resolution condemning Russia, it did sign onto a resolution by the United Nations General Assembly condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a few days later. Israel is set to send a field hospital to Ukraine this week to assist Ukrainians affected by the war.

Israeli produce vendors offer lower prices to pretty women (Israel21c via JNS) Everyone knows that prices are negotiable at Israel’s open-air marketplaces. But not everyone can successfully bargain down prices. Undercover shoppers in a recent Israeli study found that fresh produce vendors (96% of them male) in 23 markets offered larger and more frequent discounts to women than to men. The more attractive the female buyer, the larger and more frequent the discount offered. Male shoppers’ attractiveness made no difference at all. Overall, male buyers obtained a discount on 26% of their requests, compared to 40% of female buyers’ requests. The mean percentage discount obtained by female buyers was 5.18% compared to 2.45% for male buyers. Economics professors Zeev Shtudiner (Ariel University, Israel) Bradley J. Ruffle (McMaster University, Canada) and Arie Sherman (Ruppin Academic Center, Israel) reported their findings in the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental

Economics. “We trained 90 buyers [44 males and 46 females] and sent them to produce markets across Israel. After verifying a product’s posted price, they asked for a discount on a one-kilogram or one-unit purchase,” the authors explain. “Predominantly male vendors employ third-degree price discrimination: women are offered larger and more frequent discounts than men, and the more attractive the female buyer, the larger and more frequent the discount offered. No other buyer characteristic is a significant predictor of the likelihood or size of a discount,” they state. The buyer’s perceived wealth, kindness, intelligence or ethnicity were not found to be significant predictors of their chances to get a discount on fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs or spices. The attractiveness and other perceived traits of the buyers were rated by 577 students looking at their photographs.

Tel Aviv, Dubai hold joint online seminar, partner on women’s health (JNS) Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer and Medcare Women & Children Hospital in Dubai hosted a first-ever joint educational online seminar on Thursday to enhance learning on women’s care. The event, which attracted medical professionals from across the region, was focused on Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. “Health care is an industry that depends on people all working together to deliver the best possible outcome for patients,” said Dr. Shanila Laiju, group CEO of Medcare Hospital & Medical Centres. “Through this collaboration model between medical practitioners from different countries, we will continue to provide advanced health-care services to our patients at Medcare Women & Children Hospital.” Since the signing of the Abraham Accords in September 2020, Sheba has been stepping March 8, 2022

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up collaborations in both the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, with a special focus on medical education, according to Yoel Har-Even, director of Sheba Global. Last April, Sheba signed an agreement with Al Tadawi Healthcare group to provide treatment to diabetics in Dubai through the hospital’s “Sheba BEYOND” telemedicine program. The hospital also signed a deal with the UAE’s APEX National Investment to promote a range of health-care solutions in the region.

Sheba Medical Center ranks No. 10 on Newsweek top hospital list (JNS) Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer has made Newsweek’s “World’s Best Hospitals” list for the fourth year in a row. This year, it maintained its previous slot at No. 10. The list’s compilation was based on an international online survey that included more than 80,000 doctors, hospital managers and healthcare professionals; surveys measuring patient satisfaction with hospitals; and key medicalperformance indicators, including patient safety, hygiene measures and quality of treatment. Sheba is Israel’s largest medical facility, located in the Center of the country. Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center made the top 100, coming in at No. 96. “We hope this [study] will be useful not only to patients and families seeking the best care for themselves and loved ones, but also to hospitals as they benchmark themselves against their peers during a period of unprecedented change,” said Newsweek global editor-in-chief Nancy Cooper. “ “We continue to be global leaders in innovation, research and humanitarian outreach. And we aspire to transform the future of healthcare in Israel and around the globe,” said Sheba director-general Professor Yitshak Kreiss about the ranking. March 8, 2022

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Cooper said that the world’s hospitals have been on the front line in medicine since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic more than two years ago, which experts said has meant adapting to new and existing challenges and “improvising on the fly.” The World’s Best Hospitals 2022 list included 2,200 hospitals from 27 countries; 21 countries are represented in the top 150.

EU lawmakers: cut Palestinian funding if antisemitic textbooks aren’t changed (JNS) Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from 18 countries co-signed a letter calling for the reduction of funding to the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) if the latter continues to refuse to change its educational material that includes antisemitic incitement to violence and the demonization of Israel. The letter sent to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is based on a January report by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), which revealed thousands of pages of new material produced by the P.A. that promotes hate and antisemitism. The pages were written by P.A. professionals and taught by teachers whose salaries are directly funded by the E.U. The new educational material was published after the European Commission committed to making sure that new P.A. textbooks produced in 2021 would not include antisemitism. The P.A. Ministry of Education also promised to publish revised textbooks for the current school year but instead reprinted last year’s problematic education material, IMPACT-se said, noting that the new material contains content “that is worse than current or previous Palestinian textbooks, with a greater number of lessons that directly incite violence and propagate overt antisemitism.” IMPACT-se reported last week that the E.U. was discussing the

possibility of freezing funding to the P.A. if no changes are made to its textbooks.

Amazon is selling ‘Free Palestine Intifada’ clothing (JNS) Campaign Against Antisemitism has accused Amazon of promoting incitement against Israel by continuing to sell apparel that displays antisemitic slogans and images. The online giant currently sells shirts that are emblazoned with the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which calls for the forced removal of Jews from their homeland and for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state. The description for one such shirt says “Free Palestine, defend Palestinian people, defund Israel” while another description says, “End Israeli occupation.” One brand selling on Amazon is called Free Palestine Intifada Clothing and in the description for one of its shirts, it says: “If you believe in a future where there is an end to Israeli occupation and Palestine and the Gaza Strip will be finally free this t-shirt is perfect to increase awareness. May the Palestine flag wave-free again and the innocent deaths come to an end.” Some apparel sold by Amazon features the image of a machine gun or a crossed-out Star of David while others promote a boycott of Israel, CAA said. The Jewish Chronicle first reported on the clothing last week and cited Lord John Mann, the British government’s antisemitism adviser, who found the items “appalling” and said, “We will need to consider whether additional sanctions can be initiated to stop this type of supplier facilitating the spreading of hatred.” CAA said on Wednesday that it wrote to Amazon about the antisemitic garments, but the clothing remains available for purchase online. A spokesperson for CAA said: “The chant of ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ … is an attempt to deny Jews, uniquely, the right

to self-determination, which is a breach of the international definition of antisemitism. Images of maps with the Jewish state erased only reinforce the genocidal sentiment behind the slogan. Amazon should make clear that its marketplace is no place for antisemitic incitement and remove these products from sale.”

A kosher soup kitchen partners with DoorDash to help needy NY’ers (New York Jewish Week via JTA) – Masbia, the kosher soup kitchen and food pantry, has partnered with food delivery service DoorDash to provide kosher meals and groceries to families facing food insecurity in Brooklyn and Queens. The partnership is part of Project Dash, DoorDash’s social impact initiative, in which the San Francisco-based company partners with local food banks, food pantries and other non-profits to deliver food and groceries to people in need. “Every week, the [Masbia] network handles over 7,500 food pantry appointments and close to 2,000 soup kitchen dinners,” Alexander Rapaport, the executive director of Masbia, told The New York Jewish Week. Still, he was aware that many more families than that are struggling, given the sharp rise in food prices and the potential winding down of food assistance programs as pandemic policies are lifted. Many of these families, due to COVID-19 or the lack of transportation, are unable to make it to the storefronts to get food, so Rapaport wanted to find a way to bring groceries to them.

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Arts & Entertainment

A new comedy showcase asks what’s still funny about being a New York Jew BY JULIA GERGELY

(New York Jewish Week via JTA) – As “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” tries to make abundantly clear, stand-up comedy is a New York Jewish thing. The show is set in an era when Jewish comics were defining the art form in Manhattan night clubs and Catskill Mountain resorts: Lenny Bruce, Joan Rivers, Woody Allen, Elaine May, Jackie Mason. Fast forward a generation or two and the list might grow to include Robert Klein, Elayne Boosler, Jerry Seinfeld, Carol Leifer and Billy Crystal. According to comedians Eitan Levine and Tori Piskin, however, it’s time for a changing of the guard. They are trying to usher in a new generation of Jewish comedians with their new monthly stand-up show in New York City, which will showcase young Jewish comedians of different backgrounds, interests and talents. Levine said the show, titled “Smokin’ Hot Jews,” will feature the “who’s who of young Jewish talent in the city” – up-andcoming Jewish comedians and writers like Matthew Broussard, Joanna Hausmann, Anna Roisman and Eric Neumann. Levine and Piskin believe the show is the only all-Jewish comedy lineup in New York City right now, and are eager to see how it will fit in with the long tradition of Jewish comedy in New York while also carving its own path. “I definitely feel part of that tradition,” Piskin, 30, told The New York Jewish Week. “But I also feel like we’re creating a new tradition within our comedy community, and people will talk about this generation of comedians 50 years from now. I think it’s time to bring a young, cool energy to this. Like when they reference [a March 8, 2022

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Jewish comedian] I want it to be someone who’s under the age of 41, and maybe who hasn’t gotten a divorce yet.” Levine also hopes to change expectations around what is and isn’t Jewish humor. “So much of the Jewish comedy content is based in fear and the narrative that we’re scared all the time,” Levine said. “Hopefully seeing the show is a celebration of the culture and what’s exciting about being Jewish to us.” Both Levine and Piskin grew up in the New York area, and noted that their comedy has shaped their Jewishness just as much, if not more, than their Jewishness has shaped their comedy. Piskin, who grew up secular on the Upper East Side (and, to her dismay, never had a bat mitzvah), didn’t recognize her comedic sense as particularly Jewish until she started making content on TikTok. That’s when the videos with Jewish themes – dating tribulations, fights with her mother and struggles with her unruly but luxurious curls – started going viral. “People would come up to me and tell me how much they relate to my stuff because they’re Jewish, too,” she said. “I realized how much I could connect to people by being Jewish.” Levine, 32, has recently been making “person-on-the-street” videos. He has been interviewing New Yorkers about their knowledge of Judaism, and has been fascinated to see how little some New Yorkers know about the Jewish community. Some identify as Jewish political figures who definitely are not: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Abraham Lincoln. Others sincerely debated if Jewish people could or did play basketball in an episode that Levine filmed outside

Yeshiva University, whose men’s basketball team is a Division III powerhouse. (Although, to be fair, basketball hasn’t been a Jewish game since the 1950s.) All of their time spent making content on the internet has helped the two realize how necessary it is to celebrate and draw attention to Jewish culture and comedy, even in New York City, which has the largest concentration of Jews in the world outside of Israel. “Shows like this can bridge that gap and show that we’re more than stereotypes. If we’re exposing people to what regular Jews are like, I assume it will go a long way,” Levine said. Neither comedian, whose careers are largely cultivated on the same social media sites where hate speech can run rampant, feels that they have received excessively hateful or antisemitic comments.

More often they see ignorant, uneducated or simply unaware takes. For example, some commenters conflate the comedian’s Jewishness with their presumed opinions on Israel. “Smokin’ Hot Jews” debuted on March 3 at The Stand, a comedy club near Union Square. Piskin and Levine hope to make “Smokin’ Hot Jews” a monthly staple, having already sold out their first show and booked the second for April 27, also at The Stand. “It’s been really cool producing this show. We know so many funny Jewish comedians, and there’s always an instant connection between us, even though we have completely different Jewish backgrounds and individual stories about being Jewish,” Piskin said. “It’s just fun to all be in one place, and to be allowed to celebrate it.”

EITAN LEVINE AND TORI PISKIN’S NEW MONTHLY STAND-UP SHOWCASE, “SMOKIN’ HOT JEWS,” WILL FEATURE AN ALL-JEWISH LINE-UP. (COURTESY)

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On Campus

Donor yanks endowment at U of Washington over professor’s Israel criticism BY ANDREW LAPIN

(JTA) – The University of Washington has put its five-yearold Israel Studies Program on hold after a major donor, angry about a professor’s criticism of Israel, took her money back. Becky Benaroya, a prominent Seattle philanthropist, gave $5 million in 2016 to create the program. But after a professor who held the Jack and Rebecca Benaroya Endowed Chair in Israel Studies was among hundreds of Jewish studies and Israel studies professors to sign a widely circulated statement criticizing Israel last year, Benaroya became concerned about what was happening in the program she had funded. She requested months of meetings with the professor,

Liora Halperin, and university officials to discuss her views on the program’s direction. Those meetings culminated in the university returning the entire endowment to Benaroya earlier this year. “Based upon the direction the program had taken, my mom didn’t want her name connected with it,” Larry Benaroya, Becky Benaroya’s son and the current CEO of the family real-estate firm The Benaroya Company, told JTA in an email. As a result, the university stripped Halperin of her chair position and halted programming related to Israel studies. The turmoil, first reported by The Cholent, an independent

newsletter about Jewish Seattle, sent shockwaves across academia. Unlike Halperin, David Myers, a professor of Jewish history at the University of California, Los Angeles, did not sign the 2021 “statement on Israel/Palestine” that kicked off the turmoil at the University of Washington. That letter, published amid a deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, condemned Israeli actions against Palestinians and stated that “the Zionist movement … was and is still shaped by settler colonial paradigms.” But, he said, one needn’t agree with Halperin’s personal positions on Israel to be alarmed by the consequences

she is facing at her university and fearful about the future of academic dialogue about the region. He started an open letter to support Halperin, who was his student, and close to 500 professors have signed on this week – many, he said, who don’t share her views. The University of Washington already had a vaunted Jewish studies program in 2016, when Benaroya made her gift. Its first professor was Deborah Lipstadt, currently nominated to become the U.S. State Department’s antisemitism monitor. Now, the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies has 27 faculty members as well as one of the world’s Continued on page 37

CHERRY BLOSSOMS ON THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON QUAD IN SEATTLE, MARCH 14, 2010. (BREWBOOKS VIA CREATIVE COMMONS)

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Hoffman Centennial CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8

“It is truly humbling, and we are grateful for the courage and commitment demonstrated by previous generations of Hoffman family members,” Brad Hoffman says. In 2002, Jeffrey’s son, Matthew Hoffman, entered as the first member of the fourth generation – followed by Jeffrey’s

THE HOFFMAN AUTO GROUP’S FIRST NEW CAR DEALERSHIP IN NEW HARTFORD, CONN.

Automobile Dealers Association, took over management and ownership of Hoffman Motor Co. When Israel Hoffman died in 1956 at age 60, Burt became chairman of the company. The following year, the Israel Hoffman Lounge was dedicated in the sanctuary of Hillel House the University of Connecticut. The speaker for the dedication was Dr. Judah J. Shapiro, national director of the B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation under his leadership. “It wasn’t that our grandfather wasn’t ambitious, but our father was really ambitious and he absolutely wanted to grow the business and make his mark in the world,” Brad explains. Burt was also actively involved in the Greater Hartford Jewish community. He served on the Board the Bess and Paul Sigel Hebrew Academy of Greater Hartford, which honored him with its “Man of the Year” award. He was also served for many years as a Director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford and, in 1986 he was awarded the “Lion of Judah” at a dinner hosted by State of Israel Bonds. Shortly before his death, he was named an Honorary Life Member of the Board of Trustees of the Hebrew Home and Hospital. The Hoffman family were among the founders of both The Emanuel Synagogue and Beth El Temple. Burt’s philanthropy also extended to quiet expressions March 8, 2022

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of generosity in the local community, including providing loaner cars to several rabbis. All three sons of Burt and his wife Phyllis came on board the company – Jeffrey in 1972, Todd in 1975 and Bradley in 1982. Todd went on to pursue other interests, but Jeffrey and Bradley continue to grow Hoffman Enterprises. Today Hoffman has 10 dealerships in locations in four towns – East Hartford, New London, Waterbury and Avon/Simsbury. They also own two Collision Centers and the Hoffman Insurance Agency of Connecticut. In January, Hoffman finished a multi-million-dollar development project which brought its BMW dealership to the I-84 corridor, on the Cheshire/Waterbury line. While looking to the future, the Hoffmans have not forgotten the past. “I remember my grandfather and my father in the old Hoffman Oldsmobile building with the creaky floors,” Jeffrey recalls fondly. “We had a Rocket 88 sign over the front door. That was when Oldsmobile and General Motors was at its pinnacle. Almost all the cars sold then were American cars. That building was on Connecticut Boulevard in East Hartford and here my brother and I are, many years later, and we’re still on Connecticut Boulevard.”

son Jonathan, and Brad’s sons Zachary and Joshua. “Our family has provided a wonderful example of how to be community partners and giving back to those who support us,” said Matthew. “We will certainly continue to carry on those traditions.”

Around SNE Two West Hartford residents to be honored by JTConnect HARTFORD, Connecticut – West Hartford residents Eric Maurer and Mel Simon will be honored at “Eat, Drink & Connect,” celebrating the10th anniversary of JTConnect, an organization that engages Jewish teens from the Greater Hartford area in educational and social experiences grounded in Jewish learning and values. The celebration will be held Sunday, April 3, 4 - 6 p.m. at The Emanuel Synagogue at 160 Mohegan Drive in West Hartford. Honoree Eric Maurer is the outgoing Executive Director of JTConnect. He joined the organization in 2016, and under his leadership JTConnect has both grown the number of teen participants and diversified its program ERIC MAURER offerings. expanded its impact in the community, growing participation and diversifying program offerings. A graduate of the University of Hartford, he holds dual Masters degrees from Brandeis University’s Hornstein Program in Jewish Professional Leadership and Near Eastern & Judaic Studies. He serves as a Trustee on the Solomon Schechter Day

School of Greater Hartford Board, as a volunteer advisor to the Alpha Epsilon Pi Jewish Fraternity at the University of Hartford, and as a founding steering committee member of the Jewish Community Foundation’s JewGood Hartford: Young Professionals Connecting through Philanthropy. Maurer and his wife Becca have two sons. Mel Simon is founding president of JTConnect who helped guide JTConnect through its transformation from Yachad, formerly Greater Hartford’s Jewish community after school high school into the educational program it is today. A longtimeleader in the Jewish community of Hartford, he has served as President of The Emanuel Synagogue and the Mandell JCC, and on MEL SIMON the Boards of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford and the Friends of the Arava Institute. Mel is a practicing commercial litigator with Cohn Birnbaum & Shea. He is the father of three daughters. For “Eat, Drink & Connect” tickets and information, visit jtconnect.org.

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Around SNE JGS Lifecare named March beneficiary of Longmeadow Big Y bag program LONGMEADOW, Massachusetts – JGS Lifecare, a non-profit healthcare system serving seniors and their families in western Massachusetts, has been named the March 2022 beneficiary of the Longmeadow Big Y Community Bag Program. As beneficiary, JGS Lifecare will receive $1 of every $2.50 reusable bag purchased at the Longmeadow Big Y, located at 802 Williams Street. “We are so pleased to be the March beneficiary of the Big Y Community Bag Program, and given the opportunity to raise awareness of the full continuum of residential and eldercare services we provide on our Longmeadow campus,” says Susan Halpern, vice president of development at JGS LIfecare. “Community philanthropic support is a critical source of revenue, helping us continue to enhance our programs and services that enrich the lives of the more than 450 people we serve each and every day across our family of services.” For more information, contact Susan Halpern at (413) 567-3949, x3533 or shalpern@jgslifecare.org, or visit JGSLifecare.org.

Friendship Circle marks Jewish Disability Awareness Inclusion Month WEST HARTFORD, Connecticut – On Sunday, Feb. 27, the Friendship Circle of Greater Hartford marked Jewish Disability Awareness Inclusion Month by creating the first Jewish Community Inclusion Mural. People of all ages, with and without disabilities, came together on the patio of Starbucks-Bishop Corner in West Hartford – unphased by the winter temperatures, eager to choose their color and contribute to the beautiful, colorful art composition – to spray paint a community mural, which serves as a testament to what can be achieved when people of all abilities work together in an inclusive environment. Participants also had the opportunity to pick up educational handouts, purchase children’s books on inclusion, and make their voices heard by writing notes on the “One Thing I Wish You Knew About Me” message board. Standing at the intersection of Trout Brook Drive and Albany Avenue intersection in West Hartford, the theme of the 8’x16’ artwork is #justASK – a message that says when a community asks and listens, and all its members feel heard and respected, it creates an environment of understanding and acceptance. The Friendship Circle brings together everyone from toddler to young adults with and without special needs, for a variety of Judaic and social programming. Learn more about Friendship Circle at friendshipCircleCT.com. To see a timelapse video of the creation of the mural and to learn more about the theme, visit justASK.care.

JCC kids take Purim in hand! Puppet Purim is on its way! And, to get the party started, the Mandell Jewish Community Center gathered gathered together children for an interactive program in which they experimented with a hands on display of shadow puppetry in the center of the JCC’s Chase Family Gallery. The MANDELL JCC PRESCHOOLERS NOAH children were guided by master AND JUNE EXPERIMENT WITH SHADOW PUPPETRY, UNDER THE TUTELAGE OF puppeteer, Matthew Isaac PUPPETEER (AND JCC PRESCHOOL Cohen, head of the University PARENT) MATTHEW ISAAC COHEN. of Connecticut Puppet Arts program and the father of a JCC preschooler. The puppets, created by students in the UCONN School of Puppetry, are replicas of puppets created in Indonesia. They will be featured in the JCC’s upcoming “Purim Spectacular,” to be held Saturday, March 12 at 8 p.m. and again on Sunday, March 13 at 2 p.m. The show, led by Cohen, the “Purim Spectacular,” will be a global collaboration of traditions coming together for an extraordinary display of Purim shadow theater.

B’nai Mitzvah ANNABELLE BOORKY daughter of Jared and Kimberly Boorky, celebrated her bat mitzvah on Saturday, March 5 at Farmington Valley Jewish Congregation-Emek Shalom in Simsbury, Connecticut. HAYDEN GOLDSTEIN, daughter of Gretchen and Lee Goldstein, celebrated her at mitzvah on Saturday, March 5 at Congregation B’ani Israel in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

A FRIENDSHIP CIRCLE VOLUNTEER CELEBRATES THE FINISH OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY INCLUSION MURAL

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MORGAN KAUFMAN, daughter of Tracy and Lee Kaufman, will celebrate her bat mitzvah on Saturday, March 12 at Congregation B’nai Shalom in Westborough, Massachusetts. March 8, 2022

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

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Red Sox release minor leaguer after social media attacks on Jewish exec BY JACOB GURUS

(JTA) – The Boston Red Sox released a minor league player following an antisemitic and homophobic social media outburst, in which he specifically targeted the organization’s chief baseball officer, Chaim Bloom, who is Jewish. Brett Netzer called Bloom a “fraud,” “an embarrassment to any torah-following jew” and attacked him for his support of Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community. Netzer also questioned Bloom’s Jewish identity. In another bizarre tweet, Netzer responded to a critic by saying, in part, “I am a racist.” Some of his posts targeted Black people, and others attacked transgender people. As of Monday afternoon, Netzer’s Twitter account no longer exists. The news of Netzer’s release was first reported by Chad Jennings, who covers the Red Sox for The Athletic. Netzer responded to Jennings’ tweet by taking issue with the characterization of his comments

BRETT NETZER, LEFT, HAS BEEN RELEASED BY THE BOSTON RED SOX AFTER AN OFFENSIVE SOCIAL MEDIA TIRADE ATTACKING TEAM EXECUTIVE CHAIM BLOOM. (GETTY IMAGES)

as antisemitic. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency did not receive a response from the Red Sox in time for publication. Netzer, 25, was drafted in 2017, and last played in 2019 for Boston’s Double-A affiliate,

Jewish Super Bowl champion Ali Marpet retires from NFL BY JACOB GURVIS

(JTA) – Ali Marpet, who won a Super Bowl protecting Tom Brady as an offensive lineman for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, announced his

ALI MARPET HAS ANNOUNCED HIS RETIREMENT AT THE AGE OF 28. (MIKE EHRMANN/GETTY IMAGES)

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the Portland Sea Dogs. The 2020 minor league season was canceled due to the pandemic, and Netzer was placed on the restricted list in 2021 for undisclosed reasons. Bloom, who joined the Red Sox front office in 2019, is a

retirement on Sunday via Instagram. Marpet’s announcement was widely received as a shock around the football world. The 28-year-old is coming off his first selection to the Pro Bowl, the NFL’s all-star game, and was due to earn $10 million in 2022. Tampa Bay coach Bruce Arians was among those surprised by the news. In his announcement post, Marpet expressed gratitude for his seven years in the league, thanking teammates, coaches, family and friends. According to ESPN, Marpet retired due to unspecified concerns for his “overall health.” After seven formidable years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I’ve come to the decision to retire from the game that has given me so much. This organization and the people surrounding it have helped not only fulfill a dream, but also helped build me into the person I am today. I’ve made Tampa

Shabbat-observant Jewish day school graduate. When Bloom ran baseball operations for the Tampa Bay Rays, Tablet reported that his family lived walkingdistance to the ballpark so Bloom could avoid driving on Shabbat.

Bay my home and I look forward to serving this community in the coming years. To the coaches and teammates, family and friends, an Instagram post simply can’t express the profound impact you’ve had on me. I’m eternally grateful. Thank you Tampa Bay. Marpet was drafted in the second round of the 2015 NFL Draft, becoming the highestdrafted player in Division III history. He spent all seven years of his career in Tampa Bay. Prior to the draft, Marpet told JTA in 2015 that it would be “a huge honor” to represent Jewish athletes in the NFL. “I’m happy to wave that flag,” he said. His father lived in Israel for a few years during the 1970s and was previously married to an Israeli woman. Marpet’s sudden retirement marks another big loss for the Buccaneers offense: Brady announced his retirement earlier this offseason. March 8, 2022

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“I’m thrilled to be at William Raveis, whose focus is

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In The Kitchen: Purim!

Beyond hamantaschen: Traditional Purim dishes tell the story of Diaspora life BY SARAH OGINCE

(JNS) Megillat Esther, or the Scroll of Esther, read on the upcoming holiday of Purim, describes the Jewish people’s escape from annihilation in Persia in the fifth century BCE. But really, it’s a quintessential story of Jewish life in the Diaspora, where Jews must rely on their wits and influence to preserve themselves and their way of life. Purim, celebrated this year on March 17, does have one thing in common with every other Jewish holiday, however: It revolves around food. Edible gifts, called mishloach manot, are delivered to friends and family, and the day ends with a feast in commemoration of the winetastings Queen Esther hosted for King Ahasuerus and his wicked adviser, Haman. Still, Purim cuisine is not known for its diversity. For most people, it begins and ends with hamantaschen–the triangular, fruit-filled cookies that represent Haman’s hat, or maybe his pocket (more on that later). In fact, Jews all over the world cook an incredible variety of dishes

to celebrate the story of Persian redemption, and these foods tell their own story of Jewish acculturation and continuity. First and foremost, it’s a story of faith, says Joan Nathan, journalist and author of 11 cookbooks, most recently King Solomon’s Table: “Jewish food is the dietary laws, no question about that. Even if you don’t observe them, I think they’re always in the back of your mind.” But equally, Nathan says, Jewish cooking in the Diaspora is about adaptation. “Going elsewhere, going throughout the world and making these dishes kosher. It’s a quality of Jewish food. Unlike French or Italian cuisine, it’s not limited to a place.” In Russia and Poland, for example, Jews celebrate Purim with koyletsh–a large, sweet loaf topped with white frosting and sprinkles. It shares a name, and a striking resemblance, to a panettone-like Russian bread served at Easter, but its shape– braided like challah–makes it Jewish. Koyletsh is said to represent the rope used to hang Haman after his downfall.

Giving food a symbolic meaning was a common way of incorporating local cuisine into Jewish culture. “Stuffed foods are really common on Purim to represent the surprises of the story,” says Jonathan Katz, an amateur chef who explores the diversity of Jewish cooking on his blog, Flavors of Diaspora. “One old Eastern European tradition is to serve pierogi, and there are Sephardi traditions to make bourekas on Purim–both have equivalents in surrounding communities.” In some cases, symbolic meaning was attributed to foods that were already a staple of the Jewish diet. Seasoned chickpeas, another Purim dish, are served because Queen Esther is said to have maintained the kosher laws in the palace of King Ahasuerus by subsisting on legumes. Garbanzos were so closely identified with Jews in Spain that during the Spanish Inquisition, anyone caught cooking them was subject to arrest. But Ashkenazim, who call them arbes or nahit in Hebrew, eat chickpeas primarily on Purim and a few other select occasions, such as during the Shalom Zachor, the first Friday night after baby boys are born.

Eating the enemy …

HAMAN BEGGING ESTHER FOR MERCY,” PURIM STORY, OIL ON PANEL, CIRCA 1618, BY PIETER LASTMAN. CREDIT: NATIONAL MUSEUM IN WARSAW VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

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If the story of Purim food has a protagonist, however, it’s the dessert table. Pastries of every kind abound, and that’s not only because it’s a fun, kid-friendly holiday, Nathan says: “Purim was a time to get rid of your last flour before you’d replenish it after Passover.” The necessity to rid the house of all leaven led Jewish cooks into an orgy of invention and vengeance: Almost every traditional Purim dessert claims

to be some part of Haman’s body, so that–after drowning out the sound of his name during the reading of the Megillah–Jews can take it one step further at the feast. In Sephardic communities, fried dough shaped variously as Haman’s ears, shoes and fingers is dipped into syrup and topped with sesame seeds and powdered sugar. Hojuelas–rose-shaped, fried confections–are enjoyed by Sephardim around the world. European Jews have their own take on eating the enemy. Refusing to settle for a mere ear or finger, German bakers serve gingerbread and lemon (Ha) man-shaped cookies. But the hamantash, in its many variations, remains the most beloved Ashkenazi Purim dessert. The triangular cookies emerged in the late 16th century, a variation on a medieval German treat called mohntasche, or poppyseed pocket. It was a phonetic similarity that led to the pastry’s rebirth as the bribefilled pocket of Ahasuerus’s wicked adviser. The hat was a later interpretation, reflecting the fashions of 17th-century Europe (Persians didn’t wear tricornered hats). Aficionados debate over the dough (yeast is more authentic), and the proper filling continues to be a source of heated controversy among young and old. Nathan prefers a butter crust with orange or poppyseed filling. “My grandchildren like chocolate,” she says, “but it doesn’t do anything for me.” Hamantashen may never lose their place of honor at the Purim table, yet the diversity of Purim cuisine is a reminder that Jewish life in the Diaspora has its moments of triumph and Continued on page 30

March 8, 2022

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In the Kitchen CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28

sweetness. “Jewish cultures and Jewishness are a kaleidoscopic world, and I think we lose something when we insist on only one tradition,” says Katz. “We’re supposed to be joyful on Purim, and what’s better than a range of delicious food to bring joy?”

2 tsp. water ½ tsp. salt 7 tsp neutral oil neutral oil for frying

Chickpeas (‘Nahit’) for Purim (Pareve)

To decorate: ½ cup icing sugar ¼ cup sesame seeds Put the flour, the baking powder, the beaten eggs, the sugar, the water, the salt and the oil in a bowl and mix with a spoon. Finish mixing with your hands. The dough should be smooth, without lumps. Wrap the dough in plastic film and cool for 15 minutes. Sprinkle flour on your working surface and roll out the dough. It must be thin and not sticky. Cut strips 1 generous inch wide and about 15 inches long. Heat the oil over medium heat. Take a strip in your hand. Gently stick the teeth of a fork into one end of the strip and put the fork in the oil to cook this portion of the strip while keeping the rest out of the pan. Small bubbles will form on the dough. Every two seconds, gently turn the fork to roll up a little more of the strip and fry that bit. Continue like this until the entire strip of dough has been wrapped around the fork and fried. Set aside and continue in the same way for all hojuelas.

From Joan Nathan’s Jewish Holiday Cookbook Ingredients: 1 (20-ounce) can of chickpeas Salt Freshly ground black pepper Directions: Place chickpeas with liquid from the can in a saucepan. Simmer for a few minutes until heated through. Drain the water. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste Serve in a dish with toothpicks, or eat the chickpeas as you would sunflower seeds or peanuts. Makes 2 cups.

‘Hojuelas’ (Pareve) From Sephardi: Cooking the History. Recipes of the Jews of Spain and the Diaspora From the 13th century to today by Hélène Jawhara Piñer (Cherry Orchards, 2021). Ingredients: For the hojuelas: 2 cups flour 1 tsp. baking powder 3 beaten eggs ½ cup sugar

HOJUELAS. (HÉLÈNE JAWHARA PIÑER)

For the syrup: ½ cup water ¼ cup orange blossom water ½ cup sugar

Prepare the Syrup: Pour the water, orange blossom and sugar into a pan. Mix everything over low heat for 5 minutes. The mixture should remain very liquid and transparent.Soak the hojuelas in the sugar syrup – being careful not to break them – and put them onto a serving dish. Put the sesame seeds and the icing sugar on two separate plates, and dip one side of each hojuela into one or the other alternately. Makes 10 pieces.

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Here’s how to help the Jews of Ukraine BY JTA STAFF

(JTA) – Jewish organizations are directing aid for tens of thousands of Jews living in the embattled Ukraine, assisting refugees who are fleeing the fighting and helping area Jews who have been trying or are hoping to immigrate to Israel. Below is a partial list of organizations that have ramped up ongoing efforts in the region or opened emergency mailboxes since the start of the war. – The Jewish Federations of North America has an emergency mailbox for helping people immigrate to Israel, securing the local Ukrainian community and its institutions and maintaining critical welfare services, among other needs – The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee has a longstanding presence in the country, assisting impoverished seniors and supporting a network of Jewish community centers and social service agencies. – The Afya Foundation, in conjunction with UJA-Federation of New York, is preparing urgently needed wound care, surgical equipment and biomedical equipment to be shipped to Ukraine. – The American Jewish Committee’s emergency #StandWithUkraine fund is pledging to direct 100 percent of the funds to those meeting urgent needs in Ukraine, including IsraAID, the rapid response Israeli relief agency, which is assisting refugees of all backgrounds in neighboring Moldova. – HIAS is working through channels within the U.S. and throughout Europe to support the safe and speedy resettlement of those seeking to leave Ukraine. – Notes of support and friendship to HIAS and Jewish community center staff in Ukraine can be sent to general inboxes at partner JCCs that are located throughout the Ukraine. – The Jewish Agency for Israel has opened an emergency hotline to provide Ukrainian Jews with guidance and information regarding the immigration process, as well as general assistance. – The Chabad-Lubavitch movement has a Ukraine Jewish Relief Fund. – Masorti Olami has a fund for Ukrainian Relief. – UJA-Federation of New York has a dedicated mailbox supporting its partners providing humanitarian needs in Ukraine. – Project Kesher is currently supporting an Emergency Fund for Women in Ukraine.

STAFF FROM THE AMERICAN JEWISH JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE AT THE BORDER BETWEEN ROMANIA AND MOLDOVA, PREPARING TO ASSIST JEWISH UKRAINIAN REFUGEES TRAVELING THROUGH MOLDOVA TO ROMANIA. (RAMIN MAZUR/JDC)

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THE KOSHER CROSSWORD MARCH 8, 2022

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“Purim AKA”

By: Yoni Glatt

Difficulty Level: Manageable

Sponsored by:

JEWISH LEDGER Vol. 94 No. 5

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Across

32. Gibbon, for one 35. Fastener 37. Newspaper section 41. AKA Achashverosh 43. Susa 45. Like some seals 46. Sci-fi weapon 48. Ball in a socket 49. Org. for teachers 51. Antibiotic target 53. AKA Esther 57. Archaeologist’s find 61. Clandestine maritime org. 62. Get ___ start (be tardy) 65. Sin preceder

66. AKA Hamantashen 69. Circular announcement 70. Where ships come in 71. Mine ___, psychic link made famous by Leonard Nimoy 72. Angers 73. Historic mother 74. Praiseful poems 75. Aardvark’s fare

Down

27. Porters, e.g. 29. Michaels and Gore 30. Follow closely 32. Body spray brand 33. Kind of patch 34. Be off 36. “Hey ... over here!” 38. Everyday article 39. Bit of hope 40. Wee hour 42. “Warrior Princess” of ‘90s TV 44. ___ Royal Highness 47. Red-faced 50. Make in Israel 52. AKA Iran 53. B-ball 54. Jewish novelist Yezierska

55. Eatery that might be open late 56. “Remember the ___!” 58. Live’s partner 59. Key 60. Kind of board 63. Narrative 64. Conclusions 67. Baseball stat 68. Jew follower

1. ___ Shalom 5. Dwindles 9. Top monk 14. A big bird 15. Fruity pastry 16. Gymnastics “animal” 17. Mario game 18. AKA Haman 20. Mozart’s “Madamina,” e.g. 21. Electronic game pioneer 22. Dog command 23. Blueprints 25. AKA Matanot L’evyonim 28. Joker portrayer 31. French seasoning

N. Richard Greenfield, Publisher (1994-2014) Henry M. Zachs, Managing Partner (2014-2021)

Publisher’s Statement Editorial deadline: All calendar submissions must be received one week prior to publication. Advertising deadline: Tuesday noon one week prior to issue. 20/20 Media and Jewish Ledger shall not be liable for failure to publish an ad for typographical error or errors in the publication except to the extent of the cost of the space which the actual error appeared in the first insertion. The Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising for any reason and to alter advertising copy or graphics deemed unacceptable. The publisher cannot warrant, nor assume responsibility for, the legitimacy, reputability or legality of any products or services offered in advertisements in any of its publications. The entire contents of the Jewish Ledger are copyright © 2022. No portion may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher. 20/20 Media also publishes All Things Jewish CT, All Things Jewish MA and WeHa Magazine.

1. SeaWorld attractions 2. Like the bright 3. Bone-chilling 4. AKA Daniel 5. Bluesy James 6. Thai currency 7. Respirations 8. HBO alternative 9. “Eureka!” 10. Mire 11. Lively 12. Port of ancient Rome 13. Choppers, so to speak 19. Miep who hid Anne Frank 24. Breaks away 26. More coy

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At the Hebrew Center for Health and Rehabilitation, we understand that

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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

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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: 1 Abrahms Boulevard, West Hartford, CT 06117

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WHAT’S HAPPENING A calendar of events throughout Connecticut and Western & Central Massachusetts. Local Jewish community organizations are invited to submit events to the calendar. Events must be received one week prior to the bi-weekly publication of the Ledger. Send submissions to Ledger editor in chief Judie Jacobson at judiej@jewishledger. com. We reserve the right to edit calendar items.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9 New Haven, CT (Zoom) – “COVID-19, Where are we now? Data from the US and Israel” with Epidemiologist Dan Weinberger, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health, 7:30 p.m. Hosted by Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel. For Zoom link: office@ beki.org, (203)389-2108 x114. Stamford, CT – Annual Women’s Symposium presented by United Jewish Federation of Stamford, New Canaan and Darien & UJAJCC of Greenwich, 9:30 a.m., at the Greenwich YMCA, 259 East Putnam Ave. Featuring: Deborah Copaken, author of Ladyparts; Courney Zoffness author of Spilt Milk, Suzanne Nose author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech, and LaNitra M. Berger, author of The Radical Paradox of South African Modern Art: Audacities of Color. Masks required. Tickets: $54/person; $118/sponsorship (includes a book). Information: Diane

Sloyer, dianesloyer@ujf.org for questions. West Hartford, CT (Zoom) – “Growing up Jewish in West Hartford in the 1940s and 1950s”; 8:30 p.m. Virtual panel discussion about the decades when Jewish families started moving to West Hartford in significant numbers. Panelists: Paula Feinstein, Susan Goldberg, Daniel Kleinman, and Sandra Rulnick. Co-sponsored by Noah Webster House and West Hartford Historical Society. Registration/information: jhsgh. org.

FRIDAY, MARCH 11 Springfield, Mass. – “Bounce Into Shabbat” with PJ at the Springfield JCC, 5-6 p.m. Enjoy singing, inflatable bounce houses, food, and drink. For info: ebarber@springfieldjcc.org.

MONDAY, MARCH 14 Worcester, MA (Zoom) – Tzelem, a monthly group for LGBTQ+ teens in Central Mass. meets to talk about issues like life transitions, healthy relationships, body positivity, self-compassion, mental health, intimacy and Jewish identity; open to teens of all genders. The group will meet from 5:30 to 7 p.m. virtually. Springfield, MA - Passover Wine Tasting & Sale at the Springfield JCC, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Sample 100+ different wines. Order forms available at the JCC or at SpringfieldJCC.org. A 10% case discount will be offered for orders of 12 or more bottles. Must be 21+ to attend. Proof of vaccination required. Information: https:// www.springfieldjcc.org/event/ passover-wine-tasting-sale-2/ or contact Bev Nadler: bnadler@ springfieldjcc.org. FREE

TUESDAY, MARCH 15

COMEDIAN MODI IN CONCERT AT UCONN STORRS, MARCH 30.

West Hartford, CT (Zoom) – “Long-Term Investment in a Period of Higher Inflation,” at 12 p.m., a Q&A with Michael Miller, principal at Crucial Partners, the Jewish Community

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Foundation of Greater Hartford’s investment consultant, who will answer questions about trends in the marketplace and the investment policy that guides the Foundation’s approach. Register at: https://us02web. zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0 sfuqrrT8vHNOaeKc5z7dBMsYc cN1_Q-3i. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Information: email Kathryn Gonnerman, kgonnerman@jcfhartford.org. Springfield, MA (Zoom) – Temple Beth El Film: “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” 7-9 p.m. Register at: communications@tbespringfield. org.

THURSDAY, MARCH 17 Springfield, MA (ZOOM) – Temple Beth El Film: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 7-9 p.m. Register at: communications@tbespringfield. org.

MONDAY, MARCH 21 Stamford, CT (venue and time TBD) – “Cultivating A Caring Soul,” three authors share how we can create a better world by caring for each other. Hosted by United Jewish Federation of Greater Stamford and JCRC. Third of 3 sessions: “The Kindness Advantage: Cultivating Compassionate and Connected Children,” with authors Dale Atkins and Amanda Salzhauer. Register at: ujf.org/caringsoul. Information: slewis@ujf.org., (203) 321-1373 x104.

MARCH 24 - APRIL 10

MONDAY, MARCH 28 West Hartford, CT – Teen Screen at the Mandell JCC Jewish Film Festival: “They Ain’t Ready for Me” at 6:30 p.m. Open to all teens. Hosted by JTConnect and Mandell JCC. 335 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford. Reservations at: JTConnect.org/movie

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30 New Haven, CT (Zoom) – “Prayer and Liturgy at BEKI: An Ongoing Exploration with Rabbi Carl Astor,” 7:30 p.m. Rabbi Astor will lead a monthly hour-long discussion focusing on particular prayers, as well as the overall structure of the siddur, looking at the Hebrew words themselves as well as the deeper spiritual meanings of the prayers. For information: Karel Koenig, karelmk59@gmail.com. Storrs, CT – Comedian MODI will perform at the UConn Student Union Theatre, 7 p.m. co-sponsored by the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life and The UConn Hillel. Voted one of the top 10 comedians in New York City by The Hollywood Reporter, MODI has been featured on HBO, CBS, NBC, ABC, Comedy Central, Howard Stern, and E! Entertainment. Born in Israel, he moved to the US at the age of seven and worked as an investment banker and had no intention of becoming a standup comedian until one open mic night changed everything. For more information on MODI visit MODIlive.com. FREE. Reservations at: judaicstudies@ uconn.edu.

West Hartford, CT – Hartford Jewish Film Festival presents a mix of contemporary and classic films, including “Making Trouble,” about Jewish women comedians including Sophie Tucker, and a restorations of the films “Mamle” and “Hester Street.” For information and tickets: https://hjff2022.eventive. org/welcome March 8, 2022

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PURIM AROUND CT! Here are just some of the fun Purim events on the calendar this month. For Megillah readings and additional Purim events around Connecticut and Massachusetts contact your local synagogue or JCC.

TUESDAY, MARCH 8 Longmeadow, Mass. – Hamentasch Bake hosted by Chabad women, 7 p.m. at LYA, 1148 Converse Street. Bake your own hamentashen with unique fillings; learn about the four Purim mitzvot. Each participant will leave with supplies to create their own Mishloach Manot. RSVP to Chanie Cohen at (413) 731-1381 or chaniecohen@gmail. com. $20/including supplies and refreshments.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16 Springfield, MA – Purim celebration hosted by Temple Beth El and Sinai Temple, 7 p.m. This event will be in-person and live-streamed. Registration and Covid waivers required for those who will attend in person. Schedule: 6 p.m. Megillah reading; 6:30 - 7:15 p.m. Childrens’ Purim program for ages 6 & younger; 7 p.m. - Purim music; 7:15 pm - Purim party. Register at: sklc@tbespringfield. org. New Haven, CT – Purim festivities: Children’s Megillah reading 5:30-6:15 pm, followed by Children’s Costume Parade, dinner food kids 6:15-7 pm. Minchah & Maariv services at

6:30 p.m., followed by Megillah reading at 7 p.m. All in person and on Zoom. At Congregation Beth El - Keser Israel, 85 Harrison St.. For Zoom link: office@beki. org, (203)389-2108 x114. West Hartford, CT – Purim Party Bus hosted by Jewish Teen Learning Connection; open to all teens. 5:15 pm, drop-off at Mandell JCC, 335 Bloomfield Ave.; 8:30 p.m., pickup at Beth David Synagogue, 20 Dover Rd. Highlights include partyhopping, bounce houses, scavenger hunts, games hamantaschen, prizes and more. Co-sponsored by USY BBYO, NUTSY, JSU and Endow Hartford 21. RSVP by March 11. Space is limited. Information: cara@ jtconnect, org.

THURSDAY, MARCH 17 New Haven, CT – Megillah reading included in 7:30 a.m. services, in person and on Zoom. At Congregation Beth El - Keser Israel, 85 Harrison St. For Zoom link: office@beki.org, (203)3892108 x114. Worcester, Mass. – “All-Star Purim” at Polar Park; 6:30 p.m.; featuring Megillah reading, kosher Chinese, DJ & dancing, Purim face-painting, raffle prizes, and a Purim fashion runway for ages 2-15; prizes for all. Everyone in costume will be entered in the Grand Raffle, two tickets to a WooSox Game with kosher dinner and more. Information: (508) 756-1543 or email: info@ jfcm.org.

SATURDAY, MARCH 12 Northampton, Mass. – LGA Fire Circle Havdallah and Purim “Warm Up,” 6:30-8 p.m., at Lander-Grinspoon Academy, 257 Prospect St. (with help from Abundance Farm). Dress up as your favorite character from the Megillah and lead a song your character would sing. Information/reservations: Debra Kolodny: dkolodny@ landergrinspoon.org, or (413) 584-6622.

SUNDAY, MARCH 13 Longmeadow, MA – Chabad Hebrew School Public Purim Event, a Purim party for kids of all ages, 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., 1148 Converse St. Information: Mushkie Kosofsky: mkosofsky@ lya.org, (413) 262-8037. Springfield, MA (ZOOM) – Purim with PJ Library! Come celebrate Purim virtually with music and puppets in a program led by Spencer Garfield at the Springfield JCC, 1160 Dickinson St., 1-2 p.m. Information/ registration: Elise Barber: ebarber@springfieldjcc.org. (646) 391-3553.

March 8, 2022

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PUPPETS & PURIM! SHADOW THEATER, A CONTEMPORARY RETELLING OF THE PURIM STORY WEST HARTFORD, Connecticut – The Mandell Jewish Community Center presents a global collaboration of traditions coming together for a “Purim Spectacular” on Saturday, March 12, 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 13, featuring the renowned University of Connecticut Puppet Arts Program and Gamelan Son of Lion in a performance of the shadow puppet musical “Wayang Esther: A Contemporary Retelling of the Book of Esther.” Commissioned by the JCC, “Wayang Esther” features newly-created puppets designed by 8th-generation Indonesian puppet master Ki Joke Susilo of New Zealand. The puppets are based on an illuminated scroll of the Book of Esther that was made in Venice, Italy (circa 1740) and is now in the collection of Hebrew Union College (New York City).

Principal puppeteer, UConn Professor Matthew Isaac Cohen, head of the UConn Puppet Arts program, has been awarded royal titles from three of Indonesia’s royal courts for his contribution to the arts of Indonesian puppet theater. “Wayang Esther” is performed at the JCC under his leadership and that of Gamelan Son of Lion, a New Yorkbased composers’ collective, performing with instruments inspired by the gamelan orchestra of Java, Indonesia. The performance combines shadow puppetry in the style of Indonesian “wayang kulit,” with contemporary shadow projections mixed live and projected on stage. “Wayang Esther” will be performed at the Mandell JCC,

335 Bloomfield Ave. on March 12 at 8 p.m. for adults and older children, and will be followed by a special talkback session with the creative team. The March 13 presentation is for families with children of all ages, who are encouraged to attend in costume to participate in Mordechai’s Parade. The performance is at 2; families are invited to attend a pre-performance workshop at 1 p.m. in which they will learn a Purim-language song arranged from gamelan. The shadow puppets are currently on display in the Chase Family Gallery at the Mandell JCC. Ticket: $20/adults; FREE/ children, available at mandelljcc.org/tix.

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TORAH PORTION – PURIM

BY RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

ithout question, it is the holiday of Purim that evokes the greatest exhibitions of joy and gaiety on the Jewish calendar. At the time of its inception, the 14th day of Adar is described as “a day of merrymaking and feasting, as a holiday and an occasion for sending gifts to one another.” (Esther 9:21) For many centuries, Jews have emulated those practices and have attempted to recreate the atmosphere of that historic moment when “the Jews enjoyed light and gladness, happiness, and honor.” (ibid. 8:16) There have certainly been times in Jewish history when it has been relatively easy to recapture the mood of that triumphant time. But the nature of Jewish history is such that almost every year is marred by tragedy, national or personal, which makes joyous celebration challenging, if not impossible. It is difficult to make merry when one is burdened by woes, particularly when those woes threaten the very existence of our people. In her book, Hidden in Thunder: Perspectives of Faith, Halachah and Leadership during the Holocaust, Dr. Esther Farbstein examines documents which describe the religious experiences of those who were condemned to celebrate Purim while enslaved in places like the Warsaw Ghetto. First, however, I must point out that this Shabbat immediately precedes the Purim festival, which occurs later next week. In anticipation of the imminent holiday, we supplement the weekly Torah portion, Vayikra (Leviticus 1:1-5:26), with a brief paragraph from the parsha of Ki Tetzei (Deuteronomy 25:17-19). There, we are instructed, “Remember what Amalek did to you…after you left Egypt–how, undeterred by fear of God, he happened upon you…when you were famished and weary…” We are further urged to never forget his stealth and treachery. This passage urging us to remember, zachor…, is thus known

as Zachor. We anticipate Purim by recalling the enemies from whose genocidal threats we were delivered by Divine Providence. We especially recall Amalek, who was both the biological and ideological ancestor of the villain of the Purim story, Haman, the archetype of all subsequent persecutors of our people. Our task is now expanded. Not only must we reflect on how Purim was celebrated in the throes of the Holocaust, but we must also contemplate the unbearable task of remembering foes of the very distant past at the very moment when the blades of Nazi bayonets touched our throats. Why remember ancient Persia and the biblical wilderness when the dreaded furnaces of Treblinka were already spewing smoke? Dr. Farbstein describes in comprehensive detail the Purim “festivities” in the jaws of the Nazis. I will limit myself to descriptions of Purim in the Warsaw Ghetto, as recorded in the journals of Rabbi Kalonymous Kalman Shapira, the martyred Hasidic leader known as the Rebbe of Piascesna. These journals were hidden in a milk can and recovered from the rubble years after World War II. Quotations from these journals were read into the record by the prosecution as evidence against Adolf Eichmann at his trial. Most fascinating is the sharp contrast between the Rebbe’s homiletic interpretations of a key phrase in the Amalek passage at the time of the first Purim in the Ghetto, in March 1940, versus his interpretation two years later in 1942. The phrase in question is asher karcha baderech, which I have translated as, “how he happened upon you.” The Midrash, quoted by Rashi, creatively suggests that the word karcha contains the root kor, which means “cool” or “cold.” Hence, the phrase could be translated as “how he cooled you off.” As Rashi puts it, the Jewish people were “on fire” with spiritual

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enthusiasm when they left Egypt. No enemy dared to confront them. Amalek, extinguished that “fire,” “cooled them off,” and diminished their enthusiasm. In the early spring of 1940, the conditions of the Warsaw Ghetto were extremely difficult. Yet, as the Rebbe reports, they were bearable. He, of course, had no way of knowing that the Nazis had designated that very day of Purim 1940 as the beginning of their Aktion, their diabolical scheme to systematically “eliminate” the Ghetto’s Jewish population. And so, the Rebbe broadens the interpretation of “cooling off” to refer to German culture. He writes: “Before Amalek attacked the Israelites, many Jews admired Amalek’s culture. They were ‘cooled off’ to our own Torah culture. They thought that Amalek’s culture was beautiful, ethical, and had much practical wisdom. So too it is with the German culture. We admired its literature, philosophy, and scientific contributions. We were thus ‘cooled off’ to our own culture. Now we see German culture for what it is–immoral, murderous, and brutal.” The Rebbe thus sees the Ghetto experience as a lesson not to be seduced by the facades of alien cultures, but to recognize their immoral essence. Fast forward two years to Purim 1942. By that time, the Rebbe is aware that the Ghetto experience is much worse than “extremely difficult.” In his own words, it is “unprecedented evil... Unique in the history of the human race…Heretofore unimaginable decadence…” The Rebbe now sees that his reality cannot be compared to previous Jewish suffering. It transcends all prior persecutions, destructions, exiles, and pogroms. It is unspeakable. Nevertheless, he persists with his Torah teaching, but this time he lends a different homiletic twist to “how he cooled you off.” Now, he is concerned that the tortured remnants of the Ghetto would become “cooled off” to future spiritual repair. They had become

so reduced in their humanity and in their religiosity that they could never be rehabilitated. For two full years, Torah study and mitzvah observance were absolutely impossible. He pleaded with his audience, by now drastically reduced in size and barely clinging to life, that they retain their religious enthusiasm and resist being “cooled off”. Two very different levels of hell forced the Rebbe to adopt two very different homiletic interpretations. So much for the supplemental Torah readings about Amalek on the Shabbat before Purim. So much for the Torah portion Zachor. But what about his homily for the day of Purim itself? On that day in 1940, the Rebbe imparted a moral tour de force to his audience and, through them, to all of us. He noted the time honored wordplay comparing Purim to Yom HaKippurim, or Yom Kippur. What connection can there be between a day for “feasting and merrymaking” and a day for repentance and atonement? The Rebbe answers: “The Talmud, citing the view of Rabbi Judah the Patriarch, states that on Yom Kippur the essence of the day effects atonement, so that even if the individual’s repentance is insincere he nevertheless receives

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atonement. Similarly with regard to Purim, even though one may not have experienced a joyous holiday, nevertheless, the divine salvation and joy which Purim bestows upon are active and effective even here, even now.” The Rebbe’s message was designed to encourage his audience, deprived as they were of any semblance of “light and joy.” For deep within them was a tiny spark of hope which, in the eyes of the Almighty, counted as “feasting and merrymaking.” Today, more than 80 years since he delivered his message, we may have ample reasons to feel discouraged, depressed, perhaps even desperate. However, if the half-starved and wretchedly bereaved members of the Rebbe of Piaczesna’s community could respond to his plea to find within themselves a modicum of joy, so can we overcome our moods and concerns, and celebrate this year’s Purim joyously. Let this Purim echo that Purim of long ago so that our people enjoy “light and gladness, happiness and honor”. Happy Purim! Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb is executive vice president, emeritus of the Orthodox Union.

most celebrated collections of Sephardic and Ladino-language artifacts. But Benaroya, a Sephardic Jewish philanthropist in Seattle and widow of real-estate developer and venture capitalist Jack Benaroya, wanted to see more teaching about Israel. Her $5 million donation to the Stroum Center created an endowed chair, part-time assistant and research funds “with the intention of putting forth scholarship on the history and contributions of the modern State of Israel.” The endowment language instructs the program “to promote the study of Israel through multiple disciplinary perspectives” and “to integrate the study of Israel into a global context, highlighting the comparative and international relevance of Israel in the Middle East and beyond.” Halperin told JTA that she believed “no one who has attended the many programs I planned or got to know the students whom the funds supported could in good faith claim that I failed to uphold the endowment’s stated mission.” But she also said it became clear that the the holder of the Benaroya chair was expected to refrain from making “certain political statements” and to “accept the proposition that study of ‘modern Israel’ is incompatible with the concurrent study of ‘Israel/Palestine.’” That phrase – ”Israel/ Palestine” – is present in many of Halperin’s course descriptions and, according to The Cholent, has long been a flashpoint for tension between the vocally proIsrael contingent of donors who spearheaded the Stroum Center’s recent expansion and the faculty who have been hired as a result. Another major donor, Sonny Gorasht, told The Cholent that he had strongly objected to seeing the term “Israel/Palestine” in university brochures, and voiced his displeasure directly to the Stroum Center’s director, Noam

Pianko. “I called Noam, and I said I’ve never heard of Israel referred to as Israel-slash-Palestine,” he said. “What the hell are you talking about, having truth in education?” Gorasht and his daughter, Jamie Merriman-Cohen, told The Cholent that their efforts to create the Israel Studies Program in 2016 to rival its acclaimed Sephardic Studies Program were conceived as a way to counter what they believed was rising anti-Israel sentiment on college campuses, including at the University of Washington. “There came a time when the university was inviting rabid anti-Israel, BDS, rabid antisemitic people to come speak. The community was up in arms about it. They looked to the Jewish studies program to stop that,” Gorasht told The Cholent. “Of course, it’s a place where people have a right to speak, … but you can’t present one side of the story.” Both Gorasht and Merriman-Cohen have also chaired an advisory board that organizes community input into the university’s Jewish studies program. In that role, Merriman-Cohen wrote a letter recommending that the university hire Halperin, a historian whose work focuses on pre-state Israel, in 2017. But after the 2021 Israel letter, Merriman-Cohen wrote a new letter to the university’s president recommending that Halperin’s tenured position be “reconsidered.” She also requested that Pianko, who had not signed the letter but had supported Halperin during her initial hiring process, no longer be the Stroum Center’s director. Merriman-Cohen told The Cholent that she now believes the hiring of Halperin was rushed and that she had been pressured into writing her initial recommendation. Halperin’s partner, Sasha Senderovich, is also a professor affiliated with the Stroum Center and also signed

the 2021 Israel letter. “My appointment is not now, nor has it ever been in jeopardy.” Pianko told JTA in a statement. University spokesperson Victor Balta told JTA in a statement that, After several months of good faith conversations between the faculty member, UW leadership and the donor, Mrs. Benaroya requested that her gift be returned and we agreed this was the best path forward.” The statement added that the school “is committing to provide $20,000 each year for the next three years as research/discretionary funding to support Prof. Halperin’s work.” According to The Cholent, Benaroya is redirecting her gift to StandWithUs, a pro-Israel advocacy group that organizes on college campuses and elsewhere. According to Roz Rothstein, the organization’s CEO and co-founder, “We helped her engage with the university to address her concerns but the parties were not able to reach an agreement.” Halperin, who is currently teaching a course billed as a “survey of significant scholarly texts on Israel and Palestine during the 19th-21st centuries,” told JTA, “I would encourage my fellow academics and engaged members of the community to speak out in defense of academic freedom, particularly but not only when it comes to Israel/ Palestine,” she told JTA.

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OBITUARIES BLUM

Edith Blum, 94, of Fairfield County, Conn., died Feb. 9. She was the widow of Arnold D. Blum. Born and raised in New York, she was the daughter Harry and Rose Ebert. She was also predeceased by her siblings, Jacob (Jack) Ebert, Esther Sternberg, and Hyman Ebert, and her former husband Lawrence Vandenberg. She is survived by her stepchildren, step-grandchildren, a step-great-grandchild, and several nieces and nephews.

DOLINSKY

Rosanne Kaplan Dolinsky, 93, of the Hartford, Conn. area, died Feb. 24. She was the widow of Jack Dolinsky. She was the daughter of world boxing champion Louis “Kid” Kaplan and Bessie Kaplan. She is survived by her children, Paul Dolinsky and his wife Diana Garey, and Janis Krissinger and her husband Ken; her grandchildren, Laura Dolinsky, Michelle Dolinsky, Elizabeth Krissinger and Andrew Krissinger; and her great-grandchildren, Michelle and Amin Davari, Charlie and Tennyson.

FERBER

Beverly Brevda, 88, of Stamford, Conn. and Boca Raton, Fla., died Feb. 11. She was the widow of Stanley Brevda. She was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. She is survived by her children, Caryl Ferber Poser (Peter), and Stacy; her grandchildren, Ariel Poser Bedik (Stephen), Rebecca Brevda Poser (Lindsay Klein), and Samuel Appel; her great-grandchild Scarlett; her sisters, Leonora Loewentheil and Evelyne Mitchel.

LANE

Myrna S. Lane, 83, of San Diego, Calif., formerly of Fitchburg, Mass., died Feb. 23. Born in Los Angeles, she was the daughter of Solomon and Rose (Ashkenas) Rosenbaum. She is survived by

her daughter Rhea Lane of San Diego.

MELLION

Ruth Berman Mellion, age 102 years old, a resident of West Hartford, Conn., for over 70 years, passed away peacefully on Nov. 29, 2021. Ruth was married for 56 years to the late Dr. Gilbert LeVine Mellion, who predeceased her in March 1999. Born in New Haven, Conn. on August 31, 1919, Ruth was the granddaughter of Abraham and Jennie Stone, who founded the Columbia Lumber

Company in New Haven, prior to World War I. Ruth’s adoring mother, Ida Stone, was married to Barnett Berman, a 1904 graduate of Yale and one of the first Jewish lawyers in New Haven. Barnett passed away when Ruth was 10 years old in 1929. Ruth happily grew up and attended school in New Haven, until she was 15 years old. She spent her youthful summers at the Stone family cottage on the shore at Morningside, Conn., where her lifelong love of the ocean and swimming began. In September, 1934, after Ida married her second husband, Ben Abrams, Ruth’s life at 12 Rockville Street in Hartford commenced. She later graduated from Weaver High School, in June, 1937. In March, 1939, Ruth met her future husband, Gilbert, the roommate of her brother

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Benton Berman, on the Storrs campus of the University of Connecticut. In the fall, 1940, Ruth and Gil adventuresomely travelled by train, to Indiana, for both of them to attend Indiana University. Ruth enthusiastically received her bachelor of arts degree in nutrition in May, 1942, followed by Gilbert proudly receiving his dental degree in August 1943 from the Indiana University School of Dentistry. They returned to Hartford and were married on September 12, 1943 at the Bond Hotel in Hartford. After World War II, while raising their four young children, Ruth began collaborating with Gilbert in writing and publishing articles on the relationship of nutrition to dental health. In 1960, Ruth began her creative third grade teaching career in Newington, Conn., which lasted for 27 years. She travelled extensively with Gilbert, both domestically and internationally, during school vacations, to put together an enriched curriculum for her students. In June, 1965, Ruth received her masters degree in education from Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn.. Upon retiring in June, 1987, Ruth continued her passion for learning, art and music. She was a docent at the New Britain Museum of American Art and pursued watercolor painting. She returned to playing the piano and enjoying her life long love of classical music, which had begun during her childhood in New Haven. She was an engaged member of Temple Beth Israel for over 60 years, which included teaching Sunday School. Ruth spent the winter months for 26 years in Fountain Hills, Ariz., partaking of the diverse desert culture and scenery which she loved. Ruth will be fondly remembered for her peppy, light hearted spirit, and loving, supportive, caring ways. She had

a positive outlook on life and a sense of humor that made her a delight to be around. Ruth is survived by her devoted children: sons Paul LeVine Mellion of Hancock, N.H.,and Dan LeVine Mellion of Lower Lake, Calif. Also her daughter, Joan LeVine Mellion and her partner, Kenneth Lavin, of Hidden Valley Lake, Calif. Ruth’s oldest son, Bruce LeVine Mellion of Norwalk, Conn., predeceased her in September 2015. Ruth’s beloved brother Benton, predeceased her in November 2006. Benton’s wife, Charlotte Berman, had an enduring sisterly friendship with Ruth for over 65 years. May Ruth’s spirit, wisdom and love, carry on in the hearts and lives of numerous cousins, nieces, nephews and lifelong friends, both young and old, who knew and loved her. Funeral services were held on Dec. 12, 2021 at Temple Beth Israel, 701 Farmington Avenue, West Hartford, Conn. Burial was next to her beloved Gilbert, at Fairview Cemetery, West Hartford, Conn. Contributions in Ruth’s memory, may be made to the Children’s Section of the Lucy Robbins Welles Library, 100 Garfield Street, Newington, Conn. 06111. Tel: ( 860) 665-8730. Any questions regarding Ruth’s passing, please contact her daughter, Joan LeVine Mellion at email: taia1@mindspring.com or at (415) 686-2629.

MILLER

Dr. Marvin W. Miller, 90, of North Haven, Conn. and Boynton Beach, Fla. died Feb. 20. He is survived by his wife Roselyn. Born in New Haven, Conn., he was the son of the late Joseph and Anna (Jackson) Miller. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Jeffrey, and Elliot and his wife Giselle; his sister Shirley Daitch; his grandchildren, Nathan (Michelle), Daniel (Hillary), Joseph (Jenna), Alyssa (Dylan) Sigel and Jarred Miller; and his March 8, 2022

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OBITUARIES great-grandchildren, Mallory, Alexandra, Madelyn, Carter and Weston. He was also predeceased by his daughter Arlene Girard.

NIMON

Rabbi John R. Nimon, 72, of Lynchburg, Va., died Feb. 27. He was the husband of Lisa Barker Rosenfield. Born in Toronto, Canada, he was the son of the late Joseph and Esther Nimon. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his sister Wendy Weber of Toronto, Canada; his mother-in-law Naomi Barnett; his children Yael Katzman and her husband Douglas, Aliza Nannicelli and her husband Ted, Sam Nimon, and Rina Nimon and her husband Rich Cummings; his stepdaughters, Julia Rosenfield and her husband Thomas DePalma, and Emily Rosenfield; his grandchildren, Shira and Noah Katzman, Leo, Vin and Asher Nannicelli, Sophia and Anna Nimon, and Paul DePalma. He was also predeceased by his first wife Hyla Barnett Nimon. He served as rabbi in several Connecticut congregations.

PEARLSTEIN

Donald Michael Pearlstein, 87, of New York, died Feb. 22. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., he was the husband of Patricia. He was a Veteran of the United States Army, serving in the Korean War as a Paratrooper. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughters, Caren Hosansky and her husband Stuart, Jessica Zachs and her husband Eric, and Nina Fetner and her husband Harold; his grandchildren, Aaron Hosansky and Laura Bagley, Stephanie and JV Doran, Benjamin and Paige Zachs, Jacob and Kate Zachs, Zoe Zachs, Samantha Fetner, Alex Fetner, and Emma Fetner; his great-grandchildren, Ezra and Levi Hosansky, Nora Doran, and Louis Zachs.

ROSENBERG

Eugene (“Gene”) Rosenberg, 86, of Simsbury, Conn., has died. He was the husband of Anja Edman Rosenberg. Born in the South End of Hartford, Conn., he was the son of the late Dorothy and Philip Rosenberg, and stepmothers, Pauline and Sarah Rosenberg. He was a lifelong member of Congregation Beth Israel. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Donna Rosenberg Bricker and her husband Andy, Gary Rosenberg and his husband Aaron, Michael Rosenberg and wife Ellen, and Pia Rosenberg Toro and her husband Mickey; his grandchildren, Rob, Sarah, Barry, Bethany, Matt, Nicole, Rachele, Alexandra, Hunter, Victoria, Hannah, Zev, Anthony, Danny, Marcella, Maddie, Mackenzie, and Mya. He was also predeceased by his grandson AJ Bricker.

SHAPIRO

JoAnne “Jojo” Shapiro, 87, died March 1. Born in the Bronx, N.Y., she was the daughter of the late Lester and Rose Miller. She was the widow of Jerry Shapiro. She is survived by her children, Kenneth Shapiro and his wife Dawn of Southbury, and Judith Hartog of Greenwich; and her grandchildren, Carly and Maxwell Shapiro and Zoe and Jaclyn Hartog.

Actress Kathryn Kates played the babka purveyor on ‘Seinfeld’ BY SHIRA HANAU

(JTA) – When it came to babka, actress Kathryn Kates, who died last month at 73, preferred chocolate, according to The New York Times. But when Jerry and Elaine finally got to her bakery counter on “Seinfeld,” the only babka Kates had to offer was cinnamon. And that was a problem. “There’s chocolate and there’s cinnamon,” Kates says in the famous episode, “The Dinner Party,” to a disappointed Elaine after selling the last chocolate babka to the previous customer. Elaine calls cinnamon the “lesser babka,” to which Jerry replies with an impassioned retort. “Cinnamon takes a backseat to no babka!” Jerry declares as Kates looks on, framed by shelves of fluffy challah. The babka bit wouldn’t be Kates’ last appearance as the gatekeeper of Jewish New York culinary classics on the sitcom. She made another appearance in a 1996 episode as the bakery clerk who sells the last loaf of marble rye bread to an older woman ahead of Jerry in line. After Kates confirms they are out of marble rye, Jerry desperately offers to pay the older customer $50 for the $6 loaf. When she refuses his offer, he steals the loaf and runs off. Kates, who died of lung cancer, also appeared in “Law and Order,” “Orange Is the New Black” and “The Many Saints of Newark,” the “Sopranos” prequel movie. Kates, who lived in Manhattan, was born in Queens and grew up in Great Neck, N.Y. She studied acting at New York University, and went on to co-found and run The Colony Theater in Burbank, Calif. Her mother, Sylvia Kates, was also an actor who played a classic New Yorker role in a scene opposite Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel in Mel Brooks’ 1967 film “The Producers.” The elder Kates plays an older woman who guards the first floor of a Greenwich Village brownstone. “I’m the concierge!” she says more than once in a thick New York accent.

KATHRYN KATES, PURVEYOR OF BABKAS ON “SEINFELD.” (SCREENSHOT FROM YOUTUBE)

March 8, 2022

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Ner Tamid Gala 2022 Click here for Sponsorship Opportunities and Tickets www.ssds-hartford.org

Sidney Perlman — ’71-’76 Arlene Neiditz — ’76-’78 Lewis Segal — ’78-’80 Janis Abrahms Spring — ’80-’82 Michael Ruben Peck — ’82-’84 Peter Smerd — ’82-’84 Blanche Goldenberg — ’84-’86 Francine Trachtenberg — ’86-’88 Jane Keller Herzig — ’88-’90 Tom Divine — ’90-’92 Doreen Fundiller Zweig — ’92-’93 Mark Rosen — ’93-’95 Rick Blum — ’95-’97

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Proceeds benefit the Solomon Schechter Day School Scholarship Fund The Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Hartford is a Beneficiary Agency of:

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Purim Begins at Sundown March 16.

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