The Voice of the Lehigh Valley Jewish Community
www.jewishlehighvalley.org
| Issue No. 465 | May 2023 | Iyar/Sivan 5783 AWARD-WINNING PUBLICATION EST. 1977
Fay Kun gives a moving presentation on her mother’s days in the death camps for Yom Hashoah. p6
Federation staffer Lee Kestecher Solomon tells her father’s harrowing story of the Yom Kippur War for Yom Hazikaron. p7
FROM THE DESK OF JERI ZIMMERMAN p3 WOMEN’S PHILANTHROPY p4 LVJF TRIBUTES p8 JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE p13 JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER p14-15 JEWISH DAY SCHOOL p16 COMMUNITY CALENDAR p23
Carnival goers celebrate Israel’s 75th birthday
By Carl Zebrowski Editor
A crowd was waiting outside the JCC gym late in the afternoon of Yom Ha’Atzmaut. The community’s Israel Independence Day celebration was about to begin. A call came from inside: Come on in! Kids led the way, of course. It didn’t take long for a line
to form at the cotton candy table. Of course. Tables around the gym featured games and other attractions. The festivity would culminate in the ceremonial lighting of the 12 torches representing the Twelve Tribes of Israel — an Israeli tradition being followed here for the first time. A dozen community members and couples were chosen to do the lighting. Jeri Zimmerman, executive director of the Jewish Federation, lit the first candle for Bonnie and Bobby Hammels, who were unable to attend. “I am lighting this torch to glorify the land of Israel,” she, and all the torchlighters, said. Following Zimmerman were Marc Berson, Vicki
Wax, Rabbi Moshe Re’em, Roberta and Lewis Gaines, Rachel Levin, Dr. Harold and Sandy Goldfarb, Beth Kushnick, Miriam Zager, Devorah Halperin and Dr. Zach Goldsmith. The ceremony finished with flair as Yitzy Powers kindled the last candle — wearing an Israeli flag as a cape along with an over-the-top assortment of the blue-and-white and light-up party doodads being given out to the carnival goers. Many of the kids were wearing those Israel-themed ornaments too. Lights blinked where they ran around the huge map of Israel spread out on the floor near the gym entrance. Kids could assemble a toy plane and throw it to try to land on Ben Gurion International Airport. Then they could retrieve the plane and
do it again. Many did that over and over. The basketball hoop also drew a young crowd of pretty good shooters. Kids and adults alike stopped at Roberta and Lewis Gaines light a torch with Lee Solomon, associate director of development for the Federation. the facepainting and salad. Each cupcake was and temporary-tattoo booth topped with either blue or as well as at the photo booth. white icing, and the multiple Some put on the Israel Dedozens were strategically arfense Forces uniforms that ranged on the table to depict were available for dress-up. the Israeli flag — until the line Finally came dessert, cupof kids was turned loose on cakes to cap off the buffet them as the event concluded. dinner that featured falafel, More carnival photos vegetarian “chicken” nugon page 10 gets, French fries, hummus
Dollar-a-Day speaker glosses 3,000-year scourge of hate By Carl Zebrowski Editor
Antisemitism is more than 3,000 years old, Stephanie Hausner told attendees of the Dollar-a-Day event for the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley Women’s Philanthropy division. The COO of the Conference of Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations traced the legacy of hate back to the start of the Book of Exodus. “Then comes a new king,” she told the audience, referring to the rise of a pharaoh who worried about the growing population of Jews
in Egypt and the potential for overthrow. “And that begins antisemitism.” The pharoah’s initial response was harassment. Tax collectors were appointed. Storehouses were built to hold grain collected as additional revenue. It only got worse. Just what is it that constitutes antisemitism three millennia later? The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance came up with a working definition in 2016. That was an essential start. “If we can’t define something,” Hausner said, “how can we fix it.” The IHRA definition reads, “Antisemitism is a certain Non-Profit Organization
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perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/ or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” The United States and 30 of its individual states have adopted this definition. It was 2018 that antisemitism came to a head in the United States, with the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh that killed 11 people. Jury selection in the trial of the accused shooter has just begun. Hausner said the pursuit of justice has is its own virtue, but the renewed public attention will come at a cost. “It’s also going to bring out crazy people.” This tragic attack woke up the U.S. Jewish community, which since then has worked continually to better protect itself against terrorism. “Tree of Life taught us a lot of lessons,” Hausner said. “This is our reality.” But why does this problem persist in the first place? Ignorance is often at the root. “A lot of what people know
about Jews is from South Park,” Hausner said. “In New York State, 20% of students didn’t know where the Holocaust was.” On top of that, troubling contemporary realities can lead some people to look for scapegoats to blame for their problems. There was plenty of chatter on the internet, for example, blamVicki Wax, Federation campaign cochair; ing Jews for COAaron Gorodzinsky, the Federation’s director of VID-19. “It’s crazy,” campaign and security planning; and Stephanie HausHausner said. “The ner, speaker for the Dollar-a-Day event. problem is a lot of people believe it.” ing others. Jews have in fact “Antisemitism comes out often been targeted for helping of political needs of persecuthose in need. tors in a political climate,” she Ironically, another comexplained further. “Wherever mon criticism brought by there’s economic uncertainty, antisemites is that Jews stick it always leads to antisemito themselves. But there was tism.” That’s true even when a time, Hausner pointed out, the reaction doesn’t start out that Jews were forced to stick exactly that way. “It always to themselves, having little comes back to antisemitism.” choice but to build their own Tree of Life was targeted communities and establishthat day in 2018 because it ments. The need was existenwas holding an immigrant tial. “We had to have our own Shabbat. So Jews were Dollar-a-Day speaker being blamed for helpContinues on page 4