The Voice of the Lehigh Valley Jewish Community
www.jewishlehighvalley.org
| Issue No. 475 | April 2024 | Nissan / Iyar 5784 AWARD-WINNING PUBLICATION EST. 1977
Colorful costumes, carnival games with prizes, kids everywhere... Sounds like Purim. p17
JDS kids prep for Pesach Fair, PJ Library offers online resources for kids, our columnist in Israel wonders what the holiday will be like there... See our pullout Passover section
FROM THE DESK OF JERI ZIMMERMAN p3 LVJF TRIBUTES p9 JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER p12-13 JEWISH DAY SCHOOL p14 JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE p15 COMMUNITY CALENDAR p23
Feeling like strangers in a strange land By Robert Wax Jewish Federation Board President and Laurie Wax Women’s Philanthropy President During Passover, we are reminded that we were once strangers in a strange land. The seder meal instructs us to envision ourselves as slaves in the land of Egypt, and we recount the times our Jewish ancestors faced unimaginable atrocities. We are left to appreciate our freedoms, as we recognize that Jews in the Diaspora are protected by our ability to return to Israel and Jerusalem if we are to face another generational threat to
our people. Since October 7, many American Jews have questioned whether we are facing that threat right now. We have witnessed a rampant spike in antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment in public schools, on college campuses, and in cities across the country and the world. We are not immune to these issues in the Lehigh Valley, and some of us have openly questioned whether we are still welcome here. In the midst of these concerns, anti-Israel protestors recently turned their attention to local city councils and advocated for the passage
of unilateral ceasefire resolutions condemning Israel. These protestors ignore the atrocities that occurred on October 7. They fail to acknowledge the hostages being held in Gaza. They present with intentional misstatements and outright lies in an effort to gain the support of local politicians. What should we do when faced with this vitriol directed toward our community? Should we just leave it alone, knowing that municipal Robert Wax, Federation president. government has little sway safe to do so? on our international policies? Absolutely not. Despite Should we wait until this crithe gang mentality demonsis passes and then reemerge from our abodes when it feels strated by these protestors at these meetings, regardless
Laurie Wax, Women’s Philanthropy president.
of the heckling or other poor behavior they demonstrate, Strange land continues on page 6
Together, we remember
Yom HaShoah commemoration to feature the survival story of Eva Levitt z”l By Carl Zebrowski Editor Some stories need to be told over and over. You can only begin to get a glimpse of their depth and magnitude after multiple retellings. Think of Genesis and Exodus. Think of the Holocaust. On May 5, Yom HaShoah (Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day), the Jewish community of the Lehigh Valley will hear the Holocaust survival story of Eva Levitt z”l, one of only six Jewish children in her hometown of Humenné, Czechoslovakia, to survive the reign of the Nazis. “A lot of people in the community have heard Eva’s
story,” said Stephanie Smartschan, coauthor of “Evitchka: A True Story of Survival, Hope and Love,” the book on Eva’s life that will be released on May 5. “She told it a lot.” Smartschan and her coauthor, Larry Levitt, Eva’s husband of 61 years, will present Eva’s story that night at the JCC. They’re two of the people who know that story best. Working on the book for about two years—interviewing, researching, writing, and editing—only deepened their understanding. The Levitts and Smartschan are no strangers to this community. Eva, who died in 2023, served in various leadership
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positions, including president of the board of the Jewish Federation from 2017 to 2019. Larry, a retired neurologist who founded and built up the Neurology Division at Lehigh Valley Hospital, has served on the Federation board and various committees. Both are well known for their generosity and volunteer work. Smartschan is a journalist by trade turned Jewish nonprofit professional who used to be marketing director for the Federation. Eva lived her youngest years in Humenné, where there were 200 Jewish children before World War II. Then the Nazis came. They took Eva’s
father and sent him from concentration camp to concentration camp. Her mother remained, and she took care of Eva, a toddler at the time—in hiding. Larry and Stephanie will focus on this early part of Eva’s story at the Yom HaShoah commemoration. They’ll tell how courage, determination, Coauthors Stephanie Smartschan and Larry resilience, and luck—and Levitt, holding a photo of Eva (Evitchka) Levitt z”l. the grave risk taken by the Catholic couple who story, the post-Holocaust hid Eva, her mother, and her years, gets detailed treatment father’s sister—saved them in the book. “What makes this all from being discovered and different from many other captured by the Nazis. Yom HaShoah The second part of Eva’s Continues on page 9