Massachusetts Jewish Ledger • June 19, 2020 • 27 Sivan 5780

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INSIDE this week

MASSACHUSETTS JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | JUNE 17, 2020 | 27 SIVAN 5780

Conversation with…

The producers of “Viral: Anti-Semitism in Four Mutations”

‘We are here’ 5 Jews of Color respond to George Floyd protests in their own words

Difficult Decisions 9 Covid’s effect on JCC summer camps Mush!!!! ........................................... 12

Marla BB and her dogs sled through Alaska

Arts & Entertainment 16

Thirteen Jewish facts about “Hamilton”

ON THE COVER:

Zelda Stein, a resident of Eisenberg

Assisted Living in Worcester, visits with her grandson Jake and his baby, using an iPad tablet donated by the Tapper Charitable Foundation. The foundation donated iPads to Eisenberg and other health centers to aid families in communicating through the Covid-19 pandemic. Page 5

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Andrew Goldberg & Diana Robinson

Documentary filmmakers say antisemitism is going “Viral”

BY STACEY DRESNER

The documentary “Viral: in Four Mutations” now streaming on PBS on Demand through June 26, makes the case that antisemitism is infecting the world.

“Antisemitism behaves like a virus,” said Andrew Goldberg, the film’s director. “It spreads from person to person; it changes, it morphs, it adapts; and it generally is very difficult to stop.”

In making “Viral,” Goldberg and Robinson traveled to four countries to examine distinct instances where antisemitism has reached a fever pitch. –Hungary, where the government has The film also features interviews with several victims, witnesses, antisemites, and personalities like Bill Clinton, Deborah Lipstadt and Tony Blair.

Goldberg and Robinson spoke with the Ledger about “Viral,” and the insidious antisemitism that the film documents.

JEWISH LEDGER (JL): Why did you feel this was the time to make this documentary?

ANDREW GOLDBERG (AG): It was right around early 2017 that we started to see an uptick in antisemitism and to see more incidents and more discussion about it, certainly among the Jewish community. I had a sense that things were going to get worse, as did our producer, Diana Robinson. We thought we saw the writing on the wall and unfortunately, as we started to make this film things just got worse and worse until the point that they really went off-the-charts worse.

JL: Why did you name the film “Viral?” AG: Two reasons. “Viral” is how something spreads on the Internet and so much hate is on the Internet now. Also, antisemitism behaves like a virus. It spreads from person to person; it changes, it morphs, it adapts; and it generally is very difficult to stop, because as soon as you put an obstacle in its path it will just adjust itself to get around it. It’s virtually un-killable.

JL: Diana, you’re from Pennsylvania. Did the shooting at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh hit close to home?

DIANA ROBINSON (DR): It hit home in a way that was really uncomfortable, actually. My mother’s best friend is Jewish and is from Squirrel Hill [where the synagogue is located] and so, it was a terrifying moment. I had been working on this film for a year and a half at that point. I’m not Jewish. I come from a basic understanding of

antisemitism and I had spent the past year and a half getting to a point where I really understood it…And then to have it happen in my home state – a place that I had a connection to – was incredibly upsetting. The day the shooting happened we got in an SUV and drove there. It was just a surreal and upsetting experience.

JL: Why did you pick the four examples of “mutations” of antisemitism to feature in the film?

(AG): [These four examples] represented what we believe are the four most visible contact points of antisemitism – the far right; the far left; [antisemitism] coming directly from the government; and from Islamic radicals. Those I think are the four biggest threat points. But again, keep in mind that it’s changing every day and it’s adapting itself every day and it’s showing itself in different countries and in different ways.

So, for example, you have Belgium that just a year ago had a parade that included a float with what looked like money-grubbing Jews. The parade got in trouble for that.

make George Soros, this American businessman, into an evil boogeyman who represents a menacing threat to Hungary. The government has run a propaganda campaign for years on end saying that migrants are coming into Europe, they are going to come into Hungary and take over Hungary and they are going to destroy the country for Hungarians. [The billboards say] George Soros is behind all of this and it rings of a classic antisemitic trope seen in the 20th century, which is profoundly concerning. I was floored by the volume of it.

And then they had it again last month. I don’t even know what that is called. Is it the far right? Is it the far left? Is it old conspiracy theories from several hundred years ago rearing their ugly head again?

JL: Did anything surprise you when you were filming?

(DR): The one really interesting thing for me was in Hungary. Basically from the moment we drove away from the airport, it seemed like every hundred feet or every two minutes you saw a giant billboard of George Soros with a sneering smile on his face – very menacing looking – with text in Hungarian saying something to the effect of “Don’t let Soros have the last laugh.” It was this large-scale propaganda campaign that was drawing on the kind of imagery that was used by the Nazis. Not only was it condoned by the government, it was used by the government as a political tool to

(AG): I’ve been in this field for a long time. I wouldn’t say it surprises me, because we have seen it before. But it surprises me how strong it’s coming back. I think there was a gigantic mute button that got pushed after the Holocaust. Europe was on better terms with Jews after the Holocaust than before. It was a marked difference. You saw Germany, in particular, really making up for it, making efforts to reconcile itself…with the Jewish community, both in Germany and around the world, and of course, with Israel.

Well, now you have a lot of extreme hate crimes against Jews happening in Germany, both on the far right and from Islamists who live there. Who would ever have thought that we would be hearing this stuff from Germany again?

As the generation that experienced the Holocaust firsthand cycles out, the next generation forgets. So, if you were to say to me, “Do you feel the pain of the Holocaust in your life?” I would say, “Yes,” because I knew Holocaust survivors. My kids will never meet a Holocaust survivor. The Holocaust will be to my kids what maybe the First World War was to me. It was something in the history books. And so as the Holocaust moves farther away, it gets much easier for these voices of hate to emerge again. There’s no one to remind them of what the danger is.

Vol. 21 No. 6

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UP FRONT

MASSACHUSETTS

JEWISH LEDGER | SINCE 1929 | JUNE 17, 2020 | 27 SIVAN 5780

Black Jews respond to George Floyd protests

BY JOSEFIN DOLSTEN

(JTA) — During the fifth night of unrest in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd, a black man in police custody, Enzi Tanner participated in an online havdalah ceremony marking the end of Shabbat Saturday night.

Tanner, a social worker in Minneapolis who supports LGBT families experiencing homelessness, said the ceremony — hosted by Jewish Community Action, a local social justice group, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, a national organization and Edot Midwest Regional Jewish Diversity Collaborative — conveyed a powerful message for black Jews like him.

Answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

April Baskin is a diversity consultant and racial justice director of the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable.

Personally in terms of my energy right now, I’m just exhausted. Just seeing all the suffering particularly in light of the people going out into the streets without a plan or adequate protections in place (friends, march marshalls, legal aid contact info, etc.), the poignancy of people whose politics otherwise have them mostly sheltering

in and says how do we support their cause and how do we support the black community, it’s really important that people reach in to black Jews and other Jews of color and realize that we’re here,” Tanner said. “And we need our community.”

We reached out to black Jews like Tanner to understand their feelings at this wrenching moment and what their message is for the broader Jewish community. Here’s what they told us.

in place during the worst pandemic we’ve seen in over a hundred years, that they are compelled to take action — at their and our own peril. But it seems their thought is, “How can we not stand up?” As a Jewish social justice leader, I have a visceral, fundamental concern for people’s well-being in this moment — that people are very triggered and that this is all in the context of pre-existing

CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

STAYING CONNECTED

Eisenberg Assisted Living receives gift of iPads

BY STACEY DRESNER

WORCESTER -- The Jewish Healthcare Center (JHC) and its Eisenberg Assisted Living Center have been finding ways for its residents to stay connected to their families since the Covid-19 crisis started.

“We used Zoom and FaceTime meetings as one of several elements in our strategy to keep people connected,” said David Price, director of Eisenberg Assisted Living. “Very early on, at the end of March we had started what we call ‘microphone meetings’ where the resident is on one side of the window and their family members are on the other side with microphones.”

But the Tapper Charitable Foundation, led by Worcester natives Al Tapper and his daughter Eve, wanted to give Eisenberg residents another option for communication. So in April, they donated 20 iPads to the assisted living center.

“We started talking at the beginning of all of this as to what we could do,” said Eve Tapper, who now lives in Newton. “We are very fortunate that we have a foundation and we are able to donate to charitable organizations. I grew up in Worcester and my parents grew up in Worcester. My grandfather on my mother’s side was at the Jewish Home when it was an orphanage. So we have a very tight connection to Worcester, although none of us live there anymore.”

After brainstorming as to what organizations like Eisenberg might need during the Covid-19 crisis, they decided iPads were the perfect gift.

“We thought, people wouldn’t be able to have visitors and they were getting sick,” Eve said. “My mother had an incident where she was sick and had to go to the doctor and I wasn’t allowed to go, and so we said, ‘How do we get online communication for people who have Covid, but also for people who may not have Covid but can’t leave or can’t have anyone come in and might lose connection with their families?’”

After family members discussed it and concluded that iPads were a good option, Eve Tapper called Steven Schimmel, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Central Mass.

“She said, ‘We need your help making it

happen,’” Schimmel said.

“So they put in the order and had it shipped over. We coordinated with the Jewish Healthcare Center and they put us in touch with Eisenberg, and in just a few short days, the residents had 20 iPads to be used to keep in touch with their loved ones.”

Tapper made sure Eisenberg would want the iPads, and asked how many they thought they could use before sending them over.

“We wanted to be careful and work with them, not just dump a box of iPads off,” she said. “We called everybody and said, ‘This is what we would like to do? Can you use them?’”

David Price said that the iPads have been a welcome gift to Eisenberg residents.

“The tablets have been great because they require minimal set up and can be used more flexibly in terms of time of day,” Price said.

Patti Furmanick, director of enhancement and activities at Eisenberg said when a resident wants to use one of the iPads, she or another staffer help to set them up for the seniors, either in an activity area or in their own apartments where they can have private conversations.

“Thank goodness for technology during this time because it made a world of difference,” Furmanick has said. “And even though the residents didn’t know what we were talking about at first, once we set the tablets up for them they were thrilled.

The Tapper Charitable Foundation also donated iPads to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Boston Medical Center and New York-Presbyrterian Cornell Medical Center. In all they donated 440 iPads to the organizations. The iPads for the Boston Medical Center went to the maternity ward for mother’s who have to give birth without their partners; NY-Presbyterian medical professionals will use the tablets to double the amount of tele-health visits they are able to facilitate. Each recipient organization will be able to use the tablets even after the coronavirus period, something that was important to the Tappers.

Despite not having lived in Worcester for many years, Al Tapper -- who resides in New York and Florida --has remained a

CONTINUED ON PAGE 9

BULLETIN BOARD

(Virtual) Father’s Day Road Race

SPRINGFIELD – While the community is not able to meet together at the Springfield JCC this Father’s Day, everyone can still participate in a virtual 5K /10K, or Kids Fun Run/Family Health Walk – virtually.

At 8:30 a.m., the 10K, 5K & 5K Relay (for the 10K you will run the loop twice (route link); 10 am – Kids’ 1 mile Fun Run & Family Health Walk – flat, one mile begins and ends at the JCC.

• Registration fee: $25 for 5K/10K | $18 for Kids Fun Run/Family Health Walk; to register go to: https://www.runreg.com/42nd-annualfathers-day-road-race; fill out printable PDF flyer; or stop by the JCC, 1160 Dickinson St..

• Complete the run any time on Father’s Day, June 21. (How to show you Participated: You can log your time with a device of your choosing, such as an iWatch or smart phone Health app. If you do not have a device, email us when you have completed your race participation. Submit your distance and time via email to race director Kim O’Neill

• Participants will receive t-shirts (which will be mailed out at a later date).

-There will be prize drawings for children and adult (one prize drawing per category)

• Entries will be accepted until 8 a.m. race day and 9:30 a.m. for Fun Run. Register by May 29 to receive a T-shirt. For more information, contact Kim O’Neill, koneill@springfieldjcc.org, or call the J at (413) 739-4715.

Sponsored by Springfield JCC Community Partners:Fathers & Sons, Horizon Sheet Metal

Event Sponsors: Attain Therapy + Fitness, Fleet Feet Sports, Fred’s Shoes, Big Y, Bueno Y Sano, and Springfield JCC

Winners will be notified Monday, June 22nd via email.

Summer with Rimon

WORCESTER – Congregation Beth Israel in Worcester has a new program this summer. Rimon Religious School is offering summer fun and learning in July and August, without leaving your home. Starting on July 7, there will be an online family activity each day on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Most come to you in the form of a video recording or written material, so families can schedule

their viewing and reading when it works for them.

• Tuesday: Storytime and Crafts video with Rowan, co-sponsored by PJ Library of Central Massachusetts. Rowan Mason, Rimon’s Early Childhood Educator, reads a PJ Library book and demonstrates a craft themed to the book. New videos will be released every Tuesday throughout the summer and you can watch them whenever you want; then follow up by trying the craft yourself. Books are generally aimed at children 7 and under.

• Wednesday: Each week a 30 to 45-minute video will be released for families with school-age children, with a rotating series of themes, led by Rimon Director Dale Rosenberg with guest lecturers/performers. Themes will include: Jewish Heroes, Hebrew Songs with Shannon, Cooking Corner, Values through Story, Games and Puzzles.

• Thursday: Rimon Director Dale Rosenberg provides families with “Thursday Thoughts: links, ideas, and files full of activities for Shabbat and the weekend in general, representing an assortment of topics to interest a variety of Jewish families -Jewish art, American Jewish history, food, text, and more; for families with children of school age.

• Fridays at 11 a.m.: Rowan Mason leads Tot Shabbat Service, a 30-minutes zoom meeting, designed for children five and under with an accompanying adult, including singing, dancing, praying, and getting everyone in the Shabbat mood. Patterned on a traditional service, Rowan introduces the ideas in the main Jewish prayers through song and dance. To represent Torah reading, Rowan reads an appropriately themed story.

There is no cost for the Rimon Summer Program 2020.

For more information, contact the Beth Israel Office at: 15 Jamesbury Drive, Worcester, MA 01609, (508) 756-6204 or email Dale Rosenberg at dale.rosenberg@ bethisraelworc.org

‘How Covid-19 has impacted Special Education’

WESTBOROUGH – Covid-19 has created new obstacles for parents and their children who are on or need to be on IEPs, 504s and require other special accommodation related to their educational needs.

Beth Tikvah Synagogue will host a Zoom discussion on Wednesday, June 24 at 8

p.m., with Special Education Attorney Abra Allenxenberg, surrounding issues related to assessments and evaluation; what parents and students are entitled to; what remote learning looks like; and updates from the local governments.

RSVP to Mindy Hall at mhall@jfcm.org to obtain Zoom information. If you have any particular questions you wouild like covered in the discussion, please send to Allexenberg several days prior to the event at Special-ed@allexenberglaw.com

Bari Weiss lecture at TBE rescheduled for Aug. 30

SPRINGFIELD – Journalist and author Bari Weiss will be the keynote speaker

at the Annual Bill & Lynn Foggle Great Issues Lecture Series at Temple Beth El on Sunday, Aug. 30 at 4 p.m.

Weiss will discuss “What Does the Fight Against Anti-Semitism Mean for All Americans?”

The program will begin with a reception with the speaker and refreshments; the lecture will begin at 4:30 p.m.

Bari Weiss is an op-ed staff editor and writer at the New York Times, who writes about culture and politics.

Weiss gave the powerful speech “I Am A Jew.” at the No Hate, No Fear Solidarity March in New York on Jan. 5, protesting the outbreak of anti-Semitism acts in New York and beyond.

Weiss was an op-ed and book review editor at The Wall Street Journal before joining the Times in 2017. She has also worked at Tablet, the online magazine of Jewish politics and culture. She is a native of Pittsburgh and graduated from Columbia University in 2007. Her first book, How to Fight Anti-Semitism, was published in 2019.

In her talk at Temple Beth El she will address the fight against anti-Semitism and why it is so important for Jews, but also for our broader nation.

Through the Foggles’ generous gift, the annual lecture series attracts a world-class speaker annually who stimulates thought and lively exploration of ideas about today’s most challenging global issues.

For more information, call (413) 7334149.

LYA to hold ‘75 and Strong’ event

LONGMEADOW – Lubavitcher Yeshiva Academy (LYA) is celebrating its 75th anniversary, with a virtual event, “LYA 75 and Strong” on Monday, June 29 at 7:30 p.m. The event will celebrate 75 years of excellence in education, community involvement and leadership.

LYA will honor four alumni, Attorney David Bograd, Spencer Kimball, Hanna Perlstein Marcus, and Dr. Benjamin Mathis, and the alumni will speak about their bond with LYA. LYA will publish a commemorative ad journal for the event to support LYA; the ad book will be viewable in a virtual format in time for the event and in print form.

“As we prepare for this unique event to celebrate our 75th year, our goal is to truly show proper recognition to our alumni from the past while prepare for the school’s future during these changing times,” said Rabbi Noach Kosofsky, LYA director. “The proceeds of this ad journal will benefit the LYA Scholarship Fund. COVID-19 may have changed our method of delivery, yet our mission to educate our children and interact with our community remains the same and that is why your help is needed now more than ever.”

For more information or to place an ad please visit www.LYA.org, email at info@lya.org or call (413) 567-8665.

ALEXANDRA BELLIVEAU, daughter of Stacy Zimov and Leonard Belliveau, celebrated her bat mitzvah on Saturday, June 6. They are members of Temple Emanuel Sinai in Worcester.

MIRA BORISKIN, daughter of Peter Boriskin and Rachel Gans, will celebrate her bat mitzvah on Saturday, June 2. They are members of Congregation B’nai Shalom in Westborough.

NATHANIEL BORISKIN, son of Peter Boriskin and Rachel Gans, will celebrate his bar mitzvah on Saturday, June 2. They are members of Congregation B’nai Shalom in Westborough.

SETH CUSHMAN, son of Debra and Scott Cushman, celebrated his bar mitzvah on Saturday May 30. They are members of Congregation B’nai Shalom in Westborough.

JACKSON DESPAIN, son of Elyanna Bassell and Hans Despain, celebrated his bar mitzvah on Saturday, June 6. They are members of Sinai Temple in Springfield.

MORGAN GARLAND, daughter of Michelle Weinstein and Daniel Garland, will celebrate her bat mitzvah on Saturday, June 20. They are members of Congregation B’nai Shalom in Westborough.

JOSHUA GREENE, son of Scott and Tiffany Greene, celebrated his bar mitzvah on Saturday, May 16. They are members of Temple Beth El in Springfield.

JOSEPH KANTROWITZ, son of Michael Kantrowitz and Joyce Mandell, celebrated his bar mitzvah on Saturday, June 13. They are members of Temple Emanuel Sinai in Worcester

BRAM LIEBERMAN, son of Benjamin and Carolyn Lieberman, celebrated his bar mitzvah on Saturday, May 16. They are members of Congregation B’nai Shalom in Westborough.

LAUREN MECENAS, daughter of Diane Diamond and Peter Mecenes, celebrated her bat mitzvah on Saturday, June 13. They are members of Congregation B’nai Shalom in Westborough.

LILLIAN ROSENFELD, daughter of Allen Rosenfeld and Susan DeCastro, celebrated her bat mitzvah on Saturday, June 6. They are members of Congregation B’nai Shalom in Westborough.

JILLIAN SWERDLICK, daughter of Jeffrey and Caren Swerdlick, celebrated her bat mitzvah on Saturday, June 6. They are members of Congregation B’nai Shalom in Westborough.

MATTHEW TANNENBAUM, son of Bruce and Elizabeth Tannenbaum, celebrated his bar mitzvah on Saturday, May 23. They are members of Congregation B’nai Shalom in Westborough.

Hachai Hebrew High honors Class of 2020

LONGMEADOW – On Sunday, May 17 family members, faculty and guest speakers joined the members of LYA Hachai Hebrew High Teen Club, Class of 2020 graduates Menashe Fenster, Miriam Felzenstein, Esther Muhlmann and Eli Rokhkind for a Zoom graduation.

The graduates and their families heard from alumnus Jared Berezin and Rabbi Yechezkal Tenenbaum, director of Jewish Uniformed Services Association of Maryland. Rabbi Tenenbaum shared stories from his experience as a chaplain and charged the graduates to “make a difference, one life at a time.”

New England Jewish Academy teacher creates 3D face shields in school’s innovation center

BY STACEY DRESNER

WEST HARTFORD – In an effort to offer aid to first responders and medical personnel dealing with the COVID-19 crisis, several New England Jewish Academy (NEJA) students have been creating disposable face shields using clear binder covers, weather-stripping, and ribbon.

While the students were working hard at home on their face shields, Zach Towne, a NEJA upper school science teacher and head of the school’s Curtis Robinson Center (CRC) for Business and Innovation –which is described on the school’s website as “a space to explore entrepreneurship, creativity, innovation and non-linear thinking with state-of-the-art resources and tools” – worked to create reusable face shields using the CRC’s 3D printers and laser cutters.

“Originally, the school saw the global efforts to help and felt a strong need to support both the Jewish community and the community at large. Since opening the Curtis Robinson Center, the idea of tikkun olam has been a central tenet that we’ve been looking to develop, and this presented the right moment,” said Towne, a biology, AP biology and anatomy teacher at the Jewish high school, which is located in West Hartford, and serves the Jewish communities of West Hartford and New Haven in Connecticut and Springfield in Massachusetts.

“My specific motivations were to contribute to the pandemic in a thoughtful and intentional way. We certainly have a privilege in our access to the CRC and we wanted to leverage that to the benefit of everyone around us,” he told the Ledger.

Towne had learned that Prusa, a company in the Czech Republic, had designed templates for sturdy, reusable face shields using 3D printers and laser cutters. He was able to get the templates free from Prusa, which like many companies and universities, are sharing their plans for different products globally in the interest of serving the greater community, especially in this time of crisis.

“It’s all an open source,” Towne said. “It’s all free and everyone is pretty collaborative. That is sort of the spirit of the whole thing. It’s a way that everyone can contribute right now.”

Although NEJA has been closed since mid-March, Towne has had permission to access its Curtis Robinson Center, so after getting the template for the face shields from Prusa, he got to work.

“The laser cutter uses a laser to cut

specific shapes out of materials, so we used a laser cutter to cut the shields out of a sheet of plexiglass,” he explained. “The plexiglass has to be relatively thin in order to bend to the contour of your face, and it has to be flexible and not just shatter when you try to put any pressure on to it.”

making the orange plastic headbands that sit on the forehead. The template for the headbands is sent from a computer to the 3D printer where plastic filament melts and then is shaped into the headband form.

attached to the shield, which goes around the back of the head to make it tighter. Each face shield costs about $5 to make and is one-size-fits-all.

Town encountered a roadblock at the beginning of the project when he found that the supply of local plexiglass had been depleted. “Even the Home Depot was completely empty,” Towne noted. sheets of the plexiglass from a company in California.

has been pretty good about keeping the filament in stock,” he said. “We’ve gone through one two-pound roll, which is enough to make roughly 20 of those bands, so we just ordered four more, which should make about 100 bands.”

first.

properly to the bands. It took me a while to get the measurement exactly right. So, I went through 15 of the plexiglass sheets because they kept cracking, and if they crack you can’t use them because that’s a surface for bacteria or virus to get through,” he said.

accomplishment with his NEJA students online.

“[During the quarantine] I have held a lot of my classes in the CRC and walked my students through the steps [for creating the shields],” he says. “While I decided to make the shields before showing the process to the kids, I thought it was important to highlight that we can all take action right now, even if we’re stuck at home…I especially remember showing the students the first mask where the pieces fit together because I thought I was going insane after a few failures.”

Towne says that NEJA students soon will be involved in the production process.

When he spoke with the Ledger late last week, Towne reported that he was getting ready to train a student to make the printed masks at the school, “so that we can increase output and get the students further involved,” he said.

Dr. Isaac “Yitz” Moss, co-president of NEJA, said told the Ledger that the school is currently looking into where they can donate the face shields. One recipient will be UConn Health in Farmington, where Moss is an assistant professor in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, and where Towne himself will be entering medical school in September.

Moss said he is also hoping that they can donate some of the shields to other community organizations that might need them, like Hebrew Healthcare.

“The purpose of the Curtis Robinson Center for Business and Innovation is, first, [to serve] students, but we also realize that NEJA is a community organization and this is a very tangible way that we can give back to the community during this crisis,” Moss told the Ledger. “We are excited that we have the resources in our school and the ability to provide this service to the community.”

Covid’s effect on JCC summer camps

BY STACEY DRESNER

STATEWIDE – On June 8, when Gov. Charlie Baker declared that Phase 2 of the reopening plan for the state of Massachusetts was going into effect following months of Covid-19 closings, the Worcester Jewish Community Center Summer Day Camp announced that they will open on June 22.

“We’re definitely having camp. We are planning for the whole summer, but within the guidelines of the state,” said Emily Rosenbaum, executive director of the Worcester JCC.

The leadership of the Springfield Jewish Community Center has decided not to open the JCC’s Day Camps this summer, announcing it in a letter to the J’s membership.

“This week we made the difficult decision to cancel our traditional summer day camp programs in 2020. After reviewing the day camp guidelines released from the state last week, and carefully considering guidance from the American Camping Association, CDC, and medical experts, we concluded that the required program modifications would make it too difficult for us to confidently open a safe and high-quality day camp this summer. We know that this news comes with great disappointment for the campers, staff, and families that have been eagerly looking forward to camp, especially during these times,” said the letter, signed by JCC President Jonathan Goldsmith and Executive Director Michael Paysnick.

who just can’t risk any type of exposure to the virus, so they decided not to send their child,” Rosenbaum said.

After the governor made his announcement about Phase 2, the JCCs received revised guidelines – 34 pages of them -- from the state and Early Education

they need; and there will be extensive hand washing and other sanitizing policies implemented as per the state’s guidelines.

In terms of activities, there will be no electives this summer for the older campers, to prevent inter-mingling, and no field trips.

“The children will stay together in

the campers to spread out safely.

But they are hoping for a lot of sunny days.

“We have so much outdoor fun that they will be able to get a lot of really good play in, which is really what children should be doing over the summer,” Rosenbaum said. “You are speaking to the mom of an 11-yearold who has been working on her school work all day and just seeing her family, and is really excited to come to camp. So much personal growth and socialization happens in between learning and in between activities -- lessons about how to be a friend, and how to be a team partner, how to be a good supporter of your friends. Those things are so important.”

and Care (EEC), the agency through which camps are licensed.

“Basically, it’s ratios of how many kids and staff can be in a group; cleaning protocols; things like, no parents or visitors are allowed in the building,” Megan Catlin explained. “We are in the process of working it all out.”

Surprisingly, one of the newly revised guidelines says that camp staff will not need to take the temperatures of campers arriving each morning.

groups of 10. They will have a home base and a group that they will stay with all day, rather than splitting out and mixing with other groups. And each group will have two counselors,” Rosenbaum said.

The JCC’s summer sports and dance camps will not be operating this summer.

Staying Connected

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17

generous donor to the annual campaign of the Jewish Federation of Central Mass., and has close ties to the area.

In the letter, they added that the JCC’s programming staff is preparing some alternative experiences for its youth and families for this summer.

Rosenbaum said that Worcester’s JCC camp is enrolled right now for about 2/3 of its capacity.

“With the regulation changes we can probably still take another 40 children, per week. We still have plenty of room.”

The camp offered families that had already enrolled refunds if they chose not to send their children to camp. The final date for refunds was June 10, so that the camp could open up slots to more campers. By June 10, Megan Catlin, director of the summer camp and the JCC’s Youth Director, had reached out to all of the camp families with updates so that families could decide whether summer camp is in the cards for their kids this year.

“A lot of families were waiting to see about the regulations, and some families have said that they have family members

According to the camp’s FAQ email sent to parents, “After EEC consulted with the COVID-19 Command Center’s Medical Advisory Committee, including infectious disease experts, it became clear that the number of both false positive and false negative results made temperature checks an unreliable requirement to assess daily health status.”

“We were floored when we saw that,” said Catlin. “It is just so fluid. Everything changes daily.”

Camp staff will still ask several questions during morning drop-off time, including whether the camper has or has been in contact with anyone with a sore throat, cough, or trouble breathing.

Parents will not be allowed to enter the JCC building to accompany their children to their camp groups.

All staff and campers will be required to wear masks when social distancing is not possible. Masks won’t be required during meals, swimming or outdoor play if campers are socially distanced appropriately.

Parents must send their children to camp with all of the lunches and snacks

“Because of social distancing it would be hard because we couldn’t have them play the actual contact sports, such as the basketball and baseball camps that we usually have, so we are going to have our sports staff be our specialist in our day camp,” Rosenbaum said. “They will be doing sports every day with separate groups.”

The campers will also meet with the art specialist and play on the JCC’s playground and get needed downtime to hang out with their friends.

One of the most popular things offered by the Worcester day camp will still occur –the Nature program.

“The nature program is huge,” Catlin said. “We have a pond and it’s so much fun. We have fishing poles and the kids go down and they actually catch fish. They build lean-to’s, they build a fire, they clear out the woods and make benches out of logs, hunt for worms and get a lesson on worms. They really love it.”

Campers will also get some time in the pool.

“We have an indoor pool and they will be swimming with their group of 10, socially distancing,” said Rosenbaum, who reported that the JCC’s outdoor pool will be closed for the summer.

On rainy days, Rosenbaum said, there is plenty of room in the JCC building for all of

“My mother and father are both from Worcester; they met in high school. And my sister and I grew up in Worcester. My mother still has family there,” Eve said. “We were very thrilled to be able to give back to that community. Worcester is in our blood.”

“Al has been a philanthropic leader for a lot of different projects over the years,” Schimmel added. “I think he is both creative and generous.”

Creative indeed.

Not only a businessman who specialized in leveraged buyouts, Tapper is also a Broadway composer, lyricist, playwright, and humorist. In 2014, he won a prestigious Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting for his 2013 documentary “Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy.”

Schimmel credited the Tappers’ ingenuity for the speed and efficiency in which the donation was made.

“We are accustomed to things taking a long time with planning meetings and difficulties that come up. But here we were, in the middle of one of the most complicated situations that any of us have ever been in in our lifetimes, trying to get the details worked out, and this was such a smooth operation. It all happened in the course of a week.

“It was really nice,” Schimmel said. “It’s beautiful when one of those things happens. It’s like beshert.”

H EALTHY COMMUNITY EMERGENCY FUND

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic the Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts has been working to help Jewish institutions, individuals, and families to weather the storm. Central to this effort was the establishment of a Healthy Community Emergency Fund (HCEF).

Thanks to the generosity of donors, and funding from the Jewish Endowment Foundation of Western Massachusetts, the Federation has raised $416,921 to help our community.

We have already distributed aid to 24 individuals and families. Additional funds are being used to safeguard community institutions; to ensure that even during a crisis, Western Massachusetts is home to vibrant Jewish life.

THE RESULTS ARE (NEARLY) IN!

Thanks to the outstanding participation rates of the Jewish population in Western Massachusetts, and the hard work of the team at Brandeis University’s Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, our community will shortly have its first community demographics study in 60 years.

As we work to refine the data and analyze the results, we will be sharing these insights with the community, culminating in a detailed final report.

Today we are sharing a glance at the answer to one important question:

Where are we?

Funds have already been distributed to 12 local Jewish agencies.

The Federation has partnered with Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts (JFS), an independent third-party, that will be reviewing and evaluating applications for individual and family assistance. JFS provides exceptional social services, grounded in Jewish values, to support individuals and families from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds. Their involvement will help to ensure that aid is distributed appropriately.

Additionally, the Federation’s program Rachel’s Table has set up a specialized Healthy Community Emergency Food Fund, and a Feed the Front Lines initiative. These efforts

As it turns out, the Jewish population of Western Massachusetts, particularly the population of Jewish children, is slightly greater in the Upper Valley than the Lower Valley.

are helping to alleviate the food insecurity problems in our community that have been exacerbated by the economic impact of the pandemic, and are giving support to those who are putting their lives at risk every day to keep us safe.

We have received requests for over $1,000,000 in aid from our community organizations, individuals, and families. Please help us to meet that need by going to our website.

Or if you are in need, please also visit our website to request aid for yourself or your family.

How will this help us to grow as a Jewish community? How will it help us to plan our activities and future programs?

Thanks to your participation, we now have a wealth of knowledge to guide us.

This map represents the distribution of the approximately 12,200 Jewish households in the Pioneer Valley. Of the 12,200 Jewish households, approximately 6,700 are in the Upper Valley and 5,500 are in the Lower Valley. Each dot represents 10 households, placed randomly within the zip code in which those households are located.

ON THE DEATH OF GEORGE FLOYD

The Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts mourns the senseless murder of George Floyd. This is the latest in a long line of unarmed black men and women who have died at the hands of those who were sworn to protect them. These murders outrage us, as does a system which too often allows the perpetrators to go unpunished, even when the crimes were caught on video for the world to see.

As the wave of protests erupts across the world, we are disturbed, too, by the dozens of documented incidents of police brutality. There is video evidence of countless “less-lethal” weapons being used against non-violent, unarmed protesters and against the press, including tear gas, clubs, and rubber bullets.

We have recently marked the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, where the 1989 Democracy Movement protestors encountered tanks and guns, ending in the deaths of hundreds, perhaps thousands of Chinese citizens. We are now living through a dark historical parallel where some of our own government leaders are threatening to use our military to quell this American uprising.

What are we to do?

As a Jewish community, we share a collective memory of the deepest and most violent consequences of inequality and oppression. We understand the importance--the necessity--of a strong response; a response to the systematic injustice and oppression of the black community and a response to the authoritarian rhetoric from the top levels of government.

This is a time when we all must stand together, to show our support for the larger community, to support responsible law enforcement, and to add our voices to the chorus demanding reforms. It is our duty to oppose all forms of prejudice and oppression. It is our responsibility to repair the world. We can do that with our time, with our enthusiasm, our words and activism.

This is a critical moment for our nation. Our history as the Jewish people and our shared values demand that we reach out to those who are working towards a more just, tolerant, and safe America for us all, and to make it known to the world that we all stand together.

Chesterfield woman leads her sled dogs on a historic expedition through Alaska

BY STACEY DRESNER

Marla Brodsky, owner of Hilltown

Sled Dogs in Chesterfield, runs a camp at her kennel each summer, where kids choose one of her 20 dogs and learn the basics of training an Alaskan Malamute.

Due to Covid-19, her camp this summer will be “shorter and smaller – four hours long with eight campers, ages 10 and up, wearing face masks and gloves the whole time except when eating lunch,” Marla said. “Social distancing will be maintained in dog yards, at fire pits and in puppy playpens. So, hopefully we will help some families out and the sled dog team will get to have some fun with the kids too.”

Modifying the camp, a welcome stream of revenue for the kennel, may be a bit of a disappointment, but it takes more than a pandemic to rattle Brodsky.

Free-spirited and determined, she has pursued several dreams over her 60 years and never gives up.

“I’ve lived my life by making my dreams a reality,” she said.

In March she fulfilled one of her fondest dreams -- running her team of sled dogs through Alaska in the 2020 Serum Trail Run Expedition, a 674-mile trek from Nenana to Nome.

“I was like, ‘I made it!’ I always wanted to do it and I did,” she exalted.

More than fulfilling a dream, Marla said this accomplishment also means a lot to her as the mother of 15-year-old daughter, Ruby.

“I feel like I’ve been a role model for my daughter [showing her that] if you really want to do something, you can. You just have to work hard and you have to put your mind to it. ”

She has been doing that since childhood.

Born and raised in Cheltenham Township, Pa., just outside of Philadelphia, Brodsky was active in her Conservative synagogue, Germantown Jewish Center, growing up. At a time when most Conservative synagogues were not yet that egalitarian, Germantown Jewish Center was, and Marla received an excellent Jewish education. After flawlessly performing and leading her entire bat mitzvah service, the

temple’s Cantor Ben Maissner told her mother that she was gifted and should begin voice training.

“My mom sought out a local teacher from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and, at 13, I started studying classically. You hear stories of blues singers being nurtured by the church, because they started with gospel and then crossed over to the blues or jazz; I was nurtured by my synagogue.”

She remained involved at temple, chanting on the High Holidays and as the only youth in the temple’s adult choir.

“The cantor at my synagogue gave me a lot of opportunity to sing,” she recalled. “That was pretty instrumental in my upbringing. My synagogue was the foundation of my upbringing, certainly musically.”

Brodsky went to Emerson College in Boston and got her BFA in Drama, but also studied with a voice teacher at the Berklee College of Music.

“I studied music from 13 to 25 and then I decided it was time to really develop my own sound and I stopped,” she said.

With the dream of being a performer, she moved to New York in the early 90s, began using the name Marla BB – which she still goes by most of the time -- and for 25 years toured all over the country with her band, Marla BB and her Sassy Mama Blues Band.

In 2000 she moved to Western Mass. “for a relationship.”

“When I moved up here, the blues scene was not so hot,” she said.

In 2005 her partner gave birth to their daughter.

Wanting to cut down on touring, Brodsky – who had taken up Tae Kwon Do years earlier to stay in shape on the road -- opened her own Tae Kwon Do studio in town.

But it was while on a month-long tour of Alaska in 2007 that she completely fell in love with sled dogs and mushing.

On her days off from performing she visited as many “dog yards” as she could and became friends with champion mushers Aliy Zirkle and Allen Moore. The next year she apprenticed for them and handled their Iditarod teams. At the end of the season, they gave her one of their sled dogs, Betty, and that was the beginning of Brodsky’s kennel of sled dogs, which she has bred and raised herself.

“Once I got into mushing, I closed the [martial arts] studio, I ended up separating from my partner and moving across the road… So now I live on 17-plus acres with my Hilltown sled dogs and my daughter 50 percent of the time.

“Basically, now my world is all about mushing because when you have 20 some sled dogs, you have to have a passion and your passion becomes your life, so my life has been dogs and daughter,” Brodsky said. She says it has also been important for her to give her daughter a strong Jewish upbringing.

“I wanted her to have the foundation I had and Northampton offers so much Jewishly,” Brodsky explained. “She went

to Gan Keshet Preschool and then to Lander Grinspoon Academy, the Solomon Schechter School of the Pioneer Valley. She was bat mitzvahed at CBI (Congregation B’nai Israel.). We joined the Conservative synagogue, but this is also a progressive area so what I grew up with, I also found here 40 years later.”

‘I’M GOING TO ALASKA!’

As owner of Hilltown Sled Dogs, Brodsky calls herself an “Ambassador for the world of Sled Dog Sports.” Her kennel offers sled dog lessons and rides, hikes with the dogs, demonstrations, education, and tours.

In recent summers, her summer camp has grown; in 2019 it was filled to capacity. As some of her campers have gotten older and more experienced, they have become apprentices, training and helping out on sled runs, with the goal of becoming mushers themselves.

In recent years Brosky has also raced and won mushing competitions throughout New England, the Midwest and Canada. She competed in the World Championships in Sweden last fall.

Yet, what she really wanted to do was go on a trek through Alaska.

“My goal was to go back to Alaska with my own team and train and race there, and for ten years I would say, this year I’m going to Alaska,’” she said. “This year my business has finally grown and finally become successful enough, so financially I was able to take my dog team to Alaska. The winter before, every client that called me, I just worked, worked, worked. With every client and every camper, I put money in the bank.”

She even wore the “Jonathan the Husky” costume and wandered around the University of Connecticut at Christmas-time with a live husky to make money for the

trip. “It was good money,” she says.

Brodsky also has received support from Common Capital, the non-profit community loan fund in Springfield. “They are very supportive of local and women-owned businesses.”

When Brodsky learned that the commemorative Serum Run Expedition was going to take place, she applied and was selected to participate.

The 674-mile trek commemorates the historic 1925 serum run by 20 mushers – mailmen -- who relayed life-saving anti-toxin medication to Nome and the surrounding towns during a diphtheria epidemic.

The Serum Run trek hadn’t been run for nearly 10 years, but this year was revived by Alaskan graduate student Robert Forto for his master’s degree project.

In December, Brodsky loaded up her dogs and headed for Alaska to train. She rented a cabin on a corner in Nenana, Alaska, which she called “mushing central… More dog teams went past our cabins than cars.”

Brodsky was one of five mushers, all women over the age of 50 who called themselves “The Fabulous 5. They were accompanied by eight snow-machiners, who hauled gear and helped break trail, as well as a veterinarian and a doctor.

Mushing during the day, the group stayed overnights in schools, bush cabins, arctic oven tents and roadhouses along the route that took them from Nenana through towns including Old Minto, Beaver Point Lodge, Manley, Tanana, Bone Yard Cabin, Galena, Old Woman Cabin, Koyuk, White Mountain, Safety/Nuuk, and finally Nome.

The expedition was challenging. Mushing for many miles per day was exhausting for both the dogs and mushers, and at times the temperature was below -40 degrees Fahrenheit.

because it took me across two thirds of the Iditarod Trail,” she said.

Brosky found that there were some parallels between the historic trek and what is happening today.

“Once we arrived in Nome I called my daughter and she said, ‘Mama, have you heard about the coronavirus?’ I said, ‘Of course,’ but that was when I realized I needed to get home,” she said. “The goal became to rush to get from Alaska through Canada and to the lower 48 so I could get home while I still could. So I have these parallel stories of driving my dog team, then driving my trailer and truck and rushing, literally, to get from one end of the U.S. to the other.”

Getting home was a bit of an ordeal. After dealing with mechanical problems with her truck, she and her assistant then had to figure out how to get back into the U.S. when some parts of the border with Canada were closing. They finally crossed from Canada into Montana, then tried to drive through rural areas to avoid bigger

experience four virtual seders with families and friends. Brodsky spent the month of April applying for PPP and other grants to keep her business running.

“I need to pay staff to help take care of the dogs. For me to exercise 20 dogs would be over the top,” she laughed.

And in a controlled environment and under special protocols, camp will be open, she said.

Brodsky now plans to write two children’s books about her recent experience in Alaska with her dogs.

She also hopes to do some motivational speaking and to show slides of her dogs and her treks, and maybe to produce a television show about sled dogs.

“People are looking for diversions now,” she said. “Maybe this is going to be a new outlet and a new direction for me.” n

OPPORTUNITIES TO CREATE THE WORLD WE WANT STAY CONNECTED

We hope you and your family are safe and healthy especially in this time of high anxiety when there is increasing turmoil in our streets. These are undoubtedly the most broadly challenging months most of us have lived through.

STEVEN SCHIMMEL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

It’s obvious that the world today feels very different than it did in early March, before stay-at home issues were ordered. Each of us is affected by the events of the past 12 weeks. We’ve lost family members and jobs, we’ve missed milestone events and so much more. That was before millions of our fellow Americans began protesting as the nation reached a breaking point over the important issues of equality and justice. But as hard as the times are upheavals are unique opportunities to address important changes needed in society. Throughout history, across the globe, civilizations progressed though the chaos and turmoil they encountered- and when united and

aptly led came out better and stronger. We can’t naively expect that a better world filled with more goodness is a guaranteed outcome. No, we must be the stewards of the change. Our actions are the insurance policy ensuring success.

The situation we find ourselves in today presents us with a chance to make a lasting impression on our society- this is our time, we have opportunities right now to make changes in ways that would otherwise be impossible if not for the tumult we are experiencing. There’s a yearning in our world that is palpable. Disparate groups in our own towns and cities and around the world are stirring- looking toward a better future. And it should be us, now who commit to that better future. It can be the legacy of our generation- that in the year 2020 through the hardship and divisiveness, we choose to play the leading role in bettering the world and bettering ourselves. Let’s do all we can so that we may look back at this time satisfied with ourselves. Let’s work until we are tired, until we have met our issues head-on. Most importantly let each of us be leaders in our own lives- the world is in desperate need of leadership and goodness, let us change the world to be a better place than we found it starting today, starting now.

PJ LIBRARY AND PJ OUR WAY

Daily activities online for quarantined families https://pjlibrary.org/familyactivities

PJ weekly Summer You Tube Storytime and Craft with Rowan and Congregation Beth Israel. New episodes posted weekly on https://www.facebook.com/pg/

PJLibraryCentralMA/ or on PJLibrary CentralMass https://www.facebook.com/ profile.php?id=100010025564840

YAD

Stay connected with weekly virtual activities including Shabbat, meet-ups and game events via YAD Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ groups/centralmassyad

CHAVERIM

Check Facebook group page for virtual activities https://www.facebook.com/ groups/chaverimcentralmass/

COMMUNITY

Weekly class for women beginning June 15th (all ages) Summer Night Cool Down with CarynNeed to take the edge off?

Craving a little “me” time to relax?

Join us for a Monday night “Yoga-esque” 30-minute zoom class for women with group fitness trainer and community member, Caryn Beth Gold.

WHEN: Starting weekly Monday, June 15th, 8:00-8:30 pm

WHERE: Zoom indoors or outdoors, wherever you want

RSVP: Mindy Hall, JFCM Director of Outreach, mhall@jfcm.org

DISCUSSION: “How Covid-19 has Impacted Special Education” Wednesday, June 24th, 8:00 pm via Zoom

For more information or to RSVP on any of the above, please contact Mindy Hall, JFCM Director of Outreach, at mhall@jfcm.org or call 508-756-1543.

WE ALL HAVE A LEGACY. HAVE YOU SHARED YOURS?

Things I’ve done since March:

• I’ve stopped calling it “social distancing.” I’m calling it “physical distancing” because I’m trying very hard to stay “socially close” to family and friends.

• I’ve started weekly date nights with my husband and other couples via Zoom.

• I’ve planted a garden.

• I’ve donated to the local food pantry.

• I’ve bought gift certificates to all my favorite restaurants.

• I’ve attended Shabbat via Zoom.

• I donated to my favorite Jewish camp under the Harold Grinspoon Foundation matching program, All Together Now. The HGF is matching up to $10 Million of gifts made to participating Jewish overnight camps affiliated with the JCamp 180 program.

• I took my children to a Black Lives Matter rally and reached out to my friends of color to affirm that I am an ally.

All of these actions are part of my legacy. My legacy giving is just a small piece of who I am and of what I have to share. Send me an email at legacy@jfcm.org to tell me about what you have been doing since March. I’d love it if you would share your story with me.

WE ALL HAVE A LEGACY. HAVE YOU SHARED YOURS?

Worcester Black-Jewish Alliance

The Worcester Black-Jewish Alliance (WBJA) is a partnership of the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts and the Worcester chapter of the NAACP. It was formed in 2017 in order to strengthen the historic relationship between our communities. Since its inception the WBJA has sponsored several cultural events, including two Black-Jewish concerts, a screening of a documentary film, and a Unity Seder.

More recently the Alliance issued the following statement condemning the killing of George Floyd and calling for systemic change in our institutions to bring justice and fair treatment to all in our society.

STATEMENT FROM THE WORCESTER BLACK-JEWISH ALLIANCE REGARDING THE MURDER OF GEORGE FLOYD

The Worcester Black-Jewish Alliance condemns the brutal murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis policeman who was abetted by three other policemen.

The Worcester Black-Jewish Alliance, a partnership of the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts and the Worcester chapter of the NAACP, was founded in 2016. It was formed because Jews and African Americans have much in common, particularly that we have both known slavery, oppression and discrimination.

The great Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was a friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who marched alongside King from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. In this moment of American history, in the aftermath of the tragic killing of George Floyd, we recall Heschel’s words: “The opposite of good is not evil; the opposite of good is indifference. In a free society where terrible wrongs exist, some are guilty, but all are responsible.”

We, all of us, are not guilty, but we are responsible. We are responsible to raise our voices in pain and anger and protest to bring positive changes to a system that is rife with racism and injustice—in our schools, in our economy, in our government, and in a system of justice which is laden with injustice.

In 1963 Rabbi Heschel spoke at a National Conference on Race and Religion, where he referred to the biblical story of the Exodus as “the first conference on race and religion.” And there, at that first conference, Heschel said, “The main participants were Pharaoh and Moses. The outcome of that summit meeting has not come to an end. Pharaoh is not ready to capitulate. The Exodus began,” asserted Heschel, “but is far from having been completed.”

In 1963, while imprisoned in Birmingham, AL as a participant in nonviolent demonstrations, Dr. King wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

The death of George Floyd is another tragic reminder that our nation’s admirable aspiration of “freedom and justice for all” remains beyond our grasp. There remains a wide chasm between the ideals upon which our country was founded and the realities of injustice and oppression that remain unresolved. Good people of all faiths and backgrounds must unite to work together to continue writing that Exodus story, so that all our citizens can enjoy the freedom and justice of America’s promise.

We stand in solidarity with our Black community.

13 Jewish facts about ‘Hamilton’ that will make you smile

BY ARIELLE KAPLAN

In the ultimate COVID-19 silver lining, the Broadway smash “Hamilton“ will soon be available to stream from the comfort of your quarantine couch. Huzzah!

Originally set to hit theaters on in October 2021, Disney+ snaged rights to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning musical. With Broadway theaters shuttered indefinitely, there’s now something to look forward to on July 3 (just in time for America’s birthday).

In honor of this exciting news delivered at a truly hellacious time, here’s a bunch of Jewish facts about “Hamilton,” the innovative hip-hop musical that tells the tale of the Founding Father on the $10 bill.

1. Is Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator, Jewish? Nope – but he’s most certainly an honorary Jew, and we have the receipts to prove it. Born in New York City to a Puerto Rican family, the artist – composer, lyricist, producer, actor, singer and playwright –grew up with a lot of Jewish friends. While studying at Wesleyan, Miranda, 40, joined a Jewish a cappella group, the Mazel Tones, and sung a popular rendition of “Hinei Ba HaShalom.” He also later worked as a bar mitzvah dancer to pay his rent. Oh, to be the bar mitzvah boy!

But that’s not all, folks: In 2009, Yeshiva University gave Miranda an honorary degree, prompting him to tweet, “The day I became a Jewish doctor!” A year later, at his wedding, the oh-so romantic newlywed performed a surprise rendition of “To Life!” from “Fiddler on the Roof.” Needless to say, his new wife, Vanessa Nadal, was overjoyed. So were we. And, you can imagine how we felt when he tweeted in Hebrew in March, shortly after coronavirus hit the U.S.

2. Oy, we almost forgot about Miranda’s most recent, super-Jewish act: publicly thanking a generous bat mitzvah girl. In April, the Broadway star reached out to “Hamilton” super fan Elliana Zucker, who is making face masks as part of her mitzvah project. After the bat mitzvah’s mom reached out to Miranda, Elliana received a handwritten letter from “the desk of Lin-Manuel Miranda.”

“As we all do our part by staying home you’ve chosen to take on a little more,” the composer wrote. “May the music of Hamilton continue to accompany you in your honorable endeavor.”

Her response? “It kind of reminds me of sleepaway camp when you don’t have a phone and you get a letter,” she told the Miami Herald. “It’s old school.”

3. OK, so Miranda isn’t technically Jewish. But what about Alexander Hamilton, the musical’s titular role Miranda plays? Well, it’s complicated. Hamilton grew up in the Caribbean, and some scholars believe that the Founding Father’s mother, Rachel Faucette, might have been Jewish. In any event, the Anglican Church banned young Hamilton from its school because he was born out of wedlock, so instead he studied at a Jewish day school at a synagogue. He learned Hebrew there and allegedly told his son that he learned to recite the Ten Commandments.

“Rarely as he alluded to his personal history, he mentioned at the school of a Jewess, when so small that he was placed standing by her side upon a table,” Hamilton’s son recalled.

4. Hamilton was, at the very least, an advocate for the Jewish people. During a heated debate in a legal case, Hamilton is recorded saying: “Why distrust the evidence of the Jews? Discredit them and you will destroy the Christian religion … Were not the [Jews] witness of that pure and holy, happy and heaven-approved faith, converts to that faith?”

5. It was Jewish historian Ron Chernow’s 2004 book Alexander Hamilton that inspired Miranda to create a rap musical about the Founding Father. While reading the Pulitzer Prize winner’s book on vacation, Miranda got the idea to retell the story in a modern way. The actor approached Chernow and the rest, well, is history!

6. Aside from Chernow, the Broadway cast of “Hamilton” has tons of Jews, like Jewish director Thomas Kail, who actually met Miranda at Wesleyan, their alma mater.

7. If you’ve seen “Hamilton,” you can thank Jewish associate choreographer Stephanie Crain Klemons for the marvelous dance moves. “Hamilton” led Klemons to strengthen his connection to his Jewish roots. “As our Holocaust generation dwindles, the passing down of stories and traditions becomes both increasingly important and increasingly difficult. In ‘Hamilton’ especially, there’s a resurgence of the desire to know where you come from and the path your immediate ancestors experienced.” Klemons told the Crescent City Jewish News.

8. Jewish and African-American actor Daveed Diggs, who starred in the original Broadway cast as both Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson, originally thought a rap musical about Alexander Hamilton was a “terrible idea.” He went on to win a Tony Award for his performance thanks, in part, to his “really, really fast” rapping skills.

9. Lead Jewish producer Jeffrey Seller, who also produced Miranda’s first Tony Award-winning musical, “In the Heights,” believes that Hamilton reflects the story of Jewish immigrants. “Hamilton’s story reflects the long line of Jewish immigrants who came to America’s shores seeking opportunities to better their lives,”

Seller told Jewish News. “He gets on a boat to New York to further his education, prospects and opportunities, and we see a direct line to the Jews of Eastern Europe who came to the United States for the same reason.”

10. Jewish mom Mandy Gonzalez was cast as Angelica Schuyler in the off-Broadway, and Broadway production. Gonzalez, who recently announced her battle with breast cancer, says her bubbe, the “Yiddish Queen of St. Louis,” gave her her “love of music.” Judaism and “having a faith in community” is incredibly important for young adults, Gonzalez said, who “strongly identifies” with Judaism and its “beauty and the culture.”

11. The Jewish members of the Broadway cast apparently even had a nickname for themselves: the “Hamil-Jews.” In addition to those we’ve already mentioned, this also includes set designer David Korins, ensemble member Seth Stewart and sound designer Nevin Steinberg. Between shows, the Hamil-Jews celebrated Jewish holidays! Klemons said on Yom Kippur, those who chose to fast were supported by the rest of the Jewish friend group. “We did a little apple/honey Rosh Hashanah prayer,” Klemons said. ‘We did a Passover matzah exchange. Everyone makes a dish and we help each other out.”

12. In 2017, Miranda created Hamildrops, a project in which he released a new tracks inspired by “Hamilton,” in collaboration with featured artists. For the fourth mashup, Miranda teamed up with Jewish actor Ben Platt for a gorgeous duet of “Story of Tonight” from “Hamilton” and “You Will Be Found” from “Dear Evan Hansen.”

13. Since everybody loves “Hamilton,” and everybody loves Jewish holiday parody videos, perhaps it’s a bit of a no-brainer that there are a bunch of great Jewish a cappella versions of “Hamilton” songs, including this Chanukah parody from the Maccabeats and this one from Six13. Enjoy!

This story originally appeared on Kveller.

Briefs

Iran to execute alleged US-Israel spy

(JNS) Iran announced on Tuesday, June 9 that it will execute a suspected spy for the U.S. and Israel who relayed to those nations information regarding the location of former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by an American drone in Iraq in January. Iranian Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili gave the alleged spy’s name as Mahmoud Mousavi Majd, according to an AP report. Esmaili accused Majd of being “linked to the CIA and the Mossad,” and did not say when he would be executed. The Iranian official also did not say that the information on Soleimani that Majd allegedly provided led to the killing of the arch-terrorist.

At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Security Cabinet ministers that the Jewish state was not involved in the killing of Soleimani, and that the Jewish state must not be dragged into the increasing conflict, reported Axios, citing two ministers who attended the meeting. “The killing of Soleimani is a U.S. event, not an Israeli event, and we should stay out of it,” said Netanyahu, according to the ministers.

Rapper Ice Cube tweets

mural critics call antisemitic

(JTA) — Rapper Ice Cube tweeted an image of a mural that was removed from a wall in London in 2012 after complaints that the image was antisemitic. In the tweet, the image, which depicts several men sitting around a Monopoly board resting on the backs of naked black and brown men, is captioned: “All we have to do is stand up and their little game is over.” The tweet, which came amid a torrent of expressions of support from the rapper for the Black Lives Matter movement in recent days, has been liked nearly 50,000 times and retweeted more than 19,000 times since it was posted on Saturday.

The image by Los Angeles artist Mear One was painted on a building in London’s East End in 2012. It was removed after complaints, but future-Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn at the time tweeted his support for artist’s right to display it. He later British journalist Michael Segalov, who wrote about the issue in 2018, tweeted at Ice Cube to say the the image was antiSemitic.

Ice Cube later tweeted that he was “very concerned about the table in this image,” but did not remove it.

800 rabbis sign statement supporting peaceful protest against racism

(JTA) — More than 800 rabbis, including the leaders of three major denominations, signed a statement in support of peaceful protest against racism and in memory of George Floyd. The statement invoked Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, an iconic Jewish civil rights activist who marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. It was written and distributed by the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center, a political advocacy organization that has a long history of civil rights activism.

“Mr. Floyd was a victim of the nation’s long history of brutality against people of color, and particularly Black men,” the statement reads. “Protests are a just response to all-too-familiar anger, frustration, and pain. I stand for the right to peaceful protest and call on our nation’s law enforcement and elected officials not to interfere with this bedrock First Amendment expression.”

Among the signers are Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism; Rabbi Hara Person, chief executive of the Reform movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis; Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, chief executive of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly; and Rabbi Deborah Waxman, president of Reconstructing Judaism.

Drive-through corona testing in Congo, courtesy of Israel

(Israel21c via JNS) The Israeli coronavirus drive-through testing concept is now coming to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa. Congo’s Honorary Consul in Israel, Dan Gertler, saw how Israel was handling coronavirus testing and contacted MDA to help with his country’s fight against COVID-19.

Building the drive-through facility is the easy part. What’s trickier is the software that manages the entire process—from sampling to sending the swab off to the lab and responding to patients. In addition to creating a version of Israel’s software specifically for the Congo, MDA prepared a training program with videos and written materials for the Congolese medical professionals who began operating the facility at the end of May.

“During the long period in which we operated the many drive-through sampling facilities, the technology we used proved itself, along with the effective and safe practices” that prevented infection among MDA’s teams, said MDA chief information officer Ido Rosenblat. “From the moment they contacted us, we were ready to help and to share our knowledge.”

MDA director general Eli Bin added that

“the medical capabilities and technologies of Magen David Adom, along the methods we are developing, are among the most advanced in the world. We are now happy to share this knowledge with other medical entities around the world, for the sake of saving human lives.”

Israel has a longstanding tradition of providing aid to the developing world. Israel established MASHAV in 1958, which has helped build hospitals, airports, universities and roads in almost every African country. Israel provided food aid to the Congo in 2008.

Latin American Holocaust education network launches

(JTA) — Nine institutions in Latin America devoted to Holocaust studies have launched a network to join experiences and training. As a first activity, the Red LAES network will offer weekly talks titled “Latin America speaks about the Holocaust” by the Museum of the Jewish Community of Costa Rica to begin on Thursday, June 11. “I am convinced that the LAES network will create a new meeting space for memory, education and human rights,” Marcelo Mindlin, president of the Holocaust Museum of Buenos Aires, told the JTA. Facing “the new normality” brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, the organizers said LAES will develop virtual activities to teach together. Along with the Buenos Aires and Costa Rican museums, the network members are the Holocaust Museum in Curitiba, Brazil; the Interactive Jewish Museum in Chile; the Anne Frank Center and the Center for Holocaust Studies in Guatemala; the Memory and Tolerance Museum of Mexico; the Emet Foundation of Panama; the Jewish Museum of Peru; and the Shoah Museum of Uruguay.

UC Davis student gov’t president vetoes boycott Israel resolution

(JTA) — The president of the student government at the University of California, Davis, vetoed a resolution supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. The day after the measure passed last week, Kyle Krueger said he acted “because it included minimal to no input from the Jewish community beforehand,” and the resolution “has been widely condemned by Jewish students of many different sects/beliefs who feel marginalized by ASUCD and its actions.”

The Associated Students, University of California Davis, or ASUCD, had passed the measure in a 5-4 vote with one abstention. It was the third time the student senate had passed such resolutions in the past several years, but the others were overturned — once by a student court and once by the campus Judicial Council.

Krueger said in a statement defending

his decision that he has “been humbled by (the) overall nuance and complexity” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“As a 20-year old who has not finished a college degree and who is not from Palestinian or Jewish descent, I do not feel qualified to make a decision about one of the most complex international conflicts in the world on my own,” he said. Krueger said the student government has failed the campus Jewish community, pointing to a history of antisemitism on campus, and acknowledged that ASUCD must be an ally to Palestinian students as well. “But our respect for the Palestinian community cannot come at the expense of the respect for the Jewish community,” his statement also said.

Israeli woman granted religious divorce after 14 years of trying

(JTA) — An Israeli rabbinical court granted a religious divorce to a woman who was prevented from marrying for 14 years after her husband moved abroad. Vicky Tzur was granted a Jewish writ of divorce, known as a get, in Netanya on Sunday, June 7. Tzur’s husband signed a divorce agreement last week after receiving special permission to leave his house during the coronavirus pandemic in order to do so. In 2006, Tzur’s husband filed for divorce and left the country but refused to grant her a get. Under Orthodox Jewish law, that rendered Tzur an agunah, literally a “chained woman” unable to remarry. In 2019, she filed a civil lawsuit against her husband for damages resulting from his refusal to grant her a divorce and was awarded over $200,000. Tzur was assisted in securing the get by the Jerusalem-based Yad La’isha organization.

Palestinians threaten to declare state along ’67 borders

(JNS) Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Tuesday, JUne 9, that if Israel annexes parts of Judea and Samaria, the Palestinians would declare a state based on the pre-1967 lines and launch an international recognition campaign.

The campaign, he said, would include recognition of eastern Jerusalem as the state’s capital, reported Ynet. Shtayyeh called annexation an “existential threat” for the Palestinians.

Former senior U.S. officials told JNS earlier this month that it was unlikely that P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas would follow through on threats to cut ties with Israel, stop security cooperation and void past agreements if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues with his plan to apply Israeli law to the Jordan Valley, and parts of Judea and Samaria.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

AMHERST

Jewish Community of Amherst

Reconstructionist

Rabbi Benjamin Weiner (413) 256-0160 info@jcamherst.org www.jcamherst.org 742 Main St., Amherst, MA 01002

ATHOL

Temple Israel Unaffiliated/Egalitarian

Reb Sarah Noyovitz (978) 249-9481 templeisraelathol@gmail.com 107 Walnut Street Athol, MA 01331

BENNINGTON, VT

Congregation Beth El Reconstructionist

Rabbi Micah Becker Klein (802) 442-9645 cbevtoffice@gmail.com www.cbevermont.org

225 North St., Bennington, VT 05201

CLINTON

Congregation Shaarei Zedeck Conservative Lay Leadership - Elena Feinberg (978) 501-2744 sherryesq@yahoo.com www.shaareizedeck.org 104 Water St., Clinton, MA 01510

SYNAGOGUE DIRECTORY

Western and Central Massachusetts

FLORENCE

Beit Ahavah, The Reform Synagogue of Greater Northampton Reform

Rabbi Riqi Kosovske (413) 587-3770 info@beitahavah.org www.beitahavah.org 130 Pine St. Florence, MA 01062

GREENFIELD

Temple Israel of Greenfield Unaffiliated

Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener (413) 773-5884 office@templeisraelgreenfield.org www.templeisraelgreenfield.org

27 Pierce St. Greenfield, MA 01301

HOLYOKE

Congregation Rodphey Sholom Orthodox Rabbi Tuvia Helfen Religious Leader (413) 534-5262 djs1818@aol.com 1800 Northampton St., Holyoke, MA 01040

Congregation Sons of Zion

Conservative Rabbi Saul Perlmutter (413) 534-3369 office@sonsofzionholyoke.org www.sonsofzionholyoke.org

378 Maple St. Holyoke, MA 01040

LEOMINSTER

Congregation Agudat Achim

Conservative

Rabbi Eve Eichenholtz (978) 534-6121 office@agudat-achim.org www.agudat-achim.org

268 Washington St., Leominster, MA 01453

LONGMEADOW

Congregation B’nai Torah

Orthodox

Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe

Rabbi Yakov Wolff (413) 567-0036 office@bnaitorahma.org rabbi@bnaitorahma.org www.bnaitorahma.org

2 Eunice Drive

Longmeadow, MA 01106

Neighborhood Minyan

124 Sumner Avenue Springfield, MA 01108

NORTHAMPTON

Congregation B’nai Israel

Conservative

Rabbi Justin David (413) 584-3593 office@CBINorthampton.org www.CBINorthampton.org

253 Prospect St. Northampton, MA 01060

PITTSFIELD

Temple Anshe Amunim

Reform

Rabbi Liz P.G. Hirsch (413) 442-5910 rabbiliz@ansheamunim.org www.ansheamunim.org

26 Broad St., Pittsfield, MA 01201

SPRINGFIELD

Sinai Temple Reform

Rabbi Jeremy Master (413) 736-3619 rblanchettegage@sinai-temple.org www.sinai-temple.org

1100 Dickinson St., Springfield, MA 01108

Temple Beth El Conservative

Rabbi Amy Walk Katz (413) 733-4149 office@tbesprinfield.org www.tbespringfield.org

979 Dickinson St., Springfield, MA 01108

WESTBOROUGH

Beth Tikvah Synagogue

Independent

Rabbi Michael Swarttz (508) 616-9037 president@bethtikvahsynagogue.org www.bethtikvahsynagogue.org

45 Oak St., Westborough, MA 01581

Congregation B’nai Shalom Reform

Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz/ Rabbi-Educator Joseph Eiduson (508) 366-7191 info@cbnaishalom.org www.cbnaishalom.org

117 East Main St., PO Box 1019, Westborough, MA 01581

WESTFIELD

Congregation Ahavas Achim Unaffiliated Cantor Colman Reaboi (413) 642-1797 ahavasachiminquiry@gmail.com www.congregationahavasachim.org Ferst Interfaith Center, Westfield State University PO Box 334, 577 Western Avenue, Westfield, MA 01086 Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AhavasAchimWestfield/

WORCESTER

Central Mass Chabad

Rabbi Mendel Fogelman, Rabbi Chaim Fishman, Rabbi Michael Phillips, Cantor Eli Abramowitz (508) 752-0904 rabbi@centralmasschabad.com www.centralmasschabad.com 22 Newton Avenue, Worcester, MA 01602

Congregation Beth Israel Conservative Rabbi Aviva Fellman (508) 756-6204 receptionist@bethisraelworc.org www.bethisraelworc.org 15 Jamesbury Drive Worcester, MA 01609

Congregation Shaarai Torah West Orthodox Rabbi Yakov Blotner (508) 791-0013 Brotman156@aol.com www.shaaraitorah.org 835 Pleasant St. Worcester, MA 01602

Temple Emanuel Sinai Reform

Rabbi Valerie Cohen (508) 755-1257 amayou@emanuelsinai.org www.emanuelsinai.org 661 Salisbury St., Worcester, MA 01609

Briefs

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17

According to Harold Rhode, a former adviser on Islamic affairs within the U.S. Defense Department’s Office of Net Assessment, Abbas’s threat is empty since it is in his and other senior Palestinian officials’ interest to continue the cooperation.

Law professor Eugene Kontorovich of George Mason University’s school of law, who is also director of the Center for International Law in the Middle East and of International Law at the Jerusalembased Kohelet Policy Forum, told JNS, “Once again we are seeing the Palestinians threaten to end agreements with Israel which they never honored in the first place and which they repeatedly claimed to have already ended, while still claiming their benefits. The threat of declaring a state on ’67 lines is comical, as they have already claimed a state on all of Israel multiple times in the past. It just shows that the Palestinians have no more cards to play.”

Bar Refaeli gets community service for tax evasion, but mom is going to prison

(JTA) — Bar Refaeli will perform community service, but the supermodel’s mother will spend 16 months in prison under a plea bargain they signed Tuesday with Israeli prosecutors for tax evasion. Each will pay a fine of about $720,000 and $2.3 million in back taxes. Tzipi Refaeli was her daughter’s business manager. Bar Refaeli says she didn’t know anything about the efforts made to conceal her earnings in 2009 and 2010. During those years, the supermodel claimed that her main residence was in the United States, where she shared a house with then-boyfriend Leonardo Di Caprio, and therefore she owed less in taxes to Israel. Tzipi Refaeli also is suspected of failing to report income of nearly $1 million from commissions she received as agent and by making deposits in foreign bank accounts on behalf of her daughter.

Likud,

Blue and White to work toward decriminalizing

cannabis

(JNS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party and Vice Premier Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party issued a joint statement on Tuesday saying they would work to “resolve the issue of decriminalization and legalization” of marijuana. Blue and White MK Ram Shefa and Likud MK Sharren Haskel would advance a bill

“as soon as possible” aiming to make it easier for patients to get access to medical marijuana and easier for growers to obtain licenses, according to the statement. But the proposed legislation will also apply to recreational use, according to a report by Channel 12, though details were not revealed, with the statement simply indicating that it would be “a responsible model that will fit the State of Israel and the Israeli population.”

According to the report, cannabis use will be permitted only over the age of 21, driving will be forbidden while under the influence of cannabis, designated shops will sell it, educational programs will be established to teach about the dangers and addictive properties of cannabis, and advertising will be heavily restricted.

Cannabis use was partially decriminalized in Israel in 2017, with first-time offenders being subject to fines and treatment rather than criminal charges.

Last week, the Public Security Ministry issued a statement confirming that its new head, Amir Ohana, who oversees Israel’s police, aims “to minimize harm as much as possible to law-abiding citizens who have offenses linked to the drug.”

When he served as justice minister, Ohana decried the criminalization of marijuana, saying it “took law-abiding citizens and turned them into criminals. Not because they harmed another person, God forbid, but rather because they allegedly harmed themselves.”

UK Jewish group commissions report on the prejudice black Jews face

(JTA) — The largest Jewish communal organization in the United Kingdom has launched a commission aimed at investigating the prejudices that British Jews of color face and to making the Jewish community a “more welcoming environment for its own Black members.” The Board of Deputies of British Jews announced the project Monday, June 8,in response to the global protests surrounding the killing of George Floyd.

“We recognize that, while the outpouring of solidarity with the Black community from many Jewish institutions has been heartening, this must now be matched by a willingness in the community to learn and strive to become a more welcoming environment for its own Black members,” the board said in a statement. “Indeed, many Jewish organizations across the country have been in touch with us to ask how they can help.”

The board plans to ask British Jews about their experiences in communal settings, then make recommendations for action to local Jewish communities.

“Over the last week, we have heard from a range of Black British Jews that our own communal spaces are not always welcoming. We have heard complaints about being stared at in synagogues, being asked probing questions, being given a hard time by security at communal buildings, facing racism in Jewish schools, a lack of racial diversity in Jewish leadership positions and even heartbreaking prejudice in the context of seeking another Jewish partner,” the board noted.

The commission will be chaired by Stephen Bush, a black journalist and editor of the New Statesman who has written about his Jewish heritage.

A new ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ movie is in the works

(JTA) — Wonder of wonders: “Fiddler on the Roof” is returning to the big screen. MGM will produce a remake of the iconic 1964 musical about the struggles and joys of Jewish life in the fictional Eastern European shtetl of Anatevka. The new film will bring some star power from Broadway: Director Thomas Kail served in the same role for “Hamilton” and has collaborated with its creator, LinManuel Miranda (famously a “Fiddler” fan), on other shows. Steven Levenson, who wrote the acclaimed musical “Dear Evan Hansen,” will pen the screenplay. “Fiddler” first opened on Broadway in 1964 starring Zero Mostel as Tevye and winning nine Tonys. It saw many sunrises and sunsets, at one time holding the record for longest-running Broadway musical at nearly 10 years. The movie version came out in 1971 and garnered three Oscars, as well as nominations for best actor for Topol and best picture. Broadway brought back another revival in 2015, and a Yiddish-language “Fiddler” ran off-Broadway until this year.

ADL: Anti-Israel campus activities make Jewish students feel ‘threatened’

(JNS) A significant segment of anti-Israel activism on college campuses activism re-ported in 2019 contributed to an atmosphere in which Jewish students felt under at-tack, and from which antisemitism sometimes emerged, according to an AntiDefamation League report released on May 27. The report comes as some campuses plan to reopen in the fall.

“We anticipate a significant uptick in anti-Israel activity once students are able to re-turn,” said ADL national president and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. “Some of the more radical expressions of anti-Israel sentiment that we witnessed last year morphed into outright antisemitism. Many of these manifestations left Jewish students feeling be-sieged and threatened.”

According to the new report titled “Antisemitism and the Radical Anti-Israel Movement on U.S. Campuses in 2019,” antiIsrael rhetoric and activities on campuses often emerged from the campaigns calling for boycotting the Jewish state and the implementation of annual Israeli Apartheid Week programs. Additionally, the report documented several events where pro-Israel or Jewish students felt threatened.

The report highlighted that anti-Israel groups on campuses receive much of their fund-ing from student government resources, which generally are supported by student ac-tivity fees. They are also supported by outside donors, including foundations, some of whom have expressed their own anti-Israel positions. Most notable is the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), which provides significant funding to the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace. RBF also donates to the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights and Grassroots Jerusalem, both of which have engaged in anti-Zionist rhetoric that has veered into extremism or antisemitism. Another funder is the Westchester Peace Ac-tion Committee, which provides significant funding to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and has its own website that includes antisemitic content. SJP is also funded by American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), some of whose members have a history of making antisemitic remarks.

The ADL report calls on campus administrators and faculty to take a series of steps to address anti-Israel incidents and antisemitism on campus. Said Greenblatt, “At a time when antisemitism in the U.S. has spiked to historic levels and against the backdrop of COVID-19, which has revived old anti-Jewish conspiracies, college presidents and university administrators should take steps to prevent this prejudice from violating norms on campus and diminishing the educational experience of these students.”

Black Jews

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

heightened anxiety and stress because of the pandemic. And for black folks, whether it’s conscious or not, the sense of terror we feel for when is the shoe going to drop for someone we know, someone in our town, for us?

I am experiencing more white Jews sending me private messages. A lot of them are saying “What can we do?” and in time I hope we can advance our collective knowledge and education enough so it can become more of “I’ve been proactively learning from people of color and here is what I am doing,” or “These are the things I’m considering. I’m mostly leaning towards this one, does that sound like it’s in alignment with your vision?”

That said, it’s a step forward and it’s good, but it’s asking more of us as Jews of color to not only figure out how to maintain our jobs and do additional leadership and activism in this moment, but then also being asked to support and manage white Jews’ work during a time in which many of us are traumatized and heartbroken. But this is progress, and I would rather people reach out, however they best know how, than apathy and not doing anything or paralysis from fear.

Ginna Green works in the Jewish community and the progressive movement, and sits on the boards of the Jews of Color Initiative, the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable, and Political Research Associates.

The current moment, for me, is one of numbness. I rejoined the rest of the world in grief and rage a little bit late, as I was scrambling toward Shavuos as things in Minneapolis and all over were reaching a flashpoint on Thursday. I went into lighting candles that evening with a sense of weight and trepidation, because I did not know what would be true come motzei Shabbat two days later. I was on edge the entire chag. Listening to my 16-year-old black Jewish son leyn Megillat Ruth and playing Shavuot Spot-It with my 5-year-old daughter brought me moments of joy, but not enough to ease my spirit. I knew it would come, but how I had not imagined.

I am deeply appreciative of the fact that when Shavuos ended, I was overwhelmed by texts from white folks — Jewish and not — offering support, and checking in. The last several days have been exhausting, but the truth is that the last five years have been exhausting, and the last 400 years have been exhausting. Every black person is tired.

What I need from white Jews and white people is yes, please keep calling, keep texting and asking how I am, and all the other black people you know. And also call and text your fellow white Jews and people: Ask them what they did today to dismantle white supremacy. Give them three places to donate, three black people to learn from; three new classes to take or books to read. The work of beating back the white supremacy is a burden that can’t be left to black folks. We all need all of us. And every black person is tired.

I also want to see the Jewish community embrace radical possibility. A month ago, folks were pointing out the major change a pandemic had made possible. Radical shifts in work. Expectations. Air quality. But racism has been an American epidemic for 400 years, and it is against the backdrop of this transformational pandemic — and one that is taking black lives disproportionately — that we see the grief and rage and impact reach epic proportions. And there are solutions of varying radicalness that black folks have been proposing for years to right the systemic wrongs of a nation that black people built: reparations; universal basic income; mass decarceration; defunding police. Hammers and nails won’t be enough to build what must come next for us all to thrive — we need bulldozers and forklifts. Embrace the radical possibility, and help make it true.

At the risk of belying the danger and concern and fear and worry that are real and present, I am also hopeful. The United States is breaking, painfully, visibly but not irreparably. The cracks have always been there for us to study. Perhaps now we can create the place that holds us all.

Yitz Jordan is the founder of TribeHerald, a publication for Jews of color, and a hip hop artist also known as Y-Love.

What am I feeling? Anxiety. That’s what I’m feeling. I had an anxiety attack on Friday. I live in the ‘hood, I live in Bushwick, so I’m not really geographically in the Jewish community, but I know that somebody on Friday for instance was shot not too far from me and I was terrified as to what the response to that was going to be, were cops going to respond and was rioting going to happen in my neighborhood?

And in the Jewish community, this is the kind of fight that I’m having: “This didn’t happen after the Holocaust, why are black people acting like this?” It’s that role of explaining over and over again to people who quite often don’t want to listen.

I feel like there’s the same split that’s going through America in ideological lines, is going through the Jewish community … whatever percent of Orthodox Jews that support Trump, you see it more from these people. When we say the Jewish community in general that also consists of people like JFREJ [Jews for Racial and Economic Justice] and Jewish Voice for Peace and these other organizations, but in the Orthodox world, the pro-Trump wing is where I’m hearing these types of conversations. And I’m seeing this, ranging from lack of knowledge to callousness regarding people of color. There are some people who genuinely don’t know, and to whom a lot of these issues are very new. Especially Hasidish people, for instance, this just isn’t part of the Shabbos-table conversation — police brutality, inequality, systemic racism. But you have some people who just show callousness.

Gulienne Rishon is a diversity expert and chief revenue officer for TribeHerald Media.

Iam thankful for true allies, who understand that this is not the time to center their own experiences. I am thankful for true allies, who understand that the experiences they and their ancestors have had are to be used in this moment as empathy, and that no one is denying them their experiences in asking them to listen and learn.

But mostly, if one more whitepresenting Jew tries to tell me today that they don’t have white privilege (not that they aren’t White, but that they don’t have white privilege) because they’re Jewish/the Holocaust/Jews got kicked out of schools, I might lose my mind. I should not have to deal with people telling me that my story (the Black part) doesn’t exist because my story (the Ashkenazi experience) exists. But I do. And I am confident that part of why G-d put me in the skin of a biracial Jewish woman descended from a kindertransport survivor, a WWII veteran who was kicked out of his Hamburg Gymnasium for being Jewish, and two Southern Black Virginians, is to help us as a people face our sinat chinam and take responsibility for being the light unto the nations by helping, not closing our ranks and denying the pain others feel because of the freshness of ours.

Facilitating difficult conversations about race is literally my profession. Yet, some days, I’m just a person behind a keyboard on Facebook who came out of our day of rest hearing that the world erupted in flames, and I look at the beautiful brown skin of my daughter and her parents, and I’m angry and afraid. I’ve worked so hard to have these conversations with grace when you’re caught up in your feelings about

the complexity. On a day when it’s not about the complexity, but processing and mourning actual death, can you please give the same grace to mine?

Isaiah Rothstein is a multiracial rabbi who serves as the rabbiin-residence at Hazon.

Both sides of my ancestry hold a lot of pain of being othered and being oppressed. During these moments it’s sometimes hard to process and it’s a lot to integrate, but it’s a time where we’re expected to stand up and to speak up so I’m trying to find my voice every single day.

On the one hand, I feel restless and frustrated and fed up. On the other hand, I think that like anyone who’s reading or seeing the headlines, I feel frustrated because so many people don’t care enough, or they care adjacently or from the outside. So there’s those emotions but then on the flip-side, I think that this moment is calling on all of us as Americans to stand up. If I could say in short what do I think the Jewish community should be doing, I would want every community to have an educational platform for communities to contextualize discussions around race, specifically as it relates to the Jewish community. I would want to have platforms, summits, days of learning. I would want every community to sign on to have educational campaigns around racial equity and racial awareness and racial sensitivity, so that we could find a bridge to understanding and perspectives through history, through knowledge of the past, so that we could better create a stronger, healthier bridge for the future.

Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell is a musician who blends traditional Yiddish and African-American music.

Let’s get real here, American Jews: You are living in an Old Country, whether you choose to recognize it or not. The state-sanctioned violence visited upon Black communities happens in ghettos you can easily pronounce, in towns you visit without the aid of a tour guide and cities you reside in without a granted law of return.

So, who are you in this narrative, this country from which there is no real option of flight, this century which is your own, your heartless ruler, hands slick with the blood of children and refugees, the cavalries, maintaining “order” on your behalf over a people whose mere existence for centuries has been deemed disorderly?

Solidarity with Black people doesn’t CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

Black Jews

require a radical act of historical imagination. You are here. We are here. You know what to do. Do it. Now.

Tema Smith is a writer and the director of professional development at 18Doors, an organization for interfaith families.

I’m deeply upset about George Floyd and also that he is not the first and not the last, and that it’s taken a murder so egregious to really get people out into the streets in this way, and get a lot of people to wake up to what happens unfortunately too frequently.

I also have deep gratitude for the moment that we’re in, for so many people who hadn’t previously spoken out are speaking out.

As far as the Jewish community, the number of people who either have spoken out publicly or who have reached out privately as people who just care and want to make sure that me and other Jews of color are feeling OK right now — and I think most of my friends who are Jews of color are experiencing similar things from their friends — is huge. Frankly, I’ve

level.

This isn’t the first time that something like this has happened. This is the first time I’ve received messages from so many people and that makes me hopeful for that grassroots community level being there to support each other, and that is huge. And the fact that there is a growing chorus of voices in the Jewish community speaking up, that’s huge, and that people are showing up at protests, I can’t say enough of how meaningful it is to see that.

Enzi Tanner is a social worker in Minneapolis and works with LGBT families experiencing homelessness.

Yesterday we hosted a havdalah with JCA [Jewish Community Action] and JFREJ and I did a little talk and for me the thing that is really real for me is black Jews and Jews of color all across the country during this time have been incredibly supportive and amazing and just speaking for me, it has made this time so much more doable and bearable.

I also say that because at this time,

that people reach in to black Jews and other Jews of color and realize that we’re here. And we need our community.

And the other thing is: believe us. When George Floyd said I can’t breathe, he was not believed. When black women tell doctors and nurses during childbirth that they’re in pain, they’re not believed which is why they die at a higher rate. We don’t want to have to give a dissertation when we say we’re experiencing racism in our communities. We want to be believed. And in this moment now, it’s really important that, in those situations, that we’re able to be believed.

When we say our elected officials aren’t doing the best job they could be, we want that to be believed, we don’t want to be told that they’re doing the best they can because we’ve been here for far too long and our cities are literally burning and we just need folks to believe us and to support us.

And to reach out to the Jews of color, the black Jews within the community as well as reaching out and being in it for the long haul. This isn’t about just one person, this is about all these different people and different things. And it’s hopefully not just

Evan Traylor is an educator, activist and soon-to-be rabbinical student at the Hebrew Union College — Jewish Institute of Religion.

Right now, Black Jews are grieving. We’re grieving for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. But we’re grieving for so many more lives, Black lives, that have been taken from this earth far too early because of brutal, systemic racism. And that pain isn’t going away tomorrow, or next week, or next month. It’s going to last for generations to come. And, if we want a better world, we have to change the system.

I’m grateful for so many white Jewish allies who have reached out, comforted me, supported me not just over the last week, but for years now. And right now, we need more from our white Jewish siblings, and more from our Jewish institutions — we need support, allyship, resources, and strategies to confront racism in our community, and in our world. We are all created in the image of God — it’s time to build the Jewish community and world that makes our Torah true in this age.

BERLIN

Valerie Lavender Berlin of Northampton died May 30. She was the wife of Steven Berlin. Born in Cambridge, she was the daughter of Esta and Leon Tritter. After attending Girl’s Latin School in Boston, she moved to Syracuse, New York to work at a law firm. She eventually moved to Northampton to attend Smith College as an Ada Comstock scholar. Her poetry was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and won the Elizabeth Babcock Poetry Prize and Best of the Nest Peregrine Prize. She was active in the Smith College Alumnae Association and the Northampton Historical Commission, where she worked on several high-profile projects including the Northampton 350th anniversary.

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BLOOMBERG

Lorraine “Laurie” Bloomberg, 96, of Longmeadow, died May 11 from complications from a fall. She was the wife of Leo Bloomberg. Born in Chicago and raised in southern California, she lived all over the country, moving to Longmeadow seven years ago. She was trained as a bookkeeper. An artist, she worked in clay, oil paints, soapstone, bronze, stained glass, sculpey and water colors. In addition to her husband, she is survived by a daughter, Beverly and her husband, Tom; two granddaughters, Eloise and Annie; a grandson, Matthew his fiance, Deanne, and his father, Bradley; a sister, Sue; and several nieces, nephews and great-nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by two daughters, Lynn and Sally. Memorial contributions may be made to Ruth’s House Employee Assistance Fund, 770 Converse St., Longmeadow, MA 01106. The family will match all donations as a gesture of gratitude to the staff at Ruth’s House. Please mark any contributions in honor of Laurie Bloomberg.

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DANSKY

Joel Dansky of Northampton died May 7 after a long struggle with Parkinson’s Disease. He was the husband of Nancy Felton Dansky. Born June 17, 1945 in Newark, N.J., he was the son of Edith Sirken Dansky and Irving Dansky. He grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Columbia High School. He attended Brandeis University and graduated in 1967 with a degree in Comparative Literature. After moving to Leverett, he worked for the Neighborhood Youth Corps, Head Start, and Children’s Emergency Services before attending the Smith College School for Social Work to receive a MSW in 1985. He worked with children, families and young adults for decades as a counselor

OBITUARIES

for River Valley Counseling Service, the Holyoke Teen Clinics, and in the Holyoke and Northampton schools. From the early 2000s until his retirement in 2015, he was the Disabilities Services Coordinator at Hampshire College. He was a member of the Northampton Committee to Stop Wars, the Middle East Peace and Justice Coalition, Brit Tzedek v’Shalom and J Street. He served on the Norwottuck Rail Trail Advisory Committee. In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Miriam; a grandson, Pete; a sister, Nina Ziv; a niece and nephew, Avigail Ziv and Assaf Ziv; and many cousins. Memorial contributions may be sent to Healing Across the Divides, Movement Voter Project, Climate Action Now, or the social justice organization of your choice.

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EPSHTEYN

Boris Epshteyn, 92, died May 9 at UMass Memorial- University Campus, Worcester. He was predeceased by his wife, Olga (Zagalskaya). Born in Belarus, he was the son of Isaac and Chana Rochel (Malkov) Epshteyn. He had lived in Worcester for the past 24 years. For many years he was a crane operator for a construction company in Belarus. He is survived by a son, Yakov Epshteyn of Worcester; a daughter, Bella Shapiro of Southborough; a sister Sofa Vichnevich and her husband, Arkadiy, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Memorial contributions may be made Yashiva Achei Timimim, 22 Newton Ave., Worcester, MA 01602.

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GARBER

Eleanor Susan (Kaplan) Garber, 81, of Uxbridge, formerly of Sturbridge, died May 7 at Milford Hospital after a long illness. She was predeceased by her husband, Joseph Garber. Born in Worcester, she was the daughter of Abraham and Elizabeth “Betty” (Golub) Kaplan. She attended Classical High School, graduating from Commerce High School in 1957. She owned and operated Auburn Load Service for ten years. She was a member of the Beth Torah Sisterhood in Holliston. She is survived by five children, Cynthia (Marc) Shulman, David Garber, Sandra (Ray) Crowther, Harriet Garber, and Rhonda (Adam) Miller; seven grandchildren, Jennifer, Mitchell, Elizabeth, Emily, Joshua, Avery, and Matthew; three siblings, Arthur (Rhoda) Kaplan, Diane (Dan) Boski, and Paul (JoAn) Kaplan; and eight nieces and nephews. She predeceased by a sister, Carole Fuchs.

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GERROL

Melvin H. (Mel) Gerrol of West Hartford, Conn. died May 15. He was the husband of Shirley (Israel) Gerrol. Born and raised in Worcester on Feb. 12, 1934, he was the son of Gertrude and Israel Gerrol. He graduated from Clark University earning a degree in accounting. He was a managing partner with the CPA firm Kostin, Ruffkess, and Company until his retirement. He was an active member of the Probus Club, the Jewish Federation, and the Chabad House of Greater Hartford. He was also active in various committees at the Emanuel Synagogue including the “Minyonaires.” In addition to his wife, he is survived by three children, Gregory and Phyllis Gerrol of Simsbury, Conn., Drs. Ronald and Felicia Gerrol of Albany, N.Y., and Susan and Michael Cleaver of West Hartford, Conn.; two brothers, Robert (Shirley) Gerrol and David (Lisa) Gerrol; eight grandchildren, Courtney, Shelby, Justin, Rachel, Corey, Emma, Samara, and Rune; and many nieces, nephews, and cousins. Memorial contributions in may be made to the Emanuel Synagogue, 160 Mohegan Drive, West Hartford CT 06117; or the charity of the donor’s choice.

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GOLDSMITH

Mildred Goldsmith, 95, of Springfield, died May 14. She was the widow of Norman Cooper and Hyman Goldsmith. Born in Springfield, she was the daughter of Jennie and Max Bloom. She spent several years employed at Buxton Leather in Chicopee, and spent much of her free time doing volunteer work with the Mended Hearts Association, helping those with Amblyopia. For many years she taught computer classes at the Springfield Jewish Community Center. She is survived by a son, Ronald Cooper of Groveland, Fla.; a stepdaughter, Carol Galinsky and her husband, Carl of Glastonbury, Conn.; a stepson, Craig Goldsmith and his wife, Debbie of Worcester; five grandchildren, Eric Cooper of Los Angeles, Calif., David Cooper of Worcester, Robert Goldsmith and his wife Lindsay of Fort Collins, Colo., Joanne Fontana and her husband, Mike of Glastonbury, Conn., and Karen Lesh and husband Brad of Cheshire, Conn; and five great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by a daughter-in-law, Betsy Cooper. Memorial contributions may be made to the Norman Cooper Camp Fund in care of Springfield Jewish Community Center, 1160 Dickinson St., Springfield, MA 01108; or to a charity of the donor’s choice.

HOROVITZ

Maxine (Torman) Horovitz of Worcester, formerly of Warwick, R.I., died June 1. She was the widow of Herman R. Torman and Frank Horovitz. Born in Attleboro Feb. 1, 1935, she was the daughter of Sarah and Dr. Barnard Benjamin. She was an elementary and kindergarten teacher in the Warwick, Rhode Island school system for 25 years. She resided in Warwick, RI until she retired to Boynton Beach, Florida and Atlanta, Ga. She is survived by two daughters, Susan Torman Kessel of Wynnewood, Pa. and Barbara F. Cohen of Shrewsbury; four grandchildren, Sarah, Andrew, Rachel and Noah; and a sister, Julia (Benjamin) Holz of Manila, Philippines. She was predeceased by a sister, Beverly Kaplan. Memorial contributions may be made to The Eisenberg Assisted Living Employee Fund, 631 Salisbury St., Worcester, MA 01609.

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KASHUK

Dorothy “Dotty” Kashuk, 93, died May 6. Born in Worcester, she was the daughter of Isaac and Anne Potash. She was predeceased by her husband, Nathan Kashuk. She was a 1945 graduate of Commerce High School. She was active in the PTA at May Street Elementary School, worked at the Worcester Israel Bond office, and was active in Temple Emanuel Sisterhood.

While at The Willows, she produced 17 plays, which were all in verse and comedy, starring many of the residents. She is survived by four children, Gerald Kashuk (Shelley), Jane Nahabedian (Robert Blumstein), Garry Kashuk (Marie), and Larry Kashuk (Darlene); six grandchildren, Leslie McKeough, Jill Ricardo, Joshua, Jacob, Benjamin, and Samuel Kashuk; and four great grandchildren, Dillon, Sidney, Brandon, and Genevieve. She was predeceased by three sisters, Evelyn Levine, Edith Miller, and Molly Corriveau. Memorial contributions may be made to Temple Emanuel Sinai, Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund, 661 Salisbury St., Worcester, MA 01609. RICHARD PERLMAN OF MILES FUNERAL HOME OF HOLDEN

KLIORIN

Gitiya Y. Kliorin, 97, died May 30. She was born in Belaya Tzerkov, Ukraine. She graduated from Moscow Medical Institute during World War II, and worked as a primary care doctor for 40 years. She came to the United States in 1992. She is survived by a sister, Ester Cohen of Longmeadow; two sons, Mikhail Kliorin of Nashua, N.H. and Nathan Kliorin of Israel; five grandchildren; and four great- grandchildren.

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KOZLOV

Alexander Mark Kozlov of Worcester died May 29. Born and raised in Worcester, he was the son of Vitaly and Olga Kozlov. He graduated from Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science and attended Cornell University. He volunteered at Tower Hill Botanic Garden. While still in school, he participated in the design of the original websites for the Worcester Art Museum and the then-newly restored Worcester Union Station. He loved gardening and using his passion for science to grow beautiful flowers, trees and vegetables for his family, friends and neighbors. Alex also enjoyed mushroom foraging, traveling, baking, technology, poetry and art. In addition to his parents, he is survived by a brother, Slava Kozlov of New York City; a sister, Michelle Gewandter and her husband, Justin, of Sudbury; a niece; Tavi; and two nephews, Benjamin and Maxton. Memorial contributions may be made in Alex’s memory to Temple Emanuel Sinai, 661 Salisbury St., Worcester, MA 01609.

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KUNEN

Robert J. Kunen of Worcester died May 5 with family by his side. He was the husband of Roberta Kunen. Born in Boston on Dec. 4, 1941, he was the son of Samuel and Eleanor Kunen. He grew up in Marlborough. After graduating from Clark University and Leslie College, he enjoyed a career as both a teacher and vice principal in the Marlborough public schools. In addition to his wife, he is survived by two daughters, Pamela (Jonathan) Henes of New York, N.Y., and Amy (Evan) Zall of Concord; three brothers, Mark, Jimmy (Lisa) and Peter; and seven grandchildren, Sam, Ellie, Noah, Charlotte, Simon, Cece and Jake. at Memorial contributions may be made to Chabad of Central Mass, 22 Newton Ave., Worcester, MA 01602; the Jewish Healthcare Center, 629 Salisbury St., Worcester, MA 01609; or to the charity of the donor’s choice.

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LEVIN

Barbara F. Levin, (Bobbie) 79, died May 25. She was the widow of David Levin. Born in Springfield, she was the daughter of the late Solomon and Edith (Shour) Harmetz. She was a 1962 graduate of American International College. She was an elementary school teacher in the Holyoke School System; the founder and program director of the Holyoke Jewish Seniors; a case manager for the Holyoke Chicopee Regional Senior Services, and the senior adult director at the Springfield Jewish Community Center. She led trips for seniors to domestic and international locations; founded the Golden Girls Pageant which became affiliated with the Ms. Senior America Pageant; created and expanded senior meal programs; and developed numerous programs dedicated to the Senior community. She was the recipient of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s Unsung Hero Award and the YWCA Women of Achievement Award. She

is survived by two sons, Mark and his wife, Michelle, and Michael and his wife, Deborah; and six grandchildren, Max, Harry, Benjamin, Grace, Jacob, and Zachary. She was predeceased by a daughter, Amy. Memorial contributions may be made to New England Parkinson’s Ride, P.O. Box 1124, Merrimack, NH 03054.

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NEWMAN

Goldie Newman died May 17 at home surrounded by family. She was the wife of Theodore Newman. She worked in the Springfield Public School system for 34 years, retiring from her position as a kindergarten teacher’s aide at the age of 80. She was an active member of the Jewish community. Her first job after high school involved working as a secretary at Beth El Synagogue. In later years, she taught Sunday School at B’nai Jacob synagogue in Longmeadow was a member of the sisterhoods of both B’nai Jacob and Kodimoh synagogues. She volunteered at the Jewish Nursing Home and the Jewish Community Center. She is survived by five daughters, Sandra Corwin (Lee), Cheryl Newman (Josef Stern), Linda NewmanGoetzel (Ron), Mimi Newman, and Vivian Newman (Moses Pava); 14 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to the Yiddish Book Center; Friends of Springfield Library; Congregation B’nai Torah; Beth El Temple, or charity of the donor’s choice.

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ROBINSON

Miriam (Saffer) Robinson, 82, died May 27 at Baystate Medical Center from complications of a stroke. She was the widow of John (Jack) Robinson. A life long resident of Longmeadow, she was the daughter of the late Esther (Goodman) and Harry Saffer. For many years, she worked at the Jewish Weekly News. She was a long-standing member of the National Council of Jewish Women and Hadassah. She is survived by two daughters, Linda Robinson Mildwurf (Bruce) of Raleigh, N.C., and Hope Robinson Chacha (Danny) of Newark, N.J.; and numerous grandchildren.

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SCHREYER

June Young Schreyer, 98, of Worcester, died May 15. She was the widow of Bernard Schreyer. She was a member of Sinai Temple for over 40 years. She is survived by two grandchildren, Brenna Sorel and Kali Quinn; a great-granddaughter Kalia Rose; two siblings, Dorothy Engle and Robert Young; and a large extended family. She as predeceased by two daughters, Susan and Loren; and two brothers, Jerry and Jordan Young. Memorial contributions may be made to Rachel’s Table in Springfield.

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