January 6, 2023 | 13 Tevet 5783
Candlelighting 4:51 p.m. | Havdalah 5:54 p.m. | Vol. 66, No. 1 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
NOTEWORTHY LOCAL A new volorei life in the Jewish Lenda ciendi nonstate re nus
Et odictiumqui andae Catching up with Rabbiamusam Daniel quistium si de net voloritat Wasserman
New Rauh website provides virtual archive of Oct. 27
$1.50
Local leaders join hundreds of U.S. rabbis to sign letter protesting new Israeli government
Page X 3
LOCAL Protecting creatures Ovit, ommodi remos great ero and small
Homepage of the new 10/27 website By David Rullo | Staff Writer
E The Endangeredaut Species marksasimuss 50 years Fodictiumqui entisAct andae
Page X 4
LOCAL Minto volupta ssimim Getting to know: Sarah Mangan
Lenda nus dolorum reinpro cuptati Building relationships themi, South Hills ntibus.
Page Page16 X
ric Lidji was facing a challenge. As director of the Rauh Jewish History Program and Archives at the Senator John Heinz History Center, Lidji began collecting objects related to the Oct. 27 attack at the Tree of building almost immediately after it occurred. The Rauh had never done large-scale realtime collecting, he explained. Typically, the materials archived by an organization like the Rauh are items people are done with. “When it’s real-time, they’re not,” he said. That created tension in the community, Lidji said. Everyone agreed that items related to the attack should be preserved for history — but not everyone was ready to have them moved behind closed doors. For some community members, many of the items were useful in the healing process. “Very quickly, we felt like digitization was the solution,” Lidji said. That led to the creation of a website — october27archive.org — which Lidji said will create a comprehensive record of the material collected relating to the antisemitic attack. It will be accessible to the general public, academics, historians and researchers. The site contains numerous “doors,” or points of access, allowing people to retrieve information in several different ways, Lidji said. “One of those doors is a map for people who find that that’s the way they make the
Screenshot by David Rullo
most sense of data,” he added. “You can see where materials have come from.” Users will have the ability to dig into the archive either as a whole or through filters to burrow into specific information. A third way to access information is through what the Rauh is calling the “Community Page,” which lays out information in concentric circles. Those circles will allow users to view isolated information about particular organizations concerning Oct. 27, such as the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh or the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh. “Starting with a memorial to the 11 victims, then histories of the three congregations, then material that came from Jewish organizations and then materials that came from the rest of the world,” Lidji said. The website includes technological innovations, as well. In previous generations, Lidji explained, archives would collect newspapers. The new website can do something similar; however, since most news is now covered online, the website uses a tool called Archive It to embed news sites and stories related to the attack. There are more than 1,000 news articles available, but the Rauh will add more. The entire website will slowly expand over time, adding more news stories, artifacts and other relevant data.
Screenshot of beginning of “Call to Action” letter signed by Jewish clergy By David Rullo | Staff Writer
T
wo local rabbis and one cantor have joined more than 300 Jewish clergy from across the country in signing an open letter titled “A Call to Action for Clergy in Protest of Israeli Government Extremists.” The letter is a reaction to the new Israel coalition government formed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Likud Party, and the far-right Religious Zionist and Otzma Yehudit parties. “Their policy proposals are anathema to the tenets of democracy, contradicting the spirit and intent of Israel’s own Declaration of Independence,” the letter states. It further asserts the policy proposals will cause “irreparable harm to the Israel-Jewish Diaspora relationship” and is an “affront to the vast majority of American Jews” and their values. The letter cites five specific concerns: • Changing the Law of Return, including the refusal to recognize non-Orthodox converts and their descendants • Eroding LGBTQ rights and the
Please see Website, page 11
Please see Israel, page 11
keep your eye on PittsburghJewishChronicle LOCAL
A local Jewish comic’s revenge flick
FOOD
Kosher pasta Bolognese
WORLD
2022’s top Jewish sports stories