Community Briefs: Dush Criticized, Challah for Hunger, More

April 29, 2021

Jewish Groups Condemn State Sen. Cris Dush For Second Time in a Year
Several Jewish organizations across Pennsylvania condemned state Sen. Cris Dush on April 23 for using Holocaust analogies when he questioned whether nursing homes were used as “death camps” to reduce the costs of caring for COVID-19 patients.

“Senator Dush clearly has learned nothing,” the statement reads. “His rhetoric has no place in political discourse or debate; these comparisons are offensive and wrong. Repeated misconduct of this nature cannot be righted by after-the-fact apologies and non-apologies.”
“We call on the leadership of the Pennsylvania Senate to take meaningful action to clearly and loudly demonstrate that they reject Senator Dush’s outrageous rhetoric.”

The statement was signed by the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition and eight Jewish Federations from around Pennsylvania.

Dush (R-Jefferson) was criticized a year earlier when he compared Gov. Wolf and his administration to Nazis for a lack of transparency in releasing information on the state’s business waiver process.

State Rep. Jared Solomon met with Dush, who did issue an apology on the House floor several hours later, the next day to convey the impact the analogy had on Jewish Pennsylvanians.

Dush tried to explain to Solomon that it had not been his intent to evoke Holocaust imagery. He’d only meant to analogize the present transparency concerns to the Nazis’ notorious suppression of information.

Challah for Hunger Names New Board Chair, Five Board Members
Challah for Hunger elected Wendy Rhein as its board chair, along with five other board members.

Rhein comes to Challah for Hunger with more than 20 years of experience in nonprofit management and fundraising and is chief of staff of World Food Programme USA. There she leads the strategic plan and its implementation and oversees organizational culture, a multi-year growth plan and management of the president’s office.

She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and has spent much of her career in development with large and small organizations. Rhein serves on the boards of the Freedom Network USA and the Alliance to End Hunger, and chairs the Youth Committee and co-chairs the Racial Equity Action Group at Temple Emanuel in Kensington, Maryland.

Challah for Hunger is a 501(c)(3) national nonprofit leadership development organization based in Philadelphia. Its mission is to build communities of leaders to take action against hunger, particularly college hunger. It has 90 campus and community chapters across the country.

“By drawing attention to the crisis of food insecurity with young adults while also training young adults to be the next generation of anti-hunger advocates, Challah is not only addressing immediate needs but also creating the next generation of Jewish leaders,” Rhein said.

The new board members are Amy Zitelman, Janu Mendel, Eden Gobuty, Maurice Baynard and Nathan Shapiro, and the student board representatives are Erica Friedman and Isaac Kravatz.

Lisa Scottoline to Speak at FamilyMatters’ ‘Spring Into Summer’ Event
Bestselling author Lisa Scottoline is slated to speak at the “Spring into Summer” virtual luncheon by FamilyMatters, a JAFCO Support Network, at 10 a.m. on May 26.

In addition, the event will honor Andrew S. Margolis of A Margolis Realty Co.

The event also will feature raffles, a silent auction, shopping opportunities and an update highlighting FamilyMatters’ services in the community.

FamilyMatters provides intensive support to families in times of crisis, and those facing the impact of trauma or challenging life transitions, such as mental health and substance abuse issues, divorce and custody issues, single parenthood, grandparent, or other relative caregivers, and raising children with special needs.

Prestigious Jewish Schools in London Shaken by Allegations of Sexual Abuse

JTA

April 29, 2021

A view inside the Jewish Community Secondary School in North London. The school was allegedly the site of 14 incidents of sexual misconduct. (RHWL Architects via JTA.org)

By Jacob Judah

LONDON — Two of London’s most prestigious Jewish schools are in turmoil after they were implicated on a website for Brits to share their stories of sexual abuse.

The website, Everyone’s Invited, launched in March after the disappearance and murder of Sarah Everard launched a national conversation about the safety of women. Among the tens of thousands of testimonies shared on the site already are dozens that name Jewish schools as either the location of an alleged assault or the school that students attended when the alleged events took place.

These allegations, which include rape, assault and harassment, make grim reading for Britain’s two most prestigious and largest Jewish schools: JFS and the Jewish Community Secondary School, both in North London.

JFS, formerly known as the Jewish Free School, is named in 18 testimonies, with one saying that sexual assault was “completely normalized” at the school.

“I was in the lunch queue and he put his hand up my skirt and groped me. … No one said anything,” one account says.

It was “normal for boys of any age to grope girls,” another account about JFS says. “To know they felt a power over these young girls (and myself) is something that I don’t like to even remotely think, let alone talk about.”

The Jewish Community Secondary School is named in 14 alleged incidents, including one implicating a teacher. Other prestigious Jewish schools, such as Manchester’s King David and London’s Hasmonean, also were implicated, as were non-Jewish schools with high proportions of Jewish students, such as Haberdasher’s, the London school whose graduates include Sacha Baron Cohen.

Patrick Moriarty, the head of Jewish Community Secondary School, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the school was “fully aware of these testimonies” and that it was treating them with “utmost seriousness.”

“All identifiable incidents have been thoroughly investigated with input from the statutory authorities and action taken on their advice,” said Moriarty, who has written that learning about the allegations sent him on a “trip into darkness.”

“Their shame, petrifying and mortifying as it always is, falls on us all,” he wrote in a column earlier this month on a website for British educators. “Whatever other responses may rant and rage within us – and they will – that collective shame needs to be tasted in all its rank bitterness: truly, everyone’s indicted.”

Former students of the schools told JTA that the online allegations corresponded with their experiences.

Eden Zamora, 20, spent six years at the Jewish Community Secondary School. Three years after graduating, Zamora holds no nostalgia for the school.

A classroom at the Jewish Community Secondary School. (RHWL Architects via JTA.org)

“What I remember most,” Zamora said, “is once bending over to pick something up and a boy came up behind me and began grinding against me.” Others stood by without saying anything. Afterward, one student came up and observed, matter of factly, “I think he likes you.”

Other graduates recalled being groped, having sexually explicit photos of girls shared with hundreds of students, and public discussion and comparison of female students’ bodies with those of porn stars. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid potential criticism by their former classmates.

One current Jewish Community Secondary School student related a recent occurrence there that a male student broke into a girls bathroom and began shouting, “Tell me your name, tell me your name, come out now” as he threatened to open a stall that a girl was in.

“She was scared,” the graduate said. “These are big issues.”

A 2016 JFS graduate, now 23, said she attributed some of the incidents to inadequate instruction about sexual education and consent.

“I think it stems from the fact that there’s no sexual education and there is no discussion of these issues,” she said, adding, “I think that education from the very start about what is and what is not OK – as basic as that sounds – and what is consent, needs to be had.”

At the Jewish Community Secondary School, Zamora recalled, girls attended assemblies that they said focused “on how to not get raped,” but did not remember any special assemblies being held for male students.

Zamora’s alma mater is planning to make changes. In an email sent to parents last week, the Jewish Community Secondary School said it was engaging in a review of its curriculum to ensure that “content, emphasis and delivery was as effective as it could be, especially in relation to consent.” The message also noted that past complaints were being reviewed again, and the school would hold “assemblies to address issues of behaviour, respect, kindness, and being an ally not a bystander.”

JFS did not respond to repeated attempts for comment, saying only that school authorities would “choose whether they wish to respond to these allegations.” Teachers there declined to speak with JTA, citing rules preventing them from speaking to the media.

“I could lose my job,” one said.

This is not the first time over the past year that serious sexual assault allegations have emerged within Jewish settings. Police Scotland opened a criminal investigation in July into dozens of allegations of sexual assault, including nine of rape, against members of the St. Andrews University branch of the American fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi.

Jewish Women’s Aid, an organization that supports women who have experienced domestic abuse and sexual violence, said that following the appearance of allegations on Everyone’s Invited, it had been contacted by “several schools and others across the community who are very concerned.”

JWA said that it had written to “all mainstream Jewish schools on 17 March to restate our offer to run education sessions” and had contacted the Partnership for Jewish Schools, a division of the Jewish Leadership Council, to offer support to school leadership teams.

“We are happy to share this expertise and hope to be able to support school communities in developing healthier cultures,” said Naomi Dickson, the group’s CEO.

Jewish schools represent only a minority of the accounts posted on Everyone’s Invited, which is associated with a broader anti-rape movement that has swelled in the wake of Everard’s shocking murder. But several recent graduates of the schools said they worried that fears of antisemitism might hold back aggressive responses to sexual assault in Jewish schools in particular.

“With the Jewish community,” one former student said, “we are scared to admit that there are problems because of how it is going to be perceived on the outside, but it is actually just creating more profound issues.”

Biden: White Supremacists Are the ‘Most Lethal Terrorist Threat’

JTA

April 29, 2021

President Joe Biden. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images via JTA.org

By Ron Kampeas

Setting his administration’s tone in his first speech to Congress, President Joe Biden said white supremacists posed the “most lethal” terrorist threat to the United States.

Biden on Wednesday said the terrorist threat had evolved and referred to his decision to end the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan after 20 years, when the United States first entered the country to pursue the Al Qaeda terrorists responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

“Make no mistake, in 20 years terrorism has metastasized, the threat has evolved way beyond Afghanistan,” he said. “Those who are on the intelligence committees, the Foreign Relations Committee, the defense committees, you know well, we have to remain vigilant against the threats to the United States wherever they come from. Al Qaeda and ISIS are in Yemen, Syria, Somalia, other places in Africa and the Middle East and beyond.

“And we won’t ignore what our intelligence agencies have determined to be the most lethal terrorist threat to the homeland today, white supremacist terrorism,” he said.

Biden departed for a moment from his written speech: “We’re not going to ignore that either.”

Biden during his campaign to unseat former President Donald Trump accused Trump of stoking white supremacist tendencies and deadly attacks with his rhetoric and of ignoring the white supremacist threat. Trump came under fire for cutting programs targeting and tracking white supremacists.

Biden at the outset of his speech referred to the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by far-right rioters who sought to keep Congress from affirming Biden as president. He called the attack “The worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”

Biden also urged Americans “to heal the soul of this nation,” referring to the racial unrest stemming from the police killing in Minneapolis almost a year ago of George Floyd. Floyd’s killer was convicted of murder earlier this month.

Biden referred briefly to his efforts to reenter the Iran nuclear deal, a plan Israel vigorously opposes. Trump quit the deal in 2018, saying it was inadequate to keep Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons; Biden says the deal is the most practical means of preventing a nuclear Iran. Biden has said he is committed to consulting closely with Israel and other regional allies in entering the deal.

“On Iran and North Korea’s nuclear programs that present a serious threat to America’s security and the security of the world – we are going to be working closely with our allies to address the threats posed by both of these countries through diplomacy as well as stern deterrence,” he said.

The joint session — not technically a State of the Union which takes place only in non-inauguration years — marked a historic first: Two women standing behind Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Doug Emhoff, Harris’ Jewish husband, was present In the hall.

Biden acknowledged the historic moment. “Madame Speaker, Madame Vice President — no president has ever said those words from this podium, no president ever said those words — the First Lady, I’m her husband, the Second Gentleman.”

NJ Town Sued Again for Discrimination Aagainst Orthodox Jews

JTA

April 29, 2021

Jewish Exponent Square.jpg By Asaf Shalev

The state of New Jersey has sued one of its towns over alleged discrimination against Orthodox Jews — the second such lawsuit against the town in less than a year.

Jackson Township has been selectively applying local laws and drafting new ones as part of an attempt to push out Orthodox Jews and limit their religious activities, the lawsuit alleges, according to a report by NJ Advance Media.

“We’ve filed this lawsuit because bias and hate have no home in New Jersey, and we will not allow some vocal residents’ intolerance to drive local government decisions,” New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said in a statement. “Like all public servants, municipal officials have a duty to uphold the law, not weaponize it against specific groups because of what they believe or how they worship.”

The attorney general wants Jackson Township to overturn the allegedly discriminatory rules and pay a fine.

Terence Wall, the business administrator there, was quoted by local media as saying that he was “surprised” to learn of the lawsuit.

“Jackson Township is a community of over 60,000 residents, including members of nearly every faith, and the township will defend itself appropriately,” he said of the Jersey Shore community, which is located in what is considered the central part of the state.

The growth of the Orthodox community in Jackson and the adjacent town of Lakewood in recent years has come with complaints by non-Orthodox residents about the changing character of the area.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice accused Jackson of enacting discriminatory rules. The new lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Ocean County Superior Court, alleges that the negative reaction to Orthodox Jews among some residents led to an organized effort to catch Orthodox Jews violating esoteric ordinances.

Everglades: Wilderness Surrounded by Jewish Communities

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April 29, 2021

No, that’s not a submerged log. It’s a fairly large alligator sunning himself along an Everglades National Park trail. Photo by Jeff Orenstein

By Jeff and Ginny Orenstein

The first known Jews moved to Pensacola, almost as far away as you can get from the Everglades in Florida, in 1763, though some converted Jews may have been in St. Augustine with Ponce de Leon two centuries earlier.

A few more Jews followed to the northern part of the state over the next few decades, numbering only about a dozen. By 1821, 30-40 Jews lived in north Florida. By 1960, the Jewish population grew to about 175,000, mostly in southeast Florida and St. Petersburg.

The Florida Everglades and Everglades National Park are not any religion, but since the park is predominantly in south Florida, it is surrounded by Jewish communities on both coasts.

On the west coast, the Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island metropolitan area is about 0.75% Jewish, though the concentration in Naples and environs is somewhat higher. Greater Naples has five Jewish places of worship, including one on Marco Island.

On the east coast, there is a huge Jewish community with a total Jewish population of well over half a million, about 13% of the population, one of the single largest concentration of Jews outside of Israel.

Miami Dade County, adjacent to the national park, has about 113,000 Jews. Broward and Palm Beach counties, respectively, adjacent counties to the north, have even larger Jewish communities, including a large group of retired Jews who have relocated from the U.S. and Canada.

About 514,000 Jews live in southeast Florida in all. The population of Palm Beach County is 15.8% Jewish. Boca Raton, with a population of about 95,000, has 16 synagogues. A dense network of Jewish houses of worship and community institutions, museums and centers accompanies this dense population.

In addition to a large contingent of retirees who have resettled in South Florida from the northern U.S. and Canada, the South Florida population is fairly diverse. Miami-Dade has about 9,000 Jewish emigres from Central and South America, and there are significant communities of Holocaust survivors and their offspring and Jews can be found living there from many places worldwide.

For information on the Florida Jewish Heritage Trail, check out archive.org/details/fljewish00flor/mode/2up?view=theater. l

A Visit to Everglades National Park

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April 29, 2021

Wood storks feed in a pond along a nature trail in the park. Tropical and sub-tropical birds are found in great numbers in the everglades. Photos by Jeff Orenstein

By Jeff and Ginny Orenstein

Note: Everglades National Park is open with “modifications in place for COVID-19.” Some concession-operated tours and services have modifications in place for public health. Check nps.gov/ever/planyourvisit/basicinfo.htm for the latest updates.

Florida’s Everglades, often referred to as the glades or the river of grass, runs about 400 miles, from the Orlando area to Florida Bay, on the state’s southern tip. It is a unique ecosystem combining huge wetlands, sawgrass marshes, freshwater sloughs, mangrove swamps, pine rocklands and hardwood hammocks (forests).

Once covering a huge swath of the state, the glades averaged about a depth of 4 to 5 feet of slowly moving water, although there were/are many dry areas naturally occurring within it. Today, vast swaths of it have been drained, dammed and replaced by massive commercial agriculture (mostly sugar) and residential development.

Fortunately, more than a million-and-a-half acres are preserved in Everglades National Park and even more are preserved at adjacent state and national preserves such as the Big Cypress National Preserve or Florida’s Fakahatchee Strand Preserve.

Started in 1934, Everglades National Park is the 10th-largest U.S. national park. Unlike most of them, its three entrances are not connected and are located in different areas of southern Florida. Since no public transportation links them, access by car is the only practical way to see it all.

On the east coast, the main entrance is found at Homestead, between Miami and the Florida Keys, near Florida City along U.S. 1. The Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center is located at this entrance, as well as the Royal Palm and Flamingo areas.

The Flamingo Visitor Center is the southernmost visitor center in Everglades National Park, located about an hour’s drive from the park entrance in Homestead.

Closer to greater Miami is the Shark Valley Visitor Center off U.S. 41, the Tamiami Trail that runs down the west coast of the state from Tampa and across to Miami. It is about 25 miles west of Miami and 70 miles east of Naples.

From Florida’s west coast, the Gulf Coast Visitor Center at Everglades City is 36 miles east of Naples.

A pelican sits on a piling while a kayak glides by near the visitor center at the Gulf Coast entrance to the park off U.S. 41 at Everglades City.

Once you enter a park entrance, your first stop should be at the visitor center for an opportunity to talk to a ranger, get a map and absorb some idea of what lies around you.
Each center offers a variety of activities and ample opportunities to camp or just observe some interesting plants and wildlife or hike, canoe, kayak, ride on a tour boat and take in the ambiance of this tropical wilderness.

Yes, you should see alligators and/or crocodiles, turtles, exotic birds and other wildlife. Your chances of seeing a Florida black bear, an invasive species like a python or a reclusive panther are remote but not impossible.

Before You Go:
Be sure to bring sunscreen (at least SPF-30) and insect repellent.

Understand that you are visiting a wilderness environment that is hot, sticky, filled with insects and home to many wild and potentially dangerous critters. If you use common sense, stick to designated areas and obey posted warnings you should be fine.

Getting There:
The vicinity of the Everglades can be easily reached by highway, air or train. From there, you need to be on an escorted tour or rent a car.

The closest two major airports are Miami International Airport (MIA) on the east coast and Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) at Fort Myers on the west coast. Both offer frequent connections and rental cars.

By train, Miami is the nearest Amtrak station. It has daily service from New York and points south. Commuter train service is also available from West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale.

By car, Interstate 75 crosses the state north of the park and U.S. 41 runs along its northern border.

When You Are There for a Short Trip:
Check out the resources at one of the major visitor centers and explore the surrounding region on foot or tour boat, following the advice of the ranger on duty.

Take one of the many marked and relatively tame nature walks in the national park or in adjacent state parks.

If You Only Have Two or Three Days:
Must-sees for a short stay:
Take an airboat or tour boat excursion.

Hike as many trails as practical at different times of day to see as much wildlife as possible.
If kayaking or canoeing interests you, explore some of the marked waterways near the visitor centers.

The sign along a trail at the Fakahatchee Strand State Park adjacent to the national park sums up the amphibious critter danger well.

If You Have Several Days, Enjoy:
A trip to the Dry Tortugas, near Key West, where you can bird watch, camp on the beach and snorkel the surrounding waters filled with sea life and pristine coral reefs. Key West, the southernmost point in the U.S., lies at the end of U.S. 1.

Some beach time on the east or west coast or the Keys.Shopping and nightlife in Miami or Naples.

The resort ambiance of Marco Island or Captiva/Sanibel islands.

A deep-sea or near shore fishing charter.

Ginny O’s Tips for Dressing the Simply Smart Travel Way.
Dress for the subtropical wilderness environment and the season. Wear sturdy closed-toe hiking shoes and lightweight long sleeves and long pants to help protect you from biting insects. Leave the shorts and flimsy tops back at the resort. When visiting cities, dress varies from ultrachic at Miami Beach’s South Beach to resort casual at most places.

This Destination at a Glance:
Mobility level: Moderate. Walking is necessary to see many of the attractions, although some can be seen by tour boat.

When to Go: Winter is best since the weather is milder. Summers in the tropics are hot and sticky. Dry season lasts from November to March, and wet season lasts from April to November.

Where to Stay: On the west coast, Naples or Fort Myers offer a wide variety of lodging, ranging from primitive camping to ultra luxurious hotel palaces. On the east coast, the greater Miami area has a vast range of amenities.

Senior Advantage: Exploration at your own pace with amenities close by.

Special Travel Interests: Subtropical flora and fauna, photography. l

Jeffrey and Virginia Orenstein are travel writers from Sarasota, Florida.

Longtime JWV Leader Louis Abramson Dies at 90

Sophie Panzer

April 28, 2021

Lou Abramson Courtesy of the Abramson family

Louis Abramson, who served as national commander of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America and was active in the organization throughout his life, died at the Horsham Center for Jewish Life in Montgomery County on April 19. He was 90.

M.B. Kanis, commander of Drizin-Weiss Jewish War Veteran Post 215 and Abramson’s colleague, said Abramson rose through the ranks of JWV after serving as a sergeant during the Korean War. He became a member of the organization’s Department of Pennsylvania, an officer, a post commander, a commander of the Department of Pennsylvania and eventually the national commander. He was also a post commander after he served his national commander term.

Kanis said Abramson was a peacekeeper among members of JWV, always had a warm smile and was willing to offer guidance and leadership when needed. Members of his post considered him a true friend.

“At any time that I ever spoke to him, he was a mentor,” Kanis said.

Abramson grew up in South Philadelphia and attended Benjamin Franklin High School. His wife, Gloria Abramson, said he was inspired to join the armed forces and support veterans as a boy when his friends and family members returned from World War II with tales of serving their country.

“He was just taken with wanting to do what he could to help the veteran coming back from the service,” Gloria Abramson said. “He had this empathy, the support and devotion to the service people that gave us this freedom.”

When he graduated high school he joined the National Guard and served in Korea. After he was honorably discharged, he remained part of the National Guard and owned a gas station in addition to his career at JWV.

He was married for 70 years and had three daughters. He and his wife were childhood sweethearts and grew up in South Philadelphia together before living in Mt. Airy for 25 years and then in Warminster for 42 years. They celebrated the 75th anniversary of their first date in early April.

Gloria Abramson said much of her husband’s work involved advocating for the families of service members. Later in his life, most of his projects centered around helping families of deceased veterans understand the benefits to which they were entitled.

During his time as national commander, he traveled across the country and to Europe to advocate for veterans with his wife and brother, Allan Abramson, who was his chief of staff. He laid the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with President George W. Bush, and was invited to attend the president’s inauguration and inaugural ball.

“I remember him calling me and saying, ‘We’re going Tuesday morning to have breakfast with the president,’” Gloria Abramson said.

In addition to his positions at JWV, Lou Abramson was a member of the American Legion Post 166 and AMVETS Post 77.

Religion and the Jewish community were important to him. He was president of Congregation Tiferes B’nai Israel, where he received the Man of the Year award. He was active in his posts’ Holocaust education programs and regularly visited churches and community centers to speak about the topic alongside concentration camp liberators and survivors.

His relatives remember him as a dedicated family patriarch. Gloria Abramson said he was a grandfather of 14, counting spouses of grandchildren, and a great-grandfather of 10. He was preceded in death by his eldest daughter, Brenda Fineberg, and son-in-law Rick Ryan.

Gloria Abramson said her husband was by her side when she had an amputation in 2015. Although she recovered from the procedure, it took a toll on both of them.

“There was a time when it was not good, and he was there by my side, and he never went home. He just slept on a chair in the room where I was,” she said.

At the end of his life, Louis Abramson lived at Horsham Center for Jewish Life in a room close to his wife. Even during the pandemic, they were able to watch TV and eat meals together. She said he died peacefully in his sleep after contracting pneumonia and experiencing organ failure.

His funeral, which was held at King David Memorial Park in Bensalem on April 22, drew more than 250 mourners on Zoom.

“They kept referring to him as a mensch,” Gloria Abramson said.

[email protected]; 215-832-0729

College Decision Season Brings Cautious Optimism

Sophie Panzer

April 28, 2021

Drexel Hillel students gather with masks. Courtesy of Hannah Rosenberg

National Decision Day for students committing to college is May 1, and many are still uncertain about what the upcoming school year will look like.

Most colleges and universities have promised some form of in-person learning in the fall, but details remain hazy about how closely it will resemble the pre-pandemic college experience.

And Jewish students and the organizations that serve them are also trying to figure out how Jewish life on campus will operate.

When asked about the upcoming year, Jenn Reiss, director of Jewish student life at West Chester University Hillel, said she tries to be as transparent as possible with prospective and admitted students, since there’s nothing worse than building up expectations and having the real experience fall short.

“We don’t know what it’s going to look like, but we will be finding as many opportunities as we can for students to feel connected to Hillel and other Jewish students on campus,” she said.

She said the West Chester administration provided them with a list of students who had accepted their admissions offer and a list of those who had been accepted to the school but had not yet committed. This gave the organization a chance to connect with new students and reach out to those who were still on the fence.

Many parents who were not comfortable traveling with their children for tours expressed concern that they couldn’t see the school in person.

“I know that when I talk to these prospective students and families they’re feeling a little lost because if they hadn’t already toured these schools pre-COVID, they kind of feel like they’re not getting the same experience,” she said.

Hannah Rosenberg, engagement director at Hillel at Drexel University, said the lack of in-person tours made it more difficult to connect with prospective students this year. Hillel International stepped in and organized two virtual college fairs to help students learn more about Jewish life on campus, which attracted thousands of students and resulted in dozens contacting Drexel Hillel specifically.

When students ask about making new friends or having Shabbat dinners, Rosenberg tells them what student life was like both before COVID-19 hit and after. She anticipates that programming this semester will incorporate aspects of both, including expanded virtual options and in-person events with appropriate safety precautions.

Rabbi Gabe Greenberg, executive director at Penn Hillel, said most incoming students have approached his staff with typical questions about kosher food, Shabbat observance, Greek life and clubs rather than pandemic-related concerns. The isolation of 2020 and 2021 has weighed heavily on many of them, and they are excited for a year that promises to be better than the last.

“They’re typically much more interested in what the Penn students have to say, than what I have to say,” Greenberg said. “They’re excited to hear about what student life is
really like.”

He said Penn Hillel is operating under the assumption that birthright trips, parties and classes will all be happening this fall as part of a new normal, which may involve masks and smaller groups but will still resemble life before COVID-19.

Susan Becker, assistant director of Hillel at Temple University, said she and her staff will continue to focus on the importance of building strong one-on-one relationships with students regardless of what the semester looks like. The upheaval from the pandemic made it clear how meaningful these interactions can be.

Students at Temple Hillel garden Courtesy of Susan Becker

“It means more to people than you might realize, just to send them a note asking how they are and letting them know that you care about them,”
she said.

Sam Salz, a senior at Kohelet Yeshiva High School, said his top factors for choosing a school were community, tradition, a good academic reputation and strong financial aid. He was accepted at Temple, Drexel, Ursinus College, University of Delaware, West Chester and Texas A&M University and will choose among them.

The pandemic did not impact his application process much, other than delaying his ability to tour schools in person and get a sense of campus life. Lack of in-person learning or on-campus social life did not influence his school choice.

The presence of Jewish life on campus was also important to him since he is Shomer Shabbat. His mother, Marianna Salz, said some schools are not always aware that he will not be able to use electronic cards to access dorms.

Ashton Portnoy, a senior at Upper Dublin High School, started researching schools as a junior and visited Drexel, Ursinus and Loyola University Maryland before campuses shut down. The pandemic impacted his admissions process in a few key ways, including opting out of taking the SATs and taking virtual tours of campuses. Being at home so much also made him more willing to consider options that were further away.

He ultimately decided to attend Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. Although the school is Catholic, he was impressed by the students at the Hillel, who told him during a Zoom call he joined to learn about campus clubs that the school is inclusive.

“They made it super inviting to come hang out with them at Hillel and just be with other Jewish kids, and that sounded great,” he said.

Although he acknowledges the pandemic has made everything strange, he is looking forward to making friends, attending sports games and participating in normal college life.

[email protected]; 215-832-0729

DNA Testing Reunites Long- Lost Family After 60 Years

Sophie Panzer

April 28, 2021

When Laurie Gandel Samuels became a grandmother in 2020, she wanted to put together a family history for the two grandchildren.

“It was supposed to be almost a little craft project, with pictures of their parents or grandparents or great-grandparents and like a page of information on each person for a child to look at, up until maybe they’re 12 or something,” the Bucks County resident said.

Chaim Gendel (center, seated) and family. Courtesy of Larissa Grinblat

She did not expect her grandchildren’s first birthday present to turn into an in-depth research project that led to many late nights and reunions with family members she had no idea existed.

“I just got so interested in it that, as my kids said, I went down the rabbit hole,” she said.

She knew her mother came from a large immigrant family whose members lived nearby, but her father’s side was more mysterious. He never spoke much about his family, and his parents died before she was born. In January, she transferred the results of a 23andMe DNA test she had taken years ago to MyHeritage, another genealogy site for people looking to build their family trees, to learn more.

She saw she had a strong match with a German woman named Larissa and her son Leo (they asked that their last names not be used for this story.) They shared about as much DNA as Samuels did with her known first cousins.

Intrigued, she reached out to them. Leo spoke English and connected her with Larissa. The latter was on the site looking for information about Morris Gendel, a name Samuels didn’t recognize. Larissa sent her an old family photograph showing a man with two leg amputations, his wife and their five children, one of whom was the man she was tracing. They had lived in Mogilev, Belarus.

While corresponding with Larissa and Leo, Samuels used her test results and interviews with known family members to track down other paternal family members she had never met. She created a Facebook group for them to communicate and added Larissa, even though they weren’t sure how they were related.

As the members compared notes and family stories, Samuels and Larissa learned that the man in the photo with leg amputations was Samuels’ grandfather’s eldest brother, Chaim Gendel (the spelling of Samuels’ grandfather’s last name changed to Gandel when he arrived in the United States.) A family member said he was a soldier who served in the Russo-Japanese War near the turn of the 20th century, and sustained his injuries during his service.

All of Chaim Gendel’s siblings, including Samuels’ grandfather Louis Gandel, immigrated to the United States, but he was unable to secure a visa. Of his five children, four immigrated to the U.S. Only the youngest, Lazar Gendel, stayed behind. He was Larissa’s grandfather.

The two women finally understood how they were related — Samuels’ grandfather Louis Gandel and Larissa’s great-grandfather Chaim Gendel were brothers.

Larissa was still searching for answers about her great-uncle Morris Gendel. Her grandfather had told her stories about his older brother sending letters, photographs, money and packages of items from the U.S. that the family sold for food.

In an email, Larissa said the correspondence continued even through the horrors of World War II, when the Russian government moved the family to a safer location because of Chaim Gendel’s service as a veteran. Later, Mogilev would be occupied by the Nazis and Jews would be crowded into ghettos and killed in mass executions.

Larissa said Lazar Gendel also fought at Stalingrad, where he was seriously wounded, and left her grandmother to care for the family. The clothing and money from Morris Gendel were a lifeline.

“My mother told me that during the war there was hunger and cold,” she wrote. “It was so cold in the apartment that the water in the glass turned to ice. These parcels helped them to survive.”

She told Samuels that the Gendels in the Soviet Union burned many of the brother’s letters in the late 1930s out of fear that materials from the United States would cause the government to think they were spies.

In 1961, during the Cold War, the letters from Morris Gendel stopped. Hostility between the Soviet Union and the United States intensified, and mail could not travel between the two countries. By the time correspondence resumed, Morris Gendel had moved and the family lost track of his address. They sent letters trying to reach him again, but they were returned unopened.

The connection between the European and American branches of the family was severed until Samuels began researching her DNA test results in 2021.

Leo tracked down a wedding announcement for Sandra Kahn, a woman he and his mother believed to be Morris Gendel’s daughter, in a newspaper from Newark, New Jersey. They located her on Facebook and reached out, but she had not responded, and they felt they had hit a dead end.

Samuels looked up Kahn and also identified her relatives. She began sending them messages and friend requests to see if she could get a response.

Finally, Kahn’s niece Sharon Lynn Levitz replied. Samuels showed her the photo of Morris Gendel that Larissa had sent, and Levitz confirmed that he was her grandfather. She also recognized the return address from the letters that Larissa saved as the house in Newark where her grandparents had lived for many years. She put Samuels in touch with Kahn, who was now 90, and they spoke on the phone.

Samuels and Larissa had found the missing branch of their family.

“This story … it’s the miracle of a family that survived over all this time, and they survived because this brother was so loyal,” Samuels said.

Her Facebook group of reconnected family members now has 14 people. She is still using her results to track down relatives who may be descended from her grandfather’s siblings.

[email protected]; 215-832-0729

Activist, Former Actor to Run for State House

Jesse Bernstein

April 28, 2021

Jonathan D. Lovitz | Photo by Joe Mac Creative

Jonathan D. Lovitz, a Democrat and a political activist for LGBTQ causes, announced his candidacy for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on April 19.

Lovitz seeks to represent the 182nd PA House district, an area that encompasses a sizable chunk of Center City. He said that the “constant state of growth” in the area could “teach a lot of lessons” to lawmakers and business communities across Pennsylvania.

“This is personal to me. I’ve got skin in this game because I live here,” Lovitz said. “I pay taxes here, and I want to see this part of the city succeed, because this is such a beacon and role model to the rest of the commonwealth about how communities and business can coexist side by side and grow together.”

Democrat Brian Sims has represented the 182nd district since 2013, but he announced in February that he would leave the office to run for lieutenant governor. Sims was the first openly gay legislator at the state level in the history of Pennsylvania.

The race to replace him offers a “historic opportunity,” Lovitz told the Washington Blade.

Lovitz, 36, grew up in the Atlantic City area, and spent his childhood between the Jersey shore and South Florida. Lovitz graduated from the University of Florida in 2006 with a bachelor’s in fine arts in performance, and spent most of the next 10 years in New York City, acting, performing and hosting. He was part of national touring productions of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and “Jesus Christ Superstar,” performed in several MTV productions and did work for various media and communications companies.

Though it was not yet the basis of his career, political advocacy was already a part of Lovitz’s life.

At Florida, he started organizing on behalf of the John Kerry campaign, and learned more about forming political relationships through his campus Hillel.

In 2010, Lovitz began to work as a vocal, visible advocate on behalf of the LGBTQ community. He addressed crowds and led workshops related to LGBTQ community issues for major national organizations like The Trevor Project and GLAAD and, within a few years, Lovitz was leading StartOut, a nonprofit that sought to provide opportunity to LGBT entrepreneurs. Lovitz’s skills as a communicator did not go unnoticed, and he was soon on board with both the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce New York and the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

“I learned what I stand for early, and I love that this journey I’m on keeps adding more color to that experience,” Lovitz said. That journey brought Lovitz and his husband, Steve Sosna, a meteorologist for NBC10, to Philadelphia, where they’ve lived for the last five years.

“I love the intersection of diversity and scrappiness that is part of every office here,” Lovitz said.

So what does he stand for?

With the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, Lovitz worked to expand protections from discrimination and economic opportunity for LGBTQ people across the country, and his vision for the future of Center City takes that sensibility — “pro-economy, pro-equity, pro-solutions,” his campaign announcement read — and aims to move the ball forward.

Lovitz promises to promote funding for the arts in Harrisburg, and to continue to support gun violence prevention through legislation. He cites Ed Rendell, Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Gov. Tom Wolf as models for him politically and temperamentally, citing their skills as coalition builders as being of special interest to him.

Lovitz said he is committed to the preservation of racially inclusive, strong, democratic institutions; prior to last fall’s elections, he founded PhillyVoting.org, a voter registration and information initiative that registered new voters during that cycle. Bringing more people into the democratic process, especially younger people, will be a key initiative.

“They’re about people and service and engagement,” Lovitz said of his past projects. “I love that.”

[email protected]; 215-832-0740

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