Southern New England Jewish Ledger • April 5, 2022 • 4 Nisan 5782 by 2020 Media

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APRIL 5, 2022 • 4 NISAN 5782

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PAGE 12 The publisher and staff of the Southern New England Jewish Ledger wish all our readers and their families a Chag Pesach kasher v’same’ach — a kosher and joyous Passover!

Features

Opinion

Briefs

Around SNE

5 A Sour Note

The Jewish president of a UConn a cappella group is subjected to antisemitic harassment and threats…and booted out of the group.

Crossword

a free multidisciplinary online course designed in response to antisemitic acts on the UConn Storrs campus in 2020/21. Talk about perfect timing.

Why did the governing board of the Oscars deliberately sideline or ignore Hollywood’s prominent Jewish founders in its new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures?

The Sound of Joy

Rabbi Eric Woodward is formally installed as spiritual leader of Beth El-Keser Israel (BEKI) in Westville, at a jubilant, musicfilled gathering.

The Ledger Scoreboard

Ryan Turell hopes to become the NBA’s first Orthodox draft pick – even though the likelihood of that happening is hardly a slam dunk.

What’s Happening

Bulletin Board

Torah Portion

Obituaries

Kolot April 5, 2022

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Confronting Hate

Arts & Entertainment

More than 1,600 UConn students are enrolled in “Why the Jews? Confronting Antisemitism,”

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SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND JEWISH LEDGER | APRIL 5, 2022 | 4 NISAN 5782

Jewish UConn student thrown out of a cappella group, called ‘white supremacist,’ ‘anti-Muslim’

UConn confronts antisemitism in a free online class for all students BY STACEY DRESNER

BY ALAN ZEITLIN

(JNS) A Jewish student at the University of Connecticut says she feels betrayed after being thrown out of her a cappella group, saying she was called a “white supremacist,” “f***ing Zionist” and a f***ing b*tch, and has received threats after a Feb. 28 incident was mischaracterized online. Natalie Shclover, a senior in the Business School at the University of Connecticut, and a member of the Honors College, told JNS that she and her Muslim boyfriend, Zacharia El-Tayyeb, were bothered by fliers put up by the Muslim Student Association that stated as fact that Israel was an apartheid state and included an image of a map of Israel with interim university president, Dr. Radenka Maric, on one side and a baby being

strangled. This, she said was due to Maric’s announcement on Instagram that she would visit Israel on a trip with Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Conn.). Shclover said she discarded a few fliers that covered ones posted by the campus Chabad or Hillel, were in excess or were on the floor, which violates school rules because only one flier is supposed to be affixed to each bulletin board. When she and her boyfriend went to the third floor and he removed excess fliers, she was badgered and called names. A video with a caption claims that she harassed Muslim students, but the video only shows students hurling slurs at her. The senior, who was president and music director of the UConn Chordials, said that

in a Zoom meeting she was told she was being kicked out of the group and given no chance to explain her side of the story. She had worked on an agreement to secure $10,000 to make an album and had done arrangements for the group, she said, and suddenly, she was out. “I believe they first met on their own, then joined me into their Zoom call and dismissed me, saying they had no other choice” but to do so, she said. “They said basically that ‘after discussing the events, we have decided we need to dismiss you.’ I mentioned it was a mischaracterization of my character and unjust, and that was the end of it.”

‘That’s where I felt the safest’ The UConn Chordials released a statement that they “do not tolerate behaviors that cause pain, distress or damage to others; especially those of a different race, ethnicity, nationality or religion. …These actions do not reflect the beliefs of the UConn Chordials as a whole, or the UConn a cappella community. We sincerely apologize for the actions of our former president. We hear you, we take accountability, and we promise to show you that we are better than this moving forward.” Shclover said she auditioned

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT SENIOR NATALIE SHCLOVER. (COURTESY)

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STORRS, Connecticut – More than 1,600 University of Connecticut students have enrolled in “Why the Jews? Confronting Antisemitism,” a free online course that began last month. Now those students have a real-life example of anti-Zionism veering into antisemitism in light of a late February incident involving Jewish UConn senior Natalie Shclover. Shclover was called a “white supremacist,” “f***ing Zionist,” received threats, and has been thrown out of her a cappella group with no due process after the incident with Muslim students. (See related story on this page).

Continued on the next page

Prof. Avinoam Patt, the Doris and Simon Konover Chair of Judaic Studies and director of UConn’s Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life and the lead faculty for the seven-week Confronting Antisemitism course, says Shclover’s experience may become a part of the class. “We have discussed including the incident in Module 6 of the class, when we teach students Continued on page 19

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UConn student CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

three-and-a-half years ago with the song “Lullaby of Birdland” by Ella Fitzgerald and made the group. “When I first joined a cappella, it was sort of a last straw try for me at the university because I was having a hard time adjusting and was considering transferring,” she said. “But ‘The Chordials’ became my home. That’s where I felt the safest.” She said she lives with one member of the group, as well as a Christian former member who resigned because she didn’t believe it was right to throw Shclover out “without due process.” She was slated to sing a solo of “Summertime” in her final show on April 30. Now, she doesn’t know if the group will even have a show or if someone else will sing the song. Asked if she would go back to the group if they reinstated her, she replied: “No, I don’t think so because I don’t think that would help the damage that has been caused. I hope they will learn from their mistakes. I feel betrayed. I can’t look at them with the same perspective anymore. But I would never wish anything bad upon them because they were my safe haven for [a while], and I wouldn’t want that opportunity to be taken away from someone else. The UConn A Cappella Association needs to take accountability for not treating me fairly.” Shclover said she was not able to get in touch with anyone from the association despite multiple attempts. She said she had been elected president by a unanimous 14-0 margin and expected group members to know the person she was. She said after the video went viral, she was inundated with threats, including one person who messaged: “I swear to God, the next time I see you, I’ll slap you.” She said other students stared her down in a threatening manner; she believed they had seen the video, and that this

was the result. The campus newspaper printed a story that didn’t name her but stated that Muslim students had been harassed.

‘It’s disheartening and shocking’ El-Tayyeb said it was surprising to see how quickly the members of the group turned on his girlfriend without any evidence that she harassed anyone. “I couldn’t imagine how a group of students two weeks prior on February 9 sang me ‘Happy Birthday’ and seemed so kind-hearted, would act like this,” he said. “It’s disheartening and shocking.” He also said it was absurd to claim that his girlfriend would harass someone for being Muslim when they are dating. “Natalie is one of the most informed people I know,” he said. “I would be the first to let her know if she was acting Islamophobic in any way.” He said he was a victim of an anti-Muslim incident some years ago on a bus when students looked at him and said he “might have a bomb.” He said he met his girlfriend on the first night of college when an impromptu breakdancing competition took place; their relationship has flourished, he said, because they respect each other’s views and religious differences. He also said he was attracted to her humor and her ability to relate to people. “You open a random door and people come in, and you know she’ll make friends,” he said. He added that he hoped a byproduct of the relationship would be to bring Jews and Muslims closer. The pre-law student said there was likely no due process because the group “wanted to appease the crowd” and possibly feared that keeping her in the group could result in boycotts. Currently, there is a change. org petition titled “Protect UConn Student From Antisemitic Harassment” that as of Thursday

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UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT INTERIM PRESIDENT RADENKA MARIC (LEFT) AND CONNECTICUT GOV. NED LAMONT (SECOND FROM LEFT) WITH REPRESENTATIVES FROM TECHNION-ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND VICE PRESIDENT FOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS DAN WEINER (RIGHT) AFTER SIGNING A MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU) FOCUSED ON STUDENT/FACULTY MOBILITY, CLEAN ENERGY RESEARCH AND RELATED INVESTMENTS IN CONNECTICUT AND ISRAEL, MARCH 1, 2022. (COURTESY, OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR)

has 680 signatures. Shclover said she hopes Jews and Muslims can come together, as she is a person who respects differences of opinion and is unhappy that the campus has done nothing about the slurs used against her. She said she called a campus representative who replied that the insults, however disgusting they may seem, are protected by free speech. She added that her parents, who fled Moscow in 1991, are supportive of her and her efforts to contact the university president. So far, she said she hasn’t gotten a response. She noted that two weeks prior to the Feb. 28 incident, two Muslim female students reported slurs against them yelled from people in a car on campus, and the university sent out an e-mail and made an issue of it. She said she was surprised that her offer to the campus newspaper to present her side of the story was rejected. “I think the university has done a good job of looking into cases of Islamophobia in the past, and I think all students should be treated fairly,” she said. “In my case, I don’t feel supported by the university or students. The system has failed me. It is institutional antisemitism.” In response to questions to the president’s office, a statement by the president that was sent and said to have gone out to the UConn community noted that “during the course of the argument, a student called one of the two students who had been

throwing the fliers away a series of crude insults, as well as calling her a “f*****g Zionist. What we know of it is based on a short video posted on social media and subsequent statements from each of those involved. The students throwing the fliers away, one of whom is Muslim and one of whom is Jewish, noted that some of the insults directed at the Jewish student were antisemiticin nature, which is unacceptable in any context.” Shclover said the term “Zionist” as a slur has the potential to incite violence against Jews, and that she has been maligned as harassing Muslim students without evidence. “The incident was heated enough that the police were contacted,” continues the president’s statement. “UConn Police investigated and issued their report this past week. It was determined that nothing criminal took place on either side. The Division of Student Affairs also investigated and concluded that nothing said or done by anyone involved violated the Student Code of Conduct, a determination that was finalized this past Friday. Both concluded that, whatever else they were, the words spoken and actions taken fell into the category of free speech. Regardless of content or message, the university cannot and does not sanction students for the things they say while exercising this right.”

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Jewish Life

Beth El-Keser Israel installs Eric Woodward as the congregation’s new rabbi

BY ALLAN APPEL

s we emerge – we dearly hope – from a mask-filled pandemic, one of the most important values to which we aspire is seeing and being seen, in the fullest spiritual sense. That idea was at the heart of a joyous, gift and music-filled gathering Sunday morning, March 26, as members of Westville’s Beth El-Keser Israel (BEKI) synagogue “installed” Eric Woodward as their new rabbi. Woodward, a 41-year-old graduate of Williams College and the Jewish Theological Seminary, assumed the pulpit over the past year, the congregation’s first new pulpit rabbi in 28 years. He succeeded Rabbi Jon-Jay Tilsen, who served from 1993 – 2021, and Carl Astor, who served as interim rabbi until Woodward arrived. An upbeat throng of 200 adults and kids participated in the installation ceremony in the sanctuary at Harrison Street and Whalley Avenue, marking the success of the initial trial marriage between congregation and new rabbi. “I was wondering if I should bring my tools” to the installation, quipped longtime synagogue member Yair Minsky. He was making an old joke about a relatively new ritual, rabbinic installation. An installation ceremony mandates no set pieces, prescribed prayers or blessings, for example that characterize ancient Jewish practices such as the upcoming Passover seder. And one of the nicest aspects of the largely freestyle affair is that Woodward could choose whomever he wanted to officiate and conduct the installation. He chose his best friend, seminary roommate and study-

buddy Rabbi Ravid Tilles, who came down from Boston to participate. “It makes sense that Eric would ask me as a friend to come speak on his behalf,” said Tilles. He could have chosen someone with more rabbinic and Torah gravitas, Tilles said, but Woodward “values relationships as central to his rabbinate. There is nothing more important or sacred or significant than relationships.” Tilles went on to describe Woodward as someone who “helps people find something within. That’s the thing he’s most expert at.” Minsky echoed many other congregants interviewed in saying that Woodward’s relationship-ignitied personal spark has proved a perfect fit to shepherd a congregation through gradual reemergence from a pandemic that has stressed out many of our relationships at home, at work, and in a now war and danger-filled world. The installation was an “exciting moment, in the midst of all the grief in the world, for the congregation to come together,” said Maytal Saltiel, an an assistant university chaplain, mom of two and active member who was handing out programs. “He’s interested in everyone, has a great memory and remembers everyone’s story.” When Woodward took the bimah, or stage, he stood and beamed out on the new/old faces looking up at him. “I’m just taking a minute to take in all your faces,” he said. “From the moment BEKI came into our [family’s] lives, it felt as if it were meant to be. I think we truly saw each other, the joy and love of being seen.” Woodward found a proof-text for this message in a medieval

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RABBI RAVID TILLES, AT RIGHT, PRESENTS PRAYER SHAWL TO BEKI RABBI ERIC WOODWARD AT SUNDAY’S CEREMONY. (ALLEN SAMUEL PHOTOGRAPHY)

TAMARA SCHECHTER, ONE OF THE ORGANIZERS OF SUNDAY’S EVENT, PRESENTS WOODWARD WITH A BOOK CONTAINING FELLOW CONGREGANTS’ WELL WISHES. (ALLEN SAMUEL PHOTOGRAPHY)

Jewish commentator’s question: Why the Jews’ biblical story begins at creation at Genesis (the first humans recorded in the story, after all, weren’t Jewish) as opposed to the central-people making moment, the Exodus from Egypt. Answer: “To give us context, to train us about our place in the world not just as Jews but as humans … Every time we meet another person we are in medias res and we bring a whole ‘trousseau’ of past experience, a wrapped up bundle of things, a jumble of narratives and moments … “The story of the Exodus is the main story we tell ourselves, but it’s not our only story … Who are you and what is your story?” There were formal proclamations offered at the event by Mayor Justin Elicker

on behalf of the city and State Rep. Pat Dillon on behalf of Connecticut. Tilles at this newfangled ceremony presented Woodward with a prayer shawl and an old text for a blessing, from when Moses (with God’s help) passes the mantle of leadership on to Joshua: “May the Torah never cease from your lips … Be strong and resolute, for Adonai your God will be with you wherever you go. Mazal Tov.” Then, as Woodward struggled a little to don the talit, the prayer shawl, Tilles called up from the seat in the first row to which he had descended: “You know how to use that thing?” This article is reprinted with permission of The New Haven Independent (newhavenindependent.org). April 5, 2022

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Opinion

The advice I gave Madeleine Albright when she found out she was Jewish BY STUART E. EIZENSTAT

(JTA) — “How long have you known me, Stu?” Madeleine Albright asked me that question with a sense of urgency I had not heard from her before. It was mid-January 1996, and I was in my hotel room in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum. She called me through a secure line from her office in the State Department during the transition following Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection, before she was confirmed by the Senate as the first female Secretary of State in American history. I was about to be nominated by the president to the position she offered me as her Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business & Economic Affairs. “Well,” I replied, “20 years, since you and I worked together in the West Wing of the Carter White House, you as congressional liaison for the National Security Council under Zbig Brzezinski, and me as President Carter’s Chief Domestic Policy Adviser.”

The next question was even more odd: “What religion am I?” “Madeleine, of course, you are a Czech Catholic. What’s this all about?” She explained that a Washington Post reporter, Michael Dobbs, was doing an investigative article on her background as she awaited Senate confirmation, and shockingly determined that she was Jewish, not Catholic. She had known that her parents twice fled Czechoslovakia: first to London as Hitler and the Nazis were going to take over, and then again in 1948, this time to the United States, after her father, a Czech diplomat who returned after the war, was confronted by Stalin and the Communists. She did not know that both of her parents were born Jewish and converted to Catholicism during the war, raising her and her siblings as Catholics. “What must I do?” she asked. She told me she feared the American Jewish community would oppose her nomination,

THEN-U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE ALBRIGHT LOOKS ON AS STUART E. EIZENSTAT, THEN-UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR ECONOMIC, BUSINESS AND AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS, SPEAKS DURING THE OPENING PLENARY SESSION OF THE WASHINGTON CONFERENCE ON HOLOCAUST-ERA ASSETS AT THE STATE DEPARTMENT, DEC. 1, 1998. (TIM SLOAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES)

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believing that she was embarrassed by and covered up her Jewish past, and this might sink her confirmation. Moreover, she said, “What am I supposed to say to my three girls? Am I to tell them they should now convert to Judaism?” My instant advice was to tell the truth, which was that she never knew about her parents’ conversion; to embrace her newly discovered Jewish past with pride; and that of course, neither she nor her three children should feel they needed to convert to Judaism. I also explained that given my work on Holocaust justice in the Clinton administration, and frequent interaction with Holocaust survivors, that the Jewish community understood that during World War II all sorts of methods were used to protect Jewish children, including placing them in Catholic convents or in Christian households where they were raised by righteous gentiles. I told her that several of the Jewish friends I had made in Belgium when I was U.S. Ambassador to the European Union had been saved in just that way. Tomas Kraus, the head of the Federation of Czech Jewish Communities, later confirmed that “[i]t is common for Jews from this part of the world to be ignorant of their Jewish roots.” By being candid, I was certain there would be no blowback either from the Jewish community or the Senate. Besides, I reminded her, as U.N. Ambassador during Clinton’s first four years in office, she had established herself as a strong, fervent supporter of Israel against Arab attacks. She followed my advice and was confirmed with a

remarkable 99-0 vote. On her first foreign trip as Secretary of State, as I was in her office for a last-minute briefing, she looked at her suitcase and, with her characteristic wit, said, “Well, with my newly discovered Jewish background, I suppose I should say I am going to schlep my suitcase!” We all burst into laughter. But Madeleine Albright went beyond my fondest hopes in identifying with her Jewish past. As Secretary of State, in her maiden trip to her Prague birthplace in July 1997, she went straight to the Pinkas Synagogue to look for her grandparents’ names among the more than 77,000 Czech and Slovak Holocaust victims lovingly inscribed by Czech survivors on the wall of the synagogue. She found the names of her paternal grandparents, Arnost and Olga Korbel, who had perished in the Nazi death camps — Arnost in Theresienstadt in 1942 and her grandmother in Auschwitz in 1944. At the synagogue she said publicly, “Tonight…their image will be forever seared into my heart.” Later during her tour to welcome her native Czech Republic and two other former Soviet bloc countries into NATO — a burning issue today with the Russian invasion of Ukraine — she toured other Jewish sites in Prague, and movingly confronted her past: “The evil of the Holocaust” has taken on “even greater personal meaning” since she learned the fate of her grandparents. “To the many values and many facets that make up who I am, I now add the knowledge that my grandparents and members of my family perished in the worst catastrophe in human history. So I leave her April 5, 2022

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tonight with the certainty that this new part of my identity adds something stronger, sadder and richer to my life.” She went a step further and on a later trip went to the small villages where her fraternal and maternal grandparents had lived, to try to relive their history. As her Under Secretary, I saw up-close how her background as a refugee from fascism shaped her foreign policy views and her greatest triumphs in the two Balkan Wars, in Bosnia and Kosovo. As U.N. Ambassador, she joined with National Security Adviser Tony Lake to successfully urge President Clinton, over Pentagon and State Department opposition, to take aggressive U.S. leadership of NATO and direct military strikes against Bosnian Serbs following the brutality against Bosnian Muslims encouraged by Serbian strongman President Slobodan Milosević. The July 1995 massacre of more than 7,000 Bosnian men and boys at Srebrenica, dumped

into a mass grave, evoked for her the Holocaust her parents had escaped. She confronted Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Colin Powell, stating, “What’s the point of having this superb military that you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?” That military action paved the way for the Dayton Accords negotiated by Richard Holbrooke, the peace agreement that ended the war. In January 1999, following another Serb massacre of Kosovo Albanians at the small Kosovo village of Racak, Secretary of State Albright brilliantly combined diplomacy with NATO military force, again over Defense Department opposition, to secure a peace which lasts to this day. She was a strong, constant supporter of my work on Holocaust justice in my negotiations with Swiss and French banks, German and Austrian slave labor companies, and European insurance companies. She

gave the keynote speech at the Washington Conference which led to the Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, where she weaved her own Holocaust background into the contemporary challenge of returning looted art. And she asked me to lead the U.S. delegation to the Kyoto conference on Climate Change, giving me strong backing for the Kyoto Protocols. Madeleine Albright, tiny in stature but huge in impact, had a charisma, a sparkle, a brilliance and a fluency in Czech, French, Polish and Russian. She connected the foreign policy she forged with President Clinton to the lives of everyday people around the world. All of these qualities made her larger than life. One of her trademarks was wearing a a variety of brooches on the lapel of her clothing to underline her political and diplomatic messages. When I asked why, since she had not done this in our early years together, she recalled

when Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein, following his invasion of Kuwait, compared her to an “unparalleled serpent.” She wore a snake pin in response, and a tradition as born. The United States has lost a great American public servant, a role model for women as the first female Secretary of State, a professor at Georgetown University, an author, a lifelong proponent of democracy and human rights, a constant friend of Israel, and someone who embraced her Jewish background. And I have lost a dear friend. Stuart E. Eizenstat worked with Madeleine Albright when they were both in the Carter White House and during the Clinton administration in which she was the Secretary of State and he was Undersecretary of State for Economic Business and Agriculture Affairs and Special Representative of President Clinton and Secretary Albright on Holocaust Era issues.

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Passover 5782 War in Ukraine could put a crunch on ‘shmura’ matzah supplies BY DAVID I. KLEIN

(JTA) – On Feb. 24, two shipping containers laden with 20,000 pounds of shmura matzah were slated to head out of port in Odessa, Ukraine, on their way to Orthodox Jews in the United States. Two hours before they were to be loaded onto a ship, Russia invaded. The shipment was the last of 200,000 pounds of unleavened bread that Ukrainian matzah bakeries shipped to the United States this year, in addition to what they ship to Europe and Israel. Now, technically outside of Ukraine’s customs zone, it could neither be returned to the country nor travel on to the United States. Rabbi Meyer Stambler, head of the Chabad-affiliated Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine, estimates that his factories in Ukraine account for about 15-20% of the U.S. market share for shmura matzah, the carefully “guarded” variety that many observant Jews prefer to use during the seder. Shmura matzah is handmade in small batches with a higher level of supervision than most other types of matzah. That already makes it significantly more expensive than the factory stuff. A single pound box of shmura matzah could go from anywhere between $20 and $60, the Forward reported in 2018. In contrast, Instacart offers at least three different brands of regular matzah that come in under $10 for a 5-lb. box. “I think the U.S. market will feel it,” Stambler told JTA. “I think we are probably going to have a deficit of shmura matzah this year.” The vast majority of shmura

matzah produced abroad had already made it to the United States before the end of February, suggesting that the war in Ukraine is unlikely to be a major disruption. But an already overextended shipping industry after two years of pandemic, combined with rising gas and labor costs, have fueled rising prices for the matzah. Barely over a month ago, Stambler would have said business was booming. “This year, we even opened a new matzah bakery, another branch, in Uman,” he said, referring to the Ukrainian city that is a pilgrimage site for Hasidic Jews. Beginning baking around Hanukkah, the Ukrainian factories supply shmura matzah to Jewish communities in the entire former Soviet world in addition to their customers in the United States, Israel and Western Europe. They are sold in America under the brand names Tiferes and Redemption, among others. In Dnipro, the city where Stambler and his main matzah factory are based, periods of pogroms in the 19th century, which sent Eastern European Jews fleeing to the United States, are no longer top of mind for residents. The Holocaust and even Soviet repression also seem to be more distant memories. Today, Dnipro — known until 2016 as Dnepropretrovsk — is the most Jewish city in Ukraine, boasting the massive Menorah Center, a seven-branched building designed to look like the sacred candelabra and filled with kosher restaurants, wedding halls, ritual baths and other amenities for a Jewish community. Though he has Israeli and American passports that would

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FACTORIES IN UKRAINE ACCOUNT FOR ABOUT 15-20% OF THE MARKET SHARE IN THE U.S. FOR SHMURA MATZAH. (COURTESY OF MEYER STAMBLER)

allow him to leave, Stambler has stayed behind to support the community, even after getting his family to safety. “It’s very important to know that we’re staying here because we’re a part of the community, a part of the city.” Stambler said. “Just like President Zelensky said, each person has to fight on his own front. Our front is spreading Yiddishkeit.” As Russian missiles struck the outskirts of Dnipro earlier this month, dozens still gathered for Shabbat, including many refugees who had come from harder-hit regions. “We’re helping people from the whole Ukraine,” Stambler said. “From Kharkiv, from Zaporizhia, from Mariupol. We had 70 families who came out of Mariupol.” Matzah production is still going on in town as well, though Stambler said about two thirds of the factory’s staff had fled. Those who remain are making matzah just for Ukraine. “We’re going to make a very big campaign to bring the seder to every Jewish home,” Stambler said. Stambler has plans for the 20,000 pounds in port as well. “The only way I can bring it

back to Ukraine is if it’s for the needs of the army,” he said. Ukrainian men between 18 and 60 are forbidden from leaving the country in case they are needed for the war effort. Many Jews have already joined volunteer self defense units which are organizing across the country. If the war stretches until Passover, something that appears increasingly likely as Russia continues to shell areas it had suggested it might Stambler said, there could be many Jewish soldiers looking for matzah in the Ukrainian Army. Most of it will stay in Ukraine, he said, but a last truck is still scheduled to bring some of the surplus out to the United Kingdom. It will be the last international shipment of Ukrainian matzah this year. April 5, 2022

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Passover, Shabbat and an in-person ‘Festival of Freedom’ BY ETHEL G. HOFMAN

(JNS) The first Passover seder takes place on Friday, April 15 at sundown, on the 15th day of Nissan and Shabbat to boot. During the eight-day holiday, no leavened or fermented food or drink is eaten, a reminder of the rushed exodus of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. It is said to be the most widely celebrated Jewish holiday, mostly because it happens at home with family and friends, and not at synagogue. Now, it wouldn’t be a seder without traditional Ashkenazi dishes like matzah balls floating in chicken soup, braised brisket, sweet and savory kugels, tzimmes and salads, and desserts like coconut macaroons and flourless chocolate cake. But for the second seder, consider a lighter meal. This may well be the start of a new tradition for worldly younger generations looking for fresh, healthy but still tasty and traditional holiday fare. At Dvash (Hebrew for “honey”), a Mediterranean restaurant in Boca Raton, Florida, owned and run by a dynamic Israeli couple, Ilan and Lauren Cohen, I dined on dishes like Pumpkin Soup With Sweet Potato Nuggets and Roasted Turmeric Cauliflower. Prepared with no leavening or pulses, it’s perfect for any Passover meal. Ilan, who began his career in Jerusalem, uses farm-fresh ingredients spiked with aromatic spices (available in general markets) to create mouth-watering dishes while eliminating the need for mundane seasonings like salt and pepper. Inspired, I’ve adapted the recipe. Understandably, Ilan wouldn’t share his, though he did tell me the spices he used. Lauren’s Citrus Salmon is citrusinfused by baking the fish on April 5, 2022

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a bed of sliced oranges. Tasty caponata—diced vegetables livened with olives and capers, a sweet-and-sour version of ratatouille—is heaped onto matzah to replace a heavier kugel. For a tropical twist to Pavlova, a traditional Australian dessert, mounds of coffeescented whipped cream are spooned into a meringue shell, and then topped with mango and star fruit (carambola—a sweet-and-sour fruit that has the shape of a five-pointed star). Any fruit may be used, such as strawberries, blueberries and raspberries.

Pumpkin Soup With Sweet Potato Nuggets (pareve) Serves 6-8 Cook’s Tips: *Canned pumpkin (not pie mix) makes this quick and easy or cook 3 cups diced pumpkin in boiling salted water until soft. Drain well and blend in food processor. *Soup and baked sweet potato may be prepared 1 to 2 days ahead of time and chilled. Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 small onion, diced (about ½ cup) 3 cups vegetarian broth 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon 2 tablespoons coarsely grated

PIXABAY

ginger root 1 1/2 tablespoons honey or to taste 1/2 cup nondairy creamer Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste 1 large sweet potato, cooked peeled and cut in ½-inch dice Chopped chives, parsley or slivered almonds to garnish (optional) Directions: In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion. Cook, stirring often, till nicely browned. Add the broth, pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger. Reduce heat to medium and bring to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes. Stir in honey and nondairy creamer. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in the sweet potato and heat through. Serve hot with garnish (optional).

Lauren’s Citrus Salmon (pareve) Serves 6 Cook’s Tips: *If you can’t find kosher-forPassover imitation soy sauce, substitute Dijon mustard. *Rinse salmon in cold water and pat dry. Run fingers over the surface to remove any bones. If using an instant-read thermometer, the internal temperature should read 145 degrees. Ingredients: 2 large oranges, sliced about ¼-inch thick 6 (4 to 6 ounces each) salmon steaks, skin on 1/3 cup honey, warmed 2 tablespoons soy sauce 2 tablespoons coarsely grated fresh ginger 1/2 teaspoon bottled minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper or to taste Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a large baking dish with nonstick vegetable spray. Spread orange slices in a layer to cover the bottom of the dish. Place salmon steaks on top, skin-side down. Set aside. In a small bowl, mix the honey, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, salt and pepper. Spoon half of the mixture over the salmon steaks. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and spoon remaining mixture over top. Return to oven and bake for 8-10 minutes longer or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

Matzah Caponata (pareve) Serves 6-8 Cook’s Tips: Prepare caponata 2-3 days ahead for flavors to blend. Chill. Substitute dried cranberries for raisins. Ingredients: 1 rib celery, sliced 1/4-inch thick 1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 medium eggplant, trimmed and chopped into rough ½-inch pieces 2 red or yellow bell peppers, seeded and sliced 2 small zucchini, coarsely cut in ½-inch pieces 1 tomato, cut up coarsely 1 cup tomato purée (set aside an extra 1/4 cup) 1/4 cup vinegar 8 to 10 pitted olives, halved 1/4 cup raisins 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts Continued on the next page

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KAREN AND BRAD EMERSON VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

2 teaspoons capers Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste 3 to 4 sheets of matzah, halved Directions: Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the celery and onion. Cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the eggplant, peppers, zucchini and tomato. Add 1 cup tomato purée and vinegar. Cook 10 to 15 minutes longer, until vegetables are soft. Add the olives, raisins, walnuts and capers. If mixture is too dry, add remaining 1/4 cup tomato purée. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer 5 to 10 minutes longer, stirring often. Serve chilled, spooned over matzahs.

Tropical Pavlova (pareve) Serves 6-8 Cook’s Tips: *A mixture of berries may be substituted for tropical fruits. *Prepare meringue shell 2 days ahead of time. Store in a tightly lidded container at room temperature. Do not refrigerate! *Heavy cream should be cold from the fridge to whip well. *Egg whites whip up best at room temperature. Ingredients: 4 extra-large egg whites 1 1/4cups plus 1 tablespoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon lemon juice 2 teaspoons potato starch, sifted

K-MUS VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

1 pint of heavy cream 1 1/2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa, sifted Sliced mango and star fruit

20 years on, PA still glorifies the perpetrators of the Passover Seder Massacre

Directions: Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Draw a 9-inch circle on the paper. In a large bowl, beat egg whites until slightly stiff. Gradually add 1¼ cups sugar, 2 to 3 tablespoons at a time, beating after each addition. At the last addition, beat until glossy and stiff peaks form. Fold in the vanilla, lemon juice and potato starch. Spoon the mixture inside the circle on paper. Spread so that there’s a slight depression in the center. Bake for 1 hour in preheated oven or until firm to the touch. Turn off and leave in the oven for 3 to 4 hours or overnight to cool. To serve: Transfer the pavlova shell to a serving platter. In a large bowl, whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Do not over beat. Fold in 1 tablespoon sugar and the cocoa. Spoon mixture into depression (some will spill over). Arrange mango and star fruit on top. Serve at once.

(JNS) March 27, 2022, was the twentieth anniversary of the Passover Seder Massacre. As families sat down to Passover dinner at the Park Hotel in Netanya in northern Israel in 2002, a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated his explosive device in the dining hall, murdering 30 and wounding another 160. Every month, the Palestinian Authority spends tens of thousands of dollars to reward the bomber’s family and pay salaries to the terrorists arrested by Israel for their part in the massacre. Among the terrorists arrested for the attack are: Abbas al-Sayid, the main planner of the attack, who received 35 life sentences; Fathi Hatib, convicted for transporting the bomber (29 life sentences); Muhannad Shreim, who financed the attack (29 life sentences); and Muamar al-Sheikh, the deputy of senior Hamas figure Abbas al-Sayid (29 life sentences). Each one of these terrorists, all of whom were arrested in May 2002, has by now been paid over one million shekels ($310,000) by the P.A. as a reward for their participation in the murder of 30 Israelis. The P.A. has also paid hundreds of thousands of shekels to the families of Kais Adwan, one of the main planners of the attack, who was killed on April 5, 2002, and to the family of the suicide bomber, Abd al-Basset Odeh. The P.A. has repeatedly honored al-Sayid, calling him, among other things, a “heroic fighter” and “the lion of the prison cells” (P.A. TV, Oct. 25, 2011). In 2017, al-Sayid was among many other terrorist murderers glorified by Fatah – the Palestinian faction headed by P.A. chairman Mahmoud Abbas – in a post on the Fatah Facebook page: “All blessings to our heroic prisoners carrying out the [hunger] strike of dignity: Karim Younes, Marwan Barghouti, Nael Barghouti, Ahmad Sa’adat, Abbas al-Sayid, Hassan Salameh, Zaid Bassisi, Bassem al-Khandaqji, Wajdi Joudeh, Maher Younes, Fuad al-Shubaki, Wael al-Jaghoub” (Official Fatah Facebook page, May 3, 2017). At the graduation ceremony held in honor of Shreim on his completing a degree while in prison, Al-Quds Open University President Younes Amr referred to Shreim as a “prisoner knight” (official P.A. daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 29, 2018). The P.A. has also repeatedly glorified the bomber. While praising the terrorists of the Jenin refugee camp, who “wrote a heroic epic in blood” during the 2000-2005 P.A. terror campaign, the official P.A. daily singled out Odeh for praise. In January 2003, less than a year after the deadly attack, the P.A. Education Ministry even held a football tournament named in Odeh’s honor: “In the football field of Tulkarem’s Abd Al-Majid Tayeh School,

Sephardic Halvah IceCream (dairy) Serves 4 Ingredients: 4 scoops of vanilla ice-cream, slightly softened 1 1/2 tablespoons tahini 1/2 cup halvah, crumbled, divided 2 tablespoons honey, warmed (optional) Directions: In a large bowl, combine the ice-cream with tahini. Mix until smooth. Stir in 1/4 cup crumbled halvah. Place in the freezer until ready to serve. Place a scoop of ice-cream into each of 4 dishes. Drizzle with honey (optional). Sprinkle remaining halvah over top. Serve at once. Ethel G. Hofman is a widely syndicated American Jewish food and travel columnist, author and culinary consultant.

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BY LT. COL. (RES) MAURICE HIRSCH

Continued on page 41

THE DINING HALL OF THE PARK HOTEL IN NETANYA, FOLLOWING A DEADLY SUICIDE BOMBING ON PASSOVER EVE IN MARCH 2002. CREDIT: IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

April 5, 2022

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Arts & Entertainment

Jewish stories were excluded from a new movie museum. Is Hollywood’s push for diversity leaving them behind? BY ANDREW LAPIN

(JTA) – A new museum about the history of Hollywood will have a permanent exhibition devoted to the contributions of Jews after early criticism that Jews were omitted. The change was announced this week in the lead-up to this year’s Academy Awards, which features a slate of nominees more diverse than in the past. It caps a period of intense discussion about how Hollywood includes Jews — and how it does not. Whether in their depictions on screen, the actors cast to play them or acknowledgement of their historic role building up the film industry, Jews over the last few months have been vocal about their impressions of being left out of the current Hollywood conversation. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which opened last fall in Los Angeles, is exhibit A in this purported oversight. Overseen by the Oscars’ governing body, which described its mission as “radically inclusive,” the museum’s announcement of its new permanent exhibition focused

on Jews came only after the academy admitted it had initially sidelined or ignored Hollywood’s prominent Jewish founders. Jewish visitors to its unveiling, including prominent donors to the museum, such as Haim Saban, publicly voiced their concerns that Jewish stories were being overlooked in the industry’s historical narrative. Among the figures who had little or no prominence in the museum’s storytelling were Jewish studio heads like Louis B. Mayer and the Warner brothers; prominent directors like Billy Wilder and Ernst Lubitsch; stars like Hedy Lamarr; and screenwriters like Herman Mankiewicz (subject of the recent biopic “Mank,” which starred non-Jew Gary Oldman). Figures such as these molded the early years of Hollywood, even while all but hiding their Jewishness from the general public, according to historians of the era such as Neal Gabler, whose book “An Empire Of Their Own” explores the central Jewish role in the creation of Hollywood. These early Jews’ films rarely, if ever, dealt with

GUESTS TAKE PHOTOS IN THE COSTUME EXHIBIT IN THE ACADEMY MUSEUM IN LOS ANGELES, SEPT. 30, 2021. (AL SEIB/LOS ANGELES TIMES VIA GETTY IMAGES)

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Jewish characters and themes. “Gentleman’s Agreement,” a landmark 1947 film about antisemitism, neither starred nor was directed or produced by Jews (though co-writer Moss Hart and Laura Z. Hobson, whose novel the film was based on, were Jewish). Some of these showbiz legends were refugees from Europe, and their backgrounds of escaping (and continuing to operate under) extreme antisemitism informed their desire to keep their Judaism under wraps. The Academy’s initial omission of such Jewish figures, and their self-imposed cultural erasure, stood out in stark contrast to the museum’s emphasis on people of color and women in early Hollywood. One anonymous insider told The Hollywood Reporter the exclusion was a symptom of “overcorrection due to wokeness.” Criticism of the museum arrived in the middle of other ongoing conversations about Jewish representation in modern Hollywood. Jewish actress Sarah Silverman recently popularized the controversial term “Jewface,” previously used by academics to describe secular Jews dressing up like Hasidic ones in Yiddish theater, to describe a different phenomenon: non-Jewish actors playing Jewish roles, in popular works such as “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and the Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic “On The Basis of Sex.” An upcoming biopic of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, scheduled for release this year, casts non-Jew Helen Mirren in the role. Just this week, an anonymous Oscar voter interviewed by The

Hollywood Reporter questioned whether Rachel Zegler, the Colombian-Polish star of Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” remake, is diverse enough for the role she played, based solely on her name. “I know they’re emphasizing that they cast Latino and Latina actors this time, but the actress who plays Maria is named Rachel Zegler, so I think that’s a little overstated,” the Academy member said, as their justification for not voting for the film — in what could be interpreted as an insinuation that Zegler is Jewish and therefore does not count as diverse. Zegler is Latina and not Jewish. Allison Josephs, a writer and activist who runs the Orthodoxfocused media organization Jew In The City, says how Jews are portrayed onscreen has real implications for how they are treated in real life. “Jews aren’t considered a minority in Hollywood. We’re considered white,” Josephs told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, adding that depictions of Orthodox Jews in particular are “two-dimensional.” Her writing on such negative portrayals has prompted apologies and episode retractions from major producers. This week, Josephs announced that Jew in the City would be opening a “Hollywood bureau,” intended to be a Jewish parallel to the NAACP, the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment — existing organizations that push for positive Black, Muslim and Asian depictions onscreen. The bureau would advocate for Jews in Hollywood by April 5, 2022

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helping place observant Jews in entertainment production roles, as well as through representation awards; a “minority impact study” to determine if negative depictions of Jews onscreen lead to more antisemitic incidents in real life; and a media consultancy. Josephs is also at work on a documentary about Jewish representation in Hollywood. With screenwriter Yael Levy, Josephs also coined what they call the “Josephs test” for judging an Orthodox character’s onscreen portrayal, in the model of the Bechdel Test, a popular analysis tool for onscreen depictions of women coined by comics artist Allison Bechdel. (There’s also the Kranjec Test, to assess whether Torah study includes women sources.) The Bechdel Test’s criteria calls for a film to feature two named female characters who have a conversation with each other about something other than a man. The Josephs test calls for a film or TV show to feature Orthodox characters who “are emotionally and psychologically stable” and can “self-actualize without leaving their Judaism behind” — in contrast to popular Netflix shows “Unorthodox” and “My Unorthodox Life,” both of which feature protagonists who exit Orthodox Judaism. “Basically every show and movie fails the Josephs test except for [Israeli movies and TV shows] ‘Shtisel,’ ‘Fill the Void,’ [and] ‘Ushpizin,’ because they all were made by or worked with actual Orthodox Jews,” Josephs said. Only one film released this year had a positive enough depiction of Judaism, in Josephs’ eyes, to be eligible for a Jewish representation award: the music documentary “Rock Camp: The Movie,” whose central subject is an Orthodox music agent. She’s not alone in wanting better onscreen depictions of Jews. In an op-ed last year, Malina Saval, Variety’s features April 5, 2022

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editor and a former screenwriter, lamented what she saw as “the watering-down of Jewish representation in TV and film,” criticizing the so-called “selfloathing Jews” onscreen, like Woody Allen and Larry David, whom she believes help provide a safe psychological distance between the audience and a positive view of Judaism. But the Academy is committed to a course correction around Jews, the museum’s director and president, Bill Kramer, wrote in a joint op-ed this week with Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. “As a cultural institution that seeks to elevate underrepresented and untold stories of the film industry, the Academy Museum has a responsibility to examine and explore the experiences of oppressed and marginalized groups in cinema, including the Jewish community,” Kramer and Greenblatt wrote, adding that the museum and the ADL would be partnering on public programming to educate the public about the role of Jews in Hollywood and in combatting antisemitism. The Academy museum’s new permanent exhibit focusing on Jews, with the working title “Hollywoodland,” will open next year. In the meantime, Jewish Oscar viewers still have a few rooting interests this weekend: director Steven Spielberg, actor Andrew Garfield and screenwriter Maggie Gyllenhaal, among other Jews, are all up for awards.

This Passover, consider four more questions:

2 3 4

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Do you want them to exist for future generations?

Do you support these organizations on an annual basis? How will you assure Jewish tomorrows?

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Confronting Antisemitism CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

about Israel, Anti-Zionism, and Antisemitism,” said Patt. “Sadly, we now have a very current case study to share with the students.” “Confronting Antisemitism” is the fifth in a series of ‘pop up’ courses that UConn has been offering dealing with important contemporary topics. The first pop-up, held in 2020, dealt with COVID-19, followed by courses on the climate crisis, and antiBlack and anti-Asian racism. These one-credit pop-ups are shorter than regular semesterlong courses – “Confronting Antisemitism” is only seven weeks long – and they are all pass/fail and asynchronous, allowing students to view the courses’ pre-recorded module on their own time during the week. The course is multidisciplinary, with collaboration between several professors who specialize in other subjects including history, English, philosophy, sociology and more. “UConn decided to offer these classes that [cover] more contemporary topics, important issues that are very current. The ideas was, ‘Let’s gather our experts on a current, really pressing issue, get them all together and deliver this in an online format,” Patt says. “Fundamentally, our basic belief is that one of the best ways to respond to hatred or discrimination is through education. So that’s what we’re trying to do.” “Confronting Antisemitism” was designed in large part in response to a series of antisemitic acts in late 2020 and early 2021 on the UConn Storrs campus. Mitch Kuperstein, a UConn senior at the time, started a petition asking the UConn administration to offer a class on antisemitism. “We had several antisemitic incidents on campus so after that happened, I was thinking a good actionable way that we could confront it would be to have a April 5, 2022

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UCONN CLASS: THE FINAL WRAP-UP DISCUSSION OF CONFRONTING ANTISEMITISM WITH, BOTTOM ROW, FROM LEFT, SUSAN HERBST, ARNIE DASHEFSKY AND STUART MILLER; TOP ROW, FROM LEFT, JEFFREY SHOULSON, AVI PATT AND SEBASTIAN WOGENSTEIN.

free, one-credit, easily-accessible course about antisemitism that students could sign up for,” says Kuperstein, who graduated in 2021. Approximately 900 students signed the petition. During a solidarity gathering that followed the antisemitic incidents, Kuperstein spoke about the need for a class on the subject. Kuperstein and several other students met with UConn’s Provost last spring to propose the course and, by the fall, the course was under development. “The students from the Jewish community are all excited about the course,” Kuperstein says. “It just started but I’ve heard some good feedback and students are enjoying it.” “I’m encouraged by the strong interest from students for this course and am grateful for Mitch Kuperstein’s leadership in proposing it to senior university administrators,” says UConn Hillel Executive Director Edina Oestreicher. “My hope is that the course is offered every semester and becomes embedded in UConn’s broader diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. This course is a positive development in ensuring for a positive UConn campus climate in which Jewish students, and by extension, all students, feel comfortable expressing their identity and values; free of antisemitism, harassment and marginalization.” In addition to students like

Kuperstein who lobbied for the course, Patt commended UConn Provost Carl Lejuez who sought Patt’s help in developing the class. “They called me and said, ‘Can you help us organize this class?’ I that’s why we have a Center for Studies at UConn, of course we’re going to do this,” Patt said. “But we also have amazing faculty experts who run the gamut of all of Jewish history. I thought this was a great opportunity to expose our students to all of these faculty experts.”

Defining Judaism and Antisemitism Before delving right into the topic of antisemitism, Patt says that the course begins with some instruction about Judaism itself. “We didn’t want a class just on the history of antisemitism – just on the ways in which Jews have been hated and persecuted throughout history. There’s much more to Jewish history than that. And we figured that for most of our students this is the only class they are ever going to take on Jews, Jewish history, Jewish culture,” explains Patt. So, the first section of the first module, held the week of March 7, featured an overview of what Judaism is and discussed Jewish history and culture. The class was led by Stuart Miller, professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at UConn.

“In a class where we are teaching students about antisemitism, we didn’t want antisemites to define who or what Jews are; we wanted to have experts on Jewish history and culture to do that,” Patt says. Antisemitism was then introduced in the third and final segment of that first module. “We defined antisemitism… We want to teach students where [antisemtism] comes from,” Patt says. “Why has this been such a central component of world history from antiquity to the present?” Those beginnings were discussed by Professors Sara Johnson and Miller. Johnson, a professor of comparative literature and cultural studies, whose expertise is in Hellenistic Jewish literature discussed Exodus and Esther -“examples of events that may not be fully historical but which have come to assume significant religious and narrative importance within Jewish tradition,” Johnson says, as well as the Maccabean Revolt and the riots in Alexandria –“historical occasions when Jews came into violent conflict with non-Jews, under circumstances that are still being actively debated by scholars. “Whether either should be classified as an example of “antisemitism” is uncertain,” Johnson adds, “but they loom Continued on page 34

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On Campus

A Jewish art exhibit at Princeton was canceled over ties to the Confederacy. Jewish scholars are outraged. BY ANDREW LAPIN

(JTA) – Princeton University spent months planning an exhibit of 19th-century American Jewish art before cancelling the show because two of its featured artists had supported the Confederacy. The cancellation has drawn criticism from the exhibit’s Jewish donors and consulting historians. They say the decision “rewrites art history.” “I was really stunned by the university taking this position,” Leonard Milberg, the Jewish financial manager and art collector who funded the collection and whose name adorns the gallery where the exhibit was to be shown, told the Princeton student paper. The exhibit was to feature the work of Moses Jacob Ezekiel, a renowned sculptor who also crafted the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery and hung the Confederate battle flag in his Rome studio for his entire career, and painter Theodore Moise, who was a major in the Confederate Army, among other artists. A famous Ezekiel sculpture known as “Faith,” an adaptation of an earlier work “Religious Liberty” commissioned by B’nai B’rith that celebrates the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and is currently displayed outside the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, was to be the exhibit’s centerpiece; another Ezekiel work was to feature a sculpture of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the founder of American Reform Judaism. After first agreeing to organize the exhibition last summer, April 5, 2022

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Princeton canceled the show in December. According to emails first obtained by Religion News Service, the university’s vice provost for institutional equity and diversity had expressed concerns over the Confederate links and had asked for Ezekiel and Moise to be substituted for other artists. That decision didn’t sit well with Milberg, the show’s curator Samantha Baskind or the Jewish historians they consulted for the exhibit, Adam Mendelsohn and Jonathan Sarna, who argued that the exhibit as planned had addressed the artists’ Confederate associations in a thoughtful manner.

“The donor pulled out because Princeton canceled the art,” Baskind told the Daily Princetonian, saying that the decision was “an unfortunate anti-intellectual surrender to cancel culture.” She added, “Removing the artists with Confederate ties rewrites art history. Art historians examine the meaning of art in its own time as well as how it’s perceived in the current moment. We need to inform and discuss the past, not bury it.” American institutions, including universities, have increasingly reevaluated whether and how to acknowledge racist figures in their past. That effort

has included, at times, Jews with ties to the Confederacy: A Northern California synagogue, for example, has weighed whether to include Jewish Confederate leader Judah Benjamin in an engraved list of illustrious Jews. In an op-ed, Milberg noted that he had previously sponsored Princeton exhibits spotlighting artists with antisemitic ties. “I felt that I should not erase history but learn from it,” he wrote.

JEWISH SCULPTOR MOSES DAVID EZEKIEL (LEFT) IN HIS ROME STUDIO WITH HIS STATUE “RELIGIOUS LIBERTY” (BACK CENTER), 1909. (PUBLIC DOMAIN)

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Briefs Supreme Court nominee brings up Black-Jewish alliance (JTA) – In the middle of a contentious day of confirmation hearings last week, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz asked Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, what she meant when she praised the “social justice” values that are exemplified by the private school her children attend. In her response, Jackson said she was proud to serve as a board member – and opened up about the school’s origins as a Jewish-Black civil rights alliance. “Georgetown Day School has a special history that I think is important to understand when you consider my service on that board,” Jackson told Cruz. She went on: The school was founded in 1945 in Washington, D.C., at a time at which by law there was racial segregation in this community. Black students were not allowed in the public schools to go to school with white students. Georgetown Day School is a private school, that was created when three white families – Jewish families – got together with three Black families and said that despite the fact that the law is set up to make sure that Black children are not treated the same as everyone else, we are going to form a private school so that our children can go to school together. The idea of equality – justice – is at the core of the Georgetown Day School mission. Georgetown Day School’s history page on its website notes that it was founded in 1945 by seven – not six – families, and that it was the first integrated school in the nation’s capital. There appear to be at least three Jewish, or partly Jewish, families involved in its founding: Edith Nash (née Rosenfels), who was a Jewish poet married to Philleo Nash, an anthropologist and a senior official in Democratic administrations, April 5, 2022

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whose daughters attended the school; the parents of Arthur Goldschmidt, who became a noted scholar of Middle East history; and the parents of Judith Martin (née Perlman) who launched the famed “Miss Manners” etiquette column. The school sustained a Jewish flavor. In the 1950s, the school had an annual seder lunch. Next month, the school’s calendar features Passover Freedom Assemblies for the entire lower and middle schools. The school’s most influential director, Gladys Stern, who led the establishment from 1975-1996, was also Jewish. On the first day of her testimony, Jackson credited her Jewish high school debate coach, the late Fran Berger, with instilling her with confidence and making her believe she could succeed as a lawyer. Jackson also credited Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who is Jewish, for whom she clerked and whom she would replace.

RBG’s ‘dissent’ collar and more join Smithsonian’s permanent exhibition (JTA) – The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s children have donated dozens of objects that symbolize her time on the court and her role as a pop culture icon to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. The objects include her famous “dissent” and “majority” collars, which she famously liked to wear to telegraph her votes on cases; her judicial robe; a bobblehead and Legos of her likeness; as well as various documents and awards. The museum, which has enshrined the donations in its permanent collection, posthumously awarded the late justice with its Great Americans Medal on Wednesday at a ceremony honoring her achievements. The medal “has honored those who have not only made a lasting impact in their fields but those whose philanthropic and humanitarian endeavors set them apart,”

read a press release from the Smithsonian. Past recipients of the award include Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, Tom Brokaw, Cal Ripken Jr., Billie Jean King, Paul Simon and Dr. Anthony Fauci. The virtual tribute for Ginsburg featured a biographical film narrated by Gloria Steinem and testimonials from President Jimmy Carter, Chief Justice John Roberts, Barbara Streisand and Oprah Winfrey, as well as a conversation between the museum’s director, Anthea M. Hartig, and the justice’s children, Jane and James. Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993 and served until her death on Erev Rosh Hashanah in 2020. The Washington Post reported that Ginsburg’s family invited curators from the Smithsonian to her chambers a few weeks after she died. “There was always an understanding there, that the Smithsonian would be a big part of where some of the more significant items would go,” James Ginsburg said. “That Mom kept all of this stuff does not surprise me. That was in her nature. She was someone who preserved things.”

Israeli president, Jordan’s King Abdullah meet in Amman (JNS) Israeli President Isaac Herzog arrived in Jordan on Wednesday, March 30, for an official visit at the invitation of King Abdullah II. He was received by the Jordanian leader at an official ceremony at the royal palace in Amman. This was the first public and official visit by an Israeli president to Jordan. Israeli presidents have visited Jordan in the past, but in clandestine meetings that were sometimes reported after the fact. At the start of their meeting, Abdullah condemned the recent terror attacks in Israel and expressed his condolences to the victims’ families. Herzog thanked the king for his “warm hospitality and friendship.” “We share common values of prosperity and peace,

based on our peace agreement, which was carved out by the late King Hussein, your legendary father, as well as by the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin,” said Herzog. “Together, we must now move forward, and we are offering an alternative. As against the horrible scenes of yesterday, we offer a different alternative of people-to-people dialogue, of respect, of speaking to each other, of showing the region that there could be a different way.” During the visit, the two leaders held a private meeting, followed by a bilateral meeting together with their respective advisers. Several issues were discussed, including deepening Israeli-Jordanian relations, maintaining regional stability with an emphasis on the upcoming holiday period, strengthening peace and normalization and the many latent opportunities in relations between Israel, Jordan, and the wider region. Herzog’s visit comes just a day after a visit to Amman by Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who also met with King Abdullah. The two discussed regional and security challenges ahead of Passover, Ramadan and Easter, all of which coincide this year. The day before Gantz’s visit, on March 28, the Jordanian leader made a rare visit to Ramallah to meet with Palestinians.

Israeli companies at NASDAQ tout labgrown meat (New York Jewish Week) – An Israeli biotech company and an Israeli food giant rang the bell at NASDAQ Monday, March 28, celebrating their partnership to produce lab-grown meat, fish and dairy. Pluristem Therapeutics and Tnuva joined the race to create meat and dairy products from animal cells, using technology they say is more sustainable than natural methods and hoping to meet the demand for cruelty-free alternatives. Continued on the next page

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Tnuva is investing $7.5 million in the partnership, called NewCo, with an option to invest up to an additional $7.5 million over a year-long period. Pluristem CEO Yaky Yanay called the initial product “cultured meat” and said it is grown from real meat cells, tissue, fat and muscle. “We’re not talking about a substitute,” Yanay told the New York Jewish Week. “We will be able to provide a product that will be healthy and eventually affordable.” Tnuva Chairman Haim Gavrieli said that what is important to the product is the taste, the texture, the sensory feelings and “of course, the price.” “All around the world, there is a concern about food security,” Gavrieli said. “I think that this kind of collaboration will solve part of this problem in the next five to 10 years.” Other Israeli companies are also trying to bring cultured meat to market. Future Meat recently raised $347 million to launch a production facility in the U.S., and Aleph Farms has unveiled “cultivated” steak and ribeye. Yanay, a vegetarian of 25 years, said, “As a Jewish person and as an Israeli, we need to make this world a better one. What we are doing will contribute to that,” Yanay said, adding, “I’m waiting to see and eat the first burger coming from our labs. Yanay said they have had discussions with rabbis and are expecting the product to be certified as kosher and pareve – that is, neither meat nor dairy according to kosher rules. Pluristem is a publicly traded on NASDAQ as well as the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Its muscle regeneration technology is already being used in hospitals around the world.

Palestinian terror groups celebrate attack in Israel (JNS) Palestinian terror groups celebrated the latest Arab terror attack on Israelis that killed four people in Bnei Brak and one in Ramat Gan in postings on social media. “The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) blesses the heroic operation against the Zionist occupation soldiers in the so-called ‘Tel Aviv’ area, which led to the killing and wounding of a number of Zionist occupiers, and stresses that all the heroic operations carried out by our Palestinian people, in every inch of our occupied land, comes in the context of the natural and legitimate response to the terrorism of the occupation and its escalating crimes against our land, our people and our sanctities,” Hamas, the terror group that rules the Gaza Strip, wrote on its website. “Responding to the crimes and terrorism of the occupation is a legitimate right for all our people until the occupation is removed from our land,” it said. Palestinian Islamic Jihad also praised the attack, saying “this is the harbinger of our people’s operations to come deep inside the [Zionist] entity.” Meanwhile, photos on social media showed men in the Gaza Strip handing out sweets to passersby in celebration of the attack in central Israel. Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, however, expressed “his condemnation of the killing of Israeli civilians,” emphasizing that “the killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians only leads the situation to deteriorate.” “The cycle of violence shows that a comprehensive, just and stable peace is the shortest, most correct path to security and stability for both peoples,” he said. A 27-year-old from the West Bank village of Ya’bad opened fire in Bnei Brak on Tuesday evening before moving on to nearby Ramat Gan, leaving five

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people dead in his wake. He was eventually shot dead by security forces. As of Tuesday evening, March 29, a suspected accomplice had been arrested.

A TV series about Russ & Daughters is in the works (New York Jewish Week) – Russ & Daughters may be famous across the city – and the world – for its Jewish delicacies like smoked fish, bagels and babka. But soon, the appetizing institution may also become fodder for a TV series. As Deadline reported on Thursday, Time Studios is developing a scripted series about the venerable Lower East Side eatery and the family behind it. According to the publication, the studios have entered a “shopping agreement” with Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper, the fourth-generation owners of Russ & Daughters. Polish-Jewish immigrant Joel Russ opened the store in New York in 1914, and moved it to its still-operating location at 179 E. Houston St. in 1920. With his daughters Hattie, Ida and Anne as business partners, Russ & Daughters became the first business in America to add “& Daughters” to its name in 1935, according to its website. Federman and Tupper took over in 2009, steering the business through its 100th anniversary, and opening the popular Russ & Daughters Cafe in 2014, just around the corner. They then opened locations in 2016 at The Jewish Museum on the Upper East Side (which closed during the pandemic), and in Brooklyn’s Navy Yard in 2019. The business was the subject of the 2014 documentary, “The Sturgeon Queens.” In December 2021, Tupper and Federman appeared on a holiday edition of Padma Lakshmi’s “Taste the Nation” on Hulu, where they taught Lakshmi to make latkes, offered samples of the store’s signature Ashkenazi appetizing offerings and shared their family’s history.

Israeli defense minister, Jordan’s King Abdullah meet in Amman (JNS) Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Amman on Tuesday, March 29, to discuss regional and security challenges ahead of the Jewish holiday of Passover, the Muslim holiday of Ramadan and Christian holiday of Easter, all of which coincide this year. Gantz discussed the measures that Israel is planning to take in order to enable freedom of prayer in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, according to an official Israeli statement. He also discussed the importance of security coordination during this period, as well as additional civilian measures that will benefit Palestinians in Judea and Samaria and in Gaza, and which will be implemented in accordance with Israel’s security interests, according to the statement. The Israeli defense minister also emphasized the importance of maintaining regional peace and stability and the need to fight terrorism in all its forms, specifically to act forcefully against ISIS, which has claimed credit for the recent deadly terror attacks in Israel. He also thanked Abdullah “for his leadership and positive influence in the region, and for his willingness to deepen peaceful relations and to expand cooperation between the Kingdom of Jordan and Israel in all areas,” according to the statement.

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jewishledger.com Meryl Kirshner Brian Schreiber Ainsman

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Could Ryan Turell become the first Orthodox Jew to play in the NBA? It’s a long shot. BY ROB CHERRY

(JTA) – Elliot Steinmetz knows something about firsts: last July, his son Jacob became the first known Orthodox baseball player to get picked in the MLB draft. The elder Steinmetz is also the head coach of the Yeshiva University men’s basketball team, a squad of Modern Orthodox players that shocked the sports world with an unlikely 50-game winning streak that spanned multiple seasons. The team’s leader was Ryan Turell, a 6-foot-7 guard who has entered the NBA draft, hoping to become the league’s first Orthodox player. Steinmetz knows it’s a lofty ambition – but he isn’t betting against his former star athlete. “I would never ever doubt anything that kid puts in his mind, in terms of his goals. If he says he’s going to be an NBA player, I believe him,” Steinmetz told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Turell, a lanky 22-year-old Los Angeles native, has a stacked resume: he was named this

year’s Division III player of the year, due to his impressive 59% shooting percentage, including a 47% mark from three-point range (the NBA three-point average usually hovers around 35%). He also helped his team climb to the No. 1 ranking in the country for a time. But the Y.U. Maccabees play in Division III, the bottom tier of NCAA collegiate athletics, meaning Turell has not been tested against top college competition. Few Division III players ever make the leap to the NBA, let alone get selected in the league’s two-round draft – a relatively short affair compared to those in other professional sport leagues (the MLB draft, for example, has 20 rounds, and used to have 40). In 1980, back when the NBA had a much longer draft, David Kufeld became the only Y.U. player ever selected: He was chosen by the Portland Trailblazers in the 10th round with the 205th overall pick, before getting cut in the

preseason. NBA scouts don’t usually pay much attention to DIII games, but Yeshiva’s special streak drew national attention. The team’s games this season attracted overflow crowds and a number of NBA scouts, along with a few NBA executives, including New York Knicks President Leon Rose (a 2011 inductee into the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame). Turell told JTA. “It’s just really inspiring to see that you can inspire so many people through basketball.” Boris Beric, who is co-owner of BPA Hoops, a scouting service that several NBA teams use, says Turell’s skills merit a look from scouts, but he does not expect Turell to be one of the 58 players drafted in June. “He’s a really talented player. Guys who are big wings like he is, and can really shoot, that deserves pro scouts’ attention, but the NBA is really tricky,” Beric said. “I don’t think he’s a good enough athlete. He

deserves to get pre-draft workouts with teams to see how he compares against Division I talent, the international talent, in that kind of setting.” Beric added that he could see Turell thriving in Israel’s top league – something Turell said is a goal anyway, even if he made it to the NBA. “It’s always been a dream of mine to go play in Israel, regardless of the NBA,” Turell said. “Even if I have a great career in the NBA, Israel is something I definitely want to do afterwards.” In Turell’s dream NBA scenario, he plans on playing on Shabbat, as long as he can walk from his hotel to the game – just as his friend Jacob Steinmetz plans to do. Traveling and using electricity are prohibited on the Jewish Sabbath, but playing sports is not. Beric said that even if he isn’t drafted, Turell could continue showcasing his talents by getting invited to a team’s summer Continued on the next page

TURELL, RIGHT, CELEBRATES WITH TEAMMATES DURING THE SECOND HALF OF A GAME AT JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY IN BALTIMORE, MARCH 6, 2020. (WILL NEWTON FOR THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES)

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league team or its fall training camp. As NBA teams have looked to increase their threepoint percentages over the past decade, sharpshooters’ stock has risen. “Get to summer league. Show your worth, and fight to get a training camp invite. That should be his main goal. I really think his path is becoming a shooting specialist,” Beric said. “A challenge for him is, he was the star at Yeshiva, where he got all of the touches, all of the shots. Is that scalable at a higher level when he’s only getting three shots a game? That’s really difficult for some players from college to the pros.” Scouts and teams would like to see how he fares against players with Division I experience – and if Turell gets invited to the Portsmouth Invitational amateur tournament next month, which showcases some of the country’s better college seniors, he will get a chance to do that. Turell, who is back in California training, said that he has worked out in summers past with high quality players: “UCLA players

[including Johnny Juzang, projected to be a second round draft pick], a bunch of overseas guys, and some NBA guys [including Bulls reserve forward Alfonzo McKinnie].” “I felt comfortable at that speed. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter where you play at, it’s just basketball,” he argued. The next few months will see Turell working on at least a few aspects of his game. “You can never be a good enough shooter, obviously I just gotta keep shooting and really perfect the release, getting quicker, and being able to shoot with less space and room, with people contesting at me,” he said. “Defense is always key. I really want to work on my body and get myself in the best shape of my life, so I’m able to hold my own defensively.” A veteran NBA scout who has worked for a number of NBA teams over the last 15 years agreed with Beric on Turell’s draft chances. But he noted a factor that could work in Turell’s favor: his narrative. “There’s a little bit of a story element and narrative to it – an

RYAN TURELL HOPES TO BECOME THE NBA’S FIRST ORTHODOX PLAYER. (JOE BEDNARSH AND ADENA STEVENS)

Orthodox Jewish kid and the fact that there’s never been one in the NBA,” said the scout, who wished to remain anonymous, as most do. Jewish players are extremely rare in NBA history since the 1970s. A couple of Israelis, such as current Washington Wizards forward Deni Avdija and former pro Omri Casspi, made the leap and earned relatively significant playing time in recent years. Dolph Schayes was a Jewish standout player in the early days of the modern NBA. If character counts for an NBA organization, Coach Steinmetz added another layer of endorsement: “An absolute gem of a person. I’ve never been around a kid who’s so good at what he does and at the same time so humble and so in touch with the fact that there are kids, and even adults, who look up at him and want his time. He’s so nice and so uplifting.” And Turell doesn’t avoid the talk from those who think he has no shot to ever play in the world’s best league. “They just motivate me to work even harder,” he said.

Ukrainian refugee wins women’s race at Jerusalem marathon BY RON KAMPEAS

(JTA) – Valentyna Veretska, a Ukrainian athlete who fled with her daughter as Russia attacked her country, won the women’s race in the Jerusalem marathon on Friday, March 25. Veretska completed the grueling marathon in the hilly city in 2:45:54 seconds on Friday, draping herself in the Ukraine and Israel flags after crossing the finish line. The 31-year-old had applied to run the marathon before the war; she had previously won the women’s marathon in Tirana, Albania, in October. The war Russia launched on Feb. 24 sent her and her daughter into Poland, while her husband has stayed in Ukraine to fight. Israel has taken in close to 17,000 Ukrainian refugees since the conflict began, and Israel’s sports ministry said Thursday that it is ready to take in 100 athletes. Israeli Olympian Ageze Guadie won the men’s race at 2:37:17.

UKRAINIAN MARATHONER VALENTYNA VERETSKA SPEAKS TO THE MEDIA IN JERUSALEM, MARCH 25, 2022. (ARIE LEIB ABRAMS/FLASH90)

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Around SNE Gov. Lamont touts strengthening ties with Israel

Purim is a family affair at BEKI!

Governor Ned Lamont is on the road – making stops at Jewish venues throughout Connecticut to report on his recent economic development mission to Israel – the first official mission to Israel by a U.S. state in two years. First stop: Beth El Temple in West Hartford, where he met with members of the Jewish community on Thursday, March 24. Joining the Governor for his roundtable discussion – dubbed “Connecticut’s Strengthened Relationship with Israel” – were three representatives from Connecticut’s public and private sector who had also accompanied the Governor on his trip to the Jewish state: Michael Bloom, executive director of the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut (JFACT), who acted as roundtable moderator; UConn Interim President Radenka Maric; and Mike Cantor, chair of CT Innovations, the state’s venture capital arm that works with growing, innovative companies throughout Connecticut. Also attending the event at Beth El was Meron Rueben, the Consul General of Israel to New England. Ambassador Reuben was on hand in Israel during the Connecticut delegation’s mission and accompanied Gov. Lamont to the Western Wall. “They rolled out the red carpet for Connecticut,” said Gov. Lamont. “It was such an enthusiastic mission. Israel is the most entrepreneurial company on Earth; more startups [than anywhere else]. They’re trying to get relationships with states like ours. That’s why we were there.”

Families got in the Purim spirit last month for the very special Purim party hosted by Beth El-Keser Israel (BEKI) in New Haven.

JOINING GOVERNOR LAMONT (2ND FROM LEFT) IN THE ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION WERE, FROM LEFT, JFACT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MICHAEL BLOOM; UCONN INTERIM PRESIDENT RADENKA MARIC; AND CT INNOVATIONS CHAIR MIKE CANTOR.

MERON REUBEN, ISRAELI CONSUL GENERAL TO NEW ENGLAND, TAKES A SELFIE WITH GOVERNOR LAMONT IN THE SANCTUARY OF BETH EL TEMPLE IN WEST HARTFORD.

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THE ABRAHAM FAMILY – FROM LEFT: ALMANZO, MORDECAI, MARK, LIBBY, AND SAMUEL – DRESSED UP FOR BEKI’S PARTY IN PURIM COSTUMES (LITERALLY!)

REBECCA GRAZI SIEV AND MORDECHAI SIEV ENJOYED BEKI’S PURIM PARTY WITH THEIR LITTLE ONES, ROBIN AND JOSEPH.

BEKI SPIRITUAL LEADER RABBI ERIC WOODWARD DRESSED AS A CHARACTER FROM THE HIT FILM “ENCANTO” — THEN POSED FOR A GROUP PHOTO WITH THE CHILDREN WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE CONGREGATION’S PURIM COSTUME PARADE.

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B’nai Mitzvah LILLIAN ALFONSO, daughter of Amanda and Alex Alfonso, will celebrate her bat mitzvah on Saturday, April 9 at Temple Sinai in Newington, Connecticut. NATHANIEL BERNSTEIN, son of Ingrid Rasmussen and Jeffrey Bernstein, will celebrate his bar mitzvah on Saturday, April 9 at Congregation Beth Shalom in Westborough, Massachusetts. DREW KALLOR, son of Robin and Scott Kallor, celebrated his bar mitzvah on Saturday, April 2 at Temple Sinai in Newington, Connecticut.

Duncaster is where we celebrate a

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ELIANA GOLDSTEIN, daughter of Evan and Lisa Goldstein, celebrated her bat mitzvah on Saturday, March 26, at Temple Sinai in Newington, Connecticut. GRAYDEN GOLDSTEIN, son of Evan and Lisa Goldstein, celebrated his bar mitzvah on Saturday, March 26, at Temple Sinai in Newington, Connecticut. SAMMY GOLDSTEIN, son of Evan and Lisa Goldstein, celebrated his bar mitzvah on Saturday, March 26, at Temple Sinai in Newington, Connecticut. BENJAMIN MARTIN, son of Rosalind and Kevin Martin, will celebrate his bar mitzvah on Saturday, April 23, at Congregation Beth Shalom, in Westborough, Massachusetts.

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L ROSENTHAL, child of Diane Purvin and Seth Rosenthal, will celebrate their b’mitzvah on April 9 at Beth El-Keser Israel (BEKI) in New Haven, Connecticut. (NOTE: The wording of this announcement is at the request of BEKI and the family.) DELANEY SCHRAGER, daughter of Samantha and Shawn Schrager, will celebrate her bat mitzvah on Saturday, April 9 at Sinai Temple in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. AVERY SCHRAGER, daughter of Samantha and Shawn Schrager, will celebrate her bat mitzvah on Saturday, April 9 at Sinai Temple in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. JAKOB ZELAZNY, son of Stephanie and Daniel Zelazny, will celebrate his bar mitzvah on Saturday, April 9 at Temple Beth El in Stamford, Connecticut.

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Southern New England Jewish Ledger

CT SYNAGOGUE DIRECTORY To join our synagogue directory of paid advertisers, contact stacey@20media20.com BLOOMFIELD B’nai Tikvoh-Sholom/ Neshama Center for Lifelong Learning Conservative Rabbi Debra Cantor (860) 243-3576 office@BTSonline.org www.btsonline.org

BRIDGEPORT Congregation B’nai Israel Reform Rabbi Evan Schultz (203) 336-1858 info@cbibpt.org www.cbibpt.org Congregation Rodeph Sholom Conservative (203) 334-0159 Rabbi Richard Eisenberg, Cantor Niema Hirsch info@rodephsholom.com www.rodephsholom.com

CHESHIRE Temple Beth David Reform Rabbi Micah Ellenson (203) 272-0037 office@TBDCheshire.org www.TBDCheshire.org

CHESTER Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek Reform Rabbi Marci Bellows (860) 526-8920 rabbibellows@cbsrz.org www.cbsrz.org

EAST HARTFORD Temple Beth Tefilah Conservative Rabbi Yisroel Snyder (860) 569-0670 templebetht@yahoo.com

FAIRFIELD Congregation Beth El, Fairfield Conservative Rabbi Joshua Ratner (203) 374-5544 office@bethelfairfield.org www.bethelfairfield.org

GLASTONBURY Congregation Kol Haverim Reform Rabbi Dr. Kari Tuling (860) 633-3966 office@kolhaverim.org www.kolhaverim.org

GREENWICH Greenwich Reform Synagogue Reform Rabbi Jordie Gerson (203) 629-0018 WendyBarr@grs.com www.grs.org Temple Sholom Conservative Rabbi Mitchell M. Hurvitz Rabbi Kevin Peters (203) 869-7191 info@templesholom.com www.templesholom.com

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

Greater Washington Coalition for Jewish Life Rabbi James Greene (860) 868-2434 jewishlifect@gmail.com www.jewishlifect.org

Orchard Street ShulCongregation Beth Israel Orthodox Rabbi Mendy Hecht 203-776-1468 www.orchardstreetshul.org

PUTNAM

WATERFORD

NEW LONDON HAMDEN Congregation Mishkan Israel Reform Rabbi Brian P. Immerman (203) 288-3877 tepstein@cmihamden.org www.cmihamden.org Temple Beth Sholom Conservative Rabbi Benjamin Edidin Scolnic (203) 288-7748 tbsoffice@tbshamden.com www.tbshamden.com

MADISON Temple Beth Tikvah Reform Rabbi Danny Moss (203) 245-7028 office@tbtshoreline.org www.tbtshoreline.org

MANCHESTER Beth Sholom B’nai Israel Conservative Rabbi Randall Konigsburg (860) 643-9563 Rabbenu@myshul.org admin@myshul.org www.myshul.org

MIDDLETOWN Adath Israel Conservative Rabbi Nelly Altenburger (860) 346-4709 office@adathisraelct.org www.adathisraelct.org

NEW HAVEN The Towers at Tower Lane Conservative Ruth Greenblatt, Spiritual Leader Sarah Moskowitz, Spiritual Leader (203) 772-1816 rebecca@towerlane.org www.towerlane.org

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WASHINGTON

Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel Conservative Rabbi Eric Woodward rabbi@beki.org (203) 389-2108 office@BEKI.org www.BEKI.org

Ahavath Chesed Synagogue Orthodox Rabbi Avrohom Sternberg 860-442-3234 Ahavath.chesed@att.net Congregation Beth El Conservative Rabbi Earl Kideckel (860) 442-0418 office@bethel-nl.org www.bethel-nl.org

NEWINGTON Temple Sinai Reform Rabbi Jeffrey Bennett (860) 561-1055 templesinaict@gmail.com www.sinaict.org

NEWTOWN Congregation Adath Israel Conservative Rabbi Barukh Schectman (203) 426-5188 office@congadathisrael.org www.congadathisrael.org

NORWALK Beth Israel Synagogue – Chabad of Westport/ Norwalk Orthodox-Chabad Rabbi Yehoshua S. Hecht (203) 866-0534 info@bethisraelchabad.org bethisraelchabad.org Temple Shalom Reform Rabbi Cantor Shirah Sklar (203) 866-0148 admin@templeshalomweb. org www.templeshalomweb.org

NORWICH Congregation Brothers of Joseph Modern Orthodox Rabbi Yosef Resnick (781 )201-0377 yosef.resnick@gmail.com https://brofjo.tripod.com

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

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

SIMSBURY

WEST HARTFORD

Chabad of the Farmington Valley Chabad Rabbi Mendel Samuels (860) 658-4903 chabadsimsbury@gmail.com www.chabadotvalley.org Farmington Valley Jewish Congregation, Emek Shalom Reform Rabbi Rebekah Goldman Mag (860) 658-1075 admin@fvjc.org www.fvjc.org

SOUTH WINDSOR Temple Beth Hillel of South Windsor Reform Rabbi Jeffrey Glickman (860) 282-8466 tbhrabbi@gmail.com www.tbhsw.org

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

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

WALLINGFORD Beth Israel Synagogue Conservative Rabbi Bruce Alpert (203) 269-5983 info@bethisraelwallingford. org www.bethisraelwallingford. org

Beth David Synagogue Modern Orthodox Rabbi Yitzchok Adler (860) 236-1241 office@bethdavidwh.org www.bethdavidwh.org Beth El Temple Conservative Rabbi James Rosen Rabbi Rachel Zerin Cantor Joseph Ness (860) 233-9696 info@bethelwh.org www.bethelwesthartford. org Chabad House of Greater Hartford Rabbi Joseph Gopin Rabbi Shaya Gopin, Director of Education (860) 232-1116 info@chabadhartford.com www.chabadhartford.com Congregation Beth Israel Reform Rabbi Michael Pincus Rabbi Andi Fliegel Cantor Stephanie Kupfer (860) 233-8215 bethisrael@cbict.org www.cbict.org Congregation P’nai Or Jewish Renewal Shabbat Services & Holidays Rabbi Andrea CohenKiener (860) 561-5905 pnaiorct@gmail.com www.jewishrenewalct.org

The Emanuel Synagogue Conservative Rabbi David J. Small (860) 236-1275 communications@emanuelsynagogue.org www.emanuelsynagogue. org United Synagogues of Greater Hartford Orthodox Rabbi Eli Ostrozynsk i synagogue voice mail (860) 586-8067 Rabbi’s mobile (718) 679-4446 ostro770@hotmail.com Young Israel of West Hartford Orthodox Rabbi Tuvia Brander (860) 233-3084 info@youngisraelwh.org www.youngisraelwh.org

WESTPORT Temple Israel of Westport Reform Rabbi Michael Friedman, Senior Rabbi Cantor Julia Cadrain, Senior Cantor Rabbi Elana NemitoffBresler, Rabbi Educator Rabbi Zach Plesent, Assistant Rabbi (203) 227-1293 info@tiwestport.org www.tiwestport.org

WETHERSFIELD Temple Beth Torah Unaffiliated Rabbi Alan Lefkowitz 860-529-2410 tbt.w.ct@gmail.com templebethtorahwethersfield.org

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

Kehilat Chaverim of Greater Hartford Chavurah Adm. - Nancy Malley (860) 951-6877 mnmalley@yahoo.com www.kehilatchaverim.org

April 5, 2022

jewishledger.com

SYNAGOGUE DIRECTORY WESTERN AND CENTRAL MASSACHUSETTS

AMHERST

FLORENCE

LONGMEADOW

Jewish Community of Amherst Reconstructionist Rabbi Benjamin Weiner (413) 256-0160 info@jcamherst.org www.jcamherst.org 742 Main St., Amherst, MA 01002

Beit Ahavah, The Reform Synagogue of Greater Northampton Reform Rabbi Riqi Kosovske (413) 587-3770 info@beitahavah.org www.beitahavah.org 130 Pine St. Florence, MA 01062

Congregation B’nai Torah Orthodox Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe Rabbi Yakov Wolff (413) 567-0036 office@bnaitorahma.org rabbi@bnaitorahma.org www.bnaitorahma.org 2 Eunice Drive Longmeadow, MA 01106 Neighborhood Minyan 124 Sumner Avenue Springfield, MA 01108

ATHOL Temple Israel Unaffiliated/Egalitarian Reb Sarah Noyovitz (978) 249-9481 templeisraelathol@gmail.com 107 Walnut Street Athol, MA 01331

BENNINGTON, VT Congregation Beth El Reconstructionist Rabbi Micah Becker Klein (802) 442-9645 cbevtoffice@gmail.com www.cbevermont.org 225 North St., Bennington, VT 05201

CLINTON Congregation Shaarei Zedeck Conservative Lay Leadership - Elena Feinberg (978) 501-2744 sherryesq@yahoo.com www.shaareizedeck.org 104 Water St., Clinton, MA 01510

GREENFIELD Temple Israel of Greenfield Unaffiliated Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener (413) 773-5884 office@templeisraelgreenfield.org www.templeisraelgreenfield.org 27 Pierce St. Greenfield, MA 01301

HOLYOKE Congregation Rodphey Sholom Orthodox Rabbi Tuvia Helfen Religious Leader (413) 534-5262 djs1818@aol.com 1800 Northampton St., Holyoke, MA 01040 Congregation Sons of Zion Conservative Rabbi Saul Perlmutter (413) 534-3369 office@sonsofzionholyoke.org www.sonsofzionholyoke.org 378 Maple St. Holyoke, MA 01040

LEOMINSTER Congregation Agudat Achim Conservative Rabbi Eve Eichenholtz (978) 534-6121 office@agudat-achim.org www.agudat-achim.org 268 Washington St., Leominster, MA 01453

NORTHAMPTON Congregation B’nai Israel Conservative Rabbi Justin David (413) 584-3593 office@CBINorthampton.org www.CBINorthampton.org 253 Prospect St. Northampton, MA 01060

PITTSFIELD Temple Anshe Amunim Reform Rabbi Liz P.G. Hirsch (413) 442-5910 rabbiliz@ansheamunim.org www.ansheamunim.org 26 Broad St., Pittsfield, MA 01201

SPRINGFIELD Sinai Temple Reform Rabbi Jeremy Master (413) 736-3619 rblanchettegage@sinai-temple.org www.sinai-temple.org 1100 Dickinson St., Springfield, MA 01108

Temple Beth El Conservative Rabbi Amy Walk (413) 733-4149 office@tbesprinfield.org www.tbespringfield.org 979 Dickinson St., Springfield, MA 01108

WESTBOROUGH Beth Tikvah Synagogue Independent Rabbi Michael Swarttz (508) 616-9037 president@bethtikvahsynagogue. org www.bethtikvahsynagogue.org 45 Oak St., Westborough, MA 01581 Congregation B’nai Shalom Reform Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz/ Rabbi-Educator Joseph Eiduson (508) 366-7191 info@cbnaishalom.org www.cbnaishalom.org 117 East Main St., PO Box 1019, Westborough, MA 01581

WESTFIELD Congregation Ahavas Achim Unaffiliated Rabbi Shahar Colt (413) 642-1797 ahavasachiminquiry@gmail.com www.congregationahavasachim. org Ferst Interfaith Center, Westfield State University PO Box 334, 577 Western Avenue, Westfield, MA 01086 Find us on Facebook: https://www. facebook.com/AhavasAchimWestfield/

WORCESTER Central Mass Chabad Rabbi Mendel Fogelman, Rabbi Chaim Fishman, Rabbi Michael Phillips, Cantor Eli Abramowitz (508) 752-0904 rabbi@centralmasschabad.com www.centralmasschabad.com 22 Newton Avenue, Worcester, MA 01602 Congregation Beth Israel Conservative Rabbi Aviva Fellman (508) 756-6204 receptionist@bethisraelworc.org www.bethisraelworc.org 15 Jamesbury Drive Worcester, MA 01609 Congregation Shaarai Torah West Orthodox Rabbi Yakov Blotner (508) 791-0013 Brotman156@aol.com www.shaaraitorah.org 835 Pleasant St. Worcester, MA 01602 Temple Emanuel Sinai Reform Rabbi Valerie Cohen (508) 755-1257 amayou@emanuelsinai.org www.emanuelsinai.org 661 Salisbury St., Worcester, MA 01609

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April 5, 2022

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Southern New England Jewish Ledger

Confronting Antisemitism CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19

large in Jewish memory as experiences of violence and oppression. Miller covered Early Christianity. “While most people believe that the crucifixion of Jesus is at the heart of the animosity directed towards the Jews by Christians, there is much more to the story,” Miller explains. “Early Christianity started out as a form of Judaism. Jesus and his followers were all practicing Jews and never thought of themselves as anything else. “The adherents of an emerging Gentile ‘Christianity’ following Jesus’ death were determined to define their faith as a distinct religion, one in which many of the practices of Judaism no longer applied. The anti-Judaism that is expressed in the writings of the early church fathers added atheological dimension to this effort, which sought to define further precisely how Christianity and Judaism differed.” In upcoming weeks the course will move up to the Medieval period, covering where the myth about the “blood libel” and Jewish greed came from, as well as the Modern period and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The following weeks include modules on the Holocaust, antisemitism in America, and Israel and anti-Zionism vs. antisemitism in Module 6, where students will learn where criticism of Israel crosses the line into antisemitism, as explained by Prof. Patt. “When Jews anywhere in the world are held collectively responsible for Israel’s conduct; when Jews are treated, simply because they are Jewish, as agents of Israel; likewise, using “Zionist” to mean “Jew” crosses this line; when antisemitic stereotypes held against Jews are projected onto the Jewish state; when extreme criticism of Israel demonizes the State as uniquely evil among the nations of the

world,” Patt said. Including the example of their fellow student Natalie Shclover and her experience at UConn could be eye-opening for those taking the course. “The goal of the course is to use education as a response to discrimination and intolerance happening at this very moment – and we still believe that at an institution of higher education, we can and should continue to use education to help students learn how to confront antisemitism in their midst,” Patt said. The course will wrap up the week of April 25 with “Antisemtism Old and New”, which includes participation by UConn Hillel Executive Director Edina Oestreicer and Marji Lipshez-Shapiro, assistant deputy director of the Connecticut office of the AntiDefamation League. Last year, after the incident in which antisemitic graffiti was discovered at UConn, LipshezShapiro worked with Oestreicher on a program for all 60 members of the school’s residential life staff, and one for UConn faculty and administration “about what the Jewish students are experiencing and why we needed the UConn community to step up and openly fight antisemitism,” Lipshez-Shapiro says. “I can’t say enough good things about the course,” she adds. “I’m so excited to be a part of what I believe is the first course of its kind on antisemitism with such a large reach…I believe education leads to understanding. And there is a lack of knowledge not only about the history, but also about the bigotry, bias and hate faced by the Jewish community. Taking a course like this is going to give them information that very few people have.”

A diverse people Besides lectures, Confronting Antisemtism will also offer an

Southern New England Jewish Ledger

interactive piece called “Engage and Connect” featuring different texts, music, art or film. “It’s not meant to be a class where you just have professors lecture as they normally do,” Patt says. “Each week there’s music or art or poetry or photographs – different things that they’re supposed to read and think about and respond and react to.” At the end of the first class, Patt put together four music videos of contemporary Jewish musical performers. “It goes all the way from Nissim Black who is a Chasidic black rapper who lives in Israel – not what you would typically expect; to A-WA, Yemenite Israeli musicians who perform in Arabic, to Adam Sandler doing the Chanukah Song, to Haim, an LA-based group,” Patt says. “It’s a way to connect with the students and it gets them to think, ‘These are all Jews and this is all Jewish music. Jews are a very diverse people.’” During the module dealing with antisemitism in America, the students will watch “Gentleman’s Agreement,” the 1948 film about a journaliust who poses as a Jew in New York City to experience antisemitism. Another film featured is “A House Built by Hope,” a documentary film about a community of Holocaust survivors in Danielson, Connecticut. “There are a lot of Connecticut connections because, frankly, most of our students probably are from Connecticut, so we want to make that connection to them,” adds Patt. “We are taking a very global approach to history but we also want to make it pretty local.” They also want to stress to their students that there have been long stretches of time through the ages when Jews lived peacefully among their nonJewish neighbors. “The nature of the course – and the events on campus that prompted the demand for

it – make it inevitable that we are focusing on the reasons why Jews have been targeted for violence throughout their history. But, there are also so many examples throughout history of peaceful cooperation and fruitful co-existence,” Johnson says. “Throughout most of history between the Babylonian Exile and the founding of Israel, Jews have lived as subjects of foreign rule and/or minority communities within a larger non-Jewish state, and persecution and oppression have often been part of that story, but by no means always the largest part. Students need to know that positive multicultural exchange between Jews and non-Jews has always been a part of Jewish history, and that history provides positive models for the way forward. And if perhaps some students have only ever learned about Judaism in the context of attacks against it, they should be given an opportunity to learn how rich and diverse Jewish culture truly is,” she adds. At this time – when antisemitic attacks are on a steep rise – with 158 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. reported by the media in January alone – this is also an opportunity for them to become allies with Jew and other minorities. “The hope is that, once they’ve learned about the diverse nature of the Jewish experience that they will understand and appreciate how important it is to speak out when they see forms of discrimination; to not only support Jews as a minority group, but to support and appreciate our need to create a diverse society that celebrates all different minority experiences,” Patt said.

April 5, 2022

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SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND

THE KOSHER CROSSWORD APRIL 5, 2022 “Marvel Mashup”

By: Yoni Glatt

Difficulty Level: Manageable

Sponsored by:

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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.

April 5, 2022

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Across 1. It’s the Jewish truth 6. Kid 9. Kafka’s Gregor 14. “Beautiful” Hebrew name 15. Big bird 16. What the Maccabees excel at 17. The Black Panther’s Shabbat specialty? 20. Lead-in to Na Na 21. Jordan flight connection? 22. Silent “Dark Knight” character? 23. Knotted attire 24. Sukkot item of a major Avenger’s villain? 28. How a distrustful person behaves

29. Baseball player that stole home 54 times (!) 32. Nada 33. Just got by 37. Hashem, in Italy 38. Piece in Othello 40. Letters with serious long term affects 43. It goes before the “carte” 44. Like most businesses in Jerusalem on Saturday 46. Moishe of “Rechov Sumsum” 48. Buffet arranged by Thor’s sidekick? 52. Hazardous, as winter roads 53. Celery by another name 54. “...said unto him, ___ the L-rd” (Exod.6:2)

56. Talmud belonging to one of the Guardians of the Galaxy? 59. Polite refusal 60. Pump option: Abbr. 61. Cancel (a mission) 63. Tel Dan or Merneptah (important artifacts in Jewish history) 64. Before, to Shelley 65. Casino openings 66. Wine containers 67. Carl to Rob (Reiner) 68. Actress Thompson in Marvel movies

Down 1. “Lord of the Rings” tree beings 2. With Picchu, a place in Peru 3. Taj follower 4. Topsy’s playmate in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” 5. Kind of cap in the NFL 6. What Kollel participants are doing 7. Alarm-setting hrs. 8. Producer of fowl language? 9. Jewish hair covering option (Var.) 10. “You’ve Got Mail!” ISP 11. “___ bene” (Italian paraphrasing of “Totally awesome!”) 12. Country that allowed Sephardic Jews to apply for automatic citizenship from

2015-2019 13. Nearby stadium 18. Judah is this, poetically 19. A plague 25. “Doing the work,” initially 26. Fi connector 27. Stereotypical Jewish bread 29. Agcy. that’s had it’s hand full the last few years 30. Source of much Saudi wealth 31. Furniture for Rashi and Ramban? 34. You can sometimes see them driving away from Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne 35. He preceded Samuel 36. Quarterback Prescott 38. Daily with diem 39. Anti-Semite Degas 41. Embattled French river of

WWI 42. Scooby of note 45. Beverage for the lactose intolerant 47. It actually means “crumbly”, and not relating to food that can be cooked in boiling oil 49. Was lenient with 50. Yael killed him 51. Gave a big hello to, perhaps 52. “Have ___ deal for you!” 55. Bazaars 57. Mineralogists study them 58. Mayflower pole 59. Defense advisory group to the POTUS 62. Traveler’s checks, for short?

Southern New England Jewish Ledger

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.

April WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6 Connecticut (Zoom ) – ADL Teen Summit: “How to Respond to Antisemitism”; 7 - 8:15 p.m. For Jewish students, grades 8-12. From Heil Hitler salutes and swastikas at Connecticut high schools, to anti-Israel protests on college campuses, Jewish students increasingly been the targets of a fast-growing antisemitism. ADL’s Teen Summit features a teen panel that will share their personal stories of standing up to antisemitism. Jewish teens from across the state will learn that they are not alone, but rather resilient and empowered. Co-sponsored by the Connecticut Jewish Federations, Merkaz, the Community High School for Judaic Studies, JTConnect, The Jewish Teen Learning Connection and BBYO. Information: swalden@adl. org. Link will be provided upon registration. Northampton, MA – Jewish Family Jam, a Jewish music and learning class for 2 to 5 years old, and their caregivers. Explore Jewish holidays, language, culture and values through music, singing, movement and play. 10:30 – 11:15 a.m. Wednesdays through June 8. Vaccination required. Masks required indoors for children over 2 years. Info: r.torrey@jfswm. org or (413) 737- 2601.

West Hartford, CT – The University of Hartford’s Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies will present author Hanna Halper with the 2021 Edward Lewis Wallant Award winner for her outstanding debut novel, Something Wild, at 7 p.m. Attendees have the option to attend in-person at the Mandell JCC (335 Bloomfield Ave) or via Zoom. The Wallant Award is one of the most prestigious Jewish literary awards in the U.S. Established by Dr. and Mrs. Irving Waltman of West Hartford in 1963, the award honors the memory of the late Edward Lewis Wallant, author of The Pawnbroker and other works of fiction. To join virtually, please visit: https://us06web.zo

THURSDAY, APRIL 7

templeisraelgreenfield.org; or (413) 773-5884. FREE

SUNDAY, APRIL 10 Western Mass. – The Passover Song Acknowledgment Project of Western MA presents: “Let My People Go: Freedom Songs & Inspiration for Your Seder” A Zoom concert featuring musicians Anthony Tzvi Mordechai Russell, Burikes and more, 7- 8:30 p.m. A program of Beit Ahavah, Congregation B’nai Israel, Jewish Community of Amherst (JCA), Lander-Grinspoon Academy, Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts. Register for the Zoom link: https://us02web. zoom.us/meeting/register/

MONDAY, APRIL 11

Springfield, MA – Springfield JCC virtual author talk and Q&A with Valerie Gilpeer, author of the memoir I Have Been Buried Under Years of Dust: A Memoir of Autism and Hope via Zoom. 7 p.m. This free event is co-sponsored by Kehillah, the Springfield JCC’s Special Needs Department; (413) 739-4715, springfieldJCC.org; https:// springfieldjcc.wufoo.com/forms/ rbv9mm31fuh8d5/

Greenwich, CT – “Art, Assimilation, and Reclaiming a Stolen Legacy,” 7 - 8 p.m., a contraption about stolen Jewish art during the Holocaust, antisemitism and displacement after the war, and the reclamation of the art and the narrative, with Lisa Barr (author of Women on Fire) and James McAuley (author of The House of Fragile Things). Co-presented with Jewish Book, the Jewish Museum, and Tablet Magazine.

SATURDAY, APRIL 9

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13

Greenfield, Mass. – “Did the Exodus really happen, or is it just a Fairy Tale?” A documentary film produced by James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici, who journeyed to many locations around the Mediterranean in search of answers to this question, consulting Archeologists, Egyptologists, and Geologists along the way .Join Rabbi Andrea CohenKiener, Maggid David Arfa, Daniel Yalowitz, & Treasurer Carol Silver via Zoom for film, followed by a brief discussion at 7 p.m., Virtual Link: https:// us06web.zoom.us/meeting/ register/tZUrfu-hqD4jHNLfStL_ xZOM6b8XgsDJBUA_ Contact: Kate: office@

Southern New England Jewish Ledger

Springfield, MA – Springfield JCC Gallery exhibit, “The New Herbarium,” artwork by Madge Evers, will be on display in the through April 19, with a reception April 13, 5 – 6:30 p.m. The New Herbarium series reimagines the centuries-old process of collecting and preserving plants for science and art. At 1160 Dickinson St.

THURSDAY, APRIL 14 – SUNDAY, April 24 Western MA – The Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival (PVJFF) presents the Virtual Passover Film Festival, 10 nights of diverse and engaging Jewish and Israeli movies with Passover themes.

Presented by Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan and with support from Maimonides Fund. In partnership with My Jewish Learning; For more information, call (413) 739-4715.

FRIDAY, APRIL 15 Longmeadow, Mass. – Lubavitcher Yeshiva Academy (LYA) presents an in-person “Seder-To-Stay,” which will begin with a pre-seder buffet of fish, salads and soup at 6:30 p.m., followed by interactive Passover activities, stories and songs led by Rabbi Noach and Esther Kosofsky; dinner will follow the reading of the Haggadah. Cost: $18/person; order a bottle of Joyvin red for an additional $9. Reservation deadline: April 11. Info: Rabbi Chaim Kosofsky at (413) 567-8665 ext. or info@LYA. org.

SATURDAY, APRIL 16 Longmeadow, Mass. – LYA’s second seder night, with a more traditional interactive format, led by Rabbi Chaim and Rochel Leah Kosofsky; 8 –11:30 p.m. For info: Rabbi Chaim Kosofsky, (413) 5678665 ext. or info@LYA.org. Springfield, MA – Sinai Second Night of Pesach Community Seder, In-person & Virtual, 6 p.m., Virtual Link: www.sinai-temple. org Website: www.sinai-temple. org Contact: Robin BlanchetteGage: rblanchettegage@sinaitemple.org.

SUNDAY, APRIL 17 Central Mass. – YAD (Young Adult Division of the Jewish Federation of Central Mass., Passover Shabbat Lunch, 12 noon, For info:, Mindy Hall at mhall@JFCM.org.

TUESDAY, APRIL 19 Hartford, CT – “What Can We Expect in the Middle East Our the Coming Months? Nuclear negotiations, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Great Power competition,” a talk with April 5, 2022

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Ambassador Dennis Ross, 7:30 p.m. at Zachs Hillel House, 74 Vernon St. Ambassador Dennis Ross is counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He also teaches at Georgetown University’s Center for Jewish Civilization. Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process during the administrations of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He served two years as special assistant to President Barack Obama and National Security Council senior director for the Central Region and a year as special adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Proof of vaccination required. For information: Lisa.kassow@ trincoll.edu.

SUNDAY, APRIL 24 TUESDAY, APRIL 26 Greenwich, CT (virtual) – Davis Film Festival presents: “Persian Lessons.” Gilles is sent to a concentration camp where he narrowly avoids execution by swearing that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but then Gilles is assigned to teach Persian, which he doesn’t know, to the officer in charge of the camp’s kitchen. Presented by UJA/JCC Greenwich. Film streams 5 - 9 p.m.$9. Information: ujajcc.org.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27 Springfield, CT – Community Yom HaShoah service and candle-lighting, followed by a musical commemoration by Avi Wisnia about his grandfather who survived Auschwitz, 7 – 8:30 p.m., at Sinai Temple. 1100 Dickinson St. Virtual Link: sinaitemple.org Registration: https:// venue.streamspot.com/event/ MzA0NTY3NA== ; Sponsored by Springfield JCC, Jewish Federation of Western Mass., the Springfield area synagogues Contact: Elise Barber: ebarber@ springfieldjcc.org.

April 5, 2022

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Greenwich, CT – Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day at Temple Sholom, 300 East Putnam Ave.; 7 p.m.; Featuring guest speaker Endre (Andy) Sarkany of New Haven. Sarkany was born in Budapest, Hungary on October 31, 1936, inside the Budapest ghetto, where he remained during the Holocaust. He escaped Hungary after the 1956 uprising and emigrated to the U.S. He shares his experience living under the brutality of the Soviet regime.

May SUNDAY, MAY 1 Sherman, CT – Sourdough Bread Workshop with Caitlin Mandracchia, 11 a.m. A hands-on, step-by-step tutorial; participants will receive their own “starter” and make their own loaf to bring him and bake. Open to bakers of all skill levels. At the JCC, 9 Rte 39 South. Reservations required. Only 12 spots available. $40. Information: jccinsherman. org, info@jccinsherman.org, (860) 355-8050. West Hartford, CT – Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) program for young professionals in Connecticut, to be held at 2 p.m., will feature a talk by Renia Finder, author of My Survival: A Girl on Schindler’s List. Renia’s cousin and JewGood Committee Member Devorah Donnell of West Hartford, will host the talk. Young professionals in Connecticut who sign up by April 20 for Renia’s talk will receive a Zoom link and free copy of Renia’s book. For more information, contact Elana MacGilpin, JewGood Hartford/ Jewish Community Foundation, emacgilpin@jcfhartford.org.

Jewish Greenwich; mall plates, line dancing instruction. Dress casual (denim and boots suggested) UJA-JCC Greenwich, One Holly Hill Lane. info@ujajcc. org. Tickets: $375

SUNDAY, MAY 15 Stamford CT – Friendship Day & Walk for individuals with special needs, sponsored by Friendship Circe of Fairfield County. At Westhill High SchoolFor more information, contact Malya Shmotkin, maylya@friendshipct. com.

June MONDAY, JUNE 13 Stamford, CT – The Golden Ticket Series presents “Monday in the Library with Sondheim,” songs from some of his most iconic musicals, Including “Sunday I the Park with George,” “Follies,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Company” and more; Broadway aged Jack iertell narrates the history behind the songs of this iconic Jewish composer.

Bulletin Board Andy Fleischmann named head of Big Brothers Big Sisters of CT HARTFORD, Connecticut – West Hartford resident Andy Fleischmann, who has been CEO at Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters since 2011, has been named president and CEO of the newly formed Big Brothers Big Sisters of Connecticut. The result of the recent merger of Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwestern Connecticut, two longstanding Connecticut youth mentoring organizations, the new organization plans to create more mentoring

matches than ever before between adult volunteers (“Bigs”) and children (“Littles) ages five through young adulthood in communities across the state. The combined organization will operate under a new agreement with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the nation’s oldest, largest mentoring network. Before joining Big Brothers Big Sisters, Fleischmann was Chief Operating Officer of SpeedReading People and a 12-term state Representative who served as House chairman of the Education Committee. He, his wife Caroline and their two daughters reside in West Continued on the next page

WEDNESDAY, MAY 11 Greenwich, CT – “Denim, Boots & Bites,” 7 p.m. An evening honoring Michael Delicate and Bryanna Kallman and celebrating

ANDY FLEISCHMANN (L) WITH “LITTLE BROTHER” COLBY AND “BIG SISTER” EMILY ROSEN.

Southern New England Jewish Ledger

Bulletin Board Continued from the previous page

Hartford. “I’d like to commend the Boards of Directors and staffs of the Big Brothers Big Sisters teams at both Nutmeg and Southwestern Connecticut for the countless hours of mentoring support they’ve provided to children, families and volunteers in our state,” Fleischmann said. “As we begin implementation of this historic merger, we’re looking forward to building a statewide organization that offers proven Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring services to more children than ever before. We’re excited to strengthen existing relationships with supporters and partners while also seeking out new partnerships that help us enroll more children, volunteers and families.” With the merger, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Connecticut now serves children and families in all of Connecticut’s 169 municipalities. The newly formed organization has a central office at 30 Laurel St. in Hartford, and satellite offices at 2470 Fairfield Ave. in Bridgeport and 66 Franklin St. in Norwich.

Bernard Kavaler appointed to Board of Michael Bolton Charities HARTFORD, Connecticut – West Hartford resident Bernard Kavaler, managing principal of Express Strategies, a Hartford-

BERNARD KAVALER

based public relations consulting firm, has been appointed to the Board of Advisors of The Michael Bolton Charities (MBC). The nonprofit organization, founded nearly three decades ago by Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter Michael Bolton, provides assistance to women and children impacted by the effects of domestic violence, physical and emotional abuse, through initiatives and programs that work to end these cycles of violence. “It is a privilege to support the efforts of The Michael Bolton Charities, and the impact their meaningful initiatives have on individual lives,” said Kavaler. “Their dedication to make a difference is unwavering, and decades of determination, collaboration and innovation reflect that.” Founded by Kavaler in 2012, Express Strategies has worked with global corporations and local businesses, for-profit and nonprofit organizations, professional associations, educational institutions, foundations and industries in various disciplines. Previously, Kavaler served as a key member of the executive staff of four of Connecticut’s constitutional officers and the state’s university system. His leadership positions included service with the Offices of Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of the State and State Treasurer. He also served as assistant vice chancellor for public affairs for the Connecticut State University System, has taught as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Hartford, and is a member of the Professional Speechwriters Association. A member of Beth El Temple in West Hartford, Kavaler is also a former board member of the Jewish Children’s Service Organization After extensive research, MBC determined that a highly personalized music therapy

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program possesses the potential for life-changing impact as a powerful and critical tool in the healing process. The result: development of The Michael Bolton Charities’ Beyond Trauma: Youth Music Therapy program. Through the Andie Koplik Residency in Music Therapy, the program reaches high risk students who have a history of acute trauma, many in the clinical range for PostTraumatic Stress Disorder. The program is currently operating in the Riverside Opportunity Academy in New Haven and the Bennie Dover Jackson MultiMagnet Middle School in New London. A fundraising concert for the Beyond Trauma program, featuring Michael Bolton, will be held at Mohegan Sun on Friday, May 6. For more information, visit michaelboltoncharities.com.

Arbella Insurance Foundation donates $75,000 to Rachel’s Table SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Rachel’s Table, a program of the Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts that helps alleviate hunger and reduce food waste in the region, has received a $75,000 commitment from Arbella Insurance Foundation over the next three years to support its Growing Gardens initiative. Rachel’s Table’s Growing Gardens will support any of the program’s 54 partner agencies to grow their own food in partnership with the people they serve. Rachel’s Table will officially launch the first Growing Gardens training on April 11 at Robinson Gardens in Springfield. “The funding we received from Arbella Insurance Foundation will allow us to grow our commitment to ensuring direct access to healthy food,” said Jodi Falk, director of Rachel’s Table. “Through Growing Gardens, we also hope to help

our partner agency’s constituent communities define what nourishment means to them, while building, and maintaining gardens that cultivate their sense of agency, empowerment, and physical and spiritual nourishment.” The Growing Gardens’ trainings will be done in partnership with the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA), who will help train and mentor participating agencies. Sister Anna Gilbert-Muhammad of NOFA will be lead trainer and provide expert leadership throughout the growing season for Rachel’s Table staff and liaisons who will also teach, support and mentor partner agencies in each cohort. The cohort for the first training includes Christina’s House, a home for women and children in transition; Robinson Gardens, a low-income housing community; CSO’s Friends of the Homeless, an on-site mental health and recovery service; and the Church of St. Andrew’s, a church community that will donate 100 percent of its harvest to those in need. After a two-year training period, each agency will be responsible for finding their own funding with the continued support of the network of agency-gardeners. Each year, Rachel’s Table will add a new Growing Gardens cohort of three to four agencies. Growing Gardens is an extension of the 14-year-old Bea’s Harvest: A Gleaning Program of Rachel’s Table, which was started by former Rachel’s Table Board member Bea Loevy z”l. To contribute to Growing Gardens, visit www. rachelstablepv.org.

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TORAH PORTION – METZORA BY RABBI TZVI HERSH WEINREB

e did most of his writing and public speaking almost exactly one hundred years ago. He had no secular education, and it is doubtful that he even read the newspapers of his day. Nevertheless, he had insights into the problems of his era that were astounding, even prophetic. His diagnosis of the ills of the early 20th century holds true even now, a century later. He understood the power of words. He knew how written and spoken language could be used as weapons to destroy humanity. How incredibly relevant his words are in our age, when words can be communicated electronically! He based his teachings and preaching upon the verse in Psalms which reads: “Who is the man who is eager for life, Who desires years of good fortune? Guard your tongue from evil, Your lips from deceitful speech.” (Psalms 34:13-14) He took this biblical advice seriously and urged all who would listen to guard their tongues and speak no malice and no falsehood. His name was Israel Meir HaCohen, and he named his first major work “Chafetz Chaim”, “Eager for Life”, after the above verse in Psalms. He is now part of Jewish history and forever known as the Chafetz Chaim. His teachings have a special connection to this week’s Torah portion, Metzora (Leviticus 14 and 15), and to its Haftarah (II Kings 7:3-20). Note that there is no explicit reference in the text of our parsha to the theme of the negative powers of language, nor is there any such reference in the Haftarah. Our text this week deals, rather, with the detailed laws of the metzora, usually translated as “leper”, and the selection from April 5, 2022

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II Kings tells the story of the four lepers who dwelled outside the gates of Jerusalem, who were the first to discover the abandoned camp of the Aramean army that had laid siege to the city. Rabbinic tradition, however, looks to understand why the metzora has been afflicted with his disease. The Talmud in the tractate Arachin understands the word metzora as a contraction of the phrase “motzi shem ra, one who spreads a ‘bad name’” about his fellow. And so, the metzora has come to symbolize the person who is guilty of malicious gossip (lashon hora), or other abuse of words – deception, profanity, verbal assassination. Interestingly, another early 20th century rabbinic sage, Rabbi Baruch Epstein, author of Torah Temima, points out that the Talmudic rabbis had the license to thus interpret the word metzora. This is because the usual term for the leper is “tzarua”, not “metzora.” The use of the unusual term suggests another, in this case, homiletic, meaning—he who speaks evil. When the Chafetz Chaim urged us all to “guard our tongues” and “speak no evil”, was he suggesting that we adopt silence as a guide to our behavior, avoiding speech and self-expression entirely? The answer to this is a resounding “no”, and this is illustrated in a fascinating story about Rabbi Israel Meir and his son-in-law, Rabbi Hershel Levinson. I found this story in a Yiddish language biography of the Chafetz Chaim, written by Moshe Mayer Yashar. An excerpted edition of this book is available in English, but without some of the more interesting and personal anecdotes. Rabbi Hershel, the son-inlaw, was a very pious man who spent his days in the study hall who seldom spoke at all. Many believed that he was even more saintly than his revered fatherin-law. After all, his father-in-law

spoke all over the place and taught and preached, and even joked, at every opportunity. However, the Chafetz Chaim did not entirely approve of his son-in-law’s avoidance of speech and devotion to almost complete silence about worldly matters. Rather, he insisted that one must use his gifts of speech, and use them widely and frequently, yet wisely and carefully. Silence, for the Chafetz Chaim, was not the preferred way of life. Speech that carefully avoided gossip, insults, and profanity was the preferred behavior. Today, there are groups of very well-intentioned individuals who emphasize the evils of lashon hora. Sometimes, I am afraid, they do so by avoiding to speak negatively when such speech is necessary. They sometimes refrain from protesting criminal behavior out of fear that, in doing so, they are maliciously gossiping about a criminal. This was not the Chafetz Chaim’s way. In the book mentioned above, by the title of which he is known to the ages, he emphasizes that there are opportunities when one must use speech to warn against sinful or dangerous individuals, or to protest breaches of Torah or of universal moral law. When negative talk has a beneficial objective, it is no longer to be considered negative, but actually becomes a mitzvah. The four lepers who are described in the narrative contained in this week’s Haftarah were stationed outside the gates of Jerusalem because such was what the Torah required of lepers. They were to have no contact with the residents of the city, perhaps because of the fear that their condition was contagious. They were thus doomed, in a sense, to silence. They could not communicate with their friends and family within the city’s gates.

And so it is no wonder, then, that when they found that the Aramean besieging Jerusalem had been abandoned overnight, their first inclination was to keep that secret to themselves. But then, in II Kings 7:9, they came to their senses, and their sound consciences prevailed: “Then they said to one another, ‘We are not doing right. This is a day of good news, And we are keeping silent! If we wait until the light of morning, We shall incur guilt. Come, let us go and inform the king’s palace.’ They went and called out to the gate keepers of the city And told them...” Words can harm, but they can also heal. This was the teaching of Rabbi Israel Meir HaCohen. It is perhaps best encapsulated in the words of Kohelet: “There is a time for all things... A time for silence And a time for speaking” (Ecclesiastes 3:7) Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb is the executive vice president, emeritus of the Orthodox Union.

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In Memoriam Activist Sheryl Grossman shed light on rare genetic disorder BY JACKIE HAJDENBERG

(JTA) – Sheryl Grossman, an activist whose own rare disease fueled her advocacy for people with disabilities inside and beyond Jewish communities, died on Monday at 46. Grossman was “surrounded by loving friends after a 17-year, determined struggle with multiple cancers,” according to her obituary. Grossman’s cancers were associated with Bloom’s Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder characterized by many symptoms, including short stature, immune deficiency and an increased susceptibility to many cancers. (Grossman was 4-foot-3 and weighed 48 pounds.) Fewer than 300 people are listed in the Bloom’s Syndrome Registry, and about a quarter of them, like Grossman, have Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. Grossman became a leader in this small community, founding a Facebook group for people living with Bloom’s Syndrome. Born in Chicago and raised in a community where she was one of few Jewish children, Grossman received a master’s degree in social work with a concentration in disability issues and advocacy from Washington University in St. Louis, where she had studied psychology and Jewish studies as an undergraduate. Grossman was a board member of Yad Hachazakah, the Jewish Disability Empowerment Center, and also worked in spaces that advocated for accessible workplaces and housing rights for people with disabilities. In the earliest days of the COVID19 vaccine rollout, Grossman was outspoken about equitable vaccine distribution in Maryland. “I don’t think anyone will ever know just how much work Sheryl

did during the pandemic to help Jewish communities support their most vulnerable neighbors who were in the hospital or isolated at home with covid,” Shoshi Finkel, a law student who met Grossman when she was an intern at the American Association of People with Disabilities, wrote on Facebook. “She didn’t feel the need to share her accomplishments; that was never what the work was about for her.” During the 2020 primary election in Maryland, Grossman spoke to The New York Times about the challenges she experienced while voting by mail, shedding light not only on accessibility but also on privacy

issues in the American elections process and how they affect disabled people. Tributes from friends, colleagues and supporters of Grossman’s work flooded social media after her death. Eryn Star, an intern at the American Association of People with Disabilities, called Grossman “an incredible disabled Jewish activist who transformed disabled & Jewish spaces in St. Louis, Baltimore, & Washington DC.” Grossman was an observant Jew who found herself drawn to Orthodoxy in college. She spoke frequently about inclusion in Jewish spaces and coached Jewish organizations and communities about how to adopt practices that

would fully include people with disabilities. “May the day come soon when Jews with disabilities don’t just celebrate one day, or one month, where the world acknowledges us, but rather that every day is Jewish Disabled Inclusion Day!” she said in a 2019 Jewish Telegraphic Agency story about Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month. The funeral was held in Pikesville, Maryland. An American Sign Language interpreter signed the ceremony, and wore a clear mask for lip reading.

American Sephardic philanthropist Stephen Shalom promoted tolerance

Shalom said the accomplishment of which he was most proud was working with Rep. Stephen Solarz, D-N.Y., with the blessing of President Jimmy Carter, to bring 400 Jewish women who wanted to marry within their faith to the United States from Syria in 1977. Born in Brooklyn to parents who had immigrated from Aleppo, he regretted and resented the stereotype that had attached to Jews of Middle Eastern and Sephardic origin as being militant and intolerant of Arabs. As Israeli governments turned to peace-making, he encouraged Sephardic leaders in Israel to join the efforts, in order to increase their influence in a country that once was dominated by Ashkenazi Jews, but also to roll back perceptions that Sephardim and Mizrahi Jews were antipeace. He encouraged his friend Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Israel’s most influential Sephardic rabbi, to give his blessing to Middle East peace talks and helped establish the Tami Party, a Sephardic religious party that existed in the first half of the 1980s and that promoted religious moderation. Shalom often said that the erroneous image of Mizhrahi

Jews as being intolerant came because so many Sephardi communities were coopted by more rigid Ashekanzi sects in Israel as Mizrahi Jews fled their native lands. “As Sephardics were increasing in number” in Israel “particularly in the early ’50s as they left the Arab lands – there were about a million Jews in Arab lands – I always thought they would be the bridge between the secular and the more Orthodox” and Jews and Arabs, Shalom told the American Jewish Committee in an oral history project in 1991. “It hasn’t happened that way.” Instead, the children of large Sephardic families were sent to Ashkenazi yeshivas, he said, where they were inculcuated with a more insular way of thinking. “They Ashkenized them,” he said. “Completely, without giving any thought and any respect, I would even say, to our cultures and tradition.” He is survived by two daughters, Alice Franco and Frances Shalom, four grandchildren and eight greatgrandchildren. A son, Robert, died in 2020. He will be laid to rest at the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. (Photo courtesy of Samuel Franco.)

BY RON KAMPEAS

(JTA) – Stephen Shalom, a leader of the U.S. Sephardic Jewish community who promoted Middle East peace and religious tolerance, died at 93. Shalom died Sunday, his family said in a statement. The heir to a handkerchief manufacture fortune, I. Shalom, now known as New York Accessory Group, Shalom was at different times in his life a leader of major Jewish and pro-Israel philanthropies. They included the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York (now the UJA Federation of New York), the World Sephardi Federation and Israel Bonds. He was also involved with the American Jewish Committee; HIAS, the Jewish immigration advocacy group; the Jewish Agency, and the Joint Distribution Committee.

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(Photo: Screenshot from 2021 JDAIM Interview Series at Towson University.)

April 5, 2022

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OBITUARIES DOLLINGER

Jerrold I. Dolinger, 75, of Stamford, CT, died March 16. He was the husband of Marcia Dollinger. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., he was the son of the late Samuel and Rhoda Dolinger. He was a member of Central Synagogue in Rockville Centre, N.Y., and Temple Beth El in Stamford, Conn. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Jessica, and Jason and his wife Alison, and his grandchildren, Charlotte and Graham. He was also predeceased by brother Richard.

GRAZIANI

Bryan Graziani, 49, of Springfield, Mass., died Jan. 26. He was the son of Shirley Horowitz Graziani. In addition to his mother, he is survived by his aunt Rosaline Horowitz and her husband Neil Yetwin, and their children Alexander Yetwin, Ariel Horowitz and Hannah Yetwin. He was predeceased by his grandparents Fay and Samuel Horowitz.

HELLER

Joseph L. Heller, 96, of Springfield, died Feb. 18. Born in New York, N.Y., he was the son of the late George and Hannah Heller. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and the Korean War, and achieved the rank of tech SGT 4th class. He is survived by his nephews, Richard Goodreau and Larry Jones, and his niece Gloria Lombardi. He was predeceased by his daughter Alice Finn.

RUBIN

Diane (Deena) Rubin, 61, of Amherst, Mass., has died. She was the daughter of Manny and Serene Rubin. She is survived by her partner Daniel Griffith; her daughters, Ayala and Yael; her granddaughter Lily; her siblings, Faith and Jonathan; her stepchildren Sarah, John, and Grace; her step-grandsons, Matthew and Ronin; and many cousins, nieces and nephews.

April 5, 2022

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Kolot

STAMBOVAKY

Ruth Stambovsky, of Springfield, Mass., died Feb. 18, a few days shy of her 98th birthday. She was the widow of George Stambovsky. She was also predeceased by her sons, Richard and Edward, her daughter-in-law Diane, and her granddaughter Desiree. She is survived by her daughters, Cheryl Stambovsky and her husband Keith Gaulin, and Sandra Alston and her husband Bill; her daughter-in-law, Janice Stambovsky; her 99-year old sister Jeannette Gershowitz; 14 grandchildren and 24 greatgrandchildren.

STOPPELMAN

Julian (Jay) E. Stoppelman, 78, of Manchester, Conn, died March 23. He was the husband of Susan Kravetz Stoppelman. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his sons, Daniel Stoppelman of Boston, Mass., and Gary Stoppelman and his wife Mary Neu-Stoppelman of Dubuque, Iowa; his brother David Stoppelman of Shirley, Mass.; and several nieces and nephews He was a member of Beth ShalomBeth Israel.

Massacre CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14

under the auspices of Jamal Tarif, director of the Education Department [of the P.A. Education Ministry]… the Tulkarem Martyrs’ (Shahids’) Football Tournament, the Championship of the Martyr Abd al-Basset Odeh, began with the participation of seven top teams, named after martyrs who gave their lives to redeem the homeland… Issam, the brother of the martyr [Odeh], will distribute the trophies” (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 21, 2003). It’s important to stress that P.A. leader Abbas has admitted that the P.A. was responsible for this and all terror between 20002005. When explaining the P.A.

About Peace BY BLU BERMAN

Rat-a-tat-tat Boom–blast-Boom Skies Fill With coils of Black Smoke and Fire. Enemies face enemies. With hatred and Ire. The Plan is to kill or Be killed. Hearts are Stone Hard. Each Soldier with fright is filled. Above it All, A white Feathered messenger Can Be Seen. She Is DeterminedTo End It All It is the yearned-for Dove of Peace. Holding the Olive Branch of Peace In Her Beak A Thousand Welcomes Oh Bird So White Stay Forever, To The World Bring Light. Former West Hartford resident Charlotte “Blu” Berman now lives in Rockville, Md.

demand that Israel release all the Palestinian terrorists, he left no room for misconceptions: “P.A. chairman Mahmoud Abbas: ‘I demand [the release of ] prisoners because they are human beings, who did what we—we—ordered them to do. We—the [Palestinian] Authority. They should not be punished while we sit at one table negotiating… “This is war. One [i.e., Israel] ordered a soldier to kill, and I ordered my son, brother, or others, to carry out the duty of resistance [a euphemism for terrorism]. This person killed and the other person killed. So why say this person’s hands are stained with blood, and [he] must be kept in prison? He is a fighter just like any other fighter” (official P.A. TV, Feb. 14, 2005).

Other P.A. leaders have repeated this claim. The P.A.’s adulation, glorification and rewarding of terrorists, including mass murderers, is something every decent human being should ferociously reject. People who praise and reward terrorist murderers, simply because they murdered Jews, are not and will never be partners for peace. IDF Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch is the director of Legal Strategies for Palestinian Media Watch. He served for 19 years in the IDF Military Advocate General Corps. In his last position, he served as director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria. This article was first published by Palestinian Media Watch.

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Southern New England Jewish Ledger • April 5, 2022 • 4 Nisan 5782

Articles inside

Southern New England Jewish Ledger • April 5, 2022 • 4 Nisan 5782