the jewish chronicle july 12, 2012

BY TOBY TABACHNICKStaff Writer

A sharply divided PresbyterianChurch (USA) voted 333 to 331— withtwo abstentions — to reject a resolutionto divest funds from companies doingbusiness in Israel last Thursday at its220th biennial General Assemblyin Pittsburgh.The controversial divestment resolu-

tion was replaced with an alternativeresolution emphasizing positive invest-ment in enterprises that would helpgrow the Palestinian economy. The reso-lution for positive investment passed theG.A. with a vote of 369 in favor, 290 op-posed, and eight abstentions.A slim majority of G.A. commissioners

voted against the divestment resolution

despite the recommendation of thechurch’s Middle East Peacemakingcommittee to pass it.The vote came after nearly three

hours of G.A. debate, preceded by sever-al days of debate within the committee.While some members of the churchurged the commissioners to vote againstdivestment for the sake of Jewish-Pres-byterian relations, and to avoid partisan-ship, others resorted to a vitriolic lexi-con, accusing Israel of “apartheid,” and“ethnic cleansing.”The majority of commissioners, how-

ever, formally rejected the “apartheid”label in a 463-175 vote on Friday. TheMiddle East committee opposed the la-bel, saying that while Israel’s policieswere wrong, they did not fit the UnitedNations race-based definition of

apartheid.The divestment resolution was direct-

ed against three companies purportedlydoing business in Israel: Caterpillar,Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solu-tions. Proponents of divestment say thatCaterpillar supplies the bulldozers andearth-moving equipment used by the Is-rael Defense Forces to clear Palestinianhomes and orchards; that Hewlett-Packard provides biometric monitoringat checkpoints and information technol-ogy to the Israeli navy; and that Motoro-la supplies surveillance equipment to“illegal settlements” in the West Bank,and communications equipment to “oc-cupation forces.”Brian Ellison, chair of the Mission

JULY 12, 2012 tammuz 22, 5772 Vol. 56, No. 9 $1.50

Metro

Future uncertain

Holocaust Center etchingsmay stay at JCC

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Times To

Remember

Pittsburgh, PA

BUSINESS 15/CLASSIFIED 17/OBITUARIES 18

OPINION 6/REAL ESTATE 16/SIMCHAS 12

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Cohan to promotevegetarianismamong Jewsas JVNA directorBY TOBY TABACHNICKStaff Writer

Jeffrey Cohan will be stepping downfrom his position as director of com-munity and public affairs for the Jew-ish Federation of Greater Pittsburghto become the first executive directorof the Jewish Vegetarians of NorthAmerica.Cohan will take the helm of JVNA, a

national nonprofit organization, be-ginning July 16.“The Jewish Vegetarians of North

America have been around for about30 years, but have never had a profes-sional executive director,” Cohansaid, adding that the time is now rightfor the organization to expand itsreach because of a growing interest infood and environmental issues.Cohan is the author of the Chronicle

blog “The Beet-Eating Heeb,” wherehe “lives at the intersection of Ju-daism and vegetarianism, very closeto veganism.”Cohan will work to grow the JVNA

through board development, strategicplanning and program measurement.JVNA was founded in 1975 follow-

ing a World Vegetarian Conferenceheld at the University of Maine inOrono. The group’s mission is to advo-cate for Jewish vegetarianism basedon compassion for animals, concernfor the environment, feeding the hun-gry and preserving health. JVNA em-phasizes the connections betweenvegetarian and Jewish values, utiliz-ing material from the Torah and Tal-mud, modern responsa and Jewish le-gal codes. From its start JVNA has been affili-

ated with the International Jewish

Please see Cohan, page 10.Please see Divestment, page 19.

PC (USA) narrowly rejects divestment resolution

Boycott measure passes

Wikipedia photo

A section of Israeli-West Bank barrier located on Route 443 (Israel), near Jerusalem. Israelis say the barrier has saved many oflives since its erection, but proponents of the divestment resolution at last week’s Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assemblyonly addressed hardships the Palestinians endure.

BY ANDREW GOLDSTEIN

Staff Writer

The size of Jewish communities insmall towns across the United States isshrinking — and has been for manyyears.As those communities decline and

disappear, their histories are also in dan-ger of being lost.Starting this fall, the Jewish communi-

ty of Johnstown will do something aboutthat.The community, which is about 70

miles east of Pittsburgh, is preparing tomark the 125th anniversary of organized

Jewish life in Johnstown. To celebrate,the Johnstown Area Heritage Associa-tion (JAHA) and Beth Sholom Congrega-tion are partnering with the JewishCommunity Heritage Project to bring aseries of traveling exhibits, specialguests and more to the west-centralPennsylvania city, from this coming Sep-tember through August 2013.Jews have called Johnstown home

since the 1850s, but they didn’t make itofficial until the first Jewish burialground at Grandview Cemetery was es-tablished in 1888. Eastern EuropeanJews flocked to the city from 1880 to1920, during the great wave of immigra-tion. At one time, there were some 1,800Jews in the city.Today, there are fewer than 150. “There are a lot of reasons why John-

stown lost its [Jewish] population,” saidBarry Rudel, a volunteer heading the se-ries, “but certainly it’s a microcosm ofthe rest of the Tri-State area, nodoubt. There are some other factors in-cluding its proximity to Pittsburgh.”Rudel is a Johnstown native who now

lives in Pittsburgh. Several other John-stown natives make their home in thePittsburgh area. Many left Johnstown tofind work here.Rudel also cited an aging population

and assimilation as factors in the dimin-ishing Jewish life in Johnstown and oth-er communities throughout westernPennsylvania and West Virginia.Yet Pittsburgh’s Jewish community

has long supported Johnstown.“Johnstown in and of itself has always

been considered Pittsburgh’s miniature

sibling; that’s been written in books,”Rudel said. “The 1889 flood where 24Johnstown Jews died, the PittsburghJewish community was right there forthem, along with the rest of the country,in gathering up about $13,000.”But the Johnstown Jewish Community

Heritage Project will give Johnstown’sJewish community a chance to take thespotlight.“It’s really in response to the interest

in the community, in fact it was BarryRudel who actually calculated that itwas the 125th anniversary of the estab-lishment of organized Jewish communi-ty in Johnstown,” said JAHA PresidentRichard Burkert. “He’s a historian andhe really thought it was an opportunityto encourage the Jewish community tolook back at its own heritage here inJohnstown and better inform the largercommunity about that story.”The series kicks off Sept. 27 as Prince-

ton University professor Michael Walz-er, who is Jewish and a Johnstown na-tive, gives a lecture at the University ofPittsburgh at Johnstown on a topic to beannounced.The next day, Sept. 28, an exhibition

called “The Johnstown Jewish Commu-nity: 1888-Present” will open. The exhi-bition, which will run until June 2013,will include themes from the history ofthe Jewish community in Johnstownsuch as differences in religious practice,discrimination versus integration andphilanthropy, among other topics.“One of the themes in the exhibit will

Metro2 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE JULY 12, 2012

After 125 years:

Corrections

Paul Fireman’s grandmother’s nameis Anna Fireman. A story in the July 5Chronicle, “Mega Mission memories,”

incorrectly referred to her as Sarah.Also, the first name of Fireman’s daugh-ter Anna was misspelled and his wife,Gail, was omitted from the story. TheChronicle regrets the errors.

Jewish Johnstown marks milestone with yearlong program series

Please see Johnstown, page 5.

Photo provided by Barry Rudel

This restored 1931 photo of the staff of the Glosser department store, a Jewish-owned business in Johnstown, is part of an exhibit marking the 125th anniversary of officialJewish life in that city.

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE JULY 12, 2012 — 3

METRO

A Squirrel Hill teen has raisednearly $7,000 for a philanthropic fundshe established onher own to support ahost of charities. Blaine Dinkin, 17,

daughter of Elliot andLaura Dinkin, who at-tend Rodef ShalomCongregation, was aparticipant in theSamuel M. GoldstonTeen PhilanthropyProject. In additionto donating $500 ofher bat mitzva money to the pooledfund — as Goldston participants do —she asked her bat mitzva guests to con-tribute to her philanthropic fund.“I didn’t need another bracelet or

pair of earrings, I’d rather give themoney elsewhere,” Dinkin said, “and Ifigured if I was already giving $500 [toGoldston], why not just give it all.”She continued to grow her fund.

Now, as she enters her senior year atthe Ellis School, the Blaine DinkinPhilanthropic Fund has $6,800 onhand to support charities such as Cir-cle of Tapawingo (a summer campDinkin attends, which also hosts a two-week camping program for kids whohave lost a parent), City of Hope,Diller Teen Fellows, Friendship Circle,Hebrew Free Loan and the Jewish As-sistance Fund.“All these are things I have a per-

sonal connection with,” Dinkin said.Dinkin raised most of the money

through donations, though some wasgenerated through market gain fromJewish Federation of Greater Pitts-burgh investment.

Jewish Association on Ag-ing will have two representatives onhand for a White House meeting todiscuss senior citizens’ issues.Steve Halpern, who chairs the JAA

board, and Deborah Winn-Horvitz,president and CEO, have been invitedto attend the July 16 briefing that is anopportunity for grassroots leaders todiscuss issues that are affecting theircommunities with White House officials.

NA’AMAT USA, PittsburghCouncil will hold their annual ChildRescue/Tzedakah Box Barbecue Sun-day, July 15, 5:30 p.m., at 1714 Beech-wood Blvd. There is a charge for thisevent.Child Rescue funds help NA’AMAT

Israel provide the assistance of psy-chologists and social workers for chil-dren, their parents and staff in theirday care centers, where they help chil-

dren cope with the traumas and fearsthat shellings have caused, and relocatethe children who are most affected.Bring a tzedaka box (or a check for

the money in it), and you will be eligi-ble to participate in a raffle for gifts.Everyone is welcome to the event.Call the NA’AMAT office at 412-521-

5253 to make a reservation or for moreinformation.

The Pittsburgh Social Jus-tice Roundtable will host a VoterID forum, Monday, July 23, 7 p.m., atthe Jewish Community Center, 5738Forbes Ave., in Squirrel Hill.The forum will include a roundtable

discussion of the implications of Penn-sylvania’s new voter ID law, offer a va-riety of perspectives on how the lawwill impact the upcoming presidentialelection and educate members of thepublic so that they will be able to voteNov. 6. Speakers will include Rep. Dan

Frankel; Allegheny County ExecutiveRich Fitzgerald; American Civil Liber-ties Union of Greater Pittsburgh Exec-utive Director Barb Feige; ArleneLevy, League of Women Voters ofPennsylvania past co-president; Al-legheny County Division of Electionsmanager, Mark Wolosik; and formerPittsburgh Mayor Sophie Masloff.The Social Justice Roundtable is a

collaboration of synagogues, directservice providers, advocacy groupsand foundations in the Pittsburgh re-gion who work collaboratively to ad-vance their shared vision of tikkunolam (repair of the world) at the stateand national levels.The event is free and open to thepublic.

More Than Just Learninghosts Shirley and Morris Shratter inter-view teachers Norman Brown, SusanMonroe and Irv Krasnapoler on theirviews and opinions about teaching inthe Pittsburgh Public Schools. TheShratters also share in this discussion.The program airs Tuesdays in Julyand part of August at 8 p.m. on Chan-nel 21 or Verizon47 in Pittsburgh only.

The Israeli National HighSchool baseball team is coming toPittsburgh this week.The team is here for a tournament

and will play two games against theAllderdice High School baseball team.The first game between the Israeli Na-tional team and Allderdice is Sunday,July 15, 4 p.m. at the Allderdice field.The next game between the team willbe one week later on Sunday, July 22.No time has been set for the secondgame as of yet.The community is invited to attend

free of charge.

Briefly

Blaine Dinkin

4 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE JULY 12, 2012

METRO

BY LEE CHOTTINER

Executive Editor

West Virginia, a state widely, thoughundeservedly, known for road kill jokes,has its own hechsher symbol. Relax. That doesn’t mean road kill iskosher in the Mountain State. It does, how-ever, mean that a small number of cottageindustry food producers — a bakery, a sal-sa maker, a tofu producer, to name some —anxious to reach out to kosher Jewish con-sumers, have sought a credible, and af-fordable, kosher certification.And Rabbi Victor Urecki has obliged.The spiritual leader of B’nai JacobCongregation in Charleston, Urecki hasbeen certifying parve and dairy foodproducers (no meat) for 10 years. Hesaid his predecessors did the same.The major difference, Urecki said, isthat he developed and copyrighted hisown hechsher symbol as a “service” tosome West Virginia food purveyors, in-cluding at least one in his own congrega-tion, who wanted to market their prod-ucts out of state.“They look at it as a symbol of pridethat this product is kosher,” Urecki said.West Virginia isn’t the only state withits own hechsher symbol. Severalhechsher symbols across the UnitedStates, some well known, such as theO.U. symbol of the Orthodox Union,

others maintained by local or regionalboards of rabbis, even individual rabbis,as in Urecki’s case.In West Virginia, where at least sixcompanies have received Urecki’shechsher (others are pending), the rabbi

said some of the producers inquired withlarger hechsher providers, but found itdifficult or impossible to afford.“I don’t charge for it,” Urecki said.“It’s a service for anyone in West Vir-ginia who has a product they want topromote.”Urecki doesn’t misrepresent himself.“I tell them it’s only as good as therabbi or the organization that’s behindit,” the Yeshiva University-trained rabbisaid. “I always tell them [the businessowners], if you want this to fly youshould contact the O.U. Well, when theycontact the O.U. the price to just look atthe product is cost prohibitive.”Thistle Dew Farms, a honey producer

in Proctor, W.Va., is one business thatsought a hechsher from an out-of-stateprovider before going with Urecki.“We checked several large organiza-tions and they are all very, very expen-sive; and we’re small — I mean we’re re-ally small,” said Ellie Conlon, who co-owns Thistle Dew Farms with her hus-band, Steve, “so there was no way wecould afford that kind of symbol at thispoint in our business. We’ve been inbusiness for three years and I doubt wewill ever get that big.”How expensive were the other hechsh-

er providers? Over $1,000 per year, according toConlon. “Some of them were $2,500. Itwas totally out of our budget.”The Orthodox Union, arguably one ofthe best-known kosher certification au-thorities, did not disclose the cost for itshechsher, calling it “proprietary infor-mation,” its spokesman said.But Conlon, who grew up in suburbanPhiladelphia, said there is a need forhechshers such as the one Urecki pro-vides, noting that niche businesses likehers could otherwise never budget for it.“I grew up in a Jewish community, andI realize how important it is to have asymbol that shows your product hasbeen checked out,” she said. Larger cer-tification boards have told her that herhechsher “doesn’t mean anything, but toindividual synagogues and individualpeople, they recognize it right away, andthey purchase it (the product) rightaway.”“Rabbi Urecki has filled a niche forsmall producers,” Conlon added. “He’s agreat guy.”

(Lee Chottiner can be reached [email protected].)

In West Virginia:Homegrown hechsher serves state’s cottage food businesses

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be [how] the (Jewish) communityhelped with the recovery from ourflood,” said Kaytlin Sumner, JAHA col-lections manager. “That’s an importantpart of the story that we’re telling.”Also on Sept. 28, the traveling exhibit,

“The Jonah Drawings,” by David Wan-der, opens at the Johnstown DiscoveryCenter. The drawings explore the Bookof Jonah and the writings of theprophets. The display consists of 13panels in shades of grey, blue and blackthat follow the texts and visually inter-prets scenes. The arrangement will beaccompanied by additional paintings in-terpreting the writings. The exhibit willbe at the Johnstown Discovery Centeruntil Dec. 31.Other traveling exhibits and activities

include:• “Cinema Judaica: The War Years,”

(Feb. 1 to March 31, 2013) featuringiconic Hollywood film posters from 1939to 1949. This exhibit will illustrate howthe motion picture industry counteredAmerica’s isolationism, advocated goingto war against the Nazis, influencedpost-war perceptions of Jewish peopleand the founding of the State of Israeland shaped the face of contemporaryJewish life;• “Letters to Sala — A Young Woman’s

Life in Nazi Labor Camps” (March 1 toAug. 31, 2013), a traveling exhibitionbased on the Sala Garncarz KirschnerCollection in the Dorot Jewish Divisionof the New York Public Library, a newcollection of letters, photographs anddocuments that were mailed or smug-gled into Nazi labor camps; and• a bus trip from Monroeville to John-

stown Nov. 11, hosted by the JohnstownJewish Family Service, which will de-part at 8:30 a.m. and give people in thePittsburgh area a chance to take advan-tage of the exhibits that will be in thecity. The trip will include a morning vis-it to the Jewish exhibits, a riding tour ofJohnstown’s Jewish and general siteswith stops at the incline plane and FloodMuseum and a return to Monroeville by5 p.m. All of the events are free. Funding is

coming from the Abe and Janet Beer-man Fund at the Community Foundationfor the Alleghenies, the William L.Glosser Family Fund, the Saul and EvaGlosser Memorial Fund and the UnitedJohnstown Jewish Federation. “Johnstown is better off because of its

Jewish community,” said Rudel. “Thereare like six or eight institutions that arefunded by Jewish philanthropists therevery quietly. It’s rather unique in thatway.”

(Andrew Goldstein can be reached [email protected].)

Johnstown:Continued from page 2.

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OpinionOpinion6 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE JULY 12, 2012

Watershed momentIf you think the Jewish world dodged

a bullet when the PresbyterianChurch (USA) rejected by the nar-

rowest of margins a proposed resolutionto divest from companies doing businesswith Israel, think again.As you know, the PC (USA), at its 220th

biennial General Assembly last week inPittsburgh, voted 333-331 with two ab-stentions against a divestment resolution.That resolution, which was hotly opposedby Jewish leaders, targeted three compa-nies: Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard andMotorola Solutions. Its proponentsclaimed Caterpillar supplies the bulldoz-ers and earth-moving equipment used bythe Israel Defense Forces to clear Pales-tinian homes and orchards; that Hewlett-Packard provides biometric monitoring atcheckpoints and information technologyto the Israeli navy; and that Motorola sup-plies surveillance equipment to “illegalsettlements” in the West Bank, and com-munications equipment to “occupationforces.” The commissioners also voted 463-175

against labeling Israeli policy towardthe Palestinians “apartheid.” The Mid-dle East committee opposed the label,saying that while the policies werewrong, they did not fit the United

Nations race-based definition ofapartheid.Instead of those resolutions, the church

commissioners opted for an alternativemeasure emphasizing positive investmentin enterprises that would help grow thePalestinian economy. It passed by a 369-290 vote with eight abstentions.What isn’t as well known is this: The

church voted overwhelmingly, Friday, July6, one day after the divestment debate, infavor of a resolution boycotting “all Israeliproducts coming from the occupied Pales-tinian Territories” and for “all nations” toprohibit settlement imports.The resolution, which the G.A. passed

by a 457-180 vote, singles out Ahava, askin care company, and the HadiklaimIsrael Date Growers, which both havefactories in West Bank settlements.Make no mistake about it; this is just

as big a victory for the BDS (boycott, di-vestment, sanctions) movement as thedivestment resolution would have been.It’s not being seen as such — yet — inthe Jewish world only because so muchenergy was expended opposing the di-vestment resolution.But to the BDS movement, whose ulti-

mate goal is to delegitimize Israel byany means available, a boycott measure

against two Israeli companies is just asgood as a divestment measure againstthree American companies. The PC (USA) commissioners who op-

posed divestment on the grounds itwould harm Presbyterian-Jewish rela-tions clearly weren’t as vocal on the boy-cott vote. We’ll let others debate why, but we’ll

say this much: There is a cancer in thePC (USA). As we report in this week’s is-sue, the debate over divestment includ-ed some vicious — and fallacious — at-tacks on Israel, including the chargesthat the Jewish state is engaged in “eth-nic cleansing.”We’re not saying everyone in the

church believes that; indeed, Israel hasmany sincere and active supporters inthe PC (USA).But we are saying that more responsi-

ble members of the church should haverefuted those accusations immediatelyand loudly. They did not.This G.A. was a watershed moment in

Presbyterian-Jewish relations. If noth-ing changes to correct the growing anti-Semitic sentiment within the church,then sadly enough, relations betweenthe two faith-based groups may never bethe same.

NEW YORK — There is a solution toget us beyond the seemingly endlessstalemates and complications that contin-ue to characterize the ongoing debateover Holocaust-era insurance claims.And I do not believe it can be found in thewell-intentioned bill before Congress.This different approach will put mon-

ey more quickly into the community ofsurvivors and their families, minimizehuge financial rewards for certainlawyers, and help bring closure to thisextremely painful process.I propose that the relevant insurance

companies agree to the appointment — attheir expense — of an independent monitorwho could determine whether all potential-ly valid but as yet unresolved Holocaust-era claims are being honestly processedunder the relaxed standards of the Interna-tional Commission on Holocaust Era Insur-ance Claims, or ICHEIC.Some history of how we arrived at this

point is in order.For more than 50 years after the end of

World War II, many German and otherEuropean insurance companies refusedto honor life insurance policies that theyor their predecessors sold to Jews whoeventually perished in the Holocaust. In1998, the National Association of Insur-

ance Commissioners joined with a num-ber of such insurance companies and rep-resentatives of Jewish and survivor or-ganizations to create ICHEIC. Its man-date was “to identify, settle, and pay indi-vidual Holocaust era insurance claims atno cost to claimants.” ICHEIC applied relaxed standards

that allowed individuals to file claimswithout documentation such as a policynumber or even the name of the compa-ny they believed to have issued a policy.The insurance companies were given as-surances backed by both the Clinton andBush administrations that their partici-pation in ICHEIC would insulate themfrom civil suits in U.S. courts.According to its website, ICHEIC dis-

tributed $306 million “to more than 48,000Holocaust survivors, their heirs, and thefamilies of those who did not survive.”The process was not without prob-

lems. There are survivors who argue,with some justification, that their claimswere not properly considered, althoughthe number of such remaining openclaims is in sharp dispute. As a result,Congress is now considering a bill thatwould enable these survivors to resolvetheir grievances in U.S. federal court.But the proposed legislation is unlike-

ly to accomplish its intended laudablepurpose. The aggrieved survivors gener-ally do not know which insurance com-pany may have issued a policy to a fami-ly member and/or do not have other spe-cific information regarding such a poli-cy. If lawyers are telling them they canprevail without any proof of their claimsin a litigation that must satisfy the exact-ing standards of the Federal Rules of Ev-idence, such advice, to put it mildly, is

unduly optimistic.Also, the principal beneficiaries of

past Holocaust-era litigations have in-disputably been the plaintiffs’ lawyers.For example, in 2001 lawyers pocketedmore than $59 million in legal fees fromthe multibillion-dollar slave and forcedlabor settlement with German corpora-tions. The surviving slave laborersthemselves — mostly Jews and Sinti-Roma — received about $7,500 each;forced laborers — primarily Eastern Eu-ropeans forced to work in Nazi war facto-ries — received approximately $2,500apiece. One especially egregious lawyerprofiteered from the slave labor andSwiss banks settlements to the tune ofmore than $7.4 million.In 2005, a federal judge in Florida

awarded three law firms an aggregate$3.85 million in fees and expenses out ofthe $25.5 million “Gold Train” settlementof litigation for the looting by U.S. Armypersonnel of property belonging to Hun-garian Jews. Thirty-four named plaintiffsreceived “incentive” payments of $2,000or $5,000 apiece, with the bulk of the set-tlement going for social services forneedy Hungarian Holocaust survivors.You see the pattern. While survivors re-

ceive, at most, a few thousand dollars each,their lawyers walk away with millions.Lawyers promoting the new Holocaust

insurance bill in Congress most probablyhave already collected names of potentialplaintiffs and plan to bring suit on their col-lective behalf in the hope of being awardedhundreds of thousands, if not millions ofdollars, in yet another settlement.The proposed bill also risks raising

unrealistic expectations. After ICHEIC

Crafting a Holocaust insurance solution that works

Menachem Z.Rosensaft

Please see Rosensaft, page 16.


OPINION

Mission AtidimrememberedYour great description and imagery of

the recent Centennial Mission (“Fromfamily tree to Tel Aviv kitchen, mission

made lasting impact,” July 5) broughtback fond memories of Mission Atidim.That March 2006 UJF-YAD trip in con-junction with “Tel Aviv 1” was the bestof my three visits to the PromisedLand, one which I immensely enjoyedexperiencing with 80 fellow youngPittsburghers.My having been asked by Federation

staff to keep a blog on that trip led me toshare since March 2006 my weekly JBLOGH of Jewish humor and articleswith a mailing list of hundreds of Jewishfriends and acquaintances on issues oflocal and international topics and eventsand to chair a three-year-long Meltoncourse.

Letters to the editorWe invite you to submit letters for publication. Lettersmust include name, address and daytime phone number;addresses and phone numbers will not be published.Letters may not exceed 400 words and may be edited forlength and clarity; they cannot be returned. Mail, fax ore-mail letters to:Letters to the Editor via e-mail: [email protected]

Address & Phone: The Jewish Chronicle5915 Beacon Street, 3rd Flr.Pittsburgh, PA 15217(412) 521-0154

Web site address: www.thejewishchronicle.net

Please see Letters, page 9.

PHILADELPHIA — Everyone wor-ries about something. Some peopleworry about their health and othersabout their safety. Nonpublic schoolparents, particularly those in the Jew-ish community, worry about tuition. Every Jewish child should have the

chance to attend a Jewish school, butthe cost of tuition is too high for manyparents. I know some parents in mycommunity who work three jobs in or-der to afford a Jewish education fortheir children. I know other parentsthat have been laid off and are forcedto send their children to public school. Thanks to Pennsylvania’s Educa-

tional Improvement Tax Credit (EITC)program, Pennsylvania parents aremuch better off than their New Jerseyand New York counterparts. Accord-ing to the Philadelphia Jewish Federa-tion, 22 percent of students at partici-pating Jewish schools receive a schol-arship funded by the EITC. These

scholarships are a lifeline for parents,many of whom would otherwise haveto send their children to either publicschool or to schools, many of whichstruggle to accept students paying lit-tle or nothing in tuition. Yet many of the remaining 78 per-

cent of students who meet the EITC’sincome limits are nonetheless deniedscholarshipsb e c a u s ethere simplyis not enoughmoney. Forthe past fiveyears, fund-ing for theEITC has re-mained flatat $75 mil-lion per year,and was evencut to $60 million in 2009 and 2010.Though $75 million may sound like alot of money, only $44.7 million areavailable for scholarships (the rest isset aside for preschool and publicschool programs) and inflation has re-duced the real value of those scholar-ships by a tenth since 2007. (The Jewish Federation of Greater

Pittsburgh reports that 46 percent of2011-2012 day school students ingrades K-12 received EITC-funded

scholarships. No student has been de-nied a scholarship due to lack of funds,though the amount each student re-ceives may fluctuate.)By comparison, Florida’s tax credit

program provides $175 million in taxcredit scholarships each year and au-tomatically expands by 25 percenteach year that all available scholar-

ship taxcredits arec l a i m e d(which shouldbe everyyear forquite sometime).In order to

keep up withPennsy l v a -nia’s growingpopula t ion ,

rising tuition costs, and continued in-flation, the EITC must be drasticallyincreased and must have a mechanismto automatically expand each year.While there are numerous proposals

to assist families with sending theirchildren to schools that fit their needs,whether it is a Jewish Day School, aspecial needs school or one with a spe-cific academic program, the quickestand easiest way to assure more optionsis to have the existing EITC program

funding increase to $100 million. In recent months, Pennsylvania citi-

zens have sent thousands of phonecalls, emails, and letters to their legis-lators in a show of grassroots supportfor expanded school choice. For itspart, the Orthodox Union co-spon-sored a rally in Philadelphia May 30 insupport of EITC expansion. In thedays leading up to the rally, my phonedid not stop ringing and my email in-box was full. Parents were calling andwriting to ask what they can do to helpour school choice efforts. Parents un-derstand just how important the EITCis for their children, and they want todo everything they can to see an in-crease approved.Parents deserve access to programs

that help pay for their children’s edu-cation and students deserve adequateeducational resources and services.Our proven and successful EITC pro-gram does this and needs yoursupport.

(Michelle Twersky, Pennsylvania di-rector of political affairs for the Unionof Orthodox Jewish Congregations ofAmerica [OU], can be reached at [email protected].)


OPINION

Guest Columnist

MICHELLE TWERSKY

EITC’s value must be hiked, but public support is needed

Parents deserve access to pro-grams that help pay for theirchildren’s education ...

Visit thejewishchronicle.netBuy, Sell, Trade in the Classifieds Call Donna 412-687-1000

Our group was motivated to returnand become even more committed totikkun olam than we were before; and Iam sure that this much larger missionwill get even more people extensivelyinvolved in and dedicated tohelping Federation agencies and Jewishcauses and fellow MOTs.

Jeff PollockSquirrel Hill

Understand Voter ID lawIt is gratifying to see so many organi-

zations coming together under the um-brella of the Pittsburgh Jewish SocialJustice Roundtable to help coordinateactivities that further the shared visionof tikkun olam in Pittsburgh.The new Voter ID law is not easy to

understand and requirements keepchanging. With the possibility of somany Pittsburghers needing help in un-derstanding the requirements to be reg-istered to vote in November, it is good tosee an organization like PJSJR coordi-nating the upcoming public forum onVoter ID Bill requirements Monday, July23, at the Squirrel Hill Jewish Commu-nity Center.Bringing together so many groups

with so many different points of viewsuch as Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Con-gregation, Ahavath Achim, Jewish Asso-ciation on Aging, the Jewish Women’sCenter, Jewish Family & Children’sService and the Reform Action Commis-sion on Social Advocacy gives hope thatmany of the problems we face as a com-munity can be addressed and solutionsfound through coordinated activities.

Marc YerginSquirrel Hill

Be careful what you wish forI would suggest to those who are

thrilled by the Supreme Court’s affirma-tion of the Affordable Patient Care Actthat their joy may be short-lived.I acknowledge that the American

health care system and its “fee for serv-ice” model are disastrous. It encouragesunnecessary tests, procedures and opera-tions. Insurance is denied to individualswith pre-existing conditions, and healthinsurance companies have been able todrop individuals from coverage. Manyuse expensive hospital emergency roomsfor routine care, sticking their neighborswith the bill. The medical model is heldup as the only standard of care recognizedby government and insurers while thereis generally no coverage for natural heal-ing care or for vitamins and supplements,which facilitate good health.[But] the Obama plan levies inadequate

penalties on individuals that opt out of se-curing health care insurance and uponlarge companies that choose not to insuretheir workers, providing disincentives toparticipate. The plan would add millionsof individuals to the Medicaid rolls with

the federal government footing all of thecost for years as it cements a new set ofentitlement expectations.The administration could have exam-

ined and adopted best practices of na-tions that deliver cost-effective, efficientcare. Instead, a flawed, omnibus 2,700-page bill, which virtually no member ofCongress read or understood, waspassed over widespread objections.The president asserts that savings will

counter the cost of the plan, but even theindependent Congressional Budget Office(CBO) has predicted that it will inflict astaggering $1.76 trillion in deficit spend-ing over the next decade, this as the na-tion is drowning in a $16 trillion debt.I would refer readers who believe the

rosy scenario painted by the president torevisit the Medicare program at its initia-

tion in 1964, at which time governmenteconomists forecast the annual tariff for itwould be $12 billion by 1990. The actualcost rang in at a staggering $108 billion.If the same type of “accuracy” is found toexist in the Obama plan, the nation isdoomed, the word “Affordable” within thelegislation to be seen as comical. Be care-ful what you wish for, friends.

Oren SpieglerUpper St. Clair

The key questionCongratulations for daring to speak

out when so many others continue to bequiet. Your simple, concise statement,

“Yes, Its Personal” (editorial, July 5),plus the content of the editorial — espe-cially the comments about failed Pales-tinian leadership — succinctly summa-rize the topic. I had not been aware ofThe Jewish Chronicle before. I plan tobe a follower now.The key question, however, is how to

educate others. For example, I metsomeone recently (Jewish) who agreedwith me (us) about the failed Palestinianleadership but would not budge from heropinion that “Israelis know better andshould do more than we expect from thePalestinian leadership.” How do wecounter such logic?

Jay ShafferNew York


OPINION

Letters to the Editor:

Continued from page 7.

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Vegetarian Society, which is centeredin London and has published a quar-terly Jewish Vegetarian magazinesince 1965.Over the years, JVNA activists start-

ed local chapters and carried out Jew-ish vegetarian activities in severalparts of the United States. In additionto creating newsletters and maintain-ing a website (JewishVeg.com), theJVNA has also produced the one-hourdocumentary, “A Sacred Duty: Apply-ing Jewish Values to Help Heal theWorld,” and has distributed over35,000 complimentary copies of thefilm.

While the organization is based inNew York, Cohan plans to remain inPittsburgh, commuting when needed.Cohan, who has been a vegetarian

for about five years, was inspired toadopt a plant-based diet by Genesis1:29, in which God says to Adam: “Be-hold, I have given you every herbyielding seed which is upon the face ofall the earth, and every tree that hasseed-yielding fruit — to you it shall befor food.”“Vegetarianism and veganism are

the highest forms of kashrut,” Cohansaid. “The Torah clearly expresses thevegetarian ideal. My wife Kathryn andI both came to it through the Torah.”Cohan said the JVNA will work on

outreach to Jews who are not “findingmeaning in their Judaism.”“I think the number one reason why

membership is down in Reform, Con-servative, and some Orthodox congre-gations is because people are strug-gling to find meaning in their every-day lives through Judaism,” he said.“With vegetarianism, people are find-ing meaning three times a day, at mealtimes.“The amazing thing is, when you see

[vegetarianism] is the Torah ideal, yousee how it all falls into place,” he con-tinued. “It’s better for the environ-ment, it’s better for animals and it’sbetter for your physical health. Youcan see God’s wisdom.”Cohan comes to the JVNA with his

experience working at the Federation,as well as with a master’s of publicmanagement from Carnegie MellonUniversity.“Jeff seemed like the right person to

get us moving,” said JVNA PresidentRichard Schwartz. “We want to get themessage out that vegetarianism is con-sistent with Jewish teachings. We feelwe have a very important message onone of the most important decisions ofthe day. Most people are unaware ofthe environmental impact of a meat-centered diet. Jews are supposed to bea light unto the nations. We need to doas much as possible to get the messageout.”

(Toby Tabachnick can be reached [email protected].)


METROCohan:Continued from page 1.

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If you’re moving please let us know three weeks beforechanging your address.

CommunityTHE JEWISH CHRONICLE JULY 12, 2012 — 11

�

Garden named for Ziskind family

A Western Pennsylvania Conservancy community flower garden has been namedfor the Ziskind family in recognition of an endowment donation by Burton “Les”Ziskind of Alexandria, Va., whose family has roots in the East End.The garden is at Beechwood Boulevard and Reynolds Street; a dedicationceremony was held Sunday, June 24, with the Ziskind family and WPCstaff. The Conservancy manages the quarter-acre community garden alongMellon Park as one it its nearly 140 community flower gardens in 20 counties.“The Ziskinds have called Pittsburgh home for over a century,” [Burton] Ziskindsaid. “The community garden at Beechwood Boulevard and Reynolds Street,named in honor of my family, recognizes their distinctive local and afarachievements — as family doctor and rehabilitation counselor, attorney, andWorld War II combat veterans. It also says ‘thanks’ to Pittsburgh for being sucha great hometown, and does it in a way that is especially meaningful to thecommunity — conserving our lovely green public spaces.”

A CL

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The Squirrel Hill Community Food Pantry hosted a cookingdemonstration for their clients and the community July 2. Pitts-burgh native Elise Wims cooked up her recipe for wheat lin-guine with mint and basil pesto and gave out samples to the ap-preciative group that gathered.Wims finished in third place in television’s “Hells Kitchen”

competition. Known as “The Diva Chef,” she graduated fromthe Pennsylvania Culinary Institute.Growing up in a single-parent family, Wims helped out, start-

ing at age 9, by creating meals and cooking for her siblings. Inher business, The Diva Chef LLC, she teaches how to cookhealthful meals.Wims connected with the Pantry in May and has been a vol-

unteer since.“The pantry’s mission is so in line with my own personal mis-

sion,” Wims said in a prepared statement. “I want people toknow that even when they’re on a budget, or turning to organi-zations like the Squirrel Hill Community Food Pantry for helpwith putting food on their tables, they can still create healthy,great-tasting meals for their families.”

Wheat linguine with mint & basil pesto

INGREDIENTS:16 ounce package, uncooked wheat linguine6 Roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped20 fresh basil leaves10 fresh mint leaves2 garlic gloves, chopped1/2 cup pine nuts3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese2 tablespoons ricotta cheese1.5 tablespoons olive oilSalt and pepper

DIRECTIONS: Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Place linguine in the

pot and cook for 8-10 minutes until al dente. Drain and set aside.Reserve 1.5 tablespoons of water.In a blender or food processor, blend the reserved water and

remaining ingredients together until smooth. Season with saltand pepper.Toss with cooked pasta and serve.

Squirrel Hill Community Food Pantry photo

‘The Diva Chef’

Amy Dicker began her love of BBYO as a professional staff memberwhile also serving as a Jewish Community Center teen director. Having beena high school participant of NFTY, she was intrigued asan adult by BBYO’s pluralistic model as a place forevery type of Jewish teen to fit in. With this in mind, shebegan a 13-year partnership as both a professional staffand volunteer advisor. While she enjoys synagogue and denomination-affili-

ated groups because it brings peers of like-religion/cul-ture together, Dicker prefers to spend her time withBBYO for the opposite reason — she strives to makesure the teens know and promote that everyone is wel-come and encouraged to participate, be it at a one-timecommunity event or ongoing membership in the leader-ship chapter models of AZA and BBG. Dicker strongly supports BBYO’s world experiences

such as the mission to Bulgaria, and has seen first-hand how educationallyand emotionally enhancing it is to go on March of the Living. She chaper-oned the trip in 2004, taking “youngsters who’d heard of Holocaust camps”and bringing home “living historians dedicated to making sure the atrocitieswill not be repeated.”Dicker’s schedule has changed in that she can no longer advise the South

Hills boys’ chapter of David Iszauk AZA but hopes to continue her involve-ment behind the scenes. Anyone interested in taking her place with this group should contact KMR

BBYO regional director, Chuck Marcus at 412-421-2626 [email protected].

Jamie Exler — Dayenu BBG advisor — talks about her connection toBBYO in a prepared statement:

“I began my BBYO career in high school and fell in love with the organiza-tion. I met some of my best friends while I was in BBYO. After college, I al-ways thought about being an advisor and finally made the decision to do so in2010. I then became Dayenu’s advisor and fell in love with what I do. I reallyenjoy spending time with each and every one of the kids in BBYO.”

Two views of BBYO

Amy Dicker

(Angela Leibowicz can be reached [email protected].)


Simchas & Mazel Tovs!

Check The Jewish Chronicle out on the Web

thejewishchronicle.net

Engagements

Schwartz/Dayan: Sharon andSteve Schwartz of Oakland announcethe engagement of their daughter,Laura Beth Schwartz, to David Jef-frey Dayan, son of Lillian Dayan ofToronto.Laura’s grandparents are Ruth

Fineberg, the late Irwin Fineberg,and the late Ruth and NathanSchwartz. Dave’s grandparents are Ida Rice

and the late Joseph Rice. Laura graduated from the Universi-

ty of Michigan with a bachelor’s ofarts degree and holds a master’s de-gree from Columbia UniversitySchool of Social Work. She is a dis-ability accommodations specialistwith Bronx Community College, CityUniversity of New York. Dave graduated from Yeshiva Uni-

versity’s Sy Syms School of Businesswith a bachelor’s of science degree inaccounting. Dave is an accountantwith Davis, Graber, Plotzker andWard, LLP. A November 2012 wedding is

planned in New Jersey.

Weddings

Swerdlow/Kramer: Steven andJenny Swerdlow are happy to announcethe marriage of their daughter, DebbieSharon Swerdlow, to Scott Leslie Kramer,son of Marilyn Kramer and the late Mar-ty Kramer, June 3, at Pittsburgh Centerfor the Arts. Rabbi Michael Werbowofficiated.Debbie’s grandparents are Sylvia

Goodman of London, the late LouisGoodman and Marion and Marty Swerd-low of Chicago. Scott’s grandparents arethe late Minnie and Alfred Racusin, thelate Sam Vixman, and the late AnnaKramer. Debbie works as a mental health ther-

apist and Scott is a restaurateur. Debbie and Scott reside in

Pittsburgh.

BirthsGoykhman: Debra and Alan

Goykhman announce the birth of theirdaughter, Zoey Grace, Nov. 12, 2011.Grandparents are Robin and BillHalpern of Pittsburgh and Sam andHelen Goykhman. Zoey Grace is named

in loving memory of her great-grand-mother, Rose Grace Halpern, who hadlived in Pittsburgh.

Greenwald: Mr. and Mrs. AlexGreenwald of Cherry Hill, N.J., an-nounce the birth of their daughter, Mor-gan Harper, June 9. Morgan’s motheris the former Jennifer Finkel of Mon-roeville. Grandparents are Claudia andWarren Finkel of Monroeville and Su-san and Sid Greenwald of Englewood,Colo. Morgan was welcomed home byher older sister, Madison Olivia.Great-grandparents are Ben and Es-

ther Zlochower of Peoria, Ariz.; the lateEdward and Olga Linton; Henry andHilda Finkel; and Walter and AmyGreenwald of Pittsburgh.Morgan Harper is named in loving

memory of her paternal great-grand-mother, Amy Greenwald; and her ma-ternal great-grandparents, Hilda andHenry Finkel.

Kosoff: Ilene and Jacob Kosoffproudly announce the birth of RafaelaEdeet’s baby brother, Avi Harold.Proud grandparents are Richard andHelena (Kosoff) Sullivan, Daniel andRonna (Harris) Askin and the late Dr.Richard N. Harris.Avi Harold is named in loving memory

of his paternal grandfather, Harold Kosoff.

Shear: Ori Adiel Shear announcesthe birth of his sister, Tali MiriamShear, June 16. Parents are Judith andJohn Shear of Chicago. Grandparentsare Barbara and Herb Shear of Pitts-burgh, Jan and Bob Stewart ofArlington Heights, Ill., and Kirsten andGary Yarkony of Lake Forest, Ill.Tali Miriam is named in loving mem-

ory of her paternal great-grandfather,Morrie Schwartz.


METRO

Holocaust Center etchings may stay putBY LEE CHOTTINER

Executive Editor

While the Holocaust Center of GreaterPittsburgh has moved to its new digs inOakland, the two wall size etchings out-side its old offices may have to staywhere they are.When preparations began last week to

cut the etchings down from the wall atthe Jewish Community Center in Squir-rel Hill, where they have hung for about15 years, workers soon discovered aproblem.The etchings, original works of art by

the late Jerry Caplan that the HolocaustCenter commissioned for $20,000, wereglued to the wall.“It’s making it difficult, if not impossi-

ble, to get them off the wall in onepiece,” said Holocaust Center DirectorJoy Braunstein. “We have not yet founda person or mechanism to do that.”The center is consulting with several

art experts on how to proceed, andshould have an opinion in hand withinthe next two weeks. However, “It’s possible they will not

come off those walls,” Braunstein said.“Because they are original works of art,because they were commissioned forsuch a high price, because the artist isdeceased, we are extremely reluctant toremove them unless they can be re-moved in one piece.” The Holocaust Center announced ear-

lier this year it would move back to itsoriginal space at the Jewish Federationof Greater Pittsburgh while its boardplans for its future and selects a perma-nent location.Since then, many Holocaust Center

artifacts have been removed from theJCC and placed in storage at a locationin the Strip District.Aside from the etchings, the only ar-

tifacts still at the JCC are the wall sizecopy of an Anne Frank collage at thetop of the stairs in the Robinson Wing,and the Jakob’s Torah in the LevinsonBuilding, which will remain at the JCCindefinitely.

(Lee Chottiner can be reached [email protected].)

Removal stalled

Chronicle photo by Angela Leibowicz

The Holocaust Center etchings depict scenes from the Shoa in stark detail.


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OPINION

was formally dissolved in March 2007,the German insurance companiesagreed to continue processing Holo-caust-era claims under ICHEIC’s re-laxed standards. Yet the German Insur-ance Association reports only 219 in-quiries regarding such claims in the pastfive years. That’s led to the identifica-tion of only 102 policies, 60 of which hadpreviously been disposed of.It seems doubtful that thousands or

even hundreds of additional policies will

now be suddenly discovered. Hence mysuggestion that the relevant insurancecompanies be asked to agree to an inde-pendent monitor, a person who woulddetermine whether all potentially validbut as yet unresolved Holocaust-eraclaims are being honestly processed un-der the relaxed ICHEIC standards.The monitor, who should have the confi-

dence of Congress and the survivor com-munity, should be authorized to examineclaims that ICHEIC supposedly disposedof in violation of its own rules. The monitorshould report to Congress periodically onthe status of all open or disputed claims. Ifthe insurance companies reject such a

compromise, or if the monitor were to findone or more of these companies to be re-calcitrant, congressional action could thenloom as a final remedy.There is precedent for such oversight.

Ambassador J.D. Bindenagel, the StateDepartment’s special envoy for Holo-caust issues in the Clinton and Bush ad-ministrations, recently pointed out to theSenate Judiciary Committee that theNew York Holocaust Claims ProcessingOffice is mandated to report on the in-surance companies’ processing of sur-vivor claims and has done so. To date, itappears that all such claims have beenhandled appropriately.

We need a new path. Our collectivechallenge must be to at least try to pro-vide, in the words of Sen. CharlesSchumer (D-N.Y.), an actual and viable“approximation of justice” for Holocaustsurvivors and their families. This propos-al may be able to accomplish just that.

(Menachem Z. Rosensaft is generalcounsel of the World Jewish Congress andvice president of the American Gatheringof Jewish Holocaust Survivors and TheirDescendant. He teaches the law of geno-cide and World War II war crimes trialsat the law schools of Columbia, Cornelland Syracuse universities.)

Rosensaft:Continued from page 6.

No need for coming that “long waybaby,” G-d already got you there a longtime ago.In recent times, more specifically the

late 19th to the mid 20th century, womenhave struggled for equal commonground. And not necessarily with men,but in actuality, it has been more of astruggle to attain status as a whole forfemales.As a man, I certainly am not going to

share a whole concept of how treatmentof woman, combined with a stereotypedevaluation of their roles in many areasof society, has caused women to be la-beled as inferior. I will keep it rathersimple and reference a place wherethere can be no worries of dispute ofstatus involving any group or individual— the Torah.Also, I will gladly site this idea from

the highest authority on any matter, in acase involving rights for a few “ladies.”That authority would be none other thanthe Holy One, blessed be He — G-d.In this week’s portion, Pinchas, the

very beginning of Chapter 27 tells offive women who are daughters of a mannamed Zelophehad. He had passedaway in the desert following the at-tempted revolt of Korach against Moses.Zelophehad had no sons. Thus, Zelophehad’s daughters made

their case to Moshe in front of the entireassembly of Israel. They asked for theinheritance due from their father, on parwith any of the sons of any of the tribes.There is another concept to be

brought out in this case beyond the rul-ing. Moses was stumped. He turned toG-d for the correct ruling, which wasabsolutely in favor of the request of all

five of Zelophehad’s daughters. This additional concept proves a sim-

ple, but often misinterpreted one, and attimes a debated issue in some venues ofreligious belief. No matter how high G-delevates a human being in spiritualleadership, they are never equal, norwill they ever be, to G-d almighty. In this case, when you look at the

word mishpawton the third word fromthe end of verse 5, the final nun in thatword is written in a special way. Thisusually means that a special lesson is tobe learned from such a letter or word.In this instance, Rabbaynu Berachahstates that 50 gates of understandingwere created by G-d in this world, andMoshe knew all but one of them. Theone gate of understanding he lackedprevented him from ruling on his own inthe case of Zelophehad’s daughters, andhe needed to inquire of G-d. It is anoth-er example of G-d making it clear to usthat, while we should indeed love, cher-ish and follow the rulings of our rabbis,that it should be done with the under-standing that even the greatest leadinghuman being of all time, Moshe Rab-baynu, Moses our great teacher, is not atall comparable to G-d.The ruling by G-d certainly makes a

few things clear involving women andJudaism, such as inheritance. If you ex-amine the case carefully, Zelophehad’sdaughters by no means come across asstrong advocates for woman’s lib. Thereis actually no certain display of theirstance, other than what is rightfullytheirs to claim. Therefore, I will stopshort of producing the case as any sortof ryah, a talmudic term for proof of ref-erence on matters, as to what women’sroles in the minyan and in Judaismshould be in today’s world. Perhaps one day in the future there

will be another Moshe appointed by G-damong us, and perhaps once again G-dwill have to be called in for that rulingas well.

(This column is a service of GreaterPittsburgh Rabbinic Association.)

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TEMPLE HADAR ISRAEL

Pinchas, Numbers25:10-30:1

Daughters of Zelophehad came before feminism

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BELKIN: On Friday, May 18, 2012,Estelle Belkin, 81, of Monroeville;beloved wife of David Belkin; lovingmother of Richard (Billie Jo) Belkin,Glenn Belkin and Randi (Sam) Lichten-stein; grandmother of Matt, Ryan, Ja-cob and Daniel; daughter of the late Ja-cob and Molly Begler; sister of the lateBernice Cooperman, Shirley Begler andlifelong friend of Catherine Johnston.Estelle graduated with a master’s de-gree in library science and served asthe children’s librarian for 25 years atRodef Shalom Congregation. She wasthe founder of the Computer Club atMonroeville Senior Center. Servicesand interment were private. Arrange-ments by D’Alessandro Funeral HomeLTD, 4522 Butler St., Pittsburgh, PA15206. www.dalessandroltd.com

BOSWELL: On Friday, July 6, 2012,Sydne H. Boswell; beloved wife of Ran-dall Boswell; beloved mother of Joshua(Anna) Boswell of Huntington Valley,Pa., and Jacob (Nina) Boswell ofColumbus, Ohio; sister of Sam (Debra)Lauar of Boynton Beach, Fla.; grand-mother of Asa and Adar; also survivedby many nieces and nephews. Serviceswere held at Temple David; intermentTemple Sinai Memorial Park. Contribu-tions may be made to Forbes Hospice,4800 Friendship Ave., Pittsburgh, PA15224 or Temple David, 4415 NorthernPike, Monroeville, PA 15146. Arrange-ments by Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc.,5509 Centre Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15232.www.schugar.com

CHOTTINER: On Wednesday,March 28, 2012, Jacob Chottiner; hus-band of (63 years) Jean Chottiner; fa-ther of Elaine Chottiner, Gary Chottin-er, Sharon (Gerard) Myatt and Becki(Andrew Rosenzweig) Chottiner; son of

the late Solomon and Naomi Chottiner;brother of the late Lou Chottiner,Leonard Chottiner and Hilda Wertkin;half-brother of the late Ben and the lateAbe Chottiner; grandfather of Ariel My-att and Diana (Aaron) Rosenzweig;.Born in Clairton, Pa., on Aug. 2, 1922,Jacob completed his bachelor’s degreein engineering after serving in Europeas a first lieutenant in the United StatesArmy during World War II. Chottinerpassed after a long illness. Services andinterment were held at the PliskoverCemetery in Coraopolis.www.pliskover.com

SIEGAL: On May 24, 2012, Jean Sie-gal, 92, of Bal Harbor, Fla., and former-ly of Pittsburgh; beloved wife of thelate Benjamin Siegal; loving mother ofMarlene (Richard) Kohn and Ted (LoisLevinson-) Siegal; grandmother of Lar-ry (Jami) Kohn, Linda (Matt) Heller,Amanda Siegal, Jonathan Siegal, Huey(Indira) Futch; “GG” of Nate and JacobHeller, Vivian Kohn and Amiya Futch;sister of Rosalind Bernstein and Henri-etta Price; sister-in-law of Jean Robinand Sally Siegal. Jean’s love, elegance,class and style will be greatly missed.Services and interment were held atRiverside Gordon Memorial Chapel atMt. Nebo Kendall, 5900 SW 77th Ave.,Miami, FL 33143. www.riversidegordon-memorialchapels.com

UnveilingLIPSITZ: A monument in loving

memory of Helen Nobel Lipsitz will beunveiled Sunday, July 15, at 10 a.m. atAdath Jeshurin Cemetery, 4779 RolandRoad, Allison Park 15101. Relatives andfriends are invited. RSVP is appreciat-ed to help ensure a minyan. 412-521-5859 or [email protected]

Errors, kvetching doomPekar’s ‘Not the Israel’BY NEAL GENDLER

For the Chronicle

“Not the Israel My Parents PromisedMe,” Harvey Pekar’s conflicted lamentover Israel, would be more tolerablewith more facts, fewer errors and ifPekar ever had visited the country thatso disappointed him.Real, live Jews didn’t produce the ide-

al state his Zionist parents evidently ledhim to expect and which he spends hislast pages haranguing.Pekar, who died in 2010, used his job

as a VA file clerk in Cleveland as the ba-sis for his acclaimed “American Splen-dor” comic books. They became thegraphic autobiography of the same title,adapted for film in 2003. He also was abook and jazz critic.“Not the Israel” is a graphic memoir

— like a hard-cover comic book forthinking adults, a format I wouldn’t havetaken seriously until Art Spiegelman’sShoah masterpiece, “Maus.”Pekar shared his parents’ Zionism un-

til he began to question nationalism inthe 1960s and met leftists who criticizedIsrael. Their ideas grew on him after the1967 war and he began, legitimately, toquestion Israel’s morals in occupyingterritory. Pekar tells artist JT Waldman of his

upbringing, Jewish history and the evo-lution of his thinking on Israel as Wald-man drives him around Cleveland seek-ing material for this book — a clever de-vice, like a movie about making a movie.Waldman’s black-and-white drawingsare well done, some in the manner oferas about which Pekar is talking. Pekaris drawn in persona-capturing detail;others’ faces, less vivid, skillfully sug-gest their natures.As history, the book is less successful

— useful for those knowing little aboutJewish or Israeli history, but lackingsome balancing details. Pekar correctly blames Arabs for re-

jecting the 1947 partition plan and in-vading. To his credit, he includesBritain’s nearly forgotten 1937 PeelCommission. After the 1936 Arab revolt,the commission recommended parti-tioning the area west of the Jordan,about one third for Jews, the rest forArabs. The Jews agreed; the Arabs re-fused.He reminds that Vladimir Jabotinsky,

who inspired Menachem Begin, was afounder of the Hagana in 1920, butPekar too simply lumps Begin’s Irgunwith the terrorist “Stern Gang” — morethan once, lest we miss it.Credibility is damaged by perspec-

tive-omitting simplification and by er-rors. Pekar says the refugee ship Exo-dus was “captured by the British Navy,which sent it back to France,” then

Hamburg, where “the refugees wereforcibly removed.” In fact, the 4,500refugees were packed into three Britishprison ships and sent first to a Frenchport where they sweated nearly threeweeks, refusing to debark. JournalistRuth Gruber got aboard one of thoseships, the Runnymede Park, interview-ing refugees and taking pictures that in-cluded one that became “Life” maga-zine’s photo of the week.A full page says: “Many Jewish

refugees spent [World War II] in deten-tion camps in Cyprus.” No. A few hun-dred refugees fled to Cyprus, but in 1941the British moved them elsewhere.Britain created the notorious camps in1946. Waldman tells Pekar that he livedin Israel during the second intifada, andgrew accustomed to “tank fire outsidemy window.” Maybe so, but did I missthe huge news of Israel cutting downArab mobs with tank shells?The book raises serious issues, but

Pekar’s intensifying kvetch becomes an-noying. So Israel didn’t meet yourhopes, Harvey? So sorry, but it’s full ofpeople, not angels, they’ve been be-sieged for 64 years, and you didn’t movethere to try to improve it. You didn’teven visit to experience the gulf be-tween Israel’s reality and its militaristic,conflict-cauldron portrayal in Westernnews media. Even the Almighty camedown to see for Himself before con-demning Sodom and Gomorrah. Besides, what do Israelis owe you —

or any of us who don’t live there?They’re the ones “in the arena,” in Ted-dy Roosevelt’s term. Pekar ends up out of a Jewish arena.

An epilog by his wife and sometime col-laborator, Joyce Brabner, shows his bur-ial next to Eliot Ness, in a cemetery withgentiles.

(Neal Gendler is a Minneapolis writerand editor.)

Book Review“Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me,”by Harvey Pekar and JT Waldman, Hill andWang, 172 pages.

Responsibility Through Investment Com-mittee, told the G.A. that divestment wasa “last resort” after years of engagementwith the companies failed to influencethem to “refrain from using their goodsand services for violent acts.”Ellison pointed to “the Israeli military

occupation,” the “separation wall” in theWest Bank, and Israeli checkpoints as“inconvenient, humiliating, and discrim-inating” to the Palestinians.Ellison failed to mention that Israeli

lives have been saved by the erection ofthe security wall and the checkpoints. In2002, the year before construction of thewall began, 457 Israelis were murderedby Palestinian terrorists; in 2009, eightIsraelis were killed by terrorist attacks. While G.A. moderator Jack Baca em-

phasized that divestment “is in no waymeant to express contempt for Israel orcondemnation of our Jewish brothersand sisters,” the mainstream Jewishcommunity, did, saw the resolution asexactly that.“Clearly, we have seen some mission

networks and advisory committees andother institutions [in the Presbyterianchurch] in a comfort zone with anti-Is-rael, anti-Jewish animus that we hopedhad died with Father Coughlin,” saidEthan Felson, vice president of the Jew-ish Council for Public Affairs. “Our pri-mary focus before the General Assem-bly was in communicating how dire wesaw this.”While a potential Presbyterian divest-

ment from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packardand Motorola Solutions would have noeffect on the companies’ bottom lines,the significance of such a symbolic moveby a mainline Christian denominationwould not go unnoticed by those behindthe BDS (boycott, divest, sanctions)movement, whose ultimate goal is thedelegitimization of Israel as a Jewishstate.The BDS campaign began in 2001 at the

United Nations Conference AgainstRacism in Durban, South Africa, wherepolitical NGOs organized around whatthey called “the apartheid strategy” in aneffort to brand Israel the new SouthAfrica. The BDS campaign aims to appealto the genuine humanitarian sentimentsof grassroots groups that are generallyunfamiliar with the intricate details andhistory of the issues in the Middle East,presenting a one-sided, pro-Palestiniannarrative. The targeted audience finds iteasy to support any movement that osten-sibly opposes apartheid, discrimination,inequality and colonialism.While a divestment action against just

a few companies — like the one pro-posed by the Presbyterians — may ap-pear to be limited in scope, once a main-stream church comes on board, thosebehind the BDS movement expand themessage to the world that the churchalso agrees that Israel is an apartheidstate, according to the website of theJerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Mainstream Jewish groups thus view

even limited divestment from Israel as avery serious matter, and were poised toreact accordingly if the vote had gonethe other way for the Presbyterians lastweek.“Obviously, we would have been in a

stage of ‘no business as usual’ had [thedivestment resolution] passed,” Felsonsaid. “That was not a threat; it was just abroad-based understanding of a reality,not by fiat, but organically.”

Many Presbyterians understood thepotential fallout of a vote in favor of di-vestment. “No one cares about our symbolic ges-

ture,” Matthew Miller, of the Presbyteryof Prospect Hill, told the G.A. “The unin-tended consequence of a divestmentstrategy will alienate our interfaith Jew-ish partners in this country. It will privi-lege the Palestinians’ suffering over thesuffering of the Israelis. This is not acourse of action that will have its sym-bolic effect.”On the other side of the debate, the

language became inflammatory, asRaafat Zaki, synod executive of theCovenant, accused Israelis of “ethniccleansing,” and “apartheid,” and MoufidKhoury, a commissioned lay pastor inLehigh, referred to the Israeli “occupa-tion” as “the worst form of terrorism,”saying that it was Israel’s actions “thatinspired the terrorism of 9-11.”“Obviously, the Presbyterian church is

very divided,” said Jeffrey Cohan, direc-tor of community and public affairs forthe Jewish Federation of Greater Pitts-burgh. “And it is vividly apparent thatthere are packets of institutionalizedanti-Zionism, and in some cases, anti-Semitism within the Presbyterianchurch. On the other hand, last night’svote for positive investment gives ussomething to build on with our Presbyte-rian friends. At the same time, that’s go-ing to be very challenging if the Presby-terian church doesn’t do something toaddress some of those internal issues.”Cohan pointed to several pro-divest-

ment organizations, including a fringeJewish group, “that went to incrediblelengths to lobby the General Assemblyhere in Pittsburgh. The fact that theywould be that committed to demonizingIsrael was really breathtaking. It wasdisappointing to see the PresbyterianGeneral Assembly highjacked andturned into an anti-Israel bash.”The anti-Israel sentiment stems from

the national level of the Presbyterianchurch, according to Rabbi Alvin K.Berkun of Pittsburgh, immediate pastchair of the National Council of Syna-gogues, who addressed the Presbyteriancommittee on Middle East PeacemakingIssues last week. Evidence of this anti-Israel sentiment is the people that thenational level of the church chooses tosend to the committee to serve as “re-sources” while deliberating divestment. Those resources — which included

Anna Baltzer, a national organizer withthe U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Oc-cupation — presented a “skewed” per-spective of the situation in Israel,Berkun said. “Their (the Presbyterians) sympathies

are clearly in the Arab world, becausethat is where they missionize,” Berkunsaid, adding that divestment would mostlikely be on the agenda again at the nextG.A. in 2014.“I think they’re going to come back

for more,” he said. “And unless the tonechanges from the top, we’re going tohave a tough time.”While the Committee on Middle East

Peacemaking presented 10 separate reso-lutions to the G.A. regarding Israel — anddebated the issue for several days — itpresented no resolutions and engaged inno debate regarding any other MiddleEastern countries that have been accusedof persecuting Christians, e.g., Saudi Ara-bia, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Algeria,Egypt, Kuwait, or Pakistan. It is precisely because Israel is open to

hearing the protests of the church thatmay be why it has been singled out,speculated Rev. Sheldon Sorge, pastor to

the Pittsburgh Presbytery, who also seesthe issue of divestment as one that willnot go away anytime soon.“We have no assurance that anyone in

Syria is even listening to us, or any of theother countries,” Sorge said. “The diffi-culty for Christians is we have no way ofgetting their ear. But with Israel, wehave the ear of people who are listening,and maybe we can make a difference.”Sorge sees the closeness of last week’s

vote as indicative of the dilemma thechurch faces in feeling loyalty to bothJews and Palestinians.“I think it indicates we are very much

torn between our friendship with theJewish community and Israel and ourfriendship with the Palestinian commu-nity,” Sorge said. “It is difficult to becaught in the middle. The vote is veryrevealing of how difficult it is. On anygiven day, it could have gone the otherway. I hope everyone hears very serious-ly how close we are to the tipping pointeither way. I hope nobody sits secure.”In fact, on Friday, the G.A. voted 457-

180 in favor of a resolution boycotting“all Israeli products coming from the oc-cupied Palestinian Territories” and for“all nations” to prohibit settlement im-ports. The resolution singled out Ahava,a skin care company, and the HadiklaimIsrael Date Growers, which both havefactories in West Bank settlements.The PC (USA) is the only main-

stream Christian church in the coun-try that is so close to voting in favor of

divestment. Similar resolutions havebeen handily rejected by theMethodists, the Lutherans and theEpiscopalians, among others.“The key leadership of the church

needs to address why this denominationstands so far apart, not leading the pack,but falling astray,” Felson said. But, at least for now, the PC (USA) has

found a way to pursue peace and buildbridges rather than take a stand that,without question, would have severed itsties with the Jewish community at large.The adapting of the alternative resolu-

tion for positive investment “allowsPresbyterians to be true to our calling aspeacemakers,” said Russell Sullivan Jr.,TEC of Carlisle. “This will sustain ourpositive relationship with both Palestini-ans and Israelis, and stand with every-one in the Middle East who desirespeace and justice.”It is Presbyterian leaders like Russell

on whom the Jewish community willrely to help spread the message thatbuying into the divestment movement isnot a path to peace.“We are positive about the nature of

those who came to the General Assem-bly who have, time after time, heardtheir better angels and rejected the par-tisanship placed before them,” Felsonsaid.

(Toby Tabachnick can be reached [email protected].)


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WINKLERALAN WALLIE .............................ANNA MARTINSYBIL WEIN ..............................DOROTHY WEIN

We acknowledge with grateful appreciation contributions from the following:Donor In MeMory of Donor In MeMory of

SUNDAY, JULY 15: ARTHUR ABELSON, SARA RIDER BRENNER, MARTIN FRIED, ROSE ZEL-MANOVITZ GOTTLIEB, ELSIE E. HEPPS, HARRY M. JACOBSON, PHYLLIS KAISER, MORRIS MER-MELSTEIN, ROSE MONHEIM, HAROLD L. NEUWIRTH, ESQ., MARIAN PLOTKIN, FRIEDA F. RIEMER,NORMAN S. ROM, ABE E. ROSENFIELD, REBECCA TEVELIN, LOUIS TUCKER.MONDAY, JULY 16: BEN BLOCK, HYMAN CHIZECK, MINNIE COHEN, JULES I. FRIEDMAN,JULIUS L. JOSEPHSON, HARRY KALLUS, MURRAY KAUFMAN, PAUL A. KLEINERMAN, ROSEMARSH.TUESDAY, JULY 17: ELLA AMPER, MARIAN S. BECK, ROSE BECK, SAMUEL H. BIGLER,WILLIAM L. BRILL, TILLIE DENTEL, HARRY LOUIS DIAMOND, SIDNEY ELINOW, CELIA M. ELOVITZ,MEYER FELDMAN, MAX FOX*, THERESA FRIED, FANNIE GROSS, JACOB M. HEPNER, HELENEROSE HYMAN, HARRY LATTERMAN, SAMUEL LEDERMAN, BENJAMIN LOVE, L. J. MARKS, TILLIEMICHAELSON, BENJAMIN MIDDLEMAN, PHILIP RECHT, SAMUEL SANFORD ROSEN, CELIASCHLESINGER, FANNIE R. SCHWARTZ, LOUIS SHAPIRA, GERTRUDE SIGAL, NATHAN SNIDERMAN,ROSE STERN, FRANK SUSSMAN.WEDNESDAY, JULY 18: YETTA BURKE, ANNA GOLDBERG CODY, DAVID M. FINEMAN, SIG-MUND FLEISHER, SYLVIA GOLDSTEIN, ABRAHAM ISAAC GROSSMAN, EDITH LENA KAPLAN,JOSEPH KONIGSBERG, ROSE LIBERMAN, LOUIS LIBSON, SYLVIA WEINER MARKOVITZ,THEODORE MARKS, SAMUEL RECHT, SAM ROSEN, RACHEL ROSENBERG, SARAH ROSENTHAL,ABRAHAM SAFFRAN, MOLLIE SLUTSKY, ISADORE SOBEL, FREDA TAUBERG, BERTHA HARRISWOLF.THURSDAY, JULY 19: DR. NATHAN ASHINSKY, SARAH L. BLUMENTHAL, SAMUEL J.CRAMER, HARRY EDELSTEIN, RAE R. GRANOWITZ, LEON ROBERT GREENBERG, TIBY M. GRIN-BERG, HOWARD HARRIS, LOUIS KITMAN, HERBERT MAGIDSON, LOUIS MOSKOWITZ, MILTONMYER, FANNIE DVINSKY POLLOCK, JACOB STEIN, ALEXANDER UDMAN, JOSEPH H. WELLS, RE-BECCA SIEGEL WILNER, MILDRED MARLIN WOLOVITZ, FAYE ZIMMER.FRIDAY, JULY 20: LEONARD BARMAK, YOLANA BERGER, SAUL CAZEN, BEN W. CLOSKY,CELIA COHEN, ROSE FREED, MILDRED MITZIE GOLD", JACKIE HELLER, JACOB HERRING, FRANKISRAEL, HELEN N. LEHMAN, MAX LEVENSON, JACOB LIBERMAN, HARRY LOUIK, ABRAM MOR-GAN, ESSIE ROGALSKY ROSENFIELD, SAMUEL RUBEN, HANNAH RUBENSON, SIDNEYSCHWARTZ, BEN SHAPIRO, SARAH SHAPIRO, IDA SHOAG, FRANCES SIEGMAN, EVA SIMON,ABRAHAM B. SLESNICK, EDWARD IRVING STEIN, SOLOMON H. WEINBERG, JACK WOLF.SATURDAY, JULY 21: SAMUEL COHEN, LOUIS GERSON, RUTH WEIN GORDON HERSKOVITZ,SAMUEL HONIG, SAMUEL H. JACKSON, BENJAMIN LEBBY, MORRIS LEIPZIG, FAY LEVIN, CHARLESGERSHEN LISOWITZ, FLORENCE B. PERILMAN, SADIE ROSENBLUM, MANUEL SINIAKIN, SAMUELNATHAN UNGER, MARCUS D. WEDNER, LOUIS M. WITKIN, MEYER ZARKIN,

Divestment:Continued from page 1.

the jewish chronicle july 12, 2012

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