Rabbis wrestlewith cremationamid its growingappeal to JewsBY TOBY TABACHNICK

Staff Writer

Not wanting to spend eternity in a cas-ket, it was Pittsburgh native NormanSchwartz’s wish to be cremated and tohave his ashes scattered when he died.

Which left his son, Howard, with somedifficult arrangements to make.

“We ran into some issues,” saidSchwartz, speaking from his home inPinehurst, N.C., “but we were fortunateenough to get around them.”

While the first rabbi Schwartz con-tacted said he could not officiate at amemorial service for a person who wascremated, the son eventually was re-ferred to Rabbi Ronald B.B. Symons,who agreed to preside over the service.

“We had a nice service,” Schwartzsaid, “and I was able to fulfill my dad’sdesire. His ashes will be scattered overa golf course in Pinehurst; he loved togolf.”

Thirty years ago, cremation was virtu-ally nonexistent among Jews. Now, sta-tistics show that almost one third ofNorth American Jews are choosing cre-mation, according to Sharon Brody, li-censed funeral director and supervisorat Ralph Schugar Funeral Chapel.

“I think the [cremation] rate is in-creasing,” Brody said. “We [Schugar’s]specialize in traditional Jewish burials,so we try to steer the family in that di-rection. But we do help families whocome to us and want cremation.”

“The Jewish cremation rate in NorthAmerica is at 30 percent,” according toBrody, citing statistics available to her

THE JEWISH CHRONICLEOCTOBER 27, 2011 TISHRI 29, 5772 Vol. 55, No. 24 $1.50

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thejewishchronicle.netPittsburgh, PA

Chronicle adoptsnonprofit status tosupport missionBY DAVID CAOIN

Chief Executive Officer

Recognizing that The Jewish Chroni-cle is a community trust as well as acommunity newspaper, the governingboard of the Pittsburgh Jewish Publica-tion and Education Foundation(PJPEF), which publishes the Chroni-cle, filed for and was granted federal501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status earlier thisyear.

The benefits of this new status aremany, but the underlying reason for theboard’s decision to seek the change wasto help the Chronicle in a time whenmany newspapers are facing difficulttimes.

Immediate Past PJPEF PresidentDavida Fromm considered the actionlong overdue.

“This is something the board hadtalked about for many years,” saidFromm, a driving force behind the newstatus. “Given the recent economic- andindustry-related realities, we decided toget serious about it.

“[Former Chronicle CEO] BarbaraBefferman, [board member] Tom Hol-lander, and I met with Gregg Kander ofthe legal firm Buchanan Ingersoll &Rooney, who offered to provide theguidance and support necessary to com-plete the application process,” Frommadded. “We are enormously grateful toall those who worked to make this hap-pen, and we feel optimistic that thechange in status will benefit the Chroni-cle by enabling us to apply for grantsand accept tax deductible donationsfrom our community of loyal readers.”

New foundation President Rich Kitay,a certified public accountant, took anunderstandably pragmatic view of thechange.

“The 501 (c) (3) tax exempt status

Please see 501(c) (3), page 15.

Ashes to ashes?

U.S. Navy photo by Chief Journalist Alan J. Baribeau

A Navy chief petty officer aboard the guided missile destroyer USS Donald Cookscatters the ashes of a former U.S. military member during a burial at sea ceremony.At home, cremation has found a growing appeal among Jews while rabbis wrestlewith the question, how to counsel their congregations about it. Please see Cremation, page 16.

BY TOBY TABACHNICK

Staff Writer

At age 86, Anna Ruben decided on herown to move to Riverview Towers afterliving for 40 years in Florida.

After being widowed for 15 years, shedecided it was time to come back to herhometown of Pittsburgh, and downsize.

“It was the best decision I ever made,”Rubin said.

However, she noted, it’s not always asimple decision.

“I think the decision to make a moveshould come from the person himself [orherself],” said Ruben, who has a doctor-ate in higher education. “It’s when fami-ly members intervene and say you’rehaving a hard time taking care of yourown place, and it would be good for youto move, that you can resent it and getangry.”

In the best of all possible worlds, a se-nior citizen would recognize when it istime to move out of the house in which hehas lived for decades, and into a moremanageable and protected space.

That doesn’t always happen. Some-times a family member may need to en-courage the move in order to safeguardthe welfare of an elder loved one.

“It’s a change, and with seniors,change is difficult,” said Phyllis Cohen,director of programming at RiverviewTowers, a retirement living communityin Squirrel Hill.

It can be daunting for a senior citizento even think of downsizing a lifetime of

possessions into a one-bedroom or studioapartment, Cohen added. She said manyreasons influence the decision to move toa retirement facility.

“More often than not, it’s family mem-bers who help them make that decision[to move],” she said. “Sometimes it’s toohard to keep the house up; sometimes it’sa financial reason, and sometimesthey’re lonely.”

There are signs for concerned rela-

tives or friends to look for when deter-mining if it is in a loved one’s best in-terest to make a move, said HannaSteiner, executive director ofRiverview Towers.

“Does the house look as if handlinghousework is more difficult?” Steinerasked. “Is the yard more neglected?Has your loved one taken a bath re-cently? Did he change clothes? Are theclothes stained? Did he lose weight?Are there piles of mail? Are keys intheir regular place?”

Other signs that a senior citizen maybe ready to move to a retirement com-munity include forgetting doctors’ ap-pointments, and having difficulty negoti-ating public transportation or driving,according to Steiner.

“The conversation on the need to moveto senior housing will be tough; do notkid yourself,” Steiner said. “But remem-ber to talk about the positive side ofchange: an opportunity to start fresh,buy a new piece of furniture, make somenew friends, eat in the company of oth-ers, fewer house chores. Talk about howit is important to you to know that theyare in a safer place. Do not talk aboutwhat they lose, but rather what they cangain.”

What one can gain at some senior facil-ities is piece of mind, said Steiner, aspersonnel regularly check on residents,meals are provided, and social activitiesare offered.

Still, if a senior citizen is not ready tomake the move, Ruben said pushing forit may cause more harm than good.

She believes the success of moving de-pends on whether the senior feels ready,and not on whether others feel it is timefor him to move.

“When they [seniors] get pushed fromothers, it makes the move much moredifficult,” she said. “People who pushthem have to keep validating the move,asking ‘Aren’t you glad you’re there?Didn’t we do the right thing?’ It is impor-tant for elderly adults to do it on theirown.”

Ruben believes that moving to a retire-ment facility — at the right time — cangreatly enrich someone’s life.

“The most wonderful thing is you arewith other people in similar circum-stances,” she said. “I have met so manylovely human beings.”

(Toby Tabachnick can be reached attobyt@thejewishchronicle.net.)

Metro2 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE OCTOBER 27, 2011

Leaving the house?For area senior citizens, the question isn’t so simple

Riverview Towers photo

A Hawaii party from last November at Riverview Towers. Sometimes, the decisionfor a senior citizen to give up the house and move into a retirement facility such asRiverview isn’t so easy.

ClarificationThe obituary for Hannah Ruth Flam-

berg in the Oct. 13 edition contained in-

formation submitted in error to theChronicle. Flamberg, 83, was bornMarch 27, 1928. A memorial service washeld at Temple Sinai, Sunday, Oct. 23.

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE OCTOBER 27, 2011— 3

METRO

The Jewish Community Cen-ter of Greater Pittsburgh willpresent a program spotlighting right-eous gentiles inthe Arab world.

“Lessonsfrom Kristall-nacht: WhenMuslims SavedJews,” will beheld Wednes-day, Nov. 9, 7p.m. at theJCC’s LevinsonHall in SquirrelHill.

The programwill includeRobert Satloff,executive director of the WashingtonInstitute for Near East Policy, and au-thor of the book, “Among the Righteous:Lost Stories from the Holocaust in ArabLands,” who will serve as keynotespeaker for the evening. Also address-ing the gathering will be Fritz Otten-heimer, a Pittsburgh area survivorwhose talk is entitled, “Memories ofKristallnacht.”

The program is free to the public, butseating is limited; reservations are re-quested. Contact the HolocaustCenter at (412) 421-1500 or atholocaustcenterpgh.org.

Edger and Sandy Snyder are under-writing the program.

The Johnstown AreaHeritage Association and BethSholom Congregation are cooperatingon the Jewish Community HeritageProject, a series of museum exhibitsand other programming for 2012-2013.

National, traveling museum exhibitson Jewish themes as well as a tempo-rary exhibit on the history of John-stown’s Jewish community will be pre-sented in the second floor gallery of theFrank & Sylvia Pasquerilla HeritageDiscovery Center. Additional program-ming, such as speakers and film pre-sentations, is in the planning stages.

The project was announced at BethSholom Congregation on Rosh Hashana.

Jews have been in Johnstown sincethe 1850s. The earliest Jewish residentsof the city were German, followed bymany more from Russia, Poland andother parts of Eastern Europe duringthe great wave of immigration from1880 to 1920.

The temporary exhibit on 125 yearsof Johnstown’s Jewish history will bedisplayed at Beth Sholom after the proj-ect concludes in 2013.

The exhibit’s themes will include theearly settlement of German and EasternEuropean Jews in the Johnstown area,how Jews developed an economic niche,establishment of a mature community,and discrimination and integration.

Anyone interested in the project, orwho has photography or memorabilia tolend for the exhibit on Johnstown’sJewish history, can call Beth Sholom at(814) 536-6440 or Barry Rudel at

Please see Briefly, page 5.

Briefly

Robert Satloff

4 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE OCTOBER 27, 2011

METRO

Kosher wine importers here

New business marries charity with sales to find successBY LEE CHOTTINER

Executive Editor

No one has to tell Adar Ben-Lapidand Michael Greathouse about toughtimes.

They are, after all, starting a newbusiness in Pittsburgh — a kosher wineimport concern called Premier Wine Im-ports — at a time when unemploymenttops 9 percent, stock indexes are plum-meting, banks are reluctant to lend andeconomists warn of a new recession.

They personally were laid off fromtheir previous jobs, victims of the weakeconomy.

Still, the business partners have faithin their new venture, which they formal-ly launched in June.

“We believed in ourselves and be-lieved there was enough of a market outthere that we could still succeed,” Ben-Lapid said.

They also have a reason to believe — anovel business strategy.

The two-part strategy includes mar-keting boutique Israeli wines not wellknown in the United States, and, per-haps more important, partnering withJewish charities or nonprofit organiza-tions to support their missions whileselling wine.

The idea behind the second point, alsoknown as cause marketing, is to pair anindividual wine Premier Wine Im-

porters sells, or perhaps a whole winery,with an individual charity. The charityreceives 10 percent of every sale of itspaired wine or line of wines.

“[We] find a bottle of wine that match-es that organization,” Ben-Lapid said,“so it [helps] a Jewish organization.”

The two also plan to do their ownproduct promotion.

Cause marketing is not a new idea. Acooperative venture between for-profitbusinesses and nonprofit organizations

for mutual benefit, it has been employedby businesses in many industries, in-cluding the wine industry.

Ben-Lapid and Greathouse say theybase their model on the Jewish customof maaser (a tenth) — taking a tenth ofone’s income for charity.

According to the Cause Marketing Fo-rum in Rye, N.Y., which promotes suc-cessful company/cause alliances, corpo-rate cause sponsorship will grow 5 per-cent in 2011 to $1.7 billion. In fact,cause sponsorship has grown every year,except 2009 when it declined by a negli-gible 0.3 percent, since 2002, accordingto the forum.

So far, Premier Wine Importers hasmade corporate/cause arrangementswith four Jewish NPOs:

• Sharsheret, a not-for-profit organi-zation supporting young women andtheir families, of all Jewish back-grounds, facing breast cancer;

• The Friendship Circle, a nonprofitorganization that provides programs andsupport to the families of individualswith special needs;

• The rebuilding of the kever (tomb)of Hillel, which has long been neglected;and

• Bonei Olan (Children are Magical), a

project to help infertile couples to be-come parents.

Ben-Lapid and Greathouse pair wineswith these charities based on many fac-tors — the type of vintage, the color ofthe wine, or where the vineyards are lo-cated — something that connects thewine with the charity.

For instance, they matched a whitewine from the Tulip winery in Kfar Tik-va with Friendship Circle because KfarTikva (City of Hope) is a community de-veloped around special needs individu-als. And Agur Rosa, a rose wine from theJudean Hills, was paired with Sharsh-eret because the color of the wine is con-sistent with pink, the universal color ofbreast cancer survivors.

According to Greathouse, otherkosher wine importers do use causemarketing, but usually as a promotion,not as part of their regular businesspractice.

“We wanted to be a consistent entity,”he said, “not just do it once in a while.”

Premiere Imports markets and sellswines whose vintners believe have re-ceived little if any promotion once theyreach the stores.

“They said … that there is no market-ing aspect, that their wines get stuck onthe shelves so to speak without the mar-keting behind then,” Ben-Lapid said.“We thought this is great opportunity tostep in.”

None of the wines they market aremevushal, heated wine that remainskosher no matter who pours it, thoughBen-Lapid said some may be added inthe future.

The partners, who have a warehousein Pittsburgh, don’t see themselves ascompetition for existing kosher winemerchants in Pittsburgh.

In fact, they note that the VaadHaRabbonim, Pittsburgh’s kosher certi-fying body, has approved their ventureon the conditions they do no directlypursue customers of other establish-ments and they only market wines thatcannot be found elsewhere.

(Lee Chottiner can be reached atleec@thejewishchronicle.net.)

Michael Greathouse (left) and Adar Ben-Lapid hope their strategy of selling boutiquekosher wines and partnering with charities will lead to a successful businessventure.

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE OCTOBER 27, 2011— 5

METRO

(412) 215-9157 for more information.Items for exhibit can be dropped off atBeth Sholom during office hours.

The Abe and Janet Beerman Fundat the Community Foundation of theAlleghenies, the David A. GlosserFoundation, the William L. GlosserFamily Fund, the Saul and Eva Gloss-er Memorial Fund and the UnitedJohnstown Jewish Federation arefunding the project.

Temple Shalom, Wheeling, W.Va.,will screen the classic Al Jolson movie,“The JazzSinger,” as partof its adult edu-cation program,Saturday, Nov.5, 7:30 p.m., inthe social hall.

Released in1927, “The JazzSinger,” whichis consideredthe first fea-ture-length mo-tion picturewith synchro-nized dialogue, tells the story of a sonof a cantor whose desire to become apopular jazz singer on the Americanstage comes into conflict with his tradi-tional music roots.

A discussion will follow thescreening.

The Pittsburgh Area JewishCommittee is sponsoring the nextChristian-Jewish Dialogue Thursday,Nov. 3, from noon to 1:15 p.m., at theChurch of the Redeemer, 5700 ForbesAve., Squirrel Hill. The topic will be“Who Can Be Saved.”

The Jewish text is Ezekiel 18:21-23and Psalm 15. The Christian text is 1Timothy 2:3-4.

The monthly conveners are RabbiJames Gibson, Rev. Cynthia Bronson-Sweigert, Father Dan Valentine andRabbi Michael Werbow.

The program is free to the public. Con-tact the PAJC office at (412) 605-0816 orpajc@pajc.net for more information.

The Jewish Association onAging has established Pakler Exem-plary Employee Recognition (PEER), aprogram to reward employees acrossthe JAA continuum of care.

Recipients will be those who haveacted beyond what is expected of themin their positions, striving for the high-est quality of service for the JAA’s pa-tients and residents.

Any resident, patient, family memberor staff member may nominate an em-ployee who exhibits exemplary service.The PEER committee will meet soon todiscuss nominations for the first recipi-ent. This program is funded through aperpetual gift established by a memberof the JAA board of directors.

Congregation Dor Hadash hasreleased its adult education events forNovember:

• Ronald Brauner, professor emeritusat Siegel College of Judaic Studies, willspeak on “Jews in a non-Jewish World,”Wednesdays, Nov. 9 and 16, at 7 p.m.;

• Lisa Brush, professor of sociology,University of Pittsburgh, will speak on“Reconstructionism and Social Glue,”

Sunday, Nov. 20, at 1:30 p.m.; and • Bruce Ledewitz, professor, of Law

Duquesne University School of Law,will speak on “University, Church, Stateand the Crisis in American Secular-ism,” Wednesday, Nov. 30, at 7 p.m.

Contact admin@dorhadash.net orcall (412) 422-5158 to register.

Jacob’s Ladder of TempleEmanuel of South Hills will pres-ent Dr. Mindy Hutchinson, a board-cer-tified child, adolescent and adult psy-chiatrist, to speak, Thursday, Oct. 27, at7 p.m. She will address typical worriesof children and adolescents as well asthe anxiety disorders most likely topresent early in life.

More than 15 million children inAmerica have psychiatric disorders,and at least half of them will neverreceive help. Misunderstanding andstigma prevent parents from seekinghelp for many children who aresuffering.

Refreshments will be served follow-ing the discussion.

Pittsburgh Allderdice HighSchool will honor its third class ofAlumni Hall of Fame inductees Thurs-day, Nov. 3, at 7 p.m.

Alumni to be inducted are: Judith Bart-noff, deputy presiding judge of the CivilDivision Superior Court of the District ofColumbia, class of 1967; Sharon Epper-son, award-winning journalist and author,class of 1986; William A. G. Fisher, prin-cipal of Allderdice from 1971 to 1991;Rob Marshall, award-winning director,class of 1978; Curtis Martin, former foot-ball running back, class of 1991; and thelate Bob O’Connor, former mayor of Pitts-burgh, class of 1962.

The event is free and open to the public.Call (412) 422-4846 or e-mail Jeff Rosen-thal, president of the Alumni Associationat Jeff2827@aol.com for reservations.

Rodef Shalom Brotherhoodwill collaborate with the East WindsSymphonic Band Sunday, Nov. 5, at 2p.m. at the synagogue, to benefit theSquirrel Hill Food Pantry.

The East Winds Symphonic Band iscomprised of some 75 musicians of allages, mainly from the east suburban com-munities. The band performs classicalconcert music as well as Dixieland,Broadway show melodies and marches.

The concert is free and open to the com-munity, but guests are encouraged to bringa bag of groceries or make a donation.

Contact Norman Kanel at (412) 241-6542 for more information.

AgeWell Pittsburgh will hold ahealth and wellness fair followed by aPanel Discussion on Thursday, Nov. 3, inthe Kaufmann Building of the JewishCommunity Center of Greater Pitts-burgh, 5738 Forbes Ave., Squirrel Hill.

The fair, geared towards older adultsand held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., will in-clude more than 20 information tablesincluding different professionals fromthe medical community.

There also will be screenings and infor-mation booths, flu shots and individualcounseling on health plans — call 412-661-1438 to schedule an appointment.

The Panel Discussion, “Are You BeingScammed? Recognize, Refuse, Report!”will be held following the Fair, from 1 to2 p.m. The discussion will address howto protect oneself from financial scamsand exploitation.

Call Maxine Horn at (412) 422-0400for more information.

BrieflyContinued from page 3.

OpinionOpinion6 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE OCTOBER 27, 2011

When the librarian visits my daugh-ter’s day care in Squirrel Hill she comesto read stories and sometimes put on apuppet show. After the visit she usuallyleaves behind a note for the parents de-scribing what activities she did with thekids, what books she read and why.

This past week, attached to the read-ing list was a different sort of note fromthe Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Itwas a plea to vote in favor of a propertytax hike.

It is difficult to decide what is moreoffensive: the library’s new proposedtax or using my baby girl to do it. The li-brary should be ashamed of using chil-dren to campaign. But when it comesdown to it, the proposed tax increase isthe worse offense. Here’s why:

1. A new tax should have been a lastresort, it wasn’t.

The Carnegie Library hardly exhaust-ed all other options before initiating theeffort to force citizens to pay higherproperty taxes. According to its own2010 Annual Report; its public/privatetask force on sustainable library fund-ing came up with a total of six recom-mendations. The new tax was No. 5 onthe list. What happened to numbers onethrough four?

“As a representative of the communi-ty, I am keenly aware that everyonewants to — and should — contribute tothe successful future of this Library sys-tem,” says task force member LynneSquilla. “This plan enables the entirecommunity — from individuals to corpo-rations, government and foundations —to participate in this shared goal.”

Newsflash, Ms. Squilla: Everyone cur-rently does contribute to the library sys-tem, through taxes we are already pay-ing to the city. Indeed, the task force it-self listed securing increases from theAllegheny Regional Asset District as itsNo. 2 priority. What happened to that?

Task force priorities one, three andfour were all about getting individuals,corporations and local and state entitiesto contribute more to the library. Whathappened to that? Has the library col-lected every last dollar it can from theseindividuals and groups since it issuedthe report less than a year ago?

What about selling T-shirts, hats andbags? What about a bake sale?

2. If approved, the tax can and will goup in the future.

One of the arguments in favor of thetax is its modesty. Come on, the librarysuggests in its campaign literature, it’sjust $2.09 a month or $25 annually on$100,000 of assessed value.

Don’t imagine that it’ll remain at thislevel beyond the first year. Any time agovernment gets a new revenuestream, it never gets rid of it — justtake a look at the liquor taxes we payfor the Johnstown flood! And it almostalways goes up.

3. If the library is so important toPittsburghers, then the city should pri-oritize it over other services.

According to “Our Library, Our Fu-ture,” the group campaigning for the taxhike, two separate polls this yearshowed that more than 90 percent of re-spondents felt the Carnegie Library wasdoing a good or excellent job.” No one isdisputing the good work that the librarydoes or its importance to our communi-ty and our democracy.

The point is that we elect people torepresent our interests and run the city.The way they do that is by allocating taxdollars to various community needssuch as the police force, fire fighters,garbage collection, public transporta-tion, snow removal, libraries and pen-sions (which are underfunded!). If thecitizens wanted more money to go to thelibrary, they would make that case toour elected leaders to prioritize the li-brary. If these politicians aren’t priori-tizing the library, then Pittsburghersshould elect new representatives to car-ry out their wishes.

One more important point: AlleghenyCounty properties haven’t been re-assessed since 2002. If there were a re-assessment, more revenue would go toPittsburgh for important services suchas the library. The library could havesupported the effort to get that reassess-ment to happen. It didn’t. Perhaps the“citizens” who care so much about thefuture of the Carnegie Library don’twant a tax hike after all. So why shouldanyone else vote for one?

(Abby Wisse Schachter authors theNew York Post’s politics blog CapitalPunishment, and can be reached atSchachter at awschachter@aol.com.)

Library had options other than tax hike

AbbyWisse

Schachter

The Egyptian opportunityLet’s be frank; last week’s prisoner

swap, which set free Israeli armySgt. Gilad Shalit in exchange for

more than 1,000 prison-hardened Pales-tinians will not create an opportunity forpeace.

That, of course, is because the sidethat held Shalit — Hamas, which con-trols the Gaza Strip — is opposed topeace with Israel, under any and allcircumstances.

But this week’s deal with Egypt, whichfreed a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen in returnfor 25 Egyptian prisoners in Israeli jails,may be an entirely different story.

Israeli-Egyptian relations have neverbeen colder. If this deal can lead to athawing of relations, Israel should pur-sue it — fast.

In a statement Monday, Israeli PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu’s officesaid 25 Egyptian prisoners would be ex-changed for Ilan Grapel, who was ar-rested in Cairo June 12 and has beenheld without charge since.

Egyptian officials suspected the 27-year-old Grapel of spying for Israel dur-ing the height of the uprising that top-

pled former President Hosni Mubarak.Israel always denied Grapel was a spy.

Of course, Egypt may know very wellthat Grapel is innocent of espionage al-legations, but took him anyway as a bar-gaining chip. In fact, likely that’s whatdid happen.

But this week’s exchange, coupledwith the role Egypt played in freeingShalit, may present an opportunity to re-store Israeli-Egyptian relations. If so,it’s an opportunity Netanyahu dares notlet pass.

Israel hasn’t been this isolated inthe Middle East since the Six-DayWar. Not only are Islamist groupssurging in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya,where the Arab Spring has taken root,Turkey has dropped its diplomatic tiesto the lowest possible level, recallingits ambassador and not accepting thecredentials of Israel’s newly appoint-ed emissary.

In Egypt, thousands in the streets, in-cluding the Islamic Brotherhood, whichbefore long may control the balance ofpower in that country, are calling for anend to the Camp David Peace Treaty.

All of which creates major securityproblems for Israel. Its border withSinai is porous, and a new wave of ter-rorist attacks in that region is not out ofthe question.

But maybe, just maybe, Egypt is look-ing for an honorable way back to normalrelations with Israel, knowing thatbreaking ties with the Jewish state couldmean the end of U.S. military assistance.Egyptian leaders watch the news; theyknow all the leading candidates for pres-ident in 2012 are staunch supporters ofIsrael’s existence (and, yes, that meansPresident Obama too, all rhetoric to thecontrary).

So where the Hamas deal may havebeen about freeing hardened terroristsanxious to resume their attacks on Israel(as far as Hamas is concerned), theEgyptian exchange may give the currentgovernment there the diplomatic coverit needs to restore relations.

Or … not.Either way, it behooves Israel to find

out. Here’s hoping behind the scenesdiplomatic efforts are under way rightnow.

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE OCTOBER 27, 2011 — 7

OPINION

Officer lauds Jewish-Albanian ties

I was so happy to read the letter re-garding the Albanians and how they re-late to the Jews (Albanian-Jewish ties,Oct. 13).

I am presently deployed to Kosovowith the Army. I have been here in thepast and have been here this timesince August 2010. I adore the Alban-ian people.

When they hear that I am Jewish (afact I proudly claim) they get so excitedand teach me new facts. Last evening, Ihad a friend come to the base with his

colleagues to speak about the first mi-gration of Jews to the Balkan Peninsula.I, of course, was the only Jew there.Everyone was very interested and askedlots of questions and no one left till itwas over.

The Righteous Gentile art exhibit atthe Jewish Community Center in Pitts-burgh this month was in Kosovo lastyear and I was invited, by the embassy,to attend. I met and have become goodfriends with many of the families of therighteous gentiles.

This has been a wonderful experiencefor me and I intend to return to theBalkans to sightsee and continue teach-ing oral care to the wonderful people ofKosovo.

Elaine BerkowitzCamp Bondsteel, Kosovo

(The author, a Pittsburgh dentist incivilian life, is a lieutenant colonel anddental officer in the Army Reserve cur-rently deployed to Kosovo.)

Letters to the editorWe invite you to submit letters for publication. Letters mustinclude name, address and daytime phone number;addresses and phone numbers will not be published. Lettersmay not exceed 400 words and may be edited for length andclarity; they cannot be returned. Mail, fax or e-mail letters to:Letters to the Editor via e-mail The Jewish Chronicle letters@thejewishchronicle.net5915 Beacon, 3rd Flr. via faxPittsburgh, PA 15217 (412) 521-0154

Web site address thejewishchronicle.net

8 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE OCTOBER 27, 2011

OPINION

The Shalit lesson — no enemy will demean us

KIBBUTZ KETURA, Israel — Onthe same night Gilad Shalit was re-leased after more than five years incaptivity, I found myself, rather unex-pectedly, in the middle of a crowd ofthousands of smiling, dancing bodies— an all-night desert rave in a canyonnear the Dead Sea.

It was an odd, but somehow appropri-ate mix of events: the salvation of oneman, one man whose life kept the entirenation of Israel agonized and somberand hopeful for half a decade; and thou-sands of others dancing, a purely physi-cal release of tension and stress andfear, the exorcising of negative emotion.A cause and effect, if you will, as if therave only happened because we, asJews, as a nation, were able to breatheeasily — that yes, finally, Gilad hadcome home.

I want to ponder what has just unfold-

ed, and certainly will continue to unfold,with the freedom of Gilad.

There’s a popular opinion outside ofIsrael, and to a much smaller extentwithin Israel, that we have just walkedinto a death trap. New York Times con-tributor Walter Reich thinks so. In hiscolumn last week, he argues that basedon numbers alone, we made a mistake.And sure, based on numbers, we did. Is-rael traded one live soldier for over1,000 cap-tured Pales-tinians, sever-al of whomhave already— within asingle day oftheir release— committedthemselves totaking moreprisoners andending moreIsraeli lives. So, in essence, one life wasreturned to us as a dauntingly uncertainnumber of lives may soon be taken away.As he writes, it was a head versus heartgame. Our hearts were desperate for Gi-lad’s life; our heads should have told usthis was not the deal to make. And asthey so often do in politics and life andlove, our hearts won. Netanyahu madethe deal. Gilad was returned, looking

gaunt and scared; 477 Palestinian pris-oners were released, with the rest to fol-low in two months.

But I would argue with Reich. To sim-plify the situation to head and heart neg-lects several key factors. Will more Is-raelis die at the hands of Hamas’ newlyfreed battalion of terrorists? Maybe.Probably. And that, undeniably, will betragic. But will Israelis decry that thedecision was poor, even after a possible

new showerof attacks be-gins? I mustsay no.

With Gi-lad’s free-dom, Israelisare remindedthat along-side theirm a n d a t o r yservice in themilitary is

the promise — ironclad — that the na-tion will do absolutely everything in itspower to bring them home. They will notleave one soldier behind; they won’teven leave one body behind, or the re-mains of what once was a body. And thispromise, something that seems utterlyforeign to me as an American, meanseverything in Israel. It’s this promisethat Israel was literally founded upon:

we, as Jews, will never quit. We will nev-er again let an enemy demean us. Wewill fight to the death for every singlelife. It’s pride; it’s power. It’s love of acountry, love for each other.

In America, we were in the streetsthis summer when we killed our great-est foe. You would never see such ela-tion over death in Israel. As militaris-tic Israel may be, we celebrate lifehere, not death. When Gilad camehome, we held our breath. We criedinto our hands. We couldn’t believe itwas actually happening.

I’m sitting here on Kibbutz Ketura,surrounded by Israelis, Brits and Amer-icans. Rob, an ex-soldier from England,put it this way, bluntly: “You get yourf—-king boy back. And that’s it. No mat-ter what it means. So our freed prisonerswill go back to plotting against Israel.And we’ll go back to foiling their plans.But one thing means everything. That’swhat Israel is all about. You get yourf—-king boy back.”

After five years and four months, wegot him.

(Justin Jacobs, a former associate edi-tor for the Chronicle who currently livesin Israel, will from time to time sendback columns on his observations of lifethere. He can be reached at his blog,justinhjacobs.com.)

JustinJacobs

When Gilad came home, we heldour breath. We cried into ourhands. We couldn’t believe it wasactually happening.

NEW YORK — Political sovereigntyin the restored Jewish homeland oftenmeans making decisions with life-and-death implications. That reality wasjust brought home with the agonizingdecision to authorize the terribly im-balanced swap to gain the release ofGilad Shalit.

The criticisms and concerns lodgedby many supporters of Israel withinand beyond its borders against the Ne-tanyahu government for exchangingmore than 1,000 prisoners for a loneIsraeli soldier are legitimate and un-derstandable. Undoubtedly some ofthe released prisoners will attemptagain to wreak murder and mayhemagainst inhabitants of the Jewishstate.

At the same time, the overwhelmingmajority of Jews and people of goodwill throughout the world have re-joiced over a decision that will allowShalit to return to the safety and loveof his family and nation. Agreeing tothe lopsided deal involved great painfor an Israeli government chargedwith balancing numerous and compet-ing concerns in providing for the safe-ty and security of its soldiers and citi-zens. The decision involved no easy orobvious choice.

However, as so many reflect uponthe action taken by Israel, it is in-structive to remember that Israel un-fortunately has confronted the sameheartbreaking and excruciating ques-tion before. In 1985, the Jewish statehad to decide whether to return 1,150Palestinian and Lebanese prisonersfor the release of three Israelisoldiers.

While the exchange never tookplace and the fate of the three IsraeliPOWs remains unknown, two promi-nent Israeli rabbis — Shlomo Gorenand Haim David Halevi — addressedthe issue directly at that time. Theirwords from that time have resonanceand meaning today, as they provideimportant perspectives for reflectingupon the policy position adopted bythe current Israeli government inagreeing to this exchange.

Goren served as chief Ashkenazicrabbi of Israel and was formerly chiefrabbi of the Israel Defense Forces,while Halevi was the chief Sephardicrabbi of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. Goren, in anarticle written on May 31, 1985, statedthat Jewish law absolutely forbade theIsraeli government from redeeming“our captive soldiers in exchange for1,150 terrorists,” and based his rulingon a talmudic passage in Gittin 45athat stated, “Captives should not beredeemed for more than their value.”

Goren emphasized his great distressat the personal plight of these captives— they were surely in “mortal dan-ger.” However, he still insisted thatthe state should not redeem them, as

an exchange for the release of knownterrorists bent on the destruction ofIsrael, and its Jewish population surely would imperil all Israeli citi-zens and only fuel Arab attempts tocapture more Jews in the future. Theprice exacted from Israel through therelease of these terrorists was simplytoo steep for the state to afford.

Halevi, responding to Goren soonafter the article appeared, said he wassympathetic to the position advancedby his Ashkenazic colleague but dis-agreed with the conclusion. In Hale-vi’s view, the conditions obtained in amodern Jewish state were vastly dif-ferent from those that confronted theJewish community in pre-moderntimes when the Talmudic passage waswritten. The Jewish people were nowsovereign in their land, and the “polit-ical-national” aims that motivated theterrorists “to wreak havoc among theJewish people” would continue re-gardless of whether their prisonerswere released in exchange for Israelisoldiers.

Indeed, these terrorists would per-sist in their efforts until a political so-lution to the entire Israeli-Palestinianconflict was achieved.

The “impossible choice” before thegovernment, as Halevi saw it, waswhether to “strengthen the power ofthe terrorists through the release oftheir comrades or to strengthen themorale of IDF soldiers should there befuture wars.” Faced with the two op-tions, Halevi believed that priorityhad to be assigned the latter — the Is-raeli government should do all in itspower to uphold the morale of the Is-raeli soldiers.

If a soldier and by extension hisfamily and all residents of the Jewishstate knew that the government wouldspare no effort or expense to liberatea captured soldier, and that such re-lease possessed the highest govern-mental priority, then the resolve of thecitizen-soldiers of the State of Israelto defend their nation would be forti-fied and absolute.

In a moral universe where alterna-tives were limited and where the mili-tary might of the State of Israel couldprotect its citizenry despite the pre-posterous numerical imbalance of theexchange, Halevi felt this choice wasstill the wisest one that the govern-ment could make in an imperfectworld.

In responding in this way, Halevienunciated a position that provides arationale for understanding why thecurrent Israeli government made thedecision on the issue of prisoner ex-change. As its critics contend, surelyit is a policy fraught with danger forthe state. At the same time, it appearsto be a policy that continues to guideIsrael legitimately as it continues toprovide unlimited support to its citi-zen-soldiers as they all too often con-front an enemy bent on the state’s de-struction.

(Rabbi David Ellenson is the presi-dent of Hebrew Union College-JewishInstitute of Religion.)

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE OCTOBER 27, 2011 — 9

OPINION

Guest Columnist

DAVID ELLENSON

Shalit, Israel and rabbinic debate

Buy, Sell, Tradein the Classifieds, Call Donna 412-687-1000

Visit us at thejewishchronicle.net

BY RACHEL MARDER

JointMedia News Service

Traveling to Israel for the second timemade quite an impression on artist SukiChan, a 34-year-old Hong Kong nativewho was raised in London and now livesthere.

This time around, Chan — who com-bines film, video and photography tocreate mixed-media installations — vis-ited for the launch of her exhibitions inTel Aviv. She also started work on a newproject about religion and architecture,or as she said, how different peoples re-late to a place as their home, how theseneighbors relate to each other, and thenuances of conflict over space.

“It’s quite an intense little trip,” Chansaid of her 10 days here, speaking withJointMedia News Service at the ChristHostel café in the Armenian Quarter ofJerusalem’s Old City. “This is a place ofextremes. … It’s very complex. Themore time I spend here the more com-plex it is.”

What’s particularly intriguing to Chanis that Israel is home to some of the mostfiercely fought over real estate on theplanet.

“I suppose I’m interested in space andthe way a space becomes a place, andhow we relate to that place,” she said.

Currently on display is Chan’s videoinstallation “Tomorrow is Our Perma-nent Address,” in a group show titled“English Education,” which openedSept. 8 at the Dan Gallery in Tel Avivand runs until Oct. 28. Curator RavitHarari also included works by Eyal Sas-son, Guy Shoham and Peter Jacob Maltzin the exhibition. During the opening,Chan showed her short animation“Breathing Silence” (2004) outside thegallery on Gordon Street as part of a

one-night show called “Art Lovers.”The continuously looping film — one

cycle is 16 seconds long — explores Vic-torian architecture in England. Thefleeting moments of the animation showsmall details like butterflies on thecracks of the mosaic, and traces of for-mer inhabitants as their lives appearand disappear.

“It’s about the movements of the but-terfly that are here and then they’renot,” Chan said.

Chan took her inspiration from an-cient Chinese philosopher Chuang Tsi,who wrote: “Once, I, Chuang Tsi, dreamtI was a butterfly and was happy as a but-terfly. I was conscious that I was quitepleased with myself, but I did not knowthat I was Tsi. Suddenly I awoke, andthere was I, visibly Tsi. I do not knowwhether it was Tsi dreaming that he wasa butterfly or the butterfly dreamingthat he was Tsi. Between Tsi and the but-terfly there must be some distinction.[But one may be the other.] This is calledthe transformation of things.”

Chan’s work largely deals with thetransience of space and the imperma-nence of structure. In “Tomorrow is ourPermanent Address,” Chan constructeda city of drinking glasses. The light ofthe glass captures the viewer’s atten-tion, but she said she knew during film-ing she had to destroy the city becausewe’re guests in this world and nothing ispermanent. How does the destructionhappen?

“I don’t normally tell,” she said eva-sively. “There [are] clues.” Chan playsaround with scale and oscillation, creat-ing a dreamlike aesthetic in the video.

The piece came out of Chan’s master’sdegree, which she completed at theChelsea School of Art in London in 2008.She chose to use glass material out ofher concern that cities around the worldare building structures that disregardtheir location’s specific environmentalneeds. When cities today build sky-scrapers out of steel and glass in thedesert, for instance, Chan said that isn’tsustainable.

“I wanted to create something thatwould convey that precariousness andfragility,” she said.

In “A Place on Earth” (2008), Chanphotographed Thames Town — a suburbof Shanghai that she said is built like an

English village. People assume from thepictures that it’s a place in Europe, andthey are surprised to learn that it’s actu-ally Shanghai, whose architectural stylewas imported from Europe. “It feels likea misfit,” Chan said.

The way cities are developing, Chansaid, every city is starting to resembleevery other one, as one style is graftedfrom area to area. Cities are losing theiruniqueness, their native materials anddesign aesthetic as they strive to blendin with what is considered high architec-ture, she said.

“I think there’s this feeling that yourown architecture is not good enough,”Chan said. “It’s a crazy feeling of ‘we

will do this because we can.’ ”Israel’s architecture styles, Chan said,

reflect a mix of peoples. She said theBauhaus buildings of Tel Aviv and theIslamic aesthetic in Jerusalem are “veryexciting,” and “really show the meltingpot of cultures as well as similarities be-tween architecture.”

Chan said her reaction to the WesternWall was unlike her reaction to other sa-cred spaces that she has seen around theworld. Regarding mosques and church-es, Chan said she has felt small andoverwhelmed by an all-encompassingawe. But, “When I look at the WesternWall I see al-Aksa, the Dome of the Rock… the layering of one religion afteranother.”

Chan arrived in Israel smack in themiddle of an architectural revolution ofsorts: the tent city protests. She ob-served the tents lining main boulevardsin Tel Aviv, where the movement de-manding social justice was born. “Thewhole thing is like an art installation,”she said, “like a living sculpture” ex-pressing a different way for people to re-late to each other. It wasn’t all about con-sumption, Western capitalism and shop-ping, she said.

The tents, brightly colored andgrungy, are good to see in public life,Chan said, describing them as “seeingsomething that isn’t pristine in publicspace” for a change. Chan suggestedthat when the tents are all packed up —fragile as they are — an element of themremains to serve as a space for alterna-tive voices. In this case that’s a reversal

of Chan’s message, as the temporary canbecome the permanent.

Chan’s worked was displayed in agroup exhibition last year titled “TheShape of Things,” at the Ferrate Galleryin Tel Aviv. She has exhibited at soloand group exhibitions in the UnitedKingdom, Singapore, Japan, Ireland,Spain, Canada and the United States.

StyleStyle10 - THE JEWISH CHRONICLE OCTOBER 27, 2011

In Israel, mixed media artistexplores how ‘a spacebecomes a place’

SSSSuuuukkkkiiii ’’’’ssss place

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE OCTOBER 27, 2011 — 11

BOOKS

‘Odessa’ describes city of bright culture, dark hatred

Chances are pretty good that most of us,or someone we know, can trace a familymember back to Odessa.

Famed Odessa, once Russia’s great en-lightened and notorious port on the BlackSea — and still a city with a distinctive am-bience — gained much of its pre-commu-nist flavor from its Jews, who were 36 per-cent of its population during World War I,behind only Russians at 39 percent.

Jews feature throughout delightful“Odessa,” Georgetown University pro-fessor Charles King’s easy-reading, en-gaging history of a city of contrasts thatby turns was brightly cosmopolitan anddarkly anti-Semitic.

Catherine the Great founded Odessa in1794 on land relinquished by Turkey. She ap-pointed as those lands’ developer her some-time lover, Grigory Potemkin — he of the

hasty projects inaccurately known as“villages” installed to impressCatherine and her entourage as theyboated down the Dneiper to viewher new territories in 1787.

The city was designed in a tidygrid with governance and plan-ning by western Europeans: Josede Ribas, born in Italy, “son ofthe Spanish consul and his aris-tocratic Irish wife;” and theDuke of Richelieu, who fled theFrench Revolution and wasnamed city administrator byCzar Alexander I in 1803.

They created a city of un-usual beauty, with tree-linedavenues, parks, an imposingopera house and a grandstaircase from the harbormade famous in SergeiEisenstein’s famed but mostly fictionalmovie, “Battleship Potemkin.”

Closer to Vienna and Athens than toMoscow, swarming with sailors and traderswho brought cultures, ideas and epidemics,Odessa accommodated a mixed multitude—Russians, Jews, Greeks, Italians and oth-ers — residing in varying amounts of toler-ance and contempt. By the early 1800s, Ital-ians and their language were dominant;street signs were in Italian andRussian.

The city dominated early 19th centurygrain trading. But it also bore what Kingcalls “a conflict between a self-image ofopenness and grandeur and one of insulari-

ty and terror.” Grand opera,artists and in-t e l l e c t u a l sthrived in anenvironmentfamed also forcriminality. Ac-claimed writersincluded Alexan-der Pushkin, IsaacBabel, and “shock-ingly articulate”Zionist VladimirJabotinsky, part ofthe city’sintelligentsia.“When things

worked, Odessa nur-tured intellectuals andartists whose talents litup the world,” King saysin one of the strongest,best-written introduc-

tions I’ve read. “When they didn’t, the city’sname became a byword for fanaticism, anti-Semitism and deadly nationalism.”

Odessa was a magnet for eastern Euro-pean Jews, King says, and by the1860s, a quarter of the population was Jew-ish. Some made fortunes in grain, somelived in a slum, many were middlemen andsmall businessmen.

Although there was no ghetto until WorldWar II, underlying European anti-Semitismoozed up in occasional pogroms. Thencame the social devastation of World War I,the Bolshevik revolution in which both

sides victimized Jews, the communist yearsin which religious practice was restricted,and Stalin’s Great Terror, turning much ofthe nation into a society of informants anddenouncers.

Railroads to carry grain, the CrimeanWar, the Suez Canal, World War I and com-munism diminished Odessa’s commercialimportance. World War II effectively elimi-nated its Jews. Odessa, in a strip of territo-ry called Transnistria, was ruled by Roma-nia with full Nazi zeal.

King estimates that up to 233,000 Jews— residents and refugees — were inOdessa before the Romanians arrived.Many joined the huge flight eastward; inautumn 1941, the mayor estimated 50,000Jews remained. In November 1944, afterseveral months back in Soviet control, offi-cials counted 48.

Postwar, Jews did move in, but waves ofemigration have created something of anOdessan diaspora, including the BrightonBeach section of New York that’s been la-beled “Little Odessa.”

King’s superb writing stands on its headthe stereotype of wearisome academicworks, and his substantial bibliography re-inforces his credentials for expertise.Readers also benefit from photos, regionaland city maps, and a good index. “Odessa”is a lively, accessible history book that pub-lishers would do well to emulate, both forsales and for reader enjoyment.

(Neal Gendler is a Minneapolis writerand editor.)

BB oo oo kk RRee vv ii ee ww

BY NEAL GENDLER

For the Chronicle

Book Review“Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams,”by Charles King, W.W. Norton, 352 pages.

12 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE OCTOBER 27, 2011

B’nai MitzvaAndrew Kaplan,son of Lori and GaryKaplan, will becomea bar mitzva Satur-day, Oct. 29, at Con-gregation BethShalom. Grandpar-ents are Evelyn andBernard Sobol andCharlene and the

late Sidney Kaplan.

Maya ReutMilch, daughter ofBarbara Milch andEtty Reut, will be-come a bat mitzvaSaturday, Oct. 29, at10:30 a.m. at TempleSinai. Grandparentsare Audrey andJerome (Hershey)

Milch, and great-grandmother is RoseSolnit are of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., andMargalit and Moshe Kompano of Israel.

Heather AnnaRosengart,daughter ofMatthew Rosengartand Janet Lee, be-came a bat mitzvaSaturday, Oct. 22, atRodef Shalom Con-gregation. Grand-parents are Carl

Lester and Elaine Rosengart and WonRo and Kyung Ja Lee.

RabbiMordecaiRosenbergCertified Mohel(412) 521-4637

Simchas

Visit The Jewish Chronicle at

www.thejewishchronicle.net

sell yourstuff forca$hin the

classfiedsCall Donna 412-687-1000 to place your ad

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LOOK

CommunityTHE JEWISH CHRONICLE OCTOBER 27, 2011 — 13

Rodef Shalom’s Jewish Family Concerns Series will kick off Sunday,Oct. 30, from 10 to 11:30 a.m.

Join local Jewish author Beth Kissileff and Rodef Shalom rabbis and educators todiscuss Amy Chua’s thought-provoking book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.”Chua, a Chinese woman living inAmerica and married to a Jewishman, describes the way in whichshe raised her children and high-lights the stark differences inEastern and Western thought onchildhood development.

In this session, “Through theLens of Kavod (honor): A JewishResponse to the Tiger Mom,”participants will explore Jewishparenting values found in ourtraditional sacred texts. Thediscussion will be of particularinterest to parents, educatorsand anyone concerned about thewell-being of Jewish children.All are welcome; there is nocharge.

The Jewish Family Concerns se-ries continues with “Through theLens of Shmirat HaGuf (takingcare of the body): What YouNEED Know about Jewish Genet-ic Diseases,” Sunday, Dec. 11; “AJewish Response to Bullying,”Sunday, Jan. 22; and “How to Talkabout Life’s BIG Questions,”April 15.

Contact Rabbi Amy Hertz at(412) 621-6566 Ext. 130 for moreinformation.

Pictured below are four University of Pittsburgh students whocompeted in the Steel City Sukkah Competition. Pictured are QuentinBrown, Ezra Rahmey, Kelsey Henke and Alex Reichwald. The sukkahon the left was part of the competition.

Sukkah competition

Hadassah Greater Pittsburgh Chapter will paytribute to its national founder, Henrietta Szold, when itsmembers dress in period hats and gloves for its fall meetingand centennial kickoff, Tuesday, Nov. 1, 1:30 p.m., in theatrium at Rodef Shalom Congregation.

Ken Rice, evening anchor for KDKA-TV; and ZandraGoldberg, president ofHadassah-Greater Pitts-burgh, will be thespeakers for the after-noon, which will includeupdates on activities atHadassah Medical Cen-ter in Jerusalem.

As an essayist, trans-lator and editor, Szoldplayed a foundationalrole in creating a mean-ingful American Jewishculture, according tothe American JewishArchives. Still, as awoman, she was con-strained by the limitedopportunities that theJewish world of the late19th and early 20th cen-turies could offer her.The creation of Hadas-sah in 1912 as a Zionist women’s organization dedicated topractical work in Palestine transformed Szold’s life and thelives of hundreds of thousands of women who joined itswork.

An afternoon tea and homemade breads will be served.There is a charge. Contact Hadassah at (412) 422-8919 formore information.

Henrietta Szold

14 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE OCTOBER 27, 2011

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offers the Pittsburgh area Jewishcommunity a powerful way to supportThe Jewish Chronicle’s various plat-forms over and above the payment ofannual subscriptions,” Kitay said. “Thegrants from various private foundationsalong with corporate and individual tax-deductible donations will help to ensurethat the Chronicle will continue to be aninformative and strong voice of the Jew-ish community.”

Still, reality is reality. The perfectstorm of the Internet effect, the advent ofmobile media, and the economic down-turn has resulted in new challenges fornewspapers. Of course, challenges werepredicted for radio with the coming ofcommercial television, for television withthe coming of subscriber cable, for cablewith the coming of the Internet, and forthe Internet with the coming of mobilemedia. Obviously, all of these media arealive and well; only their priorities havechanged with audiences.

As noted, the change to 501 (c) (3) sta-tus (along with the implementation of amultimedia platform comprised of theChronicle, thejewishchronicle.net andJ Magazine) has added the potential foranother revenue stream: charitable con-tributions to the Chronicle. While manypublishers are trying (with little suc-cess) to implement “pay walls” to fill

revenue holes created by the erosion ef-fect of the flow of free information onthe Internet, donations do more than payfor content; they support the institution.

With the coming of the Chronicle’s50th anniversary, the board and staff arelooking forward to supporting the Jew-ish community of Greater Pittsburgh,western Pennsylvania and adjacentstates for another 50 years. One waythey plan to do this is through height-ened emphasis on community news,events and members.

International news is plentiful, easilyaccessible and relatively inexpensivethanks to wire services such as Associat-ed Press and Jewish TelegraphicAgency (JTA); however, with theminute-by-minute reporting capabilitiesof the Internet and mobile media, week-ly coverage of international (even na-tional and state) events is dated at best.Unfortunately, local coverage requiresadditional local reporting, and that re-quires additional expense.

“Jewish Pittsburgh is a varied andeclectic community,” said Executive Ed-itor Lee Chottiner. “To cover all thenews of this community — good and bad,happy and sad — requires, as one of mycolleagues once said, ‘pens on theground’ — and lots of them.”

Necessity being the mother of inven-tion, the board and staff of The JewishChronicle look forward to turning thesechallenges into opportunities to not onlycontinue serving the community, but do-ing so in continually newer and betterways.

(David Caoin can be reached atdavidc@thejewishchronicle.net.)

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from trade papers. “The national crema-tion rate is 36 percent, so we are not toofar behind.”

In Pittsburgh, however, Brody be-lieves the cremation rate among Jews isonly in the 10 to 15 percent range.

“The figures are not that high here,”she said. “The figures are much higheron the West Coast and in South Florida.In Denver, the rate is between 40 and 45

percent.”Jews have traditionally chosen burial

over cremation in line with their long-standing belief in ultimate resurrection,according to Rabbi Scott Aaron, commu-nity scholar at the Agency for JewishLearning.

“Judaism’s historic belief in the res-urrection of the dead is predicated onthe idea that G-d will raise us from thegrave by reassembling our remainsthere into living flesh,” Aaron said in ane-mail. “Cremation is seen as an unnatu-ral process that negates the opportunityfor resurrection since the body was in-

tentionally destroyed rather than natu-rally decomposed. Traditionally, suchan act of intentional destruction ofsomething G-d created in his image wasunderstood as disrespectful to G-d, andforfeited the merit of resurrection.”

Only intentional destruction of thebody would disqualify someone fromresurrection, he added, so someone whodied in a tragedy, such as the Holocaustor in the World Trade Center on 9/11,would still be eligible.

The Orthodox and Conservative move-ments still adhere to the prohibitionagainst cremation, although the Reform

movement allows it, and the Conserva-tive movement allows rabbis to partici-pate in memorial services of the cremat-ed under certain conditions.

“We have not seen a huge increase inrequests for cremation,” said RabbiYaier Lehrer, spiritual leader of AdatShalom near Fox Chapel, which followsthe standards and practices of the Con-servative movement. “But when pre-sented with such a request, I do counselagainst it. It’s hard because very often,the family makes the request becausethe deceased themselves had that

Cremation:Continued from page 1.

Please see Cremation, page 19.

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The story of Noah and the flood is of-ten presented as a children’s tale, some-thing so fabulous and unbelievable weexpect kids to be awed and adults tostrain to suspend their disbelief.

The story is, of course, challengingand terrifying when studied in its fullsetting. The adult reader is filled withquestions from the outset, many ofwhich are asked by our commentators:

Was Noah really a righteous man inhis time? Many interpreters don’t thinkso. He was righteous only because theworld was mired in immorality.

Was Noah really a hero? In our tradi-tion he is compared unfavorably to bothAvraham and Moses.

Why didn’t Noah speak up on behalf ofothers, as Avraham spoke up for thedoomed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah?Our Sages take him to task.

These questions and our responses tothem could fill untold chapters andbooks — and they have!

Yet it is a minor conundrum at the endof the flood story that takes us out of theworld of fable once and for all. As thewaters recede, we are told that Noah re-leased a raven, then a dove from theArk.

Most of us know that the dove couldnot find a place for its foot to rest andcame back to Noah. He released it aweek later and the dove brought back aplucked off olive branch in its beak. Af-ter seven more days, Noah let the dovego and it did not return.

But before ever releasing the dove,the text tells us that, “He released araven, which took off, flying thither andback until the water dried up from theearth.” (Gen. 8.7)

Where did the raven go? I ask thisquestion every year to my 10th-grade

class and their answers are certainlycreative:

The raven died.The raven had morestrength than the dove and flew until thewaters dried up.The raven found its wayback to the ark and hid from Noah.

The answer evident from the text,however, is far more chilling. Unlikethe dove, which is vegetarian and eatsonly leaves, the raven is a carnivore.The ravens on the grounds of the Towerof London eat the Queen’s beef. Theraven in our Torah narrative needs nosuch dainty. The seas are not pristineand clear. Rather they are filled withthe dead of all creatures who drownedin the flood, including human beings.The raven does not have to search foreither food or a resting place. The wa-ters are filled with both.

This image forever destroys the no-tion of this story as a children’s fable.The Torah is trying to tell us what theconsequences of our own moral de-pravity can lead to. It is teaching usthat, in a world of no rules, carnivoresfly about unrestrained from doing al-most anything.

I am indebted to my beloved teacher,Dr. Rabbi Chanan Brichto of HebrewUnion College-Jewish Institute of Reli-gion in Cincinnati for this insight. Heconstantly reminded his students thatrather than set aside difficult texts, wemust confront them. He demanded thatwe suspend our judgment and skepti-cism in order to find the real essence ofany Torah narrative.

We live in a world of carnivores still.It is our task to restrain them and to lim-it their threat to our hopes for a decent,ethical society. That is why Torah is soimportant to us, as a guide to making abetter world.

We must remember the popularteaching that the only thing evil needs tosucceed is for good men and women todo nothing. This teaching is so muchmore compelling than a fable.

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

— THE JEWISH CHRONICLE OCTOBER 27, 2011 — 17

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Where did the raven go?Portion of the Week

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CAPLAN: On Sunday, Oct. 23,2011, Carol B. Caplan; beloved wife ofRobert Caplan; beloved mother ofAlan (Karen) Caplan, Eric (Marci)Caplan and Marla Caplan (VictorThomas); daughter of the late Isadoreand Genevie Bliwas; sister of the lateStuart Bliwas; loving “Grammy” ofSage and Siera Caplan and Ian andCarly Caplan. Services were held atRalph Schugar Chapel; interment Bet-ty Rosenberg/Parkway Jewish CenterCemetery. Contributions may be madeto Parkway Jewish Center, 300Princeton Drive, Pittsburgh, PA15235. Arrangements by RalphSchugar Chapel, Inc., 5509 CentreAve., Pittsburgh, PA 15232.www.schugar.com

FELDSHUE: On Friday Oct. 21,2011, Beatrice Feldshue of Rockville,Md., formerly of Naples, Fla., and Mon-roeville; beloved wife of the late GeneFeldshue; mother of Elyse (Allan) Wein-er and Alan (Ann) Feldshue; sister ofMildred Markowitz; grandmother ofSeth (Julianne) Weiner, Josh (Amanda)Weiner, Gabriel Weiner and Louis Feld-

shue; great-grandmother of Ben, Briaand Jared Weiner. Services were held atTemple Beth Ami in Rockville; inter-ment Naples, Fla. Contributions madebe made to The Alzheimer’s Associationwww.alz.org, Temple Beth Amiwww.bethami.org, or JSSA Hospicewww.jssa.org. Arrangements by EdwardSagel Funeral Direction, 1091 RockvillePike, Rockville, MD 20852. www.sagel-funeraldirection.com

FRANKEL: On Friday Oct. 14, 2011,in Lauderhill, Fla., Sheila Frankel; wifeof the late Arnold Frankel; mother ofRandy Frankel (Terri Greenberg), Gary(Cynthia) Frankel of Davie, Fla; belovedNana of Andrew (Stephanie) Frankel ofTimonium, Md., Suzanne (Peter) Gavinof Ridgefield, Conn., David Frankel,Erin Greenberg of Los Angeles andRoss Greenberg of New York City;beloved grandma of Joe, Michael andPrudence Frankel; Nana-Nana of BlakeGavin. Services and interment wereheld at Star of David Memorial ParkCemetery. Contributions can be made tothe American Cancer Society, 320 Bil-mar Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15205.

HONIG: On Sept. 9, 2011, JeanHonig, 89; beloved wife of the late Ja-cob Honig; beloved mother of Jiya(Steve) Kowarsky, Fredrick Honig,Angel Honig and the late RobertHonig and Edward Honig; grandmoth-er of Eric Abrams (Andrea Anapol-sky) and Dr. Andrew Abrams; sisterof the late Alfred Silberman, JosephSilberman and Phyllis Silberman Fall-er; sister-in-law of Hannah and Mar-vin Kamin. Jean was an avid photog-rapher and was active in numerousJewish organizations including Tem-ple Sinai Sisterhood, B’nai B’rithWomen and ORT as the house photog-rapher. Her photographs often ap-peared in The Jewish Chronicle. As aresident of the Riverview Towers, hercheerful smile and generous spiritwere renowned. She passed awaypeacefully in Maui, where she livedfor the last 8 months of her life, sur-rounded by her children. Contribu-tions may be made to the Spirit ofAloha Temple, 800 Haumana Road,Haiku, Hawaii, 96708, to be used forthe publication and distribution of abook that Jean wrote, in the monthsbefore her death, entitled “Gems froma Magic Jeanie.”

MILLER: On Thursday, Oct. 20,2011, Larry Miller, 80; son of the lateHarry and Lillian Miller; preceded indeath by his siblings, Charles,Dorothy and Esthermae; survived bythree nieces and one nephew. Servicesand interment private. Arrangementsby Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., 5509Centre Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15232.www.schugar.com

ROSEN: On Wednesday, Oct. 12,2011, Richard I. Rosen; loving son ofGloria and the late Norwin Rosen;loving brother of Barbara J. Rosen(Ilkka Ikavalko) and the late JudyRosen; nephew of Charlotte Shiner;cousin of Adrienne and Dennis Drap-kin, Dr. Jan Miller Schwartz, Margieand Mott Morris, Abby and Dr. ChuckHyman, Myrna and Joe Strapp andtheir children. Services were held atRalph Schugar Chapel; intermentBeth Shalom Cemetery. Arrange-ments by Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc.,5509 Centre Ave., Pittsburgh, PA15232. www.schugar.com

SCHREIBER: On Monday, Oct. 24,2011, Kurt C. Schreiber; beloved hus-band of Lillian B. Schreiber; loving fa-ther of Emanuel M. (Elisheva Reynolds)Schreiber, Celia Anne (Itzik Lebovich)Schreiber of Raleigh, N.C., and SamuelH. (Julie) Schreiber of Irvine, Calif.;loving grandfather of Abraham, Sarah,Shira, Liat and Yuval. Services wereheld at Ralph Schugar Chapel; inter-ment Beth Shalom Cemetery. Contribu-tions may be made to Young PeoplesSynagogue, 6404 Forbes Ave., P.O. Box8141, Pittsburgh, PA 15217. Arrange-ments by Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc.,5509 Centre Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15232.www.schugar.com

SHAPIRO: On Sunday, Oct. 23,2011, Hope L. Shapiro; beloved wife ofJason H. Shapiro; beloved mother ofFrank (Rosa) Shapiro, Gerrie Shapiroand Robbie (Donni) Elconin; grand-mother of Micah, Travis and Jessie El-conin and Benjamin and Ruth Shapiro;great-grandmother of Amaya . Serviceswere held at Ralph Schugar Chapel; in-terment Torath Chaim Cemetery. Con-tributions may be made to Hyman andSarah Shapiro School for Girls, 6401Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15217 orYeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh, 2100Wightman St., Pittsburgh, PA 15217 orJewish Family & Children’s Service,5743 Bartlett St., Pittsburgh, PA 15217.Arrangements by Ralph SchugarChapel, Inc., 5509 Centre Ave., Pitts-burgh, PA 15232. www.schugar.com

UnveilingsBARENT: A monument in loving

memory of Rae Melnick Barent will beunveiled Sunday, Nov. 6, at 12:30 p.m. atNew Light Cemetery, 750 Soose Road.Family and friends are welcome.

BINSTOCK: A monument in lovingmemory of Dorothy Binstock will be un-veiled Sunday Nov. 6, at 10:30 a.m. atB’nai Israel Cemetery on BlackadoreRoad. Rabbi Daniel Wasserman will of-ficiate. Family and friends are invited.

MAZER: A monument in lovingmemory of Edward Mazer of Pittsburghwill be unveiled Sunday, Nov. 6, at 11 a.m.at The Homewood Cemetery, 1601 SouthDallas Ave., Pittsburgh, the Star of DavidSection. Family and friends are invited.

18 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE OCTOBER 27, 2011

OBITUARIES

Please refer to wwwwww..tthheejjeewwiisshhcchhrroonniiccllee..nneettfor regularly updated obituary information.

request. How do you say to someone youlove and care about, ‘You made this re-quest, but we’re not going to do it?’ ”

While Pittsburgh has seen only a mod-est increase in Jewish cremations in re-cent years, the number will surely climbas more Jews write into their wills theirwishes to be cremated when the timecomes.

Rabbi Alex Greenbaum of the Conser-vative Beth El Congregation of the SouthHills has only presided over two memo-rial services in 20 years for Jews whowere cremated. Despite the fact thatboth the Orthodox and Conservativemovements prohibit cremation, he fore-sees an increase in the practice.

“I know it will be increasing becausepeople are coming to me and talkingabout it and putting it in their wills,” hesaid.

While economics used to be the pri-mary motive for cremation — which ismuch less costly than a traditional bur-ial — the reasons why people choosecremation have “changed drastically” inrecent years. Now, the desire to be cre-mated, according to Greembaum, is mo-tivated by such things as fear of thedark, or fear of being in a box.

“I once had a person tell me he want-ed to be cremated because he had a fearof flying,” Greenbaum said, “and heknew he would have to be flown to an-other location after he died to beburied.”

Whenever someone approaches him todiscuss cremation, Greenbaum says healways begins his reply by saying, “it isagainst Jewish law.”

“They always know that [it is prohibit-ed],” he said, “but the question is then‘what if?’ My answer is even if a personchooses to break Jewish law, we stillhave the responsibility of the mitzva oftaking care of the dead. We will still dothe ritual washing of the body. Andmany Jewish cemeteries, including BethEl’s, will allow the burial of cremains.”

The burning of millions of Jews inthe Holocaust likely shook the founda-tion of Jews’ belief that the body andsoul were one and the same for pur-poses of resurrection.

“I truly believe the Holocaustchanged everything for us,” Greenbaumsaid. “We really don’t believe that themillions who were cremated againsttheir will were cut off from the world tocome.

“The Holocaust changed our theolo-gy,” he added, “but cremation is stillagainst Jewish law. But people choosingcremation is a reality today. The way wedeal with that reality is the question.”

If a family chooses to have a loved onecremated, sitting shiva for the deceasedand saying kaddish would still be appro-priate, according to Lehrer.

“No matter how the body has been dis-posed of, they [the survivors] are stillmourners,” he said. “I wouldn’t tellthem they couldn’t say kaddish. Youdon’t want to compound their pain.”

While the Reform movement does notprohibit cremation, a 1990 responsum(rabbinic opinion) discourages the prac-tice because of the tragic overtones fol-lowing the Holocaust.

Although he has not seen a marked in-

crease in cremation in recent years, Rab-bi Aaron Bisno of Rodef Shalom Congre-gation says the practice is “not uncom-mon, not unusual and not unfamiliar.”

“Burial is obviously the default,” Bis-no said. “But every Jewish funeral homeI’ve ever worked with makes cremationavailable.”

While cremation is a viable choice inthe Reform movement — and is left tothe discretion of individual families —there are reasons why some may preferburial.

While not steering a family in any par-ticular direction, Bisno does explain tofamilies seeking counsel why, post-Holo-caust, cremation can be an off-puttingnotion. Cremation also can depriveloved ones of a place to visit the de-ceased if the cremains are not buried, hesaid.

Rabbi Mark Mahler, spiritual leaderof Temple Emanuel of South Hills, a Re-form congregation, discourages crema-tion “based on Jewish tradition,” hesaid, and the overwhelming majority ofhis congregation still chooses traditionalburial.

“When the Temple Emanuel cemeterywas created circa 1982, allowance wasmade for the interment of cremains,”Mahler wrote in an e-mail. “Over theyears since, perhaps five people’s cre-mains have been interred there. I havenoticed no trend toward more crema-tion. If anything, perhaps there is less,at least from the narrow perspective ofthe Temple Emanuel cemetery.”

The issue of cremation came to a headin Israel not too long ago.

Israel’s first crematorium, AleyShalechet, opened in 2005 in HibbatZion. Six months later, the Chief Rab-binate ruled that a person who wishes tobe cremated after his death could nothave a Jewish burial of his ashes, andthat traditional mourning rituals, in-cluding a shiva and kaddish, would notbe allowed.

In 2007, Judge Moshe Sobol, sittingin the Jerusalem district court, ruledthat an 80-year-old Holocaust sur-vivor could be cremated in accor-dance with the wishes of his family,thus confirming that cremation in Is-rael is, in fact, legal, even if not con-doned by the Chief Rabbinate.

Sobol’s decision incensed many Is-raelis, believing that cremation not onlyis prohibited by the Torah, but is also areminder of the ovens used by Nazis tomurder Jews during World War II.

In 2007, arsonists set fire to the cre-matorium at Hibbat Zion, which sus-tained severe damage. It was rebuilt inOctober of that year, and has been func-tioning ever since.

Still, a 2002 survey by Geocar-tographia in Israel found that only about10 percent of Israeli Jews would choosecremation.

Clearly, most Jews still choose burialfor their loved ones, perhaps leaning onthe familiar traditions of death for rea-sons of comfort, if nothing else.

“If you’ve seen this tradition overyour life, you’re going to identify withthat tradition,” said Lehrer. “It may bethe best way to help you deal with yourgrief. Tradition is a learned response,and in the tradition of death and dying, Iwould say that Judaism has it right.”

(Toby Tabachnick can be reached attobyt@thejewishchronicle.net.)

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE OCTOBER 27, 2011 — 19

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30: GABRIEL ABRAMOVITZ, MORRIS BECK, ABRAM CLOVSKY, DAVID COHEN,EVELYN HEPPS CUSHNER, FANNY DAVIDSON, EMANUEL L. DEROY, SARAH SAMUELS FINKELHOR, BESSIEFREEDLANDER, BERTHA HANDELMAN, LILLIAN ROTHSCHILD HENDLER, ADOLPH KLEIN, LOUIS KLEIN,SAMUEL KOPELMAN, BERTHA KRUMAN, RHEA K. LANDAU, JOSEPH LAZAR, JACOB LESHER, ANNA BELLALEVY, TILLIE ORNSTEIN LEWIS, ROSE MARIANS, FANNY MARKS, JOSEPH MAYER, RUTH SCHOENBRUNMORRIS, SYLVIA OLITZKY, FRANCES SHRUT PERELL, MORRIS PICOVSKY, ANNIE MOLLIE RABINOVITZ,MORDECAI J. RICE, RUDA BELLA ROSE, MILTON L. ROSENBAUM, DAVID ROSENTHAL, MOLLIE FINEGOLDRUTTENBERG, ISRAEL SAMUEL, ESTHER SAMUELS, JACOB SCHNITZER, ANNA B. SELZNICK, ABE SHULMAN,SAMUEL SPARKS, BARNEY SWERDLIN, MILTON FRIEDMAN TANZER, TIBIE VERK, ABRAHAM WECHSLER,SIGMUND YAHR, MORRIS A. BRAND ZINS.MONDAY, OCTOBER 31: CUDDY H. ABRAMS, YETTA ANGEL, BENJAMIN BONDY, BELLA LEBOVITZBRAND, HERMAN BROWN, SARAH SCHNITZER ELLING, ABE GOLDBLUM, MOLLIE GOLDENBERG, SORLYCUKERBAUM GORDON, JAY HELFANT, MIRIAM SHIFRA HELLER, BENJAMIN HERSKOVITZ, JACOB KAUFMANN,REV. JOSEPH LEVIN, ISAAC LEVINE, SAMUEL LEVINSON, JENNIE LIPSITZ, BESS SACHS LISS, ANNE B. LITMAN,SAUL MALLINGER, SAUL MALLINGER, JOSEPH C. MARCUS, HELEN MARKOVITZ, S. MILLER, BESSIE RACHAELNOULLET, GENE ABRAHAM PIPER, BELLE ROSENSON, MEYER ROSENTHAL, MARIE ROTHMAN, FRANCESRUBEN, EMANUEL RUBIN, SAMUEL RUBINSTEIN, ADOLPH RUTNER, EDITH A. SCHAFFER, MOLLIESCHLANSKY, SAMUEL SHIRE, MORRIS SHULGOLD, BEN SPOKANE, SAMUEL J. SUGERMAN, MEYERVESHANCEY, JACOB WEINSTEIN, WILMER W. WOLK.TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1: PHILLIP AMERICUS, WILLIAM ARNOWITZ, CLAIRE ANN BLOCK, FANNY C.CAPLAN, KATY COHEN COHEN, ROSE COHEN, NELLIE COHN, ETHEL EPSTEIN, IDA SADOWSKY FRANKEL,JACK GOLDMAN, FEIGE GOTTLIEB, JEAN GUSKY, RAE HADBURG, NACHAME LEVINE HORVITZ, WILLIAM I.ISAACSON, IDA A. KLODELL, AMELIA BERG LAZARUS, SIGMUND LENCHNER, JOSEPH LEVIN, WILLIAM B.LEWIS, ISABEL LUBIN, MOLLIE MARKS, SAMUEL L. MORIN, ELIZABETH NEWMAN, GERTRUDE PALKOVITZ,MORRIS PATTAK, SOPHIA ROMAN, MILTON L. SACHNOFF, FREDA SAMUELS, MORRIS N. SHAEFFER, ANNASIEGEL, FRANK SILVERBERG, SIDNEY L. SILVERMAN, SOLOMON SLOMBERG, GUS TRAU, YETTA WEISS, RAYZEIDMAN.WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2: JANICE GAY BAROVSKY, ANNA (SOLOMON) BERGER, VIVIAN CUFFBOYD, ANNE TAUBER DYM, FANNIE KLEIN, LEWIS LEUIN, D. H. LEVINE, ESTHER MANDELL, MYER MILLER,MORRIS C. ROSCOW, LIBBY ROSE, ELIZABETH ROTHSTEIN, MOLLY SCHUTTE, WILLIAM SCHWARTZ, ANNASCLARSKY, ROSE SEGAL, TILLIE SELTZER, FRANK SHAKESPEARE, GILBERT SHEPSE, ANNE R. STEINBERG,FREDA ULZHEIMER, ABE WEKSELMAN, CHARLES WIESENTHAL.THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2: JULES JOSEPH ANATOLE, HYMAN BALES, ALBERT BLUMENTHAL,RACHEL COHEN, WILLIAM FRIED, JENNIE B. GLASS, CARYL MARCIA GOLDBERG, IDA HERSHMAN, MINNIEHOFFMAN, MOLLIE IWLER, LOUIS KADDELL, ANNA C. M. KOBACKER, ANNA MAE KOHLER, DORA KWALL, ADAALDERMAN LEVINE, LOUIS LEVY, BESSIE LINCOFF, BENJAMIN MARKS, JEROME MEYER, SYLVIASTEINBERGER MOSKOVITZ, ARTHUR B. MOSS, MINNIE QUINT, LOUIS RABINOVITZ, FRUME RAFFEL, MORRISREIDBORD, SAMUEL W. ROSE, MORRIS SCHOLNICK, MORRIS SCHWARTZ, JOSEPH SEMO, JACOBSHERWOOD, SADIE SIDLER, KASSEL SIEGEL, ETHEL SARAH SIMONS, SARAH STALINSKY, JOSEPH H. STERN,WOLFE TEX, LENA VIXMAN, ROXINE M. WEINTHAL.FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4: MILTON COHEN, SARAH GOLDENSON COHEN, FANNIE TITLEBAUM FRANK,ELIZABETH S. KALOVSKY, ROBERT KLEINER, SOPHIA LEVENSON, HERMAN A. LEWIS, MANO LICHTENSTEIN,AMALIA LOWENTHAL, FRANK MAYER MARCOSKY, BASHIE MARETZKY, DR. GENEVA MARKUS, DAVIDMELNICK, MARY OPTER, SHIA BAER PARISER, CARMAN SUE ROSENBERG, ELAINE R. RUBIN, S. LEORUSLANDER, ABE SCHWARTZ, BENJAMIN SCHWARTZ, SAM SCHWARTZ, KATE SEGELMAN, BEN SIGAL,SARAH SILVERMAN, ETHEL SIROCCA, NATHAN SLOTOLOW, MORRIS SPECTOR, ROSE SCHWARTZ STEIN,RACHEL STERNFIELD, FAE VELARDI, SAMUEL WALTERS, MALVINA WEISS, HARRY WISHNEV, MORRIS WOLFE,MAURICE R. ZACKS.SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5: JENNIE CAHEN BENNETT, EVA OSGOOD BREAKSTONE, HARRY ROBBINSBRODY, SOL FEINBERG, ISADORE FELDMAN, MILTON GOTTLIEB, WILLIAM H. KLEIN, ISADORE KROUSE,SARAH REBECCA LANSON, JULIUS LEVIN, IRVING LONDON, DAVID LUBOW, LAURA MAHLER, MAX MORITZMAHLER, PETER MARCUS, LOUIS MARETZKY, SYLVIA R. MELNICK, MINNIE TOIG PEARLMAN, MILTON J.PLESSET, MANYA PROTETCH, ANNA GOLDSTEIN RADEN, ROSE GOTTLIEB RIEFER, IDA ROSENSTEIN, LOUISROSNER, PARI LIBBIE RUBINOFF, HARRY SIGAL, SAMUEL SILVERBLATT, SOPHIE SIMON, HARRY SPARKS,MOSES ABRAHAM TALENFELD, ROSA L. TEPLITZ, SARAH TOBIAS, REGINA BROWN WAND, NATHANWANDER, SARAH WEINBAUM, TODD ALAN WHITMAN, MOLLIE WINTNER, HERMAN WOLFF.

Call DeeAnna Cavinee at 412-521-1975 or e-mail donations@jaapgh.org for moreinformation or to make a contribution to the Jewish Association on Aging.

WE ACKNOWLEDGE WITH GRATEFUL APPRECIATION CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE FOLLOWING:DONOR IN MEMORY OF DONOR IN MEMORY OF

ARLEEN & MARVINADELSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ESTHERITA COHENPAULA MARGARET CLOVSKY . . . . .IRVING CLOVSKYDENNIS ENGEL . . . . . . . . . . .SAMUEL HACKMANDR. & MRS. JOSEPH FISCHER . . .MOLLY SCHUTTETHE FRANKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .MILDRED HAHNGLORIA FRIEDLANDER . . . . . . . .EUGENE BROWNGLANTZ FAMILY . . . . . . . . . . . . .MIRIAM GLANTZSTEPHANIE GLICK . . . . . . . . .MOLLIE GOLDBERGALLAN GOLDBERG . . . . . . . . . .SADIE GOLDBERGFRANCES HARMON . . . . . . . . .ESTHER PORTNOYLILLIAN HELFAND . . . . . . . . . . . . .MINNIE SCHILITALLAN & THELMA KATZ . . . . . . . .ROBERT SCOTT

ACKERMANSANDRA PRESS KEARNS . . .HILDA & SANDFORD

PRESSRUTH KLEIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ARNOLD KLEINSHARON KNAPP . . . . .IDA SADOWSKY FRANKELSHARON KNAPP . . . . . . . . . . . . .ANN SADOWSKYMERRIANE & ALAN LEFF . . . . .ARTHUR B. MOSSMERRIANE & ALAN LEFF . . . . . . . . . .DENA STEINALAN & MYRON LEFFFAMILIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ROSE WYATTALAN & MYRON LEFFFAMILIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .GERTRUDE LIEB

DR. & MRS. ALLAN LEVINE . . . . . . .HANNAH RAELEVINE

ELAINE MCNEILL . . . . . . . . . .SYLVIA R. MELNICKNESSA MINES . . . . . . . . . .MARCIA G. FARBSTEINNATHANIEL SAMUELPIRCHESKY . . . . . . . . . . . . . .MICHAEL PIRCHESKYSHIRLEY C. RAPPORT . . .ABRAHAM H. RAPPORTBARRY REZNICK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .DAVID MILLERBARRY REZNICK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .GRACE MILLERGERTRUDE ROBERTS . . . . . .GEOFFRY ROBERTSGERTRUDE ROBERTS . . . . . . . . . . . .LOUIS ZWEIGABE SAMBOL AND FAMILY . . . . . .SAM SAMBOLELINOR SILVERMAN . . . . . . .EMANUEL L. DEROYHAROLD SMOLAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . .SAM SMOLARMAX SMOLAR . . . . . . . . . . . .BENJAMIN SMOLARVIOLET SOFFER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .JULIUS GUSKYPATRICIA STEINBERG . . . . . . . . . .DR. MARSHALL

STEINBERGHOWARD & RHEA TROFFKIN . . .SALLY BRENNERNANETTE TUCKER . . . . . . . . . . .LEAH FIRESTONEFLORENCE ZWEIG WALK . . . . . . . . .LOUIS ZWEIGALISON WRIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .MAX A. ANTISRUTH YAHR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .SIGMUND YAHRRUTH YAHR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .MIRIAM YAHRRUTH YAHR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I. LEROY YAHR

Cremation:Continued from page 16.

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20 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE OCTOBER 27, 2011