Sen. Joseph Lieberman, OBM

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Joe Lieberman, a former longtime U.S. senator from Connecticut who was the first Jewish American nominated to a major party’s national ticket as the Democratic Party’s nominee for vice president in 2000, died on March 27. He was 82.

Lieberman’s political career began in 1970 when he was elected to Connecticut’s state senate where he served for more than a decade, followed by six years of service as the state’s attorney general. He then challenged and beat three-term incumbent and liberal Republican Sen. Lowell Weicker in 1988 and went on to serve four terms in the U.S. Senate.

Lieberman was a moderate Democrat turned independent, who was known for his deep religious faith, his commitment to fairness and morality and his attempts to build bridges in an increasingly polarized Washington. But above all, Lieberman was known for strong adherence to his beliefs and convictions — putting principle over politics.

Lieberman angered many Democrats with his support of the Iraq war, his 2008 endorsement of GOP presidential candidate and close friend, the late Sen. John McCain, and his reluctant support of the party line on the health care overhaul known as Obamacare. But he was cheered by his party as he led the charge for repealing the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, advocated for restricting greenhouse gas emissions tied to climate change and played a significant role in the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

Lieberman was a proud Jew, a tireless advocate for the advancement of pro-Israel policy and legislation and a leader on religious liberty, civil rights and school choice issues. In addition to his observance of Jewish law and ritual, Lieberman spoke with conviction on the importance of religion, urging that “we in government should look to religion as a partner, as I think the founders of our country did.”

Lieberman gained national attention when he spoke on the Senate floor of the importance of morality and condemned former President Bill Clinton’s behavior as “wrong and unacceptable” and called it worthy of “some measure of public rebuke and accountability,” even though he voted against Clinton’s impeachment.

In recent years, Lieberman continued his pursuit of principled independence — taking positions that frustrated many of his former Democratic colleagues. He opposed efforts by the Obama administration to broker a deal with Iran over its nuclear program. He was the founding chair and one of the leading spokespersons of No Labels, the political organization that is seeking to field a third-party candidate in the 2024 presidential election.

And a week before he died, Lieberman wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed in which he asserted that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) “crossed a political red line” when he called for Israelis to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But beyond the world of politics that was so much a part of his public life, Lieberman was known and respected as a mensch, who used his quick, wide smile, mild manner and engaging personality to bring people together to solve problems.

We need more people like Joe Lieberman in public life. May his legacy and memory be an eternal blessing.

 

 

How an Israeli Organization Empowers At-Risk Girls and Women After Neglect and Amid War

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The Gumat Chen boarding school girls eat together. Courtesy of Gumat Chen

There is a place in the south of Israel where girls who previously faced neglect, abuse or abandonment come to find a second chance to succeed in life.

The girls residing at Gumat Chen, a therapeutic boarding school in Kibbutz Sa’ad, are being supported to reclaim their sense of security, rebuild trust and embrace opportunities in education and personal growth that they once thought impossible.

“This boarding school is a place which heals the soul,” said a former resident, named N for anonymity. “It allows every girl who enters these doors to come out a new human being, with strength, courage and so much to offer the world.”

Guided by holistic and comprehensive care for at-risk girls and women, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia’s support of Gumat Chen allows them to provide career courses for students after they age out of their boarding school. Designed for women aged 18 to 25, this post-high school program offers the tools and skills needed to succeed in the labor market.

Gumat Chen is supported year-round as part of the Jewish Federation’s Partnership2Gether (P2G) fund, which supports Greater Philadelphia’s partnership regions of Netivot and Sdot Negev that border Gaza and face constant unrest.

“I want to thank the Jewish Federation because they were the first to believe in us and to support this program,” said Director Odelia Ben Porat of Gumat Chen, which has a three-year grant of $30,000 from the Jewish Federation.

Without a family of its own, Gumat Chen strives to be a stabilizing presence throughout their students’ lives. Even after participants complete the post-secondary school program, the staff continues to connect with them via routine Zoom calls to check in and offer additional support where needed.

“It is very exciting to see that girls who came to Gumat Chen after dropping out of school initially, are now working hard to advance their careers by working toward higher education,” Ben Porat said.

Amid this challenging yet inspiring work, Gumat Chen then faced an unprecedented hurdle — that of the Oct. 7 massacre. Displaced due to the ongoing war, the organization has been navigating a new reality for themselves and their girls for the past five months.

Youth make up 30% of the evacuated Israelis, according to ELEM, a leading national nonprofit organization dedicated to treating and transforming the lives of troubled youth.
After relocating the boarding school to safety, 50 kilometers away in central Israel, Gumat Chen grappled with issues regarding the emotional well-being of its girls.

Sharing a campus with the Givat Washington Academic College of Education, the Gumat Chen professionals noticed a disturbing trend as the girls stopped eating and complained of increased depression.

According to ELEM, eating disorders have been observed in 10% of evacuated teens and 46% have reported feeling anxiety and depression.

Gumat Chen’s counselors and staff grew worried and didn’t have the tools available to solve this additional layer of obstacles.

The Jewish Federation provided emergency funding to Gumat Chen for innovative food trucks to encourage their boarding school girls to eat and find a sense of normalcy amid war. Courtesy of Gumat Chen

That’s when Ben Porat picked up the phone and called the Jewish Federation’s team in Israel. In response, the Jewish Federation immediately provided them with additional funding of $34,500 from its Philly Stands with Israel emergency fund.

“Unlike other funding organizations, the Jewish Federation helped us find a solution to our critical problem, and I never imagined that there would be such a personalized response to what we were dealing with,” Ben Porat said. “It’s been life-changing, and I have learned so much from the Jewish Federation.”

The solution identified was something out of the box — kitchen food trucks.
Deployed in partnership with the Jewish Federation, Gumat Chen and The Negev Food Lab — an innovative think tank based on Philadelphia’s Drexel Food Lab program, in the Negev region that works to improve dining experiences and reduce food waste within the community — these food trucks were implemented to rekindle the girls’ appetites and reinstate communal mealtimes for them to enjoy together.

“We are not just about giving money. As long-standing partners and funders of Gumat Chen, we know its impact, and we see the change it creates in the lives of girls who have experienced unimaginable upbringings and setbacks,” said the Jewish Federation’s Director Israel and Global Operations Tali Lidar, who is based in Israel. “When the war broke out, we knew that organizations, like Gumat Chen, would face unique challenges during the war and, therefore, would need unique solutions — resources that can only be found through mutual respect and understanding.”

Stationed at Gumat Chen’s temporary home, these state-of-the-art trucks are stocked with nutritious food that the girls can use to create meals. This provides a small sense of agency and reclamation of the control that they had lost in their lives before and after Oct. 7.
“Now I see our girls smile, laugh and enjoy eating again,” said Ben Porat, explaining that some of the meals are provided in advance for the girls. “They are now making time to sit together in the dining room, and they start talking to each other, sharing experiences and stories.”

When Gumat Chen returns to Kibbutz Sa’ad, there are aspirations to expand the organization’s reach and deepen its impact. Plans include establishing a new school and continuing initiatives to promote holistic well-being and empowerment among girls and young women. Ben Porat also wants the food truck initiative to be a model for organizations nationwide: “It’s surreal to be in this terrible war, yet we can still open our minds to new dreams.”

One Jewish Law School’s Unusually Flexible Study Program: Classes on Sundays Only

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Shira Schneeweiss started Touro’s FlexTime JD program just a week after getting married and while working full-time as a paralegal. (Dmitry Kalinin / Touro via JTA.org)

Zev Stub

Shira Schneeweiss was working as a paralegal when she decided she needed more from her career.

During Covid, Schneeweiss had moved from Canada to New York and found a paralegal job at a law firm on Long Island. She hadn’t planned on going into law but found that she enjoyed her work and decided to study for the LSAT to pursue a law degree. The problem was she couldn’t  afford to give up her job and take off three years to go to law school full time.

“I knew I wouldn’t be able to take off work and study full-time, but it was important to me to boost my career and work as an attorney,” Schneeweiss said. “Then I heard about Touro’s FlexTime program.”

The hybrid FlexTime JD program offered at Touro Law Center is a unique course of study that allows students to complete their courses on a flexible schedule without full-time classes.

The four-year program requires in-person class attendance just once a week, on Sundays. Students can complete the rest of their coursework — about 20 hours weekly — on their own time, asynchronously. After four years, students are qualified to sit for the bar exam. FlexTime JD is the only accredited law degree program of its kind with approval from the American Bar Association (ABA) and the New York State Education Department.

As with many programs at Touro, the program was designed with the needs of observant Jews in mind, and over 95% of students receive scholarships or some other form of financial support.

“Our program is designed to deal with the challenges that would prevent someone from going to a full-time program,” said Elena Langan, dean and professor of law at Touro Law Center. “It’s the only program of its kind in the country with classes on Sunday only, so it’s extremely flexible and very friendly towards the religious community.”

Touro University was founded in 1970 to offer college degrees to observant Jews seeking a place to study without having to compromise their religious principles. Today the university serves over 19,000 students across 35 schools in four countries, offering degrees in diverse fields ranging from liberal arts and Jewish studies to health sciences, technology, and business.

Touro University has offered a law degree since 1980, when it opened its Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center on Long Island, and Touro launched its FlexTime JD program in 2018 at its Central Islip campus in Suffolk County. Next year will be the first that the FlexTime program will be available in Manhattan, at Touro’s new Cross River Campus located at 3 Times Square.

From left: Joshua Bemshimon and Emanuel Yunayev are third-year students in the FlexTime JD program at Touro’s campus in Central Islip, New York. (Dmitry Kalinin / Touro via JTA.org)

“With the increasing popularity of the program, we started pushing to open another branch at Touro’s new Times Square location,” Langan said. “We’re now recruiting students for fall 2024, and there is already a strong response from both religious and secular applicants.”

The centrally located Manhattan campus offers glatt kosher food, does not hold any classes on Shabbat or Jewish holidays, and offers other accommodations for students’ religious needs. It’s also located in the center of the world’s most sophisticated legal market, enabling the law school to tap some of New York’s top lawyers as adjunct faculty and offer students opportunities for internships and pro bono assignments at some of the world’s best law firms. The law school’s board of advisors, comprised of legal practitioners from the public and private sectors, offers as mentors to students.

Touro Law is also home to the Jewish Law Institute, a center for the study and teaching of Jewish law that explores connections between Jewish legal traditions and American legal scholarship.

In the FlexTime JD Program, students must be in attendance on Sundays during the semester. It’s the lowest in-person class attendance requirement of any JD program in New York, according to Touro.

“There are programs out there that are two days — Saturday and Sunday — but those don’t work for the religious community,” Langan noted. “There are other programs that are completely online, but if you do those, you can’t sit for the New York Bar without applying for and receiving a waiver from the New York Court of Appeals. This is a program created for the religious community that meets all of the requirements to sit for the bar in New York and other states.”

The convenience makes it a good option for people in non-law careers to add to their skills, and attracts not just observant Jewish students but students of all kinds.

Abe Kopolovich, a 43-year-old physical therapist with 20 years of experience in a private practice in Brooklyn, decided to earn a law degree after obtaining two previous degrees at Touro.

“I always had a keen interest in the law, and my experience in healthcare affords me an advantage in seeing legal challenges in healthcare from a different angle,” Kopolovich said. “I am very excited about integrating the two areas of study and helping patients and clients in the future.”

Kopolovich’s son also went to Touro, to pursue an undergraduate degree in physical therapy.

As for his experience in the JD program, Kopolovich said, “The professors are great, the program is very flexible, and the deans are very good at taking care of any issues that come up.”

Touro Law offers internships with leading law firms, courts, and nonprofit organizations in and around New York City. The program includes practical guidance and lectures and presentations by leaders in their fields. Graduates of the FlexTime program can earn their degrees in four years, or three-and-a-half years if they attend summer classes.

Touro University opened its new flagship Cross River Campus at Times Square in midtown Manhattan in April 2023. (Dmitry Kalinin / Touro via JTA.org)

Now in her second semester, Schneeweiss says the FlexTime program fits her lifestyle. She spends all day Sunday in class, from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM, and does the rest of her work asynchronously, watching online lectures and doing the readings and assignments on her own schedule.

“I started just a week after I got married, so I fell behind in the beginning,” Schneeweiss acknowledged. “But everyone has very busy lives outside of school.”

Among her classmates are students with demanding full-time careers, including doctors and a police officer, as well as mothers looking to enhance their careers. About 160 students are currently enrolled in the four-year program at Central Islip. Only a few are observant Jews. The Manhattan-based program starting next year expects to draw from the city’s observant Jewish community.

Touro accepts students with Bachelor of Talmudic Law (BTL) degrees, and works to accommodate men studying in kollel or yeshiva programs as well as women who have left the workforce to raise families.

Ultimately, Touro Law’s FlexTime JD program aims to accommodate the demands of students from all backgrounds, according to Langan.

“It’s a great program for anyone with a busy schedule to enhance your career,” Langan said. “We see a lot of individuals using the degree to move up in their current company or change positions. We also have students who already run businesses or work in banking, where knowledge of issues related to compliance and regulations can be very valuable.”

One other bonus, according to Langan: Students at Touro do not need to apply for scholarships. When they apply for admission at Touro, they’re automatically considered for scholarships, and students with exceptional academic performance can receive additional financial aid.

To learn more about Touro’s FlexTime JD Program, visit www.tourolaw.edu/flexjd.

Weitzman Might Become a Smithsonian Institution

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The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History (Barry Halkin/Halkin Photography)

The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History may become a Smithsonian institution.

But what does that mean?

Consider the name: Smithsonian. What do you think of it?

U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, whose district includes Northeast Philadelphia, portions of North Philadelphia and portions of Center City, may have explained it best. It’s common for people to visit Philadelphia for its historical sites such as the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.

Maybe the Weitzman becomes part of that trip as well.

“There’s far more we can do in teaching people about the longstanding history of Jewish Americans and how that has played an integral role in our nation’s history,” Boyle said.

A March 20 email from the Weitzman revealed the news: “A bipartisan, bicameral coalition in the U.S. Congress is championing an effort to establish a Smithsonian museum dedicated to exploring and interpreting the American Jewish experience,” it said. The coalition introduced the “Commission to Study the Potential Transfer of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History to the Smithsonian Institution Act.”

The commission will consist of “nine individuals with relevant expertise to study the feasibility of transferring the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia to the Smithsonian Institution.” Pennsylvania’s senior U.S. senator, Bob Casey, “led” the effort in the Senate. Boyle is part of the House effort led by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-25).

Museum officials are thrilled.

“We aspire to be national. The Smithsonian accelerates that process for us in a significant way,” said Phil Darivoff, the Weitzman’s chair emeritus. “The 4 million people who come to visit Independence Mall will now look at this not just as a Jewish museum but as their museum.”

The Smithsonian is “the world’s largest museum and research complex,” according to the email. The organization’s holdings include 21 museums. Among them are the Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of the American Indian.

Several “explore and educate about America’s minority communities,” the email said. “The American Jewish community merits a Smithsonian museum,” it added.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle seem to agree.

This effort started about a year ago, according to Boyle. It was inspired by rising antisemitism, per Casey. And that was before Oct. 7.

“We knew antisemitism was a terrible problem before Oct. 7. It was growing exponentially, and then it just increased substantially since then,” Casey said. “We’ve never had a period like this in our history.”

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (Courtesy of U.S. Sen. Bob Casey)

The senator believes that the Weitzman can play a small role in combating antisemitism by telling the Jewish story in America. A visit to the museum makes it clear that the Jewish story is also the American story: Immigrant group arrives, faces a struggle, perseveres and ultimately succeeds. And in succeeding, it contributes to the development of the country.

“You could learn a great deal from the Weitzman without solely focusing on Jewish history,” Casey said.

The Philadelphia museum was also the obvious choice.

“I favor the hometown museum,” Casey said. “But I can’t think of a museum that’s more deserving.”

Darivoff believes there’s “an epidemic of ignorance about the Jewish people,” he said. But Judaism is in many ways connected to Americanism, he explained.

The Declaration of Independence included language from the Hebrew bible. The Jewish approach to law influenced the development of the American legal system. Jews also got here as early as the 17th century.

“It is so basic to American political thought and American values. And I don’t think many children and grandchildren know enough about the connection between their culture and the founding of this country,” Darivoff said.

The Smithsonian name will enhance more than just the Weitzman’s brand, according to Darivoff. The Smithsonian organization has “an extraordinary collection of Judaica,” Darivoff said.

It also “opens doors for us and for donors,” he added. “And I’m not even talking about financial donors. People who hold precious objects who might be incentivized to donate to the Weitzman museum.”

The Weitzman, then the National Museum of American Jewish History, declared bankruptcy during the pandemic before being rescued by an eight-figure gift from shoe designer Stuart Weitzman. Its CEO, Misha Galperin, is stepping down this year.

Darivoff is also the chair of the Committee on Government Affairs at the museum. He said the next step is calling 535 lawmakers to get them on board.

“We need to get started,” he said.

[email protected]

WIP Host Glen Macnow Discusses Philadelphia Journey

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Glen Macnow (Courtesy of WIP)

Longtime WIP sports radio host Glen Macnow is not from Philadelphia. He grew up in Buffalo, went to college in Boston and then went on the early career newspaperman’s journey from Cocoa Beach, Florida, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Detroit.

But in 1986, he got a job covering sports business for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

He has since left the Inquirer, but he hasn’t left the city. And he probably never will.

Macnow, who lives in Havertown, joined WIP in 1993, just as sports talk radio was becoming a prominent format. In his 31 years, he has developed a reputation as a thoughtful, rational voice in what can be a hot medium.

He had a multidecade partnership with Ray Didinger, the hall of fame football writer. Macnow has also hosted middays during the week and the Eagles pregame show. He is also known for his food hunts, books about Philadelphia sports and craft beer program (he’s a partner in Conshohocken Brewing Co.).

Another interest is acting. Macnow, who is Jewish, is playing Mr. van Daan in “The Diary of Anne Frank” at The Players Club of Swarthmore. The show will run from April 19-May 4. Macnow calls acting in the play “a tiny but positive step in addressing antisemitism.”

The Holocaust “is going further and further back in the rearview mirror,” he said in a previous Exponent story. It also “must not be compared to anything going on in the world today…People toss the word genocide out lightly these days.”

Macnow’s Jewish identity is important to him. While he’s not religious, he had his sons go through the bar mitzvah process at Congregation Beth Am Israel in Penn Valley. Macnow had a bar mitzvah, as did his father.

“It goes back, who knows, 40 or 50 generations,” he said. “I was not going to be the one to stop that tradition.”

Macnow never planned to come to the area. But while working in Detroit, he covered a trial in Pittsburgh for a Pirates clubhouse attendant who was giving players drugs. On the first day of the trial, Macnow sat next to Lucinda Fleeson, a reporter at the Inquirer.

They got to talking and went to lunch during a break. When Fleeson got back to Philadelphia, she told her editors that Macnow would be a great writer for their new beat: the business of sports. “It was just who I sat next to on the first day of the trial,” Macnow said.

Once he got to Philadelphia, Macnow loved the city’s “East Coast attitude,” he said. He also loved that it was a “big city that behaved like a small town.” He even appreciated that “the people were more friendly than they got credit for.”

Macnow’s job at WIP gave him the opportunity to talk daily to Philadelphians from all over the region. It was a more personal medium than newspapers.

“People are inviting you to share time with them in their car or in their house,” he said. “Part of the job is not just to tell the story of what the Eagles are doing or who the Phillies have signed, but to really share their lives.”

Macnow also shared his own. He told listeners about an issue with the caterer for his son’s bar mitzvah. Years later, listeners would bring up stories of “my son on the wrestling team or my child’s marriage or things I’ve gone through,” Macnow said.

“You become people’s friends even if you don’t know them personally,” he added.

Glen Macnow with his longtime radio partner Ray Didinger (Courtesy of Glen Macnow)

He also got to talk to them about sports.

“Philadelphia is an amazing city with world-class hospitals and great universities and astounding cultural institutions,” he said. “But nobody goes down Sunday morning at 10 o’clock to tailgate at the University of Pennsylvania.”

Macnow called sports talk radio “a crazy idea” when he started in 1993. He told his wife he would try to make it through five years. He’s still hosting his weekend show with Inquirer columnist Mike Sielski and Jody McDonald (Didinger has partially retired).

“I love just being part of it,” he said. “I consider myself lucky to have fallen into this chance.”

Macnow on Sports

Exponent: Do the Phillies have a weakness going into 2024?

“I’m not sold on the bullpen. They don’t have a set closer, which makes me nervous.”

Have the Eagles done enough to improve their defense this offseason? What kind of an impact do you see Saquon Barkley having on the offense?

“Not even close. Presumably, they’ll address a lot of this in the draft. I’m hoping that their first three picks are on the defensive side.”

“If he stays healthy, he could rush for 1,200 yards and catch 70 passes and give them an element they haven’t had since LeSean McCoy.”

What is your interest level in the Sixers these days?

“The interest is there. The optimism is low. I don’t anticipate Joel Embiid coming back.”

The Flyers might make the playoffs. They are more relevant than they have been in years. Is it a new era of orange?

“It is. I don’t think they’re going to get past the first round. But the one thing they have this year that they haven’t had in a long time is strong leadership at the top in Keith Jones and Danny Briere.

They’re on the way up.”

[email protected]

Growing Number of Jews Using NY’s First Reform Chevra Kadisha Burial Society

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Sharon Shemesh, a member of New York’s Reform Chevra Kadisha burial society, prepares for a tahara to ritually cleanse the deceased’s body at Plaza Jewish Community Chapel. (Plaza Jewish Community Chapel) via JTA.org)

Fran Kritz

When members of the year-old Reform Communal Chevra Kadisha of New York complete their work preparing a Jewish body for burial, they take a few minutes to stand together around the closed coffin.

Traditionally, this is a moment when the members of a chevra kadisha ask for forgiveness from the person who has died for any inadvertent disrespect during pre-burial rituals, including washing the body (known as tahara) and dressing it in shrouds.

But the Reform chevra also adds its own ritual, created by Alissa Platcow, a founder of the new group and a fifth-year rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College. Each member says their own Hebrew name and then the Hebrew name of the person who died — “a Kabbalistic tradition that forever ties each of us in that circle to the deceased for the rest of our lives,” Platcow said.

The ritual is fittingly new for a groundbreaking initiative: the first Reform Jewish chevra kadisha in New York.

Chevra kadishas — literally, “holy societies” — are groups of community volunteers that prepare Jewish bodies for burial. There are not many such groups outside Orthodox and traditional communities.

But some years ago rabbis at two prominent Reform congregations in New York began talking about creating one for their communities, and the initiative came together in a unique partnership led by Plaza Jewish Community Chapel, the nonprofit funeral chapel in Manhattan, along with Manhattan’s Temple Shaaray Tefila, Brooklyn’s Congregation Beth Elohim, and seminarians at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute for Religion.

The idea was to give Reform Jews an opportunity to participate in and shape this sacred Jewish practice, and to generate more discussion of end-of-life issues.

“Creating community and supporting community is at the heart of everything we do,” said Stephanie Garry, executive vice president of communal partnerships at Plaza Jewish Community Chapel, where the Reform burial society performs its rituals.

There are several reasons why having a Reform chevra kadisha that serves the entire progressive community is important, she said.

“The Reform community embraces its diversity, and honors it in a growing number of practices,” Garry said. “Our chevra kadisha is bringing sacred end-of-life awareness and ritual to Reform Jews, while mirroring and serving the full spectrum of the Reform community — including, for example, its trans members. It’s equally important to view the chevra kadisha as a new catalyst for critically needed end-of-life conversations in our personal and communal spaces.”

Rabbi Joel Mosbacher of Shaaray Tefila and Rabbi Rachel Timoner of Beth Elohim discussed the initiative extensively with their congregations, and several members joined the society launched in February 2023, including the rabbis themselves. Members of the society studied customs surrounding tahara with an eye toward creating some of their own.

For example, in the Reform society the entire team working on a body usually recites the liturgy used during a tahara, rather than the more common practice of a single person reciting the prayers. Platcow is also developing rituals to substitute for tahara customs in the event the chevra is asked to prepare a person for burial who is not Jewish.

To be inclusive of all gender identities, Platcow worked with a linguist to create a Hebrew word to be used to refer to a non-binary person who has died: “may-teh,” rather than “met” for a man or “metah” for a woman.

Sarit Wishnevski, executive director of Kavod v’Nichum, an organization that educates, and trains chevra kadishas, says it’s important for liberal Jewish movements to have their own burial societies.

Chevra kadishas — literally, “holy societies” — are groups of community volunteers that prepare Jewish bodies for burial. Sharon Shemesh is a member of New York’s first Reform chevra kadisha. (Plaza Jewish Community Chapel via JTA.org)

“We don’t outsource other Jewish rituals, so caring for loved ones and neighbors in their final moment should be an integral part of our communities,” Wishnevski said, noting that Jewish burial rites are centuries-old but based on custom rather than strict Jewish law.

Mosbacher said the new chevra gives members of his community an opportunity to honor their community’s deceased themselves rather than relying on others.

“There were occasions before when members of my congregation asked about a tahara for someone who died, and the Orthodox community always served our members and I’m extremely grateful for that,” Mosbacher said. “But it’s also something that we as a progressive community should be able to provide. Having a chevra kadisha made up of Reform and progressive members signals to everyone that this is a chevra that is going to accept you no matter who you are. Everyone’s included.”

Mosbacher, Timoner and Platcow recently discussed the groundbreaking Reform chevra kadisha with Garry on an episode of “Exit Strategy,” the podcast by Plaza Jewish Community Chapel, hosted by Garry, that aims to elevate, normalize and demystify end-of-life issues from religious, cultural and social perspectives. [Listen now]

When a family member reaches out to request handling of the deceased by the Reform chevra kadisha, a group of four to seven people drawn from the 100 or so members of the chevra gather at Plaza’s chapel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side to do the tahara. The society’s members come from the two anchor synagogues as well as from among students at HUC and at the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

In its first year the chevra prepared about a dozen bodies for burial, and the number has been climbing significantly. Timoner has done two of them — one for an older woman from her own congregation.

“It was just incredibly profound,” Timoner said. “Here was this woman who had given so much of herself to the community, and by participating in the tahara I felt that I was honoring her.”

While tahara wasn’t generally talked about or requested often in her community before the Reform chevra was formed, both Timoner and Mosbacher educated community members about it in the lead-up to the chevra’s creation. The discussions helped spark growing interest in Jewish ritual burial and other end-of-life issues. Amplifying the importance of end-of-life conversations is part of Plaza Jewish Community Chapel’s nonprofit mission.

Some of the interest in the Reform chevra probably was the result of the many deaths that occurred in the city during the COVID-19 pandemic and “a sense of wanting to meaningfully engage with community,” Timoner said — and part of growing interest among many progressive Jews in engaging in Jewish ritual.

Jewish tradition offers guidelines on everything from how to accompany a body from time of death until burial to what mourners shouldn’t eat during the interim period before a deceased is interred (no meat or wine).

“At the end of life, Jews provide not just a framework but a compass,” Garry said.

In the Jewish vernacular, caring for the dead is called chesed shel emet (“true kindness”) because bestowing honor upon the dead is a favor that cannot be returned by the beneficiary.

Mosbacher says that’s one of the most powerful spiritual elements of serving on the chevra kadisha.

“We feel so privileged to participate in bringing dignity to the deceased and comfort to the surviving family,” Mosbacher said. “I know it will continue to grow and expand in its meaning within our communities and hopefully also open up for people important conversations about death and the way that Jewish rituals can support families and loved ones all the way through.”

This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with Plaza Jewish Community Chapela nonprofit organization whose mission is to ensure that every member of the Jewish Community receives a dignified and respectful Jewish funeral. This article was produced by JTA’s native content team.

Drexel Student Advocates for National Reporting System for Antisemitic Incidents

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Gisele Kahlon speaks about campus antisemitism in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy of Olami)

A group of Jewish university students went to Washington, D.C., on March 19 to join U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) in calling for the Office of Civil Rights to implement a national reporting system for antisemitic incidents.

It was a response “to the failure of universities to protect Jewish students or respond appropriately to reports of harassment and violence on campus,” according to an email from a public relations firm.

A Jewish student from Drexel University, Gisele Kahlon, joined Mace and spoke alongside the Republican congresswoman at a press conference. Kahlon’s fellow Jewish students stood behind her.

“To feel safe is not a privilege,” she said into a microphone. “But rather, it is a right. It is our right as American Jews.”

Kahlon went to D.C. as part of the advocacy organization Olami’s #zerotolerance campaign for antisemitism. The group, which is now active on more than 100 U.S. campuses, including Drexel, “seeks a culture shift on campuses to zero tolerance for antisemitism,” according to a news release. Kahlon connected with Olami at Drexel and joined Mace as part of a 25-student delegation.

The Drexel junior has been active with Drexel’s Chabad house and brought a Students Supporting Israel chapter to the school in 2021. The 22-year-old grew up in Northeast Philadelphia, attended the Sephardi Orthodox Beit Harambam Congregation and graduated from the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in 2020.

After Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Kahlon stood up for the Jewish state in a group chat with other residential advisers on campus. She was “met with backlash,” according to the news release.

“Since then, I’ve been seen as one thing and one thing only in their eyes: a Jew,” she said in her speech. “I am not safe on campus.”

Kahlon was not the only victim at Drexel. She said she also knew a girl who was openly Jewish who had her dormitory door burned. She also has a friend who was walking home from Shabbat dinner wearing a kippah when he was hit in the face. The assailant shouted, “F the Jews,” according to Kahlon.

“All the instances that occurred created an environment on campus where antisemitism became the new norm,” Kahlon said. “It became something that was tolerated.”

Jewish students took to Washington, D.C., to advocate for a national reporting system for antisemitic incidents. (Courtesy of Olami)

From Oct. 7 to early February, the number of antisemitic incidents on U.S. campuses increased by 700% compared to the same period a year ago, according to Adam Lehman, the president and CEO of Hillel International. Drexel is one of several Philadelphia-area schools to face a federal investigation from the Department of Education into alleged antisemitism.

“By having this reporting system, it would have created a supportive environment where me and my friends don’t have to worry about feeling safe when we decide to wear our Magen David,” Kahlon said. “It would hold people accountable. It would hold universities accountable.”

Kahlon was told in her group chat that if she wanted to be politically correct, she shouldn’t call Hamas terrorists.

“I felt unsafe at first. It’s a resident advisers’ group chat. Everyone knows what building I’m in,” she said. “I work with another RA who won’t speak to me since then. I lock the door every night I get home.”

“At some point, I think I took that fear and said, ‘I’m a Jew.’ For sure there are times when I tuck in my Magen David,” she continued. “But for the most part, I think it’s fueled me to show how proud I am and to continue advocating.”

“If I don’t, who will?” she asked. “I’m one of two openly Jewish RAs out of like hundreds.”

At the beginning of the spring semester, Rabbi David Markowitz of Olami visited Drexel. He told Kahlon he needed 10 student leaders to start a zero-tolerance campaign on campus. Kahlon agreed to become one.

Now, she wants to follow up with other representatives and senators to see what the next steps might be for establishing a national reporting system. She also wants to continue planning Olami events on campus that will “engage the Drexel community about Judaism in a positive light,” she said.

The junior mentioned a possible event for Israeli Independence Day in May.

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Israeli University Launching Unique Mental Health Trauma Center Spurred by Distinct Nature of Oct. 7

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Some of Israel’s foremost trauma experts at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University are designing new clinical approaches and training therapists to deal with the unprecedented traumas of Oct. 7 and its aftermath. (Yoram Aschheim via JTA.org)

Elana Sztokman

How do you deal with the trauma of the deadliest day Jews have experienced since the Holocaust?

This was the question Israeli trauma experts faced in the wake of Oct. 7, 2023, when over 1,200 Israelis were killed and some 250 taken captive in Hamas’s attack on Israel.

The massive attack by terrorists immediately was followed by additional traumas: The displacement of tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes in the conflict zones. The subsequent war, which has left hundreds more soldiers dead and thousands wounded. Emotional scarring on a national scale.

At the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, some of Israel’s foremost trauma experts set to work to design new clinical approaches and train therapists to deal with these traumas.

“These experiences are beyond anything we have seen,” said Professor Asher Ben-Arieh, dean of the university’s Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare and CEO of the Haruv Institute for the Study of Child Maltreatment, noting that some children were taken hostage and witnessed their parents’ murder or kidnapping. “The tools we have used until now are not sufficient. We need new solutions and new ideas for how to treat these traumas.”

Ben-Arieh estimates that 25% to 50% of those who experienced trauma were likely to develop problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, complex grief, or difficulties in marital, social, or occupational adjustments.

To meet these new needs, Hebrew University’s Israel Center for Addiction and Mental Health set about to launch the Institute for Traumatic Stress and Recovery to create a multidisciplinary, academic-clinical hub to address trauma-related research, training, prevention, treatment, and resilience promotion.

The Institute for Traumatic Stress and Recovery aims to give therapists and trauma survivors evidence-based practices and technologies, accessible via Israel’s public health system, to enhance the healing and recovery of Israelis grappling with the enormity of these traumas. The institute will conduct research, train therapists in new evidence-based practices, and provide patient-centered, comprehensive, coordinated care.

“This proactive approach will not only enhance the capacity for timely and effective trauma intervention, but also contribute to a more informed and resilient community as a whole,” said Hebrew University psychology professor Jonathan Huppert, who is involved in the project.

“Trauma manifests in many ways and can be different for different people,” Huppert said. “Not everyone has PTSD. Some have stress, grief, coping, the effects of being evacuated. Since Oct. 7 people are more stressed in general. They may experience more negative thinking, trouble sleeping, more physical aches and pains, muscle tension. Things may set them off more easily.”

Many experts in the field say it long has been clear that Israel needs to improve its overall approach to mental health. There has been insufficient training of mental health professionals using evidence-based best practices treating trauma, a lack of integration between research and practice, and a lack of awareness among the public at large about the impacts of collective traumatic stress.

The events of Oct. 7 drew attention to those problems while adding the urgent need for new approaches to trauma specific to this historical event.

The new institute, which will offer a rare combination of research with clinical practice, training, and advocacy, has raised 25% of its budget so far and is actively seeking support for the remainder.

“We need enough money to have a stable center to think out of the box,” Ben-Arieh said. “And we need it urgently. We’re not even post trauma. We are not past this. It’s still happening.”

After the shock of the initial Hamas attack, Ben-Arieh and his colleague Ofrit Shapira Berman, a Hebrew University professor who specializes in treating adult survivors of complex childhood trauma, joined an October 7 National Task Force to care for children who were abducted.

Working with Israel’s Ministry of Social Services and other governmental bodies, the task force trained the security services who first greeted the abducted children upon their release in late November 2023 to ensure the children would not be retraumatized in the process of their release. They also worked with their parents.

Ben-Arieh and his colleagues understood early on there were no existing protocols on how to treat child hostages and that they were entering uncharted territory. The task force prepared by watching documentaries about the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria and spoke with soldiers who had been held in captivity. Ben-Arieh acknowledges that even this was insufficient, and the team is constantly adjusting and updating procedures as they continue to work with the children. While hoping that this sort of devastating event is never repeated, the task force is establishing pioneering procedures and research that could be used in the future around the world.

The task force identified six groups of children at high risk since Oct. 7: child hostages; those who witnessed severe violence and murders; newly orphaned children; children who lost a parent, sibling, or other relatives; children whose friends or peers were killed or kidnapped; and children displaced from their homes.

“There is a deep issue of betrayal in childhood trauma,” said Ben-Arieh. “In these cases, these events often happened in places that their parents said were the safest in the world. Parents could not save their children. Or they had to choose. We have new forms of trauma that we don’t understand.”

He added, “We need to change the field.”

Jewish Organizations Respond to Schumer’s Speech

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Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, walks out of the Senate chamber following a series of votes at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 12. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images via JTA.org)

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer spoke on the Senate floor on March 14, criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and calling for new elections in Israel.

A CNN headline said the speech from the New York Democrat and Senate majority leader (the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the United States) “sent shockwaves from Washington to Jerusalem.”

Netanyahu responded by saying through his Likud Party that “Israel is not a banana republic.” He remains committed to Israel’s invasion of Gaza and a potential mission in Rafah, where many Gazans are congregating. The prime minister has called the mission essential because it targets Hamas, which is using those civilians as human shields.

Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “The Democratic Party doesn’t have an anti-Bibi problem. It has an anti-Israel problem.”

President Joe Biden called it “a good speech.”

Here’s what some local Jewish organizations running the gamut along the Jewish political spectrum had to say.

Democratic Jewish Outreach Pennsylvania

Democratic Jewish Outreach Pennsylvania is a Jewish political advocacy organization that supports federal and state candidates, according to DJOP.org. Jill Zipin, its founder and chair, and Burt Siegel, also a founder, agreed with Schumer’s speech.

“Senator Schumer is not calling for coup d’etat,” Zipin said. “He is just recognizing that Israel is a democracy, and within that democracy, he’s calling for Israeli people to call for elections because one piece of the stalemate in the region is Israeli leadership.”

Siegel said he has friends in Israel and relatives “who have left.”

“They’re fearful Israel is becoming isolated,” he added.

“When polling is done of the vast majority of American Jews, they dislike Bibi,” Zipin added. “When you look at polling of Israeli Jews, they likewise dislike Bibi.”

Zipin said that Schumer was not “singling out” Israel. He also criticized Hamas and called for new leadership in the Palestinian Authority.

“Israel cannot afford to lose the support of western democracies,” Siegel said.

“Chuck Schumer loves Israel. He wants to make sure the American-Israeli relationship remains strong,” Zipin added.

Siegel thinks new elections in Israel are possible.

“If we find that some of the hostages are dead or they talk about how they’ve been treated, I think the people of Israel will be so infuriated with the government that they’ll call for new elections,” he said.

Zipin added that Schumer “understands for Israel to survive going forward, there needs to be a two-state solution. Bibi Netanyahu opposes a two-state solution.”

American Jewish Committee

American Jewish Committee is a national advocacy group that focuses on civil rights and pro-Israel causes, according to ajc.org. Marcia Bronstein serves as the regional director of AJC’s Philadelphia/Southern New Jersey office.

She had the following to say about Schumer’s speech:

“Leader Schumer has long been a passionate, unwavering friend of Israel, and that continues to be true today. We don’t agree with any U.S. leader calling for elections in any sovereign country, and we made that objection known, but that does not take away from the underlying reality that the leader is deeply committed to Israel — as is the majority of Congress.”

Zionist Organization of America

Founded in 1897, the Zionist Organization of America is “the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States,” according to zoa.org. Mort Klein, a resident of the Main Line, is the organization’s national president.

“We found it appalling that the majority leader of the Senate, during a war, would be urging new elections and removing the prime minister of Israel,” Klein said. “Especially when the vast majority of Jews, of Israeli Jews, support Netanyahu’s policies in Gaza and support Netanyahu’s rejecting a Palestinian state.”

Netanyahu’s coalition holds 64 of 120 seats in the Israeli Knesset. The ZOA president said Schumer wanted to align himself with the anti-Israel element in the Democratic Party.

“I think he sees that much of the base is now extremely hostile to Israel,” Klein said.

He also said Schumer may be concerned that “AOC (Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York) may be running against him.” Ocasio-Cortez is well-known for her criticisms of Israel.
Israel has offered a Palestinian state several times in the past. None of the offers were accepted.

“It’ll become an Iran-run terrorist state on top of Israel’s border along 70% of Israel’s population,” Klein said. “Israel gave a small state to the Arabs in Gaza. They got 30,000 rockets before 10-7, and they got 10-7.”

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Rutgers Joins Growing List of Schools Under GOP House Investigation for Antisemitism

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Andrew Lapin

A Republican-led House committee has launched its latest in a series of investigations into campus antisemitism, this time focusing on Rutgers University.

The House Education and Workforce Committee, chaired by North Carolina GOP Rep. Virginia Foxx, issued a long list of document requests to the New Jersey state school’s leadership Wednesday. Rutgers, whose flagship campus is in New Brunswick, has one of the largest populations of Jewish students of any public school in the country, according to Hillel International.

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, Foxx has previously launched investigations into schools including Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — the schools at the center of a December hearing on antisemitism put on by the committee that led to the resignation of two of the schools’ presidents. The committee has also investigated the University of California, Berkeley, following high-profile allegations of antisemitism. The committee has taken the additional step of subpoenaing Harvard for related documents, saying the university was not cooperating with its request.

“Rutgers stands out for the intensity and pervasiveness of antisemitism on its campuses,” Foxx wrote in her letter to the school’s leadership. “Rutgers senior administrators, faculty, staff, academic departments and centers, and student organizations have contributed to the development of a pervasive climate of antisemitism.”

“Rutgers takes claims of antisemitism, and all forms of bias and intolerance, very seriously,” a university spokesperson said in a statement about the documents request. The university is also the subject of a Department of Education Title VI discrimination investigation into allegations involving antisemitism near the beginning of the war.

Of particular interest to the committee is Rutgers’ center for Muslim and South Asian studies, called the Center for Security, Race and Rights. The center, Foxx claimed, “has become notorious as a hotbed of radical antisemitic, anti-American, anti-Israel, and pro-terrorist activity,” citing examples of faculty statements and activities, many of which predated Oct. 7.

The center frequently distributes pro-Palestinian talking points. On Wednesday it promoted a lecture defending the phrase “From the river to the sea,” a frequent pro-Palestinian chant that proponents say is a call for Palestinian freedom but that Jewish groups depict as an antisemitic call for the destruction of Israel.

The committee also demonstrated an interest in investigating the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion office’s approach to Jewish-themed issues, and the school’s handling of its Students for Justice in Palestine chapter. Rutgers officials suspended the school’s SJP chapter last semester.