March 7, 2025 | 7 Adar 5785
Candlelighting 6:01 p.m. | Havdalah 7:00 p.m. | Vol. 68, No. 10 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
NOTEWORTHY LOCAL Committed to rehabilitation
Rabbi nominated for Shuman oversight board LOCAL
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Shiri Bibas, and sons Ariel and Jewish Kfir, memorialized at Squirrel Federation, city controller Hill gathering challenge BDS referendum question
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Connecting to community
By Adam Reinherz | Senior Staff Writer
Chabad Young Professionals visit Israel Page 3
HISTORY A story that haunts the Steel City
“The Dybbuk,” Part 2 Page 4
LOCAL The magic of deception
Ben Seidman's “Good Charlatan” Page 20
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he few children who attended last week’s outdoor Squirrel Hill vigil didn’t speak much. Nestled beside their parents, the young Pittsburghers watched adults embrace, stand silently in the rain and proceed to a small, covered stand to memorialize Shiri Bibas and her infant sons, Ariel and Kfir. Surrounded by orange balloons, the tented table displayed photographs of the Bibases and rows of yahrzeit candles. For more than an hour on Feb. 26, community members approached the kneehigh table, reached for matches or lighters and kindled flames in memory of the slain Israeli mother and her two small children. Nearly 16 months after their Oct. 7, 2023, abduction by Hamas — Yarden Bibas, Shiri’s husband and the boys’ father was taken separately from his family on that day — the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her redheaded sons were returned to Israel. Following a procession attended by thousands, including a now-released Yarden Bibas, the three deceased Bibases were buried in a single casket. Squirrel Hill resident Yehudit Dvir, 58, watched the funeral online. Hours later she stood with her daughter and granddaughter on the corner of Murray Avenue and Darlington Road. Sheltered from the rain, Dvir said that organizing the gathering was a way of
reclaiming the senselessness surrounding the Bibases’ abduction and death. “This is unforgivable, to take a mother and two babies alive to Gaza, to let us know that they are alive and to kill them,” Dvir said. “They’re supposed to bring them back alive. They did what they did — OK — now, bring them back alive. It’s a big deal. It’s a very big deal. This is not something we can forget or forgive.” Several feet away, Helleny Dvir, 28, clutched her daughter Mika Dvir, 3. “This is for a mother from a mother,” Helleny Dvir said of the memorial. “Our pain for Shiri Bibas and for this whole story is beyond anything that we can compare to. And it’s not just what happened to them. It’s the way it happened to them — the slaughtering, the way they did it is just not human.” Authorities from the Israel Defense Forces said Ariel and Kfir Bibas were “brutally murdered” by terrorists in late November 2023. The claim, based on forensic evidence and intelligence according to The Times of Israel, refutes Hamas’ assertion that the boys, who would have been 4 years old and 10 months old in November 2023, died in an Israeli airstrike. Dr. Chen Kugel, director of Israel’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine, said that after Shiri Bibas’ body was returned to Israel, an Please see Vigil, page 18
Senior Living begins on page 8
Photo by David Rullo
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
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all it “Referendum 2: The Sequel.” The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and a group of community leaders have filed a legal challenge to an antiIsrael referendum that the group Not On Our Dime — and its fiscal sponsor, the Project for Responsive Democracy — are attempting to have added to the May 20 primary ballot. City Controller Rachael Heisler filed a separate objection to the referendum. It’s a rematch of sorts to a legal battle that took place last August when a similar proposed referendum was challenged by the same parties. That contest was settled without a court fight when No War Crimes on Our Dime withdrew its petition, acknowledging it fell short of the number of valid signatures required to get a referendum on the ballot. This time, Not On Our Dime seeks to force the city of Pittsburgh to stop doing business with the state of Israel, or any company doing business with the Jewish state. The proposed ballot question reads: “Shall the Pittsburgh Home Rule Charter be amended to align Pittsburgh’s finances with Please see Referendum, page 18
Robert Kneschke/Adobe Stock
A child crouches near a stand with photographs of the Bibas family and yahrzeit candles on Feb. 26. Photo by Adam Reinherz
Rabbi Seth Adelson, Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh President and CEO Jeff Finkelstein and Rabbi Yitzi Genack are challenging for a second time a referendum that would prohibit the city of Pittsburgh from doing business with Israel.