journalist gil hoffman provided insight into the issues … · 2019. 2. 12. · l-r: jeff ganz, lou...

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INSIDE THIS ISSUEMaking music

Members of an Israeli band don’t let their disabilities get in the way of touring and making music.

Story on page 14

Digging up the past Recent archeological discoveries reveal Jerusalem’s transformation during the Second Temple period.

Story on page 15

Kiev’s JCCKiev’s American-style JCC gives low-income Jews a place to call home and educate their children.

Story on page 9

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Federation on Facebook

The Jewish Federation of Northeast-ern Pennsylvania now has a page on Facebook to let community members know about upcoming events and keep connected.

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VOLUME X, NUMBER 22

The Jewish Federation of Northeast Pennsylvania’s annual Major Gifts pro-gram was held on October 23 at the home of Dr. Shaya and Phyllis Barax in Scranton and hosted as its speaker Gil Hoffman, the chief political correspondent and analyst for The Jerusalem Post.

Connected to both Israeli and Pales-tinian leaders, Hoffman has interviewed major figures across the Israeli political spectrum, has been interviewed by top media on six continents and is a regular analyst on CNN, Al-Jazeera and other news outlets.

Journalist Gil Hoffman provided insight into the issues confronting Israel at UJA’s Major Gifts program

Gil Hoffman used a map to explain a point.

Gil Hoffman showed a page featuring the members of the Israel Knesset.

Sheila Cutler listened to the speaker.

L-r: Gil Hoffman and Mark Silverberg talked before the presentation.

L-r: Alan Sare, Jeff Ganz and Lou Nivert concentrated on the presentation.

L-r: Mark Silverberg; Dassy Ganz; Phyllis and Shaya Barax, hosts for the program; and Gil Hoffman.

L-r: Jeff Ganz, Lou Nivert, Doug Sheldon, David Fallk and Rabbi Samuel Sandhaus attended the Gil Hoffman presentation.

“His intimate knowledge of Israeli affairs both national and international interspersed with elements of humor was an insight to those who attended this fascinating evening,” said organizers of the event. “Hoffman provided the group with a behind-the-scenes look at the in-trigue and humor in the Israeli political arena and has lectured in every major English-speaking country in the world, more than half the Canadian provinces, and recently made history by becoming the first speaker to have lectured about Israel in all 50 states.”

THIS UPDATE INCLUDES INFOR-MATION THROUGH OCTOBER 30.

Note from the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania: JFNA’s Emergency Committee and many of our Federations on the front lines of addressing natural disasters have had an extraordinarily busy and taxing eight weeks since the start of Hurricane Harvey.

We thank all of our Federations and Network communities who have worked to mobilize support and resources through our Jewish Federation system in addressing the many urgent needs arising from these disasters.

Following is an update on the work of our system to date.HURRICANE HARVEY

Seven weeks following the end of the

Hurricane relief updaterain, Houston and the other areas affected by Hurricane Harvey are still in fairly early stages of recovery. With more than 2,000 Jewish homes flooded, and eight major institutional facilities in the Jewish com-munity sustaining catastrophic damage, the scope of issues facing the Houston Jewish community are enormous.

To date, approximately $17.9 million has been raised through the Jewish Fed-eration system as follows:

� $6.5 million raised by Jewish Federa-tions across North America.

� $9.1 million raised by the Jewish Fed-eration of Greater Houston.

� $1.3 million contributed by Jewish Foundations (does not include foundation grants to local Federations or the Houston

See “Update” on page 6

$323,029as of Nov. 9 2017

For information or to make a donation call 570-961-2300 ext. 1 orsend your gift to:Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania601 Jefferson Ave.,Scranton, PA 18510

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THE REPORTER ■ NOVEMBER 16, 20172

A MATTER OF OPINION

“ The Reporter” (USPS #482) is published bi-weekly by the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania, 601 Jefferson Ave., Scranton, PA 18510.

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Graphic Art i s t : Alaina Cardarelli

How anti-Zionists fueled a far-right victoryBY DANIEL TREIMAN

(JTA) – In September, New York’s Center for Jewish History was the target of a right-wing campaign seeking to oust its new president, David Myers, over his dovish views on Israel. The campaign drew an appropriately outraged response from leading Jewish scholars, who rallied around Myers, a highly regarded historian who has publicly opposed the anti-Israel BDS – Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions – movement.

Now, one of the five independent his-torical organizations housed at the center, the American Jewish Historical Society, is also coming under attack. This time, however, the most consequential attacks

are coming not from the far right, but the far left. Anti-Zionist BDS supporters are masquerading as champions of free expression after their hijacking of the august and heretofore largely apolitical AJHS was foiled.

The latest controversy erupted into public view recently when AJHS’s board canceled two events that the society had been scheduled to host: a play by the an-ti-Zionist playwright Dan Fishback on in-trafamilial disagreements about Israel and a discussion on the Balfour Declaration that was co-sponsored with the BDS-backing Jewish Voice for Peace. The cancellation came the same day as an article criticizing AJHS for hosting the events appeared in the far-right FrontPage Magazine.

Fishback and JVP immediately cried foul. Fishback, a JVP and BDS supporter, complained of “silencing and censor-ship.” JVP’s executive director, Rebecca Vilkomerson, decried what she called AJHS’s “shameful caving to right-wing pressure.” The New York Times picked up on the ensuing “backlash” from various cultural figures angered by what they saw as AJHS embracing censorship.

Critics focused on the cancellation of the play, “Rubble Rubble,” casting Fishback as a superficially sympathet-ic-seeming party in the drama. But the play’s cancellation cannot be understood in isolation.

For starters: Why was AJHS hosting a discussion with Jewish Voice for Peace on the Balfour Declaration – with a panel consisting of a Palestinian activist in dia-logue with a JVP activist, neither of whom is even a historian? Would AJHS also host a panel discussion on the Oslo Accords sponsored by a far-right pro-settler group like Women in Green? I doubt it.

AJHS, consistent with its focus on American Jewish history, does little Isra-el-related programming. But the planned Balfour Declaration panel was not even the only event in partnership with JVP. Earlier in the year, AJHS partnered with JVP to host an event with an anti-Zionist Ethiopian Israeli activist. AJHS also was publicly offering discounted tickets to JVP members for Fishback’s play about Israel.

These three events, it’s worth noting, seem to be the only Israel-related programs hosted by AJHS in 2017. It’s simply not as if AJHS was hosting tons of Israel programs – or even many plays – and then singling out Fishback’s performance for cancellation because some people com-plained about his views on Israel.

Here’s the real question: How is it that American Jewry’s leading historical society came to select a fringe anti-Zionist group as its sole interlocutor on Israel-re-lated programming?

AJHS’s director of programming, Shirly Bahar – who publicly supports the boycott of Israeli academic institutions

– announced the society’s fall schedule with the declaration that she had worked to foster “critical, edgy and political-ly challenging cultural and academic programs where difficult conversations about Mizrahim, Jews of Color, Palestine, cross-cultural solidarity and anti-racism are highlighted rather than censored.”

The result, at least as far as Israel pro-gramming, seems to have been a schedule that reflected only one very particular strand of thinking on Israel – one that is far removed from the views of the over-whelming majority of American Jews.

The AJHS board officers did not seem to be aware of this sudden slant in the so-ciety’s programming until quite recently, as a source confirmed to the Forward. Ultimately, members of the AJHS board decided to cancel the events, with AJHS stating that “they do not align with the mission of the AJHS.”

The Jewish community does have genuine problems with campaigns to stigmatize and shut down people based on their views on Israel. Too often those who criticize Israel – liberal Zionists and anti-Zionists alike – are subjected to campaigns of invective and incitement. The right-wing campaign against David Myers is a prime example.

That’s not what happened at AJHS. Rather, an anti-Zionist fringe co-opted the programming of a mainstream Jewish institution, then cried “censorship” when the institution’s board realized what was going on and put a stop to it.

Moreover, JVP and Fishback don’t exactly have the strongest standing to com-

plain about shutting down or stigmatizing others. This is the same JVP that tried to shame LGBT supporters of Israel who marched in this past summer’s Celebrate Israel parade in New York by disrupting their contingent. This is the same Fishback who defended pro-Palestinian activists who shut down an event by a pro-Israel LGBT group at a conference hosted by the National LGBTQ Task Force.

Activists like these appear all too happy to see those with whom they disagree shut down or shouted down. And they seem equally happy to aggressively try to co-opt the Jewish institutions to which they can gain entry. When they are denied, they kvetch about being silenced.

AJHS was the collateral damage. Now it faces the wrath of those who were wrongly led to believe that AJHS “caved” to right-wing censors. And AJHS has alarmed constituents who wonder why a pre-eminent communal historical institution would subcontract its Israel programming to a widely loathed anti-Zi-onist group.

But if AJHS came out as a loser, there were also winners. The incident gave new ammunition to those on the far right who are now trying to smear David Myers and the Center for Jewish History for the programming decisions of AJHS, an independent organization. And JVP gets to resume its favorite posture: righteous “silenced” victim.

Daniel Treiman, a recent graduate of New York University School of Law, is a former managing editor of JTA and a former opinion editor of the Forward.

Israel and Africa need each other

BY YOSEF I. ABRAMOWITZ(JTA) – The Jewish month that began

recently, Cheshvan, has traditionally been dubbed “mar,” or bitter, because it alone among the months is devoid of any holidays. It is time for the Jewish people, and the Jewish calendar, to drop mar from Cheshvan, since it is blessed with one of the most remarkable and sweetest Jewish holidays: Sigd.

At the end of Cheshvan for well over 1,000 years, the Jewish community of Ethiopia would dress in white, climb Mount Ambover in Gondar and pray for their redemption and aliyah to Jerusalem. The miraculous airlifts and rescue of Ethi-opian Jewry, and the subsequent aliyah of tens of thousands more, stands as one of the proudest moments in Jewish history and a shining example of what Jewish peoplehood can accomplish against great odds. Now the Ethiopian community celebrates Sigd en masse on the Haas

Promenade, overlooking the Old City, with prayer, music and speeches. Israeli schools are starting to celebrate Sigd, as should Jewish schools worldwide.

Africa has gifted to the Jewish people sweetness and hope in Cheshvan, which is also Jewish Social Action Month, when we turn outward as a community.

I have accompanied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to Africa over the past several years, promoting not only a solar-powered vision for the continent, but an enlightened Israeli policy of becoming a superpower of goodness. Israeli water, agricultural, medical and green energy technology and investments can play a transformative role by uplifting the dignity of hundreds of millions of people. And with a quarter of the votes in the U.N. General Assembly belonging to Africa, as well as two swing votes on the Security Council, there are

See “Africa” on page 4

BY RABBI DOVID KRAUTWIRTHIt is well known that two to three

million Jews survived the horrors of the Holocaust. After the end the war, most did not remain in Europe, but started new lives elsewhere. They went wherever they could find refuge: Israel, North or South America, or Australia. Most of them married, raised families and went to work. Some started businesses and were very successful. Others didn’t do so well.

As of 2017, there are approximately 100,000 survivors left in the U.S.A. One third lives below the poverty line. In the New York area that figure is closer to half, due to the high cost of housing. As the survivors age, the symptoms of the trauma they endured become more severe. Nearly

Children of Holocaust survivors need help alsoall of them suffer from some form of PTSD, anxieties and fears. There are several orga-nizations that help impoverished survivors, including the Claims Conference, The Blue Card, local Federations and Jewish Family Service. These facts are well known in the Jewish community.

What is less known is that many of the symptoms of PTSD were genetically passed down to the children of the survi-vors as well. It’s estimated that 200,000 second generation survivors live in the U.S. A certain percentage of them have had difficulty forming or maintaining relationships, resulting in being unable to marry or in failed marriages. Many of those who grew up watching their parents strug-gle to make a living now have difficulties

themselves finding their place in the world, resulting in a decreased earning capacity. Others suffer from anxiety, depression or low self-esteem, or are hoarders.1

These issues are not learned as many would assume, but actually genetically inherited, making it very difficult to overcome. Many of those studied actually have a high level of the stress hormone cortisol in their blood.2

More than 400 papers have been written by psychologists studying this subject, but the average person is unaware of the issue. As the survivors pass on, some of their children will be left all alone in the world, with no resources and no one to care for them in the future as they age. Their symptoms, combined with financial

insecurity, makes them a demographic that needs help. As of yet, there is no organiza-tion focused on that group. I feel that the time has come for the Jewish community at large to recognize these issues that af-fect a small, but significant, segment of the community, and to start committing resources toward helping them.

Rabbi Dovid Krautwirth lives in Scranton and can be reached at [email protected], or [email protected]

1. Study in the “Cambridge Journal.” Yeshiva University forum, October 2012.

2. Study by Isabelle Mansuy of the University of Zurich, published in the “Journal of Biological Psychiatry” Sep-tember 2010.

3 NOVEMBER 16, 2017 ■ THE REPORTER

Check out the Federation’s new, updated website at www.jewishnepa.org or find it on FacebookÊ

DEADLINE

DEADLINESThe following are deadlines for all articles and

photos for upcoming Reporter issues.ISSUE

Thursday, November 16 ..........November 30Thursday, November 30 .......... December 14Thursday, December 28 ...............January 11Thursday, January 10 .................. January 25

UJA CAMPAIGN CHAI-LIGHTS

After her daughter was taken hostage by terrorists at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris, Simone [last name held by request] and her young son remained terrified. She realized they needed additional emotional support and turned to the Jewish community’s Resil-ience Center, created with funding from the JDC, which receives a significant portion of the local annual UJA Campaign’s overseas gift.

“It is very important to me to help my community. I was touched we were able to help,” says Dr. Aviva Meimoun, the director of the Center, which opened in April 2015.

Meimoun is just one of the psycho-social support professionals who provide victims of terror, antisemitic attacks and other traumas with psychological treatment and clinician consultation. She says the Center is espe-cially critical in these trying times for French Jews who face rising antisemitism and deadly terror attacks.

“It is very important to me to help my community, and my field of competence gives me that ability,” Meimoun says.

Though her team’s post-trauma approach is targeted to children and youth, the elderly and people with disabili-ties, the Center has become a place for other members of the French Jewish community to join together to share

UJA-funded JDC in actiondifficult experiences and provide emotional support.

Born of a partnership between the JDC, the Israel Trau-ma Coalition and OSE-Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants, the French Jewish community’s welfare organization, the psychologists and other professionals providing support and counsel at the Center were trained by the ITC.

“It’s clear to us we need to ensure members of the community understand psychological safety is just as key as physical safety,” Meimoun says.

Resilience is about continuing to invest in today’s Jewish leaders and supporting generations going forward, too. Part of a multi-pronged approach, the Center pro-vides teachers at Jewish schools with tools and support.

Post-terror trauma support, disaster preparedness training and crisis management strategies are skillsets honed by the Center and other JDC activities that are helping France’s 550,000 Jews become better prepared to respond to future emergencies.

JDC also works closely with French Jews to organize leadership skills seminars, cultivate community development best practices and include young French Jews in pan-European networking initiatives. JDC supports SPCJ, a French security NGO, to provide security to Jewish institutions.

JDC’s focus on resilience spans the European continent

to Jewish communities of all sizes, including Finland, which is home to about 1,800 Jews, most of whom reside in Helsinki. Yaron Nadbornik, the community’s president, said Finnish Jews are laser-focused on the task at hand.

From renovating the community’s kindergarten build-ing, playground and kosher store to pioneering a b’nai mitzvah family program that offers camping trips and opportunities for introspection, the community’s small size does not hinder its vitality or creativity in dealing with the tough issues it faces, like antisemitism.

The 150-year-old community is doubling down on building itself up. It just installed its first Finnish-speaking rabbi, Rabbi Simon Livson, four years ago. “This has added depth to our internal religious activities and to community outreach efforts,” Nadbornik says. “Visitors are usually in utter disbelief at how much we have going on here.”

His focus, though, is not just domestic. Nadbornik understands the need to actively engage in JDC regional and pan-European resilience trainings like last year’s first-ever JDC Resilience Conference held in Barcelona.

It’s just one part of JDC’s menu of resilience efforts focused on aiding European Jews facing many challeng-es and threats, including the Connect Conference for French-speaking Jews to be held in Paris; the Arachim Conference, which brings together European Jewish ed-ucators and school principals for training and crisis man-agement strategies; pan-European training conferences aimed at social work professionals; and other ongoing efforts to help Europe’s Jewish leaders and communities strengthen their resilience profile.

Why the focus on resilience? Nadbornik stresses it because enabling communities to best leverage resourc-es and adapt to new realities helps them preserve their members’ physical and psychological well-being – both in times of crisis and emergency, and in their aftermath.

“These conferences add value and empower partici-pants to take responsibility for their community’s future,” he says. “I choose to actively fight for the future of Eu-ropean Jews in my country, as I feel many other young leaders of European and national Jewish associations do.”

NEWS IN BRIEFFrom JNS.org

Israeli Knesset setting up task force to keep EU funds away from terrorists

(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) – The Knesset is in the process of setting up a special task force designed to ensure that money the European Union donates to the Palestinian Authority for welfare purposes will not be funneled to terrorists or their families. The project is the brainchild of Member of Knesset Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin (Zionist Union), who received approval from Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein. Nahmias-Verbin brought six other Israeli lawmakers on board, including MKs Amir Ohana (Likud), Haim Jelin (Yesh Atid), Merav Ben-Ari (Kulanu), Shuli Mualem-Rafaeli (Jewish Home), Yaakov Margi (Shas) and Oded Forer (Yisrael Beiteinu). “Figures we have collected show that every month, some 4.5 million euros in EU funds are divided among those who carried out terrorist attacks against Israel and the families of ter-rorists,” Nahmias-Verbin told Israel Hayom the week of Nov. 10. “It’s hard to convince Israelis – on the right or the left – that the Palestinians want to promote the peace process as long as donations from countries throughout the world, especially Europe, is transferred to murderers rather than benefiting the Palestinian population.”UNESCO confirms French-Jewish woman as new leader

Former French Minister of Culture Audrey Azoulay, who is Jewish, has been confirmed as the new direc-tor-general of the United Nations cultural body UNESCO. Azoulay was raised in Morocco and France and is the daughter of André Azoulay, an adviser to Morocco’s King Mohammed VI. After she was elected last month, she vowed to refocus and strengthen UNESCO. “In a time of crisis, we need more than ever to get involved [and] work to strengthen the organization,” she said. Azoulay’s

term comes at a “contentious time” for UNESCO, as the U.S. and Israel have said they plan to withdraw from the organization over its anti-Israel bias and politicization, which they contend deviates from the agency’s stated mission to promote education, science and culture across the world. In July, UNESCO approved a resolution declaring Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs, where the biblical Jewish matriarchs and patriarchs are believed to be buried, as an endangered Palestinian heritage site. That resolution followed a measure in May denying Israel’s sovereignty over its capital of Jerusalem, and two resolutions in October 2016 that ignored Jewish and Christian connections to Jerusalem’s holy sites. The World Jewish Congress congratulated Azoulay and expressed hope that she would help end the “relentless bias and double standard against Israel” at UNESCO. “We are hopeful that Ms. Azoulay will maximize her position to address the issues of concern for Israel and the Jewish world, and push for the reforms so deeply needed to return UNESCO to its core mandate of con-tributing to peace and security in the world by promoting collaboration among nations through education, science, culture and communication for the sake of justice, rule of law, and human rights and freedoms,” said Robert Singer, the WJC’s CEO.

Mon., Dec. 4 at 6:30pm - The Friendly Community Center 6683 Route 191, Mountainhome, PA

Wed., Dec. 6 at 1pm – The Western Pocono Community Library 2000 Pilgrim Way, Broadheadsville, PA

Sat., Dec. 9 at 1:30pm – The Tobyhanna Pub. Library 5540 Memorial Blvd., Tobyhanna, PA

Tues., Dec. 12 at 10am – The Eastern Monroe Public Library 1002 North 9th St., Stroudsburg, PA

Tues., Dec. 12 at 6pm – The Clymer Public Library 115 Firehouse Road, Pocono Pines, PA

Wed., Dec. 13 at 10:30am – The Barrett Friendly Library 6500 Routes 191 & 390, Cresco, PA

Dates and Times TBA – Pocono Family YMCA 809 Main Street, Stroudsburg, PA

You are invited to aChanukah Story Time Party

with members fromCongregation B’nai Harim!

Listen and learn about the Jewish Holidayof Chanukah; play dreidel, eat latkes and

sing songs, and create holiday crafts.This free event is shared in friendshipwith the entire Pocono Community.

For informationon advertising,please contactBonnie Rozen at1-800-779-7896,

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diplomatic benefits to Israel as well.It is no wonder that AIPAC, the pro-Is-

rael lobby, had for the first time an African head of state – President Paul Kagame of Rwanda – address 15,000 activists at its annual policy conference earlier this year. And the African Institute of the American Jewish Committee has not only lobbied African ambassadors to the United Na-tions, but also has been sponsoring them on transformative fact-finding missions to Israel.

The push into Africa has deep roots in the Zionist narrative. In Theodor Herzl’s day, Africa was ruled and exploited by European empires. “There is still one other question arising out of the disaster of nations which remains unsolved to this day, and whose profound tragedy only a Jew can comprehend. This is the African question,” Herzl wrote in his diary in 1901. “Once I have witnessed the redemption of the Jews, my people, I wish also to assist in the redemption of the Africans.”

While Herzl himself didn’t witness the creation of the state of Israel, Golda Meir did. And when she became foreign minis-ter, she set out in 1958 on an African tour that led to the creation of Israel’s famed international agency for international development, Mashav.

When Netanyahu declares that “Israel is coming back to Africa,” he is channeling Golda. And when he says that “Africa is coming back to Israel,” he’s channeling Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, the “Lion of Judah,” who claimed King Sol-omon as an ancestor.

The challenges facing Africa, and the potential for African-Israeli partnerships to address them, are staggering. There are 600 million Africans without access to electricity and 300 million without access to clean water. A famine sweeping East Africa affects 16 million people, including the hungry 2,000-member Abayudaya Jewish community in eastern Uganda.

At the same time, Africa boasts 11 out of the 20 fastest-growing economies on the planet, according to the World Bank, and its billion-plus population will double by 2050.

For this economic and humanitarian potential to be unleashed, at least two ob-stacles have to be overcome – one-self-in-flicted, the other political.

The self-inflicted thorn in the side of Israeli-African relations has been the treatment of African asylum seekers in Israel. The Israeli High Court has con-

Africa Continued from page 2sistently ruled against the government’s treatment of the 46,000 people considered “infiltrators,” as if those fleeing Eritrea and Sudan – both cruel dictatorships – are simply economic refugees.

A new strategy is needed: turning over to Mashav the Holot Detention Center to train Africans in the latest Israeli water, agricultural and green energy technol-ogies. Those who would graduate and leave voluntarily could be emissaries from Israel on how to transform Africa, and they would have the skills to begin their lives anew and prosper. Plenty of African countries would line up to woo these newly skilled Africans if they brought the blessing of Israeli know-how, technology and investments with them.

Mostly political threats led to the post-ponement of an Africa Israel Summit with African heads of state and Israeli leaders that was supposed to take place in Lome, Togo, at the end of October. The postpone-ment was due to a toxic combination of political unrest in the West African state, a concerted effort by South Africa and Morocco to undermine it, and the mount-ing political and legal challenges that the Israeli prime minister faces at home. Even so, the pace of African-Israel engagement on many levels continues to increase, especially with Christian heads of state.

The best answer to the diplomatic pressure that caused the postponement of the Africa Israel Summit would be for Netanyahu to appoint Knesset member Avraham Neguise as Israel’s foreign minister. Dr. Neguise, a Likud member, is the only Ethiopian member of the 20th Knesset and was seated strategically next to Sara Netanyahu when her husband wowed the Ethiopian parliament last year. Netanyahu currently holds the foreign minister portfolio.

Sixty years after Golda Meir’s historic mission to Africa, it is time for Israel to have an African foreign minister. This will be met joyfully by world Jewry and the world at large, sealing Cheshvan’s transformed sweet status and elevating the Israeli-African story into our mainstream consciousness.

Yosef I. Abramowitz serves as CEO of Energiya Global Capital, a Jerusalem-based impact investment platform, and is a founding partner of the U.S. Power Africa program. He is co-author with Sharon Udasin of the forthcoming “Shine on! A Solar Superhero’s Journey to Save the World.” Follow Abramowitz @KaptainSunshine.

BY PENNY SCHWARTZBOSTON (JTA) – If New England

Patriots star Julian Edelman retires from the NFL anytime soon, he clearly has a promising second career as a Jewish children’s book writer. In front of about 400 children and their families on a re-cent Tuesday night at the Newton Centre flagship of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Boston, the 31-year-old wide receiver and Super Bowl hero read a special edition of a children’s book he co-wrote last year.

Edelman, who has Jewish ancestry on his father’s side and has identified as Jewish in recent years, was treated “like a rock star. ““He’s a really good receiver and I hope I like his book,” Ilan Sherman Kadish, one of Edelman’s many young fans in attendance, said before the player spoke.

The event was organized by PJ Li-brary, the Massachusetts-based global Jewish children’s book giveaway pro-gram supported by the Harold Grin-spoon Foundation in partnership with other philanthropists and local Jewish community organizations. Twenty-five thousand copies of Edelman’s book, “Flying High,” a semi-autobiographical story about a squirrel named Jules who is determined to play football, are being mailed to 5-year-olds in Jewish homes across North America through the PJ Library program.

Before Edelman read his book, the audience was shown a video with footage from his visit to Israel in 2015 (which was co-sponsored by the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston). The crowd cheered loudly after the video as Edelman, wearing a brace from a presea-son knee injury that has kept him from playing this season, made his way onto the stage.

One lucky fan had a fun encounter with Julian Edelman at a private reading of his book at the JCC of Greater Boston before the main event on October 10. (Photo by Etan Harmelech/Harold Grinspoon Foundation)

Julian Edelman’s children’s book gets a Jewish makeover

Edelman said onstage that the story of Israel reminded him of his own struggles to push past those who overlooked him. He was picked in the seventh and final round of the 2009 draft by the Patriots and was not projected to succeed in the league. But he has notched more than 400 career receptions, helped the team win two Super Bowls and become quarterback Tom Brady’s favorite target.

“I fell in love with the people of Isra-el,” Edelman said, noting his admiration for how the small country thrives despite being surrounded by unfriendly countries.

It’s a theme he said he wanted to convey in a children’s book, especially after the birth of his daughter, Lily, in November, to whom he dedicated the book. The new PJ Library edition of “Flying High” includes extra material on the front and back flaps that emphasizes the story’s Jewish content and values. There is also a new reference to Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern

Zionism. The dedication page includes one of Herzl’s most famous quotes: “If you will it, it is no dream.”

The quote shows up in illustrations throughout the story as its young squirrel protagonist trains hard and perseveres against his detractors – a group of animals that includes an eagle, a buffalo and a bear who ridicule him for being too weak, slow and small. The idea for the quote came from the Israeli-born Assaf Swissa,

Edelman’s co-author. Edelman told JTA after the event that while the quote was not central to the original book, it turned out to be a good fit. “It definitely has meaning for me,” he said of the Herzl quote.

A second “Flying High” book is due out in November, in time for Chanukah, Swissa told JTA.

Edelman has become an object of Jew-ish fascination since he publicly identified

See “Edelman” on page 12

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BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ(JTA) – The time is just after

the defeat of Nazi Germany. Two Orthodox Jews disembark from a train at a rural station in Soviet-oc-cupied Hungary and, after offloading a heavy bag, they begin a silent, hourlong walk to a nearby village. The purpose of their journey is not known. But their arrival in the village sets in motion a series of tragic and violent events, as some residents worry the visitors will expose crimes they committed during the Nazi occupation, with potentially deadly consequences for the perpetrators.

Such is the premise of the award-winning Hungarian movie “1945.” The black-and-white fea-ture, filmed last year, is one of just a handful of movies ever produced in Hungary about the theft of Jewish property during the Holocaust. In the U.S., the film was to premiere on November 1 in New York, with a national rollout to follow.

Despite being a low-cost production lacking marquee names, “1945” has found success at international film festivals. It won awards at the San Francisco Film Crit-ics Circle, as well as at the Berlin Film Festival and the Jerusalem Film Festival. One critic called it a “subtly crafted masterpiece.”

And while the film is fictional, it has struck a nerve among Hungarian Jews whose families lived through the suspicion and hostility depicted in the movie. “It is an important production which, despite being fictional, nonetheless describes for the first time in film the reality of what actually happened to us,” Peter Feldmajer, a former leader of Hungary’s Jewish federation, told JTA.

In the film, the two silent Jews – Samuel Hermann and his son – arrive on a fateful summer day: the wedding day of a son of the village’s de facto mayor. Fearful that the Jewish arrivals are an expeditionary force for Jews who used to own property there, the town’s leader frantically mounts cover-ups of his own crimes. A group of villagers armed with pitchforks menacingly gather around the newcomers as they pray for their dead in the village’s disused Jewish cemetery.

The scene is an obvious reference to the 1946 antise-mitic pogrom in the city of Miskolc, during which two Jews, including one police officer, were murdered by participants of what began as a workers’ demonstration and escalated into a lynching. “This scene accurately and bravely represents why it was impossible for Jews to seek justice in the postwar period,” said Feldmajer, whose father was a Holocaust survivor from a Hungarian village where locals stole his family’s property.

Robert Frolich, the rabbi of Budapest’s main syna-gogue, praised the filmmakers for depicting the threat of violence rather than its use, which was unusual. “The pogroms happened here and there,” he said. “But the fear of having to give back the property, the shame of what was done to Jews – even if only by not defending them – that was common, that was the rule, and this is

Taboo-breaking film depicts Hungary’s grim welcome to Holocaust survivors

A scene from the film “1945.” (Photo courtesy of Menemsha Films)

the first film that I’m aware of capturing this.“This element of the Holocaust – the neighbors, the

shop owners who took everything the Jews had and didn’t want to give it back – that has remained a taboo, which this film helps break,” he added.

After the fall of communism, the Hungarian gov-ernment instituted several laws that were supposed to facilitate restitution claims for property privately owned by Jews. But the procedure put in place “made it difficult for many potential claimants” to receive compensation, according to the World Jewish Restitution Organization, citing the laws’ narrow definition of an heir along with foot dragging by justice authorities.

These problems were partially addressed in restitution for heirless property. But it did not address the problem of individuals who tried to get, but could not receive, compensation for artifacts and real estate stolen from

their families in Hungary, where more than half of the prewar Jewish population of 825,000 was murdered.

In parallel, over the past 15 years, Hungary’s political scene took a rightward shift. Politicians from Prime Min-ister Viktor Orban’s ruling Fidesz party have in recent years been promoting or tolerating the glorification by others of the legacy of Nazi collaborators and ardent antisemites, triggering an open row with the Jewish com-munity and liberals. Among those honored with statues in Budapest alone since 2013 are Miklos Horthy, the country’s pro-Nazi wartime leader, and Gyorgy Donath and Balint Homan, two Holocaust-era politicians who prompted antisemitic laws.

In this political climate, even productions about the Ho-locaust that do tackle Hungarian complicity – including the Hungarian film “Son of Saul,” which won the 2016 Oscar for best foreign language film – have been denounced by

See “Film” on page 8

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Federation, which are incorporated in the figures above).

� $1 million committed by the govern-ment of Israel.

Of this amount, more than $12 million has been allocated through the Houston Federation and the national Emergency Committee process to provide direct relief to flood victims (trauma counseling, case management and financial assistance), to help these individuals and families to stay connected to Jewish life and community, and to address institutional sustainability and repair issues.

The focus of the Jewish Federations’ national funding is primarily in the area of relief to flood victims. While the pri-mary focus is on the impact of the flood in Houston, the Emergency Committee has also worked with the small communi-ties in Galveston and Beaumont to assist those communities.

JFNA’s Emergency Committee is meet-ing again during the week of October 30 to consider a significant further allocation of national funds.HURRICANES IRMA AND MARIA

The impact on mainland Florida from Hurricane Irma was less severe than an-ticipated, especially for the larger concen-

Update Continued from page 1

trations of Jewish population on Florida’s east coast. While the larger communities in South Florida (Miami, Broward County, South Palm Beach and Palm Beach) were generally able to address the issues in their own communities and extend assistance to other communities, there was heavier im-pact on some of the smaller communities further north (Collier County, Jacksonville and St. Augustine). Chabad across numer-ous Florida communities played a role in providing congregate and home-delivered meals to seniors and others affected by prolonged power outages.

The biggest impact of these storms has been felt in the islands off the coast of Florida, within and beyond the U.S. border – Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Florida Keys, Cuba and oth-ers. The national Emergency Committee has focused on the U.S. communities affected, while its partner, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, is supporting Cuba and other island nations. The major focus of efforts has been in Puerto Rico and St. Thomas, which are both characterized by small Jewish communities affected amidst a “sea of misery” documented in the news media.

None of these communities have com-munal infrastructure beyond individual synagogues, and Federation support has primarily been directly to affected indi-viduals through the various congregations, and supporting the work of IsraAID and the AFYA Foundation, which are providing humanitarian assistance to the Jewish communities and on a significant non-sectarian basis.

As several large Federations are work-ing directly with partners in their own communities or international aid organiza-tions with which they have relationships, the financial information that follows reflects only the funds remitted to JFNA, the national Jewish Federation network:

Funds remitted to date in response to Hurricanes Irma/Maria: $900,000

Allocations: $530,000Mainland Florida Communities:

� Jewish Federation of Broward County $20,000

� Chabad of Broward County $50,000 � Collier County Jewish Federation

$45,000 � Jacksonville Jewish Federation $20,000 � Pinellas County $25,000Island communities:

� Key West congregations $30,000 � Puerto Rico congregations $135,000 � St. Thomas congregations $75,000 � IsraAID in Puerto Rico $80,000 � AFYA Foundation $50,000In addition to these funds, with the

financial support of UJA Federation of

New York, JFNA was able to acquire and deliver 212 generators to Jewish communities in Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and the Florida Keys for distribution to members of the Jewish community and others in need. Several Federations, most notably New York, Miami, Bro-ward and South Palm Beach, have all been engaged in direct relief efforts in the island communities which are not reflected in these numbers.

JFNA’s Emergency Committee will be considering further allocations shortly.NORTH BAY FIRES IN CALIFORNIA

The most recent focus of disaster relief efforts has been in response to the wildfires in Napa and Sonoma counties in California. Over the period it took to get the fires contained, an extensive area was devastated by the fires resulting in the loss of more than 7,000 homes.

Within the Jewish community, dozens of Jewish homes were destroyed by fire. URJ’s Camp Newman was also largely destroyed. The Jewish Federation of San Francisco, The Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties and the Jewish Federa-tion of the East Bay partnered together to create the North Bay Wildfire Relief Fund, and have coordinated their relief efforts during and in the immediate aftermath of the fires.

JFNA has not established a separate national fund and encourages all Federa-tions to direct relief funds to the joint fund established by the Bay Area Federations.

An Israeli chef in New York wants to shake up the way you think about spices

BY JOSEFIN DOLSTENNEW YORK (JTA) – For many

home cooks, spices are an afterthought, sprinkled on a dish lacking in flavor. Israeli-born, French-educated chef Lior Lev Sercarz wants to change that. “If you want to make good food and beverages you need to know about spices, and I would like to help you know more about it, whether you’re a home cook, whether you’re a professional,” Sercarz, 45, told JTA recently at La Boite, the small spice and biscuit shop he opened in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan.

Since opening La Boite in 2011, Sercarz has amassed some 50 clients, including restaurants, bakeries and breweries, as well as cheese, popcorn and chocolate makers. He has also published two books about spice blending and created a line of spices for Eataly, a chain of luxury Italian upscale indoor markets.

Now Sercarz, who grew up in a secular family on a kibbutz in the Israeli Galilee, but also lived in Belgium and Italy during his childhood, hopes to expand his work to his native country. He is working with the Jewish National Fund-USA to create a

culinary institute in the Galilee, with hopes of opening the first part of the program in two to three years.

“It’s an idea that was in my head for many years,” Sercarz said. “I always felt bad that young men and women in Israel or the region don’t necessarily have where to go to learn about cooking and the culinary studies. There are a few private schools now, which is great, but not at the scale that I would want it to be.”

At his shop, whose walls are lined with framed vials of the seeds, fruits, roots

Lior Lev Sercarz teaches spice blending classes and sells spices at La Boite in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen. (Photo by Josefin Dolsten)See “Chef” on page 14


D’VAR TORAH

BY JIM BRULÉ, MAGGID, SYRACUSEToldot, Genesis 25:19-28:9This week’s parasha, Toldot, recounts the story of

the struggle between Jacob and Esau, from before their conception to Jacob’s departure to Paddan-aram. In it, we learn of the ascension of Jacob over Esau, in the familiar formula of the second born usurping the first. It is a struggle – overseen by Rebecca at God’s instruction – filled with trickery, deception and lies.

The story tells us in metaphor of the transition that faced our people as we moved from a nomadic lifestyle to that of city dwellers: Esau the hunter is passé; Jacob, the farmer, is on the rise. There was a strength that had to be sacrificed – the brutish strength of the wanderer – in order to achieve a new strength: the intellectual strengths of cunning, of strategy, of trickery in its best sense. These were strengths that would serve us far better in the millennia to follow, for they could be wielded by us no matter what our numbers.

Our sages faced a challenge, though, when it came to the details: how to allow the ends to justify the means. For while it seems clear that Rebecca has the Eternal One’s blessing to engage in her subterfuge, it is nonetheless an uncomfortable position to take that the Divine plan would include such unscrupulous means.

The sage’s solution – both typically human and in-structive – is to vilify Esau. Through countless midrashim and interpretations, the case is built against Esau: We are told he was rough, he was crude, he didn’t truly care for his birthright, he was evil.

This approach is all the more difficult to swallow in light of Esau’s plaintive cry to Isaac when he learns he has lost his birthright: “When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst into wild and bitter sobbing, and said to his father, ‘Bless me too, Father!... Have you not reserved a blessing for me?... Have you but one blessing, Father? Bless me too, Father!’” (Gen. 27:34-38) Surely these painful words, some of the most evocative we read in Torah, are not the cries of the disinterested, the false. No, they are the cries of he who must be dispossessed of his birthright for the good of the future, he who is called to make a sacrifice, and who succumbs – unwillingly – to fate.

I believe we must craft a new lesson from Toldot, one in which we take the lesson offered by Job and, instead of finding fault in the victim, see the agony – as inevitable as the outcome might have been – and empathize with the loss, even as we continue to stand by the final outcome.

We live in a world where the realities of contradictory and competing worldviews are not merely known, but are the rule – not the exception – of our lives. We face challenges at home and abroad that compel us to live up to our principles, to set an example for others as to how to live a life guided by both justice and compassion. Yet the truth is we cannot be just without knowing right from wrong and we cannot be compassionate without understanding the right that lives in each of us.

If we can only distinguish between good and evil by vilifying those who disagree with us, we can never be compassionate. And if we never draw the line between right and wrong, we can never be just.

Lessons from the otherThis is the challenge our Judaism lays before us:

to truly understand the other, whoever they may be, whatever threat they may pose. We must do this, for as we are reminded over and over again, we have been that other and we have known the pain that it can bring. We must take our heritage and our brit and truly strive to understand what drives those who seem evil. In so doing, we may find a route to their own goodness. And once we have found that goodness, however hidden it may be, we can ignite the hope that enables us to bring a healing to this world – a tikkun that we all need so desperately in these difficult times.

nationalists from the antisemitic Jobbik party, who urged the national film fund to withhold funding for “Holocaust productions,” as one party leader called them.

Amid the hasty cover-up efforts depicted in the film – including the silencing of remorseful accomplices – “1945” also tackles how neighbors who used to be friendly turned on their Jewish compatriots while under the rule of Nazis and their allies. In many instances, this was done not out of ideological hatred, but in order to survive their new circumstances or make the most out of them.

At the same time, the film also acknowledges those who kept valuables for Jewish neighbors and who despised the looting by other non-Jews.

“Mostly it gives us an idea for the first time of how they felt, the Jews and the non-Jews, in those chaotic days after World War II,” Frolich said.

Film Continued from page 5

Modigliani exhibitThe Jewish Museum in New York City

will hold the exhibit “Modigliani Unmasked” until February 4. The exhibit will feature early drawings by Amedeo Modigliani – many of

which are being shown for the first time in the United States. The works illuminate Modigliani’s heritage as an Italian Sephardic Jew as pivotal to understanding his artistic output. It will include approximately 150 works, a selection of Modigliani’s paintings, sculptures and other drawings. Modigliani’s art will be complemented by work representative of the various multicultural influences – African, Greek, Egyptian and Khmer – that inspired the young artist during this lesser-known early period.

For more information, visit http://jewishmuseum.org/exhibitions or contact the museum at [email protected] or 212-423-3200. Works of Bruce Gendelman

The National Museum of American Jewish History will hold “Sifting Through Ashes,” an exhibition of works by artist Bruce Gendelman, through January 7. Critics say that Gendelman captures the unimaginable atrocities of the Holocaust in his series of nine large-scale textural oil paintings and approximately 20 photographs. Gendelman’s works were inspired by a trip he took to Poland and Ukraine with his sister and brother-in-law in August 2015, where they toured Holocaust sites. The artist used to the experience to produce a series of pho-tographs that were joined with poems by Robert Miller and compiled into the book “Sifting Through Ashes: Words & Images.” The photographs inspired the series of large-scale oil paintings and sculptural installations.

For more information, visit NMAJH.org/Sif-tingThroughAshes or contact the museum at 215-923-3811.Arch of Titus exhibit

Yeshiva University in New York City will hold the exhibit “The Arch of Titus – from Jerusalem to Rome, and Back” through January 14. The exhibit explores the historical and cultural significance of the arch from its creation as a monument celebrating the Roman triumph over the Jews in 70 C.E. through the medieval papacy and early modern rabbis, the Counter-Reformation, European Classicism and finally the Jewish and Israeli national re-appropriation of the Arch.

The exhibit features a digitally carved life-size repli-ca of the Spoils of Jerusalem relief from the interior passageway of the Arch. The replica is projected with images that reconstruct the missing sculptures and colors of the original relief, based on the original polychromy discovered in 2012 by YU’s Arch of Titus Project, work-ing collaboratively with a team of historians, scientists, and archaeologists. Also featured are prints, paintings, photographs and depictions of the Arch of Titus across the centuries; 17th- and 18th-century placards carried by the Jews of Rome at the Arch during papal processions; and a postcard written by Sigmund Freud from the Arch, in 1913, inscribed: “The Jew Survives it.”

For more information, visit www.yumuseum.org/ex-hibitions or e-mail [email protected] or 212-294-8330.



Kiev’s American-style JCC gives low-income Jews the millionaire treatment

Children entered the Halom Jewish Community Center in Kiev, Ukraine, on September 8. (Photo by Cnaan Liphshiz)

L-r: Alla Shakhova, head of the volunteer department, with volunteer Adrianna Golubka at the Halom Jewish Community Center in Kiev, Ukraine, on September 8. (Photo by Cnaan Liphshiz)

BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZKIEV (JTA) – This city of 2.5 million residents may be

the capital of one of the poorest countries in the Former Soviet Union, but it offers a dazzling selection of luxury services to those who can afford them. On potholed streets where some elderly people are forced to rummage for food in dumpsters, well-heeled Ukrainians can enjoy dining at all-night sushi restaurants, shop at designer bag stores and ride around in 16-seat Hummer limousines.

Their children also get the VIP treatment at world-class childcare facilities like the Leleka kindergarten – a riverside mansion where the annual tuition easily surpasses the average annual salary of only $3,250. To regular Ukrainians, such Western-standard childcare is utterly unaffordable.

Unless, of course, they want to enroll their kids at the kindergarten of Kiev’s new Jewish Community Center, Halom – a 17,000-square-foot building that opened last year with funding from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, or JDC.

Located in an accessible office district downtown, the Halom center, which has an annual budget of more than $500,000, features what is probably this city’s only

subsidized “luxury” kindergarten, allowing working-class parents amenities that used to be the exclusive domain of this city’s wealthiest.

“I could never afford any other place like this,” said Anna Snitsruk, a working mother of two children. “This place is like a kin-dergarten for oligarchs,” she said, using a common name for Ukrainians who got rich after the fall of the USSR. The preschool is part of Kiev’s first and only American-style JCC, which is also a rare spot for interactions by Jews of four generations.

The amenities at Halom, where parents pay the equivalent of $900-$1,900 annually de-pending on how many children they enroll and for how many hours, may appear rudimentary to Western eyes. But they are “incomparably better” than the local standard, Snitsruk said.

At Halom, which, in addition to the pre-school also has entertainment and educational facilities for different age groups, a few dozen children aged 2-7 are divided into four age groups. Each class has a maximum of seven children and a designated teacher.

The children are fed kosher, high-quality food, but parents may also bring their own food from home to be reheated. The curriculum features Hebrew studies, holiday programs, dancing, pottery classes, treasure hunts, matchstick model building classes, gymnastics and even rock climbing.

Located one story above the pastel-colored lobby, with its free coffee machine, the preschool is part of a hive of activity at Halom. Parents picking up their kids often stop to chat to elderly Jews gathering for candle lighting, and teenagers come to hang out after school at the center’s recreational room with its movie library and PlayStation 4 game console.

The building also has free wifi, conference rooms, computer stations and art displays, including an exhibi-tion of hyper-realistic models of synagogues made from

matchsticks by the artist Iosif Ostashinsky.A former teacher herself, Snitsruk opted to become

a stay-at-home mom just to avoid sending her eldest, Lev, to a kindergarten “with one teacher per 20 children, where the food is not so great, where he would’ve gotten no attention and zero stimulation,” she said.

“I enrolled him right away” after Halom’s opening, she added. “I can see how he has developed emotionally. It’s a change that has affected our family profoundly.”

Even at a subsidized rate of $90 a month, tuition at Halom is making a dent in the household budget of Volodia Pasternak, a retired athlete and father of three whose youngest, 4-year-old Maria, attends Halom. “But I wouldn’t call it a sacrifice,” he said. “I’m so glad that I get to send her to a place that she actually likes. It’s because of the attention each child gets here. It’s not something I thought I could afford.”

See “Kiev” on page 15

Each year at this time the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania calls upon members of our community to assist in defraying the expense of issuing our regional Jewish newspaper, The Reporter.

The newspaper is delivered twice of month (except for December and July which are single issue months) to each and every identifiable Jewish home in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

As the primary Jewish newspaper of our region, we have tried to produce a quality publication for you that offers our readership something on everything from opinions and columns on controversial issues that affect our people and our times, to publicity for the events of our affiliated agencies and organizations to life cycle events, teen columns, personality profiles, letters to the editor, the Jewish community calendar and other columns that cover everything from food to entertainment.

The Federation assumes the financial responsibility for funding the enterprise at a cost of $26,400 per year and asks only that we undertake a small letter writing mail campaign to our recipients in the hope of raising $10,000 from our readership to alleviate a share of that responsibility.

We would be grateful if you would care enough to take the time to make a donation for our efforts in bringing The Reporter to your door.

As always, your comments, opinions & suggestions are always welcome.

With best wishes,Mark Silverberg, Executive DirectorJewish Federation of NE Pennsylvania601 Jefferson AvenueScranton, PA 18510

11 NOVEMBER 16, 2017 ■ THE REPORTER THE REPORTER ■ NOVEMBER 16, 201710

On Saturday evening October 21, the Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania held a sold out communitywide UJA Campaign program at the Scranton Jewish Community Center featuring world-famous mentalist duo Jeff and Tessa Evason who performed their incredible brand of mind power at a show that generated absolute amazement!

Since 1983, the Evasons have astounded audiences the world over. At the presentation, people reacted with wide eyed wonder when Tessa and Jeff demonstrated their psychic entertainment abilities with ESP, intuition, prediction and second sight. Their slick blend of interactive demonstration, comic relief and spellbinding entertainment was definitely not a magic show. There were no wires or hidden communication devices. Nothing was prearranged with secret assistants or audience members. In fact, the Evasons offered $100,000 to anybody who could prove otherwise. The experience defied explanation. And maybe that=s why those who attended went wild at the show.

Tessa appeared rather serene and her voice never went above a conversational pitch while Jeff entertained the crowd and asked for volunteers. Everyone who participated in the program was absolutely floored when Tessa revealed their name, their birth date, serial numbers on bills in their wallets and purses, the types of cars they own, the number of keys on their key chain and even the name of loved ones in photos they held in their hands. On numerous occasions, her intuitive gifts made the audience gasp with surprise.

Following the performance, several members of the audience commented that they were leaving with the feeling that Anothing is safe in your mind!@ The Evason=s 34 years of experience afforded them a soft spoken yet Vegas style stage presence that had the audience on the edge of their seats. All who attended the program left with the view that the Evanson reputation as mentalists was well deserved.

Nor were they alone. On NBC=s World=s Greatest Magic V, they were called, AThe finest act of its kind in the world,@ while their performance on Fox=s APowers of the Paranormal,@ they were touted as AThe most amazing mind reading act you will ever see.@ In fact, the Discovery Channel hailed them as: AA new generation of mentalists.@ It=s no wonder that Siegfried & Roy named the Evasons their favorite act, presenting them with the Sarmoti Award at the World Magic Seminar in Las Vegas.

They are recognized by their peers and fans alike as one the world=s top mentalist acts. Their stylish presentation and stunning showcase of talent has also earned them the distinction of receiving the Psychic Entertainers Association=s most prestigious honor for distinguished professionalism.

AMany times during our show, people are totally speechless because they=ve never seen anything like this before.@ said Jeff Evason. AThe experience of wonder is not only magical and mysterious, it can also be empowering and enlightening.@

Volunteers thanked

The Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania wishes to acknowledge the efforts of its 2018 UJA Campaign Opening Event organizers and volunteers. They include the Organizing Committee consisting of Rhonda Fallk, Jennifer Novak, Charlene Scott and Dassy Ganz, and the efforts of the volunteers who assisted in making this program the success that it was. They include Shmuel Bushwick, Ross Novak, Lou Nivert and students from the University of Scranton.

Evasons fascinate audience at Federation’s 2018 UJA Campaign Opening Program on October 21

Photos by


himself as a member of the tribe in a 2013 interview on the NFL Network. He has tweeted about Jewish holidays, wore an Israel pin during a game in 2014 and was named one of the best Jewish football players of all time by the American Jewish Historical Society last year.

PJ Library’s founder, Jewish business-man Harold Grinspoon, and his wife, Diane Troderman, both philanthropists, attended the event along with their grandchildren and other members of their family. Edelman is “an amazing guy. He’s a heimische guy. He’s so real,” Grinspoon told JTA, using a Yiddish term meaning friendly and down to earth. “I love the [‘Flying High’] story because it’s so true to who he is.”

Julian Edelman read from his children’s book at the JCC of Greater Boston on October 10. (Photo by Nikki Cole)

Edelman Continued from page 4

funding for education, and create Medi-care, Medicaid and Head Start.

“It was like there were two presidents – one for the Vietnam War and the other with great domestic programs,” the ac-tor-director said. “If it wasn’t for Vietnam, he’d have gone down as one of the greatest presidents of all time. I wanted to make a film that would reveal who this guy was.”

It wasn’t just the dichotomy of John-son’s politics that Reiner wanted to cap-ture, but the contradictions of his person-ality, which informed his career. “What surprised me was his insecurity,” Reiner said. “He had this recurring nightmare where he dreamed he was paralyzed.”

Johnson also had a complicated re-lationship with his mother in which “at

Rob Reiner on Judaism, movies and his experience “home shuling”

BY CURT SCHLEIER(JTA) – By his own admission, Rob

Reiner was not the right person to di-rect “LBJ,” a film biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th president of the United States. “I had a lot of trepida-tion,” he said in a telephone interview with JTA.

In addition to a successful career as an actor, Reiner is one of the most bankable directors plying the trade today. His films run the gamut from lighthearted fare like “This is Spinal Tap,” “The Princess Bride” and “When Harry Met Sally,” to serious drama such as “A Few Good Men” and “Misery.”

But “LBJ” was different because he had a personal connection to the subject. “I was of draft age during the Vietnam War,

and I looked at Johnson as the enemy,” said Reiner, 70. “I thought he could send me to my death.”

But he revised his views of the former president – both as a man and a potential movie subject – when he read Joey Hart-stone’s well-researched script. Reiner said additional research, especially Doris Kearns Goodwin’s illuminating “Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream” and Robert Caro’s multi-volume Johnson bios, clinched the deal.

Reiner discovered a man far more nu-anced than he had imagined. Yes, Johnson expanded and prolonged the Vietnam War. But he also delivered on John F. Kennedy’s legacy and bullied a recalcitrant Congress dominated by Dixiecrats to pass the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts, increase

Rob Reiner on the set of his new film, the biopic “LBJ.” (Photo courtesy of Electric Entertainment)

times he felt unloved. I thought that was interesting,” Reiner said.

Also interesting was Reiner’s choice for the actor to play the lead: Woody Harrelson, best known as the slow-witted Woody on “Cheers” and for drawling comic roles in “White Men Can’t Jump” and “Zombieland.”

“When people heard about the film, they’d ask me who I’d cast for the lead, and when I told them Woody Harrelson, they’d say ‘get out of here,’” he recalled. “I’d say, ‘wait until you see what he does.’”

The prosthetics change Harrelson into a close approximation of LBJ, but it is Har-relson’s subtle yet powerful performance that is transformative. “I told him don’t

See “Reiner” on page 16


www.jewishnepa.org601 Jefferson Ave., Scranton, PA 18510 • (570)961-2300

THE WORLD ISOUR BACKYARDYou could say that we encompass the entire global Jewish village. Federation is there supporting Jewish cultural festivals in Bulgaria. Children’s services in Cuba. And aiding our elderly in the former Soviet Union. Wherever there’s a need to rebuild or a longing to reconnect you’ll find Federation.

In Israel, where we gathered three million Jews from all corners of the Earth, today we’re ensuring that everyone can achieve the Israeli dream. From a head start for disadvantaged preschoolers to scholarships for gifted teens and job-skill programsfor their parents.

Federation is caring for our community at home and in more than 70 countries around the world.


BY BEN SALESGREAT NECK, NY (JTA) – The crowd of middle

schoolers goes wild when Dina Samteh hits her high notes, jumping out of their seats in the synagogue sanctuary, cheering and clapping. Samteh, 20, is blind, so she can’t see their conga line-style dancing. But she can hear and feel it. Next to her Yair Pomburg, 26, throws his entire body into beating the bongo drums, then steps forward and raps, in Hebrew, to the Israeli peace song “Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu.”

Over the course of a 75-minute concert, the seven members of the Shalva Band play everything from the Disney hit “Let It Go” to Matisyahu’s “One Day” to Adele’s “Someone Like You.”

In many ways it’s a typical, high-energy Jewish music concert for teenagers, and the crowd is feeling it from start to finish. The singers belt out Israeli songs, religious Jewish songs and a smattering of pop before concluding with the Israeli national anthem, “Hatikvah.” The band manager perches on a wooden box and drums on its side. By the middle of the set, the kids are out of their seats and crowding the floor.

But what makes the Jerusalem-based Shalva Band unique is that its members are people with disabilities – Pomburg, for example, has Down syndrome. Others have Williams syndrome and cerebral palsy.

“People said, ‘Wow, you sing so beautifully,’” said Samteh, recalling the first time she sang in public. “It really excited me that people were coming and saying something good about me. I felt that finally I found something good about myself, aside from being blind. Since I began singing, I had a dream of being on stage and singing all the time and making people happy.”

Samteh and her bandmates appear to have met that goal. The Shalva Band is on its first international tour, with

and bark from which spices are derived, Secarz offers 70 spice blends he has created for the restaurants and food-related businesses with which he works, as well as some 85 blends for the general public.

Spice blends include combinations such as desert rose (halva, sesame and rose petals), pierre poivre (which contains eight different peppers) and apollonia (cocoa, orange blossom and pepper). A small container of the single spices costs $9 to $30; blends go for $13 to $27 for a small container (around two ounces, depending on the spice).

“The idea of the blends is that they’re not meant for a particular dish or recipe,” he said. “We really want to have people play around with them, and what you use today for a savory preparation you can use [tomorrow] for a sweet preparation or a beverage, so one blend can really be a solution for hundreds of different recipes.”

Sercarz says his Israeli school, which will be located in the city of Kiryat Shemona, will be unique in that it won’t only offer cooking instruction. Sure, there will be instruction in breadmaking, cheesemaking, beer brew-ing and, of course, spice mixing. But students can also learn about a variety of food-related fields such as food science and technology, agriculture, and food writing and advertising.

“There isn’t anything like that that exists in the world. We’re really aiming to be a very unique place,” Sercarz said.

Israel’s Bishulim and Danon culinary schools, both of which offer professional cooking and pastry classes, and the Culinary Institute of Israel, which offers study abroad programs for cooking, are among the current options available in Israel.

Sercarz’s school will focus on the direct connection between agriculture and cooking, JNF Communications Director Adam Brill told JTA in an e-mail. JNF is cur-rently assessing the funding needs for the school, he said.

“This one-of-a-kind academy will allow students to learn directly from the farmers and growers who produce the ingredients they cook with. Unlike most schools where students encounter those ingredients for the first time in the kitchen, at the academy, classes can take place out in the fields where they are grown,” Brill said.

Sercarz knows a thing or two about cooking. He earned a degree from the Paul Bocuse Institute in Lyon, France, whose founder is considered a heavyweight in the nouvelle cuisine cooking method. He later relocated to New York, where he worked with chef Daniel Boulud at his flagship restaurant, Daniel.

But after six years at Daniel, Sercarz wanted to change directions. He started experimenting at home with spices and cookie baking, earning him praise from friends. In 2011, after three years of working with spices at home while maintaining a gig at a corporate dining hall, he decided to pursue his passion full-time, opening La Boite.

Sercarz, who lives on the Upper West Side, also sells cookies, which he flavors with nuts, chocolate, dried fruits and, naturally, spices. An eight-ounce box sells for $65.

He draws inspiration from Jewish and Israeli cui-sine, as well as his own family background. Sercarz is three-quarters Ashkenazi, but jokes that “luckily” he has a Tunisian grandfather. His grandmother would incorporate the flavor of her husband’s country into her European cooking.

“You’d find the mamaliga, the Eastern European version of the Italian [polenta], with harissa in it, so a very interesting mixture of cuisines, which worked great,” he recalled.

Sercarz says cooks shouldn’t be afraid to mix spices from different cuisines, like his grandmother.

“I think the fact that you weren’t born in India doesn’t mean that you cannot do [cooking with Indian] spices – you should,” he said. “So you could make a meatloaf or an eggplant parmesan and add seasoning from there. I don’t think you’re insulting anybody. I think that the fact that your grandmother from Italy was making chicken parm a certain way, you can still honor her by continuing making chicken parm, but you can play with flavors a little bit.”

Chef Continued from page 6

Israeli band doesn’t let disability get in the way of making music

The Shalva Band travels with backup musicians, including musical therapist Dana Weiss (at left), who also plays the flute. (Photo by Ben Sales)

more than a dozen stops at day schools and fund-raisers in the United States, Canada and Mexico. After a week back in Israel, it’s on to the United Kingdom and Russia.

The band was founded 12 years ago by Shai Ben Shushan, a drummer who had sustained a head injury in special forces combat. He had to live six months with his mouth surgically shut, after which he re-learned to speak and eat.

The experience of disability led Ben Shushan to vol-unteer with Shalva, an Israeli organization that provides a range of services to people with disabilities, including therapy, arts programs, job training and advocacy work. At that time, its directors had noticed several kids with standout musical talent and tapped Ben Shushan to form a band.

Shalva Band members range from their late teens to mid-20s; some have been practicing together since they were 6. They say they love making music, but also perform just to prove they can.

“Every individual with or without disability has some capabilities, and it’s critical to focus on those if you want a person to have any meaning and fulfillment,” said Kalman Samuels, a co-founder of Shalva. “These band members were chosen because they showed musical ability.”

Ben Shushan spent a year teaching the kids music – they began with basic melodies and rhythms – before the band was ready to begin performing in Israel. A professional

See “Band” on page 17

P A C EYour gift to the Annual Campaign

DOES A WORLD OF GOOD.Endowing your gift allows you to be there for the

Jewish community of NEPA forever.

A Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowment (PACE) is a permanent fund that endowsyour Jewish community Annual Campaign gift as a lasting legacy. A PACE fund will

continue to make an annual gift in perpetuity on your behalf.

Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowment

To determine the amount you need to endow your entire campaign gift, multiply your current annual gift by 20. You can fund your PACE by adding the JEWISH FEDERATION OF NORTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA to your will, or by making the Federation a beneficiary of your IRA. All contributions to establish a PACE are tax deductible.

Let your name be remembered as a blessing.Endowments can be created through a variety of vehicles, some of which do not necessitate funding during your lifetime yet still provide your estate with considerable tax benefits. They also enable you to perpetuate your commitment to the Annual Campaign in a way that best achieves your own personal financial and estate planning goals.

Using appreciated property, such as securities or real estate, affords you the opportunity toeliminate the income tax on the long-term capital gain, will in some instances generate a full incometax charitable deduction and will remove those assets from your estate for estate tax purposes.

For more information contact Mark Silverberg at [email protected] or call 570-961-2300, ext. 1.

Examples Of Ways To Fund Your Pace Gift Are: * outright contribution of cash, appreciated securities or other long-term * capital gain property such as real estate * charitable remainder trust * gift of life insurance * charitable lead trust * gift of IRA or pension plan assets * grant from your foundation * reserved life estate in your residence * bequest



Halom accepts all children regardless of whether they are Jewish, said Anna Bodnar, the 30-year-old director of Halom. Most recipients of Halom services do, how-ever, self-identify as Jewish, she added. Kiev’s Jewish popualtion is estimated at 60,000.

Snitsruk, who is Jewish, said she is rather indifferent to the kindergarten’s religious dimension (the children learn about Jewish holidays and customs like candle lighting and challah baking).

Pasternak said he approved of such activities, but he, too, spoke of them as a secondary reason for enrolling his daughter there. “I came here for the pedagogic ap-proach and facilities,” he said – a sentiment that recalls those Jews, including immigrants from Ukraine, who enrolled at Jewish-run “settlement houses” in America in the early 20th century. JDC supports efforts that bring non-affiliated Jews into Jewish life, but also encourages mutual respect among Jews and non-Jews.

The opening of Halom (the name means “dream” in Hebrew) in November was a watershed moment for other age groups, too. The center, which greets 1,000-2,000 users monthly, instantly became a hit with the golden age population.

“I used to just stay at home all day, I didn’t go any-where,” said Valentina Basova, a septuagenarian who lives alone since her son immigrated to Israel with his family four years ago.

“It’s great to also be around young people, Jewish children,” she added.

A regular at Halom, Basova comes nearly every day to participate in intergenerational programs in which elderly people are paired with children or teenagers to exchange skills. Elderly participants are taught to use computers and smartphones, and help youngsters with homework or teach them languages.

The exchange program, and its promise of sign lan-guage lessons, drew Adrianna Golubka, a non-Jewish Ukrainian and college student who became a volunteer last year. Her sign language teacher, septuagenarian and Halom regular Irina Yosepavna, became an inspiration to Golubka in all areas of life.

“When I’m depressed or tired, I think of Irina, of how positive and energetic she is after leading a long and not so easy life, and I snap right out of it,” she told JTA recently.

Part of Halom’s charm, she says, is in amenities that few public spaces boast in Kiev, including the lobby, wi-fi, the free coffee and art displays. “It’s just very pleasant to come here, interact and relax,” Golubka said.

For the elderly users, Halom is also a promising dating scene. The center has led to several successful shidduchs, or romantic matches. And recently, Halom celebrated the union of the first couple who married after meeting there: Maya Serebryanaya and Valeriy Utvenko, 68 and 72 respectively.

“Their relationship came as a surprise to me, actu-ally,” said Bodnar, the JCC’s director. “I thought they were just friends.”

Kiev Continued from page 9

As the Romans did: discoveries show Jerusalem’s transformation after destruction

BY ADAM ABRAMSJNS.org

Israeli archaeologists recently unveiled the results of large-scale excavations that lend unprecedented insight into the transformation of Jerusalem around the time of its destruction during the Second Temple period more than 2,000 years ago. The discoveries – including massive portions of the Western Wall unseen for 1,700 years and an ancient Roman theater – were made in excavations conducted during the past two years in Jerusalem’s Old City. The findings were disclosed at a press conference held by the Israel Antiquity Authority beneath Wilson’s

Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Tehillah Lieberman at the newly discovered ancient Roman theater in Jerusalem. (Photo by Yaniv Berman/Israel Antiquities Authority)

A view of the Wilson’s Arch excavation in Jerusalem’s Western Wall Tunnels. (Photo by Yaniv Berman/Israel Antiquities Authority)

Arch in the Western Wall Tunnels.The newly revealed eight stone courses of the Western

Wall had been hidden beneath 26 feet of earth and were perfectly preserved after being excavated. The Roman theater contains approximately 200 seats and, according to archaeologists, required a “great deal” of investment in its construction.

One of the most significant aspects of the discoveries is that they exhibit “the cultural change that Jerusalem underwent around the Second Temple period, when Jerusalem was a Jewish city with Jewish culture, which after the destruction turned into a Roman city with Ro-man culture,” IAA archaeologist Tehillah Lieberman told JNS.org.

“The Romans needed different buildings,” she said. “They had different structures with different uses… the focus and the center of the city had to change, and that’s what we see in Wilson’s Arch. We see how the street from the Second Temple was dismantled and in its place a Roman theater-like structure was built facing its back to [the] Temple Mount, and this tells us the story of what happened to Jerusalem after the destruction.”

Israel Hasson, director-general of the IAA, said the findings “enhance the importance of expanding the archaeological excavations in this region” in order to unveil ancient Jerusalem.

The excavation project was initiated with the intention of accurately dating Wilson’s Arch, which is believed to be the only structure from the Temple Mount compound of the Second Temple period that remains intact today. The arch, which stands above the Western Wall’s foundations, is named after 19th-century explorer Charles William Wilson, who identified it in 1864. It is constructed from enormous stones, and is the only remaining arch from a series of similar arches that formed a large bridge lead-ing up to the Temple Mount compound from the west.

“When we started the excavations, there were three

opinions regarding the age of Wilson’s Arch,” Lieberman said. “We wanted to see which opinion was correct. One opinion held that the arch originated from the Second Temple period. If Wilson’s Arch really is from the Sec-ond Temple period, it means that it’s the only complete structure standing today in Jerusalem from that time.”

According to Lieberman, all other known structures dating back to the Second Temple period, including the Western Wall, have signs of destruction. On the other hand, Wilson’s Arch “is complete from its foundation all the way to the top of the arch and its connection to the Western Wall,” she said.

To verify that the arch dates to the Second Temple period, archaeologists sent samples from inside the arch and its connecting pillar for carbon dating tests. “We’re still waiting for the official results,” said Lieberman. “The excavation isn’t finished yet, and I hope that as it goes on, we’ll be able to give a more accurate date.”

See “Romans” on page 19


try to imitate Lyndon,” Reiner said. “Just give me his essence and that relaxed [Woody].”

The film delves into a trove of compelling anecdotal info with which most non-political science majors (and majors who may have gotten D’s) are likely unfamiliar. For instance, JFK (played here very competently by Jeffrey Donovan of “Burn Notice”) took Lyndon as his running mate at the suggestion of his father and over the objections of brother Robert (played by Michael Stahl-David).

“LBJ” is infused, in part, with the director’s personal experiences as a political activist. Nearly two decades ago, he spearheaded a successful effort to raise cigarette taxes in California and use the money to fund early childhood development programs. Subsequently, Reiner was appointed chairman of the commission to oversee the project, a post he held for seven years.

Around that time, he briefly considered running for office. Reiner asked his wife and three children for their opinions and the results were – how to put this? – dis-couraging. “I only polled 40 percent in my own family,” he recalled. “If I couldn’t carry my own family, I didn’t think I should run.”

Nevertheless, Reiner has remained politically active in

liberal causes, most recently as a founder of the Commit-tee to Investigate Russia, which he calls “a nonpartisan [organization] that puts the spotlight on what the Russians were able to do, particularly in the last election.”

Reiner is not a fan of the current administration, to put it mildly. As he describes it, “without changing a single frame,” his film changed between the time it was first screened, when Obama was president, to its release with Trump in the White House – meaning a film about a troubled presidency transformed into one about how best to govern.

And, yes, his activism “absolutely” has hurt his career, Reiner said. Even in liberal Hollywood, Reiner’s outspo-kenness has earned him ridicule – not unlike the incessant ribbing he took on “All in the Family” playing the liberal Mike “Meathead” Stivic opposite his arch-conservative father-in-law Archie Bunker.

“There’s no question that people have turned away from me,” he said. “You should see what some people call me on Twitter. But I have to live on this planet and be who I am.”

And who he is, of course, is the scion of Carl Reiner and the late Estelle Reiner from the Bronx, NY. Dad, of course, is the author/producer/actor/director of such hits as TV’s “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and the films “Oh

God!,” “Where’s Poppa?” and a string of Steve Martin comedies. Mom famously ordered whatever Meg Ryan was having in the “When Harry Met Sally” scene filmed at New York’s Katz’s Deli.

“My grandmother spoke Yiddish in the house, and my mother and father spoke a little Yiddish, too,” said Reiner, who was a bar mitzvah. “They decided to bring a teacher in to teach me Yiddish, too. I learned a little, but he also taught the history of the Jews and it was like having a little shul at home.

“It was home shuling,” he quipped.Reiner’s sister-in-law is a rabbi, “and we’ll have Pass-

over,” he said. “My wife’s mother lost her entire family in the Holocaust and my aunt – my father’s brother’s wife – did also, something we always think about. Yes, all this is reflected in my work. It’s my sensibility. I’m a Jew. I was raised a Jew. I value honesty and integrity and knowledge and education and all those values I was raised with.”

Of course, Reiner was raised with another “Jewish value” as well: comedy. “Jews are funny,” he said. “And there’s a reason we’re funny. You have Cossacks. You have Hitler. You have a lot of things weighing down on you. You have to have a sense of humor or you can’t survive.”

Reiner Continued from page 12

NEWS IN BRIEFFrom JNS.org

Israeli shekel emerges as world’s second-strongest currency(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) – The Israeli shekel is currently the world’s

second-strongest currency, according to a new report by the German global banking and financial services company Deutsche Bank. The report ranked China’s yuan as the world’s strongest currency. Deutsche Bank’s strategic foreign currency analyst Dr. Gautam Kalani reported that during the past 12 months, the shekel has appreciated 6.1 percent against the currencies of Israel’s main trading partners, such as the U.S. dollar, the British pound, the euro and the yen.Israeli start-up sues Apple over smartphone camera technology copyright infringement

An Israeli start-up, Corephotonics, has filed a lawsuit in California arguing that Apple copied its patented smartphone camera technology. Tel Aviv-based Corephotonics, which has raised more than $50 million from venture capital firms, says that its dual camera tech-nology for smartphones was incorporated into Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 8 without its authorization. The lawsuit states that Corephotonics CEO Dr. David Mendlovic had

approached Apple about a partnership, but after praising the technology, Apple refused to license it. “Apple’s lead negotiator expressed contempt for Corephotonics’ patents, telling Dr. Mendlovic and others that even if Apple infringed, it would take years and millions of dollars in litigation before Apple might have to pay something,” the lawsuit says. Accord-ing to Reuters, an Apple spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.Congress expected to advance bill targeting Palestinian Authority’s terror payments

The Taylor Force Act, legislation targeting the Palestinian Authority’s payments to convicted terrorists and their families, is expected to receive broad bipartisan support in a vote in the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Nov. 15. Should the committee approve the bill, it will advance to the House floor for a full congressional vote. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) introduced the Taylor Force Act in September 2016. The legislation would make U.S. aid to the P.A. conditional upon the Palestinians halting the terror payments. The P.A.’s terror payments current-ly total about $300 million annually. Payments to imprisoned terrorists increase in proportion to the length of their sentences. The American legislation is named for a former U.S. Army officer who was killed in a Palestinian terror attack in Jaffa last year.


musician himself, he said directing the band comes with unique challenges: For example, it took Pomburg two years to get his first drum beat down. Now, however, Ben Shushan calls him “one of the best drummers I know.”

On the international tour, the band is traveling with a support staff of more than one person per band member, including a musical therapist who also backs up as a flautist.

Ben Shushan said the key to success is sensitive time management. “You want to know their abilities, but you need to know when to stop, to say it’s too hard,” he said. “It takes sensitivity to their feelings. If you see someone is having a hard time, you need to strengthen him.”

But the overwhelming impression of the Shalva Band while on the road is that it is a hardworking group of musicians hoping for their big break.

Following a concert at the North Shore Hebrew Academy on Long Island, the band members load their instruments in the back of a van and pile in, bantering or putting on headphones and tuning out. As Ben Shushan debriefs them en route to their next gig, he sounds less like a teacher and more like a manager pushing his mu-sicians just a little harder: He chides the lead singers for paying too little attention to rhythm. He tells the group to focus less on the crowd and more on the music. He warns them not to wear out their voices.

“I know it feels like I’m drilling into you,” he said, sighing. “But you’re at a

Yair Pomburg rapped during a performance of the Shalva Band at North Shore Hebrew Academy on Long Island, NY. (Photo by Ben Sales)

level now where you can take it.”The band performs more than 50

times a year around Israel, but is not yet profitable. Samuels estimates that Shalva invests $120,000 in the band a year. This two-week trip alone will cost upwards of $60,000, funded in part by the World Cen-ter for Jewish Education, an organization that works with schools to improve their Jewish studies curricula.

Ahead of the trip, the band practiced for up to eight hours a day. Ben Shushan hopes eventually to put out an album and get the group on the radio.

Despite their commitment, for some of the band members, music is just a hobby. Pomburg, for example, works at a soap factory and waits tables at Café Shalva, the organization’s in-house coffee shop, but said drumming is always a new and exhilarating experience. “I love to do the rhythm on the drum,” he said. “I get excited. I’m very happy to perform. I do my job well.”

Still, others have enjoyed moments in the spotlight so much that they hope to go pro. Samteh, who joined the Shalva Band five years ago, has performed with leading Israeli musicians and traveled abroad sev-eral times to sing. At first, Samteh said, she found it difficult to share the stage. But now she can’t imagine doing it alone.

“To sing with other people, you have to learn to listen,” she said. “In the beginning, it was hard, but now it’s really success-ful. Now I don’t know how I would sing without them.”

Band Continued from page 14

SCIENCE SNIPPETSFrom JNS.org

Israeli researchers find that brain takes a nap when sleep-deprived

A new collaborative study conducted by Israeli and American researchers has uncovered how sleep deprivation negatively affects brain activity. The study – pub-lished in the Nature Medicine biomedical research journal – was led by researchers at Israel’s Tel Aviv University in cooperation with the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Researchers found that losing sleep causes neural activity in the brain’s temporal lobe to slow down, triggering visual impairment and memory loss. They observed that neurons in the brain rest, essentially taking a nap, after being adversely affected by slow brainwaves. “When we’re sleep-deprived, a local intrusion of sleep-like waves disrupts normal brain activity while we’re performing tasks,” said Yuval Nir, of TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience, who directed the study. Throughout the study, researchers logged the brain activity of 12 epilepsy patients who had previously shown little or no response to drug interventions at UCLA. In order to record neural activity, the patients were hospitalized for a week and had electrodes implanted to identify the area of the brain where seizures originate. The patients were kept awake for a whole night in order to accelerate the investigation. As the brain became more sleep-deprived, specific areas of the brain “caught some sleep,” said Nir. “Most of the brain was up and running, but temporal lobe neurons happened to be in slumber,” causing various behavioral lapses, he said.

PERPETUAL ANNUAL CAMPAIGNENDOWMENTS (P.A.C.E.)There are considerable tax advantages in establishing a P.A.C.E. gift to the Federation outright or as part of your estate planning. In doing so, you can perpetuate your annual UJA Campaign gift in your name, the name of your family, in memory of a loved one or in celebration of a significant event in your life or the life of another. On average, the annual income normally calculates out to 5% of the amount of your P.A.C.E. endowment. The corpus of your Fund would not be affected, and only the income would be used for the annual UJA gift – in perpetuity. That is, a P.A.C.E. endowment of $100,000 would normally produce an annual gift of $5,000 to future UJA Campaigns.

IMMEDIATE GIFTS OF CASHCash contributions are deductible as itemized deductions in the year you make the donation(s), up to 50% of your adjusted gross. Excess charitable deductions can be carried forward for up to five years. GIFTS OF SECURITIESThe best stocks to donate are obviously those with increased value. However, depreciated securities are not necessarily unworthy of charitable contributions. In order to preserve the best tax advantages, with regard to appreciated and depreciated securities, please contact the Federation. MATCHING GIFTSIf you work for a company that participates in a Matching Gift Program (see details in this issue of The Reporter), then the company will match your gift to the Jewish Federation. Please check with your Human Resources Department for more information.

GIFTS OF MUTUAL FUNDSContributing mutual fund shares can provide the same tax advantages as appreciated stocks. Due to the great complexities involved with the transfer of mutual fund shares, please begin the transfer process well before December 31st.

GIFTS OF REAL ESTATE A charitable contribution of property is most attractive when there is no mortgage balance and the property is increasing in value. Based upon the fair market value, you may claim an income tax deduction, avoid all capital gains taxes, and remove that property from your taxable estate. You may transfer real estate to the Jewish Federation at any point, but please consult your tax professional or financial advisor prior to a real estate transaction.

DEFERRED/PLANNED GIFTSDeferred gifts are often called “planned gifts” because they are integrally connected to your financial and/or estate plans. They may range in size from very small bequests to multi-million dollar trusts. They are deferred gifts because, even though they are given today, the Jewish Federation will not realize their benefit until some time in the future. Please contact the Federation for more information regarding various planned giving options.

GENERAL ENDOWMENT FUNDSThe Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania expresses its gratitude to those who have made a commitment to our Endowment Fund. These very special contributions represent a commitment to maintain a high quality of Jewish life in our region for the decades that lie ahead.

Create a Legacy for our Jewish Future

in NEPAYour charitable gifts to the Federation can result in

immediate and/or future benefits for you and your family.

TYPES OF GIFTS

CONTACTFor further information, please contact Mark Silverberg,

Executive Director, Jewish Federation of Northeastern Pennsylvania,601 Jefferson Avenue, Scranton, PA at 570-961-2300 (ext. 1)


Feature FilmsDenial - Based on the acclaimed book Denial: Holocaust History on Trial, Denial recounts Deborah E. Lipstadt’s legal battle for historical truth against David Irving (BAFTA nominee Timothy Spall), who accused her of libel when she declared him a Holocaust denier. In the English legal system, in cases of libel, the burden of proof is on the defendant, therefore it was up to Lipstadt and her legal team, led by Richard Rampton, to prove the essential truth that the Holocaust occurred. Denial is directed by Emmy Award winner Mick Jackson (‘Temple Grandin’) and adapted for the screen by BAFTA and Academy Award nominated writer David Hare. Producers are Gary Foster and Russ Krasnoff.Dough - An old Jewish baker (Jonathan Pryce) takes on a young Muslim apprentice to save his failing kosher bakery. When his apprentice’s marijuana stash accidentally falls in the mixing dough, the challah starts flying off the shelves! DOUGH is a warmhearted and humorous story about overcoming prejudice and finding redemption in unexpected places. (Shown at the 2017 UJA campaign opening event)Everything is Illuminated - “Everything is Illuminated” tells the story of a young man’s quest to find the woman who saved his grandfather in a small Ukrainian town that was wiped off the map by the Nazi invasion. What starts out as a journey to piece together one family’s story under absurd circumstances turns into a meaningful journey with a powerful series of revelations -- the importance of remembrance, the perilous nature of secrets, the legacy of the Holocaust, and the meaning of friendship. (Donated by Dr. and Mrs. David Malinov)Europa Europa - Based on the autobiography of Solomon Perel, this movie recounts the severe actions a young boy must take in order to survive the Holocaust. (Donated by Dr. and Mrs. David Malinov)Hidden in Silence - Przemysl, Poland, WWII. Germany emerges victorious over the Russians and the city comes under Nazi control. The Jews are sent to the ghettos. While some stand silent, Catholic teenager, Stefania Podgorska, choose the role of a savior and sneaks 13 Jews into her attic.Munich - Inspired by real events, Munich reveals the intense story of the secret Israeli squad assigned to track down and assassinate the 11 Palestinians believed to have planned the 1972 Munich massacre of 11 Israeli athletes - and the personal toll this mission of revenge takes on the team and the man who led it.Music Box - In this intense courtroom thriller, Chicago attorney Ann Talbot (Jessica Lange) agres to defend her Hungarian immigrant father against accusations of heinous war crimes committed 50 years earlier.Norman - Norman Oppenheimer (Richard Gere) lives a lonely life in the margins of New York City power and money, and strives to be everyone’s friend. His incessant networking leads him nowhere until he ends up befriending a young but charismatic politician, Micha Eshel (Lior Ashkenazi), at a low point in his life. Three years later, the politician becomes the Prime Minister of Israel. Norman uses Eshel’s name to leverage his biggest deal ever: a series of quid pro quo transactions linking the Prime Minister to Norman’s nephew (Michael Sheen), a rabbi (Steve Buscemi), a mogul (Harris Yulin), his assistant (Dan Stevens) and a treasury official from the Ivory Coast. Norman’s plans soon go awry, creating the potential for an international catastrophe he must struggle to prevent. Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer is a comedic and compassionate drama of a man whose downfall is rooted in a human frailty all too easy to forgive—a need to matter.Remember - With the aid of a fellow Auschwitz survivor and a hand-written letter, an elderly man with demntia goes in search of the person responsible for the death of his family. (shown at the 2017 UJA campaign opening event)Son of Saul - October 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau. Saul (Géza Röhrig) is a Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners forced to assist the Nazis. While working, Saul discovers the body of a boy he takes for his son. As the Sonderkommando plans a rebellion, Saul decides to carry out an impossible task: save the child’s body, find a rabbi to recite the mourner’s Kaddish and offer the boy a proper burial.(shown at the 2017 UJA campaign opening event)The Book Thief - THE BOOK THIEF tells the inspirational story of a spirited and courageous young girl who transforms the lives of everyone around her when she is sent to live with a new family in World War II Germany.The Jolson Story - THE JOLSON STORY is classic Hollywood biography at its best; a fast-paced, tune-filled extravaganza following the meteoric rise of legendary performer Al Jolson. THE JOLSON STORY was nominated for six 1946 Academy Awards , winning two, (Best Musical Scoring and Best Sound Recording). The Other Son - As he is preparing to join the Israeli army for his national service, Joseph discovers he is not his parents’ biological son and that he was inadvertently switched at birth with Yacine, the son of a Palestinian family from the West Bank. This revelation turns the lives of these two families upside-down, forcing them to reassess their respective identities, their values and beliefs.The Zookeeper’s Wife - In 1939 Poland, Antonina Zabinska (two-time Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain) and her husband successfully run the Warsaw Zoo and raise their family in an idyllic existence. Their world is overturned, however, when the country is invaded by the Nazis and they are forced to report to the Reich’s newly appointed zoologist (Daniel Brühl). To fight back on their own terms, the Zabinskis risk everything by covertly working with the Resistance and using the zoo’s hidden tunnels and cages to save families from Nazi brutality. Woman in Gold - Based on the true story of Maria Altman, played by Helen Mirren, who sought to regain a world famous painting of her aunt plundered by the Nazis during World War II. She did so not just to regain what was rightfully hers but also to obtain some measure of justice for the death, destruction and massive art theft perpetrated by the Nazis. (Donated by Dr. and Mrs. David Malinov)

Non-Feature FilmsAbove and Beyond - In 1948, just three years after the liberation of Nazi death camps, a ragtag group of skilled American pilots - both Jewish and non-Jewish, answered a call for help. In secret and at great personal risk, they smuggled planes out of the U.S., trained behind the Iron Curtain and flew for Israel in its War of Independence. This band of brothers not only turned the tide of the war, they also embarked on personal journeys of discovery and pride. (Shown at the 2016 UJA campaign opening event)Everything is a Present: The Wonder and Grace of Alice Sommer Hertz - This is the uplifting true story of the gifted pianist Alice Sommer Hertz who survived the Theresienstat concentration camp by playing classical piano concerts for Nazi dignitaries. Alice Sommer Hertz lived to the age of 106. Her story is an inspiration.Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story - Yoni Netanyahu was a complex, passionate individual thrust into defending his country in a time of war and violence. The older brother of Benjamin Natanyahu, the current Israel Prime Minister, Yoni led the miraculous raid on Entebbe in 1976. Although almost all of the Entebbe hostages were saved, Yoni was the lone military fatality. Featuring three Israeli Prime Ministers and recently released audio from the Entebbe raid itself.Hava Nagila (The Movie) - A documentary romp through the history, mystery and meaning of the great Jewish standard. Featuring interviews with Harry Belafonte, Leonard Nimoy and more, the film follows the ubiquitous party song on its fascinating journey from the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the kibbutzim of Palestine to the cul-de-sacs of America.If These Knishes Could Talk tells the story of the New York accent: what it is, how it’s evolved, and the love/hate relationship New Yorkers have with it. It features writer Pete Hamill, director Penny Marshall, attorney Alan Dershowitz and screenwriter James McBride, along with a cast of characters from Canarsie to Tottenville. In between, it explores why New Yorkers eat chawclate and drink cawfee, and how the accent became the vibrant soundtrack of a charming, unforgiving and enduring city.Israel: The Royal Tour - Travel editor Peter Greenberg (CBS News) takes us on magnificent tour of the Jewish homeland, Israel. The tour guide is none other than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The viewer gets a chance to visit the land of Israel from his own home!Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story (narrated by Dustin Hoffman)- This documentary portrays the contributions of Jewish major leaguers and the special meaning that baseball has had in the lives of American Jews. More than a film about sports, this is a story of immigration, assimilation, bigotry, heroism, the passing on of traditions, the shattering of stereotypes and, most of all, the greatest American pastime.Nicky’s Family - An enthralling documentary that artfully tells the story of how Sir Nicholas Winton, now 104, a British stockbroker, gave up a 1938 skiing holiday to answer a friend’s request for help in Prague and didn’t stop helping until the war’s beginning stopped him. He had saved the lives of 669 children in his own personal Kindertransport.The Case for Israel - Democracy’s Outpost - This documentary presents a vigorous case for Israel- for its basic right to exist, to protect its citizens from terrorism, and to defend its borders from hostile enemies.The Israel Course - A 7-part Israel education series that sheds light on the Holy Land through the ages. Featuring biblical scholars and Middle East experts, including Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz, Emeritus Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Ambassador Dore Gold, Princeton professor Bernard Lewis and many others.The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg - As baseball’s first Jewish star, Hammerin’ Hank Greenberg’s career contains all the makings of a true American success story.Unmasked: Judaophobia - the Threat to Civilization – This documentary exposes the current political assault against the State of Israel fundamentally as a war against the Jewish people and their right to self-determination.


NEWS IN BRIEF

As the IAA team awaits the results, Lieberman said she believes the arch “has been standing in its place since the Second Temple period.” She bases her assessment on how Wilson’s Arch relates to the other architectural elements at the excavation site. “On the supporting pillar of the arch, there are five openings that look like five little rooms,” said Lieber-man. “The theater-like structure [that was uncovered in the dig] blocks the entrance to two of them.”

This, she said, “means [the theater] definitely has to post-date the pillar of the arch and the arch itself.”

Archaeologists also found plaster from

Jewish ritual baths “on the other side of that same pillar… which means it has to be from some time between the first and second century,” said Lieberman.

Lieberman believes the future holds discoveries that could date even earlier than “everything that has been exposed up until now,” speculating that artifacts from the First Temple period could be found.

“Time after time,” said Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, rabbi of the Western Wall, “the amazing archaeological findings allow our generation to actually touch the ancient history of our people and Jewish heritage, and its deep connection to Jerusalem.”

Romans Continued from page 15

From JNS.org

Palestinian Authority resumes security cooperation with Israel, Hamas slams rival

The Palestinian Authority on Nov. 8 announced that it had recently resumed secu-rity cooperation with Israel after it broke off ties during the summer amid the Temple Mount crisis. In a briefing with reporters in the West Bank, P.A. Police Chief Hazem Atallah said that the coordination was resumed two weeks ago. The move to restore coordination was criticized by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. “Hamas is surprised by the P.A. in the West Bank’s resumption of security coordination and cooperation with the Zionist enemy, which is the equivalent of the greatest danger to the Palestinian people, its unity and its legitimate rights including the right to resist the occupation,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a state-ment. Atallah also said that his forces are focused on seeking full security control of Gaza following a reconciliation agreement in October between the P.A.-ruling Fatah party and Hamas. Yet Atallah expressed doubt about the reconciliation agreement, saying that his forces cannot guarantee law and order unless Hamas is disarmed. “It is impossible. How can I do security when there are all these rockets and guns? Is this possible? It doesn’t work,” he said, adding he would not accept any Hamas members in his police force and that it would be unacceptable for Hamas to have its own weapons. “We are talking about one authority, one law and one gun” in Gaza, Atallah said. As part of the reconciliation agreement, Hamas agreed to allow the P.A. to assume control in Gaza by Dec. 1. Hamas has vowed that it will not disarm and has reiterated its objective to “wipe out Israel.”Egypt’s El-Sisi calls on Iran to stop “meddling” in Arab affairs

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi stated on Nov. 8 that Iran must stop “meddling” in the Middle East and undermining the security of Arab states. “The region has enough instability and challenges as it is. We don’t need any new compli-cations involving Iran or Hezbollah so we don’t add new challenges to the region,” El-Sisi told reporters in the Sinai Peninsula’s Sharm El Sheikh resort town. “I am against war, we can resolve crises with dialogue,” he said. “Gulf security is a red line and others must stop meddling in our affairs and not work to escalate tensions. We in Egypt believe that Arab and Gulf security and any threat to Gulf nations is a threat to our own national security.” The Egyptian president’s comments came after Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s sudden resignation last Saturday over fear of an Iranian-led assassination plot, and amid domestic and international turbulence in Saudi Arabia. A missile was fired from Yemen toward the Saudi capital of Riyadh over the Nov. 5 weekend in what Saudi Arabia’s government described as “an Iranian missile launched by Hezbollah” and a potential “act of war.” “Conditions in Saudi Arabia are totally stable and I have confidence in the government’s handling of the situation,” El-Sisi said. U.K. official resigns over secret meetings in Israel, sought to aid Syrians via IDF

U.K.’s International Development Secretary Priti Patel was forced to resign on Nov. 8 after it was revealed that she conducted several unauthorized meetings with Israeli officials during a private trip to Israel in August. Patel met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and 11 other Israeli officials without informing the U.K.’s Foreign Office or British Prime Minister Theresa May in advance. She was summoned for a meeting with May on Nov. 8 to explain the purpose of her talks with the Israeli officials. During her meetings with the Israelis, Patel discussed the possibility of channeling British medical aid to Syrian civilians through the IDF. “I offer a fulsome apology to you and to the government for what has happened and offer my resignation,” Patel wrote in a letter to May. “While my actions were meant with the best of intentions, my actions also fell below the standards of transparency and openness that I have promoted and advocated.” May accepted Patel’s resignation and wrote a letter in response stating that “the U.K. and Israel are close allies, and

it is right that we should work closely together. But that must be done formally.” In July, the IDF revealed the full details of a previously secretive humanitarian aid operation, dubbed “Operation Good Neighbor,” to treat Syrians who arrive at the Israeli border asking for help. The effort began several years ago and evolved into an expanded humanitarian program that has provided medical treatment to more than 4,000 Syrians, including hundreds of children.Hillel leaders apologize for decision to “postpone” Israeli deputy minister’s Princeton talk

The leader of Hillel International and Princeton University’s Hillel branch issued an apology for scrapping a Nov. 6 speech by Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely. “Unfortunately, we did not treat the Israeli deputy foreign minister with the respect that her office deserves, and postponed the event,” Eric Fingerhut, presi-dent and CEO of Hillel International, and Rabbi Julie Roth, executive director of the Center for Jewish Life at Princeton, wrote in an op-ed for The Jerusalem Post that was published Nov. 7. The Hillel leaders wrote that the event had not been properly reviewed by the Princeton Hillel’s Israel Advisory Committee, which reviews and facilitates all Israel-related programming at the school. “To be clear: This was not a good enough reason to postpone the event, and for that mistake, we apologize,” they wrote. Hillel’s move came after a consortium of left-wing Jewish groups at Prince-ton, called the Alliance of Jewish Progressives, criticized the Israeli deputy minister for what they described as “racist” views. Hotovely is a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. Fingerhut and Roth admitted that Princeton Hillel “should have engaged a broader range of students in this program from the beginning rather than right before the event, and we should have made a stronger case within our campus community that the event should go forward as planned. ...This is an isolated incident – and Hillel International stands squarely behind the value of hearing from the Jewish state’s elected leaders,” they wrote. Despite Hillel’s decision, the event went on as planned after Chabad agreed to sponsor it. Russian-Muslim billionaire funds digitizing of Jewish manuscripts

A Russian-Muslim billionaire is funding an Israeli project that will digitize Jewish manuscripts that were seized by the Soviet Union a century ago and are held in the Russian State Library. The Russian State Library and National Library of Israel the week of Nov. 10 announced their joint effort to digitize more than 2,000 manuscripts that are part of so-called Günzburg Collection, amid the 100th anniversary of Russia’s October Revolution. The project is funded by Russian oligarch Ziyavudin Magome-dov’s Peri Foundation. Magomedov, a 49-year-old energy and shipping tycoon, is the 58th-wealthiest person in Russia, with an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion. Through his foundation, the Russian billionaire has financed various Christian and Muslim heritage projects, and will now finance the conservation of Jewish relics. “I think it’s important for the whole cultural world, for preservation,” said Magomedov. The Russian State Library’s Günzburg Collection – which was amassed by Jewish-Rus-sian aristocrat Baron David Günzburg in the early 20th century – is comprised of manuscripts covering a wide range of subject matters, including biblical commentary, Talmud, Kabbalah, philosophy, astronomy, medicine and magic. “The collection was supposed to come to the national library a century ago,” said David Blumberg, chair-man of the National Library of Israel. “The Soviet revolution disrupted that matter. The Soviets nationalized the collection.”

The Jewish Federation’s film libraryis proud to acquire the film festival favorite created in Israel,

THE WEDDING PLAN - a poignantand funny romantic comedy about love, marriage, and faith in life's infinite possibilities. Michal, blindsided by her fiancé's decision to call off their wedding with only a month's notice, is unwilling to return to single life. Michal decides to put her trust in fate and continue with her wedding plans, believing Mr. Right will appear by her chosen date. As the day of the ceremony grows closer and no suitor appears, Michal puts everything onthe line to find happiness.

For more information,please contact Dassy at570-961-2300 x2 [email protected]

New to the Federation’sJewish Film Library

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