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THE CHICAGO
JEWISH NEWS
January 30 - February 5, 2015/10 Shevat 5775
www.chicagojewishnews.com
One Dollar
Poetic license
Chicagoan David Silverman has just published a book
of poems about his three favorite subjects:
love, faith and basketball.
Why ‘Jew tax’ is a
warning to all
What now for Jews
living in Cuba?
Rabbi Kurtz on
standing up to evil
Jewish
perspective
on Mr. Cub
2
Chicago Jewish News - Jan. 30 - Feb. 5, 2015
Beth Alexander’s custody battle in Vienna generating international uproar
By Cnaan Liphshiz
JTA
VIENNA – In an apartment
in the Austrian capital, Beth
Alexander is deleting hundreds
of photos of her 5-year-old twin
boys from Facebook.
In one picture, Benjamin
and Samuel are laughing as they
hold a toy. In another they are
waiting to be served lunch in
their native Vienna.
The ordinary snapshots are
the kind uploaded by countless
mothers all over the world. Yet
Alexander, a British-born modern Orthodox mother in her 30s,
is barred from displaying them by
order of an Austrian court,
which in November ruled in
favor of her ex-husband’s motion
claiming the photos violated the
twins’ privacy.
“Removing these pictures is
painful to me,” Alexander said.
“They allow my family back in
Britain to sort of keep in touch
with the boys and they show that
despite all that has been said
about me, I’m a good mother and
the children are happy when
they are with me.”
The injunction is the latest
in a series of legal setbacks that
have left Alexander with restricted access to her boys and
declared barely fit to be a mother
– rulings that have led to
mounting international criticism
and claims of a colossal miscarriage of justice.
Leaders of the British and
Austrian Jewish communities
have spoken out about what they
consider to be a highly unusual
case that has unfairly limited
Alexander’s maternal rights. Her
case even made it to the floor of
the British Parliament, where
lawmakers last year described it
as a Kafkaesque situation that
has wrongly maligned Alexander
as mentally ill and an unfit
mother.
“I have no reason to assume
that Alexander is in any way incapable of being a mother,”
Schlomo Hofmeister, a prominent Viennese rabbi who knows
the Schlesinger case well, said.
Hofmeister said it was tragic that
the children were deprived of
equal access to their mother and
called on both parents to “find a
time-sharing arrangement in the
interest of these children, who
are suffering.”
Alexander, who was known
in the media by her married
name, Beth Schlesinger, until
she changed it recently, was separated from her husband,
Michael Schlesinger, in 2009
after three years of marriage. The
couple formally divorced last
Beth Alexander and her twin boys, Benjamin and Samuel. (JTA)
year.
In 2011, a court-commissioned psychologist reported that
Alexander had “reduced parenting abilities” and was oblivious to
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her children’s “significant developmental delay.” Though the report by psychologist Ulrike
Willinger also acknowledged
Alexander’s “close, loving bond”
with her children, it concluded
that Schlesinger should receive
custody.
An Austrian court agreed,
awarding Schlesinger full custody
and restricting Alexander’s visitation rights to a few hours every
week. In 2011, four policemen
removed the children from her
care as Alexander was feeding
them supper. It would be eight
weeks until she saw the children
again.
Though the Willinger report’s findings were disputed in
two subsequent psychological
evaluations, the court refused to
reconsider its ruling. Last year,
Austria’s Supreme Court rejected
Alexander’s appeal without explanation.
Alexander, who has a master’s degree from Cambridge University and works in Vienna as a
university lecturer and an English teacher, says her ability to
fight for her rights in Austria is
severely limited because she is a
foreigner without local connections and at first was not fluent
in German. But while she has
been unsuccessful in the courts,
her lobbying efforts are becoming
increasingly successful in swaying
public opinion in her favor.
Her case was the subject of a
debate in Britain’s House of Commons last year, during which lawmaker Graham Stringer made the
Kafkaesque reference and cited
concerns that Schlesinger may be
abusing his family’s alleged ties to
justice officials.
“One has to suspect that
undue influence and conspiracy
were taking place,” Stringer said.
Ivan Lewis, another British
lawmaker, called the Austrian
justice system’s handling of the
case “one of the worst miscarriages of justice,” adding that
Alexander “was falsely and cruelly labeled mentally ill and an
unfit mother, labels both disproved by independent professionals.”
3
Chicago Jewish News - Jan. 30 - Feb. 5, 2015
For Cuban Jews, improved ties to U.S. may not resolve central challenges
By Josh Tapper
JTA
HAVANA – On a recent
Friday night inside this city’s
Beth Shalom synagogue, Aliet
Ashkenazi, 25, stood draped in a
blue-and-white prayer shawl
leading prayers in a mix of Spanish and near-perfect Hebrew.
It was the first time she had
ever led services – a feat considering she converted to Judaism
seven years ago after discovering
her father was Jewish.
The 300-seat sanctuary in
the Cuban capital was near capacity, but the crowd filling the
wooden pews was largely American, comprised of tour groups
from New York and New Jersey.
The next morning, with the
Americans gone, the crowd had
thinned. A handful of youths sat
in the first few rows, leaving a
gray-haired cohort of congregants in the back.
This is typically how things
go for Cuba’s 1,500 or so Jews:
Hordes of out-of-town guests arrive, bringing with them suitcases full of clothing and coveted
medical supplies, and then
they’re gone, leaving Cuba’s diminished Jewish community behind.
A month since the United
States and Cuba announced renewed diplomatic relations after
more than five decades of mutual
recrimination and mistrust, it remains unclear how rapprochement will change things for
Cuba’s Jewish community, which
has shrunk tenfold since the end
of the Cuban Revolution in
1959, when there were 15,000
Jews here.
“If it will be better for Cuba,
it will be better for Jews in Cuba
as well,” said Ida Gutzstat, executive director of the B’nai B’rith
Maimonides Lodge, a community center atta ched to the
Sephardic synagogue in this city’s
Vedado neighborhood.
Amanda Amato, a 49-yearold secretary, sipping a plastic
cup of Cristal beer at one of the
lodge’s biannual parties, said,
“We have a difficult economic
situation now, but it’s not for all
time.”
Already there has been
some easing. Americans – including the thousands of Jews
who fled Cuba after the revolution – now can send remittances
of $2,000 every three months to
Cubans, four times the previous
limit.
While Cuban Jews endure
the same depressed conditions as
other Cubans, surviving on
monthly food rations and salaries
that rarely exceed $40 per
month, the community as a
whole is the recipient of largesse
most Cubans can only dream of.
Cubans generally have restricted Internet access, but com-
puters at Beth Shalom are wired,
and the synagogue’s youth lounge
contains a PlayStation and Nintendo Wii. Financial support
from humanitarian organizations
such as the American Jewish
Joint Distribution Committee,
which has operated in Cuba
since 1991, enables Beth Shalom
to provide community members
with meals on Fridays and Saturdays – often non-kosher grilled
chicken or canned tuna, followed by coconut ice cream. The
synagogue office houses the community’s pharmacy, which twice
a week dispenses free medicine
supplied by Jewish tourists and
aid organizations. While heath
care is free in Cuba, over-thecounter drugs are rationed for ordinary Cubans.
The Jewish community also
enjoys the support of the regime.
President Raul Castro twice has
attended Hanukkah celebrations
at Beth Shalom. The country has
two other synagogues in Havana
and smaller congregations in the
provincial towns of Santa Clara,
Camaguey, Cienfuegos and
Guantanamo.
Cuban Jewry’s greatest privilege, though, is also one of the
community’s biggest challenges.
Ordinarily, Cubans are
barred from emigrating without
special permission from the government. Yet since 1992, when
the Cuban constitution was
changed to accommodate freedom of religion, a government
concession to stave off unrest
once Soviet aid ended, Jews have
been allowed to leave for Israel.
In 2013, 72 Cuban Jews made
aliyah, according to Israel’s Absorption Ministry – a considerable number given the size of the
community.
Luis Szklarz, 76, who attends
Adath Israel, which is secured
The Sephardic Center is one of three synagogues in Havana. It is also
home to Cuba's Holocaust museum.
behind a gate laced with barbed
wire in Old Havana, said as long
as the embargo remains in place,
Jews will continue to leave the
island.
“The old people are going to
die and the young people are
making aliyah,” he said. “There
is no future.”
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Chicago Jewish News - Jan. 30 - Feb. 5, 2015
Contents
Jewish News
■ The Argentine-Israeli journalist who first reported the death
of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman has fled to Israel following threats to his safety. Damian Pachter, who works for
BuenosAiresHerald.com and tweeted the news of Nisman’s death,
left Argentina after the threats and being followed by people he
did not know. “I will return when my sources tell me that the conditions changed,” Pachter told an Argentine publication. “I don’t
think that I will be there during this government.” Nisman was
found dead of a gunshot wound in his home soon before he was
to present evidence that Argentine President Cristina Fernandez
de Kirchner covered up Iran’s role in the 1994 bombing of the
AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires.
■ European Jewish groups are again protesting the name of the
world’s largest ship, which was named after a Dutch officer in the
Nazi Waffen-SS military force. The Pieter Schelte, which docked
in Rotterdam, is named after an SS officer convicted of war crimes
in World War II. Schelte conscripted 4,000 Dutch into forced
labor for Nazi Germany and called Jews “parasitic.” “Naming
such a ship after an SS officer who was convicted of war crimes is
an insult to the millions who suffered and died at the hands of
the Nazis,” said Jonathan Arkush, vice president of the Board of
Deputies of British Jews. “We urge the ship’s owners to reconsider
and rename the ship after someone more appropriate.” Esther
Voet, director of the Hague-based Centre for Information and
Documentation on Israel, or CIDI, noted the 10-year fight to
have the name changed. “But no, we’re left with this fact: the
largest ship in the world is named after an officer in the SS, and
not enough people are offended to get this changed,” she said.
The Swiss shipbuilding company Allseas named the ship for
Pieter Schelte Heerema, the father of Allseas’ owner, in recognition of his work in the oil and gas industry following the war. The
company said that Heerema defected from the SS during the war.
■ Bernie Madoff wrote that the pain he caused investors with
his financial fraud was “nothing” compared to the anguish he has
suffered from his sons’ deaths. Madoff, who defrauded investors of
billions of dollars in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history,
wrote in an email to NBC News that his sons were unaware of his
crimes and that they never forgave him. “As difficult as it is for me
to live with the pain I have inflicted on so many, there is nothing
to compare with the degree of pain I endure with the loss of my
sons Mark and Andy,” he wrote. “I live with the knowledge that
they never forgave me for betraying their love and trust. As much
as I tried to reach out to them in an attempt to explain the circumstances that caused my betrayal they could not find it possible
to forgive me.” Mark Madoff committed suicide in December 2010,
on the second anniversary of his father’s arrest. Andrew Madoff
died last year from cancer. Several large Jewish institutions and
charities fell victim to the Madoff scheme. Madoff was convicted
of fraud in 2009 and is serving a 150-year prison sentence.
■ In hopes of easing escalating tensions with Iran, Israel reportedly sent a message to the Iranian government via Russia.
The message came following the strike on Hezbollah operatives
in Syria that killed an Iranian general. Senior commanders of
Hezbollah, the Lebanese terror group, were also among the 12
people killed in the strike. Israel is widely believed to have executed the strike, though Israeli officials have not commented on
it. According to the report, Israeli officials told their Russian
counterparts that the strike was made in self-defense and that Israel did not want regional instability to follow in its wake. The
Russian officials then sent the message to their contacts in the
Iranian government.
■ Israeli scribes restored a 200-year old Iraqi Torah scroll that
arrived in Israel under mysterious circumstances. The Associated
Press reported that the scroll, written in northern Iraq by two
scribes using pomegranate ink, was delivered water damaged to
the Israeli Embassy in Jordan in 2007 before being transferred to
Israel in 2011 when riots were sweeping the Arab world. The
scroll was restored by a group of scribes in Jerusalem. U.S. troops
uncovered a trove of Iraqi Jewish relics in the Iraqi secret service
headquarters in Baghdad in 2003, much of it waterlogged. The
U.S. National Archive restored much of what has become known
as the Iraqi Jewish Archive, and it remains for the time being in
the United States, although Iraq claims it as property. Much of
Iraq’s 2,500-year-old Jewish community emigrated to Israel after
riots before and during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. The
remainder fled after persecutions led by Saddam Hussein in 1968
and 1969.
JTA
THE CHICAGO
JEWISH NEWS
Vol. 21 No. 17
Joseph Aaron
Editor/Publisher
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Roberta Chanin
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Jacob Reiss
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of blessed memory
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7Chicago Jewish News - Jan. 30 - Feb. 5, 2015
A Jewish perspective on Mr. Cub
By Charles B. Bernstein
Special to Chicago Jewish News
By Rabbi James Gordon
Special to Chicago Jewish News
“Wait until next year!”
In many sports towns, this is
a familiar lament. This woeful
exclamation is especially popular
in Chicago among baseball fans.
After all, the Cubs last won the
World Series in 1908, while –
until 2005 – 1917 was the last
time that the White Sox were
World Champs. Yet, each year
Chicago fans remain optimistic,
hopeful that their favorite team
will finally win.
In a city where losing has
been painfully accepted, fans
look for players and coaches who
can ensure that the flame of hope
is never extinguished. The sports
figure in Chicago history that
best illustrates eternal hope is
Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks.
The first African American
to play for the Chicago Cubs,
this Hall of Famer approached
life, in general, and the Cubs’
chances of winning, in particular,
with great optimism and hope.
A two-time National League
Most Valuable Player, for almost
his entire career, Ernie Banks
played for sub-par Cub teams.
Nonetheless, he approached
each game with a sunny attitude
summarized by such statements
as: “It’s a beautiful day for baseball! Let’s play two today!”
Before each season, Banks
the player, always hopeful and
optimistic, predicted that the
Cubs would succeed in the upcoming season: “This is the year
of the little bear.” Before the
1965 season, he predicted: “The
Cubbies thrive in ’65.” In 1968,
Banks proclaimed: ”Things look
great in ’68.”
Unfortunately, each year the
Cubs fell far short of Ernie’s
bright predictions. Then before
the 1969 season, Banks, who was
now surrounded by other top
players and led by fiery manager
Leo “The Lip” Durocher, boldly
proclaimed: “The Cubs will
shine in ’69!”
And shine they did, at least
for most of the season. The Cubs
opened the ’69 campaign winning nine of their first ten games.
Historic Wrigley Field was transformed into a field of dreams
being fulfilled. The “Bleacher
Bums” were led by relief pitcher
Dick Selma, Ron Santo clicked
his heels after each victory and
Ken Holtzman threw a no-hitter
against the mighty Braves. The
Cubs carried a nine and one-half
game lead over the New York
Mets into mid-August. As predicted by Ernie Banks, they were
indeed shining. Then, suddenly,
the Cubs’ fortunes soured as they
began losing and the Mets winning. A seven-game Met winning streak coincided with an
eight-game Cub losing streak.
The “Miracle Mets” ended up
A bar mitzvah and Ernie Banks
Ernie Banks
winning the division by eight
games and went on to win the
World Series.
The collapse of what many
consider the best Cubs team of
all-time caused tremendous sadness and consternation among
players and fans. In spite of it all,
one person remained hopeful –
Ernie Banks. While others
mourned, Ernie stated with great
optimism and hope: “It was just
not meant to be. But things will
be heavenly in nineteen-seventy!”
To succeed in life’s endeavors, it is important to have hope.
While approaching life with a realistic attitude, it can only help
if one is optimistic. The Hebrew
word for hope is tikvah. Most appropriately, Israel’s national anthem is known as the Hatikvah
(The Hope).
In 1878, Naphtali Herz
Imber composed the lyrics to the
Hatikvah, which has instilled
hope in millions of Jews. After
the Holocaust, the world was introduced to the optimism and
hope of Anne Frank, a teenager,
who recorded her accounts and
feelings in a personal diary while
hiding in Nazi-occupied Holland
during World War II. At the end
of every Passover Seder, the participants express their hopeful optimism when they proclaim:
“Next year in Jerusalem!”
(L’Shana ha-ba-ah bi-Yrushalayim!”)
In Talmudic literature, the
sage who is best remembered for
instilling optimism and hope in
others is Nahum Ish Gahmzo
(Nahum of Gahmzo). Although
Nahum, in great likelihood, was
from Gimzo, a city in ancient Israel, he received the name Gahmzo, because of his sunny,
positive approach towards life.
No matter how bad things were,
he would proclaim: “This too is
for the good! (Gahm zo l’tova!)”
The Talmud relates a story
about Nahum Ish Gahmzo that reinforces the lesson that those
who approach life with an optimistic, hopeful attitude eventually will be rewarded for their
efforts. As a representative of
the Jewish community, Nahum
was chosen to deliver a gift of
precious jewels to the Roman
Emperor. The journey necessitated an overnight stay at an inn.
That night, thieves stole the jewels from its pouch and replaced
them with dirt.
After Nahum arrived at the
palace, he presented the Emperor
with the pouch that – unbeknownst to him - now contained
earth. When the King opened
the bag and found the dirt, he
threatened to kill all the Jews of
his Kingdom since he felt that
they were mocking him. Nahum
then invoked his famous saying:
“Gahm zo l’tova!” inspiring the
miraculous arrival of the Prophet
Elijah. Elijah convinced the Emperor that this earth was holy
and could help the King defeat
his enemies in war. Since this
proved to be correct, the Jewish
people were spared and rewarded
with precious jewels and, in time,
the robbers were punished.
We learn from the optimistic approach of “Mr. Cub,”
Ernie Banks, and the sage
Nahum of Gahmzo, that no matter how bad things may be, it is
always important to have hope.
When we play sports, we must
remain optimistic of our chances
of winning or succeeding in
other ways. Hope of peace, better times and the arrival of the
Mashiach (Messiah) continue to
hearten the Jewish people to
move forward after personal and
national tragedies.
Unfortunately for Mr. Cub,
he never had the opportunity to
win a World Series. However, if
we adopt Nahum of Gahmzo’s
approach and say that there is
some good in everything, then
we must patiently wait for that
reward. Perhaps, the silver lining may be that someday soon
the Cubs and White Sox will
meet in a “Chicago Subway
(World) Series.” If that doesn’t
happen this season, then just
“wait until next year!”
Rabbi James M. Gordon, J.D.
is the assistant rabbi of Lincolnwood
Jewish Congregation A.G. Beth Israel in Lincolnwood.
In October 1961, I attended a bar mitzvah party for
Mark D. Pearlstein. Mark later
became a leading condominium lawyer in Chicago and
for many years wrote a widely
read weekly column on condominium law for the Chicago
Tribune.
The party was at a hotel
on Lincoln Park West, I think
the Webster.
I walked into the party
room with my parents. They
walked ahead to greet some
people they knew. I was about
20 years old, and felt a little
out of place, because it seemed
that all the people there were
either my parents’ age or
Mark’s age, 13. I was standing
in the middle of the room deciding where to go and whom
to greet, when I heard the
“kids” (Mark’s contemporaries)
screaming: “Ernie Banks is
here! Ernie Banks is here!”
I thought, “That’s ridiculous. Ernie Banks couldn’t be
here. If the Pearlsteins knew
Ernie Banks, I would know
about it.”
After a moment, I couldn’t
resist the temptation. I slowly
and skeptically turned around,
and sure enough, there he was,
in the flesh, ERNIE BANKS!
He was dressed in a gorgeously
tailored dark suit, looked extremely handsome and dignified, and was holding a little
gift-wrapped box in his right
hand. He was smiling, but looking a little bewildered. I don’t
know how the confusion was
resolved, but it turned out that
he was invited to a bar mitzvah
party in the adjacent room, and
after a minute or so, he went
over to that room. During the
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Chicago Jewish News - Jan. 30 - Feb. 5, 2015
Torah Portion
CANDLELIGHTING TIMES
4
Jan. 30
4:42
Feb. 6
4:51
Standing up to evil
We have power
to bring goodness
into the world
By Rabbi Vernon Kurtz
Torah Columnist
Torah Portion: Beshallach
Exodus 13:17-17:16
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This edition of the Chicago
Jewish News is dated Jan. 30,
2015. This is an anniversary of
sorts, and not a good one. On
Jan. 30, 1933, Adolph Hitler was
named chancellor of Germany.
This date marked a crucial turning point for Germany and, ultimately, for the world. His plan,
embraced by much of the German population, was to do away
with politics and make Germany
a powerful, united, one-party
state. Very soon after this he initiated his plan for the annihilation of the Jewish people in
Europe and beyond.
Exactly six years later, on
Jan. 30, 1939, Hitler spoke to the
Reichstag and outlined his plan
for the “Jewish problem.” He
stated: “Europe will not have
peace until the Jewish question
has been disposed of. The world
has sufficient capacity for settlement, but we must finally break
away from the notion that a certain percentage of the Jewish
people are intended by our dear
G-d, to be the parasitic beneficiary of the body and of the productive work, of other peoples.”
He went on to state: “If the
international finance – Jewry inside and outside Europe should
succeed in plunging the nations
into a world war yet again, then
the outcome will not be the victory of Jewry, but rather the annihilation of the Jewish race in
Europe!”
A few years later, on Jan. 20,
1942, a meeting of the senior officials of the Nazi regime was
held in the Berlin suburb of
Wannsee. In one 90-minute
meeting the fate of European
Jewry was doomed. Using legal
Rabbi Vernon Kurtz
language, the 15 people present
invited by Reinhard Heydrich
were determined to move forward with the final solution to
the Jewish problem. Adolph
Eichmann, who was present,
said: “During the conversation
they minced no words about it at
all … they spoke about methods
of killing, about liquidation,
about extermination.”
Raul Hilberg, the Holocaust
historian, writes that there are
three types of individuals who
must be studied during the years
1933-1945. There are the perpetrators, the victims, and the bystanders. For the perpetrators, he
writes, “We spare no compassion;
for the victims we give honor to
their memory; for the bystanders
we wonder about their actions.”
The individuals in the room may
not have been the perpetrators of
the mass killing of the Jews with
their own hands, but they could
not absolve themselves of the
guilt for allowing the evil to
occur. In the face of evil, silence
and indifference are inexcusable.
In our Torah reading of this
Shabbat we read of the plight of
the Israelite people as they traverse the desert and make their
way to the Sea of Reeds. Moses,
the liberator, is their leader but
there are times when Moses does
not seem to be up to the task. He
is only human after all.
When they reach the sea
with the Egyptians pursuing
them, Moses does not know what
to do. The text states: “Then the
Lord said unto Moses, ‘Why do
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you cry out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward.’” The Talmud in the tractate of Sotah
imagines that Moses was engaged
in prayer. Not knowing what to
do, he reached out to G-d. The
Holy One, blessed be He, said to
him: “My beloved ones are
drowning in the sea and you prolong in prayer before Me?” Moses
then asked G-d what to do and
G-d replied with the biblical
verse: “Tell the Israelites to go
forward.”
Saint Augustine, the fourthcentury philosopher wrote: “Pray
as though everything depended
on G-d, work as though everything depended on you.” This is
exactly what G-d was telling
Moses. There is a time for prayer,
but there is also a time for action.
According to the Midrash, the
children of Israel did not know
what to do until Nahshon, the
son of Aminadav, of the Tribe of
Judah, jumped into the sea.
When the water reached his nostrils the sea split and the children
of Israel moved forward onto the
dry land. Nahshon was a man of
action. He couldn’t stand by
while others were suffering from
indecision and fear. According to
the Midrash, it was because of his
action that the children of Israel
were saved.
We cannot stand by the
sidelines when we see hunger, violence, or evil. We must be the
Moses of action, the one who
protected the Israelite slave
when he slew the Egyptian
taskmaster. G-d taught Moses
that there is a time for prayer and
a time for action. We must show
bravery and courage like
Nahshon the son of Aminadav
and put our bodies forward to
protect others. We must recognize that we have an enormous
amount of power to bring goodness or evil to the world.
At the Wannsee conference,
all were guilty. Whether they
participated individually in the
killing or not, it did not matter,
they were part of the evil of the
Holocaust. These dates on the
civil calendar remind us that evil
is possible and we must stand up
against it. We must not be bystanders allowing the evil to proceed.
In order to do so, we need
the courage of Nahshon, we need
the strength of conviction of
Moses, and we need the willingness on our part to make a difference for goodness in the world. I
pray that we are up to the task.
Rabbi Vernon Kurtz is the
rabbi of North Suburban Synagogue Beth El (Conservative) in
Highland Park.
7
Chicago Jewish News - Jan. 30 - Feb. 5, 2015
THEMaven
Chicago Jewish News
JEWS IN THE NEWS…
■ During a trip to Israel in
2001, Sara Crown Star found
herself a witness to the aftermath of a suicide bombing
where 15 civilians were killed,
including seven children and a
pregnant woman, and 130 were
wounded.
She sat on the doorsteps of
her Jerusalem hotel, watching
90 ambulances drive to the
bomb site, counting whether
the 120 members of her group
returned safely. In the face of
such a tragedy, she told herself
how important it was to do
something to strengthen the
Jewish community at home, in
Israel and around the world.
Since then, Star has devoted herself to serving the
local Jewish community and Israel. This year, she is taking on
one of the largest annual
fundraising efforts in the country as chair of the 2015 Annual
Campaign of the Jewish United
Fund of Metropolitan Chicago.
The recently concluded 2014
Campaign raised $82.1 million.
“We are thrilled to have
Sara at the helm of our 2015
Annual Campaign,” said JUF
President Steven B. Nasatir.
“She is a dynamic community
leader who is bringing great passion, creativity and commitment to this role.”
Star is active in numerous
non-profit and charitable organizations, with particular interests in early childhood
education, medical research,
health care, and philanthropy.
■ The National Council of
Jewish Women Chicago North
Shore Section has received a
sixteen thousand dollar grant
from the Jewish Women’s Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago
to fund the Jewish Coalition
Against Sex Trafficking
(JCAST) Chicago’s work of
eradicating sex trafficking in
the Chicagoland area. JCAST
Chicago is a non-profit coalition that engages participants in
community service and advocacy against trafficking, and
provides leadership development opportunities for women
and girls.
“In our experience, the average Chicagoan thinks that sex
trafficking is something that
happens overseas, or at least
‘not in my backyard.’ It’s everywhere. Both victims of trafficking and purchasers of sex come
from all walks of life,” said Beth
Gordon, JCAST Co-Chair.
“No one is immune.”
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■ Simon Wiesenthal Center
Midwest Region Director Alison Pure-Slovin has been
named a member of the state of
Illinois’ Holocaust and Genocide Commission.
■ In an effort to engage children ages 9 to 11 in reading
books about Jewish traditions
and values, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation has created
an online, social networking experience that encourages children to engage with each other,
express their ideas, and communicate through a variety of
multi-media channels, many of
which are of their own creation.
Annabel Berk, 9, of
Chicago, has been selected to
join the national PJ Our Way
Design Team. As a member,
Berk will serve as an online resource to her peers, helping lead
conversations about Jewish children’s books nationwide. PJ Our
Way allows participants to select one of four books every
month, giving them more
choice on their journey toward
being life-long readers while introducing them to Jewish ideas.
At , participants can create
book trailers, videos, quizzes, author interviews, and other
media to communicate with
peers about the books.
■ Chicagoan Zafra M. Lerman, creator and advocate for
the Biennial Malta Conferences, which promote international scientific cooperation
and diplomacy by convening
scientists from 15 Middle Eastern nations, has been chosen by
the American Association for
the Advancement of Science
(AAAS) to receive the Award
for Science Diplomacy. She was
honored for her efforts to “elevate the use of scientific cooperation as an instrument of peace,
and as a pathway to better understand the role of science in
addressing major societal challenges in the broader Middle
East, despite the political barriers that exist at the official levels.”
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Chicago Jewish News - Jan. 30 - Feb. 5, 2015
Poetic license
Chicagoan David Silverman has just published a book
of poems about his three favorite subjects:
love, faith and basketball.
By Pauline Dubkin Yearwood
Managing Editor
To be a Jew in the twentieth
century is to be given a gift...the gift
is torment
—Muriel Rukeyser
Well, nothing has changed. The
gift is still torment.
The torment of wanting. An old
story by now.
A weary immigrant sets down the
heavy bags
of persecution. Craves acceptance.
Trades history
for the promise of a new beginning. He sees a door
in the distance and wants to enter.
He wants this
more than he has wanted anything. Decipherer
of science, mathematics, medicine;
winner of prizes.
Surely they will appreciate such
noble contributions
and let him in. And, fearing this
may not be enough,
he brings his children as an offering.
The centuries pile in an endless
mountain of time,
eclipsing the sun. And the Jews
stand in silent horror
as an ancient darkness descends
upon the land.
That verse is not from
poet/financier/community activist David Silverman’s recent
book of poetry, “It’s the Little
Things: Poems About Love,
Faith and Basketball.”
Rather, it’s a response to the
killing of French Jews and cartoonists that took place earlier
this month in Paris. And it follows a pattern of Silverman’s:
When he’s anxious or upset about
something, he usually writes a
poem about it. The pattern has
been ongoing since the Chicago
man was a student at Ida Crown
Jewish Academy in the 1970s.
But the recent poem’s bleakness is not typical. “It’s the Little
Things” is a more upbeat collection, touching on subjects ranging from Silverman’s love for his
wife (many of those) to the
“strange custom” Jews have on
Purim of “eating Haman’s ears”
to a visit to the cardiologist’s office to watching a Chicago Bears
game in Israel with his son.
The poems are both in
rhyme and free verse, some closer
to prose, and there’s even one
“channeling” one of Silverman’s
favorite poets, the humorist
Ogden Nash.
But mostly the verses are
about exactly what the title
promises, the three touchstones
in Silverman’s life: love, faith
and basketball.
avid Silverman wrote his
first poems when he was a
student at Ida Crown Jewish Academy in 1973 and ’74,
with the encouragement of one
of his teachers.
“I was a really terrible poet at
15,” the genial Silverman recalled
during a recent telephone interview. “I wrote poems with mortifying titles, like ‘Unanswered
Desire.’ I was an expert on unrequited love. I wrote poems to this
girl in my class. It was horrible
writing; I was drowning in a
tsunami of hormones.”
He remembers that he compared his crush’s eyes to almonds
– “what every teenage girl wants
to hear. I read it to her and she
kind of laughed this nervous
laugh,” he says with a laugh of his
own. “But I married another girl
who appreciated my poems better than the high school girl, and
I am still writing poems to impress the girl I love, my wife.”
D
I did not choose you because you
are beautiful, though you are
beautiful.
And I did not choose you because
you are wise, wiser than I am in
all that matters.
I did not choose you because you
chose me, instead of him (thank
you, by the way, for that).
And I did not choose you because
you loved me, when no one should
have.
I chose you because I had no
choice in the matter, the moment I
saw your face.
“To My Wife” from “It’s the Little
Things”
Silverman and his wife, Lauren, recently celebrated their
32nd anniversary. They have four
grown children and are expecting
their first grandchild this spring.
One son made aliyah three years
ago and is now a lieutenant in an
IDF combat intelligence unit.
Another son just graduated from
David Silverman
high school in Israel.
His parents, Marvin and
Barbara Bloom Silverman, made
aliyah more than 30 years ago.
His mother runs an organization
called A Package From Home,
which sends “care” packages to
IDF soldiers. Since 2001, the organization has sent more than
2,000 packages to soldiers, he relates proudly.
Silverman himself, who was
a member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for more than
20 years, is now a financial futures trader working for an Israeli
high-tech company based in
Herzliya – the only non-Israeli
employee. He travels to the Jewish state frequently.
Even with his on-the-go life,
poetry has been a constant for
him since the embarrassing days
of high school versifying. It still is.
“I read and write poetry and
it gives me a lot of pleasure,” he
says. “I read poetry every single
day. I’m religious about it.” His
tastes are eclectic, ranging from
Billy Collins to Ogden Nash to
Yehuda Amichai, plus a group of
little-known Israeli poets, many
of whom are his friends.
And yet, when I think of it, every
good thing that’s happened to me,
happened by reaching into the infinite outside, sometimes not even
knowing what I was reaching for.
At the Battle of Tel Hai, the martyred Trumpeldor’s last words were
said to be: No matter, it is good to
die for one’s country. Exhilarating
words. Dangerous words. Words
to make a man feel like he’s flying.
From “Upon Reading a Poem by
Amichai That Brings Back a
Memory”
“I like poems that tell a
story,” he says. “Many of the
poems I write are really telling
stories. Writing a poem about
how the sunlight looks when it
hits a pond is not something that
engages me particularly. I write
my poems whenever I have
something I’m concerned about,
something that is causing me
some anxiety. It helps me to
write about it. I can’t even predict when it’s going to happen. It
builds inside me, and then it
erupts, when I can’t contain it
anymore.” Afterwards he “buffs
and polishes” his words, “gets
them really shiny.”
He declares that he is “really
lazy” and doesn’t like “really obtuse things. I don’t appreciate it
when the poet makes me work
really hard. I like very plain, direct, funny, engaging poetry, and
that’s how I write.”
Most of his poetry, he says,
“is something really private. For
the first 10 years I was writing, I
never showed my work to anyone, even my wife.” Gradually he
began to become more confident
in his writing and to send out his
poems, and has had a respectable
number published over the years.
At the same time, he became involved with a group of
poets in Israel, who encouraged
him to put together and publish a
book.
“After 20 years of writing, I
finally had enough poems and
felt it was worth it to edit them
properly,” he says. “I really
wanted to do this for my wife and
kids.”
He decided to self-publish
the book, both because poetry is
notoriously difficult to find a
publisher for and so he could
have complete control over the
finished product. The book is put
out by Cyclamens & Swords
publishing company along with
several fellow poets in Israel.
Almost alone among today’s
authors, Silverman decided not
to sell the book through Amazon or any other website. In fact,
he’s not selling it at all but is giving it to friends and anyone who
comes to the public readings he is
planning on holding, which will
benefit Chicago Jewish organizations.
He’ll also send a copy to any
Chicago Jewish News reader who
emails him (david2740@aol.
com) and pledges to make a do-
nation in any amount to a charitable organization.
“I do it to generate some
profits for organizations I care
about,” he says.
The organization he cares
about the most, and one that,
like poetry, has been a constant
in his life since high school is the
Ark, the Chicago social service
agency that provides a broad
array of services for Jews struggling with economic hardship.
“Other than involvement
with my family, this has been the
most meaningful and important
relationship in my life,” he says
of his involvement with the Ark,
which began innocuously in
1977 when Silverman was a high
school student and discovered
that you could miss class at Ida
Crown if you spent your time
working on a chesed (charity)
project.
“I thought this was the best
loophole I ever heard of in my
life,” he says with a laugh. “I
started going to the Ark – it was
on Western and Devon then. I
worked in the food pantry, I took
Mrs. Goldberg to the dentist, I
delivered food packages. I did so
much work for the Ark I won a
leadership award from my
school.”
Shortly afterwards, he was
called in to the assistant principal’s office and told that he
missed 57 days of school and
would not be able to graduate,
nor would he receive the award.
Eventually all was forgiven,
and Silverman did graduate from
high school and did receive the
award. Meanwhile a lifetime relationship had been created. He
is now co-president of the
agency, his second time in that
position, and has served on the
board and been closely associated
with the organization for years.
“I get reminded every time I
do anything associated with the
Ark that there is no difference
between the clients and me or
anyone else I know,” he says. “It
is random bad luck and how the
dice are thrown. There is an
anvil out there that will fall on
every one of our heads and we
have no control over it, and I am
really privileged to be involved
with the Ark. It is quite selfish.
It helps me remember that every
moment is precious and every
person who does so is lucky to be
able to provide assistance.”
9
Chicago Jewish News - Jan. 30 - Feb. 5, 2015
In fact, he contends that the
organization is just as advantageous for its benefactors and volunteers as for its clients.
“The average person thinks
the Ark’s mission is to help the
indigent. That is true, but it exists as the bridge for people who
have the capacity to help,” he
says. “It is two sides of the same
coin. The true meaning of
tzedakah (charity) is building
community. It is equally important to have all the people in the
community connected, and
that’s the genius and the beauty
of the Ark.”
Despite perpetual economic
hard times, the Ark, Silverman
says, “has held up pretty well”
thanks to improved fund-raising
staff, many generous donors and
some good-sized bequests.
“It’s people in the community coming together to recognize that this is something
meaningful for everybody in the
community, and it’s worth the
time and effort,” he says.
hat about the other constants in his life as exemplified in the book’s title?
Take “Faith.”
“I grew up in a Jewish home,
got a Jewish education with
tikkun olam (repairing the
world) at the forefront,” Silverman says. “It just seemed kind of
natural to me as I started to learn
more about poetry and started
writing to write about Jewish
topics as well as love and basketball.”
W
It is taught that the notes of the
shofar – the single, uninterrupted
t’kiah, the wavering calls of
shvarim, and the staccato sobs of
t’ruah – describe the condition of
the soul during a lifetime. We are
born clear and straight, succumb
to crookedness as adults, and
grieve for our mortality in old age.
But the final blast of the shofar,
the breathtaking t’kiah g’dolah –
an extended t’kiah, powerful and
pure – reminds us that God receives the penitent, who seeks to
return to a state of innocence.
From “What Jessica hears”
He recalls a time when his
daughter Jessica was a toddler
and the family attended a small
West Rogers Park synagogue
with “a makeshift mechitza (separation barrier between men and
women) made out of cotton
sheets.” Their daughter, warm
and smelling of Honey-Nut
Cheerios, walked back and forth
from one parent to the other,
hugging each one in turn, then
suddenly started singing at the
top of her voice, proclaiming
that “the Torah was a tree of life
and we should grasp on to it.”
“I remember thinking it was
like a message to me, and I understood for the first time how
deeply rooted this tree of life is.
This is the meaning of life: Hold
on to Torah and to the people
you love,” Silverman says.
A friend, a non-believer, asks me
why God no longer performs
flashy miracles, as he did in biblical times.
Has He lost his touch? If God exists, let Him show Himself to me
in a burning bush that does not
consume itself!
What can I say? He is an old
friend and I am used to his derision, when it comes to matters of
faith.
And though I believe, with complete faith, that God appeared to
Moses in that burning bush, I do
not tell
my friend he is totally missing the
point. The burning bush is no
more miraculous than the bush itself.
And the fire that burns but does
not consume, smolders deep
within, even, the skeptic.
From “Miracles”
And then there is basketball. “From the time I was a little
kid, basketball has been kind of
at the center of my life,” Silverman says. “I always had a basketball in my hand, even though I
wasn’t a very good player.” He recalls a close friend from high
school who died seven years ago
from a heart attack.
“We bonded over basketball,” he says. “The gym became
a real sanctuary for me from a lot
of problems, a safe place, a warm
place. I have very fond memories
of it. When I had my own children, basketball was something I
wanted to share with them, and
it became very important to both
my boys. It’s been kind of a constant throughout my life.”
Each morning I rebound shot after
shot – four or five hundred guided
missiles – and return the ball to his
impatient hands. He is afraid to
slow down, lose his rhythm, as if
each shot is connected to prior
shots and every shot to come.
He is the careful warrior covering
his tracks; the archeologist, searching for something shiny just beneath the surface; the student of
history, who knows that those who
fail to learn from the past are
doomed to hit less than nine out of
ten from the free throw line.
About halfway through his workout, as the sun rises, it shines
through the windows high above
the court and hits him like bright
lights on a Broadway stage. At this
hour, no one else is here to see his
performance, appreciate his craft;
how he cuts left or right with equal
ease, how perfect
his body language. And yet, he
does love a crowd. To see the
stands filled with people who have
known him his entire life. To hear
his name announced with the
starting five. To know that a particular girl is watching him, to
know what it feels like to have
someone watch you like that. But,
at 6:00 am, an audience would be
superfluous and, anyhow, there is
much work to do before show
time. He is content to rehearse his
part: a monologue of crossover
dribbles, baseline jumpers, and
lefty lay-ups. Chasing a rare miss,
hardwood squeaking beneath my
heavy feet, Joshua smiles at me as
I pass him
the ball. When he is ready, when
the stands are empty and he takes
off his uniform for the last time, I
will pass other things to him; that
has always been my job. But, not
today. How glad I am, for mornings like this, glad to still be of use.
How grateful I am for the ball and
hoop and the glorious games of
life.
THE SIDNEY & FRANCES AVNER
TORAH LEARNING CENTER
OF NORTHBROOK
From “Shooting Hoops Before
Dawn With My 16-Year-Old Son”
Love, faith and basketball –
“the little things” – rendered in
poetry. That’s David Silverman’s
new book – and his life.
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Chicago Jewish News - Jan. 30 - Feb. 5, 2015
Senior Living
Understanding brain health
On a regular basis, Hedy
Ciocci, B.S.N., Administrator of
the Selfhelp Home, will answer
some of the many questions we have
around aging. Hedy specializes in
dementia care, and has extensive
experience working with families
and elderly patients.
Recently, Hedy interviewed
Dr. Michelle London, Clinical Rehabilitation Neuropsychologist and
Founder of the Chicago NeuroRehabilitation Center, about mild cognitive impairment, dementia and
depression and how to evaluate, test
and treat these disorders.
Q. What is your back-
ground?
A. I am a rehabilitation
neuropsychologist and I completed my post doctorate fellowship at John Hopkins in
rehabilitation psychology and
neuropsychology. My specialty is
diagnosing individuals with brain
diseases, promoting cognitive
health and providing treatments
to improve cognitive health in
order to return individuals to
their optimal level of functioning. I have a boutique private
practice called the Neuro Rehabilitation Center where I mainly
treat younger patients who have
ADHD, learning disabilities and
traumatic brain injury. I just
opened a second private practice
called the London Neuropsychology Group at Weiss Hospital
where we focus on the aging
brain and treat patients with dementia and delirium.
Q. Can you tell me more
about the neuropsychological
evaluations for seniors you are
doing to diagnose dementia and
other cognitive issues?
A. We begin by getting an
idea as to where the individual’s
memory and thinking skills are
today. Our focus is on memory
and thinking skills and we begin
to identify whether the issues
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make some changes that slow
down the progression of dementia and help to make a person’s
brain more resilient and healthy.
There is a change in the field
where we are becoming more
proactive and less reactive. We
are no longer waiting until there
is a negative event before we address the early changes people
are experiencing as it relates to
memory.
Some of the lifestyle areas
we look at are things like physical activity and exercise. We
have found that brain health and
better outcomes are closely
linked to a certain level of daily
physical activity. Studies show
that just 15 minutes per day of
light activity can have positive
effects on cognition and brain
structure, as well to help keep
neurons intact. Cross training
and doing a variety of different
exercises are best because otherwise our body and brain gets
bored when we keep doing the
same type of exercise and the impact is reduced over time. Social
activities are also important and
can be better than prescribing
medication. Having a strong social network and not isolating
yourself makes a large difference.
We have found that the larger
the social network, the better the
brain functions. My advice is to
keep going out to bridge club and
lunches because the more friends
you have, the better off your
brain is going to be. It affects the
brain in so many ways because it
keeps our language centers going,
improves problem solving, and
helps us to predict social responses. As we get older, our
world tends to shrink and we
have fewer friends and are less
able to get out to activities. This
isolation can cause a cascade of
events that is bad for the brain.
Q. What kinds of brain
problems can occur when someone becomes very isolated? Can
you explain that?
A. When you don’t get
Ask Hedy
enough input into the brain, you
don’t get the level of functioning
you really need during critical
times. It can also cause depression and it’s kind of a cause and
effect situation. When we become depressed, we tend to isolate ourselves and when we
isolate ourselves, we become
more depressed. Major depression and dementia also tend to
go hand-in-hand. Our hippocampus, which affects our
memory, starts to shrink when
people have untreated depression. Depression is very treatable with medication and when
managed, it contributes to better
brain health and cognition is
often improved.
Q. What other lifestyle
changes can be made to improve
brain health?
A. Diet is also very important to brain health. There’s
been a lot of research about what
types of diets are helpful and people should check with their doctors before making a significant
diet change or engaging in a
more rigorous exercise routine.
A Mediterranean diet does
the brain a lot of good due to the
antioxidants and Omega 3 fatty
acid coming from fish. People
can work with a nutritionist or
doctor to find out more about
whether this type of diet would
be helpful for them and what
other adjustments to make in
this area.
There are other things to
consider such as the importance
of sleep as it relates to cognition,
having humor in your life and
keeping the brain engaged
through things like crossword
puzzles. Smoking is bad for the
brain, as is stress, so it is important to eliminate or reduce these
factors as much as possible.
Q. What is the average
age of the person who is coming
to see you?
A. Most of the older patients I see have Medicare and
one neurological evaluation per
year is covered, for the most part,
under Medicare. The old way to
CONTINUED
O N N E X T PAG E
11
Chicago Jewish News - Jan. 30 - Feb. 5, 2015
Senior Living
CONTINUED
F RO M P R E V I O U S PAG E
deal with cognitive deficiencies
was to wait until something bad
happened or the patient might
have an incident that concerns
them so they talk to their physi-
cian about it. The doctor might
give them a quick, five minute
screening called a “mini mental
evaluation” and depending on
the results, the physician might
note on the person’s chart that
they have Alzheimer’s. It isn’t
easy to identify Alzheimer’s with
a five minute test. There are also
reversible causes for memory impairment that might not be identified with this type of testing.
Ideally, the gateway to getting to
a neuropsychologist is to talk
with your primary care doctor
about your symptoms. We need
a referral from the patient’s primary care doctor indicating a
neuropsychological evaluation is
warranted to evaluate cognition
and thinking abilities. It is best
to be evaluated sooner rather
than later and if you have any
inkling that you are experiencing
some changes, an evaluation
will, at the very least, provide a
baseline for comparison down
the road. Alzheimer’s is the most
common form of dementia, but it
really is an umbrella term and it
is critical to get the right diagno-
sis. Advocating for yourself and
asking for a more comprehensive
evaluation may uncover some
different causes for the memory
impairment. I advise seniors to
talk with their doctors and if you
feel that something is changing
relative to your cognition, to
take action quickly to determine
the cause and the appropriate intervention.
Dr. Michelle London
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Chicago Jewish News - Jan. 30 - Feb. 5, 2015
Ernie
CONTINUED
F RO M PAG E
5
time he was in our room and the
object of so much excitement, he
was very calm and friendly.
After we completed dinner,
there again was some commotion. The kids were yelling,
“Ernie’s leaving! Ernie’s leaving!”
They all scrambled out of the
room and chased him, trying to
get autographs. He proceeded on
his way, very calmly, pleasantly
and with great dignity, and
stopped to sign some autographs.
I was wondering how he was
going to make it to his car, but he
did, and he didn’t seem the least
bit perturbed by the commotion.
Mark passed away at age 64
on Dec. 11, 2012. I didn’t know
if Mark had related the Banks incident to his children, so I called
the cantor who was officiating at
the funeral and told her the anecdote because I wanted it to be
preserved for history. It turned
I always liked Ernie
Banks. He was a great
ballplayer, sure, but he
was such a nice, humble person.
out that Mark had told his son,
who told it to the rabbi. At the
end of the eulogy, the rabbi
summed up all of Mark’s accomplishments and ended as follows:
“And Ernie Banks even attended
Mark’s bar mitzvah party!”
I always liked Ernie Banks.
He was a great ballplayer, sure,
but he was such a nice, humble
person. It’s outrageous that he
once had to hold out to get a
salary of $100,000 a year, when
now players who couldn’t carry
his bat or glove are making 100
times more.
May Ernie Banks rest in
peace, and may he and Mark
Pearlstein hopefully be able to
meet and talk baseball in the
grandstand of the World to
Come.
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Community Calendar
Saturday
January 31
Temple Beth Israel Sisterhood presents T’Fillot
Nashim (Women’s Prayer
Service) followed by luncheon. 10:30 a.m., 3601 W.
Dempster, Skokie. tbiskokie.
org or (847) 675-0951.
Congregation Beth Judea
holds Havdalah Game
Night for families with
pizza, snacks, ice cream following service. 5:45 p.m.,
Route 83 and Hilltop Road,
Long Grove. $5. RSVP
[email protected] or
(847) 634-0777.
Sunday
February 1
Jewish Child and Family
Services holds program,
“Helping our Girls Feel
Good about Being Female”
for grades 3-8. Temple
Sholom of Chicago, 3480 N.
Lake Shore Drive, Chicago.
Time and more information, [email protected] or
(847) 745-5420.
Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois’
Women to Women hosts
16th annual luncheon,
“Above Nature” featuring
Chana Gittle Deray, teacher,
mentor and writer. 11 a.m.-1
p.m., Lubavitch Chabad of
Northbrook, 2095 Landwehr
Road, Northbrook. $54,
chabad illinois.com/womentowomen or (773) 875-9147.
Tuesday
February 3
Jewish Child and Family
Services presents
“Nechama: A Workshop to
Comfort the Bereaved
Among Us” for the newly
bereaved and their loved
ones. 6:30-8 p.m., Temple
Chai, 1670 Checker Road,
Long Grove. [email protected] or (224)
625-2810.
Jewish Child and Family
Services holds first annual Tu
b’Shevat Recovery Seder led
by Rabbi Paul Steinberg. 78:30 p.m., Temple Beth Israel, 3601 Dempster, Skokie.
$10, $18 couple. Register,
jcfs.formstack.com/forms/
Jewish_Center_for_Addiction or (847) 745-5422.
SPOTLIGHT
The 2015 Kosher Halftime Show,
hosted by Nachum Segal, is a
family oriented alternative to
the performance on broadcast
television. The program will
stream and be available during
halftime of the Super Bowl on Soulfarm
Sunday, Feb. 1, on www.nachumsegal.com. The program will feature the group Soulfarm, which will
perform three songs, including the debut of “Shalom Lach Eretz Nehederet.“ This Hebrew song is a remake about wandering away from
and then returning to Israel.
Wednesday
February 4
Ezra-Habonim, the Niles
Township Jewish Congregation Sisterhood celebrates
Tu b’Shevat (Israeli Arbor
Day) with luncheon and
bingo. 11:30 a.m., 4500 W.
Dempster, Skokie. $18 Sisterhood members, $23 nonmembers. Reservations,
(847) 675-4141.
CJE SeniorLife holds support group for caregivers of
individuals with dementia.
7-8:30 p.m., Weinberg Community for Senior Living,
Gidwitz Place, 1551 Lake
Cook Road, Deerfield. (847)
236-7853.
Thursday
February 5
Congregation Beth Shalom
holds Ideas Café with dinner
featuring journalist Carl
Schrag interviewing educator Binnie Swislow about “Israel’s Success: A Story Told
in Hebrew.” 6:30-7:45 p.m.,
3433 Walters Ave., Northbrook. $15. RSVP, [email protected] or
(847) 498-4100 Ext. 46.
Friday
February 6
Congregation Beth Shalom
holds Young Family Outreach Dinner and Storybook
Service. 6 p.m., 3433 Walters Ave., Northbrook. $25
family. Register, [email protected] or
(847) 498-4100 Ext. 46.
Saturday
February 7
Congregation B’nai Tikvah
hosts Magical Musical
Evening featuring B’nai Tikvah’s choir and rock band,
the Hurricane Quartet,
Steve Grant and Friends
Jazz group and the Deerfield High School Chamber
Orchestra. 6 p.m., 1558
Wilmot Road, Deerfield.
(847) 945-0470.
Sunday
February 8
JCC Chicago holds Character Breakfast with crafts,
singalong and photo ops.
9:30-11 a.m., Bernard
Weinger JCC, 300 Revere
Drive, Northbrook. $12
adult, $6 child. Register,
http://bit.ly/jccfrozen2-8 or
(847) 763-3603.
Congregation Kol Emeth
Sisterhood holds Family Traditions Cooking event featuring Pillsbury 2014
Bake-off finalist Arlene Erlbach. 10 a.m.-noon, 5130
W. Touhy, Skokie. $5 members, $7 non-members.
RSVP, [email protected] or
(773) 454-6148.
JUF/Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Chicago holds
jBaby Chicago Suburban
Launch Party. 10-noon, Little Beans Café and Big
Beans Family Activity Center,
430 Asbury Ave., Evanston.
Registration, http://www.
juf.org/jBabyChicago/event_
reg.aspx?eid=8.
Jewish National Fund holds
Tu b’Shevat Community
Celebration with art contest, entertainment, games
and prizes, tree planting.
11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.,
Chicagoland Jewish High
School, 1095 Lake Cook
Road, Deerfield. jnf.org/
chicagotubishvat or (847)
656-8880.
13
Chicago Jewish News - Jan. 30 - Feb. 5, 2015
By Joseph Aaron
CONTINUED
F RO M PAG E
Get Home Care
14
support from Washington…
“When Israel wants something from the United States, it typically
makes three stops: the pro-Israel lobby, Jewish members of Congress and
the White House… Netanyahu ignored all three when he accepted an
invitation to address Congress about U.S. Iran policy. Neither congressional Jews nor the American Israel Public Affairs Committee were
notified of the speech, much less consulted. The White House found
out three hours before Boehner announced the address.”
Ah, the White House. Jews love to blame Obama, saying he’s not
nice to Bibi. But can you blame him when Bibi over and over acts like
a thug, treats the president abominably. And doing what he’s doing
with this speech is the most abominable of all.
And it is Israel that will pay the price for Bibi’s lack of menschlichkeit. “It will be difficult to trust Netanyahu in the future,” an
unnamed senior US official told Israeli TV. “At a critical juncture that
requires close cooperation on strategic matters, he preferred to advance
his political interests while disrupting the correct working relationship
between the two governments.”
Other American officials told the Haaretz newspaper that Netanyahu had “spat” in Obama’s face in agreeing to speak to Congress
without alerting the White House. “There are things you simply
don’t do. He spat in our face publicly and that’s no way to behave. Netanyahu ought to remember that President Obama has a year and a
half left to his presidency, and that there will be a price,” he said.
How rightly nauseated the American administration is, is seen by
the fact that Secretary of State John Kerry, a very long time supporter
of Israel and the administration’s most ardent advocate for Israel, found
what Bibi is doing particularly offensive. Kerry, who over the past
month made frenzied efforts on Israel’s behalf on the world stage – calling almost 50 world leaders to convince them to oppose a UN Security Council resolution which would have set a timeframe for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
But Bibi doesn’t care about that, or anything but Bibi. You see his
speech before Congress will come just two weeks before Israel’s election and Bibi figures it will help him win votes if he’s seen back home
addressing a joint session of Congress, seen publicly taking on Obama,
which Israelis, big talkers, love. They pee in their pants at the thought
of losing America’s financial, diplomatic and military support, but they
just love to feel like they can say anything to us and about us. Makes
them feel like big people and that’s especially so for Bibi, a midget
when it comes to leadership and Jewish values.
And so because he thinks it will help him politically and because
he doesn’t have the brains to recognize he is being used by Boehner
and the Republicans to make life difficult for Obama, Bibi is doing
something so odious that even those Obama haters at Fox News found
it disgraceful.
During an on-air conversation between Chris Wallace and Shepard Smith, the two roasted Netanyahu. Wallace referred to Boehner’s
invitation to Netanyahu, as “wicked.” Added Smith, “It seems like
they think we don’t pay attention and that we’re just a bunch of complete morons – the United States citizens – as if we wouldn’t pick up
on what’s happening here,” Smith said.
Truth is that this is the inevitable result of Bibi’s sick obsession
with Iran. Because he is incapable of leaving the shadow of his right
wing father, a historian who concluded that the world has always hated
the Jews, will always hate the Jews, that all are out to get the Jews and
none can be relied on to help the Jews, Bibi has become crazed by the
unending cataclysmic thoughts about Iran filling his head. So much
so that the former director of the Mossad, an Iran expert, publicly
spoke out about how Iran is not the threat Bibi makes it out to be, and
that Bibi needs to calm down.
But he can’t and he won’t. And that has led him to be used by
Boehner, insulting the president of the United States as no Israeli prime
minister ever has. In the process, he has managed to antagonize Democrats, even those in favor of sanctions, because they don’t like to see
a country we have done so much for treat the president as Bibi is, and
has even angered some Republicans, who don’t like Obama, but don’t
like seeing a foreigner come to our country to oppose our president.
But Bibi doesn’t care. Doesn’t care that he has antagonized Israel’s
best friend at the behest of crybaby John Boehner, who isn’t doing this
for Israel, but for his own political purposes.
That Bibi can understand, since he is doing this to help his political prospects at home and, he hopes, make his now dead daddy
proud.
As one Israeli political expert put it, “Netanyahu’s step may
serve him personally, politically, but it hurts Israel’s security. A responsible prime minister who has the state’s best interests in mind
would not do this. A responsible prime minister would find a way to
work with the US president – any president – to safeguard our most
vital interests.”
We now know that Bibi’s most vital interest is Bibi.
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DELECIA ESFORMES
14
Chicago Jewish News - Jan. 30 - Feb. 5, 2015
Death Notices
Jack W. Cohen, beloved husband of Verna Cohen, nee
Wittert. Loving father of
Michael Cohen and Susan Cohen. Cherished grandfather
of Lindsay Cohen. Fond
brother of Jean (the late
Ralph) Cohn and the late Marjorie (the late Myron) Ridker.
Dear cousin, uncle and friend
to many. In lieu of flowers remembrances to your preferred charity would be appreciated. Arrangements by
Mitzvah Memorial Funerals.
Monica Jacobs, age 71. Devoted daughter of the late
Eugene and Detta. Dear sister of Leslie “Les” (Flori) Ja-
cobs. Dear aunt of Darryl
and Darci Jacobs and Jeremy
Bruner and great-aunt of
Tannon and Maven Bar-
talomy. Arrangements by
Mitzvah Memorial Funerals.
Harriet Kremen, née Berdaline Lepgold, in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. Beloved daughter of Gordon Lepgold
(Manny Gordon) and Margaret Warschauer Lepgold
(Gordon). Loving wife for 58
wonderful years of Norman
Kremen. Cherished mother
of Gary Alan and Julie Lynn
Kremen of California. Proud
grandmother of Isaac Micah
and Ethan Julian Kremen.
Fond sister of the late Jack
Lepgold and his children and
sister-in-law of the late
Mildred “Millie” Needelman,
June 20, 1920–January 25,
2015; preceded in death by
husband, Joseph and sister,
Gladys Raffkind. Survived by
children, Jerald (Margaret)
Needelman, Howard (LauraLee) Needelman, and Hope
(Andrew) Klassman; 10
grandchildren; 8 great grandchildren. In lieu of flowers,
Memorials to the Blumkin
Dorothy and the late Harold
Diamond and their children.
Devoted friend of many and
volunteer treasurer of Ketura Hadassah. Donations in
Harriet’s memory would be
appreciated; send to: Hadassah, 60 Revere Dr., Ste 800,
Northbrook, IL 60062, www.
hadassah.org/chicago
northshore. Arrangements by
Chicago Jewish Funerals –
Skokie Chapel, (847) 229-8822,
www.cjfinfo.com.
Home of Omaha, NE. or your
favorite charity. Arrangements by Lakeshore Jewish
Funerals, (773) 625-8621.
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By
Joseph
Aaron
Bozos Boehner and Bibi
Okay, we have now forfeited our right to complain.
Have you noticed what is going on in Nigeria with the terrorist
group Boko Haram? While Isis and Al Qaeda get much of the world’s
attention, and while, in the Jewish world, Hamas and Hezbollah get
all the attention, the savages of Boko Haram have been systematically
going from city to city, murdering thousands of people. Men, women
and children.
And where has been the Jewish outrage? Where has been the Jewish mobilization? You know Jews are very good about always complaining about how the world doesn’t care about us, doesn’t understand
or do anything about our suffering, when, in fact, it does. The French
government response to the murders of those four Jews in the kosher
supermarket has been stunning. The French prime minister said France
would not be France without its Jews. The French president ordered
thousands of troops to patrol Jewish schools and neighborhoods.
Because of our history, Jews, of all people, should be first in line
to protest and scream and act when Boko Haram does what it does.
Sure, it’s easy for us to complain about Hamas and Hezbollah because
they directly affect us. But wasn’t that what much of the world said
about us during the Holocaust? It’s just the Jews, not our business, no
reason for us to get involved.
And we all know the Torah teaches us to remember that we were
“strangers in a strange land,” meaning because we have gone through
what we have gone through, we must be there, always, for everyone
and anyone going through the same thing. And yet, where is the Jewish community in regards to Boko Haram? Do we only care about the
terrorists aiming for Jews? Shame on us.
And speaking of shame, I really thought it would be impossible
for me to be any more disgusted by the behavior of one Prime Minister Bibi. But he has now done something that truly takes the cake.
Bibi has allowed himself to be played the fool by House Speaker
John Boehner, has allowed himself to be a pawn in a disgraceful political game, be part of a stunt that reminds me once again how depraved Republicans are.
If Barack Obama is for something, the Republicans are against it,
even if it’s good for the country. Their whole agenda is to disagree with
the president. Even if it involves national security, even if it involves
something that has always been the domain of every president, namely
foreign policy.
Obama is trying to negotiate with the Iranians to keep them from
acquiring nuclear weapons. He’s not guaranteeing it will work, but he
believes, as do I, that it is worth a try. Unlike all those chickencrap
right wing Jews who think it would just be so easy to send in the Israeli air force to bomb Iran. Not understanding that has no chance of
destroying Iran’s nuclear program, not understanding the very negative consequences that would result.
Obama is trying to negotiate and so has said, for the time being,
it’s important the big mouths and little brains that make up Congress
not pass a bill that would call for renewed sanctions on Iran. Obama
has persuasively made the case that such a bill would ensure the negotiations fail. He has said let’s give the talks a chance, and if they
don’t succeed, then he will be the first to call for the imposition of draconian sanctions on Iran. But the time for that is not now.
And as commander in chief, that’s his call to make. In our system,
the president conducts foreign policy. And while it’s one thing for the
juvenile Republicans to stamp their feet in protest, what Boehner has
done is truly one of the ugliest actions in American history.
He, without consulting the White House, invited the prime
minister of Israel, who is psychotically obsessed with Iran, to address
a joint session of Congress for the sole purpose of disagreeing with the
president. Shameful. But far more shameful is that Bibi said yes.
Think of it. The United States is the best friend Israel has in the
world. The United States under Barack Obama has provided Israel
with the Iron Dome missile defense system, which protected Israel
against Hamas rockets; has vigorously opposed all attempts at the UN
to create a Palestinian state; has done literally dozens of other things
in strong support of Israel.
And yet despite all that, the prime minister of Israel is going to
go in front of Congress to stick his finger in Obama’s eye, to publicly
say why Obama is wrong, to publicly urge Congress to do exactly what
Obama has asked them not to.
In the process, Bibi has, as the Jewish news service JTA put it, antagonized the “three sectors that Israel relies on to ensure continued
SEE BY JOSEPH
AARON
ON
PAG E 1 3
15
Chicago Jewish News - Jan. 30 - Feb. 5, 2015
Point of View
‘Jew Tax’ a warning to all
horrific events in France should
signal everyone who values
freedom that the Jew Tax we pay
today is actually a flashing
warning sign to Jews and nonJews alike. Extremist violence is a
threat everywhere to the life of
the mind, the life of the spirit
and to life itself.
We are all Charlie. So, too,
the war against the Jews is a war
against us all.
By Michael Millenson
A few months ago, I wrote
bluntly on The Huffington Post
about the “Jew Tax;” that’s what
I called the portion of my
synagogue dues going for surveillance cameras, alarms and a
security guard. Now, in the wake
of the recent massacres in France,
taxpayers in all Western nations
find themselves facing a version
of that same fee.
My article was prompted by
the surge in anti-Semitic
violence coinciding with the
Gaza war between Israel and
Hamas. But as a report from the
Anti-Defamation League made
clear – and as the renewed focus
on the horrific 1994 attack on a
Jewish community center in
Argentina has reminded us – that
outbreak was just the latest
manifestation of decades of antiJewish prejudice deliberately
instigated by Israel’s opponents
and too often indulged by the
West.
The attack on the Hyper
Cacher kosher market in Paris
should make the connection clear
to all. This time it was Islamist
extremists targeting Jews. Other
times it’s been secular anti-Israel
fanatics. And sometimes, though
less frequently in Europe in recent
years, garden variety anti-Semites.
Whatever the motivation, as I
wrote in August, “the poisonous
impact is deeply personal for every
Diaspora Jew.”
That poison, more potent
than ever, has now spread. The
headline of a story in the Israeli
newspaper Haaretz by Anshel
Pfeffer starkly linked antiSemitism and the slaughter of
staff at the French satirical
newspaper Charlie Hebdo. It read:
“First they came for the Jews.
Then they came for the
journalists.”
And perhaps both at once,
in the person of Elsa Cayat, the
only woman killed at the Charlie
Hebdo offices, likely because in
“the eyes of the killers [a Jewish
woman]... was one of the enemies
of Allah,” in the words of an
article in Tablet, accusing leftists
of ignoring this inconvenient
truth.
The Israeli newspaper
headline, of course, refers to the
famous lament of German pastor
Martin Neimöller, initially an
enthusiastic supporter of the
Nazis. The United States
Holocaust Museum quotes this
version of a poem he wrote:
First they came for the
Socialists, and I did not speak out–
Michael Millenson is a consultant and writer who has long been
active in the Chicago Jewish community. This article originally appeared in the Huffington Post.
Customers in a Paris café watch TV news coverage of the hostage taking in a kosher supermarket which resulted in the massacre of four Jews.
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade
Unionists, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Trade
Unionist.Then they came for the
Jews, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Jew. Then they
came for me–and there was no one
left to speak for me.
In France, soldiers and police
carrying automatic weapons guard
entire Jewish neigh-borhoods.
That the last time so many
uniformed men swarmed those
same streets was to deport Jews,
not deter attacks, is an irony more
bitter than sweet. That many
ordinary French Muslims have
rallied to the defense of their
Jewish neighbors is extraordinarily
hopeful. That foreign leaders who
tolerate and even encourage antiJewish attacks marched to protest
the Charlie Hebdo massacre – in
particular, Turkey – is maddening.
It’s not just French taxpayers
paying the price of stepped-up
protection of the Jews. Heavily
armed SWAT teams stand
outside a Jewish museum in New
York City. Stepped up security
surrounds synagogues and major
Jewish community institutions in
Washington, Los Angeles,
Chicago and cities throughout
the world.
I wrote in August how some
Jewish organizations have taken
down identifying signs and how
one Jewish day school protects
its parking lot with thick steel
gates designed to deter would-be
car bombers. I lamented that the
anti-Israel anti-Semites who
cannot put us in ghettos have
slowly forced us to build our own
walls. The problem has steadily
grown.
When I was in high school,
my synagogue was firebombed, as
was another about 20 miles away.
A couple of years after I finished
college, one of our synagogue
members was held hostage by
Arab militants who took over the
building housing the Jewish
organization where he worked. I
didn’t grow up in Paris or
Paraguay, but in a quiet suburb of
Washington, D.C., and it’s been
almost 40 years since I last lived
there.
Which is the point: they first
come for the Jews, but it doesn’t
stop there. It’s already been
forgotten that British supermarkets just last summer
removed all their kosher foods
due to of “anti-Israel” attacks.
But though no other faith faces
anything close to the worldwide
threat of violence that shadows
Jewish religious and communal
activities, we cannot forget that
extremists increasingly threaten
everyone with whom they
disagree. Recall that the cowinner of the 2014 Nobel Peace
Prize was a young Pakistani
Muslim, Malala Yousafzai, who
was shot in the head by the
Taliban for the crime of
promoting the right of girls to get
an education.
We Jews certainly noticed
the chutzpah shown by
Hezbollah and Hamas, religious
extremist groups that have
brutally killed Jewish civilians
and their own political
opponents, in denouncing the
attacks against Charlie Hebdo. As
I wrote back in August, Hamas
tried to persuade U.S. journalist
Charlie Rose that Hamas does
“not actually fight the Jews
because they are Jews, per se.”
This, despite the fact that the
Hamas charter is filled with
explicit anti-Semitic language.
Those who murder Jewish
men, women and children do not
much care whether their victims
are critics of the current Israeli
government – or any Israeli
government – or supporters. The
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Banquet Chairmen
Barry and Elizabeth Bennett
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KESHET, A PARTNER IN SERVING OUR COMMUNITY, IS SUPPORTED BY THE JEWISH UNITED FUND/JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO
16
Chicago Jewish News - Jan. 30 - Feb. 5, 2015
Vitality
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