Vol. 68 / No. 47online at www.stljewishlight.com 27 Kislev, 5776 / Dec. 9, 2015 /

Inside & online

Index

Candlelighting

ChaiLights calendar ........ 26-27

Classifieds .............................30

Features .......................... 14-18

Jewish Lite ............................28

News & Schmooze ..................2

Obituaries .............................31

Ohr Chadash Teen Page ... 20-21

Opinions ......................... 12-13

Simchas ................................29

World news ......................... 6-8

Mizzou relaxes its policy regarding study abroad opportunities in Israel.

— Page 2

The New Jewish Theatre’s latest production “Bad Jews” offers up a searing dark comedy about a dysfunctional family battling over a beloved necklace.`

— Page 14

Olive oil is the perfect choice for a wide range of Hanukkah specialties.

— Page 18

NEWS & SCHMOOZE

FEATURES

Getting fried

Middle East 101

‘Bad’ is good

Shabbat starts Friday, Dec. 11, 4:22 p.m.

Shabbat endsSaturday, Dec. 12, 5:24 p.m.

Covenant Place II garners major funding approval

Is St. Louis hungry for additional kosher dining options? Study aims to find out

St. Louis rabbi, others targeted as ‘terrorists’ in social media campaign

Happy Hanukkah!

BY ERIC BERGERSTAFF WRITER

David Benkof, a local writer and creator of the Jerusalem Post crossword puzzle that runs weekly in the Jewish Light and other Jewish papers nationally, thinks St. Louis needs another kosher restaurant. Earlier this year, Benkof, who identifies as Orthodox, paid more than $25,000 for studies to collect data on the local market for such a restaurant.

The question is, if he is so hungry for another restaurant, why not just take that money and open his own?

“I am not interested in going into a kosher food business,” said Benkof, who made the grant through Chabad of Greater St. Louis. “This is a tze-dakah project on my part.”

He hopes data from a feasibil-ity study conducted by a mar-ket-research firm, as well as a

less scientific community-wide survey, will entice an investor to open a kosher restaurant. And that would make St. Louis a more comfortable place for peo-ple who keep kosher, he said.

St. Louis has only two kosher restaurants: Kohn’s Kosher Meat & Deli, which is open daily for lunch and one night a week for dinner in Creve Coeur; and Gokul, an Indian vegetarian res-taurant in University City. But most nights, there is no available kosher meat or dairy restaurants.

Other kosher restaurants have been unsuccessful over the

BY MARGARET GILLERMANSPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT

Rabbi Susan Talve, for many

years on the frontlines advocat-ing for racial and social justice causes, is now the target of a fierce social media campaign against her support of Israel.

Not shy of controversy, the founding rabbi of the progres-sive Central Reform Congre-gation has gained national stat-ure over the last year marching and praying alongside Black Lives Matter protesters to draw attention to police shootings like that of Michael Brown in Ferguson in August 2014.

But Talve, who has won many awards for her human rights advocacy and actions, is being labeled a “#realterrorist” in a social media campaign by some in the same Black Lives Matter/Hands Up United movement she has marched alongside.

The Hands Up United Facebook page shows a picture

of Talve with the hashtag “#realterrorist” and the words “supports genocide and interna-tional apartheid.”

The Hands Up United social media postings have sparked a verbal firestorm, with the rabbi’s supporters defending her as “compassionate” and uniting in scores of comments on Facebook and Twitter. Talve’s supporters call her detractors “cowards” and “anti-Jewish propagandists” and say that labeling her a terror-ist is “a despicable character assassination.”

Attempts to reach a Hands Up United spokesperson numerous times over five days were unsuccessful through phone, Facebook messaging, email, and the group’s website.

In addition to the Hands Up United opponents, a small Jewish activist group, St. Louis Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), as well as the St. Louis Palestine

See KOSHER STUDY, page 22

See TALVE, page 22

David Benkof has funded a study to find out if St. Louisans have the interest to support more kosher dining options.

BY LARRY LEVINPUBLISHER/CEO

Last week’s award of tax credits and other funding total-ling about $11.6 million in proj-ect equity moves the next phase of the Covenant Place redevel-opment project, which will include 102 new living units and a major community center for seniors, closer to reality.

As Phase I continues under

construction for an opening mid-2016, Covenant Place received an award from the Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC) for a low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) and companion fund-ing that will help enable the sec-ond phase of the three-phase project. The project was St. Louis County’s top-rated of

Above, Rabbi Dan Morris leads a choir from Epstein Hebrew Academy in singing holiday songs during the annual Schnucks Ladue Crossing Hanukkah Event last week. Hanukkah started Sunday night and ends the evening of Monday, Dec. 14. Photo courtesy Steve Turner

ONLINE VIDEO

Jewish Light staff members recall favorite Hanukkah memories in online videos posted by staff writer Eric Berger.

Visit stljewishlight.com/multimedia

An artist’s rendering shows Covenant Place’s second phase of redevel-opment. The building would include the Mirowitz Center, serving both residents and seniors in the broader community.

See COVENANT, page 10

OHR CHADASH TEEN PAGECheck out the latest Ohr Chadash Teen Page

of the 2015-2016 school year on pages 20-21 of this week’s edition. The teen page is

published on the second week of each month during the school year.

Front Page 1Front Page 1Front Page 1Front Page 1Front Page 1Front Page 1Front Page 1Front Page 1Front Page 1

10 | D E C E M B E R 9 , 2 0 1 5 | ST. LOUIS JEWISH LIGHT | Visit WWW. STLJEWISHLIGHT.COM

those submitted to MHDC for this fund-ing cycle.

The MHDC award of federal and state LIHTC 9 percent tax credits, Affordable Housing Assistance Program (AHAP) state credits, and state “HOME” funds (provided as a loan payable out of cash flow), will generate about $11.6 million of the roughly $29 million required to com-plete Phase II. Another $6.4 million comes from first mortgage and subordi-nate loan funding.

The remainder of about $11 million for Phase II will come from private dona-tions. Covenant Place Executive Director Joan Denison indicated that effort is well underway.

“We’re having many important conver-sations with people right now, and we feel very hopeful that we’ll be able to complete the fundraising within the time frame to take advantage of those tax credits,” Denison said. That time frame is estimated to be about four months.

One of the fundraised elements, and a major part of the second phase, is the

approximately 20,000 square feet of community space that will be called the Mirowitz Center, after lead donor Helene Mirowitz and her late husband, Carl.

The center will provide a wide variety of services and gathering opportunities

for not only Covenant Place residents, but seniors across the community. Medical, therapeutic, entertainment and personal services and more will be avail-able in the center. Partners and opera-tors of services in the center will be added and made public as the develop-ment gets underway.

“This project serves not only the resi-dents of Covenant Place, but it is designed to serve a much broader com-munity of older adults,” Denison said.

In addition to the Mirowitz Center, the Phase II project will comprise 102 one-bedroom units, and qualify for Section 8 subsidy contracts under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program. Alongside the 66 Section 8 units in Phase I (of a total of 101 units in that phase), the first two phases of the three-phrase redevelopment proj-ect will have a total of 168 Section 8 units.

Conditions under the MHDC awards require that the funding matrix for Phase II be completed this spring. If that schedule is met, plans for construction would commence and the building schedule would be similar to that for Phase I, but with less complex and less substantial infrastructure improvements and site preparation than were required for that phase.

Phase III of the Covenant Place redevel-opment would serve to replace the exist-ing Covenant Chai apartments, but that project does not yet have a definite fund-ing and timing structure. The entirety of the three-phase Covenant Place project is anticipated to cost about $86.5 million. It is expected that the total fundraising effort for both Phases II and III will be $18 million, including the approximately $11 million needed to complete the funding matrix for Phase II.

COVENANTCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Above left, a map of the Covenant Place campus as it is today, with Phase I of its redevelopment plan shown in blue. Above right is how the campus would appear with Phase II (in orange) and Phase III (in red) completed. Below is an aerial view of Phase II.

10

commmunity photos CHABAD AT MIZZOU • In late October, Mizzou students traveled to the Chabad on Campus international Shababton in New York City with more than 1,000 college students the United States, Canada and Europe. Here, the group is pictured in front of Chabad’s world headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Pictured are (first row, from left) Hannah Turner of Austin, Texas, and Sarena Krojanker of St. Louis; (second row) Kelton Tabor of San Diego, Jordan Kodner of St. Louis and Jake Nabat of Chicago; (top row) Rabbi Avraham Lapine of Chabad at Mizzou, Jason Peiser of Chicago and Paul Kodner of St. Louis.

J ASSOCIATES • The J Associates had its membership event in October at Sweetology. Close to 100 women attended. After lunch the group made 123 Birthday-in-a-Bag kits, which were donated to the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry. Pictured above are (from left) Sharon Tureen, Lisa Wartocovshi, J Associates President Tracey Singer and Jennifer Rosenthal.

JEWISH FEDERATION • James Bullard (center), President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, addressed a crowd of close to 60 members and guests of Jewish Federation’s Business and Trade Societies. This event was co-chaired by Gerald Padawer (right) and Audrey Katcher and sponsored by Jewish Federation’s Montefiore Society, a trade society for donors to Jewish Federation of St. Louis. Federation President and CEO Andrew Rehfeld is at left.

JEWISH COMMUNITY RELATIONS COUNCIL • Jewish and Muslim teens make peanut butter sandwiches for clients of The Bridge during the “Hunger Speaks” program on Nov. 15. This program, co-sponsored by JCRC’s CAP Coalition, Operation Food Search and Ladue Chapel, introduced students to the realities of hunger in the region and provided tools for addressing the problem.