The Jewish Chronicle February 17, 2011

BY TOBY TABACHNICK

Staff Writer

Ten young Pittsburgh teenagers willbe inducted into the American HebrewAcademy Honor Society, a distinction re-served nationwide for only 100 studentswho exhibit both strength in academics,and a committed interest in Judaism.

Local Jewish educators nominatedthe eighth- and ninth-graders for theirleadership potential, demonstratedmaturity and Jewish involvement, saidBeth Goldstein, director of teen

education at the Agency for JewishLearning.

“We’re really excited that out of the100 students chosen, 10 are from Pitts-burgh,” Goldstein said. “These teenswill be the up and coming leaders in theJewish community. They are really thefuture of our Jewish leaders.”

Sarah Pincus, a student at CommunityDay School, was selected for the honorsociety, as well as nine students who at-tend J-Site programs: Kayla Goldstein,Adi Kadosh, Abigail Natelson, RachelReibach, Gabe Sklan (who also attends

Community Day), Marissa Snyder, Ben-ny Stern, Jeremy Witchel and ZevaYoung.

The American Hebrew Academy, lo-cated in Greensboro, N.C., is the na-tion’s only Jewish pluralistic collegeprep boarding school. This is the sec-ond year it has inducted students fromacross the country into its honor society.

“Pittsburgh had the most [kids chosento be inducted] of any city,” said MarkSpielman, director of both recruitmentand the honor society of The American

THE JEWISH CHRONICLEfebruary 17, 2011 Adar 1 13, 5771 Vol. 53, No. 42 $1.50

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Jewish cast member of “Hair”says play still resonates

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Future front lines?

Please see Honor Society, page 23.

thejewishchronicle.net

Food Pantryreceives$1.5 millionendowmentBY JUSTIN JACOBS

Associate Editor

Just about four months after theSquirrel Hill Community FoodPantry’s move into a larger facility, the$1.5 million endowment from Jewishcommunity members Eric C. Cooperand Naomi Weisberg Siegel couldn’thave come at a better time.

“When we moved to the new build-ing, we assumed higher operatingcosts,” said Food Pantry DirectorBecky Abrams. “We are seeing morepeople, giving out more food, purchas-ing more food and fresh produce tomake sure we give clients adequatefood each month.”

For Siegel, the gift comes from herdevotion to the pantry after years ofvolunteer work.

“I was pretty much unaware; Ithought Squirrel Hill was fairly well todo. But when I saw that hunger wasnot only there, but that [the pantry’sservices] were desperately needed, Iwas taken aback,” said Siegel, whostarted volunteering after her daugh-ters began exploring organizations todonate their time to for school.

Cooper, founder of FORE Systems,Inc. and a professor at Carnegie Mel-lon University, and Siegel, who found-ed the bakery Sweet! last year, havelong been supporters of charitablecauses. Profits from Sweet! are donat-ed to the Greater Pittsburgh Commu-nity Food Bank. In 2008, the couple’sCooper-Siegel Family Foundationpledged millions to build the Cooper-Siegel Community Library, which isexpected to open in Fox Chapel in May.

“It seems to me that if you don’thave food, almost nothing else matters.If you’ve got a hungry child, you can’tbenefit from good libraries; your childwon’t do well in school,” said Siegel.

Abrams said her relationship withPlease see Donation, page 23.

Dina Kraft photo

An Egyptian flag flies from an army outpost on the Egyptian side of the border with Israel near the moshav of Kadesh Barnea.Following the revolution in Egypt, Israel’s military leaders wonder if they may have to fight a multi-front war in the future. See story, page 10.

Pittsburgh, PA

Ten Pittsburgh teens named AHA Honor Society inductees

Metro2 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Community buildingJews in Cranberry Township start to organize themselvesBY HILARY DANINHIRSCH

Chronicle Correspondent

First, there was the JCC. Now, there’sthe CCJ.

That’s the abbreviation for the newlyformed and unofficially named Cranber-ry Community Jews.

Co-founders Jack Cohen and MichaelBerman were childhood friends, havingmet through B’nai B’rith Youth Organi-zation. Both raised their families inCranberry Township, Butler County, butthey thought they were the only Jewishresidents in the neighborhood.

Nevertheless, they decided to see ifthere were any more Jewish people inthe area. Through local media, they ad-vertised a meeting of Jewish Cranberryresidents.

Inspired by the initial interest, they

held a second meeting Feb. 10 at theCranberry Township Community Center.Members of northern suburban congre-gations — Temple Ohav Shalom, B’naiAbraham (Butler) and Beth Samuel Jew-ish Center (Ambridge), as well as thosewho were unaffiliated, attended.

Cohen, who is the executive director ofButler County Tourism, said that thegoal is simply to bring Jews in Cranber-ry together.

“It’s about building a community and aneighborhood presence,” he said.

One Cranberry resident said she haslived in the township for more than 20years and never met another Jewish per-son there. Another Cranberry womansaid, “I just want to make some Jewishfriends close to home.”

Various committees were formed atthe first meeting. At the second, atten-dees followed up with committee re-ports, which included a conversationabout forming a book club and a singlesgroup. There was also talk about somesocial events, including a pre-Purimbrunch and a Passover seder.

They also discussed the idea ofensuring the presence of a menora in thecommunity center next holiday season tobe placed alongside the Christmas treedisplay.

Edward Frim director of the Agency

for Jewish Learning, who attended thelast meeting, said the AJL can provideeducational programs to CCJ on whatev-er topics they’d like, such as interfaithfamilies or Hebrew.

While some Cranberry Jews ques-tioned whether their needs can be metby existing congregations, the majorityappeared to believe that there is roomfor the CCJ.

“We are all here to pull from each oth-er,” said Berman, owner of Berman Fi-nancial Services and a Cranberry PublicLibrary trustee. “We don’t need a shul tobuild a spirited community. We want tobuild a Jewish spirit here in Cranberryand put a call out to like-minded individ-uals.”

(Hilary Daninhirsch can be reached [email protected].)

Want to go?

The next meeting of the Cranberry Commu-nity Jews is March 22. Contact Jack Cohenat [email protected] for moreinformation.

Clarification

A story in the Feb. 10 Chronicle,“Egypt revolution should not slow peaceefforts — Gorenberg.” omitted the co-sponsors The Tikkun Olam Center forJewish Social Justice of Temple Sinai,Pittsburgh Area Jewish Committee,Congregation Dor Hadash and the

Social Justice Committee of TempleOhav Shalom.

•••The Feb. 10 Chronicle Cooks recipe

for healthy veggie burgers includesbeans in the instructions, but they weremissing in the list of ingredients. Therecipe calls for one 15-ounce can of redkidney beans.

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE FEBRUARY 17, 2011 — 3

METRO

Rabbi Mark N. Staitman hasbeen named Congregation BethShalom’s rabbinic scholar.

Stefi Kirschner, president of BethShalom, an-nounced Mon-day that Stait-man had beennamed to theone-year posi-tion that previ-ously did notexist, although,Beth Shalomhas used theterm rabbinicscholar for spe-cific weekendsfor specificspeakers invit-ed to the congregation, she said.

The executive committee and boardof trustees extended the offer to Stait-man, a member of Beth Shalom who al-ready has participated in several edu-cation programs there, in response todemand from its members for a moreformalized scholar program, Kirschneradded.

Staitman was a rabbi at RodefShalom Congregation for 28 years,serving as the senior rabbi from 1995 to2003. He previously taught atDuquesne University, Chatham Univer-sity and Pittsburgh Theological Semi-nary and lectured frequently to refus-nik communities in Moscow, Leningrad,Kiev and Kishinev before the collapseof the Soviet Union.

At Beth Shalom, he has participatedin the Library Minyan, Beth Shalom

University and has delivered severalsermons there.

It is not unusual for members of thecongregation to lead educational pro-grams, said Rabbi Michael Werbow ofBeth Shalom.

“We always enlist congregants for ed-ucational opportunities and he (Stait-man) has graciously done that in thepast,” Werbow said.

In addition to his rabbinate, Staitmanis a therapist at Gateway RehabilitationCenter in Squirrel Hill where he is theprincipal therapist for the Adult PartialHospitalization Program, which servesadults with substance use disorders.

As rabbinic scholar Staitman willpresent lectures, Torah messages,teach adults and provide educationalopportunities for many of the BethShalom youth.

“Beth Shalom has a very large numberof members who are able to work with tra-ditional Jewish texts, biblical commen-taries, midrashic texts, and Talmud,”Staitman said. “One of the things I wouldlike to do is establish some regular, on go-ing text study.”

Staitman, a Freehof scholar, becomesthe second Reform rabbi associatedwith Beth Shalom, a Conservative con-gregation. Rabbi Donni Aaron alreadyworks part-time at the congregation asdirector of youth services.

“I believe the congregation is open tothe realization that we’re not monolith-ic,” Kirschner said. “We embracesinging and praying together with indi-viduals of different backgrounds withinour Conservative framework.”

Staitman’s spring schedule of learn-ing opportunities will be announced inthe near future.

Briefly

Rabbi Mark N.Staitman

Please see Briefly, page 5.

4 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE FEBRUARY 17, 2011

METRO

BY TOBY TABACHNICK

Staff Writer

S. Yousef Hashimi grew up in 1970sPhoenix, Ariz., in a traditional, Conserv-ative home.

His mother lit candles on Fridaynights, while his father forbade tele-phone calls during Shabbat dinner, aswell as interfaith dating.

He attended Hebrew school, was amember of USY, and spent summers atCamp Ramah.

But one thing set Hashimi apart fromhis Jewish peers: according to Muslimgenealogy, he is a direct descendant ofMuhammad, the founder of Islam.

Hashimi, who now lives in Pittsburgh,and is a member of the Lubavitch com-munity, will address Carnegie MellonUniversity students Friday, Feb. 18, atChabad of CMU’s Middle East Shabbat.

“He has spoken on campus in the past,and the students really enjoyed it,” saidChani Silverman, co-director of Chabadof CMU. “We brought a few options ofspeakers to our student board, and theyall agreed that Mr. Hashimi’s storysounded fascinating, and that he wouldmost likely attract a large crowd to hearhim speak.”

Born in Afghanistan, the son of a West-ern-educated Muslim father and an Ameri-can-born Jewish mother, Hashimi wasnamed “Sayed,” as are all Muslim maleswho are descended from Muhammad.

He asked that his parents not be identi-

fied by name here to protect their security.“I know I am a descendant of Muham-

mad the same way someone knows he’s aKohen,” Hashimi told the Chronicle.“It’s passed down from father to son, andcan be traced back to Fatima, the daugh-ter of Muhammad.”

Hashimi was raised as a Muslim thefirst two years of his life, according to anagreement his parents made when theymarried: Ifthey lived inAfghanistan,the couplewould raisetheir childrenin the Muslimfaith; if theyever movedback to theUnited States,the children would be brought up asJews.

Hashimi suspects his parents madethat agreement so that their childrenwould have the same faith as their near-est extended family.

Hashimi’s mother was born in Detroit in1944 and grew up in a Conservative home.Her family moved to Phoenix in 1957.

Hashimi’s father was born in 1937 inAfghanistan to a wealthy and prominentfamily that was revered because of itslineage as well as its relations to the roy-al family of Jordan. He was educated in aBritish boarding school in Alexandria,Egypt, and obtained a college degree in

civil engineering in Afghanistan. Hecame to the United States on a USAIDscholarship, and pursued his master’sdegree in engineering at the Universityof Arizona in Tucson, where he met hiswife, who was an undergraduate student.

The couple married in 1966 in a Mus-lim ceremony in Kabul and remained inAfghanistan until the country began itsdrift towards communism. Disliked by

the Afghanforeign minis-ter, Hashimi’sfather decid-ed it was timefor the familyto leave thecountry.

They left in1970, takingthe small

amount of money and possessions theywere allowed to remove, and traveledback to Phoenix.

“They showed up on my bubbie andzayde’s doorstep,” Hashimi said. “My fa-ther left his entire fortune behind.”

Once back in the states, Hashimi’s fa-ther kept his promise to raise his chil-dren as Jews.

Hashimi, his two sisters who wereborn in the United States, and an adopt-ed brother, who was a cousin of his moth-er’s, were all steeped in the ConservativeJewish tradition, with their father’swhole-hearted support.

“For every High Holiday, every Pe-sach, every Sukkos, Shavuot, and some-times on Shabbos, my father would go toshul with us,” Hashimi recalled. “Hewould put on a yarmulke and a tallis,take a siddur, open it up, and sit there.On Yom Kippur, he would sit there forthe whole entire day so that his childrenwould not be embarrassed.”

Still, Hashimi found curious the di-chotomy of being a Jewish boy with aMuslim father. After his bar mitzva, heasked his father how he, as a Muslim,could raise his children as Jews.

“My father said, ‘I am a man of God. Ibelieve in God,’” Hashimi said. “ ‘Andwhen parents aren’t united about some-thing, children can get confused. So, Iwant my children to grow up and be peo-

ple of God. I don’t want my children tobe confused and reject God. That wouldbe a travesty for me.’”

He described his father as a “secularMuslim,” but attributed his “strong Jew-ish identity” to both his parents.

His move toward Orthodoxy began, hesaid, one day when he was 13 and eatinga Big Mac at McDonalds.

“We kept kosher at home,” Hashimisaid, “but we ate non-kosher meat out. Iwas sitting there and I had this thought:‘What is kosher about me other than mymother’s plates?’

“I put the Big Mac down. That was thelast time I ate treif meat and had milkand meat together.”

Hashimi’s next “aha” moment came ayear into college at Arizona State, whenhe realized he had no friends, and beganto examine why.

“I was always going out of my way to im-press upon people that I was smarter thanthey were, and people didn’t like to bearound me,” he recalled. “I was an arro-gant snob. At that moment, I made a com-mitment to try to be a humble person.”

A few weeks later, Hashimi found him-self at a Friday night dinner at the cam-pus Chabad house, where, during aspeech, the rabbi impressed upon himthe importance of humility.

That inspired him to study Lubavitchwritings, and eventually become Ortho-dox, he said.

An associate partner for IBM GlobalBusiness Services, Hashimi moved toPittsburgh six years ago.

Growing up the child of a rather un-usual interfaith marriage taught Hashi-mi tolerance and deference for all reli-gions, he said.

“My story is one of self-awareness andmutual respect for other people,” hesaid. “I detest bigotry.”

While his father has been supportiveof his son’s religious choices, Hashimisaid there has been some “interestingtension” between the two men.

“My father didn’t speak to me for about ayear after my first son was born,” he said,“because I didn’t name him Sayed.”

(Toby Tabachnick can be reached [email protected].)

Jewish Pittsburgher, descended from Muhammad, speaks at Chabad

“My story is one of self-awareness andmutual respect for other people. Idetest bigotry.”

S. Yousef Hashimi

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TThhee JJeewwiisshh CChhrroonniiccllee

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412-687-1000Fax 4412-521-0154


METRO

Mustaches for Kids-Pittsburgh will kick off its “2011Growing Season.”

The hairy four-week endeavor will usethe power of the mustache to positivelyimpact youth in the Pittsburgh area. Themonth long growing season runs fromMarch 1 to April 2, concluding with the“‘Stache Bash” celebration.

Mustaches for Kids Chapters havebeen raising money for children’s orga-nizations nationally since 1999.

Beginning March, volunteers acrossthe Pittsburgh area will grow mustach-es following carefully articulatedgrooming guidelines while solicitingdonations from friends, family and peo-ple in the community.

Pittsburgh Public Schools and Con-gregation Beth Shalom are sponsoringthe growing season.

The Pittsburgh Chapter is looking for“growers” and supporters to partici-pate in the challenge.

Mustaches for Kids is a volunteer-runorganization established to improve our lo-cal communities and have fun by growingmustaches for children's charities. Since itsbeginnings, Mustaches for Kids chaptershave spread across the continent. Throughthe years, Mustaches for Kids has enlistedthe efforts of thousands of growers andsupporters who, collectively, raised over $1million for children-focused charities.

Contact Mustaches for Kids Pitts-burgh at m4kpittsburgh.org [email protected] for moreinformation.

Rodef Shalom Congregationis one of 20 North American Reform con-gregations to receive an incubator grantfrom the Union for Reform Judaism.

The Rodef Shalom grant will be used toestablish “The Edible Garden at RodefShalom” — a container garden consistingof edible vegetables, plants, fruits andnuts — that will be planted, tended to,and harvested on the Deaktor Terrace.

In addition, a Jewish education programfor preschoolers, religious school childrenand congregants along with a compostingprogram will complement the garden.

The garden is intended to exemplifythe Jewish value of healthy, sustainablefood choices, and strengthen the tradi-tional Jewish connection between foodand social responsibility.

The education and activities will en-gage all generations and utilize mastergardeners within their membership.

Susan Melnick, archivist for theRauh Jewish Archives of the HeinzHistory Center, will be the next speaker

at NA’AMAT Lunch and Learn,Wednesday, Feb. 23, noon at the LaborZionist Building, 6328 Forbes Ave.

Melnick’s work involves the preserva-tion of library and archival materials invarious capacities. She also is the projectcoordinator for the Fred Rogers Projectof the University of Pittsburgh LibrarySystem, in which 400 of Rogers’ tapesare indexed and cataloged.

The meeting is open to the public.Call NA’AMAT at (412) 521-5253 formore information.

Philip Rosenthal, a veteran of thehigh-tech industry with a career in lawenforcement and investigating high-techcrimes, will speak at the Jewish Com-munity Center Sunday, Feb. 20, at 7 p.m.The program for parents will focus onhow children and adults can handle newtechnological issues — cyber bullying,cell phones, texting. Rosenthal is the di-rector of the nonprofit charity Tech-Aware, which teaches appropriate usesof such technologies.

The program is presented by theAgency for Jewish Learning in collabora-tion with Community Day School, HillelAcademy and Yeshiva Schools. There is acharge. Call Carolyn Linder at (412) 521-1101 Ext. 3104 for more information.

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, a physi-cian and peace activist whose threedaughters were killed during the fight-ing in Gaza, will be speaking about hisnew book, “I Shall not Hate: A GazaDoctor’s Journey on the Road to Peaceand Human Dignity,” Wednesday,March 2, 7 to 9 p.m. at the Jewish Com-munity Center, Squirrel Hill. J StreetPittsburgh is organizing the event.

Pittsburgh Area Jewish Com-mittee is sponsoring theChristian–Jewish Dialogue Thursday,March 3, noon, at the Church of the Re-deemer (next to St. Edmunds Acade-my), 5700 Forbes Ave., Squirrel Hill.Use the Darlington Road entrance.

The topic will be “Self-Defense andJust War.”

The dialogue is free and open to thepublic. The monthly conveners areRabbi Jamie Gibson, Father Dan Valen-tine, Rabbi Michael Werbow and PastorLarry Kemp. Contact the PAJC of at(412) 605-0816 or at [email protected] formore information.

The Jewish Law Student As-sociations at the University of Pitts-burgh and Duquesne University, the Jew-ish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’sCardozo Society and J’Burgh will presenta Q&A panel and networking event called“How Do I Incorporate Judaism in myLegal Practice,” Tuesday, Feb. 22, 5:30p.m., at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC,One Oxford Center, 20th Floor, Down-town. Dinner will be provided.

Contact Sara Heal at [email protected] or (412) 621-8875 Ext. 108 formore information.

Chabad of Carnegie MellonUniversity hosts a monthly “ThemeShabbat” dinner with a menu and décorto fit each theme. This Shabbat thetheme is Middle Eastern.

“We are going all out with thistheme,” Sam Benkel, theme Shabbatchair of the Chabad of CMU studentboard, said in a prepared statement.“Chabad of CMU will be decorated tofeel like a Bedouin tent and the foodwill include falafel, pita, lots of hum-mus and even some baklava fordessert.” Due to limited space, this pro-gram is open to CMU students only.

Visit Chabad of CMU’s website, chabad-ofcmu.com or e-mail [email protected] for more information.

BrieflyContinued from page 3.

Mustaches for Kids supports children-focused charities.

JERUSALEM — Moving quickly to fillthe diplomatic and economic vacuumcreated by the deterioration of relationsbetween Turkey and Israel, a new re-gional partnership is being formed by Is-rael and Greece.

With Cyprus as a catalyst for rap-prochement and wide-ranging coopera-tion, the ultimate goal is a new multina-tional bloc that could include Bulgariaand Albania.

The University of Piraeus’ ProfessorAristotle Tziampiris described the newlinks between Athens and Jerusalem asan informal alliance that “has the poten-tial to bring Israel closer to Europe andact as a source of regional stability.”

Eventually, he told a recent academ-ic gathering at Bar-Ilan Universitynear Tel Aviv, Greece could help re-duce tension that was spawned by Is-rael’s airborne operation last Mayagainst ships that set sail from Turkeyto run the Israeli blockade of the GazaStrip. Nine Turkish passengers aboardthe Comoros-flageed Mavi Marmarawere killed in clashes with Israelicommandos.

While it may seem surprising thatAthens could play a constructive role inmollifying the Turks, Tziampiris said, itshould be borne in mind that “Athensmaintains good relations with Ankara. ...The elimination of all strained regional

relations is ultimately in its (Greece)best interest.”

The newly upgraded contacts betweenGreece and Israel already have pro-duced tangible results. Trade betweenthe two countries totaled $500 millionthis past year and is increasing. The Is-raelis export computer software as wellas electronic and medical equipment;the Greeks, raw materials and agricul-tural products.

In addition, Israeli tourism to Greecehas increased by 50 percent in the sametime frame.

This upsurge came in the wake ofPrime Minister George Papandreou’s of-ficial visit to Jerusalem and Prime Min-ister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reciprocalvisit to Athens. Netanyahu’s trip, whichtook place last August, marked the firsttime an Israeli prime minister was host-ed officially in the Greek capital.

There also has been a little publi-cized, but significant meeting inAthens between leaders of the Ameri-can-Jewish community and Greekgovernment officials.

Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman,Yigal Palmor, quoted members ofGreece’s resident Jewish community assaying their status in Greek society hasbeen enhanced by the current diplomat-ic initiatives. He said Israel’s foreignministry’s staff has been seeking ways tofurther expand and improve relations.

Long-range Greek interest in Israel’snatural gas is a major, if not dominant,catalyst in the ongoing rapprochement.With the main impetus evidently comingfrom Cyprus, which would be one of theprojected recipients, experts from allthree countries have been preparingblueprints for these underwater con-duits. They could link Israel’s Leviathi-an natural gas field to Crete as well as

Cyprus.From the strategic standpoint, this

could be a “game changer,” Tziampirissaid. “It certainly would alter Israel’sposition vis-a-vis Europe and lessen thecontinent’s energy dependence on Rus-sia (especially significant now, since theNabucco gas pipeline project appearsproblematic).

Tziampiris cited several concretesteps taken by Greece in the spirit of thenew relationship with Israel. Referringto the forest fire that devastated theCarmel Mountain Range near Haifa twomonths ago, he recalled that Greecemounted a 70-member rescue operationof pilots, firefighters and several planes.

Routinely, the Greek and Israeli airforces and navies have conducted jointexercises in the Eastern MediterraneanSea.

The United States evidently is favor-ably disposed to the positive turn in Gre-co-Israeli relations and has been nurtur-ing it. This is a reflection of its havingwon strong congressional support.

One of the potential impediments to agenuine rapprochement is the degreethat anti-Semitism persists withinGreece’s body politic. However, Tziam-piris contends that it is limited to “thefar left and far right” while the over-whelming majority of Greece’s popula-tion is immune to it. He noted that aGreek Orthodox archbishop was recent-ly chastised publicly for derogatorycomments regarding Jews.

There is a significant historical prece-dent for the positive trend in Greco-Is-raeli relations. Greece’s initial entry tothe Holy Land under the command ofAlexander the Great had a major cultur-al impact on the Kingdom of Judea,which he conquered 2,300 years ago. It

OpinionOpinion6 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Jaybushinsky

Trains, windmills = security It’s hard to find a U.S. senator with

less vision for the future than MitchMcConnell.

In his mania to slash federal spending,which we admit is an ominous problem,the Kentucky Republican and SenateMinority Leader seems willing to risknot only our economic recovery, but alsoour national security.

When the president sent his $3.7 tril-lion budget for 2011 to Capitol Hill thisweek, McConnell greeted it with thisstatement:

“The president’s budget is the clearestsign yet he simply does not take our fis-cal problems seriously. It is a patroniz-ing plan that says to the American peo-ple that their concerns are not his con-cerns. It’s a plan that says fulfilling thepresident’s vision of a future of trainsand windmills is more important than abalanced checkbook.”

Darn right those trains and windmillsare more important. So are the onemillion electric cars the president wantson the road by 2015.

Not only do they represent new indus-tries, and new jobs to replace the onescorporate America has outsourced over-seas, but they represent something more

important in an increasingly hostileworld: national security.

Sixty percent of the oil used by theUnited States is imported, and that fig-ure will only continue to rise. To put thatin perspective, 30 years ago, this countryimported 28 percent. As former Presi-dent George W. Bush said — rightly —America is “addicted” to oil.

The problem with that addiction is thesources that supply our habit.

While the United States imports oilfrom around the world (Canada is ourbiggest exporter), too many of the top 15chief exporting nations are politicallyunstable, anti-American or anti-Israel.

We’re talking about Saudi Arabia,Venezuela, Kuwait and Algeria, to namea few.

Meanwhile, most of the proven oil re-serves in the world today are located inthe Middle East — an estimated 727 bil-lion barrels — which far outstrips any-where else in the world. The known re-serves in Central and South America arean estimated 99 billion barrels; Africa anestimated 87 billion barrels; the formerSoviet Union, an estimated 78 billionbarrels; western Europe and China, anestimated 18 billion barrels each; Mexi-

co, an estimated 16 billion barrels andIndia an estimated 5 billion barrels.

Like it or not, we’re putting all ourchips on the Middle East to supply ouroil fix going forward. What might theseregimes — or future regimes — demandin return? Reducing U.S. support for Is-rael? Who can read the tealeaves?

Some propose that America begin anaggressive offshore drilling program toreduce its oil dependency; we won’t uselast year’s BP spill in the Gulf of Mexicoas a scare tactic; let’s assume that was aone-time thing.

But we will note that oil companies arefinding it necessary to go further off theU.S. coast to find oil, as far as 250 miles,and to drill more than one mile into theocean floor. That will add considerably tothe cost of extraction.

Believe it or not, we’re not anti-oil. Itwill have a place in any future U.S. ener-gy policy. But its consequences for secu-rity are great. Israel already recognizesthis, which explains its huge investmentin high-speed rail and electric vehicleinfrastructure. America must not mort-gage its future to balance its budget. Forthe sake of our kids, we cannot fall be-hind.

Greece, Israel draw closer following Turkey spat

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I have been following the political un-rest in Tunisia and Egypt for severalweeks — with eyes wide open, hopefuland cautious. There are a lot of influ-

ences in play; some unsolicited, somemissing in action; some good, some bad.

No one disputes the repressiveregimes and the intolerable conditionsArabs have been forced to live under fordecades, if not centuries. The civilizedworld certainly wants a better way oflife for them, but what makes this pointin time such a ripe opportunity?

One major influence may be U.S. for-eign policy or the lack thereof. Is it be-cause our administration is


OPINION

Guest Columnist

STUART PAVILACK

Middle East ripe for democracy?Probably not

Please see Pavilack, page 9.

WASHINGTON — The rapid changesin the Middle East are leading many inthe American Jewish community tosuffer from analysis paralysis. Wehave become so mesmerized by eventsin Cairo that we have stopped doing vi-tally important work to advance Amer-ican interests and stability in the Mid-dle East, as well as Israel’s security.

It is critical that we refocus our en-ergies on what American leaders andcitizens can do now:

• Continue to work with our allies toexpand and enforce sanctions againstIran, the largest state sponsor of ter-ror. Tehran is broadening its influencein Latin America and increasing itsmassive investment in public relationsin the United States. Its PR machineincludes Iran’s 24/7 cable channel,PRESSTV, which broadcasts in Eng-lish and Spanish to win the hearts andminds for the Islamic Republic, under-mine U.S. interests in the Middle Eastand challenge Israel’s legitimacy.

• Ensure that any new Egyptian gov-ernment honors its peace treaty withIsrael and continues its efforts to stopthe smuggling of weapons into Gaza.Last year, terrorists in Gaza fired 238rockets and missiles at Israeli towns,

despite the fact that there are no Is-raeli settlers or settlements in Gaza.The failure to halt weapons smugglingwill lead to more unacceptable attackson Israeli civilians. Nobody wants tosee a repeat of Operation Cast Lead,but no country can tolerate unpro-voked attacks on its civilians indefi-nitely.

• Let America’s Palestinian andArab alliesknow thatthey shouldstop teachingtheir citizens,and especiallytheir children,to hate Jewsand Israel.U.S. tax mon-ey should notgo to leadersand entitiesthat name streets, squares and publicbuildings after terrorists, or who de-liberately leave Israel off textbookmaps. Arabs need jobs, not jihad;hope, not hate.

• Veto Palestinian efforts in theUnited Nations to bypass Israel to cre-ate a Palestinian state. The Israeli gov-ernment supports a two-state solutionand is ready to continue peace negoti-ations to achieve it. However, evenmoderate Palestinian leaders are re-fusing to negotiate and are denying theconcessions that the recently leakeddocuments from WikiLeaks showedthey might be willing to make. Pales-tinian leaders are seeking to garner

support for a unilateral declaration ofa Palestinian state and have parts ofJerusalem (including the WesternWall) declared an illegal settlement.They would like to isolate Israel at theU.N. General Assembly meeting inSeptember. The Israeli governmentfroze settlement building in the WestBank for 10 months and is promotingPalestinian economic development.

The Pales-tinian Au-t h o r i t yshould rec-ognize Is-rael as a de-m o c r a t i ch o m e l a n dfor the Jew-ish peopleand engagein seriouspeace talks

with Israel now.• Devise a solution to Jerusalem that

will bring lasting peace and does notslice the city in half as if it were a pizza.Israeli and Palestinian relations are verycomplicated, with shared power, waterand security issues affecting both sides.Palestinians living in eastern Jerusalemenjoy freedom of religion, speech andthe right to vote in municipal elections.Israel is ready to work toward a two-state solution in which the people of allreligions — Christians, Muslims andJews — continue to have the same accessto all the holy sites in Jerusalem thatthey have now.

• Reduce dependency on foreign oil.

The turmoil in the Arab world againunderscores America’s dependency onMiddle East oil, which threatens vitalU.S. national interests. Robbie Dia-mond of SAFE and Gal Luft of the In-stitute for the Analysis of Global Secu-rity are among those whose practicalideas about flex fuels and electric carsdeserve serious consideration. Israelis at the forefront of the push for alter-native energy, and joint U.S.-Israelienergy projects should be expanded.

• Maintain aid to Israel, America’smost reliable ally in the Middle East.This issue is being considered now inCongress. Poll numbers consistentlyindicate that most Americans view astrong U.S.-Israel relationship as vitalto American interests and want theUnited States to continue to stand withIsrael.

The changes unfolding in Egypt beforeour eyes are historic and dramatic. Yetwe in the American Jewish communitycommitted to peace and security in theMiddle East cannot merely be spectatorsto events in that region. We also must ad-dress these important issues decisivelyand proactively.

Of course, America can’t do thisalone. We need strong allies and part-ners with us in this effort. If not now,when?

(Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi is thefounder and president of The IsraelProject, a nonprofit organization thatprovides facts about Israel and theMiddle East to press, policymakersand the public.)


OPINION

Guest Columnist

JENNIFER LASZLOMIZRAHI

American Jews must regain their focus on Middle East

...we in the American Jewish communitycommitted to peace and security in theMiddle East cannot merely be specta-tors to events in that region.


OPINION

inexperienced or naïve? Or are thereother agendas? This much is true. In try-ing to put a new face on America and itsstanding in the world with our enemiesand others unhappy with the UnitedStates, President Barack Obama has saidhe would engage our enemies but not tellthem what to do. He certainly has noproblem telling U.S. allies what to do.

In a very short time, his policies havealienated our allies and emboldened ourenemies. He welshed on a previous com-mitment to put in a nuclear shield in East-ern Europe, gave Russia previously un-known and secret information on the size ofGreat Britain’s nuclear arsenal, our oldestand most powerful ally, and constantlypressures Israel in negotiations with thePalestinian Authority What has the PAdone for our security or economy lately?.

In 2009 as the Iranian public demon-strated against an oppressive anti-Amer-ican regime, Obama largely said nothing,claiming the United States should notmeddle in their affairs. But when theEgyptians demonstrated against theMubarak regime, a long-standing Amer-ican ally, he intervened quickly and pow-

erfully by publicly and regularly callingfor Mubarak to step down. Obama nevercalled for the enemy regime of Ah-madinejad to step down even though hecalled for the destruction of the UnitedStates and Israel.

Citizens of the United States and West-ern countries have long since equatedelections with democracy, but that is notoften the case. We have seen that time andtime again in Russia, Afghanistan, Iraq,Lebanon and Gaza. It takes a people whoare committed to democracy. Secretary ofState Hilary Clinton has said, “the Egypt-ian people are looking for an orderly tran-sition that can lead to free and fair elec-tions ... we learned that the Muslim Broth-erhood has decided to participate, whichsuggests that they, at least, are now in-volved in the dialogue that we have en-couraged.”

But Palestinian Media Watch has trans-lated the book “Jihad is the Way” byMustafa Mashhur, who was the officialleader of the Muslim Brotherhood from1996 to 2002. Mashhur explains the funda-mental concepts of the Muslim Brother-hood ideology. His teachings encompasssubjects such as the Muslim Brother-hood’s goal of establishing an Islamicstate, world domination under Islam, thepublic and personal religious duty of mili-

tary Jihad, and the warning not to rush toJihad until it is prepared and timed formaximum benefit.

Daniel Pipes, director of Middle EastForum has said, “Islamists wish to re-peat their success in Iran by exportingpopular unrest to take power.”

So let’s take a look at the Egyptian peo-ple. According to a 2010 research poll:

• 60 percent of those surveyed havefundamentalist views;

• 85 percent view Islam’s influences onpolitics as positive;

• 50 percent view the United States asan enemy;

• 92 percent view Israel as an enemynation;

• 84 percent believe those who forsakeIslam should face the death penalty;

• 77 percent say thieves should havetheir hands cut off;

• 54 percent believe men and womenshould be segregated in the workplace;

• 70 percent support Iran getting a nu-clear bomb;

• 80 percent favor abrogating theCamp David accords with Israel;

• 20 percent support suicide bombing;This is a people that a couple of

months ago were slaughtering Chris-tians. Sound to you like a people wantingdemocracy?

Israel’s “peace partner” would proba-bly love to see the Brotherhood in con-trol of Egypt. On Jan. 24, PalestinianPresident Abbas is quoted, “I have saidmore than once that if the Arabs wantwar [with Israel], we are with them. Icannot fight alone. We tried military ac-tion during the Second Intifada and dur-ing the attack on Gaza at the end of 2008... and it brought destruction upon us.”

As Americans, as Jews, and as peopleof faith, we all would like to see oppres-sion reduced, liberties instilled and eco-nomic conditions for people of the Arabworld improved. Is today some miracu-lous window of opportunity? I think not.Will it happen in five, 10 or 20 years?Who knows? As much as things change,they remain the same. A thousand plusyears of hatred won’t disappearovernight.

One thing is sure: the Jewish peoplewon’t be on the sideline. If and whenthere might be a two state solution, wejust want to make sure one of thosestates is Israel.

(Stuart V. Pavilack is executive direc-tor of the Zionist Organization of Ameri-ca-Pittsburgh District.)

Pavilack:Continued from page 7.

BY LESLIE SUSSER

JTA

JERUSALEM — Although it’s still farfrom clear how the uprising in Egypt isgoing to play out, the volatility there isalready raising questions in Israel aboutthe Jewish state’s readiness for a war onseveral fronts.

The optimistic view in Israel is that awave of democracy will sweep the Mid-dle East from Cairo to Tehran, makingwar in any form less likely.

The pessimists — there are many here— see an ascendant Islamic radicalismtaking hold in Egypt and elsewhere, thuscompounding the military threats facingIsrael.

In the Israel Defense Forces, generalsare planning for worst-case scenarios.

In a series of farewell addresses thismonth, outgoing IDF Chief of Staff GabiAshkenazi offered a rare insight intohow the Israeli military sees the emerg-ing threats and what it is doing to meetthem.

Ashkenazi spoke of “tectonic changes”in the region, leading to gains for theIranian-led radical axis at the expense ofthe region’s moderates. He pointed tothe growing dominance of Hezbollah inLebanon, the Islamist shift in Turkeyand now the danger that Egypt, once the

linchpin of the moderate camp, will fallinto the orbit of radical Islam.

Things could get even worse, he said,when the Americans finally pull out ofIraq, leaving that Shiite-dominated

country free to lurch toward the radi-cals.

In Ashkenazi’s view, all this meansthat the IDF needs to prepare for a sig-nificant broadening of the spectrum ofthreats against Israel. Not only does theIDF have to be ready to fight a simulta-neous war on several fronts, it must beable to wage very different kinds of war-fare — from “low intensity” irregularconflict with terrorists, to classical con-ventional warfare against regulararmies, to missile warfare against statesor powerful non-state actors such asHezbollah.

Even though the threat of terrorist ormissile attack might seem more immi-nent, IDF doctrine under Ashkenazi hasput the emphasis on war between regu-lar armies.

“We must train for classic convention-al warfare. It poses the biggest chal-lenge, and from it we can make adapta-tions to other forms of warfare, but notvice versa,” Ashkenazi argued earlierthis month at the 11th annual HerzliyaConference on national, regional andglobal strategic issues. “It would be amistake to train for low-intensity conflictand to think that the army will be readyovernight to make the switch to full-scale warfare.”

During Ashkenazi’s watch, which be-gan in 2007 in the wake of the army’smuch-criticized performance in the 2006Second Lebanon War, the IDF focusedon enhancing its already impressive ac-curate long-range firepower, rebuildingits neglected capacity for sweeping ar-mored maneuvers, and honing coordina-tion for joint ground, sea and air strikes.Training on all relevant parameters wasincreased by an estimated 200 percent.

According to Ashkenazi, Israel’s“smart” guided missile firepower is atthe cutting edge, and in some aspects theIDF may even be a world leader — forexample, in its ability to pinpoint targetsin the heat of battle and bring lethal fireto bear within seconds.

Despite the focus on conventional

GlobeGlobe10 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE FEBRUARY 17, 2011

‘A new future’With Egypt in turmoil, Israel rethinks readiness for multi-front war

Yotam From photo

Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, the outgoing chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces,speaking at the Herzliya Conference about what the Israeli military is doing to meetemerging threats, Feb. 7.

Egypt’s military juntahas more unknownsthan knownsBY RON KAMPEAS

JTA

WASHINGTON — One guy we know,and we’re pretty sure he’s not incharge.

The other guy we don’t know so well,and it looks like he might be in charge.

The other three guys — who knows?The five figures comprising Egypt’s

Supreme Military Council are com-manding the rapt attention of a worldalready transfixed by the unrest thatlast week unseated President HosniMubarak, Egypt’s autocratic leader for30 years.

They appeared on state television ina pose typical of the region’s leaders:sitting along a table, ramrod straightand inscrutable. They are now runningthe Egyptian show, although they havepromised speedy elections to replaceMubarak and the parliament they dis-solved.

The Sphinx-like TV pose accrued aSphinx-like riddle in the wake of thesudden transfer of power: Who exactlyare they?

Extraordinarily, the Egyptiansources routinely tapped by Western-ers for inside information were re-sponding to queries this week with ashrug emblematic of the degree of howmuch has changed in Egypt. Theydon’t seem to know much either.

Ehud Ya’ari, an Arab affairs expertwith Israel’s Channel 2, said it was be-cause Mubarak for years had playedhis cards close to his vest. He and asmall circle of advisers were the onlyinterlocutors with Israel and the West.

“We have a big problem here: Wedon’t know the Egyptian army,” Ya’aritold a conference call convened by theJewish Federations of North America.“The Egyptian army was kept byMubarak outside all dealing with Is-rael except for liaison officers in theSinai. Israelis do not know the Egypt-ian generals who now form what Iwould describe as a military junta.”

For the record they are Field Mar-shal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, thedefense minister; Lt. Gen. Sami HafezEnan, the military chief of staff; ViceAdm. Mohab Mamish, commander ofthe Navy; Air Marshal Rada MahmoudHafez Mohamed, commander of theAir Force; and Lt. Gen. Abd El AzizSeif-Eideen, commander of the Air De-fense.

The two figures emerging as theones to watch are Tantawi and Enan.They both are known to have served inwars against Israel, in 1967 and 1973.What they did, however, is hardlyknown, much less the stuff of legend.

Mubarak, by contrast, made hisname between those two wars when heresisted Soviet pressure, as Air Forcecommander, to run raids over theSinai. That made his reputation as aman wise enough to pick his battles —one that served him well until his fruit-less effort to resist calls to resign.

Tantawi, who is in his mid-70s, al-ready has been dubbed “Mubarak’s

Please see Turmoil, next page. Please see Junta, next page.


GLOBE

poodle,” although this might derive sim-ply from his having served in the outgo-ing government. He is, in any case, aknown quantity.

“We know a lot more about Tantawithan Enan in terms of roles theyplayed in the former regime and thisregime,” said J. Scott Carpenter, thedeputy assistant secretary of state inthe Bureau of Near Eastern Affairsfrom 2004 to 2007 and now a seniorfellow at the Washington Institute forNear East Policy.

What is known about Tantawi sug-gests that he is not in control, althoughhe is nominally the most senior officeron the council.

“The officers, from a number ofgenerals and colonels on down, don’thold him in high regard,” Carpentersaid.

Tantawi, trained by the Soviets, isseen as the old guard by a youngergeneration of officers trained by theUnited States to be forward thinking,according to Joel Rubin, an analystwith the National Security Networkwho during the last Bush administra-tion headed the State Department’sEgypt desk.

“He’s perceived as a yes man toMubarak — not charismatic, not some-one perceived as leading a rebellion,”said Rubin, who also writes a politicalcolumn for the Chronicle.

Tantawi was visible but did notmake himself known, Carpenter said.

“I’ve only met him a couple oftimes,” he said, “and both times I have

been struck how he’s not dynamic,hard to converse with, not forthcom-ing — he doesn’t seem to get it.”

Worse, he apparently had a tin earwhen it came to cultivating loyalty.

“He’s mishandled some of the rela-tions he’s had with senior military offi-cers, being late with salary payments,holiday bonuses,” Carpenter said.

Rubin said Enan, believed to be be-tween 64 and 68, had better relationswith U.S. officials. He was the pointman for military relations with theUnited States, meaning he handled therequests for equipment through the$1.3 billion in U.S. defense assistanceEgypt gets annually — that is believedto comprise as much as 80 percent ofthe country’s materiel.

Enan was in Washington on justsuch a consultation with his Pentagoncounterparts when the protests erupt-ed on Jan. 25.

“He understands our culture, he’ssomeone who’s seen as responsibleand responsive,” Rubin said.

Carpenter said that was the impres-sion he got from the Americans hespoke to, but he noted that outside ofthe interactions on defense assistance,not much else was known about Enan.

“Our military perceives him asthoughtful and very active,” Carpen-ter said. “He was one of the peoplethey were talking to during the run-up” to Mubarak’s ouster, “when theythought there would be real violence.”

One narrative, as related by Rubin,has it that Enan clashed with EgyptianVice President Omar Suleiman overwho controlled the transition. Underthe Suleiman plan, Mubarak wouldhave remained as a purely titularpresident.

warfare, the IDF also developed specif-ic capabilities for terrorist and missilewarfare. This includes a four-layeredanti-missile defense system startingwith the Arrow missile, which is capa-ble of intercepting long-range missilesat altitudes of above 50 miles, to theIron Dome system for shooting downlow-flying, short-range rockets.

In any future missile war againstHezbollah in Lebanon, Ashkenazi saysthe IDF will apply conventional warfareskills, committing ground forces to at-tack the enemy in its embedded posi-tions and considerably shortening theduration of the conflict.

Perhaps the most dramatic stride for-ward made by the IDF over the past fewyears is in field intelligence. If in 2006, its“bank” of targets in Lebanon numberedapproximately 200, today the figure is inthe thousands. Ashkenazi insists that fire-power is meaningless unless there aretargets of high military value.

All this adds up to a military doctrinethat is likely to give the IDF the capaci-ty to wage different kinds of warfare si-multaneously on several fronts: the so-called Revolution in Military Affairs, orRMA. Israel sees an edge here over po-tential foes: While Israel has inculcatedthis sophisticated, real-time interopera-tion of accurate long-range firepower,high-grade intelligence, command andcontrol, and joint forces operations, itspotential adversaries have not.

For comparison, the largely Ameri-can-equipped and-trained Egyptianarmy — with some 700,000 troops

(450,000 in the standing army and about250,000 reserves), 12 ground force divi-sions, and approximately 3,400 tanksand 500 fighter planes — is consideredby far the strongest in the Arab world.Some of the equipment is state of theart: Egypt has about 1,000 Abrams M1tanks and just over 200 F-16 fighters.

But the Egyptians have not even be-gun to incorporate RMA.

“RMA requires a great deal of train-ing of a very special kind,” YiftahShapir, director of the Military BalanceProject at the Tel Aviv-based Institutefor National Security Studies, told JTA.“In my view there are just two armieswho have these capabilities at the high-est level: the U.S. Army and the IDF.And simply buying the platforms doesnot give this kind of capability.”

Indeed, largely because of the RMAdisparity, Shapir says that in the event ofwar between Israel and Egypt, he wouldexpect a result similar to that achieved bythe American army in Iraq in 2003.

“The American army in Iraq wasnot any bigger than Israel’s standingarmy. They had only three divisions,one of which came late,” Shapir said.“True, their air force was much big-ger, but it was mainly because of theadvantages of RMA that they defeatedan army of 21 divisions in two weeks.I would expect the IDF to achieve asimilar result, perhaps not quite soeasily or with so few casualties.”

To launch a ground war against Is-rael, Egypt would have to order theAmerican-led multinational peace-keeping force out of Sinai, the hugebuffer zone between the two coun-tries. That’s something a new regimewould be unlikely to undertakelightly.

Turmoil:Continued from previous page.

Junta:Continued from previous page.

StyleLet the sunshine in


BY JUSTIN JACOBS

Associate Editor

When “Hair” debuted off-Broadway in1967, it was a musical that attempted tocapture the social unrest of youth culturestruggling to find its place in Americansociety. Almost 45 years later, it servesmuch the same purpose. While the youthculture of 2011 might not be decked outin tie-dye and beads, the sexual, reli-gious, and political issues that existedaround the Summer of Love still makeheadlines today.

The mix of those issues and iconic mu-sic is what drew in Josh Lamon, a formersynagogue theater kid from San Diego.Playing Father in the PNC BroadwayAcross America tour of “Hair,” Lamon isperforming in Pittsburgh this week atHeinz Hall. He answered some questionsfrom the road last week about the impor-tance of “Hair,” his first show and socialrevolution.

Jewish Chronicle: How did you firstget involved with theater?

Josh Lamon: My mother took me to seeplays at a very young age, and I just fellin love with theater and wanted to per-form. I started doing some youth the-ater at a local community theater and

then got my first professional acting jobin fifth grade performing in the musical“Gypsy.”

JC: What do you remember about yourfirst time onstage?

JL: I don’t really remember my veryfirst time onstage, but what I do know isevery time I am onstage, I feel at home.

JC: Do you feel your involvement inJewish culture helped cultivate yourlove for music and theater in any way?How so?

JL: I remember music, especially Jew-ish music, always being played in mychildhood home. I also started perform-ing with a Jewish junior theater compa-ny called “Show BIS,” or Beth Israel Stu-dents. We performed in original Jewishrock operas. It was a blast.

JC: What is your dream part? JL: I don’t really have a dream role,

per se. My dream is to work, doing whatI love and performing in pieces that ex-cite me intellectually. I love being a partof “Hair,” as I really care about the ma-terial and the message. It isn’t everyday that you get to do a show that is someaningful to you.

JC: “Hair” was a popular showdecades ago. Why is it still relevantnow?

JL: It is very relevant now. I thinkpeople get surprised when they come seethe show. We are still living in a worldthat is torn apart by conflict. Whether it’sreligious, political or otherwise. This isa piece that shows that you can stand upfor what you believe in, in a peacefulmanner. You can be patriotic andprotest what you disagree with. You canstill disagree with your country and itspolitics, but that doesn’t mean you don’tlove your country with all your heart.The show is about passion. It is aboutcelebrating life. It is about love.

JC: As a young person growing up inthe 2000s, do you feel like your genera-tion has the same restless spirit that’scaptured in “Hair”?

JL: Yes and no. I feel that many peo-ple of my generation and younger don’tfight enough for what they feel is right.On the other hand, look at Egypt. Ayounger generation started and won arevolution.

JC: Has your experience in “Hair”changed how you feel about the power of

youth culture at all? JL: No, but it has reminded me how the

people will always have the power, if wedemand it.

JC: Tell me about the vibe betweenthe cast members. I imagine it’s a pret-ty fun show backstage.

JL: It is a giant love fest!

JC: What kind of audience digs“Hair”? Will more traditional peoplelike it?

JL: I think “Hair” is for everyone, nomatter how you stand politically orsocially. I hope everyone can come intothe theater and be taken back to thisvery special time period. Let our hairdown. And of course, come celebrate anddance with us onstage at the end of theshow. Everyone is invited.

(Justin Jacobs can be reached [email protected].)

Want to go?“Hair”Feb. 17-20, times varyHeinz Hall(412) 456-6666 for more information

The Company of “Hair” National Tour Photo by Joan Marcus

‘Iconic musical ‘Hair’ launches a be-in at Heinz HallLet the sunshine inLet the sunshine inLet the sunshine inLet the sunshine in


STYLE

How to throw a Jewish Oscar partyBY EDMON J.

RODMAN

JTA

LOS AN-G E L E S

(JTA) —With somany fa-mous Jew-

ish namesamong theA c a d e m yAwards nomi-nees this year— Coen, Co-hen, Eisen-berg, Aronof-sky, Sorkin andNewman, toname a few —it seems like agood time for aJewish Oscarparty.

But how tomake an Os-

car par-ty Jew-ish?

I nc a s e

s o m e o n elike Joan Rivers asks what I’ll bewearing, I have my total Jewish de-signer outfit pressed and ready: CalvinKlein pants, Ralph Lauren shirt andDov Charney (American Apparel) T-

shirt. But that’s not going to be nearlyenough.

Should there be a set order and ritu-al, like the seder? Or, like Purim, anevening filled with costumes, beautypageants, shouting at bad guys andlots to drink?

Do I need a red carpet or a black-and-white tallit?

Clearly I needed help. Who ya gonnacall?

No, not Ghostbusters.Rabbi Sara Goodman, a Los Angeles

chaplain, has been holding Oscar par-ties for almost 25 years, even throughrabbinic school.

“I can’t say that I am at my holiestduring the party,” Goodman told JTA.“But I do see the show as a holyevent,” she added with a note of melo-drama.

Her parties feature a nice buffet,and a friend brings Oscars ballots.And then there are the tableaus: Good-man makes sure her table is gracedeach year with a few thought-provok-ing, Oscar-related creations that keepher guests guessing.

“One year I had a Koran on thetable,” she recalls. “It was for themovie ‘Babel.’ ”

Another year Goodman put out aPrincess Diana mug, a royal collec-tor’s spoon and a soap box with Buck-ingham Palace pictured on it. That wasin 2007, when director Stephen Frears’“The Queen” was nominated in threecategories. Helen Mirren won the Best

Actress award.With Jewish actress Natalie Portman

up for an award Feb. 27, I asked myspecial-effects friend Stuart Ziff for anidea for my table.

Ziff worked in the first three “StarWars” movies, and in 1982 he won aTechnical Achievement AcademyAward. He picked up the little-knownindustry honor, which is handed out ata special ceremony and dinner prior tothe Oscars, for the “motion picture fig-ure mover” — a device that was usedto animate a puppet of ET in the fa-mous scene when the extraterrestrialand Elliott ride a bicycle into the air infront of the moon.

I was in the hands of a maker ofmovie magic.

To honor Portman, who was nomi-nated for Best Actress for her role in“Black Swan,” Ziff suggested a goosemade of chopped liver.

“Maybe we can figure out a way tomake it move,” he said, again showinghis award-winning chops.

“Maybe it doesn’t need to move,” Iresponded, thinking the chopped liversculpture could double as an horsd’oeuvres.

Now that I had table art and food,what about the awards?

The pre-show Oscar balloting, theheart of any real Oscar party, gives theguests a shot at voicing their opinionsand picking the winners. Could I callthem the Mazels? What would be mycategories: Best Jewish actor who had

a bar mitzvah? Best actress who iden-tifies as being Jewish? Best name vari-ation of Cohen? Best screenplay withcharacters who are not stereotypicallyJewish?

Things were getting complicated, soI needed to consult with someone whocould put things in perspective. Icalled my uncle, a Director’s Guildmember who votes for the AcademyAwards and has won an Emmy for BestDirector.

“I agonize over the process,”Alexander Singer said.

In the Best Picture category, Singersaid he was torn between “Inception,”which he loved for its inventiveness;“The Social Network,” for its greatcharacters; and “The Kings Speech,”for great storytelling.

How to decide? Change the ballot.On my rejiggered Jewish ballot, if I

recast the category a bit, the answerbecame easy: Best movie featuring theportrayal of a character who had a barmitzvah but now considers himself anatheist (so what’s new?), and though heinvented a new form of social mediaseems coolly distant just like yourcrazy cousin who sits in front of thecomputer all day.

The envelope please?(Edmon J. Rodman is a JTA colum-

nist who writes on Jewish life fromLos Angeles. He sees the Hollywoodsign every morning as he walks out thedoor to get the paper.)

“Anya’s War,” by Andrea Alban, a cap-tivating middle grade novel, centersupon a little known chapter in history —the arrival of Jewish refugees in Chinain the years preceding and during WorldWar II.

Fourteen-year-old Anya Rosen, herbrother Georgi, her parents, and hergrandparents, the feisty Babushka and thequiet Dedushka, are living in the FrenchQuarter of Shanghai in 1937. Shanghaiwas considered to be a safe haven forJews, though the city was occupied by theJapanese. The family had left their life ofprivilege in Odessa, Russia, due to threatsby Stalin’s secret police.

While the family still held fast to itsJewish traditions, having regular Shab-bat dinners, for example, they wereaware that they must blend theirRussian-Jewish culture with Chinese

culture in order to be comfortable intheir temporary country.

Anya struggles with typical teenage is-sues — she has crushes on boys, she wor-ries about party invitations, she fightswith her brother, she holds back secretsfrom her parents. She’s also obsessedwith Amelia Earhart’s disappearance.But Anya is living in atypical times in acountry not her own, forcing her to en-dure unusual situations and make diffi-cult choices.

Anya’s mother, who was a famousopera singer in Odessa, is priming Anyato follow in her footsteps. Anya, howev-er, has bigger dreams: She wants to go

to America and study medicine, but sheis afraid to tell her mother.

Midway through the book, Anya findsan abandoned baby girl in the streets —an unfortunate common occurrence inChinese society at that time. Fearing forits life, she makes a rash decision tobring the baby home, which will haveunforeseen consequences later in thebook. The Rosen family’s housemaid, LiMei, only a few years older than Anya,plays a pivotal role in Anya’s daily lifeand helps her deal with Kisa (the nameAnya gives to the foundling baby).

Even though the family feels that theyare safe in China, a terrifying scene inthe latter part of the book changes every-one’s perspective.

For middle-graders and above, this is acoming-of-age book worth reading. Notonly is the storyline original and insight-ful, but the author accurately and per-ceptively delves into the heart of a youngJewish girl.

(Hilary Daninhirsch can be reached [email protected].)


STYLE

B o o k RRe v i e w

BY HILARY DANINHIRSCH


Book Review

“Anya’s War,” by Andrea Alban, Feiwel andFriends (an imprint of MacMillan)2011, 190 pages.

‘Anya’s War’ a coming-of-age book for teens

BY ZACHARY WEISS


JCC defeated Northside Urban Path-ways (NUP) 62-18 Tuesday in the firstround of the Greater Pittsburgh Inde-pendent Basketball League Playoffs.

“We did the same thing tonight thatwe’ve been teaching all season. It took usall season to get to this point,” JCC HeadCoach Andy Pakler said. “The biggestpreparation that we had was the seasonleading up to this, and mentally we werein the right mindset.”

Ben Katz led the JCC in scoring with 18points. Teammate Jesse Goleman nailed15. NUP’s leading scorer had four.

“We’ve been looking for this all sea-son from Ben, and finally, he’s healthyand he’s back,” Pakler said. “There’s noway that we can move forward doinganything without Ben. We need Ben.”

JCC staked itself to a nine-point leadby the end of the first quarter and neverlooked back.

It added on in the second quarter asJake Berntsen scored six of his sevenpoints, using a combination of lay-upsand free throws. The JCC led 28-7 at thehalf.

The JCC quickly silenced any chanceat a comeback in the third quarter, scor-ing the first six points of the period andtaking a 34-7 lead. Goleman scored eightin the quarter as JCC went up 55-16.

JCC played its reserves in the finalquarter, and outscored NUP in the quar-ter 6-2.

With the win, the JCC improved itsrecord to 14-4.

Its next matchup will be Monday, Feb.21, 7 p.m. at the JCC gym against Pitts-burgh Project, a team that has defeatedthe JCC in both of their previous meet-ings. The winner will move on to theGPIBL finals.

(Zachary Weiss can be reached at [email protected].)

JCC routs NUP; moveson to GPIBL semis

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE FEBRUARY 17, 2011— 15

Engagements

Hanniford/Sloan: Martin and Lin-da Sloan of Mt. Lebanon announce theengagement of their son, Eric Sloan, toLaurie Hanniford, daughter of Neil andSarah Hanniford of Carlisle, Pa.

Laurie’s grandparents are James andthe late Mary Greenbaum of Kittanningand June Hanniford of Carlisle and thelate George Hanniford.

Eric’s grandparents are Robert andSusan Wolf of Pittsburgh and MaryceSloan of Chicago and the late HowardSloan.

Laurie and Eric graduated from Al-legheny College. Laurie earned a bache-lor’s degree in psychology and is a men-tal health therapist for UPMC. Ericearned a bachelor’s degree in econom-ics and Spanish and is with BNYMellonin Pittsburgh.

A May wedding in Carlisle is planned.

Hartman/Sheinberg: James Sny-der Sheinberg and Kelley Lorene Hart-man announce their engagement. Jim’sparents are Sorley Sheinberg of Pitts-burgh and Marco Island, Fla., and thelate Herbert Sheinberg. Kelley’s par-ents are Carole Hartman of Greensburgand Ft. Myers, Fla., and the late J. WileyHartman.

A fall wedding is planned.

BirthsGoldstein: Eric and Shannon

Goldstein of Bridgeville announce thebirth of their son, Zakary Bennett,Jan. 12. Grandparents are Mark andSheila Grenadier of Mt. Lebanon andAllan and Karen Goldstein of Sewick-ley Heights and Highland Beach, Fla.Great-grandparents are AnneGrenadier of Parkland, Fla., AaronRovinsky of Scottsdale, Ariz., and thelate Bernard Grenadier, Bess Rovin-sky, Sidney and Gertrude Goldsteinand Leonard and Edna Kane.

Zakary Bennett is named in lovingmemory of his great-grandfathers,Zelig (Sidney) Goldstein; and BernardGrenadier.

Leffel: Ryan and Jessica FalangoLeffel of Nutley, N.J., announce thebirth of their son, Liam Jake, Aug. 5,2010. Grandparents are Marsha andDick Leffel of Monroeville and AnneMarie and Jim Falango of Medford,N.Y. Great-grandparents are the lateBette and Bernie Goodman, the lateVirginia and Irving Leffel, Jennie Ra-binovich of Port St. Lucie, Fla., thelate James Falango, and the late Ma-bel and Carmine Bongiorno. Liam isthe brother of Mia Blake.

Liam is named in loving memory ofhis paternal great-grandfather, IrvingLeffel; and his maternal great-grand-father, James Falango.

Timmerman: Deborah Levineand Christopher Timmerman of Prov-idence, R.I., announce the birth oftheir son, Ezra Harry Timmerman(Ezra Chaim), Jan. 29. Grandparentsare Sandra Beck Levine, Max Levineand Hilary Spatz, all of Pittsburghand Barbara and Douglas Timmermanof Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Great-grand-mothers are Mildred Levine and Phyl-lis Spatz.

Ezra is named in loving memory ofhis great-grandfathers, ER Lund; andHarry Levine.

Walfish: Naftoli and Yael Walfishof Passaic, N.J., announce the birth oftheir daughter, Zehava Lily, Nov. 4,2010. Grandparents are Abraham andShirley Walfish of Monsey, N.Y., andRabbi David and Naama Lazar ofPittsburgh. Great-grandmother isTmima Bar-Ilan of Rehovot, Israel.

Big brothers and sister are Ari,Nechemya, Moshe Eliyahu and TehillaChanna.

Zehava is named in loving memoryof her maternal great-grandmother.

B’nai MitzvaGabriel Brodsky,son of Jeff Brodskyand Nancy Knowles,will become a barmitzva Saturday,Feb. 19, at RodefShalom Congrega-tion. Grandparentsare Merwyn and Re-nee Brodsky, Alice

Macy and the late Jim Knowles.

Jacob AndrewHirshman, son ofJulie and Jesse Hir-shman, will becomea bar mitzva Satur-day, Feb. 19, at10:30 a.m. at Tem-ple Sinai. Grandpar-ents are Rita andJules Hirshman, the

late Florence and Felix Oppenheimerand the late Irwin Kramer.

RabbiMordecaiRosenbergCertified Mohel(412) 521-4637

Simchas

VISIT OUR WEB SITE thejewishchronicle.net

This will put a vegetable on your table with very little effort. Thereare days when I am just too lazy to make a salad and dressing, so I al-ways keep a few bags of broccoli in the freezer. My version is to throwthis together at home without measuring, but below is Jamie Geller’smore elegant version from “Quick & Kosher Meals in Minutes.” I thinkI’ll actually try the whisking — sounds like a good idea.

BROCCOLI WITH LEMON DRESSING

1 pound frozen broccoli florets2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice1/2 teaspoon sea salt1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Cook broccoli according to package instructions. While the broccoliis cooking, whisk together the lemon juice, salt and pepper in a smallbowl. Slowly whisk in the oil. Place broccoli on a serving platter anddrizzle dressing over top.

Riverview Towers photo

Pictured from left are Julie Nord Friedman, Stuart Nord and Kevin and Karen Nord.

Community16 — THE JEWISH CHRONICLE FEBRUARY 17, 2011

A

CLOSER

LOOK

Rabbi installed

New Light Congregation photo

Rabbi Jonathan Perlman was installed as rabbi of New Light Congregation inSquirrel Hill, Sunday, Jan. 23. As part of the program, he put on his tallit,assisted by Dassi Sklan, a member of the congregation.

Creative together

The Friendship Circle photo

The Friendship Circle recently concluded a three-week Creative ArtsClub in collaboration with the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts,Pittsburgh Glass Center and Pittsburgh Filmmakers. Friendship Circleparticipants enjoyed making glass mosaics, prints and animation.Pictured are Rebecca Spear, Jeremy Elias and Sophie Abo.

Restoration at Riverview Towers

O n June 25, 2010, a waterline break soaked thefirst floor of Squirrel

Hill’s Riverview Towers, buck-ling walls and floors and de-stroying the senior community’sbeauty salon.

During a ribbon-cutting cere-mony Feb. 7, a new fitness roomwas revealed. Thanks to theNord family of Pittsburgh, top-of-the-line fitness equipment,and a fitness center designedwith seniors in mind, sits wheresoggy carpets once were. A newbeauty salon was also built onthe first floor and new carpetshave been installed.

The Chronicle CooksCOMPILED BY ANGELA [email protected]

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MAGAZINEJewish Pittsburgh Living

ISSUE 2 IS ALMOST HERE!

Arriving at homes the week of March6th

DON’T MISS IT!

Reserve your copy by sending yourname, mailing address and e-mail ad-

dress to

Rahm Emanuel, the front-runner inthe Chicago mayoral election, was the tar-get of an anti-Semitic leaflet campaign.

Flyers withanti-Semiticmessages direct-ed at Emanuelwere recentlydistributed on atrain line thatruns through thecity. The flier,distributed at aChicago TransitAuthority RedLine station,shows a silhou-ette of Emanueland reads: “I will run Chicago as I ranFreddie Mac, PROFITABLE (for me, me,me) thirty millions$$$$$$. I was entitledto it, being a Holocaust survivor (I meanmy family).”

Emanuel is “unfazed” by the fliers,according to the NBC television affiliatein Chicago, which quoted him as saying“I have confidence in the people.”

The nonpartisan election is scheduled

for Feb. 22; a runoff, if necessary, wouldbe six weeks later.

On Sunday, fellow candidate CarolMoseley Braun compared Emanuel to acharacter in the Mel Brooks film “TheProducers” who describes Hitler as“kind” and “gentle.”

“I was not comparing him to AdolfHitler; print that,” Moseley Braun toldreporters later. “I was trying to say ...the kind, gentle concern for the publicthat is being portrayed in these ads doesnot square with the record.”

Emanuel in a debate Monday said hethought Braun's words were taken out ofcontext.

Emanuel served for two years asPresident Obama's White House chief ofstaff and also was a congressman.

The Palestinian Authority re-portedly has settled a lawsuit over themurder of two American citizens livingin Israel.

Court papers indicating that a settle-ment agreement was reached were filedMonday in a Rhode Island DistrictCourt, but no details were provided, theAssociated Press reported.

A $116 million default judgmentawarded by the Rhode Island court in2004 was vacated by the agreement, ac-cording to the papers, the AP reported.The agreement also lifts a freeze on PA

assets in the United States.The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in

Boston last year had sent the case back tothe district court for more arguments onwhether the unpaid default judgmentshould be set aside after new P.A. attorneyssaid they would fight the judgment.

The Rhode Island court had awarded thejudgment to the family of terror victimsYaron and Efrat Ungar, American citizenskilled in 1996 when they were attacked intheir car by Palestinian terrorists as theydrove home from a wedding near BeitShemesh, west of Jerusalem. Their infantson survived the attack.

Lawyers for the Ungar family and thePalestinian Authority would not com-ment to AP.

Americans, by a substantial major-ity, continue to rate Israel favorably ac-cording to the latest Gallup Poll.

Sixty-eight percent of Americans rat-ed Israel favorably in the poll conductedFeb. 2-5, statistically the same as the 67percent Israel scored in 2010.

Israel ranked seventh among 21 coun-tries in this year's poll behind, in order,Canada, Britain, Germany, Japan, Indiaand France.

Iran scored last, with 11 percent ap-proval, and the Palestinian Authorityscored fifth from last, with 19 percentapproval.

In its commentary when the poll wasreleased Feb. 11, Gallup noted that Egypthad plunged in approval since the 2010polling. The most recent poll was con-ducted before military authorities acced-ed to protesters' demands and removedHosni Mubarak from the presidency.

France, meantime, had climbedsteadily from a low of 34 percent in2003, when it opposed the U.S. invasionof Iraq, to 71 percent this year.

“Americans' ratings of foreign coun-tries suggest Americans are aware ofwhat is occurring internationally,”Gallup said. “Countries that are friendlyto the United States and supportive ofits foreign policy are generally ratedpositively, while countries that are un-friendly to the United States and opposeits policies are rated negatively.”

Gallup reached 1,015 respondents bytelephone. The poll has a margin of er-ror of 4 percent.

Separately, a poll released Monday byThe Israel Project showed that a majori-ty of Americans believed that the Unit-ed States should support Israel in “theongoing conflict between Israel and thePalestinians in the Middle East.”

Support for Israel was 55 percent to 6percent for the Palestinians. Sixteenpercent responded “neither.”

The Feb. 7-9 poll surveyed 1,000 like-ly voters by phone.

TheJewish

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This week would be Purim, if itwere not a leap year in the Hebrewcalendar, and we would have read theMegilla. In the Megilla of Esther,Mordechai overhears Bigthan AndTerresh plotting secretly against theking. Mordechai reports the plot toQueen Esther who then brings thethreat to Ahashuerus’ attention. Ulti-mately this helps put Esther andMordechai into a positive power rela-tionship with Ahashuerus.

But the big puzzle is why didMordechai help save Ahashuerusfrom this plot. After all, the rabbisteach that Ahashuerus was a biggerhater of Jews than his prime minister,Haman. When Haman broaches hisdesire to wipe out the Jews and com-pletely fund the whole project fromhis private treasury — read his storesof graft and bribery — Ahashuerusgenerously refuses to accept Haman’smoney. Instead he graciously agreesto finance the whole project from theroyal treasury. Ahashuerus andHaman have the legal documentsdrawn and sent out to the Empire toget the project moving immediatelyand then the two good buddies sitdown to drink and party.

So why would Mordechai help sucha tyrant? Aside from the fact that theking is holding Esther and many otherwomen of the Persian Empire againsttheir wills in his harem, it would seemthat if you get rid of Ahashuerus Es-ther might have a chance of gettingfree.

Mordechai, however, wisely sees

the big picture. If there were a suc-cessful assassination that would meanthat for a period of time there wouldbe chaos. Such chaos could very eas-ily spin out of control, producing thekind of disorder where countless peo-ple are hurt. Even as the rabbis teachin the Pirkei Avot (3:2):

“Pray for the peace and harmony ofthe government; for if not for the fearof the government people would swal-low each other alive.”

Historically, in these situations,Jews always receive the brunt of suchunfettered violence. Besides, whatguarantee is there that a successorwould be friendlier to the Jews?Ahashuerus is a known entity andthere is some possibility of an al-liance with him; of course, the rest ofthe Megilla demonstrates that withGod’s help and guidance Mordechaiand Esther are able to persuadeAahshuerus about the loyalty of theJews in his empire. Equally as signif-icant, the loyalty of the Jewish peopleis a function of their dedication andcommitment to their Jewish heritage.

As I write these words, the worldwatches the events in Egypt and therest of the Middle East. What willhappen in weeks to come when youread these words, and what ramifica-tions of these events will unfold as theyears progress? God only knows. Butcertainly we all hope and pray thatthe pursuit of peace and security ofall people in the region not be threat-ened by the potential destabilizationof any government.

As the rabbis in the Talmud advo-cate, I extend a prayer that the lead-ership of this great country, in whichwe live freely as Jews, be guided byGod’s providence to make the deci-sions that will promote the best re-sults for the people of Egypt, the Mid-dle East and the nations of the world.

(This column is a service of the GreaterPittsburgh Rabbinic Association.)

— THE JEWISH CHRONICLE FEBRUARY 17, 201120

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TORAHJewish heroes made theright moves on Purim

Portion of the Week

RABBI JOSEPH S. WEISSB’NAI EMUNOHCONGREGATION

Ki Tissa, Exodus 30:11-

34:35

TRANSLATOR

VOICE/PIANO

ART SHOW

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PIANO LESSONS

INSURANCE

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AVAILABLE FOR Private &class style yoga instruction.Instruction can vary from be-ginner to intermediate/ad-vanced. If interested please e-mail [email protected] call 412-855-6027.

ESTATE NOTICES

Letters have been granted onthe estate of each of the fol-lowing decedents to the per-sonal representative named,who requests all persons hav-ing claims against the estateof the decedent to makeknown the same in writing tohim or his attorney, and allpersons indebted to the dece-dent to make payment to himwithout delay:

ISACK, Edward, J, a.k.a. Ed-ward Jay Isack, deceased, ofPittsburgh, PA 15217, Al-legheny County; No. 02-11-00604 of 2011. Steven D.Isack, Executor 3102Labyrinth Road Pikesville, MD21208 or to: Barry J. Palkovitz,Esq., Palkovitz Law Office,1966 Lincoln Way, Suite 200,White Oak, PA 15131.

3Th 317, 310, 303

LEVINE, Barbara., deceased,of Wilkinsburg, PA. No. 02-11-00664 or to: Kimberly S.Steinberg,Executrix, c/oPhilip H. Rubenstein, Esq.,312 Second Avenue,Carnegie, PA 15106.

3Th 338, 331, 324

STRICKER, Rose C., deceased,of Scott Township, PA, Al-legheny County; No. 02-11-00524 or to: Joyce A. Slaugh-ter and Susan M. Chabala, Co-Executrices, c/o Philip H.Rubenstein, Esq., 312 SecondAvenue, Carnegie, PA 15106.

3Th 338, 331, 324

WACHTEL, Sandra, de-ceased, of Pittsburgh, PA,Allegheny County; No. 02-10-07644 or to: Joel Pfefffer,Esq., Meyer, Unkovic & ScottLLP, 535 Smithfield St., Suite1300, Pittsburgh, PA 15222.

3Th 338, 331, 324

LEGAL NOTICE

LEGAL NOTICE


The yurt brings a touch of luxury to Israeli eco-tourism.

If you don’t know what a yurt is, haveno fear. Most people don’t (includingyours truly). But yurts, with their porta-bility, suitability for nature trips, andsimple low-tech structures are highlysuitable for eco-tourism – so they defi-nitely deserve our attention. And it cer-tainly is exciting that yurts are enteringthe Israeli tourism scene.

So what is a yurt? A yurt is a portablefabric covered dwelling with an under-lying wooden structure that was firstused by nomads in central Asia.

What do yurts have to do with Israelieco tourism? Thanks to the Indian vil-lage at Moshav Avnei Eitan in theGalilee, plenty.

Located at the end of the Nahal El Altrail (which is a flowery, rocky, wateryfeast for the eyes of an eco tourist), theyurt campsite — though environmental-ly friendly in that is does not leave apermanent effect on the site and offerslow impact housing — is a pampering

version of your normal camping experi-ence. Meaning, for all those ladies outthere who are a little squeamish aboutspending a romantic weekend in a tent,this is the perfect compromise.

Some of the yurts (like the one pic-tured above) even go so far as to includejacuzzis, and all of the couple yurts in-clude small kitchenettes, air condition-ing, and other little extras. Pair that upwith the beautiful scenery, the fresh out-door breakfast that is included with astay in the yurt, and the optional person-al masseurs, and you’ve got an ecotourism option that is close to nature,but a pampering treat as well.

The site includes three small, couplesized yurts and a few larger teepees thatcan house large groups. So whetheryou’re going away on a weekend vaca-tion with your partner or having more ofan experience with the family — the In-dian Village is ready for you.

(Stories from The Green Prophet ap-pear here by agreement with its editor,Karin Kloosterman. For more Greennews from the Middle East, visit TheGreen Prophet at greenprophet.com.Contact the Green Prophet [email protected].)

Israeli eco tourism welcomesCentral Asian portable dwelling

ENVIRONMENTA yurt by any other name

MORNING SERVICES - 9:30 A.M.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20: DR. SIMEON ALLEN, GERALD G. BALCH, LOUIS BEAR, RE-BECCA BEGLER, BELLA BONDER, IDA SISSER BORTZ, DAVID BRINN, MARY W. CHABAN,CLARA COHEN, JOSEPH COHEN, SAMUEL COHEN, ISIDOR DAVIS, MILDRED COHEN FELD-MAN, WILLIAM FISCHER, JACOB GILBERT, REBECCA GILLMAN, JENNIE GINGOLD, CPL. MIL-TON GOLDSTEIN, MILTON CPL GOLDSTEIN, NAT D. GORMAN, DOROTHY GREENBERG, SALLIEGREENSTEIN, ALEXANDER HANDMACHER, LEONARD C. HECHTMAN, ISRAEL E. HELFMAN,NATHAN M. KATZ, BESSIE KEMPLER, ELLA KLEIN, DAVID LEVINE, ELLA MILLER LEWINE,MAMIE LITTLE, ADOLPH LOBL, ROSE MARSHALL, ISRAEL J. MARTIN, HELEN MILLER, LEAHMULLIN, BENJAMIN PEARLMAN, LUCILLE POLLOCK, AARON PRETTER, MORRIS ROBBINS,CHAYA ROSSEN, JOSEPH H. ROSSEN, MORRIS SAMPLINER, ALBERT SAMUELS, CLAIRE R.SCHWEIZER, HARRY R. SEIGER, JEAN Y. SHAPERA, LOUIS E. SHIFMAN, MOLLIE SILVERMAN,SOPHIA SLOAN, BIRDIE SMITH, MORRIS SNYDER, MINNIE L. SOKOLE, ROSE SOLWITZ, SADIEM. SPEER, TILLIE STRENG, HERMOINE WACHS, ESTHER WEISENBERG, NELLIE ZABARENKO.MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21: ANN GOLDSTEIN ARONS, MARY BARR, FLORA BARUCH,RUBIN BENKOVITZ, ESTHER F. BEREN, IRENE F. BERKOSKY, HARRIS BAER BERMAN, KATEBERNSTEIN, ABE R. COHEN, DOROTHY K. COHEN, FANNY EISENSTAT, DANIEL FRANK,DOROTHY FRIEDKEN, ARNOLD J. FRIEDMAN, JACOB GINSBERG, RACHEL E. GOLDBERG, DR.NORMAN GOLOMB, ANNA P. HART, LILLIAN HELLMAN, PEARL HERMAN, PHILLIP HILK, GER-HART M. HOREWITZ, JENNIE HORNE, RAY W. JACOBSON, HENRY L. KALWARY, ANNA KINS-BURSKY, MAX KRAM, BENJAMIN KRAVITZ, IDA LEVY, ENOCH LICHTENSTEIN, CELIA MAR-CUS, ISAAC MARCUS, ROSA MASSOFF, ISIDORE M. PALATNICK, BESSIE PERLOW, RACHELRICE, JULIA B. ROSENBLATT, MINNIE ROSENBLOOM, JACOB ROSENTHAL, EDITH SACK,JULIUS SAMUELS, SYLVIA L. SAMUELS, CHARLES SAUL, DAVID SAUL, SIMON SCHREIBER,MORRIS SCHWARTZ, HYMAN DAVID SEGAL, MARION J. SEINER, MANUEL SELKER, EDNA M.SIEGAL, GOLDIE R. SIEGEL, IDA SILVERMAN, SAUL SMALLEY, GENEVIEVE STERN,NATHANIEL STUTZ, JACOB TOMBOFSKY, MILTON H. WEISMAN, JACOB WILNER, ISIDOR WIN-KLER, IDA ZWIRNBAUM.TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22: JOSEPH ABRAVANEL, FANNIE BAVER, HARRY BEESON,DAVID BLOCK, JENNIE COHEN, LOUIS COHEN, NATHAN COHEN, CLARA EHRENPREIS, FANNIER. FALKINSON, I. MELVIN FIEDLER, ESTHER S. FINKELHOR, MOLLIE FRIEDMAN, NISANGILBOA, MICHAEL GLATZER, WILLIAM GOLDBERG, MORRIS GOLDMAN, ESTHER GOLDSTEIN,ROBERT C. GORDON, HARRY H. GREEN, JOHANNA HALLE, ROSE HARTSTEIN, MARTIN A.HEPPS, DANIEL HORNE, ROSE KALSTONE, RUTH KAPLAN, SAMUEL KATZ, ROSIA KAUFF-MAN, ROSE KERTMAN, FRANK KLATMAN, TEMA LANDO, LOUIS LEVISON, MOLLY LEVITH,EDWARD LEWIS, SHIRLEY F. LITTLE, ANNA MADANICK, JACOB MALACHOFSKY, LENA MANN,AMELIA L. MARCUS, MENDEL MENDELSON, JUDITH MORITZ, YETTA G. NOVICK, JACOB OS-WOLD, SEYMOUR M. PERLUT, LOUIS C. PETTLER, BENJAMIN RAMBACH, SAM ROSENBERG,SAMUEL ROSENTHAL, SOLOMON SCHWARTZ, ESTHER SIEGEL, ANNA PRICE SILVERBERG,PESHA SMITH, SELIG LOUIS STORMWIND, MAYME SUKOLSKY, DAVID A. VINOCUR, ESTHERWEISS, FANNIE A. ZIMET.WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23: FRIEDA ALPER, IDA AMDURSKY, JOSEPH BALES, HY-MAN L. BERKMAN, YETTA BROWARSKY, JACOB CAPLAN, REBECCA CAPLAN, MOLLIECHAIMOVITZ, ROSE ENGELBERG, JESSIE SNYDER FELMAN, REBECCA GOLDFEIN, SIMONGOLDMAN, SYLVIA GOLDMAN, ABRAHAM S. GOLDSTEIN, MAX GOLDSTEIN, HERMAN GOLD-STROM, HERMAN GOLOMB, TILLIE E. GREENBAUM, NATHAN H. GROSS, HELEN B. HARRIS,FRED HELLMAN, ESTHER JAFFE, ISAAC KAHANOWITZ, DR. EDWIN J. KAMONS, DR. CECILKAPLAN, SADIE KART, ROSE KATZ, WILLIAM KEIZLER, CELIA KOPELMAN, REBECCA KRAUS,BERTHA KRAUSE, ROSE LILLIAN LIEBERMAN, RALPH E. MANNHEIMER, ETHEL MILLER,MOSES BENJAMIN MILLER, BESSIE MOOGERMAN, ISRAEL R. NEWMARK, EDWARD PERLIS,HANNAH POSER, HATTIE H. RAPOPORT, JACOB M. ROSE, BERNIE ROSENBAUM, THOMASROSENBLATT, HARRY ROSSEN, ROSE ROTH, BESSIE SAKOLSKY, JACOB SAKULSKY, ROSEKATZ SCHOOLNIC, HARRY SCOTT, JENNIE SHERMER, ADA KLINE SIMON, MORRIS SMIZIK,RUTH STERN, JACOB WEINBERGER, ISAAC WILKOFF, JOSEPH ZINNER.THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24: LT. MELIVIN S. BARRETT, MAX BERMAN, MORRIS J.BIALER, SARAH HELEN BRAUN, WILLIAM BRAUN, ESTELLE H. BRAVER, MARY BROIDA,NATHAN CAPLAN, FRANK R. COHEN, GOLDIE DAVIS, ANNE S. DEBROFF, MORRIS JACOB DE-BROFF, NANA DEROY, IKE DIAMOND, PEARL M. FEINBERG, HERMAN G. FELDSTEIN, WILLIAMFRIED, REBECCA FRIEDBERG, ADOLPH GERSON, NATHAN GLOSSER, HARRY GOLDBERG,MICHAEL J. GOLDBERG, RACHEL GOLDSTEIN, LOTTIE GREENBLATT, SADIE C. HELLER, SO-PHIE HERSH, SAMUEL E. HORNE, LEONARD B. JACOBSON, LENA KAUFMAN, MARYKROMEMER, SAMUEL LINETSKY, PAYCE LIPKIND, KATE MARKOWITZ, ELLI LAIB MOSCOVITZ,MORRIS H. MOSCOWITZ, LEON NUMER, JOSEFINE ODENHEIMER, CELIA OPPENHEIM,JOSEPH M. ORRINGER, OSCAR PERER, SARAH F. PITTLER, ANITA RABINOWITZ, SOLOMONROMANOFF, SARAH ROTH, PEPI ROTHENBERG, SELMA ROTHMAN, HYMAN DAVID SAVILLE,FLORENCE SCHORIN, LEONARD L. SCHUGAR, LEONARD SCHWARTZ, HYMAN SHALANSKY,JOSEPH SHAPIRO, NORMAN SKOLSKY, JEANETTE SNIDER, ELLIS STEINFIRST, ELVIN TEITEL-BAUM, DAVID TOBIN, LOUIS WEINER, ISAAC WEIS, EMMA WINTERS.FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25: SAMUEL L. ALPERN, ANNA CAPLAN, SANFORD EAFFY,NATHAN EDESES, JENNIE FARKAS, JOSEPH FREEDMAN, MORRIS D. GINSBERG, LEO GITEL-MAN, JOSEPH F. GOLDBERG, DORA GOLDMAN, LIBBIE GOLDMAN, NATHEN GOLDSTEIN,MARTIN GREENBARG, HARRY GREENWALD, JACOB L. GROPPER, NORMA E. HAMLETT,SOPHIA KEILLY, MORRIS KLEIN, MORRIS LABOWITZ, EARL LEBOVITZ, GOLDIE LEVIN,THERESE H. LEVINO, SAM LEWINTER, CARL LIEBERMAN, WILMA MARCUS, HARRY MARGO-LIS, FANNIE MELNICK, ABE MILLER, SALLY MILLER, HARRY OSOFSKY, ABE PECK, BENNIEPORTNOY, ETHEL BODEK ROGERS, EMIL HEICKEL ROSENBERG, BESSIE RUBENSTEIN, IDASADOWSKY, CLARA SALTMAN, MAX SAMUELS, ALEXANDER SIMON, ABRAHAM SMITH,CHARLES H. SOLTZ, OSCAR SUSSER, WOLF TOLOCHKO, MANUEL WIKES, MYRON J.WILKOFF, GEORGE WINTNER, RABBI SIMON YAFFEE, THEODORE ZEUGSCHMIDT.SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26: JACOB ADLER, ANNA ALBERT, LOUIS ALTMAN, SAMUELH. AMDUR, CHARLES BALBER, RALPH BALBER, BENJAMIN BECK, IDA BECKER, HERVIS M.BERMAN, SIDNEY BILDER, JACOB BLATT, CHARLES C. BURSTEIN, ISIDOR COHEN, BAILIE ANNACOHN, ARTHUR COOK, ALBERT DELL, HARRY DIZENFELD, SEDALIA EKKER, BURFORD B. EP-STEIN, BLANCHE FINKELSTEIN, SIMON FRIEDMAN, CLARA GOLDHAMMER, BENJAMIN GOLD-STEIN, FRANCES H. GORDON, BERTHA GREENBERG, RACHEL GREENBERG, JOSEPH GREEN-WALD, ABE I. GRINBERG, ROSE GROSS, HYMAN L. HAUSMAN, ABE KIRSHENBAUM, MINNIEKURTZ, BLANCHE MENDELSON, TYBA HUTTNER MERVIS, MARIE J. MILLER, MAX MILLER,SARAH MORETSKY, SAM NEEDLEMAN, HARRY NEWMAN, CELIA PERILMAN, FREDA ROSEN-THALL, MORRIS G. SANES, JACK SARBIN, HANNAH RAE SHAPIRA, MINNIE SHEFFLER, ROSESTARR, BELLA STEINBERG, NATHAN WAGNER, HENRY WEINBERGER, NATHAN P. WEISSMAN,ROSALIE WETSTEIN, SAMUEL N. WHITEMAN, JOSEPH WILKOFSKY, MANUEL ZAPLER.

sell yourstuffforca$hin the

classfiedsCall Donna 412-687-1000 to place your ad

BY KAREN CHERNICK

COHEN: On Monday, February 7,2011, Anne L. Cohen; beloved wife ofHoward L. Cohen; loving mother ofJeffrey H. Cohen, M.D. of Fair OaksRanch, TX and Lee C. Tepper of Pitts-burgh; sister of Fern Diamond; grand-mother of Joshua R. Tepper and Lau-ren A. Cohen. Services were held atRalph Schugar Chapel, Inc., 5509 Cen-tre Ave., Shadyside. Interment BethShalom Cemetery.

KAUFMAN: On Saturday, February12, 2011, Ronald Marc Kaufman; lovinghusband of Cheryl (Aronson) Kaufman;devoted father of Jared (Marcy)Kaufman and Adam (Liana) Kaufman;“Papa Ron” of Jesse, Brett and RyanKaufman; son of the late Ben and RuthKaufman; loving brother of Berniceand Dr. Myron Friedlander; son-in-lawof Lillian and Ace Aronson; brother-in-law of Franklyn and Helene Aronsonand Sandra Lubin; also survived byaunts, uncles, nieces and nephews,cousins and friends. Services were heldat Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., 5509Centre Ave., Shadyside. IntermentPliskover Cemetery. Contributions maybe made for brain cancer research, c/oUPCI, Development Dept., UPMC, Can-cer Pavilion, Suite 1 B, 5150 CentreAve., Pgh., PA 15232.

KLINE: On Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011,Bernard H. Kline, 87, of White Oak;beloved husband of Betty Ruth Green-field Kline; father of Ellie (Bruce) Led-erman of Pacific Palisades, CA, George(Mary Jo) Kline of White Oak, Meryl(Fred) Trachtman of Olney, MD;grandfather of Eric, Jeffrey, and JoshuaLederman, Reita, Lena, and Max Klineand Rachel and Molly Trachtman;also many nieces and nephews; preced-ed in death by sister Sally Litman; son

of the late George N. and Reita JacksonKline. Services were held at at Strif-fler’s of White Oak, 1100 Lincoln Way,White Oak. Interment Agudath AchimCemetery, Forest Hills.

PEARLMAN: On Saturday, Febru-ary 12, 2011, Stanton H. Pearlman;beloved husband of Carol BastackyPearlman; beloved father of JordanPearlman of Squirrel Hill; specialbrother of Gerry (late Louis) Segneff ofStanton Heights, Robert Pearlman ofSquirrel Hill, the late Harold (lateLibby) Pearlman and the late Helen(late Ira) Selvin; also survived bybeloved nieces and nephews and great-nieces, nephew and cousins. GravesideServices were held at Beth ShalomCemetery. Contributions may be madeto Pittsburgh B’nai B’rith Men, 1831Murray Avenue, #204, Pittsburgh, PA15217 or Veterans, Fisher House Foun-dation, Inc., 111 Rockville Pike, Suite420, Rockville, MD 20850. Arrange-ments by Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc.

WOLHENDLER: On Monday, Feb-ruary 14, 2011, Jacob Wolhendler; sonof the late Ephriam and Sarah Wol-hendler; beloved brother of the lateChana, Jocheved, Lipman and HindaWolhendler; cousin of Dr. Louis E.Goldszer and Anne Krieger and theirchildren, Dr. Robert Goldszer, RichardGoldszer, Dr. James F. Goldszer, PattiKrieger, Claudia Miller and the lateKarol Krieger Hays. Graveside ser-vices and interment were held at BethShalom Cemetery. Contributions maybe made to Holocaust Center ofGreater Pittsburgh, 5738 DarlingtonRoad, Pittsburgh, PA 15217. Arrange-ments by Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc.


OBITUARIES

Please refer to wwwwww..tthheejjeewwiisshhcchhrroonniiccllee..nneettfor regularly updated obituary information.

Egypt uprising carries echoes of Poland’ssolidarity movement 30 years agoBY RUTH ELLEN GRUBER

JTA

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The day afterEgypt’s President Hosni Mubarak wasousted by a widespread public uprising, Ifound myself presenting a lecture aboutSolidarity, the mass trade union move-ment that convulsed Poland 30 years agoand paved the way for the collapse of theIron Curtain a decade later.

It also helped land me in jail in 1983,eventually resulting in my expulsionfrom Poland.

I had covered Solidarity — Solidarnoscin Polish — as a correspondent for Unit-ed Press International, and my lecturecame at the opening of an exhibition atYale University about the dramaticstrikes and public protests that gavebirth to the movement in August 1980.

It got me thinking about people power— its nature and the long, complex reachof its legacy.

The so-called Polish August was thefirst mass protest movement to achievesome success in challenging Communistrule in Eastern Europe.

When the strikes broke out, the Com-munists had been in power in Polandsince the late 1940s — similar to thelength of Hosni Mubarak’s tenure. Andas in Egypt, the protests forced radicalchanges in less than three weeks.

But freedom and democracy were byno means the automatic outcome of whatseemed at the moment a victory; indeed,what’s happening in Egypt, and else-where in the Middle East, is still verymuch in flux.

Thousands of workers went on strike atthe Gdansk Shipyard on Aug. 14, 1980.The walkout was sparked by the firing ofcrane operator Anna Walentynowicz, alongtime dissident worker activist.

Her dismissal was really just the strawthat broke the camel’s back. Hikes infood prices and other economic hard-ships, as well as heavy-handed politicaland social repression, were behind thediscontent, and over the years there hadbeen sporadic failed attempts to chal-lenge the regime.

This time, circumstances weredifferent.

For one thing, the election of PolishCardinal Karol Wojtyla as Pope JohnPaul II in 1978 had galvanized the nationand instilled a sense of national pride.When John Paul triumphantly returnedhome to visit in 1979, millions of Polesturned out to greet him as a nationalhero.

Strikes and protests spread acrossPoland within days of the Gdansk Ship-yard walkout. Prayers and outdoor mass-es in the overwhelmingly Catholic coun-try were a key part of the protests.

Significantly, too, workers and strikeleaders formed an unprecedented strate-gic alliance with dissident intellectuals.Their list of 21 demands included laborreforms but also freedom of expression,freedom of religion and other civil rights.

These formed the basis of the GdanskAgreement, a landmark social accordeventually signed on Aug. 31, 1980, bythe charismatic strike leader Lech Wale-sa and a senior government representa-tive. Walesa used a jumbo souvenir penthat bore a likeness of John Paul II.

Five days leader, the Polish Commu-nist Party axed its longtime leader, Ed-ward Gierek.

Various commentators have comparedthe events in Egypt with the fall of com-munism across Eastern Europe in 1989-90. The comparison is valid — and per-haps increasingly so, given the spreading

protests across the Middle East.But in some ways the Polish August

and the birth of Solidarity may be a moretelling comparison, at least for now. Aswith Egypt, the Polish August was a hugeglobal news story that sparked ecstaticheights of optimism, exhilaration andpunditry. And as with the Egyptian upris-ing, it took us into utterly uncharted wa-ters: No one really knew where it was allgoing to lead.

Confidence and expectations werehigh, but martial law crushed Solidarityless than a year-and-a-half after theGdansk Agreement was signed. Themovement was banned, hundreds of Soli-darity leaders and activists were jailed,censorship was re-imposed and harshcontrols were put in place.

In January 1983, I myself was arrest-ed, accused of espionage, jailed, interro-gated and expelled from Poland becauseof my journalistic activity — apparentlyas a warning to both the internationalmedia and local Polish contacts.

Martial law, however, did not stop theprocess begun with the Polish August.

Dissent and efforts to foster civil soci-ety went underground, where they con-tinued to build momentum as deteriorat-ing economic conditions fueled mountingpopular anger.

In Warsaw, for example, young Jewswho tentatively had begun rediscoveringtheir roots and religious heritage met in asemi-clandestine Jewish study groupthey called the Jewish Flying Universitybecause each meeting took place in a dif-ferent apartment.

It took nearly eight years, but in 1989roundtable negotiations between the un-derground opposition and the govern-ment enabled a peaceful transition to de-mocratic rule.

The images on the panels of the Soli-darnosc exhibit at Yale this winter por-tray events that happened more than 30years ago, but the pictures look uncanni-ly similar to the images of the protests inEgypt. They show huge crowds, banners,slogans and confrontations between pro-testers and authorities.

Much has been made of the role of thesocial media in Egypt. Back in 1980,however, there were no social media.There was no Twitter, no Facebook, nomobile phones, no Internet, no e-mail, no24/7-hour news cycle (except for us wireservice folks). CNN was the only cablenews network, and it had only just beenfounded.

The government, moreover, cut com-munications between Gdansk and War-saw during the August strikes, so that inorder to file their stories, some reportersactually commuted back and forth be-tween the two cities on domestic flights.Information was carried by word ofmouth or clandestine Samizdat newslet-ters, or shortwave broadcasts on the BBCor Radio Free Europe.

Still, word got out. Protests engulfed anation and all but brought down a hatedregime.

If enough people want to createchange, they will, Twitter or not.

One image in the Yale exhibition showsthe enormous sea of people gathered indowntown Warsaw to celebrate outdoorMass with Pope John Paul II in 1979.

“I was in that crowd,” Polish-born Yaleprofessor Krystyna Illakowicz told me. “Iremember feeling that we were notafraid any longer.”

(Ruth Ellen Gruber is currently ascholar in residence at the HadassahBrandeis Institute.)

COHEN: On Monday, February 7,2011, Anne L. Cohen; beloved wife ofHoward L. Cohen; loving mother ofJeffrey H. Cohen, M.D. of Fair OaksRanch, TX and Lee C. Tepper of Pitts-burgh; sister of Fern Diamond; grand-mother of Joshua R. Tepper and Lau-ren A. Cohen. Services were held atRalph Schugar Chapel, Inc., 5509 Cen-tre Ave., Shadyside. Interment BethShalom Cemetery.

KAUFMAN: On Saturday, February12, 2011, Ronald Marc Kaufman; lovinghusband of Cheryl (Aronson) Kaufman;devoted father of Jared (Marcy)Kaufman and Adam (Liana) Kaufman;“Papa Ron” of Jesse, Brett and RyanKaufman; son of the late Ben and RuthKaufman; loving brother of Berniceand Dr. Myron Friedlander; son-in-lawof Lillian and Ace Aronson; brother-in-law of Franklyn and Helene Aronsonand Sandra Lubin; also survived byaunts, uncles, nieces and nephews,cousins and friends. Services were heldat Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc., 5509Centre Ave., Shadyside. IntermentPliskover Cemetery. Contributions maybe made for brain cancer research, c/oUPCI, Development Dept., UPMC, Can-cer Pavilion, Suite 1 B, 5150 CentreAve., Pgh., PA 15232.

KLINE: On Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011,Bernard H. Kline, 87, of White Oak;beloved husband of Betty Ruth Green-field Kline; father of Ellie (Bruce) Led-erman of Pacific Palisades, CA, George(Mary Jo) Kline of White Oak, Meryl(Fred) Trachtman of Olney, MD;grandfather of Eric, Jeffrey, and JoshuaLederman, Reita, Lena, and Max Klineand Rachel and Molly Trachtman;also many nieces and nephews; preced-

ed in death by sister Sally Litman; sonof the late George N. and Reita JacksonKline. Services were held at at Strif-fler’s of White Oak, 1100 Lincoln Way,White Oak. Interment Agudath AchimCemetery, Forest Hills.

PEARLMAN: On Saturday, Febru-ary 12, 2011, Stanton H. Pearlman;beloved husband of Carol BastackyPearlman; beloved father of JordanPearlman of Squirrel Hill; specialbrother of Gerry (late Louis) Segneff ofStanton Heights, Robert Pearlman ofSquirrel Hill, the late Harold (lateLibby) Pearlman and the late Helen(late Ira) Selvin; also survived bybeloved nieces and nephews and great-nieces, nephew and cousins. GravesideServices were held at Beth ShalomCemetery. Contributions may be madeto Pittsburgh B’nai B’rith Men, 1831Murray Avenue, #204, Pittsburgh, PA15217 or Veterans, Fisher House Foun-dation, Inc., 111 Rockville Pike, Suite420, Rockville, MD 20850. Arrange-ments by Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc.

WOLHENDLER: On Monday, Feb-ruary 14, 2011, Jacob Wolhendler; sonof the late Ephriam and Sarah Wol-hendler; beloved brother of the lateChana, Jocheved, Lipman and HindaWolhendler; cousin of Dr. Louis E.Goldszer and Anne Krieger and theirchildren, Dr. Robert Goldszer, RichardGoldszer, Dr. James F. Goldszer, PattiKrieger, Claudia Miller and the lateKarol Krieger Hays. Graveside ser-vices and interment were held at BethShalom Cemetery. Contributions maybe made to Holocaust Center ofGreater Pittsburgh, 5738 DarlingtonRoad, Pittsburgh, PA 15217. Arrange-ments by Ralph Schugar Chapel, Inc.


OBITUARIES

Please refer to wwwwww..tthheejjeewwiisshhcchhrroonniiccllee..nneettfor regularly updated obituary information.

Egypt uprising carries echoes of Poland’sSolidarity movement 30 years agoBY RUTH ELLEN GRUBER

JTA

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The day afterEgypt’s President Hosni Mubarak wasousted by a widespread public uprising, Ifound myself presenting a lecture aboutSolidarity, the mass trade union move-ment that convulsed Poland 30 years agoand paved the way for the collapse of theIron Curtain a decade later.

It also helped land me in jail in 1983,eventually resulting in my expulsionfrom Poland.

I had covered Solidarity — Solidarnoscin Polish — as a correspondent for Unit-ed Press International, and my lecturecame at the opening of an exhibition atYale University about the dramaticstrikes and public protests that gavebirth to the movement in August 1980.

It got me thinking about people power— its nature and the long, complex reachof its legacy.

The so-called Polish August was thefirst mass protest movement to achievesome success in challenging Communistrule in Eastern Europe.

When the strikes broke out, the Com-munists had been in power in Polandsince the late 1940s — similar to thelength of Hosni Mubarak’s tenure. Andas in Egypt, the protests forced radicalchanges in less than three weeks.

But freedom and democracy were byno means the automatic outcome of whatseemed at the moment a victory; indeed,what’s happening in Egypt, and else-where in the Middle East, is still verymuch in flux.

Thousands of workers went on strike atthe Gdansk Shipyard on Aug. 14, 1980.The walkout was sparked by the firing ofcrane operator Anna Walentynowicz, alongtime dissident worker activist.

Her dismissal was really just the strawthat broke the camel’s back. Hikes infood prices and other economic hard-ships, as well as heavy-handed politicaland social repression, were behind thediscontent, and over the years there hadbeen sporadic failed attempts to chal-lenge the regime.

This time, circumstances weredifferent.

For one thing, the election of PolishCardinal Karol Wojtyla as Pope JohnPaul II in 1978 had galvanized the nationand instilled a sense of national pride.When John Paul triumphantly returnedhome to visit in 1979, millions of Polesturned out to greet him as a nationalhero.

Strikes and protests spread acrossPoland within days of the Gdansk Ship-yard walkout. Prayers and outdoor mass-es in the overwhelmingly Catholic coun-try were a key part of the protests.

Significantly, too, workers and strikeleaders formed an unprecedented strate-gic alliance with dissident intellectuals.Their list of 21 demands included laborreforms but also freedom of expression,freedom of religion and other civil rights.

These formed the basis of the GdanskAgreement, a landmark social accordeventually signed on Aug. 31, 1980, bythe charismatic strike leader Lech Wale-sa and a senior government representa-tive. Walesa used a jumbo souvenir penthat bore a likeness of John Paul II.

Five days leader, the Polish Commu-nist Party axed its longtime leader, Ed-ward Gierek.

Various commentators have comparedthe events in Egypt with the fall of com-munism across Eastern Europe in 1989-90. The comparison is valid — and per-haps increasingly so, given the spreading

protests across the Middle East.But in some ways the Polish August

and the birth of Solidarity may be a moretelling comparison, at least for now. Aswith Egypt, the Polish August was a hugeglobal news story that sparked ecstaticheights of optimism, exhilaration andpunditry. And as with the Egyptian upris-ing, it took us into utterly uncharted wa-ters: No one really knew where it was allgoing to lead.

Confidence and expectations werehigh, but martial law crushed Solidarityless than a year-and-a-half after theGdansk Agreement was signed. Themovement was banned, hundreds of Soli-darity leaders and activists were jailed,censorship was re-imposed and harshcontrols were put in place.

In January 1983, I myself was arrest-ed, accused of espionage, jailed, interro-gated and expelled from Poland becauseof my journalistic activity — apparentlyas a warning to both the internationalmedia and local Polish contacts.

Martial law, however, did not stop theprocess begun with the Polish August.

Dissent and efforts to foster civil soci-ety went underground, where they con-tinued to build momentum as deteriorat-ing economic conditions fueled mountingpopular anger.

In Warsaw, for example, young Jewswho tentatively had begun rediscoveringtheir roots and religious heritage met in asemi-clandestine Jewish study groupthey called the Jewish Flying Universitybecause each meeting took place in a dif-ferent apartment.

It took nearly eight years, but in 1989roundtable negotiations between the un-derground opposition and the govern-ment enabled a peaceful transition to de-mocratic rule.

The images on the panels of the Soli-darnosc exhibit at Yale this winter por-tray events that happened more than 30years ago, but the pictures look uncanni-ly similar to the images of the protests inEgypt. They show huge crowds, banners,slogans and confrontations between pro-testers and authorities.

Much has been made of the role of thesocial media in Egypt. Back in 1980,however, there were no social media.There was no Twitter, no Facebook, nomobile phones, no Internet, no e-mail, no24/7-hour news cycle (except for us wireservice folks). CNN was the only cablenews network, and it had only just beenfounded.

The government, moreover, cut com-munications between Gdansk and War-saw during the August strikes, so that inorder to file their stories, some reportersactually commuted back and forth be-tween the two cities on domestic flights.Information was carried by word ofmouth or clandestine Samizdat newslet-ters, or shortwave broadcasts on the BBCor Radio Free Europe.

Still, word got out. Protests engulfed anation and all but brought down a hatedregime.

If enough people want to createchange, they will, Twitter or not.

One image in the Yale exhibition showsthe enormous sea of people gathered indowntown Warsaw to celebrate outdoorMass with Pope John Paul II in 1979.

“I was in that crowd,” Polish-born Yaleprofessor Krystyna Illakowicz told me. “Iremember feeling that we were notafraid any longer.”

(Ruth Ellen Gruber is currently ascholar in residence at the HadassahBrandeis Institute.)

BY RON KAMPEAS

JTA

WASHINGTON — Israel changedGabrielle Giffords’ life when the bud-ding politician first visited the countryin 2001 and it drew her close to Ju-daism.

After the Arizona congresswomanwas shot in the head a month ago, anIsraeli innovation invented by anAmerican immigrant to Israel mayhave helped save her life.

First responders credited the emer-gency bandage colloquially known as“the Israeli bandage” with saving livesin the aftermath of the shooting inTucson, Ariz., that left six dead and 13wounded.

Pima County officials displayed thekit at a Jan. 21 news conference in

Tucscon, along with other military-grade gear used in ministering to thewounded in the Jan. 8 shooting. Thecounty had switched last June to theupgraded gear, and the shooting wasits major first field test.

“Without this care it would have def-initely been a different situation,” Dr.Katherine Hiller, who had attendedthe wounded at University MedicalCenter, told The Los Angeles Times.

It is not clear if the Israeli bandagewas applied to Giffords — the detailsof the day were lost in the chaos — butthe bandage is known for, among otherthings, its utility in stanching headwounds, one of the greatest challengeswith conventional bandages. One mod-el covers both entry and exit wounds,which Giffords is known to have sus-tained.

The bandage, like others, applies asterile pad to the wound to stop theblood. What distinguishes it is that abuilt-in applicator applies the equiva-lent of up to 30 pounds of pressureover the pad by wrapping it in the op-posite direction of the initial wrap.

Head wounds require multiple stan-dard bandages to keep a pad in place.One Israeli bandage, with its elasti-cized cloth, is enough for a headwound, and the very act of wrapping itaround the head applies pressure tothe wound. That saves precious time,and the applied pressure applicator,because it is built-in, is more stablethan the external pressures used withconventional bandages.

Since its 1993 invention, the Israelibandage has become standard issue inmilitaries throughout the world. TheU.S. military made it standard issue in2003, in time for the Iraq War.

The inventor of the pad, BernardBar-Natan, is a self-described Brook-lyn boy, a son of Holocaust survivorswho immigrated to Israel in 1979 andwas drafted into the military in 1983,serving an abbreviated service as anadult.

When he was going into the military,friends advised him to get a “job” or aspecialty to alleviate the boredom ofgrunt-level service. Immigrants draft-ed as adults serve only a few monthsrather than three or more years, sothey rarely serve in the military’s up-per reaches. One of the few specialtiesavailable at that level is medic.

As the years wore on through month-long stints in the Israeli reserves, Bar-Natan became annoyed by an anomaly:The bandages available might havemanufacture dates as early as 1942 or

as late as the previous month, yet theyremained essentially unchanged.Medics in the field were required toimprovise pressure applicators —magazines, rocks, canteens, whateverwas handy.

“The guns we used had improved,the planes flying above us had im-proved, but the bandages were thesame,” Bar-Natan told JTA.

In the early 1990s, the Israeli gov-ernment was encouraging start-upsthrough “incubators,” providing themlow-interest loans. That encouragedBar-Natan to jump in the waters withhis idea for a newfangled bandage.

In 2000, he took the bandage to FortSam Houston in San Antonio, Texas,where the U.S. military trains medics.Soon his company, First Care, was sell-ing the bandage for use by elite units, in-cluding the 75th Rangers and the 101stAirborne. Three years later the bandagewas certified for standard use.

The Giffords shooting shined unex-pected — and unwanted — publicity onhis invention.

“The real story is about her,” Bar-Natan said.

He had heard about how Giffords onan American Jewish Committee trip toIsrael in 2001 — shortly after she wasfirst elected to the Arizona state Legis-lature — had connected with her fa-ther’s faith and decided to become apracticing Jew.

Bar-Natan’s success is not going un-noticed.

Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassadorto Washington, told the conservativeDaily Caller website recently thatlearning of the bandage’s role in sav-ing lives in Tucson has been a high-light of his stint as ambassador.

Siegel began about five years ago. “I learned how interested she was in

hunger as we worked together,” saidAbrams. “It seemed like a natural fitthat she and Eric would be our leaddonors because of their strong belief inthe fight against hunger.”

Siegel and her husband’s givingcomes from her sense of “responsibilityto help improve the world,” she said.“It’s a privilege.”

The Squirrel Hill Community FoodPantry’s expansion is larger than squarefootage. Since the move, the Pantry hasserved 234 new individuals from 93

households.“We’re serving 750 people each

month,” said Abrams. “Just a few yearsago, we were at that number per year.”

Clients are also now able to pickwhich foods they need from stockedshelves, instead of receiving pre-pre-pared food packages.

“We’ve had so much positive feed-back,” said Abrams. “Our clients takewhat they need and don’t need to worryabout returning the food they don’t use.In the first month [operating this way],we got more praise and hugs fromclients than I did in my first 4.5 years.It’s a change for the good.”

(Justin Jacobs can be reached [email protected].)


DONOR IN MEMORY OF DONOR IN MEMORY OF

AL K. DEROY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ED ISAKJERRY L. GORDON . . . . . . .SAMUEL GORDONEDWARD H. HIRSCH . . . . .EDWARD J. LEVINEILENE ISKOE . . . . .MARTHA TRACHTENBERGRHODA A. JUDD . . . . . . . . . . .JACOB MARKSSTANLEY B. JUDD . . . . .HERBERT ROTHMANMARTIN B. KAPLAN . . . . . . . . . .DAVID STERNSAUL KUPERSTOCK . . . .ANNA KUPERSTOCKMOLLYANN G. MARCH . . . .AUDREY B GREENBEVERLY MARKS . . . . . .SAMUEL SCHWARTZMYLES H. MARKS . . . . .JOSEPH ROSENTHALABBY S. MILSTEIN . . . .MARVIN SNIDERMANDONALD I. MORITZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .MARIAN

LINDEN BAUMMARLENE T. O'CONNOR . . .WILLIAM TAYLOR

JOHN PHILLIPS . . . . . . . . . .ESTHER PHILLIPSMARIANNE R.RABINOWITZ . . . . . . . .HARVEY RABINOWITZMARIANNE R.RABINOWITZ . . . . . . .JACOB H. RABINOWITZSTEPHEN G. ROBINSON . . . . . . . . . .E. MILLERJAY N. ROSENBERG . . . . . .SAM ROSENBERGJAY N. ROSENBERG . . . .PEARL ROSENBERGCORINNE ROZENSKY . . . . .BERNARD "HERKY"

ROZENSKYRALPH R. SILVERMAN . . . . .JEAN G. SEMINSSELMA F. STEIN . . . . . . .DOROTHY FRIEDKENDAVID A. WOLFSON . . . . . . . . . .ALEXANDER

HANOMACHER

Donation:Continued from page 1.

METRO

Hebrew Academy. “It’s something to beproud of.”

That such a large percentage of in-ductees hail from Pittsburgh this year isdue to the high caliber of students, aswell as the large number of applicants,Spielman said.

“There were a lot of applicants fromPittsburgh, but more importantly, all ofthem were worthy of being recognizedfor this honor,” he said. “They were allgood students, doing good stuff in thecommunity. It made sense, and they de-served the kavod.”

All students inducted into the honorsociety will travel to the school for an all

expense-paid weekend on March 25 to27, for “learning and socializing and be-ing with other future leaders of the Jew-ish community,” Goldstein said.

Additionally, the inductees will be giv-en the opportunity to compete for fiverenewable $20,000 annual merit-basedscholarships to attend the American He-brew Academy.

“It’s great to have so many incomingleaders in the Jewish community in J-Site,” Goldstein said. “We looked at it asan honor to let these students shine, andto let them know they’re appreciated fortheir involvement in the Jewish commu-nity, and recognized nationally for theirlocal achievements.”

(Toby Tabachnick can be reached [email protected].)

Honor Society:Continued from page 1.

fostered a revision of religious conceptsespecially in the more affluent segmentof Judean society and caused a sharp di-vision between Hellenists and Cha-sidim. It also led to the incorporation ofmany Greek words into Hebrew, an ef-fect still evident in modern Hebrew asspoken and written in contemporary Is-rael.

(Jay Bushinsky, an Israel-based polit-ical columnist can be reached [email protected].)

(Editor’s note: In response to a Feb. 3

letter to the editor regarding his Jan. 20column on illegal immigration to Israel,Mr. Bushinsky has issued this state-ment: “There was an unfortunate mis-understanding on my part with regard tothe circumstances in which 143 illegalAfrican immigrants left Israel for theirnative lands late last year. Local news-paper reports on which my commentswere based said their departure wasdue to coercion by Israeli law enforce-ment authorities. However, the ForeignMinistry’s spokesman, Yigal Palmor,who is a very honest and reliable sourceof information, said the Africans hadasked to leave and were neither coercednor subject to any kind of pressure tothat end. I trust Palmor and regret hav-ing relied exclusively on the Hebrewpress’ version.)

Bushinsky:Continued from page 1.

Bandage that helped save lives in Giffords shooting has Israeli backstory

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