The Charlotte Jewish News October 2022

e Charlotte NEWS JEWISH

FCJC Awards the Inaugural Donald H. Bernstein Distinguished Service Award to

As part of its 25th anniversary celebration, the Foundation for the Charlotte Jewish Community (FCJC) has established the Donald H. Bernstein Distinguished Service Award to honor its first board chair, Don Bernstein, and has named Michael Marsicano, president and CEO of Foundation For The Carolinas (FFTC), as its first recipient. The award was announced at FCJC’s Community Legacy Celebration and Annual Meeting held on August 28, attended by community legacy donors, FCJC fund holders, and organizational leaders.

In establishing the award, FCJC recognized both Bernstein and Marsicano for their outstanding leadership and exemplary service to the advancement of FCJC and its role in promoting philanthropy and sustaining the Charlotte Jewish community. The award will be given on occasions to recognize significant and extraordinary contributions to the organization.

Announcing the establishment of the award, and accepting it on Mr. Bernstein’s behalf, was Phil Warshauer, FCJC executive director. “Don was humbled when I told him and Bobbi that the award has been established in his name to honor and thank him,” said Warshauer. “His first response was, ‘Why me?’ My response was, ‘Who else?’ I re-

minded him that he is our founder, our first board chair, and has always been our biggest advocate. It could be said that FCJC was Don’s dream and vision.”

“I am truly honored for the recognition of having my name associated with this award,” said Bernstein. “I am sorry that medical issues prevent me from being with you this evening. I am proud to have participated and witnessed FCJC’s growth and the influence it has had in our community.”

Michael Marsicano, who has served on the FCJC Board for the past 23 years, was recognized for his advocacy and support for FCJC and Charlotte’s Jewish community. “Michael’s contributions and support of FCJC have been boundless, often taking place below the radar,” remarked Warshauer. “Over the years, Michael has served as trusted counsel to me and other FCJC leaders, like Don, along with other donors and professionals who led our Jewish community.” Marsicano, who has served as president and CEO of Foundation For The Carolinas since 1999, will retire from the organization in January.

“It is an honor to me to have Michael named as the first recipient of the Donald H. Bernstein Distinguished Service Award,” said Bernstein. “Our relationship with Michael goes back to his

Michael Marsicano

days leading the Arts & Science Council. FCJC was in its infancy when we came to FFTC. His accomplishments at FFTC speak for themselves, but throughout the years, he has always been a

staunch supporter of FCJC and has assisted us in growing to where we are today. I remember those early board meetings and the advice he offered to a young organization with big dreams. I

look forward to having the opportunity to shake his hand in person to congratulate him on all his accomplishments and his new life in retirement.”

“I am honored and humbled to receive the Donald H. Bernstein Distinguished Service Award from the Foundation for the Charlotte Jewish Community,” said Marsicano. “Don is one of my heroes, and to have my name associated with his legacy is priceless to me. As someone who has worked closely with the FCJC board, Phil, and his whole team throughout my time at FFTC, I know the meaningful and lasting impact they have had on our community. I cannot thank them enough for this honor, which I will cherish.”

Charlotte Jewish Day School (CJDS) was recently awarded a $245,000 Legacy Learning Lab Challenge Grant for “Renovation for Innovation.” This grant will allow CJDS to create a dedicated S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) learning space that meets the needs and challenges of 21st-century education and programming. This design, engineering, and innovation lab will be the cornerstone of the expansion for grades 6, 7 and 8, creating a state-of-the-art programming focus for students. The design and engineering lab will promote collaboration and global competencies in an environment where students can address real-world challenges. Following a student-centered

approach to learning that gives them input on what and how they learn, our students will be empowered to be active participants in their education. In this new space, they will brainstorm, research, design, and build their own solutions to problems, preparing them for future educational and career challenges.

“At CJDS, our focus is on

what is best for the child,” said Mariashi Groner, CJDS head of school. “Student-led learning has shown to engage students and provide the opportunity for important problem-solving skills, relying on communication and collaboration and the process of discovery. We have been work-

From the Editor: May I Help You?

My first job was scooping ice cream at 12 years old at Polar Bear Ashburns for $2 an hour. (That’s a lie. My first job was standing on the corner in the Texas heat in a polar bear costume. I was promoted to ice cream scooping.) That was where Mr. Waters taught me foundational life skills and values that endure to this day.

He taught me to have a strong work ethic. From him I learned the infamous “Time to lean is time to clean,” which any restaurant or retail worker will recognize, and which really means, “You’re here to work. Stay busy and find something to do.” He was teaching me to have a work ethic, but he was also teaching that there is always an opportunity to make things around me better.

He taught me sales. “Ask them if they want two scoops or three,”

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he instructed. The customers would laugh — but they bought two scoops almost every time. He was teaching me the art of upselling, but he was also teaching me to surprise them by anticipating their wants and giving them more than they expected.

He taught me the proper way to greet a customer. Always watch the door for incoming customers, stop what you’re doing, make eye contact, and greet them. He was teaching me customer service, but he was also teaching me how to make people feel seen and welcomed.

It might seem as if he was teaching me a strong work ethic, sales, and how to greet a customer, but what he was in fact teaching me was something far more important — how to be of service. How to be a better human being. I’ve always believed that the world would be a kinder place if everyone worked in customer service at least once in their lifetime.

Over the years, I advanced from ice cream scooper to management in various restaurants and retail establishments, and I always tried to carry with me the lessons Mr. Waters taught. And I learned a few of my own that I hope I have passed on.

One of the most meaningful, however, was the profound opportunity presented by that initial

greeting. When someone walks into an establishment, we say, “How may I help you?” Too often that question is an absent-minded, automatic greeting at best. But I noticed that when I paused first, became present, and asked the question, “How may I help you?,” with (and here’s the important part) a true desire to hear the answer and intention to act upon it, amazing things followed. The simplest of them was that I was taken out of myself, even if only for a few moments. And in those moments, my own problems seemed to evaporate in the warmth of serving someone else. The simplest of interactions could then take on profound meaning.

Years ago when I was working at a women’s clothing store, a woman named Abby came in to shop. I asked with sincerity, “How may I help you,” pausing while I looked into her eyes and genuinely listened for her reply. We would discover together that the answer was much deeper than either of us had initially thought. She was recovering from a dou-

An

ble mastectomy and could not lift her arms to try on clothes without help. Surprising both of us, she allowed me into her dressing room and, with ultimate vulnerability, allowed me to help her slowly undress and slide a new blouse over her head.

When she turned to look at her reflection, she began to cry. She told me that she felt beautiful for the first time since her surgery and that, until that moment, she had not wanted to even look at herself in the mirror.

We sat together for a half-hour in that dressing room not much larger than a photo booth while she told me her story. I’m positive if my question had been a rote phrase uttered out of obligation or habit, she might have found her blouse — but she wouldn’t have gotten what she needed.

As I moved away from positions that had “customer service” in their titles, I took the lessons learned with me. I’ve discovered that any job can be a customer service job and that most interactions are infused with deep -

er meaning when the question “How may I help you” is where I begin, whether spoken aloud or not. I’d like to think that being the managing editor of The Charlotte Jewish News is more than managing deadlines and fixing dangling modifiers. I try to keep in mind my “customers”: the agencies represented within that have important stories to tell, the readers who rely on the paper to deliver relevant information, the advertisers who trust us to help them build their businesses, even my employer and co-workers. With each of these customers I try to ask, “How may I help you?”

Much like my experience with Abby, I have had some surprising answers and developed rewarding relationships as a result of posing this question. And I’d like to think it makes me better at my job as well.

I’ve always said that I wish everyone could work in customer service at least once in their lifetime, and I’ve learned that if we’re asking the right question — we can.

Open Letter to the FBI From Shalom Park Jewish Community Leaders

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has always had a close and enduring relationship with the Shalom Park Jewish community and the Jewish agencies, schools, and synagogues on Shalom Park. You have been a steadfast partner and shared our resolve to combat hatred, bigotry, antisemitism, intolerance and extremism. The FBI has supported the Jewish community through some of our darkest days, including recently the Tree of Life synagogue attack in Pittsburgh and Congregation Beth Israel hostage event in Colleyville. The Charlotte Jewish community has never taken for granted your support of our shared endeavor to protect Shalom Park and the broader Jewish community from all potential threats.

It is because of our profound respect and strong relationship, that the Shalom Park Jewish community is compelled to express our deep support of the FBI as you receive a growing number of threats. These unfounded attacks, either through physical actions or verbal threats, on the integrity of the FBI Special Agents are a grave disservice to the men and women who sacrifice so much to protect others. The attempted attack on the FBI field office of Cincinnati is both terrifying and unacceptable.

These acts of violence and threats against the FBI - and all law enforcementunderscore the real danger behind extremist threats and the people who are fanning flames of discontent. Every day the men and women of the FBI do their jobs professionally with rigor and a fierce commitment to your mission of protecting the American people of all faiths and upholding the Constitution. The Shalom Park Jewish community is proud to stand with you and we condemn all threats and violence against our partners and friends at the FBI.

Sue Worrel To Receive Kipnis-Wilson

Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte CEO Sue Worrel will be honored at this year’s International Lion of Judah Conference (ILOJC) with the Kipnis-Wilson Friedland Award. The prestigious, internationally recognized award distinguishes extraordinary women who have set a high standard for philanthropy and volunteerism in their community. Worrel was selected by her peers in the Charlotte community as a “woman of valor” with a lifetime commitment to the Jewish world.

“I am deeply honored to be presented with the Kipnis-Wilson Friedland Award this year as a representative of all the important work being done in Charlotte to strengthen our Jewish community,” said Worrel. “The Lions of Judah is an incredible sisterhood making a key philanthropic impact on the world, and I am proud to be a part of this vital work in our community.”

The Lions of Judah are the

most dynamic philanthropic Jewish women in the world, setting a high standard of leadership and giving. They play a vital role in creating social justice, aiding vulnerable populations,

preserving human dignity, and building Jewish identity. The Kipnis-Wilson Friedland Award was created as a tribute to Norma Kipnis-Wilson and Toby Friedland, who co-founded the Federation’s Lion of Judah society in 1972. More than 18,000 women around the world are proud Lions of Judah, each donating at least $5,000 to her local Jewish Federation every year. Since its founding, $590 million has been placed into endowment funds to invest in future generations of Lions.

“Sue is a magnificent example of the Lions of Judah mission put into action, and we are thrilled to be able to recognize her strong impact on the Charlotte Jewish community,” said Lisa Strause Levinson, Lion of Judah chair. “The Lions of Judah have risen to every challenge facing our global community for the past 50 years and plan to continue doing so for the next 50 years as

JFGC Introduces New Jewish Community Relations Council Staff

To address the growing needs of the Charlotte Jewish community, Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte is pleased to announce that Douglas Greene has been named government relations and public affairs associate and that Noah Goldman has been named Israel and global Jewry associate.

In this newly created role, Douglas will work to develop relationships with elected local, state, and federal officials and to engage a broad cross-section of the Charlotte community in efforts to counter antisemitism, combat the delegitimization of Israel, and push forward policy that addresses the Charlotte Jewish community’s needs.

A former North Carolina educator, Douglas plans to continue developing his passions for social justice and Holocaust education and for creating change among his community and peers through Federation’s Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC). During his teaching career, Douglas participated in the Greensboro Jewish Federation’s Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Summer Teacher’s Program; served as a teacher leader for Centropa, a European-based organization focused on Jewish life and culture; and was an inaugural teacher leader president of the UNC WorldView program. He also played a principal role in developing the North Caroli-

na curriculum on Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Douglas commented, “Personally, I am deeply honored to be able to share my passion here at the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte, and I look forward to being part of such an amazing community and organization.”

In Noah’s newly created role, he will focus on building strong and dynamic relationships between the Charlotte Jewish community, Israel, and global Jewry by building local Israel education and engagement, addressing antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment in Charlotte, and fostering a sense of Jewish pride in the community through the Outshine Hate initiative.

Noah most recently served as the coordinator of Jewish life at Queens University of Charlotte. During his time at Queens, Noah worked to create Jewish life programs, forge interfaith partner-

we develop a new generation of givers and philanthropists.”

The International Lion of Judah Conference will be held December 11–13 in Phoenix, Arizona. More than 1,000 Lions will gather to celebrate the Lions of Judah 50-year anniversary of extraordinary influence and fostering thriving Jewish communities around the world.

“I am excited to come together as a community of strong female Jewish leaders and philanthropists in December,” added Worrel. “It is an honor to be considered a part of the legacy of the Lions of Judah.”

The 2022 conference will also address the most critical issues the Jewish people face in the

United States and abroad, including the mental health of Jewish communities, the continuing rise of violent antisemitism, and the critical needs of the Jewish population in Ukraine. Attendees will be joined by philanthropy leaders; experts in religion, culture, art, business, and politics; innovators; and entrepreneurs to explore how Lions can have an impact in the coming year.

To learn more about the Lions of Judah, visit https://www. jewishfederations.org/how-wehelp/power-philanthropy/womens-philanthropy/lion-of-judah.

ships, and grow Jewish life on campus. Noah also previously worked for Jewish Family Services to provide programming and assistance to Jewish seniors in the Charlotte area.

Noah states, “I am no stranger to antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and hatred, having witnessed it and, on occasion, being a recipient of it in high school and university environments. I have seen how hate has harmed and degraded individuals, and it can feel soul-crushing. It is because of these experiences that I am happy to play a role in the Outshine Hate initiative with Federation. I am looking forward to doing more than speaking out-to actively working to fight hate and help make Charlotte a safer place for everyone.”

Douglas and Noah will report to Tair Giudice, chief impact officer.

Glenda Bernhardt and Emily Zimmern Named Co-Chairs of Federation’s Outshine Hate Initiative

With the recent increase in reported local antisemitic incidents, Federation is committed to putting an end to antisemitism and anti-Israel hatred by educating and uniting the local community through our Jewish Community Relations Council’s Outshine Hate initiative.

We are pleased to announce that Glenda Bernhardt and Emily Zimmern will serve as co-chairs of this vital initiative. In their roles, Glenda and Emily will lead Federation’s efforts in working with our local community to put an end to the antisemitism and anti-Israel hate.

“I think we have the opportunity to make a significant and sustained impact in the Charlotte Jewish community,” stated Glenda Bernhardt. “We must ensure that members of our community — teens, parents, educators, and others — are equipped with the information they need to respond thoughtfully and accurately when faced with challenging situations.”

Glenda Bernhardt is chief executive officer of Freedom School Partners in Charlotte and previously served as the executive director of Temple Israel. Glenda takes great pride in being involved in the community and currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Foundation for the Charlotte Jewish Community. As a longtime leader within the Jewish community, Glenda looks forward to co-chairing the Outshine Hate initiative together with Emily to connect with the wider Charlotte community to create positive change by fight-

CJDS

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ing toward this goal over the past few years, but this grant will enable us to have the appropriate dedicated space available to our staff and students following a special curriculum or to support special projects or interests as they arise. We are honored that the Legacy Foundation has the confidence in our school and our vision to entrust us with a grant of this size.”

The lab will be on the third floor of the current CJDS building. It will be an adaptable, collaborative space with mobile desks and chairs as well as 3-D printers, robotics, and tools for grades 4-8.

ing antisemitism and anti-Israel hatred.

“The work of Outshine Hate is urgent and important,” added Emily Zimmern. “By proudly living our Jewish values, we will contribute to a thriving, dynamic Jewish community and play an important role in shaping an inclusive Charlotte where all residents are free from fear of hatred. In the challenging work ahead, I foresee great possibilities and invite all members of the community to take part in this initiative.”

Growing up in Louisiana in the segregated South of the 1950s and 1960s, Emily Zimmern was inspired by the courageous example of participants in the civil rights movement who took great risks to bring freedom to places it had never been before. From 1995 to 2015, Emily served as the CEO and executive director of Levine Museum of the New South and became an active par-

ticipant in the civic engagement of Charlotte.

Long active in community affairs, Emily has held leadership positions on numerous local and state nonprofit boards and civic commissions. She is the former president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte and cochair of United Jewish Appeal’s Young Leadership Cabinet. She currently serves on the board of the Foundation for the Charlotte Jewish Community and a committee of the start-up Heart of a Nation.

If you are interested in becoming involved with Outshine Hate, please contact Tair Guidice, chief impact officer.

A strong STEAM program requires a strong STEAM teacher. We are pleased to welcome Rick Isham to our CJDS team. Rick was hired to lead the science curriculum for grades 3-6 as our first full-time STEAM instructor. He joins CJDS with 19 years of teaching experience with expertise in STEAM education and will lead the design, engineering, and innovation programming.

The grant, which provides funds for both a rigorous planning process and construction, must be matched by our community. We already have several committed donors excited to help CJDS achieve this cut-

ting-edge addition to our already exemplary education. Opportunities are still available if interested. The goal is to have the room ready for the start of the 2023 school year.

CJDS currently serves students in grades TK-6, growing to TK-7 in 2023. For more information, contact gosborne@ cjdschool.org.

Classes Starting October 26th Pluralistic Adult Learning

Melton Charlotte is a collaboration between the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte’s Center for Jewish Education, Temple Israel, and Temple Beth El.

For more information go to www.meltonschool.org/charlotte

JFGC Welcomes New Staff Members

Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte is pleased to announce the staff additions of Madelyn Slaten as accounting associate and Michelle Stilwell as executive assistant and project manager.

A recent graduate of Mississippi State University with a degree in accounting, Madelyn will provide accounting, financial, and operational services in support of all Federation depart-

ments and functions.

With more than 25 years of experience, Michelle will provide administrative, programmatic, and operational support and project management to the Federation CEO, executive team, and board of trustees.

Madelyn and Michelle report to Cheri Martin, chief financial and administrative officer.

Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte - Center for Jewish Education

Sue’s Bookshelf Review of “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”

According to the New York Journal of Books, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” covers themes of sexism, disability and pain, and loss and grief, somehow managing to tie everything together without ever feeling overly complicated. It’s a masterpiece that works on both a grand scale, and a minute, more intimate one.

I was excited to see that Gabrielle Zevin, author of “The Storied Life of AJ Fickry” and

“Young Jane Young,” wrote a new book, and I immediately put it on reserve. That said, I didn’t realize “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” was about gaming — video gaming to be precise. Since I’ve never actually played a video game (unless you count bowling on Nintendo Switch with my grandson, Jacob, which I’m actually pretty good at), I almost decided to discontinue reading the book. But somehow I couldn’t bring myself to put it completely aside.

“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” is a brilliant book on so many levels. It is the story of Sam, Sadie, and Marx, the complicated triangle that serves as the book’s central characters. Sam and Sadie meet in a hospital when they are 11 years old. Sam is a patient recovering from a traumatic car accident that killed his mother, and Sadie is visiting her sister, who is a cancer patient on the same floor. Sam has withdrawn into himself

until he meets Sadie, and they form a close bond playing video games. Sam’s trust in Sadie is destroyed when he finds out Sadie, upon her mother’s urging, is using her visits to Sam to fulfill community service hours for her bat mitzvah project. Sam’s rejection of Sadie continues for many years until they

Miss Debby’s Best-Loved Children’s Books

An Interview with Eric Kimmel

One of my all-time favorite authors is the award-winning author Eric A. Kimmel, who has truly mastered the art of adapting and retelling folktales. Known as a “teller of tales,” Dr. Kimmel has more than 120 published books, including 27 selected by PJ Library as top-quality Jewish children’s books!

Kimmel’s stories celebrate legends and myths from all over the world. He has retold European folktales and Grimm’s fairytales as well as tales from Africa, China, Mexico, and Japan. But the most precious gift Kimmel has given Jewish children and adults alike is the retelling and preservation of Yiddish and Jewish classics.

I was beyond thrilled that the prestigious children’s author Eric Kimmel granted me an interview for this article:

Debby Block: I understand that your maternal grandmother influenced your storytelling? Can you tell me more about that?

Eric Kimmel: My grandmother immigrated to the United States from what is now Western Ukraine. Since she shared our home in Brooklyn, New York, we spent a lot of time together, so much so that I learned to speak Yiddish. My grandmother was an amazing storyteller, and she imbued me with a sense of wonder, magic and mystery. As I write books, I want to share that sense of love and wonder with today’s children.

DB: “The Tartar’s Sword” was your first published book. Did you write other books before that?

EK: I always dreamed of writing, but when I was growing up in the 1950s, it was not acceptable to aspire to be an author. My parents wanted me to be a doctor, and I did pursue that path for a bit. During my graduate studies, however, I took a class in children’s literature. It was like I had stepped into the magical land of Oz with all its colors. From that moment, I fell in love with children’s literature! I was forwarded an advertisement from Harper and Row Publishers saying that it was looking for fresh, new children’s litera-

meet by chance in the T station in Boston. Sam is a student at Harvard, and Sadie is at MIT. They rekindle their friendship and decide to work together on their mutual passion and shared dream to design a video game. The game is a huge success commercially, and their partnership develops into a very successful company. It is managed by Sam’s wealthy and brilliant roommate, Marx. The three of them work together in game design, development, marketing, and production. Conflicts arise over vision, creativity, shared credit, commercial success vs. intellectual values, and, of course, romance. Sadie and Marx eventually fall in love, leaving Sam to beat himself up over never pursuing a romantic relationship with Sadie. However, Sam and Sadie are soulmates, and their love endures throughout their lifetime. This review so far is an over-simplification of the book. There are varied detailed de -

scriptions of video games throughout. The book explains the appeal video games have. We see how we can escape from the real world and our problems by entering a virtual world. We realize the choices we make as we play, and the paths we follow don’t necessarily determine the course of our virtual life; we can always start over and follow a different path tomorrow.

Our next Center for Jewish Education Book Club will meet on November 9 at 10:30 a.m. at Shalom Park. The book we will be discussing is “Morningside Heights” by Joshua Henkin. Both “Morningside Heights” and “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” can be found in the collection at the Levine-Sklut Judaic Library and Resource Center.

For more information, please contact sueb.littauer@jewishcharlotte.org.

ture. I called the publishers to see what they were looking for, and they asked me to send a chapter. I wrote one chapter — and only one chapter — from a book I had not as yet written and submitted it. Happily, they asked to see the entire book. From only one chapter in the middle, I then had to complete the beginning and the end of the book. Eventually that became my first book “The Tartar’s Sword” published in 1974.

DB: One of my favorite characters from your books is Herschel of Ostropol. Do you have a character who is closest to your heart?

EK: Yes, Hershele (little Herschel, in Yiddish) is my favorite character as well. Hershel stories remind me of all the tales

my grandmother used to share. Even though Hershel may seem like a ne’er-do-well, he challenges the norm of the times, whether it is the rabbis or even Talmudic logic, and his heart is always in the right place.

DB: Hershel of Ostropol is the main character of several of your books, but perhaps the most famous is your award-winning “Herschel and Hanukkah Goblins” in which Herschel tricks the evil goblins, allowing Hanukkah to be celebrated again. Kids everywhere love this book!

EK: “Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins” is one of my favorite books as well. It is actually not a folktale but an original story I wrote. I would like to say that I am proud to write books

for all kids, not just Jewish kids.”

DB: What else would you like to leave us with?

EK: I believe that first and foremost, children’s books should tell a story. Children’s books should not teach a lesson or be “teachy-preachy.” If a story has a lesson … the children will figure it out!

October 30 is Eric Kimmel’s birthday. (He was born in 1946.)

Join in me in celebrating this amazing author by reading one of his books to your child!

You may find many of Eric Kimmel’s books on display in the Levine-Sklut Judaic Library in Shalom Park. You may visit the library in person, to select a book, or you may email or call to reserve a book at (704) 944-6783 or library@jewishcharlotte.org.

#ThisIsDVJFS: Understanding the Full Scope of Domestic Violence

“He’s so domineering”; “He controls everything she does”; “He watches every penny she spends.” Have you ever had this observation about a couple you know? Most of us have and just chalk it up to the nature of their relationship or their personalities. However, what you are most likely observing is a form of domestic violence.

October is national Domestic Violence Awareness month, and each year, Jewish Family Services (JFS) highlights the importance of understanding how domestic violence affects each one of us. Perhaps the most important place to start is to ask whether we even know what domestic violence means. Would we know it if we see it? Would we notice domestic violence in the lives of

our friends and neighbors, in the lives of our teens or grown children, or even in the patterns of our own relationships? The JFS 2022 campaign, #ThisIDVJFS, aims to raise awareness that domestic violence is not just physical violence and that we must be able to recognize and define all types of domestic violence.

According to the National Coalition on Domestic Violence, though domestic violence can take many forms, the constant component is the effort to maintain power and control over another person. “Domestic violence is the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another. It includes physical violence, sexual violence, psycho-

logical violence, and emotional abuse. The frequency and severity of domestic violence can vary dramatically; however, the one constant component of domestic violence is one partner’s consistent efforts to maintain power and control over the other” (NCADV. com).

The exertion of power and control can start subtly. It can take the form of slowly suggesting that the family spend less and less time with one partner’s extended family. It can be introducing a new family “budget” and then slowly taking control over all financial decisions, bank accounts, and access to money. It can also be a pattern of put-downs, name calling, and emotional manipulation that affects one’s self-worth and mental health. It can even include subtle threats of what life might be like if someone were to leave

Jewish Family Services August 2022 Tributes

For a speedy recovery of Scott

Swimmer

Stanley Greenspon

Happy Anniversary to

Michael and Ashley Goldberg

Alan (OBM) and Ruth Goldberg

Happy Birthday to Mike

Scharf

Linda Isser

In appreciation of Mike Scharf

Linda Isser

In Memory of Jane Belkin

Margie Levenson

In Memory of Henry Cantor

Paul and Lynn Edelstein

In Memory of Janet Chaitman

The Batshaw-Siu Family

Robert and Sheryl Greenstein

Angela Rinaldi

Marvin and Betty Stark

Walt, Ronnie Yancey and Family

In Memory of Lila Doliner

Gary Silverstein

In Memory of Alan Goldberg

Donald and Bobbi Bernstein

Ralph and Sonni Besnoy

Alan, Lee, and Jill Blumenthal

David and Aleen Epstein

Stuart and Ellen Fligel

Steven and Darcy Garfinkel

Vicki Hopkins

Matthew Luftglass and Meg Goldstein

Richard Osborne

Joel Ostrow

Ed and Deborah Pizer

Fran Schwartz and Benjamin

Schwartz

Gary Silverstein

Paul and Marcia Simon

Robert and Joyce Stoll

Judith Tager

Bob and Zelda VonCannon

Ron and Jan Weiner

the relationship, including threats to keep a partner away from their children, to control their access to money, and to spread rumors or damage their reputation in the community. To help educate people about some warning signs, NCADV identifies some examples of possible abusive behaviors:

In Memory of Robert Isser

Matthew Luftglass and Meg

Goldstein

In Memory of Steve Kaufmann

Matthew Luftglass and Meg

Goldstein

Ron and Jan Weiner

In Memory of Silvia Kelman

Ron and Jan Weiner

In Memory of Linda Lesack

Matthew Luftglass and Meg

Goldstein

In Memory of Jill Newman’s

Sister

Matthew Gromet and Phyllis

Schultz

Mazel Tov to David and Debby Block on the birth of their grandson

Stuart and Jodi Cohen

- Behaviors that make the victim feel bad about themselves: constant put-downs, telling them they are a bad parent, criticizing their decisions, telling the victim that they can never do anything right.

- Controlling connections to outside relationships: keeping or discouraging the victim from seeing friends or family members; expressing dislike for the victim’s family and friends; controlling who the victim sees, where they go, or what they do.

- Controlling the victim’s day-to-day functions: managing their spending; dictating how they dress, wear their hair, etc.; controlling their use of the car; monitoring the victim’s every move both physically and technologically, such as GPS or phone tracking.

- Presenting threatening behaviors: threatening to harm the victim’s friends, loved ones, or pets; intimidating the victim with guns, knives, or other weapons; destroying the victim’s property.

- Sexual intimidation: pressuring the victim to have sex when they don’t want to or to do things sexually they are not comfortable with; forcing sex with others; accusing the victim of cheating; refusing to use protection when having sex or sabotaging birth control.

- Behaviors that result in limiting the victim’s ability to perform normal functions: preventing the victim from working or attending school; keeping the victim up all night so they perform badly at their job or in school; pressuring or forcing the victim to use drugs or alcohol; preventing the victim from making their own decisions.

We know that domestic violence happens in our community. Studies show that domestic abuse occurs in Jewish families, in all streams of Judaism, at about the same rate as it does in families of other religions — between 15% and 25% (The Jewish Domestic Violence Coalition of Greater Boston.) The #ThisIsDVJFS campaign seeks to raise awareness about the multifaceted nature of domestic violence, help us validate the experience of survivors, and identify who in our community needs a helping hand. To learn more, visit the #ThisIsDVJfs Campaign table in the Levine Jewish Community Center lobby during the month of October.

If you are a victim of domestic violence or are concerned that you see some of the warning signs listed above and need assistance, contact JFS at (704) 364-6594 or call the Safe Alliance Crisis hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). JFS has specially trained therapists on staff in the areas of domestic violence.

Jewish Family Services to Spearhead Youth Mental Health Initiative

Jewish Family Services (JFS) has been at the forefront of community-wide mental health campaigns since establishing the Mental Health Initiative in 2017.

This Charlotte Jewish community initiative has been recognized as a best practice model for the new BeWell initiative sponsored by the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies (NJHSA), the national membership organization for JFS. The BeWell initiative is a partnership between JFNA and NJHSA to create community responses to the mental health needs of children, teens, and young adults in the Jewish community.

JFS Charlotte is among the first communities to be awarded a grant JFNA to implement a “BeWell” initiative. Through the BeWell initiative, JFS will facilitate the creation of a Resiliency Roundtable for the Charlotte Jewish community. The Resiliency Roundtable is a collection of community stakeholders committed to addressing the mental health needs of youth.

According to Kate Greene, Resiliency Roundtable director at JFNA, Resiliency Roundtables position communities to improve access to care and promote comprehensive support for young people and families. They offer communities a proactive approach in coordinating prevention and educational resources along with the ability to appropriately respond to crises. Resiliency Roundtables mark a collaborative shift in how we work together to support young people in our community.

Through the grant, JFS will facilitate convening a Resiliency Roundtable for our community that will focus initially on two primary priorities, namely, to conduct a mental health needs assessment within our community and to create a road map of activities that respond to the mental health needs of our youth as identified through the assessment.

While JFS has previously facilitated activities to educate and create awareness regarding mental health, the reality is that since the pandemic, our world has changed. Issues such as COVID, social unrest, the economy, and cyberbullying have all exacerbated the emotional health challenges of our young people. The needs assessment will not only identify the depth of the problem but also can home in on the types of intervention and support that are most needed. The process for conducting the needs assessment will include diverse ways to engage feedback from the major stakeholders involved with our youth, including the youth themselves.

Upon completion of the needs assessment, the Resiliency Roundtable will create a comprehensive community plan to respond to the study’s results. Depending on what the needs assessment study tells us, the plan may include not only direct intervention for our youth but also parenting support, peerto-peer programs, professional training, community awareness, and more. The concept of the Resiliency Roundtable is that as a community, we all need to take responsibility for the emotional health of our children and youth.

According to a recent article

Jewish Family Services August 2022 Volunteers & Donors

Volunteers: Marcia Arnholt, Mike Arnholt, Amy Baden, Andrew Bernstein, Suzy Catennazo, Dan Coblenz, Jonathan Collman, Andrea Cronson, Julie Dermack, Joni Deutsch, Sheryl Effren, Terri Fishman, Rachel Friedman, Meredith Gartner, Marty Goldfarb, Richard Goldsmith, Jennifer Golynsky, Gail Halverson, Rebecca Hockfield, Oren Hubara, Dawn Hubbs, Bob Jacobson, Jodie Joseph, Michael Kaplan, Jennifer Koss, Rikki Kinitsky, Etti Krause, Elliot and Stephanie Krietman, Marcia Lampert, Adina Loewensteiner, Matt Luftglass, Gene Marx, Frada Mozenter, Beth Rose Oxman, Wendy Petricoff, Barbara Rein, Steven Rogelberg, Nina Rose, Marilyn Schuster, Lynne Sheffer, Janice Shubin, Cindy Siesel, Louis Sinkoe, Lorin Stiefel, Steve Teich, Gail Vogel, Nancy Wielunski, Amanda Zaidman

Hadassah Meal Preppies: Sharon Cavanaugh, Sara Friedman, Karen Futtersak, Maddy Gallant, June Hirschmann, Yvette Jacobson, Judy Kaufmann, Penny Krieger, Kim McGuire, Helene Schilian, Elissa Vining

Mitzvah Basket Donations: The House Family in honor of Teddy House’s Bar Mitzvah, The Shpritz Family in honor of Jacob Tart’s Bar Mitzvah

Shalom Green: Thank you to the volunteers for harvesting fresh produce for the JFS pantry.

Food Pantry Donations: Thank you to our generous community for continuing to donate to the food pantry. We continue to collect donations every other Wednesday at the portico entrance to the Blumenthal Center for Jewish Education Building on Shalom Park.

in the New York Times, American adolescence is undergoing a drastic change. Three decades ago, the gravest public health threats to teenagers in the United States came from binge drinking, drunk driving, teenage pregnancy, and smoking. These threats have since fallen sharply, replaced by a new public health concern: soaring rates of mental health disorders. In 2019, 13% of adolescents reported having a major depressive episode, a 60 % increase from 2007. Emergency room visits by children and adolescents in that period also rose sharply for anxiety, mood disorders, and self-harm. For people ages 10 to 24, suicide rates, stable from 2000 to 2007, leaped nearly 60% by 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If we identified an epidemic affecting the physical health of our youth, we wouldn’t hesitate to take action to eliminate

the cause. As a community, we need to have the same response to the mental health epidemic affecting our youth. The creation of the Resiliency Roundtable is our first step.

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Judy LaPietra Named Assistant Director of the Stan Greenspon Center

After a national search process featuring an array of impressive candidates, the leadership of the Stan Greenspon Holocaust and Social Justice Education Center and Queens University named Judy LaPietra as the Greenspon Center assistant director. The decision of the members of the search committee was unanimous, as it was impressed by the depth and breadth of her experience and skill in teaching the Holocaust, her passion for developing transformative educational programs, and her commitment to ensuring the legacy of Holocaust victims and survivors continues.

Judy is a teacher of teachers in Holocaust Education. She has been selected by the most esteemed Holocaust educational organizations, including the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the ADL, to facilitate teacher training and youth leadership programs. Judy is an exceptional professor, serving as adjunct faculty in the Department of Global Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte since 2010, developing and teaching three courses as part of its minor in genocide and human rights studies. Judy

has had extensive experience in teaching middle school history, working for 17 years at St. Mark Catholic School in Huntersville, North Carolina. She knows what it takes to keep students engaged through transformative education. Judy is experienced in crafting student trips to Germany and Poland, having led and organized several student trips. Judy has been a partner in developing the Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies over the past decade with Dr. John Cox. The list of her publications and conference presentations in Holocaust Studies is impressive.

Judy is a doctoral student in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Gratz College, currently working on her dissertation in post-genocidal reconciliation. She received an M.A. in Holocaust genocide studies from Gratz College, an M.S. in secondary education and history from Queens College, City University of New York, and her B.A. in political science (cum laude) from Queens College, City University of New York.

Judy is uniquely qualified to help lead our campus-based Holocaust Center that, in the six years since its creation, has become nationally known for its

creativity and excellence. With Judy’s warmth, passion, commitment, and depth of knowledge and experience, the sky is the limit for what we can create during this next chapter of our Center’s growth.

This interview highlights what drew Judy LaPietra to this role:

Where did your passion for the Holocaust come from?

I have been a lifelong student of the Holocaust, and my engagement with it began 40 years ago as a college student. I was compelled to come to grips intellectually with the enormity of this chapter in human history, which exemplifies the worst of humanity – atrocity, hatred, dehumanization – and requires us to not only bear witness to this truth but also to incorporate the lessons of the Holocaust into the present. As humanity so often finds itself on the precipice of catastrophe, education is the key to our survival.

What programs impressed you most about the Greenspon Center?

I have followed the important work of the Greenspon Center since its inception and have witnessed firsthand the powerful impact its presence has had in our community. In a short time,

it has planted the seeds needed to confront hate and bias in our world through transformative programming and the harnessing of the power of education.

What program are you most excited to see in the coming year?

I am particularly excited about our new Certification in Holocaust Pedagogy offering this year. It is a unique opportunity for educators to confront both the pedagogical challenges associated with the Holocaust

and the call for historical accuracy on this complex topic. The program’s unique design underscoring both content and pedagogy will equip educators with the tools they need to effectively engage in Holocaust education.

What is your dream for the Greenspon Center?

My vision for the Center includes advancing its mission to expand our certification programs in both Holocaust pedagogy and social justice and community organizing in addition to offering Holocaust educational programming in our community. The reach of our center could extend beyond Charlotte to other cities in our state and in the Southeast region. I have an abiding dream to create a Holocaust Museum and Memorial space here in Charlotte so that the multitudes of those who perished will be heard and so posterity will never forget.

The Greenspon Center’s 2022-2023 Program Guide is available. To view it visit: www. stangreensponcenter.org.

With

Clients

North Carolina Council on the Holocaust: Legislation and Curriculum Development Update

In November of 2021, the North Carolina Legislature passed the Gizella Abramson Holocaust Education Act. Since that time, the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust has been hard at work creating a timeline for developing, constructing, and implementing new Holocaust curriculum content per the Holocaust Act’s specific language.

Furthermore, the North Carolina State Board of Education wrote that the “Gizella Abramson Holocaust Education Act requires the Holocaust Council to provide students with the fundamental understanding of geography, history, and political systems necessary to make informed decisions on contemporary issues that impact individuals, communities, states, the United Station, and the world.”

- By mid-September of 2022 the Holocaust Council completed researching topics and sources in English, grades 6-12, in social studies, grades 6-8, and in World history, civics and US/American history (grades 9-12). The Holocaust Council also established a list of Holocaust texts used by each grade and subject matter.

- By the end of August of 2022, the Holocaust Council identified 40 teachers from around the state to create protocol and policies related to learning to facilitate in-person training and webinar programs. The Holocaust Council also determined where Holocaust curriculum could be implemented in every grade between 6 and 12.

- The Holocaust Council has constructed Holocaust text Lex-

iles and complexity levels based on the skills required for each grade level. One of the council’s goals is to create vertical alignment between the grade levels and to build knowledge of each text with this historical period, adding layers for students as appropriate.

- Finally, the Holocaust Council has created Holocaust cross-curricula activities and opportunities for each grade level English and social studies teachers as well as cross-curricula for English as a second language (ESL) teachers.

The North Carolina Council on the Holocaust is a state agency organized under the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The Holocaust Council is the primary organization tasked with creating and teaching Holocaust curriculum in the public schools.

The Holocaust Council is supported by the North Carolina Holocaust Foundation. The Holocaust Foundation is a private fundraising organization that supports the work of the Holocaust Council and creates Holocaust programming of its own. The summer teacher bus trip to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., is an example of Holocaust Foundation programming.

I urge you to support the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust with a tax deductible contribution to the North Carolina Holocaust Foundation. Mitch Rifkin is the chair of the Holocaust Foundation and can be reached at rif121@carolina. rr.com.

Correction: In the print version, of the September CJN, the article, titled “The Greenspon Center Provides Transformative Education: Onthe Road and In Charlotte,” was incorrectly titled and should have stated that: “The trip was made possible by generous funding from the North Carolina Holocaust Foundation with financial support from the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte, a valued partner. Donna Tarney, the Greenspon Center Education and Outreach Specialist supported the NC Council on the Holocaust as lead educator. The Holocaust Foundation of North Carolina has sponsored four teacher trips to the USHMM in Washington, DC.

TEMPLE BETH EL

Services will be held at Temple Beth El at 5101 Providence Rd., Charlotte, NC 28226. For tickets and information call (704) 3661948 or visit templebethel.org/ registration. Full array of High Holy Day Information can be found online: www.templebethel. org/highholydays

Tuesdays, August 30 and September 6, 13, and 20

Elul Reading Series, 7 p.m.

Saturdays, September, 3, 10, 17, and 24

Torah Study, 9 a.m.

Shabbat Evening Service , 10:30 a.m.

Fridays, September 9, 16, and 23 Shabbat Evening Service , 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, September 17

Selichot Concert & Service featuring Nefesh Mountin in partnership with Temple Israel, 8 p.m., Temple

TEMPLE ISRAEL

Services will be held at Temple Israel at 4901 Providence Road, Charlotte, NC 28226. For tickets and information call (980) 9602380 or email Kelly at kwilson@ templeisraelnc.org

Saturday, September 17

Havdalah & Selichot Concert featuring Nefesh Mountain (joint program with Temple Beth El), 8 p.m.

Morris & Sylvia Speizman Sanctuary (TI)

Selichot Service with Temple Beth El, 9:30 p.m.

Morris & Sylvia Speizman Sanctuary

Dessert reception, following service

Sunday, September 25

Erev Rosh Hashanah Service , 6 p.m.

Morris & Sylvia Speizman Sanctuary

Monday, September 26

Rosh Hashanah Morning Service, 9 a.m.

Morris & Sylvia Speizman Sanctuary

Family Service, 9 a.m.

Sam Lerner Hall at Shalom Park (LJCC)

Celebrating High Holidays in Charlotte

Israel Morris & Sylvia Speizman

Sanctuary College-Age Congregant Hangout & Check-in, 9 p.m.

Saturday, September 24

Young Adult New Year’s Toast & Havdalah, 6 p.m.

NoDa Brewing Teen Pizza & Paint: Dinner, Havdalah, & Mural Creation, 6 p.m.

Sunday, September 25

Rosh HaShanah Evening Service, 7:30 p.m.

Monday, September 26

Rosh Hashanah Morning Service for Families with Young Children, 8:30 a.m.

LJCC-Gorelick Hall

Rosh Hashanah Morning Service for Families with School-Age Children, 8:30 a.m.

Rosh Hashanah Morning Service, 11 a.m.

Monday, September 26

Tashlich: Arboretum with Rabbi Knight, 4:30 p.m.

Dogwood Park with Cantor Thomas, 4:30 p.m.

Freedom Park with Rabbi Nichols & Rabbi Erdheim, 4:30 p.m.

Friday, September 30

Shabbat Shuvah Service with Rabbi Schindler and Patty Torcellini, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, October 1

Torah Study, 9 a.m.

Shabbat Morning Service, 10:30 a.m.

Sunday, October 2

Community Memorial Service , 10:30 a.m., Hebrew Cemetery

Tuesday, October 4

Kol Nidre: Yom Kippur Evening Service, 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, October 5

Yom Kippur Morning Service for Families with Young Children , 8:30 a.m.

LJCC-Gorelick Hall

Yom Kippur Morning Service for

Tashclich, 1 p.m. (approx.) Creek by Temple Israel Evening Service, 7 p.m.

Morris & Sylvia Speizman Sanctuary

Tuesday, September 27

Rosh Hashanah Morning Service, 9 a.m.

Morris & Sylvia Speizman Sanctuary

Torah Tots program, 9 a.m.

Sam Lerner Hall at Shalom Park (LJCC) Evening Service, 7 p.m.

Mindy Ellen Levine Chapel & Zoom

Tuesday, October 4

Kol Nidre, Yom Kippur Evening Service, 6:30 p.m. (seated by 6:15 p.m.)

Morris & Sylvia Speizman Sanctuary

Wednesday, October 5

Torah Tots program, 8:45 a.m.

Sam Lerner Hall at Shalom Park (LJCC)

Family Service, 9 a.m.

Sam Lerner Hall at Shalom Park (LJCC)

Yom Kippur Morning Service, 9 a.m.

Morris & Sylvia Speizman Sanctuary Yizkor, 1:00 p.m. (approximately)

Morris & Sylvia Speizman Sanctuary

Mincha Service, 5 p.m.

Morris & Sylvia Speizman Sanctuary

Neilah, 6:30 p.m.

Morris & Sylvia Speizman Sanctuary

Break-the-Fast, 7:50 p.m.

Leon & Sandra Levine Social Hall (Reservations Required)

Sunday, October 9

Erev Sukkot Service, 6 p.m.

Mindy Ellen Levine Chapel & Zoom

Monday, October 10

Sukkot Morning Service, 9:30 a.m.

Morris & Sylvia Speizman Sanctuary

Torah Tots program, 10:30 a.m.

Temple Israel (TI) Sukkah

Kiddush, following services

TI Sukkah

Evening Minyan, 7 p.m.

Mindy Ellen Levine Chapel & Zoom

Tuesday, October 11

Sukkot Morning Service, 9:30 a.m.

Morris & Sylvia Speizman Sanctuary

Kiddush, following services

TI Sukkah

Evening Minyan, 7 p.m.

Families with School-Age Children, 8:30 a.m.

Yom Kippur Morning Service with Yizkor, 11 a.m. Study, Reflect, Move, Meditate, 2 p.m.

Healing, Neilah, and Havdalah , 3:30 p.m.

Light break-the-fast following Havdalah

Sunday, October 9

Religious School Sukkot Experience, 9 a.m.

Social Justice & Action TriBE

Launch Party, 4 p.m.

Sukkot Evening-Jazz Under a Full Moon in the Sukkah, 6 p.m.

Monday, October 10

Tot Sukkot, 9:30 a.m.

Festival Morning Service, 10:30 a.m.

Tuesday, October 11

TriBE Leader Gathering in the Sukkah, 7 p.m.

Friday, October 14

Kehillat Shabbat Sukkot, 6 p.m.

Congregational Shabbat Dinner in the Sukkah, 7:15 p.m.

Saturday, October 15

Sukkot Torah Study, 9:00 a.m.

Take a Hike with Rabbi Knight , 10:30 a.m.

Shabbat Morning Service, 10:30 a.m.

Porch Sukkot Cookout, 6 p.m. Offsite

Sunday, October 16

Congregational Simchat Torah Brunch & Gathering, 9 a.m.

Religious School Simchat Torah Celebration and Consecration , 10 a.m.

Monday, October 17

Tot Simchat Torah, 9:30 a.m.

Festival Morning Service with Yizkor, 10:30 a.m.

Evening Minyan, 7 p.m.

Mindy Ellen Levine Chapel & Zoom

Wednesday, October 12

Social Club (By Reservation Only), 12 p.m.

TI Sukkah

Evening Minyan, 7 p.m. Zoom

Thursday, October 13

Morning Minyan, 8 a.m.

Mindy Ellen Levine Chapel & Zoom

Women of Temple Israel (WoTI) Sukkot Program, 6 p.m.

TI Sukkah

Evening Minyan, 7 p.m. Zoom

Friday, October 14

Shabbat Evening Services , 6:15 p.m.

Morris & Sylvia Speizman Sanctuary

Southern Fried Sukkot, 7:15 p.m. (By Reservation Only)

TI Sukkah

Saturday, October 15

Torah on Tap (Young Professionals) Sukkot, 7 p.m.

TI Sukkah

Sunday, October 16

Erev Shemini Atzeret Service , 6 p.m.

Mindy Ellen Levine Chapel & Zoom

Monday, October 17

Shemini Atzeret Service – Yizkor, 9:30 a.m.

Morris & Sylvia Speizman Sanctuary

Simchat Torah Tots program, 5:30 p.m.

Mindy Ellen Levine Chapel Evening Minyan, 5:30 p.m.

Morris & Sylvia Speizman Sanctuary

Simchat Torah Food Truck Festival , 6 p.m. (Reservations Required)

TI Sukkah & Inner Parking Lot

Simchat Torah Dancing With The Torahs, 7 p.m.

TI Inner Parking Lot

October 18

Simchat Torah Morning Service, 9:30 a.m.

Morris & Sylvia Speizman Sanctuary

Kiddush, following services (By Reservation Only)

TI Sukkah

CONGREGATION

OHR HATORAH

For more information visit www. chabadnc.org.

Saturday, September 17

Selichot Service , just after midnight.

Sunday, September 25

Rosh Hashanah Evening Service, 7 p.m.(Candle lighting at 6:57 pm).

Monday, September 26

Rosh Hashanah Morning Service, 9 a.m.

Shofar service, 11:30 a.m.

Mincha and Evening Service, 7 p.m. (Candle lighting after 7:52 p.m.)

Tuesday, September 27

Rosh Hashanah Morning Service, 9 a.m.

Shofar Service, 11:30 a.m.

Mincha and Evening Service, 7 p.m.

Wednesday, September 28

Fast of Gedaliah — Fast begins at 5:56 a.m. and ends at 7:36 pm.

October 4

Eve of Yom Kippur.

Kol Nidre Service, 6:30 p.m. Candle lighting and beginning of fast, 6:45 p.m.

October 5:

Yom Kippur Morning Service, 9 a.m.

Yizkor Service, 11:30 a.m. Mincha, 5 p.m.

Fast ends at 7:39 pm.

HEBREW CEMETERY

Community Memorial Service

Join us, rain or shine, for a Community Memorial Service. 1801 Statesville Avenue. For details visit www.hebrewcemetery.org.

The Community Memorial Service is the only service that is attended by all clergy from the greater Charlotte area. Once again we will be offering an in-person service as well as a virtual option. Come together as a community and remember your loved ones that passed.

October 2, 10:30 am.

Celebrating High Holidays in Charlotte

BALLANTYNE JEWISH CENTER

Everyone is welcome free of charge and reservations are not required. For more information about High Holiday services visit our website at www.jewishballantyne.com.

Rosh Hashanah Services will be held at the South Charlotte Banquet Center, 9009 Bryant Farms Road.

Monday, September 26

Morning Service, 9:30 a.m.

Rabbi’s sermon and blowing of the shofar, 11 a.m.

Services followed by a Kiddush lunch, 1:30 p.m.

Tuesday, September 27

Morning Service, 9:30 a.m.

Rabbi’s sermon and blowing of the shofar, 11 a.m.

Services followed by a Kiddush lunch, 1:30 p.m.

Yom Kippur Services will be held at Courtyard Marriott Waverly, 6319 Providence Farm Lane.

Tuesday, October 4

Kol Nidre, 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday, October 5 Morning Service, 10 a.m. Neilah, 6:15 p.m.

HAVURAT TIKVAH

All services will be held in the MacLean Fellowship Hall on the campus of Avondale Presbyterian Church on Park Road. Due to the uncertainty of a potential COVID surge this fall, please email admin@havurattikvah.org after Sept. 8.

Monday, September 26, 10 a.m.

Rosh Hashanah Service followed by a brief kiddish with challah, apples, and honey

Tuesday, October 4

Kol Nidre Service

Wednesday, October 5, 10 a.m.

Yom Kippur Service

THE UPTOWN CHABAD

For more information visit www.theuptownchabad.com

Monday, September 26

Rosh Hashanah Morning Service, 10 a.m.

Shofar Service, 11 a.m.

Kiddush Lunch, 12 p.m.

Rosh Hashanah Dinner, 6 p.m.

Tuesday, September 27

Rosh Hashanah Morning Service, 10 a.m.

Shofar Service, 11 a.m.

Kiddush Lunch, 12 p.m.

Tuesday, October 4

Kol Nidre, 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday, October 5

Yom Kippur Morning Service, 10 a.m.

Yom Kippur Evening Service, 5:30 p.m. Break Fast, 7:40 p.m.

THE RUACH COMMUNITY

All services are free of charge and open to all. No reservations required. For more details, email the.ruach.band@gmail.com. Services will be held at The New Theater at the Parr Center at Central Piedmont Community College on Elizabeth Avenue.

Monday, September 26

The High Holy Days Experience: Rosh Hashanah, 10 a.m.

Tuesday, October 4

The High Holy Days Experience: Kol Nidre, 7 p.m. Immediately followed by Yizkor Service

TEMPLE KOL AMI

Tickets are included in TKA membership, but non-members are welcome to purchase tickets and join us as well. Military and college students are invited to worship with us for free. All services take place at Philadelphia United Methodist Church, 1691 SC-160, Fort Mill. Further information about junior congregation services, tashlich, yizkor and break fast can be found at www.templekolamisc.org.

TEMPLE KOL TIKVAH

Visit www.templekoltikvah.org for more information. For tickets, call (704) 987-9980 or email admin@templekoltikvah.org.

Sunday, September 25

Erev Rosh Hashanah Service, 7:00 p.m.

Davidson College, Duke Family Performance Hall

Monday, September 26

Children’s Service, 9 a.m.

Davidson College, Sprinkle Room

Rosh Hashanah Service, 10 a.m.

Davidson College, Duke Family Performance Hall

Tashlich, 3 p.m.

Roosevelt Wilson Park in Davidson

TEMPLE SOLEL

Services will be held at Grace Presbyterian Church at 2955 W. Hwy 160, Fort Mill, SC 29708

For information visit templesolelsc.org, write to us at info@ templesolelSC.org or call (803) 610-1707.

Sunday, September 25

Rosh Hashanah Evening Service, 7 p.m.

Monday, September 26

Rosh Hashanah Morning Service, 10 a.m.

Sunday, September 25

Erev Rosh Hashanah Service, 7 p.m.

September 26

Rosh Hashana Service, 10 a.m.

Tuesday, October 4

Kol Nidre, 7 p.m.

Wednesay, October 5

Yom Kippur Service, 10 a.m.

Neilah, 4 p.m.

Tuesday, October 4

Kol Nidre, Yom Kippur Evening Service, 7:00 p.m.

Davidson College, Duke Family Performance Hall

Wednesday, October 5

Children’s Service, 9 a.m.

Davidson College, Sprinkle Room

Yom Kippur Service, 10 a.m.

Davidson College, Duke Family Performance Hall

Healing Service, at TKT, 2 p.m.

Afternoon Service, at TKT, 3:30 p.m.

Yizkor, at TKT, 4:30 p.m.

Neilah, at TKT, 5:30 p.m. Break-the-Fast, at TKT, 6:00 p.m.

Friday, September 30

Shabbat Shuvah Services , 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, October 4

Kol Nidre, 7 p.m.

Wednesday, October 5

Yom Kippur Morning Service, 10 a.m.

Yizkor Service, 3 p.m.

Neilah and Concluding Service , 4 p.m.

We will conclude with a community break-the-fast immediately following the concluding services on Wednesday, 10/5.

L’Shanah Tova

templeisraelnc.org

Our House. Your Home.

EREV SIMCHAT TORAH

Monday, October 17

5 P.M. -TORAH TOTS PROGRAM

5:45 P.M. - EREV SIMCHAT TORAH

FOOD TRUCKS (reservations required for dinner)

7 P.M. - EREV SIMCHAT TORAH CELEBRATION

Join us for dinner, music, dancing & celebrations with the Torah! For registration information, visit the Upcoming Programs page on templeisraelnc.org.

Religious Life

Temple Beth El Social Justice & Action TriBEs: Seeking Justice Through Connection

For many of us, when we turn on the news, we can feel overwhelmed by the challenges that face our nation and our world today. As Jews and as members of the Temple Beth El community, we feel a strong obligation to address those challenges and to act to make the world a more whole, fair, equitable, and healthy place for all. But as we learned from congregants during our Spring 2021 Social Justice Listening Campaign, it can be difficult to know where or how to begin. Additionally, the effect of the pandemic has left many of us feeling isolated and lonely, both in justice work and in our everyday lives.

Rabbi Klass, Nicole Sidman, and our social justice leadership heard these challenges and realized that Temple Beth El already has a structure in place to address these issues, our TriBEs, or small group initiative. Our TriBEs launched in 2018 with a focus on engaging and connecting baby boomers and empty nesters and has grown and developed

over the past four years into a vibrant and thriving vehicle for connection and personal growth for many of our congregants. It seemed like a natural fit to develop new TriBEs with a special focus on social justice and action. Through Social Justice & Action TriBEs (SJ&A TriBEs), congregants eager to become involved in justice work will be able to build a depth of connection with other individuals passionate about the same issues. We also believe that SJ&A TriBEs will create both a depth and breadth of social justice engagement at Temple Beth El. Each small group will be able to delve deeper into a specific issue than we might be able to at the congregational level, maximizing the good that we can create in the world. Additionally, SJ&A TriBEs will broaden the types of social justice issues that the synagogue is engaged in. While the work might begin in small groups, we are hopeful that opportunities will arise for broader congregational engagement.

SJ&A TriBEs will unite con-

gregants both socially and intellectually around issues and actions they care deeply about, such as reproductive rights, gun reform, hunger, LGBTQ+ rights, or mass incarceration. Each TriBE’s work will result in exploring and connecting with outside organizations, around direct service action, advocacy, or education or some combination of the three. Each group will be composed of 8 to 12 committed individuals who meet regularly and create and execute an action plan to address their issue, fostering meaningful relationships and connection within the group. SJ&A TriBEs will enable congregants to engage in social justice and action work in a way that they are most excited about, whether it is working with another congregation to serve a holiday meal to the homeless, assisting refugees in getting settled into their new homes, or co-hosting a political forum to educate groups on upcoming ballot initiatives.

The world is changing and shifting rapidly around us every

day. SJ&A TriBEs will provide a sense of flexibility so that individuals can shift gears as the realities of the world change. For example, reproductive rights emerged as an issue on the top of many individuals’ minds this summer during our visioning workshops due to the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade. We believe that the TriBE small group model will enable our justice work to pivot when a pressing need arises.

Temple Beth El is proud of our long and deep history of social justice and action work.

The Social Justice and Action Committee as well as Shalom Park-wide initiatives will continue with full force. SJ&A TriBEs will not replace these extant efforts but rather bolster them, functioning additionally as a space to garner interest and foster leadership for parkwide initiatives such as Freedom School or Shalom Green. We imagine that it will complement the incredible work is already being done by our committees and across the Charlotte Jewish

community.

If you are a Temple Beth El member and are interested in getting involved in a SJ&A TriBE, we encourage you to attend our SJ&A TriBE Launch Party on Sunday, October 9 at 4 p.m. at Temple Beth El. If you have any questions, please contact Nicole Sidman, our social justice outreach coordinator

As Rabbi Tarfon teaches in the Talmud, “We are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are we free to desist from it.” By joining a Social Justice and Action TriBE, we hope that TBE members will each find a way to contribute their part in ensuring that we create a more whole, equitable, just, and healthy world for all.

Each TriBE’s work will result in exploring and connecting with outside organizations, around either direct service action, advocacy, or education, or some combination of the three.

Religious

Temple Kol Ami Youth Make Community Proud

As Jews, we love to kvell about our kids’ accomplishments. Yes, this may seem like boasting, but it is done with so much love that it’s not obnoxious. At Temple Kol Ami (TKA), all of our members are like family, so we take as much pride in their achievements as their own families do. Recently, two of our children who have grown up at TKA have given us much reason to kvell.

Colin Abrams and Tessa Shaw both attend Clover High School in Lake Wylie, South Carolina. They both celebrated their mitzvahs at Temple Kol Ami and both are members of the Clover High School marching band. The have remained active in our congregation since their b’nei mitzvah, but have found time to participate in other activities that have led to some really amazing recent achievements.

Tessa, the daughter of TKA founders, Jonathan and Bonnie Shaw, was selected to play the vibraphone in the Clover band while only in 8th grade. She was then chosen to take part in the percussion ensemble group that competed in the winter indoor

drumline season. Being selected at such a young age is accomplishment enough, but then she, along with her bandmates, went on to win the Winter Guard International world championship in Dayton, Ohio, in March 2022. This was only the second time a school from the state of South Carolina had ever won at the WGI! Tessa’s musical abilities are not limited to the vibraphone. She and her sister,

Micaela, have been the Temple Kol Ami High Holiday shofar blowers for many years. We are blessed to have such a talented young lady as part of our congregation. Congratulations to Tessa and the Bands of Clover for your outstanding performance and victory!

Colin is the son of TKA members Scott and Shari Abrams. Besides playing the baritone in the marching band, Colin is also a member of the Junior Air Force ROTC program at Clover High. In a highly competitive process, which included written and physical fitness exams, he was one of 200 students nationwide awarded a scholarship to attend a flight academy program this past summer. Over a period of eight weeks, he did intensive aviation studies and flight training that led to him successfully attaining his private pilot’s license at 17 years of age. Colin intends to continue his aviation studies in college with the goal of one day becoming a commercial airline pilot.

Mazal tov to Tessa and Colin on their wonderful successes! They have brought great nachas, joy, to their own families

and their Temple Kol Ami mishpacha. May you continue to go from strength to strength and to be leaders in your secular and Jewish communities!

If you live in York County or the Ballantyne area, Temple Kol Ami might be the place for you! We are a warm and inclusive Reform congregation comprised of Jews from diverse backgrounds. We have Friday night Shabbat

services on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of each month. For more information, check us out at www. templekolamisc.org.

Temple Solel: A Reform Congregation with a New Face

Temple Solel, a Reform Temple based in Fort Mill, South Carolina, is changing in exciting and interesting ways. We are now a very different kind of congregation from what you might have experienced in the past. Imagine a warm, welcoming participatory shul without membership dues. No need “to pay to pray.” We are focused on attracting your participation, enthusiasm, and talents. Imagine a congregation where you develop your Jewish self through prayer, workshops, speakers, and field trips. Imagine a place where you have the opportunity to “get your hands dirty” by helping the less fortunate in our community. Imagine a congregation that feels like family when you meet for worship, spiritual growth, doing good, and having fun.

Temple Solel is moving away from the traditional synagogue dues model commonly used over the past 80 years. That model is based on a set fee that prospective congregants must pay to be-

Temple Kol Tikvah

come a member. Some add fees for extra High Holiday tickets. Offering arrangements for those who can’t pay full dues can be intrusive. The consequence? Many prospective members do not affiliate at all, deeming the value less than the cost.

That is why Temple Solel has decided to do away with membership dues. Solel has relatively low overhead and operational costs. We intend to sustain ourselves with voluntary (and tax-deductible) contributions. We seek congregants who are interested in our three supporting pillars:

- Personal and religious growth

- Hands-on community involvement and

- Participation in an extended supportive family

Religious School Theme: “Kehilah Kedosha, Sacred Community”

This year will mark 12 years of working at Temple Kol Tikvah. Over the last 11 years, I have worked as a teacher (2nd, 3rd and 4th grade), I have run our teen programs (education/social), and now, as education and youth director, I oversee it all.

Our religious school is dedicated to the education of children from pre-K through high school. Our school strives to provide a Jewish education that meets the diverse needs of the families we serve. We want our children to fall in love with Judaism and experience the joy and spirit of Jewish living by learning about it in a fun and meaningful way.

With the help of Rabbi Becca and Rabbi David, I have decided our theme for this year will be “Kehillah Kedosha” — sacred community. Much of our focus this year will be on strengthening relationships and taking the idea of last year’s theme “Better

Together” a step forward. We will work on strengthening relationships within ourselves, with others, and with God. Religious school is a great outlet for starting and evolving these relationships.

Our curriculum, Institute of Southern Jewish Life, does a fantastic job at meeting children where they are spiritually and culturally. Last year, students in the 1st grade made special placemats for guests who come and stay at their house as part of the Jewish value of hachnasat orchim, welcoming visitors. The focus on spiritual and cultural experiences is much of what Judaism is about.

Jewish education is about more than knowledge. It’s about creating a Jewish identity and helping young people feel a sense of belonging in the Jewish community. At Temple Kol Tikvah, education is pivotal to helping young people become Jewishly committed adults and feel a sense of pride in their her-

Temple Solel now meets at a new location on the second and fourth Fridays and holds other celebrations at Grace Presbyterian Church in Fort Mill. This is much more than just a mere leasing of space. We have formed an ecumenical partnership with Grace. By teaming together, both congregations can provide more effective people power for social action projects.

For more information about our services and events, visit www.templesolSC.org or call (803) 610-1707.

itage and culture. If you and your child are interested in experiencing the fun of Jewish education at Temple Kol Tikvah, we would love to meet you!

Rohr Jewish Learning Institute Will Unveil Judaism’s Answers to 25 Questions About G-d

This fall, Rabbis Yossi Groner and Shlomo Cohen of Chabad of Charlotte will offer a six-week course produced by the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute (JLI) that unpacks Judaism’s understanding of G-d, while providing fresh, profound answers to common questions about G-d.

Although many may be familiar with Jewish traditions and culture, many struggle with matters of belief, faith, and how to wrap their minds around G-d and his interactions with our world. How did G-d come to be? Is G-d a He, a She, or a They? Does G-d have feelings? If G-d has foreknowledge of all events, how do we have free choice? Is there a place in Judaism for doubts about G-d? These are just some of the 25 questions addressed in “My G-d: Defining the Divine.” There will surely be many questions and discussions prompted by these introductory 25 questions. This is a chance to discuss some of your own perplexing curiosities about G-d with Rabbis

Groner and Cohen as they lead participants on the search for a human understanding of the infinite G-d.

Jewish culture and the Jewish people’s outlook on life are indelibly shaped by the classic Jewish understanding of G-d. “My G-d: Defining the Divine” is a one-ofa-kind course that brings to light the Jewish understanding of G-d, from which Judaism and Jewish identity inevitably flow.

When the course kicks off on Tuesday, November 8, at 7:30 p.m. or Wednesday, November 9, at 11:00 a.m., its fast-paced lessons will lead participants toward a comprehensive understanding of Jewish monotheism. The discussions will probe philosophical topics, but the course is anchored in real life and offers accessible answers for students of all backgrounds.

“These are questions we hear all the time,” says Rabbi Yossi Groner. “This course is the first time there’s an address where you can get straight answers to

all the big questions you might have about G-d.”

Rabbi Shlomo Cohen says this new course is the perfect offering for anyone with sincere questions about G-d or who just seeks an enhanced understanding of Judaism’s approach to this core topic.

As with other JLI courses, the course is designed to appeal to people at all levels of knowledge, including those without prior exposure to Jewish learning. All JLI sessions are open to the public, and attendees need not be affiliated with a particular synagogue, temple, or house of worship.

Interested students may call (704) 366-3984 or visit www. myJLI.com to register or to access other course-related information. JLI courses are presented at the Epstein Chabad Center for Jewish Life, at 6619 Sardis Road. Course fees are $99 per person or $180 for a couple. This course meets on Tuesday nights at 7:30 p.m. or Wednesdays at 11 a.m. Classes will be primarily in person but can be available on Zoom

as needed.

JLI, the adult education branch of Chabad, offers programs in more than 1,600 international locations in the U.S., Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Panama, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey,

Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and Venezuela. More than 400,000 students have attended JLI classes since JLI was founded in 1998.

The Hebrew Cemetery joins with the community in remembering the names of those who have been buried at the Hebrew Cemetery in the month of August.

Clive Shewitz 9-3-1938

Arthur Becker 3-25-1928

Esther Harris 5-11-1929

Henry Cantor 1-30-1947

Scott Turner 4-4-1990

Marty Kestin 4-16-1969

Morris Guller 4-13-1950

8-1-2022

7-31-2022

7-28-2022

8-15-2022

8-15-2022

8-21-2022

4-12-2016

Religious Life

BJC Sukkot Celebration

Sukkot

Join us in the sukkah for a fabulous family event with delicious dinner, drinks, entertainment. Do the lulav shake and enjoy an exciting evening with your friends and family.

Thursday, October 13, 5:30 p.m.

Non Partners: $20 per person — maximum $60 per family

Partners*: $15 per person — maximum $50 per family

Partners are families that have committed to join the BJC partner project by making a specific annual financial contribution toward BJC. RSVP Leah@JewishBallantyne.com or call (704) 408-1116

Lunch in the Sukkah at Sun City Carolina Lakes

Bring your friends and join us for a delicious lunch in the sukkah right in the middle of Sun City.

Wednesday, October 12.

Choose the time that works for you — 11 a.m. or 12:30 p.m. At the home of Jacob & Betty Cohen. RSVP for address. $15 per person.

To RSVP email Rabbi@JewishBallantyne.com or call (704) 737-0555

Simchat Torah

Join us for a grand Torah celebration for kids and adults! Enjoy a delicious dinner in the sukkah followed by dancing with the Torah and a special program for the kids. Simchat Torah is all about unbridled joy, which surpasses even the joy of Sukkot. The joy reaches its climax on Simchat Torah, when we celebrate the conclusion — and commencement — of the annual Torah-reading cycle.

Monday, October 17, 6:30 p.m.

At the Ballantyne Jewish Center 8632 Bryant Farms Rd. Open to the Community Free of Charge

RSVP Appreciated - Leah@JewishBallantyne.com (704) 4081116

LEGACY DONORS

Anonymous* (4)

Sanford and Lois Benjamin

Bobbi and Don Bernstein

Lillian (OBM) and Irving Bienstock

Barry and Lisa Blau

Jill Blumenthal

David and Bonnie Bornstein

Sera and Marvin Callif

Paul and Lynn Edelstein

David and Aleen Epstein

Jacob M. and Hunter K. Fuerstman

Sandra Goldman

Mark and Linda Goldsmith

Meg D. Goldstein and Matthew Luftglass

Bill and Patty (OBM) Gorelick

Keith E. Greenspon

Roslyn Greenspon

The following individuals/families are in the Book of Life Society and have granted us permission to share with you that Hebrew Cemetery Association has been included as a beneficiary of their legacy gift.

Louis A. Sinkoe and H. Kevin Levine

Eric Levinson

Steven and Sharon Hockfield

Jake Jacobson

Nancy and Robert Kipnis

Lorrie and Barry Klemons and Family

Barry Bobrow and Karen Knoble

Elise and Jaime Kosofsky

Eric and Susan Lerner

Harry and Gloria Lerner

Barbara and Jerry Levin

David and Brenda Levin and Family

Howard Levine and Julie Lerner Levine

Leon and Sandra Levine

Lisa Strause Levinson

Michael Littauer

Annie and Harrison Lord

Isaac (OBM) and Sonia (OBM) Luski

Rose (OBM) and Abe (OBM) Luski

Peggy McManus

Dr. Fred and Mrs. Joy Miller

Paula Sigal Musler

Marcelle and Allan Oxman

Albert Rogat

Estelle and Murray (OBM) Rosen

Fern T. Sanderson

Marty and Elaine Schefflin

Morey and Lynne Sheffer

Marc and Mattye Silverman

Gary and Maxine (OBM) Silverstein

Marcia and Paul Simon

Lori and Eric Sklut

Philip and Lauren Stark

Stephanie and Steven Starr

Norman Steinberger (OBM)

Jeffrey and Karen Turk

Robert and Ellie Valenstein

Amy and Mark Vitner

Nora Wolf

Brian Yesowitch Family

Barbara and Herm Ziegler

*Donors who wish to remain anonymous

OBM - Of Blessed Memory

To learn how you can create your own Jewish legacy, contact Phil Warshauer (704) 973-4544 or Abby Kleber (704) 973-4554.

704.973.4544 • charlottejewishfoundation.org

Alan Goldberg: Short in Stature but Larger Than Life

On November 29, 1943, Rabbi Joshua Loth Liebman of Temple Israel in Brookline, Massachusetts, gave a warm send-off to 14 young conscripts about to be transported to Ft. Devens. One of those young men, already attending Tufts University, was 18-year-old Alan Goldberg. During WWII, a bathtub would save Alan’s life, enabling him to live to the ripe old age of 97 until he passed away this past July, leaving a legacy of two children, six grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and so much to Charlotte’s Jewish community.

Ruth, his wife of 69 years, smooths out the creases of a vintage pictorial map that traces the 13th Armored Division’s movement in France and Germany (January through May 1945) “from the day they marched down the gang-plank at Le Harve until the bright May day when the German High Command surrendered unilaterally.” Somewhere along that route in Germany, Alan’s 46th Tank Battalion prepared to cross a bridge. First in line was Alan’s tank. But General George Patton showed up and was appalled to see a bathtub (for the entire battalion’s use) welded

onto the back of Alan’s tank. Despite Patton’s directive, the bathtub could not be uncoupled. And so Alan’s tub-tank was relegated to third in the lineup. The bridge collapsed under the weight of the first two armored tanks.

Near Simbach, Germany, Alan attended a USO show. A woman in a two-piece swimsuit danced on a makeshift stage — a raised platform in the back of an army truck. Alan shouted to the men in his company, “That’s my cousin Josephine from Brookline, Massachusetts.” After the show, Private First-Class Alan

Goldberg, trailed by the hundred or so men in his company, went “backstage,” took off his helmet, and asked his cousin, “Jo, do you remember Alan Goldberg from Brookline?” He was rewarded with lipstick kisses all over his face.

After the war, Alan received a B.S. in chemistry from Tufts and subsequently an MBA from The Wharton School. Brandeis University was in its infancy, and a birthday party was given for Alan’s uncle, a university founder. The student selected to give a speech in honor of Alan’s uncle was Ruth Abrams. Alan’s mother, sitting in the audience, was so impressed by Ruth that she asked for her phone number. She then gave Ruth’s number to Alan, opining, “This is the girl you should marry.” With what Goldberg concedes was the worst pickup line of all times, he dutifully phoned and said to Ruth, “My mother said that I should call you.” Asked whether it was love at first sight, Alan always said yes; Ruth says, by the third date.

Alan became president of a successful textile plant in Bessemer City, a small town in Gaston County, but commuted for many

years between New York and North Carolina. Finally, in 1962, the whole family — Alan and Ruth and their two sons Michael and Jonathan — moved to Charlotte and joined Temple Israel the same week.

Marshall Rauch of Gastonia, the first Jewish man to serve in

the North Carolina State Senate, approached Alan to help end segregation by making his plant the first integrated textile plant in Gaston County. Rauch didn’t mean a janitor; he wanted Alan to hire an African American to

(Continued on page 19)

Bal Tashchit and Beyond: Do Not Destroy

The phrase bal tashchit means do not destroy. The mitzvah of bal tashchit – the commandment to not destroy or waste items from the natural world – is one of the core tenants of Shalom Green: The Shalom Park Environmental Initiative. But in practice, how does one not destroy when it is clearly impossible for us to live without having some negative effect on the world around us?

The source text for this mitzvah comes from the Book of Deuteronomy:

“When you besiege a city for a long time in order to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you must not cut them down. Are trees of the field human to withdraw before you into the besieged city? Only trees that you know do not yield food may be destroyed; you may cut them down for constructing siegeworks against the city that is waging war on you, until it has been reduced.”

The implication of this text essentially prohibits any wasteful negative effect on the natural environment. Do not destroy simply to destroy, as in during times of war. Eat from fruit trees, but do not cut them down, and use only trees that do not produce food for construction.

How can we fulfil the mitzvah of bal tashchit in contemporary times? I believe it means that we have a duty to be mindful of how

we use natural resources, looking at not only the moment we are using them but also from a life cycle perspective. Consider the tree that bears fruit; it should not be cut down because we must have the presence of mind and the forethought to understand how it will provide for us in the future.

We can all use more forethought when considering environmental consequences of our actions from a life cycle approach. Consider Styrofoam, for example. The word Styrofoam is widely used when referring to expanded polystyrene foam, which can be used for disposable cups, takeout food packaging, egg cartons, or as “packing peanuts.” In manufacturing, polystyrene usually starts as small, dense, hard beads that are softened by heat and expanded using things like steam and blowing agents. These expanded cells are then formed and bonded into shapes for con-

sumer products.

We all know by now that expanded polystyrene products are designed to be wasted. Expanded polystyrene products are lightweight but not durable, so they are used once and then thrown away. Expanded polystyrene foam products are not recyclable, with the great majority of these disposable consumer products ending up in landfill. One common estimate is that expanded polystyrene foam can represent 30% of the space in some landfills. And some estimates put the lifespan of expanded polystyrene foam in a landfill at around 500 years.

Looking at it from a life cycle approach - for every cup of coffee consumed in an expanded polystyrene foam cup, it may take me 20 minutes to drink from it, and then that cup lives on in a landfill for 500 years - to me, that is destruction simply for destruction’s sake. We could use an

How Expensive Is It To Attend College in 2022?

What does it cost to go to college these days? Several factors make this a complicated answer. Where to go to school, whether to live on campus or at home, whether the school is private or public – these are all factors to consider.

In 2021, the total cost for a student from Charlotte to attend the University of North Carolina at Charlotte was $23,716. This includes tuition and fees, books and supplies, food and board, transportation to and from school, transportation at school, and miscellaneous expenses. By contrast, the cost to attend Davidson College, a private university, was estimated at $70,225. Jewish Educational Loan Fund (JELF) was designed to provide interest-free loans to Jewish students who demonstrate need. JELF loans are designed to help students who are pursuing undergraduate, graduate, or vocational school degrees. In 2021 alone, JELF provided $73,126 to 17 Jewish

students from Charlotte, North Carolina. As you can imagine, these loans, which never accrue interest, provide a significant amount of relief!

JELF services a five-state region (Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, excluding metro DC).

JELF applicants can attend

expanded polystyrene product because it is available to us and convenient or we could fulfill the mitzvah of bal tashchit and choose not to drink that coffee or bring our own cup or takeout container or let vendors and restaurants know that as consumers, we prefer alternatives.

This is just one example of how we can all fulfill the mitzvah of bal tashchit - do not destroy. Consider a few other possible ways we can use what we need without being excessive: taking shorter showers, making fewer new clothing purchases, and drinking from reusable water bottles. The concept of bal tashchit can help us all combat wastefulness and be better stewards of our environment. Shalom Green would love to hear your

ideas on how we can mitigate environmental destruction in our everyday lives.

Connect with us on Facebook at Shalom Green: The Shalom Park Environmental Initiative is on Instagram and Twitter @ shalomgreen_CLT. If you are interested in donating your time or dollars to Shalom Green, please visit our website at https://shalomgreenclt.org/ and email us at info@shalomgreenCLT.org. Jewish tradition teaches the importance of caring for the environment, for we must act as partners in preserving creation.

Alan Goldberg

(Continued from page 18)

be in charge of white employees. Alan needed someone with a photographic memory who could lift a 250-pound case of yarn. Rauch introduced Alan to an African American pharmacist by the name of Dr. Smith, who knew just the man (with a name right out of Central Casting): George Columbus Washington.

school anywhere in the United States as long as their school is accredited and they are registered as full-time students. In short, JELF helps students chase their dreams – interest free!

Elisabeth Blum, a recent JELF alumni from Charlotte, is incredibly proud to have used JELF, stating, “I was able to focus on school, community, internships, and the full college experience without worrying too much over tuition expenses.” To learn more about JELF and see if you or someone you know qualify, visit us at jelf.org. JELF’s application for 0% interest student loans is available January through April 30 and again from August to September 30. Start your interest-free journey today

Shortly thereafter, Alan received a phone call late one night telling him that during the third shift, someone at the plant had hung an effigy of a Black man. After contacting the police, Alan drove to the plant with Ruth (who insisted on accompanying him), locked her in his office with instructions to call the police if needed, and went onto the factory floor to fire the two men responsible, right there on the spot. Despite his short stature, Alan was armed with remarkable courage and the conviction that hatred must be met head on.

Alan’s goodness led to much volunteer work in the Jewish community. When a back injury sidelined him from playing tennis and golf, Alan took up photography. Most of the pictures in Morris Speizman’s book “The Jews of Charlotte” were taken by Alan, as are many of the Jewish Family Services (JFS) photos in the lobby of the Levine Jewish Community Center (LJCC). Alan joined JFS’s board in 1994, and within three years served as its chair, a position he held for six years. At the end of his term, JFS made him its first lifetime board member.

Upon his retirement, Alan served for seven years as a photographer for Shalom Park Freedom School, a literacy-based summer program. He braved the sweltering summer heat to document economically disadvantaged youngsters at barbecues, chess boards, swimming pools, and horse pastures.

In 2019, Alan and Ruth were recipients of Temple Israel’s honored Shofar Award for their years of service to Temple Israel and to the Charlotte Jewish community. In addition to Alan’s service to the community, Ruth had been a teacher at Temple Israel’s religious school along with director of its preschool and editor of “The American Jewish Times Outlook,” and she has served in countless other leadership roles in the Jewish community inside and outside of Temple Israel.

Toward the end of his life, Alan developed Parkinson’s and enrolled at the LJCC in Rock Steady Boxing, a non-contact boxing-based fitness curriculum, which Alan and Ruth continued to participate in via Zoom during the COVID lockdown.

Temple Israel’s Rabbi Michael Wolk, who often visited with Alan and Ruth when in-person services weren’t being held during the pandemic, spoke at Alan’s funeral service about Alan’s division’s liberation of a concentration camp. While waiting for medics and U.S. commanders to arrive, a Jewish survivor and Alan (each knowing just a little of the other’s language) had an exchange through the barbed wire fence. The survivor was so happy not just for the food rations but also to know that he was speaking to a fellow Jew. His words: “I’m the same as you.”

Tzedakah, humor, and love of family guided Alan’s life. He was inspired by his grandmother’s wisdom regarding fundraising: “Cover the seats with tochases.” When folks asked him, “How are you?” he channeled the positivity and wit of Temple Israel’s former Rabbi Richard Rocklin: “Things are phenomenal — but they will improve.” And with pride he celebrated family simchas at Temple Israel: L’dor v’dor.

It’s all right here outside the door of your gorgeous modern and secure residence in Generations at Shalom Park. Jewish in culture and open to all, Generations will be senior living like you’ve never seen.

Generations was conceived through a collaboration between the partners at Shalom Park and Aldersgate Life Plan Services Aldersgate will operate the community, bringing its 75 years of expertise in the aging services field.

Now, for a limited time, those who join our Genesis Club will receive up to a six-figure discount. Contact us today to learn more.

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• generationsatshalompark.com

Set Square Puzzle

Fill in the missing numbers so that the equations work left to right and top to bottom. Each equation must equal the number indicated at the side or bottom of the grid.

Note: order of operations does not necessarily comply with mathematics conventions.

(Solution on page 29)

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Every Vote Counts in Upcoming Elections

tifros min hatzibur.” The sage Hillel taught: “Do not separate yourself from the community” (Pirke Avot 2:5). Moreover, it is our responsibility to play an active role in our community and choosing its leaders. With this advice, cited by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, we as Jews have a responsibility to vote.

In the November 2022 general election, your ballot will include a number of extremely important leaders: All North Carolinians will be electing a U.S. senator, and Mecklenburg County residents in the 12th and 14th congressional districts will elect their representative to the U.S. House of Representatives. Other elected officials on the ballot will

be state senators, state representatives, county commissioners at-large and county commissioners in all districts, a district attorney, clerk of the Superior Court, sheriff, Soil & Water Conservation District member, and Superior Court judges. In addition, Charlotte City residents will elect a mayor, city council at-large members, Charlotte City Council district members, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board members. Other towns

will elect their local leaders as well. So this is a very full ballot! As Carolina Jewish for Justice notes, “Everything is on the ballot — healthcare, reproductive rights, gun control, voting rights and democracy.”

To find your specific candidates on the ballot, Mecklenburg residents can visit the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections website at www.meckboe.org. Residents of other counties can Google their local board of elections website or the North Carolina Board of Elections website at www.ncsbe.gov.

The polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on election day, Tuesday, November 8, but there are many other opportunities to cast your ballot. Absentee One Stop voting (“early voting”) runs from October 20 to November 5.

Information on sites and times of early voting are available from the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections. Absentee ballots (vote by mail) are also available from the Board of Elections. Of course, to vote, you must be registered! You can check your voter registration status at vt.ncsbe.gov/RegLkup/. If you are not registered to vote, the deadline to register to vote is October 14. But at the early voting sites, you can register to vote and vote!

Excellent information on the candidates’ positions is available from the League of Women Voters at vote411.org .

Carolina Jews for Justice is also offering many opportunities to get involved. You can check out its Voting Rights webpage at www.carolinajewsforjustice.

org/voting_rights for the latest events and activities. One to especially consider is the Get Out the Vote Shabbat on October 21. Go to www.carolinajewsforjustice.org/gotv_shabbat for details and a way to register.

Rabbi Yitzhak taught, “A ruler is not to be appointed unless the community is first consulted” (Babylonian Talmud Berachot 55a).

This deeply embedded ethic of political participation has guided Jews to enthusiastically participate in the American electoral process. So GO VOTE!

9. F.D.R. and J.F.K., e.g.

10. Part of a clock or watch

11. 16th century Jewish hero Gracia Nasi

12. ___ Shabbat

17. ‘Hood to the right of Central Park on most maps

20. Hugh known for singing, dancing, and tearing things apart with adamantium claws

22. California’s Air

23. Outdoor retail giant

25. Life account, briefly

26. Just goes on and on and on 27. “Ease on Down the Road” musical, with “The”

28. Small

29. Dictator Amin

30. Treif sandwich letters

31. School advisory grp.

32. Place for a chemical peel

33. Car-pool lane designation

34. Diamondbacks Jewish name on scoreboards?

36. Number for January

39. Internet company that once charged by the hour

40. Shluff

42. ___ Shabbat

43. Shabbat ___

44. Powerful painkiller

45. Opposite of former

46. Oscar who created Dorian Gray

47. Org. with a Champions Tour

48. ___ Shabbat

49. Roman Emperor who converted to Judaism, per lore

50. Israeli footwear

51. 1/16 cup: Abbr.

52. Help break the law

54. ___ Garden Hills, Queens

55. Lager alternative

How To Vote in North Carolina

North Carolina allows any voter to request a ballot by mail. You can also vote in person in North Carolina during early voting and on Election Day.

Who can register to vote?

To register in North Carolina you must:

- Be a citizen of the United States live in the county where you are registering, and have resided there for at least 30 days prior to the date of the election

- Be 18 years old by the day of the next General Election. You may pre-register to vote if you are at least 16 years old. You may vote in a primary election if you will be 18 years old at the time of the General Election

- Not be in jail or prison for a felony conviction

How do I vote in person?

Vote on Election Day: Voters in North Carolina can look up where to vote on North Carolina's site. Vote early: North Carolina does offer early voting. Learn more about voting early in North Carolina.

What to bring:If you've voted in North Carolina before, you don't need to show ID to vote.

If you registered to vote for the first time and did not provide a

North Carolina driver license number or last four digits of your Social Security number on your registration application, or you provided a number that could not be validated, you will be required to show proof of identification.

Proof of identification includes:

- Current and valid photo identification

- Current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows your name and address

Voters without ID: If you are unable to provide ID, you will still be able to vote a provisional ballot and can bring one of these documents to the board of elections prior to canvass.

How do I vote by mail?

- Request your mail-in ballot with a mail ballot application.

- Fill out the application completely.

- Submit the request to your local election office.

When your ballot arrives, read it carefully and follow the instructions to complete it and return it. Note: You may not return your ballot to a polling place on Election Day.

Visit https://ncvoterguide.org/ for the North Carolina Voter Guide.

Hadassah Plays and Learns in the New Year

Did you know that in October, monarch butterflies residing in the eastern part of North America begin their migration south to Mexico? This year, October also begins with Jews migrating, in a way, from one Jewish year to the next. On behalf of the Hadassah Charlotte Metro chapter, I wish everyone a meaningful fast on Yom Kippur, a joyful Sukkot,

and happy Simchat Torah. Chag sameach!

Fun in the New Year

Please join us for Hadassah Charlotte Metro’s first annual Game Day and Silent Auction on Sunday, October 23 from 2 to 5 p.m. Sign up on our website and bring your own mahjong set, Rummikub, cards, or any other games you would like to play. We will have card tables set

up at Crews Recreation Center, 1201 Crews Road in Matthews. Bring your friends or play in a new group and meet new people.

Silent auction items include a wonderful weeklong vacation in Hilton Head, a four-day weekend in beautiful Beech Mountain, North Carolina, a black-andwhite drawing by Caricatures by Joel, wine basket, and more. For $25.00, you can enjoy snacks and

drinks, one free door prize ticket, and a day of fun and laughter. Deadline to register is October 18.

The next Wine & Schmooze is Tuesday, November 1. Join us at 7 p.m. at Vintner Wine Market in the Arboretum Shopping Center on the first Tuesday of the month. Note that we are not meeting in October because of Kol Nidre. Whether you are a longtime, new, or potential member, stop by for a casual evening.

Learn Something New

Have you lived in Charlotte most of your life, or have you moved here from somewhere else? Do you know about Charlotte Jewish history? If not, here’s a chance to learn. Sign up for a special Jewish Heritage Tour on Sunday, November 13. We will meet at 11 a.m. at Queens University and conclude by 3 p.m. The price is $36, and lunch is included. The program is open to both men and women.

Charlotte’s 165 years of Jewish history is rich with civic, business and religious leaders, and philanthropists. Participants will enjoy a unique, engaging, entertaining, and educational walk through our city’s history. We will pass through historic sites that highlight Jewish contributions to our county and state as we explore the pluralistic and powerful Jewish community that thrives in Charlotte today. Hear stories that can’t be found in history books and personal gems of wisdom from the voices of our community’s founders, builders, and humanitarians. Check our website for details and sign-ups.

Check Your Ta-Tas

October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Plan now for your mammogram. The Mammovan (aka Novant Health Breast Center mobile unit) will be onsite at the Levine Jewish Community Center on Nov. 30. Call Novant at (704) 384-7226 to make an appointment.

We Love to Read!

October is National Book Month. Celebrate by joining one (or more) of our book clubs.

Hadassah BookTalk kicks off 5783 by discussing “Not Our Kind” by Kitty Zeldis on October 25 at 7 p.m. Join us on Zoom. Looking ahead, we will talk about “Mary Jane” by Jessica Anya Blau on November 15 (note new date).

Beverly’s Book Nook meets on Friday, October 14 at 1:30 p.m. via Zoom to discuss “The Matzah Ball” by Jean Meltzer. We will discuss “Saving the Music” by Vincent B. “Chip” LoCoco on November 18.

Beginning on October 21, the Short Story Discussion Group will talk about stories from Israeli author Amos Oz’s collection, “Scenes from Village Life.” It is a novel in stories that depict the fast changes in Israeli society and in the state’s scenery. Mark your calendar for future meetings on November 18 and December 16. The Short Story Discussion Group meets monthly on the third Friday at 11:45 a.m. via Zoom.

Hadassah Happenings

The next Hadassah Charlotte Metro Board is on Monday, October 24. Meetings are at 6 p.m. at the South County Library, 5801 Rea Road, Community Room B. A Zoom link is available if you cannot attend in person.

Interested in joining Hadassah or learning more? Contact Anik Harrison at the phone or email below or come to one of our events.

Our website, www.hadassahcltevents.org, has details about our events. If you have questions, email HadassahCLT@ gmail.com or call our general phone number, (980) 553-1880. Your message will be forwarded to the correct person.

Follow us on social media: Facebook (Hadassah CLT Metro), Instagram (Hadassah Charlotte Metro), and Twitter (@HadassahCLT). The

The Jews, Stuffed Cabbage and Simchat Torah

It’s almost encoded in your Jewish DNA: How you make your stuffed cabbage all depends on where your grandmother came from.

For many, the delicacy is served on the holiday of Simchat Torah much the same way that latkes are associated with Chanukah, hamentaschen tag along with Purim and Shavuot comes with a plethora of dairy dishes.

So how did the overcooked, gelatinous, rolled-up dish become associated with the last festival of the High Holidays season?

“Most of the traditional foods we eat on Jewish holidays start out with a seasonal reason as to why we eat them, and later a religious significance is tacked on,” says Gil Marks, a Jewish food historian and author of the “Encyclopedia of Jewish Food.” “Vegetables like cabbage were in season during the fall and very cheap, so stuffed cabbage became one of the most popular traditional foods eaten. Cabbage was the odor of the shtetl.”

Travel back some 500 years to the 16th century, when Jews first started living in shtetls. The Jews mostly kept to themselves, but the food they ate often was a kosher adaptation of what their non-Jewish neighbors were eating, Marks says.

Stuffed cabbage was a staple dish for peasants during the cold season in places such as Turkey and Persia, and it arrived to the Jews of Europe from the south and the east, according to Marks. Jews living in places like Russia and Poland learned the dish from the Tatars, a Turkish group that ruled the area in the 16th century, while Jews living in southern European countries such as Hungary and the Balkans learned it from their Turkish neighbors, who then were under the control of the Ottoman Empire.

Eastern European Jews adapted the dish with cabbage and kosher meat, naming it after a dove because the rolled up item resembled a bird in a nest. So in Russian it was called golub, in Ukraine holub and in Yiddish teibel — all words for dove.

Those living in the Ottoman Empire made the dish using local grape leaves. They gave the dish a more literal name in Turkish, like sarma, which means wrap, yaprak for leaf, or dolma for stuffed.

From here, Jewish communities added their variations. Many Hungarian Jews use a dash of marjoram, Syrians add cinnamon, Persians throw in some dill and mint, and Ro-

manians toss in lots of garlic and paprika.

As meat was expensive, many Jews in the Middle East and Romania would add rice to reduce the share of meat needed, while Eastern European Jews would add bread, barley or kasha. Some Middle Eastern varieties use only rice for the stuffing.

“They didn’t always have money to buy meat, but when they did, they saved it for special occasions and served their best dish on Simchas Torah,” Marks said, using the Ashkenazic pronunciation for the holiday.

When Jews began to immigrate to America in the 19th and 20th century, the dish took on new variations, like cooking it in a tomato stew or a sweet-andsour sauce.

“I’ve met so many people over the years that like to make their own little variation of the dish, adding a little sour cream or parmesan cheese,” Joan Nathan, a Jewish cuisine author and television producer, told JTA. “But honestly, why change a recipe that has been through so many generations and is perfect the way it is? We use the same recipe, year after year, and that’s what makes it so special.”

With the dish appearing at the end of Sukkot year after year — Simchat Torah comes the day after Sukkot ends, and some American Jews spend the holiday’s first day, called Shemini Atzeret, eating in the sukkah — Jews began ascribing new meanings to stuffed cabbage. (Or, perhaps, those points of significance were hidden in the folds of the cabbage all along.)

“Some believe stuffing a food represents the time of harvesting, since Sukkot marks the fall

harvest. More importantly, it was easily transferable in and out of the sukkah,” Marks said. “It also has an interesting visual. One stuffed cabbage on a plate noticeably resembles a rolled up Torah scroll — and two, side by side, also looks like a Torah, rolled up halfway.”

Tori Avey, a Jewish convert who writes the culinary blog Shiksa in the Kitchen, says readers from all over the world have sent recipes to her. Some were identical.

“For a sweet and sour flavor, readers wrote to add sour salt, although some opt for lemon juice or apple cider vinegar,” Avey told JTA via email. “One reader with Russian ancestors uses lemon peels. Some readers said they use sauerkraut for the sauce, and others use convenience ingredients like cranberry juice, V-8, and even grape jelly.”

Whether you stew it, boil it, saute it or steam it, there’s no right or wrong when it comes to preparing stuffed cabbage. The important thing, Marks says, is to remember your roots.

“People remember the different variations of stuffed cabbage based on their mothers and grandmothers,” he said. “It’s not just about food. Eating something as traditional as this is a cultural experience, one that is spiritual and nostalgic. It manages to transcend time, its food for the soul.”

See page 27 for a vegetarian stuffed cabbage recipe from My Jewish Learning/The Nosher.

Bridgewood Property Company is carrying on its tradition of building award-winning communities and offering luxury retirement living, now available for discerning Charlotteans.

The Village on Morehead, currently under construction, will offer an exceptional experience for those seeking epicurean inspired cuisine, engaging programs, rejuvenating health and wellness services in a sophisticated community where you will Live Life Well®. Information

Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage Recipe

From Italy to Poland, from Ukraine to China, stuffed cabbage is a classic comfort food in many parts of the world. While it takes some time to make, the effort put into the dish is rewarded in its results: The cabbage turns tender and sweet, and the savory filling is enhanced by the tanginess of the tomato sauce it slowly simmers in

While stuffed cabbage is typically made with ground meat, this Ashkenazi-style stuffed cabbage is vegetarian and is made with eggplant. The recipe for the filling is versatile, it is gluten and dairy-free, and it can be made vegan by omitting the egg. If you’re not a fan of eggplant, you can replace the eggplant with zucchini or your favorite vegan ground meat substitute. If you prefer meat, you can substitute the eggplant in this recipe for an equal amount of ground beef or chicken. I find the eggplant offers its own “meatiness” to the dish; and when it is peeled and cut into small cubes it becomes tender and soft, and easily absorbs the flavors of the caramelized onion, garlic and spices that help create the unmistakable flavors of Eastern European-style stuffed cabbage. The sauce is slightly sweet and sour, and it demands to be eaten with a slice of good crusty bread to mop up any last drops.

Ingredients

For the cabbage rolls:

1 large Savoy or green cabbage

⅔ cups Basmati rice, rinsed

3 Tbsp neutral cooking oil

1 large onion, diced fine

2-3 cloves garlic, minced fine

1½ lbs pounds (2 medium) eggplant, peeled and cubed small

1 small carrot, diced fine

1½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp paprika

½ tsp umami season blend/dried mushroom seasoning blend (optional)

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 large egg, optional

For the sauce:

28 oz tomato purée, plus an equal amount of water

½ a large onion, finely chopped

3-4 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 small apple, peeled and finely diced

2 Tbsp tomato paste

2-3 Tbsp maple syrup, or 2 tsp sugar, or to taste

1 bay leaf

Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

To prep the cabbage: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water generously, and then add the cabbage to the water. Boil the cabbage for 4-5 minutes. Then remove the cabbage from the pot and allow it to cool, reserve the water to boil the rice.

Once cool to the touch, remove the leaves, and place them on a clean kitchen towel to remove any excess liquid. The center of the cabbage/smaller leaves will not be as pliable and can be reserved for other uses.

To make the filling: Bring the pot of water back to a boil, and add the rice. Boil the rice for 8-10 minutes, or until partially cooked. Drain and reserve.

To a large skillet over medium heat, add the oil and chopped onion. Allow the onion to get golden brown and slightly caramelized, stirring occasionally for about 15-20 minutes. This step takes some time but adds a lot of flavor; prep the other vegetables while the onion caramelizes. Add the garlic to the onion, and sauté for 1-2 minutes. Add the cubed eggplant and diced carrot to the onion mixture; add more oil if needed. Generously season with salt and pepper, and sauté the eggplant mixture until the eggplant is softened, about 10-

15 minutes. Taste, and adjust the seasoning.

Turn off the heat. Add the parboiled rice, garlic powder, paprika, and if using, add the umami/ dried mushroom seasoning blend. Allow the eggplant filling to cool. Add the egg if using, and mix until it is well combined.

To make the sauce: In a large pot or Dutch oven, sauté the onions and garlic until softened and aromatic, about 5 minutes. Add the apple, and sauté for another 2-3 minutes or until slightly softened. Add tomato paste and stir and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomato sauce, and add an equal amount of water. Then add bay leaf, salt, pepper, and maple syrup or sugar. Your sauce should start out very thin, but it will thicken as it cooks. Bring the sauce to a boil, and simmer on low for at least 30 minutes. Taste the sauce before adding the stuffed cabbage, and adjust for salt or sweetness. Dilute with more water if needed.

To assemble: Separate the cabbage leaves, and cut out the thickest part of the center vein/ core.

Fill each cabbage leaf with approximately ¼-cup of filling near the base of the leaf. Fold the base of the leaf over the filling, fold the sides of the leaf towards the

center, and then roll until the cabbage is formed into a burrito-like package. Place seam-side down into the pot; cabbage rolls can be stacked on top of each other as long as they are all submerged in the sauce.

Cover the pot, and let the cabbage simmer for 50-60 minutes on low heat, or until tender and the rice is completely cooked through. Add more water if the sauce appears too thick at any point, or when reheating. The sauce should be easy to spoon over the cabbage.

Serve topped with fresh herbs and/or sour cream.

Reprinted with permission from MyJewishLearning.com/ thenosher

This Biracial Jewish Teen Is Helping Bring Computer Coding to Young Students of Color

Gideon Buddenhagen, a 17-year-old biracial Jew of color from Oakland, California, has tried to live his life by the guid-

ing principle of tikkun olam — the Jewish value that translates as repairing the world.

“I interpret that to mean repairing my community,” he said. “One way I try to do that is by

creating equitable systems that help to uplift marginalized people of color.”

When he was sitting in computer coding class one day in the ninth grade at Oakland Technical High School, Gideon was struck by an idea. He had been serving as a volunteer tutor to a third-grade student of color who had no awareness of computer science. Why not help create a pathway to leadership and success for middle school students of color?

“I saw how I was benefitting from the technology field by taking this class called Google Code Next at Google’s office in Oakland,” Gideon said. “The class is directed towards high school students of color and teaches coding, technology — a whole range of subjects related to computer science. It is funded by Google and run by Google staff, who are usually of color.”

Gideon figured it could be transformative to provide computer technology classes to middle school students of color who generally had no knowledge about computer science.

“I wanted to offer opportunities to learn about computer science as a pathway out of poverty and show these students cool, smart role models who look like them,” he said.

Working with professionals at Google, Gideon created a program to do that. Called Leadership in Motion, it’s now being adopted by Google.

The initiative also earned Gideon the distinction of being one of 15 extraordinary teenagers nationwide to be selected as a recipient of the 2022 Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award, a program of the Helen Diller Family Foundation. Gideon applied for the award after reading about it in a newsletter from his synagogue, Kehilla Community Synagogue in Oakland.

Receiving the Tikkun Olam Award “helps me accelerate my education and deepens my connection with the Jewish community in a way I might not have had without it,” Gideon said. “It gives me the ability to meet so many teen leaders and to connect with a network of amazing people who do wonderful things in

the world and are eager to help uplift and support one another.”

The $36,000 award was founded in 2007 by Bay Area philanthropist Helen Diller to recognize socially committed young leaders whose dedication to volunteerism exemplifies the spirit of tikkun olam. This year’s awardees addressed such societal challenges as climate change, the need to support veterans, refugees, and senior citizens.

Gideon’s idea to provide

(Continued on page 29)

Jewish Teen

(Continued from page 28)

learning opportunities for middle school students of color in computer technology is proving to not only benefit them but give the high school students of color who teach them an opportunity to lead and be mentors in their community.

Google staff were supportive of Gideon’s idea when he broached it at a Google Code Next class he took in 2020. One staff member worked with him to figure out how to actualize it and build a curriculum. While the COVID pandemic raged, Gideon spent much of 2020 and 2021 developing connections to local nonprofit organizations with after-school programs.

One was Bridge the Gap College Prep in Marin City, which offered a program specifically directed toward area students of color often underrepresented in professional fields and without access to the meaningful opportunities that white students usually receive, Gideon said.

In the fall of 2021, Gideon and three other volunteer high school students did a pilot project with middle school students of color from Gap College Prep, teaching them about computer science. The classes all were held virtually because of the pandemic.

Last spring another pilot program was held for Bridge the Gap’s sixth-grade students.

That one-hour-a-day, eightweek program proved successful. Last July, two groups of middle school students of color met in person at the Google Code Next lab in Oakland for a two-hour day of learning at which Gideon and a friend served as mentors.

“It proved you can teach that many students, and we learned that having more mentors might be helpful,” Gideon said.

A second summer program was scheduled for this summer with a group of middle school students of color from a different after-school program in Oakland. These students were scheduled to attend for two hours every Tuesday and Thursday for four weeks.

“There is supervision from Google from time to time, but it is entirely run by the high schoolage mentors,” Gideon said.

After graduating high school with honors, Gideon is now looking forward to replicating Leadership in Motion on the East Coast, where he will be attending Brown University this fall. He already has spoken about it with Google, which plans to adopt it for its Google Code Next office in New York City.

This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards, which celebrate tikkun olam, or “repairing the world.”

Each year, the Helen Diller Family Foundation recognizes up to 15 extraordinary Jewish teenagers from across the United States with an award of $36,000 each to honor their initiatives to help change the world. Nominate a young leader today or teens can apply directly by January 5, 2023. This story was produced by JTA’s native content team.

Set Square Puzzle Solution

(Puzzle on page 21)

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Hebrew High: Most Frequently Asked

Whether or not you have registered for Hebrew High, Hebrew for Credit, or our Moving Traditions groups, you might be wondering about some of these questions below. Here are some of the top 10 questions parents have asked in the past.

What is Hebrew High?

Hebrew High is a joint venture between Temple Beth El and Temple Israel offering 8th12th grade students in the greater Charlotte area a top-notch Jewish educational experience and meaningful opportunities to create friendships and memories they will cherish for a lifetime. All Jewish teens are welcome to sign up for Hebrew High. We offer an enriched academic program in an environment that exposes teens to a variety of ideas, values, and practices that strengthen Jewish identity. We are more than a high school program; we are a kehillah – a community of bright, committed, young hearts and minds – dedicated to building a vibrant Jewish future for the next generation.

When and where does Hebrew High meet?

Hebrew High’s primary program meets weekly on Wednes-

days from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. It begins with a communal dinner at 7 p.m. and continues with a one-hour class from 7:30 pm to 8:30 p.m. We meet on Shalom Park.

What is the difference between religious school and Hebrew High?

The biggest difference is that your teen is in the driver’s seat during their time at Hebrew High; they get to create their own path! One example of this is that students are able to select which classes they want to take. During Hebrew High, they are learning about Judaism in a different way, building a deeper, more personal understanding of who they will be as a Jewish adult. Also, teens get to meet and hang out with other Jewish teens from across Charlotte!

Tell me more about classes: do I take one class the entire year, or can I select different classes throughout the year? Who teaches them?

The year is divided into three trimesters, and teens can choose from a variety of classes. The classes are open to specific grade levels in order to build relationships among teens and to be most

relevant to their lives. Classes are taught by our wonderful Hebrew High faculty and by clergy from Temple Beth El and Temple Israel.

When do we need to register by?

There is no end date to register. But to sign up for classes, we must receive a completed registration form. Classes fill up quickly, so you don’t want to wait!

I play a sport in the winter and will miss a lot of Hebrew High because of practice. Is that okay?

Yes! Teens can sign up for one, two, or all three trimesters.

We hope that this change will allow teens who have seasonal commitments to join us for part of the year.

What if I am signed up for just one trimester and midway through the year, I want to sign up for another trimester?

You can register for additional trimesters once the year begins.

What is Hebrew for Credit?

Hebrew High is proud to offer a Hebrew for High School Credit program. Classes have been approved by Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) and Union County Public Schools (UCPS). Students will receive one year of language credit for every two years they participate and pass their Hebrew for Credit Class. Please note that UCPS will count as pass/fail only and will not affect your GPA. If you attend a private school, you are still welcome to take Hebrew for Credit to learn the language! All Hebrew classes will meet from 5 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday nights at Shalom Park.

What is the Moving Traditions Program?

Last year, Hebrew High began

a partnership with the nationally renowned organization, Moving Traditions, to offer Rosh Chodesh (girls) and Shevet (boys) groups for 8th and 9th graders monthly on Sundays from 5 to 7 p.m. These groups use Jewish teachings and a gender lens to explore issues teens care about, such as friendship, body image, pressure, and relationships. These groups are led by Hebrew High faculty who are trained by the staff at Moving Traditions. (Hebrew High can also help teens connect with an online Tzelem group for trans, non-binary, or gender-questioning teens).

Where can I go to learn more, read up on the class options, and register for Hebrew High?

Even though the year has already started, it is not too late to sign up! Please visit our website at www.hebrewhigh.org.

Education and Youth

Freedom School Marks 12th Summer on Shalom Park

The higher you build your barrier

The taller I become

The farther you take my rights away

The faster I will run

You can deny me

You can decide to turn your face away

No matter ’cause there’s

Something inside so strong

I know that I can make it

If you walked outside the Levine Jewish Community Center this summer between 8:30 and 9 a.m., you likely heard these inspirational lyrics being sung (and shouted) each morning during Freedom School’s Harambee session. Harambee, a Kiswahili word meaning “all pull together,” captures the essence of our 46 scholars joining in songs, chants, and cheers, affirming they are up for any challenge and nothing will stop them from growing up to be strong individuals with purposeful and fulfilling lives.

Last summer marked the 12th year that Shalom Park has sponsored a Freedom School.

Scholars, from low-income households at risk for summer learning loss, spent six weeks on our Shalom Park campus. They completed a literacy program designed to maintain and improve their reading and comprehension skills. The summer program also included participation in enrichment programs, including a mock newscast activity with WCNC Reporter Nick Carboni,

chess lessons with hands-on playing time, field trips to Rays Splash Planet, a fun morning at the LJCC aquatic center, a visit on the Hornet’s Hugo Book Bus, and environmental programs with NC Wildlife and Catawba River Keepers. The site director, Imani Rankin, and a staff of five college interns, trained by the national Freedom School organization, led the six-week program, and our Shalom Park community provided the funding, space, and volunteers.

Each Agency on Shalom Park Supported the Program

Sponsoring a Freedom School site is a significant financial and logistical undertaking. First, $85,000 was raised to pay for the program. Funds came from an allocation from the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte, Temple Beth El’s tzedek fund, Temple Israel’s social action fund, and 120 individual donors. Second, space for classrooms was donated by Temple Israel, space for lunch and Finale was donated by Temple Beth El, playground use was donated by Charlotte Jewish Day School, and activity space and custodial and security services were donated by the Foundation of Shalom Park. The Levine-Sklut Judaic Library provided each scholar with library visits and new books for their book shelfs at home. Additionally, the Foun-

dation of Shalom Park gave each scholar a new backpack filled with every school supply needed for the upcoming school year!

(Continued on page 32)

JSTAGE Alumna To Perform in Annie at Children’s Theatre of Charlotte

The lights may be down on Jstage’s “Annie,” which premiered in December of 2019, but they’re certainly up on Children Theatre’s “Annie,” which runs from September 23 to October 23. Nora Yesowhich, who played Annie in Jstage’s production, is now in Children’s Theatre’s “Annie.” This time she plays Pepper, one of the orphans in Ms. Hannigan’s dreadful orphanage. The fact that Nora was cast in the show is a tribute to her true talent. Nora has been doing shows since she was very young, so it’s no surprise she’s had two major roles in Annie.

The shows at Children’s Theatre are very professional and not easy to be cast in. Everything is taken extremely seriously ¬¬¬¬¬¬— especially the audition process. You have to go through a multistep process that includes tryouts and then callbacks. Once that’s over, it can take some time until the cast list is revealed. This time can be full of anxiety, as all you can do is wait and hope for the best. Finally, when the cast list comes out, you will find out if you got into the show. When Nora found out she had made the show, she was extremely excited and looking forward to being a part of “Annie.” Now she gets to have a taste of what professional theater is like. This experience can help her decide whether she wants to pursue theater as a profession or if she just wants to be a part of theater as a hobby. For now, Nora plans to do shows at her school, Northwest School of the Arts, and at different venues in the Char-

lotte area. Nora has definitely chosen some of the best places to pursue musical theater. In Charlotte, Northwest School of the Arts and Children’s Theatre are some of the finest places to learn and perform in musicals. If Nora wants to get a taste of professional theater, she’s doing so at the right places.

Musical theater is a special thing to be part of, as each cast is like a family. Next year Nora would love to continue to be part of the family at Children’s Theatre. You can see Nora in action in “Annie” until October 23 at Children’s Theatre. For more

information about the dates and times of the show, visit Children’s Theatre’s website ctcharlotte.org. There’s more than one cast, so be sure to ask for the yellow cast if you want to see Nora as Pepper. After that you can see her in the middle school shows at Northwest School of the Arts.

Abby Sherman is an 8th grader at South Charlotte Middle School. She loves to perform in musicals, especially at the JCC. In her free time she loves to read, paint, and spend time with her friends and family. She enjoys baking and cooking.

Freedom School

(Continued from page 31)

Volunteers Made the Program a Success

The Shalom Park Freedom School steering committee, headed by Margaret Musa and Annie Lord, coordinated the program. Merle Gottheim planned afternoon activities; Tess Berger planned two amazing family nights in which families were served pizza, salad, fruit, and homemade desserts; Liz Wahls coordinated our Harambee readers; Kathy Warshaw and Hilary Rosenbaum coordinated our volunteers; Judy Kaufmann and Maddy Gallant provided daily snacks; Cheryl Alley and Donna Birnberg planned the finale luncheon and show; and Nancy Zolotorofe and Lauren Campbell recruited, trained, and managed

the teen board.

Fifteen local teens joined the teen board and volunteered as teacher assistants in the classrooms.

Jered Mond and Izzy’s Catering generously catered delicious breakfasts and lunches to the scholars.

Twenty-eight volunteer readers read stories aloud and shared their experiences with reading to the scholars at the morning Harambee sessions.

Twenty-five volunteers served as regular reading buddies during the summer.

Steering Committee Members Needed for 2023

Although Freedom School 2022 was an amazing success, the program cannot continue without volunteers to work on the steering committee. Many of our volunteers are stepping down from their positions, and new volunteers are needed to fill these positions. If you feel passionate about Shalom Park

housing a 2023 Freedom School, we need your help! Please contact co-chairs Margaret Musa at mmusa@carolina.rr.com or Annie Lord at anniehlord@gmail. com. They would love to hear from you!

5th Annual Pajama Walk at Freedom Park Presented by Lowe’s

The Pajama Walk on November 13 is a community walk to raise awareness and funds for Friendship Circle and ZABS Place, two local nonprofits that help children and young adults with special needs — and special talents — realize their dreams of living purposeful lives.

Friendship Circle provides social opportunities and peer mentoring for children and teens.

ZABS Place is a thrift boutique offering on-the-job training that can lead to a fulfilling career.

Here are some highlights at this year’s Pajama Walk: Ability Fair

A display of creations by local crafters and artists with some seriously special talents! These unique items make great gifts and support inclusion and ability awareness (and of course the artist).

Pajama Catwalk

Yes, you heard that right! You'll finally have an opportunity to show off those supercool Pajamas you’ve been hiding away!

Dreamland

Think of Candyland in a Dream... moon bounces, obstacle courses, races, pajama games, face-painting and more! There will also be a designated area for preschool-age kids with their very own Bubble Show!

Opening ceremonies begin at 12:30 p.m. at the Freedom Park Amphitheater.

To learn more and sign up, visit www.PajamaWalk.com

Friendship Circle & ZABS Place are both beneficiary agencies of the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte

Junior Teen Friend Program for Bar/Bat Mitzvah Aged Kids

Friendship Circle’s Junior Teen Friend program is designed for pre-teens entering into adulthood. The purpose is to provide the teens with a meaningful way to empower themselves as they give to others. Boys and girls, ages 12-13, will meet once a week for a three-week series. Each session will build upon the previous lessons, helping them reach a point of confidence in spending time with a special friend.

Week 1: Monday, October 24, 6:30–7:30 p.m., “Intro. To Special Needs; Understanding the challenges”

Week 2: Monday, October 31, 6:30–7:30 p.m., “Engaging People with Special Needs and Making Friends”

Week 3: Monday, November 7, 6:30–7:30 p.m., “Bridging the Gap –What We Can Do About It”

Graduation: Monday, November 14, 6:30 p.m.

Friendship Circle’s “Junior Teen Friend” program qualifies for three hours of community service. After completing the semester, participants may schedule a meeting to register as a Friendship Circle teen friend. For more information or to RSVP, please contact Shevy at 704-366-5983 or shevy@friendshipcirclenc.org.

Friendship Circle is a beneficiary of the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte. To learn more visit FriendshipCircleNC.org

This High Holiday Season, a Twitter “Repentance Bot” Wants To Teach People How To Apologize for Real

Move over, tashlich: Twitter is the new place to atone, thanks to a bot programmed by Jewish coders who want users to apologize better.

While the tradition of symbolically throwing bread, representing sins, into a body of water may be a more familiar High Holiday custom, a new Twitter bot aims to address “fauxpologies” on social media.

“Repentance Bot” allows users to tag the account when they see an apology that they believe falls short. The bot then

replies to the apology with encouragement to do better and a comic strip laying out five steps to take to do so.

The steps are those laid out in Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s forthcoming book, “On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World.” Out next Tuesday, the book uses the traditional Jewish concepts taught by the 12th-century Jewish philosopher Maimonides to discuss contemporary issues of surviving violence and lays out a framework for making amends in a meaningful way.

Repentance Bot is meant to

distill some of the lessons from the book and make them visible, Ruttenberg said.

“We live in a culture where people do not have a roadmap when harm is caused,” Ruttenberg told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “This is basically an experiment in public education, to try to see if we can move the culture towards showing people what taking responsibility and making change looks like.”

In one recent example, Repentance Bot was tagged underneath a video of the athletic director of Brigham Young University addressing fans after a Duke University volleyball player and her other Black teammates were attacked with racial slurs during a game against BYU.

“You’re a 10, but you need some help doing the work of repentance and accountability,” reads the tweet, which references a recent meme and is followed by the cartoon.

Unlike some Twitter bots that call out bad behavior on social media, including @ RacismDog and its now-defunct cousin, @AntisemitismCow, Repentance Bot aims to do more than name and shame. It launched on the first day of the Jewish month of Elul — the last month of the Jewish year and the beginning of a period of reflection ahead of the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Jewish New Year and Day of Atonement — and is meant to help people improve themselves.

The ideas and prayers of

Looking Back: October 2020

Partnership 2000 Delegation Visit to Charlotte

Karen Eini, Dr. Jacob Haspel, and David Shila visited Charlotte on Thursday, August 24,2000. Up until that day, they were names on a piece of paper, but when they left our community after spending only five hours with us they were like old friends. Karen, Jacob and David came to Charlotte as the visiting delegation from the Hadera-Eiron region of Israel, a region which lies between Tel Aviv and Haifa.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte has entered into a project called Partnership 2000. Partnership 2000, or P2K as it is known, is a people-to-people exchange of the Southeast Region of the United Jewish Communities and the Hadera-Eiron region of Israel. Partnership 2000 seeks to create a two-way link between Israelis and Diaspora Jews who work together as peers toward a mutually beneficial relationship. Development initiatives include job creation, education, absorption of immigrants,

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facilitate respondents’ reflection on their personal growth. And the Yom Kippur-themed eScapeGoat (also known as @ Apologybot) appeared on Twitter in 2013 and would “collect” users’ sins when tagged.

That bot was created by Russel Neiss, a Jewish technologist and educator who coded Repentance Bot and worked with the Jewish digital consulting company Tiny Windows to produce it on Ruttenberg’s behalf.

Repentance Bot, as with many similar bots, has a sense of humor. It is meant to be “fun and funny,” while also serving as an educational tool, said Ruttenberg, who last month announced that she would be donating to the National Survivor Network to begin to make amends for personally benefiting from a Jewish foundation tied to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“People will engage with it to have a little fun with it as well as trying to do meaningful public education,” she added.

In one meta-example, Re -

social and cultural growth, and health, all with sensitivity to the physical environment and the preservation of natural resources. Five percent of the dollars sent to Israel from our community will be diverted to our Partnership 2000 community.

As a first step, three representatives from the Hadera-Eiron region visited Charlotte. Dr. Jacob Haspel was born in Jerusalem and resides in Hertzlya. He is the Deputy to the Director General at the Hillel-Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera. Dr. Haspel is the chairman of the national committee for physicians, appointed by the Minister of Health. A career officer in the IDF Medical Corps, Dr. Haspel has an impressive military record. He served in the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War, was a field surgeon for the rescue of hostages raid on the Entebbe in 1976, and was chief medical officer of an armed corps in the Lebanon War of 1982.

Karen Eini was born in Montreal, Canada and immigrated to Israel in 1989. Presently residing in Katzir, she is employed at the Katzir School as an English Coordinator and teacher for grades four through nine. She created, designed and coordinated the international collaborative, multicultural learning project “Friends and Flags.” The program has been used in ninety classrooms in twenty-five countries throughout the world. To learn more about Karen’s program “Friends and Flags,” go to http://www.schoollife.net/ schools/flags.

David Shilo is the Director of the Division of Social Affairs and Cultural Activities for the Hadera-Eiron Region. He is in charge of establishing policies and planning activities for the diverse groups of immigrants at absorption centers and kibbutzim in the region. In addition he is in charge of all public buildings built throughout the region and acts as the

contact for donors and their escorts during their visits to Israel. Born in Tel Aviv, David earned his BS, MS, and PhD degrees from Cornell University.

For its part, the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte has created the Israel and Oversees Committee, to be chaired by Penny Lipsitz and the Partnership 2000 (P2K) Committee, with Mark Rabinovitz as chair, with the purpose of connecting Charlotte to the Partnership 2000 organization and the rest of Israel. “My hope is to get a project off the ground that will increase communication between here and Israel,” says Mark. “With Federation help, we can improve the situation there for many people.”

Penny sees her role more as a liaison. “I’ll be investigating and reporting on current events and institutions in Israel that can benefit from Federation involvement,” she explains.

In addition to meeting with members of the Jewish Federa-

tion staff, as well as Penny and Mark, Karen and Jacob were able to meet with many of the educators at the Park, while David met with members of the JCC program staff. A luncheon with community leaders was held in their honor at Temple Israel, during which time they shared a video of their region with the group. The video is available at the Federation office if anyone would like to learn more about our partnership community. The Israeli delegation was very impressed with our wonderful facilities at the Park, was taken with the beauty of Temple Israel’s sanctuary, and was moved by the sense of serenity inspired by the sanctuary at Temple Beth El.

“Ideally,” Mark Rabinovitz concludes, “a delegation to the Hadera-Eiron region from Charlotte would help solidify our intentions with Partnership 1000.”

pentance Bot had published a tweet in a robotic font that was not compatible with ALT text, an HTML attribute that allows for verbal image descriptions. Visually impaired readers may rely on a program that reads ALT text aloud, and if there’s no ALT text, they may not be able to interact with the text or image at all. Repentance Bot learned of the incompatibility and wrote an apology note for the error, along with an updated version of the previous tweet and a promise to “teach other bots this important human factoid.”

Those vows reflect the todo list in the bot’s comic strip, which begins with taking responsibility without making excuses and ends with making a different choice in the future.

Repentance Bot is about “distilling [apologies] down to really oversimplified, easy steps,” Ruttenberg said. “And they’re not easy. None of those steps in real life are easy.”

Where Families Come Together

New Jewish Project Puts Youth Mental Health Cri- sis Front and Center

As the pandemic dragged on, the parents of D., a 15-year-old boy whose name is being withheld to preserve his privacy, grew increasingly concerned about their son’s wellbeing.

Over the course of several months, he became increasingly moody, angry and isolated. When he stopped getting together with his peers, D.’s parents reached out to a psychologist.

“They were concerned, and when that happens we respond differently because they have a sense of what is historically normal,” said Betsy Stone, a retired psychologist who is a clinical expert in adolescence, describing D.’s case, with which she is familiar. “Because the pandemic resulted in a decrease in the kids’ social skills, we did remedial work — literally teaching him how to talk with other people and what kind of responses his words will generate.”

Even before the pandemic, as many as 20% of American children between the ages of 3 and 17 were experiencing mental, emotional, developmental and behavioral disorders, and some 17% of high schoolers reported having seriously considered suicide, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Then COVID-19 arrived, exacerbating the problem with lockdowns, school shutdowns, peer isolation and, for some, the loss of a loved one, precipitating what U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy described as a “youth mental health crisis.”

To address this crisis, the Jewish Federations of North America, which represents 146 independent Jewish federations and 300 smaller communities, have spearheaded a first-of-itskind wellness initiative to equip the Jewish community with tools, resources and training to support the mental health and overall wellbeing of teens and young adults. The $2.75 million program, called BeWell, is being undertaken in partnership with the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies — the international umbrella organization of 158 agencies in North America and Israel for family and vocational services, elder care, addiction and other Jewish service agencies.

Funding for the program also comes from the Crown Family Philanthropies, Jim JosephFoundation and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies. (Stone, the psychologist, is a consultant for the program.)

“The mental health crisis affecting our communities is something we must confront head on,” said Eric Fingerhut, CEO of Jew-

ish Federations of North America. “This is a major investment in our teens and young adults, and not just the future of the Jewish community, but its ability to flourish in the present as well.”

BeWell focuses on supporting young people ages 12 to 26, their parents and mental health professionals that work with them. The new program has three main areas of activity: providing education and training in mental health support, including for parents and caregivers; bolstering the capacity of myriad Jewish institutions to support youth mental health; and helping clinicians and clinicians-in-training deal with this issue, including funding for training and coordinating ways to deal with youth mental health and promote wellbeing through a Jewish lens.

Teen Mental Health First Aid, a six-hour training program meant to help teens identify and help teen peers in distress, was among the programs rolled out this summer under BeWell. It’s modeled on a similar program focused on adults who work with young people.

“We know teens go to each other before they go to adults when they’re concerned about themselves or their friends,” said Beth Lipschutz, the social worker who facilitated the program at five Jewish camps this summer, in partnership with the Foundation for Jewish Camp and the Association of Independent Jewish Camps. “We wanted to provide them with resources so they could be supportive friends and know how to connect someone with an adult if they see major changes.”

Nevo Naftalin-Kelman, 14, from Berkeley, California, who took the course at Camp Ramah in Ojai, California, said he found it helpful.

“We learned to see the warning signs in people and how to react in a mental health crisis — if someone’s life is in danger because they are going to harm themselves or others,” Nevo said. “We also learned about tak-

ing care of yourself — noticing if there are big changes in yourself and who to go to for appropriate help.”

BeWell was informed by years of wellbeing efforts led by the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative, a network of 10 Jewish communities working on reimagining meaningful Jewish connections, engagement and education for youth ages 12 to 19. In 2019, the Funder Collaborative trained people from each of the 10 cities to be youth mental health first aid facilitators. Since then it has expanded, training more than 4,000 adults.

As part of its mission of serving as the central support structure of the American Jewish community, Jewish Federations saw the promise of the Funder Collaborative’s efforts and its

ambition to grow nationally. Eventually, the Jewish Federations acquired the Funder Collaborative, and BeWell is now being scaled up on a national level.

The strategy of Jewish Federations identifying and acquiring successful Jewish programs is not unlike Google’s acquisition of Waze, the Israeli map navigation company whose software is now integrated into Google Maps. It’s a way of identifying innovation and supercharging it with the vast expertise, grassroots communal reach, networking power and financial resources of the Jewish Federations, which collectively raise and distribute over $2 billion every year to support a vast array of Jewish needs.

Sara Allen, who as executive director of the Funder Collaborative and associate vice president of community and Jewish life at the Jewish Federations directs BeWell, said her organization realized several years ago that teen mental health was reaching crisis levels and the Jewish agencies were not equipped to keep up with the needs.

“We saw the challenge in Jewish education and engagement organizations — such as Jewish community centers, camps, synagogues and schools,” Allen said. “Teens were often struggling with anxiety, stress and depression and needed extra support, but the caring professionals

who worked with them felt out of their depth.”

BeWell is now providing those professionals with training, resources, best practices and a supportive network so they can address those problems collaboratively.

“Ultimately, we are helping to create a connected community of care that draws on the strengths of the Jewish community to support young people,” Allen said. It’s important for Jewish professionals working with teens and young people to recognize concerning signs, she added.

Signs might include participants repeatedly showing up late, failing to participate verbally, failing to make eye contact with others in a group or a marked decline in someone’s level of enthusiasm. As professionals such as teachers gain more skills in identifying and addressing mental-health challenges among young people, they are better able to build a culture of everyday wellbeing and promote open conversations that destigmatize talking about mental health in Jewish settings.

While there are ample national statistics on teen mental health, little is known about how the mental health of Jewish teens compares to the U.S. average. BeWell is planning a research project for later this year to see how teen mental health issues manifest themselves in the Jewish community.

New Security Measures for Orthodox Synagogues Will Alert Them to Threats, Even on Shabbat

How do you learn of an antisemitic threat on Shabbat if your congregation isn’t connected all day?

That’s the question that the Orthodox Union, the nation’s largest umbrella organization for Orthodox Jewish congregations, has wrestled with for the last few years. The most high-profile antisemitic attacks, including the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh and the hostage-taking in Colleyville, Texas, have targeted houses of worship on Shabbat — a time when Orthodox Jews refrain from using phones, electronics or the internet.

“This was a concern that we have heard across the Orthodox

community,” Michael Masters, CEO of the Jewish security nonprofit Secure Community Network, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Referring to people who observe strict Jewish laws governing acceptable behavior on Shabbat, he voiced the question, “How do we alert those who are shomer Shabbos?”

On Tuesday, Masters’ group together with the Orthodox Union announced that it had identified a device that could allow security officials to do just that, without violating the laws around using electronics on Shabbat. It is inviting synagogues to purchase the device — which the OU said had been vetted by a leading rabbi, Herschel Schachter — at a discounted rate.

Along with another initiative

to bolster tracking of antisemitic incidents experienced by Orthodox Jews, the effort is meant to help Orthodox Jews feel safe including on Shabbat and holidays.

“With the High Holidays just around the corner, this is a time to take action to enhance security,” Orthodox Union President Mark Bane said in a press release. “While we pray nothing happens, if it does, we now have an efficient way of alerting our synagogues on a shabbos or holy day.”

Jewish law permits the violation of commandments if doing so could save a life, though rabbinic authorities have varied in their interpretation of what is considered life-saving. Using a

Food Was a Comfort for Auschwitz Survivors. A New Cookbook Showcases Their Recipes — and Resilience.

Eugene Ginter was 12 days shy of his sixth birthday when he was liberated from Auschwitz in January 1945. Emaciated and alone, Ginter landed first in a hospital and then in an orphanage in Krakow, the Polish city where he was born. Several months later, miraculously, he was reunited with his mother.

Her first order of business was to help him regain weight and health, but he had no interest in food after being deprived of it for so long. So she created a rich sandwich made of things she knew he liked: black bread thickly coated with butter and finished with grated dark chocolate.

Eight decades later, that “Chocolate Sandwich” is the first recipe in “Honey Cake & Latkes: Recipes from the Old World by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Survivors,” a new cookbook that showcases recipes that connected survivors to the worlds they lost and gave them comfort as they built new lives after the Holocaust.

“She connected food and feeding to life and survival,” said Joe Finkelstein about his mother Goldie, who was famous for serving overabundant quantities of food and whose recipes appear 11 times in the book. “Food was her way to give security and it also gave her some control.”

Like the “Holocaust Survivor Cookbook,” released by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust authority in 2007, “Honey Cake & Latkes” is more than a collection of recipes. It also contains inspiring stories from the survivors as well as archival and contemporary photographs showing their resilience.

“Of all the books I have photographed, by far this is the most meaningful and important project in my career,” said Ellen Silverman, who photographed some of the survivors cooking their recipes. “This book is to celebrate survival, to celebrate the present, and to celebrate the future.”

The book took root in January 2020, when Ronald Lauder, the businessman and chairman of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation, brought 120 survivors and their families to Auschwitz to mark the 75th anniversary of their liberation from the Nazis.

Three months after they returned home, on a group Zoom call, Lauder asked the attendees to share their recipes for gefilte fish, the classic Eastern European dish and a personal favorite of his. Maria Zalewska, the foundation’s executive director, subsequently received about 20

versions — from salty to sweet, dense to light — from the people on the call.

Zalewska and Lauder realized that the survivors, even at their ages (the youngest was 76 at the 75th commemoration), were eager to share.

“Food is something they talk about,” said Lauder. “It is their contact with the past.”

With Lauder’s financial support, Zalewska set out to create a cookbook of their recipes. Time was of the essence. Each year several of the remaining survivors died. Lauder and Zalewska were determined to complete the book quickly so as to get it in their hands.

Twenty-nine survivors of Auschwitz and Birkenau, all of whom but one live in the United States and Canada, contributed the 110 recipes in the book and also told their stories from before and during the war. The dishes range from the lovingly devised, like Ginter’s chocolate sandwich, to classic, Old World foods such as David Marks’ rakott krumpli, a Hungarian casserole made of potatoes layered with sour cream and hard-boiled eggs. Other foods have the fingerprints of the New World, like Goldie Finkelstein’s whiskey cake made with Duncan Hines yellow cake mix.

Almost every recipe is preceded by a story: When did the contributors eat a particular dish? Who taught them how to make it? What are their memories of it?

Eva Szepesi shared a recipe for palascinta, Hungarian pancakes that were accompanied by jam that her mother and grandmother made from their backyard apricot tree. Alexander Spilberg’s family couldn’t afford to buy veal before the war, but he learned to make veal paprikash when he moved to Canada; he also contributed a recipe for mamaglia, a typical Romanian side dish his mother served with plum jam. Angela Orosz-Richt, born Dec. 21, 1943 in Barrack C in Auschwitz, never tried the food her mother made before the war. Her submission is madartej, or bird’s milk, a sweet, rich custard her mother made weekly during Orosz-Richt’s childhood in postwar Hungary.

Despite their advanced age and the challenges around gathering during the coronavirus pandemic, five of the survivors met in New York in October 2021 to cook some of the recipes that would be included in the book. Silverman took photographs at the gathering.

Zalewska hoped to create a book that was “elegant and timeless, classic and inviting.” The goal, Zalewska said, was to “strip the images of a specific

historical context and focus on just the beauty of the dish. We kept the arrangements minimalistic, and we limited the number of props. We kept the focus on the food.”

That was in keeping with the Holocaust experiences of the survivors featured. “We would talk and dream about compotes and food and so on,” Elisabeth Citrom recalled about her experience in concentration camps. “We lived on nothing but stories about food.”

Citrom’s recipe for eggplant salad tracks the path of her life. Citrom’s mother and grandmother made eggplant salad in Hungarian-controlled Transylvania, where Citrom was raised. But it also was a popular food in postwar Palestine and during the early years of the State of Israel, where Citrom lived immediately following the war. That dish followed her when she and her

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communication system when there is clear and present danger is widely considered acceptable, but carrying one in case a danger emerges is not always. So some Orthodox synagogues have deputized security teams to carry phones, while others have not, the OU said in a communication to its member congregations this week.

The new system, available from the company Relay, which makes technology for businesses and families, takes the form of a “receiving device.” A rechargeable handheld device would be kept near the rabbi’s seat or worn on the belt clip of a designated congregant, Nathan Diament, executive director of the OU Advocacy Center, told JTA.

Some synagogues already have systems such as panic buttons installed, allowing them to communicate with law enforcement in case of an emergency. But unlike panic buttons, which require users to press them in order to trigger an emergency response, these always-on devices would function as megaphones for the SCN to broadcast any threats it detects from its Chicago command center, where it monitors law enforcement reports.

If the group detects that a particular synagogue or area is under threat, under criteria decided by the OU, it could then transmit a message to the synagogue via the device without needing to have a congregant turn it on.

This solution, Masters said, is “appropriate and acceptable” for Jews who don’t use electronics

husband, also a survivor, moved to Sweden to reunite with her father when they learned that he, too, had survived the war. And it evolved into a family favorite for her grandchildren, raised in New York City.

Another contributor, Rachel Roth, was an excellent storyteller, and she would share memories of Shabbat dinners and fragrant dishes with her fellow prisoners while they stood outside in frigid line-ups. “Rachel’s Fantastical Chicken Soup” is a classic recipe finished off with thin noodles and savoy cabbage. Roth, who died in February, went on to have five children and she came to the commemoration in 2020 with three generations of her family.

Survivors who did not make it to the 2020 gathering are represented as well. Goldie Finkelstein, the sole survivor of her immediate family in Poland, died in

December 2019. The book also includes a recipe for onion-free potato pancakes from Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, who died in 2016. Lauder, a close friend of the Wiesel family, contacted the writer’s widow, Marion, for the family’s recipe.

Lauder writes in the book’s foreword that the project is a testament to the power of the human spirit. He hopes that copies will be given as a gift to every Jewish couple at the start of their lives together.

“This book brings a connection to the past,” he said. “There is no stronger connection you can have than food. You generally can’t wear your ancestors’ clothes or visit their homes. But you can prepare the same food.”

on the Sabbath, according to the Orthodox rabbis they consulted in developing the system. Asked whether it is an ideal system from a security perspective, he said, “This is a step forward in what has been a recognized gap in the community. It is a pivotal step forward, but we have more work to do.”

Some synagogues have been using the technology on a pilot basis. Now, the OU is urging more of them to buy Relay devices, at a rate that it said had been discounted on their behalf. Synagogues that opt to buy the devices could potentially get them by Yom Kippur in two weeks, according to an OU official. They will also need to pay an annual service fee. The OU and Secure Communities Network regularly help Jewish institutions, including individual congregations, obtain public funding to support security ventures.

The OU also unveiled a new online portal for people to report

incidents of antisemitism, which it is marketing to members with a campaign called “Hated? State It.” The group’s hope is that such a form will help them collect data on antisemitic incidents specifically targeting Orthodox Jews.

The move to encourage more Orthodox self-reporting, Masters said, was in response to “the increase in attacks on the Orthodox community specifically,” referring to reported incidents of visibly Orthodox Jews being attacked on the street in New York, as well as attacks on Chabad Lubavitch rabbis and congregations in places like Poway, California, and Boston. Still, Masters said the SCN would not treat security in Orthodox spaces any differently from non-Orthodox ones.

“We can’t get into the idea that one place is under more heightened threat of attack than another,” he said. “All of our facilities are at risk.”

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