September 13, 2024 | 10 Elul 5784
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Candlelighting 7:13 p.m. | Havdalah 8:10 p.m. | Vol. 67, No. 37 | pittsburghjewishchronicle.org
Temple Emanuel celebrates 20th anniversary of its Holocaust Memorial Garden
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Duquesne law professor works to make a difference, one video at a time
Pittsburgh welcomes Israeli Shinshinim Et odictiumqui andae amusam Page 2 LOCAL si de net voloritat quistium Democratic Jewish Outreach Page X gains steam LOCAL Ovit, ommodi remos ero Rona Kaufman is producing videos that she hopes will help reclaim the history and importance of Zionism as part of Jewish identity. Screenshot by David Rullo
The PAC becomes a resource for politicians
Lynn Ruben and Marga Randall’s son Bob stand in Temple Emanuel of South Hills Holocaust Memorial Garden. Photo by David Rullo
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By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
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A new, familiar face at Bnai Emunoh Fodictiumqui aut entis andae asimuss Chabad
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A rabbi’s homecoming LOCAL
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“The Art of Weightlessness” Lenda nus dolorum re pro mi, cuptati ntibus.
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Local filmmaker recognized for animated short
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ardens held special meaning in the life of Marga Silbermann Randall. After the Nazis had taken everything from her family, she would visit gardens near her small town in Germany with her grandfather, she recounted in a 2004 interview with Doug Oster for WQED’s OnQ Magazine. The shadow of the Holocaust hung heavy over Randall’s early years. After enduring Kristallnacht, her family went into hiding in Berlin. One day, her father received a phone call that the Nazis were coming to arrest him. The patriarch hung up the phone, had a heart attack and died. One of the last families to leave Germany in 1941, Randall, her mother and sister escaped first to Paris, then Spain and Portugal before arriving in New York and eventually settling in Pittsburgh. Randall moved to the South Hills after first living in Squirrel Hill. She married Jordan Randall, raised a family and became a member of Temple Emanuel of South Hills. A 1981 trip to Germany inspired her to devote her life to Holocaust education. She spoke in Europe and locally about her experiences. She was honored by Seton Hill
University for her work in Jewish/ Christian interfaith relations. The gardens she visited with her grandfather, though, were never far from her mind. When Temple Emanuel began a renovation in 2003 that included a courtyard, she saw an opportunity to create a living memorial to the Shoah. What Randall established in 2004 was more than a simple flower and plant bed that people passed on their way into the building. Included among the various flora are two benches, one inscribed with the word “Remember” in English, the other with “Zakhor” in Hebrew. Between the two benches is a plaque designating the place where ashes collected by Randall from Auschwitz-Birkenau are buried. Another large stone is etched with a Star of David and the names of the large concentration and death camps that existed during World War II. Randall died in 2005, a year after the Holocaust Memorial Garden was started at the synagogue. On Sept. 6, in the hours approaching Shabbat, members of Temple Emanuel, along with Randall’s family, commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Holocaust Memorial Garden.
By David Rullo | Senior Staff Writer
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ona Kaufman wanted to counter the misinformation that has been dominating university campuses even before Oct. 7 Kaufman is an associate professor at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law at Duquesne University, where she teaches constitutional law, employment discrimination, family law, gender and the law and children and the law. She said that she was aware of a wave of antisemitism and anti-Zionism spreading across academia, which, at the time, wasn’t seen in the student population but was growing among academics and professors. Last year, she started to shift some of her attention to combating the problem. She had already submitted two proposals to conferences to talk about anti-Zionism in academia before Oct. 7. When Hamas broke a cease-fire and attacked Israel on Oct. 7, Kaufman wasn’t sure those presentations would still be necessary. “I thought that what happened on Oct. 7, I thought anyone that watched what happened, would see with such clarity that hatred of Israel is hatred of Jews and that these are one and the same and that these presentations I was planning would be superfluous and there would be no need for them,” she said.
Please see Garden, page 14
Please see Kaufman, page 14
Home Improvement Special section starts on Page 8
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